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 'Bliss'
Just saw Bliss on Amazon Prime Video. In a phrase, it's another well-acted simulation movie, with an obvious, even hackneyed story, but it's very well acted by Owen Wilson (Greg) and Salma Hayek (Isabel), with an appearance by Bill Nye the science guy, and excellent music, especially a really beautiful, captivating song under the closing credits, written by Will Bates and sung by Skye Edwards.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Futurism
The Map of Tiny Perfect Things
The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, from the novelette by Lev Grossman (The Magicians) and screenplay by him, debuted on Amazon Prime video a few days ago. Its ratings on Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes are 6-7, but I think it's much better than that, well over 9. It's said to be a Groundhog Day (the holiday and the movie) meets Valentine's Day (just the holiday), but it's more than that, too.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Geeks
Review of 'McCartney III'
I was never one to look for differences between the Beatles on their individual own and when they were The Beatles. To my ear and soul, Paul, John, George, and Ringo on their own sounded far more like The Beatles, captured and continued their extraordinary essence far better than any other artist. Sure, some solo numbers sounded more like The Beatles than others. I heard "Ticket to Ride" in Paul's "My Brave Face," and when someone told me it evoked "Things We Said Today," I could immediately hear it.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Beat
Review of 'Perfume'
Perfume, a 2018 movie which my wife and I saw just the other night on Netflix, starts out as a straight-up, if perverted, serial killer story, based on Patrick Süskind's 1985 novel of the same name. A beautiful singer is found dead, with her scent glands removed. There apparently is a murderer at large who gets off so much on scents, he (or she) needs literally cuttings of glands to satisfy the craving.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'The Midnight Sky'
Well, you couldn't ask for a better movie than The Midnight Sky in these our Covid-ridden times. An Earth, in the year 2049, in even far worse shape than ours. Just about everyone on the planet dead, due to some kind of planet-wide catastrophe. A spaceship returning home to Earth from a habitable moon of Jupiter, unaware of what they are returning to. A very sick scientist on Earth, desperately marshalling his last energies to contact them, and tell the ship to turn around.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Futurism
Review of 'Nocturne'
I saw and enjoyed Nocturne last night, the fourth of four horror movies by Blumhouse on Amazon Prime Video, which four themselves are the first installment in a larger series to continue in 2021. Like the first three Blumhouse movies I saw -- The Lie, Black Box, and Evil Eye -- Nocturne is a tightly drawn family drama. But Nocturne has the additional depth of being situated in music.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Horror
Review of 'Big Sky' 1.3
Well, that was the best line in Tuesday night's episode 1.3 of Big Sky -- "You kidnapped the wrong girls" -- said by The Big Rick (title of the episode) to Ronald, after Rick retrieves Grace, with two arrows in the leg, after Grace escapes and almost makes her escape good, by getting a fisherman to help before Rick shoots him dead -- with an arrow.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Criminal
Review of 'Big Sky' 1.2
Big Sky 1.2 continued as one edgy kind of show, especially for network television. Interesting that David Kelley took this to a network -- ABC -- rather than a cable or streaming service, where "the goods," as the show artfully put it, could have been seen in the scene.
By Paul Levinson5 years ago in Criminal
