I liked this movie, but there were elements I did not like. As a general rule, I am not a fan of horror. I wrote an essay in college once, for one of my favorite two classes "Fantastic Literature" in which the assignment was to compare and contrast the Horror genre vs the Fantasy genre. As I researched the subject, I came to my own conclusions as to the difference. In Fantasy, there tends, by and large, to be a balance of supernatural forces, even if they seem on the outset to be vastly outnumbered. Whereas in most horror, the darker supernatural elements are the only one that exists, or if the lighter elements exist, they are cold, disappassionate and incredibly weak.
And that is still, beyond doubt, the truth in Drag Me to Hell.
The main reason we saw it was a firm desire to avoid Transformers: The Robot Testacles over the weekend, and because I'm a Sam Raimi fan. The female lead is strong and clever. In fact, generally speaking most of the characters avoided stale stereotypes, despite an easy temptation for the script writers to use them. It followed many tropes of the genre, while still taking things on from a fresh perspective. It also had just enough of "Evil Dead" to bring up nostalgic fun while at the same time incorporating the lessons that Raimi has learned in his film making since that time.
If you like Horror, you'll like Drag Me to Hell. If you like Sam Raimi, you'll like it too. I liked it, but certain elements, particularly the ending, were not enough to get me to change my mind and really like other horror movies.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Movie: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
The basic premise of the movie is that the editor of a high profile french magazine had 'locked in' symdrome from a stroke, causing total paralysis with the inability to move anything but his eyes. After a three week coma, he awoke, lucid and only able to communicate through blinking.
After initially despairing, he decides to use a book contract he had had prior to his stroke to write a book on his condition, explaining that while he was trapped, he could use his imagination and memory to take him to other places. His attitude towards life and all that is within it takes a dramatic U-turn. He reconnects with his children and on the whole becomes a better human being.
The movie is visually stunning. It is all the more stunning in that it is based on a true story, and seems to be remarkably faithful to the original (ie the real world.) The camera work is probably the most innovative thing about it, and you can see why it won an academy award.
After initially despairing, he decides to use a book contract he had had prior to his stroke to write a book on his condition, explaining that while he was trapped, he could use his imagination and memory to take him to other places. His attitude towards life and all that is within it takes a dramatic U-turn. He reconnects with his children and on the whole becomes a better human being.
The movie is visually stunning. It is all the more stunning in that it is based on a true story, and seems to be remarkably faithful to the original (ie the real world.) The camera work is probably the most innovative thing about it, and you can see why it won an academy award.
Turn Coat by Jim Butcher
This book was excellent. It is the twelth book in the Harry Dresden series. Without giving away the whole plot, I'll basically say that in the first book, Harry Dresden, Wizard for Hire, had a dark cloud over his head. If he screwed up, the Wizard Police, in the form of the Warden Morgan, would kill him.
Turn Coat begins with Morgan showing up at Harry's door seeking protection from the same Wizard Police. Harry has to solve the murder in a classic whodunit with supernatural elements. There is also a lot of intense action.
One begins to wonder if the plethora of supporting characters that Butcher has slowly been giving Harry are all going to be maimed, mauled, stolen or killed. Good fiction often involves the suffering of the primary character, and hitherto now Harry has suffered a great deal, but he has also steadily advanced in power and had a circle of friends he could rely on. At the same time, many of these allies are becoming tainted or harmed by his mere presence, such that he might not have an allies by the time the 20 book series is done.
Which, as I said, tends to make good fiction as long as it is done properly.
I also think that this book may represent the last of the books that follow the standard formula of "something horrible shows up to Chicago, Harry finds out about it, Harry ties to fix it, Harry gets not just one problem but four or five and somehow manages to come out on top with some consequences that last a few books." The title of the next book is "Changes" and I think that the stage is finally set for the ultimate conflict with The Black Council.
And I'm looking forward to it.
Turn Coat begins with Morgan showing up at Harry's door seeking protection from the same Wizard Police. Harry has to solve the murder in a classic whodunit with supernatural elements. There is also a lot of intense action.
One begins to wonder if the plethora of supporting characters that Butcher has slowly been giving Harry are all going to be maimed, mauled, stolen or killed. Good fiction often involves the suffering of the primary character, and hitherto now Harry has suffered a great deal, but he has also steadily advanced in power and had a circle of friends he could rely on. At the same time, many of these allies are becoming tainted or harmed by his mere presence, such that he might not have an allies by the time the 20 book series is done.
Which, as I said, tends to make good fiction as long as it is done properly.
I also think that this book may represent the last of the books that follow the standard formula of "something horrible shows up to Chicago, Harry finds out about it, Harry ties to fix it, Harry gets not just one problem but four or five and somehow manages to come out on top with some consequences that last a few books." The title of the next book is "Changes" and I think that the stage is finally set for the ultimate conflict with The Black Council.
And I'm looking forward to it.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Movie: Persepolis
I can see why this movie was nominated for an academy award, and quite frankly I think it would have beaten any other animated film I've seen in recent memory except Ratatouille and Wall-E....the first of which Persepolis had the misfortune of going up against in their first year. But just because it didn't win, does not in any way reduce from its excellence. It is still extremely worth watching in its own right.
The movie is basically about Marjane (a real person) and her complex (slightly fictionalized) relationship with her country. The first part of the film shows her as a little girl growing up during the 1979 Iranian revolution. It then shows the haunting conditions that the people lived in during the Iran-Iraq war. She then goes to live in Austria as an exile by her parents who are afraid her outspoken opinions will get her killed. Finally, it shows her returning to Iran after a period of homelessness, reuniting with her family but ultimately still having to leave because of the harsh conditions there.
It is a film about identity, about coming of age, and about larger questions of right and wrong. The film puts a human face on the oppression that the people suffer there, and shows that the Iranians are not by any means a monolithic culture of "Death to America" chanting lunatics.
In fact, as an American familiar with history, the most striking thing about this film was what was entirely absent (at least as I saw it.) There were no stinging barbs against America. There were generic criticisms against "the west" comparing and contrasting its strengths vs. that of her home land (ie for example they don't beat the crap out of you for not wearing a veil.) And if you knew your history, you could still see the shadows of it in the effects of the Shah and the Iran/Iraq war. You could also see it for the positive in the black market music tapes that everyone wanted to have. But it was hidden, and not blatant.
Sometimes, it isn't about you. "You" in this case being about America. This is a film about Marjane, her family and ultimately her relationship with her society and how to deal with it. And it is wonderful.
The movie is basically about Marjane (a real person) and her complex (slightly fictionalized) relationship with her country. The first part of the film shows her as a little girl growing up during the 1979 Iranian revolution. It then shows the haunting conditions that the people lived in during the Iran-Iraq war. She then goes to live in Austria as an exile by her parents who are afraid her outspoken opinions will get her killed. Finally, it shows her returning to Iran after a period of homelessness, reuniting with her family but ultimately still having to leave because of the harsh conditions there.
It is a film about identity, about coming of age, and about larger questions of right and wrong. The film puts a human face on the oppression that the people suffer there, and shows that the Iranians are not by any means a monolithic culture of "Death to America" chanting lunatics.
In fact, as an American familiar with history, the most striking thing about this film was what was entirely absent (at least as I saw it.) There were no stinging barbs against America. There were generic criticisms against "the west" comparing and contrasting its strengths vs. that of her home land (ie for example they don't beat the crap out of you for not wearing a veil.) And if you knew your history, you could still see the shadows of it in the effects of the Shah and the Iran/Iraq war. You could also see it for the positive in the black market music tapes that everyone wanted to have. But it was hidden, and not blatant.
Sometimes, it isn't about you. "You" in this case being about America. This is a film about Marjane, her family and ultimately her relationship with her society and how to deal with it. And it is wonderful.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Dead Beat, by Jim Butcher
Harry Dresden animates a Tyranosaur to fight six evil Necromancers.
Let me repeat that. Harry Dresden animates a Tyranosaur to fight six evil Necromancers.
The book is Awesome in a Hatbox. And I'm not spoiling anything or giving it away, because they put it on the cover. More of the metaplot is revealed. Harry is given yet ANOTHER complication in his already complicated life, and his relationship with Thomas and his dog also advances. Murphy is absent, but still very present in the stakes involved (since the main challenge Harry faces is a threat to Murphy).
But the most interesting aspect of the whole thing is a) All you ever wanted to know about Bob the Skull and b) The advancement Harry has to the office of Warden, which puts the oppressed, potentially into the role of oppressor.
Let me repeat that. Harry Dresden animates a Tyranosaur to fight six evil Necromancers.
The book is Awesome in a Hatbox. And I'm not spoiling anything or giving it away, because they put it on the cover. More of the metaplot is revealed. Harry is given yet ANOTHER complication in his already complicated life, and his relationship with Thomas and his dog also advances. Murphy is absent, but still very present in the stakes involved (since the main challenge Harry faces is a threat to Murphy).
But the most interesting aspect of the whole thing is a) All you ever wanted to know about Bob the Skull and b) The advancement Harry has to the office of Warden, which puts the oppressed, potentially into the role of oppressor.
The Black Hole War, by Leonard Susskind
The sub title of the book is, "My war with Stephen Hawking to make the universe safe for Quantum Mechanics"...and that's pretty much what it is.
The book shows the 20 year chronicle of a battle of ideas between the Relativsts, or believers in the Theory of Relativity, and those who insisted that elements of their ideas were wrong. Specifically, the book posits the idea of 'information loss in Black Holes', which basically meant that Stephen Hawking in the late seventies posited the idea that once something goes past the event horizon of a black hole, it is 'lost' the universe. Susskind's problem with this is that basically it violated the second law of thermodynamics.
Over the next twenty years, Susskind outlines radical new theories in physics which pretty much prove him correct, including the Holographic Principal and String Theory. Some of the work is theoretical in nature, but some of it relies on rock solid mathematics until Stephen Hawking himself, no more than two years ago, conceeded that information loss in Black Holes was not likely.
The fascinating thing about all of this is that almost all of the work was done entirely by thought experiment. Just the way that Einstein came up with the Theory of Relativity in the first place. The book is an excellent way to become familiar with some of the more complicated subjects in Quantum Mechanics and Cosmology. It has very little math, and the narration follows a pretty smooth style.
I liked it and learned a great deal from it.
The book shows the 20 year chronicle of a battle of ideas between the Relativsts, or believers in the Theory of Relativity, and those who insisted that elements of their ideas were wrong. Specifically, the book posits the idea of 'information loss in Black Holes', which basically meant that Stephen Hawking in the late seventies posited the idea that once something goes past the event horizon of a black hole, it is 'lost' the universe. Susskind's problem with this is that basically it violated the second law of thermodynamics.
Over the next twenty years, Susskind outlines radical new theories in physics which pretty much prove him correct, including the Holographic Principal and String Theory. Some of the work is theoretical in nature, but some of it relies on rock solid mathematics until Stephen Hawking himself, no more than two years ago, conceeded that information loss in Black Holes was not likely.
The fascinating thing about all of this is that almost all of the work was done entirely by thought experiment. Just the way that Einstein came up with the Theory of Relativity in the first place. The book is an excellent way to become familiar with some of the more complicated subjects in Quantum Mechanics and Cosmology. It has very little math, and the narration follows a pretty smooth style.
I liked it and learned a great deal from it.
Movie: The Hangover
This movie is rated R. In fact, this is so R on the R scale that Jennifer and I debated elements of it afterward that it might need to be NC-17....almost.
But we both liked it. A lot.
But if you don't watch R rated movies, this is definitely not one of those 'gray area' movies that you might see for cinematic or 'artistic' value.
The Hangover is not, for example, by any stretch of the imagination, Shcindler's List.
What it is is great fun. There have been 'wacky hijinks' or 'boys will be boys' comedy style movies for as long as there have been movies, but this movie dials the concept up to 11. Basic plot synopsis is that four friends get drunk in Las Vegas for a bachelor party and wake up in a hotel room that shows the consequences of the previous night. And they remember none of it.
So they spend the entire movie unraveling the clues of what happened in order to get themselves out of a dire situation. It is a comedy, and a good one. I suspect it is one that will stand the test of time, though it is probably not what I would call 'iconic.'
But we both liked it. A lot.
But if you don't watch R rated movies, this is definitely not one of those 'gray area' movies that you might see for cinematic or 'artistic' value.
The Hangover is not, for example, by any stretch of the imagination, Shcindler's List.
What it is is great fun. There have been 'wacky hijinks' or 'boys will be boys' comedy style movies for as long as there have been movies, but this movie dials the concept up to 11. Basic plot synopsis is that four friends get drunk in Las Vegas for a bachelor party and wake up in a hotel room that shows the consequences of the previous night. And they remember none of it.
So they spend the entire movie unraveling the clues of what happened in order to get themselves out of a dire situation. It is a comedy, and a good one. I suspect it is one that will stand the test of time, though it is probably not what I would call 'iconic.'
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