Saturday, September 27, 2014

Movie Reviews: A Public Service Announcement (and some other stuff)


Oh, look, folks, it's me again, popping in here after three weeks of silence with a measly excuse for a post!  Yay!

Seriously, though, life has been crazy busy and when I do get on the computer, I've been catching up with emails and staying in touch with friends and not actually writing blog posts, and I do apologize for that, but y'all know the drill by now.  I shall be here when I can be, and neither more nor less, and since you're all so splendid, you understand.

Anyways.  However.  I do have a movie review in draft at the moment, one that's amusing me immensely as I write it, and as I'm writing, it occurred to me that there's something I need to make known to the followers of my blog.  I've gotten quite a few comments and emails in recent months from blog readers asking for rundowns on objectionable content in various films and TV shows.

And, though I am generally rather bad at saying this to people, after giving it some thought, I've come to the conclusion that my answer is no.  (But I'm really really sorry to have to say that and I hope you're not offended and please don't hate me.)

Ahem.

The point I'm trying to make is this: Yet Another Period Drama Blog, contrary to what appearances may imply, is not a movie review blog.  It's a personal blog.  A blog for rambling about the movies and books and television shows and fictional characters that I like, with a dash of Lots of Other Things thrown in.  When I "review" a movie, I'm really just sharing my thoughts about the movie and opening up a discussion where others can share their opinions and thoughts. (And sometimes I actually get around to replying to comments!  Woot!)  I'm not trying to provide an objective rundown of the film; I'm just taking any excuse I can to sound off about something I enjoyed. (Or didn't enjoy, as the case may be.)  I am not a professional film critic, nor even an aspiring one.  (That would be a boring job because you DO have to be at least somewhat objective, and I prefer airing my snarky personal opinions.)

In addition, I also don't feel comfortable trying to provide an all-encompassing content advisory for my blog readers.  Very few people share the exact same views on What's Okay and What's Not when they're consuming media (that phrase sounds strangely food-ish), and my opinions as to what makes a movie "passable" and what makes it "objectionable" may be very different from yours.  We're not all cookie cutters, after all.

However, this doesn't mean I won't issue a warning here and there if I feel it would be helpful to my readers-- if a movie has a scene that I usually fast-forward, I'll probably give you a heads-up about that.  Or if my own younger siblings didn't watch a movie with me because it was too intense or adult, I may mention that as a caution if I feel it's appropriate.  But I won't write up a detailed list of every instance in which John Watson says a bad word, or exactly how far down the neckline of Marguerite Blakeney's dress falls.  Deciding whether a movie is worth watching is your own business, not mine, and I'm not going to try to tell you what you can and can't see.  Does that make sense?

Here's the too-long-didn't-read version: YAPDB does not offer content reviews, though I do try to keep the content on this blog as clean and family-friendly as possible.  If you want the lowdown on objectionable stuff, try the IMDb Parents' Guides or any of the multitude of movie-review web sites out there.  (PluggedIn, Common Sense Media and Charity's Place, for example.)

Thanks for bearing with me.  :D

Alsoooooo... don't forget about I'd Like to Share for October!  Please add your nominations in the comments section on the I'd Like to Share page.

Again, sorry for the severe lack of posts on here lately.  I've had a really busy month, not least because of Julius Caesar-- which was incredibly amazing and it ended last night and I'm really really sad it's over because I loved every moment of it.  (Well, I didn't love the times when I got lost driving in the city trying to get to rehearsal with my sisters... but I love my amazing director who stayed on the phone with me and talked me through some confusing one-way streets because he's awesome like that.  Silver linings.)  I really learned a lot-- for instance, Shakespeare is the best, theatre is amazing, actors are hilarious and great and fun to be around, military banners are much heavier and unwieldier than they look, it IS actually possible to do a complete costume change in under 90 seconds, and literally every line in Julius Caesar can be improved if you do it in a muppet voice.  Fact.


(It's a quote from Marc Antony, in case you were wondering, who in our production was played by an incredibly talented actress who doubled as Portia-- yes, we had gender-blind casting, how else do you think I ended up as a snooty butler and a soldier?) 

And on that impassioned note I will end this extremely random post.  :)

P.S. Hail Caesar. *falls to her knees enraptured*
P.P.S. He will eat only the finest Turkish caviar.
P.P.P.S.  Major points if you got that last reference.

Monday, September 1, 2014

I'd Like to Share: September 2014


(Picture is from A Room With a View 1985-- yes, that's Baby Lestrade.  :P  And yes, I cropped out Cecil 'cause he's annoying.  It's my blog. :P)

Hard to believe this series has been going on for over a year... wow!

We had an overwhelming bias as far as categories were concerned this month. :D  A quick note of my own before you go on a link-clicking frenzy-- I make it a policy not to share links to any posts with content I find objectionable or unsuitable for younger readers.  Of course I do ask that you exercise your own caution and discretion when visiting various blogs, as I can't catch everything (and you may well have different standards for what you allow and what you don't).  That said, if a link to a post is provided in this series, you can assume that I've read the post and do not strongly object to anything shown or talked about in it.  However, this doesn't mean I necessarily agree with the sentiments of the author, or indeed with what they write on their blog in general.  I say all this now because this month we had two posts nominated which directly oppose each other (in fact, one post was written in refutation of the other) and I have chosen to share both with all of you.  I don't agree with both posts-- I think one is right (though I don't endorse every single word of it) and one is really not so right-- but I think it would be kind of small-minded for me to refuse to link to something just because it doesn't match my personal opinion.  (And as I said, there's nothing in either post-- or any of those listed below-- that I feel would be inappropriate for my younger readers to see.)

If you want more details on all that, feel free to comment and ask which camp I'm in, but for now I'm not taking sides, just letting you know that I'm not endorsing or agreeing with all the posts linked below.

All that said (thanks for bearing with me), here we go!

In the Inspirational category...

Sara Lewis nominated Rachel Heffington for In Defense of True Love
Miss Elliot nominated Anne-girl for Red and Black
The Elf nominated Thomas Umstattd for Why Courtship is Fundamentally Flawed
Kiri Liz nominated Molly for Why I Believe In Courtship
Naomi Bennet nominated Michaela for A Study in Positive
Miss Dashwood nominated Katie for Follow Your Dreams (Up With Hard Work)
Emma Jane nominated Naomi for Why Home is the Best Place

In the Just Plain Interesting category...

Hamlette nominated The Nitrate Diva for The Reel War: Historic Pictures from WWI's Celluloid Front

Aaaaaaand... last month's quote was indeed from Persuasion 1995, spoken by the singularly irritating Mary Musgrove!  Who can guess the origin of this month's witty little line?

"Of course it's not as if he was my real pa, but he wasn't a bad old stick.  The mater found him fearfully annoying, but... I didn't.  I think the bird was rather fond of him.  I know he was fond of it."