I liked the second book much better than the first (which goes a little overboard with the histrionics, but I guess that's appropriate for the childhood stage?), but I'm really enjoying it overall. Got there in an odd way: through Mangunwijaya's Durga/Umayi, which is one of the best books I've ever read. Would never…

(I hated The Sparrow almost more than any book I've ever read, but a lot of people love it, so I tend to avoid talking about it.)

My book queue's already running over, but at the moment it looks like I have Han Shaogong's Dictionary of the Maqiao, Georges Perec's 53 Days, and Hamid Ismailov's The Underground ahead of me, and finally sitting down to Alice Munro when I need shorter pieces to fill the time.

Perfect for the beach!

Looks like a very upbeat summer ahead of you!

My curiosity was first piqued when I saw that trainwreck of an acceptance speech she gave over at a friend's house.

Though the show probably isn’t nuanced enough to withstand the comparison, there are parallels to be drawn between The Walking Dead’s desolate world and horrific real-life events like genocides or refugee crises. Viewed through that prism, the show’s assertion that loving bonds can not only survive, but actively…

Also, can we talk about how great Essie Davis (the mom from The Babadook) was in her brief scenes here? Her easy chemistry with Maisie Willaims, recognizing a young girl like herself, did more work shading that character and subplot than they've done in years with Arya overall. Excellent, very subtle work.

He is definitely not the good person he thinks he is. But that's also kind of typical for Farhadi, where characters have a different attitude about themselves than their actions. No surprise he's worked on Chekhov, Pinter, etc.

I made a point above (or below) that the critics' ratings rarely match up with awards, but this is hilarious to the point that it has to be on purpose. The highest-ranked film to win anything this year was The Salesman, currently coming in at #10; the Palme went to Loach's at #11; everything else further below.

Heh, people say "George Miller is president of the jury! That'll make the awards really interesting this year!"

I mostly agree, but I don't think the husband in A Separation is meant to be anything close to perfect. SPOILERS: even though he thinks he might actually be guilty of causing the miscarriage, he leverages his power of class and education against the couple suing him. Yes, it turns out the woman was to blame there,…

Yeah, that ended the year with a 2.62, so almost a full point higher.

And just to show how little critical reactions match up to awards, here are the winners of Un Certain Regard, with their rankings/scores in parenthesis:

Agreed. Plus there's a great deal of politics involves in trying to create a "balanced" slate (like the inclusion of Madagascar a few years ago to show more popular appeal). On paper, Penn's film looks like one of those "ripped from the headlines" dramas that many people mistake for capital-I Important films,…

Thank you, Mike! Sounds overall like a pretty decent year. Reini Urban's weighted critics poll (the most comprehensive one I know of) currently gives the top ten competition films as:

If it weren't for that brilliant performance by Hal Holbrook (and some other very nice performances in there, too!) I don't know what else it has going for it, like Penn is constantly trying to sabotage his own movie. I like the Pearl Jam song?

Hooo, boy. That sounds too bad even for a hate-watch. Thanks for the warning!

That would make sense, then! The other is the Farhadi, which already has one review.

Discounting the two films that haven't opened yet (and weirdly have one or two ratings already), Neon Demon's currently at 15 out of the 19 competition films according to Reini Urban's weighted aggregator - it's wedged between American Honey and Ma'Rosa. There's currently no real competition for Toni Erdmann in the…