![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Another crisp and clear sky-blue day. In the upper 40s and low 50s, not sure what that is in Celsius. Spring for what it is worth has apparently arrived in NYC, complete with trees in full bloom and daffodils and tulips budding. Went to the farmer's market, bought fresh tomato sauce, apples, and eggs, then wandered home - since my back was bugging me.
1. Just finished watching the surrealistic award winning film : Beasts of the Southern Wild - which is about a 6 year old little girl who lives in the Mississippi Delta with her father when Hurricane Katrina hits. It is told completely from "Hushpuppy" - the little girl's perspective, hence the surreal nature. I can see why it got mixed reviews, and it is admittedly slow in places - sort of like watching a visual poetry. Which in a way is reminiscent of Terrence Malik films, albeit less arrogant and not as self-indulgent. Definitely not everyone's cup of tea as the case may be. I know at least two people who despised the film and found it to be dull and over-rated, while most of the people who reviewed it online loved it.
In places the film is rather magical...and the cinematography astounding, in others it sort of meanders and wanders...and I start to drift asleep much as I did during Sofia Coppola's far less interesting and definitely overrated films - The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation. This film has a lot more to say than Coppola did and isn't as self-indulgent and silly. But is sort of in the same film sub-genre - surrealism. There are better films out there that Beasts matches, such as Luis Buneal's That Obscure Object of Desire, or the film Black Orpheus. (I watched a lot of these films in my 20s and 30s, and my brother made one or two.)
In some respects Beasts of the Southern Wild reminds me more of another surrealistic piece about the Southern US, this time the Gullah, entitled Daughter's of the Dust, except I think it, Beasts of the Southern Wild is ever so slightly better - it's narrative is tighter and more focused, in part because there are less characters.
It's really about a child navigating the difficult terrain between life and death and who she is, consciousness, and her purpose for being. She's practically raising herself at this point anyhow - so it is a tragic yet equally uplifting story about Hushpuppy's survival - in difficult circumstances. She has next to nothing, her father is ill and dying, and her mother gone - and she lives next to or literally on the sea or as she calls it The bathtub.
Away from society, in a small close community. And since we see everything through her eyes - the adults seem wacky and incomprehensible most of the time. She's attempting to make sense of her surroundings and her place within them. Coming to the conclusion that everything is connected and she is part of the whole and matters because she is a piece of it.
Watching Beasts...is a bit like watching a very long visual prose poem. If you don't like that sort of thing...I wouldn't rent it. If you do - you'll most likely adore it. Poetry doesn't quite work for everyone, I've discovered. Wish it did, sometimes I think life would be easier if it did, but it is what it is.
2. Doctor Who Episode - Hide - one of the better Doctor Who episodes to date, which admittedly surprised me, because people were comparing it to the Rings of Achteung episode, which I did not like. [ETA: Apparently the same writer wrote both. Oh well, we're all granted one bad episode after all.] This one was much much better written. Hard to tell it was from the same writer - the two episodes are nothing alike. It's actually my favorite of this season, so far.
( eh spoilers )
1. Just finished watching the surrealistic award winning film : Beasts of the Southern Wild - which is about a 6 year old little girl who lives in the Mississippi Delta with her father when Hurricane Katrina hits. It is told completely from "Hushpuppy" - the little girl's perspective, hence the surreal nature. I can see why it got mixed reviews, and it is admittedly slow in places - sort of like watching a visual poetry. Which in a way is reminiscent of Terrence Malik films, albeit less arrogant and not as self-indulgent. Definitely not everyone's cup of tea as the case may be. I know at least two people who despised the film and found it to be dull and over-rated, while most of the people who reviewed it online loved it.
In places the film is rather magical...and the cinematography astounding, in others it sort of meanders and wanders...and I start to drift asleep much as I did during Sofia Coppola's far less interesting and definitely overrated films - The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation. This film has a lot more to say than Coppola did and isn't as self-indulgent and silly. But is sort of in the same film sub-genre - surrealism. There are better films out there that Beasts matches, such as Luis Buneal's That Obscure Object of Desire, or the film Black Orpheus. (I watched a lot of these films in my 20s and 30s, and my brother made one or two.)
In some respects Beasts of the Southern Wild reminds me more of another surrealistic piece about the Southern US, this time the Gullah, entitled Daughter's of the Dust, except I think it, Beasts of the Southern Wild is ever so slightly better - it's narrative is tighter and more focused, in part because there are less characters.
It's really about a child navigating the difficult terrain between life and death and who she is, consciousness, and her purpose for being. She's practically raising herself at this point anyhow - so it is a tragic yet equally uplifting story about Hushpuppy's survival - in difficult circumstances. She has next to nothing, her father is ill and dying, and her mother gone - and she lives next to or literally on the sea or as she calls it The bathtub.
Away from society, in a small close community. And since we see everything through her eyes - the adults seem wacky and incomprehensible most of the time. She's attempting to make sense of her surroundings and her place within them. Coming to the conclusion that everything is connected and she is part of the whole and matters because she is a piece of it.
Watching Beasts...is a bit like watching a very long visual prose poem. If you don't like that sort of thing...I wouldn't rent it. If you do - you'll most likely adore it. Poetry doesn't quite work for everyone, I've discovered. Wish it did, sometimes I think life would be easier if it did, but it is what it is.
2. Doctor Who Episode - Hide - one of the better Doctor Who episodes to date, which admittedly surprised me, because people were comparing it to the Rings of Achteung episode, which I did not like. [ETA: Apparently the same writer wrote both. Oh well, we're all granted one bad episode after all.] This one was much much better written. Hard to tell it was from the same writer - the two episodes are nothing alike. It's actually my favorite of this season, so far.
( eh spoilers )