One Sentence Media Reviews
On this my third read thru i’m struck by how good the futurology is, how much it shares in common with Rajaniemi, and of course how paper-thin and silly the characters are.
Hey what if we take all this documentary footage of the moon landing mission and put it together into a coherent story with a soundtrack and no extra commentary but then what if we make it like super, super stylish?
A worthy conclusion to the "hard sci-fi" series by this Finnish phenom, I put that in quotes because I think the glorious world-building is actually more poetic than self-consistent, so sometimes the story feels a bit calvinball, but nevertheless it's great writing, great reading, highly recommended.
The second entry in this series is so challenging and confusing that it sometimes shades into complex sci-fi poetry, and I come away thinking that with a teensy bit more editing and hand holding it would be a better time, but I still enjoyed it greatly.
This is a great space movie with an exciting ending and an addictive story but I do wish (because I can never help wishing) it was a little heavier on the science and lighter on the hollywood.
I greatly enjoyed this tome from the late 80s for its depth and broad strategic explanations of 20th century middle east politics, although at times the book feels dated (because it is dated) or under-researched (because Seale's main sources were very focused in Syria).
I think this is my third read thru this dense, complex sci-fi mystery, so you can tell I like it, and tho its complexity gets a little messy at times, its pace and panache make for great entertainment, and I love anything “prisoner’s dilemma”- themed.
Effectively stylish and different comedic horror movie that I nonetheless found quite boring; guessed the point from minute 10 and so although the payoff was superbly done the journey there was tedious.
For fans of his masterpiece this is a solid look at his development as a writer, but it’s no Confederacy, it’s kind of flat and slow, and I see why he never tried to publish it himself.
The earlier stories in this anthology are a really cool mix of Finnish lore and world-building hard sci-fi, but the latter half has gotta be the older / B-side because it’s not as arresting.
I loved the book and the movie was pretty faithful to it so although there were a few hollywoodizations that kind of annoyed me with their internal inconsistencies for the most part it was a lovely scifi adventure.
Natasha Lyonne does a tremendous Columbo impression here and I love it the way I love Columbo, which is to say, great whenever it's about the detective and otherwise sort of slow-moving.
Short, easy, unstylish, direct, queer, exciting, overly simple, too self-aware, weird in a good way, worth it for the unique mix of magic and anarchism.
This is a carefully written and researched spy thriller but it can’t decide if it wants to be a history or a fiction; as a result the fiction aspect suffers from a lack of style, while the history aspect suffers from a lack of real names - it’s clearly about Ames and Salameh but it didn’t have to be.
Creepy slow and artsy, well-acted altho some of the monologues and artistic choices tried a little too hard, overall just different which I really appreciated, deep and heartfelt and not afraid of some discomfort.
I made it two thirds through out of a deep loyalty to DeWitt but the problem with post-post-modern metafiction that never coheres is that after hundreds of pages of it you’re just completely lost and bored.