Chicago Center for Literature and Photography
January 18, 2008 11:06 AM Subscribe
Chicago Center for Literature and Photography has some excellent book and film reviews, written by author and artist Jason Pettus. He mostly reviews contemporary fiction but has a few classics like The House of the Seven Gables, which is part of a two-year project to read 100 "classics" to see if they are really classic or not.
Where is said photo? I was all prepared to scoff at it but I can't find it.
posted by shakespeherian at 11:37 AM on January 18, 2008
posted by shakespeherian at 11:37 AM on January 18, 2008
Where is said photo? I was all prepared to scoff at it but I can't find it.
haha, same here. I do like the reviews of his I've read, though.
posted by farishta at 11:41 AM on January 18, 2008
haha, same here. I do like the reviews of his I've read, though.
posted by farishta at 11:41 AM on January 18, 2008
Upon looking through more of his sites, I'm amazed by this guy's internet presence. Multiple blogs, extensive social bookmarking, video clips and pictures of his day to day life. It's interesting that this can have an effect on how one perceives an author or critic: he's all of a sudden become all too real for me. Reading book and film reviews by a guy I practically know (in the last two minutes I've read about his sex life on his blog, for example) is a lot different than reading reviews by someone I can idealize however I choose.
posted by farishta at 11:48 AM on January 18, 2008
posted by farishta at 11:48 AM on January 18, 2008
Well-written reviews, very stylish website. I like it. Thank you.
posted by cog_nate at 12:19 PM on January 18, 2008
posted by cog_nate at 12:19 PM on January 18, 2008
Oh that photo. That's how the Chicago DMV takes license photos.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:24 PM on January 18, 2008
posted by shakespeherian at 12:24 PM on January 18, 2008
OK, some good stuff, but some real clunkers too. Consider this from the review of Match Point:
Now, be aware that there is absolutely nothing special about the writing seen in Match Point; that Allen could've very literally lifted the entire script from some '30s potboiler, and that you will be able to easily guess each and every next thing that's about to happen. ... Just look at Johansson, ... here in Match Point she is a marvel
Shorter version, "Scarlett Johansson has tits."
Similarly, he fawned over "The Road," which, though it's certainly well written, offered nothing that hadn't been said better before and had a cop-out ending besides. Of course, many of the thoughtful apocalyptic books get overlooked, as Ursula Le Guin noted.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 1:48 PM on January 18, 2008 [1 favorite]
Now, be aware that there is absolutely nothing special about the writing seen in Match Point; that Allen could've very literally lifted the entire script from some '30s potboiler, and that you will be able to easily guess each and every next thing that's about to happen. ... Just look at Johansson, ... here in Match Point she is a marvel
Shorter version, "Scarlett Johansson has tits."
Similarly, he fawned over "The Road," which, though it's certainly well written, offered nothing that hadn't been said better before and had a cop-out ending besides. Of course, many of the thoughtful apocalyptic books get overlooked, as Ursula Le Guin noted.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 1:48 PM on January 18, 2008 [1 favorite]
That quoting re: Johansson bit is a little disingenuous. The full quote is
Now, be aware that there is absolutely nothing special about the writing seen in Match Point; that Allen could've very literally lifted the entire script from some '30s potboiler, and that you will be able to easily guess each and every next thing that's about to happen. That's not the point of the film, frankly; the point is that Allen is what's known as an "actor's director," meaning that he's able to pull performances out of all the people involved that mark for most some of the best in their careers. Just look at Johansson, for example, who often has the problem in Hollywood of getting cast in great movies but for crap parts; here in Match Point she is a marvel, playing a chanteuse in her early twenties who is all too aware of her hypnotizing beauty, is aware that it's the very thing that got her out of her white-trash Colorado background but also the very thing destined to one day ruin her. As the embittered, cocktail-slinging Rice, Johansson easily turns in her best performance since Lost in Translation, especially satisfying for me after spending the last six months seeing her in a whole string of movies like The Prestige where she was essentially wasted.
It doesn't sound to me like a paraphrase of 'Scarlett Johansson has tits.'
posted by shakespeherian at 2:31 PM on January 18, 2008
Now, be aware that there is absolutely nothing special about the writing seen in Match Point; that Allen could've very literally lifted the entire script from some '30s potboiler, and that you will be able to easily guess each and every next thing that's about to happen. That's not the point of the film, frankly; the point is that Allen is what's known as an "actor's director," meaning that he's able to pull performances out of all the people involved that mark for most some of the best in their careers. Just look at Johansson, for example, who often has the problem in Hollywood of getting cast in great movies but for crap parts; here in Match Point she is a marvel, playing a chanteuse in her early twenties who is all too aware of her hypnotizing beauty, is aware that it's the very thing that got her out of her white-trash Colorado background but also the very thing destined to one day ruin her. As the embittered, cocktail-slinging Rice, Johansson easily turns in her best performance since Lost in Translation, especially satisfying for me after spending the last six months seeing her in a whole string of movies like The Prestige where she was essentially wasted.
It doesn't sound to me like a paraphrase of 'Scarlett Johansson has tits.'
posted by shakespeherian at 2:31 PM on January 18, 2008
Clearly he finds her so hypnotic he thinks she can act. It still says the film is a predictable rehash of old material. If I see a lousy movie with a good actor, I'd give it a 6, not an 8.8.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 3:05 PM on January 18, 2008
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 3:05 PM on January 18, 2008
CheeseDigestsAll writes " Clearly he finds her so hypnotic he thinks she can act. It still says the film is a predictable rehash of old material. If I see a lousy movie with a good actor, I'd give it a 6, not an 8.8."
Eh ... As much as I like Ebert, he has a bad habit of doing the same thing, and it's fairly obvious when it happens.
posted by krinklyfig at 3:15 PM on January 18, 2008
Eh ... As much as I like Ebert, he has a bad habit of doing the same thing, and it's fairly obvious when it happens.
posted by krinklyfig at 3:15 PM on January 18, 2008
part of a two-year project to read 100 "classics" to see if they are really classic or not.
Seriously? Whether a work is "classic" isn't really up to some guy with a website.
posted by jayder at 9:42 AM on January 19, 2008
Seriously? Whether a work is "classic" isn't really up to some guy with a website.
posted by jayder at 9:42 AM on January 19, 2008
Having looked around his websites, which collectively amount to this premise: "unemployed guy builds elaborate website detailing his reading and movie watching and hopes said website will support him one day."
posted by jayder at 9:55 AM on January 19, 2008
posted by jayder at 9:55 AM on January 19, 2008
« Older May cause seizures. | "Queen of Baluchistan" Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
He's only fooled one man.
posted by Bathtub Bobsled at 11:16 AM on January 18, 2008