media update: January

Asterisks denote something I particularly enjoyed or found especially worthy of my time; double asterisks are reserved for the creme de la creme.  As always, your mileage may vary. 

 

FICTION

1. The Prophets* by Robert Jones Jr.:  On a Mississippi plantation, Isaiah and Samuel fall in love, but when a fellow slave begins preaching the gospel to gain the master's favor, their relationship is threatened.  Beautiful and wrenching.

2. The Push* by Ashley Audrain:  Blythe always wanted to be a good mother, but she feels no emotional connection to her daughter Violet. She thinks maybe she's just broken, but when her son is born, she's instantly in love with him, so is she broken...or is Violet?  It reminded me of another book, which I won't name because it could spoil this one, but it has a compelling and disturbing charm (so to speak) of its own.

3. Outlawed by Anna North: In 1894, Ada is kicked out of her town because she can't have children, and she joins a gang whose leader wants to create a utopia for women.

4. If I Disappear by Eliza Jane Brazier: Sera is a lonely woman obsessed with true crime podcasts, so when her favorite podcaster, Rachel, disappears, she tries to figure out what happened.  Sera's search takes her to Rachel's family ranch, and after she manages to get a job there, she discovers that Rachel isn't the only missing woman with ties to the ranch.

NONFICTION

Nothing this month.

GRAPHIC NOVELS/MANGA

1. Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera and Celia Moscote

MOVIES

1. Relic:  After her mother disappears and mysteriously returns, Kay (Emily Mortimer) begins to think there's something sinister at play.  A slow burn with nice performances, though a lot of things are unexplained at the end.

2. Honest Thief:  After falling in love, a bank robber (Liam Neeson) decides to turn himself in, but complications ensue.

3. Triple Frontier:  A group of former soldiers gets back together to steal millions of dollars from a South American drug lord.  I was expecting a boilerplate thriller, but it took some intriguing turns along the way.  Some decent action, and you can't beat the eye candy, which includes Oscar Isaac, Charlie Hunnam, and Pedro Pascal.  (FYI:  in case you're wondering about the title, which I certainly was: according to Google, it refers to the bend in the Parana River where three countries meet.)

4. The Wolf of Snow Hollow:  A small-town cop investigating a string of brutal murders begins to wonder if the culprit is a werewolf in this interesting little horror movie.

5. The Little Things*:  In 1990s Los Angeles, two police officers (Denzel Washington and Rami Malek) try to track down a serial killer.  A low-key thriller with good performances, as you'd expect from a movie with three Oscar winners in the lead roles (Jared Leto, as a smirking suspect, is the third), and a particularly clever moment I won't spoil.