Band of Outsiders

Jean-Luc Godard

This Thing: Is the Criterion release of Godard's 1964 ode to shitty American crime novels.

Best Bit: The Madison. Anna Karina's beautiful and ungainly Odile. Sami Frey's bizarre and weirdly slick little gestures and tics. The DVD has some pretty decent extras on it too, particularly a guide to Godard's nods and references throughout the film.

Worst Bit: Band of Outsiders has a pretty wide-spread reputation as a relatively mediocre movie as far as Godard goes-- which to an extent is true, I guess. It is a bit slight, and somewhat unevenly paced.

Couldn't Believe: How imperfectly I'd remembered this movie. I last saw it on VHS a number of years ago, and mainly kept a lot of its playfulness and the coy attitude of its first hour or so. I think this is basically the way it goes, considering the scenes its known for-- the run through the Louvre, the minute of silence. Nobody ever cites Anna Karina getting popped in the mouth. Is the dramatic tonal shift that occurs during the actual robbery an homage to Godard's noir source material, a kind of wry tribute, or is it supposed to be a legitimate narrative development? I'd say the former, considering that the movie ends with a Chaplin reference and the jokey promise of a sequel, but its still somewhat shocking to see the goofy, charming main characters transform into brutal thugs. It works in the context of the movie, I think, but its interesting how this aspect is often glossed over, both in criticism and in the memory.

I Guess: I can't say this is anywhere near Godard's best movie, but as a brisk, funny and good-natured paean to pulp fiction and the aimless thrills of hanging around it works. Criterion of course does a great job with the sound and visuals-- its something there's really isn't a good reason not to see, but definitely don't watch it and decide your Godard-watchin' quota is filled for life. If you like it, which you probably will, take the opportunity to get deeper into his work. Alphaville is a great next step.

Foam of the Daze

Boris Vian

This Thing: Is the newest translation of Vian's 1947 L'Ecume des Jours, a sort of existential Alice in Wonderland by way of Bernie Wooster.

Best Bit: The unbelievably strange and charming turn-table cake. Jean-Sol Partre. Jazz and pretty girls.

Worst Bit: Vian's female characters were a little flat, and, to be bitchy, if you're going to include as many annotations as this translation does, it would be cool to have them as footnotes instead of all clumped together in the back of the book.

Couldn't Believe: How startling and how startlingly effective the shift in tone about halfway through is. How huge this book's reputation is in France in comparison to its relative obscurity over here.

I Guess: I can't understate the complete reversal this book's tone undergoes from the first pages to the last while maintaining a consistent voice. It goes from a totally charming and adorable literary dessert to one of the most wrenching and brutal conclusions I've read in a long, long time, without seeming contrived or obvious. Vian and translator Brian Harper both deserve the hugest of props. Read this.

Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation

Chang, Jeff. 2005. Picador.

This Thing: Is less a book about hip-hop so much as it is a history of American urban culture in a post-Civil Rights Movement world. Chang weaves the origins and evolution of hip-hop culture into the story of America's under-privileged idealists and opportunists.

Best Bits: Chang's integration of political science, sociology, music and history. Public Enemy. Civic outrage.

Worst Bits: Late in the book, Chang seems to sort of lose interest in the musical side of things-- as soon as hip-hop becomes a commercial commodity, his investment basically flies out the window. Sure, he has a right to focus on the activist issues that clearly fascinate him, but is it really a complete history of the generation if you skimp out on its growth into a hugely visible discourse?

Couldn't Believe: Many of the incredibly juicy anecdotes he works in throughout the book. Ever wonder about how the cocaine industry turned into the crack industry? What the deal with Flava Flav was? When, exactly, Ice Cube sold out? Wonder no more.

I Guess: As uneven and flawed as this book feels at times, its still a riveting and really fun read. It has the flow and appeal of its source material, and is surprisingly eye-opening in terms of the country's disgraceful urban policies in the past forty years. Check it out, but don't feel bad about skimming once in a while.