I'm thrilled that The Hurt Locker has been nominated for so many Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, because director Kathryn Bigelow's 1991 film Point Break is one of my favorite movies ever. It's a surfing bank robber movie.I KNOW.
But see, it stars Keanu Reeves.
I KNOW!!
A gorgeous Lori Petty rivals Watts in Some Kind of Wonderful as Best Tough Wounded Heroine. Plus there's the late great Patrick Swayze in fine form as the villain.
I KNOW!!!
There's even Gary Bussey as Keanu Reeves' crusty sidekick, and the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers thrown in there for good measure as a surfing drug dealer. Add heart-pounding chase scenes, gorgeous cinematography, a screenplay with twists and turns that will actually fool you, and then put Lori Petty in grave danger and have Keanu Reeves JUMP OUT OF AN AIRPLANE WITHOUT A PARACHUTE TO SAVE HER I KNOW!!! Oh, just rent it.
My love for my favorite couple in a book is more subtle but just as strong. Start reading The Beginning Place by the master of soft science fiction, Ursula K. Le Guin, and you will understand immediately that the writing is gorgeous, but you will ask me if I am sure this guy is one of my favorite heroes from a book. For heaven's sake do NOT look it up online--the Wikipedia description makes it sound like high-falutin' crap. Just keep reading. The fabulous thing about this couple is how they grow and fall in love with each other simultaneously over the course of the story.
Be warned if you are a youngling: The Beginning Place contains a sex scene. When I was a student teacher, I found the book in the high school library and was SO THRILLED that I immediately handed it to a ninth grader and told her she just had to read it because it was one of my favorite books ever. Belatedly I thought OMG THERE'S A SEX SCENE IN THAT BOOK and snatched it back from her, which probably did a lot more harm to her psychologically than reading the sex scene would have.
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2 comments:
Oh, kids today. They can take anything and have no shame. I had several students ASK me for Judy Blume's Forever. Don't they know that's not a book you ask for, but that you get from a friend of a friend? With the cover removed? And I vote for Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse in Brigadoon. All that unrequited longing!!! Plus dancing on the moors.
LOL! There is no shame left, Ms. Yingling, no shame.
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