Quick Hits – August 2016

This month was heavy on the movies, light on the TV.  I did finish one of the TV series I started last month, so that review is below, but the second is still mid-season.  I included extra reviews in the movie section to make up for the missing TV spot.  I was excited to jump back to my childhood this month and indulge in a triple feature movie series that I somehow never watched before.  Additionally, I included a current childhood film that tore my heart to shreds, a young adult novel that also ripped my heart apart, and a great new novel about friendship.  Overall, I had a fantastic entertainment month, enjoying almost everything I consumed, even if through tears in some cases.

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

TV Series:  Supernatural:  Season 10 (2014-2015)

Maybe I have just overdosed on Supernatural, but I found Season 10 a bit boring and too long.  I really just wanted to be through it and on to the next thing.  This season has three major storylines.  First, Castiel and Sam work hard to find a cure for the Mark of Cain that currently adorns Dean’s arm.  The mark turns Dean into an angry, destructive person who I do not much like to watch.  The process of trying to cure Dean has also brought whiny, sneaky Sam back out who I also do not much like.  The whole situation causes a lot of fighting between the two brothers, and was a big part of why I just wanted this season to be over.  Second, Crowley’s witch mother Rowena is apparently still alive.  She starts causing trouble for Crowley as well as the Winchesters.  I initially found her very annoying, but she provided some bits of fun in the season so I have reconciled myself to her.  Third, a new enemy called the Styne family has turned up.  This is an organized mafia-type family with deep fingers in the occult, who the Winchesters run afoul.  I do not like them, but as a show adversary they are nice change of pace from the past few seasons.  One final thing to mention, the show killed off another secondary character that I really, really liked.  I understand some character turnover, but it seems like as soon as anybody interesting becomes involved they take them out in a gruesome way.  It is becoming a bit old.  This season was not terrible, but it was definitely not my favorite.  Some good episodes to watch include Fan Fiction (silly fun), Ask Jeeves (an episode reminiscent of Clue), and The Werther Project (actually had a plot twist I did not see coming even though I should have).

Movie:  The Little Prince (2015)

My husband picked this movie for us to watch on a family night with my stepson.  I had little expectation going into it, but came out of it knowing this will be one of my favorite movies ever.  It is a combination of stop motion filming and computer animation which creates a really beautiful, easy way to distinguish between The Little Prince material and the backdrop story added for the film.  It is an emotionally powerful story weaving a flashback narrative of loss against a little girl’s desire to just be a kid in a grown up world.  The movie themes cover imagination, friendship, loss, regret, love, and much more.  My stepson enjoyed the animated story, but I think the movie’s subtle layers will have a much bigger impact on adults.  There is such depth to it, I think I will need to watch it again and again just to be sure I understand it all.  Grab your tissue box (you will need it) and watch this movie.  I highly recommend it.

Movie:  Back to the Future Trilogy (1985, 1989, & 1990)

Every once in a while, I dive back into the past to watch those iconic movies of an era that I have never seen.  Back to the Future is something from my childhood that everyone I know has seen and loved, but I somehow missed watching.  Home sick from work one day, I took advantage of it being on Netflix streaming.  Once I watched the first one, I just had to see Parts II and III.

Back to the Future:  This was fantastic.  I cannot believe I waited so long to see what all the hype was about.  In 1985, old Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) builds a time travel machine using a DeLorean.  His teenage friend Marty McFly (Michael J Fox) accidentally gets sent back in time to 1955.  In the past, the DeLorean breaks down, so Marty looks up a younger Doc Brown to help fix it.  In the meantime, he interacts with both his parents who are teenagers in high school.  Notably, he teaches his father a little courage, which changes the future for the better.  This movie stands up to time surprisingly well.  The story is a lot of fun while never going too over-the-top cheesy.  The acting is fantastic, with Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd hitting the perfect notes.  The effects while dated are not distracting from the story.  I would definitely watch this again for old (new?) time’s sake.

Back to the Future Part II:  The second one is a big step down from the first.  It does not stand up to the test of time nearly as well, and it just feels like a cheesy 80s movie.  In this one, Doc Brown returns from the future (2015) to tell Marty that his child is about to make a terrible mistake and they need to stop it.  While in 2015, Biff Tannen steals the DeLorean to take a magazine with 50 years of sports statistics back to his younger self in 1955.  When Doc Brown and Marty go back to 1985, they discover the horrible world that has resulted from a rich Biff.  They go back to 1955 to recover the magazine and put 1985 back in its right trajectory.  Christopher Lloyd and Michael J Fox still are great.  The special effects are still dated, but tolerable (mostly).  The story though feels recycled, because it is extremely similar to the first movie.  Indeed, there are moments that are literally movie clips from the first movie integrated into the second.  However, I think the biggest problem in this movie is the depiction of 2015.  When the movie was made 2015 was 30 years in the future, but now it is in the past.  Because it is a 1980s depiction of the future, it is not very accurate and just feels dated.  The past and the present scenes movie-wise are much more accurate, so they feel authentic in a way the future scenes just cannot.

Back to the Future Part III:  The third one redeems the franchise, though it does not quite hit the highs of the original film.  Doc Brown was stranded in 1885 at the end of the second film, so in the third Marty goes back in time to help him come home.  The majority of the film takes place in 1885 using a wild west theme.  A lot of the story follows traditional western action films (saloon, duel, horses, etc) while mixing in the standard Back to the Future plotline (fight off a Tannen while fixing the DeLorean to get back to 1985).  Even though it is a bit repetitive of the earlier films, it still kept my attention throughout the movie.  I was especially captivated by the final action sequence on the train, and I adored the final ending of this movie.  Because this is entirely set in the past, the movie escapes the issues the second one has with such a false version of the future.  Part III makes a solid final addition to the trilogy, and I would recommend watching the series the entire way through at least once in your life.

Book:  We Were Liars by e. lockhart (2014)

This book took me completely by surprise.  It is a young adult suspense thriller with an ending  that floored me.  The novel is told from the point of view of a seventeen year old girl who had a traumatic accident two summers ago, but she cannot remember the details of what happened or much of the summer surrounding the incident.  No one will tell her about it saying that she never remembers the next day and that the doctors think she should remember at her own pace.  She spends the current summer trying to piece together what happened, filling in blanks with information gleaned from her family members as well as slowly recovered bits of memory.  It all leads to a final conclusion of the fully remembered truth about that fateful day two summers ago.  I am rarely good at solving mysteries, but none of my theories were even close to the truth on this one.  Yet once it was all revealed, it all made perfect sense.  I was emotionally rocked by the conclusion, and immediately wanted to reread the whole thing again to see the story in light of the truth.  One final note, the book can be bit hard to read because the narrative is written in first person point of view from the main character.  She is often confused and immature in her storytelling which can be a bit annoying.  However, I do think it was the best choice to lead the reader to the final impact.  Just keep with it, and the awkward prose will be forgiven.

Book:  Rich and Pretty by Rumaan Alam (2016)

My July Book of the Month selection was a beautifully understated book about friendship.  Sarah and Lauren have been best friends since elementary school.  The book goes back and forth between the women, now in their 30s, interspersing current events in their lives with flashbacks to them growing up. Sarah works as at a charity store dedicated to AIDs, is planning her wedding to long-time beau Dan, and having an unplanned baby.  Lauren is working as an associate editor for a cookbook, hoping to someday be promoted, crushing on the temp at work, and fulfilling her duties as Maid of Honor at Sarah’s wedding.  They have been best friends forever, but you can tell their current relationship is strained at best.  Each little scene reveals how much they try to maintain the closeness they always enjoyed, but yet somehow they just never mesh quite right anymore.  They keep secrets from each other, they silently judge each other’s choices, and they are envious of things the other has, yet neither is willing to let the friendship fizzle away.  The book is a relaxed read, which was a nice change of pace from how I normally devour books.  I was never bored, but I did not feel that insane hunger to turn pages before I had even properly read the current one.  It was an honest look at how friendships evolve over time, and how loyalty demands we keep trying even if our hearts are not entirely in it.  It will not go down as the most exciting book I have ever read, but I definitely came away contemplative on the topic of friendship and content with my time spent on reading it.

Overflow:

TV Special:  John Mulaney:  New in Town (2012) – Yes

Movie:  The Secret Life of Pets (2016) – Yes

Movie:  Irrational Man (2015) – Yes

Movie:  Hello, My Name is Doris (2016) – Yes

Movie:  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) – Yes

Book:  Blackwood Farm by Anne Rice (2002) – Yes

Book:  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (1997) – Yes

See you next week!