Movie Review: Mud

Mud might not sound intriguing, but this is one of the best films I've seen this year. It's a coming of age story involving love, a criminal element, and the confusion of being fourteen. Matthew McConaughey (Mud) is a drifter found on a deserted island by two teen boys. He's a charmer who solicits their help in rescuing a boat from a tree so that he can escape with his true love, Juniper (Reese Witherspoon playing white trash well) who's currently ensconced in a local motel. Ellis (Tye Sheridan) wants to believe in love and is eager to help. Neckbone (Jacob Lofland) is suspicious but drawn into the adventure.

The boys motor back and forth to the island with supplies. Meanwhile, Ellis' parents are heading toward to divorce, plus Ellis has fallen for an "older" girl and is quick with his fists these days in regards to love and honor. He's confused on so many levels (that's fourteen), and this movie covers the subject well. Matthew McC. displays deep acting chops in this film. He's getting better and better, and this material is perfect - he's a romantic, he's delusional, and the snake oil he oozes pulls you in. You root for this bad boy, even as bullets are loaded and he's surrounded.

The two boys are superb - guiless, shrewd, sentimental, and working to understand the adult world, even as they maneuver bicycles, scooters, and boats. The setting of makeshift houseboats adds to the uncertainty in their world.

Finally, here's a great line by Mud - "I don't traffic in the truth too often, but I did love her." Mud is a brilliant film with all the right elements - great acting, writing, characters, setting, and emotion. Fourteen just asks for heartbreak. Get too close to love and you'll be snakebit too.

Book Review: Astray by Emma Donoghue

Emma Donoghue's Astray is an intriguing collection based on true stories. After each fictional tale, Donoghue cites her research, whether it's a news article that caught her eye or a chapter in a history book.

From the book cover - A trainer coaxes his beloved elephant onto a ship carrying him to a life of fame. A mother searches for her baby girl, sent away on a train headed west. A teenage soldier wrestles with his conscience far from home. All have gone astray.

Astray guides us through a past in scattered pieces, a moving history for restless times.

Donoghue brings to life interesting characters and brings history alive with her imagination based on fact. I loved her book Room, and like that book, she can paint a scene and draw in the reader.

I liked what she wrote in her Astray Afterword - Writing stories is my way of scratching that itch: my escape from the claustrophobia of individuality. It lets me, at least for awhile, live more than one life, walk more than one path. Reading of course, can do the same.
May the road rise with you.

'Nuff said. Thanks Emma Donoghue.

Bellagio Conservatory

 Who would think you'd go to Las Vegas to see a garden?  Well, the Bellagio Conservatory offers a splash of floral delight.

Ladybugs bring good luck. Indeed if you are looking at these two, then you aren't at a gaming table losing money.

Book Review: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

I loved Life After Life by Kate Atkinson. It's a book to read in huge chunks because you can't get enough of it, and you savor the writing and the characters. And when it ends, you close it reluctantly, relishing an excellent tale.

In 1910, Ursula Todd is born and then she dies. But then in the next section, she's born and lives. As she grows, she also dies, repeatedly and the story moves forward to World War II. I like time travel types of stories and can suspend belief as to how it could happen. From the book blurb - Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can, will she? 

Atkinson's rich writing, her plot twists and turns, and her humor shine through Ursula.

P. 4  It's November 1930. A move rehearsed a hundred times. One shot. Swiftness was all, yet there was a moment, a bubble suspended in time after she had drawn the gun and leveled it at his heart when everything seemed to stop.

P. 7 February 1910  An icy rush of air, a freezing slipstream on the newly exposed skin. She is, with no warning, outside the inside and the familiar wet, tropical world has suddenly evaporated. Exposed to the elements. A pawn peeled, a nut shelled.

No breath. All the world come down to this. One breath. ......
Panic. The drowning girl, the falling bird.

You, the reader, will hold a breath as each chapter unfolds. Will Ursula thrive and move onward? Or will something happen to her, and you start over again? Layers build satisfactorily and you are transported to a sweeping time of history.

Life After Life is a stunning novel.

Bummer Movie Review: The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is not so great. As a matter of fact, I give it a C+. Read the book by F.Scott Fitzgerald instead - trust me - same use of 2-1/2 hours. I can't explain the problem with the movie except to say it was a lot of flash without substance, and it was trying to be bigger, to have "meaning", and it just didn't get there.

Baz Lurhmann is an interesting director and I liked his Moulin Rouge. The Great Gatsby had the same rich cinematography, eye popping colors, huge cast, dazzling costumes, and decent acting. But, I just was not entranced. As a matter of fact, the theater I was in had a power surge and the movie stopped in the middle for about twenty minutes. I probably could have left without serious remorse. That's not a good sign.

Tobey Maquire narrated as Nick and he did a good job as the wide-eyed observer, protector of his cousin Daisy Buchanan (played by a dewy Carey Mulligan) and in awe of Jay Gatsby (played by Leonardo DeCaprio). Leo has the look, the intensity, and the panache, and yet...a little something was missing in the connection between him and Daisy. They said all the right lines, but I didn't feel scorching heat or intensity of love. Joel Edgerton, as Tom Buchanan, was suitable as the old money brute, carouser, womanizer, and foe to Gatsby.

There just wasn't a natural flow to the movie. We had scenes that were busy and pretty, and yet the tension didn't build at the pace it should have. It was choppy and disconcerting. With the kick-off of summer movie season, there are plenty of other movie competitors for your dollar. If you must see it, wait for The Great Gatsby to hit Netflix. Go see Ironman 3, or new Star Trek:Into Darkness (that's what I plan to see next) in the theater. And play some serious Jazz Age music, not rapper stuff for 1922. That's just wrong.

Water Wall Saturday

 This is sheer poetry. Water cascading down a wall at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas.

 Sun reflections and variety of flow.

I was mesmerized.

Iconic Photography

It wasn't all food and drink in Vegas. There was a feast for the eyes, too. The Venetian hotel hosted an exhibition of the fifty greatest photographs from National Geographic magazine. Plucked from 125 years of history, these photos and the stories behind the lens were fascinating.
Some of the pictures were taken spur of the moment. Others were planned excursions that yielded magic. This was a cool exhibit - a quiet break from the Las Vegas hubbub.