So This is Christmas!

I know the holidays can be stressful, but as my slightly drunk co-worker opined as the holiday party, "it's fantastic because, just for a minute, everything stops."  Of course, everything up until that minute was complete insanity, but he's right.  Everything stops.  And it's really lovely when everything does.

In this year's crazy run-up to the holidays, I did manage to squeeze in a few of my holiday favorites.  I watched a couple of the classics, It's a Wonderful Life and Love Actually, plus my own personal Christmas classic, Little Women.  I added a couple slightly-less-classic but nevertheless well-known holiday films: Home Alone and Bad Santa.  And of course there was the terrible Amazon original Your Christmas or Mine?, which is destined to fade into oblivion (although it did have the perk of being set in England).

As an early birthday gift, my mother-in-law took me and her other D-I-L to lunch and to see the Ambassadors of Harmony's holiday show at UMSL.  We had a lovely day out before the bitterly cold weather set in.  I missed the SLSO show this year, but there's always next year!

We also got to visit with some family who were in town -- drinks with K&J at The Blue Duck, followed by dinner at Pizzeria da Gloria, which added J&T, M&K, and J to the party, making us a table of nine.  (When was the last time I ate a restaurant with nine people?  We're going back pre-pandemic here I think!)  And my mother-in-law is hosting her side of the family for their Christmas get-together this evening!

What I'm Reading Now -- The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared

In the waning days of the year, I'm diving into yet another book from my 2022 Reading Challenge.  I have two left un-started, so I'm picking the one I think will be the quicker read: The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared. 

I don't have realistic hopes that I will finish it before the end of the year, but you never know!

The Incredible Journey -- Take 2

I was able to use some not-ready-to-start-the-day time this weekend to tick yet another book off my 2022 Reading Challenge list.  The book in question was the December selection, "Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice": The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford.

l knew even before "about the author" section at the end that she was British (Scottish, actually).  The unusual combinations of words and clever turns of phrase were just so quintessentially British.  There was no way she could be anything but.

Her story of three beloved and indomitable pets who set off across the Canadian wilderness has become a classic theme, and this particular story has been remade a few times.  First, a couple of years after the book's release, Disney made it into a film which -- much to my surprise -- I have never seen.  (This situation will have to be rectified.)

Disney remade the story in the early 1990s, swapping some of the characteristics between the two dogs, and changing the breeds of all the animals slightly.  It also incorporated an additional plot line to add some interest to the human side of the story.

Such a great story.  Absolutely worth reading if you have not.

Good Dog. Stay. -- Take 2

For anyone who has ever loved and lost a pet, especially a dog, it's just about inevitable that the story of the loss of any dog will be touching.  So it is with Good Dog. Stay.  

Anna Quindlen, who has written several books none of which -- save this one -- I have ever read, tells the story of her beloved black lab Beau.  It's a sweet and heartfelt return to the life of her trusty pal, starting in his puppyhood and through his final moments, while she and her family move through their own lives alongside him.

I did manage to make it through without turning into an entire puddle, but certainly my eyes welled up a few times.  Mostly it was social conventions that kept me from falling completely to pieces, as that's generally looked upon quite curiously while you're waiting at a restaurant for your table to be ready.

One more book ticked off the 2022 Reading Challenge!

What I'm Reading Now -- Good Dog. Stay.

I am still mid-Dracula (and I think this might be the time!), but in the interest of ticking off another book or two before the end of the year, I'm turning my attention towards a shorter book on my 2022 Reading Challenge: Good Dog. Stay.

It's probably going to be a terribly sad read and I'm sure I'll be in a puddle at various points during the experience, but I think those things are supposed to build character, right?

What I'm Reading Now -- Dracula (A Third Attempt)

Many years ago, I started reading Dracula one night when I was visiting Dad in Breckenridge.  I eventually made it further than the 16 pages I had covered at the time I wrote that post, but not by much.  I started reading it a second time in the intervening years, and made it further still but probably not past page 60 or so.  

So here I am, trying it a third time.  One thing I have learned about books over the years is that sometimes it's just not the right time.  And that's okay.  Don't force it, come back and try again later.  Paradoxically, another thing I have learned is that sometimes a book just isn't for you, despite what you may think.  It's not always easy to tell which should be the guiding principle when one finds oneself struggling with a book.  The best advice I can offer is to go with your gut on which is the case with any particular read.

With Dracula, I'm giving it another shot.  In addition to all my initial reasons, it was also my October "Thrills and Chills" pick for my 2022 Reading Challenge.  So here we go again!

What I Read -- Muddied Oafs: The Last Days of Rugger

Some time ago, Dad gave me this book.  I didn't read it then, but I've been on a big rugby kick (so to speak) lately, watching Premiership rugby first, but really jolted into high gear with the broadcast of the Women's Rugby World Cup (supposed to be played in 2021, but actually played in the last couple of months due to COVID).

I had put this book on my list for the 2022 Reading Challenge, under the category of "Around or Out of this World (set in a country other than where you live, or by an author from another country, or set in space or on another planet)" (which was supposed to be read in July, but no matter).  When all this other rugby came into my life, it seemed like the opportune moment, even though it was November.

If one is willing to allow an author of a semi-autobiographical, semi-historical book about his own history in a sport, this is a pretty good one.  It does talk about the sport itself, the history of it, how it changed over time and how it's different in different parts of the UK (with a little bit of continental Europe sneaking in there as well).  But it also is a reminisce through his own years of playing.  As a former rugger myself, I was more than willing to indulge the stories of his glory days.  Non-ruggers may not be so generous, which I completely understand.  If you haven't done it, it doesn't quite hold the same allure.  But if you have, it's worth perusing if only because it helps you remember your own good fun from those days.

What I Read -- Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives

The Postal Book Club strikes again!  Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives was E's pick, and I'm glad she picked it because it's been on my "to read" list for a long time.

This is definitely a book to read in small pieces.  It seems like it'd be an easy one to blow through, because each story is quite short (a few pages), and the volume itself is dimensionally slim.  However, each story merits at least a few minutes of reflection before blowing through to the next one. 

Though the subtitle says most of what you need to know, I'll elaborate here a bit: each story is a different idea of what the afterlife might look like.  They're wildly imaginative -- some, of course, more than others, but to come up with 40 iterations (plus however many were scrapped in the editing process) is an impressive feat of creativity.  Even if you're not a believe in the idea of an afterlife, the stories still present a clever game of "what if" that you can play.

Great pick, E, lots of fun to read, and also thought-provoking.

Movies -- A Recap -- Part XXIX -- The City Stories Edition

It's too bad that Once Upon a Time in London was not a better movie.  It had potential: gangsters, so of course lots of violence, clubs, Art Deco stylings, cocktails, good music, and all set against a wartime backdrop.  It just wasn't very good, which was too bad.  I just didn't care about any of the characters.  If you can get past the violence, it's a fun look at the seedy underground (not the Tube) of London at the time, but that's about all it's good for.

The duo of Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder made a handful of slapstick comedies together, none of which I had previously seen.  See No Evil, Hear No Evil stars the pair, one of whom is deaf and one who is blind.  They witness, such as each of them are able to, a murder.  The two of them have to work together to navigate Manhattan while simultaneously evading the real murderer.  It's goofy, but I got several good chuckles out of it. 

The Voyeurs is in some ways is the ultimate city story.  Neighbors are spying on each other through their across-the-street apartment windows.  (I probably shouldn't admit that I loved doing this when I lived in the city ... but I did!)  Things start out promising for the first third of the movie or so; even after the first half they probably could have pulled it back from the edge, but it just goes completely off the rails in the second half, and then even farther off the rails towards the end.  Do yourself a favor and skip this in favor of Rear Window if you're looking for something in the spying-on-the-neighbors vein.

If you like hearing Adam Sandler scream at people or into his phone, Uncut Gems is for you.  He plays a gem dealer based in the Diamond District of NYC, but he has a major gambling problem which puts him on the wrong side of some nasty folks.  I don't particularly care for the shouty-ness of his character, but otherwise it's a pretty good performance and I did find myself rooting for him in the end.  I did find it to be a bit overly-long, however.

Christoph Waltz decided no one could play his main character better than himself, but at least he had the good sense to put strong supporting characters on both sides of him in Georgetown.  He plays Ulrich Mott, a social climber who marries a much older woman played by the inimitable Vanessa Redgrave.  When the elderly woman dies, her daughter (played by the equally spectacular Annette Bening) is suspicious of Mott and his motives.  The film is based on a true story, but don't look it up just yet or you'll find out what really happened!

Tower Heist is a reasonably amusing Ben Stiller comedy.  He plays the supervisor of the building staff at a fancy-pants high-rise Manhattan residential building.  When the staff discover that they've been cheated by their wealthy building owner's Ponzi scheme, they band together to take their revenge.

Limitless is another New York movie, and though of course the city figures throughout, my favorite scene is reprised for use with the opening credits.  It's a high-speed trip through the streets of the city.  As for the actual plot (based on the book The Dark Fields by Alan Glynn), our previously-struggling main character stumbles upon a drug that allows him to access 100% of his brain capacity, to become the best, most skilled version of himself -- and who wouldn't want to see Bradley Cooper being his best self?

What I Watched -- What's So Bad About Feeling Good

I had never heard of What's So Bad About Feeling Good until a few months ago.  It was produced in 1968, and stars George Peppard (and how can you not love him after Breakfast at Tiffany's?) and Mary Tyler Moore.

The movie is set in New York City and is about a highly contagious respiratory epidemic.  It's a total trip to watch it after what we've been through in the last few years.  There are debates about whether the illness is real, fights over whether to wear masks (and whether they even do anything), politicians who have other designs (including considerations about an economic crash), a Dr. Fauci character ... really, the comparisons are just too wild.  S and I just keep looking at each other with wide eyes, as if to say, "what the f***?"

It really just felt like we were watching a differently-costumed version of everything that happened in the last three years.

Bottom line: though not an objectively great movie, this is 100% worth watching, even if only to look at whomever you're watching with and go, "what the f***?"

What I Read -- The Last Four Days of Paddy Buckley

I try not to read more than one book at a time.  I'm a slow reader and also don't have a great memory, so reading multiple books simultaneously does not usually work out very well.  But recently I found myself reading four at once! 

I was reading The High Adventure of Eric Ryback, but since I have a first edition, I didn't want to take it with me when I was traveling; books always get really beat up under those circumstances.  I was (and still am) reading Sum, but those are short little think pieces that I like to sit with for a day or so after reading, rather than plowing right on to the next one.  I was reading Older, But Better, But Older, but that one is both dense and heavy, and a pretty quick read, so I didn't want to carry it while traveling especially knowing I would need to take another book anyway because it wouldn't last me the whole weekend.

So I moved on to my fourth book, The Last Four Days of Paddy Buckley.  This one is a long-overdue element of my 2022 Reading Challenge (it being the June selection), but it looked fairly light and amusing, and seemed like a good candidate to dip in and out of while traveling. 

And it was!  The story was delightfully Irish, amusing, and just unrealistic enough to not matter that I wasn't devoting sustained and dedicated attention to it.  It was playful despite the nominally serious turns in the plot.  It suited my needs perfectly.  And I blew threw it (finishing the day after I returned from my weekend trip), which is unusual for me.

It was a fun little romp (sometimes literally) through an undertaker's Dublin.

What I Read -- Older, But Better, But Older

When K and I were shopping in Jackson, WY, earlier this summer, we we laughed so hard we nearly cried when I opened to a random page of Older, But Better, But Older. 

Imagine my disappointment when I discovered that we probably, by total chance, had landed on the best page in the book.  When I started at the beginning, I was appalled by how cliche the whole thing seemed; it was just a collection of trite, canned sayings, lists of semi-random thoughts, and the like.

As I got into the last third, it began to develop into a little something.  There were more short essays and fewer lists.  Somehow, these seemingly random, miscellaneous thoughts began to coalesce into a general sentiment approaching satisfaction - not with the book itself, but with life, and the idea that you don't have to meet other people's expectations all the time.  Everything will be fine, even if you're yourself.  Perhaps most especially because you're yourself.

So that was nice reassurance, but at the end of the day, these are pretty much all things that smart, successful ladies already know.  I didn't need a book to tell me this.

I will give credit to the layout designers though.  It was a pleasure to turn the pages in this book.  The combination of text (in varying fonts), pictures, and page layout changes kept it all visually fun to move through.

The High Adventure of Eric Ryback -- Take 2

I feel like I need to start my commentary on The High Adventure of Eric Ryback with the controversy I mentioned in my opening post.  Eric Ryback was (and to some degree still is) lauded as the first person to through-hike the "Triple Crown": the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, and the Continental Divide Trail.  Everyone seems to agree that he was the first person to traverse all of these mostly on foot.  I haven't found any concern that he did truly walk the entirety of the Appalachian Trail, which he did as a high schooler.  His PCT hike came the summer of 1970 upon his high school graduation, and the following year led to the publication of this very book.

In the years after publication, there was some question regarding whether Eric had actually hiked the whole distance or whether he had hitchhiked portions of the PCT.  When his publisher said his claims my not have been accurate, he reportedly sued them for $3 million.  However, when the statements of the drivers who gave him rides were presented, the suit was dropped.  A few years later, Eric hiked the Continental Divide, much of it with his younger brother Tim.  There was no "trail" as such at the time, but the CDT (such as it is) now approximates the route he hiked.  (There is also a book about that one: The Ultimate Journey: Canada to Mexico Down the Continental Divide.)

So, what to make of all this?  Did he hitch a ride for portions of the PCT?  Who knows.  Probably he did.  But it's still quite an accomplishment, even if the whole way wasn't "on foot" as he claimed.  It's also interesting that he elected to go from north to south.  Most through-hikers these days go from south to north, starting in the southern deserts in the spring and giving the Cascade Mountains a little bit of time to warm up before they arrive in the fall.

Often, travelogues are terribly tedious to read.  Especially one like this, where each day is just getting up, packing, up, walking, pitching camp, and sleeping.  Boring with a capital B.  But somehow this one keeps the story going.  Most chapters are short, and there are photos included from his time on the trail, so both those things help.  And, though Eric does have a certain sensibility to his writing that could come off as highfalutin, it's tempered in my mind when I remember that he was roundabout 19 years old at the time he wrote it.  Bearing that it mind, it comes off as much more sincere, genuinely awe-inspired, than it otherwise might.

I enjoyed it so much I may even read The Ultimate Journey.

Movies -- A Recap -- Part XXVIII -- The Wild Ride Edition

The Rescue is the completely amazing story of the 2018 rescue of the twelve Thai children and their soccer coach from a flooded cave in Thailand.  The footage that was captured is stunning, and the story behind it -- everyone coming together to save these stranded children -- was even more incredible.  The commitment shown by all the rescuers was inspiring.  Totally worth watching.

If you're in the mood for something funny and heartwarming, try Come as You Are.  Two guys in wheelchairs and one blind guy hire a driver (played by Gabourey Sidibe) to drive them to Montreal to visit a brothel that specializes in sex with disabled people.  This one is a win.

The King's Man is apparently the third in the Kingsman series.  I never saw the second one, but I can decidedly say that it is worse than the first, Kingsman: The Secret Service.  Despite that qualification, it is nevertheless a type of movie which it's hard to screw up too badly.  Here are the hallmarks: the story is usually slightly overly-complicated but nonetheless predictable, there's lots of shooting, there is some sort of love interest or flirtation, the good guys win.  This one fits the bill, but loses points because it takes itself just a little too seriously.

The Green Inferno is terrible.  I'm really only including it here so that you don't make same mistake I did and try to watch it.  I didn't even finish it, and I don't often give up on movies -- they're not that long generally, and I'm pretty willing to at least try to understand what a filmmaker was doing.  But this one was just ... bad.  It starts out okay, with some student activists who decide to head to the Amazon in an effort to save the rain forest.  It goes sideways with some characters that were too easy to hate.  It gets worse with gratuitous violence.  It completely goes off the rails with an inexplicable plot, and that's where I quit.

I heard about The Poseidon Adventure from Ira Glass during an episode of This American Life.  I wasn't sure about it, but after some of our recent successes with older movies (which are vastly better than most of the new junk that's out there), we decided to give it a try.  Count on the good ol' library to have a copy on DVD.  First of all, it has a spectacular cast.  Gene Hackman and Ernest Borgnine are probably the two most famous names, but you'll surely recognize Shelly Winters, Roddy McDowell, Jack Albertson, Red Buttons, and others.  In the movie, an ocean liner capsizes.  A gaggle of passengers, led by Gene Hackman with the help of a young boy who had thoroughly explored the ship try to find a way out before the ship goes down.  It's more intense and dark than I expected.  Just goes to show what kind of good stuff they jammed into those old movies!

Every Which Way But Loose is a wild ride if ever there was one.  Clint Eastwood plays one of two trouble-making brothers, sons of a spit-fire of an old lady who really was the star of the show, in my opinion.  Other than, that is, his pet orangutan named Clyde.  There is really no explanation for why Clyde is there, but he sure does add some comedic value to the film.  In truth, I fell asleep and missed probably the last 20 minutes, but I feel like that actually wasn't the important part of the movie, so I'm going to go ahead and include it on this list anyway, even though I have no idea what happened and can't tell you whether it's worth watching.

Movies -- A Recap -- Part XXVII -- The Slow and Sad Edition

Some movies are slow.  Not bad, just slow.  Here are a few I've enjoyed:

Our Souls at Night is based on the Kent Haruf book of the same name.  As a book, it was one of E's picks for our Postal Book Club some time ago.  I really liked the bittersweet ending of the book.  The movie, which follows the book very closely, doesn't quite measure up, but it's darn good, if similarly sad and slow.

Katherine Masterson stars in The World to Come.  Despite going through her IMDB profile, I can't figure out where I know her from, but she has the real-life name of someone who definitely belongs in a Western, which this is.  At least the setting is a Western.  The story is really about two women whose husbands are off doing their own thing find themselves drawn to one another.  It's slow and plodding, without much plot, but that's something I can get behind in the right movie.  What frustrated me about this one was the inconsistency of the dialogue.  It was generally pretty academic and stilted; not what I would have expected from farmers.  But occasionally it would shift into very casual tones, at times which just didn't make sense to me.  Hopefully you can look past that.

While we're in this category, there's also The Power of the Dog.  It was nominated in about 1,000 Oscar categories, and won for Best Director.  My favorite Brit Benedict Cumberbatch plays the lead, a tough and closed-off rancher named Phil Burbank.  Phil's brother brings home a new wife and her (but not his) son, and relationships in the family get tense and confusing.  It's all very dark and depressing, but with a glimmer of hope and even a touch of love.

On the subject of forbidden loves, let's not forget A Minute's Silence.  It's a German film about a relationship between a new-to-town teacher and one of her pupils.  I don't think it's a spoiler to say that things don't quite go as planned.  Cinematography and lighting were beautiful.

Youth in Oregon is not a movie about kids; it's about euthanasia, except it's set in Oregon (get it?).  Frank Langella plays the cranky old man, being driven to Oregon for the stated purpose by his son-in-law (Billy Crudup).  His daughter (Christina Applegate) and son (Josh Lucas) have their own opinions about what the old man should (or should not) be doing, and they sort it out (or don't) along the way.  It's thoughtful.  I like the whole cast, and I'm surprised at what a good actress Kelly Bundy turned out to be.

S and I have a RV.  We don't live in it, but no matter.  We were of course going to see Nomadland.  It made for interesting viewing.  Though we don't live in our RV, we know some people who do (or at least have for periods of time).  This movie made me think about things, and the issues they have to deal with, a little differently.  How do you get healthcare, especially if you're moving around a lot?  Even if you have a medical plan, often the "benefits" you get are specific to a certain location.  Without an address, how can you do basic things like vote, get a driver's license, and get mail?  There are solutions (maybe not good ones) to all of these problems, and the live-in RV'ers have elected to trade some of the stresses associated with home ownership/rental for the stresses of life on the road.  Nevertheless, it's always good to see the world from someone else's perspective occasionally.  Oh, and the movie was pretty decent.  It alternated between idealistic and sad, and overall was a little more of a downer than I anticipated.

Seven Pounds was the longer and not-as-good version of a short film I saw at SLIFF several years ago.  In the short (the name of which I cannot remember), a woman loses her husband, but donates his eyes to a child she meets at the end of the film. In Seven Pounds, Will Smith's character killed seven people in an accident.  He decides he needs to make amends, and he will do so by changing the lives of seven strangers.  How he goes about doing that for each of his seven chosen people I will leave for you to discover.  There are some problems with the plot, and Will Smith's character is basically a creepy stalker, but as redemption stories go, it's a pretty good, kind of Shakespearean one. 

Get Low was heavier than I anticipated.  It has some funny sections and characters, but if you look past those it's really a pretty heavy movie about regret, time, and forgiveness.  Robert Duvall plays Felix Bush, a Tennessee man who's been living mostly as a hermit for 40 years.  When an acquaintance dies, he decides he wants to throw himself a funeral party -- while he's still alive.  He draws a crowd to his party by announcing a raffle for ownership of his land after his death.  Come the big day, it turns out that it's Felix who has something he wants to say to everyone.  The movie is very loosely based on the true story of Felix "Bush" Breazeale.

What I'm Reading Now -- Sum

I try not to read more than one book at a time, but since I have a first edition of The High Adventure of Eric Ryback with a paper jacket cover, I don't really want to carry that one around with me too much when I'm traveling, lest it get beat up.

Instead, I'm doubling up by also getting started on my next book postal club book, Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, by David Eagleman.  This one as been on my to-read list for years, so I was thrilled to discover it was next in line for the book club!

Movies -- A Recap -- Part XXVI -- The Big Questions Edition

I like Julia Stiles; always have.  I'll watch pretty much anything she does.  In The God Committee, she plays a heart surgeon who, on her first day on the transplant committee, is assigned to the role of deciding which of three possible recipients should get the single heart which is available for transplant.  The decision is complicated by kids, life choices, disposition, behavior, and of course substantial donations to the hospital.  I won't tell you what they decide.  I will tell you it's not a spectacularly-done film.  It's a bit heavy-handed. But it is a very interesting question to discuss, which I wish there had been more discussion of, rather than some of the other plot twists and turns.  There is an ethical twist with one of the characters at the end which I didn't expect.

In The Face of Love, Annette Benning plays a lonely widow who happens upon a gentleman who is the spitting image of her deceased husband (both played by Ed Harris).  She fills the hole in her heart with this new man, but can't introduce him to any friends or family, for obvious reasons.  Her decision to date her late husband's doppelganger is, I suppose, just an extreme extension of something that's true of a lot of people: they have a "type."  For some folks, it's a physical characteristic: hair color, body type, height.  For others, it's a more of a characteristic or personality trait, such as a sense of humor.  But often if you look at people's dating history, you can start to make out their "type."  That -- having a type -- doesn't seem weird.  But dating your deceased husband's long lost twin does.  Where on that spectrum are you crossing the line?

As a play on the above idea, try this one on for size.  Torn is the story of the family of Alex Lowe.  Alex was a high alpine climber.  He died in 1999 while on a climbing/skiing expedition in the Himalaya.  I'm not going to say much about what goes on with his family, but if you read the synopsis of The Face of Love, you can probably make an educated guess.  And you would be right.  This movie is made by one of Alex's sons.  It's a surprisingly thoughtful look at a really complicated psychological and emotional thing that happened.

After the Rain is only okay, as a movie.  But I saw it not too long after my grandparents died, which gave it a certain amount of gravitas that it probably would not otherwise have had. A young man with a terminal illness faces the end of his life -- sometimes gracefully, sometimes not.  There's not much plot; it's really just the sweet and sad story of how he deals with what's facing him, and how the people in his life see their relationship change as he nears the end.

I loved Together.  Initially, I was concerned that it was too soon for a COVID lockdown movie; that just happened, after all.  But I'm going to give this one a pass because ... well, just because.  I liked it.  They did a good job with it.  Here are some of the things I liked: James McEvoy.  The occasional talking directly to the camera.  Lockdown-specific things, like not getting a haircut.  Witty (and sometimes not-so-witty) banter between two obviously intelligent characters.  Not being too PC.  But what I really liked about this basically entirely plotless film is that it really dives into a single relationship -- the good, the bad, and the ugly.  They say some awful things to each other, but they also know that they love each other, and saying those awful things don't break the relationship.  Plus, it's like watching a highly condensed version of many of the conversations I had with family and friends during the lockdown: what is the right thing to do in various circumstances? Why don't some people seem to care?  How much risk is too much?  What about all the people who can't work from home? And most importantly: why are people bulk-buying toilet paper?

Another one I loved was Belfast.  I watched it on the plane on the way home from Germany, and it was a spectacular way to pass a couple of hours.  The 1960s were a sad time in Northern Ireland.  Though that tumult is the plot that propels the movie forward in time, it's not the center of it.  That center is the adorable Jude Hill, who plays Buddy, and his parents (Jamie Dornan and Caitriona Balfe).  (I'm most familiar with Jamie Dornan because of his role in The Fall, in which he plays a truly awful person.  This was a lovely change of pace.)  The movie is the sweet story of a little boy trying to find his way in a complicated world that he doesn't fully understand.  He and his brother have good parents who are just trying to raise their kids and do the right thing, against all the prevailing odds.  It's a good reminder that, even as it seems like we're following a similar trajectory of fracturing into political camps here in this country, there are still good people on both sides just trying to do right by their kids.  In the way that people called Roma a love story to Mexico City, Belfast is a love story to Northern Ireland.  Plus, Judi Dench plays the grandmother, and she's always such a grounding force in a film, and it boasted a spectacular soundtrack including Van Morrison and Christy Moore.

Seaspiracy has some interesting ideas, but the guy who made it is a terrible filmmaker.  I think at least a dozen times throughout the film, he says, "I learned x.  Why had I never heard/thought of that before?  I had to learn more."  It got old after the fourth or fifth time.  It's a long movie, and depressing.  Through the whole movie I was asking myself, "so, what can I do?" There's a single lesson at the end.  Spoiler -- the lesson is this: stop eating seafood.  In a vacuum, that's probably an okay lesson, but if I'm not supposed to eat meat, or seafood, or imported fruit or vegetables, or fruit or veg grown on big farms, or anything that's genetically modified (which is basically everything) ... what am I supposed to eat?