1735 - Stand By Me

I don't know what compelled me to watch this tonight.  This is one of those films that really makes me think about childhood.  I remember the first time I saw it I had nightmares about leeches all night. (and seriously, how after their friend finds a leech in his underwear, don't they all search their own areas right away?)  That scene stuck with me for sure.  But over the years, on repeat viewings it's the rest of the film that really grabs you.  The film has a ridiculously impressive cast - I never realize that it was Wil Wheton as Gordie in the lead - not for nothing - but I think this is easily his strongest role.    I grew up in a small town and so while I never had an adventure quite like this, I had friends like this.  And just like in the film those friendships have all moved on and are more-or-less gone outside of Facebook updates.  That's the part of the film that hasn't struck me before now. 
If you haven't seen this film it's a crying shame.  It's really a lovely coming of age story that's filled with humour and heart.  Four friends go in search of the body of a kid their age, rumoured dead by the train tracks a town or so over, and they decide that they want to be the ones to "find the body", but by the end of the trip they find something much more.  Sounds cheesy, sure - but it's a delightful fantastic film.  Rob Reiner directs the shit out of it and these actors.  It's a great great film.  And it's on netflix now, so you have absolutely no reason to not watch, or at least, revisit it.

11/22/63

I think that Stephen King doesn't get enough credit.  Sure he's an international best-seller but I still think that people often pass him off as a fluff writer, just cranking out books year after year.  Well if this book is any indication of a fluff writer than I say keep on fluffin!
With a title that might turn some off, this is the story of an english teacher who is given an opportunity to go into the past and change the course of history.  The event - the assassination of JFK.  But the beauty of the time travel concept is that the device only allows him to travel back to 1958 - and every time he leaves and comes back he's only gone for two minutes in reality, and every time returns to the past it's still 1958.  Which means that if he wants to stop the assassination of JFK he will have to live in the past for five years.  That in and of itself is a brilliant concept. 
At 800+ pages some of called this book longer than necessary.  I wouldn't cut a single page.  It's amazing how King finds a way to fill the time with such a massive ticking clock down the line.  In truth he's built in several ticking clocks that always keeps us guessing and moving forward.
It's a book that's very clever, integrating a wonderful theme of the past harmonizing with it's old and new self, and ultimately not really wanting to be changed.  It's heartbreaking and uplifting as well.  I don't want to give away a single plot point since this book is just a plethora of discoveries.  I'm not quite sure if this is the best Stephen King book I've ever read, but it's easily the best I've read in a long time.  I'll even go so far as to call it a masterwork.  King should be proud, and you should get your ass on reading it.  Apparently Jonathon Demme is in the process of adapting it.  If it's done properly, this could rank up there with another King adaptation, The Shawshank Redemption.  And honestly, this could even be better.

Full Dark, No Stars

I often forget how masterful Stephen King is.  My grandmother would buy me one of his books every Christmas, and I always enjoyed them - somehow I never really sought him out on my own, and usually just read the ones she gave me.  Weird.  I remember reading Christine the book and then seeing the movie and I think it's the first time, as a twelve year old I thought "They totally fucked that up!".  It's a delicious book, and a terrible film.  Sorry John Carpenter, it is. 
I haven't read all of King's work and if I'm honest I find that I always tend to prefer his shorter work, especially books that are… kind of anthologies, to his full novels.  That's not to say I don't like a lot of the books of his that I've read.  At any rate here's my thoughts on the four books contained in this collection:

1922:  This one really knocked me on my ass.  It's a simple story of a man trying to protect his land by any means necessary from a wife who would rather sell it and move to the city.  He makes a terrible choice and is haunted by it for the rest of his days.  This story has one of the strongest narrator voices I've read in a long time, you can see it being read by someone like Jeff Bridges or the like.  The story would make a really wonderful film, depressing as shit, but it could be quite lovely.  Not sure it's my kind of thing, but it just might be.  I know that King gives the rights to his stuff away for next to nothing.  Might be worth looking into.  It's a really wonderful read.

BIG DRIVER:  Just like the first in this collection I had a really hard time putting this one down.  It's the story of a detective novelist who becomes the victim of a sex crime and decides that instead of taking her injustice to the police, that she'll take matters into her own hands.  At first I had a hard time buying that this woman wouldn't go to the authorities, if I were to adapt this for the screen I think that there would be ways to fix this in the set-up to the "event" that would make it make more sense before the reveal of what she plans to do.  This is essentially a revenge story as told by Stephen King and it's pretty damn delicious.  The more I read in this collection the more I want to read of King in general. 

FAIR EXTENSION:  This is the shortest of the stories, but it's by no means short on substance.  It's an old story about the man who has been dealt a bad hand, and is offered the chance to change his luck - but he has to give someone else the bad luck in return.  Typically this kind of thing turns around and bites the man back in the ass but the interesting thing about this iteration is that it seems more like an exercise in watching a man enjoy the torment he puts upon someone that he genuinely disliked and thought got a life that they didn't deserve.  Almost similar to Breaking Bad in which we watch a man go from hero to villain.  Like the other two I imagine that you could get an interesting film (probably a short) out of this one.  A nice brisk read.

A GOOD MARRIAGE:  This was a great story to finish off the collection.  It's essentially about the idea of - how well can you know someone?  A woman in a happy marriage of twenty-seven years discovers a very dark secret about her husband and she has to decide what to do about that news… Like all the rest of the stories in this collection it's the story of an ordinary person thrown into an extraordinary situation.  All of these stories have made me step back and wonder, well what the hell would I do in that situation?  I won't say which, but I think I'm half and half for which ones I'd be similar to and which ones I'd make the opposite choice.

I can't say that I have a favourite of these four excellent stories.  1922 stands out, but it could be because it was the first and it surprised me.  It's fair to say that any of these could have had that effect had they been the first in the book.  This collection is absolutely a page turner and it really makes me want to read more King once I get through the massive pile of books from the library that are threatening to swallow me whole.  If you're a fan of King you've probably already read this, if you're not then maybe you should consider giving it a shot (so long as you don't mind harsh and somewhat brutal tales - it's not called Full Dark, No Stars for nothing).  I say without exaggeration, this was a pretty excellent work, and each of its stories would make an excellent film...