BOOK REVIEW: Artemis by Andy Weir

If you were expecting Artemis to be some follow-on of  the story in Andy Weir's breakthrough debut novel, The Martian except that it is set on the Moon I can disabuse you of that notion right away. The Martian was a pretty good book which was made into a fantastic movie, with an amazing cast (Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Michael Pena, Jeff Daniels and Chiwetel Ejiofor) and talented director (Ridley Scott).

Artemis is a very different book, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. And I could see that it is very possible that it could be made into a fantastic movie (or television series). The main character of Artemis is Jasmine "Jazz" Bashara, an emigre from Saudi Arabia who lives in Artemis, the first "city" on the moon (consisting of five pressurized domes with several subterranean levels where roughly 2,000 people work and live). Jazz moved to Artemis with her father at age 6 and is now something of a petty criminal and ne'er-do well who ostensibly is a porter transporting items around Artemis but is actually one of the premier smugglers of contraband items in the city.

Jazz has a friend back on Earth whom she has never met named Kelvin who acts as her supplier. Kelvin happens to work at KSC (Kenyan Space Center) which is the entity that is responsible for the fact there is a budding civilization on the moon. One of the highlights of the book for me was the unspooling of the details of the relationship between Kelvin and Jazz (as told via email correspondence). Another highlight was the diversity of the cast of characters that we come into contact with as the story unfolds. They are all shapes and sizes and colors.

Jazz has a number of curious relationships with other people on Artemis, such as her Dad, who she stopped living with around age 16 (and who obviously disapproves of her near-criminal lifestyle), her ex-boyfriend Dale and Artemis' sole police officer, Rudy. Since the city is essentially a very small town, Jazz is even familiar with the "town mayor," Administrator Fidelis Ngugi, a Black woman who happens to be the most important person on the moon.

The plot of Artemis revolves around a technological advancement which could upend Artemis' economic equilibrium and provides Jazz with an opportunity to make a LOT of money. But, as usual, if something looks too good to be true, it often is and Jazz finds this out when her erstwhile business partner shows up dead. At this point the story jumps into overdrive and gets very exciting as Jazz is on the run for her life while she tries to figure out the mystery of who will kill to make a killing on the future development of the Moon.

Overall, this book is another example of Weir's breezy, very readable writing style set in a near-future setting based around future space exploration which is chock full of science and engineering details that will appeal to most hard science fiction aficionados.

Title: Artemis.
Author: Andy Weir.
Paperback: 322 pages.
Publisher: Crown/Archetype.
Date Published: November 14, 2017.
Date Read: December 31, 2017.

GOODREADS RATING: ★★★½☆  (3.5/5.0).

OVERALL GRADE: B+/A- (3.41/4.0).

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: B+.
IMPACT: B.
WRITING: A-.

BOOK REVIEW: Dark Matter by Blake Crouch

The synopsis of Dark Matter is:

From the author of the bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy, Dark Matter is a brilliantly plotted tale that is at once sweeping and intimate, mind-bendingly strange and profoundly human—a relentlessly surprising science-fiction thriller about choices, paths not taken, and how far we’ll go to claim the lives we dream of.

I found this description quite accurate because the book really is about "the paths not taken" and it really is a thought-provoking, action-packed sci-fi thriller.

The premise of Dark Matter is preposterous: somehow a guy named Jason Dessen has created a device which allows access to the multiverse, i.e. the collection of all possible realities which are spawned by the various choices made and alternate events that occur every second.

The Jason Dessen we (the reader) meet is a physics professor at a small-time college in Chicago who lives with his loving wife Daniela and their 14-year-old son Charlie. At one point Jason had researched the possibility of building a device that could access the multiverse but when budding artist Dani announced she was pregnant they got married, Charlie was born and Jason abandoned his project to access the multiverse.

It's that point in time 15 years ago which two competing universes are generated by the two choices that Jason made that is the key moment which animates Dark Matter. 

Jason2 (the one who invented the multiverse device) regrets his decision so he goes back and kidnaps Jason1 (Charlie's dad) and swaps places with him.

It takes an annoyingly long time for Jason1 to realize that he's in an alternate universe. (It's never a good sign when the reader/audience understands more about the character's predicament than the character does.)

However the book is quite engaging despite the bizarre nature of the situation. It poses key questions: what makes a person unique? How should one deal with regret and decisions made that changed the trajectory of one's life? And (this is very central) if you lost access to the life you knew how far would you go to get that life back?

It's clear that Dark Matter will be a modern motion picture soon (I could see Chris Pratt or Matt Damon as Jason, or hey why not switch it up and try Michael Pena, Riz Ahmed or Steven Yeun for colorblind casting?!) but I honestly don't have high hopes for a film adaptation. The book is compelling but also not without its flaws and it would be a rare movie indeed that exceeds its source material.

Title: Dark Matter.
Author: Blake Crouch.
Paperback: 354 pages.
Publisher: Crown.
Date Published: July 26, 2016.
Date Read: January 17, 2017.

GOODREADS RATING: ★★★★ (3.5/5.0).

OVERALL GRADE: A- (3.67/4.0).

PLOT: A-.
IMAGERY: A-.
IMPACT: B+.
WRITING: A.

CELEBRITY FRIDAY: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson Is People's Sexiest Man Alive

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has been named the 2016 People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive. Johnson, 44, is 6-foot-5 and 245 pounds and is the largest person to receive this recognition. According to The New York Times, he is currently Hollywood's highest paid male actor. Interestingly, other people who have been named the Sexiest Man Alive are Bradley Cooper, Tom Cruise, Matt Damon and Denzel Washington.

MOVIE REVIEW: Jason Bourne

The Bourne movies (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bourne Legacy, Jason Bourne) are a guilty pleasure of mine. The Other Half and I went to see the latest one (which is the fifth in the franchise but only the fourth one to feature Matt Damon as the titular character). We mostly did so because The Bourne Ultimatum is really quite a good movie (Th Bourne Legacy, starring Jeremy Renner is not.) Also, director Paul Greengrass (United 93, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Bourne Supremacy) is back on board, so we said "why not?"

The cast is surprisingly good, with Oscar-winners Tommy Lee Jones (Men in Black,  No Country for Old Men) and Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina, The Danish Girl) in addition to Vincent Cassell (Ocean's Eleven, Ocean's Twelve, Black Swan), Julia Stiles (The Bourne Ultimatum) and Riz Ahmed (HBO's The Night Of).

Sadly, the movie is not as good as its cast (59%/62% on rottentomatoes). I did not even recognize Vikander was the same actress who played the android in Ex Machina! (Maybe that's why she won an Oscar this year.) She was one of the best parts of the movie, and happily she has a huge role. Jones is playing the (cartoonishly corrupt) CIA Director and we find out more and more about the back story of Damon's Jason Bourne character. These are all fun and familiar aspects of a Bourne film.

However, it really was not a particular enjoyable cinematic experience. Greengrass is a kinetic, exciting director and it was this energetic style which brought him acclaim in his helming of the earlier films in the Bourne franchise. But, here it just seems frenetic and motion sickness-inducing. One aspect of Greengrass's direction which I did appreciate was that the final cut of scenes that were depicted in the trailer (like Damon knocking down a guy with one solid punch with his left hand and the scene where the CIA realizes that Bourne is back: "My god that's Jason Bourne!") are slightly (but noticeably) different. In other words, the best parts of the film which are sometimes given away in the trailer as an inducement to get the audience to fork over their cash to see the entire film, this time were still fresh. I'm sure Greengrass made this conscious decision and I appreciated it.

That being said, despite one of the most harrowing car chases ever put on film (take THAT, The French Connection) it is doubtful that Jason Bourne will be remembered as a success despite doing (relatively) well at the box-office. I will certainly think twice about going to see the next Bourne in the theaters, but I would happily watch it on cable.

Title: Jason Bourne.
Director: Paul Greengrass.
Running Time: 123 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and brief strong language.
Release Date: July 29, 2016.
Viewing Date: August 7, 2016.

Writing: B+.
Acting: A-.
Visuals: A-.
Impact: B-.

OVERALL GRADE: B/B+ (3.16/4.0)

FILM REVIEW: The Martian

The book The Martian by Andy Weir is a publishing phenomenon, widely regarded as one of the best (and probably the best-selling) science fiction books of 2014. When I discovered that the movie adaptation was being directed by Ridley Scott (Alien, Prometheus, Gladiator) and starring Matt Damon as Mark Watney this film jumped to the top of my want-to-see list for 2015.

The Other Half and I saw it with another gay couple at our go-to place for watching movies in the theater, Arclight Pasadena. Since we saw it opening weekend the film has gone on to become a box-office smash (and is currently the #6  top-grossing film released in 2015, with well over $200 million in receipts in North America) as well as a critical smash, with 93% positive ratings at rottentomatoes.com from both critics and audiences. Director Ridley Scott is starting to appear on Best Director Oscar consideration lists.

I read the book at the end of 2014 and enjoyed it, but was not overwhelmingly enthusiastic about it. I actually think the movie is a better (more entertaining) version of the story. The cast is incredible. Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean and Chiwetel Ejiofor play bigwigs at NASA with Jessica Chastain, Kate Mara and Michael Peña as fellow astronauts on a Mars mission with Matt Damon. Donald Glover has a key role as a quirky NASA astrophysicist.

The movie is centered around science and the importance (and dangers) that are involved with space exploration and scientific progress. I complained to my fellow moviegoers that despite the centrality of science (especially, botany, biology, physics, astronomy and mathematics) to the plot there is not a single equation displayed in the film. They pointed out that for the vast majority of people who go to see the film, including a mathematical equation would be communicating something similar to including Chinese characters in the film. In other words, the symbols would have almost no inherent meaning to the audience, and would be communicating information that the audience is not intended to understand. I see their point, but I still think the filmmakers could have done a better job of indicating the mathematical calculations that must have occurred while all the science and engineering was being done to attempt to rescue Mark Watney on Mars.

That being said, the movie is not a geek-laden paean to NASA, but is instead a very suspenseful thriller which is exciting, emotionally gripping and inspiring.

Title: The Martian.
Director: Ridley Scott.
Running Time: 2 hours, 22 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for some strong language, injury images, and brief nudity.
Release Date: October 2, 2015.
Viewing Date: October 4, 2015.

Writing: A.
Acting: A.
Visuals: A+.
Impact: A.

Overall Grade: A/A+ (4.08/4.0).

2015 HUGO AWARDS: The Puppy Slates Are Overwhelmingly Rejected!

The 2015 Hugo Awards were given out on Saturday evening in Spokane Washington and the results were eye-opening, to say the least. Because of the Puppy kerfuffle (where two different cohorts of "fans" successfully coordinated efforts to place on the final Hugo ballot works and people using criteria different from mere merit and quality) I discovered that I could register and vote for the 2015 Hugo winners myself and did so.

In the end, even though there were only a few hundred ballots to nominate works, there ended up being 5,950 voters for the award winners.

The biggest news was that in five categories where the Sad Puppies/Rabid Puppies had successfully managed to completely fill all 5 slots on the ballot, the option of NO AWARD was deployed by a significant majority of voters. In the history of the Hugo awards there had been previously been a rand total o five NO AWARD winners and in one evening that tally was matched. The categories in which this occurred were: Best Novella, Best Short Story, Best Related Work, Best Editor (Short Form), and Best Editor (Long Form).

The second biggest story was that the Best Novel was won by Cixin Liu for The Three-Body Problem, which was my vote for the winner of this most important category. This was historic, because it was the first time an Asian man had won the Best Novel AND it was the first time a translated work had received this honor. Additionally, the two nominees associated with the Puppies, Skin Game by Jim Butcher and The Dark Between The Stars by Kevin J. Anderson both ended up below NO AWARD in the final tally (which is where I had placed them on my ballot, along with the 2nd place finisher The Goblin Emperor).

Best Novel (5653 final ballots, 1827 nominating ballots, 587 entries, range 212-387)

• The Three Body Problem, Cixin Liu, Ken Liu translator (Tor Books)
• The Goblin Emperor, Katherine Addison (Sarah Monette) (Tor Books)
• Ancillary Sword, Ann Leckie (Orbit US/Orbit UK)
• No Award
• Skin Game, Jim Butcher (Orbit UK/Roc Books)
• The Dark Between the Stars, Kevin J. Anderson (Tor Books)

What lots of fans and observers are trying to figure out is exactly what are the relative sizes of the four groups who participated in the Hugo voting: Rabid Puppy supporters, Sad Puppy supporters, Anti-Puppies (like myself) or neutral voters. Right now the estimates seem to have the two Puppies groups at about 10% of the total each with the anti-Puppies roughly at 50%.

Also, since the Hugo award administrators release the vote counts for the Top 15 nominees in each category, we can also know exactly which works and people were left off the ballot because of the Puppy slates from this winter. Author Tobias Buckell has released the list of what the Hugo ballot would have looked like without the intervention of the Puppies. Here's the alternative history Best Novel category

Best NovelAncillary Sword by Ann Leckie
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin
Lock In by John Scalzi
City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennet

City of Stairs is a very interesting urban fantasy novel (which I haven;t yet reviewed but I intend to, as well as rad the upcoming sequel, City of Blades when it is released in 2016.) For some reason the Puppies hate John Scalzi with the passion of a thousand dying suns (probably because he's smarter, makes more money and is more popular than any of them) so they are probably pleased they denied him another Hugo nomination. (Scalzi's win of the 2013 Hugo for Best Novel for Redshirts is often cited by some of the "head Puppies" as What Is Wrong With Science Fiction.)

Another point people have noticed is that the Puppies prevented Andy Weir, the author of the best-selling science fiction book of the year (The Martian, soon to be a major motion picture starring Matt Damon directed by Ridley Scott) from being nominated for the non-Hugo for best New Writer called the John W. Campbell award. Instead that went to my choice Wesley Chu!

There were a whole bunch of word written about the Hugo awards before they happened, K'm sure there will be a whole lot written now that they have happened. It is likely that the Puppies will try to repeat their domination of the award nominations in January 2016 but there are now nearly 6,000 people (like myself) who are empowered to make our own nominations and try to blunt their desire to blow up science fiction's most prestigious award.

Happily, it is likely that technical changes to how the nominations are calculated will go into effect for 2017 year, since two proposals were passed at the recent Worldcon business meeting that are designed to blunt the impact of slates on the Hugo nominations. But until then, the fight will go on.

However, in the fight between the forces of good and evil, Saturday's results at the Hugo awards was a big win for the good guys who support inclusion and diversity (and playing by the rules).

WATCH: Trailer for The Martian

The official trailer is now available online for The Martian, a movie based on the best-selling science fiction book written by Andy Weir, directed by Ridley Scott (Alien, Prometheus, Gladiator) and starring Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jeff Daniels.

I read the book late last year, it is really great and the whole time one is reading it one thinks "This is gonna make a heckuva movie!" Let's hope Hollywood doesn't mess this up--the cast is encouraging!

FILM REVIEW: Interstellar

As I have said before, Christopher Nolan is my favorite director. Once I found out that Nolan was releasing a new film, Interstellar, starring Oscar winners Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Sir Michael Caine and Matt Damon in 2014 I started following the pre-release hype pretty heavily. Oscar nominees John Lithgow and  Jessica Chastain have key parts in the film as well.

In fact I was able to see the film a few days before its official premiere, at a preview screening at Arclight Cinemas in Pasadena which was on 35mm film. The reviews of the film were generally mixed (73% from critics on rottentomatoes.com), but box-office, especially internationally, was quite robust with a domestic gross of $173 million and a worldwide gross of well over $600 million.

Overall, I liked Nolan's latest film, but I did not think it was at the same level of his film Inception (2010), which I think is a masterpiece. I saw Interstellar six weeks ago, but for some reason I have been blocked on writing this review (as well as for the other movies I have seen this fall). My initial reason for waiting was that I had hoped to see the film again (probably in standard digital projection or one of the five other formats the film is released in) to confirm the initial impressions I had garnered from seeing the version of Interstellar on actual film.

Regardless of what format you see it in, one thing that one takes away from the cinematic experience that Nolan has created with Interstellar is an appreciation for its impressive visual canvas. The film is simply stunning to look at and has shots that I will remember for years. Interestingly, it somehow manages to simultaneously have something of a retro and futuristic look to it.

The story revolves around a widowed former test pilot named Cooper (McConaughey) who is raising two kids with the help of his father (Lithgow) in a near-future Earth increasingly impacted by climate change which is causing crippling food shortages that have led to an increasingly dismal outlook for the viability of our world. NASA and a professor named Brand (Caine) have a secret plan to use a recently discovered worm hole near Saturn to explore different galaxies to find another planet our species can colonize in order to survive. But they need an experienced pilot to lead the mission because NASA has limited resources and this is basically our only chance. And thanks to relativity it is very likely that time will pass much more slowly for the team that goes while years pass back on Earth. So basically Cooper has to decide whether it is worth trying to save the entire human race if it means he will never see his beloved brilliant daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy) ever again. We find out that another daughter will likely not see her father again because Professor Brand's daughter Dr. Brand (Hathaway) is going on the mission as the head astrophysicist.

It is telling that Interstellar was initially a project that Steven Spielberg was to direct because the film definitely has a Spielbergian emotional quality to it which I think is its primary weakness. Clearly the stresses that can be applied to the bond between father and daughter are on display, as well as the stresses on the team who know that they may be humanity's best hope to survive. One of the key themes of the film is about difficult choices and another is obligation. There are scenes and dialogue which are cringeworthy (Hathaway's character at one point says "Love is the one thing we’re capable of perceiving that transcends dimensions of time and space.") For most hard-core science fiction enthusiasts like myself such touchy-feely sentiments are anathema, especially as they are appearing in a film which celebrates the power of science to solve humanity's problems and depicts the wonder and beauty of the physical Universe in multiple ways. The film also does a good job of depicting interstellar space flight in a way that is believable.

So, overall, I agree with most reviewers that Nolan's Interstellar is an ambitious, gorgeous film which is a bit too emotionally heavy-handed to be considered an unqualified success but is definitely worth seeing, especially in the theaters.

Title: Interstellar.
Director: Christopher Nolan.
Running Time: 2 hours, 49 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for some intense perilous action and brief strong language.
Release Date: November 7, 2014.
Viewing Date: November 5, 2014.

Writing: A.
Acting: A-.
Visuals: A+.
Impact: A.

Overall Grade: A (4.0/4.0)

WATCH: Second Interstellar Trailer is out!!

Christopher Nolan's Interstellar is by far my most anticipated film of 2014! The first trailer came out awhile ago, and just a few days ago the second trailer was released. The poster came out in June, and the film will hit theaters on November 7, 2014.

It stars Matthew McConnaughey, Anne Hathaway, Sir Michael Caine, Jessica Chastain and Matt Damon.

FILM REVIEW: Elysium

While I was in Los Angeles for my wedding anniversary last week The Other Half and I saw the movie Elysium, the follow-up film from Neill Blomkamp, who directed District 9. Elysium was one of my most highly anticipated films of summer 2013 because I was so charmed by Blomkamp's debut work.

However, his second film is not as well-received by critics (66% favorable) or audiences (70% favorable) as his first (critics 90%, audiences 79%). This is unfortunate, because Blomkamp is working with a bigger budget and bigger stars (Oscar winners Jodie Foster and Matt Damon). The star from District 9, Sharlto Copley also appears in Elysium, as one of the key bad guys in the piece. Copley is a quirky actor, and his casting as Kruger is one of the weak aspects of the film. He simply does not convey the sense of menace as one would expect in a summer blockbuster villain; he's more like the weird, homeless guy in the subway you want to avoid not because you're afraid of him, but because you're just grossed out or uncertain about the guy's boundaries.

There are other problems with the film as well. While it's great to see Jodie Foster working in films (especially after her infamous Golden Globes speech this year where she said she was quitting the business), her Delacourt is a corrupt, elitist bureaucrat with ice in her veins who is willing to do "whatever it takes" to defend her society's morally bankrupt way of life. But, the film doesn't do a good job of really exploring or explaining Delacourt's motives. Is it just a lust for power? One would hope that there is a more complex motive for Delacourt's action than the typical desire for control. Plus, what going on with her accent? (It sounds vaguely European mixed with South African). Copley's Kruger also sounds South African, which is not surprising to those of us who recognize him from District 9, but there's no explanation why a violent and unhinged mercenary has a South African accent.

I must say that generally the use of language is one of the strongest aspects of the film. Damon's blonde, blue-eyed Max is shown speaking fluent Spanish in his orphaned, youthful past and in his squalid, hellish present. This Spanish in a sea of brown bodies and faces is juxtaposed with Delacourt's smooth French in the well-manicured, very civilized (read: White and upper-class) on Elysium. Elysium, as we know from the trailers, and very early on in the movie, is a floating habitat that the select super-rich have created and retreated to, leaving a desperate and destitute Earth to the multitudinous, teeming hordes. The use of language as a proxy for class is deployed skillfully and quickly illustrates the bifurcated nature of life in the future that we the audience are going to be experiencing in Elysium.

The central tension in Elysium is whether our main character, Max (Damon) is going to be able to figure out a way to Get Up There (to Elysium) in order to have a chance of getting access to near-miraculous machines which can fix basically any health problem. The plot to get him up there ends up with Max having information uploaded into his brain that could potentially completely change the balance of power between Earth and Elysium. The fact that there are millions (if noy billions) of people on Earth who do not have access to basic necessities of life (food, water, shelter, health) while a coddled few have access to all these in addition to miraculous health care is a clear commentary on current political debates going on in America and elsewhere. However, as Alyssa Rosenberg cogently argues, the sharp political wit that was so present in District 9 doesn't make much sense in Elysium and ultimately disappoints viewers who were excited by the visionary nature of that film.

I don't want to reveal too much of the plot twists except to say that all though the action doesn't always make sense (Blomkamp apparently has a tenuous grasp on the Newtonian laws of motion and other aspects of physics which can be distracting) it is always compelling. A friend of mine who saw Elysium at a preview described it as "a cross between Jason Bourne meets Terminator 150 years in the future."

Title: Elysium.
Director: Neill Blomkamp.
Running Time: 1 hour, 49 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated R for strong bloody violence and language throughout.
Release Date: August 9, 2013.
Viewing Date: August 9, 2013.

Writing: B-.
Acting: C+.
Visuals: B+.
Impact: A-.

Overall Grade: B (3.0/4.0).

WATCH: Trailer for Elysium

One of my most anticipated movies of summer 2013 is Neill Blomkamp's Elysium. Blomkanp's made his film debut in 2009 with the amazing District 9 (see my A review). Elysium starts Academy Award winners Matt Damon and Jodie Foster (guess who gets top billing?) in another dystopian view of Earth's future. The richest 1% of the planet live on an orbiting space station with everything while the rest of humanity lives on earth, which is ravaged by disease and environmental desolation. Watch the trailer yourself and get excited!

Last year my most anticipated summer movie was Ridley Scott's Prometheus (see my B/B+ review) which ended up under-whelming. That said, I have seen it three times, and it's currently airing on HBO.

WATCH: Trailer for HBO's Liberace bio-pic

HBO's much anticipated bio-pic about Liberace and his "live-in lover" Scott Thorson called Behind The Candelabra will be aired on Sunday May 26. The trailer looks like the film will go into the intimate details of their lives together. It has the participation of multiple Oscar-winners: Steven Soderbergh, Michael Douglas, Matt Damon. The rest of the cast is stellar: Rob Lowe, Dan Aykroyd and Debbie Reynolds are in the film also.

Hat/tip to TowleRoad

Celebrity Friday: Michael Douglas and Matt Damon

The upcoming HBO bio-pic Behind The Candelabra about the life of Liberace directed by openly gay, Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh is getting huge buzz. It stars Oscar-winning Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as his lover Scott Thorson who famously sued the flamboyant piano showman for palimony in the 1980s.

Soderbergh has said publicly that despite the participation of such famous, highly decorated film talent he could not find a single Hollywood studio to back his movie adapted from Thorson's revealing book Behind The Candelabra: My Life With Liberace because they said it was "too gay."

MOVIE REVIEW: True Grit

The Other Half and I saw Joel & Ethan Coen's True Grit last week in the run up to the holidays. We've always been a fan of the Coen Brothers, and I think we have seen most of their entire oeuvre (Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Barton Fink, Fargo, The Hudsucker Proxy, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men and Burn After Reading) although we skipped last year's Osar-nominated A Serious Man.

True Grit stars Jeff Bridges in the role that won John Wayne his Best Actor Oscar (which Bridges won last year for Crazy Heart), Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and introduces Hailee Stanfield. Stanfield plays 14-year-old Mattie Ross who hires Bridges' U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn to hunt down Brolin's Tom Chaney who killed Mattie's father and stole a horse. Damon plays a Texas Ranger named La Boeuf who has been tracking Chaney for years but hasn't been able to get very close to him. The three (La Boeuf, Cogburn and Ross) reluctantly join forces to find Chaney in the unincorporated Western Territory even though Mattie wants Chaney captured so that he can hang for killing her father while La Boeuf needs Chaney alive to be brought back to Texas in order to collect a substantial reward. Cogburn will go along with anyone who can guarantee him a steady enough to income to pay for his excessive alcohol consumption.

The original True Grit is a classic Western, based loosely on a book by the same name by Charles Portis. The novel has very stylized language (there are no contractions like "can't" or "ain't"); the Coen Brothers adapted the book, kept most of the formal dialogue and inserted broad humor.

In relation to the end-of-year award sweepstakes True Grit holds its own as an enjoyable, well-made and well-acted film in a genre which hearkens back to the Golden Age of Hollywood. It is not as meaningful a film as Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, which re-imagined and re-invigorated the Western. However, (somewhat surprisingly to some) the Coen Brothers have not produced a quirky parody of a Western, but a pretty straightforward example which emphasizes the strengths of the form.

Title: True Grit.
Running Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some intense sequences of western violence including disturbing images.
Release Date: Wednesday, December 22, 2010.
Attendance Date: Thursday, December 23, 2010.

Writing: A-.
Acting: A.
Visuals: A-.
Impact: A-.

Overall Grade: A- (3.75/4.0).

Mark Leno Proposes Harvey Milk State Holiday May 22

Joe.My.God alerted me to the news that openly gay Assemblyman Mark Leno is proposing legislation to make May 22 a non-fiscal state holiday in honor of slain San Francisco Supervisor and gay rights hero Harvey Milk. The bill would declare May 22 "Harvey Milk Day" in California. There are currently not one but two Hollywood bio-pics planned on the life story of Harvey Milk, the first starring Sean Penn and Matt Damon and directed by openly gay director Gus Van Sant, and the second based on the best-selling book The Mayor of Castro Street and directed by openly gay director Bryan Singer (Superman Returns, The Usual Suspects) and produced by openly gay producing team of Meron&Zadan (Chicago, Hairspray).

Mark Leno is currently locked in a tight primary race with openly lesbian State Senator Carole Migden, to be decided on Tuesday February 5th.

Top 10 Movies of 2007

Last year's list of the Top 10 (MadProfessah-reviewed) movies of 2006 was not issued until March 6, 2007, a week after the Oscars were announced and the Top 10 (MadProfessah-reviewed) movies of 2005 was not published until January 18th, 2006.

However, I want to make sure the list to be a list of the best movies that I actually saw in 2007, since my previous Top 10 list was published here.

10. 3:10 to Yuma. The best western since Unforgiven stars Russell Crowe and Christian Bale in a remake of a classic which matches the original for intensity and suspense--with the added benefit of a scenery-chewing performance by Ben Foster as the fey psycho violent sidekick.

9. Boy Culture. What? A well-written gay movie? Yes, Virginia, they do exist! This romantic comedy had very handsome actors interacting in a surprisingly real and really surprising way.

8. 300. A homoerotic smorgasbord of computer generated ultraviolence masquerading as a historic epic. "1800 abs" was a unique visual experience, very stimulating and although story-deficient, oddly compelling.

7. Ratatouille. The latest film from Brad Bird, the creator of my 2004 favorite film, The Incredibles is the creative force behind this tour de force animated masterpiece from the magicians at Pixar about a rat in a Paris restaurant who loves to cook.

6. 28 Weeks Later / Sunshine. From the mind of Danny Boyle (28 Days Later) and each featuring Rose Byrne comes these two very different, science-fiction based action films. 28 Weeks Later is actually more effective than the original. Sunshine is an absolutely gorgeous spaceship-based thriller influenced by seminal films like Alien and 2001.

5. The Simpsons Movie. Like a really good, 90-minute episode of The Simpsons--what's not to like?

4. The Namesake. I may be influenced by my trip to India last year, but I was greatly moved by this film adaptation of one of my favorite books by Jhumpa Lahiri. The story is about the intergeneration conflict between immigrant parents and their American born children. In addition, the acting by Kal Penn and Irfan Khan is extraordinary, and Mira Nair's directing is at her most proficient to date.

3. Sicko/¡Salud!. The health care crisis in the United States is only growing worse day after day and these two documentaries pointed out the ridiculous state of affairs while also highlighting that there are other solutions many other countries around the world have identified and implemented.

2. The Bourne Ultimatum. A technically flawless summer action movie helmed by director Peter Greengrass and carried by Matt Damon which starts with the accelerator to the floor and doesn't let up until the final frame.

1. Juno. The most enjoyable time I spent at the movies all year was watching this heartfelt, pitch-perfect comedy that has an impact which is felt long after the movie is over. Diablo Cody's script along with an incredible ensemble cast headed by the hitherto unheralded Ellen Page in the title role are destined to receive Oscar recognition.

Honorable Mentions: The Host, American Gangster, Hairspray and I Am Legend.

It should also be noted that I have yet to see end-of-year contenders like Sweeney Todd, Atonement, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, The Great Debaters or Persepolis. When I see them, I will review them, but they will count towards my 2008 Top 10.

The Race For Harvey Milk's Life

Sean Penn	Matt Damon

The race in Hollywood to complete a film adaptation of the Harvey Milk story, the first widely known openly gay elected official in the United States, is heating up. Oscar winner Sean Penn has agreed to play Harvey Milk, with Matt Damon playing fellow San Francisco Supervisor Dan White. White assassinated Milk and San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, and after employing the infamous "twinkie defense" received a lenient sentence which led to riots in the Castro district and other areas of the City. In 1982 openly gay reporter Randy Shilts published an amazing book recounting the details of the Harvey Milk story called The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk which Mad Professah can not recommend highly enough.

However, the film adaptation of the Randy Shilts book is not the movie that Matt Damon and Sean Penn are attached to. That film is to be directed by openly gay Bryan Singer (Superman, The Usual Suspects), produced by openly gay producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (Hairspray, Chicago) from a script still to be re-written by Chris McQuarrie. It is currently set for a 2009 release, acccording to IMDb. The Penn-Damon film is set to be directed by openly gay Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, My Own Private Idaho, Elephant) and produced by the openly gay team of Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks (American Beauty, Big Fish, The Nines) with a script by Dustin Lance Black.

So, the question is will there be two films of this amazing story, and will the better film reach the screen first? Recall that there were at least two films about Truman Capote in recent years. Capote was released before Infamous and won and Oscar for Philip Seymour Hoffman while the latter basiclly disappeared without a trace, despite receiving encouraging reviews.

The Harvey Milk story is incredibly important to the gay community so I hope that the competition in Holywood to get the film to the screen succeeds in getting the best film to the screen first.

REVIEW: The Bourne Ultimatum

Between semi-final matches of the WTA Acura Classic a few weeks ago MadProfessah attended a screening of The Bourne Ultimatum at an Ultra-Star Theater in Carlsbad, CA on Saturday of opening weekend. There was a line to get into the theater and the particular screening was packed.


After having seen the first two Bourne movies, The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy, on DVD I was interested in seeing the latest "threequel" in the theaters, particularly since I had seen Shrek The Third, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Spider-Man 3.

The Bourne Ultimatum is a nearly perfect action movie. It is well-directed by Paul Greengrass (Oscar nominated for United 93) and cleverly written by Tony Gilroy and starring Matt Damon, the same team who also made The Bourne Supremacy together.

The third installment in the Bourne franchise has received nearly uniformly positive reviews (94% users, 94% critics at rottentomatoes.com) and is doing exceedingly well at the box-office, on track to well outperform the previous two films.


And its clear to see why. The filmmakers have retained the voyeuristic travelogue aspect to the film (we get to see Jason Bourne in London, Madrid, Moscow, Turin, Paris, Tangier and finally New York City) while increasing the action level to a near fever pitch. Any attempt at love interest has been jettisoned, making the film essentially an all-boy's affair. Julia Stiles and Joan Allen return to forward the plot slightly, and even the small parts are peopled by very good actors: David Strathairn, Albert Finney and Scott Glenn.

Ultimatum is the last of the three Bourne books written by best-selling spy novelist Robert Ludlum, and the movies diverged greatly from the books when they were adapted to increase their entertainment value. The filmmakers have done an excellent job of making an adult, intelligent spy thriller and I'm sure the lack of an actual source novel to adapt will not prevent them from making more.

GRADE: A.