High-Rise is based on J. G. Ballard’s 1975 novel of the same name. Tom Hiddleston (who seems to be everywhere: The Night Manager, I Saw the Light, Crimson Peak) plays Dr. Robert Laing, a professor at a school of physiology, moves into the new high-rise. In a key scene, Hiddleston gruesomely removes the face from a corpse. One of his students faints as a result. That’s just foreshadowing the horrors ahead in this movie. The high-rise is organized on class lines: the rich and powerful occupy the top floors, the poorer tenants are relegated to the lower floors. When the power goes out, chaos results. Sex, drugs, and violence dominate the rest of the film. Elizabeth Moss plays a pregnant woman whose crazed husband (Luke Evans) tries to document the social dysfunction of the high-rise. Hiddleston (and many men) hook up with high-rise maven Charlotte Melville (Sienna Miller) as social constraints erode. Jeremy Irons, the Architect, occupies with penthouse with his selfish wife and her posse of sycophants. As the disorder increases, the sex-charged atmosphere ratchets up along with the violence.

High-Rise follows A Clockwork Orange and David Cronenberg’s adaptation of Ballard’s Crash. This is a grim and relentless film. GRADE: B

Hope Jahren, a researcher in geobiology, loves trees. Lab Girl chronicles how Jahren went from a small town in Minnesota to running her own lab at the University of Hawaii. Yes, Jahren is a bit of a science nerd, but in a good way. She can rhapsodize over seeds and vines the way I do about Jack Vance and John D. MacDonald. Yet Jahren’s journey could not have been successful without her lab partner, Bill. Bill actually sleeps in the lab for years when funding money was short. Bill is Watson to Jahren’s Sherlock in solving geobiology problems. I hope this book inspires other women to consider science as a profession. Hope Jahren was interviewed by NPR’s “Morning Edition” and I’ve ebedded the link below. It’s worth a listen. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Prologue

Part One
ROOTS AND LEAVES

Part Two
WOOD AND KNOTS

Part Three
FLOWERS AND FRUIT

Epilogue

Acknowledgements
Endnote

The ever generous Beth Fedyn sent me Eat Dat: A New Orleans Guide to the Unique Food Culture of the Crescent City and Fear Dat: A New Orleans Guide to the Voodoo, Vampires, Graveyards & Ghosts of the Crescent City. Not only do Eat Dat and Fear Dat make wonderful Birthday presents, but Beth knew I’ll be heading for the BOUCHERCON in New Orleans in September. Now I can do my homework on what to eat and do in the Big Easy! I immediately checked out the best pizza in New Orleans (Pizza Delicious) and the best breakfast (Gracious Bakery). Thanks again, Beth!

Are you going to the BOUCHERCON in New Orleans?

A Bigger Splash, directed by Luca Guadagnino, is based two other movies: Jacques Deray’s La Piscine (The Swimming Pool 1969) and Swimming Pool (2003) directed by Francis Oson starring Charlotte Rampling. I have not seen these previous movies. In this new version, Tilda Swinton plays a rock star who is recovering from throat surgery. Her doctors have warned her not to talk for six weeks. Matthias Schoenarts plays Swinton’s hunky companion and lover. The couple retreat to a small, peaceful Italian town while Swinton recovers from her surgery. But their plans explode when Swinton’s ex-husband, played by a manic Ralph Fiennes, shows up. He has in tow a nubile young woman (Dakota Johnson) who he has just discovered is his daughter. Fiennes’s high-energy character was a noted record producer who worked with the Rolling Stones. One of the film’s high points (or low points depending on your perspective) features Fiennes prancing around singing “Emotional Rescue” which he claims he produced.

My problem with A Bigger Splash revolves the likability of all the characters. Don’t get me wrong: Swinton, Fiennes, Schoenarts, and Johnson deliver excellent performances. But these characters are so shallow, narcissistic, and creepy it was hard for me to care what happened to them. If you’re in the mood for a very off-putting movie, give A Bigger Splash a try. GRADE: C

I picked up this anthology from 1983 at the American Association of University Women Book Sale. As you can see from the variety of stories, Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini aptly subtitled The Web She Weaves with “An Anthology of Mystery and Suspense Stories By Women.” Some classics like Marie Belloc Lowndes’s “The Lodger” and “The Woman in the Store” by Katherine Mansfield are familar. But stories like Craig Rice’s “His Heart Could Break” and Celia Fremlin’s “The Locked Room” were new to me. Many of the major mystery and suspense writers are represented: Agatha Christie, Helen McCloy, Charlotte Armstrong, Patricia Highsmith, and P. D. James. If you’re looking for an anthology of diverse but excellent stories, I recommend this one. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction / [Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini
The lodger / Marie Belloc Lowndes
The duchess at prayer / Edith Wharton
The man in the Inverness cape / Barones Orczy
The woman in the store / Katherine Mansfield
Murder in the Fishing Cat / Edna St. Vincent Millay
The lipstick / Mary Roberts Rhinehart
Postiche / Mignon G. Eberhart
Suspicion / Dorothy L. Sayers
Harlequin’s Lane / Agatha Christie
His heart could break / Craig Rice
Chinoiserie / Helen McCloy
Good-bye, Miss Lizzie Borden / Lillian de la Torre
McGowney’s miracle / Margaret Millar
St. Patrick’s Day in the morning / Charlotte Armstrong
The possibility of evil / Shirley Jackson
The snail-watcher / Patricia Highsmith
The locked room / Celia Fremlin
The fall of a coin / Ruth Rendell
Double jeopardy / Susan Dunlap
My neighbor, Ay / Joyce Harrington
Norman and the killer / Joyce Carol Oates
Cattails / Marcia Muller
Great-aunt Allie’s flypapers / P.D. James.

“The Case Files of Justis Fearsson” is a modern urban fantasy series in the mode of Jim Butcher’s “The Dresden Files.” Justis “Jay” Fearsson is a spell-caster whose magic powers and magic problems lost him his police detective job. In Spell Blind Jay is now a private detective involved in a search for a serial killer. Jay’s life is complicated by the fact that his magic extracts a terrible price: the madness caused by the full moon. And, this madness is cumulative. Jay’s father, another former cop, is slowly descending into madness because of his years of using magic.

His Father’s Eyes features a necromancer who targets Jay’s father as a prelude to much more sinister actions. Coe spends time exploring the past relationship between Jay and his father. And Jay’s mother’s mysterious death. I found His Father’s Eyes a much more involving book than Spell Blind. The first book spent many pages setting up this world where magic works. This second book is more plot-oriented with far more action. A third book, Shadow’s Blade, has just been published. I’ll be reading it soon. If you’re looking for an involving urban fantasy series, “The Case Files of Justis Fearsson” might be just what you’re looking for. GRADE: Spell Blind: B- His Father’s Eyes: B+

The Nice Guys generated plenty of mixed reviews so I was in no hurry to see it. But a rainy day and a free bag of popcorn offer from Regal Theaters motivated me to see this comic private eye movie. Ryan Gosling plays a single Dad with a 13-year-old daughter (Angourie Rice) who is actually a licensed private investigator. He specializes in finding missing people. Russell Crowe plays “the muscle.” He’s very good at beating people up. Gosling and Crowe team up on a search to find the missing daughter of the Attorney General (Kim Basinger). Yes, there’s a porno movie McGuffin, there’s some graphic violence, and some humor. Ryan Gosling tries too hard to be funny. There’s a giant talking Bee. Gosling makes a shockingly insensitive remark to a mother whose daughter was murdered. The plot is overly-convoluted. And releasing The Nice Guys at a time when audiences flock to Angry Birds, Captain America: Civil War, and X-Men: Apocalypse was a marketing mistake. This film should have been released in October. I’d wait until The Nice Guys gets to Netflix. GRADE: B-

Tom Hollander plays the kindly Doctor Thorne. Doctor Thorne lives with his niece, Mary (Stefanie Martini), who has a complicated past. Their neighbors, the Greshams–Frank (Richard McCabe) and Lady Arabella (Rebecca Front)–are in financial difficulties and need to marry their son, Frank (Harry Richardson), to a wealthy woman. Dcotor Thorne is one of my favorite Anthony Trollope novels and this wonderful mini-series scripted by Julian Fellowes (of Downton Abbey fame) delights with its cast and setting. A visual feast! If you’re a fan of 19th Century storytelling, you’ll find Doctor Thorne terrific entertainment. And, if you’re an AMAZON Prime person, it’s FREE! GRADE: A