Everything Matters!

I really love this book. It has its issues, but I’m a fan of the omniscient second-person, and the countdown to the end, and even the sort of epilogue and the way it doesn’t fix everything, doesn’t really fix anything. I am all for Currie’s writing, just about always.

4.5/5

The Book of Salt

I really dislike books that decide to use minor historical figures and flesh them out—make it really dislike when those historical figures are Gertrude Stein and her lover, Alice B. Toklas. I think I can settle for Stein’s actual writing, instead of a stupid, shallow book that decides to take the viewpoint of her chef, and only distinguish itself from another mediocre whiny book by the fact that Truong decides to steal Stein’s fame to bolster her own.

2/5

Beat the Reaper

This is fun reading at its best; sharp, smart, and full of shark tanks. The asides are brilliant, the events are just ludicrous enough to work, and the narrator is just unlikeable enough. Though maybe I could have done without a bone knife.

4/5

Dangerous Laughter

Millhauser has some really really interesting ideas, unfortunately, he doesn’t have a very discerning editor. Each of his stories intrigues me for a short time, then loses its appeal, and then really, really wears out his welcome. If this collection was half the length or had twice the stories, it’d be a good one, as it is, Millhauser needs a new editor, or an ability to viciously cut the chaff.

2/5

Zami

Lourde is a poet, so it’s not surprising that Zami is often poetic. It’s lucky, actually, because that poetic musing is about the only thing that saves it from being yet another autobiography that carefully tells the reader all about the author’s sex and love life.

3/5

Green Zone

Green Zone doesn't move out of the broad "Iraq war film and not much else" category that is taking up a huge niche in American filmmaking right now. It's a very serviceable war film, albeit one that drags on too long, and sometimes sacrifices interesting implications for ones that carry more metaphorical weight. It's one of the more anti-war films I've seen lately, but that gets muddled by a sort of suspense plot that paradoxically is less interesting, and in the end, it doesn't make much of an impression in the huge canon it has fallen into.

2.5/5

You Are Not a Stranger Here

Ugh and ugh. This is one of the few books that gets relegated to the “abandoned” folder, and, for me, with good reason. Haslett looks into psychological disturbance, mental illness, and is relentlessly depressing in his portrayal of it. Which would be okay! Really, it would! It’s just that all his accounts are so monotonous, that I couldn’t bother myself to stick with it.

1/5

Gummo

I'm going to show my stodgy side, but any film that takes a long time focusing on killing cats to make a quick buck is not going to be my kind of film. Neither will a film focusing on prostituting a mentally disabled girl, on killing a woman on life support, on the lack of morals or control in a town burdened with tragedy and idiocy. I was often interested in Gummo, but a lot of that interest was disgust.

1/5

In the Lake of the Woods

This isn’t for anyone who wants a straightforward narrative or a pat ending, because it absolutely refuses any sort of closure or simplicity of meaning, however, it is an extremely interesting view of both the aftermath of a disappearance and the aftermath of Vietnam. O’Brien is always interested in Vietnam, and I am always interested in his narratives of Vietnam; brutal, ugly and human. When O’Brien writes about the aftermath, it’s less interesting, but that’s not actually saying much; O’Brien’s pretty damn interesting whatever he’s writing.

4/5

Who Will Run the Frog Hospital

Have I mentioned I’m in love with Lorrie Moore yet? Because I am totally in love with Lorrie Moore. In most people’s hands, a story about a summer in a sixteen year old’s life, and then a few days in her life twenty years later, well, that would be unspeakably boring. But somehow Moore takes things that should be unspeakably boring, and turns them into something heartfelt and heartbreaking and beautiful. She’s really, really good at that.

4/5

A Boy's Own Story

White's sort of autobiography is interesting, particularly in the way he doesn't build himself up in any way, however, it's not particularly memorable. Already a lot of the details are fading, only a couple weeks later, and the only thing that distinguishes it is that instead of echoing a bildungsroman, it ends fairly early, oh, and has gay sex. And stuff.

3/5

Dream Boy

Well, this was an odd experience. I'm not going to spoil the ending, though I'm not sure what that would ruin, however, the ending was sort of a confused attempt at lack of closure, and a lot of the threads picked up in the story, such as what appears to be a case of molestation, are hinted at, then suddenly disappear. Grimsley doesn't seem sure whether he wants a love story, a ghost story or a story of child abuse, and frankly, I'm not sure either.

2/5

The Red Badge of Courage

I read the great illustrated classics version of this when I was about seven or so; the only reason I remember that is because it absolutely haunted me, with its stories of death. This time around, Crane doesn't haunt me. Crane doesn't even affect me. He has created such an unlikeable protagonist, a coward who takes all of the credit and none of the blame, a man who looks the injured in the eyes and sees himself as equal, that I could barely get through this. It doesn't help that it's downright boring a lot of the time.

2/5

The Hurt Locker

Hurt Locker is rendered in a world of beige, taupe and tan, a world that seems washed out, which works wonderfully with its narrative. In this bleached world, slow moving and then frenetic with motion, every action has extreme importance, except when it doesn't. My favourite moment, a moment in a grocery store washed in brilliant colours, shows how out of place soldiers are in that world, busy with nothing meaningful, and this moment serves as an allegory for what is an extremely rich study of monotony and danger, often at the same time.

4/5

Rachel Getting Married

I have a really problem watching people embarrass themselves, which made Rachel Getting Married the rough equivalent of a horror film to me at times. Despite that, it’s a great film, certainly a retread of other indie “the addict/eccentric comes and ruins everything” films, of which I can name many. However, it’s a well done version of that cliché, and Anne Hathaway really was fantastic in it.

3.5/5

9

I could have guessed pretty much every single plot point of this film far before they occurred, but that wasn’t really the point of this film. The plot was a typical kid’s adventure sort of thing, with a darker edge, but it’s the animation you should watch it for. It’s a staggeringly beautiful dystopia, with such attention given to the landscape that it’s worth it just to watch that.

3.5/5

Stone Butch Blues

Stone Butch Blues feels a lot longer than it is, a veritable slog through cliché and characters repeatedly telling other characters exactly how they feel. Jess claims to be a restrained person, slow to speak about feelings, but you can’t tell from reading this, where all the butches cry and talk about how lonely it is not to be able to talk. While talking about it. Also, if one more character laughed through tears, or cried through laughter in this book, I was about ready to hurl the book at the wall and give up, book for class or no.

1.5/5

Fahrenheit 451

I’ve been meaning to get around to this and 1984, as they’re both considered key canon in dystopian fiction, and I am totally in love with Brave New World. But Brave New World this ain’t. One of my largest peeves in literature is telling as opposed to showing, and it seemed that was all that occurred; long monologues about the importance of literature, long conversations about the decline of civilization, yadda yadda yadda. It’s obvious, and pedantic, and its only saving grace is that at least the man can write a good descriptive sentence.

2/5

Shutter Island

I had such high hopes for this. Adapted from a novel by Dennis Lehane, whose “ “ I loved, and directed by Martin Scorsese, who I generally enjoy. I am not the best at guessing twists, which is great, actually, so when I say that I guessed the twist, then discarded that option as too obvious, that I am saying that this film has possibly the most obvious twist in the entire world. And that greatly hindered my general enjoyment of the film.

2/5

Sherlock Holmes

I have always associated Guy Ritchie with gritty films. And while the mis-en-scene was there, regardless of a downright silly Naziesque get-up for the--Pre-Nazi--villian, the way the film was carried out was downright silly. Gratuitious slow-motion, expensive fight scenes that fail to compell, and a boring case don't do Jude Law and Robert Downey Jr any favours, despite their effortless rapport with one another. Sadly forgettable.

2/5