Girl Detective

Twin Citians, Take-Up Productions presents Monday Night Film Noir at the Parkway theater, at (NB, this has been corrected to) 7:30pm. Tonight is Double Indemnity. The Parkway is a great, old theater and serves delicious popcorn with real butter.

Noir film is a growing interest for me, in response to Ed Brubaker’s excellent ongoing comic book, Criminal. Furthering my interest was a piece from last year, “Rerunning Film Noir” by Richard Schickel at The Wilson Quarterly (link from Arts and Letters Daily), which had some interesting insight into the aims of noir.

Traditional scholarship on this mostly American style of film said that the dark mood was a response to the discomfort of peacetime after WWII. Schickel proposes alternate interpretations that I think have a great deal of merit.

Noir films, with their greatly intensified visual style and their stress on perverse psychology, weren’t reflecting our misery in a peacetime economy….Instead, their aims were quite different (don’t forget, they were meant to entertain). For one, they were trying to give the traditional crime film a new lease on ­life–­particularly in the way it represented the city’s place in the postwar world. Somewhat more originally, they were placing a new stress on the power of the ­past–­something most of us thought we had ­buried–­to reach out and twist our fates when we least expected that to ­happen.

Semicolon hosts The Saturday Review of Books. It has a good community of readers; check it out.

Holy Moly, I watched 81 movies last year! That’s a lot, no? My behavior (making an effort to see movies) matches my priorities (love of movies; desire to learn more about film)–I started the annual challenge after I had my son Drake, and I hardly ever went out to the theater. I feel some lurking guilt that I could have devoted more time to reading, but that’s just because I’m prone to endless second guessing and self recrimination.

I’m not going to list them all. They’re linked to in movies to the right. But I saw about a quarter in the theater, watched a quarter from the home shelves, borrowed 34 from the library, and only watched 7 new purchases. (I’m not sure how many more I purchased and DIDN’T watch, which is one thing I’m trying to cut down on.) But the fact that both theater and shelf sitters got about three times as much attention as new purchases makes me feel again that my priorities are in the right place. So, onto the movies:

Favorite films: Lives of Others, Michael Clayton, Juno

Favorite series: Jason Bourne movies

Favorite dvds: Infernal Affairs, Volver, House of Games

Underrated films: Children of Men, Stranger Than Fiction

Illusionist vs. Prestige: Prestige, definitely

Movie I liked even though it wasn’t that good: Hairspray

Best new-to-me classic: La Regle du Jeu

Critical darlings that I just don’t like: Jonny To’s Triad Election, Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole, and all three by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu

For 2008, I think I’d like to cut back on the library dvds. Oops, I said that last year. But seriously, they’re so easy to reserve that I’m much less discriminating then I am in choosing DVDs to purchase or films see in theater.

I started annual book challenges after I had my first child. My time was no longer my own, and I wanted to retain reading as a priority. I also wanted to know more about what I read, since my memory took a hit it’s never quite recovered from. I wasn’t re-reading a lot of books, and I kept buying books even thought my to-be-read (TBR) pile was already precarious.

Tracking the books I read has helped me become a more conscious, and therefore better, reader. Giving brief reviews hones my writing and editing skills, plus allows me to share what I’ve read. This has resulted in many enjoyable virtual conversations about books. Reading in a vacuum is no fun, and my book group only meets every six weeks. I have re-read many of my books, allowing me a deeper understanding and appreciation of them. Further, I’ve stopped buying as many books, and have finally made inroads, however shallow, into my unread books. I’m also reading more nonfiction, and more challenging fiction, then I have in the past.

Last year I read 62 different books, one of them twice. My goal was fifty; a book a week makes my identity as a reader more real to me, though the number is arbitrary. 14 were from the shelf, 17 were borrowed or gifted, 21 were new purchases, and 11 were re-reads. This felt like a good balance, though next year I hope to read more from the shelf and purchase fewer books. 31 of these were fiction; 20 were graphic novels; 12 were nonfiction. I don’t enjoy nonfiction as much as fiction, so this accurately reflects my interests; I’m a novel gal.

I’ve begun to catalog my books at Gurulib. I chose this site because it is free and there is no limit, plus it allows for categorizing movies, another of my hobbies/passions. You can see last year’s books on my Gurulib shelf. I also have shelves for this year, and a tentative TBR pile. I know and admire many readers who take on many challenges and make comprehensive lists. I did that last summer, and I didn’t care for it. Reading is a conversation, to me. It doesn’t follow a set path. It forks, diverges, and doubles back on itself, and I like to leave myself the freedom to read whatever I like next. I’ve found that I can rarely even follow through on what I think are my next three books.

Back to 2007’s books, though, for the ones that stood out.

Favorite new-to-me classic: Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast

Favorite re-read that brought so much more of the book to me: Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum

Favorite non-fiction book: Eat, Pray, Love. I read it twice.

Books I learned from: Kris Holloway’s Monique and the Mango Rains; Greg Mortenson’s Three Cups of Tea; Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Longest book: A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth. A favorite of a dear friend, I’d avoided it because of its length. I loved it.

Proudest reading accomplishment: finishing the six major Jane Austen novels. Still my favorite: Pride and Prejudice. But I loved researching and discussing Mansfield Park.

Favorite novel: The Post-Birthday World by Lionel Shriver. This got some mixed reviews, but I loved the idea of diverging fates, and Shriver’s execution of it in story and character.

Biggest disappointment: The Minx line of graphic novels from DC comics.

Favorite graphic book: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel.

#81 in my 2007 movie challenge was Roman Holiday, my last movie watched of the year. It was part of the Audrey Hepburn collection that my thoughtful husband G. Grod got me last year. It’s easy to see how Hepburn became a star after her first major role. She’s perfect as Princess Ann, who plays hooky from royal duties while in Rome. Gregory Peck is the opportunistic reporter who pretends to be her friend in order to nab the story. The adventures, and Peck’s change of heart, are entertaining, if a bit slow. Peck’s not quite believable as an unscrupulous reporter. Holden might have been better. Eddie Albert, though, is hilarious as Peck’s photographer friend. The ending, with Ann’s return to royal duty, seemed much more in keeping with the films during and just after the war. Nonetheless, this was a sweet and funny film with which to end the year.

#63 in my 2007 book challenge was a re-read of Dickens’s classic Christmas Carol. The story is so well known, but lines such as this were what impressed me:

[it] had a dismal light about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar.

My favorite scene is one that’s often left out of adaptations. It’s with the ghost of Christmas Future, and has people haggling over a dead man’s belongings. It’s dark, and reminded me more than a little of characters of Shakespeare. If you think you know the story but haven’t read it, seek it out. I also recommend an edition with art by your favorite illustrator. Mine is the late Trina Schart Hyman. Her edition of Dylan Thomas’s A Child’s Christmas in Wales is another good seasonal selection.

#s 61 and 62 in my 2007 book challenge were the graphic novel collections of Bryan K. Vaughan’s Runaways, volumes 2 and 3. I liked volume 1, but volumes 2 and 3 go on to better things, and cement this series as a solidly entertaining young-adult comic with engaging characters. The kids of the title found out in volume 1 that their parents were supervillains, and that they were being betrayed by one of their own. In volumes 2 and 3, the teens go on to forge their own identities, both as individuals and as a group. Runaways is funny, well written, but best of all it’s consistently surprising. There is lots going on, but narrative balls never get dropped. If you know a teen looking for something good to read, I highly recommend this series.

#60 in my 2007 book challenge was Curses, a graphic novel by Keven Huizenga. This is smart storytelling. Huizenga’s style is deceptively simplistic, more reminiscent of newspaper comics than literary comics like Maus and Persepolis. Yet its in these ranks it belongs, I feel. Mixing mythology, history, religion and the quotidian with a well done and accessible art style, Curses is not easily categorized, and certainly not easily forgotten. Not light reading, but worth the time and effort.

#80 in my 2007 movie challenge was Juno, the indie darling written by former Minnesota stripper and City Pages writer Diablo Cody. At first, critics gushed, then backlash ensued. Naysayers claim the dialogue is precocious, unreal, and that the ending is saccharine. To them, I say “silencio”. Yes, this is not a perfect movie. But it’s a movie I loved. I loved the main character, and her almost unshakable sense of self. I loved Michael Cera as the geeky boy, and love that he’s in a movie that well addresses the female point of view so lacking in Superbad earlier this year. I loved J.K. Simmons as her dad and Alison Janney as her mom. I was impressed by both Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner as the potential adoptive parents. The soundtrack by Kimya Dawson was great, and reminiscent of the dreamy interweaving from a Wes Anderson film. This was at times sad, funny, creepy, weird and sweet. Don’t listen to the grinches. Go see it.

#59 in my 2007 book challenge was Sara Varon’s graphic novel Robot Dreams. It’s another lovely edition from First Second books, and it’s beautiful both in story and art, as well. Without words, Varon tells the story of a dog who builds a robot friend, only to lose him to unfortunate circumstance. The real versus the dream segments are well contrasted, and the story is sometimes sad but ultimately redemptive and very sweet. I loved it, and so does my 4yo son Drake; it’s a wonderful all-ages book.

#58 in my 2007 book challenge was Pretty Little Mistakes, by NPR’s Heather McElhatton. It’s a grown-up choose-your-own-adventure book. From the first page, the reader makes choices and follows each life story to one of 150 possible conclusions–homeless person, successful doctor, meth addict, and volcano researcher are just a few. My favorite ending involved a child with Down syndrome. That segment was lovely to read, but also interesting to consider in light of the choices that led there. Though a lark at first, the book is an exploration of free will vs. fate, with myriad imagined deities and afterlives (or lack thereof) thrown in for good measure. Not for those who want a complex main character and a linear plot, but entertaining and even at times provocative.

#57 in my 2007 Book Challenge was Mary Gaitskill’s Because They Wanted To, which has sat on my bookshelf in four different abodes over nearly ten years. I should have read this book when I bought it; it would have meant more to me then. Gaitskill’s stories are skillfully crafted and full of painstaking and painful emotional truths, many of which cut so deep I had to set down the book. But they are stories of young women, crashing bullishly through often brutal relationships. Frequently bruised literally and figuratively, though never entirely broken, Gaitskill’s girls are tough to take. Gaitskill’s honesty about the ugliness that underlies so much of sexual relationships is astonishing in its insight and clarity. Ultimately, though, I wanted to shake these girls and tell them to get on with it, to use their obvious talents and move toward maturity, rather than continuing to muck about in their own emotional detritus. Some books I read and appreciate more now that I’m older, married, and a mother. This, I would have appreciated more then, when such things were more relevant. Now, they just feel distant and somewhat poignant, which hardly does justice to the potential power of these stories.

A disturbing recollection: before the book was published, a male friend, with whom I often discussed books, gave me a photocopy of the story “The Girl on the Plane” and said he’d thought it good. Re-reading this story, about a man who confesses to participating in a gang rape of a friend of his, I am bewildered that I did not take offense at this at the time. WTF?

#80 in my 2007 movie challenge was Will Ferrell’s Blades of Glory. It had enough laugh-out-loud moments to make it worthwhile, though it often dragged. I think the Will Ferrell spoofs are getting less funny each time around, and I wish he’d abandon the sports-spoof formula for something else. I found Amy Poehler and Will Arnett disappointingly not that funny. Jon Heder really stole the show as the pretty young male skater who teams up with his rival to become the first male-male figure skating pair. Scott Hamilton is quite good as an announcer. In the extras, skip the gag reel but check out the feature on how the stars learned to skate. Everyone but Arnett, who played hockey when he was younger, was a newbie on the ice.

Everything I did today spawned three more tasks. I put something away, but found three things in the wrong place that had to be put elsewhere. Lather, rinse, repeat. I put away clothes, but had to organize drawers so they could fit. I tried to put things in my closet, but had to organize it to find room.

I hate housekeeping; I would rather be reading or writing. Yet I cherish simplicity and order. It’s the domestic Catch-22. Argh.

#56 in my 2007 book challenge is Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim Gets It Together. Get it together he does. This hilarious indie series of graphic novels gets funny again after the relative disappointment of, Volume 3, Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness. Several times reading this book I had to close it and put it down to laugh. This was great fun, and yet another example of a good young adult graphic novel, with fun and funny characters. It doesn’t try to be realistic or serious, and it succeeds spectacularly. Scott Pilgrim, the well-meaning but uncomplicated protagonist, is dating Ramona Flowers, and has to defeat each of her seven evil ex-boyfriends in video-game style fights. Oops, make that “exes.” Scott is also being followed by a mysterious ninja, and about to be evicted from the apartment he shares with gay friend Wallace Wells. Seventeen-year-old Knives Chau claims she’s over Scott, but is she? A girl from Scott’s past arrives to complicate things between him and Ramona. Oh, and Scott tries to get a job. This is only part of what goes on, but the chaos is entertaining and well depicted in O’Malley’s utterly engaging art. I feared for this series after the last book since I loved #s 1 and 2 so much, but I’m happy and sad once again. Happy that Scott Pilgrim got his funny back, but sad because I know it’s going to be a long time till #5.

From “Listening to Film” at The Chronicle of Higher Education (link from Arts and Letters Daily)

If the first rule of film criticism is to watch the movie, the second is to listen to it. Prick up your ears to the aural atmospherics and sonic undertones laid down on the soundtrack – dialogue, background noise, and the most bewitching element in the mix, music.

The author reviews books about John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock, and their musical/directorial choices, and the review alone makes me want to watch and listen to their movies right away.

#78 in my movie challenge for the year was Wes Anderson’s Darjeeling Limited. The reviews have been mixed, but I enjoyed it a lot. I found it quieter and less ostentatiously clever than Anderson’s early films like Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. I found a lot of sadness and sweetness in the brothers, played by Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody. There was a tremendous amount of pathos about their relationships with their parents, and with each other. As with Anderson’s other films, the music is deliberately chosen and exquisitely interwoven with the story.

#79 in my 2007 movie challenge was Talk to Her by Pedro Almodovar. It has been sitting on our Tivo hard drive for two and a half years. It’s an odd, quiet movie. While I expect the former from Almodovar, I was surprised by the latter. The film centers around a friendship that develops between two men, who get to know each other as they’re caring for comatose women they love. It’s a bizarre premise, but it’s handled with amazing empathy, and a great deal of tenderness. This is in spite of the often huge swings in tone the movie takes, from funny to creepy, from ethical to personal. There’s much to appreciate here about love, relationships, and loneliness. The fake silent movie in the middle, though, I found too strange and off-putting.

#55 in my 2007 book challenge was the Marvel graphic novel Runaways Vol. 1. It’s a hefty hardcover, with a faux-leather cover, good paper stock, and it includes the first 18 issues of the series. Now _this_ is a good book for young adults. A group of California kids learn that their parents are up to something more sinister than an investment group. The kids run away together. They try to come to terms with their own abilities, while plotting what to do about their super villain parents. The group of kids is likable. The parents are more interesting and complex than they at first appear. The dialog, look, and relationships among the kids is also realistic. There’s some funny stuff, and some dark stuff, and almost all of it’s good stuff. This book was a lot of fun, and I look forward to reading the next volume, which has been sitting on my shelf far too long.

#54 in my 2007 book challenge was Good as Lily, the final book I’m going to read from the DC graphic novel imprint, Minx. Here’s why.

List of Young Adult Novel Cliches:

Smart, decent looking heroine: check
geeky boy with crush on her: check
gorgeous guy that she has crush on: check
good looking but not-too-bright mean girl as nemesis: check
diminishment of hostility between heroine and mean girl when they have moment of empathy: check

To its credit, Good as Lily had some nice detail about Korean-American kids, as well as a magical realism premise that might have been interesting had it been able to be explored in more depth. As it is, though, I found Good as Lily is about as good as the other books in the Minx line: OK. Kim, Hamm, and the other creators who work on Minx books are clearly talented, yet I think they’re being constrained by the short length and YA conventions. The books might be OK for younger girls, but I haven’t found the complexity or depth for them to engage older readers.