DVD Review: An American Pickle

An American Pickle
(DVD American)

An American Pickle is an odd little film was made for the cable channel “MAX” (formerly HBO Max) but was also released to DVD in 2020. Comic actor Seth Rogan, who has certainly been in his fair share of quirky comedies during his career, appears in two roles. He plays Hershel Greenbaum, an immigrant worker from the early 1900s, and his descendant Ben Greenbaum, an app developer, in the modern era. The quirk here is that Hershel and Ben get to interact with each other. Hershel, working in a pickle factory, falls into a vat of brine and is accidentally entombed therein, only to be taken out 100 years later perfectly preserved but missing his old life and uncertain how to fit into modern times, even with the help of his nebbishy distant relative.

 

When a small conflict drives a wedge between the two Greenbaums, Hershel strikes out on his own, establishing his own pickle-making enterprise (though ignoring dozens of health code violations along the way), and Ben ends up trying to sabotage Hershel’s efforts by manipulating social media. The conflict between the two Greenbaum men grows to ridiculously comic proportions. But the charm of this bizarre little film is seeing how they can eventually mend fences and find some common ground.

 

The technical tricks used to have both characters appear in the same scenes, interacting with each other, are marvelous. And Seth Rogan, who I’ve never been much of a fan of in his previous films, gives an excellent performance in each of these overblown roles. For what is essentially a “fish out of water” comedy poking fun at contemporary social mores, this movie had some surprisingly emotional scenes and unexpected depth.

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this film )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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Book Review: A Rip Through Time by Kelley Armstrong

A Rip Through Time
by Kelley Armstrong (Armstrong)

A woman jogging alone at night in Scotland has a near-death experience via strangling... only to wake up 150 years in the past in a body that is not her own. Detective Mallory Atkinson must solve her own assault to stop a would-be Jack the Ripper while also trying to find her way back to her own time.

 

Excellent story, the pace is fast, the drama from the body's previous tenet just enough to add spice and the characters are well-developed. Check this book out if time traveling detectives who are trying to fit into Victorian England are interesting to you!

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner, The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan or A Stitch in Time by Kelley Armstrong.)

 

( official Rip Through Time series page on the official Kelley Armstrong web site )

 

Recommended by Rio B.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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Book Review: A Timeless Christmas by Alexis Stanton

A Timeless Christmas
by Alexis Stanton (Hoopla E-Audiobook)

 

I was on a kick of watching quite a few of the “Hallmark Christmas Movies” that aired in October through December, and one of those was an adaptation of this novel — A Timeless Christmas — originally by Alexis Stanton. It was one of the better of the films this past holiday season, so I decided to take a chance on the original 2018 novel.

 

Megan Turner is a historical scholar, working at the historic Whitley Mansion as a costumed tour-guide, re-enacting what life in the mansion would have been like around 1902, when the famous inventor and innovator Charles Whitley disappeared, never to be seen again. Charles Whitley is that man, who accidentally triggers an unexpected time travel device in 1902, and who then reappears in his mansion in 2018, bewildered and surprised at both his predicament and all the strangers touring his elaborate home.

 

The “time travel” element is minor in this romance novel about a man out-of-place, a woman who was obsessed with him before he became a reality, and the typical learning experience of an inveterate tinkerer suddenly finding himself thrust into the world of iPhones and streaming video.

 

A lot of changes were made for the TV-movie, which tightened some plot elements and eliminated others from this novel. One of my favorite elements of the novel is the young daughter of one of the supporting characters, who is the first to recognize that Whitley is a real time traveler. This never made it into the film.

 

In the end, A Timeless Christmas is a very simply-written, charming little piece of fluff. Don’t expect depth and you’ll find enough to entertain you in this quick-to-read volume.

[ Hallmark Channel’s A Timeless Christmas movie web page ] | [ publisher’s official Alexis Stanton web page ]

 

For more “time travel” romances, check out our Somewhere in Time booklist on BookGuide!

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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DVD Review: Back in Time

Back in Time
[DVD 791.437 Bac]

I absolutely love Back to the Future. The first tilm in that trilogy is what I consider to be a “perfect” film, and although the second and third aren’t quite as flawless, they’re still highly entertaining and form a marvelous story arc. 2015 saw multiple celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the original film, including this charming 95-minute documentary about the impact the trilogy has had.

The first half of this documentary is about the making of the movie, with the writers, director (Robert Zemeckis), producers (including Steven Spielberg), cast members (Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson and more), score composer (Alan Silvestri), special effects supervisors and more all reminiscing about how the movies were created. The second half then looks at the fervent fan base this series of films has generated — including the many people who’ve purchased Delorean cars and modified them into the film’s iconic time machine, individuals who’ve dedicated themselves to sharing the word about Fox’s Parkinson’s organization, collectors, convention attendees, and so much more.

Producer/Director Jason Aaron has assembled dozens of interviews, creating a very “personal” feel to this documentary. Interspersed with the interviews are rare pieces of behind-the-scenes footage from the filming of the trilogy (including a few clips of “original” Marty McFly, Eric Stoltz, in scenes that had to be jettisoned after the role was recast 6 weeks into filming).

Anyone who’s a Back to the Future fan will enjoy this, but it should also appeal to any fan of moving-making and general pop culture. My only complaint, and it is a minor one, is that the pacing of this film is very slow and laconic, almost like a slow Ken Burns documentary — an odd choice considering how peppy and fast-paced the movies are. None-the-less, I highly enjoyed this and strongly recommend it to fellow BTTF aficionados.

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try Back to the Future movie trilogy, Back to the Future Animate Series or We Don’t Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy by Caseen Gaines.]

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official Back in Time Facebook feed ]

Read Kristen A.’s review of the Back to the Future film trilogy, from October 2013
Read Scott C.’s review of We Don’t Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy by Caseen Gaines, from November 2015

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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Looper (on DVD)

Looper [DVD Looper]

One of the best time travel films of the past 20 years! Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis are both superb, playing the same character, Joe. in 2074, time travel has been invented but it is essentially illegal and only used by black market forces, such as organized crime. When the mob wants to make somebody vanish, they send them backwards in time 30 years, where a “Looper” is waiting to execute the unfortunate victim. Things get complicated when old Joe (Willis), a former Looper, runs afoul of the mob in the future, and they send him back into the past for elimination by his own younger self (Gordon-Levitt). Suffice it to say, old Joe survives, and what results is a riotus action drama, with terrific stunts, lots of action sequences, and some mind-bending time travel dilemmas. I was particularly impressed by Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s performance — you could easily see his character aging into Willis’ later version of the same man. Terrific cast, and thought provoking action film. I highly recommend it!

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ] | [ official Looper web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
by Catherine Webb, writing as Claire North

One of the more intriguing “time travel” novels I’ve ever read — my science fiction club recently read this for one of our month book discussions, and the entire group of us were all impressed by this novel! Harry August is born in 1919, lives an unremarkable life, dies in his senior years…and is born once again, under the same circumstances in 1919. When he gets back age 3, all his memories of his previous life as Harry August come flooding back to him. And this happens again and again, always with him being reborn as the same Harry August, and with all his multiple lifetimes of accumulated knowledge coming back to him as soon as his brain is developed enough to handle that much data. And he’s not alone — throughout his lives, Harry encounters, interacts with, and joins a group of fellow ouroborans (also known as kalachakrans) that call themselves the Chronos Club — who have learned to pass messages backwards in time, via their members who are about to be reborn, that help them all live comfortable lives (over and over). When one of those time-traveling messages is passed on to Harry on his death bed — “the world is ending, faster than it should” — Harry must spend several lifetimes trying to figure out who is destroying the world, and how to stop them.

This novel uses a fascinating method of time travel — not completely unique, necessarily — and features several compelling characters, particularly Harry August himelf. I highly recommend this one!

[ official The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August web site ] | [ official Catherine Webb/Kate Griffin/Claire North web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

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Back to the Future - The Complete Trilogy

Back to the Future – The Complete Trilogy
[DVD Back]

Marty McFly is a high school student who is friends with a crazy scientist named Doc Brown, in this 1980's film trilogy. Doc invents a time machine and during testing, Marty accidentally travels back to 1955 when his parents are in high school. He locates the 1955 version of Doc to help him power the time machine to get him back to the future. However while the repairs are underway, he meet his mother who thinks he's dreamy. He then has to get his parents to fall in love so as to not alter history. He does eventually get back to 1985, but in the second film must return to 1955 because of a mishap on a visit to 2015. At the end of the second film, Doc is hit by lighting in the time machine (which delivers the correct amount of power to the flux capacitor) and is send back to 1885. So in the third film, Marty, with the help of 1955 Doc, goes back in time to the wild west to bring his friend back to 1985. I think it's a fun series because it takes place in the same town in four very different times. This movie trilogy has so much variety that it would appeal to viewers who enjoy adventure, time-travel, love stories, or 80's movies. -- recommended by Kristen A. - Gere Branch Library

[ Internet Movie Database entry for the first film in the series ] | [ official Back to the Future Facebook page ]

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New Booktalk Booklist - Get Your Kicks on Route 66

If you missed Pat's recent booktalk on the theme of Route 66, presented at the Gere Branch on February 13, 2012, never fear -- her booklist is now available on the library BookGuide readers advisory pages!

Check it out at: Get Your Kicks on Route 66, for some excellent books -- both non-fiction and novels -- about the Mother Road that served America as the primary travel conduit to California from the 1920s to the 1970s.

Timescape

Timescape
by Gregory Benford

Fans of theoretical time travel stories, and fans of hard SF should find this classic science fiction novel by Gregory Benford right up their alley. Published in 1980, the events in this novel take place 18 years before and after that date. In the "future" 1998, the planet is suffering from global ecological disasters, and despite the fact that humanity is facing the danger of extinction, a small group of scientists must still fight bureaucracy and limited financial resources in order to attempt an experiment that may allow them to send a message back in time to try to forestall or prevent the catastrophes that their society is facing. In 1962, scientists in California are analyzing seeming unexplainable results they are getting from an experiment they are running -- results that appear to be static but when analyzed seem to be a message from the future. Benford handles the theoretical physics in his SF plot very well, without talking over the heads of his non-scientific readers. His characters are well-developed too, although sometimes their "soap opera" plot elements get in the way of a gripping science fictional story. This one is a true modern classic of the genre -- having won both the Nebula Award and the John W. Campbell Award (both for best SF novel of the year!) -- and I highly recommend it! -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[ Timescape page on Wikipedia ] | [ official Gregory Benford web site ]

See more books like this in our Nebula Award Winners booklist

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
by Charles Yu [Compact Disc Yu]

I really wanted to like this book (which I happened to listen to in book-on-CD form). I'd read quite nice reviews of it on various online sites, and have always been a fan of time-travel stories, so I was looking forward to giving it a sample. Yu, using himself as a narrative hero, creates an interesting time paradox, but I ended up finding the the non-stop internal monologue to become a bit tiring. The style of Yu's writing ranges from the humorous satire of Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, to more serious scifi fare. The supporting characters -- Tammy the time machine's operating system, Phil -- the manager who doesn't realize he's a computer program -- and Ed, the dog who doesn't exist...but still does -- are all intriguing, and at times, I felt on the verge of buying into the whole tale. But then it gets mired in too much introspection and lost me again. I think some SF fans will enjoy this, for its component parts, so I'll recommend it for the casual genre fan. -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[Also available in downloadable E-book formats.]

[ publisher's official Charles Yu web page ]

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New reviews appear every month on the Staff Recommendations page of the BookGuide web site. You can visit that page to see them all, or watch them appear here in the BookGuide blog individually over the course of the entire month.

Time After Time

Time After Time
[DVD Time]

Time After Time is a marvelously inventive film -- part science fiction, part fantasy, part romance, part thriller, and filled with terrific performances. Directed, and with a screenplay, by Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek II, The Seven Percent Solution), Time After Time posits that H.G. Wells is not only the writer behind The Time Machine, but that he's actually invented a working model. One of Wells' group of 1890s associates turns out to be Jack the Ripper, and must quickly disappear once the authorities start tracking him down. Having seen Wells' working model of the time machine, "Jack" steals it, and travels to 1979. Wells, guilt-stricken at having allowed his former friend to get away, follows. The rest of the film is a psychological thriller, as both men adjust to late-20th century San Francisco and a pretty young banker becomes a pawn in a menacing game of cat-and-mouse between the two time travelers. Malcolm McDowell makes a great flawed hero, and Mary Steenbergen is nice as the modern woman who falls for him. But David Warner steals the show as the legendary Jack the Ripper transplanted into a new killing ground. Absolutely terrific and entertaining film! Note: This DVD version features a commentary track with McDowell and Meyer. Fun to listen to! -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[ Internet Movie Database entry for this film ]

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Time and Again

Time and Again
by Jack Finney

This is a fascinating time travel novel, by a master fantasist. Artist Si Morley gets involved in a secret government project to prove that someone can be sent backwards in time and then return to the present day. The "science" is hokey -- using hypnosis and the environmental equivalent of a sensory deprivation chamber -- and the novel only remotely deals with potential time travel paradoxes. However, this book is a love poem to Victoriana -- Finney's extremely detailed descriptions of everything the characters encounter in the novel give a real sense of place, and the reader can easily find themselves falling in love with 1880s New York. This novel, in many ways, inspired the Jane Seymour/Christopher Reeve time-travel romance film, Somewhere in Time (even though that was written by Richard Matheson). If you liked that film, you'll probably enjoy this novel, too. -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[ Wikipedia page for Time and Again ] | [ Wikipedia page for Jack Finney ]


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Time Travel

Time Travel

by Paul J. Nahin [808.388 Nah]

Third of four volumes in Writers Digest's Science Fiction Writing Series. Author Nahin approaches the science behind theoretical methods of time travel from a literary perspective by highlighting popular time travel methods used in classic novels and stories to date. He then explores a wide variety of scientific theories about time travel, with concrete examples of how to incorporate these into your own speculative fiction. Interesting chapters include "Time as the Fourth Dimension", "When General Relativity Made Time Travel Honest", "Time Machines That Physicists Have Already 'Invented'", "Quantum Gravity, Splitting Universes, and Time Machines" and "Reading the Physics Literature for Story Ideas." As with earlier volumes in this series, there is a helpful glossary of terms and concepts, and an extensive bibliography of additional reading on the topic. Of the four volumes in this series, I found this one to be the most technical, dealing as it is with theoretical physics. Still, a useful tool for writers of science fiction. -- recommended by Scott C. - Bennett Martin Public Library

[ Paul Nahin bio ]

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