Posted in January 2010 …

Jan 26 2010
6 Comments
writing

Brief Craft Essay by Kerry Cohen

 

Kerry Cohen is my latest dose of inspiration. I particularly enjoyed her essay in the craft section of the latest Brevity.

Cohen is talking about being abused as a young girl, but also acknowledging how hard it is to accept that she enjoyed those feelings and even came to chase after those feelings. I can completely relate to this from my own adolescent experience experimenting with sex. Her memoir is about promiscuity, and in some ways it is not the same as what my experience was (adolescent boys are rarely considered promiscuous, and I’m not sure I’d classify my experience as abuse, but when you mix adults, adolescents, and sex, the results are always bound to be a little dodgy). Yet this perverse sense of shame for enjoying something so physical seems very familiar.

I am trying to write a childhood memoir myself. It is very slow going. I have actually had to set it aside for now because it just seems too big to tackle, and too hard to get a firm handle on. But I often think about picking it back up and essays like this one give me a certain amount of encouragement, a certain amount of hope.

Here is the link to Cohen’s latest memoir, “Loose Girl, a memoir of promiscuity.”

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Jan 20 2010
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writing

William Bradley in Brevity 32

William Bradley is the Ethical Exhibitionist. He is also an insanely talented writer. His work is featured in the latest Brevity, which just hit the Web.

One day, my dad came home at lunch with the newspaper—fresh off the press—in his hand.  “Do you know this girl?”  She looked more interesting in black and white.  “She’s missing,” he said.  “Her parents think she was kidnapped.” 

“Julio At Large” by William Bradley

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Jan 16 2010
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movies

Book of Eli

Book of Eli surprised and delighted me.

Understand: I love me some postapocalyptic, dystopian, nightmare movie. Book of Eli has plenty of the requisite violence, flair, and visual style this sort of movie calls for. But it’s also a thoughtful movie about the power of faith, and the way religion can be a saving grace in one man’s life, even while it drives another man to war. The last 15 minutes had me holding my breath for fear the movie was going to careen of its tracks, but it holds up to the end. Just a brilliant ending that makes you want to watch again.

Go see it.

I know (kinda, sorta) Gary Whitta, the guy who wrote the screenplay for Book of Eli. We posts on a message board with a bunch of other writers and geeks. So naturally a bunch of the guys in my area got together to see the movie on its opening night. Meanwhile, there were similar groups doing the same thing in Rochester, Las Vegas, San Francisco and probably a few other places, too. I love that kind of community. This is an example of the Internet is at its best.

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Jan 10 2010
6 Comments
movies

Top Ten Movies for 2009

Here they are!

My favorite movies of the past year. I still have a few I want to watch, so (thorughout January) I reserve the right to juggle.

  1. Star Trek – Wonderful adaption. The best adaptatiotns remain just faithful enough to the source material, but still manage to offer up a few surprises. By far the best Star Trek movie of the bunch, but a potent adaptation in its own right.
  2. Inglorious Basterds – Fun to watch, fun to mull over. Once you see it, it’s hard to understand why all WW2 pictures don’t end this way. Now one of my favorite Tarantino pictures.
  3. District 9 – I loved the inventive transformation of the main character. An ugly little man becomes a humane alien.
  4. Sherlock Holmes – Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law have a lot of chemistry as Holmes and Watson.
  5. Fantastic Mr. Fox – Subversive little movie with a lot of heart. I liked the father son relationship. I liked how the boy struggled to be seen by his Dad. I liked how Dad was blinded by his own needs. But most of all I liked watching these characters make the best of their own limitations. “Cluster-cuss!”
  6. Hurt Locker - The most powerful scene shows Sgt James (Jeremy Renner), who has just returned from a horrifying tour in Iraq, wandering through the supermarket with his wife, staring at a wall of cereal, just before he reenlists. Fascinating portrayal of a smart guy who really has no clue what’s motivating him.
  7. Avatar – Beautiful movie, engaging if familiar story.
  8. Watchman – Bold and original.
  9. Julie & Julia – Meryl Streep is so much fun to watch. Stanley Tucci is a joy.
  10. Taken - An episode of 24 but with Liam Neeson.

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Jan 07 2010
1 Comment
movies

Sherlock Holmes

I am a huge Sherlock Holmes fan and thought the new move rang true as an adaptation. The few notable divergences (Watson’s wife, Holmes’ boxing matches and his own love interest) seemed acceptable to me. The chemistry between Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law was excellent, which is all you really need for a good Holmes adaptation. Denby said it reminded him of a screwball comedy, which seems spot on to me. It’s the same thing that made the old Holmes movies with Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce work so well. The big difference between the old series and this one is that Rathbone took his part so seriously, which was probably appropriate for his time–most of those movies are thinly veiled WW2 propaganda pieces. This new one is much lighter, with RDJ/Law hamming it up at times.

I thought the evil Lord Blackwood’s (Mark Strong) “Di Vinci protocol” scheme was an excellent way to evoke the Victorian era and it’s relationship to magic and the supernatural. Besides Hounds of the Baskerville, I can’t really think of another Conan Doyle story that uses the supernatural in that way, but Holmes use of deduction and reason always looks best in contrast to a supernatural story.

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Jan 06 2010
2 Comments
movies

Avatar

I liked Avatar, and I am not even sure why (despite my having a few weeks to think about it). It charmed me. I liked Jake, (Sam Worthington) the broken main character. He’s physically broken (his disability), emotionally weak (easily manipulated by Stephen Lang, the bad marine), and not much of a marine himself (he almost gets himself and his party killed on his first patrol).

Sure, the movie moves forward in a predictable fashion, borrowing from many other movies, and doesn’t even offer us a single good line of dialog for posterity (“I see you.” Gah, how awful). But none of that matters.

The point is watching a mope like Jake turn his circumstances around. This movie reminds me of Rocky. It’s not like Rocky is good because it was the first sports movie to feature an unlikely underdog who came from behind–it’s interesting because Stallone plays such an utterly luckless, shambling clod who must rise above his circumstances.

And none of this takes away from the criticisms people are making about Avatar’s plot, the slim characters, etc. Much of that is true. I wish it would have explored identity with a little more depth and meaning. But it had enough good to win me over.

I found it interesting that Jake had to abandon his body to become more human. I hope they do a little more with the plot in future installments.

It was also very beautiful.

A friend of mine said it’s just a shame he couldn’t have seen this when he was twelve. I completely agree. Aaron and I saw it opening day. Halfway through, he turned to me and whispered, “Thanks for bringing me to see this, Dad.”

My pleasure., son. My pleasure.

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