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books, Minimalist Reviews

Damned, a novel by Chuck Palahniuk

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by James Gilmore

Damned by Chuck Palahniuk follows the idea that every cliché you’ve ever heard about Hell is absolutely and completely true.  And Hell isn’t really that bad of a place so long as you don’t expect it to be like Heaven.  All it needs is a little optimism and some long-overdue re-landscaping by the supernumerous tenants.

Book cover for Damned, a novel by Chuck Palahniuk, on Minimalist Reviews.

The book is creative, thoughtful and entertaining, and is probably more broadly-appealing to readers than most of Palahniuk’s other, more shockingly gruesome works.  With trim, lean writing the author creates the most sympathetic, likable protagonist of his career.  To his credit, the 13-year old female protagonist is thoroughly authentic in thought and viewpoint, which allows Palahniuk to lead the character to a number of unusually profound conclusions.  Like the protagonist, every member of the supporting cast is similarly illustrated with sympathetic—if not tragic—human weaknesses.  As the backstories of these characters are revealed the reader becomes continually haunted with the idea that there is no Heaven at all, and that Hell is for everyone.

Despite its strengths, Damned is not Palahniuk’s best.  His trademark technique of using repetition in changing contexts fails to fulfill its purpose in this novel.  The result is frequently negatively iterative, if not, at times, indulgent.

The structure of the final act is particularly weak as well, giving the impression that the novel was cut short of the full story the author was trying to tell.  Virtually without warning, we are ushered to a rapid climax which dissipates with an anti-climax.  The pivotal idea to the story’s final revelation—that the main character is driven by free will—is hindered by the poor structure and ultimately results in invalidating all the story which preceded it by making it feel pointless.

Damned is worth a read, especially for those who love anti-fundamentalist and anti-liberal satire.

Rating:  3 / 5

Minimalist Reviews, movies

West Bank Story, a “Quickie Review” of the short film by Ari Sandel

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by James Gilmore

Movie poster for West Bank Story, an Oscar-winning short film by Ari Sandel, on Minimalist Reviews.

It’s West Side Story…in the Middle East!  West Bank Story is must-see for musical lovers and anyone looking for a good laugh on the very serious matter of Israeli-Palestinian tension.  Ari Sandel reconstructs Israeli-Palestinian relations in a microcosm by using two restaurants, one Israeli, and one Palestinian, who clash as a pair of star-crossed lovers work to briadge the gap between their bitter rivalry.  In the end, Israelis and Palestinians end up being more alike than different and it is the customers who come first—i.e., the people, not the conflict.

Rating:  5 / 5

books, Minimalist Reviews

Babbitt, a literary novel by Sinclair Lewis

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by James Gilmore

Book cover for Babbit, a literary novel by Sinclair Lewis, on Minimalist Reviews.

Babbit by Sinclair Lewis is an all-but-forgotten literary masterpiece which espouses the hollowness of blind conformism.  At the surface, the novel appears to be about a successful businessman entering (and surviving) a mid-life crisis.  But more accurately, Babbitt is about a man whose identity only exists by means of his compromising conformity to everyone else.  He struggles between being the person everyone thinks he should be and what he really wants for his own life, although he has become so entrenched in the conformist society that he cannot escape.  In this he discovers that he is weak and pathetic, a living cliché, a human example of meaningless and futility.

Babbitt is a true character piece which explores every facet of the completely repressed individual in a society of demanding conformity.  The text remains engrossing despite constantly straddling the line between thoroughness and repetitiveness.  Unfortunately, reading the novel can be arduous due to its very slow story development.

Babbitt was internationally successful at the time it was published while domestically the novel’s brazen but accurate depictions and accusations of America offended or mystified many readers.  Every student of American literature should study Sinclair’s Babbitt.

Rating:  5 / 5

Minimalist Reviews, movies

Shadows and Fog, a film by Woody Allen

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by James Gilmore

“It’s been a strange night,” says the protagonist in Woody Allen’s film, Shadows and Fog (1991).  And a strange night it is.

This surreal tragicomedy features the bumbling Kleinman (Woody Allen) adrift and directionless in the “shadows and fog” of life in an existence where everyone else seems to know exactly where they are going and where death is a nameless killer ever lurking in the shadows.  Kleinman is invisible, a ghost in a world of flesh and a story of coincidence.

Movie poster for Woody Allen's film Shadows and Fog 1991 on Minimalist Reviews.A cursory glance reveals a clumsy film which is episodic, disconnected, strange and star-studded with actors like a pathetic publicity stunt.  However, a much closer inspection is required in order to uncover the gold hidden beneath this deceptively layered film.

Shadows and Fog is an 85-minute metaphor for life in the macroscopic sense.  Every scene is a sampling of some form of human existence, a circus filled with “theories and questions” which masks the true meaning of humanity.

Ominously looming over the film’s rich qualities are a number of detractors.  The film feels coarse and drifting, like the filmmaker wasn’t satisfied with the end product but resigned not to fix it (or wasn’t sure how).  Scenes of maladroit exposition and dialogue appear too far into the story to justify their inclusion and are all too often coupled with less-than-desirable acting and blocky line deliveries.  The episodic nature of the story serves to confuse more often than engross.  The end result is a film whose pacing ebbs and flags and whose quality is uneven.

To sum up with a paraphrase from the magician (played by Kenneth Mars): “People need illusions, like they need air.”  Cinephiles and Woody Allen fans delight, all others take flight.

Rating:  3 / 5

books, Minimalist Reviews

Pygmy, a novel by Chuck Palahniuk

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by James Gilmore

Although all of Chuck Palahniuk’s novels satire American culture, Pygmy is perhaps the most pungent of the author’s bibliography. 

Book cover for Chuck Palahniuk's novel Pygmy on Minimalist Reviews.

Technically sound, fascinating and shocking.  And while many readers may take issue with the nature of certain violent events which occur in the story, these events are in fact appropriate to the story, even if they are presented in a fashion to maximize shock factor.

The audio book recording of the book is an excellent alternative for Palahniuk fans who wish to avoid the grammar headaches of reading the novel’s own form of pidgin English, which can be extremely laborious.

Pygmy is an absolute must-read for fans of Chuck Palahniuk.  However, strangers to his work may find the book distasteful if not virtually impossible to read.  On the other hand, adventurous readers should absolutely give the book a perusal.

Rating:  4 / 5

Minimalist Reviews

Restrepo, a documentary film by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger

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by James Gilmore

Restrepo is the first documentary reviewed on this blog (and hopefully not the last) but is worth discussing due to its vigorous storytelling qualities.

Movie poster for Restrepo, a documentary film by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, on Minimalist Reviews.

The film documents the most combat-intensive atmosphere known to US soldiers since Vietnam, wherein American soldiers find themselves engaged in 4-5 firefights a day for 15 unbroken months. Transcending the normal objectivity of the format, Restrepo thrusts the viewer into the startling subjective experiences of young soldiers right from the beginning. Illustrated by intense first-hand footage of combat, poignant interviews, and daily losses and gains, the film recreates the surreal daily life of these soldiers. Footage of “boys being boys” punctuated by ghostly silence and heart-stopping combat. What we see in the often unspoken psychological aftermath of war is devastating.

The filmmakers quickly get a bead on what is human and interesting in the story. These men aren’t just soldiers in another American conflict, but youths who barely understand anything about their own world, let alone the incomprehensible foreignness of the world they have been dropped into. To these young men the war is not about ideology, the fight for freedom or any other such lofty goals. It is about surviving in an alien environment they will never understand.

Restrepo is more emotionally intense than any synthetic war movie. At times it is beyond heart-wrenching. It is ultimately compelling. One of the best military documentaries of the decade.

 

Rating: 5 / 5

Minimalist Reviews, TV

Blue Gender, an animated series by Ryosuke Takahashi and Koichi Ohata

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by James Gilmore

In an attempt to branch out in review material, Blue Gender is this blog’s first Minimalist Review of a TV series—a Japanese anime TV series at that.

Movie poster for Blue Gender, a Japanimation series by Ryosuke Takahashi and Koichi Ohata, on Minimalist Reviews.

Seemingly inspired by another anime series called Neon Genesis Evangelion (and occasionally approaching near plagiarism of it), this 26-episode animated series proves to be an incredibly dark, violent and gory sci-fi that is externally centered around a chosen few individuals who pilot exoskeleton suits (read: big robots) to fight off a global alien invasion. Internally, the story is about one individual trying to find his purpose in a seemingly pointless existence.

Although the series stays afloat with decent execution, it suffers from numerous logic holes, a unique but blunted concept (a directorial issue, see below), and a bloated, inefficient plot spread too thinly over 26 episodes. Even though it improves somewhat over time, the whole series still feels two episodes longer than is necessary. The plot is sometimes too predictable due to directorial shortcomings in dramatizing big reveals, even if they do occur on cue in a solid over-arching structure. The underlying emotional/relationship content remains adequate for the genre but could have been taken much further given its powerful seeds. Barely worth mentioning is the all-too-frequent laughable dialogue and occasional clips of unnecessary nudity (justified as “fan service,” which is typical of the anime supergenre).

Despite its numerous shortcomings, Blue Gender remains coherent, well structured, directed, animated and characterized, ultimately leading to a surprisingly entertaining end result, even if the commendable main character has a habit of becoming irritating a little too often. Testaments to the series’ impressive visuals are its gruesome imagery, realistic future technology, intimidating foes and intense battle sequences, most notable in the first six episodes. Most striking of all is the uniquely remarkable soundtrack which combines dirty grunge and dark choral with the experimental.

In the end, Blue Gender is worth a look for those into adult sci-fi series featuring an alien invasions, big robots and wholesale slaughter.

Rating: 2 / 5

Minimalist Reviews, movies

The Trip, a film by Michael Winterbottom

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by James Gilmore

The Trip is a comedic film reconstituted from a short-lived improv TV series of the same name, starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as fictional (and sometimes not so fictional) versions of themselves. Off-beat and off-color, this hybrid mockumentary/traditional film narrative delivers comedy that might not be to taste for the general American viewing public. Although presented as a low-key comedy, the film is really a sad coming of middle-age story at heart.

Movie poster for The Trip a film by Michael Winterbottom on Minimalist Reviews.

The plot follows a foodie pilgrimage taken by non-foodies, unfolding to reveal the life of an aging, professional actor as he approaches a sort of mid-life crisis. But beneath the façade of this simple story is one man’s journey as he is confronted with the revelation that he hides in a fantasy world and must face the brutal truth about his own life, and in so doing transcend from the idles of youth into the maturity of adulthood. For this the film and especially the direction are commendable. Unfortunately, in part because of its conception and in part due to its nature as an ad-hoc film edited together from a TV series, The Trip fails to deliver a strong story arc, resolution of sub-plots or character relationships. The true core of the film cannot be better illustrated than by Steve Coogan’s line: “It’s not about the destination; it’s about the journey.”

The film’s comedy is both passive-aggressive and extremely understated, often to the point of there being no joke or gag at all, merely subtext and unspoken situation which presents itself as genuinely humorous. Especially entertaining is the continuous battle of dinner table impressions, namely those of Michael Cain and Woody Allen.

 

Coogan’s acting proves to be one of the most impressive aspects of the film as he demonstrates his chops for more serious roles (not to mention that he won a BAFTA for his acting in The Trip).

 

Rating:  3 / 5

Minimalist Reviews, movies

Zelig, a “Quickie” Review of the film by Woody Allen

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Movie poster for Zelig a film by Woody Allen, a quickie review on Minimalist Reviews.by James Gilmore

Woody Allen’s Zelig is a light-hearted, tongue-in-cheek mockumentary told through a veritable 1930s-style news reel.  Despite being a simple love story at heart, Allen’s film demonstrates remarkable subtlety of theme about a common man who expresses his desire to fit in to society by literally adopting the characteristics of others. Zelig not only entertains, but manages to expose the desires of every human being through the fantastic journey of one human chameleon.


Rating:  4 / 5

Minimalist Reviews, movies

Captain America: The First Avenger, a film by Joe Johnston

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by James Gilmore

Captain America: The First Avenger is the best of the “Avenger” origin movies to date.  Although well written and directed, special recognition is in order for the film’s excellent casting, studded with marvelous actors and nuanced, layered performances. Hugo Weaving is a delight as always—that is, until he takes off his mask, at which point he loses his broad range of subtleties and becomes a mere caricature (as disappointedly expected in the superhero genre). Chris Evans displays remarkable flexibility in his transformation into Steve Rogers compared with his previous performance as the Human Torch in both Fantastic Four films wherein Evans plays a character who could not be more different.  Impressive performances by Stanley Tucci and Tommy Lee Jones are also unavoidably worth noting.

Movie poster for Captain America the First Avenger, a film by Joe Johntson, on Minimalist Reviews.

Invested into the story is an intelligent journey toward the burgeoning of Captain America as superhero, playing upon not only the usual choices of balancing heroism and humanness but also the very idea of Captain America as an icon of World War II symbolism. Captain America ends up parodying his future self before actually taking the plunge into his role as true hero.  Few superhero stories can boast an equally clever step. To cement his role as hero icon of the War, Captain America also makes the choice to not live to fight another day (in his own time), but makes the ultimate sacrifice—the mark of a true hero—one few comic book “super” heroes make, even though the term “hero” implies such a requisite act in order to receive such a lofty title.

Still, at times the action pushes beyond the realm of believability, which is further exacerbated by a few sub-par special effects and the obligatory comic book-like action sequences in the third act (which are always a bit harder to swallow).  Also, one finds the glaring lack of visual verisimilitude in Steve Rogers’ pre-superhero physique annoying to the point of distraction while the minions of Hydra appear plagiarized from an unrelated videogame called Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001).

Overall, an enjoyable superhero film with a little something more.

Rating:  4 / 5