Feb. 26th, 2019

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 crimson peak posterToday's sickbed viewing was Crimson Peak. I barely heard of it when it went through cinema. By the time I'd registered I might like to see it, it was gone. So, it's been on my TBW (to be watched) list for quite a while. All I'd gathered about it was that it was a gothic story and, of course, that Tom Hiddleston was in it. 
 
For someone like me, raised on Dark Shadows soap opera reruns, Edgar Allan Poe, and gothic novels, this was a delight! It has it all: a gorgeous, charming foreign man with a secret; a wonderfully falling apart, ruined, and isolated house of incredible opulence; a naive bookish young ingenue with more backbone than is suspected; horrific apparitions; subtext galore; beautiful gowns and nightgowns with the long romantic hair to match; and dangerous experimental mining equipment, mysterious vats, and a rickety elevator. 
 
The performances were magnificently overwrought. They had to be, just to be seen in the incredible setting!  In typical Del Toro fashion, the film is darkly gorgeous, all rich textures and moody lighting. Del Toro clearly knows the tropes of this genre well and used them to great effect. Horrible in the best possible way!
samanthabryant: feeling purple (Default)
mrs. maisel Yesterday, I watched the first season The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. My daughter suggested it for me, and she's usually pretty good at spotting something I would like. She was right :-)
 
Mrs. Midge Maisel is a paragon of privilege in upper west side New York City in the 1950s. She's well, if impractically, educated, with a degree in Russian literature from Bryn Mawr. She's married to a seemingly successful businessman and has two kids and a great life. So, of course, it all falls apart in the first episode. 
 
There are hints right away that these young people aren't entirely conventional, the biggest being that they are regulars at a seedy comedy club, where Midge bribes the manager with brisket to get stage time for her husband. In fact, Midge thinks everything is golden until her husband blindsides her by leaving. 
 
Now, generally, Midge isn't my kind of a character. There's the distinct aroma of "Manic Pixie Dreamgirl" wafting about her and I hate that. I've never been able to watch the Gilmore Girls, for example, because I don't understand why no one has killed Lorelei yet. 
 
But, while Midge fits that character type, she also doesn't. She has it together in a lot of ways. She's not a black hole of selfish need that destroys everyone around her; she's self-sufficient, at least in terms of self-esteem. In fact, she helps other people along her journey. She has a wild streak for certain, but it's a secret release, not her daily life M.O. I'm not yelling at the screen telling the other characters to "Run! It's a trap!" 
 
Once she starts doing stand-up comedy, beginning with a late night, drunken rant in her nightgown that ends with an arrest for indecency (alongside Lenny Bruce), she's brilliant. It's an amazing moment, where a woman who has never needed a vocation just found hers. 
 
Overall the show is a great period piece that feels spot-on about gender and other politics of the era (admittedly, I'm too young to remember the 50s firsthand), sharp-witted, and heart-felt. I'll definitely watch Season 2 (more slowly, though; I'm finally well enough to go back to work tomorrow!). 
samanthabryant: feeling purple (Default)
 #smileaday Being a musical nerd with my daughter. 
 
I was in chorus AND band in middle and high school, so you can imagine what a musical nerd I must be. Apparently, I've passed that on to my youngest, because after homework tonight, she wanted to watch Into the Woods, which has been a favorite of mine since college and now has a pretty good movie edition (though I'm loyal to Bernadette Peters' witch and don't like Meryl Streep's as much). 
 
Anyway, we enjoyed sitting together tonight and re-watching this one (we've already watched it together at least a couple of times). Still so good, and even better with her. 


into the woods dvd

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Samantha J Bryant

March 2019

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