Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
ISBN: 057122539X DDC: 823.914

See also: LibraryThing ; Jabberwock ; Fantastic Metropolis

Surreal and weird are terms that come to mind when I attempt to review this book. Or to be even more accurate, very weird and extremely surreal

The story revolves around a world famous pianist who travels to a city, in Europe somewhere but we’re never told where exactly, and then travels around meeting people and being late for other meetings with people. Ryder seems to be suffering from some sort of amnesia at first. We don’t really know anything about him, and he doesn’t really seem to know anything about himself either.

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Writ & Dir: Hal Hatley

• Sarah Polley … Beatrice
• Robert John Burke … The Monster
• Julie Christie … Dr. Anna
• Erica Gimpel … Judy
• Helen Mirren … The Boss
• Baltasar Kormákur … Artaud

So there I was, flicking around this afternoon when I came across No Such Thing. My wonderful browse feature told me it was the story of a young female reporter who tried to find out what happened her missing fiancée only to discover a foul-mouthed monster whom she befriends.

Only it was a lot stranger than that. The first hour or so was all about Beatrice. On her way to Iceland to track down her fiancée her plane crashed into the sea. She was the sole survivor, but was terribly injured. In the world of this film the media have taken over and pretty much run the world, but must contend with a public who grow bored of anything after only a few hours.^[1] Beatrice’s boss tried to make her go public and tell her story, but Beatrice doesn’t want to so she is pretty much abandoned in the hospital, where she must undergo an extremely painful operation, with only limited painkiller/anaesthetic.

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Writ & dir: M. Night Shyamalan

• Paul Giamatti - Cleveland Heep
• Bryce Dallas Howard - Story
• Jeffrey Wright - Mr. Dury
• Bob Balaban - Mr. Farber
• Sarita Choudhury - Anna Ran
• Cindy Cheung - Young Soon
• Freddy Rodríguez - Reggie

This is an odd film. A very odd film.

Ever since The Sixth Sense Shyamalan has been known as the “twist guy” for his film endings; I don’t think that is a fair description. And while you can say that Unbreakable, Signs and The Village all had twists to their endings, the twists weren’t all that important. The films were stories about people, truth, and finding out who you are. The Lady in the water continues in this vein, but at the same time it is a very different type of film. As Shyamalan has said, it is a bedtime story. A fairy tale, for children. So it is, of course, going to be more simplistic and yet at the same time it is more complicated than that.

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ISBN: 1902197011
Author: Grant Morrison
6 short stories plus an introduction by Stewart Home.

First line:
Blind in the city of light, Patricia walked carefull back through the Cimitiere Pere-Lachasie

Contents:
• The Braile Encyclopaedia
• The Room Where Love Lives
• Red King Rising
• Lovecraft in Heaven
• Depravity
• I’m A Policeman

I suppose weird would be a good one review of this collection, but I already knew that from the blurb. The blurb I didn’t actually read until after I bought the book. Weird, disturbing, but very readable would be a slightly longer review. Actually considering some of the descriptions and occurances, these stories are very readable.

Two of the 6 stories here are scripts, Red King Rising is a discussion/confrontation between a 13 year old Alice, and her creator, in the form of Lewis Carroll. The other Depravity features Aleister Crowley. Actually the majority of the prose here uses figures that you will be familar with. Lovecraft, for example^[1] features as well as those I’ve already mentioned.

If you’ve liked other work by Morrison you may enjoy this. Personally I doubt I’d reread it, but it was interesting, in a wtf way.

Grant Morrison.com | Pop Image | Book Diary | Crack Comics

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So who’s seen the trailer for Mel Gibson’s apocalypto then? Not a lot of dialogue is there? Is he trying to hide the fact that it is in Mayan? And if you’ve seen the trailer did you spot Mel himself in it?

Cause I watched it and didn’t, if I hadn’t known he was there I would have just gone “meh”, but I knew, so went back, slowed it down and bam! there he was, gurning like a lunatic.

Is the Brain Lesion infecting others now?

Picture stolen from Confessions of a Film Critic

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• Lou Taylor Pucci …. Justin Cobb
• Tilda Swinton …. Audrey Cobb
• Vincent D’Onofrio …. Mike Cobb
• Vince Vaughn …. Mr. Geary
• Keanu Reeves …. Perry Lyman

I’m not sure exactly how to review this film. I enjoyed it while watching, it is humourous and fun, but it is also a bit odd, and by giving away details I may ruin your enjoyment.

The film revolves around the Cobb family^[1] Justin in particular. He is the thumbsucker of the title, and because he a teenage there are quite a few people who would like him to take his thumb out of his mouth for good.

I suppose it is a coming of age film, although we don’t really get any solutions, that is the point. There are no real answers to life, we just live. Doesn’t mean we have to stop asking, just that we are never going to come up with one definitive answer.

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