iou and overdue

It occurs to me that since I have now finally seen both of the holiday season movies that I really wanted to see, I owe you all some reviews. However, since they've been out 6 weeks at this point and thus you've already read the reviews and/or have seen them yourselves, that would be a waste of all our time. So lets do just a few brief Andrea-type observations, shall we?

The Fighter. I had read somewhere before the film actually came out that Amy Adams had just given birth when they started filming and so was not at her prepregnancy weight. Sure enough, there she was bartending in her little crop top with a wee bit of belly chub showing. She looked adorable and sexy, of course, and actually it added to the verisimilitude. I am not the first to say it by any means, but it is a problem in Hollywood movies that female starring roles are always played by women who often look too good, too perfect, for the actual role. Would a townie girl bartender with a hint of a drinking problem look like an actress who hasn't touched a non-vegetable carb or a gram of fat in the past six years and who does two hours of Pilates 7 days a week? No, she would not. So yay for a tiny bit of belly chub. Now on to the male belly chub, a whole different other problem. I wouldn't have even registered this that much if I hadn't have been lifting weights. In the couple scenes where Mr Wahlberg has fallen into depression and temporarily given up fighting, he's gotten fat, In fact he is shown with his shirt off to prove the point. Well. In his fighting scenes, when he is ripped and lean, I'm guessing he's down to 9-11% bodyfat. And in his getting-fat scenes, with no abs at all any longer visible, he's probably 20% bodyfat. And I'm thinking how many weeks apart did they shoot those scenes, 'cause it'd take a serious amount of eating, drinking, and sitting on your ass to raise your body fat 10%? If they hadn't shown him with his shirt off, they coulda finessed it with clothing, but I don't think that was a fake torso. Or maybe it was. Maybe they have awesome makeup artists.

Black Swan. What a freaky movie. I have to say I could relate to her little breakdown in some ways (without the weird quasi-incestuous mother situation, the starvation, or the pressure of a starring role in anything) but if I *were* going to finally go all the way off the deep end from *my* pressure, you people know it would involve repeatedly checking my strange rash in the mirror, imagining it bleeding, thinking something was happening to it... When I've been in a real panic episode, it's had that flavor. Heh. My other comment on that film? I want all her practice clothes, all the little shrugs and wrap sweaters and layered camis and leg warmers and those sweater UGGs (which are the most impractical shoes ever and UGGly, but I still heart them.) Those dance clothes are adorable.

xoxo