"See you yesterday" and "Good Omens"
In terms of fannish catching up:
See You Yesterday: directed by Stefon Bristol, starring relative newcomers Eden Duncan-Smith and Dante Crichlow, both of whom I’ll keep an eye on, produced by Spike Lee: on Netflix, definitely worth watching. What little criticism I’ve seen of this universally praised movie deals with the perceived „shift in tone“, i.e. what starts out as a seemingly light-hearted time travel adventure/summer romp a la Back to the Future (complete with amusing Michael J. Fox cameo) ends up as a gut wrenching exploration of grief and the absolutely non-sci fi outrages facing life as a black person in today’s America. Which, yes, but for this viewer it worked because contrary to what Ian McEwan seems to think, sci fi at its best has always also faced the human condition of the present and used its gambits to explore just this. It’s not a novel thing.
What else I loved: our two teenage heroes, Claudette „CJ“ Walker and Sebastian Thomas, are unabashedly, ferociously smart geeks, inventing time travel by themselves. Usually in an US movie focusing on youngsters, high school archetypes are at least nodded at, and if, in a rare case, the „smart kid“ isn’t the hero’s sidekick but the hero themselves, there are also jocks, mean girls, comic relief kids etc. about. Not so here, and the Flatbush, Brooklyn area in which CJ and Sebastian live feels all the more real for it. Also, while Sebastian is important to the story, it’s CJ who is the central character. (And no one says any variation of „but you’re a girl! Doing science!“ to her.) Their intense friendship comes utterly without UST, not because CJ is virginal (there’s a jerk ex around) but because that’s just not how their dynamic works. In terms of adventuring, in a welcome reverse from gender stereotypes, CJ is the more daring and Sebastian the cautious of the two, but the movie also makes both standpoints absolutely understandable. Also, their families - Sebastian’s Carribean grandparents, CJ’s older brother and mother - are deftly drawn and well played, endearing themselves to the audience, which is important because CJ’s brother becomes instrumental to CJ’s increasingly wilder and more desperate use of time travel to „fix“ things. Highly reccomended, but not as a popcorn summerly distraction.
Good Omens, the tv version (on Amazon Prime): it’s been ages since I’ve read the novel, and while I had liked said novel, it’s never been as important to me as other works by either of its authors. So basically, I watched the show without having strong opinions on the source material, and only fuzzy memories of same. This said: I still had moments of thinking „yes!“ or „huh, not how I imagined it“ or „wow, I never realised how it would feel watching this instead of reading it“.
I much enjoyed the show, and thought all the actors were fabulous in their respective roles. Unfortunate exception: the kids, who weren’t bad, I hasten to add, it’s just that they came across much more vividly in the novel, even in my fuzzy memories. Mind you, the difference here isn’t just performance but also screen time; if any plot thread got cut down in transition, it’s the Them. But at least in terms of Adam it is also a matter of performance. I mean, I’ve been spoiled: Lucas Black as Caleb Temple in American Gothic is my ultimate standard for a performance (by a child actor, but I defy any adult to do it better) for the type of role Adam is, someone who can be both, as Anathema puts it, „the sweetest kid“ and absolutely frightening when required. And now I feel awful for critisizing a child actor, but still: American Gothic.
Still, the reason why Good Omens became such a cult novel aren’t the kids in it. And on the Aziraphale and Crowley (as well as Aziraphale/Crowley) front, the series completely delivered for me. Michael Sheen and David Tennant were terrific and have fantastic chemistry; btw, the later also comes across in audio in the podcast they did together, which you can listen to here. (In a quite different form than their on screen dynamic, btw, not least because their characters and personas are obviously different.) Incidentally, due to the very different circumstances in which I watched this as opposed to reading the novel at some hazy point during the late 1990s or thereabouts, I couldn’t help but associate Aziraphale’s and Crowley’s not wanting the world to end versus the various other angels and demons rooting for a big fight and Armageddon with Current Events (not just on the British Isles). The angels, other than Aziraphale, basically came across as smug Tories (John Hamm in particular having a great time as Gabriel), and the emphasis on kindness throughout far more important to me today than it was then.
Also: the various deaths en route to almost-Armageddon were truly chilling in a way they hadn’t struck me in the novel. I don’t know whether this was the difference between reading and watching; probably, because I’m a fast reader, and so in a book you reach the point where Adam reverses things before it emotionally sinks in (at least for me), whereas here, watching, say, the cars go up in flames made me feel „there are people burning there“.
On the brighter side, something that also had little effect on me while reading (that I recall) and which I enjoyed watching was Madame Tracy’s channelling Aziraphale in the last episode, because Miranda Richardson really manages to use Michael Sheen’s physical mannerisms, even in split seconds, and the gag with St. James Park as the standard location for secret agent meetings (so every time Crowley and Aziraphale meet there, we also see in the background other obviously conspicious pairs) amused me far more on display.
Lastly: ever since watching that cartoon Discworld adaption where Christopher Lee voices DEATH, all other Prattchian DEATHs have fallen short. Sorry, Brian Cox.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1344622.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
See You Yesterday: directed by Stefon Bristol, starring relative newcomers Eden Duncan-Smith and Dante Crichlow, both of whom I’ll keep an eye on, produced by Spike Lee: on Netflix, definitely worth watching. What little criticism I’ve seen of this universally praised movie deals with the perceived „shift in tone“, i.e. what starts out as a seemingly light-hearted time travel adventure/summer romp a la Back to the Future (complete with amusing Michael J. Fox cameo) ends up as a gut wrenching exploration of grief and the absolutely non-sci fi outrages facing life as a black person in today’s America. Which, yes, but for this viewer it worked because contrary to what Ian McEwan seems to think, sci fi at its best has always also faced the human condition of the present and used its gambits to explore just this. It’s not a novel thing.
What else I loved: our two teenage heroes, Claudette „CJ“ Walker and Sebastian Thomas, are unabashedly, ferociously smart geeks, inventing time travel by themselves. Usually in an US movie focusing on youngsters, high school archetypes are at least nodded at, and if, in a rare case, the „smart kid“ isn’t the hero’s sidekick but the hero themselves, there are also jocks, mean girls, comic relief kids etc. about. Not so here, and the Flatbush, Brooklyn area in which CJ and Sebastian live feels all the more real for it. Also, while Sebastian is important to the story, it’s CJ who is the central character. (And no one says any variation of „but you’re a girl! Doing science!“ to her.) Their intense friendship comes utterly without UST, not because CJ is virginal (there’s a jerk ex around) but because that’s just not how their dynamic works. In terms of adventuring, in a welcome reverse from gender stereotypes, CJ is the more daring and Sebastian the cautious of the two, but the movie also makes both standpoints absolutely understandable. Also, their families - Sebastian’s Carribean grandparents, CJ’s older brother and mother - are deftly drawn and well played, endearing themselves to the audience, which is important because CJ’s brother becomes instrumental to CJ’s increasingly wilder and more desperate use of time travel to „fix“ things. Highly reccomended, but not as a popcorn summerly distraction.
Good Omens, the tv version (on Amazon Prime): it’s been ages since I’ve read the novel, and while I had liked said novel, it’s never been as important to me as other works by either of its authors. So basically, I watched the show without having strong opinions on the source material, and only fuzzy memories of same. This said: I still had moments of thinking „yes!“ or „huh, not how I imagined it“ or „wow, I never realised how it would feel watching this instead of reading it“.
I much enjoyed the show, and thought all the actors were fabulous in their respective roles. Unfortunate exception: the kids, who weren’t bad, I hasten to add, it’s just that they came across much more vividly in the novel, even in my fuzzy memories. Mind you, the difference here isn’t just performance but also screen time; if any plot thread got cut down in transition, it’s the Them. But at least in terms of Adam it is also a matter of performance. I mean, I’ve been spoiled: Lucas Black as Caleb Temple in American Gothic is my ultimate standard for a performance (by a child actor, but I defy any adult to do it better) for the type of role Adam is, someone who can be both, as Anathema puts it, „the sweetest kid“ and absolutely frightening when required. And now I feel awful for critisizing a child actor, but still: American Gothic.
Still, the reason why Good Omens became such a cult novel aren’t the kids in it. And on the Aziraphale and Crowley (as well as Aziraphale/Crowley) front, the series completely delivered for me. Michael Sheen and David Tennant were terrific and have fantastic chemistry; btw, the later also comes across in audio in the podcast they did together, which you can listen to here. (In a quite different form than their on screen dynamic, btw, not least because their characters and personas are obviously different.) Incidentally, due to the very different circumstances in which I watched this as opposed to reading the novel at some hazy point during the late 1990s or thereabouts, I couldn’t help but associate Aziraphale’s and Crowley’s not wanting the world to end versus the various other angels and demons rooting for a big fight and Armageddon with Current Events (not just on the British Isles). The angels, other than Aziraphale, basically came across as smug Tories (John Hamm in particular having a great time as Gabriel), and the emphasis on kindness throughout far more important to me today than it was then.
Also: the various deaths en route to almost-Armageddon were truly chilling in a way they hadn’t struck me in the novel. I don’t know whether this was the difference between reading and watching; probably, because I’m a fast reader, and so in a book you reach the point where Adam reverses things before it emotionally sinks in (at least for me), whereas here, watching, say, the cars go up in flames made me feel „there are people burning there“.
On the brighter side, something that also had little effect on me while reading (that I recall) and which I enjoyed watching was Madame Tracy’s channelling Aziraphale in the last episode, because Miranda Richardson really manages to use Michael Sheen’s physical mannerisms, even in split seconds, and the gag with St. James Park as the standard location for secret agent meetings (so every time Crowley and Aziraphale meet there, we also see in the background other obviously conspicious pairs) amused me far more on display.
Lastly: ever since watching that cartoon Discworld adaption where Christopher Lee voices DEATH, all other Prattchian DEATHs have fallen short. Sorry, Brian Cox.
This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1344622.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.