MONTH OF ACTION FILMS

So, I’m glad to say that it was bound to come around that I dedicated a month of film viewing to action films!  I’ve enjoyed action films but over the years most of them, to me, have been recycled ideas from older films only with the latest and hottest movie star.  There were a lot of films in my March month of film viewing that fit this exactly and there were some that surprised me.  More often than not, most of the films I viewed were either mediocre or just plain bad.

 

So let’s begin!

 

THE BAD.

Okay, so there are a lot of bad action films out there and I managed to get through a whole lot of them.  Some of them were on my watch list whereas others just came up as random and I took a chance on them anyways to my horror.  One of the worst films I watched was ALIEN WARFARE (2019).  There is no redeeming quality in this military verses aliens film that lacks character, story, and above all else decent SFX.  Save this film for a drinking game of some kind with a group of friends.  Other notable “bad” films were JOHN HENRY (2020), TRIPLE 9 (2016), GET MY GUN (2018), DEVIL’S MILE (2014), and RIOT (2015).  TRIPLE 9 had a great cast of actors but was just plain dumb in every way; it’s a film that you have to know the actors wished they could go back and erase from their resumes.  Terry Crews does a decent starring role in JOHN HENRY but the film is so early ‘90s which was the decade of bad action films.  The less said about the others, the better.

 

THE FILMS OF ANTHONY MACKIE.

I really enjoy Anthony Mackie as an actor as he always gives some inspired performances and never seems to just be phoning it in which is why I was so surprised at the outcome that was TRIPLE 9.  This being said, I decided to catch up with a lot of his other films that I had just not gotten around to which includes POINT BLANK (2019), IO (2019), and OUTSIDE THE WIRE (2021).  While POINT BLANK was just a fun yet mediocre film, IO was a welcomed departure from the typical sci-fi film.  This is a film that is less action oriented but I think still will appeal to action fans.  OUTSIDE THE WIRE is one of my favorite films of the month as it gives Mackie the chance to truly shine as a leading man in a lo-key sci-fi, military-style action film with Terminator overtones.  This was an extremely well written and executed film.

 

THE MEDIOCRE.

Next, I will delve into the plethora of mediocre films that I managed to view over the month.  Some of these films included SPENSOR CONFIDENTIAL (2020), EDGE OF FEAR (2018), BACKDRAFT 2 (2019), ANGEL HAS FALLEN (2019), MESSAGE FROM THE KING (2016), DA 5 BLOODS (2020), and ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE (2021), to name a few.  First off, this isn’t all of the mediocre films I saw but I’ll get to the others a little later.  All of these films had the potential to be great films but for some reason or other just missed the mark.  MESSAGE FROM THE KING was too mediocre to be elevated above its conventional roots and I was a little surprised that Chadwick Boseman was the star.  Mark Wahlberg has made a career of playing in mediocre films that do little more than simply entertain and that is exactly what you get in SPENSOR CONFIDENTIAL.  There really wasn’t a need for a sequel to BACKDRAFT or another one to the FALLEN series but we got them anyways.  EDGE OF FEAR is hampered by hammy performances from almost the entire cast except for Shin Lin and Zhu Zhu who almost seem like they are in an entirely different and better film.  I wanted to like DA 5 BLOODS but it was an overstuffed and mediocre film that seemed to lose focus halfway through.  There are some fine performances but they can’t help overcome what a mess the film eventually becomes in its long running time.  ZS JUSTICE LEAGUE improves upon the original Joss Whedon version but that’s really saying little in a film that at over four hours long is really too long for its own good.  It also has way too many extraneous scenes that add nothing than foreshadowing for future films that probably won’t happen.

 

THE FILMS OF BRUCE WILLIS.

Now actor Bruce Willis has fallen on hard times in the last couple decades and has found himself in one mediocre action film to another.  He’s played good guys and bad guys and everything in between and so I decided to catch up with a lot of his films, that frankly, I had no interest in ever really seeing.  This includes HARD KILL (2020), FIRST KILL (2017), and ACTS OF VIOLENCE (2018). FIRST KILL was the best out of all of them and that’s because Hayden Christensen is actually not that bad in the film.  Willis is a bad cop and pretty much phones in his performance which is what he does in HARD KILL, which is just a flat out bad movie.  Like in the other two films Willis plays second fiddle in ACTS OF VIOLENCE which is really a film for Cole Hauser and Shawn Ashmore to take the lead.  I actually like Hauser a lot and wished he was given more opportunities to headline films.

 

THE FILMS OF JASON STATHAM.

So, Statham is an actor who makes bad films entertaining and I actually end up enjoying some of his films more than I should.  He’s an actor with presence and commands the screen.  This being said, I viewed four of his films during the month – HOMEFRONT (2013), REDEMPTION (2014), THE BANK JOB (2008), and PARKER (2013).  PARKER I thought was the worst of the bunch because frankly it’s just like 90% of his other films.  The same can almost be said for HOMEFRONT but this film has such an eclectic and amazing cast in what amounts to a mediocre film.  What elevates it is the presence of Frank Grillo when he shows up.  Like in POINT BLANK, Grillo has a knack for making bad or mediocre films entertaining and fun.  THE BANK JOB allowed Statham to step out of his comfort zone and deliver a film in which he’s not always fighting and kicking everyone’s ass.  I really enjoyed this film as I did REDEMPTION, which is a much better written film than expected and actually has something to say.  These last two films are the reason why I continue to enjoy a Statham film as he tries to mix the Good (REDEMPTION) with the bad (PARKER) with the ugly (CRANK).

 

THE GOOD.

I’m a little surprised to say that in addition to OUTSIDE THE WIRE, I viewed a lot of pretty good action films throughout the month and they are all very different.  Some of them include BELOW ZERO (2021), COP CAR (2015), VFW (2020), POLAR (2019), THE TAKE (2016), GHOSTS OF WAR (2020), A BABYSITTER’S GUIDE TO MONSTER HUNTING (2020), THE BABYSITTER (2017), THE BABBYSITTER: KILLER QUEEN (2020), CLOSE (2019), and THE MAURITANIAN (2021).

Although GHOSTS OF WAR and THE BABYSITTER films also contain elements of horror, it is the action that takes precedence and these three films do an amazing job at mixing the two genres and still are entertaining and engaging.  I was pleasantly surprised by all three of them and GHOSTS OF WAR easily is one of the best I saw all month.

VFW and POLAR are also oddities as both contain plenty of violence but one is a near post-apocalyptic film (i.e. THE CROW or THE ROVER) and the other is based on a graphic novel, respectfully.  Both have aging characters who want to retire and live their lives in peace but the outside world just won’t let them.

The most traditional of the action films is BELOW ZERO, THE TAKE, and CLOSE.  Noomi Rapace shows her action muscles in CLOSE while Idris Elba does what he does best in THE TAKE.  Both of these films could be mediocre if not for the stars in both of them that elevate the films.  BELOW ZERO is the only foreign film on the list and it is unpredictable and suspenseful from beginning to end.  It keeps you on the edge of your seat not knowing what is going to happen from one moment to the next.

COP CAR is oddly funny and dark and allows Kevin Bacon to give an unhinged performance in a film that is mostly told from the point of view of two children.  It’s a dark film but if you can jump onboard the darkness then you’ll enjoy this film.

THE MAURITANIAN is the only film that I saw in the theater for the month.  This is more a dramatic-action film but one that is politically charged and hinders on the amazing performance from Tahar Rahim.    

 

THE TV SERIES.

Just as an added bonus I wanted to add on the two TV series that I got hooked on during the month!  I ended up watching the first seasons of HYPERDRIVE and FASTEST CAR!  HYPERDRIVE is and amazing series that I hope gets another season as it will appeal to anyone interested in drifting and obstacle courses.  FASTEST CAR is really for those people who build their own cars to be faster than other cars.  This series is good because it goes into the lives of the people that build the cars before ending each episode with a race to see who has built the fastest car!

 

*****

CONCLUSION.

Overall March’s Month of Action Films allowed me to catch up with a lot of films that had just been sitting on my shelf waiting to be watched.  Some were good, while others…not so good but I ended up watching several gems that I would have never bothered with had I not done this.  I hope that you dear Reader have enjoyed this month’s watch list and maybe added a few of these films to your own watch list.

 

Next up is my Month of Romantic Films!

THE REAL CONTENDER AWARDS 2020

I’m a little behind on getting my 2020 THE REAL CONTENDER AWARDS out to the public but 2020 was an odd and off beat year since most major releases were held back and instead I focused a lot of my attention to indie films.  For those of you not in the know, The Real Contender Awards is something I came up with a few years back to give voice to films from all genres which normally would go unnoticed by the “normal” award shows.  The other caveat is that the films all had to have been released in the year of the awards whether theatrical, streaming, or straight to video.  I’ve always hated that most awards shows period of eligibility stretched between two years.

 

And usually I use the month of January to view all the films that I had missed from the previous year (another reason why it took me until now to get out my 2020 list.  So, throughout the year I keep track of some of the best films and performances and technical production in order to come up with my exhaustive list of Nominees.  Now, unfortunately, if I didn’t see the film, it won’t be included on this list so don’t think I didn’t think it wasn’t a good film; on the contrary, I probably just hadn’t seen it yet.

 

I hope that in the end this list has you seeking out some of the films that you may have missed and I hope it sheds some like on some of the great films that were released in 2020!

 

BEST MAKEUP EFFECTS:

*FREAKY

*MANK

*GRETEL AND HANSEL

*TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

*HILLBILLY ELEGY

*HIS HOUSE

Winner: GRETEL AND HANSEL – I loved the work on display in HIS HOUSE and MANK but Alice Krige disappears in that makeup and not just that, but the look of everyone else in the film adds tremendously to the overall ambience of the film. 

 

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS:

*THE INVISIBLE MAN

*TENET

*MONSTER HUNTER

*HIS HOUSE

*SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

*TRAIN TO BUSAN PRESENTS PENINSULA

Winner: TENET – this one was a close one as I loved what was on display in HIS HOUS and SONIC THE HEDGEHOG and THE INVISIBLE MAN was a lot of what you “don’t” see.  TENET was a visual tour de force of splendor!  This and the fact that the visual FX aid in the story of the film easily put this film ahead of all the rest.

 

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:

*BIRDS OF PREY: AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN

*MANK

*TENET

*TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

Winner: BIRDS OF PREY: AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN – this was a visual masterpiece of creative energy from one set to the next.  It took you into a highly stylized universe and never let you go. 

 

BEST ART DIRECTION:

*BIRDS OF PREY: AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN

*THE INVISIBLE MAN

*GRETEL AND HANSEL

*TRAIN TO BUSAN PRESENTS PENINSULA

*HUNTED

*MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM

Winner: MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM – another close one as all the films on this list deserve to be winners.  This film does so much with roughly only two main locations and every is a visual art piece with detail and authenticity.

 

BEST COSTUME DESIGN:

*TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

*MANK

*BIRDS OF PREY: AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN

*MA RAINE’YS BLACK BOTTOM

Winner – MANK – this authentic era costume design put you right into Old Hollywood and reminded you of why it was such an amazing time for cinema.  This includes the film-within-a-film elements as well.  It was as if it was actually filmed in that era.  Costumes are used to help tell the story and it doesn’t get better than in this film.

 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:

*MANK

*EXTRACTION

*THE INVISIBLE MAN

*HUNTED

*TENET

*HIS HOUSE

Winner: TENET – this was a cinematography tour de force!  Enough said!

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:

*MANK, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

*UNDERWATER, Marco Beltrami & Brandon Roberts

*HILLBILLY ELEGY, Hans Zimmer & David Fleming

*TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7, Daniel Pemberton

*THE INVISIBLE MAN, Benjamin Wallfisch

*TENET, Ludwig Goransson

*HIS HOUSE, Roque Banos

*MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM, Branford Marsalis

Winner: MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM – this was the closest race which is why there are so many nominations!?!  It was hard to choose between Marsalis, Reznor, Zimmer, and Goransson but in the end Marsalis edged them all out as music also played a tremendous role in the story of the film itself.  This is the closest year yet for this category while I also wanted to note that I was pleasantly surprised by Beltrami & Roberts and Banos, whose work I’m not as familiar with but I will seek out more!

 

BEST ANIMATED FILM:

*A CREEPSHOW ANIMATED SPECIAL

*SCOOB!

*THE WOLF HOUSE

*OVER THE MOON

Winner – SCOOB! – this was the hardest category to put together because frankly it was a year of so few animated films that I was even interested in.  CREEPSHOW was more a motion comic than an actual animated film while THE WOLF HOUSE was to experimental for its own good.  I enjoyed OVER THE MOON but thought SCOOB!, which I had no hopes for was actually a really well done take on an old cast of characters.

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

*MANK, Jack Fincher

*32 MALASANA STREET, Ramon Campos & Gema R. Neira and David Orea & Salvador S. Molina

*TENET, Christopher Nolan

*TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7, Aaron Sorkin

*FREAKY, Michael Kennedy and Christopher Landon

*HUNTED, Vincent Paronnaud

Winner: MANK – this was a wonderfully nuanced and engaging screenplay with a huge cast of characters that all come together.  I thought TENET was also excellent but probably too cerebral for its own good while HUNTED was probably too simple yet metaphorical and relied on visuals maybe too much.

 

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

*BIRDS OF PREY: AND THE FANTABULOUS EMANCIPATION OF ONE HARLEY QUINN, Christina Hodson

*HILLBILLY ELEGY, Vanessa Taylor

*THE INVISIBLE MAN, Leigh Whannell

*HIS HOUSE, Remi Weekes

*MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM, Ruben Santiago-Hudson

Winner: HIS HOUSE – this was such a creative haunted house/person film that had a strong screenplay in addition to the performances and direction.  The screenplay is great but it is definitely the perfect example of a screenplay being a “blueprint” for an amazing film.

 

BEST NON-FICTION FILM:

*ATHLETE A

*CRIP CAMP

*SCREAM, QUEEN: MY NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET

*KISS THE GROUND

*MURDER TO MERCY: THE CYNTOIA BROWN STORY

*THE SOCIAL DILEMMA

Winner: ATHELETE A – all the films nominated here are amazing and topical and be required viewing as they all present socially relevant topics.  Although I absolutely loved THE SOCIAL DILEMMA and KISS THE GROUND, I felt ATHLETE A edged them out…by just a little.  2020 was an amazing year for non-fiction films as these are just a handful of the films that I watched that could have also been included on this list.

 

BEST FOREIGN FEATURE FILM:

*TRAIN TO BUSAN PRESENTS PENINSULA

*#ALIVE
*LA LLORONA

*HUNTED

*HIS HOUSE

Winner – HIS HOUSE – this was a close one between HIS HOUSE and LA LLORONA which both presented new takes on well-treaded material to amazing effect.  HIS HOUSE edged out LA LLORONA due to the visuals, cinematography, and amazing performances but both are still excellent films.

 

BEST SUPPORTING MALE ACTOR:

*Chiwetel Ejiofor, THE OLD GUARD

*Lamorne Morris, BLOODSHOT

*Robert Pattinson, TENET

*Charles Dance, MANK

*Sacha Baron Cohen, TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

Winner: Sacha Baron Cohen, TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 – Cohen steals every scene he’s in and then some while giving a very nuanced and complex performance.  He easily eclipsed everyone else in this category despite all nominees being fine actors in their own films.

 

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE ACTOR:

*Alice Krige, GRETEL AND HANSEL

*Amanda Seyfried, MANK

*Glen Close, HILLBILLY ELEGY

Winner: Alice Krige, GRETEL AND HANSEL – Krige gives another amazing performance and practically disappears into the role!  She’s in great company this year with Close and Seyfried.  It’s a shame that I wasn’t able to include more names in this category but there were just so many more nominees as Best Actress this year!

 

BEST MALE ACTOR:

*John David Washington, TENET

*Gary Oldman, MANK

*Vince Vaughn, FREAKY

*Dong-Won Gang, TRAIN TO BUSAN PRESENTS PENINSULA

*Sope Dirisu, HIS HOUSE

*Chadwick Boseman, MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM

Winner: Sope Dirisu, HIS HOUSE – Dirisi gives an underrated performance in HIS HOUSE which the entire film hinges on.  He’s in great company with Boseman and Oldman and everyone else but this film is all about the characters and their trials and tribulations that guide them.

 

BEST FEMALE ACTOR:

*Lucie DeBay, HUNTED

*Elizabeth Moss, THE INVISBLE MAN

*Begona Vargas, 32 MALASANA STREET

*Sarah Bolger, A GOOD WOMAN IS HARD TO FIND

*Wunmi Mosaku, HIS HOUSE

*Viola Davis, MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM

Winner: Elizabeth Moss, THE INVISBLE MAN – Moss gives the most nuanced performance of her career in this film which is also topical as well as being an excellent sci-fi film.  The same can be said of DeBay, Vargas, and Mosaku, while Davis gives yet another amazing performance.  This was a tough category this year as any one of these women could have won this award for their performance.

 

BEST DIRECTION OF FEATURE FILM:

*TENET, Christopher Nolan

*TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7, Aaron Sorkin

*THE INVISIBLE MAN, Leigh Whannell

*MANK, David Fincher

*HIS HOUSE, Remi Weekes

*MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM, George C. Wolfe

Winner: Christopher Nolan, TENET – this was just an amazing tour de force of cinema in every regards but especially in how Nolan was able to craft such a visually stunning film with all the performances and technical difficulties.  This is not a film that will be easily forgotten.

 

BEST FEATURE FILM:

*TENET

*TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

*THE INVISIBLE MAN

*MANK

*MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM

*HIS HOUSE

Winner: TENET – but MANK was a very close second and HIS HOUSE came in third.  This was a very hard category as each of the nominees brought something different to audiences while also showcasing some great cinematic achievements.

 

There you have it!  The 2020 The Real Contender Awards are now over!  I’m really looking forward to seeing the films I missed for 2020 that couldn’t have been nominated such as The Eight Hundred, Palm Springs, Possessor, The Photograph, News of the World, The Lodge, Promising Young Woman, and Les Miserables, to name a few.

 

Please feel free to let me know your own thoughts!

MONTH OF INTERNATIONAL FILMS

February 2021 is a special month for my viewing this year as I’ve labeled it my Month of International Films.  Each month this year I’m giving a theme in the hopes that I will (finally) catch up with a lot of the films that have been on my “watch list” for quite some time.  In January, I watched a lot of 2020 films that I had missed and now we are on to the Month of International Films.

 

I’m a huge lover of foreign films but sometimes you have to be in the mood to read subtitles (my preferred way to watch a foreign film).  This being said, my viewing spanned all genres and all parts of the world as I love to explore the many different cultures through their art and film.

 

ACTION.

I should first mention that I finally got around to viewing the cult favorite Female Prisoner Scorpion films (the original series) with Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972), Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701’s Grudge Song (1973), Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973), and Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse (1972).  This is quite a film series of the ‘70s with its nudity and violence glorified to the 100 power.  These were actually very stylized productions that had some amazing cinematography .  There are many more films that have expanded the franchise but these are the core films (maybe one day I’ll get around to those other films).   I also watched a couple Jackie Chan films this month that had been sitting on my shelf for years – 1911 (2011) and Railroad Tigers (2016), of which both were quite good and very different from one another.  Chan is a very versatile actor and producer and hopefully I will get around to the other films of his that I’ve yet to get around to.  He is still an amazing actor that I try to view as many of his films as I can.

DRAMA.

Moving on to drams, of which Chan’s 1911 fits better, I ended up viewing several dramas on the streaming service that I believe were marked as Horror.  The films Blue My Mind (2017) and Zombi Child (2020) are both very much dramas with motifs and themes from the horror genre but if you go in thinking they are horror films then you will be completely disappointed.  These two films are amazing at creating character and drama within stories not typical of the genre.  Some audience members may never take a look at them believing they are horror while horror fans may be disappointed because they are horror at all.  They both occupy a unique middle bridge and successful tell their respective stories with no compromises due to genre.

 

Another drama film I’d like to mention is Pete Walker’s Home Before Midnight (1979), one of the director’s non-horror films that has to deal with a musician who gets involved with an underage woman and controversy surrounds.  Not what I was expecting (since I was expecting a horror film) but a film whose themes still resonate and are current even today forty years later.

 

THEATRICAL & FANTASY.

I only saw one international film at the Box Office this month and it also happens to be the only fantasy film as well – A Writer’s Odyssey (2021).  This was an amazing film with a huge story whose themes and influences encompass many different genres.  Some critics have said that the film is too complicated but I loved the complex story and the many different elements that will make repeated viewing richer.  It is by far one of my favorite films of 2021!

ANIMATION.

I did manage to get a couple animated films through into the mix!  First up is Ne Zha (2019) the hugely successful animated film that presents audiences with everything missing from a Disney animated film.  I don’t know why it took me so long to get around to this film as it was one at the top of my “watch list” but I’m glad I had the chance to watch it this month instead of waiting around any longer.  I loved this film and will watch it again because of how different it is from other films being produced by American animation studios.  The same can be said of the cryptic and mind bending The Wolf House (2020), which is unlike anything out there right now.  It’s style of storytelling reminds me of Triplets of Belleville while the animation style is pure experimental filmmaker yet it has a charm all its own like something David Lynch would create.  This is a film in which repeat viewings will be needed (and maybe even a few shots of alcohol).

 

HORROR.

As can be expected, the horror genre made up the largest segment of films I got around to!  I spent most of the month buried on Shudder catching up with tons of films that I hadn’t seen yet.  The first selection of films being Italian Giallo genre but also includes films inspired by these films as well.  Some of them were – Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971), The Case of the Bloody Iris (1972), The Fifth Cord (1975), The Corruption of Chris Miller (1975), Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971), The Strange Vice of Ms. Wardh (1971), and What Have You Done to Solange? (1972). Once I started I just couldn’t stop until I had finished them all.  I’m a huge fan of the Giallo film by way of Dario Argento and Mario Bava so finally getting around to seeing some of these cult classics was great (thank you Shudder!).  Now, unfortunately, they were all as great as an Argento or Bava film but they were entertaining even when the plots were completely ludicrous.

 

The rest of my horror viewing list was all over the map with the original and modern remake of The Queen of Black Magic (1981, 2020) followed by the sequel May the Devil Take You Too (2020), which I didn’t even know was a sequel until I already was watching it (I’ll eventually get around to watching the original).

 

Other films include The Canal (2014), Demon (2015), and Noroi: The Curse (2005).  I didn’t care for The Canal at all while the Demon was an interesting take on a possession film.  Noroi is the film that was recommended to me but I just didn’t really care for it at all.

 

 

I also watched some more recent films like 32 Malasana Street (2020), Belzebuth (2019), DeadTectives (2019), Hunted (2020), and The Platform (2019).  A lot of these made their debuts at film festivals before being picked up by Shudder and other streaming services.   I especially enjoyed Hunted and The Platform!

 

This makes up all the films for my Month of International Film which allowed me to reach my goal of at least thirty films!    I hope that you seek out some of the films mentioned here as there were some gems but if none of them interest you then maybe of March Month of Action Films (!) will have something for you!

BEST OF 2020: BOOKS

Overall, 2020 was a good year for me to get through a lot of books that had just been sitting on my shelf but the most notable thing I can say about last year is that I read a lot of art books and a lot of film books that made up half of the thirty books I did get through.

 

I can honestly say that I only read one book that was actually published last year which is Don Delillo’s The Silence: A Novel.  It is the first book of his that I have read although his Cosmopolis is still sitting on my shelf waiting to be read.  Delillo has a very unique style of writing like Hunter S. Thompson or if you’re not into reading style then this is definitely not for you, but it is a quick read.

 

STEPHEN KING & CLIVE BARKER:

Two authors that I had not read in years I finally decided to get back to during the downtime I had during the pandemic.  Regarding King, I decided to start off small with his short novellas Elevation and Gwendy’s Button Box (with co-author Richard Chizmar).  I loved both and they reminded me why I enjoyed reading King so much which is his great use of character.  For Barker I read his First Tales, The Adventures of Mr. Maximillan Bacchus and His Traveling Circus and the art book Clive Barker Illustrator.  It has been a while since I have read both authors, but it was great to get back to them as I picked up a couple of their other novels to read for 2021!

 

ART BOOKS:

I took some time during 2020 to get back to my art studies.  In addition to Clive Barker Illustrator which delved deep into his art and influences I read Pandemonium: Further Explorations into the Worlds of Clive Barker.  The later book delved deep into both Barker’s art, theater, and film work.   I got through two books by David Mack – Dream Logic and Reflections: Art Book Vol. 1.  I have always loved his work and sense of style and technique and have been following his career for years.  These two books allowed me great insight into his art and process.   The next actual artist whose book I looked at was Dave McKean’s Dust Covers: The Collected Sandman Covers 1989-1997.  I have been a fan of his for as long as the original Sandman series was published (that is when I was first exposed to his amazing style and art).  This book allowed me to read his insights and hindsight on how many of his most iconic pieces were created for the series.  The last artist that I will mention is celebrated graphic novel artist Will Eisner and his book Graphic Storytelling & Visual Narrative. So, anyone who has been keeping up with me will know that I was only exposed to Eisner two years ago and I have been on a quest to read everything he is written.  Now I am moving on to his non-fiction and art books of which this is the first.  I am sure I will have plenty more to speak of in 2021 once I read more of his books.

For 2020 I only read two art history books – The Origins of Christian Art (by Michael Gough) and Baroque And Rococo Art (by Germaine Bazin).  I need to read more of these for 2021 as I would like to get through about 5-8 of these style books a year to keep my brain learning about art history.

 

FILM BOOKS:

I love reading about the making of films which makes up a huge number of the books I read each year and 2020 was no different.  I read three books in the Devil’s Advocates library which include In the Mouth of Madness (by Michael Blyth), Ju-On: The Grudge (by Marisa Hayes), and The Thing (by Jez Conolly).  Each of these books do an excellent job of breaking down all the elements of these films.  They are also short yet very comprehensive so that fans of the films and filmmakers can get a grand insight into the film and its legacy.  This series does focus more on horror and cult cinema.  The next series of books I read are two from the World Directors series.  From that series I read the books on Atom Egoyan (by Jonathan Romney) and Jane Campion (by Dana Polan).  Atom Egoyan is a great read and I love the way that Romney organized and presented the material.  I was not as taken with Polan’s Jane Campion book, but I did the added insight on Campion’s career and influences.

Regarding non-series books, I did (finally) get around to reading On Location…On Martha’s Vinyard: The Making of the Movie Jaws by Edith Blake which is one of the most famous behind the scenes books ever written.  It is indeed an amazing and candid look at the making of the film and a book I recommend to anyone wanting to know what a real film set is like.  With Tom Savini’s book Night of the Living Dead ’90: The Version You’ve Never Seen readers get a look at Savini’s film the way it was originally intended through storyboards and annotations that put the film a whole different light.

The final book in this section that I would like to discuss is The Name of the Book is Dogma95 by Richard Kelly.  I have an interest in this film movement and this book is made up of interviews of everyone who was involved with it in addition to giving a history and a context for the movement.

 

NOVELS:

My interests in 2020 was all over the map!  In addition to all the novels I have already mentioned I read several that were based on films and television shows or vice versa like Jack Sharkey’s The Addams Family (an anthology of different stories that could easily be episodes of the show), The Nightmares on Elm Street Parts 4&5 (by Joseph Locke), A Monster Calls (by Patrick Ness, Siobhan Dowd, and Jim Kay), The Thing (Novelization by Alan Dean Foster based on the Screenplay by Bill Lancaster), Solaris (by Stanislaw Lem), and Annihilation (by Jeff Vandermeer).  Now I enjoyed all these books, but Solaris and Annihilation were amazing!  I am now going to start reading more from both authors because I love their sense of storytelling and style.  The Thing has a lot of scenes that went missing from actual film which made reading the novelization that much better whereas The Nightmares on Elm Street were pretty much spot on except Part 5 changed a lot regarding the way in which people were killed.

The novels that fell outside of those is Hollow City: The Second Novel of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children (by Ransom Riggs), The Tibetan Book of the Dead (which had no author), and my second Ryu Murakami novel Sixty-Nine.  Murakami is an excellent writer that more people should get to know his work.  I have finally started to return to Riggs series and my hope is to catch up by the end of 2021!

 

***

With having read thirty books in 2020 I kind of hit my goal since the plan was to read between 25 and 35.  It was 50 percent both non-fiction verses fiction which is also good.  Normally, I end up reading more non-fiction than fiction which is why my shelf of unread books never seems to go down, but I am hoping that 2021 will be a change in the right direction. 

For 2021 I am hoping to finish the Southern Reach and Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children series in addition to catching up with my Steve Alten Meg series (which I did not read any last year).  I am hoping to get maybe five King novels read and a whole lot more art and film books, so it will be interesting to see how 2021 stacks up to 2020.

 

Now I want everyone to go away and pick of a book and turn off Nextflix for once.

 

MONTH OF 2020 FILMS

For 2021’s January themed month of film watching I decided that it was best to catch up on films from the previous year that had managed to pass me by, so this was the Month of 2020 Films!  This being said, I caught up with a lot of films from every genre which in turn will help me decide my 2020 Best of film lists.

 

DOCUMENTARIES:

I should start by saying that I (finally) jumped on the band wagon and watched the entire Netflix Tiger King mini-series which also meant that I watched the stand alone special The Tiger King & I.  I enjoyed the whole true crime docu-series and this film added to the overall series by placing it in our current quarantine times.  Injustice and true crime are appealing subjects for non-fiction films so of course I watched the following films Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story, The Three Deaths of Marisela Escobedo, and Athlete A.  Of the three, Athlete A was the best, but they all were eye opening in regard to their subject matter and overall execution.  Athlete A is one I recommend everyone watch.  The last two documentaries that I watched of the month were Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution and Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker.  Dance Dreams is an amazing look at one of the premiere dance studios in the United States and their production of the Hot Chocolate Nutcracker.  Crip Camp is overall one of the best documentaries that was released in 2020. 

 

DRAMA:

Only caught up with three dramas this month.  Wished I had gotten around to more, but January was not an ideal month for dramas.  What I did get around to was an eclectic mix.  Watched Hillbilly Elegy, Mank, and Trial of the Chicago 7.  Mank was clearly the best of the bunch overall but Trial of the Chicago 7 and Hillbilly Elegy had some stand out performances even though there were other areas that were lacking.  Mank is by far one of director David Fincher’s best films in years and deserves the accolades it is being given.  I am surprised that Glen Close in Hillbilly Elegy is not being given just as much praise as she is phenomenal but then again, she is phenomenal in most everything. 

 

ACTION:

I only watched three action films in this month and two of them were based on comic books.  The first one is Extraction which had some amazing cinematography and action sequences.  Some of the best I have seen all year.  The two I watched that were based on comic books were vastly different from one another - The Old Guard and Wonder Woman: 1984.  Now, I have read the graphic novel on which The Old Guard is based and its pretty much spot on.  The film does a better job with bridging all the stories of the characters together and it does an amazing job with setting up the world of the film.  There are even whole scenes in the film lifted directly from the comic book.  Wonder Woman on the other hand is a mixed bag but it does a great job servicing the young female audience that it was designed to appeal to whereas the typical comic book fan may not be as impressed.  Some questionable CGI at the end does take away from the overall film.  The funny thing is that I believe all three of them will be getting sequels sometime soon.

 

HORROR:

The horror genre is what films I ended up watching the most of partially because so many more horror films were released last year than practically every other genre, so I felt like there was a lot for me to catch up with.  My Top 5 favorites were The Cleansing Hour, A Good Woman is Hard to Find, La Llorona, The Mortuary Collection, and Spiral, which were all different from one another.  Although not your standard horror film, Sarah Bolger gives a phenomenal performance in A Good Woman is Hard to Find.  Spiral gives one of the most genuine same sex relationship portrayals in a horror film which elevates the film about the new people moving into the neighborhood that has a supernatural cult in its mist.   The Mortuary Collection is one of the best anthology films to come around in several years that also has a great wrap-around segment and The Cleansing Hour is both fun and suspenseful with a fake internet exorcist having to contend with a real demon possession.  These are all films I highly recommend.

 

On the flip side are those films I would not recommend which include The Deeper You Dig and The Beach House which both had interesting concepts but bad execution.

 

The other horror films that were just okay were Blood Vessel, Castle Freak (remake), Confessional, Death of Me, Lingering, Porno, Scare Me, and The Soul Collector.  Lingering almost made the Top 5 and would probably be at #6 and Porno and Scare Me are great fun.  Blood Vessel is for those that enjoy vampire films, but I got bored (even though there is plenty of gore and is quite entertaining).  The original Castle Freak did not need a remake but at least this version has plenty of gore and takes on an overly Lovecraftian ending that is at least a good payoff.  Confessional was an interesting concept that was well done but just did not hold my attention.  Lingering and The Soul Collector are equally fine films that delve into their respective cultures and are easily some of the other highlights that I saw.

Overall, January ended up being a great month of film watching and catching up with a lot of films from 2020 that I had missed.  There were plenty more that I still did not get to but that will be for another time.  In the meantime, I hope you look out for some of these films and I hope my insight will be valuable for you.

 

Now, go away.  For February, my focus is a Month of International Films, so I have a lot of subtitles to read!

BEST OF 2020: MAGAZINE SPECIALS

I usually include these with books that I have read since reading one of the many magazine specials highlights a piece of history that is worth a feature length book just in magazine format.  The reason why these are important is because several publishers produce these magazine specials every year on important subjects and surprisingly these magazines are more expensive than if they had just been put in book form. 

 

Most of the publishers are SPC (through History, Life Explores), TISP (through Time Special Editions, Life Books) and AMI (which does a host of varying subjects).  What I have learned over the last two years of reading these magazines is that they are very topical and of varying subjects to appeal to a multitude of interests and hobbies.

 

Because of the pandemic and quarantine, I had a lot of time to catch up on a lot of magazine specials that had been on my shelf.  I ended up getting through twenty-two of these specials and most of them kept to the theme of religions, presidents, and secrets & civilizations.

 

In terms of presidents, I read Andrew Jackson: An American Populist (TISP), The Day Kennedy Died: 50 Years Later Remembering the Man and the Moment (Time Inc. Specials), and The United States Presidents: The Best and Worst of All Time (Centennial Spotlight).  These were not all printed in the last year by the way but because 2020 was such a politically charged year I wanted to read what I had on hand about some of our nation’s presidents.  I learned more about our presidents reading these three magazines then I ever thought I wanted especially through the Best and Worst of All Time.  Our political and presidential climate has changed so much over the years.  Some of this bled into the America’s National Parks: Celebrating Our Land and Heritage (TISP) as well since the national parks are so connected to our government.

 

This interest then bled into my look into a lot of religious figures and religion.  It started off with the Bible through Amazing Places of the Bible: Travel Through Time to Sacred Sites That Shaped the World (Centennial Entertainment), Jesus: How His Lessons, Miracles and Devotion Changed the World (SPC), and Mysteries of the Bible: Uncovering Its Origins, Characters, and Miracles (SPC).  I have always had an interest in world religions and religious figures.  These lead to me reading Mary: Blessed Art Thou Among Women (SPC), Mother Teresa: The Life and Works of a Modern Saint (Time Inc. Specials), and Francis: The Pope’s Bold Message Comes to America.  The amazing thing about these last three is that they gave me a better understanding of the subject and the deep belief that people have. 

 

A huge selection of these magazines has to do with secret civilizations, secrets societies and mysteries that would normally only be read in tabloid magazines.  Some of the ones that I read during the lockdown were Ancient Civilizations: The Secrets of Lost Empires (SPC), Ghost Towns: The Places That Time Forgot (TISP), PBS Secrets of the Dead: Ancient Mysteries Unearthed (TISP), Secret Societies (SPC), and Mysteries of the Loch Ness Monster (AMI).  Surprisingly, these were not as interesting as some of the others, but they were informative.  I think since these were made more as like a catalogue of info instead of dedicated to a specific person, place, or thing, they were not nearly as effective a read.  They were a quick read which was a good thing.  They also had some pretty damn good photographs and artwork as well.

 

There were a few people that I was particularly interested in which is why I read the following Aladdin: The Origins and Journey of the World’s Most Magical Tale (TISP), Martin Luther King Jr.: His Life and Legacy: 50 Years Later (Time Inc. Specials), Mickey Mouse: Life Celebrates an American Icon (TISP), Mister Rogers: The Magical World of an American Icon (TISP). 

 

The publications were all of various different years.  After I started getting into these during the pandemic, I ended up buying more through eBay and discovered that there were tons of these specials out there and even more with overlapping subjects between different publishers.  It’s a good thing to keep in mind that these specials are a very valuable tool to get info out there to a larger audience (who would rather probably not pick up a book) but another important element is that they also seem to be more up to date with current info rather than out of date or older info (like you would find by reading an older book).  I am hoping that in 2021 I’ll be able to get through even more as there are plenty of specials still sitting on my shelf waiting to be read!