All Consuming : kellan

A story about "The War of the Flowers"

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 21:42:14 GMT

by Tad Williams

Like the book within the book WoF succeeds better as a travelogue then a narrative.

Which is not to diminish, but rather to classify, accurately and exuberantly in the “great fantasy cities” sub-genre or which Perdido St. Station is merely the one that springs most readily to mind.

Why it's taking me forever to finish consuming "Lady of Mazes"

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 19:05:11 GMT

Lady of Mazes

by Karl Schroeder

Getting bogged down. Maybe I don’t like hard SF as much as I used to.

A story about "Notes on a Scandal"

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 06:57:48 GMT

Notes on a Scandal

by Richard Eyre

You can debate the success of the storytelling, or the applicability of old cliches, but as a meditation on loneliness Notes is undeniable. Which is far from saying enjoyable. Still surprised it was so savagely reviewed by the professionals.

Judi Dench and Bill Nye are brilliant as (nearly) always. If Nighy plays to character, it is fun (and intimidating) to see Dench refuse to be typecast in to safe, aging roles. And Blanchett is luminous.

Great! (rated 4 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 07:02:21 GMT

This Film Is Not Yet Rated

Content might not be surprising to a Boing Boing reading crowd, or anyone who has paid attention to the media monopoly. But this is well done, engaging, and human, an excellent documentary on the MPAA’s secret rating board. A subject that would be quirky and odd if it wasn’t so problematic.

Make sure to watch the deleted scenes on the DVD, I think they cut some of the best material from the movie.

A review of "The Lake House (Widescreen Edition)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 03:42:12 GMT

The Lake House (Widescreen Edition)

by Alejandro Agresti

Unless you take time travel seriously, in which case it was terribly offensive, but I don’t, and besides that isn’t the review I set out to write.

I haven’t been able to sleep this week, not really relevant to most movie reviews, but it is to this one, because, and reviewers don’t acknowledge this nearly enough, treating each consumed objects as though its qualities were innate, objective, and timeless, rather then purely subjective evaluations that come into being at the moment of consumption.

So, I haven’t been able to sleep this week, like really, barely at all, and on a week when you’re having trouble sleeping, and you need something not too challenging, not too boring, not too engaging, pleasant without being overly stimulating for the long cold hours from 2-4, this is the perfect movie.

Kind of niche really for such mainstream actors.

A review of "Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno)" (rated 5 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 17:50:14 GMT

Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno)

by Guillermo del Toro

A children’s movie unsuitable for children. A study in beauty that lingers lovingly over primitive surgery and brutality. A pretty, pretty meditation on fantasy, faerie, and fascism.

Someone asked me, “Sure it was pretty, but was it good?”

Does it matter?

A story about "1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus"

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 08:51:46 GMT

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus

by Charles C. Mann

A break-neck, intellectual joy ride very much in the spirit of “Guns, Germs, and Steel” (and significantly more fun then “Collapse”), I found it enthralling, and a page turner.

To his credit Mann manages to represent multiple confliciting views (even wrong ones alas!) in a balanced nuanced manner (guarenteed to drive experts crazy), delicate and fraught given how political charged the study of history in the Americas is.

These grand generalist histories, with millenial sweep fill the void of “Just So” stories for the 21st century, explaing the big bad world in an engaging, entertaining way. Pure candy if you’re into that kind of thing.

A story about "Infernal Affairs (Wu jian dao)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 19:43:53 GMT

Infernal Affairs (Wu jian dao)

by Siu Fai Mak

Its hard to appreciate both this movie and The Departed. You’ll have to choose which one to see first, and which one to watch wondering how good this would have seemed if you didn’t know everything that was coming.

A story about "Brick"

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 19:41:33 GMT

Brick

Reviewers seem oddly split on this, but I, for one, loved it. A small movie, shot close and intimate, well suited for watching on a laptop screen, in a quiet room, and listening hard to the language.

A story about "Ahab's Wife: Or, The Star-gazer: A Novel (P.S.)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 19:40:14 GMT

Ahab's Wife: Or, The Star-gazer: A Novel (P.S.)

by Sena Jeter Naslund

Stylized, romatic, engaging, acessible. You could argue that knowledge of Moby Dick would deepen the experience, but actually the clever interplay occasionally snaps you out of the reverie of Naslund’s lyrical words.

A story about "The Privilege of the Sword"

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 06:22:10 GMT

The Privilege of the Sword

by Ellen Kushner

Cotton candy, but delightful.

A story about "Casino Royale"

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 22:54:32 GMT

Casino Royale

by Martin Campbell

Better really then it had any right to be if still not a masterpiece. Still I found even as I walked out of the theater I already was forgetting what I enjoyed about it.

Judi Dench is the penultimate Bond girl

A story about "The Departed"

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 06:57:15 GMT

The Departed

by Martin Scorsese

Nothing like a mob movie to make you miss Boston

A review of "District B13" (rated 2 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 09:37:11 GMT

District B13

by Pierre Morel

Insufficient jumping.

A review of "Learning the World: a Scientific Romance"

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 16:04:58 GMT

Learning the World: a Scientific Romance

by Ken Macleod

Gone is the smart political sensibilities and hyper-kinetics of his post-cyberpunk “Fall Revolution” series, or the vast, achingly distant noir universe of “Engines of Light”.

This is golden age science fiction – people in a spaceship, a new world, and a previously unsuspected alien race. Its a small book, with some good moments, but rather then the delicious disassociation that I associate with reading a Macleod novel, here he has worked hard to make the far future seem familiar and mundane.

Long the way you realize that Constantine is actually Heinlein’s Lazarus Long (spiritually if not literally), and then you really start to wonder what Ken is trying for.

The ending actually left me deeply disturbed, perhaps because I expect a Macleod book to have a progressive political vector, if a subterranean one, and yet this ended on a flatly apolitical and seemingly unconsidered note.

A story about "King Arthur - The Director's Cut (Widescreen Edition)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Sat, 07 Oct 2006 05:20:32 GMT

King Arthur - The Director's Cut (Widescreen Edition)

by Antoine Fuqua

Moody, atmospheric, largely pointless, and not nearly as much fun as it should have been. Does answer the question of whether the dreadfully miscast Keira Knightley (no pun intended)—in leather bikini—has breasts. (Not much)

Why I recommend "Shaman's Crossing: Book One of The Soldier Son Trilogy"

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 20:45:23 GMT

Shaman's Crossing: Book One of The Soldier Son Trilogy

by Robin Hobb

Robin Hobb (sic) is ambiguous. Her books are fantasies in every since of the word, swords and socery, heroes and love, boy done good fables (go west young man!) and deeply escapist.

By all rights, they should be dreadful, and I suppose by some measures they are.

And yet, these ambivalent heroes and their coming of age stories are deeply enjoyable. Much of it is her intentionally drawing on the grand traditions of story telling, and more of it is her lovely world building, that gains more momentum and depth from small details and careful observation then grandoise big ideas.

If Tawny Man let you down, this is more of a return to form to the earlier Farseer work, for the better, with a bit of the exoticism of the Liveship books without some of the Liveships work characters/plotting.

A review of "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story" (rated 3 stars)

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 16:28:31 GMT

Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story

by Michael Winterbottom

Tristram Shandy as the movie will tell you is an unfilmable book. (perhaps the unfilmable book?) Intellectually daring attempt to out post-modern the original post-modern novel.

Not sure they’ve successfully disproved the unfilmability though.

A story about "Assembling California"

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 16:23:06 GMT

Assembling California

by John McPhee

Lyrical, humane, roving. McPhee wanders all over the map, literally and figuratively—pages on Protopangaea enplaced next to notes on ancient Cyprus, and the California gold rush.

A story about "Gardens of the Moon (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Vol. 1)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 23:31:51 GMT

Gardens of the Moon (The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Vol. 1)

by Steven Erikson

One of those books where you’re tempted to tear off the cover. Trying not to judge a book by its lousy art director.

A story about "Yes, Virginia..."

nobody@allconsuming.net (kellan) — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 21:53:41 GMT

Yes, Virginia...

by The Dresden Dolls

Very much in the style of their earlier album, you’ll enjoy it in direct proportion to how much you enjoyed their earlier work.