Don't worry, I won't be rehashing last year's Christmas picks again this year. In fact, this week's suggestions have nothing to do with Christmas other than the fact that I am listening to Christmas music as I type this. I'm just giving folks fair warning that Christmas is less than three weeks away.
Film: 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
Set in the 1980s in Communist Romania, this film will shock you but not in the ways you think. This film is about a college student's plight to get an illegal abortion. Yes, there is a rather gruesome moment towards the film's end but that shouldn't deter you from watching this excellent film. The story is not really about Gabita (the girl who is pregnant); it's really about her friend Otilia who helps out. Usually one sees these kind of stories from the mother-to-be. The shift to Otilia's experience is fascinating and unique. We watch as Otilia makes the arrangements while trying to keep her own relationship together in the face of deception and fear. The film is full of suspense and will make you happy we live in an era when Roe v. Wade is alive and well.
Television: Big Love
I talked about Big Love last year after watching Season 1. Let me mention it again. I am working my way through Season 2 (no spoilers please!) and loving it. Season 1 is about the utopian family Bill sets up for his three wives and many children. At the end of Season 1, reality sets in when the family is exposed. Season 2 is about Bill keeping his head above water and keeping his polygamous family safe and out of prison. There are many twists and turns, mostly thanks to the nastiness going on at Roman Grant's (Bill's father-in-law, played with brilliance by Harry Dean Stanton) polygamous compound. The big star so far is the pathologically-lying Rhonda (played by Daveigh Chase, voice of Lilo from Lilo and Stitch and Sen from Spirited Away). The ever-creepy Alby is also playing a more interesting role this season. The cast of this show is excellent. Although I mention Daveigh Chase and Matt Ross, let us not forget the brilliance of the Henrickson family: Bill Paxton, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny, and Ginnifer Godwin.
Book: Ophelia
Written by Lisa Klein, this novel tells the story of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark from Ophelia's point of view. I am a sucker for a good alternative POV story. (I loved both The Red Tent and Wicked.) This one will not disappoint. While it is not necessary to know Shakespeare's Hamlet before reading Ophelia, it would be useful to have a basic understanding of the play to catch many of the in-jokes. What I especially like is the way Klein rethinks some of the famous scenes and lines between Hamlet and Ophelia. Is it possible, just possible, that Hamlet meant for Ophelia to run away to a nunnery in hopes that she would be saved from a murder attempt? One will never know what Shakespeare had in mind for Ophelia, but a reader will think long and hard about the possibilities found in Klein's superb retelling.
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22 comments:
YES! 4 Months... is easily one of the best films of the decade. The sustained suspense capped by the ending is just too much. This film is such a meditation (and a warning) on what life is like under a regime that systematically denies the rights of its citizens.
Absolutely. As I was driving to work today, I was thinking about how this film is neither a pro-abortion nor an anti-abortion statement. It's about a much larger issue of human rights and decency. Very powerful.
Speaking of HBO shows, I think True Blood is right up your alley. Not out on DVD yet I guess, but keep your eye out for it.
True Blood is awesome. My favorite new show of fall 2008. And Heather, you would really enjoy it. The books that the show is based on are very entertaining as well. I've heard that the DVDs are coming out in May, just before Season 2 starts.
Krista, does this mean you have HBO now? You can watch Bill Maher!
To be honest, the last season of Big Love happened so long ago that I can barely remember any spoilers to leak! (It was summer '07.) It's a decent show. I wasn't that into it when it first started, but it has picked up steam. I love anything involving the compound! I always feel awful for Barb because it's so obvious how she and Bill are a perfect fit and would have had a nice, manageable family all by themselves. Season 3 starts in January; HBO is running ads for it now.
I'm getting all the movie channels free right now b/c of my HD upgrade. But damn, I may have to keep HBO just for True Blood. It is really awesome. The Bill-Sooky chemistry is great. Also, I love Lafayette. Oh, and Ensign Roe! ha ha
I love how they don't turn to dust when staked, but rather into a huge nasty pile of gore!
Yeah, Ensign Ro, ha ha!
Did you know that Stephen Moyer is British? He was in that short BBC show "NY-LON" with Rashida Jones of the Office. It still shows up on BBCA from time to time.
The books are full of spoilers, if you are really into TB. The Bill-Sookie relationship and the murders track exactly from the first book "Dead Until Dark." The show fleshes out a lot of the supporting characters though. (I am so entertained by Jason Stackhouse!) Tara is barely even in the books.
They definitely have set up the next season from the second book, which begins with the murder that ended the final episode. Michelle Forbes' character plays a major role, as does the Fellowship of the Sun ministry. And there are a ton more creatures that slowly pop up, including werewolves, shapeshifters, and witches (and even a fairy!). The series has a ton of potential. I'm reading the fifth book now and the ongoing story just gets much thicker!
I'm interested to see what they do with Bill and Sookie, because (spoiler alert!) that relationship does not last long in the books. But maybe that will change since Bill is such a fan favorite and the actors have chemistry.
Oh, we read Grendel in high school as a companion to Beowulf - and I can hardly remember anything from Beowulf, but I remember Grendel very well.
I just have to ask if anyone's seen Tropic Thunder? Can Robert Downey, Jr. be any funnier? I'm generally not a fan of Ben Stiller movies, but this one is hilarious.
Heather: Absolutely, though I would argue that the pro-choice position is a question of human rights and decency. The way in which the Ceausescu regime intruded upon the personal lives of women was a uniquely modern, almost clinical kind of brutality. Not only was abortion crimilalized, but so was sex ed, and all forms of birth control. Women who failed to conceive faced a "celebacy tax" and the police would round women up at random for forced gynecolgical exams, to ensure their fertility. This is a piece of history that has been forgotten in this part of the world.
I don't like shows, but I find myself drawn to True Blood.
Ick. Did not know that part of Communism in Romania. On a related note, with the birthrate dropping in many Western countries, it will be interesting to see what measures develop, particularly in more authoritarian countries like Russia. When I was still working for Current History, we ran an article about the falling birthrate, and it mentioned how some countries are offering incentives for women and families to have more children (Italy sticks in my head). Nothing to this extreme, though.
I have never read Grendel, but Dr. Hawkes talked about it ad nauseum because the author was his mentor. I barely remember Beowulf either, which is odd since I'm pretty sure I was exposed to it at least three times (HS English, Brit Lit 1, and possibly another college English class that I have blocked from memory). Note: The post above was deleted by me due to a horrible misspelling--Sorry!
Indeed. The NYTimes Sunday Mag did an article this summer about "Childless Europe" and those declining birth rates. Interestingly enough, the states whose offical policies were the most old fashioned and traditional (i.e. the man works the woman stayes home, etc.) are the ones seeing the steepest drop in spite of 'baby bonuses.'
Romania's population experiment is perhaps one of the forgotten tragedies of 20th century social engineering by any state. The dictator felt that a boom in population would result in Romania becoming a global or at least regional powerhouse. The result was literally millions of unwanted children in a society that did not have the resources to feed and clothe them. By the time of the revolution in 1989 state run child care facilites were full to the brim with unwanted children. Most were so strapped for cash just meeting the children's nutritional needs that most of the kids did not have any clothing. Anyone born between 1967 and 1989 is known as a 'lost generation'. These people all grew up in extreme poverty and when they were old enough they learned that they owe their existence to a failed social experiment. No wonder they tried and executed Ceausescu and his wife on Christmas day.
Stating the obvious, but...women in those traditional countries just took longer to catch up to others in terms of employment and contraceptive choices. I definitely think Italy was one of those, as well as many of the Eastern European countries. One might guess that the Catholic policy on contraception is having less and less of an impact there. :-)
Interestingly, did you know that the average age for people to marry in the US is the mid-twenties, while in England and other Western European countries it is around thirty? A significant difference that I'm sure has interesting explanations.
What a interesting discussion! (Yes True Blood is on my DVD list.)
I know this will come as no revelation to you all, but Americans are so naive about the happenings in the rest of the world. I seem to always be in the car during the daily "BBC World News Hour" on NPR. While sometimes the show is irritating, I am learning a lot more about African politics and troubles. If it weren't for BBC, I would be completely in the dark about foreign affairs.
I mention this because it is the same with world history. Americans knows the stories that most affect them and rarely care about other countries. The discussion about Romanian women and their rights is a testament to that. I, for one, did not know all of the history there about Ceausescu and his family initiative. That adds a whole different level of understanding to the film.
Plus the article also concluded that birth rates also have been plumeting in those nations where the national policies were centered around women handling all of the child care due to the these countries refusing to mandate that employers provide daycare and extensive paid maternity leave. These countries refuse to make such services traditional policies because they claim that htis encourages women to work, which is, in their opinion, not what women should be doing. Basically, policies meant to encourage "traditional" families and "traditional" gender roles have actually been bad for families.
Romania is still a horrible mess. In my two non-academic jobs I had two rather experiences with people in Romania. This is a country without enough roads to carry modern trucks and where the only way to get a functioning light bulb is to buy a bad one from a store and then swap it out with a good one in a government building.
Sorry, accidentally double posted.
I also cannot spell or type either.
This is completely off-topic for Krista:
I just read USA Today's review of Frost/Nixon, and it turns out that your boy Matthew Macfadyen has a significant supporting role. I don't want you to miss one of his appearances--I know you track them down. :-)
Don't worry, I have a Google News alert for him. I know his appearances well in advance. He has the lead in Little Dorritt coming to PBS' Masterpiece Theater in March, for example.
He has crazy 70's hair in Frost/Nixon.
Here's another completely off-topic post. Last night was my yearly viewing of "It's a Wonderful." I love that film. I know we had a big discussion about it last year so we don't have to recap, but I just want to say that it is an awesome, awesome film.
Once again related to USA Today, but also to Heather's post.... a few weeks ago they had a Life cover story about popular Christmas movies, and how most of them are about dysfunctional people or families. IaWL was actually at the top of their scale because of all the bad things that happen to George Bailey and how he wants to kill himself. (Most of them don't go that far!)
They also talked about Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, Miracle on 34th Street, the Santa Clause, Home Alone, and my new Christmas classic, Bad Santa.
I'm sure there are Christmas movies that aren't about families that are dysfunctional in some way (White Christmas?), but it's funny how many of them are.
Yikes, Little Dorrit. The Dickens miniseries wear me out because they are so dark! Give me a Jane Austen any day. (I'll probably watch it though. Bleak House was pretty good.)
White Christmas doesn't actually have a family. There is a granddaughter, however. Nothing is said about her parents and whether or not she lives with her grandfather or just visits. After watching IaWL, we (the movie group) were discussing how much drinking got past the censors. George immediately goes out and gets drunk and no one seems to mind.
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