Brad Bird’s Ratatouille is a fine example of Pixar’s prowess with plot and animation, plus no hankies are needed. It’s pretty much a sausage fest, with Janeane Garofalo the only female present, but it’s a fun Patton Oswalt performance and has a good message. My favorite part was watching the rats run in a swarm,* which was realistic enough looking that I felt a bit panicked.
But this year, I came back strong and watched 55, an all-time high. Also, it was much easier, possibly because more women are getting to make more movies. Also possibly because I have Netflix now, and a goodly number of movies I watch on Netflix are written or directed by women.
Here are images from my Letterboxd list. Letterboxd makes things so pretty. And you can sort, as I’ve done here, sorting by rating.
My five star ratings are: Lady Bird–written and directed by Greta Gerwig–through The Favourite–written by Deborah Davis.
Four star reviews start with A Star is Born (’37)–written by Dorothy Parker (!!)–and go through Leave No Trace–written and directed by Debra Granik.
Dick–written by Sheryl Longin–is my first three-star review and they go through Ginger & Rosa–written and directed by Sally Potter.
My two-star reviews are A Wrinkle in Time–written by Jennifer Lee and directed by Ava DuVernay–through The Miseducation of Cameron Post–written by Cecilia Frugiuele and Desiree Akhaven, directed by Desiree Akhaven.
And my one-star reviews are King Kong–written by Ruth Rose–and A Star is Born (’76)–written by (of all people!) Joan Didion.
I recommend #52moviesbywomen as a worthy project for you this year. My first year was very fun because I got to watch entire filmographies of women directors. (Sadly, many women director’s filmographies are not lengthy and this can mostly be done by watching a mere 3-5 movies.)
But even if you participate by keeping track of movies you’ve happened across that fit the criteria, it’s bound to raise your awareness.
Gossip Girl Season 1 provides many things: a quality overwrought drama full of (mostly) bad people making bad decisions; an insight into cutting-edge technology of 2006; performances that range from very good,* to adequate,** to subpar.*** This is not a good show, and it can’t be mistaken for quality television, but it is very, very good bad television. I’m not confident that it will be able to sustain it’s very good badness through another season, much less five more seasons, but this season was a great gift.
Verdict: Good
Cost: Monthly Netflix subscription Where watched: at home
*Alas, only Kristen Bell as the unseen Gossip Girl, but maybe possibly Kelly Rutherford as Lily van der Woodsen. I can’t tell if she’s great at playing an ice queen, or is actually an ice queen. **Blake Lively as Serena van der Woodsen, Taylor Momsen as Jenny Humpry ***To varying degrees, everyone else.
Postcard 1 of 3 arrived today (two days after postcards 2&3/3, if you are keeping count.)
It’s an ad for a fun-sounding film series taking place at the Heights Theater. All the films focus on the “fille fatale.” The card defines this as “a cunning girl bent on destroying her parents, or a loving daughter whose keen eye exposes dark family secrets.”
Movies listed in the series: The Bad Seed, The Big Sleep, The Curse of the Cat People, Mildred Pierce, Shadow of a Doubt.
It looks like a good film series. Someday, when my life arranges itself in a different order, I hope to be able to attend film series such as these.
As noted before, all the patterns in this book are inspired by the yarn. In my case, I seem to have knitted Lemon Meringue, rather than Purple Passion.
I really like this pattern. It’s one that I might eventually make the go-to knit dishcloth pattern. I like that there are vastly different sections, so it’s easier to see where I am in the repeat. It’s visually appealing and looks fancy.
As noted before, I didn’t do the full repeat of the pattern because it would have involved starting a new skein of yarn. But I think six rows instead of eight is fine.
I might cut down the top and bottom borders a bit, should I make this again.
Trista Hendrickson does custom pet portraits and this postcard and the one below arrived today. They are, alas, 2 of 3 and 3 of 3, so we will have to wait until the first one arrives, but any day with mail is a good day.
In this card, Sara tells me she is planning a dissertation writing retreat, which I happen to know she has done and that it went well.
She also reminded me that she sent me a picture of Lauren Strom’s work over Instagram. I couldn’t recall the picture until I went to Ms. Strom’s Etsy shop (which you can find here). Then I knew what she was talking about.
I don’t think this is the greatest introduction to Lauren Strom’s work, but I really like her stuff.
I love this little house, one of three on this block. It’s 756 square feet and was built in 1926. The last time it was sold was in 2006 for $160,000. It’s a rental, the owners live in Vancouver.
The woman who lives (lived?) here has yard sales multiple times per year. There is a new four-story apartment complex next door, and since this is zoned CM3, this lot could hold something up to six stories. (Although then you might also need to buy the two houses next door.)
Here’s the asking price: $349,900. If the sellers get that, they will have doubled their money in 12 years. It’s been for sale for some time, so I’m guessing the price will drop a little.
I include the picture of the sign so you can see someone has crossed out with a big “NO!” the words “with development potential.” Since the MLS listing doesn’t include any pictures of the interior of the house, I would be very surprised if this becomes someone’s home.
I use Letterboxd to keep track of my movies. If you’re not familiar, it’s like Goodreads, but for movies.* It’s great for keeping track of what you’ve watched, and it also allows you to make as many lists as you want, which is handy when you want to slice and dice things. Among other lists, I keep a list of movies I’ve watched in a given year in movie theaters.
*If you’re not familiar with Goodreads, then do some googling as both of these sites are great for list-making fans who like to give opinions (or not).
Because nearly all movies I watch at theaters are current releases, this list also doubles nicely as a Top-10 list.
And we’re going to get to that Top-10 List in a second. But first, I need to pick my favorite movie of 2018.
Without further ado, my favoirite movie of 2018 was……
Eighth Grade
Eighth Grade is written and directed by Bo Burnham and stars Elsie Fisher who carries that movie on her slumped shoulders. Read my original review here.
Without further ado, here are all the films I watched in 2018 in theaters, ranked.
My 2018 five-star movies (top 10 are bolded)
Eighth Grade
Lady Bird
Tully
I, Tonya
The Rider
A Star is Born
Won’t You Be My Neighbor
The Hate U Give
Widows
The Favourite
Coco
Black Panther
Avengers Infinity War
First Man
Of note: The Lady Bird poster isn’t part of my 2018 Top 10. This was my third in-theater viewing, catching a friend up with my 2017 top movie. (It was also the last second-run movie I watched at the Laurelhurst Theater.) Coco is the same deal. It was a 2017 movie I caught up with in 2018.
2018 four-star reviews:
A Simple Favor
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Outside In
Three Identical Strangers
Ocean’s Eight
BlackKKlansman
A Quiet Place
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Sorry to Bother You
Every Day
Mary Poppins Returns
Love, Simon
The Florida Project
Phantom Thread
2018 three-star reviews:
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Post
Darkest Hour
Crazy Rich Asians
Solo: A Star Wars Story
The Shape of Water
2018 two-star reviews:
The Sisters Brothers
A Wrinkle in Time
First Reformed
Boy Erased
Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot
Flash Gordon
There were no one-star reviewed movies in the theaters in 2018!
And here’s my list of theaters visited: Academy Theater, Century 16 Eastport, Hollywood Theatre, Kiggens Theater, Laurelhurst Theater, Living Room Theater, McMenamins Baghdad Theater, McMenamins Mission Theater, McMenamins Kennedy School Theater, McMenamins St Johns Theater, Regal City Center Stadium 12, Regal Fox Tower, Regal Lloyd Center, Regal Pioneer Place, St. Johns Twin
You might recall that back in October, I decided to check out the Bullet Journal method. I have, and here is my report.
As you can see by this picture, I have not succumbed to the Bullet Journal craziness of fancy fonts, washi tape and gorgeous illustrations. But I am using the system.
It’s going well. I like writing things on a list and crossing them off, so that’s fun. I like that I can start whenever.
I don’t love trying to find my notes for things. Even though I have an index started in the front, it never occurs to me to check the index. So I have flags on pages that are still relevant and check them now and again.
I shall continue on with the Bullet Journal and rejoice in the simple feeling of pen on paper.
The Gleaners and I was my first Agnes Varda film and I suspect it won’t be my last, even though I don’t watch documentaries all that often. Varda examines gleaners–from those groups of women depicted in paintings, to the individuals who glean today in the fields, or on the city streets.* Varda sometimes wanders a little far afield from her topic, but her delight at all things made for a good movie and the information about produce wasted provides much to think about.**
