The Diving Bell and the Butterfly

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly is about a 42 year old French man who has a stroke and becomes paralyzed, unable to talk. He communicates through blinking his eye as a nurse goes through the letters of the alphabet. He writes a whole book like this (the book is what the movie is based on). It's pretty amazing. I would definitely not call this movie action-packed, but pretty interesting.

Speak

This past school year I read out loud Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson to my 8th graders home room. I don't really like young adult novels, I know I teach middle school, but this book awed me with its wonderfulness. Speak is told from the perspective of a witty, bright ninth grade girl filled with angst and anger. She has reason for the anger; she was assaulted by a creepy predatory senior guy. What follows is her year of coping with this incident and her perspective on mean girls and clueless teachers. So that’s the book. Now for the movie. At the end of this school year we watched the independent film of the movie with the kids. It’s PG-13, but ok for 8th graders, I thought. When you love a book, you really want the movie to not ruin your view of the book. My favorite movie interpretation of a book is Of Mice and Men, 1992, John Malkovich version. Speak may be coming in second. This movie exceeded my expectations. The lead, Melinda played by Kristen Stewart, is great. The cool, hippy art teacher played by Steve Zahn is hilarious and the whole movie is moving and authentic. I actually wanted to watch it again after I saw it with the kids. Well, it is hard to concentrate when you are watching a movie with 50 8th graders but still.
So I suggest you (meaning female readers of this blog) read the book and then watch the movie. You will probably not be able to find it at a video store and will need Netflix or some such online DVD .

Hannah Takes the Stairs

Hannah Takes the Stairs is an arty independent film -- a few 20 somethings make a movie in their apartment -- that did well at Sundance. Critics' opinions range from, "Unfocused and indulgent" to praising the director for having "an uncanny talent for making the randomness of downtime feel as alive as it seems generationally true." I just thought it seemed like a whole lot of down time and not much up time. The lead actress playing Hannah is cute and has presence on screen but plays an annoying unfocused serial dater. In my opinion the movie is not worth seeing. But that's why I am there for you, oh loyal reader, to watch these movies so you don't have to.

Starting out in the Evening

Frank Langella plays a washed up novelist who's earlier success seems forgotten by all but an ambitious grad student who insinuates herself into his staid life. The writer's daughter is played by Lily Taylor and she becomes increasingly concerned about the grad student's influence over her father. I thought maybe this would be a movie my parents might enjoy. Within 10 minutes of the movie my mother said, "I don't like that girl!" about the Lauren Ambrose grad student character. I had to leave to finish the movie later and both parents decided they would be happy not finishing it and leaving me to tell them what happened. I did finish it and liked it more at the end but still found it lacking, lacking in some heart or something. Lily Taylor's character was the most interesting. I love Lauren Ambrose from Six Feet Under, but, I guess I agree with my mother, she was annoying in this movie. Oh well, I don't know why I feel I have see every movie that's either about a writer or has actor's I like when it really isn't very good, but then I can tell YOU about it.

Favorite Movies

I wanted this blog to be lists and then I try to make these definitive lists of my favorite movies, and I become stymied. Some movies I love some movies so much for about two months or so and then two years later I can’t remember why I liked it. I think a favorite movie needs to last in your mind and stay meaningful to you. So they are not only meaningful to you at the time, they hang on and insist you see them again and again. Some movies that I feel that way to me are listed below. More will come to me later, by the way.
Gigi 1958 (I don’t know why)
Broadcast News 1987
Ordinary People 1980
Reds 1981
The Princess Bride, 1987
Pride and Prejudice (A&E version) 1996
You Can Count on Me 2000

What is one of your favorite movies?