Jonathan Graehl

Science and fun.

Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas is a moving and clever book. The blurbs on the back say "postmodern" but the only thing too-clever about it is the narrative structure, which I fully enjoyed. There's some Huck-Finn-annoying dialect, but it didn't bother me as much as usual.

I was surprised to read there's a film adaptation coming out next year. There's no way all of the plot will fit in a single film, but I look forward to watching it.

entertainment

TV:

The Big Bang Theory - watched it all in the past 3 weeks. Sheldon grew on me.

The Office - still good.

The Boss - excellent acting. Sexy and interesting in the way The Wire was for its first 1.5 seasons.

Music:

Sufjan Stevens - "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." "The Seer's Tower" "To Be Alone with You", "For the Widows in Paradise, for the Fatherless in Ypsilanti", "Sister Winter" - all excellent

Books: 

Stories of Your Life And Others (Ted Chiang) - fantastic.

REAMDE (Neal Stephenson) - diverting. Crichton-like. Too many bad-ass, cool characters. Hard to believe or care about most of it. Too long. Still worth reading.

Movies:

Beginners - similar artsy-emo lead as 500 days of summer, but more effectively brooding/poetic.

Crazy Stupid Love - in spite of a cheesy closing act (not quite Mrs. Doubtfire - painful, but bad), really funny

Margin Call - entertaining. Good acting except for the always-boring Demi Moore. I didn't care at all for the (Kevin Spacey) moral maybe-I'll-be-a-hero hand-wringing. I loved the soundtrack+trading-calls montage at the climax.

The Secret In Their Eyes - fantastic.

Midnight in Paris - good

Whatever Works - good

X-Men First Class - acceptable. better than the previous disaster.

Captain America (The First Adventure) - vapid but pretty. Felt like they ran out of money or ended up throwing out scenes - disjointed.

The Best of Youth (La meglio gioventù) - very good

Capturing the Friedmans - documentary. not recommended. ambiguous mix of overzealous/retarded community+law enforcement witch-hunt of actual creepy pedophile father. may interest people who aren't already familiar with witch-hunts.

Lilya 4-ever - good. a bit slow.

misc. reviews

poor: dexter (current season only; first season and lithgow season were great), salt, the other guys, megamind, twilight 2+3 (movies; 3 is one of the worst movies I've seen)

decent: house, the hundred thousand kingdoms (female get-sexed-by-gods fantasy), perdido street station (cleverly atmospheric but tedious), twilight 1 (movie), remember me (loved the final school scene, hated the hit-by-bus ending. also, female lead was weakly acted)

good: kimi ni todoke (anime. in the extremely pure-hearted young romance subgenre. some very pretty moments amidst the formulaic cuteness), adventureland and kristen stewart (she's excellent at emoting desire for a man, and she doesn't overact) 

great: robert pattinson (even though he's been in only mediocre films so far), winter's bone (fantastic writing, casting, directing, and acting. final scene was devastating; take out the overdone "are u gonna leave us?" schmaltz and it's perfect.) loosely, it's a more female-centric version of animal kingdom, and nearly as good.