From the bus stations of Rt. 66 to the smoky, neon-tinged jazz dives of the big cities, these wanton tales of longing introduce us to vixens on the fringe and those shifty men that drove them there.
Read the pulp novella that one reviewer called 'A potboiler in the style of old school writers like Mickey Spillane, Dashiell Hammett or Raymond Chandler...'
Win a copy of what noted scribe Salman Rushdie calls "Pure, muscular storytelling ... irresistible."
Every now and again a scribe comes along that grabs the industry by the short and curlys. Mark Wisniewski is THAT kind of scribe. In fact, 'Watch Me Go,' was one of the most-anticipated books of the year, receiving advance praise not only from Rushdie but Daniel Woodrell, Ben Fountain, Rebecca Makkai, Dan Chaon, Christine Sneed, Tim Johnston, and Ru Freeman.
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The book is the candid and insightful storytelling of love stories turned tragic by racism, sexism, and economic injustice. Two narrators, black and white, male and female, risk their lives by admitting how their pursuits of the American Dream soon fated their futures to betrayal, double-dealing, and proximity to horrific death.
Via publisher Putnam:Douglas “Deesh” Sharp has managed to stay out of trouble living in the Bronx, paying his rent by hauling junk for cash. But on the morning Deesh and two pals head upstate to dispose of a sealed oil drum whose contents smell and weigh enough to contain a human corpse, he becomes mixed up in a serious crime. When his plans for escape spiral terribly out of control, Deesh quickly finds himself a victim of betrayal—and the prime suspect in the murders of three white men.
When Jan, a young jockey from the gritty underworld of the Finger Lakes racetrack breaks her silence about gambling and organized crime, Deesh learns how the story of her past might, against all odds, free him from a life behind bars.
Interweaving Deesh’s and Jan’s gripping narratives, Watch Me Go is a wonderfully insightful work that examines how we love, leave, lose, redeem, and strive for justice. At once compulsively readable, thought-provoking, and complex, it is a suspenseful, compassionate meditation on the power of love and the injustices of hate.
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'We're not bad people, we just did a bad thing ...'
I wasn't expecting to like 'Bloodline,' the new sweeping Netflix family drama that debuted March 20. After all, the last thing any of us needs is another show to clog our queue and I seriously wanted to hate it.
Boy, was I wrong.
Netflix clearly hits a homerun when it comes to this new drippy Southern noir. Granted it may not have the water-cooler chatter of an "Orange is the New Black" or the formal gravitas of the flagship "House of Cards," but, if anything, this welcome addition to the streaming service's stable will definitely leave you craving more. And more. And more.
"Bloodline" is about the family dynamic; it's about our figurative demons; it's about achieving and being comfortable with our place at the table. It centers on the Rayburns, the defacto pillars of their community in the sticky Florida keys. So what's it about? When the black sheep and eldest son returns home for the 45th anniversary of the family-run hotel, dark secrets begin to emerge from their shameful past. As a result, the Rayburn siblings question everything they know about loyalty and themselves.
Believe me, I know... The genre and 'noir' label gets bandied about a bit too much. And it's easy to see why. There are several shows on TV these days that get slapped with the 'noir' moniker but probably aren't. Take Showtime's awesome "Ray Donovan," for example. As gritty and dark as the show tends to be, it's probably not a noir. That said, I'm sure there are those who would disagree.
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There are many blog posts, albeit all with different characteristics, of what truly constitutes a noir. The late Roger Ebert has a pretty nifty list of ten.
Here's one of my favorites from him: "[Noir is] The most American film genre, because no society could have created a world so filled with doom, fate, fear and betrayal, unless it were essentially naive and optimistic." This is "Bloodline" in a nutshell because, at times, the Rayburn clan are all of those and then some.
WHAT WORKS
BADDA-BING WITH HUMIDITY. "Bloodline" comes from "Damages" creators Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman. If some of the family angst feels like familiar territory, you may be onto something. Kessler wrote and produced the second and third seasons of HBO's "The Sopranos."
THE BREAKOUT STAR. It's refreshing to see the family black sheep as the eldest of the tribe instead of the baby. And man, does actor Ben Mendelsohn hijack every scene he's in. The Australian thesp smolders and pivots every time you think you know what's happening. If Mendelsohn looks familiar he should. Acting since the 80s, he's been in a slew of TV shows and films. Notably, he also lit up the screen in the neo-noir "Killing Them Softly," with Brad Pitt and "The Place Beyond the Pines."
Here, however, he'll easily win you over as the guy that you know you probably shouldn't root for but do anyway - a doomed drifter - a sad lowlife who feels more comfortable in bus depots and coffee shops. Yeah, THAT'S noir.
A SOLID CAST. Where to begin? It's top-notch from top to bottom. Need proof? Sam Shepard as Poppa Rayburn, the patriarch of the family who just may hold some secrets; Sissy Spacek as the mom who loves that black sheep a bit too much; Linda Cardellini, the attorney daughter, who to me, looks like Ellen Page's hot Milfy mom (Cardellini, by the way, had a stupendous run on 'Mad Men' as the upstairs neighbor that was able to penetrate that Don Draper armor) and, finally, New Jersey's own Norbert Leo Butz, the young son with that Sonny Corleone temper. This leads us to...
WHAT SHOULD WORK BETTER
THE STAR. What's that you say?? Kyle Chandler stars as John Rayburn, the stoic second son and county sheriff. Now, before everyone goes all sorts of bonkers on me, I'm not suggesting that the Emmy-winner is bad. Quite the contrary. He does a fine job as the strong and silent Rayburn who has a soft spot for his eft up of a sibling. For me, his star gets lost in this eclectic mix of personalities. Granted, I've only seen the first few and he solidly delivers on every level, but again, when he's matched up against Mendelsohn, it might as well be John Candy acting and, I would expect that a star on the level of Chandler to stand out a bit more. Is it the writing? The performance? Still too tough to say. I will re-evaluate by the season's finale and amend if necessary.
VERDICT
Should you give it a try? Absolutely. A family drama that feels neither soapy nor melodramatic, this Netflix show can easily rise above the streaming service's higher profile flagships. At its core, this is a drama that smolders just like the slow burn of Mendelsohn's cigarette and take it from me, THAT'S noir.
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'American Crime' follows four different subplots unified by a central crime: The murder of a veteran and the vicious attack and rape of his wife.
EDITORIAL NOTE: The following review is from guest blogger Spencer Blohm, a freelance entertainment and culture writer from the Midwest. His taste for crime shows started as a young child watching Law & Order when he probably shouldn’t have been and has only grown from there. He lives and works in Chicago and is desperately campaigning for an extra role on 'Chicago P.D.'
Even from the commercials, it was clear that ABC’s latest drama American Crime was going to stand apart from the rest.
Now, two episodes in, it’s safe to say those assumptions were correct. Of course, what would one expect for a series created, written, and directed by the talented screenwriter of 12 Years a Slave, John Ridley? If you haven’t managed to tune into it on TV yet, click over to platforms like ABC Go or DTV and catch up before you read on - this post will contain spoilers!
The series follows four different subplots unified by a central crime: the murder of a veteran and the vicious attack and rape of his beauty queen wife. We’re first introduced to the victim’s bitterly divorced parents Russ and Barb (Timothy Hutton and Felicity Huffman). It’s here the first elements of racial tension are introduced, when the police reveal the suspect in question to be Latino. Barb dismissively declares, “It just figures. My son goes off to another country to fight, then he comes home to be killed by someone from another country.”
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On the flipside of her biases are the Gutierrez family, led by single father Alonzo. His straight laced and naive son Tony is drawn into the murder drama after it’s revealed he had been (uncharacteristically) renting out one of the cars from his father’s body shop to the gang member accused of committing the murder. By the end of episode two Tony is already locked up in juvenile detention, even though he did nothing wrong himself.
The crime for which Tony has taken part of the fall is generally attributed to “Hector”, a heavily tattooed Latino man, whom we first meet as he uses the victim's credit card. Thrown into the mix is Carter, an African-American drug addict whose vices include his love for girlfriend and fellow drug addict/sometimes-prostitute Aubry. While viewers aren’t nearly as privy to their stories as they are those of the Gutierrez’s and central characters Russ and Barb, it’s not immediately obvious who has committed the crime in question. Granted, there are many signs pointing to Hector and Carter, but by choosing to withhold scenes from the murder itself, Ridley leaves a lot unanswered.
As Ridley jumps from story to story, the viewer must keep pace and connect the dots.
He flashes quickly from one character to the next, going scene by scene in a style reminiscent of other race and crime-fuelled dramas like Crash and Traffic. It’s shot in such a way that it appears gritty, visceral and “real” in a similar fashion to the aforementioned films as well as the short-lived FX drama The Bridge. The end result is a program that poses questions to the viewer without blatantly asking them.
These questions concern the state of contemporary America, concentrating on current race relations and perceived inequalities within the judicial system. These issues couldn’t be timelier, considering the ongoing state of upheaval following the death of Mike Brown last August and ongoing conversations surrounding racial biases. The show approaches crime in such a way that hasn’t been seen before on a major network, but their risk has paid back in dividends with 8 million viewers tuning into the premiere followed by 5.7 million following up the next week. Ratings aside, critics have been raving about the series as well with the L.A. Times declaring it “must-see TV” and the New York Times perhaps giving the best description of the show yet, calling it “a depressing story told so skillfully that it’s almost impossible not to be happy to see it unfold.”
It’s clear that American Crime didn’t start the fire, but in its clear choice to stoke the flame we can expect to see more than just “entertainment.” For those willing to be shaken from their slumber, this series is a must.
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Note: The following is a piece I wrote for my web site NJ.com. I'm embedding it here with two new pieces of information or assets - a film noir video above for the tune "The Night We Called It A Day" with Sinatra's recording below.
Three days before Frank Sinatra's 99th birthday on Dec. 12, Columbia Records announced that Bob Dylan's 36th studio disc "Shadows in the Night" will be a selection of tunes culled from The Chairman's "Great American Songbook." Set to be released Feb. 3, the set will boast 10 tracks and were conceived with a different vision than…
So I'm doing what people do on New Years Eve and Day -- watch marathons -- and I come across a show both awesome and odd at the same t...
BUKOWSKI'S BASEMENT
Welcome to Bukowski's Basement and the blog of Anthony Venutolo. It's primarily a showcase for nuggets that can range from anywhere from Skid Row to the Savoy in the form of poems, flash fiction, noir or pop culture musings.
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