Book Review: Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

Rosemary Woodhouse's husband Guy is an up-and-coming actor. They live in 1960s Manhattan and are moving from his studio apartment to someplace bigger. They want a nursery because they plan to have three kids, each two years apart. They start paperwork on an apartment in a plain, white, uninteresting building but then get offered a spot at the Bramford. The Bramford is an older, gothic building that had large living quarters on each floor, the sort with room for servants and such. The apartments have been sub-divided and the Woodhouses are offered one on the seventh floor. The Woodhouses' friend Hutch tries to dissuade them from moving in since the building has an eerie history of bad things happening there. The Woodhouses are nominally agnostic--Rosemary left behind her Catholic faith when her family objected to her marrying a Protestant. They are not phased by superstitions and decide to move in. Their apartment is right next to the Castavets, an older couple who take an interest in the Woodhouses. Guy hangs out a lot with the Castavets--they are good storytellers and know a lot of theater history. Rosemary hears strange noises through the walls. And the neighbors take an overly nurturing attitude toward Rosemary, especially after she gets pregnant under some weird and unsettling circumstances. As Guy's career takes off, Rosemary has to fend for herself as she makes unhappy discoveries.

The story is quite famous, especially due to Roman Polanski's faithful movie adaptation (though the book was a smash hit on its own). The situation seems fairly normal at the beginning but weird and creepy things keep happening. The mundane realism of Manhattan life is a sharp contrast to the strange things at the Bramford, heightening the tension. The book delves into Rosemary's psyche, showing her increasing sense that something really wrong is going on here. I liked the build-up a lot but was let down by the very ending which initially struck me as very implausible and unsatisfying. The more I think about it, the more I understand the intent but I am still not quite content, especially as more story-line problems occur to me based on the ending.

Mildly recommended.

The book is discussed on A Good Story is Hard to Find Podcast #293.

Marvel Catch-Up: Thor 4; I Am Groot; She-Hulk

Here's some quick takes on recent Marvel Cinematic Universe content:

Thor: Love and Thunder co-written and directed by Taika Waititi

Thor (Christ Hemsworth) realizes there's a certain emptiness in his life...he has no one to love.  Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) gives Thor some advise as Thor leaves the Guardians of the Galaxy to set out on his own. A new threat arises, Gorr the God Butcher (Christian Bale), a disgruntled believer whose personal god failed to have any sympathy for Gorr or his daughter who died on the way to get help from that god. Gorr winds up with the Necrosword which he uses to kill his god. Then he travels through the Shadow Realm from world to world, killing their local gods. When he comes to Earth, he kidnaps the children of New Asgard, hoping to draw Thor into the Shadow Realm for a death match. Thor enlists Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Korg (voiced by Taika Waititi), and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) who is now wielding a restored Mjolnir and going by the moniker "The Mighty Thor." Jane has stage 4 cancer. Being in the Thor-state keeps her healthy and active. In the long term, it's letting the cancer get worse. Thor is concerned for her even though they broke up a while back. They team up for the children, with a stop to recruit other gods like Zeus (Russell Crowe). 

The story is okay and the visuals are amazing but the overall film has a lot of flaws. Half the time Korg is funny, half the time I find him annoying, which is too high a percentage for a main character. Korg does a lot of narrating during the film, violating the "show don't tell" rule by telling as the filmmakers are showing. More annoying (but happily minor characters) are the shrieking goats Thor is given when he haphazardly saves a planet. The shrieks are clearly meant to be funny but the joke wears quickly. Also annoying (but a minor point) is Russell Crowe's accent--is he trying for a Greek accent? Is he drawing on the skills he used in Robin Hood? Crowe seems to be just taking the paycheck. Hemsworth and Portman still only have minimal chemistry together. It's a lot easier to see why they broke up than why they would get back together. Portman gives the best performance in the film, vacillating between the cancer-striken Jane and the fun-loving Mighty Thor. Bale also does a good job but his character is underwritten. And there's the dopey pseudo-feminism of calling Valkyrie "King" of New Asgard and Jane turning into Thor just by wielding the hammer (why didn't that happen when Captain America held the hammer? Or Hela?).

Not recommended--we're back in Thor: The Dark World territory.

I Am Groot co-written and directed by Kristen Lepore

Channeling the magic of Pixar shorts, this series of five short animated episodes shows various adventures had by Baby Groot (voiced by Vin Deisel). They are charming little vignettes, like Groot learning to walk or Groot discover a tiny civilization in a footprint. He also fights a gelatinous clone of himself, mostly through a dance-off. These episodes pack a lot of fun in two minutes (the end credits for each one is longer than the content) and the whole series can be "binged" in less than fifteen minutes.

Highly recommended for some fun.

She-Hulk: Attorney-at-Law created for television by Jessica Gao

Jennifer Walters (Tatiana Maslany) is out for a ride with her cousin Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) when they are run off the road by a space ship. In the accident, they both receive injuries and she gets some of his blood in her wound. She then gets the Hulk powers. Bruce takes her to a secluded tropical location where he works with her to control the powers and see their extent. She returns to her regular life as a lawyer in Los Angeles, though her life is no longer regular at all. She's hired by a top-level law firm that wants to open a super-human law division with She-Hulk as the main attorney. Jennifer would rather just be Jennifer, but the pay and prestige are too tempting. She also tries to maintain a regular life, working on her dating/social life and dealing with her family who are a lot more blue collar than she is.

The show is mis-titled. It should be called "The Comic Mis-Adventures of She-Hulk." Jennifer has a hard time dealing with how other people (her family, her colleagues, random people on the street and on the internet) deal with her. Some people are only interested in her She-Hulk persona but Jennifer still has full control of her intellect and actions. She's the same person, just in a large, muscled, green body. The show runs through a few legal situations (e.g., she represents Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth) who is being paroled from his crimes as The Abomination) but a lot of the episodes are more like standard sitcom fodder. She goes to a wedding; she sets up a dating profile and has to go through a string of losers; she needs to find a tailor who can make clothes for both of her body types. The episodes are also mostly inconsequential and played for laughs. She breaks the fourth wall regularly (which the character did in the comic), again for comic effect. She gets into silly situations but by the end of every episode, her situation resets. The show is also stuffed with cameos of other characters, like Hulk, Abomination, Wong (Benedict Wong), and Daredevil (Charlie Cox). Her main villain, Titania (Jameela Jamil), has super-strength but mostly causes annoyance as an "influencer," using public opinion, the internet, and cheap marketing to cause Jennifer problems. 

Mildly recommended--the show is very entertaining but also very slight.

Book Review: Thor & Loki: Double Trouble by M. Tamaki and Gurihiru

Thor & Loki: Double Trouble written by Mariko Tamaki and art by Gurihiru

Thor brags about how great he is while Loki tricks him into raiding Odin's treasury of magical objects. Thor retrieves a Lur, which is a magic horn. When Loki blows the horn, it summons the sister of the Midgard Serpent. The giant snake starts to lay waste to Asgard, with Thor and Loki (okay, mostly Thor) fighting the monster. More mayhem and adventures follow from this action-packed beginning.

The plot is a bit episodic, running from one situation to the next. As with other Thor and Loki stories, the joy is in their interactions, verbal and physical. The story is fun and moves along at a good pace. The art by Gurihiru (who worked quite well on Avatar: The Last Airbender) is very good and captures the playful tone. It's light-hearted, kid-friendly storytelling.

Recommended.

Movie Review: Peninsula (2020)

Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula (2020) co-written and directed by Sang-ho Yeon

As people are fleeing the Korean zombie outbreak seen in Train to Busan, Jung Seok (Dong-wan Gang) is getting his sister and her family out on one of the last boats leaving for Japan. As they drive through the countryside, they bypass a family whose car has broken down. On the boat, one of the passengers is infected and mayhem breaks out, resulting in the deaths of Jung's sister and her children. His brother-in-law (Do-yoon Kim) survives. They wind up in Hong Kong as refugees with nowhere to go. 

Four years later, they are recruited with two other people by some Chinese criminals for a heist. The four people are to go back to zombie-infested Incheon, find a truck full of money that was left near a bridge, and bring it to the port. The Chinese will split half of the twenty million US dollars, enough money to make everyone comfortably rich. The brothers-in-law agree to go, but in true heist-film fashion, the plan does not go off without a hitch. The hitch is two-fold. First, there's a group of ex-military running around capturing supplies and survivors whenever they can for their own entertainment. So the truck gets snatched the them with the brother-in-law inside. Second, the family Jung left behind at the side of the road is also running around collecting supplies and looking for ways to escape. They save Jung from the military folks. He immediately recognizes her though his long hair and injuries make him unrecognizable to her. The family had been with the military people but split after the military went all Mad Max. The survivors in Korea quickly realize that the truck is their ticket out of the zombie hell they've been living in for four years. Everyone schemes to escape, though few scheme together.

The movie is presented as a sequel to Train to Busan though no characters are in both films. The setting has become more post-apocalyptic as the people try to survive the zombies and each other. They also drive around in cars that have been armored and adapted for fighting with zombies (so definitely Mad Max vibes). The abandoned city has lots of junk in the streets and zombies hiding all over the place. Thematically, this movie is no where near as strong as the first film. The family here is less compelling than the father and daughter in the first film, which was the real heart and purpose of the original. The action is more frequent, creative, and destructive (probably due to a higher budget?). Some moments do not make much sense and seem in the movie to heighten the tension. The tension does not get high enough to distract the viewer from the inconsistencies and melodramatic happenstances. The movie is more like Army of the Dead than Train to Busan.

Mildly recommended. Peninsula is entertaining but I don't think I will watch it again (I did rewatch the original in preparation).

TV Review: Werewolf by Night (2022)

Werewolf by Night (2022) directed by Michael Giacchino 

Ulysses Bloodstone, a famous monster hunter (at least, famous in the covert monster-hunting community), has died. His main weapon is the Bloodstone, an artifact of incredible power that would normally have passed on to his daughter Elsa (Laura Donnelly). She left the family long ago and only comes back to the funeral to claim what's hers by birthright. Ulysses had other plans--he organized a hunt with the greatest monster hunters from across the Earth. They gather at the funeral and are ready to do whatever it takes (including fighting each other) to win the Bloodstone. All they have to do is defeat a monster who has the Bloodstone attached to him.

While inspired by the classic Universal horror films of the 1930s and 1940s, the movie wobbles between serious and silly at the beginning. The set-up scene for the hunt unfortunately invokes Young Frankenstein rather than Frankenstein, making the proceedings hard to take seriously. The 54-minute running time does not give enough space to set up tension and horror, only a few gory moments and maybe two thrilling scenes. This show looks like it's just another Marvel action show, albeit shot in black-and-white. The labyrinthine garden where the hunt takes place is not used to any great effect, a lost opportunity. The show does have one interesting twist, some character revelation, and one menacing scene with the titular monster. But overall, it doesn't satisfy.

Barely recommended, this is more like cheap Halloween scares.

Currently (October 2022) only streaming on Disney+.

Cub Scout Camping Fall 2022

Our Cub Scout pack camped out in October 2022. We went back to a favorite, Broad Creek Memorial Scout Reservation. My family arrived Saturday morning and set up early.

No posing by the tent

The morning was slow since we were waiting for the rest of the scout families to arrive. My daughter tried whittling with her small Swiss Army knife. 

Cutting wood down to size

Just before lunch we went for a hike through the reservation. We found some interesting tracks along the way. We think some wild turkeys crossed the path.

Tracks not made by me

We also spotted an underground entrance that was not open to visitors. The "chimney" at the top looks like some industrial exhaust. Did they build some kind of bunker for emergencies?

Maybe it will open for Halloween?

Our trail took us to Lake Straus, a small leisure lake created by damming Broad Creek. The creek runs through the reservation, eventually emptying into the Susquehanna River. We saw a blue heron on the water in the distance.

Lake Straus

The river beyond the lake

The spillway of the dam

After lunch, we started lighting fires without matches or lighters! This activity is a favorite of the cub master. His first effort was with a magnifying glass. The glass concentrates the sunshine to a focal point. It was able to burn holes through egg cartons. The only challenge was keeping the scouts from wandering around behind the cub master and eclipsing the sun!

One way to start a fire

The activity switched to using flint and steel lighters. My son had some trouble getting it started but was able to make sparks and did get a fire going.

Creating fire!

The cub master had a cattail that he got about a week ago. The cattail looked like a corndog. It was almost dry enough to light. The best part is inside the cattail, where there's a lot of light-weight fluffy stuff that would have caught fire with a couple more days of drying.

Trying to light some challenging tinder

The scouts also learned to tie a variety of knots and run an obstacle course blindfolded. Since I ran those activities, I took no pictures.

Dinner was the ever-popular walking tacos.

Filling and easy to make

As the campfire was being readied, we saw the moon rise over the trees. Just above the moon, Jupiter was visible.

Moonrise

Closeup showing Jupiter higher in the sky

The campfire was mostly casual, with smores as the first part of the fun.

Roasting marshmallows

Things got more serious when we retired two American flags. When the flags are too damaged or ragged to be displayed, they should be burned and/or buried. The older scouts put the flags in the fire.

Taking the flag to the fire

The flag on the fire

Adding the second flag

As the fire died down, we saw the grommets from one of the flags.

Can you find the grommets?

The night was a chilly one and sleep was not easy for me. In the morning there was frost on the ground, the tents, and the buildings.

Frosty field

Looking back to our camp

We left my combo whistle/thermometer/light outside of our tent. The reading just before 7 a.m. was quite chilly.

Read it and weep snowflakes

We had a fun campout but really hope that the Spring campout will involve warmer weather.

Book Review: Spy x Family Vols. 5 and 6 by Tatsuya Endo

Spy x Family Volume 5 by Tatsuya Endo

With their new pet dog who can see the future (but only Anya knows), the Forger family gets back to work on Anya's progress at Eden Academy. Anya has midterms. Any failing grades will put her closer to getting kicked out of school. If she scores in the top two she'll get Stella Stars, putting her closer to the real target. Twilight plans to break in and change the grades. Too bad another spy with another agenda is also breaking in to change some grades. If that wasn't enough trouble, Twilight gets a new side mission with a temporary partner, codenamed Nightfall. She wants to be his permanent partner, as in she wants to be Twilight's wife, which will mean trouble for Yor who is posing as Twilight's wife for her own reasons.

This is another solid issue of entertainment. Nothing earth-shattering is going on but it is a lot of fun.

Recommended.

Spy x Family Volume 6 by Tatsuya Endo

Twilight and his work partner Nightfall infiltrate an underground tennis tournament run by a rich man who has a work of art with a secret code that could start a war. Since the tournament is run by a questionable element of society, the rules are questionable. One pair of opponents are pumped up on steroids, others have special gadgets like rocket-powered rackets. The competition is delightfully over the top with physical comedy. Nightfall's romantic obsession with Twilight adds some extra jokes. Once that's done, it's back to infiltrating Eden Academy in hopes of finding out more about Twilight's main target, political figure Desmond Donovan.

Yet more fun and games. This series is perfect light summer entertainment.

Recommended.