june
Books
Swearing Off Stars
Started off alright, but quickly telegraphed to an all-to-common “I can’t
really be with you until it’s too late” lesbian novel. I also kept thinking
an editor had asked her to just add tons of adjectives, willy-nilly. It was
an odd read, and the time-jumps didn’t help. If you can write a lesbian
romance in 2017, why would you lean so hard on tropes of one woman dying?
Super annoying. It was a pretty quick read at least. Read for a lesbian
book club.
Little Fish
Outstanding and devastating. This is a book full of people I’ve known,
slept with, and smiled at across the room. Family is a tenuous thing, and
Little Fish finds space for it throughout. I’m not sure what I would’ve
made with this years ago, but now, it’s a sad and good ache. I hope Casey
keeps writing, and sharing her work with us for years to come. I read this
in one go, and it was a wild ride that had me laughing and crying.
Paprika
A fantastically bizarre story of science, dreams, desire, and the smallness
of men. I’d seen the anime adapted from this book years ago, so I had some
predisposition towards envisioning characters a certain way, but this book
goes to way different places than I remember the movie going. I liked this
quite a bit, save for the weird shit with sexual assault. Like many books
written by a guy, it shows.
Infidel
Really loving this series about a tough AF bounty hunter lady named Nyx.
The world-building is pretty interesting, and the story moves forward at a pretty good clip. All-told, this is a fun sci-fi action novel.
Movies
Solo
This was probably tied with Last Jedi for my least favorite of the new Star
Wars, but I liked it better than pretty much any of the old or prequel
ones. It was fun, had a few rad women, and didn’t go overboard on “remember
this?” fanservice. I laughed a few times, and I’m hoping they make sequels.
Appropriate Behavior
This was a fun movie about being a Persian Bisexual woman in NYC. Shirin
goes through a major breakup, then struggles to date, and heal, while
dealing with a family she doesn’t think will understand her queerness, and
the strange world of the NYC queer and poly scene. I laughed out loud
during a lot of this, even as I scratched my head at the confusing
references to trans guys—like, why are they a joke? Overall, I dug this
movie, and hope the director/writer Desiree makes more films soon.
Red Sparrow
I will never believe for one second that the protagonist would fall for Joel
Edgerton’s bland spyman. For some reason, I expected this movie to be set
during the cold war, but instead it’s vaguely now. This had more sexual
assault than I expected too, which is a fucking bummer. The saving grace in
this film is that by and large Jennifer Lawrence kills or beats all the men
in the movie. I can only hope she gets cast in more movies where she
doesn’t have to participate in misogynist porn first.
Unlocked
I’m a sucker for middling spy movies, and Noomi Rapace, so I now own this
film. It wasn’t great, but it was fun, and dammit, sometimes that’s all I
need. TIL Michael Douglas is still around.
xx
Terrible title unless everyone involved had to get a karyotype test to be
involved. Most of the horror was related to having kids, which meant this
movie hit me hard, because kids are the worst and deeply frightening on the
best days.
Ocean’s 8
All. Ladies. Heist. A+. I hope everyone involved in this comes out as gay.
Points for literally every outfit, and double points for Rhianna’s
devil-may-care overalls, and Cate Blanchett’s Carol-as-a-Timelord character.
Oh Lucy!
This movie ruled! The world feels pretty rough these days, and this movie
doesn’t shy away from difficult topics, but the overarching feeling of Oh
Lucy is a kind and happy one. It was also cool seeing an actor I’ve watched
in lots of Kiyoshi Kurasawa films show up in a very rad role.