Let's make happy
Watched Things
Summer Reading
Jul 6th
My July 4th weekend consisted largely of reading and sleeping in the grass. How appropriate that I was reading this book.
I loved it. It’s been a long time since I got excited about a book, so I feel the need to spread the word. As you can see, it’s The Accidental by Ali Smith. It came out a few years ago.
While I’m talking of new favorite things, the best movie I saw recently was Please Give (not spectacular, but unexpectedly good), and in the music category I’ve been enjoying The National’s Boxer (admittedly late to this one too).
Work of Art on Bravo
Jun 9th
Update: It looks like John will be reviewing Work of Art weekly on the A.V. Club! You can read all of his reviews here.
If you’re a fan of Project Runway-style reality shows, you might be interested in checking out tonight’s premiere of Work of Art, a new “creative challenge” show, on Bravo at 11 pm.
I’m pretty unsure how well an art-based competition show will work over the course of a season, but that’s part of what intrigues me about it. John reviewed it on the A.V. Club website, so you can see what he has to say before setting your DVR. (I caught a peek at the preview copy the other day as he was watching it, and thankfully the scary clown on an easel is not the best it has to offer.)
2009 “Best of”s
Dec 22nd
How about some “best-of” lists for 2009? I don’t keep up with all the latest in any media, but here’s what I enjoyed this year anyway.
Best new movies
In the Loop
Up in the Air
Best new-to-me movies
Paris, Texas (1984)
Notes on a Scandal (2006)
Best new album
Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavilion
Best new-to-me albums
The Fiery Furnaces’ Blueberry Boat (2004)
Parenthetical Girls’ Entanglements (2008)
John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme (1964)
Best new TV
Mad Men
Friday Night Lights
Parks and Recreation
Community
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Best new-to-me TV
Friday Night Lights (The first 3 seasons)
Best new book
Turns out I didn’t read any 2009 books this year! But I read a lot of new short fiction, particularly from Tin House.
Oh, I forgot The Believers by Zoe Heller!
Best new-to-me book
Beloved by Toni Morrison (1998)
Best new game
Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure
Best new-to-me games
LEGO Batman (2008)
Rock Band 2 (2008)
Best new cats
Soupy and Nipsey!
August 09 Movies
Aug 31st
August turned out to be a big movie-watching month for me. Here are the movies I saw and what I thought upon seeing.
In the theater
The rave reviews that this “quirky” film from Denmark received seemed too good to be true, and it was indeed pretty unpleasant! I will never enjoy the tuba again. And the vignettes! No more “vignette” movies for a while.
Meryl Streep as Julia was delightful and amazing. As much as I love Amy Adams, though (and I do), Julie could have choked on a duck bone for all I cared about her story. But then the movie would never have been made, I guess. It was a pretty good movie.
On DVD
This is the 2007 French animated movie about a girl growing up in Iran. The animation was great, the Iran stuff was interesting, the main character (and her English voice acting) was just-OK/bordering-on-annoying. I recommend it.
The perfect economic downturn movie! Everyone should see this before the year is up and the recovery is official. It opens with showgirls decked out in “sexy” costumes made of coins and singing “We’re in the Money.” Classic Busby Berkley, with musical numbers that are both brilliant and very odd. The plot is stupid, of course.
This is Peter Jackson’s movie about two girls who murdered one of their mothers in New Zealand in the 1950s, starring Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey (pictured). The fantasy sequences reminded me of the kinds of movies that I watched over and over again as a kid, like Labyrinth and The Princess Bride. The film’s commitment to getting into the girls’ lively imaginations made the murder all the more disturbing, and I probably liked Kate Winslet in this more than in anything else I’ve seen her in.
On TV
Nothing needs to be said about this classic, only that the OETA Movie Club is awesome.
July 09 Movies
Aug 11th
When I wasn’t knitting tiny things in July, I watched a few movies. Here are the movies that I saw and what I thought of them.
In the theater
I had heard from a trusted source (who will go unnamed) that this was a funny movie. Eh, it started out pretty funny, then it got progressively less so. Also, the plot didn’t really work for me, even as a silly comedy plot. I give it a C+. (The plus is for Ed Helms. I met him once!)
A funny and very smart political satire, with not one lagging moment. The best movie I’ve seen in a theater in a really long time. John overheard a woman saying that she “didn’t laugh once” as we were exiting the theater, which was almost as funny as the movie. I suppose she didn’t like the bad language.
I kind of liked this small movie. The acting was done in a natural style and the whole thing was very sensitive. There was one scene that employed horrible tinkly indie music, but since it was just one scene, I could forgive it for that.
On DVD
Everybody seems to know about Stanley Kubric’s Lolita, but no one seems to have actually seen it, as far as I can tell. So I decided to see it, and I liked it. By far my favorite thing about it was Peter Sellers as Quilty (Humbert Humbert’s rival). He is so great! The girl who played Lolita, Sue Lyon, was also very good. Unfortunately she doesn’t appear to have had much of a successful acting career after this.
On TV
I can explain this one. See, John and I have been watching the reruns of Frasier on Lifetime lately, and because they come on several times a day, our DVR is often set to that channel already when I turn the TV on. So when I feel like watching television at other times and there’s nothing on but a Meg Ryan movie WITH commercials that I can fast forward through… so it just happened.
I totally have memories of my own AOL days, so that aspect of the movie (and the way that the Internet spurs some heated debate in some scenes) is sort of interesting. The rest? Not so much, and really dated, and so what if I teared up a little at the end.
