viewing catchup
May. 24th, 2010 09:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmoorePlaying catchup with the last few months of viewing.
Movies: Ballet Shoes, The Court Jester, Court Jester, The Flame and the Arrow, Florence Nightingale, Glorious 39, Mean Girls, On Guard/Le Bossu
Ballet Shoes: I haven’t read the book this is based on, which I understand is a favorite of many f-listers, but I like this a lot. Eccentric collector Gum is at a loss when his young relative, Sylvia comes to live with him after her parents die, but apparently takes to the idea as, years later, he sends three homeless baby girls to Sylvia to raise while he’s travelling, and then disappears, leaving the girls to Sylvia, who eventually has to open the house to boarders. As teenagers, Pauline wants to be an actress, Posy a dancer, and Petrova an aviatrix, and the movie focuses on their trying to achieve those dreams, and their relationships with each other and the rest of their adopted family. I have a feeling that the story was adjusted to focus more on Pauline, due to Emma Watson’s popularity, and that it originally focused more on Posy (the title, and she’s the one with the angstiest backstory) and while the movie didn’t feel rushed or lacking to me, I thought the story warranted more length than it had.
The Court Jester: An absolutely awesome parody of swashbucklers (particularly The adventures of Robin Hood) that I had sadly never heard of until recently, featuring one of the best swordfights ever. The plot is a bit goofy-jester who wants to be a hero who gets a spell cast on him that changes him into a swashbuckler when undertaking a mission for The Hero, but never has a clue what’s going on since he doesn’t remember what happened when he’s under the spell-but who cares? I may have to get it on DVD.
A clip:
Cousin Bette: Based on the writings of Honore de Balzac, I checked it out mostly out of curiosity after reading Baslzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. I’m not sure how faithful it is to the source material, but this was a rather entertaining revenge plot about a woman who gets revenge on the family who’s used her for years. It never seemed to really be able to decide if it was a drama or a dark comedy, but Jessica Lange was brilliant.Even if the moviemakers are delusional if they really thought we’d buy that people thought she was ugly.
The Flame and the Arrow: A Burt Lancaster swashbuckler set in 12th Century Italy. Parts of it feel like a reworked version of The Adventures of Robin Hood (a few scenes actually almost feel directly lifted) with different politics and a less-nice hero, but it was pretty fun, though in a near-bodice-ripper way. (I’d actually compare it more to The Black Swan than anything else, really.)
Florence Nightingale: This is a short (just over an hour) biopic starring Laura Fraser, focusing centering the focus around the Crimean War as far as events go, with the main thematic focus being Nightingale’s religious beliefs and her conviction that nursing was her calling. The story is told non-linearly, and a good third of the movie is Nightingale turning to speak directly to the audience to explain things (I have no problems with this. I could listen to Laura Fraser talk for hours.), and then folding into a narrative of the events she’s explaining, with scenes from a play about Nightingale serving as transition. It lost me a bit at the end, when her great personal crisis was resolved by a pep talk from her father, but not enough to ruin my overall enjoyment. I thought it was very good. Notably, it’s one of the very few biopics about historical women that doesn’t focus on a romantic interest, historical or fictional. It was actually *gasp* about her goals and ideals and worldview.
Glorious 39: I’ve been anticipating this movie for several months but, sadly, it was something of a letdown. Featuring Romola Garai as a young actress who stumbles across a conspiracy in the early days of Britain’s involvement in WWII, it sounds awesome of paper, but fell through in execution. When the movie got going with its gothic undertones, it was fun, but most of it plods along without seeming to know what direction it’s going, and I honestly have no idea what to make of the ending. Which is sad, because Garai is fabulous (and ridiculously gorgeous and her wardrobe is amazing) and had a pretty good cast supporting her, and it’s ridiculously easy to see how shaving off half an hour and giving the same ideas a better script could have been awesome.
Mean Girls: I had avoided this for years due to the trailers making it look like it was all about teenaged girls being mean backstabbers, but finally watched it after being assured that it was a critique of that type of culture, which Hollywood is always only too eager to shove down our throats. In general, it’s a very good, entertaining critique with a lot of strong performances, but a lot of the humor relied too much on character embarrassment to really work for me. (I have that problem with a lot of Hollywood humor, and things labeled as “comedy” in general.)
On Guard/Le Bossu: A French swashbuckler from the same director as Cartouche. Not as quickly entertaining as Cartouche, but with a much more satisfying ending. Lagardere, a cashiered soldier, befriends a nobleman and ends up raising the friend’s infant daughter (initially thought to be a boy), only to return with her years later for revenge. I found the first 45 or so minutes dull, but it picked up once people started dying. I did feel a bit guilty at not liking it until Vincent Perez died. There’s one element that’s squicky for modern audiences, but not for the times. I wasn’t overly bothered by it, but I wish there’d been better transitioning for it, especially on Aurore’s part.
Tv: Foyle's War: Series 7, Gossip Girl: Season 2, Larkrise to Candleford: Series 1 & 2, Little Dorrit, Pushing Daisies: Season 2
Foyle’s War: Series 7: The end of the series, though I think this is the third time it’s ended, so who knows. In a year or so, we may get Foyle in America, bringing down The One Who Got Away. (You have no idea the joy I felt when he said he was going to America as soon as he could to “take care of unfinished business.”) The series didn’t quite seem to know what it was doing with itself here, as the original concept is done with, and it’s post war, with everyone theoretically having moved on. In particular, I don’t think they had a clue what to do with Milner. (Also, they were acting like it’d been months and months since the end of the last series, but his baby was still pretty itty.) However, Foyle’s War that isn’t as good as previous installments is still excellent viewing. It was weird not seeing Andrew, but I guess Julian Ovenden was doing other things. I admit to being rather ambivalent about him, and that my main use for him is that Sam/Andrew helps to keep Sam and Foyle connected. Girl definitely has a type, though. New Boyfriend is probably an improvement for her, if only because he seems more responsible and consistent. (Not that Andrew was really irresponsible, but the only thing he seems to be able to stick with is being a soldier.) The plots were a bit on the dark side-not that the series went for fluffy plots anyway-but it fit.
Gossip Girl: Season 2: This season was, like, a collection of the dullest plotlines with occasional flashes of awesome. Like, I’m fairly sure only my love for Blair, Serena and Lily got me through it? And I really didn’t like a lot of Serena’s characterization at times. But really, the show seriously went off the deep end with the teacher plotline. Like, when Dan threw up his hands in disgust and told Blair about the closet? I can’t help but wonder if that was the writers giving up on trying to make that work. I positively trilled with joy when Georgina showed up and her eyes got an evil gleam when Chuck mentioned Blair. I have such love in my heart for that girl’s evil soul. Like, why couldn’t there have been more of Blair, Georgina and Chuck evilly plotting evil plans? I was glad Chuck trying to rape Jenny (and wow, did Jenny have an awful plotline in the first half of the season, though I did like her plotline in the second half) in the pilot was finally addressed, though Chuck’s pretending to be what’s-his-face to try to trick Blair into having sex with him rather killed all the ground he’d won with me. I’m kind of wondering if I should bother with season 3? Almost everything I cared about was resolved here, and I now fear the future.
Little Dorrit: Another BBC mini based on Dickens, this time about a young woman born and raised in debtor’s prison who takes care of her father, and leaves with him when it’s discovered he’s the heir to a vast fortune. I didn’t like this as much as Bleak House but I think the deliberate pacing worked better here. I think that, while I liked a lot of the characters, I wasn’t absolutely mad for them like I was for Esther, Ada and Lady Dedlock in BH, and there was more focus on the more unpleasant characters, who I didn’t care for. But Claire Foy’s performance was excellent, especially given how little experience she had at the time, and it was startling (in a good way) to see Matthre McFayden (I’m misspelling that, but too lazy to look up the correct spelling) playing a character so nice and open and helpful.
Larkrise to Candleford: Season 1 & 2 This is one of those BBC “Slice-of-Life-Back-Then” series that sounds dull of paper but is lovely in motion. In this case “village girl moves to nearby town to work in the post office with her proto-feminist cousin.” Of course, said village girl starts off talking about a farmer’s life and how rough it can be, but looks like she’s never been in the sun a day in her life. The series focuses on small town and village life in the late 19th century, and how it’s influenced by the larger world around it. I’m frequently unimpressed by the love interests Laura (main character) and Dorcas (cousin) are given, but mostly find them easy to ignore. (Conversely, Laura’s childhood friend, Alf, only quit being annoying when he quit pining over her and acting like he was The One for Laura just because they came from the same place.) In addition to Laura and Dorcas, I’m also particularly fond of the busybody sisters whose shop is across the street from the post office, Laura’s mother, Emma (though I frequently want to slap her father, the self-designated moral arbitrator of the series, especially when he does things like letting his pride get in the way of feeding and clothing his family), and Thomas, the overly-pious sole male employee of the post office.
Pushing Daisies: Season 2 I watched this around the time Dollhouse was wrapping up, and so kept flipflopping between elation at the fluffy joy of Pushing Daisies and it’s multiple women with plots and consistent agency and female relationships and adorable men and healthy and charming relationships of all genders and varieties (ok, all heterosexual, but both platonic and non-platonic!) and annoyance that it got cancelled and Dollhouse got renewed. I mean, the same day I watched Lily camping out in her sister’s evil boyfriend’s hotel room with a shotgun, people posted about how totally awesome it was that a female character in Dollhouse “chose her own fate” by shooting herself in the head. Very strange to be simultaneously elated and depressed. I really wished they’d had another episode or two to wrap up the plot with the fathers, but am glad they had enough time to resolve what they did. Also, Gina Torres was awesome as a noir chick, but I was sad that she, too, has fallen victim to “Europeanizing” her looks (the hair and getting stereotypically skinny, mostly). Kristin Chenowyth needed to sing way more, though.
Movies: Ballet Shoes, The Court Jester, Court Jester, The Flame and the Arrow, Florence Nightingale, Glorious 39, Mean Girls, On Guard/Le Bossu
Ballet Shoes: I haven’t read the book this is based on, which I understand is a favorite of many f-listers, but I like this a lot. Eccentric collector Gum is at a loss when his young relative, Sylvia comes to live with him after her parents die, but apparently takes to the idea as, years later, he sends three homeless baby girls to Sylvia to raise while he’s travelling, and then disappears, leaving the girls to Sylvia, who eventually has to open the house to boarders. As teenagers, Pauline wants to be an actress, Posy a dancer, and Petrova an aviatrix, and the movie focuses on their trying to achieve those dreams, and their relationships with each other and the rest of their adopted family. I have a feeling that the story was adjusted to focus more on Pauline, due to Emma Watson’s popularity, and that it originally focused more on Posy (the title, and she’s the one with the angstiest backstory) and while the movie didn’t feel rushed or lacking to me, I thought the story warranted more length than it had.
The Court Jester: An absolutely awesome parody of swashbucklers (particularly The adventures of Robin Hood) that I had sadly never heard of until recently, featuring one of the best swordfights ever. The plot is a bit goofy-jester who wants to be a hero who gets a spell cast on him that changes him into a swashbuckler when undertaking a mission for The Hero, but never has a clue what’s going on since he doesn’t remember what happened when he’s under the spell-but who cares? I may have to get it on DVD.
A clip:
Cousin Bette: Based on the writings of Honore de Balzac, I checked it out mostly out of curiosity after reading Baslzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress. I’m not sure how faithful it is to the source material, but this was a rather entertaining revenge plot about a woman who gets revenge on the family who’s used her for years. It never seemed to really be able to decide if it was a drama or a dark comedy, but Jessica Lange was brilliant.
The Flame and the Arrow: A Burt Lancaster swashbuckler set in 12th Century Italy. Parts of it feel like a reworked version of The Adventures of Robin Hood (a few scenes actually almost feel directly lifted) with different politics and a less-nice hero, but it was pretty fun, though in a near-bodice-ripper way. (I’d actually compare it more to The Black Swan than anything else, really.)
Florence Nightingale: This is a short (just over an hour) biopic starring Laura Fraser, focusing centering the focus around the Crimean War as far as events go, with the main thematic focus being Nightingale’s religious beliefs and her conviction that nursing was her calling. The story is told non-linearly, and a good third of the movie is Nightingale turning to speak directly to the audience to explain things (I have no problems with this. I could listen to Laura Fraser talk for hours.), and then folding into a narrative of the events she’s explaining, with scenes from a play about Nightingale serving as transition. It lost me a bit at the end, when her great personal crisis was resolved by a pep talk from her father, but not enough to ruin my overall enjoyment. I thought it was very good. Notably, it’s one of the very few biopics about historical women that doesn’t focus on a romantic interest, historical or fictional. It was actually *gasp* about her goals and ideals and worldview.
Glorious 39: I’ve been anticipating this movie for several months but, sadly, it was something of a letdown. Featuring Romola Garai as a young actress who stumbles across a conspiracy in the early days of Britain’s involvement in WWII, it sounds awesome of paper, but fell through in execution. When the movie got going with its gothic undertones, it was fun, but most of it plods along without seeming to know what direction it’s going, and I honestly have no idea what to make of the ending. Which is sad, because Garai is fabulous (and ridiculously gorgeous and her wardrobe is amazing) and had a pretty good cast supporting her, and it’s ridiculously easy to see how shaving off half an hour and giving the same ideas a better script could have been awesome.
Mean Girls: I had avoided this for years due to the trailers making it look like it was all about teenaged girls being mean backstabbers, but finally watched it after being assured that it was a critique of that type of culture, which Hollywood is always only too eager to shove down our throats. In general, it’s a very good, entertaining critique with a lot of strong performances, but a lot of the humor relied too much on character embarrassment to really work for me. (I have that problem with a lot of Hollywood humor, and things labeled as “comedy” in general.)
On Guard/Le Bossu: A French swashbuckler from the same director as Cartouche. Not as quickly entertaining as Cartouche, but with a much more satisfying ending. Lagardere, a cashiered soldier, befriends a nobleman and ends up raising the friend’s infant daughter (initially thought to be a boy), only to return with her years later for revenge. I found the first 45 or so minutes dull, but it picked up once people started dying. I did feel a bit guilty at not liking it until Vincent Perez died. There’s one element that’s squicky for modern audiences, but not for the times. I wasn’t overly bothered by it, but I wish there’d been better transitioning for it, especially on Aurore’s part.
Tv: Foyle's War: Series 7, Gossip Girl: Season 2, Larkrise to Candleford: Series 1 & 2, Little Dorrit, Pushing Daisies: Season 2
Foyle’s War: Series 7: The end of the series, though I think this is the third time it’s ended, so who knows. In a year or so, we may get Foyle in America, bringing down The One Who Got Away. (You have no idea the joy I felt when he said he was going to America as soon as he could to “take care of unfinished business.”) The series didn’t quite seem to know what it was doing with itself here, as the original concept is done with, and it’s post war, with everyone theoretically having moved on. In particular, I don’t think they had a clue what to do with Milner. (Also, they were acting like it’d been months and months since the end of the last series, but his baby was still pretty itty.) However, Foyle’s War that isn’t as good as previous installments is still excellent viewing. It was weird not seeing Andrew, but I guess Julian Ovenden was doing other things. I admit to being rather ambivalent about him, and that my main use for him is that Sam/Andrew helps to keep Sam and Foyle connected. Girl definitely has a type, though. New Boyfriend is probably an improvement for her, if only because he seems more responsible and consistent. (Not that Andrew was really irresponsible, but the only thing he seems to be able to stick with is being a soldier.) The plots were a bit on the dark side-not that the series went for fluffy plots anyway-but it fit.
Gossip Girl: Season 2: This season was, like, a collection of the dullest plotlines with occasional flashes of awesome. Like, I’m fairly sure only my love for Blair, Serena and Lily got me through it? And I really didn’t like a lot of Serena’s characterization at times. But really, the show seriously went off the deep end with the teacher plotline. Like, when Dan threw up his hands in disgust and told Blair about the closet? I can’t help but wonder if that was the writers giving up on trying to make that work. I positively trilled with joy when Georgina showed up and her eyes got an evil gleam when Chuck mentioned Blair. I have such love in my heart for that girl’s evil soul. Like, why couldn’t there have been more of Blair, Georgina and Chuck evilly plotting evil plans? I was glad Chuck trying to rape Jenny (and wow, did Jenny have an awful plotline in the first half of the season, though I did like her plotline in the second half) in the pilot was finally addressed, though Chuck’s pretending to be what’s-his-face to try to trick Blair into having sex with him rather killed all the ground he’d won with me. I’m kind of wondering if I should bother with season 3? Almost everything I cared about was resolved here, and I now fear the future.
Little Dorrit: Another BBC mini based on Dickens, this time about a young woman born and raised in debtor’s prison who takes care of her father, and leaves with him when it’s discovered he’s the heir to a vast fortune. I didn’t like this as much as Bleak House but I think the deliberate pacing worked better here. I think that, while I liked a lot of the characters, I wasn’t absolutely mad for them like I was for Esther, Ada and Lady Dedlock in BH, and there was more focus on the more unpleasant characters, who I didn’t care for. But Claire Foy’s performance was excellent, especially given how little experience she had at the time, and it was startling (in a good way) to see Matthre McFayden (I’m misspelling that, but too lazy to look up the correct spelling) playing a character so nice and open and helpful.
Larkrise to Candleford: Season 1 & 2 This is one of those BBC “Slice-of-Life-Back-Then” series that sounds dull of paper but is lovely in motion. In this case “village girl moves to nearby town to work in the post office with her proto-feminist cousin.” Of course, said village girl starts off talking about a farmer’s life and how rough it can be, but looks like she’s never been in the sun a day in her life. The series focuses on small town and village life in the late 19th century, and how it’s influenced by the larger world around it. I’m frequently unimpressed by the love interests Laura (main character) and Dorcas (cousin) are given, but mostly find them easy to ignore. (Conversely, Laura’s childhood friend, Alf, only quit being annoying when he quit pining over her and acting like he was The One for Laura just because they came from the same place.) In addition to Laura and Dorcas, I’m also particularly fond of the busybody sisters whose shop is across the street from the post office, Laura’s mother, Emma (though I frequently want to slap her father, the self-designated moral arbitrator of the series, especially when he does things like letting his pride get in the way of feeding and clothing his family), and Thomas, the overly-pious sole male employee of the post office.
Pushing Daisies: Season 2 I watched this around the time Dollhouse was wrapping up, and so kept flipflopping between elation at the fluffy joy of Pushing Daisies and it’s multiple women with plots and consistent agency and female relationships and adorable men and healthy and charming relationships of all genders and varieties (ok, all heterosexual, but both platonic and non-platonic!) and annoyance that it got cancelled and Dollhouse got renewed. I mean, the same day I watched Lily camping out in her sister’s evil boyfriend’s hotel room with a shotgun, people posted about how totally awesome it was that a female character in Dollhouse “chose her own fate” by shooting herself in the head. Very strange to be simultaneously elated and depressed. I really wished they’d had another episode or two to wrap up the plot with the fathers, but am glad they had enough time to resolve what they did. Also, Gina Torres was awesome as a noir chick, but I was sad that she, too, has fallen victim to “Europeanizing” her looks (the hair and getting stereotypically skinny, mostly). Kristin Chenowyth needed to sing way more, though.