Brigands - Chapter VII

This subtle Georgian satire is seemingly about the violence of mankind and the unending cycle of history repeating itself. Having never before seen any of director Otar Iosseliani's films nor read anything about Brigands - Chapter VII we have to admit that for most of the plot we were baffled as to the point. The movie is framed in a small cinema, where the projectionist is drunk and puts the reels on in the wrong order so the story slips between multiple time periods. For the most part the same actors are used for similar roles in each era but also some new ones are mixed in each time, leaving little in the way of continuity for the untrained eye to find. The main actor, at least the one the camera seems to focus on the most, plays a modern bum, a Stalinist goon, and a medieval royal. There is also a massacre of middle-aged, naked, partying French arms dealers by a child.

Straight-faced absurdity, presented through a combination of theatrical acting and a setting where human life has entirely lost its value, permeates almost every minute of the film. The picture quality is bad (the film looks like it was initially recorder onto a VHS from TV and then transfered to DVD), leaving the strongest impression of all on the viewer: low budget PBS daytime fodder. Which is, quite possibly, the only accurate idea in this review. Blame it on the subtitles if you want, but the movie was really that confusing.

BOOOOOOOO!
1.5 out of 5
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Plot: 1
Imagery: 2
Originality: 1
Soundtrack: 1
Overall: 1.5

Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino

It is difficult to describe this book. Nearly every word and line contains something profound, beautiful, or otherwise memorable. Invisible Cities consists of a series of carefully constructed descriptions of cities, which are divided into various categories, including - but not limited to - Thin Cities, Continuous cities, and Cities and Desire. Each is related by the famous Venetian merchant/explorer Marco Polo for the entertainment of the great Kublai Khan. Through their conversation and Polo's accounts, the Khan expects to gain a greater understanding of his kingdom, but he soon discovers that his guest is not necessarily describing real cities, or different cities. Calvino has created a complex and layered examination of human society, perception, symbols, architecture, and the many manifestations of fear and desire which generate the cities of the world.

Totally Awesome Must Read!
5 out of 5
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Che: Part 1

A film about Che could easily be terrible. The image of the Latin American revolutionary is as ubiquitous as those of Jesus Christ, Chairman Mao, and Colonel Sanders, although the only thing it really represents these days is the power of commercialism to milk anything, no matter what its origin. Thankfully, perhaps because his likeness is so saturated and separated from its namesake, it is now possible to look back and see where that image came from. The first half of Steven Soderberg's historical film, which follows Che's involvement in the Cuban revolution (beginning with his fateful meeting of Castro) avoids the traps of glorification and glamorization. It is refreshingly subdued and un-Hollywood. The film's rhythm is as quick and syncopated as the snippets of Cuban drum beats that occasionally appear, never lingering long enough on the face of Che or personal facts for him to bloat into a vague symbol - in fact, the camera tends to keep a distance from him, careful to allow his surroundings and companions to play their parts. In a sense it is not so much about one man as the movement in which he played a vital role. The story of the revolution is interspersed with flash-forwards to Che's 1964 visit to New York as Cuban delegate to the United Nations; his speeches at that meeting, along with an interview, reveal his already gaining celebrity (if not notoriety) and provide framing insights into the questionable rationale of violent revolution.

FUN TO WATCH
4 out of 5
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Plot: 4
Imagery: 4
Originality: 4
Soundtrack: 4
Overall: 4

You Can't Go Home Again - Thomas Wolfe

The semi-autobiographical story of a novelist dealing with the trials of writing and publishing is really a vast, thorough examination of America (circa the stock market crash of 1929) - an America of which New York City is most certainly the epicenter, for good or bad. It is full of detailed, real characters, from elevator operators to aristocrats, all of whom collectively form the great beast of America - and in the midst of it all is George Webber - observing, living, and trying to capture it all in words. The novel begins with Webber waiting for the publication of his first novel, which is based on his youth in a small Nebraska town - when it comes out he experiences an unexpected backlash from the people he had fictionalized. Facing such animosity and ostracism, that he 'can't go home again,' as the title suggests. But in reality, the novel goes far beyond that event. It takes the reader though the theme of being unable to return to something past, destroyed, or otherwise left behind is recurrent. The perspective shifts from close inspection of the protagonist to broader examinations of his surroundings, and the style changes throughout, depending on need, giving it an energizing (and intentional) inconsistency. Wolfe's language is dense, descriptive, and highly analytical - somewhere between Fitzgerald and James Baldwin - but distinctly his own. Having said that, the book is a bit overwritten, perhaps due partially to its immense ambitions, and at times the author's own analysis is too prevalent, but it is nonetheless an important piece of American literature.

IMPORTANT!
4 out of 5
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The Insider

The true story surrounding CBS's 60 Minutes interview with ex-tobacco executive Jeffrey Wigand (played by Russel Crow) who, despite signing a confidentiality agreement upon his termination, took the higher moral ground, risking everything to expose the extreme corruption, lies and underlying health hazards hidden by a powerful business based in greed and dishonesty.
60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) is the ideal reporter, operating under a strict code of ethics and doing anything to make certain his promise stays true in an otherwise flexible field. Can these two unlikely moral champions successfully take on the ugly world against them? Watch to find out! A well acted, frightening story of good versus evil that makes you question which side America is set up to foster.

Worth Watching
3.5 out of 5
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Plot: 4
Imagery: 3
Originality: 3
Soundtrack:3 Buy the Soundtrack
Overall: 3.5

For Whom the Bell Tolls - Ernest Hemingway

In his tale of the Spanish civil war, Hemingway stretches out a period of three days into nearly epic proportions. He does so not by tedious glamorization but through a sincere and brutal study of war and all its paradoxes. His characters breathe with intensity and a sense of purpose - for the short time shown they live in the present, and that alone gives validation to their existence. The story focuses on an American mercenary fighting with the Spanish rebels. A special mission takes him to a mountain camp, where the unstable leadership threatens to hinder his task. The language is typical Hemingway - terse and confident - and the dialogue is strange and almost poetic, even at its most vulgar moments ("I obscenity in the milk of thy...!" curse his characters). Through the constant moral struggles of the American and the group of makeshift soldiers, Hemingway gets to the harsh truth of war - that even if killing is necessary one must never believe in it. This is a beautiful, honest book.

IMPORTANT
4 out of 5
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My Neighbor Totoro

With only decent animation and a mediocre storyline, this Miyazaki film fails to match his more imaginative pictures, or the subdued and realistic Grave of the Fireflies, which was created and released simultaneously. In fact, there is very little to necessitate - or at least justify - this film being animated. The story begins with a father and his two young daughters moving to an old house in the Japanese countryside - their mother is ill and confined to the hospital. The girls soon discover the presence of spirits in the house and surrounding forest, including the rotund, bearlike grumbler they call Totoro. But there is surprisingly little of the curious forest dwellers (which only the children seem able to see), as the film gives in inordinate amount of time to squealing children and the bland plot. From the drawings to the story, My Neighbor Totoro is not particularly inventive (it often seems to be imitating Alice in Wonderland), and seems a little more intended for children than other Studio Ghibli projects.

Um?
2.5 out of 5
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Plot: 2
Imagery: 3
Originality: 3
Soundtrack: 2
Overall: 2.5

The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai

Passed the piles of purple prose, over the mountains of metaphors and through the slough of adjectives you'll find this is a story of few words and little consequence. As a reader deciding to dedicate some free time to listening to a stranger's thoughts, it is expected that the author offer at least a small amount of respect in return. Most chapters of The Inheritance of Loss begin with reminder phrases, as if the reader is returning from a commercial break - and they may as will be with this stretched out and dulled tale. Ms. Desai chooses to tell and not show most of the story, again and again both insulting the intelligence of her readers and leaving no room for her towers of imagery to enter the confines of imagination or to grow even the least bit recognizable.
The plot follows the members of a family as their lives are affected by change, racism, classicism and related social agitation. A teenage orphan who lives with her wealthy, antisocial grandfather struggles with coming of age and a failed love affair; the cook's son fails to "make it" as an illegal alien in the land of opportunity; a beloved dog goes missing; some things are stolen and some are discovered. This book might be a good read for someone who wants to waste time without thinking but has no television. It was awarded the 2006 Man Booker, which raises questions as to both the legitimacy of that prize and the sanity of their selection committee.

BOOOOOOOO!
1.5 out of 5
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All About My Mother

This Spanish film by Pedro Almodovar is at once very strange and very ordinary. As typical with the popular director's (in the credits he is simply referred to as ALMODOVAR) works, All About My Mother is saturated with bright colors. It is something of a high production soap opera - full of obvious tragedy, melodrama, and thick emotions - but his subject matter, and treatment of it, is unusual. A Madrid mother returns to Barcelona after her eighteen-year-old son is killed and seeks out her old transvestite/prostitute friend, who leads her to a tainted nun with whom the mother shares a peculiar mutual friend. The characters are mostly unsubtle deviants: transvestites, transgenders, bisexuals, prostitutes, drug addicts, and surgical creations; but they are, for the most part, unabashed, if not proud, with regard to their societal status. The film contains continual references to the play A Streetcar Named Desire, and, not surprisingly, its outlandish characters all seem a little too theatrical. It is, in the end, a bizarre but sincere homage to motherhood and femininity.

WORTH WATCHING
3 out of 5
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Plot: 3
Imagery: 3
Originality: 3
Soundtrack: 3
Overall: 3

McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thriling Tales - Various Authors

As the introduction explains, McSweeney's editor Dave Eggers permitted fellow writer Michael Chabon to guest edit an issue of the quarterly and fill it with adventure (or otherwise thrilling) stories, which Chabon feels are regrettably underrated these days. The result - here put into book form - is a very inconsistent mix of tales, none of which are very thrilling, from a number of well known authors (Stephen King, Michael Crichton, Sherman Alexie, and both Chabon and Eggers). Most of it seems extremely uninspired, if not unfinished, as if - in response to Chabon's solicitations - the writers churned out whatever slop first came to their minds and sent it off. But within the 'treasury' are a few worthwhile pieces - namely, Dave Egger's "Up the Mountain Coming Down Slowly" (which can also be found in his book How We Are Hungry); Rick Moody's long, apocalyptic vision of drug use and memory, "The Albertine Notes"; and Chabon's "The Martian Agent, a Planetary Romance" (although it claims to be the beginning to a larger work, and thus seems incomplete). One would probably be better off seeking out these stories in other places, as the rest of the compilation is not worth reading.

BOOOOOOOO!
1.5 out of 5
Buy this book: McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales