I was totally gripped by Shattered Glass. Plagiarism will always fascinate me, I suspect, especially after the year I spent on the Honor Board in college.
Hayden Christensen is clearly a victim of terrible directing in the Star Wars flicks, because his portrayal of Stephen Glass was subtle and nuanced. I found the film to be totally engaging, in spite of their being no explosions, no sex, and a pretty simple storyline. Great film about journalism. I heartily recommend.
Ventured out to the local dollar cinema to see Calendar Girls on Friday. It's a lighter Billy Elliot, in a way, full of the breezy British humor one would expect from a film based on a true story about women putting together a nude calendar as a charity project to honor one woman's late husband.
It stars Helen Mirren and Julie Walters, for pete's sake, so of course it's pretty darn good. The story isn't really that important, it's the acting and one liners that give the movie its spark.
However, I was struck by how even when playing a pretty innocuous character, I occasionally felt a little creeped out by Helen Mirren's character. Maybe it's due to associating her with Prime Suspect and Gosford Park, but there definitely seemed to be a steeliness underlying her portrayal of Chris.
All told, definitely worth a look, especially if you're into light British comedies.
Bob Edwards has been the host of NPR's "Morning Edition" since the year I was born. It's been announced today that he is leaving "Morning Edition."
I am dismayed. Bob Edwards is the voice of NPR, as far as I'm concerned. He and Susan Stamberg are Mr. and Ms. NPR. According to most reports, Edwards was forced aside (I assume that's what happened to Linda Wertheimer and "All Things Considered," as well, but that's pure conjecture) for the "evolution" of the program.
I think it's crappy. NPR listeners aren't fickle brandwhores--we listen because we always have. Bob Edwards has been the voice of the morning for me for as long as I've been alive, and I'm not ready to "evolve" on that point.
I finished Anne Lamott's Traveling Mercies earlier this week. I enjoyed it. Lamott writes about her Christian faith, but does so in a way that's bound to appeal to non-Christians and progressive Christians and offend those on the Christian right. It was almost jarring to me to read such an honest and imperfect take on Christianity--yet still refreshing to be reminded that one can be a Christian and still fail at "being a Christian" once in a while.
Until I saw signs yesterday advertising an Open House, I had no idea that Ohio State had a world-class Chimpanzee Center. They have open houses once a month, and I got to see both young and full-grown chimps (full-grown chimps are HUGE!), and learn about the studies they do in the lab. We even got to watch one of the chimps use a computer touch screen to match pictures to words. Amazing.
I haven't had tons to say lately, so I thought I'd let you enjoy the soothing picture I've chosen as my desktop image here at home:
Aah, don't you feel soothed? I took this last June on the beach on Hilton Head Island.
I love The Apprentice. I'm very surprised by this fact, but I can't deny it any longer. I saw the first episode because of idle curiousity, but the show just keeps growing on me. It is one thing to see random people humbled on an island in Survivor, sure, that's fun, but it can't compare to watching pompous corporate types make fools of themselves in front of the alpha pompous corporate type, Donald Trump! It's amazing! One of the contestants is a copier salesman! Do you know how much I loathe copier salesmen? Have you ever had to deal with them? They are more intense with the sales-speak than car salespeople! Seriously! Every week, I laugh out loud because it's a schadenfreude parade.
Random Family, by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, is really something. I had read an excerpt in the New York Times Magazine a year or so ago and picked up the paperback not realizing the scope of the book. LeBlanc chronicles close to twenty years worth of lives, set in neighborhoods in the South Bronx, Troy, NY, various prisons in New York state, and paints a simultaneously tragic and hopeful picture of people bound together by familial relationships that defy traditionalism. LeBlanc is not present in the narrative, bestowing the narrative with a gritty realism that lacks the treacly moments that can creep into nonfiction like this. It's a hard book to read. It's relentless -- the reader feels the relentlessness of poverty that those profiled in the book face. Yet, LeBlanc conveys the poverty without ever pontificating. Her eye is objective, and the book is powerful. Here's an interview with LeBlanc.
I have to say, I wasn't terribly interested in the Oscars this year. First of all, I've seen none of the Best Picture contenders. I'm looking forward to seeing Lost in Translation, but the others, bleah. Master and Commander has several things going against it in my book: 1. Russell Crowe (ew); 2. Boat movie (they've been known to make me a wee motion sick); 3. Period piece. I just have know interest in the whole Lord of the Rings phenomenon. I know, I'm a disgrace, but I just. don't. care. Seabiscuit? Meh. Mystic River? From what I've read about it seems to have some serious holes. This was just such a crop of Man Movies. I don't mean to imply that I only like "chick flicks" (I hate that term), I don't, but I was just surprised by how much these movies revolve around men (minus Lost in Translation). In fact, I daresay that masculine friendship is the tie that bind the four together. In both the actress categories, out of ten nominees, only one came from one of the Best Picture nominees (Marcia Gay Harden for Mystic River). Frankly, I'm just glad the whole Oscar season is over.