Two thumbs

I've seen a lot of movies lately, primarily because I felt like last year my moviegoing attempts were really more of a lackadaisical thing, and there's nothing I need more than to really, really focus intently on another leisure activity at the expense of actually oh, say, making more money or volunteer work. 

First I saw "Notes on a Scandal" weekend before last. I knew very little about it going in, which I actually prefer. I like reading books and seeing movies about which I have very little backstory. The movie was great, although I can't imagine a film that stars Cait Blanchett and Judi Dench sucking. What are the odds? "Ooh, look! Cait and Judi! I bet this movie blows!" right? Right, considering they probably get scripts hand-delivered to them by Harvey Weinstein driving his OWN car. It was well-acted (duh), nicely filmed, and very creepy - intensely psychological and dark and British and reflective of some of the basest human instincts that don't involve bloodshed. And what always gets me about stuff like this is that even when the characters are a stone's throw over the line from crazy, it's quite easy to see how none of us are really too far ourselves. I learned that when I worked in mental health counseling for a very short time. Lots of the people in my groups had been toddling along leading kind of benign left of center lives when something happened that tripped a cord and there she went. I mean, hopefully most of us are far enough away not to ever go over the edge, but eh...human brains are weird and unpredictable. Throw some stress, self-involvement, depression and bad luck into the mix, and who knows what you'll get? Usually nothing this wacked, but it just got me thinking. And thinking, because it was still in my head a couple days after. Out, out, Dame Judi. Leave me alone! Pull on your galoshes and go on up to the pub. I've got stuff to do!

Like Meryl Streep, Judi Dench is an attractive woman who is powerfully able to transform her physical appearance without the aid of much makeup. Give her a crappy hairdo and some frumpy (really, really terrible - terrible terrible) clothes and she's another person, like I wouldn't be if I did the same thing. Her facial expression and gait change, and her voice is different without being markedly so. It's amazing. Cait Blanchett, on the other hand, is one of the most gorgeous people I've ever seen, and even though I'm very comfortable with and attached to my unfortunate attraction to men, I was distracted by my desire to reach through the screen and touch her pretty hair throughout the film. Jesus. Just grossly, unfairly beautiful and talented. Cradle gifts, God love 'em.

Last week I saw Freedom Writers, which I then saw fit to defend here  and here. I really like that we can discuss such topics on Blogher in a productive, flame-free way. People just think different things based on their experiences, so it's interesting to read along and contribute if you feel like it.

I read the Freedom Writers Diary years ago when I worked at Borders, and I was interested to see how the project would translate to film. I do not like Hillary Swank at all - as an actress, I mean, as I have no idea what she's like in real life of course. I find her screen presence grating and whiny, and am one of the only people I know who did not like "Million Dollar Baby." I thought it was manipulative and ridiculous, actually. But this movie I liked, for the sole reason that it showed young people actually using the written word for some good purpose. And whereas I can see the arguments I've linked to above that the movie was just another excuse to show the "white liberal teacher swooping in to save the day," I found it less about that than I did about these kids finding their way, regardless of who was there as a catalyst. It's often hard and painful, actually, to observe the trouble that kids have stringing a sentence together, and I'm in that position a lot. As a person who would shrivel up without the outlet I have, and who knows what a bonus it can be to be able to get your point across in writing, it's doubly hard and sometimes difficult to understand. This is the  Freedom Writers Foundation that Erin Gruwell, the teacher in real life, set up. I'm hoping to use their resources somehow in the work that I do. And all lack of interest in Swank aside, I give her credit for putting her money behind this project, because it least it could have some redeeming value, as well as going into the "Entertainment Weekly" hopper.

And yes, I know we don't need another "Dangerous Minds," but this movie was different. And also it made me cry, and had pretty good music, and proved to me again that Patrick Dempsey is way overrated.

Yesterday I saw El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth). Damn. Eek. Violent as all hell. I wasn't expecting that. Again - limited backstory, which in this case was a very good thing because I'm not sure I would have been down with it otherwise. I saw the preview earlier in the month and was drawn in, plus had heard such good things about Ivana Baquero who plays the little girl Ofelia. These things are all true. She is an amazing actress, and although people always say, "Wow, and so young," I think there's really no better time to be able to disappear into a story or another character than when you're a child. It gets harder with the road miles sometimes, you know? Children are way more capable than adults of morphing into many different voices and characters, and she definitely does that here. That said, the story is fascinating, and the film itself (location, effects, cinematography, music) is too. It isn't a pretty little fairy tale, though, so don't go in expecting that - if you want to expect anything at all.

I want to see "The Painted Veil", next, and "The Queen", too, and many more movies this year with subtitles, because I feel good about letting the language I don't understand seep into my brain while I'm reading along. I will not, however, be seeing "Norbit", a new horror show whose preview I was subjected to before "Freedom Writers", and about which Eddie Murphy should be very, very ashamed. Any awards he receives for "Dreamgirls" should be revoked, and he should be made to give every cent of the money he makes off of this new film to some program supporting women of color, or send it to New Orleans for the hurricane rebuilding, because it's a shame to think it would make him any wealthier.

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[Karen McCarthy]

While you're at it, try to see "Volver" with Penélope Cruz, and "The Aura" with no one I'd ever heard of - both Spanish-language films, both moving and thought-provoking.