Monthly Archives: April 2019

Shudder Review: Alena

Recently when I discovered the movie available on Shudder I re-watched with a friend of mine this marvelous Swedish ghost story. I encountered this movie the first time I attended the Horrible Imaginings Film Festival and it blew me away as the best film of that year. It was presented as part of the LGQT block of films. Repeated viewings have not dimmed my appreciation of it’s characters, story, or production.

Adapted from a Swedish graphic novel of the same title Alena is the story of a teenaged girl, Alena, when she transfers from a public school with a poor reputation to an elite all-girl private school. Immediately classed as a social outcast by Filippa and her closed

clique of popular girls but befriended, and more, by iconoclast Fabienne Alena desperately tried to fit in and find a life for herself at the school and on its lacrosse team. Though not a student at the school Alena is also close with Josefin, a close friend from her life on the wrong side of the tracks. Filippa, who still carries a torch for Fabienne, orchestrates severe harassment against Alena prompting the film’s transition from high school drama to horror culminating in Alena confronting her past and the truth she has fled from.

Stylish, atmospheric, and moody, Alena  is a movie that knows the power of suggestion, the impact of the unseen, and also when to bring out the blood shocking and horrifying the viewing with its brutal and sudden appearance. The violence, both physical and sexual, are handled well enough that this move never slips over into exploitation or titillation keeping its viewpoint firmly grounded the reality of the characters and their lives despite ultimately being a story of the supernatural. While the ghost in this movie exists and have direct influence on characters and events it also stands in as a metaphor for the pasts we try to bury, for the responsibilities we attempt to deny, and the harm we carry forward with us from out past traumas. Alena’s biggest flaws is that there are times here and there that the subtitling, this film’s dialog is entirely in Swedish, is occasionally off and needed at least one more pass from a native English speaker. That said this is a movie I highly recommend, and it is currently available on Shudder and Amazon Prime video.v

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Movie Review: Avengers: Endgame

This review will be spoiler free using only information that viewers of previous Marvel Cinematic Universe films, particularly Avengers: Infinity War  are aware of.

When I reviewed Infinity War  I said that I had to withhold final judgment on that film as it presented only the first half of a story and it would not be until the next film presented a conclusion that I could have an informed opinion about its artistic merits. Taken together the two movies give us a five hour plus ending chapter for the first decade of the gran experiment, the MCU, that started with Iron Man   and surprisingly it pays off.

Endgame  opens shortly after the Avengers shattering defeat at the fingers of Thanos that resulted in the sudden obliteration of half of all life in the universe. Faced with their failure and wracked with the guilt both as heroes who were unable to stop the mass slaughter and as survivors the Avengers and the other surviving superheroes deal with, and in some cases in manners that are quite unhealthy, the various phases, stages, and, manifestations of grief. Eventually a plan is hatched and the second act of the film launches out beloved characters into action that is meaningful to each character on a personal level, advances their goal of trying to salvage something from the wreckage of the universe, and pays services to nearly every previous movie in this amazing franchise. This complicated, and at times emotionally devastating act takes it time deepening character and giving us even more to grieve and to love in their journeys before opening on a third act and massive set piece battle — it is not a spoiler to say that a *superhero* film ends with a third act battle — that dwarfs anything achieved by any MCU feature. Endgame   concludes with denouement that provides closure on the storyline that require it and revealing the path forward for the massive cinematic juggernaut.

Leading up to the film’s release much ink and discussion revolved around the feature’s three hour running time but in my opinion the writers and directors earned their massive size. Endgame  does not suffer from bloat, it juggles a dizzying number of plot lines each with several characters to manage and that’s before you reach the third act that features the intersection and conclusion of all those narrative arcs and plots. A massive project unlikely to be equaled for another decade Avengers: Endgame  delivers the good to a fan base that Marvel Studios have been building ever since that rolled the dice on a B-level hero with an actor that many had thought had ruined his career to create not only a wildly successful franchise but a culture defining series of stories and characters that will be with us and inspire us for decades to come. If you are fan of this experiment in long form saga storytelling that Marvel has given us do not miss Endgame, this is not one to wait for home video.

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Nailing the Ending

For me endings are where the meaning and themes of the story come together into a synergistic whole. The point if the story, be it a film or prose, usually lies in how that tale concludes and this places an especially important weight on getting your endings correct.

Here I am not talking about how the plot resolves, but rather the character beat that wraps up the transformation, for good or for ill, that was the protagonist’s journey.

In 1987’s Robocop  the film originally ended with one final news break segment that let the audience know that Murphy’s partner, Lewis, not only survived the film but had not been transform into a cyborg as Murphy had but once the filmmakers watched the final confrontation and it’s final line ‘Murphy’ they knew that beat ended the movie, there was no story after he reclaimed his humanity.

2008’s Iron Man  went through a similar edit. The script ended with Tony Stark coming home and having his meeting with Nick Fury and the hint of further adventures to come with ‘the Avengers’ imitative. However just as with Robocop  the director found that his story had ended with the line ‘I am Iron Man.’ Unlike Robocop  Iron Mancarried the weight of teasing the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe and the Nick Fury scene could not be discarded and the Marvel Post Credit Sequence tradition was born. Marvel did not invent this, before Iron Mancame along these were called buttons and the occasional film make tossed them in a treat for audiences that sat through the entire end credit sequence. (Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearlhad on with the monkey Jack grabbing a curse coin.)

I know that when I was editing my novel that comes out next year I discovered that I had done a similar thing. From the start I had a particular line that I wanted to end the book on and yet as I edited I discovered my story ended half a page ahead of my beautiful sentence. I killed my darling and the book ends where it needs to, or at least how it looks to me.

It is reported that Avengers: Endgame has no post credit sequence because the movie acts as the thematic end for the current cycle of the MCU films. I will see Endgame  this Sunday morning, the traditional times that my sweetie-wife and I go together to the movies, and I hope hoping that not only do they give me a satisfying ending to the Infinity War saga but also to the unique 22 film experiment that is the birth of the MCU.

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Poison or Protect: or Doing Sex Scenes Correctly

As I have said before my blog is not a book review site. Because of the rather small community of editors and writers I do think it is a conflict of interest to pretend to be objective concerning an industry that I participate in. That means when I discuss a book it is because I liked it and I thought it delivered well on some aspect and such is the case with Poison or Protect a romantic novella set in the Parasol Protectorate setting by Gail Carriger. (Full disclosure Gail has been a friend for many years but that is not why I am here to praise her work with this piece.)

Poison or Protect  concerns a mountain of a man Gavin, a retired military man, a Scot, whose has been dispatched to protect a politician from a potential assassination who suddenly finds himself overwhelmingly attracted to Preshea a woman who has left such a trail of dead husbands in her wake that she has been dubbed ‘The Mourning Star’ and who may be the very assassin. Preshea has been sent to the country house by other political powers with additional agendas and finds herself off balanced by the impressive Scotsman. This is a lighthearted roman with serious emotional undertones and more than one Hard R rated sex scene. The humor fires on all cylinders with engaging and memorable characters but I want to focus on the sex scenes.

I am one of those writers that tends to close the discreetly on my character’s sexual adventures but that is not from prudishness but rather my philosophy about writing in general. A scene should do one or more things, further plot, reveal character, establish mood or perform world-building, and ideally a scene does several of these things at once and most sex scenes are usually just that, the characters having their fun. What Gail performs admirably in this novella is that not only do the sex scenes reveal essential character elements for both Gavin and Preshea, the exact nature of the sex, the advances and retreats all give us a much fuller understanding of the characters than any other scene could have hoped to achieve. Not only does her sex scenes reveal character it is very difficult to imagine a more elegant way to reveal these very aspect, making Gail’s sex scenes critical elements that are unable to be excised from the text without destroying the fabric of the tale. The sex scenes are not ‘fan service’ but rather the emotional heart of the story and a perfect example of how to craft character illuminative sequences.

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The Tragic Failure of The GOP

The long awaited Muller Report is out and there is no doubt that it holds news that is of a concern to everyone. It is a relief that the investigation did not find that Trump or his campaign actively coordinated with a hostile foreign power to win the presidency. Make now mistake Trump in my opinion is by far the worse president in the modern age and perhaps ever in our history but we should be grateful that he not an asset or agent though he is a weakness that our enemies exploit.

Due to the diligent investigation we know a number of things as fact.

Russian efforts to manipulate the election were not confined to just he general campaign but also worked to push forward Trump candidacy during the GOP primary. For the Kremlin Trump was the preferred candidate.

Russia launched a sweeping, expensive, and targeted operation to manipulate the election in Trumps favor. This was no passing fancy aimed at simply sowing confusion or tainting a possible Clinton administration, though it would have had that effect had Trump lost so from a Russian perspective it was nearly a win either way.

Trump, though he lied about and attempted to keep it secret, extensively sought to build a massive tower in Moscow. The Trump Tower Moscow project required positive assent and cooperation from Putin and his circle of criminals, assistance that the Trump organization and family courted and pled for.

Trump personal, familial, and company financial exposure in the Moscow project is, because of hidden tax information, unknown which means Trump vulnerability to manipulation through his finances at the hands of the Russian is also unknown.

It is likely that the Russians wanted Trump in office not because of some grand ‘Manchurian Candidate’ style conspiracy but simply because due to Trump susceptibility to flattery and greed makes him particularly vulnerable to skilled manipulation.

At no time during the primary, though he leap to the lead with the electorate, was Trump the preferred candidate if the Republican establishment. These disturbing facts and shadowy connection to Russian oligarchs and criminals were as evident to them as it were to everyone else who cared to look and when Trump won the Presidency the GOP could have still acted as a patriotic party. I am not suggesting that the GOP should have abandoned their core goals of tax cuts and massive deregulation, though I do not agree with those aims. With President Trump the GOP could have their license to pollute and their deficit exploding tax cuts of more than one and half trillion dollars without surrendering so much of the administration to Trump. They could have held the line against grossly unqualified cabinet secretaries, they could have held the line against ignoring the Russian operation attacking our democracy, they could have kept true to the country while pursuing their ill-conceived and self-serving goals, but they did not. Terrified of the base that they created with decades of hyperbole and divisive campaigning, a base that embraced Trump the moment he arrived upon the scene, they folded, cowered from the monster of their own creation, and surrendered all their honor in exchanged for thirty pieces of silver. I only hope that their destruction and reconstruction takes place before it is too late for my beloved nation.

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The, as of yet, Unrealized Full Potential of Gemma Whelan

Photo credit HBO

Photo Credit: The Independent

Gemma Whelan is not a name that sparks anywhere near universal recognition. If you know this actress it is almost certainly because of her terrific performance as the unstoppable and steadfast Yara
Greyjoy in HBO’s Game of Thrones,  but her talents run further afield than the tough and dramatic Queen of the Iron Islands.

Photo Credit BBC

About a year ago my sweetie-wife and I began watching a British comedy program Upstart Crow a sit-com that centers on a highly fictionalize version of William Shakespeare’s life. (Though it has enough crosses with reality that it brings forward a number of interesting takes on other historical characters including a fabulous version of Christopher Marlowe.) Gemma Whelan plays Kate the daughter of the landlady who rents Will his London’s residence. Book-smart, inquisitive, and deeply compassionate, whose utmost desire if to be an actress, illegal for women in Elizabethan England, Kate is about as far from Yara as two character can possibly be. I admit that when Gemma first appeared in the Upstart Crow  I did not recognize her as the same actress as the hard Greyjoy but my sweetie-wife did. Gemma’s comedic talent and timing is impeccable often stealing scenes away from much more established comedian/actors. I do hope that the massive global success of HOB’s series launches this talented actor on a flight path for fame and endless interesting roles.

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A Dreaded Task

This weekend I will be undertaking a difficult and unpleasant task related to my recent victory in selling a novel. No, I am not talking about responding to an editorial direction, reviewing copy edits, or even languishing in the doldrums of the ‘what do I write now?’ blues but rather it is time to take and select — an authorial photograph.

Like many people I am nearly always unhappy with any photo of myself. I have never learned the model’s skill of an easy and natural smile and yet I am also unable to produce on demand the solemn and serious looking of deeply thoughtful person. With the assistance of my sweetie-wife we’re going to use my DSLR, which I got just recently and I am thoroughly enjoying, and see if we can produce, at least to me, a least objectionable photograph.

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The Last Ringbearer – Final Thoughts

Yesterday I finished the massive apocryphal novel The Last Ringbearer  which retells the War of the Ring with the premise that everything you learned from The Lord of the Rings  is  the victor’s propaganda.

Man, I really enjoyed this book!

To the terror of many a Tolkien purist I enjoyed this book much more than I enjoyed The Lord of the Rings.While to book is not without it’s flaws, towards the middle the plot becomes quite tangled with a vast cast of characters working on wildly different agenda. In its themes, the love of reason and science over magi and superstition, it’s commitment to competence over heredity and lineage, and it’s steadfastness to the reality that wars make monsters of us all, this tale spoke to me and many of my core philosophies. Written by Kirill Eskov a Russian scientist who started with his dissatisfaction at Tolkien’s geography and geology he explored his own world building albeit via revisionist version of Tolkien’s grand construction. I found Eskov’s interpretation of the likely type of interaction between immortal Elves and mortal men much more ‘realistic’ than Tolkien’s smug and wise benefactors. It was quite amusing that in many ways the author painted the Elves, their methods, and their motives much like the Communists that rule the USSR.

Depending on how deeply beloved The Lord of the Rings  is to you will be the principal factor in how much you may enjoy this novel. There are those, and I an no way disparage these people, who adore tales of the ‘chosen ones’ like Aragorn who is who is destined to be out unquestioned ruler by right of birth, or who despise the reveal of Rey’s parentage in The Last Jedi  because she comes from no noble bloodline but I find such ideology    at odds with my passion for equality and that brings The Last Ringbearermuch more inline with my commitment that all persons can be great or greatly evil and that the heroes and villains lie within us all.

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Classic Noir Review: Woman on the Run (1950)

Sunday night after a hectic, busy, and fun-filled weekend playing games at Kingdom-Con I relaxed by watching Woman on the Run  a film noir  currently streaming on the service Kanopy. This is a film I had never heard of and pretty much decided to give it a go on a whim.

Ann Sheridan plays Eleanor Johnson and her husband Frank, while waling the dog late in the night, becomes witness to a mob murder of a witness and informant. Frank, a target for the killer because he can identify him, and because the police proved incapable of protecting the murder victim, is unwilling to trust his life to the police, takes to the streets of San Francisco hiding from both the authorities and the killer. Though their marriage is failing Eleanor starts hunting for Frank with the police and the killer dogging her heels aided only by Legget, a nosey yellow journalism reporting looking for a scandalous story. As Eleanor sifts through the clues of her husband’s life trying to work out where he might be hiding she discovers that their marriage is not what she had assumed it to be.

Woman on the Run,  though she is more hunting than running, is a terrific, taunt, thriller with a second act twist that puts the entire second half of the film onto a roller coaster of suspense. The real star of the movie is the sharp dialog that is filled with character and style. Carried principally by Ann Sheridan and Dennis O’Keefe as Legget, the film has more character development and transformation than many movie today and while it suffers from some ham-handed medical fantasy issues to create an additional sub-plot the main story holds together and is populated with colorful memorable characters. (I was quite pleased that the producers and director avoided ‘yellow face’ for the few Asian speaking parts.) The climatic ending is truly engaging and had me, late Sunday after a packed weekend, night fully awake and involved.

Apparently this film at one time had been thought to have been lost but now thanks to the Noir Foundation it has been restored, though at one point a still is used for a reaction shot, and I can heartily recommend this movie to anyone who is a fan of this classic genre.

 

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Convention Report: Kingdom-Con 10

Kingdom-Con is San Diego gaming convention and sadly this year, the tenth, is the final year as the organizer has decided to cease operation while he still loves doing it. Held in a hotel in Mission Valley Kingdom-Con.

While the convention boasts nearly every style of gaming available my sweetie-wife and Is tuck to the board game room where you can check out games from their library and play with other attendees, of which I am told there were in total about 1300.

Here’s a quick run down of the games we played.

Epic Roll:This game was terrible. The theme is adventurers in a D&D setting racing to the top level. It supports only three players, doesn’t understand its theme, (really Skeletons are a tougher monster than Mummies?) and the outcome is entirely luck driven.

Elder Sign:A game of adventurers desperately attempting to stop the rise of a great old god. It’s a dice game but with much more strategy than Epic Roll however I did not quite understand the rules when my Sweetie-wife and I tried it so the game was not a success. I’d like to give it another go with a better understanding of the mechanics.

 

Invader Zim: Doomsday Dice Game:My sweetie-wife and I played this just the two of us and while I enjoyed it she did not. Based upon the popular cartoon players either are working as Zim and Gir trying to destroy the Earth with an outlandish devise or the players are either Dib or Agent Darkbootie trying construct an equally outlandish device to shield the Earth.

 

Betrayal At The House on the Hill/Baldur’s Gate: Two variants of the same game mechanic but with different themes. Collectively players explore either an old Mansion or a fantasy town and its catacombs encountering events, gathering item, and uncovering Omens. Eventually enough omens trigger a ‘haunt’ and one player becomes the monster or villain and has their own victory condition while the other players as, a team, win by stopping the villain. This was decently fun.

Lords of WaterDeep: A worker placement game that takes place in a D&D setting with the players battling to become the power behind the secretive factions controlling the city of Waterdeep. My sweetie-wife and I played two games and I player a late night game with another attendee. I thoroughly enjoyed this game and find that the worker placement mechanic is quite fun.

Hogworts Battles:This is a massive game with seven sub-games. Set, obviously, in the Harry Potter books and movies, the players are the
young heroes cooperatively battling to stop the forces of evil from taking over the magical school Hogworts. Each sub-game is a year at Hogworts and gets progressively more difficult. We played 5 of the seven games, losing to the forces of darkness in year five. This was quite fun but the 5 years took about six hours to play out and had we won years 6 and 7 would have had to have been played the next day.

And finally

Thanos Rising:A cooperative dice game thematically set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Each player leads one of four super hero teams, Avengers, The Guardians of the Galaxy, Wakanda, or Earth’s Sorcerers as they attempt to prevent the mad Titan Thanos from collecting all six Infinity Stones and killing half of all life in the Universe. A game with a simple mechanic Thanos Rising is a surprising tough game with a fair amount of tactical thought required. I lost about half the games I played in with the wins being mostly down to the wire affairs.

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