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.

Hoping everyone will enjoy the holiday season.

“For Sale by Owner”, Elizabeth Hand

(view spoiler)[Hand gives us a very well-written story about an odd house that could equally well be described as a sort of Venus flytrap, luring its victims inside in order to do...what exactly? Rose’s profoundly disturbing experience makes that tantalizingly unclear. I liked the fact that Hand is so ambiguous about Rose’s ordeal and about the house’s history. She also does an excellent job describing the friendship between these three women. (hide spoiler)]

✭✭✭✭½

“Funeral Birds”, M. Rickert

(view spoiler)[In the anthology’s lead-off story, the author describes what might be described as a friendship between two rather dislikable women. The “twist” is that the friendship survives the death (murder) of one of the pair. The manner in which Delores returns is so oddly matter-of-fact that I found the passages describing it rather unsettling, even if I wasn’t quite sure what point Rickert was trying to make. (hide spoiler)]

✭✭✭

Lena said: Dr. Strange 2!

I’m sorta assuming that this movie ties at least in part to events described in Spider-Man: No Way Home and the first season of Loki.

Although not a particularly keen fan, I was nonetheless saddened to learn that Anne Rice passed away on 11 December at the age of 80 (complications from stroke). I would imagine that there are a fair number of readers in our group who have read one or more of her novels.

Lena noted: Yesterday was Shirley Jackson’s 105th Birthday.

Wow. That’s a bit of an odd coincidence.

Lena wrote: I’m not sure why he [Depp] was such a bad note besides the fact that I can’t picture him romantic with Jude Law.

I blame the writing, but I find it hard to be sure. I do think Mads will be fine (or better than fine), but I wonder whether Rowling can recover from some the odd plot twists she introduced in the second film.

It’s probably a bit heretical to say this, but in general I have preferred the Harry Potter films to the novels. For those films, other screenwriters trimmed the material in Rowling’s books, resulting in (my opinion) a more polished (albeit occasionally blander) product.

Rowling wrote both of the Fantastic scripts, and their various problems make me wonder whether that was a smart decision.

Lena said: Hannibal in the Wizarding World!

Thanks for posting this, Lena. I was actually wondering just the other day what was going on with this franchise. I had not heard that Mads Mikkelsen was stepping into the Grindelwald role. He seems like he’d be a good fit, although I would have been fine with Depp staying on. The trailer makes this look like a dandy film, but I thought much the same after seeing the trailer for second film and was badly fooled. That film was (my opinion) a real mess.

I’ve been watching Hawkeye on the Disney station and as of last night have gotten through the first (I think) four episodes. Compared to most of the other MCU films and limited series, this is a relatively low-stakes affair, but I find that I’m liking it because of rather than in spite of that fact. The series is structured quite a bit like a buddy cop film, with new-to-the-MCU Hailee Steinfeld as the quirky, energetic newcomer and Jeremy Renner as the world-weary veteran. I know that sounds terribly trite and formulaic, but I admit that I like seeing these two actors together on the screen.

Graeme said: Watching the Dresdan Files with Paul Blackthorne in the main role on Amazon. Enjoying it. I've only read the first three books of the series and I'm thinking of getting into the 4th.

I think I stalled out after making it through the first five entries of the Dresden series by Jim Butcher. I keep meaning to pick up where I left off, but so much time has passed, I’d probably have to skim through one or two of the last ones I read.

As for the 2007 Sci-Fi series, while it departed in significant ways from the books, I quite liked it — especially Paul Blackthorne’s Harry. I remember being disappointed when the show was cancelled after a single season.

Back in 2018 there was a report that Fox21 Television Studios optioned the rights with a view to possibly resurrecting The Dresden Files, but I don’t know what happened.

I was talked into seeing the new Ghostbusters sequel/reboot this past week and was pleasantly surprised given the pasting that it’s received from most critics. Ghostbusters: Afterlife is certainly not the comedic classic that the original 1984 film was, but it does capture some of its earnest silliness. I’ve heard a few viewers compare this movie, with its group of young protagonists, to another 80s film, Richard Donner’s The Goonies.

Ratings for this movie and a few other things I’ve recently watched:

Road to Perdition, Sam Mendes (2002) ✭✭✭½
Mrs. Henderson Presents, Stephen Frears (2005) ✭✭✭
Foyle’s War, Series 9 (2015) ✭✭✭✭
Tales of Halloween, Darren Lynn Bousman, Axelle Carolyn, Adam Gierasch, Andrew Kasch, Neil Marshall, Lucky McKee, Mike Mendez, Dave Parker, Ryan Schifrin, John Skipp, & Paul Solet (2015) ✭
My Dad’s Christmas Date, Mick David (2020) ✭✭½
Attica, Traci Curry & Stanley Nelson (2021) ✭✭✭✭½
Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Jason Reitman (2021) ✭✭✭½

I was saddened to learn yesterday that Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim passed away at 91.

Has anyone been watching Showtime’s sequel to the Dexter series? My understanding is that they have brought back the showrunner who took the original series through its first four seasons (quality dropped off during the last four).

Lena said: Fresh Prince is getting a reboot

I think Will Smith is a talented guy, but I was never a big fan of the original, so the prospect of any kind of reboot doesn’t really excite me.

Lena said: You gave Both Solaris’s four stars?!?! That makes me want to watch them again.

I had been thinking about a comparison rewatch for quite a while and a recent bout of the flu finally afforded me the opportunity to do so. I thought going into the experience that I would come away preferring the Tarkovsky version, but I found it a bit more ponderous than I remembered and, in contrast, I ended up liking Soderbergh’s vision a bit more than during my previous viewing. The end result: an approximate draw. I think both versions have their own unique problems, and neither fully captures what made the Stanislaw Lem novel so compelling, but they’re both eminently worthwhile watches.

I sat through the first three episodes of Amazon’s new show, “The Wheel of Time”, based on Robert Jordan’s immensely popular series. I tried reading these books once upon a time, but never got very far. From what I’ve seen of the television series thus far, I’ve been impressed by the production values (it looks kinda expensive), and the acting is okay, but I’ve been rather underwhelmed by the plot. Without getting spoilery, it strikes me as pretty much the same basic premise that underlays about a zillion other fantasy series. Are there any fans of the Jordan books who might offer a few reasons for continuing to watch?

It’s been a rather fallow time for me as far as movies are concerned, but I’ve managed to see a few odds and ends.

Solyaris, Andrei Tarkovsky (1972) ✭✭✭✭
Solaris, Steven Soderbergh (2002) ✭✭✭✭
The French Dispatch, Wes Anderson (2021) ✭✭✭½
Plusaversary, David Silverman (2021) ✭
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Destin Daniel Cretton (2021) ✭✭✭½

We were in NYC earlier in the month and managed to catch a few shows.

Caroline, or Change, Michael Longhurst (2003/2021) ✭✭✭
Wicked, Joe Mantello (2003/2003) ✭✭✭✭½
Girl from the North Country, Conor McPherson (2017/2020) ✭✭✭
Six, Jamie Armitage & Lucy Moss (2017/2021) ✭✭½

Nice blog, Lena.

Lena asked: You meant Sleeping Betty?

Good eye, Lena! Mistake corrected in original message.

I recently sat down to watch a horror mockumentary that had been on my to-watch list for a long time, Lake Mungo. While not without its merits, this one proved to be a bit disappointing, in part because quite a few aficionados have over the years pumped up the movie’s rep as a low-budget gem. I thought the production values and acting were fine (especially for movies in this subgenre), but the story over-relied on grainy photos of supposed ghosts to instill a sense of unease. I needed something more.

Ratings for this one and a few others seen recently:

Un homme de têtes (The Four Troublesome Heads), Georges Méliès (1898) ✭✭✭
Excelsior, Georges Méliès (1901) ✭✭✭
Le chaudron infernal (The Infernal Cauldron), Georges Méliès (1903) ✭✭
Good News, Charles Walters (1947) ✭✭
Enchantment, Irving Reis (1948) ✭✭✭½
Sleeping Betty, Claude Cloutier (2007) ✭✭
Lake Mungo, Joel Anderson (2008) ✭✭✭
Home Before Dark, Season 2 (2021) ✭✭✭
Twenty Something, Aphton Corbin (2021) ✭✭✭½
What If...?, Season 1 (2021) ✭✭

Lena said: Oh i was done when the force awakened.

Yeah, I see your point. I know discussions about the Star Wars films — particularly the last three — can become contentious, so I will just say (with the obvious caveat that anyone is free to disagree) that while I think J. J. Abrams is a competent director, I often find his writing to be lazy and unimaginative. In hindsight, it seems clear (well, at least to me) that what was needed was some designated honcho like Kevin Feige — someone with an overarching vision of where the last three movies were taking the Star Wars universe. Instead, we got a series of movies in which the writers were clearly just making it all up as they went along.