Chaos Attraction

Double J.Law Feature

2014-01-05, 7:53 p.m.

At nine a.m. yesterday morning they started taking a BLOWTORCH to one of the apartments on my end. Between that and the lawn guys, I was pretty well annoyed at the racket going on around these parts. And it went on all day.

I left the house to do errands. Went to the gym, grocery store, Office Max, and Rite Aid. In keeping with my "Anything But Depression Meds" resolution, I have gone out and gotten the following hippie remedies:

(a) 5-HTP, again.
(b) 5000 IU's of Vitamin D3.
(c) Melatonin.
(d) Fish oil. Yes, I have become the sort of person who fucking buys fish oil.

I tried the melatonin last night but it actually didn't do shit. Everyone seems to claim it knocks you right out and then you have acid trip dreams. For me it was the same as taking magnesium--I was semi-dozy but I don't think I actually lost consciousness all night. Feh. I might try it for a few more days (it's not like I am ever, ever going to sleep on a Sunday night, so I might as well fuck that one up too), but that is very disappointing.

Anyway, since the blowtorching--which turned out to be replacing the staircase railings-- was going on and on and on, I went to the movies for a J.Law double header of American Hustle and Catching Fire, since Jackie and I have both given up on seeing that one before it's out of theaters together. Here come the brief reviews, which are NOT spoiler free, so be forewarned. A bit of spoileration is occurring.

American Hustle: This is probably not a movie I would have paid money to see in theaters had Jennifer Lawrence not been in it, plus the whole blowtorching thing. It's a 1970's scam movie, and oh dear lord, the seventies hair. The movie starts out with one of the worst combovers being glued onto Christian Bale's head. He and Amy Adams are a happy con artist couple who get a lot of money out of pulling some kind of "I give you five thousand dollars and you'll give me fifty thousand dollars while Amy Adams does an English accent" scam. They eventually get busted by an irritating FBI agent, Richie, who forces them to help him bust some other people before he lets them go. Unfortunately, the target chosen for whatever reason is the lone sane, nice, non-crooked politician in New Jersey, who basically gets talked into breaking the law.

They put on this scheme involving a fake sheikh supposedly donating a few million to build up Jersey, which somehow entangles a terrifying mobster and several higher up politicians. Meanwhile. Amy Adams is still annoyed at her boyfriend for being married, so she comes onto the engaged-but-in-denial Richie about it. Christan Bale is married to Jennifer Lawrence, who's kinda dumb, and big mouthed, and screwy, and tends to accidentally set shit on fire. But she's entertaining as hell to watch at it. (And lemme tell ya, very different role she's doing in this one versus the other movie.) Eventually her loose lips and listening in on the phone and getting a new mobster boyfriend, uh.... well, guess what.

I wasn't super into this movie (especially when I was hoping it would end soon enough for me to sneak into the other movie), but it was all right, I guess. If you're into the seventies, which I generally am not.

As for Catching Fire: I think it's pretty well made, ESPECIALLY THE SPECIAL EFFECTS, which are rocking the house. I wasn't terribly impressed with the wardrobe in the last movie, but hoo boy, did they make things work in this one. For example, the black outfits on fire. And Katniss's wedding dress turning into a mockingjay dress came out freaking awesome, even if I am still wondering where the hell the wings came from in a dress that originally had nothing on the arms. They pulled that off, and that's amazing. Also awesome is Effie's butterfly dress, I want one.

As for other Hunger Games fashion, all the knitters are hot for the Katniss cowl, which I do not think is actually all that cute. It's a nonsensical garment that I find hard to believe that Katniss would choose to wear on her own time. It's got one sleeve and hangs funny--that's not her practical style at all. Plus it just looks awkward as fuck to wear. The yarn outfit I fell in love with, on the other hand, was this top, which is in the movie for about five seconds, but looks amazing. I went to Ravelry to see if anyone's figured it out yet and (Ravelry link) someone's working on it. I look forward to her finishing, because I'd love to try it out.

On a non-fashion-related notes, I think the movie did pretty well in portraying things. I loooooooved Johanna, and Finnick, and Beetee and Mags. Great casting. There is also a priceless scene in which Johanna goes into the elevator with Team District Twelve and then starts stripping. And Jennifer Lawrence's face is doing THIS. BWAHAHAHAHAH. I think the beginning of the movie is incredibly depressing--which it's supposed to be, mind you--but I started to get into it eventually. Especially the last televised appearance of all of the tributes, and how they were teaming up in the arena.

The thing that stood out for me about the movie adaptation was how they handled Plutarch Heavensbee (oh, the names in this movie). Jackie saw it before I did and, well, she hasn't read the books and seems to miss a lot of details about the movie, then gripes about how they suck. (Why she keeps wanting to see them, I have no idea.) Anyway, before I saw it, she was all, "I don't get what's up with that guy," and I asked about the watch scene--which was not in the movie. That bugged me, but eventually I figured it out that they wanted to make him look like a total bad guy until the very end, rather than giving Katniss the heads-up about the clock theme of the arena. I don't know about that, but it certainly is a choice to make.

Not bad, overall, if you are into this sort of thing.

Today I spent in blissful quiet (the blowtorching was done). In reverse order, I went to knitting group and heard a lot of people's interesting holiday stories, and before that I hung outside in the sunshine because it's actually in the 60's here, and before that I hung out with Melinda, who thinks I should make a list of what I want in life. I feel very awkward about doing that, though. It's kinda like, what's the point, because I can make a pie in the sky list of shit if I like, but once I start actually having to figure out HOW TO DO IT, reality shoots them all down.


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