Welcome to our second book club chat of the year: Life Moves Pretty Fast by Hadley Freeman. I’m so excited to talk the movies of the Eighties and this book with all of you!
Ground rules remain the same as they always have. For those of you who might be joining us for the first time (hello new friends!) all are welcome. All of our topics are numbered and we ask that you refer to them below by that number to help people find the conversation topics they are looking for. If you are responding to someone else’s thoughts, please try to respond directly to them as suits your own ponderings. Also, note that while I’ve never once had to use it and don’t expect to now, I’ll delete comments that are not germane to our discussion (although I’m imagining this discussion will be pretty broad) or get out of hand.
In addition to the topics here I’ve saved a few for our Facebook group, Cannonball Read Book Chat so feel free to wander over there throughout the course of the day and evening.
On to the topics:
- How well do you feel the examination of how movies have evolved to what we have on offer today was handled by the book?
- Freeman focuses her work on the big movies of the decade, not the critical darlings. It is inevitable that in a book coming in at a crisp 305 pages many of the largest; most loved films are left out (heck, Freedman puts 20 of them in her epilogue). Which of yours did NOT receive an in depth discussion, and what lesson did it teach you?
- Movies today say so much about society’s changing expectations of women, young people, and art from their eighties counterparts. Why do you think some of these changing expectations have occurred?
- Which movie were you surprised to see included? Or, which movie’s “lesson” felt off to you?
- What do you make of Freeman’s stance that eighties movies are a lot more “politically engaged and female-friendly and even moral” than similar fare from the past fifteen years?
- Freeman’s tone and authorial voice: does it work for you? Does it match her subject?
- Freedman is going over some well-tread, very white territory. What else is she missing?
- The discussion of Dirty Dancing, When Harry Met Sally, and Steel Magnolias focus on these works as womens movies. How to you compare and contrast their reception to things like Big Little Lies in 2017?
- Do we see movies about real, relatable people any more? Were the movies of the 80s truly relatable?
- Grab Bag – pick a movie and sound off!
And… go!