If I were a PSU student, I could attend you for free. I’m not, but it’s only $4.00 and there is free popcorn. You show an eclectic mix of movies, and I wish I visited you more. Next week, for instance, will be Singing in the Rain.
Three sentence movie reviews: Alien
Oh my god, guys, this is an awesome strong-female-character movie and it also has a subplot featuring a cat!* I feel the need to point out it’s Sci-Fi tense, not really scary, because if you are like me, you are more apt to watch sci-fi tense.** I also really enjoyed seeing 1970s view of space, and how our views have changed.***
Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home
*You, of course, probably know this as the movie came out in 1979 and is almost as old as me, but I just watched it and thus am just now understanding how good it is.
**But yes, I know that you’ve probably already seen it, because see above, but still! There are probably five other people who haven’t seen it yet and I feel I must convince them.
***Smoking! Would not at all happen today. Also, I was distracted because now that whole ship would have closed-circuit cameras, but they hadn’t yet figured that out about the future. I found myself wondering how one would ratchet up tension today given the closed circuit cameras. I guess you could go the easy route–cameras suddenly don’t work!
poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1979/alien.html
Song of the month: “Way back when” by Kodaline
New feature. Once per month, I will feature a song that is “of the moment” for me. Usually because I have discovered it and can’t stop playing it repeatedly on YouTube. Because I never buy any music, (and that is very wrong) I will then purchase that song.
This song popped up on Pandora the same night I watched the movie Brooklyn. Brooklyn is an incredible movie and perfect in many ways, but I left with the feeling of “I will never be that young ever again.” It’s a feeling I’ve had intermittently this year, especially this summer. I feel it deeply, while at the same time understanding its ridiculousness. My twenties were in many ways not that great and I would prefer not to return to them. But some part of me longs to be that age again. Overlaid with this internal struggle, is my future 80-year-old self saying, “You thought 40 was old? Try being an octogenarian!”
And then this song played and the chorus caught me:
Yeah, those will be the days that I’ll be missing
When I’m old and when I’m grey and when I stop working
I hope that I can say
When all my days are done
We were just having fun
It’s a good song, and one I’d like to work into my song repertoire. Because eventually I’m going to have a songbook of songs I can play and sing. You know. Someday.
The video is classic “band on the road”. The band seems to have an impossibly good looking lead singer–the kind of guy who spells trouble for the girls and trouble for the band. I wish all of them well.
Three sentence movie reviews: Brooklyn
I’d read the book years ago and didn’t really care for it,* but I’m a sucker for both Saoirse Ronan and Nick Hornby, plus I’d heard the raves, so off I went. I settled in for 111 minutes of pure pleasure as I navigated the choppy waters of Eilis’s new life. Emory Cohen** was remarkable, but Ronan was mesmerizing.***
Cost: I think $6.00?
Where watched: St Johns Twin, in the small theater upstairs with a lot of other people with grey hair.
*However, sitting waiting for the movie to start, I thought about just how many scenes from the book I could clearly remember, even five years later. I also could remember the entire plot, which is something I can’t say about some books I read six months ago, or even one month ago. Well done, Colm Toibin.
**He was that sketchy dude in the third part of The Place Beyond the Pines, and completely different in this role.
***Also, you will get your money’s worth just watching Julie Walters trying to keep control of her boarders’ conversation at the dinner table.
poster from: http://www.impawards.com/intl/misc/2015/brooklyn.html
Three sentence movie reviews: Crossing Delancy
This was on an internet list of good romantic comedies you’ve never seen. I found it to be an amazing cataloger of mid-80s clothing and hair, and a sweet love story for “older” people. It was also kind of a snooze, but that might have been because of the wine.
Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home.
(I’ve always liked the title, though.)
poster from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094921/?ref_=nv_sr_1
Three sentence movie reviews: That Awkward Moment
I like all of these actors, so poor reviews be damned, I watched this. It was not horrible. But it wasn’t exactly good, either.*
*Might I recommend some better movies with these actors? Two Night Stand features Miles Teller and is quite good. Me and Orson Wells features Zac Efron and is also good. I haven’t been able to make myself watch Fruitville Station with Michael B. Jordan, but I have seen all of Friday Night Lights and he’s quite good in that.
Cost: again I found it for free on the internet. It was cold. I didn’t want to go to the video store. I also didn’t want to pay to stream mediocrity either, especially because it wasn’t available to stream and I would have had to pay $9.99 to buy it and own it forever. I’m terrible, I know.
Where watched: at home on the computer.
poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2014/that_awkward_moment.html
What I’m not doing this Christmas
There was a good three-hour window in which I was totally going to make one of these gingerbread houses. Because they are totally awesome! And then I came to my senses.
Maybe next year.
Postcard from Minneapolis
If you turn your head to the side, you can take in the proper orientation of this postcard, sent to me by Sara who was chilling out with a cat on her lap after a particularly hectic week.
Three sentence movie reviews: Bachelorette
Boy howdy, did I hate this movie. The “friends” were terrible–they make the Heathers from Heathers look like the best friends you would ever want. There wasn’t nearly enough Rebel Wilson and though I was intrigued enough by Lizzy Caplan to see what else she’d been in, this was mostly a waste of my time.
Cost: free from library.*
Where watched: at home.
*I grabbed this movie because it was written and directed by Leslye Headland, who directed Sleeping With Other People and the remake of About Last Night, both of which I enjoyed. I hated this enough to watch the DVD extras and found out that Headland was happy to have created such complex female characters and I will agree with her. Her characters were complex in a way that I mostly couldn’t relate to (Caplan’s character was the exception) and thus made me want to run far, far away.
I like unlikeable female characters, (see: Young Adult, Adventureland, The Runaways) but there has to be something about them that hooks me. These ladies did not.
poster from: http://www.impawards.com/2012/bachelorette.html
(Also this poster does not properly sum up the movie.)
A new look
I’ve grown a bit tired of my blog format. I find especially the font is annoying and hard to read. So it’s time to change it up.
Before:
And after:
Eventually I will get around to separating things into pages so everything isn’t in one long stream, but that will be a future project. In the meantime, enjoy the readable font.