THIRTEEN DAYS (2000) is the gripping story of how JFK (Bruce Greenwood) has to decide whether to risk going to war with Russia over their placement of missiles in Cuba or to hang tight and hope the Russians will back down, with Kevin Costner as one of the cabinet’s voices of reason. Better done than I expected. “I am the president and I decide when we go to war.”
GET LOW (2010) stars Robert Duvall as a crotchety 1930s hermit who informs undertaker Bill Murray that he wants to hold the funeral before his death, which turns out to be a way for Duvall to finally confess and lay to rest a pain from his past. A good turn by both lead; Lucas Black co-stars as Murray’s aide and Cissy Spacek as a woman from Duvall’s past. “If you’re in a business everyone needs and you don’t succeed, it’s got to be you, right?”
SCREAM, BLACULA, SCREAM (1973) has voodoo practitioner Desmond Wilson resurrect Mumuwalde (William Marshall) to help him challenge Pam Grier for leader of the LA voodoo community; instead, the undead prince fangs Wilson and turns to Grier for help exorcising his vampiric side. Better than the first movie (and how many sequels can we say that about?) and Marshall has an awesome voice for the role. “As for kicking my ass, I strongly advise you to reconsider.”
ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM (2005) is the story of how Enron went from fudging facts (“Nobody could really judge their claims since it was based on what they’d be earning later.”) to corrupting the stock firms supposedly evaluating them (“What did Merrill Lynch need with Nigerian oil tankers?”) to deliberately exploiting California deregulation (“When demand was low, they’d shut down power plants until the price of energy rose.”), which the documentary also credits with Gov. Gray’s defeat by Schwarzennegger. A good job making clear and interesting the scope of the scheming (even if a lot of it was old news to me). “This was Jim Jones convincing us to drink the Kool-Aid, then refusing to drink it himself.”
DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN (1985) is the story of how bored housewife Roseanne Arquette (“Does she have orgasms?”) winds up as an amnesiac mistaken for bohemian troublemaker Madonna (originally they’d hoped for Ellen Barkin or Goldie Hawn but at the time, Madonna came a lot cheaper) by everyone from projectionist Aidan Quinn to mob killer Will Paton. This edition includes the original ending, in which Arquette and Madonna wind up blowing off both their guys to be Thelma and Louise; a fun film either way. “My wife was just picked up on the lower East Side running from her gun-toting pimp!”
V (1983) holds up well on rewatching as scientists turn against the world, aliens arrive to steal our water and Marc Singer notices how many people are writing with their left hand these days. Amazing how young the leads look to me now; equally amazing how the topical references (Kenner action figures, Space Invaders) are now historical details. “Why are they so determined to destroy scientists?”
TYPE: The Secret History of Letters by Simon Loxley does an excellent job covering some of the turning points in typography since Gutenberg first cranked out printing, including William Caslon’s introduction of the san serif, the development of such successes as Baskerville, Gill and Times Roman, profiles of various personalities and the clash over typography in Nazi Germany (specifically whether medieval style lettering was more authentically German than the Roman typeface). Loxley argues that the array of typefaces is more about style and fashion than readability (“Studies show ‘readable’ is whatever you’re used to.”) and speculates whether the Internet will cause typography to Go To Dust except for enthusiasts and small presses. Does a great job making the subject interesting.
TOWING JEHOVAH by James Morrow is an excellent satire in which a disgraced tanker captain is given a shot at redemption when an angel informs him God’s two-mile long corpse has fallen into the sea and it’s his job to get it towed to the tomb the angels prepared. This mission then becomes complicated by crew members indulging in hedonism, anti-semitism (“The Jews killed our God once already, didn’t they?”) and a feminist atheist horrified to realize God is not only real but male. Great entertainment and given that Morrow is an atheist, he gets points for not making this a polemic.
A REMARKABLE CASE OF BURGLARY by HRF Keating has an 1871 Irish vagrant scheming to exploit his chance flirtation with a kitchen maid to loot her wealthy employers—a plot which could have fit into an hour-long TV episode, but the strength of the book is its handling of the social dynamics of the household, and the details of everything from cleaning chores to burglary. As someone who’s written a Victorian-set novel, I’m impressed how well Keating captures the details.
