@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @@@@@@@ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @ @ @ @ @@@@@ @@@@@ @@@Mt. Holz Science Fiction Society 02/20/26 -- Vol. 44, No. 34, Whole Number 2420
Table of Contents
Mini Reviews, Part 07 (SINNERS, GUNS & MOSES, PROBLEMISTA) (film reviews by Evelyn C. Leeper):
And three more recent films:
SINNERS (2025): SINNERS now holds the record for most Academy Award nominations (16). (The previous record was 14, with ALL ABOUT EVE, TITANIC, and LA LA LAND each receiving that number.) I would describe SINNERS as "FROM DUSK TO DAWN meets Victor Lavalle (particularly THE BALLAD OF BLACK TOM)". The dance floor sequence is amazing. Whether the mainstream audience who were not pleased with THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS getting awards will even go watch SINNERS is not clear. I'm assuming you know the premise of SINNERS; I would be curious to know the reaction of those who go to see it not knowing the premise.
I haven't seen very many of the nominated films from 2025, but I do recommend this one.
Released theatrically 18 April 2025.
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31193180/reference
What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sinners_2025
GUNS & MOSES (2025): One thing you can say about Salvador Litvak: he doesn't repeat himself. Litvak's first film was WHEN DO WE EAT? a comedy about a dysfunctional family on the first night of Passover. His second film was SAVING LINCOLN (2013), effectively the filming of a stage play with highly stylized sets. And now comes his third, GUNS & MOSES (2024), a crime thriller set in the high desert.
Litvak is to some extent sui generis, but if I had to compare him to another filmmaker (or filmmakers) it would the Joel and Ethan Brothers. If WHEN DO WE EAT? seems in the same genre as RAISING ARIZONA or THE BIG LEBOWSKI, GUNS & MOISES has echoes of FARGO. (I will admit that there is nothing in the Coen's oeuvre--or anyone else's--quite like SAVING LINCOLN.)
Anyway, in GUNS & MOSES, Litvak returns to a Jewish theme, or at least a story about Jews. Alan (a Jewish man) is shot during a ceremony celebrating his life. Everyone is sure they know who the killer is, and are sure it a hate crime, but Rabbi Moses Zaltzman isn't so sure. Then Tibor (another Jewish man) is shot while telling the rabbi about reasons why there might be other people who had reasons to kill Alan. Soon the rabbi is toting a gun and trying to solve the case.
I don't know much about guns, but it does seem like the rabbi gets really good at shooting (and at handling guns in general) really fast. I'm sure his daughter's line when she finishes the rabbi's gun training will appeal to many: "May God and your Glock protect you."
As with Litvak's first two films, GUNS & MOSES was co-written with his wife, Nina (Davidovich) Litvak. And in spite of the very offbeat nature (and undoubtedly small budgets) of his films, Litvak does get a few familiar actors. In WHEN DO WE EAT? it was Lesley Ann Warren, Michael Lerner, and Jack Klugman; in GUNS & MOSES he has Christopher Lloyd, Dermot Mulroney, Neal McDonough, and Jake Busey. As with many independent filmmakers, Litvak attracts actors who want something that is not a cookie-cutter role. For example, Christopher Lloyd gets a chance to play a straight dramatic (albeit small) role in GUNS & MOSES, while most of his films over the last several decades have him in comedic or villainous roles. And it's good to see him still acting at age 87 years old.
I really liked this film, as I liked Litvak's other two. I will say, however, that the IMDb ratings don't back me up.
Released theatrically 18 July 2025.
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt21861086/reference
What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/guns_and_moses
PROBLEMISTA (2023): PROBLEMISTA seems to be both topical and outdated. Alejandro comes to the United States on a work visa for a cryogenic company in order to be able to apply for the job he really wants as a toy designer. When he gets fired, he is desperate to find a new job within thirty days to avoid being deported. Obviously, deportation is an issue these days, but it's also true that having a job and a work visa is no guarantee that you won't be grabbed off the street and deported anyway.
But it's more complicated than that. He needs money to apply for a new work visa, but he cannot accept money for a job until he has the new work visa.
Then he meets up with a woman who was/is the wife of an artist frozen in the facility where Alejandro worked who can best be described as manic. Somehow Alejandro makes a connection with her (or perhaps it's that Alejandro knows how to pretend to have a connection).
The film is very surreal, with a lot of the visuals representing Alejandro's interior thoughts (well, of course they're interior--how could there be exterior thoughts?).
I definitely recommend this one, both for the characters, and the visual style.
Released theatrically 22 March 2024.
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15078804/reference
What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/problemista
[-ecl]
Ray Harryhausen Films, Part 02 (20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH, THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD) (film comments by Evelyn C. Leeper):
20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957): The posters all say "20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH", but in FILM FANTASY SCRAPBOOK, Harryhausen calls it "TWENTY MILLION MILES TO EARTH". (This is not the only instance; it happens with THE 3 WORLDS OF GULLIVER as well.)
They still have the tacky opening narration. This one adds stereotypical Italians. Admittedly the worst of them is the young boy who is fixated on Texas, but the adults speak in that Italian pidgin one finds in movies but not in real life, even when speaking to each other. Admittedly, this was well before movies had characters speaking their own language to each other, with subtitles provided for the English-speaking audience. But when one gets used to that (or the other variation, where they speak perfectly good English, but with an accent), hearing the equivalence of illiteracy in speech is jarring.
Released theatrically June 1957.
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050084/reference
What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/20_million_miles_to_earth
THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958): With THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, Harryhausen has hit his stride. Gone is the black-and-white photography and the stock footage (though there is still a problem matching film stocks). Gone are the voice-over introductions to each of the first three films. Gone is the long wait before the monsters/special effects appear. Appearing for the first time are what would become standard for a Harryhausen film: the score by Bernard Herrmann (though he did only four of the scores), the crayon drawings under the title credit sequence, the use of color, and the dropping of an opening narration. Continuing though, is the use of numbers in the titles--with THE 3 WORLDS OF GULLIVER, Harryhausen will make it three in a row.
And Harryhausen is given free rein to design and animate creatures that became his trademark.
Presumably Harryhausen also did the special effects of Parisa shrinking, and of a miniature Parisa interacting with the full-size world.
It is not clear when (or where) THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD takes place. Sinbad comes from Baghdad, which was founded in 762, but it must be considerably later given the magnificence of Baghdad. I would guess around 900, since after that Baghdad declined and was conquered by the Mongols in 1258.
Sinbad and others are clearly Muslim, yet his behavior with the princess is contrary to the laws of modesty (as is her clothing).
Released theatrically 23 December 1958.
Film Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051337/reference
What others are saying: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/seventh_voyage_of_sinbad
[-ecl]
The Case of the Mysterious Bookbinder (comments on an excursion by Katherine B. Pott):
[Kate sent me this description; it was too good not to share. -ecl]
The day was fair but very cold. Even the crows were silently huddled on the telephone poles. The weight of my precious worn and tattered book pressed against my side as I waited for the first bus of many I would need to take that day. The wind picked up and began to find every hole in my old scarf as I waited at the bus shelter which was not really a shelter at all, merely an indentation in the snow Bank near where the bus might stop if the driver was kind.
At last, I was on board and beginning to thaw as we arrived at the first transfer point. The second bus actually arrived early, but with the determined illogic of the The RULES OF BUS TRANSIT, no one could board until departure time. no matter the Alpine temperatures. The only reason I could make of this, was to give the driver time to smoke and socialize with other waiting drivers. Perhaps it's in their contract.
Eventually we departed and I pulled out my phone to review the next stage of my journey. Several weeks ago, my brother had sent me an old collection of fairy tales which had been in the family since my great grandfather received it as a child. I hadn't seen it in many years and was saddened by its very deteriorated condition. No other children would ever again enjoy its magic without immediate and drastic restoration. Thus, I began the search for a bookbinder who specialized in antiquarian restoration. I found one two towns over who would be glad to examine it and give an opinion on what would be possible. This was kind of him, since I doubted the book was intrinsically valuable to anyone except family, and he was very busy with wealthy collectors. An appointment was arranged.
Now as the bus pulled into Easthampton, I reviewed his instructions:
"The bindery is at the end of Cottage St. You will need to find a large brick building in the shape of an L. You must enter through the rear. You will cross a courtyard, after which you will come to a small alleyway. Enter and you will find two large steel doors at the end. Open them but DO NOT RING THE BELL! Once you enter, you will find a large hallway, follow it until you come to a small old fashioned elevator. Open the metal grill to enter it. Once inside, press the up button and count four floors. I will be waiting for you in room 24."
So with some slight trepidation, I dismounted the bus at the end of Cottage St. and searched for a large brick building. Not finding any in view from the bus stop, I pulled up Google maps and asked it to find number 1 Cottage St. The answer was that I was at No. 1 Cottage St. This did not seem to be the case, so I asked for an image of the bindery with the result of a large brick building in the shape of an L.
Being forced to improvise at this point, I had no choice but to continue walking towards the extreme end of Cottage St. Still no brick buildings in sight and by now, I was walking into gusts of below zero wind. In a desperate move, I removed my gloves and dialed the number provided by the bindery website but received no answer. The last of the shops and restaurants had vanished several blocks ago, my hands were so numb, putting the gloves back on was very difficult. Google was proving to be useless even if I had been able to hold the phone.
The choice was turn back and give up on a day's worth of effort or apply logic to the problem and determine what could make a large brick building invisible? If Google GPS could see it, why couldn't I? Then I had it. The satellite would see the area from overhead, while I was limited to one elevation. The building must be in a depression below my line of sight. Now retracing my steps in the direction of the bus stop, I looked for any possible evidence of this. Near to where I had started, a long steep flight of concrete steps appeared, hiding in shadow and covered in snow. Determined and freezing, I clung to the rusty handrail and started down.
Finally reaching the bottom, I looked over an expanse of deserted parking lot. No cars or people in sight, but yes, in the distance, I could see a large brick building! As I approached, the building resolved into an L shape with an interior courtyard. A short dark alley led to a set of double metal doors. Beside them stood an ancient clapper alarm bell such as one would see in old movie depictions of fire houses. Carefully avoiding it, I entered into a poorly lit hallway with uneven worn flooring. Finding no listing of tenants or businesses, I continued walking down one dark hallway after another, until finding a tiny elevator. As I pulled open the metal grill, a screech like a dying rabbit echoed throughout the halls. Apparently, maintenance had stopped sometime in the last century.
Remembering every foolish thing I had ever seen characters do in horror movies, I put my faith in the good intentions of bookbinders, pressed up and counted to 4.
Room number 24 was halfway down the hall and distinguished by a large brass door knocker shaped like a scroll of papyrus. When I knocked a cheerful voice called for me to come in. A tall thin man wearing a full length dusty apron, introduced himself as Peter, the proprietor of the bindery. I apologized for being late, explaining that while he was indeed near the bus stop, he was actually invisible from it. He laughingly explained that this would never occur to anyone arriving by car, not walking from the center of town. HUMPF!
At any rate, the meeting went well. He said the work would be possible at a reasonable price.
Preparing to leave, I couldn't help but mention how empty the building seemed. "Yes", he said. "I am the last tenant. The building is scheduled for demolition soon and the whole area for re-development."
"So, you will be moving?", I said.
"Yes, in about two months", replied Peter. "But fortunately, I found new larger accommodations in a brand new building in the downtown area of a nearby town."
"That sounds great," I said. "But I better get going as I want to hit one of my favorite bookstores just down and up the street from you! Hopefully, I can catch the bus for home before it's dark."
"Where's home?", he asked.
"Amherst", I said.
"What a coincidence!", he said. "That's where I'm moving in the Spring, downtown Amherst!"
[-kbp]
LITTLE WOMEN Goes Goth (pointer to book review):
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/books/review/little-women-retellings.html
This review covers "Maire Roche’s middle-grade fantasy, LITTLE MONSTERS (Aladdin, 288 pp., $17.99, ages 8 to 12), due out in August, in which the four March sisters, now contemporary kids living in Salem, lead double lives as, respectively, a vampire, a werewolf, a bat-winged creature and a sea monster," and "BETH IS DEAD (Sarah Barley/Simon & Schuster, 400 pp., $19.99, ages 12 and up), in which Katie Bernet reimagines LITTLE WOMEN as a young-adult murder mystery."
The review references the Jane Austen pastiches PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES and DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY, the first most similar to LITTLE MONSTERS and the second a murder mystery like BETH IS DEAD. (There is also SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AND SEA MONSTERS.)
It's notable that the Alcott pastiches are aimed at teenagers, while the Austen ones are for the adult market. [-ecl]
China's Dancing Robots (pointer to article):
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/18/china-dancing-humanoid-robots-festival-show
The article includes a one-minute video. [-ecl]
The American Colonists and Taxation (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper):
In AMERICAN IDEALS: FOUNDING A "REPUBLIC OF VIRTUE" (from the Great Courses), the Professor Daniel N. Robinson claims that if one looks at what was written and at the timeline, the colonists did not object to taxation when it was supporting their protection or regulating commerce. It was only when taxation was used primarily as a revenue-producing source that they rose up against it. [-ecl]
ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (letter of comment by Dan Kimmel):
In response to Evelyn's comments on ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER in the 02/13/26 issue of the MT VOID, Dan Kimmel writes:
I agree with your take on ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER. The film made no lasting impression on me and I don't get what the fuss is about. After more than forty years as a film critic I'm finding that the movies that I like and the ones my colleagues and the Academy praise are becoming polar opposites. Several of this year's Oscar nominees for Best Picture would be on my Ten Worst list. ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER would not be, but neither did it make my Ten Best list either. [-dmk]
CAUTIONARY TALES FOR CHILDREN (letters of comment by Andre Kuzniarek and Denise Moy):
In response to Evelyn's comments on CAUTIONARY TALES FOR CHILDREN in the 02/13/26 issue of the MT VOID, Andre Kuzniarek writes:
I grew up with having German immigrant parents, and this over-the-top artifact was simply considered children's book fare. Might explain my passion for weird and fantastical media:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struwwelpeter
[-ak]
Evelyn notes:
Great illustrations in the Wikipedia article! [-ecl]
Denise Moy adds another link in the chain of influences:
I was not familiar with Belloc's CAUTIONARY TALES so I read Project Gutenberg's copy just now. Did you know that Maurice Sendak rewrote and illustrated Jim's story as PIERRE: A CAUTIONARY TALE? It was also put to music by Carole King for their musical "Really Rosie". My then-nine-year-old sister played the soundtrack record so many times!
[-dm]
Hard Science and Hard Science Fiction, Glossaries, and a Typo (letter of comment by John Hertz):
In response to Evelyn's comments on John Hertz's comments on hard science fiction in the 01/16/26 issue of the MT VOID, John writes:
[Evelyn wrote,] "You seem to move back and forth between talking about 'hard science fiction' and 'hard science'." [-ecl]
Indeed I question both "hard science" and "hard science fiction". [-jh]
John also noted a typo:
[Evelyn wrote,] "On a recent trip to the public library, a friend and I noticed that a substantial percentage of books filed in the "Fiction" section were actually fantasy: time travel (with any science fiction basis), ghosts, magical realism, etc." [-ecl]
Evelyn responds:
Obviously I meant "time travel (*without* any science fiction basis)". [-ecl]
In response to Evelyn's comments on THE HISTORY OF TIME: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION in the 01/30/26 issue, John writes:
[Evelyn wrote,] "There's a two-page glossary of several dozen words such as embolism, feria, luna, and indiction, that are used liberally in the text." [-ecl]
Hooray for glossaries! [-jh]
This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper):
More from ORWELL'S ESSAYS by George Orwell (Everyman, ISBN 978-0-375-41503-6):
"Can Socialists Be Happy?" (Tribune, 31 December 1943) begins with Orwell observing that in Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" the Cratchits seem to be happy and enjoying life. He writes, "The Cratchits are able to enjoy their Christmas precisely because Christmas only comes once a year. Their happiness is convincing just because it is described as incomplete." He then goes on to write, "All efforts to describe *permanent* happiness, on the other hand, have been failures, from earliest history onwards. Utopias ... have been common in the literature of the past three or four hundred years, but the 'favourable' ones are invariably unappetising, and usually lacking in vitality as well." Later he elaborates: "All 'favourable' Utopias seem to be alike in postulating perfection while being unable to suggest happiness."
Of GULLIVER'S TRAVELS he writes, "The earlier parts of GULLIVER'S TRAVELS are probably the most devastating attack on human society that has ever been written. Every word of them is relevant to-day; in places they contain quite detailed prophecies of the political horrors of our own time. Where Swift fails, however, is in trying to describe a race of beings whom he *does* admire." Even Heaven fails: "Attempts at describing a definitely other-worldly happiness have been no more successful. ... It is a commonplace that the Christian Heaven, as usually portrayed, would attract nobody." Somehow vague references to "gold, precious stones, and hymns" don't really sound inviting to most people. When Tertullian (an early Church father) wrote in "De spectaculis" ("The Shows") that the greatest joy from those in heaven is watching the tortures of the damned, he may have been trying to make Heaven more appealing.
(Or as Mark Twain said, "Heaven for climate, hell for society.")
Basically, Orwell is saying that we need contrast. Just as we don't appreciate health unless we have experienced illness, or satiety until we have known hunger, a life with no difficulties would not result in happiness. (Elements of this appear in the probably apocryphal early life of Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha). So Orwell concludes, "[The] real objective of Socialism is not happiness. Happiness has hitherto been a by-product, and for all we know it may always remain so. The real objective of Socialism is human brotherhood."
"As I Please 5" (Tribune, 31 December 1943) Orwell talks about war and war crimes. He points out that waging war is not in itself crime, and that Hitler never personally did anything that we label as a war crime. "So far as it goes, the distinction between an atrocity and an act of war is valid. An atrocity means an act of terrorism which has no genuine military purpose. One must accept such distinctions if one accepts war at all, which in practice everyone does. Nevertheless, a world in which it is wrong to murder an individual civilian and right to drop a thousand tons of high explosive on a residential area does sometimes make me wonder whether this earth of ours is not a looney-bin made use of by some other planet."
Orwell is no predictor, though; he writes, "[Hitler] has merely precipitated a world war which will perhaps have cost twenty million lives before it ends." The latest estimates I have seen are sixty to eighty million lives, with about two-thirds directly caused by the war and the other third from war-related disease and famine. (China alone had twenty million deaths.) [-ecl]
Evelyn C. Leeper
evelynchimelisleeper@gmail.com
Quote of the Week:
Happiness isn't something you experience;
it's something you remember.
--Oscar Levant
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