Zane Austin and Francesca Capaldi on the making of Max 2: White House Hero

Thanks to Warner Bros. for giving me early access to the film and access to the cast. The opinions I share are my own. This post contains links to Amazon. If you click on the link and make a purchase, I get a tiny commission of the sale.


I had the chance to listen in on a conference call with the young stars of Max 2: White House Hero I really enjoyed this charming family film and shared my thoughts on it yesterday. Today I thought I'd share a bit about the call!

Francesca Capaldi is best known for her role as Chloe James in Disney's Dog with a Blog, but she's also been the voice of the little Red-haired girl in the Peanuts movie and the face of Claire's Stores Tween line. Zane Austin is a committed young actor who has starred in various national commercials.

Both Zane and Francesca were incredibly down to earth and bubbly with a lot of enthusiasm for the film. They easily fielded the various questions they received from the expected questions about working with dogs to the maybe more personal question about sharing a first kiss on screen.

A film centered around a canine would naturally be of a lot of interest to viewers. What is it like to have to act with an animal on set? Fortunately and perhaps naturally both young actors love animals...Zane has a family pet, "Wilson" a goldendoodle and Francesca previously worked on the show Dog with a Blog giving her a depth of experience. That doesn't keep them from dreaming of more pets in their future, though, while Francesca would be thrilled to have a maltipoo she also harbors the wild dream of owning a koala. Zane already has a dog which allows him to dream even more of owning a sloth.

What might be more surprising is that a film like this doesn't work with just one dog. It actually used four dogs to make every scene with Max come to life. The different dogs fulfilled different roles. Jagger was the main working dog who did most of the scenes. (he was actually recently featured in Entertainment Weekly!) Dude was the stunt dog who did things such as jumping through car windows. Carlos is the face of the movie....featured in the promotional materials and attending the film's premiere. The fourth and final dog, Pax, did the action work such as swimming and running. It's so interesting to think about the amount of work that most go into making the film feel seamless with a dog. "They are all very, very talented dogs," Francesca was quick to say but when pressed for a favorite she admitted it was probably Jagger as he is a very loving dog who likes to give kisses. Zane agreed that Jagger was his favorite. Working with the dogs also required a period of time with the trainers where the dogs got familiar with them and the sound of their voices.

Learning a Russian accent and doing the various action sequences in the movie presented both a challenge but also fun. Francesca has done some accents before but maintaining the accent through the movie was a fresh challenge for her. I have to say she did a great job! When asked about the kiss the two characters shared, Zane commented that they had to film the kiss 30 times. Francesca admitted she was nervous about the kiss scene, but her mother reassured her that it's not her first REAL kiss but her first REEL kiss. With so many cameras and people around, it was hardly real.

It might be concerning to some that such young kids are already doing acting. However, it seems that both Francesca and Zane are well grounded. They attend school and participate in extra-curricular activities. Acting is just an extra lucky thing they get to do.

Max 2: White House Hero is available on digital demand right now with the Blu-Ray coming May 23rd.

Movie Review: Max 2: White House Hero

Special thanks to Warner Brothers for providing access to cast members Zane Austin and Francesca Capaldi and providing a digital screener for review. This post contains links to Amazon. If you click on the link and make a purchase, I get a tiny commission of the sale.


While the first Max movie is a bit of a more serious movie focusing on a war hero dog, the second movie, Max 2, is a lighthearted family film.

Max has a new assignment..he's to serve on the detail of the President of the United States! But he quickly forms a bond with the President's son, TJ, which calls his ability to serve in a serious capacity into question. TJ is struggling with his new role as the President's son, though, and loves Max. Their quick bond eases some of his discomfort at constantly being in the public eye.

The Russian president is arriving to hammer out some details with the President of the United States and brings along his daughter Alex. Alex and TJ become quick friends with a flare of attraction between them. Their banter is delightful and cute and they become a root worthy pair.

Someone is out to sabotage negotiations, though, and TJ, Alex, and Max assign themselves to the case. Their clever thinking and ideas give them the chance to investigate many of the people on the grounds while they also have some adventures of their own....all with Max by their side.

As noted, this is a family film and one you can watch comfortably with the kids. It's super charming--the casting of both Zane Austin and Francesca Capaldi is perfect. They are cute and bring a lot of energy and personality to their roles. And dog lovers get the added bonus of having Max in many scenes but never in true peril. This is not a sob your eyes out dog movie, fortunately.

There are a lot of adventures and I was genuinely surprised by the conclusion of the film!

Now available on digital HD and available on blu-ray May 23, Max 2: White House Hero is recommended for families and kids.

The Blu-Ray edition will include 15 minutes of extras in addition to the film, including blooper scenes with the canines!

Tomorrow I'm excited to share some insights into the making of the movie from Zane Austin and Francesca Capaldi. I really enjoyed the conference call with them so much.

Film: Warm Bodies

Hey you guys, World War Z comes out on Friday and even though I didn't love the book, I am excited for the movie!! So since I have some things I'd like to say about zombies I'm going to sort of make this an unofficial zombie week. I know a lot of people are over zombies, but to be honest I DON'T KNOW WHY. There are not multiple zombie TV shows and movies out right now. There are some books but nowhere near as many as there are for vampires. So I really don't understand the sentiment that there are too many zombies everywhere, I think it's mostly just people that don't like them to begin with saying that, okay?

I'd like to get the bad out of the way, so let's start with Warm Bodies. I didn't like the book and I also didn't like the movie.

I know it might seem crazy that I watched the movie anyway, but I thought it has potential to be kind of cute and funny like Zombieland. But...I guess what I realized is that there is a fundamental problem with the story for me which is that I don't like to think about zombies coming back from the dead or being saved or redeemed or humanized in any other way. That's just not the kind of zombie story I like and so that's why Warm Bodies was problematic for me and also part of why I greatly disliked the British show In the Flesh which I will be discussing later.

So, the basic premise behind Warm Bodies is that zombies are not actually really gone, they can still sort of think and stuff. But they do still eat people. And one day R (yes for Romeo) eats a brain and falls in love with a girl. And takes her back to zombie camp. And there's some funny and cute stuff there, but it all goes south when they take off because the actual REAL zombies want to eat Julie.

Sigh. Which...if you need actual real zombies vs. sort of but not quite actual zombies, I just...it doesn't work.

I guess the thing for me is that you can use zombies for all manner of social commentary or thematic purposes. And Warm Bodies uses them for the idea that love is the most powerful thing of all and if we could all just love each other and listen to each other and care then we'd come back to life and save ourselves. It was cheesy and saccharine in the book and equally so in the film.

So...it was a bust. I think I realized I'm never going to really like this kind of zombie story, I'd rather this kind of thing be a vampire story or something. Also, I think it's really irresponsible because when the zombie apocalypse happens no one will want to kill any zombies because WHAT IF THEY CAN BE SAVED? (there was some A+ dialogue though like zombies eat brains not broccoli!/sarcasm)

Tomorrow hopefully I will discuss why In the Flesh also did not work for me for similar failed thematic reasons.

What is your favorite zombie movie? Or do you hate zombies? Did you like this one? It seemed to do well in reviews.

How much is too much in visual media

I watched the movie Compliance over the weekend, which is a very disturbing film (but not one I regret watching), and it kind of fit into some things I've been thinking about since the release of the movie Trade. I remember when that movie came out, people who actually work to fight against human trafficking couldn't endorse it, because they felt like it fed into the very mentality that perpetuates human trafficking. So in trying to show how awful and brutal the world of human trafficking is, a film was actually made that feeds into people's darker desires.

This dilemma with visual media is something I think about a lot. When I watched Cabin in the Woods, I couldn't help but be disappointed that even while the film seemed to mock certain horror film tropes and critique an audience hungry for certain things, it also fed that audience exactly what they wanted. I think of this mostly with "the whore" taking off her shirt, but also all of the blood and fighting. In the end, it almost seems like a way of saying "hey we know there's something wrong with this, but here have it anyway."

Some might argue Sucker Punch (woe is me, I feel this movie is misunderstood even though I don't think a lot of the critique is actually wrong, I just don't think some of it is relevant) does the same thing. It promises a movie of girls scantily clad fighting, but actually delivers a somber tale of women fighting to free themselves from the patriarchy. I do think the movie did a good job of never showing anything sexual and not filming the girls in tittilating ways, but you can't argue about the way they were dressed. So yeah, I think this discussion can be had about Sucker Punch as well.

Recently, I've been mulling it over with regards to The Americans, though in a slightly different way. I really like this show. I love Phillip and Elizabeth both and their relationship (which reminds me a little of Peeta and Katniss!). Elizabeth is one of those female characters I love coming across because she's not being forced by the show into any traditional gender role, she's allowed to be complex and interesting and ambitious and a mother who loves her children all at the same time. And it kills me that the show can write her so well and yet also depict acts of violence, including sexual violence, against her character in a way they have not with Phillip. It's not so much that these things happen as that the show shows them. It's just sad to try to reconcile that they can give me this awesome female character, but also be just like everyone else in depicting graphic violence against women.

But Compliance made me think of it more than anything else. This movie is...sort of unbelievable. It's based on a true story of a really awful prank call where this guy called fast food restaurants and pretended to be a police officer investigating a theft. He claims one of the young girls stole some money and he needs to investigate it. And (spoiler alert) he takes it really far and gets the managers to strip search the girls and in some cases he got men in there and all manner of bad things happen. I watched this all unfold in the movie with fascinated horror. Of course most people would like to think it's ridiculous such a thing could ever happen but it did happen in over 70 restaurants!! And you know, the thing I think the film got really right was depicting the various psychological states people are in and how a far a little flattery will go or how an otherwise normal person will give into their darker impulses if given the chance. ("There's a police officer on the phone telling me to spank this naked girl? Okay then!") It's awful of course, to watch this young teen girl be so degraded. But at the same time, I was fascinated by the psychology at play. Compliance works as a horror film in so many ways because it's about the scariest truth of all--our apathy, our blind adherence to authority, out willingness to give in to our darker natures. I think this movie could have achieved its same objectives without showing the actress naked. But in so doing, they are almost forcing the viewer to participate. Am I just as complicit as everyone else for watching such a thing (fictionalized though it may be). This is what is so troubling to think about. Can visual media ever truly depict the horror without also issuing an invitation to arouse our dark desires?

I don't watch Girls but I read Jace Lacob's piece on this past week's episode with interest. (How is this show a comedy??) I thought his reading of the scene was interesting, but I suppose it's another instance of showing female debasement on screen. Even if it's meant for a greater purpose.

I think a lot about Elizabeth Brundage's book, Somebody Else's Daughter a book about the affect of the pornography industry on the lives of all different kinds of people. Years later I still think about how one of the characters, a teenage boy, felt his attitude towards women change (against his will!) after watching some pornographic videos. He began having thoughts about them laced with contempt and a desire to dominate. I'm not trying to argue that pornography or visual media is some sort of instant poison or anything, but I do think it's powerful and worth talking about the consequences of what we put on screen. There's a reason that The Americans shows Elizabeth in more sexually explicit scenes, and more violent ones--it's not only because this kind of violence happens more to women, but also because it's more acceptable to show women this way.

I don't really have any conclusions beyond what I've stated---that I find this tension interesting and always worth exploring and talking about when it's done right and maybe when it fails us. I could say so much more about Compliance...it's really so fascinating so for anyone else who has watched I'd like to talk about it. (it's on Netflix) Does anyone else have any examples to add or times they've thought about this as well?

A Few Thoughts on Book to Film Adaptations

Talking about the adaptation of books to film has got to be one of the subjects that's been talked to death but it's been on my mind recently. I read Anna Karenina last year and saw the movie and I ended up really liking the movie as well. And I've been trying to figure out why...I mean I knew going in that there was no way the film could be true to every plot point, but it was fairly faithful to the thematic heart of the story it told, so in my eyes it was a good adaptation.

Then I read Silver Linings Playbook and watched the movie and I really ended up not liking the movie very much. I thought maybe it was because I read the book too close to the time I watched the movie, but I really don't think that's it, the distance was probably similar to Anna Karenina. I think the reason that I didn't like the film as much as the book is because it felt like it took the names of the characters and some of their basic situations and rearranged them to tell a story that was similar superficially but lacking the same thematic core of the book. The movie felt very unsubtle and also well...cheesy Hollywood in a way that surprises me it got so many Oscar nominations!

If you haven't read the book or seen the movie, you may not want to read on because I want to discuss the things that bothered me specifically. I am open to discussion on this of course.

I feel like the book Silver Linings Playbook is about how reality, even in its imperfection, is not so bad and that life is still worth living even if it doesn't live up to the ideal we've created in our mind. One of the ways Matthew Quick accomplishes this is by introducing Pat who has been in a mental hospital for a couple of years. Pat has lost a sense of time, though, and thinks it's only been a short while. (in the movie they just go ahead and actually make it a short while) Additionally, Pat has no memory of what he did. So you sort of get these hints as you're reading that there's way more to this story, but Pat himself is not yet ready to face them. So you know he has this dread of Kenny G but you don't know why. And it works as a powerful metaphor about how we lie to ourselves.

It really surprised me that in the film all this is done away with, Pat was only away for a short time and fully remembers what he did. Also in the book he does not stalk Nikki! He doesn't try to contact her really at all, he believes they are in apart time and that eventually that will be over when he's improved himself enough. The only contact he ever believes he has with her is through the letters Tiffany supposedly sends. And that's something that goes on for a little while they are practicing for the dance. Which, by the way, there is no bet on or anything, ugh. And it actually takes him awhile to get over Tiffany lying to him which is much more realistic, in the movie, I was like, huh?

I don't know I just felt the book was a much more delicate handling of everything. His therapist wasn't so horrible, he actually felt quite safe with him and their relationship in the book is so adorable. You see how people with mental illnesses feel about things and how the people around them feel and it's possible to understand how everyone feels and still feel kind of sad about it. And in the book the Eagles is literally the only thing that brings him and his father closer together, his father wouldn't even talk to him when he first got home. (in the movie, his father does talk to him so in order to understand the Eagles thing he actually has to say a line explaining, "that's what this whole Eagles thing is about" which made me almost groan. You're doing it wrong if you have to explain it!)

And there were a lot of other changes. I realize I sound like I'm nitpicking, but it's really interesting to me to think about. I think the changes for the most part made the movie lose the same heart the book had. It felt very empty to me. And it made me realize that the Oscars having two categories for screenplays is only about separating purely original content from content that comes from another source. Because it could never win best adapted screenplay if it was actually about the adaptation itself.

Anyway, reading this review of Anna Karenina helped clarify this thinking for me. It's not about getting details the same at all, it's about the movie conveying the same feeling the book did, and unfortunately Silver Linings Playbook just didn't do that for me. On the other hand, most people seem to really love the movie so perhaps without having read the book it comes closer.

The Sunday Salon -- Stuff I Watched

I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend or if you didn't have one your weekend in general!

One of the unfortunate side effects of stress for me is that I feel like I can't read. so I have read like, maybe one page since last weekend :/

This doesn't extend to watching things, though, maybe because it's easier to multi-task and watch something, I don't know. But I did finish the first season of Six Feet Under this week. I've only managed to watch the first couple of episodes of the second season, but I will say that I like it better than the first season so far. The first season started to drag for me but I think by the second season some of the story lines were wrapped up and new ones were introduced. And I felt like I started connecting to the characters more. Ana recently said she thinks the show is literary and I can kind of agree with that based on my experience so far--kind of like how a good book might drag at first, but suddenly you realize you are invested in the fates of the characters. Additionally, I think the second season is using the deaths better to reflect on the thematic material of the episode, there were times in the first season I felt like the fact that someone died was incidental to anything else. But so far in the second season I think they are working that aspect in to the plot and what's going on in everyone's lives much much better.

One of the things I love about reading and watching TV is when someone says something and it's like the first time you have ever heard that idea expressed in just that way and I kind of had that experience on the show when Brenda was talking about her old boyfriend and his wife and said something like, "they are complete in a way I will never be." I totally got what she meant by that or at least by looking at people and seeing they have something you do not and wondering about that thing. And in her story so far, she's exploring all these career/self-improvement options to fix this thing inside which is interesting enough. (and believe me, so far the answer is not Nate which is nice, but who knows if that lasts) Brenda is kind of an interesting and odd character.

Anyway in the first season I guess the most compelling or interesting story line to me was David coming out and coming to terms with being gay. I think using the church in this story was interesting to me, not so much because of the slightly villainous role his church was given (sometimes I think we reduce people to certain beliefs they hold and forget that a person is always more than that.) but because of how real it felt. It was kind of poignant and sad how much he wanted his life to be one thing, how much the church meant to him in one regard, and then reality. And I think this is the experience for a lot of evangelical gay people (I think in this who they are Episcopalian though? They talked about the big divide in the church and that's one church that did have a huge split) and reminds me that I need to finish reading Stranger at the Gate. But I also like that not everyone is okay with it, that his mother is awkward and trying to figure it out and that Rico was kind of an ass about it.

I also find David and Nate's relationship as brothers interesting to watch, the way Nate came around to deciding to stay with the family business, and the way their relationship has repaired. They complement each other perfectly in running the business! The whole, Kroner is going to buy them out storyline I'm bored of all already but I blame The Good Wife for fatigue of this kind of story line! (btw Ana I know you said Nate was your least favorite character and I want to know why? because Rico is mine, lol)

So basically I'm glad I'm finally watching. I'll probably have more thoughts as I continue to watch that I'll dump on you all!

I also watched a couple of movies over Thanksgiving weekend, Brave and People Like Us and I liked them both. I liked People Like Us (even though, like, the whole story was in the trailer) because it was about a brother and sister relationship primarily. I don't know I can recognize that objectively it's a bad film, but I still kind of liked it.

I was pretty spoiled for the whole of Brave, but I still enjoyed it. Again, I think it didn't quite have the Pixar magic of say Toy Story 3, but it was a nice story, very pretty, and made me cry a little. :)

Other than that, I really hope to see Anna Karenina next weekend! And I'll be spending my week reading The Final Martyrs and I really hope you join me! :)

The Sunday Salon: Big Books and Zombie Movies! (Based on books)

Hi everyone!

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. It has been chilly here which gave me some sort of allergy attack or something so it's felt like Fall! It's very exciting. But alas it's supposed to get warm again this week.

Is it just me or does Thanksgiving seem super early this year? Does anyone have any fun and exciting plans I can live through vicariously for Thanksgiving?

I'm getting near the end of Anna Karenina which makes me kind of sad. I will be genuinely bummed not to check in with these characters each week and see what social gathering they are going to or what's troubling Levin at the moment. (I've been reading with a friend and we've had like one hundredish pages to read each week but I've usually ended up reading them all in one go) Once again, as I always do once I've made my way through a chunkster, I'm thinking about how much I love long books and really digging in deep with a story. It's interesting to think about how a lot of these books were originally published as serials and that they were the sort of television of a certain time. Not all long books are created equal of course, but I have grown very fond of Tolstoy's style (or the interpreter's spin!) and so...next year as a year long reading project I'll be reading War and Peace! I'm very excited about it! There will be an official readalong announcement sometime this week, but we (the amazing Iris on Books and myself) plan on making it very manageable with having other reading interests as well. Anyway just getting that idea out there....

Basically the only other books I plan to read by year's end are Lilith by George MacDonald and The Final Martyrs by Shusaku Endo. You know you want to join in for The Final Martyrs!! If I get anything else fit in, great!! How about you? Any final reading plans for the year?

Also what are your favorite chunksters? I should keep a list so I have books to look forward to reading!

Zombiesssssss

I knew you guys (especially Jill) would join in my excitement about these upcoming zombie movies. I haven't read World War Z (yet!!) and everyone is complaining about it but what can you do? I'll still it because Brad Pitt + Zombies:

Also, the trailer for Warm Bodies has been released. I have to admit I didn't really like the book but giving it a romcom spin in the movie might work:


Will you see either of these?????

Lotsa Literary Adaptations

I didn't realize how many books I want to read are going to be movies this fall. I was sort of distracted by some of the main ones, The Great Gatsby and Anna Karenina but there are plenty of others I'd like to read before seeing.

So anyway, I thought I'd post a collection of trailers of movies based on books most of which I'd like to read before seeing the movie. (I've already read The Great Gatsby so yay for that!) I have a complicated relationship with deciding whether or not I should read a book before seeing the movie...sometimes it's better to read the book afterwards, but sometimes I have no interest because enough of the plot has been spoiled for me. So...there's that.

Life of Pi based on the book Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Les Miserables (okay I'm unlikely to read this ever, tbh) based on Les Miserables by Victor Hugo



Cloud Atlas based on Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell (have plans to read this with Iris!)



The Silver Linings Playbook based on The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick.



Anna Karenina based on Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy



The Great Gatsby based on The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald



There are probably more and some I'm forgetting! Which of these books do you think are worth reading and which movies are you planning to see? To be honest, I wouldn't mind if Hollywood put a ban on adaptations and sequels for a year and just came up with original films, but you can't have everything.

Some Stuff I Wish to Discuss

I hope everyone who celebrates had a cheery 4th of July! I have a few things I'd like to discuss with all of you...

First, The Amazing Spider-Man.

I like Spider-man because...well because my brother liked Spider-man when we were little not because I actually read the comics or anything. I liked the films that came out a few years ago. I was confused by the reboot, but not opposed to it, if I have to be subjected to a steady diet of super hero movies they might as well be ones I like. And I liked this one! I thought it was fun. A lot of it is probably because I'm really charmed by Andrew Garfield, he was also one of my favorite parts about The Social Network. He makes a realllly good Peter Parker, imo! And I also really like Emma Stone, she's so cute and fun and has a lot of on screen charisma. So yes all of that was good. And I enjoyed the new angles they took with the origin story elements, it felt really fresh. It was a wee bit long, but what can you do? There was other stuff I really appreciated about the film, like how strong the family units felt--like these people really loved each other and had genuine affection for one another. And also that Gwen herself was never the damsel in distress. It's a fun movie! I mean it is a super hero movie, which means you have some shallow morality lesson, but it's one I think is worth seeing if you like this sort of thing. Oh one minor complaint is that the two leads definitely did not seem like they were in high school...but I don't know, that was such a small part of the story, who cares, I mean Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone!!!

Anna Karenina

I mentioned wanting to read this* at the beginning of the year after reading Mark O'Connell's thoughts on it in The Millions, but then Carrie was like, IT'S AMAZING BUT I NEEDED INDEX CARDS TO GET KEEP THE CHARACTERS STRAIGHT and like....that killed all of my enthusiasm flat. But the movie trailer looks sweeping and epic and I don't know, another friend vouched for it and I'm sort of itching to read it again. I am not signing up for that readalong that is going on right now, but if I DO read this book does anyone have a recommended translation? Like does it matter? Sometimes I forget how much the translation can matter since I don't read a lot of translated works (for shame). Any Anna K help/advice is greatly appreciated!

Facebook

I'm seriously considering deleting my Facebook account. I feel like a dinosaur, but I just can't keep up with how they are constantly changing things. I only log in every once in awhile anyway. I never know what to say for an update, I usually only end up liking a lot of statuses and then logging off. Seriously, like when I'm with my family they are always like didn't you see this on Facebook? And I'm like no, I never log in. The only thing that gives me pause is that I might lose contact with a few people forever, and I don't know, it's not like we're IN CONTACT, it's just sort of comforting to get a vague idea that they are still alive and doing things out there in the universe. Has anyone else ever deleted their account? Did you survive or do you regret it...I mean I'm looking for opinions here.

PSA The Closer starts next week on the 9th and it is the last few episodes of the series ever. I am so sad about this because it's like..I don't know I'm losing all the shows that have had longevity in my life. Also, I still just genuinely really enjoy the show, so it's sad to see it end. And the spin-off is not a cure, we all know it.

I await your enlightenment!

*So far I have read zero books on my list, I am so bad at this why do I even try?

Summer Entertainment and Catch Up!

Summer has a decidedly different feel to the entertainment choices. There are lots of explosions and fantastical elements in the movies, people talk about beach reads which one can assume are lighter and more comedic or more juicy and scandalous. TV is next to nonexistent. Oh and there are also lots of outdoor concerts. And when I lived in St. Louis, it was the season for theater because of The Muny, an outdoor theater that I used to go to all the time and where I received most of my musical theater education (as in learned about plays by seeing them not actualfax education). I miss it! (and oh my gosh I just looked at the lineup for this year and it's unfair it's so good! :/ If you live in St. Louis you should go!)

Anyway....I hate summer. It's hot here, and my car is roasting early in the morning. The only thing I semi-like about summers are summer nights when things are cooling down and you can like...feel the release of pressure. I feel some kind of nostalgia during that time for childhood I guess. So my preferred entertainment is probably movies because there's something nice about a cool dark theater and a large icy Diet Coke. But...alas that costs money so I'll try to keep the movies I see to a minimum. I know I want to see Brave, Snow White and the Huntsman, The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter (don't judge), and probably more I'm forgetting. I'll probably have to make some tough choices about what to see! What movies are you looking forward to?

But there are also books, and I'm thinking about joining this readalong for The Stand? I usually fail at readalongs, even the ones I host, but this is a book I feel like I might enjoy and also is the kind of book that makes you well read. I want to read the original version, since I've heard it's better, does anyone know if it's easy to find?

Other than that, I actually don't have a lot of books I'm looking forward to. In fact, I'm pretty clueless on what's coming out which is a WONDERFUL feeling. I thought about downloading the sampler of Book Expo America's buzzy books, but part of me likes this "not knowing" feeling. We shall see!

On the reading front, I've been reading Jellicoe Road which I just so happened to pick up. This is a book people are really divided over, like they either think it's beautiful and amazing, or they think it's dull. I have to admit, I thought I would land in the beautiful and amazing camp, but my feelings about the book so far are kind of strange. It was hard for me to wrap my mind around the premise. At the same point in time, there's just enough intrigue that I don't want to stop reading the book. So I don't actually love it, but I don't dislike it either. Maybe my feelings will change by the conclusion?

Also something I've been wanting to mention forever is that I went on to read the next books in the Chaos Walking Trilogy. As you may recall, I appreciated but didn't love The Knife of Never Letting Go but when the chance to see Patrick Ness turned up, I decided to try to finish them. And like....The Ask and the Answer was amazing. I was blown away by how much more invested in the story I became and how much more interesting it was. The Ask and the Answer is a very very interesting book and the entire trilogy is great--it's thinky, emotionally intense, fast moving, etc. And I want to write more about them soon, but I wanted to mention this because it's great when your mind changes about something! And these would be good books for you to read over summer if you can. Also Patrick Ness was really cool and said lots of interesting things and he was really nice and signed all of my books with a different inscription so they'd be special! :)

Lastly...summer TV. I was looking pretty closely at the schedule earlier today and there are some interesting premises for reality shows, like this one on Lifetime about all the women leaving a town that I bet the girls at Lady Business could tear apart with their brilliant minds. But mostly I'll be watching what's tried and true, The Closer (final season, sob), Breaking Bad(first half of the final season!), and HGTV's Design Star while trying some new shows as well. What do you guys watch in the summer? (besides So You Think You Can Dance?)

Speaking of...I watched the pilot for Bunheads today. I think that those of you who watched Gilmore Girls might be interested in this one. The episode itself is packed which makes it feel a bit rushed. And I felt like some of the humor was trying too hard, but even so I liked it enough to want to tune in again. It's a female centric show, which, come to think of it, ABC Family is really good at. The main characters are older than what I usually think of as ABC Family's target demo, but there are some girl dancers that are teens and I'm sure we'll see more of them. The dynamic I felt like was set up at the end of the episode is what largely appeals to me, I can't get into it too much without spoiling it completely (it took me by complete surprise) and so I'm hopeful that it will find its footing and entertain. In short, if you can suspend disbelief--the setup is highly improbable, the show is likely to deliver in emotional truth (at least I hope so) so you should watch! You can check out the pilot early if you want! And then come back and tell me what you thought.

But!!

I still have some things to say about shows that ended last week.

Grimm is one of only two new shows from the season I'm still watching (and somehow I missed a few eps) and I'm not exactly sure why. It's really super goofy and a procedural to boot! But for some reason it's different enough to keep me engaged and I liked the finale quite a bit because it opened up some new storylines for next season. I have a feeling I will always prefer the mythology more than the case of the week stories, but at least people know now that there are mysterious creatures. It was really stretching my believability before! Also, I'm so glad that they added another female character, because that was just pathetic and she's cool.

I'm also still watching Scandal. And I almost didn't finish the season because the show went so over the top so fast. But I'm glad I watched the last two episodes, because I thought they were really great from the standpoint of the Fitz and Olivia relationship. Before the flashback episode I was so annoyed that the show wanted me to root for them. It was an adulterous relationship and I hated the way the reveal was done, where he grabbed her in the office and kissed her. And I hated how he was like, "she's the love of my life" and how Olivia always got conflicted and troubled and doubted herself because of him. But the flashback episode kind of sold me on the idea of them, not so much that I root for them...I think Olivia could do so much better! But the nature of their relationship, how they fell for each other hard and fast, how she pinpointed that the thing wrong with his campaign was how estranged he was from his wife. The actors really sold the moments of longing to touch and be more. But...the moment that killed me was the present day when he showed up at her place and they tried to fix the situation, and before he left he asked for a moment. And she reluctantly curls up next to him and they are both fighting back tears and I could just feel all of those emotions...the hopelessness of their relationship, the pain of the past, the longing for it to be something different than it is. It was a great emotional beat for the show in establishing their relationship and I can completely see why people would ship it or root for it, even though I don't. I think the show takes a shortcut by having his wife be merely ambitious and not really care that he cheats. It protects Olivia and Fitz but also simplifies everything.

But I also loved the progression of it in the next episode. I think it's interesting that they are choosing to paint Fitz as a reluctant president, he desperately wanted to take the out the sex tape provided. But everyone around him is making the decisions and calling the shots and I just thought it was interesting how Olivia and Mellie end up taking his choice away from him by finding a way for him to stay president and how betrayed he felt by that, the supposedly most powerful man in the world. In short, the show is really over the top plot wise, but I don't mind that so much it keeps me engaged. But I also think there are some interesting dynamics in the relationships. Who knows if I'll watch next year, but it was a good diversion this year.

So! Tell me all about your summer plans for entertainment...concerts, TV, movies, books, if I should do that readalong, etc. Also if you are going on vacation!

The Sunday Salon: Sharing Books We Love, Bad Movies, Russian Romances, and More

First of all, I want to thank everyone who commented on my post on Thursday about the desire to share the works of art we love with the people we love and why we might hesitate sometimes to do that. People brought up really great points that both helped me clarify my own thinking and also consider other things.

As I was responding to the idea of worrying too much about what others think, (which I will freely admit to doing, I DO care too much about what other people think, not all people, but some people) I realized in a clearer way that part of the hesitation isn't so much that if I say I love such and such a book, and it was this really deep and personal experience and they end up hating it that they will think less of me so much as it becomes this whole other thing that can't be shared. I mean yes I do want the people I love, like even, to think I have good taste, who doesn't? But more than good taste I want to have that shared experience of loving something. I mean, the rarity of that is why so many of us are online, I know, we seek out the people we know exist that share a love for the things we love. But also sometimes these books we love or this music we love speaks to us in a language all its own that only other people that love it get, and so it can feel lonely to have that rejected by someone we care about. I hope this makes sense.

Ana also brought up how book blogging specifically prevents her from sharing pure fannish love for something because she's so attuned to addressing potential issues with a work, and several people agreed on that front. I do think book blogging has made me more aware when I read of how I will talk about a book. I also think I will feel compelled to mention certain things, though I suspect it's different for Ana, whose readership probably expects a very certain kind of analysis from her. Anyway, if you originally read the post in a feed reader and didn't click through for comments, I highly recommend you do because it's been one of my favorite discussions on the blog in a long time.

Terrible Films I Watched (including 2 Film Club rejects)

Okay so the film that finally pushed me to start film club was Lars von Trier's Antichrist. You may notice it's not on the film club schedule. That's because Carrie actually read more about the film than I did and sent me increasingly alarmed emails. I finally read a bit about it on wikipedia and realized that there was no way I could suggest people watch this movie. Then, I thought I might not watch it either, but....it was on Amazon Prime and I heard that Melancholia was kind of related to it and some people I respect really liked Melancholia and so I decided to give it a go anyway. Oh my gosh, I wish I hadn't, I mean the film is VERY graphic and disturbing and now all those images are in my head forever and I wish they weren't. :( And I even quit well before the end!

Everything annoyed me about the movie though, from the get go, from the wildly graphic sex scene in the beginning while their toddler child calmly pushes a chair up to the window so he can eventually fall out and die, to the annoying way the husband tried to counsel and fix his wife. I mean every time he opened his mouth I wanted to slap him. And then they go to a cabin in the woods and everything gets really weird, and there's tons of sex and genital mutilation, and just...WHY DO MOVIES LIKE THIS EXIST? I cannot think of a single redeeming quality to this one at all.

So then I watched Melancholia which I can kind of appreciate more, like this idea of melancholia as something very personal that destroyed the character of Justine in the first part, and as the name of the planet that crashes into Earth in the end. And it was just a more palatable movie, but Charlotte Gainsbourg is in it, and she was the main female in Antichrist and so the instant she came on screen, I had horrific flashbacks that never really went away. Antichrist really scarred me y'all! The first half of the movie is all about Kirsten Dunst's character and she's getting married but also she's battling depression in a big way and she ends up doing all this stupid stuff and loses her husband straight away and her job etc.

The second part focuses on her sister Claire who is anxious about the impending crash of Melancholia the planet into Earth and follows her increasing anxiety as the world is coming to an end. Justine is fairly calm in the face of it, because Justine has already lost her battle to melancholia in the first half of the film. Also this is all filmed at some castle or something and the setting is really beautiful. And the really weird slow-motion prologue in the beginning
basically tells the whole story of the film. I didn't really like that the sex stuff in this movie, I thought it was really unnecessary, like there's this scene where Justine takes off all her clothes and lays out in the moon and I didn't get the point. But whatever. I looked up Lars von Trier's other movies, and the only other one I've seen is Dancer in the Dark which is also a movie that disturbed me deeply. I would actually like to watch it again sometime as it's been years, but clearly his story telling/film making has a way of getting under one's skin, though not necessarily in the best way to be honest.

The other film club reject I watched was The Skin I Live In I can't remember who suggested this, sorry. But the only reason I rejected it was because it wasn't out yet and I didn't know what the availability would be. When I saw it released and at Redbox I took a chance and OH MY GOSH. This movie is so disturbing and weird. Okay MAJOR SPOILERS FOLLOW.

**SPOILERS**It opens with Antonio Banderas doing all these experiments on skin and trying to create a new kind of skin that doesn't burn because his wife was in a car accident and suffered from severe burns and died. And you see this woman he keeps locked up in a room that he experiments on with the skin and you don't who she really is, but she tries to commit suicide and it doesn't work, and she also suggests she and Antonio just live together. And then this guy comes to the house dressed up in a tiger costume and he breaks in and he thinks the woman is the dead wife who apparently he had an affair with and the he rapes her. Antonio (sorry I don't know his character's name!!) comes home and finds them and shoots the guy. And the housekeeper tells Vera a ton of history like how those two guys were actually brothers and the guy in the tiger costume had an affair with his wife and they were running away together when they got in the car accident and he left her behind to burn. Antonio found her in the car and saved her but she was all covered in burns and wanted to die. Until one day she heard her daughter singing on the lawn and she felt some life and she got up to go to the window and she accidentally catches her reflection in the window and jumps to her death right in front of her daughter.

And then Antonio Banderas years later takes his daughter to a party shortly after she's released from a psychiatric hospital and she's all sweet and sort of hopeful and happy and then her date tries to rape her, which sends her over the edge until she eventually commits suicide as well. So of course Antonio Banderas does the natural thing and kidnaps the attempted rapist and chains him up. AND THEN he starts experimenting on him. Do you see where this is going? He gives him a sex change, new skin, etc. etc. until he has completely remade him over into the image of his dead wife, and call her Vera. **SPOILERS**

So that's another weird movie that I wish I could forget. I sort of want to curl up with Little Women, Sense & Sensibility, and You've Got Mail to purify myself.

Have any of you seen any of these movies? Am I missing something crucial?

Reading and Books!

I read Beth Kephart's Small Damages this week and it's wonderful! I also read This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers and it was also wonderful!

Also I'm continuing with The Bronze Horseman. I was reading this with a couple of friends but they bailed on me and I want to finish so I figured I could chronicle my thoughts here instead since I know a lot of you have read it. Spoilers because this a reading journal--since I was planning on discussing I have a lot of saved up thoughts, lol.

I've now finished the first book (the book is divided into two books I think) and the first part was rough going for me because it focused on the romance which was a bunch of stuff I don't really like about romances all bundled up into one starting with:

love at first sight

reformed player changes his ways for true love

girl is virginal and innocent and that's a lot of her appeal to him

stupid contrived obstacles keeping them apart. It grated in this story because they could have been really good

In addition to that the character development is awful, in that I didn't have a strong feel for who the characters were. I think I'm supposed to think of Tatiana as being really good and kind and selfless, but that's all I got. The other characters felt pretty one dimensional. And the prose is pretty plain and simple.

But...despite that there are enough things I like about it to keep reading. As far as the romance goes, there was this one part where Tatiana is describing Alexander and how sure of himself hie is, and I really identified with that as being something that happens when you fall in love, how you start to marvel at the very sense of self that other person has. Alexander's back story is really interesting as well, I wonder if there were really people who renounced their US citizenship to live in the ideal communist society? But the book really started to get good for me when Leningrad was starving. I know that sounds terrible, but I thought this section was really well done, she really effectively described the slow way they starved, the greed of her cousin in stealing the food, the way that at first they were ravenous and then they could barely function, watching people die all around them, watching their rations turn into sawdust and cardboard bread, the family members dying, people dying on the street, people attacking them for food, and eventually eating the dead bodies out in the street. It was one of the better starvation accounts I've read really. I wanted to go buy the whole grocery store while reading. As I was reading it, I started thinking I had maybe read a book about the starving of Leningrad before and I have! It wasn't nearly as affecting though, since I barely remembered that was what it was about.

Also, I don't know somehow this section helped me forgive the love story between Alexander and Tatiana because I realized that during a war like that, during a life and death situation you want to have something to hold onto or believe in, something bigger and outside of the war. So even if the love felt impossible, they both needed it to keep going. And I also thought that the big lie they tell Dasha has the ultimate consequence which reinforces the idea that epic lovers often dehumanize the people around them in the name of their love.

Finally, one other little thing I appreciate is the way she weaves in these ideas of things they long for but don't have in their culture. Tatiana wants privacy but doesn't even know if a word for such a concept exists, she tries to articulate what she means and can't. And then later she longs for a prayer to say over the deceased but she doesn't know any prayers and if you know what I'm talking about, yes I cried a little during that part!

I've never been to Russia, but I did visit a friend who taught in Mongolia for awhile and there was a lot of lingering Soviet influence there. So I just imagined the apartment buildings I saw in Mongolia as the kind of place where Tatiana's family lived.

Other Tidbits

I hit 50,000 tweets this week. I meant to make sure my 50,000th was something special but it ended up being a retweet because I forgot. Oh well at least I share info!

Wordpress changed their comment policy this week and it's awful. But Teresa gives you the scoop on how to comment on wordpress blogs now.

Also enjoyed S.D. Smith's piece at The Rabbit Room about being afraid to let good books pass on.

And I just realized this is already REALLY long so I'll stop for now. I hope you all have fabulous weeks planned. I'm enjoying our rainy weekend! Let me know what you think about anything.....

Films: Martha Marcy May Marlene and Sucker Punch

I sort of wish I'd saved these two movies for film club because they have a lot to discuss, but I've been waiting forever to watch both of them, so hopefully some of you have seen them and will discuss anyway!

Martha Marcy May Marlene is a really effective, creepy, and well done look at the way a cult can utterly destroy the fabric of one's psyche. There's this film critic I read (even though I hate myself for it half the time because he comes across as super pretentious and condescending--he makes a lot of good points, though, so alas) that mentioned Elizabeth Olsen's relation to her more famous sisters--the twins-- almost as if she should be ashamed of it, and for some reason that got me interested in the film. But...I'm also interested in cults and group think and how this stuff works.

I really liked the narrative structure of the film, the first thing we see is Martha leaving the cult and calling up her older sister. And then we start to see these two worlds side by side, her past with the cult and her present difficulty in adjusting to life outside living with her wealthy, married sister. She acts strangely at her sister's for example, she goes swimming with no clothes on, and you think...why? And then they flash back to the cult and kind of show you how these different behaviors were normalized for her.

And the cult isn't like this super scary thing, I mean I could really feel the appeal of it, this idea of living on a farm, and everyone having a role to play and forming a new family together. And some of the stuff they'd say felt like church a bit, this idea of opening up and trusting one another. Always having people around you who love you, I mean you can see the appeal in that, especially since we're led to understand that Martha had a rough time of it in her family. And while nothing's really clear or explicit I don't feel like it has to be. Maybe we'd like to think that it's only from the worst most broken abusive homes that people who make up cults come from, but sometimes it's possible to just feel like the odd one out, to never really connect with your flesh and blood family in the way you'd like. I think longing for community and love and understanding is as close to a shared human desire as there is.

The behavioral deviations increase as Martha stays with her sister and so does the intensity of the cult. The ugly side comes out...each girl is drugged and raped as an initiation into the cult. And they are taken aside by the woman who has mentored them and she tells them it's a good thing even though it might not feel good. It's all really awful, to be honest. And the thing is that Martha has a really hard time adjusting to life with her sister and there are these moments where the things she was taught in the cult break through, like these ideas are so deeply ingrained in her that they come up as an automatic response when she's put on the spot or in a really tight or uncomfortable position. Like even though she constantly reassures her sister that she doesn't blame her for anything (and that relationship alone is pretty fascinating--her sister tries to do right by her, but often it seems, as a way of absolving her own guilt) she still reverts to ideas from the cult when a discussion about her skills and talents come up and you have to wonder exactly what these sisters were like before. And since the cult leader is male and initiation is rape you can pretty much guess that the women in the cult are second class citizens, treated as less than human, regarded as possessions in ways that are made clear in other scenes as well.

And of course you're wondering what made her leave, and as her paranoia increases on the outside, the temperature at the farm increases in the flashbacks until you understand why she left and why she's so afraid.

The ending is...ambiguous? But, for me, it didn't matter because the meat of the film was never going to be in how this story resolved but in the way her time in the cult affected her ability to function and live as a normal human being. It's really well done.

Also! The title is brilliant. Martha is her real name, Marcy May is the name given to her in the cult, and Marlene is this name that every woman in the cult takes on when answering the phone. The film is basically the story of Martha trying to figure out which identity is really hers, but even the progression of the names in the title show how she goes from being an individual to a part of a collective and the story is Marlene trying to become Martha again but never being able to fully leave behind Marcy May. This film is rated R and with good reason, her initial rape is shown and also there's some other nudity.

So when I first saw the trailer for this movie, I was like LOL yeah right. Another movie about girls fighting (I love fighting girls tho, Buffy, Nikita, etc. don't get me wrong!) but they are wearing these clothes for the benefit of men. I was kind of disgusted and I didn't want to see it at all. And then I read this review at Julie Clawson's blog that totally changed my perspective on the film and made me want to watch it and I'm really glad I did.

The film itself is a brilliant exploration of the history of the struggle against patriarchy. It portrays young girls who have been betrayed by imposed fathers (step-fathers and priests) being shut away and taken advantage of because they are women. Their attempt to escape this imprisonment is depicted through dream sequences that use Jungian symbolism to show them entering worlds typically controlled by men (church, battlefields, fortresses, technology) and conquering them in order to escape them. They had to play by the rules of those worlds and demonstrate that they could dominate in those realms in order to move past them. It is a deconstruction of those realms that leads to a better world for the girls.

I mean doesn't that make it sound like the most brilliant thing ever? So I watched it and to be honest I really really liked it. I liked it for a lot of superficial reasons, I liked the style of the movie, for example, and the music. But because I'd read Julie's review prior to watching the movie, I had it in mind which helped me a lot in understanding it. Things exist in two realms in this movie, there's the "real" layer where Baby Doll accidentally killed her sister and is being locked away in a mental asylum by her stepfather to await a lobotomy. And then there's the world she escapes to in her mind which is a brothel. In the brothel, Baby Doll is like this amazing dancer and when she dances everyone is mesmerized. So while yeah ew gross, they never show her dancing, when she dances she's actually escaping in her mind to a fight. (the aforementioned scenes by Julie) So that's where the fighting takes place, it all takes place in Baby Doll's mind while she dances. Each time she dances there's an objective she's trying to reach. And also there is no killing of the humans, it's all like dragons and robots or men that are already dead. (not one man is killed in the film, though lots of girls die. That's not because it has serious gender issues...the men in this movie are all pretty gross and meant to be that way..but because the film is depicting the reality of women)

So yeah the girls in the movie are dressed up in these costumes but, I don't know how to express this, the movie doesn't sexualize that. There aren't shots of them being coy and flirtatious, Baby Doll is never shown dancing. I feel like the point was to show just how much these girls were viewed as objects and possessions in the world they inhabited but obviously there was so much more to them.

I'm not saying it was perfect, there are things to be questioned like why Baby Doll's guide is male (and does that matter?) and the choice of a brothel as her escape world (though I've read enough explanations on this to satisfy me) but I think this movie is so much more than the reviews gave it credit for. Like I was seriously deflated to read reviews that dismissed the movie as sexist because the girls were dressed like they were and fighting. I mean it's confusing for sure, but I feel like there's a lot of interesting things going on in the movie that are worth discussing. This is another review I liked. Sucker Punch is rated PG-13, btw.

Have you seen either of these two movies? I'd love to know your thoughts!

Presidents Should Always Fight Vampires and Also The Hunger Games

The trailer for Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter was released today and in my opinion it looks like a lot of fun. I didn't read the book, but seriously what's not to love about the good president fighting vamps?

Also, the soundtrack for The Hunger Games movie is available for pre-order and the track listing made me squee with a bit of glee I must admit. Arcade Fire! The Civil Wars! The Decemberists! Glen Hansard! Looking forward to it.

And lastly the new music video for Taylor Swift's "Safe and Sound" premiered tonight. I'm linking you to the MTV page and sorry it's not available outside of the US but surely YouTube will fix that soon.

To be honest, the amount of hype this movie is getting worries me. I love these books, but things might go horribly horribly wrong with the movie. And as much as I love The Hunger Games, there's such a thing as hearing about the movie too much and also missing the point. We shall see. Obviously none of this is stopping me from posting about it today.

Film: Monte Carlo

The summer heat y'all.

Summer is the time for big blockbuster movies that help you escape your troubles and the heat, but this year the only really big film I seem to care about seeing is Harry Potter. I wanted to see Midnight in Paris but it flew out of theaters really fast, and while I enjoyed Super 8, I think it ends up being largely forgettable for me.

I have to admit that I wasn't all that interested in seeing Monte Carlo, because I was sure it was going to be nothing more than completely cheesy and for people much younger than myself. I have no idea who Selena Gomez is apart from some star from The Disney Channel. I love Leighton Meester and Katie Cassidy but maybe not enough to see a bad movie for them. But one of my friends saw it and said it was actually pretty cute so in craving some escape from the real world I went to see it.

I ended up thinking it was the perfect summer movie in many ways. It's a complete escapist fantasy, the plot falls apart rather quickly if you give it any scrutiny, but it doesn't matter, because largely it's a movie about escaping from your life and finding yourself someplace totally different. It's charming and cute, offers lots of beautiful Paris, nice girl friendship moments, fun romances, and princess for a day fantasies. It doesn't try too hard to be funny which is something I hate. It's rated PG so it's free of raunchy humor as well. I don't know, I think if like me you're stuck forever in YA land, you might like this. And Leighton and Katie both look totally beautiful throughout!

So yes--perfect summer escapist fantasy, a great way to escape the heat. :)

Film: High Noon

I have, what shall we call it, a classic film knowledge deficiency. I know a few of the really big ones that I have seen multiple times, but other than that, I'm pretty clueless. Really, I didn't start watching movies or TV until I was in college and after which explains it a bit... It's something I've always kind of wanted to fix, but I have some issues with classic films, sometimes they are corny, or full of sexism, or the special effects are too laughable or the way everyone talks too distracting, etc. So I rely on recommendations for the most part.

I also had an aversion to Westerns until I read Lonesome Dove last year, at which point I also allowed myself to start watching some Western films and every time I'm surprised I like them.

And finally, when I love an artist or author or TV show I look to their influences so I can be similarly inspired and understand their work better. Andrew Peterson has a great song, one might even call it an Easter song, "High Noon" on his album Love and Thunder. Ding, ding, ding! That's why I decided to watch High Noon and was really excited to see it on Netflix Instant Watch. But, I was a little worried that I wouldn't it like it because it's old and a Western. Unfounded fears! I really really enjoyed it.

High Noon is the story of a marshal, Will Kane, who just gotten married to his pacifist wife and is hanging up his badge forever, when news comes round that Frank Miller, a man he arrested is coming back to town after inexplicably being pardoned. Will feels he can't leave the town and his unfinished business so he tries to rally the troops to face this threat. His wife is upset and threatens to leave him and his only deputy flees because he can't get his way. The movie basically follows Will around the town as he tries to get support and find people to stand with him in the upcoming gun fight. It takes place in real time and the suspense is very nicely built, the acting is fairly decent, there's mystery and tension in the relationship drama as well, and it's hard not to root for Will Kane, to ponder his motives, to wonder how things will turn out for him.

I really enjoyed watching the movie and looked it up afterwards to see what the good old internet had to say about it. It has a really fascinating history! A lot of people didn't like it because it wasn't a typical Western with lots of action, it was considered to be a statement about blacklisting in Hollywood, and apparently it's been a favorite film of several presidents including Bill Clinton.

Despite the controversy about it's release and the charge that it's an allegory for blacklisting which roots it in its time, I feel like the movie High Noon still has something to say to us today, about the courage of the individual and standing up for one's convictions, even when the rest of the world is too cowardly to do so. And even the question of pacifism, protection, and love is touched upon a bit. Without examining these ideas, it is, at the very least, an entertaining film.

Available on Netflix Instant Watch and recommended!

PS Several months ago when I did a reader survey, I asked about the possibility of having a film club where we watch a film each month and discuss it. Is anyone still interested in that? I crave discussion y'all and I need to fill in the gaps of my education!

Summer Days and Entertainment

No, no book reviews to be found here folks, but I have been watching some TV and even saw a movie in theater! Here is how I've been entertained lately:

TV

MTV's Teen Wolf--This thing cracks me up. It's really ridiculous, fairly sexist, super cheesy, and yet I'm still watching because it has a feel to it that reminds me of the kind of horror book I would have enjoyed before I ever made it into high school. It entertains me with its cliches so I'm still watching.

The Nine Lives of Chloe King--I had high hopes for this show because I liked Skyler Samuels on The Gates (RIP) and I love girl-centric shows but so far it's hasn't really ~spoken to me. Again, I'm still watching because it's summer and there isn't much else on and it's entertaining enough, but I don't know there's just something about ABC Family shows...the never really inspire addiction and obsession for me.

Switched at Birth--Surprisingly I probably like this one the best out of all the new shows because it has a lot of potential to really explore ideas of identity and family, what makes us who we are, how much we base our self-perception on where we came from, etc. The first two episodes were just alright for me, but the most recent one made me all teary, darn it. The basic idea is that two girls were switched at birth, they discover it in high school and their families end up living next door in order to get to know their daughters.

Falling Skies--A bit heavy handed and not entirely original, but interesting enough to keep me with it. I already wrote more about this one here.

Wilfred--Tried to watch this one, but the main character tries to commit suicide in the opening sequence and that kind of depression is too close to home for me right now, any kind of harsh realism in comedy generally doesn't work for me, so I gave up.

Pretty Little Liars--Now in its second season. I hate the pairing of Ezra/Aria and that manages to detract from my enjoyment EVERY SINGLE WEEK but the show got a bit more interesting lately, and I love Spencer.

On Netflix, I started watching Greek, but it's a bit take it or leave it for me and I'm going to try to finish at least the first season of Battlestar Galactica.

BUT FRIENDS!! If you have Amazon Prime, they have many videos available to you, and I'd like to point out that Mister Rogers is available to watch. Isn't that wonderful? I have it on right now as I wrote this post. it gives me many warm fuzzy feelings of my childhood.

MOVIES

I went to see Super 8 in the theater. I thought it was a nice fun summer film, full of nostalgic feel, but it wasn't anything spectacular to me. It wasn't really scary, the monster was kind of...strange, the best part was the cute and fun banter between the friends.

On DVD, I've recently watched Battle: Los Angeles (a war movie! with aliens!), Megamind (kind of cute) Secretariat (so much love this was fabulous), Skyline (too ridiculous for life), and I am Number 4 (lost interest when Timothy Olyphant got killed off)

I also watched Hal Ashby's The Landlord which I thought was a really intersting film. It's only on DVD recently for the first time and it's about a wealthy guy that buys an apartment building in Park Slope Brooklyn pre-gentrification. Of course he's really naive and when he first shows up they take advantage of him and steal his things and threaten his life, but he's rather eager to make his own way and he kind of bonds with him. I don't know I thought this movie was really interesting in the way it was put together and dealt with racism and privilege. And the story was at times really amusing. I have a feeling it was a movie before its time.



OTHER STUFF

Pixar is finally going to have a girl main character in next year's Brave. I'm so excited! I love Pixar but it's sad they haven't had a girl for a main character before and saying that's because they are story driven doesn't really make me feel better. Sometimes we need to be pushed to look at why we are conceiving stories the way we are but whatever not going to be too mad at the moment. She's an expert at archery as well, sound like another favorite heroine?

Comic-con is coming soon!! If you are a book blogger or author planning on going please let me know! Maybe we can all get together and stand in line for something together. :)

So...recommended movies? TV I should catch up on over the summer? Best beach reads? Tell me all.

Thoughts on the Two Facebook Movies: The Social Network and Catfish

Meghan of Medieval Bookworm recently raised the question of how much history historical fiction needs. Meghan is very knowledgeable about history and inaccuracies and liberties taken with history bother her.

I've spent some time thinking about this as well. I'm less likely to know when history has been altered in a novel, but I do think I prefer for things to be as accurate as possible. Otherwise, why not just write a completely fictional story? I suppose there's some room for changes. But the real issue for me, I think, is that it's a bit like gossip. Once the seed has been planted that the story went this way, even when I learn the truth, the story that was impressed into my mind is hard to unlearn. It colors the way I see things, it's always a shadow of doubt cast over reality.

This is why The Social Network fails in my opinion. Did I like the movie? Very much. I admired it a lot, until I read about how inaccurate it was, how much it revised the story and timeline and characters to achieve it's point. The Social Network certainly tells us some of the history of Facebook, but it revolves around the character of Mark Zuckerberg being socially maladjusted, obsessed with status, and well, quite frankly, an asshole. I'm not here to advocate he was a saint, but a little more accuracy, please, when you're going to use someone's real name? When you are purporting to tell their story? When you're making your film a part of the public record of the story?

But to tell the story the filmmakers wanted to tell, they altered the character of Zuckerberg and also the history it would seem. They had a specific agenda in mind, a story to tell about the changing nature of status. In fact, I found this commentary by John Hagel (thanks to whoever tweeted it) to be very insightful. For example, the way the film treats women IS appalling. Having said all of this, I really enjoyed watching it, there were funny parts, and interesting parts and there is definitely a lot to talk about. It's not that I think you shouldn't see the movie, I just think it's worth knowing what's fact and what's not.

Additionally, I did find the relationship between Eduardo and Mark and what happens to be emotionally resonant. If you have ever worked with others to build something and end up finding yourself deceived and cut out--well that's a painful experience. And while I've never experienced anything on the scale of what the movie suggests happened, I have in smaller doses. It made me really sad.

Did you see The Social Network? What did you think?

Now this week I went to see another Facebook movie only I didn't know it was a Facebook movie at the time. In fact, it was one of those times I had no idea at all what the movie was...even that it was a documentary! And I have to tell you that was the VERY BEST WAY to approach this movie. If you haven't seen Catfish and want to, I highly recommend not reading any further. It's best gone into blind. However, I feel the need to talk about this movie (in a lot of spoilery detail) that completely blindsided me this week.

Catfish is the story of Yaniv Schulman, a photographer in New York. One day, he receives a painting of one of his pictures from an 8 year old girl named Abby. The painting is rather brilliant and eventually Yaniv, Nev, strikes up a friendship with Abby and family via Facebook. I have to admit I loved this part. This is the generation I'm a part of, albeit on the older end, the one that thinks it's perfectly normal to make friends wherever they might be...in real life, via Facebook, etc. I find it perfectly normal to chat via telephone and online with friends I've met because of life and friends I've met online. This is so rarely depicted in media in a way that is normal that I enjoyed it. Also, Nev is very easy on the eyes and it was hard not to like him and his filmmaking friends.

As fate would have it, Angela, Abby's mom, has a 19 year old daughter Megan who is rather gorgeous from her pictures. Nev and Megan end up in a more romantic sort of relationship. Nev tries several times to meet the family but things don't work out. One night when online with them, he realizes something isn't quite right--in other words, he catches them in a lie. This leads to more careful investigation of all the things they've told him and more lies are uncovered. It's then decided that they'll show up in Michigan and surprise the family.

More lies unravel until they finally meet Angela face to face. I'm not sure what I was expecting here, but to be honest, my heart sort of broke. Angela turned out to be a woman in a hard circumstance in her life and a compulsive liar. She had constructed 15 identities on Facebook to create the world of the lie of a relationship she'd had with Nev. She was the painter, not her daughter. She was every single one of the false identities. This entire section was unbearably uncomfortable. Nev seemed kind, he gently confronted her for the truth. And she told him some of it. In the film's most heartwrenching scene, she explains that when she married her husband she knew she was sacrificing her life because of his two severely mentally handicapped sons. She just hadn't realized how much. This Facebook identity she constructed was a sort of escape, a sort of taking back what she'd lost.

I had a friend in the sixth grade who lied all the time. She was adorable and very cute but I never knew what the truth was. It was so sad because we all liked her just the way she was for who she was...we didn't need to hear impressive stories to sway us. As lie after lie was uncovered in this movie, I thought of her and of that human need to construct an identity and reality different than the one we're really in.

I've read a few reviews for Catfish--apparently the marketing campaign sold it as a thriller and it's not. I can only imagine that it would be extremely disappointing to watch this thinking you were going to get a thriller and instead get a pretty quiet movie about an unraveling Facebook friendship. Additionally, yes there are questions. In fact, I had to look up and see if this was a "fake" documentary. The filmmakers claim it's true.

But I was so affected by this movie. I felt like I'd been through quite an emotional experience. Not because I doubt any of my online friends are who they say they are...I've met most of them in real life, actually. But because I felt such sympathy for Angela, even though she used her family members (such as her daughter Abby), as a woman who was sorely disappointed with her life. What she did was wrong, very wrong. But I could see a little bit of the why. I tweeted right after watching that this might be my favorite movie of the year. I take that back now, I think my favorite movies of the year are still The Kids Are All Right and Toy Story 3. But I did really love it for the exploration of identity, online identity and friendship, and for breaking my heart a little. :)

I would love your thoughts on either of these movies. What's the best movie you've seen recently?

My Week at the Movies

It's been miserably hot here the past few days (we'd had a pretty cool summer up to this point) and I'm a little embarrassed to admit I've been to the theater three times already! All three films were winners, though, so I figured I'd share them with you.

Monday I went to see Winter's Bone. Nicole read and really loved this book and so I've been hoping it would come near where I live. Unfortunately, the one theater that sometimes showed indie or foreign films closed abruptly earlier this summer. But then it reopened managed by a new company and with more indies than ever! Yay! So when I saw Winter's Bone was playing I had to go...especially since I'd seen nothing but rave reviews. This is an intense film, very dark, but not without a glimmer of...something..hope? A seventeen year old girl who is essentially raising her younger siblings in the Missouri Ozarks. She finds out her dad put up their house and property for his bond and if he doesn't show up for court they'll lose everything..so she sets out to look for him, a dangerous quest considering the kind of company he kept. The acting is outstanding, and there are some pretty chilling scenes throughout.

And I had to go see Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World of course! This is the kind of fun summer movie heavy on stylistic elements that make it a lot of fun to watch. And funny. It's really funny. And no I don't think it's anti-feminist and personally I think that's a rather shallow viewing of the film, but that's just me. There's a lot of ridiculousness about Scott Pilgrim to love. Recommended for when you want to go see a fun summer flick.


And lastly, I finally saw The Kids are All Right, which I was surprised by just how much I loved. I should warn there's a ton of sex in this one, and human sexuality is rather a large theme in the film. I just loved these all too real characters and how they tried to navigate the circumstances of their family. It's about a lesbian couple with two kids, who both have the same sperm donor. They want to meet him, and when they do it complicates things as he wants to have a relationship with them. At first I felt annoyed by some of the turns the film took, but then I realized just how likely they were. Everything felt so authentic in this movie--I found myself emotionally invested in the fate of the characters. But also, it was heartwarming and funny and I just felt...good after watching it.

Have you seen any movies lately? Anything you're looking forward to coming out this year?