California Literary Review

100 Greatest Gangster Films: Once Upon a Time in America, #12

George Anastasia, Glen Macnow — Sat, 18 May 2013 12:00:27 +0000

Once Upon a Time in America tells the lifelong tale of a clan of Jewish mobsters. It has two main chapters—set in 1920 and 1933—plus a third chapter, set in 1968. Each chapter deals with power and sex and treachery.

100 Greatest Gangster Films: Léon: The Professional, #13

George Anastasia, Glen Macnow — Fri, 17 May 2013 12:00:45 +0000

He’s a highly efficient—but in many ways naïve—hit man who drinks milk, exercises religiously and seems obsessed with the care and maintenance of a houseplant. She’s a 12-year-old who smokes, curses and is wise way beyond her years. Together they form an unlikely crime team in this fascinating and unusual look at the New York underworld.

The Office Recap: Finale (Season 9, Episode 23)

Brett Harrison Davinger — Fri, 17 May 2013 05:47:35 +0000

"Finale" is about bringing them all together for one last hurrah, and it works emotionally and comically. Unlike “Goodbye Michael,” which was really farewell Steve Carell, this episode says good-bye to Jim Halpert, not John Krasinski; Stanley Hudson, not Leslie David Baker; and Creed Bratton, not Creed Bratton.

Movie Review: Star Trek Into Darkness

Brett Harrison Davinger — Fri, 17 May 2013 01:00:04 +0000

By the end, Star Trek Into Darkness ends up feeling too much like a retread of the first feature without offering anything unique or different stylistically or intellectually. The characters are still likable, Abrams (and crew) knows that we like the characters, and Abrams (and crew) clearly likes the characters. Even Scotty's little green friend returns. That pleasantness can and does cover up many flaws, even if certain moments dance dangerously close to cutesy and irritating.

100 Greatest Gangster Films: Mean Streets, #14

George Anastasia, Glen Macnow — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:00:30 +0000

One of the best things about watching Mean Streets more than 30 years after its debut is that you know what’s coming after this. And so you look and you watch and you listen for little signs—small scenes that are the roots and the seedlings of the Scorsese/De Niro oeuvre.

Blind Boys, Berkeley Blue, Phone Hacks and Wozniak

Paul Comstock — Wed, 15 May 2013 14:56:10 +0000

The earliest phone phreak I’ve been able to identify was a young man who went by the nickname “Davy Crockett.” Back in the mid-1950s he figured out how to use a Davy Crockett Cat and Canary Bird Call Flute – a little 50-cent whistle they used to sell at Woolworth stores – to mimic a special tone that telephone operators used to communicate with one another. By imitating this tone he could place his own long distance calls for free.

Civil War 150 – A Readers’ Guide (Part 2)

Ed Voves — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:03:06 +0000

On a sultry summer afternoon, 150 years ago, a young man named Strong Vincent changed the course of American history. The date was July 2, 1863, around 4 P.M. The place was the left wing of the fish hook-shaped Union defensive position at Gettysburg.

100 Greatest Gangster Films: Reservoir Dogs, #15

George Anastasia, Glen Macnow — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:00:32 +0000

Reservoir Dogs is an action film without much action. A crime drama in which you never see the main crime take place. A comedy that makes you sometimes feel uneasy about laughing. A buddy movie where the buddies end up killing each other.

Revolution Recap: ‘The Longest Day’ (Season 1, Episode 17)

Brett Harrison Davinger — Tue, 14 May 2013 19:22:05 +0000

There are a lot of interesting concepts operating within Revolution's borders. Unfortunately, it rarely makes proper use out of any of them. As the season progresses, it’s hard to not be increasingly disappointed by the potential it has squandered in favor of frustrating redundancy.

100 Greatest Gangster Films: Scarface, #16

George Anastasia, Glen Macnow — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:01:22 +0000

A remake of the 1932 classic of the same name starring Paul Muni, Al Pacino’s Scarface is more often compared to his other underworld epics, The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II. All four movies are about the immigrant experience and a charismatic figure from the underclass using any means possible to realize the American dream. The dream, of course, becomes a nightmare.

100 Greatest Gangster Films: White Heat, #17

George Anastasia, Glen Macnow — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:05:03 +0000

This was film noir, movies where evil not only exists, but flourishes. Cagney’s Cody Jarrett isn’t a charismatic outlaw who viewers could vicariously admire, but rather a despicable embodiment of immorality, a man who takes what he wants whenever he wants it, mocking and abusing all those he comes in contact with—including the cops, members of his own gang and his less-than-virtuous wife, Verna (Virginia Mayo).

Boldly Going…: A Look Back At The Original The Original Series Star Trek Movies

Brett Harrison Davinger — Mon, 13 May 2013 02:07:31 +0000

In preparation for Star Trek Into Darkness, I decided to take a look back at the original The Original Series movies, marathon-style. Of course, I have no way of proving that I went through the films in a straight shot, so you can either take my word for it, or not.

100 Greatest Gangster Films: A Bronx Tale, #18

George Anastasia, Glen Macnow — Sun, 12 May 2013 12:00:16 +0000

A Bronx Tale is more than a wonderful portrait of growing up around the mob in the 1960s. Written by Chazz Palminteri, directed by Robert De Niro and starring both, the movie is a primer on life. No film this side of The Godfather provides as many valuable life lessons.

The Office Recap: ‘A.A.R.M’ (Season 9, Episode 22)

Brett Harrison Davinger — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:50:44 +0000

“This” is being Assistant to the Regional Manager (Dwight Schrute) at a paper company that, even if it can survive the death of paper and Schrute leadership, does not have any room for advancement. That is not enough, nor should it be for anyone, let alone a young father.

100 Greatest Gangster Films: Bonnie and Clyde, #19

George Anastasia, Glen Macnow — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:00:01 +0000

“Young people understood this movie instantly,” director Arthur Penn told the Los Angeles Times. “They saw Bonnie and Clyde as rebels like themselves. It was a movie that spoke to a generation in a way none of us had really expected.”

100 Greatest Gangster Films: Carlito’s Way, #20

George Anastasia, Glen Macnow — Thu, 09 May 2013 12:00:01 +0000

Brian De Palma was worried about doing another Hispanic drug kingpin movie after Scarface. But the story and the acting in Carlito’s Way go in such a different direction that there ended up being few similarities between the two films. This is a personal look at one man’s attempt at redemption. Scarface, on the other hand, is a saga about one man’s one-way trip to hell.

Civil War 150 – A Readers’ Guide (Part 1)

Ed Voves — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:02:58 +0000

A sampling of new or recent books on the Civil War suggests that this bygone conflict is still relevant to the lives, hopes and fears of the American people in the twenty-first century. If anything, some of the new research and analysis of the Civil War shows that the terrible ordeal of 1861 to 1865 is more meaningful than it has ever been.

100 Greatest Gangster Films: The Pope of Greenwich Village, #21

George Anastasia, Glen Macnow — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:00:39 +0000

To appreciate just how well director Stuart Rosenberg and writer Vincent Patrick captured wiseguy street corner ethos in this classic mob tale, you have to understand the meaning of an Italian phrase that has come to define the way certain mobsters act. The phrase is faccia una bella figura. Literally, it means “make a good impression.” But in fact the phrase conveys much more. It describes an attitude, an approach to life that is more typically found in the southern half of Italy, especially in Naples and points south.

Revolution Recap: ‘The Love Boat’ (Season 1, Episode 16)

Brett Harrison Davinger — Tue, 07 May 2013 17:55:16 +0000

If there’s one thing Revolution has done wrong, and it’s done so, so many things wrong, it’s been the sidelining of Captain Tom Neville. Thankfully, “The Love Boat” at least attempts to remedy this problem by putting Neville close to the forefront as he joins Miles as a representative from the Georgia Federation.

Mad Men Recap: “For Immediate Release” (Season 6, Episode 6)

Julia Rhodes — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:39:44 +0000

Pete Campbell, a vindictive child, tells his wife about her father. He sits Trudy down at the kitchen table and tells her he saw Tom “with a 200 pound Negro prostitute.”

100 Greatest Gangster Films: Gangs of New York, #22

George Anastasia, Glen Macnow — Tue, 07 May 2013 12:00:57 +0000

Before there was John Gotti, before Carlo Gambino, before Lucky Luciano, there was Bill “the Butcher” Poole. The 19th-century boxer, fixer and, yes, actual butcher, was a forerunner of the mobsters who later controlled New York City.

100 Greatest Gangster Films: The Public Enemy, #23

George Anastasia, Glen Macnow — Mon, 06 May 2013 12:00:48 +0000

Cagney, along with Edward G. Robinson, Paul Muni and, later, Humphrey Bogart, invented the film gangster. Each brought a sense of the street and gritty realism. For Cagney, that came naturally. He grew up on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and had to drop out of college after one semester when his father died. He knew how to be tough, in an argument or in a rumble.

100 Greatest Gangster Films: Sexy Beast, #24

George Anastasia, Glen Macnow — Sun, 05 May 2013 12:05:51 +0000

Sir Ben Kingsley becomes the ruthless Logan in Sexy Beast, and he’s 90 percent of the reason to watch the movie. The plotline here is straightforward, nothing special really. The action is sporadic. The supporting cast is strong—led by British veteran Ray Winstone, who’s actually the film’s lead, and Ian McShane, who can always dial up ominous. But it’s Kingsley—throwing off Gandhi’s loincloth and round spectacles—who becomes the savage bully you’ll remember long after viewing Sexy Beast.

Community Recap: ‘Heroic Origins’ (Season 4, Episode 12)

Matthew Newlin — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:58:28 +0000

According to Abed’s Crazy Quilt of Destiny, the study group members have all crossed paths before, sometimes multiple times.

The Office Recap: ‘Livin’ The Dream’ (Season 9, Episode 21)

Brett Harrison Davinger — Fri, 03 May 2013 13:00:45 +0000

One of my favorite aspects of The Office (both incarnations) is that we are watching sad people. Not damaged in the way the gang from Community are/were, but normal and pathetic. Painfully average. When the show started obtaining some popularity around the second or third season, this aspect kind of floundered. But “Livin’ The Dream” brings it back and moves forward many long-running story lines.

100 Greatest Gangster Films: Road to Perdition, #25

George Anastasia, Glen Macnow — Fri, 03 May 2013 12:05:09 +0000

Road to Perdition, a period piece about one branch of the Chicago crime family in the 1930s, is really a story about fathers and sons.

CLR Street Fashion: Marine in Brussels

Marta Canga — Fri, 03 May 2013 12:05:05 +0000

Spring outfit...

Broadway Review: Orphans

Ethan Kanfer — Thu, 02 May 2013 23:10:27 +0000

In the early 1980’s, Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater and others with a similar aesthetic, gave American theater a shot of testosterone it desperately needed at the time. Self-identified as “rock and roll theater”, Steppenwolf’s style was raw and confrontational, its narratives populated by virile, troubled archetypes. The language was rooted in the American lexicon, a poetry of the streets.

San Francisco Ballet Presents Criss-Cross, Francesca da Rimini and Symphony in Three Movements

Toba Singer — Thu, 02 May 2013 22:24:36 +0000

Vilanoba leads Zahorian in a promenade on bent knee. They exchange coy glances, and one surmises that the charged exchange is more about Vilanoba’s last moments onstage than the choreography. From plié he places a straightened leg behind her. He weaves over and under her extension, teasing out elements of quieting mime in an otherwise equine-inflected piece to rich orchestration studded with kettledrum and slide trombone embellishments.

Book Review: The Book of My Lives by Aleksandar Hemon

Kristine Rabberman — Thu, 02 May 2013 13:32:15 +0000

The title The Book of My Lives is apt: rather than presenting a seamless memoir, Hemon instead emphasizes discontinuity, a series of Aleksandar Hemons moving before us in different settings, sometimes without roots to ground them. His decision to provide his version of a table of contents at the end of the book, and to title it “Table of Discontents,” is a play on words that reveals a sense of sadness and dislocation.