mini-reviews, one of each

[calimac]

Book: The Balkans: A Short History by Mark Mazower is supposed to be the best short book on the subject. I found it confusing, disordered, and not very attractive to the nonspecialist.

Album: The Beatles: "Love", George & Giles Martin's mashup, is certainly ingenious and full of unexpected renditions, but too much of it sounds like a radio trying to pick up two stations at once.

Movie: Little Miss Sunshine I thought I would probably hate, but it turned out to be the perfect balance between painful for the characters and funny for the viewer, this viewer anyway.

Comments

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

Little Miss Sunshine did pay off in the end, but getting there was so painful I don't think I would watch it again.

The grandpa's double standards for females, although classic (girls are innocent, women are whores), was still creepy, however much he supposedly loved his granddaughter. So teaching her a stripper routine, while funny for the movie and strike against the shallowness of the pageant, was also a little creepy. Not to mention that he was sabotaging his beloved granddaughter, since he surely knew this routine would shock and outrage the pageant, which would have been fine if she had known and understood the protest they were making and been a willing accomplice. But she had no idea. The more I think about it, the more cruel it seems, that even though he loved her, he was teaching her a routine that was going to get her booed offstage, just because he thought it would be funny. I'm unwilling to ascribe him higher motives.

Sorry for the rant. I haven't actually thought a lot about why this movie bothered me before this.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

No, that's quite OK. As I noted, the movie is painful for the characters, and for you that didn't overcome amusement value. That's my usual reaction to films like this, so why wasn't I bothered by this scene as you were? For me, the script carefully innoculated against that. That leads me to an even longer response.

First, it was clear that Olive was going to be booed off the stage anyway, no matter what she did. She was totally outclassed by the other contestants (by beauty pageant standards, anyway - I thought they looked creepy, like junior-miss whores), which is why the family were so anxious to withdraw her without even knowing what her dance would be like - though it's rather improbable that her parents would have never seen it at all, isn't it? So the dance isn't Olive's problem, freeing it to become her nose-thumbing response to her problem.

Second, I'm not so sure she doesn't know exactly what she's doing. She's a fairly savvy little girl, and the audience response doesn't cause her to break into tears, which is surely what would happen in real life if a child's stage number bombed to that degree.

Third, the dance wasn't really that salacious - the moves weren't very raunchy, and she never strips down even to underwear level. So while it's understandable that the pageant people would disapprove, their way of expressing it seemed over the top.

Fourth, the plot focus of this scene is as the occasion to bring the family together, the resolution which the plot has been holding off. The audience's disapproval seems secondary (and there were two guys who very much liked it).

Lastly, the movie's whole tone has been well signalled by previous events, starting with the discussion of Frank's suicide attempt. This is a comedy which is going to address difficult subjects with a light touch and without grossness.