daasgrrl

Wow, long time no... anything. It's been a hell of a year, is all I'm going to say. Nevertheless, movies and shows have still been watched, so I'll stick to those.

January

Downsizing - they had me at the trailer, with Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig deciding to solve all their financial woes by literally "downsizing" to six inches tall, where they can have a luxurious lifestyle at a fraction of the cost. The trailer pretty much leaves it there, giving the impression that it's about some kind of ultimate lifestyle change and its repercussions, like those people who decide to be global nomads or live in tiny houses or some such. But after the initial set-up it takes a hard left into darker issues - hardcore environmental groups who want everyone to downsize to save the planet, middlemen who make their fortunes by converting "large" products for the smaller world, and despotic governments who see downsizing troublemakers involuntarily as a neat solution to their problems. They also hint at the uglier side of "regular" downsizing - where everyone lives like a king, where do you get the underclass to clean the houses and do the thankless service jobs? In short, it was a lot more complicated than the whimsical comedy it appeared to be on the surface. I don't think it quite reached the heights it was aiming for - it was too lightly filmed for that, and the premise is intrinsically a bit smile-inducing - but it did have interesting ideas that went a lot further than, "hey, what if we could shrink people"?

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - I enjoyed this a lot, probably more than I should have. Nuanced, self-contradictory characters shouldn't really be a big deal but I guess it says a lot about typical Hollywood movies that they seemed to be much more interesting than average. Of all the Academy Award nominees for Best Picture that I actually saw, I would have given it to this one.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle - I like Jack Black a lot, and the Rock is fun, don't judge me. Did pretty much exactly what I expected, neither more or less. Which was to deliver light, fluffy entertainment with a feel-good ending.

February

I, Tonya - I remember the attack on Kerrigan when it happened, and the redneck vs princess boxes Harding and Kerrigan were put into at the time, which were apparently not completely true. I only have a passing interest in figure skating, and I know the movie is meant to be overly sympathetic to Harding, but I really enjoyed it as a "based on a true story" piece. Margot Robbie did a great job, and it was thoroughly compelling. I think it says something about the sheltered life I've led that I still find it shocking that any objectively successful, talented woman would fall into and continue a relationship that involved domestic abuse. Intellectually, I get that people can be weak in some places and strong in others, and that abusers are often manipulators, but I don't emotionally comprehend it (which I realise I should be grateful for). And I'm sure she gave some of her own back as well, but in the movie it bothered me almost as much as the attack.

Welcome to Night Vale: All Hail (live show, Sydney Opera House) - I've only listened to a handful of Night Vale shows, and read the transcripts of maybe 20-odd more, but the show has such a cult following I thought it'd be fun. Judging from the reaction of the fans, it was a great show for them. Whereas I thought it resembled a university revue that had been put together over a drunken weekend - that's actually unfair, I've seen some very clever university revues. But here there was far too much made of far too little substance. I did enjoy the skit with one of the writers that involved a complex rumination about time travel and avoidance of responsibility, but otherwise there was little memorable about it, and there were some small technical and vocal hitches that made the show feel like what there was of it hadn't even been properly rehearsed. It's nice that the true fans enjoyed it (and they were there, in cosplay and everything), but never again

Follies (NT Live) - Philip Quast and Imelda Staunton OMG. The catch being, of course, that this level of casting naturally raises expectations high, inviting subsequent disappointment. I'm very pleased to say that did not happen. Now, I'm not a big fan of this show as such (knew many of the songs quite well, but have never seen it performed) but it was brilliant, moving, all the superlatives. For anyone unfamiliar with the story, it's notionally about the reunion of the "Weismann Girls" (revue/burlesque performers) in a crumbling theatre, remnants of a former glorious age. It's a general tribute to the era intertwined with the stories of two couples who attend the reunion - Phyllis and Ben, Sally and Buddy. Structurally I found much of the first half a bit of a random walk through past and present, spiced with nostalgic side trips, and it seemed as though it would continue that way pleasantly enough throughout, but then everything suddenly snapped together like a bear trap covered in feathers and it hurt. Ouch and yes, and I think I'm finally old enough to appreciate this show for what it says about life, love and relationships. And again, ouch.

March

The Shape of Water - Hmm. This contained so many of my favourite things - a world dominated by water and the colour green, beautifully shot, and about misfits and outsiders struggling in an enviroment not made for them. And I did enjoy it, very much, but it didn't speak to me as much as I thought and/or hoped it would. I know it was meant to have a fairytale quality, but it felt too pat, too overdetermined for something that also attempted to mimic a certain level of realism. I also thought there were too many loose threads and underdeveloped characters for it to be truly gripping. I don't know. As I say, very much enjoyed, many beautiful moments, but still not really for me. It would be difficult to ever match Pan's Labyrinth, but even Crimson Peak appealed to my personal kinks so much more.

In the Heights (Hayes Theatre) - I was a bit dubious about an Australian production of this show, much less a relatively low-budget version in a tiny theatre, but they pulled it off admirably. Sydney has an incredibly diverse population, and while not all of the cast were of Hispanic descent, most of them were, and the remaining cast were at least non-Anglo. Result being a lot of very talented people I'd never seen on stage before (or at least not in featured roles). American-infused accents were fine to my ear - probably easier to pull off while singing and rapping, and given the setting the small theatre and set rather worked in the show's favour than against it. As a musical I thought the lyrics ranged from "omg brilliant" to "if you say ninety-six thousand one more time I WILL SCREAM" but the music and sheer energy held it all together. Absolutely fantastic production of an imperfect, but authentic, brash and passionate musical. Particularly enjoyed Ryan Gonzales (Uznavi), Tim Omaji (Benny), Monique Montez (Daniela) and Ana Maria Belo (Camila). (I just discovered from googling the cast names that Belo is also deaf and uses hearing aids. She was fantastic - I did notice her voice was very slightly unusual, but would never have known.) Glad that I got to see a version of this, even if it's a long way from home. I felt that it wasn't a musical "for me" as such - I think LMM's tribe would have been thrilled with it and understood it on a level I never will - but it was still very accessible and universal in its themes.

And that's mostly it. Oh, and I also read Aciman's Call Me By Your Name just for the sake of it, the same way I shouldered my way through Twilight just to make sure I wasn't secretly missing something really amazing (in the case of Twilight: I wasn't). It was a rough start - I actually deserted it mid-way through in favour of reading Helter-Skelter, a creepy but fascinating account of the Manson murders - but managed to circle back before it was due back at the library. And surprisingly, I did find some of it quite good and worthwhile, just not the bits I was expecting. The setup of the love story was - for me - every bit as lacking in conviction as in the movie. It feels very much about the summer Elio falls in love with himself - for all the supposed passion, I still got a "told, not shown" vibe about it. It just didn't leave me convinced of the attraction from Elio's point of view or from Oliver's. Like the movie, Elio's relationship with Marzia feels much more authentic, and it's not like I have any preference for hetero couples. So that left me completely cold, no surprise there. However I did enjoy some parts very much - which were all pretty much glossed over or left out in the film. I thought the character of Vimini - the child dying of leukemia who Oliver befriends - was essential to the themes of the book and think it would have added so much if she had been included, in tandem with a much more lengthy and complex ending than "Oliver leaves and announces he's getting married". Then it wouldn't have been so much a rather uninspiring love story as a meditation on choices made and not made, and lives lived and not lived - hinted at in Elio's father's speech, but imo without Vimini never fully realised in the movie. Another part that was magical was Elio's night in Rome, caught up in the sweep of adulthood as in one endless night he follows along from book-signing to restaurant to bar, and through the streets of Rome. Oliver was really only incidental to this part, but I felt that Aciman captured the sharp thrill of a post-adolescent world suddenly opening up in all directions. The third thing that surprised me in a good way was that Elio and Oliver do meet again, over and over, and both move on in their own ways - but for Elio especially, part of him still seems "trapped" in that time, never to move on, much like Vimini, who never makes it to adulthood. Thematically, I liked those ideas very much and felt they gave the book a balance and depth which I found lacking in the movie. So I do give the novel a grudging nod of appreciation for the last two chapters, but I sadly still do not give a damn about the "love story" that was the main feature of the movie.

I have been in the absolute filthiest mood lately - on the face of it, there's nothing to really justify it, but nevertheless. I blame hormones. Or the weather. Or something.

But hey, Thor: Ragnarok was fun! :D Bearing in mind that I am not intrinsically a Marvel fan, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I adored that it had a Kiwi director, and some of the humour had a very Australasian feel to it - I know in the broader sense funny is funny, but there's still a distinctive cultural element to it. It was also a joy seeing so many Aussies and Kiwis in a major movie (plus of course, Hiddles and Cumberbatch).

( Random comments )

Anyway, fantastic cast (including Taika himself) and fun movie. Didn't even think of falling asleep.

Other things I've watched lately:

Kingsman: The Golden Circle - really enjoyed this, in some ways more than the first one. Julianne Moore was a delightful villain, and was great to see some familiar faces. I was worried this might be too "American" given its theme, but I thought it stayed true to its origins, and picked up all the existing plot threads - even minor ones - in a a very satisfying way.

LEGO Ninjago movie - hmm, having trouble remembering much about this one, but it was good for what it was. Lloyd and his group of mates are Ninjago warriors who must battle the evil Garmadon... who also happens to be Lloyd's dad. Bummer. I vaguely remember it being fun, and very much enjoyed the framing story featuring Jackie Chan (and his cat).

I am Not Your Negro - documentary on an unfinished project by James Baldwin about major figures in the civil rights struggle - Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and Medgar Evers (who I'd never heard of). Obviously to me this is far less personal than it would be to Americans, especially African-Americans, but I found it very interesting and quite a startling reminder that segregation really wasn't that long ago. I was particularly struck by the young girl going to a "white school" for the first time, head held high, surrounded by police/guards, while white adults screamed abuse and spat at her. How low do you have to be to do that to a child? Anyway, I mainly went to see it because one of James Baldwin's short stories was in my English syllabus ("Previous Condition"), which I really liked.

Miracle City (Nick Enright, Max Lambert)- an unusual Australian musical, mainly because it's about a "day in the life" of an American televangelical family. It's true that when I was a kid, we did get a lot of the American "praise the lord" stuff in the early hours of the morning, so it's not unfamiliar to a generation of Australians. Anyway, Miracle City pretty much takes place over one episode of Reverend Truswell and his family's long-running TV show. This week they have a very special guest in the form of ageing-but-influential Reverend Sizemore, who they are honoured to have on. The Truswells are a picture-perfect Christian family - Ricky Truswell is charismatic and charming, as is his lovely "platinum blonde" wife, Lora Lee. They have two devout and equally attractive children in Loretta (sweet sixteen) and Billy Bob. The family's dream is to open their Christian theme park - Miracle City - but they're running dangerously low on funds. Reverend Sizemore offers to save their foundering dream - if he can have the hand of their teenage daughter in marriage.

Nick Enright is a beloved Australian playwright, and the story didn't disappoint - I really liked that for all intents and purposes the musical seems like it's going to be about one thing, but ends up being about something completely different. The music was not particularly memorable, but on-point and entertaining, and the cast was great. Well worth seeing.

Currently reading Sleeping Beauties by Stephen and Owen King. Not sure what to make of it yet - it's epic, and entertaining, but I'm not yet entirely on board.

Lazy. And busy. Mostly lazy. But a quick run-down of stuff, some six weeks old now:

Mr Burns, a Post-Electric Play (Anne Washburn) - Belvoir Theatre

Some unnamed apocalypse has devastated the earth, and the survivors attempt to reconstruct popular culture, one group beginning with the Simpsons episode "Cape Feare". (If you're a Simpsons fan, you will recall this as the one where Sideshow Bob escapes from prison, kidnaps Bart, trips over a few rakes, and sails down the river giving a lone rendition of the entire score of HMS Pinafore - I loved it.). A few years later, travelling reconstructions of various Simpsons episodes (presumably together with other shows and plays) tour the countryside, exchanging "repertoire" in the form of episodes and remembered lines, all jealously guarded. A hundred years on, the reclaimed scraps of popular culture have morphed into some bizarre quasi-religious performance.

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Dream Empire - Sydney Film Festival

This was a documentary about the rise and fall of the Chinese real estate dream, told through the story of Yana, a girl from the countryside who came to Chongqing hoping to make something of herself and send money home to her impoverished parents. She finds a job in the promotion machine for new apartment sales, which are grand events featuring performing foreigners - "singers", "musicians", "models", "dancers" - to show how progressive and cosmopolitan the apartments are. Yana's job is basically to go around to pubs and recruit as many white (and black) people as she can, train them to put on a show of some kind, and "sell" their performances to real estate developers. These are known to said foreigners as "white monkey shows", and the documentary itself was made by one of the "white monkeys", a Danish guy called David Borenstein (also a passable saxophone player). The performances are pretty dismal - in some cases, hilariously terrible - but do their job in helping sell the apartments. But since many of the apartments are in the middle of nowhere, with no infrastructure and no jobs nearby, the boom can't last forever...

It was a film that touched on so many interesting things - the rapid growth of China, urban migration, the sheer overweening ambition of real estate developers, ghost cities, the status of women in China, naivety and exploitation, and a mirror-world where white people only exist as promotional gimmicks. Disturbing, but fascinating.

Liberation Day - Sydney Film Festival

In 2015, ex-Yugoslavian band Laibach (the Guardian describes them as "art-rock", so I'll go with that) were somehow invited to perform in North Korea, making them the first "Western" band to do so. The result is a mix of travelogue, music documentary, and satire, only it's difficult to be sure where one ends and another begins. Laibach appear to have made their name in populating their songs and cover versions with extreme facist imagery, but with the aim of subversion, not promotion. However, it's difficult to know exactly how the North Koreans perceive them, or why they chose them to come. Wildly entertaining and very, very strange.

Laibach's version of "Do-Re-Mi" (apparently The Sound of Music is big in North Korea, so part of their performance included a medley) is enough to give any child nightmares. But their English rendition of "Mt Paektu" is great, with the lead singer's growling bass declaring, "We’ll go in springtime / we’ll go in winter too / we'll go in our dreams /we’ll go at any time. We’ll go for a lifetime /we'll continue going through generations" giving it a thoroughly menacing edge. (Mt. Paektu is a sacred site in North Korea, being the alleged birthplace of Kim Jong-Il (it's not); the original version of the song is super-bubbly and upbeat, like a children's show.)

God's Own Country - Sydney Film Festival

Marketed as a British Brokeback Mountain, but really nothing of the kind. A romance between a lonely Yorkshire sheep farmer (don't laugh) and a Romanian labourer who comes to work for him. I liked it well enough, but I have to say that I noticed that it was one of those films where the pathetic grumpy racist white English Johnny's journey is all that matters, and the gorgeous and capable Gheorghe, who outclasses him in every way apart from "not being English", exists only to guide Johnny along the path to self-actualisation without having a significant or meaningful story of his own. Maybe I should give it a pass because it's a gay film, but I can't, sorry. Despite the tragic gay trope, if we're comparing, I'd still say Brokeback Mountain was the better film.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead - NT Live screening

Starring Joshua McGuire as Guildenstern and Daniel Radcliffe as Rosencrantz. I thoroughly enjoyed this without loving it to pieces. It's probably the best version I've seen, in terms of hitting most - not all - of the beats that I wanted it to hit, but still lacking something. McGuire was great, but Radcliffe was fine without having any particular energy to him. I'd like to pair McGuire's Guildenstern with Tim Minchin's Rosencrantz from the Sydney Theatre Company production a few years back - then there might be sparks. The Player King was good, but the rest of the cast were once again acting in different plays - the King, Gertrude, and Ophelia straight down the line, Hamlet subtly satirical, Polonius with a foot in both camps. I really enjoyed Hamlet's take once I warmed up to what he was doing, then realised during the credits he was played by Luke Mullins, who stole the show in Sydney Theatre Company's Waiting for Godot. And another one runs off to London *g*

Only Heaven Knows (Alex Harding) - Hayes Theatre

That rarest of creatures, a revival of a 1988 boy-meets-boy Australian musical. Set in the 1940s, it shows fresh-faced Tim leaving his disapproving aunt and uncle for the seedy glamour of Sydney's King's Cross (our red-light district and drug hub). There he settles in, finds a job, makes a few friends - supportive landlady Guinea, raging queen Lana, arch Alan - and takes a lover, Cliff (still illegal back then, of course). At first it's all parties and good times, but then darker questions emerge. Alan isn't sure he wants to be gay and dabbles in shock aversion therapy while Lana worries about him, and Tim wants to go to London to pursue his playwriting dream, while Cliff wants them to buy a house together and settle down. Guinea just wants everyone to pay their rent and be happy.

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Despicable Me 3

I have issues with these films, but I went anyway, lured by Trey Parker as 80s-throwback villain, Balthazar Bratt (think Rubik's cubes, bubble gum, lycra, and sweatbands). It was charming in parts, but I... still have issues with these films.

Like everyone else, I've pretty much made the transition to having DW as my main site now, but haven't quite got the hang of how to post from Semagic, so working on it. A couple of days ago I was also delighted to discover that mindstalk, who I don't actually know, had pulled my username randomly from the DW hat, so to speak, and gifted me a year's paid time in order to support DW. That was a lovely gesture, and so I suppose I'd better start using it. Thanks again to them :)

Finally got around to seeing Moonlight (um... several weeks ago now), another film I wanted to see before I knew it had been nominated for an Oscar - call me a sucker for a serious film featuring a gay black protagonist. I went in expecting at the very least to be pleased, given that it won Best Movie (...eventually) and everything. And then it finished, and I was all "...what?"

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Also went to see The Play That Goes Wrong, another production I'm pleased we stole from London's West End. The conceit is that we are watching a production of "A Murder at Haversham Manor", proudly brought to you by the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, not generally known for its high quality productions. But this year it'll be different! as the proud first-time director (and cast member) informs us. And just as you'd expect, everything that can go wrong, does.

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( Bonus weird metafannish associations )

Then saw The Lego Batman Movie today. Um, that was... weird. It was entertaining, certainly, and felt like the kind of thing I ought to have liked, but it was so OTT and fanservicey in so many ways (I could hear the hypothetical squee even while I was watching) that it left me kind of bemused. It felt post-post-modern, if that even makes sense, and if it doesn't, so be it. But it had that hyper-self-aware quality about it that goes another step beyond the intertextuality that's become standard fare nowadays. It not only referenced other Batman movies (as well as many others), but the entire culture and viewership and fandom surrounding those movies/comics/TV shows. I guess I just don't appreciate too much meta in my media in general, and there was so much meta. But then I also sometimes long for the days when the fourth wall was firmly in place. Old-fashioned, I know.

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I feel like I should think about Sherlock more, but a) I'm just not as invested as I used to be, even though I am still enjoying it and b) my brain is insisting that I deal with unfinished business first, which means writing about stuff I've seen so far this month. I'll keep it brief, since it's mostly for my own benefit anyway *g*

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

This is one I almost didn't see, since I'm not a big Harry Potter fan, and we kept putting it off for various reasons - too early, too late, too lazy, too crowded. But at the last possible moment we did go, and so glad I did, loved it! Way more than any of the Harry Potter movies, actually, although the shared universe of course contributes massively to both. I think I just prefer things with grown-ups doing stuff, and I also like Eddie Redmayne, so that helped. But I hadn't counted on so many aspects being delightful, not least of all the fantastic beasts in question - each of them incredibly interesting in its own way. It was visually spectacular in general, and while that's never enough to 'carry' a movie for me, in conjunction with the appealing characters and solidly entertaining story, I was pretty blown away. Even the costumes - I'm not a clothes person, I rarely notice clothes, but OMG the dresses. I loved, like, everything Queenie wore throughout. Lastly, the whole Graves/Credence subplot was so wonderfully gothic and dare I say it, kind of kinky *g*. Would probably not watch again, but would heartily recommend.

La La Land

I know, I know, critically acclaimed, bringing back old-fashioned musicals, destined to win all the awards, yada yada. Yeah, it was pretty and all, but left me completely cold. Like, I've walked out of exactly two movies in my life, and this was the second one, so I guess it was memorable in that respect. Usually I hang in there, because I enjoy the cinema experience, and I usually find something worth staying for, even if it's just "to find out what happens" but I couldn't seem to find anything or anyone to care about enough to hold onto. I do like J K Simmons, but he was only there for about two seconds.

The story concerns an aspiring starlet Mia (Emma Stone), who goes to Hollywood to Realise Her Dreams, and there meets jazz pianist Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) who hopes to one day open his own jazz club. There's a scene in the first hour or so where Mia is at a fancy restaurant with her current beau (a high-flying corporate type) and another couple, and the men are discussing global business prospects, and the other woman is gamely smiling and laughing along, and Mia is sitting there with a haunted, desperate look on her face. A few minutes later she makes some hurried excuses and flees, practically (or possibly literally - I can't remember) dancing her way down the street towards a date with Sebastian. She's freeeeee! I felt that scene. In fact, I related to that scene so much I couldn't help thinking how much happier I would be anywhere else but trapped in a theatre watching a film I couldn't care less about. I whispered to my mum that she should stay and I'd meet her afterwards, but as it turns out she wanted to leave too *g*

If you're the type of person who likes ye olde school Hollywood "tributes" like Hail, Caesar, or "romance", or "quality cinema", or are a fan of either of the leads, you should totally go. I... just. No. No. The highlight of the whole experience was seeing the trailer for Hidden Figures. I am so there *g*

Bowie in Berlin

Also saw a Bowie tribute show at the Enmore celebrating his Berlin period (1977-1979). The band were excellent, but the vocalists were generally... pretty bad. Like, Bowie wasn't generally noted for being a "good singer" in the traditional sense, but I genuinely love the sound of his voice, and the performance aspect, and that proved to be sorely missing here. Luckily, that period was fairly light on vocals anyway. Given the average age of the audience, I felt like I was attending a classical music concert, which in a sense, it was *g*.The most memorable highlight for me was watching the guy playing the theremin - I'd never seen one played live before, and he was amazing. It was also fascinating to see and hear how the instrument itself contributed to the distinctive sound of some of the songs of that period (notably, "Heroes").

Moana

It's Disney, so you pretty much know what you're going to get. Plucky Moana, daughter of the island's chief (accompanied by comic relief in the form of a clueless chicken), sets out on a quest to find demi-god Maui and force him to help her save her island. Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote some of the songs, which was a minor draw as well. Enjoyed it very much without finding it particularly notable - it hit all the right beats at all the right times, was beautiful to look at, and was amusing and heartwarming by turns. I also appreciated hearing the familiar Kiwi accents of Temuera Morrison and Jermaine Clement, which came as a pleasant surprise. And Auli'i Cravalho (Moana), who is apparently an unknown, is vocally stunning (in her purity and quality of tone, not in that showy diva way). I feel like I'm selling it short, but that's probably because it wasn't something that inspired incredible joy or loathing, more a kind of consistent mellow satisfaction, which is still a rare and valuable quality in a movie. Highly recommended.

Rogue One

Also not particularly a Star Wars fan, but went along for the ride, and came away pleased. splix totally ruined Mads Mikkelsen's appearance for me (just kidding *g*) with her assertion that he only had one expression. It's a lie, anyway. He has at least two. Possibly two and a half, even. LOL. And if any Sherlock fan resisted mentally telling "Anderson" he was lowering the IQ of the whole galaxy, then they have better thought control than I do. Anyway, I was dubious at the beginning, but the characters, the teamwork and the cranky droid won me over by the end, and I liked that the ending was much darker than the conventional action movie ending (canon probably has something to do with this, but I really don't know what restrictions there were on that part of the story, if any). The very last scene, which came as a complete surprise, hurt my heart just a little bit, Star Wars fan or no. But it was the perfect ending.

Throw in Sherlock, and it's been a busy couple of weeks :)

My Friend Totoro

Finally saw this on DVD, and all I really have to say is that it was charming. Two young girls move to the countryside with their father to be nearer the hospital where their sick mother currently resides. They quickly get to know their human neighbours... and their more magical ones, like Totoro. Miyazaki portrays children so accurately, it's uncanny. It did not have the same personal appeal to me as Spirited Away, The Wind Rises, or Ponyo, but it was still gorgeous in every way :D

White House Down

Saw this on DVD, mainly for James Woods, who I still like despite his political affiliations. Police officer John Cale (Channing Tatum - oh, so that's who Channing Tatum is) applies for a security position at the White House, but is refused on character grounds. He's brought his young daughter along for some convoluted reason and can't bear to disappoint her so tells her that he won't know the outcome for a little bit. Before they can leave, terrorists storm the White House and take hostages, including his daughter. It's up to Cale to Rescue The President (Jamie Foxx) and Save His Family. Can He Do It? Yeah, no prizes. I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to the movie (I was exercising), but it hit all the right notes, and had a satisfying resolution that was one notch above where it needed to be, which was nice. And as always I did enjoy James Woods (playing Walker, the head of the Secret Service), doing all the menacingly stern things he does best.

The Girl on the Train

I actually saw this a few days before Doctor Strange, but didn't feel it was fannish enough to justify a post on its own *g*. Read the book a little while ago, and enjoyed it for what it was, but I probably wouldn't have seen this except that I got a free pass for it. (I ordered a book of discount tickets a little while ago, which they decided not to bother sending me, and I had to chase them up. Then I received the pass in the mail a couple of days after I finally got the tickets, which was a nice gesture.)

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This forms the basis for what is basically a mystery combined with character studies of three women - Rachel, Anna, Megan - which I found unusual and very engaging, although perhaps it's just that I don't watch much in the genre (whatever it is). I felt very strongly that it was a "feminine" murder mystery, in the sense that it centered around character as much as plot, and also took a strong feminine perspective in the subjects and themes it was concerned with. But it wasn't what I'd call a "chick flick", either; it was a regular mystery with a different emphasis, where the resolution is every bit as much concerned with character development and the women's stories as "what happened". Which was an excellent combination, for me.

All the performances were solid, but Emily Blunt (Rachel) in particular was amazing as a woman slowly drowning in a bottle and trying desperately to drag herself out again. There was also surprise!Lisa Kudrow in it, which made me happy - as much as for her character as for the actress - and the glorious Alison Janney (CJ from The West Wing) as a suspicious cop. It's not something I would particularly want to watch again, but I do recommend it.

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I didn't realise America always votes on a Tuesday (and only because I saw John Oliver's video on the subject *g*). Wow, it sounds like an enormous PITA for those who work regular hours, on top of everything else. Good luck, guys :)

Wow, long time no update - still around, though, and reading lj. In the absence of studying, I seem to have taken up reading books again, which is nice :)

Theatre

Saw Liza's Back! (is Broken), which was a Minnelli tribute show by Trevor Ashley, star of the comedic revues Fat Swan and Little Orphan Tr(Ashley) (quickly renamed after the original title did not go down well). He's a good performer, and the other shows were great fun, but I was wondering whether a rather good Minnelli impersonation was enough to keep me entertained for almost two hours. The answer was no. There was a sizable band - maybe ten people or so - who added class and energy to the show, but this suffered from being a solo performance rather than an ensemble one, and didn't really have a story to speak of, just Ashley-as-Liza telling anecdotes from her past, and singing show tunes.

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Also saw the NT Live screening of Richard III with Ralph Fiennes (woo!) - I was so thrilled to at least get to see a filmed version of this. It was good, but not amazing - his performance in Man and Superman blew me away, but this was just another Shakespeare production, really. It may be that I have no great love for this play, or for the histories in general - the first time I saw it was actually the Cumberbatch version, so that's literally all I have to compare it to. The play itself has a handful of great moments, but it's one of those ones I still don't get all the fuss over. Anyway, Richard the III plots to become King of England, kills a few people, and succeeds. I do hope that wasn't a spoiler.

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Movies

Don't Breathe - weirdly enough, I saw this with my mum, who likes thrillers, but had no one to go with, so I thought it'd be fun. Within about thirty seconds of the movie starting I suddenly remembered why I don't usually see this kind of thing, and ended up shutting my eyes a lot of the time and watching a great deal of the rest of it from behind my fingers. My mum was perfectly fine, by the way.

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Books

Presto! (Penn Jilette) - I bought this one through iTunes - couldn't find it at the library, and I didn't think it was one I needed a physical copy of. I'm a big fan of Penn and Teller, but I don't quite know whether I like Jilette or not - he's kind of an asshole, but an entertaining asshole? I don't know. I do totally relate to the jumpy, slightly defensive way he talks/writes, though, like he knows you're judging him, and he wants you to know he knows - I feel like that when I write opinion posts *g*. Anyway, the book is about his massive 100-pound weight loss and How He Did It. ( spoiler ) There, I just saved you from buying the book. What was more interesting to me is probably the glimpses into his life - his family, his relationship with Teller, his work, his opinions. He is a great storyteller, despite the massive amounts of name-dropping, and I enjoyed reading it. Once.

The Lady in the Van (Alan Bennett) - This was recently made into a movie (which I've not yet seen), and it was seeing the trailer that made me want to read it. As its name implies, it's the (true) story of the elderly lady who lived in a van that ended up permanently parked in Bennett's driveway. I would class this book as an extended character study - a portrait of her habits, her appearance, her relationship with Bennett, the neighbourhood, and the world. I don't think it really goes much deeper than that, but it's enough to be fascinating. I did really enjoy Bennett's eye for detail, and that he mostly keeps himself and his parallel middle-class life out of it - she is very much the focus of the memoir, and so she should be. In some ways she lived in terrible conditions, but on the other hand she fiercely maintained her independence and her dignity by doing so - I'd class it as melancholy rather than sad. A very short, easy read - more novella than novel.

Sugarbabe (Holly Hill) - an Australian memoir of a woman's time as a "sugarbabe". Having just broken up with a wealthy (married) boyfriend, and needing money to pay her rent and write her book, Hill (not her real name, although it's out there now) advertised online for a sugar daddy arrangement. This book is an account of the replies she got, the people she met, and how well the arrangements did - or didn't - work out. While the book is "fictionalised" - names changed, elements compressed or altered, it's a thoroughly entertaining read anyway. She does sound like tremendous fun to be around, and is very frank about sex and money. (I believe she went onto a career in erotic fiction, and as a connoisseur of porny fanfic, she at least passes muster *g*). I really enjoyed the Sydney setting of this book - I'm so used to reading as an outsider that it's nice to be intimately familiar (haha) with all the places she describes and get that thrill of recognition. Good fun, although something I think very few people would be able to pull off (...and suddenly everything turns into sexual innuendo). An interesting footnote is that this is the book she ended up writing rather than the book she became a sugarbabe to write *g*

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street (Natasha Pulley) - I read this due to a rec from flywoman, and it was absolutely worth it. I don't think my summary could do the book justice, so I'll settle for the official one.

London, 1883: Thaniel Steepleton returns to his tiny flat to find a mysterious gold pocket watch on his pillow. When the watch saves his life from a bomb blast that destroys Scotland Yard, Thaniel goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori - a kind, lonely immigrant who sweeps him into a new world of clockwork and music. Although Mori seems harmless at first, a chain of unexpected slips proves that he must be hiding something. Meanwhile, Grace Carrow is sneaking into an Oxford library dressed as a man. A theoretical physicist, she is desperate to prove the existence of the luminiferous ether before her mother can force her to marry. As the lives of these three characters become entwined, events spiral out of control.

What is not to love? There is some serious genre-bending here - it's Victorian magical realism (steampunk) that has a mystery at its heart (who set the bomb?) and also touches on history, science, feminism, travelogue, and romance. And to digress slightly... you know, over the years I've seen the expression "just like fanfic" as a bit of a double-edged sword. It's often used disparagingly, especially in reference to canon, but I think it can have positive connotations, too. To me one of the greatest things about fanfiction is that many of the usual rules of "literature" are up for grabs, leading to some amazingly inventive work. So I'm just going to say that I would bet that the author has read (and/or written) fanfiction in her time, and while this book is firmly "literary", in the sense of meeting all traditional established criteria for a novel, for me it also replicated a lot of the imaginative and emotional feel of first-class fanfic. And I mean that in its most positive sense. Highly recommended.

The Girl on the Train (Paula Hawkins) - another read prompted by a movie trailer. I suppose I tend to reason that if someone wanted to make it into a movie, it's probably at least a half-decent read *g*. The biggest initial surprise was that it's set in the area around London, because I was sure the trailer I saw was set in the US - and sure enough, it is. They changed it for the purposes of the movie. So the UK setting was a plus for me. A woman catches the train into London every day, past the house in which she used to live with her ex-husband, and makes up stories about the people and things she sees on the way. She's an alcoholic, and prone to blackouts and lost memories. So when a woman in her old neighbourhood goes missing, a woman she's only seen from the train window, she thinks she might know something about her disappearance, but she can't quite remember what it might be.

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I'm finally done for the semester (and hopefully, the degree) but am feeling wrung out. Have been sick for literally a month which hasn't helped. I don't know what's going on there - I think it was possibly the flu followed by three or four successive colds, so nothing serious, but always just a little under par with some spectacular coughing fits. Not in the writing mood at all, but at least getting some reading done :)

Read The Fireman by Joe Hill, which I was looking forward to, but it's probably the novel of his I've liked least to date. His earlier ones were quite compact, but this was a 700+ page epic that imo showed signs of needing a good edit. And this is an odd thing to say, because I don't think I've ever really said this about a novel before, but I didn't 'believe' his characters. I mean, I've read books with protagonists capable of virtually anything and everything and not turned a hair, but I've never read a protagonist I've found so... idk, detailed, yet internally inconsistent? ( Read more... )

But it was very readable, and engaging, so I guess that's still a good thing?

Saw a few things at the Sydney Film Festival, which has just ended. First there was High-Rise (Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons) which was visually stunning - in many ways - but otherwise not my thing at all. I thought it did quite accurately capture the spirit of the book in that I disliked almost everyone in it and found the plot both illogical and annoying. But it looked great, and stylistically did have that 70s groovy schlock-horror vibe to it, and there was a lot of sex and screaming and gratuitous violence if you like that kind of thing. Normally I would, but eh. All very arty, but not very satisfying if you want story rather than set-pieces.

Then Ten Years, which is a Hong Kong compilation where five young film-makers were asked to make a short film about what life might be like in Hong Kong in ten years' time, with most showing particular emphasis on life under Chinese rule. Unsurprisingly, the film opened in HK, and was then pulled from cinemas by the PRC Government, in the finest traditions of irony *g*. ( Read more... )

Also Under the Sun, which is an odd combination of film and documentary. A Russian film crew were invited to film a documentary about an 'ordinary' North Korean girl and her glorious journey towards becoming a member of the Children's Union on the Day of the Shining Star (Kim Il-Sung's birthday). However, this is not that 'documentary', but rather a combination of scenes that were filmed, coupled with footage of things that happened during the shoot. So it shows Korean handlers instructing the family what to say and how to act, and details how the father, who is actually a print journalist, is shown in the 'documentary' as being the brilliant head of an exemplary garment factory, while the mother, who works in a cafeteria, is shown to be a worker at a factory producing soy milk. ( Read more... )

Theatre-wise, saw the wonderful Philip Quast 'in conversation', which was such a joy. I think he has my favourite musical theatre voice in the world, but I haven't heard him sing live for years - he was based in London for so many years (winning a record three Oliviers for best actor in a musical), and then mainly did acting roles once back in Australia. He's getting on in years, but has retained both his amazing falsetto and earth-shaking baritone. Just incredible, especially at close range (we were in the second row). He had some fun stories, too, such as baking Ian McKellen a cake for his 70th birthday when he attended La Cage Aux Folles with 70 guests and complained that it apparently takes two straight guys to play a gay couple (Quast was starring in La Cage Aux Folles with Roger Allam - my god, the entire theatre must have vibrated with those two) *g*

Lastly saw Heathers (the musical) at the Opera House which I thoroughly enjoyed, much more than most of the musicals I've seen recently. Loved the movie - whatever did happen to Christian Slater? -  but had forgotten just how dark the comedy was, and the 80s nostalgia was fun to visit all over again. The songs were well done - properly integrated into the story (for a change) and with some very clever and funny lyrics into the bargain. Good singing, great acting (admittedly tuned to High Camp), and interestingly pared-back but effective set design, with movable banks of lockers being used in versatile ways. Might need a movie rewatch...

Except for the book, that was all in the space of the last week and a bit, which was not ideal timing, but couldn't be helped. Now I just need to stop coughing *g* (In case you're wondering, I managed to not actually cough during performances - it seems to be triggered by changes in temperature and position, so as long as I'm warm and sitting still, I'm fine. LOL.)

Wanted to do another holiday post, but am feeling a bit uncommunicative. Nevertheless - media roundup! This one goes back about three weeks.

- Finally saw Victor Frankenstein (on the plane, to which it was perfectly suited). I do think I would have been disappointed if I'd made a trip to the movies specifically to see it, but as a gap filler it was fine. Igor (Daniel Radcliffe) is a hunchback who works in a circus, but has a flair for medicine. Victor (James McAvoy) rescues him, straightens him out (literally) and we're on our way. I don't remember much of it except that there were shots of twitching flesh, bolts of electricity and cries of "It's alive!" - so, pretty much like every other retelling of Frankenstein, ever. Obviously this one was made a little different by the takeover of the Sherlock cast - Andrew Scott as an suspicious policeman, Lou Brealey as... someone (I think she was a girl in a bar, but whatever) and Mark Gatiss as... someone in the lab. IIRC, he had one line: "AAAAAAAGH!". And that was the movie *g*

- Also saw Clue on DVD, something I'd been meaning to do for a while, mainly because 1) I adore Tim Curry and 2) for that infamous Madeline Kahn "I hated her sooo much, it, it, flames... flames on the side of my face" gif which I also love. Yes, a movie based on the the board game. Six guests gather at a mansion in response to a mysterious summons, people are murdered - whodunnit? It was incredibly cheesy, sure, and packed to the hilt with cheap jokes, but they were thoroughly entertaining cheap jokes, and the movie was surprisingly well-structured. Tim Curry was glorious, and I enjoyed it from beginning to end. Would watch again someday.

- Saw Eddie the Eagle in an open-air cinema while on holiday, which was a lovely experience - deck chairs under the stars. The movie wasn't bad, either. Based on the true story of Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards, who competed in the 1988 Winter Olympics, qualifying as the first British ski jumper under quite unlikely circumstances. Sure, he kind of sucked compared to the others, but he also did his country proud by getting there. Eddie was played by Taron Egerton, who I remember from Kingsman, with Hugh Jackman as his coach-with-a-dark-past-who-is-dragged-unwillingly-out-of-retirement (whose arc I suspect is heavily if not entirely fictionalised). While I am not a fan of Jackman, I thought he was fine here, and Egerton was that kind of hilariously bumbling character who nevertheless has a spine of steel (not literally). He was an easy character to care about in his seemingly impossible journey from bespectacled, clumsy schoolboy to the Winter Olympics, and I did. Enjoyable, but not life-changing.

- Then as soon as I got back there was Ghost: The Musical, which... yeah, it's based on That Film. Which I actually did see, all those years ago. I mainly saw this because it starred Rob Mills (Sam), who I really like, and Jenna Rix (Molly), who has a lovely voice. I think probably everyone knows the story - Sam and Molly are in love, but Sam can never bring himself to say "I love you". Then he's killed, but finds himself hanging around on Earth to unravel a conspiracy around his death and protect Molly. In this endeavour he's reluctantly helped by a fraudulent psychic, Oda Mae Brown, who is surprised and not entirely happy that she's not quite a fraud after all. I'd say it's still a really solid story, and the staging was interesting, with a lot of use of projection to evoke the New York environment, plus some nifty stage magic to produce some "ghostly" effects. The singing was enjoyable, and Wendy Mae Brown (playing Oda Mae Brown, which did made me double-take) ended up being a major highlight who pretty much just walked away with the show. Nothing could stand before her or her character. But... much like the musical Kinky Boots, I found the musical aspect entirely pointless. The songs were pleasant enough, but so uninspiring that I was mostly waiting for them to be over so they could get on with the plot. I still did begrudgingly ended up enjoying it, but that was as a result of the storyline and the talent on display. Unchained Melody remains the show's most memorable song. Musical or not.

- A week after that there was the NT Live production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Christopher Hampton), which remains such a fabulous play (yes, I know it's based on the book). But I was impressed with the writing all over again. I did see a stage version with Hugo Weaving about four years ago which was brilliant, so I wasn't sure this would live up to it, NT cast or no, and I have to say that it had an entirely different feeling to the Sydney Theatre Company version, partly because that one was done in modern dress. This one was full period, as you'd expect. But I think with the change in costume came a certain change in style as well - the Sydney production was very sleek, almost minimalist, and there was a certain clinical intellectual quality in the games and sparring between Valmont and Merteuil. Whereas the NT production was extravagantly OTT in sensousness. So the Sydney one seemed to emphasise love as a game, while the NT focused more heavily on the decadent sexuality of it. I suppose it's telling that on the whole I did prefer the Sydney interpretation, while also appreciating this production. Another major difference was the vibe of the ending - the Sydney one seemed to echo the movie interpretation (for me) where Merteuil has won, but she's also lost everything that made the game worth playing. But in the NT production I felt like it hurt her terribly, but she lifted her chin and kept on going full steam ahead, because she's a survivor. I think both aspects are implied in the ending - but again, with different emphasis.

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- Lastly, there was Sherpa, which I'm now sad is the last item because I'm tired of typing, but it was the best of the lot. Amazing, incredible, all the superlatives. Everest is one of my pet interests anyway, and this documentary follows the 2014 climbing season, which was the deadliest in history, with 16 Sherpas killed (in case you're not aware, the Sherpa are actually an ethnic group, but because they're so acclimatised to altitude they have become synoymous with Everest guiding). This obviously devastated the Sherpa community, who demanded better working conditions and government regulation around the industry, and who effectively brought the entire climbing season to a halt by refusing to work the rest of the season. I read a review describing it as the world's most picturesque industrial dispute, which... yes.

What I loved about this film is the focus on the Sherpas and their families. Virtually all Everest-related stuff focuses on the "foreign" climbers, but very few of them could have climbed Everest without the support provided by the Sherpas. It was particuarly entertaining to see the first summit of Everest recounted with the focus on Tenzing and his media appearances and the impact on his family and community, with Hillary effectively relegated to a sidenote. Because let's face it, even Hillary said it was an equal partnershp, but we all know who the Western media typically focus on. Anyway, I knew intellectually that the Sherpas did all the heavy lifting, but actually seeing what they did was both amazing and terrifying.

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If you have the slightest interest in Everest and the industry surrounding it, this is a must-see imo.

Ah, crap, that isn't even the last one, I completely forgot that I saw Captain America: Civil War yesterday. LOL. Um. You can tell I'm not really a Marvel fan. It was fine, and I liked it better than The Avengers, because the plot was more plotty, and the action less... action-y. Robert Downey Jr. continues to give Academy-Award-level acting in a superhero franchise, which I continue to find amazing. I wanted to find Spiderling annoying, but was charmed despite everything. I like Black Panther a lot. William Hurt! Martin Freeman contributed very little (sorry), and I kept thinking of Fargo. I actually managed to keep track of all the superheroes and who they were, so that's something *g*

Because I am meant to be buckling down to other things (shhh) I saw Grimbsy last night, and I hate to say it, but it was FUCKING GLORIOUS *g* You know how there are films that just hit all your kinks square on and nothing else matters? This was that kind of movie. I had tears in my eyes, and if I hadn't been in a theatre I would have shrieked. A lot. As it was, I was probably quieter than most of the audience, but spent a great deal of the film rolled up into a tight ball of squee. I have no chill.

Now, the odd thing is that I loathe Sacha Baron Cohen's idea of comedy on general principles (I will grudgingly admit he was passable, if OTT, in Les Mis and Sweeney Todd). I've only seen Borat and was completely unamused by whatever the hell that was trying to be. Just no. So when I saw the movie poster I was just, '...and moving on'. But then things were quiet and I was scouting around for Possible Things to See and saw a review that was basically "Mark Strong makes this movie"... Mark Strong? Really? And then I watched the trailer, discovered Mark Strong was playing a top MI-6 agent, and that the movie also featured Rebel Wilson (who I love) and surprising people like Penelope Cruz and Gabourey Sidibe and it suddenly became a must-see. And I'm so, so glad I did.

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Anyway, this is another one of those movies that I'm well aware the "intellectual and cultural elite" will automatically shun, but nowadays I try and be confident enough in my own skin to just like things and admit I liked them, no matter how it looks. And I loved this movie for what it was, so there. I would... actually see it again. Just for Mark Strong. OMG *g*