David M. Brown's Blog, page 20

Masterpieces #28: The World According to Garp

About The World According to Garp (1978) This is the life and times of T. S. Garp, the bastard son of Jenny Fields–a feminist leader ahead of her times. This is the life and death of a famous mother and her almost-famous son; theirs is a world of sexual extremes–even of sexual assassinations. It is a novel rich with “lunacy and sorrow”; yet the dark, violent events of the story do not undermine a comedy both ribald and robust. In more than thirty languages, in more than forty countries–with more than ten million copies in print–this novel provides almost cheerful, even hilarious evidence of its famous last line: “In the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases.”

The World According to Garp is a comic and compassionate coming-of-age novel that established John Irving as one of the most imaginative writers of his generation. A worldwide bestseller since its publication in 1978, Irving’s classic is filled with stories inside stories about the life and times of T. S. Garp, novelist and bastard son of Jenny Fields–a feminist leader ahead of her time. Beyond that, The World According to Garp virtually defies synopsis.

 

 

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John Irving – The World According to Garp (1978)

The novel takes place over many decades, beginning with a nurse, Jenny Shields, who has no desire for a husband but does wish to be a mother. When TS Garp, a ball turret gunner, is admitted to hospital with severe brain damage from combat, Jenny takes advantage of his repeated sexual arousal by impregnating herself and naming her resulting son Garp. Raising Garp alone, Jenny takes a position at an all boys school and the novel traces Garp’s entire life. We learn of his early interest in sex, wrestling and writing fiction and see him write stories and novels, which are eventually published. Aside from his writing, Garp has a marriage full of deception with his wife, Helen, as both indulge in affairs but remain united in being good parents to their children. Garp in particular is determined to protect his children from harm at all costs.

Irving’s gift is in raising smiles but delivering unbelievable tragedy. A notable scene in A Widow For One Year saw Ruth Cole learn how her two brothers, Thomas and Timothy, were both killed before she was even born. Garp also contains a devastating moment that leaves physical and emotional scars on Garp and his wife, Helen. There is an air of fragility throughout the novel and while many writers would have us feeling safe that no tragedies will befall the characters whose lives we share, Irving can lead us down the same path before throwing a shocking twist into the mix when we least expect it. Garp is constantly aware of his own mortality and his fear of death drives him to do the best for his family, especially his children. Garp soon learns, however, that we simply can’t protect everybody we care for from harm no matter how hard we try.

As with other Irving novels there is a heavy emphasis on writing. Garp and Jenny spend some time in Vienna where a young Garp begins to hone his skills as an author. Garp spends a long time working on a story, The Pension Grillparzer, of which multiple extracts appear in the book, steadying the novel’s frantic pace. There is a suggestion that many elements of the novel are autobiographical with Garp’s novels similar to Irving’s in their theme and content, while his third book entitled, The World According to Bensenhaver, proves to be a success for Garp, just as The World According to Garp would be for Irving. A strange coincidence indeed! While constantly obsessed with anxiety about death, Garp continues to struggle with his writing for much of the novel. Ironically, Jenny Shields, who once frowned upon Garp’s love of wrestling, sex and writing becomes more famous than her son after publishing her only book, A Sexual Suspect. Jenny’s book propels her to the forefront of the Feminist Movement where she becomes a key figurehead sought by many women.

Through the relationships and tragic events, Irving’s characters are in constant development though Garp retains his fear of death and the need to protect his children until the novel’s climax. What fates await Garp, his family and his mother, Jenny, I will not reveal. What I can promise is there are many surprises along the way and the book’s most tragic moment stays with you long after you’ve turned the last page. It’s extraordinary but at the same time frighteningly believable. Lives can be changed irreparably in a mere second and Irving is one of the masters at conveying the delicacy of such a small moment in time.

The World According to Garp is an epic journey where mother and son seem to be vying for the reader’s attention until Irving finally does shift our focus to Garp. The novel’s portrayals of relationships – marriage, parenting, friendship, lovers – are all vividly expressed. Writers will find much to relate with in Garp’s personal struggle towards success while parents will undoubtedly relate to the fears we have for our children as they grow up in a world that is far from perfect. Mortality ensures that everything comes to an end eventually and this is not better reflected than in the line, “But in the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases.”

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This Month’s Films (September 2014)

George Washington (2000)

Over the course of one hot summer, a group of children in the decaying rural South must confront a tangle of difficult choices. An ambitiously constructed, elegantly photographed meditation on adolescence, the first full-length film by director David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express) features remarkable performances from an award-winning ensemble cast. George Washington is a startling and distinct work of contemporary American independent cinema.

Verdict: 7/10

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Fear and Desire (1953)

An existential war film that is often compared with Kubrick’s PATHS OF GLORY (1957) among three Kubrick films selected for the Library’s National Film Registry-and FULL METAL JACKET (1987), FEAR AND DESIRE follows a squad of soldiers who have crash-landed behind enemy lines and must work their way downriver to rejoin their unit.

In the process, they encounter a peasant girl (Virginia Leith) and tie her to a tree, where she is tormented by a mentally unbalanced soldier (future director Paul Mazursky). Before making their escape, the soldiers determine the location of an enemy base and formulate a plot to assassinate its commanding officer.

Independently financed, and shot by a skeleton crew – with Kubrick controlling almost every aspect of production – FEAR AND DESIRE was conceived as a European-style art film, cloaked in the guise of a Hollywood war picture. Kubrick described the film to distributor Joseph Burstyn as allegorical and poetic. ”A drama of ‘man’, lost in a hostile world-deprived of material and spiritual foundations-seeking his way to an understanding of himself, and of life around him.”

Verdict: 6/10

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ID:A (2011)

A woman wakes up in a river. Wounded and without memory, then races to elude mysterious followers and recover from amnesia.

Verdict: 7/10

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Gate of Hell (1953)

A winner of Academy Awards for best foreign-language film and best costume design, GATE OF HELL is a visually sumptuous, psychologically penetrating work from Teinosuke Kinugasa (A Page of Madness). In the midst of epic, violent intrigue in twelfth-century Japan, an imperial warrior falls for a lady-in-waiting; even after he discovers she is married, he goes to extreme lengths to win her love. Kinugasa’s film is an unforgettable, tragic story of obsession and unrequited passion that was an early triumph of color cinematography in Japan.

Verdict: 8/10

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House (1977)

How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie HOUSE (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home and comes face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions, all realized by Obayashi via a series of mattes, animation, and collage effects. Equal parts absurd and nightmarish, HOUSE might have been beamed to Earth from some other planet. Never before available on home video in the United States, it’s one of the most exciting cult discoveries in years.

Verdict: 6/10

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A Passage to India (1984)

Set in 1928, this film portrays an indelibly sardonic picture of British life in territorial India.The story concerns Adela Quested, who is a free-spirited British woman, played by (Judy Davis), whohas settled in India and is to marry Ronny Heaslop (Nigel Havers), a town magistrate. She is befriended by the charming Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee), but it’s a friendship that ultimately leads to tragedy.

Verdict: 7/10

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War Horse (2011)

From legendary director Steven Spielberg comes the epic adventure War Horse, a tale of incredible loyalty, hope, and tenacity. Based on the Tony Award-winning Broadway play, and set against the sweeping canvas of World War I, this deeply heartfelt story begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and his young trainer Albert. When they’re forced apart by war, we follow Joey’s extraordinary journey as he changes and inspires the lives of everyone he meets. Filled with spectacularly rich visuals — and complete with never-before-seen bonus features —War Horse is a “Genuine movie masterpiece,” (Rex Reed, The New York Observer) and one of the most powerful and moving stories of friendship ever told.

Verdict: 7/10

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Il Bidone (1955)

In Fellini’s sardonically humorous, yet powerfully dramatic IL BIDONE, three small-time crooks impersonate priests in Rome to con poor people out of their money. Academy Award winner Broderick Crawford is extraordinary as the group’s world weary leader, whose chance meeting with his daughter opens his eyes to his wrongdoing. Too late, he suffers a crisis of conscience in this absorbing tale of hope, desperation and, finally, redemption. One of Fellini’s most realistic films, IL BIDONE begins as an Italian comedy of errors, its swindles reminiscent of The Sting, yet there is true sting in its harsh portrayal of greed and squalor. The middle chapter in Fellini’s “trilogy of loneliness” between La Strada and Nights of Cabiria, this classic film will tug at your heart and astonish you with its aching sense of compassion. Music by Nino Rota (The Godfather, Rocco and His Brothers).

Verdict: 8/10

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La Vie En Rose (2007)

Picturehouse and HBO Films present a critically-acclaimed biopic about the legendary international singing icon Edith Piaf, whose voice and talent captivated the world. Starring award-winner Marion Cotillard (A Very Long Engagement, A Good Year) in an astonishing performance, the film is a portrait of a remarkable artist born into poverty who survived using the only gift she had her voice. Piaf’s tragic life was a constant battle to sing and survive, to live and love, with no regrets.

Verdict: 9/10

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Floating Weeds (1959)

The head of a Japanese theatre troupe returns to a small coastal town where he left a son who thinks he is his uncle, and tries to make up for the lost time, but his current mistress grows jealous.

Verdict: 8/10

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Kuroneko (1968)

In this poetic and atmospheric horror fable, set in a village in war-torn medieval Japan, a malevolent spirit has been ripping out the throats of itinerant samurai. When a military hero is sent to dispatch the unseen force, he finds that he must struggle with his own personal demons as well. From Kaneto Shindo, director of the terror classic Onibaba, Kuroneko (Black Cat) is a spectacularly eerie twilight tale with a shocking feminist angle, evoked through ghostly special effects and exquisite cinematography.

Verdict: 8/10

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M (1931)

On moratorium since the end of March, Fritz Lang’s serial killer thriller starring Peter Lorre returns to DVD in a fully restored, special edition double-disc set. A simple, haunting musical phrase whistled off-screen tells us that a young girl will be killed. “Who is the murderer?” pleads a nearby placard as serial killer Hans Beckert (Lorre) closes in on little Elsie Beckmann… In his harrowing masterwork, Lang merged trenchant social commentary with chilling suspense, creating a panorama of private madness and public hysteria that to this day remains the blueprint for the psychological thriller. The Criterion Collection is proud to present a new restoration of this landmark film in an all-new two-disc set, also including audio commentary by two German film scholars; an interview film Conversation with Fritz Lang, directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection); a short film inspired by M by director Claude Chabrol (La Ceremonie, Les Biches); classroom tapes of M’s editor discussing the film and its history; and much more.

Verdict: 9/10

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Confessions (2010)

A psychological thriller of a grieving mother turned cold-blooded avenger with a twisty master plan to pay back those who were responsible for her daughter’s death.

Verdict: 8/10 

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This Month’s Books (September 2014)

The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914 (2013)

The First World War followed a period of sustained peace in Europe during which people talked with confidence of prosperity, progress, and hope. But in 1914, Europe walked into a catastrophic conflict that killed millions, bled its economies dry, shook empires and societies to pieces, and fatally undermined Europe’s dominance of the world. It was a war that could have been avoided up to the last moment—so why did it happen?

Beginning in the early nineteenth century and ending with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, award-winning historian Margaret Macmillan uncovers the huge political and technological changes, national decisions, and just as important, the small moments of human muddle and weakness that led Europe from peace to disaster. This masterful exploration of how Europe chose its path towards war will change and enrich how we see this defining moment in history.

Verdict: 3/5

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Brian Cox & Jeffrey R. Forshaw – Why Does E=mc²? (2009)

The most accessible, entertaining, and enlightening explanation of the best-known physics equation in the world, as rendered by two of today’s leading scientists.

Professor Brian Cox and Professor Jeff Forshaw go on a journey to the frontier of 21st century science to consider the real meaning behind the iconic sequence of symbols that make up Einstein’s most famous equation, E=mc2. Breaking down the symbols themselves, they pose a series of questions: What is energy? What is mass? What has the speed of light got to do with energy and mass? In answering these questions, they take us to the site of one of the largest scientific experiments ever conducted. Lying beneath the city of Geneva, straddling the Franco-Swiss boarder, is a 27 km particle accelerator, known as the Large Hadron Collider. Using this gigantic machine—which can recreate conditions in the early Universe fractions of a second after the Big Bang—Cox and Forshaw will describe the current theory behind the origin of mass.

Alongside questions of energy and mass, they will consider the third, and perhaps, most intriguing element of the equation: ‘c’ – or the speed of light. Why is it that the speed of light is the exchange rate? Answering this question is at the heart of the investigation as the authors demonstrate how, in order to truly understand why E=mc2, we first must understand why we must move forward in time and not backwards and how objects in our 3-dimensional world actually move in 4-dimensional space-time. In other words, how the very fabric of our world is constructed. A collaboration between two of the youngest professors in the UK, Why Does E=mc2? promises to be one of the most exciting and accessible explanations of the theory of relativity in recent years.

Verdict: 3/5

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Matthew Quick – The Good Luck of Right Now (2014)

Call it fate. Call it synchronicity. Call it an act of God. Call it . . . The Good Luck of Right Now. From the New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook comes an entertaining and inspiring tale that will leave you pondering the rhythms of the universe and marveling at the power of kindness and love.

For thirty-eight years, Bartholomew Neil has lived with his mother. When she gets sick and dies, he has no idea how to be on his own. His redheaded grief counselor, Wendy, says he needs to find his flock and leave the nest. But how does a man whose whole life has been grounded in his mom, Saturday mass, and the library learn how to fly?

Bartholomew thinks he’s found a clue when he discovers a “Free Tibet” letter from Richard Gere hidden in his mother’s underwear drawer. In her final days, mom called him Richard—there must be a cosmic connection. Believing that the actor is meant to help him, Bartholomew awkwardly starts his new life, writing Richard Gere a series of highly intimate letters. Jung and the Dalai Lama, philosophy and faith, alien abduction and cat telepathy, the Catholic Church and the mystery of women are all explored in his soul-baring epistles. But mostly the letters reveal one man’s heartbreakingly earnest attempt to assemble a family of his own.

A struggling priest, a “Girlbrarian,” her feline-loving, foul-mouthed brother, and the spirit of Richard Gere join the quest to help Bartholomew. In a rented Ford Focus, they travel to Canada to see the cat Parliament and find his biological father . . . and discover so much more.

Verdict: 4/5

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Bart D. Ehrman – Truth and Fiction in the Da Vinci Code (2000)

In his staggeringly popular work of fiction, Dan Brown states up front that the historical information in the The Da Vinci Code is all factually accurate. But is this claim true? As historian Bart D. Ehrman shows in this informative and witty book, The Da Vinci Code is filled with numerous historical mistakes.

Did the ancient church engage in a cover-up to make the man Jesus into a divine figure? Did Emperor Constantine select for the New Testament–from some 80 contending Gospels–the only four Gospels that stressed that Jesus was divine? Was Jesus Christ married to Mary Magdalene? Did the Church suppress Gospels that told the secret of their marriage? Bart Ehrman thoroughly debunks all of these claims. But the book is not merely a laundry list of Brown’s misreading of history. Throughout, Ehrman offers a wealth of fascinating background information–all historically accurate–on early Christianity. He describes, for instance, the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls; outlines in simple terms how scholars of early Christianity determine which sources are most reliable; and explores the many other Gospels that have been found in the last half century. In his engaging book, Ehrman separates fact from fiction, the historical realities from the flights of literary fancy. Anyone who would like to know the truth about the beginnings of Christianity and the real truth behind The Da Vinci Code will find this book riveting.

Verdict: 3/5

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Simon Winchester – The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary (1998)

The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary — and literary history. The compilation of the OED began in 1857, it was one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken. As definitions were collected, the overseeing committee, led by Professor James Murray, discovered that one man, Dr. W. C. Minor, had submitted more than ten thousand. When the committee insisted on honoring him, a shocking truth came to light: Dr. Minor, an American Civil War veteran, was also an inmate at an asylum for the criminally insane.

Verdict: 4/5

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Matthew Kneale – An Atheist’s History of Belief: Understanding Our Most Extraordinary Invention (2013)

What first prompted prehistoric man, sheltering in the shadows of deep caves, to call upon the realm of the spirits? And why has belief thrived since, shaping thousands of generations of shamans, pharaohs, Aztec priests and Mayan rulers, Jews, Buddhists, Christians, Nazis, and Scientologists?

As our dreams and nightmares have changed over the millennia, so have our beliefs. The gods we created have evolved and mutated with us through a narrative fraught with human sacrifice, political upheaval and bloody wars.

Belief was man’s most epic labor of invention. It has been our closest companion, and has followed mankind across the continents and through history.

 

Verdict: 4/5

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Andrew Roberts – The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War (2009)

From “Britain’s finest military historian” (The Economist) comes a magisterial new history of World War II and the flawed axis strategy that led to their defeat.

The Second World War lasted for 2,174 days, cost $1.5 trillion, and claimed the lives of more than 50 million people. What were the factors that affected the war’s outcome? Why did the Axis lose? And could they, with a different strategy, have won? Andrew Roberts’s acclaimed new history has been hailed as the finest single-volume account of this epic con?ict. From the western front to North Africa, from the Baltic to the Far East, he tells the story of the war—the grand strategy and the individual experience, the cruelty and the heroism—as never before.

In researching this magnificently vivid history, Roberts walked many of the key battlefields and wartime sites in Russia, France, Italy, Germany, and the Far East, and drew on a number of never-before-published documents, such as a letter from Hitler’s director of military operations explaining the reasoning behind the Führer’s order to halt the Panzers outside Dunkirk—a delay that enabled British forces to evacuate. Roberts illuminates the principal actors on both sides and analyzes how they reached critical decisions. He also presents the tales of many little-known individuals whose experiences form a panoply of the extraordinary courage and self-sacrifice, as well as the terrible depravity and cruelty, of the Second World War.

Meticulously researched and masterfully written, The Storm of War gives a dramatic account of this momentous event and shows in remarkable detail why the war took the course it did.

Verdict: 4/5

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Lesley-Ann Jones – Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury (1998)

Revealing and intimate, based on more than 100 interviews with key figures in his life, this is the definitive biography of Queen front man Freddie Mercury, one of pop music’s best-loved and most complex figures.

As lead vocalist for the iconic rock band Queen, Freddie Mercury’s unmatched skills as a songwriter and flamboyant showmanship made him a superstar, and Queen a household name. But few people ever really glimpsed the man behind the glittering faÇade.     

Mercury was the first major rock star to die from AIDS. Now, twenty years after his death, those closest to him are finally opening up about this pivotal figure in rock n’ roll. With unprecedented access to Mercury’s tribe, rock journalist Lesley-Ann Jones has crafted the definitive account of Mercury’s legendary life. Jones details Queen’s slow but steady rise to fame, and Mercury’s descent into dangerous, pleasure-seeking excesses. Jones doesn’t shy away from Mercury’s often colorful lifestyle—this was, after all, a man who once declared, “Darling, I’m doing everything with everyone.”    

In her journey to understand Mercury, Jones traveled to London, Zanzibar, and India—talking with everyone from Freddie’s closest friends, to the sound engineer at Band Aid (who was responsible for making Queen louder than the other bands), to second cousins halfway around the world, an intimate and complicated portrait emerges. Meticulously researched, sympathetic yet not sensational, Mercury offers an unvarnished, revealing look at the extreme highs and lows of life in the fast lane.     

Freddie Mercury will be the subject of a major motion picture titledMercury, slated for 2012 production, produced by Graham King, starring Sacha Baron Cohen. This book is a key source for the film. Mercury is the most compelling, up-to-date portrait of an enigmatic entertainer who thrilled audiences around the world with a magnetism matched by few performers.

 

Verdict: 4/5

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Atul Gawande – Complications: A Surgeon’s Notes on an Imperfect Science (2002)

In gripping accounts of true cases, surgeon Atul Gawande explores the power and the limits of medicine, offering an unflinching view from the scalpel’s edge. Complications lays bare a science not in its idealized form but as it actually is—uncertain, perplexing, and profoundly human. 

Complications is a 2002 National Book Award Finalist for Nonfiction.

 

Verdict: 5/5

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Stewart Foster: We Used To Be Kings (2014)

Six years ago Tom’s brother died. The next day he came back.

It’s Tom and Jack’s 18th birthday, but it isn’t a cause for celebration. For the past three years they’ve been in a care home for troubled children, a place where Dr Smith tries to silence the voice of Jack in Tom’s head. But Tom doesn’t want that. He’s already lost his brother once, he’s not going to lose him again.

And so, when they go in front of the review board, they will have to pretend Jack has gone so they won’t be sent to the Young Men’s Institution or they’ll have to escape. Because one way or another they’ve got to get out of this place. They’ve got to be free, they’ve got to remember everything that happened to them, to their mum, and to their dad.They have to find their dad, whom they haven’t seen since he left on a space mission to the moon when they were young.

We Used To Be Kings is the story of a young boy’s descent into madness following the loss of everything he knows. Set in the 1970s, it is reminiscent of unusually hot summers, pictures of Russians in space and war on our doorstep. It’s an audacious, at times hilarious story that is ultimately heartbreaking and unforgettable.

Verdict: 3/5

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Jennifer Michael Hecht – Stay: A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It (2013)

Worldwide, more people die by suicide than by murder, and many more are left behind to grieve. Despite distressing statistics that show suicide rates rising, the subject, long a taboo, is infrequently talked about. In this sweeping intellectual and cultural history, poet and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht channels her grief for two friends lost to suicide into a search for history’s most persuasive arguments against the irretrievable act, arguments she hopes to bring back into public consciousness. From the Stoics and the Bible to Dante, Shakespeare, Wittgenstein, and such twentieth-century writers as John Berryman, Hecht recasts the narrative of our “secular age” in new terms. She shows how religious prohibitions against self-killing were replaced by the Enlightenment’s insistence on the rights of the individual, even when those rights had troubling applications. This transition, she movingly argues, resulted in a profound cultural and moral loss: the loss of shared, secular, logical arguments against suicide. By examining how people in other times have found powerful reasons to stay alive when suicide seems a tempting choice, she makes a persuasive intellectual and moral case against suicide.

Verdict: 2/5

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Matt Haig – Humans (2013)

The critically acclaimed author of The Radleys shares a clever, heartwarming, and darkly insightful novel about an alien who comes to Earth to save humans from themselves.

“I was not Professor Andrew Martin. That is the first thing I should say. He was just a role. A disguise. Someone I needed to be in order to complete a task.”

The narrator of this tale is no ordinary human—in fact, he’s not human at all. Before he was sent away from the distant planet he calls home, precision and perfection governed his life. He lived in a utopian society where mathematics transformed a people, creating limitless knowledge and immortality.

But all of this is suddenly threatened when an earthly being opens the doorway to the same technology that the alien planet possesses. Cambridge University professor Andrew Martin cracks the Reimann Hypothesis and unknowingly puts himself and his family in grave danger when the narrator is sent to Earth to erase all evidence of the solution and kill anyone who has seen the proof. The only catch: the alien has no idea what he’s up against.

Disgusted by the excess of disease, violence, and family strife he encounters, the narrator struggles to pass undetected long enough to gain access to Andrew’s research. But in picking up the pieces of the professor’s shattered personal life, the narrator sees hope and redemption in the humans’ imperfections and begins to question the very mission that brought him there.

Verdict: 5/5

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Fritz Wenisch – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: Differences, Commonalities, and Community (2011)

This text seeks to provide a guided examination of what unites and divides the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic communities. With over twenty-five years of experience teaching in the subject area, Dr. Fritz Wenisch begins to unravel this complex and often contentious topic by first discussing the legal injunctions applying to religious studies courses at secular U.S. universities. He investigates the type of monotheism each religion shares before providing an in-depth overview of each religion one by one. An emphasis is placed on the specific teachings of each religion, with consideration given to their practices and their historical development.

Verdict: 3/5

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Masterpieces #27: Spirited Away

About Spirited Away (2001) Master animator Hayao Miyazaki directs this fantasy adventure about Chihiro, a ten-year-old girl who is leaving behind everything she knows to move with her parents to a new home. Along the way, they stumble across a tunnel that leads to a spooky, deserted open-air restaurant where Chihiro’s parents sit down and begin to eat. But she is uncomfortable with their new surroundings and wanders off to explore further. She meets a boy, Haku, who explains to her that the world they have entered is a holiday resort for spirits who have left behind their exhausting earthly duties. After discovering that her greedy parents have been turned into pigs, she learns the number one rule of the new world she is now part of: laziness is not tolerated, and only working hard can enable her to break the spell on her parents. With its fantastical critique of an adult world of capitalism and wasteful consumption, entwined with the simple tale of a girl finding herself and learning to get by on her own, the film has been dubbed a modern-day ‘Alice in Wonderland’, and won an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

 

 

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Spirited Away (2001)

Hayao Miyazaki has retired for what he assures us is the last time, having previously revoked such claims. The Japanese maestro has been responsible for some of the finest animated films of the last 30 years weighing in with the likes of Laputa (1986), My Neighbour Totoro (1988) and Princess Mononoke (1997). However, it is his Oscar winning classic, Spirited Away (2001) that I have put forward as Miyazaki’s finest.

Worryingly, the film almost never happened. Ready for retirement after Princess Mononoke, Hayao Miyazaki was only persuaded to return to work after meeting the daughter of a friend, with the little girl being the inspiration for the film’s protagonist, Chihiro.

The beauty of Spirited Away is in the transformation of Chihiro. She begins the film as a spoilt brat, complaining at her parents for moving house and unhappy at the prospect of starting a new school. Chihiro is forced to fend for herself when her parents are turned into pigs and imprisoned by Yubaba, ruler of a bathhouse devoted to the cleansing of visiting spirits. Forced to work for survival, Chihiro gradually displays a resilience that enables her to overcome the many challenges she faces.

The scenes in Spirited Away are immaculate from the frantic workers in the bathhouse to the flight of Chihiro’s friend, Haku, when he takes on the form of a dragon. However, the best comes near the end when Chihiro goes on a train journey. The railway is surrounded by water with the tracks barely protruding from the surface. At this point a long contemplative shot of Chihiro is enough evidence that she has changed dramatically on this truly remarkable journey.

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Masterpieces #26: Bioshock

About Bioshock (2007) BioShock lets you do the impossible as you explore a mysterious underwater city. When your plane crashes, you discover Rapture – an underwater Utopia torn apart by civil war. Caught between powerful forces and hunted down by genetically modified “splicers” and deadly security systems, you have to come to grips with a deadly, mysterious world filled with powerful technology and fascinating characters. As little girls loot the dead, and biologically mutated citizens ambush you at every turn. Now you’re trapped, caught in the middle of a genetic war that will challenge both your capacity to survive and your moral allegiance to your own humanity. Make meaningful and mature decisions that culminate in the grand question – do you exploit the innocent survivors of Rapture to save yourself – or risk all to become their savior?

 

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Bioshock (2007)

History proves that for most great civilizations there is often a gradual rise to power before an inevitable descent into subjugation, making way for the next dominant force. Bioshock depicts such a fall from grace, the epic dream of Andrew Ryan manifested in his glorious underwater city, Rapture, that from the outside appears to be a form of paradise but within the vortex dwells the remnants of a crumbled society.

Set in 1960, the story opens spectacularly with Jack, a lone survivor of a crash in the Atlantic Ocean, swimming through the cold water, illuminated by the burning remnants of the ruined plane, searching for sanctuary. A lighthouse perched on a small island offers Jack the solace he needs and once inside he descends beneath the ocean into Rapture, the city lights glowing bright against the enshrouding darkness of the watery depths. Appearances are often misleading and this is the case for Jack who hasn’t even stepped foot in Rapture before he witnesses the brutal murder of one of the city’s residents. Rather than a thriving utopia, Rapture is a city plagued by inhabitants driven to violence against strangers and even each other, rooms and corridors are haunted by the ghostly voices of the dead captured in recorders, while water leaks from the ceiling and has flooded many sections. On his arrival Jack is contacted by Atlas, one of Rapture’s residents who is eager to help you survive in exchange for your efforts in rescuing both him and his family. Your efforts are hindered by the father of Rapture, Andrew Ryan, who will stop at nothing to oppose both you and Atlas.

Though a first person shooter, Bioshock contains many forms of combat. You begin with a humble wrench to floor your foes but soon move on to more priceless acquisitions – a pistol, a shotgun, a grenade launcher, a machine gun, there’s always plenty of choice. Weapons are wielded in your right hand while your left hand is reserved for the use of plasmids – genetic modifications allowing Jack to wield unique skills such as electricity, fire, telekinesis and so on. To obtain such power, Jack must join the rest of Rapture’s society in the relentless pursuit of ADAM. Produced from sea slugs that have taken root in human hosts, ADAM can be transferred at a Gatherer’s Garden into either plasmids or gene tonics, an array of enhancements that can augment your health, intelligence or strength. The plasmids you wield are powered by a serum known as EVE, which along with your health, are visible as blue and red bars in the top left hand corner of the screen. Keeping your stocks of first aid kits and EVE topped up is vital to survival in the decadent hallways of Rapture. As you gather further plasmids and gene tonics you will have a limited amount of slots to allocate them to so prioritising becomes a mainstay of Bioshock. Maintaining supplies is made relatively straightforward thanks to a plethora of vending machines where you can use any money you have pilfered from corpses or rooms to purchase ammunition, first aid kits, EVE, upgrade weapons and invent new items.

As you progress through the game the story slowly unravels via the advice of Atlas and the interjections of Andrew Ryan, while scattered recordings create the backdrop to Rapture. Atlas will give Jack a series of objectives for each section, whether it’s taking out powerful enemies or individuals, flicking switches or heading to new areas. For every task you are given, an arrow will appear at the top of the screen to ensure you are not wandering around aimlessly. Though Atlas can prepare you for many of the challenges that await he cannot predict where and when you will encounter enemies. The bulk of the foes you face will be Rapture’s ADAM addicted residents known as Splicers, many so consumed by their obsession for enhancement that genetic modifications have led to disfigurement and the need to hide their waking nightmares behind masks. Splicers vary with some wielding bars, guns and others able to hurl fireballs at you. Security cameras and turrets are also lying in wait to hinder you but Jack is able to hack Rapture’s security network, not only disabling these mechanical threats but turning them against the Splicers. Nice. Such threats, however, are superseded by one enemy that truly defines Bioshock, taking proud place on the game’s cover – Big Daddies. Throughout Rapture you will occasionally come across girls with large syringes that extract ADAM from corpses. These are the Little Sisters and you will need to capture them to obtain their ADAM. However, each Little Sister is accompanied by a Big Daddy, guardians in metal diving suits whose heavy bulk does not prevent them moving at frightening speed to protect their companions. Big Daddies are the most terrifying enemies you will face and there is no avoiding combat with them if you want to progress. After defeating a Big Daddy you have the choice of harvesting or rescuing the defenceless Little Sister. Each girl has one of the sea slugs that produces ADAM inside them. Harvesting removes a great deal of ADAM from a sister but kills them whereas rescuing her removes a lesser amount of ADAM but the sister survives and your generosity is later rewarded. Bioshock’s moral dilemma and how you approach it impacts on the ending of the game where three conclusions are possible dependent on your actions.

I’m not usually a big fan of first person shooters but found myself completely absorbed into the world of Bioshock. The combat was easy to grasp, the story was deeply engaging with some clever twists along the way and Rapture is portrayed beautifully throughout as the remnants of Andrew Ryan’s failed dream. Bioshock 2 didn’t quite reach the same heights but Bioshock: Infinite was a welcome return to form though a vastly different experience to the one here. The original is the place to start though: an engaging FPS masterpiece.

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This Month’s Books (August 2014)

Alex Ross – The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century (2007)

The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century is a voyage into the labyrinth of modern music, which remains an obscure world for most people. While paintings of Picasso and Jackson Pollock sell for a hundred million dollars or more, and lines from T. S. Eliot are quoted on the yearbook pages of alienated teenagers across the land, twentieth-century classical music still sends ripples of unease through audiences. At the same time, its influence can be felt everywhere. Atonal chords crop up in jazz. Avant-garde sounds populate the soundtracks of Hollywood thrillers. Minimalism has had a huge effect on rock, pop, and dance music from the Velvet Underground onward.

The Rest Is Noise shows why twentieth-century composers felt compelled to create a famously bewildering variety of sounds, from the purest beauty to the purest noise. It tells of a remarkable array of maverick personalities who resisted the cult of the classical past, struggled against the indifference of a wide public, and defied the will of dictators. Whether they have charmed audiences with sweet sounds or battered them with dissonance, composers have always been exuberantly of the present, defying the stereotype of classical music as a dying art. The narrative goes from Vienna before the First World War to Paris in the twenties, from Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Russia to downtown New York in the sixties and seventies. We follow the rise of mass culture and mass politics, of dramatic new technologies, of hot and cold wars, of experiments, revolutions, riots, and friendships forged and broken. The end result is not so much a history of twentieth-century music as a history of the twentieth century through its music.

Verdict: 3/5

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Donnie Eichar – Dead Mountain: The Untold True Story of the Dyatlov Pass Incident (2013)

In February 1959, a group of nine experienced hikers in the Russian Ural Mountains died mysteriously on an elevation known as Dead Mountain. Eerie aspects of the incident—unexplained violent injuries, signs that they cut open and fled the tent without proper clothing or shoes, a strange final photograph taken by one of the hikers, and elevated levels of radiation found on some of their clothes—have led to decades of speculation over what really happened. This gripping work of literary nonfiction delves into the mystery through unprecedented access to the hikers’ own journals and photographs, rarely seen government records, dozens of interviews, and the author’s retracing of the hikers’ fateful journey in the Russian winter. A fascinating portrait of the young hikers in the Soviet era, and a skillful interweaving of the hikers narrative, the investigators’ efforts, and the author’s investigations, here for the first time is the real story of what happened that night on Dead Mountain.

Verdict: 4/5

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John Green – The Fault in Our Stars (2012)

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

Verdict: 4/5

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Edmund Conway – 50 Economics Ideas (2009)

Edmund Conway, economics editor of the Daily Telegraph, introduces and explains the central concepts of economics in a series of 50 accessible and engaging essays. Beginning with the basic theories, such as Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ and the law of supply and demand, and concluding with the latest thinking on the links between wealth and happiness and the shape of 21st century economics, he sheds light on all the essential topics needed to understand booms and busts, bulls and bears, and the way the world really works.

Verdict: 3/5

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Nathan Filer – The Shock of the Fall (2013)

‘I’ll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name’s Simon. I think you’re going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he’ll be dead. And he was never the same after that.’

There are books you can’t stop reading, which keep you up all night.

There are books which let us into the hidden parts of life and make them vividly real.

There are books which, because of the sheer skill with which every word is chosen, linger in your mind for days.

The Shock of the Fall is all of these books.

The Shock of the Fall is an extraordinary portrait of one man’s descent into mental illness. It is a brave and groundbreaking novel from one of the most exciting new voices in fiction.

Verdict: 3/5

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Firm Bum or Tasty Buns – The Battle Begins (+ Flapjack Recipe)

Mr B and I have now been in our new house for a little over a month and so far, so good. Reinvigorated by a) sleep b) a distinct lack of noisy neighbours c) no damp/mold/leaks and d) a kitchen you could (probably) swing a cat in (but don’t suggest that to Mr B!), I am in full on baking and cooking mode. Hooray!

So, it seems this is a good time to begin the Couch to 5k challenge. I had my first run on Saturday with seasoned veteran Mr B (who has long since surpassed this challenge). Surprisingly, despite suffering with knee problems for years, they seem to feel better for the challenge, not worse. Thank you Inov-8 shoes, I guess.

Saturday saw the beginning of the Couch to 5k challenge, followed by a bout of walking as we did the visiting rounds. Sunday saw Sunday lunch on the patio (oh, the joys of finally having somewhere to sit outside) followed by the baking of a quick batch of cookies and sticky treacle flapjacks.

Yes, I think I’m going to like it here very very much…

Sticky Treacle Flapjacks (Dessert, Traybake)

Prep 10 mins ∙ Cook 40 mins ∙ Makes 12 ∙ Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

300 g Oats
175 g Unsalted Butter
80 g Golden Syrup
90 g Black Treacle
175 g Muscovado Sugar

Directions

Melt butter on a low heat
Baste baking tray with small amount of melted butter
Stir in syrup, treacle and sugar until melted
Remove from heat
Stir in oats until all covered with the butter mix
Add to baking tray and level
Bake at 180° C for 40 minutes
Allow to cool for 10 minutes before slicing into squares
Remove squares from tray to a cooling rack until fully cooled

Notes Being a Yorkshire lass, I like my flapjacks to be a little darker and less sweet than the traditional mix. Think parkin, bonfire toffee etc. This makes for a lovely sticky mix, which I enjoy with a cuppa or a glass of dandelion and burdock.

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This Week’s Films (11/08/14)

Dry Summer (1963)

Two brothers, Osman and Hasan, disagree over allowing neighboring villagers to use the water on their land. Osman surrounds the water with barriers to prevent others from using it. Being a good man, Hasan argues that the others should also use the water.

Verdict: 6/10

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Sneakers (1992)

Robert Redford leads an all-star cast in one of the most satisfying suspense films! Computer expert Martin Bishop (Redford) heads a team of renegade hackers – including a former CIA employee (Sidney Poitier), a gadgets wizard (Dan Aykroyd), a young genius (River Phoenix) and a blind soundman (David Strathairn) – who are routinely hired to test security systems. But Bishop’s past comes back to haunt him when government agents blackmail the “sneakers” into carrying out a covert operation: tracking down an elusive black box. Along with his former girlfriend (Mary McDonnell), Bishop’s team retrieves the box and makes a stunning discovery – the device can break into any computer system in the world. With factions from all sides willing to kill for the powerful box, Bishop and his team embark on their most dangerous assignment ever in this exhilarating high-tech caper from Phil Alden Robinson (Field of Dreams).

Verdict: 7/10

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Marnie (1964)

Hitchcock creates a masterful psychological thriller about a compulsive liar and thief (Tippi Hedren), who winds up marrying the very man (Sean Connery) she attempts to rob. When a terrible accident pushes her over the edge, her husband struggles to help her face her demons as the plot races to an inescapable conclusion.

Verdict: 5/10

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Man Push Cart (2005)

Every night while the city sleeps, Ahmad, a former rock star in his native Pakistan, drags his heavy cart along the streets of New York. And every morning, he sells coffee and donuts to a city he cannot call his own. One day, the pattern of this harsh existence is broken by a glimmer of hope for a better life.

Verdict: 7/10

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Rush (2013)

Two-time Academy Award-winner Ron Howard delivers the exhilarating true story of a legendary rivalry that rocked the world. During the sexy and glamorous golden age of Formula 1 racing, two drivers emerged as the best: gifted English playboy James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth, The Avengers) and his methodical, brilliant Austrian opponent, Niki Lauda (Daniel Brühl, Inglourious Basterds). As they mercilessly clash on and off the Grand Prix racetrack, the two drivers push themselves to the breaking point of physical and psychological endurance, where there’s no shortcut to victory and no margin for error. Co-starring Olivia Wilde (TRON: Legacy), it’s the heart-racing, epic, action-drama that critics are calling “one of the best movies of this, or any, year” (Pete Hammond, Movieline).

Verdict: 9/10

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Helen (2008)

Helen is a teenage girl who, when asked by the police to play the stand-in for a reconstruction, realizes it gives her a chance to confront her own troubled past.

Verdict: 6/10

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Masterpieces #25: Wizard’s First Rule

About Wizard's First Rule (1994) The masterpiece that started The New York Times bestselling epic Sword of Truth.

In the aftermath of the brutal murder of his father, a mysterious woman, Kahlan Amnell, appears in Richard Cypher’s forest sanctuary seeking help . . . and more. His world, his very beliefs, are shattered when ancient debts come due with thundering violence.

In a dark age it takes courage to live, and more than mere courage to challenge those who hold dominion, Richard and Kahlan must take up that challenge or become the next victims. Beyond awaits a bewitching land where even the best of their hearts could betray them. Yet, Richard fears nothing so much as what secrets his sword might reveal about his own soul. Falling in love would destroy them–for reasons Richard can’t imagine and Kahlan dare not say.

In their darkest hour, hunted relentlessly, tormented by treachery and loss, Kahlan calls upon Richard to reach beyond his sword–to invoke within himself something more noble. Neither knows that the rules of battle have just changed . . . or that their time has run out.

This is the beginning. One book. One Rule. Witness the birth of a legend.

 

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Wizard’s First Rule (1994)

I’ve read a lot of fantasy books, taking in a variety of authors plying their trade in this highly imaginative field. While I regard Tolkien as the king of the traditional fantasy, a fellow monarch is Terry Pratchett who has amalgamated the genre with humour and taken it in a new direction. Not far behind these two masters is one of the princes of fantasy – Terry Goodkind. His Sword of Truth series covers more than ten novels. I originally purchased the first three entries in the series in a box set and once I began the first book I was immediately hooked by Goodkind’s world. While some entries in the series are better than others – Stone of Tears and Temple of the Winds are among the best – I felt it was most appropriate to choose the novel that started it all – Wizard’s First Rule.

The series begins with a woods guide, Richard Cypher, who lives in the Westland and is investigating the murder of his father. In Goodkind’s world the Westland is separated from the rest of the world by a magic boundary that requires great effort to pass through safely. While searching the woods Richard meets a mysterious woman in white – Kahlan Amnell – whom he saves from four men trying to assassinate her. Kahlan has come from the Midlands, having successfully passed through the boundary, and is in search of the First Wizard. Richard takes her to his friend, Zedd, who reveals himself to be the First Wizard that left the Midlands years ago and travelled to the Westlands. Kahlan brings ill tidings from the Midlands of a fearsome ruler, Darken Rahl, who is bringing devastation to the world while he searches for the third of three boxes that make up Orden, a trio of containers that can give the user absolute power over life and death but only if they open the correct box, opening the wrong one is fatal. Zedd reveals that Richard is to be the new Seeker, ancient warriors that wield the Sword of Truth and appear in times of great adversity for the world to face the purest evil. Richard is the first Seeker in many centuries and reluctantly accepts his destiny, joining Kahlan in making the journey to the Midlands to face Darken Rahl.

The Sword of Truth series always follows the progress of Richard and Kahlan, often dividing between the two whenever they are separated by the forces they are fighting. Theirs is a love story that overcomes many struggles though you often have to smile at their frustrations of never seeming to have any time alone due to another crisis bubbling on the horizon. The plot of Wizard’s First Rule is resolved within the first book and does not continue throughout the other ten novels. Along with Stone of Tears, I felt Wizard’s First Rule was far more detailed than the other entries in the series. The landscape is beautifully recreated and I soon became immersed in Goodkind’s world. In later novels Goodkind seemed more free to focus on the action, having introduced the reader to the background and giving us the look and feel of what is a very convincing world. The traditional battle between good and evil is always engaging in the Sword of Truth series. Darken Rahl is a fearsome villain with his followers, a group of cruel and twisted women in leather outfits – the Mord Sith – proving particularly nasty. Combat is prevalent throughout the series and in later instalments war is fought on a massive scale, especially when the tyrant Jagang also enters the fray.

Wizard’s First Rule introduces many of the core characters that play an active part in the series. Richard may be a woods guide but he is a born leader, one that sees the good in many, no matter how small it may be he will bring it to the surface. Richard’s kindness does not extend to the likes of Darken Rahl of course but even when dealing with those who have wronged him he can find the strength to forgive. Kahlan is a strong, independent woman that perfectly complements Richard though she harbours secrets and unbelievable power of her own. Zedd is something of a closed book in the first novel as the truth of his origins slowly emerges before he delivers a shocking revelation to Richard at the end that changes his life completely. Other characters that appear in Wizard’s First Rule that appear in later novels include Richard’s friend, Chase; Adie, a bone woman; and a witch woman, Shota. Goodkind’s characters all have varying motivations and are not often completely honest with each other. This is a world where friends and foes are always nearby, you just can’t always differentiate between them.

The Sword of Truth series was at its peak with the first four novels – Wizard’s First Rule, Stone of Tears, Blood of the Fold, and Temple of the Winds. Later novels I felt didn’t quite capture the same quality as their predecessors but they are all still highly enjoyable. Tolkien’s work and Pratchett’s Discworld series aside, I currently rate Goodkind’s series as among the finest works of fantasy to date.

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This Week’s Films (03/08/14)

Billy Bathgate (1991)

Two-time Academy Award(R)-winner Dustin Hoffman (Best Actor — KRAMER VS. KRAMER, 1979; RAIN MAN, 1988) stars in the action-packed gangster epic detailing the rise and fall of notorious mobster Dutch Schultz as seen through the eyes of his young protege, Billy Bathgate. Billy, an ambitious streetwise kid seduced by the power, money, and glamour of crime, soon begins to seriously question if his passport to the good life is going to come from the fiery Dutch and his gang! Critically acclaimed and co-starring Bruce Willis (ARMEGEDDON) and Nicole Kidman (MOULIN ROUGE), BILLY BATHGATE delivers motion picture excitement you won’t want to miss!

Verdict: 5/10

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Hadewijch (2009)

Céline, a theology student, takes the name of Hadewijch, a 13th century mystic from Brabant, as her name for her novitiate. But shocked by the blind, ecstatic faith of Hadewijch, the mother superior tells her she must leave the convent and find her vocation in the world. Hadewijch once again becomes Céline, 20, the daughter of a French minister. She meets Yassine, a North African from the banlieues, who introduces her to his brother Nassir, a committed Muslim and religious instructor. Her passionate love of God and her despair at God’s invisibility, her rage, and her desire for self-sacrifice lead her, between grace and madness, off along dangerous paths.

Verdict: 8/10

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Restless (2011)

From acclaimed director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting) comes a quirky, coming-of-age love story between a young man (Henry Hopper) who has given up on life and a beautiful, charming young girl (Mia Wasikowska) who possesses a deep-felt love of life and the natural world. When these two outsiders chance to meet at a funeral, they find an unexpected common ground in their unique experiences of the world. Produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Bryce Dallas Howard and Gus Van Sant.

Verdict: 6/10

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A Belfast Story (2013)

What is peace? Is it when the bullets stop or the wounds heal? A Belfast Story explores life after terrorism. Set in a city which has weathered hundreds of years of hatred, 30 years of bombs, and a war without winners, just victims. A new era brings new risks. There is peace, but that can also be deadly. Colm Meaney stars as a man weary of doing right. Times are changing, car bombs are less common and terrorists find themselves out of work, but old habits die hard. And while most go quietly into the night, he must find the few who won t comply. Haunted by his own past failures, he knows that he may only get one last chance to repeat the same mistake, and this time, the blood will be on his hands. When a series of murders awaken dormant memories, many fear the worst. A greying assassin has stopped walking his son to school, purely precautionary. And his old comrades are also refusing to die gracefully. Someone is laying plans for the future, but first they must secure the present. Gripping characters, fiercely intelligent action, and deadly consequences, A Belfast Story is a film about the passing of a way of life and the dangers that brings, because in Ireland, someone always has to buy the last round.

Verdict: 6/10

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Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002)

After garnering widespread acclaim with his mini-masterpiece THE HEART OF THE WORLD, red hot cult auteur Guy Maddin (THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD) has taken on the world’s most adapted horror tale and concocted his most original and ravishingly stylized cinematic creation yet. Beautifully transposing the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s interpretation of Bram Stoker’s classic vampire yarn from stage to screen, Maddin has forged a sumptuous, erotically charged feast of dance, drama and silent film techniques. The black-and-white, blood-red-punctured DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN’S DIARY is a Gothic grand guignol of the notorious Count and his bodice-ripped victims, fringed with the expressionistic strains of Gustav Mahler.

Verdict: 8/10

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Meatballs (1979)

Bill Murray is at his hilarious best in this classic comedy that’s ‘Animal House goes to summer camp’ – (Newsweek). Murray plays Tripper, the wisecracking, rule-bending head counselor at Camp North Star. Whether playing pranks on Camp North Star’s clueless director, wooing a female counselor, or scheming against the rich brats of a rival camp, Tripper delivers fun and mayhem in a laugh-filled summer his campers will remember forever!

Verdict: 5/10

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A Bug’s Life (1998)

Journey inside the world of bugs in this Epic of miniature proportions. Crawling with imaginative characters, hilarious laughs and colorful animation, Walt Disney Pictures’ Presentation of A Pixar Animation Studios Film, A BUG’S LIFE, will “delight everyone — young, old or six-legged.” (People Magazine). In this 2-disc set you’ll step behind the scenes for a look at the innovation and teamwork that resulted in this ingenious film. Loaded with bonus features — including animation not seen in theaters, abandoned sequences and multiple surprises — A BUG’S LIFE COLLECTOR’S EDITION offers something for everyone from families to film lovers!

Verdict: 7/10

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A Secret (2007)

A 15-year-old boy unearths a shocking family secret.

Verdict: 8/10

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Krull (1983)

When an evil beast captures his new bride, a brave prince embarks on an adventure-packed quest to save her.

Verdict: 4/10

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Lourdes (2009)

A wheelchair-bound young woman makes a pilgrimage to Lourdes in hope of finding a cure at the sacred site.

Verdict: 7/10

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Guilty of Romance (2011)

Japanese cinema’s enfant terrible Sono Sion takes audiences on a perverse journey into the darkest corners of Tokyo with Guilty of Romance. Like Love Exposure and Cold Fish before it, Guilty of Romance is inspired by a real-life crime, a murder committed in the love hotel district of Shibuya. From there, Sono concocted an epic exploration of sexuality and depravity surrounding the lives of three women – the repressed wife of a famous author, a university professor with a secret life, and the detective assigned to investigate a grisly murder. The result is a twisted and disturbing black comedy-thriller that could only come from the mind of Sono Sion. A dead body has been found in a run-down building in Shibuya’s love hotel district, and police detective Kazuko (Mizuno Miki) has been assigned to the case. From the clues left behind, the cops begin to suspect the body is that of Izumi (Kagurazaka Megumi), the wife of a respected novelist. Repressed by her husband to be an obedient wife, Izumi tastes freedom for the first time when she decides to take a part-time job and is scouted to star in an adult film. Her sexual liberation is taken to extremes when she meets Mitsuko (Togashi Makoto), a professor of literature who also moonlights as a prostitute at night. Over the course of the investigation, the happily married Kazuko also seems to be hiding a perverse secret life of her own…

Verdict: 8/10

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Terror 2000 (1994)

Just as there are wide-angle lenses and wide-spray shotgun shells, there are broadly aimed spoofs, and this is one of them. Left, right, neo-Nazis and do-gooders all come in for brickbats in this equal-opportunity slam. Even the reunification of Germany falls under the category of “tasteless modern inventions.” In the story, a secret service agent and his female partner are given the job of investigating the murder of some people seeking political asylum in Germany. In the vision of the world that emerges while they chase the very baddest bad guys, the powerless enjoy being messed with by bullies and rapists, and mental health is a nonsensical idea. This dark, nihilistic view of life reportedly suited this film’s largely teen male target audience to a “t,” but more sensitive sorts (almost anyone else) is liable to find it offensive. Nonetheless, this is a fast-paced, expertly made thriller in addition to being a spoof, and it can readily be appreciated on that level.

Verdict: 5/10

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London River (2009)

Set against the backdrop of the July 7th terrorist attacks in 2005, LONDON RIVER follows Elizabeth (BAFTA winner, Academy Award® nominee Brenda Blethyn) from a small farming community in Guernsey as she travels to London in the immediate aftermath of the bombings after failing to hear from her daughter. Elizabeth is disturbed by the confusion of the metropolis and above all, by the predominantly Muslim neighborhood where her daughter lived. Her fear and prejudice escalate when she discovers her daughter was converting to Islam as she keeps crossing paths with Ousmane (Berlin’s Silver Bear winner, Sotigui Kouyaté), a West African who has come from France to find his missing son. Although they come from very different backgrounds, Elizabeth and Ousmane share the same hope of finding their children alive. Putting aside their cultural differences, they give each other the strength to continue the search and maintain their faith in humanity.

Verdict: 8/10

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