Fowl by name, Foul by nature

Posted on June 15, 2020 by Amanda Rudd

I was a junior in high school when the first Artemis Fowl book came out. Technically, I was not the target market – these are considered middle grade books, after all – but I still enjoy a good middle grade novel from time to time, and this book just looked FUN. So I didn’t “grow up” with Artemis Fowl the way some people did (I know some people who read the books starting in elementary school!), but I have loved them since they first came out.

I have read all eight books (but I haven’t read the new spin-off about Artemis’s twin brothers yet). And I just recently finished going through all eight books on audiobook. If you like audiobooks, I would highly recommend checking out the Artemis Fowl books on audio. The narrator, Nathaniel Parker, does an excellent job for the most part (my one complaint is that I really don’t like the way he voices Opal Koboi – he does a pretty offensive stereotyped “Chinese” accent for her and it really bugs the hell out of me. There’s absolutely nothing in the text to justify this decision, and I can only assume he was trying to do something different enough to separate her voice from the other characters, but it is NOT GOOD).

Anyway: I LOVE Artemis Fowl.

I think most people are familiar with at least the basic premise, but just in case, let’s cover the basics: Artemis Fowl the Second is an 11-year-old super-genius criminal mastermind. In the first book, his father (Artemis Fowl Senior, who was a career criminal just starting to go straight at the behest of his wife, Angeline) has been missing for over a year. In order to keep the family estate solvent and to fund both his criminal enterprises and his search for his father, Artemis Fowl decides to do one massive heist: steal gold from the fairies. He has come to learn that fairies are not only REAL, but highly advanced and living in secret in an underground society. So he hatches an elaborate plan to kidnap a fairy and steal their gold.

The hapless fairy he manages to kidnap is Holly Short, the first woman-fairy to join the LEPrecon (the fairy police force “Lower Elements Police” reconnaissance division – get it? LEPrecon = leprechaun? Expect many such puns…). Holly is smart, determined, and more than a little hot-headed. Her commander, Julius Root, is even more so. In the course of trying to rescue Holly, the LEP use time-freezing, release a troll, and recruit the help of a career criminal thief: a dwarf named Mulch Diggums. Meanwhile, Artemis and his faithful, long-suffering bodyguard Butler, discover they are slightly less in control than they first assume, nearly die a few times, and still somehow manage to win and keep the gold they stole.

And that’s just the first book. Each book brings Artemis and his entourage back into the affairs of the fairy peoples. Throughout the series, Artemis and Holly end up best friends pretty much despite themselves, and Artemis becomes an invaluable help and savior for the fairies on several occasions. By the end of it, the completely selfish, amoral Artemis has grown a heart and a conscience, and his character development is slow, complex, and well EARNED by the story.

On top of all that, the books are also exciting, action-packed, and utterly HILARIOUS. I think the funniest book is probably #7: The Atlantis Complex.

For the fun of it, here is the absolutely AMAZING art work for the Chinese edition of the books (which combine into one giant panorama, that I really want an enormous print of!):

by Shayudan on DeviantArt (click on image to go to high res version)

And for people who have already read the books, you should check out this tumblr which has a bunch of hilarious Artemis Fowl memes and other fun fanart: https://iesnoth.tumblr.com/

And if you really want, you can also check out my Artemis Fowl board on Pinterest, which is just a collection of any fanart and memes and silly shit that amuses me: https://pin.it/4QobV76

And now, this brings me to a painful subject. The movie.

When I first heard that Disney was doing an Artemis Fowl movie, I was cautiously optimistic. Almost two years ago they released an initial trailer, and I allowed myself to get more excited than I probably should have. The movie was originally supposed to be released in 2019. And then for unknown reasons, the release was pushed back and the movie was sent back to the drawing board for an extensive number of re-shoots and re-edits. Even the person who made the “Art and Making” of the movie book (which was apparently finished 18 months ago), says that the final product bears little resemblance to the movie HE saw while chronicling the process (that early version apparently was a bit closer to the book material, though it still had made many changes).

When the second newer trailer was released a few months ago, I was horrified. I could tell immediately that they had RUINED it. Ruined the character. Destroyed the story. It was obvious from just the one min trailer that they had removed everything that made Artemis Fowl a fun, interesting, and unique character and turned the story into the same repetitive cliche trite story about a helpless boy who discovers his father has some dangerous secret life, and how must be initiated into that secret to save his father when the father disappears. That story has been told a MILLION TIMES. And on very few occasions these days is it ever told with anything approaching originality or interest.

I had determined not to watch the movie when it came out, not to give my money to a theatre release. Then the quarantine happened and it was announced that the movie would go straight to Disney+ streaming. So, on friday my mother convinced me to just sit down and at least give it a chance.

I was annoyed in the first two minutes. I had to quit after about twenty minutes. I just couldn’t do it. The movie had absolutely NO resemblance to the books. The characters had been turned into practically their exact OPPOSITES. It wasn’t Artemis Fowl. Not even remotely. And what’s more: even if you watched the movie with no knowledge of the books holding you down, it was just a BAD movie, with stale lackluster acting, an awkward stilted script, cheap dumb-downed voice-over narration, and hack editing. It’s just NOT GOOD.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a BUNCH of articles decimating the movie:

MarySue article: “Artemis Fowl is Terrible Because it Didn’t Trust Audiences”

Forbes Review: “One of the Worst YA Fantasy Movies Ever”

NYPost: “Disney movie destroys beloved books”

Tor.com article: “Artemis Fowl is a CGI candy-coated waste of time”

If you don’t think that’s enough, just check out the #ArtemisFowl and #ArtemisFowlMovie hashtags on Twitter. Because WOW people are NOT HAPPY. (In other words, it’s not just me!)

I just don’t understand why anyone would bother to PAY ALL THAT MONEY for a pre-existing property, if they were going to then turn around and write yet another painfully-trite, excruciatingly-cliche story about a hapless boy who is initiated into his father’s secret life when the father goes missing. Do you have any idea HOW MANY OF THOSE STORIES have been told now? (And very few of them are told WELL). I am absolutely devastated and infuriated and frustrated (but not remotely surprised) by all of this. I know these books could make AMAZING movies or tv if they were adapted well. But I’m not holding my breath waiting for that to happen any time soon. Or ever, probably.

In the meantime, in an attempt to make myself feel better, I am now working on an Artemis Fowl playlist on Spotify. Because that’s just what I DO.

In Honor of Apollo 13

Posted on April 17, 2020 by Amanda Rudd

Today, April 17th, is the 50th Anniversary of the landing of Apollo 13, after over 5 days in space in a mostly-broken space capsule. It landed at 18:07 UTC (6pm), in the South Pacific Ocean, carrying astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise safely home after an intense and harrowing ordeal. It is one of the defining moments of the entire space program.

So I thought it was a fitting day to talk about my obsession with space and NASA and my dashed hopes of being an astronaut.

Let me state the obvious: I love space. I’m not sure if I love space because I read so much scifi, or if I read so much scifi because I love space – it’s kind of a chicken or the egg deal. But I love it. I read books, watch films and documentaries, buy NASA t-shirts and dream about it a lot. I had a plan back in high school: I was going to get a degree in physics, join the Navy – because they have a PHENOMENAL science program – and eventually work my way into NASA.

When I went to college I tried to double-major in Physics and English (because English and books have always been my first love and I really didn’t want to have to choose between the two). But by my third year of college, I was taking 18-20 credit hours per semester, working 30-35hrs per week at a part time job, I was editor of the university literary arts journal, and I was on three student organizations. Something had to give and my advisor told me I really just needed to choose one major, at least for now. I was attending Rockhurst University, a small Jesuit college in Kansas City, that I absolutely adored. They had a great liberal arts program, but their science department wasn’t the greatest (at least at the time), and I had been really inspired by a couple of my recent Literature professors, so I chose English. And eventually decided I might actually want to go to grad school for English and become a Lit professor myself someday.

I graduated with a BA in English and a minor in (of all things) Theology, and went straight into grad school for a MA in English and American Literature.

There are a lot of things I loved about my Master’s program, and things I STILL and will ALWAYS love about the Literature field. I took some absolutely amazing courses in grad school, I met some brilliant professors and grad student colleagues that I am now lucky enough to call friends. I wrote some interesting papers and went to some very cool conferences. But I quit. After six years stalled out in my PhD program, despite the fact that I was ABD (“all but dissertation”: ie, I had completed all coursework, comprehensive exams, and preliminary writing, and all I needed to do was write my dissertation), I quit.

And now I keep looking back on my choices with regret, wondering if I made the wrong decision, if I should have done the Physics degree instead.

I visit NASA’s Space Center Houston and walk through exhibits and watch documentaries and cry. Really truly cry for the lost opportunities. My mother likes to tell me it’s not too late. I could go back to school and get that physics degree and try. But it IS too late and no false hope is going to change that. I try to teach myself to accept it, to move on. I have plenty of other dreams: I still want to be a novelist, I still want to open a bookstore, I want to write a musical, I want all sorts of things. But this loss still breaks my heart, and I’m not sure I will ever be over it.

So instead, I absorb everything I can. I am working on a collection of every fictional film and documentary about space I can find (or, ok, at least the GOOD ones). And I have read so many nonfiction books on the subject – biographies, histories, science books – it’s kind of ridiculous. And on that note, allow me to offer some suggestions on books and movies/documentaries that I HIGHLY recommend for the space/NASA lover!

Of course, the most obvious movie to name is Apollo 13, which is particularly appropriate today of all days. And it is one of my favorite movies of all time. Obviously, as with anything, a few liberties are taken with historical accuracy in order to ramp up the drama and streamline the number of characters involved, but for the most part, it’s relatively accurate. The directing and cinematography and acting are all just GOD-TIER in this movie too, so there’s that. Yes, I will be watching this later today.

There is also, of course, The Right Stuff, both the book by Tom Wolfe, and the 1983 movie. They are both CLASSICS.

For fictionalized movies, I also highly recommend The Martian (another one of my favorites) which really captures the true SPIRIT of space exploration: the wonder and awe and excitement and danger and heart of it all. It’s also genuinely funny, and also beautifully shot. And if you haven’t read the novel, you should totally get on that too.

Similarly, I would recommend Interstellar. This movie gets so much hate. It seems to have become a fad, a popular past-time to hate on this movie, and I just DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY. Really, I don’t. When I saw this movie in theatres – in IMAX, because OF COURSE – I was blown away! I was entranced. I was emotionally invested and enormously distraught. Is the thematic conclusion a little heavy-handed? Yes. Could it have done without the constant repetition of the Dylan Thomas poem? Probably. But it is still an absolutely gorgeous movie – it is visually stunning and emotionally resonant and philosophically interesting and it really gets at the sense of scale and awe of space travel that few other movies ever have (save maybe 2001: A Space Odyssey – which I also highly recommend).

For documentaries, about NASA I would start with the newest one that just came out last year, called Apollo 11. It is very high quality, with a lot of newly released footage. It’s available on both Amazon Prime and Hulu. There’s also the CLASSIC documentary series: From the Earth to the Moon, which remains one of the best documentaries ever produced on the subject.

In addition, there is the biographical documentary called The Last Man on the Moon, which is about Gene Cernan, who was literally the last astronaut to walk on the moon, during the Apollo 17 mission. It is an absolutely fascinating look at Gene Cernan’s life, both his personal life and his experiences with the Apollo missions. I had the great privilege of attending one of the premiere showings of this documentary in 2016, with Gene Cernan and several other current astronauts in attendance for a Q&A at the end. It was one of the highlights of my life, quite frankly, and I was very sad when Gene Cernan died in 2017.

For books written on the subject, there are so many it is practically an embarrassment of riches. But if I HAD to choose just a few, they would be:

Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America’s Apollo Moon Landings written by Alan Shephard and Deke Slayton (so you know this is the REAL FUCKING DEAL)

Failure Is Not an Option, the memoir written by NASA Flight Controller Gene Kranz, (who was made immortal by Ed Harris’s portrayal of him in the Apollo 13 movie). This is one of my favorite biographies of all time (and I read A LOT of biographies), and I would sell a limb or two to meet Gene Kranz and get his autograph.

Beyond: Our Future in Space by Chris Impey, a nonfiction science book that goes beyond our present and projects into the future of what space exploration could be.

Again, this is just a very small sample of the content that exists about NASA in particular and space in general. I have watched and read quite a lot more than that, but these are some of my favorites. If you’re a space/NASA nut like me, please come chat! I would love to talk about anything space related!

One Favorite Movie: The Court Jester

Posted on April 2, 2020 by Amanda Rudd

I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you about one of my favorite movies. The Court Jester, released in 1956, starring Danny Kaye, Glynis Johns, Angela Lansbury, and Basil Rathbone. This movie is a musical comedy, like most of Danny Kaye’s movies, and it is probably his best one (though that is difficult to say since he was always excellent). I love this movie with all my heart.

Thanks to my mother’s excellent taste, I grew up with this movie and others like it. We had an old vhs copy of this movie when I was kid and for some reason we developed a funny little routine/tradition when we watched this movie (and a couple others). If we were watching The Court Jester as a family that night, we ordered takeout Chinese (and vice versa). Similarly, when we watched Ladyhawke (another of my favorites) we always made ramen (the cheap freeze-dried kind that is famous among college students and poor people and which my little brother and I ate on the regular – and still do).

I hadn’t been able to watch this movie in quite a long time. The vhs tape had deteriorated, and I hadn’t been able to find a copy on dvd in ages (there is one available on Amazon now but I haven’t bought it). However, I discovered a few days ago that it has recently been added to the Amazon Prime streaming videos which made me very excited, and I sat down to watch it immediately. (I did not, sadly, have takeout Chinese…)

The Court Jester, as I said, is a musical comedy: it features Danny Kaye as Hawkins: a hapless bumbling performer who has joined a group of rebels led by a Robin Hood-esque hero called The Black Fox. The rebels work to dethrone a king who has usurped the throne by murdering the previous royal family. An infant child of the royal family survived, and is being protected by The Black Fox’s group until they can find a way to place him back on the throne. Hawkins and a member of the rebel group, Maid Jean (played by the ever-glorious Glynis Johns) are charged with taking the baby into hiding, when a series of increasingly ridiculous incidents lead to: a) Hawkins going to the king’s castle disguised as the newly-hired court jester and b) Jean being taken to the castle as part of a round-up of women to be picked over by the king.

At the castle, Hawkins is supposed to get into contact with an agent of the rebellion who has infiltrated the staff. Unfortunately, he doesn’t realize that the court jester he is impersonating was actually hired by the King’s adviser Ravenhurst (played to scene-stealing perfection by Basil Rathbone) to secretly carry out several assassinations. On top of all of that, the king’s daughter, portrayed by a very young, heart-breakingly gorgeous Angela Lansbury (in a series of absolutely stunning gowns!), has been ordered to marry the brutish Griswold – but she doesn’t want to marry Griswold, and instead sets her sights on the new court jester. The witch who works for the princess therefore hypnotizes Hawkins to go off and woo the princess.

And folks, IT JUST GOES DOWNHILL FROM THERE.

This movie is, in my opinion, PERFECT. It cannot be improved upon. The songs are wonderful, the costumes are amazing, the script is hilarious, and the acting is pitch-perfect. Danny Kaye is at his finest in this movie – working through sharp, rapid-fire dialogue and high-energy slapstick with equal finesse. And the rest of the cast is just as great. Especially Basil Rathbone, who is always amazing. The scenarios of the movie get increasingly silly and ridiculous in the best way possible. And this movie contains some of the greatest comedic scenes ever put to film.

It features the now-famous exchange: “Get it?” “Got it.” “Good.”

And the oft-quoted “pellet with the poison” sequence.

And this scene, which I believe to be one of the funniest things ever done in the history of cinema.

And it wraps up with a fencing scene between Danny Kaye and Basil Rathbone that simply cannot be beat. It features both amazing fencing skills and hilarity in equal measure. A popular story goes that during this fight scene, Danny Kaye – who had just learned to fence for this film – was so much faster than Basil Rathbone – who had been fencing in films for decades – that the sword fight choreographer had to stand-in for Rathbone for parts of the scene. It’s an urban legend kind of story – my mother told it to me, and she had heard it from someone and so forth – so I don’t know how true it is. It could be completely made-up, but it’s such a fun story and I love it. (If you know this story to be untrue, please don’t tell me. I like my fantasy.)

This movie was the most expensive comedy made at the time (for about $4 million) but bombed at the box office. Yet Danny Kaye was nominated for a Golden Globe for this performance, and it has since become a beloved film. AFI ranked it #98 on its list of greatest comedies of all time (out of about 500 that were nominated). And in 2004 the National Film Registry elected to preserve The Court Jester for its cultural and historical significance.

In any case, it is one of my favorite movies of all time and I believe that everyone should see it at least once. Especially right now, with the world kind of falling apart around us, a good laugh can be very therapeutic and necessary. And since The Court Jester is finally streaming online for the first time I’ve ever noticed, it is easier than ever to do so! So get on it!

Comfort Movies

Posted on March 23, 2020 by Amanda Rudd

Do you have any comfort movies? Movies that you have watched over and over again until you can recite the whole thing word for word at the drop of the hate? Movies that you watch at 2am when you can’t sleep and need something to soothe you into drifting off? Movies that you watch when you are sick or stressed or upset?

I suppose you can guess by now that I do. I have a whole list of standards. Safe stand-bys. The usual suspects, as it were.

The first of these is Disney’s Robin Hood – yes, the animated one with the animals. I have been in love with this movie since I was a very little kid. I believe a lot of people around my age would admit that the fox Robin Hood was one of their earliest crushes (don’t lie! Admit it!). He was certainly one of mine. (And yes, Nick Wilde from Zootopia is on that list now too.) It’s Robin Hood’s VOICE, courtesy of Brian Bedford that really does it for me! It’s such a LIKEABLE voice! but the whole movie is just gold. Wolfgang Reitherman was one of Disney Animation’s greatest directors, and his direction for Robin Hood is no exception. The animation is fun, despite or perhaps even because of the amount of designs and sequences they recycled from previous productions. All the voice cast, not just Brian Bedford are fantastic. Especially Peter Ustinov, who plays Prince John – he is clearly having WAY TOO MUCH fun recording his lines, and he steals every scene he’s in. And the songs are some of the best Disney has done, in my humble opinion. “Oo-de-lally” and “Not in Nottingham,” in particular, are absolutely wonderful songs that have even been covered by contemporary bands.

My second favorite comfort movie is My Neighbor Totoro by Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki. I love all the Ghibli films, and I would agree with the assessment that technically the BEST of these movies are Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. However, because of its gentleness, sweetness, comfort, and pure nostalgia, my favorite will definitely always be My Neighbor Totoro. When I can’t sleep, I like to listen to something soft and familiar to hopefully lull me into drifting off, and this is one of my go-to choices. If you are familiar with Studio Ghibli’s films, you know about the high quality of their animation, the beauty of their stories, the supremacy of strong girl characters, and the absolutely STELLAR scores always written by constant Ghibli collaborator, Joe Hisaishi. Totoro is just a perfect movie to me. I do not think I single line of dialogue or single animation cell could be improved upon. And, unlike some anime dubs, the English voice-over dubbing for this movie is phenomenal as well. Dakota and Elle Fanning play the two sisters and they proved very early on as children that they were both going to be fantastic actresses. And Tim Daly (best known as Joe from the sitcom Wings, and Superman/Clark Kent from Superman the Animated Series) is wonderful as their father. The score might be my favorite part though, and never fails to comfort and calm me.

My third favorite comfort movie is not TECHNICALLY a movie. It’s Over the Garden Wall, created by Patrick McHale (creative director for Adventure Time) and released on Cartoon Network. This was actually a mini-series released in November 2014 (I cannot believe it’s been that long!) and was 10 episodes of 12 minutes each. I bought the dvd version of it the second it was available, and when you use the “Play All” option, it runs through the whole series which, without commercials, is approximately 120 mins long. Thus, it works kind of like a movie. Like Totoro, I believe this show is one of the most perfect pieces of animation ever made. I do not believe you could improve on a single element. It is one of my most favorite things in any visual media. It has such a perfect folktale/fairy-tale style and tone. The animation style is wonderfully whimsical. The characters are funny and poignant and real. The voice acting is stellar (Elijah Wood is the main character and he’s fantastic!). Parts of it are delightfully strange and wonderfully creepy. And just like with Totoro, I think the music is my favorite part. The score and songs are composed/written by The Blasting Company and I love every single one of them. There was a period between 2016-2018 when my depression was really really bad (it’s still pretty bad) and I literally watched Over the Garden Wall every single night as I fell asleep. I am not exaggerating. Every single night for two years. It is still my most common late-night-watch, but I have mixed it up a bit in the last year or so. (I am, in fact, watching it as I type this…)

I have a few more comfort movies on my list. Pride and Prejudice (2005), Disney’s Tangled, The Labyrinth, and How to Train Your Dragon are all favorites, but the three above are definitely the ones I turn to most often.

How about you? Do you have any favorite movies you return to again and again?

5 Things to Know Me By

Posted on February 19, 2020 by Amanda Rudd

If you are remotely active on Twitter, you might have seen one of the newer memes floating around, in which people list the 5 (or 7 or 10) albums (or tv shows, movies, etc) to listen to in order to understand them.

Tweets like this:

And this:

And this:

I have no idea who started it (who EVER knows where these things start???) but it’s a pretty fun way to share some of your favorite things.

I RT’d and responded to a few on Twitter, but I thought it might be fun to share a few such lists here on my still-new blog. So without further ado, 5 things to know me by:

5 Music Albums:

Let Live and Let Ghosts by Jukebox the Ghost (just fyi: Jukebox the Ghost is my favorite band of all time and I have seen them live 4 times – the last time for free as a person on their official guest list!)
Abbey Road by The Beatles (I grew up on the Beatles – my mother raised me well – and I struggled with picking one for a long time, but I think this is my favorite of their studio albums)
The Cowboy Bebop Movie OST (I love anime, and I love anime music, and the Cowboy Bebop soundtracks are some of the best ever made. The movie soundtrack in particular is pure MAGIC)
Break the Cycle by Staind (this album was SO IMPORTANT to me during my particularly emo moments of high school)
The Essential Barbra Streisand (look, I cannot stress the importance of this singer and this album enough. During many very very long road trips, my mother and I would keep ourselves awake by singing along to this album – on cassette tape no less – at the very top of our lungs… and it also began my lifelong love for showtunes and Broadway, starting from like the age of 7 or something like that)

(Honorable Mention goes to Phoenix by The Classic Crime, which has been so important for me emo moments of the last 10 years)

5 Movies:

The Labyrinth (magic, portal fantasy, fantastic music, amazing puppets and artistry, and David Bowie… need I say more???) (Also, The Dark Crystal, because DUH)
The Neverending Story (Also DUH. Those 80s fantasy movies are SO VITAL to my development as a reader, a writer, and a person)
Robin Hood (the Disney animated version)
The Fall (the 2006 Tarsem Singh film – if you haven’t seen it, YOU NEED TO NOW)
The Last Emperor (by Bernardo Bertolucci – the extended four hour version, I cry EVERY SINGLE TIME)

(Honorable mention goes to My Neighbor Totoro, which I watch a lot at night when I am depressed and/or insomniac)

5 Books:

Watership Down by Richard Adams (I love this book so much I am planning to get a tattoo with a quote from it)
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende (ditto this one, on the tattoo thing)
Dune by Frank Herbert (I read the first book in 6th grade and worked my way through the whole series by the end of 8th grade)
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (I’m cheating sort of but whatever) (In 4th grade my elementary school librarian noticed that I was reading far above my grade level and gave me these books to read, and life has never been the same since then. They are an integral part of who I am and the reason I first decided I wanted to be a writer)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (I read this book in 5th grade and adored it, and have since taken 2 college courses on Jane Austen and written several papers on the various aspects of the books)

(With an honorable mention to Neuromancer by William Gibson and The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien)

5 Musicals:

Les Miserables
Phantom of the Opera
Rent
Wicked
Company

(Yes, I tend to prefer the Standards, over newer musicals… though I did really enjoy Hamilton and Hadestown!)

5 TV Shows (live action):

Star Trek (all of them, don’t make me just pick one!)
Doctor Who (Whovian forever!)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (yeah man!)
Law & Order (I watched every season of the original series with my mother from the age of 9 or 10 or so, and I have had an obsession with crime dramas and murder mystery shows ever since)
M*A*S*H* (still the best comedy show ever made ever)

5 Animes:

Robotech (the one that started it all for me!)
Sailor Moon (MOON PRISM POWER!)
Dragon Ball Z (KAMEHAMEHA!)
Cowboy Bebop (You’re gonna carry that weight…)
Neon Genesis Evangelion (can you tell how important the CLASSICS are to me???)

(Honorable mention goes to Fairy Tail – I am currently working my way straight thru the whole series – all 328 episodes – for the third time! And also My Hero Academia, which I’m really enjoying so far, though I’m a season behind…)

5 Western Animation Shows:

DuckTales (the original mostly – DISNEY AFTERNOON RULES FOREVER!, but also the new version)
Futurama (god I love this show so much!)
Star vs the Forces of Evil (this Disney show was SO GOOD GUYS!)
Adventure Time (obviously)
Over the Garden Wall (this was a 10 ep mini-series and I adore it and it is my best “comfort” watch – I watch it almost every night to fall asleep to)

So, what kinds of things would show up on YOUR “5 Things” lists??? Please share! I’d love to hear about it!

Going to the Movies

Posted on February 12, 2020 by Amanda Rudd

Movies. I love them. I love going to the movie theatre and sitting in the dark in front of an enormous screen and allowing myself to be wholly absorbed. I love sitting in the comfort of my own living room/bedroom and watching movies (usually the same ones I always watch) while half-paying attention and scrolling on my phone or ipad. I love buying dvds (to the point that I still have a handful of dvds in their shrink-wrap a year or two later!). I love talking about movies. So much so that I sometimes wonder if I should have gone into film studies, or at least taken a few courses on the subject (if such an elective had existed during my undergrad, I probably would have!).

I enjoy going to the movies with friends or family. My most common movie-going buddy is my mother, actually. We go to the movies together quite a lot – probably a couple times a month. It helps that we have pretty similar taste in movies most of the time. And my mother doesn’t really like going to the movies by herself, so if I can’t go with her she just skips it altogether.

I, on the other hand, really enjoy going to the movies by myself. There is something so therapeutic and calming about buying a small (or in my case, not-so-small) popcorn and settling into a dark theatre by yourself, and being completely invested in what you are watching and your own enjoyment in the experience without worrying if your companion is liking it as much as you are, or whatnot.

There was a recent article on the Stylist website about going to the movies alone, in fact. You can find it here: “Scared of going to the cinema alone? Don’t be: it’s a brilliant form of self-care” by Kayleigh Dray

While I would not call myself a “cine-nazi” as the writer does in the article, I do agree with pretty much everything she says. If you’ve never gone to the movie theatre by yourself, I highly recommend it!

When I was working on my undergrad there was a tiny movie theatre on campus. It was mainly used for special events and presentations, but every Wednesday at noon and again at 7pm, they would show popular movies. Not current releases, of course – they didn’t have the kind of funds to get current movies. Instead they would show semi-recent movies (things released in the last couple years). I think it was kind of whatever they could get their hands on, but that was fine by me. I usually had classes or something during the noon viewings, but I caught several movies that way: Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Sahara, Hitch, etc. (I’m aging myself, aren’t I?) These were always movies that I would probably never have bothered seeing in theatres when they were released, but the movies on campus were like a $1 or $2, so… why not?

More recently, I have gone to the movies by myself just a couple times in the last few months. I saw A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood by myself (and cried). I saw Frozen 2 TWICE by myself (and cried). But I have seen quite a few movies with my mother. And most recently I saw 1917 with my brother.

I go to the movies often enough that I have even considered buying AMC’s Stubs A-List membership (which is $20 per month!). My budget remains very tight right now, so I can’t really justify such an expense, but maybe if I can get my finances in more order in the next few months, I might actually do it. If you aren’t familiar with the A-List subscription: it’s a new-ish feature that AMC is doing. For $20/month you can see up to 3 movies per week! So, if your full-price ticket is ~$11 (this depends on where you live, of course), if you see at least TWO movies per month, the subscription has paid for itself. If you see just ONE movie per WEEK, you’ve doubled your value, etc. If you are a constant movie-goer, it is worth it, I think. Like I said, I’m seriously considering it…

Anyway, to wrap this up I thought it would be fun to list a few of my favorite movies from 2019 (these are not in any particular order):

Captain Marvel (this movie kicked serious ass! Girl Power ftw!)
Frozen 2 (I am a huge Disney nerd and I love Elsa, so…)
Knives Out (smart, darkly-hilarious, great Agatha Christie-esque mystery)
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (a little-seen, very strange and amazing indie film by terry Gilliam)
Be Natural: the untold story of Alice Guy-Blache (an indie film documentary about the first woman director – I was a Kickstarter contributor for this movie and it was ASTONISHINGLY GOOD)

I’d love to hear what your favorite movies were for 2019! Or for that matter, what movies you are looking forward to for 2020!

Amanda Haimoto Rudd

Writer. Editor. Book Reviewer.

Category Archives: Movies