Movie night

We went to see The Lady in the Van. Beautiful writing, acting, and directing. I feared it was going to make light of homelessness or idealize it somehow, but it didn’t, and that was a relief. People said it is funny, but I didn’t laugh much. I was deeply touched by the tale of an aging woman whose talent was thwarted by her times and circumstances, who was screwed over again and again but held onto her dignity and sense of humor, who was aware of all she had lost but not bitter. My only criticism is that we could have had 90% fewer jokes about excrement and we’d still have gotten the point. Clearly Bennett (whose work I like very much and have admired for many years) worried about that himself, as he has his writing character say, “I’m going to wish I hadn’t put in so much about shit.” Right-i-o. 

Walking home, we passed people waiting for the doors to open for a John Prine concert. I never heard of him, but many people seemed excited about it. The fellow pushing his bass ahead of him on a wheelie thing seemed unimpressed.