The love of books and movies is like a drug addiction. I need my fix and I think I'd die without it. I don't go a single day without reading or movie watching. I can never get enough.
With opioids or amphetamines or alcohol, you chase that first taste of joy you had when you first began to use, never to find it. This isn't so with love of the arts.
It gets harder with age. We tend to build up walls of defense as we grow older. The initial awe once so attainable is more difficult to find.
There have been few genuinely life-changing events with me in the realms of books and movies. By necessity there must only be a few. Too long a list would cheapen the truly epiphanic moments we have.
It began when Robert A. Heinlein lifted me up and away from the gravitational restraints of family, school, church, and the mediocrity of every day life. I soared to the far reaches of the galaxy with Have Space Suit-Will Travel, and I never really came back to Terra firma. I'll always be grateful.
I saw John Carpenter's Halloween at the perfect age of seventeen. It defined my life and mortal fears in ways no other film ever has. Sitting in that movie theater, I knew I was seeing something special. Something that would never be topped. I've loved a lot of slasher movies since then, but that's one high I could never replicate.
I stepped into a furiously speeding car with Stephen King behind the wheel when I read Christine. I was still mostly a boy, and the novel carried me over the threshold to adulthood. It wasn't an easy ride, and I had to say goodbye to some of my childhood allegiances, but it was a necessary transition. It was a hard lesson that friendship isn't forever and monsters lurk behind the things our hearts desire the most.
When I was thirty years old Robert McCammon transported me back to my childhood with Boy's Life. However, unlike my own chaotic boyhood, the world of Cory Mackenson and Zephyr, Alabama was a realm of idyllic imagination. Hard truths were part of that world, but the lessons were far easier than my own. Boy's Life is the perfect novel for me, my age, my personality. I was never the same after reading it and I don't think it will ever be topped.
Some things make me believe in divinity. Even if the God in question only resides in the hearts of our greatest dreamers.
I keep looking for that fix. The one that puts me into euphoria that takes away the painful concerns of everyday life. Even if I have to eventually come down and face the world again, I will always have the experience in my heart. It's been a long time.
Oh, I have enjoyed hundreds and hundreds of books and movies. I loved a lot of them. Some I barely liked, a few I disliked, and there were far too many unpleasant experiences where I hated something.
I saw The Life of Chuck yesterday. I read the novella in If It Bleeds and I certainly enjoyed it. The movie, on the other hand, is something different.
Mike Flanagan and his cast and crew follow Stephen King's story well enough, but there's more going on. This is one of the very rare situations where I think the movie is a richer, more rewarding experience than the literary source.
The Life of Chuck is nothing less than a miracle. A perfect movie, if there is such a thing. I honestly cannot think of any other cinematic work that hit me in such a profound way. This is more than just a movie. It's a religious experience. It's a message to our souls.
I've never been so moved. Never have I felt such conflicting emotions. Deep sorrow mixed with glorious joy. It's a celebration of all we aspire to be. It's as vast as a vista of stars and as intimate as our own inner secrets. The Life of Chuck is a heartbreakingly beautiful mediation on what makes us human beings.
It's my favorite movie. Of course it is. What else could compete?
I hope people get out and see The Life of Chuck. It deserves more success than Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Sinners all put together, squared and cubed, and multiplied by a million.
It scarcely matters. The Shawshank Redemption was a box office disaster and now the movie is considered one of the finest ever made. The Life of Chuck is even better.
Written by Mark Sieber
With opioids or amphetamines or alcohol, you chase that first taste of joy you had when you first began to use, never to find it. This isn't so with love of the arts.
It gets harder with age. We tend to build up walls of defense as we grow older. The initial awe once so attainable is more difficult to find.
There have been few genuinely life-changing events with me in the realms of books and movies. By necessity there must only be a few. Too long a list would cheapen the truly epiphanic moments we have.
It began when Robert A. Heinlein lifted me up and away from the gravitational restraints of family, school, church, and the mediocrity of every day life. I soared to the far reaches of the galaxy with Have Space Suit-Will Travel, and I never really came back to Terra firma. I'll always be grateful.
I saw John Carpenter's Halloween at the perfect age of seventeen. It defined my life and mortal fears in ways no other film ever has. Sitting in that movie theater, I knew I was seeing something special. Something that would never be topped. I've loved a lot of slasher movies since then, but that's one high I could never replicate.
I stepped into a furiously speeding car with Stephen King behind the wheel when I read Christine. I was still mostly a boy, and the novel carried me over the threshold to adulthood. It wasn't an easy ride, and I had to say goodbye to some of my childhood allegiances, but it was a necessary transition. It was a hard lesson that friendship isn't forever and monsters lurk behind the things our hearts desire the most.
When I was thirty years old Robert McCammon transported me back to my childhood with Boy's Life. However, unlike my own chaotic boyhood, the world of Cory Mackenson and Zephyr, Alabama was a realm of idyllic imagination. Hard truths were part of that world, but the lessons were far easier than my own. Boy's Life is the perfect novel for me, my age, my personality. I was never the same after reading it and I don't think it will ever be topped.
Some things make me believe in divinity. Even if the God in question only resides in the hearts of our greatest dreamers.
I keep looking for that fix. The one that puts me into euphoria that takes away the painful concerns of everyday life. Even if I have to eventually come down and face the world again, I will always have the experience in my heart. It's been a long time.
Oh, I have enjoyed hundreds and hundreds of books and movies. I loved a lot of them. Some I barely liked, a few I disliked, and there were far too many unpleasant experiences where I hated something.
I saw The Life of Chuck yesterday. I read the novella in If It Bleeds and I certainly enjoyed it. The movie, on the other hand, is something different.
Mike Flanagan and his cast and crew follow Stephen King's story well enough, but there's more going on. This is one of the very rare situations where I think the movie is a richer, more rewarding experience than the literary source.
The Life of Chuck is nothing less than a miracle. A perfect movie, if there is such a thing. I honestly cannot think of any other cinematic work that hit me in such a profound way. This is more than just a movie. It's a religious experience. It's a message to our souls.
I've never been so moved. Never have I felt such conflicting emotions. Deep sorrow mixed with glorious joy. It's a celebration of all we aspire to be. It's as vast as a vista of stars and as intimate as our own inner secrets. The Life of Chuck is a heartbreakingly beautiful mediation on what makes us human beings.
It's my favorite movie. Of course it is. What else could compete?
I hope people get out and see The Life of Chuck. It deserves more success than Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Sinners all put together, squared and cubed, and multiplied by a million.
It scarcely matters. The Shawshank Redemption was a box office disaster and now the movie is considered one of the finest ever made. The Life of Chuck is even better.
Written by Mark Sieber
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