I’m honored to share that two poems of mine were featured today over at Dead Snakes.
The first is entitled “Blue Wolves Move In An Indigo Wood.” The second is a short humorous poem that I wrote at the Metro stop at the Pentagon, and is entitled “Hot Cop.”
Thanks once again to Editor Stephen Jarrell Williams over at Dead Snakes!
To view both poems, click here:
http://deadsnakes.blogspot.com/2016/05/eric-robert-nolan-two-poems.html
“Thinner” (1996) was a fun enough outing; I’d give it an 8 out of 10. You can easily tell that this story originated with Stephen King. Only he can take an antiquated plot device like a gypsy curse and actually make it frightening.
I do get the sense that screenwriters Michael McDowell and Tom Holland stuck closely to the original novel (which I have not read). It seems like a character-focused story; I’ll bet the original prose really explored the incongruous friendship between Robert John Burke’s mild-mannered attorney and Joe Mantegna’s apparently psychotic mobster. I’ll bet that King’s unique style would have perfectly rendered certain plot points in the movie, such as one key conversation being overheard early on.
I feel like an idiot … For the life of me, I thought that actress Kari Wuhrer was Marissa Tomei. Her resemblance in this movie is striking. I can’t be the only one who made that mistake, can I? Anyway, I really panned Wuhrer’s performance in 2005’s disappointing “Hellraiser: Deader.” But she is damn terrific here in her role as the beautiful banshee adversary — she damn near steals the movie. Also outstanding is Michael Constantine as her haggard, curse-casting gypsy father.
Remember last week I was elated after seeing a beaver? That kinda didn’t happen. Turns out that the subject of my ecstatic interest was actually the unceremonious nutria (myocastor coypus), or, as I like to call him, the giant wannabe-beaver-rat.
I spotted the (apparently solitary) bugger again yesterday, and I was confused when I finally got a look at his rounded tail. Was it a huge rat? I followed him down the creek, because I am nothing if not a strange man with a lot of time on my hands. He appeared to submerge, swim underwater through an underground pipe for about three minutes, and then emerge casually on the other side of the road where the creek terminates in a sump.
I should have known it was a nutria before I looked him up. Believe it or not, I actually have heard of them before. A horror movie nerd like me remembers the species was supposedly used to portray giant rats for either “Willard” (2003) or its 1971 original. (I do forget which.)
They’re bad guys, too — at least from an environmental perspective. They’re an invasive, rapidly reproducing, semi-aquatic species that destroy wetlands and compete with the native muskrat. They themselves are not native; they were brought to the United States and Europe from South America by fur ranchers.
Anyway … if you’re able to catch 2003’s “Willard,” I highly recommend it. It starts Crispin Glover and R. Lee Ermey, and was penned by “X Files” greats Glen Morgan and James Wong. For the full spooky experience, first read Stephen Gilbert’s excellent 1969 novel, “Ratman’s Notebooks,” which served as the basis for both films.
Photo credit: By Philippe Amelant – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2027013.
When bookstores finally go out of business, will all we bibliophiles be Shoppers Without Borders?
Photo credit: By Dwight Burdette – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16277167
I’m honored here to report that Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine has again elected to publish a poem of mine. Today’s newly released April 2016 issue features “March Midnight Window” on page 17.
This piece originally appeared last year over at Dead Snakes.
I’d like to thank Editor Samantha Rose for this opportunity to see my work appear alongside that of so many talented people.
If you’d like to purchase a paperback copy of the April issue, you can do so over at Lulu.com:
Or, if you would like to download it in pdf format for free, just click here:
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Is “Wolf Creek 2” (2013) a well made film? Yes. It’s exceptionally well made. Would I recommend it? I’m not sure.
I’d rate it a perfect 10. Its technical expertise in undeniable. The cast is roundly excellent. John Jarratt is absolutely perfect in the role he seems born for. He’s so effectively menacing as this film’s serial killer that I think I’d find it unnerving even meeting the actor in real life. The only other actor I think I can say that about is Ted Levine, who so indelibly portrayed Buffalo Bill in “Silence of the Lambs” (1991).
Ryan Corr is damn perfect, as are the actors in smaller roles. I think Shannon Ashlyn portrays terror better than any other actress I’ve seen. She isn’t just a horror movie “scream queen;” her performance was so skilled that she rises above such a trite label. (And I’ve seen a lot of horror movies, people.)
It’s extremely well directed. The conclusion of an action sequence involving a truck must have looked downright stupid on the page, but damn if Greg McLean doesn’t make it plausible and shocking.
The entire movie is gorgeously shot. It was enough to make me want to visit Australia … if the story didn’t make want to stay the hell away from Australia.
I just get the impression that some movie studio planned to produce a generic, derivative slasher movie … but just inexplicably employed the best creative talent available for all aspects of its creation.
Now, about my reluctance to recommend this … Please understand that this film is incredibly dark, even by horror movie standards. At times it was just too much for me. I actually stopped playing this on Netflix several times to “take a break with something lighter” by watching “The Walking Dead.” Yes, you read that right.
The story depicted is just brutal. There are very few movies that are too dark for me … I think I could count them on one hand. (And one was 2005’s original “Wolf Creek.”) And this film is just so masterfully made that its victims seem like real people suffering — something at which the “Saw” films and various other slasher movies rarely succeeded.
I honestly think it might have been so “good” that it went past the point of entertaining me. Can I honestly recommend a movie that I felt the need to switch off?
You make your own call. Again — this is exceedingly dark material, even by horror movie standards. But if you think you’re up to it, watch it.
“Goodbye World” (2013) is technically a post-apocalyptic drama. I say “technically” because this sometimes misguided movie contains little tension associated with its apocalyptic event. (A cyber-attack destroys the technological infrastructure of America and possibly the world.) Indeed, this catastrophe doesn’t even truly drive the plot — it’s more of a background subplot that fails to even affect the tone of the film. (The poster you see below is misleading.)
Instead, the film scrutinizes the personal lives of a group of thirtyish college alumnae who have an informal reunion at a mountain cabin — one of their number is a plot-convenient intellectual-turned-survivalist. They’re portrayed by an (admittedly quite good) ensemble cast. I think a lot of my friends would smile at “Gotham’s” Jim Gordon (Ben Mckenzie) being a rather meek, feckless husband. And Caroline Dhavernas here is no longer the alpha female we saw in NBC’s “Hannibal,” but is rather an insecure, overly sensitive young wife who immaturely pines that she was the student “everyone hated.”
And there lies a problem that the movie has … few of these characters are terribly likable. Only Gaby Hoffmann’s surprisingly tough civil servant made me root for her. And Kerry Bishe’s perfectly performed, chatty neo-hippy eccentric was also pretty cool … Bishe might have given the best performance in the film. Finally, Linc Hand is a surprise standout, arriving halfway through in a menacing supporting role. It’s a far smaller role, but damn if he doesn’t nail it. (Please, Netflix, cast this guy as Bullseye in Season 3 of “Daredevil.”)
The others all seem either self-absorbed, self-righteous and preachy, or inscrutable and vaguely dumb. Dhavernas’ character actually steals a child’s teddy bear (which she herself had brought as a gift) and … sets it free in the forest. It was a belabored character metaphor when written. Worse, it just seems jarringly weird when it plays out on the screen.
All the characters seem strangely detached about the watershed national or global crisis. Some cursory dialogue is devoted to the imagined welfare of their family, colleagues or other friends; the character interaction is devoted mostly to marriage issues and personal emotional crises that I have mostly forgotten as of this writing. And those seem maudlin and slightly selfish compared to the Fall of the United States. The characters mostly failed at engendering viewer sympathy in me.
The screenwriters’ juxtaposition of personal matters and the end of the world also seemed tone deaf. We follow what the writers hope are educated, successful and endearingly quirky fun people, and we’re asked to worry about their love triangles and spousal communication issues. But … we’re then asked to view this in the context of a pretty frightening collapse of society, complete with plot elements that are interchangeable with those of AMC’s “The Walking Dead.” (One secondary character turns violent over the issue of resources, then charismatically justifies his violence to a crowd using a half-baked ideology that seems to channel “The Governor.”)
I felt like I was watching two movies at once, and not in a good way. The opening motif is brilliantly creepy — the virus causes cell phones everywhere to receive a text reading the titular “Goodbye World.” Our laconic, uniformly telegenic protagonists kinda just shrug at it. And even when suspicions arise in the group about whether one character is connected to the cyber-attack, there is dry, dialogue-driven humor instead of any real consequent tension. It was like John Hughes wrote a thirtysomething dramedy, but then tried unsuccessfully to sprinkle in the human pathos of one of George A. Romero’s more pessimistic zombie films.
But don’t get me wrong. This wasn’t even really a bad movie. I didn’t hate it. It held my interest, its actors gave good performances, and I am a shameless fan of Dhavernas in particular. The cinematography was very good too, and the story’s tonal differences were occasionally interesting. (This is definitely a unique end-of-the-world tale, if nothing else.)
I’d honestly give “Goodbye World” a 7 out of 10. I think my expectations sitting down with it were just unusually high, seeing Dhavernas attached to what looked like an independent, cerebral, apocalyptic science fiction thriller. I might even recommend it if you’re in the mood for a really unusual doomsday movie. Just don’t expect “28 Days Later” (2002) or “The Divide” (2012), and you might like this.
As though you hadn’t guessed, I absolutely loved Netflix’ second season of “Daredevil.” It might have had a problem with its concluding Elektra storyline, but I’d still rate it a perfect 10 — I just can’t give a lower rating to a season that made me cheer out loud while watching it.
I really loved it that much. I’ve started to think of this gritty little corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as my own “Star Wars” — these are characters that I grew up with, and to whom I’ve developed an emotional attachment, however strange or childlike that may seem to non-fans. If adults can cheer during the opening crawl of “The Force Awakens,” then I can cheer “KICK THEIR ASSES, MATT!!” when the ninjas of “The Hand” noiselessly and acrobatically swarm Daredevil.
It’s just a superb show. On one level, it’s a good character drama and legal thriller that can easily please a modern mainstream television audience. On another level, one of those characters just happens to be a low-level hero in the Marvel Comics universe.
The show succeeds nicely on the first level and goddam brilliantly at the second.The martial arts and costuming are perfect. John Bernthal is perfectly cast as The Punisher. It’s a cliche, and something I’ve written here before, as well, but I’ll say it again anyway — Netflix succeeded in bringing some of my favorite comic book characters from page to screen.
My only minor criticism is that the Elektra storyline was muddled, and understandably confusing for those who haven’t read the source material. (And if memory serves, it wasn’t all that easily understood in the original comics.)
Now bring on Bullseye!!
The poster for The CW’s new “Containment” seems like a ripoff for some exceptional poster art for 2007’s outstanding horror movie, “28 Weeks Later.” That is just one of a few offhand references that the TV pilot seems to make to the film. At one point, a panicked character blurts out the phrase “zombie apocalypse,” even though that has nothing to do with the plot.
Whatever. Judging from the pilot, the new sci-fi thriller seems like a more or less average outing. It isn’t bad, exactly, but it’s got plenty of room to grow. Right now it seems like a undistinguished, mainstream television treatment of “Contagion” (2011). I’d give it a 6 out of 10.
And, hey … just to add to the confusion, last year there was a really good British independent sci-fi-thriller, also entitled “Containment,” that also portrays a fatal disease outbreak. I reviewed it here at the blog. It almost seems like The CW is adopting the “mockbuster” strategy of capitalizing on viewers’ confusion of their show with superior properties.
Oh, well.
Here are just a few more shots of Washington, D.C. and the National Gallery of Art this past weekend. As I’ve lamented already, most of my photos did not turn out, so I am stealing many from my more talented friend. If any of the shots below appeal to you, rest assured that they are not mine.
I’ve come to understand that I simply do not enjoy Monet and Van Gogh as other people do. Their appeal is lost on me entirely.
But I damn sure enjoy Vermeer and Rembrandt. Even to an utterly unschooled like my own, the Dutch Masters’ method of rendering light was amazing. I told my friend that it almost seemed that sections of these paintings had light coming in from behind them … as though there were a hidden bulb beneath the canvas.
And I might have loved the incredible, sweeping, ethereal, dreamlike-but-detailed vistas of the American paintings even more.
That last shot should be recognizable to Civil War buffs, or even just those who can appreciate great war films. It’s Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ 1897 memorial to Robert Gould Shaw, who filmgoers might remember being portrayed by Matthew Broderick in “Glory” (1989). It’s huge. It actually is an immense sculpture that takes up an entire wall, and is much larger than you might understand from its inclusion during the closing credits of the film.
I am precisely the sort of weirdo who enjoys “people watching” too. And it’s easy at the Gallery, as visitors are so often occupied entirely by their objects of interest.
That gangly looking guy embarrassing himself in the video you see is me at the Canadian Embassy. (Do we really need embassies with Canada? We’re so chill.) The sly Canucks have actually incorporated an … echo chamber into the building’s superstructure. I know that sounds nuts, but it’s true. If you stand withing that domed structure, it sounds as though every word you speak is amplified down at you. It’s actually really incredible.
I was lucky enough to be treated by a rather generous friend to dinner afterward at La Belga. It is a fantastic Belgian restaurant in the gentrified Eastern Market area above the Capitol, and it’s modeled after traditional European sidewalk cafes.
Good lord! The “Mussels Diabolique” there were just … too damn good to describe. They were the best mussels I’d ever had. And that says a lot from a Long Island kid who grew up on seafood, working or chowing down in seaside restaurants. Really.
Go there. You’ll thank me for the recommendation:
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 