The first 15 minutes of Juno are almost unbearably hip and precious, but it gets much better as it goes along.

Thanks, ita, I hadn't read anything about Pullman himself until now. And have to say, after reading those quotes, that I think he's full of poo. While what he wrote was amazing and subversive and mind-blowing in a "I can't believe he went there" way, the book twists away from that. So either he chickened out from his own propoganda, or never intended to go "there" at all and was just spinning his own publicity in the "controversy=higher sales" way.

I have a pair of girls in my class who aren't allowed to read/listen to the HDM books, because "Someone kills Jesus".

I can vouch that the crucifixion (there's a funny there with the way I originally wanted to spell that, but I won't go there) of Jesus does not take place in these books.

Many of the themes and ideas and situations in the books are very adult and mature, and for that alone I'd say young'ns shouldn't read it. I also think it was a mistake in rating the movie so that the young'ns could go see it. But that's horses and barn doors.

ION, I still love The Dark Crystal as much as I used to *pets DVD*

Typo Boy, I found a LJ post with lots of Johanna YouTube links from people with noticeably more normal voices than the girl in the movie, if you want to wash her sound out of your ear (it also includes several videos of "Kiss Me", one of the more sadly cut songs) [link]

Thanks Gris. We had a local Sweeney Todd production . A local small Theater owner, Jeff Kingsbury, recruited a Tony winner to play Sweeney, but filled out the rest of the cast with local talent - recruiting from college programs, church choirs, amateur groups and what have you. And it was gorgeous. I saw the original production with Angela Lansbury, and I would swear it was the equal of it; musical perfect, great acting; Ok the set wasn't quite up to a broadway budget, but still amazingly good. So I was already braced against being scarred by the movie production. The play version I saw before totally kept it from sticking, and may have made me a bit harsher than I would otherwise. I took two friends to see it who I thought would appreciate the dark humor. And not only did they hate the movie as much as I did; they now can't believe that the play could possibly be any good.

Saw There Will be Blood last night. Very strong, very long. As we were leaving at the end of the 2 hours and 40 minutes, I announced to my companions that the next film would be "there will be going to the ladies room" which made the ushers we were walking by laugh.

I recommend the film. DDL was terrific and there are some INCREDIBLE scenes. Paul Dano holds his own with DDL and really gives a career-making performance. It's also gorgeous--PT Anderson has a wonderful cinematic eye as a director. Like others in the thread, I thought the end was the weakest thin in the film. It felt tacked on and the tone was off.

My biggest issue is the idea that good Christians should never, ever hear anything that challenges their beliefs.

Yeah, this sort of thing bugs me a lot. There's quite a large group of Christians for whom my saying "I don't believe" is very dangerous and threatening. Which only makes me think that particular strain of faith isn't terribly strong or resilient, and that maybe G-d wants something a little tougher than that.

Just an outsider's opinion, of course....

Pullman's interview's make me like him even less. I felt he was going there, so I sought out more information, but he just seemed so damned smug all the time it made it worse.

Saw Sweeney Todd with my mom, who LOVED it. I didn't love it -- I thought JD's and HBC's voices in particular weren't strong enough to carry the songs fully. But I did enjoy it, the darkness and the singing and what little humor remained from the show. I appreciated that the blood was so un-blood-like, all bright red and viscous and syrupy; that made it easier for me to handle the extreme goriness, because it was so clearly fake. I was grossed out by the bodies hitting the cellar floor, like several other people mentioned -- that was pretty disturbing. And I thought "By the Sea" was the best bit in the whole movie.

And I thought "By the Sea" was the best bit in the whole movie.

But they cut out the best joke in the song, one that revealed something key about Sweeney.

Really? Care to whitefont? My memories of the stage show are dim.