Book Recs/Movie Recs/TV Recs, 1/19/10
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 11:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
retsukoIn Books:
Gourmet Rhapsody, by Muriel Barberry: This is a companion volume to The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and features some of the same characters. It's a detailed portrait of the dying food critic who's only mentioned in passing in the first book, and it's the story of his life, partially told from his dying perspective, as he searches for the final, perfect taste, and partially from the perspective of friends, relatives, and enemies. This picture of a man who's often identified as a lion, even in his own estimation, is wonderfully complex and flawed, and features some virtuoso writing about how food really tastes (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
owlfish, I'm thinking you'll really enjoy this part).
Fire, by Kristin Cashore: I ended up liking this better than Graceling, its companion volume, but only by a slim margin. The link between the two stories is an especially evil character, and while it was comforting to read with the knowledge that he'd pay for his evil (eventually), the reading experience was essentially a creepy one because I already knew what he was capable of. Fortunately, the heroine of this story is resourceful, brave, and clever; she's also the antithesis of said linked character, and by the end of the volume, she knows it. I also thought the love story in this book evolved more naturally and didn't seem to just appear out of nowhere. All in all, Cashore is a very good writer, and one who I have many, many questions for now. Highly recommended.
In Movies:
The Princess and the Frog: I actually saw this a while back, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The artwork is stunning--I like how New Orleans in the '20s was lit like it's always sunrise, and the loving depictions of the buildings and people made me think that someone on the animation staff was able to go through their old family photo albums for source material. The story is actually surprisingly complicated, and though it features the obligatory, heteronormative love story and Princess Transformation in the last five minutes, it's quite satisfying. Tianna is a wonderful main character who sticks to her goals in life, and admirably so, in the face of uncertainty, tragedy, and temptation. The villain gets one of the most psychedelic animated sequences I've ever seen in a Disney movie. There is a trumpet-playing Alligator who longs to perform with the great jazz musicians of the era. And, best of all, there's a wonderful female friend, who comes through for her friend instead of being selfish. So much fun, even with small children screeching in the theater around us.
On TV:
First of all, The Onion gleefully lampoons Lost fans' oversharing of their anticipation over the final season. There's also a "blink and you'll miss it" 'Wire' joke which segueways very nicely into the first show I wanted to talk about:
The Wire, Season 3:yebosu9 and I were watching the penultimate episode when David pointed at the screen and remarked, "One of those two characters is going to die, but I don't know which one." He was referring to drug lord Avon Barksdale and his number two man, Stringer Bell. This possibility hadn't occurred to me at all, and I suddenly realized that I'd been so caught up in the story that I'd missed the dramatic cues completely. And when Stringer Bell did die (at the hands of the two characters I never thought I would see working together), it lead to the most marvelous piece of set design I'd seen in, well, ever. Detectives Bunk and McNulty obtain a warrant to go into Stringer's apartment and find that it's done entirely in white paint and natural wood tones. There are mirrors and glass surfaces everywhere, and a small collection of samurai swords above the desk. McNulty stands behind Stringer's desk, holding a clothbound edition of The Wealth of Nations and says in disbelief, "Who was I chasing?" The portrait of Stringer Bell was immediately finished, layered, and utterly confusing, and I loved it. It almost made me sad that he'd died. Almost.
And, on the incredibly cheesy side, we have Robin Hood: Made of Awesome, Season 3: This program was most definitely interrupted to increase dramatic tension, and the first episode suffers a little for that, as it seems far too anticlimatic and overly done to fit in with the rest of the show. But then Friar Tuck shows up (ably played by the charismatic David Harewood) and helps Robin get his groove back, and then it's back to AWESOME as usual. I had forgotten how much I liked watching these characters bicker amongst themselves, particularly the Sherriff. At one dramatic point in the first episode, he whispers to the tormented Sir Guy, "You are teetering on the edge of dispensibility!", a comment which endeared me to him for however long he stays with the show. There's a new female character on this season, too, who seems to have TV-Brand-Heroine-Spunkiness: she's brave when it's appropriate to the plot for her to be that way, but other times... meh. Her major function thus far has been to prompt philosophical arguments between the heroes along the lines of, DO THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS?! I have little patience for philosophy in this show and just want to get back to the swashbuckling and AWESOME. I hope the character matures a little as the season progresses.
Gourmet Rhapsody, by Muriel Barberry: This is a companion volume to The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and features some of the same characters. It's a detailed portrait of the dying food critic who's only mentioned in passing in the first book, and it's the story of his life, partially told from his dying perspective, as he searches for the final, perfect taste, and partially from the perspective of friends, relatives, and enemies. This picture of a man who's often identified as a lion, even in his own estimation, is wonderfully complex and flawed, and features some virtuoso writing about how food really tastes (
owlfish, I'm thinking you'll really enjoy this part).Fire, by Kristin Cashore: I ended up liking this better than Graceling, its companion volume, but only by a slim margin. The link between the two stories is an especially evil character, and while it was comforting to read with the knowledge that he'd pay for his evil (eventually), the reading experience was essentially a creepy one because I already knew what he was capable of. Fortunately, the heroine of this story is resourceful, brave, and clever; she's also the antithesis of said linked character, and by the end of the volume, she knows it. I also thought the love story in this book evolved more naturally and didn't seem to just appear out of nowhere. All in all, Cashore is a very good writer, and one who I have many, many questions for now. Highly recommended.
In Movies:
The Princess and the Frog: I actually saw this a while back, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The artwork is stunning--I like how New Orleans in the '20s was lit like it's always sunrise, and the loving depictions of the buildings and people made me think that someone on the animation staff was able to go through their old family photo albums for source material. The story is actually surprisingly complicated, and though it features the obligatory, heteronormative love story and Princess Transformation in the last five minutes, it's quite satisfying. Tianna is a wonderful main character who sticks to her goals in life, and admirably so, in the face of uncertainty, tragedy, and temptation. The villain gets one of the most psychedelic animated sequences I've ever seen in a Disney movie. There is a trumpet-playing Alligator who longs to perform with the great jazz musicians of the era. And, best of all, there's a wonderful female friend, who comes through for her friend instead of being selfish. So much fun, even with small children screeching in the theater around us.
On TV:
First of all, The Onion gleefully lampoons Lost fans' oversharing of their anticipation over the final season. There's also a "blink and you'll miss it" 'Wire' joke which segueways very nicely into the first show I wanted to talk about:
The Wire, Season 3:
yebosu9 and I were watching the penultimate episode when David pointed at the screen and remarked, "One of those two characters is going to die, but I don't know which one." He was referring to drug lord Avon Barksdale and his number two man, Stringer Bell. This possibility hadn't occurred to me at all, and I suddenly realized that I'd been so caught up in the story that I'd missed the dramatic cues completely. And when Stringer Bell did die (at the hands of the two characters I never thought I would see working together), it lead to the most marvelous piece of set design I'd seen in, well, ever. Detectives Bunk and McNulty obtain a warrant to go into Stringer's apartment and find that it's done entirely in white paint and natural wood tones. There are mirrors and glass surfaces everywhere, and a small collection of samurai swords above the desk. McNulty stands behind Stringer's desk, holding a clothbound edition of The Wealth of Nations and says in disbelief, "Who was I chasing?" The portrait of Stringer Bell was immediately finished, layered, and utterly confusing, and I loved it. It almost made me sad that he'd died. Almost.And, on the incredibly cheesy side, we have Robin Hood: Made of Awesome, Season 3: This program was most definitely interrupted to increase dramatic tension, and the first episode suffers a little for that, as it seems far too anticlimatic and overly done to fit in with the rest of the show. But then Friar Tuck shows up (ably played by the charismatic David Harewood) and helps Robin get his groove back, and then it's back to AWESOME as usual. I had forgotten how much I liked watching these characters bicker amongst themselves, particularly the Sherriff. At one dramatic point in the first episode, he whispers to the tormented Sir Guy, "You are teetering on the edge of dispensibility!", a comment which endeared me to him for however long he stays with the show. There's a new female character on this season, too, who seems to have TV-Brand-Heroine-Spunkiness: she's brave when it's appropriate to the plot for her to be that way, but other times... meh. Her major function thus far has been to prompt philosophical arguments between the heroes along the lines of, DO THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE MEANS?! I have little patience for philosophy in this show and just want to get back to the swashbuckling and AWESOME. I hope the character matures a little as the season progresses.
