Movies -- A Recap -- Part XXXI -- All About the Characters

Still Life is set in London, so I was of course predisposed to like it.  Eddie Marsan plays a low-level civil servant whose job is to track down friends and family members of people who died alone.  It seems a thankless task, but it's one he takes seriously and treats with the respect it deserves.  A great little hidden gem, sweet and sad, which I loved.

In Croupier, Clive Owen plays an aspiring novelist who, in lieu of success as a writer, takes a job as a dealer in a high-end casino.  A visitor to the casino piques his attention, but she may be a bit more than he bargained for.  In a very Stranger Than Ficton-type realization, his life becomes his novel.  I enjoy the noir-style filmmaking, and I was surprised that this movie is as old as it was and I had never heard of it.

Jake Gyllenhaal turns The Guilty into a one-man-show as a police officer who is demoted and has to work a job as a 911 dispatcher.  He takes a call from a woman who has been kidnapped by her estranged husband.  Their telephonic interactions are brief and tense, and most of the movie plays out in the responses of the disgraced officer.  (Overall, the movie was less than the character that Jake played, but it's worth seeing just for him.)  This is a remake of a Danish original, which I have yet to see, but I'll let you know if I can track it down!

The Tomorrow Man is a weird little story about two weird old people.  It stars John Lithgow and Blythe Danner as a pair of sweet, weird old people.  His quirk is that he's a disaster prepper; hers is that she's a bit of a hoarder.  Their families don't understand them, but they can understand each other.

I don't know what you know the lead actor in Saint Ralph from, but I bet you'll recognize his face. His name is Adam Butcher, and he plays -- you guessed it -- Ralph. Ralph is a boy who gets the wild idea that he's going to race in the Boston Marathon ... and win.  Ralph's motivation is to save his mother, who is in a coma; Ralph is living alone, under the ever-closer radar of social services.  Ralph gets support and coaching from one of the priests at his Catholic high school, and I appreciated the references to all of the obscure patron saints.

The Good Shepherd stars my boyfriend, Matt Damon, so I'm going to love it.  And it's set in England, so I'm doubly going to love it.  The styling is fantastic.  Really, this movie could do no wrong after these two points were established.  But the tension that is conveyed, the stress of living every day in the early days of the CIA, is so well-portrayed that I felt like I had aged 20 years just for watching the movie, much less living that life.

A Man Called Otto is another sweet, sad, darling little jewel.  It stars America's favorite good guy, Tom Hanks, as an old curmudgeon.  The cast of characters who surround him in this film are simply wonderful, and it's a reminder that there are deep, touching, human stories in every little corner of every little town.

Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain are excellent in The Good Nurse.  Jessica begins to suspect that her co-worker has caused the death of several patients, but has to put her own career and health at risk to find out the truth.  It's especially horrifying when you realize it's a true story.

What Happened to August?

All the sudden, it's September.  The heat wave has broken.  It's not yet cool in the mornings, but it's no longer stifling; the hints of cooler weather to come hang in the air with the morning fog.  Labor Day is in a few days.

What, may I ask, happened to August?  There was one lovely (albeit hot) weekend when my family was in town for my cousin's wedding.  Other than that, much of the month was lost on me.  I (yet again) blame work for taking over all my free time and then some.  And I give big thanks to S for picking up the slack.

But I am reminded, yet again, of the wonder of the change of seasons.  It's one of my favorite things about living where I do.  Each season brings new adventures.  It may also bring a new list of to-do items (many of which will wait around again until next year), but who cares?  For now, I'm just going to enjoy the optimistic moment that exists right now. 

The Song I'm Loving Today

Older (Ben Platt)

I don't remember where I heard this song, but I wrote down the singer and the title and set them aside.  As is often the case with little notes jotted down, I couldn't remember what exactly "Ben Platt Older" meant or why I had written it down.  Finally I decided to search the all-knowing internet and see what I could come up with.

The first result was a link to the YouTube video (also linked above):

I heard the first couple of lines and knew immediately why I had saved this little scrap of paper. 

Music's ability to evoke emotions is astonishing.  The idea of looking back on life as you age is certainly not a rare subject, but every now and then something just hits you in the right way -- perhaps because of how it's written or conveyed, perhaps because of where you are in your own life, perhaps just because you're having one of those days.  This song did that for me.

A selection:

"When you are younger, you'll wish you're older;
Then when you're older, you'll wish for time to turn around.
...
Have I killed my thoughts right before their prime?
Have I bit my tongue one too many times?
Have I said it all the way I really meant to?
If I wait 'til my tomorrow comes,
Is the waiting all I've ever done?"

What I'm Reading Now -- Brave New World

Brave New World is one of those books that I can't believe I made it all the way through school without reading.  This is all the more true because the particular edition I have (not the one pictured here, but I couldn't find a good version of the one I have) I bought as a summer reading book when I was in my teens.  I ended up reading something else instead, but I've been toting Brave New World around with me ever since, trusting that I would get to it eventually. 

All of that made it the obvious selection for my 2023 Reading Challenge book for May: a book you should have read in high school.

Our Own Devices: The Past and Future of Body Technology -- Take 1.5

In my life, I have been reluctant to give up on books once I start them.  This is a psychological hangup I'm trying to break myself of.  There are too many books out there to keep reading one that just isn't doing it for me for whatever reason.  

Our Own Devices, like Jack last year, is one I decided not to finish.  This one seemed like it was going somewhere that I could eventually have gotten on board with, but it wasn't getting there fast enough to keep me interested.  Will this be an ever-more-common hangup for those of us who are members of the internet generation, used to tiny blurbs and sound bites rather than long-form prose?  Probably.  And I'll try to keep that in mind rather than just closing a book on page 3.  I made it nearly 100 pages into this one before I threw in the towel.

So much for my February 2023 Reading Challenge selection.

What I Read -- Outlander

In an adventure which deserves a post all its own (one that hopefully I will get around to soon), K planned an excellent trip to London and Edinburgh last month.  I skipped ahead a few months in my 2023 Reaching Challenge to read my August book, Outlander, because its setting matched my travel destinations.

I admit that I have previously watched all but the most recent seasons of the television version of Outlander, and I'm not sure I intend to read the remainder of the books in any short order.  That is not to say that it wasn't an enjoyable read.  It has to be enjoyable to get through 850 pages, but I have lots of other things to read and the show is an easier, quicker, and multi-taskier way to take in what amounts to basically the same material.

For those who have managed to avoid the basics of the plot since this was first published a generation ago, it tells the story of Claire Randall a/k/a Beauchamp a/k/a Fraser.  The story opens in 1945, shortly after the conclusion of WWII.  Claire spent her war years nursing the British wounded.  She's taking a much-needed vacation with her husband Frank to Scotland, where Frank is ensconced in his family's genealogical research.  Claire, left somewhat to her own devices, finds a doorway through time and travels back to the Scottish Highlands of 1743.  She must learn their manners and customs, and navigate a country which is hovering on the edge of war with her own English ancestors. And then, of course, there's Jamie.  He's the swarthy, unbreakable Strider of his day, if you're into that sort of thing.

Movies -- A Recap -- Part XXX -- The Rewatch Edition

Our internet was a real pain in the butt in July, so instead of streaming a bunch of new stuff, we picked through some DVDs to find oldies to watch again.  Here's what we found:

Catch Me If You Can is, in a weird way, inspiring.  Of course what happened in the movie could never (okay, almost never) happen again.  There's just too much technology out there these days to allow someone to get away with this kind of identity change.  But I have said before (and I will say again) that I think all this technology which prevents us from becoming new people is really problematic.  Most people wouldn't take it to the extent that the main character in this movie does, but what if you just want to move past some stupid things that you did or posted when you were in high school?  Or you want to move to a new town without your ex being able to track you down so easily?  No longer.  But back to the matter at hand, this is a pretty entertaining movie.  Given the era, I do think the soundtrack could have been better.  Also, Tom Hanks. And also including Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Amy Adams, James Brolin, Jennifer Garner, Ellen Pompeo, and Elizabeth Banks.  Worth watching again.

The Cutting Edge is straight out of the 1980s (actually 1992).  The hair, the outfits, the lead actors (Moira Kelly and D.B. Sweeney).  The latter plays a top-notch hockey player who has to quit playing when he loses his peripheral vision; the former is a miserable pairs figure skater in need of a new partner.  The witty banter at the beginning was fun, but was supplanted by all the sap (and then some) one would expect towards the end. 

S actually had not seen Apollo 13 before, which I couldn't believe.  A few days prior to picking this, we watched the new Apollo 11 documentary that popped upon one of the streaming services.  This seemed like an appropriate follow-up.  This is a good movie.  I have read Jim Lovell's book and of course had seen the movie before (mom and I even saw it in the theater, as I recall), but it was tense viewing nevertheless.  I expressed that to S, and his response was, "you can't kill Tom Hanks!"  I'll spare you the plot details since everybody already knows them.  Lots of people, including Hanks (or Hanx, as he calls himself) were well cast; this might be Ed Harris's greatest role.  Gary Sinise as Ken Mattingly is the movie's tragic hero. The whole thing is a truly incredible story.

Sometimes I forget that John Corbett has played anyone other than Aidan Shaw on Sex and the City, but he surely was.  One of his most adorable roles was as Ian Miller in My Big Fat Greek Wedding (which, incidentally, came out concurrent with his run on SATC).  The story, in case you it isn't obvious from the movie cover or title, is the love story between Ian and the very Greek Toula Portokalos ... and her very large Greek family who disapproves of the decided non-Greek Ian.  The totally adorable Ian eventually wins them over.  (Most of the fame for My Big Fat Greek Wedding was directed at Nia Vardalos, who had done some acting prior to that, but MBFGW was her first writing credit, and of course she played Toula as well.  I think, in addition to the writing props, she deserved credit for her excellent facial expressions!)

When it came to light that S had never seen Father of the Bride (the Steve Martin version), especially since we happened to be together with mom, K, and J at the time, there was simply no choice but to watch it.  What a spectacular movie this is!  The three of us sisters routinely quote from it, but those little vignettes don't do justice to the whole shebang.  Totally, fully, one hundred percent, worth a re-watch.  (Side note: S slept through some of it so still hasn't seen it in all its glory!) (Fun fact: Kimberly Williams, who played Annie, is married to Brad Paisley.)

I didn't say it above, but Tom Hanks is am American treasure. If you disagree with me, you're simply wrong.  Another recent re-watch was Cast Away.  As with so many of his movies where he just plays a guy who makes the best out of whatever situation he finds himself in, Hanks' marooned, lonely (other than Wilson), mostly silent character just seems like some version of himself.  And he's awesome.  Truly, I had a hard time looking away from the screen, despite having seen this one before.  Some of that may be because there's so little speaking that you really do have to watch to know what's going on, but that's also a testament to what he can do as an actor without speaking.

What child of the 80s did not grow up watching The Goonies?  Well, in case you didn't know, it's available on HBO Max.  You're welcome.  I grew up wishing I could go on wild adventures with Mikey, Mouth, Data, and Chunk.  Even though I never found any pirate treasure, it turns out I can still have all the fun I used to thanks to the wonder of the internet.  This movie certainly isn't for everyone, but it is for people of a certain age. 

Another movie that will date me, but I will post about it nevertheless, is Empire Records.  If this movie didn't want to make you work in a record store, you weren't a teenager in the 90s.  The movie chronicles a single day in the lives of the employees of an about-to-go-under store, and their struggle to stick it to the man.  But really it's just a good movie about accepting people for being the weirdos they are.  And, as any record store movie should, it has an amazing soundtrack.

The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared -- Take 2

Back before Christmas, I started reading The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared, which was part of my 2022 Reading Challenge.

Prior to S and I leaving for our most recent trip, I had to skip forward several months in my 2023 Reading Challenge to find books that were available as e-books.  What I did find, while I was searching my library databases, was an audiobook version of The Reading Promise.  Several hours on airplanes gave me the opportunity to spend some time listening to this book, which I finished up shortly after we returned home.

During the paper book portion of this read, I found much of the author's writing to be somewhat trite, but I handled that just by skimming through the offending portions.  One of the wonders of audiobooks is the ability to listen to them at an accelerated pace, which I very much did in order to speed through the remainder of this book.  It's a very sweet story, and for a 22-year-old author, quite an accomplishment.  Occasionally I found her innocence and perspective to be endearing, but more often I had enough of it and just wanted to move to the next chapter.

Having said that, I cannot overlook the book's unabashed championing of reading for reading's sake, which is a message I can get behind, wholeheartedly and unreservedly.

What I'm Reading Now - Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know

Since I needed to move on to a new book while we were on vacation (and I didn't want to take any paper books), I was limited to books that were available as e-books from one of my libraries.  The next book on my 2023 Reading Challenge which I could find as an e-book was Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know, by Alexandra Horowitz.  It's the June book on my list, but one of the leeways I allow myself is to go out of order.  I'll have to go back and catch the missed books later in the year.

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls -- Take 2

While S and I were traveling recently, I finished up my March book for the 2023 Reading Challenge, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls. 

It's a coming-of-age story about young Thea Atwell, cast out of her home during the depths of the Great Depression and sent to the titular camp.  She excels as a rider, and the reason for her being cast out is revealed as the story goes on.

I like the conceit, where you learn little bits of the past as the story goes on.  For the most part, though, the revealed story is pretty much what I expected it to be, at least once I learned who the major players were.  There was one twist which I didn't quite see coming, but it was minor in the grand scheme of the backstory.

I don't really have a complaint about the book, but generally I'm past the point in my life where coming-of-age stories do much for me.  The writing was fine, the story was fine, I love a good historical drama, but I couldn't get invested in the characters.