Stu’s Reviews

Stu’s Reviews- #804- TV Series – “Curb Your Enthusiasm”- HBO Max -12 Seasons

Genre: TV Series

Grade: NR- not even going there…..

Notable People: Larry David, Cheryl Hines, Jeff Garlin, Susie Essman, JB Smoove, Richard Lewis, Created by LD and Gavin Polone

Title: Curb Your Enthusiasm

Review: What is there to say about this absolutely bizarre show that continued the Seinfeld tradition of being about nothing- except possibly the most annoying person ever to grace the small or large stage. The final season went out with a bang- with all kinds of late references to Seinfeld-and even a Jerry sighting. The ensemble cast of zany real Hollywood types was entertaining throughout and the main players had amazing rapport and chemistry. Watching Larry and Susie berate each other became high art. It always looked they were having too much fun doing this show. It’s tempting to believe that liking or hating this show was mostly a function of cultural background- but it may simply be one of good or bad taste-and clearly mine can go in either direction. The opening scenes of the last season’s first episode with Larry going at it fil tilt with Siri pretty much captures it all. I will miss this antichrist despite all his shortcomings, which rank as equal or greater than almost any living individual.

Stu’s Reviews- #803- TV Series – “Hacks”- HBO Max -Season 3

Genre: TV Series

Grade: A

Notable People: Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, Created by Jen Statsky and Paul Downs

Title: Hacks

Review: Season 3 exceeded even the first two brilliant seasons. Smart, witty, great writing and dialog, amazingly funny cast of ensemble odd-ball characters-and Smart (Designing Women) and the extraordinary Einbinder have a once in a generation chemistry. A half hour not to be missed.

Stu’s Reviews- #802- TV Series – “The Tourist”- Netflix – 2 Seasons

Genre: TV Series

Grade: A-

Notable People: Jamie Dornan, Danielle MacDonald, Greg Larsen, Olwen Fuere, Created by: Chris Sweeney

Title: The Tourist

Review: Extremely creative and bizarre Aussie drama starring Dornan as the victim of a car crash who wakes up in a hospital in Australia with amnesia. The Irishman wakes up with amnesia in an Australian hospital. Seeking answers, he encounters a local woman who remembers him and volunteers to help him rediscover his identity. What few clues he can find hint that he has a dark past from which he must escape before it catches up with him. That’s the basic plot, which does not do justice to this very quirky, well-acted, well written series recommended to me by my connoisseur of all things art friend, Feel. Two dynamic seasons go by in a flash. This intense series has the good sense to have a number of great comic relief characters, and Dornan is quite loveable in the lead role. Surprisingly, not yet renewed for a third season.

Stu’s Reviews- #801- Book – “The Midnight Library””- Matt Haig

Genre: Book

Grade: B+

Notable People: Matt Haig

Title: The Midnight Library

Review: Another in my line of books from the Chicago Tribune’s top Ten from 2023, this fantastical fable is filled with wonder and possibility. Nora Seed live in a beat down town outside of London with a dead end job and a lonely life. After her only real connection- her cat- dies, she gives up and takes an overdose. She then finds herself in the magnificently constructed and imagined Midnight Library, where she discovers her own infinite number of parallel universes and lives; which are all based on her book of regrets. Confusing? Maybe a little, but her chronicle of trying to find a life that is meaningful and her trying out of lives that might be worth living for, is quite energizing and captivating. This book was a pleasant surprise; hard to put down and well written, thought I thought it faded away at the end, and became a bit more predictable. Still, a quality read and a unique concept.

Stu’s Reviews- #800- Book – “Until August””- Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Genre: Book

Grade: A

Notable People: Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Title: Until August

Review: What a rare treat- a new issue from one of the great writers of the 20^th century. “Gabo” began writing a series of five novellas in 2001 and published several in next few years. This one got stuck in many iterations and then his dementia set in, and he chose to give up on it. He died in 2014 and almost ten years after his editor took it up again and his sons decided to publish it. There has been criticism of this as a money grab that Gabo did not want to publish, but it stands up as a fine part of his métier-a wonderful novella about a woman who finds totally out of character love once a year on an island she visits where her mother is buried. Classically Gabo and full, of grace and light wit. For those of us who cut our chops on a 100 Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, this is an unexpected and magnificent gift; for those too young or unfamiliar, give it a shot, but try the classics.

Stu’s Reviews- #799- Book – “The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store””- James McBride

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People: James McBride

Title: The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store

Review: I got turned on to this book from the Chicago Tribune’s “Best of 2023 List”, where it was the number one rated book for the year. Award winning author, McBride, tells the striking story of Pottstown, PA. in 1936 woven around the lives of the towns’ Jews and Negroes, which are heavily intertwined and often banded together against the Between-Wars white-protestant oppression. McBride’s’ understanding and mastery of traditional Yiddish culture and idioms is impressive and his sense of the 20^th century African American experience is illuminating. The book is filled with charm and wit, richly filled in with an assortment of ode and compelling characters. It is long book and started with an absolutely alluring bang, but bogged down a bit in its middle sections. An unusual and thought provoking story that’s also quite a bit of fun.

Stu’s Reviews- #798- TV Series – “Tokyo Vice”- Max/ HBO – Season 2

Genre: TV Series

Grade: A

Notable People: Ansel Elgort, Odessa Young, Ken Watanabe, Sho Kasamatsu Created by: JT Rogers

Title: Tokyo Vice

Review: Wow- this is still a hard one to not want to binge. Adapted from the memoir of Jake Adelstein, a young man from rural Missouri, who goes to Japan to pursue his dream of being an investigative journalist for Japans’ leading newspaper, Season 2 picks up full steam where the first season left off-and only gets better. Jake doubles down in all of the underbelly of Tokyo life and becomes ensnarled with the devilish ministrations of the infamous Yakusa gangs. The supporting characters become more fleshed out in season 2 with a number of compelling outside story lines. Extraordinarily well acted, with crisp dialog and a startling sense of being encompassed by Japanese culture- half in English and half sub-titled. Elgort, Young and Kasamatsu are perfectly cast in great roles and Watanabe may be the foremost Japanese actor of his generation. I found myself bowing to people everywhere I went. Season 3 is purported to be most likely.

Stu’s Reviews- #797- TV Series – “Tulsa King”- HBO/Max -Season 1

Genre: TV Series

Grade: A-/B+

Notable People: Sly Stallone, Andrea Savage, Martin Starr, Max Casella, Dominick Lombardozzi, Created by: Taylor Sheridan

Title: Tulsa King

Review: New York mafia capo Dwight “The General” Manfredi is released from prison after 25 years and exiled by his boss to set up shop in Tulsa, Okla.; realizing that his mob family may not have his best interests in mind, Dwight slowly builds a wacked-out cowboy/misfit/ drug dealer crew. Part comedy and part Mafia wannabe show, Stallone takes the cake, shocking us in his comedic versatility and deadpan one liners. This is not high brown art, but a lot of fun and a close second in mob-gone awry shows to Miami Steve in Lillehammer. Another boost for the current Midas touch of serial television, Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone, et al). I am almost ashamed to admit how much I liked this show- which was immediately renewed for second season, moving from Tulsa to Atlanta………. Yo, Adrienne……

Stu’s Reviews- #796- Book – “Carnegie’s Maid””- Marie Benedict

Genre: Book

Grade: A-

Notable People: Marie Benedict

Title: Carnegie’s Maid

Review: Benedict has taken on a personal mission of wiring historical fiction about the woman behind the scenes of historically significant giants/moments. He ability to weave her created characters into very accurate historical narratives is superb and her writing style immensely engaging. After taking on Heddy Lamar’s role in the Nazi empire (Only Woman in the Room) and Einstein ‘s wife (The Other Einstein)-she turns her attention to the post-Civil War era of the Gilded Age of American Industrialization with this wonderful novel in which she skillfully introduces us to Clara Kelly, a young, solo Irish immigrant to America, in the 1860s, who unexpectedly becomes the maid to Andrew Carnegie’s mother. Clara becomes close to eldest son, Andrew Carnegie, and helps to make him America’s first philanthropist. Th story is full of captivating twists and turns and unexpected romance, and lifts up the often unsung role of women in history. Great invented a real character portrayals and a compelling tale of courage in the emergence of modern America.

Stu’s Reviews- #795- Film – “Zone of Interest” “

Genre: Film

Grade: A

Notable People: Christian Friedl, Sandra Huller, Directed by: Jonathan Glazier

Title: The Zone of Interest

Review: This extraordinarily provocative film won the 2024 Oscar for Best International film and is available now on HBO Max-with sub-titles. Written and directed by Jonathan Glazier and co-produced between the United Kingdom, the United States and Poland-it is Loosely based on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, and focuses on the life of Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoss and his wife Hedwig, who live with their family in a home in the “Zone of Interest”. They are a very typical German family with kids playing in the beautiful summertime gardens and a wonderfully rehabbed country fresh property with swimming pool, trips to the lake and family picnics- and they just happen to live next door to the massive death camp where daddy goes to work each dat preside over the genocide. All very mundane, except that their property is bordered by Auschwitz and their very ordinary daily life is set against a sky with blackened smoke from the death ovens and the constant sounds of death and despair-all of which they ignore. The seemingly gentle film hovers over a brutal portrayal of the complete unimportance of those being cremated, in the horrific ovens, to the average German soldier. Many powerful moments in the film are easily overlooked given the soft blurry capturing of mundane family life. We never actually see the Camp, but are never unaware of it. A powerhouse!