EL SEGUNDO HERALD November 18, 2021 Page 5
Entertainment
Check It Out
What’s Inside a Flower
by Rachel Ignotofsky
By Kristina Kora-Beckman, Senior
Librarian, El Segundo Public Library
From the author of Women in Science comes
a wonderfully engaging and informative book
all about flowers. What’s Inside a Flower by
Rachel Ignotofky answers big questions and
small with colorful illustrations of flowers,
bugs and more.
Her text interweaves simple statements
and questions perfect for younger learnings,
with more complex details for older readers
to discover. Drawings are accurate but also
basic enough to break down complex biology
systems into easily digestible facts that my
four-year-old gobbled up. My eight-year-old
loved the witty word bubbles and fun faces
of the bug community.
I usually prefer reading fiction with my
kids but really enjoyed sharing this book
with them. There was so much for each to
discover and lots of text to help me answer
the inevitable “but why” questions that pop
up. Ignotofsky’s beautiful details reminded
me of Jan Brett’s gorgeous border illustrations.
I relished to seeing trees, flowers and
plants I grew up with in my native Oregon
as well as flora and fauna from visited places
or our now-native California.
To check out What’s Inside a Flower or
other creative non-fiction books, please visit
the library to apply for your free library card.
For more information or to sign up, please
visit our website www.elsegundolibrary.org.
For more reading suggestions or help with
free reading or school assignments, please
stop by the adult or youth service desks, we’d
love to help you find your next great read! •
What’s Inside a Flower by Rachel Ignotofsky
Kristina Kora-Beckman
Film Review
‘Spencer’ Imagines The Unbearable
Duty of Being Diana
By Ryan Rojas
Since you, dear reader, likely aren’t royalty,
you might think that the holidays are a time
for simply unwinding, relaxing, and being
yourself amongst your closest loved ones.
For royalty, however, holidays are orderly
affairs of the strictest manner. Meals are
orchestrated and scheduled at exact times.
You must be on your best behavior always,
smiling courteously in your already-chosen
outfit for each event (and don’t even think
Kristen Stewart channels Princess Diana in Pablo Larraín’s darkly fictionalized interpretation of the late Royal’s holiday weekend.
Photo courtesy of Neon.
about swapping your morning and afternoon
attires with each other).
Much like your entire life, it’s a performance.
A wholly lifeless charade where enjoyment
and self-expression have no place at the table.
These dignified traditions continue from
one generation to the next, as the Royal
family sees the highly fashionable acts as
fulfilling a duty to their country.
But times change, and pressures grow.
They certainly did for Princess Diana, a
young woman at the center of the media
sensation and the public’s fixation on the
world’s largest stage.
How might the pressures of one’s highly
scrutinized life reveal over a holiday gathering?
What sort of psychological horrors
would hide behind those castle’s looming
doors and drape-drawn windows?
An impressionistically painted portrait
That is the question that the new film
Spencer asks. Director Pablo Larraín, having
last showcased John F. Kennedy’s late wife in
2016’s Jackie, once again returns to examining
the inner sadness of a stoic stateswoman.
This time around, though, Larraín (with a
screenplay from Steven Knight) takes greater
artistic liberties by inventing the events that
happened over one holiday weekend.
Based on the factual accounting of a stay
that Princess Diana (Kristen Stewart) spent
at home with her large Royal family, Spencer
imagines the conversations, events, and
episodes that the Princess of Wales may have
secretly suffered.
While the events themselves might not have
happened in the way they are depicted in the
film, the impressionistic portrait makes for
a different kind of honesty: one that’s more
truthful of an emotional state versus events.
In taking such narrative liberties, Spencer
is free to tread into dangerous, almost horrifically
surprising grounds. Stuffy dinners aren’t
just seen as uncomfortable, but as grotesque
nightmares in which we are trapped, panicstricken,
and helpless as Diana. It’s beautiful,
but also an unshakeable fever dream of
anxious, paranoid proportions.
And of course, the film holds together with
a captivating and career-defining performance
from Kristen Stewart.
Stewart might not be the first person you’d
think of as being the choice to play the late
figure (perhaps because she’s only 31, and
isn’t British). But when you look at Stewart’s
career of playing anguished, grief-stricken
women–along with her own history of being
fixated upon by the media and public alike,
the elements all come together. They make for
an experience that feels spiritually connected
(credit the costume and makeup department
too, for masterfully capturing the look).
Stewart captures a wide range of emotions:
the tender grace in her lighter moments, as
well as a heavier sense of hurt in darker
moments. Spencer builds to hallucinatory
anxiety, in which she spirals over her lack
of control in her life. Of not owning your
identity, and living life as a construction of
others’ perceptions.
In Spencer (one of the best films of the
year), Larraín and Stewart do something that
I was reminded of after seeing Quentin Tarantino’s
Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood,
and what that did for the late actress Sharon
Tate. By inventing a new story about a young
woman who was also tragically taken from
the world too soon, Spencer gives Diana her
life back–at least in the public’s perception.
A life that’s liberated from obligation and
expectation. One that is finally able to live
on her terms–duties be damned.
1h 57m. ‘Spencer’ is rated R for some
language. •
Ryan Rojas
YOU’VE WORKED SO HARD
getting your business off the ground
Please give your business the name it deserves
DBAS PUBLISHED FOR ONLY $75.00
Email dba@heraldpublications.com or call 310-322-1830 for more information.
FOLLOW US!
ALWAYS STAY UPDATED