Storywh0re from the vault - Away We Go (2009)

(Spoiler warning)

Away We Go is part of a recent trend to market movies in a specific way to telegraph “indie” and “quirky”, regardless of the film's studio or budget or anything else. I had wanted to see it in the theater but didn't get the chance. When I finally watched it recently, I was disappointed.

John Krasinski (“The Office”) and Maya Rudolph (“Saturday Night Live”) play Burt and Verona, a struggling thirty-something couple who unexpectedly find themselves pregnant. Verona's parents are dead, so when Burt's parents announce that they're leaving the country, Burt and Verona hit the road to visit friends in search of a chosen family for their child.

There are a few things that I like a lot about this movie, and I want to address those first. I liked the fact that Burt and Verona are an interracial couple. I appreciate the way that the movie takes the idea of chosen family so seriously. I liked the relationship between Burt and Verona, and the approach to parenting that they formulate, both informed by and different from everyone around them.

It's everyone around them that bugs me.

In an early scene, Burt's father—the one who's about to bail on his first grandchild—talks to Verona about a sculpture he bought of a Native American woman. He's not sure whether it's Pocahontas or not, but he wants to honor indigenous people—even if he can't pronounce “indigenous”. Later on, Burt and Verona spend time with Burt's childhood friend, “LN”, and her husband, who practice Continuum parenting, which is a thinly veiled reference to Attachment Parenting. I'm not going to weigh in on Attachment Parenting here, but suffice it to say that it's not portrayed positively in Away We Go. LN, however, also quotes from Alice Walker and Simone de Beauvoir.

Between the two scenes, the message seems to be that only the ignorant, the insincere and the hopelessly flakey would take an interest in people of different cultures, or the words of women.

I understand that LN and her husband were meant to be a counterpoint to the comically crude couple visited before them, who were not involved enough with their children instead of too involved. For me, though, the most problematic moment came with the third family that Burt and Verona visited, which was supposed to be the most balanced.

Burt and Verona's friends, Tom and Munch, seem to have it all—a happy, loving home with three adoptive kids. When the adults go out without the kids, they end up at amateur night at a local strip club. Munch, clad in a black dress, begins to dance for husband to a slow song, and Tom confides to Burt that she had her fifth miscarriage earlier that week. He then waxes philosophical, wondering aloud if they've been “selfish” for waiting so long to start their family.

There are so many problems with this scene, I don't know where to begin. Whatever you believe about abortion, you can't “owe”anything to someone who hasn't been conceived yet. Also, women miscarry for many reasons not related to age. Couples in this situation suffer enough without movies telling them to second-guess themselves.

More importantly though, Tom and Munch already have a family. They are contributing the act of parenting to the world. But naturally, the subtext says, the three non-White and/or non-American kids they have at home are not enough to make them happy.

I found Tom and Munch to be caricatures of infertility. I understand that the desire to have children of one's own loins is very natural, and that the inability to do so can be extremely painful. However, I would dare say that society's insistence on considering adoption second-rate, and it's complete failure to recognize childless couples as families, makes it far more painful than it has to be.

I understand, too, that in the story, Munch's pain was fresh, and she had another woman's pregnant belly in her face. That only makes it more insulting that Tom barely watches her dirge-like dance, but is more engaged in whining to Burt. The message is, infertile women aren't sexy. They're sad.

In the end, Burt and Verona move into her childhood home, although they don't have any chosen family nearby that I can recall. She faces the demons of her parents' death. Whatever. By that point I didn't even care. Burt and Verona were the only characters in the movie that I really liked. Users on IMDB described the others as “overwritten”, and the movie itself as pretentious, and I have to agree. The fail was the most memorable thing for me about Away We Go. Next time I want to see a pseudo-indie movie, I think I'll re-watch Juno. You know—the one that ends with an adoption.

NBC Thursday Comedy Night.

I watched three-fourths of NBCs Thursday night comedy line-up earlier. (I didn't have the patience for the "Saturday Night Live" thing.) While I had been looking forward to the return of "The Office" and "Parks and Recreations", I was pleasantly surprised, both by those and by the Peaock's new offering, "Community". Not only were they funny, but refreshingly progressive.

Last season on "Parks and Recreations", the protagonist, Leslie Knope, started a crusade to build a new park. The season premier doesn't deal with that at all, but finds her focused on other duties. In an attempt to have a cute event at the city zoo, Leslie holds a wedding for two penguins...not knowing that they're both male. She immediately becomes the darling of the local gay community, and the bane of local conservative activists. (Just watching Amy Poehler sing “Poker Face” is worth the half-hour investment.) Her appearance on a morning talk show to defend herself shows poetically how the media can manipulate and sensationalize events. Despite not having intended to make a political statement, Leslie refuses to cave to demands that she resign and “annul” the birds' marriage.

The episode implies that Leslie is angsting over being unmarried, which is potentially problematic. But then, loneliness is a universal human emotion, and the nascent love triangle with Leslie's crush Mark and best friend Ann could be interesting. More problematic is stalking by Ann's ex-boyfriend.

While “Parks and Recreations” is still defining itself, “The Office” is more familiar ground. It stays fresh, however, because lives are changing. Pam is expecting her and Jim's baby, but they're not ready to tell their co-workers. Their boss, the lovable but clueless Michael Scott, is feeling excluded from office gossip, so he spreads some dirt that he has on one of his employees. In the end, he goes back and spreads “red herring” false rumors to cover it up. He accidentally gets it right about Jim and Pam. (Not HR-compliant, this place.)

One of my favorite moments happened after Andy comes to Oscar to discus his own rumored homosexuality. To paraphrase, Oscar asks the camera: “Is this really my job? To comfort insecure heterosexuals? Surely that can't fall to me”. It's rare for television comedy writing to squarely examine privilege in this way.

Two for two at this point, I decided to stick around for “Community”. The prot--well, the main character is Jeff Winger, an unctuous lawyer who is forced to go back to college because his degree is revealed to be from the country of Colombia, not Columbia university. He chooses a community college because he mistakenly thinks he can cheat with the help of a former client there.

Jeff forms a fake Spanish study group just to hit on Britta, another student. A real group forms around his lie, introducing us to the rest of the cast. He incites fighting among the group just to get himself and Britta out of it, but she makes him go back and fix it. The speech he gives to do so is funny and inspiring at the same time. There are hilarious references to The Breakfast Club, and a tribute to the late John Hughes in the credits.

I appreciate the fact that Britta never accepts a date with Jeff, even after his big speech. There's one disability joke they should have lost, though

All in all, a good night of comedy. The shows aren't perfect, but are funnier for being relatively enlightened and intelligently written. I look forward to spending more Thursday nights this way this Fall.

Imma let you finish, but...

Hopefully, this Kanye West thing will blow over soon.

For those who somehow don't know, he interrupted Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at this weekend's MTV Video Music Awards, to take issue with her victory. Yes, this was mind-bogglingly rude, and easily arguable as sexist. He deserved scorn, and he's gotten it. People will never forget this...nor should they.

However, he has now apologized in several forums, including by phone to Taylor Swift. If it won't be forgotten, it should be forgiven.

And I believe that the punishment has now exceeded the crime.

The reason for that is that is that yesterday, TMZ.com broke the news that President Barack Obama had been caught calling West a "jackass" on a hot mic.

For a Black musician with a passion for racial issues, I cannot imagine how painful this would be, coming from the first Black president. It must have been agony. Simply agony. Agony that the President did not intend for West to have.

Obama did not know that he was being recorded, and thought his statements were off the record. He should know by now, though, that with the press, his words are never off the record unless explicitly stated...and maybe not even then. I wish he'd been more circumspect, considering that West has shown real contrition as he's gone on damage control. Obama may have never sone anything so breathtakingly boorish, but he knows what it is to stick his foot in his mouth. (Special Olympics, anyone?)

At this point, I feel sorry for everyone involved: Taylor Swift, Beyonce' Knowles, President Obama and Kayne West.

RIp Patrick Swayze

I am very sad to learn of Patrick Swayze's passing, although he had been suffering for some time. He was in many movies I enjoyed, including Dirty Dancing, Point Break, Ghost and To Wong Foo. He also always seemed like a good person and a class act.

I really wanted to post a YouTube video from "Dirty Dancing", because he deserves a tribute that moves. But the embedding on all of them seemed to be disabled.

So go. Watch anyway. Listen. Have one last dance.

And please accept this macro instead, from Rofflrazzi.com user Jax.bot.

The Quotable Paris Hilton

Yesterday, I read online that Paris Hilton will be included in a new book, The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations

Her quote? "Dress cute everywhere you go, life is too short to blend in."

As much as I don't dig the whole "celebutante" thing, I have to say, I can get on board with this quote.

In fairness, I would say that life is too short to always worry about how you look. The quote, however, is not about consumerism, or wearing the right brand. Nor is it about dressing up to please other people. It's about nonconformity, about chosing something you like and projecting a confident image.

And that's hot.

The war on women's bodies continues

I never intended for this to become a feminist blog. I meant to focus on movie and television reviews. However, I'm constantly finding things in popular culture that need to be addressed. About half an hour ago, I was so mad that I couldn't see straight.

People magazine has a cover story this week touting Melissa Joan Hart's loss of 42 pounds...from 155 to 113. At 5'2, she is only an inch shorter than me...and weighed only about 5 pounds more

Now, let's get one thing straight. Some women are just naturally skinny. Some people are just going to be small. When talking about body-acceptance, it's important to remember that. But let's another thing straight, too: my doctor considers me healthy. I haven't had any kids, and MHJ has had two.

Now, since she is shorter, and since percept body fat is the real issue, it's possible that 155 was too much for her. But maybe not 42 pounds too much! I also question the photo that “horrified” her. Maybe the problem was the angle, not her body. I mean, who hasn't ever taken a frumpy picture? Not every moment can be a professional photo shoot. Then again, I thought that Jessica Simpson's problem was not a bad belly but one bad belt.

While I do have concerns about MJH's health,my main issue is with the way that People presented this. The idea seems to be that this is a normal weight, that's it's attainable for everyone her size, and that becoming acceptable to the male gaze again (“bikini body”) is this tremendous accomplishment—compared to, you know, acting, directing and raising children.

I can remember being equally horrified once while watching an episode of “Joey”, Matt LeBlanc's “Friends” spin-off sitcom. (Mistake #1, I suppose). He and a female (of course) neighbor got into a dispute over her how much she actually weighed. I believe she was saying 107 while he was saying 110. I am sorry, but no adult woman woman over 5'0 should be expected to weigh that little...even if they do.

I'm just disturbed to think that we're living in a society where all women—regardless of height, age, body type, physical limitations or childbearing status—are subject to such unreasonable expectations. It is as if the ideal has become a woman who weighs about half of what most men do—someone with barely enough body fat to menstruate, someone who can be easily physically dominated. Perhaps the ideal is just a woman who has devoted a buttload (so to speak) of time and energy and restricted her gastronomic pleasure to make sure that there's less of her.

There have been umpteen magazine covers of this type, but this is among the worst. You still never, ever see this with male stars. Nor do I believe that the people behind People have any conception of the economic privilege involved in hiring personal trainers and dietitians and working out for hours a day. I doubt I'll ever buy People again.

An anonymous commenter on People's website said it best: “[You] can just learn to love yourself the way you are and not let a number in a scale decide who you are.”

Pon farr of the vanities

This week, I had planned to bring you a review of Wolverine and the new Star Trek. I saw them in a self-made double-feature this weekend. Perhaps it will suffice to say that if you can only see one, see Star Trek. Tonight, though, I've got old Trek on my mind.

Today, I found myself reading about pon farr—in Star Trek canon, the condition that comes upon adult Vulcan males (and bonded females) every seven years. It strips away their logic, making them feel like their blood is boiling, and compels them to either mate or die—unless they're lucky enough be able to to fight or meditate through it. There's even a fan magazine called “Fever”, devoted exclusively to pon farr fanfiction. Of course, my interest in this topic may have something to do with how much I loved the pairing of Spock and Uhura in the latest movie. Just maybe.

At any rate, tonight, I watched “Amok Time”, the episode of the original Trek series which introduced the concept of pon farr. In brief, Spock is stricken by the blood fever and returns to Vulcan to marry his betrothed. During the ceremony, however, she invokes her right to subject him to a challenge...and selects Kirk as her champion, to be fought to the death. Bones saves the day with some medical meddling, and Spock lets his faithless female go with the guy she really wants.

Much of what I found in this episode was unexpected. First, I have to admit that William Shatner was a better actor than I thought he'd been at that at point. He had impressive range and subtlety. It was interesting to see Nimoy play twitchy in his role for once, but Spock's agitation was not as convincing as his embarrassment over it. The next thing was the scene where Kirk's clothing gets torn and suddenly, I'm looking at William Shatner's nipples. Perhaps I haven't seen as much old Trek as I thought, but I kind of thought that nipples in the original series would be like or crying in baseball (there is none); but it was more like the Spanish inquisition (unexpected!)

Most unexpectedly, though, I finally saw the sexual undercurrent that so many fans see between Kirk and Spock! Kirk goes out of his way to save his friend, risking even the wrath of the Federation. Spock reacts more strongly to seeing Kirk okay at the end than he reacted to his betrothed. Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised, though. That is one of the oldest non-canonical pairings in all of sci-fi fandom. People have been writing stores about Kirk and Spock before there was an internet to share them on. In fact, the phrase “slash”, as it refers to same-sex pairings, was first used to designate stories which were “Kirk/Spock”.

On an related note: Star Trek has not been out a week, and already I'm tired of the “Trekkies don't have sex” meme. Jay Leno said something to that effect last night, and there was a similar implication in an online article about the Vulcan salute. Excuse me, but by my reckoning, sci-fi, fantasy and comic book movies have been mainstream since the first Batman, if not since Star Wars. Watchmen was the first movie this year that anyone gave a damn about. Even our hip, beloved President has seen Star Trek...and no one would accuse him of not getting any (he has proof). Of course, all things in moderation, but for the most part, fandom is cool these days.. I guess some folks missed the memo.