"the one moment had many aspects"

Stuck On Repeat
"Suit & Tie" - Justin Timberlake
"Drove Me Wild" - Tegan & Sara
"I Won't See You" - Desert Noises
"Mirrors" - Justin Timberlake
"Lipstick & Lace" - Benoit & Sergio
"Wicked Game" - Coves


Cinema
A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III - So, apparently I enjoy kitschy films these days. I know I enjoy kitsch in graphic design and interiors, so I guess it makes sense that kitschy films also appeal to me. While The Paperboy offered high-brow, arty kitsch, Charles Swan aims (and hits) a bit lower, at least in the story department. The visuals are quite mesmerizing and lovely (and the soundtrack is fabulous with a capital FAB); so much so that I would have liked to see more work from Swan Design. Sure, this film is self-conscious and full of itself (much like its protagonist), and made me feel more emotion toward a toucan than any of the actual characters, but there is just something fun and whimsical about the whole thing. I left the cinema with a smile on my face, and, sometimes, that's more than enough to ask from a film.

Side Effects - I am still not sold on Rooney Mara as a lead actress, but I am totally on-board with Jude Law's being in his element. This is a man who knows his way around a twisty movie, and Side Effects has twists galore, all of which Law handles with aplomb. The puzzle-constantly-unfolding conceit works very well here; I was kept guessing throughout the film. While such a plot depends on quality, close-to-the-vest acting all around, and the supporting cast more than delivers, this film belongs to Mara and Law. In a dismal season of cinema, Side Effects easily stands out as a quality piece of filmmaking that harkens back to Hitchcock, while being completely contemporary.

Top Gun (in IMAX 3D) - I remain mystified as to what the 3D was supposed to achieve here, since none of the dog fights were filmed with 3D in mind. The IMAX, however, was a completely brilliant move. Beach volleyball has never looked so good! Great balls of fire! Of course, those afore mentioned dog fights also looked pretty darn good in IMAX. Top Gun is definitely a film that can benefit from an enhanced experience, and the sound and picture conversions were handled well here. Even though the studios are getting a bit greedy, this was very nearly worth the full $20 I paid for the pleasure. Plus, I learned that I know the lyrics to "Mighty Wings" better than I do those to "Danger Zone," even though I reflexively mouthed the words of the Loggins classic whenever it blared through the speakers.

Holy Motors - I wasn't planning to see this film because it sounded too weird and pointless. But then my mother, who is usually very good about avoiding weird and pointless films, said she thought it sounded interesting. So off to the cinema I went, full of hope that I would be pleasantly surprised. Sadly, I was not. I feel like this is another (albeit weirder) case of The Master, in which everybody gave this film good reviews rather than admit they didn't understand it, and that the film doesn't really have a point or make sense. Holy Motors seemed like one big stunt to me, and I didn't find any of the vignettes to be entertaining, enjoyable, or enlightening. Any explanation or context at all would have gone a long way toward making this film palatable.

Safe Haven - This is a rare instance of a film inspiring me to read a book that I had no intention of reading. I have read The Notebook (for school of all things, way before anybody knew who Nicholas Sparks was -- and I haven't seen that movie!) and Message In A Bottle (a rare high quality Book-Movie-Soundtrack trifecta, in the good company of High Fidelity), but I haven't picked up one of Spark's books since. However, I am still kicking myself for having missed the Sparks-lite confection The Vow last year, and I did recently watch The Lucky One (sadly not anywhere near as #dreamy as its star).  I am happy to report that Safe Haven is *so* much better than The Lucky One. Sure, it is sappy and ridden with its fair share of clichés, but it also has two twists that were quite well executed for a film of this genre. In fact, it is these twists that make me want to read the book and see how Sparks handled them in the source material. I wasn't expecting a chick flick to stay with me for several days the way Safe Haven did, but it has a winning earnestness -- and a light touch of the Southern Gothic -- that lifts it above the tropes of its genre.

Inescapable - This film is pretty much Taken . . . but in Syria . . . with an Arab lead decidedly not as badass as Liam Neeson. Going to the Canadian Embassy for help just doesn't have the same sense of menace that threatening anonymous killers via cell phone does. The production values were on the shoddy side, lending the film an amateur feel, despite the presence of quality actors like Alexander Siddig, Oded Fehr (also known as "that guy from The Mummy"), and a woman I was going to refer to as the Syrian version of Marisa Tomei . . . until I realized that she was, in fact, Marisa Tomei. That's right: this film was so shoddy in production values and writing that it made Marisa Tomei seem like a cut-rate imitation of herself.

The Impossible - It took me a while to be in the right mood to see this film. And, in the end, my main reason for seeing it was Naomi Watts's Oscar nomination, but we all know it would simply be unrealistic of me to skip a Ewan McGregor movie (he's excellent here - striking the perfect tone at every moment, especially in his interactions with the children). I wasn't sure what to expect from this one, since it had gotten mixed reviews. I ended up liking the film quite a bit, and shed my fair share of tears; waterproof mascara recommended. Naomi certainly deserves her nomination, and the middle son was a standout as well -- how can you not fall into those huge eyes?! Like Argo, this movie managed to keep me on the edge of my seat during its climactic sequence despite the fact that I already knew the outcome of the story. Top-notch editing and acting at work right there. Meanwhile, my disinterest in visiting Thailand remains as strong as ever.


Book Shelf
A Spectacle of Corruption, David Liss
This is the second in a trilogy of historical fiction. I happened to read the third book first, but it makes no difference. While Liss's protagonist and his sidekick remain constant throughout all three books, the stories are self contained enough that they can be read as one-offs. Like the other two books in the trilogy, this is a solid effort that imparts fascinating historical information. Unlike the other two books, which mostly focus on commerce, this one focuses on politics, and there were times at which I found myself as lost as I do when reading le Carré spy novels (very lost).  Suffice it to say, 18th century British politics are quite confusing. On the other hand, trying to figure out what sides all the players were on kept me so occupied that I had no time to try to unravel the central mystery myself before the story got there. However, I am not sure that I understand British politics any better now than I did before reading this volume.

King Rat, James Clavell
My mother, the librarian, tends to know what she's talking about when it comes to books, especially good books. So I can only say mea culpa to its having taken so long for me to get around to James Clavell's Asia Saga. They are just so long, and I had been all about my quantitative reading records for several years now. However, if I could suffer through the Song of Ice and Fire books, which are of comparable length, I figured I can certainly spare the time for some quality writing. I decided to ease myself in with King Rat, which is a less daunting 400 pages. Turns out, this is one of the most outstanding books I've read in recent memory. No joke. Clavell brings characters to life amid the appalling squalor of a POW camp, builds a tension filled story around them, and keeps that story going with urgent momentum. While it presents a very different side of the war, King Rat ranks right up there with Tales of the South Pacific as my favorite literature about World War II's Pacific Theater.

Die Trying, Lee Child
These Jack Reacher novels just keep getting better and better. I was a bit skeptical of this one to begin with, plot-wise, but then things got going, and I was completely sucked in.  Fascinating stuff about secessionist militias and the point at which emotion and politics must never meet (shades of a key West Wing plot thread here). However, I knew Child had me the moment I was mesmerized by a two-page long description of all the factors that affect a bullet as it is fired from a sniper's rifle. The precision and harsh beauty of such writing floors me every time.  Child matches that passage with a literally heart-pounding two-page long section that traps the reader, along with Reacher, in the most suffocatingly claustrophobic tunnel ever. Die Trying is a hobbyist tactician's dream, and certainly filled with enough testosterone and adrenaline to keep up a pounding pace, with pauses in just the right places.

Austenland, Shannon Hale
This book had been languishing on my Amazon wish list for ages and ages, and now that it's been made into a film, I decided it was finally time to order it. I am not a huge Austen fanatic. Sure, I love Pride & Prejudice (with or without zombies), and Colin Firth looks good in a wet shirt, etc. etc. But Emma is one of the few books I have started (twice!) and never finished. It turns out that even though I'm an Anglophile who has been to the Jane Austen museum in Bath and her house in Alton, this really wasn't the book for me. I just couldn't get on board with the concept that anyone would want to live the regency lifestyle in some sort of twisted dance between wish fulfillment and denial. It definitely shows that Hale's primary experience is in writing Young Adult novels; high-schoolesque tropes abound in this disenfranchising, and extremely twee, piece of chick lit. On the other hand, I think the movie is going to be awesome: it is perfectly cast, and that which seems frivolous and nonsensical on paper will be delightfully amusing on the big screen.



Post title from: "Island" from The Seven Ages, by Louise Glück