Random Book and Movie Reviews

Movies
Contagion- I told you if you left Gwyneth Paltrow to her own devices long enough that something like this would happen.  I liked this movie, though it just re-focused me on my fear of the impending plague.  The characters were well written and performed and it kept me engaged, unlike...

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy- This is a movie of old white men looking at each other awkwardly and staring across rooms and out windows.  Every once in awhile a woman will look across a room with an expectant dismay on her face.  The men never seem to expect anything until it's too late and unfortunately it's on them who we focus.  The time jumps were confusing and each scene I had to check for grey hairs to get an idea of when it was.  There was a slew of scenes with a character who had been shot earlier that I assumed were flashbacks but it turned out he just hadn't died. I guess Gary Oldman delivered the 10 or so lines he had really well, but mostly he just stared.  If you couldn't tell already, I was not as enamored with this movie as the critics.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes- The writers spent time endearing the apes to me, but there was no need; I was with them from the beginning.  Get 'em, gorilla!  Along those same lines, we were flipping through the channels the other day and happened upon a scene at a bull fight of a bull jumping into the stands of people who had come to watch him be tortured.  Havoc was wreaked. Fair play to the bull. 

Book
Pym, A Novel by Mat Johnson- It's hard for a book that goes into the realm of complete implausibility to fully engage me the way this one did.  The main character, formerly a professor of African American studies, becomes convinced that the novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, by Edgar Allen Poe is actually based on a true story and sets off to prove it, an adventure that eventually lands him in Antartica.  It's a very entertaining read, I recommend it.