Swiss Army Man

Why Do We Have To Die Before We Can Live?

By Preston Sinclair

"I have so many questions about everything you just said."

                             Manny

     If you like to watch films that include discussions about flatulence,masturbation and erections then you might just like 'Swiss Army Man'. I use the word 'might' because sometimes this film is just TMI.

     Swiss Army Man, directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for which they won Best Director at The Sundance Film Festival,is a joyous romp through lush green fern filled forests. Consider it an experiment in magical thinking (think Life Of Pi without all the CGI).  There are plenty of practical stunts to keep us engaged in the action, yet they don't take us out of the moment. It's only later that we wonder, 'Wow, how did they do that?' There's an excellent documentary about the behind the scenes making of Swiss Army Man in the Special Features section of the DVD.

   This isn't a film for the faint of heart. It's kind of a bro-mance road trip in a wooden bus.  The story turns what could have been a vulgar frat boy gag sideways as it delves into the realm of existentialism and asks the hard questions, 'What am I doing here? Why am I still here?'

  Manny (Daniel Radcliffe) earnestly asks questions like, 'If you're hiding your farts from me, what else are you hiding?' Hank(Paul Dano) turns out to be more duplicitous and self serving in his answers. Hank soon realizes that he has a captive audience in Manny who has no memory of anything before he died.  As a result, Hank tries to create an alternative history that is more to his liking up to the time he tried to commit suicide.

  There's a certain beauty and simplicity about Swiss Army Man which is engaging in a compulsive sort of way. Yet, if you try to hang on to it too long it begins to smell like a rotting corpse. Eventually, you have to let it go, which is what Hank should have done with Manny.

Reference links:

IMDB  

Breakfast At Tiffany's: Book vs Movie

Hello!? You People Are Crushing Me

By Preston Sinclair

 

   Orangey, the animal actor who plays the role of Cat in the film adaptation of Truman Capote's novella Breakfast At Tiffany's, chews up the scenery in a way that would make even Meryl Streep proud.

    Holly Golightly vapidly purrs, 'Poor slob, poor slob without a name,' as she tickles Cat's head.  Holly Golightly has been forever glamorized and romanticized by the movie starring Audrey Hepburn.  She plays it cool as a mid-century modern glamour puss. Really, she's kind of a bitch. I mean, who wouldn't name their own cat?  If you think the scene where Holly kicks Cat out of the cab is heart wrenching in the movie. It's even more brutal in the book. When they go back to look for him, he's gone. Smart cat.

     Speaking of pets, let's dish about kept men like Paul Varjak, played by George Peppard. Talk about the Pillsbury Dough Boy, this movie was made back in the day before you needed six pack abs to be sexy. He reminds me of a Golden Retriever puppy, always smiling and drooling in an eager to please way. As the narrator of the book he's more of a crisp cool hipster wanna-be.
    

Holly throws shade {c} LA Times

One problem I have with this movie is that the character played by Patricia Niel doesn't even appear in Capote's novella.  This sub plot in the movie just doesn't jive,man. It's almost like she was written in as a 'beard' for Varjak.

    While we don't know for a fact that Paul is gay, his sexual preference is at best ambiguous. Capote's dialog and innuendo in the novella imply that he is. Paul does profess a certain plutonic love for Holly. Actually, it's more of an obsession.
    As a result, Holly's moral recrimination of Paul in the movie rings hollow and false to me when she says 'You have four seconds to leave, I'll give you two...' It's as if she's saying that,'It's worse to be a gigolo, or gay, than to be a whore like me.'
     The opening line of Capote's short novel is, "I am always drawn back to places where I have lived..." This sense of nostalgia permeates the story and it translates well in the film thanks to Blake Edward's deft direction.  The scenes of New York City are beautiful and haunting at the same time.
     This is what makes Breakfast At Tiffany's such a gem.

Reference Links:

Orangey: IMDB

Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? A book review.

Blade Runner:The Book

By Preston Sinclair

 "Does she know?" 

                Rick Deckard





     This is the life or death question Deckard asks  The Rosen Association in Phillip K. Dick's sci-fi existential hard boiled detective novel 'Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep'.  It makes great summer beach reading.
     Sometimes, androids say and do inappropriate things. This is what makes it so difficult to tell them from humans. Their lack of empathy could lead to comical misunderstandings, or tragic situations just as it does in real life today.

     Deckard learns the hard way that humans have empathy for certain other humans, and some animals, but not for everything. It's only his morose sense of humor that carries him through the longest day of his life. The fact that he is able to develop empathy for one android, Rachael, while she is unable to empathize with him only proves that he is human.
     Dick seems to have prefigured Skype when he introduced Vidphone. Today, communication is taken for granted due to the "smartphone". There in lies the anomaly. How can two distinct police precincts exist without one knowing about the other, with the old Hall Of Justice on Mission, and the new one on Lombard?  The only answer can be that real news has been replaced by the "fake news" spewed out by Buster Friendly in this age of propaganda.
    As a result of this vacuum of information Mercerism has been allowed to flourish as a new religion. Yet it turns out to be only another failed philosophy to placate the masses. It's exposed as a fraud, a mere distraction using smoke and mirrors. Finally, Deckard confronts Mercer via the empathy box and all Mercer can say is, "Don't you see? There is no salvation?"
     All of this occurs in a universe where animals are bought and sold as if they were automobiles. Prices are haggled over and deals are made. This makes what happens to Deckard's goat all the more disturbing, just imagine someone or something pushing your car off the roof of a building.
     'Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep' takes the exploration of existentialism to the next level. The androids, including Roy Baty their ring leader, lack a certain understanding of what is right or wrong yet they are driven by their own free will. As a result, mankind has produced the perfect psychopath in the Nexus-6.
     Ridley Scott's 1982 film adaptation "Blade Runner' captures the film noire atmosphere of the story and dialogue perfectly. Scott has his finger on the pulse of all things smokey, sexy, and rainy.

   

Saint Odd: A book review

Simply Odd

By Preston Sinclair

"You are destined to be together forever"

     Reading an Odd Thomas novel is like being in a really cool video game. Odd Thomas is the 'everyman', the avatar, if you will.  You feel like you are chasing something and being chased at the same time and that's a really scary thing.
     I didn't want 'Saint Odd' to end. At the same time I was desperate to find out what happened. I was so conflicted. This Dean Koontz novel bills itself as the stunning conclusion to the Odd Thomas series, but is it really?  I hope not. 
     I love Oddie. He's painfully earnest and that's a rare thing these days. He confronts the depths of hell with wink and nod that let's the reader know everything's going to be okay. Or maybe it won't. He doesn't know for sure. 
     My paperback edition of 'Saint Odd' included a bonus of the original short story called 'You Are Destined To Be Together Forever'. It's what one might call a prequel and it sets the stage for all of the Odd Thomas novels to follow.  I love short stories, and this one is brilliant.
     On the surface, the card which Odd Thomas and Stormy received from The Gypsy Mummy proclaims that "You are destined to be together forever." This sounds prophetic. Yet it begs the question, is our destiny also our fate? There's a certain vagueness about the card's inscription to which Odd Thomas pinned all his hopes and fears.  The card never said, 'You will be together forever.' It didn't even imply that he and Stormy should be together forever.  Many factors can intervene to change one's destiny.
     The terrorist attack at the mall in Pico Mundo changed Odd Thomas's destiny forever. Therefore it becomes an existential question, "What is forever?" Is it only this life we are living, or does it include the next realm? 
     As always with Odd Thomas this is a chase story. He's in a race against time. At times one wonders when this boy has time to eat drink or go to the bathroom during his race with evil.  I don't pretend to have the answer.  The malevolent 'evil doers' take the form of carnies and bungling idiots who are just out to wreak havoc. It's not clear that any of them know what they are doing.  The force behind all of this mayhem is never really revealed.  In order to fully understand 'Saint Odd' you need to read 'Deeply Odd' which sets the stage and introduces the characters. The idea of evil existing in another dimension, a realm parallel to ours gains traction as Oddie vacillates between a dream state and reality.
    Anyone who has experienced night terrors knows what it's like to read an Odd Thomas novel. That feeling that someone, or something is sitting beside your bed watching you sleep, mewling and drooling over you until you wake up kicking and screaming and falling out of bed.  Odd Thomas called them 'bodachs'.
    Odd Thomas experienced a horrific loss when Stormy was killed. She was his life. He hoped to have a family with her and that was taken away by a terrorist gun. Everything that ensues is Odd Thomas' journey with grief.  Our culture likes to set a time limit on the grieving period. It could be one minute, or it could be forever. That's for each of us to decide. Tell Odd Thomas to 'get over it' at your own risk.

References:

Amazon

Dean Koontz

Goodreads