So I finished our dinner episode of Downton Abbey and thought -- I'd rather not grade labs, so what else can I do? So I scrolled down the Boxee and thought, why not?
GREAT EXPECTATIONS has apparently been seen by M several times, but I had never watched this recent adaptation. He watched the intro scenes with me, and warned me not to get sucked into any multitasking; they were surprising and well done... I liked the imagery and the casting right off the bat. I like Gwyneth and Ethan Hawke a lot and I had thought I read the Dickens novel at one point, although now that I've seen the film I'm not sure that I actually have. Anyways, the Robert DeNiro character and angle was awesome; I really liked the film. Good choice.
Then it was 8pm and I scrolled down the list on the Boxee and... why not?
MARGOT AT THE WEDDING has been in my queue for probably years. I think Netflix recommended it at one point, so I added it to the list when we were still getting DVDs by mail, but we didn't watch it, and it sat around, and then M saved a copy to disk and it's been on one computer or another since then, and I kept on not watching it. Although I like Jack Black, and Nicole Kidman, I didn't like this movie. It was sordid and I just kept thinking that everyone was either being inconsiderate or an ass, or both, constantly. Oh well, at least it is off the list.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Not too much to say about movies with my mom
So my mom came to visit for a week and we watched a few things together... one that M had already seen and one that he wouldn't have had much interest in.
Definitely Maybe
This was actually pretty cute. I liked Isla Fisher as April, and was pleasantly surprised to find Kevin Kline in the movie; he's one of my favorites. It was clever at times; I loved the little girl played by Abigail Breslin. I give this 1.5 thumbs up.
Limitless
This was more interesting, but my mom found the exciting violence towards the end a little too shocking. I really liked the ending though; very nice for the good guy to escape the clutches of the bad guy. I would definitely recommend this. Two thumbs up.
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
I immediately started reading this again as soon as I finished it, that's how much I liked it, how rushed I felt to get through it the first time, and how much I wanted to savor it the second.
Definitely Maybe
This was actually pretty cute. I liked Isla Fisher as April, and was pleasantly surprised to find Kevin Kline in the movie; he's one of my favorites. It was clever at times; I loved the little girl played by Abigail Breslin. I give this 1.5 thumbs up.
Limitless
This was more interesting, but my mom found the exciting violence towards the end a little too shocking. I really liked the ending though; very nice for the good guy to escape the clutches of the bad guy. I would definitely recommend this. Two thumbs up.
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
I immediately started reading this again as soon as I finished it, that's how much I liked it, how rushed I felt to get through it the first time, and how much I wanted to savor it the second.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
A Bit of a Slow Down
WHEN RAIN CLOUDS GATHER by Bessie Head
This book was loaned to me by a friend, along with several other books with a slight or major African theme. It is a story about a refugee from South Africa who ends up in a small village in Botswana. The writer, Bessie Head, is one of Botswana's most famous writers, and she too was born and educated in South Africa before leaving for Botswana like her protagonist. I loved this book. The politics, the setting, the skepticism towards outsiders and the welcome of guests of village life in southern Africa were all lovingly portrayed; it made me very nostalgic for Malawi. The story was about a man who didn't want to get involved, but couldn't help being involved; in development, in politics, in issues of race and class, and in love with the other characters, but without any heavy-handedness. It was simply and eloquently told; I really enjoyed this book.
LONGITUDE by Dava Sobel
This is about the history of navigation and the discovery of a practical method for determination of longitude at sea, which was a feat that the British government rewarded (many years late) with a fortune in money and recognition through their Longitude Prize. The leading intellectuals of the 1600 and 1700s are mentioned in the book; Newton, Huygens, Hooke... but the man who solved the problem was a clock maker named Harrison who had no formal training or apprenticeship; just a clever imagination and some serious engineering skills. He built 4 clocks over his lifetime that solved the problem in almost unique ways, and his son finally did claim the prize after his death. As a science nerd, this book has been on my list for a long time and I'm glad to finally check it off. It is non-fiction, but the drama around this particular topic was real and sustained across the intellectual world for more than a century... good reading.
OUT OF THE DUST by Karen Hesse
This book was in the pile that I thought I had made from my friend Misha (including When Rain Clouds Gather) but when I thanked him for lending it to me, he disclaimed any knowledge. I need to perhaps get some sticky notes going about which books belong to which people. This book's cover has 2 interesting things on it to draw a reader in; a black and white photograph of a serious freckled girl in a straw hat looking older than her years, and a John Newberry Medal imprint. If you don't know, the Newberry is an award given out once a year to the best contribution to American children's literature. When I was in 5th grade and we had a read-a-thon at school (I raised the most money and read the most books doing so) I think I must have read 20-30 Newberry books as part of the challenge. They range in style and content like any good chunk of award-winning literature does; there are some simple picture books and some young adult novels... you get the idea. I was very drawn to the book becaue of the Newberry medal, and because it looked like a pretty serious book for a children's book, in part because of the photograph. So... Out of the Dust is the story of a young girl in (I think) Oklahoma during the mid 1930s dust bowl era. She plays the piano and lives on a farm with her parents, who are struggling to keep plants in the ground. Tragedy strikes them from all directions -- the weather, bad luck, death, wind, dust, loss of hope. She runs away at one point, but comes back home, because it is home. The wonderful thing about this book though is not the story (although I really liked the story and stayed up past my bedtime finishing this admittedly quick read) but the fact that it is told in poems. The poems of our pre-teen narrator as she witnesses or causes these tragedies, responds to and grows from them, are in a lovely and genuine voice. It made my night, reading this book. It isn't strictly very poetic - no rhyming, no formal structure - but it is the crystallized and condensed vision and voice of a girl in a rough place in tough times, and the poems' short lines and simple language are more powerful than prose might have been. I really liked this book!
SOPHIE'S CHOICE
So I finally watched the movie version of the book. I love Kevin Kline. I love Meryl Streep. Peter Nichols is good too; I like him fine. Meryl was amazingly beautiful in this film, but beyond that what I liked about the movie was how close it stayed to the book; there were some characters left out, and a few details that I found important or significant in the book were missing, but I didn't miss them. It was true to the story, and heartbreaking. In some ways, Sophie and Nathan felt a little too sympathetic in the movie because of these oversimplifications; in the book you really got to see their flaws much more clearly, and it made your sympathy for them and for Stingo the narrator more acute in a way, but it was powerfully acted, and I'm glad I can cross that one off my list too.
This book was loaned to me by a friend, along with several other books with a slight or major African theme. It is a story about a refugee from South Africa who ends up in a small village in Botswana. The writer, Bessie Head, is one of Botswana's most famous writers, and she too was born and educated in South Africa before leaving for Botswana like her protagonist. I loved this book. The politics, the setting, the skepticism towards outsiders and the welcome of guests of village life in southern Africa were all lovingly portrayed; it made me very nostalgic for Malawi. The story was about a man who didn't want to get involved, but couldn't help being involved; in development, in politics, in issues of race and class, and in love with the other characters, but without any heavy-handedness. It was simply and eloquently told; I really enjoyed this book.
LONGITUDE by Dava Sobel
This is about the history of navigation and the discovery of a practical method for determination of longitude at sea, which was a feat that the British government rewarded (many years late) with a fortune in money and recognition through their Longitude Prize. The leading intellectuals of the 1600 and 1700s are mentioned in the book; Newton, Huygens, Hooke... but the man who solved the problem was a clock maker named Harrison who had no formal training or apprenticeship; just a clever imagination and some serious engineering skills. He built 4 clocks over his lifetime that solved the problem in almost unique ways, and his son finally did claim the prize after his death. As a science nerd, this book has been on my list for a long time and I'm glad to finally check it off. It is non-fiction, but the drama around this particular topic was real and sustained across the intellectual world for more than a century... good reading.
OUT OF THE DUST by Karen Hesse
This book was in the pile that I thought I had made from my friend Misha (including When Rain Clouds Gather) but when I thanked him for lending it to me, he disclaimed any knowledge. I need to perhaps get some sticky notes going about which books belong to which people. This book's cover has 2 interesting things on it to draw a reader in; a black and white photograph of a serious freckled girl in a straw hat looking older than her years, and a John Newberry Medal imprint. If you don't know, the Newberry is an award given out once a year to the best contribution to American children's literature. When I was in 5th grade and we had a read-a-thon at school (I raised the most money and read the most books doing so) I think I must have read 20-30 Newberry books as part of the challenge. They range in style and content like any good chunk of award-winning literature does; there are some simple picture books and some young adult novels... you get the idea. I was very drawn to the book becaue of the Newberry medal, and because it looked like a pretty serious book for a children's book, in part because of the photograph. So... Out of the Dust is the story of a young girl in (I think) Oklahoma during the mid 1930s dust bowl era. She plays the piano and lives on a farm with her parents, who are struggling to keep plants in the ground. Tragedy strikes them from all directions -- the weather, bad luck, death, wind, dust, loss of hope. She runs away at one point, but comes back home, because it is home. The wonderful thing about this book though is not the story (although I really liked the story and stayed up past my bedtime finishing this admittedly quick read) but the fact that it is told in poems. The poems of our pre-teen narrator as she witnesses or causes these tragedies, responds to and grows from them, are in a lovely and genuine voice. It made my night, reading this book. It isn't strictly very poetic - no rhyming, no formal structure - but it is the crystallized and condensed vision and voice of a girl in a rough place in tough times, and the poems' short lines and simple language are more powerful than prose might have been. I really liked this book!
SOPHIE'S CHOICE
So I finally watched the movie version of the book. I love Kevin Kline. I love Meryl Streep. Peter Nichols is good too; I like him fine. Meryl was amazingly beautiful in this film, but beyond that what I liked about the movie was how close it stayed to the book; there were some characters left out, and a few details that I found important or significant in the book were missing, but I didn't miss them. It was true to the story, and heartbreaking. In some ways, Sophie and Nathan felt a little too sympathetic in the movie because of these oversimplifications; in the book you really got to see their flaws much more clearly, and it made your sympathy for them and for Stingo the narrator more acute in a way, but it was powerfully acted, and I'm glad I can cross that one off my list too.
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