Somewhere Different Now

Well, there's an hour and change left of 2018 in my timezone. It hasn't been the shittiest year ever for me personally, but it hasn't been an especially good one either. On the larger scale of national and world news, it's been a deluge of horror with a hint of hope to come. However, rather than delivering any thoughtful reflections on larger issues, here's a list of some movies, books, and fanworks I loved this year. This is a list of my favorites, not necessarily what I think was the best quality.

Favorite Movies
-Black Panther - This list is in alphabetical order, not ranking order, but Black Panther is undeniably my top film of 2018. Perfect blend of dealing thoughtfully with big issues, fascinating characters, great action, and a gorgeous look.
-Colette - Keira Knightly plays a bisexual author, stands up for her desires and recognition against patriarchal expectations, and wears gorgeous period outfits...it's like they made it just for me. I found the depiction of her marriage to be fascinating. It wasn't a healthy relationship at all, but it was an interestingly complicated one.
-Ocean’s Eight - A super fun romp featuring competence porn and a great cast of ladies.
-Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse - Would have been the best Marvel movie of the year if Black Panther hadn't existed. The animation was outstanding, and somehow made even a Spider-man origin story feel fresh. Fun for both very casual and more serious fans.
-The Spy Who Dumped Me - The most underrated movie of the year. Look, I'm not saying it's great cinema for the ages, but TSWDM was probably the most fun I had in a movie theater all year. I laughed so much. Kate McKinnon and Mila Kunis seem to be having a great time onscreen together. Part of building a movie industry less centered on men is that women should also get to be at the center of silly action buddy comedies of middling quality. We deserve a Mary Sue-ish fantasy of being swept up from a boring life into a more exciting world and eventually, after a lot of mishaps, ending up being really good at it. If that hasn't sold you on this movie, Kate McKinnon flirts with Gillian Anderson (only minimally in character) and performs on a trapeze.
- A Star Is Born - The second-closest I came to crying in a movie theater this year. Lady Gaga proves that her acting chops are as strong as her singing voice.
-Won’t You Be My Neighbor - Definitely the closest I came to crying in a movie theater this year was in this documentary about Mr. Rogers. It's well worth watching if the world at large is dragging you down as a reminder that there are truly decent and kind people in the world, and at least one of them was even a white man.

Favorite Books (Alphabetical by author. Not necessarily books published this year, just ones I read this year)

-All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders - Moving, inventive, quirky, relevant.
-The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman (Invisible Library series #5)- One of my favorite ongoing series.  So much fun, and characters who really need more fandom.
-The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal - alternate history of space travel after a devastating meteor strike in 1952.  Great premise, diverse lady-centric cast, tautly written.
-Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty - tense space thriller full of clones and nonlinear narratives.
-Night and Silence by Seanan McGuire (October Daye #12) - Latest installment in my other favorite ongoing series.  I love these characters so much and want to protect them from all the terrible things and big revelations that keep happening.
-On Trails: An Exploration by Robert Moor - Fascinating nonfiction about trails from the first organisms to move along the sea floor to modern long-distance hiking. 
-The Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab (A Darker Shade of Magic, A Gathering of Shadows, & A Conjuring of Light, all read this year) - Fantastic worldbuilding, suspenseful, memorable characters including a piratical female antihero.  
-The Refrigerator Monologues by Catherynne Valente- deliciously angry tales from all the women killed in male-centric superhero stories.
-Space Opera by Catherynne Valente - Eurovision in space with the fate of humankind at stake.  Glam rock meets Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.  Hopepunk comedy.

Favorite Fanworks 

-The Night War: 60th Anniversary Edition by praximeter - Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers (with hints of unrequited Bucky/Steve). Do you like strong backstories for characters left underdeveloped by canon, frame stories, historical research, unreliable narrators, or being utterly emotionally compromised? Then go break your heart into a million pieces with WWII-era Bucky's diaries right now. This immersive fic blew me away.
-Avengers Get Ready by niyalune- fanvid distilling so many MCU feelings.
-Winter's Herald by leveragehunters.  My inner 14 year-old died of squee at seeing that there was an epic length MCU/Heralds of Valdemar fusion focusing on Steve/Bucky, and it was incredibly well done.  Soul bonds and telepathy and magical horse-like beings, oh my!
-i need a forest fire by tomorrowsrain - Bucky and Tony go on an epic roadtrip as fugitives, enemies to friends. Also Steve/Bucky relationship. Plotty with excellent dialog.
- light a match and burn them down by defcontwo - it has Steve/Bucky/Peggy and serum!Peggy with great banter...all the things my heart desires in a fic for these characters, pretty much.

What have y'all enjoyed this year?  What great things did I miss that I'll have to catch? 

Happy 2019, y'all.  May it hold manifold good things in store for you, and may you all find the strength to meet its inevitable challenges.

Various tv, movie, and fandom things that have been pleasing me lately:

-As expected, I am utterly besotted with Agent Carter.  Everything about it is glorious.  I love every Bechdel-passing, smashing-men-with-hefty-objects, magnificently costumed moment of it.

-I have also watched the first two episodes of Leverage, a show I've been meaning to watch for a while.  After seeing that Mark Watches had just started the show, I decided that the time was ripe.  I am already smitten with all of the characters.  (Lead white dude--Nate?--less than everyone else, but whatever.)  Hardison is so great.  I am impressed by how much has been crammed into each of the first two episodes and will be interested to see how well they keep that up.  I appreciate that it takes a critical stance towards corporations.

-On a heavier note, I saw Selma over the weekend.  It was really powerful and well made.  It was both inspiring to consider how much courageous people changed society and upsetting to consider that parts still felt far too relevant.  It is also worth taking the time to recall that the events of the civil rights movement really weren't that long ago in the arc of history.  John Lewis, who is portrayed in the film as a young leader within the movement, is still going strong as the congressman for the district in Atlanta where I grew up.

-Gallifrey One is less than a month away!  Among the many, many excellent guests, John Barrowman will be there.  I've seen him before at DragonCon, but he's always hilarious, and the smaller setting should be nice. I really need to figure out what I want to put on ribbons this year and order them.

So apparently it was Orlando Bloom's last day of Hobbit filming, and this happened.  I laughed until I ran out of oxygen, and then I laughed more.  (I stopped laughing before passing out, but it was a close thing.)



Meanwhile, I saw Much Ado About Nothing.  It was glorious.  I adore the People Joss Knows Acting Troupe so much.  Also, I want Joss's house.

I went to see Jurassic Park in 3D.  I really enjoyed seeing this movie, which I hadn't seen in years, on the big screen again.  I would rather have just had a 2D rerelease, but the 3D was done well enough not to be annoying (aside from the ticket price and having to wear uncomfortable plastic glasses over my real glasses, of course).  Getting to see everything huge and with a big sound system was the draw, and it was totally worth it.  The dinosaur effects have held up surprisingly well (although we now know that some of those species should have had feathers), and it's still a well told action story (even if some of the dialog is a little hokey). I love that in addition to the fear, the movie also conveys a strong sense of wonder at the dinosaurs.  The score is a big part of that.  As an adult, I have an enhanced appreciation for all the shots of Jeff Goldblum with a gratuitously open shirt.

I saw Jurassic Park when it was first released in theaters.  I was nine, young enough that my parents didn't normally let me see PG-13 movies, but my love of dinosaurs made me beg to see this one.  I may even have already read the book.  After first going themselves to check it out, my parents decided to let me go.  It was definitely scary for kid-me, but also tremendously fun and thrilling.

In honor of Jurassic Park, I recommend this extremely silly and joyously dino-centric fanvid made a few years ago by bironic.  The entry is here.

First, there are still plenty of unguessed songs over on the lyrics meme!  Artists include Ani DiFranco, the Indigo Girls, Johnny Cash, Lifehouse, Marian Call, Roseanne Cash, Shawn Colvin, Shawn Mullins, Sheryl Crow, and others.

I just saw the Dark Knight Rises, and I have Thoughts!


( Spoilers lie within )
 

-I am continuing to hold in the light those affected by the Aurora shootings.  I wish them healing and peace. 

I saw The Avengers this weekend.  This is the obligatory squee post:

SQUEEEEE! 

That's how you do an ensemble action film, folks.  Exactly like that.

( SPOILERS and further thoughts under cut )

-I hope the success of this project gives Joss the clout to do whatever he wants most for his next project.

Things I have done in the past few days:


( I Believe in Sherlock Holmes (cut for photo and vague spoilers for Sherlock 2x03) )


-dyed my hair a dark reddish brown.  This marks an improvement over the long roots in dull medium brown, faded chestnut middle, and tips sun-bleached almost blond that it had become in the many moons since I last dyed it.

-saw The Artist.  I was attempting to see The Descendents, but that was sold out, so I decided to see something else at my friendly local independent cinema since I was already there.  I thought The Artist was interesting, well made, and a lot of fun, though I don't understand why critical response has been quite so overwhelmingly fantastic.  It was good but not THAT amazing.  However, I'm not really a movie history buff, so I guess I'm not the optimal audience.

-amazed a sixth grader at work who started singing some of the few clean lines of "I'm On a Boat" by telling him that I knew that song and he needed to stop singing right there.  The fact that I'd heard the song apparently blew his young mind. 

Y'all, I've seen some of the best things on dvd lately.  Stuff that makes me flail my arms in the air in happiness. 

On Fringe, I'm up to "Brown Betty" (2x20).  Fringe S2 in general has been stellar, but this episode takes the cake for being brilliantly bonkers. 

( Fringe 2x20 spoilers )

Tonight I watched The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.  I've been meaning to watch it for quite some time, and except for a few issues it did not disappoint.  Getting the disappointment out of the way, I thought the ending was a let down.    Other than that, it was like they made this film just for me (Mark Gatiss also loves it deeply, so I'm in good company).  So much fan candy, y'all!  There is ho yay and an investigation involving the Loch Ness monster.  Those things alone would please me, but there's so much more.   ( spoilers )

I should probably stop flailing on my keyboard.  It's way past bedtime.  But y'all, watch Fringe and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.  Now. 

I just saw The Secret of Kells at my local indie movie theater, and I highly recommend it.  The visuals were absolutely stunning.  Some sequences felt like being dropped into an illuminated manuscript.  The story was simple but heartfelt, and I really appreciated the reverence for books.  Now, on to the TV meme!  I'm making no attempt to catch up with a double header today.

Thirty Days of TV Meme, Day 8:  A show everyone should watch

While DW is my personal favorite show, I've found that reactions from my RL friends tend to be a bit mixed.  I've concluded that it's not for everybody.  *shrug*  Humans are weird.

However, I can say with confidence that everybody in the 'verse should watch Firefly.  If you are somehow reading this journal and have not seen it yet, please proceed immediately to netflix, a local business from which you can rent or purchase dvds, or other source.  Watch the whole series, then come and thank me.  Those of you who are familiar with Firefly are probably nodding in agreement by now. 

For previous fans who wish to share in the squee or future fans who need a little persuading, I shall elaborate.  Firefly's got some of the funniest, most quotable lines around (even the theme song is quotable, for crying out loud), but it's not just a collection of one-liners and banter.  The character-driven writing gives the brilliant ensemble cast plenty of chances to shine. The setting – human colonies in space with a Western/frontier vibe plus Chinese cultural influence – is creative and beautifully brought to life.  The ship looks and feels like a home inhabited by people operating on the margins of society.  This show was cut down after only 11 aired episodes (plus three unaired episodes on the DVD and the following movie), but every single one of those episodes is great television, and it was getting better as it went along.  Its early demise is one of the greatest mysteries and tragedies of recent television history.  On the plus side, that's a very short time commitment for those wanting to watch or rewatch. 

Firefly is so awesome that actual astronauts have taken the DVD into space. (Astronaut fans surely appreciate the fact that Firefly has relatively solid science for TV science fiction.  There's no sound in space!)  It inspires such loyalty in fans that they persuaded the powers that be to make a movie.  Even people who don't much care for Joss Whedon's other shows tend to enjoy Firefly.  So, go forth and watch it.  Bring your friends.  Bring your family.  Bring your plastic dinosaurs.




I saw The Road the other night at my local independent movie theater.  I can't say that I enjoyed it, because it's not really the sort of movie one enjoys, but it was extremely good, and I'm glad that I saw it.  This is an apocalypse movie that doesn't even bother explaining the mechanism of the destruction, focusing instead on the bleak aftermath of increasingly hopeless survivors in a ravaged landscape.  A lot of apocalypse movies (and books and TV shows) feel like adventures; this felt like the end of the world.  The scope and thoroughness of the vision of death for the earth and human civilization alike was stunning.  Shooting that movie must have involved making odd statements like, "Damn, it's sunny.  Gotta shoot inside today."    Viggo Mortenson gave an excellent performance.  He looked like he had lost a really scary amount of weight for the part.  Maybe some of that was effects, because otherwise someone needs to give that man a sandwich, stat.  The kid playing his son was also quite good.

The post-apocalyptic landscape where plants no longer grew was populated by people so desperate for food that they'd turned to cannibalism.  There are a few really scary and horrifying scenes that gave me some trouble when trying to fall asleep afterwards.  It reminded me of the butchers in the Epitaph episodes of Dollhouse or Reavers in Firefly, but these had the extra horror value of having reached that state without any drug or technological brain alteration, changed into monsters just by desperation and the breakdown of social controls.  The film was as sad as it was scary.  I cried at a scene where Viggo is trying to bring himself to get rid of mementos of his dead wife, then again at the end.  Buckets at the end, although oddly enough it was the grace note of a little faint hope (well, not so much hope as less than total devastation) that made me cry the hardest.  Overall, this movie is not for the faint-hearted, but for those who can deal with both creepy basements and existential angst it is very much worthwhile. 

Meanwhile, I just came across the band Florence + the Machine, and I've rapidly become obsessed.  (Note:  I live under a rock, and thus sometimes hear about bands and such much later than normal people.)  "Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)" and "The Drumming Song" alternate in continuous rotation in my head, but I can't bring myself to mind.  (For one thing, they've finally dislodged "Bad Romance," which has refused to entirely unstick itself from my brain for ages and ages.).  Pop music with a harp and unique, sometimes fairytale-like lyrics?  Yes, please!  Here, have the trippy, beautiful video for "Rabbit Heart." 




Other exciting find of the week:  the gray tights I bought for an Amy Pond costume for Gallifrey One turn out to be the most comfortable tights I've ever worn.  The brand name is Hue, and they are so comfy I didn't want to take them off.  Score!