The Mock Turtle

Time for a new thread, I guess!

My first post is a bit of a cheat though, as I actually saw Knives Out a couple of days ago, and loved it. I thought it was very cleverly written (lots of big clues hiding in plain sight, with the audience directed away from them, and some great foreshadowing too). The cast were all great, too.

Then today I saw Cats with my mother. And...I actually enjoyed it! Disclaimer: I had loved the music as a teenager and listened to the cast album all the time, and had actually seen and enjoyed the original musical, so I pretty much was their target audience. Anyway, the film definitely improved as it went on - the directorial choices for the first two big numbers (the ones with Rebel Wilson and James Corden) just made then come across as weird rather than charming or whimsical, but they got the tone right after that and the big numbers later on were really good. The cast were mostly great - some fo the big names fell flat, but JHud, Judi Dench and Ian McKellan were great. And the unknowns playing the lead roles were all brilliant. Mum also liked it, but not the CGI tails and ears, which she felt were a bit too much overall. I don't disagree. They are very...sexualised.

Knives Out is on my list to watch, glad to hear it's good!

This is timely, as I'm in the process of buying Jumanji: Next Level tickets for the kids and I. That will be my first cinema movie of the year. I actually really liked the last one, it's a fun ride.

Knives out feels years ago now but I loved it.

We saw the new Jumanji a few days ago and loved it, Theo especially. It was really fun.

I loved both Knives Out and Jumanji. We are planning on seeing Jojo Rabbit at the weekend.

We saw the new jumanji yesterday, and really enjoyed it!

Not at the cinema, but on amazon prime we watched the very oddly titled “the guernsey literary and potato peel pie society” - it was a lovely period piece set on gurneys just after the war.

Gurneys!

The book is even better, Hobbes, I thoroughly recommend it!

We saw Jumanji a couple of days ago too and it was great.

I'm going to see Little Women at the weekend.

So many films on here I want to see. Jojo Rabbit looks especially good.

And I second what Little My said about the book, Hobbes.

We saw Jumanji on Boxing Day and I utterly loved it. So funny (and I cried at the end with the horse )

Cerise wrote: ↑Wed Jan 01, 2020 11:45 pm Gurneys!

Yes, a thrilling action packed romp through a hospital for a couple of hours!

I didn’t realise it was a book, thank you, I will read that.

I saw Little Women yesterday, it was good in a lazy Sunday afternoon kind of way - entertaining and not too taxing. It occurred to me in the cinema that I do get tired of the old tropes of characters, particularly female characters, in an ensemble cast. Each character always seem to have a ‘thing’, so for example there’s always a ‘tomboy’ (hate that word!) who hates the frills and ribbons and bows and she is always the cool, rebellious one, then there’s the pretty one who likes dresses and boys, and she is usually an airhead or selfish or a bitch. Then there’s the homely one who just wants to get married and have kids and therefore lacks ambition, and the ‘good’ one who is kind and virtuous and often ends up in mortal peril for her sacrifices.

I know it’s an old story, but it does frustrate me that so many female-led pieces are still based on this premise. I’d love to see more female characters who are rebellious but also love flowers and pretty things, that enjoy family and being nice, but still gets to go on adventures. I’m not wording this very well, but it made me very grumpy!

I get what you’re saying, but the film was based on the book, and the characters in the books were like that, weren’t they?

Definitely - she might have invented the trope even!

Yes, and I think that was the point I was trying to get at (badly!). We still don’t seem to have moved on from these one dimensional characters who appear in so many female-led stories.

In other films, you mean?

I've just been to see JoJo Rabbit with the chaps. I loved it.

Books too Ella, but film and tv mainly. In particular the Jo-type character - the ballsy woman who has more ‘male’ characteristics and shuns anything seen as more traditionally ‘female’. It works in Little Women but I just came out feeling a bit depressed that it hasn’t changed that much.

Ah, yep. How much better women are when they’re just like men .

JoJo Rabbit is really good, S and I watched it the other night.