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Tag: movies

The Merits of Quitting

Every time Halloween rolls around, I have a problem. See, I like some of the Halloween trappings, and Gothic tales (Crimson Peak!), but I’m a wuss when it comes to horror, whether gory or psychological. Finding movies to watch that fall in the sweet spot? Almost impossible. Especially because my spouse and I have developed a bad(?) habit of quitting. See, when we met, he was a Film Studies major and I was an English major and film buff. We’ve seen a looot of movies together. We’re also both storytellers, so what we generally do is watch a movie and then dissect it. By now, we’re having trouble finding movies that engage us. It doesn’t help that we prefer science fiction and fantasy, which is currently dominated by the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) and we grew tired of that several phases ago. So looking for spooky seasonal enjoyment, we tried: We didn’t last longer than 15 minutes with any of them. And it’s not a matter of attention span — we both read novels still. It’s just…have we seen too many movies in our lifetime? Has all that dissecting meant that we can spot the lines of the Matrix from a mile away and can’t blur them back into an entertaining tale? Every once in a while, we happen on something we enjoy enough to watch to the end. (And then still dissect, because it’s fun.) It doesn’t have to be a “perfect” film, whatever that means. It just has…

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Get Your Fluff On

In the past month or so, I’ve been working very hard not to get depressed, or panicked, or preoccupied with COVID-19 stuff. I figure…it’s everywhere, so why don’t I carve out a mental space where it isn’t? So, like last month, I’ve been doing Fluff. What is Fluff, you ask? Fluff is exactly what it sounds like. Fun stuff. Goofy stuff. Funny stuff. The mental equivalent of jello and popcorn. One rule: It can’t be SERIOUS. And God forbid, no pandemic! (Only exception: Pandemic parodies, because, well, they’re parodies. That’s fun and funny, right?) So here’s my list ‘o Fluff: Bachelor: Listen to Your Heart miniseries – Okay, okay, okay. I’d never dream of watching this any other time, but combining music, romance, and drama together? Sign me up! That’s like the definition of Fluff right there. And, oddly enough, I’ve actually been enjoying it. (I think we’re in an alternate universe somewhere). Romantic comedy novels – I do read these anyway, but I’ve been trying to read more right now. I’m about to start a boxed set about three friends who make a marriage pact only to be thwarted by a fortune teller who predicts that their weddings will be disasters. Sounds fun! It’s called The Wedding Pact Box Set by Denise Grover Swank And, in a similar vein, I am plotting my own romantic comedy novel. So take that, pandemic! Chantix Turkey commercials – Okay, this is more my hubby and me, but what the hell, might as…

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Diana Prince and the Thirteenth Doctor

If you’re a Doctor Who fan, you will probably have heard by now that the Thirteenth Doctor will be played by a woman, Jodie Whittaker (British, of course). You may also have Opinions about this. Well, so do I. But first I need to tell you a story… I didn’t grow up reading Marvel or DC comics, but I do enjoy superhero movies, and this decade has had lots of them to enjoy. I loved parts of the Christopher Nolan/Christian Bale Batman trilogy. I particularly loved Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man. And at first I was quite excited about the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), especially once Joss Whedon got on board. But…who are the women in these movies? The love interests. The sexed-up Russian super-spies (come on, I like Natasha, but she’s clearly written and dressed for the male gaze). The dead mothers. The side characters. Look, I have no problem identifying with male leads (see above), but I was really feeling the lack. (Though The Force Awakens and Rogue One helped. I tried Supergirl, too, but the tone of the series isn’t quite my thing.) I was drifting away from the superheroes, back to books, where I knew I could find as many female leads as I needed. Then came Wonder Woman. And the tone was pitch-perfect all the way through. The filmmakers took her seriously, as a character and as a woman. They put her in armour and that’s when I knew…this movie wasn’t about the male gaze. It was…

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And Now, For Something From a Galaxy Far, Far Away

GUYS It’s Star Wars week! \o/ I am so excited and I am not really sure how I got here. I mean, I’ve always been more of a Trekkie. Yes, I saw the original trilogy at a young age and I’ve seen them a fair amount of times since then. I even went through a phase in middle school (though, admittedly, driven by wanting to have something to talk about with a friend who was way more into it than I was) where I read a bunch of the EU (now, sadly not canon) novels. (I also saw each of the prequels on opening night, each time, hoping against hope, that it would be a good experience. My parents always told me about seeing the original trilogy in the theaters, especially the first one, with the Star Destroyer coming in from overhead, and I guess on some level I was hoping to recreate that.) So I’ve been kind of following what’s been happening in the Star Wars universe out of a vague, detached interest. It all seemed kind of inevitable, Disney buying the franchise (I mean, they’ve had that ride at DisneyWorld forever, right?) and J.J. Abrams directing the first new movie. (Coincidentally, some members of the Trek community refer to Mr. Abrams as Jar Jar Abrams. Not in a nice way. And I would tell you why but then we’d never get out of here, so you’ll just have to extrapolate.) And then they started filming, and then the…

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