The Ricochet Reviewer: Books, Movies, and Comics

Writer / Director: Cameron Crowe Stars: Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, Jason Lee, Patrick Fugit, Zooey Deschanel, Michael Angarano, Anna Paquin, Fairuza Balk A teenage music journalist (Patrick Fugit) goes on tour with a fictional up-and-coming rock band in the early 1970s, writing a profile piece for Rolling Stone while navigating the intoxicating and disillusioning world of rock and roll.  Anyone who grew up in the 70s and loved rock music will come to this film with an enormous amount of goodwill.  They won't be disappointed.  Not only are the characters well written and wonderfully acted, but all the details are right as well.  When I was a kid, I wore out my family's copy of the Christmas recording by Alvin and the Chipmunks that opens the film.  I want to see this film again just to watch the backgrounds and set direction.  And there's a great scene on an airplane.

by Irving A. Greenfield After Captain Jack Boxer and the crew of the high-tech U.S. submarine Shark rescue survivors from a downed commercial airliner, one of the passengers is murdered, raising the possibility of a traitor in the crew.  At the same time, the Shark has to salvage a fortune in gold from an ancient wreck before a Soviet killer sub closes in. This is the best of the first four books, mostly because it stays focused on a solid structure—rescue at sea + murderer/traitor onboard + race for a wreck’s gold + Soviet sub closing in—without the less interesting land lubber digressions and awkward romances that figure so prominently in some of the other volumes. The story builds to an exciting and satisfying action climax, even if some of the developments feel implausible. I’m willing to believe Irving A. Greenfield knows more about subs than I do, but there still seems to be a lot of handwaving, the ending is abrupt, and we never learn who the murderer is.  Irving A. Gre...

by John D. MacDonald Tal Howard, home from a Korean War POW camp, follows a lead from a dead fellow prisoner to a small upstate New York town, where a hidden stash of money is supposed to be waiting if he can locate the woman who can lead him to it.  A dangerous man from the prison camp is also on the trail, and their search leads to dead bodies and buried secrets.  John MacDonald constructs a smooth narrative that keeps tightening its grip. John D. MacDonald  MacDonald uses an ordinary town and its “respectable” people as the container for escalating violence and moral compromise.  This is a mystery, not an action novel, even though there are grisly murders and a genuinely frightening sociopathic antagonist.  The violence serves as the inevitable release of the pressure built up from years of lies and greed.  It’s tense, ugly, and violent, with a compelling conclusion. "A Bullet for Cinderella" (Portuguese) "Cindy, A Name for Death" (Spanish) "A Dead Man's...

Author: Gerry Conway Artist: Ross Andru Embellisher: Mike Esposito Drugged by the Jackal, Spider-Man awakens a prisoner in an abandoned tenement. At this point, I’m wondering how Conway is going to justify Professor Warren’s ability to fight like this. Well, we have to give the Jackal credit for insight, if nothing else. Warren delivers his villain’s monologue, telling how he tricked a student into cloning human cell samples, then accidentally killed him when he protested. He spends the next several months developing his Jackal gear and caring for his clones. Pretty flimsy motivation. Later, Parker arrives at the offices of The Daily Bugle and learns that Ned Leeds is missing. When Spider-Man keeps his appointment with the Jackal at Shea Stadium, he learns both what happened to Ned Leeds and why Professor Warren was speaking about clones in the plural earlier. So this comes out of nowhere, the most unconvincing heel turn in the history of heel turns. And in the aftermath of the bomb ex...