The February-April Fiction Report

I can no longer pretend it's "book reports with a side of movie reviews." I might not watch many movies these days, but I watch twice as many movies as I do books, and fiction is fiction--one gets emotionally and intellectually invested in both, don't you see. 

So here are my thoughts and feelings on everything I've read and watched since February. In case you were interested. 

Image credits go to Goodreads. 

PART I:
The Books of February-April
arranged in the order that I read them

Some Short Stories by Bret Harte

One of my high school lit teachers introduced me to Bret Harte with "The Luck of Roaring Camp" way back when, and several years later I found a faded but still distinguished hardcover edition of his notable short stories at my uncle's garage sale. When I was home for a midwinter break I told my sister (the Wit, who shares my Rio Bravo obsession), "you know what, you would like these, they're Westerns but in melodramatic short story form." So I read her "The Luck of Roaring Camp" and "The Outcasts of Poker Flat," and also read "Miggles" by myself. It was a good time. 

"The Luck of Roaring Camp"--featuring a baby who is born into a mining camp populated entirely by roughnecks of a more or less criminal variety (this includes the mother, the only female citizen of Roaring Camp, who promptly dies). The men decide to try their hand at raising the baby themselves. Much hilarity and tenderness ensues. Also heartbreak. (Because this is an American short story, and it wouldn't be an American short story if there wasn't a big tonal twist at the end.) Our favorite character is Kentuck, but Stumpy is pretty great too (our Rio Bravo obsession might have something to do with our fondness for him? but apparently all Stumpys are feisty and stouthearted and loveable). 

"The Outcasts of Poker Flat"--featuring Oakhurst the Gambler, who, incidentally, hails from Roaring Camp and is, I think, even closer to my heart than Kentuck. The premise of this story is that Oakhurst and a number of other disreputable characters are kicked out of town and forced to shift for themselves as best they can on their way to the next outpost of civilization; but they get trapped in a snowstorm and, well, it isn't pretty. I feel like the plot here is a little bit weak (or maybe I just don't understand the severity of the winter weather and the impossibility of trooping through it), and I don't appreciate what happens to Oakhurst in the end, but I like the warm spark of humanity that glows through it and I ship a certain couple SUPER DUPER HARD. My verdict: mixed feelings. 

"Miggles"--this one is unusual for being told in first person; it's narrated by a passenger on a stagecoach that stops and stays the night at "Miggles' place," whoever Miggles is. Miggles does eventually make an appearance and is revealed to be--well, the whole point of the story is to surprise you with Miggles' identity and character, so I won't spoil it. Just in case you do read it someday. (It's not my favorite Bret Harte story, even though it does feature a redemptive look-how-warm-and-human theme that turned out to be better than I remembered.) (Bret Harte does redemptive look-how-warm-and-human themes a lot, actually. He's quite good at them.) 

The Case of the Missing Marquess, by Nancy Springer

I've semi-recently made the acquaintance, via Netflix, of Sherlock Holmes' spunky little sister Enola. I like her quite a lot. She's a fun time. I like her hapless aristocrat friend Tewkesbury probably even better (I have a weakness for hapless aristocrats, especially when they're young men with the innocence of three-year-olds). So I figured I'd better read the books.

I was desperate for something light and quick to read, and Book 1 of the Enola Holmes series delivered. It was a decent book, I think--so much fun that the pros way outweighed the cons for me. 

What were the cons, you ask?

--the feminist themes struck me as too heavy-handed (at a certain point some of the ink used to paint the horror of Victorian corsets in vivid colors could have been used to develop characters or advance the plot)
--it takes Enola a long time to get out of the house (which is probably an important part of the thematic feminism; like, yes, I see how the plot is mirroring the social limitations forced on Victorian women, 'tis very clever, but I am bored)
--it takes a long time for Enola to meet Tewkesbury (do you see how seeing the movie first is ruining the book for me?)
--sometimes I was a little shocked by the adultness of the social commentary...like if the book is targeted at 8- to 12-year-olds (which I believe it is) then maybe we shouldn't be referencing prostitution? (but that's probably very Victorian of me) 

So much for the cons. Let us do a balancing list of things that I really and truly enjoyed:

--the prose! it was elegant enough to make me believe Enola actually is a Victorian, and not a modern girl transported into the Victorian age for the express purpose of being annoyed by corsets
--SHERLOCK HOLMES! this probably isn't the proper place for me to declaim my views on Sherlock Holmes, but basically, I love the concept of Sherlock Holmes and I adore the 1954 TV series with Ronald Howard, but the canonical Sherlock Holmes with his lack of healthy relationships makes me a) bored (with the original stories) and b) kinda sad (I wish he really were best buds with Watson in precisely the 1954 Ronald Howard way). I loved how Nancy Springer was able to give us a Sherlock Holmes who is faithful to the Arthur Conan Doyle stories (the analytical personality, the lack of emotion, the melancholia), and yet insist that he is still human and as such is capable of good relationships. (because if you think about it, no matter how analytical you are, you still need PEOPLE. *humphs*) 
--how Enola Holmes JUST WANTS A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH HER BROTHER.
--how CLEVER Enola is. (her escape from her original domicile, when it finally came, was worth the wait.)
--the way the themes ended up being about more than just feminism.
--Tewkesbury! he was worth the wait, too. 
--the overall cleverness of it.

At the end of the day, my favorite thing about this book was how it set things up for the series. Like. It was so promising. There are so many characters in play and so many aspects of the setting fleshed out. And I'm excited. Particularly to see how the relationships grow. I need to get my hands on Book 2. 

Scaramouche, by Rafael Sabatini

What FUN this was. Thanks awfully to Sarah Seele for recommending it. 

It was just so chock full of swashbuckling stuff. Swordplay? Check. Romance? Check. Political tensions running super duper high between aristocrats and commoners at the dawn of the French Revolution? Check. 

Andre-Louis is a grand protagonist. I like him muchly. He's dramatic in such a way where he feels like he should be a trope, but he isn't cuz I can't think of anyone else quite like him. Like, he's young and bold and devil-may-care but with an extremely extremely dry sense of humor and a dash of profound cynicism. And he talks so well.

But then, Sabatini himself just writes so well. There were so many instances where I just wanted to put down the book, blink, and stare at a sentence for awhile. Because...yeah, wow. Sabatini's command of the English language is MASTERFUL. Which is especially impressive because English was not his first language. He just wanted to write in English cuz he thought the best novels were written in English. (On another level I guess it makes SENSE that if you poured enough time and effort into a foreign language to be truly fluent in it, you would have a better ear for what makes that language so powerful in ways that other languages might not be. Y'know? Like being "new" to a language might make you more awake to its particular advantages over other languages.) (And on another note, I appreciate that Sabatini appreciated English. I feel like English-speakers who study other languages tend to come away with an idea that English is sloppy by comparison, so it's nice to know that it can work the other way around, lol.) 

Anyway back to the book itself. 

The plot is quite surprising.

It shouldn't be surprising because it's so extremely chock full of tropes. Like revenge and aliases and rivalry in love. Yet it surprised the heck out of me at least twice, with plenty of smaller surprises along the way. 

I just....really enjoyed it. This was a treasure of a book to read for the first time, and if you've not yet had the pleasure, I advise you to posthaste.

The Song of Roland 

Speaking of tropes and swordplay and loveable protagonists-- 

The Song of Roland is just my favorite piece of medieval literature out there, guys. Not that I've read a whole lot of medieval literature. But not even Beowulf comes truly close in my estimation. 

Actually--and this is gonna sound blasphemous--in some ways I greatly prefer The Song of Roland to The Lord of the Rings. 

I love the friendship between Roland and Oliver.

I love what a prideful IDIOT Roland is, and how badly that idiocy ends up kicking him in the rear, and how after the first flabbergasted shock or five he realizes, "gosh, I guess it's really my fault" and repents with childish sorrow. 

I love how Oliver is so OVER IT.

I love how, even though Oliver is over it and Roland is an idiot, they never even come close to actually hating each other. That moment when the mortally wounded Oliver accidentally whacks the swooning Roland over the helmet, and Roland wakes up and is like, "jeepers, bro, I must have really hurt your feelings" and Oliver is like "my friend, I'm so sorry, please forgive me" (when really Roland has a LOT more to apologize for)--ACK MY HEART.

When Oliver dies I almost want to stop reading because who cares about anything anymore. 

I love the death of Roland, how he doesn't despair over his sinfulness but simply beats his breast in humble repentance and gives his soul to God's charge (and his glove to the angel Gabriel). 

I'm not so big on the whole climactic battle between Charlemagne and the Paynims, and Charlemagne baptizing the city at sword-point (say whaaaa?), and the execution of Ganelon (although it is intensely satisfying to see Ganelon get his due, especially at the trial when he's still trying to be cool about it. part of me really likes Ganelon. he's all flashing eyes and puffed-out chest and you can see a family resemblance between him and his stepson, except that Roland's pride is a childish idiotic oblivious kind of pride that is quick to laugh and quick to forgive, and Ganelon's pride is a cold sincere brooding one that kills him from the inside out). 

I also greatly appreciate Dorothy L. Sayers as translator and commentator. I didn't actually read her introduction this time around, but I skimmed bits of it, and I just...really appreciate her. She's a cool lady. 

The Rainbow of Sorrow and Seven Words of Jesus and Mary: Lessons from Cana and Calvary, by Fulton Sheen

Fulton Sheen's meditations on the Seven Last Words of Christ are my go-to spiritual reading for Good Friday. My family owns the anthology The Seven Last Words which is comprised of 7 books that he wrote arranged in a rather confusing but very creative (and wholly gratifying) way (by word instead of by book), and I like to skip through the anthology in such a way that I'm reading one book at a time. 

The story of the Good Thief is usually my favorite part. 

(I meant to read Raymond Arroyo's picture book The Thief Who Stole Heaven over Holy Week, as well, but I forgot to get around to it and now it's far away and I'll have to wait until next time I go home, alas.) 

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, tr. J.R.R. Tolkien

I would probably be much happier as a reader of medieval epics if I could stop comparing everything to The Song of Roland.

See, Sir Gawain is a good story. There’s nothing wrong with it. But I can’t get over the things that it isn’t about, that Roland IS about: brothers-in-arms, brothers-in-arms facing certain death, desperate battles, world-threatening stakes, vengeance and betrayal, ars mortis. Etc. I also think I prefer the primitive poetry of Roland to the more sophisticated verse of the Gawain poet. 

All this to say that I think I’ve identified one thing about Gawain that IS comparable to Roland, and that is: both poems feature the failure and consequent humiliation of an heroic knight heretofore confident in his adherence to the chivalric code. Gawain is a good bean all the way through the poem, but I love him most when he’s beating himself up for the mistake he made at the end of his adventure. He’s uniquely endearing because the mistake he made was (to my thinking at least) a relatively minor one; his distress over not being perfect is kind of amusing, but I sincerely admire his commitment to never forgetting his moment of failure. Living in your faults is super unhealthy, of course, but I don’t think Gawain is refusing to forgive himself here so much as he is refusing to forget he is capable of falling, in the interests of not falling again. And the way the other knights of the Round Table react to his commitment is just adorable. Maybe it is a brothers-in-arms story, after all.

The Silver Chair, by C. S. Lewis

It took me a long time to come to an intellectual appreciation for The Silver Chair, but I think this time around is the first time it hit EMOTIONALLY. 

Like...it was what I needed this year. Particularly this winter. There was one week in particular that I crept to bed early to read it and just...felt for Jill with every fiber of my being, because I WAS Jill in that moment. 

I actually do truly really love Jill. I stand by my opinion that C. S. Lewis gets better at child characterization as the series goes on. (I'm revisiting Digory and Polly in The Magician's Nephew now, and DANG are they well-written kids.) 

And RILIAN. I really, really, really love Rilian, actually. I just FEEL for the guy. And he TALKS so splendidly. 

Are You My Mother?, by P. D. Eastman 

This was one of my favorite books when I was a wee one. And I got a chance to read it to one of my favorite groups of wee ones recently. 

It was glorious. P. D. Eastman is a genius, the story is simple yet literary ("he looked up. he did not see her. he looked down. he did not see her." << poetic, i tell you), the illustrations are delightful, and my kiddos were very engaged. 

Can someone pay me to be a full-time read-aloud-er, please? 

PART II:
The Movies of February-April
ranked in order of my subjective enjoyment, from what most depressed me to what made me happiest.
(rewatches are starred. two stars means I watched it twice this round of reviews #noshame)

Jersey Boys (2014)

After I wrote my Four Seasons post, my roommate (I have 4; let's call this one Paprika) asked me if I'd ever seen Jersey Boys (she never had). We were coming home in an Uber on a drizzly Saturday night with supplies for an indoor picnic and we needed something to watch, so we pulled up the trailer on her phone and, delighted with the mid-century aesthetic and the Four Seasons soundtrack, decided it exactly matched our vibe for the evening.

So we went home and watched it. 

And it was a mistake.

Not really. It's gonna make a great memory and I'm grateful for the time with Paprika. And honestly, I enjoyed the movie well enough while we were actually watching it. The music does not disappoint, the aesthetics were indeed gorgeous, and the mafia subplot that started the film off with a bang and never entirely went away was an unexpected point of interest. 

BUT GUYS. THIS MOVIE IS SO DEPRESSING. It's based on the Broadway musical, but it's not letting itself focus on the music because it's also trying to be a biopic of Frankie Valli; and it can't quite decide, I don't think, if it wants to be more about the band and its breakup or the lead singer and his personal life. So it tries to cover both, and jumps around from topic to topic in a choppy and most unsatisfying manner. The thematic cohesion is lacking. To say the least. And the story is sad. Not in a redemptive way, either. 

I went to bed thinking I could never listen to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons the same way again.

And I don't think movies have the right to be depressing. I think they have the right to tell a story about something depressing. But if they're going to do that, they have to pick a theme and arrange the depressing events around that theme in such a way that you walk away feeling like you learned something about the human condition. Even if the characters didn’t.

Even if it's impossible to put a redemptive spin on things, there should be some sense of purpose to it in the end. 

I think this movie would have been so much better if it had identified and drawn out a tragic flaw in its protagonist other than being from Jersey. Anytime events went downhill in such a way that Paprika and I were screaming "WHY DON'T YOU JUST DO XYZ," some character would look at the camera and say some variation of, "If you don't get it, you're not from Jersey." Instead of allowing Frankie to have agency and take personal responsibility for his actions, they just kept blaming his decisions on his background as a Jersey boy: he's caught in a cycle and this is the way it's got to be. 

Which is just so AWFUL. And SAD. And I don't LIKE it. 

On the plus side, I know at least the first names of all the Four Seasons now, and have a deep appreciation for Bob Gaudio as a songwriter. 

Without Remorse (2021)

I watched this one with my other roommate (let's call her Cardamom). It's based on a Tom Clancy novel but set in the current day instead of during the Cold War, and involves a military guy getting revenge on the military dudes who broke into his house and killed his wife and baby. 

I like intense military movies as a general rule, but this one was too intense for me, and I found I didn't actually like the protagonist. I feel for him but I don't actually like him. There's a difference. 

But time spent with Cardamom is time well spent, so no regrets. 

The Sons of Katie Elder (1965)*

*there be spoilers ahead*

I rewatched this John Wayne/Dean Martin Western with my sisters, because I didn't trust my opinion on it when I watched it by myself. Here is their hot take: it doesn't work, because leading up to the climax John Elder's whole moral goal is to make Katie proud by not resorting to violence, but then as soon as all of his brothers get shot up, he takes recourse in violence not only to bring the bad guy to justice but to satisfy his personal vendetta. And Katie would not be proud. 

I think they have a point.

Also I'm just really bugged by the brothers getting shot up in the end. I'd like it a lot more if there was one more happy scene in the end. If we could see Tom and John and Bud happy and whole together. The last shot of the rocker is cool and all, and I know in my head that Tom and Bud are gonna be okay, but I want more than an intellectual knowledge of that--I want to see it and feel it and know it in my heart. 

Maybe I ask too much. 

Here Comes the Boom (2012)

My family discovered this in my absence and were desirous of sharing it with me, so we watched it all together, which was a good time.

It's about a high school science teacher who wants to save his school's music program, mostly because he's pals with the music teacher, whose wife is expecting a baby in their old age. Which is rather a unique premise to begin with. What makes it more unique still is that the high school teacher decides to make the money to save the school music program by getting involved in...WWE? Some form of performative wrestling/boxing/physical fighting? I forget the term for it, it's been awhile. 

Anywho. It wasn't really my cup of tea but it always brings me great joy to see my mom enjoy a movie, especially when it's not the kind of movie I would expect her to like at all. 

While You Were Sleeping (1995)

I'd been meaning for some time to watch this vaguely-Christmas-themed rom com about a girl who gets mistaken for her comatose crush's fiancée, goes along with it, and ends up falling in love with her supposed fiancé's brother.  

I liked the fact that Lucy (that was her name, right?) works at the subway station. And the story on the whole was pretty cute and rather funny.

I think...I don't...actually like romcoms as much as I would expect myself to? My family never watched them growing up, except for Return to Me (2000), which the internet informs me is not technically a romcom but a romantic comedy drama. 

It's just...they're always a little more inappropriate than I expect them to be.

You can, in fact, tell a story about people falling deeply in love WITHOUT making jokes about sex, believe it or not. Just look at Jane Austen. 

Anywho. I don't mean to hate on While You Were Sleeping. It was cute. Really. I probably would've loved it more if I'd watched it without my 8-year-old sister in the room, though. 

A League of Their Own

I love baseball. Paprika loves baseball. I had never seen A League of Their Own. A League of Their Own is one of Paprika’s favorite movies. Obviously a movie night was in order.

Our honorary roommate Pepper watched this one with us, too. It was a glorious evening.

“The men go off to war and the girls play baseball without them” is a plot I’ve tried to write before, albeit on a much smaller scale; so the premise of this one greatly appealed to me, even if it was grown women instead of girls and the pros instead of a local league and WWII instead of WWI. 

And the promising premise was charmingly executed.

The 1940s are just a fun vibe, you know (other than people getting killed overseas, that is). And baseball is a fun vibe. And feminism as it existed in the 1930s and 1940s is probably the kind of feminism that annoys me the least. (You go, Rosie the Riveter. You go, WASPs. You go, Amelia Earhart.) (Well Earhart to a certain extent I guess. WASPs, all the way.) (oh oh oh and DOROTHY SAYERS. My favorite kind of feminist fits into this era quite well, yes precious.)

Anywho enough about Megan’s personal historic preferences, what about the story?

Dottie was lovely. Kit was lovely. Doris and Evelyn (it’s Sharona from Monk!) and Mae and Marla were lovely. “Lovely” would be a strong word for Jimmy Dugan, but I’ll allow it. And Dottie's husband Bob was lovely. 

Actually, Bob’s relationship with Dottie was lovely. I was worried there for a while that the movie was gonna do some steamy stuff with Dottie and Jimmy, seeing as how Bob’s never really characterized in the beginning and his being Dottie’s husband off at war seems more like a fun fact about Dottie’s marital status? But what do you know we can be classy. (While also acknowledging that there’s something awkwardly akin to attraction between the leads. Like…it’s real, as Paprika would say.)

And KIT. Can we take a moment to appreciate the relationship between Dottie and her sister? Darling. Also super frustrating cuz Kit is a major bonehead with self-esteem issues. But darling overall. I love how it’s a sister story at heart. We need more of those.

Huh let's see, do I have any other commentary? 

Oh yes! Content. This one ain’t for kiddos, people. Due mostly to language and inappropriate jokes, several of a sacrilegious nature. Look-past-able if you’re mature enough, but unfortunate. 

A fun time overall. Made me want to go out and play baseball. 

(The day after we watched A League of Their Own I made Pepper and Paprika watch The Perfect Game with me, because the vibes are super similar and The Perfect Game is, methinks, a perfectly SOLID movie. I had to miss the last 15 minutes of it when I watched it with them, though, so I'm gonna consider it ineligible for this batch of movie reviews. This post is already long enough.) 

High School Musical (2006)

Whereas the first four movies on this list let me down to some extent (not A League of Their Own—A League of Their Own pleasantly met expectations), this movie didn't let me down at ALL, because I was expecting approximately zero from it. 

My honorary roommate Pepper (have you noticed a pattern in my made-up roommate names?) found out I'd never seen High School Musical and was genially shocked. She promptly sat me down to watch it and guess what? I had a lot of fun. I enjoyed it way more than I expected to. Like, it was genuinely cute. Feel-good, innocent teenage drama. 

(I can see being the parent of a preteen and not wanting my kid to watch it and get all these ideas about falling in love in high school, which I think is why my household never went in for it growing up. But as a twenty-something looking back on the early 2000s and being nostalgic for teenagerhood and needing something light and fun? Just what the doctor ordered.) 

The Alamo (1960)

This is my sisters' new favorite movie. My family was rude enough to discover it without me and decide it was on par with Rio Bravo, if you can believe that. So obviously it was a high priority for family movie night when I was home in February. 

In my estimation, it can't yet compete with Rio Bravo, but I've only seen it once and we were watching it late at night and it's a long movie, and I get the feeling it takes a lot of taking in (multiple rewatches + lots of giddy sister conversations + a very attentive viewing mindset) to get to the level of appreciation my sisters have for it, so I’m withholding judgment. I do agree with their one big beef that John Wayne is a dubious casting choice for Davy Crockett. (I mean, Davy Crockett is Davy Crockett and John Wayne is John Wayne. Both American legends, but legends with very different vibes. Both in one person = does not compute.) 

You can kind of overlook John Wayne as Davy Crockett if you focus more intently on Jim Bowie and Colonel Travis, whose beef with one another fuels the more personal end of the plot. 

You may know how much I love men's beef with one another fueling the plot of a movie. 

Personally my favorite character is Colonel Travis. He's the type of character whose personality begins and ends with his uniform. By which I mean, not just the fact that he happens to pull off the military aesthetic, but that he cares very VERY much about what the uniform represents--honor and duty and courage and effacement of self and all that. It's a trope which I very much enjoy, especially when there's tension between that character's understanding of himself and the fact that he is, y'know, a human being with human attachments whether he wants to admit that or not. 

WE STAN COLONEL TRAVIS, is what I'm saying. 

Joseph King of Dreams (2000)*

I don't know how many times I've seen this movie at this point, but it's one of those reliable old favorites that never gets old, y'know? Between this and Prince of Egypt and Sinbad (and oh, yes, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron), I've got a ton of respect for Dreamworks. 

Anywho. 

I don't really have a lot to say about this one other than that it made me cry. Might the fact that I watched it sick with a fever have something to do with that? Well, yes, I grant you, it might. 

But, like. Brothers, man. Betrayal. Forgiveness. Good music. What's not to cry about? 

Davy Crockett and the River Pirates (1956)*

AGHK. I FORGOT HOW MUCH I LOVED THIS MOVIE. My siblings and I really loved it in the distant days of our youth, so revisiting it after all these years was super nostalgic. 

You know how I said John Wayne should under no circumstances play Davy Crockett? That's because only Fess Parker should play Davy Crockett. 

Anywho. It's not a very complex or deep or particularly cohesive, but it's just...a lot of fun. I love that it takes place on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers in like 1820, so that it feels like a Western but is actually more of an Eastern. I love the river boats. I love the singing. I love Davy Crockett and what a golden boy he is. I love Mike Fink and what a blowhard he is. I love the friendship that develops between both of them. I love how the plot doesn't really care if it's clunky as long as it's having a good time. I love how innocent it is ("Georgie's not a drinkin' man!" is my new favorite line to quote). I love--I JUST LOVE IT ALL SO MUCH. 

(I also watched this one while getting over the flu. Apparently movies are most enjoyable when one is getting over the flu.) 

Rio Bravo (1959)**

So I've watched this one twice in the last three months, both times when I was visiting my family: once at 3 in the morning with the Wit upon getting home late from the airport, once while getting over ye olde flu. 

Staying up until 5 in the morning when I'd been up since about 6 was worth it.

Getting ye olde flu and having an excuse to watch Rio Bravo again was worth it.

(I think I need to reconsider my answer to the question, "What's your favorite movie." It's a Wonderful Life is and always will be a defining characteristic of my life as a fiction lover but I didn't even make time to watch it last Christmas...)

Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (2018)*

THIS. 

MOVIE.

I am so impressed with it, guys. 

So, so, so impressed. 

...Evidently the more I love a movie the harder it is to say anything about it. We shall resort to bullet points.

• New York City feels like New York City, right down to the smallest details (except for the ones that are supposed to be off, like "PDNY" instead of "NYPD").
• Miles Morales is such a real kid. I dig him.
• I dig Gwen.
• I dig Peter Parker.
• I dig Peter B. Parker even more, albeit in a different way. Come to think of it Peter B. Parker has a lot in common with Dude of Rio Bravo: a has-been with self-control issues, and even worse self-respect issues. 
• I dig the extraneous Spider-People who are there largely for comic relief.
• The evolving relationship between Miles and Peter B. Parker is everything I am here for in fiction.
• The evolving relationship between Miles and Gwen is cute.
• The interactions between all three of them really WORK. The way Peter is kind of third wheeling it, but also the way Peter & Gwen are a pair of equals when it comes to keeping Miles safe, and--yeah. There's a lot of good stuff here. 
• ALL the relationships are really good, actually. Miles and his family = so great. Miles and his uncle = ouch. It's a very well-fleshed-out community of people where the side characters interact with each other as well as with the main character in believable ways, which is...a very important aspect of any Spider-Man rendition, methinks. (It's the relatively limited world-building of the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies that make me less than satisfied with it: we're too busy cramming Spider-Man into the MCU to give Peter's personal world space to branch out, and without that branching out of the ordinary world, it doesn't feel like authentic Spider-Man.)
• And the THEMES. The movie is so incredibly thematically cohesive. 
• The interaction that goes along these lines: "You've got to go home, man."/"But what if I mess it up again?"/"You won't." << Megan is crying again, and it's not from getting over the flu this time. 
• It gets better with every rewatch.
• I am so excited for the sequel coming out this summer. 

Les Miserables (2012)

ACK. THIS. MOVIE. *flails like an overcaffeinated octopus* 

This was a me-and-Paprika movie night. Two movie nights in a row, actually, because we are ancient grandmothers and can only stay up so late on a Sunday night now that we have responsibilities on Monday mornings. 

I've loved Les Mis (the musical) since high school, to the point where I read the book (which I'm considerably less keen on) just so I could justify listening to the Broadway soundtrack in front of my very-not-impressed siblings ("I have a right to this musical! I've READ THE BOOK!"), but. Be that as it may. I had never actually watched the 2012 movie. Which movie is probably more or less responsible for the fact that I knew about Les Mis, since my entire friend group fell to the fandom around the time it came out. 

Anyway. *ahem* 

Watching this on a Sunday night in the dead of winter when I really really REALLY didn't want to have to go to work in the morning was just...the most uplifting thing. 

It was exACTly what Paprika and I needed. There's something special about a movie that comes at just the right time like that, y'know? 

But perfect timing aside--I was keenly impressed. My one quibble is with the singing, which isn't always on par with the Broadway soundtrack (my go-to version is the 10th Anniversary one) in my 'umble opinion. (But also objectively, from what I've heard actually musical friends and acquaintances declaim.) 

But the CINEMATOGRAPHY. I think it makes up for whatever is lacking in the singing. And the music itself is still grand (lyrically & instrumentally) even if the performers aren't one's favorite. And the acting is quite good. 

And just...the STORY is good. 

It's SO good.

Victor Hugo really annoys me, because he goes off on these long philosophical tangents that would be annoying even if they weren't philosophically problematic (this is how I remember him sounding in the book: "there is no personal God to hear our prayers, there is just a great Ideal!"; "fixing the sewers of Paris would remedy half of all suffering there!"; "young men getting butchered in the cause for political freedom is worth it, because someday we will succeed in forming utopia on earth! I have trouble wrapping my head around why it is worth it, exactly, especially since I've told you fifty times I'm not a religious man, but somehow, I promise, it's worth it! everyone should be like Enjolras!" etc.), but Victor Hugo's story is actually very good. Like, the CHARACTERS are good, and because they behave in believable ways their actions end up building a believable story; and when you take out Hugo's sometimes-crazed commentary and let the characters speak for themselves, it's powerful, powerful stuff. 

So, yeah. 

We love Jean Valjean.

We love Fantine. 

We love Eponine. 

Marius and Cosette are rather idiots, but we can deal with them. Same with Enjolras & his revolutionary boys’ club. 

The Thernadiers are AWFUL, obviously, but they're so amusing, don't you know. 

And again, the MUSIC. THE EMOTION OF THE MELODIES. THE POETRY OF THE LYRICS. *clutches heart* It captures something of the drama of life, methinks. 

And then there are so many instances where, for instance, parallel scenes are done to perfection. I'm thinking specifically of how Jean Valjean holds Fantine while she dies in the beginning, and then at the end it's Fantine who's comforting Jean Valjean as he exits this world. Like...that's such good commentary on how when we die (as the medieval mystery play Everyman points out), all we can take with us is our good deeds and the grace of God. (Good deeds are themselves graces of God, of course. But you know what I mean.)

...Wow I have accidentally written a mini-post on Les Mis. Moving on!

--WAIT I FORGOT TO MENTION JAVERT--

*refuses to let herself talk about Javert* *or Gavroche* *or the Bishop* 

Return to Me (2000)*

-There's a movie you enjoyed MORE than Les Miserables, Megan?

-Why, yes, my dear, and it's a romcom. 

-You said you didn't like romcoms.

-Not generally, I'm afraid, but this is different.

The nostalgia is strong with this one, for one thing. I grew up on this movie--or at least, I grew up on this movie's soundtrack, which is heavy on Dean Martin and features some excellent pieces like "Buona Sera" and "Good Morning, Life" (and, obviously, "Return to Me"). So before I rewatch this I'm always like, "Oh, it'll be nice to revisit this one again, it reminds me of being little" and then when I ACTUALLY rewatch it I'm like "WAIT. THIS IS ACTUALLY A GOOD MOVIE."

It's about a guy in the construction business (his name is Bob, and he's played by David Duchovny, aka Fox Mulder from The X-Files, which I think is funny) whose lovely wife dies in a car accident. Bob is heartbroken, understandably, but eventually he meets this girl named Grace who is practically perfect in every way. She's in the I-help-out-at-my-grandpa's-Italian-Irish-restaurant business; she paints, she gardens, and, incidentally, she's so ridiculously self-conscious about her recent heart transplant that she fails to tell Bob about it. 

Romance ensues. 

The aesthetic is kind of wonky, as befits a romcom. It involves a gorilla, a cohort of old guys at the Italian-Irish restaurant, Grace's bicycle, Bob's big sad Labrador, a lot of Chinese takeout, arguments about who is the best (dead) singer, and a trip to Italy. 

There's something for everyone, in other words.

One of the things I dig about the movie is its robust strain of Catholic culture. Grace's grandpa is very devout; he prays to St. Michael when Grace is in surgery, talks about the rosary, and reprimands the movie's most rascally old man (his name is Angelo; we love Angelo) by saying, "You're going to get a lot of Purgatory time for that one." 

I'm also a big fan of the side couple, Megan and Joe, who are married with like five kids under ten. They're profoundly imperfect (most of the movie's swearing comes from Joe), but for all that they're a deeply functional couple, and I find them realistic and therefore moving. 

I also just really ship Grace and Bob. They're really cute. 

And--skip this paragraph if you don't want spoilers--I think the plot is very much in line with JPII's Theology of the Body, because…well, Grace’s heart. Is Bob’s first wife’s heart. And that’s a big deal because bodies aren’t just bodies; they’re an expression of our personhood and as such they have intrinsic dignity and…I dunno, I just think the heart is so effectively symbolic. That scene where you can hear Elizabeth’s heart beating again for the first time in Grace, and it’s at that moment that Bob opens his eyes after crying himself to sleep on the floor of his apartment? Chills. It’s just so good.

There are some sexual jokes and instances of bad language, but as far as romcoms go, it's not too bad. I would argue it's much cleaner than While You Were Sleeping, although that might be a subjective judgment. 

Well, my dears! That was quite enough from me! I want to hear from YOU. What good (or horrifyingly bad) things have you been reading/watching lately? Any recommendations? Have you read/watched any of these? Do you think stories ever have a right to be depressing? What MAKES a story depressing--the content or the execution of that content? Do you like medieval epics? Westerns? Romcoms? Sherlock Holmes retellings? Spill all the tea.