Coffee Shop Confucii

Last night I watched My Dinner with Andre for the first time. 

Can you believe this is a real movie? It is actually two people sitting at a table. One of them pontificates for an hour while the other stares on and nods. Eventually, the second guy says, "I don't know what you're talking about." And then deflates the intellectual ephemera the first guy had been going on about all this time. 

There is only a handful of set-ups, and everytime it cuts to Wallace Shawn's or the waiter's confused expression, it'as hard not to giggle just from relief of having something new to look at. 

While watching the movie, I couldn't help but think of times when I'm at a coffee shop, and the guy next to me starts talking about his theories on life, the universe and everything. Andre was arguing the exact same crap that modern coffee shop Confucii relate as if they've finally broken through the illusion of modern society and its ersatz answers. 

He goes on about how our current society is a modern prison, where the prisoners are the guards. That comforts (such as electric blankets) are tools to make us complacent. Etc, etc. And he's a little condescending to those whom he feels haven't caught on.

And he was saying all this stuff almost thirty years ago. 

All that being said, I mostly agree with Andre and his quasi-Boehemian intellectualism. I just hate getting cornered at a coffee shop and having it force fed to me.