The Evil Dead, 1981, Sam Raimi. Gloriously bloody, this campy horror debut by Raimi terrifies and delights even with such a simple concept as five young people stuck in a cabin in the woods, haunted by an unseen, demonic force. Not sure what took me so long to watch. Recommend.
Started reading the Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt: pretty interesting so far, but just as dense as I typically like books. It’s critical of totalitarianism, antisemitism and imperialism, and seeks to understand their origins, btw: that cover photo is misleading.
“Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon,” Douglas Tirola, 2015, United States. A documentary of the history and origins of National Lampoons, the obscene, comedic, sometimes-salacious and often politically-charged comic that later birthed several films and whose filmic contributors included John Belushi and Chevy Chase.
In deciding what to read, I ask myself the question: how is listening to an audiobook like and unlike reading a physical text? That is, can I say I have ‘read’ a book if I have only listened to it being read to me? Or, instead, have I missed out on something critical to an engagement with the original text that only visually and physically poring over the words, their careful and intentional collection and ordering, and their signification, can afford? I have no answers. Only questions…
“Lucky.” 2017. John Carroll Lynch. Joined by a great cast, Dean Stanton reflects on his mortality and enjoys his latter years, as a solitary, obstinate man aging into his 90s. This film wanders about, asking us the questions of Being, the meaning of life, the value of sharing space with others, and how we spend each and every day. Recommend.
What’s great about Adam Sandler films is that they lack pretense. The standard is “is this funny?,” whether crude or dumb. It could be a school bus driver clandestinely eating children’s lunches or someone winning a game of golf with a hockey stick. In their simplicity, however…they aren’t really dumb at all: they are quite attuned to what makes us laugh, even if we don’t want to admit it to ourselves…or to others
Rodents of Unusual Size, Quinn Costello, Christ Metzler, Jeff Springer, 2017, US.
The nutria are a invasive rodent, but also an enduring symbol in South Louisiana, From the rural marshes to the urbane post-Katrina New Orleans, they have become part and parcel of life.
Bearer of Pity 