Dirty Work Afoot—in Space!

Picard, Episodes 1 and 2.
TV Review by Michael Isenberg.

A young woman celebrating with her boyfriend: she got the job!

Side by side on the sofa, they toast her success to the strains of mellow tunes. It all seems perfectly normal.

Then assassins attack.

Three of them in black masks and body armor. They murder the boyfriend with a dagger hurled from across the room. Right in the center of the chest. But when they turn to the young woman, and try to kidnap her, she fights back. A few Kung Fu kicks and flips, some disrupter blasts, and all three attackers are disarmed and unconscious, perhaps dead, in a matter of seconds.

She has no idea how she knew how to do those things. Nor does she know why, finding herself in danger, she feels compelled to seek out Jean-Luc Picard, one time captain of the Starship Enterprise.

Picard, which premiered on CBS All Access last week, finds its title character retired from Starfleet—his departure wasn’t exactly amicable—and living out his golden years on the family vineyard. And while he’s in far better health than Patrick Stewart’s Professor X character in 2017’s Logan, he’s definitely slowing down and dealing with issues of old age. Not the least of which are disturbing nightmares about playing poker with his old colleague Commander Data.

But peaceful retirement is not in the cards for Jean-Luc. Dirty work is afoot. The mystery of the young woman who shows up at his doorstep is just the tip of the iceberg. Docile android workers suddenly snap for no apparent reason and destroy the Mars colony. A cybernetic engineer, who was apparently working on illegally building a copy of Commander Data, has disappeared. And a shady Romulan order, even more secretive than the Tal Shiar, and hitherto thought to be imaginary, has infiltrated the highest levels of Starfleet. Picard is determined to travel the galaxy once again, and get to the bottom of it all. If only he can get a ship.

I have a confession to make. There’s been very little I’ve wanted to see on the streaming services lately. So little that I’ve just been signing up for free trials, binge watching what interested me, and then cancelling before the subscription fees kick in. But I got to say, I’m liking this series. Patrick Stewart puts in a stellar performance as usual, the cinematography of space stations and French countryside is spectacular, and the various mysteries intrigue me. I’m eager to see how all the threads come together.

I may just let my subscription to CBS All Access ride for a while.

Michael Isenberg drinks bourbon and writes novels. His latest book, The Thread of Reason, is a murder mystery that takes place in Baghdad in the year 1092, and tells the story of the conflict between science and shari’ah in medieval Islam. It is available on Amazon.com Please follow Mike on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to Nerds who Read via email. The subscription box is in the right hand column, near the top.

The Brave Men, Living and Dead

The Last Full Measure.
Movie Review by Michaela Calabrese.

I was born on April 11, 1997; thirty-one years to the day after Airman William H. Pitsenbarger died in the Vietnam War. Until this film came out, I knew nothing about him. I knew almost nothing about the war at all. I went into The Last Full Measure expecting a film which was…okay. All it had to do was tell a story and keep my interest; maybe make me cry a little from time to time. It did all that.

Then, like Pitsenbarger himself, it went above and beyond.

The story, at its surface, is one we’ve seen a dozen times. A man, Scott Huffman, working for the Department of Defense is tasked with putting together a report which will convince the Powers that Be to upgrade a fallen soldier’s medal from the Air Force Cross to the Medal of Honor. All he has to do is get the right paperwork together; but seeing as the Vietnam War ended decades ago, he doesn’t see the point in putting a ton of effort into his task. That is, until he begins speaking to the men who were there and bore witness to the soldier’s bravery. Suddenly, the man is torn between following through in order to get the soldier the honor he deserves and giving up (as others have done before him) in order to keep his own career ambitions secure.

The writing is not the strongest when it comes to the main character. Sebastian Stan’s performance does a lot to make Scott Huffman likable, even in moments when he’s acting selfish or uninterested. Stan’s facial expressions, delivery, body language, and the “everyman” sense of charm he brings to the role elevates what is, otherwise, lackluster dialogue; creating a character the audience can relate to, cheer for when he’s at his high points, and sympathize with when he hits lows.

I mean it, however, when I say that the above paragraph is a nitpick. Technically, the film looks and sounds absolutely gorgeous. I don’t usually notice sound design, but from the moment the first shots were fired onscreen, I felt every explosion, gunshot, and fall that the characters felt. Nothing was fuzzy or indistinct, the loud noises never got so overwhelming that they overshadowed the action, it was just a perfect balance. The quiet moments are beautiful as well. Some of the strongest scenes are when a character is looking out a window or fighting against an onslaught of emotions. The audience isn’t goaded into feeling with bombastic music or cheesy cues. They’re allowed to sit and contemplate what’s going on in the characters’ minds. I cried multiple times in the theater, and one moment was just out of how powerful one of these quiet little moments was.

Along with Sebastian Stan’s performance, the rest of the cast is exceptional as well. I give a posthumous shout-out to the late Peter Fonda who portrays Jimmy Burr, a character dealing with severe Post Traumatic Stress. He doesn’t play it over the top, like some actors would, but rather very nuanced and tragic. For example, Jimmy sleeps during the day because he’s terrified of the night. He wanders his property at night holding a gun for protection, and he calls Huffman “Sir.” In the hands of the wrong actor, these actions could come off as comical. Fonda never lets it get that far. He plays Jimmy with every ounce of dignity he can muster. It’s clear that Fonda knew how important it was to get Jimmy’s portrayal right, and it’s heartbreaking that he passed away before he could see how his hard work paid off.

Fonda is not the only actor who deserves praise for his portrayal of a veteran. Ed Harris, Samuel L. Jackson, and John Savage all give Oscar-worthy performances which show the multiple ways in which surviving such a bloody war can affect the mind: survivor’s guilt, looking for an escape, trying to temper one’s pain so it doesn’t effect others, etc.

William Hurt deserves his own paragraph. The depth of humanity he displays in The Last Full Measure is the second reason I cried in the theater. Before I knew anything about his character Tully, I thought he would just be a kind figure for Hoffman to turn to. He’d be a bit uninteresting, but he was nice and I didn’t mind having him in the narrative. As soon as he let go and told Hoffman who he really was, everything fell into place. He went from a serviceable but bland side character to one of the reasons I WILL be seeing this movie a second time.

The other side characters do their jobs very well, but they’re not especially dynamic. They’re not meant to be, but it is worth noting. It’s clear that they were written as stand-ins. The government officials are meant to represent how political posturing and agendas can often lead to soldiers being overlooked, the wife is meant to represent what Hoffman has to either fight for or lose, and the son is meant to represent the future generations whom soldiers fight to keep safe. Nobody does a bad job, in fact Alison Sudol and Bradley Whitford are exceptionally charming, but when I remember this film I’ll probably have to google their characters’ names.

Okay, but where does The Last Full Measure really shine? Why did I fall in love with this movie when I’m not usually the sort of person who watches war films?

Well…it’s not a war film.

The Vietnam War is the backdrop for the film because it was the backdrop for the true story. On April 11, 1966, twenty-one-year-old airman William H. Pitsenbarger dropped into a war zone to save the lives of the 1st Infantry Division. He did his job, saved as many wounded as he could, and when he had his chance to get out safely he refused. He stayed behind as his chopper flew away because he knew there were more lives he could save…even though it ultimately cost him his own. He received a posthumous Air Force Cross, but it took over thirty years for him to receive the Medal of Honor. That is what this film is about: Pitsenbarger, and all the other heroes who give their lives for this country even if it means waiting thirty years to be recognized.

Even if it means never being recognized.

“But Mick, did you like the film?”

I loved the film. It’s been years since I’ve truly loved a film so much.

Michaela Calabrese was born and raised in Agawam, MA and is now living her dream of studying filmmaking in New York City. Her graduate program has offered her the chance to direct a twelve-minute short film which will be screened for industry professionals. Please give your generous support to the project at GoFundMe.com.

Subscribe to Nerds who Read via email. The subscription box is in the right hand column, near the top.

A Perfectly Serviceable Film

A Boomer and a Gen-Zer take on Dolittle.

The Boomer Review.
By Cecilia Calabrese.

There are three types of movie audiences that will love this movie. The rest of you, not so much.

The first type of audience would be those with children. My first experience with Dr. Dolittle was the year that the version with Rex Harrison in the titular role was released. I loved it! My fog of nostalgia makes me believe that the Harrison Dolittle was well-received and universally loved. In reality such was not the case. In monetary terms Rex didn’t prove to be the U.S. box office draw that the movie studio had hoped he would be. But, to 8-year old me, it didn’t matter. I loved it then as I still love it today. Who goes to see a movie about an eccentric that talks to animals for reality anyway? Children will relate to the animals very well. It’s almost a shame that the newest version wasn’t released a few months before the December holidays. A huge monetizing opportunity may have been missed by the timing of its release mid-January. There are hints throughout the way that suggests a sequel (or two?) may be in the offing such as was done with the Eddie Murphy version. Time will tell. Dr. Dolittle was always meant to tug at the heart strings and imagination of children. This version hits the mark. If you have children, take them to see this movie and don’t miss the opportunity to talk to your kids about what may be going on in their lives that you may not realize. In particular, pay close attention to which animal your children identify with the most. There could be a real opportunity for revelation there. Sorry-didn’t mean to get so “deep.”

Which brings me to the second type of audience that will love this movie: the Escapists. Dolittle allows you to check reality at the theater door, grab a popcorn and drink, and enjoy the movie for the pure enjoyment of watching a well-told story unfold. The interaction among the human and animal characters feels so natural it made me long for the ability to talk to my cat! The movie made me suspect that maybe my cat understands me just as much as I understand her. By their very nature, animals are instinctive and seek ways to communicate, cross-species. Honestly, how many of us come home from a long day at the office or school and don’t unburden ourselves with long chats with our fur babies? Without getting too philosophical about communication skills among various types of fauna, if you want to see a movie that is just pure joy to watch, you will love Dolittle.

The third type of audience that will love this movie is the Robert Downey, Jr. fandom. He has been one of my Hollywood heartthrobs since I saw him in the movie Chances Are (released in 1989). RDJ has a breadth of talent that some people may not realize if your only exposure to him is in the MCU as Iron Man. I do not pretend to be an expert in authentic speech patterns, but he speaks in a Scottish accent that nearly is lilting. His voice and facial expressions are two qualities that set him apart, in my eyes, from other Leading Men. As Dr. Dolittle, he is almost animatronic in a natural way. His body movements must be difficult to replicate because I just cannot imagine another version of Dr. Dolittle being as convincingly performed as Robert Downey, Jr’s.

If you do not fall into one of the three types of movie audiences I have described, you may find yourself being unfairly harsh in your own review of this movie. It isn’t preachy (which I find most appealing). However, you may find yourself learning lessons you didn’t realized you could use. It’s not a musical, thankfully. It’s not “deep” and brooding. It’s not historical.

What Dolittle is: it’s timeless. I usually do not enjoy the re-telling, and re-telling again of familiar movies (A Star Is Born, for example). But this one I loved. I hope we do get a sequel or two, but not more than that. If this movie theme is beaten too often it will lose its appeal. But I did leave the movie theater wanting more. And, oh, by the way…THAT’S NOT A SQUID!

Cecilia Calabrese is the Vice President of the Agawam City Council and will serve as President of the Massachusetts Municipal Association in 2020. She is a licensed attorney in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as well as a Registered Dental Hygienist, and a rental property manager. Married to her husband, Michael Calabrese, for 34 years, they have two grown children, Charles and Michaela Calabrese.

Cece has written featured articles in the Valley Advocate (Tom Duggan, Editor), as well as various Opinion pieces in The Springfield Republican and The Agawam Advertiser News. She is currently on the pre-production crew for daughter Michaela’s graduate film project. Please give your generous support to the project at GoFundMe.com.

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The Gen Z Review.
By Michaela Calabrese.

Dolittle is a perfectly serviceable film, if you’re the type of person who asks for little more from a film than to just be entertaining. It isn’t deep, it isn’t particularly complex, it’s not part of a larger story, it’s just…Dolittle. It doesn’t try to be anything more, and I respect that.

The history of Doctor Dolittle films very much parallels the backstory of this incarnation’s main character. A rough start in the Sixties eventually led to a period of success in the late Nineties and early Two Thousands; but that success eventually soured and turned to near-obscurity. Audience members who saw the Eddie Murphy version in theaters probably remember those films fondly; but anyone who was either too young or too old to enjoy them when they came out most likely don’t think much of them.

The same goes for the 1967 Rex Harrison original. In talking with my mother, who was eight years old when the Harrison film was released, I learned that at the time she thought the film had done well. She had fun with it. Why shouldn’t a cute movie about talking animals be successful?

Well, I won’t go into much detail, but let’s just say money is easier to lose than it is to make.

This newest version of Dolittle falls somewhere between Harrison and Murphy. It’s not a musical like the Harrison version, but Dolittle is still British and the plot revolves (partially) around finding a way to cure the unnamed Queen Victoria stand-in of a mysterious illness. The story keeps itself open to possible sequels like the Murphy version, but also works as a stand-alone with a solid beginning, middle, and end.

But what about Dolittle himself? I think the best way to describe him is a blend of childishness, gentleness, stubbornness, and inner pain. Think Peter Pan if he’d allowed himself to grow up (kind of like the film Hook). Dolittle isn’t very social with people, but thrives when working with animals. He even considers them his family. He’s gentle and patient (especially with the neurotic but lovable gorilla Chi Chi) and rarely lets his temperament get the better of him. With people, it’s a different story. A tragedy from his past leads him to shut himself off from the world and reject the company of humans. He only begrudgingly lets them into his life when he’s literally given no other choice.

That being said, he never comes across as unlikable. The audience is made to understand early on that he is very good-natured and kind. He’s just been hurt so deeply that he never wants to feel that pain again. He wants to hide from it and live out his days with his animals; and he bristles when his comfortable solitude is interrupted. Once a human comes along and proves that it is worth rejoining Society, however, Dolittle allows his views to be challenged and acquiesces to the idea that he can’t keep his back turned on the people who need him anymore.

Let’s talk technicals. They’re…fine. The cinematography is fine, the CGI is fine, it’s all…fine. Nothing stands out as really good or really terrible, it’s all sort of middle-of-the-road. I’m not bothered by that as much as other people may be. The story is good enough that I can overlook a few less-than-stellar effects. If you can’t, and CGI that isn’t exactly realistic bothers you, then maybe don’t see this movie.

Essentially, if you’re going to complain that the movie about a man who can talk to animals isn’t realistic enough, don’t buy a ticket to the movie about a man who can talk to animals.

What I’ll leave on is this: in my opinion, it’s perfectly alright for a movie to just be perfectly alright. In this day and age, when it seems like everything is a blockbuster, box office titan, franchise, or big-budget epic, movies like Dolittle are refreshing in their simplicity. It’s a tidy little fairytale that I wouldn’t mind showing my future children; and if you can sit back, turn your brain off for an hour and forty-six minutes, and let yourself have fun, then I highly recommend giving it a chance.

Michaela Calabrese was born and raised in Agawam, MA and is now living her dream of studying filmmaking in New York City. Her graduate program has offered her the chance to direct a twelve-minute short film which will be screened for industry professionals. Please give your generous support to the project at GoFundMe.com.

Subscribe to Nerds who Read via email. The subscription box is in the right hand column, near the top.

The Law's Embodiment

House of Assassins by Larry Correia.
Book Review by Michael Isenberg.

The Law is the true embodiment,
Of everything that's excellent,
It has no kind of fault or flaw,
And I, my Lords, embody the Law.
          –W.S. Gilbert, Iolanthe (1882).

The quotation would no doubt have resonated with Ashok Vadal, hero of Larry Correia’s sword and sorcery thriller House of Assassins. Or at least it would have if 1) Gilbert and Sullivan had existed in Lok, the magic land that is the setting of the book and 2) Ashok would ever do anything so frivolous and out of character as attend an operetta.

We first met Ashok in 2016’s Son of the Black Sword the first installment in Correia’s Saga of the Forgotten Warrior. Powerful, skilled, and literally fearless, armed with the magic black sword Angruvadal, and single-mindedly devoted to upholding the Law (always capitalized), Ashok is ideally suited to his role as a Protector—member of the elite order of warriors whose sacred trust is to kill the most dangerous rebels and criminals of Lok, not to mention the occasional demon that emerges from the ocean to terrorize coastal towns.

Alas, Ashok has a fall from grace. The Grand Inquisitor—for mysterious reasons of his own—sentences him to join a rebellion of Lok’s untouchables—the Casteless—and protect its leader—the prophet of Forgotten gods in a land where all religion is prohibited. To become a criminal, in the service of criminals, is pure torture for a dedicated servant of the Law like Ashok. The irony of his punishment is palpable. And yet, along the way, he begins to suspect that the Law is not as infallible as he once believed.

House of Assassins, which won the 2019 Dragon Award for Best Fantasy Novel, picks up where Son of the Black Sword left off. The prophet has been kidnapped by the shadowy wizards of the Lost House and Ashok and his companions must set off on an epic quest to discover its location and rescue the prophet. Along the way they encounter vengeful gangsters, suspicious customs agents, bitter Protectors determined to bring to the justice the man who brought disgrace to their order, and demons far larger and more numerous than Ashok has ever encountered before. Not to mention the treacherous, shapeshifting assassins of the Lost House itself, who are determined to kill Ashok and add the power of the prophet’s magic to their own. And for the first time since he was a child, Ashok must face danger without the powerful blade Angruvadal in his hands.

There is plenty of action, some unexpected twists, and a host of memorable supporting characters. My favorite was Gutch, a smuggler of magical artifacts, who we first meet in Son of the Black Sword, where he was locked up in the same prison as Ashok. His facetious attitude toward his own criminality makes him a perfect foil for the grim former Protector of the Law. But this brief passage from House of Assassins captures the character far better than anything I could write about him. In this scene, Gutch is reunited with Ashok—who doesn’t remember him. But Gutch takes no offense:

“Well, you were a bit more memorable than me, what with all the killings. Place got a lot safer after you arrived, once the uppity sorts became afraid to draw your ire. I did enjoy watching your many duels through a crack in the wall of my cell. Entertainment helped pass the time. As for me? Old Gutch prefers to stay out of the way and not cause trouble.” “Since you’re too large of stature to avoid notice—an unfortunate trait for one who has chosen a life of crime—instead you play dumb and friendly so no one takes you as a threat.” They were far enough from the fire that Ashok could only barely see his features, but it was obvious Gutch’s forced smile had died. As Jagdish warned, this one was smarter than he looked. Then Gutch chuckled. “Dumb, I take some exception to, and I don’t pretend to be friendly. I truly like everyone, General. I just like them better when they’re not informing on me. As the Law says, a man must recognize his place. My favorite place is outside the view of those in your former profession.”

An entertaining character, but then, House of Assassins is an entertaining book. Check it out (Read Son of the Black Sword first if you haven’t already). The ending promises more entries in the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior series in the future. I look forward to reading them.

Interesting Sidebar—I actually made a small contribution to this book (I assume it’s this book), in a backward sort of way. Around three years ago I posted a pet peeve to a Facebook fiction group, “Attention writers,” I wrote. “Please search your manuscripts and replace ‘It's complicated’ and ‘It's a long story’ every time they appear.”

My post was not well received by the authors in the group in general and Mr. Correia in particular. He replied, “Just to be contrary, I stuck both of those phrases into my current manuscript extra times…Any time somebody gives me some ‘rule’ of writing I go out of my way to violate it in a massively bestselling novel.”

Michael Isenberg drinks bourbon and writes novels. His latest book, The Thread of Reason, is a murder mystery that takes place in Baghdad in the year 1092, and tells the story of the conflict between science and shari’ah in medieval Islam. It is available on Amazon.com Please follow Mike on Facebook and Twitter. Photo credit(s): Amazon.com

Dual Perspective

A Boomer and a Gen-Zer take on The Rise of Skywalker.

The Boomer Review.
By Cecilia Calabrese.

My entire adult life has spanned the Star Wars Movie Universe. I turned 18, graduated high school, and started college in 1977. That summer Star Wars was released. My first paying job was as a “Candy Girl” (that was my official title) at a movie theater in Danbury, CT. Star Wars was the last movie I worked before heading off to start my studies in Marine Biology. Those were the days when “A New Hope” was merely a description of the story that began a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. I only casually noticed that the 1977 film was “Episode IV” of a much longer saga. I took great delight in recognizing the sounds of Darth Vader’s breathing apparatus having been generated by SCUBA gear, being a SCUBA diver myself since the age of 16. Imagine my current disappointment in turning down the offer of an original Star Wars movie poster from my Manager, scoffing “who would want THAT?”…AHH, the foolishness of youth!

Through this prism of Star Wars nostalgia I watched The Rise of Skywalker (Episode IX) with great anticipation of what Easter Eggs were going to exist in order to maintain the attention of “my” generation. This film did not disappoint.

The opening sequence reminded me of the first scene opening A New Hope. It was visually appealing, fast-paced, and immediately grabbed my attention. Throughout the movie the brilliant use of familiar music at the right times were particularly appealing. I hope when you see this movie you pay attention to the sound cues. Not merely the music, however, but also certain dialogue and references. I am looking forward to seeing this film again to catch what I surely have missed.

If you are still on the fence about seeing this movie in theaters rather than waiting for its inevitable release on DVD/Blue-Ray, don’t wait! One of the things I enjoy about going to the movies is the chance to suspend reality for a few precious hours and be entertained. This movie does that, and, thankfully, in a much more enjoyable movie experience than Attack Of The Clones, the runt of the Star Wars litter (spoiler alert: NO Jar-Jar).

I found the expansive scenes beautifully filmed. The fight sequences were choreographed in such a way as to highlight the skills of each character, Jedi or not. Appropriate, if not slightly predictable, uses of harkening-back and foreshadowing complete the popcorn-movie experience.

This film has its weaknesses. The trio of Rey, Finn, and Poe at times felt a bit “Harry Potterish” (think The Deathly Hallows). It had a formulaic feel to me. What peril was our band of adventurers going to find themselves in next? I could have done without one particular interaction toward the end of the film, but I kind of “get it”, why that was included. It was fine and did not detract from my overall enjoyment of the film. I loved the interjections of humor to break the tension. The interactions between Finn and Poe were…well…adorable. They had great chemistry.

One fairly significant question was left unanswered, and it makes me wonder if there is already a vehicle in the works with the intent of filling that void. Time will tell.

My favorite parts of the film were when Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley were working out their “issues.” I felt that the two were well cast as Kylo Ren/Ben Solo and Rey. Driver’s physical presence on screen is riveting. Ridley is slight-of-build, yet perfectly exudes her character’s inner strength. The contrast between their characters work well on screen.

The story arc was reflexive of previous installments in the Star Wars saga and gives a satisfying conclusion to known characters in the Star Wars Universe.

If you go to the movies to be entertained while leaving wanting more, this movie does the trick.

Cecilia Calabrese is the Vice President of the Agawam City Council and will serve as President of the Massachusetts Municipal Association in 2020. She is a licensed attorney in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as well as a Registered Dental Hygienist, and a rental property manager. Married to her husband, Michael Calabrese, for 34 years, they have two grown children, Charles and Michaela Calabrese.

Cece has written featured articles in the Valley Advocate (Tom Duggan, Editor), as well as various Opinion pieces in The Springfield Republican and The Agawam Advertiser News. She is currently on the pre-production crew for daughter Michaela’s graduate film project. Please give your generous support to the project at GoFundMe.com.

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The Gen Z Review.
By Michaela Calabrese.

I’m gonna preface this review by saying I was born in 1997. The first Star Wars movies I grew up with were the prequels; and for a few blissful years I was able to enjoy them. The day came, however, when I was old enough to properly absorb the original trilogy.

Needless to say, my enjoyment of the prequels ended very soon afterward.

I won’t pretend to be the font of knowledge when it comes to the Star Wars saga. There’s plenty I don’t know about the extended lore, I can’t tell you the names of every planet in the Republic, and I certainly haven’t read all the novels or watched every episode of the animated clone wars. What I can tell you is the message I took from watching the original trilogy when I was young; the same message this new trilogy (in my eyes at least) has carried on for the next generation:

There will always be darkness in the world. It’s inevitable and terrifying and overwhelming at times.

But it’s not indestructible.

The first reviews for The Rise of Skywalker left me worried that this message would be lost behind clunky editing, bad writing, and a story that (according to some) was all over the place and a complete mess. This is not the movie I saw. The movie I saw had pacing issues and awkward lines, but it also had beautiful cinematography, a simple-to-follow narrative, characters I not only liked but really grew to love, and an ending which cemented the fact that Star Wars is still Star Wars even after forty-two years and three separate trilogies.

Let’s talk technicals, first. The beginning of the film definitely has an issue in terms of timing. The first…oh, let’s call it ten minutes or so…feel like they’re on fast-forward. There aren’t enough breaks between lines, and locations change at a rapid pace. This was what I was expecting for the whole movie. Everything felt rushed; like the director just wanted to get exposition out of the way so it wouldn’t impede the rest of the film. The opening crawl was frustratingly abbreviated, and even the first mission felt clumsy and out of place. Had this carried through the entire runtime, I would understand the negative reviews. I sat through The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey when it was released with an accelerated frame rate and I left that film with a splitting headache. No WAY was I about to subject myself to something similar!

Thankfully, there is a major turning point during which the pacing slows down. Everything which must be established by this point has been established, and from here in the film allows itself and its actors to breathe. Thus, my major fault with the movie was solved and I was free to find other elements which could ruin my experience.

And then the film reached its third act…and I hadn’t found those elements yet.

The characters (aside from 3PO) are charming and work well together. The sets, though small and a bit hard to see at times, still fit well within the narrative, and the story moves in a very promising direction. I wanted the heroes to succeed, I wanted the villains to be thwarted, I felt the same childlike excitement that I had felt watching A New Hope in my living room when I was little.

Kylo Ren, my least favorite character for the past two films, evolves far enough that I began to look forward to his scenes. He feels more three-dimensional in The Rise of Skywalker than he felt in The Force Awakens or The Last Jedi. Rey, likewise, has progressed away from the “wide-eyed outsider” trope into her own character. She was always very interesting, as well as being a great role model for little girls to look up to, but she becomes so much more by the end of this film. She finds her own strength, her own reasons to keep fighting, and she isn’t just parroting Luke Skywalker’s morality or Han Solo’s tenacity. She isn’t a protege anymore, but she isn’t cold either. She learns how to balance being stern and focused with being compassionate and kind.

The big question now: does this film work as a concluding chapter to the Star Wars saga? Well, that sort of depends on personal preference. For me, it absolutely does. The threads which were left at the ends of the original and prequel trilogies are tied up for me. There are other stories in the Star Wars universe which could be told, but this one has reached its final page. I want more, I’m always going to want more, but if this is all we get for a while then so be it. I have enough to hold me over.

Michaela Calabrese was born and raised in Agawam, MA and is now living her dream of studying filmmaking in New York City. Her graduate program has offered her the chance to direct a twelve-minute short film which will be screened for industry professionals. Please give your generous support to the project at GoFundMe.com.

7 Things that Still Bug Me about Buffy the Vampire Slayer

And The One Most Awesome Scene Ever.
by Michael Isenberg.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was my favorite show of all time. A perfect storm of good storylines, quality violence, a great cast, and amazing dialogue (to hear what the writers have to say about the last item—they’re incredibly proud of it, and rightly so—see this segment “Buffy Speak” from the Season 3 DVDs). The show was known for innovative episodes like "Hush" which had no dialog for twenty-seven minutes and "The Body" which captured the numbness of those first hours after a loved one dies with remarkable realism. Buffy was also breakthrough television in the portrayal of lesbian characters. And as editor of Nerds who Read, I got to love any show where the heroes, when they have a problem, go to the library to research it.

Perhaps it was because Buffy was such great television that the handful of things about it that bugged me continue to bug me twenty years later. Here, then, are…

7 Things that Still Bug Me About Buffy the Vampire Slayer

7. Robots. The Buffy TV show was born amidst the “irrational exuberance” of the dot com era, so it no doubt seemed natural at the time to work some high tech into it. But in a show that was mainly about the supernatural, and where the main villains were vampires and demons, robots never really seem to belong. They just came across as silly.

Bonus challenge: Name all the robots that appeared in the series. Leave answers in the comments.

6. The Zeppo. The title of this Season 3 episode refers to Xander, practically the only member of the Scooby Gang who never had any supernatural powers. The comparison is to Zeppo Marx, the colorless Marx Brother. Unlike the mustachioed, wisecracking Groucho, the silent, manic Harpo, and the faux-Italian Chico, Zeppo was just a guy in a suit. The straight man. In this episode, Buffy and her friends decide that the threat of the week was just too dangerous for Xander, so they cut him out. He goes off on his own adventure while the rest of the gang stops the Apocalypse in the background. As if that's not bad enough, much of Xander’s adventure involves being unable to get away from some tiresome people he really doesn’t want to be with. As an introvert, I identify. And while things do work out for Xander in the end—he even loses his virginity—it still bugs me that his friends were mean to him.

5. Season 5. In this season, Buffy faces off against Glory, a slinky, glamorous hell god whose only wish is to go back to hell. Unfortunately, opening a portal to that alternate dimension will require killing Buffy’s sister, Dawn. Clare Kramer puts in a wonderful performance as Glory—she really captures the combination of ancient evil and modern humor that’s the hallmark of a Buffy villain. But I really don’t see the conflict here. Glory wants out of this dimension. Buffy wants Glory out of this dimension. Why are they fighting instead of working together?! I mean, seriously, THEY WANT THE SAME THING!!! With the resources of the Scooby Gang, surely they could have found some non-lethal way to send Glory home. It’s not as if they had never sent anyone to alternate dimensions before.

4. Season 6. A low point for the series, and for Buffy personally, who is working fast food to pay the bills, having sex with a vampire who makes her feel ashamed of herself, and struggling to be a single mother to little sis Dawn. To add insult to injury, just as she approaches bottom, her ex, Riley, comes to visit and he’s doing great. It’s painful to watch, but not as painful as two scenes of horrific violence against women that appear in this season.

From a dramatic point of view, the season is flawed in that “The Big Bad”—the three nerds Warren, Jonathan, and Andrew (Tucker’s brother)—just aren’t that bad. Even some of the Scooby Gang think the Trio’s schemes “seem really lame.” (I can just hear the Cinema Sins guy saying, “Comment in the writer’s room somehow made it into the script.”) The Trio aren’t worthy of Buffy talents. In fact, they were such weak villains that they’re not even the main antagonists in the season finale. That honor goes to Willow, who has temporarily turned evil. And then Buffy doesn’t even play much of a role in defeating her. She spends most of the last episode trapped in a hole.

Even the comic relief doesn’t work in Season 6. Kitten poker? In Buffy’s words, that’s “stupid currency.”

Just an awful season.

And yet, there are a few bright spots, in particular the musical episode “Once More with Feeling.” Frankly, most musical episodes of TV shows aren’t very good, but this one is an exception. It’s fun, the songs are great, and it blends seamlessly with the arc of the season. There’s just one thing about it that bugs me…

3. No consequences for Xander. The premise of “Once More with Feeling” is that citizens of Buffy’s town of Sunnydale just start singing and dancing, like in a musical, and Buffy must find out why. It’s rather lighthearted at first, but then there is new urgency as some of these people dance themselves to death. We eventually find out that a demon caused it all. A demon that was summoned by Xander. “I didn’t know what was going to happen,” he says in his defense. “I just thought there was going to be dances and songs.” He totally should have known what was going to happen. It’s fricking season six, you’re not new at this. Or did you forget what happened when you messed around with the Dark Arts in “Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered?” Not only did he summon the demon in “Once More with Feeling,” but then he just sat there and watched his friends struggle to figure out what was going on. He even misdirected them at one point. Not to mention that people died.

And yet, there were no consequences for him at all. This was unusual in a series that, to its credit, takes personal responsibility seriously. When characters screw up, there are consequences. There was even an episode called “Consequences.” If it’s a serious screw up, there might be a long journey of redemption, spanning multiple seasons. But in this case, nothing. No day of reckoning for Xander at all. DID I MENTION THAT PEOPLE DIED???!!!

2. The Willow Hostage Exchange. As the title of the Season 3 episode “Choices” implies, Buffy and her friends faced some difficult decisions that week. They knew that the mayor of the town planned to transform himself into a giant snake demon and kill a whole bunch of people. But in order to accomplish this, he needed a mystical box full of killer spiders known as the “Box of Gavrok.” The Scooby Gang steals the box from him, but during the operation, one of them, Willow, gets captured.

The choice they face is whether to keep the box, and thereby stop the mayor’s “Ascension.” It could save thousands of lives, but Willow would be killed. Or they could offer the mayor an exchange—the box for Willow—and keep their fingers crossed that they can find some other way to stop the Ascension.

Of course they went for the exchange—Willow’s a main character—but I often wonder how the rest of the series would have played out if they had sacrificed her instead. Yes, Willow would have been dead, but a heck of a lot of other people would have been alive—starting with the ones that died in the Ascension that didn’t get stopped. Subsequent to that, Willow repeatedly put other people in danger by her misuse of magic—at first because she was still learning, and later because she was addicted to it. None of it would have happened had she died in “Choices.”

Buffy herself died in the Season 5 finale, and Willow mojoed her back to life. Had Willow not been there to do that, a Buffy-less and Willow-less Season 6 would have played out very differently and we certainly wouldn’t have seen Willow turn to the Dark Side and nearly destroy the world in the season finale. And since the Big Bad in Season 7 was unleashed by the unintended consequences of bringing Buffy back to life, that whole season wouldn’t have happened at all. The numerous potential Slayers who died would never have been in danger.

Also, had Willow died in Season 3, she never would have met Tara. And although that would have meant that she wouldn’t have been there to bring the shy Tara out of her shell, it also would have meant that Tara wouldn’t have been in the path of a stray bullet meant for Buffy. Which brings me to the number one thing that still bugs me about Buffy the Vampire Slayer...

The Death of Tara

Tara was one of my favorite characters. She had such a good heart, and such a unique way of looking at things—making up her own names for the constellations because the real ones didn’t make sense, or avoiding the Internet because everyone’s spelling was so bad. Unlike Willow, she was able to use magic without being consumed by it. I even loved the way she decorated her room (I wish I could get a copy of that poster!). I was very sad to see her go, especially since series creator Joss Whedon played with our heads a bit. He put Tara in the opening credits for the first time in the episode in which she died. I went into the episode thinking how nice it was that her place on the show was finally secure.

Thanks for bearing with my rant. I would like to end on a positive note, though. So here then, as promised, is...

The One Most Awesome Scene Ever:

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Riley Punches Parker Abrams in the Face:

How can anyone not love Riley after that?

Got any pet peeves about BTVS that I missed? Please feel free to comment. Michael Isenberg drinks bourbon and writes novels. His latest book, The Thread of Reason, is a murder mystery that takes place in Baghdad in the year 1092, and tells the story of the conflict between science and shari’ah in medieval Islam. It is available on Amazon.com Please follow Mike on Facebook and Twitter. Photo credit(s): Hello Giggles, The Uncanny Fans, buffy.fandom.com, fanpop.com, Lost Again, YouTube, Persephone Magazine, DigitalSpy.com, Entertainment Weekly

The Marxist in the High Castle

The Man in the High Castle Season 4.
TV Review by Michael Isenberg.

Imagine a movie—a sort of messed up Red Dawn—about an underground resistance cell taking on a Soviet occupation of the US. Except instead of pretty Brat Packers dressed in Eddie Bauer chic, these alleged freedom fighters are Nazis. Actual Nazis who read Mein Kampf in their free time, are armed by the Third Reich (which someone survived into the Cold War era in this alternate reality), and are inspired to survive their considerable hardships by their vision of the day when, after the Soviets are defeated, they can set up their white, fascist utopia.

If such a movie ever were made, the studio would be boycotted, pickets would spring up outside any theater showing it, and everyone associated with it would be ostracized, never to work in Hollywood again—and rightly so.

And yet, if the roles are reversed, and the protagonists are communists instead of Nazis, and black instead of white, as is the case in the fourth and final season of The Man in the High Castle, this nightmare is somehow socially acceptable, thanks to some perverse double standard.

It’s not my intent for Nerds who Read to be a political blog. I have other platforms for that. Here I try to focus on the literary merits of books, movies, and TV in nerd genres like science fiction. But every once in a while, I’ll come across a work that crosses the line and needs to be called out for its politics. Which I think is the case with MITHC 4.

Two subjects which I'm not going to cover in any detail in this post are the racial aspect of Season 4 and whether or not the sort of communism I'm talking about is "real" communism. These topics are just too rich to do justice to here. The short version is 1) While I could understand how a historically oppressed people might be mistakenly attracted to communism, communism is an equal-opportunity evil--it's evil regardless of the race of the communists, and 2) Yes, the Soviet Union and Maoist China were real communism.

Based on the 1962 book by Philip K. Dick, which I reviewed on Nerds who Read last year, The Man in the High Castle is alternate history that explores the question: what if the Axis won World War II? It depicts a United States which is divided between a Nazi-collaborator regime in the East and a Japanese-occupied West.

Season 3 was exceptionally well-balanced politically, with elements that both Left and Right could identify with. Season 3 also exhausted the last of the Philip K. Dick source material—the original novel and two chapters of an unfinished sequel. So the writers of the TV series were on their own for the first time in Season 4, and I was looking forward to see what they would come up with. Sadly, the answer was a lot of leftist drivel. Cliché talking points are scattered throughout. For example, there’s trash talk about the American Flag. “This flag ain’t never done s--t for us.” We are also treated to Lib-splaining about how Franklin Roosevelt “completely rebuilt the economy. Ended the Depression.” (For another point of view, see Jim Powells’ FDR’s Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Great Depression. Here’s a review from the Foundation for Economic Education).

These talking points are mostly throwaway lines. The viewer could easily ignore them and get on with the business of enjoying the story. But the glorification of communism, in the form of a plotline about the "Black Communist Rebellion" resistance group, is harder to overlook.

Communism was every bit as evil as Nazism, both of them among the bloodiest ideologies ever to stain the surface of the earth. The countries that attempted it ended up suffering under totalitarian regimes, where personal interests were frowned upon and service to the State—or as they called it, “the proletariat”—was the only interest allowed. Free expression was brutally suppressed. Starving, impoverished citizens lived in fear of being denounced to the government by their neighbors, or even their own children. The terrifying knock on the door in the middle of the night was the overture to a trip to secret police headquarters. There detainees might face the torture chamber, or perhaps be shipped off to a gulag, where they could work themselves to death as slaves, if they didn’t die from cold or starvation first. Or perhaps Big Brother would just skip that step and send the detainee straight to the firing squad.

Living under communism was a horror. But don't take my word for it. Ayn Rand saw the first shots of the Russian Revolution from her bedroom window, and lived in communist Russia until 1926. She once tried to explain to skeptical members of a House committee what it was like:

We were a bunch of ragged, starved, dirty, miserable people who had only two thoughts in our mind. That was our complete terror—afraid to look at one another, afraid to say anything for fear of who is listening and would report us-and where to get the next meal. You have no idea what it means to live in a country where nobody has any concern except food, where all the conversation is about food because everybody is so hungry that that is all they can think about and that is all they can afford to do. They have no idea of politics. They have no idea of any pleasant romances or love—nothing but food and fear… Look, it is very hard to explain. It is almost impossible to convey to a free people what it is like to live in a totalitarian dictatorship. I can tell you a lot of details. I can never completely convince you, because you are free. It is in a way good that you can't even conceive of what it is like. Certainly they have friends and mothers-in-law. They try to live a human life, but you understand it is totally inhuman. Try to imagine what it is like if you are in constant terror from morning till night and at night you are waiting for the doorbell to ring, where you are afraid of anything and everybody, living in a country where human life is nothing, less than nothing, and you know it. You don't know who or when is going to do what to you because you may have friends who spy on you, where there is no law and any rights of any kind.

Given that human life was nothing, and there were no rights of any kind, it's not surprising that the number of dead was staggering. Estimates vary and are prone to controversy, but the low end is 42 million people. A hundred million is more typical, with one estimate as high as a 160 million. For comparison, Nazi Germany is estimated to have killed 17 million people in the Holocaust. And this is the ideology that Amazon chose to glorify.

Granted, a movie or TV show can glorify something that is evil, and nevertheless give us an engaging, well-crafted story. A good example is Joker. Despite the denials of its defenders, Joker really did glorify nihilism and violence. Nevertheless, it was fascinating to watch a sick man’s descent into murderous insanity, and I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about the movie as we head into award season. In contrast, the writers of The Man in the High Castle Season 4 didn’t even give us good storytelling.

Characters arcs painstakingly constructed over previous seasons were just ignored, especially those of Obergruppenführer John Smith and antiquities dealer Robert Childan. Promising plotlines were never developed. The pacing was awful—yawn-worthy almost all the way through. Then, in the last episode, there is a rush to set up the big final military confrontation between the Nazis and the Communists, a confrontation which (spoiler alert) is called off at the last minute, thanks to an ex machina decision by a minor character, and it made no sense. I just didn’t believe a person in his position would make that decision. This was followed by a final scene which, though it seemed mysteriously cool on the surface, really made no sense either and left many unanswered questions.

Do yourself a favor and give MITHC Season 4 a miss. Spend the time instead reading one of the many first-rate books that warn of the true nature of communism, written by people who actually lived under its yoke. In addition to Ayn Rand, whose heartbreaking We the Living and inspiring Anthem deal with the subject, two other authors comes to mind: Yevgheniy Zamyatin (We) and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Gulag Archipelago). Maybe I’ll review one or more of these at some point. But not for a little while. Because I really don’t want Nerds who Read to be a political blog.

Michael Isenberg drinks bourbon and writes novels. His novel Full Asylum depicts life under a Big Government dystopia. But since Zamyatin, Rand, and Solzhenitsyn already told the grim version of that story, Isenberg’s book is a comedy. It is available on Amazon.com. Please follow Mike on Facebook and Twitter.