May Movie Preview 2013

E: When did May becomes the best summer movie month?  Because the popcorn epics you long to see?  They’re in May. Those hot documentaries you want to see to impress your hipster friends?  They’re all in May.  The sequels?  May.  May May May May May.

M: Well, given that Star Wars opened in May in 1977, I think it’s been a while.

E: Yes, but it’s not just one movie.  It’s at least one every weekend, for five weekends in a row.  It’s awesome.

M: As for the “hot documentaries,” as you well know I have little interest in seeing anything to impress any hipsters, friend or foe. I’ll see the documentary if it’s interesting to me.

C: Yeah, hot documentaries seems like a contradiction in terms. And there are some good movies coming in June too. But May is starting off with a bang!

LBD Addiction: Still So Hard To Say Goodbye

E: If you and I were at a party together, chances are good the talk would turn to books and movies and TV (let’s face it, if we’re at the same party, that’s going to happen) as well as adaptations of books into movies and TV.  That’s my idea of a nerdy good time, and happily it’s not an uncommon occurrence. And so if you and I were standing together in a friend’s kitchen at this hypothetical party, I would probably say to you what I’ve said many times on this blog – that when I really love a book it takes multiple viewings of the film adaptation before I can even appreciate the work for what it is, because my mind is so busy reconstructing and reordering the original.

You probably know the kind of adjustment process I mean.  For instance, Faramir wasn’t supposed to be tempted by the ring, and how many years later does that sin against his nature rankle?  If I decide to read all the Song of Ice and Fire novels before the current season of Game of Thrones finishes airing, will the show be as much shocking fun if I know what’s coming?  Also, why do the muttations look like hopped-up pit bulls instead of tribute-flavored wolves, do you think – is that for distance from Twilight’s werewolves, and does it really matter? Holy cow, do you realize that the 2005 version totally relocated the moment when the leads fall in love from Pemberley to the ballroom at Netherfield?  That’s blasphemy!  Heck, I still can’t figure out whether The Hobbit was a good movie or not and it’s been how many months?

But strangely enough, that trouble with adaptation turned out to be the greatest gift of the lately completed Pride and Prejudice modernization, The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which I loved unreservedly and mourn in the same fashion.  What made them so wonderful, in some ways, was the previously unknown-to-me miracle of book-to-web-series translation.  Twice a week (sometimes more, O blessed months of January and February!) I received an perfect bite-sized portion of one of my favorite novels updated as a modern vlog, easily accessed online so I could watch again and again, so I could break down the beats and the sentences and decide how I felt about them.  I wasn’t struggling under the weighty challenge of figuring out the whole adaptation at once.  With each unfolding petal, there was anticipation, there was the chance to debate, there was room to appreciate (or disapprove) the choices the creative team made.  And because it’s a modernization as well as an adaptation, the possibilities for wonderful surprises seemed even larger. Somehow, it was more thrilling that I knew generally what was coming, and could speculate endlessly on the precise details.

In short, it was heaven. I think it is my new favorite mode of adaptation.

April 2013 Movie Preview

M: We’re getting to the end of the box office doldrums. May officially starts the summer movie season, even if those of us in the northeast are still waiting impatiently for the “early” spring that Punxsutawney Phil promised us well over six weeks ago. With that said, April usually tosses in one or two things to get the ball rolling. I can’t speak for my sisters, but this year there’s one movie I’m really looking forward to, and one that I’m intrigued by against my better judgement. We’ll get to those. Once again, this is not a full and complete list, just the big films, and the small ones that may have piqued one of our interests.

Villainy, Slut-Shaming, and the Art of Adaptation in The Lizzie Bennet Diaries

E: Our faithful readers might recall from last week that at least two of the three Quibbling Siblings have fallen under the spell of the marvelous, the delightful, the charming Lizzie Bennet Diaries, a modern transmedia — vlog (mockuvloggery?), Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc. — retelling of our beloved Pride and Prejudice.

C: If you read our Pride and Prejudice at 200 post, you’ve already heard some of our praise of this nifty series, so after E gets a little more of it out of her system (though, judging by her frequent emails to me on the subject, there may be an endless supply) we’re planning to tackle a little critical analysis of the latest developments in this unusual adaptation.

E: Web series, how do we love thee?  So many ways.  For taking the costumes out of one of our favorite costume dramas, and then explicitly playing costume theater?  For this alone I could love you.  But happily for the rest of the (not so nerdy) world, the show has myriad other charms.

C: Very attractive actors, for instance.

E: (Fans self)  Why, whatever do you mean?   You don’t mean Bing, do you?  On the less shallow side, the characters are goofy, fun, flawed and endearing and engaging, and they learn from their mistakes.  And for devoted fans of Austen’s work, it’s never less than a pleasure to speculate over how the great Jane’s words will be adapted.

C: And episodes that average 3-5 minutes in length. Perfect for a quick, pretty work break!

E: Exactly. The ideal reward for hard work, even upon re-watching.  But what does this have to do with villainy and slut-shaming, you ask?  Just at this moment we’ve reached the defining point in any modernization of this story: Lydia and Wickham’s stalled elopement.  What to do with a drama that centers around the devastation of premarital sex when its mere mention no longer makes virtuous maidens flush in shame?  You can take away the side bangs and ball gowns easily enough, but how do you make Lydia’s undoing a horror? Just what is the modern equivalent?

“My ‘undoing’? Excuse me?”

C: LDB teased us at New Year’s with a trip to Vegas where Lydia and Wickham met up on the strip. I did think it was possible they were going to go with a runaway marriage after all — which doesn’t have at all the same weight of scandal, but which certainly wouldn’t register as a brilliant life choice to the family of a ne’er-do-well just-turned-21-year-old girl.

E: I knew that wasn’t bad enough. After all, they could just get it annulled, Britney-style. No, as Charlotte Lu might put it… I totally called it.

A Few Words About Tonight’s Golden Globes

E: First off, I know tonight is chock full of fascinating television, but you really should do yourself a favor and check the show out.  The Globes are notoriously the loosest party of the awards show season; Angelina Jolie jumped into a pool at the hotel where they’re held to celebrate her first win, gown and all.  People get pretty nutty.  And of course the clothes are great, which goes without saying, although people do take chances they might not take for Oscar, so that’s entertaining as well.  And this year the races are surprisingly open, so there could be a bunch of surprises, which again is always fun. Tonight sets the tone for the rest of the season; the Globes don’t have a particularly great record of picking the eventual Oscar winners, but they definitely set the tone.  Tonight we’ll have a better idea of who’s really in contention and who’s just there to celebrate and model designer duds.

But if I didn’t care about award shows, I would be tuning in tonight anyway, despite the Patriots playoff game and Downton Abbey and my normal packed Sunday schedule.  Tonight, it’s all about the hosts – Amy Poehler and Tina Fey.  I mean come on.  After the genius stunt they pulled at the 2011 Emmys, I can’t even wait to see what those two do.

In case you are curious about winners and losers, I do have just a few thoughts.  Check it out after the jump.