Some things I have loved recently…
Three things I have loved recently:
Jesus Christ Superstar in the O2 in Dublin (13 October), with Tim Minchin as Judas… so good! I really adore this musical, and hadn’t seen it in years, and this production of it is absolutely spectacular – all modernised, but done very cleverly, and the kind of thing you just get completely caught up in.
I had been excited about Liberal Arts for a while, based on it having Josh Radnor (Ted from How I Met Your Mother) as the main character, Jesse, and being about college, and when I saw the trailer, I was sold. This is a movie about growing up, about being thirtysomething and having college nostalgia and falling for a cute undergrad… but without being cheesy and middle-aged-man-fantasy-ish. It’s smart, it’s funny, and the cast is brilliant – Allison Janney steals the scene whenever she’s on-screen, playing Jesse’s former Romantic Lit professor. Elizabeth Olsen is absolutely super as Jesse’s love interest Zibby. She does a great job at being nineteen – the kind of bright, charming, insightful nineteen-year-old who makes sense as Jesse’s object of fascination (there’s certainly a kind of ‘enchanted by’ feel to it, rather than being ‘wow she’s hot’), but also at a completely different stage of her life to Jesse and not entirely able to see it. Also, there is delightful snarkiness about books, and arts degrees. Yay!
I was slightly terrified that The Perks of Being a Wallflower wouldn’t live up to the book, which I adore, but I think as adaptations go, it does a really terrific job. The voice-overs mean that some of the book’s best lines get in there, and there’s also some nice new details and lines that work well on-screen. The cast is superb (although it’s strange seeing Kate Walsh and Dylan McDermott in such background roles), and apart from occasional flashes of ‘Hermione what are you doing?!’ Emma Watson does a wonderful job as Sam. Loved Ezra Miller as Patrick, Logan Lerman as Charlie, and Mae Whitman as Mary Elizabeth. And the music is brilliant (always associate ‘Asleep’ with Perks, so glad they were able to use it, and Heroes!).
