Eyes on the Blue Star: One of the best dystopian novels

Book Review: Eyes on the Blue Star by Dewi Hargreaves

Eyes on the Blue Star is one of the best dystopian novels I've read. Blue Stars are people living in a dystopian American future who still kindle a hope for lives of peace and security in a time of division and war in the homeland. It features complex characters marking a journey across dangerous lands, wary of untrustworthy opponents, never sure who is ally or foe. Danger lurks everywhere and refuge doesn't last long. Authoritarian powers control the population centers and the outlands are ghosted by gangs and beasts. Our heroes just want to escape the worst of them and reach the imagined tranquil life, as they travel their eyes always on the Blue Star. 

Dewi Hargreaves is the author and an illustrator, a graphics artist who draws maps for works of the imagination like Eyes on the Blue Star. He is gifted as a cartographer and an illustrator, and he has included a map of his envisioned dystopic America at the front of Eyes on the Blue Star, giving you a graphic overview of the world his mind's eye sees. From there, he lets his words do his magical world building. His writing is as gifted as are his artist's pen and brush.

I found myself becoming engrossed not just in the story, but also in the storytelling—the agile descriptions of characters and their emotions and driving forces, as well as the telling details on the settings and actions. Yet Hargreaves is a sparse writer, telling you what you need to know without volumes more, and that's great writing. His prose wraps you in the scene around the personalities and their surroundings to help you understand their cares and their predicaments, then lets you wander with them as they wind their way through the story. There are many elegantly written chapters that are a pure pleasure to read.

So I recommend Eyes on the Blue Star for your consideration, rating it A++ (a 5 on the Amazon scale) for A Great Read—one of the best in the dystopian genre. 

Tar: Electric... exceptional... gorgeous

Movie Review: Tar (2022) on Peacock

I'm grateful some of the Academy Award-nominated films this year are available to stream online or through cable TV systems. Tar is one of them, with six Oscar nominations. 

Tar stars Cate Blanchett, brilliant as Lydia Tar, one of the greatest living composer-conductors and the first female director of a major German orchestra. She dominates the screen with her performance as a domineering force of nature in the world of Western classical music. The story focuses on her professional life, but it also veers through the controversies of her personal life, in which she is accused of favoring young women whom it is rumored she romances with advances in their professional careers. This threatens to plunge her own career into chaos, just at the height of her success. 

There is much to love in the film, with its focus on musical theory and technique. Likely you will learn a lot about how composers and conductors and major orchestras work. But the music is electric and the cinematography is exceptional and the settings in New York City and Berlin and elsewhere are gorgeous. But the magic on the screen is in Blanchett's performance. It's no wonder she is nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role.

If I have any problems with the film, it is with the opening. There is a brief scene with Blanchette that goes no where, some texting, then black screen with opening credits that lasts way too long. And then there's the ending that isn't really an ending. Every story needs a beginning, a middle, and an ending, and while this film has a magnificent middle, it definitely lacks viable open and close (beginning and ending). 

Tar is also nominated for Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Editing. I hope it earns multiple awards.

For these reasons, I would rate Tar a B++ for Blanchett, Screenplay, and Cinematography. 

The Menu: Everything is amazing

Movie Review: The Menu (2022) on HBO Max

To say it's suspenseful is to downplay it. To say it's a thriller is to come up short. To say it shocks is to give it short shrift. The Menu is many things, but as a film it is a mind-blowing mystery that never fails to surprise and keep you wondering what could possibly happen next. 

Cast, timing, and the element of surprise is what make this film work.

Ralph Fiennes is Chef. He is ego personified, chief among all those of the guests invited to marvel at his exclusive restaurant on an island far removed from the drudgery of civilization. Anya Taylor-Joy is Margot, seemingly the alter-ego, the least polished of the posh guests on the list. She is companion to Tyler (Nicholas Hoult), who is most eager of the guests to be impressed and most eager to impress Chef. John Leguizamo is a movie star most eager to make appearances. And so the list goes on of the rich and pompous for whom Chef has prepared a multi-course lavish meal for which he is famous. 

Timing is everything. As Chef prepares each course for serving, he chaps his hands and the cook/servers yell, "Chef!" and guests come to attention. As a viewer, you come to attention, too. And like an illusionist about to perform the next extreme feat of magic, you prepare to be surprised. First, by the elegant culinary delivery. Then by the...

...the excellent element of surprise. After a bit of discourse on the meal, or the food, or some bit of history, Chef slaps you to attention with a dramatic twist.

Some of it is shocking. And you wonder--what in the hell! How did he do that? Is this real? Some of it is genius. All of it just leads you into the next course, wondering but not ready for the next slap. And then it comes.

The Menu is an odd title. This isn't about the menu. It's about The Delivery, the Final Delivery. Don't dare bow out early. Stay to the end. You really must. You won't believe it.

And so, I rate The Menu an A+ for Amazing. The food looks amazing, the presentation is amazing, the casting is amazing--everything is wonderful. If it just weren't so shocking! No, that was amazing, too, in retrospect.

Black Adam: Blockbuster effort

Movie Review: Black Adam (2022) on HBO Max

Finally, the antihero joins the leagues of mighty superheroes seeking justice for mankind. This in the skin-tight uniform of 5,000-year-old Black Adam (Dwayne Johnson), who is revived in modern day society seeking vengeance against anyone who opposes him.

He isn't your typical superhero, saving the day. No, he's hellbent on destroying everything in his path, whoever is in his path. And it isn't until the very end that he sees a place for himself in the pantheon of goodness that is the Superhero Universe. But he has plenty of good guys on his side trying to persuade him there's a place for him. 

Everyone likes a story of redemption and this is the ultimate bad guy leading to good guy tale. And who represents the good guy story better than Dwayne Johnson? He also makes a very good antihero. Bring those two together and Black Adam makes for an amazing on-screen performance.

I don't think this film has gotten the credit it deserves for storytelling and character development. And with some post-release development, I'm not sure there's much place for the character to grow beyond here, but for all the right reasons, Black Adam is a great film with a good script, good acting, good effects, and great directing. I'd rate it B++ for Blockbuster effort. Definitely deserves your attention.

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile: Loved it!

Movie Review: Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (2022) on Amazon Prime

Ever think you'd watch a singing crocodile in a musical? I didn't think so. Then I set aside my preconceptions and watched Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile—and loved it!

Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile is the the popular children's book brought to life on live action film with a bit of CGI animation and a whole lot of heart. It's the story of Hector, the washed up stage performer, who discovers Lyle, a talented singing crocodile in the back storage room of a dilapidated New York City exotic-animal shop. Hector adopts Lyle and prepares him to perform live on stage in a bid to revive his dying career, only Lyle isn't a performing crocodile, just a singing crocodile. 

And so, smothered in debt and with his hopes smothered, Hector leaves town with, leaving Lyle alone in his big city brownstone attic. 

Newly arriving are the Primm family, Mr. Primm, Mrs. Primm, and son Josh, novices to the big city life. They certainly never dreamed of the possibility of a singing crocodile living upstairs of them. Nor of a Mr. Grump, who occupies the basement apartment below them and is a stickler for the rules, especially quiet.

For most of the film you are treated to the Primms coming to terms with big city life, discovering Lyle and the consequences of having a singing but not talking crocodile in your life, and keeping this secret from the "monster" downstairs. This is the dreary, ho-hum part of the film, necessary to create conflict and set up the climax at the end, but really, if you need to get up to go to the bathroom or refresh your stacks, this is the part in which to do it. 

The opening sequences of the film, then the latter parts, all with Lyle and Hector (played brilliantly by Javier Bardem) are the most entertaining parts of the film. It's here that you get the most bang for your buck, as the saying goes. Bardem is a master performer meant to sing and dance and bring out the best in a singing crocodile. The Primms are just set pieces.  

Also, Mr. Grump has a cat that is fun to watch.

Lyle, Lyle Crocodile is great entertainment for the whole family. Stick around for the big finale, it's worth it. I rate this film A for All Right!

Best Sellers: Amazing storytelling with Michael Caine

Movie Review: Best Sellers (2021) on Starz 

If you're into books and authors and wonderfully flawed characters, Best Sellers is the film for you. Aubrey Plaza plays the owner of a strapped boutique publishing house desperate to unearth a money making author from its backlog of past successes. She stumbles onto boozing, irritable old cuss Michael Caine, who owes them a manuscript but isn't happy to comply. (Who swears better on film than Caine?) Plaza gives the driver in Drive My Car a run for her money, driving Caine around (not sure where, actually) in his Jaguar promoting his "bull-shite" book during a raggedy book tour first in bookstores, then bars, hoping to revive the glory—and sales—of his original bestseller of 50 years ago. But wait, there isn't more! And the two discover way more to the secret life of a successful book sale than Plaza's character ever dreamed. Well done and Caine is his crusty, soddy best as a character actor playing a leading role. I rate Best Sellers A++ for Amazing storytelling.

Home Team: Could be better

Movie Review: Home Team (2022) on Netflix. 

Kevin James comedy vehicle based on a true story about an NFL head coach suspended for a year for targeting opposing-team players for injury during play. He isn't allowed to pursue any other professional coaching activities, so he returns home to the family from which he has been ostracized and becomes interested in coaching his son's high school football team. Very few really funny moments but a good human interest story as he learns to nurture family relationships gone sour while still pursuing the game he loves. Interesting to see how far Taylor Lautner's film career has fallen since his Twilight days to play a losing high school coach. I'd rate it C+ for Could Be Better.