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L to R: Pepe's Purple Passion, Wocka Wocka, Meep Meep Meep, Animalistic

(source)

I want Meep Meep Meep. Quite a bit. Or Wocka Wocka.

Re-Re-Repeat

Is this love?

This movie is kinda good. I'm just saying maybe you should see it.

Let me know when it's over.

I don't know about the rest of the world (specifically the American populace), but this whole debt crisis is giving me a knee-jerk reaction to pull all of my money out of the bank to stash in my closet or under my mattress.But I know that if we all do that, we will have this: 





I understand that, as my grandfather says, "It's [our] generation responsible for the world next. it's [our] turn next!"

But if the current Congress (everyone) could stop driving it into the ground, that'd be awesome.

It All Ends

photo by Annie Leibovitz, for Vanity Fair

Tonight at midnight, my childhood comes to close. I speak, of course, of the premiere of the final installment of the Harry Potter phenomenon. These books and films have been markers of my childhood; the anticipation, standing in line with my friends for their release, is something I can recall with perfect clarity for each film and book. 

Vanity Fair

I was eleven years old when I first read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I first heard about the books at the Scholastic Book Fair (an event that I always looked forward to with bated breath), when the librarian wheeled up the TV and VCR to play a short video. The books sounded odd to me . . . a boy at wizard school. It sounded so mundane, like a picture story. Then my mom brought it home for me to read. It was something she just saw on the shelf and thought I might like. And when I picked it up and opened it to the first page, I became utterly enchanted. It would not be the last time I sat down to read a Harry Potter book and not resurface until I read every last page. 

Entertainment Weekly, via Angliophile meets Bibliophile

In all honesty I forget when and how my Mom and sister read the books, but before I knew it Mom had gone out to get a hardback copy while it was still in the first edition and suddenly the books were a phenomenon. When the first film was preparing for release, we bought the Vanity Fair magazine with the first pictures of the characters I had pictured in my head for so long. And it was just like I had imagined. 

Well. Hermione's hair could have been a bit bigger.

I've never really minded the adaptations Steve Kloves made from page to screen. I've always understood that what translates from the page to your imagination doesn't always work on screen. The films have been so lovely, and the actors have grown up so marvelously.

But what gets my goat (and has, for years) is the movie reviewers who clearly have not read the books (EDIT: I say, have not read the books because while I understand a book just not catching your fancy, but I cannot comprehend reading the entire series and still classifying them as children's literature). I remember after the release of the third film, sending off (or just writing it . . . I can't remember if I ever sent it) a very angry letter to Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post, who, had he read the books, would not have asked so many asinine questions in such a patronizing manner. Even the review today in the New York Times sets my teeth on edge and puts a bitter taste in my mouth. She seems, to me, to indicate that the films have bolstered the books, just silly children's stories, to something greater because the films are "blockbusters." 

(EDIT: my in-house copy editor [my sister] amicably disagrees with me, further proving that interpretation is everything. To go a touch more in depth about it, I find it very jarring when a good review ends on the note that anyone (even someone as magnificently talented as Alan Rickman) "elevated a child's tale of good and evil into a story of human struggle."  Not only does it put a patronizing tone onto an otherwise good review, but the books have always been a story of human struggle. They contain so much more than good and evil. Of course, on a somewhat unrelated note I also take issue with film critics increasing belief that movie-goers need a plethora of explosions and violence to deem it a blockbuster. But that's a debate for another time).

Furthermore, she focuses on the acting talent of the adults and their strengths. She indicated that the children are great in their roles because they have grown up on screen and we are used to them. I find them all to be incredibly nuanced, and each have created some incredible cinematic moments particularly in the last 3 films.
 

Vanity Fair

The Harry Potter books, as all fans know, have never been children's books. Not really. As Rowling herself pointed out, her story begins with a double homicide even if it is off-page. These books have taught me so much about life, about how to be tolerant . . . honestly I can't enumerate all the things that they have taught me. They've just permeated my life.


I don't get angry at people who dislike Potter, for whatever reason. I pity them. As someone said, somewhere on the internet (I can't find it anywhere, of course, but I must give credit to them, whoever they are), I feel sorry that these characters have not lived and breathed with them. The Harry Potter universe is alive, inside my head, and it is as real to me as my friends that live far away. I have cried with them, I have laughed with them, and I have mourned deeply with them. I have thrown these books down in a fit of despair at 4 am, only to pick them up again to find out what happens next. 

Vanity Fair

And when I say I'm not emotionally ready for this, I am kidding for them most part. But believe you me, I will be in tears when I see it tonight. And tomorrow. And the next day. 

I want to go to there (and other great catch-phrases)

I'm currently reading Tina Fey's Bossypants, and semi-recently watched Amy Poehler's Harvard commencement speech (see Fig. 1). It is becoming increasingly clear that these are indeed two epically classy ladies, and that they are in fact the heroes I never knew I had. And yes, I'm aware that I got my invitation to this here party about 5 years late.



If I could find more than two good clips that aren't montages, I would post an overkill of Tina Fey/Amy Poehler weekend updates, because it was epic. But I can't. So just pause and think about it, for a minute.

Happy "We Committed Tyranny and Won" day

I'm not emotionally ready for this.

I will have a coronary in the theater.

The Jukebox

Speechless.

Begs the Question

Yesterday a dear friend of mine happened to be driving through town, and we decided to catch a film together. We saw Robert Redford's new movie 'The Conspirator,' the story of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and more specifically, the trial and execution of Mary Surratt. The film is spectacular, both thought-provoking and visually stunning with incredible cinematography. I love that it at least appears as though Redford used mostly natural light, and allowed the firelight from the candles and torches to blur and distort the way they naturally would on film. Also, the script was so nuanced and wonderful. Its speech was era-appropriate, more formalized than our speech is today, but not distracting or "antiquated." The actors all did a marvelous job with it; it was nice to see a good story told with good acting, simply and excellently--no explosions or car chases required.



But a line in the film made me wonder: is the assassination of Abraham Lincoln still the single greatest tragic and traumatic event in American history? Do we consider it separate from such horrific events as Pearl Harbor and September 11th because they are foreign nations/organizations attacking the U.S. Government? Or do we consider John Wilkes Booth and his conspirators a foreign organization because they affiliated themselves with the Confederate States of America?

It's so easy to distance ourselves from historical events. Untold horrors that emotionally and physically scarred our ancestors become words on a pages, mere statistics and pie charts. Good historians and, yes, good filmmakers work hard to remind us that these events were as real and as shocking to those living through them as ours are to us. America had been torn in half, with whole families slaughtered and farms destroyed.  Southern cities, in particular Richmond and Atlanta, were razed to the ground. An entire race had suddenly, wonderfully, been set free from legal bondage . . . but with little preparation for it, no real homes, and an unimaginable sense of uncertainty because surely they realized that emancipation on a piece of paper signed by one man does nothing to change the hearts of men. Soldiers returned home with what body parts they had left to them, having seen unspeakable horrors, people attempted to rebuild. And then the guiding light of the nation, that rallied the Union together, sought justice, and pieced together what was broken, was ripped away from a nation in one night. A nation that needed something positive to cling to. 

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln sent an already reeling nation into turmoil, and the film captures this so perfectly. This is the sort of tone and handling a historical event should have on film. 


**I can't embed the videos but anyone interested should check out the film's page on Youtube. It has some very interesting featurettes.

From the Bookshelves to Cinema

The Help, by Kathryn Stockett

get excited, people.

video from Clevvermovies

Christmas Countdown: Cinema Style

My mom and I try to watch White Christmas every year. Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera Ellen . . . so good, and such a classic Christmas movie. Just shows how amazing classic films are, and how they've stood the test of time.

Film Review: Tangled

I love (love. love!) the early Disney fairytales . . . Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, etc. When I first saw the first trailer for Tangled, I was a bit concerned. Rapunzel didn't seem like the most likable character, the male lead seemed annoying  . . . but then the other trailers made it seem much more enjoyable, and I wanted to see it! So Saturday, my sister, my really-really soon-to-be-brother-in-law, and I went to see it in 3D. First of all, the 3D was done incredibly well, and second of all, this was an absolute return to form for Disney. The artwork was spectacular (as the video below goes in to), Alan Menken did an excellent job on the score, and the characters/story were semi-relateable, surprising, and funny. Added bonus: excellent personified animal sidekicks that do NOT TALK! Loved it. Loved it. Will see it again in a heartbeat.

Morning Covers- Madman Across the Water

Brandi Carlile knows my soul. It's kinda creepy.

From the Bookshelves to Cinema

Get excited people. I know I am.

source: yahoo via I don't think Prada is the Answer

Kick Drum Heart

source

Enjoy your Saturday . . . I'm getting a flu shot.

Film Review: Fantastic Mr. Fox

source: FoxSearchlight

I know I'm late to the party here. So this isn't really a review. More an appreciation. And if you haven't seen it . . . hop to it!

Literature to Cinema: True Grit

source: here

who else is excited?!?!

Band of Outsiders

source: here

finding inspiration/something vaguely interesting to write about while not doing anything particularly interesting with your day is proving rather difficult . . . I'll try to remedy that.