My Mom and I Review Some Movies and TV Shows

There's been a new addition to the Tableau family (that's a link to a generic baby, in case you don't know what a baby looks like), which means that, over the last month, my mother has been in my neck of the woods way more often than usual. And, since I don't really know how to communicate with people without talking about movies and television, my mom and I have been consuming a lot of pop culture together.  Here's a breakdown of some of the fluff we imbibed:

Cinderella (2015)

This live action adaptation of Disney's classic film adds some modern touches and nixes the songs.

Mom: The transformation scenes are amazing.

Tableau: When Cinderella and her mice and lizards are magically changed in time for the ball?

M: Yep. Compared to the other movies, you could actually see the changes happening. You can see the animals morphing into their human/horse counterparts, yet they still maintain elements of their original features. The lizards, especially.

T: The transformations scenes are both really beautiful, and Helena Bonham Carter as The Fairy Godmother is a lot of fun. She is certainly having a good time.

M: Cate Blanchett, too. She's over-acting in the best way. I also like that they show more of Cinderella with her mom (Hayley Atwell). 

T: It helps strengthen her character, and it helps to sell the idea that Cinderella would stay with her stepmother after her mother and father die, since her mother was all about being kind and courageous. How about Cinderella (Lily James) and Prince Charming (Richard Madden)? Do you buy their romance?

M: Meh. They are okay. Nothing to write home about.

Hollywood Couples We Root For: Part Deux

Man, pop culture news has been pretty depressing recently. The summer movie season has been weird and a little disappointing, and television has been less than diverting. Plus, between the deaths, suicides, and Modern Family winning big at the Emmy Awards, it's a pretty bleak picture off-screen as well. So to liven things up, I'm bringing back one of the earliest features on the blog.

Maggie Gyllenhaal hasn't yet left
Peter Sarsgaad for an orb of pure light.

Way back in 2011, in my second post, I talked about celebrity couples who needed to stay together, because the strength of their bonds actually helps people believe that love for normal, non-famous people can exist.

And that hope remains. I guess. I mean, all the couples are still together. Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard are still keeping it weird. Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller are still alive. Jennifer Aniston is technically all up in Justin 'Sweatpants' Theroux, but everyone knows that Courteney Cox is the real love of her life. 

So let's look at more couples who prove love is real, even if it's just real for the pretty people. Without further ado, here is a list of Hollywood Couples We Root For, Part Deux:

Tableau Your Mind's 300th Post! [Hooray]

This is officially the 300th Post on Tableau Your Mind. It's been over three years since my first post, back when I was still writing in the 'we and us' tense and drawing most of my pictures on Microsoft Paint.  'we' Over 299 posts, that 'we' has changed to 'I' and  Paint has changed to Photoshop, Illustrator, the occasional Scanned Drawing, and, yeah, Paint. Still the mission of this blog has basically stayed the same: be a place for people to have fun, read about all different elements of pop culture both broad and niche, and look at some rudimentary fan art (hey, I didn't take Art 1 twice in high school for nothing).

With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to look at the drafts of some of the pictures I drew, a glimpse at how a 'painting' goes from initial sketch to finished product:

TV Review: Downton Abbey, Series 2

Downton Abbey Returned to the United States last night on PBS. Since we have already watched the second season/series (Thanks, British Aunt Myrtle), we thought this was a good time to review it. It's relatively spoiler free.

Staff: O'Brien, Daisy, Hughes, Thomas, Bates, Anna
Family: Edith, Robert, Violet, Cora, Mary, Matthew, Sybil

After the first series set up all the players and then spent 7-odd hours having them interact, things were getting a little stale at the Downton estate. There needed to be something new to

Film Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

It still beats Apparition

The eighth film in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, starts off directly after the events of Part 1. Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley go in search of the last Horcruxes, blindly following the orders of Albus Dumbledore, who has been dead for about a year. It's a bit ridiculous to summarize the events of the film, because fans of the book are undoubtedly familiar with most of the plot contained within the movie. And that's part of the fun. Audience members sit in anticipation, wondering, not what will happen, but how the events will play out. How will Molly Weasley's final confrontation with a particular Death Eater play out? How will director David Yates make the magical battles, which have historically been difficult to film, as exciting and epic as they are in the book? When and where will Neville strike? And how on earth is screenwriter Steve Kloves going to make Wandlore interesting?

Snape, Snape-ing it up

The film acts as a long goodbye. Almost every character gets a farewell, whether it's Professor Sprout and Madam Pomfrey staring out at the destroyed Hogwarts, Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan fighting Death Eaters with verve, or Professor Trelawney (Emma Thompson) saying a quiet goodbye to one of her beloved students. Other characters get

Harry Plotter: Movie 1

When Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone hit movie theaters around the world, audiences were expecting a lot. Four of the books had already been released, and the series was only gaining in popularity. Stakes were high, which is why it's such a disappointment how much of a turd this film turned out to be.

Please, Chris Columbus, don't kill the franchise! It's just a baby!