Oscars -- Writing and Acting Etc.

Just a few more comments about the Oscar nominations--because I can't stop myself.

First, in the best foreign language film category, I would be remiss as a Canadian (and an avid movie-goer) if I didn't mention the film Water, by Deepa Mehta.

Ms. Mehta had a lot of trouble making this film. She was kicked out of India (where it was filmed) more than once, I think, and picketed a number of times because of its controversial subject -- the treatment of widows in the Hindu culture. The movie is set in the 1930's -- which is not that long ago -- and I think this is a film every woman should see. But while its subject is serious and sad, the film isn't all darkness and depression. It really has a lot of hope and humor, too. (and even a little romance.)

I was super annoyed last year at whomever it is in Canada who picks which film to put forward for the Academy Awards. (It's my understanding that each country can make one official entry to this category.) Last year, Canada put forward the French language film, C.R.A.Z.Y -- which didn't get a nomination and I was angry that Water hadn't been put forward in its place. (Don't get me wrong, C.R.A.Z.Y. is a good film, too. I saw both at the 2005 TIFF, but Water is better.) What I didn't understand is that Water wasn't released in the US until 2006, so couldn't be put forward last year. Phew. At least it was put forward, now, and got the nomination it deserves. With the other great films in this category, I doubt Water will win... But at least it's getting some well-deserved recognition.

Because I'm a writer, albeit not a screenwriter, I should also talk a bit about the writing awards. (Always listed at the very bottom of the nominations.... like the writers don't really matter. What's up with that???)

“Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan” is up for best adapted screenplay. Huh? I loved this movie, but don't get this nomination, at all. To me, it's like nominating Survivor for best writing at the Emmys. Sasha Baron Cohen is clever... but really, how much of this film was "written" other than his stand up-ish stuff. Doesn't seem right to me.

Of the other films in this category: “Children of Men”, “The Departed”, "Little Children”, “Notes on a Scandal”.... I'd have to go with Little Children. I know I'm not a screenwriter, but I'm not sure if adapting a foreign language screenplay (Infernal Affairs) into an English language screenplay is all that much "adapting" compared to adapting a complex novel. It bugged me a few years ago that Cameron Crowe (who I'm a big fan of, generally) took a writing credit on Vanilla Sky. I've seen the original, Open Your Eyes, and thought he should have taken a translation credit, not a writing one... I admit I haven't read the novel Little Children , (but would like to), but this was a very interesting film and I loved the way the screenwriter integrated some narration into it in a clever way. Children of Men and Notes on a Scandal were both excellent films as well, but I want Little Children to win. (It won't though. Too dark. Didn't make enough money.)



While I'm talking about Little Children, it would be amazing if Jackie Earle Haley won for best supporting actor. A creepy performance to be sure. But amazing. It was driving me nuts while I was watching this movie, trying to figure out where I'd seen him before. Turns out he hasn't worked for a while. The two films I remember him in were the original Bad News Bears, 1978, where he played the love interest for Tatum O'Neil and then in Breaking Away, 1979. If you haven't ever seen Breaking Away, rent it. It's worth it to see a very young Dennis Quaid, in what I believe was his first film performance. But a great film in other ways, too.

The original screenplay nominations are: “Babel” Written by Guillermo Arriaga; “Letters from Iwo Jima”, Screenplay by Iris Yamashita, Story by Iris Yamashita & Paul Haggis; “Little Miss Sunshine” Written by Michael Arndt; “Pan’s Labyrinth” Written by Guillermo del Toro; “The Queen” Written by Peter Morgan.

I would be happy if any one of Babel, Little Miss Sunshine or Pan's Labyrinth win this category. I think Little Miss Sunshine deserves recognition because it seemed so tightly written to me -- particularly for a comedy where often scenes are added just to be funny, but don't advance the story. I want to see it again to study it more, to think about it rather than just enjoying it... But the other two were more complex and also amazing, so I'm torn... I'll be ticked if either The Queen, or Letters from Iwo Jima wins...

Okay, I promise to stop talking about the Oscars for a while.

Golden Globe Noms are in

Okay, this is already old news for die hard movie buffs (from YESTERDAY) but I can't help giving my 2 cents about the Best Picture Nom's...

Today, the Dramas:

BABEL
BOBBY
THE DEPARTED
LITTLE CHILDREN
THE QUEEN

I loved two of these films (Babel and Little Children) I really liked the other three. I think I've listed the films below in the order I'd rank them...

BABEL is a little sad but totally engrossing. I've been planning working on a blog post comparing and contrasting the themes in Babel with another good film I saw at the festival this year, BREAKING AND ENTERING. But that film hasn't opened yet. (opens at Christmas?) Anyway, for me, Babel shows the worst of human nature and Breaking and Entering the best... I
talked about Babel on the Drunk Writer Talk blog a while ago, so won't do it again, here...

LITTLE CHILDREN really blew me away, too, and is another film I'd like to see again... There are so many layers to it... Some which I'm sure I didn't notice or get on first viewing... It explores suburban life, personal fullfillment over family obligations, settling, infidelity, child abuse (on both overt and more subtle levels), guilt, shame, prejudice, mob mentality...
I also think the film was just interesting as films go, using some devices like voice overs and other intrustions that I really thought worked and added humor to what could have been a very dark film. This film didn't get a very wide release, but maybe this nomination will help that. If it comes to your town, check it out. I also talked about this movie on Drunk Writer Talk...

THE DEPARTED. Okay, now I'm thinking about it again, I'd probably put it on my LOVED list along with BABEL and LITTLE CHILDREN, but I thought it deteriorated into almost comedy at the end... (So tragic it becomes comedy?) But maybe the "everyone's corrupt", "you can't trust anyone" message is encapsulated in the way this story ended. I think I'd like to see this film again... and to see the Chinese film it was based on, INFERNAL AFFAIRS. But both Leonardo di Caprio and Matt Damon blew me away in this movie. Molly likes to say you could see Damon's character's ulcers growing. I just thought he made an amazingly charming (and therefore diabolical) bad guy. (Although I already knew he could do this from THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY... which I liked more than most people did... but I'm a big Patrica Highsmith fan. And I liked Damon's Ripley much better than other supposedly "better" actors who have played him, including John Malcovich... It's easy to believe Malcovich is evil and the point of Ripley is that he's a sociopath hidden in sheep's clothing. Cloying, engratiating, self-effacing sheep's clothing... Okay... how did this become a blog on Patrica Highsmith's wonderful character, Tom Ripley??

Back to the films...

Anyone who reads this blog or the Drunk Writer blog, knows I love multiple interconnected stories... but I think BOBBY suffered from not having strong enough story arcs for each of the individual stories in the film. Most were just character sketches...
I also think viewers of this movie need to know some of the historical facts in order for the movie to have any tension or forward drive... This, to me, makes it an imperfect movie -- though like I said, I did like it...(I knew the "important historical fact" going in, not because I remembered, if I ever even knew, but because someone had given me a spoiler, which I normally hate, but for this movie, I think it helped me enjoy the film.) The spoiler detail is that other people were shot the night Robert Kennedy was assassinated. If you know this... you watch the movie wondering which of the characters, Emilio Estevez (filmmaker) is introducing us to, will get shot. It adds some drama and tension in a film that doesn't have a whole bunch until the final 10 minutes, which are then nothing but tension and drama. I expect politics also affected this nomination... That is, the film's very politically relevant today with the US in another unpopular divisive war.

THE QUEEN was another film I liked but didn't love. I admit I have an odd soft spot for QEII. Maybe it's because when she was younger, I always thought she looked a bit like my mom... (Probably just the same hairstyle. My mom is prettier.) Or maybe I associate her with Christmas because our family used to always watch her on TV Christmas morning. Andrew is a few years older than I and Edward a few years younger and I think my sisters and I felt like we grew up with those boys, watching them (and their stodgy older brother Charles) appear with their mum in our living room every Christmas morning via the TV. But this movie really boils down to some amazing performances... I agree with the best actress nomination for Helen Mirren... (I also think the actor who played Tony Blair -- Micheal Sheen -- and maybe the guy who played Prince Charles should have been nominated... but I'm not sure about the movie getting nominated... But also not sure what I'd nominate in its place, so there you go...

Golden Globes... Comedies and Foreign Language

More Golden Globes talk....

First the comedy/musicals:

I haven't seen DREAMGIRLS, yet, so I can't comment on that... But I have seen the other four nominated films and if LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE doesn't win this category, there is no justice in the world. (Although I expect DREAMGIRLS will win and I guess it's not fair of me to claim this is wrong, since I haven't seen it. But I do think it will win and probably not because it's better. It's been well reviewed, there's Oscar buzz and it has big stars... Therefore, will probably win.)

But LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE! I think this just came out on DVD and I want to see it again. It was a fabulous movie. The characters were amazing and not predictable and there's not one minute of wasted time or dialogue in this film... (I'd like to watch again to test this assertion...) But no wasted scenes or lines is a big deal in comedies, where so often there are portions there just to be funny, that don't really serve the story... Not in this movie. But I'd call it a "dramedy" not a comedy... Great movie.

THANK YOU FOR SMOKING is largely funny because of the amazing premise and good performances. But I found that most of the funny stuff was shown in the trailer and the story wasn't that riveting and overall I was a little underwhelmed. I probably just went in with overly high expectations... I wish I'd seen it when it had its world premiere at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival. By the time it was released to theatres, it had made the festival circuit, showing at Sundance, too, and there was way too much hype around it. However, if you haven't seen it -- especially if you haven't seen the trailer -- rent it. There are some unbelievable lines/ideas in this movie. And it has one of the best premises I've seen in ages... A story where the protagonist is a lobbiest for the tobacco industry. Too funny. Amazing satire.

BORAT: CULTURAL LEARNINGS OF AMERICA FOR MAKE BENEFIT GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN
I've talked about a couple of times... I really did think this movie had moments of uncomfortable brilliance and Sasha Baron Cohen is amazingly adept at turning a light onto ugly things about western society in a very unorthadox way (no pun intended) (well, maybe a little bit intended).

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA

Really? I mean Meryl Streep was fabulous in that role, but really?

DREAMGIRLS

Will let you know, if I get a chance to see it...


And the foreign films... I've only seen two of these... But want to comment anyway, 'cause I can't stop myself and the two that I saw were AMAZING!!!

VOLVER (Spain)
Go see this movie. Right now. Even if you think you hate subtitles. Go. Even if you've seen a Pedro Almadovar movie before, and you think he's too weird. Go. Trust me.
This was his most accessible Almadovar movie I've seen (no porn stars getting kidnapped and seduced, no transvestites, no major religious controversies)... Don't get me wrong. I love Almadovar's movies... and you've got to love a director who introduced the world to not only Penelope Cruz (who's great in this, as she was in his other film ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER -- another film that's really worth renting...) but also Antonio Banderas in TIE ME UP, TIE ME DOWN. If you haven't seen either of these actors work in their native tongue, you're missing something...

PAN'S LABYRINTH (Mexico) I saw at the film festival this year and although it's not my kind of movie, per se, the buzz was so great I picked it. And I was blown away. It's a fairy tale and the protagonist is a little girl... but don't let that fool you into thinking it's a movie for children or simplistic in any way. Very dark. Very creepy. Very good.

THE LIVES OF OTHERS (Germany) I haven't seen this. (Don't know if it's been released to theatres here, yet... Maybe now it will be.) But I've heard from others that it's amazing. I know it screened at the Vancouver Film Festival but not in Toronto... Too bad. Can't wait to see it.

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA (USA/JAPAN) I'm actually looking forward to seeing this, but I didn't see the first one... FLAGS OF OUR FATHER. I kinda hope they'll rerelease it along with this one so I can see them both on the big screen... A double feature would be great. Clint Eastwood understands storytelling, so I have high expectations for these films and like the idea he's showing the history from both the US and Japanese perspectives. Great idea.

APOCALYPTO (USA) I don't think I'll see this movie. Partly because of the whole Mel Gibson thing and partly because, while I can take a lot of violence in movies if it's in context and important, somehow I can't take the violence in Mel's movies. I found BRAVEHEART horrible to watch and most of the violence completely gratutitous, and don't even get me started on his Christian snuff porno. Why did I go see that???? Okay, I felt like I had to out of curiousity and to judge whether all the anti-semetic accusations etc. were justified... But I'm done with Mel Gibson as a director, unless he does something that isn't 95% graphic violence -- which is what I've heard about Apocalypto.

Impt note: I'm not a rabid anit-violence in the movies person. I love Quentin Tarantino's films. Pan's Labryrinth has some graphic violence... but it's not the whole freakin' movie and it fits the story and adds impact when it's there. It's Mel's 20 minute battle scenes with nothing but gore (or the 70 minute shredding of someone's body in the Passion) that I take exception to. No one needs to see that kind of violence.

Sara Hantz Cover Reveal!

Today I'm revealing not one, but two covers for upcoming books by Sara Hantz. Sara's been an on-line writer pal since -- since forever -- and I'm thrilled that she's got two new books coming out!

In the Blood releases November 5 and Will the Real Abi Saunders Please Stand Up? releases May 6, 2014.

In the Blood

For seventeen years Jed Franklin’s life was normal. Then his father was charged with the abuse and murder of four young boys and normal became a nightmare.



His mom’s practically a walking zombie, he’s lost most of his friends, and the press camps out on his lawn. The only things that keep him sane are his little sis; his best friend and dream girl, Summer; and the alcohol he stashes in his room. But after Jed wakes up from a total blackout to discover a local kid has gone missing—a kid he was last seen talking to—he’s forced to face his greatest fear: that he could somehow be responsible.



In a life that’s spiraled out of control, Jed must decide if he chooses his own destiny with Summer by his side or if the violent urges that plagued his father are truly in the blood…



Excerpt

Chapter One

Pedophile: Noun

An adult who is sexually attracted to children.

Scum.

Sleazeball.

Creep.

Loser.

Lowlife.

Asswipe.

Dad.



Chapter Two


Benjamin Franklin. My Dad.

Not that Benjamin Franklin.

That Benjamin Franklin.

Pedophile and murderer.

Freaked out?

Did you even know a bastard like that could lead a regular life?

With a wife and two children. A son and a daughter. No, nor did we. Until it was too late.

Too fucking late.

The numbing shock when he was arrested. The disbelief. The conviction that the police had gotten it wrong. Way wrong. Even in the face of damning evidence, we knew that the truth would come out. That the evidence got switched. That there was a cover up, or something.

Something.

Then the police found locks of hair belonging to each of those dead boys, so well hidden in the little trinket box my dad’s mom gave him on her deathbed.

Then we knew. Really knew.

And that’s when our lives changed.

Forever.


Add In the Blood to your Goodreads shelf.


Will the Real Abi Saunders Please Stand Up?

Abi Saunders might be a kickboxing champion, but when it comes to being the center of attention, she’d rather take a roundhouse kick to the solar plexus any day. So when her trainer convinces her to audition to be the stunt double for hot teen starlet Tilly Watson, Abi is shocked—and a little freaked out—when she gets the job.



Being a stunt double is overwhelming, but once the wig and makeup are on, Abi feels like a different person. Tilly Watson, to be exact. And when Tilly’s gorgeous boyfriend, Jon, mistakes Abi for the real star, Abi's completely smitten. In fact, she’s so in love with her new life, it isn’t long before she doesn’t have time for her old one.



But when the cameras are turned off, will she discover running with the Hollywood A-list isn’t quite the glamorous existence she thought it was?



Excerpt

“Abi, for God’s sake, concentrate,” Zak shouts. “Fairies don’t look like elephants when they fly. Legs together, arms graceful, and glide. Please.”

My cheeks are crimson and I want to die. I know he’s the director and has the right to holler, but doesn’t he understand that the louder he is the worse I am? We must have gone over this move fifty times and I still can’t get it. And I know, without even looking, the other guys have lost it with me. It’s easy for them but I’m a kick-boxer, not a freakin’ acrobat.

And now Zak’s saying something to one of the crew. Let’s all guess what it is: get rid of the silly girl. We couldn’t get anyone more incompetent if we tried. In fact a monkey could do better.

Well, he’s right, a monkey could do better. Then again, a monkey wouldn’t need to wear a harness that cuts badly into its thighs so it can fly across the room. We’re doing wire work, the one thing I was looking forward to. Ha. What a laugh that is.

At least we’re not filming yet. This is just the rehearsal or, as they say, ‘prepping’. We’re in one of the studios that’s full of equipment with pulleys and wires. I’ve no idea how it all works, except that it keeps me up in the air. I thought we’d be doing this outside but it seems they film wire work stuff indoors against a big screen, and then edit to make it look like it’s outside by dropping in a background. As Mom would say: “the wonders of modern science”.

What I’m doing is really basic stuff, nothing like the things they did on the Matrix. Which it wouldn’t be, obviously. I remember reading that those actors had months and months of kung fu training even though most of the stunts were done by stunt men.

Right. This is it. I’m going to really concentrate. I will not be beaten. I can do this. It’s not hard.

I’m a graceful fairy, 

I’m a graceful fairy, 

I’m a graceful fairy. 

“Ready,” I call, for the first time feeling confident of success.

The technician holds up his thumb so I know we’re about to go. I take a deep breath, point my toes, bring my legs together and hold out my arms at a forty-five degree angle. So far, so good. I swallow hard as I begin to move.

Yay, I’m doing it. I’m actually doing it. Please let Zak say it’s ok. 

“Hu-fucking-ray,” booms Zak’s voice. “At last, she’s got it.”

I’ve done it. I’ve actually done it. I can do wirework. And even Zak’s sarcastic tone can’t spoil it.

A loud crash, sounding like someone slamming the door, gives me a start and I jerk backwards. My legs splay and I lose all control of my body, until suddenly I’m hanging upside down.

This so isn’t happening to me. My hair flops into my eyes and my arms dangle in mid-air. And let’s not even think about how shallow my breathing is.

Crap.

After what seems like an eternity (which is probably only a few seconds) someone starts a slow handclap. And here’s me thinking it couldn’t get any worse.

I figure it’s Zak and wait for everyone to join in. Except they don’t.

The silence is deafening. Until…

“Look at that crazy bitch. You’re surely not expecting her to be my double.”

Tilly Winters in the flesh. And none too happy to see me!



Add Will the Real Abi Saunders Please Stand Up to your Goodreads shelf.

Amazon | B&N



About Sara

Sara Hantz originally comes from the UK and is one of four children, having three younger brothers. Although she was an avid reader from a very early age, she didn’t get the writing bug until much later in life, though English was always one of her stronger subjects. She’s an avid sun chaser and now lives on the beautiful Sunshine Coast in Australia (via 10 years in New Zealand). She writes young adult fiction and her debut book The Second Virginity of Suzy Green was published by Flux Books and made the prestigious list ‘New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age’. Sara has a PhD in Education and lectured for many years before deciding to devote more time to her writing and working in the family hospitality business. She has two grown-up children and w hen not writing, working or online with her friends, she spends more time than most people she knows watching TV - in fact if TV watching was an Olympic sport she'd win gold.



Website | Twitter | Facebook


Giveaway

In celebration of the reveals, Sara is giving away a $50 Amazon giftcard! Use the rafflecopter below to enter.

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Penguins, Polar Bears and Spreading Ignorance

Every December that beverage company we all know, which herein will remain nameless (because I'm a little afraid of them), starts airing those stupid commercials with penguins and polar bears. Makes me a little crazy.

Okay, you can argue: Who cares if it's impossible (other than in a zoo) for penguins and polar bears to be in the same place? Who cares if polar bears only live in the far north of the northern hemisphere and penguins only live south of the equator? (Although penguins get way closer to the equator than polar bears ever do.) Who cares if the ads (which must be in the north, because it's december and it's dark) show lots of open water when that much open water is improbable for that time of year--even with global warming. Who cares?

Me. I think it does matter. (I also think it matters when words are spelled incorrectly, or poor grammar is used in materials targeted to children. But that's another topic.) So many people get all their information from television these days, and if they see penguins and polar bears together enough, they start to think it must be true. Just look how the Flintstones influenced fundamentalist Christians. LOL.

Proof of my theory that these ads are evil? I just read today that, "A new science textbook for school claims that polar bears eat penguins..." This was reported by Graeme Paton, in British newspaper, The Daily Telegraph. Peter Cotgreave, the chairman of the Campaign for Science and Engineering, is quoted in the article as saying, "....It reflects a loss of respect for science."

Yes, that's true. But I also think it proves that it does matter what you show in ads and movies. How influenced the average person can be by misinformation. (Hey, great fascists and dictators understood this. They called it propaganda. Arguably the good people at Fox News understand it, too, but I serioulsly digress.) Obviously the writers and editors of this text book (TEXT BOOK!!!) were influenced enough by images like those ads (that beverage company isn't the first offender, here) that they believed this was a fact.

Maybe (I hope) the people who created those ads knew the polar bear/penguin land they created was fanciful... but I fear far too many of the viewers who see it, including children, don't understand the fanciful part.

(But I totally buy that there are polar bears on the island in LOST. ;-)

Ode to Jodie Foster

Posted during the Oscar red carpet....

I don't know what it is about Jodie Foster. Maybe it's that we're almost exactly the same age, (okay, I'm 6 months and 15 days older) maybe it's because I saw her in so many Disney movies when I was a kid, maybe it was because we're both blonde (well, I was) and tomboyish and (she says humbly) smart (or at least we both did well at school, which isn't always the same thing as smart)....

I don't know exactly what it is. I just know if I could be anyone in the world other than myself. I would be Jodi Foster.

And it's not the fame (although I wouldn't hate that) it's the brains and the class and the confidence and the way her blue eyes matched her dress at the Oscars. I'd die for that. (But my dress would have to be green and my eyes would have to be a different colour of green to look that great in a dress...) How great was it that she told Ryan Seacrest that she had her eyes specially died to match her dress? Wit people. That's called wit. Okay, I want her wit, too.

I once dated a man who thought I looked likd Helen Hunt (okay, before you laugh, I was thinner then) But if I was going to pick an actress my age I identify with, it wouldn't be Helen (though I love her) it would be Jodi.

Speaking of actors I remember from childhood -- Jackie Earle Haley. God I hope he wins. That would be so cool. I've blogged about Little Children before. Amazing movie. Need to read the book.

Okay, just about to post and Celine Dion walzes down the carpet... Okay, I know she has the ESL issues, but "we've been to the Oscars before". Who is she? The Queen? What's with the royal we?

October Ovation

My good writer-friend, Barrie Summy, whose debut middle grade book, I So Don't Do Mysteries, will be released in December, asked me to join in a blog round-up today -- an October Ovation.

The idea is to blog about someone you admire.

I spent a fair bit of time thinking about this post, because there are plenty of people, famous or not, alive or not, friends and family or not, whom I admire, but in the end, I decided to blog about my older sister.

I've always admired her. I mean, she's my big sister; ergo, it was my job to look up to her. At least that's what she always told me. ;-) But in the past almost five years that admiration has increased tenfold. (Exactly ten times. I did the math.) Why the increase? Because of the fabulous and brave and mature and caring way she's coped with the, at first devastating, news that her son, my lovely nephew, has autism. Something that was confirmed just a month shy of his third birthday.

Now, before I start getting hate mail, I know that autism isn't necessarily a devastating diagnosis -- certainly not compared to parents who face news that their children have terminal illnesses -- but any parent (or auntie) hates to hear that their child will face special challenges in life. And let's face it, a certain percentage of kids with autism never grow to be independent adults, so the diagnosis is scary.

Scary for that easy-to-guess reason, but also scary because the medical community offers parents virtually no answers, virtually no hope or guarantees or even guesses at whether their child will be able to function at school or in society as a whole. And gives them virtually no guidance or advice in how to improve the odds.

So parents are left to sift through information from a variety of non-medical sources, to evaluate theories that often conflict and are advocated or disparaged by heated opinions, and to cope with stress upon stress upon stress. (It was only a few decades ago, that doctors were still blaming autism on the mothers for not showing their kids enough affection. Can you believe it?) But instead of sticking her head in the sand, or getting overwhelmed, my sister got educated. She sifted through all the conflicting information and fought to get therapies to help her son. If a particular therapy, or supplement, or diet made sense to her and the source recommending it was reliable, she tried it.

As an example, my nephew is one child with autism who responded to a modified diet. I've seen the clear evidence of that. (My nephew, after eating wheat pasta or bread, looks and acts like a drunk on too many martinis, and many foods not only make him spacy, but also give him severe diarrhea. And yet, most doctors still insist these diets are bogus and have no effect on autism!)

So diet helps him, but it's a lot of work to feed a child on a gluten free, cassien free, egg free, many-other-things free diet. It was even a challenge to figure out which diet modifications made a difference and which did not. And who had to deal with all that? Primarily my sister. So she learned how to bake and cook without virtually any grains except rice -- and no corn and no dairy and no soy. (Just read a few labels to see how few foods contain neither dairy nor corn nor soy.) She learned ways to get her son and the rest of her family to eat a very different diet and, for example, make sure knives that had been used to spread something on wheat or even spelt breads don't contaminate food that he can eat.

And in stating my admiration for my sister, giving her an October Ovation, I don't want to diminish my brother-in-law's role in dealing with the autism in their family. I know he was initially skeptical about some of the therapies that she wanted to try (my sister already believed in homeopathic health techniques before the diagnosis, and he has siblings who are medical doctors who still scoff at the idea that diet and supplements affect autism) but again, he got educated. He read and went to conferences and listened to the scientific evidence. He, too observed the positive effect that the modified diet and behavioral therapies had on his son and threw his support behind everything they as parents decided to try.

And I should also throw a complementary ovation to my niece. Not yet six when her brother was diagnosed, she saw her life change as more of the family resources and attention became dedicated to him. She's seen the food put on her plate at family meals change. Favorite desserts and meals removed from rotation. The number of treats, dwindle so that her brother won't get jealous or tempted when he gets an apple and she gets a cookie. And she's been a real trooper, a dedicated and loving big sister.

And finally, I'd be remiss to not offer part of my October Ovation to my nephew. He puts up with swallowing pills before meals, and getting shots, and having blood taken, and dealing with a schedule filled with ABA therapists and speech therapists and occupational therapists, that was busier, even back when he was a three year old, than many teenagers have. He's worked hard. And it's paying off. He's a happy, generous, creative kid with a great sense of humour who definitely defies the notion that children with autism don't care whether or not they have friends or whether people like them. He cares. He tries so hard. Even asked me for advice on how to make friends with babies when his cousin was born this winter. And as I was drafting this, I found this fabulous photo of my nephew hugging himself. (Didn't I say he was creative???) One of his favourite things when I come to visit is playing with the PhotoBooth application on my MacBook and I think this self-portrait sums up his desire to love and be loved. I love finding little surprises like this, or the one below, after he's borrowed my laptop. (More than makes up for the fingerprints left on the screen.)

Yes, he's got challenges, he has more trouble concentrating and expressing himself verbally than many children his age, and as a result has trouble forming friendships in his grade 2 class. But he's a voracious reader and a lovely, lovely boy.

And for giving birth to him and supporting him and cooking for him and fighting for the best for him, I offer my October Ovation to my sister and her family.

Here are some links to other October Ovations:

http://barriesummy.blogspot.com
http://www.seizeadaisy.blogspot.com

Check out who others are cheering about.

More Film Fest Comments

So I promised to talk about "the films about child abuse" and never got back to it. And labeling these two films that way is a bit provocative, I admit. The two films I'm talking about are Margot at the Wedding, starring Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black, which I'm quite sure will be released to theatres some time this fall, and Nothing is Private by filmmaker, Alan Ball (of American Beauty and Six Feet Under fame) which I have no idea when it's going to be released. IMDB lists it's next screening as January 2008 in Turkey, presumably at another film fest. That should be an interesting screening to say the least!

First, Margot at the Wedding.
This film was written and directed by Noah Baumbach who was nominated for an Oscar for the screen play for The Squid and the Whale, also well worth seeing if you haven't seen it. Nicole plays the lead character, Margot, a successful and neurotic writer who's been estranged from her sister, (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh) and also estranged from her husband. Margot takes her son to visit her sister (who happens to live near her married lover) just before her sister's marriage to a somewhat slovenly character played by Jack Black, a man Margot does not approve of, believing him to be beneath her sister. (Hey, he's Jack Black. Who would approve?)

While this film isn't blatantly about child abuse, to me, the theme ran through this entire film. In fact, child abuse is what Nicole and Jennifer's characters are so uproariously laughing at in this photograph. They find abuse hilarious? I want to see this film again when hits the theatres to make sure I heard this conversation right.

Anyway, although I have yet to hear this child abuse interpretation of the film in any other review or in any discussion I had with other people at the festival, (a few people looked at me askew when I mentioned it) to me undercurrents of various forms of child abuse ran rampant through this film. As previously mentioned, the two sisters joke about being abused as children playing this sick game of escalation until they collapse in laughter. The next door neighbours, hillbilly types, are seen yanking the arms of and hitting their children, there is a sexual relationship between the Jack Black character and a teenage babysitter, and then Margot exerts an obsessive control over her son, which to me was tantamount to emotional or psychological abuse. Perhaps Margot's form was the most hideous abuse perpetrated by any of the adults. To me, that was the main "message" I got from the film. Nicole was so quick to judge the hillbilly parents or Jack Black with absolutely no self-awareness of how she was damaging her own son.

There's a scene that to me was so sad and touching, when her son sees the hillbilly mother and her son snuggled up together in their car on a ferry, and it's so clear that Margot's son has never received that kind of pure, unconditional parental love from his mother. In fact, there's an odd implication that either there has been some sexual abuse between Margot and her son or that she's paranoid about it happening (having been abused herself as a child?). I got this from a scene where she only agrees to share a bed with her son if they sleep with pillows between them. All showing, no telling. But I'm not 100% sure the scene meant to show what I saw.

Anyway, very interesting movie about which there's been Oscar buzz for Nicole already.

Interesting trivia. Jennifer Jason Leigh is married to screenwriter/director Noah Baumbach and this script was originally called Nicole in the Country (vs. Margot at the Wedding) and JJL was slated to play Nicole, the neurotic writer who goes to her sister's wedding. When Nicole Kidman became involved, JJL bowed out to play the other sister and the title of the film was changed with the main character renamed Margot instead of Nicole (for obvious reasons).

The second movie which had more blatant child abuse was Nothing is Private. I'm still not 100% sure what I thought of this movie, except that I'm glad I saw it. It's one of those strange little films that the censors will hate and distributors will be afraid to release.

You can say one thing about Alan Ball, he doesn't shy away from tough subjects. When the film started, I thought it was a frank coming of age story, kind of an updated Are You There God, It's Me Margaret, except with the twist that the 13-year-old girl was named Jasira and was half Lebanese. Watching this young girl discover her sexuality (including how to give herself an orgasm by just wiggling in her seat) made me wonder how a man had written this. I mean, do girls even talk about this kind of thing to each other, never mind tell Alan Ball? But tackling the sexual awakening of a thirteen year old isn't enough for Ball. Nor is making her half-Arab. Nor is setting this story in Texas (not exactly your racially diverse and accepting culture.) Nor is setting it at the start of the war on Iraq. No, that's not enough conflict for Ball. He has to make the army-reservist red-neck next door (played by Aaron Eckhart) sexually attracted to our poor thirteen year old heroine Jasira, and then have him act on it. He needs to make the father physically abusive. He needs to give the father all this ambiguities and double standards, not to mention the mother character played by the always believable Maria Bello. But it that we're complicated enough, he gave Jasira a very physically mature for his age, thirteen year old boyfriend--who's black. Which no one else in the story likes. (It is Texas. Sorry Texas. It's a stereotype, I know.)

There were no absolutes in this movie. Except of course, that it's impossible to justify what Aaron Eckhart's character does, even if Jasira did flirt with him and seemed almost willing. But even there, Ball and Eckhart don't make his character totally unsympathetic. In the writing and Eckhart's performance, you can see this guy struggling, rationalizing his actions, even if he makes all the wrong decisions. And he's an otherwise likable guy.

A complicated, challenging movie. I guess my first clue should have been when the first scene was Jasira's mother's boyfriend shaving her bikini line for her after the other girls called her Chewbacca in the swimming pool. (Although she did have a bathing suit on.)

Not a film for the faint of heart when it comes to the horrible things adult can do to mess up their kids.

JonBenet and the Power of the Press

There are probably a billion people blogging about the whole JonBenet thing who know way more about it than me, (I’ve really only skimmed headlines and caught tiny bits of a few newscasts and articles) but I feel compelled to jot down a few thoughts anyway—mostly about the power of the press to implant an impression in the public’s mind. It sure did in mine…

Okay, I’m sure the prosecutors in Boulder were instrumental in helping the press create the impression that the Ramsey’s were guilty… But I didn’t follow the case closely enough to know whether the press was the cart or the horse when compared to the prosecutors and police.

I do think the Ramsey’s weren’t particularly great at making public impressions—especially the mother, who I’m sad to hear died before this scumbag confessed. The image she projected on TV didn’t help her. I saw clips of Barbara Walters’s interview with the Ramseys on the news last night and I have to say, even though I was watching these clips knowing someone else had confessed, it looked to me like she was hiding something when Bawbwa asked point blank if she’d done it. Everything about her expression, her posture, her disdain for the question screamed “guilty” to me—or at least that she was hiding something.

But who knows how you’d react in the face of not only having your daughter sexually abused and murdered, but also being accused of the horrible crime. I don’t think any one of us could know whether we’d make a sympathetic impression while suffering that kind of loss. It’s not hard to imagine shutting off every emotion and appearing cold. Maybe it was just her emotions I sensed her hiding…

The sad thing is that the press is so focused on selling papers or TV ads that they go for the most lurid angle, with little regard for the truth. They know how easy it is to create an impression in the public’s mind and frankly the Ramsey’s simply didn’t seem very sympathetic—so it probably didn’t weigh too heavily on the members of the press to play up the possibility that they’d done it.

In addition to the Mrs. Ramsey’s less than warm & fuzzy image… it was shockingly easy for me to dislike a woman who’d put her six-year-old child in sexy costumes and enough make-up and hairspray to make an adult look sleezy, and then have her prance around on a stage competing with other little girls to be the prettiest. I’m very, very opposed to child beauty pageants. I think they enforce the worst kinds of values in children and if she wanted her kid to compete in something that would help her self-esteem and build confidence, why not try a sport, or enroll her in ballet classes, or art classes, or horse riding, or anything not 100% focused on how cute she was. I know this is just my opinion, and the late Mrs. Ramsey was entitled to hers… but the whole pageant thing clouded my assessment of her character.

I confess. I am one of many people who thought until this week that Mrs. Ramsey probably did it—or at least knew who did. I’m sorry for that.

And here I am letting the press reports help me assume this guy's guilty already. Only time and a proper investigation will tell whether this guy is really guilty or just has some sick fantasy of wishing he’d done it… I’m so glad I didn’t become a journalist. I don’t think I have the stomach for it.

Reading list

So, I found this on Sara Hantz's blog. The Big Read, an initiative by the National Endowment for the Arts, has estimated that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books on this list. How do you do?


1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you LOVE.

I'm adding a #4) make blue ones you've started more than once, but never finished...

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (cheating here. Haven't read the last 2 yet)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible (well, bits of it. Who hasn't?)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (I played the title character in my high school musical, does that count?)
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry (Have had this on my TBR pile for ages...)
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Guess I'm better read than I thought. When I've seen this kind of list before, I've barely read any, but this one included more modern books and more kids books, and more stuff I read in high school, so people who didn't take English Lit in University have a chance of actually reading a few of them... A few others I'm really not sure. I feel like I've read Emma and Sense and Sensibility, and Hamlet, for example... but I think I've actually just seen the movies/plays a bunch of times...

A Great TIFF Day

So, I'm a little too bagged to blog properly... I will get caught up and talk about this year's films properly, but I did have a really great day today. It was a five ticket day. I can't say five film day, because one of them was a "Maverick" talk, not a film, but we did see a film clip as part of it...

My day started with Rampart, starring Woody Harrelson. I will post more about this film... Overall: great performances, interesting, too long. At least that's what I think was "wrong" with it for me.

Then I went to a talk between Indian-born, Canadian filmmaker, Deepa Mehta and Salman Rushdie. She is currently making a movie of his book Midnight's Children that will be out in October 2012. It was a pretty cool talk. I haven't read the book, but the talk made me really want to see the movie and tackle the book, too. Sounds like my cup of tea... No pun intended. Seriously. I did not intend that almost pun.

Then I saw a screening of Anonymous. Very good. I think I'll see this movie again when it comes out (soon). I was distracted by very annoying people sitting next to me who when they weren't talking to each other, one or the other of them had their phone out. That kind of behaviour is rare at TIFF and I wanted to kill them. But LOVED the film's theory on Shakespeare. Loved it.

Then came Pariah, which I understand was one of the darlings of Sundance last winter. And often those films don't do as well with a "real" audience vs. the industry audience at Sundance, but I loved it. I'll talk about this one later, too... But I was riveted. Touching coming of age story at its core. Stunning performance by the lead.

Then my last film of the day was Martha Marcy May Marlene. VERY interesting and tense. Loved it. Again, a stunning performance by the young lead (who happens to have very famous older twin sisters... named Olsen...) A non-hollywood ending that will make some people crazy (a few people swore aloud) and had me sitting stunned through the credits while the theatre cleared out. I have a new theory about the ending... Now can't wait for someone else to see it so I can discuss. :)

Sorry for the very vague references and incomplete reviews. I promise I will talk more about these films and post some pictures as soon as I get some sleep!

SCBWI Visual Highlights

SCBWI is the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators. Try saying that three times fast. Or three times slowly for that matter. ;)

I've been to quite a few writers' conferences over the years, but this was my first SCBWI, and I had a fabulous and productive time.

I nearly filled a whole notebook with madly scribbled notes. The full day "intensive" on Marketing for Professional Writers was unbelievably overwhelming. My head was ready to explode by lunch. And that day ended with drinks with my agent and the impressive and witty Jon Fine from Amazon Publishing. Now it's time to sit back and prioritize. :)

For now, here are some of the fun highlights -- just the ones for which I have photographic evidence. :)

Here is the fabulous Mahtab Narsiman, moi and multi-talented Debbie Ridpath Ohi.

Photo taken by Debbie (on the right), also known as @inkyelbows

All of the speakers at this conference were unbelievably high quality, but one fun unscheduled treat was a short presentation by Henry Winkler who writes middle grade novels with SCBWI founder Lin Oliver.

Here's bad and fuzzy photo I obnoxiously took of him when I accidentally ended up standing beside him waiting for the elevator. I should have said hello and asked permission, but didn't want to pass up on the opportunity. My apologies to Henry. :)

After the conference, I did a little chill-axing at the MOMA before taking the train to Newark airport for my flight home. Didn't have nearly as much time there as I would have liked, but stopped for the best cup of hot chocolate I've ever had.

What you can't tell from this photo, was that it was hot in two ways... and spiked. I can't remember all the ingredients but the key ones (beyond hot chocolate) were tequila, chilli flakes and cinnamon. Yum. That's a stick of cinnamon sticking out. Talk about spicy. Burned going down, in many good ways. :)

I will talk more about the content of the conference both here and at Drunk Writer Talk soon.

Online Chat Tonight

The lovely and talented Lauren Baratz-Logsted and the equally talented (and I'm sure lovely, though I've never met the dude), Greg Logsted, are chatting live at the TKA Chat Room tonight. The husband and wife team, along with their young daughter, have written a series of children's books called Sister's Eight, about Eight little girls trying to solve the mystery of their parents' disappearance. Here's a link to the very cool website for the books. The third installment, GEORGIA'S GREATNESS, hits the shelves next week.



What: Online Chat with Lauren Baratz-Logsted & Greg Logsted (and giveaway of Sister’s Eight: ANNIE’S ADVENTURES, signed by all three authors, as well as an autographed copy of Greg Logsted’s SOMETHING HAPPENED!)

When: Thursday, March 19th @ 9pm ET

Where: The TKA Chat Room

How Do You Chat: Visit the chat room here: http://client1.addonchat.com/sc.php?id=115545. Enter a username and password (this can be any combination). Your computer must be Java enabled to chat.

I've got a class tonight :-( but am hoping to stop by if the class ends early.

Lauren is very knowledgeable about the publishing business having worked in almost every capacity in it before becoming an author and she has published over a dozen books for adults, teens and kids.