June 2017 book and film review part 2

BOOKS

BOYS IN ZINC, by Svetlana Alexievich, continued from previous blog.

Try this little extract as a sample:

When a bullet hits someone you hear it; there's no way to forget it or confuse it with anything else - that distinctive wet splat. A young guy you know falls flat down in dust as bitter as ashes. You turn him over onto his back; the cigarette you just gave him still clutched in his teeth. It's still smoking... I wasn't prepared to shoot at anyone, I was still from ordinary life. From the normal world...
                                                                                                     - A private, grenedier 

What Alexievich shows us with this book is that the genre of "creative nonfiction" can, if it is good enough, ascend to the status of high art. Which this does. This book is not easy to read, not because of its style, which is eminently readable, but because of the relentless horror and almost unbearable poignancy of its content. Unforgettable.

FILMS

DESIERTA (2015) D- Jonas Cuaron.
On the border between the US and Mexico, human traffickers dump a crew of would-be immigrants in what seems to be the middle of a desert and say:  "the border's that way. Off you go, and good luck." On the American side, a hunter equipped with a high-powered rifle and an ATV is waiting for them. There are few border guards in this remote area, so he works alone, picking them off one by one from his redoubt. Donald Trump would probably be proud of him. But these guys didn't come this far and go to this much trouble to be thwarted by a lone vigilante, and they keep running. And dodging the bullets...
             This film enacts an ancient theme, the hunter versus the hunted, in a thrilling and often horrific manner. Terrifying but totally absorbing.

DISTURBIA (2007) D- D.J. Caruso.
A young lad (Shia Lebeouf) is driving the car when it crashes and his Dad is killed. He goes off the rails, punches out an unsympathetic teacher and his sentenced to house arrest. With nothing else to do for several months he observes his neighbors leading their lives: an obsessive gardener, a beautiful teenaged girl and... a murderer?
            Ring any bells? It should do. This is the plot of Hitchcock's Rear Window, updated to the noughties and starring a teen idol at the height of his popularity at the time. It's a very good idea, and is very well done, though I fear it should have wound itself up about half an hour quicker than it did. Probably required watching for anyone under thirty.

THE CROW'S EGG (2014) D- M. Manikandan
A couple of street kids in Madras hear about a new pizza parlor that's just opened up and would give anything to go into its air-conditioned space, sit on its fake leather seats and enjoy a nice Hawaiian with a coke on the side. Thing is, this is about as far out of their financial reach as it would be for me to buy a mansion in Belgravia. But a boy can dream...
         They consider stealing the money, but have moral reservations. They consider a variety of money-making schemes, none of which come to very much, certainly not enough for the handful of rupees required for such luxury. One day they think they have amassed enough, but when they turn up they're thrown out by a management who think they're too dirty. They even give them a cuff upside the head into the bargain, but someone films the incident on their mobile. If this film got out it could be very embarrassing for the pizza parlor owners...
          A really rather charming and engaging little movie form India, skillfully made and with good acting (from largely amateurs as I understand it) all round. Hot stuff.

GO (1999) D- Chris Liman
A feisty young woman is approached to obtain some E for a group of heads about to go off to a rave, and realizes she can make a packet by adding her own markup. But when she takes the drugs to the group, she susses it might be a sting operation and throws the lot down the loo. Still thinking on her feet she decides to sell them a load of aspirins instead, so she still makes her money. Cute...
             This tale-of-its-time is then explored from a number of POVs, a la Rashomon, and the whole is really very good. Starring Timothy Olyphant, Katie Holmes in one of her first big roles and a very good Sarah Polley as the amateur drug dealer and con artist, I really enjoyed this minor cult classic. Try it yourself.