11.29.08
I Hate Sis Ain’t Pretty…
But it sure does play well on screen in Jonathan Demme’s new film Rachel Getting Married. This movie has plenty of fire. There is no love lost between sisters Rachel (getting married) and the younger Kym (released from drug rehab for the wedding). Kym has always been the tortured, troubled, selfish sister, while Rachel is the good daughter who made all the right choices and personal sacrifices. On the surface, the film is about the wedding and the typical sibling rivalries, but as the story unfolds we see the inner workings of a family that has suffered an unimaginable tragedy and is doing its best to recover and survive. The war between the sisters is fierce and gut-wrenching once you realize what is boiling just beneath the surface. Anne Hathaway is terrific as Kym, as is Rosemarie DeWitt as Rachel. Deborah Winger, in her limited screen time, makes the most of it and has at least one outstanding moment. Bill Irwin as peace-maker dad puts in a remarkably strong performance and is the quiet star of the film. Demme (the same guy who brought us Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, The Manchurian Candidate) does an admirable job with this much smaller, tragic story, somehow leaving us with a sense of hope. It’s an excellent film, even if at times over-indulgent and slow (the wedding itself, like most real weddings, drags on way too long): Recommended.
The Old Maid (1939) starring Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins, is a truly great film based on an Edith Wharton novel (and a Pulitzer Prize winning Zoe Akins play). I mention it here because it’s basically about sisters doing rotten stuff to each other. (How can you go wrong? It’s still a hot theme almost 60 years later!) One of the things that makes this film ever-so-special is the knowledge that Davis and Hopkins hated one another in real life. It sure does come through on screen! Charlotte (played by Davis) has a child out of wedlock with Delia’s (played by Hopkins) ex-bo, poor Clem who dies in the Civil War before the child is born. When Delia finds out about this scandalous secret, she spills the beans out of jealousy and spite and destroys Charlotte’s impending wedding to Joe. You might need to stretch your imagination a bit to believe that the sisters actually get past all this and end up living together in the same house, with Charlotte allowing Delia to adopt her child. But those were simpler times. Today we’d see psychotherapy, acts of violence, and an appearance on the Jerry Springer Show. (Sigh.) Davis acts circles around Hopkins and there are some moments that are so breathtaking they’ll bring tears to your eyes. (In all fairness, Davis has the better role.) Director Edmund Goulding gives Davis plenty of space to act. It’s unfortunate that Davis never liked this film, especially since she won an Oscar for her performance, but most critics believe it’s because of her loathing for Hopkins. Check out the trailer; it’s way-cool. Highly recommended.
11.20.08
Reading Oscar
I tend to get my hopes up before I begin reading a book that has won an award or landed great reviews. So when I picked up The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz, which comes with a laundry list of accolades, including the National Book Critics Circle Award, Times Book of the Year, New York Times Notable Book, and oh, by the way, a Pulitzer, my expectations were pretty high. I think it’s inevitable that a book can’t live up to that kind of praise, it’s almost too much to ask, and Oscar is no different. It’s a good book. In fact, it has its moments of greatness. Oscar is a terrific character and you must and will fall in love with him immediately. But Diaz doesn’t stick with Oscar as long as you want him to, and when he leaves for other territory the novel becomes less engaging and feels a bit cobbled together.
Don’t get me wrong. There are other fine characters and several story lines that will keep you interested and reading throughout. The prose is full of life and energy and surprises. But the story drags to varying degrees throughout the middle, even as Oscar tries to hold it together. Poor, gigantic Oscar, who cannot find love, although his heart aches endlessly for it. Poor, fat Oscar, a Dominican living among people who value sex and being sexy above life itself and he has never even been kissed let alone laid. Some people find living life far more difficult than leaving it behind, and that, in essence, is Oscar. As the book closes in on its climax, and as Oscar’s life of shame and pain closes in on him, here is where we find our sad hero:
“On the outside, Oscar simply looked tired, no taller, no fatter, only the skin under his eyes, pouched from years of quiet desperation, had changed. Inside, he was in a world of hurt. He saw black flashes before his eyes. He saw himself falling through the air. He knew what he was turning into. He was turning into the worst kind of human on the planet: and old bitter dork.”
Oscar is the heart of the novel and it is a tribute to Diaz, certainly, that Oscar’s long absences are felt so acutely by the reader. All of the high praise that dozens of critics have handed out are true. A vibrant narrative. A voice that is (as the NY Times describes it) “profane, lyrical, learned and tireless, a riot of accents and idioms coexisting within a single personality.” It’s Santo Domingo and Upper Manhattan and melodrama and a cultural explosion all at once, and the science fiction and fantasy references liberally tossed about are a delight. But it’s also a bit too scatter-shot and frustrating at just the wrong moments and for too long. Some of the characters are not all that fascinating. Even so, for its sheer power and inventiveness and wondrous, wondrous Oscar: Recommended.
11.16.08
A Sign of the Times
Speed matters! Someone had to be first out with a biography of Michelle Obama. What seems odd to me about this article is that the author and the publisher both seem so darn pleased with themselves for having cranked out the book and rushed it to print (Nov. 26 release date) without having been given access to the subject or conducting any interviews with her. I suppose this would have only slowed them down. But jeez.
11.15.08
Ted Kooser
The guy is an incredible poet. I love a poem that tells a story as well as treats the reader to the beauty of language. Kooser is a master of both. He was the poet laureate of the U.S. from 2004 – 2006, and his book Delights & Shadows, which won the Pulitzer, is a fine mix of story-telling, imagery, and ordinary life.
Kooser was reading at the Metro Center in downtown Rochester on Thursday, so I went to check him out. He’s a small old guy with big ears (who describes himself as a hobbit), but he has a strong reading voice and a way of capturing a room. He read to a packed house of appreciative lit lovers, and his down-home Nebraska manner made everyone feel comfortable in his presence. He read for about 40 minutes and left us wanting more.
In the Q&A after the reading, he talked about some interesting personal experiences. He had a run in with mouth cancer, stage four, mighty serious stuff, from which he has fully recovered, and he spoke of how that changed his life as an artist and made him a better poet, how it helped him write about the things that were important to him and brought a certain humility to his work. He became more himself after the cancer, he said, and he could feel the honesty in his own work beginning to emerge. He also said that he loved to write about ordinary people doing ordinary things and find the extraordinary in it, and I think his poetry bears this out.
It was interesting to hear that Kooser was an insurance guy for 30 plus years, going to work and writing his poetry whenever he could get a little time. Let’s face it, most of us writers are like that. It’s nice to see that someone can work an everyday job and still reach the top. He had a pretty good sense of humor about his poetry and being a poet, too, which I found refreshing. He even quoted Heinlein: “A poet who reads his verse in public may have other nasty habits.” Beware.
Here’s a press release from the event, which has some good bio information on Kooser and a picture that was taken Thursday night. If you’re ever in the mood for some great poetry, beautifully written, accessible and moving, try the hobbit. Highly recommended.
11.09.08
More Fine Art and Obits
The George Eastman House is one of only five centers in the country that takes on film preservation projects. Having this organization in Rochester, and the George Eastman’s Dryden Theatre, where preserved films are often shown on the big screen, is a joy I take full advantage of whenever I can. This past week, the Dryden screened a print of the 1964 film The Pawnbroker, perhaps Rod Steiger’s finest role. Steiger plays Sol Nazerman, a Holocaust survivor running a pawnshop in New York’s Spanish Harlem. His performance is staggeringly powerful and he was nominated for an Oscar award for it. Sydney Lumet’s direction is extraordinary. In addition to the story’s examination of what loss and grief can do to us, this movie is ground-breaking in its use of flashback and the way Sol’s concentration camp experiences are juxtaposed with his life in the ghetto. I love black and white films, especially on the big screen, for their clarity and richness. The George Eastman House did a fine job on this print. Even if you can’t see it at the theater, watch this one at home. Highly recommended.
The writing community has suffered some difficult losses these past few weeks, with four very high-profile, incredibly talented authors passing:
Tony Hillerman died at the age of 83. He made Native American detective/crime literature a household genre all by himself. Brilliant writer and nice, humble guy. Read obit.
Studs Terkel died after a remarkable 96-year run. Not only was he a true American personality, but his books and interviews were fascinating. I absolutely loved this guy’s work. Pick up any of his books and be delighted. Read obit.
Michael Crichton died way too young. Goddamn cancer. Author of The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park, creator of the television series ER, among many other contributions to film and literature, the man was incredibly smart and probably never got the props he deserved for his writing and vivid imagination. Read obit.
John Leonard died at just 69 years young. He enjoyed a fascinating career as a writer, primarily of short stories, and he was also a well-known critic for the New York Times Book Review. He did a lot to shape literary thinking in his years of insightful criticism. (Wrote one of my favorite novel titles ever: The Naked Martini.) Read obit.
Enough already.
11.02.08
Birthday Gift to Self
Although I have no shortage of friends who always want to go to the movies, every so often I’ll go by myself because there are some films I know my pals just aren’t going to want to see. So I took me to the movies to celebrate my b-day and saw Max Payne, the new Mark Wahlberg flick, directed by John Moore. Okay, I knew there was going to be plenty to complain about when I went. It’s a cop story as cliched as they come. Wahlberg plays the tortured loner whose wife and kid were killed in a robbery attempt, and he has been searching for their killer ever since. Suddenly there is a new clue, his partner gets killed, and (huge surprise) a giant pharmaceutical company is behind all the shenanigans. The story and character are based on the Max Payne video game, but there isn’t a heck of a lot here to interest gamers or non-gamers. Still, the joy of going to a film by yourself is that you can sit close to the screen and let the picture and sound blow you away, which is exactly what I did. As long as your expectations are low, this can make up for a lot of flaws. The film offers plenty of action and some fairly cool special effects, including one hell of a drug trip. But honestly, the story was pretty dumb. The fake snow drove me nuts after awhile (someone really should have fixed that). Recommended for loners only.
On the flip side, I just finished reading a terrific book, Matt Ruff’s Bad Monkeys. I read Ruff’s Sewer, Gas and Electric many years ago and really enjoyed it, so I was excited to see this one at the local bookstore. It’s a truly odd story about a woman, Jane Charlotte, who is in the slammer for murder and yet claims to be a member of an organization called the Bad Monkeys, a hidden society, that exists for the sole purpose of fighting evil. As Jane tells her story, the reader learns more and more about the society and its many arms and legs and how widespread the organization and its clandestine operations are. Or maybe she’s lying. It’s a truly convoluted tale of intrigue and suspense and who the heck should I believe now? If you are at all paranoid, this book will put you over the edge. Ruff leans almost entirely on the dialogue/interview between Jane and the investigator to reveal the story. It reads very fast and is hard to put down. Great fun, especially if you are looking for something that is not the same old thing. Highly recommended.
