Review: The Whale

 I feel like I should preface this with a few qualifiers. I don't generally like this type of movie, I don't typically like movies that try to pull on your heartstrings with terminal illness as the story, even when it's done well, it feels like a cheap shot. Even more do I dislike those kind of documentaries that this kind of reminds me of (you know the ones.) Maybe this says somethiing about me, but it feels too close to inspiration porn for my liking. I'm also not typically one for movies that feel like they were made to win Oscars. This film is all of those things. To be frank, my interest in seeing this film began and ended with the fact of Brendan Fraser playing the lead role. So anyway the first thing we see Brendan Fraser do on cinema screens for the better part of twenty years is jack it to gay porn in a fatsuit...

All that said, while The Whale is all of the things I described, it is a very well done version of them. Even if I find the premise distasteful, I cannot fault the performance of Brendan Fraser, or indeed anyone else in this movie. It's largely localised to one room as is Fraser's character himself, and as such films like this live and die on the strength of the cast and their chemistry. Which, as mentioned, is excellent. 

The story is appropriately tragic for an Oscar movie about a morbidly obese man, and more than a little cheesy, which I usually like, but this movie crosses the line from sincere to hokey several times, though rarely enough that it's not an issue, until the end, by which point there's little point in maintaining that veneer anyway, might as well go nuts. It's also based on a play, so I guess it gets a little leeway there for cheesiness if nothing else.

If I had to come up with one word to thematically sum up this film, it would be "judgement." Brendan Fraser's character Charlie secludes himself from the outside world and disables the camera on his zoom calls because he fears the judgement of those around him. As an English professor teaching courses online, his job is to judge the writing of his students. He is judged harshly by his daughter and ex-wife for leaving them for a man, whose ultimate fate was rooted in the judgement of his peers.

Thomas the missionary judges Charlie to be in need of "saving" and is running from judgement in his own story. Charlie's daughter Ellie resents the judgement of others for her falling grades and abraisive personality. Even Liz, Charlie's one constant pillar of support throughout the film and the only one with whom he is visibly comfortable, is not exempt from this theme. 

Sooner or later it all comes back to judgement, which compliments Charlie's fondness for honesty nicely. The one lesson he tries to impart to his students throughout the film is to find their voice and be honest about their perspective. Thematically this film ties together very well, I just wish it didn't feel so mean-spirited about it, though maybe that's the point. 

 It's here I should probably mention my own biases in appraising this film. Growing up as a disabled person, more specifically a wheelchair user, about as visibly disabled as one can be, I have, of course, inevitably been treated, and forced to interact with the world in ways that felt dehumanising. I'm also no stranger to the concept of "Inspiration porn" (A term coined by Stella Young to describe the reduction of disabled people to objects of inspiration, as if we exist to remind you that your life could be worse.) This film put me very much in mind of both things. In particular those, to quote Mitchell and Webb "point and laugh, but in a caring way" documentaries that, to put it lightly I was never a fan of. 

So what I'm saying is, I'm about the farthest thing possible from the target audience of this movie. This should be acknowledged when I tell you I found these aspects of it distasteful. That said, The Whale boasts the performance of Brendan Fraser's career, a very well-written and thematically strong interpersonal drama, and a fantastic supporting cast who all deserve to get a lot more work from this.

Not sure I understand the point of that aspect ratio though...

Reading wrap-up: January 2023

 So I've managed to make myself sit down to read books more, as well as having audiobooks on while I go to the gym, or play repetitive games. and I'm pleased to say I got through a fair few in January, so I thought I'd at least write up my thoughts on them, I might make a Youtube video to this effect as well, but this was written with a blog post in mind, just because that's how I find I can better organise my thoughts. Anyway 

Here are my thoughts on the books I read in January, in the order I read them.

Pyramids by Terry Pratchett (Discworld)

I liked this one, I’d got a feel for the discworld series already, this being book seven. But this is where I really adjusted to the flow of things. Probably has something to do with reading the entire back half in a day, which I am not used to doing, but the lack of chapter divides was less of a problem for me here than it usually would be, and I’ve managed to maintain a much better flow ever since, personally I’d still rather have the chapter breaks, but STP’s lack of them has ceased to be much of a problem. It’s usually pretty easy to guess when I’m expected to stop if I need to now.

I was honestly kind of lukewarm on Teppec. I liked him enough but as Discworld protagonists go he felt like he lacked a certain something. But maybe that’s the point. His lack of agency in the story is very much part of the plot and themes, and didn’t leave him with much room to express himself. Everything is well-told. I had more fun with the supporting cast though, in particular his father the former king, and Ptracy (like how he makes common names look vaguely Egyptian on the page by putting a P in front of them) the pyramid architect whose name I can’t remember. Dios was interesting, but I kind of expected more of a conclusion than the one written. I know by now that Terry Pratchett’s endings aren’t the most climactic all the time, but this one felt like it was setting up for more to me, side note, I loved the bit where all the past kings and queens are helping God-Teppec up the pyramid, which I choose to read as a direct statement of collective action helping him reach heights that not even a God can reach alone. I also love all the little witticisms and commentaries about tradition and belief, but you don’t need me to tell you a Discworld book has great, witty social commentary, you find that peppered throughout the entire series.

Yeah, overall, I liked this book. I found it a lot easier to get through than some before it, definitely an enjoyable read.

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett (Discworld)

Might be my favourite one so far. The first Discworld book I read was Jingo which I was given by a friend years ago, so I was already familiar with Sam Vimes, Carrot and Nobby, but that was quite a while ago, and not to mention a fair bit later into their development than this. So it was interesting to see where these characters began.

So to set the scene, our first character, Carrot, discovers he’s actually human, and not, as he’d always been told, an unusually tall, 6 foot 4 Dwarf. After discovering that he’s adopted he goes to the city of Ankh Morpork to join the City Watch, which he’s told is an honourable job. When he gets there he finds that the existence of the watch is little more than a formality. But carrot, being the sincere naive good boy that he is, resolves to do the best he can.

First off, I love Carrot. He’s so earnest, and his good nature is contagious to those around him. I love that kind of character, someone so wholly good that they can’t help but make the world around them better just by their proximity and refusal to compromise their principles. I was a bit taken aback to see how Sam Vimes started out given how he was in Jingo, but I enjoyed the beginning of his journey a lot, and his budding relationship with Lady Sybill. I have a soft spot for characters who are really passionate about one thing, and her one thing is dragons, which is also a plus, because I like those too.

Discworld stories are often send-ups of genre tropes or parodies of specific works. Guards! Guards! Is sort of a police procedural but by way of several other genres in a unique blend of genre stew with a heavy dose of satire.

The book is full of Pratchett’s usual wit and social commentary, a particular throughline here is what our circumstances can make us do if we let them, and what we in turn can do to better them, the way Vimes goes from being a drunk in the gutter to actually caring about the city is impressively seamless, not to mention it’s just a really fun read, I breezed through this one, at least relative to me, and my attention span akin to that of a concussed goldfish.

Star Wars: The High Republic: Out of the Shadows. by Justina Ireland

I listened to this one on audible, as I do for all Star Wars books. I do that for a few reasons, firstly, I am running short of bookshelf space as it is, and there are a lot of Star Wars books. and secondly, I like the audio-presentation the Star Wars audiobooks generally have, I like to have those on while I’m at the gym or when I play like a fidget-game, something grindy. That’s how I go through all audiobooks really. Also, I find it hard to get invested in Star Wars books enough to buy the print versions, at least the ones that use legacy characters, for reasons that I’ll probably go into another time, but that’s why I’m basically going through the High Republic right now, anyway.

One of those reasons is kind of out of the window for this one because the audio-presentation I like these for, just isn’t there. It’s just a narrator reading, none of the usual music and sound effects. That’s not bad by any stretch, it’s just not what I expected, or usually listen to these for. Having said that, I found this to be one of the better stories I’ve seen out of Star Wars novels in general.

The story is experienced almost entirely from the perspective of one protagonist which helps a lot with the focus here, a problem I have with the High Republic in general is that it throws a lot of locations and characters at you in a short space of time, and I find that pretty hard to keep track of, I had to go through Light of the Jedi twice just to get a feel for who everyone was. But this is less of a problem here, Sylvestri Yarro (I’ve only heard it spoken, so sorry if it’s spelled wrong) is our main protagonist, and I like her. Not normally one for romance subplots, but I kinda found myself rooting for this one, the plot was kinda predictable in places, but not in a way that made it bad.

These books definitely benefit from narrowing their focus, as I’ll get into a little later, as much of a side-story as this was, I still found it compelling. Bonus points for the fact that I didn’t really feel like it was necessary to know anything that came before to follow this one. That definitely helps. Zylan Graff was a fun character to dislike all the way through as well, honourable mention there. Sure, there are a few returning characters, but this works just as well as an introduction for them as any other book so far. So yeah, Out of the Shadows is worth a read. Could actually have pictured myself sitting down with the print version of this.

Faust Eric by Terry Pratchett (Discworld)

I haven’t read a book in one sitting since Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian. Though to be fair this one is very short, as such, I don’t have a huge amount to say about it, except that I enjoyed it a lot. It was nice to see Rincewind again, and I hope not for the last time, he’s as fun as ever. It was nice to get a real look at the creator gods of the disc in a way that put me in mind of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Some nice worldbuilding in the form of a parody of an old legend. So basically Pratchett’s bread and butter. I had fun with this one.

Star Wars: The High Republic: The Fallen Star by Claudia Gray

Okay, Now I’m officially on board for the High Republic. I’ve never been one for the “it gets good several books in” defense, but if you have the constitution to read/listen through several basically good enough books, the High Republic does in fact, get a lot better several books in. Again the story benefits from the narrowing of focus, following only a handful of characters, two of which return from Out of the Shadows, which immediately precedes it, and others from The Rising Storm and a few from Into the Dark which means, yes, our boy Geode is back and so is Leox Gyasi and Bell Zettifar, all of whom I liked. The return of the Out of the Shadows characters is a little jarring, only because, this one has the usual sound effects and music fare, and the narrator gives one of the returning characters a voice that put me in mind of a vastly different image from the one I had before. But I suppose if you’re reading it in print, that won’t be an issue.

As for the story, this is my favourite High Republic book yet. If you haven’t read the series so far you may be a little lost, but there is enough context to keep you in the know as to what’s going on. Claudia Gray is confident and ruthless with the established characters and setting, and there are some real horror vibes at points in this book, without it at any point feeling like a horror story.

There is one little nitpick I want to make, because it annoyed me a disproportionate amount. So, minor spoilers, there is a character called Geode, right? He’s what’s called a Ventian, a sentient rock species, and there’s a lot of tongue-in-cheek jokes there, but at one point, he deflects a blaster bolt to save someone, and the line that explains how he does this, is written exactly like this; “Ventians, could choose whether they were magnetically sealed or not” for reference, blaster bolts riccochet off magnetically sealed surfaces.

The wording on that just really took me out of the moment. I don’t even mind that the concept of a sentient rock being able to do that is ridiculous, a lot of Star Wars is, if you want hard science fiction you’re in the wrong series. But there had to have been so many better ways to word that. “Ventians could magnetically seal themselves at will” or, “project magnetic shielding organically.” in this context it essentially means to be bullet-proof. “I can choose whether I’m bullet-proof or not” just...look I know I’m harping on a single line, in a book I otherwise really enjoyed, but because I otherwise really enjoyed it, that one line sticks out in my head all the more. I freely admit that this is a nitpick, but what can I say? It bothered me.

Other than that one little nitpick though, The Fallen Star is definitely my favourite High Republic book so far. I liked the continuation of Elzar Mann’s story, the characters all feel familiar thanks to the groundwork of reading the series so far. I still don’t think it’s going to convert anyone not already invested in Star Wars, but that’s never been the point of these.

Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett (Discworld)

This one was fun. I’m not sure if this is a wizards book or something different, forgive me my Discworld ignorance, I’m going through them in release order, but I’d definitely call it “wizard-adjacent.” The main character, Victor, is a student wizard who is incredibly gifted, but also lazy, in such a way that he is always very careful to fail his exams, but with a high enough score to secure continued funding. Also lazy enough to work out and maintain himself so that running away is less effort, that kind of thing.

Throughout this book I really felt the evolution of the Discworld in a way that I hadn’t before, perhaps due to the rapid advance of technology present here, I won’t spoil, but this book is a send up of early Hollywood, but also, more broadly, of the entertainment industry as a whole. Pulling no punches as to how brutal it can be to those working in it, and also reframing film itself as a bizarre, Lovecraftian entity. The business side of “Holy Wood” also finds itself well represented, and hilariously so, by the return of Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler. I may have laughed aloud at the part where he misses the point of subliminal messaging. The wizards are here too of course, and they’re fun, you know what you’re getting from them by now, but the reason I call this “wizard-adjacent” is because they don’t really factor in much beyond the tertiary.

I can’t not mention Gaspode and Laddy, But more would be spoiling, just suffice to say Gaspode is a talking dog and he’s great.

Moving Pictures is a great satirical read and well worth it.

Star Wars: The High Republic: Race to Crashpoint Tower by Daniel Jose Older

Yeah, I didn’t care for this one. Reading it after having read stuff further along in the timeline that was better probably didn’t help, but I don’t think I’d have loved it anyway. A couple of hours on audible that didn’t leave much of an impression really, A minor part of the Republic Fair incident blown up into a short book that could’ve been a footnote without losing much. I may revise this statement if Ram Jomoram or any of the other characters show up later and are part of a work I enjoy, because this at least did the job of introducing them. The Drengir show up, and are fun for a bit, but they feel crowbarred in honestly. The moment to moment experience was fine, and not unpleasant in any way, but all in all this whole thing kind of feels like a filler arc, which many Star Wars novels do in my opinion, but The High Republic doesn’t usually, so that was disappointing.

An unnecessary entry that felt inconsequential, the best thing about it being that at least it was short.

Mogworld by Yahtzee Croshaw

I will first put a tiny bit of a content warning, this book has a few uses of the ableist slur beginning with “R” in it. But it was written before I think it was commonly accepted as one, just to make aware those that would want to be.

Okay, so Mogworld is the debut novel of Yahtzee Croshaw, primarily of Zero Punctuation fame. He’s done a fair few other things, I quite enjoyed Yahtzee’s Dev Diary myself. But you’re more likely to have encountered Zero Punctuation.

This was another audible, I didn’t actually finish this one before January ended, but I was more than halfway through, so I’m gonna put it here anyway. Mogworld follows a beginner level magic student called Jim, who is killed at the beginning and brought back decades later by a necromancer, who finds out only then, that he, and the entire horde he’s just resurrected, all have their personalities and free-will intact. A funny negotiation then takes place, which sets the tone really well, they all end up as undead minions in this necromancer’s fortress. All Jim wants is to find a way to die, and stay dead. He’s accompanied by Meryl, a fellow, much more optimistic undead from his homeland, who sews him back together again and tries desperately to coax him onto the path of the hero.

If I had to compare this book to anything, I’d say, imagine if the film Free Guy came out about a decade earlier, with more fantasy, and was written by a depressed Douglas Adams. Those are the kind of vibes this book gave me.

The story itself is a lot of fun, if feeling a little stretched in places. I couldn’t help but feel like the story was taking a few more detours than was necessary. I won’t complain though as I did enjoy those detours. The supporting characters largely feel like broad comic caricatures, but never quite to the point of feeling one-dimensional, there’s always the suggestion of deeper characterisation there, and their, for lack of a better term, personality-types feels very much like a deliberate part of the makeup.

Overall, Mogworld is a fun read, and a promising debut novel. I enjoyed it enough that I’ll be giving Yahtzee’s other books a read-through at some point I’m sure.

Bloody hell, I wasn’t expecting to write nearly 3,000 words. Must remember to write up my thoughts on books as soon as I read them, as opposed to at the end of the month.