Canavan’s Comments (group member since May 15, 2018)

Canavan’s comments from the Spells, Space & Screams: Collections & Anthologies in Fantasy, Science Fiction, & Horror group.

“Genesis”, David Hagberg

Anthology editors typically lead off collections with relatively strong entries, which makes Hagberg’s subpar story particularly worrisome. On the other hand, if one sets aside considerations having to do with quality, I kinda get why Carol Serling chose this tale to open her book. (view spoiler)[“Genesis” focuses on the actions of a squad of soldiers led by a man ambiguously refered to simply as the Corporal during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. At the end of the story, the typical Twilight Zone twist reveals to the reader that the Corporal is, in fact, Rod Serling. The point being made here is that Serling’s traumatic WW II experiences informed his later outlook on life and, more particularly, his thoughts as reflected in the stories he wrote and chose for his most famous creation, The Twilight Zone. Serling admitted as much during numerous interviews about his life. (Today he would undoubtedly have been diagnosed as one suffering from PTSD.)

The problem is Hagborn is simply not a good enough writer to pull this off. The writing is clumsy and the story action is muddled. (hide spoiler)]

✭½

J. said: I ordered a DVD copy of one of the most insane documentaries ever made.

I vaguely remember having watched this documentary and kinda liking it. There was a sequel, but I wasn’t able to sit through it.

J. also said: What messed up documentaries have y'all seen?

I’m not quite sure what you mean by “messed up”, J. I’ve seen my fair share of oddball documentaries. There is one that immediately springs to mind as having made me very uncomfortable — 2012’s The Act of Killing, in which the film’s director interviewed perpetrators of the Indonesian mass killings of 1965–1966.

J. wrote: Monty Norman, composer of the James Bond theme, dies at 94

I noticed that the article you linked to, J., cites the enduring controversy surrounding authorship of “James Bond Theme”. Norman is the credited writer, but there has been much disagreement over the decades about whether composer John Barry merely re-arranged the piece (Monty’s version of the story) or ghost wrote the piece in toto (Barry’s version of events). I’ll note that every time the issue was litigated Norman prevailed; and yet (at the risk of speaking ill of the dead) in my gut I always thought that Barry probably wrote it. Maybe it’s because it just sounds to me like a Barry composition or maybe it’s because of the two Barry was the more accomplished composer. In any case, both are now gone and we’ll doubtless never be completely certain about the authorship. A fond farewell to them both.

J. wrote: During my early twenties, insomnia and basic cable introduced me to many great movies. Some of the standouts:

Those are all great films, J. I’ve seen all of them more times than I care to admit.

Graeme said: Some awesome black & whites in there, Canavan. I grew up on those on the TV.

I’ve been making a conscious effort, Graeme, to watch some of the older classics. Two of the three Henry King films are re-watches for me, Twelve O’Clock High and The Gunfighter, both big favorites of mine.

Some stuff I’ve recently watched:

Baby Face, Alfred E. Green (1933) ✭✭✭
State Fair, Henry King (1933) ✭✭✭
The Outlaw, Howard Hughes & Howard Hawks (1943) ✭½
Twelve O’Clock High (1949), Henry King (1949) ✭✭✭✭✭
The Gunfighter, Henry King (1950) ✭✭✭✭½
Thor: Love and Thunder, Taika Waititi (2022) ✭✭½

I’ve finally caught up with the new Dr. Strange movie now that it’s been made available for streaming (I watched it on Disney+). I had a kind of fractured response to it — it’s simultaneously one of the better Phase 4 movies and yet also one of the worst. The good parts are for me wrapped up in Sam Raimi’s directorial style. Maybe it’s his background as horror director, but I seemed to think that the action sequences on display in Madness were a notch above the cookie-cutter, CGI-laden fight scenes that so often dominate these MCU films. For example, within the constraints of a PG-13 flick, Raimi seems to make more clear that people are actually dying, often in rather gruesome fashion, thereby upping the stakes a bit. My big problem with this movie had to do with the writing and treatment of the characters. Boring. (view spoiler)[To explain my dissatisfaction, let me focus briefly on two of the characters. The writers want us to empathize with America Chavez’ plight. Wanda is, after all, out to kill her within the first 10 minutes of the movie. But Chavez is provided with only the veneer of a back story that might make us care about her; instead she’s treated as a mere McGuffin that moves the plot along. Then there’s Wanda. I really like Elizabeth Olsen and I even like her character, but her arc in Madness is nothing more than an infuriating retread of what we’ve already experienced in WandaVision. (hide spoiler)]

We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is the low-budget debut of director Jane Schoenbrun. It saw limited release in 2021 and can now be streamed on a number of platforms. Fair has gotten generally high marks from critics and not-so-high ones from viewers. Part of the problem may be the marketing. It has been billed as a kind of found footage horror film, but viewers expecting another Paranormal Activity are going to come away disappointed. (view spoiler)[Fair might best be described as psychological horror, as we witness the slow decompensation of the main character, nicely played newcomer Anna Cobb. The film explores some of the same territory that I’m Thinking of Ending Things did a few years ago, but in a way that’s not nearly as aesthetically interesting. Part of the problem is that the acting in Fair is so deliberately low-key, the viewer may be in danger of nodding off. (hide spoiler)]

Ratings for these and a few other recent things:

Steamboat Bill, Jr., Charles Reisner & Buster Keaton (1928) ✭✭✭✭
Steamboat Round the Bend, John Ford (1935) ✭✭✭
Driftwood, Allan Dwan (1947) ✭✭✭
The Goodbye Girl, Herbert Ross (1977) ✭✭✭½
Ronin, John Frankenheimer (1998) ✭✭✭
Atomic Blonde, David Leitch (2017) ✭✭✭
We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Jane Schoenbrun (2021) ✭✭½
Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, Sam Raimi (2022) ✭✭✭
Obi-Wan Kenobi, Deborah Chow, Season 1 (2022) ✭✭✭½

J. said: Solo: A Star Wars Story

I seem to be a bit of an outlier when it comes to Solo. Great? By no means, but certainly a decent enough popcorn movie. I find that I am far more likely to sit down and re-watch Solo than any of the last three “major” Star Wars movies directed by Abrams/Johnson.

J. said: I'm probably way off, but I get the feeling that Martin had a loose plan when he started and then he got so wrapped up in the characters that he's wandered too far from his original plan to easily rectify it.

This may be a different way of saying the same thing, but my rough impression is that Martin has created such an unwieldy and sprawling universe, that he has now found it exceedingly difficult to deal with its complexity. It is, I would presume, far easier to create that kind of a mess than it is to tie up all of the countless plot threads.

On a different note, one might consider the fact that many (but not all) authors find the act of writing increasingly difficult as they get older. I seem to recall that Ken Kesey once described writing as similar to juggling; he was, he said, able to do so effortlessly in his younger days, but struggled to do so as he got older.

Even if we see publication of The Winds of Winter this year or next, what’s the likelihood that the next and supposedly final installment will ever see print? At best that seems to me to be a coin flip.

Lena said: “There’s no crying in baseball!”
The ladies are back

The teaser doesn’t give one much to go on. CBS tried to reboot this property as a series back in 90s and spectacularly failed. I guess we’ll see whether or not Amazon fares any better. I always thought that the writing for the iconic 1992 film was pretty much by the numbers. What made that film memorable was the fairly talented cast and Penny Marshall’s direction.

J. wrote: And Rob Zombie is puting out his version of the Munsters. That doesn't look good.

I never really understood the appeal of the original 60s series. And while he’s an interesting guy, I’ve never really cared for either Rob Zombie’s music or his films.

J. wrote: I think that it'll be a Rock movie; so big spectacle, good cameos, and nothing that will stick with you.

I’ve probably griped about this before, but DC Films seems to have an uncanny knack of selecting mediocre talent when it coming to directing and writing. Sadly, looking at the line-up for this film makes me think that trend has continued.

J. wrote: This looks like it might be decent.
Black Bird

Agreed, it does. The cast list looks pretty decent. And I notice that Dennis Lehane is attached to the project; that’s probably a good sign.

Lena said (in part): Not enough to go on but I like the general idea.

As you say, Lena, there’s not a lot to go on. I can’t say I’m particularly thrilled with the premise, which one source summarizes as a teenaged Wednesday Addams attending some sort of magical/psychic academy, where she tries to master her abilities while simultaneously solving some mystery. It all sounds depressingly familiar.

Lena said: Lol, I had forgotten there was a second movie and that I had already seen it.

I can relate. My memory of plot details from the first two films (especially Crimes) was so murky, I made myself re-watch them before viewing the most recent one. Secrets is a bit of an improvement over the disastrous Crimes, but not by much. No spoilers, but I will say that the ending of Secrets, while it doesn’t come close to tying up all of the many plot threads, provides just enough closure that Warner Bros. execs, should they opt to do so, might convince themselves to pull the plug on this franchise.

Stuff I’ve watched (or re-watched) recently:

The House That Dripped Blood, Peter Duffell (1971) ✭✭½
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, David Yates (2016) ✭✭✭
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, David Yates (2018) ✭½
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, David Yates (2022) ✭✭½
George Carlin’s American Dream, Judd Apatow & Michael Bonfiglio (2022) ✭✭✭✭

Randy said (in part): HBO had a two-part, four hour special about Carlin and it was amazing to me how much of his stand-up still resonates.

Yes, I just watched that on HBO! That viewing was, in fact, what prompted me to give It’s Bad For Ya a re-listen yesterday. The documentary repeatedly stresses how Carlin’s comedy and personal philosophy changed over the decades. I often found Carlin’s views in his later years to be wickedly funny and searingly perceptive, but they were sometimes so bleak that they left me more than a little depressed.

Doing a lotta number crunching at work these past few days. I often listen to my tunes when doing this sort of stuff, so here are a few of the items I’ve listened to.

Caribou, Elton John (1974) ✭✭
Exile in Guyville, Liz Phair (1993) ✭✭✭✭✭
Prokofiev: Cinderella, Vladimir Ashkenazy & the Cleveland Orchestra (1988) ✭✭✭✭✭
Liz Phair, Liz Phair (2003) ✭✭½
Stay with Me, Norman Brown (2007) ✭✭
It’s Bad For Ya, George Carlin (2008) ✭✭✭✭
Canyon Cove, Bob Mintzer (2010) ✭✭✭½
Live at Smalls, Peter Bernstein, Larry Goldings, & Bill Stewart (2011) ✭✭✭½
Soberish, Liz Phair (2021) ✭✭✭✭
Force of Nature, Deanna Witkowski (2022) ✭✭✭½
The Tipping Point, Tears for Fears (2022) ✭✭½

Lena said (in part): other than the soundtrack which continues to kill it, I was also put off by the new Thor.

The trailer seems to hint at a vibe similar to that found in Thor: Ragnarok (also directed by Taika Waititi). A lot of MCU fans adored Ragnarok; I wasn’t quite so enthused, but it was certainly okay. I’m sure I’ll watch Love and Thunder at some point.

I recently noticed that The Norliss Tapes is available for viewing on YouTube, so sat down for a re-watch. This 1973 made-for-television movie, directed by Dan Curtis, was intended to serve as a pilot for NBC. More specifically, it was presumably meant to re-create the success enjoyed by two of Curtis’ earlier television movies, The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler, which spawned a short-lived cult series featuring Darren McGavin as wire service reporter Carl Kolchak. The Norliss Tapes, cobbled together with a pretty meagre budget, isn’t great cinema, but those who fondly remember Carl will probably enjoy it. In broad outline, it’s not all that dissimilar to the Kolchak movies. Instead of McGavin, we get Roy Thinnes as a writer intent on debunking putative supernatural phenomena until (as will happen in these stories) he runs up against a case that doesn’t have a rational explanation.

Grave Encounters is yet another cheaply made found footage horror movie. I find that the majority of films falling into this subgenre are pretty crappy. This one, thankfully, is better than most. The plot is fairly standard. A group of paranormal “investigators” (somewhat in the mold of Ghostwatch) determine to spend a night filming inside of an abandoned insane asylum that is reputedly haunted. Naturally things do not go as planned. The acting on display is fairly competent and there are some nice scares. I found my enjoyment tempered by the realization that major portions of the plot are purloined from the 1999 William Malone film, The House on Haunted Hill. In fact, one of the best (eeriest) scenes in Grave Encounters is a direct lift from one found in House. (I was able to stream Grave Encounters on Amazon Prime.)

Ratings for these two films and other stuff recently watched:

The General, Clyde Bruckman & Buster Keaton (1926) ✭✭✭✭
The Black Watch, John Ford (1929) ✭½
Honolulu, Edward Buzzell (1939) ✭✭½
I Know Where I'm Going!, Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger (1945) ✭✭✭✭½
La donna nella Resistenza (Women of the Resistance), Liliana Cavani (1965) ✭✭½
The Norliss Tapes, Dan Curtis (1973) ✭✭✭½
Serpico, Sidney Lumet (1973) ✭✭✭½
Beverly Hills Cop, Martin Brest (1984) ✭✭✭½
Manhunter, Michael Mann (1986) ✭✭✭
Beverly Hills Cop II, Tony Scott (1987) ✭✭
RoboCop, Paul Verhoeven (1987) ✭✭✭✭½
Another 48 Hrs., Walter Hill (1990) ✭½
Falling Down, Joel Schumacher (1993) ✭✭✭
Harlan: Im Schatten von Jud Süß (Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Süss), Felix Moeller (2008) ✭✭
Grave Encounters, Colin Minihan & Stuart Ortiz (2011) ✭✭✭½
Coda, Alan Holly (2013) ✭✭✭
The Phone Call, Mat Kirkby (2015) ✭✭✭✭½
Crazy Rich Asians, Jon M. Chu (2018) ✭✭✭½
The Northman, Robert Eggers (2022) ✭✭✭½
Thing from the Factory by the Field, Joel Potrykus (2022) ✭
When Billie Met Lisa, David Silverman (2022) ✭✭✭