Category: Film

Tidy Tidbits: Books & More

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RECENT READING

The Stargazer’s Sister  by Carrie Brown

If you are at all interested in astronomy, this is an engaging historical novel about Caroline Herschel, sister of famed German astronomer William Herschel.   Lina, as she was known, was William’s younger sister by 12 years.  Small and slight and scarred by a bout with smallpox, she never married and was mistreated and abused by their mother.  William, who had gone to the UK, returned to their home in Hanover and rescued her by taking her back to England.  

Smart and quick, she became his devoted assistant in studying the night sky and dedicated her life single mindedly to him.  She loved him greatly and gave up any thoughts of marriage and a family for herself.  He received fame and recognition for his discoveries and for the telescopes he built while she labored by his side. Only later were her own solo discoveries acknowledged.  While based on the historical record and the extensive correspondence the Herschels left behind, this is a work of fiction with a happy, although somewhat unbelievable ending. To her credit, Brown details in her notes where she has deviated from real life.  (~JWFarrington)

The Glass Forest by Cynthia Swanson

This suspense novel was my pick for our January book group meeting.  When I first read it, I found it slow to get going and feared I’d picked a dud.  Turns out that almost everyone liked it a lot, and some couldn’t put it down once they started.  In alternating chapters, set mostly in 1960, it’s the story of three women each related in some way to two brothers, Paul and Henry.  Angie’s story is told in the first person while Silja’s and Ruby’s are third person.  Angie is only 23 and married to the much older Paul and mother to baby PJ.  For Silja, we get her life from 1942 to her marriage to Henry, and her successful career, up to her disappearance in 1960.  Ruby is Silja and Henry’s daughter and a sullen and withdrawn teenager who doesn’t talk much.  

The novel opens with a call to Angie from Ruby that Henry has committed suicide, and from there events unfold as Angie and Paul journey from Wisconsin to Stonekill, NY to be with Ruby.  When I reviewed this book for the discussion, I found it more compelling.  The period detail is spot on, and there are clues throughout as to what happened to Henry and Silja.   (~JWFarrington)

ON SCREEN

Beautiful Boy  (Amazon Prime)

Based on two memoirs, one by father David Sheff and the other by his son, Nicolas, this feature film is a depiction of drug addiction and its effect on one family.  Focusing as much or more on the father than the son, it spotlights a loving father’s puzzlement, worry, frustration, and devotion in his determination to help his son.  Nic’s aimlessness, cravings, and manic behavior, followed by sorrow and regret, repeat and repeat until he almost dies.  For any parent, this is a hard film to watch as nothing seems to make the situation better.  Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet are exceptionally good as father and son as is Maura Tierney as Nick’s stepmother, Karen. 

Srugim  (Amazon Prime)

This Israeli TV series ran from 2008 to 2012 and follows the lives of a group of single Orthodox Jewish men and women living in Jerusalem.  Hovering around 30, they are navigating the dating scene while also figuring out their careers.  Most of their contemporaries are already married, many with children. 

The women are Yifat, a graphic artist, Reut, an accountant, and Hodaya, a graduate student who studied the Bible, but tries working as a waitress.  The men are Nati, a medical doctor, Amir, a high school grammar teacher, and Roi, Nati’s younger brother.  All are religious and closely follow the strictures around food, observing the Sabbath, and relationships with the opposite sex.  The exception is Hodaya, daughter of a rabbi, who is questioning her religious beliefs.  

The series focuses on relationships so don’t expect a lot of action.  Nonetheless, I found myself quickly becoming absorbed in the lives of these individuals and am now well into the second season.  The episodes are short, 35 minutes, with subtitles, and the video quality is just fair.  This program was cited for being the first time the lives of Orthodox Jews were portrayed in a realistic production designed for a general audience.  And I owe thanks to Patricia for recommending it! (~JWFarrington)

Tidy Tidbits: Watching & Reading

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MOVIES AT HOME

In this age of online video and fast migration from movie screen to TV screen, it’s possible to view many first run movies at home almost immediately after their release.  Here are two relatively recent films we just watched.  We rented each one for 48 hours for the nominal fee of $5.99, much cheaper than two movie tickets even at the senior or off peak rate!

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

Mr. Rogers’ groundbreaking television program was after my time, but still available when our son was growing up.  This account of its history, how it handled issues that concern small children, and the approach taken by Fred Rogers make for a fascinating documentary.  An ordained Presbyterian minister, Rogers was a talented man with a gentle manner, but also a complex individual.  You get hints of his complexity and a bit about his childhood from his wife, Joanne.  I would have liked to have heard more from her in addition to the reflections from his two sons and several members of the cast.  Occasionally, it’s too sentimental, but overall an enjoyable journey down memory lane.

Mamma Mia:  Here We Go Again!

This is a movie that’s just plain fun.  Even if you haven’t seen the original starring Meryl Streep, you will enjoy this sequel.  The plot is thin and mostly an excuse for singing, dancing, and the reunion of Sophie’s three fathers.   The music is lively, the choreography snappy, and, you know that, despite everything, there will be a happy ending.  Starring here are:  Lily James, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Christine Baranski, Cher, and Colin Firth among others with a cameo by Meryl Streep.

ENGROSSING NOVEL

The Great Believers  by Rebecca Makkai

Rebecca Makkai is an author new to me, but because this novel was so well reviewed, a finalist for the National Book Award, and on several best-of-the-year lists, it caught my attention. I found it rewarding on many levels. Set in Chicago from 1985 to 1992 and also in Paris in 2015, it is a warm, detailed and intimate story of the lives of several gay men at the height of the AIDS crisis, when testing first became available, and mostly before there were any drugs to combat it.  

The main characters are Yale Tishman and his partner Charlie, and Fiona, sister of Nico, one of their first friends to die.  Yale works in development for an art gallery and there is the unfolding courtship of Fiona and Nico’s great aunt who desires to donate her art collection.  A long drawn out process, its theme of art links the past to the present (2015) when Fiona stays with their much older photographer friend, Richard, as he prepares for a major exhibit of his work at the Pompidou Centre.  Fiona is the focus in 2015 and she is on a mission to locate and re-connect with her adult daughter, Claire.  She stays with Richard and his partner while trying to sort out her own life and the events of 30 years earlier. 

I worked in Philadelphia in the 80’s and 90’s and had several colleagues, one a friend, who ultimately died of AIDS.  It was not openly acknowledged at first, but most of us began to realize that this disease was the cause of their suffering.  

The novel is alternately tender, graphic, grim and painful, but very believable with its inclusion of real events in Chicago.  It is also re-affirming of the goodness and caring of some.  I did find the Paris sections less convincing since I don’t think Fiona’s character at middle age is as well developed as it could be. (~JWFarrington)

ON MY BOOKSHELF

I got mostly books for Christmas.  Here are a few titles stacked up and ready to go.  The first three are nonfiction and the others are novels.

American Eden  by Victoria Johnson

Family Life   by Elisabeth Luard

Kitchen Yarns  by Ann Hood

Clock Dance  by Anne Tyler

Love is Blind  by William Boyd

Washington Black  by Esi Edugyan

Coloring of drawing in World of Flowers by Basford

Tidy Tidbits: Culture Notes

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MORE BESTS

As I indicated last week, the newspaper world is full of bests.  Even our local paper, Herald Tribune, offered up a selection of the best books of the year.  And the New York Times  seems to have gone overboard with each of its distinctive sections having its own, “The Best of 2018” edition.  On Sunday, “Arts & Leisure” had numerous articles including best classical music, best pop music, best television programs, best streamed television, best movies, best art exhibits and so on.  This week the Wednesday “Food” section had its own best of the year features:  best restaurants, “The Top Cheap Eats, Dish by Dish,” a listing of twelve remarkable wines, and the recipes that were the favorites of readers.  I liked the Salted Chocolate Chunk Shortbread Cookies and the Beef and Broccoli stir fry.  Something here for every taste and palate! 

FABULOUS THEATER!

Asolo Repertory Theater always delivers and they did it again this week with energy and style. Their production of The Music Man was a tap dance lovers’ bonanza with frenetic footwork, lively music, and some lovely singing, particularly by Britney Coleman as Marian the Librarian.  Noah Racey who plays Professor Harold Hill is a choreographer as well as actor and it showed; his professor was perhaps less brash than Robert Preston’s in the original movie, but still winning.  And Marion came across as a more rounded character, less innocent sweet maiden and more complex woman with dreams and determination.  

I would have said that The Music Man was lower down on my list of favorite musicals, but I enjoyed every minute of this production.  There are still more performances between now and Dec. 29.

SMALL SCREEN

Silk (Amazon Prime)

Thanks to my friend Patricia for this recommendation.  Martha Costello is one of a group of lawyers in a British firm plugging away defending clients in court cases and vying to become “Silk” or QC, that is Queen’s Counsel. Single and singleminded, she is hard driving, while her colleague Clive Reader, from a posh background, appears less dedicated and always with an eye for the female solicitors.  Lording it over all of the office is Billy Lamb, the senior clerk, who makes case assignments and minds the books, or perhaps cooks them. I’m now into Season 2 of this BBC production and enjoying it immensely as it keeps me going on the treadmill! 

Homecoming (Amazon Prime)

This original series from Amazon has gotten a lot of praise from the press and at least one award nomination for its star, Julia Roberts.  The setting is a facility that runs a residential program for returning vets who have been diagnosed with PTSD or other issues.   Roberts plays Heidi Bergman, a counselor there.  Each episode is only thirty minutes long, and I can see why.  Much of each episode focuses on her sessions with one or more of the residents, with occasional leaps forward to the present day when we see Heidi working as a waitress at a cheap joint.  

What happened to make her leave the Geist program and why did one of her clients leave at the same time?   We have now watched five episodes and while it’s well done, it’s also somewhat weird.  

MOVIE TIME

Puzzle

We missed Puzzle when it was in theaters and so decided to pay the nominal rental fee of $4.99 to watch it here at home.  Starring Kelly Macdonald, it’s a measured, deliberate film about Agnes, a married mother of two grown sons, who has little self esteem and no satisfying function in life other than serving at the beck and call of husband Louie and those sons.  They show little appreciation for her efforts on their behalf and can’t understand why she might want more in her life.  Until she receives a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle for her birthday and discovers she’s good at it!  

Thus begins Agnes’, aka Martha’s, tentative steps toward independence, as she gains a male puzzle partner (Irrfan Khan) and ventures regularly beyond the confines of her own home and town.  I liked this film a lot, although some might find the pacing slow.

Tidy Tidbits: Books & More

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RECENT READING

VEGAS SHOWGIRL

All the Beautiful Girls by Elizabeth J. Church    

This is Church’s second novel, and while I enjoyed it a lot, I think The Atomic Weight of Love is better. It is the story of Lily Decker aka Ruby Wilde, from Kansas, who becomes a Las Vegas showgirl in the 1960’s.  Lily’s parents died, and she has been taken in by a strict aunt and an uncle who abuses her.  Desperate to escape and desiring only to dance, she heads west and begins a tortuous physical and mental journey to stardom, addiction, and ultimately, happiness.  Church graphically conveys the demands of working in a casino and the unreality of that “glamorous” world.  She brings in real world events and shows how the political changes of the 60’s impacted women.  Lily is a likable character, and her male friend The Aviator, an enigma and almost too good to be true. The novel would have benefited from being tightened up, but it remains a compelling story. (~JWFarrington)

POLITICAL FARE

Fear:  Trump in the White House  by Bob Woodward

It took me several months to read this account of the early days of the Trump administration, mostly because I dipped into and out of it, and partly because Woodward is no stylist.  Much of what’s here in how that man deals with people and situations has been reported.  What Woodward provides is the fine structure with the lengths to which his staff, aides and even Cabinet secretaries went to prevent him from disastrous mistakes.  Recommended for political junkies with strong stomachs.  (~JWFarrington)

Becoming by Michelle Obama  

For a complete change of pace from Woodward, Mrs. Obama’s memoir is refreshing for its overall upbeat tone, its intimacy, and its extreme candor.  I had the pleasure of meeting her and briefly chatting one-on-one when the Obama campaign did an event in San Francisco at our museum; she was incredibly warm, gracious, and real.

What is probably most compelling in the book is her account of her upbringing in a loving family stretched for resources and her gritty determination, as a black girl and then woman, to excel and to prove herself—over and over again.  The story of her relationship and then marriage to Barack is replete with tenderness and admiration mixed in with her occasional frustration with his completely different (from hers) approach to life.  She comes through as a generous and caring friend and an individual of substance who resolutely found her voice as First Lady.  My only criticism is that at a few points, it could have been more tightly edited.  Highly recommended!  (~JWFarrington)

BIG SCREEN

Boy Erased

This is not a perfect film, but it is one well worth seeing.  Based on a memoir of the same name by Garrard Conley, published in 2016, it recounts a young man’s experience in an anti-gay conversion therapy program.  Jared (as expertly portrayed by Lucas Hedges) is a product of Arkansas and the son of a car salesman and preacher, when he is sent to a conversion program by his parents.  How he and others are treated, verbal abuse mixed in with a tainted take on Christian love, is chilling and unsettling to say the least.

Russell Crowe as Jared’s father, Nicole Kidman as his mother, and Joel Edgerton, head of the facility and the film’s screenwriter and director, are all excellent and believable.  The beginning of the film is sketchy on how Jared ended up being sent away—only later are some details fleshed out.  I also found some of the Southern accents so thick that I didn’t catch every word.  Nonetheless, I recommend it.  (~JWFarrington)

 

Note:  Header photo, Florida sunrise, by JWFarrington.  Other images from the Internet.