Burn After Reading

With the Coen Brothers at the helm, and an amazing cast, this movie seemed like it would be a fantastic piece of film.  Yet, something went wrong.  Now sure, such high expectations may've caused me to assume it would be really really good... but even without all the weight that both the Coen Brothers and the cast hold, it just didn't do it for me.  The plot was all over the place, but didn't really seem to flow; and it wasn't one of those "the plot is meant to be crazy" sort of things, or a "digressive plot" movie: the plot was just weak or non-existent.  On top of that, there wern't any really memorable scenes, lines, or jokes.  Sure I laughed throughout the film, but that is to be expected from any comedy; yet my laughing wasn't a side spliting, red faced, tears in the eyes laughter: it was a chuckling or "that was funny" sort of laughter.  Perhaps the confusing ramblings of this unstructured review will somehow represent the confused ramblings of this "dark comedy."  And don't think that if you read this a few times you will really "figure it out".  The same can be said of this movie (though I only saw it once... that was enough for me).  If you really had high hopes for this movie, tone them down a bit before you see this film.  Or, you could stay home and re-watch The Big Lebowski.  Of course, that's just my opinion... and I'm not Dennis Miller.

September

I must say that I really enjoy these new Microsoft commercials with Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates.  My Dad told me about the one in the shoestore, and I've seen it a few times.  Then tonight I saw two new ones while watching [adult swim] where the duo stays with a random family.  I dunno what these commercials will lead to, but whatever it is, I'm excited.  And I think they are way better than the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" commercials (though ironically I am writing this on a Mac).

I have been working on stories recently, and am hoping to start submitting one story to a magazine every two weeks.  I do not plan on publishing stories here: I had been working on an old story that I wanted to publish on this blog, but then I decided it had potential (and the title happens to be "Potential") and I submitted it a few days ago.  However, if there is a story that just can't seem to please any editors, but that I feel really strongly about, I may put such a story up here; or any sort of flash fiction, like the two stories I have already put up here ("Fifty Two" and "Sodium and Tempura").

I have tried to put more structure into these blog posts over the past few months, but I have found it has led to less postings, since I must structure them before submitting.  I feel that I may move away from this, and turn this blog into more personal ramblings, such as this current post which I am writing while half awake at 2 AM.  I spend a lot of time structuring and editing stories to try and perfect them, so why do that as well here?  Instead, I hope that this new format, based on my own format, may lead to an increase in posts, and them possibly an increase in fanbase.  But either way, the main person to please is me, since I am, afterall, the one writing all this.  So, good night, and good day.

- Liam Connolly

Book Review: Amanda Stern - The Long Haul

The Long Haul by Amanda Stern is the first of several novels I will be reading this semester for my Contemporary Fiction Craft class at Georgia State.  This is Stern's first novel, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.  The story concerns two main characters: the unnamed narrator, and her boyfriend, called "The Alcoholic."  Throughout the novel, both characters struggle with their addictions: he to alcohol (obviously) and she to him.  The novel is made up of a series of chapters that could be seen as short stories on their own, similar to Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting (which I happen to have reviewed months before).  Each chapter jumps in time to a different point in the couples relationship.  I found much of the dialogue in the story to be incredibly realistic and modern: some of the discussions could be heard on campus, word for word.  Also, the narrator's love-and-hate relationship with her boyfriend is done beautifully, and goes back and forth just as much as any young adult's feelings do.  At only 142 pages, this is a quick read, and highly recommended.

Movie Review: Pineapple Express

Last night I saw Pineapple Express at the Starlight Drive-In theatre in East Atlanta.  This was my second time seeing the film, and I enjoyed it just as much as the first time.  I have been a big fan of this new group of films that revolve around producer Judd Apatow, and this movie was yet another winner.  I didn't enjoy it as much as some of his others, such as Superbad or 40 Year Old Virgin, but there were still many many hysterical scenes throughout.  I also found it interesting because this movie seemed to be more ridiculous and less realistic than some of the other movies.  Also, it took a classic "stoner movie" and added in elements of action films and even karate to make an all out entertaining picture.  I would recommend this film to anyone who is a fan of the Apatow era, or anyone just looking for pure entertainment.

Movie Review: Wall-E

I have seen previews for this movie for the past couple years, and never really had much interest in seeing it. However, a number of friends said that it was a fantastic movie, and given the fact that Pixar has impressed me thus far as well, I decided to check it out. The beginning was a little slow for me, though still entertaining. My friend Chandler had told me that it is just like an old silent movie, which was interesting: though since I am used to modern movies with lots of dialogue, it was a little tough to get into. But once the story started to unfold, I thoroughly enjoyed the film, which represents a shocking and yet fairly believable futuristic dystopia. Also, as I was informed by friends, Pixar did new things in this movie that have never been done with digital animation before, such as making shots have in-focus and out-of-focus elements, to represent a real camera. While it is a children’s film, it is very entertaining for adults aswell, and I was very satisfied by the end of the movie. This is definitely the best movie I’ve seen in theaters this summer – though I have a feeling The Dark Knight will top them all.

Hancock and Dujardin

I saw a midnight showing of the new summer superhero movie “Hancock” a few nights ago. The previews made this movie look to be very promising: Will Smith as a superhero who drinks way too much and causes havoc because of it. I was also excited about this movie because of the originality of the idea. The first half of the film lived up to the hope, and featured a great mix of action, humor, and dramatic scenes. However, the second half of the film was a complete failure. While I won’t give away any of the plot, I felt like the second half of the story was poorly written, and didn’t do the movie as a whole any justice. All in all, this movie is a tough call since it is half great and half terrible.

I also recently finished reading “We’ll To the Woods No More” by Edouard Dujardin. This is an obscure French novel originally published in 1888, and according to the introduction it didn’t receive much acclaim and became a “forgotten novel.” However, it did receive recognition a few decades later when James Joyce discovered the novel and said that it inspired him to develop and perfect his stream-of-consciousness technique. As a fanatical Joycean, I had to check it out to see how it relates to Joyce’s work. This is definitely as stylistic read, since the story overall isn’t too exciting (though it isn’t necessarily boring). The work is written from first person, in the present tense, and follows the internal thoughts of a young man walking around Paris one evening as he waits for and ponders about the woman he loves. It is not difficult to follow (especially if compared to the stream-of-consciousness masters that came decades later) and can be quite interesting and a bit humorous at times. Now, as I said before, it is a stylistic read, and I found as I read along I was wondering if the story would ever reach a “climax,” or if it would just drift from here to there aimlessly. However, when I got to the final chapter, I was really blown away, as many of the seemingly unimportant events suddenly have a lot of relevance. Also, since it is told completely from the narrator’s mind, the reader can figure stuff out which the narrator hasn’t figured out yet (and perhaps never will). Also, the book is quite short, being less than 150 pages. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in modernist and stream-of-consciousness writing, especially fellow Joyceans; or, anyone interested in French love stories; or, fuck it: anyone that wants to read.

That is all for now. I am hoping to put a story up soon (though I have been saying that for a while and still have not followed through). Have a happy Fourth!
- Liam

You Don't Mess With the Zohan... Because He Makes a Bad Film

Movie Review: “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan.”

I saw this movie about a week ago, and was not impressed. While the premise of an ex-Israeli super soldier who becomes a hairdresser sounded very bizarre, I’m a huge fan of Adam Sandler, and consider him to be one of the top comedy actors from the 90’s generation (probably second only to Jim Carrey). However, even with Sandler at the helm ― in both the fact that he was the lead actor and also that his production company Happy Madison released the film ― the movie was tough to get through. In fact, much of what was funny about the film was just how bad it really was. It was filled with stereotypical jokes about Israelis and Arabs, and tried to turn a two-thousand year conflict into a comedy premise. Now I’m all for comedy, but I don’t think the Israeli-Arab wars are the right thing to joke about. On a plus side, there were some humorous cameos, including: Chris Rock, Henry Winkler, Kevin James, John McEnroe, Mariah Carey and George Takei; also, Michael Buffer, the guy who says “lets get ready to rumble!” before boxing or wresting main events, had a small but significant role, and Dave Matthews plays a racist hillbilly. I’d wait until this gets released on DVD; or better yet, wait for it to be shown on television.