Category: Stu’s Reviews

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!

Stu’s Reviews- #794- Book – “Storm Watch”- CJ Box

Genre: Book                                          

Grade: A-

Notable People: CJ Box

Title: Storm Watch

Review: the latest in Box’s wonderful series, featuring Wyoming Game Warden Joe Pickett, is a whirlwind of tension set amidst the storm of the century in rural Wyoming. Box continues to find ways to enliven what might seem like a mundane job of fish and game violations; at various times mixing in Soviet spies, Chinese obstructions, deep state plots and larger than life characters. Joes sometimes best buddy, Nate Romanowski, remains one of the most interesting characters invented in modern American literature. You may have to suspend belief a bit to buy into these plots, but they are so well written and the characters and places so vivid, it is absolutely worth it. Consider starting at the beginning of this great series.

Stu’s Reviews- #793- TV Series – “Fargo”- Hulu/FX -Season 5

Genre: TV Series   

Grade: A-

Notable People: Juno Temple, Jennifer Jason Leigh, David Rysdahl, Joe Keery, LaMorne Morris, Sam Spruell, Jon Hamm, Created by: Noah Hawley

Title:  Fargo

Review: By far the best season since the initial season and though it does certainly not match the chops of the original Francis McDormand film, it has the Coen brothers stamp all over it. Hamm has a career resuscitating role as a very bad religious zealot/crazed all powerful rural and controlling sheriff (and father/husband) and serial abuser- after his stuck as Mad Men hiatus and Spruell is the character you’d expect from every Coen brother’s effort.

Temple is magnificent (how did she manage that accent), and unrecognizable from her wonderful stint in Ted Lasso. The merging of sweet, passive and lilting classic Minnesota personalities combined with the underlying evil and violence is just too good- Hawley and the Coens are masters at this. Loved this cast, loved the writing, loved the bizarre array of Lutherans. Fargo is the story that shifts like a chameleon, but, thankfully, does not go away

Stu’s Reviews- #791- Book – “Runner”- Thomas Perry

Genre: Book  

Grade: A-

Notable People: Thomas Perry

Title: Runner

Review: The sixth of nine books in this unusual series featuring Seneca Indian mystic, Jane Whitefield, who helps people who need to disappear. Each story involves multifaceted threats of kinds you cannot imagine as harmless folk try to avoid being taken out by gangland types, contract killers or just plain evil people. Jane may be the true anti-hero, a quiet woman trying to live an unobtrusive life, who keeps getting dragged back into situations to help people out of options to survive, that she may be the only human equipped to do. Masterfully conceived and executed, with fine character development and a great sense of place; this one criss crosses the country from the heart of Seneca Nation in the Adirondacks to the left coast. Really hard to put these down, and am bothered that he may have quit developing these as last one published in 2021. As an aside, Perry ranks at the summit of male writers to ever try to speak through a female protagonist. Would have never guessed the author is male.

Stu’s Reviews- #791- TV Series – “Billions”- Showtime -Season 7

Genre: TV Series                          

Grade: A

Notable People: Damian Lewis, Paul Giamatti, Corry Stoll, Maggie Siff, David Constabile, Asia Kate Dillon, Daniel Breaker, Condola Rashad, Jeffrey DeMunn, Created by: Andrew Ross Sorkin

Title:  Billions

 

Review: after several lackluster seasons following the departure of Lewis and the loss of the amazing Bobby Axe character, the show rebounded for magnificent finale with Lewis’ return and his subsequent uneasy alliance between he and US Attorney, Giamatti, to fight the evil empire that was Stoll. Snappiest dialog on serial TV and an individual and absolutely huge recurring, ensemble cast for the ages. Constable steals every scene he is in as the dandy Daddy Wags and DeMunn is wonderfully malevolent as the know-it-all patriarch fixer. The writing on the last season was a masterpiece and the finale riveting. A show that makes you like most of the characters despite their astounding level of greed and self-indulgence; just great acting. This show will  be missed

Stu’s Reviews- #790- Book – “A Noble Radiance”- Donna Leon

Genre: Book         

Grade: A-

Notable People: Donna Leon

Title: A Noble Radiance

Review: got back on the horse with this great Guido Brunetti (Commisario de Policia de Venicia) series whilst wiling away the hours down in the Keys. Good pick. Leon and Brunetti do not disappoint. Not only is Brunetti an enchanting character, but the stories are tightly woven mysteries woven around a lot of social commentary, Italian family life and the Commissario’ s many meandering internal reflections on life, relationships, the state of the modern world and, most hilariously, the Italian government. Major added bonus is the immersion into every side of the quixotic city that is Venice. No cars, many boats and one hard- not- to- love Commissario. Seventh in a very longs series that is still adding a new one annually. Get in this line.

Stu’s Reviews- #789- TV Series – “Lupin”- Netflix -Season 3- French sub-titles

Genre: TV Series       

Grade: A

Notable People: Omar Sy, Herve Pierre, Ludivine Sagnier, Antoine Gouy, Created by: George Kay and Francois Uzan

Title:  Lupin

 

Review Sy gets more brilliant with each season as the amazingly charming and astoundingly resourceful Assane Diop; a world class thief (think Robin Hood or Errol Flynn) who models his every move on the exploits of a French literary hero. The thrills are a mile a minute, while still being incredibly cerebral and challenging to keep up with. This third season had impossibly trumped the first two. Wonderful series-plus you get a bird’s s eye view of Paris as a bonus.

Stu’s Reviews- #788- Book – “What You Are Looking For is in the Library”- Michiko Aoyama

Genre: Book 

Grade: A-/B+

Notable People: Michiko Aoyama

Title: What You Are Looking For is in the Library

Review: This unusually titled work of Japanese fiction is one of four books I was led to by the Chicago Tribune’s Best of 2023 list. Two were so millennial orientated I could not understand them and gave up, and one I really liked-and this one, I tried to give up on several times in first 50 pages- but stayed with it and am glad I did. Quiet, Zen like book that has five stogies of different age/type people who are linked by s shared mystical experience at a small community library, whose very eccentric librarian provides them books and experiences that change their mundane lives. This is a very un-flashy but meaningful book that touched me in a number of ways, though the adaptation to cultural difference is significant. You gotta like quiet to enjoy this one.

Stu’s Reviews- #787- TV Series – “True Detective”- Max -Season 4

Genre: TV Series      

Grade: A-

Notable People: Jodie Foster, Kali Reis, Fiona Shaw, Created by: Nick Pizzolatto, Issa Lopez

Title:  True Detective

 

Review I usually no longer review additional seasons of a show I have already reviewed-but each of this show’s season are so distinctly unalike and individualized that I’m making an exception. This season, developed by original creator of the series, Pizzolatto, and featuring Jodie Foster, was by far the best since the amazing first season with McConaughey and Harrelson. Set in the dark season (no light at all) in remote Alaska it is a riveting tale of obsession, mysticism, friendship and power/greed. Foster has reinvented herself for this role and Reis is a screen staler. The ambience is unlike anything else on television, and although confusing at times, it is hard to look away from. Very unusual, very intense, not for everyone- but film quality television. A whopping 92% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes- which is unheard of for a TV series.

Stu’s Reviews- #786- Film – “Drive Away Dolls”

Genre: Film         

Grade: B+

Notable People: Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein, Directed by: Ethan Coen

Title:  Drive Away Dolls

Review: with the Queen on location in Vermont, I hitched up my big boy pants on Sunday and drove up the country to an abandoned mall and $6 first run move theater in quaintly Marion, Ohio- for a bit of a matinee. This is definitely not high art, BUT it definitely the Coen Brothers, the Great Purveyors of Schlock, which makes it a must-see in my book. Not their best work, but still quite an amusing take on a bad girls road trip from hell. Weird villains, strange roadside attractions, lots of inside lesbian jokes (I think I got them all), and a bizarre cast of characters, and Qualley is quite the hoot (is that accent for real?) . And the plot…I won’t even try. If you are a Coen Bros fan- ya gotta go, if not, well, depends on what else you have to distract you that day. Matt Damon cameo is charmingly weird. At the end, the title gets changed to “Drive Away Dykes”.