Some other movies my friends might, for various reasons, like:
Bella
Bella is the rare movie that even I could sum up in a single sentence. However, part of the experience of the movie is finding out, ever-so-gradually, what that sentence turns out to be, so I will not utter it here. ;o9 Bella concerns a young man broken by events in his past, a young woman who foresees a future with few options, and their respective notions of family. The two skip work, spend one day together, and it changes both of their lives forever. I tend to get restless watching movies at home and end up trying to multitask. Because the movie doesn't telegraph its shape and direction to you, it was sometimes hard for me to stay with it. I'm so glad I did, though. It's hard to say whether Bella would have hit me as hard as it did, were it not for the fact that the young man's secret involves literally - specifically - my worst fear, the one thing I don't know if I could ever come back from. But every one of the characters is drawn with sensitivity and complexity, and the story is ultimately powerful and redemptive. I feel enriched by having seen it. And I totally cried. But you already knew that...
Autism: The Musical
I'm not sure I have sufficient experience with documentaries to say whether Autism The Musical is well-tailored. But I do feel sure that I learned from it. Those among my friends with interests in social justice, drama therapy, and promoting quality of life for marginalized people may find it a fascinating and challenging look at the very different children and families who come together as part of one woman's project to help autistic children open up through theater. The children themselves are remarkable - particularly the director's own son and Lexi, the teenage girl with the haunting singing voice that seems to communicate all the feelings she is otherwise unable to articulate. The parents of the children have little in common when it comes to their opinions on autism, or on what would be best for their kids. It is hard to say who is more right, though some of them do seem to be more wrong. What they do have in common is an immense stress on all their personal ties; it can be heart-breaking to watch them try to put their own feelings aside and keep their families together. I don't know if it's a remarkable movie, but it brings you into contact with a lot of remarkable people.
Penelope
What Penelope is: 1) A lovely little story: sweet, cute, colorful, precious - and probably just a little too conscious of the fact, 2) Part of a growing tradition (Amelie, Big Fish, Pushing Daisies, Mr. Magorium) of deliberately whimsical stories that sidestep reality into a mirrorverse where everthing from the clothing to the architecture could rightly be called a confection, 3) A capable addition, but not the most sublime product of the tradition, either, 4) A movie that (I thought) improved on the second watching, and 5) yet another Hollywood movie that does not understand what it's really like to be ugly. Penelope's loneliness and sense of rejection are real enough, and I loved her. This may sound odd, but she reminded me in a certain way of an Austen heroine. Contemporary Austen adaptations sometimes take her women and make them snarky - try to bump up the aggressiveness of their wit. They miss the fact that one the charms her characters exhibit is prudence. It is hard to imagine a man who would not fall in love with Penelope just by listening to her husky, even voice, her considered manner of speaking, her way of being playful and direct without spite. And if you were such a man, sitting on the other side of a two-way glass, listening to a girl you believed to be cursed with some unspeakable ugliness and still asking her to show herself to you, wouldn't you be expecting someone who looked more like... me? I mean, if instead of flawed skin, flat feet, and lumps in the wrong places you got a wonderful, lissome girl with wideset eyes and tiny hands, wouldn't you be RELIEVED? Setting aside the movie's exaggeration for imaginative effect, there still seems to be a basic misunderstanding here: Nobody runs. Nobody pitches himself through a plateglass window to get away from you. (Almost nobody). Nobody wants to think of himself as the one who rejects people out of hand because of their ugliness. So they stay. And they ignore you. Or the hope you have prettier friends. Or they try to make you feel bad for being the one to disappoint them with your appearance, when here they are being so generous! *sigh* Rant over. I just... wouldn't it be nice for once to see a movie about a homely girl who is, in fact, homely?
But before I sidetrack myself too far: I really enjoyed this movie. Because Penelope herself was a delight, and because James McAvoy about charmed my socks off. The floppy hair, the soulful eyes, the lopsided smile... He was scrumptious. Bit of a crush, in fact. Bit of a crush... As
kurosawa would say: MMMMMMMMMMMMMMcAvoy.
Bella is the rare movie that even I could sum up in a single sentence. However, part of the experience of the movie is finding out, ever-so-gradually, what that sentence turns out to be, so I will not utter it here. ;o9 Bella concerns a young man broken by events in his past, a young woman who foresees a future with few options, and their respective notions of family. The two skip work, spend one day together, and it changes both of their lives forever. I tend to get restless watching movies at home and end up trying to multitask. Because the movie doesn't telegraph its shape and direction to you, it was sometimes hard for me to stay with it. I'm so glad I did, though. It's hard to say whether Bella would have hit me as hard as it did, were it not for the fact that the young man's secret involves literally - specifically - my worst fear, the one thing I don't know if I could ever come back from. But every one of the characters is drawn with sensitivity and complexity, and the story is ultimately powerful and redemptive. I feel enriched by having seen it. And I totally cried. But you already knew that...
Autism: The Musical
I'm not sure I have sufficient experience with documentaries to say whether Autism The Musical is well-tailored. But I do feel sure that I learned from it. Those among my friends with interests in social justice, drama therapy, and promoting quality of life for marginalized people may find it a fascinating and challenging look at the very different children and families who come together as part of one woman's project to help autistic children open up through theater. The children themselves are remarkable - particularly the director's own son and Lexi, the teenage girl with the haunting singing voice that seems to communicate all the feelings she is otherwise unable to articulate. The parents of the children have little in common when it comes to their opinions on autism, or on what would be best for their kids. It is hard to say who is more right, though some of them do seem to be more wrong. What they do have in common is an immense stress on all their personal ties; it can be heart-breaking to watch them try to put their own feelings aside and keep their families together. I don't know if it's a remarkable movie, but it brings you into contact with a lot of remarkable people.
Penelope
What Penelope is: 1) A lovely little story: sweet, cute, colorful, precious - and probably just a little too conscious of the fact, 2) Part of a growing tradition (Amelie, Big Fish, Pushing Daisies, Mr. Magorium) of deliberately whimsical stories that sidestep reality into a mirrorverse where everthing from the clothing to the architecture could rightly be called a confection, 3) A capable addition, but not the most sublime product of the tradition, either, 4) A movie that (I thought) improved on the second watching, and 5) yet another Hollywood movie that does not understand what it's really like to be ugly. Penelope's loneliness and sense of rejection are real enough, and I loved her. This may sound odd, but she reminded me in a certain way of an Austen heroine. Contemporary Austen adaptations sometimes take her women and make them snarky - try to bump up the aggressiveness of their wit. They miss the fact that one the charms her characters exhibit is prudence. It is hard to imagine a man who would not fall in love with Penelope just by listening to her husky, even voice, her considered manner of speaking, her way of being playful and direct without spite. And if you were such a man, sitting on the other side of a two-way glass, listening to a girl you believed to be cursed with some unspeakable ugliness and still asking her to show herself to you, wouldn't you be expecting someone who looked more like... me? I mean, if instead of flawed skin, flat feet, and lumps in the wrong places you got a wonderful, lissome girl with wideset eyes and tiny hands, wouldn't you be RELIEVED? Setting aside the movie's exaggeration for imaginative effect, there still seems to be a basic misunderstanding here: Nobody runs. Nobody pitches himself through a plateglass window to get away from you. (Almost nobody). Nobody wants to think of himself as the one who rejects people out of hand because of their ugliness. So they stay. And they ignore you. Or the hope you have prettier friends. Or they try to make you feel bad for being the one to disappoint them with your appearance, when here they are being so generous! *sigh* Rant over. I just... wouldn't it be nice for once to see a movie about a homely girl who is, in fact, homely?
But before I sidetrack myself too far: I really enjoyed this movie. Because Penelope herself was a delight, and because James McAvoy about charmed my socks off. The floppy hair, the soulful eyes, the lopsided smile... He was scrumptious. Bit of a crush, in fact. Bit of a crush... As
kurosawa would say: MMMMMMMMMMMMMMcAvoy.