The Cue Card

January Preview

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Susan

Greetings football fans. It’s a big weekend in the NFL and I’m hoping my team the Broncos can get by the Chargers. But we will see what fate lies ahead. I’m hoping Peyton has a good day.

This week I had arthroscopic knee surgery as a result of a tennis injury over the past year so I have not been very mobile, but each day gets a little bit better. My Hub has been a good Nurse Nancy and helper and my dog is trying to be patient till I can be more out and about.

Meanwhile we must talk about what’s coming out in January. You know it’s a good month when such well-known literary fiction authors as Joyce Carol Oates, E.L. Doctorow, Anna Quindlen, Sue Monk Kidd, and Isabel Allende have new novels coming out.

Perhaps even more interesting are the authors this month who are coming out with their second books after having had debuts that were so successful, which adds a bit of extra pressure, does it not? I’m thinking of Nancy Horan (“Loving Frank”), Rachel Joyce (“The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry”), Ishmael Beah (“A Long Way Gone”), and Wiley Cash (“A Land More Kind Than Home”). I’ll be looking to check out their new books and see how they compare to their debuts.

If it’s a snappy literary thriller you’re looking to sink your teeth into, Elisabeth Elo’s debut “North of Boston,” about a plot involving the glacial whaling grounds off Baffin Island, looks compelling. So, too, does Louise Doughty’s “Apple Tree Yard” about a woman who has an affair and soon finds herself and her lover on trial for murder. And then there’s Chang-rae Lee’s haunting, multi-layered story “On Such a Full Sea” set in a dystopian future America, which appears quite chilling.

And if you’re looking for historical fiction, there’s Robert Harris’s “An Officer and a Spy” about the infamous Dreyfus affair, which likely shouldn’t be missed, nor Brian Payton’s “The Wind Is Not a River,” which involves a love story set amid the invasion of Alaska’s Aleutian Islands during WWII.

So many new books in January, so little time! For movies (see list at left), I’m curious to see “Labor Day” at the end of the month because it’s based on the Joyce Maynard novel of the same name. I actually want to read it first and then see it. It’s about a single mom and her 13-year-old son who give a convict a place to stay and in time learn his story. Hopefully it’ll rise above a made-for-TV kind of drama.

Lastly in albums (see list at bottom right), I can’t wait for Springsteen’s latest “High Hopes” which is coming out on Tuesday. I’ve been a huge fan of his since ’75 and each album’s been a treasure to me. Apparently the new music is from unreleased material from the past decade. The songs were previously recorded and some were written for other albums but never made it on. A few songs are covers of other bands’ songs, which should be interesting. I’m psyched up about ”High Hopes.” It’s Springsteen after all.

What about you – what new book, movie ,or album releases are you most looking forward to this month?

Posted in Top Picks | 9 Comments

Audrey Hepburn & ‘American Hustle’

Posted on January 4, 2014 by Susan

Happy New Year everyone. It’s the first weekend of 2014 and a fresh layer of snow here has covered the ground, all pretty and white. It’s been a busy week since we arrived back after Christmas holidays spent in California (hooray was that nice!).

This past week, I whipped through my first book of 2014, which was a biography/memoir my father got me for Christmas of Audrey Hepburn written by her son. My dad also gave me some of her films on DVD, which I’d never seen. We watched “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” from 1961 and Audrey seemed to light up the screen.

Although the American Film Institute ranks Audrey as the third greatest screen legend in the history of cinema, I guess I didn’t know much about her. But the 2003 book her son wrote “Audrey Hepburn, an Elegant Spirit” is quite a moving remembrance of the actress. It takes readers through her childhood living under the Nazi occupation in the Netherlands, and the absence of her father, to her storied acting career, her hiatus from film to be a mother, and later her total devotion to helping children refugees as a UNICEF ambassador.

You get a sense from the book how remarkable a person she was, which translated onto the screen in the roles she took. She seemed unique, talented and glamorous in her own understated, beautiful style. Yet despite all her success and the respect of those in the film business, Audrey had a sadness within her, her son says, whether it was from her childhood or her miscarriages, or from what she saw happening in the world, it was there. It seems though in her later life she found her calling helping refugees all over the world. Unfortunately she had much more she wanted to do but her life was cut short in 1993 by cancer at the age of 63.

The book “Audrey Hepburn, An Elegant Spirit” is a personal and touching portrait by a son of his mother. It’s filled with captivating photos, too, that lured me into her story. She had an interesting life, and was at the top echelon of her field in film, but it was also a bit sad. The book was similar to the one I had just read before: “The End of Your Life Book Club.” Both were written by sons of their bright, successful mothers, and both mothers worked for refugees in later life, and both lives were cut short by cancer.

“Audrey Hepburn, An Elegant Spirit” made me wish I had known more of the actress and her films when she was alive. I’m glad though to have gotten to know her and her work through this book. She had a special magic about her, and was an inspiration to so many, even to me now reading this so many years later. The world lost a genuine star when she passed away. Next up, I’ll need to pick up a book that doesn’t have such a sad ending. Hmm.

Also this week the Hub and I saw the movie “American Hustle,” which mainly takes place in New Jersey. It’s loosely based on the massive 1978 FBI anti-corruption operation known as Abscam, where a bunch of politicians were ultimately put in jail for accepting bribes.

I didn’t know what to expect going into this, but the film is quite entertaining, particularly because of its stellar cast. Christian Bale and Amy Adams are different and terrific as con artists, and Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper are amusing in their flitty roles. The film’s a dark comedy but dramatic at the same time, as you watch how the evolving sting operation will unfold.

I liked the ’70s soundtrack of “American Hustle” right away and thought it added a lot to the movie along with the dippy fashion and clothes of the times. But the movie seemed a bit long and I was ready for it to end. Maybe it’s so overly well done, I wanted to get out of it. I liked it okay but I think my Hub liked it better than I did.

What about you – have you seen “American Hustle” and what did you think? Or do you know much about Audrey Hepburn, or have you seen or liked any of her films?

Posted in Books, Movies | 14 Comments

The End of Your Life Book Club and Mr. Banks

Posted on December 28, 2013 by Susan

We’ve had a very pleasant week in Southern California but are headed home on Monday, back to the snows of Alberta, Canada, Bah! With New Year’s coming up, I’ve been thinking of what my reading resolutions will be this year, and I think I would like to: (a) read more from my own shelves or the library instead of buying more books; (b) read more nonfiction in 2014; and (c) read more international fiction authors. So we will see how I do with this. I would also like to boost my reading output in 2014, keeping up a book a week would be fine but I don’t want to slack off in the middle of the year, or get bogged down and lose focus!

This week I finished Will Schwalbe’s 2012 nonfiction book “The End of Your Life Book Club.” It’s written by a son about his mother (Mary Anne Schwalbe) and the book discussions they have while she is undergoing chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer. The book club is just the two of them and includes discussions about books mostly that I had read or knew of, which made it more enjoyable. It’s a book that should attract bibliophiles, being about a book club and all.

But it’s also about the mother’s life and her work, their family and her medical journey at the end. She was quite a remarkable woman as you learn while you read it. She worked on behalf of refugees all over the world with the Women’s Refugee Commission, and helped in the refugee camps in various places such as Afghanistan, Liberia, Sudan, and Thailand. Earlier she had been an educator and director of admissions at Harvard and Radcliffe.

His mother had quite admirable principles and really knew what was important in life. The book’s a moving tribute to her in the last two years of her life. I found her to be an inspiration and the book a valuable lesson on various aspects of life. It’s sad but not too dark, and uplifting in an inspirational way. For anyone who’s lost a loved one to cancer (as my husband and I did when his mother passed away earlier this year), you will recognize the heart strings pulled throughout these pages.

Another poignant story is the movie “Saving Mr. Banks,” which we saw yesterday. It’s excellent and based on a true story about P.L. Travers, the author of “Mary Poppins,” and the making of the film adaptation of her novel by Walt Disney in 1961.

Emma Thompson plays the fussy P.L. Travers, who doesnt want to cede control over her creation to the filmmakers, and Tom Hanks plays Walt Disney who tries to persuade her to let go of it. Interspersed with their meetings in Hollywood, Travers has flashbacks to her painful childhood in Australia, where it becomes obvious in time where her character of Mary Poppins comes from, and why Travers is like she is.

“Saving Mr. Banks” is an immensely entertaining film, at times a bit funny and sad, a look at old Hollywood, its creation of the musical “Mary Poppins” film that won five Academy Awards, and its two icons. Although Disney comes off a bit too unscathed in the movie, P.L. Travers appears quite disagreeable. Apparently she was even more prickly in real life than pictured in this and never really liked Disney’s film of her book. She was especially against his use of animation for it.

What about you — have you seen or read either of these? And do you have some reading resolutions for 2014?

Posted in Books, Movies | 11 Comments

Sunday Salon & The Light Between Oceans

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Susan

Christmas is almost here, so Merry Christmas everyone! We finally made it to California to spend the holiday with my folks after our usual three hour flight turned into 24 hours of travel. We were stuck in airports awaiting the passing of a snowstorm in Salt Lake City. Holy Moly, I thought we’d never make it. But thanks to the pilot and crew who landed us at LAX at 3:15 a.m. and to a fast cab driver who hurried us into the remaining night. Thanks as well to Will Schwalbe’s engaging book “The End of Your Life Book Club,” which held my interest during a very trying long day.

Now that I’m here, I have a cold and will likely spend the rest of the week coughing and gulping down cold medicine. But man it’s great to be here. I’m undeterred and grateful at this time of year, just a little weary from this head-cold-fever-bug thing. Perhaps eggnog will lessen the effects.

Meanwhile, this week I finished the enjoyable 2012 novel “The Light Between Oceans” by M.L. Stedman. It takes place in the 1920s at an isolated lighthouse on Janus Rock, an island off the coast of Western Australia.There, the lighthouse keeper (Tom) and his young wife (Isabel) come to find a baby that washes up in a rowboat with a body. But instead of reporting it, they decide to raise the child as their own, which ends up having tough consequences down the line for everyone involved.

The book, you could say, is a morality play about a couple that makes a choice that is ethically wrong but they do it for sympathetic reasons, namely that they are unable to have children and they believe the baby’s parents are deceased. They so want a baby, too! The wife believes the baby is a gift from God. Both have suffered so much — the husband through WWI and the wife through three miscarriages. You truly feel for them, but you feel queasy at the same time. And the more you read “The Light Between Oceans,” the queasier things get.

The heart-rending novel is cleverly done, and the descriptions of living at the isolated lighthouse and the characters are vividly portrayed. Who can resist a good lighthouse story? (Not I). It was hard to believe that this is M.L. Stedman’s first novel; it’s very well imagined and constructed. You don’t know for a long while how things will play out. I was quite consumed by “The Light Between Oceans” and will look for what the author writes next. My only criticism perhaps is that the ending got a wee bit crazy with the drama and went on a bit too much. But still I throughly enjoyed the novel, especially the lighthouse parts and living on Janus Rock. It very slightly reminded me of Stephen King’s “The Shining” and what happens when a troubled person goes to a very isolated place for too long a time. As a reader, you know things will likely not turn out all too well.

What about you — have you read this one? And what did you think of it? What are you reading this Christmas? I hope you enjoy it and have a very merry holiday!

Posted in Books | 6 Comments

12 Years a Slave

Posted on December 15, 2013 by Susan

I finally worked up the nerve to see the film “12 Years a Slave,” which I knew would be brutal and intense. It’s the true story of a freed slave in New York who is kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery to work on plantations in Louisiana. I felt I should see it, slavery being such a big part of U.S. history — and the evil indelible toll that it took on a good portion of the population and its effects there ever after.

Many films before have sugar-coated or skirted the evils of slavery, such as “Gone With the Wind” in 1939. But director Steve McQueen’s film doesn’t pull any punches. It depicts the violence, brutality and inhumanity of slavery while following Solomon Northup’s life story. It’s harrowing and hard to watch at times: the family break-ups, beatings, rapes, and lynchings. You just keep hoping that Solomon will be able to put an end to his captivity. Chiwetel Ejiofor is terrific in the lead role, expressing so much pain with little dialogue, and Michael Fassbender is simply chilling as the Southern plantation owner. But as evil as he is, his character is seemingly typical of whites’ attitudes during those times and places, which the film so faithfully illustrates.

I can’t think of many films that so boldly face up to slavery such as this one. Granted, I did not see “Django Unchained” last year, which I should have, but it seems perhaps a different kind of film, more Tarantino-ish. I remember as a kid watching “Roots” on TV in the ’70s and being stunned that people were actually shackled like that and sold as property. You might read it in history books, but “Roots” really brought it home. There’s been other affecting slavery movies over the years such as “Glory” in 1989 and “Amistad” in 1997. I also liked Toni Morrison’s novel “Beloved” but never saw Jonathan Demme’s film based on it.

Despite its brutality, I wouldn’t skip over “12 Years a Slave.” It’s a shattering but courageous story, one that director Steve McQueen has compared in its importance to “The Diary of Anne Frank.” I still plan to read the 1853 memoir by Solomon Northup that it’s based on, which is considered one of the best narratives about slavery in the U.S.

What about you: what did you think of the film? And what has been the most affecting movie that you’ve ever seen about slavery?

Posted in Movies | 6 Comments

December Releases

Posted on December 7, 2013 by Susan

Well it’s the last month of the year and I don’t think I’m going to meet my goal of the amount of books I wanted to finish in 2013. But heck, I read some interesting ones and a lot of authors I hadn’t read before. Some were veteran authors and others debut novelists. Sometimes I guess it’s quality over quantity in book reading, you can’t get too down about it. But I will set new reading goals for next year and keep my sights high, challenging myself to do more. That’s the good thing about a new year!

Meanwhile in December releases there’s not a lot new coming out in literary fiction (see list at right). For possible reads, I’ll pick Jim Harrison’s collection “Brown Dog,” which features six of his novellas written over the years that include the character Brown Dog, a down-on-his-luck Michigan Indian. I’ve always liked Harrison’s writings, especially his collection “Legends of the Fall,” which you might remember from the 1994 movie with Brad Pitt.

For fun, you might also like Nick Hornby’s nonfictional book “Ten Years in the Tub: A Decade Soaking in Great Books.” Hornby’s a humorous author with great wit and insight so I think this one will be quite wonderful. It’s based on his “Stuff I’ve Been Reading” columns that he wrote for the literary magazine The Believer. I’ve not read his columns before but I really got a kick out of his novel “High Fidelity” along with the movie of it that followed. He discusses all sort of things about reading in “Ten Years in the Tub” so it might be a fun gift for book worms.

For movies, December is usually the best month of the year, yay! And this one looks like it won’t disappoint with various films for everyone (see list at left). I know my brother is counting the minutes till “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,” comes out. I hope to see a lot this month, too. I still haven’t seen the harsh but incredible “12 Years a Slave” from last month, which Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post picks as the No. 1 film of 2013. Check out her “Best Movies of 2013” list, which is rather interesting. (I’ll write my own list later.)

Meanwhile I’m looking forward this month to “American Hustle,” “Saving Mr. Banks,” “August: Osage County” and maybe “Lone Survivor” if I can handle a scary war film. But the film I’m most interested to see — being a fan of folk music — is the Coen brothers’ film “Inside Llewyn Davis” about a singer in Greenwich Village in 1961. I got to see this (!) even though it looks a bit dark and quirky, like most of the Coen brothers’ movies.

Lastly, in albums for December there aren’t many new ones coming out (see list at bottom right). We should all just be listening to our favorite Christmas albums right about now. For Christmas-y stuff, I still like the 2003 soundtrack to the movie “Love Actually” and Chris Isaak’s “Christmas” album from 2004; I also like Sarah McLachlan’s album “Wintersong” from 2006. It’s excellent. I play these three CDs into the ground every year at this time. Do you have a Christmas album that you like best?

And what movie or book releases are you most looking forward to this month?

Enjoy your eggnog and happy holidays! — from The Cue Card

Posted in Top Picks | 14 Comments

Racing in the Rain and Dear Life

Posted on December 5, 2013 by Susan

I must say “The Art of Racing in the Rain” took me by surprise. I’m a big animal and dog lover (we have a yellow Lab) but I typically don’t read novels about them. I’m especially leery of novels with animals talking or ones narrated from their point of view. It’s just that the books are often pretty bad — totally unbelievable, or silly, or filled with saccharine. I have a lot of respect for dogs and animals in general so I sort of steer clear of novels that make them seem fake or ridiculous, or in which the animals’ owners are irresponsible as well.

So when a friend dropped “The Art of Racing in the Rain” in my lap with a little dog in a flying costume on the front cover (which is a different cover than the one I pictured here) I sort of thought “no way.” However it was a friend and I couldn’t return the book without trying.

Sure enough it’s narrated by a dog, and yet this one didn’t drive me crazy like a lot of the others have. There’s so much more to it and the story and characters stood on their own, pulling me in along the way. Here’s what it’s about:

Enzo is a Lab, terrier mix who loves his human family that lives in Seattle; he thinks when he dies he’ll be reincarnated as a person. His owner Denny works at a fancy auto shop and is an up-and-coming race car driver, Eve, is his wife, and Zoe, their young daughter. Denny and Enzo love to watch old auto racing videos together, gleaning the wisdom these races can transfer to their lives. Yet when Eve becomes ill and Zoe’s taken in by her grandparents, Enzo must back Denny in the most challenging days of his life.

It’s a heart-jerking story and reaffirms the love a dog has for his family and vice-versa. I liked Denny and could see why Enzo thought so highly of him. By the end, I was taken in by the book hook, line, and sinker. I almost lost it on the last few pages, which rarely ever happens. “The Art of Racing in the Rain” is both humorous and touching. I was impressed by author Garth Stein’s depth and commitment to Enzo and his family, a true canine appreciator no doubt. My preconceived qualms about reading this turned out to be unfounded. It’s a human story as much as it is a dog’s story and one that I’m glad not to have missed.

Another book I finished recently was “Dear Life” by Alice Munro. It’s a collection of 14 short stories my book club chose to read and I was pleasantly surprised it offered quite a bit of discussion at our meeting. For a while I couldn’t get my head into the stories. Whether the characters didn’t really speak to me or my thoughts were focused elsewhere, I blame my own distracted reading rather than the clever writing of Alice Munro, who recently won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

I had read and liked her previous collection of stories called “Too Much Happiness,” and I did appreciate many stories in this collection as well though I felt perhaps a bit detached. They’re all a bit dark or unsettling in various ways: in “Amundsen” a girl goes to teach at a tuberculosis sanitarium where she enters into a dismal relationship with the head doctor; in “Corrie” a woman believes she’s being blackmailed for an affair with a married man; in “Gravel” a girl feels guilty for the drowning of her sister; and in “In the Sight of the Lake” a woman with Alzheimer’s dreams about when she got lost on her way to the doctor’s.

Women are often getting the bad end of the stick in these stories. At the end, the collection includes four stories that are “autobiographical in feeling,” Munro says. I’m not sure they’re too revealing but they give a slice of life or impressions of what Munro’s upbringing was like in rural Ontario, where her father was a fox farmer and her mother, a school teacher, before she developed Parkinson’s disease.

I plan to read more of Alice Munro’s short story collections in the future. Eventually I’ll work my way backward through her works from most recent to the past and will get to “The View From Castle Rock” (2006) and “Runaway” (2004) in due time. Hopefully I’ll learn some more from reading from the short story master.

What about you — have you read either “Dear Life” or “The Art of Racing in the Rain”? And if so, what did you think of them?

Posted in Books | 1 Comment

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Posted on November 30, 2013 by Susan

Happy U.S. Thanksgiving weekend. I have been in California enjoying the holiday with family so I’m just now posting some thoughts on “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” movie, which I saw last Monday after its opening weekend took in $158 million at the box office. It beat out the first Hunger Games movie in sales and is continuing to haul in more over Thanksgiving break.

I found it similarly as good as the first movie and it follows the novel quite closely. “Catching Fire” finds Katniss and Peeta on a Victory Tour of the 12 districts after their win in the 74th Hunger Games. But all is not well as rebellion against the tyrannical Capitol is in the air and Katniss turns into a symbol for the cause. President Snow retaliates by making many of the former victors return to the arena for the next Games. And soon, Katniss and Peeta are back there fighting for their lives once again.

The sets, costumes and special effects make it an eye-catching spectacle in a post-apocalyptic world. And the expanded cast is entertaining, too, seeing which actor will turn up as what character in the movie. It’s a large, diverse cast with everyone from Stanley Tucci to Amanda Plummer to Jeffrey Wright and Donald Sutherland to even Philip Seymour Hoffman this time around. They’re all fun to watch, as well as the returning cast, notably Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Woody Harrelson who are the main protagonists.

“Catching Fire” takes some time positioning itself at the movie’s beginning. I think people who haven’t read Suzanne Collins’s trilogy might find the movie quite slow in parts especially at the start, or they might be confused about particular parts of the movie. It’s more enjoyable I think to have read the books before seeing either of the movies to get the full experience, though it’s not a complex story like “Game of Thrones” or anything. But it’s good to remember such things as who Seneca Crane was. You might recall he was the head gamemaker of the 74th Hunger Games who ultimately is put to death for allowing there to be two victors (Peeta and Katniss) from the same district. His circumstances come up again in this movie.

“Catching Fire” does get suspenseful as the Capitol starts cracking down on the districts and Katniss threatens to run away and especially once the next Hunger Games starts. You might flinch a few times when they’re making their way through the forest, and since you know the ending can’t be as fortunate to have two victors as in the original.

But one segment of the book I was sorry they left out in the movie is when Katniss comes across two runaways from District 8 in her woods at home in District 12. They tell her there’s reason to believe that District 13 was not wiped out as they were always lead to believe but is still populated, how so they don’t know. The mystery surrounding District 13 and its hoped for part in the underground rebellion, which is quite interesting in the book, is not much touched on till the very end of the movie, which is too bad. That’s one example of why books that are made into films are usually so much better. The movie misses a bit of the mystery, as well as the thoughts that are explored in the book’s first-person narrative.

Still “Catching Fire” is an entertaining adaptation of the book to the big screen. It’s dark, it’s brutal and still there’s the love triangle between Katniss and Gale and Katniss and Peeta that’s not all figured out. At the end you’ll want to know more about what will happen to all of them, but you’ll need to hang on till November 2014 when “Mockingjay Part 1” comes out. So till then Happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favor!

Now what did you think of the movie?

Posted in Movies | 8 Comments

All Is Lost and Blue Jasmine

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Susan

I know, I know, I know: it’s “Hunger Games: Catching Fire” week but I saw two notable films recently that are still on my mind. First, the Robert Redford film “All Is Lost” about a 70-ish year-old man sailing solo in the Indian Ocean whose boat collides with a shipping container. He’s left struggling to survive for eight days adrift at sea, with seemingly no one else around for hundreds of miles.

It’s a different kind of film because it’s so quiet and just one person is in it, with no dialogue. It has a documentary feel to it as you watch the sailor (played by Redford) try to repair the damaged boat and overcome the elements. He moves methodically about his work and remains calm in the face of a very scary situation. At points you want him to hurry up (!) as the water swells in the boat, but he moves slowly as an older person and must be a seasoned sailor because he doesn’t panic like I would be doing.

You might wonder after his boat radio goes out why he doesn’t have a GPS device to locate his position or the internet or an emergency beacon to alert others to rescue him, but alas no. He’s way out there, alone with none of these things, which perhaps might speak to what kind of person he is or what he’s doing out there in first place. You might also second-guess a couple other decisions of him as a sailor, such as leaving the boat to jump onto the drifting container, or going on deck during a tropical cyclone, or not wearing a life jacket at certain times, but despite such recklessness, you’ll be taken in, too, by his utter resourcefulness and courage as he’s adrift at sea. He’s no quitter.

Redford is terrific in the role as a man facing his own mortality. Perhaps not since 1972’s “Jeremiah Johnson” has he shone as a survivor like this. Apparently the 77-year-old Redford insisted on doing all his own stunts in the film, which makes it feel quite real. “All Is Lost” is a quiet, yet compelling meditation at sea.

“Blue Jasmine,” on the other hand, is a film completely different from that but also includes a strong performance of the lead character played this time by Cate Blanchett. I do hope Ms. Blanchett receives some award nominations because she is superb as the New York socialite Jasmine who comes to stay with her sister in San Francisco after her life falls apart.

The story of what goes wrong in New York for Jasmine and her very rich financier husband (played by Alec Baldwin) unfolds in flashbacks while Jasmine is trying to get back on her feet in California.

In San Fran, the dynamic between the sisters is awkward at best, whereas Jasmine’s been wealthy, and is a bit haughty, her sister is divorced with two boys, doesn’t have much money, and is dating a low-life mechanic. Jasmine influences her sister to see someone better, while she eventually meets a well-to-do man who plans to run for Congress. But eventually all begins to unravel once the veneer Jasmine’s created gets pulled away.

It’s typical Woody Allen: a film full of relationships, deceits and their sticky consequences. It’s a bit depressing, watching the impending outcome. I didn’t think of a modern-day version of Tennessee Williams’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” when I was watching it, but have read since that some critics have compared it to that. And I guess the plot of “Blue Jasmine” is quite like that: A troubled woman comes to stay with her sister and affects her sister’s relationship with her guy and things end badly for her. It differs a bit in this modern telling with more characters etc., but there are some similarities.

The best part of “Blue Jasmine” is the cast and acting. Blanchett, of course is excellent as Jasmine, but so is Sally Hawkins as her sister who plays off Jasmine so well. Then there’s Andrew Dice Clay (remember the crude, stand-up comedian?) who is surprisingly good as the sister’s ex-husband, as well as Bobby Cannavale who plays the sister’s mechanic boyfriend, Chili. I was delighted, too, to see comedian C.K. Louis play the guy the sister has a fling with. He’s terrific! How can anyone not like C.K., even though his role here is pretty slimy.

Despite its dark overtones, “Blue Jasmine” makes for an entertaining romp, thanks to its cast that gives the script just the right touch.

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Catching Fire

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Susan

I just finished Suzanne Collins’s young adult, post-apocalyptic novel “Catching Fire,” the second in the trilogy of “The Hunger Games,” and now I’m officially ready for the movie’s release on Nov. 22. Maybe I should do calisthenics to limber up for it or at least to battle the box office lines. You might recall the first movie raked in $152.5 million on its opening weekend in 2012 (I saw it then), and the second movie should surely smoke at the box office as well.

But what about the second novel? I must admit I thought “Catching Fire” matched up equally well to “The Hunger Games.” Of course there’s a lot of lead-up to what eventually takes place in the novel. You have to wait patiently at points to get to the action, but it all comes down in due time. And of course, at the book’s beginning, the author goes to lengths to remind readers of where things left off at the end of the first one. So there’s a bit of positioning with Book 2 but still it’s a compelling read.

You might recall Peeta and Katniss were co-winners of the very griesly 74th Hunger Games; you would have thought this would have given them a break in “Catching Fire,” but unfortunately not. While on the Hunger Games victory tour, they soon learn they’re targets of President Snow’s Capitol that views their victory as defiant and a symbol of rebellion across the twelve districts.

Snow is determined to make them pay, so he changes the rules announcing that the winners of the past Hunger Games have to face off against each other at the next Games, which is a terrible blow to Katniss and Peeta.

Without giving anything away, the final 100 pages of the book finds Katniss and Peeta back in the arena struggling to be the last ones standing. They have allies and enemies and each has pledged to save the other’s life, but odds are both of them can’t survive this time. So what on Earth is going to happen? You’ll have to check it out yourself if you’re one of the few alive who haven’t already.

Compared to the first book, Book 2 plays out more behind the scenes and involves underlying resistance against the autocratic Capitol’s control, whereas Book 1 was more focused on surviving the Hunger Games competition, which plays out longer and more brutally than in Book 2. Yet “Catching Fire” is just about as suspenseful and it ends with quite a humdinger. It’ll be interesting to see if the movie does it justice; the cast looks to be fantastic and I plan to see it opening weekend. When all is said and done, I’m sure there’ll be a dark shadow cast over Panem, which you won’t want to miss.

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