Jane Eyre

Just let the sad sink in.

"Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine.”"
Hello Friends, it is that time again! Today I am going to discuss one of my favorite pastimes. See sometimes in the summertime, I like to watch morose movies about English moors and brood about them. Okay, so I like to do it even when it isn't summer, but in this particular case it was summer. The nearby art cinema a town over was showing Jane Eyre, probably my favorite work of gothic fiction, and I had nothing to occupy me for the afternoon (a state so long past that I can't even remember how it felt). Obviously Jane Eyre has been adapted numerous times, but I'm talking about the 2011 film, direct by Cary Fukunaga, probably best known now for True Detective. This film starred Mia Wasikowska, whose name I will literally never spell right on the first try, as Jane Eyre, and Michael Fassbender as Rochester. I haven't been shy about my feelings for Wasikowska, and the types of characters she gravitates towards, but I'll make a rare exception for Bronte, and maybe Crimson Peak when it comes out. Not for another goddamned Alice in Wonderland movie though. Fuck that. Enough about her though, let's talk about Jane Eyre. I'll give you a brief intro if you haven't read it first, and we can go from there. Jane Eyre is a novel written by Chalotte Bronte, about an orphan who experiences a typically miserable and dreary childhood in the late 18th century, being sent to Lowood school for girls, which is bleak and awful, are you sensing a theme. She eventually leaves to become a governess at the home of the eccentric and secretive Mr. Rochester.

Addams Family Values

Kooky spooky etc etc.

"The Family Just Got A Little Stranger."

Hello and Happy Post-Thanksgiving Friday Consumer Nightmare! Maybe you've been out shopping, or maybe you're not mental and you stayed home, but either way, there's always good flicks on at the Tagline. As you all may or may not be aware, it's kind of tough to find Thanksgiving themed movies, because there frankly aren't that many of them (as opposed to say Christmas movies). For 2012's offering, check out this link, but I have a really good one this year. I guess you could debate whether or not it's actually a Thanksgiving movie, but I feel like there are some really great related moments, and also that there's a lot of thanks-giving going on. So without further ado, let's talk a bit about Addams Family Values, the 1993 sequel to the 1991 film based around the Addams Family characters created by Charles Addams in 1938. This movie sees the return of the original's cast (mostly, I think that the actress who portrayed Grandmama changed between movies). Raul Julia in what is perhaps his most remembered popular role, portrays Gomez Addams (okay maybe his most remembered role was as M. Bison, but I'm trying to draw attention away from that disaster), alongside Anjelica Huston as Morticia. Christopher Lloyd features as Uncle Fester, and a twelve year old Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams. The family is rounded out by Wednesday's brother Pugsley, the Frankenstein's monster-esque caretaker of the house Lurch, the disembodied hand Thing, and in this movie we don't see too much of Cousin Itt, but he does show up briefly (and of course Morticia's weird witch-like mother Grandmama). This film opens with the family welcoming a new member, the recently born and grossly named Pubert. In typical child fashion, Wednesday and Pugsley are none too pleased with the new arrival, and set about trying to murder the kid, but fail because this isn't a movie about murdered babies (Not primarily at least).

The Great Gatsby

Rich White People: The Movie

"Can't repeat the past? ...of course you can!"

Hello everyone, welcome back to The Tagline! Today I'm finally going to talk about the recent film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's seminal American novel The Great Gatsby, a book which no doubt many of you last confronted in high school English class. If you are a little hazy on the details, I will give you a quick refresher course, sage as I am. The Great Gatsby is a story told from the the POV of Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire, of Spiderman fame/infamy), a young man returned from WWI and a graduate of Yale who takes a job in New York as a bonds salesman. It is 1922, so things are really well... you know roarin'. Nick lives next to Jay Gatsby's (Leonardo DiCaprio portrays Mr. Gatsby.) ridiculously huge pleasure palace. Nick visits his cousin Daisy Buchanan (Carey Mulligan also here in Drive, who is tremendously rich and married to Tom (Joel Edgerton who did you know was a young Owen Lars in the Star Wars prequels), who is the reason she is so rich. After this encounter he is invited to one of Gatsby's wild parties, where after a surreal experience he meets the man himself. Gatsby for his part is totally obsessed with Daisy, whom he had a relationship with in 1917, and his whole wild party-throwing act is all part of his elaborate efforts to impress her, and to prove he's good enough to be with her. This of course sort of overlooking her marriage (granted her husband is cheating on her with the wife of a poor mechanic but still). Nick rather than being directly involved in all of this, has the misfortune of just sort of... being caught up with it. He get's to know someone he considers to be an extraordinary man, and then watches as he is laid low by fate, or his own hubris, or something.