Jenn Reese's Blog, page 7

Movie: Admission

I thought the Tina Fey/Paul Rudd movie Admission was going to be as unfunny and boring as the Tina Fey/Steve Carell disaster that was Date Night, but I was wrong.

Admission, ostensibly about a predictable Princeton admissions officer and the unpredictable teacher who wants his star pupil to be admitted to the school, is ripe for some very predictable comedy… except the movie isn’t funny. In fact, it’s not even trying to be funny. Instead, it’s the quiet story of two people who think they have their lives together, and who actually don’t. It’s also about parenthood and adoption. (Lily Tomlin is wonderful as Fey’s complicated mother.)

There are no big laughs, no over-the-top caricatures (other than Fey’s cheating boyfriend whose relationship constitutes one of the only running jokes), and no garish, embarrassing display of character change at the movie’s climax. It’s a decent film about two likable but flawed people finding love and trying to figure out parenthood.

I watched this while sick, and it was perfect — not too loud, not too challenging. There’s not a lot of chemistry between Fey and Rudd, but I didn’t mind. I bought their romance and was happy with an ending that didn’t resolve everything into Happily Ever Afters. It’s a feel-good film for when you’re feeling bad.

2013: Favorite TV Shows

Because of my surgery and recovery time, I watched a lot of TV in 2013, and had a chance to catch up on entire series that I’d previously missed.

Top 5 TV Shows that I discovered in 2013

(Listed alphabetically)

Community: Oh, Community, how did I ever live without you? You and Parks & Rec are now my favorite two comedies of all time. I hope season 5 returns you to your former glory. Favorite characters: Britta and Troy.

Fringe: One of the best science fiction shows I’ve ever watched. It starts out at a procedural but becomes completely awesome, reinventing itself with each new season. By season five, I considered it one of the most ambitious shows I’d ever watched, and one that never forgot the characters and themes at its core.

The Good Wife: I should hate this show. Nothing about the premise interests me in the slightest. And yet, it’s brilliantly written, a case study in how to make every character interesting and complex.

Scandal: I loved season one and season 2 had me on the edge of my seat. I’ve actually stopped watching in season 3 because of repeated torture scenes, but I still think the show has done some amazing things. My advice to Scandal: Find the fun! Refocus around your created family of white-hat gladiators and leave the violence and torture for HBO.

The Vampire Diaries: The third time I tried to watch this show, I made myself go at least 6 episodes in. And hey, that did the trick! Despite its horde of Hollywood-pretty actors, this is a surprisingly feminist show with a lot of fantastic female characters. My favorite? Caroline. She’s the best “heir to Buffy” that I’ve seen in ages. The show’s biggest failing is its overly white cast.

Honorable Mentions/Promising Newcomers

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Diverse cast and humor that doesn’t punch down? SOLD. The pilot didn’t work for me, but the show had some great episodes later on.

Orphan Black: Fantastic show! I’m enjoying the heck out of it, although it doesn’t have its hooks in me the way some of the others do. Perhaps the sf elements are just a little too intense and not enough escapist fun.

Sleepy Hollow: So much to love about this one, especially the chemistry between the leads. I also have a growing crush on Abby’s sister.

2013: Favorite Movies

TOP 5 MOVIES OF THE YEAR

(Listed alphabetically)

Beasts of the Southern Wild: Magic realism starring an amazing Quvenzhané Wallis. I missed seeing this in 2012 but couldn’t bear to leave it off this list.

Casting By: Brilliant HBO documentary about two of the unsung heroes of Hollywood, casting directors Marion Dougherty and Lynn Stalmaster. A must-see.

Frozen: Never thought I’d be including a Disney film on this list, but I adored Frozen. The visuals were stunning and the plot a refreshing and feminist twist on the expected.

Gravity: Bullock is amazing and it’s so rare to see a woman starring in a survival film where “nature” is the enemy.

The Heat: Hot damn, this is fun. Bullock and McCarthy have great chemistry and suddenly I understand why men have loved buddy cop movies all these years. More, please!

Honorable Mentions

In a World…: An indie movie about a female voice actor operating in the still-very-male world of Hollywood voice overs.

Pitch Perfect: Tremendous fun except for some egregious stereotypes. Without its issues, it would have been in my top five, despite including a massive vomit scene.

Thor 2: The Dark World: A gorgeous film that surpasses the first installment in every quadrant, but especially in terms of characters, dialogue, and epic scope.

Shout-outs

To Raiders of the Lost Ark and North by Northwest, both of which I got to see again on the big screen thanks to special showings at the ArcLight.

NOTES

All five of my favorite movies this year featured women, plus two of my honorable mentions. In my opinion, this was the best year yet for women in film.

Journey follow-up: Flow, Religion, and Storytelling

In response to my post about Journey, my friend Ted pointed me at two articles about the game, both of which proved fascinating:

“Seeking the Light” at the Brainy Gamer, about how:

Journey elegantly conveys sapta bodhyanga, or the Seven Factors of Enlightenment in Buddhist philosophy:

Mindfulness

Investigation

Energy

Joy or rapture

Relaxation or tranquility

Concentration

Equanimity (the ability to face life’s challenges with a tranquil and dispassionate mind)

It’s a fascinating read. “With Journey, Jenova Chen and his collaborators have given us a magic carpet ride that resonates deep in the consciousness of players willing to let go and take that ride.”

The second article is “A Portrait of the Artist as a Game Studio” by Ian Bogost at The Atlantic.

This is a brilliant piece and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in Journey, games, the concept of flow, or storytelling in general. I had not realized that flow was the goal, but in retrospect, it seems obvious. From the article:

During graduate school, thatgamecompany’s creative director Jenova Chen became obsessed with the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of flow, the psychological feeling of being fully involved in an experience. Csikszentmihalyi’s book on the subject was published in 1990, but a definition for the phenomenon is often cribbed from a 1996 Wired interview: “Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you’re using your skills to the utmost.” In musical terms, flow means being in the groove; in athletic terms, we call it being in the zone. Flow is a state of being, one in which a task’s difficulty is perfectly balanced against a performer’s skill, resulting in a feeling of intense, focused attention.

It also talks about the storytelling structure:

Fantastic, yes, but not a hero’s journey. Insofar as it has one, it seems impossible not to read the game’s story allegorically instead of mythically: an individual progresses from weakness, or birth, or ignorance, or an origin of any kind, through discovery and challenge and danger and confusion, through to completion. It could be a coming of age, or a metaphor for life, or an allegory of love or friendship or work or overcoming sickness or slouging off madness. It could mean anything at all.

I really can’t recommend these articles enough, especially the second one. I’m still mulling it over, still looking for ways to map its concepts onto my own work. Thank you, Ted!

Video game: Journey (PS3)

I’d been hearing great things about a PS3-only video game called Journey, but knew almost nothing else about it until I sat down to try it out last week. Three hours later, I’d finished the game and been profoundly affected by it.

You wake alone and surrounded by miles of burning, sprawling desert, and soon discover the looming mountaintop which is your goal.

Faced with rolling sand dunes, age-old ruins, caves and howling winds, your passage will not be an easy one. The goal is to get to the mountaintop, but the experience is discovering who you are, what this place is, and what is your purpose.

Travel and explore this ancient, mysterious world alone, or with a stranger you meet along the way. Soar above ruins and glide across sands as you discover the secrets of a forgotten civilization.

There are no weapons in Journey, no combat, no dialogue, and only minimal game controls. Everything about this game is gorgeous: the character design, the moody settings, the effortless game play, and the haunting score. The game is immersive. Turn the lights off, turn the music up, and free yourself of distractions — you’ll want to be in this world and nowhere else while you play.

I don’t want to say much more about the game because both the journey and the theme of the game surprised me. After I finished, I sat staring at the tv with the lights out, letting the music loop over and over again. The experience bordered on spiritual, and many days later, I still find myself thinking about it.

This is not a normal game. You will not kill stuff and take its loot, you will not go up levels, you will not defeat evil and transform the world. Journey, on the other hand, might be capable of transforming you.

Pledge: Daily December

Well, here we are, in the last month of 2013. I have a personal goal of writing the first draft of a new novel every year, and unless I get some serious time with the keyboard, I’m in danger of failing. Therefore I’m dubbing this “Daily December” and pledging to write 1,000 words a day this month, unless I finish my novel early. (Unlikely; I wouldn’t put money on this if I were you.)

If you’d like to join in, all you need to do is pledge a daily goal: writing a certain number of words, meditating for 20 minutes, sending one holiday card per day, etc. — whatever it is you want to accomplish that might benefit from some daily attention.

WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER. (Except not really. I have no intention of writing your holiday cards for you when I can’t even write my own.)

It’s December 1st: Have at!

Above World 3, HORIZON: Cover!

I’m so happy to share the front and back covers of HORIZON, book three in the Above World series. As with the previous two books, the art is by Alexander Jansson and the design by Candlewick. I absolutely love it, and I hope you do, too! It’s about time the Aviars were featured, don’t you think? Calli would be so proud.

Magic Author Moments

Yesterday, I was at brunch with nine other people: friends I know through Chris, and their families. We all sat around a huge table. While I was talking to Meghan and her baby on my right, Chris was talking to a 10-year-old girl on his left. The girl’s mother said something along the lines of, “Why don’t you tell Chris about your favorite book?” The girl launched into the description.

I heard none of this, except Chris started elbowing me, then nudging my leg. I was enraptured with my own conversation and ignored him… until I heard him say, “Do you know who wrote that book?” Then he leaned back and pointed to me.

My mouth fell open. The girl’s mouth fell open. Yes, the book she was describing was Above World, which she’d checked out of a library in England. I’m not sure which one of us was more surprised, but I’m guessing it was me.

Honestly, I’ve always dreamed of finding someone reading Above World and surprising them by saying, “Hey, I wrote that!” This was like that dream, but even better. It was magic.

Today, as I sit down to work on my new book, there’s a new spring in my fingertips and a special kind of joy in my heart.

New Story: Gather Your Bones

“Gather Your Bones,” my new short story, is online at Daily Science Fiction today! Check it out if you get a chance. (Note: It’s an adult story and not intended for a middle-grade audience.)

“Gather Your Bones” is my (brief!) reflection on the Nice Guy Syndrome.

TV: New Shows, Fall 2013

I love watching pilots of new TV shows, seeing how the writers set up the characters and relationships, the world-building, and the larger stories. Here are some of my winners and losers among the new shows for Fall 2013.

NEW SHOWS I’VE GIVEN UP ON

The Crazy Ones: Sarah Michelle Gellar is great, but the rest of the show is a snooze and way too homogenous. Some nice chemistry between Gellar and Williams, but not enough.

Michael J. Fox Show: The writing. Oh, god. The writing. The episode where Mike and his wife are appalled that their daughter’s passion for photography involves artistic nudes drove me over the edge. It’s an immature, backwards thinking show, despite Fox being generally awesome.

Super Fun Night: I want to love Rebel Wilson in this, and I truly like what they’ve done with the male lead, but it’s just not funny.

The Tomorrow People: I failed my disbelief roll. Those actors look like they’re in their thirties, not still in high school. Nice twist at the end of the pilot (the most info-dumpy pilot EVER), but ugh. Too much pretty.

Edited to add:

Mom: I love love love Allison Janney and was excited for a show full of women, but I’m just not interested in the subject matter, which seems to be three generations of teen moms dealing with their relationships to each other.

NEW STUFF I’M STILL WATCHING:

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: The only thing this has going for it, in my opinion, is the Marvel universe. I’m sticking around just to see references to things I actually like, but it’s nowhere close to being must-see TV.

Sleepy Hollow: Diverse cast, strong female characters, and a fairly adorable male lead. It’s not edge-of-my-seat-viewing, but it’s up there with shows like Haven.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Despite some unfunny and unnecessary fat jokes in the latest episode, I’m enjoying this show more and more. Andy Samberg’s childishness is actually viewed as a flaw by everyone, and most of the humor comes from making fun of him for it, not reveling in it. Nicely diverse cast with lots of women and no racism or misogyny that I’ve picked up on so far, a rarity for sitcoms.