Going back to school has been the best thing ever for my reading habits. How long has it been since I've read three books in a month? I've even started another one. It has, however, seemingly slowed my movie watching.
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009): Who cleaned up the mess at the Smithsonian after Ben Stiller left? That's what I want to know. It was cute enough. What you expect from this movie and the sequel. I wish, though, that they'd refrained from the girl-who-looks-like-Amelia thing at the end.
Kung Fu Hustle (2004): I don't know that I love much more in a movie than Asian gangsters dancing in formation. Seriously. Anyway, I'd seen this one before but J had not. Fun, funny, and lots of kung-fu. The only thing that would make it better might be an animated dancing animal and a Johnny Depp, Steve Carell, and Paul Rudd dance-off. Ha! I made myself giggle just typing that. Strange how all of their last names end with double consonants . . .
(500) Days of Summer (2009): Cute! And, yes, there's a dance scene and I loved it. I could have done without "Autumn" as a name but the rest was an actually interesting non-linear narrative about love. Easy to do in print, hard to do on film.
Me without You (2001): Maybe I'm callous but I don't put up with clingy crazy people. Rachel Getting Married made my skin crawl and so did this movie. It's well acted and all but, ohmygod, I wanted to kill Anna Friel's character by the end and TOTALLY don't get the very end but I won't spoil it. Anyway, so this one is about Michelle Williams and Anna Friel growing up in England in the 70s and 80s. It takes us from their childhood through marriage and babies. Williams is the sane down to earth one and Friel is a manipulative selfish bitch. I'd have ditched Ann Friel looooooooooong before Michelle Williams even really has it out with her.
Sleepy Hollow (1999): No, my Johnny Depp fan card is not being revoked, I've seen this one a million times before. I know a lot of people thought it was crap but I love it and think it's really a gorgeous movie.
Julie and Julia (2009): Mmmmmm. Made me want to cook all of the recipes in the book, too. Then I came to my senses and had a cookie. Julia would have approved. It had real butter. Cute movie. Great cast. Wonderful construction of plot.
Point Break (1991): I'd not seen this one but we watched it because, well, I don't really know. I think it had something to do with Hurt Locker (same director). Anyway, dude, it's a little too 1991 for 1991.
The International (2009): What? No. No. No.
Point Omega by Don DeLillo (2010): Yes, I'm a massive geek and bought this the day it came out. That's actually progress. I had Falling Man before it was released. There are mixed reviews but I think it's brilliant. And, no, I don't like all DeLillo--I'm still dreading a return to Americana--and, no, I'm not an apologist for his more recent slimmer books--The Names is my favorite. But this book is good and accomplishes a lot in so few pages. I might have to go reread it now.
The Girl with the Glass Feet by Ali Shaw (2009, first US edition 2010): I picked this one up because it had an interesting title and was fairy-tale-y. It's not terrible by any means but it's disappointing when, while reading the book, you can think of ways to improve it. The end still struck me so I was engaged in it and I liked the characters and the plot and the bigger ideas but, goodness, what a brilliant book it could have been.
Lowboy by John Wray (2009): It's taken me forever and a damned day to get my hands on this book. Everyone loved it and fawned over it and the Rooster has it in it's tournament. I don't know why but every bookstore was perpetually sold out, the paperback is delayed, and even online bookstores had it back-ordered. I finally got a used copy and read it. Eh. Again, it's not bad. It's actually pretty good, especially considering the first person narrator for quite a few of the chapters is a schizophrenic having various episodes. My trouble is with what I can only assume is the "twist." There is a fact given at a later point in the novel that a main character seems to regard as revelatory. I won't spoil it but it's not revelatory. It's not even interesting. I didn't have it figured out but the knowledge of that fact changes nothing, makes nothing more clear, and adds no further dimension to the novel. Yet, the novel clearly starts the denouement after that revelation. If J. hadn't been asleep beside me, I might have actually proclaimed "THAT'S the climax?!" It's kind of like the novel spends a lot of time picking individual threads out of a tapestry, gets a good mess going, finds one nondescript thread and says "a-ha!," and then quickly puts them all back perfectly in a third of the time it took to take them out. Again, it wasn't bad but that irked me and kind of cheapened reading the book.
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