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And Another Thing...
by Eoin Colfer

There are many reasons to approach this book with great skepticism. It's a "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" book that was not written by Douglas Adams; strike one. It was written by Eoin Colfer, who achieved success with the Artemis Fowl books, of which I read the first installment and was not particularly impressed; strike two. And it was produced after Adams had shuffled off his coil, and apparently without his participation; a Wikipedia entry claims that some of the story elements came from Adams's plans for a sixth installment, though it remains vague about just how much of the work comes from his efforts. That should be strike three and it's out.

Except that it's not. Somehow, Colfer made it safely to first base, or whatever is the equivalent in cricket. This came as a big surprise...but then, surprises are part of the raison d'etre of the Hitchhiker's series.

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Birdman (or, The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) -- Hollywood loves Hollywood, more than anything else. Even when it's an adjunct of Hollywood, like Broadway. That's a big reason why this movie, like Argo and The Artist before it, won Best Picture. The rest of us would prefer to judge a film on its actual merits--but even that's hard to do here, because this one is so steeped in its appreciation for film-making and acting and creativity and artistic effort in general...From the ostentatious camera-work to the passionate soliloquies about doing "something meaningful" creatively, this story practically browbeats the viewer into loving (or at least respecting) the cinematic arts, to the point where it's almost annoying. Thankfully, there's enough humor, professional performances, and flights of fantasy to redeem the film's worst excesses. I'm not sure it's statuette quality on its plain merits, but it's at least worth checking out on the viewing medium of your choice.

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Puss in Boots
by Philip Pullman / Ian Beck, illus.

I'm not impressed.

It's been a long time since Philip Pullman made a splash with His Dark Materials and its associated works. It has been nearly as long as Pullman gave his readers other great pieces of work, such as Clockwork and The Scarecrow and His Servant. Given the span of time that has passed since the author last wowed us, maybe it's time to reclassify Pullman, not as a star but as a comet--a body that shone brightly for a while, but eventually disappeared from the literary sky, perhaps never to return again.

It's not that this version of Puss in Boots is bad; Pullman does a serviceable job of presenting the traditional story; there are no passages in his tale that make the reader want to throw the book across the room or anything like that. But Pullman expands upon Charles Perrault's tale, including scenes with a hermit and some ghouls which, frankly, don't particularly add anything special to the story.

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The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies -- Diseases sometimes run in families; that may be the best way to think of the things that are wrong with this movie. As with its brethren films in this trilogy that should have been one feature, it suffers from the same frailties--only here those problems are magnified due to having festered all the way through two films already. The liberties with the story--both wild extrapolations from the original text and outright fundamental revisions to the story--are least welcome here at the climax and denouement; the deviations are all the more glaring in their lack of respect for the original material. Certain Elves don't belong in this story; a minor character is given way too much screen time; and the attempt at epic scope in the final battle just makes things confused and unclear. Ironically, a lust for dragon's gold--in this case, box office wealth--is what did in this project from the start. Let it be a lesson to future filmmakers.

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Interstellar -- I think this movie's heart is in the right place. Director Christopher Nolan has built a lot of equity with previous works, so one might be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, or at least a pass on certain things. But that also means there's a pretty high level of expectations attached to his projects, and this one does not live up to that hype. I'm not bothered by the predictability of what seems to be an obvious attempt at ginning up a big "shocking twist"; I'm more concerned about the vagueness surrounding much of the film's presentation: the unsteady science (including that one major boner that every screenwriter seems to love, misunderstanding black holes), the characters' odd motivations, even just the set-up for why all this is necessary in the first place. Indeed, the science is so vague in some places that this might be a more honest movie if it were an outright fantasy, with everyone wearing robes and pointed hats and doing magic rather than talking about wormholes. Too much of what may have been intended as atmospheric obscurity simply comes across as intellectual or creative laziness. If you want to shoot something into space in a rocket, make it your lack of willingness to work the problem all the way through.

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Against The Sun -- This film reveals a fascinating phenomenon: just about any story becomes more compelling when it takes place during World War II. Any movie featuring that time and place automatically gets a boost--even now, 70 years later. As it turns out, this tale needs little extra help to come across as compelling. The story of three Navy airmen who ditched in the South Pacific and survived a thousand mile trip in a life raft has compelling written all over it. Like the recent and similar--but, importantly, fictional--All is Lost, this movie presents its simple premise and provides a riveting story without a lot of bells and whistles to heighten the drama, because it hardly needs any such ornamentation. This really is a find, and is simply put a tremendous movie to watch. Don't miss it.

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Kingsman: The Secret Service -- This movie is desperately concerned with gaining its Generation AA bona fides, right down to the cockeyed way in which certain characters wear their caps. At the same time, it very self-consciously pays homage--at times out loud in the script--to spy movies of two generations ago. So then, if you throw all that together does it make for a great action adventure spy movie? Well, more like a decent action adventure spy movie. For one thing, this up to date take on the secret agent flick is substantially cruder than its predecessors: more lowbrow in its humor and gorier in its violence. Interestingly, the story gets the politics mostly right, including a provocative take on climate change and what's to be done about it. Bottom line: I suggest watching this one for free, on TV or from the library. As for the future of the genre, I don't think this one earned enough cred to merit a sequel (though I bet one shows up anyway). We'll have to wait for someone else to take this kind of flick to the next level.

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The Good, the Bad, and the Furry
by Tom Cox

There's a downside to being cat crazy. Actually, there are a lot of downsides to being any kind of crazy; but right now I'm just focused on the cat crazy part. A downside of being cat crazy is that you can't just pass by anything cat related, even when you just happen to spot that something out of the corner of your eye. Sometimes that impulse can lead you seriously astray.

Case in point: The Good, the Bad, and the Furry by English author Tom Cox. I just happened to spot this book on the New Releases shelf at my local library, and felt compelled to grab it and take it home with me. That result probably owes a lot to the picture on the cover, which shows Cox's cat The Bear soulfully staring out at all who pass by, just begging cat crazy people like yours truly to pick up the book and take it home to read--a process not unlike adoptions at the local Petco.

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Strangers On A Train -- At first blush this film seems dated, and a little obvious, and perhaps even a little clumsy. Then things get rolling, and the clever plot, artful direction, and healthy doses of wit begin to show as the the stakes grow more imperative, until finally you're left guessing about how it's going to end (not to mention whether or not the protagonist deserves to get out of his mess). In fact, this movie may be the epitome of why today's audience should show plenty of patience when it indulges a taste for yesteryear. There's a lot of good stuff out there, and once you get past the hurdle of outdated references and sensibilities, you can immerse yourself in the clever goings on that paved the way for today's finest works. Give it a shot sometime.

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Boyhood -- Upon release, this movie got a lot of praise for its unique concept of filming a story over a decade with the same actors, allowing the audience to see the young boy grow to manhood. I think many observers got caught up in the gimmick and glossed over the key film-making mechanism in that idea: the experience of seeing the actors--particularly the children--age over a compressed time period creates an artificial sense of long-term familiarity. That is, the viewer gets the impression that he knows these people like friends or family, which raises the quotient of caring about what happens to this boy, this family, these people. Had this story been filmed in three months, with different young actors representing the stages of the children's lives, viewers would be faced with the fact that, in and of itself, any given individual's life cycle is not especially meaningful or interesting to an outside observer. But develop that artificial sense of intimacy, as this movie does, and you find yourself caring about these characters far beyond anything on the screen--in terms of "story"--actually demands. It's a unique experience, to be sure, and worth seeing for yourself--but perhaps it's not as profound as some might have you believe.

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Lucy -- There's a distinct possibility that this emperor is not wearing any clothes. That's not to say this is necessarily a bad flick; it's fun to watch, the action and special effects are good, and the economy of storytelling helps things move along quickly and without much drag. The science in this fiction is almost certainly mumbo jumbo, but that's to be expected; it's in the philosophy more than the science where the film breaks down. I just get the sense that what is supposed to come across here as deep and profound may simply be very, very foolish. But you can do worse with an hour and a half of your time.

Bitching and Cunting: a Definition of Terms

Folks tend to be imprecise in their use of words. We've discussed this before in this space, in a post about the definition of stupidity and insanity, among other things. Another place where the subtle difference between similar words causes confusion lies in the space between the terms 'bitching' and 'cunting.'

Almost everyone is familiar with bitching. We've all bitched about this, that, or the other thing now and then. You're bitching when you say, "Dammit, why do I have to do this now? This is so stupid!" whenever your boss asks you to finish those "TPS reports" by the end of today, Friday, when you know perfectly well that no one will even be in the office to look at them until Tuesday at the earliest. Bitching is a form of complaining; it springs from a place of feeling abused, put upon, mistreated, or just simply frustrated. Bitching is complaining that comes from a place of--or at least, the perception of being in a position of--powerlessness.

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A History of Violence -- An interestingly ambiguous movie. It takes a while for you to figure out what this movie is really about, and in this case that's a good thing. There's a couple of misdirections that are not overly complex nor too clever and self-conscious, which may be the best indication that this film has much deeper things on its mind. Once the story actually does shake down and the viewer realizes "This is what it is," you realize that you've been given a good dose of insight into the consequences of the thing, and that makes the ultimate ambiguity that much more effective. Definitely worth your time and consideration.