Chapter 1
I figure I will start with my own summary of the actual book, and then add notes from the lecture afterwards to see how much insight and nuances and bullshit I missed on my own. I have to note that the grammar structure in this book is highly confusing; it's hard to tell who's speaking half the time as Joyce doesn't use quotation marks and often breaks into sentences with a He Said, then continues on with the actual quote. I've heard this book described as having an experimental style, and so far, I'd say that experiment is a damn failure unless the goal was the confuse the hell out of your audience.
Book Summary:
The book opens with two men standing on a parapet of some sort, one working a bowl of lather as he prepares to shave. His name is Malachi "Buck" Mulligan, a plump medical student who apparently speaks several languages including Greek, and he calls out to the other, a young morose writer named Stephen Dadelus, to join him as he conducts a strange, mock religious ceremony. Emphasis on the mock part, as he refers to Stephen as a fearful jesuit multiple times througout the chapter. Stephen expresses his displeasure with the third man staying with them, an Englishman named Haines, and Buck does his best to gloss over the subject.
In the course of shaving, it's revealed that Stephen's mother has just died and Buck callously references an aunt blaming Stephen for her death as he refused to kneel down at her side and pray with her at the end. Throughout the conversation, Stephen continues to have visions of his dead mother in her graveclothes haranguing him for his actions, demonstrating that this young man is suffering from severe guilt, and really needs to lay off the booze if he's continuely seeing visions of a dead woman. I would prefer pink elephants, myself. Buck senses that Stephen is mad at him and as he presses for an answer, Stephen references his reaction to the news of Stephen's death, feeling insulted by how he was treated. Buck dismisses the event as glibly as possible, and then tells Stephen to quit moping about and cheer up. Stephen reveals that he is getting paid that day, a sum of four soverigns, at which time Buck decides they need to go out and get gloriously drunk, even launching into a song about Coronation Day. (Not too hard to see the reference of a soverign coin and and actual soverign being sworn in on Coronation day; I wonder if that is actual song that people would sing on pay day?)
Their guest, Haines, calls out from below for Buck, and he heads down to start breakfast. Stephen stands on the deck of what is later revealed to be an actual tower that they're renting, known as the Martello towers that were built by the British to fight off a Napoleonic invasion fleet that never actually arrived. After a short daydream, he heads down to help out with the preparation of breakfast as Buck continues to sing and caper about, making up strange rhymes and Irish stories for Haines, who apparently is very interested in the Irish culture and looks to be writing a book about it. Stephen half heartedly helps in his story time, until Buck complains that they're out of milk for their tea and complains the milk lady was late in arrival.
Just as he mentions the lack of milk, the milk lady suddenly appears at the door, refilling their jug and acting quite deferential to both Buck and Haines, but mostly ignoring Stephen. Haines speaks Gaellic to her, but she doesn't understand it, mistaking it for French. After a few lines of idle chit chat, she heads out on her way and they get back to their breakfast. Haines is interested in what insight and stories that Stephen can provide for his book when Stephen wryly asks whether he'd get paid for it. Haines gives a non answer, and then heads outside to get some air while Buck takes the opportunity to berate Stephen for being so blunt about what has been Buck's plan all along. Buck appears to be broke at all times, and even shortchanges the milk lady, so he demonstrates his user mentality fairly blantatly at this point.
They all head outside, Buck to take a swim, while Haines and Stephen have a cigarette and Haines asks Stephen about his Hamlet theory that Buck had brought up. Stephen changes the subject, which end up leading to an interesting line reveal. He says he has two masters, an Italian and a Brit. He calls the Italian a demanding old queen that wants him on his knees, and the Brit is the stand in for the British empire. Obviously, the Italian is his catholicism that he doesn't appear to enjoy, but it guides him in his actions whether he likes it or not. He sounds like many a catholic I've encountered in my life. Haines isn't offended by the British reference, and even condescendingly states how he should feel that way, being an Irishman, and that he as a Brit wouldn't want someone else commanding his country, such as all the German jews attempting to do so back home. As Buck takes a swim, Stephen leaves the key to the tower and a couple of coins at his request, and then heads out, vowing not to come back there that night or home.
Stephen continually refers to usurpers in various points, which I suppose refers to the Brit in his home representing the actual British empire dominating his homeland, and his friend who is quick to take up with Haines in the hopes of a few coin. Apparently, Stephen thinks himself far too principled to sell out his country and his soul, although he makes no effort to stand up to either of the men and acquiesces to their demands without comment. What a pussy.
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Great Courses: Ulysses-The Story of a Modern Masterpiece
To combat the boredom of sitting in traffic, I’ve decided to start listening to the Great Courses series to keep me from potentially murdering that one person in the fast lane who loves leaving 10 car lengths in front of them at all times until you attempt to pass. I decided to start with one of my great failures as a reader, that being one of the most interminable slogs I’ve attempted to digest, Ulysses by James Joyce. I’ve decided to start with this for several reasons; I want to finally finish what I started all those years ago, and I’m also heading to Ireland for Thanksgiving on vacation. Being Joyce is one of the most famous of writers from an island known for their writers, I figured it would help me get in the mindset of a Dubliner, so to speak.
To make sure I stick with it and actually learn something, I’ve decided to write up a summary and my thoughts on each part of the lecture as I read along with the book. The lecture series is helpfully broken into parts that discuss each chapter individually, so I’ll be able to do this one piece at a time. Now that I’ve listened to the intro lecture titled The Story of Modern Masterpiece, I think I’m ready to take on this most difficult book.
The professor giving the lecture for this series is James A. W. Heffernan, a professor of English at Dartmouth by way of Georgetown and Princeton, so I half assumed he would be an obnoxious, stuffed shirt droning on and on until I fell asleep and ended up in a five car pileup. Luckily, that expectation couldn’t be farther from the truth. He has a very clear, authoritative voice, and he speaks with passion on the subject, bringing it to life for the listener. After listening to the first part, I’m already motivated to see all the things I’ve missed out on having been unable to tackle this book on my own.
He starts with a short summary of the origins of the book and it’s contemporary reviews. Let’s just say they weren’t particularly kind. Thought of as turgid, pornographic, and confusing(incidentally, these were my first thoughts when trying to read it 15 years ago), it wasn’t received all that well in the literary circles. However, it did pick up several American luminaries that were quite taken with it, such as Ernest Hemmingway, Ezra Pound, and T. S. Eliot. Of course, none of those three is a selling point for me; I don’t much care for poetry and Hemmingway is vastly overrated in my opinion. Written in Paris by Joyce in 1922, it was apparently banned in the United States until 1933 due to the pornographic nature of some of the passages. The lecturer states that it’s probably the first book to have the main protagonist masterbating; I suppose harlequin novels hadn’t quite been developed yet.
The title of the book is interesting as it relates to the story itself. While the book only takes place over one day, June 16th, 1904, now referred to as Bloomsday by fans of the novel and named after the main character Leopold Bloom, the characters parallel the great adventure poem the Odyssey by Homer. Why was the title of the book the Latinized form of the name of Odysseus instead of Greek? Apparently, Joyce never learned Greek, having studied Latin and French, always regretting that he was unable to read the epic poetry in it’s native language. I doubt this makes much of a difference to the novel itself, but it is a rather fascinating look into the writer’s mind. Joyce was introduced to the character Ulysses in a children’s book made up of the various adventures when he was young and he was so taken with the complexity of Ulysses that he used it for the basis of his most respected book.
The lecturer gives a short history of the Odyssey for those that apparently missed that class back in high school, and discusses how the three main characters of the novel are reincarnations of the ancient Greek characters of the ancient poem. Ulysses is represented by Leopold Bloom, a man who doesn’t quite fit into his world due to his heritage. His father was a Jew from the mainland who converted to Christianity in order to marry a Catholic Irish girl, Leopold’s mother. Bloom is not a Jew in any religious sense, but it seems that the ethnicity plays a role throughout the story. Ulysses son Telemachus is represented by the second main character Stephen Dedalus, a young writer who actually appears in a previous novel called Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (I had no idea Ulysses qualified as a spinoff/sequel-take that Marvel!), a non practicing catholic who is obsessed with said religion, and who is a failed writer descending into alcoholism due to guilt regarding the death of his mother. He apparently becomes a surrogate son to Bloom at some point throughout the novel. The last character who really only appears in one chapter is Leopold’s wife, Molly Bloom. She is representing Ulysses’ wife Penelope, although appears to be quite a bit less chaste, considering Molly is openly having an affair with another man.
Now that the stage is set, the characters are introduced, the only thing left is to actually read the damn thing and listen to the good professor’s interpretations of what James Joyce was trying to say. Being this book is 18 chapters, I have a feeling this is going to take a while. Hopefully, it’s quite the ride.
To make sure I stick with it and actually learn something, I’ve decided to write up a summary and my thoughts on each part of the lecture as I read along with the book. The lecture series is helpfully broken into parts that discuss each chapter individually, so I’ll be able to do this one piece at a time. Now that I’ve listened to the intro lecture titled The Story of Modern Masterpiece, I think I’m ready to take on this most difficult book.
The professor giving the lecture for this series is James A. W. Heffernan, a professor of English at Dartmouth by way of Georgetown and Princeton, so I half assumed he would be an obnoxious, stuffed shirt droning on and on until I fell asleep and ended up in a five car pileup. Luckily, that expectation couldn’t be farther from the truth. He has a very clear, authoritative voice, and he speaks with passion on the subject, bringing it to life for the listener. After listening to the first part, I’m already motivated to see all the things I’ve missed out on having been unable to tackle this book on my own.
He starts with a short summary of the origins of the book and it’s contemporary reviews. Let’s just say they weren’t particularly kind. Thought of as turgid, pornographic, and confusing(incidentally, these were my first thoughts when trying to read it 15 years ago), it wasn’t received all that well in the literary circles. However, it did pick up several American luminaries that were quite taken with it, such as Ernest Hemmingway, Ezra Pound, and T. S. Eliot. Of course, none of those three is a selling point for me; I don’t much care for poetry and Hemmingway is vastly overrated in my opinion. Written in Paris by Joyce in 1922, it was apparently banned in the United States until 1933 due to the pornographic nature of some of the passages. The lecturer states that it’s probably the first book to have the main protagonist masterbating; I suppose harlequin novels hadn’t quite been developed yet.
The title of the book is interesting as it relates to the story itself. While the book only takes place over one day, June 16th, 1904, now referred to as Bloomsday by fans of the novel and named after the main character Leopold Bloom, the characters parallel the great adventure poem the Odyssey by Homer. Why was the title of the book the Latinized form of the name of Odysseus instead of Greek? Apparently, Joyce never learned Greek, having studied Latin and French, always regretting that he was unable to read the epic poetry in it’s native language. I doubt this makes much of a difference to the novel itself, but it is a rather fascinating look into the writer’s mind. Joyce was introduced to the character Ulysses in a children’s book made up of the various adventures when he was young and he was so taken with the complexity of Ulysses that he used it for the basis of his most respected book.
The lecturer gives a short history of the Odyssey for those that apparently missed that class back in high school, and discusses how the three main characters of the novel are reincarnations of the ancient Greek characters of the ancient poem. Ulysses is represented by Leopold Bloom, a man who doesn’t quite fit into his world due to his heritage. His father was a Jew from the mainland who converted to Christianity in order to marry a Catholic Irish girl, Leopold’s mother. Bloom is not a Jew in any religious sense, but it seems that the ethnicity plays a role throughout the story. Ulysses son Telemachus is represented by the second main character Stephen Dedalus, a young writer who actually appears in a previous novel called Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (I had no idea Ulysses qualified as a spinoff/sequel-take that Marvel!), a non practicing catholic who is obsessed with said religion, and who is a failed writer descending into alcoholism due to guilt regarding the death of his mother. He apparently becomes a surrogate son to Bloom at some point throughout the novel. The last character who really only appears in one chapter is Leopold’s wife, Molly Bloom. She is representing Ulysses’ wife Penelope, although appears to be quite a bit less chaste, considering Molly is openly having an affair with another man.
Now that the stage is set, the characters are introduced, the only thing left is to actually read the damn thing and listen to the good professor’s interpretations of what James Joyce was trying to say. Being this book is 18 chapters, I have a feeling this is going to take a while. Hopefully, it’s quite the ride.
Wednesday, October 01, 2014
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Wow...what a week this has been. Thank goodness it's almost over. There's nothing particularly interesting to write about; it's mostly problems at work that I'd rather stuff wasabi up my nose than rehash here. I did have a basketball game this past Sunday, and we lost. As I've mentioned, I'm fairly terrible, so I'm rarely a factor in whether we are victorious or not. Unfortunately, the usual suspects on our team that actually do possess some basketball acumen started playing down to my level. It's a surprise that we only lost by 6 the way we were playing. In some ways, it's encouraging. We can suck it up and still barely lose a game. Had we played like that last season, we would have lost by 20. Now...well, I guess we lose with more style.
I am saddened today because it's the season finale of my favorite tv show, Burn Notice. This show has single-handedly caused me to start watching television shows again; so, maybe I shouldn't be so sad. I'm watching far more tv now that I did 3 or 4 years ago. Luckily, I have a DVR so I can skip past most of the beer and insurance commercials, but it's starting to hurt my reading time. I seem to only read books now when I go on vacation, and that's a very bad habit. I decided I would list the tv shows that I'm watching right now to see how much of my time I'm wasting.
1. Burn Notice - As I said before, this is currently my favorite show. It's not the best show in writing or acting, but it's the most enjoyable for me. Following a discredited spy who's been thrown out of the CIA and forced to live in his home town of Miami without his identity, it's a cross between the A-Team and I Spy with a splash of MacGyver. Michael Weston, burned spy, solves distressed people's problems with his spy expertise and his two friends, a retired Navy Seal played by one of my all time favorite actors, Bruce Campbell, and his IRA terrorist on again off again girlfriend, played by the sexy Gabrielle Anwar. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire...wait, wrong show. Still, Michael Weston's laconic narration about the trials and tribulations of spycraft on a budget are worth watching the show by themselves...well, them and seeing Bruce Campbell be awesome as usual.
2. The Soup - This show has been the most consistently funny half hour on tv for several years now. Hosted by a lanky and pale comedian, Joel McHale, it basically shows hilarious and horrific reality show clips and mocks the shit of them. It's a very simple format that is aped on several other stations, usually with much poorer results. The reason this one works is the writing is quite funny and McHale manages to be a likable asshole doing what is basically an extended version of SNL's Hollywood Minute with David Spade. Spade has the whole asshole thing down, I just wouldn't want to watch him for more than a minute.
3. Supernatural - I stumbled on this show by accident, which you'd have to since it's on the CW. I'm pretty sure most people don't even know what the hell the CW is. When it first aired, it looked like a Buffy clone with hunky guys to appeal to chicks, so I ignored it. After watching the 4th season from the beginning last year, I picked up and devoured the first 3 seasons. The story is about two brother who were raised by their father to be hunters of ghosts and other creepy crawlers. The concept isn't exactly original; I mean, Abbott and Costello made a career out of starring with movie monsters and that Who's on First skit. Still, the writing is top notch and the plot has evolved beyond your everyday monster of the week storyline into one of heaven and hell, angels and demons, and the end of the world. This is straight fantasy with a lot of drama, but also a surprisingly large amount of comedy. I guess it really is kind of a Buffy clone.
4. Psych - I only checked this show out because it was advertised during Burn Notice and I'm quite happy I did. The show follows the misadventures of Shawn Spencer, a super detective masquerading as a psychic for the Santa Barbara police department and his pharmaceutical salesman best friend, Burton Guster. Shawn is a lazy, underachieving loser who gets by on his remarkable perceptions and 80's references. The scripts always feel like they were thrown together in a couple of hours of a case of beer, but that's sort of the charm. The show doesn't take itself seriously and can be hysterically funny. I have no idea how the USA network, home of Silk Stalkings and...I'm not sure what else, somehow managed to end up with two quality tv shows.
5. Bones - I started watching this because David Boreanaz, or Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was on it. Usually, I ignore CSI, NCIS, Law & Order SUV, or any of the other 300 cop shows. This one is rather entertaining because they concentrate on the quirky characters instead of the "ripped from the headlines" crimes being investigated. The show is titled after the nickname of the lead character Temperance Brennan, the leading forensic anthropologist in the world. Considering that shit sounds made up, she couldn't have had too much competition. Either way, she works for an imitation Smithsonian Museum in D.C. and helps the FBI solve crimes by investigating gory and decomposing bodies. As I mentioned, the crimes are always second to characters which is how I prefer it. Story is king in movies while character is king in television. If I'm going to spend hours with someone, I better damn well like them.
6. Tosh.0 - This is actually another clip show that is a fairly blatant rip off of the Soup, but the reason it works is the same, a hilarious host, Daniel Tosh. Instead of showing tv clips, he uses clips and photos found on the web, as well as a segment which is one of the most creative on any show, the Web Redemption. In it, Tosh will do a comedy segment/interview with web clip "stars" and allow them to make up for whatever reason they ended up on the web in the first place. People like the Tron guy, the 7 year old black kid who stole his grandmother's SUV, Afro Ninja...well, you get the picture. Tosh manages to pull of the likable asshole act as well, although he's a lot darker in his humor than McHale. Any guy who comments about a girl doing competitive cup stacking with, "Okay, we get it. Women are good at putting dishes away" gets a thumbs up in my book.
7. American Idol - Haha...just kidding. That show is fucking terrible. I'd rather watch my balls being crushed by a sledge hammer than watch an elaborate karaoke contest. It's not totally a waste; it sometimes provide entertaining clips for the Soup.
Sigh...I really need to either watch less television, or watch better shows.
I am saddened today because it's the season finale of my favorite tv show, Burn Notice. This show has single-handedly caused me to start watching television shows again; so, maybe I shouldn't be so sad. I'm watching far more tv now that I did 3 or 4 years ago. Luckily, I have a DVR so I can skip past most of the beer and insurance commercials, but it's starting to hurt my reading time. I seem to only read books now when I go on vacation, and that's a very bad habit. I decided I would list the tv shows that I'm watching right now to see how much of my time I'm wasting.
1. Burn Notice - As I said before, this is currently my favorite show. It's not the best show in writing or acting, but it's the most enjoyable for me. Following a discredited spy who's been thrown out of the CIA and forced to live in his home town of Miami without his identity, it's a cross between the A-Team and I Spy with a splash of MacGyver. Michael Weston, burned spy, solves distressed people's problems with his spy expertise and his two friends, a retired Navy Seal played by one of my all time favorite actors, Bruce Campbell, and his IRA terrorist on again off again girlfriend, played by the sexy Gabrielle Anwar. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire...wait, wrong show. Still, Michael Weston's laconic narration about the trials and tribulations of spycraft on a budget are worth watching the show by themselves...well, them and seeing Bruce Campbell be awesome as usual.
2. The Soup - This show has been the most consistently funny half hour on tv for several years now. Hosted by a lanky and pale comedian, Joel McHale, it basically shows hilarious and horrific reality show clips and mocks the shit of them. It's a very simple format that is aped on several other stations, usually with much poorer results. The reason this one works is the writing is quite funny and McHale manages to be a likable asshole doing what is basically an extended version of SNL's Hollywood Minute with David Spade. Spade has the whole asshole thing down, I just wouldn't want to watch him for more than a minute.
3. Supernatural - I stumbled on this show by accident, which you'd have to since it's on the CW. I'm pretty sure most people don't even know what the hell the CW is. When it first aired, it looked like a Buffy clone with hunky guys to appeal to chicks, so I ignored it. After watching the 4th season from the beginning last year, I picked up and devoured the first 3 seasons. The story is about two brother who were raised by their father to be hunters of ghosts and other creepy crawlers. The concept isn't exactly original; I mean, Abbott and Costello made a career out of starring with movie monsters and that Who's on First skit. Still, the writing is top notch and the plot has evolved beyond your everyday monster of the week storyline into one of heaven and hell, angels and demons, and the end of the world. This is straight fantasy with a lot of drama, but also a surprisingly large amount of comedy. I guess it really is kind of a Buffy clone.
4. Psych - I only checked this show out because it was advertised during Burn Notice and I'm quite happy I did. The show follows the misadventures of Shawn Spencer, a super detective masquerading as a psychic for the Santa Barbara police department and his pharmaceutical salesman best friend, Burton Guster. Shawn is a lazy, underachieving loser who gets by on his remarkable perceptions and 80's references. The scripts always feel like they were thrown together in a couple of hours of a case of beer, but that's sort of the charm. The show doesn't take itself seriously and can be hysterically funny. I have no idea how the USA network, home of Silk Stalkings and...I'm not sure what else, somehow managed to end up with two quality tv shows.
5. Bones - I started watching this because David Boreanaz, or Angel from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was on it. Usually, I ignore CSI, NCIS, Law & Order SUV, or any of the other 300 cop shows. This one is rather entertaining because they concentrate on the quirky characters instead of the "ripped from the headlines" crimes being investigated. The show is titled after the nickname of the lead character Temperance Brennan, the leading forensic anthropologist in the world. Considering that shit sounds made up, she couldn't have had too much competition. Either way, she works for an imitation Smithsonian Museum in D.C. and helps the FBI solve crimes by investigating gory and decomposing bodies. As I mentioned, the crimes are always second to characters which is how I prefer it. Story is king in movies while character is king in television. If I'm going to spend hours with someone, I better damn well like them.
6. Tosh.0 - This is actually another clip show that is a fairly blatant rip off of the Soup, but the reason it works is the same, a hilarious host, Daniel Tosh. Instead of showing tv clips, he uses clips and photos found on the web, as well as a segment which is one of the most creative on any show, the Web Redemption. In it, Tosh will do a comedy segment/interview with web clip "stars" and allow them to make up for whatever reason they ended up on the web in the first place. People like the Tron guy, the 7 year old black kid who stole his grandmother's SUV, Afro Ninja...well, you get the picture. Tosh manages to pull of the likable asshole act as well, although he's a lot darker in his humor than McHale. Any guy who comments about a girl doing competitive cup stacking with, "Okay, we get it. Women are good at putting dishes away" gets a thumbs up in my book.
7. American Idol - Haha...just kidding. That show is fucking terrible. I'd rather watch my balls being crushed by a sledge hammer than watch an elaborate karaoke contest. It's not totally a waste; it sometimes provide entertaining clips for the Soup.
Sigh...I really need to either watch less television, or watch better shows.
Monday, March 01, 2010
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| From Funny Pictures |
This should tell you everything about the Spurs chances of a championship this year.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
It's been a while since I wrote one of my crappy movie reviews, but I'm pretty you never really forget; sure it's just like riding a horse. No wait, that's if I fall, I'm supposed to get right back in the saddle. It's a bike that you never forget out to ride. I certainly wouldn't forget; my first bike riding experience ended with 4 stitches in my bottom lip and a couple of freaked out nurses wondering where a small kid can summon such strength trying to escape the man with the needle and thread.
I had been hearing some chatter about this movie Brick, which was said to be a novel take on the classic American detective story. I've read most of everything Dashielle Hammet ever wrote, and Raymond Chandler ain't too shabby, either, so this sounded right up my alley. Some of the best movies of the 40's, hell, of all time, were detective movies. I've watched The Maltese Falcon almost as many times as I've watched the Millennium Falcon. Han Solo wishes he was as bad ass and cold hearted as Sam Spade. Spouting lines like "When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it"and "People lose teeth talking like that. If you want to hang around, you'll be polite," you know he doesn't give a crap. The cynical tough guy with reflexes almost as quick as his witty banter are a staple in these types of movies, and when done right, are a joy to watch. The only problem is, the era of a fedora wearing gumshoe with a bottle of bourbon in his desk are as dead and buried as the WWII generation. You're much more likely to see a fuzzed face, doe eyed, male model that needs a huge shot of testosterone up on the movie screen than you are to see a man that actually looks and acts like a man. With this being the facts of the new millennium, a change of scenery seems fairly appropriate for a modern day detective story.
Brick is your standard murder mystery set within the dark, underbelly of a world infested with violence and drugs. However, in what is actually a fairly clever twist, the world is an average high school. The hero is a cagey loner, who makes it is personal mission to solve the murder of the ex-girlfriend that he still pines for, but had entered a different, more dangerous, high school clique. The setting works for the story; just glancing at the headlines, you can tell high schools are far more dangerous than past generations. With children losing their innocence much earlier and a society that tries to pretend they're little adults, it's certainly believable.
What isn't believable and where the movie makes a serious error, is transporting the machine gun patter and slang of the 40s and putting it into the mouths of these high school kids. Everyone in this film talks and acts as though they're actually in some film noir, black and white drama instead of standing around the parking lot of a generic, suburban, grocery store. Had the screenplay done an actual updating, such as was done with Jane Austen's Emma and placing it in a modern day high school in the film Clueless, this one feels as though the writer originally wrote a standard 40's detective yarn after reading The Long Goodbye, but as an experiment decided to just shoehorn it into the mouths of teens instead. While the dialogue is actually quite good, it feels completely wrong in the setting. This was the same reaction I had to the remake of Romeo and Juliet with DiCaprio where they kept the original Shakespearean dialogue in modern day Miami. It's gimmicky and it makes you aware of it the entire time you're watching. I can't lose myself in the fantasy of a movie if it's always yelling at me, "Look how clever I am!"
It might have worked better if it was more tongue in cheek like Clueless, but the movie seems to be played straight. This sometimes leads to absurd dialogue like when our hardboiled detective senior says to his principal, "No more of these informal chats! If you have a disciplinary issue with me, write me up or suspend me and I'll see you at the Parent-Teacher conference."
The protagonist, Brendan Frye, played by the long haired kid from the obnoxious sitcom Third Rock from the Sun, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is well cast in the movie. He still looks young enough to be a teenager, but he's got enough acting chops to pull off the type of ridiculous dialogue they have him spouting off in every scene. In fact, his performance is the one thing that keeps this movie from completely falling apart from it's own inherent silliness.
This movie is reminiscent of another experiment at film noir detective stories made a few years ago, Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, starring Robert Downey, Jr. That one attempted to transport the whole gumshoe concept into the modern day, but with far more self awareness. That movie fell apart once it stopped taking it self seriously at all and devolved into a surreal parody where they gave up even trying to make sense. These two movies are at two different ends of the spectrum; one took itself way too seriously, the other, not seriously enough. While both were entertaining, they're both failures as far as producing a good movie. Still, you have to appreciate when a movie tries to tell a unique story. I can only watch so many movies about superhero origins or workaholic beautiful women who haven't met the right guy with hilarity ensuing.
Unless you're a fan of detective films, I wouldn't recommend Brick. But, as I am a fan, I have to say I was entertained. I just spent too much of the movie thinking of ways to change it than actually enjoying the story.
6.5/10
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
*Easy there, big boy. I'm not that kind of girl...*It's all fun and games until someone gets eaten. A trainer was killed by a a killer whale at the Florida Sea World today. I'm always morbidly amused when people are shocked, shocked to discover wild animals are actually wild and will kill you if they feel like it. I mean, it IS called a killer whale; you sort of expect shit like this, don't you? Circle of life, man...*takes bong rip* Still, imagine being at that killer whale show? Timmy's going to have a lot of questions afterwards.
While sitting around at my friend's place last night, he wielded the remote like the ADD suffering, attention span of chihuahua goof that he is. We were able to watch highlights of the NBA, two different Olympic channels, and American Idol all in the matter of a few minutes. Not being in command of the remote is an emasculating experience; that's why I never let anyone play with my television. In much the way that riding shotgun can make you queasy from all the unexpected movement that you're not controlling, watching someone flick through channels made me want to stop the tv and get off.
Unfortunately, there was no curling on. To call this a sport is insulting to actual sports; you may as well call darts and bowling a sport...or golf. I think a good sign that your "sport" may not qualify for that title is when you can still compete at an olympic level while 5 months pregnant. Still, it's an exciting, engrossing event that, like a car accident, I can't stop watching. Because there's lots of time to plan out their rock sliding moves and sweeper strategies, people have time to psych themselves out. In fact, the man who was mainly responsible for the success of the U.S. team last Olympics, John Shuster, managed to self destruct even worse than Nick Anderson at the free throw line.
We did get to see several different events that I didn't even know existed. I can't blame the Winter Olympics from doing so, what with all the lame events that they're known for, i.e. aforementioned curling, biathalon, nordic combined, etc. The biathalon, which involves cross country skiing and shooting, of all things, is so strange that even Seinfeld once did a whole bit on how bizarre it is. Frankly, the Winter Olympics is the retard little brother of the Summer Olympics, and even that is bankrupting countries that host it. I can't imagine countries will want to foot the outrageous costs of these national pride fests when the world economy goes into the toilet in the next year or so. I doubt they will disappear; just be on a smaller scale. Of course, to really make the Olympics relevant again, Russia needs to turn into the evil Soviet Union again so we have someone to root against. Frankly, China just isn't cutting it.
Unfortunately, there was no curling on. To call this a sport is insulting to actual sports; you may as well call darts and bowling a sport...or golf. I think a good sign that your "sport" may not qualify for that title is when you can still compete at an olympic level while 5 months pregnant. Still, it's an exciting, engrossing event that, like a car accident, I can't stop watching. Because there's lots of time to plan out their rock sliding moves and sweeper strategies, people have time to psych themselves out. In fact, the man who was mainly responsible for the success of the U.S. team last Olympics, John Shuster, managed to self destruct even worse than Nick Anderson at the free throw line.
We did get to see several different events that I didn't even know existed. I can't blame the Winter Olympics from doing so, what with all the lame events that they're known for, i.e. aforementioned curling, biathalon, nordic combined, etc. The biathalon, which involves cross country skiing and shooting, of all things, is so strange that even Seinfeld once did a whole bit on how bizarre it is. Frankly, the Winter Olympics is the retard little brother of the Summer Olympics, and even that is bankrupting countries that host it. I can't imagine countries will want to foot the outrageous costs of these national pride fests when the world economy goes into the toilet in the next year or so. I doubt they will disappear; just be on a smaller scale. Of course, to really make the Olympics relevant again, Russia needs to turn into the evil Soviet Union again so we have someone to root against. Frankly, China just isn't cutting it.
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