Here's What I Plan to Read and Watch This Week (12/26 - 1/1)

It's been a productive week for me.  I read three books, and I watched five movies.  I’m on winter break from work this week, so I’ll have ample time to read and watch plenty!

Books

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens:  B+.  I read this in high school, and this is my first time reading it as an adult.  I forgot how rich the language is, and how much fun the writing is, outside of the famous plot.

Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar:  B.  I like to read Pulitzer Prize winning plays, along with Tony Award winning plays.  Disgraced won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.  This is a compelling tale with various plot points (xenophobia, religion, domestic disputes—among them), and mostly accomplishes what it sets out to do.  I wish the first two scenes were as fleshed out as the overly long dinner scene that takes up the third scene.

Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert: C-.  Reviewed here.  I didn’t care much for this at all.

Movies

Midnight Special:  B+.  While the film is lacking on plot, this sci-fi film (which is being compared to Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.) more than makes up for it with impressive visual effects and capable acting.  Most films have astronomical budgets; Midnight Special was made for $18 million, and is just as good looking as films made with budgets quadruple its size.

A Monster Calls: B+. This film has been on my most anticipated list since the summer when I read the book. That said, I'm pleasantly surprised at how well the film works on its own: the big visual effects didn't detract from the quality of the film; I loved the animated sequences; the film is progressively more depressing without the mawkishness. Speaking of depressing, this is the kind of movie that you'll probably want to watch alone, unless you want to ugly cry around all of your friends. Apparently 2016 is the year where every other film understands how to deal with grief...except for fucking Collateral Beauty, which would rather have you believe that grieving people go to work and build domino buildings for weeks on end.

Rouge One: A Star Wars Story: C+. The first two acts were a snoozefest. The film didn't start to take off until the last 20 minutes. I suppose this prequel (which sits between episodes three and four) really couldn't have ended any other way, but I'm still pleasantly surprised that they went there.

Fences: B+. Denzel Washington and Viola Davis give commanding performances, and the supporting characters are all effective. It's hard to focus on the negatives (too long; drags in the middle) when you have acting as big and powerful as this.

Sing: C+. It's not so much of a jukebox musical; rather, it's about 10-15 seconds of songs that was relevant 5-10 years ago, and a couple full length songs. It's silly, but if you have an hour and a half to kill, you could do worse.  Protip: Try and go at a time when kids aren't usually there. There were way too many at the showing on Christmas evening and I've never wanted a vasectomy as much as I do now.

I’m not sure how this happened, but I have read 96 books this year, with a week to go.  It’s very likely that I end up reading 100 books for 2016, which is something I never would have predicted for myself.

Books

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon:  I have 45 pages left; I’ll finish it tonight.  I’m going to post a review of it, because it’s infuriating me so much.

Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland:  I got this at an author event months ago, and I’ve been needing to read it.  With a week off work, I don’t have an excuse.

What Light by Jay Asher:  See what I just said about Our Chemical Hearts.  It’s Christmas-themed, so it’s appropriate for the season.

The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith:  The film adaptation, Carol, was one of my favorite movies of 2015.  I’ve been meaning to read this for over a year. 

Movies

Lion:  I just watched this movie in the afternoon, but I guess I should wait until next week to talk about it.

Kubo and the Two Strings:  See above.  I’ve had a productive day!

I’m not sure what’s available to watch on Netflix or through Redbox.  I anticipate a couple documentaries, at the very least.

"Big Magic" book review

 

Three things I thought about while reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s self-help book, Big Magic:

• Gilbert loves to namedrop.  It’s nice to hear anecdotes, and I don’t think Gilbert namedrops to inflate her own ego, but when she starts every section with “I have a friend who…”—and she doesn’t adequately put a good reason for their insertion in the book—it slows her train of thought and doesn’t lead us to remember the anecdotes with the weight Gilbert intended.

• I don’t think this nonfiction book was marketed well.  Despite the bold name and the colorful book cover, I don’t think Big Magic sets out to be a how-to guide on being creative in spite of fear.  More accurately, it’s a collection of autobiographical essays by the author of one of the bestselling memoirs in the past 25 years, Eat Pray Love.  There’s nothing wrong with the concept of this book, but when you proclaim to be a book about creative living beyond fear, you open yourself up to more criticisms—especially when...

• Gilbert doesn't have anything vital to tell us.  Did you know that you could make anything, as long as you believe it?  Did you know that you don’t need an advanced degree in creative writing to write a book, nor do you need an MFA in art to paint?  It’s fun to get an author’s perspective on how they became successful and what their creative process is like (Stephen King’s memoir, On Writing, is endlessly entertaining and I’ve read it a half dozen times from cover to cover), but when you spend your time giving greeting card inspiration, with added anecdotes featuring famous people, you aren’t just preaching to the choir—you’re boring everyone.

Rating: C-

 

Here's What I Plan to Read and Watch This Week (12/19 - 12/25)

T-minus 6 days until Christmas!  This year has FLOWN by.  Here’s hoping for a much better 2017.

Unsurprisingly, I didn’t read or watch everything that I was meaning to.  And I’m still determined to read a Christmas themed book, because it didn’t happen last week, either.

I ended up watching seven movies this week, and not one of them was the new Star Wars spinoff.  I live in the Midwest, and we had a significant ice storm on Friday night.  The Midwest is no stranger to frigid temperatures or snow in the winter, but every year when we get our first taste of icy roads, everyone takes it as a sign of the apocalypse and stays off the road all weekend.  I ran to Redbox before things got too treacherous and stocked up.

Books

Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff:  B.  I’m such a fan of the structure of this series, which is told through instant messages, memos, progress reports, and other non-traditional sources.  The only major quip I’m developing with this series is that it’s supposed to be set 500 years in the future, but the dialogue and references are things we are currently aware of, which seems unlikely to be as accessible 500 years in the future.  Also, even though the book features different main characters, the interaction between the bad guys feels like a carbon copy.  Finally, it was initially hard for me to get behind a torrid romance between a spoiled teenager and her drug dealer, but there you go.

Hilo Saving the Whole Wide World: C+.  I forgot I got this arc at Bookcon earlier this year.  I read the first edition a couple months in advance of reading the sequel, but then I cleverly forgot about its existence until I was putting back my arc of Gemina (I was following along in the book while listening to the epic full cast).  This graphic novel was a breeze to get through, and I slightly enjoyed it more than the original.

Movies

Collateral Beauty: F. This is the kind of movie I hated from the first scene to the last. It's the kind of movie where characters aren't directed as people but instead as Hallmark greeting cards, or any other two dimensional paper product. The Will Smith character tries so hard to get our approval, but by the third act it's clear that he isn't blameless. There is so much bullshit going on in this film, and I don't think I can talk about much because it'd fall under the spoiler territory. Hell, the premise in the one trailer I saw made it seem like death, love and time were these A Christmas Carol ghosts trying to calm a grieving Will Smith, but it's actually presented to us as three actors in New York who get hired by Edward Norton, Kate Winslet and Michael Pena to make Will Smith feel even more crazy in the hope that they can force him away from his own advertising company...because it's been 2 years since the death of Smith's daughter and all he does at work (I SHIT YOU NOT) is build these intrinsic domino structures for weeks on end, and skirts literally all of his other responsibilities. Because of this, his business is going to go bankrupt any minute, but Smith is nonplussed by it. He doesn't even pay his rent at his apartment because fuck it, and his landlord can't kick him out because Will Smith doesn't have a house phone...even though the landlord lives in the apartment next to him.

Oh, it gets worse. MUCH worse.

FUCK THIS WHOLE MOVIE! The last three movies I've seen were this, Hardcore Henry and The Boss, and I thoroughly hated all three of them. I'm going to go have an existential crisis now, bye.

Why Him:  D.  The opening scene has James Franco flashing his pubic hair. The film never really recovers from that.

Miss Sloane: C+. It's your garden variety pseudo-intellectual political drama. Jessica Chastain does a capable job, which makes the film easier to get through; that said, Gugu Mbatha-Raw is clearly best in show. The film utilizes any trope it can get its hand on, which makes the proceedings far too predictable. That third act dropped it from a B to a C+.

The Hunting Ground: B+. Why the hell did it take an icy Friday night for me to catch this on Netflix, a year after its release?! This documentary is fantastic and heart wrenching. I do wish it wouldn't have glossed over male rape victims, but nonetheless the film has plenty of quality material.

The Shallows: C. Completely harmless fun. There are some genuine jump scares, and even though we all know the main character's fate (because of course we do), it's still a simple time killer.

Southside with You: B-. Modest film that doesn't overstay its welcome, and features acting so good that you forget how uninteresting the plot is; the Lifetime network would have trouble marketing this film. Barack and Michelle smoke?!

The Lobster: B+. I can't even call what the plot does an allegory anymore. It's a fantastic film with a script that kept me captivated for two hours.

Here is what I plan to read and watch this week:

Books

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens:  For real this time.

I’m not sure what else I’ll read this week.  I have a couple plays I got from the library, along with a book written in verse.  My holiday break from work starts Thursday afternoon and lasts until January 3^rd, so I’m going to have plenty of time to read.

Movies

Rouge One:  A Star Wars Story:  For real this time.  Some asshole on the internet already spoiled the ending for me, so I’m hoping I can forget it before I watch.

Fences:  This one opens Christmas Day.  I read the play last month, and I’m excited for the adaptation starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis.

Passengers:  Critics aren’t being kind to this Chris Pratt/Jennifer Lawrence film, but after that godawful Collateral Beauty, I feel like anything would be better in comparison.

Elle:  A French thriller that is getting the year’s best acclaim?  Sign me up!

I think some other Oscar caliber movies are opening near me this week, so I’ll have to check out what we have.

Here's What I Plan to Read and Watch This Week (12/12 - 12/18)

T-minus 13 days until Christmas!

This was an off week for me, and it’s all because of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.  A friend alerted me that the play was being shown in Chicago on Sunday, and by Monday I was checking out the touring schedule and attempting to justify an abrupt trip to Chicago to see the production.  After three days of flip-flopping, I booked cheap train tickets, an inexpensive hotel on Michigan Avenue, and grabbed a third row ticket to the Saturday matinee. 

It was great.

I say that because, while contemplating this spontaneous trip, I didn’t leave much time for me to watch movies or read books.  In all, I ended up reading one book and watching four movies.  You’ll never guess which book I read…

Books

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: B+.  I read the book back in early 2015 and enjoyed it with some reservations, but I’ve always been interested in seeing the stage adaptation.  When I got the chance to read the play at a local library, I jumped at the chance.  It’s a great play that is both faithful to the original and a separate entity.  The only thing I didn’t like about the play is that it didn’t contain as many stage directions as it should.  The stage show is non-linear and will shift scenes at the drop of a hat (it works in context and isn’t confusing), but the written play doesn’t let you know when a scene ends and when one begins.

I also attempted to read The Christmas Shoes.  Three pages in, I went “nope” and never looked back.

Movies

Blue Jay: B+. What's up with the black and whi...oh my gosh, I'm already in love with this awkward opening sce...oh shit Duplass is working it hardco...oh god I love how simple this film...am I watching a play...NO DON'T MAKE ME FEEL THINGS MOV...gah!

Life, Animated: C+. Inspiring, yet the film runs out of steam quick with its subject. Still, those animation scenes, and that sidekick story, tugged at the heart strings.

The Boss: F. Okay, I'm throwing in the towel. I've been a big Melissa McCarthy supporter/apologist since Bridesmaids. I thought she was good in The Heat and Ghostbusters. I loved her in St. Vincent! That said, I have to stop watching slapstick films starring Melissa for my own sanity. This isn't the only bad Melissa McCarthy film I've sat through (I'll have you know I miraculously finished Identity Thief in one sitting, and I circled around the theater twice deciding if I could justify catching Tammy before opting for Unfriended), but this is the first time I felt guilty for watching a film starring her. It's depressing to think about how few laughs there are in this script. It's going to keep me up at night to think that they hired Kathy Bates and then forgot her character existed without the hint of a resolution, or that Peter Dinklage's agent would read this script and with a good conscience pass it along to their client. This isn't just a misfire; this is showing up to target practice at the wrong building, and you left your gun at home anyway.

Hardcore Henry: F. I want to apologize for giving The Boss an F earlier this week. I would rather watch that film on an endless loop than to see even 30 seconds of this piece of shit. I can't decide what aspect of the film was the worst: the script, the camerawork, the godawful special effects, or the piss poor acting. If I see a performance worse than Sharlto Copley's this year, I'm just going to stop watching films and become a monk. I watched it because I knew it was getting some mixed notices, and erred on the side of optimism. I respect everyone's opinion and to each his own, but I'd rather watch a 90-minute film that shows people 69 fisting and shitting on each other than to see this film again.

The past couple weeks has shown me blatantly disregarding what I plan to read and watch, so this might be irrelevant.  Anyway…

Books

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens:  I’m convinced that I need to read a Christmas book this month.  This seems more likely than The Christmas Shoes.  I had to read this once in elementary school and once in high school, so it’ll be interesting to re-visit this as an adult.

Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff:  For real this time.

Movies

Miss Sloane:  I’ll check this out eventually…

Why Him:  I got invited to see this last week, but right before going I got invited to see it at a much closer theater this week.  Again, this movie looks especially stupid, so my expectations are very low.  At least it’s free? 

Rogue One, A Star Wars Story: Like Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, I’m hoping to go during a time where it’s not cray-cray.  I enjoyed Episode VII last year, so I’m hoping for two decent Star Wars films in a row.