(pb; 1985: prequel to Imperial Bedrooms)
From the inside flap:
"Set in affluent Los Angeles, it is a raw and powerful portrayal of a generation of young people who have experienced sex, drugs, and dissatisfaction at too early an age. Its narrator, Clay, comes home to Los Angeles for Christmas vacation, following his first trimester at an Eastern college. Trying to make sense of the life left behind, he renews his ties to his old girlfriend, Blair; to Trent, a male model; to Rip, his dealer; and, most tragically, to Julian, Clay's best friend from high school, who has got into trouble with drugs. Clay's holiday turns into a dizzying spiral of desperation that takes him through the rich suburban homes, the relentless parties, the seedy bars, the glitzy rock clubs, and the seamy underworld of pornography and homosexual prostitution. . ."
Review:
Clay's stream-of-consciousness narration is a party-till-you-drop nightmare; his first-person present tense POV spans a month, seen through his melancholic, it-all-runs-together senses.
Clay, at eighteen, is at crossroads, like many of his friends -- whom he's felt distant from for years. He's directionless, caught between his deeply-embedded L.A. ennui/self-absorption and his emerging maturity, which has yet to reveal what direction or form it will take for him: between the glitzy boredom of soulless sexual encounters, constant drugs, rotting social bonds, and the blasé reactions of his friends (to daily, small scale horrors and tragedies around them), he's f**ked up.
Ellis's tightly-edited writing immediately immersed this reader into the shallow-life, frazzled mindset of his protagonist. Ellis sprinkles his narrative with shocking amorality and blink-and-you-miss-it cleverness, burying these smart-minded elements in a river of banality (usually conversations) and soundtracking it with an often provocative, takes-you-back Eighties soundtrack.
Check it out.
•
The film version was released stateside on November 6, 1987.
Andrew McCarthy played Clay. Jami Gertz played Blair. Robert Downey Jr. played Julian. James Spader played Rip.
Anthony Kiedis, lead vocalist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, played "Musician #3" -- he's billed as Cole Dammett. Flea and Jack Irons, Kiedis' bandmates, played "Musician #1" and "Musician #4".
An uncredited Brad Pitt played "Partygoer / Preppy Kid at Fight".
Marek Kanievska directed, from a script by Harley Peyton.
Showing posts with label Andrew McCarthy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Andrew McCarthy. Show all posts
Thursday, August 05, 2010
Saturday, December 02, 2006
The Spiderwick Chronicles, by Tony Di Terlizzi & Holly Black
(hb; 2003, 2004)
Overall review:
This five-book kids’ series is lightweight, and probably won’t be remembered as a landmark work, but it is fun and straightforward. It’s a quick read, as each book is approximately a hundred pages long, packaged like Lemony Snicket’s An Unfortunate Series of Events series.
Review, book by book:
The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 1: The Field Guide – Nine year-old twins Simon and Jared Grace, and their thirteen year-old sister (Mallory) move into their institutionalized aunt’s abandoned house with their mother. When things start missing, and malicious pranks are pulled, the children (who have nothing to do with these events) realize that someone – or something – else is also living in the house.
The story is brisk, the characters deftly-fleshed (Simon loves animals; Mallory is a fencer; Jared is plucky), and the fun never lets up.
The Seeing Stone (Book 2): When their cat goes missing, the Grace children search for it in the backwoods, and encounter more nasty magical beings. The suspense and mystery deepens.
Lucinda’s Secret (Book 3): The Grace children, desperate to escape prank-persecution from Thimbletack (a house boggart), visit their great-aunt Lucinda in a local asylum, discover a magical map, as well as the possible fate of their great great-uncle Arthur.
The Ironwood Tree (Book 4): When Jared espies a blond girl, and later, his evil doppelganger, riffling through Mallory’s bag at a fencing meet (which Mallory is participating in), and Mallory is kidnapped, Jared and Simon embark on a trek to save Mallory from the rock quarry dwarves who took her. Semi-grim finish, compared to the previous three books.
The Wrath of Mulgarath (Book 5): With help from Byron (a griffin they found in The Seeing Stone) and Hogsqueal (a hobgoblin, also befriended in The Seeing Stone), the Grace children rescue their mother (Helen) from a shape-changing Mulgarath, goblin leader of the dwarves, forest goblins and dragons. Satisfying, amusing conclusion: memorable.
#
The resulting film is set for release on February 15, 2008. The authors, along with John Sayles and a few others, are set to co-script. Mark Waters is set to direct.
Freddie Highmore plays "Jared/Simon Grace". Sarah Bolger plays Mallory Grace. Mary-Louise Parker plays Helen Grace. Andrew McCarthy plays Richard Grace. David Strathairn plays Arthur Spiderwick. Joan Plowright plays Aunt Lucinda Spiderwick.
Nick Nolte plays Mulgarath. Seth Rogan voices Hogsqueal. Martin Short voices Thimbletack.
Overall review:
This five-book kids’ series is lightweight, and probably won’t be remembered as a landmark work, but it is fun and straightforward. It’s a quick read, as each book is approximately a hundred pages long, packaged like Lemony Snicket’s An Unfortunate Series of Events series.
Review, book by book:
The Spiderwick Chronicles, Book 1: The Field Guide – Nine year-old twins Simon and Jared Grace, and their thirteen year-old sister (Mallory) move into their institutionalized aunt’s abandoned house with their mother. When things start missing, and malicious pranks are pulled, the children (who have nothing to do with these events) realize that someone – or something – else is also living in the house.
The story is brisk, the characters deftly-fleshed (Simon loves animals; Mallory is a fencer; Jared is plucky), and the fun never lets up.
The Seeing Stone (Book 2): When their cat goes missing, the Grace children search for it in the backwoods, and encounter more nasty magical beings. The suspense and mystery deepens.
Lucinda’s Secret (Book 3): The Grace children, desperate to escape prank-persecution from Thimbletack (a house boggart), visit their great-aunt Lucinda in a local asylum, discover a magical map, as well as the possible fate of their great great-uncle Arthur.
The Ironwood Tree (Book 4): When Jared espies a blond girl, and later, his evil doppelganger, riffling through Mallory’s bag at a fencing meet (which Mallory is participating in), and Mallory is kidnapped, Jared and Simon embark on a trek to save Mallory from the rock quarry dwarves who took her. Semi-grim finish, compared to the previous three books.
The Wrath of Mulgarath (Book 5): With help from Byron (a griffin they found in The Seeing Stone) and Hogsqueal (a hobgoblin, also befriended in The Seeing Stone), the Grace children rescue their mother (Helen) from a shape-changing Mulgarath, goblin leader of the dwarves, forest goblins and dragons. Satisfying, amusing conclusion: memorable.
#
The resulting film is set for release on February 15, 2008. The authors, along with John Sayles and a few others, are set to co-script. Mark Waters is set to direct.
Freddie Highmore plays "Jared/Simon Grace". Sarah Bolger plays Mallory Grace. Mary-Louise Parker plays Helen Grace. Andrew McCarthy plays Richard Grace. David Strathairn plays Arthur Spiderwick. Joan Plowright plays Aunt Lucinda Spiderwick.
Nick Nolte plays Mulgarath. Seth Rogan voices Hogsqueal. Martin Short voices Thimbletack.
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