Movie: Renaissance

A moderately interesting kidnapping mystery, presented in an incredible new visual style - with the latter overwhelming the former.

The visual style is what Sin City wanted to be but didn't quite achieve: live action in striking black-and-white - and I mean only black and only white, save for a slight use of flat single-tone gray and a tiny dash of color. All action was acquired with computerized motion-capture, down to the minute facial expressive details which The Polar Express, otherwise amazing, was derided for lacking. The captured motions then translated to detailed 3D graphics, in turn flattened to purely black and white. The result is amazing. The result is a live-action cartoon, a slick union of contradictory visual techniques.

The story, sorry to say, isn't as sharply stunning. In no way does the story lack, but neither does it triumph - serving more as a premise for applying the long desired and never achieved imagery.

Movie: London

I picked up this movie because the soundtrack was done by The Crystal Method. The album is good, the movie ... well, it's another movie about losers.

Unable, for no good reason, to declare his love for his girlfriend (name: London) with a simple and unprompted "I love you", they part ways. Learning she is to enjoy a going-away party for her move to the other coast, he crashes the party, hides in the bathroom (sharing dope and engaging in impassioned and meaningless conversations with whoever wanders in), he eventually learns what is meant by "too little too late". Loser.

I'd like to know why some people enjoy such films. I guess they're uplifting for some; I can't imagine what life would see it as such.

Movie: Munich

You MUST see One Day In September first. To understand Munich, you must watch the documentary of the hostage-taking in the Munich Olympics. This movie, being historical fiction, picks up where the documentary must leave off: Israel's covert, and still mostly secret, project to assassinate those responsible for killing the Jewish athletes. Without this background, one may fall into the common error of misunderstanding the process and reality of why & how this project was done. Yes, it's fiction - but sometimes fiction tells us the story of reality we cannot, for want of secrecy, be told. Well done, though not entertaining.

Movie: A Fistful of Dollars

Now that's a western.

An older film, featuring younger rock-solid star Clint Eastwood, of a nobody wandering into the middle of a feud destroying a small nowhere town. With few words, subtle action, and intrigued by the money to be made in the process, our nameless hero destroys both gangs and saves the innocent, asking nothing else in return - even the money is ultimately nothing to him.

I'm usually not big on westerns, but this one works.

Book: On Writing (Stephen King)

In one of the several forwards to this book, the author comments that a book about writing should be short. Indeed, the essence of the book is 29 pages - weighty enough that aspiring writers should read it, often. Another 100 pages or so gives useful insights on applying that core material. The rest of the book, which lists for $8, is autobiography which (A) while interesting would be difficult to publish in its own right, and (B) bulks out the text so you don't feel slighted by $4.

King is indeed a skillful writer, making the reader feel very comfortable (save for copious obscenities) and expresses his advice clearly and usefully. Being successful and talented, his advice is valuable being from one who has lived the reality of the industry, providing subtle suggestions and contradictions which add value far beyond what an academic portrayal of the craft would usually entail.

Thinking of writing? Get this book. The slim portion on "Toolbox" is more than worth the cover price.

Movie: .45

Losers.

That really just sums it up nicely. The movie is well acted, and the story is strong as stories go, but it's about ... losers, being losers, losing. Meh. Actually took me three days to get through it because I couldn't watch it all in one stretch, but having paid for it and spent enough time watching what I did I just wanted to see which of several possible losing endings the losers would lose by. I want a story where, somehow, I can look up to the protagonist(s); for this, I had to squint to see that low.

Story? He's a jerk, she won't leave, and conspiracies form to, er, extricate one from the other. She could have just walked out, but then the movie would have been about 10 minutes long.

Movie: A Scanner Darkly

A faithful, if abridged, adaptation of Philip K. Dick*’s novel. Undercover narcotics cop Fred is ordered to comprehensively investigate hardcore drug addict Bob; there’s just one problem ... Fred is Bob. Then comes the twist…
In a nearly inexplicable turn of movie production, the entire movie was filmed live, then hand-animated (rotoscoped) into stark, flat “posterized” coloring. Interesting result; save for one important visual effect I don’t see why they did it (“because it hadn’t been done” aside).
The book was significantly more depressing. The movie kinda hustles you thru the WTF elements, the book gives you full icky development thereof.
Upshot: a should-see for those fond of experimental mild-scifi tragedies; other people, not so much.

(* - PKD wrote the stories later turned into Blade Runner, Paycheck, Minority Report, and several other mind-benders.)