Baby, just say yes! Just kidding, this is not a Taylor Swift review (although I could give you a one-word review: awesome.). This is actually a review for "Adventureland" - my brother's fiance's dad (I will be so glad when most of that is shortened to sister-in-law!) reminded us often before we saw the movie that though it may seem to be a slacker comedy, it's a love story. And so it was...
The movie opens in 1987 at a commencement weekend at Oberlin College where our hero, James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) has graduated with a degree in something like romantic poetry. He has been informed by his parents that due to a salary cutback, they can no longer pay for his graduation trip to Europe nor his fall apartment in NYC and that he must move home to Pittsburgh and find a job to fund his grad school enrollment at Columbia. He can't find a job since he has no experience and an un-marketable major, but he ends up working in Games at the local amusement park (Adventureland), where no experience is necessary. From there he makes new friends, falls in love, and earns little money. Ah, being 22 in the '80's...
The movie is super-sweet, predictable, and very funny. The breakout star is Frigo (played by Matt Bush, you know him as the older son from the AT&T old rollover minutes commercials). He is HILARIOUS as Brennan's best friend (until he turned 4) and his reference for the job at Adventureland. This kid has a future. I liked Jesse Eisenberg in the lead role, but with co-stars such as Martin Starr, Ryan Reynolds, and Bill Hader, you kind of wonder if this role was supposed to be for Michael Cera or someone in that pantheon. Still he was good and believable. I also liked the 1980's setting...I assume this is the time when writer/director Greg Mottola worked at the amusement park that inspired the movie. It gave it some authenticity since it wasn't finding a way to update it for the '00's. Like - this is exactly how he remembered it. Music and all.
Criticisms - I mean, you kind of figure where it's going end up, although the end kept me guessing a little bit. Kristen Stewart played the main love interest (Em Lewin) and while her emotions felt real, I wasn't really into her method of acting. Meaning, she spent a lot of time tossing her hair for effect and kept her hands near her face to convey the emotion that her face couldn't get to. It was weird. I'll be interested to see if she does this in "Twilight" as well...
Overall - very fun movie and very glad I saw it. Definitely recommended.
We also saw some great previews for "Funny People" - 3rd Judd Apatow film starring Adam Sandler, "Away We Go" - an indie film with John Krasinski and Maya Rudoplh starring as a pregnant couple, and "Hungover" - starring Zach Galifinakis, Ed Helms, and Bradley Cooper at a Las Vegas bachelor party gone awry. I want to see all of them!!!
Some things to look forward to...I had Mother's Day lunch yesterday with my husband and in-laws at Sullivan's and this Saturday we're headed to see "Rent" and have dinner at the Backstage Steakhouse. Last night, we went out to Stubb's to see a show, so I may give you my thoughts on that as well. I'm also hoping to see "Star Trek" and "Wolverine" this week, but who knows...
Monday, May 11, 2009
Friday, May 1, 2009
Literary musings
I figure it's time to open up the ol' blog to book reviews! Yay - I know you're stoked. As my brother said when I told him about this post, "I don't even read books, why would I want to read about them?" Either way, I'll let you know what I've finished, and what I'm reading currently.
"Breakfast at Tiffany's and Other Short Stories" by Truman Capote - I was given this book for Christmas by a dear friend and read it in little bits here and there. My friend had realized that everyone had seen the movie and no one had read the book. My husband and I had seen the movie at the Paramount last summer (get in on this, it is such a fun place to see a movie), so she figured I could be the first. First off, while the character of Holly is pretty much exactly the same, although not much of the rest of it is. "Fred," the narrator is just a writer and not a kept man in the same vane as Holly is a kept woman. The very end is different as well - I won't spoil it, though. However, I'm glad to have read it. Mr. Capote's way of writing Holly is very endearing and her character is compelling, as flawed as it is. You feel like everyone else in her periphery - a bystander drawn in by her personality, an acquaintance consumed by pity at her naivete, and a friend that she has hurt in her whirlwind of a lifestyle. I remember that the movie "Capote" suggested that Mr. Capote was not thrilled by the casting of Audrey Hepburn in the lead - I can't really separate the two - and at this point in pop culture, they are synonymous. While "Breakfast at Tiffany's" is the star story (and the longest), the other 3 are no slouches. My favorite was the last one, "A Christmas Memory." It recounts the story of a 7-year-old boy and his best friend, an aging female relative. They spend their days together with an old dog, save their money to make fruitcakes for all of their acquaintances (and the President) and love each other fiercely. The other two stories are about a reformed prostitute in the Dominican Republic and about an old man in prison. Both are told with such great imagery, that my mind's eye can picture the setting and the characters as I type this. The only other work I have read by Truman Capote is "In Cold Blood," and reading these stories made me want to get ahold of more of his fiction. Recommended!
Confession time...I read "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer, and even worse, I liked it! As far as easy to read and compelling - this book is it! Once I got going, I didn't want to put it down. Yes, it's silly, and yes (like the Vanity Fair profile pointed out) Meyer describes Edward's perfect beauty way too often, but it is still good old vampire fun. One thing I will say about Meyer's writing (and I read this somewhere else, but I can't recall where) is that she evokes that feeling of teenage like/love as accurately as when I felt it all those years ago (haha). She brings back that crazy tension of "do I like him? does he like me?" and sitting so close to someone that you just want to touch them, icy vampire or not. I liked her interesting setting of the Pacific Northwest, as it is something I am way not familiar with. It's not as edgy as the vampire literature I read as a teen ("The Last Vampire" saga by Christopher Pike, I have re-read it since and it's still good), but it was still a lot of fun. I am looking forward to reading the next one (one my co-worker's teenage daughter finishes it), and I may even cave and rent the movie (don't tell my husband!).
I'm currently reading "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy. I first became familiar with Roy while watching a documentary she was featured in in my Hinduism Seminar in college. The documentary was about damming one of the main rivers in India - by damming it to use the energy for a wealthy dwelling up river, they were depriving poor communities downstream of fresh water and livelihood. Fascinating. This book is pretty upfront about poverty, the residual caste system, and colonization in India, and I've had to put it down to take a break, but that doesn't mean it's bad. It's just real, and some times you have to take that in small doses.
There are two other books I would say I'm reading right now as well. One is "How I Became Stupid" by Martin Page. This is my husband's favorite book and I'm doing all I can to read it (after all, he read my favorite book - "Bunny Bunny: A Sort-of Love Story" by Alan Zwiebel - on my recommendation), but I can muster up no feelings of warmth for the main character. He is a self-important French college graduate who thinks that stupid people are happier, since he is so tortured by his intellect. I bet I have read a chapter a month (and it's not that long) - so we'll see when I finish. I feel like it has to get good because my husband loves it so much, but it hasn't happened yet. The other one is "Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas." I have pretty much read all of Chuck Klosterman's collections pretty voraciously - I think he has a biting wit and I appreciate his nerdy honesty. However, Part IV of this book is a fiction novella. I'm used to reading his non-fiction essays, reviews, and interviews - so it's been hard to switch the brain over to fiction. I need to since his newest work ("Downtown Owl" is a fiction book. I think I'll get this one finished before "How I Became Stupid."
To read is always an interesting list...there are a ton of books I'd like to read, but I'm not as good as getting around to them as I used to be. Of course, "New Moon" is at the top of the list once I get my little paws on it (I decided to not buy it at Best Buy this weekend - it seems more like Half-Price Books purchase). From there I have "The Brothers Karamazov" by Dostoyevsky hanging around along with Marx's "Communist Manifesto." Don't be impressed, ask me how long those have been on my bookshelf unopened. I'll probably get distracted by the 2 for 3 table at Borders again before I get to those.
Are you reading anything interesting? Or anything at all?
"Breakfast at Tiffany's and Other Short Stories" by Truman Capote - I was given this book for Christmas by a dear friend and read it in little bits here and there. My friend had realized that everyone had seen the movie and no one had read the book. My husband and I had seen the movie at the Paramount last summer (get in on this, it is such a fun place to see a movie), so she figured I could be the first. First off, while the character of Holly is pretty much exactly the same, although not much of the rest of it is. "Fred," the narrator is just a writer and not a kept man in the same vane as Holly is a kept woman. The very end is different as well - I won't spoil it, though. However, I'm glad to have read it. Mr. Capote's way of writing Holly is very endearing and her character is compelling, as flawed as it is. You feel like everyone else in her periphery - a bystander drawn in by her personality, an acquaintance consumed by pity at her naivete, and a friend that she has hurt in her whirlwind of a lifestyle. I remember that the movie "Capote" suggested that Mr. Capote was not thrilled by the casting of Audrey Hepburn in the lead - I can't really separate the two - and at this point in pop culture, they are synonymous. While "Breakfast at Tiffany's" is the star story (and the longest), the other 3 are no slouches. My favorite was the last one, "A Christmas Memory." It recounts the story of a 7-year-old boy and his best friend, an aging female relative. They spend their days together with an old dog, save their money to make fruitcakes for all of their acquaintances (and the President) and love each other fiercely. The other two stories are about a reformed prostitute in the Dominican Republic and about an old man in prison. Both are told with such great imagery, that my mind's eye can picture the setting and the characters as I type this. The only other work I have read by Truman Capote is "In Cold Blood," and reading these stories made me want to get ahold of more of his fiction. Recommended!
Confession time...I read "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer, and even worse, I liked it! As far as easy to read and compelling - this book is it! Once I got going, I didn't want to put it down. Yes, it's silly, and yes (like the Vanity Fair profile pointed out) Meyer describes Edward's perfect beauty way too often, but it is still good old vampire fun. One thing I will say about Meyer's writing (and I read this somewhere else, but I can't recall where) is that she evokes that feeling of teenage like/love as accurately as when I felt it all those years ago (haha). She brings back that crazy tension of "do I like him? does he like me?" and sitting so close to someone that you just want to touch them, icy vampire or not. I liked her interesting setting of the Pacific Northwest, as it is something I am way not familiar with. It's not as edgy as the vampire literature I read as a teen ("The Last Vampire" saga by Christopher Pike, I have re-read it since and it's still good), but it was still a lot of fun. I am looking forward to reading the next one (one my co-worker's teenage daughter finishes it), and I may even cave and rent the movie (don't tell my husband!).
I'm currently reading "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy. I first became familiar with Roy while watching a documentary she was featured in in my Hinduism Seminar in college. The documentary was about damming one of the main rivers in India - by damming it to use the energy for a wealthy dwelling up river, they were depriving poor communities downstream of fresh water and livelihood. Fascinating. This book is pretty upfront about poverty, the residual caste system, and colonization in India, and I've had to put it down to take a break, but that doesn't mean it's bad. It's just real, and some times you have to take that in small doses.
There are two other books I would say I'm reading right now as well. One is "How I Became Stupid" by Martin Page. This is my husband's favorite book and I'm doing all I can to read it (after all, he read my favorite book - "Bunny Bunny: A Sort-of Love Story" by Alan Zwiebel - on my recommendation), but I can muster up no feelings of warmth for the main character. He is a self-important French college graduate who thinks that stupid people are happier, since he is so tortured by his intellect. I bet I have read a chapter a month (and it's not that long) - so we'll see when I finish. I feel like it has to get good because my husband loves it so much, but it hasn't happened yet. The other one is "Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas." I have pretty much read all of Chuck Klosterman's collections pretty voraciously - I think he has a biting wit and I appreciate his nerdy honesty. However, Part IV of this book is a fiction novella. I'm used to reading his non-fiction essays, reviews, and interviews - so it's been hard to switch the brain over to fiction. I need to since his newest work ("Downtown Owl" is a fiction book. I think I'll get this one finished before "How I Became Stupid."
To read is always an interesting list...there are a ton of books I'd like to read, but I'm not as good as getting around to them as I used to be. Of course, "New Moon" is at the top of the list once I get my little paws on it (I decided to not buy it at Best Buy this weekend - it seems more like Half-Price Books purchase). From there I have "The Brothers Karamazov" by Dostoyevsky hanging around along with Marx's "Communist Manifesto." Don't be impressed, ask me how long those have been on my bookshelf unopened. I'll probably get distracted by the 2 for 3 table at Borders again before I get to those.
Are you reading anything interesting? Or anything at all?
Aloha
My husband and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary last week and we decided to make a night of it and have a celebratory anniversary dinner at Roy's Restaurant. Roy's is a national fine dining Hawaiian Fusion Cuisine chain. We decided on Roy's because we spent our honeymoon on Maui. We intended to go last year, but decided to go to the Round Rock Express game instead (who is gonna say no to Dollar Dogs night?). So, last Tuesday, we headed out to Roy's downtown.
I had made our reservation for 6:45pm, but once my husband and I got home from work we were kind of ready to go, so he called the restaurant and they graciously moved our reservation up to 6pm. We headed into town and once we got down to 2nd street our GPS gave up and we promptly got lost. We headed west while the restaurant was east (right across the street from the Convention Center). Did you know that 2nd Street is numbered both up and down? We did not. After traipsing up and down 2nd Street we finally called the restaurant and they directed us there. The host met us at the door, wished us Happy Anniversary and whisked us to our table (not a moment too soon as I still have blisters on the bottom of my feet from all of the traipsing in heels). They had a card at the table for us, as well as a full page congratulating us in our menus. The ambiance of the restaurant was nice and felt private although the dining room was very open. We ordered Mai-Tai's to start (not as good as the free ones in our hotel in Maui...) and some calamari. They also brought us edamame. The calamari was good, but I did not like the asian-inspired dipping sauce. We probably should have gotten some sushi or a signature appetizer - but we just kind of love calamari. Our waitress was excellent and very knowledgable about the menu, plus she gave recommendations which I love at a restaurant I have not dined at before.
For entrees I ordered scallops over cous-cous and assorted vegetables and calamari (not fried, I had to give the animal-looking ones to the husband so they wouldn't look at me) and my husband ordered swordfish over quinoa and greens. His was better, although I didn't love the quinoa. My scallops were good, but a little meaty and the cous-cous was almost pea-sized (my husband thought it was baby corn). I've never seen cous-cous that big! It was best when I got a bite of sundried tomato with it. I didn't love the presentation of either of our plates, because the plates were 3 times the size of the food - so the portions did not look very generous. We also each had a glass of white wine (I think it was a pinot grigio).
For dessert we ordered the signature dessert - a flourless, molten chocolate cake with a raspberry coulis. It was delicious - and they wrote "Happy Anniversary" in chocoloate on our plate. Another nice touch was the complimentary champagne for celebration.
All in all, we left the restaurant full and had a nice evening. The food was not really anything I would go back for, but I did love the service. Every employee that walked by our table wished us a Happy Anniversary and we were not rushed at all. I felt like a valued patron, I just wish the food had been that good.
I had made our reservation for 6:45pm, but once my husband and I got home from work we were kind of ready to go, so he called the restaurant and they graciously moved our reservation up to 6pm. We headed into town and once we got down to 2nd street our GPS gave up and we promptly got lost. We headed west while the restaurant was east (right across the street from the Convention Center). Did you know that 2nd Street is numbered both up and down? We did not. After traipsing up and down 2nd Street we finally called the restaurant and they directed us there. The host met us at the door, wished us Happy Anniversary and whisked us to our table (not a moment too soon as I still have blisters on the bottom of my feet from all of the traipsing in heels). They had a card at the table for us, as well as a full page congratulating us in our menus. The ambiance of the restaurant was nice and felt private although the dining room was very open. We ordered Mai-Tai's to start (not as good as the free ones in our hotel in Maui...) and some calamari. They also brought us edamame. The calamari was good, but I did not like the asian-inspired dipping sauce. We probably should have gotten some sushi or a signature appetizer - but we just kind of love calamari. Our waitress was excellent and very knowledgable about the menu, plus she gave recommendations which I love at a restaurant I have not dined at before.
For entrees I ordered scallops over cous-cous and assorted vegetables and calamari (not fried, I had to give the animal-looking ones to the husband so they wouldn't look at me) and my husband ordered swordfish over quinoa and greens. His was better, although I didn't love the quinoa. My scallops were good, but a little meaty and the cous-cous was almost pea-sized (my husband thought it was baby corn). I've never seen cous-cous that big! It was best when I got a bite of sundried tomato with it. I didn't love the presentation of either of our plates, because the plates were 3 times the size of the food - so the portions did not look very generous. We also each had a glass of white wine (I think it was a pinot grigio).
For dessert we ordered the signature dessert - a flourless, molten chocolate cake with a raspberry coulis. It was delicious - and they wrote "Happy Anniversary" in chocoloate on our plate. Another nice touch was the complimentary champagne for celebration.
All in all, we left the restaurant full and had a nice evening. The food was not really anything I would go back for, but I did love the service. Every employee that walked by our table wished us a Happy Anniversary and we were not rushed at all. I felt like a valued patron, I just wish the food had been that good.
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