Night of the Living Dead (1968): I'd actually never seen this before, and for anyone else similarly uneducated in zombie film history, I won't spoil it but will just say watch it. It is sadly as timely in its social commentary in 2021 as in 1968.

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957): I had zero expectations for this film and merely watched it ( Read more... )

So I'm a tough sell for a Dune movie. Not only am I fan of the book (though I confess I have not reread it in years), but I grew up on the David Lynch movie, and imperfect (and somewhat unfairly maligned) though it is, it has a place in my heart that is hard to dislodge. I was also not hugely sanguine about the performances in Villeneuve's movie ( Read more... )

I have just finished the novel Master and Commander, the first of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey and Maturin novels, and I can assert O'Brian has a new fan. I had attempted this series before, 15-20 years ago when my dad was obsessed with it, and it didn't grab me. I guess sometimes the time has to be right. I wanted to write a big essay on it, but ( Read more... )

On a friend's recommendation, I have just finished Walker Percy's Love in the Ruins (1971), a postmodern, late Southern Gothic novel I'd call nominally science fiction in that it is set in the very near future (from the 1970s) and has speculative technology and social changes, but only as a thin veneer for talking about contemporary life. It ( Read more... )

Highlights from my Author Newsletter

On Seeking Cultural ConsultingOne of the puzzlements for a white writer in this age is how to walk the line between writing works that are too Eurocentric and appropriating the culture of a group you don’t belong to. I’ve pondered this for years while my writing hovered semi-safely in the Continuation Universe ( Read more... )

Spoiler Free:
It deserved more space. I agree with those who say it's jam-packed and ticks a lot of boxes. I liked it but wish it had more breathing room.

I also agree the trilogy, as a whole, is incoherent, with The Rise of Skywalker (TRoS) ignoring The Last Jedi (TLJ) as much as possible without (much) literal retconning. And it's fair to say ( Read more... )

We finally saw Frozen II, and I need to unload some thoughts about it. Context: I am not a fan of Disney/Pixar/CGI cartoons and got dragged to the first Frozen, only to be amazed by how much I loved it. Frozen is my favorite Disney cartoon, period, despite my sentimental attachment to several of the older ones. So my expectations of Frozen II were ( Read more... )

I saw Joker the other day and have to offer some scattered thoughts on it. The bottom line: I loved it and think it is probably the best DC movie ever-but many have a very different view, which I want to haphazardly unpack ( Read more... )

I have been enjoying Drew Hayden Taylor’s Take Us to Your Chief and Other Stories (2016), a collection of short sci fi stories from a First Nations perspective. The collection includes a wide variety of stories, often with a sense of quirk but always with a sense of struggle, physical and psychological, at the continued colonization indigenous ( Read more... )

I am back from whirlwind travels abroad (to Iceland and France) and will unload some thoughts in a few posts, starting with last first. On the flight home I watched a very good Icelandic movie I would like to recommend: Rökkur/Rift ( Read more... )