I caught a screening of Pulse, the
Weinstein Company’s new J-horror remake of Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 2001 film of the
same name, last night at the ArcLight in Hollywood, and while I’ll reserve sum
total judgment on the movie until a later date, one brief scene tangentially
stirred my ire, and got me wondering.

In said scene, Christina Milian, who plays star Kristen Bell’s best friend
and a fellow college student, wanders into class late, books cradled in one arm
and a takeout coffee cup — presumably just grabbed, en route — in the opposite
hand. She holds it, though, not carefully, as with a full, hot beverage, or even
as one would an almost empty cup of cold coffee. No, she holds it as it is: an
empty cup.

Now, Pulse is hardly the first or most egregious example of this
rapidly increasing and annoying phenomenon. It’s seemingly everywhere, including
in this summer’s The Devil Wear’s Prada, in which, as I recall, Anne
Hathaway’s put-upon fashion magazine assistant awkwardly balances a tray with
four very obviously empty cups of special-order Starbucks. In fact, whenever
movies want to show us a character juggling the myriad, whirlwind, crazy demands
of modern day life, they generally put a beverage in their hand, and more often
than not ostensibly a hot one.

The thing is, many times said cup will be clearly empty, as minutely
evidenced by its weight upon pick up, the complete disregard the actor/character
has for item, and/or some combination thereof. Is this some sort of goddamned,
ridiculous, arcane production rule or something? I know we don’t want “the
talent” scalded, but can we not have actors handle full cups of water or any
other room-temperature beverage? I’m not sure, but what was once just a minor
irritation has stirred in me a vitriolic rage matched offscreen by those that
ride around obliviously with their turn signals on.

Let me know of any examples you spot and/or remember, and together we’ll
make up a list to hopefully shame studios and filmmakers into paying attention
to this sort of piddling detail that, when botched, really pulls you out of a
scene.