Novel: The Trinity Six by Charles Cumming

January 31, 2012

Charles Cumming mines British espionage history in The Trinity Six (2011), a smart but subdued spy tale.  Cumming’s previous thriller, Typhoon, lifted him to a new level; The Trinity Six doesn’t quite fire on as many cylinders for me, but it certainly does nothing to sully his reputation.  It’s a swift, engaging read, although a [...]

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Film: Midnight in Paris

January 30, 2012

For me, Woody Allen’s work over the past twenty years has been more hit than miss, but Midnight in Paris (2011) is his best in a while, a charming, light romantic comedy with a well handled and amusing fantasy premise.  Owen Wilson stands in as this film’s “surrogate Woody” character, Gil Pender, a highly successful [...]

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Film: Margin Call

January 30, 2012

Margin Call (2011) is a film with a mission, which it accomplishes succinctly and powerfully.  Set almost entirely within the opulent confines of a high finance investment bank in New York City, this subdued, grim drama recounts the crucial early hours of the world financial crisis of 2008.  On a day of massive layoffs at [...]

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500 Posts!

January 28, 2012

If you had told me three years ago that I would have gotten this blog to 500 posts, I don’t think I would have believed you.  But here we are:  five hundred posts of wordy review-y media junkie pop culture goodness, awwww yeah!  As it turns out, not giving a shit about whether people give [...]

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Novel : A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

January 23, 2012

I’ve heard Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010) described as a short story collection disguised as a novel, but I absolutely disagree.  While it does possess a unique mosaic structure – each chapter a self-contained story with a different viewpoint – there is a single, coherent throughline to the book, entirely thematic, [...]

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Film: Battle Royale

January 21, 2012

Maybe I went into Battle Royale (2001) with my expectations too high. This notorious Japanese violence-fest has its share of bloody, creative virtues, but ultimately it rang hollow for me. In a totalitarian alternate reality, the reigning regime enacts draconian laws to keep the younger generations in line. As part of this initiative, a busload [...]

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Novel: Dark Tangos by Lewis Shiner

January 17, 2012

Has it been ten years since I’ve read a Lewis Shiner novel?  Way too long.  Dark Tangos (2011) takes us on a rare visit to South America for a striking political thriller set in Buenos Aires.  Rob “Beto” Cavenaugh is an expatriot  software programmer who relocates to his multionational employer’s Argentina office, in the wake [...]

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Spy 100, #32: The Quiet American

January 17, 2012

A carefully constructed and beautifully shot adaptation of the classic Graham Greene novel, The Quiet American (2002) sets a dark, compelling love triangle against the backdrop of war-torn Viet Nam in the early 1950s.  Michael Caine shines as detached British reporter Thomas Fowler, a cynic more interested in smoking opium and spending time with his [...]

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Novel: Crashcourse by Wilhelmina Baird

January 13, 2012

Wilhelmina Baird’s Crashcourse (1993) is a gritty, energetic cyberpunk adventure that I wish I’d discovered at the time of release; I suspect the author would have become a favorite.  Even now it holds up pretty well:  a grungy futuristic crime novel that whips along engagingly while riffing thoughtfully on class, gender, and the media. Cassandra [...]

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Film: The Wave

January 13, 2012

A high school classroom becomes the site of a sociopolitical experiment in The Wave (2008), a fairly well executed, if obvious, German drama about the perils of groupthink and conformity.   Jürgen Vogel stars as Rainer Wenger, a political sciences and P.E. teacher who is one of the younger, “cooler” members of the faculty.  Rainer is [...]

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