Book Report: Chimamanda Ngozi Adachie's Americanah (2013)

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Book Report: Chimamanda Ngozi Adachie's Americanah (2013)

Americanah is a book that is written so well that after the first few pages I already wanted to never try to write anything again because I knew I’d never be as good. I felt similarly with Adichie’s other books (Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun), but while I loved those books too, Americanah somehow surpasses them in its scope, talent, characterization and sheer emotional impact. I literally cried at the end of this book and while I’m certainly no “tough guy”, not many books manage that. It both deals with race politics in different countries, but at the same time a difficult but authentic love story. Ifemelu and Obinze seem to be meant for each other and still get torn apart and until the ambiguous ending, Adichie never falls for easy answers and romance clichés. Every decision they make seems tough, their flaws feel real and their relationship is not governed by the plot, but only by them as characters. The politics are really thought-provoking, though, and not just window-dressing. Both romance and politics play an equal role and mastering that challenge is impressive all by itself. Adichie has so much to say about race, class, our image of Africa, relationships, regret and pain that I’d say everyone can find something in this book to like. Yes, the book is by a Nigerian author, partly set in Nigeria, but it’s not a “Nigerian” book. In the spirit of truly great novels it’s about everything and everyone.

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Irréversible (2002)

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Irréversible (2002)

Irréversible is a movie that hits you over the head like a, well, I guess I have to say it, like a fire extinguisher. I read all about this movie when it came out 13 years ago and always was too afraid to watch it, but now I finally did (thanks for the push, Lara) and I don’t regret it for a second. It is strange for a movie that has such a strong impact on me and made me think about so many things for days, to not give it a higher rating, but it is a good movie with some, let’s not call them flaws, but issues. The structure is so much more than a gimmick and puts a new perspective on a wide range of concepts, the camerawork is daring and challenging, but awesome, the use of (seemingly) long takes is essential to the effect it has on the viewer, the music is extreme and beautiful, the acting is phenomenal. The movie is haunting, shocking, confusing, thought-provoking, troubling, unbearable and addictive at the same time and above all very intense. It might be the most intense movie I’ve ever seen (pushing Requiem for a Dream of its throne). It is hard to recommend it because it is so obviously not for everyone, but if you are ready for it, it will be strangely rewarding.

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10 Basic Principles of Our School System, Part 6: 45/90-Minute Lessons

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10 Basic Principles of Our School System, Part 6: 45/90-Minute Lessons

What happens in school when the bell rings to signal the beginning of the lesson? Some few teachers are ready to start teaching, some start walking to their classes, most start getting up from their seats, often moaning and sighing, some few don’t react at all for a few more minutes. It’s similar with students, except there is more sounds of distress and most of them only get up because they get into trouble if they don’t.

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This 80s Movie: At Close Range (1986)

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This 80s Movie: At Close Range (1986)

At Close Range is a strangely conventional film made in an unconventional way and suffering at bit from its 80s heritage. It stars a young Sean Penn following his father’s criminal life for a while before moving away from it again. It both feels like an indie movie and a Brat Pack movie at the same time, due to its unusual filmmaking choices and the cast of young actors that were or would become famous. It is a bit long and not very exciting most of the time, but it has a certain appeal that gets stronger as the movie progresses. It doesn’t feel like a typical crime movie, more like a meditation exercise, many scenes of people staring and being silent, but it’s not necessarily boring. It is not a bad movie at all, even if I make it sound this way, it’s well filmed with an interesting use of light and shadows. I didn’t like the overly tropy opening scene, in which we learn just how cool of a character Sean Penn is and how fast the right girl falls for him. But it gets much better after that, apart from the ending (see below). The music is as 80s-synthie-bad as possible, though. The way it switches between fascinating and contrived is very symptomatic for James Foley’s future career as a director (who would follow this movie with the Madonna-vehicle Who's That Girl? and some years later would direct the classic Glengarry Glen Ross).

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1 Year a Blog (How Time's Flown / Haven't You Grown)

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1 Year a Blog (How Time's Flown / Haven't You Grown)

Wow, it’s really true. On this day, exactly one year ago, I started my blog, a culmination of thoughts, wishes and inspirations that had been gathering inside me for a while, with no real clue how it would turn out or if I’d ever be able to stay with it. Because on all my creative projects over the years, the biggest problem was always consistency, to keep doing it even beyond the first excitement of starting something. And now, twelve months later, I’m still here, still writing and I’m not planning on stopping. A good time to pause and reflect upon what happened and what it means.

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Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

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Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Mad Max: Fury Road is such a force of a movie, it’s hard to not be blown away completely by it. It’s a movie I didn’t really have on my radar until the reviews came in and I had to go and see for myself. So, my expectations were high, but I didn’t really expect to be this amazed, this enchanted, this astonished by a movie like that. The acting is amazing as Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy have their roles down to perfection. The direction by (70-year-old!) George Miller is so flawless and confident, it should bring most other directors to shame. The screenplay is a brilliant mix of pathos and feminist propaganda. The production design, make-up, hair, costumes, the whole world that is created here in intricate detail is worth the ticket alone. I could go on and on about the breathtaking cinematography (72-year-old John Seale!), the relentless score, the brutal editing, the great mix of practical and computer effects, the action, the perfectly planted tiny bits of humor. This movie just has it all. I don’t know if you’ll like this movie, if you’re not really into dystopias or stunts, but I’d assure you that you’d still find enough to at least enjoy parts of it, because even if the movie is basically four giant action set pieces tied together, it still has more heart and brain than most movies coming out all year. It is a miracle it even got made by a major studio. This is an early contender for one of the best films I’ve seen this year.

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London Rambling, Part 2

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London Rambling, Part 2

It’s so hard to summarize all the impressions I’ve been having here over the last two days, but I’ll try. What I do notice more and more that I really enjoy exploring such a big city because there is so much to see and discover, but it also becomes more exhausting each day.  I wouldn’t want to live here, as much as I like the city by now. It’s simply too much of everything and the bad parts would depress me soon.

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London Rambling, Part 1

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London Rambling, Part 1

I’m spending this week in London with my English Advanced Course and thought I could sort of ‘live-blog’ my impressions here. I’ve been to London before, but never as extensively as now and while have liked the city before, this time I really get into it and get a feel for what it is. Aside from various observations, I’m also interested in reflecting upon big cities like London in general, as they are normally the symbol for our culture of civilization as signs of progress and growth, but also symbolic for the problems this culture is facing.

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Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

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Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)

Avengers: Age of Ultron is basically what you want it to be: an entertaining movie based on comic books that has exciting action and fun Joss Whedon dialogue. The movie delivers on all those promises and that’s enough for an enjoyable comic book movie for me. It doesn’t go that extra step that Guardians of the Galaxy went, but on the other hand it has a much more fascinating villain and a more coherent plot overall. The character interactions are fun and this, unlike the first movie, every character gets enough opportunities to shine. It is amazing to see how many actors these movies are able to gather. It’s hard for me to tell how much fun such a movie is without having the background knowledge of the comics, but as a comic reader it is hard to deny how much fun it is to see those characters come alive and do their thing. Not everything makes complete sense and, just to be clear, this is no masterpiece of moviemaking (despite some great shots). It’s a fun movie, a million times better than the dreadful Man of Steel, proving (likes Guardians) that comic book movies are not all alike. It was mostly what I wanted it to be.

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10 Basic Principles of Our School System, Part 5: The Curriculum

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10 Basic Principles of Our School System, Part 5: The Curriculum

Ugh, the curriculum. Of all the topics I dreaded this the most, so maybe it’s good not to put it off much longer. The curriculum is this weird thing that is something completely obscure for students, who nevertheless hate it because many teachers use it as an excuse for doing boring topics. “Why do we have to do this?” “Because it’s in the curriculum.” It’s a comfortable answer for teachers but basically a non-answer for students. To them it’s almost a myth, that mysterious guidelines which teachers follow all the time and which tells them exactly what to do. Does that sound like reality?

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Notes on a Scandal (2006)

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Notes on a Scandal (2006)

Notes on a Scandal is fascinating right from the start. I had the big fortune of not knowing what the movie was about at all. In fact, I was under the impression I was watching Veronica Guerin and was waiting for Cate Blanchett to become involved in politics and spies. This way, the movie surprised me several times because if you really have no clue, you don’t expect many things that happen. The main drive comes from the incredible performances by Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett who are really as good as any review says. In a way, it doesn’t matter what they are talking about because they inhabit their characters so perfectly that anything they do would be interesting to watch. The direction by Richard Eyre is also excellent and Philip Glass’ score is breathtaking (again). It is a captivating movie that forces you to keep watching the disaster unfolding.

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Inventing the Child - Fishtails, Supermen and Pilates

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Inventing the Child - Fishtails, Supermen and Pilates

It’s finally time for another look at children’s books. I thought I had too many examples to use but because of having so many library books going through our home, I missed some opportunities of capturing some of the more interesting pages. But I still got enough as it is, so here we go.

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The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)

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The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)

I feel almost bad writing about The Adventures of Pluto Nash, because the movie is so stupid and annoying, getting back at it is a real drag. It is not funny, it is not exciting and that’s about all the adjectives you would want from this kind of movie. Everyone looks bored, nothing makes the slightest sense (seriously), the effects look incredibly terrible for a $100 million movie (that made $7 million at the box office) and you will see all the actors involved with different eyes because whenever you see them again in the future, you will be reminded of this movie, asking “Why?” again and again. I don’t think Randy Quaid is a great actor, but his performance here is beyond belief. It's really no surprise I picked this as the worst movie of the last three months. Just look at the stupid poster.

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Our Life Is a Movie: Se7en (1995)

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Our Life Is a Movie: Se7en (1995)

(spoilers)

When I saw Se7en for the first time in a theatre in the fall of 1995, it was a revelation for me. The opening credits, the atmosphere, the structure, the acting, David Fincher’s brilliant direction and above all the twist ending took me by surprise and somehow showed me what movies can do. I watched it again in the theatre just a week later, because I had to experience it again as soon as possible. It was also responsible for me going regularly to the theatre after that, starting a long stretch of cinema visits that cemented my initial childhood love for movies far into adulthood. In that aspect, Se7en is of great importance to me personally, a huge influence for my movie-watching capabilities. I have seen it so many times over the years (I once watched each of its seven days on separate days) and when I watched it with a class for the first time this January, I loved it just as much and saw also clearly what it means for my world view and why I still consider it an important movie when talking about our culture. I won’t explain any plot details, I’ll just assume that you know the movie and if you don’t, go and watch it.

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Go Play: Resourcing, Exploring, Upgrading

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Go Play: Resourcing, Exploring, Upgrading

The last time I wrote about gaming, I wasn’t really playing anything anymore. Since then I decided to spend some more time with games again, because it was an itch that needed some scratching. I had been playing many games in the past (something I will get back to eventually), but because of my luxury problem of being interested in too many things, gaming was relegated to the back seat. Until now. Anyway, since I’m always so critical of anything, I still enjoy watching blockbuster movies and playing video games. I’m always aware of the issues hidden there, though, and I thought today I try to explore some them in more detail here.

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3 Months of Movies (IV)

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3 Months of Movies (IV)

Another three months are up and so it’s time again for reflecting up the movies I watched in this time period. The good news is that this time I actually found time to watch more movies, which makes me happy, especially since I didn’t watch any movie during the holidays for two weeks. Still, my ambition to watch any movie in existence tells me I could have done better! There is always room for more movies. (check the Film List for all movies of those months, from American Graffiti to Gamer)

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10 Basic Principles of Our School System, Part 3: Grades

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10 Basic Principles of Our School System, Part 3: Grades

 

This is a big one. Grades are both so essential and problematic in this system that it’s hard to know where to start. Everything I wrote already is based on grades in one way or another and some of the other aspects are too. Would we rate anything we watch, read and play, if we weren’t used to grades through school? Aren’t grades systemic for this culture that always defines who is best, who is on top, who is in the upper class, who has the highest number of anything? What better way to instill this thinking in children than through school?

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Haywire (2011)

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Haywire (2011)

Haywire is an excellent action movie with an okay plot that falters a bit in the last 15 minutes. But it’s hard to care too much about the story, which doesn’t matter in the end because you enjoy the great actors playing interesting characters and most of all the excellent fight and action scenes that are really impressive and well done. Seriously, those fight scenes alone are worth watching the movie. They look real, happen in interesting locations and have some surprises. And Gina Carano owns all of them. I read some reviews claiming that the movie only exists to show off Carano’s fighting skills and though that makes it sound like a movie I’d normally not be interested in, I totally fell for it here. Most of this wouldn’t matter, if the movie wasn’t directed by Steven Soderbergh because his skills are visible in every scene. It is not a movie he will be remembered for, but he is such a talented director and every scene shows that. I really like the underdog nature of this film and it reminded me a lot of The Limey, Soderbergh ‘s great movie with Terence Stamp that is similar in spirit (and has the same screenwriter). Anyway, it’s a very entertaining movie and if nothing else you get some great actors enjoying themselves (like Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender, Channing Tatum, Bill Paxton, Michael Douglas and Antonio Banderas who are all excellent).

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