God does not want me to write, but I must

[bcholmes]

I've just finished watching a film called Starting out in the Evening; I had low expectations based on the first few minutes, but it really drew me in. I'd heard nothing about it prior to picking it up at the local DVD place, but it stars Valerie Solanas (Lili Taylor), Geena Davis' pirate adversary (Frank Langella), and the Six Feet Under secretary (Lauren Ambrose).

It was a quiet movie with some astounding moments in it.

Langella is an aging writer (whose four published novels, we learn in the first few mintues, are all out of print). Taylor plays Langella's daugher, and Ambrose is a masters student who decides to write her thesis about Langella's works and convinces him to be interviewed. It's an interesting character study, and Langella in particular is superb.

I think that it only just squeaks by as a Bechdel level 3.

Comments

[firecat]

The Bechdel Rule has levels now? What are they?

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

It's shorthand I use for how many of the three criteria the film satisfies.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love Lily Taylor!

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

AND Lauren Ambrose.

I need to see more of Frank Langella, though he did a decent Dracula back in the day.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

I'm not a big Lauren Ambrose fan, to be honest, if she's who I'm thinking of. (The secretary in the film of the same name, yes?)

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

No, that's Maggie Gyllenhaal. She's okay but not wonderful (or at least, not yet, that I've seen).

Lauren Ambrose (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0024404/) is the redhead sister going to art school in Six Feet Under.

[serenejournal.livejournal.com]

Wow, this is weird. I liked Gyllenhaal a LOT in Stranger Than Fiction, but I did not connect her at all to the other role. I disliked everything about Secretary, though.

I do like Ambrose, and am glad she's getting old enough for me to find her hot without finding that kind of icky. ;-)