We are watching The Apple.

It is... interesting.

I just saw Vanity Fair. Which was not all bad, although the social conventions weren't all that accurate. I found it hard to believe even an ambitious woman like Becky would be seen in public in that outfit she wore for the Indian dance number.

Reese Witherspoon looks marvelous in red, but -- and Susan will correct me if I'm wrong -- isn't red completely verboten for respectable women during the time period?

The designers have copped in public to completely redoing the fashionable colour schemes from demure to more vibrant.

Well, that doesn't surprise me, but almost anything would have been better than red, from a social-propriety point of view. Unless, of course, that was the point. It seems a bit meta, though: there's no way Becky wouldn't know that red was not done.

there's no way Becky wouldn't know that red was not done.

I figured since they said that the colours deviated from what was correct/appropriate/representative, the red dress isn't not done because they threw the colour code out already.

Were there reactions to the colours in the movie?

Were there reactions to the colours in the movie?

You mean other than my thinking "I must have that fabric now now now"?

Were there reactions to the colours in the movie?

Nope. Becky wasn't accepted because she was the daughter of an artist and an actress, not because she dressed in red.

BTW, was that Reese Witherspoon actually singing in the movie?

I don't know if Witherspoon was actually singing -- although the voice they used wasn't actually anything worth writing home about -- but I did find out that the song she is singing is a Tennyson poem set to music, and was not written till 30 years after Becky was supposed to have sung it!

Yes, filmmakers seem to get off on inappropriate uses of red in historical costume dramas. (I think it's a color that films nicely, is all.) The most recent version of The Count of Monte Cristo does the same thing, having the mother of a 15 year old boy show up at his birthday party in strumpet red, and nobody notices. I mean, it is France, but it was totally wrong in that enthusiastically silly Hollywood way.

Sky Captain wins my seal of shelve-your-brain approval. I was pleasantly surprised that the actors could pull off that fast-paced, wacky can-do, early 40s style of acting (I think they had varying success, but Giovanni Ribisi as Dex Dearborn was probably best at it). It's rare that a movie can win me over with wonderment and beauty without engaging my critical faculties, but this one did.

BTW, was that Reese Witherspoon actually singing in the movie?

Nope, it was a soprano named Custer LaRue.

I liked the movie. I haven't read the book, but after reading a review that compared the two (spoilery, of course), I found myself wishing the writers hadn't deviated so much from the text in some scenes. They tried to make Becky more likable, and I wish she'd been more wicked.

I finally got to see Garden State and Hero last week, and I enjoyed them both. Hero was gorgeous, and Garden State was just perfect -- I was pleasantly surprised that it actually lived up to all the hype. I also saw Cellular, which was really funny (I've seen it described as a "smart stupid movie," which is an apt description). I saw Wimbledon, too, and it was exactly what I expected: a cute, amusing movie.

I also saw two movies as part of the Atlantic Film Festival (I was on a family vacation and staying right next to a theater -- not to mention looking for any way I could to avoid the family -- so I saw a movie every night): Shaun of the Dead and A Hole in One. Shaun of the Dead was, of course, hilarious, and the theater was packed with people who'd laugh and clap whenever someone overpowered a zombie, so it was a lot of fun. A Hole In One... wasn't. I wanted to like it, because it was filmed in Halifax, NS while I was attending college there, starred Michelle Williams and Meat Loaf (as a gangster!), and was about a girl in the '50s who wanted to get the latest "in" surgery: a trans-orbital lobotomy. I found it overlong, draggy and disjointed, unfortunately, and I didn't really care about any of the characters. I felt bad for the writer/director, who was at the screening, because I could hear people around me whispering about how bored they were, and some people even left before it was over.

I felt bad for the writer/director, who was at the screening, because I could hear people around me whispering about how bored they were, and some people even left before it was over.

Oh, ouch.