Books – The Reel World

The NBA Book Canon

Okay, I am cheating here. This is a film and television website/blog. BUT HEAR ME OUT. NBA books are the essentially this long informal serialized series that reminds me of A Song of Ice & Fire (only if they were written better than what Martin puts out). The Palace Intrigue dynamic is just electric. The catty drama is insane. So, in honor of the HBO ’80s Lakers Series that is inspired by Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s, I figured I would begin this project.

(Now, amusingly enough, said book on the Lakers is not now, nor scheduled to be included. It is frankly quite mid. As you will see, a single volume on a franchise meant to cover many years is often an inadequate combination.)

***LIKE ALL LISTS ON THIS WEBSITE: THIS LIST IS A WORK IN PROGRESS AND WILL BE CONTINUOUSLY UPDATED AS I READ MORE NBA HISTORY***

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Review: Behind Every Good Man [1967]

Willow Catelyn Maclay and Caden Mark Gardner recently published their book, Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema. First of all, it is a fantastic book and you should buy it. Secondly, one of the films that they discussed that stood out to me the most was Nikolai Ursin’s Behind Every Good Man.

Maclay and Gardner explain in their book: “Ursin…shot a hybrid of documentary and scripted fiction to depict the everyday life of a trans woman…[the film] is a stunning eight-minute document focusing on a trans woman of color that, in 2022, was added to the National Film Registry in the United States.”

Reading that, I could not help but feel like this was a truly historic text that needed to be watched as soon as possible. Thankfully, Maclay and Gardner also explained that the film had recently be restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, so it was rather easy to find the film and watch it myself. Continue reading Review: Behind Every Good Man [1967]

Review of Werner Herzog’s The Twilight World

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More (And Less!) Than Meets The Eye – Epilogue: Lost Light Cut Plans & Alternate Ending

On the day of their interview with James Roberts, Matt discovered he’d been sitting on a goldmine of juicy secrets concerning original plans for Lost Light. With James’ blessing, we’re breaking them down now.

From minor tidbits to major revelations, we pull back the curtain a little on what might have been had Lost Light not been cut short. If this whets your appetite, make sure to pick up the final volumes of James’ notebooks in 2024, which will go into even greater detail.

More (And Less!) Than Meets The Eye – Episode 15: Interview with James Roberts

After dissecting his books for 14 weeks, Ben & Matt had the privilege of sitting down with James Roberts to discuss all things More Than Meets The Eye/Lost Light.

From the origins of his Transformers fandom (and how it differs from Ben & Matt’s!), to his influences when building the cast, to incredibly specific questions about Mnemosurgery and Empurata, we tried to cover as much ground as possible in an hour. Don’t worry, we made sure to ask ‘Why do you hate Beast Wars, James?!?’

More (And Less!) Than Meets The Eye – Episode 14: Lost Light Issues 13-25

Just because the crew of the Lost Light appear to be dead, doesn’t mean this is the end! Death? Sparkeaters? Infinites? An Evil Alliance of Past Foes? A Planet-Sized Transformer? Unknowable Ancient Beings Trying to Eat the Universe? Pfft. How about a challenge next time?!?

More (And Less!) Than Meets The Eye – Episode 12: Lost Light Issues 1-12

New Name! New Issue 1! Same old lovable crew!

We discuss why Rodimus is purple now, whacky adventures in a parallel universe, IDW’s controversial history with gender in Transformers, the nature of grief, and a much-lauded mutiny.

More (And Less!) Than Meets the Eye – Episode 6: MTMTE Issues 17-33

Be not afraid of the huge number of issues covered in this episode, as a big chunk of it belongs to Dark Cybertron, the mostly irrelevant crossover event we break down in under 10 minutes.

On either side of that we discuss Huge Secrets about Magnus & Skids, Pharma’s horrifying antics, a mockery of a trial, the Lost Light’s new crew members, and the curious case of a vanishing starship.

More (And Less!) Than Meets the Eye – Episode 4: MTMTE Issues 9-16 & 2012 Annual

We continue our adventures aboard the Lost Light with some Big Name Cameos, history lessons, dramatic countdowns (and ups), an ill-advised night on the town and the monster in the basement finally gets loose.

More (And Less!) Than Meets the Eye – Episode 2: MTMTE Issues 1-8

It’s our first episode covering the acclaimed IDW Transformers series, More Than Meets the Eye, by James Roberts. We discuss the core cast, pacing difficulties, horror movie monsters, Star Trek away missions, the Worst Decepticons in the World and what Ben believes to be the book’s greatest triumph.