Friday Night at the Movies Week 45 - Winter's Bone

Some movies are so got you just don't want to talk about them right away.  The impact needs time to disperse, soak in, let the bruise fade before you are ready to verbalize.  Winter's Bone had that effect on me, and much like Ree Dolly, I'm left a little stricken by everything I saw.  I'm not sure what I have to say yet, other than I'm sure it's going to be one of my favorite movies of the year.

Rarely have I seen anything so raw and brutal with such little violence.  Much credit goes to the screenwriters Debra Granik (who also directed) and Anne Rosellini for an amazing, efficient adaptation of Daniel Woodrell's novel.  So much is understood without being spoken, and all the actors do an amazing job of portraying their thoughts with just looks and mumbles.  You think La Cosa Nostra has a vow of silence?  You haven't seen anything.  The folks that inhabit this movie are as tight lipped as they come, to family, friends, and especially the authorities.

I'm going to let my thoughts simmer a bit more, but in the meantime I'm going to immerse myself in the discs special features which include a commentary, making of, and some extra scenes.

I will say this though, Jennifer Lawrence better get a damn Oscar nomination.

The Long Con Week 45 - Deception

How well do you know your significant other.  I'm sure you have his/her birthday memorized, can cook or order his/her favorite meal, maybe even name a favorite movie and color.  But when the day comes to an end, and heads hit the pillow, do you really know what they are thinking?  Do you want to?  It's much easier to think they are dreaming of nothing but loving you and the life you've built than an alternative.

Maybe it's not you they really love.  Maybe they secretly loathe you.  Perhaps worth.

Reading Deception by Denise Mina, I couldn't help but be reminded of Eye's Wide Shut, Stanley Kubrick's last film.  There might not be any elaborate sex parties or midnight romps through New York City, but the monologue that Nicole Kidman delivered at the films beginning, where she talks of leaving her entire life behind if that soldier had just asked her to, really sunk in as I turned every page.

Lachlan Harriot had a good life.  He graduated with a medical degree, but chose instead to be a stay at home dad for his infant daughter while his wife, a psychiatrist, worked.  To most, it would seem like a young family.  Only Susie grew distant, spending more of her time at work and locked away in her office.  Communication suffered, and Lachlan felt his wife slipping away.

Then she was convicted of murder.

Andrew Gow was a serial killer; an admitted one.    But despite his initial confession, Gow claimed innocence.  Pending an appeal he was set free, and soon found dead along with his wife.  He was under Susie's care, and it soon becomes apparent to Lachlan that their relationship might have been more.

Could she have been in love with him, and killed out of jealousy?  Could she have been defending Gow's wife, even though she was soon found dead as well?  Is it even possible she was innocent.  Lachlan certainly believes so.

Deception is written as Lachlan's journal, as he digs through his wife's hidden life.  He enters her previously off limits house office/space, and obsessively searches through the files, the papers, even through her computer, hoping to find anything that will come to her defense, no matter how much she protests.  And why does she object to him helping her out.  What secrets does she hide?  What could be so horrible that she wouldn't want him to read it?

Lachlan is an amazing character, perhaps one of the best unreliable narrators I've ever read. Mina's florid prose pushes him through every emotion a human can feel in this situation.  The guilt at maybe not loving his wife enough, especially when he strays from the marriage, is real and heartfelt, as well as his rage at not being fully included in his wife's life.  Such emotions can go back and forth numerous times each chapter, and it was easy to go along for the ride.  It's an intense experience, and impossible to put down until the questions are answered.  By the end of the book I needed to know just as much as Lachlan did.

A fantastic book that can alternate between unbelievable sadness and moments of black  humor with ease.  Mina is an author I need to become more acquainted with.

New Comics Wednesday Week 45 - Stumptown

Mister Marenco, I gamble, I drink, I smoke, and I've got a car that runs half the time.  I just took out my second mortgage, half my bills are past due, and my mentally retarded brother pulls a steadier income than me.  


I own three pairs of shoes, one dress that I'm not ashamed to be seen in, two pairs of jeans, and a collection of T-shirts that say more about my adolescence than I care to remember.  I'm thirty-two, single, unattached, and the last time I went on a date the president was white and in his first time.  


My word is all I have.


Meet Dex, the sole employee of Stumptown Investigations.  She's honest, but she also sells herself a little short.  Besides honesty, she's got everything an investigator needs.  She might not be a genius, have the snappiest lines, or be a master of kung-fu, but she's got guts and instincts.

Dex has been hired to find the granddaughter of Sue-Lynne, who happens to be the owner of the casino that Dex currently owes almost $18,000.  Pretty good timing if you ask me.  Charlotte might have run away with a boy, or a girl, or who knows what, but Dex finds it a bit mysterious that she happened to take off with her shampoo but not her Mini Cooper.  (Hence the excellent story title, The Case of the Girl Who Took Her Shampoo but Left Her Mini).  Before Dex can even build an investigation, she's warned off the case by the creepy Dill and his muscle Whale.  The first warning goes unheard, so the second comes with a pair of bullets to the chest.

Just who is Charlotte, and why do the local crime family, the Marencos, keep inserting themselves into the investigation.

I'd love to say that Stumptown, from Oni Press, is my favorite book on the stands.  Besides Dex, Greg Rucka has established a compelling cast of supporting characters, with hints of backstory that lends itself well to future stories.

There is Ansel, her high functioning, highly observant, brother who just happens to have Down Syndrome and an addiction to video games.  I credit Mr. Rucka for not only creating a character with a development disability, but not making him only about that feature.  Ansel is intelligent, caring, and judging from how many people ask him, very well liked.  He's a character with a tremendous amount of potential.  Along with Ansel comes his job coach/support staff Grey.  He's another likable guy, who cares for Ansel almost as much as he is in love with Dex.  It's unspoken, but it's there.

As for Dex herself, she's another strong, believable female created by Mr. Rucka, who has made it a niche of his in the fiction world.  (Don't believe me, read Batwoman, Wonder Woman, Queen & Country, The Question, as well as the Atticus Kodiak novels or my review of A Fistfull of Rain.)  This girl can take a punch with the best of them and retain her femininity.  Like any good PI, she's also got some great contacts.  There is Tracy, the good cop who can give her the information Dex needs, as well as pick her up at the hospital.  And if there is a good cop, there must be a bad, and that is Hoffman.  He's got a serious mad on for Dex,  most likely because she broke up his marriage.  I love that Rucka didn't explain the how or why, as it gives great potential for future stories.

Notice how I keep mentioning future stories?  The one reason this is not my favorite book on the stands is because only FOUR issues came out this past year.  I realize it's an indy book, and the money isn't great, but damn, I want to see this comic on the shelf every month!

But Matthew Southworth's art is worth the wait.  He's quick to admit, in both informative and honest backmatter, that he is a slow artist, and the delays were his fault.  It's refreshing to hear an artist admit that, and I'm willing to forgive him in his pursuit of artistic perfection.  His storytelling is lovely, and his line/brushwork is realistic and gritty.  If I have one complaint about the art, it is the colorist switch of Lee Loughridge  for Rico Renzi between issues two and three.  Loughridge is one of my favorite colorists, and his muted palette was a perfect addition to Southworth's art.  Renzi's choices are a bit to bright for my tastes, and it was noticeably jarring when I re-read all four issues last night.

Stumptown deserves a hardcover collection, which I will pick up as soon as it hits the stores.  Hopefully many others will as well, because this is a story that deserves more issues, or possibly a novel.

You put a hand on her...I let weather into your skull. 

And for the curious out there, call the number. And check out GregRucka.com.

The Short Con Week 45 - The Blind Man's Sighted Daughters

Joyce Carol Oates has an impressive resume, a lengthy list of novels under three names, poetry, essays, dramas, novellas, and even some children and young adult fiction.  But I haven't read any of it.  I would have loved to have read a book this month, but since that slate is already full, I guess I'll have to make do with another short story from my handy Best American Mystery Stories series.

Good thing it's a damn fine story.

The story centers around two sisters, Helen and Abigail, and their elderly, blind father Lyle Sebera.  Abigail is back in town to visit her family after years of being away, gone with a good job and a good family.  Helen hasn't been so lucky.  She decided to stay in Sparta, New York, to take care of him after a debilitating stroke.

He, Him were the ways in which we spoke of our elderly father in our lowered voices.  He, Him seemed more appropriate than such intimate words as Father, Dad.


Helen hasn't done as well as Abigail.  She's been stuck in a meaningless food service job, has no boyfriend, and generally hates life.  Will things change when Abigail decides it's her turn to take over his care?

It turns out, Abigail does more than wash the windows, change the sheets, and clean the house.  She also brings out secrets that have been quiet since 1967, when a mistress of her father, along with an old business partner of his, end up dead on the side of the road.  A beating disguised to look like a car accident.  Helen and her sister were just children then, but they knew something was up.  Could their father be a murderer.

The Blind Man's Sighted Daughters is not about finding the answers, so don't expect a tightly wrapped conclusion.  Instead, expect to read some fine storytelling with very compelling, sympathetic characters.  The father may be the one going blind, but it's everyone else who has turned a blind eye to the possible truth.  Keeping secrets can kill you as much as old age.

45 Minutes Week 45 - The Ladies of Law & Order

One of my favorite aspects of the Law & Order series is it's ability to both write excellent female characters and cast them with great actresses. They have positions of power and responsibility, and take back seats to no one, despite billing.  The men, specifically in SVU and CI, are the "lead" characters, but that old idiom about who is behind every great man couldn't be more true. One could argue that the men might be behind them.  As much as I like Detective Stabler, he wouldn't be the strong person he is without Dectective Benson, and would Goren have been nearly as tolerable without Eames?

Here are just a few of the reasons to watch any of the shows incarnations.

For a thorough character guide, plus a whole bunch I didn't  include, check out this site : http://sharetv.org/shows/law_and_order

Cover of the Week 45 - Black Widow

Can't discuss women in crime films without a femme fatale.

To the Mattresses Week 44 - Jodie Foster vs. Everyone

Why is it that I have such a hard time believing most actresses in "tough as nails" roles these days.  

It wasn't always the case. I adore the Alien movies, and Sigourney Weaver can kick the hell out of most of the men in those films, especially that puss Bill Paxton.  Even the grunt Pvt. Vasquez made my adolescent self shrivel up in the bathing suit area.  But that was 20 years ago.  I need someone more current.

Which brings me to Angelina Jolie.  Okay.  Her I can believe.  She nails her stunts, and in movies such as Wanted (I haven't seen Salt) and Mr. and Mrs. Smith she whoops ass.  However, thanks to her role in Girl Interrupted, I also believe that she used to be batshit crazy, and that goes a long way towards my believing she is badass.  That and her admitted love of knives and Billy Bob Thornton.

As I run down most of the films I've enjoyed with a hard ass leading lady, the one trait that continually comes to the forefront is mastery of their craft.  Jodie Foster immediately springs to mind.  Her attitude was shown at the tender age of thirteen when she played a prostitute in Taxi Driver.  She went toe to toe with DeNiro and Keitel, so that gets her some props in my book.  It was almost twenty years later when she went on to win the Academy Award as Clarice Starling, an FBI agent holding her own against Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs.  Since then she's been an overprotective mother in both Panic Room and Flightplan,  a woman with an agenda in Inside Man, and the female Charles Bronson in The Brave One.

So she kicks ass.  She has also been around for years.  Who is going to unseat her and Jolie?  Ashley Judd took her shot, and despite some success (Kiss the Girls), the less said about films like Double Jeopardy, Eye of the Beholder, and High Crimes the better.  So I'm not sure if I should blame her or her agent, because those roles did her no favors other than a paycheck.

So based on these examples, I obviously can believe that some woman can carry the tough girl act.  But for every Sigourney and Angelina there is a Michelle Rodriguez, who has built a career out of playing the woman with a chip on her shoulder.  The one difference between her and the previous two actresses is they can actually act.  Rodriguez is like a robot who has only a default setting of "hardcore" and loses all believability with me.  She is incapable, mostly through typecasting, of expressing any other emotion, so her bravado seems more of an act.  She doesn't speak softly, but carries the big stick, and therefore is a caricature.  I'm not going to count her.

Evangeline Lilly, who was on Lost with Rodriguez, had some of the bad girl aspects to her.  She had the attitude, the cunning, definitely the charm, but physically it was hard to believe she could punch a man and not break every bone in her hand.  The woman is tiny and thin, so while I had no problem with her firing a gun, I took issue with her general ass kicking.

Uma Thurman had a shot thanks to Kill Bill, but since then she seems to have hung up the yellow jumpsuit.  Too bad.  She could have been awesome. Next.

Sadly, most of today's action heroines come not from the crime genre, but from sci-fi.  Resident Evil has Milla, Kate Beckinsale in Underworld, Carrie-Anne Moss in The Matrix, and Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Television has a few thanks to shows such as Alias, The Shield, and Undercovers, but for modern day movies I'm drawing a blank.

Help me out. Who has the ability to be the next Pam Grier?