Midnight in Paris
Spent Sunday away from the 'net, which was a particularly good thing as my anxiety has been skyrocketing these past few weeks. E. and I went to see Midnight in Paris at the little, plush-seated, one-projector theater near his apartment, the perfect venue for a film about a guy time-travelling back to the 1920's Paris art scene.
It was an enjoyable enough way to while away part of the afternoon; one review online called it an "amuse-bouche," and while that's a fairly pretentious way of putting it (appropriately so, in context!), it's also right on target. The story is a very thin vehicle for a whole passel of talented actors to wear period clothing and ham it up as famous and famously melodramatic dead people. Tom Hiddleston and Alison Pill were adorable and charming as the Fitzgeralds, Adrien Brody was obviously having the time of his life as Dali, and Corey Stoll kept cracking me up with his dead-eyed, monotone Hemingway. (Note: the 1920s is a bit of a gap in my literary education, at least as far as the US/Western Europe is concerned -- no, I really haven't read The Great Gatsby yet! -- so I have no idea how accurate any of these portrayals were. But they were entertaining.) Marion Cotillard's Adriana was charming, albeit a little close to MPDG territory, and I hope I get to see her in a film sometime where she's not Dream Inspiration for a male protagonist I couldn't care less about.
The not-so-good parts: most notably, Owen Wilson was seriously outclassed, and didn't have anywhere near the charisma to pull off the typical self-involved, neurotic Allen protagonist without making me want to smack him. Worse, Gil's relationship with Inez was so devoid of affection that I couldn't even begin to imagine how they got together in the first place, which took all the tension out of the love triangle with Adriana. Granted, Gil's conflict wasn't so much Inez vs. Adriana as 2010 vs. the 1920s, but since that realization was supposed to be his emotional climax and yet was obvious from the start, it's not much of a defense. Speaking of said climax, that was it, really? I know the time travel conceit was more of a device than anything else, but I was hoping Allen would do a little more with it -- not even explain it, just flesh out the concept enough to make the movie something worth chewing over. When Gil and Adriana ended up in the Belle Epoque I was hoping it would be the start of some metatastical, time-hopping shenanigans, but nope.
Afterwards we went hung out at a park and then the cafe, during which time we had Serious Discussions about Literature -- namely, the treatment of race and religion in Tolkien and other old-school sff. One of the things I respect and appreciate the most about E. is that he really listens and engages with other people's arguments non-defensively, even on subjects he's emotionally attached to. It's a rare talent. He adores Tolkien, and was at first little thrown and puzzled by my refusal to give Tolkien a pass on all the weird racial crap underlying the setting of LotR, but even when he was confused about why I thought any of it mattered he never acted like I was making a fuss over nothing. I'm not sure how much I convinced him, if at all (pretty sure at least a little), but in a way it doesn't even matter whether he agrees with me on this one specific thing as that he treated the whole discussion as worthy of having, even though it brought a fraught topic into his happy fun zone.
To be honest, I think he's a lot better at grappling with his own blind spots than I am at grappling at mine, a lot of the time. Something to work on.
We're also making plans to see Tintin when it comes out in a couple of weeks. Yes, you heard that right, the film comes out here two months before its US release date. Suck it, America!
In other news, Dad came back from yet another weeks-long business trip, and returned bearing After Dark by Haruki Murakami (which ... I think we have, but the effort is appreciated) and Harmony, by Satoshi Ito. Anyone read that one? Wondering if xannoside has heard of the author at least, since he novelized Metal Gear Solid 4.
Last but not least, links round-up:
» Was Vincent Van Gogh murdered? No opinion on this, except that if it's true the Doctor really let the poor guy down. Also, I want to note that I chose the icon for this post before I read that article and decided to link it.
» Release date for Naomi Novik's Crucible of Gold, and upcoming manga-style adaptation of Scott Westerfeld's "Uglies" series.
» Lost CS Forester manuscript of unpublished novel discovered. Oh, the keyboard smashing that ensued! Alas, it's a crime novel, not Hornblower, but this is still fabulous news.
» The Architecture of the Comic Book City. Worth it more for the pictures than the article itself, which manages to be both overwritten and haphazard at the same time.
» Agent Coulson is win, but y'all knew that already.
It was an enjoyable enough way to while away part of the afternoon; one review online called it an "amuse-bouche," and while that's a fairly pretentious way of putting it (appropriately so, in context!), it's also right on target. The story is a very thin vehicle for a whole passel of talented actors to wear period clothing and ham it up as famous and famously melodramatic dead people. Tom Hiddleston and Alison Pill were adorable and charming as the Fitzgeralds, Adrien Brody was obviously having the time of his life as Dali, and Corey Stoll kept cracking me up with his dead-eyed, monotone Hemingway. (Note: the 1920s is a bit of a gap in my literary education, at least as far as the US/Western Europe is concerned -- no, I really haven't read The Great Gatsby yet! -- so I have no idea how accurate any of these portrayals were. But they were entertaining.) Marion Cotillard's Adriana was charming, albeit a little close to MPDG territory, and I hope I get to see her in a film sometime where she's not Dream Inspiration for a male protagonist I couldn't care less about.
The not-so-good parts: most notably, Owen Wilson was seriously outclassed, and didn't have anywhere near the charisma to pull off the typical self-involved, neurotic Allen protagonist without making me want to smack him. Worse, Gil's relationship with Inez was so devoid of affection that I couldn't even begin to imagine how they got together in the first place, which took all the tension out of the love triangle with Adriana. Granted, Gil's conflict wasn't so much Inez vs. Adriana as 2010 vs. the 1920s, but since that realization was supposed to be his emotional climax and yet was obvious from the start, it's not much of a defense. Speaking of said climax, that was it, really? I know the time travel conceit was more of a device than anything else, but I was hoping Allen would do a little more with it -- not even explain it, just flesh out the concept enough to make the movie something worth chewing over. When Gil and Adriana ended up in the Belle Epoque I was hoping it would be the start of some metatastical, time-hopping shenanigans, but nope.
Afterwards we went hung out at a park and then the cafe, during which time we had Serious Discussions about Literature -- namely, the treatment of race and religion in Tolkien and other old-school sff. One of the things I respect and appreciate the most about E. is that he really listens and engages with other people's arguments non-defensively, even on subjects he's emotionally attached to. It's a rare talent. He adores Tolkien, and was at first little thrown and puzzled by my refusal to give Tolkien a pass on all the weird racial crap underlying the setting of LotR, but even when he was confused about why I thought any of it mattered he never acted like I was making a fuss over nothing. I'm not sure how much I convinced him, if at all (pretty sure at least a little), but in a way it doesn't even matter whether he agrees with me on this one specific thing as that he treated the whole discussion as worthy of having, even though it brought a fraught topic into his happy fun zone.
To be honest, I think he's a lot better at grappling with his own blind spots than I am at grappling at mine, a lot of the time. Something to work on.
We're also making plans to see Tintin when it comes out in a couple of weeks. Yes, you heard that right, the film comes out here two months before its US release date. Suck it, America!
In other news, Dad came back from yet another weeks-long business trip, and returned bearing After Dark by Haruki Murakami (which ... I think we have, but the effort is appreciated) and Harmony, by Satoshi Ito. Anyone read that one? Wondering if xannoside has heard of the author at least, since he novelized Metal Gear Solid 4.
Last but not least, links round-up:
» Was Vincent Van Gogh murdered? No opinion on this, except that if it's true the Doctor really let the poor guy down. Also, I want to note that I chose the icon for this post before I read that article and decided to link it.
» Release date for Naomi Novik's Crucible of Gold, and upcoming manga-style adaptation of Scott Westerfeld's "Uglies" series.
» Lost CS Forester manuscript of unpublished novel discovered. Oh, the keyboard smashing that ensued! Alas, it's a crime novel, not Hornblower, but this is still fabulous news.
» The Architecture of the Comic Book City. Worth it more for the pictures than the article itself, which manages to be both overwritten and haphazard at the same time.
» Agent Coulson is win, but y'all knew that already.