Hint added for one item on this week’s trivia.
1/31/2007
What Greek God Are You?
?? Which Of The Greek Gods Are You ??
Aphrodite/Eros
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1/30/2007
Another Oscar update
My score keeps climbing. Saw The Devil Wears Prada tonight, which was so not worth it, but it did up my numbers to 5/15 major nominations, 8/45 nominations for all full-length films.
Gotta say, it’s a crime that Streep can be nominated for that, in the same year she did Prairie Home Companion. I mean, wonderful in both, but still.
Tuesday Trivia Time: 1/30
Today’s theme: Covert activities
1. Hiding the dead woman’s umbrella in the couch cushions.
Hint: The person who hid the umbrella was played by a child actor who successfully made the transition to adult star.
2. Breaking into the “Temple of Diana” through the roof.
Solved by Tom (comment #9).
3. Sneaking into the English mansion through a window, in collusion with the creepy housekeeper.
Solved by George (comment #23).
4. Breaking into San Francisco City Hall to find plans of an old mine.
Solved by Proteus (comment #28).
5. Peeking into her husband’s fishing tackle box, to find it unused.
Solved by Christopher (comment 3).
6. Switching shopping bags in a dressing room in order to scam government agents.
Solved by Ken (comment 6).
7. Slipping a death row prisoner out, just for one evening, to help the warden’s wife.
Solved by Daven (comment 1).
1/29/2007
Monday Movie Review: Little Miss Sunshine
Little Miss Sunshine (2006) 10/10
Seven year-old Olive (Abigail Breslin) dreams of winning a beauty contest. When she gets the opportunity to enter the Little Miss Sunshine contest, the entire dysfunctional family piles into the old van to get her there.
(This is a continuation of a conversation between oddjob and myself in comments, and also draws on a really good conversation I had this evening with my step-sister Victoria.)
In every blurb and write-up about Little Miss Sunshine, the family is referred to as dysfunctional. Which is some sort of shorthand for kooky and unhappy. Looking back, I’m not actually 100% sure that they are all that dysfunctional, except for Uncle Frank (Steve Carell), who recently attempted suicide. That’s dysfunctional. The father (Greg Kinnear) can’t get his career as a motivational speaker off the ground. His “motivation” is kind of mean-spirited, and his family doesn’t let him get away with much of it. Which makes him kind of a failure and kind of a bastard, and a little clueless, but I’m not sure I’d use the word “dysfunctional” for him. The mom (Toni Collette) is overwhelmed by her family and her life, and angry that her husband isn’t bringing in any money. Which makes her very, very normal.
Overall I think these people are a little sad, a little offbeat, and very touching. They are not hurting each other except in the small ordinary ways that people can’t help. I’m just realizing this now, but maybe what I liked so much about Little Miss Sunshine is the family isn’t all that dysfunctional. The preview would have you believe that Grandpa (Alan Arkin) is creepy and that the family is insane, but he’s not and they’re not.
Olive wants to be in a beauty contest, but bizarrely, and delightfully, she is unaware that she’s kind of fat (the actress wears a fat suit). She is utterly unsuited for the beauty contest that is the world, as is the rest of this family. (Which, again, doesn’t make them dysfunctional). “Life,” Dwayne (Paul Dano, who is my favorite part of the movie) tells us, “Is one fucking beauty contest after another.” And these people will persist in not winning beauty contests. Of course, beauty contests are insane, and this movie makes the best case since King of Hearts that the asylum is the world and the inmates are the ones who’ve noticed.
What worries me about Little Miss Sunshine is that people are laughing at how nutty the Hoover family is, and maybe I’m the only one who is actually moved by them. Everyone sold me this movie as a comedy, and yes, it’s funny in parts. Some good slapstick, some witty lines, some flat-out enjoyable silliness. But I’ve come away from it thinking, not giggling.