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Mar. 3rd, 2008 11:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
girlofpreyHello. I was away at my parent's house and there was no internet. Not that I would probably have done anything anyway, as my dad's computer is the most PAINFULLY SLOW THING in the world. But anyway, I saw my family, I saw my nephew and my new nephew, though sadly not my new nephew for very long - we went to my sister's house to pick up the eldest to go to the park and were only there for an hour or so, and he slept through most of that. She brought him round when they came for Mother's Day/Sunday lunch on Sunday, but not till about four o'clock and I left at eight, and again, he mostly was sleeping. Also my eldest nephew apparently got a bit jealous when people focused on the baby too much, and given that he rarely leaves me alone when I'm home I didn't want to push that too much. He (Jack) seems quite good with the baby on it's own though, although we can't seem to convince him to not touch it when he's got dirty hands. Still, I thought it went better than our family stuff sometimes does, and I did get to see the baby, and he saw me, I think. All of which was good.
By the way, we did take my nephew to the bloody park, me, mum and dad. It was my idea because it looked a bit sunny outside, and I didn't realise that by the time we got ready and got to my sister's house, and got out of there, it would be blowing a gale force wind. Even by the time we got out of McDonald's, having hastily finished a Creme Egg McFlurry and a coke with ice. But by that time we'd said "park" rather a lot to my nephew, so we had to go. We spent about five minutes putting him on slides and seesaws and climbing little hills, feeding ducks on the side of the lake hiding from the choppy lake water. My nephew caused a bit of a riot by throwing almost a full slice of bread in their midst. Which was slightly entertaining. Then we wrapped him up in his five coats and ran back to the car. And returned to mum and dad's house for some warmth. And cartoons. And pizza. Mostly I've learned about Swiper from Dora the Explorer, who just seems like the best villain ever.
And over the weekend I got my parents to go with me to the cinema to see There Will Be Blood.
Which I have yet another pairing for. I slashed Daniel Day-Lewis/Plainview with the young healer boy pretty much as much as I thought I would. It was great though. I'm not really used to my pairings having so much screentime, or a relationship that is integral to the story. A relationship based on character, I mean. Or so much straddling. I'm aware it probably won't be a pairing much fic gets written for though. Fandom seems to mostly like pairings that don't kill each other. Hmm.
But no, I really enjoyed it. There a few moments when I thought "How many hours are left now?", but it moves on its pace pretty quickly considering it's three hours long, I thought. Daniel Day-Lewis is of course mesmerising throughout, and I found the character of Daniel Plainview a lot more interesting when you remember he started out as a poor prospector himself. The score is brilliant as well, making things CONSTANTLY sound like they were on the verge of disaster. Which considering the ending I suppose they sort of were. But mostly I loved Eli. I think Paul Dano did a really brilliant job with him. I loved him. I loved his crazy, and I loved his sermonising, and I loved his sermonising voice (and Daniel did too), and I love the way he always called Daniel "Daniel". He crawled over a table. Really I think the best characters do that. Sam Rockwell did it once, anyway. As an aside, I thought I recognised one of the Standard Oil (?) men, and I'm pretty sure now it was the detective who was beautifully gay with Sam Rockwell in Welcome to Collinwood. Yay!
But Daniel/Eli. Oh Lord. Daniel mostly proved how broken he was at the end by saying "I broke you and I beat you" to Eli at the end and then failing to have sex with him. Up till then it was all slapping and land negotiating. Really it would have been quite simple for Daniel at the end to offer to give Eli money if he stayed on as a kept houseboy, HOW WOULD THAT HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT, EXCEPT TO THE MESSAGE AND TITLE OF THE FILM?
I went looking on the internet for anyone who agreed with me, and happily they do exist, but I looked at the comments and on messageboards and they were just MAD AND INFURIATING. They think Eli is awful when he's actually QUITE BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFULLY RUBBISH, BEAUTIFUL. Some of them don't seem to realise it was a book. They think P.T. Anderson is some sort of GENIUS OF SYMBOLISM. Of course Daniel isn't gay, just because you don't show something in canon doesn't mean you can conclude Daniel Day-Lewis is an alien. And just because they don't show any women in canon doesn't mean you should conclude there were none. And just because Daniel's brother suggested they go find some women and Daniel suggested they go to the Peachtree dance doesn't mean you should conclude that Daniel doesn't HATE WOMEN. Like he HATES EVERYONE. Including the adopted son he cried about and looked sadly at and hugged quite a lot. ARGH.
Also they think Eli didn't fight back AT ALL in the mud scene, even though on closer watching the, um, second time around (quiet in the back!), he actually grabs Daniel's shirt, eventually, and Daniel says "Don't you even try it, you little runt", and it's actually very good. And then at the end, it's funny, Daniel doesn't actually get violent until Eli starts shouting again, telling Daniel not to bully him. Because he hasn't broken him, and it's great. Then Daniel starts yelling that he is the Third Revelation, and if he wants Eli to worship him he should probably just say. And then he kills him, which I think is to do with breaking him or not breaking him. But is however you see it I suppose. The killing part was quite sad. But OH THEY ARE GREAT.
This was quite long. But oh well. Tralalalala.
No-one told me about the Sock Puppet Theatre videos on Youtube. This is the No Country For Old Men one. I have never been so randomly amused by the word 'yoink'.
By the way, we did take my nephew to the bloody park, me, mum and dad. It was my idea because it looked a bit sunny outside, and I didn't realise that by the time we got ready and got to my sister's house, and got out of there, it would be blowing a gale force wind. Even by the time we got out of McDonald's, having hastily finished a Creme Egg McFlurry and a coke with ice. But by that time we'd said "park" rather a lot to my nephew, so we had to go. We spent about five minutes putting him on slides and seesaws and climbing little hills, feeding ducks on the side of the lake hiding from the choppy lake water. My nephew caused a bit of a riot by throwing almost a full slice of bread in their midst. Which was slightly entertaining. Then we wrapped him up in his five coats and ran back to the car. And returned to mum and dad's house for some warmth. And cartoons. And pizza. Mostly I've learned about Swiper from Dora the Explorer, who just seems like the best villain ever.
And over the weekend I got my parents to go with me to the cinema to see There Will Be Blood.
Which I have yet another pairing for. I slashed Daniel Day-Lewis/Plainview with the young healer boy pretty much as much as I thought I would. It was great though. I'm not really used to my pairings having so much screentime, or a relationship that is integral to the story. A relationship based on character, I mean. Or so much straddling. I'm aware it probably won't be a pairing much fic gets written for though. Fandom seems to mostly like pairings that don't kill each other. Hmm.
But no, I really enjoyed it. There a few moments when I thought "How many hours are left now?", but it moves on its pace pretty quickly considering it's three hours long, I thought. Daniel Day-Lewis is of course mesmerising throughout, and I found the character of Daniel Plainview a lot more interesting when you remember he started out as a poor prospector himself. The score is brilliant as well, making things CONSTANTLY sound like they were on the verge of disaster. Which considering the ending I suppose they sort of were. But mostly I loved Eli. I think Paul Dano did a really brilliant job with him. I loved him. I loved his crazy, and I loved his sermonising, and I loved his sermonising voice (and Daniel did too), and I love the way he always called Daniel "Daniel". He crawled over a table. Really I think the best characters do that. Sam Rockwell did it once, anyway. As an aside, I thought I recognised one of the Standard Oil (?) men, and I'm pretty sure now it was the detective who was beautifully gay with Sam Rockwell in Welcome to Collinwood. Yay!
But Daniel/Eli. Oh Lord. Daniel mostly proved how broken he was at the end by saying "I broke you and I beat you" to Eli at the end and then failing to have sex with him. Up till then it was all slapping and land negotiating. Really it would have been quite simple for Daniel at the end to offer to give Eli money if he stayed on as a kept houseboy, HOW WOULD THAT HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT, EXCEPT TO THE MESSAGE AND TITLE OF THE FILM?
I went looking on the internet for anyone who agreed with me, and happily they do exist, but I looked at the comments and on messageboards and they were just MAD AND INFURIATING. They think Eli is awful when he's actually QUITE BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFULLY RUBBISH, BEAUTIFUL. Some of them don't seem to realise it was a book. They think P.T. Anderson is some sort of GENIUS OF SYMBOLISM. Of course Daniel isn't gay, just because you don't show something in canon doesn't mean you can conclude Daniel Day-Lewis is an alien. And just because they don't show any women in canon doesn't mean you should conclude there were none. And just because Daniel's brother suggested they go find some women and Daniel suggested they go to the Peachtree dance doesn't mean you should conclude that Daniel doesn't HATE WOMEN. Like he HATES EVERYONE. Including the adopted son he cried about and looked sadly at and hugged quite a lot. ARGH.
Also they think Eli didn't fight back AT ALL in the mud scene, even though on closer watching the, um, second time around (quiet in the back!), he actually grabs Daniel's shirt, eventually, and Daniel says "Don't you even try it, you little runt", and it's actually very good. And then at the end, it's funny, Daniel doesn't actually get violent until Eli starts shouting again, telling Daniel not to bully him. Because he hasn't broken him, and it's great. Then Daniel starts yelling that he is the Third Revelation, and if he wants Eli to worship him he should probably just say. And then he kills him, which I think is to do with breaking him or not breaking him. But is however you see it I suppose. The killing part was quite sad. But OH THEY ARE GREAT.
This was quite long. But oh well. Tralalalala.
No-one told me about the Sock Puppet Theatre videos on Youtube. This is the No Country For Old Men one. I have never been so randomly amused by the word 'yoink'.
