Movie Review: WALKABOUT

It takes alot for me to give up on a movie--especially a Criterion Collection movie--but I gave up on this one after about an hour and ten minutes. It had a promising start (a dad takes his kids into the outback for a picnic, then sets the car on fire and blows his brains out) but I got so annoyed with the heavy-handed editing and overwrought score that I finally just turned off the tv. I don't know if Nic Roeg took alot of acid or if it was just the influence of the early 70's, but the repetitive cuts and thematic cross-cutting felt oddly psychedelic, and not in a good way. I found myself wishing for long, unbroken shots with no zooming and no music over them, and then I found myself wishing for a different movie altogether.

P.S. Before anyone accuses me of not getting it, let me say that I definitely got it, I just couldn't stand watching it.

UPDATE: Conchords, Season 2

I just finished Season 2, and the pattern established in the first few episodes continued: The sitcom element was great, Murray was sublime, and I fast-forwarded through every single song.

Show Review: FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS

Hopefully by now most of you have encountered this ridiculous and wonderful HBO series, which follows the misadventures of Bret and Jemaine, two hapless New Zealanders who together comprise the folk parody group Flight of the Conchords. You might think that watching two guys with almost no personality would be boring, but instead it is fantastic. Bret and Jemaine come across like extra-terrestrials who have been dropped in New York and given just enough information to survive (barely), and have been allotted one friend, one fan, and a manager. They are so flat in their delivery as to be nearly affect-less, and yet the performances are incredibly rich and funny. And of course, the songs are simply great. I would live to give a detailed review of the music, but I think the songs should be experienced within the context of the show. (I will say that the song in Episode 1 is called "The Most Beautiful Girl (In the Room)." Sample lyric: "You could be a model/A part-time model/But you'd have to keep your regular job." Love it.)

As much as I enjoy watching Bret and Jemaine, the man that steals the show is Rhys Darby, playing the Conchords erstwhile manager Murray Hewitt. If I were a woman, or gay, I would marry Murray. He is a moron, yes, and a pathetic manager, true, but he is so confident and self-assured--even when he is dead wrong, which is most of the time--that I root for him all the more. Murray comes up with the worst ideas for the band, and when they fall through he manages to put the blame on the guys without seeming like a jerk. I heart Murray Hewitt.

As for Season 2, I am currently four episodes in and it is turning out to be a bit of a disappointment. The sitcom element is just as good as Season 1, but the songs are pretty lame. In the first season the songs are the highlight of each episode, but here they feel shoehorned and requisite. (I am told that all the songs in the first season existed long before the series came into being, whereas the songs in the second season were written to fit into the episodes. Well, it shows, and it's kind of a bummer.) However! Murray is in rare form so far (he booked the guys a gig playing a small venue: an elevator), so I will keep watching.

Book Review: WOMEN

Charles Bukowski has long been one of my favorite writers, and this is easily his best book. Although he was primarily known as a poet (having published twenty-odd volumes in his lifetime, and several posthumously,) he occasionally wrote semi-autobiographical novels (HAM ON RYE, POST OFFICE, and FACTOTUM, to name a few) In his novels, Bukowski's alter-ego is Hank Chinaski, a brash, brawling, womanizing drunk, and WOMEN details Hank's various dealings with--you guessed it--women. More specifically, women who are frequently drunk, jealous, crazy, or a charming combination of all three.

Now, while this may not seem like any great shakes as far as reading material goes, it is just the opposite: WOMEN is not only one of the funniest books I have ever read, it is written with both grace and bravado, like an overweight ballet dancer performing drunken pirouettes. Bukowski's writing is a beer gut with the six-pack showing through: heavy and swinging, but also lean and efficient. He writes about drunks and lunatics with true affection, and draws you willingly into a world of drinking, gambling, and screwing that most of us wouldn't dream of touching with a ten-foot pole. However, there is a core of vulnerability to Chinaksi, and an awareness of his own shortcomings that makes him understandable, if not always likeable. Coupled with this is an incredibly sharp and self-mocking sense of humor which prevents the novel from becoming prurient (or at least keeps it from being merely vulgar). WOMEN is not for the prudish or easily offended, but if you're willing to take a chance, it's well worth it.

Book Review: THE ROAD

Wow.
Wow.
Wow.
If David Sedaris ushered me back into the world of pleasure reading, Cormac McCarthy reminded me why I started reading books in the first place. THE ROAD is, hands down, the best book I have ever read. Ever. McCarthy's command of language is unparalleled, his imagery frightening and indelible. There are passages of this book that will remain with me to the day I die, visions burned in my brain as surely as if they had been seared with hot iron. This book is the essence of good writing, which is to tell a simple story--but tell it well. The writing is not just exceptional, it is miraculous. Epochal. I can't remember the last time I stopped to reread sentences just to marvel at their savage eloquence, but I did that again and again as I worked my way through this slim (but vast) novel. The ravaged world he has created has the terrifying feel of prophecy, yet imbued with a veracity so real and so awful that you wonder if McCarthy might not be a time-traveler, come back to offer a bleak warning. I am at a loss for words. Wow.

Movie Review: MOON

I caught this last night at The Crest (huzzah for $3 movies) and I was thoroughly impressed. Sam Rockwell gives an incredibly real performance as Sam Bell, a man who works on the moon, alone, apart from his robotic helper, Gerty. Sam is two weeks from the end of his three-year contract when things start getting weird for him. I won't give too much away, but I will say that the man who arrives to replace him and take over the mining operation is, oddly, Sam Bell.

The movie pays tribute to a number of great science fiction films, most notably 2001, ALIEN, and BLADE RUNNER, and it shares a place of honor with each of them. So many sci-fi films nowadays gleefully forgo logic and character for special effects and flashy camerawork (I'm looking at you, STAR TREK), but like the classic films I mentioned above, the beating heart of MOON comes from the beating heart of its characters, even the melancholy Gerty. Sam Bell isn't an abstraction, an idea, but a human being who is endlessly relatable and recognizably fragile. It is his journey, his discoveries, and his pain that keep your eyes on the screen, and keeps the movie in your memory. Well done.

Book Review: WHEN YOU ARE ENGULFED IN FLAMES

Do I really need to say anything about the genius of David Sedaris? This collection has some of his best work to date, alternatingly painful, tender, and eye-wateringly funny. This book will always have a special place in my heart, as it is the first book I have read since I completed my English degree in 2007. (I have been an avid reader my entire life, but I was unable to read for pleasure after doing nothing but dissecting novels for two straight years.)

Thank you, David.