Friday, January 28, 2011

Inception (2010)


This is a movie the trailers could not do justice.  The idea so grand and deep and original that it could never have been done without the technology we have.  The acting so stunning you never question the idea they are feeding you and that, after all, is the key ingredient.
        Leonardo DiCaprio plays Cobb, a thief who does his work by entering a shared dream with his victims and getting them to tell him their secrets by making the dream so real it fools their own memories.  But, this time, the secret is an idea and Cobb's job is to plant it so deeply within the subconscious of Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy) that he believes it to be his own.  In the meantime, Cobb is keeping his own secrets and his widow, Mal (Marion Cotillard) buried in his dreams.  Trouble is, her dark side keeps coming out to play inside the dreams while he is working. 
       You won't want to turn your eyes away from the intelligent action or the raw emotion of this film.  Brilliant.
      
      

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger



This book is anything but conventional.  Cowboys and Badlands, mixed with a 1960's small town sense of propriety, vernacular, and little boy hopes in such a delightful way that you'll want to read it out loud, word by precocious word.  In between the complicated characters, the unexpected miracles, and the suspense, you'll find a golden nugget of wisdom like, "Pride is the rope God allows us all."  Don't miss this one.

Friday, January 21, 2011

B Vitamins

Have you ever been so angry you wanted to reach through a phone and rip someone's throat out?  I mean, since the pubescent hormone rush?  You might have a vitamin B deficiency.  I know I do. 

Effects include:

emotional disturbances, aggression, mental confusion, weakness, acne, depression

I discovered this problem last year sometime when my temper raged to what I called "out of control".  Thankfully, I was controlling it.  I mean, I didn't hit anyone and this is good news, but it would rage up like a volcano and tingle through my limbs for very little cause.  I won't say I don't have stress in my life that could knock the breath out of someone else, but this is my normal level.  It didn't make sense to feel such anger.  Just as it doesn't make sense now...what makes even less sense is to be aware of this as a recurring problem, have the B-vitamin complex in the medicine cabinet and NOT take it everyday. 

Duh.

I took it this morning.  Let's see if I can get clear as quickly as last year.  As for the rest of the world, I'm pretty sure there are some world leaders and homeowner's association presidents with the same issue.  Maybe we should all be taking a chill pill.

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Flipper


Tonight, my throat a little sore from the remnant cold, I scanned through Netflix to find a half-hour of something to wind the kids down in lieu of a bedtime story.  Does anyone remember what year children on television STOPPED being polite to parents?  I'm thinking about banning all TV after that year.  And when did they stop designing bathing suits as cute as the women on this show wore?  You know, the kind that give you some coverage so you can swim, but still allow you to look feminine.  Now, I can't really speak for content because my back was turned almost the whole time as I worked on another project, but my almost fourteen year old was on her way to bed because I chose to play "Flipper."  Half-way up the stairs, she stopped.  Then she sat down on the steps.  And before the end of the show, she was sitting on the couch with the five and three year olds wondering whether or not Flipper would be able to locate and recover the box of plasma desperately needed to rescue a little boy. 

That's good stuff.

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Take Me Home (Book 4 - Hearts of the Children Series)

I skipped the write up completely for book three...in fact, I read it in a day.  The author, Dean Hughes, suddenly stopped playing Trivial Pursuit and started writing his characters into some portions of history (just before my own birth) that have always interested me.  Personally, I think we, humanity, but the United States of American in particular are still living with the repercussions of the late 60's -- feminism, civil rights, Vietnam, etc. 

The other thing that held my attention past all of the poor editing (check page 166, Book 3, and pay attention to the character who changes sex from male to female to male all in a few paragraphs... seriously?), is that one of Dean Hughes characters became me.  She's a girl who got married very young and, even though my looks have never been at the forefront of my personal image (I'm more of a book worm than that), I too found myself in with a marriage partner I feared the first time around.  For Diana, the fear kept growing and she grew more and more conscious of it.  She asked questions earlier, of her family, how marriage should work.  Are there arguements?  Do husbands use their Priesthood to have the final say?  Luckily for Diana, she has a mother who could talk to her about unrighteous dominion very early on.  Somehow, I was hoping she would work past the justifications and excuses and self-blame that I put myself through a little more quickly...so I kept reading.  Faster and faster through Vietnam and the Peace Corps and the awful conditions of prisoners of the East German GPR to see what her choice would be. 

Would I have gotten out sooner if my mother had ever said to me, "Beckie, I tell all of your Bishops to watch out for you and keep you safe.  I know nothing is as perfect as he makes it out to be."

And now, I've reached a point where I have to stop for a minute and just get it out.  Diana's husband just beat her and she got out, finally.  Though not to the hospital.  Not to the police.  Why is there so much shame in being beaten by someone who promised to love and protect you?  Guess where Greg went?  That's right.  To the Bishop.  And he's so damned sorry.  He's so heartbroken and loves her and their baby so much. And guess what the Bishop has done?  Called and convinced Diana "not to throw away their eternal family."

...

All I can think of is the first time I actually reported the abuse to a Bishop.  My ex had hit our oldest daughter so hard that she bled and had a bruise on her face.  She wasn't even two years old.  I didn't take so many pictures back then.  Heaven, he was so sorry.  He would never do anything like that again.  He promised.  And the Bishop?  He sent us for counseling.  US.  Because we needed it.  Because we had obviously provoked his temper for such a thing to happen and needed to behave differently in the future.  Of course, the husband was wrong to do that.  But, he was under so much stress from school and work and... guess how many times he went to the counselor the first time?  Three times.  He was so idyllic as a man/father/husband the counselor couldn't see why we were there.  I was so lucky to have him and the new baby on the way.  And I couldn't leave.  How was I supposed to leave with my belly so huge I couldn't see my toes?  And how was I supposed to keep my daughter from his anger except to be perfect and keep a perfect house?  It was, after all, the imperfections that MADE him lose his temper.

...

I don't know where Mr. Hughes is taking this portion of the story.  But, this is my thank you note, that he has written about it at all.  So many of the times Diana asked questions about discordance in a marriage, everyone gave her the general "we all argue", "marriage isn't perfect", "YOU have to talk to your husband so he knows how to treat you."  Guess what ladies and gentlemen?  These answers are not always enough.  You never know someone until AFTER you are married to them and that is nothing to be ashamed about.  Some things shouldn't be kept private and people who are being approached for counsel really need to be open to guidance instead of just relying on their own experience when they give it. 

And, P.S...An ecclesiastical leader is NOT always the best person to go to for advice on what is best inside your marriage.

Now that I've cried it out.  I'm going to attempt to get through this.  I am praying it doesn't take Diana the nine years it took me to get out.

Friday, January 14, 2011

Stability

Yesterday, I watched a National Geographic documentary on Magma and, basically, there is none.  Humans try to make it out like we can get some.  Even Machiavelli wrote something about the same types of people living today as throughout history.  But, you can't walk into a job, clock in everyday on time, get along with others, work hard at doing well, and just expect the job to be there at the end of the day because it is at the end of the day when it always happens.  The boss calls you in after you're too tired to go postal (not that anyone else is there to loose your sanity on by then) and tells you that you aren't enough.  Some part of something you do is just not what they were hoping for.  But they never communicate what they ARE hoping for to you BEFORE "letting you go".  It's like a whole generation of people made to study communication and interpersonal relations who think that was all just for the grade in college.  Or, maybe it isn't you.  And it isn't them.  It's just this damned economy.

So, here's what I'd like to say to the principal who just cut my husband's class load, effectively making him a part time teacher... You have made a mistake.  You looked at the Algebra book and only saw the students are "behind' instead of seeing how far they've come since the new guy plugged in.  Did you remember that he IS the new guy?  Did you remember that your bf you paid to come from out of the country wasn't even a licensed teacher and had to be deported when he lost his work visa?  Did you remember that your students lost THREE WEEKS of algebraic instruction while you looked for the right man for the job.  And when you found him, you let him flail there, mid-semester, without so much as giving him the copy code for the office printer or a handshake of welcome.  Did you recognize the relationships he's developing with the students in his class?  Did you see him learn how to help the autistic girl participate instead of sitting in the corner?  Did you notice he enriched the ESL student who speaks English by recognizing his inability to READ it and taking the time to administer his tests VERBALLY so this student would no longer fail?  No.  And it is a mistake on your part.

A mistake that may cost us another bump in our financial plan, but will cost your school a fantastic physics teacher.  Principals, like magma, have the power to reshape the way a school runs.  Little wonder your other teachers believe you are preparing to destroy it.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

The City of Your Final Destination (2009)


This movie was both a visual and an auditory delight.  Family interruptions meant it took me three days to complete it, but I couldn't help but come back to it and I honestly can't wait to read the book (does anyone have it?!)

There is something slow and simple here that invites you to wander around Uruguay and really fall in love with the people.  Not because they are dazzling, extraordinary, or seductive, but because they are people living their lives in the way they chose.  The intriguing thing about the characters is they know they are odd (or believe themselves to be.)  How many wives allow their husband's mistress to come home and live with them like a "stray, pregnant kitty"?  How many homosexual men have an openly dedicated and loving relationship for 25 years when the lovers are decades apart in age?  They are languishing after the suicide of husband and brother, Jules Gund.  Almost as if they are afraid to leave their haven where they live without judgement from each other until a doctoral student comes begging to write the biography.  What sort of indignation will they receive from the world?  Possibly less than they are giving themselves living in such close quarters with each other.

Omar shakes things up in his own quiet way.  His curiosity for the author becomes an admiration for his loved ones and his life is forever changed by his visit to Uruguay.  Living his well-planned out, conventional life -- without passion for the woman he lives with or the career he pursues becomes a terribly bleak prospect in comparison to the Gund's.

Oh! And the soundtrack...gentle, bittersweet...loved it.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Friends with Money (2006)


Don't be fooled by the cover -- these four long-time girlfriends never smile like this.  "Friends with Money" is the kind of movie that, married or single, will help you feel better about your own life.  That is, IF you are willing to wade through all of the crap.  Garbage dump language and meaningless sex scenes (thank heaven for a skip feature) are just the first inch of pitfalls found here.  Marriages and life after forty are boring and angry.  The only things that light any fires are the pokes taken at straight men mistaken for gay because of their sensitivity and/or fashion sense and the indictment of the elitist system of wasteful fundraiser party spending as a middle man to those in need.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Lions for Lambs (2007)


So many of us go to the movies to be entertained - to escape from the daily monotony - to believe the underdog can taste victory in the end - to watch sexy just happen or romance spark to life in an hour and a half because it takes so much effort in real time.  As a majority, we don't go to learn or think or question ourselves.  This may be why this movie received such terrible reviews.  It may also be why it earned so little money in the US, while garnering greater profits internationally. 

Carnahan's thought provoking screenplay does not give a viewer any satisfactory answers to the predicament we find ourselves with the current war extending from Iraq to Afghanistan, but it raises many brave questions, pointing such a broad finger, that the only answers you may discover after watching it will be within yourself.  Carnahan's inspiration was drawn from his own apathy over a new's report of drowned US soldiers.  He was stunned by his own response and wrote this to ask the questions out loud that all of us should be asking.

Robert Redford directs the action of the film as well as starring in it along with Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise.  While the "action" of the film is limited to a few midnight battle scenes, the words spoken by each character pack a powerful punch.  One critic said this film feels more like a "parental chiding," but, I must say that no child who is in the wrong ever likes the correction.  Have we found ourselves, so quickly repeating history that we, the people, are determined to be apathetic toward the current political policy because the opposing voices of the sixties became too violent.  Is there no middle ground?  Is there not a place where we can agree to disagree?  How many children don't even care about their educations anymore because their parents have decided the cost of contention, of voicing an opinion or standing your ground is too great. 

This film is not pushing for "peace at any price."  But it asks the price of closing your eyes to those who would lead us for their own pride or purposes rather than the good of all.  It is difficult to know the heart of a man when you stand in the voting booth, especially if you do not know you own heart.  The final words of the film still echo... "Do you know what you are going to get?"  Do you?  Do you know with a certainty what your life will be?  Will you engage?  Or will you remain on autopilot?

Monday, January 3, 2011

The Crucible


Daniel Day-Lewis, plays John Proctor, a man not exactly unified to the church and living in Salem, Massachusetts when that was a dangerous business (moreso, after having an affair with a young servant woman living on their farm).  His wife sends her away to work elsewhere and sets the wheels in motion for something no one in the community imagined.  It is one thing to wish for the death of the wife of the man you tell yourself you love, but Winona Ryder's character, Abigail Williams finds herself covering her own tracks by pointing the finger at others.

Watching the townspeople's response to their suddenly crazed daughters was almost other worldly to me.  Had these very pious adults worked so hard at seperating themselves from their own natures that they couldn't recognize a power trip to the extreme when it was directly in front of them?  Odd, unexplainable behavior had to be the devil -- there was no way on this earth that their angelic daughters could be anything but innocent!  Really?  The sad irony is that this happens still today.  I know because I am usually the Witch.  I am just odd enough to be "not exactly unified" with any one particular belief system or cultural norm.

A crucible is a container used to heat metal to high temperatures in the act of refining it before shaping it.  The Salem Witch trials were a refiner's fire the likes of which, I hope are never seen again.  But, they may be.  When it comes, I'd like to be John Proctor, unwilling to yield my integrity to the fevered masses to save my own life.