Pura says...

"The Pura Principle" by Junot Díaz

My first impression of this short story: the author is very straight-forward with their language(s). That was a bit of a throw-off since I wasn't really expecting that. Anyways, as I was reading I thought maybe this would end up being one of those life changing stories with a gleeful ending and such. A sibling in tragedy with a pot-head brother and a mother gone church-crazy. So I kept on reading, waiting for the story to take a turn for the miracle to happen and got nothing. I really thought this 'miracle' would happen when the character Tammy Franco was introduced but that didn't go anywhere.
Okay, so maybe I didn't really get the point of this story. What exactly was the author trying to get at? Was it maybe that illness doesn't change a person? Or that women can be conniving* witches? Or was he trying to portray a mother's blinded love? Did I miss a part in the story here?? Alright, I have too many questions. Any thoughts?

*I don't think Pura Adames was really a conniving type of character but I couldn't think of the 'right' word.

A dance with lost fantasy...

Waltz with Bashir (2008)

I don't whether this film was to show the horrors of war as many war movies do or to emphasize the aftermath of war on the location and the people who were a part of it. But the work with animation didn't seem to hinder the depth of the movie in my opinion. First off I thought because of the animation, the transitions between scenes from 'reality' to the flashbacks were really smooth. There was a part near the beginning of the film where the music became bright and 'exciting' that I left me confused. But then I thought the film was making a mockery of the war, where everything was shot at and blown up with no real intention or purpose. Even in these scenes, without the animation it probably would've been difficult to capture the 'ease' of such destructive explosions on film.