Stephen Spielberg’s adaptation of READY PLAYER ONE (2018) works much better than the Ernest Cline book, though not so much better I was glued to the screen. The story of Wade (Tye Sheridan) hunting the McGuffin that will give him — or a corrupt corporation — control of the massively immersive Oasis gameworld works much better when the visuals do the work of a page or two of narrative about Awesome Eighties Pop Culture. That said, making Artemis’ (Olivia Cooke) disfiguring birth mark so trivial feels like an annoying change to make her better eye candy. “There are only three things in this world I hate — steampunk, pirates and tabbouleh.”
Francois Truffaut’s TWO ENGLISH GIRLS (1971) feels like a gender-switched Jules and Jim at times, telling the story in telling the story of a young Frenchman’s lifelong fascination with two British sisters, the mildly repressed Ann and the more uptight Mildred. Enthralling but slow; I suspect this will improve on rewatching (I’d have ordered the DVD but there doesn’t appear to be one for American BluRay players). “How can I choose between virtue and vice when I only know virtue?”
Like Ready Player One, CRAZY RICH ASIANS (2018) works better than the book: Kevin Kwan’s prose detailing the wealth of the Young family took pages to cover what a single image does on-screen. The core story is the same: economics professor Rachel (Constance Chu) agrees to become boyfriend Nick’s (Henry Golding) plus-one to a family wedding back in Singapore only to discover they’re rich beyond the dreams of avarice and Nick’s mother Eleanor (Michelle Yeoh) considers Rachel nothing but a crass gold-digger who’ll distract Nick from his duty to return home and run the family holdings.
The cast, including Gemma Chan as Astrid and Awkwafina as Rachel’s BFF, adds a lot to the story and some of the subplots, such as Astrid’s marital problems, get resolved better. That said, I don’t think they resolve the fundamental conflict of Rachel’s job in New York vs. Nick’s duties to his clan. Enjoyable nonetheless. “Great — I was really going for that ‘lucky baby-maker’ vibe.”
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