The Course of True Micro Reviews Never Did Run Smooth

Books

YA/MG fiction
The Opposite of Hallelujah (***** – loved)

Adult fiction
Zoo City (***** – loved)
Beauty and the Werewolf (*** – enjoyed)
Broken Harbour (***** – loved)

Adult non-fiction
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (*** – enjoyed)

Movies

Wreck-It Ralph (**** – liked)
In Bruges (**** – liked)
Dial M for Murder (**** – liked)
Roman Holiday (**** – liked)
Looper (**** – liked)

Anime

Code Geass (**** – liked)

Games
New Super Mario Bros. 2 (**** – liked)
Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! (**** – liked)
Paper Mario (***** – loved)

The Opposite of Hallelujah by Anna Jarzab (YA novel, 2012) – Fifteen-year-old Caro’s world falls apart when her much older sister, Hannah, returns home from the convent where she’s spent most of Caro’s life, unable to cope with a terrible secret. Although you think you can guess the end of this book from that description, you probably can’t — it’s ambitious and lyrical and unafraid to deal with the unsympathetic aspects of its characters. It’s one of the few books I’ve read that’s as messy as real life while still being as satisfying as fiction.

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes (speculative fiction novel, 2010) – Our protagonist Zinzi finds lost things in Zoo City, a slum of the “animalled” in a near-future world where large burdens of guilt, such as those you might acquire from killing another human being, manifest themselves in the form of a connected spirit animal similar to the daemons in His Dark Materials. There’s a grotesque mystery, but if you care about the way mysteries logically latch together like with Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot, you may not enjoy this book; if you enjoy fuzzier mysteries that don’t always explain everything and sometimes sacrifice clear logical progression for mood and significance, read away. The setting and feel of the story is terrific, and I liked the way nothing came together in easy answers at the end.

Beauty and the Werewolf by Mercedes Lackey (fantasy novel, 2011) – In this cross between — or subversion of — Little Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast, our capable protagonist Bella finds herself confined to a castle of invisible servants after being bitten by a mysterious wolf in the woods. I was surprised to find that this was published by a branch of Harlequin, because it didn’t seem like there was much romance going on. As always with Lackey’s heroines, it was fun to watch a sensible woman working out her place in the world, but I wanted there to be a more compelling plot, romantic or otherwise.

Broken Harbour by Tana French (literary thriller novel, 2012) – Tana French writes beautiful murder mysteries that can make your spine crawl, but their one weakness tends to be their endings, which satisfy emotionally but not necessarily plot-wise. In this, her fourth novel, we follow by-the-book detective “Scorcher” Kennedy and his rookie partner as they investigate the super-creepy murders of a family of four living in a run-down coastal suburb. As always, our protagonist has his own issues, and though the ending feels like a bit of  a let-down compared to the build-up, the middle of this book will give you nightmares and make you check under your bed for killer monsters who speak in weirdly poetic Irish slang.

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner (non-fiction book, 2005) – Thank you for recommending this to me, cousin David M.! Less a structured whole than a series of essays on a smorgasbord of topics, Freakonomics works to dispel what it calls common-sense ideas and suggest counter-intuitive explanations for social phenomena like why crime fell in the 1990s and why drug dealers live with their mothers. The book is very fun to read, but it’s difficult not to be sceptical of some of the arguments. I suspect I look at them as though they were historical theses and find the strength of their conclusions unwarranted by the evidence.

Wreck-it Ralph directed by Rich Moore (animated film, 2012) – Thanks for seeing this together, many friends! I enjoyed this story of a video-game villain who’s determined to be a hero, and I was relieved to see that the movie was clearly put together by people who actually play and love video games. The jokes were pretty funny, but I thought the plot went a little off the rails in complexity, and I began to fidget 30 minutes before the movie ended. I’m a casual gamer, so I understood most of the jokes, but I’m not sure someone who didn’t know the difference between a 1up and a 7up would find this movie engaging.

In Bruges written and directed by Martin McDonagh (dramatic film, 2008) – This movie about two hit men who get sent to Bruges after one of them accidentally kills a kid is really only an action flick for the last chunk. Until then, it’s quirky and arty and meditative. I was disturbed by the fact that I could recognize The Pillowman author Martin McDonagh by his characters’ use of the phrase “little f***ing kid.”

Dial M for Murder directed by Alfred Hitchcock (suspense film, 1954) –  When a former tennis pro concocts a plan to murder his wife, things get complicated in a hurry. Hitchcock’s films can seem underwhelming these days, since being a pioneer often means that the mind-blowing things that you did first are now routine. I most enjoyed seeing how the underlying structure of the plot was built for the stage, and how the conventions of what the police can do has changed so drastically thanks to CSI.

Roman Holiday directed by William Wyler (romantic comedy film, 1953) – In this Oscar-glutton classic, a bored princess takes off for a day incognito in Rome with a newspaper reporter who secretly realizes her true identity. Audrey Hepburn is elegant and amazing as Audrey Hepburn always is. I was pleasantly surprised by the tone of the ending and the implicit themes of the movie.

Looper written and directed by Rian Johnson (speculative fiction film, 2012) – In a world where the mob kills people by sending its victims back in time to be shot by hired killers in the past, one such hit man winds up in a world of trouble when he lets his intended victim, his older self, escape. This movie was tight and exciting, with a really cool concept that makes the dozens of plot and logic holes not really matter. But I was so, so, so disappointed and frustrated that in a movie that explored whether life is about protecting what you have, it became clear very quickly that the writers considered men to be “people who can have stuff” and women to be “people you have.”

Code Geass: Lelouch of the Rebellion written by Ichiro Okouchi and directed by Goro Taniguchi (anime, 2006-2007) – Thank you for lending this to me, Ryan! (And I still think Lelouch is a jerk!) I realized at the end of the series that this anime had turned out to be Daniel MacIvor’s Never Swim Alone, if Never Swim Alone involved giant fighting mechs. I dunno, although the issues interested me, I found it difficult to sympathize with many of the characters — I think I just got frustrated that it wasn’t a book that could explore the interesting themes in more detail and give me more sincere-feeling insight on the characters’ emotional states.

New Super Mario Bros. 2 by Nintendo EAD (Nintendo DS platformer game, 2012) – I was prepared to be a little disappointed in this latest 2D Mario platformer by a bunch of lacklustre reviews, and I see what they mean: turning Mario into a game about garnering coins instead of a game about platforming could’ve been a really cool idea, but the developers didn’t change anything big enough. Getting a bajillion coins from a secret didn’t feel like a satisfactory reward for the hard work, and from what I hear, reaching the million-coin goal isn’t all that world-changing either. But as a regular 2D Mario game, sure, it’s awesome.

Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again! by Nintendo Software Technology (DSiware puzzle game, 2009) – A cross between Lemmings and Donkey Kong: you have wind-up Mario Minis that you’re trying to get through a door at the end of the level. Once you activate a Mini, you can’t control it — instead, you have to help it navigate the level’s obstacles by interacting with certain elements of the environment, like re-positionable blocks. It’s fun and addictive, but it can also be frustrating that once you start a level, you can’t quit without losing a life.

Paper Mario by Intelligent Systems (Nintendo 64/Wii Virtual Console RPG game, 2000) – Leveling up + action commands is the magic gaming combination for me, because it makes me feel like even boring fights serve a purpose and keeps me engaged in battles. Paper Mario fulfills that and has a charming story and design to boot. Only I can’t play it before bed, because then it’s all I see when I close my eyes.