2001: A Space Odyssey

I come from a family of art lovers. As a kid, my parents would drag me from one museum to another, much to my annoyance. I could never quite get the point of all these colors on the canvas. What was the meaning of them, I kept wondering -- what was it all about?
And then, one afternoon in a museum, when I was around 11 years old, I suddenly had the epiphany. I decided to shut off my brain and just experience the paintings. I've enjoyed all kinds of paintings ever since.
Whether you like "2001: A Space Odyssey" or not depends largely on whether you've had this epiphany or not. "2001" is slow, ambiguous, pretty much plotless, and silent. It is also beautiful, majestic, hypnotic, and philosophical. Seeing it in the cinema on 70mm film, as I had the pleasure of doing this weekend, it's an experience you won't soon forget. The key to enjoying this movie is to just accept it for what it is, instead of wanting to make it something it isn't, say, a film that follows ordinary conventions. It's not surprising that many viewers advocate the use of soft drugs or hallucinogenics when watching this movie: both have the ability to 'open your mind'.
I never used drugs, and I'm generally level-headed to the point of being a nerdy bore. But for a movie like this one, I'm more than prepared to act like a hippie, mellow out and check out the light show. "Look at the colors, man!"