I’ll do this weekly from next week onwards, so this is more busy than usual. Some I watched this week, but some was about a month old.
I have been trying to watch all best picture Oscar movies. Have only watched a couple till now, because, TBH, they are more in the interesting rather than the the entertaining genre.
These are one liner reviews for some of them.
Movies
Wings 1927
The first picture to win an Oscar. Was kinda surprised that we had shots of planes before we had sound. It is quite interesting on a technical level. And I did see that due to not being able to use dialogue, the facial expressions were larger than they are now. Also, it is kinda interesting to watch a war movie set before World War 2. I’ll revise that thought later, because there are quite a few war movies. However, to me, World War 2’s destruction dwarfs everything. Also, was surprising to see that the movie featured woman(only one IIRC) as a driver at the war front. I guess scarcity of resources removes societies stupid biases.
Haven’t seen The Broadway Melody yet.
All Quiet on the Western Front 1929/30
Another war movie, that can probably be made shot by shot today. And not feel dated. War is harrowing. and the movie depicts that. Particularly bad were the how much focus was on food in the soldier’s mind. And the propaganda. It took me quite a while to realize that the movie was from German armies perspective. Related to the focus now on World War 2, I haven’t really scene any German centric movie that portrayed them somewhat positively. War itself is not positive in this movie, so I am not sure if positive is really the right choice. Quite a bleak move though. My favorite of this Oscar experiment so far and would recommend it on its own merit.
Cimarron
Story of USA from 1889 to 1929. Felt over acted my the protagonist. I have really mixed feelings about portrayal of blacks, native Americans in older movies. What is better? To have none? Or caricature and racist portrayal, like in this one. It does feel like it was progressive for its time, but really dated now. Does have women empowerment themes where the hero defends the rights of a (former?) prostitute and the heroine becomes a senator. Still the hero is the focus and he felt Gary Stuish as well as the over acting.I did somewhat enjoyed the hammy overacting in the so bad it is good way. I am also not sure how this followed the the previous movie in terms of quality.
TV
Squid Games
Watched as part of new year resolution to watch popular culture TV series. Interesting, but the ending disappointed. Still recommend it as you’ll probably enjoy 60-70% of it. I don’t really know if the battle royale concept can have a satisfying ending TBH. The reasons for the games will always seem stupid, because well, they are. I really enjoyed the sound track as well.
Harley Quinn
Fun one. You do have to suspend some internal thoughts on “Why are you doing this Harley? Stop. Don’t do that stupid thing!”, as the show has somewhat whacky tone between comedic no consequence violence vs stakes for the anti heroes. Harley and gang kill a lot of people! Enjoy it as a cartoon and don’t think too much about it. Clayface and King Shark are hilarious. Voice acting was great as well, and I really enjoyed Lake Bell’s Poison Ivy on that front.
Books
A Deadly Education: A Novel (The Scholomance Book 1)
Magic school where the school is trying to kill you. Fun read. Characters are tropish of YA genre, but I prefer some quick reads like this in between heavy non fiction reading.
Strong Female Protagonist
Graphic novel. Interesting deconstruction on the super hero genre that I have not seen before.
SPOILER
Idea is that wouldn’t Superman be better off fighting the systematic reasons for creating villains? I have not kept up with comics so this is probably more pervasive now. And someone has killed superheroes that could have, say, generated all the electricity required because of oil lobby. Or created actual systematic changes that helped everyone. Super strength is useless in that domain.
Project Hail Mary: A Novel
If you like Martian, you’ll probably like this. Has some nifty concepts.
SPOILER
A first contact novel that has aliens that are very different than humans, but with a similar technological level. Has very interesting ideas on what we take for granted in terms of technological advancement. It is quite an optimist book though, and after reading quite a few Sci-Fi dystopias, it felt quite nice to read one that was so positive.
Piranesi
I’d recommend this one for prose and description. The ending didn’t satisfy me and raised more questions. In my opinion the world would have fundamentally changed due to the things that happened in the book, which doesn’t happen. But the protagonist’s voice is just so charming that you can’t help but continue reading.
Assassin’s Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy, Book 1)
This almost felt like I need to read the following books. A lot of world building happens, but not much else till the ending 50 pages of the books. Felt that this was written in a combination with perhaps the next book, and author had to end it here due to word count and came up with a conflict along with resolution. Will probably have opinions here after reading the following book.
Elantris
Writing style really hooked me. I read it almost in a single seating. The ending was a bit Manga style, but the world building and magical system is quite interesting. This is somehow considered one of Brandon Sanderson’s worse books so I am really curious about reading Mistborn series. Have a book club meeting about this one tomorrow, so will probably add it to the next weeks threads with more thoughts.