The best things I read, watched, etc. in August.
Such an underrated espionage gem. My second viewing, and it was still just as good as I remembered. I also discovered that the screenplay was written by the author of the book, which isn’t surprising because really felt like the kind of production for which there weren’t any creative sacrifices or compromises. The film does a wonderful job of utilizing quick “cuts” between the competing timelines, leaving you feeling lost or disconnected from the main characters as they narrate their respective memories. It gives a wonderful storytelling feel that you can never really trust the retelling of each character’s story.
I’m a huge Star Wars nerd. Like really huge. And although I like some Star Wars properties better than others, I appreciate all of them because I know that each one is special and important to a lot of different people. Obi Wan is also one of my favorite characters, so I was very excited to finally catch up on this series. And it’s almost like it was two entirely different shows: Episodes 1-5 were okay, and Episode 6 knocked it out of the park.
The first five episodes seemed just objectively bad. Aside from Ewan McGregor, the majority of acting was bad and the writing was just objectively bad. After discovering that the creator’s history included some of the worse Transformers movies, I suppose it wasn’t surprising. I think it’s perfectly illustrated in the scene (SPOILER ALERT) where the snowspeeders arrive (just in the knick of time) to save Obi Wan and Leia from the ocean planet. It was just *meh*. Contrast this with the Rogue One scene on Scariff, where the X-Wings arrive just in time to save the day against the AT-ATs on the beach. It’s scenes like that where you want to stand up in the theater and cheer!
Star Wars is Epic. But for the most part, Obi Wan Kenobi wasn’t.
A tale of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder. Such a taut, well-told narrative non-fiction book that left me wanting to dive back into the Aubrey-Maturin series (my favorite books of all time). The end is a bit anti-climatic at times, but such is life. My only wish is that the author would have spent a bit more time explaining exactly how he reconstructed the story and how much weight was give to each (sometimes conflicting) account.
First, I can’t believe this was written in 1992. If you’d told me it was written within the last decade, I would’ve believed it. The way Stephenson describes technology and concepts (such as avatars and the metaverse), and the way in which he has thought through how these concepts work was simply mindblowing. It’s a rare instances in which a futuristic sci-fi story actually actually bears out accurately (well, mostly) in real-life. The story itself was interesting and entertaining, with just the right amount of absurdity that borders on unbelievability: like if you mixed John Wick with Crank or Dredd (with just a touch of that 90’s “Hackers” movie cyberpunk energy).
One of the best sci-fi books of recent memory. Such an amazing job of leaving the reader in the dark, in the vein of an extremely good detective novel. An expertly told story that leaves just enough crumbs along the journey. I’m also amazed at how beautiful the language was, which is a true testament to the translator.
Wow. I’ve been slowly reading this for about 4 or 5 months, and it was amazing. Yergin weaves a complete (and I mean complete – it’s about 800 dense pages) account of the history of oil: everything from its discovery, through two world wars, the post-war world, and the modern age. Yergin has an innate ability to weave the history of oil into the past 200 years of history, demonstrating just how much our world has become intertwined with (and dependent upon) such a serendipitous material. Filled with an entertaining cast of characters and a deep understanding of the motivations and repercussions of their actions, The Prize was one of the best non-fiction books I’ve ever read.
I grew up on the original movies, and although Liam Neeson (or anyone else for that matter) can never deliver the comedy in the way Leslie Nielsen did, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. The ending felt like it strayed a bit from the classic Naked Gun/Airplane-type jokes, and there was something missing that was always there in the original movies (I can’t quite put my finger on what it was). But when it was good, it was damn good.
I’ve almost finished working my way through the Dark Tower Series for the second time, and it’s going to be hard to say goodbye to these characters again. This is probably my least favorite book in the series (it’s a bit long winded), but it does a wonderful job of setting up the chess pieces for the endgame in the final entry in this series.
Because this movie was essentially a mixture of the movies A History of Violence and John Wick, it could have been overly derivative and lazy. But it was actually really well done. It had a perfect balance between humor and good action, while also retaining a revenge theme with some teeth to it.
A wonderful coming-of-age movie that really threaded the needle for that genre. More importantly, it features amazing acting by everyone. Every character felt normal – like someone you know in your own life–for better or worse.
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