100 Things and Books and Fireworks
Happy Birthday, hermione_like!
I have the dual satisfaction/agony of having just finished a good book in me right now. A Great and Terrible Beauty lies complete and closed on the back of my couch. I must be strong and make myself finish the, uh, multiple other books I have in progress before getting the sequel.
#17: To Rome with Love - The lives of some visitors and residents of Rome and the romances, adventures and predicaments they get into. [imdb]
That hilariously generic IMDB summary is an accurate description of what happens in this movie, or what might have happened, or possibly what Alec Baldwin wants us to think happened. It's four stories set in Rome, two each in English and Italian, with no particular connection between them except a touch of absurdism. They're not even synced up on time; one takes place within a single (busy) day, another stretches out over many weeks.
As you'd expect from Woody Allen, it's a funny script, but the whole thing plays like a lark and doesn't compare favorably to last year's Midnight in Paris, which I had some issues with but still appreciated for more than the funnies. It didn't demand much heavy lifting from its cast, as numerous as they were.
Jesse Eisenberg got the younger Allen stand-in role, which is not going to help much in breaking him out of nervous geek type-casting. But I did enjoy Alec Baldwin's role in his story. Together, they took on the Manic Pixie Dream Girl (Ellen Page, here) from a perspective showing the character's ultimate awfulness from the start, which was a nice note, if still participant in some of that trope's problems.
Side note: This is the second movie I've seen with the trailer for Ruby Sparks. It upsets me more each time.
Other people I liked: Penelope Cruz, Judy Davis, Alessandra Mastronardi. It also features a number of pretty Italian men, so that's nice.
Overall, it's light and enjoyable, but don't expect to take away much more than that.
After the movie yesterday, I drove to the bayshore in East Palo Alto on a tip that this would lend me a view of many fireworks without traffic madness. This proved true! From about 8:30 on, the other people there and I had a 360 degree show as various fireworks went off along the peninsula and across the bay. There were some issues with trees, but all I had to do was hop off my car and walk around to see something new. The "main" show we were there for didn't start until 9:45 and was comparatively short, but the extended pre-show made it worthwhile.
I have the dual satisfaction/agony of having just finished a good book in me right now. A Great and Terrible Beauty lies complete and closed on the back of my couch. I must be strong and make myself finish the, uh, multiple other books I have in progress before getting the sequel.
#17: To Rome with Love - The lives of some visitors and residents of Rome and the romances, adventures and predicaments they get into. [imdb]
That hilariously generic IMDB summary is an accurate description of what happens in this movie, or what might have happened, or possibly what Alec Baldwin wants us to think happened. It's four stories set in Rome, two each in English and Italian, with no particular connection between them except a touch of absurdism. They're not even synced up on time; one takes place within a single (busy) day, another stretches out over many weeks.
As you'd expect from Woody Allen, it's a funny script, but the whole thing plays like a lark and doesn't compare favorably to last year's Midnight in Paris, which I had some issues with but still appreciated for more than the funnies. It didn't demand much heavy lifting from its cast, as numerous as they were.
Jesse Eisenberg got the younger Allen stand-in role, which is not going to help much in breaking him out of nervous geek type-casting. But I did enjoy Alec Baldwin's role in his story. Together, they took on the Manic Pixie Dream Girl (Ellen Page, here) from a perspective showing the character's ultimate awfulness from the start, which was a nice note, if still participant in some of that trope's problems.
Side note: This is the second movie I've seen with the trailer for Ruby Sparks. It upsets me more each time.
Other people I liked: Penelope Cruz, Judy Davis, Alessandra Mastronardi. It also features a number of pretty Italian men, so that's nice.
Overall, it's light and enjoyable, but don't expect to take away much more than that.
After the movie yesterday, I drove to the bayshore in East Palo Alto on a tip that this would lend me a view of many fireworks without traffic madness. This proved true! From about 8:30 on, the other people there and I had a 360 degree show as various fireworks went off along the peninsula and across the bay. There were some issues with trees, but all I had to do was hop off my car and walk around to see something new. The "main" show we were there for didn't start until 9:45 and was comparatively short, but the extended pre-show made it worthwhile.