Dear Adele

Generation Kill.  Quite a trip to watch this miniseries after discussing masculinity and its hyperness with my Multi Cultural and Gender Studies class, because apparently, Marines are some serious masculine freakazoids who take orders from some seriously masculine egomaniacs.  I like the freakazoids a lot better.

The Wire.  Please do not doubt for a second that this is a superior television program in every respect.  The writing is excellent, the acting is great, the stories will tear your ass up.  (And Dominic West is just too… hot.  Poor little drunken thing.)  The show i’s all about race and class and drugs and politics and the hopelessness of the human condition.  Once I got to the third episode in the first season, I was spellbound.  Stunned.  Moved.  Real characters, complex, interesting, surprising.  (And yes, The Wire is listed on Stuff White People Like, damn it, and white people can be as stupid about The Wire as Landers says they are, but don’t let that stop you from watching it.)  As an admittedly white person–a very, very white person–I can honestly say that it’s wonderful to watch programs that cast people of various races in various roles.  Like a breath of fresh culture.  Art with a purpose wins.

Mi Vida Loca.  Made in the mid 90s by  Allison Anders, this  is about poor young Hispanic girls in Los Angeles–the various dramas of their lives and how their world works, without apologies or explanations.  The characters are authentic looking and acting–no Hollywood B.S. or fluff.  It’s also funny.  I considered showing it to my Multi Cultural and Gender Studies class, but decided instead to do more of an international thing with…

Persepolis.  I have not read the novel (a graphic one), and since I watched the film without having read the novel, by Marjane Satrapi, I realize and accept that I am a deficient writer and reader who is completely full of shit.  That said, this movie chronicles the life of a fairly privileged Iranian girl who experiences the Islamic Revolution of the late 1970s.  This film struck me as original and intelligent: since it’s animated (and well-written) it has this sort of dark humor all the way through, an angle that I don’t think you’ll find too often if you’re reading or watching something about how radical,misogynist, militant Islamic men took over Iran in 1979, imprisoning, torturing, and murdering thousands of people and oppressing women to the extreme.

The Unforeseen. A documentary about development in Austin, Texas, which has caused pollution and runoff and general destruction and adulteration of Barton Creek (the Greenbelt), a wonder of nature that runs right through the middle of Austin and houses Barton Springs. This film is beautiful to watch–Terence Malick is a producer–but it’s of course quite a downer. If Dubya is going to take over as governor in your state, you should definitely let go of all those deep loves you have for nature. Cuz he’ll help everyone build shit on it. And yes, developers are the Anti-Christ. I’m glad to know I’ve always been right about this. I used to live in Austin–after I saw this film, I regretted the fact that I wasn’t more politically engaged with issues in the city.

Battlestar Galactica. I’m sorry again, to everything tasteful and sophisticated about my preferences for movies and television, which are usually superior, but this show (the remake) is actually pretty good. If you’re a tired parent with a free hour before bed to veg out, then this show is actually pretty excellent. Lots of suspense, battle scenes, good special effects, and the show in many ways challenges gender stereotypes because a lot of the characters–the leads–are women with good lines and evolving characters. (A lot of them are models in space, yes, but they’re complex models in space. And they kick ass.) I was reminded last night, though, of the soft porn of All My Children, the way the men are all these shaven gay-porn hunka hunkas. Anyway, though, the show is fun. Check it out. (Season 3 is way too long. You might could even skip it.)

Itty Bitty Titty Committee. So this young beautiful lesbian finds herself in love with another young beautiful lesbian who is a member of the CIA (Clits in Action). The CIA goes around and spray paints truths on lies in public places–guerrilla protest stuff. As an aging fan of the now defunct Bikini Kill and Heavens to Betsy and lots of other riot grrrl bands like Seven Year Bitch and The Gits, I loved the soundtrack, and had I seen this movie when I was 16, god knows what I could have accomplished. The writing, though, is flat; I kept waiting for this feminist movie to really comment on itself in a more intelligent way. But the movie could be inspiring for young women–and as a hetero person who is undoubtedly steeped in hetero privilege, I really liked how the movie was about lesbian characters. I just wish the dialogue could have been sharper and denser and more funny, because the plot had a lot of potential.

John Adams. An HBO miniseries about our founding fathers. Believeable, authentic, pretty well done. I was totally absorbed, especially because the relationship between Abigail and John Adams was explored and developed and real. Then Laura Linney became Katharine Hepburn, and I became confused. And Thomas Jefferson was not a founding father at all but a colonial vampire, an eloquent succubus who sat effeminately, with an elite, drooping mouth. Benjamin Franklin was a pervert (no news there), and George Washington was a strong, softspoken tree, like an ent in Lord of the Rings. Paul Giamatti, though, did a wonderful job, especially as he portrayed John Adams aging.

Wall-E. I’m sorry, Everything Tasteful and Movie Snobbish About Me. But I love this film. I love the way Wall-E and Eve fall in love, I love their adoring robot drones to one another, I love the way the tub-o-lards discover walking, I love the plant growing in the shoe. The Music is fabulous. And I watch Wall-E with my 3 year old, Ian, unlike…

Deadwood. Not for children. At all. Not for adults, really, it’s so damned violent. Not for anyone with a dislike for profanity. For anyone who loves the sound of the human voice forming words–the way it rounds out syllables when its bodies are in pain, or the way it pitches and buzzes and hums when its intention is to kill and maim and steal. For anyone who cannot hear good writing too often and for anyone who welcomes the chance to examine and re-examine our language and our sentences and our history. An amazing show. The husband bought “me” the series on DVD for Christmas, and we just finished episodes 1 and 2, and I wish I didn’t have children for a few days so I could watch the remaining 20 or so episodes without having to break. At all. For a shower or a meal. Maybe for a beer, but that’s it.

The West Wing. To help us chill, the husband and I have been re-watching Season One of The West Wing. Fun and easy watching. I learn a lot about issues and politics. Rob Lowe is still a hottie. Josh Lyman is an annoying character because Bradley Whitford, the actor who plays him, is so clearly full of himself. I wish there were more, you know, black and brown people and women who weren’t secretaries, but I guess Sorkin was showing us, you know, who doesn’t run the country. He was also so terribly, terribly LEFT that it’s somewhat annoying, but the writing is so… good. Fun. Informative.

The Sopranos. The characters are interesting as hell, and complex, and the acting is pretty stellar. But the characters don’t evolve, really, or go anywhere–we just see more of who they are as the series unfolds. After a while, I feel like I’m watching a bunch of interesting and complex hamsters in mafia hamster wheels while their wives and children and undercover hamster police burrow over and over again in the paper shreds.

Recount. Hard, hard, hard to watch. As the husband pointed out, had Obama lost the election we wouldn’t have been able to get through it. Based on what I know about the 2000 presidential election, I think most of it is accurate (feel free to correct me, anyone). It does very accurately show what a wimpy and fearful party the Democrats really are. (Think about what we’ve allowed to happen in the last 8 years, and you might not be able to get through the film, either. Actually, if you have new hope, recently, just skip this one. Really.)