Mirror Mirror (2012)

Not that I was expecting anything all that great from this movie, but such a massive massive fail.  Mostly in regards to the Prince, our supposed hero. So, the main story is the same, however, the dwarves that Snow White stays with are bandits rather than miners, and were forced out of their villages by the Queen's edicts. Snow White learns to fight from them. Which was really the only reason I watched it in the first place, looking for a Snow White who stood up for herself (well, that and it's about the only live actual version of Snow White that uses little people). I know that also happens in Snow White and the Huntsman, but the script and performances were all over the place in that one, and the dialogue often terrible, and so I didn't care for it.

When we first meet Prince Charming in Mirror Mirror, he gets attacked by bandits in the forest....those bandits turn out to be the dwarves, wearing stilts. The Prince repeatedly mocks the dwarves even after he's defeated: referring to them as children, as harmless, uses ableist slurs, how embarrassing/humiliating/wrong this was to get beaten by them. And then when he eventually gets free and reaches the Queen's castle, he lies (several times) about who attacked him, and builds his attackers up to enormous size and strength, because he can't have people knowing the truth.
The Prince once he's at the court, falls in with the Queen's party line, having absolutely no qualms about how opulent and frivolous her court is, despite seeing how how starved and mistreated her people are, and the severe punishments inflicted on them by her guards. He is so taken in, that he goes back out with her guards to attack the bandits; and that's where he fights with Snow White. And during the course of their fight, he spanks her repeatedly with his sword. Hilarious. Just hilarious. And tells her that girls can't fight, she should go back to her rightful place (doing girly things), etc.

And then there's the Queen. Of course she retains her jealous obsessive nature. No attempted motive for why she does what she does (unlike Snow White and the Huntsman, which however badly and problematically done, tries to give the Queen a back story of being abused and hurt by the men in her life, so she decides to exact revenge on other men). There's this weird awful scene of the Queen getting ready for the ball; and she undergoes a beauty treatment, where birds literally poop right on her face, she gets stung in the lips by numerous bees, maggots/worms eating her dead skin to exfoliate, and other gross things. I have no idea what the scene is supposed to be; if it's a commentary on the horrible things in beauty products, it fails. If it's supposed to be a commentary on a vanity obsessed culture where people will undergo gross and dangerous procedures to look beautiful, it fails. It's just gross, no exploration or commentary here.
And as obnoxious as Julia Roberts looked in the trailer, bless her for trying. It's like she realized how terrible the film was, and decided to chew the scenery for all she was worth to try and entertain herself. And she manages to be about the only bright spot in a bevy of bad performances. Even Nathan Lane just gave up and played dead....when another actor manages to out-ham Lane, you know something is wrong.
Finally, the ending. We've got our horrible Prince marrying Snow White (despite him finally coming over to the people's side with Snow White, there's never any really change or growth in his character--he certainly never really apologizes to all and sundry for being such a jerk). Snow White actually has been slightly sympathetic to this point--although she does know how brutal the Queen is to her people, and does nothing about it for years. Even once she escapes and lives in the forest, she still really doesn't do anything to help her own people for quite a while. At least in the other Snow White film, Snow White has been locked up in a tower for years and so has no idea what is going on outside and what her people are going through. And then when she does escape, becomes the figurehead of a rebellion against the Queen. So anyway, back to Mirror Mirror, it's their wedding, and Snow White's father has come back (instead of dying he had been turned to a beast by the Queen); and the Queen shows up in disguise. With a poisoned apple. And our supposed heroine smilingly forces the Queen to eat the poisoned apple herself to commit suicide. At which point a joyful Bollywood song begins playing and everyone dances on the Queen's figurative grave and the end. (Don't ask me about the song, for some reason Disney loves to end with a song that is jarringly out of step with the rest of the movie.)

1 star out of 5

The Problem with Urban Fantasy

Urban fantasy is one of my favorite genres. It's like crack candy, and I keep getting sucked into 10 book series when my reading list is already out of control and I have plenty of other stuff to read. The reason I enjoy it is that, unlike most high/epic fantasy novels (especially from earlier than about 10-15 years ago), the women are the main characters in urban fantasy, they're part of the action and driving the story.
However, the main problems I have with urban fantasy are two-fold. The first is that the main character is often a special snowflake--she's some kind of Chosen One, the one with some amazing or unique ability and there's no one like her in the world. Which would be ok on occasion, but when you see it over and over in just about every series, it's a little eye-rolling. These women are often kickbutt warriors (and can take out 20 men on their own, but yet they're 5'2" and 90 pounds), but going along with that, they're often the only women in a man's world. They very rarely have any female friends, any women they do come across, there's usually jealousy or antagonism, or "thank god I'm not like them." Which is internalized misogyny and obnoxious.
The other issue I have is an even bigger one. It's the men, the love interests. For some infallible reason, urban fantasy is absolutely rife with controlling, jealous, domineering, abusive, homicidal raging, stalking "heroes." Inevitably, the heroine hates or is terrified of the hero at first, but then they're falling into bed together and we're supposed to be charmed and swooning over it. No thank you.
Although there are far worse offenders out there, one of the ones that really upsets me is the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews. The thing is, I absolutely love Kate as a character, I enjoy the world-building, enjoy that she has more than one female friend, and I like many of the secondary characters. But Curran, the hero has ruined it for me. I've just finished the 4th book, and I have absolutely no desire to go on. He's got worse as the series goes on. He breaks into her apartment several times before they ever start dating; he flies into a jealous rage if a man stands too close to Kate, whether or not they are interested in her at all, and when a man does actually take Kate on a date, again, this is before she even starts dating Curran, Curran goes and destroys a garage full of expensive cars that the other man owns. Kate spends the first two books intimidated and frightened of Curran; he manipulates her repeatedly and tries to force her into doing whatever he wants if that doesn't work; flies into rages if Kate gets into a dangerous situation (never mind that her freaking job for much much longer than she has known Curran is working as a knight, solving dangerous crimes, and has been training for these situations since she was all of 5 years old, and that she is has incredibly powerful magic); has resorted to physically picking her up and locking her in a room to "keep her safe." He's constantly telling her what to do, wants her to quit her job, stop working, and stay put in his house. It's disgusting and I feel like I've fallen into a 1950s wormhole. And the absolute worst part is, as I say, there are far worse heroes out there. How and why did this become sexy?

So then, are there urban fantasy series that aren't quit that bad? Yes--the first is the Jane Yellowrock series by Faith Hunter. Jane is a Cherokee shapeshifter. 6' tall, and an enforcer, that is, she kills vampires for a living, so is an awesome fighter (and I love that she's not a tiny waif). Although there is some occasional alpha maleness, and occasional annoyance in that her animal likes that (long story); Jane refuses to put up with any stalking/controlling/abusiveness in the shape of romance. And continues on, awesomely often saving the lives of the men around her. Also awesome, she has a female best friend who is often important to the plot, Jane is a godmother to her friend's children, and she rarely sees herself in competition with other women, just because they're women.
The other series is the world of the Lupi series by Eileen Wilks. There is also the occasional alpha male thing here, and frustratingly, the whole trope about how women have never been werewolves and the whole pack dominance thing, which is not remotely how a real wolf pack works--which could be a whole other post about how sexist just the werewolves tropes are in urban fantasy. However, despite the werewolves often being rather patronizing to the women (who are part of their packs in that they are sisters, daughters, etc, but still not werewolves); they do not abuse, intimidate, or try to control them. And the main character, Lily, who can sense and negate the magic around her, is a FBI agent. Her boyfriend is a werewolf alpha, but again, no attempts on his part to dominate her or force her into submission like most of the other werewolf books. And Lily often horrifies other werewolves by merrily going about her FBI, no-nonsense, taking charge way, including towards her boyfriend. As in the Jane Yellowrock series, Lily has a female friend, although they don't necessarily start out that way at the beginning of the series; and there are other important women characters. Also, the werewolves' mythology is that they have a patron goddess who created them, and through the series, they fight for her against a dark goddess. So having the two most powerful beings in this universe as female is pretty cool.

Dear Netflix

Really Netflix? The Countess, a movie about Elizabeth Bathory http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Bathory, the most prolific female serial killer in recorded history, a woman who allegedly killed over 650 people, mostly women; this is the movie you're recommending as a "romantic foreign movie?" You've got a pretty twisted notion of romance.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised though. You do classic the Twilight movies as having a "strong female lead"...

Equal: Women Reshape American Law by Fred Strebeigh

Now, don't let the subtitle deter you. I had this on my to-read list forever, and kept looking at it and thinking "boring," and moving on to something else. Well, sisters and brothers, I was wrong. Equal is a fascinating look at the women, both lawyers and judges, who fought for women's rights starting in the 1970s, and some of their landmark cases.
The book is broken into five sections: Scrutiny, Pregnancy, Lawyering, Harassment and Violence. The first section is on the preliminary fight to get discrimination by sex outlawed. And I knew that Ruth Bader Ginsberg was awesome, and that she had brought many important discrimination cases to court, but I didn't realize just how awesome she was. Hers was the first successful case where the Supreme Court declared that discrimination due to sex was illegal. And, contrary to the incorrect belief that feminists are only out to make life better for women, she also fought to end practices that discriminated against men because of their sex (such as men not being able to collect the same caretaker Social Security benefits as women, not being considered a dependent for military benefits/housing, or not being able to get the same widow/widower tax deductions as women).
There are other awesome stories, such as Catherine McKinnon's role in getting sexual harassment cases passed. Or the women staffers working for Joe Biden and the women judges who helped push the VAWA act through Congress. Or the women who fought deeply entrenched discrimination within law firms. Or how when the Supreme Court decided it was in fact legal to discriminate against pregnant women, women then galvanized into action and got the Pregnancy Discrimination Act passed. And so on.
Basically, read it. It's interesting, well-written, and doesn't get too bogged down with legalese for those of us that don't know much about the inner-workings of the law. And it's also interesting for how appalling the arguments used for discrimination against women were, and also just how recent they were. (Of course, they're still happening with how extremely conservative the right has become...)

4 stars out of 5

Call the Midwife

Another series that you should get on watching already. This is a BBC series, based on a series of memoirs by Jennifer Worth, about her experiences working as a midwife in the 1950s in London's very poor East End. The main character comes from a fairly well-off family, and has never been exposed to such poverty or conditions before. What I love about her though, is that while she may occasionally express her horror or dismay or ignorance/naivety about the lives of her patients; when it's pointed out to her that her privilege is showing, or that she needs to open her mind, she does just that. She's not perfect, but she tries to learn from her mistakes.
Jenny Lee, as she's called in the series, works for a nursing convent, along with 3 other midwives: Chummy (who is kind of socially awkward and clumsy, comes from a wealthy and prominent family), Trixie (rather a partier), and Cynthia (quiet and probably the most mature). With all their differences, and being fairly young and fairly new to practice; they are all competent and caring midwives. They board at the convent, and so in addition to the series focusing on the midwives and mothers, you also have the nuns. Although there are more nuns in the convent that we see sporadically, only 4 are involved in the clinic. It's a rare female-centered and female-oriented cast and plot. There are a few recurring male characters who are just as three-dimensional as the women, but the focus is always on the midwives. In Great Britain, it was one of the most widely watched shows in recent history. Take that studios that talk about how "women's films" are risky or don't bring in viewers (and then every time there is a huge hit starring a woman, their minds are blown, but it's just a fluke anyway, so they'll just go right back to catering to men ages 18-34).
Because of the poverty, and because of the unavailability/stigma of birth control at the time, the cases are often sobering. The first episode has a woman who began having children when she was 14, and was pregnant with her 25th child. And rant hat on, she is from Spain, her husband doesn't know Spanish, and she doesn't know English; it sounds like as sound as soon as she had one child, she was pregnant with another, so they've been married roughly 25-30 years or so. In all that time, her husband never bothered to learn Spanish or teach her English? Despite the fact that she can't communicate with anyone outside of her children? Ugh. Another case has a woman giving birth on the same day that her daughter gets married, or other moms who are giving birth in their 40s and having complications/feeling too old to be having children. However, all is not gloomy. There is a lot of humor, and the relationships between the women are comfortable and teasing. Season 1 just came out on DVD, and I think Season 2 is playing now on PBS.

4 stars out of 5

Creative people changing the world

 

(Billboard in Lima generates water through reverse osmosis)

 

 

(Teenage girls in Nigeria create an electricity generator that uses urine)

(Teenage girl creates software program that accurately and noninvasively diagnoses breast cancer)

The House at Tyneford by Natasha Solomons

Or, alternately, Why I Have Trouble With Historical Fiction, Especially of The Upper Class/Servant Kind. Which is also why I can't deal with shows like Downton Abbey, Upstairs Downstairs, much of Merchant Ivory's later stuff and so on. Because they're about these beautiful rich disaffected people and their beautiful rich problems and aren't they just like us? And no one is particularly likeable, and the servants, if they are more than backdrop, are usually shown to be totally loyal and devoted and wax on about how they're so kindly by the rich folk. And if they aren't loyal and devoted and waxing on, they're evil and scheming and getting their just rewards in the end for Getting Out of Their Place. Because apparently we all long for a time when everyone knew their place and it was a simpler world where people could be as sexist, racist, and elitest as they wanted without repercussions and wah political correctness doesn't let me get away with being a dirtbag anymore.
And generally if there's a romance between the upstairs and downstairs, isn't the upstairs so progressive and magnanimous and amazing for falling in love with a mere servant? And all I can think about is how the upstairs is being a total ass, not even trying to understand the bad situation they are putting the servant in, constantly putting them at risk for being kicked out, constantly in trouble for shirking their duties, which causes them to get even more duties as if they aren't overworked enough already, etc; because when the relationship goes south, as it totally will because you know upstairs isn't going to really risk getting disinherited over marrying a servant, they're totally going to screw the servant over and they'll never get a job in that field again and their reputation will be shot and thanks a lot for your momentary dabble in the lower classes but couldn't you have been a little more discreet about it or done it with someone outside if your own house?

So The House at Tyneford, about a girl from a wealthy "avant-garde" family that's totally perfect in every way and she's spoiled and cosseted and irritatingly immature for her age. It's Vienna at the start of WWII, and the family is Jewish. She's sent away to England for safety, and ends up as chambermaid for a manor in the country, despite never having done anything remotely related to housework before. She's so special and charming and loveable (despite her constantly complaining for pages and pages about how she didn't get the family's looks, and she's plain and chubby, how she's immature and inexperienced and of course she does; because how could we ever have a book where the heroine actually likes herself? That way lies in madness.) that the heir of the house falls in love with her...as does his father. Which is awkward and kind of icky. I couldn't stand either the girl or the heir; and got about 150 pages in, and then just started skipping around and finally gave up. But apparently the heir dies in war, and she marries the father but doesn't get the house (the government takes it), which is naturally a complete tragedy. So there, now you don't have to read it.