For example, several weeks ago, we rented "Walk the Line" on DVD. Yeah. The Johnny Cash movie that Reese Witherspoon won the Oscar for this year. I wanted to see it in the theatre, but life just sort of happened and I never got there. I really really enjoyed this movie. Reese was very good, but Joaquin Phoenix was phenomenal. I don't remember who won for best actor last year, and I know I didn't see the movie he won for, but it seems to me that Phoenix's performance was really hard to beat.
I remember reading when the film came out that Roseann Cash, one of Johnny's three daughters was upset about how her mom was portrayed in the film. Vivian, Johnny's first wife, comes off as not being supporetive of his career. The movie isn't really about her, so there's not a great reason to make Vivian sympathetic, but I have to say that if I were home with three little girls and daddy was away for weeks at a time and obviously in love with another woman while married to me, I'd be crabby too. I was very sympathetic to Vivian and I don't think that the film portrayed her too negatively. Any woman married with small children can relate to where she's coming from.
On the literary side, I finally picked up Augusten Burroughs' "Running with Scissors." This memoir came out ages ago, and they're making a movie out of it starring Annette Bening as his mother. I heard about how great it was when it came out two or more years ago, but I never got around to it. Here's my review. Burroughs is a gifted writer. His life was totally screwed up and I'm amazed he can function after what he lived through. I was shocked by what endured from the ages of 11-17. There are very graphic descriptions of the sexual abuse he endured and that people knew about and no one cared enough to stop.
I'm the kind of person who tends to really internalize what she reads, a lot more than what I do with the TV. For example, after reading "the Lord of the Rings," I started speaking in more complex, more formal sentences. I can't explain it. The books I read, for a day or two, really become a part of me. I had to put "Running With Scissors" down because I became too involved with the "Story." When I was OK enough to pick it back up, I had to read the last chapter before continuing on with the book (I NEVER do that) to make sure Augusten was going to be OK. I realized after I started reading again that the worst of the sexual abuse was over (can there be such a thing?), but other forms of suffering for him were not. I want to read more about his life (he has published 2 sequels to "Running With Scissors"), but I'm not sure if I can take more of that.
So, there are my pop culture reviews, 2 years behind. Catch me in 2008, when I finally rent (and/or read) "The Devil Wears Prada!"
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