Like a polar bear dragging a seal out of the water, time is pulling me out of 2019 and onto the icy

[kitewithfish]

To be fair, some of the resistance is less a desire to remain in 2019 for any virtue of its own than a fervent wish to not have to get back to working in the office. I functionally took 3 strategic days off and got nearly 3 weeks vacation out of it!

Personal: 
I got to see my sister at her new house and she had a Major Life Event to celebrate with the family and extended relations before Christmas, and then we had a fairly chill Christmas at her house. Me and The Husbeast were in charge of food and catering and early morning walks for my dad's dog. It was delightfully quite and chill. 

Upon arriving home, we had some time to relax and hosted a small New Year's party. 

Most recently, we did a run on Ikea and came back with a wingback chair that I am honestly wild about, and got a sleeper couch for the small bedroom to give incoming guests a proper place to rest. Both are good purchases -  I'm still really pleased with the condo we ended up with and I think the small bedroom for guests is going to be lovely. 

Pop Culture Ramblings: Spoilers Marked

-I honestly just enjoyed the hell out of Knives Out (2019), which I know I mentioned at the time.  It really nailed that conspiratorial element of mysteries, where you-the-audience feel like you're putting the piece of the mystery together at the same time as the detective. In this case, there's an element where A Twist makes you think you've solved the main mystery and sets you off cheering for a character to solve a different puzzle, but you're never left behind - the movie wants you to follow along. It never breaks the rules of a good mystery, and there's a respect for the genre that I really approve of there. 

I have a ficlet idea in my head -SOME SPOILERS HERE-  (Marta/Benoit, slow burn, they stay in touch after the events of the film. He's too old for her, and he knows it - she deserves someone who sees bright and kind thing in her and values it because it mirrors something in them, not like Benoit, who loves the heart of her as someone who has come to see innocence as a rare treasure.  But, sometimes, he needs a medical opinion and he'll let himself call her for advice. Even if there's a doctor closer, even when she's demurs that she's outside her field of expertise - he just wants to hear her voice, sometimes, and if she tells him how things are going with her mom's case, and the lawsuit, and how Meg's doing in school. And then there's the trial, of course, and his testimony is clear and comprehensive and he stays in a hotel on the other side of town, but they have dinner at her home and Marta's mother makes shrimp and they talk until all hours. And eventually Marta decides that the publishing company needs to take on new writers, so she asks Benoit to read some of the manuscripts she receives, and they talk long into the night over the phone and Benoit cups the phone to his ear to listen to her talk about pacing and plot and poison and he can see perfectly how her lips shape the sounds.) that I'm probably never going to write. 

-I finished the first season of The Witcher! Apparently all I need to like Henry Cavill is to visually make him as unlike Superman as possible. (He was, in my opinion, a terrible Superman because he lacks the fundamental earnestness and unflinching compassion of Superman - like Mr. Rogers with laser beams.) I'm not sure I would recommend the Witcher, tho I enjoyed it tremendously - I don't know that the plot holds up if you don't have a background with the games or books. While I think the worldbuilding is actually quite interesting, for a lot of show the screen is too damn close to black and white for it to really have an impact - visually, I mean, it's very monochrome.

I keep meaning to finish The Crown and The Mandalorian. 

I have seen Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. It has cemented my belief that any film JJ Abrams directs has more to do with any other project by JJ Abrams than the source material from which it arose. Overall, I was disappointed. 

Comments

[kitewithfish]

Re: Henry Cavill - I have a theory here, actually, which I will now subject you to!

Cavill is English,so I'm gonna assume that he shares at least some of that culture's discomfort with sincere emotion openly expressed, and that, I think, is where the problem comes in.

See, Clark Kent is a corn-fed farm boy from a small town in Kansas - his entire being is sincerity and earnestness and a firm belief in the goodness of humanity and the need to help the people around you with the resources you've got. AND, he's the last survivor of a dead world - a living testament to the fact that each life matters and each person is a unique gift. There is nothing ironic or distant or witty about the heart of Clark Kent. He's just a good person down to his bones, and he doesn't really care if you think he's corny. He's compassionate and he's going to do what he thinks is right, even if he's the only one to do it.

The problem began with the concept for Man of Steel, because instead of looking for a person who could radiate the "human goodness as a strength," a person who could show how Superman inspires and lifts up the people of Earth by his example, they went looking for a way to write Superman as a darker, "more realistic" character - aka, more angry, less kind. And Cavill can do that kind of role! But, that's not the kind of Superman I'm here for. And I think that a fair number of people aren't really into that kind of Superman. But, once you have cast Henry Cavill, the attempts to roll that characterization back - eh, they kind of don't work. Even tho, my god, he looks so damn much like Superman.

Don't get me wrong, I think Cavill makes an excellent scoundrel and spy in Man From Uncle, and I think he's a great Geralt in Witcher, and the thing those characters have in common is some deep disillusionment with human nature, a lot of sarcasm, a healthy dose of "look out for number one" and a career on the periphery of safety. The fact that those characters feel natural and well established seems to suggest to me that Cavill is a perfectly good actor when given roles that are not fundamentally about deconstructing a beloved character's emotional roots. Henry Cavill could make you love a sinner, and he has! But for Superman, they needed someone who could make you believe in a person with the goodness of a saint, and that he can't pull off.

[peoriapeoriawhereart]

Thinky!

Ah, I didn't know he's of the Isles. But I could see this and your proposition of who Clark is, I can accept. (I also take it that Clark Kent, investigative reporter, is great at nailing malfeasant politicians, industrialists and so forth, as well as systems that have broken down in place with their evidence to look for more Legal Standing.)

I didn't see Man of Steel. When I heard about Superman not luring the fight out of the people, it suggested the director didn't think narrative 'common people' mattered enough. I don't need that from movies.

Somewhere I've wrote that Clark and Steve Rogers are flipsides of a coin. When the vessel of the fighter isn't right for the fights available.