a little hope is good, a lot of hope is dangerous.
I finally watched The Hunger Games tonight and oh my goodness, I'm all kinds of worked up and have to love on this whole storytelling experience for a minute.
[spoilers for all books]
It's so good. IT'S SO GOOD. It preserves so much of what I loved about the book - but had to change a little because of the medium, which made me grin over how much resonance that had with the meta-ness of THG generally. As much as the limited POV works well in the books, I liked that the movie could do the worldbuilding and go behind the curtain so much earlier. The creepiest scenes aren't in the arena, IMO, they're the ones in the backstage room, where those chill-seeming techs just kind of casually shrug while they're siccing these horrors on the children in the arena. It made me revisit why I liked Mockingjay so much, too. The rationalization for the Games is such a paper-thin rationalization for such sadism, it's not hard at all to dismiss. But the leaders of District 13 really did have to knuckle down to survive, and have at least all of those scary tools at their disposal, and that's the kind of juicy ambiguity that hooks me.
I have a really hard time actually crying at the Right Moment in these things? Or at all because I guess I am a Scherbatzkybot. But I love how this story gets me closer than almost anything. In the book, it was Rue's death itself. Watching the movie, though, it was the riot in District 11. (I don't know if the books identified the man who started it? Half of me wants that to have been Rue's father, and half of me just wants it to have been some random dude who decided enough was enough. either way, I love that we got to see the impact of the Games outside the arena as it happened.)
Katniss is absolutely amazing, yes, and oh Cinna and Peeta and Cinna. If I had to pick a favorite, I'd be hard-pressed, but usually I think I'd say Cinna, and so it's especially gratifying that he came to life so perfectly here. (Though, general casting weirdness: given all the fuss over Rue and Cinna, the cast of the movie is a lot whiter than I imagined as I was reading the book? Also, I really wanted Finnick to be non-white and apparently that's not happening.) And oh GOD, how much harder does the "I don't want to forget" hit in light of what's to come for Peeta? Jesus, it's brutal.
I try not to talk about actors, if only because I know I'd embarrass myself talking out of my ass even more than usual which is a lot. But can we take a moment to write some freaking sonnets and shit about Paula Malcomson? Can we say how even in this entirely different 'verse, even as a woman in such a different situation and with so few lines, she played the same notes on my heartstrings as Amanda Graystone? (I'm not spoiler-tagging for the first scene of Caprica, but anyway, Caprica.) How she breaks down that pretense that adult women, especially mothers, are supposed to simultaneously be vocationally nonthreatening but also be so strong that no experience, no matter how horrible, can even chip the facade? How she can just utterly destroy the idea that to be a woman is to show no experience or distinguishing marks, with her face that is so beautifully, perfectly, lived-in? I would never have even thought to compare the two characters - but of course, they're healers with tragedies in their adult lives, who have to face the pain of losing their brilliant distant difficult daughters, and oh my Lords of Kobol, I don't know anything about her career before the last couple of years but I am so thrilled that her work in Caprica got her to a point where she could get this kind of exposure.
And I just. While I'm on Katniss and Zoe. I love so much that THG gives Katniss the complexity and dignity of being able to have complicated feelings about her imperfect mother without (a) having to JUSTIFY it with a reveal about THE WORST BAD MOMMYING OF ALL TIME EVER or (b) having to learn a Very Special Lesson about how she was totally all wrong and should be ashamed of herself for ever being disappointed or frustrated with her mother. And! I know it should be unremarkable, but the fact that I could even draw those lines about Paula Malcomson's roles means that we live in a world where not only Jane Espenson and Susanne Collins sharing their writing talent with us generally, but that these painfully real narratives about mothers and daughters are taking something slightly closer to their rightful prominence in mass media.
Anyway, it's so so good and I can't wait for the next one. I'm still betting on you, Girl on Fire.
[spoilers for all books]
It's so good. IT'S SO GOOD. It preserves so much of what I loved about the book - but had to change a little because of the medium, which made me grin over how much resonance that had with the meta-ness of THG generally. As much as the limited POV works well in the books, I liked that the movie could do the worldbuilding and go behind the curtain so much earlier. The creepiest scenes aren't in the arena, IMO, they're the ones in the backstage room, where those chill-seeming techs just kind of casually shrug while they're siccing these horrors on the children in the arena. It made me revisit why I liked Mockingjay so much, too. The rationalization for the Games is such a paper-thin rationalization for such sadism, it's not hard at all to dismiss. But the leaders of District 13 really did have to knuckle down to survive, and have at least all of those scary tools at their disposal, and that's the kind of juicy ambiguity that hooks me.
I have a really hard time actually crying at the Right Moment in these things? Or at all because I guess I am a Scherbatzkybot. But I love how this story gets me closer than almost anything. In the book, it was Rue's death itself. Watching the movie, though, it was the riot in District 11. (I don't know if the books identified the man who started it? Half of me wants that to have been Rue's father, and half of me just wants it to have been some random dude who decided enough was enough. either way, I love that we got to see the impact of the Games outside the arena as it happened.)
Katniss is absolutely amazing, yes, and oh Cinna and Peeta and Cinna. If I had to pick a favorite, I'd be hard-pressed, but usually I think I'd say Cinna, and so it's especially gratifying that he came to life so perfectly here. (Though, general casting weirdness: given all the fuss over Rue and Cinna, the cast of the movie is a lot whiter than I imagined as I was reading the book? Also, I really wanted Finnick to be non-white and apparently that's not happening.) And oh GOD, how much harder does the "I don't want to forget" hit in light of what's to come for Peeta? Jesus, it's brutal.
I try not to talk about actors, if only because I know I'd embarrass myself talking out of my ass even more than usual which is a lot. But can we take a moment to write some freaking sonnets and shit about Paula Malcomson? Can we say how even in this entirely different 'verse, even as a woman in such a different situation and with so few lines, she played the same notes on my heartstrings as Amanda Graystone? (I'm not spoiler-tagging for the first scene of Caprica, but anyway, Caprica.) How she breaks down that pretense that adult women, especially mothers, are supposed to simultaneously be vocationally nonthreatening but also be so strong that no experience, no matter how horrible, can even chip the facade? How she can just utterly destroy the idea that to be a woman is to show no experience or distinguishing marks, with her face that is so beautifully, perfectly, lived-in? I would never have even thought to compare the two characters - but of course, they're healers with tragedies in their adult lives, who have to face the pain of losing their brilliant distant difficult daughters, and oh my Lords of Kobol, I don't know anything about her career before the last couple of years but I am so thrilled that her work in Caprica got her to a point where she could get this kind of exposure.
And I just. While I'm on Katniss and Zoe. I love so much that THG gives Katniss the complexity and dignity of being able to have complicated feelings about her imperfect mother without (a) having to JUSTIFY it with a reveal about THE WORST BAD MOMMYING OF ALL TIME EVER or (b) having to learn a Very Special Lesson about how she was totally all wrong and should be ashamed of herself for ever being disappointed or frustrated with her mother. And! I know it should be unremarkable, but the fact that I could even draw those lines about Paula Malcomson's roles means that we live in a world where not only Jane Espenson and Susanne Collins sharing their writing talent with us generally, but that these painfully real narratives about mothers and daughters are taking something slightly closer to their rightful prominence in mass media.
Anyway, it's so so good and I can't wait for the next one. I'm still betting on you, Girl on Fire.