Love me anyway

Read a story, FAA to allow tablets and e-readers during all phases of flight, (at bottom, story has: First published October 31st 2013, 10:06 am). Near the bottom is this paragraph: Not to mention that passengers will sometimes sneak in a few Words with Friends turns when they think they can get away with it. “You can’t be looking at everybody all the time,” said Tiffany Hawk, a former flight attendant and the author of “Love Me Anyway,” a novel about airline culture. “People are always pretending to turn things off even when they’re not.”

I looked at Kirkus review of that book, which has this: ""Readers will find the book's two heroines well worth knowing."

And they are. I read 185 pages in 2 days. Story is solid, well paced, and has substance.

Publisher's Weekly: Though Hawk provides a fascinating snapshot of an industry seldom explored in fiction, the cycling between first person (Emily) and third person (KC) is distracting, and Hawk's prose turns didactic as the pace slackens.

I did not find the alternative narrators distracting, but I do agree that as the book reaches its last quarter the narrative style weakens.

Fun, worthwhile, nicely done.

Hereafter

46% of Rotten Tomatoes critics liked it, 40% of the audience. I agree: the film is disjointed, lathargic, and the point it makes is strained and unconvincing. The South Pacific tsunami and the London bombings are connected via the vehicle of an American (Matt Damon) who is reluctant to again use his gift (or, as he sees it, curse) of being able to connect with the departed. Why the two Europeans are teamed up with the Yank is a mystery. The French mumble, and shots of the Eiffel Tower and of extra-marital sex are used as symbols that are so clichéd as to make me wonder who the hell had the idea of including them.

RT: Despite a thought-provoking premise and Clint Eastwood's typical flair as director, Hereafter fails to generate much compelling drama, straddling the line between poignant sentimentality and hokey tedium. There are touches of flair: Damon's character loves Dickens, not Shakespeare, and when he escapes northern California and he goes to London, he winds up taking a tour of Dickens's home and attending a Dickensian lecture by Derek Jacobi. He winds up romantically linked with the French woman, but that linkup is strained; the film wanted to make that connection, and it just does, unconvincingly.

La Mission

Watched La Mission last night. Enjoyed it a lot. Some reviewers liked it. Times review panned it; Ebert gave it 2½ stars. I give it 3: powerful acting overcomes some clichéd dialogue; great story; beautiful cars, wonderful music. Rex Reed, whom I did not realize is still around, gives it warm praise and 3 out of 4 eyeballs.

La Mission

April 7, 2010, 6:00 PM ET: New Benjamin Bratt Film ‘La Mission’ Highlights Car Culture.

“La Mission,” a film starring Benjamin Bratt and directed by his brother, Peter, is set in San Francisco’s Mission District. It focuses on a father named Che Rivera, played by Bratt, who struggles with the revelation that his son is gay. 

Check out this story and other articles about cars on our sister blog Driver’s Seat.