- Annihilation, based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Black Panther
- A Quiet Place
- Sorry To Bother You
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
2019 Hugo Awards Finalists, Dramatic Presentation, Long Form
April 6, 2019 at 6:19 pm (Lists, Movies, Recommended)
Tags: action movies, adaptations, blockbusters, horror, Saturday, science fiction
Selma Blair, Beautiful
February 26, 2019 at 7:46 pm (Artists and Writers, Conversations, Movies, Surprises)
Tags: fashion, illness, inspiration, Oscars, Vanity Fair
Went to the Vanity Fair Oscar Party! YES! Look at that gown — beautiful and ethereal. Who was the designer?
This actress is so beautiful and so fierce.
She told Vanity Fair that she realized, finally, that what she really wanted to do was to act. “But I don’t know if it’s too late.”
SELMA, YOU CAN ACT.
Stay tuned.
Alita, Robert Rodriguez, November Road
February 20, 2019 at 10:06 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, destinations, Links, Movies, Places, Recommended)
Tags: crime, mysteries, New Mexico, novel, reading lists, thrillers
At one point, close to the end of Alita: Battle Angel, self started to see if she could correctly predict the outcome. There was the cute guy (who looks A LOT like one of self’s nephews), the charming father figure (Christoph Waltz) and the Evil Henchman (Ed Skrein). At a certain point, self found herself hoping for a certain outcome, which meant that she was vested. And then she realized she was watching Robert Rodriguez, not Guillermo del Toro. And she suddenly knew the outcome. Which gave her a very satisfying feeling of closure.
Alita: Battle Angel — Five Stars
Now, she is at a point in her current read, November Road, where all characters and all plot lines begin to intersect. And they intersect in what is surely one of America’s most beautiful and most mysterious states: New Mexico. There’s a tiny hamlet called Goodnight that has one sheriff, one deputy, and one jail cell.
Here’s a Wikipedia page about the Goodnight Trail, if anyone’s interested.
The book’s veering into No Country For Old Men territory, with this one crucial difference: the MC, Frank Guidry, is good-looking. AND smart.
Since she’s never read Lou Berney before, she has no idea what authorial quirks are coming into play. She has a feeling, though, that Berney is going to be true to the genre. And that genre is noir.
The writing is of the hard-boiled crime genre category (which is to say, self loves it).
p. 136: Seraphine was fond of Guidry, he knew, but that and a nickel would get him one song on the jukebox.
See what self means?
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Missing Cora Seaborne . . .
February 16, 2019 at 8:41 am (Artists and Writers, Books, Movies, Recommended, Women Writers)
Tags: adaptations, English writers, favorites, novel, Saturday, Victorian
If self had known a Cora Seaborne in her life, she’d undoubtedly be her best friend. She and Cora would read books, argue about them, and get mud on their shoes and under their nails. They’d collect useless stuff on their walks.
Actresses self thinks could play her:
Rebecca Hall
Romola Garai
Emma Thompson
Olivia Colman
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
San Francisco Chronicle Datebook, 27 January 2019
January 28, 2019 at 1:05 am (Explorers, Lists, Movies, Philippine History, Sundays)
Tags: history, memories, news, politics, San Francisco Chronicle, South-East Asia, The Philippines, Vietnam War
Loving the cover story:
In 1969:
Nixon became President, the Beatles released Abbey Road, Sly and the Family Stone released Want To Take You Higher, The Who released Tommy.
Midnight Cowboy, Easy Rider, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid premiered. TV’s Star Trek got cancelled.
Woodstock happened, Chappaquiddick happened, the moon landing happened, Berkeley’s People Park happened, Charles Manson happened, The Gap opened its 1st store, the Vietnam draft lottery was televised, William Calley was convicted of six counts of murder for My Lai.
Self was in summer camp in England. That’s where she heard about the moon landing.
Ferdinand Marcos won re-election as President of the Philippines.
Wonder what groundbreaking books were published that year? No mention in the Chronicle. There must have been some.
Where was Gloria Steinem?
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Visualizing Anna Karenina
January 16, 2019 at 6:43 pm (Artists and Writers, Books, Movies)
Tags: adaptations, classic movies, novel, performances, reading lists, Russian literature
Self saw the Joe Wright movie and felt it was ludicrous, especially the scene with the dueling tongues. None of which is Keira Knightley’s fault.
Here’s a photo of actress Vivien Leigh, who more closely resembles the image of Anna that self has in her mind:
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
On the Basis of Sex
December 27, 2018 at 7:13 am (Movies, Recommended, Surprises)
Tags: adaptations, causes, Palo Alto, performances, politics, praise, review
Self didn’t expect much from this movie, the line was a surprise:
Palo Alto Square, the day after Christmas 2018
The film is so, so good. The whole gender conflict thing is dynamic, not just “a cause.” It becomes real because of the relationship between Ginsburg and her husband. And the two leads definitely get it. They sell the male domination thing Ginsburg rails against, again and again. There is rage, but it’s never a polemic, it’s rooted in the experience of the marriage. We feel the injustice precisely because of the tenderness between Marty and Ruth.
Honestly, self doesn’t know if any other pair of actors could pull off what these two do here. It’s fine, fine work. And she did not expect it from Armie Hammer and Felicity Jones.
She thinks she finally understands the reason for Armie’s recent string of successful movies: it’s his irony. His awareness that yes, he’s good-looking, but there’s a wryness, a core affability, about him. Can you imagine someone else playing Mr. Mom? It could have been super-cheesy. She likes his willingness to not just pretend he’s an entitled white male, but to BE that entitled white male (which we all know he is, in real life, anyway: The Armand Hammer Museum in UCLA is named after his grandfather or great-grandfather), and here he is wearing an apron, feeding the baby, cooking and chopping. Droll.
Self thinks he’s going to be perfect playing that smug prick Maxim de Winter, in the re-make of Rebecca.
What a smart film On the Basis of Sex is. Self liked it better than the documentary she saw earlier this year, The Real RBG. A documentary gives us the facts. But this movie allows us to watch the relationship and see how it actually went down, in everyday life.
BTW, Sam Waterston gets only a few scenes, but each one of them is key.
Kudos, Director Mimi Leder. Self hopes this movie is nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. She hopes Felicity Jones gets nominated for her performance. Armie, too.
Directly in front of me, lots of people: Wednesday, 26 December 2018
Stay tuned.
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Close-Up or Macro
December 5, 2018 at 6:22 pm (Artists and Writers, destinations, Food and Drink, Links, Movies, Places, Surprises, Traveling)
Tags: Cee Neuner, England, humor, indulgence, London, memories, museums, Oxford, restaurants
Self loves posting for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge. It gives her a chance to post photographs from her archives that might otherwise be overlooked. Such as the close-up of her bedside lamp at The Penn Club, where she stays whenever she is in London:
Room # 1, The Penn Club: Bedford Place, London
Or this tea-set:
London Review Cakeshop: Bury St., London
Or this amusing pair of socks:
Gift Shop, Ashmolean: Oxford, England
Thank you, Cee Neuner, for the prompt!
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
2nd Post On Self’s Last Sunday in London
December 2, 2018 at 6:00 pm (Lists, Movies, Recommended, Sundays, Surprises, The Guardian, Traveling)
Self is madly reading all the issues of The Guardian she bought in the last week. She thinks she’s making great progress: she’s now on Friday’s Guardian (30 November).
Her attention was caught by a list of The 20 Most Influential Films.
Rather than simply copy out the entire list, self will tell you that the # 1 Most Influential Film of All Time is The Wizard of Oz (1939).
The Second Most Influential Film of All Time is Star Wars (1977).
Third is Psycho (1960).
Fourth is King Kong (1933).
Fifth is 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Citizen Kane (1941) is just # 7.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) is # 10.
Casablanca (1942) is # 11.
The Godfather (1972) is # 13.
Jaws (1975) — what a surprise! — is #14.
Dr. Strangelove (1964) is # 18.
Gone With the Wind (1939) which self was never into, is # 19.
Stay tuned.
Sad About Burt
September 8, 2018 at 5:22 am (Artists and Writers, Movies)
Tags: Fridays, performances, praise, transitions
Never Forget: Burt Reynolds in John Boorman’s deeply disturbing, potent Deliverance
