Winnebango Man (2009)

What happens when you become an internet sensation, but not for doing something admirable, but embarrassingly funny?   Well, that’s what this documentary from Ben Steinbauer attempts to find out when he searches out and finds Jack Rebney, aka the Winnebango Man.   Mr. Rebney shot an industrial sales video for Winnebango.  Unbeknownst to him the outtakes of this strenuous job became a favorite for home video collectors, his cursing and outbursts being traded across the country for big laughs.  And then to make things worse for him, the video gets released onto the internet.  The rest is internet history.   Yet that’s only half the story, because its Steinbauer’s journey to find the real Rebney and to help him find redemption that is truly inspirational.  Grade: A-

Game of Thrones (Season 4)

This might be so far the most satisfying season of this epic fantasy series from HBO.  Again it’s impossible to write about this kind of show without spoilers.  I’ll only say there are a lot of surprises and many changes.  Tyrion must suffer his new life, not as the Hand of the King, but as a pawn in family politics.  Ayra must learn to endure The Hound in order to survive.  Jon Snow must decide if he’s a Watcher or an ally of the Wildings. Daenerys learns her first lessons as a ruler of a city.  David Benioff and D. B. Weiss have really increased the stakes and pushed this television show into cinematic proportions.   The ninth episode is glorious in is scale and execution.  At this point it’s clear we’re watching a classic of the medium, the kind of show we’ll be talking about for a long time.  The interesting thing for me is that George R.R. Martin hasn’t finished his series yet.  Hopefully he’ll get the next book out soon or I don’t know what Benioff and Weiss are going to do.  Grade: A

An Honest Liar (2014)

This is a wonderful little documentary about James Randi, magician and scam debunker.  It had me enthralled from his days as a magician and escape artist to when he decided to go after faith healers and other mystics and prove them to be the frauds they are.  Then there’s the twist which completely surprised me, almost like a work of magic in its own right.   Grade: B+

Stories We Tell (2012)

Sarah Polly captures on film her own story of finding out she was the child from an affair.  This is a fascinating film that stuns in that it proves what love is.  Love isn’t knowing you’re “real” father.  Love is family accepting their history with open arms.  These are very complex people with real emotions.  I couldn’t take my eyes of this film.   Grade: A-

Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau (2014)

I love a good documentary about the making of a film.  What’s great about this one isn’t that the film turned out to be bad, but that it could have been really good.  We’ll never know if the film Richard Stanley wanted to make would have been any good.  All I do know is that if you want to kill a film’s chances at being good hire actors with monster-size egos.  This film does not color Marlon Brando and especially Val Kilmer in a good light.  Hearing the stories of what happened on set is very entertaining, from the parties to the changes to actors roles.   What’s sad is that Mr. Stanley didn’t try to reboot his career.   Yet he gave up and we’ll never know if he was a promising talent or a guy just too sincere to work for Hollywood.  Grade: B+

Game of Thrones (Season 3)

This is the first season where I hadn’t read the books first.   I almost wished I had because I then would have been prepared for what is the most shocking and bloody season so far.   I don’t know a more effective gut-punch in television show history; at least that I can remember in recent times.  A lot of things happen and most of it is not good, for our heroes that is.  To not give anything away, instead of giving a rundown, I’ll say just see it.  If you’ve watched the first two seasons then just go ahead and keep watching.  It’s a great television show and unless you’re squeamish and hate violence then do yourself a favor and watch.  True, it might piss you off a bit, and you might threaten to never watch another episode, but you will because you’ll recognize great storytelling when you see it.   The question I have is can the producers top themselves with season four?   I’m going to start watching the next season right away to find out.  Grade: A

Looking for Alaska by John Green

This is the second book of Mr. Green’s that I read and I enjoyed this book more than his last.  That said, I do have a big issue with this book and that it glorifies smoking.  I want to get that right out of the way.  I deplored this aspect of the book.  I don’t smoke and I don’t think we should ever craft an illusion that smoking is cool. I get it.  Kids smoke.  And that’s the story Green wanted to tell, and it is a genuine point of view.  But I hated it.  Smoking is not cool and to have a character start smoking to fit in is dumb.  Yes, it’s believable and true to life but it really rubbed me the wrong way.  Now that I’ve got that out of the way . . . what a memorable story about growing up and learning the importance of living in the moment and appreciating every aspect of it.  Miles Halter moves to a boarding school and quickly finds close friends and begins a series of pranks they hope will make them legends at their school.   His two closest friends are his roommate Chip Martin “the Colonel” and Alaska Young, a girl he quickly falls for. What makes this book work is that you really get to know these characters and really feel their joy and their pain.   The mystery that developed in the third act is not that mysterious in that it was obviously what happened, I still enjoyed the story.  Grade: B+