April 2016 book and film review

BOOKS

THE RISE OF ISLAMIC STATE, by Patrick Cockburn. In 2012, as Syria's Bashar Al Assad besieged the city of Aleppo, ruthlessly murdering his own people and converting that ancient city into a pile of rubble, the only group able to organise any semblance of support for the population were fundamental Islamists, and they won a lot of friends. Likewise in neighbouring Iraq, fundamentalists proved the most effective opposition to the corrupt leadership of Nouri al-Maliki, and a combination of a weak and demoralised Iraqi army and lavish funding for IS from countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar ensured that their rise would be a meteoric one.

Patrick Cockburn has written on the Middle East for The Independent for many years and here has written eloquently on the terrible situation now engulfing that embattled region. If you want your truth delivered without trimmings or cant, this is for you.

MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA, by Arthur Golden. In 1930s Japan, a twelve year old girl is sold into a Geisha house. Her beauty is noticed straight away (she has large, grey-blue eyes, very unusual in a Japanese), not least by one of the senior geishas, who is so consumed by jealousy she makes it her life's work to make her life miserable. Now read on. This novel was one of the most successful of the noughties, and does convey the strange, otherworldly atmosphere of the geishas with considerable skill. But it is not an outstanding piece of writing, and once the main plot thread is resolved two thirds of the way into the book, we find it has nowhere to go for 200 pages. And another thing. Golden acknowledges the assistance of a real-life geisha in his afterword; even names her. But there is a code of silence about that world which exists to this day, and the poor geisha in question faced death threats as a result of Golden's revelation. Question: why did he do that?

THE BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA, by Hanif Kureishi. Karim is an Asian boy living in south London struggling to find his way in a world where in the 1970s he is still seen as something of an exotic oddity. His life is made no easier when his father runs off with another woman, who encourages her paramour to give lessons in how to be enlightened to the local middle class meaningfuls. Then one of his schoolfriend finds himself an overnight sensation as leader of a punk band. By hanging onto his friend's coattails Karim's own life takes off, but where is it all going?

Where indeed. Kureishi has written more tellingly than most on the subject of teenage angst and alienation, and thoroughly deserved to win the Whitbread Prize in 1990 for best first novel. To achieve such mastery of dialogue at such a young age is remarkable indeed, and the plotting keeps one gripped from first page to last. Brilliant.

FILMS

Something new this month. For a variety of reasons (films on the plane, a Saudi channel in our hotel in Jordan which showed nothing but fairly new movies) I have seen more films this month than in any other I can remember, 20! Consequently I propose to deal with them in a new way for this month only: the "flash review" Two sentences max and a rating system dividing them into two groups:
"*" indicating a good film you may wish to see yourself
"!" suggesting a dog of a movie you would do well to leave out. Here goes:

PALIO (2015) (documentary) D- Stanley Nelson. Twice a year Siena hosts the most famous and venerable horse race in Europe. The various districts fund their own riders, who negotiate between them who's going to win this time. Corrupt? Just don't say the word in Siena if you want to go on walking around. *

THE EXPENDABLES 3 (2014) D- Patrick Hughes. Arnie, Sly, Jason  and almost every other tough guy you can name in Rambo meets Commando. !

COP CAR (2015) D- Jon Watts. Two twelve year old kids steal a police cruiser and the sheriff (Kevin Bacon) is not best pleased, especially as there's a body in the trunk. *

THE TWO FACES OF JANUARY (2014) D- Hossein Amini. An attractive couple (Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst) are doing Greece when they come under the spell of sleazy tour guide Oscar Isaac.  But who is the real conman? *

PRESERVATION (2014) D- Christopher Denham. A group of young folk go on a hunting trip in the woods, but then find themselves being hunted down like wild animals. Time for Wrenn Schmidt to man up. *

MR. HOLMES (2015) D- Bill Condon. An ageing Sherlock (Ian McKellen) is slowly losing his marbles, but becomes increasingly obsessed with a case that defeated him decades before. *

SPOOKS: THE GREATER GOOD (2015) D- Tsharat Nalluri. Spooks are taking a famous terrorist in for questioning when he is lifted by his mates. Kit Harrington (Jon Snow) is called in to make things right. !

BLENDED (2014) D- Frank Coraci. Adam Sandler takes his family on a safari in darkest Africa and bumps into Drew Barrymore. Funny thing, they went on a blind date once but it turned out to be a disaster. Like this movie. !

EDGE OF TOMORROW (AKA LIVE. DIE. REPEAT) (2014) D- Doug Liman Groundhog Day meets Starship Troopers. Say what you will about Cruise, his screen presence is undeniable. *

THE INTERVIEW (2014) D- Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. James Franco is a top TV chatshow host who has an unexpected fan: Kim Jong Un. So he goes to North Korea to do an interview. Thing is, the CIA want him to murder him while he's there. !

TARZAN THE APEMAN (1981) D- John Derek. Mr Derek thought showing his lovely wife off in a series of Playboy-like tableaux might mitigate what has been seen by many as one of the worst movies ever made. It didn't. !

JUBAL (1956) D- Delmer Daves. Glenn Ford lands a job on a cattle ranch owned by kindly Ernest Borgnine but foreman Rod Steiger don't like him. Things brew up to a nail-biting climax. *

SICARIO (2015) D- Denis Villeneuve. Emily Blunt joins an FBI raid into Mexico to take down a drugs cartel, but boss Benicia del Toro has a secret agenda: killing everyone remotely involved in killing his wife. Things get messy very quickly. *

HOLY MOTORS (2012) D- Leos Carax. A man travels around Paris changing his appearance before leaving his limo to take part in a series of bizarre scenarios. At one he has to kill someone, then be killed himself. Oddly, he's back soon to act out his next  mysterious role. *

VERY GOOD GIRLS (2015) D- Naomi Foner. Pretty teens Dakota Fanning (the palest woman in Hollywood) and the other Olsen girl (Elizabeth) determine to lose their cherries after graduating from high school. Then they both fall for the same guy (a totally wooden Boyd Holbrook) !

GIRL FROM RIO (2003) D- Chris Monger. Having lost his wife to his boss at the bank where he works, Hugh Laurie rips it off for £5 million and goes to Rio to pursue a Samba star he's lusted after for years. Then she steals the money for her drug lord BF. Can he recover the loot, or be sliced into little pieces? !

THE BAND'S VISIT (2007 D- Eran Kolirin. An Egyptian military brass band visits Israel for a concert, but gets lost in the sticks. A sultry Jewess (Ronit Elkambetz) takes pity on them and offers them hospitality for the night. One by one, the men fall for her abundant charms. *

A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT (2014) In the Iranian  town of "Bad City", people begin to turn up dead and the slow realisation dawns that there may be a female vampire on the loose... *

HOME SWEET HELL (2015) D- Anthony Burns. Serial Mom reborn in the shape of Katherine Heigl who decides the best solution to her husband's affair is to kill the interloper. And anyone else who might threaten her perfect life in the burbs. !

STAR WARS VII: THE FORCE AWAKENS (2015) D- JJ Abrams. The gang's all back, ready to save the Universe from a new foe, though it seems very much like the old one. As do an awful lot of things in this extended tribute to the original Star Wars movies. It ain't great, but it is likeable, and Daisy Ridley is a find. *