Stuck On Repeat
"Another Day Without You" - Billy Currington
"Pressure" - Robin Thicke
"The Mother We Share" - CHVRCHES
"Feel Good" - Robin Thicke
"23 Degrees & South" - Billy Currington
"Ain't No Hat 4 That" - Robin Thicke
"Perfect Day" - Billy Currington
Cinema
Short Term 12 - This an effective, moving piece of film-making that oozes raw emotion, thanks to some top-notch acting. Even though things are wrapped up a bit too neatly by the end, there is a significant sense of honesty and realness about the film and the performances that give it heart. Short Term 12 is a film about connection that does a great job of connecting with - and drawing in - the audience as well.
Austenland - I am a mild Austen fan, having read only the two of her books that were assigned for school and having seen my fair share of film adaptations. However, Bridget Jones' Diary did more to make me a Colin Firth fan than Pride & Prejudice ever could. I read the novel on which this film is based and thought it was a terrible book that had the potential to be turned into a decent film. This cinematic Austenland, however, is far from decent. It takes itself far too seriously and is just as cringe-worthy as the book on which it is based. If Austenland had been more farcical and self-aware, a la Tristram Shandy (which I had just happened to watch the evening before), it could have been quite entertaining. Instead, it is simply silly and ridiculous, with strained laughs produced by moments so poorly executed, one can't help but chuckle in discomfort.
Closed Circuit - If you have ever seen Law & Order: UK, then you have seen this film (heavy on the "Order" side of that equation) at its most basic level, aka "Thank goodness we have CCTV!" Closed Circuit is certainly a watchable film, but it didn't give me anything new, or anything that I hadn't surmised from the trailer, which I had seen far too often throughout the summer. While the protagonists are passionate about the politically charged situation that surrounds them for most of the film, in the end they realize they must become ambivalent in order to survive. Ambivalence was the only emotion within this film that I could identify with by the time I left the cinema.
Elysium - This film introduces and hints at so many cool ideas, but doesn't give itself time to explore them because it is too busy being wrapped up in the basic, cliched concepts of haves versus have-nots and "destiny." Aside from the healing pods and Jodie Foster on her high-horse, I am not sure what was really up with Elysium itself, since the population seemed to be about the size of a small house party. Everything in the film, even on Earth, was just too glossy and glossed over. Where District 9 had such focused depth of feeling, Elysium is just shallow all around.
Prisoners - Creepy! I should have expected this, since the trailer had some serious horror movie overtones going for it, but I figured that Hugh Jackman would make it all okay. While Hugh and Jake Gyllenhaal (of who I am normally not a huge fan) certainly do a great job , watching these two repeatedly lose control of situations that they seemed to have well in hand did nothing to reassure me as things got creepier and more unsettling. By the time I left the cinema, I had the paranoid feeling that someone would abduct me during my walk to the subway. While this is a solid film with serious staying power, it is not the type of film I would normally see, Hugh Jackman or not (I skipped Real Steel, and I would have been better off skipping this; paranoia is not a feeling I relish). However, kudos to the script for keeping me riveted minute to minute and for tying even the small details together by the end of the film, despite the fact that doing so did make everything feel a little too self contained.
Enough Said - I really wanted to like this film a lot more than I did. Maybe if I were older and/or had kids? I'm not really sure. The acting was high-level all around, but the script was trying too hard to make the characters talk like "real people," the result of which is scenes that come off as stiff and stagey rather than natural. I was most drawn to the story between Eva (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and her daughter's best friend, who is in search of a surrogate mother figure. This sub-plot was infinitely more interesting to me than the clearly ill-fated relationship between Eva and Albert (James Gandolfini). Enough Said can't decide if it wants to be indie or mainstream, and it ends up not quite hitting either target.
Don Jon - Even though I try to avoid quite a bit of in-depth coverage about hot new releases, I do read a fair amount about films in which I am particularly interested. Don Jon has gotten a lot of coverage for a very long time, so it was a rare treat that a film covered so heavily in the press was still able to surprise and delight. The subject matter and the editing style speaks directly to my generation (even if it did remind me a bit too much of college at times), satisfyingly striking a balance between mass culture/ubiquity/anonymity and deeply personal feelings. Don Jon succeeds in being "real" in the ways that Enough Said failed to do so. I could easily picture eavesdropping on conversations from Don Jon in real life. This is a film that challenges the members of the generation it depicts to take a look at how they live their lives and spark real-life conversations of their own.
Rush - As soon as the credits started to roll, one word popped into my head: didactic. This was a movie about racing, and yet I felt like I had just sat through something rather slow. I needed less speechifying and more driving, less calculation and more passion. While Chris Hemsworth as James Hunt often had a mischievous twinkle in his ice blue eyes (which in turn reside in his no-one-should-be-able-to-look-that-good face), his passion was constrained by a too-serious, instructional script. It is a shame that the whole film was not able to keep the tone of the first third, which featured the flamboyant, rag-tag Hesketh crew and allowed Hunt to show off in a way that seemed more natural. Instead, we ended up with a history lesson that keeps its subjects firmly in the past, rather than bringing out the vibrant life that is clearly simmering just below the surface.
Baggage Claim - As soon as I saw the trailer for this, I knew it was going on my "must see" list. Never mind that it's basically a re-tread of What's Your Number? or who knows how many other finding-Mr-Right romcoms. Sometimes clichés can be satisfying, and romcoms are the comfort food of the movie world, at least for me. Baggage Claim wins because it's cute and it stays on just the right side of too cheesy. Also, the cast is super likable - the whole crew is a delight to hang out with for a couple of hours, especially Paula Patton, Adam Brody, and Jill Scott. To cap it all off, the airport scenes are over-the-top silly, and yet still hilarious. This was the perfect up-note on which to end the month.
Book Shelf
No Way to Treat a First Lady, Christopher Buckley
As always, if you are looking for frothy political satire, the younger Buckley is your man. Sly farce is indeed a very good way to treat a First Lady in this book. While some of the references are charmingly dated, this novel manages to be more timely than some of Buckley's other works due to the recent kerfuffles over privacy issues. At the very least, this book is a quick and entertaining read, which is something I haven't gotten a lot of so far this year.
Wolverine, Chris Claremont & Frank Miller
In case you were wondering, I am still rather obsessed with Wolverine's cinematic appearance this year, and decided that I should read the comics on which the latest film took much of its inspiration. Of course I most enjoyed seeing which elements from the comic made it directly to the screen, and which ones were changed. I can definitely see why this series of issues is so heralded by the comics community - the artwork is stunning, and the plot is action packed. Now that this seminal installment is under my belt, I can't wait to dive into more classic titles from the Wolverine canon.
Calico Joe, John Grisham
As I've mentioned before, I love a good baseball movie. And Calico Joe is pretty much a baseball movie in book form. It gets off to a bit of a slow start and revels a little too much in hard-core baseballness (e.g. stats, rosters, and such), but once the story starts to come together, it's rather compelling and tragic, even if aspects of the resolution don't quite ring true. Just as he did in A Painted House, Grisham does an excellent job capturing a boy's view of his world - one full of wonder, excitement, and enthusiasm - as well as the moment at which that boy's innocence is lost. So basically, just your standard baseball story stuff.
The Last Six Million Seconds, John Burdett
I loved this book! Obviously, I've kind of had a Hong Kong thing going on recently, starting with the neo-Bond Zero Minus Ten last year, and continuing with all the James Clavell books this year. Burdett's take on Hong Kong (he lived there for a number of years) was a perfect follow-up to Noble House; I could easily picture the Struan's gang (or their descendants) fitting into Burdett's portrayal of corruption in 1997 Hong Kong. While several graphic and grisly scenes are certainly not for the faint of heart, the brutality always seems justified rather than over-the-top. The politics surrounding all the action gives it the civil gloss befitting of a British colony. I found the global aspects of the story fascinating, and Burdett's extremely descriptive writing really brings the streets of Hong Kong to life. Like all of Burdett's books, The Last Six Million Seconds is highly atmospheric; it does what all the best thrillers should do: transport you, shock you, and keep you guessing. It entertains while being thought provoking and allowing a glimpse into another world.
All You Need Is Kill, Hiroshi Sakurazaka
I wish I had known about All You Need Is Kill last year, when I was looking for a follow-up to Ready Player One, and I can't wait to see the movie (oddly and unmemorably re-titled Edge of Tomorrow), especially since I'm not sure I completely follow the time travel loop logic and mechanics. However, the background story of the aliens and the protagonist's learnings from his own loop are all really well conceived and exceedingly compelling. I actually wish that the book were a little longer and took more time with the various histories and backstories rather than rushing over them in a summarized and condensed manner. While there is so much room for expansion, the quick, glossy style actually does work well in the context of the story being told.
Oscar Wilde & the Vatican Murders, Gyles Brandreth
As one would expect from a story with Oscar Wilde as the protagonist, Vatican Murders is a diverting trifle. The setting of Rome comes off the page nicely - all the scenes are well set and highly detailed. I could almost feel the sun streaming off the page every time Oscar and Arthur Conan Doyle (Oscar's friend and straight-man, no pun intended) took breakfast in a piazza. Even though I had the culprit pegged quite early on, this is one of Brandreth's strongest entries in his Wilde mystery series.
The Hard Way, Lee Child
The Enemy was good because it dove into Jack Reacher's past. The Hard Way is good because it allowed me to picture Jack Reacher walking around my own back yard in the here and now. Things I thought while reading this book include, "Hey, I've been to that Staples on 6th Ave! Neat!" Child gets all of the details of New York just right (I actually walked by a couple of the locations he mentions just to make sure I was picturing them correctly in my head), and then he does the same thing for London. In other words, Jack Reacher could totally be my bestie based on this book. So far, this is the only Reacher book that I've wanted to hold on to once I had turned the last page. As much as I love each and every book in this series, I am so glad that they continue to speak to the growth of both the character and the author as they go along.
Post title from: "Radium," from The Seven Ages, by Louise Glück
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