Reviews

Movie and book reviews

Movie Review: ‘The Band’s Visit’

imageI wish MrsDoF hadn’t been too busy rolling balls of yarn to go to the movies with me.  Sometimes a guy just can’t get a date to save his life.

I saw The Band’s Visit this evening at the historic Normal Theater.  It’s a 2007 story about an Egyptian police band travelling to give a concert at an Arab culture center in Israel.  They get on the wrong bus and end up stranded in the wrong town; a town in the middle of nowhere with no hotel.  Locals take them in for the night.

It’s a very different kind of film from the American movies I’m used to. I went because I have never seen a full-length Israeli film, know very little about life in Israel, and have very little context for Arab poetry or music.  There’s no ‘action’, no politics and very little religion. It’s character-driven, quiet, and a quite unadorned look at the lives of people in the Israeli town, and in the Egyptian band.  The characters once had dreams, they’re lonely, grieving, impatient, defeated or self-important, and the story, to the extent there is one, is in how they behave when thrust together.  It has some moments where the whole theater filled with laughter, and at least one moment where you’d best have a hankie.  At least, I needed one when the band leader explains to the beautiful restaurant owner what happened to his wife and son.

Oddly enough the film was rejected for an Oscar in the ‘foreign films’ category because it had ‘too much English’ in it.  Though, if Egyptians and Israelis needed to communicate, that’s the language they have in common…

Posted by George on 05/03/08 at 09:15 PM
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Monday Morning Music: SPIN

Some very funny stuff:

(Hat-tip to Greg Laden)

Posted by George on 04/28/08 at 06:11 AM
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I think I might have Web 2.0 disease

It’s finally happened.  I was sitting at the table, reading the dead-trees edition of Chicago Tribune, and when I got to the end of a particularly interesting article, I paused.  I felt a vague unease; something was missing, but what?

Oh yeah… there was no place to click to leave a comment. Man, newspapers are so screwed. 

Update: see Coturnix’ post on Generation is a mindset, not age.  Like I been sayin’!…

Posted by George on 03/30/08 at 07:14 PM
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Everybody sign up as “PZ Myers”

It’s no secret I’m not exactly a charter member of the PZ Myers Fan Club.  But even I have to give him props for this: he signed up to go see a special screening of Ben Stein’s steaming pile of creationist propaganda1, Expelled, and before he could take a seat, they tossed him out! Pretty funny since he appears in the movie, and the whiny theme of the movie is that “it’s just not faaaair” how creationism in its current guise is tossed out from biology classes.

The Expelled producers have been trying to spin this as tossing a gate crasher, but Myers wasn’t making trouble2 and he signed up to see the movie the same as everyone else there.  And they let in everyone else who came with him, including none other than mister “God Delusion” himself, Richard Dawkins…

Continued...

Posted by George on 03/23/08 at 10:17 AM
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Science Friday: More Asimov!  And friends…

Asimov on the relationship between science writing and science fiction writing (he did both).  I wish the whole essay were online but here’s a little bit of it.  First, on science writing:

Why write about science?  What does it accomplish?…

First, through the wise use of scientific knowledge humanity has a chance to solve the otherwise overwhelming problems that face it.  How do we increase our supply of materials and energy and prevent waste and pollution?  How do we make life more comfortable and secure?  How do we ameliorate the ravages of disease and old age?  If these problems can’t be solved by science, they can’t be solved at all.  On the other hand, the unwise use of scientific knowledge may destroy us all through nuclear warfare, pollution, desertification, uncontrolled population increase, and so on.

If the world is to learn how to use science wisely and to shun the unwise, as many people as possible must learn about science - not, perhaps, enough to become scientists themselves, but at least enough to have a chance to come to sensible decisions and to exert a force of public opinion on their leaders in the direction of sense.

A fine example of this is the agreement to ban the atmospheric testing of nuclear explosions in 1963.  The governments involved were not keen on this, being driven by mutual fear and hatred in the direction of suicide.  It was an aroused world opinion that forced sanity upon them very much against their wills.

Second, science has reached the stage where it needs far more investment than the scientists themselves can supply.  Even private industry may fall short where the greatest projects are concerned.  No source remains but governments - that is, the public purse.  If the public is expected to pay, it would be best if they understood what they were paying for.

Third, for science to advance, there must be a continuing supply of bright young men and women who are willing to devote their lives to scientific advance.  The supply can best be increased in both quantity and quality if the general public continues to be well informed as to the nature and content of science.

And a bit on science fiction writing:


Change has always been with us, but the rate of change is what really counts.  That rate has increased steadily in the course of human history, and beginning about 1800, it became rapid enough to make change visible in the course of a single lifetime.  (It was soon after 1800 that science fiction began to be written).  The rate of change has further increased until it is now a whirlwind that is whipping us all into the unforeseen.

If we are to control our own destinies, we dare not ignore the inevitability of change, or fight it blindly as something that is annoying and undesirable.  We must accept it and attempt to channel it in what seems to us to be a desirable direction.  It helps if we are acquainted with science fiction and have therefore learned to treat change as something familiar.  Science fiction readers, in other words, are relatively immune to future shock…

As I said, I wish the whole essay, indeed the whole collection of essays and stories by many writers including Asimov, Clarke, Bradbury and a host of others, scientists and science-fiction writers, were available online.  But I can offer the next best thing: the book is available used at Amazon, cheap.  It contains factual essays as well as fictional, one of each kind about each of the planets of our solar system.  It may not be the latest dope (1985) but it’s GOOD stuff and it’ll cost you less than five bucks including the shipping.  And wouldn’t you rather read a good book anyway?

The Planets, edited by Byron priess, copyright 1985.

Posted by George on 02/08/08 at 07:04 AM
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Secular revival hymn

I have a confession to make: I really like Natasha Bedingfield’s Unwritten.  It’s uplifting and fun, and so is the very clever video that goes with it.  So un-fashionably un-cynical.

Continued...

Posted by George on 01/29/08 at 07:02 AM
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Guest post: Better living through chemistry - sous vide

From my son, mathematician and Renaissance man:

Sous vide was an industrial process (and later a restaurant process)
developed to more efficiently cook foods while keeping their juices in the food.  It allows you to cook at a temperature which more finely tunes what parts of the food are being broken down.  In the example above, the steak is cooked at a temperature too low to coagulate the muscle proteins, but at a temperature high enough to break down the collagen into gelatin.  Rare steak’s toughness is usually caused by collagen, and well-done steaks are tough because of the coagulation of muscle proteins.  Check out the pictures on the page

“Perfect steak with DIY “sous vide” cooking

The result is (allegedly) an incredibly tender steak that tastes quite rare.  You can also use this technique to make “boiled” eggs (cooked in 65C water) which have a firm yolk, and soft whites.  Apparently you can also create vegetables that taste fresh, but have a cooked texture (the temperature varies with the egetable).  In this case, the temp is too low to break down flavoring chemicals, but high enough to partially dissolve down the cellulose in the cell walls.  Some vegetables (like carrots, onions and sweet potatoes) also have enzymes which turn starch into sugar at an accelerated rate at high temperature, but is deactivated by high temperatures.  So, cooked in this way, you can end up with very sweet vegetables, with better nutrition than traditionally cooked vegetables.

Needless to say, after I did some reading about it, I bought a probe thermometer on amazon.  I will be experimenting with this!

And later…

I got my probe thermometer in the mail today.  First I “boiled” some eggs at 64-66C for 75 minutes.  The results were then served on toast.
A creamy, perfectly semisoft yolk, together with light, mildly runny whites.  Delicious.  Milly described them as her “dream boiled eggs”. Then I went to Schnucks, got a 12oz sirloin, and cooked it at 60C for 45 minutes inside of an oven bag with a little soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and some pepper.  (The vinegar was chosen to reduce the growth of bacteria, just in case.  Also because it’s good.) Then I took the steak out, melted some butter in a very hot skillet, and grilled the outside until it was a crispy brown.  Just below the surface of the steak, I found a gorgeous tender pink meat.  It was incredibly
tender--never once did I find myself with an unpleasant piece of gristle in my mouth, it all just melted.  I feel like my whole life, I
wanted to eat this steak, and now I have.

Man that steak was good.  I wish I was eating it right now...

Posted by George on 01/18/08 at 07:09 AM
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Movie Review: Lars and the Real Girl

MrsDoF and I went to the historic Normal Theater this evening to see the comedy movie Lars and the Real Girl (not yet released on DVD).  I am hard-pressed to think of another movie as original as this one.

Lars (played by Ryan Gosling) is a 27-year-old man who lives in his brother’s garage.  He holds down a job, is kind to others, and though he is extremely shy, people do like him.  But they don’t know that he is so badly wounded inside that even the touch of another person, however kind or gentle, causes him pain.  He wears multiple layers of clothing for protection.  He cannot hug.  It is difficult for him even to shake hands or look another person in the eye.

When a porn-addicted office-mate shows Lars a website that sells unusually realistic sex dolls, he secretly orders one.  But not for the usual purpose.  Instead, Lars invests in the lifeless mannequin an emotional reality as his new friend from Brazil.  Her name is “Bianca”.  Her mother died when she was born - just like Lars.  She is very religious, like Lars.  She cannot walk and does not speak much English. 

His brother (Paul Schneider) and sister-in-law (Emily Mortimer) are horrified to learn that he actually believes she is alive.  In the months that follow, they and all their friends, and the entire rural community, receive a crash course in delusional mental illnesses, and in compassion.  The psychiatrist (Patricia Clarkson) advises Lars’ brother and sister-in-law to play along with his delusion, so he can work out what he needs to.  His co-workers, and the rest of his church community also pitch in, reluctantly at first, when it is made clear to them that this may be the only path Lars can take out of his suffering.

And his brother learns that he holds the key to Lars’ pain.

It is a Christian theme that redemption is possible by sharing in the suffering of others.  I have seen this play out in actual rural churches, and it does in Lars’ church.  Their kindness, and that of the community, is the only part of the story that requires any suspension of disbelief, but the effort does not go unrewarded. 

Every movie asks a somewhat improbable question, such as “What if an empire and the rebellion against it spanned a galaxy?” The improbable question for Lars might be; “What if people had as much compassion for the mentally ill as they do for the physically ill?” The movie is billed as a comedy, and the audience laughed a lot.  But I didn’t, and when Lars is convinced that Bianca is dying, and he baptizes her, no one else in the theater did either.

There were a thousand ways for this movie to have gone wrong, but it didn’t.  Instead it is original and funny and touching.  So you needn’t look for it at the Oscars - they just skip over movies like this in favor of something with more explosions.  See it if you get the chance. 

Notes:

  • Movie Website
  • Yes it’s true, I’m a godless heathen.  But from various life experiences, I can speak reasonably fluent ‘Christian’.
  • Other themes in the movie:  Sometimes honesty is not the best policy, Forgiveness, ‘Let he who is without sin...’, Definition of manhood, and more.

Posted by George on 01/12/08 at 10:28 PM
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Book Review: CASCA

You may remember Barry Sadler, the famous soldier and author of the popular song; “Ballad of the Green Berets”.  I was not aware that he also wrote a fictional novel, and then he wrote 24 more novels before his untimely and mysterious death in 1989.  In each of these novels, Casca is Barry Sadler’s observer in a different part of military history - a nifty literary device.  My boss was kind enough to loan me the first in the series over Christmas break.

Here’s the setup: Casca Rufio Longinus was the soldier who pierced Jesus’ side with a spear at Golgotha.  Jesus cursed him to wander the Earth forever as a soldier, and this first novel is the story of how he became the eternal mercenary.  It has some truly horrifying twists, such as when Casca realizes that 1) he cannot die, and 2) as a slave in the copper mines, if he were buried alive as slaves often were, it would be for all eternity.  After more than a decade he escapes the mine, but he must forever move on.  If anyone learned his secret, they might burn him at the stake for witchcraft, or impale him, or visit any number of other kinds of execution.  And while he could not die, he could certainly feel pain.

He makes some very interesting friends, among them Shiu Tze, a Confucian philosopher far from home.  There’s a a number of gory battle scenes and one climactic battle with his nemesis in the gladiatorial arena before the emperor Nero. After one especially pointless and bloody battle against the Parthians, he curses the Christian god as a sadist for placing him on the road from which he cannot escape.  But when he tries to kill himself by falling on his sword…

Alas, they’re out of print but I’ll be watching the book sales. 

Posted by George on 01/09/08 at 09:51 PM
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Monday Morning Music - Gnarls Barkley CRAZY

This intricate video has a lot of unexpected visual tricks, including jarring reminders that absolute facial symmetry is unsettling, and can go either way emotionally depending which side of the face is used.  And Thomas Callaway is an incredible singer.

And what the hell, I like this one because it’s really fun, if a trifle disturbing:

I’m really glad these two got together.

Posted by George on 01/07/08 at 06:49 AM
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Movie Review: Ratatouille

MrsDoF and I saw the Disney/Pixar film Ratatouille at the Historic Normal Theater this evening.  You know the story: a rat with a culinary gift becomes the master chef at a French restaurant.  Since I couldn’t figure out how the story was supposed to work, I was prepared to be underwhelmed. 

I was surprised to find that it did work, was funny, and engaging, and very literate, and I liked it.  (I should have known, co-directed by Brad Bird.) If your kids watch it, it might even improve their vocabulary, too.  In the pattern of Incredibles, there was some some inspirational stuff but not too much.  And a bit of romance, but not too much.  Some violence, but not too much. And the animation was not only technically superb but lovingly artistic as one could hope.  Tasty!

Posted by George on 01/05/08 at 09:30 PM
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Mr. President?  Is that you?

It’s a chilly January night and MrsDoF is in the living room watching Disney’s 1991 movie, Beauty And The Beast.  I like the movie a lot, so I’ve been popping in to watch the cool scenes with her.  I especially like the part where the Beast saves Belle from the wolves.

Then I overheard the obnoxious bully Gaston, use a familiar phrase.  To MrsDoF’s annoyance, I came in and rewound the tape to catch a picture of it (the animation is between-frames but the closed-caption is clear).  Gaston vows to “Kill the beast!” and Belle, who has befriended the misshapen monster, says “I won’t let you!” To which Gaston replies; ”If you’re not with us, you’re against us!”

Sound like anyone we know? I think it’s a pretty good fit.

Posted by George on 01/01/08 at 10:55 PM
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National swagger and whistling in the dark

A correspondent best known for penning the infamous ”Letter to Dr. Laura” sent me this brief review of a new book yesterday:

Friends,

I just finished a new book that I must enthusiastically recommend:
”Are We Rome?” by Cullen Murphy. It’s a sobering comparison of the USA and the Roman Empire in its latter stages. Just a few of his observations:

  • Roman leaders had a mindset that Rome was invincible, and refused to visualize military defeat by “inferior” forces.
  • Romans saw themselves as the center of the Universe, with no need to understand other cultures.
  • Over the years, the Roman government, and in particular its military services, became increasingly privatized, resulting in lack of oversight and an epidemic of corruption.
  • In Rome, the economic disparity between the numerically tiny ruling class and the majority working class greatly increased over the course of its history.
  • Rome began as a secular republic and ended as an empire with an official state religion.

It’s food for thought when we contemplate the best direction for the United States.

- Kent

This is exactly why I am more afraid of preening, ignorant, pious, tough-talking, denialist politicians than of our country’s enemies.  It has never seemed likely to me that America could be brought down by an outside enemy without mutual destruction by superpowers.  But our situation is more analogous to cancer. 

Posted by George on 12/21/07 at 07:11 AM
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New jacket!

Hot Damn!  The weather’s supposed to be miserable tomorrow!

Q: “What do you think, son?  It’s my new REI Ultra-Light waterproof windbreaker jacket.”

A: “Gee, dad, I suddenly have the urge to throw a bucket of ice-water on you!”

It is a pretty nifty jacket.  I also like my Sierra Designs MicroLight windbreaker though it’s more for Spring and Fall where the REI is for the sleet and howling gales.  It is a versatile, configurable jacket for rough conditions.

That is, if you’re the type who prefers a windbreaker instead of a heavy coat even in extreme weather.  The idea is you can fine-tune the amount of insulation as simply as putting on a bulky sweater under it.  I just find the windbreaker more comfortable when I’m bicycling or doing other physical work.  A heavy coat restricts movement.

Pete got the first REI in the office, and Webs got the second one.  But neither of them were geeky enough for jacket-blogging.

Update: 18 February 2008.  After using the REI jacket for a few months, here’s what I found.  It is great protection from severe weather, except the neck isn’t big enough to zip up comfortably.  (I have the same problem with shirts; if you are pencil-necked, it won’t be a problem.) And it has no document pocket; a place to stow an office envelope or a magazine would be nice.  Sierra Designs has an extreme jacket similar to the REI; I may try one since I like my SD light-duty jacket so much.

Posted by George on 12/06/07 at 09:47 PM
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“Wild stray cat, you’re a real gone guy…”

Headin’ into winter, gettin’ kinda gloomy?  Have some finger-snappin’ toe-tappin’ Setzer with a Mancini chaser

STRAY CAT STRUT

(There’s even a “Pink Panther” interlude in the middle)

Continued...

Posted by George on 12/03/07 at 07:15 AM
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