The Secret of Kells (2009)

I *REALLY* want to call this movie The Book of Kells. If you don't know why--Google people!

J and I saw this at a new-to-us theatre so that was interesting. Also interesting was the audience member who had to be called out so she'd be quiet--she was especially vocal during the Babies preview. Luckily, she shut up once told to.

I don't know how much this will make sense to anyone who isn't in her/his early thirties or anyone who didn't watch a lot of cartoon movies on tv in the 80s and 90s but Secret of Kells felt like a tv cartoon movie to me. And I can't quite expand on that. It's not Pixar or Disney or any other contemporary animated movie making look.

The animation is beautiful and simple and sweet as is the story. I loved the incorporation of the images from the Book of Kells and only wish those intricacies had been used more. Of course, the whole thing made me wish I could go back to Ireland asap. Worth seeing but expect a quiet movie instead of a flashy one.

Alice in Wonderland (2010)

To be a "new" Alice, this one felt remarkably traditional to me--not that that's a bad thing. J. and I saw it at Disney's El Capitan so we were treated to large painted roses in the balcony and a musical intro complete with tissue rose petal confetti --but that's about it which is kind of disappointing for El Capitan and their decorating capabilities. Regardless, the movie was largely enjoyable. I'm a huge Johnny fan (who in her right mind isn't?) and I love when he just dives in wholeheartedly and becomes a character. That said, there were lines that went completely over my head because I couldn't understand his accent/lisp/quick delivery. Everyone else was good but none perhaps remarkable. I liked Anne Hathaway's Queen but I also liked Enchanted. What I didn't like was the end--you'll notice a trend here, readers, in that I frequently have problems with endings. The end frame felt forced and too hoo-rah-wo-man! But, I'll forgive it that I suppose. This was not Burton's crowning glory--nor any of the other actors' (especially with Bonham Carter and Depp having been in the much much better Sweeney Todd with Burton's direction recently)--but it was a good enough movie. And, being at El Capitan, we got to see some of the props and costumes in the basement of the theatre which is always cool.

We're Going Live, People!!

In about a week I'm taking it public . . . scary ;)

In the meantime I'll catch up and blog about a loooooooong list of movies and books I've failed to write about thus far:

1. Alice in Wonderland (2010)

2. The Secret of Kells (2009)

3. An Education (2009)

4. Date Night (2010)

5. A Single Man (2009)

6. Religulous (2008)

7. Kick Ass (2o10)

8. Duplicity (2009)

9. Transsiberian (2008)

10. Mata Hari (1931)

11. The Keep by Jennifer Egan (2006)

12. Fame (2009)

13. Robin Hood (2010)

14. Iron Man 2 (2010)

15. Shrek Ever After (2010)

16. Killers (2010)

17. Day for Night by Frederick Reiken (2010)

18. A-Team (2010)

19. Citrus County by John Brandon (2010) AND the Rumpus Book Club

20. RocknRolla (2008)

21. Oscar and Lucinda (1997)

22. Man on Wire (2008)

8 movies and 1 book

Lots of Oscar nods here due to the post-nod pre-show catching up.

Crazy Heart (2009): Love Bridges. Am ok with Gyllenhall although I wonder how she manages to never really wear a bra in a movie. Strangely love Colin Ferrell with his ponytail. Do not love the breezy in and out of rehab magically cured of a lifetime of alcoholism. Love the music.

The Hurt Locker (2008): Strong apolitical (as much as anything can be apolitical) movie about the war without looking wishy-washy about the war. Renner did a great job as did the other actors. And, what? Colin Firth is in the movie? How do the Colins keep surprising me in movies?

Inglorious Basterds (2009): This is my favorite of the Best Pictures which is surprising as I'm not a Tarantino devotee--I like about every other one of his I see. I loved loved loved the Nazi. Loved the unapologetic yes we changed history and blew up Hitler ending. Loved Pitt's accent. Love love love.

Up (2009): How do I manage to go into movies without a clue sometimes? I didn't know she died! Ugh. The movie is super cute and I am in love with Doug--squirrel!--and it's actually one of the most complete of the Best Pic nods.

Wolfman (2010): What? Seriously? No. No. No.

A Serious Man (2009): I want a whole movie about Clive. Seriously. Right now. I liked this one a lot and thought it very funny but I don't really like the ending (surprised?). I don't like super neat thread every needle endings but I certainly don't like the leave it wide open to a tornado ending either.

Couples Retreat (2009): Cute but preachy relationship crap sometimes.

Gladiator (2000): Nope. Still don't like it.

The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry (2008): Oh. How I want to like this book. I really really do. But I don't. I just don't. I can't like a book when I so obviously figure out the ending and I'm right but the author tries to make it right with contrivances. Sigh. It's a decent book and I like the idea. I enjoyed reading it a lot until I got that *whack* this is what the end is going to be dread and then it was just the wait for the inevitable to happen.

8 movies and 3 (!) books

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.

1. Avatar (2009): I was not impressed. With so much hype preceding the opening and then the fervor following the opening, there was no possible way the movie was that good. No movie is THAT good. The problem here is that the movie is not good at all and it's made worse because everyone seems to think it's so wonderful and ground breaking and new. It's just not.
a. Blue people are not original. See 1980s cartoons.
b. Cat people are not original. See 1980s cartoons.
c. Earth Mother stories are not new. See the history of mythology and literature.
d. There was no need to relive Titanic through the music. Seriously, adding a few "nature" noises doesn't make it new and it only serves to remind the audience (me at least) about that other annoying James Cameron movie. Try reminding us of the good James Cameron movies (and, no, Sigourney Weaver is not enough).
e. The visuals aren't enough. Sorry. They aren't. They're cool for the first, oh, half hour. The nighttime glow-y forest scene is gorgeous. The rest is just the same.
f. If you're going to use 3-D, use 3-D. This movie really did nothing with it and it's annoying to sit with those glasses for 3 hours.
g. Get your actor (and I mean you, Sam Worthington) to get control of his accent. He really had very little face time on screen so there is absolutely no reason an American jar-head character should have a little Australian accent here and a little British there and a little British trying to be Southern over there and a newscaster midwestern accent everywhere else.
h. "I see you" is only poignant if you don't use it to say "hello."
i. This isn't a movie about everyone coming together to save the natural world. This is about blue people killing human people (while both destroy the natural world, I might add) in order to salvage the natural world. I'm not saying the blue people shouldn't have fought but they (and the audience) can't maintain the self-righteous "we're saving the world" attitude. Blue people blew up shit, too.
j. If you're going to have the human-brain-synapse-like network of nature do something cool to save the world, have it do something cool. Having the animals bend to the will of the blue people is not cool.
k. Don't kill off all of the good human women while saving all of the good human men. Not cool.
l. Have an interesting story. I shouldn't know what's going to happen in the first ten minutes.
m. The villain has to at least be sort of maybe kind of morally ambiguous.
n. That's all I can think of right now but I'm sure the points fill the rest of the alphabet and back around at least once more.

2. Book of Eli (2010): This movie actually managed to be all about The Bible without making me want to shoot myself. While I'd prefer it be about a different book, I very much appreciate the poetry of the end. Denzel Washington surprised me pleasantly and Gary Oldman is always a fun villain. I would have liked a little less let's-keep-everything-secret tension in the beginning but they did manage to roll out the twists and secret info with good timing and in line with the story and characters. Entirely watchable.

3. Australia (2008): Sigh. I love Baz Luhrmann but this was a misstep. It's over-long, over-dramatic, and under-edited. It feels like it's full 165 minutes times 2 and some of the acting is a little over the top but the story and feel of the movie doesn't support that melodrama the way Luhrmann's other movies would. The trouble is that it's an interesting story that could really pull the viewer in but it's just too long and desperately needs to be condensed.

4. Geisha, A Life by Mineko Iwasaki (2002; translated by Randa Brown): This is the memoir by the geisha who provided Arthur Golden the inside information for his novel Memoirs of a Geisha (1997) and who he later had to pay an undisclosed settlement for breach of contract when he included her in his acknowledgments. I'm not a huge memoir fan just because I'm much more used to a novelist and his/her art. I often find memoirs lacking in art. And that holds true for this book as well. It lacks a certain structure that might have helped the story-telling. But, it is an interesting look inside the geisha life. I appreciated and liked the first-hand story and was intrigued by the connections and disconnects between her story and Golden's. I found her persistent insistence that geisha are not courtesans or prostitutes a bit too "the lady doth protest too much." She could and should have shown instead of stomping her feet and insisting. And she actually did show that she was not engaged sexually with her clients (save one with whom she had a separate personal relationship) so she could have left it at that. Golden's book is fiction and smart people can distinguish between fact and fiction. I loved her descriptions of everything (especially the kimono and obi) and found the story engaging and found myself wanting to know more about her life post-geisha when I finished the book. I read it in only a handful of sittings and would readily teach it in conjunction with Golden's novel and the film.

About the translation: Are all Japanese to English books so clunky? All of those I've read are and it's disappointing.

17 Movies and 1 Book

I'm making these quick-quick since I'm behind so very far and want to be caught up asap. 1-13 are from 2009. 14-18 are from 2010 (well, the McEwan was begun in 2008, I think--sad state of my reading affairs).

1. Away We Go (2009): Smug. Smug. Smug. And some more smug. Piled up on a whole lot of smug.

2. Funny Face (1957): Eh. Fine and I understand why Streisand was praised and whatnot but boring and long.

3. The Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933): A J. pick. Odd.

4. W. (2008): Frightening that we let this man run the country. Kudos to Josh Brolin.

5. Paris Blues (1961): Love me some Paul Newman. Wish this movie were more cohesive.

6. The Duchess (2008): Eh. Not the movie it could have been and not the movie it should have been. I don't want to watch a movie of this marriage.

7. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948): Another J. pick. Eh. Not very interesting.

8. The Edge of Love (2008): A strange little movie with a lot of pretty people. Could have been better but wasn't completely terrible.

9. Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009): Completely acceptable fluff. Except that they dropped the Leslie Bibb as villain thing before it played out.

10. The White Countess (2005): Loooooooooong. There are much better movies about China during the war.

11. Last Chance Harvey (2008): Sad little movie. Not teary sad either.

12. Sherlock Holmes (2009): Could have been more but is very very very good.

13. Brick (2005): Good, solid movie with an interesting grasp on language.

14. Up in the Air (2009): One of the best crying scenes ever. And, beyond that, an excellent movie with excellent performances. The end needed to be rearranged a bit but I'll get over it.

15. Igor (2008): Yuck.

16. Atonement by Ian McEwan (2001): McEwan may be a genius. The book is beyond beautiful. I still loathe Briony with every bit of my being and my hopes that the ending to the book would be drastically different than the movie were dashed but I have to give it to McEwan: that's true to her character and he made me hate her.

17. It's Complicated (2009): Wonderful. I can't even pick my favorite thing. Everyone is brilliant in it (little Office guy almost steals it). The story is solid. It's hilarious and poignant and blah blah blah everything I want a comedy to be.

18. Body of Lies (2008): Hmpf. I'm still waiting on a good post-9/11 terrorism movie. You know, the one without the pounding over the head about everyone being culpable. Subtlety people! That said, DiCaprio and Crowe are excellent in it.