Sunday, December 2, 2018

Sunday Snapshot for the Start of December

toiles from the house of dior
Toiles from the House Dior

Currently Reading:

Still slogging through The Silkworm and The Woman in White. At this rate I'll probably finish TWiW before The Silkworm.

Movies:

das  boot
Das Boot, starring, idk, German guys

My dad made a friend who used to work on a submarine, and now he's forcing him to watch all these sub movies. I actually watched this in high school German class, but had forgotten a lot about it. For example, HOW FREAKING LONG IT IS. Other than that it's surprisingly good. It's more about the psychological warfare between the Germans and the English than explosions and shootings. And even though it is insanely long–I'm talking LotR level of self-indulgence here–it's very tense and will keep your attention. A classic for a reason!

the crimes of grindelwald
The Crimes of Grindelwald, starring all the people from Fantastic Beasts + Johnny Depp, Jude Law, someone who may or may not be Shawn Mendes, and Zoƫ Kravitz

UHG. Well, as you know, I liked Fantastic Beasts even though it felt strangely hollow. But this movie... smh. Redmayne is still awesome, but the script is an absolute disaster. Everything the characters do comes out of nowhere, there doesn't seem to be a plot, and the actors spend an inordinate amount of time awkwardly STARING. At each other, at things, stare stare stare. I told my mom if they'd only cut the staring out the movie would have been 90 minutes long! But then the dialog wasn't exactly sparkling, so perhaps staring was the best option.

And don't get me started on the WTF elements like Queenie brainwashing Jacob, Nagini's role in the film, or the fact that I still have yet to know what crimes Grindelwald committed during the course of the movie. Aside from the crime of stealing two and half hours of my life, that is.

SKKIIIIIIPPPP

green book
Green Book, starring Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen

In the 1960s a Brooklyn nightclub bouncer is hired by a record label to drive a pianist around and "take care of things" during his tour. Why? Because the tour is in the Deep South and the pianist is black.

This is a well-made film with awesome performances by Mortensen and Ali, great set and costume design, and a story that's entertaining and touching without being sappy or maudlin. I truly enjoyed watching it, but after thinking about it more, certain aspects started to bother me. For example, the hero of the story is clearly Tony–Mortensen's character–and Dr. Shirley's character is never really fleshed out. How did he wind up a fancy-pants piano player who lives above Carnegie Hall? Where was he born? Where did he go to school? Why aren't he and his brother speaking? None of these questions are ever addressed and others, like what's driving him to do this tour in the Deep South, are given the yada yada treatment. "You know, genius and stuff, yada yada yada." I don't think it's a bad movie by any means, it's just definitely a film about race for white people that feels like it didn't put a lot of thought into the one black character.

This month in heidenkindom:

My big announcement this month is that I GOT A JOB! Like, a full-time job with benefits and whatnot. It's at a university and I'll be working in communications. Pretty exciting, although I'm not looking forward to getting up every morning.

Other happenings this past month included a trip to Denver for Dior: From Paris the World. I'm no fashion expert, but this exhibit was pretty impressive. I loved the exhibition design and wish I'd taken an audioguide, as the signage was minimal. A show well worth seeing if you're in the area! Here's a link to my article about it on Dropbox if you're interested in learning more.

I would write more but I'm STARVING and this computer keeps giving me the spinning ball of death whenever I try to add more pics to this post, so I think I'm just going to give up and make dinner. Have a great week everyone!




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