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

[ellen-denham.livejournal.com]

Little Miss Sunshine was one of my favorite movies last year (which isn't in and of itself saying much - I don't go to many movies).

One form of comedy which I usually hate involves presenting a group of misfits so you can laugh and sneer at them. Why Little Miss Sunshine works for me is you start out maybe snickering at the characters at the beginning, but then you are pulling for them, flaws, creepiness, and all, by the end. At least I was.

I laughed so hard I cried at the end. I don't think the grandfather was intentionally setting Olive up for something bad. He was a bit twisted himself.

What I loved most about the ending was that by that point, Olive and her family look positively normal compared to the beauty pageant weirdos.