“Wrecked” indeed. Willow goes off the rails and almost derails Buffy the Vampire Slayer along with her.
I actually like the idea of Willow being in thrall to the power that magic gave her – her self-pitying words at the end (“if you could be…you know, plain old Willow or super Willow, who would you be?” and “Don’t I? I mean, Buffy, who was I? Just…some girl”) actually make sense in that context. However, I detest the notion that she is addicted to magic. It was such a stupid idea because as we discover it neutered her character for long stretches of season 7. Willow could have gone dark in a host of ways if the plotting and writing had been better and if the metaphor of her visits to a (c)rack den hadn’t been so heavy-handed: heavy-handed to the degree that I felt I had dropped off the ceiling.
A lot of this episode didn’t make sense anyway. The timeline was wrong with Buffy and Spike talking about last night when they meant the night before. And Amy’s rapid descent from bright-eyed and impressed ex-rat to drug-addled thief was unbelievable. As was Willow’s passage into addiction and descent to her lowest point over a three night (or two if you believe the script) passage of time.
I may not like Buffy’s story but I am convinced by it and as long as they don’t have sex I’m okay. (I still can’t get over that these episodes were broadcast at eight o’clock in the USA.) Buffy is using Spike and she hates what she has done and what she is doing and she hates herself. I understand the appeal of James Marsters as Spike but I think his Captain Peroxide hair has got out of hand and our over-exposure to his Iggy Popish sinewy body is a bit ewy.
Sarah Michelle Gellar impresses me with her comic touches. Her facial expressions in all their shades of incredulity and disgust with Spike are hilarious.
There is one line that Dawn has to say that is just appalling. If I was disturbed by the “ridden hard and put away wet” line in the season 8 comics then “It was like a meat party in my mouth” line is really really tasteless.
Buffy thoughts have been absent for over four months from this blog! No wonder my stats have been going down. No one cares about my film reviews and what I think of Mad Men.
I love this film. I love it for a variety of reasons but the main one may be because of the wonderful performances.
Allison Janney is the Eve Arden of her day.
Ellen Page is a tiny young Sigourney Weaver.
JK Simmons is quirky.
Michael Cera is awkward and shy in a way I bet he nowhere near resembles in real life.
Jason Bateman was convincing as the teenage middle aged man.
Olivia Thirlby tickled me greatly with her facial expressions (what does “sexually active” mean?) and my favourite bit “I know, right”.
Finally, Jennifer Garner played the most difficult part so well. She had to make the most conventional character the most sympathetic and interesting. Her face when she feels the baby kick is radiantly beautiful. She made me cry then and at the end.
The hate directed at this film is astounding and almost baffling in its intensity. I have a theory but I would, wouldn’t I, think that? Some of the complaints are ridiculous such the one that Diablo Cody’s dialogue is unrealistic because no-one speaks like that. That strikes me as daft as complaining that the dialogue in Buffy is unrealistic. So what? Juno is actually not at all in any shape or form a realistic film. No-one announces to their parents that they are pregnant and have prospective adoptive parents lined up to such equanimity.
If I have a complaint, once again a gorgeous woman (girl) is partnered with a plain man (boy): not that they aren’t cute together.
This was about ten years too long. Hayley Mills was superb as the twins carrying the film effortlessly and charmingly (although accents weren’t her strong point). Brian Keith was all right. Maureen O’Hara was absolutely fine except for the fact she appeared to be two different people: the one in Boston bore no resemblance to the one in California. Perhaps she should have played the twins.
This was a very talky episode by the standards of a very talky series.
Don’s revenge on Roger wasn’t particularly plausible because there is always more than than one lift available in skyscrapers (plus service lifts) and on any floor Roger could have tried the lift again (despite Don’s unlikely advice that they would hear them) and stupidly didn’t.
Peggy’s freaked out reaction to Pete’s hunting, killing and eating story was very played by Elizabeth Moss. I personally don’t think she was turned on but in a sea of TWoP posters who don’t agree then maybe I just saw what I wanted to see.
There was some ridiculously unsubtle vodka advertising in the milk and vodka scene with Roger.
Clearly there was no patient-doctor confidentiality in 1960.
I hope the Betty storyline plays out in Betty’s favour despite her frustrating behaviour. Don’s attitude to her makes me despair. He was willing to humiliate Roger but wasn’t prepared to understand Betty’s position on the evening it happened when he blamed her instead and continued to be awful to her the next day. The show seems to be supporting the notion that Betty is childish (for a variety of reasons), after all, giving a nine year old a lock of hair because he asked is childlike.
There are six episodes to go and I’m thoroughly enjoying this series. The accusations of misogyny thrown at it were out of order. Depicting misogyny is not the same as being misogynistic. Generally it has walked on the right side of not revelling in sexism with the exception of the ad men’s reaction to the focus group in the previous episode. The women in this show from Pete’s secretary to Betty’s friend, Francine, are all fascinating with depth and variation in character.
I don’t want to see “strong” women all the time, I want to see believable women in all our variety. This review by Purtek of the Hathor Legacy of I’m Not There (which I haven’t seen) makes the excellent point about how women in films and television don’t have to be perfect (or strong) they just need to be recognisable “as though they’re human beings with complete lives, even though we may not see the whole thing”.
After a dismal experience reading a literary novel (The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald) it was a real pleasure to turn to Affinity by Sarah Waters. (Actually, pleasure is not quite the right word…).
I came across the reference to Tennyson’s charming and by no means unusual view of women as being either pure good or pure evil. I decided to look it up using my search engine of choice, Google, and once again, Google’s “Did you mean:” turns up an insulting suggestion.
I put in the words women heaven hell tennyson and Google saidDid you mean: when heaven hell tennyson.
This goes nicely with the previous time that Google did this to me. I put in “They are afraid women will laugh at them.”, it said Did you mean: “They are afraid when will laugh at them.”
No, I did not flipping mean when. When I type in women, I really, really, really expect to get results with the word women contained within. Seriously, why the fuck would I be expecting when? Just why?
I’m too straight-laced to appreciate this film. Maybe it’s because I don’t drink more than a glass of beer a month, I have never taken drugs and I’m too right-on to find predatory homosexuals funny (Richard Griffiths seems to have cornered that market).
I just didn’t work for me. I know what scenes are supposed to be particularly funny but I didn’t funny them so. The teashop scene was an example of oafishly rude behaviour by a couple of self-absorbed arseholes. I couldn’t see why Withnail and I were friends because Withnail was a selfish cowardly bastard.
The performances were excellent with Richard E. Grant managing to make me feel a little bit sad for Withnail at the end.
I Was a Male War Bride (aka You Can’t Sleep Here)
This was too long and if some of the scenes had been trimmed it could have been perfect.
Like Mr Blandings… I didn’t find it hilarious but I did find it consistently amusing. Cary Grant was a wonderful comedian particularly when not saying anything. I loved how much Ann Sheridan appeared to be enjoying herself and her natural laughter made her character appealing despite how much Catherine bossed Henri around at the beginning which was slightly tiresome.
The location shooting added an extra dimension and probably added to the length of the film because I can’t imagine a studio-based film being so indulgent. Ironically, my favourite bit was in the studio in a back projection sequence with Henri in a side-car telling the absent Catherine how much he likes her being there.
I prefer this to Bringing Up Baby and it is infinitely better than Monkey Business.
So Don’s secret is that he’s from a trashy dysfunctional family. Or is it?
This was the bedroom conversation episode and I’m not really a fan of such conversations which is perhaps why Don and Rachel’s conversation was the most interesting. She needs to tell her sister that Don is funny particularly when talking to beatniks.
Don is also a big meanie. His wife tells him that she thinks about him all the time and the next night he tells her he needs to read a book instead of spending a little of his sexual energy in making her happy.
The other ad men were totally reduced to thinking with their willies in this episode and the two-way mirror scenes with the lipstick testing were borderline tacky.
Joan needs to work that considerable brain of hers and do something for the good rather than wasting it on a man who she knows is going to dump her and on bossing a lot of “chickens”. Though the final shot of Joan and Roger waiting for cabs separately was poignant (but not for him, the racist arrogant pig).
Oh, a basket of kisses! I wondered where it came from. Peggy is interesting but I’m not going to take to her until she gets a new hair style (and she does have mouse ears and they are so cute).
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