Last night, I had a dream where I was sick -- I think it was that I was having trouble sleeping -- and the doctor recommended this concoction that was part gasoline. So I went to a gas station and filled up a cup with gas. Straight from the pump. Then I drank it. Even in the dream I thought, this isn't something you're usually supposed to do.
Yesterday, I wrote most of the day. Worked on Unknown Number in the morning and in the afternoon. I was telling my husband how, after eight-ish years of trying, I seem to finally be able to write without procrastinating. Assuming that this keeps up, it means the next hurdle is just to make the writing good? How do you make the writing good? Does writing a lot do it automatically? Revising a lot? Except that when I revise, I mostly am just implementing my tastes, ideas, desires. Are those good? I also read books and scripts and watch movies. I try to pay attention. And I take classes, probably too many classes. Get other people to look at my stuff. That's got to do it, right?
Stephen King has whole books he doesn't remember writing. And maybe that's the booze and cocaine. But maybe it's also because he's written so much. You're bound to forget some of it.
My husband and I saw a movie in theaters last night! It was the first time since before the pandemic. It was great.
Mlog time!
A QUIET PLACE PART II
2021
Directed by: John Krasinski
Written by: John Krasinski
Watched: 6/11/21
The movie begins with a scene taking place before the original movie. The family’s at a baseball game and the aliens/monsters fall to Earth. Then it flashes forward by 400-some days, picking up right where the last movie left off. The mom, the two kids, and the baby decide to leave their compound – the barn is on fire and the bunker is flooded – to go to the fire signal nearby. When they find it, they realize that the area is booby trapped and the son steps in a bear trap. (OUCH!) The place is occupied by a man they knew from before. He seems to want to kill them, to be done with them, but it peaks his curiosity when he sees them kill one of the aliens. (They’ve brought a portable speaker/microphone along with the daughter’s hearing aid.)
From there, the daughter decides to go to an island that’s broadcasting the song “Beyond the Sea” on the radio. She wants to broadcast the feedback loop over the radio, to give everyone a chance to fight back against the aliens. The mother convinces the man to go after her. When he finds her, the daughter convinces him to help her. Meanwhile, the mom has to get medical supplies to keep the son from getting gangrene. The boy has to care for the baby, who’s oxygen tank is running low. The mom returns to find the boy really struggling with the aliens. The daughter and man make it to the island – the aliens can’t swim – to find that one of the aliens has drifted over on a boat. They get to the radio tower and manage to broadcast the feedback loop just in time, for both them and for the son and the mom back home in the bunker.
This movie kind of steals the original movie’s ending, huh? Although of course the first movie’s ending is way better because it’s the first time they’ve been able to kill the aliens, and they know they can do it again. More complaints – I was looking forward to watching a post-apocalyptic alien survival movie about a mom and her children, which I thought was what this movie was going to be. But it goes way out of its way to introduce a man to be the one taking initiative. Of course, the daughter is probably the main character, but it reminds me of how we as a culture will sometimes celebrate girls (“She could grow up to be president!”) but then don’t like it when actual adult women have things like agency and ambition. I was excited to see a mom character have to do a lot more than mom characters usually do in movies. But that’s not this was.
I thought the acting was great, and there was tension and suspense throughout. Like the first movie, this one makes you hold your breath and try to be very quiet, just like the characters, because the movie’s so quiet the other people in the theater can hear you. Even after we walked out of the theater, noises were putting me on edge. The aliens are going to get us! I like these kinds of stories. The Day of the Triffids genre. They make the world big again. People are cut off from the rest of the world, you don’t know who else is alive and how they are living. There’s a simplicity and excitement to the moving, surviving. Coming across how other people deal with disaster and trauma. Exploring the different ways that humans can survive. Having small variations in one’s surroundings potentially make all the difference. It’s cool, and this movie is a decent addition to that genre.
Rating: ★★★
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