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?

Lars and the Real Girl

I love Ryan Gosling and had planned on watching this movie for a while, but the thought of watching a movie about a guy who thinks his girlfriend is a blowup doll seems kinda creepy. The surprising thing about this movie is that it isn't creepy; Lars' creation of this "girlfriend" from out of town who is in a wheelchair is a manifestation of his own screwed up mind and is mainly just sad and uncomfortably funny at the same time. Even though I don't think this situation could happen in real life, it seems very believable (with the exception of some of the townspeople's reaction to him) This movie left me wondering. One thing that is for sure though, Ryan Gosling is a great actor!

Smart People watch Reversation Road

Or Mary and Mary watch two movies, one in the the theater called Smart People with Sarah Jessica Parker, Dennis Quaid, Ellen Page, and Thomas Hayden Church. Mary liked that the characters seemed like real people with typical weird idiosyncrasies but the movie itself felt a like a patchwork quilt -- it just didn't feel like it was put together right like a quilt that was worked on by too many people. SJP's character seemed undeveloped as if they were trying to make her out to be odd while Dennis Quaid's character seemed overdeveloped by being too neurotic. I, Mary, agree that the movie did not hang together well and left me with "hmmph" at the end. Actually a double "hmmph" What to think? It was overall lame with tons of potential. The ever-cute Ellen Page was ever-cute but seemed so like her Juno character, snappy and witty, and the only real salvation to the movie was Thomas Hayden Church, who curiously also so seemed so like his Sidewise character. So that's what us smart people thought.

If you had reservations about watching Reservation Road, I would suggest you follow that feeling. It's a downer, man. Mary was glad that she was playing Scrabble during this movie so two hours of her life weren't completely wasted. Why did I get it? Awesome cast, I mean who doesn't like Mark Ruffalo and Joaquin Phoenix but movies about a little boy getting killed is just not my cup of tea. However, Rachel Weisz did an outstanding job as the grieving mother, Mary thought.

Speaking of reservations, I also saw No Reservations with Aaron Eckhart, Catherine Zeta Jones, and Abigail Breslin about an uptight chef who winds up with her sister's daughter after the sister's death. Cute and fun new chef, the sexy Eckhart, is Zubas and brightly colored Crocs, livens up the dour Jones character and of course they fall in love. It's an ok movie but kinda bland, especially at the end. The movie was based on a 2001 German film called Mostly Martha and reviews say that movie is much superior. So I am going to check that out and get back to you.

Enchanted and Love in the Time of Cholera

I just saw these two movies -- very different in tone but alike in their lack of weightiness. I kept hearing people compare Enchanted to The Princess Bride, so I felt I needed to see it. It was cute, it was no Princess Bride, it had no goofy Wallace Shawn or repetitive Enigo Montoya (sp) but still cute. Amy Adams was the best part of the movie. She is sunny in a bizarre way. She is worth seeing in Junebug, it you haven't seen that.

Love in the Time of Cholera is also pleasant -- I never read the book so I can't compare them but I imagine the book is better-- it was just a little too one note about one man's weird obsession with one woman who has a lot of sex with other women while he pines for her until they are in their 70s. Javier Bardem is the long-lasting lover.