Smart People (Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Thomas Hayden Church, Ellen Page)
Wow, I stumbled upon this on the Netflix "watch now" online section. Just looking for a comedy the wife might enjoy, but got much more. I throroughly enjoyed this "romantic-comedy" which dared to show some real pain and confusion between the characters. Not only did we get authentic pain and confusion, making me feel physically uncomfortable for a brief moment, but many other qualities you rarely see in a comedy: the protagontist, Quaid's character, in full messy beard, is never completely likeable yet still I cheer for him; they paint Parker up to look less beautiful; Ellen Page gets drunk and kisses her 40 something adopted uncle which doesn't turn sexual; Church is brilliantly repugnant and cuddly.
Slumdog Millionaire
As always wishing I'd seen it earlier while everyone was discussing it but this will have to do. Luckily I waited for my teenage son to catch up to me and then we finished it together--we both will remember this one. Solid movie but I do understand some of the criticisms about the unrealistic nature of the film which was strangely highlighted with the singing and dancing in the streets and airport after it was over. Unimportant item I loved: the announcer's pronunciation of "Who wants to be a Millinare"--I smiled everytime.
I love Haruf; his characterization of the Mcpheron brothers in Plainsong and Eventide was superb. And I quite enjoyed this book too, but the ending tore my fucking heart out. I generally do not bemoan depressing books or endings; still this one caught me off-guard. I get it intellectually--the book is about a town football hero who has always taken advantage of the townspeople and so it must end with him reeking havoc to illustrate the sins of the town. But, man oh man, it hurt. Maybe, in my somewhat depressed state I just couldn't face the reality Haruf left me with.
3 comments:
I really liked Smart People too. It got kind of snotty reviews, as I remember, but I thought some of the same things you did. I will never forget him in the classroom, sometime in the last third of the movie, talking about a Tennyson poem--it made me feel like a lifetime reading and talking about literature maybe wasn't a waste. Also, I kind of think Thomas Haden Church is a genius.
I agree with you and Lisa B. Really liked "Smart People." Academics on film...an underaprreciated genre?
Also loved Slumdog. Sure, it's unrealistic...aren't most movies? (maybe not "Smart People"). But it also shows many aspects of reality not often represented in film. And isn't that valuable? I loved it. Including and especially the Bollywood dance number at the ending. Ja Ho!
I thought it peculiar that the concept of destiny which "Slumdog" seems to champion is the very concept that put the caste system and the subsequent ridiculous degree of poverty in India in place--that a movie highlighting Indian poverty ends with a reference to accepting fate (It is written), as if the people who are poor are poor because it's their lot in life, their karma. My Indian colleague interpreted that as irony, which, if true, redeems the movie for me. But I'm not entirely sure.
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