Icon Request + Movie Review
Jul. 5th, 2016 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunabee341. Several of you pointed me to some great images and other potential resources for celiac icons (thank you wendelah1 and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
decynthus and anyone else I may be forgetting!). I realized, though, when looking at those images that I hadn't been asking for the right thing in that original request. I think I want something kind of funny and fandom related. Then I had this idea: half naked Ronon Dex with 100% gluten free across the bottom or top; or Vanessa Ives with fortunately gluten free across the bottom or top; or any delectable character labeled gluten free. *g*
2. Emma and I watched The Intern with Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway last night, and it was delightful.
It was a truly sweet movie that made me tear up a couple of times. In the movie, De Niro's character becomes an intern at a fast-paced new Brooklyn fashion business because he's lonely and restless as a retired widower. He wants to have some structure to his day, a way to meet and interact with people, and some meaningful work to do. While he's depicted as not being very technologically savvy, it's not really played for laughs the way it might be in some comedies. Instead, he's shown continually learning new technology, going out of his way to acquire skills, and ultimately being comfortable in the 21st century. He is never a fish out of water. There's a wonderful moment of symmetry in the movie when we realize that the building that houses this new company is the one he worked in for decades and that his life has come full circle.
De Niro's character is a mentor for the other interns and people working at the company, offering advice on everything from romance to sartorial choices. But he has a special connection to the company's founder, Jules, and tries his best to help her succeed. Their friendship is very sweet (hot damn, I feel like I've been using this descriptor quite a bit in recent reviews, but it is the perfect term here, I promise!).
The one part of the movie that doesn't really hold up for me under close scrutiny is that I don't really know what statement they're trying to make with Jules. So, on the one hand, she's this incredibly ambitious woman who has built an amazing company and done it relatively quickly; she's extremely involved in every aspect of her business and goes out of her way to make sure things are done properly. Her husband takes care of the child-reading. At no point does the narrative make fun of or belittle these choices. Jules acknowledges that sexism in the corporate world is still an issue, but none of the characters have a problem with Jules being successful and a woman. Her husband mentions that some of the other mothers kind of tease him for being the primary child care provider, but the movie clearly thinks those women are ridiculous and at no point is him being a stay at home dad played for laughs.
On the other hand, Jules spends very little time with her family because she devotes most of her time to working. She doesn't find this acceptable as a long term way to live and neither do her daughter and husband. One of the major plot points is that she's stretched so thin that she doesn't even have time to manage aspects of her business appropriately, and so as a result, the shareholders want her to hire a CEO (essentially someone to be her boss; someone she'd be handing control of her company). This is clearly The Wrong Choice; we want Jules to be the captain of her ship and retain control of what she has created. So, she decides not to hire a CEO, but her time management issue still isn't resolved at the end of the movie.
Further complicating things, Jules's husband has started cheating on her because she's neglecting her family. I don't think the movie means for the take away to be that people who are super career focused should expect to be cheated on or that it was her fault (in fact De Niro's character specifically says it is not her fault), but I wish they'd left him cheating out of the narrative and also given a specific solution to her time management problem (hiring De Niro as an actual manager comes to mind as a solution that would be appropriate given the rest of the movie) because those two things together create kind of uncomfortable connotations for me--that there is no way for a woman to successfully balance career and family (when I see numerous examples in real life of women doing so and think I do a pretty good job myself), that ambition and success in career must always come at the expense of family, and that being career focused makes you a target for adultery.
I promise I really liked this movie despite this quibble. I was thoroughly delighted the whole time I was watching. The characters are warm and real, and I wanted them to succeed and be happy. I definitely think it's worth a watch (and how lovely to watch a movie that isn't three hours long for a change LOL).
wendelah1 and decynthus and anyone else I may be forgetting!). I realized, though, when looking at those images that I hadn't been asking for the right thing in that original request. I think I want something kind of funny and fandom related. Then I had this idea: half naked Ronon Dex with 100% gluten free across the bottom or top; or Vanessa Ives with fortunately gluten free across the bottom or top; or any delectable character labeled gluten free. *g*2. Emma and I watched The Intern with Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway last night, and it was delightful.
It was a truly sweet movie that made me tear up a couple of times. In the movie, De Niro's character becomes an intern at a fast-paced new Brooklyn fashion business because he's lonely and restless as a retired widower. He wants to have some structure to his day, a way to meet and interact with people, and some meaningful work to do. While he's depicted as not being very technologically savvy, it's not really played for laughs the way it might be in some comedies. Instead, he's shown continually learning new technology, going out of his way to acquire skills, and ultimately being comfortable in the 21st century. He is never a fish out of water. There's a wonderful moment of symmetry in the movie when we realize that the building that houses this new company is the one he worked in for decades and that his life has come full circle.
De Niro's character is a mentor for the other interns and people working at the company, offering advice on everything from romance to sartorial choices. But he has a special connection to the company's founder, Jules, and tries his best to help her succeed. Their friendship is very sweet (hot damn, I feel like I've been using this descriptor quite a bit in recent reviews, but it is the perfect term here, I promise!).
The one part of the movie that doesn't really hold up for me under close scrutiny is that I don't really know what statement they're trying to make with Jules. So, on the one hand, she's this incredibly ambitious woman who has built an amazing company and done it relatively quickly; she's extremely involved in every aspect of her business and goes out of her way to make sure things are done properly. Her husband takes care of the child-reading. At no point does the narrative make fun of or belittle these choices. Jules acknowledges that sexism in the corporate world is still an issue, but none of the characters have a problem with Jules being successful and a woman. Her husband mentions that some of the other mothers kind of tease him for being the primary child care provider, but the movie clearly thinks those women are ridiculous and at no point is him being a stay at home dad played for laughs.
On the other hand, Jules spends very little time with her family because she devotes most of her time to working. She doesn't find this acceptable as a long term way to live and neither do her daughter and husband. One of the major plot points is that she's stretched so thin that she doesn't even have time to manage aspects of her business appropriately, and so as a result, the shareholders want her to hire a CEO (essentially someone to be her boss; someone she'd be handing control of her company). This is clearly The Wrong Choice; we want Jules to be the captain of her ship and retain control of what she has created. So, she decides not to hire a CEO, but her time management issue still isn't resolved at the end of the movie.
Further complicating things, Jules's husband has started cheating on her because she's neglecting her family. I don't think the movie means for the take away to be that people who are super career focused should expect to be cheated on or that it was her fault (in fact De Niro's character specifically says it is not her fault), but I wish they'd left him cheating out of the narrative and also given a specific solution to her time management problem (hiring De Niro as an actual manager comes to mind as a solution that would be appropriate given the rest of the movie) because those two things together create kind of uncomfortable connotations for me--that there is no way for a woman to successfully balance career and family (when I see numerous examples in real life of women doing so and think I do a pretty good job myself), that ambition and success in career must always come at the expense of family, and that being career focused makes you a target for adultery.
I promise I really liked this movie despite this quibble. I was thoroughly delighted the whole time I was watching. The characters are warm and real, and I wanted them to succeed and be happy. I definitely think it's worth a watch (and how lovely to watch a movie that isn't three hours long for a change LOL).
no subject
Date: 2016-07-06 02:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-07-06 04:08 pm (UTC)And Anne Hathaway's business reminded me so much of my friend's brother's job in Manhattan that I got to tour.