Big Screen: Martha Marcy May Marlene

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As with Take Shelter, this is a movie of really great acting performances and really crazy paranoia stuff that leaves you with the creepiest ickiest feelings.

And as with Take Shelter, the last scene really (REALLY) messes with your head.

John Hawkes is so fantastic here. He was also fantastic in Winter’s Bone last year. I think I’d go see anything with him in it, even if I hated everything but his scenes.

I think I liked Take Shelter a LITTLE better than this…but mostly because there are things about that character’s paranoia that are a little less icky than the actual things that happen to some of the characters in this movie.

Wrapping It Up: Favorite Books 2011

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My top six very favorite books read during 2011 were (not in any order) “Wonderstruck” by Brian Selznick, Love Is the Higher Law, by David Levithan, “State of Wonder” by Ann Patchett, “36 Arguments for the Existence of God”, by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein (that’s fiction, despite its non-fiction-like sounding title), “Mother’s Milk” by Edward St. Aubyn and “Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter” by Tom Franklin.

My final list of books read for 2011 is here and a little write-up on some other favorites, beyond the six mentioned in this post, is over here.

Turns out I haven’t done hardly any reviewing of books on Snip this year (I have been busy ya know!) but I still plan to whip through a few here and there until I find a job so I’ll add links to those if/when I post them! ;)

Big Screen: Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol

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Loved it. Tom Cruise is showing his age (which I thought maybe he’d be one of those crazy celebrities who gets 97 billion procedures and never has a single wrinkle). Renner / Pegg / Payton all played their bits well. It was 100% completely enjoyable.

EXCEPT… So here’s the thing. With any action movie, but ESPECIALLY the Mission Impossible movies they do a million crazy nutbars out-of-this-world things and as the viewer you accept them as part of this movie’s reality. Fine. BUT if I am going to accept all their crazy masks and daring feats and car acrobatics and such, I insist that this type of movie must do everything else ACCURATELY.

And let me tell you, if you remove the floor to ceiling window from a 100th-floor hotel room? THERE’S GONNA BE A CRAPTON OF WIND BLOWING THROUGH. But no, they stand calmly in front of it, clothes barely aruffle. Sorry, can’t buy into that one. When they replaced the windows in my 4th floor apartment in NYC, things magentized to the refrigerator were blowin’ around the house.

GIVE ME MY REALITY and I’LL GIVE YOU YOUR FANTASY. That is the deal this type of movie is supposed to make with us.

So other than that, it was great. :)

À la Nick Hornby, books in/books out for December.

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Bought:

  • A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness
  • Falling Together, by Marisa de los Santos

Read:

  • Anne of Green Gables, by L.M. Montgomery (re-read)(audio)
  • The Black Cauldron, by Lloyd Alexander (re-read)
  • A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness
  • Falling Together, by Marisa de los Santos
  • Inside Out & Back Again, by Thanhha Lai (borrowed from Chris)
  • One Day, by David Nicholls (borrowed from GD)
  • To Dance: A Ballerina’s Graphic Novel, by Siena Cherson (library)
  • Foiled, by Jane Yolen
  • Steel My Soldiers’ Hearts: The Hopeless to Hardcore Transformation of U.S. Army, 4th Battalion, 39th Infantry, Vietnam, by David H. Hackworth (borrowed from Dad)
  • Life, by Keith Richards (borrowed from Dad)
  • No Dark Place, by Joan Wolf (thought I was borrowing it from Mom, turns out it was mine, loaned to her long ago)
  • Someday Soon, by Joan Wolf (borrowed from Mom)
  • The Poet Slave of Cuba: A Biography of Juan Francisco Manzano, by Margarita Engle (library)
  • Enclave, by Ann Aguirre

Fiction: One Day, by David Nicholls

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It was OK.

But I found the whole one day framing to be a little stupid since it was NOT actually the one day each year on which they saw each other or anything. Seemed a pretty arbitrary frame that falls apart as the novel moves on and the reader might want to hear about some other days as well. [Also seems like a blatant "hey When Harry Met Sally fans, come read this" advert but maybe that's just me.] I mean when a chapter starts with something “having seen each other on and off for months now”, it renders that fact that we’re again focused on just this one day a little meaningless.

There were things I liked about it and I certainly agree with Emma that Ian was not the man for her…but is Dex really? The author maybe goes a little too far in giving you reasons to detest him and not enough instances of even halfway decentness for you to really be willing to fall for him yourself or put up with Emma’s love for him never going away.

Maybe on one of those OTHER days of the year, he did some stuff to redeem himself but we will never know.