Blog Tour: Mothership

Welcome to the 6th stop on the Mothership blog tour! Today I have the pleasure of sharing with you some movies authors Martin Leicht and Isla Neal think would be fun to put in a time capsule to share with people in the future. Love it. Also, be sure and check out the next stop on the tour Thursday, July 26th at Novel Novice!

Life will undoubtedly be very different for Elvie Nara in the year 2074. It’s fun to imagine all of the crazy technology and food and entertainment people will be exposed to sixty years from now. But sometimes it’s just as hilarious to look to the past and mock their conventions. So, in that vein, we were asked to think of some contemporary objects that we would put in a time capsule for Elvie to discover. She’d probably make fun of a lot of it—after all, these are things that would have been “cool” for her grandparents! Still, we think she’ll get a kick out of seeing what we were watching, wearing, eating, and more.

Movies. By the year 2074, with the domination of 3D virtual cinemas, the majority of the films we love today will be known as “flat pics.” But, quaint as they may seem to her contemporaries, Elvie loves her some 2D drama, so we wanted to give her some interesting choices. This was hard, because for every movie we desperately wanted to include (Serenity) there were three others that had just as valid a reason for appearing on an objective list of noteworthy contemporary films. So our undying love for personal favorites (like, um, Serenity) aside, we settled on a slate of major motion pictures that have come out recently and have something interesting to say about our culture at the beginning of the 21st century.

THE DARK KNIGHT (2008)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jqq4j52Fb4 

The Dark Knight is not a perfect movie. Personally we wouldn’t even say it’s the best Christopher Nolan Batman movie (that would be Batman Begins, in Martin’s humble opinion, though he knows many will disagree. Isla says forget the movies altogether and go for some Adam West—SMASH! BANG!—TV silliness.). Still, The Dark Knight is the most ambitious “comic book” movie ever made, both in its tone and execution, and as such it managed to eclipse many more “grown-up” movies at the time of its release and even after. Heath Ledger’s performance and Chris Nolan’s steady direction are equally hypnotic. Also that chase through the streets of Gotham (hello, Batpug!) is just awesome. All in all, The Dark Knight captured the zeitgeist of its time, both in and out of the cinema, in a manner that few other films even dared attempt.

SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD (2010)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1qaLmfzW3I

Based on a series of very funny graphic novels by Bryan Lee O’Malley, this irreverent film follows slacker Scott as he attempts to defeat the seven evil ex-es of the (possible) love of his life in order to win her heart. It’s silly, off-beat, and a video-game nerd’s dream—but it also tells the story of how a self-centered, media-crazed kid slowly realizes that the choices he makes for himself affect those around him. It also does a whiz-bang job of poking fun at the attention-deficit-addled 20-somethings at the turn of the millennium, and their (often conflicting) views about identity, self-respect, and love. The film was criminally under seen in theaters, but hopefully everyone will take the opportunity to watch it in some form at home, so that they’ll experience what we’ve known for a few years now: Scott Pilgrim kicks serious . . . behind.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK (2010)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJCSRxzPfXI

Facebook is still remarkably new, and while it has made a major impact on both youth culture and society at large, it could just as easily disappear or be replaced within the next few years by something entirely different. If this happens, The Social Network could end up being as relevant as a movie about the creation of the 8-track (ask your parents).

We think this movie will still stand on its own for other reasons, though. The movie is about something more timeless than the dawn of online social networking—it’s about ruthlessness, ingenuity, and the loneliness that comes from being so intrinsically linked to millions of other people across the globe—and few movies have yet to capture the early 21st century so well.

Upon pulling these BluRay/DVD discs out of the time capsule, Elvie would most likely declare, “I thought you said there were movies in here.” And then, assuming that the discs were drink coasters or perhaps primitive Magno-Frisbees, she would chuck them at the wall.

Other movies Elvie would get a kick out of:

Serenity (2005); Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004); Serenity (2005); all of the Lord of the Rings movies (2001 – 2003); and Serenity (2005).

I'm going to go out on a limb and say they both may be fans of Serenity ;-) More information on Martin, Isla, and Mothership can be found here:

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MOTHERSHIP (from Simon & Schuster)

Pregnant. In space. Yeah, things are really looking up.

It’s 2074 and Elvie’s unplanned pregnancy (with Cole Archer, who bolted out of town half a millisecond after hearing the news, not that Elvie’s bitter about it or anything) forces her to leave her best bud back on Earth and spend her junior year aboard a corny old space cruiser with forty-five other hormonal teen girls (one of whom just happens to be her arch-nemesis).  Getting shipped off to the Hanover School for Expecting Teen Mothers was not how Elvie imagined spending her junior year, but she can go with the flow. That is, until a team of hot commandos hijacks the ship—and one of them turns out to be Cole.

Mothership is the first installment in a new trilogy from Martin Leicht and Isla Neal that has been described as Juno meets Pretty In Pink…but in space.



Don't forget to check out stop #7 Thursday, the 26th at NOVEL NOVICE!