Reading and Watching

I’ve spent a fair amount of time in darkened cinemas or with my nose jammed between the pages of a book recently. I guess I’m trying to get as much fun stuff in before I go to back to school which I have been told will probably kill me, or leave me with no social life, or both..

Watching

Hulk - I went to see Hulk on Friday night at the IMAX with Guy and James, I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it either. Although the Guardian review  of Hulk, written in Hulk speak was probably more entertaining than the actual film.

Sex And The City - I saw Sex and the City on Sunday evening with Amanda. To be honest, the film could have been really awful and I would have loved it. A lot of people have complained that it was just like a long episode of Sex and the City and as a fan of the show, that’s exactly what I wanted to see. Getting a second dip into the lives of the characters was like slipping on an old comfy sweatshirt and I was really happy with how their lives had panned out.

Amanda said that she would walk down Oxford Street in a bikini if they did not announce a sequel before the London Olympics. However, I would suggest that a 55 year old Sam, still sleeping around NY might be more cringeworthy than sexy.

Priceless - Guy and I saw this last night and even the thought of seeing Audrey Tatou naked was not enough to prevent him from sleeping through most of it. Like a twenty-first century Striptease this film has little to redeem its characters in a way that would allow the audience to want any of the characters to triumph. It’s a mean spirited film in which Tatou and the male lead Gad Elmaleh trade gifts for sexual favours with rich consorts on the far side of sixty. It is very difficult to care about any of the characters in the film from the older characters ‘duped’ by Irene and Jean to Irene and Jean themselves who live precariously at the whims of their older lovers.

30 Rock - I have been watching this for a while now. I didn’t really get into it because I preferred Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (another show that went behind the scenes of a comedy show with a number in the title). Since that got axed I gave 30 Rock a second chance and it has become my latest televisual addiction.

Pale Fire – Vladimir Nabokov – A baboushka doll of a book. Part academic study, part scavenger hunt, part pure joy at reading his remarkable prose, it is not hard to understand why this book is described as his ‘most perfect novel’. The novel is a game of discovery and interpretation and like all of Nabokov’s novels there is a certain degree of work involved to make sense of it all, but it’s work that becomes compulsive and highly enjoyable. This is one of the Great novels of the twentieth century, and it’s a shame that the scandal surrounding Lolita has meant that it does not get the attention that it so rightly deserves.

Self Help and Birds of America – Lorrie Moore I’m putting the two of these together as they are both collections of short stories by the very talented Lorrie Moore. Combining humour with pathos, her stories evoke the awkward and very personal moments in the lives of her characters. They are imperfect and all too human and viewed with such insight, that the simple act of reading them is a joyful, life affirming experience.

 I am also reading Flat Earth News, English for Journalists and the Teeline Fast handbook, but I’m pretty sure that you don’t want to hear about them!