Operation Fortune (2023)

I could begin and end this review by say this is a Jason Statham movie, start to finish. Nothing different and nothing disappointing (although review might have you believe otherwise, fans will get exactly what they came for in this movie). We were a little road weary, and our friends even more so--we had after all flown halfway across the country (albeit with an unnecessarily long layover) and they had driven it. So this was the perfect foil, complete with popcorn and red licorice! Jason Statham plays Orson Fortune, an in-demand operative called in by the British government on occasion to execute difficult tasks of national importance. The British government here is represented by Nathan (Cary Elwes), whose job is keeping the unreliable Orson on track. Orson, we are told before we meet him, has a host of phobias, making him a risky hire. But then Orson appears, and he seems like an average laconic-speaking action hero. He boards multiple planes throughout, enduring long international flights with no sign of phobia. That was the most disappointing thing, because Statham does physical comedy, and so much could have been made of the bad ass hero with some quirky phobias thrown in, but no, nothing comes of this subplot. In any case, it is the usual comic spy movie with a crowd pleasing ending, and no harm and no fouls. Recommended for ultra light viewing when you are taking a break from the exhausting Marvel Universe.

When McKinsey Comes To Town by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe

Much like when I read Empire of Pain, I did not realize just how far people will go to make money without regard for others, and that cultivating a sterling reputation means that you pay the right people enough money to keep quiet but not that you are actually squeaky clean. McKinsey claims to serve 90 of the world’s 100 largest companies in addition to a host of prominent governments and institutions. McKinsey’s avowed mission stretches far beyond its $10 billion in annual revenue. Portraying itself as a “values-driven organization” dedicated to creating “positive, enduring change in the world,” the firm extols its environmental and social initiatives. This couldn't be further from the truth. The authors, two investigative reporters with the New York Times, expose the firm’s unsavory work with fossil fuel companies, cigarette-makers, opioid distributors, regulatory agencies and autocratic regimes. This is bad, but not the worst claim made against them. McKinsey was rife with conflicts of interest in which it advised multiple companies within a sector (did they share or use confidential information to make themselves and their clients money? Seems entirely possible, though apparently they deny it) and, more disconcertingly, regulators alongside the companies they oversaw. Over the years, its cost-cutting recommendations downplayed safety concerns at U.S. Steel, Disneyland and American immigration centers, and shorted insurance policy holders of billions of dollars in claims. The list goes on, and it is exactly as awful as your worst imaginings.

Women Talking (2022)

This is a hard movie to watch, and while it is set in a modern time, there are a lot of principles that echo A Handmaid's Tal--men control everything. They have control over every aspect of women's lives and that is the point, the power and control is everything, obedience is paramount. This is based on a true story. Between 2005 and 2009, 150 women and young girls were drugged and raped by men in their secluded Mennonite community in Bolivia. The women would wake up having no idea what happened, but seeing blood, bruising on their legs, noticing their underwear was missing, and becoming pregnant. The age range of the victims spanned from 5 to 65. Mennonite communities normally handle such things in-house. But this time, the elders of the community (all men)—who got suspicious and decided to follow one of the men at night, thereby catching him in the act—reported the crime to the Bolivian authorities. The eventual trial, where the victims showed up to testify, was a sensation. Eight men were sentenced to 25 years in prison. Here the movie revolves around the woemn deciding what to do once they know that the men are coming back to the community. Do they do nothing, stay and fight, or leave. These scenes are interspersed with scenes of what happened. In one a young girl miscarries and is covered in her blood--she wonders if her brother was the father, or was it someone else who raped her. The experience of watching this is akin to hearing men talking about what should happen to women, such as in the denial of the right to make a decision about what should happen to your body, that is right here and now in the United States. It is cloaked in other rhetoric, but the bottom line is that it is men exerting power and control over women. Quite sickening and something to fight with all your might.

Super-Infinite: The Tranformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell

This falls under the category of "Don't Judge A Book By It's Cover"--it is so uninspiring to look at, and may put a prospective reader off right away. I picked up the book because it was one of the Wall Street Journal's 10 Best Books of 2022, and I was giving that list a whirl. It is also one of the New York Times Notable Books, so I knew it would be at least good. Donne is a complex man who much has been written about. His holy trinity were sex, death, and God, and he portrayed body and soul as radically, delightfully commingled. He was born in 1572, into a Catholic family at a time of persecution (Elizabeth was queen and it was early enough in the time of the Anglican church that Rome still harbored hopes of recapturing England, religiously, at least); family members were imprisoned and tortured. Donne moved between success and penury, with a stint in law, an unsuccessful foray as an adventurer in Spain, and a period at court that ended when he secretly married Anne More and was thrown in prison by her father. Then there were years as the impoverished, frustrated father of 12 children (six died), a period of grief after his wife’s early death and his final efflorescence, at once unexpected and inevitable, as a clergyman who was swiftly promoted to dean of St Paul’s. This is a love story, yet few of Donne’s love poems were written for his wife. The author characterizes Donne as the swaggering womanizer who in reality had very little sex. She is convincing in her suggestion that Donne wrote his most satisfying erotic poems not for his lovers but for an audience of male friends. He was a complex and brilliant man, and this is not so much a biography but rather an exploration of how all his talents came to coalesce. Short and sweet.

Babylon (2022)

Running at close to three hours, and feeling every minute that long, this is all about the oppulence of movies themselves, and more importantly, the making of them. This is a lavish 1920s-period piece about how often the silver screen images that feel like magic are really the product of incredibly hard work, broken dreams, and a lot of luck. Multiple sequences throughout the movie detail how much work goes into two seconds of film, whether it's a field of dozens of extras sitting around while a camera is obtained or the difficult perfection needed when recording sound. And there is a lot of focus on the people who make it happen at the cellular level, who are not the people who get all the glory. This is a film of stunning parts—both individual scenes, performances, and tech elements—but it feels like the magic touch needed to pull them together in an honest way is out of reach. There's something to be said about a film being so robustly unapologetic in it's storytelling, but I could have done with a tighter plot and an hour less time invested.

Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

This is a near future dystopian novel that rings very close to true, in that while we are not quite there yet, this doesn't sound impossible any more. The hero of this novel is Noah Gardner, whose mother called him Bird--he leaves home in search of his missing mother, and he endures trials and perform feats, just like any classical hero but he is set apart from the usual hero because his journey is rooted in books and libraries. Bird’s mother, Margaret Miu, a daughter of Chinese immigrants, is a poet of some stature whose career ended when the United States took a turn into hard xenophobia and passed PACT. The Preserving of American Cultures and Traditions Act encourages bigotry against many groups, particularly Asian Americans, partly in response to China’s increasingly powerful role in the global economy. After Margaret’s disappearance, Bird’s father loses his prestigious position as a linguistics professor. Given a low-level archives job, he must move with his son to a tiny apartment where they face each day with grim resignation. Bird finds clues that he attaches to his mother that begin to constitute a treasure map, leading him on a journey. It is a cautionary tale, and well written at that.

To Leslie (2022)

Wow, this was very painful to watch, but it is a very good portrayal of an addict. We first meet the title character, Leslie, in an opening credits montage of photos showing what life was like before. Leslie got married, had a son, won $190,000 in a lottery and then burned through all the money, as well as burning all her bridges and any good will she had before she became a compulsive addict. Her drug of choice seems to be alcohol, but her behavior is more reminiscent of amphetamine and opiate addicts. The story picks up seven years after the lottery win. Leslie's life is dire. She's an alcoholic loner skating on the edge. When she gets evicted from the seedy motel she's been living in, she stuffs her few belongings in a pink suitcase and drops in on her now-19-year-old son James at his apartment in the city. He is the adult in the relationship--he sets rules, she breaks them, he kicks her out. Leslie eventually finds her way back to her rural hometown, the place where she won the lottery, and where she has quite a few ghosts. She gets quite a few breaks, but she is unable to operationalize them. Still, this is an impressive character portrait. Leslie often acts as if any hand extended to her is an opening to get more. And she has trouble delivering on promises she makes and duties she accepts. Sooner or later, she brings chaos and sourness to every interaction. If you have an addict taking advantage of youin your life, this should be adequate motivation to get involved with Alanon

The Return of Faraz Ali by Aamina Amad

This was on the Wall Street Journal's list of 10 Best Books in 2022 and it is an interesting read. Faraz was born and raised in Lahore’s old city to a courtesan. He is forced to leave behind his mother and his sister Rozina when his father takes him away to ensure he has better life, although not a legitimate one. It isn’t until Faraz is an adult in 1968 working as a policeman, that he goes back to the old city to investigate the murder of a young girl who worked as a mujra, a courtesan, last seen with one of Lahore’s most powerful politicians. But Faraz is a stranger to his childhood home: estranged from his father Wajid, a Lahori bureaucrat who refuses to acknowledge his illegitimate son, his mother, a courtesan herself, and his sister Rozina, a Lollywood star whose career has seen better days. The author uses the noir genre to explore the scope of Pakistani history from World War II to the 1970s. Faraz’s investigation takes him from Lahori protests against Ayub Khan in 1968, to Dhaka in 1971 at the beginning of Bangladesh’s Revolutionary War. Rozina grapples with her relationship with her daughter and the lies she had to live for her career as an actress. And as a soldier in the Indian Army, Wajid spends his days as a prisoner of war, fighting for freedom as a colonial subject. It’s through the disparate members of this one family, and Faraz’s fraught search for justice and for home that the troubled nature of Pakistan is depicted.

Blonde (2022)

I agree with a review that I read of this movie that asserts that the film abuses and exploits Marilyn Monroe all over again, this time in gritty details. She is almost drowned by her mother, raped on the casting couch, a third wheel in a gay relationship, a physically assaulted wife, and the list goes on and on. It is overly long and overly detailed, especially in the sexual exploitation aspects. Sooner or later you will have to turn your eyes away as this lurid display becomes just too much. The shot from inside Marilyn’s vagina as she was having a forced abortion performed on her is one such scene. Enough already. But no, it just keeps coming and there is a lengthy, extreme close-up of a drugged-up Monroe fellating President Kennedy while he’s on the phone in a hotel room that feels gratuitous and over played. That said, Ana da Armas is up to the task. Whether she is crying or naked, both of which she is asked to do a lot, she is pitch perfect. She gives it her all in every moment; she’s so captivating, so startling, that you long for the part to provide her the opportunity to show more of Marilyn’s depth, to dig deeper than the familiar cliches, but alas, that does not happen.

The Christie Affair by Nina de Gramont

This is the second book that grapples with the mystery of what Agatha Christie did for the eleven days that she disappeared in 1926, shortly after her husband revealed his extra-marital affair, and before the public was aware of the impending divorce. On the winter evening of Dec. 3, 1926, Christie got into her car — a little green Morris Cowley that she’d bought with earnings from her early novels — and drove off from her house in the suburbs near London. She left behind her sleeping 7-year-old daughter, Rosalind, in the care of the maid. She also left her beloved little terrier, Peter, who habitually lay down beside her as she wrote. Christie was wearing a fur coat and hat and carried only an attaché case. For more than a week until she was discovered, ensconced in the Swan Hydropathic Hotel in Harrogate, Yorkshire, on Dec. 13, Agatha Christie was the object of one of the biggest missing-person searches in British history: police, bloodhounds, an army of volunteer searchers, fellow mystery novelists Dorothy L. Sayers and Arthur Conan Doyle, and even Archie Christie and the intrepid little Peter all joined in the search. Here is a somewhat far fetched hypothesis of what happened in between.