My Lovely Dark Summer - Goodreads Giveaway

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My Lovely Dark Summer

by Tom Connelly

Giveaway ends August 03, 2026.

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 I am giving away 50 ebooks! US only.

Watched and Read - July 19, 2026

 

Here’s what I watched and read last week…

I am now adding a spoiler alert.

 

 

MOVIES

Niagara (1953), directed by Henry Hathaway. I have been watching Criterion’s “Murderous Melodramas” this month. The Technicolor cinematography of Niagara Falls is beautiful, with some great performances from Marilyn Monroe, Joseph Cotten, and Jean Peters. Similar to my review of Leave Her to Heaven, Niagara’s dark themes of deception and murder clash with the film’s luscious colors.

Bigger Than Life (1956), directed by Nicholas Ray. Another excellent noir melodrama that is streaming on Criterion. One of the first things I teach in my television course is to challenge the perception of the 1950s, and the idea of life for many Americans was not The Donna Reed Show. Bigger Than Life underscores this notion. I was shocked by the topics it takes up, such as underpaying teachers and drug addiction—all shot in CinemaScope and Technicolor!

Married to the Mob (1988), directed by Jonathan Demme, is a fun screwball comedy with a good cast. But Mercedes Ruehl steals the show. I can see why she was later cast in The Fisher King, the film for which she won the Academy Award. Even though I enjoyed Michelle Pfeiffer playing a Long Island wife of a mobster, her New York accent sounded forced - a pet peeve of mine.

‘Round Midnight (1986), directed by Bertrand Tavernier. I knew nothing about this film but was interested in seeing it because of Dexter Gordon. I bought the Criterion Blu-ray during the 50-percent off sale. I hardly ever purchase a movie that I do not know anything about. I’m so glad I did! This is an amazing film with a great soundtrack by Herbie Hancock, who won the Academy Award. Gordon is also very good and funny. This is a must-see for jazz lovers.

Hud (1963), directed by Martin Ritt, is an amazing film and a must-see if you are interested in studying movies, particularly cinematography. James Wong Howe’s black-and-white photography beautifully captures the open landscape in wide shots and deep focus. I particularly love the opening scene in which Lonnie traverses the empty town. The wind blowing is haunting and ghostly, especially if we consider how the tragic death of Hud’s brother lingers over the film. My favorite scene is when Homer and Lonnie go to the movies and then out to eat. You get a sense of how much Lonnie loves his grandfather. But it also reveals his loneliness and how he is stuck between Homer, a principled man, and the thrill-seeker Hud, who lacks a moral compass. 

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TV

I am re-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I started with the second season and am up to episode seven. The introduction of Spike and Drusilla is a classic episode. But it is the Halloween episode where the series starts to find its voice. I think it is the first time we start to learn about Rupert Giles’s past, when he was known as “Ripper.”

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BOOKS

Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square by Arthur La Bern. (Spoiler alert). I am currently finishing my book on Alfred Hitchcock and horror, and wanted to read La Bern’s novel for research purposes. Anthony Shaffer did a great job of adapting the novel, which would become Frenzy. The movie is much better than the novel. For example, they shortened the unnecessary long trial of Richard Blamey (Blaney in the film). They added a funny subplot involving the Chief Inspector’s wife, who is a terrible cook. And the ending of the movie is much more suspenseful than the novel’s, where Blaney is finally proven innocent.

 

Watched and Read - July 12, 2026

 Here is what I watched and read last week...

 

MOVIES

Minions & Monsters (2026), directed by Pierre Coffin, is a very good and funny movie about the minions going to Hollywood. This was my first time watching a Minions movie, and I enjoyed it very much. The references to Hollywood are hilarious, and the animation is outstanding. What struck me was the underlying message about the history of theatrical cinema, which I think is especially important in the age of clip culture and streaming. I’ll have to check out the other Minions films.

Violent Saturday (1955), directed by Richard Fleischer, is a great film about a group of characters who come to a desert-mining town to rob a bank. Throughout the story, we are introduced to a series of characters and their situations leading up to the robbery. The cinemascope is amazing, with many shots filmed on location, giving the film both a spectacle and a realist look. The film is streaming on Criterion’s “Murderous Melodramas.”

Leave Her to Heaven (1945), directed by John M. Stahl, is an excellent noir film about a jealous woman who becomes obsessed with her husband. The technicolor cinematography is amazing, and the set design is beautiful. However, lurking within this beautiful setting is a monstrous figure played brilliantly by Gene Tierney. The film is streaming on Criterion’s “Murderous Melodramas.” Definitely check out Imogene Sara Smith’s analysis of the film, which is also available on Criterion.

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TV

I finished the second season of The Wonder Years. There were many great episodes. Highlight were: “Our Miss White,” “Walkout,” and “Square Dance.” The series does a great job of balancing nostalgia, melodrama, and comedy.

We re-watched the first and second seasons of the Stranger Things series. The Duffer Brothers do such an amazing job of weaving together a cast of characters. The first season focused mostly on Lucas, Dustin, and Mike as they searched for Will. However, the second season is structured around a web of narratives, crosscutting between different groups of characters, such as Dustin and Steve; Lucas and Max; Jonathan, Nancy, and Murray; Joyce, Bob and Jim, etc. Arguably, this is why the episode “The Lost Sister,” which involves Eleven and Kali, feels out of place. They should have done a better job of threading that storyline together with the others. Besides that, the second season is really good.

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BOOKS

The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag by Robert A. Heinlein is an excellent novella. I first learned about the story through a chapter in Slavoj Žižek’s Looking Awry, where he discusses the story’s ending in regard to the Real (the thing that disrupts the symbolic order) and fantasy. I finally checked out the book from the library and read it. The story is a good example of the fantastic, capturing the hesitation between reality and fantasy. Heinlein does a great job of holding the reader’s interest until he finally reveals Hoag’s profession.

 

 

Watched and Read - July 5, 2026

 

Here is what I watched and read last week…

 

MOVIES

Pale Flower (1964), directed by Masahiro Shinoda. I am continuing to watch Criterion’s curation of Japanese noir. Pale Flower places more emphasis on atmosphere rather than plot, with some excellent black and white cinematography. But the standout moment is the haunting imagery of Muraki’s dream. Very cool movie.

The 400 Blows (1959), directed by François Truffaut. One of Truffaut’s best and most personal films. I teach this for the French New Wave and art cinema in my Introduction to Film course. The film beautifully captures the theme of freedom and entrapment, using many of the characteristics associated with the French New Wave, such as handheld camerawork, on-location shooting, and a loose ordering of narrative events. This is a must-see if you are interested in learning about cinema.

No Down Payment (1957), directed by Martin Ritt, is a very good and dark film about four suburban families. The film begins by emphasizing the surface, which is then slowly deconstructed. What we may think is a typical all-American family is underpinned by a dark underside that involves racism, alcoholism, trauma, and money, to name but a few.

Phil Lynott: The Long Goodbye (2022), directed by Remarni Ramchaitar-Jackman, is a good documentary on the legendary singer and bass player for Thin Lizzy. I did learn some new things about Lynott, but I kind of wished the documentary went a little more in-depth into his life. But it is definitely worth checking out if you want to learn about him.

Cover-Up (2025), directed by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus, is an excellent documentary on journalist, Seymour Hersh, exploring the major stories he reported on, such as Vietnam, Watergate, and Abu Ghraib. If you are interested in journalism, this is a must-see. It is currently streaming on Netflix.

The Wizard of the Kremlin (2025), directed by Olivier Assayas. I did not connect with this. It was very hard to believe Jude Law as Putin. I also thought Paul Dano was miscast in the film.

Jaws (1975), directed by Steven Spielberg, is a movie I watch every Fourth of July. It is one of Spielberg’s finest and scariest films. I am working on a book on Hitchcock and horror, and discuss The Birds as a precursor to Jaws. Both films feature creatures that defy the laws of nature—what I call supernatural creatures. I also highly recommend The Jaws Log, which explores the making of the film.

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TV

We finished The Boroughs and thought it was a good and entertaining series with a lot of nostalgia. The finale was very good, with some touching moments. I also enjoyed how the series addressed the themes of death and grief.

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BOOKS

I finished reading Jacques Lacan’s Seminar II and thought it was a lot harder than Seminar I. The standout section is Lacan’s reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Purloined Letter.” For Lacan, the letter hiding in plain sight stands for the unconscious. This leads him to claim that the unconscious is on the outside. Or, as he puts it, the unconscious is the discourse of the Other.

I very much enjoyed Ray Bradbury’s Green Shadows, White Whale. At first, I thought he was going to write about his process of adapting Moby Dick for John Huston. Instead, it is mostly about the people he met in Ireland, their stories, and their culture. Although he does not delve deeply into his relationship with Huston (he even discusses why at the end of the book), you do get the sense that Huston was difficult to work with. I think this book is more for Bradbury fans than for film buffs.