This morning I caught a matinee showing of Greta Gerwig’s adaption of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. I was up for a movie but didn’t quite feel ready to walk back into The Rise of Skywalker again. I had heard great things of Gerwig’s adaptation and found Lady Bird, her previous movie, quite enjoyable. The same can be said of Little Women, which I have not read but have known key plot points for many years because of this classic scene from Friends:
Even with years of foreknowledge (really only the Beth part), the spoiled passing was heart-breaking. While I’ve not read Alcott’s novel, Gerwig uses flashbacks to add depth and definition to the moments in the “present.” It adds a real sense of things “lost and found” in the relationships between and beyond the four sisters. And there are many things lost and found throughout the movie’s run-time. Gerwig’s movie is the kind of work that is so well-done that it will eventually be taken for granted.
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One trailer before the movie stood out to me. I had forgotten that there was another sequel in the Ghostbusters franchise due this year. And it took a while for me to realize what trailer I was actually watching, which is kind of astonishing to me. It looks very different, which means it could be very good. I find I often enjoy the work of Jason Reitman, the director.
For the first time in a long time, I wasn’t able to make it opening night of a Star Wars movie. But banquet is when banquet is, so Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker had to wait until early Friday morning. After just a few hours of sleep, I made my way down to the Cannery for a quick Zippy’s breakfast before heading to the 8 o’clock RPX showing at Dole. I hadn’t though much about the movie really, at least not compared to previous entries. While I didn’t hate The Last Jedi, I do feel like that movie derailed a couple of things (Canto Bight? Mary Poppins Leia?). In fact, I really liked the Luke-Rey dynamic of TLJ and found some of the space scene amazing. And while I trust JJ Abrams, you just never know.
Steven Garber’s A Seamless Life has a January release date, though I’m hoping to get a copy in late December. Garber’s The Fabric of Faithfulness has been one of the most providential books of my life. I read it in college on a lark as I was “delivering” it from one faculty member to another. His Visions of Vocation has also been a significant read for me . . . and was a book that I gifted quite a bit a few years ago. A Seamless Life is more of a collection of different pieces than it is a total work. If nothing else, that will make it a different kind of read.
Late January will see the release of Yuval Levin’s A Time to Build. I read Levin’s Fractured Republic a few years ago based on recommendations and found it to be a thoughtful, sincere read. Levin, the editor of National Affairs, has a good sense of what is best about the American Experiment and remains hopeful even seeing what he sees happening in the world around us. A Time to Build looks to be about recommitting to and rebuilding our basic cultural institutions.
Ross Douthat’s The Decadent Society: How We Became Victims of our Own Success will be available at the end of February. His last two books, Bad Religion and To Change the Church, were both significant reads for me. Bad Religion served as a great catalogue of religious thought in America for me. To Change the Church was a great way for me to engage in thinking about the Catholic church and Pope Francis, who has been something of an enigma all around. I appreciate Douthat’s humor as well as his incisive observations about the way the world seems to be working. I imagine it will be a good companion to Levin’s book, too.
And then there’s the promise of a new Rivers of London novel at the end of February, too. Now that I’m all caught up, it’s a hardback buy for me. I can’t say too much without giving away spoilers of one kind or another. I will say that the last novel, Lies Sleeping, brought a number of plotlines to decent conclusions. And the most recent novella, The October Man, did a nice job of opening up the world beyond England. So I’m curious to see where Aaronovitch takes Peter Grant next. I’m doing my best to avoid spoilers for False Value, though I am pretty excited that this is my first Rivers of London novel to drop that I can buy on release day. It’s the little things, I suppose.
Yesterday marked the beginning of the second week of Advent. Different churches mark the weeks differently, some leaning into themes like hope and love but in different orders, others revisiting key moments in the biblical story. I like the approach that roots the time in expectation not just of the Christmas season but of the second coming of Christ, the event that will bring this part of the biblical story to an end.
November started with 
The second week of November brought Taika Waititi’s latest satire to the silver screen. Jojo Rabbit is the awkwardly funny, ultimately heart-breaking story of a young boy in Nazi Germany who has a comedic version of Hitler as his imaginary best friend. The movie feels a lot like a Wes Anderson flick, as there’s something slightly magical and farcical about the proceedings. Waititi plays Hitler to much effect, which is part of what makes the experience awkward. But then, as needed, the movie turns dark and sobering. A number of well-known actors take part in the story, including Scarlet Johansson, Rebel Wilson, and Sam Rockwell. Thankfully, none of them “take you out of” the movie, which can easily happen in this kind of piece.
The third quality movie in the month of November for me was Ford v. Ferrari starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale. Racing isn’t really my form of entertainment, but the reviews were good and the actors and director had earned my trust, so I gave it a try. It was quite brilliant, a great picture of people who are passionate about things and who don’t quite know how to navigate the world between work and people all that well. I found myself tearing up a little at odd places, moments that weren’t particularly telegraphed to evoke emotion. And when you finally get to the moments that do want to evoke something? Yeah. Beyond that, FvF is a period piece of a kind, too, one that is just out of reach for many of us. Bale, as always, is brilliant. And Damon, as is often the case, plays someone you’re not sure you should feel much sympathy for, and yet he gets it out of you yet again.
While I was in Victoria for Thanksgiving break, I took at an afternoon to see Rian Johnson’s Knives Out at the local Odean theater. I’m so used to a certain kind of cinema seating that it’s always a little jarring to have nice seats that don’t shoot up steep like a mountainside. Still, the experience was good . . . mostly because the story is so well-told. It’s a who-dun-it story that is just enough Clue the Movie to keep it light while still treading in some heavy moments. It’s the kind of story that gives you just enough but doesn’t tell you what to do with it. Because even if you know the who, you’re still not quite sure about the dun-it. Knives Out is a great late autumn/early winter movie, as it evokes a kind of place and time that is both cozy and obviously dangerous.
We’re a few days into the Advent season. I think maybe it’s my favorite season of the church calendar, as it’s a kind of mellow, reflective time that looks forward to something amazing breaking into history not once but twice. I also love the Scripture read throughout the season.
Space Enough, and Time 