It’s a two-fer month, a study in contrast. One high energy, intense and dramatic; versus one calm, deliberate, determined and yet still as dramatic in its own way.
The best two movies I saw in September were “In the Valley of Elah” and “The Bourne Ultimatum” (I’m a little late on that one, I know). Both were excellent in very different ways.
The best two books I read in September were “Under the Banner of Heaven” and “A Three Dog Life”. As with flicks, high contrast between the two, yet equally satisfying.
The best two gigs I went to in August were Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals and The National.
I’ll [add to this] post later my favorite tunes in September…[I’ll talk about September tunes. Later. In another post. Hopefully. We’ll see.]
Random personal highlights: Buying lots of new Fall clothes, although hardly getting to wear them this month; Jen in town for drinks!!!; and FINALLY it’s time for FALL TV!!! [Kinda a slow month, eh?]
Lowlights? Can the summer heat go away now please? I’ve had enough.
Daily Archives: October 2, 2007
Fiction: Love Walked In, by Marisa de los Santos
At first it appears to be telling two different stories: Cornelia, 30-something, single, waiting for romance; and Clare, 11 and in danger of abandonment… Eventually of course, they coincide and it becomes not just a story of Cornelia looking for love and Clare trying to survive her mother, but a story of Cornelia and Clare coming together and how we connect and what makes a family and how does love come and when do you stay and fight and when do you have to walk away…
I really enjoyed this, more than I expected. But it was hard to think of Clare as 11 — she felt more like a 15 year old at least 90% of the time. I’m not often bothered by the “is this person older than they’re supposed to be feel in novels” (or not as much as my friend GirlDetective who I kept thinking of whenever I thought that here [note to GD, I really did!!]), but in this case it kept nagging at me.
And you know, Cornelia can be a bit twee at times. Apparently Sarah Jessica Parker will play her in the movie. Unlike many books, this one is concise enough, I don’t see there being the need to cut much of the plot.
Big Screen: The Kingdom
I liked this movie, but I thought Peter Berg left the ending a little too ambiguous. I THINK I know what you’re supposed to think, but in leaving it ambiguous I think he left room for people with a radically different viewpoint than mine to say “yup, this [other thing] is what you’re supposed to think.” If the message is what I thought it was, it shouldn’t have been left ambiguous. I don’t want people to be able to prevaricate about that!
And I didn’t think it made that much sense to have Jason Bateman’s character so obsessed with what the whispering was. It was like using him as the plot to find out something the audience supposedly would want to know…except I didn’t think anyone in the audience was actually wondering that. It was a plot mechanism to reveal a similar attitude on both sides, but I think it could have been accomplished differently.
Jamie Foxx’s macho attitude is definitely one of his strengths as an actor so he really excels in parts that let him bring it on. Jason Bateman is great, although totally annoying in some scenes. I really dug the #2 Saudi policeman (the one who gets beaten early on).
I liked a lot of it, despite my aforementioned criticisms. But as the boy working the concession stand told me on my way in “It’s a good movie, but it’s scary. It can really make you paranoid about some stuff.”
Big Screen: Eastern Promises
Not for the faint of heart. The infamous naked bathroom fight scene was more notable (to me) for its extreme bloodiness (I swear that one cut goes all the way down his spine) than a few random sightings of Viggo nekkid. There’s a throatcutting scene earlier that’s more like a “trying really hard to chisel off someone’s head with a not very sharp knife” scene.
Viggo is so solidly into character here, it’s hard to reconcile in your mind that this is the same boy who played Aragorn. Not a bad flick, a number of interesting items, but I didn’t find myself very engaged with it. More like a spectator from a distance than I usually feel in the theater. And a lot of people in this movie make really bad decisions. You wanted to take them into the hallway and try and shake some sense into them.