magical realism

I just saw a film with Sultan called Pan's Labyrinth. It was about a mother and daughter living in Spain under Franco. The mother was pregnant with a military captain's baby, and she brought her daughter to live at the military compound with him. He was a tyrant and had no reedemable characteristics. The daughter dealt with her unhappy and depressing living conditions by diving into a world of fantasy and magic with fairies and fauns and magical spells. It was a beautiful film, however, it was neither a children's film, nor a film about the war itself. There was too much on-screen violence for children to be able to sit through it without having major nightmares. Some of the characters, especially the captain, were kind of flat. He was just too cruel and cold-hearted to be believable. Anyway, Bond still rules as the best film I've seen this season.

And speaking of Bond, my old neighbor Kathy Evans agrees with me. She also finds Daniel Craig to be the most enjoyable Bond character in years (especially sans tuxedo). I ran into her after the movie was over. I haven't seen her in several years. She was with her daughter Allie, whom I haven't seen since I was in high school and she was still a little kid! It was great to run into them. I love randomly seeing people I know in the street. It makes me feel like I really belong here. And more often than not, the random run-ins prove to be more serendipitous than coincidental.