Random Thoughts

May 4, 2024 We watched a mix of very different streaming movies: Point Blank (1967) is a surreal crime thriller suffused with late-Sixties style. The movie is adapted from the Richard Stark (aka Donald E. Westlake) crime thriller The Hunter, which is also the source for the Chow Yun-fat movie Full Contact and the Mel …

Review: Perfect Days

Usually when I see a movie, I review it within a day or two so the movie is still fresh in my mind. I waited more than a month to review Perfect Days because I couldn't stop thinking about it. Why did this particular movie leave such a powerful impression? I think it's the movie's …

On Nasty Reviews

When I review a book or movie, I dive into the piece without any preconceptions. I might like it. I might not. If I absolutely despise a book or movie, I probably won't waste time reviewing it. Many blogs and publications have a formal policy against negative reviews. To me, that seems dishonest and silly. …

Review: Killers of the Flower Moon

After watching Martin Scorsese's 3.5 hour movie adaptation of David Grann's bestselling book Killers of the Flower Moon, I asked my husband what he thought of it. "Worst movie I ever saw," he said. That summation is a bit harsh, but I agree that it's a terrible movie. It's slow, uneven, and dishonest in its …

Movies that Wowed Me on the Big Screen

Here's a list of fondly remembered movies that I saw on the big screen. These are not my "favorite" movies, but movies that evoke fond memories of the experience of watching them in a theater. They wowed me and had lasting impact. Several of them go back to my childhood. It's by no means an …

Review: Stay True

I'm not sure what to make of this book. Although it started out well, exploring themes of Asian-American identity, the immigrant experience, coming of age, Taiwanese history, 90s alternative music, male friendship, creativity, and recovery from traumatic loss, in the end it left me suspicious and annoyed. The book immediately appealed to me because Hua …

Celebrating Thomas Paine, the Radical Founder

My recent reading of Rafael Sabatini's popular swashbuckler Scaramouche (1921) caused me to brush up on history of the French Revolution, where I encountered repeated stories of Thomas Paine, the autodidact who wrote Common Sense, the pamphlet that convinced colonists that independence from Britain was imperative. The experience sent me on a multi-week journey to …

Fiction: The Wreath

After dinner on the night before Christmas Eve, Joe's mother, Mama Saura, cornered him while he was filling the ice trays at the sink. When Joe turned from the sink, carefully holding the stacked trays so the water would not spill over, he saw his portly mother standing beside the refrigerator. She was dressed entirely …

Fiction: The Pyre

Alison straightens her glasses as she gazes at the photograph. It is a photograph she took three days ago, and which appeared two days ago in the Herald. She is proud of the photo, yet at the same time she is uncertain about it. She is not sure of her accomplishment. She has certainly seized …

Review: The Devil Takes You Home

A thrilling, tense journey to hell, as horrific and bleak as the best works of Jim Thompson, Elliot Chaze, and Thomas Harris. This is the third novel I've read by Iglesias, and it's another "barrio noir," a subgenre he invented to help market his hispanic crime novels that contain lots of Spanglish. Unlike his previous …