Reel Reviews

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes -- The most ridiculous thing about this movie? The copious amounts of rain that are supposed to be falling on parts of California throughout. Talk about fiction, science or otherwise. The biggest takeaway here may be the fact that Andy Serkis is a marvel; how he is able to convey as much emotion as he does through the medium of motion capture, acting while wearing a "CGI mask" so to speak, is simply remarkable. And that talent serves this film well; though there is some absurdity to the plot, especially in the beginning (a weakness shared with its predecessor), this flick delivers an engaging, entertaining story that actually comes with some suspense in its denouement. If they can keep improving on their previous effort, another outing in the franchise might not be a bad idea.

Reel Reviews

Rise of the Planet of the Apes -- The movie is much like the featured primates: it starts off quite stupid, then it gets a boost midway through and starts looking smarter. It's hard to resist rolling one's eyes at the early parts of the film, especially the very paint-by-numbers plot points about corporate greed being the root of the evil (not that it doesn't ring true; it's just not very well presented here). There's also some character inconsistency that comes across as false and jarring as the story progresses; ironically, it's mostly the apes who stay true to character. And then you get plenty of good monkey mayhem towards the end. Satisfying, but definitely in the "leaves room for improvement" category.

Reel Reviews

Gone Girl -- Hard to tell what to say about this one. A couple of things spring out: for one, this story relies on the same conceit as almost all mystery genre works, namely that there can be such a thing as the perfect crime. Certainly, this is a story that believes wholeheartedly in its own smartness; perhaps it's better to say the author believes in how smart she is. But this scenario would almost certainly not play out this way in real life; the presumed mastermind would be caught and exposed much easier than is seen here. The movie does make its case (so to speak) that one could get away with it because media are so guilty of fashioning "the truth" that it hazes everything, including detective work. It also implies something I've known since at least the old days of watching Xena: Warrior Princess: men can be bad, but when a woman goes wrong you get a real monster. That may be a minor spoiler; sorry, but even if the ending is given away you can still get something from watching this flick. It's worth your time.

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Stars and Strikes: Baseball and America in the Bicentennial Summer of ’76
by Dan Epstein

My earliest memories of baseball involve the Philadelphia Phillies and their division championship season of 1976. No surprise, then, that I would want to pick up Dan Epstein’s Stars and Strikes, which is nothing less than a history of that very season and of the cultural currents then having their impact in the USA during the nation’s 200th birthday celebration.

Epstein comprehensively tells the story of the 1976 baseball season: its preliminary moments before the season began, when the writing went up on the wall and told everyone who could read that free agency was imminent, and that baseball would never be the same; the month to month storyline of the actual season, which featured a repeat champion in the Cincinnati Reds but also a changing of the guard, in that former powers like the Oakland A’s, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Boston Red Sox saw their shine start to fade; and the aftermath once the World Series ended, when the big money started to flow and it was demonstrated that free agency mostly meant that the owners would have to be saved from themselves (which still hasn't happened in any meaningful way).

Stars and Strikes
by Dan Epstein

In covering the nuts and bolts of the baseball season, author Epstein presents the reader with workmanlike prose; his accounts of games, series, and streaks read so much like newspaper beat writer accounts that one wonders whether or not the author wrote that way according to a specific stylistic decision. (Epstein’s jacket flap bio indicates no stints as a beat writer, so it’s hard to say whether he comes to the style naturally or not.) Though these writings may come across as formulaic, Epstein nevertheless delivers mostly entertaining accounts of the events of the season, particularly in charting the meteoric rise (and eventual fall) of Detroit Tigers phenom Mark “The Bird” Fidrych, as well as the earliest rumblings of the volcano that would eventually explode from the Billy Martin-George Steinbrenner pairing as New York Yankees manger and owner. (If nothing else, Epstein does baseball fans the service of un-rehabilitating Steinbrenner and reminding everyone of just what a colossal asshole that man was.)

Along the way, Epstein also recounts the cultural phenomena that made up the contemporary scene in that oddest of celebratory years. Music in particular gets prominent display in the cultural history; Epstein quotes period hit songs as his chapter titles, with each chapter including some notes about the year's musical trends, from the mellow AM gold of the Starland Vocal Band, WAR, and England Dan and John Ford Coley, to the emergence of the soon-to-be scene-changing genres, disco and punk rock. Other hot topics, such as Legionnaire’s Disease, Bicentennial festivities, killer bees, racial tensions over busing, and (naturally, in a baseball book) The Bad News Bears, get their share of remembrance as Epstein brings what is now a wildly alien time temporarily back to life. Those of us who can (barely) remember those days can attest that, yes, life in 1976 really was that weird, and Epstein does the younger generation a service by documenting that fact.

Nostalgia may be less than ideal—the word has actually been used to describe what once was considered a disease—but the occasional indulgence can be harmless and fun, especially when the subject is the history-bound sport of baseball. Though it occasionally falls into rote recitation of the year's events, and it never reaches the literary heights achieved by the exemplars of the "one baseball season" genre (a la Halberstam or Angell), Stars and Strikes stands as one of the better entries in this now well-established genre. Fans of the sport, or even just those with an interest in cultural history, will do well to pick up a copy of Epstein’s work and take a groovy trip back to a time long gone--at least for a few hundred pages.

Reel Reviews

The Equalizer -- The world is littered with action movies exactly like this one. So why is this one in particular so satisfying and enjoyable to watch? Mostly, for the performance by Denzel Washington, who lives up to his usual standards in creating a character the viewer can’t help but believe in. (Washington is remarkably expressive even when he’s doing nothing. His expressionless silences say more than the efforts of 90% of all working actors today.) There’s also an intriguing bit of subtext about the characters Washington’s McCall helps; the hero encourages these lesser lights towards a belief in themselves that is belied by the bigger currents on display in the plot of the movie. Creative and intellectual dissonance, or a purposeful contradiction the viewer is invited to consider? You’ll have to judge that for yourself; give yourself that chance by watching this movie.

Reel Reviews

Afternoon Delight -- Not sure what to make of this one. Sure, there’s all kinds of indie cred here, but that does not necessarily make for a good movie. If this is meant to be a statement on the plus side for women, the effect is quite the opposite; all chauvinistic claims of female craziness seem verified here (in a movie written and directed by a woman, Jill Soloway, it should be noted). As a comedy, it’s not particularly funny; as a drama, the repercussions of the plot seem too minor to have much impact. I didn’t hate it, stayed mostly interested all the way through…but I suspect most people wouldn’t find this one all that interesting.

Reel Reviews

The Hundred-Foot Journey -- This one seems to have been overlooked by the movie-going public, and I'm not sure why. Its Indian-family focus? One would hope not. It's somewhat standard storyline? Maybe, although when even a clichéd plot is done this well true cinema enthusiasts should appreciate the effort. There's much to like here: Manish Dayal stands front and center as a very appealing underdog hero; Helen Mirren plays her part to a tee, keeping her frosty restaurateur icily cool right up to the moment when she needs to let the ice break and become a sympathetic character; and most impressive, perhaps, is DP Linus Sandgren's work in making this a truly beautiful movie to watch (rarely has cuisine been so belle on screen). Do yourself a favor and sample this platter's delights.

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THINspired
by Mara Schaiavocampo

For some time now, I've had aspirations of writing a book about weight loss, using my own experiences going from weighing 340 pounds to today's 275 as grist for that mill. In particular, my ideas about weight loss--admittedly a straightforward process, when it's boiled down--took their form in an equation--The Equation, as it were--that helps distill my wisdom into a useful thought model that, I believe, can help those like me lose weight and live healthier (if not fully healthy) lives.

Of course, since weight loss is such a well-trodden path when it comes to publishing, I have not just compiled notes for my prospective work, but surveyed the field of weight loss books, to see if any other interested parties had the same thoughts I did.

In scanning the shelves, I came across only one book that seemed to display inspiration similar to my own. THINspired by Mara Schiavocampo is another individual's self-discovered program for losing weight. It even features an equation--or, as Ms. Schiavocampo puts it, her "Magic Formula"--as a framework for the author's weight loss program. Given these facts, I decided to read THINspired and see if all my plans and notes were for naught. Had I been beaten to the punch? Had I been scooped on the concept of an equation (by that or any other name), which would render my own plans to reveal a new weight loss thought model redundant and pointless?

Alas, though Schiavocampo contributes a few worthy ideas to the endeavor, she gets a lot of her equation--in my own humble but experienced opinion--wrong.

On the plus side, Schiavocampo is to be credited for devoting a large portion of her text to one of the under-recognized aspects of weight loss: the need for adequate sleep. Indeed, I place so much emphasis on sleep that I make it the first part of my own Equation. Unfortunately, while Schiavocampo had the sense to recognize sleep for the crucial element that it is, she still only deems sleep to be 10% of the program. Hardly any books on weight loss mention sleep; to identify so important a cog in the weight loss machine, and then to undersell it by deeming sleep to be only one tenth of the issue, undermines the force of her argument.

A lot of the rest of Schiavocampo's presentation consists of what one might call boilerplate weight loss advice. There's nothing particularly wrong with that; any book about weight loss must cover the fundamentals of "eat less, exercise more," since those basics are necessary to any successful weight loss effort. But some of her advice is problematic. She encourages readers to exercise by the mantra "train hard or go home"--advice that will rarely work for truly overweight individuals, who are often prone to injury by way of overexercising. Worse still, in lecturing her readers about the fundamentals, Schiavocampo reveals an outlook that, far from being encompassing and general, actually comes across as particular, idiosyncratic, and individual. In other words, one doubts that few overweight people could actually be successful following the author's lead.

Why? Because a great deal of what Schiavocampo preaches as the proper lifestyle for successful weight loss follows from her position as a person of means and opportunity. For instance, despite protestations about being on a budget and not being overly wealthy, Schiavocampo gushes about her exercise routine, including workouts and classes at what are apparently very trendy (and undoubtedly expensive) New York City fitness clubs. That feeling is reinforced by her name-checking her trainer friends, as if the average reader is supposed to know of these people already. (Namedropping is a relentless feature of THINspired; even those Schiavocampo identifies in the narrative as her personal friends get the first and last name treatment, so you know that she is hobnobbing with people who are Important.) This may be the norm when you are a television personality (Schiavocampo has worked as a reporter for ABC News, specifically Good Morning America, according to her jacket bio), but it doesn't reinforce her credibility with readers who wish to find legitimate advice on losing weight.

And, unfortunately, Schiavocampo's credibility is all too easy to question. As noted, she has a career in TV, and worked that job before she stumbled upon her "Magic Formula" for weight loss. How much weight did she need to lose? It is impossible from the text to accurately judge that. Fatties, as we know, rarely get hired to be television personalities. Schiavocampo puts her total weight loss at 90 pounds, which is an impressive figure without a doubt, and she relates stories from childhood where being overweight played a big role in her development. Yet, all we ever get from the author, in terms of hard numbers, is that figure of 90 pounds. At no point in the text does Schiavocampo give an actual scale reading for herself; the reader never knows just how much this woman actually ever weighed. (A quick web search reveals early, pre-weight loss pictures of the author, showing a woman who was indeed overweight, though not to this viewers eyes truly obese.)

Schiavocampo does, at one point, relate that she gained 40 pounds during pregnancy; so then the ninety pound total is boosted by the extra forty lumped on by having a baby? Was her real weight loss 90 pounds, or 50 pounds if you count from her pre-pregnancy, "normal" weight? In another passage Schiavocampo labels herself as having been a "size 14"; given the madness that is women's clothing sizes, readers could be forgiven for having no idea what that actually means in terms of shape and health. (Per Schiavocampo, size 14 is "the size of the average woman today.") The average woman may find something meaningful in those terms, but whether this discourse will actually be useful for those who need to drop the pounds is another matter.

So it goes for what the average woman might get out of THINspired; others, particularly men, would read this book and find a lecture that says little to them, or even speaks in a language that they can understand. Clearly, Schiavocampo wrote her book for a niche market of women like herself. Unfortunately, the reason we have such a wide open market for books on weight loss is specifically because the problem of overweight is so widespread and general; the niche approach, as represented by THINspired, paints the problem in terms too specific to ever be useful to more than a few individuals.

Schiavocampo should be commended for making the effort of trying to cast the basics of weight loss in a form that some (or even a few) will understand better than what they've heard before. If you are of a certain type, the ideas in THINspired just might click with you and help you get down the road towards a healthier you. But as likely as not, this one of Ms. Schiavocampo's reports may simply come across to you as dead air.

Reel Reviews

A Most Wanted Man -- This flick indulges in so many spy movie clichés--moody, atmospheric music; odd, disjointed camerawork; industrial, hole-in-the-wall workspaces; even the ultra-clichéd clandestine meetings on the waterfront, complete with industrial shipping in the background--that the only thing surprising is that the DVD doesn't come in a plain brown wrapper marked "SPY MOVIE." As such, the film does not make much of an impression beyond being Philip Seymour Hoffman's last role, though I will admit to the movie holding my interest for much of its running time; how much that is a product of the presence of the easy on the eyes Rachel McAdams may be a mystery more intricate than anything presented here.