THE GRATUITOUS CRITIC, vol. 1

Lord, will this guy ever put a sock in it?

Nope.

If you read Metacritic or any similar compilation of critical commentary, it’s pretty obvious that the opinions on any particular work range all over the map.  Who’s right?  Well, no one.  It’s opinion, rooted in each reviewer’s personal history, phobias, fetishes, prejudices, etc.  The best you can do if you’re using someone else to help you make a choice is to generally follow those who, historically, seem to match your own predilections.  Not foolproof, but you gotta start somewhere.  For instance, in movies, I tend to agree often with Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal, which I used to get for a special rate; now I read it at the local library or peruse his reviews online.  He usually found small, quirky movies (often foreign) that appealed.  Lately, not so much.

Books are not much different.  You’d think that getting nominated for, or winning, a Pulitzer or a Man Booker award would ensure a worthy read.  Only maybe.  Again, it’s the prejudices, etc. at work, this time of a small committee rather than an individual reviewer.  Take for example, “Wolf Hall,” winner of the 2009 Booker prize.  Great reviews.  Absolutely hated it.  I couldn’t stand the arrogance of the author virtually NEVER identifying who it is that was speaking during her dialogues.  It drove me crazy. And, sorry, I just didn’t find her recreation of Cromwell’s life all that compelling.

So, in revenge or arrogance, I now inflict upon you my own world view of what I have liked recently.  You can take these opinions to the bank!

MOVIES

Well, this one was easy.  We saw it well before the Oscars, in Indy with Mom, and we all loved it.  Excellent overall, with great acting.  I think Geoffrey Rush got jobbed for Best Supporting Actor.

This was a surprise.  While we have a thing for English costume dramas like King’s Speech, we didn’t know what to expect from this.  It was a wonderful film about a not always likeable character.  Sorry, Colin, but it’s hard not to say that Paul Geamatti got jobbed for Best Actor!  Dustin Hoffman finally gets a decent role and makes the most of it.

Saw The Social Network on Netflix the other night.  The acting is great, but the editing is superb.  Lots of jumping around in time and place, but all logical and easy to follow.  A weird subject for a film, but it worked.  I loved the thrashing that Harvard gets throughout the film.  Smirk.

BOOKS

 

Sometimes best sellers deserve the popular acclaim.  This is one of them.  A great story (how do authors dream these things up?) with fleshed-out characters.  It’s being made into a movie that comes out April 22.  I think it will be a tough translation as it’s really a character-driven novel that could be painted too broadly on the screen.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

Now here’s one I never would have stumbled upon but for a recommendation (and loan!) by our daughter-in-law, Alia.  Very neat structure, fictionalizing as a centuries-long mystery the history of one (real codex) of the earliest Jewish religious volumes to be illustrated with pictures.  Sound dry?  How about romance, death, a harem, Nazis, forgery, and mysterious clues to unravel?  Brooks won the Pulitzer for an earlier work, which I’ll have to check out.

Loni’s become a history buff, so I scour the press for reviews of that ilk.  This is one I found for her last birthday.  When she was done (and loved it), I read it on our last RV trip.  Absolutely fascinating.  This is an amazing piece of history and it boggles the mind to see how it came about, starting with the French effort under de Lesseps.  It’s funny/tragic how the politics of that era look so much like our own.  La plus ca change . . .

SERIES ON THE TELLY

Appropriate to use the British slang as it seems what we like the most comes from the BBC (via, of course, Netflix).

I wholeheartedly second the blurb you see on the cover above. 

“Doc” Martin is General Practitioner, Martin Ellingham, formerly a brilliant and highly successful vascular surgeon at Imperial College London until he develops haemophobia (extreme fear of blood) that prevents him from performing operations. After retraining as a GP, he applies for a post in the sleepy Cornish village of Portwenn, where he spent childhood holidays with his aunt. Despite his surgical brilliance, Ellingham lacks vital social skills and any semblance of a bedside manner.  With this set of rurals, that leads to much mischief.

There are four seasons available on Netflix, but each consists of only 6 to 8 episodes.  A fifth season will start filming this year.  I can’t wait for it to hit Netflix.

If you’re a fan of Masterpiece Mystery, you’ll love this series, which the Netflix algorithm told me I’d like based on my previous rentals.  Hey, it worked!  Don’t know how it missed getting picked up by MM, but I’m glad we found out about it.  Done in the usual, reserved BBC fashion of don’t explain everything at every step, and with complex and troubled characters.

We started watching this years ago, again via Netflix, although I’ve noticed this past year that it’s appearing on some PBS stations.  Best to use Netflix, and start at the beginning, as the character relationships develop over time and some characters are replaced.  This is another “village ensemble” cast, and I got similar vibes to the old “All Creatures” series, only this time set in Ireland rather than the Dales.  This is one of those “comfy slippers” series where you settle in with your fictional old friends.  No broad strokes or slapstick, it’s character-driven comedy that we liked a lot.

Don’t touch that dial!  We’ll be right back.