THE FAULT IN OUR STARS * WORLD'S GREATEST ATHLETE * OLIVE KITTERIDGE

The Fault In Our Stars - Popular tween book  morphs into a pretty good movie. The story has it all - sick kids, love found, love lost, great parents and a reclusive author who disappoints his number one fan. It's modern day melodrama that tempers the truly sad and hard story with one that you can be angry at so that the sad one won't seem so bad. The picture I chose to depict the movie is from one of my favorite scenes.

World's Greatest Athlete - One of the only track and field movies, the premise is that a young man from Africa can win all the events in the 1973 NCAA Track and Field meet. It was recommended by someone we met in California, I think the guy Steve met while helping some other guys rescue their boat which had gone aground as it was pulling into their slip. It's a silly yet sweet Disney movie abounding with innocence, but only worth the watch if you're a T&F fan. Olive Kitteridge - I just read my review of the book which I read in 2009, and I'd written that I ended up loving it. Which is ironic, because that's not how I remember it. I was so annoyed with Olive and angry at the author that I wouldn't read her next book and don't think I missed anything. First of all there's cold, blowy and overcast New England as a character. No thanks. Then there's Olive who is dissatisfied with everything and everyone, self diagnosed with depression that she uses as an excuse for being outspoken and unkind to her family and people in her town where she's a teacher and everyone knows everyone else. I have to say Francis McDormand nailed it, and once I started, I had to see the HBO four part mini-series to the end. It was worth the watch on vacation on my iPad. Not on my own home time on TV. That woman, Olive, scares me, and I'm happy to say that I've chosen and succeeded to not have anyone like her in my life.  I was going to put the dinner table scene here, but it has such negative connotations that I won't have it sullying my sweet little blog.

WHILE WE'RE YOUNG * JERSEY BOYS * THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS

While We're Young - Ben Stiller always delivers, and his latest movie is no exception. He's able to bridge comedy and drama so effortlessly. A day later, I'm still thinking about the characters and theme of While We're Young. First of all the coolness thing. It seems like to stay cool, most people are only going to be able to be cool to their own generation, while the younger people can also be cool to those who are older than they. I'd loosely define cool as staying relevant, aware of current pop culture, dressing, behaving, talking and living a lifestyle that embraces the current way of presenting oneself and connecting. Not many people transition through life cool all the time. I'd say Keith Richards is the best example of someone who's done it, and maybe an 89 year old man I saw in the paper today who donated a large part of his art collection to the Art Institute. His dress and his posture in the photo evoked a man much younger than his years although every single one of those years was evident on his face. Which was magnificent, compared to the faces of some movie actresses I saw yesterday in an ad for their new movie. I think they are supposed to be old women in the movie, but their taut faces looked un-real to me. Right now I feel about plastic surgery for aging the way I feel about tattoos, which is that it would be scary to let another person mess around with my body in such a way that I couldn't go back to how I was before. This might be a decision making thing because as we all know, I am not impulsive. Where were we here? Oh, go see While We're Young, and then let's talk about it.

Jersey Boys - You start out wanting to see this movie for the music scenes because you'll know every word to every song and want to sing along and remember how fun it was to listen to these beats and Frankie's high-pitched voice. But the minute the movie starts, you're in the story of Frankie Valli's life as a teen follower of older boys who are basically thugs when they're not on stage with their band. I loved it and hope to someday see the stage play.  

The Kindness of Strangers by Katrina Kittle - This is an amazing book where the story is about a sad and difficult topic, but the writing lifts it up to a really good book about families and friendship and love. It's about the possibilities that unfold when you step out of your comfort zone and reach out to someone in trouble. 
 
I'm in the midst of a personal transformation, or trying to be. I read a book I'll review later called The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Tidying up is the euphemism for get rid of your stuff. Finally, a book that's making a difference. It's been a week long process to bring every single article of my clothing into one place and sort through it asking myself whether it "sparks joy". I'll leave it at that for now - blogging was my break today, and now I'm going  back in.