Fandom nostalgia, more Robert Downey Jr movies and Sharpe thoughts

[rusty_halo]

drujan informed me this weekend that BAPS is closing, which makes me sad, particularly because they're deleting the archives.

I haven't been back there in years, but that's where I entered fandom. (And my opinions have certainly changed dramatically since!) Still, the nostalgia is strong.

I'm looking through old posts now. 2001, and everyone's wondering what's going to happen when Riley returns. (Kelly suggests that Buffy will have to kill him to save Spike--oh, those were the good old days!) There's drujan, 10zlaine, kellyhk, redeem147, chenanceou, ww1614, spikewriter, jerrymcl89, jaydk, shipperx, klytaimnestra, cindermom... and plenty of others, but I can't spend all day scrolling through BAPS. To think, the different places we were in our lives back then.

It's amazing, looking through the list of people posting, how many of those people I later met in person, and how many I still know today. Fandom is crazy. In a good way.


The weekend was fun. jaydk and I finally celebrated drujan's birthday with a dinner at Pukk, which involved lots of their excellent sangria, and I secretly squeed over the fact that I'd gotten my two omnivorous friends to be enthusiastic over a vegan restaurant. Then we went to the AMC 25 (most comfortable theater in the city) and saw "The Illusionist." Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti were good (I'm of the opinion that Edward Norton is another of those actors who is good in everything) but I didn't like the movie too much, mainly because it was predicated on this nonsensical idea of "true love" that I just can't swallow. If you spend 15 years pining over someone you knew as a teenager, there's something wrong with you.

Then we discovered that jaydk's roommate was away, so we went to her place Saturday night, ordered lots of food, and watched movies. I finally got to make them watch "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang," and they both liked it a lot. (And they seemed surprised! What, do I have a reputation for bad taste?) I can't believe drujan didn't know who Robert Downey, Jr was, though! How do you go through life missing that? :P

We also watched a bunch of Jonathan from Guiding Light, jaydk's latest obsession. drujan headed home, and jaydk and I watched the Sean Bean scenes from the first Lord of the Rings. I tried to watch that movie once, years ago, but fell asleep. I saw the second one and hated it, and I've never seen the third. (I know, I'm a terrible fangirl.) Anyway, apparently nothing had changed because I once again couldn't stand it, and then fell asleep. I don't know, Peter Jackson's directing style just totally rubs me the wrong way, and everything's so pompous and serious and annoying and there's all these endless landscape shots and I can't stand any of the characters and just... ick. Sorry. Still don't get it.

I managed to wake up after that, though, and we watched the first episode of Farscape. The series is still on my Netflix queue; I'm going to trust you guys that it gets better. I finally headed home about 5am; luckily it's a quick cab ride when there's no traffic.

(And really, how cool is it that the three of us were all posting together on BAPS back in the day, before we even knew each other.)


On Sunday I got some actual work done, and then watched my three latest Netflix movies, which were Less than Zero, Richard III (with Ian McKellen), and Wonder Boys.

Wonder Boys was just sort of a bland adult movie that thought itself far more clever than it actually was. I think it was supposed to be about the nature of creativity and the parallel between the choices we make in our art and in our personal lives. But mostly it was about Michael Douglas wandering around in a pink bathroom and smoking pot (which sounds more funny than it actually was!) It was also kind of weirdly sexist (men Write, women follow them around and clean up their mistakes). However, it did have Robert Downey Jr seducing Tobey Maguire, and for that it was entirely worthwhile, and I highly recommend it for those scenes alone (which are, sadly, too few).

Richard III was a great movie, and I'm very glad to have rented it. Ian McKellen was completely awesome. Its basic concept is to place Shakespeare's Richard III (trimmed, but with the original dialog) in a fascist alternate reality of 1930s England. It's not a perfect parallel, but it worked well enough, and made for a great film. This is the single film I've seen so far where I didn't think Robert Downey, Jr added to the movie. His American accent was jarring, and his over-the-top acting style didn't mesh well with the rest of the cast. His death scene was pretty hot, though.

Less Than Zero is one of those movies I've avoided watching for about 15 years, because I knew that 1) it's a bad movie and 2) it would make me cry. This was probably a good decision because if I'd seen it any time before the age of 16, I would've been miserable for a week. Luckily, I am now a cynical bitch who rolls her eyes at this kind of blatant emotional manipulation.

Anyway, it's one of those inane "Just Say No!" polemics that audiences were apparently expected to take seriously back in the 1980s. This is made more offensive by the fact that it's based on a Bret Easton Ellis novel that I'm certain did not have a neat little moral tacked on at the end.

It also features two of the most bland of the 80s brat pack: Andrew McCarthy and Jamie Gertz, whose combined charisma is less than that of a piece of styrofoam. How in god's name did these people get hired? and famous??

On the plus side, Robert Downey Jr is astounding, and James Spader is excellent. If you'd taken the two of them and stripped away the moral lesson and the mannequin lead actors, you might've actually had a very good film.

It's also got a nice soundtrack and some greats sets; it works as sort of a fascinating glimpse into the fashions of the past. Big hair, gigantic monster cellphones, and the super rich with their ancient-looking TV sets.

I haven't much to say about the plot, which is basically just propaganda suggesting that unless you attend a fancy East Coast Ivy League college, you'll end up a male prostitute, giving head to feed your crack habit, within 6 months of high school graduation.

I suppose it's a consequence of the decade, or of the mainstream movie studio, that the film can't attempt to portray a fucked-up world without a tacked on lesson, a heroic Marty Stu there to tell the audience exactly what they should think, and a happy ending for those wise souls who do finally figure out the redeeming power of, er, the East Coast.

Anyway, rent this movie because Robert Downey Jr is great in it, and because James Spader is super creepy, and for the historical perspective. Just hold your nose through all the moralizing.


I've somehow also managed to read seven Sharpe novels in the past week and a half. (I need to sleep!) I liked Sharpe's Enemy immensely, but have some bitching to do about Sharpe's Honor (I'm sure you can guess; I always have issues with "honor").

Mainly my issue was with the novel repeatedly presenting choices and then not following through on their actual consequences. Sharpe has to choose between saving his career/life or preserving his "honor," and he always chooses honor, but then a deus ex machina sweeps in and saves him, and then saves him, and then saves him again. (Leroy stops the duel, Hogan stops the hanging, and a random explosion allows him to escape without signing the parole). So Sharpe preserves his honor, but he'd be dead if the author hadn't finagled it in order to allow him to do so. Lame.

I think Methos said it best in The Messenger:

Methos: Okay, there's this Spanish guy: Alejandro Diego Spinofa. One day he gets called in by the Inquisition for questioning. Red hot pincers, tongs, usual drill. Now, all he has to do is say "no," okay, very simple word. They take his home, his money, his lands, but he will not give in.

Joe: So what happened?

Methos: He died screaming in agony. But, he kept his integrity.

Also, Sharpe got over Teresa's death really fast, but I guess you can sort of fanwank it that he transferred his grief and guilt over her to his obsession with protecting La Marquesa.


Oh, and I'm leaving for DragonCon tomorrow. I'm not really into anything fannish at the moment, but I'm sure I'll find stuff to do, and I'll definitely be seeing Godhead, the Cruxshadows, and Voltaire, and hanging out with jaydk and 10zlaine.

Comments

[kellyhk.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess I did suggest that Riley gets the dirt nap. Still wish I were right!

I'm actually a little sad Alane won't keep it up as an archive. What harm is it causing? There are fic there and on the BAPS companion website that will be deleted. So much for posterity.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

There's a reason why I'm leaving All About Spike up, this many years after I lost interest in the fandom. It makes me so sad to see these kinds of historical records lost, especially for something that was so personal to so many of us. Leaving the archive up makes perfect sense, and if there are privacy concerns it's easy to make it members only and not accept new members. But it's not our decision, of course.

Oh, man, I so wish you'd been right. It's sad to see all the happy theories that were floating around on there about how great Spike/Buffy would turn out. It's certainly not a far leap to see how so many of us got into fanfic once the show took a completely different turn.

[wickedprincess3.livejournal.com]

opinion that Edward Norton is another of those actors who is good in everything
Oh, he really really is. I have watched the otherwise "okay but not all that" Keeping the Faith entirely too many times just for him.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Dude, between him and Jon Stewart, even Death to Smoochy wasn't that bad.

His commentary on Fight Club is also awesome. He's so thoughtful.

[bookishwench.livejournal.com]

Yeah, hearing BAPS was closing was a kick in the gut. I never posted much there, but it was a really neat place to know was there. I was an AOL Buffy Board afficianado, and when they deleted all the backlogs with no warning a year or so ago, that was a big ow. Still, BAPS was and will always remain a legend.

[rockgoddes.livejournal.com]

I'll see you at some point on the weekend, hopefully!!!

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Definitely! I'll look for you.

[elsaf]

I had a very different reaction to Wonder Boys. Of course, I'm of a different generation, so I'm seeing it through a very different filter. It's about having been a prodigy and discovering too late that you actually have to work to realize that potential. Grady has completely wrecked his life by coasting through it.

I don't agree that "men write, and women clean up the messes." The story has a male point of view, but what's lurking around the edges is that the women are just as smart and creative if not more so. The girl (whose character name I'm blanking on at the moment) is hinted at being a better writer than Grady or even possibly the Toby Maguire character. (BTW, this film has my absolute favorite performances from both Maguire and Robert Downey Jr.) We simply don't see her work, because the story is about Grady's realization that he's pissed away his natural talent, and watching Toby Maguire teetering on the brink of following him or forging his own, more productive path. At the same time, the Francis McDormand character is the smartest, most powerful character in the movie.

Of course, thematically, I may be importing some weight from the book (which is funnier that the movie, and richer in detail). In the book, Grady's soon-to-be ex-wife's family aren't bland, white people (one of the few really bad missteps of the movie, IMHO). They are a highly creative, eccentric family, who seethe with rivalry mixed with self-loathing, mixed with loving one another. (The book's scene where Grady goes to visit his wife's family is absolutely brilliant, but would have been very difficult to work into the film. Even so, they really gutted the family by making his in-laws these lobotomized kindly robots.)

Wonder Boys is on my list of favorite films, ever.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

It's cool that you like the movie so much. I didn't put that much thought into it, because nothing in it really grabbed me.

It's about having been a prodigy and discovering too late that you actually have to work to realize that potential. Grady has completely wrecked his life by coasting through it.

Yes, I'd definitely agree with that.

The story has a male point of view, but what's lurking around the edges is that the women are just as smart and creative if not more so.

The women were definitely smarter and more together than the men, but I think it also shows an unspoken assumption of the cliche that women are more responsible but that they lack the "creative passion" that drives men. We're shown that Katie Holmes is a great critic, not a great writer, and that Frances McDormand is a very mature person, but not a great writer. (We're never explicitly told that they're bad, it's just that their creative efforts are invisible. Meanwhile we see the creative efforts of Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Rip Torn, even Frances McDormand's clueless husband writes.)

the Francis McDormand character is the smartest, most powerful character in the movie.

Yeah, but she's barely in it. Her role could've been much more significant if she'd gotten more screentime. It was hard to understand why she would've ended up with Michael Douglas in the first place--what did she see in him? What did they have in common? Katie Holmes, too, was barely in it. And I have to say, I found her crush on creepy old Michael Douglas to be incredibly, well, creepy. Why does she have to express her admiration for his writing by wanting to sleep with him?

I also lost respect for the film because of its simplistic ending--having just endured Less Than Zero I couldn't believe this one turned into yet another anti-drug polemic, as if getting rid of your stash is the key to fixing your fucked-up life. (Though at least he handed his off to young Alan Tudyk! That was a cool little cameo.) It was all just wrapped up in too neat of a bow at the end--no drugs, bathrobe replaced by sweater, look, everything's great!

Not that it was awful or anything. Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, and Robert Downey Jr were really excellent in their roles. (I'm thoroughly creeped out by Douglas and Holmes, though.) I love that scene where Downey is flirting with Maguire, and says his name several times with his eyes all big and his hair all tousled--his charisma just leaps off the screen. And I was impressed at how casually they handled a gay relationship; it wasn't a big Issue, it just was. (Although at the same time I felt it could've used more development or screentime, because we really took in everything from the outside without seeing what was going on in the characters' heads, Maguire's especially, regarding the relationship.)

I think the film overall probably suffered from being adapted from a book; a lot of stuff was squeezed in and probably not developed as fully in the film as it was in the book.

Anyway. It was decent, just not really my thing.

[elsaf]

My ancient Mac here at work isn't allowing me to quote from this layout. :-) But I'll say that many of my perceptions are colored by the book. Thought, I sought out the book (and ended up reading a lot more Michael Chabon because of the strength of this book) because I liked the movie so well.

But in the book, it's clearly explained that both McDormand's character and Katie Holmes' character (as well as his ex-wife) are attracted to Grady because he's a published author (his first book was a break-away bestseller) and they're reading fanatics who see authors in the same light music lovers see rock stars. McDormand in particular. She was attracted to Grady because she loved his first (and only) published book, and she imagines herself sheltering him to allow him to finish the second book -- which is entirely an illusion. The book that blew away was completely unreadable. Their relationship is breaking down because she's finally seeing that he hasn't been writing -- he's just using her as a crutch to avoid facing the deficiencies in his life.

Katie Holmes is attracted to him because he's a minor celebrity -- but she doesn't really want to sleep with him (in the book). The sexualization of her interaction with him is a matter of habit on her part. She really just wants to learn to be a better writer (and Grady realizes that before the end). In the book, she's shown to be a writing talent on a par with Tobey Maguire's character, though not a great deal of time is spent on her writing. We simply see Grady's impression of her from class at the beginning. He sees her and the Maguire character as the only two students in his class with any talent.

The female characters are much more completely drawn in the book. This is one of the problems in adapting a book to the screen. You have to leave out a lot of detail to keep it all in a 2-hour package.

The ending of the film is way too pat. The drug angle wasn't played so strong in the book (Grady is having heart problems, which are played a lot stronger than the fact he's been smoking pot.) Robert Downey's character is less likeable in the book (he's an opportunistic bastard, and he pretty much throws Grady under the train).

But there's also a "fairy tale" ending quality in the book. That is, things finally work out because Grady creates his reality, and he creates a happy ending for himself.

None of this is to say you aren't allowed to not like the movie. :-) But if you want to read a great book, you should look up Michael Chabon -- both for Wonder Boys, and his great fictional history of comicbooks, Jews and gays in America: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

[irfikos.livejournal.com]

I just have to say that you were right. Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang is an AWESOME flick. I love the grammar arguments (and the talking monkey bit) the most. I thought of you, in particular, at the line, "What did he know? He's only the writer."

Heh.

Have you sen Home for the Holidays yet? It's my favorite RDJ movie. And because of you reminding me how much I love RDJ, I finally sat through that horrible Rodney Dangerfield movie that was on last weekend, just to see the punk Robert Downey Jr. bits.

[irfikos.livejournal.com]

(apologies for typos. at work one must rush and keep hiding firefox...)

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Oh, no worries. I totally get the work typing thing.

So glad you saw Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang! I loved the "He's only the writer" line; it works on so many levels. The whole movie is brilliant; I can't believe how overlooked it was.

I did, indeed, just see Home for the Holidays. You're right; it's excellent. I think it's the only one so far that I've decided to buy my own copy of. My reaction to it is here.

I totally just sat through the same Rodney Dangerfield movie! In fact I've sat through bits of it several times, because I love catching glimpses of RDJ, and because when I was younger I had a little crush on Keith Gordon (he sucks in this, but is cool in The Legend of Billie Jean).