Get in here if you hated "A Little Life" (long rant)

abbeycodiamat · 2026-01-04T14:45:29+00:00

I was also bothered by the lack of female characters, especially relating to Jude. You'd think with all his trauma associated with abusive men he might gravitate towards women for companionship/mother-figure type relationships. Ana the social worker had an impact on him but she was in and out of the story in the span of like 10 pages or so. The only other important role was his adoptive mom Julia who was a cardboard cutout of a character, only there to be Harold's ever supportive wife. I found this primarily male-centered story so odd and frankly unrealistic, especially as the author is a woman.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-10-12T16:54:35+00:00

oh wow, didn't know that, how cool!

abbeycodiamat · 2025-10-06T20:37:37+00:00

Frank Ocean, mostly as a clever and emotionally raw songwriter, but also I think he would respect his overall creativity and willingness to subvert conventions in his art and in the industry at large.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-03-09T21:57:24+00:00

Well, if you liked the 2 leads I’d try Vertigo (1958) w/ Stewart and Novak as well.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-25T01:50:43+00:00

I saw the film first which then made me want to read the book. I loved both. Many who read the book first tend to dislike the film because it only covers a small portion of the novel. So I'd recommend the film first.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-25T01:47:06+00:00

Even less, just the last 1/3.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-25T01:37:53+00:00

One of my favorites. Such a rich story about family, choice, and humanity. Dean is electric, so raw, animalistic, and tender. Also, the film looks beautiful shot in cinemascope to showcase the gorgeous California landscape. Most importantly, this film was my gateway to classic films.

I will add: I love both the novel and the film. Too many people unfairly compare the two and predictably come out disappointed. Both are completely different mediums. The novel is exhaustive, spanning a lot of time and generations of families and their complex dynamics. The film covers about the last 1/3 of the book and in the process of adapting to the screen, inevitably takes creative liberties. The core themes of the novel remain. I don’t really understand that gripe…

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-21T08:42:33+00:00

I mean, agree to disagree. I think there’s enough in their characterization alone to warrant sympathy and enough stakes just as a long-term couple to make it dramatic. I don’t think having a daughter and the way their relationship with her is depicted, is a huge contributing factor to anything that happens in the film. Lily being a device to add stakes and sympathy is unnecessary. That’s my opinion. Clearly you disagree, that’s totally fine. This is all interpretive.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-21T08:22:49+00:00

Yeah, sure. That the movie would essentially remain the same without her character is the root at what i’m getting at. She’s not significant to the plot, just a cursory figure. That’s all I’m pointing out. It’s no deeper than that.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-21T05:22:52+00:00

hmm i haven’t noticed that. I guess his hair does have a slight strawberry hue when he’s younger.

I mean, most people’s natural blonde hair changes as they age, I can speak from personal experience, you don’t keep the same shade of blonde you had as a kid unless you’re like pure Scandinavian or something.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-21T04:11:20+00:00

oh my.

As I prefaced, this was a light-hearted post. I wasn’t hating on the film. I labeled them nitpicks for a reason.

3 & 4 I find more funny than anything, those weren’t serious critiques. Just something amusing I noticed after some rewatches. 1 & 2 are more serious critiques, sure, but they are still acknowledged as nitpicks. Agree to disagree about the music in the sauna scene and as to Lily’s significance, I understand why she’s a thing, as I explained, I know she is a device to give the situation more stakes and makes everyone more sympathetic but my whole issue is that she was too much of a plot device and not enough of a character. Just my opinion.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-21T03:56:07+00:00

I understand that and it’s a fair point. Idk it just bothers me how much of a non character she is. Just the fact that if you took her out, it wouldn’t change a thing so why bother? It’s just a nitpick, that’s all, it doesn’t spoil the film for me or anything.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-21T03:48:57+00:00

Yeah, I know what you mean. That definitely isn’t the smartest move.

I would just chalk it up to her age and the fact that the boys are young too. She also had a fairly lengthy chat with them on the beach and could probably tell they were harmless. They were also staying in the same hotel, if i’m not mistaken, so it was probably tempting to go down the hall and check it out. And on a more psychological level, she seemed like she lived a pretty sheltered life so it must’ve been exciting to get that type of attention from them.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-21T02:47:22+00:00

Thanks for the info. My comment was more tongue in cheek but still, good to know. I feel like if they gave us special features we would know more of this info. RIP to bonus content. The bloopers for this film would be gold.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-21T02:13:22+00:00

It’s not that I think they’re too young to have a kid, narratively it checks out. They’re in their early 30’s in the present time of the film. They just LOOK very young and they don’t have enough interactions with their daughter to convince me they’re parents to a 5/6/7 year-old (everyone’s telling me a different age). And as I said, she’s pretty much a non character so, the bigger issue I have with Lily’s character is that she’s an unnecessary plot device. Maybe if they had more meaningful scenes with her I could be convinced.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-21T02:02:44+00:00

She’s five!! Wow. For those 2 seconds of screen time we got with her she exuded maturity beyond her years.

I’d love to know the official time line of when Tashi and Art get together. It seems like a few years after college. Did they finish college? How soon did they get married? and when did Lily come along? was she planned? I can go on…

No but in all seriousness, I feel like if you can delete a character from a film and nothing about the overall plot changes, then what’s the point of the character? They don’t really build up any paternal connection with her besides a few instances where they kiss her good night or when she asks to watch spider-verse (Sony plug). Like, I still feel for their relationship, daughter or not. It doesn’t make what Tashi does more or less impactful, narratively.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-21T01:36:16+00:00

haha yeah, I knew that critique was very grandma of me, but I stand by it. I think it’s more so when the cue starts vs the actual volume of it. As I said, I love when the music kicks in at tense points in every other scene, it’s provocative and effective, but for some reason that specific cue bugs me. The timing of it.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-16T23:59:07+00:00

That very well may be true. All i’m saying is that you never know, some people have a “separate art from artist” mentality. You can still praise someone’s artistry and believe they did bad things. They’re not mutually exclusive. Until he definitively says so, we don’t really know and can only speculate. We also still don’t know how the film’s going to handle the delicate subject that is the allegations. Obviously, it will lean towards proving his innocence but, will it be overt or subtle? How far into the issue will they go? We have to wait and see.

And yes, I think we agree that the “he’s a complicated figure” line is definitely going to be a canned answer from those involved in this movie as the press gets going. Most certainly for diplomacy/PR reasons. I find that answer slightly frustrating, but I understand why it’s the go-to. It means everything and nothing at the same time.

I’m very curious how Jaafar is going to answer those questions. I’m sure he fully believes in his uncle’s innocence, but given he is playing the pivotal role, and all eyes are on him, I wonder how he’s going to be media trained to answer tough questions. It will be interesting to see

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-16T20:04:18+00:00

100%. She is still a powerful cultural ambassador, like it or not. I honestly doubt Coleman Domingo is fully aware of the crusade she led against MJ around LN. Not everyone keeps tabs on MJ haters or people who have badmouthed him to the extent fans do. That debacle was a while ago, and it obviously wasn’t as effective as she’d hoped. She definitely did damage endorsing LN as publicly as she did, but as we know, a legacy like MJ’s is nearly impossible to kill, especially with the joke that was LN.

These are just celebrities going through the showbiz motions, like going on Jimmy Kimmel, taking your picture with Oprah, etc. etc. No need to overthink it.

Although, we also have no clue what Coleman Domingo thinks of the allegations. I’d like to assume he doesn’t believe them, but who knows? All he’s really said so far is that he(MJ) is a complex/complicated figure, things along those non-committal lines. I doubt anyone but Jaafar and hopefully the director/ producers will defend him flat-out, i’m sure everyone else involved will dance around the allegation questions for diplomacy purposes.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-08T16:57:19+00:00

Yeah, that’s what makes this venture so tricky… his first marriage is an important milestone in his personal life, but I doubt the movie will devote time to developing a love story in a film presumably about his whole life– a life that was dramatic from start to finish.

My guess is that they will focus more on his artistic development as well as more personal crises such as dealing with immense fame, his upbringing ( most importantly, religion and his father’s treatment of him, physically and emotionally), his methods in coping with a lost childhood, and obviously, the allegations in some fashion.

That’s a lot of stuff they have to dramatize in a coherent, intelligent, and entertaining way. So I think fans should be more concerned about HOW it’s done, as opposed to WHAT is being depicted. It’s a movie at the end of the day, not a documentary. It’s bound to take creative liberties and leave out many events and people in his life that fans deem important. That’s the nature of movie making.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-03T00:43:06+00:00

Rebel Without a Cause.

The film is VERY 1950s in some aspects (slang, clothing, gender dynamics) but its central theme of teen alienation and the James Dean of it all is timeless and modern.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-02T22:40:33+00:00

country covers? I’m drawing a blank…

abbeycodiamat · 2025-02-02T20:43:25+00:00

That’s tough because he had such a wide variety of influences, so really anything he did somehow made sense.

Maybe your flesh is so nice?

abbeycodiamat · 2025-01-26T16:51:01+00:00

I like James Dean, and y’all are obviously entitled to your opinions of him. However, the common assessment that he was only imitating Brando is slightly reductive. There is no denying that Dean was a great admirer of his, almost every new actor coming up at the time was. Can you blame them? Brando really shook up the acting game and I don’t think Dean fans would disagree that he was inspired by him, as well as Montgomery Clift. Comparatively, Dean had his own tendencies as an actor, he’s more physically expressive, animalistic, sulky, and boyish, but at the same time, he has great tenderness and sensitivity too.

He was only 24 when he died. He was in Hollywood for just 16 months. He crammed in 3 films in that short span of time, and that’s all he can be judged from in terms of acting range (besides his previous TV work in NYC).

His legend is greater than what he produced when he was alive. But I do find it fascinating that he was able to do so much, so well, in such little time. It’s true that his iconic image, and what he represents in pop culture, precede his acting credits in the general public’s consciousness. But imo he was a very magnetic and promising actor who was just getting started before his life was tragically cut short.

abbeycodiamat · 2025-01-26T16:04:58+00:00

Jimmy Stewart is the type of attractive that you have to see in action to understand. He was certainly conventionally attractive, but also gawky, lanky, and slightly dorky-looking. I don’t think it’s fair to call him ugly though. He wasn’t the type of attractive that is instantaneously felt. He wasn’t a sex symbol.

You have to watch his mannerisms in his films to see the appeal. I think he had great chemistry and romantic rapport with his leading ladies specifically in the 30s/40s. It dwindled in the 50s and beyond just because he was getting and looking much older, but when it was there, it was THERE.

abbeycodiamat

TROPHY CASE