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Entries in Movie Review (53)
The Stone Reader
Aug 25, 2008 at 10:00AM One Man's Epic Quest To Get Stones
Tina and I recently watched a fascinating little documentary (okay, it wasn't really so little, with a running time just over two hours) called The Stone Reader. The filmmaker, Mark Moskowitz, a commercial producer by day, is in his spare time a voracious reader. On one of his many business trips he finally picks up and reads in its entirety a book he had originally purchased way back in 1972 after reading a glowing review in the New York Times Book Review, had started and never finished. That book was called The Stones of Summer.
This time he finishes it. And it's a doozy. He becomes convinced that it is, in fact, a modern classic - a first novel on par with some of his personal favorites: Tropic of Cancer and The Recognitions among them.
This prompts a basic question: Who is this Dow Mossman character and why the hell hasn't he published another word in the intervening almost forty years?
The film provides the answers. It's a labyrinthine endeavor, replete with setbacks, wild goose chases and intriguing digressions.
Along the way, he pays visits to book critics, literary agents, fellow Iowa workshop classmates, as well as several famous alums of the program: talking heads include Leslie Fiedler (a favorite critic of mine), John Seelye and Frank Conroy.
And - I don't think I'm spoiling anything here - in the end he finds his man. Which brings on easily the most interesting portion of the film. Mossman is a fascinating figure and his life story, which he liberally mined (of course) for his book, is compelling.
As a sort of coda, Moskowitz takes it on himself to do his damnedest to get the book back in print, which, as an epilogue informs us, he was successful in achieving. Barnes & Noble reprinted the novel in the year after the film came out.
Unsurprisingly, my wife Tina was compelled by this fellow and his book. Would it live up to its reputation? Would it amount to little more than a footnote in literary history? This weekend, on one of our regular forays, we ran across a copy at a used book store, so in due time you can expect some kind of literary review from her.
Though I found some of the filmmaker's aesthetic choices a little wearing, and thought that overall it could've used a bit of a trim, it's always refreshing to run across a film that evinces a deep, abiding love of books and that hopefully can spark a similar interest in viewers otherwise not necessarily inclined to explore the byways (as well as the acknowledged high points) of Quality Lit.
The Trap (Part Three): We Will Force You To Be Free
Jul 31, 2008 at 08:00AM A Documentary By Adam Curtis
Part Three of Three.
The Trap (Part Two): The Lonely Robot
Jul 30, 2008 at 08:00AM A Documentary By Adam Curtis
Part Two of Three.
The Trap (Part One): Fuck You, Buddy
Jul 29, 2008 at 08:00AM A Documentary By Adam Curtis.
About the modern concept of freedom. Part One of Three.
The Fog Of War
Jul 28, 2008 at 08:00AM Erroll Morris' Oscar-Winning Documentary (2003).
An excellent documentary about Robert McNamara, one-time Secretary of Defense, and his role in the escalation of the Vietnam War.
Stanley Kubrick's Boxes
Jul 26, 2008 at 07:25AM A documentary from Jon Ronson (Secret Rulers Of The World).
A fascinating approach to a complex individual.
The Man Who Walked Across The World (Part Three): Trade Winds
Jul 18, 2008 at 08:00AM A Documentary By Timothy Mackintosh-Smith
Part Three of Three.
The Man Who Walked Across The World (Part Two): Magicians and Mystics
Jul 17, 2008 at 08:00AM A Documentary By Timothy Mackintosh-Smith
Part Two of Three.
The Man Who Walked Across The World (Part One): Wanderlust
Jul 16, 2008 at 08:00AM A Documentary By Timothy Mackintosh-Smith
Part One of Three.
Sufi Soul
Jul 15, 2008 at 04:44PM A Documentary By William Dalrymple
An interesting look into the mystical, pluralistic side of contemporary Islam.
