Coco Before Chanel - A Film By Anne Fontaine

Ok, so maybe I got two fashion movies on Netflix instead of one, thereby subjecting poor hubby to two nights of fashionista flix. But he did put "My Name is Nobody" in the queue so he's getting his due.

This is the story of how Coco Chanel began as a quasi-orphan (she had a father who left her and her sis at an orphanage) and then mistressed her way to the top. First as the mistress of a rich French dude with a mansion, then as the mistress of a married Englishman. Before that, she worked as a mediocre songstress at a brothel, where she drew the line at prostituting, though she did not mind exchanging sex for room and board later with her rich Frenchman.
Both men gave her moola to do stuff like make hats for rich ladies and begin her own business. It is a small storyline in the movie that she could have gone to Paris alone (thus not dependent on men) and worked at a dress shop (and presumably worked her way up), but she just says she doesn't want to do that. It reminded me of the chicks working over Hugh Hefner to jump start their careers. But she was pretty hard from her poor station in life.
Interesting in how she stood out so far from the other feathered ladies in her plain and spare black dresses, and also how her style has stayed in style for 100 years.
A good solid movie, good performances. Does not stick too much to the facts as far as who gave her what money and when for her business.

The September Issue

This documentary takes a look at how Vogue puts together its phone-book sized September issue. People call Wintour, the editor, dragon lady or ice queen, but this documentary disproves the names. She's business-like, she knows what she wants, but she's no dragon lady. I got the impression she works with a bunch of hyper sensitive creative types who cry if she tells them they're wrong. She never tells people they're stupid or anything remotely insulting. A man in her position would simply be called the boss.

Guerrilla Marketing for Writers

This is a good basic book on real marketing tips for selling your book. It's particularly helpful if you have a nonfiction book, a self-pub, or your book doesn't have a lot of publicity budget. I plan to use some of its tips (such as tying a book signing to a lecture) when my book comes out. Woot.

The Hangover (2009)

Sorry, this movie was no fun for me at all. My husband didn't like it either, and we see plenty of silly comedies so I'm not at all some kind of film snob. But this did not work. If it didn't have these stars and the high concept bachelor party going on, it would have been straight to DVD.

Very disappointing, because I know people who lurrved it. A few random laughs here and there, but for the most part the story had so many WTF moments that didn't make sense, that it became irritating and downright boring to watch. There's only so far disbelief can suspend before you want to punch the writers who threw together this high concept movie and stuck it together with semen and alcohol.

There's nothing I hate more than lazy writing. You CAN make a really funny lowbrow comedy (see 40 yr old Virgin) where the characters and plot actually make freaking sense. If I turned something like this in, my editor would write me off as a hopeless hack and probably slap me through the phone.

The actors are having fun, there are some funny gags and the fat guy has the best lines, but overall we pretty much fast forwarded through it just to see where the missing dude was.

Spoiler alert:
The characters' actions made no sense. So you wake up and find a tiger in your suite, a tiny baby, and your friend is missing. Let's not call the cops and find our friend, who might be dead. Let's just wander around for two days looking for clues like you're Dora the Explorer. You would think that the responsible dentist would become alarmed that there is a baby in his suite and call the authorities.

In particular, hated Bradley Cooper's irredeemable and downright evil character, who we first see stealing money from his students. He doesn't care when they find a baby and figures it's not his, so who cares? He supposedly has a wife and kid, whom we don't see until the end. I mean, if he had showed a modicum of caring toward the baby, maybe I would not have been rooting for the tiger to eat his ass.

Also, you can't count cards anymore due to the machinery they use. If they were in some rinkydink casino in Reno, maybe.

Why would the guy bring his grandmother's antique PRICELESS wedding ring all the way to Las Vegas to show his buddies that he is going to propose to his GF in a DIFFERENT CITY, the city where he lives, two days later? I'll tell you why. It's plot-convenient.

Why would a mother, hooker with a heart o'gold Heather Graham, randomly leave her beloved baby in the closet with some passed out dudes whose douchery she has witnessed? What does she do on other nights while she's stripping, leave the baby in her closet at home?? And now she's supposed to be a good mom and good person? Yes, what a sweetheart.

Other tidbits: Where did they find that Baby Bjorn carrier? Why didn't the baby get hungry? Why did they leave the baby in the PATROL CAR IN LAS VEGAS in the daytime? Why didn't the baby poop or pee? Why were the very beat cops who lost the car in charge of interrogating them? I'll tell you why. The writers threw these things in for convenience.

The Princess Bride

The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies. "Inconceivable!" "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." So many funny moments. And the young Cary Elwes wooing the young Robin Wright, in her first role, is truly sweet though in my opinion they look too much like a brother-sister couple and they could have turned the fairytale even further on its head by casting a brunette. Elwes still makes me blush with his "perfect breasts" line. The movie is very romantic: a poor boy goes to seek his fortune in order to marry his true love, and moves hell and high water to come after her. Who wouldn't want him? He's wearing a mask. He's a pirate and he's loved only her for all these years. Swoon.

Julie & Julia

Much better than the book.

How is that possible? Julie, in the book, did not inspire much sympathy with me. Her goal was interesting: to cook every meal in Julia Child's MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING; interesting though unobtainable by those of us with modest food budgets. She spent a large chunk of the memoir complaining about how she is a secretary for the government and never finished her novel. Oh, and the poor thing had a devoted husband and no children, enough disposable income to buy expensive food ingredients daily, and a whole host of close and supportive friends. Boo-hoo. I couldn't help thinking that this girl has no idea what a real problem is. So why didn't she just finish her novel and/or get a new job? This is America, no one was making her work for the government. It seemed like she was trying to stretch her simple problems to carry the heft of an entire book.

The addition of Julia Child's memoir (written with her nephew; I'd also read this) MY LIFE IN FRANCE to the JULIE & JULIA script made the movie much richer. Amy Adams, as Julie, is an appealing and sympathetic actress, and without Julie's every accompanying annoying thought, was much more enjoyable to keep company with. I did spend the entire movie waiting for Meryl Streep, as Julia Child, to come back on.

Seapoint Farms Dry Roasted Edamame, Lightly Salted -- 4 oz Each / Pack of 12

I bought a big bucket of this at Costco for about $6.50. Crunchy and lightly salted, these soybean pods make a good chip substitute. Soybeans are supposed to be really good for you, but I don't like the plain edamame. These are more like peanuts so they feel like a treat.