Oh, jeez. I wasn't even that excited about Glee this year. You all know I love it, and everything. You also all know that there is stuff about it that bugs me: how everyone still treats the glee kids like they're losers even though they're clearly awesome; how Sue and Will are apparently never, ever going to stop doing battle...basically, how we're supposed to believe that nothing ever changes, even though stuff in the characters' lives/circumstances clearly does change, and has changed. And I haven't been home the last two Tuesdays, and Fox took its time putting the new episodes up online, and I didn't even really miss it.
And then...I watched the season premiere, "The Purple Piano Project." And I spent the first like half hour annoyed because of the same stuff that always annoys me: Kids are still throwing stuff at the glee kids. Everyone's still acting like them not placing at nationals means that they totally suck, even though they've only been a glee club for a little over two years. Emma's still a virgin even though she's been in three serious relationships in the two years this show has been on, including one engagement and one actual marriage. More of no one being allowed to move forward or actually work through their issues, basically. Throw in that girl with the "self-diagnosed Asperger's," and I was ready to throw in the towel. Except...
...damn if it didn't turn itself around and get good again. Blaine joining New Directions?! Kurt and Rachel meeting a bunch of musical theatre kids who are just like them, only better?! And then-- THEN!-- they sing "You Can't Stop the Beat" from Hairspray, all decked out in my favorite color, purple, with Finn pounding away on the drums and Mike Chang dancing around like the pro that he is? You win, Glee. You win.
Oh. And the laugh-out loud moment of the night:
Rachel: "I've found the perfect musical for us: West Side Story!"
Brittany: "Is that the one with the cats?"
HA!
Friday, September 30, 2011
Saturday, September 3, 2011
thoughts on Our Idiot Brother, plus some randomness about the Fresh Market
1) Randomness first (obviously, feel free to skip this paragraph if you just want the movie review): I used to be a firm believer in one-stop shopping. On Saturday mornings I would take my grocery list and go to Schnucks, if I only needed groceries, or Wal-Mart, if I needed other random stuff like cleaning supplies, toothpaste, etc. Then the Fresh Market entered the mix. I went on the day it opened and liked it, but assumed I would only go there when I wanted some fancy prepared food or needed an ingredient that I couldn't get at either of the aforementioned places. Except...I stopped drinking soda, and they have a ridiculously awesome variety of low- or no-calorie non-soda beverages, like iced teas and flavored waters and coconut water and whatnot. And I often like to have a muffin or piece of banana bread for breakfast but don't often make time to bake such things for myself; the Fresh Market also has a nice variety of such things. So all of a sudden, I'm going there pretty much every week, and one-stop shopping has pretty much gone out the window. Today, I went to Schnucks, the Fresh Market, AND Target. Craziness!
2) Well, folks, we are entering that post-summer, pre-Christmas time of the moviegoing year when...well, they still make good movies. But unlike in the summer or around the holidays, there's usually only one or two movies a month that I want to see, as opposed to zillions. Since I like to see a movie almost every week, this means that I wind up going to stuff that I only kind of want to see. Our Idiot Brother fell into this category. I kind of wanted to see it because it had a good cast (Paul Rudd, Zooey Deschanel, Elizabeth Banks, Rashida Jones, etc.). I kind of didn't because I thought that it would probably feature Paul Rudd doing a lot of stupid, embarrassing stuff and Zooey Deschanel, Elizabeth Banks, and Emily Mortimer (who play his sisters) being really mean to him about it. Didn't sound like fun to me. But Roger Ebert said in his review what a "nice" movie this was, and I believed him, so I went.
It was way better than I expected, everyone. Paul Rudd does a couple of really stupid things, but mostly it's just that he's so nice that people open up to him and tell him more than they should, and then he winds up accidentally spilling their secrets at inappropriate times. And his sisters get somewhat understandably mad at him for this (though, really, after a lifetime of being what appears to be a fairly close-knit family, you would think they would be used to it, and would maybe keep their secrets to themselves), but, for the most part, generally seem to like him, though they (also understandably) don't necessarily want him crashing with them indefinitely.
It also helps that all three sisters are interesting people, if not necessarily what I would call "cool." Miranda (Elizabeth Banks) is a career woman who may or may not be in love with her best friend Jeremy (Adam Scott). (She also has a horrible haircut, but that's neither here nor there). Natalie (Zooey Deschanel) lives with her girlfriend, Cindy (Rashida Jones), but when a guy asks Ned (Paul Rudd) if she's only into girls, Ned explains that she's pretty much into everyone: men, women, fat, thin ("She even slept with our cousin once!" he exclaims, making me laugh out loud). She also dresses great, as most of Zooey Deschanel's characters tend to do. And I love the name Natalie, just FYI. Liz (Emily Mortimer) has two young children and is married to a character played by Steve Coogan, Dylan, who is a jerk but also Just Hilarious. Like, at one point all he does is turn and run into his son's bookshelf on his way out the door, and I lauged for like a full minute. Ned briefly helps him with the documentary he is making about a ballet dancer, and there's this really randomly funny moment where Ned enthusiastically encourages the dancer to show Dylan how high she can lift her leg, which she does. "I can only lift mine to here," Ned explains, propping his up on the dance studio's barre. "I know," Dylan says. "You just did that five seconds ago." Ned: "Oh, yeah, I didn't know if you saw." Dylan: "Well, you did it five seconds ago, and I've been standing here for like thirty, so..." This conversation continues in that vein for an uncomfortably long time, and it is hilarious.
This type of moment speaks to the chemistry of the cast, I think. Ned is the type of person who makes friends with everyone he meets, and Paul Rudd is great in this role-- he has great chemistry with pretty much everyone else in the cast, especially, I think, Rashida Jones, whose character, Cindy, goes with him to try to rescue his dog, Willie Nelson, from his ex-girlfriend. Banks, Deschanel, and Mortimer are also very believable as sisters. I especially enjoyed a scene where the three of them sit around a kitchen table, talking; Miranda and Natalie are trying to convince Liz to accept a piece of bad news, only Natalie also has a secret that is making her take offense to a bunch of comments that aren't even directed at her, and the three of them keep finishing each other's sentences and talking over each other. It's incredibly natural and well-done. There is a similar scene where the three of them gang up on Ned while they play Charades; this one is less enjoyable because they're all pretty mean to Ned, but is very recognizable-- everyone's probably had a moment like that with their siblings or cousins or whatever, where everyone's giving one person a hard time and it just goes too far.
Another laugh-out-loud funny moment: Ned is on an elevator with a woman that he's had a few good conversations with, and he asks her if she'd like to go out with him sometime. "Not really!" she says cheerfully. "Thanks for asking, though!" And he kind of does a double take, because people don't usually do that, they usually make up an excuse, or something, but then he just sort of shrugs and smiles. Meanwhile, I'm sitting there giggling and thinking that I'm going to have to try that sometime, because I also don't really believe in making excuses but feel obligated to, sometimes. Anyway, I thought that was great.
Another piece of randomness: Are big glasses with big frames coming back? Because two characters wear them in this movie, one in an "ironic hipster" kind of way, the other sincerely. All I have to say is, if they are, sign me up.
I won't give away the ending, but I will say that it comes too quickly and is a little too improbably happy. I especially didn't buy where Natalie ends up. As a whole, though, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. I'd recommend it.
2) Well, folks, we are entering that post-summer, pre-Christmas time of the moviegoing year when...well, they still make good movies. But unlike in the summer or around the holidays, there's usually only one or two movies a month that I want to see, as opposed to zillions. Since I like to see a movie almost every week, this means that I wind up going to stuff that I only kind of want to see. Our Idiot Brother fell into this category. I kind of wanted to see it because it had a good cast (Paul Rudd, Zooey Deschanel, Elizabeth Banks, Rashida Jones, etc.). I kind of didn't because I thought that it would probably feature Paul Rudd doing a lot of stupid, embarrassing stuff and Zooey Deschanel, Elizabeth Banks, and Emily Mortimer (who play his sisters) being really mean to him about it. Didn't sound like fun to me. But Roger Ebert said in his review what a "nice" movie this was, and I believed him, so I went.
It was way better than I expected, everyone. Paul Rudd does a couple of really stupid things, but mostly it's just that he's so nice that people open up to him and tell him more than they should, and then he winds up accidentally spilling their secrets at inappropriate times. And his sisters get somewhat understandably mad at him for this (though, really, after a lifetime of being what appears to be a fairly close-knit family, you would think they would be used to it, and would maybe keep their secrets to themselves), but, for the most part, generally seem to like him, though they (also understandably) don't necessarily want him crashing with them indefinitely.
It also helps that all three sisters are interesting people, if not necessarily what I would call "cool." Miranda (Elizabeth Banks) is a career woman who may or may not be in love with her best friend Jeremy (Adam Scott). (She also has a horrible haircut, but that's neither here nor there). Natalie (Zooey Deschanel) lives with her girlfriend, Cindy (Rashida Jones), but when a guy asks Ned (Paul Rudd) if she's only into girls, Ned explains that she's pretty much into everyone: men, women, fat, thin ("She even slept with our cousin once!" he exclaims, making me laugh out loud). She also dresses great, as most of Zooey Deschanel's characters tend to do. And I love the name Natalie, just FYI. Liz (Emily Mortimer) has two young children and is married to a character played by Steve Coogan, Dylan, who is a jerk but also Just Hilarious. Like, at one point all he does is turn and run into his son's bookshelf on his way out the door, and I lauged for like a full minute. Ned briefly helps him with the documentary he is making about a ballet dancer, and there's this really randomly funny moment where Ned enthusiastically encourages the dancer to show Dylan how high she can lift her leg, which she does. "I can only lift mine to here," Ned explains, propping his up on the dance studio's barre. "I know," Dylan says. "You just did that five seconds ago." Ned: "Oh, yeah, I didn't know if you saw." Dylan: "Well, you did it five seconds ago, and I've been standing here for like thirty, so..." This conversation continues in that vein for an uncomfortably long time, and it is hilarious.
This type of moment speaks to the chemistry of the cast, I think. Ned is the type of person who makes friends with everyone he meets, and Paul Rudd is great in this role-- he has great chemistry with pretty much everyone else in the cast, especially, I think, Rashida Jones, whose character, Cindy, goes with him to try to rescue his dog, Willie Nelson, from his ex-girlfriend. Banks, Deschanel, and Mortimer are also very believable as sisters. I especially enjoyed a scene where the three of them sit around a kitchen table, talking; Miranda and Natalie are trying to convince Liz to accept a piece of bad news, only Natalie also has a secret that is making her take offense to a bunch of comments that aren't even directed at her, and the three of them keep finishing each other's sentences and talking over each other. It's incredibly natural and well-done. There is a similar scene where the three of them gang up on Ned while they play Charades; this one is less enjoyable because they're all pretty mean to Ned, but is very recognizable-- everyone's probably had a moment like that with their siblings or cousins or whatever, where everyone's giving one person a hard time and it just goes too far.
Another laugh-out-loud funny moment: Ned is on an elevator with a woman that he's had a few good conversations with, and he asks her if she'd like to go out with him sometime. "Not really!" she says cheerfully. "Thanks for asking, though!" And he kind of does a double take, because people don't usually do that, they usually make up an excuse, or something, but then he just sort of shrugs and smiles. Meanwhile, I'm sitting there giggling and thinking that I'm going to have to try that sometime, because I also don't really believe in making excuses but feel obligated to, sometimes. Anyway, I thought that was great.
Another piece of randomness: Are big glasses with big frames coming back? Because two characters wear them in this movie, one in an "ironic hipster" kind of way, the other sincerely. All I have to say is, if they are, sign me up.
I won't give away the ending, but I will say that it comes too quickly and is a little too improbably happy. I especially didn't buy where Natalie ends up. As a whole, though, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. I'd recommend it.
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