V. Wells August 2010

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Sequel and Equals

Image
They had me at "dystopian;" I changed my movie plans immediately. Equals (dir. Drake Doremus, 2015)   is a surprisingly successful (but not perfect) movie with the poutily pretty Nicholas Hoult and solid Kristen Stewart as futurish Romeo and Juliet types (or are they?...), in a world that tonally, although not visually, echoes the one in Children of Men.  The story, shot largely in Japan, revolves around a post-apocalyptic world where life has been re-created, supposedly a post–common cold and –cancer utopia, but is threatened by SOS, a gene defect whose arc is like real-life's experience with HIV-AIDS. Social constraints swiftly eradicate those with "the bug," called "Switched On Syndrome." There is a far-flung place, The Peninsula, where degenerates live, embracing social bonds, but it is a no man's land that, if emotions were present, would give the people the heebie-jeebies, so adverse are they to the thought of social contact with any c...
Read more

Book Recommendation: Disenchanted by Janet Ursel

Image
I have a confession: I pick up fantasy novels somewhat cautiously. My favourite genre, speculative/post-apocalyptic lit, often gets lumped under fantasy/sci-fi, which I find curious, because I don’t think a post-apocalyptic world is necessarily fictitious. But the branch of fantasy that involves dragons or other worlds or time travel…sometimes I need to be convinced. (Don’t get me wrong: I had to stop reading a spec. lit. book that I was going to review: it wasn’t worth my reading or writing time.) So when I embarked on Janet Ursel’s upcoming fantasy novel Disenchanted , I didn’t expect to be hooked to the point of not making dinner that night and reading a third of it in one go, after a full day of other editing work. It is another world and time, and it does involve magic. But this is a multi-dimensional treatment of fantasy that Ursel makes work beautifully. As an editor, I see a lot of writing problems, so my mind is trained to note them even when reading for pleasure. I dog...
Read more

IONA 2020 and 2021

Image
Didn't make it to Iona this year due to the pandemic so had to make do with watching this film, Iona (2015, Scott Graham). Hopefully Easter next year for real.  Because I love quiet films about sin and redemption and the motherland, this one was a winner for me.
Read more