The Green Lantern

Spoiler Alert!: Some of the best and juiciest bits of the movie are revealed in this review.

by Courtney Hilden

With all the superhero movies made in recent years, like Batman, Spiderman and Ironman, the competition for the high-flying, mutant-spider-bitten, and spandex wearing can be tough. And yet, The Green Lantern, a lesser-known superhero, gets a decent movie.
The story picks up with Hal Jordan, a hotshot pilot, who, since he is being played by Ryan Reynolds, puts the hot in "hotshot." At work, he flies suicidally in an effort to beat drone planes, and it is a Pyrrhic victory: he beats the planes, but in the process, loses his company a government contract, and half of the employees will be fired. His ex-girlfriend, his boss, also worries about his safety, since his own father also died while flying.
Despite all this, The Green Lantern is never as dark or brooding as Batman or the later Spiderman movies. Instead, there's something wild about this character, something recklessly stupid. He shows up to his ex's in full costume, risking her discovering his identity (which takes her all of a minute to uncover.) And although he decides to save Earth solo, he does so in a way that almost destroys his life. Hal Jordan is a go-for-broke kind of character, and there's something refreshing about someone who does not brood about his decisions before or after. He simply does.
The true knockout performance in this movie is not Ryan Reynolds, although he delivers and understands his character. Peter Sarsgaard's Hector Hammond is quite possibly the most Shakespearean villain ever on screen. He is constantly being criticized and passive aggressively pushed around by his father, he is in the thankless job of a university professor and he never got the girl, and at the first hint of power he decides to use it on murdering his own father. (The writers smartly decided to concentrate the story of Hector's poor relations with his father instead of his rejection at the hands of the one female character.) Hector becomes literally bloated with his new-found power, and turns into a Frankenstein's monster of his own and his father's making: he is pitiable and evil at the same time. Sarsgaard balances these perfectly, never laying it on too thick. And his screams of pain are heartbreakingly tortured. The singer/screamers of metal bands work years to perfect their howls, and none of those come to the ones that Sarsgaard delivers.
Lastly, Mark Strong as Sinestro gives a solid performance as well. Strong is better known for playing intense enemies in movies and television shows across the pond. Strong's best characters were ones with rage bubbling beneath their surfaces. Strong does a slight turn here; instead of rage, his Sinestro is fierce, but in a subtle, strangely nurturing way. If there is going to be a second movie (and honestly, I am not opposed to the idea), then let's hope we get to see more of Strong and Reynolds together, saving the world.

Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain

by Courtney Hilden
Heavier than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain by Charles R. Cross, covers the life and infamous times of the well-loved musician. The book charts the struggles within his family, his adolescent stints as both homeless and creative, his lovers (some of whom are famous in their own right), and, of course, the explosive band he served as frontman for, Nirvana.
The most difficult things about biographies is the tone. The feelings of the biographer inevitably come out, and usually this is either admiration or hatred, with little in-between. Cross manages to avoid writing a hagiography, but it is still a mostly admirable view of Cobain, and, depending on your view of Cobain, may or may not have been deserved.
Cross gives all sorts of interesting, and often surprising, details about Cobain. Cobain, famous for jumping into drum sets, destroying sets, and yes, smashing guitars, drove like "a little old lady" in the words of his bandmates, to the point where they often did not want him to drive.
Despite being fairly long, there were multiple parts of the book that begged for more details. As a teenager, Cobain became a born-again Christian while living with and befriending other born-again Christians. Given that Cobain seemed, at the least, agnostic later on in life, and famously covered Christian songs, this section of his story deserves more research, especially given that a clear reason for his falling out with Christianity never is explained.
The book focuses mostly on Cobain, but his relationships with his bandmates is only glanced at. The book does spend time discussing Chad Channing's split from the band, and how it was handled relatively maturely by Cobain and his fellow bandmate and best friend, Krist Novoselic. Minimal time is spent on Cobain's relationship with Novoselic and less on Dave Grohl, who, among other things, was Cobain's roommate.
The book also comes with a collection of black and white photos of Cobain. One of the things missing is photos of his art, which was Cobain's other great creative expression. As a fan (yes, yes, I will admit that I am really a fan of Nirvana), this could easily be a whole other book, probably in coffeebook style.

The most fascinating thing about Cobain was actually the women around him. Cobain struggled with his relationship with his mother, who Cobain seems to have seen as what we would now call a cougar, but was also put in impossibly difficult situations, with at least one unwanted pregnancy and an abusive husband. (Not Cobain's father but stepfather.) Cobain's younger sister is a lesbian, and this was almost entirely brushed over. Cobain's girlfriends, Tracy Marander, Tobi Vail, Mary Lou Lord, Courtney Love, were all interesting in their own right. The later three were all musicians themselves; Vail was a member of the seminal Bikini Kill and Love famously fronted Hole; Lord was a folk singer. Marander in particular sacrificed for Cobain, economically supporting him when Cobain was out of work. It is too bad that there are not books (or in some cases, more) about these women, who unfortunately, have become footnotes in Cobain's life and not the full people they obviously are, though this is through no fault of Cross.
For a fan, Heavier than Heaven is a must read. The less interested in Nirvana, though, the less interested most readers would be in this book.

AngelMonster

by Clare MacGregor
Spoiler Alert!: Some spoilers are revealed in this review

AngelMonster by Veronica Bennett tells the story of Mary Shelley, the author of the classic novel Frankenstein. AngelMonster begins when Mary is sixteen and ends when she is twenty-one. Mary’s life events are interwoven with the lives of her stepsister, Claire Clairmont, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Throughout the course of story Mary, Percy, and Claire travel from England to France, Switzerland, and Italy. The reader is drawn into the story like a close friend of the characters. Though the novel is based on actual events and follows Mary Shelley’s life very closely, AngelMonster is not devoid of twists and turns that are sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats. During a summer visit to Lord Byron’s villa near Geneva Mary, Percy, Claire, Lord Byron, and John Polidori, take turns telling ghost stories and the beginnings of what would become Mary's Frankenstein-filled mind. Mary’s novel further develops in her imagination as her husband grows more and more dependent on laudanum, she reflects on her own mother’s death, and Claire’s life is torn apart by Lord Byron. Some of these events are conveyed in dream-like intervals sprinkled throughout the story.
Bennett provides such richly vivid historical detail that the reader feels as though they are in the same room as the characters. The story of Mary Shelley’s life is skillfully told by Bennett. AngelMonster is a must read for anyone who loves Frankenstein and wishes to learn more about the author, or any fans of Gothic novels.