middle cyclones and other references

Procrastination Theatre: April 5, 2012

Oh my God, I’m so behind on these.

Okay, so I haven’t read the books. From what I’ve heard/seen in the movie, it seems as though Suzanne Collins is dealing with some pretty complex and interesting issues when it comes to negotiating publicity and identity in a world increasingly dominated by  the weird facade of reality tv; she’s also done a pretty bang-up job of looking at how the different means of production would get parcelled out between different districts. That being said, I’m still not sure if I’m going to read them because I’m pretty sure the writing itself, if not the ideas, is young adult writing. 

Anyway, the movie: was good, I thought, for someone who hadn’t read the books. Jennifer Lawrence was wonderful in it, which shouldn’t surprise anyone because Winter’s Bone is basically The Hunger Games in the real world. I could have done with a lot less shaky-cam; I went in with a headache and left with a huge migraine. I am fine with shaky-cam in action scenes, but if we’re just walking n’talking, I don’t know why I am suddenly just looking at a boot. And in what I assume is the correct reaction to the books, anytime Peeta and Katniss did anything romantic with each other, I made a face like I was seeing a close relative naked. I am apparently not at all comfortable with the idea of publicized affection. And I mean, really, Katniss is a lovely antidote to the Twilight debacle; what if there’s a girl who really isn’t interested in romance, period? I like it.

My last comment is that I used to do archery and I was awesome at it and Jennifer Lawrence did a pretty good job at it but it would actually screw up your shot to pluck it back even further once you already have the string at your face so….anyway. 

Procrastination Theatre: February 15, 2012

You know, I know I wasn’t supposed to like this movie. But I did. I personally loved it, by which I mean I know it wasn’t necessarily a skilled or well-executed movie, but it touched certain particular chords that I as an emotional and nostalgic person love. Those chords are:

• I have always wished that I was the sort of person who has large messy groups of friends and makes poor, passionate decisions that hurt afterwards. I am not. I will never have that life-long dysfunctional irreplaceable love affair with someone because I am way too practical and I immediately cut ties upon ever losing trust in someone and also I have the Boyfriend and we are stable, not all romantically distraught. But I love watching it and I love fantasizing that I am the kind of person who would let a relationship bleed me dry in gloriously messy fashion.
• There is something wonderful about the enclosed, empty setting of this movie: even though there’s a wedding on in this New England-y upper-class lake house estate, it feels like the only people there are this one group of friends, who colonize and traipse all over its classical architecture and lawn in a truly charming fashion. It feels like a dream sometimes, like when you dream about one solitary house on a lawn and how entering it always feels like a painting.
• It has a good soundtrack about dysfunctional relationships that I like to listen to and imagine having a dysfunctional relationship to. Including The Zombies and someone called Lorene Scafaria?
• It contains an important plot point that revolves around Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale”, which reminds me of Mia and our erstwhile fictional love affair. 
• It has a reasonably accurate account of what really goes on inside those tight, claustrophic, twin-like female relationships, where you are inseparable and know each other better than anyone else but that knowledge is also a prison of resentment, an ongoing power struggle. I had one of those all through high school. I am not sure which one I was. I always felt like she was the one who got everything, who was wanted and exciting and desired, but I also feel that I might have been the infuriatingly well-behaved perfect one. 

Procrastination Theatre: February 13, 2012

Okay, so just to preface this: I am totally that asshole who reads the 1,000 page book before watching the movie that clearly isn’t going to be good, just so that she can bitch about it. With that in mind, here are some things I said while watching this movie:

“Wow, we are realllllllyy playing fast and loose with good old Thackeray, aren’t we?”
“I hope they bought Thackeray a drink. Before they fucked him.”
“No, you’re right, it is a nice thought that Becky Sharp might have cared that her husband was going off to war. What a nicer scene this was. Good idea. What a nice world we live in now. Why even call her Becky Sharp? Let’s name her Suzy Muffinface.”
“Holy shit, what has James Purefroy been doing? This man is attractive. This man has the best sideburns I’ve ever seen.”
“……really? Becky Sharp is a near-rape victim now? Go fuck yourself, Mira Nair.” 

Besides all my hilarity above, I think it is important to say “fuck you” to Mira Nair and anyone else involved in the screenwriting decision to have Becky Sharp be assaulted by the Marquis. In the book, it’s this fucking amazing opulent apocalyptic thing, where her husband breaks out of debtor’s jail and comes home and she’s in front of the Marquis dripping with jewels, all sensual and powerful and demonic. We don’t know if she has sex with the Marquis, but if she did, she wasn’t raped. In the movie, he forces himself on her and then her husband walks in and misconstrues it.

And so Mira Nair basically says that she’d rather have her female protagonist be a powerless victim who is in “over her head” than be a powerful, complex, and unlikable force. And I say: fuck you, Mira Nair. This is the entire problem with female characters in popular film. I would throw an egg at her or something, I swear to god I would.

(via in my dreams, i live here. / sfgirlbybay)

I don’t overly like this book, but this is beautiful.