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On the Horizon

"Louisiana's Way Home." I have never had unqualified love for a Kate DiCamillo book, and I've read at least three. Still, the writer is impressive. She has conquered the world. She has a JK Rowling-ish gift for dreaming up clearly-defined, entertaining characters. And December seems like a fine time for regressing; it's a time when we all should consider reading children's books. I will have thoughts on "Louisiana" soon.

-There is a short, unspooling web series on Suzanne Jovin's murder: https://www.siliconinvestor.com/subject.aspx?subjectid=32074

The author seems to be an investor who knew the falsely implicated Yale professor many years ago. The motive seems to be a wish to clear James Van de Velde's name (though the author states the opposite). Part of the author's hope is to raise enough GoFundMe money to make possible high-tech DNA testing from Jovin's clothing. Then, he will go to the police and say, "Here. Here is your money. You can no longer use lack of funding as an excuse for not doing your job." I'm not sure how many other loonies out there watched the first YouTube installment of the new Jovin Diaries. But I look forward to installments 2 through 5.

-Nicole Kidman's "Destroyer." I don't know anything about this movie, except that it seems to involve Nicole Kidman being awesome.

On a related note, Lorrie Moore recently wrote that she wants to see only mainstream films involving foolish teenagers doing outlandish things for love. In that tradition, my main wish is to see films from the mid-nineties in which divas become involved in twisty and thrilling crimes. And this is a Nicole Kidman specialty. We're talking about "Malice," which is weirder and more interesting than you recall. We're talking about "The Interpreter," "Secret in Their Eyes," "Before I Go to Sleep," "The Peacemaker." These are not great films, but they set my heart racing. They are movies I was put on Earth to see.

-If you did not catch "A Charlie Brown Christmas" on the sixth, you can catch it on the twentieth. It's fun to consider the musical-theater structure--with a big tone-setting number ("Christmas Time Is Here"), followed by an I Want moment, ending with a major choral celebration. It's also interesting to think about Schulz's elegant way of looping back to the start at the end. The start has certain nouns and ideas--"joy," "sharing," "love," "beauty." See how many of those concepts you can spot in Linus's climactic speech (from the Gospel of Luke), and again in the final number, "Hark! The Herald Angels Thing." Someone was thinking very carefully while working at the drafting board.

-Have you already purchased your ticket for Amy Adams's performance in "Vice"? What are you waiting for? This will be The Event of Christmas. This will--at last--be Ms. Adams's Oscar moment. You've heard it here. Wait and see.
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