So, with December wrapping up (and my ED/EA results coming in; so far, 100% deferral rate, which is at least better than 100% rejections, right), I thought I’d also do a December wrap up of all the things I read/watched that I didn’t get the chance to or didn’t want to write a full review for. That doesn’t mean they sucked; it just means I was either lazy at the time or I don’t have a lot to say about it. I also watched some of these in a COVID-haze, so… Cut me some slack? Anyway. Let’s go.
12/3/2022 Don’t Look for Me
I cried, which is saying something for a book, because I don’t cry for books or things like that. But I feel like I must’ve had fifteen children and died being framed in a past life, because as soon as something has anything to do with dead children and being framed, I start bawling my eyes out. So the beginning of this book, where we’re describing the death of a young child and the immense guilt that the mother feels for her? That made me cry. The mystery of the rest of the book was fine, nothing really remarkable, but I loved the beginning and the rest of the book, while it wasn’t as good as the beginning, was engaging and interesting, so would definitely recommend.
12/4/2022 Bohemian Rhapsody
Was fun. Was gay. Don’t remember much else, except watching Freddie’s manager twist other people’s words and twist Freddie’s words and genuinely being both manipulative and evil was terrible. I hate characters like that. Other than that, this film wasn’t particularly remarkable for me. It revived my love for Queen, but that’s about it.
12/5/2022 Feminists: What Were They Thinking?
I watched this in preparation for my Cambridge interview, and I wanted to cry whenever they showed a woman naked, posing for the camera and just being free. There’s a freedom to the reclamation of your own naked body, and those images really captured that feeling of empowerment. There was nothing sexual about those images; it was just a woman, in the moment, and she doesn’t care one iota if you’re looking at her body. She’s just there, existing, taking up space, and you can’t help but watch her because of it, not because of some attraction to her.
I also was introduced to The Dinner Party installation. I love it, and I have a huge respect for Judy Chicago and the other artists who were fighting against not just the stigma of sex but also the stigma of being a woman. That’s sad, really, that a state of existence can have a stigma attached to it, but that’s the truth.
I don’t often have much to say about documentaries. I think they’re meant to inform and to provoke, start conversations that aren’t often started. But I don’t often have much to say about them.
12/8/2022 The Celluloid Closet
This was a godsend for my AP Research project, first of all, and second of all, it’s just such a moving documentary. I had no idea how many films pre-Hays Code and post Code existed documenting the life and trials of being gay. Watching this was both an education and felt like being invited into my community.
“We learn from the movies what it means to be a man or a woman, what it means to have sexuality,” Richard Dryer, Film Historian. This quote is why I’m doing my AP Research project, and I’m so glad that I saw this documentary.
12/18/2022 Avatar 2: The Way of Water
I probably got COVID from this theater endeavor that I partook in, but it was going to happen sooner or later. I liked this film; it wasn’t terrible. But considering it’s 3 hours long and a very much anticipated sequel of the highest grossing film of all time, I expected more. Instead, I feel like it had much of the same issues as the first one: a huge emphasis on telling, not showing, and the CGI really overtakes the script and the characters. In this film in particular, none of the original characters get any development, and I can’t say I enjoyed having so many main characters. It felt scattered, and the film couldn’t even get into the main plot until about an hour in. I understand that introducing new characters and new places on Pandora is so that this can continue as a franchise, but if a good film can standalone regardless of whether or not it’s part of a sequel or franchise (see Addams Family Values). So, all in all, can’t say I will be watching it again.
12/19/2022 Ted Lasso Season 1
I just watched this because Ted Lasso season 3 still isn’t out. STILL ISN’T OUT! What are we waiting for, guy? If we wait any longer, we might as well just skip over all of the things and go directly to watching Ted watching his grandkids play soccer! WHY IS SEASON THREE STILL NOT OUT!
I still love the first two seasons, though. Will be rewatching again and again.
12/22/2022 Jojo’s Bizarre Adventures Season 1 and 2
I watched this because a person I like really loves this show, even though I’m not much of a fan of manga. I won’t tell her, but I think for the most part, I can’t say I loved this show. A lot of it feels very gender essentialist to me, and especially the scenes about Lisalisa just felt incredibly male gaze-like to me. It made me uncomfortable, how many times you had people tell her she was “just a woman” and to leave the “fighting to me” because the “me” in this case was always a dude, even though she’s literally a master of her craft. And I get that she’s not a main character, so it makes sense that they would take her out of the final battle, but so far she’s the only female character who gets any sort of character development so I was really looking forward to being able to see the writers redeem themselves.
Needless to say, they did not. I think that’s my problem with Japanese manga in general, because the ones that I’ve seen, which, granted, aren’t a lot, deal with women like they’re second class citizens.
I’m still going to watch the next six seasons, probably. I just wanted to put this out there and then take a break, because there’s only so much I can go through.
12/24/2022 The Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Rian Johnson is a genius and I loved it. I did guess the killer, almost immediately, because that scene that’s referred to later to create a false memory for the audience was actually a scene that I watched really carefully while watching the movie, so I saw Miles hand Duke the glass. I just thought it was unintentional at first, but the more I watched the more I thought it was Miles.
Still, loved that the twist was that Miles wasn’t actually smart. That was something that I didn’t see coming, because right up until the end I was still expecting him to be an evil genius. Also, Katheryn Hahn is a genius. Just putting it out there.
12/26/2022 Ava
It was a spy film where the main character is an assassin and the organization goes against her. Without even knowing if there’s a sequel or not, I know there won’t be, and this just feels like they tried to reboot Salt but instead of Angelina Jolie found Jessica Chastain. The only thing that shocked me was that this was made in 2020.
Happy Saturday, everyone, and happy almost New Year!!
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