Some Great Finds in 2004

Stuff I saw but will not bother writing a full review. Graded for your convenience with points out of 5.

The Chumbscrubber (film - viewed on DVD) - Excellent acting; a few problems with story; Jamie Bell drops his Newcastle accent and sounds perfectly Californian.	4/5
Thumbsucker (film - viewed on DVD) - Extremely loose handling of the book by William Kirn; however, the story doesn't suffer and might even be better; Lou Taylor Pucci is a great new talent (also in Chumbscrubber).	4/5
Hoodwinked - Pixar is the undisputed king of computer animation; whoever made this movie is a distant duke; the interweaving of fairy tales was fun and inventive.	2/5
Cars - Brilliant and truly stunning visuals; story was pure formula.	3/5
Over the Hedge - Some funny moments with the squirrel; visuals were good.	3/5
Open Season - Bad and stupid; onscreen poop is not a substitute of good writing.	1/5

Adam Guettel has found recent fame with the success of his Broadway hit The Light in the Piazza. He less well-known earlier offering to the Great White Way was Floyd Collins. Myths and Hyms is not a show but a song cycle. There is no real through line that connects the songs other than the fact that they reference or find inspiration in diety - whether Jesus Christ or Zues.

We hear Guettle himself sing several of the songs. He has a fine voice. Making an appearance for a quirky song about Sisyphus (who was punished in the Underworld by rolling a stone up a hill only to have it roll back down) is Mandy Patinkin. For Patinkinettes, it's obvious why he was chosen for this song, and he does it masterfully.

This recording is not for everyone. If you like Piazza, I think you will find a lot to like in Myths and Hymns, and if you listen carefully you will hear the seeds of Piazza begin to germinate.

I so look forward to Guettel's next offering. I think he is the Chosen One to receive the scepter from Stephen Sondheim.

In my 2005 list, I expounded on the wonderous humor of M.T. Anderson's first book in the "Thrilling Tales" series -- Wales on Stilts. In my review, I mentioned that the book was really great because it made me want to read the rest of the author's books. I'm here to tell you now that I've been working on that goal.

The series M.T. Anderson's Thrilling Tales chronicles the unchronicled adventures of Lily Gefelty, Katie Mulligan and Jasper Dash. Lily Gefelty is a normal girl with two very abnormal friends. Katie Mulligan stars in her own series of Goosebumps style books called Horrow Hollow. Jasper Dash, boy Technonaut, starred in a series of romping, rollicking adventures reminiscent of Jonathan Swift. Together, the three of them solve mysteries and prevent terrible calamities. In Wales, I thought that Anderson was creating Lily's series of which she did not realize she was a part. But Lederhosen is, indeed, very much Katie's story. Anderson's voice in this book comes across as an omniscient figure outside of the characters and the story rather than as the author of the story at hand. I was a little annoyed by this, as I perceived it to be an improper shift from the foundation he laid in the first book. But this shift allows him to have Katie ask herself some interesting questions at the book's closing, and it really gives some more texture to this universe.

In 1993 I helped develop and direct a musical called "Late Nite Special." The play very loosely and crudely explores the idea that literary characters have a life outside of their books, that once created in a story they enjoy a real existence separated from the author. Thus, in our story, Clark Kent had not kept up with recent issues of "Superman," and, consequently, did not know that Superman had died. Lederhosen goes in that direction a little more subtly and beautifully. I wonder what book 3 will bring us?

For the sheer crazed humor of this book, you must read it. For the love of Dr. Schmeltzer you must read it.

Feed takes us on a journey into a future no too far away. The landscape looks familiar: We've seen it in films like "Minority Report" and "Bladerunner," read it in Asimov's Caves of Steel and Burgess' A Clockwork Orange. The tale follows a teen named Titus who visits the Moon, now a decaying tourist trap, with his friends on spring break. While there he meets an intriguing girl, Violet, who is rebelling against the system. Part of this story is teen-transformation-romance. The popular rich boy falls for the poor weird girl. You know what happens in those movies. While Anderson sets us up for that situation, it all grinds to a halt when their feeds are hacked at a nightclub. In this future, everyone has a device implanted in their brain shortly after birth. The device, the feed, provides the owner with a constant stream of information - sometimes useful, sometimes gossipy, sometimes pure marketing. The feed links everyone in society together, in some cases obviating speech. While cool, it is scary.

It's a dystopian future, combining all of the fears, temptations and addictions that Gen-X simultaneously enjoys and fears. Our hero, Titus, is caught in a difficult triangle where the pressures and joys of love, morality, and belonging beat him up and wear him down.

As with all of Anderson's books, Feed is marketed as a teen novel. Teens will enjoy it, fer sure. I think any thoughtful adult who is worried about the direction of our culture will be entranced by it. This world is not so far away. Already the rich and privileged can buy their way onto a space flight or a nonchalant visit to the space station. Is it so unbelievable that the Moon will become a tourist destination? That it would fall out of fashion when trips to Mars become more affordable? Already our cell phones carry the ability for instant contact, time management, games, photographs, and Internet access. Who would not jump at the chance to have this technology embedded into their skull. No more "hands free" mode. It's always hands free! Why bother typing a query into Google when you can think it into the feed and have immediate results with video, sound, and amazing offers for related products and services?

Well, you can see where this is going. Ultimately, this is a quick, fun read that asks relevant questions and leaves us to ponder the answers. More teen literature needs to be like this.

What if vampirism was a natural part of our society? What if vampires contracted a disease making them so, or what if it were the result of a recessive genetic pairing? Thirsty explores that world, a place where vampire lynchings (well, stakings) are regular blips on the evening news, and where annual rituals are performed to keep the demonic vampire lord locked in his supernatural prison.

We're given those initial assumptions, prettily laid out by Anderson, in the first few paragraphs. Quickly, the story settles on Chris, who doesn't yet realize (but of course we know) that he is becoming a vampire. He was not bitten, so we don't really know how this comes to be; it's just part of the fabric of that world. The story is about Chris' dawning realization and about the deal he strikes with a supernatural being named Chet to make him human again.

This story has lots of great twists and turns, and it gives you a climax that you cannot put down. When you get there you have to see it through to the end. And, boyo, I really liked the ending.

Something that is really great about Thirsty and Feed is that Anderson doesn't feel the need to answer all of the questions, to resolve every issues, and give us a Hollywood-style ending. Chris comes across as a very real teen-ager with teen-agy problems. The choices he makes have a consequence, and Anderson doesn't shy away from them. Like Feed it all points to the reasonable and logical conclusion. And, folks, that may not be pretty at all. I think one reason that I like Anderson's work so far is that he devises the premise and then follows through without swerving to avoid untidy obstacles. Even with Wales on Stilts and The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen he takes the wacky setting and just goes with it. He's not afraid of where the "what if" question takes him. He asked "What if vampirism was real and part of the status quo?" and got Thirsty. He asked "What if a whale wanted to take over the world?" and got Wales on Stilts. He asked "What if people had a chip installed in their brains from birth?" and got Feed. Anderson takes these unusual and maybe silly questions and generates rich characterization, ambivalent heroes (that is to say real ones) and great stories.

In terms of story, the film is very faithful to the book. Araki took very few liberties, and those he took were necessary for creating a tight cinematic narrative. He eliminated extraneous points of view and told the story strictly from Brian's and Neil's.

I think the book handles Brian's epiphany more realistically, although I prefer the pacing of the film.

After reading the book, I recall the utter brilliance (or good luck) of Araki's casting. It probably could not have been any better.

What to say about the book? I don't know. The subject matter is really difficult to deal with. I read the book simply because I wanted to be able to compare it to film. That's the kind of thing I like to do. But, I cannot say that I liked revisiting the subject all that much.

Skin reeks of first-novel-itis. Heim is definitely going to be seen as a rising star in "gay literature," whatever that really is. But if you put him against a contemporary gay author, say Augusten Burroughs, Heim is Crayola crayon to Burroughs' water color. The writing is very self conscious. There are some very nicely turned poetics in his prose, but none are good enough to recall. What stays with me is the kernel of the story and not Heim's writing. Maybe that's because the film is superimposed or perhaps primary in my consideration of this work. I don't know.

I guess I just have to say that if you're interested in this story, the movie tells it better. As with any comparison of book to film, one will find that the book has deeper characterizations, a lot more background information, and more events. But I won't return to this book, and I was glad to move it off the nightstand.

In 1995, Lorraine and I got into bed and flicked on the VCR to watch a new series. We'd taped (remember video taping things?) the first two episodes and planned to watch them now that we had a little time. We were still in our first year of marriage and preparing to move into our new house in the suburbs. For the next 90 minutes we gave the TV our rapt attention, holding each other's hand, and getting generally creeped out beyond belief.

Unfortunately, the network did not have a lot of faith in the series. I remember it ran steadily through the fall and early winter, but after the new year the episodes popped up here and there. We were lucky to get most of them on tape. I've hoarded those tapes for many years growing more and more frustrated that it never came to DVD. Finally, my wait is over, and the complete series (only 1 season) is now on DVD.

While the special effects are dated, the atmosphere and tight storytelling are still as effective and creep-inducing as they were in 1995. Now we are watching the series again with our sons, and they enjoy it as well.

The show takes place in a little town in South Carolina called Trinity. The town is run, sometimes subtly and sometimes overtly, by the sheriff, Lucas Buck (played expertly by Gary Cole). The story is about Lucas' relationship to young Caleb Temple and the struggle over the souls of Trinity.

This is probably the best film I've seen so far in 2006. True, I haven't seen many, but I'm not shy about saying that this was definitely worth my time - as opposed to "Open Season," "Over the Hedge," and "Hoodwinked." Look at that! I'm not event going to link you to any information on them because they are Just That Bad.

"Over the Hedge" Just That Bad because the comic strip is soooooo much better. Why a movie? No one freakin' knows.

"Hoodwinked" Just That Bad because even though the idea was kind of cool, the execution was poor.

So, here we are with "Brick." First, let's talk about the filme star, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. You may know him as Tommy from the NBC series "Third Rock from the Sun." Gordon-Levitt (hereinafter referred to as JGL) was very good in this series, meaning that he was able to hold his own over a professional scene stealer like John Lithgow. Sometimes with TV it's hard to tell if the acting is any good because so much depends on the writing. But I was always pleased with the Tommy character. Later, JGL appeared in "Ten Things I Hate About You," a tolerably good rendition of the Bard's "Taming of the Shrew" but set in fictional Padua High School. If you were a teen TV star looking for a film to launch a film career, that was as good a bet as any in the late 1990s. So, pretty reasonable. Then someone in the Sundance universe looked upon him kindly and JGL took the bait. His career abruptly moved off of the Disney trajectory (he voiced the role of Jim Hawkins in "Treasure Planet) and into a new paradigm.

I've already written about his performance in Gregg Araki's film adaptation of "Mysterious Skin." With "Brick" JGL shows us that his marvelous performance was not a fluke. It was the indicator of brilliance. With this film, I honestly believe JGL is marking territory as the most talented actor of his generation.

"Brick" is pure noir. True, there are no fedoras or trench coats, and it's not shot in black and white. There's no interesting shadow experimentation, no asides. Even now I struggle to remember if there was narration. If there was, it was so skillfully wrought that it took nothing away from the suspension of disbelief. Even better, it took itself seriously while acknowledging some of the ridiculitude of the genre. There were even some nice asides to David Lynch and his own take own noir, best observed in "Blue Velvet" and "Mulholland Drive."

In "Brick," JGL plays Brendan Frye, a high school student who understands keenly the machinations of social strata. In the opening frames, Brendan observes the lifeless body of a girl lying in a storm drain culvert. We back up two days, move through the frames given to us as a tease, and on into the meat of the story which is Brendan's personal investigation into the girl's (his ex-girlfriend Em) murder. Aided only by a friend called "Brain" (played by Matt O'Leary who gave such a wonderfully subtle performance in "Frailty"), Brendan unties the Gordian knot of Em's death which is linked to the mysterious brick.

One performance of particular note is that of Lucas Haas as The Pin. It is in this character where "Brick" takes a Lynchian tangent, and Haas is up to the challenge of playing a club-footed drug dealer who works out of his mother's basement. The great thing about it is that the character himself is being purposefully Lynchian. The scene in The Pin's minivan is priceless.

I'm a fan of the original Broadway cast recording of this show. I saw the touring company in Washington, DC back in 1997. Honestly, I like the album better than the whole production of the show. I rented the film version because I wanted to see how well it translated.

About 45 minutes into the movie I started skipping to my favorite songs. Then, I finally turned it off. I was bored to tears.

If you love the music of this show, don't bother seeing the movie because the score has been BUTCHERED.

However, someone who is not as familiar with the score and book might enjoy it. Most of the original cast is in the film, and the singing is just as good. But the movie will never be the touchstone that the production was in the mid-1990s.

Here are my honored links for 2006. Please note that these sites may have been (and probably were) around since long before 2004. I include them here because this is when I first discovered or was introduced to them.

edgeworlds.com	Some of the best Harry Potter fan art I've seen. Beware, however, that there are a lot of strange non-canon derived illustrations. This artist seems to enjoy a very bizarre Hermione-Snape ship, and, I won't lie, it's kinda weird. But the execution is top notch.
Scary Mary	Check out this hilarious use of footage from Mary Poppins to make it look like a horror film. It's really funny...and creepy.
Shining	In the same vein, here is a recut of footage from The Shining to make it look like a romantic comedy. No...really.
Pottercast published by The Leaky Cauldron	This site brings you the best in comprehensive, legitimate news and interviews on everything in the Potter fandom and in the Potterverse in general. They rarely disappoint from week to week. The downfall: Too much derision of Steve Kloves, screenwriter for the first four HP films.
Mugglecast published by MuggleNet	While not as newsy and legit as Pottercast, I think Mugglecast is much funnier and has more meaningful debate on theories about where the 7th book will go. The hosts are younger by 10 years than Pottercast, and sometimes their youth is very evident. Still, I really enjoy it.
Desiring God Radio	John Piper is one of the best exegetes I've ever heard.