Our Favorite Media of October 2016

[helloladies]

Each month, we look back over the media we loved in the previous month, from books to film to video games and more. Our October favorites are coming to you a little late as we recover from our election hangover, but we're climbing back on the horse. There's still lots of art out there to love. ♥

Clare

The Handmaiden — I have been waiting for this movie to come out for so long, and it did not disappoint. Stunningly gorgeous, wickedly dark, and content to play out director Park Chan-wook’s fascination with violence among the male characters while reserving a happy ending for its queer female characters. Highly recommended.

KJ

Everfair by Nisi Shawl — Rounding up from 3.5. Sweeping steampunk story of an alternate history Belgian Congo, wherein an excellent cast of characters fight three wars and grapple with issues of colonialism and race. It's a fascinating story that covers a lot of ground -- maybe a little too much ground, as the book juggles lots of character viewpoints, and is full of time skips that sometimes make it feel disjointed. But the grand scale works in the book's favor, too, as we get to see several groups of idealists with competing ideas come together and try to make their utopia work, from before the beginning to past the end. The characters feel very real, too, even those we only get to see in snippets.

Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn — A fun superhero story about friendship, grappling with family -- found and otherwise -- and owning your power. I thought at first that the romance was going to bug me, but the love interest quickly won me over, and I ended up enjoying their relationship quite a bit. (Also, as everyone promised me, some excellent sexy times.) First in a series, and I look forward to seeing what happens next.

Cold-Forged Flame by Marie Brennan — Between this and the Lady Trent series, Brennan is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors. I'm also learning to appreciate the novella format as a storytelling medium: most novellas are long enough to tell a complete story, while also being short enough to read in a day or two. This is another in the Tor.com novella series; every one of those that I've read has been a winner, and Brennan continues the trend with this tale of a woman with no memory of who or what she is, summoned and bound to an impossible task against her will. Her quest also becomes one of self discovery, and it has a satisfying ending that also opens a universe of possible stories.

Jodie

Black-ish (Series One) — Black-ish is a family comedy about a wealthy African American family called The Johnsons. The fact that it's a new comedy focused on an African American family is enough to set it apart but Black-ish also stands out because its adult cast is stuffed full of well-known star talent. Anthony Anderson (who most people probably know from Treme but who I recognised from Hang Time because I am old) plays Dre Johnson; ad-executive, father and continual worrier. Tracee Ellis Ross (who you should know from Girlfriends and if you don't you should really sort that out) plays Rainbow; surgeon, problem-solver & the daughter of hippies. And Laurence Fishburne plays Pops, the family's hard-line and high-living grandfather. When a family friendly comedy snags Laurence Fishburne as a side character you know it's a special project.

Black-ish is both a ton of fun and very reminiscent of the issue led dramedies I grew up with - albeit with a much lighter and often funnier touch so its format doesn't feel dated. It covers racism, bullying, identity & romantic problems with sensitivity, snark & a lot of heart. It builds up a cast of characters full of their own individual quirks and shows them coming together as a family. Altogether, Black-ish is a really comforting, funny program and luckily E4 shows a new episode every day in the UK which means I never have to wait long for more of this good-hearted show.

The Get Down (Part One) — Possibly the most under-rated Netflix Original show of 2016? The Get Down (Part One) is a musical drama that follows the stories of teenage couple Ezekiel and Mylene as they pursue their different musical dreams. Ezekiel struggles to choose between accepting the mainstream political opportunities he is pressured to pursue or choosing life as wordsmith in a hip-hop collective. Mylene wants to be a disco super-star despite the disapproval of her religious father. The Get Down is built on conflict: disco versus hip-hop; gentrification versus community; home versus the wider world. It is a big, all-in drama crammed with issues and involved relationships. And it should really appeal to anyone who got bit by the mix of contemporary music, historical setting and political commentary that Hamilton threw down. Also, some of you are going to fall hard for Jaden Smith's character Dizzee - a deeply stylish graffiti artist busy falling in love with fellow artist Thor. Can't wait to see Part Two when it comes out next year.

Iron Cast — by Destiny Soria Iron Cast mixes music, magic and history as it follows the story of two best friends, Ada and Corinne, who use songs and poems to pull off complex con jobs in Jazz Age America. The cash that the girls steal goes to support the Cast Iron club - the place they've called home since its owner, Johnny Dervish, offered them both sanctuary from a bigoted world where 'hemopaths' (people with a magical 'affliction' in their blood) are hunted and despised.

The relationship between the two girls powers this novel, allowing it to strike a balance between being wonderfully dark and good, bright fun. The girls quip their way through the blackest of times and remain firm friends throughout. However, despite being united by the club and their hemopath powers, Ada & Corinne are very different people. Ada is a black girl attempting to navigate a world full of racial prejudice. She reluctantly uses her powers to con 'regs' in order to support her mother while her father is unjustly incarcerated. Corinne is a white heiress who has constructed a web of lies that keep her rich family in the dark about her magic. She loves the thrill of living on the edge and has no remorse about using her magic to bamboozle the non-magical.

The mixture of the glamorous yet seedy jazz club scene and the girl's intoxicating magic is a potent one. And I loved the cast of secondary characters who are all carefully drawn (especially Saint with his family issues & his blooming romance with James). I also appreciated how complicated the ending was. There are no easy resolutions and yet the book wraps up in a very satisfying way. It's a great debut novel.

Susan

The Magnificent Seven (2016) — I wasn't expecting to love this film as much as I do! (Westerns! A genre that I love that does not always love me back now that I am old enough to go "Oh wow that is maybe racist/sexist/rape.") But look at this beautiful thing! I will allow that it has flaws, but it also has almost everything I want in a movie; playing with tropes, competent characters, planning montages and building things, character relationships that make me clutch my heart and wail, and Byung-Hun Lee being absolutely beautiful.

(... #PROFESSIONAL)

Queen of Katwe — Contains the most tense games of chess I have ever seen. Like, full-on "clutching my face and gasping in the middle of the cinema" levels of tense. It's really good. I like the way it talks about privilege, and that it's not a "these people and this place are obstacles that must be surpassed and left behind" film, but one where most people are trying to support each other the best they can, and Phiona's community love and support her too. And it manages to say so much in scenes where people aren't speaking; Harriet, Phiona's mother, has such good scenes where she doesn't say much but you can see her mind working and aaah. ;_;

... Basically, I started crying about half way through and couldn't stop, because of chess.

(I do appreciate as well that the ending brings together the actors and the people they're playing, because honestly it's really nice to see that they're... Okay? Especially considering the events of the film happened in 2011. That's a really short turnaround!)

Shelter — Shelter is a six-minute animated short that destroyed me emotionally! I don't want to say too much because it would be so easy to spoil it, but the art and animation are beautiful (the landscapes are so good and so integral), the revelations are subtle and heartbreaking, and just -- the most I can say of it without spoilers is that the emotions of Shelter made me cry and feel maybe hope at the same time and it hurt.

Comments

[bluemeridian]

I was quite literally trying to remember the name of The Handmaiden last night ("The Handmaid's Tale? Wait, no, definitely not."), so thanks to Clare for that! Given the limited release, I probably won't get to see it in the theater but am looking forward to it on DVD.