I started this post a while ago and just left it in my drafts... for why, I could not tell you, lol. Just forgot it, I think! So here it is, weeks after the fact, lol.
Anyways you can tell I've been in self-isolation (or quarantine or whatever you want to call it) for a WHILE because I recently voluntarily watched Cats (2019). On purpose. I paid $6 to rent it and everything. It was absolutely terrible, but you don't need me to tell you that. You've seen reviews and tweets and even the actors trying to laugh off their involvement in the movie. What I can tell you is that a lot of people who saw this movie and thought it was terrible weren't familiar with the musical, so some of the craziness they were reacting to is just Cats. I am familiar with the musical. I like the musical. I'm no expert in the show, but I had something in mind to compare it to... and this movie just... sucks in comparison, lol. This wasn't it, chief!
If you want to read my original, but very brief, live blog of watching Cats (1998), the filmed version of the stage show that is available on home video, followed by my lengthy live blog of Cats (2019), you can do so here.
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Friday, April 24, 2020
Love Takes Wing
I don't recall if I have mentioned my love of Hallmark's Love Comes Softly movie series before, but as much as I am in no way, shape, or form the target demographic for those films, I just truly enjoy them. It's a combination of my love for period films and for innocent love stories with kind men. These movies are very Christian, and although I'm pagan, it never makes me feel uncomfortable because the characters don't ever judge others that don't share their beliefs -- and they practice the loving, compassionate, non-judgmental type of Christianity that would actually make Christ proud.
These movies make me feel warm and good, and I periodically re-watch the series... and something struck me on my most recent re-watch a few days ago, and I want to talk about it.
So this film series is based on a book series by Janette Oke. I've only read the first book (and I loved it), but it's quite different than the first film... and from what I understand, the later movies are almost entirely different from the later books. The film I'm going to be focusing on today is the seventh in the series, and it's about Belinda, a young female doctor in a wild west town.
The reason I'm going to talk about this film, though it's not my favorite in the series, is because right now it really hits home. Dr. Belinda Simpson begins her medical practice in a town beset by an outbreak of Cholera, and a lot of the behavior we see from the townspeople (in this made for TV movie from 2009, set in 1850-something) mirrors behavior we are seeing NOW amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
Love Takes Wing reunites us with Belinda, now a practicing doctor and a recent widow. When we last saw her, she had just married a young lawyer named Drew Simpson and was preparing to begin studying to become a doctor. This is obviously several years later, and we have a new actress in the role (and she looks nothing like the previous actress -- but it's fine, the same thing happened with her mother and grandmother lol, it's fine... we accept it). She arrives at Sikestown (with her best friend Dr. Haylie Duff) and soon finds out about the outbreak of a mysterious illness. No one in town can agree upon what the illness is and what is causing it. No one understands how it is spread. The people are scared, and many of them are angry. Some of the townsfolk blame the orphanage on the outskirts of town... they think the orphans have caused the illness and are spreading it.
As the disease spreads more, Belinda and the woman who runs the orphanage (played wonderfully by Cloris Leachman) work overtime to care for the children and to try and figure out what is causing the disease to continue spreading. It's set at a time that not much was known about germs and bacteria, and we see a lot of Belinda having to explain this and certain hygiene and cleanliness best practices. When Belinda realizes that the illness the town is dealing with is cholera, the mayor attempts to control the narrative around the illness and doesn't believe her that his clean, upstanding town could be facing a disease that he insists "only" hurts the dirty and the poor. He doesn't want Belinda to let anyone know that she thinks the illness is cholera.
One of the angry townspeople is so insistent that the orphans are the cause of the illness that he campaigns for the orphanage to be shut down -- and when he doesn't get his way, he tries to set the orphanage on fire.
Belinda eventually figures out the root cause of the illness is a contaminated water source. Some people are thankful to have answers, but others still don't want to listen to her. She, a doctor, is not trusted as an expert because her expert information contradicts what some people are currently thinking... and it inconveniences them. People value their own righteous anger and their comfort and their current way of life over science and other people's safety and well-being.
But this is a movie. It's a fictional story, set in a world where one of the Backstreet Boys plays a saloon keeper and the sidebangs we were all rocking in 2009 are anachronistically rocked unapologetically in the mid to late 1800s. It ends happily. Many people died, but the illness ended shortly. None of the main characters died, and everyone ends the movie in a better place than where they started. Belinda is more content and confident in her medical prowess, she's remarried to a hot blacksmith, and she adopted a spunky little redheaded orphan.
But in the real world, in Covid-19's 2020, we don't know how this will end. We're not guaranteed a happy ending. We don't have a 90 minute runtime to tell us how long it'll last. We can't say for certain that "main characters" -- ourselves and the people we love -- won't be affected. If this continues the way it has been going, millions of people will die and every American will know people who were sick or died from this thing. Even people who recover will be affected for life. The orphans in this film had Belinda standing up for them, and the leader of the town eventually realized the error of his ways and tried to shut down the irrational hatred against the orphans, but Asian Americans haven't had a leader who stood up for them and did his part to stop irrational hatred against them for something that is OBVIOUSLY 100% not their fault.
I don't have all the answers. I just know that if we don't start listening to actual experts, if we don't continue staying home, this is going to get worse before it gets better. I want to see it start getting better, and I need people to care more about human lives than they care about the fact that they want a haircut. All everyone wants is for this to end soon and with as little damage as possible... so many people have had to suffer this painful illness. So many people have died and had to be buried in a mass grave because of it. Medical professionals are being traumatized by what they're having to see and the conditions they have to work under. They and all other essential workers are putting their own lives at risk every single day -- because they don't have a choice. We can ease that somewhat by doing something as fucking simple and easy and just staying home. Being quarantined is not easy, even for someone as deeply introverted as myself, but we are not being asked to do something impossible. Just please do your part. Please think of others.
Please watch the Love Comes Softly series -- maybe it'll teach you a thing or two about caring for other people (and just maybe you'll enjoy it, lol). As for myself, this seventh movie that I've kinda slept on is definitely one I'll be looking forward to much more in my next re-watch.
These movies make me feel warm and good, and I periodically re-watch the series... and something struck me on my most recent re-watch a few days ago, and I want to talk about it.
So this film series is based on a book series by Janette Oke. I've only read the first book (and I loved it), but it's quite different than the first film... and from what I understand, the later movies are almost entirely different from the later books. The film I'm going to be focusing on today is the seventh in the series, and it's about Belinda, a young female doctor in a wild west town.
The reason I'm going to talk about this film, though it's not my favorite in the series, is because right now it really hits home. Dr. Belinda Simpson begins her medical practice in a town beset by an outbreak of Cholera, and a lot of the behavior we see from the townspeople (in this made for TV movie from 2009, set in 1850-something) mirrors behavior we are seeing NOW amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
Love Takes Wing reunites us with Belinda, now a practicing doctor and a recent widow. When we last saw her, she had just married a young lawyer named Drew Simpson and was preparing to begin studying to become a doctor. This is obviously several years later, and we have a new actress in the role (and she looks nothing like the previous actress -- but it's fine, the same thing happened with her mother and grandmother lol, it's fine... we accept it). She arrives at Sikestown (with her best friend Dr. Haylie Duff) and soon finds out about the outbreak of a mysterious illness. No one in town can agree upon what the illness is and what is causing it. No one understands how it is spread. The people are scared, and many of them are angry. Some of the townsfolk blame the orphanage on the outskirts of town... they think the orphans have caused the illness and are spreading it.
As the disease spreads more, Belinda and the woman who runs the orphanage (played wonderfully by Cloris Leachman) work overtime to care for the children and to try and figure out what is causing the disease to continue spreading. It's set at a time that not much was known about germs and bacteria, and we see a lot of Belinda having to explain this and certain hygiene and cleanliness best practices. When Belinda realizes that the illness the town is dealing with is cholera, the mayor attempts to control the narrative around the illness and doesn't believe her that his clean, upstanding town could be facing a disease that he insists "only" hurts the dirty and the poor. He doesn't want Belinda to let anyone know that she thinks the illness is cholera.
One of the angry townspeople is so insistent that the orphans are the cause of the illness that he campaigns for the orphanage to be shut down -- and when he doesn't get his way, he tries to set the orphanage on fire.
Belinda eventually figures out the root cause of the illness is a contaminated water source. Some people are thankful to have answers, but others still don't want to listen to her. She, a doctor, is not trusted as an expert because her expert information contradicts what some people are currently thinking... and it inconveniences them. People value their own righteous anger and their comfort and their current way of life over science and other people's safety and well-being.
But this is a movie. It's a fictional story, set in a world where one of the Backstreet Boys plays a saloon keeper and the sidebangs we were all rocking in 2009 are anachronistically rocked unapologetically in the mid to late 1800s. It ends happily. Many people died, but the illness ended shortly. None of the main characters died, and everyone ends the movie in a better place than where they started. Belinda is more content and confident in her medical prowess, she's remarried to a hot blacksmith, and she adopted a spunky little redheaded orphan.
But in the real world, in Covid-19's 2020, we don't know how this will end. We're not guaranteed a happy ending. We don't have a 90 minute runtime to tell us how long it'll last. We can't say for certain that "main characters" -- ourselves and the people we love -- won't be affected. If this continues the way it has been going, millions of people will die and every American will know people who were sick or died from this thing. Even people who recover will be affected for life. The orphans in this film had Belinda standing up for them, and the leader of the town eventually realized the error of his ways and tried to shut down the irrational hatred against the orphans, but Asian Americans haven't had a leader who stood up for them and did his part to stop irrational hatred against them for something that is OBVIOUSLY 100% not their fault.
I don't have all the answers. I just know that if we don't start listening to actual experts, if we don't continue staying home, this is going to get worse before it gets better. I want to see it start getting better, and I need people to care more about human lives than they care about the fact that they want a haircut. All everyone wants is for this to end soon and with as little damage as possible... so many people have had to suffer this painful illness. So many people have died and had to be buried in a mass grave because of it. Medical professionals are being traumatized by what they're having to see and the conditions they have to work under. They and all other essential workers are putting their own lives at risk every single day -- because they don't have a choice. We can ease that somewhat by doing something as fucking simple and easy and just staying home. Being quarantined is not easy, even for someone as deeply introverted as myself, but we are not being asked to do something impossible. Just please do your part. Please think of others.
Please watch the Love Comes Softly series -- maybe it'll teach you a thing or two about caring for other people (and just maybe you'll enjoy it, lol). As for myself, this seventh movie that I've kinda slept on is definitely one I'll be looking forward to much more in my next re-watch.
Sunday, December 15, 2019
it's a wonderful life
My main goal for the
new year is to have a good time. I know that sounds frivolous, but a
someone who has spent waaay too much time depressed and miserable and
having lots of bad times, I feel like it's important that I make that
effort for myself. Enjoy life as much as I can. But due to the fact
that I've been extra stressed and miserable (like… stressed to the
point that it's caused me to be physically ill), I'm making a
concentrated effort NOW to enjoy the little things. One thing I
really enjoy is live theater… but you know, I couldn't remember the
last time I saw a play. So last weekend, I went to see It's a
Wonderful Life performed live at a local community theater.
It's a Wonderful
Life is my favorite Christmas movie, and honestly one of my
favorite movies in general, so I was excited to see a live
production! I had a really good time… the actors did a great job
and it was staged really well. I ended up getting really emotional
though of course… that story means so much to me. The play really
made me think about it.
I relate to George
Bailey. I relate to this character who feels out of control of a
life that didn't turn out like he thought it would. This is a man
who has done for others and lost out on so much, but has always tried
to be kind and be thankful for what he has… a man who ends up in a
situation that he feels there is no way out of.
There have been
numerous points in my life where it felt like the sky was falling.
Sometimes the crisis was real, and sometimes it was just a regular
problem that my anxiety magnified… but I've been where George
Bailey was. I've struggled with depression and suicidal ideation for
years. And when I was at the worst of it (as, uh, I sometimes still
am… healing isn't linear lol), I found myself at times wishing for
a miracle like George got. When I was lonely, again as I still often
am, I found myself wishing to feel like I had friends enough to be as
rich as George Bailey.
I have had some
miracles to get me through the really bad times and keep this leaky
roof over my head, and this story reminds me to be grateful for that.
I could also sit
here and go into how any criticism of this movie for being “too
depressing” truly misses the point, or how it's incredibly timely
that the backdrop of this story is a poor community full of people
struggling for property rights (and how, as someone who has survived
foreclosure, this resonates deeply with me)… but I'll leave it here
and save the in depth thoughts to more eloquent folk.
The play was a
really lovely experience – at once true to the movie and able to
stand on its own. My fellow Bakersfield peeps, it's playing at the
Empty Space for one more weekend… you should catch it if you can!
As I said, I saw the play last week… I meant to write this sooner,
but I was having computer difficulty. And then I got worn out
because of work, lol. Better late than never I guess.
When I checked in on
facebook at the theater last week, I got an ad that another local
theater (Bakersfield Community Theater) was showing Miracle on
34th Street, so I went to that tonight.
I really enjoyed it too, and that's another favorite Christmas story
of mine… but I don't have the energy to go in depth with my
thoughts. There wouldn't be as much to say because as much as I do
love it, I don't have quite the same connection with it. But I would
recommend going to see it at BCT next weekend if you can!
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
I really do love Simon
I finished reading Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens agenda tonight, and I really want to talk about it. It's not my assigned libro for the month so I won't make like a formal post on it (if you can call what I've been posting "formal" lol) but I do just have so many thoughts.
I didn't know about this book until I heard about the movie Love, Simon. But the movie looked really good and really cute, so I wanted to see it. But money being what it is (also transportation being what it is... and lack of friends to go places with me being what it is lol) I haven't seen it yet. I've requested the DVD from the library so hopefully I'll get to see it shortly after the home release. But anyways, since I couldn't see the movie, I decided to grab the book from the library and I'm really glad I did.
I would say this book was a total feel good read. It's not sappy and gooey, and there are a lot of heavy emotions involved, but I was happy the whole time I read it. I got invested in Simon as a character, fell in love with him as a person, and wanted the best for him. He feels like a real teenager. I really love him as a character... what a loveable idiot.
This book made me really want to read Becky Albertalli's other work too. I'm going to request them from the library, I think.
I'm kind of just rambling because it's late and I'm full of thoughts, but I really enjoyed this cute little book. It was a fast read, and it felt so incredibly authentic, and it just made me feel warm. SO wonderful.
I didn't know about this book until I heard about the movie Love, Simon. But the movie looked really good and really cute, so I wanted to see it. But money being what it is (also transportation being what it is... and lack of friends to go places with me being what it is lol) I haven't seen it yet. I've requested the DVD from the library so hopefully I'll get to see it shortly after the home release. But anyways, since I couldn't see the movie, I decided to grab the book from the library and I'm really glad I did.
I would say this book was a total feel good read. It's not sappy and gooey, and there are a lot of heavy emotions involved, but I was happy the whole time I read it. I got invested in Simon as a character, fell in love with him as a person, and wanted the best for him. He feels like a real teenager. I really love him as a character... what a loveable idiot.
This book made me really want to read Becky Albertalli's other work too. I'm going to request them from the library, I think.
I'm kind of just rambling because it's late and I'm full of thoughts, but I really enjoyed this cute little book. It was a fast read, and it felt so incredibly authentic, and it just made me feel warm. SO wonderful.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
