"Eyes wide open, naked as we came. One will spread our ashes round the yard." ~iron & wine


Just a quick movie review and another random comment today, as well as some quality Iron & Wine above (I've been listening to them since their concert last week). Scroll down for yesterday's Broadway/TV post.

Martha Marcy May Marlene
This is my kind of movie. It's quiet, authentic, thrilling, ambiguous, complex, and captivating. It reminds me of Winter's Bone (and not just because John Hawkes is in it), and I hope it receives the attention that Winter's Bone received come awards season (you know how I loved Winter's Bone). Elizabeth Olsen at least deserves an Oscar nomination (and based on the other female performances I've seen so far this year, I'd love to see her win). While her older sisters spent their childhoods building an empire, Elizabeth was apparently laying low and just waiting to unleash that talent. She's absolutely fantastic in this movie. She masters her character's transformation from naive and vulnerable to terrified and broken. Sean Durkin (writer/director) does a great job of transitioning seamlessly from the past to the present. This movie will grab you and won't let you go, even after you've left the theater.



Finally, I just have to comment on this piece of TV news. Apparently HBO is adapting the novel Swamplandia! into a half-hour comedy TV show. I discovered this piece of information from a link on the AOL homepage, which read, "Children's Book Gets Its Own TV Show." Really?! Really?! Obviously the person writing the article (or the person writing the title of the link, because I don't know if they're the same person) didn't read the book, because it is most definitely NOT a children's book. It's actually quite disturbing (at least it was to me). The idea of it being turned into a half-hour comedy irks me. I could see it as a movie, but I don't like this comedy TV show idea. I get very protective of books that I love being adapted to the screen, so maybe I'm just being close-minded, but I'm very wary of this idea. I guess we'll see what happens.