Quick Hits – June 2016

In a departure from prior months, I actually left my house in order to consume some entertainment.  In a special feature, I am doing a review on a live musical theater performance that I saw with my cousin.  This will replace one of the TV series reviews, which I only had one of this month anyway.  Additionally, both movie reviews come from movies I saw in an actual cinema rather than from the comfort of my couch.  I used to love to go to the movies at a teenager, but as an adult I rarely go.  The theater is too crowded, too expensive, and too much hassle to be as much fun as it was growing up.  In general, this month was more about reading than watching the screen again.  I am really enjoying reading, and I am so glad to have shifted my focus toward the written word for a while.

Warning:  Although I tried not to delve into plots too deeply, there are potential spoilers in the reviews below.  Read at your own risk.

Musical Theater:  Kinky Boots

The Kennedy Center regularly offers shows from every genre of performing arts but until recently, I have almost exclusively seen ballets.  I made the decision to expand my horizons which is how I have started taking in some musical theater performances.  Kinky Boots caught my attention because it was a show starring drag queens featuring Cyndi Lauper music.  I thought that sounded like the epitome of fun and promptly invited my cousin along for the ride.  I loved it.  The story is about a man who is facing bankruptcy for his inherited shoe factory.  He tries to save it by focusing exclusively on fancy stiletto boots reinforced to support a man’s heavier weight, inspired by his new drag queen friend.  Misunderstanding and intolerance muddy the waters for a while, but eventually everyone comes together to make a product they can showcase in Milan at the shoe fashion show.  This production was everything I hoped it would be.  There was great music, with my favorites being a slow ballad called Not My Father’s Son and the first act finale Everybody Say Yeah.  There was a good plot, focusing its themes on believing in yourself and tolerating others.  There were some incredibly funny moments, with me especially sympathetic to the awkward girl crush scenes for the main female lead.  Best of all, there were bright costumes and flashy performances by the drag queens.  If you want a couple hours of sheer fun, I highly recommend giving Kinky Boots a try.

TV Series:  Supernatural:  Season 9 (2013)

Season 9 managed to keep my interest and attention by maintaining the qualities I loved so much in Season 8.  This season is still about angels and demons but it focuses on power struggles in each realm.  King of Hell Crowley is threatened by the presence of a Knight of Hell (basically a super demon) named Abaddon.  On the other side, God’s former scribe Metatron throws all the angels out of Heaven and takes over ruling as the new god.  The angels on Earth are all forming factions competing with each other as well as trying to figure out how get back to Heaven.  Castiel has been humanized and is on the run from some of the angels who blame him for Metatron’s move.  Meanwhile, Sam was seriously injured in last season’s finale, and Dean asks for help from a loner angel Ezekiel who may not be as friendly as he seems.  Once Sam is on the mend, he and Dean work with Castiel and Crowley to try to restore the normal order of things.  There were two negatives in this season that took away some of the fun.  First, Metatron and Abaddon did start to wear on my nerves by the end of the season as neither has the complexity that make Crowley and Castiel fun additions.   Second, they killed off one of my favorite secondary characters of all time which made me rather angry.  I rallied though and count this season as a success.  Of course the funny episodes are my favorite, so keep an eye out for Dog Dean Afternoon as the best example of humor.

Movie:  Captain America:  Civil War (2016)

I went to the movie theater to see this one with my husband.  We have a hard time agreeing on movies to see together, and currently our common ground seems to be superhero movies.  Captain America:  The Winter Soldier was one of my favorites in the Marvel series, so I was extremely excited to see the newest one.  My takeaway was that this movie was a lot of fun, but it was not anywhere near as good as its predecessor.  My biggest complaint was that the movie felt very chaotic.  There were non-stop action sequences, a multitude of characters, and too many storylines jammed into the mix.  I know it is a superhero film which requires the good guys to fight the bad guys, but I just felt like there were too many fight scenes and not enough dialog or story progression in between.  Plus some of the action scenes were simply hard to watch.  I literally wanted to close my eyes during parts of the movie because I could not focus on the screen it was such a blur of people/things flying everywhere.  Supposedly this was a Captain America movie, but they had so many superheroes in it that it felt more like an Avengers movie (I know this is a common criticism, but it is true).  Most of it focused on Captain America and Ironman, but things kept getting side-tracked into these sideshows of characters:  hello Spiderman, here is Antman, introducing The Black Panther, Vision makes dinner for the Scarlet Witch, etc.  I really think this should have focused more on Captain America and the characters already associated with his trilogy and anything necessary to the actual storyline.

That brings us to the actual storyline, where I do not know exactly what they were trying to accomplish.  The Civil War in the movie title refers to a split between Captain America and Iron Man over whether the Avengers should sign the Sokovia Accords giving the United Nations oversite of the group.  They never actually resolve anything of this question before Captain America becomes a fugitive for trying to help his friend Bucky escape prison long enough to clear his name from a bombing that he did not do.  The bad guy that framed him is out there on the loose intent on destroying Bucky, the Avengers, and a group of five other Winter Soldiers that no one knew existed until now.  On top of that, there are several side stories involving how much responsibility each Avenger holds for damage caused during combat, unknown history between Captain America and Ironman, a king’s son who becomes his own superhero to get revenge for his father’s death, a random kiss between Captain America and Agent Carter, Iron Man’s philanthropy with the MIT students caused by guilt in his own history, and shifty allegiances for certain characters.  In the end, the bad guy after Bucky was caught, but there really was no resolution to almost any other plot point brought up in the movie.  I really feel like this should have been two movies.  The first one a Captain America film focusing on the revenge story that involves Bucky and the other Winter Soldiers.  The second one an Avengers film focused on the Civil War between that characters that comes to a decision one way or another.  The side plots could be factored in where appropriate and actually addressed with meaning, or dropped from the narrative completely.

Even though I just posted a rather lengthy breakdown of what I disliked, I want to emphasize that this movie is still worth watching.  It has a lot of the qualities that draw people to the Marvel Universe.  The characters are those we have grown to know and love.  The action is fast-paced and full of cool little scenes (I mean Captain America drags down a helicopter by himself!).  The dialog is sprinkled with the humor known for each character (sarcasm for Ironman, naïve questions from Captain America, etc.).  If you like the enthusiasm and cinematic qualities of the Marvel films, then you will like this movie too.  I honestly feel they just bit off more story than they could chew in two and a half hours for this one.

Movie:  Me Before You (2016)

Last month, I wrote up a review of the book on which this movie is based.  I loved the book.  Previews of the movie led me to believe that I would really enjoy the movie too.  I was not let down.  Although the movie does leave out a lot of details from the book, the core of the story is still there.  Most of the changes appear to be necessary to streamline the story into an acceptable length for a movie.  Although everyone will wonder about some cuts, I felt that few of them really undermined the main message of the movie:  rethinking first impressions, overcoming obstacles, knowing what you want, and accepting things that cannot be changed.  I also think they did a reasonable job of transferring characters intact from the book to the movie, particularly Lou, Will, and Patrick.  The ending is still as sad and strong yet full of hope for Lou’s future as the book.  The book was a tear-jerker, and the movie was the same (I have never before seen an entire theater full of women get up and go to the restroom afterward).  If you love the book, see the movie, but definitely bring your tissues.

Book:  Ghost Story by Peter Straub (1979)

I picked this book from a Buzzfeed article about the scariest books people had ever read.  While this book failed to scare me, I did find it a very good read.  I have never read any Peter Straub before, but I found his material (or at least this book) very much like Stephen King who I have read a lot.  Although he is generalized as a horror fiction writer, I found this particular one despite the name to be much more supernatural thriller than ghost story.  The first part of the book sprawls with many characters, storylines, and general chaos.  As we near the end though, everything pulls together in a fantastic way.  Even early when I was confused, I was hooked and could not wait to figure out what exactly was happening.  The ghosts are much more complex and encompassing than the spooks I was expecting, leaving me clueless about how it would all end.  Indeed, it wraps up in a moment that seems too good to be true, and makes me think the story might not really be over at all.  Although I was somewhat disappointed that this did not give me the thrill I was hoping to find, I am still really glad I read the book.

Book:  Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld (2016)

I picked this one for my May Book of the Month subscription.  This book was very fun to read.  It is marketed as a modern retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, but I would classify it more of a homage to the original than a retelling.  The author modernized and Americanized it, taking the action to Cincinnati, Ohio.  The big plot points of the original overlay the story, but there were changes to many of the subplots.  Some were for modernization’s sake, such as making Cousin Willie a step-cousin to help modernize the idea of marrying cousins.  Others I do not understand, such as Catherine de Bourgh as a feminist crusader who Liz interviews and admires rather than a relative of Darcy’s that opposes the marriage.  The changes were enough to take the story away from being a true retelling, but nothing that made the book unenjoyable.  Overall I thought Ms. Sittenfeld did a fantastic job on the characterizations of the Bennets, the Bingleys, and the Darcys, modernizing the details without losing the nuances of the original characters.  The story progressed very quickly to the expected conclusions.  Along the way the reader is provided with laughter and amusement.  Unless they are a Jane Austen purist, I think any fan would enjoy this fun Pride and Prejudice inspired novel.  It is a perfect summer beach read.

Overflow:

Movie:  Grandma (2015) – Yes

Book:  Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella (2009) – Yes

Book:  Perfect Days by Raphael Montes (2014) – No.  I do not know if it was the writing or the translation but this book was incredibly flat.

See you next week!