look there she goes that girl is so peculiar

[falulatonks]

1. Exams are overrrr! They ended over a day ago and I can’t even tell you what I’ve done since then, because I have done nothing. I had so much to watch and now I realise I’ve had too much to watch - I can’t choose where to start, and I’m also getting a little anxious thinking about how much I may end up being disappointed. Boo, self! Boo! I’ll probably end up reading instead.
2. Today I checked out my Google Docs space for the first time in two months and hey, I have unfinished fic I’m semi-proud of! I guess that means I’ll be writing more soon.
3. I’ve finally watched Deathly Hallows and I loved it, hooray. I’ve never had a problem with the movies the way a lot of people do, even when I recognise that the problems being brought up are legitimate and reasonable, so it wasn’t surprising that I enjoyed HP7, but you know.
   
   I could talk a lot about it, probably, but I’m sleepy and lazy and remember too little, so here are three things about the parts people seem to be talking less about?:
   
   • Bellatrix! I love Helena Bonham Carter, but her Bellatrix in the previous movies have always been a little too strange for me - determinedly crazy and out-there. I loved her in this, though - sufficiently scary/evil, with just a little bit of that darling insanity that creeps us all out a little bit.
     
     Imelda Staunton as Umbridge is still absolutely perfect, though. I loathe Umbridge so, so deeply that I’m still surprised that I can start feeling furious as soon as I hear Staunton’s giggle.
   • One of my favourite, favourite things about the wizarding world is some of its more old-fashioned ways of living - all the print materials! Taking notes by hand! Photo albums!! I loved the emphasis on it in this movie (I don’t remember it ever taking this much prominence before) - the newspapers, the fliers (and the mass-printing of them), the radios, the albums. They were aesthetically pleasing, yes, but also, something about them actually got to me. It does feel a little scarier to rely on these things, doesn’t it? I can’t explain it right, but there seems so much more to lose this way - and not just for yourself, because it feels like it could make an entire society feel more vulnerable. I adore it.
     
     I guess the emphasis on print actually goes with the World War II parallels JKR was working for. Here’s my personal favourite of all the parallels. (And did anyone notice how similar the uniforms at the Ministry of Magic looked to Secret Service uniforms?) Have I talked about how much I love wartime? Not war itself, of course not, but what it does to people, how it changes things - and the atmosphere. I find it fascinating. I prefer the book to the movie in that respect - there’s something so fucking chilling about imagining sitting around a radio, listening out for recognisable names; having your breath stop in your throat when you hear movement right outside your safehouse; knowing that things are happening, far away from you, and knowing there’s nothing you can do about it until you get what you need to get. The movie didn’t get even close to that level of terror, I think. Then again, it had my imagination to live up to, and my imagination is pretty damn brilliant.
   • There were moments in this movie where I felt really terrible for Ginny Weasley (and not just because the actress playing her role has a face/voice equivalent to patternless wallpaper). THE THREE OF THEM, YOU GUYS. I confess I ‘ship H/Hr (although James/Lily are my HP OTP, even though no one else cares), but I came out of this movie wailing, “What ‘ship?! OT3! OT3!” Oh, you guys. The hugging and the dancing and the crying and the screaming and the fighting and the looking and the touching - I can’t even talk about it without wringing my hands and making a really ugly teary face. Everything they experience in this book is so theirs - coming to grips with their power, their responsibilities, and getting increasingly vulnerable, increasingly world-weary. It’s beautifully raw and so huge. Again, my imagination may have done something to me to make me love them all together even more like this, and I definitely don’t think the movie was allowed the time or the space to have them interact like that enough, but the entire fight scene, from Ron’s first appearance to his exit, probably touched on that the most - their frayed nerves and their stupid, silly, too-old-but-still-much-too-young hearts. Agh. Agh. Nothing makes me as sappy and as Harry Potter does, clearly.
   • Bonus point: Loved the Ministry of Magic infiltration scene, adored the diner scene, laughed too long and too hard for no reason at the "engorgio! reducto!" scene in the tent, and almost definitely came home and bawled to Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ O Children.
   
   
   Finally, if you don’t start choking up when watching this video, you may not be a HP fan, or you may not have a heart.
4. I may watch Tangled next week. I didn’t find any of the music on the OST that interesting, and the script feels a little bit unimpressive, but Zach Levi is wonderfully expressive and the way some of the shots in the trailer have been shot is just gorgeous. Also: Disney movie! (I am approaching the movie with caution regarding the way Rapunzel is written for/used in the story, but I have seen no complaints for it so far.)
5. I know a lot of people have their reservations (and with good reason - she does seem to young) about Carey Mulligan being cast for Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby, but I'm kind of excited. That photo that's going around of her from her audition alone has her giving just the right amount of completely crazy, and I can't wait to see her show off her range. And anyway, I feel like if anything, people should be worrying about Tobey Maguire as Nick Carraway. (No. No.)
6. I don’t know if I’ve informed all of you of this, but Phil Dunphy is wonderful and one of my favourite characters on TV right now, and if he were younger (and real) I would probably marry him. I know I’ve talked about how much I love what Ty Burrell did with the potentially two-dimensional character, but I really adore everything about him at this point.
7. HEY GUYS YOU KNOW HOW PARKS AND RECREATION IS BACK IN JANUARY? I AM DANCING IN MY SEAT JUST THINKING ABOUT IT, LALALALALA. I’ve also ordered the DVDs, only I don’t know when I’ll be getting them. I want them so much.

I almost definitely had more to say. I seem to have forgotten.

-- rachu