Chance's Corner: Three Billboards + Lady Bird + The Shape of Water Reviews

As most of the Oscar winning and nominated films have filtered into the library this month, I've been checking them out to see what all the hubbub was about. Here I have selected three of the top contenders for Best Picture, which The Shape of Water ultimately won, and reviewed them. 

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

This is one of the most vile and morally bankrupt films I have ever seen. It tries to tackle every current hot-button issue, which is certainly why most of the awards shows loved it, but it does it in the worst way possible. It mostly operates in blunt absurdism, working with one of the worst scripts committed to screen that doesn’t reflect real human speech, thought or action. A lot of the script is just projected, rather than acted, e.g. the entirety of the “I hope I get [redacted] on the way!” scene. Sorry for the "[redacted]", but this film is full of foulness. Anyways, that scene doesn’t particularly make a great case for Mildred missing her daughter so much. I’m sure a quiet moment between them later would have better reflected their relationship, but it is never presented. A redemption arc is presented for Sam Rockwell’s abhorrently violent and racist deputy, though, and I’m sorry, but he is irredeemable. I’m kind of shocked he got an award for this? I mean, isn’t he the personification of what Hollywood is supposedly fighting against? I’m not saying they shouldn’t reward great acting, even if it’s against their message, but these actors were merely playing wild caricatures instead of characters in a film that has a highly disturbing ending message.

Lady Bird

Greta Gerwig makes a stunning debut as a director, breathing life and vivacity into the modern (well, it's actually 2002) coming of age tale. It's an awkward tale, but in an endearing way. Stylistically, Gerwig presents Lady Bird's (Saoirse Ronan) last two semesters of catholic school through fragments, some funny, some heart-wrenching, but altogether wonderful. It feels incredibly true to life and like a daydream of memories. All around, Lady Bird is well-acted, but Laurie Metcalf is the real knockout here as Lady Bird's mother. She taps into every mother's hopes, fears and dreams for their children... and for themselves. I just can't stress how fantastic she is in this. Okay, I can - she should have won Best Supporting Actress.

The Shape of Water

The Shape of Water suffers from the same malady surrounding most of director/writer Guillermo del Toro's work - it's hollow and full of contrivances. The key problem is that Elisa's (Sally Hawkins) relationship with Amphibian Man (Doug Jones) is no tale as old as time. For the most part, it feels more like Elisa is feeding and taking in a stray animal, rather than courting a beau. That makes things really awkward when she suddenly strips and presents herself to Amphibian Man. Did he have any concept of what she was doing? It makes for an awkward watch, and while the ending is meant to be beautiful and touching, especially with that revelation seen a thousand miles away, I only felt indifference. I think their relationship would have been more endearing if it hadn't have turned so carnal.

Outside of the central relationship, the story pays no respect to logic or its supporting characters. Logic dictates that you can't flood your bathroom up to the ceiling by just putting a towel at the base of your door, but that's what happens here. And there's no warped boards or black mold afterwards! Such luck! As for the supporting characters, Elisa's friends are a diverse duo, one a person of color (Octavia Spencer) and the other a gay man (Richard Jenkins), but don't let that fool you into thinking this is progressive. Jenkins' character ends up with nothing - absolutely nothing. It's like he's only being punished for the sake of plot. I'm not going to help Elisa! *all hope is stripped away in one day* Okay, I'm going to help Elisa! Was del Toro feeling some Catholic guilt? It certainly feels that way.

I know I’m beating The Shape of Water up pretty badly here, but it does have its positive attributes. The gothic production design is phenomenal, it is a del Toro film, after all, but the film really shines through its performances. While Sally Hawkins is mostly silent (until she breaks out into a random song and dance number) due to Elisa being a mute, she's very expressive and a funny-looking beauty. Octavia Spencer is as sharp and sassy as ever. Richard Jenkins is good, but he deserved better. The real star, however, is Michael Shannon. I had to rewatch the mini-monologue he had in the bathroom because it awed me. The guy's got chutzpah... and dirty hands. Shannon really seems like a man that could snap at any moment.

In the end, I guess I can see why The Shape of Water won Best Picture, seeing as it's much more subdued and nuanced than the very angry Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, but out of all the contenders I've seen, Lady Bird has soared the most.

Julie's Journal : What I've Been Reading

The Broken Girls, by Simone St. James

The Broken Girls is a good read if you're in the mood for something spooky.  I first discovered Simone St. James last year and read her book, The Haunting of Maddy Clare on Overdrive, our e-book service.

The Broken Girls revolves around Idlewild Hall, a school for troubled young women in Vermont, which is now in ruins.  In 1950 four roommates, Katie, Ce-Ce, Roberta, and Sonia, have found a kind of family in one another.  One weekend, Sonia leaves to visit some distant relatives and never returns.  The other three girls are convinced that she has been murdered, but cannot get any authorities to listen.

In 2014, Fiona is a journalist.  Her sister Deb was found murdered on the old sports grounds of Idlewild Hall twenty years before.  While Deb's boyfriend was tried and convicted of her murder, Fiona feels like there's more to the story.  When the hall is purchased and the new owner begins remodeling it, Fiona begins researching the old school in earnest.

Overarching both stories is a third and much older murder.  Mary Hand was killed when her parents shut her out of the house on a frigid night and she froze to death.  Mary never left her old home, though, and everyone who lived at Idlewild Hall or visits there now, will have an encounter with her.

I enjoyed this book.  Ms. St. James is very good at creating a foreboding, spooky atmosphere.  I like the two different time periods and the different points of view the story is told from.  I am going to try and find more of her books to read.

The Broken Girls is available to check out at FCL.


The Great Alone, by Kristin Hannah

I have read some of Kristin Hannah's earlier books and enjoyed them.  I particularly remember The Nightingale and Winter Garden.

The Great Alone generated a lot of buzz when it was published in February.  Set in remote Alaska, it follows the Allbright family.  Father Ernt, mother Cora, and 13 year old Leni, are unprepared for the realities of an Alaskan winter when they arrive to live on land inherited from one of Ernt's Vietnam War buddies.  Their new neighbors rally around them to help them prepare to survive their first harsh winter.  However, their biggest problem isn't the Alaska cold, it is the darkness in Ernt's mind.  As the days get shorter and the weather worsens, Ernt turns more and more to drink to drown out his demons.  Unfortunately, drink makes Ernt mean, and he takes out his anger on Cora.  His new friendship with survivalist, Mad Earl, doesn't help.  Cora wants to believe in Ernt even as he gets meaner and meaner, which leaves Leni trying to survive not only the Alaskan winter, but the danger in her own home as well.

I thought The Great Alone was very well written.  I'm fascinated by stories about Alaska as visiting it is on my bucket list!  I enjoy remote places, but I think I would find the winter darkness very difficult.

The Great Alone is available to check out at FCL and on Overdrive.

Warcross, by Marie Lu

Warcross is a youth book and the first book in a new series by Marie Lu.  Lu is the author of the popular Legend series, which is very popular at FCL, but which I have never read.

Emika Chen is struggling to survive after the death of her father.  She takes small jobs, and works as a hacker/bounty hunter.  In this near-future world, the virtual reality game Warcross is an obsession with most people and Emika hunts for people who illegally bet on the game.  With rent due and no money in site, Emika takes a risk, and ends up accidentally hacking herself into the Warcross championships.  Terrified that she's going to be arrested, Emika is stunned when the creator of Warcross instead invites her to be his guest at his headquarters in Tokyo.  He offers to hire her as a spy within the game to find a security breach.  Emika quickly begins to thrive in the world of the game, but she also finds danger in her search for the person behind the security problems.  Emika learns that not all is as it seems at Warcross and that powerful people often have hidden motives.

I really enjoyed this book.  I thought the world building was wonderful.  The story deals well with questions of technology and its uses.  It shows the dangers of becoming totally dependent on technology and questions the motives of those who advocate for more and more technology in our lives.  I'm interested in where the series will go next.

Warcross is available for checkout at FCL and on Overdrive.



The Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline

I remember hearing all the buzz about The Orphan Train when it was first released in 2012, but for whatever reason, I didn't get to it until recently.

Another story that encompasses two different women in two different times, The Orphan Train follows Molly and Vivian.  Molly is 17 and living in foster care.  After stealing a book from her school library, she is left with two choices - community service or juvenile detention.  She ends up working for Vivian, an elderly woman whose goal is supposedly to clean out her attic.  Molly finds though, that Vivian doesn't really want to get rid of anything, just to look through her things and reminisce.  Vivian was one of thousands of children who road an orphan train from New York City to the Mid-west looking for a new home and identity.  Molly and Vivian find that they have much in common - both consider themselves orphans although in truth each had one parent living who was not able to care for them.  Molly begins to try and help Vivian solve some of them mysteries of her past and Vivian helps Molly find a true home for the first time in her life.

I was more interested in Vivian's story than Molly's.  I have read about the orphan trains before, but this book was a less romanticized version.  It brought to life the difficulties the children faced, the uncertainty of being adopted - especially for older children, and the life long struggle with a feeling of not belonging.  I enjoyed the book and have checked out Ms. Kline's more recent book, A Piece of the World, but I haven't gotten to it yet.

The Orphan Train is available for checkout at FCL and on Overdrive.

Wonder, by R.J. Palacio

Another book that I missed when it was first published is Wonder.  It was made into a movie last year, and I finally read it after my mother recommended it to me.

Auggie was born with severe facial deformities.  He is entering public school for the first time as a fifth grader, and is frightened of the reception he will get from his classmates.  As his first few weeks pass, he finds that many of the kids avoid him and in fact are playing a game in which touching him is taboo.  He does make a few true friends, though.  The book switches viewpoints often, letting us see Auggie's life through the eyes of his classmates, his sister, and others.  I particularly enjoyed his sister's point of view.  She was struggling to navigate high school and wanted to be seen as normal, not as the girl with the brother with the messed up face.  She also struggled with the dynamics of her family where everything, by necessity, has revolved around Auggie for his whole life.  

This was an interesting book.  It wasn't just a typical book about bullying.  It let us see the struggles and reasons behind the choices that the people around Auggie made.  I thought the author did a wonderful job of capturing the voices of the different characters.  The fifth graders sounded like fifth graders, and the adults and teenagers sounded accurate as well.

Wonder is available for checkout at FCL and on Overdrive.

Tom’s Two Cents: “Unmasked” by Andrew Lloyd Webber

At the age of 70, British composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has certainly lived more than one lifetime, perhaps several.  He is unquestionably the most financially successful musical composer of all time; two of his musical brainchildren, Cats and Phantom of the Opera, have been running somewhere for thirty years—yes, those two musicals have been on some stage somewhere for THIRTY years apiece!   The string of his successes, both in London and New York City, not to mention cities elsewhere, has been nothing short of phenomenal.  Yes, he has had his share of bloopers, but they seem almost incidental by comparison.  He was famous at the age of 23, with the unqualified success of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Despite all thus, I have never taken Webber very seriously as a composer.  Reared in the operetta tradition of Romberg, Friml, Jerome Kern and other such notables of the 30s, I barely realized at the time (1943) that Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma was the beginning of a breakthrough in the American Musical!  (Actually, the first real breakthrough came much earlier, in 1927, with Jerome Kern’s Showboat.)   Webber’s early work at least seemed to me more in a modern pop tradition, or at least a mixture of old and new, despite the fact that he cites Richard Rodgers as one of his all-time idols.  To me the one exception has been Phantom, which is clearly a throwback to operetta at its most glamorous and romantic.

Webber’s book, “Unmasked,” is a very disarming memoir, strongly emphasizing his career over his life.  In fact, despite his three marriages and five children, his personal life seems to figure almost incidentally into the total scheme of things—Webber is obviously a driven perfectionist, whose successful collaborations with Tim Rice, Hal Prince, Cameron Mackintosh and other notables has come at a cost.  Not the least of his accomplishments had been the launching of the career of Sarah Brightman (now very much a star in her own right), whom he married, but subsequently divorced.  If you are a Webber fan, you should love this book, even though at times it goes into excruciating detail about the trials and tribulations of his productions.  As interesting as that was, it was more the personal stuff falling through the cracks that absorbed me as a reader.

Chance's Corner: Oscars Results 2017

Another year, another shocking Best Picture winner! Thankfully, it wasn't because Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were given the wrong envelope again. While I predicted that Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri would win Best Picture at the 90th Academy Awards, the Academy must have decided it won enough awards at all the other award ceremonies, because they decided to choose The Shape of Water, instead. I wouldn't have been surprised if they chose Lady Bird, but The Shape of Water? Okay... I can't really judge Guillermo del Toro's fantasy film about a woman and a fish (excuse me, amphibian-humanoid) falling in love, because I haven't seen it, but I do think it's an interesting choice. Honestly, I actually thought Warren had goofed up again as a joke! But here we are, and the joke's still going. Oh well, congrats to The Shape of Water! As for the other categories, there were really no surprises, and my predictions were spot-on! I'm no soothsayer, though, hence the wrong Best Picture prediction, so don't ask me for any lottery numbers!

The Shape of Water will be available for check out at the Franklin County Library later this month. Other big Oscar winners, such as Coco, I, Tonya, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri will soon be available, as well. Dunkirk, Blade Runner 2049 and Darkest Hour are available now!

Julie's Journal: Our New 3D Printer

Back in the fall, we were blessed to receive a 3D printer through a grant.  Lisa went to a training on it and then, due to the busyness of the holidays and the beginning of a new year, learning to use it was pushed to the back burner.  A few weeks ago, though, we started learning how to use it and have been printing ever since.

We've printed toys:

Bookmarks:

A phone stand:

A puzzle:

A very cool measuring cup:

And a few other things:

Our last project was this impossible nut/bolt - also called the Machinist's Illusion:

The logistics of printing the nut/bolt completely stumped Lisa and I.  The nut and the bolt are two separate files and we just could not figure out how it worked.  Fortunately, Chance had a moment of brilliance and now we can print it perfectly every time!

There's definitely been a learning curve with this printer.  We've had our share of failed prints, as well as the successes. 

We will eventually make the printer available for use by the public and offer some classes.  We are currently working on policy for using the printer and learning to troubleshoot it.  I also have a little reading to do to continue to learn what the printer can do.

Yikes!

What should we print next?