Mrs Dalloway is beautiful and a bore


Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway baffled me. I’ll freely admit I wasn’t ready for this kind of book at the time when I attempted to read it. There isn’t much of a story there, the book is simply a day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a woman who married for privilege rather than love, as she is preparing to host a social party that evening. We learn about her past, how she got in to her marriage, and the man she left behind (as he shows up in town after an extended absence, on today of all days). People in her circle float in and out throughout the short novel, and most of the book is told inside each person’s head. It isn’t quite stream-of-conscious writing, but it is close. Thoughts pop in and get explored before moving on to the next one. The only real action of the book is told through the story of Clarissa’s acquaintance Septimus, a war veteran who is descending into depression and madness, who kills himself towards the end of the book (we are privy to his delusional thoughts as well).
This is my second Woolf reading, after I was bored to tears by Orlando last year. This one is beautifully written, but I really struggled to get through it. You have to approach this book as you would a piece of art. It needs to be read slowly, digesting the words before moving to the next passage. It is definitely one for which the journey is more important than the destination. After having read two of her books now, I have to say I’m not a big fan of Woolf’s style (I deplore the “realism” of stream of consciousness writing, give me a true story to follow any day of the week), but you can’t argue against her prose, she is a true master of the language. Knowing now how Mrs Dalloway goes together, I’ll probably attempt this one again sometime down the line, give it another chance to move me.

The book which preceded the classic The Wizard of Oz

The original kid’s book The Wizard of Oz by L Frank Baum is a quick read, but a good one. With a lot more details than the movie, it is a more comprehensive tale. Everyone knows the gist of it: Dorothy rides a tornado from Kansas to the land of Oz. Her house falls on a wicked witch, making her instantly famous, and she sets out to meet the Wizard to get her back home. On the way, she meets up with Scarecrow, who needs a brain, the tin Woodsman, who is missing a heart, and a cowardly Lion, lacking courage. In their ensuing adventures, each is proved to all ready have what they thought they were lacking. The book does a much better job of showing these instances, mostly because just a lot more happens. But as nicely as it is written, it doesn’t quite have the magic of the beloved classic film. This is probably because those images are so ingrained in my mind. A good little read though, and fun to see more of the story fleshed out and to point out the changes (silver shoes instead of the ruby, which the filmmakers apparently thought looked better in technicolor!). 

An important game-changing novel in Lady Chatterley’s Lover


I went into D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover with a healthy dose of trepidation. Women in Love after all was the only book in this crusade that I’ve been unable to finish so far. But this one is a lot better.
The book follows Constance (Connie) Chatterley, who has married into the wealthy upper class. However, she finds it is a loveless marriage to a man, Clifford, who is not manly enough for her, and not because he is bound to a wheelchair as a result of the war. She begins to stray and falls in love with the gameskeeper, Oliver Mellors. Mellors is a strapping man who has intelligence too, but he is of the lower class. When she can no longer live this double life, she hatches a plan to leave her husband and force him into a divorce.
Like Women in Love, this novel is short on story and heavy on debate, including such topics as the meaning of life, the meaning of love, the meaning of intelligence. Dry writing to be sure, and not page-turning worthy, but the story itself is very well written and engaging enough to keep you going, wondering what is going to happen. The book is really all about relationships and Lawrence’s rather bleak look at the future of humankind.
This book was first published in 1928, but faced an uphill battle due to charges of obscenity. Lawrence is fairly graphic describing Connie and Oliver’s sex scenes, more to show their intimate and loving connection than for any perverse reason, and the publisher had to win trials in both the UK and the USA over the course of several decades before it was openly available. Maybe not the most interesting book I’ve read so far, but perhaps one of the most groundbreaking ones, as it opened up a whole new chapter for freedom of speech.

Quick takes on 5 films

I don’t get the hype behind The Shape of Water. Beautifully shot and wonderfully acted (as I noted a couple years ago on Maudie, Sally Hawkins is incredible), the story is neither fresh nor exciting. Any life-long sci-fi lover has seen this story before, in much the same way. Elisa is an intelligent but mute woman, working as a cleaning person at a government facility during the Cold War. When a mysterious water creature/man is brought it for study, she befriends him and hatches a plot to free him. Once out and in hiding in her apartment, they begin a love affair. There are a lot of wild leaps here (I understand Elisa is mute and her best friend is a homosexual, but she seriously has never found someone that “understood her” before this creature showed up?) and I just couldn’t suspend belief enough to get through it, even as a magical science fiction film.

 

Another dud that strong actors can’t save is the newest film version of the beloved classic novel Fahrenheit 451. This one stars Michael B Jordan and Michael Shannon (also in the above The Shape of Water), and I’m fans of both, but their talents are wasted here. If you don’t know the story, this one takes place in a near-future dystopian society where reading (and basically free thinking) have been outlawed, with all books and art being burned. Montag is a young hotshot who has grown up in this world and knows no better, but eventually he becomes curious about the books he is destroying and begins to save some to read, and then seeks out the resistance to give them aid. It’s a slick looking film but is a poor movie in all other aspects. The story is disjointed and choppy, with gaping holes in the plot and story threads that never get developed. Why was reading outlawed? Obviously for control of the people, but other reasons are hinted but never explored, such as an over-correction for extreme political correctness. Really off film which is just too bad for such a great book.

 

After the duds above, I couldn’t have found a more redeeming film than Lady Bird. A beautiful coming-of-age movie, its stars Saoirse Ronan as a very typical high schooler in the early new millennium. Christine, or “Lady Bird” as she has decided to call herself, has a lot of “millennial” traits in her, even though the film takes place in 2002, making her closer to my generation than my son’s. She is a bit aimless, not having her license yet and being forced to get a job by her mom, and seems to be bit entitled too as she isn’t very understanding of her family’s plight. She is going to an expensive catholic school which her parents can hardly afford, with a strong willed, passive-aggressive mother (Laurie Metcalf in a career-defining role) with whom she constantly butts heads. Lady Bird wants nothing more than be free from her parents and go to school far away from home, but as most teenagers do, she wants freedom without responsibility, and paradoxically still wants to fit in with the cool crowd at school. She says things that aren’t true and does things she doesn’t want to in order to be “cool” while alienating her true friends. While watching it and even while writing about it now, there were times when I thought to myself this is the kind of movie I would typically loathe, because it sounds pretentious and entitled, but in the end, it doesn’t come off as that. It is just a girl, like many young people, trying to find her own place in a crazy world. A very moving and powerful film.

 

Red Sparrow was much hyped before release, but not reviewed well when it hit. It’s a spy thriller with a female lead, Jennifer Lawrence as the Russian Dominika Egorova. She is recruited into Russia’s “sparrow” program, which teaches good looking young people to use sex to get close to their targets for information. She ends up developing a connection with her American target, and becomes a double agent for the USA. There’s a lot of intrigue and some good spy moments, but the plot is almost too convoluted (even for a spy film) and sometimes the viewer is left wondering what exactly is going on, and not in a good who-done-it kind of way. Plus, some of her “training” in the sparrow school is only there for shock value and lends nothing to the plot. Overall, I don’t think it is as bad as some of the reviews say, but it isn’t great either. Lawrence is definitely captivating as the lead.

 

A movie that did, however, live up to the hype, is Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, about a woman, Mildred Hayes (Frances McDormand), who is seeking the person who raped and killed her daughter. Seven months have gone by without any real leads, so to light a fire under the police department, she rents out billboards calling out the sheriff, Bill Willoughby (Woody Harrelson). Bill is a good man who wants to solve it, but it really is a dead end case, and Bill himself is facing his mortality in the final months of pancreatic cancer. Mildred is a sympathetic character, but it is hard to really like her in the first third of the film, as she is a royal bitch to everyone she comes in contact with. The star of the film is Sam Rockwell as deputy Jason Dixon, a rough-around-the-edges cop with an attitude, who skirts the law and seems like a bad case, until you get to know him better in the latter parts of the film. Part drama, part dark comedy, this is an enthralling, at times tense, and altogether beautifully written movie.

Get tolchocked in your litso by A Clockwork Orange

Just finished one of my son’s favorite books, A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. I recently watched the movie for the first time, and unlike my son, I liked the movie better. It is a pretty faithful adaptation, except the movie doesn’t carry over the final chapter.
The book is written in the first person by “your humble narrator” Alex. Alex is a teenager in a near-future dystopian society where cops are barely keeping lawlessness at bay. Speaking in a language full of slang called “nadsat” (it does take a little while to understand what all the made-up words mean), Alex tells his tale. He and his hoodlum friends spend their nights performing horrendous acts of violence, from beating up the homeless, to breaking-and-entering, to rape. On one such night, Alex ends up killing one of their victims and is arrested, while the others in his troop make their getaway.
In jail, Alex becomes the test subject of a government psychological experiment to rehabilitate. Through a drug program, they make it so Alex becomes ill whenever he even thinks about doing something violent. Just 2 years into his sentence, Alex is released as a new man. His past catches up to him though, as he runs in to many of his previous victims, who can now retaliate against him without fear of Alex fighting back. He eventually ends up back at the home of a woman he raped, who has since killed herself, and her widowed husband recognizes him. The husband sees a way to use Alex’s case to discredit the current reviled government, and forces Alex to commit suicide by jumping out of a window.
Alex survives however, and the government officials swoop in to blame the other party and the doctors that did all this to Alex in the first place. They put Alex back to the way his was, reviving his evil tendencies. Here is where the film ends, with the applied assumption that Alex will revert to his sociopathic ways. The book’s final chapter though shows that Alex has “grown up,” and wants to leave the past and become a man and raise a family. Even without coercion, he no longer wants to do evil.
The novel’s end feels too clean cut for me, and I much prefer the open-ending unknown of the film finale. The book does do a much better job of detailing all the little nuances going on in the background, such as the questions of good vs evil, less in regards to Alex’s actions and more involving the government’s removing of his free will. I like the invented language of nadsat which makes the book seem like an entirely different time and place. Not my favorite book in this book reading adventure, but still a good one.

Solo satisfies but fails to inspire

After Rogue One from a couple years ago, Solo is the newest “standalone” Star Wars film to come from the Disney conglomerate. As the name implies, it is the backstory of the beloved Han Solo character. It shows just above everything any Star Wars die-hard fan would want to see. We see his early days on Corellia struggling to even survive, moments that gave him the tough exterior we see later in his life. Solo gets pilot training by the Empire, meets Chewbacca and Lando, and gets his hands on the Millennium Falcon. He also has his first grand adventure, and his first love.
The movie is good, but not great. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed it, and it is jam-packed with easter eggs to satisfy fans of the series (though some are beat on your head to make sure you don’t miss them). But through a good portion of the middle of the movie, I found myself thinking it lacked the magic of all of the Star Wars films to date. Even with its flaws, the prequel trilogy still has the sense of wonder, the feeling of a “galaxy far, far away.” This film, at times, almost seemed like a generic space movie with characters that seem familiar, but different from the heroes we know. Having said that, during the famous Kessel Run that Han is always going on about, when that famous Star Wars music kicks on, I still felt the rush. All in all, a very enjoyable film, but it does lack just a little of the luster we’ve come to expect.

Early 20th Century feminism has an Awakening in Chopin’s classic

The Awakening is a very short novel by Kate Chopin. Censored when it was published in 1899 for its feminism approach, it is now widely regarded as a very important work. It isn’t risque by today’s standards, but it does depict a woman who desires more than just staying home and pleasing her husband.
At the beginning of the book, Edna Pontellier looks like the typical housewife. She is raising 2 kids at home while her husband goes away to work regularly. We soon see though that she is not content with her life, despite social norms telling her this is the way it should be. Younger than her husband Leonce, she is attracted to a much younger man, Robert Lebrun, while on vacation. She seeks him out to spend time together, though makes no brazen advances. She finally has a glimpse at what a powerful, strong-willed woman can be when she meets Mademoiselle Reisz, a pianist, towards the end of the summer vacation.
Upon returning home, Edna sets out to make her life what she wants. Quietly and slowly at first, she starts taking walks by herself around town, not returning house calls by other women of society, and meeting with people she perhaps should not be seen with in public, including the dashing Alcee Arobin who has a poor reputation for sleeping with married women. When Leonce goes out of town for work, Edna drops the kids off with the grandparents for an extended visit, moves out of her family house, and begins a true affair with Alcee, though secretly, she still longs for Robert. Robert had gone away to try to suppress his own desires for Edna, but he does eventually return. Now that Edna has found her voice, she openly solicits Robert, but he confesses that he loves her too much to shame her by sleeping with her as a married woman. Edna cannot live with the rebuff, returning to the vacation isle where it all started, and drowns herself.
Written at a time when women in the USA were having their own “awakening,” this book faced a lot of opposition for showing that women can have sexual desires of their own, as well as for fighting the social norms of the day. Edna’s friends are each very symbolic of different aspects of her life and society in general. Though a short read, it is beautifully written with plenty of deeper meaning to ponder. A very nice little novel.

Quick takes on 5 films

Blockers is totally vulgar, but damn if it isn’t hilarious. Three separate parents have seen their individual daughters grow up as best friends from their first day of school until prom night, and on the day of prom, they find that their girls have made a sex pact to lose their virginity’s that night. So they set out to be c*ckblockers and stop the acts before they go down. In the end it is a bit of a coming-of-age movie from a perspective we don’t usually see (the parents), and everyone involved has some learning to do, even the adults. Though a pretty straight forward comedy (and a great one at that), it doesn’t fail to raise serious questions about gender equality, acceptance (of many kinds), and what it means to be a parent. The good comedies do more than just make you laugh, and Blockers is one such example.

 

Sometimes you know you will like a movie before you ever watch it, and my recent example is The Greatest Showman. I’m a sucker for musicals, even movie ones, and I’m a big fan of the supremely talented Hugh Jackman, so put it all together and I knew it was going to be up my alley. Jackman plays P.T. Barnum, and the film is about his rise to stardom as he starts his circus and grows it into the draw that it was for so long. It is a little light on depth, and the story is a bit paint-by-numbers without a lot of fleshing out, but the songs are catchy and radio-ready, and the sets and costumes are colorful and gorgeous. A fun movie for fans of the genre, others may not find much to enjoy though.

 

The Death Cure is the finale to the Maze Runner trilogy of films. It didn’t get great reviews, and it doesn’t live up to the suspense and mystery of the first film, but I found it very entertaining, albeit a little campy at times, as many films based on young adult books often are. Light on the mystery but heavy on the action, this film follows Thomas as he and his fellow survivors of an illness that has all but wiped out humanity, in their endeavors to rescue captured friends from a sinister group. The first film in this set, from 2014, was a great thriller with a lot of intrigue, leaving the viewer to guess what all is going on and why, and while the subsequent films lost that element, it is still a satisfying set for fans of the post-apocalyptic genre.

 

Murder on the Orient Express is a new film based on an old book, and if you’ve never read it, it is basically the film Clue on a train. A high profile passenger is murdered, and the world’s best sleuth, who happens to also be present, sets about to find the killer among his fellows. Beautifully filmed and well acted, it however doesn’t quite get as gripping and edge-of-your-seat thrilling as it maybe hoped. A tremendous cast props it up nicely though, including Johnny Depp, Willem Dafoe, and Judi Dench, with Kenneth Branagh as detective Hercule Poirot, the longtime star of many of Agatha Christie’s mysteries. If Clue had never existed, I might have enjoyed this one more, but that film is far more entertaining with its wildly preposterous cast and ultimately a more satisfying ending.

 

The Post is another one where I can’t quite agree with the professional critics. They heralded this one because it is the kind of film media types eat up, but if you set aside the two engaging leads (Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep), and you are left with a cut and dry, paint-by-numbers historical film that follows just like reading the paper (ironically enough). The true story of the rise of the Washington Post during its coverage of the Pentagon Papers, detailing their reporting of the classified documents of the US involvement in the Vietnam War, it has plenty to be excited about without ever truly being exciting. I can appreciate the historical aspect of it, freedom of the press and all that, especially in today’s age when a politician can scream “fake news” if they don’t like the content (factual or not), but it doesn’t make for a very entertaining film.

Avengers assemble to stave off an Infinity War

Highly anticipated movies very rarely live up to the hype. Marvel has been building to Avengers: Infinity War for the better part of a decade, and has not shied away from saying this is the moment we’ve been waiting for, doubling down that it would lead to an ultimate conclusion in this run of 19 films (so far). Though they did initially downplay this as a two-parter, Infinity War most certainly does conclude open-ended and ready for next year’s big finale.
To avoid spoilers, all I’ll say is this is the start of the big conclusion all of us fans have been looking forward to. All of the characters introduced so far (with only a couple exceptions which are quickly explained away) are present for the big battle. If there are any qualms, it is that with so many on-screen figures, their individual stories aren’t the focus; instead, we gear up for the ultimate showdown between the Avengers and the evil Thanos, who is set on gathering the Infinity Stones to give him the power to instantly kill half the population of all worlds with the snap of his fingers.
This movie is a roller coaster ride in action and emotion from start to finish. Come ready to be shocked and possibly upset, but trust in what Marvel has done, as they continue to make tremendously enjoyable films.

Quick takes on 5 films

The Square is a quirky drama by director Ruben Ostlund, in the same way as his Force Majeure from a couple years ago. I just finished it, and I’m not sure if I like it or not. It is about Christian, a curator of a contemporary museum in Sweden. He loves his position of power and the money it brings too, which is in contrast to the local problem of homelessness shown throughout the film. Unfortunately Christian’s life is falling apart. First his phone and wallet are stolen, and when he uses “Find my phone” to pinpoint its location, he drops letters in every door in the building accusing them all of the theft. This obviously turns against him. At the same time, the advertising group promoting a new exhibit at his museum puts up a highly controversial video that goes viral, the fallback of which goes to Christian as the curator. In the midst of all this, Christian has a one night stand with a journalist, who sees that moment as much more than it is. These events and more circle Christian throughout the film, against the backdrop of the new exhibit, “the Square,” which is like a safe place people can stand in where all are equal and people help each other. The satire of course is that Christian walks by (and ignores) homeless people every day, and shows no empathy towards anyone else either. This film has a message about social equality regardless of wealth, but it doesn’t always hit on all cylinders.

 

Roman J Israel, Esq, is a rare miss for Denzel Washington. Denzel is the rare actor who, even when he plays a bad guy, you still root for him a little. It is hard to do that throughout this movie, even though he is a “good guy.” Israel is a hard-working lawyer who fights against social injustices, and has been his entire life, going back to the civil rights days. When his partner dies unexpectedly, Israel is hired on by a large firm, a group that Israel sees as nothing more than greedy vultures, but he stays because he needs the money. At that firm and among other people in his life, Israel inspires to do good deeds because of his ideals. But when Israel breaks with his ethics for a big pay day, he becomes the kind of person he’s always hated. He ceases to be a person to root for, and the film isn’t able to get back on track afterwards. A decent legal thriller, it has moments of intrigue, but lacks depth.

 

I generally liked Walking Out. You can tell it is low budget, but it is shot well, and is engaging. It is the story of a man in the wilds of Montana who is teaching his son all he knows about hunting. At first the young teenager misses his phone and technology, but he wants to get to know his dad, and is still at that age where pleasing Dad brings him joy. They set out at the end of hunting season for their first big game together, but things go very bad when they come across a couple wounded bear cubs and their protective mama bear. The movie seems to have been made by people who know what they are talking about, as the dad imparts good, true advice on the trek, but some of the dialogue isn’t very polished. It is well acted by the father/son duo though. A good film for outdoors-ey lovers.

 

Wonder is a beautiful film about a boy struggling to fit in due to facial deformities from a birth defect, but more than that, it is about acceptance. Auggie is going in to fifth grade, starting middle school, and since all kids will be starting a new school then, his parents, who have home schooled him to this point, decide to finally send him to school so he’ll have a chance to fit in more with the other new kids. Obviously there is no such thing as “fitting in” when you have something plain on your face that sticks out, and he is immediately targeted by bullies, and has a hard time making friends. The film looks at this, but also how Auggie’s life has affected those around him. His mother put off getting her masters to home school him. His sister has often gone forgotten and unnoticed by their parents, not for lack of love, just because they are always so wrapped up with Auggie’s needs. Though it is written at a level that young kids could (and should) watch for important life lessons, it doesn’t shy away from hard questions. At times heart breaking but ultimately uplifting, it is a supremely wonderful story.

 

BPM (120 Beats Per Minutes in France) is a fictional movie about the real-life ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleach Power) group in Paris in the early 90’s, a group who was trying to get the word out about AIDS, and also trying to get the French government to do more for prevention. At the time, the general consensus was it was “the gay disease,” and while most of the people in ACT UP were homosexual, they also spoke up for heterosexuals, drug addicts, prostitutes, and prisoners, trying to make sure people had the facts on how to avoid becoming infected with HIV. The film follows quite a few people, people both “poz” and “neg” for HIV, and the director does a fantastic job of making it feel as read as gets. During demonstrations and peaceful protests, the camera stays on individuals for their actions and reactions. In between the action scenes, there are long stretches of just normal dialogue, the kind we all have in our everyday lives, which may or may not deal with the overall story of the movie. This lets us as the viewers really get to know the characters, which makes it even harder when they inevitably get sick or die. These activists fought for the rights of people with a terrible disease, many of them knowing it was too late for themselves, but hoping to make it better for those that came after.