Here’s what I watched and read last week…
MOVIES
The Aviator
(2004), directed by Martin Scorsese, is an excellent film about
filmmaker and aviator Howard Hughes. Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance
powerfully captures Hughes’s obsessive-compulsive disorder. The scene in
which Hughes locks himself in the projection room is probably the most
unsettling moment in the film. Cate Blanchett’s portrayal of Katharine
Hepburn steals the show. This film, along with Gangs of New York, marks Scorsese’s turn toward epic filmmaking.
The Color of Money (1986), directed by Martin Scorsese, is a follow-up to The Hustler.
The performances are outstanding, especially Paul Newman, who finally
won an Oscar for his role. Only Scorsese could create such energetic and
cinematic pool scenes. The score by Robbie Robertson is very good, and
of course there’s the song “It’s in the Way That You Use It,” performed
by Eric Clapton, which I remember MTV playing constantly in 1986. Roger
Ebert and Gene Siskel were hard on the film, and I don’t think their
analysis was entirely fair. I think it’s definitely worth checking out.
Nirvana: Up Close and Personal
(2007), directed by Bob Carruthers, is an okay documentary about
Nirvana. Most of the film focuses on Kurt Cobain, featuring interviews
with people who knew him in Aberdeen, Washington, including his
grandfather and former guitar teacher. Much of the information about the
band and Cobain was already familiar to me, but it was still
interesting to hear from those who knew him before he became a rock
star.
TV
American Prince: JFK Jr. (2025)
is a three-part series created by CNN. It offers a largely
surface-level account of JFK Jr.’s life in the 1990s, focusing on the
launch of his magazine, George, and his marriage to Carolyn Bessette. It’s not a bad documentary, but I wish it had explored his life in greater depth.
Ray Bradbury: The Illustrated Man
is a 1980 documentary produced by the BBC. It’s an excellent film that
explores Bradbury’s thoughts on writing, technology, and the importance
of reading. I especially enjoyed the segments in which excerpts from his
short stories are read aloud and acted. It’s available on YouTube and
well worth checking out.
BOOKS
Martin Scorsese: The Iconic Filmmaker and His Work by Ian Nathan is one of the best books of his that I’ve read. He gives particular attention to films such as Taxi Driver and Goodfellas,
though the book provides strong coverage of Scorsese’s career overall.
It’s an excellent read and made me want to revisit several of his films.
Widow’s Peak: The Complete Haunting,
written by Richard Chizmar and Billy Chizmar, picks up where the 2025
novella leaves off. I very much enjoyed the book. The story has more
room to breathe than the novella, though you do have to pay close
attention to the slug lines to keep track of where you are. The novel
definitely has a Blair Witch vibe. Most of the
characters are unlikable (except for the professor) but that makes
sense, given what typically happens to the main characters in
found-footage horror. I would definitely recommend it.
“I Sing the Body Electric!”
by Ray Bradbury is one of my favorite short stories, and I’m excited to
teach it in my writing class this semester. I’m pairing it with
discussions of utopian and dystopian depictions of technology and
science in speculative fiction. This story leans more toward the
hopeful, particularly in the way the electric grandmother is embraced by
the two boys and their father.
However,
the emotional center of the story is Agatha, who is initially skeptical
of the electric grandmother but eventually comes around after the
grandmother saves her from a car. Cars are often depicted negatively in
Bradbury’s work, and it’s no surprise that he himself did not drive.
Reading
the story closely, it feels especially relevant today, prompting us to
reflect on artificial intelligence and the question of human intimacy.
