Judgements

I’m the kind of person who likes to do a little research, especially when reviewing books. Not for me the put-down (X fails to consider the reverse-Reimann manoeuvre and yet expects us to take his analysis of post-causal hermeneutics seriously) that is so easily countered (Y obviously didn’t get as far as page 3, where [...]

There is a temptation, and we all know what Oscar Wilde said, in his native English, about temptations, or perhaps it is merely an urge, or a desire, something I want to do in any case, when faced by an extremely peculiar writing style, something way out on the boundaries of normalcy, something that takes [...]

The Countess arrived more or less unheralded in our house, and on a quiet evening after a hard day, her appeal was great. I mean, “She sacrificed all for love… and sacrificed others for beauty. A 17th century Hungarian countess embarks on a murderous undertaking, with the belief that bathing in the blood of virgins [...]

The Brothers Bloom concerns two of the greatest con artists in the world and their various cons, and it is engaging and funny and, in the end, quite suspenseful. It also plays with time in ways that intrigue. Set in the now, it nevertheless features a telegram being read, stop, and replied to, stop. I [...]

I wasn’t sure whether to blog Quantum of Solace, which I saw on Wednesday night, but late-breaking news of a James Blog-a-Thon tipped the scales, needy-blogger that I am. QoS is a mess of a movie, with an even more meaningless than usual title, but WTF. I’m no Bondie (or whatever they call themselves) but [...]

Do actors make good directors? I’m blowed if I know. Some can certainly do it. So when I was looking up Tom McCarthy, the director of The Visitor, I was pleasantly surprised to see he had lots of acting credits, including several for The Wire. He was also in Syriana. And he wrote and directed [...]

Stop Loss is a film about the war in Iraq and what it does to the young men who serve. War is hell. So is this film. How it gets the ratings it does is beyond me. IMDB says “Mark Richard estimated that there were no less than 65 drafts of the script.” Sixty five, [...]

Finally got to see No Country for Old Men over the weekend, and boy was it worth it. I don’t know that I can remember a film as full of suspense. I heard an interview with the sound designer, I think it was, who explained how the Coens had insisted on almost no music and [...]

A book of essays is not ideal for a period of enforced idleness. There’s just too much time to zip through them, enjoying the moment but failing to savour the full pleasure of a really well constructed piece. Of course, I promise myself I’ll return, and maybe I will. But a honking big novel is [...]