What I've Been Watching
A summary of stuff I've seen this summer. I don't want to spoil anyone, hence the cuts.
In Theatres: Iron Man, Sex and the City, Young People F**king, Wall-E
Iron Man
When the movie was about a guy zipping around in bad-ass metal armour, fighting crime I was totally on board. I liked Iron Man. I did not like Tony Stark. He's a male protagonist who's rich, cute and smart and therefore women fall at his feet. Clearly shiny gadgets and a nice suit negate chronic self-absorbtion and emotional immaturity. All the female characters (including Gwenyth Paltrow) existed only to serve the men. Plus, it annoys me when the hero is "brilliant" only because his opponents are conveniently idiotic. As if the terrorist monitoring the cave, couldn't figure out that he was building didn't resemble a weapon in any way.
Sex and the City
I waited a long time for this one and I was SO disappointed. Despite being two and a half hours long, it never felt as though the movie got to the heart of anything. It was like watching someone check items off of a very long list. Big and Carrie happy: check. Big and Carrie miserable: check. Samantha being outrageous: check. Miranda puts up emotional armour: check. Avant-garde fashion: check. Fabulous restaurants, coffee shop, talk of sex: check, check, check. Kristen Davis was fierce in the only moment of the movie I truly loved, so good for her. But overall, no biscuit for SATC the movie. I refuse to acknowledge it as part of the series' canon.
Young People F**king
Things start to get better at the movies. Given the title, I was expecting something fairly explicit, in the tradition of Shortbus. But for a movie that's all about sex, it's pretty conservative. It's all white, all hetero, with some T a little more A and zero full frontal. But it was funny and tightly crafted, with a lot of witty banter. I'm a sucker for banter. My only real complaint was the scene that involved a wife having anal sex with her husband using a jelly vinyl dildo. If you're going to do someone up the butt, use silicone or at least cover your dil with a condom.
Wall-E
I just LOVED it! This is probably the best movie I've seen since Juno. I'm a fan of the Pixar films and once again, they impressed the hell out of me. Not only the animation which was stunning as usual. It's an original and reasonably sophisticated story. At first I wondered if it was even a little too complex to appeal to children, but I've since heard kids raving about it, so there you go. It was pure awesome! I highly recommend it.
Movies on DVD: Lars and the Real Girl, Enchanted
Lars and the Real Girl
I thought this was really sweet, unusual movie. I loved Lars and his unfailing supportive community of family and friends. I love that it was essentially a story about really nice people, that somehow never became to saccharine or precious. And I was so impressed with the romantic subplot, which was so light-handed. I did sort of wish we'd been given more insight into Lars' pathology, but I guess that was really the point.
Enchanted
I wanted something I could watch with Drama Prince in the room. But I should just accept that I'm too crusty for stories about princesses and "happily ever afters". It's not that there was anything wrong with this movie, per se. It's just...beautiful girl, meets handsome man, birds sing, villian intervenes, villian is vanquished, happily ever after...blah, blah, blah....
TV on DVD: The Office (US)S2, Dexter S1
The Office S2
Oh, The Office. UK The Office made me laff. US The Office S1 made me laff. S2? Also laff-tastic. It doesn't ever really change that much, which is fine by me. I've worked in cubicled office environments and it was just like the show. Except nothing was funny and I wanted to stab myself.
Dexter S1
Holy shit. First of all, it's Michael C. Hall. Second of all, he plays a forensics expert who moonlights as a serial killer. And finally: I am totally on his side! He has an annoying sister, a tragic girlfriend and an anonymous serial killer playmate. All of sorts of myseteries abound, including Dexter himself. Something terrible happened to him in his long forgotten past. What is it? Who is the anonymous serial killer? Will Dexter be found out by his angry, suspicious colleague? The show is disturbing, ambiguous and so very entertaining! Season 2 comes out next month. My breath...she is bated.
In Theatres: Iron Man, Sex and the City, Young People F**king, Wall-E
Iron Man
When the movie was about a guy zipping around in bad-ass metal armour, fighting crime I was totally on board. I liked Iron Man. I did not like Tony Stark. He's a male protagonist who's rich, cute and smart and therefore women fall at his feet. Clearly shiny gadgets and a nice suit negate chronic self-absorbtion and emotional immaturity. All the female characters (including Gwenyth Paltrow) existed only to serve the men. Plus, it annoys me when the hero is "brilliant" only because his opponents are conveniently idiotic. As if the terrorist monitoring the cave, couldn't figure out that he was building didn't resemble a weapon in any way.
Sex and the City
I waited a long time for this one and I was SO disappointed. Despite being two and a half hours long, it never felt as though the movie got to the heart of anything. It was like watching someone check items off of a very long list. Big and Carrie happy: check. Big and Carrie miserable: check. Samantha being outrageous: check. Miranda puts up emotional armour: check. Avant-garde fashion: check. Fabulous restaurants, coffee shop, talk of sex: check, check, check. Kristen Davis was fierce in the only moment of the movie I truly loved, so good for her. But overall, no biscuit for SATC the movie. I refuse to acknowledge it as part of the series' canon.
Young People F**king
Things start to get better at the movies. Given the title, I was expecting something fairly explicit, in the tradition of Shortbus. But for a movie that's all about sex, it's pretty conservative. It's all white, all hetero, with some T a little more A and zero full frontal. But it was funny and tightly crafted, with a lot of witty banter. I'm a sucker for banter. My only real complaint was the scene that involved a wife having anal sex with her husband using a jelly vinyl dildo. If you're going to do someone up the butt, use silicone or at least cover your dil with a condom.
Wall-E
I just LOVED it! This is probably the best movie I've seen since Juno. I'm a fan of the Pixar films and once again, they impressed the hell out of me. Not only the animation which was stunning as usual. It's an original and reasonably sophisticated story. At first I wondered if it was even a little too complex to appeal to children, but I've since heard kids raving about it, so there you go. It was pure awesome! I highly recommend it.
Movies on DVD: Lars and the Real Girl, Enchanted
Lars and the Real Girl
I thought this was really sweet, unusual movie. I loved Lars and his unfailing supportive community of family and friends. I love that it was essentially a story about really nice people, that somehow never became to saccharine or precious. And I was so impressed with the romantic subplot, which was so light-handed. I did sort of wish we'd been given more insight into Lars' pathology, but I guess that was really the point.
Enchanted
I wanted something I could watch with Drama Prince in the room. But I should just accept that I'm too crusty for stories about princesses and "happily ever afters". It's not that there was anything wrong with this movie, per se. It's just...beautiful girl, meets handsome man, birds sing, villian intervenes, villian is vanquished, happily ever after...blah, blah, blah....
TV on DVD: The Office (US)S2, Dexter S1
The Office S2
Oh, The Office. UK The Office made me laff. US The Office S1 made me laff. S2? Also laff-tastic. It doesn't ever really change that much, which is fine by me. I've worked in cubicled office environments and it was just like the show. Except nothing was funny and I wanted to stab myself.
Dexter S1
Holy shit. First of all, it's Michael C. Hall. Second of all, he plays a forensics expert who moonlights as a serial killer. And finally: I am totally on his side! He has an annoying sister, a tragic girlfriend and an anonymous serial killer playmate. All of sorts of myseteries abound, including Dexter himself. Something terrible happened to him in his long forgotten past. What is it? Who is the anonymous serial killer? Will Dexter be found out by his angry, suspicious colleague? The show is disturbing, ambiguous and so very entertaining! Season 2 comes out next month. My breath...she is bated.