Topper (movie)

(photo taken from Wikipedia.)

Topper is a semi-famous movie which I feel I really cannot do justice to with words.

It was made in 1939, and seems to transcend eras because it's just so damn FUNNY.

As the plot goes, Topper is a banker who is somewhat mousy and boring. (This seems to be an old Hollywood cliche. If you see this stereotype, shazam, something exciting is going to happen!) He buys a car and a penthouse that belonged to a dead socialite couple. He starts hearing voices and crashes his car, and it turns out--surprise!-- they're ghosts, and they're his new best friends. They meddle with his life and make it more exciting, doing it all with 30s class.

Way before beetlejuice, this set the standard for friendly-ghost-couple-befriends-social-misfit. And it's GOOD, even. Normally I find it difficult to pay attention to movies, but I was more or less glued to the screen for about two hours.

And I won't spoil it, but it even had a happy ending. Always the best part of a movie, I think.

Highly recommended, 5/5. If your local video store doesn't have this, try the library or netflix. Or buy it even, really it's just that good.

Violet and Claire by Francesca Lia Block

I was originally directed to this by numerous ecstatic references by commenters on blogs such as iCiNg. I had hoped to find another work on par with Weetzie Bat, but was somewhat let down.

It's nice, but not outstanding, as well mildly confusing in the second half. It is somewhat difficult to keep track of what is going on, and who is dating whom! Possibly, this might have been remedied by stretching out the chapters a bit. As with many of Block's books, the chapters leading to the end suffer because of the condensed events.
Also, a good deal of it seems dated. Crop tops, and vinyl pants? Sounds a lot like spice world.

I did like the first part. Block's strength is in character description, and she shines here. It's easy to picture Claire and Violet, and their surroundings without trying too hard.

The characters are supposed to be radically different and unique but Violet comes off like every myspace teen compiled into a single girl. Vaguely irritating, especially the way she sees people and treats Claire throughout. The only way she really redeems herself is at the very end. The rest of the way, really, she is pretty much...a douche, put bluntly.
Perhaps this was intentional, but it was somewhat of a turn-off.

Less detailed description was devoted to Claire, but this may have helped the reader's view of her. It's easy to like her, even without the (possibly) unnecessary subplot about bullying.

Block manages to pull it together in characteristic fashion, though not as well as she usually does. My main complaint is that the characters are a bit too contrived, and hard to feel genuine sympathy for. Still, against your will, you'll tear up when they reunite at the end.

3 stars out of 5.