Jim Genzano's Blog, page 4

On the Viewer - The Black Hole

 by Fëanor

I hadn't seen The Black Hole since I was a little kid, but I had powerful, positive isolated memories of it. Recently somebody online mentioned that it was available on Disney+, so I fired it up.



Oh my god, this movie is bonkers.



It came out in 1979, long before Disney owned Star Wars, and was apparently the studio's attempt to copy the success of A New Hope, which had just been released two years previously. It features cute little droids with goofy names, just like Star Wars, altho...

Book Report: Hyperion

 by Fëanor

I could have sworn I'd read Dan Simmons' Hyperion before and been disappointed by it, but maybe I was thinking of some other book. The overall story was vaguely familiar, especially "The Priest's Tale," but most of it was entirely new to me. And I'm still not sure how I feel about it. But I did read the whole thing, and now I want to read the sequel, so I certainly didn't hate it. It's a really interesting book, with some fascinating ideas and moving stories. Plus it ends on a damn cli...

On the Viewer - Unemployment Cinema

 by Fëanor

A benefit of being unemployed: I watched four (4) movies today. And most of them were good!



Shazam! - This was great. A ton of fun, with a moving character arc, and a wonderful message. Also, funny! Always nice to see an actually really good movie from DC that isn't unrelentingly grimdark.



Hellboy (2019) - This was disappointing. Some cool ideas, a few cool moments, but poor writing and execution. Usually I love Ian McShane, but I hated him in this for some reason. His character was ...

Book Report - Middlemarch

 by Fëanor

I really enjoyed Middlemarch. A tragicomedy of the human experience. A romantic drama that's often laugh-out-loud funny, with many wonderfully realized portraits of very memorable, very real characters.



My favorite character: Mrs. Cadwallader. She's hilarious. I wish there'd been more of her. Most likable character: Caleb Garth. Runner-up: Mr. Farebrother. Both just really nice, decent guys. Most unlikable character: Rosamond Vincy. John Raffles is also awful, but ugh, Rosamond just d...

On the Viewer - some movies

 by Fëanor

I saw some movies.



Avengers: Endgame - Perfect. The Infinity Saga is just an incredible cinematic achievement, and this is the triumphant capstone. I spontaneously cheered multiple times, I cried a lot, and I laughed. It finds clever ways to revisit all the characters and major events of the saga. It's brilliant, thrilling, rounds everything off in a really satisfying way, and paves the way to the future. I can't wait to see it again.



Glass - The third in Shyamalan's superhumans seri...

Book Report - Wolf in White Van and Universal Harvester

 by Fëanor

John Darnielle is better known as the heart and brains of a band called The Mountain Goats (who are great, by the way), but he has also written two novels, both of which are freakish, bizarre, puzzle-like, and completely unclassifiable. The first, Wolf in White Van, is about a man named Sean Phillips with a debilitating disfigurement that he acquired during an incident when he was a teen, an incident which the whole book revolves around. What happened, and why? You will eventually disc...

On the Viewer - Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

 by Fëanor

I don't know if you guys heard, but a new Star Wars movie came out recently. Rian Johnson is the director this time. I was excited to hear he'd be in charge, as I've enjoyed his work on Brick and Looper. There's some controversy over his film, however - critics love it, but many fans are angry about what he's done to their beloved Star Wars.



The odd thing is, in a way, the film itself addresses these criticisms. It's a Star Wars film that's at least in part about Star Wars - about leg...