Hilarious friends they had–yet there was a real ring of truth in lots of the scenes. JK and MR I thought were really good –and good together. (That first sex scene was too much for the people sitting in front of us though: they stood up and stomped out.)
I liked it too. Although I have a quibble with one bit of it that I didn’t mention there. Maybe I’ll write about it later.
WONDERFUL movie. Does everything right that most growing up movies do wrong vis a vis romance, winning, etc. This was just great. Drew–well done!! Ellen Page–Babe Ruthless: tremendous! Good ensemble acting, from top to bottom. Lots of smiles, growls, tears, cheers–I LOVED THIS MOVIE!!
Took me back to when I’d come home from Mass on Sunday and watch–ROLLER DERBY!!! My team was the Bay Area Bombers! They had both men and women jamming in alternate periods–but this was really cool.
Highly recommended. (Minor aside–Zoe Bell, the stunt woman from Deathproof was one of the “Hurl Scouts”–I think her track name was “Bloody Holly”.)
FOUR STARS! High-larious! There’s a mid-flick cameo that’s worth the price of two admissions. A hoot throughout. Woody Harrelson’s finest performance.
The best movie I saw in August was a tie between District 9 (fantastic!) and Inglourious Basterds (exhilarating!).
The best book I read in August was White Time by Margo Lanagan, followed closely by a pair of wolf books by Patricia Briggs. Wow, those are two authors I just love. You may note there are a few reads on that list from August that I’m just not even bothering to write up, mostly continuations of trade paperback mystery series. Bygones. A girl’s gotta get caught up somehow.
The best gig I went to in August was The Knux‘ set at Lollapalooza. But, as with the rest of the year, there just hasn’t been any real competition in this category. I read a LOT this year but I did not go to many shows.
My favorite tunes in August were… Damien Rice, apparently. I was mostly running around doing stuff like a crazy lady in August and not doing much listening.
I realize I am ridiculously behind but for some inexplicable reason I am determined to catch Snip up to speed rather than just skipping ahead. And hey look, another month where I barely bought any tunes! WEIRD!
Absolutely Love & Adore:
Damien Rice “Live at Fingerprints: Warts and All” – This dude really needs to put out an album of fresh material (he talks on here about how he thought he might never finish another record…Nooooooooooo). But these are nice arrangements and I could (do) listen to his previous stuff all the time. I just want MORE. 😉
Favorite Singles (not on any of the above albums):
Not really for me / but maybe for you!:
Horehound “Dead Weather” – I am a fan of almost everything Jack White does, and I bet this band is awesome live, but I just can’t get into this album.
Shamefully have either not listened to at all, or not all the way through, or so few times that I can’t legitimately offer an opinion:
I downloaded the free Nylon Magazine August mix…but I’ve never listened to it. Whoops.
If you use that search bar over on the right and type in Lanagan, you will find this is an author I adore, this book no less than the rest. Some of these take place in that middle ages/medieval-ish type fantasy land and some are very, very modern. And my very favorite was “Wealth” which I have read over and over both because it’s fantastic and because it feels like it’s part of the same world as Hunger Games.
I have a friend who refers to Laurie Colwin books as “tomato soup and grilled cheese.” They are usually quiet and somewhat reserved but really quirky and funny when you get to know them. She writes great dialogue that feels refreshingly real. I think Misty was my favorite character but really I would love to be friends with any of these people.
I’ve already told you how much I loved Hurt Locker (twice). Dad loved it too.
OMG!!Fabulous!! Will James was so intense!! And how they’d freak out when they didn’t know what was happening!! You can see why the guys in Iraq just blast away. Super.
I include the following paragraph for hilarity’s sake, perhaps you need some humor in your day. No, we are NOT going to become bomb defusers.
But hey: when I came out I wondered: am I too old to do this shit? Because I would LOVE to do this shit!!!! What do you think? Look–the UN must need people to defuse all those minefields around the world, no? LET’S DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Research it! We’ll do it together. (As your Mom said when I mentioned this, “You’re probably too old–but, on the other hand, nobody would care if you died.” Exactly!!) So let’s do it!!
ETA: More musing on The Hurt Locker. Funny: Your mom really put off by it–something about the guy disturbed her. But I’m sitting there thinking: I could be that guy!! In fact, it reminded me of some of the calls I went out on when i was with Temperature Control at Purdue*–you’d walk in alone to these insane situations–steam pipes busted , heat going wild, animals freaking out in their cages, HUMANS (worst animals on earth) freaking out, and: WOW! what a buzz you’d get from the challenge!!! Just the challenge to be focused while all this chaos was around you. I mean, I so get that: that it could be your happiest time on earth.
That little smile on James’ face at the end, when he’s gone back for another tour and he’s walking out to deal with whatever’s out there. Yeah, yeah….
Oh, reminds me: one of my favorite movies is about another bomb disposal squad–called Juggernaut, w. Richard Harris, David Hemings. Seen it? Worth a look. Richard Lester, of all people, directed.
*Note he has a PhD and an MDiv but yes there was a time when he had two young kids and a wife and worked at Temperature Control to pay the rent.
It gets my award for most JOYFUL movie of the year. Grinning the whole time. The mod. story (about the blogger) has been sort of carped at by reviewers, but I thought Adams and the guy were v. believable and funny and neurotic–I mean, the stories, eras, women are different but, boy I’d say Adams held her own with Streep. Of course, Streep is getting the praise and she is super–esp. playing such an outsized, well known drama queen like Julia Child. Great impersonation, but she’s in the character–you laugh and cry with her, fight with her.
I thought all the humor was very character driven and not contrived (as in the romcoms of the summer–TheProposal and themoviethatmustneverbenamed), and I thought both lives were very gently led to the paths they took. Back and forth between the eras very good too–and interestingly, both eras have a grim background: 9-11 with the mod story and the McCarthy witchhunt in the Child story.
So you get this genuine search for joy in ordinary life, no matter what the world’s doing, which is of course how we all live. And the movie takes you to the joy. Highly recommended.