Oppenheimer

2.5/4

Barbie

A summer blockbuster by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach? It's as incongruent as it sounds, but works well enough on each level (Hollywood and indie) to narrowly compensate the whiplash.

They could have made a full parody (I heard Amy Schumer was considered), or tried harder to welcome men to a stereotypically feminine franchise, but they actually doubled down on the feminine to backdrop the satire. The movie doesn't really pick an angle on Barbie, instead trying to host complex perspectives, but it does pick an angle on women, to poignant effect.

I resent the rampant humor these days that would derail narrative at length for bad jokes. Writers must assume the derailing itself is creative enough that the joke needn't be good to justify the dramatic misfire. But it's not creative anymore, it's tedious and ubiquitous. For each decent joke in Barbie there was a dramatic misfire for a bad joke.

The Philosophy of Modern Song (Bob Dylan)

Only Boomers and musicologists can know more than half of these songs. I skimmed the numerous whose titles and artists I'd never heard.

Despite the title, this is nowhere near a work of philosophy. It's brief reflections on dozens of songs, usually in two parts: an abstract meditation on the lyrics and a historical musing. I surprisingly favored the latter, with its tangible nuggets, over the airy former. Dylan is a qualified and commanding historian. The abstractions were still impressive in their word association and imagery. All of this proves Dylan is a real writer, of more than just moody songs. My perception of him really grounded after Scorsese's Rolling Thunder. I thought he'd lost his mind over the decades, withering, blubbering, stiff. That's just his stage persona. In the documentary, in the podcast, in this book, Dylan is sharp of eye and tongue.

This book is neither the "master class" nor "momentous artistic achievement" of the cover flap. As a musician in 2023 I didn't learn much, and as a Dylan fan I can say the artistry shrinks beside any slice of his songwriting. It's nice to hear him musing lightly though, and people who grew up with these songs may appreciate the reflections. At 80, is he still the voice of his generation?

Favorite passage:
"A big part of songwriting, like all writing, is editing--distilling thought down to essentials. Novice writers often hide behind filigree. In many cases the artistry is in what is unsaid. As the old saying goes, an iceberg moves gracefully because most of it is beneath the surface..." and his ensuing portrayal of Townes Van Zandt.

The Tender Bar

I'm astonished Ben Affleck, George Clooney, and William Monahan spent time on this. Not that I always respect the choices of the first two, but they're mega names, and Monahan wrote one of my favorite screenplays ever in The Departed. Actually, I hear Clooney as director dumbed down Kaufman's Dangerous Mind screenplay. Maybe Monahan got a similar treatment. Otherwise, Monahan himself has frighteningly dumbed down since 2006. Or maybe Scorsese is the real Departed author?