Quick Reviews and Stuff: April

Are you ready to see my mediocre pictures of the eclipse? I sure hope you are.

May 09, 2024

Are you ready to see my mediocre pictures of the eclipse? I sure hope you are.

Also there’s some other stuff in here.

Movies

  • Seconds (1966)— Wildly bizarre and likely unmarketable sci-fi-ish film starring Rock Hudson as a man who gets the chance to live life over again. Sort of. Kind of. Until it all gets messed up. The whole movie is one long nightmare (affectionate), and Hudson is fantastic playing the type of meaty, tormented role that wasn’t his usual fare. The extra context of Hudson’s real life — a semi-closeted gay man — makes the performance here more poignant and wrenching. The middle of the movie drags a bit, with a too-long sequence at some sort of Peak ’60s grape stomping bacchanalia, but that doesn’t detract much from this being one of the most unsettling movies I’ve seen. I don’t give out star ratings to movies but if I did, this would get all of them.

  • La Chimera (2023)— A quirky band of tomb robbers in small town Italy, with a touch of mythology/light fantasy. I’ll be honest that a lot of the deeper meaning of this movie passed me by. I enjoyed it on a surface level, and it’s done very well, visually, including some interesting ways that film type/aspect ratio/speed are used. But I didn’t come away thinking the deep philosophical thoughts that everyone else seemed to do.

  • Cat City (2023)— Documentary about trap/neuter/release (or return) (TNR) efforts in Chicago, which touches on both sides of the issue. Animal rescue/welfare advocates are big fans of TNR — I’ve got two fosters in my home right now that were picked up as part of TNR efforts and were found to be super friendly and thus able to be adopted out, so I’ve got some skin in this game, too. But outdoor and feral cats have an impact on local wildlife, and spaying/neutering a cat doesn’t mean that it isn’t ever going to experience pain or hardship. There’s no good answer to this question, so the documentary has a bit of an unsatisfied/unfinished feeling, but there’s lots of great, loving footage of cats.

  • Monkey Man (2024)— Look, I don’t want to thank the Big Studios for refusing to cast Dev Patel in the kind of action role that he wanted to be cast in, but their refusal to give the man what he wanted did mean that we wound up with this movie, which, like, I’m not going to complain about that. Patel created a movie told from a perspective that isn’t usually seen in mainstream American movies. I’m not educated enough on Indian sociopolitical goings-on to have an articulate stance on the themes here, but I do know a good action movie when I see one, and this is it.

  • 3:10 to Yuma (2007) — After I went on my Morricone Western movie bender last month, a friend suggested I watch this one, and I’m glad I added it to my movie queue. Tense, violent, and Russell Crowe playing just the cockiest gunshooter you ever did see. I have a vague memory of having seen this before, but the ending still took me by surprise. Also, like most westerns, I think a lot would have been solved if our leads just, you know, kissed.

  • The First Omen (2024) — I never have a ton of faith in “let’s revive this old franchise” nonsense but The First Omen manages to strike the right balance of respecting/referencing the source material and being gloriously creepy all on its own. Nell Tiger Free is incredible here, I was constantly struck by the fear/uncertainty/discomfort that’s in her eyes from the very beginning. Genuinely unsettling at times. I preferred this to Immaculate, the other nun-based horror movie out this spring; there is some body horror imagery in The First Omen that I think would have felt exploitative were it directed by a man, but first timer Arkasha Stevenson brings an entirely different gaze here.

  • The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024) — I wish I had as much energy as Guy Ritchie to constantly churn out creative projects. But also maybe he could take a hot minute off in order to focus on creating a better creative project. This movie had a great ensemble cast and an interesting, based-on-true-life premise, but ultimately fell flat. At no point was there any real sense of danger for our lead characters, you knew they’d succeed because history says they succeeded, and all of the exposition to explain the plot at you is just, sigh, so dull. The action sequences are entertaining, everyone is hot, and Alan Ritchson is So Large, but this isn’t one I’m going to need to go back and watch again.

  • The Beast (2023) — At first I was lukewarm on this French sci-fi film, featuring Léa Seydoux as a woman in a futuristic society trying to rid herself of strong feelings. It’s an ambitious story, taking place across several time periods as Seydoux’s Gabrielle explores her past lives. The longer I sat with the movie and its themes — loneliness, isolation, intimacy or the lack thereof — the more it worked for me. A bit surreal — the reviews invoking David Lynch aren’t wrong — and genre-bending at every moment. Seydoux is great as always but George MacKay as her counterpart really impressed; Seydoux’s Gabrielle is largely the same in every universe byt MacKay’s Louis has a lot heavier of a lift to portray three very different men. I could see myself watching this again now that I had time to chew on it.

  • The Mummy (1999)— Another entry in the “I’ve been lying for years about having seen this” list. The kind of campy fun blockbuster that doesn’t get made much anymore, it never takes itself too seriously and is better for it. Watching it 25 years after the fact, though, makes for a lot of awkward cringing at this movie’s treatment of women and Egyptians, including the casting of white men as people of color. Fun but you’ve got to turn your brain off for it.

  • Civil War (2024)— Writer/director Alex Garland was in kind of a no-win situation here, when it comes to the worldbuilding of his near-future America. If you explicitly dive into the politics that created three-term President Nick Offerman and that caused California and Texas (!) to band together, everyone’s going to focus on that instead of the story you’re trying to tell. If you leave things vague and unexplained, everyone’s going to focus on how that’s Bad Storytelling and Unbelievable and will put their energy on trying to do the worldbuilding themselves. Both situations suck and ultimately distracted from full immersion in Garland’s grim universe. It’s hard to say that I enjoyed this movie — it’s relentlessly dark, a 110-minute long panic attack, and is difficult to watch in our current world climate. But the performances are excellent, particularly Kirsten Dunst as a world-weary, cynical photojournalist. I’d love to see takes on this movie from actual war journalists, for what it’s worth.

Books

  • North Woods, Daniel Mason — The story of a plot of land in New England and the people who inhabit it over time. An absolutely stunning achievement, this was my first five-star read of the year. This book is basically catnip for me, as Mason turns the “tell a story about many generations of the same family” trope sideways and instead tells about many generations of people treading the same land. I was deeply invested in all of the characters who pass through this little secluded spot in the woods, and think the slight mystical aspect to the story worked really well. I’m a big fan of haunted stuff. I also enjoyed the stylistic choices in terms of narrator voice and style, with not every section just being a straight forward third person narration. This is one that I think I’ll revisit in the future to let me linger with the story more.

  • Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 2 (Dungeon Meshi), Ryoko Kui — The continuing manga saga of a group of adventurers feeding themselves on the monsters they encounter in a dungeon. I particularly liked the living paintings chapter of this one, that was very spooky and well done. There’s such a good mix of humor, absurdity, and serious plot points, and I really liked getting the flashbacks so we can start to see/learn a little more about Falin. Very fun and I’m excited to pick up the next one.

  • This American Ex-Wife: How I Ended My Marriage and Started My Life, Lyz Lenz — It’s been a long time since I got divorced, but this book still hits hard, especially in light of the slow, sputtering-out end of a different medium-term relationship not long before reading this. My own personal circumstances were a lot different — no kids, minimal drama — and I did spend a lot of my reading time being like “well OBVIOUSLY the author’s marriage wasn’t going to work out, her ex was never a good match”, and wow hindsight sure is something, isn’t it, and then I remembered how desperately sad I got right before I got married because I knew in my gut this was a terrible idea, but then I got married anyway because I didn’t know what else to do, and then I felt less judge-y. I don’t know how this book will land for people who haven’t been through that sort of relationship loss/mess in their lives, but for me, a lot of this was very empowering and validating. I was constantly taking pictures of quotes and furiously tweeting them out because of how much certain passages resonated with me; here’s a couple of them.

  • The City Beautiful, Aden Polydoros — Set in Chicago in 1893, this YA book follows Alter, our protagonist, as he navigates the challenges of being a poor European Jewish immigrant, struggling to fit in and raise the money to bring the rest of his family over, while dealing with grief of the loss of his father, and, oh yeah, a bunch of other Jewish boys are missing or murdered. This was a bit slow to start for me but once I got about 60% of the way through, the action really picks up and it became really difficult to put down. I appreciated the deep commitment to showing a culture that’s underrepresented in YA, and showing it in such a rich, full way. The author also weaves in real-life events (the Chicago World’s Fair and the Cold Storage Fire of 1893, the latter of which I didn’t know anything about before) and educates the reader very matter-of-factly on what life was like during that time. This book is dark/violent and frequently deals with very heavy topics, including a sexual assault and lot of on-the-page antisemitism, so reader beware.

  • Lucky Bounce, Cait Nary — Hockey player-and-single dad/teacher bro romance (not to be confused with the platonic bromance), I can’t believe that I slept on this as long as I did. I found this very charming and readable, a book that I’d gladly reread when I’m looking for that right mix of cozy and steamy. I am not usually a kidfic person but I think the single dad angle here was worked really well and without becoming too annoying or focused on the kid. What I appreciated most about this book though was that it was just a simple story about two awkward dudes falling in love. While there’s some heavier themes — Zeke’s poor relationship with his family, Spencer’s health issues, the challenges of a normal person being in a relationship with a millionaire professional athlete — none of that stuff takes over the story or turns it into an Issues Book. I am so glad this didn’t turn into “Spencer/Zeke get outed” or “third act breakup for stupid reason” or “homophobic teammate is homophobic” or whatever. I don’t mind when romance introduces those more serious angles, but sometimes you just want something cute and easy, and this hit the mark spectacularly. Bonus points to Nary for a) capturing the stupidity of Pennsylvania’s liquor laws and b) capturing the completely accurate voice of Spencer McLeod, professional hockey player. Anyone complaining that these guys all each other “bud” too much hasn’t talked to a hockey player.

Other Stuff

Did you see that thing where the moon blocked the sun or whatever?

I took a trip down to Evansville, Indiana, primarily to see the Mountain Goats, but it just happened to occur on the day of the eclipse, too. I was not expecting to find the eclipse as emotional as I did, but something about the entire process really got to me. The slow shift from so hot and bright that I got a little sunburnt, to cold and dark and still. The twin concepts that we understand the universe enough to be able to predict these with complete accuracy, yet also that for a very long time in human history, people had absolutely no idea why the sun just went away. And not to sound like a “let’s all hold hands and get along” person, but the fact that so many people of all types came together to experience the same thing at the same time in so many different places, like, that felt nice.

Also, when the sun came back out, someone started playing a recording of Also sprach Zarathustra. Sick.

Later in the month, I also trekked down to Pelham, Tennessee, to see the Mountain Goats perform in a cave, which was as incredible as I expected it to be. Absolutely excellent vibes, chill both, like, emotionally and temperature-ly, and definitely somewhere I strongly recommend going to. For an added bonus, take their cave tour to learn more about the area and see some really freaky stuff that makes it look like you’re on the moon.

What’s Next

I’ve already packed in a couple of books and movies this month — thank you to the friend who I just bought a bunch of picture books for, for inflating my book totals. I’m excited to see I Saw the TV Glow, as well as whatever the new unhinged-looking Chris Pine movie is about (Poolman).

More importantly, though, I’m heading over to Denmark and a few other spots in Europe at the end of the month, which I am very excited about. I haven’t been overseas since 2016, I think — it was something I usually got around to doing every 3–4 years, and then, well, a little pandemic got in the way of that. Everywhere I’m going will be totally new to me, and I can’t wait to share those adventures with y’all! (For real time adventure updates, following me on Instagram is probably your smartest choice.)

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