November Favorites

"I Found You", benny blanco & Calvin Harris: Like "Summer" and "My Way", "I Found You" features a fantastic Calvin Harris vocal that I am absolutely in love with. As someone who has been following Calvin since the days when he sang on all of his songs, I truly love it when he takes the mic these days. It has been a long time since I listened to a song five times in a row as soon as I downloaded it, but that's exactly what happened with "I Found You"; it has an addictive structure, with soaring build-ups and classic House drops. The Calvin Harris sound that I know and love is back, and, even if it's just for one song, I'll take it.

Bohemian Rhapsody: Bohemian Rhapsody has a strong foundation in its fantastic cast, especially Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury, Gwilym Lee as Brian May, and the always delightful Tm Hollander as Queen's lawyer / manager. However, the best thing about the film is how it makes Queen's music really come alive. The Live Aid concert sequence is extremely well done; like A Star is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody excels at capturing the thrill and excitement of a live concert experience on film. The dynamics of the band were also very interesting to watch, most of all because it was quite touching to see how much these men truly cared about one another and formed their own kind of family, connected by their passions for music.

The Snow Child, Eowyn Ivey: I read The Snow Child because I had bought a ticket to a concert performance of a new musical based on the book, and a couple of weeks before the show I was mooching around Barnes & Noble and happened to come across the book faced-out on a shelf. I took it as a sign that I should get the book and read it. The Snow Child is a wonderful grown-up fairy tale with well-deployed magical realism. It’s a great cozy winter read, and it is so well written that I didn’t even mind the ambiguous ending and unanswered questions about the titular character (things which usually drive me nuts).

"Nights", Marfa Crush: I came across Marfa Crush because the band is fronted by Charlie Sexton's son/clone, Marlon. Not only does Marlon look like his dad, he sounds like him too, with the vocals on this song recalling Charlie circa Pictures for Pleasure (an album that is so amazingly New Wave and full of 80s rock goodness that I fell in love with it at first listen). "Nights" is a dreamy, semi-psychedelic rock song full of fuzzy guitars and youthful longing. Looking forward to more music from these lads!

Past Tense, Lee Child: Past Tense is one of the best Jack Reacher books in quite some time. It grabbed me right away with lots of mysterious, intense stuff going on in two separate, but equally captivating, plots. I would have read it in one day if I could have, but circumstances meant I had to split it over two days. The B-plot is especially unsettling and creepy, and it has a rather tenuous connection to Reacher, but it certainly captured and held my interest from the very beginning. Child does a good job making Patty and Shorty, the protagonists of this second plot, pretty smart characters in their own right – not quite on the same level of cleverness as Reacher, but not far off. By doing this, Child demonstrates that one does not have to be a crazy-strong ex-MP to get out a jam. Meanwhile, the main story line focuses on Reacher's family history, which turns out to be its own interesting and intriguing mystery, mostly populated by fun and likable characters. The two plots eventually come together, though only briefly; in a way, Past Tense offers two intertwined novels for the price of one.

Outlaw King: Outlaw King is a film that draws you in right away and never lets you go. The film gives an in-depth look at an oft overlooked part of history and its star historical figure, Robert the Bruce. Outlaw King is full of formidable characters who also manage to be relatable because of the way they express their emotions and loyalties. Chris Pine's performance makes it easy to see why Robert was able to inspire such fierce loyalty and unite Scotland. Aaron Taylor-Johnson (nearly unrecognizable) and Tony Curran also give excellent, passionate performances, while Florence Pugh is a perfect match for Pine and is able to hold her ground among all the men that surround her. On the technical side of things, the battle scenes are well staged and skillfully filmed to capture the roughness and brutality of these undertakings. I actually wished this film were longer because I wanted to spend more time with Robert, his family, and his loyal friends / soldiers, even among the harsh conditions with which they had to contend.

Green Book: This film is worth seeing for Viggo Mortensen's and Mahershala Ali's performances alone. These two extremely talented actors fully embody their characters (Tony "Lip" Vallelonga and Don Shirley, respectively) and have wonderful chemistry and rapport. The story is told in strokes that verge on too broad or overly simplified in order to produce a "feel good" film, but the complications and turmoil of racism in the 1960s, while toned down, are still there to give pause and serve as conversation starters. Green Book captures the overall mood of the early 1960s just as well as Mad Men ever did. Mortensen and Ali both imbue the film with honesty and humanity; neither of their characters is perfect, and they are able to learn from each other in ways that are never patronizing. The film is also beautifully shot, with rich and vivid color pallets bursting from the screen and reflecting the vivacity of both Don Shirley's music and the American South.

The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream, Stefan Al: This book began life as Al's dissertation at MIT, and I kind of wish I had been able to write one of my dissertations on this topic. The history of Las Vegas and the architecture and design on offer there are some of the main reasons I love the city so much and never tire of visiting it. Al does a terrific job capturing and conveying what makes Vegas so wonderful, inspiring, unique, and magical, and he demonstrates how the Strip is able to tap into the zeitgeist over and over again to maintain its paradoxical blend of mystique and accessibility. He also perfectly sums up the aspect of the city that is most fascinating to me with this one line from his conclusion: "But as outrageous as the Strip’s excesses may seem, it has always been the ultimate manifestation of a quintessentially American practice: marketing." Indeed, blatant consumerism is just as important to Las Vegas as the hyper-reality and "authentic fakes" that are on display up and down the Strip.