Things I read/watched on my summer vacation:

Answer: not much.

Gemma Townley's new book The Importance of Being Married. Love her, usually, but this one relied too heavily on lies to further the plot. Don't like deception, much.

Tracy Chevalier's Burning Bright. Loved this one. That lady can describe, oh yes she can.

The X-Files Movie
Dark Knight
Mamma Mia!

All enjoyable for different reasons, though, as a former fan, I would have changed A LOT about the X-Files flick. Still. It was okay.

It's been a busy month and a half, where the first bit was spent planning/executing my sister's wedding, and the second half was spent in the hospital with my sister's daughter. Not exactly good times for reading/movie watching. I am back in New York now, though, and barring disaster, should be reading more.

Movie: Wanted

Well. James McAvoy. Angelina Jolie. There are worse ways to spend a couple hours than looking at these two. Honestly, it was so so so far out of the realm of believability (even out of suspend-my-disbelief-ability) it was just... kind of fun. Lots of bullets. And blood. And killing. And stuff. So, if you're in the mood for the aforementioned blood, killing, bullets, etc, this is probably your movie. If you're looking for anything deeper than the Deep Thoughts of the Loom of Fate (you'll get it later)... you're going to have to look elsewhere. My favourite moment was crying out in the theater, "Oh, I am tangled in the web of faaaaate!"

Because he was. Literally.

Movie placeholder

Kung Fu Panda: LOVED IT
Get Smart: LAUGHED A LOT

Movie: Sex and the City

Yeah, yeah... I'm a girl in my twenties. Obviously I was going to have to see this film. I'm only sad I don't have girlfriends here in New York, because this is obviously a movie you should see with your nearest and dearest ladies. Preferably with cosmos. Sex and the City has always been about finding moments and nuggets of truth, even while set in the most melodramatic, crazy city in the world. When I first moved to New York, all my twenty-something girlfriends went into raptures about how my life would be "just like Sex and the City." Alas, I don't own a single pair of Blahniks, I never wear labels, I couldn't tell you the name of the hottest (wait... any...) club in town if you paid me. But it was lovely to revisit these fictional women in their fictional New York, and to fall in love with them all over again. I think if you liked the series, you'll like the movie.... because the movie was, more or less, an entire season packaged for the big screen.

Movie: Roman de Gare

This was a "well, let's see a movie--which one?" choice I'm glad we made. We'd been a little too intensely involved with the summer blockbusters, and this French whodunit/drama was a breath of fresh air. I won't give away anything, because a lot of the story depends on the audience going in cold, but it was a brilliant film. I've been thinking about it for days. The acting was spot-on, and, as my husband pointed out... it's not very often in Hollywood you get to see a 50-something woman in a starring and awesome role. More's the pity.

Movie: Prince Caspian

I liked The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. I really did. And Prince Caspian was always one of my favorite Narnia books. Some things I liked -- the Pevensie kids' emotional fallout from the first adventure was quite good. I disliked a lot of it too, though: the almost unintelligable accents of the 'bad guys'; the endless run-fight-battle-run-fight-battle sequences; the School of Melodramatic Acting (Major in the Dramatic Pause) all the actors were evidently required to attend. All told, I found it a little bit meh.

Movie: Iron Man

You know, I have a guilty pleasure. And that guilty pleasure is comic book superhero movies. I don't always love comic book superhero movie SEQUELS, but usually I love the first ones.

Iron Man is a fun movie. It's a good movie. It's well done and interesting and has a great arc for the main character. I genuinely liked it, and not just because it conformed to my guilty pleasure.

Some day I'll get into my other guilty pleasure: dance movies. Stupid, stupid dance movies.

Movie: The Other Boleyn Girl

Well. The book was better.

The problem, I think, with doing a movie based on this book is that even though the events are historical and epic and lend themselves to film story-telling, the book was more intimate. A lot of that intimacy was lost in the scope of 'ooh! castles! Eric Bana! ooh! pretty girls!'

Sometimes when I watch too many Hollywood movies, I start to see the terrible stereotypes everywhere. Here is the 'good sister' here is the 'bad sister' here is the 'weak dad' here is the 'chummy brother'. It's as though everyone only ever gets one word to describe their character, and heaven help them if the want to bring anything more to the table. "No! I said you are the good sister and THAT IS ALL!!"

Sometimes Hollywood drives me nuts.

Movie: Be Kind Rewind

My husband, who is notoriously hard on movies when it comes to the star scale (1-5), gave this movie a 5. Since this never happens, I probably built it up a little before heading off to see it on my own. I thought it had a bit of a slow start, but once the action of the piece finally started, it was both amusing and thoughtful. Essentially it was a film about coming together to celebrate shared experiences and shared loves, both with cleverness and with a touch of sentimentality. I think I could have done with a teeny bit less of Jack Black being Jack Black, but overall it was a great film.

Movie: The Silence Before Bach

I think, perhaps, this film thought it was cleverer than it actually was. The music, of course, was amazing. Even the way the little vignettes tied together in a sort of fugue-like fashion was kind of neat (though my husband points out that in a fugue there is simultaneity, which was not the case here). Mostly, though, the film suffered from a case of the borings. It didn't engage quite enough to carry off what it was doing. If you're going to present an agonizingly long, boring shot of something you'd better damn-well make sure your audience is already so engaged they won't notice.

See: The New World. Some people thought that movie was boring. I was so engaged from the first moment I would have watched that actress read the phone book. The whole New York City phone book. All five boroughs. If such a thing existed.

Movie: There Will Be Blood

I figure this blog may as well be devoted to the films I watch, too---I've always wanted to keep track of them.

Last night we went to see There Will Be Blood, which I knew nothing about except a) oil was involved b) Daniel Day-Lewis has been lauded for his performance c) it took place in California d) it was period.

It was the kind of film you think about afterward--I'll probably think about it for days. It was also, I felt, an excellent example of film using itself to actively be a part of the story, rather than blending the story together. Maybe that doesn't make much sense, but what I'm getting at is the sense I had, while watching the film, that is was definitely a film I was watching. I didn't pretend I was 'in' the story. The score, in particular, was used so strangely it couldn't help but stand out. And not in a bad way. I realized, later, the music was likely very strongly tied to the symbolism of the main character's soul. More than anything, the film was an intense, intimate portrait of one man--the choices he makes, the hubris that drives him; the neuroses, the ambition.

The entire long walk home, my husband and I kept up a running conversation about the film--things we liked, things we didn't, things springing to mind only then--and I have to say... any film that can keep us talking for nearly an hour afterward gets a solid thumbs up from me.