I Love Buffy

I believe when I first reviewed Twilight, I made a comment about how Buffy would kick Edward's ass - well, here's my proof:


I really enjoyed this - saw it over at The Film Experience a few days ago, and have been meaning to post it ever since.

Movies: Rachel Getting Married

While I was on leave, my mom and I got Rachel Getting Married from Netflix. It definitely wasn't what I expected. Between reviews and the Oscar nod for Anne Hathaway, I was under the impression that this was a good movie. Anne Hathaway's performance was definitely very good but the rest of the movie kind of irritated me. And there were lots of moments were it seemed like it might be going somewhere or had potential, it just didn't quite go in that direction.

One of the things that bothered me the most was the way they handled diversity. Considering how often films simply have a white cast, it is a good thing when a movie has diversity in it. It almost seemed unrealistic in this film, though, or as if they were intentionally trying to say, these are good people, they have all kinds of friends. Actually, it wasn't so much the diverse cast that bothered me but some of the other stuff. Explain to me why a white woman marrying a black guy would wear a sari to her wedding? Am I supposed to see her as open minded, or am I supposed to see her as some Westerner who's appropriating some other culture's symbols because she wants to be hip and think they look nice? Because I was definitely leaning towards the later. If at any point in the film there had been even the slightest explanation, such as "Rachel studied abroad in India for a semester" or "Rachel converted to Hinduism," I wouldn't have had an issue with it because there was actual meaning to it. This way it just seemed like a way for the movie to make her more "cultural." Also what Army E-4 is going to own both Class As and dress blues? Most E-6s I know only have Class As.

I also could not deal with the pacing of the film. I know they were going for a realistic/documentary style look, but seriously, the wedding reception? I didn't need to see every single song they played nor did I need to see a minute worth of dancing to each single song. I don't care. I want to see more of the story line and plot, not random filler.

The Reader and Revisionism?

One of the nice things about being back in the States is the fact that I can go to the movies. The theater on base only shows one movie a night (or two on weekends), and it's a different film every time so it really takes some luck and lots of planning to see a movie I want to see. Larger cities in Europe have theaters that show only English films, which I generally take advantage of when I go on my trips during four days. Of course, as far as movie-going is concerned, I kind of came to the States at a bad time - there's not much on that I want to see.

I went to see The Reader last week with my mom, and then this week noticed this post on Racialicious about Defiance and the portrayal of Jews in film. The writer also addressed Holocaust films, and specifically discussed two of the most recent ones, Valkyrie and The Reader. One of the articles he linked to was also especially interesting. The author, Ron Rosenbaum, argues that films like The Reader and Valkyrie are trying to rewrite history and more or less excuse the German people for the Holocaust while placing the blame on a few high ranking Germans. Valkyrie, for example, turns von Stauffenberg into a hero when really he was just as anti-semitic as any other powerful German. He tried to kill Hitler because he didn't think he could win the war, not because he disagreed with his other policies.

His argument about The Reader is that it in ways tries to excuse Hanna Schmitz, Kate Winslet's character, due to her illiteracy, and that the film tries to pretend that ordinary people didn't know what was going on. I'm not sure if I quite agree with his assessment in that respect, but certainly as he points out, the fact that her illiteracy was used to make her sympathetic is problematic.

I, however, got a slightly different message from the film. I didn't think that the film was trying to say that no one knew what was going on; rather, I felt like it was saying that everyone was guilty but a few became scape goats for everyone else, as the one student said during the trials. All six of the guards were guilty, they all participated but Hanna received the most punishment. Similarly, all of Germany was more or less aware of what was going on, saw their neighbors disappearing but said nothing. Everyone was culpable but only a few citizens were selected to pay for what the entire country had done.

Additionally, Rosenbaum makes the argument that Schmitz was completely unrepentant. I'm not sure if I agree. I think it all comes down on how to interpret the statement that she makes towards the end of her prison term (it's been over a week, and IMDB didn't have the line I was looking for so the wording might be off): "You want to know if I'm sorry? The people are dead, it doesn't matter how I feel or if I'm sorry." Obviously, this could mean she doesn't care about what she did. On the other hand, couldn't it also mean that she is sorry but she doesn't think she has the right to talk about her emotions or feelings because as she said, her regret now won't bring them back? Hanna never talks about her emotions in the film so it would be rather uncharacteristic of her now to share them. Given her messed up pride, even if she felt sorry, maybe she didn't want to say it to others, thinking it was a personal matter, and that it would sound false if she said since it would be what Michael wanted to hear.

Still, there are definitely some issues with the film and the story in general. I'd read the book a year or two ago after seeing it recommended somewhere, and I honestly was kind of apathetic to it. I'd heard it was this great novel and yet when I was done, I had a kind of "and?"/ "so what?" reaction to it.

What's Worse - Settling or Always Looking for Something Better?

While we were in Barcelona, we found a theater with a bunch of screenings of films in English. I couldn't talk the person I was with into seeing Rachel Getting Married, and I had no real interest in Body of Lies, so we saw Vicky Christina Barcelona.

The only other Woody Allen movie I've seen is Matchpoint, and for the most part, the movie was entertaining enough. The narrator was obnoxious, because everything he said was obvious anyway, and at one point, I turned to the guy I was with and said, "this was definitely written by a man." I'm just not sure I buy the idea of one guy being that charming and amazing. I wouldn't have minded seeing more of Penelope Cruz outside that setting, and not just her as the crazy ex-wife.

One thing that I noticed that's kind of weird about myself was my reaction to the end of the movie (spoiler alert): I was really disappointed that Vicky stayed with her husband. It felt like she was simply settling and compromising. I'm not saying she should have run off with the artist, but it seemed like she was setting herself up for an unfulfilled and less than happy life.

A few weeks ago, Pivo and I actually got into a drunken discussion about this type of thing. It seems like the book The Game (apparently there's a TV show as well now) has become quite popular within the unit. A sergeant told me about it months ago, and gave me his copy as a must read to understand men. I still haven't read it. One of the other platoon leaders has also read it, and he lent it to Pivo recently. Pivo was talking about a part of the book where the main person, Mystery (?), got Scott Baio's girlfriend's number. I don't even know who Scott Baio is, but apparently it was supposed to be a big deal. I just made the comment that if you're dating someone, you shouldn't give or get someone else's number in front of that person. It's just rude - if the relationship really isn't working, end it; don't make sure you have a back-up before ending it and just stick around because you don't know if you can do better. Also, at some point, people make a commitment to each other which means they stop looking around for someone better to come along (while wasted, Pivo agreed with me on that point - I haven't asked while sober).

So based on that, I should have been happy with the ending of Vicky Christina Barcelona. I guess the difference is that Vicky seemed to be resigning herself to a life that was less than happy. While the guy may have been the catalyst, it was more about her realizing her discontent but accepting it. In the other case, it seems like people just can't be satisfied with their situation and think they should constantly be looking for something else. And of course, the whole lack of etiquette irritated me.

Historical drama on film

I finally saw The Other Boleyn Girl a few days ago. Now I'd heard it was rather mediocre, but every once in a while I like those kinds of movies and I figured the dresses would be pretty. Basically, I was going for mindless entertainment. Now, I didn't really have a problem with the acting (wish they would have had more of Kristen Scott Thomas, the mother), but I just didn't like the way they set up the story. I realize the novel it's based on isn't exactly super-accurate, but I really disliked the way the movie dealt with time. The Mary-Henry relationship has quite a while to develop, and then he starts gaining interest in Anne. And suddenly, the next six years fly by within a time span of less than five minutes.

From all I've read, part of the reason Henry was initially attracted to Anne was her intelligence and her wit. They don't engage in too many, if any, intellectual conversations, and it's hard to see how Anne would have kept his interest so long. Also, I think if she's really as ambitious as the film portrays her, she also would have been more subtle at points.

The showtime series The Tudors isn't perfect, either, by a long shot, but it does a much better job of dealing the politics and other issues that were also going on at the time, and giving context. Even though events are on an accelerated cycle in that show as well, they do a much better job of implying the passage of time.

But the dresses were nice.