Film reviews
Hoo, I haven't updated in a few days. Guess I didn't have much to say.
I had a quiet weekend. Watched some movies (which I'll get to in a minute). Between last weekend's Toronto trip and my upcoming hyper-scheduled weekend a breather was welcome.
Last night they put new carpet in my office. This morning they switched me over from a workstation to a PC (an ongoing company-wide project, as is the carpet change). So it's like I have a totally new office!
I met Brian, Jessimi and Liza for coffee in Grandview last night which turned into the Parade of Dogs. Our favorite coffeehouse has outdoor seating and it was such a lovely night that we sat outside where everyone and their brother walked their dogs by. One woman had a Newfoundland (so sweet! and big!) but the big star of the night was a man who had an Akita puppy. She was maybe four months old and the cutest thing EVER. And so well behaved!
Anyhoo. Some film reviews. I've included star ratings...new feature!
Pan's Labyrinth - Finally saw this one. It was very good, but frankly I was expecting a stronger fantasy element. I knew it took place partially in 1940's Spain and partially in the fantasy world, but I was honestly expecting a more 50/50 balance and this really was more like 90/10. It was stunning and moving and I appreciated that the ending let me decide whether the fantasy world was in Ofelia's head or not. The characters really packed a punch, too. Even minor characters like the doctor and Mercedes' brother seemed layered.
Dear Frankie - this was one of those "saw a preview on another movie and it got good reviews" Netflix choice. Plus, Gerard Butler. I have to say I was disappointed. This was just...boring. Slow moving doesn't bother me, but it has to hold my interest while it's moving slowly. This was merely dull. You'd think it'd be hard with this setup. Woman with 9 year old son left his father long ago but told the son that his father's on a ship somewhere. Frankie writes his father letters, the mother intercepts them and writes back, but then the supposedly fictional ship the father's on docks in town and she has to hire a man to play the father for a day. The concept seemed unnecessarily convoluted and self-consciously contrived and the whole movie groaned under its weight. Plus everything was pretty cut and dried. Gee, think the stranger playing Frankie's father will grow attached to Frankie and his mother? Frankie is deaf and refuses to speak...think they'll be an emotional moment when he speaks?
The Painted Veil - I really loved this. I'm still thinking about it. Big Edward Norton fan that I am I had to see it. For as contrived and predictable as "Dear Frankie" was this felt fresh and interesting, ironic seeing as it's based on a classic novel. Kitty (Naomi Watts) marries Dr. Walter Fane (Edward Norton). He is in love with her (more accurately, is infatuated with the image he has of her) and she's indifferent to him but wants to escape her mother. They move to Shanghai where she falls into a boredom-induced affair with Charlie Townsend (Liev Schreiber) and fancies herself in love with him more or less because she lacks anything better to do. Walter finds out and to punish her, drags her into rural China where he's volunteered to investigate a village under a cholera epidemic. While they are there, Kitty learns the nobility of her husband that she'd previously dismissed as stodginess and Walter learns the layers beneath Kitty's surface that he'd been infatuated with, and they both discover love for each other that they didn't know they had. The film is sumptuously shot and gorgeous, the acting is fantastic, the story is compelling and nothing is ever spoon fed or easy.
Children of Men - You may remember that I was afraid of this movie because of its thematic similarities to my book, but everyone who told me I shouldn't be afraid was right, because only the most cursory glance would make someone think they were similar at all. This was every bit as excellent, harrowing and unsettling as I was told it was. What kept striking me about it was the verisimilitude of everything. Whoever did the production design was brilliant. The landscape and urban dystopia were so convincing it was hard to imagine that they hadn't gone out and found some collapsing society and shot it there without doing any set dressing.
Tonight, pedicure. Tomorrow, Broadway!
I had a quiet weekend. Watched some movies (which I'll get to in a minute). Between last weekend's Toronto trip and my upcoming hyper-scheduled weekend a breather was welcome.
Last night they put new carpet in my office. This morning they switched me over from a workstation to a PC (an ongoing company-wide project, as is the carpet change). So it's like I have a totally new office!
I met Brian, Jessimi and Liza for coffee in Grandview last night which turned into the Parade of Dogs. Our favorite coffeehouse has outdoor seating and it was such a lovely night that we sat outside where everyone and their brother walked their dogs by. One woman had a Newfoundland (so sweet! and big!) but the big star of the night was a man who had an Akita puppy. She was maybe four months old and the cutest thing EVER. And so well behaved!
Anyhoo. Some film reviews. I've included star ratings...new feature!
Pan's Labyrinth - Finally saw this one. It was very good, but frankly I was expecting a stronger fantasy element. I knew it took place partially in 1940's Spain and partially in the fantasy world, but I was honestly expecting a more 50/50 balance and this really was more like 90/10. It was stunning and moving and I appreciated that the ending let me decide whether the fantasy world was in Ofelia's head or not. The characters really packed a punch, too. Even minor characters like the doctor and Mercedes' brother seemed layered.
Dear Frankie - this was one of those "saw a preview on another movie and it got good reviews" Netflix choice. Plus, Gerard Butler. I have to say I was disappointed. This was just...boring. Slow moving doesn't bother me, but it has to hold my interest while it's moving slowly. This was merely dull. You'd think it'd be hard with this setup. Woman with 9 year old son left his father long ago but told the son that his father's on a ship somewhere. Frankie writes his father letters, the mother intercepts them and writes back, but then the supposedly fictional ship the father's on docks in town and she has to hire a man to play the father for a day. The concept seemed unnecessarily convoluted and self-consciously contrived and the whole movie groaned under its weight. Plus everything was pretty cut and dried. Gee, think the stranger playing Frankie's father will grow attached to Frankie and his mother? Frankie is deaf and refuses to speak...think they'll be an emotional moment when he speaks?
The Painted Veil - I really loved this. I'm still thinking about it. Big Edward Norton fan that I am I had to see it. For as contrived and predictable as "Dear Frankie" was this felt fresh and interesting, ironic seeing as it's based on a classic novel. Kitty (Naomi Watts) marries Dr. Walter Fane (Edward Norton). He is in love with her (more accurately, is infatuated with the image he has of her) and she's indifferent to him but wants to escape her mother. They move to Shanghai where she falls into a boredom-induced affair with Charlie Townsend (Liev Schreiber) and fancies herself in love with him more or less because she lacks anything better to do. Walter finds out and to punish her, drags her into rural China where he's volunteered to investigate a village under a cholera epidemic. While they are there, Kitty learns the nobility of her husband that she'd previously dismissed as stodginess and Walter learns the layers beneath Kitty's surface that he'd been infatuated with, and they both discover love for each other that they didn't know they had. The film is sumptuously shot and gorgeous, the acting is fantastic, the story is compelling and nothing is ever spoon fed or easy.
Children of Men - You may remember that I was afraid of this movie because of its thematic similarities to my book, but everyone who told me I shouldn't be afraid was right, because only the most cursory glance would make someone think they were similar at all. This was every bit as excellent, harrowing and unsettling as I was told it was. What kept striking me about it was the verisimilitude of everything. Whoever did the production design was brilliant. The landscape and urban dystopia were so convincing it was hard to imagine that they hadn't gone out and found some collapsing society and shot it there without doing any set dressing.
Tonight, pedicure. Tomorrow, Broadway!