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Jan. 3rd, 2014 09:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsOn Christmas Eve I went to a Barbara Stanwyck double feature with aberration and some of my grad school friends, consisting of Christmas in Connecticut and The Lady Eve, neither of which I'd ever seen before.
Christmas in Connecticut is basically just a movie about how Barbara Stanwyck wants to get laid? Like, the plot is all just wacky shenanigans about how Barbara Stanwyck has to spend a weekend having a fake country house and a fake husband and a rotating cast of fake babies for plot convenience, and then a hot and amiable sailor walks in the door and Barbara Stanwyck's like "UGH, how am I going to make out with this hot sailor with a fake husband and all these fake babies around???" I mean, sure, get it, girl. The end of the movie wants you to believe that Barbara Stanwyck and her amiable sailor are going to get married but I'm pretty sure they're just going to have a wild weekend in a hotel and then part amiable ways. Anyway, it's enjoyable! But clearly not as interesting as The Lady Eve.
The Lady Eve is a movie about how beautiful, witty con artist Barbara Stanwyck falls inexplicably in love with judgmental goober millionaire herpetologist Henry Fonda, and then he dumps her in a spectacularly jerktastic fashion when he finds out she's a con artist, and then she decides to get her revenge and cons him AGAIN and BETTER and MORE HILARIOUSLY with nothing but a really obviously fake British accent.
(HENRY FONDA: No, there's definitely no way this surprise hot British noblewoman who has just entered my life could be my con artist ex out for revenge, because they look . . . so identical! See, if it was really the same woman, she'd wear a wig or something to try to disguise herself! THAT'S CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY.
BARBARA STANWYCK: And this is why being a con artist is the easiest job in the world.)
The problem with this movie is that Barbara Stanwyck is GOLD and Henry Fonda is, well, a goober. It would be amazing if it wasn't for the fact that they were destined to get together at the end no matter what. Like, this is the sort of romantic comedy that would be immensely improved with the addition of a hotter, worthier sibling or something for Barbara Stanwyck to fall in love with while committing her CON ARTIST REVENGE.
Alternately,aberration's version: "I spent most of that movie convinced that her master plan was to murder him with a snake on the honeymoon and make it look like an accident. He's a herpetologist! No one would suspect." I would also have very happily watched that movie.
. . . I meant just to talk about those movies, but while I'm here I may as well talk a bit about other film viewing experiences I've had recently, too, since there have been an unusual number of them:
So my mom decided that what she really needed to do for Christmas was go see the SING-ALONG SOUND OF MUSIC EXPERIENCE, and pulledgenarti and I along in her wake. That said, OKAY, YES, it was really enjoyable. Highlights of the experience:
1. So there were a fair number of people dressed up, all the nuns and Von Trapp children in Heidi braids that one would expect, but the best costume BY FAR was the ladies behind us with edelweiss flowers in their hair and white bras on over dark dresses who explained that they were THE ALPS. Every time someone sang "climb every mountain!" they would pop up in their seats and spread their arms out benevolently over the assembled. WHAT A BRILLIANT IDEA, I am in awe.
2. Among the many props disseminated for the Sing-Along Sound of Music Experience was a popper that you were supposed to sound when Maria and the Captain leaned in for their first kiss. However, the audience very quickly figured out that if you're issued a popper to go off when people are kissing, you can basically use it as the theater-wide audio equivalent of this:
THIS WAS BRILLIANT. The first small, determined popper went off at the Baroness and the Captain's first love scene, and the next one at the scene in which the Baroness comes to watch Maria undress. I think these should be issued with all films. LET PEOPLE MAKE A STAND FOR THEIR BELIEFS. The beauty is you only get one, so you have to pick your moment well! My mom spent the last half of the movie trying to find a spare popper to set off for the scene when Rolf is pointing a gun at the Captain.
I ended up seeing Frozen twice actually, once withaquamirage and then again with genarti, and both times I came out talking about HOW MUCH I just wanted fanfic about Elsa's sad isolated snow powers princess training childhood.
The thing about Frozen is that I really enjoyed the wacky Disney road trip movie with a strong underlying theme of SISTERS that it was. At the same time, I think there was a much deeper and more ambitious film buried in there that focused even more on Anna and Elsa and their emotional dynamic and how their weird sad lonely childhood affected both of them, and the balance between the need for solitude and independence and freedom and the need for human connection. I mean, that film was never actually going to be a Disney movie, and this was probably about as close as we're ever going to come, so I shouldn't complain.
I am a little confused by Kristoff's wacky Jewish matchmaking troll family though.
I saw Catching Fire twice as well, once with friends and once with the family, and enjoyed it a lot, so you'd think I'd have more to say about it. Honestly I would watch it all again just for the scene when they're all on the talk show. That's my favorite thing about these films really -- the weird media satire, the conscious audience manipulation on the part of the protagonists, and the way they make you-the-audience complicit in the whole thing because you're posited as a viewer, too. So I don't know how I'll feel about the last two movies, because presumably they won't have any of that. On the other hand, I also like Jennifer Lawrence's face, and that will presumably be there in spades.
I didn't really have any desire to see American Hustle, but my family decided that we should, so I did. It was well-made, I just didn't find it very enjoyable. The soundtrack was good? My mom was very angry that we never heard the end of Louis CK's ice fishing story.
Oh! Last but not least, I also saw Bedknobs and Broomsticks again, withgenarti and rymenhild and Rym's partner. IT'S STILL ONE HUNDRED PERCENT GREAT.
aberration and some of my grad school friends, consisting of Christmas in Connecticut and The Lady Eve, neither of which I'd ever seen before.Christmas in Connecticut is basically just a movie about how Barbara Stanwyck wants to get laid? Like, the plot is all just wacky shenanigans about how Barbara Stanwyck has to spend a weekend having a fake country house and a fake husband and a rotating cast of fake babies for plot convenience, and then a hot and amiable sailor walks in the door and Barbara Stanwyck's like "UGH, how am I going to make out with this hot sailor with a fake husband and all these fake babies around???" I mean, sure, get it, girl. The end of the movie wants you to believe that Barbara Stanwyck and her amiable sailor are going to get married but I'm pretty sure they're just going to have a wild weekend in a hotel and then part amiable ways. Anyway, it's enjoyable! But clearly not as interesting as The Lady Eve.
The Lady Eve is a movie about how beautiful, witty con artist Barbara Stanwyck falls inexplicably in love with judgmental goober millionaire herpetologist Henry Fonda, and then he dumps her in a spectacularly jerktastic fashion when he finds out she's a con artist, and then she decides to get her revenge and cons him AGAIN and BETTER and MORE HILARIOUSLY with nothing but a really obviously fake British accent.
(HENRY FONDA: No, there's definitely no way this surprise hot British noblewoman who has just entered my life could be my con artist ex out for revenge, because they look . . . so identical! See, if it was really the same woman, she'd wear a wig or something to try to disguise herself! THAT'S CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY.
BARBARA STANWYCK: And this is why being a con artist is the easiest job in the world.)
The problem with this movie is that Barbara Stanwyck is GOLD and Henry Fonda is, well, a goober. It would be amazing if it wasn't for the fact that they were destined to get together at the end no matter what. Like, this is the sort of romantic comedy that would be immensely improved with the addition of a hotter, worthier sibling or something for Barbara Stanwyck to fall in love with while committing her CON ARTIST REVENGE.
Alternately,
aberration's version: "I spent most of that movie convinced that her master plan was to murder him with a snake on the honeymoon and make it look like an accident. He's a herpetologist! No one would suspect." I would also have very happily watched that movie.. . . I meant just to talk about those movies, but while I'm here I may as well talk a bit about other film viewing experiences I've had recently, too, since there have been an unusual number of them:
So my mom decided that what she really needed to do for Christmas was go see the SING-ALONG SOUND OF MUSIC EXPERIENCE, and pulled
genarti and I along in her wake. That said, OKAY, YES, it was really enjoyable. Highlights of the experience:1. So there were a fair number of people dressed up, all the nuns and Von Trapp children in Heidi braids that one would expect, but the best costume BY FAR was the ladies behind us with edelweiss flowers in their hair and white bras on over dark dresses who explained that they were THE ALPS. Every time someone sang "climb every mountain!" they would pop up in their seats and spread their arms out benevolently over the assembled. WHAT A BRILLIANT IDEA, I am in awe.
2. Among the many props disseminated for the Sing-Along Sound of Music Experience was a popper that you were supposed to sound when Maria and the Captain leaned in for their first kiss. However, the audience very quickly figured out that if you're issued a popper to go off when people are kissing, you can basically use it as the theater-wide audio equivalent of this:
THIS WAS BRILLIANT. The first small, determined popper went off at the Baroness and the Captain's first love scene, and the next one at the scene in which the Baroness comes to watch Maria undress. I think these should be issued with all films. LET PEOPLE MAKE A STAND FOR THEIR BELIEFS. The beauty is you only get one, so you have to pick your moment well! My mom spent the last half of the movie trying to find a spare popper to set off for the scene when Rolf is pointing a gun at the Captain.
I ended up seeing Frozen twice actually, once with
aquamirage and then again with genarti, and both times I came out talking about HOW MUCH I just wanted fanfic about Elsa's sad isolated snow powers princess training childhood. The thing about Frozen is that I really enjoyed the wacky Disney road trip movie with a strong underlying theme of SISTERS that it was. At the same time, I think there was a much deeper and more ambitious film buried in there that focused even more on Anna and Elsa and their emotional dynamic and how their weird sad lonely childhood affected both of them, and the balance between the need for solitude and independence and freedom and the need for human connection. I mean, that film was never actually going to be a Disney movie, and this was probably about as close as we're ever going to come, so I shouldn't complain.
I am a little confused by Kristoff's wacky Jewish matchmaking troll family though.
I saw Catching Fire twice as well, once with friends and once with the family, and enjoyed it a lot, so you'd think I'd have more to say about it. Honestly I would watch it all again just for the scene when they're all on the talk show. That's my favorite thing about these films really -- the weird media satire, the conscious audience manipulation on the part of the protagonists, and the way they make you-the-audience complicit in the whole thing because you're posited as a viewer, too. So I don't know how I'll feel about the last two movies, because presumably they won't have any of that. On the other hand, I also like Jennifer Lawrence's face, and that will presumably be there in spades.
I didn't really have any desire to see American Hustle, but my family decided that we should, so I did. It was well-made, I just didn't find it very enjoyable. The soundtrack was good? My mom was very angry that we never heard the end of Louis CK's ice fishing story.
Oh! Last but not least, I also saw Bedknobs and Broomsticks again, with
genarti and rymenhild and Rym's partner. IT'S STILL ONE HUNDRED PERCENT GREAT.
no subject
Date: 2014-01-03 05:43 pm (UTC)(Which could not redeem _American Hustle_, huh? Not surprised.)
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Date: 2014-01-03 05:49 pm (UTC)That said, I cannot tell a lie: American Hustle is in fact a movie in which Jennifer Lawrence kisses Amy Adams (only once! BUT IT HAPPENS) and if this does not inspire gif sets and/or fanfic there is no justice in the world.
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Date: 2014-01-03 05:54 pm (UTC)Well, there's no non-death-AU Katniss/Johanna (that I've found, anyway), so alas I'm fully prepared to conclude that there is no justice in the world.
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Date: 2014-01-03 05:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-03 05:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-03 06:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-03 06:37 pm (UTC)Rosalyn was probably my favourite character in the whole piece, though. Her and poor, longsuffering Louis CK who just wanted to run his office and did not appreciate Bradley Cooper attempting to ruin his peaceful job.
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Date: 2014-01-03 06:41 pm (UTC)Ditto on both of these, though! Rosalyn at least gave me the joy of seeing Jennifer Lawrence's face, and I just felt so bad for poor, poor Louis CK. So bad for him, and so also impressed with him that he did not just murder Bradley Cooper in his sleep, because I WOULD HAVE.
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Date: 2014-01-03 09:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-03 11:00 pm (UTC)I would one hundred percent read the wacky comedy fic about Rosalyn working in Louis CK's office and turning the FBI upside down in a hijinks-tastic fashion.
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Date: 2014-01-03 06:00 pm (UTC)HUZZAH.
I am a little confused by Kristoff's wacky Jewish matchmaking troll family though.
—what?
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Date: 2014-01-03 06:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-01-03 06:25 pm (UTC)That's not entirely comfortable.
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Date: 2014-01-03 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2014-01-04 01:07 am (UTC)I WANT ALL OF IT! I was so sad when I realized the film probably wouldn't have anything in Yuletide because it came out too late for anyone to make requests, unless people did just based on trailers?
I also totally want your movie ALL ABOUT Anna and Elsa and connections (or lack thereof) on opposite sides of the door. That building a snowman makes me tear up every single time.
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Date: 2014-01-04 01:18 am (UTC)And yeah, me too -- like, I love "Let It Go," but "Do You Want To Build a Snowman" tugs EVERY SINGLE HEARTSTRING I HAVE.
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Date: 2014-01-04 01:32 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2014-01-05 04:51 pm (UTC)