Weekly Roundup

Is the hoverboard from Back to the Future II now a reality? - you be the judge

Daughter's Facebook boast costs her dad an $80,000 settlement - Man wins settlement against former employer. Daughter promptly breaks confidentiality agreement and the settlement is revoked

Data visualization of the last 11 years of Oscars dresses - does wearing certain designers give nominees good luck?

Woman realizes neighboring business has erected a statue in honor of her cat - are your pets leading
double lives?

Grand Budapest Hotel is the wessiest Wes Anderson movie yet

Street Photography from the 50s and 60s - cool story about an unknown photographer

One man's perseverance sparks a breakthrough for women's health in India 

Slinky sculptures - watch the video

Europe wants US to come up with its own cheese names

Benedict Cumberbatch photobombed U2 at the Oscars

A frame-by-frame look at some Olympic events

The top 100 restaurants on Yelp in the US - three St. Louis spots made the list!

27. Brief Encounter (1945)

I love a good tragic romance. This was one of the very early films David Lean made as director (he came up the ranks as an editor) and it's one of his best. The plot is simple: two married thirty-somethings meet, feel a mutual attraction, and struggle to maintain control and not betray their spouses. The backstory behind the success of this movie is really interesting: it touched a nerve with local middle-class audiences because they saw the middle class as the moral compass of England and they could relate to the character's feeling stuck in polite but passionless marriages. The story is framed as a flashback: the film begins with the main characters' final meeting and then backtracks to explain the stinging goodbye.

A masterclass in restraint all around. I like that it keeps the focus on the two main characters and doesn't waste time with subplots. There are only a few supporting characters, and one of them is the lovable Stanley Holloway, best known for playing Alfie Doolittle in My Fair Lady. Like all of Lean's films, it has great cinematography. The use of Rachmaninov's piano concerto (used for comedic affect a few years later in The Seven Year Itch) is a nice touch.

Watch this movie!

26. Great Expectations (1946)

I'm going to pick up where I left off and pretend like I didn't take a nine-month break from blogging..

This film is widely lauded as the best film version of Great Expectations and is also on many lists of the best British films of all time, but it left me feeling a bit flat. This book is one of the most depressing books I've ever read, and I didn't feel like the film had the same emotional power or tone. What it does have is beautiful black and white cinematography--it deservedly won Oscars for both photography and art direction.

I really liked a couple scenes (the opening sequence and, later, the house fire) but overall, the sum total didn't make me feel much of anything.

fun facts: this film stars young Jean Simmons (as Estella) and Alec Guinness (as Herbert Pocket); Guinness acted in the stage version that inspired David Lean to make this film.

23-25. Star Wars Episodes IV, V, and VI

I watched the three original Star Wars movies back to back to back on May 4th this year, since it is Star Wars Day and all.

I watched these movies frequently as a kid, but had not seen them for the last few years up until now. So it felt like I was watching something I used to like to see if I still like it as an adult.

The verdict: Yep. Still a magical movie experience. My favorite has always been The Empire Strikes Back, but this recent viewing gave me a stronger appreciation for A New Hope. I always like the exposition part of a story, and I love how the characters are introduced in Episode IV.

I did get kind of restless part way through the marathon though, so I think I will wait a few years before attempting it again.

I'll always connect Star Wars with my dad, whose story of seeing it on the big screen is my strongest and earliest memory of movies as a transformative experience. Also, "I thought they smelled bad on the outside" is one of his favorite quotes.

22. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Another classic 1950s sci fi. This one isn't as overtly preachy as The Day the Earth Stood Still, but it does play on the sense of dread and paranoia so prevalent during the Cold War era.

The plot, in a nutshell:

The story depicts an extraterrestrial invasion in a small California town. The invaders replace human beings with duplicates that appear identical on the surface but are devoid of any emotion or individuality. A local doctor uncovers what is happening and tries to stop them.

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. It has beautiful black and white cinematography, and there are some legitimately creepy moments. Recommended viewing for when you feel like staying in on a Friday night. Pour yourself a gimlet or a mint fizz and pop this in.

21. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

A flying saucer lands in Washington, D.C. with a humanoid extraterrestrial (Klaatu) and his protective robot (Gort) companion onboard. Klaatu has been sent to preach disarmament to all the world's leaders, but is told that assembling a meeting would be impossible (it's the height of the Cold War and the US-Eastern Bloc rivalry). Klaatu was sent because the residents of other planets have started fearing for their safety ever since the humans of Earth began harnessing atomic power. Klaatu escapes his confinement in a hospital and ventures into human society; society responds with a paranoid witch hunt. Since he can't get access to the world's leaders, he seeks out the smartest man he can find, the Einstein-esque Dr. Barnhart, and explains that his home planet has solved the problem of violence by creating a robot police force. He also tells Dr. Barnhart and his scientist friends that if humanity lets its violent nature bleed over into space exploration, Earth will be destroyed by the robots. His final words of warning: "The decision rests with you...."

In addition to being a sci fi classic, this movie is also a great time capsule of Cold War-era social commentary. It's not the subtlest or most exciting movie ever captured on film, but it showcases what so many sci fi stories try to achieve: we humans get in over our heads, and placing us in extraordinary circumstances is sometimes the only way to expose us to our own naivete.

Book: What is the What

What is the What was one of the awesome books I read during the month of April.

It tells the story of Valentino Achak Deng, a Dinka who was one of the Lost Boys of Sudan orphaned in the 2nd Sudanese War. Valentino fled on foot with a group of boys and a teacher after their village was destroyed, and they walked all the way to Ethiopia, where they started new lives in a refugee camp. A few years later they were moved to another refugee camp in Kenya. Eventually, Valentino made it to America, where he has lived ever since.

My mom read this book a few years ago, and when my mom is really into a book she has a habit of updating me on it every day in vivid detail, recounting her favorite parts she has read the previous day. While she was reading this book, she kept saying, "Rachel, you read it and you just can't believe it. You just can't believe it." I specifically remember her telling me the Dinka tale that the book is named after.

A common theme of the book is the need to keep moving into the unknown: first the group is moving away from the Arab militias, then they're moving into Ethiopia (an unknown place to most of them), then Kenya (another unknown place), and finally America (where life turns out to not be so easy as they had hoped.)

The book is not all sad, though. There are a lot of funny parts about adapting to life in the various locations Valentino lived. One of my favorites revolved around a tampon box. Upon their first visit to an American grocery store, some of the Lost Boys were entranced by a tampon box because they thought it was really beautiful. Their host mother explained to them what it was for and that they had no need to buy it, but they bought it anyway and proudly displayed it as a centerpiece on their table at home.

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading for fun. It is a punch to the gut, but a good one.