I don’t know what to think of this book. It’s my first exposure to Faulkner, and I hear that he gets much better later in his career, and at this point I feel he kind of has to. There are flashes of brilliance but they always sputter out to nowhere. I think Mosquitoes is trying to say something about art and sex and women and the upper class and human nature, but I will be damned if I can tell you what it is. It’s so damn opaque. I don’t know what the point of the book is, other than to get a couple of cheap laughs at Mr. Talliaferro and Major Ayres. The last ten or so pages were probably the best; Faulkner writes drunken ramblings quite well. Otherwise: it’s occasionally brilliant but generally incomprehensible. I can’t say I didn’t like it, but I won’t say I liked it either.

A documentary not just about technology and The Singularity, which was the reason that I watched it, but also of the person that came up with the idea of the singularity, Ray Kurzweil himself. It was interesting on many levels: to see the different interpretations of the singularity from many experts, to see what else Kurzweil has done to improve human society, and tying his view of the power of technology to his own life and tragedies. Worth watching for people interested in technology and the future, and for people who are comfortable contemplating the end of life as you know it. I’m not saying I’m in that latter camp, but it did help me get my head around it.

Fury is the story of an innocent man arrested for a crime he didn’t commit who escaped a lynching and tries to take revenge on the town that tried to kill him. The combination of Fritz Lang and Spencer Tracy made this a must-see for me, and there were many times I was riveted to the television. Particularly during the scenes where the town is slowly whipped up into a frenzy. Lang paces those scenes so perfectly that I got swept up in the rising tension, and I got sick to my stomach seeing them take that one last step from sanity to insanity. It’s the fury of a town desperate for justice and of a man desperate for revenge. I’d watch it if I was you.

“How To Murder Your Wife” is a leaden, unfunny, misanthropic, misogynistic comedy that makes me sad to think about. It’s supposed to be a satire, I think, but it’s so heavy-handed and mean. Jack Lemmon’s mugging is just painful; it’s like he saw Jerry Lewis and said “Two can play at that goofball game.”. I actually had to take a break in the middle of it to watch something else and gather my strength for the second half of the movie. It’s not badly made: from a technical standpoint it’s very well-made. But the script and acting are terrible. I was hoping for a funny romp. Instead I got a dated, sexist mess.

The sexual and political ideas in this book are…let me be charitable and say “questionable” at times. But the comic is brilliant. In the issues contained in this collection, Howard Chaykin did things with page layout, visual storytelling, and dialogue, that surprised me. Funny and shocking, sometimes mindless and sometimes profound, and visually overwhelming, it’s a surprisingly complex work, considering what the mainstream companies were coming up with at the time. The “futuristic” setting is dated – unsurprising considering Chaykin was extrapolating from the Cold War Climate of the early 1980s – but it still works, which speaks to the strength of the world that Chaykin constructed. Everything’s dynamic: even when the characters are standing still they look like they could spring into action at any second. Also: it’s got busty women, go-gang violence, illegal basketball games, political intrigue, betrayal, interplanetary travel, Soviet jewelry, and a talking cat who works at a police station. Incredibly complex and powerful comics, American Flagg is the kind of book that rewards re-reading – something I plan on doing sooner rather than later.

I’ve never really understood the appeal of Deadpool. Sure, he’s crazy with a healing factor and teleportation and a vast arsenal of weapons that he is very good at using. But that’s just a bunch of “cool” characteristics; it depends on how you put it together. And in the Deadpool Classic trades, you get to see how it was put together.

I don’t know if I acually like Deadpool, but he’s slooooooowly growing on me. This collection is full of amusing adventures, some of which are quick and easy, some of which are harder. I liked the Typhoid Mary/Daredevil stuff, but the whole “bad guy trying to be good” thing is kind of getting old. I think Deadpool might be more interesting as an amoral mercenary, pure and simple, but I don’t know. This early stuff is good; nothing AMAZING, and I wouldn’t necessarily seek it out, but since my friend’s going to buy it and lend it to me, all I have to do is sit back and wait for it to come to me. That’s something I can handle.

This is a much different show than I was originally expecting from the previews. I was expecting a show about a termally ill high school teacher who resorts to cooking meth to make a living. And yeah, okay, it’s about that, but it’s about a WHOLE lot more than that, too.

It’s about family, and how the people you love deal with illness, and the flexibility of law and the hypocrisy of modern society, and the limits you’re supposed to have on your own morality. Bryan Cranston is freaking brilliant; he’s portraying a man on the edge, wracked with guilt and sickness, and there wasn’t a second that I didn’t believe him. The supporting cast is great, too (Cranston wouldn’t do as good a job without the people to work off of). I love the non-linear storytelling, too: the cold opens of some episodes start off in the middle or at the end of the story, then work their way towards that point, really keeping a heightened sense of drama and mystery. It’s really brutal, though, as you could imagine from the subject matter (drugs, crime, cancer). Definitely not for everyone, but I can’t wait to see where the second season goes.

Super High Me is an interesting and well-made movie about marijuana laws in the U.S., sprinkled with a liberal amount of standup comedy. Doug Benson is a talented comedian and a good person to structure the film around, and although it may seem rough around the edges at times, the off-the-cuff feel made it more endearing to me. I was actually fascinated more by how the dispensaries worked and the clash between state and federal law enforcement. I actually learned more than I thought I would. Funny and informative.

(And no, he does not die at the end.)

Warren Beatty has lived an interesting life, and has crammed more experiences into his seventy years than most people could do in seven hundred. But I don’t know if I like him. Then again, that’s not really the point: this is a warts-and-all biography that not only got me to learn more about the person behind the celebrity, but also got me interested in watching and re-watching his movies. It’s a long book, but generally worth the time and investment. I have a few minor points I could nitpick about: I don’t think an author should be as familiar and crude as his subject when talking about sex, for one thing, and I don’t know if I needed quite as much time spent on Heaven Can Wait when I’m sure Reds could have used some more coverage. But those are minor points. Overall, if you like movies or are interested in the cult of the Hollywood celebrity, then I would definitely recommend this Star. It’s not an earth-shattering book, but it’s definitely an interesting story.

First things first: I love Mike Allred’s style. His 60s aesthetic filtered through 30 years of pop culture developments; his manic, full colour action scenes; his deceptively simple characterization; the way he handles the quiet emotional moments of the characters; and the crazy supporting cast he’s making for Madman. It’s like Metamorpho plus The Bible plus Metal Men plus The Beatles plus Batman plus…plus a million things. He does actual thought-provoking, non-corny existential and existential crises in the midst of mind-blowing action sequences.

There are so many great moments in this collection, from the small moments (the tiny robot with the New York City accent) to the big ones (possibly finding God). And then the twist at the end of this volume? Simply unreal. Love Madman. Love Allred. Love Comics.