Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 167

Now Playing: A Johnny Cash of the Soul in ‘Calvary’

Kelly Reilly and Brendan Gleeson in ‘Calvary’ (Fox Searchlight)

Back in 2011, Brendan Gleeson played a cynical, caustic cop on the remote western coast of Ireland for John Michael McDonagh’s crackling black comedy The Guard. InCalvary, the two reteam for another dark-hued story about violence, morality, and modern depravity. There’s gagsaplenty, but this is no comedy.

Calvary is playing now in limited release. My review is at PopMatters:

In Calvary, Father James (Brendan Gleeson) begins the wors...

New Books: In ‘California’ the World Has Gone to Hell for No Good Reason

Earlier this summer, first-time novelist Edan Lepucki caught a lucky break. Just as her debut bookCalifornia was due to come out, her publisher and Amazon got into a pricing dispute that caught the eye of Stephen Colbert. In an attempt to help out authors caught in the crossfire, Colbert chose Lepucki’s book as a title to champion. In his show’s appeal, he asked viewers to buy the book in droves—from anywhere but Amazon.

Now we can appreciate the novel itself, and not the furor around it.

My re...

Writer’s Corner: Publish Your Poetry

Walt Whitman (Library of Congress)

If you’re a poet, you’ve already most likely resigned yourself to a career filled with penury and frustration. Fortunately, every now and again, there comes a rare chance to make some money as a poet and (quelle surprise) actually get published in a formatthat ensurespeople who aren’t family and friends will read you.

According toPoets & Writers, The Academy of American Poets is making a couple changes to their Walt Whitman Award, which “isgiven to an emerging...

Department of Weekend Reading: August 8, 2014

Emotional events demand unemotional reporting.
AOL is still making money. Somehow.
What paranoid delusionssound like.
One god and seven angels; a primer tothe Yazidi faith.
Smart guns vs. dumb guns.
Don’t get caughtin the Moscow suburbs after dark.
Sassy to Bop: A tragic, illustrated history of shuttered teen magazines.
Take the train.
When people (we’re looking at you, Neil deGrasse Tyson) get just too darn smart.
Print and read: 100 years after World War I, here’s how World War III could easily happ...

Now Playing: ‘Into the Storm’ Destroys Many Buildings

Into the Storm: Perhaps running away from the tornado would be wise.(Warner Bros.)

So there’s a big tornado coming. No, make that a lot of tornadoes. What to do? Well, maybe just run right into it with your cameras rolling. That’s the basic premise forInto the Storm, a rather disastrous disaster flick that tries to updateTwister for the social media age.

My review ofInto the Storm, which blows into theaters for a likely very brief stint starting tomorrow,is at Film Journal International:

Sometim...

Now Playing: ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ Would Beat ‘The Avengers’ in a Dance-Off

Which of these Guardians of the Galaxy has an awesome mix-tape on their Walkman? (Marvel / Walt Disney Studios)

It’s big, it’s everywhere, it’s somehow much better than your average Marvel output—even Joss Whedon’s The Avengers. Guardians of the Galaxyis playing now throughout the known universe; check it out.

My article “Guardians of the Galaxy out-WhedonsThe Avengers”is atShort Ends & Leader:

There’s a lot to appreciate—and maybe even love—about Guardians of the Galaxy. The oozing and eager-to...

Reader’s Corner: Great Otherworldly Librarians

Batgirl, when she’s not shelving (courtesy DC Comics)

Readers of genre fiction—particularly science fiction and fantasy—have a special place in their hearts for bookstores, libraries, and other (preferably dark and quiet) repositories of the written word. While librarians would seem to most like a prickly breed, they tend to show up in worksof the fantastic as heroes, or at least very valuable allies.

Thanks tothe smart folks at Tor, here’s a look at some of the more awesome fantasy/sci-fi libr...

Department of Weekend Reading: August 1, 2014

Impeachment? Bring it on.
“Never have I met any candidate quiteas frightening or fact-averse” as this lady.
The modern era’s“seamless wall of white rage.”
Go paleowith bacteria baths and an all-sausage buffet.
“It was not a significant bullet. I am not afraid”: The (mostly imagined) journals of Werner Herzog.
Welcome to the suck: Brett Ratner to produceadaptation ofThe Goldfinch.
Print and read: Quarter Pounder beats the Third Pounder, and other examples of whoAmericans are just lousy at math.
Bonus...

Quote of the Day: Terry Southern on Hollywood, Writing, “Freakishness”

Somewhere in Southern California (Library of Congress)

Today’s bit of perception about one of America’s most over-analyzed, unloved, and misunderstood “cities” comes courtesy of surrealist pie-thrower and comic raconteurTerry Southern (Candy,Dr. Strangelove). Interviewed at length forThe Paris Review‘s occasional series on screenwriters(the interview took place in 1967 but wasn’t published until 2012)the Texas-born Southern expounded on that great Southern California sinkhole of creative energ...

Writer’s Corner: James Franco is a Poet Now, Too

At some point, you would think that the whirling creative polymath that is James Franco would settle down. Onetime heartthrob actor turned creatorof curious art installment films (Interior. Leather Bar), star of trashy-smart comedies (This Is the End), director of small-scale literary adaptations (As I Lay Dying), author of novels and short stories, and now: poetry.

Instead of going with a big press for his collection,Directing Herbert White, Franco smartly went with one of the more respected...