rolling with the foxes
It was another movie for me last night, this one very good, one of the best of the year: Foxtrot. It's that truly rare breed of movie that is definitively depressing in its themes, and yet I can imagine watching it many times over. The last movie to do that for me was The Hours in 2002. Its artistic depiction of grief really stuck with me (although for some reason with the link to my review, Facebook would not do the usual photo and text preview, which was very annoying -- I wondered if there was some logarithmic prevention of it due to copyright on the photo I used, or something), and it only occurred to me this morning when I was tweeting to a friend about it that not only did Foxtrot bring The Hours to mind in its themes, but both movies also follow three separate, but brilliantly interlinked, narrative threads. The Hours bounces back and forth between them and Foxtrot moves through them one at a time, but it's still something they both very much have in common.
I gave it an A-. No solid A just yet so far this year, but only three other films so far in 2018 have gotten an A- from me: Phantom Thread (technically a 2017 movie, but then, so is Foxtrot); A Fantastic Woman; and Black Panther. As much as it pains me to say it, because it's a return to brilliant form for P.T. Anderson, who is one of my all-time favorite directors, if I had to rank all four of these, Phantom Thread would go at the bottom -- the other three have sociopolitical implications that elevate them to greater degrees, which means almost certainly all three will be on my year-end Ten Best list. Phantom Thread still has a chance of getting included there as well, but we'll see. I guess if I'm fair I should note that I saw both Phantom Thread and Black Panther more than once, which it could be argued places Phantom Thread higher. That’s a kind of arbitrary criteria, though.
In any event, I did not bike to work yesterday, as it was raining in the morning. I discovered when I left that my beloved clear umbrella with the white and purple stars was missing. Shobhit and I could only conclude I left it at Seattle Center at VegFest on Sunday. It was a bit wet that morning and I'm pretty sure I had it with me when I walked there. I cannot bring up any recollection whatsoever of what I did with it once I arrived -- probably leaned it against the wall in the volunteer check-in area I got kicked out of because of Shobhit's narc table mate -- but I can't think where else I could have left it.
Anyway, I took Shobhit's crappy collapsible umbrella, which is much smaller but better than nothing. As it happened, it was partly sunny at the end of the work day, and I even considered riding home on a LimeBike, especially since I was going to come back downtown for a movie. But, Shobhit and I had decided we'd have dinner after I got back from the movie, so I had only to feed the cats before turning around and leaving again. I walked home, umbrella inside my shoulder bag, so I could read my library book (All We Can Do Is Wait by Richard Lawson). I stopped by Bartell Drugs on Pike and Broadway on the way, and was bummed to find they no longer had the same umbrella design. I probably could have found it online, but whatever. I found a similar one I don't like quite as much but is still fun, clear with black polka dots running in about six rows around its edges, with red trim.
I even considered taking a LimeBike back downtown again after getting home to feed the cats -- Shobhit was not due home from work for another hour or so -- but I still had plenty of time to walk, so I did that and read a bit more. I did catch a bus back afterward.
When I got back home, Shobhit had just finished assembling the nachos we decided to make out of the tortilla chips he got from Trader Joe's last Friday when he'd gotten the munchies and I was still out. It only needed to broil for five minutes, and it was in such volume neither of us could finish our side -- Shobhit put a bunch of avocado (yuck!), and presumably jalapeños, on his side. We covered it up once we got full and stashed it in the refrigerator, and will reheat it in the oven to finish for dinner tonight.
I wrote my movie review, and read at least three reviews by other critics after getting into bed, something I don't normally do. But this movie has an extraordinary score of 91 on MetaCritic, which is very well deserved -- and a number that pretty much matches my A- review -- and I wanted to see how what other people said about it aligned with what I said. I was surprised by the degree to which my point of view actually differed from what other people tended to bring up, but I re-read my own review and felt it stands up to others just fine.
[posted 12:33 pm]