A slowish month. Problems to fix. But got a couple of new experiences.
Monthly Review: February 2023

A slowish month. Problems to fix. But got a couple of new experiences.
What I read and wrote and published and how I fared
Visually resplendent, and laudable for its environmental messaging, this film suffers from an underdeveloped story, incoherent editing, flat characters, and a resolution that resolves nothing. “Humans = bad, greed = bad, and living with nature = good.” I guess that’s a message we can all stand to be reminded of, but I do wish the packaging were more artful.
An entertaining and neatly-fitting little puzzlebox, much like the one in the opening sequence.
Full-length book reviews: Lydia Davis’s short story collection *Almost No Memory*; Faulker’s *The Sound & the Fury*; began reading *godel Escher Bach* and abandoned it; short reviews of some films I watched in recent months including *American Beauty* and *Sleepy Hollow.* Wrote a fair bit, including rewrites and microstories.
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Over the last few weeks I’ve rewatched *Breaking Bad* and *The Lord of the Rings* trilogy. Here’s what I thought of them.
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In this critique published at Countercurrents, I explore a genre-changing television series. Black Mirror does best when it shows how, in a world that’s almost this world, mass media and social media cause problematic behaviour at the mass level.
This review published at Countercurrents critiques a film that squanders great potential.