Well, December was a heckuva month, that’s all I can say. I read twenty books this month alone, though quite a few entries were ‘short’ — I’ve been making my way through The American Presidents series, all volumes of which are compact, and of course there was Narnia and a few science books I choose specifically because they were short and matched categories I needed to fill for the Science Survey. My Christmas was fairly uneventful: my family couldn’t make any plans, as we are still waiting for the arrival of my great-nephew, so I spent the day sitting on a porch with friends. I spent the majority of the month working on my current obsession, understanding sectional politics in the 1840s – 1850s leading to the Civil War. I made major strides on a presidential reading list, and am currently devouring a volume on John Tyler. Tyler is an unusual character: two decades after his presidency ended, he was part of the convention that voted for Virginia to secede from the Union, and he was elected to the Confederate congress, only to die before he could take his place. My Advent reading was lackluster, but not as lackluster as prior years; I did, at least, read a few titles — a history of the Book of Common Prayer, and the last two books in the Narnia series, both of which are Advent appropriate.

Nonbook Commonplace Quotes

It’s not a feelgood book, but I don’t read and watch movies to feel good; I do it to learn more about the mysteries of the world. Rod Dreher, “Budapest, Mon Amour“

Life, even a good life, is so hard. Let us try to be merciful to each other. Rod Dreher, “Goodbye to 2025, At Last”

Some people ask me why I get such pleasure from reading books that others would find distressing (e.g., a history of the Great War and cultural decline, Weimar, the Apocalypse). The answer is because nothing makes me happier than gaining deeper understanding of God and the world. – ibid

Moviewatch

What Did Jack Do?   David Lynch interrogates a capuchin monkey for 20 minutes in what feels like an exchange of nonsequitors. Short film.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and More.  A collection of little-known Roald Dahl stories brought to life by Wes Anderson  and  actors with serious chops like Ralph Fiennes, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Ben Kingsley. 

The Big Short.  A dramatization of the 2008 economic crisis that led to the Great Recession from the point of view of investors who saw it coming and were determined to capitalize on it. Not  as good as Margin Call, but it had a good acting bench. Margin Call was such a tight story, focusing on a few men and women over a single weekend, all managing to make staring at their computer scenes riveting. Jeremy Irons and Kevin Spacey certainly went a long way.  Also, I watched Big Short  on YouTube for free and it was heavily censored, resulting in high-powered business executive screaming about “dog doo”.  (Even better are hip hop lyrics that rhyme doo doo with boo boo.) Brad Pitt is an unexpected broker-turned-doomer with an organic garden and a lot of opinions. The movie occasionally uses cameos like Margot Robie, Anthony Bourdain, and….Selena Gomez? …..  to explain some of the concepts involved. This always breaks the fourth wall, but it works, especially when the explainer is in the scene and the camera just focuses on them. Also, Marisa Tomei plays a bit part! 

Bring it On, 2000. Continuing in my quest to watch the movies that everyone else in middle and high school was watching but that I missed, Bring it On is about a cheerleading competition. Kirsten Dunst just inherited her squad from Big Red, who is now going off to college, and at the beginning of the movie she gets a shock: all of her squad’s cheers have been copied by some school in the ghetto by Big Red. Said other school has a new captain, too, and she’s determined to make it to nationals and destroy the squad of rich girls who have been stealing her chants.  I  enjoyed it for retro tech (like a Gameboy Pocket with a Gameboy Camera attached), the period music, etc. 

Gettysburg, 1993.  I love this movie; I have watched it I don’t know how many times, and that is a feat given that it’s four hours long. I bought it in high school, along with the book it was based on (though I did not know that at the time). Its characterizations have been in my head for two decades; it was my introduction to actors like Martin Sheen, Sam Elliot, Jeff Daniels, and more.  Shaara’s The Killer Angels’ has a style that influences my own fiction, when I write it.  There is so much about this movie that is….exquisite. The landscape, as it was filmed in Gettysburg National Park; the battle scenes, using reenactors who knew what they were doing;  the divine music, but perhaps most of all for me….the characterization.   The characters themselves are so strong – Chamberlain’s sense of duty and justice, coupled with humility;   General Amistead’s devotion to his friend General Hancock across the lines, his sobbing horror to learn on Day Three that Hancock had been wounded – Longstreet’s deeply conflicted demeanor, Pickett’s exuberance and warmth and pain.  When I was a teenager, I was deep in a Civil War phase and experienced this alongside Sid Meier’s Gettysburg and loved the battle scenes; as I have matured, or at least aged, I find the character drama ever more compelling. 

The Lincoln Lawyer, 2011. Matthew McConaughey, Marisa Tomei!, William Macy, and – – BRYAN CRANSTON?   Oh, and Bob Gunton, who played Captain Maxwell in ST TNG’s “The Cardassians”.  Matthew McConaughey plays a ‘street lawyer’ of sorts  –  representing all sorts of genuine criminals who are scattered so widely across greater LA that he spends his days in Lincoln towncar. A potentially lucrative case has an uncanny resemblance of one of his earlier cases, and M.M. begins wondering if he isn’t actually defending a monster.

True Grit, 2010. Technically a rewatch, though it’s been 15 years. Based off the Charles Portis novel, which it is far more faithful to than the John Wayne movie, buuut I watched the John Wayne/Robert Duvall film first, so I’m still partial to it.  Young Mattie Ross has come to Texas to settle her father’s affairs and avenge his murder; she hires a marshal with a reputation for meanness and drinking to pursue the treacherous Tom Chaney ‘til his death. 

“Who is the best Marshall?”
“I’d have to weigh that. William Waters is the best tracker — half Comanche. Something else to see him cut a track!  The meanest is Rooster Cogburn. He’s pitiless, double-tough. Fear don’t enter into his thinking. Does like to pull a cork. The BEST is probably L. T. Quinn.  He brings his prisoners in alive, believes even the worst of men is entitled to a fair shake.”
“…..where can I can find this Rooster?”

Gods and Generals (2003). This is a prequel to Gettysburg, just as the novel that it’s based on is a prequel-in-spirit to its own inspiration, The Killer Angels.    Gods and Generals is an altogether different experience, though: instead of following a battle, it covers nearly three years and its first hour is set wholly before the war begins.  The pace is slower, and Stonewall Jackson dominates the film in a way that no one could in Gettysburg. Lang steals any scene he is in,  even in the slower ones that give the viewer a rest between First Manassas,  Fredericksburg, etc.  I watched the extended version, which adds a John Wilkes Booth chain of scenes that culminate in both him and his costar Harrison deciding to help the Confederate cause in their own ways. Sharp-eyed viewers will recognize this Harrison as the same man who was the scout in Gettysburg, though I do not know if he is based on a real person. I also am very wary of how closely this film’s Stonewall Jackson is based on the real man, because he often talks like one of the Nashville Southern Agrarians of a half-century later — especially when commenting that the war may bring the triumph of the banks — rather than the actual general. I have not read a great deal into Stonewall, but I’m fairly certain that element would have crossed my radar by this point considering that I have read the Southern Agrarians.

I’ll Be Home for Christmas, 1998.  This was a family favorite growing up, mostly because we were really into Home Improvement.  Jonathan Taylor Thomas of HI fame plays Jake, an inconsiderate rich kid who gets some comeuppance when some bullies kidnap him, glue a Santa hat, beard, and suit to him, and leave him in the middle of the desert without any way of knowing where he is or how to get home. More than that, his girlfriend Jessica Biel thinks he’s stood her up and reluctantly decides to accept a ride back across the country with Adam LaVorgna, the same bully who deserted JTT.   JTT has to charm and swindle his way back home – from Cali to New York –  so his girlfriend doesn’t dump him forever. Also, his dad promised him a Porsche if he came home for Christmas: JTT has been avoiding the homefront since dad (Lumberg from Office Space)  remarried following the death of JTT’s mom.  Along the way JTT learns the meaning of Christmas. I knew all of the principal actors as a kid – JTT from Hompe Improvement, Biel and LaVorna from Seventh Heaven – so I loved this. Rewatching with the ladyfriend was fun.

Little Women, 1994. While I have seen a version of Little Women before, I’m fairly certain it wasn’t this one, because it’s all kinds of charming and I would’ve never forgotten it.  It’s absolutely delightful,  what with the opening Christmas scenes, the girls acting out what Jo was writing, and Young Batman being a bit scampish. The book and novel follow the March girls as they mature and navigate society’s expectations of them, as well as their own passions.  Lovely music, and quite cozy.  Lots of star power – Susan Sarandon, Winona Ryder, Christian Bale, and a very young Claire Danes.  A feature with the LF. 

The Heavenly Kid, 1985. A Fonz-like character accidentally dies in a car stunt and finds himself in a smoky restaurant called “Midtown”.  He’s not wicked enough to go Downtown – just a stupid teeanger, really – but he also wasn’t a good enough guy to go Uptown.  He’s consigned to ride the subways for nearly two decades until he’s sprung loose in the 1980s and told to befriend a teenager – a total spazola –  and help him out.  Fonz starts trying to give the kid lessens in charisma and confidence, but then realizes: the kid’s mom is his old girl!  The girl he got killed trying to impress, even though she told him “You don’t come back from Dead Man’s Currrrrvveeee!”.    What he doesn’t know? The spazola is his kid. This was a film I watched several times as a kid, and when I began working and had money, it was one of the first films I bought on DVD. Rewatch with the ladyfriend.

Housesitter, 1992. A rare Steve Martin film that I have NOT seen. Cowatch with the LF. Martin plays an architect who runs into a girl who decides to ….uh, move into a house he built and then pretend to be his wife, and then hilarity ensues, especially as Martin tries to use the fake-marriage to aid and abet his desire to woo his ex-girlfriend by demonstrating how good a husband he is. (Ignore the whole cheating thing.)

A League of their Own, 1992. During World War 2, an all-woman baseball league is formed to keep the sport alive while Teddy Ballgame, Joe DiMaggio, & others are running bases around the Germans. Despite the number of times I’ve watched Tom Hanks’ “There’s no crying in baseball!” scene, this is a first time for me. Lots of 1940s swing music, which was a definite plus, and the acting ‘bullpen’ as it were was great fun. I especially liked seeing Lori Petty — who I knew from In the Army Now — appear here as Kit, the younger sister of the main character Dottie. Their sibling rivalry is a major part of the movie; another arc is Tom Hanks’ slowly-kindling relationship with the team. He’s a washed-up ballplayer who ruined his prospects through liquor, and resents being made to babysit a bunch of “girls”: eventually he starts appreciating their passion and talent for the game. Wonderful way to close the year out! This would’ve made the movie top ten list (in place of The Lincoln Lawyer) had I not posted said list so early.