Feed for ClydeUmney.net, personal webpage of Josh Mauthe. You can read book and movie reviews, get updates on the Library Police podcast, or browse picture galleries. http://www.clydeumney.net/booklog.htm#0616b Monday, 17 Jun 2013 18:28:38 CDT Veronica used to be the head of her school. Boys dreamed of her; girls lived in fear of her judgment; cliques lived and died by her approval. But after a year away from school, Veronica returns to find that her rules and her control have gone away, and the school is now run by a student body president intent on erasing cliques, cruelty, and bullies - like Veronica. And that kind of think just isn't going to fly with Veronica, who begins to plan her revenge. Veronica's Vengeance is the third in author Adam Bertocci's loose trifecta of high school stories, and in some ways, it's the darkest and most cruelly funny of any of them. It's lacking the horror elements of his first (The Fairfield County Friday Night Gridiron Bonanza), and lacks the warmth towards friends that drove the second (The Usual Werewolves); in their place is a narrator who looks at the world around her with scorn, disgust, and disdain. (Veronica's aghast reactions when freshmen have the gall to speak to her and boys stare at her openly are basically worth the price of admission.) It makes for hilarious, scathing reading, and just when you're wondering how long you can sympathize with Veronica, the story takes a wholly unexpected direction, creating a final act that plays out in beautifully ironic and surprising ways. It's hard to pick a favorite among Bertocci's stories, especially when they're all this well done and this entertaining, but I feel safe in saying that Veronica's Vengeance is easily the funniest of the three of them, even if it's very much a pitch-black piece of dark comedy. And it's a perfect counterpart to Bertocci's other books - after all, what's a look at high school like without a look through the eyes of those on top of the social heap? http://www.clydeumney.net/booklog.htm#0616a Monday, 17 Jun 2013 18:25:32 CDT Bad Chili opens with a chapter in which our two heroes, Hap (a white hippie/Vietnam war protestor) and Leonard (a gay, black Vietnam war veteran) are commiserating over some recent life events when their conversation is interrupted by a vicious, angry, bloodthirsty, rabid...squirrel. And in the anarchy that follows (it all involves a lot of swearing, screaming, and attempted squirrel homicide), I remembered why I love reading Joe Lansdale books. At their core, the Hap and Leonard books are a sort of Texas redneck noir, with our heroes getting involved in crimes, fighting dangerous men, and doing their best to protect those who are dear to them. But to focus simply on the plots is to miss out on so much of what makes these books so rich and rewarding. That's not to say that the plots are worthless; in fact, the story of Bad Chili is a compelling one, as Leonard's quest to check on his ex-boyfriend leads the men into confrontations with a criminal ex-wrestler, a chili tycoon, and a series of video store clerks trading in a horrifying set of underground tapes. But the true appeal of these books is Lansdale's prose - from his gleefully lowbrow analogies to his profane and hilarious banter, Lansdale's words are a joy to read, as long as you don't mind wading through some of the most inventively colorful and profane insults ever written. (Me? They make me laugh uncontrollably.) Lansdale has always been as interested in how his characters react to the events around them as the events themselves, and Bad Chili exemplifies this, as both men are forced to look at the darkest sides of human nature and in themselves, and the results are far from pretty. What they are, though, is entertaining as hell, exciting as anything, riveting to read, and just a burst of fresh air that reads like little else out there. Bad Chili may be my favorite Lansdale book to date, and given how great some of his other books are, that's high praise indeed. But it's completely true: by the time I finished the book, my biggest reaction was sadness that I had reached the end of it - well, that and eagerness to go and pick up the next one. If you've never read any of the other Hap and Leonard books, you can easily start with Bad Chili with no problems. But be warned: once you start, there's no going back. http://www.clydeumney.net/movielog.htm#0615a Monday, 17 Jun 2013 18:19:20 CDT I honestly couldn't tell you how long it's been since I last saw An American Tail, but I can tell you that it's been long enough that I had forgotten just how dark and nightmarish some parts of the film were. The early sections, in which a Russian village is sacked and burned, is a harrowing scene, and Bluth's use of cats as the malevolent, destructive forces nicely puts the audience in the place of the victims of such violence - that violence, of course, being pogroms carried out against Jewish settlements. Indeed, the film is so clearly about the Jewish immigrant experience that you can't help but wonder why Bluth never makes the case explicitly (apart from cowardice as it relates to box office receipts, of course) instead of using dozens of implications and clues as the movie unfolds. As for the movie, it's fun, if surprisingly dark, fare that manages to pack in a lot of history in its depiction of New York City and immigrant culture, all whole crafting an engaging adventure. The songs are generally solid and catchy, the humor used well, and the characters fun, so it all works better than it really has any right to. That being said, there are definitely some pretty big flaws: an ending that goes on too long, a lead whose non-singing voice ends up more painful than cute, a story that wanders a little too much at points, and so on. But on the whole, it holds up better than I worried it would, and from the looks on my children's faces, it seems to have made some fans of a whole new generation now. http://www.clydeumney.net/movielog.htm#0613b Monday, 17 Jun 2013 18:17:16 CDT It's hard to look at The Killer and not simply describe it as "the John Woo-iest John Woo film ever made." Slow motion drama, operatic music, dramatic doves, two handed gunplay, dangerous men bonding in masculine ways, rampant deaths and explosions, emotional moments that are cranked up to their utmost - all of them are here and then some, just as you've come to expect from Woo when he's at the top of his game. But the fact that The Killer is really the first true fusion of all of these elements in this form gives it a freshness and vitality that some of Woo's later films don't quite have. Moreover, while there's no denying the melodramatic aspects of The Killer (especially with regards to the slowly blinding singer), there's also no denying that Woo somehow makes it all work, largely through the fact that he approaches it all without a hint of irony or condescension. Instead, Woo plays it all straight, and finds his best moments in the emotional extremes, turning what could have been just another action movie into something operatic and poetic, in its own violent way. The Killer is probably the purest expression of what John Woo loves in a film, and given that I'm right there with him on a lot of this stuff, it should be no surprise that I loved this movie, from the opening church meeting to the death-dealing finale. It's a film that's earned a legendary status, and while I thought nothing could match the action sequences of Hard Boiled, The Killer does so by making it all somehow more focused and personal. http://www.clydeumney.net/movielog.htm#0613a Monday, 17 Jun 2013 18:15:12 CDT My enthusiasm for the Marvel comic book movies faded pretty quickly after the first Iron Man; no matter how much I enjoyed Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark, the movies seemed duller and duller, and the interest in a "shared universe" monumentally off-putting and uninteresting. (My pretty middling reaction to The Avengers didn't really change my mind on any of that.) But when it was announced that Iron Man 3 was being handed over to Shane Black, well, you had my interest back. Giving a Marvel comic book film to an honest-to-god writer/director with his own voice and style (to say nothing of a mini Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang reunion) was a good way to get me back into the movies, and Iron Man 3 delivered and then some. There's a lot that I loved about this movie, but let's just start with the fact that for the first time in forever, Iron Man 3 doesn't seem to exist solely as an advertisement for future movies; indeed, with the exception of some nods to Tony Stark's backstory, Iron Man 3 is pretty much a stand-alone film, and that's a massive relief. Then there's the way that the film spends the vast majority of its running time without ever putting Stark in the Iron Man armor, instead focusing on the character, his personality and flaws, and his intellectual prowess. It makes for a far richer and more involving superhero film, one that's less about men in powerful suits hitting each other and more about a man confronting his own legacy. And none of that even touches on the brilliant way that the Mandarin plays into the story, which would deserve its own paragraph if it didn't spoil such a fantastic reveal. Suffice to say, Black takes a problematic, racist caricature and does something brilliant with it, using it to explore American fears and xenophobia. By the time you toss in fascinating subtext (it's no coincidence that the movie revolves around wounded armed forces members doing suicide bombing missions), fantastic dialogue, great performances, and some dazzling setpieces (including a jaw-dropping climax that's a joy of action choreography), and you've got a truly satisfying superhero film. Sure, there are some weak points (with many of them revolving around the film's other villain, whose only really interesting aspects are brought by way of Guy Pearce's talent), but those are minor marks against the film's overwhelming successes. I may not be a big fan of the "shared universe" idea, but if Marvel can start putting out interesting, exciting, and engaging movies like this, I'll be far more excited for their work from here on out. http://www.clydeumney.net/movielog.htm#0612c Wednesday, 12 Jun 2013 17:10:03 CDT Despite it being pigeonholed as "that male stripper movie," there's a lot more going on in Magic Mike than such a simplistic summary would suggest - a fact which goes without saying to any fan of Steven Soderbergh, who's pretty much incapable of making an uninteresting film. In some ways, Magic Mike plays out like the more studio-friendly version of Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience, which was a film about a young woman who hires herself out to give young men a "girlfriend" to be with (as opposed to just a lover). Like Girlfriend Experience, Magic Mike is inexorably linked to the declining economy, a fact which comes out most strongly in a quietly devastating scene set in a bank office. But Magic Mike is more character study than social commentary, orbiting around a male stripper who took the job for easy money but finds himself unable to break free from the life. There's a high potential for cliches in a story like that, but Magic Mike mostly holds them off until the final act, where drugs and addiction come into play almost exactly as you'd expect them to in a story like this. Until then, though, Magic Mike is a fascinating glimpse into a very different world, and as usual, Soderbergh makes the smallest details into the most fascinating moments, from the sewing of costumes to the discussion of props. Even when the film starts to feel a little more disposable at the end, Soderbergh's keen visual style keeps everything richer than it would otherwise be, and keeps the film interesting when it probably doesn't deserve to be. I can't argue that Magic Mike feels a little less rich than most Soderbergh movies, but even the weakest of his efforts have plenty to offer, from outstanding performances across the board to masterful editing to a magnificent focus on details. So what if it's about male strippers? That doesn't make it much less entertaining, well-made, or interesting to watch. http://www.clydeumney.net/movielog.htm#0612b Wednesday, 12 Jun 2013 17:00:00 CDT The trailers for This is the End marketed it as a celebrity-filled disaster movie - something along the lines of The Poseidon Adventure, but with Seth Rogen and his friends filling the cast. But it turns out that This is the End is a lot darker, a lot stranger, a lot more violent, and a lot more interesting than you might expect from those commercials. That's not to say that it's not funny; I laughed consistently and constantly throughout This is the End, and there's not a cast member who didn't crack me up over and over again. But just focusing on the humor means missing out on everything else This is the End brings to the table, including a blending of horror and comedy that recalls nothing so much as Shaun of the Dead. More than that, screenwriters Rogen and Evan Goldberg bring the same emotional richness and thematic depth to the table that they brought to movies like Superbad. From a Jewish kid's unease with Christian apocalyptic imagery to a nasty look at Hollywood culture to the changing relationships between friends as time passes, This is the End finds enough to chew on that it more than gives the film some depth beyond just "celebrities hanging out and dying". But in the end, it's a comedy, and it's going to be judged by how funny it is. For me, it's absolutely hilarious; to be fair, though, your enjoyment will hinge greatly on how much you enjoy Rogen and his friends playing off of each other, as well as how willing you are to follow the movie as it gets darker and darker in tone. All I can say, though, is that there's something fantastic about seeing a mainstream movie that's as nuts and gutsy as this one is, and I had a blast with the whole thing. http://www.clydeumney.net/movielog.htm#0612a Wednesday, 12 Jun 2013 16:58:02 CDT With the modern state of politics, it wouldn't be hard to make a vicious, trenchant satire about the shallowness of it all; however, that's not really the movie The Campaign wants to be, no matter how much it offers some (fairly shallow) comments about campaign finance reform and features thinly veiled caricatures of the Koch brothers. No, The Campaign is more about broad, silly comedy, and sometimes, that's more than enough. Mind you, it certainly doesn't hurt that the film is largely content to let Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis merely bounce off of each other, and their comic sensibilities and improv skills are more than capable of carrying the film even when it loses its interest in its main story. It's not a surprise that The Campaign is a little sloppy - Ferrell's last few films have been helmed by Adam McKay, who manages to bring a great visual style and a tightness to bear that Campaign director Jay Roach just isn't capable of (or interested in, based off of his other word). But even with that sloppiness, The Campaign delivers plenty of laughs, especially when it comes to Ferrell's increasingly desperate and insane campaign ads (which seem less and less far fetched with each passing year). So, no, The Campaign isn't as no-holds-barred and as vicious as I kind of wished it was, but as a comedy? Yeah, on that front, it works just fine. http://www.clydeumney.net/movielog.htm#0611b Tuesday, 11 Jun 2013 22:43:17 CDT This is probably going to put me in a minority, but I spent a lot of the third season of Game of Thrones frustrated with the show I was watching. Gone was the series that so elegantly interwove its characters and storylines in rich, thematic ways; in its place was a program that found itself desperately overstuffed with characters and bouncing around so much that the rich character depth that drew me in was almost nowhere to be found. The show had a lot to do, and a lot of groundwork to lay, but it ended up doing so in such a rushed fashion that many of the episodes felt like nothing so much as plot-filling. It's to Thrones's credit, then, that it ended so well that I found myself sucked back into the world firmly and strongly, and was more eager for season 4 than I would ever have expected. It probably helps things that the season finale was so well-done, and so character-driven, that it righted a lot of the wrongs I felt held the rest of the season back. Of course, that finale had the advantage of following the season's major "moment," which did a number of things well - not the least of which is (I have to selfishly note) paring down the number of characters the show had to juggle (and losing at least one of the least interesting actors on the show, I have to honestly say). That's not to say that season 3 was a complete waste. There were great moments scattered throughout, many of which were thanks to the outstanding cast, who never fail to bring their A-game, no matter what's going on. (As much as I love Peter Dinklage as Tyrion, can anyone really deny that Charles Dance has to go down as this season's MVP as icy, commanding Tywin Lannister?) From Jamie Lannister's gut-wrenching monologue about his nickname to the collapse of the Night's Watch to Arya Stark's explosion of rage in the finale, Thrones was at its best when it could set the plotting aside and let its characters breathe. With the fabled Red Wedding (and a lot of necessary groundwork) out of the way, the series seems on the right path to start focusing on its characters and their interactions and relationships again, and I'm eager to see where we go from here - after a season that felt like a lot of heavy lifting, it feels like the show is ready to let the characters dictate the story again, and not rely on the necessities of an author's hand. http://www.clydeumney.net/movielog.htm#0611a Tuesday, 11 Jun 2013 22:17:12 CDT In a lot of ways, The Croods is just another disposable kids movie, one that you probably won't remember for all that long after you've seen it. Its message is pretty generic (it boils down to, "Don't be afraid of living life"), the characters pretty much the archetypes you've seen in lots of other films (the overprotective father, the rebellious daughter, the dopey son, the "crazy" grandmother), and so on. And yet, none of that changes the fact that I had a lot of fun watching The Croods, which may be generic, but does everything it's trying to do and does it all very well. The action is engaging, the humor effective, the emotional beats solidly constructed, and the visual style absolutely gorgeous. (Having giant of cinematography Roger Deakins as a visual consultant on the film doesn't hurt that.) More than that, The Croods dodges smirking "adult" humor and double entendres, and instead basically feels like a big-budget...well, cartoon. So, no, The Croods probably won't go down as a milestone or a new childhood classic. But it's a lot of fun, made my kids laugh almost continuously, and pretty much accomplishes everything it sets out to do. And it's a shame that that doesn't count for more sometimes.