One Sentence Movie Reviews: "Starting Out in the Evening"

Starting out in the Evening (2007): "A dying world should only be saved for what it produced, not how it made us feel."

Notes: Beautiful, sad movie for grownups about ambition creativity, family loyalty and a dying New York literary culture where books were an entire city's obsession. We can argue whether that world actually existed or whether it benefited many more than its greatest cheerleaders. But this movie is less about that than about what its like to feel obsolete, in a place that used to breathe a confirmation of your very existence.

If you love books, of course you will love this movie. But you will also if you crave great, understate performances, fine writing and movies with a sense of theater that do also seem flat and literal. Frank Langella and Lauren Ambrose deserve Oscar nominations for their leading roles. It is saying something equally impressive that a when-all-else-fails actress like Lili Taylor gives the least impressive performance in the film.

Starting out in the Evening received an 86% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 4 stars from Roger Ebert. I rented it via Netflix where is also available as part of their Watch Instantly program. It is one of the great overlooked movies of this decade. Please do not miss it.

Thought of the Day: "Contingencies"

“Again and again we are told to do one thing only so that we can get something else. We spend our lives stretched on an iron rack of contingencies.” 

---George Leonard (via Joelle Jay)

One Sentence Movie Reviews: "Chicago 10"

Chicago 10 (2007): "The line between democracy and Orwellian terror is about as easily crossed as misunderstanding change for threat."

Seen: At the lovely Red Vic Movie House.

Brief Summaries of Public Radio #2: This American Life (6/13/2008)

Show: This American Life

Episode Date: June 13, 2008, "The Truth Will Out" 

Length: 60 Minutes

Producer: WBEZ Chicago and Public Radio International

What I already knew:

• Israeli author Etgar Keret returns to TAL with a story read by actor Dermot Mulroney. Keret had previously been on the program in a 2005 episode called "Know Your Enemy."

• Investigative journalist Lawrence Wright has talked to more members of Al-Queda and their associates than just about any journalist alive. He won the Pulitzer Prize last year for his book The Looming Tower: Al-Queda and the Road to 9/11.

What I didn't:

• Under the pretense of using him as a source, the FBI wiretapped Mr. Wright's phones. He wrote about in in a New Yorker article titled "The Spymaster."

• The US intelligence community doesn't have nearly enough agents or analysts who can speak fluent Arabic, Farsi, Pashtu, the languages most used by the terrorist groups it now targets.

Notes: When working at a slow, data entry job in the late 1990s, I listened to 4 episodes of TAL via their web archive every day. Far as I know, they were one of the first public radio shows to do this. But they were quite slow coming to podcasting, so there's probably an 18 month dead zone in my relationship with the show.

Now the show is the most popular podcast on iTunes, which is costing WBEZ a ton of cheddar. They're fundraising for it as we speak. I'm probably going to toss a few coins their way.

Thought of the Day: "Change"

"People change. And forget to tell each other."

--Lillian Hellman (via The Writer's Almanac)

Read Recently "Civilwarland in Bad Decline" by George Saunders

Title: CivilWarLand in Bad Decline: Stories and a Novella

Author: Geroge Saunders

Synopsis: Saunder's 1997 debut short story collection, (he's published five books since) containing 6 tales and a novella. All are terrifying, absurd and hilarious. Imagine George Orwell and Terry Pratchett's grinning love child.

Assessment: I'm not going to say George Saunders is for everyone. if you like your short stories grounded in realism, the problems of everyday people or the love affair grandmother had at the summer cottage all those years ago, move along, nothing to see here. But if you enjoy an author throwing one handful of  foolishness at you after another (Jerry went to work. His boss was a fish. Jerry ate him. Then went home to his wife who had become a hyrax that afternoon) while never cracking a wink then grab this book immediately. It's twisted, weird, scary but never at your expense. The spirit of these stories is magnanimous, even when they layer on cruelty like an overfrosted cake.

And Saunders refuses to let up. He  doesn't wave off the bruised dystopias he creates because there's ironic brownie points to be gained by doing so. No he's as committed to his fantastical worlds as Roald Dahl. Ask yourself then, if you picked up Roald Dahl blended with Blade Runner, would you be into that sort of thing?

Verdict: I was. Six of seven of these stories I'm calling modern classics. And given that this was the man's first book, I'm working the other two of his I own into regular rotation. By the time he hits his stride he'll be too brilliant for this earth.

Source(s): I read his children's book The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil some time ago, loved it, and bought this one soon after. Mr. Saunders' editor at Riverhead is a friend who also has me on an early warning list.

Thought of the Day: "Freedom."

"Freedom isn't the choice the world encourages. You have to wear a suit of armor to defend it."

--Frank Langella in Starting out in the Evening.

And so on...

Now in Los Angeles to help brother move. Back home on Thursday. Updates posted via twitter if interested.

Pant...Pant....

Me, Me, Me, Eugene:

A few notes of self-centeredness:

• I was a guest on the fabulous Marketplace of Ideas radio program recently, in an episode on The Future of the Book along. The podcast is now available for download. If you're into books, culture, ideas and the future of both, Marketplace of Ideas is the show for you.

• My good friend and colleague Kassia Krozser over at Booksquare has made two of my babblings the centerpiece of a post called "The Reading Problem." It's subject: How we refuse to talk about how reading is an activity for enjoyment and not just personal betterment. My thoughts:

           "Reading is an act of hedonistic joy."

            and

           "It's time we make books seem like chocolate instead of broccoli."

            Sometime I am quotable and sometimes I ain't. I rarely think about what I'm going to say before I say it. So it's awful nice when I hear it has make an impact on someone like Kassia and her readers.

• I've also got a review of The Virginia Quarterly Review up at The Magazineer. VQR is incredible. Highly recommended.

 

And with that, my girl and I are off to Eugene, Oregon for the weekend. I've never been. Her best friend lives there and, from everything I've heard it's the Ann Arbor of the Pacific Northwest. So I'm quite excited for this journey.

Back on Tuesday. See you then.

Thought of the Day: "Big"

"Today we are not being petty. We are trying to be big. Because the task before us is a big one."

--Barbara Jordan