Miscellaneous Movie Musings

[Not Afraid]

I watched 4 films on the plane to and from London. I saw Casoni Royal for the third time on the way "to" and was surprised by how much they cut from the film. But, it was still a good chunk of candy for a tiny bit of a long flight.

On the way back I saw Dreamgirls, Stranger than Fiction (in 2 parts) and most of Marie Antoinette.

I was surprised that i actually liked Dreamgirls and concur that Jennifer Hudson deserved her Supporting Oscar. I'm not sure I would see it again nor recommend it to Chris, but it was better than I expected.

Stranger than Fiction was entertaining (although I kept falling asleep and sort of watched it sideways). It reminded me, stylistically, of Adaptation or Being John Malcovich, only both of those films were better films. I was actually expecting to like this one more than I did. But, given the issues (sleep and tiny tiny screen) it was ok.

I really need to see Marie Antoinette on a larger screen. I wasn't going to watch it at all, but I got bored and Chris always gets the window seat. The music selections made me giddy, but I'm an aging punk rocker and recognized 90% of the songs within the first 3 notes. I had heard so many bad things about it that i had absolutely no expectations - only hope. I certainly didn't find it up to par with Sophia Copola's other feature-length films, but it was an interesting take on the story. i have read the book it was based on and, while the factual information and focus came from the book the feel was completely different. There was a lot left out - as would be necessary in a 2 hour film but it was a LOT more entertaining. Kristen Dunst's facial expressions ended up bothering me after a while. She seemed to portray MA as pretty shallow and, according to Antonia Fraiser's book, she was not shallow at all but very much in control. Jason Schwartzman, however, did a good job or portraying the milch toast Louis. it is worth another, real, viewing.