Happy Boxing Day

I think I will go see All the Money in the World, since they replaced Kevin Spacey with Christopher Plummer. I'm a little squeamish about the ear getting cut off, but I figure I can look away if it's too gruesome. And after all, severed ears were featured in a Sherlock Holmes story, and a large number of movies seem to feature severed fingers.

I'm kind of glad to see Downsizing flop this weekend, because I was always annoyed by their early trailers trying to trick us into thinking that Kristin Wiig's character gets shrunk with Matt Damon. In reality, she's only in the beginning of the film, choosing not to shrink; only recently have the trailers admitted this. I've heard some critical praise about Hong Chau's role, but what I've read about the plot sounds muddled and misguided, much like the racial subplot in Suburbicon. I'd much rather watch Rose Tico in Star Wars, and wish that her sister Paige could have lived longer.

There's apparently a new trailer for Black Panther now, and there's already new Lego sets for the movie. I cannot wait.

The King and I

I saw this musical last night at the opera house, hoping it would be good to see a mostly Asian cast perform without any of the whitewashing of old. I've heard of this show before, but have never seen the movies, read the novel, or looked up the biography of the actual historical people.

I found the story slow and somewhat stilted, I guess because the musical was written in the 1950s. I had thought it would be more fun and engaging, like The Sound of Music. I mean, there were parts that were funny, and all the singers were greatly talented, but the songs themselves were merely pleasant; I felt indifferent to them, not touched or thrilled like with other classic show tunes. I only really liked the songs related to the tragic young lovers, Tuptim and Lun Tha: "We Kiss in a Shadow" and "I Have Dreamed." Also I was fascinated by Tuptim's version of Uncle Tom's Cabin. She read the book and rewrote it as a Siamese ballet with dancers acting out the story of Eliza's escape from slavery. It also incorporated a miracle from Lord Buddha: ice and snow that helped Eliza escape, but which melted to drown her abusive master. Somewhat reminiscent of the Biblical story of the parting of the Red Sea, and the pharoah's army getting drowned after the sea flowed back. Tuptim's play was like an interesting fanfiction of the novel, though she let her emotions overcome her, revealing too much before her own attempt to run away from the King.

The Last Jedi

I enjoyed this Star Wars film much more than Rogue One. It was more like The Force Awakens when it comes to showing strong female characters. They were main characters as well as significant supporting characters; I didn't realize that one of the actresses was even Carrie Fisher's daughter. Captain Phasma finally made an appearance; it was short, yes, but she finally got to do battle. It's a pity we never had much character development, and never saw her without her helmet, like we did with Kylo Ren.

SPOILERS BELOW

Go See a Star War

So the latest Star War movie is out. I guess I'll see it because it has Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia one last time. I hope it will be more like The Force Awakens rather than the sausage fest of Rogue One. There's apparently going to be some Asian characters this time who aren't Blind Monk stereotypes. I'll find out on Monday, I guess, which is the earliest I can see the movie.

Overall I've been unenthused by the usual Disney/Pixar movies lately. Didn't even see Coco. Now Disney is buying a huge portion of Fox, and some people are excited to have all their franchises together now. I worry about the monopoly, though, and how much they're going to take away from Netflix for their own streaming service. Plus, they still need to clean house after John Lasseter took a leave of absence from Pixar. He totally downplayed allegations against him to sound more innocent. And Rashida Jones had a point that the culture there could use women and people of color in charge.

But still, I'm hungrily waiting for Black Panther in February. Hope it will be great.

TV this week

Last night was even sweeter when it came to LGBT representation. Fresh Off The Boat had Eddie and friends helping Nicole to get a date with a girl barista. The kids were so silly and over-caffeinated, but well-meaning, and it's good that Eddie is able to be friendly with his ex-girlfriend. Meanwhile on Brooklyn Nine Nine, Jake helped Rosa come out as bisexual to her parents, who did not take the news well. Rosa's dad later apologized, but said the mom needed more time, so Jake organized a game night with her work family to cheer Rosa up. Holt even hugged her and congratulated her; they've come so far from early days when Rosa dated Holt's nephew Marcus and didn't want to discuss the relationship.

As for other TV this week, Lucifer's finale was disappointing. They finally revealed Pierce's true identity as the biblical Cain, and I remain unimpressed. I knew he was shady all long. Why did the show ever try to pretend Pierce wasn't the bad guy who made all the files on Lucifer? Why push Ella's huge crush on him, and the fake-ass chemistry with Chloe? The whole technicality of the Sinnerman being some accomplice for Cain is a cheap bait and switch. Plus no one has explained how two human beings were able to restore Lucifer's wings, or take his devil face, or why they wanted Lucifer to kill the Sinnerman. What a shitty episode to start the fall hiatus on.

Doug Jones Wins

Yay! Victory in Alabama, even if Moore refuses to concede. The margin is too large for an automatic recount. I'm so relieved. This gives me hope that maybe we can turn some seats blue in Texas as well, despite all the pessimism and previous defeats.

What a great day.

The Shape of Water

I saw this movie today and enjoyed it. It's my first time watching a Guillermo del Toro film, though I've heard about his reputation for years. This is a lovely fantasy romance drama, with great performances. Elisa's friends are interesting characters, and even the scientist guy has his own motivations for helping to free the creature, known as the Asset. There are some bloody, somewhat gruesome moments, particularly about the villain Strickland's fingers that were bitten off, and the cattle prod that he uses to viciously torture people. But overall, the movie is sweet and full of kindness. Elisa and her gay neighbor often watch old Hollywood movies together, and in one scene she imagines herself starring in a movie musical with her amphibious beloved. Very nice sort of fairy tale.

One of the trailers before Shape of Water was for Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs a stop motion animation pic due next year. I'm not sure if I will see it or not. Recently I watched The Grand Budapest Hotel which I did like. I've gotten used to Anderson's quirky style, but this one was a zany, somewhat frenetic tale of murder, theft, and prison escape, mixed with the beginning of war. The story is framed as a book that a young girl reads, then the Author telling the tale, then Jude Law as the young Author hearing the tale from an old Zero Mustafa about his mentor the hotel concierge Monsieur Gustave. Like in Anderson's other films, there's a lot of nostalgia for an old world that's gone, and apparently Anderson based it on the writings of Stefan Zweig from that era. Lots of quoting from poetry, lots of refinement and elegance, but also a dark underbelly. Anderson fooled me into thinking that Agatha was going to get assassinated by that henchman Jopling, but no, her eventual death was unrelated to the adventures in the movie. Coincidentally, there are also severed fingers in The Grand Budapest Hotel. I wish there had been more Jude Law in it.

99

On Brooklyn Nine Nine, Rosa came out as bisexual in a cool, understated way. Rosa has long been secretive and private about her life, so this revelation combined with the Thanksgiving reveal that she had become closer to her family after getting out of prison, is wonderful character development. The fact that the actress is bi is a bonus. I hope the rest of the gang will find out about Rosa soon.

Her costar Terry Crews meanwhile continues to be awesome in real life. After filing a police report about his sexual assault, and seeing his abuser only briefly suspended, Terry has now filed a lawsuit against him. Hopefully, the abuser will suffer some real punishment and consequences this time. No one should get away with that kind of stuff.

This might be the show's final season due to low ratings, but it's been a great ride, and I will miss the characters and their humor when they go.

World on Fire

California's burning and Trump's set the Middle East on fire with his proclamation about Israel. Stupid to enrage the Palestinians and then talk about moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, where it will be a target for protests and attacks. I only caught a little of the news on TV at work. It was galling to hear him say that he was merely recognizing "reality" by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital. He's divorced from reality and regularly declares facts as "fake news". Pretending that he supports a two-state solution when he's just driven a stake into it. Jerusalem is disputed territory, supposed to be worked out in the peace talks, but he's circumvented all that, declared Israel the victor, and he expects Palestinians to just accept that? The rest of the world to accept that? Fuck him and Netanyahu too.

TV News is as useless as ever; my local stations were reporting on FBI Director Wray and trying to cast doubt on Mueller's impartiality by talking about the guy that got fired long ago to make sure they didn't have any partisan bias. And of course there's the hysteria over Franken resigning. His awful speech trying to talk up his legacy while continuing to deny the allegations. After so many "I don't remembers" and "I take hundreds of photos", I don't give a crap about you, Franken. Shitty blogs like Daily Kos are still full of defenders who insist that we're giving in to Republicans. Fuck you deniers. This reckoning is for everyone, red and blue.

About the only good news lately was Australia's Parliament finally voting for marriage equality. In Texas, there's some new Democratic candidates signing up to run. Not sure how much I want to contribute again, given my disappointments after Wendy Davis and others. But we've got to at least try to get rid of Abbott and Cruz and Cornyn.

Meh Villains

I'm not enjoying either the Reign storyline on Supergirl or the Sinnerman on Lucifer. The love triangles aren't that interesting either. I thought that after the DC Crossover that Reign would finally arrive on Supergirl, but they went back to Sam and Ruby again, plus reinforced Sam's friendship with Lena and Kara at the Christmas party. Is that supposed to make it more heartbreaking that she's becoming Reign against her will? But they spent no time explaining Reign's origins and destiny until this measly prophecy from the cult leader. And even then we don't understand what Reign's motivation is. She attacks gang members and Morgan Edge, but is that Sam's feelings coming through, or is Reign programmed to attack bad guys? If she's supposed to be some Justice figure or Nemesis, please clarify instead of throwing around Devil analogies. If she's supposed to be avenging Krypton's destruction, they why target Earth rather than other surviving Kryptonians like Kara? As for the love triangle, we finally got an explanation about the underwater ship being there for 12,000 years, but it was underwhelming, and I still hate that the writers are still relying on love triangles for plot devices.

As for Lucifer, the whole Sinnerman thing has been a complete bore, worse than the season 1 mystery about Chloe's botched case. They haven't given any answers about Lucifer's wings or addressed whether Amendiel will get his powers back. I'm really hating Lieutenant Pierce, and the writers have clumsily tried to imply sexual tension in the most anvilly way. I was so disappointed about the love triangle with Maze, Amenadiel, and Linda. Wish they'd stop this nonsense and have fun again.

Revival

I stumbled upon news about that TV show where Maggie Q was going to star as Chinese pirate Ching Shih. I first read about this project in 2014 in Deadline, where it was described as a TV show called "Red Flag" after the pirate fleet. But apparently this somehow morphed into a TV movie called "Queen of Canton" that has the same description and has Maggie Q as the star. But it looks like the project is still in development and there hasn't been any news on it for a few years now. I hope it's not dead, just because Maggie's in a network TV show now. I mean, surely she can have some time off of Designated Survivor to do a movie? Or if she can't find time, then maybe they'll recast with a Chinese actress, like Sun Li from Iron Road? It's not that there's a lack of Asian actors in the business; it's that Hollywood doesn't provide enough lead Asian roles, or tries to whitewash them.

I was glad to hear that Disney cast a Chinese actress for their live-action Mulan. I hope they will try to cast the rest of the parts that way, and keep Mulan as the protagonist rather than a passive foil for whoever the male lead is. I'm pleased that the director is a woman, and that the scriptwriters are women too. Less chance of a male-gazy film and more something like a celebration of strength and power like in Patty Jenkin's Wonder Woman. I do wish that Disney would hire more women directors, though. It seems like in all their announcements for their live-action remakes, they keep picking predominately male directors. Why can't they spread it around a bit more?

I'm still looking forward to the Crazy Rich Asians movie too. Please let this new diversity push be a lasting trend, and not just a one-off like The Joy Luck Club in the 1990s.

Reckoning

Brock Turner's lawyers are trying to overturn his conviction, but their claims are very confusing and upsetting. They harp on the fact that the assault took place "out in the open" instead of behind a dumpster, then they claim "it happened" but that it was "not a crime." What the fuck? They think it was consensual? She was fucking unconscious, and they have witnesses who saw it happen. If she was unconscious, then by definition, it was not consensual, and it was a crime. What kind of goddamn lawyers are these? This on top of the fact that Brock Turner's original sentence was way too short.

This shitty rape culture is the reason why we're having this "reckoning" about sexual harassment and assault. I see a lot of defensive people saying that all this is just "distraction" and that we should pay attention to other shit like the tax bill. (Just like how Bernie Sanders tried to minimize abortion rights and social justice by insisting that economic stuff and Medicare for all would be the cure to all ills.) No, it's not a zero-sum game. It's not either/or. The world is complex, and so are people. We can concentrate on multiple crises at a time. You might as well say that the tax shit and Russia is an irrelevant distraction to the citizens in Puerto Rico still trying to recover. Don't fucking say that it's not important. Everything's important if you care about people.

It's exhausting, of course, to try to deal with everything at once, but don't shit on women and tell us to shut up about Franken so we can keep his damn seat in the Senate (his replacement will be chosen by a Democratic governor, so Franken's place is in fact something we can afford to lose). Take the accusers seriously and don't tell us we're concentrating on the "wrong" thing. Women have had enough. Don't be chickenshits defending harassers. Be at least as good as the TV networks who finally canned Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose. Demand resignations from every scumbag, no matter which side they're on. And work like hell to keep Roy Moore out of office; the tightening polls are starting to scare me. :(