Calvina Hobbes

I had a full week of family visiting (so much family!), which meant I got almost nothing done except playing host. It was really exhausting, and I've been recuperating with movies and a good book since.

This week I managed to watch a few movies. The first one was Mr. Holmes, which is now on Netflix, which was a very nice little movie that I felt stuck together surprisingly well (surprisingly because it seemed so shaky at times). I'm not sure the ending was right, but I'm not complaining because I very much needed it. I was also surprised by how well it seemed to understand the Sherlock Holmes mythos and respect it while still doing interesting modern things with the canon.

I finally watched Logan (I rented it on AppleTV, such are the times), and it was really good. I feel like it might be up there with the first Iron Man movie, for me? I can't remember the last time I've seen such a well-developed emotional arc in any movie, much less a superhero movie. I mean, as a dark AU it is really good, but I wholeheartedly reject it as canon because that would just be too disgustingly sad an ending for the original X-Men.

I also tried watching Suicide Squad because it was also on Netflix, but it was incredibly boring once all the shooting started (so much shooting?). I don't understand why they picked THAT villain, and I don't understand why they thought they needed such a gigantic set of characters, and I don't understand how anyone could misconstrue Harley Quinn so thoroughly - having grown up on The Animated Series has really ruined me for all other bat franchises.

I am excited about all the new trailers coming out: A Wrinkle In Time (guess I gotta read that book finally), The Shape of Water (unreasonably excited by the one second appearance of David Hewlett in this apparent Abe Sapien prequel!)...

I am also really hopeful about HBO turning Nnedi Okorafor's Who Fears Death into a tv show. When I first read the news I went and got the book off my TBR shelf, where it has been hanging out for a while now, and then the weirdest thing happened: my mom started reading it! So now I have to wait for her to finish it?!?!

Meanwhile I myself am reading Possession by Antonia Byatt, and I love it a lot. Reading Young Romantics re-kindled my urge to get to it - this always happens when I read non-fiction; it just makes me want to read other things! Possession is an incredible feat, made up of lots of pastiche Victorian poetry by two made-up authors and it has no right to work but it just does, and the plot is even exciting.

I've also finished Catching Fire and The Tennant of Wildfell Hall, but it's so long ago that I feel dumb writing about them now. I did write reviews of both on goodreads. I still feel weird about how much I enjoy Suzanne Collins' writing - it's just so easy to get into, and Katniss is such a great protagonist not least for how aro ace she is, especially here in book 2.

I had to go to Copenhagen for a couple of days for work, and lysanatt very graciously put up Fluffy and me. I was hoping to stay until Saturday, but then Fluffy got a tick-related rash on Thursday and I felt like I had to get it checked out before the weekend. So after finishing up early yesterday, we drove back home and went to the vet. Thankfully lysanatt and oneiriad had a date to go to a concert on Thursday, and we managed to eat sushi/pizza with blnchflr before they went off. Blnchflr and I took Fluffy for a walk before she left, but poor pupper was so tired from catching Pokemon with Lýsa that he just had to be carried home... I'm sad I didn't get to stay and hang out, especially considering how I missed all the fun last weekend with dancing_serpent, but I'm glad we at least got to hang out. And it was so nice to have Lýsa to defrief with after work every day.

The vet visit was okay. I tried to get J to come with us, but she had a reception to go to, so we ended up going alone. The nurse had booked us into a double slot, which meant technically there wasn't any time, but she wanted to make sure the vet saw us before the weekend - which was so nice of her! Fluffy does not like the vet's office by now - he has been poked with sharp needles far too many times - so I went in alone to ask about the wait time, leaving him in the car. He took that surprisingly well (maybe his thought process was, "Oh good, it's mom who has to be tortured this time, I'll just wait here"), and the nurse in the reception suggested we wait in their grass enclosure behind the building. I had been prescient enough to bring toys, and we ended up waiting for half an hour, but Fluffy was having the best time playing fetch. The vet came outside himself to get us, and I literally just put Fluffy on his leash and ran him inside and then scooped him up and put him on the exam table before he realized what was happening XD The vet cleaned the tick bite and put him on a short course of penicillin, and we were out again in 7 minutes where the nurse had chicken treats which Fluffy actually deigned to eat (usually he will not eat any treats in the vet's office). Also it ended up being only ~700DKR! I had been joking it would be 1k for the rush, but no! Also while in there the vet said that based on the tiny size of Fluffy's nads, the chemical castration is still in effect - 13 months after the injection, which was said to last only 6! Value for my money!

I was so tired last night, though. Luckily I found some food in the freezer, and then I crashed for over an hour and woke up super grumpy without any candy in the house. So after walking Fluffy for the night, I felt like such a grease-bag as I literally took the car to the supermarket and bought soda, icecream, Pringles and chocolate (and milk for my morning coffee). I totally deserved it! But I was also deeply grateful for the self-checkout >_> I came home and ended up watching Mrs. Doubtfire on Netflix.

I am so glad Mrs. Doubtfire is on Netflix and that I got to watch it yet again. It's such an odd movie, but I love it. I don't love all the horrible slap-stick and embarrassment humor, but I just love that Mrs. Doubtfire is so awesome at everything? I love that she is much better at organising and being authoritative than Daniel is. I remember watching this movie dozens of times as a kid, and of course the fascination was the gender aspects even before I understood much about that. I love how Daniel's brother is gay, and although his relationship with his husband is as despairingly sexless as you'd expect of a 90s movie (they literally hip bump when they ought to kiss), I still think one of the best lines is when Daniel shows up at his house and says, "Can you make me a woman?" and his make-up artist brother just goes "Oh, honey, I'm so happy!" I know everything is played for laughs, and that it's supposed to be grotesque and maybe I've just watched it too young to pick up on all the awful, but I never think any of it is overly judgmental? I love how Mrs. Doubtfire is so admired by the busdriver! I love how she plays soccer in heels, and how she does a sexy dance when she is vacuuming all alone.

While driving home yesterday I also finished The Golden Compass. This is the third time I read this book. In the past it has always been a slow read, but this time I think it went fast. I switched between listening to the audiobook version and reading the Everyman's Library omnibus edition. The audiobook is made with a full cast and narrated by Philip Pullmann, which he does impressively well - he is just as good as any professional narrator, but then it's probably easier for him because he doesn't have to do the voices! I enjoyed it as much as the last two times around, but I'm still left with a feeling like I don't quite get the ending, Lord Asriel's explanation of Dust/experience/sin/Tree of Knowledge and the conversation between Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter (and the seemingly very contradictory behavior of their daemons?). Still, the world building is amazing, and Lyra is one of the strongest characters in any work of fiction I've read. I wasn't expecting it to go this fast, but since it's going so well, I might as well continue with The Subtle Knife and just see how far I get.

I watched Inside Out because it was finally on Netflix, and it was cute as hell. I really like that the story is about an 11-year-old girl and what goes on in her brain because it really centers how human she is.

My co-worker recommended I watch Please Like Me, and so I had a look last Friday after work. It is a sweet comedy-ish show from Australia about a 20-year-old guy who kind of stumbles involuntarily out of the closet (with no ill effects, which is part of what makes it funny). He is super awkward and a bit of a human disaster. The -ish part comes from how he has to move back home to take care of his mother who has a depression (and attemps suicide in episode 1)... The contrast between how his sexuality and her mental illness is handled is really clear, though. There are no jokes about "crazy people" or self-harm, whereas there's quite a few about gay sex. If you're in the mood for some slightly indie comedy, you should give it a try.

I've also seen the first four episodes of Tom Hardy's new show Taboo, which is set in the 1770s and centers on Hardy's character who returns to England from America by way of Africa, having been presumed dead for ten years. His father has died and left him sole heir of a politically significant trading post in North America, and the East India Company is out to get him. Aesthetically it has a lot in common with Penny Dreadful, but I would say that James Delaney is even more of an antihero than the main cast of PD (yes, really). He seems hellbent on getting his own way, killing people, threatening those around him, and he has a classically Gothic relationship to his half-sister, played by Oona Chaplin. There are only 8 episodes, which I hope will be a good length for this show.

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Hildegard by Annelise Marstrand-Jørgensen

For this quick and dirty round of Winter Book Club, I picked Hildegard, which is a novel I've been wanting to read ever since it first came out in 2009. It has only been published in Danish so far. It is about Hildegard of Bingen, and is the first in a two-volume duology.

The premise of the book club is that we read the first chapter and then post our reactions and invite discussion.

( Cut for thoughts about chapter 1 )

I was suddenly at a point when I actually had time to go see a movie, and it turned out Civil War was already gone from my local cinema, and Deadpool and Zootopia were both already pre-orders on iTunes. Man, this spring just flew right past me.

Anyway, I was honestly not expecting Deadpool to be that R-rated, but shows what I know. I didn't find it laugh-out-loud funny, but maybe that was because of my period or because I think I've seen every joke in gif-form on tumblr. There was still a slew of meta references that were very amusing, and I think I liked how the female characters were treated. I thought the ending worked quite well - I'd just listened to PCHH's discussion of super villains, and I really liked how "low" and personal the stakes were. But it also made me kind of sad because clearly Wade just imagined Vanessa all along. But gosh what a perfect, cute, hot, sweet couple! Also I love Ryan Reynolds so this was a Good Movie for me. Ahem. I don't know how well it will hold up on a re-watch, but right now I feel like this is the true heir to the first Iron Man movie. In conclusion: why is AO3 coming up all Spideypool, no offence I usually enjoy that, but now I want something else.

And then I watched Zootopia as well, and that was just great! I can't believe how great that was, but I can believe how much I liked it, seeing as it is an entire buddy cop movie, and I LOVE those, especially when they do it like this one did! Also, that is the most beautiful Disney movie I've seen in a while, they really outdid themselves. And it looks like the fic for this is ridiculously good? At least at a first glance. OMG :3 (I really should get around to watching Inside Out, I can't believe I've neglected to do that for this long.)

There are so many movies coming out this summer, and I've tried to promise myself to actually watch them in a movie theater. Priorities: Ghostbusters, Finding Dory. Maybies: Independence Day 2, Suicide Squad.

I finished Jessica Jones. It is an agonizing television show about alcoholism, survivorship, rape, domestic abuse, manipulation, violence, torture, and terrifying sociopathy. But you will notice how it says "about" not just "with". Although these are the themes of the show, it starts after Jessica's rape and never sinks to showing it or treating it as anything less than the life-altering trauma it was. It's a difficult show to watch, but it was never impossible for me, because it was clear all along that the showrunners only ever worked hard to show Kilgrave as a terrifying abuser and Jessica as a survivor. I watched it slowly when I had the mental fortitude to take it in, and I wish there was much more television like it. Recommended read: Toxic Masculinity in Jessica Jones by Edeline Wrigh at TheMarySue (spoilers, natch).

I also watched the BBC mini-series London Spy, which is about Ben Whishaw playing a young gay guy who is embroiled in a scary case of international espionage. Or something. It started out so well, with Ben acting his ass off - he is always amazing, but he is really given free reign here, and he is incredible to watch. But I found the last episode to be pretty unsatisfying, although perhaps not surprising, given the gist of the plot. Still, I highly recommend it for Ben Whishaw's acting, and the way this is an honest-to-dog example of a story WITH a gay character but not ABOUT him being gay. There's even, gasp, actual queer community and friendship in it! Still, not a happy show at all, so bring Kleenex.

And then on Saturday I went to the movies to see In the Heart of the Sea with themuller13 (this is the second time we hang out, yay new fannish people). I had barely even heard of it, but it is a story of the story that Herman Melville based Moby-Dick on. It is based on the 2000 National Book Award winner "In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex" by Nathaniel Philbrick. The movie features Chris Hemsworth as first-mate Chase who is the main character, Ben Whishaw as Herman Melville, Brendan Gleeson as the narrator, and also Cillian Murphy! Lots of fan favorites, and yet it sounds like a bit of a recipe for disaster, doesn't it - a dramatization of a non-fiction book about the background for Moby-fricken-Dick. The very pleasant surprise is that this is a genuinely good movie. The plot is perhaps not very surprising, given all that you expect of a seafaring drama, but it works. It's interesting to watch, not too long, not too short, not too gory, not too rosy. It's not doing anything new, but it doesn't have to, because it hits all the classic beats of narrative perfectly.

(That's one, oneiriad. Your turn ;) )

I went to veg on kabal42's couch. Mostly we spent a lot of time going to the cinema with blnchflr and oneiriad.

First we saw the National Theatre live streaming of Benedict Cumberbatch as Hamlet. Watch this space for Thoughts.

Then the next night we saw Crimson Peak. Again, Thoughts to follow.

Saturday we were joined by lysanatt as well. Kabal made delicious, delicious korma for us and we watched a surprising number of vids, but mostly I am pleased that I got to pitch the Hamilton musical to a captive audience.

( Vidlist )

I completely forgot to mention that before I read A Hero at the End of the World the weather was moderately nice and nature was doing it's thing, and late spring/early summer always reminds me of L.M. Montgomery's lush nature descriptions. I had this jittering urge to re-read The Blue Castle. I felt like I had only read it last year, but when I went back through my books tag it turned out it was actually 3 years ago! High time for a re-read. ( Spoilers )

I haven't been watching a lot of stuff, and it's oddly been mostly non-SFF stuff. I heard a lot of good stuff about Catastrophe, which is an Amazon comedy mini-series about an American man and an Irish woman living in London, who hook up there. She ends up pregnant and he decides to move to the UK to help her, and they haphazardly become an expecting couple. For a show about straight people making babies I enjoyed it quite a bit. Both of the main characters are engaging (the guy is a lumbering clueless American, and the lady is sharp and acerbic and neurotic and gr8), and their various exploits were mostly candid without being embarrassing. I'll definitely check out s2 when it comes out.

I also watched Camp X-Ray because of my Kristen Stewart crush. It's about a young soldier who takes a turn as a guard in Guantanamo and becomes friends with one of the prisoners. It's sadly not a movie about how hot KStew is (but nngh the way she chose to walk), but happily it's also not about a female soldier. She does experience harassment, but the story is never an Issues film, and her connection with Ali really transcends attraction and romance. It's a frank movie, without being too bleak, but it also falls just short of being really emotionally engaging. I understand why KStew chose this project, and I wish there were many more productions like this where women got to play diverse female roles that aren't specifically about The Female Experience but just the Human Condition.

I have Internet! OMG that was a long hard dry spell D: And just in time for work starting back up on Thursday, siiigh.

Annie On My Mind. This was the AfterEllen bookclub executive choice for July, marking the passing of Nancy Garden earlier this summer. It's a classic, so I decided to join in. It's a young adult novel from 1982, and while it is still fresh in a lot of ways, I think it showed? Mostly in the pacing and in the adversary characters' view on homosexuality - despite the happy ending, there is a lot of Gay Tragedy in this book. Or threat of gay tragedy. Or fear of gay tragedy. Or something. Something that doesn't really make it a happy read as such. It has a very angsty teenage feel, which didn't groove with me. I wanted to care about Liza and Annie's relationship, but they never really burned through for me - I kept sighing for the same basic plot only with characters I knew better. If someone rewrote it as fic AU I think I would enjoy it much more. All in all, I'm glad I finished it, because it wasn't a bad book and now I can ticky that box on the queer questionnaire.

Wilby Wonderful. This really deserves more mention than I can give it by now. I watched this immediately after blnchflr came to visit at my old place, and I loved it so much I was incoherent with it. I texted both blnchflr and exeterlinden like, "NEED FIC ASAP!" as soon as the credits were rolling. I love the atmosphere of this, I love the understated way it develops the characters, I love the setting, I love the music. I can't believe I waited this long to see it, but at the same time I am so glad I got to watch this treat and thoroughly appreciate it. You know I love Ennis del Mar with a burning passion, so it will be no surprise to you that I was practically a weeping face-clawing mess over Dan Jarvis' lack of emoting. Callum Keith Rennie was so good, and as an extra special bonus it had a young Ellen Page! Really, this movie. This movie is so delightful.

The Hunger Games 1. I don't remember the title? It was on Netflix US, so I finally watched it. I think I would have liked it as a teenager, but I couldn't really get into it now. I think Katniss is interesting, for the way she's the primary caregiver of her younger sister, and for the way she insists on being bad at people. I also think her problem with Peeta is really interesting, in a very skeevy way. I think it's a cool exploration of the way the media will twist a story (or make a story), but I also think Peeta is really interesting for how he uses that story to manipulate Katniss while also realizing that he's just as caught as she is. I liked the world building, and I was shocked and appalled by their casting choice for Gale. I guess I'll watch movie 2 eventually.

12 Years a Slave. Everything I expected and more. It's just a Really Good Movie. Fassbender made a disgusting and pathetic character. Brad Pitt was uber boring. Cumberbatch was downright awful. Ejiofor was amazing, and Nyong'o was absolutely stunning. I did not expect so much from Patsey's role, so I was pleasantly surprised, if the word pleasant is at all applicable to that movie. I was pleased to get a chance to see it on the big screen first, and I definitely think I'll be re-watching it (and using it). I was so well-prepared that I only cried twice - at the Patsey scene, and at the ending.

Victor Victoria. I fully expected to love this. It's an entire movie about Julie Andrews crossdressing, ffs! But it turned out to be so much more than that. This movie is so good! It's so explicitly and unapologetically queer - it never denounces its queer characters, and it has an incredibly nuanced depiction of gay panic for what is essentially a comedy. And what a great comedy it is! I genuinely had so much fun watching this. I loved the friendship between Toddy and Victoria. I loved ALL the dress-up porn, which was excessive and excessively delicious. But what I loved most of all was the ending, which did not put everything straight again (unlike Tootsie, which came out the very same year, 1982) or even allowed the straight characters to take over the narrative with their romance. ( Minor spoiler for ending ) I recommend this movie WHOLEHEARTEDLY.

The Normal Heart. New HBO movie about gay activist Ned Weeks and the founding of the Gay Men's Health Crisis organization in the face of the breakout of the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s in NYC. Starring Mark Ruffalo as Ned, and Matt Bomer as his partner Felix. With Julia Roberts as the paraplegic doctor who first suspects what the disease is turning into, and Jim Parsons as an adorable young activist. It's a well-written movie. I think it works both as a piece of history - shining the spotlight on the fear of that mysterious "gay cancer" and the anger of being actively ignored by the government and city officials - and as a romance. Ruffalo really digs into the role, and I did eventually get over seeing Bruce Banner make out with Neal Caffrey, but it did take a while. I think the movie's weak point is trying to include as many life stories as possible, allowing each character his own moment of fear or frustration or grief. Eventually this just started to feel like White Man Monologues to me, truth be told. Because of course the entire movie is very white. Yes, Ned and some of his friends are Jewish, but as Ned says himself "we can almost pass for white". It doesn't change the fact there there is only one minor role for a black character, or that the movie wilfully keeps the trans women, the drag queens, and the lesbians on the very outer fringes of the story (at least there's a speaking role for one lesbian). In other words, AIDS is very much presented as a white gay male tragedy - for maximum sympathy I suspect - and all the people of color who suffered from the disease are mentioned in passing only. Nonetheless, I think it's worth watching.

On a complete whim - oh Netflix, what you do to me - and I enjoyed it sooo much! I honestly can't believe how good that was!

The movie is Danish. It's about Lars who has been booted from the military for... some reason. He falls in with a group of neonazis, among which is Jimmy, who is charged with coaching Lars into becoming a full member of the group. Cue extreme scenes of gay bashings and attacks on asylum seekers, until Lars falls out with his family and moves in with Jimmy in a summer house he's fixing up for the group. You know where this is going! Every fic trope in the universe has primed you for this story! And OMG, it does not disappoint. This movie is genuinely awesome. I loved how incredibly tender Thure Lindhardt and David Dencik manage to be with each other, in complete and utter contrast to all the violence around them. But the ending is what really made the movie for me. It was enjoyable until that part, where it takes a turn and becomes pretty fucking smart. I mean, it's not a Great Movie, but for a Danish production I honestly did not dislike any bits of it.

I really am aware that my theme at the moment is "extremely angsty m/m romance movies/tv shows with a class dimension". I really do not know what that is about.

ETA: Here is a trailer, and here is the full movie streaming with english subtitles!