Hello peeps!
Hope you've all been doing well!
🎬 A Masterpiece I Didn't Fully Enjoy
Okay, please don't kill me for this one.
I finally watched The Odyssey, and the best way I can describe it is this:
It's a masterpiece that I didn't fully enjoy.
Christopher Nolan is, to me, one of the greatest directors of all time, and I have a ton of respect for him for even attempting to adapt something as massive as The Odyssey.
There's a lot here that I loved. The themes around war, grief, and human nature were fascinating, and some of the mythology was incredible.
The Cyclops was genuinely unsettling. The voice alone made me uncomfortable enough that I had to cover my ears at one point. Circe, the giants, the magic, and the scene with Odysseus speaking with the dead were all fantastic.
I just wanted more of that.
Whenever the movie shifted back to Ithaca, I found myself wanting to return to Odysseus's journey. I understand why those scenes matter, but they weren't the part of the story I was most interested in.
And I know I'm probably in the minority here, but the movie felt long to me.
Most of the cast was great, though Matt Damon was a little meh for me as Odysseus. Robert Pattinson, on the other hand, was fantastic as the antagonist. He reminded me a lot of his role in The King. Apparently, he's just very good at making me dislike him.
So yes, I recognize the ambition and the filmmaking. It just wasn't entirely for me. 6/10
👻 Parks and Recreation... but Make It Horror?
JP recommended Widow's Bay to me, and apparently my co-author knows me VERY well because this show was right up my alley.
The closest description I can come up with is some bizarre combination of Parks and Recreation and Midnight Mass. A show about a major of a small island that's trying to make it more popular, ignoring the fact that the Island is presumably cursed,
It's weird, funny, dark, and full of supernatural entities and increasingly bizarre things happening around this little town.
I've always said horror and comedy are close cousins, and the first few episodes really nail that balance.
My biggest criticism is that, as the series goes on, the comedy fades while the horror gets dialed way up.
I understand why, because the stakes get bigger and bigger, but I missed the tone from the beginning.
And the ending gets a little B-horror weird.
My wife hated it, by the way, which I also completely understand. This is definitely not going to be for everyone.
But apparently I like strange so a 7/10 for me!
📋 Quick Survey Reminder
Thank you SO much to everyone who filled out my reader survey after the last newsletter!
If you haven't had a chance yet, I'd still really appreciate hearing from you.
Even if horror isn't your thing, your answers help me understand who's reading these emails and what you'd like to see from me going forward.
And if you are interested in my upcoming horror novel, there's an option at the end to join the Street Team for it.
Take the 3-minute survey here.
🐶 Snoopy's New Job: Being a Pillow
That's all for this week!
And if you haven't taken the reader survey yet, I'd really appreciate three minutes of your time.
Stay weird and keep those pages turning,
A.B. Cohen
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