Christopher East

Support Your Local Comic Shop

May. 22nd, 2012 at 9:51 AM

Recently Jenn was out of town for a while, and one bored and miserable Friday, to lift my mood and in anticipation of seeing The Avengers, I decided to check out this comic book shop up in Northridge that we often drive past but never visit. I came out loaded down with goodies, and I’ve already been back once; I’ve decided that hey, if I’m lucky enough to live in a city with an actual brick-and-mortar comic shop, I should probably do my duty and shop there!

I drifted away from comics in the 1980s, and since then I’ve found that the barrier to re-entry has been daunting, especially in my primary stomping grounds, the Marvel universe. But I was craving Avengers, so I started my stack with two volumes of the Heroic Age The Avengers rebranding by Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita, Jr. I have to say that while I quite liked the artwork in this sequence, I was rather underwhelmed by the story — which struck me as an exercise in logistics, complicatedly maneuvering scads of new and old Avengers into different alignments. It was tough to find the story through all the personnel, and accommodating so many characters gives all of them short shrift, particularly lone wolves like Spider-Man and Wolverine, who feel like fish out of water here. A somewhat disappointing reintroduction to the team Avengers books, for me.

For more nostalgia, I scooped up an Asterix omnibus containing three full volumes of the classic French series about a small village of superpowered Gauls holding out against the Roman Empire. I collected the Asterix books as a kid and while they don’t hold the same power over me now, I definitely enjoyed revisiting them. “Asterix and the Actress” is a fun, classic Asterix story, but the real treat here is “Asterix and the Class Act,” a grouping of short oddities and rarities from over the years. The closing tale, “Asterix and the Falling Sky,” is a disappointment, breaking the spell of its universe by introducing aliens and modern science fiction tropes to the Asterix universe. Probably not the best Asterix omnibus — I picked it up because I hadn’t read these titles — but still full of goofy wordplay and playful artwork.

Speaking of playful artwork, my favorite new series continue to be Chew, and its fifth volume, “Major League Chew,” continues an impressive track record of unique, demented invention as it follows the adventures of cibopathic detective Tony Chiu, who solves crimes by eating the evidence. Where else can you have agents of the USDA partnered with lions…a psychotic plot to write a tell-all book about the sex lives of dead baseball players…villains with the ability to carve chocolate into fully functional weapons…and more! This is such a delightfully bizarre series, and shows no signs of running out of ideas.

Finally, craving something self-contained, I picked up Greg Rucka’s Stumptown, a modern day P.I. story that does for The Rockford Files what his brilliant Queen & Country series does for The Sandbaggers. (Could this guy be any more in my wheelhouse?) Stumptown‘s hard-luck hero is Dex Parios, who takes on a missing persons case from a casino-owner in order to dig out from a gambling debt. Dex’s innocent search leads her into the path of nefarious underworld types as she combs the streets of Portland, Oregon. Rucka’s story-telling chops are a cut above the comptetition, and I found Stumptown a smooth, enjoyable read that will probably resonate with fans of blue collar PI shows like Rockford and Terriers. I wish I had enjoyed the art more — it’s not really my style — but the narrative more than made up for it. As with Queen & Country, I came away wanting more — and wishing it were a TV series.

More comic reports upcoming — and recommendations welcome!

Film: Haywire

May. 21st, 2012 at 10:38 AM

From the always-interesting Steven Soderbergh, Haywire (2011) is a slick modern spy noir, a well crafted mystery that punctuates its atmosphere of quiet intrigue with bursts of intense action. Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) is a former Marine, now an in-demand black ops agent for a private contractor named Kenneth (Ewan McGregor). Shortly after a successful rescue operation in Spain, Kenneth sends Mallory to Dublin to pose as the wife of an MI6 officer named Paul (Michael Fassbender), for a brief, supposedly easy mission. Instead, she finds herself the mark in a deadly frame, and has to go on the run to unravel the conspiracy against her.

Haywire has style and attitude to burn, and I found it visually enthralling. Soderbergh unfolds the convoluted mystery with confidence, keeping expository dialogue to a minimum and trusting the audience to piece it all together from carefully arranged imagery. David Holmes’ retro soundtrack contributes nicely to the old-school film-making ambience; the music is well deployed throughout. And Gina Carano, while merely adequate as an actor, is utterly convincing as a bad-ass action hero. The fight sequences are neatly choreographed without being excessive, a realistic showcase for Carano’s mixed martial arts skills.

On the other hand, I came away feeling like there wasn’t much there there. There isn’t much depth behind the plot contortions, and the characters are mostly just chess pieces. Since it’s a noir, this lack of emotional investment is understandable, but I came away craving some heart underneath the pretty surface. That said, I found the movie totally worth watching — like many of Soderbergh’s films, the unique approach and careful craftsmanship combine to deliver something a little different. And when it comes down to it, Haywire blows away many of the Spy 100 list’s weaker efforts.

Novel: The Mirage by Matt Ruff

May. 14th, 2012 at 10:11 AM

Matt Ruff’s The Mirage (2012) brilliantly realizes its high concept premise, but ultimately it feels like less than the sum of its parts. This one takes place in a geopolitical mirror universe. Here, the War on Terror begins on 11/9, when Christian terrorists fly jetliners into Baghdad skyscrapers, and the “United Arab States” retaliates by invading a fragmented North America in search of the extremists responsible. The novel’s heroes are agents of Arabian Homeland Security: Mustafa, Amal, and Samir. This trio of friends is assigned by the president of the UAS to investigate a mystery: artifacts are turning up from an alternate universe, one in which the UAS is not the world superpower and North America is not comprised of troubled, warring smaller nations. Their investigation of this “myth” leads them across the states of the Middle East, then over the ocean to North America, and back again.

The Mirage starts like a house on fire, and it’s a triumph of clever and entertaining world-building. Ruff’s reverso-world is rich and inventive, a fascinating reimagining of the world order, with the United Arab States painted as an Islam-influenced version of the USA, tormented by backwater religious extremists from across the Atlantic. The UAS’s version of Wikipedia, the “Library of Alexandria,” serves as a nifty device for fleshing out the world. And Ruff’s protagonists are likeable and well realized, heroes caught in the switches of complicated political maneuverings.

But what does it add up to? With its high concept, post-9/11 premise, the novel is inherently political, and its consistent, unwavering message is a bit obvious. Both sides are awful, the book suggests; both sides are complicit in the tragic world conflicts of the 21st century. If fortunes were reversed, the bin Ladens and Husseins of the world would be powerful politicians and organized crime bosses, cloaking their evils in the exploitation of a flawed legal system. Meanwhile, the Dick Cheneys and Donald Rumsfelds of the world, removed of their socioeconomic privilege, would be warlords and international criminals, pursuing their power by different means.

It’s a potent concept, and Ruff pursues it with his characteristic audacity, but in the end I’m not sure it entirely sustains the pages. There’s an implicit promise, once the groundwork is laid, that broader insights will be revealed as the alternate universe mystery is solved. To me, those broader insights never arrive, though, and the solution to the mystery isn’t satisfying. Once the initial rush of world-discovery wears off, the novel lives or dies on the strength of its narrative alone, and while my investment in the world and characters kept me reading, ultimately the payoff was minimal. It’s definitely an interesting work, worthwhile for its vivid world-building and stirring opening, but it winds down disappointingly.

Film: The Whistleblower

May. 13th, 2012 at 11:49 AM

Rachel Weisz is quickly becoming one of those actresses who compels me to see whatever she does. She’s proven consistently that she can carry a film, but even better, she seems to have good taste, and a knack for landing strong roles. The Whistleblower (2010) is a bleak, powerful piece of of work, often hard to watch, but Weisz makes it worth the struggle.

She stars as Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska police officer who’s in a bind: her ex-husband is relocating to Georgia, and he’s taking her daughter with him. Unable to manage a transfer but not wanting to leave her career, she lands a temporary opportunity that will bankroll her move: a job as a peacekeeper for the U.N. in Bosnia, helping train local police as the country attempts to rebuild in the wake of devastating war. As it turns out, she attacks the work with considerably more zeal than her counterparts, and is quickly singled out to head the Gender Affairs department. But there, her investigation into a sex trafficking operation leads her into dark, ugly places, where her politically minded superiors don’t necessarily want her to go.

Based on a true story, The Whistleblower is hard-hitting, heavy stuff, and its depiction of widespead brutality and corruption rings tragically authentic. The only thing that makes viewing such systemic injustice bearable is Weisz, whose character — with only a handful of allies — serves as a beacon of hope in a dark, unforgiving landscape. A well made film worth watching, but be forewarned: thick skin required.

Spy 100, #28: Black Book

May. 13th, 2012 at 11:41 AM

Black Book (2006) is one of the first films I saw in the theater after moving to Los Angeles, and I remember quite enjoying it, but the intervening years have taken some of the shine off the apple. It’s still a beautifully produced film, and Carice van Houten is still superb in it, but perhaps bombarding myself with similar fare since then has somewhat inured me to its strengths. Or, perhaps on a second viewing, it just felt more like a Paul Verhoeven film.

Black Book tells the story of Rachel Stein (van Houten), a Jewish singer in occupied Holland during the latter stages of World War II. When a stray bomb takes out her hiding place, she’s forced to make a run for it, and joins a group of fugitives headed for Belgium. But a German patrol boat ambushes them, killing everyone but her. She’s rescued by, and comes to work for, the Dutch Resistance — and proves to be a natural at it, particularly when, by chance, she meets and charms the local Gestapo chief, Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch). Under a new alias, she poses as a collaborator to facilitate Resistance operations against the Nazis, but her romantic entanglement with Müntze and the unpredictability of war send her on an even more treacherous journey than she was anticipating.

It’s compelling, and very attractively produced. The period is convincingly realized, and particularly in the early stages, the plot is nicely structured, as Rachel’s simple, quiet life in hiding gradually propels her into intrigue and violence. But far and away the best reason to watch the film is van Houten, who is scintillating in a gutsy performance as a woman who throws herself headlong into a cause with horrific personal consequences.

That said, Verhoeven’s proclivity for exploitation does rear its ugly head, with gratuitous nudity and glamorized violence heightening reality. These elements combine uncomfortably with its old fashioned atmosphere and music to make it something of a tonal muddle. Is this a serious and harrowing look at the ugly sacrifices of war, or a slick, glossy piece of romantic entertainment? Awkwardly, it’s both. The film winds down with a few brutally dark twists too many, so that when van Houten — in a heart-breakingly raw delivery that really should be her finest moment — says “Will it never end?,” the impact is rather mitigated by the meta-thought it conjures. Will the film ever end? Definitely worth watching, but with some reservations. (And, side note: an interesting film to compare against another list selection, Lust, Caution, a thematically similar film that is both more and less satisfying.)

Film: The Avengers

May. 7th, 2012 at 11:43 AM

While I enjoyed the run-up of Marvel solo movies, for me the characters involved — especially Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor — were Avengers first and individual heroes second. Finally, The Avengers (2012) brings them all together, and better, they’re brought together by Joss Whedon, who handles superhero group dynamics as well, if not better, than anybody. The result is laugh-out-loud funny, visually stunning, and wildly entertaining. Two and half hours has never blazed past so quickly.

The plot is a typical Marvel universe kludge of threats from other dimensions, pseudoscience run amok, and larger-than-life characters exchanging blows and banter. The spy organization SHIELD, led by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), is investigating an artifact called the Tesseract — which, it is believed, could be a source of limitless clean energy. The Tesseract is stolen by the trickster god Loki (Tom Hiddleston), whose plan is to unleash an alien army on the Earth and take over. To counter the threat, Fury convinces the World Security Council to re-start the abandoned Avengers Initiative, bringing together a team of extraordinary individuals to combat the threat. Not that they assemble all that cooperatively; only the duty-driven Captain America (Chris Evans) joins without complaint. A reluctant Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) is recruited by SHIELD superspy Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) to help track the Tesseract. Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.) reports, but deeply suspicious of SHIELD’s hidden agenda, and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) only shows up to settle a score with his brother Loki. From these scattered beginnings, this disorganized band of individuals must come together as a team to hold off the invading alien army and defeat Loki.

Of course, you don’t really see Marvel films for the plots. You see them for the eyeball kicks, the witty quips and intense action sequences. And while The Avengers has these attributes in spades, it also has Joss Whedon, who’s a master of created family ensemble dynamics, and he manages to throw his iconic arsenal of heroes together in endlessly entertaining combinations. On the character level — especially for those of us steeped in Marvel lore, watching familiar figures leap to life on the screen — The Avengers is a smashing success. In the flesh, Cap, Thor, and Iron Man are much more likeable than my impressions of them from my comic book days. Mark Ruffalo frequently steals the show with his amusing performance as Bruce Banner, while The Hulk’s rampages have never been realized quite so effectively on screen. Whedon also gives plenty of heroic moments to his SHIELD roster: Fury, Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg), and especially Black Widow, whose deviousness and acrobatics are nicely realized. My only real disappointment on this score was Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), who — primarily for reasons of plot — didn’t quite capture the smiling, brash wiseass of my memory. Which isn’t to say Renner isn’t the right man for the job, but I think my standards are higher for this character, who’s pretty much always been my favorite Avenger. (At any rate, I came away from this one hoping that the quietly rumored Agents of SHIELD film comes to pass. Although frankly, if another solo movie comes out of The Avengers, I hope it goes to Black Widow.)

On the downside, there are some sketchy story transitions — hmm, why did this or that character suddenly start cooperating? — but for the most part I think Whedon does a great job drawing all the threads together from the various lead-in films. In a sense, the script — like the production, I expect — is a triumph of logistics, cramming in so many characters and subplots in a limited space, meanwhile mining the lore to make it ring true for old-timers. But ultimately this isn’t a film that begs critical deconstruction…it’s mainly just a vastly entertaining romp of a good time, and probably moreso for folks who are already fans of The Avengers or Joss Whedon. For a fan of both, like me, this film almost sounds to good to be true. But wow: it’s true!

Spy 100, #60: 5 Fingers

May. 7th, 2012 at 11:19 AM

For all the iffy, “talking-point” entries on the Spy 100 list, there are at least as many obscure, unjustly overlooked gems like 5 Fingers (1952). A classy, twisty tale of historical intrigue — evidently based on a true story — this one is clever, smart, and thoroughly satisfying. Set in neutral Turkey during World War II, it’s the story of Ulysses Diello (the great James Mason), valet for the British Ambassador in Ankara. Diello, exhausted with his servile and thankless role in life, starts selling top secret documents to the Germans, his plan to bankroll a change of identity and buy a new life. As an accomplice, he recruits the exiled Polish countess Anna Staviska (Danielle Darrieux), now destitute and aimless, but ambitious for a return to wealth. Diello’s risky plan sets both German and British intelligence services in frantic motion, as the Germans try to determine whether Diello is a genuine or fake traitor, and the Brits struggle to identify the source of their intelligence leak.

The plot of 5 Fingers is impressively convoluted and engaging, like a multifaceted, black-and-white Mission: Impossible episode where the schemes and objectives of each side — and there are many sides — intersect and influence each other unpredictably. For all the chaos, though, there’s precision to the structure, and it all resolves quite neatly. The sharp dialogue is well performed, with Darrieux making for an unconventional love interest, low-key and sardonic. (When asked why she left Warsaw: “Bombs were falling. I felt I was in the way.”) But the film belongs to Mason, who walks the line brilliantly as the controlled and subservient valet, whose intelligence and class resentment lead him down treacherous paths in pursuit of a new life. He is both hero and villain simultaneously, both sympathetic and deplorable as the film’s complicated protagonist. His performance alone is worth the price of admission, but there’s plenty of other assets to sweeten the pot, not the least of which is a terrific score from the great Bernard Herrmann. This one is unjustly obscure, well worth tracking down.

Film: Hawaii, Oslo

May. 4th, 2012 at 9:10 AM

An interesting little indie drama from Norway, Hawaii, Oslo (2004) is perhaps over-serious, but carries off its premise and style confidently. During a rare Scandinavian heatwave, the troubled lives of various people intersect and interconnect, revolving around a curious man named Vidar (Trond Espen Seim). A worker at a psychiatric hospital, Vidar is cursed with precognitive dreams, wherein he often witnesses horrible, tragic events before they happen. When his latest dream shows one of his charges at the hospital, Leon (Jan Gunnar Roise), run down and killed by an ambulance, he races out onto the streets of Oslo to track down his friend and try to change fate.

This is one of those ambitious ensemble dramas that sends a vast cast of characters into complex, fatalistic motion, ricocheting with clever coincidence into one and others’ paths – for some reason the perfect antecedent escapes me, but I know I’ve seen this kind of film before and tend to enjoy it. (Magnolia, perhaps? Or 13 Conversations About One Thing?) Unfortunately the twist that intrigued me the most – Vidar’s essential omniscience – could probably have been played up more. Vidar’s dream knowledge leads to interesting encounters, as he reveals information he shouldn’t know to the characters he interrogates during his search. Alas, the film doesn’t milk this idea for much, focusing instead on the more standard dramatic problems of its ensemble: births and deaths, shattered and forming relationships, etc. But even if it doesn’t play up its nifty genre aspects enough for my liking, it’s still a deft undertaking, well performed and winningly produced. Good stuff.

Novel: Arctic Rising by Tobias S. Buckell

Apr. 30th, 2012 at 10:16 AM

Tobias S. Buckell’s Arctic Rising (2012) is a swift, smart, and thought-provoking future thriller that wrestles with the consequences of global warming on the arctic north. Anika Duncan is an airship pilot for the United Nations Polar Guard, her job to monitor shipping traffic in the newly opened, ice-free waterways of the Northwest Passage. When sensors detect radiation on a vessel passing through their area, Anika hails the crew, only to come under fire. The incident draws her inexorably into a dangerous mystery, leading her across the dramatically transformed northern landscape in pursuit of terrorists hellbent on realizing a world-shaping hidden agenda.

It’s a speedy, thoroughly engaging read from start to finish, propulsively paced and filled with well realized characters and timely, interesting speculation on what the opening of the Arctic might mean in the greater scheme of world affairs. Anika, a tough-nosed Nigerian expat with a checkered past, makes for a likeable and engaging hero, and the plot is compelling, but most captivating for me was the world-building. Buckell’s depiction of the new northern settlements – from towns in the northern Canadian islands to the polar glacier settlement Thule – are evocative, filled with memorable imagery and driven by interesting sociopolitical speculation. At times the narrative stumbles a little under the weight of exposition, but I generally found the odd infodump forgiveable in light of the fascinating subject matter and streamlined action structure. It’s an exciting ride, both entertaining and enlightening, that grapples interestingly with imminent global concerns.

Film: My Neighbor Totoro

Apr. 30th, 2012 at 10:01 AM

I’m woefully underfamiliar with the work of Hayao Miyazaki – I did see a few of his films many, many years ago, but I don’t think I was in the right place to appreciate them then. Now that I’ve seen My Neighbor Totoro (1988), I have a feeling I’m going to see more. This is a wonderful, wonderful movie, beautifully animated and refreshingly uncynical.

It’s the story of two young girls who move to an old, run-down house in the country with their father. Big sister Satsuki and little sister Mei joyously explore their new surroundings, meanwhile constantly catching glimpses of magical beings around them (which the adults in their midst, naturally, never quite see). Among these sightings: a giant, fiercely cute nature spirit they come to know as Totoro.

My Neighbor Totoro is an atmospheric, touching and amusing celebration of childhood imagination. Gorgeously animated, the film creates a palpable sense of youthful fascination with discovery, each new magical find triggering a sense of wide-eyed wonder in the children, both exciting and frightening. There’s not much plot to it, but there’s sentiment, sense of wonder, and cuteness to burn, all of it impressively artful. A unique viewing experience, upbeat and utterly charming.

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