DVD Reviews: More Cheapo Bin Choices

Arrival - It's amazing what you can dig out of the cheapo DVD bin at Walmart. For example, I was very moved and impressed by this film, which I had previously only seen in small fragments while watching my folks channel-surf on their cable TV. It had a lovely cast, headlined by Amy Adams, Forest Whitaker and Jeremy "The Hurt Locker" Renner. (I know I'm showing my disconnectedness from pop culture by not leading with his Marvel Films character, whose name I can't think of at the moment. But "The Hurt Locker" was a great movie.) Also, it had a mind-bending plot, freighted with powerful emotions, rewarding multiple viewings. It's the kind of movie that makes you re-interpret what you've already seen as it goes along. To make a long movie adapted from a short story really, really short, it's about a linguist who discovers how to communicate with an alien race by embracing their non-linear perception of time. On a deeper level, it's basically about accepting an offer of love even with the knowledge that it will end in grief.

Three scenes that made it for me (at least, as far as memory serves): (1) Saboteurs have planted a bomb right where Amy Adams is interviewing aliens "Abbott" and "Costello." They keep trying, unsuccessfully, to warn her about it - then they take thrilling (and self-sacrificing) steps to save her. (2) The sequence in which Adams sends herself a message from the future (sorry, I don't want to spoil it by being more specific). (3) The gag about what the Sanskrit word for "war" literally means.

Fury - The main conceit of this World War II picture is revealed in an opening title that says, more or less, that because Germans had better tanks, American tank crews dropped like flies during the Allied invasion of Germany. The whole film illustrates that thesis in all its brutal, heartbreaking and morally challenging tragedy. The hero tank crew includes a leathery Brad Pitt, a zealously religious (but still irritating) Shia LaBeouf, a wide-eyed and innocent Logan Lerman (late of the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" movies), and two or three more who are well cast and memorable. It's a movie that, for example, makes good use of Jason "Lucius Malfoy" Isaacs. There is a lot of blowing up of things and people in this movie. It really does put the viewer through a wringer, along with the cast of characters.

Three scenes that made it for me: (1) The sequence in which Lerman falls in love with a young German girl, and it takes all of Pitt's strength of command to keep the other tank guys from raping her during a very tense meal scene. (2) The battle in which one German tank and four or so American ones are pretty much evenly matched - edge of your seat, gripping and horrific stuff. (3) The final battle against a relentless and numerically superior enemy, with the hero tank crew knowing that retreat is not an option and survival pretty much isn't either.

Interstellar - Here is another sci-fi epic that I only saw in tiny snippets until I found it in the bargain bin. What a bargain it was, with Matthew McConaughey performing the almost unprecedented acting feat of not making me want to smack him in the face, supported by Jessica Chastain ("Zero Dark Thirty," "The Help," "Jurassic World"), Michael Caine, Timothée Chalamet, Casey Affleck, Anne Hathaway, Ellen Burstyn, John Lithgow, Topher Grace, David Oyelowo, Wes Bentley, William Devane, Josh Stewart (JJ's husband on "Criminal Minds"), Elyes Gabel (TV's "Scorpion") and Bill Irwin (Lou Lou Who in 2000's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"), not to mention a secret surprise casting stunt that I don't want to spoil. If you already know about it, shut up.

The plot is dense and ranges over a long period of time, thanks in part to Einsteinian time dilation effects and whatnot. The survival of the human race depends, so the story goes, on finding a way to transport a significant part of the population to another planet that can support life. Failing figuring out how to do that, there is a Plan B - but you really don't want it to get to that. For McConaughey, a hotshot pilot in a near future when school books are being rewritten to paper over the era of space exploration, the opportunity to play a role in that chance of saving mankind becomes devastatingly personal. Whether he pulls it off, and how, is a thing of amazement.

Three scenes that made it for me: (1) McConaughey does four-dimensional space, tying everything in the movie together. (2) The entire segment surrounding that casting surprise I told you about, full of awe-inspiring tragedy, madness and violence. (3) Dad reunites with daughter at the end of an epic journey - and that's using the word "epic" in as proper a sense as anyone has ever applied it to a science fiction movie.

The Foreigner - Jackie Chan does some serious damage to some Irish terrorists in this movie, which is only to be expected. But how he does it, and the amount of legitimate acting he successfully pulls off, is unprecedented as far as I can recall. Mind you, I haven't seen every movie he ever made. But putting him opposite Pierce Brosnan is a really interesting choice, and the dark paths this film leads both of them down are gripping in a very different way from the typical Jackie Chan action comedy. It starts when a restaurant owner's daughter, the last surviving member of his family following their disastrous escape from China, is blown up by a bomb in the streets of London. Finding that the government ministers responsible for catching his daughter's killers aren't getting the job done, he goes rogue and gets it done himself, with both bad guys and good guys gunning for him. What he pulls off is really amazing. It's the odd movie in which you're not entirely sure whom to root for, because both of the main characters, who are not entirely on the same side, are both sympathetic and scary.

Three scenes that made it for me: (1) Brosnan sends his thug nephew into the woods to collect Chan dead or alive, and Chan not only turns the tables but actually brings said young thug onto his side. (2) The time Brosnan's goons track Chan to his flat and how he escapes. (3) The bombers' comeuppance, an exploit of fiendish cleverness, superbly choreographed and satisfying on a very simple, moral level.

Two More Movie Reviews

Instant Family - I had high hopes for this movie about a couple (Mark Wahlberg and Rose Byrne) suddenly becoming the foster-parents of three complicated kids. And it was all right, at times. But not as good, and certainly not all of the time, as I had hoped. In spite of a terrific supporting cast, including Octavia Spencer, Julie Hagerty, Margo Martindale and Joan Cusack, it came across as something between an after-school special and a well-meaning marketing stunt for fostering children. Mainly, it was the occasional burst of adult language or off-color humor that set it on the next level up. One nice thing I can say about having Mark Wahlberg in the lead is that his acting style, which regularly makes me squirm, was a good match for a series of comedy gags that were apparently intended to make one squirm. Ultimately, though, the couple's unfitness to be responsible for these kids is made so heartbreakingly apparent that the happy resolution of their case isn't quite convincing.

Looking back from way too long after watching this movie to do it justice, the three things that made it for me were: (1) The hero couple's hilariously awful attempt to protect their foster daughter from a sleazoid at their school. (2) The sad but funny awkwardness of Joan Cusack's role as the nosy lady across the street. (3) The patter between the mismatched co-facilitators of their foster parenting group, played by Octavia Spencer and Tig Notaro.

The Crimes of Grindelwald - Opinion was divided in the group I saw this movie with. One guy thought it was a terrible follow-up to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Another thought it was OK but could have been better. I was pretty happy with it, though it is definitely darker and leaves a lot more unresolved at the end than the previous super-sized confection from the writer and filmmakers of the "Harry Potter" franchise. The plot has jumped ahead somewhat since the last movie; for example, the supposedly dead (but vaguely hinted to be still alive) Credence Barebone, played by Ezra Miller, has obviously survived, grown up and gotten a girlfriend who, somehow or other, is destined to turn into Lord Voldemort's pet snake. Some people have flipped from the good side to evil, including the previously nice Mr. Abernathy - that young bureaucrat at MACUSA who got flustered when Queenie Goldstein adjusted his tie, back in Movie 1 - who right at the start of this movie is revealed to have gone quite dark and plays a role in Grindelwald's (Johnny Depp) jailbreak. Queenie herself - well, that's part of why the ending of this movie leaves you wondering, "That can't really have happened, can it?" Meantime, multiple mysteries and spooky plots are unfolding all at once, leading to a tour of the wizarding world within Paris, an introduction to a much younger Dumbledore (played by Jude Law), a dashing brother for Newt Scamander, and an actual appearance by the very ancient Nicolas Flamel. It features a dark magical street circus, a sort of evil cult rally, a woman whose transformation into a beast is growing increasingly uncontrollable, a young man's search for his real mother, and a guy who is paying the ultimate price for making an unbreakable vow to avenge his mother's death. Layers within layers, many of them taking a tragic turn, including the romances between Newt and Tina Goldstein and between Queenie and Jacob the muggle.

Three scenes that made it for me: (1) The escapade in the French Ministry of Magic archives, during which the heroes are stalked by catlike security spells. (2) A bit of magical CSI on the scene of a previous night's fracas in the magical quarter of Paris. (3) What it takes for Newt to finally "take sides" in the conflict between Grindelwald's fanatics and the good guys.

I've picked up a negative vibe about this movie from a lot of people. I feel like I'm in the minority for liking it and hoping that the series continues. I've had that feeling before; for example, I enjoyed Valerian while someone I saw it with came out of the theater livid with rage. I take comfort in the fact that my warm reception of then-panned The Fifth Element turned out to be, so to speak, prophetic of the cult following that movie developed. None of these examples are perfect movies or even particularly great movies, but in the case of The Crimes of Grindelwald, a bit of middle-movie-itis might provide just the seasoning a movie series needs to make its concluding installment go off with a bang.

Two Can Play

Two Can Play
by Kate Kessler
Recommended Ages: 14+

In the second Audrey Harte novel, the child psychologist introduced in It Takes One has taken time off from her consulting job on the TV show "Kids Who Kill" to help the prosecution of a teenage serial killer close to her hometown in Maine. Specifically, Audrey is supposed to find out whether the victim who survived when Ian Monroe was caught red-handed will be able to testify against him. The complications thicken fast when a serial killer with an identical M.O. starts dropping victims, suggesting at the very least that Monroe has an accomplice. Pretty soon the new killer starts paying personal attention to Audrey and the people close to her, including steamy bar owner Jake and his niece. Meantime, Jake has a murderous secret of his own. Meantime meantime, the teenage perpetrator in the last murder Audrey solved needs some personal attention, meaning our heroine has to go back to the juvenile facility where she paid for the murder she herself committed as a teen.

Heavy stuff, right? Well, that's what you get for reading a book about serial killers. Luckily, Audrey Harte is a tough broad. Also, the chemistry between her and Jake is hard to resist. But I haven't even touched on some of the twisted stuff that happens in this book, such as a corpse turning up in Audrey's own hotel room, a serial killer groupie doing her main squeeze's evil bidding, a victim becoming a monster and a person Audrey cares about becoming a potential victim. The really off-the-hook part is that in spite of everything, Audrey's mission will always be to heal, to whatever extent is possible, the twisted and broken young person who is behind all these unspeakable crimes - or at least, to teach them how to cope with the life of extreme boredom in store for them after they get caught. Readers of the "get that creep" persuasion may be surprised to find themselves rooting for her to do just that. Maybe it's because "kids who kill" are not far from being victims themselves. Or maybe it's just solid writing.

Kate Kessler, a.k.a. Kate Locke, Kate Cross, Kady Cross, Kathryn Smith and Kate McLaughlin, is the author of such diverse titles as A Game of Scandal, When Seducing a Duke, When Marrying a Scoundrel, When Tempting a Rogue, Brotherhood of the Blood, Night of the Huntress, Taken by the Night, Let the Night Begin, Before I Wake, Dark Side of Dawn, The Girl in the Steel Corset, The Girl with the Windup Heart, Heart of Brass, and of course, the "Immortal Empire" trilogy of God Save the Queen, The Queen is Dead and Long Live the Queen. The next book in the "Audrey Harte" series, meanwhile, is Three Strikes.

It Takes One

It Takes One
by Kate Kessler
Recommended Ages: 14+

This book introduces Audrey Harte, an offbeat protagonist for an ongoing series of mysteries. Audrey is a psychologist who specializes in the study of children who commit violent crimes, consulting with the star of a West Coast-based TV series about "Kids Who Kill." How very appropriate, then, that during her first visit in years to her Maine hometown, Audrey becomes tangled in a crime involving her accomplice in the murder that got her (Audrey) sentenced to a facility for troubled teen girls. It's an awkward situation all around. The cop in charge of the investigation, who was a high school classmate of both Audrey and the victim, thinks Audrey may be a suspect - and her dad, the retired sheriff, is even more convinced of it. Jake, the boy who came between Audrey and Maggie after Audrey's release, still has the same dangerous smolder he had when his betrayal launched Audrey on a course bound far from home - plus, he is now the most powerful man in town. Audrey's drunk of a father is still, unfortunately, the same as ever, but an ominous change has come over her mom. And there are other people in town who carry various amounts of baggage related to Audrey, and who are affected in various ways by her sudden return - including more than one person whose rage could cross the line into violence.

Murder, assault, domestic abuse, sexual abuse, and various other dark and guilty secrets rise to the surface during Audrey's visit home. Everybody in town has something to say about it and knows everybody else's business. Nevertheless, no one seems to know who is behind the death of Audrey's one-time best friend, who may have been messed up even worse than anyone suspected. It turns out that an expert on "Kids Who Kill" who once was one will be the perfect person to get the killer, if the killer doesn't get her first.

This is a sexy, disturbing, dark and violent thriller of the "you can never go home" persuasion, yet in the end, its heroine realizes that she really has come home. Audrey is not always a very sympathetic character, and a smart reader will soon realize that many of her problems are of her own making; yet her danger, and the danger to those she loves, grips the heart. Surrounding her is a cast of complex, lifelike characters, some of whom you will like and dislike at the same time, trust and distrust. And by the end, the possibilities of a series of novels featuring a child psychologist sleuth will hit you like a blue bolt of "Holy Alex Delaware!" OK, so maybe it's not that original. But still, it's a high-yield little piece of entertainment that I found most useful for clearing my mental cache, and I think I'll be reading more in the series. Other titles, up to last year, included Two Can Play, Three Strikes, Four of a Kind and Zero Hour.

Kessler's other novels are Dead Ringer and Seven Crows. Her real name is Kate Locke, and under it and several other pen-names (Kate Cross, Kady Cross, Kathryn Smith and Kate McLaughlin) she has written quite a few other novels in a variety of genres ranging from mystery-romance to steampunk, including the "Immortal Empire" novels that I enjoyed a few years ago.

The Witch Boy

The Witch Boy
by Molly Knox Ostertag
Recommended Ages: 12+

I had a fit of Amazon book ordering one day, and I bought this Scholastic title and another that looked vaguely like it. When the books arrived, I was dismayed to find out two things about them: first, that they are graphic novels, which is not my preferred format for reading material; and also, that I had somehow found my way into the LGBTQ+ Edification and Reeducation section of the Scholastic catalog. Since at least part of the target audience of my long-running series of book reviews is Christian families who read together, I'm mentioning that up front so they can decide how much farther to read. This book is definitely a candidate for an Occult Content Advisory, thanks to the Pagan/New Age/Wiccan outlook on magic that it espouses.

OK, now that we've settled that, to the book. Aster is part of an extended family that lives separate from society as we know it, practicing forms of magic passed down through generations of their family. Traditionally, the boys and men are all shape-changers, each male hewing toward the form of his personal spirit-animal, while the females are witches who deal in charms and potions. In defiance of his family's values, Aster feels drawn toward the feminine side of magic, as well as to a non-magical girl named Charlie who encourages him to practice the witchcraft forbidden him by his family. Meantime, an evil force is at loose in the woods, causing the disappearances of Aster's cis-male cousins (and by the way, part of me died just now). It's apparent that at the root of this bad magic is someone who didn't distinguish properly between the male and female principles of his family's gifts.

I'm sure it's all very encouraging for people who desire affirmation of their chosen gender, but I personally found it preachy and unappealing. I had a hard-time sympathizing with the whiny brat factor of the hero kids, perhaps because of the age range the author targeted. At the end of the book, the author throws in some panels from earlier drafts of the work which, in my opinion, would have gone over better - such as an older, more mature Asher. I also found many of the scene transitions awkward and in some cases confusing, and the thought inevitably crossed my mind that it might have been a more successful story written out in prose. But it is what it is, and unfortunately, I'm not made to find this book very entertaining. For those who are thus made, Ostertag has created some follow-up titles of a similar nature, with such titles as The Hidden Witch and The Midwinter Witch.

The Power of Un

The Power of Un
by Nancy Etchemendy
Recommended Ages: 10+

Gib is just like any ordinary middle-school kid with a cute little sister and a knack for saying the wrong thing to the girl he likes at school. Then one day a strangely dressed old man materializes in the park where Gib likes to take a shortcut, and gives him an apparently home-made device that he calls an Unner. As Gib learns, the Unner has the power to dial back time, giving him a chance to re-do things he got wrong. He'll sure need it, though, when the carnival comes to town and tragedy threatens either the sister he loves or the girl he likes.

At the outset, this book seems to be on track to become a goofy fantasy adventure. It quickly develops into much more, packing serious emotional power. In it, a kid is given the power to undo a situation that, in the real world, could not be undone; yet he must go on living with the memory of that grief. Ultimately, he pays a steep price to protect the people he cares about. It's high-yield emotional dynamite in a compact package.

This book, published in 2000, is Etchemendy's latest publication other than a book of short stories called Cat in Glass. She also wrote three fantasy books for younger readers in the 1980s, titled The Watchers of Space, Stranger from the Stars and The Crystal City.

The King's Blood

The King's Blood
by Daniel Abraham
Recommended Ages: 14+

The fantasy world introduced in The Dragon's Path continues to grow in depth and danger in this second book of "The Dagger and the Coin." Multiple story lines, depicted from alternating characters' points of view, include a young girl's struggle to be accepted as a woman of business, a military veteran's search for a cause to give his life meaning after he has lost everything he ever cared about, a noble couple's devastating sacrifices for the good of their country, a runaway priest's growing conviction that the god he used to serve is about to destroy the world, and an insecure weakling's so-awful-it-could-be-true rise to power in a world teetering on the brink of an all-consuming war.

I listened to the audiobook (read by Pete Bradbury) of both of the first two books in this quintet, one right after the other. This had two effects detrimental to my ability to write an accurate review. First, I can't clearly recall where one ended and the other began. Second, I have no idea how to spell any of the character or place names in this series. More research is definitely indicated, but for me, it will probably continue to be an affair of the ears, as these socio-political-economic-military novels are so rich in challenging ideas, and so loaded with thrills and chills, that they seem like the perfect thing to take on a long road trip. Also, my area's public library system seems to be carrying the series, so that's convenient.

Looking back after leaving this review in "pending" mode for a while, one thing that still sticks out is the character of Geder (OK, I looked that up). Just when you're starting to sympathize with him, he does something that tops all previous atrocities and fills you with bloodcurdling horror. Then, when you're sure that he's the chief monster in the tale, you find yourself starting to feel sorry for him again. Particularly under the influence of the company he keeps in this book, he has the potential to be worse than Hitler in proportion to the size of his world, and yet his vulnerability, inner conflict and occasional flashes of nobility are off-putting. The ambiguity of his portrayal is almost as disturbing as the magnitude of evil that he represents - and that at least one character recognizes, to his great cost.

Daniel Abraham has also released the five-book "Black Sun's Daughter" series under the pen-name M.L.N. Hanover, starting with the book Unclean Spirits; penned eight or so "Expanse" books (starting with Leviathan Wakes), co-written with Ty Franck under the shared pseudonym James S.A. Corey; co-created the related TV-series The Expanse, which is currently going into its fourth season; and wrote several other books under his own name, including the "Long Price" quartet. He has been nominated for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards for his novelette "The Cambist and Lord Iron: a Fairytale of Economics," a Nebula for the novelette "Flat Diane" (which won an International Horror Guild Award), and another Hugo for Leviathan Wakes. He also seems to run in George R.R. Martin's crowd. This information leaves me ambivalent as to how deeply I want to commit to exploring Abraham's worlds; I don't, after all, get the appeal of Game of Thrones. But based on these intriguing books, I might give The Expanse a chance.