One letter, six questions

[osprey_archer]

One letter, six questions meme. evelyn_b gave me J, which is surprisingly hard! Or maybe any letter might have been difficult; I guess I’m just not used to grouping things alphabetically in my mind.

Something I hate: Man, this is hard. I thought the movie Judgment at Nuremberg was pretentious and not nearly as morally insightful as it thought, but I felt bored rather than filled with hatred.

Oh! Jelly beans. Jelly beans are the worst. They’re sticky and too sweet and they have a weird texture and just in general they are disgusting.

Something I love: Julius Caesar! The Shakespeare play! Have I told you about the tragic nobility of Brutus, who is only trying to do what is best for Rome, only it all goes horribly wrong because he allows himself to be led astray by that viper in the grass, Cassius? I think I’ve mentioned this before.

I also think that this is probably not the most nuanced understanding of this play, but I first read it when I was in ninth grade so, you know, nuanced was not the name of the game.

Somewhere I’ve been: Jacksonville, Florida.

Somewhere I’d like to go: Japan!

Someone I know:: One of my friends in elementary school was a Jessica. But she was a grade above me, so we grew apart when she went over to the junior high.

A film I like: I have some reservations on J. Edgar – I think they should have focused more on the politics of Hoover’s life and less on his mostly-sublimated love affair with his second in command, Clyde Tolson – but nonetheless I did quite enjoy that mostly-sublimated love affair.

I also retain a weird fondness for Josie and the Pussycats, even though I wouldn’t really call it a good movie.

Let me know if you'd like a letter!

Comments

[goldjadeocean.livejournal.com]

Josie and the Pussycats feels to me like it set the tone for our generation? It's so fucking meta and postmodern and honestly genuine. Like, it knows that it's got a genre, which is the the teen girl movie, and then it knows the places you go from there--be super deep and philosophical about consumerism or whatever, or be super edgy and cynical and point out that puppies grow up into dogs who get old and die, and that friendships end; and it knows about parodies that play on all those things; and then it wraps right around and does what it sets out to do so at the end there are hugs and love and Everything Made Right again.

And it kind of feels like it was a sea-change, as the bright bubbly optimism of the 90s crashed into 9/11 and left us with what we have today.

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I thought the subliminal messaging plot was so OTT that it undercut the better parts of the movie - it took time away from the friendship plot and undercut the critique of consumerism, because the brainwashing was so blatant that it seemed goofy.

But a lot of the movie is really good. The stuff about friendship is more thoughtful than a lot of other teen movies, despite all the weird trappings.