Monthly Archives: December 2022

A Tired Trope

 

Feature films and television is filled with tired worn-out tropes used to glide past problem spots in scripts and create false tension. There is one that I wish desperately to die, the improvised or fortunate bullet-stopper.

We’ve seen this for decades upon decades. A character is shot in the chest, almost certainly dead, only for it to be revealed later that something stopped the bullet. Bruce Wayne’s improved one with a silver tray in Tim Burton’s Batman, a lead token proved the essential protection in Deadpool 2, books are a commonly used device, though it can be forgiven in Sleepy Hollow as at least there was no modern ammunition was used.

Variations on this trope include impromptu shields, Arnold used bystanders to prevent himself from being riddled with sub-machine gun rounds in Total Recall and Steve Rogers used a convenient taxi door to stop rounds from a semi-automatic pistol in Captain American: The First Avenger.

In all these cases the filmmakers and writers have ignored that modern bullets posses ‘overpenetration.’ The rounds often, depending on the substance of the target, have more the energy to pierce metal and flesh with enough remaining to exit and continue on presenting danger to those beyond.

The sub-machine rounds in Total Recall would have torn through the poor bystander Quaid used as a shield and into Arnold’s character himself. No mere silver tray would stop even a small caliber round and Wayne would have been grievously injured.

I have learned to ignore this trope when it raises it ignorant head, but I will not continue its presence in my own work. Firearms are lethally dangerous even if you have a book in your breast pocket.

Share

A Beautiful Sentiment

 

One of the things I learned this year is that the traditional Jewish condolence upon hearing of a person’s passing is “May Their Memory Be A Blessing” which I think is an interesting and beautiful contrast to the more common “Rest in Peace.”

Neither is bad but they have very different focuses.

Rest In Peace is focused on the person who has left the mortal realm. It recognizes that life is rarely peaceful, and that we struggle and work until death’s grip ends that turmoil.

(A darker and wholly unintended interpretation is wanting the person who has died to remain in the friggin’ ground. No Vampirism for you.)

May Their Memory Be A Blessing is centered on the effect the deceased had on the world around them and the friends and loved ones grieving the loss. It speaks to the hope that while life is often red in tooth and claw, we each have the capability to make life better for others. To be the blessing that this tired world so desperately needs. It points us not only towards the blessing the person may have left for others but also the blessings we may still give before out time comes.

I am so enriched to have learned this tiny fragment of another culture this year.

Share

Both Miles Bron AND Ben Shapiro are Idiots

 

 

Netflix

Two days ago, Ben Shapiro took to Twitter to pronounce Glass Onion, reviewed on this blog and a wonderful film, was in fact bad artistically and politically. His opinion is flawed and idiotic as I will demonstrate.

 

 

Be warned after this  like blood, There Will Be Spoilers.

 

 

Ben Writes:

First, the writing. The first half of the movie is a complete misdirect and a waste of time.

and

We only find out about the actual murder we’re supposed to investigate full one hour and ten minutes into the film, as well as an entirely new backstory (Miles never invited Blanc, and Andi has a twin sister masquerading as her). We’re actively deceived by the writer.

Many people have already pointed out the idiocy of not expecting misdirection in a murder mystery, but I want to lean on the word ‘complete’ which implies quite falsely that there were no clues, (You know what clues are don’t you Ben?) in the first act that what we were presented with was not the entire picture.

As each invitee receives the box, they each understand it is a puzzle and seek to solve it. Calling on each other for help. Helen/Andi doesn’t try to solve it but attacks it with furious anger. Not frustration, not annoyance, but intense hatred.

When we see the first puzzle box delivered to Claire, we are shown that it came by professional courier. Yet, while Blanc is in the tub playing online games with celebrities a voice calls out, “Someone is here to see you.” pause “And they have a box.”

Phillip did not shout out, “There’s a delivery!” or “Ben you have to sign for this!” or “What did you order?” None of the things people actually say when confronted with a surprise delivery. Look Ben, a clue that this was not like the others.

As the invitees arrive at the pier to go to the private island it is clear that Blanc is watching each arrival carefully. Yet, when he speaks it is an exaggeration of his normal patterns. A clue that he is already playing a part.

When Miles sees Andi’s arrival at the island, the reaction is one of utter shock. Edward Norton gives you the full reaction of a man seeing someone who he really really thought was dead. Not the socially awkward reaction of an unwanted guest. It is as obvious and as easily missed as looking directly at Bruce Willis and saying, “I see dead people.”

After Helen/Andi’s initial confrontation with the disruptors, she stumbles off, after she clearly not knowing that Claire had called following up on the email, Claire muses “She’s changed.” Well, yes here’s another clue that Andi is not in fact Andi, a pretty big one.

Oh, and ben we didn’t wait half the film to discover that Miles hadn’t invited Blanc. Miles took Blanc aside when he arrived and stated he had not invited him, and Blanc misdirects him to think one of the others ‘reset’ their puzzle box to invite him as a gag.

Why the misdirect? Because the story itself in the purest form of incredible laziness. It relies on not one, not two, but three bad writing tropes: an identical twin, a comprehensive journal, and a moron of a murderer.

Well, as has been stated, misdirection in mysteries, like magic tricks, are an essential element of the genre. There were, as I have detailed, plenty of clues that Andi was not Andi, and Miles, while a moron, actually performed a pretty decent murder. So well executed in fact that at the end of the story it is clear he will face no legal consequences for killing Andi.

Now onto Ben’s interpretation of the film’s politics.

Rian Johnson’s politics is as lazy as his writing. His take on the universe is that Elon Musk is a bad and stupid man, and that anyone who likes him – in media, politics, or tech – is being paid off by him.

A common interpretation is the Miles Bron is a thinly veiled swipe at Elon Musk. While Bron is a ‘tech bro’ there is actually nothing in the film that makes him a direct comparison to Musk. There is never a mention of any space venture, though that would cover both Musk and Bezos, no mention of electric cars, in fact it is a plot point that Miles’ car, that he loves, is a gas car, and no mention of any form of electronic payment systems. Nor is there any hint that Miles owns social media.  The film was written and produced before Musk nose-dived into Twitter. In short none of the businesses that briefly made Musk the richest man in the world apply to the character of Miles Bron. In fact, Miles’ internet company, Alpha, with things like Alpha News, an important plot point, is much more like Alphabet, the company that owns Google, than anything Musk has been associated with.

For the rest of his twitter thread Ben continue to treat Miles as a stand-in for Musk apparently unaware that a character can represent a general type of person, douchey tech bro, rather than a specific person.

What about all the people who like Musk? They’re dumb and corrupt, too (which means you need no logic for them, so more bad writing!). This means that all Miles’ friends/supporters are still “sucking the golden teat” for Miles/Musk because he keeps signing them checks.

Ben is incredulous that rich powerful people can be surrounded by sycophants, yes-people, and moochers. We can look to Trump’s current legal teams to see how the best and the brightest are attracted to wealth and power.

One of the most important lines, defining the character of Vito Corleone, in The Godfather is when Tom tells the movie mogul “Mr. Corleone is the sort of man who insists on hearing bad news right away.” It tells us that unlike many many powerful people the Godfather does not want yes-men but the truth and that is an aberration.

But any of them could, at any time, burn down Miles/Musk and reap massive benefits. Literally any of them. Duke would become, overnight, the biggest host in the world for uncovering the conspiracy of silence.

Ben really is either ignoring the realities of taking on the rich or he is an idiot. I’m not sure how Ben thinks the group of Mile’s ‘hanger-ons’ can take him down. Certainly not over the murder that they are ignorant of, perhaps by publicly stating he is in idiot. Hmm people do that all the time and it has failed to take down Musk or Trump. Of course, if you have something real, something damaging, then billionaire will take you to court and guess who will have the nearly unlimited resources and legal teams to grind you into poverty before it ever gets before the bench? Not one of the ‘disruptors’ has anything close to the financial or legal resources to take down Miles. Their livelihood is wedded to his, hence they are sycophants.

Now Glass Onion has well-worn and tired Hollywood tropes, but Ben is too thick to actually see those and instead he wails, cries, and moans that liberals are unfair to Musk, too blinded by his own prejudices to see what is really there. Honestly, Ben has done a perfect job of misdirecting himself.

Share

Boxing Day at the San Diego Zoo

First off let me say I should be back to fairly regular postings here. I have reached the ‘burn out’ stage of overtime and while there is another week or three to be offered by my employer, I am happy enough to just work regular hours.

December 26th, Boxing Day to most of the commonwealth nations but just ‘the day after Christmas’ here in the United States my sweetie-wife and I enjoyed a pleasant morning at the Zoo. (Mostly pleasant, I did develop a head and we cut it a little short.) Of course, I took photos and three of the 25 seemed worth sharing.

 

 

 

 

This is an Ibis of some species but as it was there holding down the enclosure where an eagle normally resides there was no plaque to tell us precisely which variety of ibis it is.

 

 

 

 

 

I really like this photo of the ibis because it has a real ‘Raptors in the grass’ feel about it.

 

 

 

 

An elephant made the cut this week. I just like the framing of the photo but for no particular reason.

Share

Movie Review: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery

 

In 2019 writer/director Rian Johnson released his love letter to the classic mystery genre with his film Knives Out. A movie without a pre-existing fan base, no novel, no boomer television series, no classic film reboot, and the domestic box office still soared past 300 million dollars. Audiences fell in love with southern gentleman Detective Benoit Blanc. The success guaranteed a sequel and Netflix brought truckloads of money to Johnson for two more Benoit Blanc mysteries, the first of which, after a one-week theatrical run over Thanksgiving, drops onto the streaming service today.

Glass Onion, taking in May of 2020 as the world grapples with the Covid 19 pandemic, is set on a secluded Greek island as tech billionaire boy Miles Bron (Edward Norton) has invited his close group of friends, nicknamed the Disruptors and his estranged former partner, for a weekend of

Netflix

a murder mystery game. Blanc’s arrival is the first mystery as someone other than Bron dispatched to Blanc of the puzzle box invitations. Naturally the weekend does no go as planned and soon the participants find that the dangers are for more real than the party games that they had expected.

The next Benoit Blanc mystery is structured very much the pervious one.  The first act of the film establishes a collection of eccentric characters, this time drawn more broadly that the Thrombey clan, but when you are dealing with an internet billionaire and the surrounding sycophants broad is the order of the day.

The second act inverts everything you thought you understood had been established while playing fair with the information it had presented.

The third act swings into the actual mystery and revelations to land in an emotionally satisfying conclusion.

Glass Onion present more comedy and less mystery than the previous movie but retains all the essential elements that made Knives Out such a fun and entertaining experience. The cast is uniformly fantastic with golden cameos from a number of well know persons. Outstanding in this cast is Janelle Monae though it takes more than half to film to uncover what makes her performance so stellar.

It is a shame that Glass Onion has such a short theatrical run as this is the sort of movie that is best experienced with a crowd but even alone on the couch this is still a movie that should not be missed.

Glass Onion is currently streaming exclusively on Netflix.

Share

Movie Review: The Menu

 

The Menu, directed by Mark Mylod from a screenplay by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, is a dark comedy/horror film set almost entirely within the confines of an exclusive restaurant The Hawthorne, ruled with a dictatorial air towards both staff and diner by Chef Slowik (Ralph Fiennes). The film unfolds during a single evening’s meal of several courses as the exclusive clientele discover that this night Slowik had a very special menu planned.

The story unfolds, slowly revealing the horrific nature of the very special evening, through viewpoint of Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), a last-minute replacement date for snobbish foodie Tyler (Nicholas Hoult). An outsider to the world of the extremely wealthy Margot is the audience Searchlight Picturessurrogate and protagonist trapped in the bizarre conflict between the wealthy patrons and the working staff of the restaurant. As the night progresses Slowik’s true intent and hatred slowly emerges along with his staff’s fanatical and cultish devotion.

The Menu leans much further into satire and dark comedy than into horror, with social commentary, that is quite entertaining, giving the piece its principal thematic purpose. Beyond the already listed cast member the film includes John Leguizamo as an aging actor, and Janet McTeer as an influential critic but the movie rests solidly on the talents of Taylor-Joy and Fiennes as the central protagonist/antagonist and it is their conflicting world views and personalities that drive the plot.

While the film has lovely, warm, and cold cinematography by Peter Deming, whose credits include Twin Peaks, The Cabin in the Woods, and Mulholland Drive the real standout work here is the production design by Ethan Tobman. With very limited locations and more than three quarters of the scenes restricted to the dining room/kitchen of the Hawthorne, Tobman has crafted an environment that perfectly captures the cold sterile and lethal setting while never breaking the suspension of disbelief that this could be an actual exclusive restaurant.

Horror fans looking for elaborate kills, graphic violence, and exciting chases are going to be disappointed by The Menu, a film that reveals it horror more quietly but other may find this as delicious as I did.

Share

Norwegian Kaiju Fun: Troll (2022)

 

While the Japanese film industry reigns undisputed as the global champions in giant monster, AKA Kaiju, cinema other nations have gotten in the act and this year brought a treat from the Nordic North, Troll.

Construction of a new railway line through the mountains of Norway awakes an enormous troll Netflixthat wrecks destruction throughout the countryside as the meanders South towards the nation’s capital, Oslo.  Am assembled ragtag team must battle the troll and bureaucratic interference along with familial trauma to save Norway from the ancient pre-Christian curse.

Troll, directed with a firm talented hand by Roar Uthaug and with sharp, lovely cinematography by Jallo Faber, is a fun, fast, and thoroughly enjoyable film. Screenwriters Uthaug and Espen Aukan, perfectly balance the spectacle effects of a 40- or 50-meter-tall troll cutting through countryside and city environments with just enough human scale story to give the film dramatic weight without sliding into melodrama. The characters, while not blindingly unique, are drawn well-enough to present as believable people, engaging the audiences emotional connections. It is also pleasant that despite the mixed-gender cast there was no attempt at a love triangle or even a romantic subplot, just associates, friends, and family working in common purpose. The films ending is reminiscent in mood to the grandparents of Kaiju cinema, King Kong (1933) and Gojira (1954.)

I am going to talk about two elements Troll in a generally non-spoiler manner.

Frist something that amused me. During the movie’s second act the Troll moves through an Amusement Park, food, games, rides, including the obligatory fake rapids water ride. The day the troll arrived the sky was overcast, a cool day, and still the water ride was full of Norwegians wearing heavy long-sleeved shirts. Clearly the Norwegians have a different standard when the weather is appropriate for getting drenched.

The second damaged by suspension of disbelief but not so badly as to kick me fully out of enjoying the movie. It is strongly suggested, but never explicitly. stated, that the Norwegian military considers a nuclear strike against the troll, but Norway is not among the 9 nations known or suspected of possessing nuclear weapons. Nor does the movie suggest that they are borrowing one from NATO.

That said Troll was a fast, fun movie that played quickly and never failed to entertain. For fans of giant monsters on a rampage Troll should not be missed.

Troll is currently streaming on Netflix.

Share

Writing Other Than Yourself

 

A frequent topic of conversation among writers, particularly as ‘Own Voices’ continues to grow is the fraught challenges when someone, usually straight, white, and male, writes for characters from minority or marginalized communities.

There is a school of thought that members of culturally dominate groups should refrain from writing characters coming from those marginalized groups. On one level this seems reasonable and logical. Experiences from marginalized communities can be quite specific, with social queues and particularities that are not visible to people outside of the group. If a writer’s understanding of a group comes from mass culture itis likely to be contaminated with stereotypes, both positive and negative, rather than actual understanding.

There is also a practicality question.

Minority and marginalized communities are under representative in popular media arts and an artist not from such a community can be seen as taken up a spot in the room that might have gone to someone historically shut out from the conversation. So even well intended, well researched, efforts can contribute to harm.

But there is another issue to consider.

If as a straight white male, I should stick to straight white male characters, then my novels become a northern European sausage-fest, one that utterly fails to reflect the reality. Restricted to my own group is a disservice to my art and by extension to anyone who consumes it.

Clearly my works should include the full spectrum of humanity, and yet I do have a responsibility to consider how my place and my voice may impact others.

I think the answer may be to think of characters existing in orbitals around the protagonist/antagonist nucleus.

The protagonist and the antagonist most likely constitute the majority of my novel’s points of view. It is through these characters’ eyes that I am reflecting the world around them and whose thoughts and emotions are buried in the prose. These characters I should know the best and should be a few steps removed from myself as possible. Each major aspect that is distantly removed from my own is an added difficulty factor in getting the character right.

Sidekicks, friends, and associates are an orbital distant and are less likely to have extended scenes from their points of view. More separation and less time in their heads mean there is less danger, but not none, in committing an egregious error. More factors of difficulty can be safely added.

Minor characters, here for a scene or two, are the most distant. With these characters, as long as stereotypes are avoided, it is the safest to introduce every sort of character, to populate a world fully.

As with most artistic things there are no hard fast rules, but there are always considerations.

Share

Post-Convention Report

 

As I warned everyone visiting this site posting will be thin during the Medicare Annual Enrollment Period as I work 10-hour days five days a week and half days on Saturdays. Still, the money looks nice every two weeks.

Last week was Thanksgiving and for the first time since November of 2019 I returned to LosCon, the annual Los Angeles area science-fiction convention. They did hold an in-person convention in 2021 but I was not yet feeling secure enough with the pandemic to venture out of my home for crowded rooms. But this year, yes, and it felt so good to mingle again with my people.

After finishing work on Friday my sweetie-wife picked me up and we immediately headed out for Los Angeles. Luckily, the Friday following thanksgiving is light in traffic and we made good time arriving at the hotel just after 6 in the evening. Of course, arriving in the evening and after checking in, getting our convention badges, and having dinner, there were few panels left to attend. Still, there was one on writing effective horror that had small enough attendance that it turned into a pleasant round-table conversation between the pair of panelists and the audience. Exhausted from work and the trip I made it an early night and slept for just over 9 hours.

Saturday started early with breakfast and then the first panel which I was on and moderated, Everything You Need to Know About Editing. I had a pair of ladies, Jessica Brawner and Rebecca Inch-Partridge and I think we had a pretty good discussion.

I followed that up with a presentation on space imagery from a couple of JPL scientists.

Towards the end of the panels, I moderated another one, this time the subject was Finding Your Own Voice in Writing. I had a great full panel of writers with loads of good advice. Voice is particularly hard to define and that is doubly so when looking at your own writing.

That evening I rolled the dice and toured the parties. Unusually sociable I had a nice time talking with people I hadn’t seen in years and a few who enjoyed some of my panels.

Sunday, I had a more economical breakfast at a fast-food spot and enjoyed another day of panels including two more that I sat on, How to Write For a Specific Genre and What the Publishing Landscape Looks Like Today.

Once I finished the final panel my sweetie-wife and piled into my Kia and headed back to San Diego. Stopping only for our Sunday shopping trip, we made it home with enough time for us to watch the Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special and then it was bedtime to get up early for another 10-hour day at my job.

It was a good weekend.

Share