Derik Badman's Journal

2020-12-07 08:12

The weekend is over, time to work again. What did I do? I played more of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. I read more, getting a few chapters into Jenny Odell's How to Do Nothing, which feels like it was mistitled for how much she needs to talk about how she really doesn't mean "doing nothing."

I started Ken Loach's Sorry We Missed You (2020) and didn't get too far. From the get-go I could tell this was going to be a realist depressing movie, as you see the protagonist meeting with a guy about a delivery job and the other guy is like: "We don't hire you, we on board you," "You don't work for us; you work with us." Yeah, that dude is screwed. Even moreso when, before he has even had day 1 on the job, he convinces his wife to sell her car (which she needs for her job) so he can buy a big van for his job because he is really overestimating how much money he will make delivery packages. I'm not sure I can finish, it can't possible end well.

Last night we watched I'm No Angel (1933) with Mae West and Cary Grant (Criterion has series up about both of them, and this is one of the intersections). Never having seen a Mae West movie my interest is now satisfied. Beyond her witty and risqué dialogue, I am a bit at a loss for how she ended up so popular. Though it is impressive that she wrote the movie as well as starring in it.

Watched the first part of Normal People on Hulu this morning. There's a part in it where the two protagonists kiss for the first time (and the first kiss for the girl at least), and you can see on her face all that wonder and awe and nervousness and excitement that comes with such a moment. Somehow it really brought back to me that feeling from so long ago when I was first going out with my first girlfriend, where there is this other person who is kind of a complete mystery but you are suddenly so close up to them and thought kind of slips away in favor of feeling (physical and emotional).