Review Roundup- Books

Loose-end time again, as I've been sitting on a couple reviews, this time from the book world:


1.  Accelerated by Bronwen Hruska

Sean Benning is, for the most part, a single parent, as his wife has disappeared.  His son Toby goes to the Bradley School for the gifted, a school that has been known to produce some of the nation's leaders and other luminaries.  Sean begins feeling pressure to put his son on medications for ADHD despite feeling that his son really doesn't need it, and since he's raising Toby alone, he wrestles with trusting his gut or trusting a school that has Toby's best interests in mind- or does it?

I recommend Accelerated, although not highly.  It is a page turner, yet a somewhat predictable one, and Hruska makes a maddening debut.  The book is incredibly fast paced and engaging, but also annoying in parts.  Hruska has a bad habit of throwing in celebrities, even giving them dialogue.  Bill Clinton makes a mystifying appearance at a posh dinner party in the middle and hits on Sean's date.  Sean himself works for a tabloid, and the tabloid world is painted with a pretty broad brush (Surprise!  Tabloids want scandalous stuff!).

Overall rating:  0.25



2.  Playing For Keeps:  Michael Jordan And The World He Made by David Halberstam


Michael Jordan is the focus of Playing For Keeps, but Halberstam really writes mini-biographies of everyone involved in Jordan's life and career.  As a result, Playing For Keeps is an utterly fascinating read, especially for a basketball fan, and even more especially for a basketball fan growing up in that era.  His high school and college coaches and teammates are profiled as he rises to fame, and then his Bulls coaches, teammates, and even the opposing teams are put under the microscope.  This is one of the best things I've read in quite a long time.

Overall Rating:  2.0
 

The Perks of Being A Wallflower

The Perks of Being A Wallflower

Director: Steven Chbosky

Stars:  Logan Lerman, Emma Watson, Paul Rudd

The Perks of Being A Wallflower is a film based on the novel of the same name and directed by its author.  It's a story about Charlie, a high school freshman who has had problems with severe depression in the past.  It's crucial to Charlie to make friends quickly so that he doesn't spend a lot of time alone.  He befriends Patrick and Sam, who are stepsiblings, and they begin to have adventures together, which keeps Charlie's demon away.  They don't stay away together, however, as the relationships become more complicated as time passes.

I really wanted to like this movie, but I felt some distance from it.  Logan Lerman is very charismatic as Charlie, who is mostly a quiet kid but very charming once his friends get to know him.   Emma Watson is Sam, and Sam is changing her ways, as she used to be more promiscuous, but it's hard to buy that based on Watson's performance.  Perhaps that's carryover from her days as Hermione in the Harry Potter movies, but it was still an obstacle.  The film tries for these grand, profound moments, but they felt almost forced to me, and maybe I'm just getting tired of the whole "making a mixtape" concept in movies. 

Overall, Perks was somewhat of a disappointment, considering the high praise it earned in reviews.  I wouldn't dissuade anyone from seeing it, as there are some memorable moments (such as the aftermath of Charlie dating one of Sam's friends) and Lerman's performance is very soulful, but I wouldn't highly recommend it, either.

Rating: 0.0
 

The Mavericks- In Time

The Mavericks' latest release "In Time" is an absolute blast to listen to, and if you're sitting down while listening to it, you might find yourself chair-dancing a bit, as there are some extremely danceable songs in the set.  There's actually a little bit of everything.  The first few songs are very retro-sounding (effortlessly retro-sounding, in fact, which is not easy to pull off).  "Lies" is the first toe-tapper, and two tracks later, "Come Unto Me" is a barnstormer of a song that has a great jam at the end.  "Amsterdam Moon" sounds like it would be great to hear at Miller Park, as it features an almost ballpark-like organ.  "Dance In The Moonlight" is both romantic and catchy.  The last song, though, is an absolute masterpiece.  "Call Me" (When You Get To Heaven) starts out mellow enough, but builds a nice jam behind some great backup singing.  Highly recommended for many reasons- lead singer Raul Malo's often-haunting, powerful voice, catchy songs, and a band that sounds like it had a great ol' time.

Mr. Matt's Score:  1.5

Academy Awards Review

The last two years have been the only two years that I can remember watching the Oscars from beginning to end, and both times, the lingering feeling for me has been that moviegoers and stars alike have gotten much less of a show than they deserve.  Perhaps I'm just late to the party, and the Oscars have never been scintillating television, but for all the hype, the Academy Awards have failed to deliver, and it's maddening for a couple of  reasons.

First, the choice of host.   I'm pretty outspoken in my dislike for Seth MacFarlane, and I was baffled by his selection, but I think it was an effort to make the Awards more fresh than the Billy Crystal experience and to get light years away from Anne Hathaway and James Franco.  MacFarlane's resume, though, is less than impressive (he has three Fox shows that at worst can run towards the very tasteless and at best mildly amusing, and one mega-popular movie that was essentially a big screen Family Guy episode), and he pretty much stuck with his humor and schtick (there were a couple of song and dance routines that can be found on Family Guy).  Was he the worst host ever (as his opening bit had him fearing he might be?)  No, but the Oscar basement goes pretty low, given the Franco/Hathaway performance and David Letterman's "Uma/Oprah" year.  The show directors didn't do MacFarlane any favors by making him read the "coming up" segments, either.

Some of the production decisions were also to blame for the extremely tedious ceremony that clocked in over three and a half hours.  Music in film was a big focus, but did we need performances from Chicago and Dreamgirls in addition to Les Miserables?  The Les Miserables performance was one high noteof the ceremony, as it was an impressive sight to see the entire cast (even Russell Crowe) singing live, but the Chicago and Dreamgirls performances felt unnecessary.  The best song performances also ruin the flow of an already choppy program; I would eliminate those and let snippets play while the nominees for that category are being announced.  And when music in film is a big focus, is it really a great idea to banish the orchestra to another building?

I felt from the start that the stars and movies weren't really being honored last night.  You don't honor these stars by subjecting them to the antics of a snarky host who seemed to be shooting himself in the foot all night (really, a John Wilkes Booth joke?  A segment called "We Saw Your Boobs", which Captain Kirk told MacFarlane would sink him as an Oscar host.  To me, the joke would have been more effective if Shatner had just described the bit instead of involving the actresses).   If you want to honor movies and moviegoers, hire a host (or even a committee of hosts, like they did back in the day) whose name brings honor to the ceremony.  If you want to honor movies and moviegoers, give the presenters some material instead of having the Avengers bicker or Paul Rudd and Melissa McCarthy do incomprehensible impressions.

It's never going to be an easy task to make the Academy Awards a brisk affair.  It's not the Golden Globes, all breezy and spontaneous. These are prestigious awards, so hopefully next year the ceremony will feel like the honor that's it's hyped to be.

Book Review- That's Not A Feeling- Dan Josefson

That's Not A Feeling

Dan Josefson

2012









That's Not A Feeling takes place at the Roaring Orchards boarding school.  Roaring Orchards is not a typical boarding school; the students are not typical, the adults are not typical, and the school's administrator certainly is not typical.  Roaring Orchards is more of a therapeutic center for troubled teens, and the point of view of That's Not a Feeling is one of those teens.

Benjamin arrives at Roaring Orchards thinking that he's simply on a tour, but his parents have taken off.  He soon realizes that there's something a bit off about the school.  The teens in his group can be no further than an arm's length in one another, and there are unorthodox methods for dealing with events such as swearing or a teen running away.  The point of view is mostly Benjamin's, but other characters are presented in detail, including other teens, teachers, "dorm parents", and the administration.  Josefson does a masterful job of presenting this bizarre world by detailing the rules and routines to a very specific degree and creating a Roaring Orchards "vocabulary" that seemingly everyone spouts at one time or another. The characters are very well fleshed out, which makes some of the events at Roaring Orchards even more heartbreaking. 

Rating:  1.50.  Highly recommended reading- That's Not A Feeling is an exceptional first novel and a quick read.

 

Quartet

Quartet (2012)

Director:  Dustin Hoffman

Stars:  Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Michael Gambon, Billy Connolly


Quartet takes place in a retirement home for musicians, and everyone's gearing up for an annual benefit concert honoring the composer Giuseppi Verdi.  Three quarters of a quartet renowned for their performance in a past production of Rigoletto already reside at the home, and Jean Horton, the four member (Maggie Smith) arrives later.  Unlike most of the residents, Jean is not eager to perform, but a plan is hatched to have the quartet reunite for the benefit.  She was previously married to Reginald Paget (Courtenay) but had an affair shortly after their wedding and broke his heart, so he's not exactly thrilled to see her.

Quartet is great as a comfort film.  It has some familiar faces (including Smith at her most severe, Connolly as a charmer who lost his filter after a stroke, and Gambon looking nearly Dumbledorian with a robe and cane), doesn't have a very stressful conflict and takes mostly predictable turns.  It does tug at the heartstrings with the story of Jean and Reginald, and falls somewhere in the range between charming and witty. There are a couple of questionable choices- in one scene, Reginald lets fly with a couple expletives insulting one of the breakfast servers, which didn't really jibe with his character overall.  Another audience member loudly exclaimed during the credits that it was a cute movie, and I agree with that assessment.

Mr. Matt's rating:  0.50 - nothing new to see here, but a good time nonetheless.   Another audience member loudly exclaimed during the credits that it was a cute movie, and I agree with that assessment.  I'm curious to see how it compares with The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (also starring Smith), which I aim to see soon. 

 

Music Reviews- Jim James, Mumford & Sons

Thoughts on a couple of releases from last week:

Jim James, Regions of God and Light and Sound of God:

Jim James (lead singer of My Morning Jacket) didn't give his solo debut a catchy title, and there's not much in the way of catchy songs.  A lot of MMJ that I've listened to is dense as well, but their records tend to have some fun elements as well (Circuital's "First Light", for example).  James skews towards the mellow, which is fine, but the lack of hooks or a quicker tempo make listening a little tedious.

Best track:  "A New Life"

Rating:  0.25


Mumford and Sons, The Road to Red Rocks

The Road to Red Rocks is the first live release by Mumford and Sons, and the majority of the songs are from their most recent album Babel.  Having seen them live, I wondered how different the songs from Sigh No More would sound, as they played them pretty much as they sounded in studio, and Mumford and company are definitely more playful with them on Red Rocks.  The chorus on "Little Lion Man" seems slowed down a bit, which was a nice touch, and a louder piano on "Roll Away Your Stone" adds a little more fun. Another standout song here is a rousing "Awake My Soul", featuring some really nice harmonies.  The songs from Babel haven't really grown on me yet, although they're performed entertainingly enough.  Overall, Red Rocks is a nice live debut.

Best track:  "Roll Away Your Stone"

Rating:  0.50.