Watched: Wide Sargasso Sea

Uh, wow. So this thing may not have had much of a budget, since it was a tv movie filmed with what I am almost sure was digital and not film. That being said, it's fairly good. For what it is. I think.

The thing is, I am kind of a sucker for Jane Eyre, trappings of imperialism and patriarchy and all. It's a love story, and it's also a critique, and (I have always felt, or I guess connected mostly strongly with) it's a story about a girl who may or may not have a lot going for her, but doesn't let that stop her from having principles and sticking to them.

Sure, it's antiquated. But I can get behind that last part. And the love story, if we're being totally honest. Which I think we should be because it's really just me writing to myself here.

That being said, the problem of the woman in the attic is still the problem of the WOMAN IN THE ATTIC OH GOD WHY. I mean imagine if that plot twist had not been used before now and then suddenly was pulled out in the last 20 minutes of a period film these days. I think feminist critics (rightly so) would just be like: WTF. I mean they still are anyway, which is essentially what birthed Wide Sargasso Sea. Well, that and post-colonialism.

Other disclaimer: I read this novel in college. Well, at least: I tried to read this novel in college. It's not that it's bad, per se, it's just that Jean Rhys's style of writing is like a mobius and strip and at times, can be opaque. There's a lot of stream of consciousness. There were long passages where I was not entirely sure who was talking, what was going on, where the characters were located, or if this was happening in reality or a dream. FINAL disclaimer: I read the book the same semester that I got Mono, and I remember reading it while laying in bed, slightly feverish, and falling asleep mid-sentence, only to wake up again some time later and begin reading from around the same page. COLLEGE! So in my mind, Wide Sargasso Sea is a very jumbled mix of disturbing and surreal, and I am not entirely sure what passages of the book I actually remember and what passages my feverish, idiot brain just kind of supplied while I was sleeping.

Okay, so. Wide Sargasso Sea: the tv movie. It's fine, I guess. Rebecca Hall does not really effectively maintain the accent she is trying to do, but I do think she effectively strikes the balance between vulnerable, disappointed, hurt, and unbalanced. This story really does kind of slap the story of Jane Eyre upside the head for being so thoughtless as to just assign the role of "lunatic" to the woman in the attic without ever really giving her the respect she deserves, as a human being, of asking why. So I respect it a lot for that. And they found what has to be the dourest, most unlikable actor ever to play the young Rochester. Well done there! Quite the contrast to Michael Fassbender's Rochester. What? NO I do not watch that movie every couple of months. How dare you insinuate I have a problem of that stature when it comes to Michael Fassbender's beautiful face and stunning talent! Offense taken. So it's pretty good, I think, for what it's trying to do, and interesting to watch as Rebecca Hall is an actress who I like a lot and who I think has better figured out her strengths and weaknesses as an actor since this film. But it's still not really essential. Maybe some say I'll watch the actual film adaptation from 1993. Or I'll just watch the Fassbender Jane Eyre again. Either way.

Watched: De rouille et d'os (Rust and Bone)

This is one of those movies I've been aware of for ages, because Marion Cotillard got an Oscar nom for it, but I put off for watching for as long as I knew it was out there because it's a movie about an amputee, and being that it is also French, just seemed like it would be unreasonably depressing.

Not so! I mean it's a little depressing although I guess what surprised me is that Marion's storyline is actually pretty triumphant and human, and not one giant sobfest, whereas the other characters in the film, her love interest (who might be my new Hollywood boyfriend because WOW is he an attractive person) and his family, have much more dire circumstances surrounding them. I mean, the double leg amputation plot is still sad, make no mistake. But not the saddest part of the film? Huh.

Anyway, this is from the director of The Beat that My Heart Skipped and A Prophet, more French films that have been "on my list" for ages (for A Prophet, it's like, I know, I know, it's the French Godfather! Everyone has seen it!) French movies are something I have to build up the will to watch, okay? It's not that they're bad or I dislike them, it's just that they're challenging. I have to be in the right mental space to be able to get anything out of them.

Also, this was a much sexier film than I ever expected it to be. Which surprised me. But I think it also felt very organic, and totally engrossing. Cotillard really is such a better actress when she's not stumbling over the English language. In French she just seems to be able to relax more, and settle into her characters. She's great.

Watched: The Hunger Games

It's not Battle Royale (that one's coming soon!) but... it's good enough, for a big summer blockbuster. The shakey handheld camera effect is a bit much. Little of that goes a long way. But Jennifer Lawrence really is fantastic, isn't she? I still need to watch Winter's Bone. It's one I've been meaning to get around to watching forever, I mean she was nominated for a damn Oscar and I love a lot of the character actors in that movie but... Ugh. Depressing subject matter.

Speaking of which, I would love this film by virtue of that fact that it does not ascribe to the method of storytelling or general philosophy on life as that dreck, Twilight. The fact that it's pretty entertaining and occasionally touching (SHUT UP LIKE YOU DIDN'T CRY WHEN RUE DIED, DON'T LIE) is just icing on the cake.

It's not the best movie ever made and I don't really think it's supposed to be. But it's a totally serviceable adaptation of what I thought was an overrated novel. In fairness, though, I listened to it on audio book over the course of a long car ride, only after my iPod had died, I'd listened to all the CD's I brought multiple times, and the radio had become a lost cause. So... I'm not exactly the biggest fan, I guess? Anyway. Jennifer Lawrence. Silver Linings Playbook! So good! Her interviews! So funny! Okay, she was pretty terrible as Mystique, but on a bad day she's still a more interesting actress than most of her generation.

 

 P.S. This is it. This is the creepiest screenshot I have ever taken, ever, IN MY LIFE. Jesus.

Watched: Glitter

I know it's been years and this movie is certainly the dead horse as far as being the joke of bad movie jokes go, but...

AHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

deep breath

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Watched: The East

Pretty interesting movie thematically, probing at the open wound that is America's obsession with consumerism and the cost we pay for it. Brit Marling stars and I really like her here. She creates and acts in films about intelligent, but imperfect women whose story is not necessarily about romance but about self-discovery or even more importantly, discovery of the world around them. There's kind of a shortage of interesting films in that particular niche genre, so more are always welcome. Also she looks kind of like one of my oldest and bestest friends. It's like watching my friend go on strange adventures!

Also, Alexander Skarsgard. Yep. Hot viking.

Also, cults. Never not entertaining.

 "Voodoo" Tatum!!

Watched: School of Rock

Just a really good, fun movie. I'd kind of forgotten all about this until recently pictures of the main children stars, all grown up at some sort of School of Rock reunion, surfaced on the internet. Hey, what happened to the movie? I said to my self. Not much, as it turns out. Just aging well and reminding me of a time before I was officially completely sick of seeing Jack Black's face everywhere.

Watched: The Bling Ring

Better, more eloquent writers than me have written plenty on the actual, true-life phenomenon of the Bling Ring and on Sophia Coppola's ephemeral, pretty, relatively straight-forward interpretation of those events. I will say that Emma Watson is excellent as a superficial LA girl with no actual ambitions beside being adored for her youth, beauty, and supposed "it" factor. Having unfortunately experienced the pilot of the E! channel's reality show, Pretty Wild, while immobilized by a hangover and held hostage by my Netflix queue one particularly unpleasant day during the summer, I can attest to the verisimilitude of Watson's Alexis Neiers (or whatever, do not care enough to double check her name's spelling). She's dead on. Leslie Mann is similarly accurate as Watson's wispy, self-centered, inept mother and sole educator. Upsettingly so, really; she completely nails the sad desperation for the love and approval of her daughters plus her desperate belief in self-help centered philosophy. Not to say that these factors, on their own, would necessarily be sad. But when a mother takes it upon herself to base her daughter's main education on said principles... see Ring, Bling.

The rest of the characters feel perfunctory at worst, and stereotypical or vacant (with barely any discernible inner life, anyway) at best. I'm torn if this movie made me feel more sad and empty and hollow because of how true to life it is, or how true to life it isn't. I'm leaning towards true, though. Teenagers can be the absolute fucking worst.