What I’ll be watching over winter break

My winter break starts tomorrow. W00t! I’m looking forward to leisure reading, sleeping late, making headway on my sweater-in-progress, prodding tentatively at the poetry-and-spatiality project, and getting in all the moviegoing I missed out on during this insanely busy fall. In particular:

  • Sweeney Todd, because I’d want to see it no matter who was in it, and there’s something weirdly fascinating about the thought of Johnny Depp as the Demon Barber of Fleet Street*
  • There Will Be Blood, because Paul Thomas Anderson is on my Directors to Watch No Matter What list, and I heard such an ecstatic review of it on the radio that my expectations are now all built up
  • I Am Legend, because "The World Without Us with zombies" is a premise I can’t resist
  • and I may try to catch I’m Not There, because I have a feeling I won’t want to miss Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan

Alas, I’ve heard so many distressing things about The Golden Compass, mostly from people who know and love the books, that I’ll probably give it a miss. This would be a good time to reread the books instead.

What are you going to see over the holidays, Reader?

* Best line from Anthony Lane’s review in the New Yorker, in reference to Johnny Depp’s white-streaked shock of hair: "If you had sat Susan Sontag down and broken the news that not everyone in New York reads Hegel, you would have got the same effect."

4 Responses to “What I’ll be watching over winter break”

  1. ChrisTheRed says:

    We’re doing Atonement tonight. If it’s astonishing or execrable, I’ll dutifully report back.

  2. Amanda says:

    I take it it was neither astonishing nor execrable, then?

  3. Christa says:

    I thought Atonement was pretty wonderful (not having read the book). Terrific cast, and a story that moves at a good clip, still avoiding the feeling of something missing.
    Would also recommend Juno–funny, quirky, and sweet.
    Happy New Year!

  4. Amanda says:

    Hmm, maybe I’ll have to check out Atonement, then. I just saw Juno a few days ago and enjoyed it quite a bit.