June 02, 2004 - 3:50 AM

Delighted, Disappointed, Divided

Delighted: Mean Girls- a smartly funny movie about teenagerdom and high school, but not expressly for teenagers like many of these teenybopper movies featuring your Hilary Duff's and Frankie Muniz's. Sharp, imaginative, it reflects the horrors of high school for all of us who went through it with a funhouse mirror, but it still keeps the players human, a factor that is often lacking in these teen movies. Tim Meadows finally gets his first good part since...well...ever.

Disappointed: A Wrinkle In Time - ABC/Wonderful World of Disney made a tv movie of the Madeleine L'Engle book several years back and let it sit on the shelf for quite some time before finally airing it in May. They probably should have left it on the shelf, or at least worked on it some more. They crunched what should have been at least a two-day, four hour movie into 3 hours and whoosed through a lot of story/suspense/development. I did like the first hour or so, but then the truncations of story became more noticeable, and then they got to the controlled planet, and the sets looked not so convincing, and the kid who wasn't supposed to be bouncing the ball in rhythm was actually doing moves like a Harlem Globetrotter instead of dribbling like a spaz with no skills which is how I remember it being in the book. And don't get me started on the blind wookies that they meet on the ice planet. Meg and Charles Wallace were good (was Meg too pretty?), Sandy and Dennys were too young, Calvin wasn't tall and jock/cool enough, and my poor Kyle Secor just wasn't menacing enough.

Divided: The DaVinci Code - It seems like everyone is reading or has just read this book. There's a lot of gushing going on about it, about the paintings that play significant roles in the story, and the theories and historical interpretations that drive the plot forward. I agree that much of these fact-based (or fact questionable) items are intriguing, but the writing itself and the story left me a little empty. As I read (and most of my reading took place in the Jury Duty Waiting room), I was struck by how much the writing style reminded me of Michael Crichton's: popcorn thriller with lots of MSG suspense, and crammed full of well-researched facts that are revealed in clumsy, showy, ham-fisted flourishes.

Specifically, I kept referencing in my memory the book Rising Sun because, like TDC, it had to reveal a lot of real background information that the lay-reader would probably not know but was essential to the story, and it laid it out in what I would call a lazy, convenient manner. In Rising Sun, the older character with all the know-how on Japanese customs and relations served as the personal encyclopedia to the younger cop who was charged with solving the main murder; whenever new clues or bits of information were needed to get the reader up to speed, invariably, Encyclopedia Brown would say to the younger cop "younger cop, have you heard about 'x'? No? Well let me tell you." And he would go into a 3 page monologue about the proper bowing customs between Japanese businessmen who dealt in microchips and sake and fuzzy slippers or something. Every damn time, this maddening narrative device was used, and it became very annoying.

Well, in TDC, something similar pops up where all the necessary chunks of information that will enlighten the readers (as well as the uninformed characters) are dropped ever so conveniently in nice, neat morsels that don't paint the full picture, but give JUST enough of a palette to get us to the next chapter. Dan Brown, who I assume is Encyclopedia Brown's brother, uses this method of relaying information between characters over and over again, just like Crichton. C'mon. If it's a matter of life and death, you don't tease the person with whom you are trying to figure out the murder with scraps of information as if you were a 10 year old dancing around them saying "I know something that you don't" in a sing-songy voice. You tell 'em what's what, give them the jist, and if they have questions, fill in the holes.

I understand that in puzzle-murder-mysteries, the author must use whatever tricks s/he has up his/her sleeves to leave a trail for the reader to follow without giving it all away until the end, but TDC just didn't do it well, in my opinion. It stretched the mysteries and backstories out way too long, and kept adding new twists and tricks to the mix as if the author was coming up with them on the fly and didn't have the facility to say "enough". I kept reading to find out what would happen next, but it was exasperating to have a "devilish" new turn pop up every chapter (and dude, there are over 120 chapters). There's a not-so-thin line between clever-cool and exhausting show-off; you crossed it, Brown.

The other book that I thought of while reading TDC was my favorite book of all time, Ellen Raskin's The Westing Game, a far superior, fully engaging puzzle-mystery. TDC just pales in comparison.

One thing I found interesting was that much of the history revealed about the Christian church, and it's co-opting of pagan religions as well as the de-feminization of the world, was stuff that I had learned several years ago from my own Art History teacher at Berklee, a Scottish (Catholic) gentleman by the name of Henry Tate. While the topics were not on the syllabus, Tate enjoyed regaling us with the stories of the Churches tactics and schemes that brought their own male-centric values to the fore.

Delighted: Super Size Me- documentary film from director Morgan Spurlock that is very Michael Moore-ian in that he is as much the star as the story/issues are. Lots of humor, especially when the stupidity of the average American is brought front and center; some thought-provoking realizations, and overall good entertainment. It doesn't really attack the fast-food chains for serving unhealthy foods to the public, perhaps allowing that it's the individual's prerogative to make the choice about what he or she eats, but the one issue that it does shake it's finger at is the practice of indoctrinating new customers when they are young via the playgrounds and kids meals. You go very easily where the filmmaker wants you to go, and that segment stuck out in my mind as the one part of the movie that really got my dander up about the damn corporations.

Disappointed: Arizona Diamondbacks vs. L.A. Dodgers last Friday at Dodger Stadium- because Randy Johnson was pitching, and he didn't either pitch a perfect game or kill a bird. For shame, Randy. For shame.

Divided: Bubba Ho Tep- Buddy picture, character study, slapstick horror melange featuring Bruce "Evil Dead" Campbell. It wasn't the camp-schlock horrorfest that I was expecting, but instead, something smaller, more intimate, and surprisingly touching. There was a sadness, a resignation to death and madness, that gave the characters a quieter gravity. I wasn't prepared for that, and thus found it lacking...I wanted more comedic horror and action. But get those expectations out of the way, it's a good movie. Takes care of its business. And Bruce is dandy as Elvis Presley.

Delighted: Snow Patrol show last month - These boys from Scotland have their rockstar moves down, and it's much fun to watch them do their thing on stage. It's not insufferable preening or posing, though; it's a bit tongue-in-cheek, a bit earnest, but not full of itself. And their tunes are infectious. The opener, UK gal Carina Round, lived up to the critic's comparisons to PJ Harvey in voice, songs, and presentation; the strong, take-no-shit attitude mixed with a sultry feminine vibe that poured forth from her as she strutted and stamped around the stage in heels and a black dress. Matt and I agreed that there were also elements of Chrissie Hynde and Siouxsie Sioux in her.

Disappointed: Jury Duty - not so much the fact that I had Jury Duty, but the fact that I didn't get to experience real Jury Duty. All I did was wait around for 9 hours until they told us they didn't need us anymore. I've never had Jury Duty before (although I was called to serve once, but that was right after I had left Amherst College, and I was able to note on the reply card that I was not a resident of Massachusetts and therefore could not serve), and I am a bit curious as to what it would be like to fulfill my civic obligations of sitting in a courtroom and deciding the fate of a defendant. Maybe next year.

Divided: Needing You, a Hong Kong romantic comedy from a few years back that we got through Netflix. The producer/director team of Johnny To and Wai Ka Fai has done some visionary stuff with the Hong Kong triad/police action drama genre, and I'd read that this sidestep into fluffy romcom by them was just as brilliantly executed. While it was funny and very cute, it wasn't as over-the-top great as I was hoping it would be. I'd still recommend it to those of you who like quirky comedies because, really, it's better than a lot of the saccharine chick-flicks that Hollywood churns out. Plus, the whole asian factor brings its own charm and hilarity to the mix, even though, sometimes, the humor and situations just don't translate to an english-speaking audience.

Delighted: The 8th grade teacher for whom I subbed 3 days in a row two weeks ago read my report on what the class accomplished and how they behaved, was unhappy with their mistreatment of me, and had them all (except for the one section that was good) write me apology letters. Eat that, you suckers!

Disappointed: 5 Year reunion, Amherst College class of '99- It was this past Memorial day weekend back at Amherst, but I didn't go. I was seriously considering it, even up until Thursday. I'd been receiving letters and emails from the class officers, updates about the activity schedule and the fees and the panels- they had one panel that I considered volunteering to take part in about making sacrifices to live out your dream, and looking at the people who ended up on the panel (an aspiring screenwriter, a filmmaker, an adventurer, a singer-songwriter among others), I think I would have fit in very nicely. Most of what kept me from going was finances (plane trip, lodging, fees), but part of me wondered if there'd be any memories for me to relive from the one and a half years I spent there. Maybe the ten year reunion.

Divided: The Like show last night at Spaceland in Silverlake. The girls were great as usual, I picked up their latest EP finally, and the sound wasn't head-exploding. However, the show was lacking the goofiness that I've found endearing at their previous gigs, and the audience members jostling around directly in front of Matt and me was distracting. They were friends and family and hardcore fans of the band, which is ok, but they took to dancing really badly to the music (yes there is such a thing as bad dancing, and white rock'n'roll hip kidz tend to know how to do it better than anyone else). It was distractingly bad. And they kept bumping into the people around them, which just isn't good manners.

Now Listening To : Frou Frou-Details
Random Thought : Arrested Development's season finale finally airs this Sunday at 8:30 PM.

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