Groundhog Day

I read that the movie Groundhog Day (1993) (Dir. Harold Ramis) was leaving Netflix on Sept. 1, which is kind of cruel, in that, isn't this the movie that's getting everyone through this thing... like if you watch it every day? Maybe not. I shouldn't complain—we shouldn't complain about entertainment options, I mean—imagine if we were like in the early days of home VHS, when everyone had like 4 tapes—how sick you'd be of those! Anyway, I've only heard Groundhog Day referenced with the COVID 19 pandemic like 700 times now, so I thought I'd watch it again. It's a weird thing about this movie, I don't know how many times I've watched it, and I can never remember what happens! Not just the very end, but even the plot development, etc. It's like it becomes erased from my mind. As I was watching it, I thought I'd remember how it played out, and I did not. The end was a total surprise. Maybe I had actually never watched it to the end, but that's crazy. So anyway, I thought I'd better write up this article immediately, just in case I can't remember it tomorrow. Maybe no one remembers it! In which case, I guess I'll just recommend it. I think it's a pretty great movie—there's snow!—it's kind of the ultimate romantic comedy—Bill Murray is at his best—I don't need to go into the plot or anything because everyone has seen this movie, probably multiple times. If there is someone out there who hasn't, you sure don't want me ruining it for you now. I was actually surprised at how serious it got at one point—I mean, it practically turned me into stone. Or into a believer of something. Something. Or maybe stone. Who knows. I won't remember tomorrow. Of course, I can read this... but I never read my own shit. It's too embarrassing. I'm hopeless. Plus, I'm not sure that not only every memory of the movie is erased, come the next day, but also writing about it doesn't disappear. I couldn't find a thing about it, on the internet. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong internet. Are we all looking at the same internet? I don't think so. Anyway, of course there was the basic stuff—who's responsible for it, when and where it was shot, how many rotting tomatoes, box office. I noticed that it came out mid-February 1993—significant for me—and maybe I did see it then—because exactly eight months later (you know, the 8 month rule) I quit drinking for good, which is maybe the hardest thing I ever did, and of not little importance to my life, I like to think. So, if you happen to read this (though I'm convinced this file will disappear somehow) and you happen to be in a place where you're wondering about quitting drinking, yourself, feel free to contact me and talk. I don't know if I can help or not, but I'll try. All I know about that is you have to do it alone, and you can't do it alone. If that sounds like a contradiction, yeah. Most important things do seem contradictory, confusing, and very, very hard. Sometimes you have to just keep trying, keep trying... and then one day, it's all very easy... and then one day, you're dead... and then...