Film Reviews - Cathering Called Birdy and Rosalind

Nope, no side-effects, except for sore arm.

Kind of crashed today, outside of a side trip to Foodtown to pick up groceries.

Watched two flicks adapted from books, released first in theaters then on streaming:

1. Catherine Called Birdy - directed/produced/and adapted screenplay by Lena Durham.

Mother: How was it?
Me: I fell asleep during it.
Mother: So not that great?
Me: I liked the ending well enough, also could follow it rather well, without any rewinding considering I dosed off during about thirty minutes of it.

It's badly paced. Also it's a coming of age tale about a fourteen year old girl (set during medieval times) who is trying to dodge an arranged marriage set up by her loving father to an old codger to get money.

Me: There's the gay male best friend trope. Which is in all of these movies now. And I'm not sure it works with the medieval setting.
Mother: When is this set?
Me: Medieval Times (as in 1212 or the 13th Century).
Mother: You're right - that is odd. Although there were rulers back then that were, but if they were open about it..they'd probably be killed.
Me: Exactly - especially considering Religion was King back then.

There's also a lot of African women in the film - and I'm not certain they'd have been married to English Landowners in the 13th Century. It's not that I don't appreciate the diversity - I do. But this was the 13th Century - it was hard to get around back then. And people back then were even more bigoted, superstitious, and nasty to outsiders than they are now. Maybe the Uncle, who has brought his wife back from the Crusades. But it jarred me, personally, and took me out of the movie.

I may be wrong about this - since I'm neither a historian nor a medievalist - but I'd think this film would be jarring to people who are? It felt very modern to me, with the exception of arranged marriages for 14year olds in exchange for money - that's very 13th Century.

All of that said, some strong performances, an appealing lead, and an unrecognizable Billie Piper as the mother. (I honestly did not recognize her until I saw the credits.)

This is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

2. Rosalind - film is by 20th Century Fox, and currently streaming on Hulu. Also it was in theaters too apparently for a blink of an eye. Has a decent enough cast, I guess. But is rather...dumb?

Apparently somebody out there doesn't like Romeo and Juliet? Because this kind of skewers the play and trope. It's about Rosalind, the woman that Romeo was obsessed with before he ran into Juliette at a party and fell in love with her, or they fell for each other.
( Read more... )

Of the two - Catherine Called Birdy was slightly better. Both had pacing issues and both were disappointing in my opinion.