The Social Network

This movie was critically acclaimed. From an outsiders perspective, it didn't seem to fit with the Oscar type of movie, but that's what you get when you expand the category to ten movies. Pity vote! But seriously, this movie was actually really good. I was entertained the entire time. Not only was I not bored at any point in the movie, I was left wanting more of the story when it finished. I'm not sure if it's because Facebook has become a part of every day life, but it was just interesting. Jesse Eisenberg was just what you pictured: a Harvard drop out future billionaire.... a nerdy but somewhat cocky geek. He programs for fun. He just wants to be the next big thing (he still is). Other comments: I had no clue who Eduardo was despite him co-founding Facebook. Yea, the movie explains this. Also, JT plays Napster founding cool guy, Sean Parker. Heard some real life stories about him, and his acting sure fit the bill. He's better at dancing though. 'Nuff ramblin'. Watch the movie, yo.

Dog Day Afternoon

I know it shouldn't be surprising, but damn. This was a really good movie! Based on a true story and set in the post-Vietnam anti-establishment mid-'70s, Dog Day Afternoon is about a bank robbery that goes wrong right away and results in an all-day hostage situation. Al Pacino and John Cazale wind up bartering with authorities and releasing hostages one by one for favors from the police and FBI, who have them surrounded. The result is an almost-always tense but also fairly humorous standoff. By the middle of the movie, the bank teller hostages have all befriended their captors and want them to get away with everything. So do a number of civilians outside watching everything unfold, because again, this is the anti-establishment post-Vietnam era in which plenty of people wanted to see nothing more than the little guy pulling one over on the authorities. The acting is outstanding, and this is probably the purest and rawest and most charismatic I've ever seen Pacino be. And that, obviously, is saying quite a lot. The two-hour film kind of slows down and switches gears about halfway through, when Pacino's character's true motives for robbing the bank are revealed, and all of a sudden this isn't just a tense thriller but also somewhat of an exploration of a Vietnam veteran's psyche. All in all, it ranks as one of the best 1970s movies I've ever seen, not that that's a very long or illustrious list. (Actually, the list is essentially John Cazale's filmography: The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Deer Hunter. Shit, that guy went out on top. Like Cobain, except instead of Courtney Love, he was getting it on with twenty-something Meryl Streep.)

Johnny Tremain

Some time ago I boasted that I had finally finished every Newbery Medal winner in my backlog. That claim was premature, because for some reason, I never realized that this book was, in fact, a Newbery winner. Sigh. In all honesty, regardless of its Newbery status, I wasn't really looking forward to reading this book. Not because I thought I'd hate it, but just because I didn't have a whole lot of interest in reading a coming of age tale set in the 1770s and written in the 1940s. I'd already seen the movie back in middle school and didn't remember the tale being anything out of the ordinary. And that more or less sums up this novel. Ordinary. Nothing I'm angry I "wasted time" reading, but certainly nothing I'd ever tell another person to look into. Actually, as far as young adult novels set in Boston during the American Revolution go, I much prefer April Morning, for what it's worth. (But then, I read that book back in middle school. Who knows whether or not I'd enjoy it today?) At the very least, I'm now definitely done with my Newbery winners and only have four or five more young adult books to go.

Double Cross

Jeez I have read far too many of these books. I liked this book. The killer was crazy and made each murder a show for the audience. He is in conversation with Kyle Craig, the Alex Cross bff turned serial killer. So ya know, in typical Cross fashion, Cross gets the girl, gets the bad guy, and leaves mostly unharmed. I would write more about this book. But I don't want to. Sorry Steve.

Julie & Julia

Before we begin, every time I upload a picture Chrome makes the pop up window hide. I don't want it to hide! I want it to pop right up. How upsetting.

This movie, as you can see, is based on two true stories. Story 1: Julia Childs learns to cook in France and wants to publish a book a la the Joy of Cooking for American women who want to learn French cooking. So she must first learn French cooking! How neat! (We all know how this story ends)

Story 2: Meet Julie. It's Amy Adams looking less attractive and more worn looking with short hair. Her boyfriend makes her move to a crappy apartment and instead of being a writer she is stuck in a telemarketing esque job.

Enter Julia! Julie is all like, "I never complete my goals, wahhh." So she says, I'm going to cook through Julia Childs' cookbook in 365 days. And dangnabbit, she does! She blogs about it and gains many followers. The New York times even does a piece on her and she gets oh so many book offers!

It's really a happy story all round. I must say Meryl Streep was fabulous. I really don't know if Julia Childs was that eccentric, but Meryl played it to the tee if so. She was so enthusiastic and eager to learn. She also had a great accent. Amy Adams plays a great frustrated twenty something. She really comes into her own. I thought this was a very fun well done movie. Nuff said.

The Wire: Season 5

And there it goes. I've just completed what is arguably the greatest TV drama of all time. And hell, I think I might even be someone who falls in the camp making that argument. This is especially incredible given that I found the first season underwhelming and the second one even less impressive. Most TV shows peak somewhere in the second or third season. But it took The Wire five full seasons to tell its story in full. And boy, does this story seem complete. Or completely open-ended. Maybe both; the game is the game and the systems and institutions portrayed by The Wire are broken. Players from all sides will continue to take advantage of this corruption and misguidance long after individual people are forced out of their roles through death, incarceration, or retirement. It's all connected, and cyclical, and life goes on. Creator David Simon alwyas claimed that Baltimore itself was the main character of The Wire, and that it only served as a specific (and especially bad) example of the American city in general, and by extension, America. Having soaked up all sixty episodes over the past year or so, what impresses me most is the patience with which Simon told these stories and connected everything together. It's as realistic a fictional TV series as I've ever seen and yet it's incredibly heart-breaking and depressing and even, at times, darkly, darkly hilarious. And it earns every single emotion it elicits out of you; this isn't just a show where a B-character can die while sad piano music is playing and it tries to cram tragedy down your throat. No - those who die in this show, or get axed, or arrested, or injured, or whatever, they do so in cold silence and are never seen again in flashbacks or dream sequences. Just a fantastic show overall and I absolutely can't wait for friends and my own girlfriend to give it a try. It's overwhelming at first, and more "work" to get through than any show you've probably ever seen. (Although I've heard Game of Thrones throws about fifty characters and ten plot lines at you from the get-go, too.) But damn, is it worth it. Just follow my own trajectory of Wire season reviews here on Back-Blogged and see for yourself. But yeah. Great series, great season, great ending. Shows like this one just don't come around often enough.

Cross

Hola Senoritas, I come to you bearing Cross. Alex Cross. Very original title the twelfth book in the Alex Cross series. Let me give you a hint, Patterson got lazy, and the next 5 books also have the name Cross in the title. It's like he got tired of writing the same story over and over.

I kid I kid. I really do enjoy the books, otherwise why would I still be reading them. This is one of the better Cross books in recent memory. One piece of Cross' history that is vital to how he functions daily is that his wife was murdered shortly after they had their second child, and he was never able to solve the case. In this book, you find out.

The story starts with why Cross wife is killed. It is a flashback from the murderers point of view. His name is the butcher, and he is a mob hitman. He regularly rapes girls and then threatens them with pictures of people he killed. They either die or never speak of it again. One poor victim confides in Cross' wife, a social worker. Cross, meanwhile, on another case, is investigating some mob hits and actually sees the butcher in the middle of a hit. The butcher goes after Cross and kills his wife. Flash forward, Cross and Sampson are investigating a series of rapes in the Washington area.

I won't bore you with the entire middle of the book, but Cross gets his man and avenges his wife's death. The shocker, his best buddy Samspon knew the killer the entire time but could never get to him. Oh, and Cross gets shot. He is still risking his life all the time.

Good book. Fun murder case and some Cross history. Seven posts left!

Parks and Recreation Season 1

What to say about Parks and Rec? I had seen episodes of this show during season one and two, and my only defining thought was "man Amy Poehler is annoying". I had a preconceived notion / hatred of her from SNL so this is probably why I thought that. Steve promised me during season 3, that Amy Poehler was really tuned down and by virtue of moving in with a person who watches this ever week, I eventually saw more episodes. And ya know what? I liked it! The characters are funny and adorable, including DJ Roomba. So I gave it a shot and started with season 1.

Because I had seen some of this before, I was really waiting for the characters that I knew and loved from the episodes of season three I saw. Like sweet Ann, her and Leslie aren't even friends at the beginning of season 1. But they're like besties now! Anywho, this show is very good. Ron Swanson is great. April is funny in her own way. Tom (Aziz) is great. And Leslie really grew on me. I don't like Mark because I love Ben, but hey, shit happens. Also, Louie CK makes a guest appearance, and he's adorable! Yes, adorable!

Overall, I would recommend this show to anyone. It's an easy watch. And you get to hear a song about a pit.

The Remains of the Day

I read The Remains of the Day about a week ago, on a flight from Ohio back to Massachusetts, but never got around to writing up a post about it. I guess it just didn't have much of an effect on me. I had heard of the basic plot before- Stevens, a butler in England on a cross-country drive reflects on his service for his former employer, Lord Darlington, and comes to realize that the man was a Nazi sympathizer in the years leading up to World War II. Really though, the backbone of this book is the professional and romantic relationship between the butler and the head housekeeper, Miss Kenton. The two spend years upon years together in Darlington's service, and while the stuffy butler Stevens insists that they stay professional at all times, there are clearly some deep-rooted feelings for eachother that went unrealized until Miss Kenton leaves the house and marries another man. It's hard to sympathize with Stevens for his loss, especially since he likely would have never made a move. I guess the whole point of the book was to show how horrible it is to lead a butler's life dedicated to professionalism and unquestioning loyalty- Stevens loses the girl, and eventually realizes what a terrible person Darlington was the whole time. Throughout the novel he adds in details of what it means to be a truly great butler, and while they start of noble and dignified, they end up sickening and sad. I guess we should all take Kazuo Ishiguro's advice and not become butlers. Ok, got it. Moving on...

Eastbound & Down: Season 2

I really enjoyed the first season of Eastbound & Down, and was looking forward to last fall's sophomore effort. But I dropped out after four of seven episodes. I just wasn't enjoying the show as much as I had the first time around. It was probably a combination of a lot of factors - raised expectations, slightly diminished quality, a crowded primetime TV schedule on Sunday nights, etc. Whatever the cause, I cut bait and said "I'll wait for the DVD." And now, here's the DVD. And it was well worth the wait. Freed from the chaotic Sunday night autumn TV grid and long after expectations have faded, Eastbound & Down's second season ended up being a real pleasure to watch. Still not as good as the first season, but decent enough for me to be glad I spent my time watching it. And isn't that all we can ask from any TV show? Also, in Fall '10 me's defense, the final three episodes were better than the first four. This show isn't for everyone and the humor is pretty sophomoric and crude, but in a very self-aware way; we're not laughing with Kenny Powers, but at him instead. So if "semi-ironic redneck comedy" isn't something you can believe in, you might as well avoid this show. Otherwise, I do think it's worth looking into. Thirteen half-hour episodes are all there've been so far, and Wikipedia says (so take it with a grain of salt) that the upcoming third season will be the last. That means it's a low commitment! At any rate, it's nice to finally have some closure on the season of television I started ten months ago, but I can't even pretend I've been dying to see how things turned out. I need to remind myself I have the "wait for the DVD" option more often.