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Movies and books
Mar. 15th, 2010 08:41 amVery quiet weekend after 2 busy ones so i enjoyed it. I watched lots of video i'd downloaded plus a movie that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gramie_dee sent me for my birthday, Festival. It's about a group of people attending and mostly performing in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. There are comedians competing for a comedy prize, an ernest woman performing a one woman play about Wordsworth's sister, a group of Canadian (yay!) performance artists staying in a house that is owned by a woman who has just had a baby and clearly has post partum depression of some sort. It's frank, it's somewhat graphic in a couple of scenes, it's got a loose plot but is really about the characters more than the plot. It's funny and it's very indy-feeling. IMDB says it's a black comedy but i certainly wouldn't call it "black" or even dark overall though one character's storyline turns out to be dark and a bit sad and some others are more about failures than successes. I wouldn't say that tinted the whole movie with the decription, though. It's also certainly not slapstick or broad comedy or a romantic comedy either. It's just about people and their ups and downs and ambitions.
Actually, there's a user review on IMDB that really is a very good description without spoilers:
Some of the other reviewers thought it didn't go far enough, to either pathos or humour. Someone else suggested it was similar in vein to Robert Altman's classic, "Nashville". I can't remember if i saw Nashville all the way through so it could very well be a similar type of ensemble movie. I thought the acting and the script were both really good with some surprises.
Books 2010:
8. Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist - Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox has already written one autobiography and this one chronicles much of the most recent 10 years of his life, since retiring from acting due to his diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease. That's wrong, it wasn't the diagnosis, which he lived with for a number of years before he retired from acting, but it was getting more and more difficult for him to deal with the rigors of acting on a regular tv series due to the advancing symptoms. The book is mainly about him dealing with that and how he got into the politics of lobbying for stem cell research along with his foundation for PD research. There is a section about his relationship with his family, one on his work, one on faith and one on politics. The faith part isn't overly religious and neither is he but he is spiritual and believes in *something* somewhere. He seems to be really dedicated to his family and loves them a lot. They give him a lot of strength. He always came across as a naturally buoyant and energetic guy, really nice and down to earth and this book most definitely reads like it. It's not written in a formal way, it's as if he wrote down his thoughts exactly as he had them, in the language and phrasing he'd use when speaking to a friend and makes it far more interesting and enjoyable to read. I like that. It's more revealing of the author rather than "i said this and he did that and did you know... " etc that many celeb autobiogs seem to be.
gramie_dee sent me for my birthday, Festival. It's about a group of people attending and mostly performing in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. There are comedians competing for a comedy prize, an ernest woman performing a one woman play about Wordsworth's sister, a group of Canadian (yay!) performance artists staying in a house that is owned by a woman who has just had a baby and clearly has post partum depression of some sort. It's frank, it's somewhat graphic in a couple of scenes, it's got a loose plot but is really about the characters more than the plot. It's funny and it's very indy-feeling. IMDB says it's a black comedy but i certainly wouldn't call it "black" or even dark overall though one character's storyline turns out to be dark and a bit sad and some others are more about failures than successes. I wouldn't say that tinted the whole movie with the decription, though. It's also certainly not slapstick or broad comedy or a romantic comedy either. It's just about people and their ups and downs and ambitions. Actually, there's a user review on IMDB that really is a very good description without spoilers:
An accurate portrayal of the vibe on the streets, boozing in the courtyards and ragbag mix of shoestring productions in dingy halls ranging from high artistic pretension to low comedy. More to the point it's a bloody good film, presenting us with some memorable portraits of aspiring artistes, jaded stand-ups, local journalists and citizens rubbing up against each other in pubs, hotel rooms and rented flats, and of course venues, with some pithy exchanges hurled between floor and stage. The actors are well served by a realistic, witty script that highlights the distinctive backgrounds and foibles of their various characters. They excite your sympathy, affection, pity or distaste even as you laugh. Every scene is either funny or sad, usually both. And the musical soundtrack is exquisite. It's not perfect - there are one or two moments of over-dramatised conflict towards the end that don't ring true, probably driven by some perceived need to pander to commercial expectations. The film should have retained its faith in the bubbling undercurrents which have swept it along so nicely until then, but thankfully it ends on an appropriate note of bittersweet irresolution.
Some of the other reviewers thought it didn't go far enough, to either pathos or humour. Someone else suggested it was similar in vein to Robert Altman's classic, "Nashville". I can't remember if i saw Nashville all the way through so it could very well be a similar type of ensemble movie. I thought the acting and the script were both really good with some surprises.
Books 2010:
8. Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist - Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox has already written one autobiography and this one chronicles much of the most recent 10 years of his life, since retiring from acting due to his diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease. That's wrong, it wasn't the diagnosis, which he lived with for a number of years before he retired from acting, but it was getting more and more difficult for him to deal with the rigors of acting on a regular tv series due to the advancing symptoms. The book is mainly about him dealing with that and how he got into the politics of lobbying for stem cell research along with his foundation for PD research. There is a section about his relationship with his family, one on his work, one on faith and one on politics. The faith part isn't overly religious and neither is he but he is spiritual and believes in *something* somewhere. He seems to be really dedicated to his family and loves them a lot. They give him a lot of strength. He always came across as a naturally buoyant and energetic guy, really nice and down to earth and this book most definitely reads like it. It's not written in a formal way, it's as if he wrote down his thoughts exactly as he had them, in the language and phrasing he'd use when speaking to a friend and makes it far more interesting and enjoyable to read. I like that. It's more revealing of the author rather than "i said this and he did that and did you know... " etc that many celeb autobiogs seem to be.
