Mulan, Mr Rogers and Moles!
Oct. 19th, 2020 10:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearWe finally got around to watching the new live-action Mulan. Controversy aside (and there are always questions about whether you can review content without context) I really enjoyed it. The presentation of the story felt a bit simplistic, but it was absolutely gorgeous all the way through and lightly entertaining. The witch had by far the best emotional arc, so it was a shame she didn't get a name. But I loved the scenery, the clothes, the horses, the fight choreography - really beautifully executed, though perhaps a little lacking in depth.
We also watched A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood, which turned out to be a very different film to the one we expected. At one point, a character was reading the article the protagonist had written about Mr Rogers and she said, "It's not really about Mr Rogers. It's all you." And that was a very meta statement about the film. It's much more about the journalist writing the profile than it is about Mr Rogers. It's also very weird in places and not always easy to figure out what's real and what's not. But the performances were good and it made me feel a lot of feelings, so pretty good overall.
I also finished listening to the audiobook of Some Fine Day by Kat Ross. It tells the story of a girl who has grown up being trained for the military in a society that has moved underground due to massive storms that ravage the surface. She gradually discovers the powers-that-be have been lying to everyone about the state of the world, and embarks on a mission to find the truth and save the surface-dwellers. I picked the book because it's narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal, who was just as good at reading other people's books as she is her own (though the British accents were still execrable). My favourite moment was when the teenage protagonist went and told her mum all about what was going on - I love it when YA heroes involve the adults! It was a fun story overall and went in some very different directions than I expected.
We also watched A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood, which turned out to be a very different film to the one we expected. At one point, a character was reading the article the protagonist had written about Mr Rogers and she said, "It's not really about Mr Rogers. It's all you." And that was a very meta statement about the film. It's much more about the journalist writing the profile than it is about Mr Rogers. It's also very weird in places and not always easy to figure out what's real and what's not. But the performances were good and it made me feel a lot of feelings, so pretty good overall.
I also finished listening to the audiobook of Some Fine Day by Kat Ross. It tells the story of a girl who has grown up being trained for the military in a society that has moved underground due to massive storms that ravage the surface. She gradually discovers the powers-that-be have been lying to everyone about the state of the world, and embarks on a mission to find the truth and save the surface-dwellers. I picked the book because it's narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal, who was just as good at reading other people's books as she is her own (though the British accents were still execrable). My favourite moment was when the teenage protagonist went and told her mum all about what was going on - I love it when YA heroes involve the adults! It was a fun story overall and went in some very different directions than I expected.
