World War Z

A few years ago I heard someone say that America's current obsession with zombie mythology would eventually culminate (before its inevitable decline) with Pitt's World War Z. Turns out he was right.

Many interesting things about this movie. I like that it is a "serious" zombie movie that isn't afraid to throw around the word "zombie". I like that it wasted approximately 7 seconds before throwing Brad Pitt into the fray. I like that it was a political but not heavy handed. And I liked the ending—not bleak, but not Hollywood.

I appreciated the surprise action catalysts (in a zombie film, these are usually loud noises that draw the undead whilst the heroes are sneaking around) like Gerry's wife calling him on the phone I forgot he had, or citizens of Jerusalem rejoicing. However, there were typical predictable ones as well. How many times in a single mission can the same person "accidentally" kick a can, step on a glass bottle, and smack a filing cabinet with their crowbar? C'mon Welsh scientist.

Rating: 4 out of 6 zombies

Proposing a Return to Analog

I usually read a lot every day, so at night I need to read something completely unrelated to help me fall asleep. It needs to be theoretically interesting but packed with so much unnecessary detail so as to put me to sleep. Dyson's tale of the simultaneous rise of atomic weaponry and digital computation does just that. He spends a lot of time on the complete genealogical backstory of every person who had anything to do with computers, so if that is your thing, this book is incredible.

Actual Drinking Buddies

What feels normal at first, starts to feel slow halfway through as you wonder when the "action" is going to happen, then near the end you realize that it has been happening all along. Good writing, good acting, great directing, and it didn't end how I thought it would. Delightful!

Rating:
4 out of 5 pints

Present Shock

Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now by Douglas Rushkoff is sort of like Keen's Digital Vertigo, but a bit less disjointed. Rushkoff describes what he calls a "presentist" culture where everything is about the now. We have confused "flow" with "storage", kairos time with chronos time, and our current anemic state is the failure to reconcile two fundamentally different levels of identity: digital, where we are spending most of our (mental) time, and analog, where we still live and must return to inevitably. We are addicted to possibility and stimulation as the digital realm provides it for us. Also, Rushkoff's media ecologist tendencies sporadically flare up.

Man of FEEL

Saw Man Of Steel last night. Really enjoyed it. Gritty and re-boot-ish enough but still fun and campy in just the right places. With the exception of the random military woman saying Superman is "kind of hot" near the end of the movie, I was happy with my decision to suspend disbelief and enter its world. The Krypton technology, visual effects, awesome use of sound, etc. everything was great and sucked me right in. Even the story (specifically, the father/son relationships and self-control/fate issues) got me. I was on the verge of tears like 8 times. Despite our pre-movie debate where she claimed to prefer DC comics to Marvel, Vicky was not impressed with Man Of Steel.

I will make her watch the most recent Green Lantern and DareDevil movies until she repents.




Rating:
1/1 Seinfeld montages set to Superman music

Side Effects may include

Steven Soderbergh's latest film Side Effects had me hooked from the long, opening tracking shot that panned from a zoomed-out city shot, graaaaadually, over to a zoomed-in shot of a single apartment. So in the span of the first minute or so, you already have the feeling of a single, lonely individual somehow stuck in the cold, mechanical structure of society. 

That kind of thoughtfulness is rampant in this movie. Then, halfway though, the movie jumps genres. Everyone in our living room watching the movie let out a collective "Whaaaaaaattttttt?!??!?!" Great commentary on our proclivity to prescribe and the power of scorn/greed.

You should probably see it.

Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5  pills.

Storytelling Animals

Jonathan Gottschall's The Storytelling Animal has been my pleasure reading for the past week. If I wasn't in my final two weeks of Seminary I would probably write more, but I'll just say that this book was really engaging. I blitzed through it. Gottschall explores how and why human beings are addicted to fiction... so much so that we even create it in our sleep! The notion of story serves no apparent purpose, yet it has defined/motivated/explained human activity for millennia.