Locus’ Year in Review for 2010

The Locus annual year in review issue is now out, featuring lists and commentary from reviewers, editors, and professionals in the science fiction community. To quote a few:

Gary K. Wolfe: “Connie Willis’s remarkable Blackout/All Clear is the apotheosis of a theme and setting that’s haunted Willis since the beginning of her career” and “Easily the most important first SF novel of the year was Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief.”

Jonathan Strahan: “My pick for SF novel of the year was Ian McDonald’s The Dervish House ... an incredible achievement” and “The best fantasy novel of the year, and my pick for novel of the year, was Guy Gavriel Kay’s Under Heaven.”

Graham Sleight: “The collection of the year for me was Karen Joy Fowler’s What I Didn’t See and Other Stories.”

The full Locus 2010 Recommended Reading List is available. As is a compilation of links to short fiction from the Locus list that are now available online.

Related links:
Locus’ Year in Review for 2009

Best SF books 2010 list mania

Inception

Inception (directed by Christopher Nolan) is a big-budget, science fiction version of Nolan’s earlier film Memento (2000). Memento is grungy film noir where Inception is splashy and effects-filled. Both concern layers of reality: Memento wanders backward through layers of memory; Inception injects the viewer into layers of dream.

Inception offers some good special effects scenes: the curling city, the zero-g fight, and a couple others. These scenes don’t manage to disguise the fact that the story is weak. For better science fiction examinations of the manipulation of dreams, read “He Who Shapes” (1965) by Roger Zelazny (later expanded into the novel The Dream Master) and The Lathe of Heaven (1971) by Ursula K. Le Guin (which has been made into a feature-length television movie twice).

Nolan’s storytelling is much stronger in Memento, which will likely be the preferred movie by those who compare the two films. The acting is superior as well. Guy Pearce does a better job with the lead in Memento than Leonardo DiCaprio does with Inception.

Related link:

Oscar nominees for Best Picture for films from 2010

The Kids Are All Right

The Kids Are All Right (directed by Lisa Cholodenko) is a light family drama that trades heavily on the novelty that the main characters are a married lesbian couple living an upper-middle class life. The story doesn't rise above the level of a television sitcom, although some of the romantic comedy was deemed overt enough to garner an “R” rating. The actors are fine and portray pleasing characters. Certainly we need positive examples of lesbian couples in American films, although it’s embarrassing that this has to be said at all.

The story never went anywhere new or particularly interesting, and instead it relies almost entirely on the appealing nature of the characters. That’s not enough.

There was another family drama released in 2010, Please Give (directed by Nicole Holofcener), that was more involving, went unexpected places, and gave viewers more to think about.  The Academy would have done well to nominate Please Give instead of The Kids Are All Right.

Related link:

Oscar nominees for Best Picture for films from 2010

The King's Speech

The King’s Speech (directed by Tom Hooper) is a solid, well-made film, with exceptional performances by Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush. It hits all the right emotional notes. It establishes a strong sense of time and place.

It can be summed up simply: King George VI employs and becomes friends with an unconventional speech therapist as he attempts to overcome a severe stutter. The story takes place in the years leading up to World War II.

What the film lacks is heft. The scope is self-consciously small against a large background. The only risk is embarrassment. Any actual danger is at a distant remove. Still, the film is like an old sweater. It’s quite comfortable.

Related link:
Oscar nominees for Best Picture for films from 2010

Oscar Nominees for Best Picture for 2010 films

Nominees for Best Picture Oscar for films from 2010:

Black Swan (capsule review)
The Fighter (capsule review)
Inception (capsule review)
The Kids Are All Right (capsule review)
The King's Speech (capsule review)
127 Hours (capsule review)
The Social Network (capsule review)
Toy Story 3
True Grit (capsule review)
Winter's Bone

I haven’t been knocked out by the greatness of any of the nominees that I have seen for 2010.  Several of the films are firmly in the “good” category. Last year I was much more enthusiastic about The Hurt Locker and Bright Star. The Hurt Locker actually won the Best Picture Oscar last year, which is unusual, since the Academy typically picks films that I don’t have much appreciation for. Closer to form, the Academy was blind to Bright Star, which was equally as brilliant as (and completely different from) The Hurt Locker, leaving it off the best picture nominations list entirely.

My plan is to write short reviews of each of the nominees, adding links here as each review is added. I haven’t seen three of these. Perhaps I will be able to add those in time.

Related link:
Nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards
Capsule reviews for Bright Star and The Hurt Locker

Shaun Tan named on Oscar shortlist

Aussiecon 4 souvenir book

Shaun Tan was named an Oscar nominee in the animated short film category this morning, for The Lost Thing, which he co-directed with Andrew Ruhemann. The film is based on Tan’s book The Lost Thing (2004).

I had the pleasure of hearing Tan’s Artist Guest of Honor presentation at Aussiecon 4 (the World Science Fiction Convention) in Melbourne this past August and can attest that Tan is a charming and accomplished individual with an amazing range of vision and expression, from the dystopian to the humorous. His "Lost Thing" character was featured on the cover of the Aussiecon 4 souvenir book (pictured) provided to members of the convention.

Related links:

Nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards

The Lost Things website

Aussiecon 4 guests of honor

Bathroom sex, again?

An irritating Hollywood cliché that needs to stop is bathroom sex. The couple, who have likely just met, duck into a public restroom for frenzied sex. I know what this is supposed to communicate: the impulsiveness of the characters, as they are caught up in the sexual arousal of the moment.  It shows how spontaneous the characters are and how in their aroused state they can’t possibly wait, or take the time to get a room. It worked for me as a Hollywood scriptwriting shorthand the first time I saw it in a movie, and maybe it worked the second time, too. Now that I’ve seen it a dozen times or more, it says something different. It says the screenwriter, or whoever added the scene, is lazy and unwilling to create a new scene, a less generic scene, a scene that will show us something we didn’t know about these particular characters. The bathroom sex scene overlooks the reality of what it is like to be inside a public men’s restroom in the United States. More on that in a moment.

The Social Network is currently winning a considerable amount of critical acclaim (Best Picture: LA Film Critics Association, NY Film Critics Circle, National Society of Film Critics, National Board of Review; Best Picture – Drama: The Golden Globes; etc.). The SF Strangelove capsule review: the opening scene where a fictionalized Mark Zuckerberg (played by Jesse Eisenberg) has a conversation with his girlfriend and she abruptly breaks up with him is well-done. Credit goes to Aaron Sorkin’s screenplay. The remainder of the film never recaptures this level of interest or energy and is lifeless by comparison. If this movie is about the founding of internet phenomenon Facebook, it left most of my questions unanswered. The corporate shenanigans that are portrayed offer little drama.

The Social Network, alas, has a “sex in a public bathroom” scene. It’s a two-for-one scene with two couples in adjacent stalls. Here, I am compelled to describe why this scene is unlikely and unappealing. The public restroom habits of the United States male make frenzied activity hazardous. Since the floor and most other surfaces will be wet with a generous coating of urine, the fancy footwork these sex scenes require would risk a fall, resulting in a concussion or other serious injury. If the amorous couple survives this hazard then, truly, the sights and smells of the male public restroom will be more than sufficient to quell their ardor. The United States male has not learned the courtesy of flushing when he is done. This problem becomes additive, until with time the amount of waste material is no longer flushable and any attempt to do so will cause it to overflow across the floor. The odors and visual impact of the male public restroom are powerful enough to extinguish any thought of sex, sending even the stout-hearted reeling, fleeing from the sensory assault.

BSFA Awards shortlists announced

The British Science Fiction Association has announced their awards shortlists for work from 2010.

Best Novel shortlist:
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (Orbit)
Zoo City by Lauren Beukes  (Angry Robot)
The Restoration Game by Ken MacLeod (Orbit)
The Dervish House by Ian McDonald (Gollancz)
Lightborn by Tricia Sullivan (Orbit)

The Windup Girl first appeared in the US in 2009 and in Britain in 2010.  The Restoration Game and Lightborn have yet to be published in the US. Zoo City and The Dervish House were available in both the US and Britain in 2010.

Other categories are Best Short Fiction, Best Non-fiction, and Best Art. These shortlists are available at the BSFA website. The non-fiction category, curiously, has a novel and a podcast. The first time either has appeared in the BSFA non-fiction shortlist I suspect. I haven't read the "non-fiction" novel, Red Plenty, which has not been published in the US. The podcast, I can vouch, is worthwhile: Notes from Coode Street, which has been mentioned several times on this blog. The winners will be announced at Eastercon in April. For additional commentary visit the Torque Control article.