Mark Murata's Suburban Fantasy
and Science Fiction
Saturday, November 2, 2024
Saturday, October 5, 2024
Labors of Love: Megalopolis, The Apostle, Coriolanus
I have not seen Megalopolis. I know that a lot of people walked out on it, while some critics found some artistic merit. This is not a negative blog, so I will draw no conclusions about it. My point is that it is a labor of love.
Francis Ford Coppola spent decades working on this movie.
Instead of a production company shouldering the cost, he reportedly sold part
of his wine business to finance it. This is what makes a movie a labor of love:
A man considers himself a visionary (women don’t tend to do this), he spends years
working on a project, and he cannot convince people in the business to pony up
the funds for it.
These labors of love usually don’t work. The visionary isn’t
as great as he thinks he is. Years of work poured into a project doesn’t make
it great. And there are usually good reasons why people in the business do not
want to invest in it.
Having said that, I have seen two labors of love that have
worked.
The older one is The Apostle. This was written by,
directed by, and starred Robert Duvall. He had had a career high when he won an
Oscar for Tender Mercies. He then had a good but ordinary career after
that. Somewhere in there he was working for years on this labor of love. Producers
turned him down because they said audiences didn’t want to see a movie about
religion, so he had to use his own money.
He plays a holy roller preacher who is a raving egomaniac.
No matter what he does, he considers himself a servant of God, though he admits
he is a “womanizer” and commits a horrific act of violence. Farrah Fawcett
gives a surprising turn as his wife, who wants a divorce. Contrary to what some
people have said, this is not a story of redemption. He christens himself The
Apostle and starts a new church.
Critics and audiences alike consider it a masterpiece. I was
astonished by Duvall’s fearless acting. You really need to see Robert Duvall as
a holy roller in the rural South.
The other triumphant labor of love that I have seen is Coriolanus.
This was directed by and starred Ralph Fiennes. I believe he spent five years
on this project. He didn’t pony up his own money, so I may be contradicting
myself here. But he made the controversial decision to show the story in modern
dress, using modern military equipment. I usually detest such things (there was
one modernized version of Hamlet that I truly hated). But I was suitably
impressed by this version of Coriolanus.
Purists will note that whole swaths of dialogue from the play were left
out, as they decided to make a trim, taut story. His mother (Vanessa Redgrave)
and his wife (Jessica Chastain) are turned into fierce women, which is fine by
me. Warning: One character commits suicide, which was not in the play, and may
be disturbing.
So choose a labor of love and see what you think.
Thursday, September 5, 2024
Movie Review: Reagan
Reagan is a biography of Ronald Reagan, an actor who became a two-term governor of California and a two-term president of the United States. This is a more traditional sort of biography: There is no attempt to go smoothly from one major part of his life to another. Instead, it focuses in great detail on certain strategic moments. For instance, it completely skips his negotiating with Congress to pass massive tax cuts that made the economy prosper. But it focuses in surprising detail on the Reykjavik summit with the Soviets to reduce nuclear weapons, down to his wearing an ordinary suit despite the cold, to look more like a leader.
The movie wisely does not cover the fifty-three films he
made. Instead, it focuses on his successful attempts to prevent Communists from
taking over the Screen Actors Guild, a struggle that many of his fans are not aware
of.
The theme of Reagan is his unfaltering opposition to
Communism. He did what he could when he was governor of California, but it was
when he became president that the movie compellingly shows his victory after
victory.
Reagan was completed in 2021. Dennis Quaid, who has had
quite the film career, had reached the level of gravitas by then to portray the
president. There are uncanny scenes in the film when he sounds like Reagan, and
he even looks like Reagan for a few moments. Penelope Ann Miller does a sprightly
job of portraying his wife Nancy. For fans of Kevin Sorbo, he does a brief appearance
as the minister of the Disciples of Christ church where Reagan was raised.
Some have accused this movie of hagiography. (The proper use
of this term has to do with pious accounts of the lives of saints. In movies
and literature, it is a highly critical term that means a biography that portrays
the subject as someone who can do no wrong, and which leaves out any problems.)
This is not true. Reagan spends a surprising amount of time on his making
schlock commercials at the bottom of his acting career, so that he bitterly
referred to himself as a “clown.” It also shows the Iran-Contra scandal, and
Reagan finally admitting in a speech that his administration had indeed traded
arms for hostages. And it does show the tragic nature of his Alzheimer’s, when
he could not remember he had once been president.
This movie should be recommended to everyone who is too
young to remember those years.
The funniest line in the movie occurs after Soviet Premier
Brezhnev dies, followed in quick succession by Andropov and Chernenko. A frustrated
Reagan slams down a phone and asks, “How can I establish communications with
them when they keep dying on me?”
These were crucial and dangerous times, and the movie shows
us Ronald Reagan’s role in them.
Wednesday, August 14, 2024
Best Book Report on The Great Gatsby
The Best High School Book Report on The
Great Gatsby
(public domain)
Any book report on The Great Gatsby or its sequel, Tendonitis,
must answer these key questions:
1) When Jay Gatsby
says Daisy’s voice sounds like money, is that a compliment?
John Steinbeck gives
the best answer: “We can’t prove the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg symbolize
God.”
2) Did Gatsby make
his fortune by bootlegging during Prohibition?
Hemingway, as he
rowed, chanted: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”
3a) When Gatsby demands
that Daisy say she never loved her husband Tom, what does she answer?
George Orwell replied:
When Scarlet O’Hara said “Fiddle-dee-dee,” she was not referring to the Scarlet
A on her chest, but to The Red Badge of Courage.
3b) When Daisy
strikes Myrtle with Gatsby’s car, is she trying to kill her, or just preserving
her own life by not bothering to swerve enough?
Gilgamesh retorts: “Why
does Nick Carraway have a bigger part than Jay Gatsby? Why does Faulkner think
his mother is a fish?”
4) Why were the
soccer leagues underwater in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea?
Jane Eyre insists, “The
harpooner was varsity, not JV.”
There we have it.
The definitive high school book report on The Great Gatsby.
Characters in The
Lord of the Flies
Saturday, July 27, 2024
Editing
One of my manuscripts is Day 10K, a science fiction novel
for adults with some humorous elements. On the advice of a couple of professional beta readers, I need to
get people down from their spaceship to a colonized world faster.
The main problem was chapter 4. The entire chapter has good
writing, but much of it was getting in the way. A difficult decision for a
writer is not so much getting rid of bad writing, but getting rid of good
writing.
So after taking out chunks, chapter 4 went from nineteen
pages to nine pages. More work will be done on chapter 5, but the changes to
chapter 4 were the largest.
Saturday, July 20, 2024
Gonzo Stuff
This is a random collection of … well, you’ll see.
Ducks
I didn’t do much on the 4th of July, since it was
on a school night, as the saying goes. I took a walk in a park in Bellevue (a
suburb of Seattle) and took a picture of ducks.
Click to enlarge
Debris
There was a collision at an intersection near where I work.
Some of the debris ended up on a sidewalk. I told a coworker that one of the
cars must have spun around a good amount, for part of the bumper to end up
there. She replied that someone could have pulled it onto the sidewalk to get
it out of the way. She was probably right.
Prices
I looked at a copy of Tolkien and the Great War by
John Garth in a used bookstore. On the back, the price was listed as $14.00.
The sticker for the used price was $15.99. Huh?
Later, I looked for some vitamin water in a grocery store.
They were being sold at four for $5.00. I bought one and was surprised when it
cost only $1.10. Those who flunked basic math won’t see the silliness of this.
Skybridge
I saw this sign on a skybridge in Seattle. At first I
thought I had to be careful about gaining 8,000 pounds. But it obviously concerns
loads of supplies. Shouldn’t the sign be inside?
Click to enlarge
But the only sign I saw inside was this one. How did I get
out? How am I writing this?
Friday, June 21, 2024
Donald Sutherland Passed Away
The long-time actor Donald Sutherland passed away on 6/20. Most young people will think of him as the head bad guy in The Hunger Games franchise. If he intimidates you, then good.
Such people might be surprised to know that before that, he
was generally viewed as a nice guy. One hotel worker said he was very humble.
He was so well-favored, for a long time his voice was used for a series of orange
juice commercials.
I remember him most for his role in Invasion of the Body
Snatchers (1978). He was the protagonist, so the audience was supposed to
be rooting for him. It’s not to everyone’s taste, but neither is The Hunger
Games franchise.
So I was sad to hear of his passing. He was quite the actor.
public domain
Saturday, May 18, 2024
Norwescon III—Supplemental
As usual, Norwescon featured some Roman Legionnaires:
They just can’t help but get in fights.
I did not take many pictures this year of people in their
costumes. I did in 2022, and took me an immense time to crop and post them all.
So with apologies to people who put so much effort into their cosplay, here are
a few examples.
This couple just looked too good to ignore.
And we had an impressive swordswoman.
To my delight, Captain Kangaroo made a surprise appearance.
And what do we think? With the blonde hair, is she half Human,
half Vulcan?
Here is Torrey Stenmark in her competition costume. To see her floor costume, click here.
She seems to be a female Han Solo. Agree? Disagree?
So with a blaster in the holster and a light saber held
high.
Thursday, May 16, 2024
Norwescon II--Supplemental
Ken Scholes and Kristi Charish held a workshop where, among other things, they answered common questions. I asked whether it is considered fair to let an agent who sold a novel to keep getting the proceeds from it, even if the author leaves the agent. They said it was not a matter of fairness; it is part of the agreement.
Jessie Kwak writes science fiction detective novels.
By the way, there was a Dalek at the convention.
It was autographed by Peter Capaldi! He was the Twelfth Doctor.
He was definitely my favorite. (Actually, I don’t watch Doctor Who much.
It was his standoffish look that intrigued me.)
Torrey Stenmark was also there in her floor costume. Serious cosplayers often have one costume for walking around on the floor of the convention, and another one for competition.