Movie Review: BackRooms vs. Disclosure Day

This film was brilliant! One of the most unsettling horror movies I've ever seen because it draws on the shifting architecture of the subconscious. Have you ever dreamed that you were in a place you lived and you discovered that there were rooms in the space you weren't using? I've had this dream frequently for years. I love that this young man--he's 20!--developed and directed this idea. The architecture of the nightmarescape is noteworthy in its own right--this would make a great creepy/unsettling museum experience. The film captures the vibe of 1990 very well--the era of wall phones, cheezy furniture commercials, and I'd say the furniture accurately reflects furniture design from that period. I'm stunned at how good this was. In contrast, Disclosure Day was a profound disappointment. The first half started well, but devolved into what felt like X-files meets ET. Too sacharine sentimental, with large plot holes--how did the two main characters not remember their abduction experience? Why did Hugo wait until this moment to carry out his plot? Out of nowhere, one of the main characters could help people with their emotional pain by presenting as someone the person loved...it was over-the-top hokey. Close Encounters of the Third Kind was a much better alien contact film. It's a shame that 50 years later, when he revisits the same subject, he drowns it in saccharine syrup.

Movie Review: Franz

Franz Kafka, S.Y. Agnon, Bruno Schulz and Etgar Keret are just a few of the surrealists who have influenced my own writing. Lately I've also enjoyed Leone Ross as well. Yesterday I ventured over to the Leederville Luna Palace Theatre to see three films. The first I saw was a biopic of Franz Kafka. It was a little harsh and grating at first, especially the scenes when he was trying to write amidst unbearable noise and racket. I'd say the film is worth seeing if you love the works of Kafka. Though the movie flashes back and forth between childhood and adulthood, and forward to show Kafka tourism, there is a linear plot arc. Last year I taught a Kafka story in my English class ("The Bucket Rider"). In our school, the seniors get to read "Metamorphosis". The film has nudity and sex, so I'll not be able to use it in my classroom. But I'm glad I saw it. Ideas and characters in "Amerika", "The Castle" and "The Trial" all figure heavily in my forthcoming novel Forthcoming.

A film recommendation: "Official Competition"

Last night my sweetheart and I watched "Official Competition" with Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martinez. It came out in 2021, during the pandemic, which is why I missed this one when it was new. Absolutely delightful this one. Penelope Cruz as a zany movie director trying to control two prima donna actors who hate each other. Comedies about making movies--I wouldn't think I'd like them (sounds self-referential and wanky, like novels about writers), but they're usually pretty funny. Two other great examples: Tristram Shandy with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon; and Hail Caesar! by the Coen brothers.

Jeanette Winterson's Night Side of the River

When I lived in East Central London (Cloth Fair/Bartholomew Close) fifteen years ago, I used to frequently walk over to Spitalfields Market, to Verde, Jeannette Winterson's Tea Shop, in the hope of catching a glimpse of her. I loved her novels from the early to mid-1990s--The Passion, Sexing the Cherry, Art & Lies, Gut Symmetries, Stone Gods, etc. Recently I saw a collection of her ghost stories in a bookstore, and picked it up, and was glad I did. Night Side of the River is an amazing collection. Regrettably I left my copy back in Austin (I'm presently in Western Australia), but if I see it here, I might repurchase it. In the latter half of the book, there's two tales of a couple. The first telling is from the perspective of the grieving partner trying to make contact with the spirit of their beloved. The second telling is from the point of view of the ghost, disintegrating, losing her identity, and trying in vain to provide some comfort to her grief-crushed beloved. It was so moving, I wept. It brings to mind, the grief of Marjane Satrapi. I wish she had found some comfort after the loss of her beloved husband. I feel like the world has been robbed of her future creative work.

Marjane Satrapi (זכרונה לברכה)

The author of the wonderful graphic novel Persepolis has died of sadness. And now I'm a bit heartbroken too. Farewell, Ms. Satrapi. I enjoyed your book, and many of the 10th graders I taught enjoyed the excerpts we covered in class. We studied it as the United States was bombing Iran, pointlessly replacing many awful leaders with equally awful leaders. I hope someday an Iranian democratic revolution succeeds in overthrowing the theocracy, but it will need to do so without American bombs raining destruction upon them. You can't feed the regime's narrative or prove them right. But I've meandered away from Ms. Satrapi, who lost the love of her life a year ago. I'm glad she got to experience such a profound and all-encompassing love, and I'm sorry that it ended far too early for her.

Sasha Devore's "God, Science, and a Really Dumb Experiment"

I've become a public school teacher, which leaves me less time to read for pleasure, but what a pleasure it was to read Sasha Devore's God, Science, and a Really Dumb Experiment. I picked up this book nearly a year ago at a Half Price Books in south Austin. I went there to replace my copy of Etgar Keret's Fly Already which I had given to a friend, and then regretted no longer having it. Sasha Devore was there in person with her books, so I wished to be supportive of emerging authors, and bought this one. My teacher responsibilities soon took over and I shelved it until recently, then picked it up again when I had no more grading, lesson plans or #$%! training modules hanging over my head. This was a delightful read. The protagonist is a science teacher, who occasionally pauses the narrative to express fun scientific facts. A quick summary: using a particle accelerator, scientists accidentally summon God, who appears as a woman. Bringing God to earth has left things unbalanced and the scientists in the story try to figure out how to send God back. I have, for the time being, left the exciting world of teaching middle school maths to teach 10th grade English. I wish I could include this book on my classroom library shelf, but due to Texas Senate Bills 12 and 13, I have to get district approval for any book in my class library. The protagonist is a lesbian of color. And the theological ideas in this book don't match what the theocrats in our legislature would like to impose in our classes. Nonetheless, if any of my students express an interest in reading a book of this sort, I will quietly encourage them to read it.