Behind the Beautiful Forevers: The Brutal World of a Mumbai Slum

Behind the Beautiful Forevers is a remarkable piece of non fiction prose. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, Katherine Boo, the book follows the lives of various people who live in Annawadi, a small slum next to Mumbai's international airport. Annawadi is surrounded by glittering hotels and a concrete wall plastered with ads for tiles that promise to keep your house "beautiful forever." Behind those ads reside the disenfranchised citizens of 21st century Mumbai.

The book presents many vivid characters but it centers on Abdul Husain, a teenage scavenger who spends his day looking for and sorting through trash so that he can make a profit on recyclable waste. He is reasonably successful in this venture and is his family's main source of income since his father is too sickly from TB and his mother has her hands full with her nine children. However, when his mother decides that their growing prosperity merits some renovations to their shack, she unwittingly angers Fatima, their one-legged next-door neighbor, whose actions set off a chain of events that lead Abdul and his family through the bowels of the nonsensical Indian judicial system.

Annawadi's other residents include Asha, a middle-aged woman who has made influential friends through dubious methods and is trying to attain her dream of becoming a slumlord. Her daughter, Manju, is poised to become Annawadi's first female college graduate and she runs a small "bridge school" for the children of the slum, funded by government money that her mother obtained through one of her many illegal ventures. Manju doesn't approve of all this corruption and tries her best to run her life on ethical lines, but there's only so much you can do and still survive in Annawadi. Her best friend Meena is less fortunate: she doesn't go to school, suffers repeated beatings from family members, isn't allowed to leave the house except to collect water or go to the toilet, and has her marriage arranged at age 15. By comparison, Manju is practically a princess. There is also Sunil, a 12-year old scavenger and occasional thief who returned to Annawadi with his younger sister after a stint at the orphanage run by Sister Paulette who gives the orphans ice cream when foreigners arrive for a site visit, but otherwise sells their food and blankets for a profit and pockets all the charitable money she can get.

Boo only enters the narrative in a final Author's Note at the end of the book. Here she explains how she spent time in Annawadi from 2007 to 2011, wearying the residents with multiple interviews, teaching children how to use her Flip Video camera so that they could document many of the events related in the book, and culling over 3000 government records from the Mumbai Police, public health agencies, hospitals, electoral offices and more, to illustrate in detail how these entities systematically alter details, falsify documents, and treat the poor as ignominiously in death as they do in life.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers presents the age-old story of Indian corruption, but instead of random facts and figures, Boo gives us the names and stories of actual people who are offered basic human rights only if they can pay for them. Boo doesn't pretend that these people are flawless human beings - they all harbor varying amounts of vices and virtues, just like the rest of us. But they are victims of a corrupt and demoralizing system that has left them with increasingly impossible dreams of a better life.

Neverwhere: A Whole New London

Neil Gaiman is an incredible author who is always churning out something new and innovative. I've enjoyed much of his previous work, like Good Omens (co-authored with Terry Pratchett), The Graveyard Book, and Stardust, so I thought I'd give his 1996 novel Neverwhere a try. I was well into the book when a friend told me that it was actually a novelization of a TV series that Gaiman and Lenny Henry wrote for the BBC. I suppose I should now watch the series to see if it matches the fantastic world that the novel has created in my head.

Neverwhere tells the story of Richard Mayhew, a thoroughly ordinary London dweller with a decent job and a nagging fiance who suddenly discovers a completely different London. Late at night he stumbles across Door, an aristocratic Lady from the world of London Below, a city in the sewers of London that is composed of all the people who have been marginalized by London society and have literally "fallen through the cracks" into this world. Door is being chased by assassins and Richard unwittingly becomes a denizen of London Below when he stops to help her. What follows is your classic hero's quest, through a dark and mysterious world that turns Richard's perceptions of London upside down.

Gaiman has brilliantly distorted various locales and each page offers a new surprise and burst of literary invention. Knightsbridge in London Below features an eerily dark bridge where the Night might steal you away. Earl's Court is a subway car that only people from London Below can enter and is presided over by an actual Earl. The characters are also vivid fantasy creations, like Door who has the power to open anything (even an orange), the swashbuckling Marquis de Carabas who is just fulfilling a debt and may not be trustworthy, and the thoroughly fiendish Messieurs Croup and Vandemar who delight in torturing their victims and have a mysterious employer who keeps changing his mind about whether or not Door should be killed. 

Neverwhere is fast-paced, funny, wildly inventive, and supremely thrilling. It is an excellent fantasy novel for people who love the genre but don't have the time to delve into something with an extensive mythology. Also, BBC Radio 4 recently finished recording Neverwhere as a radio drama that will be released in six episodes early next year. With a cast list featuring actors like James McAvoy, Natalie Dormer, David Harewood, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Sophie Okonedo, this is a project that's bound to be amazing. It's also further proof that this is a story worth telling in every imaginable format. So read Neverwhere (or watch it or listen to it) and discover the world of London Below. 

Sweet Tooth: Spies and Literature Collide

The holidays are a time to either catch up on your reading or make a resolution to read more in the New Year. So this week I'm offering recommendations of books that have entertained me in the past few weeks. First up, Ian McEwan's latest novel, Sweet Tooth. No two McEwan novels are alike and Sweet Tooth delves into yet another new genre - the spy novel. However, it's a spy story with a literary twist, one that becomes increasingly intriguing as the novel goes on.

Set in the 1970s, the story is told from the perspective of Serena Frome, a young woman who loves to read but is forced by her mother to study Mathematics instead of English at Cambridge. She graduates with a less than stellar degree in maths, but thanks to an affair with a professor, she is groomed for an interview with MI5 and obtains a low-level secretarial job with the Security Service. Here, her love for speed-reading novels puts her in prime position for a new program called "Sweet Tooth," through which MI5 hopes to secretly fund novelists that write capitalism-loving, communism-bashing literature that the government can use to vanquish Cold War propaganda. Serena is enlisted to liaise with one of the selected novelists, a man named Thomas Haley, but of course, the liaison quickly turns romantic and things get complicated.

The novel starts out with the promise of suspense but it isn't a true spy thriller. "Sweet Tooth" is a pretty tame program in the roster of secret government programs, and the novel's focus shifts to Thomas Haley's work and his writing process. Serena reads his short stories and we get tantalizing glimpses of weird tales that explore interesting gender dynamics. There are subtle clues scattered throughout his stories and Serena's reactions to reading them foreshadow how this story is going to end. All the while, Serena has to maintain her cover, but as she falls more in love with Haley, she needs to figure out whether it's time to come clean about her role in MI5.

The character of Thomas Haley is semi-autobiographical and various events and people mentioned in the book are taken from Ian McEwan's own life. That makes this novel interesting for any McEwan fan. But the truly intriguing aspect of this novel is revealed only when you read the final chapter. That's when the story gets untangled and laid out bare, or for some readers, even more twisted and bizarre. It's an ending that thoroughly appealed to me but had a decidedly mixed critical reception.

I'm of the opinion that any novel that generates heated discussion about its perceived merits or failings is a novel worth reading. Sweet Tooth is one of those rare books that demands to be re-read immediately upon completion. The more you read it, the more you come to appreciate the art of literary deception.

The Big Fat Quiz of the Year: A Year-End Delight

The British panel game show is a format that always brings me joy. I've already waxed lyrical about the marvelous QI, currently in its tenth series on the BBC, but a few weeks ago, a friend alerted me to Channel 4's The Big Fat Quiz of the Year. Established in 2004, the show celebrates the end of the year with a pub quiz-style panel show that recaps the newsworthy moments of the year. 

Jimmy Carr hosts the show every year and offers up sarcastic, racy humor and the world's weirdest laugh. The questions present more of a challenge for American viewers - there are a few about American pop stars or politicians, but otherwise the focus is squarely on UK events. But at no point does this diminish the sheer pleasure in watching these shows and attempting to complete a "Say What You See" puzzle, which consists of pictographic clues that often rely on British slang to be solved. I've been traveling back in time with the quizzes (I'm currently on the year 2007), and the more I watch, the better I get at delving into the cultural references and obscure Britishisms that warm the cockles of every Anglophile's heart. 

Of course the joy of any panel show is the caliber of the panelists, and Big Fat Quiz is reliably stocked with well-known British comedians like Rob Brydon, David Mitchell, Richard Ayoade, and the always hysterical pairing of Noel Fielding and Russell Brand. You won't recognize most (or any) of these people if you are a British panel show novice, but believe me, you won't forget them after spending two hours in their company.

American TV is grossly dismissive of the holiday season and for the next several weeks, networks will put on a predictable assortment of Charlie Brown specials, re-runs, and It's A Wonderful Life. British TV, on the other hand, is all about celebrating the holidays in front of your television sets, and the Christmas special is a highlight of any British series. So this year, along with the sure to be wonderful Christmas specials of Doctor Who and Downton Abbey, get excited for The Big Fat Quiz of 2012. And head on over to YouTube so you can catch up on all the end-of-year goodness you've been missing so far. 

Game of Thrones: Fantasy, HBO Style

Last month I finally finished watching Game of Thrones, after friends had spent the better part of a year exhorting me to watch it. What can I say, my friends know best. Given my love for Tolkien and fantastical lore, my fascination with Game of Thrones was inevitable.

Based on the gargantuan series of fantasy novels by George R. R. Martin (which I will have to start reading immediately), Game of Thrones is a massive enterprise to set on screen. The story is set in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, a sprawling world with several regions that contain differing landscapes, traditions, gods, customs, and people who are at war over a variety of political ambitions. The sheer number of characters is overwhelming and the show has to keep going back and forth between various story lines without confusing the audience. In fact, the first few episodes nearly lost me because I despaired of ever keeping these characters straight. But the key to the show is to just watch it and not worry about the details. The plots are brewing with suspense, romance, and political intrigue and you get swept away with the story. Eventually, without even realizing it, you've internalized the geography of this vast land and discover you can name all the members of the House Stark or House Lannister without breaking a sweat.

David Benioff and D. B. Weiss are the showrunners responsible for adapting these mammoth novels for TV and they have done a simply tremendous job of portraying a complete fantasy world that somehow still feels realistic and believable. Yes there are people with strange names in odd costumes using old-fashioned contraptions with some magic brewing in the background. But the show always focuses on the humanity of its characters and makes them relatable even as they fight with swords and talk about dragons. And of course, the sheer scope and excellence of the show would be impossible without a sizable budget from HBO, who are continuing to stand by their slogan, "It's not TV. It's HBO." Every episode feels like a movie, with impeccable production design, beautiful cinematography, and crackling scripts that can veer from humor and romance to danger and gruesomeness in a matter of seconds.

Adapting fantasy novels for the screen is always a tricky business, but HBO doesn't do anything by half measures and Game of Thrones is a flawless bit of fantasy television. The special effects are always top notch, but more importantly, the actors and writers have combined forces to portray characters that are utterly fascinating and give you a reason to tune in every week. The show has some of the strongest female characters on TV, which is all the more remarkable since Westeros is an old-fashioned world where women are mostly bandied about for political gain. Like all great fantasy works, it's the people you least suspect who turn out to be the true heroes. Of particular note are Tyrion Lannister, the dwarf-prince of House Lannister (played by Peter Dinklage who deservedly won an Emmy and Golden Globe for his work), Daenerys Targaryen (played by the wonderful Emilia Clarke) who started out as a political pawn but has become a force to be reckoned with, and nine-year old Arya Stark (played by the fantastic Maisie Williams), a tomboy with an indomitable spirit who seems poised to introduce all manner of complications in the war for the Iron Throne.

The show's second season kept leaping from strength to strength and the season finale was an emotional rollercoaster that entrenched my love for this new fantasy world. I'll have to wait until March for the next season, but till then, there are a stack of novels, thousands of pages long, that demand my attention.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Begins

As illustrated by my previous post about The Hobbit Facebook page, I am a massive Tolkien fan. Therefore, when I went to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I spent three joyful hours back in Middle Earth, nostalgic for that lovely land that I had last seen in theaters nine years ago. However, despite my enjoyment, I recognize that this is no movie for the casual moviegoer.

Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy was a daring experiment in fantasy film-making. Sure, there are plenty of Tolkien fans in the world, but in order to become true blockbusters, the movies had to appeal to everyone in the audience, even those who had never read The Lord of the Rings. As a result, Jackson crafted a sumptuous set of movies that offered just enough background to keep the audience informed but proceeded at a brisk enough pace that no one got bored. The movies were dazzling visual spectacles (thanks to the otherworldly New Zealand scenery) with great attention paid to costumes, hair and make-up, production design, music, and anything else that could help audiences differentiate all the characters and regions of Middle Earth without requiring extensive exposition. And there were action sequences and intrigues and romances aplenty, so that everyone found something to like.

With The Hobbit, Jackson no longer harbors any populist aspirations. This is a movie that feels like it was made for fans of Tolkien and the LOTR trilogy, people who just want to spend several hours in the theatre reconnecting with the characters and stories that they love. Why else would Jackson turn this tiny children's book into a trilogy of movies? Instead of giving us a simple movie, Jackson and his fellow writers Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens have constructed a much more elaborate tale that delves deep into Middle Earth mythology and provides a very thorough prequel to the LOTR trilogy. This movie covers the first six chapters of The Hobbit (a mere 100 pages), but it boasts a three-hour runtime because of additional material culled from the appendices to the Lord of the Rings and long backstories about the hobbit and thirteen dwarves who serve as the heroes of our tale. This is a level of detail that can only appeal to a hardcore Tolkien enthusiast. After all, if you don't know anything about Middle Earth, why would you care about the Necromancer, or the history of the dwarves and their distrust of elves, and the other countless stories that only tangentially affect the main adventure plot of The Hobbit?

The Hobbit is still characteristic of the impeccable filmmaking that characterized the LOTR trilogy, taking great pains to make Middle Earth feel as real as possible. I did not see the movie in the 48 fps format that has caused a great deal of debate, but watching it in 2D at a paltry 24 frames per second was enough to keep me satisfied. The background score hearkened back to the themes that were so familiar in the LOTR trilogy, and there are plenty of cameos featuring characters from those movies. Ian McKellen (who plays Gandalf) is the only actor from the LOTR trilogy to return in a starring role in this trilogy, but the new actors, particularly Martin Freeman as the hobbit Bilbo Baggins and Richard Armitage as the dwarf leader Thorin Oakenshield, do a wonderful job of stepping right into their fantastical roles and easing the audience back into Middle Earth.

The movie could have benefited from more judicious editing - various action sequences felt overlong or tedious because they were almost identical to prior sequences. At times it feels like Peter Jackson simply missed making these movies and couldn't help but include long sequences that let him spend more time in Middle Earth. Occasionally the dialogue felt schmaltzy and laughably sentimental, but again, as a fan you can forgive anything. The highlight of the film is certainly the Riddles in the Dark sequence featuring Bilbo and Gollum. Performance capture enhancements in the decade since the last LOTR movie mean that Andy Serkis' performance as Gollum feels even more nuanced and brilliant than ever before. And this is the scene that introduces the One Ring, an object that will set off the epic events of the Lord of the Rings.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is an indulgent movie for any Tolkien fan, but an overwrought movie for anyone else. I loved it and cannot wait for the next installment when we finally get to see our heroes interact with Thranduil, Bard, and of course, Smaug. But if the detailed fantasy and mythology of Tolkien's Middle Earth doesn't interest you, watching The Hobbit might be a very tiring journey.

My Mother Was Nuts: Penny Marshall's Hollywood Travels

Penny Marshall was the first female director to make a movie that passed the $100 million mark at the box office (she did it twice). Her memoir, My Mother Was Nuts, offers an insight into her journey to and through Hollywood, and also reveals her gift for telling incredibly funny stories.

Penny grew up in the Bronx with her older sister Ronny and older brother Garry (i.e. Garry Marshall, the hugely successful comedy writer and director of films like Pretty Woman, Valentine's Day, and The Princess Diaries). As evinced by the book's title, her mother was an odd woman, who hadn't planned on having a third child, didn't much like her husband, and had a rather laissez-faire attitude to parenting. She ran a dance school in the cellar of their apartment building and Penny was forced to attend dance classes through much of her childhood. The book opens with hilarious tales of Penny's formative experiences at school, in the Bronx, and at Jewish summer camp, where she and her siblings faithfully recited prayers despite the fact that they weren't Jewish and had all been confirmed in different religious denominations based on which church needed their mother to put on a dance recital that week.

In college, Penny got pregnant, married her first husband, quickly realized she had made a mistake, and set off for Hollywood. What follows is a dizzying series of stories populated by the creme de la creme of Hollywood society and comedy royalty. Penny fully traded on the fact that her brother was an established writer for The Dick Van Dyke Show and he furnished her with all of the contacts and information that would help her make her way. He also wrote Laverne and Shirley, her breakout TV hit that also gave her her first chance to direct. Penny isn't coy about the fact that she broke into Hollywood through nepotism, but it is equally clear that the sheer force of her personality and ability to strike up a friendship with anybody paved the way for her huge success.

Of course, not everything came up roses, and there are plenty of stories about sex, drugs, and rock n' roll that could have been her undoing. Fortunately, she made it through relatively unscathed, and the tone of her memoir is always humorous and self-deprecating. The stories about her two most successful movies, Big and A League of Their Own are particularly endearing for anyone who is a fan of those films. Given the breadth of Penny's work and friendships in Hollywood, her stories feature a who's-who of anyone and everyone worth knowing in the business of making movies.

My Mother Was Nuts offers an in-depth look at one of Hollywood's most successful and influential women, who managed to make it in the heavily male-dominated sphere of directing movies. Penny Marshall is clear that she took all the help that she could get and made sure she only worked with people who would respect her. Ultimately, that's valuable advice to any woman trying to make it in any field.

The Campaign: Comedic Fact Or Fiction?

Politics has always provided endless fodder for comedians. The 2012 American election cycle offered a particularly bountiful cornucopia of comic characters, namely the motley assortment of oddballs who raced to become the Republican nominee. So it is little wonder that Hollywood came up with The Campaign, a fine entry into the already crowded field of 2012 political comedy.

Written by Chris Henchy and Shawn Harwell, The Campaign follows a seemingly innocuous election for a representative of the 14th Dictrict of North Carolina. Democratic Congressman Cam Brady (Will Ferrell) is running for his fifth term unopposed and thinks this election will be a cakewalk. Unfortunately, he faces a setback when he leaves an inappropriate message on the wrong person's answering machine, leading to the revelation that he is a philanderer with a less than squeaky-clean image. Brady is a typical swaggering politician and as he blusters and digs himself into a deeper hole, Republican strategists realize this might be their shot at winning back the 14th District.

Jon Lithgow and Dan Akroyd play the Motch brothers (the politically savvy among you will recognize this is a blatant dig at the Koch brothers), corrupt businessmen who want to put forward their own Republican candidate and win the 14th District in the crucial swing state of North Carolina. They choose Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis), a thoroughly inexperienced and weird man, whose father happens to be a powerful associate of the Motch brothers. They also hire Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott), campaign manager extraordinaire, who is in charge of grooming Marty and ensuring that he looks, talks, and acts like a successful Republican candidate.

Cam initially underestimates Marty, but he soon recognizes the power of the Motch juggernaut and Tim Wattley's ability to turn anyone into a viable political candidate. Cam and Marty have some hilarious debates, eschewing any real talk about political issues for plain old-fashioned mud-slinging. Eventually, things really escalate, and a whole host of dirty tactics are employed by both campaigns in an effort to confuse the populace and win votes by any means necessary. The Motch brothers pour in money to help their candidate win, and when it looks like Marty might actually have some scruples, they switch sides and decide to back the much more corruptible Cam.

Ultimately, The Campaign is a hilarious behind-the-scenes look at election shenanigans, ludicrous attempts to orchestrate campaigns for thoroughly idiotic political candidates, and the use of unlimited money to trick voters and win elections. It's a sobering thought to realize that as over-the-top as this movie might seem, it's really not that far from the truth. Perhaps American political candidates haven't descended to the level of punching babies yet, but all that other stuff has a ring of truth. So be warned when you watch The Campaign. It is hysterical and entertaining, but after you're done laughing, you will sadly realize that the real world of American politics doesn't have quite so optimistic an outlook as its movie counterpart.

Pitch Perfect: College A Cappella Can Be A Riot

Sometimes you just need to watch a movie that makes you laugh. Pitch Perfect is that movie. An inside look at the world of competitive collegiate a cappella (yes, that's a real thing), it features an ensemble of hilarious women who are singing their way to stardom.

Anna Kendrick plays Beca, a newly-arrived freshman at Barden University. Her father is a professor who wants Beca get a college education before she pursues her actual ambition of moving to LA to DJ and produce music. She's fairly aloof and not pleased to be there, but her father insists that she join at least one club and try to make friends before she writes off the entire college experience. When Chloe (Brittany Snow), a member of the Barden Bellas, the college's all-female a cappella group, hears Beca singing in the shower, she insists that Beca audition and join their group.

The Bellas put on a disastrous performance at last year's International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella. As a result, their uptight leader, Aubrey (the wonderful Anna Camp), is focused on getting them back to the championship stage to redeem themselves and defeat their arch rivals the Treble Makers, Barden's all-male a cappella group. The problem is that Aubrey only wants to perform tired classics from the group's decidedly dusty repertoire, while Beca wants to experiment with some fresh mash-ups. The rest of the Barden Bellas are comprised of a rag-tag bunch of girls who are all weird and wonderful in their own way, including the fantastic Rebel Wilson, who plays the straightforwardly-named, Fat Amy. She prefers to be called Fat Amy so that no one will call her that behind her back - that should already tell you how much this character livens up the proceedings.

Throw in a romantic subplot with Beca and Jesse (Skylar Astin), a fellow freshman who gets recruited to join the Treble Makers, and you have yourself a movie. Beca and Jesse have an uneven relationship where he's clearly making more of an effort to win her over, but things even out as she begins to open up and accept that college and a cappella aren't as terrible as she suspected. Of course, the movie is punctuated with fantastic a cappella routines that feature some great singing, engaging choreography, and plenty of silliness and spectacle to keep you entertained. Written by 30 Rock writer Kay Cannon, and produced by Elizabeth Banks (who also stars in the movie as a hilarious a cappella competition color commentator), this is a very Bridesmaids-esque movie, that showcases funny women who are just having fun.

Pitch Perfect isn't the kind of movie that wins awards, but it wins over audiences. And in the long run, that's all that counts. So start watching and get ready to laugh, sing along, and have a good time.

Dial M For Murder: The Best Laid Plans...Etc.

Film is a visual medium so the unofficial motto of moviemaking is, "Show, don't tell." However, Alfred Hitchcock was never one to follow the rules and on re-watching his classic Dial M for Murder, I was struck by how much it is driven by relentless verbal exposition.

Ray Milland plays Tony Wendice, a retired tennis player who is married to Margot (the cool and elegant Grace Kelly), a wealthy woman whose money has kept him very comfortable. However, he discovered a year ago that she was having an affair. Margot ended the affair once Tony started paying more attention to her, but like most Hitchcock husbands, Tony doesn't want his wife, just her money. So he decides to set an elaborate murder plot into motion, an intricate enterprise that will give him a watertight alibi and solve his wife problem once and for all.

Tony blackmails a man named Swann into committing his wife's murder. The idea is that Swann will sneak into the house at night when Margot is home alone. Tony will be out at a party, surrounded by people who can vouch for his whereabouts, and will phone home at 11. When Margot enters the living room to answer the phone, Swann will slip out from behind the curtains and kill her. The first part of the movie leads up to the execution of the murder plot; the second half follows the aftermath of the night's events and the ensuing investigation.

Dial M For Murder is remarkably contained and all of the action takes place in the Wendice's house. But there is very little action, apart from the murder scene. Most of the movie consists of Ray Milland talking; talking about his discovery of his wife's infidelity, talking about his decision to kill his wife, talking about how he has set up the crime, talking about how the actual murder will be conducted. He stage manages the entire affair, explaining to Swann exactly how his wife will wake up when the phone rings, turn on the light, open the door, walk up to the phone, answer it. But all that talking and planning is Tony's undoing. Things never go according to plan, and the beauty of the movie is how the entire thing unravels because Swann doesn't follow one direction exactly as Tony planned.

Hitchcock made some fascinating mysteries and Dial M for Murder is no exception. It is not visually evocative like Rear Window, but Ray Milland's voice will penetrate your brain as Tony explains every piece of his master plan. Psychopaths like the sound of their own voice, and if you pay attention to Tony Wendice as he goes on and on about this murder, you can speculate about how it will all go horribly wrong.

Gone Girl: What Happened To Amazing Amy?

When I read Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, I learned one very valuable lesson about mystery novels. Never trust a first-person narrator. Let that lesson be your guide as you start reading Gillian Flynn's thrilling Gone Girl.

The novel opens with the disappearance of Amy Elliot Dunne from her Missouri home on the fifth anniversary of her marriage to Nick, a man she met and married in her hometown of New York City. Amy's parents are psychologists who made a lot of money in years past by writing a series of children's books about "Amazing Amy," a character modeled after their perfect daughter. Unfortunately, her parents were recently beset by financial troubles and took most of her trust fund money. When she and Nick were both laid off, they moved back to his boyhood home of Missouri to take care of his ailing mother. Nick and his sister Margo set up a bar with the last of Amy's trust fund money and she settled into being a bored housewife. Until the day she disappears.

The novel alternates between Nick's narrative starting from the day of Amy's disappearance and excerpts from Amy's diary beginning from the day she met Nick. Amy's diary paints a picture of two people who fall rapidly in love but have been facing increasing strain in their marriage. Amy is patient and enduring, trying not to become a harridan, but Nick's growing aloofness and quickness to anger become worrisome. Nick's narrative makes it clear that he was unhappy with his marriage and he keeps hiding things from the reader, choosing not to divulge vital details that could explain what exactly he was doing when Amy disappeared. As the days pass, media scrutiny grows, the press are camped out on his lawn, and the police are asking uncomfortable questions. And eventually, people become convinced that Nick has murdered his wife.

It is hard to sympathize with Nick, a man who obviously has secrets, and as the police pursue their investigation, there's a mounting pile of evidence to suggest that Amy never left the house alive. Amy's parents want to trust their son-in-law but they too lose faith in him until it looks like his sister might be the only person who believes he is innocent. Whether or not that belief is justified is something you'll have to find out for yourself.

Gone Girl is a brilliant piece of writing that delves deep into the twisted psyches of its characters and presents what can only be described as one of the best twists I have ever encountered in a mystery novel. Halfway through this book you will gasp, perhaps utter an expletive, then furiously flip pages till you get to the end. You will feel exploited, misdirected, confused, and exhilarated all at once. Trust me.

Talaash: Suspense & Surprises

The women in charge of Bollywood are rapidly proving that they really know how to make a movie. Written by the brilliant duo of Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar, and directed by Kagti, Talaash is another movie that proves that Bollywood isn't as clichéd as people imagine.

The opening credits present Mumbai's streets at night, featuring its seediest and most vulnerable inhabitants, all set to a smoky song that immediately sets the movie's film noir tone. The first scene gives us a spectacular car crash and the ensuing investigation serves as the plot. Inspector Shekhawat (the ever-amazing Aamir Khan) is the lead investigator who has to determine why the man in the car, a famous actor, drove his car off the road and into the ocean, and why exactly he was alone in the wee hours in such a seedy area of town. Shekhawat is a good cop, and intelligent and incorruptible member of the notorious Mumbai police force. However, he is also struggling with a personal tragedy, the accidental drowning of his eight-year old son, which has naturally devastated him and his wife (the wonderful Rani Mukerji) and is eating away at their marriage. The scenes chronicling their relationship are particularly affecting and lend an emotional core to the movie in the midst of all the sordid suspense.

During one of his late-night drives, Shekhawat runs into Rosie, a prostitute who agrees to help with his investigation. Kareena Kapoor does a great job of imbuing Rosie with both charm and world-weariness, and although you hope Shekhawat maintains his good-guy persona and doesn't cheat on his wife, you could probably understand if he slipped. Rosie's inside information leads Shekhawat deeper into Mumbai's underbelly that is teeming with violence and poverty. There are many unsavory characters who all hold some piece of the puzzle, and the suspense builds excruciatingly as Shekhawat struggles to put all the pieces together.

Talaash is impeccably filmed, capturing the film noir aesthetic and accurately portraying people from every strata of Mumbai society. The songs are expertly woven into the movie, enhancing the dark tone and offering a chance to breathe before you are plunged back into the mystery. It is a captivating thriller, well thought-out and briskly told, with elegant pacing and editing. Unfortunately, it makes one huge misstep in the form of the surprise twist at the end. The twist ties the whole movie together, and it is a disappointment because it completely alters the film's genre and crediblity. This is something Reema Kagti also did in her first film, Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd., which was a perfectly charming movie until something was revealed about two characters that made it impossible to take the movie seriously.

Talaash is a dynamic piece of filmmaking, and if you discount the final ten minutes, it is a flawless movie. Sadly you can't discount those ten minutes as the story's resolution depends on it. Nonetheless, I heartily recommend it, because we all know of movies we love that don't necessarily work on every level. Talaash is firing on all cylinders in terms of cinematography, plot, acting, music, and production design. Just because it features a disappointing final twist, you cannot dismiss all of the great work preceding it.

Anna Karenina: Theatrical Russian Tragedy

Reading Anna Karenina was not a particularly enjoyable experience (please don't send me angry letters, Tolstoy enthusiasts). Watching the movie, however, was entirely different. After Pride & Prejudice and Atonement, this is director Joe Wright's third literary adaptation, and the result is a sumptuous visual spectacle.

The story begins in Imperial Russia in 1874 and the basic plot is as follows: Anna (played beautifully by Wright's favorite leading lady, Keira Knightley) is in a loveless marriage with the terribly straight-laced Alexei Karenin (Jude Law) and falls in love with Count Vronsky (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), setting off a chain of events that will lead her to her ultimate doom. Side-plots include her brother Stepan Oblonsky (Matthew MacFadyen, in a marvelously comic role) who is amiable enough but has caused his wife Dolly (Kelly MacDonald) great distress due to his philandering ways. And there's his friend Levin (Domhnall Gleeson) who is hopelessly in love with Dolly's sister Kitty (Alicia Vikander) but has to face competition from Vronsky, until Vronsky falls for Anna.

The movie's screenplay was written by Tom Stoppard, who has taken a marvelously novel approach to presenting this story. The movie opens with a curtain rising above a stage, and most of the scenes take place onstage with the footlights lingering in the foreground, or backstage among pulleys, ropes, and scenery. Occasionally we move to actual locations, like Levin's farm in the country, but the stage provides a reminder of the theatrical nature of Russian society, with its gossips, intrigues, and salacious rumor-mongering that will lead to Anna's eventual downfall. This narrative device also turns the vast tale into an intimate tragic play and keeps the audience's attention squarely on the various characters populating the story. What with writing this movie and Parade's End, Stoppard is clearly the master of turning massive tomes into crisp cinematic classics.

Most importantly, Anna Karenina is an aesthetic tour de force, with lavish costumes by Jacqueline Durran, jaw-dropping production design by Sarah Greenwood, and stunning balletic choreography by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui in the dance scenes that cement Anna and Vronsky's relationship. Those dance scenes are bewildering and dazzling set pieces that demand repeated viewing. Joe Wright's propensity for long sweeping shots lends fluidity and lightness to the otherwise heavy plot and the movie is suffused with color, light, and beauty in every frame. Unfortunately, my eyes were so overcome with the detail and intricacy of every scene that I had no time to engage my other senses and pay attention to what I'm sure is another beautiful score by Wright's faithful composer, Dario Marianelli. 

Turning a book into a movie is always a perilous proposition and filmmakers get flak for either being too faithful to the source material or not faithful enough. However, Joe Wright and his team have found the winning formula. Anna Karenina is a perfect example of how to turn a literary masterpiece into a cinematic one.

Coursera: Education For All

As someone who loved school and reveled in a liberal arts education, I was overjoyed to discover Coursera. It is a website that offers online college courses on a slew of topics, all taught by professors from excellent academic institutions across the globe. And the best part is that it's completely free.

If you've ever enjoyed learning just for the sake of learning, or have always yearned to study a particular topic in-depth, chances are you will find something you love on Coursera. The variety of available courses ensures that everyone can find some appealing subject or learn some useful skill. I just completed my first course, a 10-week survey of Greek & Roman Mythology taught by a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and it was a magnificent experience. I had taken a mythology course in college, but as far as I'm concerned, you can never get enough of the classics. This week, I embarked upon two new classes offered by Duke University, one on the philosophy of reason and argument, and another on introductory astronomy. These are subjects I always wanted to take but didn't have time for in college. Thanks to Coursera, I can now spend a few hours every week learning about how to calculate celestial movements or how to analyze an effective argument. If the above subjects seem too esoteric to you, there are plenty of more "practical" courses, like this upcoming one on personal financial planning, that most people would surely benefit from.

Most of these courses don't require any background knowledge at all and just ask for enthusiastic participants who are eager to learn something new. The coursework involves watching lectures, and may include quizzes, problem sets, or essays. The beauty of Coursera is that in these days of escalating higher educations costs, people can now experience world-class education for free and genuinely learn amazing things that broaden their horizons. A small business owner could take an introductory economics class in the comfort of their own home and learn how to run a more efficient business. Or you could take a literature class and finally read some of those classics that were just too difficult to get through on your own.

Currently you can't get college credit for any of these courses, though some courses offer a certificate of completion if you obtain a certain grade. However, beginning in 2013, Coursera will offer some classes that grant college credit upon completion. These courses won't be free (though I'm sure they won't be prohibitively expensive) and the credit won't be valid at all academic insitutions. Ironically, the Ivy League institutions that offer so many of these classes are most likely to not accept college credit obtained on Coursera. It will be interesting to see how things change and develop over time. No one can deny the quality of the lectures that are currently available and people are just going to be clamoring for more.

So go forth to Coursera. There's a whole universe of knowledge to explore.

"Who Could That Be At This Hour?" Lemony Snicket, That's Who!

This weekend, I finally finished reading Parade's End, the tetralogy of novels by Ford Madox Ford that formed the basis of the excellent BBC miniseries I reviewed last month. A mammoth literary enterprise like that (906 pages of small font, to be exact) only serves to make one highly appreciative of simple children's books that pack in whimsy, humor, and literary entertainment in a few hundred widely-spaced pages littered with pictures. Which brings me to "Who Could That Be at This Hour?", the first novel in an upcoming tetralogy (what's with all the tetralogies?!) by Lemony Snicket.

Lemony Snicket (and yes, that's a nom de plume, no parent actually named their child that) is most famous for A Series of Unfortunate Events, a 13-book series that told the story of the three Baudelaire orphans who were being persecuted by their evil guardian, Count Olaf. The first three books were turned into a delightful movie starring Jim Carrey, but I guess it wasn't successful enough to warrant adaptations of the rest of the series. I started reading the books when six of them were out and continued to read them diligently until the very end. The series had a surprisingly intricate plot and I have often wanted to re-read the books back to back just so that I could get the full impact of the epic storyline that revealed so much about the Baudelaire's past and family history, as well as offering hints about Snicket's own dark past.

"Who Could That Be At This Hour?" is a story about Lemony Snicket himself, featuring his exploits as a thirteen-year old detective in some shadowy organization (shadowy organizations are a hallmark of any Snicket novel). The series is all about asking the wrong questions during an investigation (and in life in general) and this book is concerned with the alleged theft of a mysterious statue in an incredibly odd seaside town that is no longer by the sea. The town is populated by strange characters, Snicket's mentor is a remarkably incompetent woman who treats him terribly like most adults in the Snicket universe, and the novel posits many questions that baffle and delight the reader.

Snicket's narrative style is hilarious and charming. His books are incredibly witty, and although they are purported to be for young readers, they contain references and sly jokes that will tickle readers of any age. Sometimes I wonder how much children can really appreciate these novels, because if you just take them at face value, you are missing so much subtext. However, you should convince any children in your life to read these books when they are young so they can amass an impressive vocabulary, and then re-read them when they are older so that they can truly enjoy their weird and wonderful charm.

Children's novels contain some of the greatest stories in literature; the language is simple and the chapters are short, but the ideas can be just as fascinating as any novel for adults. So if you have been trying to get through a particularly lengthy tome like Anna Karenina, Great Expectations, or Parade's End, consider taking a break and delving into the bizarre world of Lemony Snicket.

Nashville: Country Music Gets Down and Dirty

After facing massive Friday Night Lights withdrawal, I was delighted to see that Connie Britton (aka Tammy Taylor) was returning to television with a starring role in Nashville. Created by Callie Khouri, who won an Oscar for her screenplay for Thelma & Louise, the show follows ABC's tradition of addictive, soapy drama featuring powerful female characters and engaging story lines.

Britton plays Rayna Jaymes, a well-respected country singer who is now past her prime. Her last album didn't sell well and her upcoming tour hasn't been selling out arenas like her managers hoped. Their solution is to have her co-headline a tour with Juliette Barnes, a young pop-country crossover artist who is beloved by tweens and makes the kind of music that Rayna hates. Juliette is played by Hayden Pannetiere, back to television after her memorable turn as the cheerleader on Heroes, and she plays a bitchy pretty young thing opposite Rayna's regal has-been.

The contrast between these two women is interesting and highlights the divide in country music, between the purists and the pop wannabes. Thrown into the crossfire is Deacon Clayborne (played by Charles Esten who used to feature on Whose Line is it Anyway? back in the day), who is Rayna's lead guitarist and co-wrote many of her songs. The two of them have a complicated romantic past, and now Juliette is trying to poach Deacon to be her guitarist and something more. In the meantime, Rayna has to deal with the fact that her manipulative father has coaxed her husband, Teddy, into running for mayor, a move that is laden with ulterior motives on all sides. There are several more characters and story lines, all interesting and engaging in their own right, but you'll just have to watch the show and get thoroughly invested in this world.

Of course, the most important part of any show about musicians is the quality of the music. And here's where Nashville has hit a home run. Callie Khouri is married to legendary music producer T. Bone Burnett who did the music for Walk the Line and Crazy Heart, amongst others. The first two episodes of Nashville featured original songs that were utterly bewitching and memorable. Later episodes have been slightly lackluster on the music front, focusing instead on the expanding complications of the various story arcs. But I'm certain Burnett will throw in some heartbreaking surprises throughout the season and make the show's soundtrack an album worth buying.

Nashville was a highly-anticipated show and it was well worth the hype. As the season progresses, I hope it continues to deliver the high quality promised by its initial episodes, with great music, amazing actors, and twists that keep you on your toes week after week.

The Mindy Project: One More Funny Woman on TV

The Mindy Project is one of the comedies turning Tuesday night into a multi-network must-see comedy night. Created by and starring Mindy Kaling (who was a writer on The Office, where she also played the crazy Kelly Kapoor), the show's first few episodes have been witty, charming, and self-effacing, much like Mindy herself. And on a personal note, it's always nice to see an Indian person on TV whose sole comedic purpose isn't to talk with a funny accent or lend color to the surroundings.

Kaling plays Mindy Lahiri, a thirtysomething OB-Gyn in New York who is obsessed with romantic comedies and wishes her life would resemble Sleepless in Seattle. She works in a small practice owned by a Dr. Shulman (the dependably funny Stephen Tobolowsky) and her fellow colleagues are Danny Castellano (played by Chris Messina, who you may recognize from The Newsroom) and Jeremy Reed (played by British actor, Ed Weeks). Danny is a grumpy Italian man, annoyed by Mindy's constant wittering about romantic comedy tropes. The two of them bicker constantly and are also trying to figure out who will inherit the practice once Dr. Shulman retires. In stark contrast, Jeremy is a footloose and fancy-free Englishman who has occasional "bedroom dates" with Mindy.

Sound familiar? The set-up is very reminiscent of Bridget Jones's Diary, with our heroine fooling around with the roguish cad but eventually falling in love with the man she thought she could not stand. If you eschew Bridget Jones for her Victorian counterpart, then Mindy is Elizabeth Bennet, Danny is Darcy, and Jeremy is the nefarious Mr. Wickham. But unlike Wickham or Daniel Cleaver, Jeremy isn't really taking advantage of Mindy - they're very clear that what they have is an "arrangement" and not a relationship. Kaling has clearly started her series off on a solid romcom footing and I look forward to seeing how her interactions with these men continue to evolve. Already, the dalliances with Jeremy have ceased because she has found a sports attorney named Josh who might be her love interest for a while.

What is much more fascinating is Mindy's relationship with Danny. Last week's episode, titled "Danny Castellano is my Gynecologist" was an utterly hilarious 22 minutes featuring an escalating power play between the two characters. Danny claims that he could be Mindy's gynecologist because he has no personal relationship with her and can treat her just like any other patient. Mindy decides to call his bluff and almost has to back down after the initial patient questionnaire which features a fascinating exchange as she tries to avoid Danny's probing questions about her lifestyle. However, she gets a pep talk from some friends, strengthens her resolve, and returns to Danny for the physical exam. At this point, he's the one who is thoroughly embarassed, and finally he has to give up, unable to even do a breast exam without breaking a cold sweat.

The Mindy Project is further proof that "women can be funny," which is still a contentious statement despite plenty of evidence to the contrary. Kaling was bizarre and hilarious on The Office and NBC showed extremely poor judgement by not picking up this series when they had the chance. However, regardless of which network she's on, Mindy Kaling continues to write brilliant episodes of television that showcase her talent and deliver pure entertainment.

How I Met Your Mother: Who's Your Mommy?

The premise of How I Met Your Mother is simple. Each week a man sits down with his teenage son and daughter in the year 2030 and proceeds to tell them the story of how he met their mother. However, the show is currently in its eighth season, and we still have no idea who the mother is. Which is a great lesson about TV - no matter what your premise, even if stated in the title, you don't have to actually stick to it.

The show is a half-hour sitcom with a laugh track, an antiquated notion in these sophisticated days of television comedy. However, it contains one of the best casts around, which accounts for its continuing success over the past eight years. Jason Segel (of Freaks & Geeks fame and now a leading man in comedies like The Muppets and The Five Year Engagement) plays Marshall Eriksen, who is married to Lily (played by the delightful Alyson Hannigan from Buffy and American Pie). The two are the stable couple at the center of this sitcom world and just had their first kid this season. Their best friend from college, Ted Mosby (Josh Radnor) is the guy telling the tale of how he met his wife, aka "the mother." 

The very first episode introduced Robin Scherbatsky (the lovely Cobie Smulders, most recently seen in The Avengers), a girl that Ted fell in love with at first sight. As a result, the audience assumed that she was the mother, until the episode ended with the voiceover explaining to the kids, "that's how I met your Aunt Robin." Despite knowing for sure that Robin wasn't the mother, the show proceeded to detail the rest of Ted and Robin's romance, which has gone through more ups and downs than Ross and Rachel. There's something crazy about the idea that the showrunners could indulge in several seasons of a TV romance when the audience already knows the outcome, but somehow it works.

The final member of the cast is Barney Stinson, played by the ever-hilarious Neil Patrick Harris (Dr. Horrible himself!). Barney is a loathsome womanizer, but Harris is so delightful and charming in the role that you never feel repulsed by Barney's constant parade of dumb blondes (and every other hair color imaginable). Later seasons have been particularly enjoyable because Barney is starting to grow up--albeit at a glacial pace--and last season's finale revealed who he ends up marrying. Now we get to watch that romance unfold, and the inevitability of it still doesn't spoil the story.

It seems clear that we will only find out who the mother is when the show enters its final season or faces cancellation. Till then, we'll have a parade of possibilities and frustrating red herrings. But who cares? Watching Marshall, Lily, Robin, Barney, and Ted indulge in crazy conversations and inane adventures throughout New York is more important than finding out who the mother is. How I Met Your Mother is not a revolutionary comedy but it certainly is a comforting one that delivers dependable laughs every Monday night. Ted's kids have been listening to this story for eight years - they can keep on listening for a few more. 

The Girl: Hitchcock Revealed

Alfred Hitchcock directed some of the most iconic movies of the 20th century (Psycho, anyone?) and was also immensely prolific. He directed more than fifty films, many of them instant classics, starring some of the most recognizable movie stars of the day, including Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jimmy Stewart, and Ingrid Bergman. While I am partial to those stars and their early Hitchcock films, like Suspicion or Rear Window, Hitchcock's last great muse was the actress Tippi Hedren. She was plucked from obscurity to be his next blonde leading lady, and together they made two movies: The Birds and Marnie. Last month, HBO Films released The Girl, a behind-the-scenes look at the twisted relationship between Hitchcock and Hedren.

Sienna Miller plays Tippi Hedren while Toby Jones effortlessly slips into the shoes of Alfred Hitchcock. The Girl follows their relationship from the very beginning when Hitchcock is attempting to replace his former muse Grace Kelly, who has inconsiderately left Hollywood to become Princess Grace of Monaco. His wife, Alma (played by the great Imelda Staunton) spots Hedren in a TV commercial and encourages Hitch to call her in for an audition. Everyone in the industry knows that Hitchcock is looking for a star for his latest venture, The Birds, but the guileless Hedren imagines she is in the running for a bit part - after all, who would cast a complete unknown as the star of a huge movie? But Hitchcock knows what he likes, and he likes Hedren. 

Filming commences on The Birds and Hedren is thrilled to have the part. She has a daughter to support (if you didn't know, that daughter is future actress Melanie Griffith) and this opportunity seems like a chance of a lifetime to provide for her child and pursue her acting ambitions. Hitchcock and Alma coach her extensively, revealing just how involved Hitch got in every level of filmmaking. Unfortunately, this time, he gets a bit too involved. He develops an obsession with the beautiful Hedren, one that is psychosexually disturbing enough to be worthy of a Hitchcock film in its own right. Hedren firmly rejects his advances leading to scenes of deliberate psychological manipulation throughout the filming of The Birds. He withholds crucial information from Hedren, subjecting her to a cruel series of filming days where she is repeatedly pecked and scratched by real birds, instead of the mechanical puppets that she had been expecting. But she stoically endures his twisted punishments, hoping that if she doesn't give in, he'll just give up.

Like any HBO film, The Girl is beautifully made, with painstaking attention paid to costumes, make-up, and locations. Scenes from Marnie and The Birds are vividly recreated and you can often forget that you aren't actually watching Tippi Hedren on screen. It's a fairly dull story for someone with no interest in Hitchcock, but it's quite fascinating for a Hitchcock fan and is based on a biography by Donald Spoto. It's interesting to see that the man who made such a study of disturbing human psyches was so skewed himself, and I now want to read more biographies to get a sense of how he treated his other leading ladies. Overall, The Girl is a revealing look at a famous Hollywood duo and illustrates that sometimes, real life can be just as creepy as a Hitchcock film. 

The Casual Vacancy: Rowling Tackles the Real World

As a huge Harry Potter fan, it was inevitable that I would read The Casual Vacancy, J.K. Rowling's latest novel for Adults with a capital "A." (Seriously, this is not a book for children.) The novel features an intriguing cast of characters and a compelling story, but it isn't a book I will ever want to re-read. It's certainly a departure from Hogwarts.

The title refers to an opening on the Pagford Parish Council, after Barry Fairbrother, a council member of long standing, drops dead from a stroke. His death comes at a particularly crucial juncture because the Council is deeply divided on the issue of the Fields, an estate filled with cheap housing for low-income families that encroached on the prim and proper Pagford's boundaries in the 1950s and has served as a blight on the populace ever since. Barry was a boy from the Fields who was able to attend Pagford's good schools instead of the more run-down schools in the city of Yarvil and became a successful man with a lovely house and family in Pagford. As a result, he was keen to ensure that the Fields remained in Pagford's district so that future low-income youth could make good like he did. Unfortunately, the current Fields youth don't emulate Barry's hardworking attitude and good behavior, and most of the Pagford Parish Council espouse a thoroughly anti-Fields sentiment.

Barry's death sparks a fight for the open Council seat, with three candidates entering the election race for markedly different reasons. We get an insight into these candidates, their families, and the wider populace of Pagford and the Fields, who are a bunch of insular small town folk that thrive on gossip and rumor. Things start getting vicious and it becomes clear that there are no happy families in Pagford. And throughout the narrative, there's the bleak reality of the fight between the haves and the have-nots, neither of whom seem to have right on their side.

The Casual Vacancy is a remarkably relevant book, all about what society owes to its more downtrodden members and the role of the fortunate in helping those less fortunate. Rowling has a talent for portraying everyday people and each character is vivid and memorable. The novel is chock-full of interconnected story lines and tangled relationships that build up to a thundering finale. But don't expect to feel any joy or elation upon reaching the conclusion. Unlike the Potter series, this is not a tale where good triumphs over evil. That's what makes it a story about the real world and not a fantasy.

Looper: Time Traveling Assassins

Most sci-fi movies start out as successful books that are then translated to film. It is then to Looper's credit that it feels as complete and well-thought as a work of literature even though it is a completely original screenplay from the mind of writer-director Rian Johnson.

Looper tells the story of Joe Simmons (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who is an assassin (known as a looper) in the year 2044. 30 years in the future, time travel will be invented, but it is deemed dangerous and outlawed. The only people who use it are criminal syndicates, who send their enemies to a predetermined location 30 years in the past, where a looper is waiting with a gun to instantly kill the target and dispose of the body. Body disposal is nearly impossible in the future where everyone is closely tracked and monitored, which is why mobsters came up with the loopers. Of course, criminals can't afford to have their hired assassins running around free either, so every looper has the following stipulation in his contract - eventually, the target he kills will be himself, i.e. his future self, and that is called "closing the loop." After that, he is released from his contract and free to enjoy the next 30 years before his inevitable death.

The conflict arises when Joe meets his future self (played by Bruce Willis) and fails to kill him. Turns out Old Joe has a few tricks up his sleeve and won't let the mob or his past self kill him before he accomplishes his ultimate goal. He needs to track down a certain person called the Rainmaker who is wreaking havoc in the future, because he believes that killing this individual will allow him to continue his future life without any reprisals. Young Joe is desperate to kill Old Joe because failure to "close the loop" means that he might be killed by his bosses. And so begins a twisted and dangerous plot as the two loopers chase each other while being chased by the mob.

Movies about time travel are always complex and require a set of rules and regulations to explain how everything works. Looper does an excellent job of explaining the rules without making it feel like a lot of wearisome exposition, and the plot is thrilling and unpredictable. The finale is shocking and helps close a lot of problematic loopholes that the topic of time travel must invariably open. The movie also features moments of ultraviolence, but given the movie's scope and setting, that is only to be expected. And the acting is great, with Joseph Gordon-Levitt doing a credible job of playing young Bruce Willis with the help of some prosthetic make-up that can sometimes be distracting but at other times is disconcertingly convincing.

Looper is a reminder that Hollywood can still come up with original high-concept stories that are both thought-provoking and entertaining. This movie may not be for everyone, but fans of sci-fi and/or time travel should give it a try. This is a fresh take on an always fascinating topic and has been executed almost flawlessly.

Skyfall: Plumbing the Depths of James Bond

 Skyfall has largely been touted as the best Bond movie to date. For me, that honor still belongs to Casino Royale, largely due to the novelty of Daniel Craig as the brutish, bloodied reincarnation of Bond. However, Skyfall is certainly a top Bond movie, and continues the trend of lending more depth and dimension to this character that was getting dangerously cartoonish.

The central plot of Skyfall involves MI6's attempts to retrieve a stolen hard disk that contains the names of agents working undercover in terrorist organizations across the globe. M (the ever engaging Judi Dench) has to make some tough calls, resulting in the apparent death of 007 himself, but (and this shouldn't be a spoiler), Bond returns after a three-month hiatus and is back on the case. It becomes clear that M is being persecuted by someone from her past who has stolen this hard disk to instigate a personal vendetta. That person turns out to be the movie's supervillain, Silva, played by a very blonde and wonderfully twisted Javier Bardem. Silva might be one of my favorite Bond villains to date - his interactions with Bond and M are creepy and hilarious in equal measure, which is a difficult feat to accomplish. In some scenes, you can almost imagine Daniel Craig is trying to control his laughter as he watches Bardem engage in typically villainous prose.

The Bond girls (Naomie Harris and Bérénice Lim Marlohe) serve their usual purpose, although Harris' character has a small surprise in store. There are chase sequences, explosions, and brutal fights where Craig reminds us that his Bond is more interested in hand-to-hand combat than firing a pistol and keeping his suit tidy. And the movie's title, Skyfall, is a reference to a part of Bond's past that helps explain how 007 became the man he is. The movie is action-packed but also packs an emotional punch in the finale, which highlights the franchise's attempts to become more than just a series of slick and predictable action sequences. Along the way there are a lot of sly and hilarious references to prior Bond movies, including a cameo by a particularly beloved car.

Skyfall pokes fun at its origins but reminds us why James Bond still holds sway in our hearts 50 years after his first appearance on movie screens. Some of the action sequences feel over-long and tiresome, but the emotional pay-off is well worth it and 50 years down the road, we are reminded of how little we know about James Bond. Hopefully, future movies will continue to offer insights into this enigmatic character and ensure the franchise is well and truly shaken, not stirred.

Madagascar 3: Three Is Enough

Last week (before Hurricane Sandy took away my electricity), I watched the third entry in the animated Madagascar series. For those unfamiliar with the movies, they feature four main animals - Alex the lion (voiced by Ben Stiller), Melman the giraffe (David Schwimmer), Marty the zebra (Chris Rock), and Gloria the hippo (Jada Pinkett-Smith) who escape from the Central Park Zoo and wind up in their ancestral home of Africa. Of course, having been born and raised in a zoo, they are thoroughly unequipped to deal with their natural habitat, which makes for much of the comedy in the first two movies.

Unfortunately, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted features the animals traveling to Europe and joining a circus to make their way back across the Atlantic to New York City. The animation is spot-on and the locales of Monte Carlo, Rome, and London look lovely, but the story is fairly lacking. Our four leads have to come up with their own circus acts as well as encourage the other circus animals who have lost their zest for performing. Once the acts are organized, the audience is subjected to a colorful, bewildering, acid trip of a circus act set to Katy Perry's "Firework," which should really feature a warning for anyone prone to photoepileptic seizures.

The movie is big on spectacle, small on story, and signals that it's time to call it quits on this franchise. However, as far as I can remember, it was #1 at the box office this summer, so undoubtedly further sequels will be in the works. Like always, the voice acting is great, and Chris Rock's circus jingle is an earworm that I keep humming at odd intervals. I just hope that the story lines keep up with the voice talent and gorgeous animation. After all the movies are titled, "Madagascar" so you can't really move the action to other continents. And every studio executive knows that there's no need to re-invent the wheel if you have a winning formula. Stick to the African antics and you have a hit on your hands.

Prometheus: The Origin of Mankind

Not being a devotee of Ridley Scott's Alien series, I didn't have much invested in Prometheus, Scott's return to sci-fi moviemaking that is a sort-of prequel to the Alien franchise. I finally watched it on my flight back home and while it was a fun foray into the future, I can see why the more rabid fans were disappointed.

Prometheus is the name of a spaceship that has set off on a mission to a distant moon that may explain where human beings came from (apparently Darwin had it wrong). The lead investigator, Elizabeth Shaw (played by the fantastic Noomi Rapace who is the new Sigourney Weaver), fervently believes that aliens came to planet Earth and served as the forebears of humanity. She and her partner, Charlie Holloway (played by Logan Marshall-Green), have found pictograms from disparate early human civilizations that all feature the same pattern suggesting alien activity. So obtaining financing from the Weyland Corporation, they set off on Prometheus with a crew of scientists, a corporate supervisor (the stone-cold Meredith Vickers, played by Charlize Theron), and David, an incredibly lifelike android that is trained to take care of the spaceship while the rest of the crew are in stasis during the four-year journey. David is played by the always fascinating Michael Fassbender, who makes it impossible to figure out the android's motivations. Robots are always unpredictable in any sci-fi setting and David is no exception.

 Once the crew reaches the alien moon, they are faced with apparent desolation. All the aliens have been wiped out but there are a series of caves and tunnels that have surprisingly ambient conditions to support human life. Of course, these tunnels also contain clues about how our supposed ancestors were killed, and the human scientists might be in danger of following suit. One by one, members of the Prometheus crew fall victim to bizarre creatures that have been lurking in the shadows. Of note, Noomi Rapace is featured in a brilliant sequence that is an ode to Alien's most famous scene (you know the one).

The world of Prometheus is fully realized and makes for a thrilling action movie. But if you also require a good story, you're out of luck. The ending doesn't offer any answers, only more questions, which appeals to philosophers but not moviegoers. It's half popcorn movie, half serious treatise, and those are genres that don't mesh well. Watch Prometheus with moderate expectations and you will be entertained. Expect anything more and you will be frustrated. 

To Rome With Love: Farce and Fantasy in Italy

Woody Allen's romp through Europe has now brought him to The Eternal City, with an all-star cast of Americans and Italians stumbling through a series of ridiculous and comic mishaps in Roma.

To Rome with Love features four separate stories, with no connecting thread apart from the fact that they're all based in Rome. In one tale, Allen and Judy Davis play an American couple who are meeting their daughter's Italian fiance for the first time. Allen, a former opera director, hears his daughter's prospective father-in-law singing a glorious aria in the shower and decides that he must showcase this man's talent, even against the wishes of his horrified family. In another story, Roberto Benigni plays an ordinary family man who works as a clerk but wakes up one day to discover that he has become inexplicably famous and is dogged everywhere by the paparazzi. What follows is an amusing treatise on the culture of being famous for being famous, and the fleeting nature of this undeserved fame.

A third story features a naive Italian couple who have arrived in Rome for their honeymoon and are promptly separated due to unforseen circumstances. The new bride faces temptation when she arrives at a film set featuring some of her favorite Italian actors, including a particularly amorous leading man, while the new groom has to deal with a prostitute (played by Allen's latest muse, Penelope Cruz) who mistakenly arrives in his hotel room and has to pretend to be his wife when his relatives see them in a compromising position. The fourth and final story follows Alec Baldwin, playing an architect named John who is vacationing in Rome and runs into Jack (Jesse Eisenberg), a student who lives in the same house where John lived as a student 30 years ago. Jack invites him home, and John proceeds to become a mentor to the hapless Jack, who is living with his girlfriend Sally (Greta Gerwig), but is fascinated with her visiting best friend, Monica (played by Ellen Page, in a hysterical role as an extremely pretentious and narcissistic actress).

These disparate anecdotes are equally funny and inane. Each story has its own neurotic Woody Allen character, whether it's Jesse Eisenberg, Alessandro Tiberi as the worried Italian newlywed, Roberto Benigni, or Allen himself. And each tale features a series of observations about life, people, and the complexities of human relationships. It's a hodgepodge of observations made throughout Allen's movies, but they're still universal and hysterical. There's also a nice helping of farce and over-the-top screwball antics that keep you in stitches even as you consider the absurdity of what you're watching.

Unlike Allen's other European movies, To Rome With Love doesn't evoke the same fascination with the film's locale. Match Point was a classy British enterprise, Midnight in Paris was laced with French attitudes, Vicky Cristina Barcelona had a distinctly Spanish sensibility. Almost one-half of the dialogue in To Rome With Love is conducted in Italian, but it feels like a movie that could have taken place anywhere. Rome has nothing to do with the plot apart from supplying the language. But perhaps that is Allen's greatest observation about humanity. Whether you're in Rome, Paris, or the Upper East Side, people are still having the same ridiculous conversations and getting into ridiculous situations.

The Amazing Spider-Man: Spidey's Back!

When The Amazing Spider-Man came out this summer, everyone had something to say about how unnecessary it was. Rebooting the franchise when the last Spider-Man movie (Spider-Man 3) came out a mere 5 years ago in 2007 certainly seemed silly. But people forget that Batman Begins came out just 8 years after the last Batman & Robin movie, and that worked out just fine for Christopher Nolan and Christan Bale. The Amazing Spider-Man is no Batman Begins, but it's a serviceable reboot nonetheless.

The best thing about any reboot is getting a brand new cast that brings a fresh perspective to an aging franchise. By the time Spider-Man 3 came around, Tobey Maguire was no longer embodying the best of Peter Parker. So it is refreshing to have Andrew Garfield step in as Spidey. He brings a different energy to the character of Peter Parker - he's still a bullied nerd, but rather than silently putting up with it, this incarnation puts up more of a fight. Even before he's bitten by that infamous spider, Peter is standing up to bullies and trying to fight his own battles, albeit unsuccessfully. The old Spider-Man was a bit of a schlub who only became heroic once he had superpowers. This Spider-Man is already a hero - he just needs the superpowers to get stuff done.

Another difference from prior movies is the love interest. Instead of red-headed Mary Jane Watson, we get blonde Gwen Stacy, whose father happens to be a NYPD police captain. Gwen is played by the always-delightful Emma Stone, who gives us a 21st century version of a superhero's girlfriend. Gwen and Peter share a witty and delightful chemistry that makes it clear that they're a couple on an equal footing. Interestingly, Peter reveals his identity to Gwen pretty early on in their relationship, thereby lightening the traditional superhero burden of being the only one harboring a massive secret. For her part, Gwen is no hapless heroine just waiting to be rescued every five minutes. Instead, she works with Peter, trying to help him chase down the villainous Dr. Connors, and illustrates that she can be intelligent and resourceful even if she lacks a superpower.

The movie's plot is pretty standard, and the origin story isn't revamped in any particularly ingenious way. We get a little more of Peter's family history, and there's some mystery surrounding his father's experiments, but otherwise we all know the story about how Peter Parker became Spider-Man. Rhys Ifans plays a serviceable villain with some complexity to him since he isn't completely evil. And I imagine the movie looked pretty stunning on the big screen. Spider-Man's flights through the city are exhilarating and fun, and even though I saw it on a small screen, I could appreciate the grand scale of the action. Garfield's movements are expertly choreographed and there are many shots that feel like a page right out of the comic books.

The Amazing Spider-Man is a typical superhero movie, but it is elevated by the excellence of its cast. Andrew Garfield has successfully put a new spin on a classic character and turned him into a hero in the true sense of the word.