Joker 2

I am excited for Joker 2. 

I recall seeing the trailer for Joker before some other movie. I probably saw it several times. It didn't look that appealing. But when the movie came out it clearly left an imprint, so I went to see it. I was mostly bored. I can never really hear Joaquin's mumblings.

I ended up seeing it again recently. It's a pleasant movie. I like the rumination in a character with antisocial personality. The guy that everyone hates. Who's also stupid (not derogatory). And the comic-bookness really seems forced in there as ad-hoc justification. Pure satiation. It's just about this guy and what he's led to.

The reception of Joker 2 wasn't discouraging either. I like musicals. QT likes it. Maybe I should've seen it on a massive screen though. Lady Gaga isn't a big draw for me, but she was good in A Star is Born. And Todd Phillips is among the previous generation of competent directors. I wonder how Zazie Beetz factors in. Is this a love triangle? Schizophrenic wanderings? Does she visit him in Rikers? I also wonder what'll be lost now that Joaquin is fully Jokered. He was just a modest guy but now it's post blood-smile. I doubt we can go back. Who are the characters I want back? Beetz, yes. The guy who gave Joaquin the gun, yes (though sadly he's dead). De Niro, yes (dead as well). Joaquin's therapist, yes (dead too, I think?). Beetz's kid, yes. So not many, hopefully they can restock the pantry

The Winds of Winter sample chapters PDF

https://mega.nz/file/UegXkLxA#razlCT6rfMmKyvvmdWfertITs70DciiyZ8sZdXdcQSg

Short Stories #3: Leo Tolstoy

The early tension of this here held me off from continuing through these stories for many months. But finally I pushed through.... Not sure what else there's to say. These are all the same. Life's beauty; a single unity. The car's so nice you don't drive it anywhere. How can I make this the mission?

"A spark neglected burns the house"

On the page #4

I used to do these on my other blog, but they fit better here. 

I am reading Be Cool most days. It was the most appealing Elmore Leonard at my local book shop. It's mostly boring, but Leonard does some interesting things. I won't read another. I started reading Rage again. I really lost interest in Trump last fall. But with the election cycle in full heat, it's a good time again. This sort of nonfiction is the easiest thing to read, though much of the time it's boring. I finished Children of Dune like a month ago. It feels like the greatest encapsulation of the Dune ethos so far. Dune 1 is pretty standard; Messiah is the pulp fanfic pageturner; this is an exploration of the most distant implications of Herbert's presets. It's a warm and friendly place to occupy. 

I was reading Fellowship heavily for a couple weeks, but I put it aside to focus on completing Children. The meticulous construction of Middle Earth makes it pleasant enough. I also like constant puzzle-experience presented by its divergences from the film. My copy also is pretty old, with yellow pages, which makes the words feel more hallowed. The universe is male-dominated so I assume that will limit its ceiling somewhat. But that's most books I read. I'm hoping as the overall volume of my reading (and breadth of survey) increases I'll have a better sense of where what I'm looking for is hiding. 

I read the entire series of Neon Genesis Evangelion manga. This was an exhilarating experience. That month also coincided with a sizable work project, which I would toil at by myself every day. I built the whole thing with the modern tools most pleasurable to wield. And after work each day, maybe just before bed, I would read a bunch of NGE on my computer. It is a perfect match of story and medium. Losers will tell you to watch the anime first. The manga allocates necessary time to contemplate the imagery before jumping forward. 

After this amazing manga experience, I tried to read Ghost in the Shell. The world feels very similar to Neuromancer's. It's interesting, but in a compartmentalized intellectual way. There are no emotional bridges to board. The first manga I read was actually Tokyo These Days. It presents how personal and professional life intersect. I wish there was more stuff like this. 

I started reading Moby-Dick. It is a new thing to experience. I'm glad to venture into the uncharted, even if it's not accompanied by welcoming feelings. It's not the profound thing I was hoping for, but it's unfamiliar enough that it continues to change. 

I started reading The Hare. Years ago I was consistently reading Aira, but something shifted, so I stopped. I might be back in that place now. And this might be me be walking down the golden path again. So much while reading in general there'll be a total detachment from the pages, with a random 1% green candle, then back to flatline. The hit rate here is 10 or 20x. 

I read The Education of a Coach. It's a lot like the Musk and Jobs books--how focus and brilliance manifest in professional life. When an incident is taken to the microscope we see some compelling case studies. When it goes to survey-mode it's worthless trash. Halberstam is definitely among the greatest writers of sports material--far above the mean. E.g. I read Benedict's LeBron book. Part of the problem is the obscene breadth of material. The Heat-Cavs-Lakers arc is just not explored in any reasonable detail. Just fact vomiting. I did find LeBron's early life up to joining the NBA very interesting; but there's a complete absence of style.

Edits: typos

Commentary on Indiewire's 100 Greatest Westerns

‘Heaven’s Gate’ (dir. Michael Cimino, 1980)
Thumbs up

‘The Gunfighter’ (dir. Henry King, 1950)
Haven't seen but would like to

‘City Slickers’ (dir. Ron Underwood, 1991)
wtf

‘The Professionals’ (dir. Richard Brooks, 1966)
Looks good

‘The Cowboys’ (dir. Mark Rydell, 1972)
Never heard of

‘The Daughter of Dawn’ (dir. Norbert A. Myles, 1920)
?

‘Open Range’ (dir. Kevin Costner, 2003)
Looks good

‘Tombstone’ (dir. George P. Cosmatos, 1993)
Hmm

‘Little Woods’ (dir. Nia DaCosta, 2018)
Hard to win me over w/ recent westerns

‘The Ox-Bow Incident’ (dir. William Wellman, 1943)
Tbh this one left me cold. Glad Wellman made the list though

‘The Good, the Bad, the Weird’ (dir. Kim Jee-woon, 2008)
Never heard of

‘Black Rodeo’ (dir. Jeff Kanew, 1972)
Never heard of this too

‘Two Mules for Sister Sara’ (dir. Don Siegel, 1970)
Hmm maybe someday

”49-’17’ (dir. Ruth Ann Baldwin, 1917)
Never heard of

‘Blood on the Moon’ (dir. Robert Wise, 1948)
?

‘Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’ (dir. George Roy Hill, 1969)
I'm sick of New Hollywood

‘Posse’ (dir. Mario Van Peebles, 1993)
Haven't heard of

‘A Fistful of Dollars’ (dir. Sergio Leone, 1964)
I'm not even sure if I've seen this; I don't really like Leone that much tbh

‘Tumbleweeds’ (dir. King Baggot, 1925)
I like that they put in a bunch of silent movies

‘The Learning Tree’ (dir. Gordon Parks, 1969)
Haven't heard of

‘The Covered Wagon’ (dir. James Cruze, 1923)
Haven't heard of this either

‘The Settlers’ (dir. Felipe Gálvez, 2023)
Nor this

‘Dances with Wolves’ (dir. Kevin Costner, 1990)
I recall really liking this in 11th grade English. I am still a big Costner fan so it could be fun to revisit

‘Harlem on the Prairie’ (dir. Sam Newfield, 1937)
Have not heard of

‘The Iron Horse’ (dir. John Ford, 1924)
Hmm is this the first Ford???

‘Westward the Women’ (dir. William Wellman, 1951)
How are they selecting these? Is this even famous at all?

‘The Proposition’ (dir. John Hillcoat, 2005)
Modern enough to make me skeptical

‘Hell’s Heroes’ (dir. William Wyler, 1929)
Hmm

‘Lone Star’ (dir. John Sayles, 1996)
Looks good tbh

‘True Grit’ (dir. Joel and Ethan Coen, 2010)
Hated it, but maybe it'll emerge on another spin

‘Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia’ (dir. Sam Peckinpah, 1974)
This was a bit dull. But as a place to go back and hang out, it seems amazing. And maybe I'm a bigger Warren Oates guy now.

‘The Ruthless Four’ (dir. Giorgio Capitani, 1968)
Hmm

‘The Phantom Empire’ (dir. Otto Brower, B. Reeves Eason, 1935)
Hmmm

‘Nope’ (dir. Jordan Peele, 2022)
I've seen a part of this and it doesn't feel like a western. It feels more like Southern Cal. 

‘Meek’s Cutoff’ (dir. Kelly Reichardt, 2010)
Didn't like

‘Companeros!’ (dir. Sergio Corbucci, 1970)
Looks good

‘Buck and the Preacher’ (Sidney Poitier, 1972)
Haven't heard of 

‘Rodeo’ (dir. Carroll Ballard, 1969)
Nor this

‘Bend of the River’ (dir. Anthony Mann, 1952)
Finally a good western finds its way in lol

‘Sergeant Rutledge’ (dir. John Ford, 1960)
Ok winning me over now

‘The Ballad of Cable Hogue’ (dir. Sam Peckinpah, 1970)
Quite the streak!!!! 

‘The Man from Laramie’ (dir. Anthony Mann, 1955)
Another banger!!!

‘Django’ (dir. Sergio Corbucci, 1966)
I don't love this tbh

‘Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid’ (dir. Sam Peckinpah, 1973)
Would be fun to revisit

‘River of No Return’ (dir. Otto Preminger, 1954)
Huh.

‘Rancho Notorious’ (Fritz Lang, 1952)
50s Dietrich western seems like too much

‘El Topo’ (dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky, 1970)
Hmm this guy

‘Near Dark’ (dir. Kathryn Bigelow, 1987)
I like Bigelow, so maybe someday

‘Forty Guns’ (dir. Samuel Fuller, 1957)
I want to see this

‘Day of the Outlaw’ (dir. Andre de Toth, 1959)
An all-timer

‘The Rider’ (dir. Chloe Zhao, 2018)
Could be decent

‘The Magnificent Seven’ (dir. John Sturges, 1960)
This could be good

‘The Ballad of Little Jo’ (dir. Maggie Greenwald, 1993)
Haven't heard of

‘There Will Be Blood’ (dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)
Is this really a western? Fine you can have it

‘3:10 to Yuma’ (dir. Delmer Daves, 1957)
Ah, glad Daves made it in

‘The Shootist’ (dir. Don Siegel, 1976)
I've never been able to get into Siegel

‘The Wild Bunch’ (dir. Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
Kinda boring tbh

‘The Quick and the Dead’ (dir. Sam Raimi, 1995)
Looks bad tbh. What a joke of a list

‘Brokeback Mountain’ (dir. Ang Lee, 2005)
Amazing movie--don't think of it as a western tho

‘Paris, Texas’ (dir. Wim Wenders, 1984)
Ah nice to recall this movie--but definitely not a western lol

‘Hud’ (dir. Martin Ritt, 1963)
Hmm. Seems ridiculous to include this. No way this is that good

‘Ulzana’s Raid’ (dir. Robert Aldrich, 1972)
Seems promising

‘The Hanging Tree’ (dir. Delmer Daves, 1959)
Nice another Daves

‘The Winning of Barbara Worth’ (dir. Henry King, 1926)
Ooh silent King

‘The Treasure of the Sierra Madre’ (dir. John Huston, 1948)
yeah idk

‘Bad Day at Black Rock’ (dir. John Sturges, 1955)
Hmm

‘No Country for Old Men’ (dir. Joel and Ethan Coen, 2007)
Needs less Chigurrh

‘Shane’ (dir. George Stevens, 1953)
Ooh Alan Ladd appearance!

‘Silver Lode’ (dir. Allan Dwan, 1954)
Masterpiece. And a Dwan appearance!

‘The Lusty Men’ (dir. Nicholas Ray, 1952)
Ah very nice selection

‘Kill and Pray’ (dir. Carlo Lizzani, 1967)
Hmm haven't seen

‘Black God, White Devil’ (dir. Glauber Rocha, 1963)
Looks good

‘Dead Man’ (dir. Jim Jarmusch, 1995)
Oh yeah. I feel like this is good

‘Blazing Saddles’ (dir. Mel Brooks, 1974)
Mel Brooks huh

‘The Misfits’ (dir. John Huston, 1961)
Hmm

‘The Tall T’ (dir. Budd Boetticher, 1957)
Oh nice Budd appearance

‘Man of the West’ (dir. Anthony Mann, 1958)
I struggled with this Mann, but it's better than basically everything else on here.

‘Pale Rider’ (dir. Clint Eastwood, 1985)
This is probably the greatest Eastwood western

‘Red River’ (dir. Howard Hawks, 1948)
Wow first Hawks appearance!

‘The Big Country’ (dir. William Wyler, 1958)
I'm skeptical, but maybe it's good

‘The Wind’ (dir. Victor Sjöström, 1928)
Interesting

‘High Noon’ (dir. Fred Zinnemann, 1952)
Hmm I hated this one

‘Unforgiven’ (dir. Clint Eastwood, 1992)
I mean we knew it'd be on here

‘The Great Silence’ (dir. Sergio Corbucci, 1968)
This the real shit. An all-timer for me

‘The Searchers’ (dir. John Ford, 1956)
Very nice

‘Winchester ’73’ (dir. Anthony Mann, 1950)
Ok, glad to see Jimmy again

‘Ride the High Country’ (dir. Sam Peckinpah, 1962)
Oh yeah. Cookin

‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’ (dir. Sergio Leone, 1966)
Haven't seen

‘Rio Bravo’ (dir. Howard Hawks, 1959)
Need to rewatch. Didn't love tbh

‘The Great Train Robbery’ (dir. Edwin S. Porter, 1903)
Hmm

‘The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance’ (dir. John Ford, 1962)
I'm due to see this again. 

‘The Shooting’ (dir. Monte Hellman, 1967)
Hellman!!!! This isn't my favorite but probably since I saw it long ago

‘Jeremiah Johnson’ (dir. Sydney Pollack, 1972)
No way Bob Redford's in a great western

‘Stagecoach’ (dir. John Ford, 1939)
Very nice

‘Ride Lonesome’ (dir. Budd Boetticher, 1959)
Pristine selection

‘McCabe and Mrs. Miller’ (dir. Robert Altman, 1971)
Hated this, but maybe rewatch will warm things up

‘For a Few Dollars More’ (dir. Sergio Leone, 1965)
hmm more Leone dick-sucking
  
‘My Darling Clementine’ (dir. John Ford, 1946)
Wow perfect

‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ (dir. Sergio Leone, 1968)
I did like Cardinale in this

‘Johnny Guitar’ (dir. Nicholas Ray, 1954)
Lol

Edit: Some westerns worthy of inclusion

The Ridiculous 6 

Bone Tomahawk 

The Homesman - TLJ

China 9, Liberty 37 - Hellman

A Time for Dying - Budd

Garter Colt

The Hellbenders - Corbucci

Navajo Joe - Corbucci

Ride in the Whirlwind - Hellman

Cheyenne Autumn - Ford

Two Rode Together - Ford

The Horse Soldiers - Ford

Westbound - Budd

The Badlanders - Daves

The Bravados - King

Seven Men from Now - Budd

Jubal - Daves

Passion - Dwan

The Raid - Fregonese 

Apache - Aldrich

The Far Country - Mann

Ride Clear of Diablo

The Naked Spur - Mann

The Big Sky - Hawks

Along the Great Divide - Walsh

Rio Grande - Ford

Broken Arrow - Daves

Colt .45

Wagon Master - Ford

Fort Apache - Ford

Pursued - Walsh

Duel in the Sun - Vidor

Canyon Passage - Tourneur

The Falcon out West

They Died with their Boots on - Walsh

Santa Fe Trail - Curtiz

Dodge City - Curtiz

Wake Up Sid

Bollywood in the late 00s early 10s graduated from the distanced style that domineered as the industry globalized in the 90s and 00s. This one's songs are in a contemporary/western style, which hurts it some, yet it completely matches that era's casual sensibility. The songs lack that familiar volatile spirit, but this inanimate quality also in piece with Ranbir's aimless gamer existence. 

Other things are tapped into too. Konkona's casual attitude toward professional life; Anupam's hellish white-collar repetition made bearable by a love for his son. There is the camaraderie of professional life; one goes out with co-workers, some match well--others don't.

10:43 PM Friday, May 24, 2024 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

Metropolitan

All it takes is a tuxedo and a decent face 

Layabouts in a chamber, and its adjoining 

But such reciprocity yields the unexpected 

A wintertime in New York 

A mother, the interstitial, collects and straightens 

Dad, sunk under moneypile 

What is the Austen code? 

The man, autopiloted, hurtling by material and rational alike 

Stark blacks, purples, greens

Letting Go 10-page excerpt PDF

https://mega.nz/file/leA3jbaB#Mhcq1dFXHMOhLp7oyZD9cld2m8TWhNIXyX9q_P6usao

A walk by the brook Addenda

A walk by the brook #21: Blackhat 

I've finally seen the director's cut. It was hard to differentiate from the theatrical; things occasionally felt off, but never unfamiliar. But I really struggled to find the same emotional magnetism this time. I need to stop rewatching basic hits. Anyhow, I didn't lose appreciation for all the great roles. Hemsworth, his buddy, and his buddy's sister all shine. Viola fits in, but is less revelatory than before. Holt is amazing. The technical language is a joy to experience (as is par for Mann). Most movies treat you like a dolt--so you end up relenting intensity, and slouch into the calloused sleepwalk 

A walk by the brook #22: Girl with a Suitcase 

I saw this because it's the next Zurlini and it stars Cardinale. It has the same boy as Corruption. Italy looks good once again. I need to go back to this well 

A walk by the brook #23: The Swimming Pool 

I don't know what the allure was exactly. Bourgeois misbehavior. I guess maybe Romy, or the remnants Delon's nudge from Indian Summer. This performance goes in a similar lane, though the gravity is still abstract. It's also funny that the poster spoils the movie; the title sort of does too. It has that late-60s feel to it--French New Hollywood. I wish the series didn't end on this one. It has a moment or two of thrill, but those're only a tease. The mind ages it to dread. It's most proper to think of it is as a small summer movie with stars. Who cares what happens--you were there with them

The Human Factor

Just a bloke and a supermodel. An alluring movie several years ago--I may have been on a Preminger dip. Espionage without the violence--just bureaucrat maneuverings. Greene's prose is easily digested and frequently develops scenarios with slight continuous twisting. Occasional burden easing. There is a blank-face way the characters take on their hands. The movie understandably yields that quality for scenes of wider variation and unambiguous clashes. It's not reasonable to expect full Bressonian acting in any normal mileu anyway. I don't know if Greene ever finds this mode again. I'll have to find something to try. This is a great achievement--and not even considered among his best works

A walk by the brook 13-20

A walk by the brook #13: The Pear Tree 

Mehrjui's Leila, though jumping a bit back, led me here. I also wanted to see more of Golshifteh's pictures. The relation between personal relationships and the political sphere. It was mostly a bleak time though, as the early days of sun suddenly were gone, leaving a vacuum for nearby particles to densify and impose a new obsession 

A walk by the brook #14: Ossessione

Here lies a brick wall of true reality. How do we translate this as a future life onscreen? Does this bring in another dimension of the book? The source material was tough, though maybe it'd be more bearable now; I'm no longer running gold in the prose olympics (though I still make the final). I forgot some key parts of it. I like how the man seems more ordinary here; we don't see a schemer at all. The adaptation adds texture to bland source material

A walk by the brook #15: Truth and Illusion: An Introduction to Metaphysics 

What was this about? Materialism? I buy it. This sort of exercise is fun every once in awhile. It can also be a useful filter. Was it just a paycheck job? It really is the perfect thing to show a classroom full of students 

A walk by the brook #16: Passing Summer 

The opening scene stands out the most. I can hardly recall the specificity of anything--I can only see flashes of images. A wedding, the waiter in the cafe; the girl is just constantly somewhere else in Europe. The man she's with has an ex and a child. And also maybe a sister? It's all very impressive but it left me exposed. I want to get back to the fluid artspace, but I need more muscle to slip by the wall... 

A walk by the brook #17: The Mask 

The lore surrounding this movie has always been discouraging but not in a clear way. Andrew once told me to watch it--presumably as an offhand of The Truman Show. More recently other people have mentioned it--always as casually held curiosity, never Simba-beamed. The main appeal was Diaz. But I'm also continuing the journey of Jim Carrey. Very early we see the Jim we love, a man glanced upon in Ace Ventura, and then completely uncaged in Liar Liar. But then The Mask comes in and deflates the whole exercise. I couldn't summon genuine feeling at all. Though this is the type of thing I would've eagerly championed not too long ago (and I'm tempted to a bit still). The whole gangster plot is anvil of drudgery. A deathly familiarity stares blankly at some part of your face--begging for something animated, maybe just something at all

A walk by the brook #18: The Zone of Interest 

I used to go to Barnes & Noble and look at the discount racks. This book was there once. I like Holocaust stuff. How is the SS officer's son doing in school? I thought this would be more of an arthouse chore. It's among the most pleasurable experiences I've had in years. I was annoyed by some parts, but only because I was invested in it being something. Imagine if the score didn't try to bruteforce emotion. If it's banal, make it banal. Why do we have to hold the hands of the NPCs? It's basically a series of sketches. I wish they made the Nazis more likable. All we need is off-handed intimations of Auschwitz. The script should have been contorting itself to trick us into forgetting what we were next to. A much longer picnic, with genuinely stirring romance; a longer successful fishing excursion with an abundant yield; a day at the movies 

A walk by the brook #19: Space Cowboys 

It's just about the hijinks Clint and his gang are up to. Then there is a sharp shift (shocked me again) transforming it into a thriller. And that continues to a nice conclusion 

A walk by the brook #20: Ferrari 

Another entry etched into the Adam Driver stone. This feels in piece with House of Gucci's stylistic mode. Basically nothing operates at face value. Everything anyone does is a bit. It's impossible to enjoy this conventionally (aside from a few moments) but there is a magic to how all the pieces are constructed. And Mann's fundamentally odd way of constructing a story. The weight is always greater than you think. But it's a less intimate place. It's an arthouse picture in wide release

Note to reader: This has been the last official entry of A walk by the brook. A final addenda will be included at a later date to ensure proper closure is afforded

Upcoming movies #2

Deeply anticipated

Dune: Part Two - Dune/Ferguson/Zendaya/Chalamet/Walken!??/Pugh/Feyd-Rautha - The presence of Dune lore is a powerful force in my life. It continues to colonize further and further on. I might start Dune Messiah. Seeing the Villeneuve slowness on a massive wall of cinema is going to work 

The Sweet East - Indie/Pinkerton/Simon Rex - It will be interesting to see what a Pinkerton script is like Hayat - Zeki - I suppose he'll dare discuss modern life? 

Indian 2 - Shankar/Kamal - I've never seen a Shankar film in the cinema. 2.0 is a big regret. I hope this comes out this year--and it better be 3 hours long 

Game Changer - Ram Charan/Shankar/Kiara Advani 

Juror No. 2 - Clint - I've been away from Clint for awhile; the courtroom is a great place to lay things to rest 

Anticipated

The Zone of Interest - Auschwitz - I didn't like Under the Skin, but I can't deny interest in someone who makes a film that way. And the premise of ordinary life at Auschwitz is hard to top 

Evil Does Not Exist - Hamaguchi - Can't believe Drive My Car was 2019--five years ago... 

The Practice - Rejtman - Is this part of me dead? No way. I'll get it back... 

Viduthalai: Part II - Vetri Maaran - I want to splat in the black hole 

Spaceman - Sandler - There's an overbearing critical distress to this one already. I'll stand by it though

Civil War - Modern life 

Thangalaan - Ranjith/Malavika Mohanan - Ranjith has bought infinite equity 

Megalopolis - Coppola - What is this about? 

Hit Man - Linklater/Arjona - Linklater has earned substantial grace. In the last decade: BH, EWS, and WYGB 

Somewhat anticipated
Challengers - Zendaya/Luca/Wimbledon 

Rebel Moon - Part Two: The Scargiver - Snyder/Rebel Moon/Boutella - I liked the first one but it was mostly just a sketch. The look, though, is what people imagined modern cinema would be decades ago. Desperately awaiting Snyder's cut here 

Abigail - Barrera - I'm in the trash zone automatically if something includes Barrera and is horror

Borderlands - Roth - The source material is befuddling. But I believe in Roth 

Non-negligibly anticipated

Ballerina - ADA - I wonder what the Reaves role will be? Cameo or shepherd 

Horizon: An American Saga Chapter 1 - Costner 

Pushpa 2: The Rule - Rashmika

Kalki 2898 AD - Deepika - Idk big budget Telugu

Edit: formatting 2024-05-16

Short Stories #2: Raymond Carver

I am done with Carver. It was another classic bait-and-switch. He excels at creating images and the broad strokes he takes is an interesting basis. But I can't reflect the words into anything as I'm reading. It's too bare. 

Really the only interesting thing I found was in the first story I read. As a child there is the particular psychology to lying to your parents that he nails--this boy manages to stay at home from school. I also observe that Carver has a strange fascination with fishing; tbh I can't quite absorb. 

What do the abrupt endings serve? I admit my frustration is more of a reflection of the product as a whole. It's notable, though, that when you give these words to a troop of great actors (as in Birdman) we end up with animation.

"Nobody said anything"

"The Student's wife"

"Little things"

"What we talk about when we talk about love"

Short Stories

I don't read them. In high school we were told to pick a short story and analyze it. I chose "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." It left only a slight impression since I didn't really appreciate any sort of challenging writing back then. Reading comprehension has also not been my strength. We did some Poe, at least "The Cask of Amontillado" 

I've shied away from the short-story mode since I prefer the security of a longer narrative (It's nice to be in something). It's more difficult to imagine the quick successive passing of the start and end points

In college I read a few probably. The only one I can think of is "Master and Man." It was probably the Maude translation, but I can't be sure. I read it somewhere on the internet. I think I liked it, but I was mostly plowing through it to fulfill assignment. I had a long spiel I wrote to indicate I understood the story. Maybe I also read a few Hemingway short stories too, but I think they were disappointing (since I can only kind of recall "The Snows of Kilimanjaro")

I read a couple more Tolstoy stories recently (Maude translation). They've jolted me back into this medium. I really might start reading these regularly

"God Sees the Truth, But Waits"

I like how Tolstoy encloses the entire universe into each story

"The Prisoner of the Caucasus"

Rare page-turner quality here. Tolstoy's characterization always seems to land

"The Bear Hunt" 

A remarkable image of ordinary spontaneous life

"What Men Live By"

I didn't dip back in after this one, it's much more rote fable. Though I wouldn't say it's bad

And by Shirley Jackson: 

"The Intoxicated"

Part of this is the entire ethos I'm looking for in writing. Though sadly I still struggle to find it (and now it's gone :(... )

I read some Roth ones included in the Goodbye Columbus paperback. I got little out of these--there was a clear drop off from the novella

"The Conversion of the Jews"
"Defender of the Faith"
"Epstein"
"You Can't Tell a Man by the Song He Sings"
"Eli, the Fanatic"

I read some Amazon previews of Raymond Carver and they were good so I'm looking forward to a few of those. I recall the Carver in Birdman fondly. It also seems like a good way to get into titans I otherwise find too titanic to dive into (like Henry James). I am also looking forward to Chekhov. He seems to have some weight in the culture that could be enlightening

Just remembered I've also read Dubliners! These stories were fantastic

"The Sisters"
"An Encounter"
"Araby"
"Eveline"
"After the Race"
"Two Gallants"
"The Boarding House"
"A Little Cloud"
"Counterparts"
"Clay"
"A Painful Case"
"Ivy Day in the Committee Room" 
"A Mother" 
"Grace"
"The Dead"

I don't recall the details of any of these that closely. But there are still a few fleeting images left. I could retread here. I'm never going to get into A Portrait, Ulysses, or Finnegans anyway

A walk by the brook 9-12

A walk by the brook #9: From a Roman Balcony

The main appeal was Massari, but I also knew the director. I saw Bolognini's The Big Night a year ago and it was quite imposing. I would have returned to that well sooner, but I really have been shying away from difficult cinema. The feeling emergent here is one in characteristic with Big Night; one feels Rome as it was then--both wonderful and horrible. Both films are masterpieces. Pasolini and Moravia both contributed to the script. Fundamentally the struggle of cinema in recent years is its preoccupation with imposing narratives into each picture. Here and in The Big Night one notices no such preoccupation--the story moves as the characters do and the narrative is just what ends up being rendered

A walk by the brook #10: Corruption

I liked the girl on the boat; she was very confident. The boy was familiar--an idealist. His father, a fully black-pilled money machine, tries to pull his progeny in with him. There really is a thing as a child where the critical unmoorings influence rapid change in ways you don't expect. One is desperate for meaning when none is around. So whatever's proximate has a gravitation

A walk by the brook #11: Slow Motion

Godard is sound design. This is pretty funny. There is of course the aesthetic literacy, the mode-switching, and some wrangled archetypes. He jumps from a decade of abstraction back into commercial space, easing in some experimentation, continuing production of the future

A walk by the brook #12: The Chorus

I like Kiarostami's use of children. I'm not sure who else can create as well with them. And I like watching people who can't hear

A walk by the brook 4-8

Family Movie Night is now called A walk by the brook

A walk by the brook #4: Maya

I really like these actors but the clear lack of trust in them/the scenario leaves the film w/o any big swing scenes. The locations and tempo brute force some quality. This actress was apparently not in anything else. I'm glad they grappled with current day issues. The director's previous work looks less interesting from bird's eye but I'm sure it'd be fine

A walk by the brook #5: Indian Summer

Zurlini's been on my radar for a long time, so I'm glad to finally see something. He's among the titans of Italian cinema. I'd seen Guendalina, one of his scripts. Little stands out now, many months past. I jumped for it mainly due to Sassard's role in Les Biches. It's one of those that is pleasant along the way but vanishes soon after. Back to the Delon film. This performance has real stature. He has an overwhelming apathy, but easily retains idealist DNA. It's interesting to see a film that looks like gialli but is a more classical Italian character study. I still struggle a little w/ the close-ups over torsoed and full-figured. The girl who is his student is fantastic as well. Lea Massari is great as always. I somehow have seen none of her films other than L'Avventura

A walk by the brook #6: The Experience

It's interesting to try to reconcile this B&W period with Kiarostami's latter work. One finds it easy to claim a certain immaturity--I guess I won't dispute that. But there are moments where one can feel him easing to the landmark eon

A walk by the brook #7: Boy on a Dolphin

Loren has an ease to great screen presence, and it's hard to imagine better locations for a shoot than these. There is a great early scene of Loren diving. Once Loren ends up in Clifton's web the movie labors more; there are too many conversations w/o any reactivity. The sequence when Loren first meets Ladd is fantastic. I'm glad Clifton got away

A walk by the brook #8: Amanda

The scenarios here are what I wished for in Maya. The scenes really explore and excavate, even if the viewer endures some harsh byproducts. You can't ignore the familiar weight of a life passed and the struggle to reorient a world without their connecting tissue

FMN 1-3

Family Movie Night #1: Beau is Afraid 

For some reason I've been having trouble getting to critical films lately, so now I'm doing this exercise. The tenor of Beau's reviews was in that sweet spot so I was pretty sure I'd like this. It is rare to see a 2024 life in the cinema. Joaquin is apartmented in a CHAZ-hellscape that constantly reminds of certain rudimentary realities that lean to horror: getting locked out, visible purgatoried storage, and theft. This is basically a long series of sketches. Enough of them land to make it all worthwhile--e.g. the joint demandment, slurped paint, audience trickle

Family Movie Night #2: Babe: Pig in the City 

It may have been 9/11 or computers, but something killed the spiritual essence of the great period from '96 to '01. There was still some belief in the future (maybe b/c we thought there wasn't one) and we still had a wonderful sense of design and continuity. The pig goes to the most beautiful city ever seen onscreen. All his friends finally see his lifeblood and offer their deferrals

Family Movie Night #3: Trouble in Paradise

You are told of the great joys of progress, of improvement, of solved problems, but then you notice a thing like this. Where the rhythm is under total control, and the actors' movements and feeling can be seen and felt. What are we even doing with all of this stuff? It's all been built already!