Tag: review

Book review: Apocrypha Now

Yes, Solomon WAS rather sexist, now that they mention it.

apocryphanow_cvrOnce again, I find myself reviewing a follow-up book. Apocrypha Now is a sequel of sorts to God is Disappointed in You, also by Mark Russell, with illustrations by New Yorker cartoonist Shannon Wheeler.

While the earlier book is a retelling of the King James Version of the Bible, Apocrypha Now is the “Cliff Notes” version of the extra-Biblical writings. Part One is the Midrash, a collection of “texts that flesh out the story of the Jews in the Old Testament.”

If you’ve perused Genesis – and I’ve read it a LOT, in attempts to read the Bible straight through – some of the stories will be familiar: creation, Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, but with details that scripture left out. While the stories are often funny, and occasionally salty, some of them compare favorably with the dry, sometimes obtuse source text.

One story, near the end of the Laws of Moses, could be a sermon, as is. It’s about God’s forgiveness and Apology Day, what is now called Yom Kippur. “I thought the climax of my relationship with the human race was going to be giving you the law. But it wasn’t. It was forgiving you for breaking it.”

Yes, Solomon WAS rather sexist, now that they mention it.

The next section contains stories of the Apocrypha, those books in the Catholic Bible that were not included in the King James Version, books such as Maccabees, a warrior group. I’ve actually read these, and the presentation in Apocrypha Now is pretty accurate.

The last section contains alternate Gospels, ones that didn’t make the cut. I happen to own Lost Books of the Bible by William Hone. I read two chapters contained there and compared those with the Russell writings, and they are quite in sync.

In the Infancy Gospels, little five-year-old Jesus is a bit of a jerk, not knowing how to rein in this enormous power he has discovered. Over time, Jesus develops his humanity. The other story is The Acts of Paul and Thecla, the latter a woman who went to great lengths to follow Paul, despite the obstacles. This is a stirring tale in either version, but more readable as distilled by Russell.

Throughout the book, Shannon Wheeler created full stories, which are entertaining. The drawings he created as an accompaniment to Russell’s stories were also nice, if nonessential.

The feedback on Good Reads to Apocrypha Now was mostly positive. The gold-edged pages with a purple ribbon place marker, with the words of Jesus in classic Bible-red, really added to my experience.

I’m sure a few will find these books sacrilegious. As a Christian, I found Apocrypha Now entertainingly funny, and occasionally inspirational.

This was originally published for Trouble with Comics.

MOVIE REVIEW: Sully

I got a great deal of enjoyment about the memes on Facebook about Tom Hanks in movies, that you wouldn’t want to travel with him.

sullyThe movie Sully should not have worked. There’s a major event, which you almost certainly know about because they wouldn’t have made the film otherwise. You KNOW it has a positive outcome. The picture shows the event TWICE. And yet the audience is on pins and needles, both times, including me.

This is fine film making by director Clint Eastwood about airline pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (Tom Hanks) and his co-pilot Jeff Skiles (Aaron Eckhart), where experience outweighs the machines. It is what happens when one man simply does his job every day in a professional manner. The one odd thing – and maybe this really happened – is that Sully’s dealing with his wife Lorrie are all on the phone, so one doesn’t get a real strong feel for her character.

The Wife and I saw Sully at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany last month and were happy to spend the 90 minutes. And I LOVED seeing the real people at the end, including many of the passengers.

Unfortunately, I read a lot of reviews before I saw the film. A few of those folks thought that the National Transportation Safety Board members were somehow persecuting Sully for his arguably risky maneuver. Whether it actually happened that way – movies based on real life are not supposed to be documentaries – I thought the questions from the NTSB folks were quite reasonable, in an attempt to learn for future situations. If they were a little too “villainous”, it served the story.

I got a great deal of enjoyment about the memes on Facebook about Tom Hanks in movies, that you wouldn’t want to travel with him, lest one be captured by Somali pirates (Captain Phillips), get stuck talking with a volleyball (Cast Away), get stuck in an airport (The Terminal), or get stuck in space (Apollo 13).

Book review: March, Book Three

An interesting aspect of the book is the appearance of one Barack Obama.

march-book-three-coverBack when Jon Stewart was hosting The Daily Show, he had on Congressman John Lewis (D-GA), the lion of the civil rights movement. He was plugging March, Book Two, which continued the description of the “historic events he participated in as a leader of the civil rights movement,” sharing “his desire to inspire the next generation of activists with his graphic novel trilogy.” I said, “I should get that,” but did not.

Recently, Lewis returned to The Daily Show, now hosted by Trevor Noah, promoting March, Book Three. So when I got a chance to review that book, I took it.

If you saw the movies Continue reading “Book review: March, Book Three”

MOVIE REVIEW: Queen of Katwe

Quuen of Katwe was directed by Mira Nair, who piloted Monsoon Wedding and Mississippi Masala.

queen_of_katwe_posterWay back in early October, the family went to see the movie Queen of Katwe.

There are poor people in Uganda, but some are worse off than others. The family of Phiona Mutesi (newcomer Madina Nalwanga) is particularly destitute since her father died, with her mother Nakku Harriet (Lupita Nyong’o) trying to hold the family together. School is out of the question, as everyone tries to work on the streets, selling produce or washing car windows.

By chance, Phiona comes across a group of children learning this odd board game called chess from a teacher, Robert Katende (David Oyelowo). The other kids were not happy to be around the poor, smelly girl, but she came back and showed promise in the game.

This film is based on a real person. At its heart, it is a sports movie, so it has a lot of that drama/disappointment/triumph that you’ve come to expect. Still, it works, and maintains the viewers’ interest, in part because it showed the stratification of life in the country.

There was also drama between the mother and both of her daughters. One does not have to care about chess to cheer for Fiona and her family surviving their disenfranchisement, and becoming empowered, and not just on the chessboard.

The film was directed by Mira Nair, who piloted Monsoon Wedding and Mississippi Masala, and filmed in Uganda. The acting is solid. The authentic local color added to the enjoyment. It was really wonderful to see the real people come out at the end with actors, with Oyelowo and Katende practically twins. And there is a fun coda one ought not to miss.

Unfortunately, despite being a Disney/ESPN movie, despite very positive reviews (93% with critics, 88% with audiences at this writing), Queen of Katwe had a very disappointing box office, not even making back its $15 million costs. Perhaps it will do better on the home market.

Movie review: Café Society

The Woody tropes are there, including disdain for all things Los Angeles.

cafe-societyI view the new Woody Allen movie Café Society at the Spectrum Theatre. At the end of the film, the man in front of me asks, “That can’t be the end of it, can it?” The next day, The Wife sees the film, and she says pretty much the same thing.

Conversely, I enjoyed the ambiguity of the ending. I have had a few relationships like that.

In 1930s New York City, Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg is the Woody character) lives with his mother Rose (Jeannie Berlin) and father Marty (Ken Stott), a jeweler. With few prospects there, Rose calls her brother Phil Stern (Steve Carell), a very successful agent in Hollywood, hoping that Phil could find a job for his nephew.

After days of waiting around, Bobby finally gets to talk with Phil about his prospects. Phil has his secretary Vonnie (Kristen Stewart in arguably the best performance in the film) show Bobby around town. Bobby is taken with Vonnie, but she tells him she has a boyfriend, a journalist named Doug.

And then emotions get turned around. There are three scenes, pretty much in a row, that I particularly loved – they made my wife really sad – where the characters discover missing pieces of the puzzle.

Meanwhile, back in New York, Rose and Marty (Ken Stott) have two other children: schoolteacher Evelyn (Sari Lennick), who is married to philosopher Leonard (Stephen Kunken), and nightclub owner and gangster Ben (Corey Stoll).

There is really only one section of dialogue that is laugh-out-loud funny, and it’s near the end, a conversation with Rose and Marty about Christianity v. Judaism.

The movie also stars Blake Lively as Veronica Hayes and Brendan Burke as Evelyn and Leonard’s nasty and obnoxious neighbor Joe.

There are good and not-so-good Woody Allen movies in the 21st century. Café Society is pretty good, #20 in this list of All 47 Woody Allen movies – ranked from worst to best. The Rotten Tomatoes summary called it “amiable,” which is quite accurate. Yes, the Woody tropes are there, including disdain for all things Los Angeles, but it works here.
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Woody Allen’s Biographer Tells All Id meet ego. Ego, id. The celebrated, controversial, highly self-aware filmmaker’s new ‘Café Society’ is about himself — but who is that? By David Evanier

Ramblin' with Roger
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