Neglected Movies: Margaret

Kenneth Lonergan, Director

Margaret was made five years ago by Kenneth Lonergan and never released for various reasons. This despite the success of his fabulous first film, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME. Now it is available on DVD. The lead role is played by TRUE BLOOD'S Anna Paquin.

MARGARET is an interesting, well-acted, and serious examination of the complexity of grief in a seventeen year old. I was knocked out by both Paquin and Jeannie Berlin's performances especially. Matt Damon and Mathew Broderick play flawed but well meaning high school teachers. I have been told there is an extended cut at three hours that fills in some odd gaps in the narrative. I will try to get that version.

When a girl plays an inadvertent role in a fatality, dealing with its complexity is more than she can handle in her fractured family life. Lisa is a nuanced character you will not always like. So too her mother, teachers, friends. No one is portrayed in black or white. Lonergan sets his story among the bustle of city life, not content to tell his story in a void.

It's long and sad, but on the whole, a movie well worth seeing if you can handle grief and ambiguity. And if you can get the three hour version, even better I am told. At the end, Lisa remains an enigma as all good teenage characters should.

Movie Theme Music: Chariots of Fire

NEXT MONDAY THE FLASH CHALLENGE; FRANK JR. I got mine. Let me know.

Whose First Book at an Early Age Sent You Reeling?

Zadie Smith wrote WHITE TEETH when she was like 22. It's not just that it was great, but that it was about old men in large part. How does a college girl have that sort of insight and such a sophisticated writing style? Are there prodigies in writing?

I know Updike did something similar at a young age (POORHOUSE FAIR), but jeez, WHITE TEETH just swallowed me whole because of its insights into ethnic characters in modern London. It was like Dickens on speed.

Whose first book knocked you out?

Sunday Night Poetry: William Shakespeare

Christopher Plummer doing Hamlet in the 1960s.

Your favorite P.I or Police Detective Books

When it comes down to it, I like this sort of crime fiction best. Nothing too cozy, nothing too violent.
Good characters, interesting atmosphere, great writing.
I am looking for a few (in paperback) to take on a trip. What are some of your favorite books that feature a detective of some sort tracking down a killer.

Saturday Night Music: Steelers

Will never hear it without thinking of Reservoir Dogs for better or worse.

Your Favorite Movie Ending

There are so many great ones--the ending of CHINATOWN, BONNIE AND CLYDE, THE GRADUATE, SOME LIKE IT HOT but I am going with the lump in the throat ending to BEFORE SUNSET.

How about you?

Beautiful Women of the Silver Screen: Lena Horne

The Summing Up, Friday, September 14, 2012

Chocolate Mint Ice Cream Mustaches are the Best.

My review of QUEEN OF VERSAILLES is on Crimespree Cinema.

The Summing Up, Friday, September 14, 2012









Patti Abbott, A Summons to Memphis, Peter Taylor (below)
Sergio Angelini, Queen in Danger, Adam Hall
Yvette Banek, Distemper, Beth Saulnier
Joe Barone, The Old Buzzard Had It Coming, Donis Casey
Brian Busby Mark it for Murder, Douglas Sanderson
Bill Crider, Three Rode North, Al Conroy, (Marvin H. Albert)
Scott Cupp, The Tithonian Factor, Richard Cowper
Martin Edwards, S. S. Murder, Q. Patrick
Curt Evans, Museum Piece No. 13, Rufus King
Jerry House, The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World, Harry Harrison
Randy Johnson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Robert Louis Stevenson
Nick Jones, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith
George Kelley, Redheads Die Quickly and Other Stories, Gil Brewer
Margot Kinberg, The Cold Dish, Craig Johnson
Rob Kitchin, Goshawk Squadron, Derek Robinson
B.V. Lawson, This'll Kill You, Peter Chambers
Evan Lewis, The Wrong Corpse, Carroll John Daly
Steve Lewis/Mike Tooney, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Dorothy L. Sayers
Todd Mason, The Avon Book of Modern Writing and No. 2, edited by William Phillips and Philip Rahv (and others)
Neer, The Kings' General, Daphne DuMaurier
J.F. Norris, Antidote to Venom, Freeman Wills Crofts
Richard Pangburn, Cool Hand Luke, Donn Pearce
David Rachels, Redheads Die Quickly and Other Stories, Gil Brewer
James Reasoner, The Dance of Death, Carter Brown (Alan G. Yates)
Richard Robinson, Crime Over Casco, Walter Gibson
Gerard Saylor, Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, Charlie Huston
Ron Scheer, Alec Lloyd, Cowpuncher, Eleanor Gates
Michael Slind, The Labors of Hercules, Agatha Christie
Kerrie Smith, Prelude to Terror, Helen MacInnes
Kevin Tipple, Jasmine's Fate, Randy Rawls
TomCat, The Queen of the Night, Paul Doherty
Prashant Trikannad, A Prairie Infanta, Eva Wilder Brodhead

Friday's Forgotten Books, September 14, 2012

A Summons to Memphis, Peter Taylor

I read this in January of 1987. It won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award that year. It is the story of a man who is summoned to Memphis by his two sisters when his father threatens to remarry in his eighties. The father is a tyrant who has thwarted his children at every turn, squashing any chance for happiness.

The writing is ethereal even if the plot is not a happy one. None of them have had a happy or fulfilling life and this book examines that.

Taylor is more well known for his short stories, writing only three novels. This is certainly his best one.

Sergio Angelini
Yvette Banek
Joe Barone
Brian Busby
Bill Crider
Scott Cupp
Martin Edwards
Curt Evans
Jerry House
Randy Johnson
Nick Jones
George Kelley
Margot Kinberg
Rob Kitchin
B.V. Lawson
Evan Lewis
Steve Lewis/Mike Tooney
Todd Mason
Neer
J.F. Norris
Richard Pangburn
David Rachels
James Reasoner
Richard Robinson
Gerard Saylor
Ron Scheer
Michael Slind
Kerrie Smith
Kevin Tipple
TomCat
Prashant Trikannad

My Life at the Theater: THE TAMING OF THE SHREW

Saw this version in Stratford in 2003. We saw it with our kids about 1979.

Here is a review of the 2003 version.

There's no point in beating around the sagebrush. "The Taming of the Shrew" that opened Stratford's 51st season is one of the worst productions of the play in the festival's history. The Wild West setting is not the problem; rather it's how the setting is misused. Add to that sloppy direction and poor acting, and the show becomes one actively to avoid.

How do you like to see a review like that after spending $200 plus a B & B for the evening.

Taming is always difficult to pull off because it is so anti-feminist. I don't know why it is performed so often, in fact. Like the anti-semitism in MERCHANT, perhaps it is better left alone.

Books Using Various Devices to Forward the Plot

Reading a book now, and it is far from the first, that uses text messages, emails, notes, phone calls, etc. to move the plot along.

How do you feel about this? A little goes a long way for me. I realize a novel set in today's world has to draw from it, but it gets tiring reading who it was that sent the message, who received it, the date, etc.

And yes, I know John Dos Passos was an early believer in story lines composed from letters, headlines, graphics, etc. Loved him and loved the graphics but maybe not the rest.

How open are you toward using various devices to move the plot along?

Opening Credits: Twin Peaks

Tuesday Night Music: Mulligan and Baker

Short Stories

I have been reading a short story a day since January 1. With three plus months left to go, what short story would you recommend I read? A few of my favorites have been A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND (O'Connor) THE NIGHT IN QUESTION (Tobias Wolff) GIVING BLOOD (John Updike), UNCLE (Woodrell) WORLD OF GAS (Campbell), GIRLS IN THEIR SUMMER DRESSES (Shaw), CATHEDRAL, Raymond Carver.


(I am not listing ones here from people we know here although I have read some terrific ones online and in anthologies).

What short stories should I read before the end of the year?

Forgotten Movies: Payday

Rip Torn, in one of his best roles, plays a country singer that only an audience can like. Written by Don Carpenter and directed by Daryl Dukes, this is a woefully forgotten film that deserves to be remembered. 1972-73 produced so many great films it gets lost in the crowd. A little like TENDER MERCIES and CRAZY HEART. Something tells me that male country singers are a pretty dissolute bunch.

Movie Theme Music: I Am Legend

My Town Monday Returns for One Day: Frankenmuth

Despite its rather ersatz appearance today, the town of Frankenmuth, about ninety minutes north of Detroit, has an interesting history. For a full story go here but it was settled in the 1840s by a group of Germans who came there in a group, enduring many hardships along the way.

It is a place we visit perhaps once every two years when we get street fatigue and need some place to go for the day. It is a real town that has somehow manged to look like a faux one. The shops cater to tourists in the dull way of all resorts--except it is not really a resort. There is really nothing to draw one here except there is little else within two hours of Detroit.

It's a place to get a chicken dinner in the German style, buy orange cheese that doesn't taste like real cheese at all, to buy fudge, tee shirts, take a carriage ride down the 1/4 mile stretch of town, visit the biggest Christmas ornament store in the world or go to Birch Run, an outlet mall where on checking price on the handy iphone it turned out nearly everything could be bought back home for less money.

Where do you go when you need to get away for the day? Of course you east coast/west coast people always have the shore. Don't rub it in.

Sunday Night Poetry: Michael Ondaatje

How I Came to Write This Book: Nick Quantrill

How I came to write: “Bang Bang You’re Dead” (by Nick Quantrill)

Having spent the last four or so years writing almost exclusively about one character, Joe Geraghty, a small-time PI operating in my home city of Hull, the chance to write a novella for Byker Books’ “Best of British” Kindle series came as a nicely timed challenge.

The chance to support Byker Books is a welcome one for me. Quietly going about their business for some years now, their annual Radgepacket series, now up to volume six, is an essential round-up and opportunity for both new and established writers to display their Brit Grit credentials. More personally to me, they were amongst the first to show some faith in my writing, so when I was asked to consider writing a novella for them, I was only ever going to agree.

And a great challenge it proved to be, too. It was the chance to try a new voice. The central character in the novella is Sam, a young man recently released from prison. He wants to provide for his young family, but Hull is a city with few opportunities. And there are even fewer in the area Sam lives. He’s a young man who only really knows the place as he experiences it. He’s not well travelled, even within the city. So he gets himself involved in a drug deal organised by his mate Jonno. It inevitably goes wrong, but the ensuing chaos gives Sam the chance to get to the truth about his brother’s overdose. It proved to be a fast piece to write and a lot of fun, but it also surprised me - I found myself thinking about unexpected issues - how do young people survive when they’re offered nothing? Are people rooted into places and unable to change or adapt?

I’ve always written about Hull and I suspect I’ll continue to do so for a while yet. “Bang Bang You’re Dead” gave me the chance to look at the city through different eyes. It also gave me the chance to look harder at my home city and discover that although the backdrop to it may be grey and concrete, there are good people and beauty everywhere.

www.hullcrimefiction.co.uk