Friday- Went out to dinner with friends at one of my favorite sushi restaurants, New Ginza in Watertown. So good! We kept things interesting by devising a series of sushi-eating challenges. For example, for one round, everyone had to use their chopsticks with their opposite hand, and whoever dropped their sushi had to eat a scoop of wasabi as punishment. After that, we went out for a bit and then caught an opening night show of Blades of Glory, the new Will Ferrell comedy about men's figure skating. I laughed for almost the entire movie, and even snorted at one point.
Saturday- Went to see my friend Chris' band, Muy Cansado, played at the Paradise Lounge. They sounded great and it was a really fun show. They were followed by Apple Betty, and adorable all-girl pop rock band. The headlining act was The Ramoniacs, a Ramones tribute band, and after seeing two talented, original bands, there just seemed to be something fundamentally uncool about a band who pretends to be another band. As for the NCAA tournament, I picked Georgetown to beat UCLA in the final, so although I was close, I'm definitely out of the money this year. Booo.
Sunday- Attended Ern's sister Ali's bridal shower at the Dorset tea house in Wellesley. We all got our own pots of tea and trays with mini sandwiches and scones- mmmm. I wasn't feeling so hot (still recovering from a cold and a massive leg injury from soccer), so I laid on the couch and watched two movies. Stranger Than Fiction is a quirky romance starring Will Ferrell in an atypical role for him- he plays Howard Crick, an IRS agent who begins to hear a woman's voice narrating his mundane life. The voice belongs to Emma Thompson, who plays an author writing a novel in which Harold Crick dies at the end. Maggie Gyllenhall plays the love interest, a spunky baker whom Howard audits. The slow pace and the oddness of the film reminded me a lot of Punch-Drunk Love. It was a little slow for me but I liked it a lot more than the second movie I watched, Marie Antoinette. Which sucked. Written and directed by Sofia Coppola, this film is essentially the antithesis to her much-celebrated Lost In Translation. L.I.T focused on characters, relationships, and dialogue, where M.A. is shot after shot of Kirsten Dunst looking languid, surrounded by luxurious shoes and pastries. All style, no substance. This version portrays the doomed queen of France and a naive young girl completely out of touch with life outside of royal palaces. Yes, the historical costumes are pretty, but the modern rock soundtrack didn't work at all. For a movie that does that juxtaposition well, look no further than Moulin Rouge. As for Marie Antionette, I'd rather watch a PBS or BBC special if I want to learn something about the French Revolution.
3 comments:
Marie Antoinette did indeed just suck hard ... It certainly looked pretty, but what an empty vessel, and that 45 minutes or so that could be called "birthin rituals of the young and noble" just made me want to claw my own eyes out to end the boredom
i saw marie antoinette this weekend too, well i suppose it was more like 70% since i turned it off after vowing that if the total number of times I saw cream puffs reached 12, I was out. Lo and behold- it didn't take long...
the pastries were killing me! oh, and if I had a nickel for every closeup of champagne being poured into an overflowing glass, well, let's just say I would now have a lot of nickels.
I heard someone say that Marie Antionette would have made a much better magazine spread than a movie, and I fully agree.
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