Media update
That feeling when my compulsive need to document my theatre- and movie-going conflicts with my motivation to do so... but here I am *g*
Saw Jurassic World, which I regret to say I really enjoyed. I mean, it had gorgeous dinosaurs (seriously, I loved them), a theme park, and things going horribly wrong, meaning a lot of tense action sequences that didn't depend on the bad guys trying to kill the good guys so much as nature doing what it does. These days, that feels oddly refreshing, and I probably enjoyed it even more than Jurassic Park - it gave me a great many 'oooh' moments in general, like the dinosaur petting zoo, and the raptor training, and the weird SeaWorld dinoshows. And those amazing Gyroball things, and the spectacular monorail. Love. It was also a very diverse cast, which was cool (and which also, the cynical part of me observes, makes it highly palatable to an international audience). But... the diverse cast were all men, and it was one of the most outrageously sexist movies I've seen in recent times. I mean, I usually don't notice stuff like that at all. But there were like three women in the cast, all of whom were pretty much in charge of Looking After the Children in some way. And I haven't seen the "woman in ludicrously impractical high heels cowering behind big strong man with gun trope" for quite a while. Wow. Also, the product placement was obnoxious. I mean, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 was more subtle than this. Aiyiyi. I still... really enjoyed it.
Also saw the NT Live screening of Man and Superman (George Bernard Shaw), which was AMAZING. I've always adored Ralph Fiennes (just don't talk about The Qantas Incident, okay?) but always thought of him as a "movie star", not as a proper theatre actor. So seeing his performance in the NT 50 Years celebration really surprised and impressed me, and I was keen to see this. It's an extremely long (3h 40m including interval!) and complicated play about a young woman, Ann (Indira Varma), whose father dies, leaving her in the care of her mother and two male guardians, the stuffy patrician Roebuck (Nicholas Le Provost) together with - which comes as a surprise to everyone, including himself - the dissolute rake Jack (Ralph Fiennes). The young poet Octavius (Ferdinand Kingsley) is madly in love with Ann, but she has her eye on Jack. Terrified, Jack flees with his working-class chauffeur, Straker (Elliot Barnes-Worrell), only to be... captured by socialist brigands. Yes. The brigand leader, Mendoza (Tim McMullan) is also suffering from thwarted love. While they await rescue, Jack has a lengthy dream where he descends into Hell to discuss life and love with the Devil, also in the form of Mendoza. In yet another side-plot, Octavius' sister Violet (Faye Castelow) becomes pregnant, but won't reveal the father, to much misguided horror and scandal. So it's basically this massive treatise on love, marriage, class, social mores, and "the life force" which apparently drives hapless, innocent men into the arms of wily, devious women - but in a terribly witty and tongue-in-cheek way.
What was most startling about the play was actually how fresh and current it felt - and it was written in 1903. It's scary how little has changed - sure, some of the reactions to the pregnancy feel slightly exaggerated in a modern context, but not by much. Shaw often references Shakespeare to make his points, but people still do that today, so while it was a comedy of manners, it really doesn't have the stuffy period feel at all. Like I said, scary! I'm not sure if there was any updating, but the wit was also as biting as ever. So much respect for Shaw. But the performances were also brilliant, especially Fiennes, who I think was playing a man considerably younger than himself, but the sheer energy he brought to the stage was incredible. I just can't see how he could do that night after night without collapsing - I was tired just watching him. And the sheer technical display was amazing as well - Jack has speeches that go on and on, and reminded me very much of BC's lament that Sherlock talks faster than he can think. A lot of Jack's speeches were like that, and yet Fiennes delivered them flawlessly and crisply and hit all the right intonations to make them easily comprehensible. I was just... really impressed, okay? And he was lovely to look at, but I needn't go into that *g*
The other performances were all good to excellent - I particularly liked Straker, the chauffeur, who was also very energetic and a good bantering match for Jack. Mendoza's rendition of his heartfelt poem to his forbidden love Louisa was also a bit of a showstopper, if predictably so (Louisa, Louisa, I love you... Louisa. It was hilarious. Okay, maybe you had to be there.) Loved Violet as well - she was very sharp and funny in pinning down people's hypocrisy. The only performance I wasn't too keen on was Ann - I like Varma, who I remember as Luther's wife in Luther, but she played Ann very much as though she were playing Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing. While I did think there were some very strong comparisons in the whole reluctant lovers theme (also made by reviewers), I don't think the characters are alike at all. I always think of Beatrice as approaching spinsterhood, and comfortable and/or resigned to that - she doesn't mince words for anyone. Whereas Ann is described by others as the kind of person who will do what she wants, but then claim she was only fulfilling her mother's or father's (or guardian's) wishes. And Octavius certainly sees her as this lovely, sweet girl that he longs to marry. Also it's a stressed plot point near the end when Ann's mother reveals that she knew her daughter's "true" nature all along. So that gives me the impression Ann's meant to be all sweetness and innocence on the surface, with a sly, calculating mind beneath - not like Beatrice, who doesn't bother with artifice to begin with. So this Ann was too obviously sharp-tongued and blatantly scheming for me in personality, even though technically (vocally) she was great. tl;dr: I adore Ralph Fiennes more than ever *g*
Lastly, saw Minions on the weekend. Eh. I don't even know what I was expecting, but it felt like I was constantly waiting for the actual movie to start, and by the time it did, it was over! The opening credits were one of the best parts of the film, and I enjoyed them finally meeting Groo at the end. Predictably loved all the London stuff and the Queen kicked ass even more than Scarlet Overkill. LOL. But I still feel like there wasn't any there there. Oh, well.
Must spare another mention for Battle Creek - have finally finished all 13 episodes and CANNOT BELIEVE there won't be any more *sobs*. I was so cross with House by the end I didn't have particularly high expectations for Robert Sean Leonard's appearance in the last episode (the main reason I heard about this series to begin with), but he was great. It made me happy to see him, and I'm going to go back and watch his section again. He plays a grieving father who is technically "the bad guy" but really isn't, and he did a much better job of it than I thought he would. Awww. I suspect Wilson was starting to piss him off by the end, and perhaps it was coming through, but this made me remember that he actually can play something other than a hapless, lecturing doormat. Whoops, sorry, still bitter *g*
Also been reading quite a lot of actual books during the break but not a great deal that's noteworthy. Read Finders Keepers (Stephen King) which was a good solid read without being particularly memorable for me. Currently reading Not My Father's Son (Alan Cumming) which is kind of a 'misery memoir' but not an overly self-pitying one. Also read a couple of books by people I saw speak at the Sydney Writers' Festival - I, Migrant (Sami Shah) and Walking Free (Manjed Al Muderis), which were both very good reads. Shah worked in TV in Pakistan before becoming a stand-up comedian - yes, in Pakistan - and eventually emigrated to Australia, where he ended up in a small country town in Western Australia due to his wife's work with detention centre inmates. His descriptions of Pakistan are pretty terrifying, to be honest - he describes having colleagues killed in suicide bombings and facing being robbed at gunpoint with a resigned shrug. He still manages to fit in a lot of black humour, though. Muderis was a young doctor who fled Iraq after being asked to sever the ears of defectors as punishment. The head of surgery initially refused, and was immediately shot in front of all of them - Muderis hid in the women's toilets until the evening, then sneaked home to plan his escape. He flew from Iraq to Malaysia, then took a boat to Australia, and was incarcerated in a detention camp for nearly a year, and ignored when others around him were processed and released. Thanks to his connections in Iraq, he finally managed to get out, and is now a internationally-renowned osseointegration surgeon who works with amputees. It's... a pretty amazing story 0.0
Also... any particular thoughts on the Sherlock special trailer?