Man Up: Splendidly Screwball Romance

To me, witty banter is the hallmark of a good romantic comedy. The verbal give-and-take between the lead actors is what causes the crackling chemistry that makes you want them to overcome all obstacles, fall in love, and live happily ever after. This is why I love the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 40s. And this is why I found myself so charmed by Man Up, a wonderfully sweet British romcom that features plenty of verbal sparring and sparks.

Lake Bell (with a formidable British accent) plays Nancy, a 34-year old woman who hasn't been in a relationship for a while and is bitter and lonely. She runs into Jack (a dashingly sweet Simon Pegg), a 40-year old man who is trying to get over his recent divorce and thinks that Nancy is the blind date his friend arranged for him. In true madcap romcom fashion, Nancy allows that misunderstanding to continue, and the two of them embark on a lovely date wandering across London. As they head into bars and stroll along, they discover more about each other, and despite the mistaken identity, there's no mistaking the instant connection between the two of them.

Both Bell and Pegg are wonderful comic actors and there is an ease to their rapport as they let their conversations spiral into all sorts of delirious tangents that are hysterical and heartwarming. The supporting cast is stuffed with some great British actors that keep things entertaining and delightful till the very end. Of course, Nancy cannot keep up the charade indefinitely, but the movie only gets maudlin for a brief moment before launching into full-scale, over-the-top, grand romantic gestures in a fashion that is reminiscent of Love Actually and other great British romantic comedies that believe in going big or going home.

Written by Tess Morris and directed by Ben Palmer, Man Up came and went fairly quickly in theatres. But now is the perfect time to discover it and add it to your collection of truly witty and wonderful comedies. Featuring two actors at the top of their game and a delightfully zippy plot (the entire movie takes place in one day, which is always one of my favorite storytelling devices), this movie serves as a reminder that the art of the romantic comedy is alive and well. 

Magic Mike XXL: How to Make a Woman Smile

It's hard to even contemplate watching Magic Mike XXL without giggling. It's a movie about a bunch of male strippers going to Myrtle Beach for an annual stripper convention. There's nothing serious about this plot. And yet the reason this is a good movie is that it has such straightforward ambition. It wants to make you smile, laugh, and enjoy yourself. And it fully succeeds in doing so.

The second sentence of this review has already given away the entire plot. Channing Tatum, Joe Manganiello, Matt Bomer, Adam Rodriguez, and Kevin Nash get together, sit in a van, and go on a road trip. Along the way, they have some adventures that involve honing their craft with gleeful abandon in assorted venues. While Magic Mike was a more serious story about a man who is fed up with the stripping game and eventually chucks it all to start a furniture business, Magic Mike XXL is a look at the camaraderie and joy that can be associated with this ridiculous enterprise. At the beginning of the movie, there is a splendid scene where we see Channing Tatum dance by himself in his furniture workshop. It is a meticulously choreographed piece of art, one that immediately tells you how much pleasure this man takes in movement, and how he needs this one last adventure before he returns to respectability.

The rest of the movie follows in that same vein. All of these men know that this will be their final show, and therefore, they wax philosophical about what it is that stripping means to them. In one immensely memorable scene, they dare Big Dick Richie (Manganiello, in probably his least subtly named role) to walk into a convenience store and do anything to make the glum-looking cashier smile. It's a fun and surprisingly sweet moment and highlights that this is no misogynist enterprise. It seems odd to call a movie starring five dudes a "women's picture," but that is ultimately what it becomes. These men love what they do because it makes women happy, and that's the only goal.

There are some fun cameos from fantastic actresses like Elizabeth Banks, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Andie MacDowell. They all have very different relationships with these men, but they all get along famously and collaborate as true equals to get the show on the road. And of course, every single performance is a well-honed delight. The story may be silly, but these performances are taken incredibly seriously. Every actor delivers to the best of their abilities, none more so than Channing Tatum. After watching Magic Mike XXL, I can't say I have any desire to actually participate in such an event in real life (the way some of the women get thrown around during a performance seems guaranteed to give me a hernia), but I am glad I got to watch it on screen. Sure it's sexy, but mostly, it's enormously entertaining, good-hearted, and guaranteed to make you smile. 

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl: Growing Up & Making Movies

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl was written by Jesse Andrews (adapted from his novel of the same name) and directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, a man who has always had a passion for movies. In high school, he would borrow friends' cameras to make short films, and then he embarked on a career in Hollywood by becoming a personal assistant to stalwart directors like Martin Scorsese and Nora Ephron. His passion for filmmaking is evident throughout this film, both because its protagonist is a teenage boy who makes bizarre and wonderful short films, but also because the movie itself is a self-referential, winking ode to the power of storytelling and cinema.

Thomas Mann plays Greg, a high school senior who has carefully navigated the social world of adolescence and established a reputation as someone who is affable and gets along with everyone while not actually being friends with anyone. He has constructed a careful veneer of anonymity so he inspires zero comment. But all of that changes when his parents (played by the fantastic duo of Connie Britton and Nick Offerman) force him to go see Rachel (Olivia Cooke), a girl who goes to his school and has just been diagnosed with leukemia. He is extremely reluctant to visit her, and she is extremely reluctant to receive a pity visit, but they endure it for the sake of their pushy mothers. And of course, what follows is a sweet and awkward friendship, inspired by their weird sense of humor and the oddity of their personal circumstances.

That takes care of "Me" and "the Dying Girl." The last member of the trio is Earl (RJ Cyler), who is a kid that Greg makes ridiculous short film parodies with. They take classic movies, change the titles to puns (so for example, Rashomon becomes Monorash), and film them with low-budget homemade special effects. Despite the fact that they have made dozens of films together, Greg still refers to Earl as his "colleague," because he thinks having friends is some sort of vulnerability. However, Greg, Rachel, and Earl clearly form a fast friendship, and not labeling it as such doesn't make it any less true.

The entire movie is narrated by Greg, who directly addresses the audience, breaking the fourth wall and drawing you into this engaging story. And apart from the central trio, every single character in this movie has some thoroughly weird and novel backstory; Greg's father is a connoisseur of exotic foods, the students at his high school are a motley collection of oddballs, and even Mr. McCarthy (Jon Bernthal), the History teacher, gets to deliver a touching spiel about his dead father that has its own little moral. This is a perfect movie for people who love storytelling and unpredictability.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is bittersweet and lovely, and brimming with characters that resemble no one you have ever met before. It suggests that we are all a bunch of weirdos with our own little tales to tell. It is remarkable to watch where these characters end up, and at the end, you have a story that is poignant and satisfying. The tone of this movie is darkly comic and sarcastic, but it has a soft center that will grab your heart and soul. There's a reason it won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Sundance this year; watch and learn how a tiny movie about three strange kids can bring an audience roaring to its feet.

Jurassic World: Nostalgic Entertainment

If you loved Jurassic Park, Jurassic World is certain to entertain you. It is emphatically and unapologetically a nostalgic reboot of a beloved franchise. It follows all the familiar tropes and features characters that are all doing what they're supposed to as prescribed by Hollywood. And it's a formula that makes for two hours of fun mindless entertainment.

Bryce Dallas Howard plays Claire Dearing, the park operations manager of Jurassic World, a theme park that has been opened on Isla Nublar after all the horrors of the original Jurassic Park. The team have learned from their mistakes and this new park feels like Disney World - it is carefully curated to maximize the tourists' exposure to these prehistoric creatures, while keeping the dinosaurs carefully controlled according to their level of danger. Chris Pratt plays Owen Grady, a Navy veteran who is part of a research project to train the park's Velociraptors. He develops a reputation as a raptor whisperer, serving as the "alpha" who can get the beasts to follow his lead. However, while he thinks he is engaging in a simple study to understand these creatures, it is actually part of a much more nefarious plan.

In the meantime, attendance at Jurassic World is down, so the geneticists have developed a new hybrid dinosaur called the Indominus Rex. We arrive at a weekend when Claire has to juggle wooing investors with the thoughts of the money they will make when tourists come flocking to see the new attraction, and babysitting her two nephews who have come to visit her for a vacation. Of course, Claire is a woman with an Anna Wintour bob, attired in a white suit and spiky stilettos, so we know she can't deal with children. She sends them off with VIP passes to tour the park, but a short while later, she will have to team up with Owen to rescue her nephews as they end up lost in the park with a bloodthirsty Indominus Rex on the rampage. You can't complain that's a spoiler - what else did you expect from this movie?

Pratt is always a joy to watch and Howard gamely holds her own as they trample through Jurassic World trying to dodge dinosaurs and rescue the moppets. Irrfan Khan also has a surprising but welcome turn as Simon Masrani, the billionaire owner of the park, who tries to do some good when the bad guys reveal their motives for wreaking havoc across the park. Obviously it is 2015, so the special effects are fantastic, and the dinosaurs are as wonderful and varied as you would want them to be. And despite the high-stakes action and drama, the movie doesn't forget to give you some jokes and lighten the tension whenever possible.

Jurassic World is certainly epic in scope, and the latter half of the movie amasses quite an impressive death toll. However, at its core, it is a supremely fun movie, a thrilling adventure that is comforting in its predictability while still subverting some tropes. Deftly directed by Colin Trevorrow, this film doesn't take itself too seriously, and is a loving homage to everything that made the original movie such a pleasure to watch. None of the characters feel fully fleshed out, and the plot certainly leaps about with abandon, but who cares? We have fights featuring raptors and the beloved T. rex, pterodactyls swooping in from the sky, and some pulse-pounding action sequences punctuated with witty banter. It's simply a joy to watch. 

Ex Machina: Robot Rights

If you're looking for a film that will thrill you and creep you out in equal measure, Ex Machina is the film you seek. An eerie futuristic tale about what happens when you develop artificial intelligence that craves free will, it is a visually arresting, mind-bending morality play.

Domhnall Gleeson plays Caleb Smith, a computer programmer who wins a company lottery to spend a week with the visionary CEO, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac). Nathan lives in a beautiful house in the middle of nowhere with only one mute servant named Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno). This is where he conducts cutting-edge research that will add to his genius reputation, and Caleb is eager to see what new discoveries Nathan will share with him. After signing lengthy non-disclosure agreements, Caleb is finally introduced to Ava (Alicia Vikander), a robot equipped with incredible artificial intelligence that makes her nearly indistinguishable from a human. Caleb's task is to have multiple conversations with Ava, engaging in a Turing test to see whether she truly could pass for human.

Ex Machina was an independent film with a small budget and almost all of that money went to designing Ava's look. It's money well spent. Every scene was filmed with and without Alicia Vikander and then digitally altered so her face and hands remain human, but her scalp, arms, and legs are transparent and filled with wires, to remind us that this humanoid entity is only a machine. However, as the movie progresses, Ava starts wearing wigs and clothes, covering up her robot features and convincing Caleb that she deserves all the rights of an actual human being. Her motives are always in question, and it's impossible to tell when the lines between human and robot truly get blurred. It's a phenomenal performance, and Vikander deserves multiple awards for it.

Oscar Isaac and Domhnall Gleeson also put in riveting performances as the cold, venal tech billionaire and the intelligent but lowly employee with a bleeding heart. Nathan sees Ava solely as a game-changing invention and is not remotely touched by her humanity. Caleb, however, quickly looks beyond her robotic origins, becoming horrified as he discovers more of his employer's secrets and the inventions that preceded Ava. The movie starts out slow and cerebral, but it ramps up to a bloody and brilliant climax that leaves you reeling in your seat and makes you question whether you can truly tell the difference between good and evil, free will and determinism, human and machine.

Written and directed by Alex Garland, Ex Machina is an example of the scintillating filmmaking that can currently be accomplished with a small budget and technical wizardry. These special effects would have been expensive and impossible in previous years, but now they are dexterously wielded to enhance the look of the film and propel the plot forward. This is an extremely visceral and thought-provoking movie, a modern retelling of Frankenstein that will make you claw at your skin, hold your breath, and debate questions of science, ethics, gender politics, and philosophy. Watch it immediately. 

Amy: A Harrowing Tale

Directed by virtuoso British filmmaker Asif Kapadia, Amy is a documentary about the troubled life of singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse. The movie came and went fairly quickly in theaters this summer, as most documentaries are wont to do, but you can now watch it on DVD or streaming. It is a thoughtful, sobering, impossibly sad look at the price of fame and fortune in the modern era.

The startling thing about Amy is the amount of archival footage the filmmakers were able to obtain. Because Amy Winehouse was born in 1983, she was surrounded by camcorders (and later mobile phones), allowing her friends and family to document her childhood and teenage years well before she was famous. In these videos, we get the sense of the ordinary and fun-loving girl she was. She had warm friends, a loving but messy relationship with her divorced parents, and that extraordinary voice that would bring her adulation and recognition but ultimately serve as her downfall.

We follow the story of Amy's career - the initial foray into jazz clubs and low-key venues, the introduction to a record label, and the 2003 release of her acclaimed debut album, Frank. Her artistry, not just as a vocalist, but as a poetic lyricist, is touted throughout the film, with her handwritten words floating on the screen alongside her mesmerizing voice singing many previously unheard of songs. Composer Antonio Pinto also provides a beautiful background score in between her own music that underscores the beauty and grief of her life. Her love and passion for music is what comes across most powerfully in all the TV and radio interviews she did; watching that waste away is what breaks your heart.

Amy faced many struggles. As a young teen she suffered from bulimia. As she became more famous and started to face more pressure, she turned to drugs and alcohol. She fell into tempestuous relationships with similarly troubled men who could only enable her addictions instead of  helping her. Her friends, family, and employers had no idea how to stop her downward spiral - at one point they convinced her to go to rehab, where we get deeply ironic footage of her singing, "They tried to make me go to Rehab, I said, 'No, no, no.'" But after brief spells of sobriety, she always fell back into her old ways. Despite her soaring career and her 2008 Grammy wins for her second album, Back to Black, her personal life was a continually poisonous mess of addiction and insecurity.

The overwhelming emotion you will experience while watching Amy is sadness, not anger. The movie is not interested in blaming anyone for her circumstances - they were a perfect storm that conspired to destroy her utterly. Towards the end, her worried family and friends were all on the sidelines, unaware of how dire things have gotten and how they could possibly help. Her bodyguard was the only remaining person who was close to her; he knew she was being pushed beyond her limits, but he too could do nothing to stop it. We see her increasingly erratic performances, her fading confidence, her distressing appearance, and finally arrive at 23 July 2011, when her body was carried out of her house. Ultimately, Amy is a sad and powerful documentary that celebrates the music of a true genius but also mourns the songs that we will never get to hear.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation: Predictable Fun

I recently traveled to Singapore, which entailed 40 hours total on a plane. This gave me the opportunity to watch every single movie I missed this summer, so you can expect a slew of movie reviews to catch you up on the 2015 releases that are now available on DVD. First up, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation.

This movie got great reviews when it came out. However, since I only watched it after seeing Spectre, I was struck by the similarities between the Mission: Impossible and Bond franchises. Both feature super spies who run around engaging in death-defying stunts, charming sexy ladies with questionable motives, and gruffly dealing with geeky boffins who provide tech support that is in need of excessive troubleshooting. And this time around, both men have gone rogue, relying on their friends to provide back-up as they go against the orders of their respective countries to investigate a shadowy criminal organization and expose corruption at the highest levels of government.

So what makes Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt different from Daniel Craig's James Bond? Well one is uniquely British, while the other is uniquely American. This mean that the Mission: Impossible movies will always have this veneer of earnestness, a sense of the important righteousness of the leading man's crusade, which is in vast contrast to the coolly ironic self-deprecation of a Bond film. Tom Cruise never disappoints as an action star but he certainly does not kindle any romantic flames like Daniel Craig can. As a result, Mission: Impossible is the perfect summer blockbuster; a fun action-filled romp that will keep you vastly entertained, but will not require any use of your brain.

I was quite impressed with Rebecca Ferguson, the leading lady who plays Ilsa Faust in the movie. She holds her own in a myriad of action sequences with Cruise, beating up villains, toting guns, riding bikes and generally kicking ass, all while wearing impossibly high heels that made my feet hurt just by looking at them. However, she certainly comes in for her fair share of objectification over the course of this movie. While the Bond movies have never been a feminist paradise, generally Bond is also required to strip down and engage in some amorous foreplay. In Mission: Impossible, the heroine seems to constantly be reduced to some state of undress, while Hunt has one shirtless scene and then spends the rest of the movie in earnest fist fights, with almost no hint of romantic chemistry with the half-dressed woman beside him.

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation is a great piece of entertainment, an action-packed fun film that delivers exactly what you expect. It also features Simon Pegg as Benji, the requisite tech support guy, who offers up the British sarcasm and comic relief you need to keep this franchise from getting too self-important. While James Bond is still my go-to for action with a dash of lust and intelligence, Mission: Impossible is certainly a viable option for people who are going to the movies for completely predictable escapism. You don't always know what you're going to get with a Bond movie, but you certainly know what you're going to get with Mission: Impossible. 

Mockingjay - Part 2: A Bittersweet Finale

I dearly loved The Hunger Games books and the movies. Therefore, I approached the finale, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2, with a heavy heart, knowing it would be my last chance to spend time with Katnis Everdeen. Unfortunately, like the final book, the final movie couldn't measure up to its predecessors. While it's a decent film, it didn't meet my impossibly high expectations.

The movie picks up with Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) in the sick bay, trying to get her voice back after being violently strangled by the brainwashed Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). Furious at the Capitol for turning the gentle Peeta into a monster, Katniss throws herself into the Rebel cause, going into battle to help turn all the remaining Districts against the Capitol and bring down President Snow once and for all. Like the previous movies, this one is meticulously faithful to the books, following Katniss's crusade, President Coin's careful manipulation of the Rebel propaganda machine, and the subsequent heart-pounding race through the booby-trapped Capitol, which serves as an arena for the series' bitter conclusion. The action sequences are spot-on and director Francis Lawrence is able to ratchet up the tension and fear at every moment. Even when you know what's coming, you're not quite sure when and how it will happen, and there are enough visceral surprises to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Where the movie fails is in its emotional moments. The dialogue feels far too corny and stilted, prosaic in comparison to the distinctly unnatural events taking place in the rest of the movie. The actors are all delivering fantastic performances, but the script doesn't pack the emotional heft of the previous films. Part of this might be due to the movie's incredibly grim tone. There is absolutely no comic relief on offer this time around - everyone is angry or defeated and even the garish colors of the Capitol have been darkened by war. When faced with the relentless onslaught of death and destruction, it is impossible to care any more about the Katniss-Gale-Peeta love triangle or take refuge in the bittersweet hope offered at the end. Too many people have died and the war has taken its toll. While the characters have years to recover and regain some sense of optimism by the movie's coda, the audience doesn't have that luxury.

The Hunger Games tells an extremely powerful story and I exhort everyone to read the books and watch these films. While I may not have enjoyed the ending, the more I think about it, the more it seems destined to be a story that will always be unsatisfying. A series that begins with the premise of children killing each other in an arena for sport cannot possibly end with the words, "and they lived happily ever after." The finale delivered by the author, Suzanne Collins, and the film's director, Francis Lawrence, offers up the only palatable conclusion. Even if the world isn't perfect, Katniss must remind herself of all the goodness she has seen; after all, "there are much worse games to play." 

Master of None: Thought-Provoking Hilarity

Master of None feels like the television version of Aziz Ansari's brilliant book, Modern Romance. While the book dissected the evolving nature of romance in the modern era, Master of None uses each episode to examine different sociological phenomena in the 21st century. While extremely funny, this show is also insanely incisive, featuring a bold look at daily life that hits on hilarious and uncomfortable truths.

"Plan B," the first episode of the show, is probably its most conventional. We are introduced to Dev (Ansari), an Indian-American actor who lives in New York City. In the first five minutes he has slept with a woman named Rachel (Noel Wells) and taken her to the pharmacy to buy Plan B. Needless to say, that is not a great date. We are then introduced to his friends, which include an Asian man, Brian (Kelvin Yu), a black lesbian, Denise (Lena Waither), and the "token white friend," Arnold (Eric Wareheim). Already, this is more diversity than you get on your standard network television show. The episode involves Dev going to his friend's kid's birthday party, then having to babysit another friend's kids, and is a typical rumination on the perils and rewards of having children. It's funny, but not revolutionary. But then we get the second episode, "Parents." We are introduced to Brian's father and Dev's parents (played by Ansari's real-life parents). The episode features flashbacks of Dev's father's childhood in India and Brian's father's childhood in Taiwan, two poverty-stricken tales that contrast sharply with the life of relative indolence they have been able to provide their American-born sons. It's a poignant but funny examination of the first-generation experience and announces that Master of None has many interesting and perplexing things to explore over the course of its first season.

While "Parents" was probably my personal favorite, most people tout the show's fourth episode, "Indians on TV," as its masterpiece. In it, we get a full treatise on Hollywood's diversity problem, the shady calculations that go on in the executive suite when making casting decisions, and the casual racism that Indian actors face when they go in for auditions. Dev is tired of always playing cab drivers and convenience store clerks, and he has to take a principled stand about doing a fake Indian accent. And he is extremely annoyed that a show can only feature one Indian guy, because apparently audiences can't handle two at the same time. It's a funny but sad look at how brown people are still treated by Hollywood in 2015.

Despite its short 10-episode season, Master of None manages to represent a vast swathe of humanity. There's the beautiful "Old People" where Dev spends time with his girlfriend's grandmother and discovers what it means to be an old person who led a decent life but still has thwarted dreams and ambitions. There's the "Ladies & Gentlemen" episode (directed by the wonderful Lynn Shelton) that serves as a commentary on the different ways in which women and men are treated and how men are oblivious to the very real threats, snubs, and unconscious biases that women face on a daily basis. Some of the dialogue can feel a bit earnestly heavy-handed, but for the most part, Master of None cleverly walks the tightrope between comedy and sincerity, shining a spotlight on the absurdities of daily life and gently nudging us out of complacency. It is also very romantic, with "Nashville," a charming episode about Dev's first successful date with the woman of his dreams, and later, "Mornings," which traces a year in that relationship, charting the passionate beginning, the comfortable companionship, and the inevitable arguments. 

Co-created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang, Master of None showcases the phenomenal stories you get when you make a show about people with diverse backgrounds and viewpoints. It is a worthy addition to your Netflix queue, and while it is supremely easy to binge watch in five hours, I guarantee there will be episodes you will return to multiple times, to steep in their audacity and cleverness. Even if this show features people who don't look like you, it speaks universal truths that almost anyone can recognize. Thanks to its structure and wholesale tackling of different topics, there's at least one episode that will make you sit up and take notice. This isn't really a show that needs to be watched in order, and it has become my favorite past time to recommend particular episodes to particular people as the ideal starting point. So hop on the couch and settle in for some quality television. You're in for a real treat.

Therese Raquin: Hauntingly Beautiful

After watching Old Times, I was officially bitten by the theatre bug and raced back to Broadway to watch yet another Roundabout Theatre Company production. This time around, the play was Therese Raquin, starring Keira Knightley in her Broadway debut. It was a mesmerizing two and a half hours of theatre.

Adapted by Helen Edmundson from a novel by Emile Zola, the play tells the story of Therese Raquin (Keira Knightley), a young woman who has been raised by her aunt in a small French village and is pressured into marrying her cousin Camille (Gabriel Ebert) at the age of twenty-one. Camille is a sickly, whiny man-child, who has been coddled by his mother (Judith Light) and has no great affection for Therese so their marriage is a mostly perfunctory affair. Camille then decides that he is being stifled by life in this village, so he abruptly moves the family to Paris. Therese is brokenhearted to leave the natural beauty of her surroundings to live in a cramped dingy apartment in the city. Her life seems increasingly desperate, until one day, Camille brings home Laurent (Matt Ryan), an old friend from the village who happens to be working at the same firm in Paris. And he changes Therese's life. 

The play is utterly fascinating. It captures the circular evolution of Therese from a desperate, unhappy woman to a happy, passionate woman back to a desperate, unhappy woman, because that's how French literature goes. As Laurent and Therese attempt to secure their happiness forever, they embark on a doomed journey that will bring them terror and misery. The play has many romantic and funny moments in the first half. But don't expect any giggles in the second half. Let's just say that things take a decided turn for the macabre after the intermission. 

The actors all deliver remarkable performances that keep you invested in these characters till the bitter end. Judith Light is wonderful as Madame Raquin, a well-meaning woman who lets her son walk all over her and has no idea what resentment she has bred in Therese. Matt Ryan and Camille Ebert are superb as the two men in Therese's life, one adored and one despised. And Keira Knightley is unsurprisingly magnificent, convincing you to root for Therese every step of the way despite her increasingly poor decisions.

Putting aside the engaging plot and performances however, we must discuss the extraordinary set design by Beowulf Boritt. Because so much of the play takes place on the banks of the Seine, half the stage contains a river flowing through it. At first you think, "Oh that's a nice special effect," and then you realize, "Oh wait, that's real water on the stage." At one point, people actually go sailing on a rowboat on this stage river - it's one of the most impressive things I've seen.

Directed by Evan Cabnet, Therese Raquin is a must-see production that hits it out of the park on all fronts. Whether you're interested in a good story, great acting, or jawdroppingly amazing set design, this play has you covered. So head on down to Studio 54 and indulge your soul. This is a piece of Broadway brilliance that you cannot afford to miss. 

Spectre: Bond's Past, Present, and Future

The thing I love about the recent spate of Bond movies is that it features women I can actually respect. No simpering Bond girls here; instead it's a parade of women who can hold their own against 007 and give as good as they get. I am well aware that this is far from being the point of a Bond film, and based on some reviews, many men were grossly disappointed in Spectre because it didn't feature as much action or plot as they would like. But as far as I'm concerned, Spectre has everything I want in a Bond movie. Action, gadgets, romance, betrayal, and Daniel Craig.

Spectre serves as the culmination of the three movies that preceded it, and Bond is wrapping things up after the events of Skyfall. The villain he faces this time around, Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz), is the head of the shadowy crime organization Spectre and has a mysterious connection to James's past. The two men are heading for a final showdown in the movie's third act, but along the way James has a brief dalliance with Lucia Sciarra (Monica Bellucci) and then meets Dr. Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux), who might be the woman he has needed ever since Vesper's death in Casino Royale (spoiler alert!). Back home in London, MI6 is being undermined by new management, thanks to the zealous Max Denbigh (Andrew Scott), who thinks drones and government surveillance solve everything and the 007 program is an antiquated notion. James certainly has his work cut out for him.

Every actor is delivering a pitch perfect performance and this is a quintessential Bond movie. Daniel Craig goes through the film with the right amount of brute force and cool elegance as he engages in action sequences that are epic in scope and satisfactorily death defying. M (Ralph Fiennes) is constantly snipping at and protecting Bond, Q (Ben Whishaw) exasperatedly provides help and tries to withhold his precious gadgets and cars from James's destructive grasp, and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) grudgingly has to save Bond's life as per usual while trying to have a life of her own. Lea Seydoux gives Madeleine Swann the right amount of vulnerability and self-possession to make her the perfect romantic foil and partner in crime for our hero. And Christoph Waltz is the ideal Bond villain, complete with a furry white cat, who delivers idiotic pronouncements with the required gravitas and manages to push all of James's buttons while ensuring his own destruction. 

Spectre might be Daniel Craig's swan song. While I would never object to him returning for about a dozen more Bond films, with this movie it seems like he has completed the arc of this particular iteration of 007 and it's now time for someone else to grab the reins. This movie featured all the old school Bond tropes but with updated modern characters who didn't feel like tired caricatures. If Craig doesn't return, I can only hope the franchise continues to feature a Bond who isn't afraid to get tangled up with powerful women and serve Her Majesty's Secret Service in as charmingly disrespectful a manner as possible. 

Beasts of No Nation: The Casualties of War

Beasts of No Nation (based on the novel of the same name by Uzodinma Iweala) is a story about a young African boy who is caught up in a war and becomes a child soldier. Therefore, it is not an easy film to watch. However, it is a beautiful and powerful film to watch, anchored by brilliant performances from its lead actors and featuring the always stunning cinematography and vision of director, Cary Joji Fukunaga.

Abraham Attah stars as Agu, a young boy who lives with his family in a small West African village. As the war makes its way to their borders, they make plans to flee to the capital. Agu's mother leaves with his younger siblings, leaving him behind with his older brother, father, and grandfather. Unfortunately, it is too late for the men to escape. Agu is forced to flee while his male relatives are all shot by the army and he is discovered in the bush by the rebel Native Defense Force. They first threaten to kill him, but once they discover his backstory, they enlist him as a child soldier, someone who would be willing to enact his vengeance against the army that killed his family.

The NDF is led by the Commandant (Idris Elba), a charismatic and fierce battalion leader who believes in barbarically initiating his new recruits and setting them upon the road to bloody violence. Throughout the movie we get Agu's voiceover, a reminder that this is a mere child who has been trapped into committing horrific atrocities. Despite the murders he commits and the horrors he witnesses, he never becomes inured to this life, always praying that he will be reunited with his mother, but despairing of what she will think of a son who has committed so many sins.

Attah offers a magnificent performance, ensuring that Agu retains a veneer of childish innocence despite the increasingly horrific acts that he is subjected to. Elba is terribly wonderful, ensuring you never feel an iota of sympathy for the Commandant but still feel the force of the magnetism that has charmed so many men into following in his brutal wake. Written, directed, and shot by Cary Joji Fukunaga, the movie is surprisingly beautiful despite the brutality it depicts. And perhaps that's the point; that in this ethereal and lush setting, so much destruction and malice is being wrought by human beings.

Beasts of No Nation shines a light upon the many horrors of war but is particularly concerned with the tragedy of child soldiers. These young boys lose their families and their childhoods, and the physical and psychological trauma they undergo is unimaginable. While the movie and the novel might be fictional, the circumstances they portray are very much a reality of wars that are currently taking place across the world. This movie is not interested in portraying war as a rah-rah Hollywood fantasy being fought by brave young men who volunteered for combat. It shows us what war truly is: a ruthless, relentless, foolish act of hubris that destroys the beauty of the world. 

Bad Feminist: Striving for More

If you think I would instantly want to read a book titled Bad Feminist, you would be right. This collection of essays by Roxane Gay is wonderfully insightful, featuring witty and angry observations about the current state of women in the world, who have come so far yet have so much further to go.

The book begins with an introduction about how feminism can be a lot of things. What is isn't though, is a bad word. Feminism is not a movement to be disavowed and sneered at. It has its flaws but its aims are noble, and women who eschew feminism while partaking of its benefits are kidding themselves. Then follow a few essays about the writer herself, a black woman and a professor, a woman who would see the staggering poverty in Haiti during family trips and is aware that despite the racism she has faced in the United States, she is still living with an enormous amount of privilege in comparison to others. Again, privilege is not a bad word, but a misunderstood one that puts many people on the defensive. Right off the bat, Gay wants you to own that you are a feminist and you have privilege, in some shape or form. Once you're OK with that, we are ready to proceed.

There is a section on Gender & Sexuality that commences with a wonderful essay entitled "How to Be Friends with Another Woman." If you insist on being a woman who won't read a book called Bad Feminist, at least read this one essay. It is a delightful melange of hilarity and wisdom that breaks down the sisterhood and the fact that women can be awful to one another. But in the end, we all need to engage in a little soul-searching and put some work into our female friendships. The rules of these friendships are complicated - for example, Gay advises you to "tell your friends the hard truths they need to hear." But this is quickly followed by, "don't be totally rude about truth telling, and consider how much truth is actually needed to get the job done. Finesse goes a long way."

There is a marvelous section on Race & Entertainment that looks at movies by and about black people and both the faults and merits of films like The Help, Fruitvale Station, or everything by Tyler Perry. The section on Politics, Gender & Race looks at the debate on reproductive freedom (seriously why is this still a debate?), the merits of social media versus ordinary journalism, and the way that racial profiling plays into the narrative whenever something terrible happens in the world. There are several essays about sexual violence, including the author's own personal experiences, and an indictment of the flippant way society treats such occurrences, which makes young women think they are worthless and deserving of such acts.

The essays in Bad Feminist range from funny to heartbreaking. One minute you could be reading a hilarious story about the intensely competitive word of Scrabble, and the next minute Gay is begging young women to stop letting Chris Brown beat them. Gay is very clear that this is her view on the world, it doesn't have to be yours. But a lot of what she has to say is important, well-articulated, and perfectly reasonable. Oftentimes, she can see both sides of every issue, but she will stand on the side that she has chosen because of her personal background and beliefs. It might not tally with your stance, but you can still respect it. And the final sentences of the book summarize the core thesis that should resonate with everyone, male or female: "I am a bad feminist. I would rather be a bad feminist than no feminist at all." 

Room: Putting the Pieces Back Together

Room will leave you feeling absolutely wrecked. Written by Emma Donoghue (based on her novel of the same name) and directed by Lenny Abraham, it is an extraordinary movie and fully deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. But be aware that you will feel a lot of feelings.

The entire movie is told from the perspective of 5-year old Jack (Jacob Tremblay), a young boy who lives in "Room" with his 24-year old mother, Joy (Brie Larson). At first glance, they could be a very poor but loving family, making do in the cramped quarters they occupy. Until you slowly realize that they never leave this room. Because they are imprisoned there by "Old Nick" (Sean Bridgers), a man who kidnapped Joy when she was 17 and has kept her locked up in his garden shed for the past seven years. She became pregnant and gave birth to Jack in that shed, and Jack has no idea that anything exists outside of Room.

It is a horrific setting, a claustrophobic den of desperation, yet it is astonishing to watch how Joy maintains a sense of absurd normalcy for the sake of her son. She carefully supervises his brushing so his teeth won't rot like hers, and asks Old Nick to provide children's vitamins as part of their weekly "Sunday treat". She makes Jack stretch to keep fit and run "track," a heartbreaking exercise to run back and forth between the two walls of the shed that barely span the distance of her arms. And once he turns five, she finally teaches him that the things he has seen on their TV are not fake but real, things that exist outside of Room, and that she will need his help in order to escape.

If the first half of Room seems harrowing and distressing, what follows is even more tortuous. There is an escape attempt that might be the most tense thing I have had to witness in a movie theater. And subsequently, we learn that escaping from Room might have saved Joy and Jack from a monster, but it cannot save them from themselves. Initially it seems like Jack will have the greatest difficulty adjusting to the real world, a place he never knew existed until a few days ago. He doesn't even know how to climb up or down stairs, never having seen a staircase in all his young life. Yet, children are miraculously malleable, and as Jack learns to integrate into the outside world, we discover that Joy might be the one who will truly fall to pieces.

Larson delivers a haunting performance, able to portray Joy as a fiercely loving and devoted mother who is also a completely shattered human being. She captures every nuance of that character, the kindness, the rage, the pettiness, the sadness, the selfishness and the selflessness. The supporting cast of Joan Allen, Tom McCamus, and William H. Macy are also incredible, providing an insight into how you deal with the realization that the girl you gave up for dead has really been alive in such horrific circumstances all along. And Tremblay is magnificent, looking through this world with a wide-eyed naïveté and serving as the only bearable audience surrogate in this gruesome tale. If the story was told from Joy's perspective, I would have had to walk out of the theater, but getting the story through Jack's eyes protects you from the more horrific events that transpire just outside the realm of his 5-year old comprehension.

The score by Stephen Rennicks is particularly moving, but not as much as the careful use of silence, or the sounds of Jack learning that the outside world is composed of so many more sounds, colors, lights, and textures than what he got to experience in Room. This movie is also cunningly scripted and edited, always bringing you to the brink of horror and then pivoting to some quick moment of relief to give you a chance to collect yourself and carry on with the story. And the production design by Ethan Tobman is rather incredible. For the first half of the movie, when you are in Room all the time, it seems cramped, but Jack has plenty to keep him occupied. It is only when they escape and you see what the shed they lived in for seven years looks like from the outside that you realize the full extent of their imprisonment.

It seems wrong to say that Room is a beautiful film when it tells such an ugly story. But it is truly wondrous, a cinematic masterpiece that draws you in and compels you to stay invested in its characters. It is a wise psychological study, showcasing how the human spirit can survive in such appalling conditions, and then crumble under seemingly innocuous ones. And finally, it is a love story, of a mother and son who are each other's salvation, and who can survive anything as long as they have each other.

Old Times: Strange & Wondrous

I'll confess right off the bat: I have no idea what happened in Old Times. What I do know is that the Roundabout Theatre Company's current production on Broadway, directed by Douglas Hodge and starring Clive Owen, Eve Best, and Kelly Reilly, is a magical piece of theater. I was spellbound, caught up in the dialogue, watching the actors whirl through the play at a brisk 65-minute runtime, and at the end of it, I wanted to watch them do it all over again.

Owen plays Deeley, a man who is married to Kate (Reilly). Twenty years ago they were students in London, but now they live in the country, which is much quieter and eerier. The entire play takes place on one night when Kate's old friend, Anne (Best), comes to visit. What follows is a tangle of stories and memories, some singing, some sobbing, and possibly something much more sinister? Maybe? I don't know. There was a post-play discussion with Clive Owen where he stated the play should be treated like a poem rather than something with a linear narrative, and even the playwright, Harold Pinter, never gave anyone an explanation as to what this play was all about. Basically it's open to interpretation, and I welcome all your thoughts because I certainly could use all the help I can get.

Set designer Christine Jones has created a remarkable set that conveys a sense of  otherworldliness throughout the play. You constantly feel like you are spinning through time and space, a sense that is heightened by the background music by Radiohead's Thom Yorke, a musician who is adept at creating unsettling mood pieces. There were moments when I suddenly realized the set must have rotated since some of the furniture had moved, but I had not noticed because I was so much more taken with the actors as they whirled across the stage saying outrageous and wonderful things. It's fair to say that these actors must be delivering riveting performances if you don't even notice that the stage they are standing on has moved.

Old Times is a short, dazzling play, set in one gorgeous set, with three brilliant actors delivering astonishing performances. At the end of it, you might be confused, but you certainly won't be dissatisfied; if anything, you'll want to watch it several more times to see if you hit upon a revelation. No matter what your final explanation is of the play's events, watching it is a sublime theatrical experience.

Crimson Peak: Gorgeous Gothic Gore

In this age of sequels, adaptations, and films based on board games, watching a movie with a completely original script is quite a rarity. Now visionary director Guillermo del Toro has come to the rescue with the lush and haunting Crimson Peak, a movie that feels like it ought to be based on a gothic romance from the Victorian era but is in fact based on a completely original script by del Toro and Matthew Robbins.

Gothic romance is an extremely difficult genre to explain. It's a little sexy, a little scary, a little melodramatic, and a little horrific. There's an innocent young woman, a mysterious stranger, ghosts, villains, mysteries, and things that go bump in the night. Crimson Peak delivers all this and more. Our heroine is Edith (Mia Wasikowska), an independent and charming woman living in Buffalo at the turn of the 20th century. When an English baronet, Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), and his sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain) visit, an unexpected romance brews. After a series of unfortunate and gory events, Edith marries Thomas and goes off to live in the crumbling family mansion in England. At that point you can dial up the horror and intrigue to a hundred.

I won't give away more of the plot; it's fairly rudimentary stuff that you would expect from any gothic tale. Wasikowska, Hiddleston, and Chastain all deliver impeccable performances and keep you guessing until the very end as to what their characters' intentions might be. What is truly spectacular about Crimson Peak is the captivating attention to detail. Whether it's every delicate thread on Wasikowska's costumes, the gorgeous embellishments adorning the furniture in every scene, or the ominous blood-red clay that is seeping into every crack of the mansion and literally warning us of the bloody massacre that is about to ensue, this film is a riveting visual treat. Full credit is due to production designer Thomas E. Sanders, who built the gothic mansion from scratch and has given us a set that will haunt our cinematic memories for decades to come.

The acting is excellent, the vision is impeccable, the story makes you gasp and giggle in equal measure, and it is quite unlike any recent experience you may have had at the movies. Crimson Peak is an utterly original, utterly beguiling film, and it offers up a welcome change from the bland sameness of everything else that Hollywood has been serving up lately. You do not have to beware Crimson Peak - embrace it wholeheartedly and have a frighteningly good time. 

The Martian: Stunning Scientific Storytelling

With a movie like The Martian, I think it's important to begin my review by explaining exactly where I was sitting in the movie theater. I was in the front, a few feet away from the screen. And I was at a 3D showing. So what followed was the most immersive, visceral movie-going experience I've had in a while. Every year, there are a handful of movies that I insist you need to experience in an actual movie theater; The Martian is certainly one of them.

Based on the novel by Andy Weir (which I am going to have to read ASAP), The Martian is the story of astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon), who is part of a manned mission to Mars. When a dust storm descends upon the red planet, the crew is forced to evacuate, but on the way to the shuttle, Watney is hit by debris and lost, with his suit registering no vital signs. The crew assumes he has died and sets off for Earth, but the next day, Watney wakes up to find himself very much alive but now stranded on Mars. What seems like a hopeless situation quickly develops into a brilliant scientific survival story, as Watney calculates what he will need to do to survive on Mars for the next three years when the next manned mission to Mars will arrive to save him.

It's an impossible scenario grounded in very possible science and the movie serves as an ode to intelligence and scientific ingenuity. It is also extremely funny, which is unexpected given the circumstances. Watney is sarcastic and continually mocks his predicament, while back on Earth, we are treated to a cast of supporting characters at NASA who are equally intelligent and prone to quippiness in times of stress. That comedic thread is a vital element to help defuse the tension that keeps mounting throughought the movie. I didn't realize how invested I was in Watney's survival until the final act when a legitimate rescue plan is put into place and there is a chance that things will fail at the final hurdle. I cannot begin to convey my sense of horror and nausea as I contemplated the overwhelming infinity of space and the paling insignificance of these few human beings struggling to survive.

It is impossible to explain how The Martian sneaks up on you. Thanks to Damon's effortlessly charming performance, you are emphatically rooting for Watney to survive, and the stakes are impossibly high as he deals with setbacks and the possibility of dying alone in space. The supporting cast is composed of a veritable who's who of acting stalwarts, including Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jeff Daniels, Kristen Wiig, and many more. While most of the soundtrack is composed of peppy disco music (that's all that his fellow crew members left behind on Mars, much to Watney's chagrin), the serious moments are punctuated by a brilliant score by Harry Gregson-Williams that kept me on the edge of my seat during tense moments and soothed me when things worked out.

The script by Drew Goddard deftly walks the tightrope between science and entertainment and keeps you immersed in the story. Director Ridley Scott has created a movie that will appeal to your intelligence as well as your instincts and plunges you into a world that is unfamiliar but spectacular. Movies like this further humanity's enduring fascination with space exploration and serve as a reminder that the universe is vast, frightening, and beautiful. So watch The Martian and prepare to be swept away. 

Why Not Me? How to Succeed by Really Trying

I have always liked Mindy Kaling. She was ridiculous as Kelly Kapoor on The Office (and wrote some fantastic episodes of that show), she has been hilarious as Dr. Mindy Lahiri on her show The Mindy Project, and her 2011 book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) was marvelously entertaining. But upon reading her latest book, Why Not Me?, I have now discovered that I don't just like Mindy Kaling. I love her.

A mere 50 pages into this book, Kaling has already discussed her Hollywood beauty secrets (hair extensions, a padded bra, and a DP who knows how to light you perfectly), the bemusing world of Dartmouth sororities, the perks and pitfalls of (minor) fame, and included a random photo of Colin Firth. Alongside these funny and sarcastic stories, however, is a devastatingly poignant essay about weddings, and why women agree to be bridesmaids even when everyone knows it is the worst thing ever. Her views on friendship, being a woman in Hollywood, and wanting to be liked and then not giving a damn are incredibly moving. And remember, we're only 50 pages into this book. 

As you keep reading, you will learn more about Mindy's transition from nervous comedy writer to bonafide successful showrunner. She shares her tips on how to gain confidence (throwing in a guest essay from her mentor, Greg Daniels), offers up a look into her punishing schedule, shares some juicy behind-the-scenes stories from her show, and gives us tales of heartbreak and romance. In "One of the President's Men," we get a mesmerizing story of her relationship with a White House staffer, a profound story that also includes loads of high-profile name-dropping. This is quickly followed by "A Perfect Courtship in My Alternate Life," an essay that should immediately be turned into a full-length novel and/or movie as it follows a series of email and text exchanges between the alternate version of Mindy if she had become a high school Latin teacher and the grumpy widowed US History teacher who is destined to be her Mr. Darcy. That juxtaposition of real-life and fantasy romance is what makes Mindy Kaling such an incredible writer. She knows real life isn't perfect, which is why she excels at making it so wonderful in fiction. 

I won't discuss any further details of Why Not Me? because reading it is an unalloyed pleasure that everyone should experience for themselves. These essays will make you laugh, cry, and ponder all the different ways in which it is difficult and wonderful to be a woman, a celebrity, and a role model. They offer up wisdom and silliness in equal measure, and even though the book is only around 220 pages long, it contains a world of insight and advice that will serve you in good stead for the rest of your life. 

A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder: Frantic Fun

Last month, I realized it had been a while since I had taken advantage of living in New York. So I headed over to the Walter Kerr Theatre to catch a matinee of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, the 2014 Tony Award-winning musical. I didn't know much about the plot going into it, but it looked like a fun, Wodehouse-esque musical comedy that would offer me a good time. Boy did it ever.

Set in England in the early 1900s, the show tells the story of Montague "Monty" Navarro (Bryce Pinkham), a young man who grew up penniless with his mother after they were abandoned by his father. They managed to scrape by but now his mother is dead and he is mourning the loss of the only family he has ever known. Enter Marietta Shingle, a mysterious friend of his mother's who informs him that his name is actually Montague D'Ysquith Navarro, and his mother was a member of the prestigious D'Ysquith family. She was cast out when she eloped with a Castilian musician, which is why she never told Monty about her family. However, he is informed that he is ninth in line to become the Earl of Highhurst, information that becomes increasingly important as the play progresses.

At first Monty is simply keen to take advantage of this family connection to get a good job and earn a decent living. He is in love with a blonde beauty named Sibella (Scarlett Strallen), who loves him but also acknowledges it is impractical to marry for love. Desperate to make enough money to win his lady love, Monty writes to his relations, only to meet with staggering rebuffs and rudeness. When he goes to meet one of them in person, circumstances transpire in such a way that Monty "accidentally" murders the man. Well now, he's eighth in line to become the Earl. Hmm, what if more of his family members were to conveniently follow suit and die?

What follows is a raucous musical comedy that deals with - what else? - love and murder. Most entertainingly, the eight D'Ysquiths who are standing in Monty's way are all played by the same actor, Jefferson Mays, who does a brilliant job prancing across the stage as various male and female D'Ysquiths, who are all ridiculous in their own special way and meet untimely ends courtesy of Monty's increasingly ingenious plotting. 

A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder is Broadway at its best. The songs are hilarious and cunningly choreographed ("I've Decided to Marry You" in the second half is particularly raucous) and the set design is wildly inventive as Monty travels across the country to put his murderous machinations into action. Pinkham and Mays deliver astonishing lead performances and look like they're having an absolute blast, which is always so important when you're watching live theatre. So if you're in NYC, head on over to the Walter Kerr Theatre and indulge in this fizzy musical gem. You won't be disappointed.

Crazy Rich Asians: How the Other Half Lives

With a title like Crazy Rich Asians, you can't doubt that this novel by Kevin Kwan is vastly entertaining. A tale of wealth, privilege, and excess, this is one of those perfect weekend reads, when you want to learn all about people who are living a life that is more extreme than your wildest fantasies.

The novel tells the story of three interconnected wealthy Singaporean families. The members of these families are flung out across the globe but are all preparing to reconvene in Singapore for the "wedding of the century" between a wealthy heir and a supermodel. On the one hand, you have the story of Nicholas Young, a modest man who has built a life for himself in New York City as a sedate Economics professor and is living in a small loft in the Village. He is deeply in love with Rachel Chu, a fellow professor who grew up in California and has absolutely no clue that her unassuming boyfriend is a member of one of the most staggeringly wealthy families in Singapore.

On the other hand, you have Nick's cousin, Astrid, a woman who shops in Paris every season to buy millions of euros worth of haute couture, and yet has always flown in the face of family tradition. She unexpectedly married an "ordinary" man who spends all his time slaving on his startup company because he doesn't want to accept a penny of Astrid's family money and is determined to support his wife and son himself. Clearly that's a recipe for drama.

And then there are all the gossipy matriarchs who exist in the bloodthirsty arena of Singaporean society. These women are obsessed with wealth and status, forcing their children into appropriate careers and marriages so that they can carry on the stuffy family line in the manner to which it has been accustomed. This novel is a tale of the struggle between familial obligation and individual freedom, the old guard versus the new, class privilege, nationalism, and everything else in between. Putting aside those grand themes, however, this is simply a well-written, keenly observed, and blisteringly funny book. It serves as a brilliant introduction to the decadence of Singaporean high society, and while the locale might be foreign to many, the people are recognizable as the pompous upper classes that abound throughout the world.

I also dare you to read Crazy Rich Asians and not end up ordering take-out from the nearest Asian restaurant. Singaporeans are notorious foodies and the novel is crammed with discussions and descriptions of delicacies from all over the Asian diaspora. Kevin Kwan has a knack for describing things in vivid, nuanced detail that can help you understand this world and empathize with its inhabitants, no matter how different they are from you. The sequel, China Rich Girlfriend, came out this summer, so I will certainly be picking up a copy to follow the further exploits of these crazy rich people. You should do the same. 

Between You and Me: A Glorious Grammar Guide

Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen is a book about grammar and the vagaries of the English language, written by Mary Norris, a copy editor for the New Yorker. That description is all you need to know. There are people who care about English and people who don't. If you are one of the latter, this is not the book for you. If you are one of the former, read on.

Mary Norris is a fascinating woman. The book starts off as a personal memoir, recounting her odd jobs after college, which centered a great deal on the dairy industry for some bizarre reason. However, she eventually wound up in the offices of the New Yorker, and decades later, there she remains, a brilliant copy editor who gets to oversee some of the best literature the English language has to offer up. The book alternates between telling her personal history and serving as an intriguing English guide, dissecting the various quandaries that Norris encounters in her daily life, both in a professional and social capacity.

There is a discussion of commas, profanity, the difference between restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses, deliberations on the merits of the various dictionaries used by the New Yorker and other esteemed publications. Of course, as the title suggests, she is quick to clear up when you use "I" versus "me," a conversational tic that does bother most fastidious English-language speakers. There is a chapter devoted to other forms of punctuation, including a long discourse on the em dash, which prompted me to e-mail my college thesis advisor, who was the first person to alert me to the fact that there was such a thing as an em dash. Not sure when to use "who" versus "whom"? This book's got you covered. And if it isn't hyper-specialized enough for you, the final chapter is all about pencils, a topic that I never suspected could occupy anyone for a paragraph, let alone an entire chapter.

Mary Norris is a grammar geek and proud of it. She offers an insight into the minds of people who simply love language and want to make sense of its bizarre rules. Most interestingly, she defines the role of the perfect copy editor - someone who has to clean up the prose but do so in as unobtrusive and helpful a manner as possible. Norris discusses many examples where following the rules of good grammar would destroy great literature and she therefore chose to value substance over style. Her stories about her interactions with writers are fantastic, showcasing how much these authors value the editing process and that they really do put an infinite amount of care into the placement of their commas.

Between You & Me is a quick read, a delightfully nerdy investigation into questions that puzzle the most well-read and well-educated among us. I can't promise you will read this book and instantly experience a revelation about semicolons. But between you and me, you'll certainly learn just how much you didn't know about the power of punctuation.  

Show Me a Hero: The Difficulties of Doing the Right Thing

Show Me a Hero is a six-part HBO miniseries directed by Paul Haggis and co-written by The Wire's David Simon and journalist William F. Zorzi. With that pedigree, it promised to be an interesting and challenging social commentary. Ultimately, it lived up to that promise.

Based on the book by Lisa Belkin, the series is a dramatization of real-life events from 1987 to 1994 in Yonkers, NY, when a federal judge mandated the desegregation of public housing. The idea was to build 200 units of public housing in the wealthy, mostly white, east side of Yonkers. The central character is Nick Wasicsko (portrayed by the fantastic Oscar Isaac), a young Yonkers City Council member who is running for mayor in the midst of the housing controversy. He promises to appeal the judge's decision and wins the election on the strength of that promise, becoming the youngest big-city mayor in the country. However, once he enters office, he discovers the city has already lost the appeal and he quickly becomes a proponent for the housing. This incurs the wrath of the vocal white citizens of Yonkers, who launch multiple protests, riot at council meetings, and make it very clear that Wasicsko will not be able to win his re-election bid in two years' time. 

While one part of the series follows Wasicsko's political and personal life, the other part is the story of the families who will be impacted by this desegregation order. They currently live in the projects, in graffiti-smeared buildings with broken elevators and drug dealers in the stairwells, where watching someone get arrested on the curb is a routine occurrence. There's Norma O'Neal (LaTanya Richardson Jackson), a home health aide who is losing her sight due to diabetes but is not keen to leave the projects and go over to the white side of town where she knows "those people" won't welcome her. There's Doreen Henderson (Natalie Paul), a woman who gets caught up in the drug epidemic but has a supportive family to pull her from the brink. Carmen Febles (Ilfenesh Hadera) is a young Dominican woman struggling with the decision to support her two kids in America or take them back to the DR. And Billie Rowan (Dominique Fishback) is a young black woman who gets involved with a small-time criminal who seems destined to only bring her grief. 

Show Me a Hero also portrays the broad range of personalities among the vociferous anti-housing lobby. While the majority are ugly racists, the most compelling character is Mary Dorman (played by the brilliant Catherine Keener). Mary is a Yonkers resident who is concerned about how this public housing will disrupt her carefully-ordered existence and ruin her property values. She mostly seems to view this as an economic issue, and becomes a vocal proponent of the anti-housing movement. However, as the years pass, she becomes more uncomfortable with the increasingly racist rhetoric of the people around her. Once the housing is established, she is pressed into service as one of the volunteers to help integrate the residents into their new surroundings, and she realizes that perhaps she was on the wrong side of this fight all along.

Because this is based on real life, Show Me a Hero has a messy, complicated story to tell. It cannot do justice to every single one of its characters and some seem to be sketched out in much broader strokes than others. The public housing residents sometimes feel a bit too caricaturish, but as the series progresses, you do get to delve more into their world and see that the writers and director are trying to tell as nuanced a story as possible in the six episodes they have. Every actor is doing fine work, and I was wholly invested in this story from the charged beginning to the bitter end. I had no idea what happened in real life and was frankly appalled at the finale when I discovered how things turned out. 

Show Me a Hero is difficult but necessary to watch. Desegregation of public housing is an issue that invites just as much controversy now as it did in Yonkers in the 1980s, and it is important to understand the many arguments and justifications that both sides make when they discuss it. This is also a show about politics and how the desire to do good can be trumped by personal ambition. Good people can do bad things, and vice versa, and it is often not easy to pick the right side. It is more important to know when you have lost the fight. 

The Brink: Nuclear Comedy

It's September, which means the fall TV season is almost upon us. In a few weeks my DVR will be brimming with new seasons of my old favorites. However, before that happens, I need to acknowledge some of the new summer shows that kept me entertained while everyone else was on hiatus. First up, HBO's The Brink.

The Brink follows a series of escalating events in Pakistan that could lead to all-out nuclear war. And yes, it's a comedy. Tim Robbins plays the US Secretary of State, Walter Larson, a brilliant strategist with a highly questionable personal life, who has to put up with the war-mongering buffoons that comprise the President's Cabinet. Jack Black plays Alex Talbot, a low-level diplomat at the American Embassy in Islamabad, who has high ambitions, but can't attain them as he's actually high most of the time. When Pakistan faces a military coup, Alex inadvertently gets entangled in the ensuing political maelstrom and becomes Larson's liaison, feeding him information and helping him develop a strategy to prevent World War III.

Other main characters include Alex's Pakistani driver, Rafiq Massoud (Aasif Mandvi), who is horrified that Alex is now in charge of saving Pakistan from disaster. Then there's Lieutenant Commander Zeke Tilson (Pablo Schreiber) and Lieutenant Glenn Taylor (Eric Ladin), navy pilots who are very skilled but also have an unfortunate tendency to ruin missions by getting high (yes, there's a lot of drug-fueled incompetence going on in this show - it is HBO after all). They get into a variety of scrapes that threaten to derail all attempts at peaceful negotiation and along the way meet up with some incredibly eccentric characters played by two British actors I adore. I was fairly ambivalent about The Brink, but those cameos in episode five certainly sucked me right back in.

The Brink is quite broad and lacks the nuance and biting political satire of something like Veep. There are a lot of characters to keep track of, which can be a bit of a challenge at the beginning, but it does pay off towards the end as story lines begin to intersect and complicate matters further. It does its best work in the small moments when a piece of particularly silly political maneuvering is thwarting all attempts to save humanity. My biggest problem with the show was that apart from Iqbal Theba, who plays the Pakistani General Umair Zaman who stages the coup, the other "Pakistani" characters made me cringe when they spoke Urdu. Hollywood casting directors don't seem to care when they cast brown actors, but for pity's sake, cast people who actually know how to speak the language. Or just make them speak in English.

If you're a fan of political satires that skewer the incompetence prevalent at the highest levels of government, you will probably enjoy The Brink. It isn't high comedy (well it features a lot of people getting high but...you know what I mean) but it is ten short episodes of dependable hilarity. If you're looking for a concentrated dose of comedy this long weekend, this might be the show for you.