Movie and music review

This film is a look at the dark side of celebrity worship here in the USA. Patton Oswalt stars as a mid 30's sad sack nebbish who still lives at home with his shrewish mother, works a dead end job, and has love for only two things, the New York Giants football team and calling in to a sports talk radio show. When he gets the chance to meet his football idol in a strip club he gets beat up and suffers some brain damage. And his love for his team clouds his judgment when he decides not to co-operate with the police investigation of the incident. When the inevitable mockery starts, he decides to redeem himself in one of the worst ways possible.

It's a sad kind of depressing story but it's brilliantly told and brilliantly acted. Oswalt is terrific as the deluded pathetic football nut and Kevin Corrigan is also great as his equally socially inept buddy. The two play off of each other really well and they capture the aging man child awkwardness so well it's almost scary.

The rest of the cast is a bunch of virtual unknowns, with the exception of independent film darling Michael Rapaport. Don't get me wrong, just because the rest of the cast is a bunch of virtual unknowns that doesn't mean they're bad, they aren't, in all cases they turn in great performances. But the best thing about them is that they all look real, they all look like they come from the Staten Island/NYC area. And the director doesn't shy away from making them look plain and or ugly, he lets them be who they are and that's a good thing.

This film could have been about any obsessed fan of football, hockey, European football, or baseball. It could have just as easily been about someone who idolizes a politician, a singer, an actor. The point is celebrity worship deprives of us being who we really are and it fills our lives with fake fulfillment. I know I've made this film sound bleak and depressing, and it is at times, but trust me, it's a darn good movie and it's well worth your time, even if you're not a sports fan.

For many years I resisted Tori Amos because she was, in my opinion, too obtuse and overly dramatic for my taste. But I relented a few years ago and I got Sparky one of her CD's for Christmas and I liked most all of it. So when I saw this CD
at one of my local libraries the other day, I checked it out and gave it a listen. I'm happy to report that she's still obtuse and overly dramatic but in this case, she knocked my socks off.

On this CD she deconstructs and mashes up traditional Christmas carols and then she stitches them back together to make entirely newish songs out of them. There's also a few new compositions on this CD as well but the stand out songs are the reinterpretations of the traditional Christmas music. Her musical arrangements are stellar and her voice never sounded better. And the photos of her dressed as seasonal goddesses, and yes I choose to interpret them in that way, are also something behold. Ms. Amos is a stunningly beautiful woman and this CD is a stunningly good piece of work. I like to think as modern medieval music for the masses. It's odd but engaging and I recommend it highly.

Four reviews with a view

Erin Boheme is a very good jazz vocalist and this CD of hers is very good. She's got a jazzy/smoky voice that is at home covering jazz and pop standards as well as her own original compositions. If you like the sultry blondes who sing the jazz, then you'll like this CD. Me, I really like it.
Let me say upfront that before I read this novel by TC Boyle I liked the previous novel of his that I read and I have liked all the short stories of his that I read as well. And I like the first two thirds of this novel, Talk Talk. But the last third, boy what the hell happened? It stank. It was like Mr. Boyle ran out of steam but he kept going anyway. By the time he had set up the final showdowns I wanted to strangle all his characters and then do the same to Mr. Boyle for ruining his novel. I'm glad I bought this book off the remainders table for a buck, at least I didn't waste much money on it. Not recommended.
One of the best things about the Vertigo series of comics from DC is that they take minor characters from DC's past and give them new life in grown up stories in the graphic novel format. This second graphic novel with the heretofore minor DC character Madam Xanadu, Exodus Noir, really rocks. It's two stories in one book, it tells a tale of Madam Xanadu's past along with a tale of her investigation into a series of murders in 1940's era NYC. The writing is crisp, the art is great, and the colors are eye popping. I devoured this graphic novel in two nights. I highly recommend it. (I'm reading the first one now and I like it a lot less than this one.)

This little noir thriller is claustrophobic and just when you think you have all the angles figured out, they zig when you think they're going to zag. I quite liked the whole thing, except for Forest Whitaker's horrendous accent and the fact that it takes place in some hellish looking high plains/prairie location, all that flatness gave me the willies. I liked all the machinations between Julia Stiles and Jeremy Renner's characters, I liked how they showed the big insurance company to be just as despicable as the people who are trying to con it, and I like all the close ups of Ms. Stiles, but for my money, there's never enough close ups of Julia Stiles. I highly recommend this one, especially if you like noir and con men films.