Update

[gogmagog]

Sorry for my radio silence over the past week or two: I've been at home in KC, and while I haven't been entirely out of contact (ZOMG WTF NEW DOCTOR WHO, HE'S ONLY A YEAR OLDER THAN ME), I haven't been spending nearly as much time on the Net as usual.

So, a short precis of some of my activities while in Kansas City!

Seen in the theater:
- Nothing Like the Holidays: A bog-standard "family drama when they reunite at Christmas, where tensions grate but everyone pulls together to face adversity because they're FAMILY" holiday film. Still, it was less saccharine than most, and quite well-done. It was also decidedly NOT bog-standard in the fact that it is about a Latino family - named Rodriguez, no less - which endears it to me (and Hollywood even managed to do it without making anyone a drug dealer or anything, and there was only one teeny little gang subplot). I'm slightly disturbed by the fact that Freddy Rodriguez is totally palette-swapped Shia LaBeouf, though.
- Doubt: My stepdad was so jealous I went to see a nun movie without him (he was raised by wild nuns). It's about a Catholic school in New York during the 1960s, during integration and during the heyday of the priest molestation coverup by the Church. It's also the first role I've ever seen Meryl Streep in where she seemed to be truly human and caring underneath the ice queen exterior. Also, seriously but is Amy Adams everywhere nowadays or what? (Not that I'm complaining.)

Seen on DVD:
- History Boys: Overall quite good, and I love Frances de la Tour. Which is not to say it didn't have its faults - it's very stagey at times (especially the ending, good God), showing its roots as a play, and there tends to be very playlike maundering about the role of education and literature and all that jazz (some of which is compelling and some of which is annoying), but overall it's really good and brings up some interesting moral dilemmas.

I also got the DVDs I ordered a few posts back, and forced my parents to watch The Forsyte Saga (the 1967 original, not the 2002 remake). I didn't have to force them very hard, though, as once we'd got a few episodes in, we realized what TOTAL CRACK that series is. (They are EVIL with their cliffhangers, so for once I wasn't the only person giving puppy eyes and saying, "...just one more? Please?") To give you an idea, in a little over a week my parents and I watched the entire series, finishing today - as the series is 26 episodes at 50 minutes apiece (so ~22 hours, plus another two of special features which we watched), and given that my parents don't really like watching TV, this is pretty amazing. I'm hoping to do another post on the show tomorrow, in a little more detail (and in an attempt to get everyone I know to watch it, because it's AWESOME). I'm also planning on getting the original books by John Galsworthy from the library as soon as I get back to Iowa, because I've heard they're even better.

Oh, and finally, notable Christmas loot includes Animal Crossing: City Folk for the Wii (...bye-bye, life, I hardly knew ye) and Doctor Who: The Infinite Quest (fun, if a bit kiddier than expected).

Comments

[anchan218.livejournal.com]

Hm, never seen the Forsyte Saga, but if it's like the books I could see how it'd be addictive. At the time the subject material for it somehow bugged me (for reasons I no longer recall), but despite that I couldn't stop reading. ^O^