Intolerable Cruelty

Went to see Intolerable Cruelty (Coen brothers, George Clooney, Catherine Zeta-Jones) tonight with mom and the boy. Highly, highly enjoyable movie. Do I sound pretentious when I say I'd recommend it to anyone?

Anyway, it's absolutely hilarious. I think it would have been categorized as a romantic comedy back in the forties, but everyone now thinks romantic comedies are horribly bad chick flicks. And did I mention it's absolutely hilarious? It's got a true battle of the sexes going on, with neither side really giving in, divorce, cheating husbands, legal maneuvers, and George Clooney.

When George Clooney first quit ER to go into the movies, I laughed. Hated his character in ER, never got why he was in all the magazines. And now this, plus glimpses in Ocean's Eleven and O Brother Where Art Thou, makes me think he really has that movie star bit that everyone attributed to Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart. Him and Ewan McGregor are now on my list of people to watch. And Johnny Depp, of course, but Johnny Depp isn't quite a movie star star. I am still sitting on the couch chuckling to myself because of him. I like the little things, like how right after he wakes up from a nightmare, he checks his teeth with his tongue. It makes more sense after the movie.

And Catherine Zeta-Jones perfectly holds her own, although for the first bits watching her, I kept thinking... "it's Velma! Velma!"

My movie review is getting quite incoherent, oh well. But it was just a smart, funny movie, with an excellent buildup and an absolutely insane break-in scene that had me rolling in my seat. And George Clooney, a mass of tics and suaveness rolled into one, plus a man desperately, madly in love, and Catherine Zeta-Jones, as cool as you can be in contrast.

Go see so I can talk about it without spoiling anything! ;)

The things that make me happy: books and food

Was rather irked after work today because the coordinator phoned in yesterday after I left, saying she couldn't come, meaning I had to be coordinator today. Of course, I only found this out the second I walked in. Ick. I dislike coordinating... involves too much smalltalk and organizing for me. Although there are some nice people... But then there are very strange or pissy people too. We have a system in which the people have to come back to pick up the books we can't take, because we get so many that they would just pile up if we didn't. And some people are not so nice about coming back today. It's like the vegetarian option at Charter, which we were only supposed to serve to vegetarians, but all the meat-eating people would want it if it was something like lasagna.

Anyhow. So was in a rather grumpy mood after work. Plus, I had to be on my feet all day hauling books around, so I physically hurt too. But then went out for real Chinese food at one of those Hong Kong style Chinese seafood places with my mom, Lin Ah-yi and the boy. Yum. Had shrimp with heads, winter melon soup, shr ban fish, tofu in XO sauce, and bean leaves. Very good. And now I am still basking in the happiness of a good meal.

( Freedom & Necessity )

This makes me think about books and why my reviews are always so incoherent and emotional. I think, in the end, that's why I read. It's always amazed me and frustrated me and frightened me that every moment in my life is unique and that it all passes so quickly. As if: every moment, I can think and try to remember the feeling of the moment, but in the end, it will still fade into memory, and it will never be that moment again. Yet, with books, I can make it that moment again. I can turn the pages back, or forward, skip to parts, and it will always be that moment. Because of this, reading books is not simply making my brain work, since most of the time I don't look for that. Reading books, esp. rereading, is a means of evoking an emotion, and it's the most trustworthy way of doing that for me. So I read Robin McKinley and LM Montgomery when I want to feel warm and fuzzy and homey, Sandman when I want something larger, the Fionavar Tapestry for sacrifice and nobility, Daughter of the Forest for romance, etc. And no matter how well a book is written, if it doesn't evoke emotions that I want to feel again, I'm much less inclined to remember it or want to pick it up again.

So my list of favorites isn't the list of books that I think are the technically best books, but the ones that I want to visit and revisit. Of course, that doesn't mean one simply reads all sorts of dreck, because it takes skill and a certain mastery of language to get that emotional reaction. Plus, thanks to English class, I can't get into a book enough to become emotionally involved if it's too poorly done. Yet, in the end, like for most things (music, movies), I rely on the gut feeling. So while I admire movies like Shine and the artsy movie and I'll watch them in theaters, in the end, I buy Moulin Rouge and Chicken Run because they make me happy on some fundamental level.

Of course, my yardstick for happy feelings is very different than other people's, as I find Neon Genesis Evangelion and Sandman and Nightmare Before Christmas uplifting.

Links:
- rilina's Freedom and Necessity

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And am now going to scream in absolute frustration because apparently Neil Gaiman is in San Jose right now and did a reading yesterday, and I knew nothing about it and it's only twenty minutes away from here. ARGH! I missed a chance to see NEIL GAIMAN! (pardon the gratuitous caps)

Grrr. Argh.