The Royal We: Romantic Fan Fiction

I was a big fan of Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan's (a.k.a. the Fug Girls) first YA novel, Spoiled. Therefore, when I heard they had branched out into adult fiction, I couldn't wait to lay my hands on a copy of The Royal We and see what delights lay in store. A sprawling tale about an American woman who falls in love with the heir to the British throne, this is a splendid novel to curl up with on a weekend and greedily devour.

The novel tells the story of Rebecca "Bex" Porter, a woman from Iowa who goes to Oxford's Pembroke College for a year as part of a student exchange program. When she shows up at Pembroke, she is greeted by Nick, a.k.a. Prince Nicholas, the future King of England. They happen to be living on the same floor and as Bex gets to know her fellow floor mates, who are all Nick's close childhood friends, she becomes a part of the royal entourage. Bex has no designs on Nick, but of course, that's not going to stop true love.

While the premise has all the salient features of Kate Middleton fan fiction, i.e. commoner meets Prince in college and they fall in love, break up, and then get back together again, The Royal We is so much more than that. It isn't some lazy re-telling of a Cinderella tale but a very meticulously detailed chronicle of a relationship that takes place over nearly a decade. We are introduced to Bex and Nick's families and all of the skeletons in their closets. Their siblings (Bex's twin sister, Lacey, and Nick's younger brother, Freddie) become integral parts of the story as they try to support and chivvy along this improbable relationship. The cast of characters that make up Nick and Bex's inner circle is filled with vibrant and bizarre characters who all struggle between loyalty and jealousy when dealing with their famous friend. And of course, there's both the hilarity and danger of being in the public spotlight and how that can test relationships beyond all endurance. As writers of the Go Fug Yourself blog, Cocks and Morgan are well attuned to the dangers of paparazzi invasion, putting on a public persona, and losing your true identity in the process.

The Royal We isn't just a fluffy romance novel. The authors have delved into these characters' heads and tried to figure out the intricacies and absurdities involved in this situation. The entire novel is rooted in genuine human emotion, and even the characters who initially seem cartoonish are developed and become much more complicated as the story goes on. Of course, this is still a very fun novel and there are a number of laugh out loud moments and spectacularly silly setups that will make you giggle. Altogether, this is a very enjoyable summer read, so indulge your Anglophilia and princess fantasies, and pick up a copy as soon as you can. 

Spy: The Name's Cooper. Susan Cooper.

Are people still saying women aren't funny? If so, lead them to the nearest movie theater and make them watch Melissa McCarthy's brilliance in Spy, her latest collaboration with writer-director, Paul Feig. Feig has been inching his way towards giving McCarthy a chewy lead role: she was incredible in her Oscar-nominated supporting performance in Bridesmaids, then memorably held her own opposite Sandra Bullock in The Heat, and now she's an unlikely but fearless CIA agent who is out to save the world and deliver some hysterically filthy smack talk along the way.

McCarthy plays Susan Cooper, a quiet, unassuming lady who sits in the CIA basement and helps agents who are out in the field. She mostly helps Bradley Fine (Jude Law, doing his best James Bond impersonation, albeit with a weird American accent), for whom she has an unrequited passion. The two of them make an excellent team as she frantically shouts instructions to him on his earpiece and helps him avoid all the traps in his path as he makes daring escapes during missions in exotic locales. However, when a mission goes terribly wrong, Susan comes out of the basement and heads out into the real world, desperate to prove her mettle and remember all her CIA training from the years before she became a desk agent.

There are hilarious supporting turns from beloved comedienne Miranda Hart, who plays one of Susan's co-workers, Nancy; Rose Byrne, who becomes Susan's cold-blooded Bulgarian nemesis, Rayna Boyanov; and Jason Statham, who is the insanely amped-up spy, Rick Ford, who thinks Susan cannot handle the job and is determined to save the day all by himself. Alison Janney and Peter Serafinowicz round out the cast with equally fun roles, but at the center of this melange of comic perfection is our leading lady, Melissa McCarthy. She storms through this film, morphing from mousy desk agent to confident super spy, and proving once and for all that she is nothing short of a comedy goddess. Whether she's effortlessly tossing out filthy one-liners and threatening to stick her hand down someone's mouth and play his heart like an accordion, or engaging in a fantastic piece of physical comedy as she races a motorocyle through the windy streets of Rome or battling a fellow spy with knives and saucepans, she is a force to be reckoned with throughout this film.

Writer-director Paul Feig also deserves a great deal of credit for creating a movie that is not simply a spoof of the spy genre but a legitimate spy movie that happens to be rib-crackingly funny. Susan is never the butt of the joke - instead it is made clear that she was always exceedingly competent, and it was Fine's flirty manipulation that convinced her to become desk agent instead of a spy out in the field. As her boss snorts, "Women." Her foray into fieldwork doesn't go smoothly; Feig doesn't pretend that a woman can be behind a desk one day and then kill a man the next without being utterly horrified, but that gradual transition is incredible to watch and gives you the full range of McCarthy's acting talent. At the beginning, she's the sweet and excitable woman who starred in Gilmore Girls; by the end, she's the sassy and self-confident woman who starred in The Heat.

Spy is further proof that Feig and McCarthy are a Hollywood dream team. Together, they have given us a hilarious, wacky, profane movie that will keep you laughing for two hours straight and give you lines that you will quote for the rest of your life. I can't wait to watch this movie again and catch a joke that I missed the first time around because I was laughing too much. So if you haven't seen Spy yet, stop dawdling, because you have no idea what you're missing.

Inside Out: Feel all the Feelings

Halfway through Inside Out, I got worried that I wasn't going to like this movie. It seemed to be going in a direction I didn't approve of and the overall message seemed too neat and perky. Ten minutes before this movie ended, I was in tears, overwhelmed by the bittersweet poignancy of this story that gets absolutely everything right about growing up and becoming yourself.

Inside Out takes place inside the mind of 11-year old Riley (Kaitlyn Dias), a young girl from Minnesota with two loving parents. When I say it takes place inside her mind, I mean literally - most of the movie is set in the headquarters of her brain, where we meet the five emotions that juggle the controls and decide how Riley will respond to the outside world. There's Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Bill Hader), Disgust (Mindy Kaling), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), and their de facto leader, Joy (Amy Poehler). That is an all-star cast of voice talent right there, and they personify these emotions superbly. From Riley's birth, Joy has been at the controls, ensuring that the majority of Riley's memories are warm and happy, punctuated only by occasional temper tantrums courtesy of Anger, some caution due to Fear, and a hatred of broccoli due to Disgust. No one is quite sure what role Sadness has to play and at first, it looks like this movie is all about how important it is for Riley to stay "a happy girl," without Sadness interfering at the controls.

However, when Riley's life goes through an abrupt change, a disaster results in Joy and Sadness getting lost in Riley's long-term memory storage. Digust, Anger, and Fear are at the controls, unsure what to do, and Riley becomes a surly prepubescent young girl, unaware of how to handle herself and losing the bits of her personality that made her so unique. Joy is desperate to return to headquarters and drags Sadness through the brilliantly-imagined maze of Riley's mind, a smorgasbord of philosophical and neurological detail that is astounding in terms of its creativity and precision. This is a masterful movie, whimsically bringing to life the areas of your brain that deal with imaginary friends, dreams, abstract thought, and of course, the dark subconscious. There is a literal Train of Thought and little mind workers that hoover up the facts that are cluttering Riley's memory (e.g. "US Presidents? Just leave Washington, Lincoln, and the fat one, get rid of the rest"). In fact, the one problem with this movie is that it is so complex that a young child might lose interest after a while.

As Joy and Sadness make their way through this world, it looks like Sadness will continue to be a useless bummer, ruining everything she touches and constantly crimping Joy's plans to get back to headquarters. And therein lies the revelation of the movie. Because after Joy abandons Sadness, she finds a memory that suddenly makes her realize her worth, and recognize why Sadness is such an important emotion after all. Cue the tears.

Inside Out is a beautiful, remarkable movie and full kudos go to its writers, Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, and Josh Cooley. Visually spectacular and emotionally stirring (with a reliably wonderful score by Michael Giacchino), it is wildly imaginative and thrilling. While most of it takes place in Riley's head, we do get occasional glimpses into her parents' minds as well, for some amusing insights into the adult brain. But overall, this is a story about how it feels to grow up, to lose control of your emotions, to understand that it's impossible to be happy all the time, and that once in a while, it is both right and natural to be sad. While childhood is a time when the majority of your memories can be straightforwardly joyful, growing up allows you to experience a more complicated set of emotions. And Inside Out wants you to know that it is possible to feel all those feelings while still staying true to yourself. 

Mad Max: Fury Road: Buckle Up

As suggested by its title, Mad Max: Fury Road is a relentless frenetic movie that is quite unlike anything you will have previously witnessed in theaters. I had zero desire to watch this film but after the outpouring of critical acclaim, I had to give this film a shot. And now I must urge you to watch it too.

Based on the 1980s Mad Max franchise starring Mel Gibson (which I had never heard of and have never seen), this movie stars Tom Hardy as Max Rockatansky, a lone man who wanders the apocalyptic desert hellscape of Earth after nuclear war has destroyed most of civilization and left the rest of humanity in a relatively savage state. At the beginning of the movie, Max is captured by the War Boys, the army of a crazed cult leader named Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). Joe has all the power because he controls the water supply and he is surrounded by an army of bloodthirsty young men who are willing to die for the glory of serving him. He also has a harem of young wives, aka "breeders," who serve merely to provide him with more offspring who can fight for him and carry on his bloodline. And this is where Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) comes in. She is Joe's dependable lieutenant, a fierce and powerful woman supremely skilled in battle. However, she has decided that she can't watch him treat his wives in this way. She hides them in her armored truck and determines to take them back to where she came from, the "Green Place," an Amazonian idyll where women led their own lives instead of being subject to the whims and vagaries of an insane tyrant.

There's nothing more to add in terms of plot here. The rest of the movie just unfolds as an epic car chase as Joe chases Furiosa through the desert, trying to get his wives back. Through a complicated set of circumstances, Max gets allied with Furiosa mid-chase and the two of them battle with Joe's crazy army while driving a giant steampunk train-like contraption through the desert and engaging in death-defying stunts that make your head spin with all the intricate artistry and violence involved. This is a jaw-droppingly gorgeous movie, shot in Namibia and brimming with stunning landscapes that are all the more impressive for being real rather than CGI. The action set pieces are ridiculous, and Charlize Theron's performance is insanely fantastic. Forget that the movie is called Mad Max: this is very much Furiosa's movie and Max is just a silent participant who monosyllabically grunts and fights by her side. 

Writer-director George Miller has triumphantly succeeded in creating a wild and weird movie that needs to be seen to be believed. Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the few movies released every year that I insist have to be seen on the big screen because it is an immersive, edge-of-your-seat thrill ride. It has a hypnotic, mesmerizing effect on your brain where you discover you've been holding your breath as the umpteenth battle sequence assaults your eyeballs and explodes on screen in a bloody and indescribably beautiful way. So give this movie a shot and discover what all the hype is about.

Age of Ultron: Avenging Again

Back in 2012, The Avengers was the best superhero movie I had ever seen and solidified my love for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Therefore, like the rest of the world, I couldn't wait to see the sequel, Age of Ultron. Written and directed by my beloved Joss Whedon, it's a good movie, but didn't meet my unduly high expectations.

In this installment, the Avengers are a well-oiled machine, putting up a united front to defeat the evil villains that keep threatening to take over the world. However, Tony Stark (i.e. Iron Man) is terribly perturbed by the extraterrestrial invasions of the past and is obsessed with the idea of creating something that could protect the entire planet from otherworldly villains. His idea becomes Ultron, a cybernetic organism that is brilliant but ultimately a big mistake. Ultron decides that the human race needs to be culled in order to save the planet and embarks on a program of mass destruction. The Avengers now have to band together to fight Ultron, but they also have to deal with psychological divisions within their group that threaten to pull them apart and make them lose all the trust they had in each other.

I won't go into any further detail about the plot, mostly because it involved a slew of technical complexities that went way over my head. Instead I just settled back in my seat and enjoyed the incredible action sequences. The big sequel budget was clearly deployed to create much more elaborate and spectacular action set pieces and this movie really does feel like a comic book come vividly to life. Unfortunately, the focus on action was not accompanied by as much focus on dialogue and witty banter, which was the reason I loved the first Avengers movie with such a passion. There are some interesting developments with the characters in this movie - Black Widow and the Hulk have a romantic subplot, while Hawkeye definitely has a lot more going on this time around - but otherwise, everyone's just fighting each other all the time and the Whedon witticisms are sorely lacking.

The one refreshing thing about this movie is its attempt to ensure the action is purposeful and responsible. There isn't wanton death and destruction at every turn - the characters are obsessed with protecting civilians and great attention is paid to the fact that superheroes are supposed to save innocent people, not just blow up villains. This is the most anti-Man of Steel superhero movie I've seen to date, and it is very clear that while Whedon may have spent more time crafting action sequences than witty dialogue, he ensured that he made those sequences unique in his own way. Age of Ultron is a perfectly good movie and it will certainly entertain you. But try not to go into it with the impossibly high expectations engendered from the first installment.

Dil Dhadakne Do: The Cruise of a Lifetime

Zoya Akhtar is my favorite Bollywood director. Her second movie, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, was a masterpiece and since its release in 2011, I have been eagerly awaiting her next feature film. Well now it's here, in the form of Dil Dhadakne Do, a movie that firmly establishes that Zoya Akhtar is a woman with a magic touch.

Dil Dhadakne Do is the story of the wealthy Mehra family. The patriarch is Kamal Mehra (Anil Kapoor), a self-made businessman who is desperate to project a sense of successful vitality despite the fact that his company is on the verge of bankruptcy. His wife, Neelam (Shefali Shah), is a Delhi socialite who tries her best to ignore her husband's multiple dalliances and keep up appearances while her friends gossip behind her back. They have two children, Kabir and Ayesha (Ranveer Singh and Priyanka Chopra), who seem successful but are secretly harboring a wealth of resentment against their parents for engineering their lives in a myriad of unhelpful ways. And now, this collection of unhappy people are going to get on a cruise ship with a slew of family friends to celebrate Kamal and Neelam's thirtieth wedding anniversary. What could go wrong?

There is a lot going on in this movie and if you've seen the trailer, you'll be treated to half a dozen major plot points and still have plenty more to look forward to. Apart from the central cast, there are several more supporting players, all of whom play their parts with hilarious precision. The cruise ship might as well be called the Loveboat as multiple romances start to brew and add to the already complicated shenanigans on board. But at its core, this is a Little Miss Sunshine-esque heartening family comedy that aims to show that families are flawed and imperfect but can eventually pull themselves together with love and communication.

Akhtar's success is fundamentally due to the impeccable scripts she writes with screenwriting partner Reema Kagti. This movie contains a sprawling multi-generational stew of romantic and dramatic storylines and yet it weaves them together effortlessly without making any single story seem trite or less important than the others. Every character has their chance to shine and every actor delivers the performance of a lifetime. The unknown actors in supporting roles are particularly marvelous, and despite the romantic chemistry among the younger couples, Akhtar also firmly shines the spotlight on the older couple, giving Shefali Shah and Anil Kapoor the chance to exhibit their star power as they portray the shiny veneer and crumbling foundation of the Mehras' marriage.

Akhtar's success is also due to her brilliant cinematographer, Carlos Catalan, a man who knows how to make her movies look vibrant, colorful, and simply stunning. Whether it's ocean vistas, the bustle of Greek and Turkish cities, or just a close-up of an actor who is letting her face tell more of a story than entire pages of dialogue could ever accomplish, this is an impeccably shot movie that knows exactly how to keep the audience engaged with every passing frame. While Akhtar's focus is always on story rather than the typical Bollywood song-and-dance routine, her movies do feature wonderful music and "Gallan Goodiyaan" is a remarkable set piece. The song is shot in one take as the camera whirls around the room and each member of the sprawling cast gets a chance to jump into the action and dance with joyful abandon. It made my head spin just to watch it and I can't imagine the painstaking choreography and planning that went into filming this one number. It's the kind of raucous free-for-all that reminds you what a Bollywood musical is all about.

Dil Dhadakne Do has a lot to say about love, family, and relationships. The dialogue is impossibly witty, delivering a laugh a minute alongside a heaping dose of insight and wisdom. There is a fair amount of voiceover exposition, which I suppose is necessary when you have so many characters and plot points to establish, but even that is done in an unusual and clever way. And eventually Akhtar just lets her actors tell the tale. As much as I love great dialogue, this is a movie that features some remarkable acting talent, and Akhtar wisely knows when to deploy pages of witty dialogue and when to just let an actor's crumpling face tell the whole story. This is a funny, wise, honest, and delightful movie that gets everything right and doesn't leave you bored for a second despite the nearly three-hour run-time. So head to the theater and watch the best thing Bollywood has to offer this year. And here's hoping it doesn't take Akhtar another four years to release her next movie, because I simply cannot wait.