Quote from a Fictional Character #63

"I'm so in love with you I wish you were dead."

--- Nora Mars,

The Center of Things, Jenny McPhee, 2001

(Rec. #214)

Friday Flashback: Rec. #29: Cherish

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: Robin Tunney is a woman wrongly accused of vehicular homicide who is under house arrest with an electronic ankle monitor. Tim Blake Nelson is the officer in charge of checking the monitor. Also appearing: Jason Priestly and Liz Phair.

Mix these ingredients together, and you might expect to get a kitschy, wacky, winking comedy. That is definitely not what this is. Mainly, it's eccentric and sweet. And a liiiiiittle bit violent and kinky. But, really, mostly eccentric and sweet. And nothing like the DVD cover art.

Comparable to: Definite tonal similarities to Lars and the Real Girl. Except that Cherish turns into a thriller for the last twenty minutes.

You might not like it if: The tone doesn't work for you, and you would like the movie to pick just one genre, please. Also, you are sick of eccentric and sweet.

How to get it: Might be best to Netflix it. That way you won't be distracted by the very misleading cover art.

Connections to other Wreckage: Lars and the Real Girl was Rec. #196 and SSoW #8.

[Originally posted 1/28/11.]

Rec. #369: Ant Farm: And Other Desperate Situations

What: Simon Rich's book of very short stories is possibly the fastest read ever. It's also very funny, which makes sense since Rich is a former president of The Harvard Lampoon and wrote for Saturday Night Live for four years.

Representative quote:
[From "A Conversation at the Grown-Ups' Table as Imagined at the Kids' Table"]

Mom: Pass the wine, please. I want to become crazy.
Dad: Okay.
Grandmother: Did you see the politics? It made me angry.
Dad: Me too. When it was over, I had sex.
Uncle: I'm having sex right now.
Dad: We all are.
Mom: Let's talk about which kid I like the best.

You might not like it if: You find it extremely annoying that Simon Rich published his first book [this one] when he was 23. And he's written almost a book a year since then. Damn kids.

How to get it: Buyable, borrowable, Kindle-able.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Patricia Marx, author of Him Her Him Again the End of Him (Rec. #58), is also a former SNL writer.

Quote from a Fictional Character #62

"Only one is a wanderer; two together are always going somewhere."

--- Madeleine Elster,

Vertigo, 1958

Friday Flashback: Rec. #226: Symptoms of Culture

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: Marjorie Garber --- Shakespearean scholar extraordinaire --- explains how bits of our culture reflect back on our modern anxieties. In her freewheeling chapters, she touches on all types of cultural artifacts, from Charlotte's Web to the Scopes trial to historical sneezes to The Wizard of Oz to video games to Jell-O boxes to famous second-best beds.

Comparable to: Garber and Margaret Visser share an insatiable curiosity about the whys and wherefores of the way we live now.

Opening lines: "The 'Great Wall of China' is, some modern scholars suggest, neither great nor a wall."

You might not like it if: You don't miss unexpectedly riveting university lectures in the humanities, not even a little tiny bit.

How to get it: Kindle-able, borrowable, buyable.

Connection to previous Wreckage: Margaret Visser examines the culinary aspects of culture in The Rituals of Dinner (Rec. #63).

[Originally posted 4/5/12.]

Streaming Suggestion of the Week #9: In Bruges

Stream what: Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell are two hitmen lying low in Belgium after a job goes wrong.

Stream why: Writer/director Martin McDonagh rivals Armando Iannucci (The Thick of It, In the Loop) when it comes to dialogue that is gorgeously baroque in its filth and violence.

Stream where: Netflix (or rent via Amazon, Xbox, iTunes)

Stream whuh?: Amazon describes this as an "outrageous, action-packed comedy." That is a very, very, very, very inaccurate representation of the movie's tone.


For more info: Rec. #135

Quote from a Fictional Character #61

"It was a dumb thing to do but it wasn't that dumb. There hadn't been any trouble out at the lake in years. And it was so exquisitely far from the rest of my life."

--- Rae Seddon,

Sunshine, Robin McKinley, 2003

(opening lines)

Friday Flashback: Rec. #92: Mumford

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: In the movie Mumford, Loren Dean is Doc Mumford, living and practicing in the town of Mumford. He's a very effective and popular psychologist, but the townspeople's faith in his work is tested when his murky past is revealed. 

Lucky for us, some of the people who live in Mumford are played by Hope Davis, Jason Lee, Alfre Woodard, Mary McDonnell, Martin Short, Elisabeth Moss, Ted Danson, and Jane Adams, among others. This was also the first film for Zooey Deschanel. Writer/director Lawrence Kasdan keeps a tight rein on the quirk, which is saying a lot for a movie that includes a character named Skip Skipperton.

Comparable to: It's really quite Capra-esque.

Representative quote: "Everywhere I went people would talk to me. They'd tell me everything. Their problems, their innermost thoughts. Sometimes they'd pretend they needed advice, but most just wanted someone to listen."

You might not like it if: You do not like Frank Capra. Or his movies.

How to get it: Easy to rent, buy, or borrow. Also available to stream for free via Hulu.

[Originally posted 4/1/11.]

Rec. #368: Adult Wednesday Addams

What: The title of the web series Adult Wednesday Addams sums up the concept pretty well. Adult Wednesday Addams gets an apartment, babysits, interviews for a job, and deals with catcallers. Just like the rest of us.

Representative quote: "My parents are despicable monsters, and I'm grateful for that, but I can't sleep in my childhood coffin forever. You know what I mean?"

Representative dialogue:
"You're not like other girls in L.A."
"That's accurate."

How to get it: See the playlist on YouTube here. Writer/star Melissa Hunter has done two seasons so far, with a total of 13 episodes. Each episode is just 3-5 minutes, which means you could/should just go ahead and watch them all. Right now.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Glued to your computer screen and want more web series? Try The Outs (Rec. #280) and Side by Side by Susan Blackwell (Rec. #328).

Rec. #367: Life After Life

What: Kate Atkinson's newest book, A God in Ruins, is a companion novel to  Life After Life, which swept all kinds of "best of" lists in 2013 (including mine). A God in Ruins is due to be published in the U.S. in May, so you've got a couple of months to catch up.

For a book that mainly takes place in the English countryside during the first half of the twentieth century, Life After Life takes a surprising number of cues from video games, as Ursula Todd keeps dying and leveling up, life after life.

Comparable to: This is the Atkinson version of Connie Willis's Blackout/All Clear, basically.

You might not like it if: The main character, Ursula Todd, dies a lot. And then there are the depressing parts.

On the bright side, the novel opens with her shooting Hitler! So, that's fun.

How to get it: Widely available across formats and languages.

Connections to previous Wreckage: Mentioned above, Connie Willis's Blackout/All Clear was Rec. #355.

Also, Kate Atkinson is one of my favorite living writers, so of course she's been mentioned on The Daily Wreck before. A lot.

Rec. #3: Case Histories
Rec. #69: One Good Turn
Rec. #137: Human Croquet
Rec. #192: When Will There Be Good News?
Rec. #270: Started Early, Took My Dog
Rec. #282: Emotionally Weird
Rec. #301: Not the End of the World: Stories

Friday Flashback: Rec. #262: Fosse

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: Lots of subcultures rely heavily on black clothing and might inspire you to do the same --- goths, emos, New Yorkers, . . . and Bob Fosse devotees. After this two-hour revue of the late choreographer's cooler-than-thou work, you'll be itching to swathe yourself in black from head to toe, complete with bowler.

Think you don't know Fosse? Sweet Charity, Pippin, Chicago, All That Jazz, Cabaret. That's Fosse.

Opening lyrics: "Life is just a bowl of cherries."

Some highlights: "Big Spender," "Steam Heat," "I Gotcha," "Rich Man's Frug," "Mein Herr"

How to get it: Fosse won the Tony for Best Musical in 1999. PBS aired a performance of the show as part of its Great Performances series in 2002, and that production is now available on DVD.

[Originally posted 9/6/12.]

List #51: Great Books, Terrible Titles --- Bonus Round!

See Part 1 here, Part 2 here, and Part 3 here!

Seemingly Bad Titles That Are Secretly Awesome

[In Which I Reveal an Almost Debilitating Weakness for Titles That Are Really Too Long and Also Slightly Nonsensical]

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams (Rec. # 162)

Him Her Him Again the End of Him, Patricia Marx (Rec. #58)

I Have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes, Jaclyn Moriarty (Rec. #235)

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, Italo Calvino (Rec. #261)

Orion, You Came and You Took All My Marbles, Kira Henehan (Rec. #195)

To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis (Rec. #100)

List #51: Great Books, Terrible Titles, Part 3

See Part 1 here and Part 2 here!

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell

Why the book is great: Once again, David Mitchell writes gorgeously about interesting people and places.

Why the title is terrible: If they can't say it, they're much less likely to buy it.

The Way We Are, Margaret Visser

Why the book is great: Visser's brief essays explore the meanings behind the everyday (jeans, Santa Claus, showers, blushing).

Why the title is terrible: Despite the titular similarity, this is not even sort of related to that Streisand movie (The Way We Were) or that Trollope novel (The Way We Live Now).

Welcome to My Planet (Where English Is Sometimes Spoken), Shannon Olson (Rec. #338)

Why the book is great: Adulthood is difficult and strange, and Olson is very funny about it.

Why the title is terrible: That subtitle, omigod, the shame of it. The sequel, by the way, has a much better title (and a much better cover): Children of God Go Bowling (Rec. #93).

MVP of List #51: Deborah Crombie
(Rec. #55) (FSoM #9) (Rec. #358)

Why the books are great: I really, really love Crombie's series about detectives Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James. Rich characterizations, detailed attention to setting, carefully sustained momentum --- these are all excellently done.

Why the titles are terrible: The titles are all so vaguely melancholy that it is generally impossible to associate any one of them with a particular plot, even immediately after reading.

Some egregious examples:
All Shall Be Well
A Finer End
Now May You Weep
Where Memories Lie
The Sound of Broken Glass (surely it should be The Sound of Breaking Glass??)