Movies
Maybe it's time to admit that I just don't like Mel Brooks all that much. But wait! I like The Producers and Young Frankenstein quite a bit! Alas, no such luck with Blazing Saddles, though. The central satire here is pretty great—land-grabbers try to evacuate an all-white town by appointing a black sheriff; I'm all for revising the western to acknowledge the racism of both 19th century America and classical Hollywood. But the execution leaves a lot to be desired. It's not just the casual '70s-style meanness (we probably could have gone without a mentally handicapped villain and at least a few of those "faggot" jokes); it's how that's coupled to a sloppiness approaching the lazy winks of post-prime Brooks like Spaceballs. At least we still get that shot of Alex Karras KO'ing the horse. Grade: C+
Riveting documentary about the craziest scam/case of mistaken identity you've ever heard. I know it's real life, but seriously, The Imposter is probably best experienced slack-jawed and shocked. If it weren't for the leaden re-enactments, this film would be absolutely top-shelf. Look, I know Errol Morris made re-enactments cool and all that, but I'm really not a fan here, especially when the re-enacted shots are used to as self-conscious and as literary effect as they are here. Looking at you, final shot. Grade: B+
What I imagine would happen if the Borrowers dropped acid. To be clear, this is a good thing. The plot just kind of sits there (until it jumps to a conclusion in the rushed finale), but the real allures here are the avant-garde score (compliments of Alain Goraguer) and the surreal, inventive animation that fleshes out the flora and fauna of the titular planet. There are some truly delectable creatures created here. The whole thing is definitely one of those "mileage may vary" experiences, depending on your tolerance for post-'60s psychedelia, but I had a ball. Grade: A-
Even among its class—the '70s gritty urban crime thriller—this movie is remarkable for how stripped down it is. Honestly, it's more of an atmosphere than a full-on action film: by my count, there are somewhere around fifteen minutes of action spread out over the 90-minute runtime. The rest is mostly grim setup and spare (but precise) characterizations of our stiff-lipped heroes, which is all good fun but mighty meditative for a movie that's acquired the reputation as one of the greatest action films ever. Typical of John Carpenter, there's a great score and some gorgeous nighttime cinematography, and the whole thing is put together solidly, so to complain that it doesn't quite reach the heights of The Thing or Halloween seems a little unfair. But... well, I guess that's my complaint. Grade: B+
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Books
After fully embracing my mid-20s-with-a-liberal-arts-degree masculinity last summer with Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, I thought I'd go ahead and plunge into his short fiction. DFW's exceptionally clever, but that's leaving me cooler and cooler. After 1100 pages of IJ, you'd think I'd have already gotten this sorted out by now: what's so exciting about Wallace is his ability to riff on personalities. He's able to take just slightly left-of-center characters and the smallest of premises and play out all the fascinating permutations of thought that run through those characters' brains in the most riveting and human ways. So I'll take the Interviews, "On His Deathbed...," "The Depressed Person," "Forever Overhead." I'll say "no thanks" to the stories about writing stories. Grade: B+
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Television
The whole "terrible people struggle to cope with their flaws until they become sad enough to be sorta sympathetic" conceit has seen a lot of play recently, and I can't say that You're the Worst adds anything new to that formula other than a few fresh faces and a colorful (albeit improbably whitewashed? Non-Cali resident speaking here) east-L.A. setting. Still, the writing is sharp—at times scathingly, hilariously so—and that covers a multitude of banalities. Grade: B
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