Paul Levinson
Bio
Novels The Silk Code, The Plot To Save Socrates, It's Real Life: An Alternate History of The Beatles; LPs Twice Upon A Rhyme & Welcome Up; nonfiction The Soft Edge & Digital McLuhan, translated into 15 languages. Prof, Fordham Univ.
Stories (742)
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Review of 'Kimi'
Just saw Steven Soderbergh's Kimi on HBO Max starring Zoë Kravitz, not in the title role, but as Angela, the highly intelligent, resourceful, ethical worker for Amygdala, the company that sells and runs Kimi, an updated Alexa, which serves its customers better by recording all their interactions and making them available to human listeners if there's a problem. Angela's job is to listen to recordings in which there may indeed have been some kind of problem. The problem that sets her in motion is a rape murder.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Geeks
Review of 'Reacher'
Hey, see Reacher on Amazon Prime Video. At its best, and that's more than some of the time, the lead character named Jack Reacher but known just by his last name has some of the quick thinking and lethal delivery of another Jack, last name Bauer, on 24. And sometimes Reacher even recalls James Bond, with his wit and penchant for the sharp retort.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Criminal
The Other Car
I came down the stairs from the sports club and saw two identical cars. This surprised me, because only one of the cars was mine. I owned only a single car, no one else in the family had a car, and in fact I had driven here in that one car -- a Prius hybrid I had bought about a year ago.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Fiction
Review of 'Beforeigners' seasons 1 and 2
I just binged the first two seasons -- twelve episodes -- of Beforeigners on HBO Max over the past few nights. On Jackie Reich's suggestion. She was Chair of my Department of Communication and Media Studies at Fordham University, and is now Dean of the School of Communication and the Arts at Marist College. She told me on Twitter, "I think about you when I watch it — all that time travel!" She has my number. As Ricky Nelson almost said, "I am a [time-] travelin man."
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Colony'
Well, I just saw The Colony (original name of the movie, Tides) on Netflix. This seems to be the season for post-apocalyptic stories, understandable given the dangerous state of world, in areas ranging from COVID to climate to Russia massing troops on the border of Ukraine. I thought Station Eleven, a series on HBO Max based on Emily St. John Mandel's novel, was a masterpiece. I wouldn't say the same about The Colony. But I will say that, for my money, it's much better and more worth seeing than the massively popular Don't Look Up. (Though I'll also admit to you that I paid no money for either, other than the subscription price on Netflix.)
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of Rosemary Claire Smith's 'Next Frontier' Novelette
This seems to be my year -- by which I mean all of 2021 and 2022 -- for alternate history. The second season of For All Mankind in February 2021, Ronald D. Moore's masterful alternate history about the race to the Moon in the 1960s, and ensuing decades, was even better than the first. My 90-minute interview with Rufus Sewell in July 2021 about The Man in the High Castle series on Apple TV+ got me even deeper into that one-of-a-kind stunning story. And just this month, a favorite story that I've written was published -- "It's Real Life," my alternate history about The Beatles.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Munich: The Edge of War'
I guess this was a perfect night to watch Munich: The Edge of War on Netflix. Russia is on the verge of invading Ukraine. The Trumpists -- including Trump himself -- have still not been brought to justice for their insurrection and attack on our Capitol last January 6. And the movie is based on the novel Munich by Robert Harris, author of the alternate-history masterpiece Fatherland, in which Germany won the Second World War. Not as much of a masterpiece as Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle (made into an incandescent series on Amazon), for sure, but I'd watch a movie based on a Harris novel any time.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in The Swamp
The Lip-Synching Scene in David Lynch's 'Blue Velvet' as a Touchstone Transcendent Moment
David Lynch was 76 years yesterday -- happy birthday! That made me think about my favorite scene in all of David Lynch's great work, and, for that matter, probably in any movie I've ever scene: Dean Stockwell lip synching Roy Orbison's "In Dreams" in Blue Velvet back in 1986, with Dennis Hopper doing a fine job as that deeply sick guy, who tries to join in the lip-synching, but whose demons won't allow him the succor of dreams.
By Paul Levinson4 years ago in Geeks
