Movies and books

PARIS (2009) is an excellent slice-of-life drama in which a terminally ill Frenchman and his caregiver sister (Juliette Binoche) interact with a variety of locals including an immigrant salesclerk, a free-spirit student, the historian text-stalking her and a female biker. Low-key, but completely absorbing. “Your smile caresses your face like a wind across the sky.”
ALICE (1988) is Jan Svankmajer’s bizarre stop-motion rendition of Alice in Wonderland, as Alice (the only human character) follows a stuffed rabbit into a dresser drawer to encounter puppets, skull-headed lizards, a deck of talking cards and other oddness. Grotesque, but certainly one of the more interesting adaptations I’ve seen. “You’re supposed to say ‘I request the severest possible penalty.”
GREEN LANTERN: FIRST FLIGHT (2009) has Hal Jordan (Christopher Melloni) receiving the ring of Abin Sur, which makes him an object of suspicion to much of the Corps (“Where is Abin Sur’s body?”)—an awkward problem since it gets in the way of him and top GL Sinestro (Victor Garber) figuring out who the traitor is plotting to undermine the Guardians (using the comics’ current emphasis on Sinestro as a hardline authoritarian). Inconsistent on the power ring’s yellow weakness (how does he manage to knock around Sinestro’s yellow power source?) but good; with John Larroquette as Tomar Re and Larry Drake, William Schallert and Malachi Throne as Guardians. “You almost had me—until the last line.”

VISUAL SHOCK: A History of Art Controversies in American Culture by Michael Kammen does a very good job chronicling disputes ranging from familiar-to-me battles over “Piss Chris” and performance art to the initial controversies over the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial (which foreshadow the Vietnam Wall in initial outrage followed by public acceptance) plus debates over museum design, exhibit sponsorship and of course, modern art (“The people who described it as Communist were unaware that Stalin despised it.”). Kammen concludes that describing conflicts between Elites and the Public is a distortion, since neither is a monolithic group—elites include moneymen, critics, museum heads and government officials, for example, while the public can be just as divided. A good job.
SHARPE’S ENEMY: Richard Sharpe and the Defense of Portugal, Christmas, 1812 has Sharpe joining forces with the French to take down a joint French/English renegade force, then finding himself forced to defend against a grand French attack on Portugal with only a handful of men and some experimental rockets. A villain-rich entry with both the loathsome Hakeswell (it’s easy to see why he plays a big role in the India-set retcons) and the French spymaster Ducos.
THE MAGICIANS AND MRS. QUENT by Galen Beckett has a good premise—What if Elizabeth Bennett lost Mr. Darcy, wound up as Rochester’s governess, then discovered her life’s course was the result of a magical conspiracy?—that unfortunately wasn’t good enough to keep me reading for 500 pages (at 300, I think I’d have liked it).
HOUSE OF MYSTERY: The Beauty of Decay is the latest TPB collection of DC’s current House of Mystery series, following up on the cliffhanger of the previous volume by having the house and its occupants trapped in a place between worlds where Cain finally catches up with his former home and Figg learns a little more about her father’s goals (“It was never me they were after, Figg. It was you.”). Looking forward to the next one.
AIR: Pureland is another DC TPB about the adventures of Blythe, a stewardess who has to cope with her “hyperpraxis” power of teleportation and the continuing mystery of her lover Zayn (most of which gets cleared up here). The introduction of the Metalhead Jihad here (an anti-terorrist jihadi group) is an interesting touch, though given the book has been canceled, I don’t how much we’ll see of them (but I hope the remaining issues get published!).
GIRL GENIUS: Agatha Heterodyne and the Heirs of the Storm is Phil and Kasha Foglio’s latest adventure of a female inventor in a steampunk world who in the latest installment has to repair the computer-mind of her ancestors’ castle despite such problems as an Agatha-impersonator, the fact parts of the castle are insane and hostile, a few renegade mad scientists and that even the sane part of the castle has its own ideas of property behavior.