It's here... Oscar night.
Buh-buh-bum! I always watch the Oscars, but this year's show seems destined to be sad, drab. Billy Crystal - okay, obviously a good Oscar host... but come on, take a chance. What is this, 1992? Prediction: An onslaught of awards to The Artist and there's going to be a lot of flipped channels.
Julia and I have been reading like maniacs likely. Today, I finished a book I just started yesterday! George Pelecanos' 2009 The Way Home is a superb book, splendid. I gave it five stars because I couldn't find anything wrong with it. Pelecanos' sense of place is so strong, so acute - he's almost a tour guide for Washington D.C. - and his sociological perception is so beautiful, precise, sympathetic, that the exciting plot is almost the least of his achievements here.
The story concerns Chris, a middle-class kid with a good upbringing, a knack for trouble and acting out. After a stint in juvenile prison, Chris emerges with a desire to change; his flustered, supportive parents (well-drawn, human characters) certainly hope so. Chris gets a job laying carpet at his dad's installation company and along with his partner, a well-meaning bit of societal detritus who also served time with Chris in prison, comes across a gym bag containing $50,000 beneath the floorboards of a house they're looking at. The two decide to let it be, leave it alone. But things get interesting when a couple of truly terrifying ex-cons come around to retrieve the money and find it gone.
Just outstanding, that's all I'll say.
And another surprise lay waiting when I went to George Pelecanos' website and found a section where he talks about and lists all the music he listened to when writing and touring for a particular novel. This guy has incredible taste. He's a Deep Soul fan, also with a taste bud for early 1970s funk, My Morning Jacket, Nick Lowe, Uncle Tupelo, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Boss, Sam Cooke, 80s punk, country rock, etc.
Here's a sampling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT8mZHb4kww
I mean, who in the world is Annette Snell? And how come someone can be so good and yet unknown to me?
I've never seen the 1970s TV movie Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. I've read where it terrified many viewers, but that the special effects were laughable too - especially by today's standards. I will say that the remake has very good effects and quite a lot of scares; there are a satisfying amount of shivery oh-god moments. Unfortunately, the screenplay, by Matthew Robbins and Guillermo del Toro, needed to be tightened and re-worked. The pacing is fine, but the adult characters are truly ludicrous-acting. Guy Pearce's dad, possibly the most unconcerned father in the history of film, is cartoonishly unbothered and unavailable. Katie Holmes does good work, but her character, who becomes a mother figure to the frightened young girl seeing horrible little homunculi/netherworld bugaboos, all over the place, is also ludicrous. Over and over again, these adults leave the girl unattended by herself, despite her being scared senseless by the weapon-wielding creatures coming through the vents. If a little more sense and care were given to realistic, believable human behavior, this film could have been a knockout, rather than the reasonably entertaining, watchable product it is.
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