The Film Report

I'm way behind on my film reportage so here's a quick recap of what I've seen lately.

The Hunger Games

They made a good film. Not great, and definitely not better than the book but they also didn't screw anything up. Maybe they played it a little too safe. Weakest link: Probably the director, Gary Ross, who inflicted us with way too much shaky-cam and incoherent action sequences. Strongest link: Jennifer Lawrence made a great Katniss.

21 Jump Street

I liked it. I laughed. Maybe it seemed a little bit over-praised by critics, but a fun high-school flick, not in the same league with something like Mean Girls. I only bring this up because some critics seemed to be calling this an instant comedy classic, etc.

Five Graves to Cairo

Where has this Billy Wilder film from 1943 (his second directorial effort) been all my life? A crisp, humorous war-time thriller in which a British soldier stumbles upon Rommel's headquarters at a North African hotel. Beautifully made, this would probably be remembered a little more fondly if the leads had been Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman (as it was shaping up to be at one point) instead of Franchot Tone and Anne Baxter.

The Lincoln Lawyer

This movie felt like a television pilot, which is not exactly a criticism. One of the nice things about this film was how low-key it was. It felt very old-fashioned that way, like some sort of throwaway James Garner flick from the early 1970s. Matthew McConnaughey was excellent as a sleaze-bag lawyer who takes on a case a little sleazier than he's used to. Not a memorable film, exactly, but a well-made enjoyable couple of hours.

Crazy Clown Time

Not a film, but this seven-minute video directed by David Lynch is the only Lynch we've gotten in a while. It's a pretty intense video and I found myself having to take a break halfway through because of just how painful it is to watch and listen to. It's Lynch, though, and I keep thinking about it. My initial read: a commentary on the banality and the evilness of web culture, the way we constantly comment on what exactly is happening. Watch it here if you can.

Archery in the Movies

I haven't seen it yet but I will be checking out The Hunger Games some time in the next couple of weeks. I enjoyed the trilogy of books and hope to feel likewise about the films themselves--I've done a little web browsing to garner opinions and am not surprised that the backlash has begun, with all sorts of critics (Andrew O'Hehir of Salon comes to mind) taking potshots at the phenomenon more than the film. Oh, and by the way, a lot of critics have pointed out that the film does the same thing that the imaginary government does in the film's narrative, i.e. doles out entertainment via teenagers killing one another. News alert: in the film's narrative real kids are dying while in the film it's faked. There is a difference. A big one.

I'm off-topic here. What I really wanted to say in this post is that I'm looking forward to some archery-related violence in this film. I've long been a fan of the bow-and-arrow action hero. It makes for great visuals and satisfying sound effects. A few of my favorites here:

Melina Havelock (Carol Bouquet) in Roger Moore's best Bond outing, For Your Eyes Only. She plays a revenge-seeking Greek who dispatches her victims with a crossbow.

One of the nice things about Legolas (Orlando Bloom) in The Lord of the Rings trilogy is how versatile he is with his weapon. Firing two arrows, long distance shots, shooting through doors, dispatching oliphants etcetera.

The greatest archery film ever made, The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), with Errol Flynn. Flynn deserves credit, of course, for making the green tights look good, but the archery credit really goes to Howard Hill, the genius who actually fired arrows at costumed extras, making sure to hit the wooden block underneath their outfits. Inspiring stuff, prompting me to at one point compose a poetic ode to Mr. Hill. I'll leave that for another post.

Ten Favorite Books of the Year

My favorites of the books I read this year, not necessarily books that came out this year (or anywhere near this year) ...

10. Bonecrack (1971)

All of Francis' books are pretty much the same, just either good or bad. This was very good.

9. The Hunger Games (2008)

I could've put the trilogy here, since I read them all, but the first book, much as I liked the follow-ups, was the real barn-burner of the bunch. Let's hope the movie is half as good.

8. One Across, Two Down (1971)

Sometimes we don't need fuzzy characters or moral uplift. Sometimes it's uplifting to read about a degenerate plotting to kill his mother-in-law and his wife. Sometimes.

7. Full Dark, No Stars (2010)

Not King's best collection of novellas, but certainly his grisliest. It's nice to know that the old fella can still make your skin crawl.

6. Mad World (2010)

A rare non-fiction appearance. This is the fascinating true story of Evelyn Waugh and the family that inspired Brideshead Revisited.

5. A Good Man in Africa (1981)

Boyd's very funny first novel, with a protagonist worthy of Kingsley Amis at his best.

4. An Unsuitable Job For a Woman (1972)

I prefer Cordelia Gray to Dalgliesh somehow. My favorite of James' mysteries.

3. The Last One Left (1966)

MacDonald at his height, telling a multi-character tale of corruption and redemption.

11/22/63 (2011)

Simply a great page-turner, with some nice asides thrown in about history, America, and the passage of time.

1. Any Human Heart (2002)

It's hard to imagine a year in which this wouldn't be my favorite book. Maybe the year I read Lucky Jim, of course, or the year I read Brideshead Revisited. An epic and human tale.

Mockingjay

The final book in The Hunger Games trilogy. I thought Collins stuck the landing, even though this was probably the least entertaining of the three books. I kept waiting for the books to somehow hedge their bets, become sentimental, become less brutal, but what I thought worked best about this was just how nightmarish and violent the final moments were; this was probably the most disturbing of the three. I also like how the characters that lived were essentially broken human beings; there was hope at the end but it was tempered by all that they had gone through, and the possibility that things were not going to get better. I know some people (I'm looking at you, Kelly) thought Katniss should have emerged more triumphant somehow, but I thought the way this book ended was perfect.

Bring on the terrible movie versions. (They might not be terrible but the chances are ...)

The Book Report

I'm a little behind on my book posts these days so I thought I'd do a quick recap of what I've been reading.

I'm slowly but surely working my way through all of Agatha Christie's books. She wrote this in 1926 and it's pretty great, more of a madcap adventure than whodunit, and to tell the truth, I lost the plotline a couple of times. There's a lot going on: murder, natch, a stolen jewel, the usurpation of power in the fictional country of Herzoslovakia, secret identities, and a country house filled with hidden passageways, and diabolic servants. Not my favorite of her's (I prefer the straightforward murder mysteries) but a very fun read, and her jazz age protagonists--Anthony Cade and Virginia Revel--are particularly charming.

Lent to me (well, to Charlene) by my neighbor Kate, this is a graphic novel by Maira Kalman, a sort of pseudo diary in which illustrator Kalman charts small moments and sad thoughts of her life during the course of the year.

A dystopian thriller about a future country, Panem (it is here in North America), that forces teenagers to fight to the death in a yearly game. It's for young adults but doesn't hold back on the grisly violence and consequences of such a world. And Collins does a great job of creating a world where games such as these make perfect sense. A pretty chilling page turner, and the first of a trilogy. These books have gotten huge and they are currently casting for the first film.