Mini movie review: Moonrise Kingdom

Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom is one of those movies that I really enjoyed but am having difficulty articulating much about it.  Colorful, sweet, charming, just this side of precious due to the adult characters' sadness tempering the sweetness of the children, this is a very Wes Anderson movie, stacking right up there with The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore (I haven't seen The Fabulous Mr. Fox yet).  The adult cast is loaded, with Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Frances McDormand, Bruce Willis, Harvey Keitel, Jason Schwartzman and Tilda Swinton, and the two young leads playing Sam and Suzy are perfect.  The story is straightforward - 12-year olds Sam and Suzy run away together to escape their less than happy domestic situations and the locals rally to find them before the storm of the century sweeps in - but the quirky characters and their complicated interrelationships fill the 93 minute running time to bursting.  If you like Anderson's other films, you'll love this one.  If you don't know Anderson's films, what are you waiting for?   Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay.

Mini book review: Red Country by Joe Abercrombie

Man oh man, don't I just love me Joe Abercrombie's books.  No other fantasy writer I've read - and I've read a lot - writes action like he does.  The world he's built is populated with fascinating, deeply flawed characters who have a propensity for violence and adventure.  With Red Country, Abercrombie has added yet another great book, taking place some years after the events of The Heroes, which was after Best Served Cold, which took place after the First Law trilogy.  When Shy South's brother and sister are kidnapped and taken west, into the Far Country, she and her stepfather Lamb give chase.  Shy is a tough cookie, struggling to forget the evil deeds of her youth. Lamb is a giant Northman, quiet, scarred and with only nine fingers.  Shy thinks he's a coward.  She's going to change her mind about that.  As they follow the trail of the kidnappers, they join a wagon train heading to the wild west town of Crease.  Red Country has a  Western flair - quite different from the Mediterranean aspect of BSC - and the wagon train's journey brought Lonesome Dove to mind, while the nasty little settlement of Crease makes Deadwood look like Paris.  Like Abercrombie's other books, Red Country is full of great characters, several of whom have appeared in previous volumes: Captain-General Nicomo Costa is there, with the cleaver-wielding Sgt. Friendly and assorted other of his mercenaries; Caul Shivers and Glama Golden have cameos; and the mysterious Mayor of Crease seems awfully familiar.  The wild West tone is slightly jarring compared to the previous books but Red Country is great fun and a solid entry in Abercrombie's bibliography.  I'm starting to think I should buy these books.

Books, in brief

I'm still churning through Spartacus: Vengeance, hence the not much of anything new here.  I like it and Liam McIntyre is doing a fine job but I still miss Andy Whitfield.  I've read a couple of books as well:

This Book is Full of Spiders - Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It by David Wong.  I think I liked this sequel to John Dies at the End better than the first book.  I found it easier to follow, the story moving much more linearly.  David inadvertently unleashes a plague of parasitic spider monsters that turn the townsfolk of [Undisclosed] into zombies, for all intents and purposes.  Then he, John, Amy and Molly have to stop the spider-zombie apocalypse before it spreads to the rest of the world.  Funny, fast-paced and pretty gruesome/gory in spots.

"Who Could That Be at This Hour?" by Lemony Snicket.  I am a big fan of Mr. Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events" books (Full disclosure: I went to college with Daniel Handler, Lemony Snicket's alter ego, and he is every bit as brilliant, funny, articulate and talented as you might imagine).  "WCTBaTH?" is the first book in a new series, "All the Wrong Questions" - a children's noir series.  This first book follows young Snicket in his first apprenticeship as he tries to solve a mystery and, in doing so, asks wrong question after wrong question.  It's a good start but I think it's been a little more challenging for Handler to find his voice here.

I. Am. Watching. Spartacus

I guess I've just been in the mood for sexy, sweaty gladiators these days.  Can you blame me?  I just finished Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, the six episode prequel, set five years before the events of Spartacus: Blood and Sand.  In this prequel, we get to see backstory on many of our favorite characters:  the doctore, Oenomaus, was happily fighting as a gladiator and happily married to a lovely girl slave before he was forced into management; Crixus comes to the ludus, unwashed, unshaved and unable to fight; Ashur had the use of both his legs and although he was still a schemer, he had hopes of honor in the arena.  Barca had a much more butch boyfriend.  Best of all, Quintus Batiatus and Lucretia - the wonderful John Hannah and Lucy Lawless - are there, young and ambitious but not yet corrupt; we get to watch as Batiatus's daddy issues force him into poorly planned schemes and Lucretia battles for her husband.

New characters add fun to the mix too.  Jaime Murray plays Gaia, Lucretia's BFF, a gorgeous Roman lady on the prowl for her next husband.  She introduces Lucretia to opium-fueled three-ways, encourages small orgies to court favor with important Capuans and inspires some awesome revenge.  The champion of the ludus is Gannicus: handsome and cocky, he is close friends with Oenomaus and his wife Melitta.  Gannicus doesn't have the charisma that Andy Whitfield's Spartacus did but he's fun nonetheless.

GotA is in a tough position because having watched the first season already, you know what's going to happen to many of the GotA characters.  Still, amid the over-the-top violence and sex, there are plenty of heart-wrenching moments that make you feel for these people, and that's what makes these Spartacus shows good.

Gods of the Arena was filmed during Blood and Sand's hiatus in hopes that series star Andy Whitfield would beat his cancer.  He didn't, which is really, really sad, but before he died he told the showrunners that they should recast his part.  They did and I've just started Spartacus: Vengeance with Liam McIntyre as the new Spartacus.  McIntyre looks enough like Whitfield that it's only a small shock to see him in the role; he doesn't have Whitfield's spark quite yet, but it's still early and Whitfield grew into the role himself so there's plenty of time.

Mini book review: John Dies at the End by "David Wong"

On the book jacket, Don Coscarelli, director of Phantasm I-IV (I've seen the first one and quite liked it) and Bubba Ho-Tep (my review here), described the author of  John Dies at the End as a "mash-up of Douglas Adams and Stephen King." I'd say that's right on the money. This horror/humor hybrid is a lot of fun, moving readily from LOL guffaws ("jockstrappery" - you'll just have to read it) to squeemish squirming, sometimes in the course of the same sentence. I read it quickly over the weekend between Christmas and New Year's, perhaps too quickly because it sometimes seemed a little disjointed, but as the framework is an "autobiographical" account, written by author David Wong (a pseudonym), recalling a meeting with a reporter to discuss recent strange events - in other words, a story within a story within a story - I guess it's supposed to be a little disjointed. Also, Dave purports to have been under the influence of some otherworldly substance that allows him, along with his buddy John, to access dimensions other than our own. Also, they drink a lot. I'm not even going to try to explain the plot, but Dave and John are sort of the Ghostbusters crossed with Mulder and Scully (minus the government funding and personal hygiene). Very weird things are happening in their town and they seem to be about the only ones who can do anything about it. There's been a movie made of JDatE - apparently fairly well received at Sundance in their Midnight Movies series and it's supposed to be coming out in wide(-ish) release soon. I'm not sure how they filmed it without cutting out a ton of stuff - they would have to cut a TON of stuff - but I'm likely to see it. Also, there's a sequel, This Book is Full of Spiders - Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It, and I've just picked that up from the library.

Mini movie review: Our Idiot Brother

This one I rented hoping Mr. Mouse would like it. A 90-minute movie with Paul Rudd, Zooey Deschanel, Elizabeth Banks, Adam Scott and Rashida Jones? What could be wrong with that? Well, part of what's wrong with it is that Our Idiot Brother isn't funny enough to truly be a comedy but is too silly to really be a family drama (which is the other thing it wants to be). Paul Rudd is the titular brother, Ned, a good-natured, well-meaning, largely oblivious lost soul who gets arrested for selling pot to a uniformed cop. When he gets out of jail, his girlfriend has dumped him and kicked him off their organic farm; worse, she refuses to share custody of their dog, Willie Nelson, whom she doesn't really like anyway. Unsure of what to do, and needing both work and a place to stay, Ned crashes in turn with his three sisters: Liz (Emily Mortimer), a harried, overprotective mom married to a British documentary filmmaker/putz (Steve Coogan); Miranda (Elizabeth Banks), a type-A magazine writer desperate to make a name for herself at her job; and Natalie (Deschanel), a free-spirit stand-up comedian (entirely unfunny) who isn't sure she's ready to settle down with serious girlfriend Rashida Jones (who sports some seriously awful eyeglasses). Unsurprisingly, Ned makes things worse for his sisters and then, when they really take a look at themselves and their brother, makes everything better. The story is pretty trite and unoriginal and there are too many cast members - Deschanel hardly gets anything to do. On the plus side, Willy Nelson is quite a cutie-pie.

Mini movie review: Chronicle

I was really looking forward to Chronicle, a genre blend of sci-fi, superhero and teen-angst.  It had gotten pretty good reviews - interesting story*, engaging characters, good use of the now ever-present found-footage technique - and the genre mix is right up my alley.  It's the story of three high school kids, Andrew, the tormented loner, Matt, his smart cousin, and popular, athletic Steve.  The guys find a hole in the ground and, upon venturing in, discover some big crystal that imbues them with superpowers.  These powers reveal themselves slowly: first they can move Legos, then baseballs, then a leaf-blower, then themselves; their pure joy at being able to fly is contagious.  But Andrew, whose mother is dying and whose father is a drunk asshole (btw, if Matt is his cousin, wouldn't one of Matt's parents - who would be related to one of Andrew's parents, maybe step in to help with Andrew's terminally ill mother?), is a disturbed kid and he begins to use his powers in ways that he shouldn't.  Matt, who is the moral center of the film, tries to help Andrew, but things get way out of hand.  For the most part, I enjoyed Chronicle, but it lost me at the end when it devolved into a long scene of CGI effects and violence.  I feel that, given the time that was taken at the front end to develop Andrew, Matt and Steve, there could have been more intimacy and less smash to the boys' downfall.

*The thing about the story is that it's awfully similar to that X-Files episode ("Rush," S7E5) where the popular high school kids find a cave in the woods with a mysterious force field, get supercharged with super-speed, and then do bad things until Mulder and Scully can rein them in.

Mini book review: The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

I am on quite a post-apocalyptic roll here, what with recent readings of The Road, Immobility and now Peter Heller’s The Dog Stars. This latest foray into our bleak future takes place in rural Colorado after the flu has decimated the planet. Hig, a bush pilot and fly fisherman, lives near an airfield with his old dog Jasper, growing vegetables, guarding and protecting the homestead with his surly neighbor Bangley. The two men have figured out how to live near each other, despite Bangley’s violently misanthropic tendencies – although I suppose he does have good cause to be so cranky since most strangers they see try to kill them in this vaguely Road Warrior-esque world. One day, years after the plague, Hig hears a voice over the radio in his plane and he decides to see who else may be surviving out there, thinking surely there’s more to this life, tattered as it is. Heller writes The Dog Stars in an abstracted first person narration, which I didn’t particularly care for but which was more fulfilling than the oblique Immobility. Not all questions are answered and there are some sad parts to get through, but ultimately The Dog Stars contains a little hope … which is always a good thing once the apocalypse rolls around.

Mini movie review: Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

I first heard of this documentary in the local paper last year (?) when it was shown at the SundanceFilm Festival in Park City, where it was very well received. I am only a casual Joan Rivers fan – I don’t know her stand-up at all and I’ve never read any of her books – but I do like her scathing repartee on the red carpet and Fashion Police, and I enjoyed her recent guest spot on Louis CK’s show,Louie. This documentary, which follows Rivers around for a year, shows a side of Joan never seen before, starting with the opening credits where we see her WITHOUT ANY MAKEUP. I found the movie to be interesting and quite touching, in fact: an intimate look at this incredibly hard-working woman who seems compelled to keep working, who worries about money (since she supports innumerable family members, plus her large staff, plus her own life of luxury), who has fought hard for everything she has and opened doors for women comics, who is fiercely protective of her family (but not so much so that she won’t occasionally use them as stand-up material). One of my favorite scenes was when Joan and her grandson were delivering Thanksgiving meals to shut-ins. They met a woman suffering from MS who used to be a photographer and whose tiny apartment was stuffed to the gills with negatives, slides and photographs. Joan Googled the woman when she got home – Flo Fox – and was literally moved to tears as she read her story, remarking on how sad it was to see such a beautiful, edgy, bohemian artist struck down by the disease. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work shows Rivers’s humanity and grit, that underneath the drag queen clothes and layers of plastic surgery beats the heart of dedicated, loyal fighter.

Mini movie review: The Hunger Games

What can I say, really, about the movie version of The Hunger Games that hasn't been said a gajillion times over.  I loved the book - was startled and upset when it ended and I didn't have the second one in the series lined up - and very strongly feel that both the books and the movie[s] are SO MUCH better than that Twilight crap that everyone loves so much.  Better stories, better writing, better characters/role models, better acting - all of it's better.  That being said, I did have a couple of minor quibbles with the movie:

• I think Jennifer Lawrence is a fantastic actor (and really, really need to see Winter's Bone which I haven't gotten around to yet) and she did a very nice job with Katniss but she ain't kidding anyone for playing fifteen years old.
• I understand the need for world-building but it sure seemed like there was an awful lot of build-up and pre-Games and very little time actually spent during the actual Hunger Games for such a long movie.  That being said, the District 12 Reaping was really horrific and well-done.
• No one even remotely looked like they were starving, which is a HUGE part of the books, especially when it's called the Hunger Games.
• JL's Katniss seemed much less calculating and conniving than the book's Katniss.  Of course, the stupid DVD I had skipped so badly that I couldn't watch the last 10-15 minutes, so maybe I missed something there.

Anyway, I loved the book and liked (but didn't love) the movie; I'm looking forward to seeing the next installments but will re-read the remaining books so be sure I know what's missing.