Chris Barsanti's Blog, page 173

Writer’s Corner: The Unbearable Whiteness of Creative Writing Programs

There has been a lot of talk over the past few yearsabout the worth of creative writing programs. They’ve been long derided as factories for bloodless mediocrity, churning out legions of well-schooled kids told to write what they know, when often they just don’t know that much of anything yet.

In Chad Harback’s 2010 essay,“MFA vs. NYC“,he points out that much of the hand-wringing about the churning out of “cringing, cautious, post-Carverite automatons” is besides the point:

…even if the writer...

New in Film: ‘The Double’

Jesse Eisenberg and Mia Wasikowska in ‘The Double’ (image courtesy of Magnolia Pictures)

In Dostoyevsky’s 1846 novelThe Double, a St. Petersburg bureaucrat encounters an identical version of himself, who proceeds to take over his life. In Richard Ayoade’s hallucinogenic, picaresque adaptation, Jesse Eisenberg plays both halves of the office-drone doppleganger—one an ignored sad sack who can’t get the girl and the other a life-of-the-party predator who can getanygirl. Frustration results.

The Do...

Department of Weekend Reading: May 9, 2014

Answers these three questions to prove your financial literacy.
Annals of non-regulation: Drone crashes into St. Louisskyscraper.
“Italy will never be a normal country.”
The White House, now with more solar panels.
Iran’s navy likes to build replicas of American ships so they can practice blowing them up.
Food is just so inefficient; meet Solyent.
Here is the most sexist piece yet on Lara Logan.
How the Taliban are helping to spread polio.
Print and read: “I thought I was ready for Pakistan.”

New in Film: ‘God’s Pocket’

Philip Seymour Hoffman and John Turturro in ‘God’s Pocket’ (image courtesy of IFC Films)

For his directorial debut, John Slattery (Mad Men) chose to adapt a seamy crime novel by Pete Dexter, stock it with a couple Academy Awards’ worth of talent—Richard Jenkins, John Turturro, Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his three posthumous roles to hit theaters this year—and then play the whole thing as a kind of cosmic gag. It very nearly works.

God’s Pocket is playing now in limited release.My review i...

Readers’ Corner: America’s Top Ten Books

“Reading the Bible,” Currier & Ives (Library of Congress)

The Bible is still the number one book in Americans’ hearts. At least, that’s according to a new poll by Harris Interactive that surveyed American adults to find out what their favorite book was. The rest of the top ten books are all fiction (insert atheist gag here), starting with the somewhat curious inclusion ofGone with the Wind at number two. Here’s the list:

The Bible
Gone with the Windby Margaret Mitchell
Harry Potter(series) by J.K...

Readers’ Corner: Whiskey and the Dylan Thomas Centenary

Dylan Thomas drank here: The White Horse Tavern, circa 1961 (Library of Congress)

The thunderously great poet Dylan Thomas would have turned 100 years old yesterday. So of course the date was used as an excuse to announce that Rhys Ifans would be playing the writer of “Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rave at close of day;Rage, rage against the dying of the light” in an upcoming film.

Whether Thomaswas done in by poor medical attention or the demon drink back in 195...

Department of Weekend Reading: May 2, 2014

So, has the whale exploded yet?
Drunkards and the British Isles, a brief history.
The drones are coming! And other tales of idiocy from the Nevada militia hootenanny.
Glorious things that won’t happen after he takes Letterman’s spot: Colbert vs. the anti-vaccinators.
City living, now with more sinking.
America, circa 2014: the isolationists have it.
Poison, rust, and danger: the shipbreakers ofBangladesh.
Bourbon, misogyny, and the fairer sex.
Weapons to Syrian rebels probably are ending up in the ha...

Quote of the Day: May Day, 2014

May Day Parade, New York (Library of Congress)

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

—”The Economic Bill of Rights,” Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Tribeca Film Festival, Awards Dispatch: ‘Zero Motivation’ and ‘Gueros’

(Image courtesy of the Tribeca Film Festival)

Two of the award-winning narrative films at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival didn’t quite fit the fest’s usual mold. NeitherZero Motivation(which won for best narrative feature) orGueros (best cinematography) were the usual small, tightly-focused chamber-piece dramas. Both had large ambitions that might have outstripped their abilities, but were thrilling nonetheless.

My review forPopMatters is here.

Zero Motivationis a deftIsraeli comedy set in a mili...

Tribeca Film Festival, Part III: ‘Match’ and ’1971′

Two common Tribeca tropes in this pair of reviews: an interesting but underwhelming drama with name performers doing their level best and a solid historical documentary that’s practically required viewing. My most recent dispatch from the Tribeca Film Festival is here.

The drama is Stephen Belber’sMatch, a three-performer melodrama about a high-strung, Wildean dance instructor (Patrick Stewart) who gets an unwelcome blast from his wild past:

Matchis a tight, comically uncomfortable little box o...