October 2010
11 posts
6 tags
The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo
The Redbreast by Jo Nesbø
(Harper; originally published in Norway in 2000)
Pursuing the thread of Scandinavian thrillers, we move to Norway, a country notable for natural beauty, vigorous and appealing people, extraordinary seafood, lucrative oil deposits, and pervasive social inhibition.
This last may be the product of village culture. In the not too distant past, I’m told, Norwegians...
28 tags
Martin Beck Mysteries: “The Story of Crime” ***
Martin Beck Mysteries: “The Story of Crime”
by Per Wahlöö and Maj Sjöwall
Vintage Crime / Black Lizard
Like everyone else on the planet, I started with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and immediately got sucked into the vortex of Scandinavian wrong-doing, social breakdown, and collective self-loathing. Finished the three books of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy within ten days, which required...
7 tags
Salt *
If this blog is to be about enlivening dead time, then we must address the nature of existence in the Dead Zone. Last night, I got back to my room at a distant Doubletree hotel after a day of meetings and a business dinner. Sufficient time remained to see a movie on the pay-TV system, and “Salt” was the first picture on the list. Hadn’t seen it, so I pushed the button.
At some point in the...
6 tags
Food Inc. ****
The four-star rating in this case is for social merit, not entertainment value. “Food Inc.” is a well-made documentary about the systems-level problem with food in America: Big Agriculture + Big Business + Boob Politics + Insane Public Subsidies + Uninformed Consumers = Big Trouble. It’s a painful message, not subject to sugar-coating, and frankly not all that entertaining to watch. “Food Inc.”...
6 tags
Our Kind of Traitor by John le Carre ****
Our Kind of Traitor by John le Carre (Viking 2010)
Years ago, when I read Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy it felt like Conrad — the sense of entering blind into a strange world, and only gradually, after 150 pages or so, getting my bearings. By now, le Carre’s method is familiar; the reader’s experience of uncertainty is greatly diminished, and with it, the ultimate power of the...
19 tags
Must See Much Missed Movies *****
An idiosyncratic list of rewarding but unpopular movies. Most are unpopular for good reasons, noted in parentheses.
“The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans”
Nicholas Cage as a crazy, drug-addicted, corrupt, violent, and noble cop in a New Orleans from hell. Werner Herzog having fun. (violence, drugs, insanity)
“Big Man Japan”
The less you know about this picture, the...
5 tags
The Asphalt Jungle (1950) *****
He won’t get very far, that’s for sure. He hasn’t got enough blood left in him to keep a chicken alive.
This is the sort of movie that you could see every year for the rest of your life. Classic noir. These guys knew what they were doing. Sam Jaffe. Sterling Hayden. James Whitmore. Louis Calhern. Not to mention John Huston. Giants!
You want double-cross? You got it.
You want a heist,...
4 tags
From Paris with Love *
Only three reasons to see this one: You’re an Audi owner, turned on by high-RPM product placements; you want to congratulate yourself for not getting screenwriting credit on this odious bomb; or you are a worshiper of the sublime John Travolta. I am in that last camp.
The movie is crap – forget about it.
But Travolta! In this one he’s head-shaven, with one loop earring and a black van Dyke. He...
6 tags
Operation Mincemeat ***
Operation Mincemeat:How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre (Crown, 2010)
As a boy, I loved The Man Who Never Was by Ewan Montague. It’s the true-ish story of an elaborate British counter-espionage plot during WWII, involving a dead body with a false identity and a briefcase full of artfully crafted disinformation, set adrift near...
4 tags
Rubicon Season 1 ***
Not a good sign when, last Sunday night, I hit the DVR for the next episode of AMC’s conspiracy drama, “Rubicon.” The season finale had been aired the week before — and I’d seen it. Must not have made much of an impression.
This is a watchable series, with an interesting setting and an unusual cast — imagine “Three Days of the Condor” with Stephen...
5 tags
Why Krundt Blogs
The best gift my parents ever gave me was a Secret Room. This was an attic room with its own door and — the essential feature — a padlock to which I possessed the only key. The Secret Room was mine alone. My parents ceded to me all rights associated with that room, requiring only one annual inspection, on a date mutually agreed-upon in advance — a right that they never chose to...
