Author: claudia

This post comes from two things:

1) A quote I saw making the Tumblr rounds, which said, “I’m not like other girls!” It went on to avow wearing Converse instead of heels, preferring computer games to shopping, so on and so forth. When I saw it, about 41,000 girls had said they weren’t like “the others.”

2) A few weeks ago, I posted a comment on Twitter saying that, if the internet had been around in 1980 (the year “Empire Strikes Back” came out), we’d all be Team Luke or Team Han. Some guy took it upon himself to inform me – to explain to me, like I was not alive and aware during that year – that “girls didn’t like Star Wars.” He insisted that we were, in 1980, only interested in Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy, the heartthrob stars of “The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries.” (Surely some girls also liked Pamela Sue Anderson as Nancy Drew, but we shall let the heteronormative side of this slide for now.)

Let’s try to count everything that’s wrong with that, if we can:

In 1980, EVERYONE EVERYWHERE IN THE WHOLE WORLD LOVED STAR WARS. I cannot emphasize this enough. From 1977 to 1983, Star Wars was basically as popular as Harry Potter, Twilight, Hunger Games, One Direction, American Idol, NASCAR, chocolate, and oxygen, combined. Also, EVERYONE EVERYWHERE IN THE WHOLE WORLD includes girls. I personally built an X-Wing fighter simulator in my closet, owned a “Star Wars Passport” that guaranteed me entry to Mos Eisley Spaceport and Cloud City (have not tested this, more’s the pity), and had collected a group of Star Wars action figures that rivaled my brother’s in quantity and desirability. He really only had the edge because the Millennium Falcon playset was his, though I played with it nearly as much as he did. (Once, when allowed to borrow the Lando Calrissian action figure that was clearly and undeniably my property, said brother traded it to another kid – for a lowly Hoth Ranger, no less! – and that remains a point of contention to this day. Yes, we’re in our 40s. Your point?)

And no, I was not the only girl out there who felt that way. All my friends loved Star Wars. Lucasfilm made Princess Leia dolls, and Princess Leia bubble bath, and Princess Kneesa stuffed Ewoks with pink headwraps; they knew there were little girls who loved and wanted these things. I’m in a Mardi Gras krewe here in New Orleans called Chewbacchus – cofounded by a woman – in which women and men both dress up in science fiction costumes to parade around. A good friend of mine named Jen Heddle loved Star Wars as a kid, then as an adult, so much and so deeply that she now works for Lucasfilm. Every single one of those women grew up loving Star Wars. No, it wasn’t just me.

And you know what? I loved Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy too.* Why? They were cute, damn it. And that is JUST FINE.

Because we’re all individuals – we’re all big enough to contain multiple enthusiasm, multiple ways of life. Everyone. And, as I said above, everyone includes girls.

It saddens me to see girls proudly declaring they’re not like other girls – especially when it’s 41,000 girls saying it in a chorus, never recognizing the contradiction. It’s taking a form of contempt for women – even a hatred for women – and internalizing it by saying, Yes, those girls are awful, but I’m special, I’m not like that, instead of stepping back and saying, This is a lie.

“I know someone like that!” you might be saying. Well, a bunch us know someone like that. But does that description fit most of the girls and women you know? The people you spend time with? Why should those few individuals define us all, and why would we buy into that perception? And also, even the people you think are like that? You might be surprised what’s going on beneath the surface.

The real meaning of “I’m not like the other girls” is, I think, “I’m not the media’s image of what girls should be.” Well, very, very few of us are. Pop culture wants to tell us that we’re all shallow, backstabbing, appearance-obsessed shopaholics without a thought in our heads beyond cute boys and cuter handbags. It’s a lie – a flat-out lie – and we need to recognize it and say so instead of accepting that judgment as true for other girls, but not for you.

They will tell you that everything girls love is stupid and horrible. They said that about Elvis Presley; they said it about the Beatles; they said it about Frank Sinatra. Guys didn’t discover those artists, now recognized to be among the greatest of all time. GIRLS DID. Meanwhile, they will tell you that everything that appeals to guys is actually really cool, in defiance of all reason. There are grown men who will get into arguments about Optimus Prime.

And yet — there are girls who love Transformers! And guys who had huge crushes on Elvis!

Me? I wear Converse instead of heels. I definitely spend more time on Tumblr than I do shopping. I continue to be interested in Star Wars. And you know what? Today, I bought two handbags. One of them was pink. That doesn’t make me shallow, vapid, unintelligent or incapable of enjoying absolutely anything I’d like to enjoy. It just makes me someone with a killer cute pink handbag.

What I’m trying to say is, There are as many ways to be “girly” as there are girls in this world. There are always going to be people out there telling you that if you like things pop culture tells you are girly, you’re stupid, and that if you claim to like things pop culture tells you are guy stuff, you’re lying. And what I’m saying is that all these people are full of crap.

Love what you love. Be proud of it. Anybody who tells you what you “should” or “should not” like, because you’re a girl, is a big fat liar. You ARE like the other girls, like we all are, in that none of us came off some Female Assembly Line. We’re all individuals. We should all get to express it without being judged – either by pop culture or by ourselves.

*Though I loved them back in 1977, when that series was actually on; it was off the air by 1980. Stupid Belligerent Pop Culture Dude did not even know Pop Culture. It’s sad, really.

I shall now dismount my soapbox and get back to the important work of revising my latest book outline and looking at cute pictures of James McAvoy.

Apparently this film has been the source of both great love and great derision out there in moviegoer land! I can actually express both emotions for “Prometheus,” but I definitely enjoyed it more than not.

STUFF I DIDN’T LIKE:

1) Some of these scientists were obviously graduates of the “University of People So Stupid They Will Get Themselves Killed Straight Off In Horror Films.” I mean, I don’t mind the occasional totally human panic-flail by a movie character; I often think we hold fictional people to much, much higher standards of logical conduct than we ever meet ourselves. But several of these guys were morons. “Hey, it’s an alien life form I’ve never seen before! I’m gonna try to pet it!” Then you deserve death.

2) Aside for the moronic bit players, remarkably few of the characters were deeply developed. Some of them were essentially ciphers, sometimes even personable and charismatic ones, but I wanted to invest a little more deeply. In the case of Meredith Vickers, holding back made sense (more on that later), but I’d have liked to know much more about Captain Janek, the Scottish woman whose name I never got (you see the problem?) and above all …

3) Charlie Holloway, played by Logan Marshall Green. Whereas several of the underdeveloped characters were at least played by actors so talented that they managed to breathe life into it (Idris Elba = the master), this part was both badly written and badly cast. I did not for two seconds think that this guy was a scientist, a visionary, in love with Elizabeth Shaw, any of it. The only moments where he was remotely credible were when he was baiting David about being non-human, and that’s him at his lowest — a bad sign. Since the first half of the movie is very much set up to provide tension between Charlie, Elizabeth and Meredith, having one point on that triangle be so weak diminished the whole movie. I mean, LMG is hot and all — if he ever wants to audition for taking me to dinner, he can read — but he was not the guy to rescue an underwritten part, at least not this one.

4) Too many plot contrivances took place only for the demands of action-movie pacing, and the action-movie stuff is never the best thing “Prometheus” has going. Better, I think, had they stuck with the suspense, which works wonderfully. There’s a gory, over the top action sequence that kills two people in a way meant to be horrible, but which had me and my friend laughing out loud … and then it’s immediately followed by a quiet, low-key scene that, in one two-second camera angle, conveyed more real horror than any of the gore had. We needed more of the latter, less of the former.

STUFF THAT MAKES ME GO HMMMM:

1) Apparently a lot of people are all huffy because this movie is about a search for Cosmic Truths and we don’t get them! Like, yeah, this action movie is going to tell us for once and for all what God is or your money back. Everybody should just lighten up. I was slightly peeved at one point at the fact that the mystery had become more opaque over time, but then as the movie went on, that began to make much more sense to me. It is, I think, the point of the movie: The harder you search for absolutes, the more they slip away. Shaw doesn’t give up, but what looked like scientific inquiry in the beginning has now been redefined as a search of faith. And I strongly prefer being given no answers to those kind of cosmic questions than being given lame ones.

2) Why in the name of what did they cast Guy Pearce as a 92 year old? Extreme old age makeup continues to be very unconvincing. I assumed we got that because there would be flashbacks to Peter Weyland as a young man, but it didn’t happen. Why not get Christopher Plummer, or Christopher Lee, or — if he’s still in shape for such, about which I have no idea — the absolute perfect person would have been Peter O’Toole. That said, Pearce gave a good performance. He’s just a mystifying choice.

STUFF I LOVED:

1) Michael Fassbender as David is the best thing in this movie — and he keeps his clothes on the whole time, so you know my opinion here is honest. David is a robot, but not an automaton, and the constant tease between everything he’s not supposed to feel versus everything he does and doesn’t feel is probably the single most fascinating part of “Prometheus.” He does some terrible things, but for motivations that are ultimately understandable both because of his robotic nature (he must, after all, follow Weyland’s orders wherever they lead) and whatever else he may feel (there’s a suggestion that Weyland’s fatherly emotions toward him may be genuinely appreciated). He’s the single coldest character in the film, and yet the few times we sense real wonder and joy, we do so through his eyes. The friend I saw the film with said, as soon as the credits began, “The whole thing should have been about David,” and I would agree, except for …

2) Noomi Rapace as Elizabeth Shaw. She convinced me she was both a scientist and a person of faith, and if the script sometimes muddied her purpose, her performance kept the character and the film on track. She plays the single scariest scene in the entire film — the surgical pod scene — with such intensity that I found myself short of breath at the end. (Also, how much do I love that, for once in film, a woman impregnated against her will with an evil/alien/demonic being doesn’t get sentimental as though this were an actual baby and instead says, “This should NOT BE HAPPENING, period”? A lot, that’s how much.) Although the script seemed to want to forget the physical trauma she’d been through, Rapace never did; she makes it clear that she is pushing herself through this by will alone, because she has no other choice.

3) I also really enjoyed Charlize Theron as Meredith Vickers, although for about 2/3 of the movie I thought she was going to be one of the elements I most disliked. At first, honestly, Vickers comes across as so controlling and so petty that I was thinking, “Man, she got to show a softer side as the Evil Queen in Snow White.” But once Vickers’ true connection to Weyland comes out, and we glimpse what’s underlying her motivations — particularly her animosity toward David — her performance suddenly made perfect sense.

4) The visuals on this: WOW. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen more dazzling effects. The holographic displays on both the Prometheus and the alien vessel were awe-inspiring, in a very I-want-to-go-to-there way. The ship itself is a believable, functional and yet dazzling thing. In the scene where they break atmosphere and head for the planet’s surface, I wanted to applaud; it was that stunning. And sometimes that design works to haunting effect, as in when David watches “Lawrence of Arabia,” or when Vickers’ luxurious escape pod is transformed, in the end, to a chamber of horrors complete with classical music and off-kilter chandelier. These weren’t only good design, they were also key elements of making me feel that I was truly in another time, on another world. That’s the stuff movie magic is made of.

5) I’m just going to call out the surgical-pod scene separately. That FREAKED ME OUT, in the best sense. That’s the core of cold, clinical horror that underlay “Alien” so beautifully, and that Ridley Scott does so well. And only on the way home did I realize that the pod’s default-male setting was not an annoying contrivance but Big Time Foreshadowing.

6) Finally, I loved the ending. Loved, loved, LOVED. Dude, Elizabeth’s riding off into the sunset with David literally in pieces at her side, about to find the gods and ask them some hard questions, just because she can. I can imagine it as brilliant scifi, but it could also be the road-trip movie of all time, or the romcom the 21st century has been waiting for. Whatever they’re selling, I’m in line for, is what I’m saying here.

One week unt
il “Brave,” right?

This weekend I’m finishing copyedits on SPELLCASTER! So excited for you guys to see this one …

So, I’d been looking forward to this movie for months. Did it live up to my (largely self-created) hyped-up anticipation? Not quite … but I still liked it.

STUFF I LIKED:

1) Charlize Theron is like a huge flaming meteor of awesome that blazes across the night sky. She was over-the-top villainous when it was called for — but she also had moments of humanity that convinced you some horrible stuff must have happened to turn Ravenna into what she became.

2) Chris Hemsworth = so, so hot. I’m sorry, perfectly attractive guy who plays William, but I am Team Huntsman all the way. He invested his character with more personality than the script did, and to fine effect.

3) Kristin Stewart — would you believe I’ve never seen a “Twilight” movie? Or any of her other flicks? So this was my first exposure to her, at all. She draws a lot of flack for her acting skills, but honestly, I thought she did well. There were unconvincing moments, but IMHO they mostly arose from an underwritten script, not from her. And she got a lot out of scenes like her first-ever dance with one of the dwarves, or that first encounter with the Queen’s creepy brother.

4) The Queen’s Creepy Brother: No, I don’t remember his name, but he was One Creepy Mofo.

5) The visual effects were astonishing. Every single sequence involving the Queen’s magic was imaginative, beautiful and startling. I even loved the Sanctuary … and usually, you know, creative imagination falters more with goodness and beauty than it does with evil and terror, but here, I felt like Sanctuary was as well-thought-out as the queen’s spells. The mossy tortoise is going to stay with me for a while, I think.

6) The scene with the apple is so perfectly done that I have to pull it out for special awards of merit.

7) I may be Team Huntsman, but William was kind of bad-ass with that bow and arrow, wasn’t he? I also liked his trickiness in joining forces with the Queen’s men as a kind of double agent.

STUFF I DIDN’T LIKE

1) That script was really underwritten, particularly in the middle. I felt like we needed to get more depth in the relationship between Snow White and the Huntsman — if he’s able to awaken her with True Love’s Kiss, then I want to feel more basis for that love than mere admiration. Just another couple of conversations (or perhaps a dance by the fire) would have gone a long, long way.

2) I’d also liked to have seen a few more flashes of wit. This movie doesn’t have much of a sense of humor. Don’t get me wrong; I LIKE that it plays it straight, that this is blessedly not “Mirror, Mirror.” But the characters could occasionally have a bit of fun with each other while still taking the core concepts seriously.

3) This is more of a “hrm” than a “nooo!”, but I would have liked to see the concept that “beauty = goodness” more explicitly contradicted. I mean, it’s there: Ravenna is simultaneously most beautiful and most evil for a very long time. We’re given to understand that it is Snow White’s purity of motive and deed, rather than her physical appearance, that gives her the power she possesses. And Ravenna’s link between beauty and power is not something inherent, but the result of a specific spell cast by her equally screwed-up mother. Still, though, I think the point could have been made more emphatically; there was room to deconstruct the story a little more.

4) Okay, every time we were away from the Queen or Sanctuary, it was like the director and art director on the movie would no longer acknowledge any color but “mud.” COME ON, PEOPLE. It’s hard enough following complicated action scenes when you can tell everyone apart.

So, while this movie may not have cashed the check of TOTAL AWESOME suggested by its promos and that wonderful Florence and the Machine song, it was still a good time.

Next up: “Prometheus”!

Also, you will notice that I am back to my blog! After my long travels came a time of working on proposals, and while that time has not ended, it has at least subsided to the point where I have free time again. Look for more nattering soon.

First things first — the tours are almost over and have been a whopping success! So, so great to meet all of you who came to Oxford, Doylestown, Salt Lake City, Miami, Atlanta, LA, the Somerset Festival, Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth! Does reading that list exhaust you? Well, doing it has tuckered me right out. I am currently taking a few days of R&R before heading to Auckland, NZ, for my final BALTHAZAR promotional event this Saturday. (If you’re in Auckland, or can be, I hope you will be there!)

But for now I must talk to you, o kindred spirits, about “The Hunger Games” movie, which I saw in Perth:

I LOVED IT.

Seriously, I adored it. I had high hopes from the get-go, but the film adaptation went beyond my wildest expectations.

Let’s get a few quibbles out of the way first, though:

Stuff I disliked:

1) Diminishing Thresh — No, Thresh isn’t a major character in the book, but we get a very real sense of him as a person with both courage and integrity. IMHO, that didn’t come across in the movie. Yes, he agrees to let Katniss go once for Rue’s sake … but he does so angrily, and the moment passes in an instant. Since Thresh was someone I cared about far more than, say, Clove or Marvel, I wish we’d had the two more minutes of screen time that would have defined him more.

2) President Snow Rigs the Games — Don’t get me wrong: of course he rigs the Games. But I thought that element of it was introduced a little too early. President Snow has it out for Katniss in the movie before it should even be clear that Katniss is a threat. The same scene twenty minutes later in the film would have been far more believable to me.

Stuff I wasn’t sure about:

Haymitch — Woody Harrelson is SO not how I would have gone for Haymitch, and yet I thought he delivered a terrific performance. It’s a totally valid interpretation of the character, and one that has me intrigued to learn more about him in a way I never fully felt in the books. However — is he too together? In every scene he has in the film, Harrelson makes it clear that Haymitch is the guy who outlasted everyone else in his Games, who has taken life many times and could easily do it again. (That moment where he puts his foot against Peeta’s chest? I didn’t doubt for a second that Haymitch could’ve killed him with that foot if he wanted to.) And, yes, on one level that’s who that character is. But Haymitch is supposed to be a total wreck. While I can accept the different interpretation in this film, in CATCHING FIRE, one of the rationales behind Peeta taking Haymitch’s place in the Quarter Quell is that Haymitch wouldn’t stand a chance with his aging, alcoholic body. Harrelson’s Haymitch? If he went in, I’d lay odds on him to win. Like I say, it’s not that it doesn’t work, because it does; it’s more that I wonder how it plays out long-term.

Stuff I loved:

ALL OF IT

Ahem.

1) Jennifer Lawrence – love her, love her, love her. As many of you know, I was kind of rooting for Haylee Stenfield to get the part (and I still think she’d have been good), but that was never an anti-Jennifer Lawrence stand. Have loved her since “Winter’s Bone,” and she just nailed it here in every scene.

2) Josh Hutcherson — for the first ten minutes, I wasn’t at all sure about him. He wasn’t grabbing me; I hardly knew whether to like him or distrust him. And then of course it hit me, That’s EXACTLY how you should feel about Peeta at that point. As the film went on, his performance expanded to fill our greater understanding of the character, and in the end I thought he utterly nailed it.

3) Elizabeth Banks — This is probably the single performance that came closest to my idea of the character in the books. (Which is not the be-all end-all — I am always open to an interpretation that expands our idea of the people we’ve read about — but it is nonetheless satisfying.) She was fabulous, and am I the only one that thought she and Haymitch might have had a very self-destructive thing back in the day?

4) Oh heck all the other performances — Donald Sutherland = magnificent. Lenny Kravitz = magnificent. Stanley Tucci = I will be building an altar to you at my next convenience. So, so good.

5) The overall look and feel — this very much captured the Capitol in its decadence, the Games in their ferocity and District 12 in its desperation. (I finally came around to the nicer dresses in the Reaping scene, as that was explained, though I still think Ktniss’ leather jacket should look a little more worn, a little less tailored.) And as over the top and futuristic as so much of it was, I thought it retained credibility throughout. I was really able to get lost in it.

6) The suspense — there were several moments where I found myself holding my breath in fear and, you know, I know how it ends. Good job, Gary Ross.

So, did you guys enjoy it as much as I did?

BTW, it will be a while before I reply — this tropical town is short on internet — but I definitely want to hear what you think!

Man, you guys love thinking about Balthazar.

You imagined him in London stalking Jack the Ripper, on safari in Africa, guarding the Romanovs, dancing with flappers in 1920s jazz halls, wisely fleeing the French Revolution, and even hanging out on Bourbon Street, which as a New Orleanian I appreciate. And several of you pointed out — correctly — that he’s been at Evernight Academy more than once before, working on building up that self-control, so he doesn’t go all Charity on everybody.

But without further ado: Congrats to winners Carolina D.V., Rachel C. and Leighjean G.! You get autographed BALTHAZARs (the book, not the guy, more’s the pity), which I hope you will enjoy!

Speaking of contests — I still haven’t gotten address from two of the winners of Contest #1. Do you want these vampire rubber duckies to remain homeless? Drop me a line, guys!

Better late than never — my tour dates for my upcoming trip to Australia!

Somerset Celebration of Literature
Somerset College, Somerset Drive, Mudgeeraba in Queensland

March 15: Speaking and signing at sessions @ 10:15 a.m. and 12:45 p.m.

March 16: Speaking and signing at sessions @ 11:15 a.m. and 1:45 p.m.

Brisbane

March 17:

Signing at Black Cat Books @ 11:30 a.m.
Signing at Dymocks Brisbane @ 1 p.m.

Melbourne

March 18:

Signing and speaking at Dymocks Collins Street @ 4 p.m.

Sydney

March 20:

Morning event at Hurstville School for Girls

Dymocks online author chat @ 2 p.m. (check with Dymocks online for details of how to join in)

Speaking and signing at Dymocks Broadway @ 5 p.m.

Perth

March 21:

Speaking and signing at Dymocks Carousel @ 4 p.m.

March 22:

Speaking and signing at Dymocks Garden City @ 6 p.m.

**

I will also be doing some drop-ins during the day at other bookstores in Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, which means that you may be able to get a book signed even if we don’t get a chance to chat. Hope to meet so many of you there!

Congratulations go out to our_birdsong, carolinarojas, and Lora W. who each won signed copies of AFTERLIFE and adorable little vampire rubber duckies. Way to go, guys!

Now it’s time for BALTHAZAR Contest #2 —

If you’ve read the EVERNIGHT series*, you know Balthazar has been around a long time and has led a very dark and mysterious life. A lot of answers about his past come out in BALTHAZAR, which means this is your last chance to speculate!

BALTHAZAR Contest #3

The Rules

1) Write up (in a sentence or a paragraph, you pick) your idea about where Balthazar was and what he was doing at some point in history between the early 1600s and today. Serving on a privateer ship in the Gulf of Mexico? Wearing a powdered wig? New York’s #1 subway graffiti tagger circa 1975? You tell me!

2) Send your idea via email to me at evernightclaudia at gmail dot com, along with an address where I can send your prize if you win.

3) Do all this before Wednesday, February 29 when I’ll pick five winners at random.

Winners will received signed and personalized copies of BALTHAZAR, and they’ll probably get to you a day or two before release!

Good luck, everybody!

* And if you haven’t? For a limited time, the EVERNIGHT e-book is free for download onto any e-reader! Plenty of time to get caught up before BALTHAZAR comes out March 6 —

… tonight’s not such a great night for Mardi Gras, is it? Endymion is rolling, but through the rain, which means lots of people (most certainly including me) are going to have to find something else to do with their time tonight. Of course, New Orleans provides plenty of entertainment anytime, but what about the throws? How can you make up for all the shiny beads and useless colorful objects that would have been flung into your waiting hands tonight?

Well, you can come to the Iris parade Uptown tomorrow; we roll at 10 a.m. (Route is available online through the magic of Google.) And I’m riding! If you get on the sidewalk side, look for float 12. Hold up your sign or yell CLAUDIA! to rider #4 on the lower level, and I absolutely promise, I will throw you good stuff if I possibly can!

And by then, the rain will finally have stopped. So it’s a win-win —

It’s two weeks and six days until the release of BALTHAZAR — I know! Where did the time go? — and that means it’s contest time.

Those of you who follow me on Twitter, Instagram or Tumblr will have seen …

Wait. Let me back up. Do you follow me on any of those services? You should! As a further FYI, I follow back on Instagram and Tumblr. (At least, I give you a shot. If you spam the ever-living heck out of it, you might get dropped. But I’ve only wound up doing that once so far, so chances are you’re solid!)

Anyway, such wise followers have been privileged to see the picture of the freakin’ adorable vampire rubber ducks I found in a French Quarter store this weekend. That is correct. Fanged, cute, vampire rubber ducks. I knew I could not leave them all there. What if they swarmed and attacked the store-keeper? Something had to be done.

So! This week’s prize: THREE lucky winners will each get their very own vampire rubber duckie and an autographed paperback copy of AFTERLIFE. (Which you ought to review, seeing as how BALTHAZAR picks up not too long after …) What do you have to do to enter?

Rules:

1) Follow me on Tumblr or Twitter. (Some of you already have this part down. Yay!)
2) Post a review of/quote from/image of one of the books with some notice of the BALTHAZAR U.S. release on March 6. It’s also legit to reblog another such post on Tumblr. If you’re following me on Tumblr, I’ll see it; if you’re on Twitter, add the @claudiagray so I’ll be sure to see that, too.
3) Do these things before Wednesday, Feb. 22, when I’ll pick three winners at random!
4) Respond when I contact you afterward so I can get your address to find out where to ship your mega-cute vampire rubber ducky AND your autographed copy of AFTERLIFE. (And yes, I’ll ship anywhere.)

And just so you have the link: My Tumblr!
My Twitter!

(I have not one clue how to link to my Instagram. Both the Twitter and Tumblr link to it, though. Sorry for my technoignorance.)

Good luck to everyone!

The Movie: “Running On Empty”

1988, starring Judd Hirsch (from a sitcom called “Taxi”), Christine Lahti (who won a Golden Globe one time but was IN THE BATHROOM when the award was given and the whole live telecast had to STOP while they waited on her to wash her hands and come out, and as such is the survivor of embarrassment on a truly epic scale), Martha Plimpton (AWESOME in EVERYTHING) and River Phoenix (Indiana Jones, junior edition).

The Plot: Danny’s family doesn’t have much money, but in every other way, you’d think he had it all. His parents are loving, interesting people who talk to him like he’s a rational person and five him a lot of trust. His younger brother is almost as funny as he is annoying, which is pretty good as far as younger brothers go. He’s an incredibly gifted piano student, as the music teacher at his new school has almost instantly discovered; in fact, he might get to try out for Juilliard. And that music teacher has a daughter, Lorna, who’s smart, funny and definitely as into him as he is into her.

The problem is that nobody at his new school — including Lorna — knows Danny’s real name, or anything about the life he actually leads. His family has been on the run from the FBI since the early 1970s when Danny was just a toddler. Mom and Dad opposed the Vietnam War, joined a radical group perhaps similar to the Weather Underground, and bombed a napalm laboratory. What they didn’t realize when they set the bomb was that somebody was still inside.

Now they move from city to city, never telling the truth to anyone but each other. But Danny’s in his senior year of high school now. Does he ever get to go to college? To use his incredible musical talent? Can he ever tell the truth about himself to Lorna? If he can’t, then how can he ever honestly let her love him? And now the FBI seems to have caught up with them again —

The Love: Oh, my heart. Danny and Lorna just kill me, every time. Lorna is played by Martha Plimpton (yes! The grandma from “Raising Hope”!), and Danny is played by the late River Phoenix, who sadly was the Heath Ledger of his era, an incredibly talented, devastatingly handsome actor whose life ended too soon because of drugs. At the time, Plimpton and Phoenix were involved in real life; I hate saying the chemistry shows, because actors are actors and they are in the business of faking attraction so expertly we believe it, but … the chemistry shows. Lorna is snarky and funny, and she never lets Danny get away with anything. This is maybe why he feels so compelled to be honest with her, though telling the truth is the one thing his parents have conditioned him, all his life, never to do.

And they have such an offbeat, quirky, real attraction. It’s not all mood lighting and pop songs on the soundtrack; it’s Danny trying on stupid hats in her room, or both of them trying not to crack up when they’re cooking partners in home ec, or a long day on the beach that is simultaneously incredibly romantic and deeply heartbreaking — because every time he wants to tell her the truth about something, he instead runs ahead of her along the shore. And he runs ahead a lot.

There’s a moment between them that I’ve cited as a fabulous example of storytelling through a simple gesture. At one point, Danny sneaks into Lorna’s room late at night – they’ve been fighting — and when she is startled awake, he tells her to come downstairs with him. She does. Then he insists they go outside. For a moment, Lorna’s weirded out and we are too, a little. What kind of guy does this? What is he playing at?

Then Lorna says she can’t go outside, because it’s cold and she has bare feet. Danny instantly kneels down and unlaces his own shoes to give to her.

BAM. You know, in that moment, no matter how weird Danny is acting, he would never, ever hurt Lorna. He’ll brave the cold himself rather than see her uncomfortable. Her trust in him returns, along with our trust in him. It’s a phenomenal piece of characterization, and a great relationship scene.

The Best Parts: As great as the romance is, I’d be lying if I didn’t say the centerpiece of the movie is really about Danny’s relationship with his parents. They’re so great to him in so many ways — but it’s in large part because they’re aware that they have royally screwed him over. Also, you realize how much the mom and dad don’t agree on what should happen to Danny next; it’s a difference so profound that you wonder whether they’d even still be married if they didn’t have to sustain this family on the run.

The Worst Parts> There’s honestly not a bad scene in this movie. There is one bad line, though, amid one of the actual greatest scenes — when Danny’s mother meets up with her own dad, whom she hasn’t laid eyes on in almost 20 years. It would be criminal of me to spoil this scene, but let’s just say that the whole thing goes about making this point subtly and yet powerfully — but then they make the grandfather just spell it all out, like we’re idiots who couldn’t get that for ourselves. We got it, honestly.

So highly recommended. Available on Netflix, too.

**

If you foliow me on Twitter (and if not, why not?), then you’ve seen the announcement of a tour date in New Zealand! I’ll be at the Next Page bookstore at 2 pm on March 31, ready to sign and answer questions and whatever else might be in store. Yes, I’ll be touring Australia before that, but I haven’t received solid dates for that yet; I hope to turn that around this week, though!