Comics soup and rice

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Not intentional, but I'm rather pleased that my list of book finished just before and after Comic-Con includes only one book not comics. Perfect. Makes me look like I deserve that PROFESSIONAL badge.

076) I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001 by Lauren Tarshis and Corey Egbert (et al), finished July 16

I've never read any of these books, original or comicsized, but this one in particular I felt allergic too. I feel like anything 9/11y is apt to be terrible and inappropriate and I hate it.

Which isn't fair, but goes to show how little I, who was over a thousand miles away, have yet to heal from that day.

Lady Steed and I feel we've done a bad job talking to our kids about 9/11 and what it means and why they should care—and that's probably because we're not good at talking about it fullstop.

Enter this book.

I only put it on hold because I learned that the artist is LDS and, well, I'm supposed to be some sort of expert or something.

I was utterly enrapt. I did not want to talk to anyone. It's not a long read but I was deeply connected to the story emotionally. I assume we can thank Tarshis's original novel for this (in her afterward she talks a bit about her reticence to write this story—but this IS history to kids; a bit of history whose [more direct] impact on them they are more aware of than, say the Titanic), but props to Georgia Ball who write the adaptation and the art team. I was moved.

And dang it. I'm making my kids read it.

before and after dinner

077) Skull Cat and the Curious Castle by Norman Shurtliff, finished July 18

This is such a Norman Shurtliff book. Cute animals. Page layouts as from an activity book. High fantasy and high adventure. Everything you expect from him, now from a major comics publisher. And it's high time.

This is a very volume-one kind of book, but it has plenty of odd details and offers opportunity for our understandings of characters to evolve, even in its short page count. It bodes well for whatever comes next. I hope it sells so he can tell us!

on the train

 

078) Epileptic by David B., finished July 19

This is a powerful and difficult book. David B.'s stark imagery as he takes us through his family's struggles with his older brother's epilepsy, through all the bizarre and esoteric pathways his parents in their desperation walked down in their desperation. The black-and-white images are filled with grotesque faces, monsters and ghosts, images of death and battle. He covers family and world history. He engages with fringe religions and diets. The work is dense and thought-provoking.

It's also deeply personal and situated clearly in France, mostly from the 70s to the 90s, and thus a window into a foreign land in a recent time. For instance, it's shocking, as someone from the western states, to hear casual antisemitism, but its place in this story helps me understand Europe and its people better than a paragraph in a high-school history book.

This was originally published in pieces, but here it's not easy to tell where one part ends and another begins. And this compiled volume is bookended by a page of prose on each side by the third sibling. Her second witness and unique voice makes the entire thing even more true and meaningful.

A powerful memoir.


i think three days

079) Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld by Shannon and Dean Hale, and Asiah Fulmore; finished July 30

Delightful. Doesn't do anything new but does old so well.

an evening

080) Fadeaway by E. B. Vickers, finished August 2

I hardly ever read YA lit anymore because so much of it tastes the same. Add this to the list of books I didn't anticipate spending more than ten pages on before returning it to the library. However, anticipation was wrong. I zipped through this book, intrigued by the mystery and the characters. The chronology is scrambled but it's easy to follow.

Mild spoiler alert (and THANK you cover, for not giving this away), but this is a book about the opioid disaster our country's been living through, filtered through the experiences of excellent human teenagers. The book has red herrings that work fine in prose but would be trickier to pull off in a film. (Though Disney+ might as well try serializing it as Star Wars is the novel's favorite allusion.)

Anyway, I really liked it.

three days

081) You're Dad by Liz Climo, finished August 4

We heard Liz Climo speak at Comic-Con which was largely a choice of convenience but one I'm glad we made. Her stuff is funny and smart and sweet. Plus, I appreciated the wise things and funny anecdotes that came out of her Simpsons years.

Anyway, this little giftbook for dads is good. Typical giftbook stuff but her cartoons elevate it.

one sitting

082) Meanwhile...A Comic Shop Anthology, finished August 5

This is kind of the perfect Kickstarter anthology. It's all stories "about" comicbook stores. Some are very literal, some are scifi, some barely touch on the topic. It's the lack of "right answer" to what a comicbook-store story should be that allows the artists to try so many different things. Some of the stories are bad, many are underdeveloped, and a few are excellent. Which is great. I hope all the artists here grew, and will now find further attention. Good luck to them all.

two days then another day later on

PREVIOUSLY THIS YEAR

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 2024 × 10 = Bette Davis being Bette Davis

001) Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, finished January 1
002) The Complete Peanuts: 1977 – 1978 by Charles M. Schulz , finished January 6
003) The Sandman: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman et al, finished January 10
004) Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, finished January 17
005) Touched by Walter Mosley, finished January 19
006) Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever by Matt Singer, finished January 20
007) Evergreen Ape: The Story of Bigfoot by David Norman Lewis, finished January 24
008) What Falls Away by Karin Anderson, finished February 1
009) Peanuts Jubilee: My Life and Art with Charlie Brown and Others by Charles M. Schulz, finished February 3
010) Legends of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, finished February 3

 A few of my favorite things

011) Roaming by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, finished February 3
012) The Return of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, February 9
013) Things in the Basement by Ben Hatke, February 10
014) A Charlie Brown Religion: Exploring the Spiritual Life and Work of Charles M. Schulz by Stephen J. Lind, finished February 10
015) 1st Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction by Joseph M. Spencer, finished February 10
016) Dendo by Brittany Long Olsen, finished February 11
017) The Ten Winners of the 2023 Whiting Awards, finished February 12
018) The Peanuts Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life edited by Andrew Blaune, finished February 17
019) Do Not Disturb Any Further by John Callahan, finished February 17
020) Mighty Jack by Ben Hatke, finished circa February 19
021) 2nd Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction by Terryl Givens, February 24

 

Let's start with the untimely deaths

022) The Life and Death of King John by William Shakespeare, finished February 28
022) Mighty Jack and the Goblin King by Ben Hatke, finished February 29
023) Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez, finished March 4
024) Millay by Edna St. Vincent Millay, finished March
025, 026) The Life and Death of King John by William Shakespeare, finished March 6, 8
027) Murder Book by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell, finished March 11
028) A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
029) The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett and Paul Kidby, finished March 15
030) Karen's Roller Skates by Ann M. Martin and Katy Farina, finished March 18

 

Four comics could hardly be more different

031) The Sandman: The Wake by Neil Gaiman et al, finished March 18
032) The World of Edena by Mœbius, finished March 23
033) Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller, the Man Who Created Nancy by Bill Griffith, finished March 23
034) Mighty Jack and Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, finished March 23

 

Jacob says be nice and read comics

035) Jacob: A Brief Theological Introduction by Deidre Nicole Green, finished March 24
036) Starter Villain by John Scalzi, finished March 27
037) Mister Invincible: Local Hero by Pascal Jousselin, finished March 30
038) The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics, edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly, finished March 30
039) Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass by Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh, finished April 1
040) The Super Hero's Journey by Patrick McDonnell, finished April 5  

 

Eleven books closer to death

041) The Stranger Beside Me: Updated Twentieth Anniversary Edition by Ann Rule, finished April 9
042) Huda F Are You? by Huda Fahmy, finished April 13
043) Enos, Jarom, Omni: a brief theological introduction by Sharon J. Harris, finished April 25
044) The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson, finished April 27 
045,046,049) The Mysteries by Bill Watterson and John Kascht, finished April 29, 30; May 3
047) The Children's Bach by Helen Garner, finished April 30
048) No. 1 with a Bullet by Sehman/Corona/Hickman/Wands, finished May 2
050) Over Seventy by P. G. Wodehouse, finished May 7
051) The Happy Shop by Brittany Long Olsen, finished May 16
052) Shades of Fear, finished May 21
053) Love Poems in Quarantine by Sarah Ruhl, finished May 21

 

And a vibrator makes it five dozen.....

054) The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt, finished May 25
055) Mosiah: A Brief Theological Introduction by James E. Faulconer, finished May 26
056) Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirstin Bakis
057) 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write: On Umbrellas and Sword Fights, Parades and Dogs, Fire Alarms, Children, and Theater by Sarah Ruhl, finished June 1
058) Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary by Timothy Snyder, finished June 4
059) Dead Man's Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl, finished June 6
060) The Next Room, or the vibrator play by Sarah Ruhl, finished June 8

 

And with Ursula, 69

061) The Robber Bridegroom by Eudora Welty, finished June 10
062) Blood of the Virgin by Sammy Harkham, finished June 11
063) Mulysses by Øyvind Torseter, finished June 11
064) Between the River and the Bridge by Craig Ferguson, finished June 12
065) Cranky Chicken by Katherine Battersby, finished June 12
066) Mile End Kids Stories by Isabelle Arsenault, finished June 12
067) Tiny Titans: Field Trippin' by author, finished June 14
068) Brief Theological Introductions: Alma 1–29 by Kylie Nielson Turley, finished June 16
069) Words Are My Matter: Writings on Life and Books by Ursula K. Le Guin, finished June 16

 

Numbers 70 through 75

070) Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think about Art, Pleasure, Beauty, and Truth by A. O. Scott, finished June 17
071) Alice, Let's Eat by Calvin Trillin, finished June 20
072) My Lovely Vigil Keeping by Carla Kelly, finished June 21
073) Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre, finished July 9
074) The Red House Mystery by A. A. Milne, finished July 11
075) Best. Movie. Year. Ever. How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen by Brian Raftery, finished July 16

Svithe: an attempt to restrike lightning

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This week's Come, Follow Me turned into a fine Sunday School lesson. I made a comment near the end of which a person I respect asked me to email it to her. Recapturing something so of-the-moment is sketchy business, but I've made an attempt:

38:17

Do not say: O God, I thank thee that we are better than our brethren; but rather say: O Lord, forgive my unworthiness, and remember my brethren in mercy—yea, acknowledge your unworthiness before God at all times.

33:16

16 For behold, he said: Thou art angry, O Lord, with this people, because they will not understand thy mercies which thou hast bestowed upon them because of thy Son.

As we discussed the serpent, I was thinking one reason people might not look is because looking at a bronze serpent on a rod is stupid. I know how the world works and that's not going to work. I'm not an idiot. Which reminded me of Namaan who felt similarly about washing in the Jordan. Pride, in other words. Pride of a specific type.

When we got to v17, I was still thinking about pride. My example comes from education (of course) but I immediately realized it applies also to politics and, no doubt, all other pursuits.

Something that irritates me in education is people who get a teaching credential, teach the minimum number of years to qualify as an administrator, then jump around from admin job to admin job for a few years, then spend the rest of their career as a consultant, bringing their expertise from school to school, earning a lot of money to solve problems that they don't actually solve. Which isn't that surprising. It's hard to know how to fix classroom-level problems when you left before getting sufficient experience to even really understand those problems.

When I pray to God to forgive my unworthiness, I am praying for humility. To always believe that I can learn. Not that I'm the smartypants who knows everything. (Even when evidence suggests that might be the case.)

Now we're getting to the point where I made my comment and I hope I've built my thoughts back to a point that I can recapture it. I'm a little doubtful....

Maybe God being angry we don't accept his mercies coincides with our failure to ask him to forgive our unworthiness. After all, unless we get over ourselves—our certainty we know best, our certainty we know everything worth knowing—we can't become what he knows we can become. We can't do what he wants us to do.

Without enough humility to say yes to callings, to requests to do pointless things like look at bronze snakes or wash in a river, to both opportunities that seem below us and those that seem above us, how can we accept the mercies he's lined up for the person who said yes.

This isn't exactly what I said, but I think it's the gist. Our unworthiness is in one sense a lie we tell ourselves. We're children of God. Yes, we are fallen sinners as well, but repentance may just be genuinely accepting one identity over another. When we accept our relationship with deity, how dare we say we are unworthy? Forgive us our unworthiness and the mercies pour in, and we discover what we really are.

Then, you know, just stay humble afterwards. Good luck to us!

previous svithe on Thmusings or Thubstack

July ended yesterday

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The best movie I saw for the first time this month was Shanghai Express. You?

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The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)

I think, in the past, I've only seen purely black&white versions of Caligari, but this one had the tinting and it added, I would say.

It's been long enough that I had forgotten most of the plot beyond the broadest strokes. But really, the plot is only incidental to the experience of watching Caligari. The 14yrold—who should know better—watched with us for a while but was mostly on the phone. And while I'm sure it's true that he was successfully "following it," following the story is barely relevant to experience of watching the screen second by second and the weird world of this movie fills your eyes and mind.

So while I can't say it's precisely "scary," I'm happy to admit I still find it effective. And affective.

I'd like to see some of the remakes. In order of my interest, I'd most like to watch the bizarro 80s version, followed by Doug Jones as Caesare, then the mom from Mary Poppins knocking on Caligari's door.

ps: did you know that caesar is also major strasser?? that's crazy!

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Hundreds of Beavers (2022)

Watching it this time with the boys, I realize that although moments are very silent-film-like (mostly when the Trapper's interacting with other people), most of the movie (in addition to the gamelike elements) is more like all the cartoon shorts that are getting made these days in which there is no dialogue. It's actually a pretty old tradition now, but it's gotten to the point that you feel like college students and other calling-card makers think no-dialogue is a strict rule (this is the most recent one I watched). But it became a go-to because it can be great, and Hundreds of Beavers is proof.

The boys enjoyed it.

I can easily see this becoming the movie kids watch with their friends.

Assuming they do that anymore.

(They still do—at least a little bit. For instance, Son#3 and his friends have watched Kung Pow waaay more times than I have—and all since I first showed it to them.)

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The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013)

Yes, this is a very Ghibli film (I felt connections particularly to Spirited Away and Pom Poko) and it's clearly a fairy tale, but it feels more akin to something like The Tree of Life than anything else. It's a remarkably complex film, confusing in pleasurable ways, while also providing a simple and accessible experience.

I stand by my previous review. And commend it to you.

What a grand finale to Isao Takahata's career!

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Inspired Guns (2014)

In the course of maybe a month I had more than one family member ask if I'd seen this movie then give it a strong endorsement. So hey! I'm amenable!

And I kinda loved it. It's extremely low budget but most (most) of tha acting is really good. The action is much better than I'd imagined it would even attempt, let alone pull off. The comedy was solid; we laughed a lot. Yes, when the plot starts explaining itself it stops making sense if you think about it AT ALL, but even the spiritual conclusion hits. I'm skeptical it will have the rewatchability my brother claims his family has found in it (see above complaint) but still.

This is a winner.

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Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008)

Interesting to watch this the day after Inspired Guns because they have a similar balance of the good and the bad. Just a different mix.

For instance, this movie has an incredible adult cast (Julia Ormond, Stanley Tucci, Joan Cusack, Chris O'Donnell, Glenne Headly, Jane Krakowski, Wallace Shawn) but some of the reaction shots are as shoddy as Inspired Guns's. (Abigail Breslin, incidentally, carries the movie great. And this Max Theriot kid seems like he should have gone bigger.)

The movie's filled with great bits but the conclusion isn't really earned. It has this big It's a Wonderful Life-esque scene that doesn't make a lot of since, but certain aspects of the thiefs' behavior also failed the logic-and-consistency test if you paused to think. They tried to cover up / manufacture emotions and plot beats with the overbearing score.

But the creation of 1934 was wonderful.

I just wish Kit's reporting actually mattered to the plot. I think that's my biggest complaint.

But that said, everyone liked it. It provided a charming experience. If you'll forgive it its flaws and just go along with it? It's good enough to let you do it. But don't concentrate too hard. This script's not perfect and the direction can be sloppy.

BUT I HAVE NO DESIRE TO RUIN YOUR CHILDHOOD IF YOU LOVE THIS MOVIE. It's pretty good.

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Romy and Michele's High School Reunion (1997)

Add this to the list of movie's I never really considered watching before reading about it on BW/DR. While watching it, while I laughed and enjoyed myself, I didn't have a very high opinion. But within only a couple minutes of it ending, it started to reform itself in my memory and I'm already really liking it. I'm happy to hear they're considering a sequel because I'd almost rather know what they're doing now than they were only ten years out of high school.

ELSEWHERE
library dvd

The Inventor (2023)

This is the third movie this month that I kinda love even though it has many flaws. This wonderful thing is a mix of stop-motion and handdrawn (or fine facsimiles thereof) telling a, ah, not very historical story of Leonardo da Vinci (although more historical than I had realized). The animation is wonderful to watch and most of the jokes and voicework are strong. The physical gags could have used a few more drafts. The real problem with the movie, however, is that it really wants to give you a strong message but it's not real clear what that is. Even considering that it attempts to state it outright, more than once. Largely this is all last-act problems. Once the other kings show up, the movie loses its way, generating laughs by going against much of the work accomplished by the earlier scenes. But at least it doesn't try so hard that it gets saccharine or embarrassing. Just a little lost.

The 7yrold needed to think about it for a while but, in the end, she decided she will keep the poster we picked up at a theater back in February and put it on her wall. So that's a definite endorsement.

ELSEWHERE
library dvd

Shanghai Express (1932)

This is so close to being a truly great movie. Even so, it lives in the neighborhood of Casablanca—maybe they were too confident this time in the script? Anyway, it's dark and urgent. It's the perfect movie for me to be watching on the train because it's mostly on a train. The trains starting and stopping, its traveling and its failing to travel, all these things matter.

It falls short of Casablanca in a few ways. For one, the male romantic lead is kinda rude, but that doesn't engender enough blame or sin to even things out with his counterpart. There's an unfairness here. He commits the greatest crimes and the greatest heroisms and he's just kinda there needing to decide he loves her and that that matters more than everything else. It's not quite enough.

I picked up this film because we're in a bit of a Anna May Wong moment—Gail Tsukiyama's written a novel about her and we have two new biographies in stores. I've always found her an intriguing figure, but I don't think I've seen any of her movies and since this is the one Tsukiyama talked about at a recent library visit, I decided it was time to remedy that.

I had thought Wong was an equally important character as that played by Marlene (which I recently learned from Burns and Allen has three syllables) Dietrich, but not so. Yes, they are both high-end prostitutes who find redemption but otherwise, no. Wong hardly has any lines. She's pretty sullen. (Yes, yes, "pretty" and "sullen"; you're very clever.) But she does well with the little she's given. But giving her a little more would have helped.

This is another place that Casablanca comes out ahead. It's bit characters are both more varied and much more deftly drawn. The minister's turnaround, for instance, isn't quite earned, and it's vital to the plot and so it's a problem.

But I'm focusing on all these flaws because, as I said, this is really really close to being a masterpiece. Just a few tweaks here and there and we might still be talking about it the way we do a Casablanca. It has wise and useful things to say about the human condition and love. Dietrich is amazing in the lead. The film is shot and edited well and often in interesting ways. It's deeply entertaining and—almost—one step past excellent. They were so close to masterpiece. And I loved it.

ELSEWHERE
library dvd

Robocop (1987)

You can see that Verhoeven has certain satirical points to make. He gets more to the point in Starship Troopers but all the pieces are here including sad tv news and coed dressing rooms. He'll just push everything way harder in the next iteration. I can see failing to see this is satire but if you can't figure it out by Starship, shame on you.

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The Limey (1999)

This is one of many 1999 movies I'm seeking out now (reason). I had easy access to this film from 2002—2004 and never had interest. Even though starting in 2001 I became a big Soderbergh fan.

One of the things that made me decide now is the time is reading that the film's first, chronological cut was a disaster. And that evening Soderbergh took his notes and made plans and then the recut it into something other than pure chronology. I wanted to see it. And it does push the limits.

But it was the sort of movie we wanted insight on and so, this is what it's for, we turned to criticism. Lady Steed read the first two with me before rolling over and going to sleep: 1,2,3,4.

They make good points.

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A New Leaf (1971)

"Excuse me, you're not by any chance related to the Boston Hitlers?"

I've been wanting to watch more Elaine May movies. I have no memory of why I decided to have this dvd show up midway through the summer, but it did. There really aren't that many. She only directed four. And her rough go started with this one which, though admired, is not her cut. Her cut was apparently almost twice as long and had Walter Matthau kill a couple people on its way to its (now bloodless) happy ending.

The film is funny and it has a few sequences with quite innovative sound and editing. It's also quite dark. I also wonder if the original cut resolved a couple character arcs that seem truncated in this version.

I had no idea where the film would end up or how I would feel. That it ended where it does and that that ending works surprised me. But it did work. Largely because Matthau and May are ever better at bringing humanity to their over-the-top characters than I reailzed before the final scene. And then, suddenly, oh: they are people, not jokes. I hadn't noticed.

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Notting Hill (1999)

Not sure how it's possible, but this is my first time seeing Notting Hill. I do have a couple complaints. Even though the film seems like it might have been edited down quite a bit (I suspect the mother used to be a character), it was still about twenty minutes too long. Good news is getting rid of some of the awkward music cues that seemed mostly for padding the soundtrack would help.

But I still enjoyed it. And even though it was the only part of the movie I knew was coming ("I'm just a girl..."), that moment melted me. No wonder it's a romcom classic. That moment alone earns all the accolades the film's received. Honestly, it's enough.

THEATER
Cinemark Century
Hilltop 16

Migration (2023)

I know this is only the second Illumination feature I've seen through, but I'm comfortable calling it the best so far. It's far from a masterpiece, but it has good characters, nonstop action, and plenty of laughs. Props to making Kumail Nanjiani and Elizabeth Banks the starring couple. It's crazy Kumail isn't doing voice work all the time.

Anyway, it was a good morning spent with the kids. I'm sure it will fade in my memory but maybe not?

Rejected Books: the near future suuuuuucks

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I tried to read Prophet Song a couple months ago and could tell after a dozen pages I would not be rushing through it before the due date. So I returned it and put it back on hold. It's a Man Booker winner and the great new dystopia.

The Ministry of Time keeps getting lauded as a brilliant bit of science fiction and absolutely hilarious. Comparisons-to-Wodehouse levels of hilarity.

They showed up together at the library midsummer. Perfect timing.

I decided to tackle Ministry first since it was to be a light romp. I mean—when people are comparing you to Wodehouse, I'm expecting jokes on every page. I read over a hundred pages; no jokes. The novel's conceit is fun enough—doomed characters from history are brought to the present just before they would have died. They are assigned a modern person to live with, to help them acclimatize. Also, there's a question as to whether the universe will allow them to exist or not outside their original time.

Bradley has the good sense to not get too deep into the "science" but she seems to think her readers are idiots all the same. Either that or her narrator's an idiot. Every forty pages or so the narrator says something to "you" so I assume there's some reveal as to audience at some point, but whatever.

What The Ministry of Time is best at is revealing the dangers of writing in first person. Were this a third-person novel, a hefty percentage of my complaints would disappear.

But the biggest complaint is that I just could not care. I liked some of the characters but could not believe in their relationships. The world she was building made little sense. The rules the government made for the timetravelers were contradictory. What the characters learned and how they learned and why did not conform to normal human behaviors. If you give this to your Fox News-poisoned uncle, he will find lots of wokeness muddying the narrative and I kinda have to agree. Some elements felt more like a early-2020s-concerns checklist than good fiction. I decided not to take the book with me to Comic-Con and twenty-three hours after our return I found this book, I had completely forgotten I was reading it.

The book I did take was Prophet's Song and I took it entirely because I thought having it as my only book would force me to read it. Not so.

The first issue is the lack of paragraphing and punctuated dialogue. Why? I can see no valid artistic excuse for it. Now, Blindness's lack of paragraphing and punctuation makes sense. It deepens the reader's identification with the people of the novel as they struggle to navigate their world, now that they've lost their ability to see. We feel the same.

(The fact that José Saramago often does this and not just in Blindness, makes me wonder how intentional this effect was, but still.)

What's the point in Prophet Song? I've been able to come up with some reasons I could back up if I were a high-school debater, but let's be honest: they're all b***s***. There is no reason.

Also, I know I only got fifty pages in, but this feels like a dystopia by a guy who hasn't read any. No, that's not right. It reads like a dystopia written by a guy who thinks he's the only one who actually understood Nineteen Eighty-Four and wants to make sure the people of today get access to all the neat ideas in that old thing. That's what it feels like.

Stuff gets explained in lengthy exposition that I understood by the end of page two. This won the Man Booker??? Do the Man Booker judges need someone to explain Orwell to them??

Anyway, reviewers say it ends powerfully but I can't be bothered to get to the end and find out it's as powerful as Ministry of Time is Wodehousian. Or as Ministry of Time is horny/sexy which multiple reviewers have claimed. It's about as horny as a flashing red arrow pointing at waistlevel in an empty subway car.

Good for these writers putting out books that have earned praise.

But ye gods am I depressed.

SDCC 2024: Mormons Who Are Making Comics

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As I just announced on the AML blog, I’ll be appearing at the comic con this weekend. (Or, if you’re arriving here after the presentation I’m doing with Trevor Alvord, Camilla Stark, and Matt Page, I did appear there and now you’re appearing here and aren’t we all having a terrific time!)

As this post goes live, the following link will be empty, but before we begin our presentation, you will find there a copy thereof in Powerpoint, pdf, and gif formats. So you can follow along from home or recreate the experience from the comfort of your hotel’s hot tub after the fact.

I felt this was necessary because people are gonna want access to Matt and Camilla’s links (and perhaps they will want to submit to Irreantum) and I want to make that as easy for them as possible.

Well. Click over and look at those slides, of course!

Numbers 70 through 75

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Diving into genre today: science fiction, historical romance, mystery, food writing, criticism, nostalgia—All the greats. Let's dive in.

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070) Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think about Art, Pleasure, Beauty, and Truth by A. O. Scott, finished June 17

I heard about this book when it came out in 2016—on Fresh Air, maybe—and was intrigued so when it came up in a recent search for another book, I grabbed it.

I'm shocked I read the whole thing, to be honest. I read about half in one sitting, alone in an empty football stadium, waiting for a high-school graduation to begin. So that got me some momentum. I thought after that I might skim the rest, reading in full the Q&A portions only. But then last night I was on a long train ride and running out of things to read so I just kept going. And now it's finished.

It's astonishing how he manages to say the same things over and over again without ever repeating himself for 268 pages. His main rhetorical device is to contradict the last thing he said and then to argue that both both are true and neither. Honestly, it's kind of a drag. But he keeps finding new ways to say the same thing (and then to once again disagree with himself) and, somehow, sure enough: I read all 268 pages.

Who is this book for? That's a fabulous question. But I suppose we are an educated people and all of us are critics, so everybody? But really. Who finds criticism a vocation? But few of us. So I guess it's a number actually much closer to nobody.

And thus you see what he has done to me.

thirteen days

 

071) Alice, Let's Eat by Calvin Trillin, finished June 20

I first read this book in 2000 on the recommendation of my cousin the Spook. Lady Steed and I were living with him and his wife before we found our first apartment. It was an excellent recommendation. I've read Trillin since (mostly in The New Yorker but also here) but this is my first return to that first beloved taste.

(This is the edition I read this time, from 1979.)

Anyway, it's still utterly delightful. Good food and a good marriage. Really. What else could one possibly ask of life?

I should add this is the perfect keep-in-the-car book. Easy to dip into and out of as you wait for someone. Ideal.

some months

072) My Lovely Vigil Keeping by Carla Kelly, finished June 21

I've been hearing about Carla Kelly for some time, and this book in particular. When I finally purchased it, I accidentally sent it to my mother who read it and loved it. Then I got it back, then I kept losing it or letting library books interrupt it. It was never my "walking book" or my "bedside book" or one of those categories that get constant progress, but it was a patient book and its characters and situations are so clear and so real that it was never hard to pick up where I left off.

If you know but one thing about this book, it's probably the historical event it's inspired by. But that event doesn't occur until more than 400 pages into a 431-page novel. In other words, while I recommend reading the book, I do not recommend reading the back of the book before you begin. Live your life unknowing just as the people in the book do.

Our hero is Della, sort of a reverse orphan-who-is-secretly-a-princess. Which is to say she is the illegitimate daughter of a miner and a Greek woman (who would barely count as white at the time—if she did at all) who left her an orphan with embarrassingly curly hair. She is raised by rich relations and so the world thinks she is a child of privilege who does things like go to school and get a job our of some peculiar eccentricity, rather than desperate need.

Besides her economic needs, the cruel neglect causes her to run back to the mines, taking a job as a schoolteacher for miners' children need in the Utah mountains. This is a romance and options abound for Della, but only one man can help her excavate her buried shames in order to find her own wonderful self.

It's a lovely, fun, and funny book, and it had me teary-eyed for the entire finale. I now understand the book's lofty reputation and encourage you too to seek it out.

about a year, probably more

073) Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre, finished July 9

I picked this up on Ursula's recommendation and because I was intrigued by a character whose gender is never identified by the text. The lack of gendered pronouns is smoothly done and if she hadn't pointed it out, I doubt I would have noticed.

The novel is episodic in nature and occasionally drops in plot points only to abandon them and leave you feeling a bit wondering why they even showed up (the cat in the cave, for instance), but the story overall is enjoyable and exciting and Snake is an excellent protagonist. (In short, I agree with OSC.) The sex wasn't as wild and frequent as Ursula led me to expect. I've never quite adopted the opinion that it's theoretically possible to develop a culture with utterly casual attitudes toward sex (and although I can't find them now, I've read several articles recently about the attitude toward sex in Gen Z tending to agree), but it's still a valuable possibility for fiction to consider.

Anyway, it won the Nebula AND the Hugo AND the Locus and while that kind of surprises me and seems like a relic of his era, the book HAS aged well all the same and I enjoyed reading it. It's out of print though and largely gone from libraries almost fifty years on from its hardback release, so good luck finding one. Crazy no one's leapt on its publication rights.

more than two weeks

 

074) The Red House Mystery by A. A. Milne, finished July 11

I picked this up on Raymond Chandler's "recommendation" and am quite glad I did. The sleuth and his pal are cheery company (not for nothing does this edition quote Wodehouse saying, "I love his writing") and, while I too notched a couple of Chandler's complaints, my only real problem with the story (treating it as airy entertainment rather than literahtoor) was the penultimate chapter in which the culprit writes a lengthy confession. (Which reminds me: Chandler gives the whole thing away. Luckily, enough time passed before I read the novel myself that I had forgotten everything.)

The novel is such that the leaps made by the sleuth delight while the larger pieces of the puzzle fall into place without requiring his explaining them to us. It's that kind of mystery.

about three days

075) Best. Movie. Year. Ever. How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen by Brian Raftery, finished July 16

Another book I grabbed from the library intending to skim, reading about the movies that most interested me (you can see what he covers here), then returning mostly unread, but I started it postlibrary, sitting in the park while my daughter swung, and then I just kept going.

I should start by rolling my eyes at the let's-sell-books-with-controversy title. While I think Raferty believes the claim, he hardly proves it. Almost every reason he gives he contradicts elsewhere in the book or simply fails to hold up under consideration. The most persuasive version of his best-ever claim is in an interview he did with producer Brad Simpson: "I thought it was the beginning, but it was actually the peak." Granted, without all the other quotations and movie titles surrounding it, less persuasive. But yeah. Maybe it was. Who knows. As writer Richard Curtis said, " Madrigals were huge in the fifteenth century."

Both those quotations get to what's really great about this book though and that is the numerous and voluminous interviews Raftery did with people involved with every element of filmmaking. It's fabulous. As a series of oral histories of movies that were made in 1999, this book is truly excellent. But I guess Some Cool Movies from 1999 wasn't going to move as much copy.

Anyway, it's a terrific book. If it didn't waste the occasional work trying to justify it's title, I might not have any complaints at all. If you're into this stuff, consider Best. Movie. Year. Ever. highly recommended. Even with that title

almost exactly a week to the hour

PREVIOUSLY THIS YEAR

===========================================================

 2024 × 10 = Bette Davis being Bette Davis

001) Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, finished January 1
002) The Complete Peanuts: 1977 – 1978 by Charles M. Schulz , finished January 6
003) The Sandman: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman et al, finished January 10
004) Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, finished January 17
005) Touched by Walter Mosley, finished January 19
006) Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever by Matt Singer, finished January 20
007) Evergreen Ape: The Story of Bigfoot by David Norman Lewis, finished January 24
008) What Falls Away by Karin Anderson, finished February 1
009) Peanuts Jubilee: My Life and Art with Charlie Brown and Others by Charles M. Schulz, finished February 3
010) Legends of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, finished February 3

 A few of my favorite things

011) Roaming by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, finished February 3
012) The Return of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, February 9
013) Things in the Basement by Ben Hatke, February 10
014) A Charlie Brown Religion: Exploring the Spiritual Life and Work of Charles M. Schulz by Stephen J. Lind, finished February 10
015) 1st Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction by Joseph M. Spencer, finished February 10
016) Dendo by Brittany Long Olsen, finished February 11
017) The Ten Winners of the 2023 Whiting Awards, finished February 12
018) The Peanuts Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life edited by Andrew Blaune, finished February 17
019) Do Not Disturb Any Further by John Callahan, finished February 17
020) Mighty Jack by Ben Hatke, finished circa February 19
021) 2nd Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction by Terryl Givens, February 24

 

Let's start with the untimely deaths

022) The Life and Death of King John by William Shakespeare, finished February 28
022) Mighty Jack and the Goblin King by Ben Hatke, finished February 29
023) Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez, finished March 4
024) Millay by Edna St. Vincent Millay, finished March
025, 026) The Life and Death of King John by William Shakespeare, finished March 6, 8
027) Murder Book by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell, finished March 11
028) A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
029) The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett and Paul Kidby, finished March 15
030) Karen's Roller Skates by Ann M. Martin and Katy Farina, finished March 18

 

Four comics could hardly be more different

031) The Sandman: The Wake by Neil Gaiman et al, finished March 18
032) The World of Edena by Mœbius, finished March 23
033) Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller, the Man Who Created Nancy by Bill Griffith, finished March 23
034) Mighty Jack and Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, finished March 23

 

Jacob says be nice and read comics

035) Jacob: A Brief Theological Introduction by Deidre Nicole Green, finished March 24
036) Starter Villain by John Scalzi, finished March 27
037) Mister Invincible: Local Hero by Pascal Jousselin, finished March 30
038) The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics, edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly, finished March 30
039) Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass by Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh, finished April 1
040) The Super Hero's Journey by Patrick McDonnell, finished April 5  

 

Eleven books closer to death

041) The Stranger Beside Me: Updated Twentieth Anniversary Edition by Ann Rule, finished April 9
042) Huda F Are You? by Huda Fahmy, finished April 13
043) Enos, Jarom, Omni: a brief theological introduction by Sharon J. Harris, finished April 25
044) The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson, finished April 27 
045,046,049) The Mysteries by Bill Watterson and John Kascht, finished April 29, 30; May 3
047) The Children's Bach by Helen Garner, finished April 30
048) No. 1 with a Bullet by Sehman/Corona/Hickman/Wands, finished May 2
050) Over Seventy by P. G. Wodehouse, finished May 7
051) The Happy Shop by Brittany Long Olsen, finished May 16
052) Shades of Fear, finished May 21
053) Love Poems in Quarantine by Sarah Ruhl, finished May 21

 

And a vibrator makes it five dozen.....

054) The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt, finished May 25
055) Mosiah: A Brief Theological Introduction by James E. Faulconer, finished May 26
056) Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirstin Bakis
057) 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write: On Umbrellas and Sword Fights, Parades and Dogs, Fire Alarms, Children, and Theater by Sarah Ruhl, finished June 1
058) Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary by Timothy Snyder, finished June 4
059) Dead Man's Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl, finished June 6
060) The Next Room, or the vibrator play by Sarah Ruhl, finished June 8

 

And with Ursula, 69

061) The Robber Bridegroom by Eudora Welty, finished June 10
062) Blood of the Virgin by Sammy Harkham, finished June 11
063) Mulysses by Øyvind Torseter, finished June 11
064) Between the River and the Bridge by Craig Ferguson, finished June 12
065) Cranky Chicken by Katherine Battersby, finished June 12
066) Mile End Kids Stories by Isabelle Arsenault, finished June 12
067) Tiny Titans: Field Trippin' by author, finished June 14
068) Brief Theological Introductions: Alma 1–29 by Kylie Nielson Turley, finished June 16
069) Words Are My Matter: Writings on Life and Books by Ursula K. Le Guin, finished June 16

Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody?

.

Do you remember back when it was likely that none of your friends had seen your favorite short film? Even deep into the YouTube era, it was unlikely that you would get to share with someone your love of “Rejected“ or “Six Shooter“ or “Peluca“ unless they had the same obscure (possibly semi-legal) dvd (or, a few years earlier, when it was, say, Bill Plympton, vhs). Those movies weren’t even old. Just . . . how were you supposed to watch them?

All of which is to say, hallelujah, you can go to YouTube right now and watch “Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody” in the way we couldn’t’ve when it was filmed. So do it. Please. Even though the quality is, as the kids say, mid.

Did you notice how it’s basically in realtime? Pretty neat.

Anyway, I love this movie. I think about it pretty regularly. It’s simple. It’s provocative. “Provocative” in the sense that it “provokes” you to think. I should know. I’ve shown it to hundreds of students. It’s provocative.

And it’s about heartbreak. Which is what we’re about this month, right?

Let’s talk about the characters in this film. I’ll refer to them by actor’s name since the characters don’t get names. And we’ll discuss how each one shows off a different kind of heartbreakage.

You’ve watched the movie by now, right?

Okay. Let’s go.

 

MIRANDA JULY

Miranda July wrote this film while shooting Me and You and Everyone We Know, and when there was a break in the action on that set, she took a few people to spend, I don’t know, an hour? to shoot this.¹ She also plays the person to first take the survey.

The question throws her at first, but once she has an answer, she’s delighted to share it: “I am,” she says, as bold as Jehovah himself. And whose favorite person is she? Her ex-girlfriend’s. Miranda’s so happy! She’s “very confident”!

Until that very confidence is questioned, and eventually downgraded to “You think so.” Which she then gives a cheerful “Yeah!” to but, as she walks away, arms crossed, she’s no long the proud god of favorites proclaiming I AM. She’s merely someone who thinks so. Time has passed. Love has become exlove. And if she is her ex’s favorite person, how long can it possibly last?

Miranda shows us that the intimacy of being favorite is fleeting. And possibly never even was, outside of our own ego.

 

MIKE WHITE

Mike White has such a distinctive voice. If he was a radio man, doing guest stints on The Baby Snooks Show and Fibber McGee and Molly, I’m not sure we could know it any better. At this point, I’d only seen him in School of Rock and Orange County,² but I knew his weary eyes and crackling voice. Something about that voice of his is just so vulnerable. Hopeful and hopeless, all at once. And when he takes off his chunky headphones to answer this question—

Incidentally, Mike White is not credited as having done anything for Me and You and Everyone We Know. Which feels appropriate.

Mike, like Miranda, has someone in his life that could be called “girlfriend.” No ex prefix for him, but he is very certain that he is no one’s—including his girlfriend’s—favorite person. The surveyor cannot dissuade him from certainty. No matter how worriedly he doublechecks.

Now, as he told Miranda, “some very prominent people are not anyone’s favorite,” but someone as vulnerable-voiced as Mike White being satisfied with not being anyone’s favorite person breaks our hearts, and we have to believe his must break as well. Don’t let us be sad for you, Mike! Sure, maybe she’s really close to her mother, but you might be her favorite! Ask her! and if not today, surely someday!

There’s something about taking breakfast fruit for your girlfriend that makes us imagine their relationship is far enough along they live together, they serious conversations about the future, they are . . . each other’s favorite person.

But he’s not her favorite. And even if he really truly is okay with that, our heart breaks for him. Because, me and you, we do not want that for ourselves.

 

CHUY CHÁVEZ

Chuy Chávez was Me and You and Everyone You Know’s cinematographer; he hasn’t done a lot of acting (and he’s directed photography on every movie he’s acted in). Based on his bag’s nicely padded shoulder strap, he may be off to take direct some photography right now. And he doesn’t have time for this nonsense. Even if he’s not sure what sort of nonsense it is. Yes, he doesn’t quite understand and, no, he’s not about to take the time to understand. This is not his native culture and trying to figure out the angle of this weird guy standing there, holding papers, asking random questions? Not worth it.

Chuy’s a guy who’s been put in awkward situation after awkward situation, perhaps for his entire American life. Even if you seem nice, he can’t take the chance. He’s been burned before.

 

JOHN C. REILLY

Who is this guy?³ What does he want? Why is he asking this question? Is he his wife’s favorite person? Is she his? He’s standing on a narrow residential street. Not the best place to ask as many people as possible (though pedestrians do keep walking past, perfectly spaced, three per four minutes). At film’s end, the way he looks off. . . . What the heck is he doing? What is he hoping for? What’s it all about?

This survey is not scientifically built. This is not how it’s done. The guy’s an amateur. Both in the nonprofessional sense but also, maybe, in the just-for-the-love-of-it sense. He just wants to know. Why he wants to know or, once he does know, what he’ll do with his results are impossible to discern. He watches Chuy walk off and, what? What then? I suppose he’ll wait for someone else.

He only gives oranges to the fellow who is confident he is no one’s favorite. Take three. You’d be doing us a favor. But what is he doing? What is he hoping to accomplish? Does he have any purpose in this world? What meaning does he hope this stupid quest will provide him? Couldn’t he get more joy just giving oranges to strangers? Do gifted oranges become any more significant when you give them to the unfavorited? Is this supposed to be making you happy, John? Are you delusional?

 

YOU, THE VIEWER

As I mentioned up-top, I’ve shows this film to hundreds of students. Sometimes I let them talk to their neighbors about it. Sometimes we talk about it as a class. Sometimes I ask them to write about it. Or perhaps about their own favorite person. Or whether they are anyone’s favorite person. Or whether that matters. Or what it means about yourself, to be confident that you are (or are not).

Those latter questions are, perhaps, unkind to spring on teenagers. They’re upset enough about poor Mike White who is not his girlfriend’s favorite person (my comment about her mother makes sense to them but is not comforting). It’s so much easier to feel for Mike, than to look inward. It’s easier to grapple with whether it’s okay to laugh at Miranda. Or to sympathize with Chuy. Or wonder what John’s deal is. Than to look at your own relationships and wonder if it’s okay, today, to (perhaps) not be the favorite person of anyone.

So is this our goal in life? Just to be someone else’s favorite? And if so, what if we fail? Or what if they move on to another favorite? Who am I if I am not your favorite person? What’s it all about?

Do you want an orange?

 

---

[1] Dir. Miguel Arteta, who gets a “very special thinks” in the concurrent feature’s credits.

[2] Well, and Swingers, but I think we could survey you and me and everyone we know without finding a single person who remembers seeing him in Swingers.

[3] He’s not in Me and You, I can tell you that much.

Jejune no more.

.

We lost the last week to camping but we fit in some fine specimens before the wilderness devoured us.

.

HOME
library dvd

Happy Gilmore (1996)

I didn't realize until it just appeared in this movie that "It's Only Just Begun" is about a newlywed couple*. I am really bad at lyrics, man. I've known that song my whole life. I've heard The Carpenters sing it so many time and I've probably heard Grant Lee Buffalo sing it even more.

Speaking of, it's a little disappointing that when the segued from The Carpenters into a rock number, then didn't crunchy up the Grant Lee Buffalo version. I like their straight version, but man do they do crunchy well.

The 14yrold wanted to watch an Adam Sandler movie not quite knowing what to expect. I chose this one as being actually funny and not deeply terrible. He liked it. The 16yrold liked it. Even Lady Steed liked it who had never seen it before (and never cared for Adam Sandler). Even though I last saw it with her dad around the time she and I were married. "Only just begun" you might say.

ELSEWHERE
Disney+

The Muppet Movie (1979)

Life's like a movie. Write your own ending.

Keep believing.

Keep pretending.

Only bummed to find out too late that it would be back in theaters LAST NIGHT, hours after I showed my class the first half. Seeing it in theaters was one of my greatest movie experiences.

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our dvd

Jurassic Park (1993)

I mean.

It's perfect.

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HBO Max

Diego Maradona (2019)

Not all movies are for all people.

I thought the constraints the director chose were great. Telling the story entirely through extant footage. Neat.

But I don't know this guy. I didn't recognize his name. I've never successfully managed to care about soccer. And while the story was interesting and some of the sport was exciting to watch, the filmmaker was either assuming I knew more than I do or he just didn't always successfully patch around the gaps in the narrative or he just failed to guess what I would want to know next. For instance, after the illegal Hand of God goal and the astonishing Goal of the Century goal, all the film tells us is that Argentina wins. Not the final score. Which matters. If they won by one then that illegal goal was a very big deal. If they won by, say, three then it's no more than a curious footnote. But the film doesn't bother with the final score. And I don't know the reason.

Later, an entire ten years of Maradona's life—covering the time between an arrest and an appearance on a talk show—disappears in a single cut. What happened in those ten years?

The film is full of stuff like that.

But I think the film's biggest failure is it thinks it's a tragedy. But it's just sad. It can't be a tragedy because it did nothing to make me think that the lead is a great man. And so his fall, ipso facto, cannot be tragic. Merely sad.

The film proves he's good at his sport and that other people think he's a god among men, but it never allows us to think that. So unless you bring that feeling to the film with you, where's the tragedy?

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A Florida Enchantment (1914)

At first I thought this film was just kind of boring, a drag, with some embarrassing blackface to boot. But it got more and more interesting as time went on. In short, Lillian finds some magic seeds that swap the sex of whoever eats them. She eats one and becomes a man, instantly crasser, courser, ruder, and kissing the ladies. Many twists occur. Some of which are embarrassing. Some of which are startling. Some of which are excellent storytelling. Others of which rely on cheap laughs found in heteronormativity and the sort of low expectations of humanity bad movies always rely on. And in the end, alas alas, it was all a dream. That's what disappointed me most, but what you gonna do.

One of the things that perplexed me is that her (his?) fiance is rendered the bad guy. And until he (by then, she) dies, Lillian/Lawrence seems fine with anything terrible that happens to him.

As a 110yrold work on gender and sexuality, it's fascinating. As a work of entertainment, it's adequate. But I can't really call it terrific or anything. Still. It's only 93 minutes long, so...?

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Advise & Consent (1962)

I saw this film recommended as one of the great political film a couple times in as many days, and then I saw it on a list of one of the greatest Mormon movies. I get seeing it as a great political film—it deals with some aspects of politics I've rarely seen on screen and nothing about what will happen next is every obvious—but how it is a Mormon film? I don't think any of the primary creators were LDS. I suppose it's because one of the main characters is the senator from Utah. It's not clear he's Mormon but his name is Brigham and he's from Utah, so I guess we should assume? The first "beatnik" (scare quotes intentional to avoid spoiler) he meets says, Oh, Utah, Mormons, This is the place, et cetera. He has an undershirt on, but it mysteriously disappears when he takes off his collared shirt. Anyway, it all feels like a stretch.

Anyway, I liked it. It's steadily paced and filled with people who are mostly but not entirely good. They all have their own motivations and reasons and personal tragedies. It's not thrilling. I'm not about to push it on you, but if you like DC behind the scenes, it's one to check out.

Besides! That cast!

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The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh (1977)

Three featurettes made into one feature. Absolutely wonderful, of course, but as an adult I kept noticing bits of nonsense regarding such things and buoyancy and geography.

I'm ashamed.

I mean. It's the probable impossible. That's what cartoons are all about.

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Kanopy

Seven Chances (1925)

The 7yrold and I chose this for our train watch. Although it's aged poorly, racially, (although, as in College the actual black characters have dignity) this one strikes me as exceedingly worthy of a modern remake. This sort of high-concept nonsense is in short supply!

Just as Buster and his business partner think they're headed to jail for poor money management, he receives word that he'll inherit $7million if he's married by 7pm on his 27th birthday. Or, in other words, today.

Luckily there is a girl he loves but he's been too shy to say I love you before the money comes in, so he screws that up. And before long there is an army of brides chasing him. There are constant laugh-out-loud gags and plenty of fun ways to update the story.

Let's do it!

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Hoopla

The Oath (2023)

What a fascinating movie. So many bad ideas, so many visual and story cliches, so many laugh-out-loud weirdnesses. But they're seasoned with a spattering of genuinely interesting ideas. Sometimes you can see the actors are genuinely good at what they do. And you have to wonder what they can do under other circumstances. I mean—even the writer/director/star might be better directed by someone else. Someone who, among other things, didn't really really need you to see how swole he got for the role.

But yeah. People are right. Overall, it's bad. For instance, the film covers at least a year—probably well over two—and it takes that entire time for the world's best tracker to find our heros. But then it only takes, like, a day for her to get back home and bring a war party back. Plus, although this is supposed to be upstate New York (1500 years ago), in all that time, the seasons never change.

I get a lot of the flaws probably have to do with the budget. But not all of them.

Still. It wasn't as terrible as I anticipated. Though I really have no idea who the audience was for this. Hope it finds it!

And if that's you, can you please explain Billy Zane's accent to me?

[Further thoughts as they occurred to me on Letterboxd.]

THEATER
Cinemark Century
Hilltop 16

Inside Out 2 (2024)

I really like the beginning. I really like the ending. Although I didn't quite believe the last shot. (Which, incidentally, was lifted from Monsters, Inc. where it worked perfectly.) I really like Riley's journey. The part I'm less sure about is the journey our original emotions take. The geography and the travail don't quite match up and don't make sense. The voices that were swapped out kept Not Feeling Right

That said, although the main part of the plot is subpar, the rest of the movie is great and I certainly spent a lot of tears.

I am quite curious how other people reacted though. Please share.

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L.A. Confidential (1997)

The year is 1997. Everyone who loves movies agrees that L.A. Confidential is the best movie of the year. Buuuuuut, everyone also loves Titanic so much that they aren't that upset that it's a lock to win all the awards that really, in a just world, would go to L.A. Confidential. Me, I came home from my mission between the two movies' releases and have never seen either. Until today.

This is a dark movie, friends. It's a neonoir; its most obvious forebear is Chinatown. And I think we can say it's just as complex and interesting and well acted. It even gives us a happier ending. But I think there's only room for one in our collective memory. And this doesn't have a catchline as strong as "It's Chinatown, Jake" (it comes closest with "Rollo Tomassi" but the funny-name-in-a-Kevin-Spacey-movie slot's already taken by Keyser Söse) and that's why you never see L.A. Confidential memes.

Glad I finally saw it.

Weirdly, it doesn't excite me to see Titanic, though.

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Mad Max (1979)

Wife and son were utterly mystified that this movie made money and spawned a franchise. I liked it more, but I do agree that it's hard to see how one man's lifetime allows you to get from here to Fury Road.

(Incidentally, does anyone know if this Goose is the namesake of Top Gun's Goose?)

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Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

Near-identical in shape to film one but more compelling. Son shouted out something like "No!" or "I hate these movies!" when it ended where it did.

I think the lesson may be either don't start with Fury Road or recognize that for the young, start and end there?

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Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

This one has a much more complex world and storyline. It does have a couple nonsensible bits (how did the monkey find him? does this methane math actually work?) but it's interesting and fun and Tina Turner is the easiest person to understand in any of these movies. Happily ("happily?") the kids are more Riddley Walker than Lord of the Flies. The pilot should've looked less like the one from the last movie.

This point excellent: "The truly unique thing about the Mad Max franchise is how Max is less a character than a mythic figure, and how each film is less an entry in a continuing story and more a retelling of the myth of Max, with the details getting more extravagant and incredible as time goes on."