1/5 (Drivel)
I’m often distracted by the smell of old paperbacks — I’d like to imagine there’s a direct correlation between how much I’m distracted to how bad it is — which would make reviewing easier. Perhaps how strongly I’m compelled to write about the smell should be considered an indicator Continue reading
7.5/10 (Good)
The Portuguese master Manoel de Oliveira is the oldest filmaker still making films — he’s 102 at the moment! Even more surprising is the fact that his most productive years have come since the 1990s (often two films a year). Eccentricities of a Blonde-haired Girl (2009) is the first of his I’ve seen and won’t be my last. Despite the fact that Eccentricities has its fair share of flaws it is a gorgeous and timeless tale Continue reading
4.75/5 (Very Good)
1971 Nebula Nominated Novel (Silverberg declined the nomination)
The first two-thirds of Robert Silverberg’s masterpiece Downward to the Earth (1970) is easily in the pantheon of the best sections of a science fiction book I’ve ever read. I found it emotionally engaging and often downright nerve-racking, moody and disturbed, and engages in an intelligent and poignant manner with the issue of de-colonization which was coming to the fore in the 1960s.
Continue readingThe great American director Sidney Lumet (1924-2011) passed away today and in honor of his long and productive career (albeit with brief lulls of average work) here are a few mini-reviews of the films of his I’ve seen in order of preference. I’ve not seen many of his acknowledged masterpieces including Serpico, The Hill, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, The Pawnbroker, etc.
1. Network (1976)
9.5/10 (Masterpiece)
Network (1976) is by far my favorite Sidney Lumet film Continue reading
8/10 (Very Good)
tagline (a remarkably prescient one): “War in the Air! Possibilities of the Future! And actual motion picture prediction of the ideas of Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, and other powerful writers of imaginative fiction. Shows what might happen in the near future Continue reading
John Sherwood’s The Monolith Monsters (1957) is by far one of my favorite B sci-fi (ish) monster movies! I’m being very generous with rating but, this is a hilariously average (but wonderful) romp with one of the more peculiar “monsters” matched up with some of the best 50s special effects I’ve seen. The Monolith Monsters is without doubt one of the more interesting films of the 1950s American Realist Science Fiction movement Continue reading
4.5/5 (Very Good)
J. G. Ballard’s High-Rise (1975) is a fascinating yet relentlessly mono-thematic novel inspired by the effects of class conflict and urbanization on society drawing on some ideas explored in earlier SF masterpieces such as John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar (1969) and Silverberg’s The World Inside (1971) (both of which I prefer to High-Rise). Continue reading
Hawkwind’s ‘Damnation Alley’ from the album Quark, Strangeness and Charm (1977) was inspired by Roger Zelazny’s novel Damnation Alley (1967) — which chronicles a suicidal voyage (in an armored vehicle) across post-apocalyptic America Continue reading
5/10 (Average)
Robert Parrish’s Journey to the Far Side of the Sun is a British science fiction film of average quality. The first two thirds are well done before the final act kicks into gear with all its hokeyness and painfully glitzy camera work. The central “idea” is on the surface an intriguing one Continue reading
Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations 