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Tag Archives: media

The Sapphires: A Movie Review

03 Wednesday Apr 2013

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Australia, film, media, movie review, the sapphires, Vietnam

The Sapphires came out ages ago in Australia, and ages ago in the UK, and is just now arriving in the US.  I saw it on the plane from Vancouver to Auckland and have been mainlining the soundtrack for a couple weeks, as well as becoming an unironic Jessica Mauboy fan (she won Australian Idol and then starred in The Sapphires, which has led reviewers to call it an Aussie Dreamgirls…and that’s pretty on the nose).

The movie is based on the true story of a girl group made of Aboriginal (Yorta Yorta, to be specific) sisters and cousins who toured Vietnam entertaining soldiers in 1968.  It focuses on the self-identity of the members of the group, who find parallels between their lives and that of the African American soldiers they meet in Vietnam. The story is about the triumph of the individual women in the group, who are thrust into a world they could not possibly have been prepared for and who gain, over the course of the movie, a new perspective on their identity. Plus they learn fairly conventional things about love and friendship.

The movie is delightful.  While predictable in places, and understandably reminiscent of Dreamgirls, the film is prevented from total saccharine-ness by the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the very real persecution that these women faced well into the 1970s.  And the fact that its a true(ish) story makes the whole thing pretty easy to get behind.

And since the movie is set in the 1960s, the whole thing is thread through with Jessica Mauboy singing the lead on 60s classics, like the Jackson 5’s ‘Who’s Loving You’ and ‘What a Man.’  I was sold from the first lines, when three of the sisters sing Merle Haggard’s ‘Today I Started Loving You Again.’ Afterward, the man who subsequently becomes their manager, played by Chris O’Dowd upbraids them for singing country and not soul.  O’Dowd is as adorable, and maybe even more so, than in Bridesmaids and would be reason enough to see the movie.  But the rest of it is great too.

As I said, I saw it on a plane.  But I would happily pay $10 to see it in theatres and I encourage you to do the same. I’m sure the period costumes will look fantastic on the big screen.

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Stuff I’ve Been Made Aware Of

18 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

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Tags

book review, entertainment, Girls, internet memes, media, TV

Here are some important things I’ve learned in the last few days:

1. The book The Giver was the first of FOUR BOOKS.  Do you remember that book? The ending wasn’t very satisfying but I took it as  stand-alone text.  This is very exciting news.

2. The Bic Crystal for Her! OMG!  Read the reviews.

3. My favourite vice, Made in Chelsea, is BACK.

4. Lena Dunham is writing a book.  This news is a few days old, but will fill a feminist-book-shaped-hole in my heart.  I’m thinking of buying the hardcover.

5. The band Farewell Milwaukee is my new obsession, and not just because MKE is my hometown.  Check out my favourite song of theirs:

Made in Chelsea is BACK, people.

04 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

celebrities, drama, entertainment, fashion, Made In Chelsea, media, reality shows

Made in Chelsea is the British equivalent of Laguna Beach or The Hills.  It features the idle rich, including the heirs to some very prominent British brands (it would be like have the Hershey and Oreo heirs flitting around New York, sleeping with each other and acting inane) (I would probably watch that show…)

Anyway.  The much-anticipated third series of the show returned this week.  If you watched the trailer (above), you already know that the advert featured the entire cast at a wild party in Marie Antionette-style couture.  When we left off at the Christmas special, Caggie and Spencer appeared to have finally gotten together. We learn in the first moments of the season that, not only has that fizzled in the face of Caggie’s extended Australian holiday, she’s actually tattooed another man’s initial on her arm.  Even Hugo thinks its brutal.

Speaking of Hugo, he spends the entire episode talking about how phenomenally changed he is by Natalie, the generic and plastic looking girl he’s been dating (for what? three weeks?) and how he understands domesticity now.  When not speaking rhapsodically about the boring girl he’s dating, he’s feeling sorry for his single friends – whom, he muses, aren’t yet capable of his mature commitment.

Poor Spencer – one of the more likable members of the cast – spends the entire episode getting shat on.  First he discovers that Caggie’s indifferent (although apparently she made no effort to contact him while in Australia, which should have been his first clue).  Then, we learn that Hugo’s more or less abandoned him to hang out with his vacuous new squeeze.  On the bright side, Spencer is tanned, coiffed as ever, and looks great in a bomber jacket.

Proudlock, another of my favorite characters, takes Jaime to church with him.  This is clearly just a pretense for introducing Kimberley, another vacuous blonde (albeit a more likable one than Hugo’s girlfriend).  She is immediately hit on by…everyone.

But the real question is, did it meet expectations? It wasn’t exactly compelling, but I’m not giving up quite yet.  I expect Ollie and Cheska to have some major freak out at each other at some point; Hugo and Ladyfriend are clearly doomed, which could be entertaining; Spencer might meet someone who isn’t psychopathic and manipulative (I’m rooting for you, buddy. Maybe revisit Louise?).  And one can assume that there will be ostentatious displays of wealth all around, lots of Mark Francis saying “Dahling!“, and probably a curveball or two along the way.

On the whole, the show was pretty boring, but with just enough crazy that I’m going to hang in there and see what happens.

Lots of love, World.

14 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

entertainment, Hannah Hart, media, NPR, puns, Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine’s Day, Internet!

And a love song, from Hannah Hart:

Game of Thrones will probably fill the Downton Abbey-shaped hole in my heart.

01 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by frannyritchie in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

entertainment, Game of Thrones, HBO, media, shadow trailer, TV

See the theme? I am obsessed with one TV show/book/movie, watch/read all of it, then mourn its loss, then find something new to obsess over.

That’s healthy, right?

In this case, the Game of Thrones Season 2 “shadow” trailer (definition, anyone?) came out a couple days ago. What more does a girl need?

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