Review: "A Lucky Man" by Jamel Brinkley

While Jamel Brinkley’s skillset as a writer is unquestioned, after reading his debut collection of short stories A Lucky Man, I’m left hoping that talent would have been put to better use by making the stories a little more interesting, carried themselves with a little less gravitas and by god, not be so long. That is the big issue with this whole collection: the stories are way too long; going on 15 or 20 pages more than they really should. This might be colored by my recent habit of reading the great works of short fiction. These are far from terrible stories, and two or maybe three are quite good, but I’d like to think their ideas could be conveyed and its impact more substantial if they had left before their presence became unwelcome. Like I do with all short story collection, I will pick out a few that I really liked. The first one, “No More Than Bubble” follows two friends as they engage in a long form sloppy seduction of two women they met at a party, with intermittent flashbacks to the narrator’s lecherous father. The two ideas come together beautifully, but again, it is about 10 pages too long. “A Family” is another gem, where a man released from prison struck up a shaky romance with his late best friend’s wife, finding comfort in imperfect relationships. Another odd issue was how homogenous the narrators all were. It might not be fair for a short story collection, but each of the narrators could be the same callow, irresponsible young man. A lot of the time, they are overshadowed by a stronger character, like Fat Rhonda in “Wolf and Rhonda” or the spiritual ladies man Micah in “Infinite Happiness”. If it was meant to be that way, I can’t say it helped much with these stories. But I still enjoyed reading them. Despite being little more serious than fun, they still pack a heavy punch. 

Rating: 4/5

Top Ten Films That Should Get the Criterion Treatment

Ever since I picked up the Criterion edition of Slacker after hearing Kevin Smith discuss it, I have been hooked on this company and their efforts at making international and obscure films widely available (although not at a user friendly price discounting the months of July and November) with loads of special features. I’ve been wanting to do this list for a while now, and I have a few rules: no prior release that have gone out of print or have yet to get a Blu-Ray release, and I will try to steer clear of titles that have already been given a quality release by another North American company (Shout/Scream Factory, Arrow Video/Academy, etc.) known for stacked editions. Also, I'm steering clear of directors synonymous with Criterion, so no Bergman, Kurosawa or Wes Anderson. Those director's films will make it to Criterion whether you like it or not. But first a few honorable mentions: 

·          Audition (1999) dir. Takeshi Miike: This is more of a job for Arrow Video, since they released their own version a while back, but if they are able to get the movie rights, I’d love a scholarly commentary, an overall look at the resurgence of Japanese horror in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, and a new interview with a critic like Tony Rayns or Kim Newman. 

·         The Beyond (1981) dir. Lucio Fulci: Fulci’s masterpiece is another film that will more than likely get an Arrow release, but I’d love a retrospective look at Fulci’s career, maybe an interview with FX artist Gianetto De Rossi, and a movie like this is begging for a video essay of some kind, possibly by Kat Ellinger.

·         One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) dir. Milos Forman: I just think it would be cool for Criterion to have all three films that swept the Oscars in its collection. I could see a new piece on the book and Kesey himself, a look at the history of mental health facilities and maybe a documentary on Forman’s career. 

·         Out of the Past (1947) dir. Jacques Tourneur: I also tried to steer clear of older movies, because I am sure a lot of them, like this one, will get the treatment sooner than later. I’d like to see a commentary track by Eddie Muller, a scholarly look at Mitchum’s career and a few archival interviews with cast and crew. 

·         The Pusher Trilogy (1996-2005) dir. Nicolas Winding Refn: Why this is an honorable mention can be seen in my list, but I’d like to see commentary tracks on all films, a substantial making-of feature and possibly a new transfer of Refn’s film Bleeder, not widely available in North America. 

10. Pi (1998) dir. Darren Aronofsky: Why Aronofsky hasn’t made it in the collection is kind of a surprise, but this film would be a good fit. Porting over some of the features from the DVD, new interviews with Aronofsky and Sean Gullette along with a look at the film’s editing style would be interesting. 

9. A Serious Man (2009) dir. Coen Brothers: I could see Criterion releasing Miller’s Crossing or even The Big Lebowski instead of this film, but I’d rather see this one in the collection. New interviews with cast and crew, and it would be fascinating to hear a Jewish theologian dissect the movie and some of it's cryptic undercurrents. 

8. Sideways (2004) dir. Alexander Payne: I love this movie immensely and would love to see it in the collection. I can see new interviews with Payne and all four key cast members, a look at its status as a road movie and of course, a feature on California Wine country. 

7. Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987) dir. John Hughes: If they can put out The Breakfast Club, this isn’t too farfetched of a release to hope for. I’d like to see a new interview with Martin, archival footage/interviews with Candy and Hughes and possibly, like they did with The Breakfast Club that famed deleted footage that pushed the film past the 2 hour mark. 

6. After Hours (1985) dir. Martin Scorsese: The true underrated gem of Scorsese’s unparalleled career would be a welcome addition to the collection. I’d love to see a new interview with Scorsese about the process of making the film, especially as it pertains to his hardships with The Last Temptation of Christ, a new interview with Griffin Dunne and a real in depth look at the possible theories about the film’s many interpretations. 

5. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) dir. Tobe Hooper: After The Night of the Living Dead release, another iconic horror film joining the collection would be awesome, and I can’t think of a better one than this. I’d like it to skew more toward the scholarly route, with pieces on the filming, it’s reflection of the time in which it was made and its overall influence would make this an easy upgrade. 

4. Magnolia (1999) dir. Paul Thomas Anderson: While it was nice to see Punch-Drunk Love get a nice release a few years ago, this is the one I think people wanted more. I could see a massive 2-disc Blu-Ray packed with interviews, maybe a commentary track or two and a nice look at the film’s hidden meanings. 

3. Cache (2005) dir. Michael Haneke: One of the best movies of the 2000's deserves a really nice Criterion edition. I'm thinking new interviews with Haneke himself, Binoche and Auteuil, plus some critical material in the form of a commentary track, video essays and appreciations. 

2. The Vengeance Trilogy (2002-2005) dir. Park Chan-Wook: Easily my favorite trilogy of the 21^st century would look real nice in the collection. I’d love to see new and archival interviews, more critical analyses of each film and in-depth making of features ported over from other editions. 

1. Drive (2011) dir. Nicolas Winding Refn: My favorite movie of the century so far and the film that inspired this list, I am really surprised that this doesn’t have a really good home video release, let alone one from Criterion. I’d hope to see a commentary track, interviews with Gosling and Refn and a look at the film’s relationship with other film genres (80’s romance, noir, etc.). 

Review: "Sweet and Low" by Nick White

Author Nick White made an auspicious debut last year with his gothic infused debut novel of gay identity How to Survive A Summer. It is a rich and textured look at one man’s reckoning with his past that effortlessly melds the past with the present, the grotesque with it’s emotional weight and the scary and the heartbreaking, But as good as that book is, it is surpassed greatly by his first collection of short stories, Sweet and Low. From the first page it is easy to see that Nick White is a Southern writer, with his eloquent descriptions of people places and things that are either beautiful, perverse or somewhere in the middle. And like most writers from the South, his feelings about his homeland are chaotic, recognizing both the history of his homeland and the ugliness that it upheld, participated in and was responsible for. And with the added layer of human sexuality, these stories straddle the good and the bad, the gross and pleasant in creepy and profound ways. Like I do with all short story collections, I will pick out my favorites, and with a collection like this, that is going to be very difficult. Divided up into two sections, that could be looked at separately if they were published as so, the first section, titled Heavenly Bodies features four stories that are unrelated. The first one, “The Lovers” concerns a widow who hosts a podcast and the young man who was her doctor husband’s lover. It intertwines both stories, highlighting their ignorance but coming together to tell a full story about both of the hurt they suffered from their careless mate. “Cottonmouth, Trapjaw, Water Moccasin”, the shortest story in the 290-page collection, sees a man fall off his lawnmower and get stuck underneath it, only to be taunted by a nearby snake who he is convinced is either the ghost of his abusive father or revenge for disowning his gay son. “These Heavenly Bodies”, the highlight of the collection, sees a teenaged boy whose reacting to his mother’s deaths by acting out violently and taking painting lesson. This all changes when a pair of female conjoined twins shows up in town and he is tasked with painting their portrait. It is a wonderful tale of forbidden desire, brutal rejection and devastating betrayal with a visceral ending as ambiguous as it is tragic. The next section, titled The Exaggerations, follow the character of Forney Culpepper, who may or may not be a surrogate for the author himself since he is a writer. Since only one of the stories is from his perspective (the wonderful “The Exaggerations), the image of Forney is a bit murky and that is too the book’s benefit. He is the sad-eyed son of his unreliable musician mother in the title story, the friend to a lost, bulky college freshman in “Break” and a paranoid, bird hunting writer father in “The Last of His Kind.” Together, these two sections make for a great study in secrets, confusion, sadness and the ever-long search for meaning in life from a burgeoning writer who is at the start of what I hope is a prosperous career.

Rating: 5/5

Review: "There There" by Tommy Orange

There There, the debut novel from author Tommy Orange is the kind of crazed, angry and passionate kind of novel I nearly beg for at the start of any given year. Filled with a string cast of memorable characters with webs of connection that run deep and ancient, it offers a different kind of story about indigenous people than what we are used too. Gone are all the trappings that might come to mind from the kinds of stories you’d read about Native Americans in school or college. This book is not about them, but in a way it kind of is, because while it takes place in the modern world, specifically Oakland, California which has a large population of indigenous people, it is intricately tied with the sins of the past and how, whether consciously or subconsciously, the people who inhabit the book’s pages are beholden to and burden by such a fraught and brutal history, both in personal histories and the overall history of Native Americans. But beyond its obvious contexts, this book is an exciting debut novel, filled with frenetic energy as the anger and resentment of the characters boils over into an unavoidable and tragic conclusion. It begins in a rather strange way with a dreamlike essay cataloguing historical injustices and really sets the stage for what’s to come and the undercurrents that will flow just below the surface of events. I had heard about it before I began the book, and I was worried it would be tiresome and overly didactic, but thankfully it is not like that at all. It has a dreamlike quality to it that blends fantasy and reality, and I couldn’t help but think of the voice as disembodied, much like the ghostly narrators of Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings. From there we are introduced to about 10 major characters that all take up the right amount of space in this relatively short 290-page novel. There is Tony Loneman; whose fetal alcohol syndrome (the Drome) hides his intelligence makes him a pawn in the violent plan of a few local gangsters, Dene Oxendene, a local artist whose grant money allows the Oakland Powwow at the center of the novel take place, Edwin Black, an overweight 30 year old with a useless college degree who sees his internship with the group organizing the powwow as a way to out of his rut and a path to finding out who is father is, Orvil Red Feather, a teenaged boy who will dance for the first time in the powwow and the decades long story of Opal Violet Victoria Bear Shield and Jacquie Red Feather (Orvil’s grandmother, two half sisters with worlds of hurt behind them that they must carry with them. The book contains many hypnotic scenes that bridge the real world and the spiritual, like the character Harvey’s encounter with the tall whites in the Arizona desert, the dark symbolism of finding spider legs underneath your skin and Edwin’s clunky yet poignant retelling of the what happened to Native Americans through one of his stories. And it all leads to the aforementioned powwow and a halfhearted plan to rob it. These final few pages are devastating and contain the emotional pay off of the whole story. It does not offer clear answer, but the ending is a thing of perfect beauty. If you want an exciting, fresh and new voice in 2018 literature, look no further than Tommy Orange and his first of what I hope are many more books. 

Rating: 5/5