Judge a book by these covers

Plus: On the trail of Oscar nominees ...

Who doesn’t like to curl up with a good book on an inclement day? Or even the day after, since I meant to post this Saturday.

Last week, I asked people on Facebook to share their favorite book covers with me. After a few opening items focused on current Oscar nominees, you can see the panoply of painted pathos.

On the Best Picture radar

I haven’t seen all 10 best picture nominees, but I’m getting closer. Last week, Elvis and All Quiet on the Western Front brought me to seven, and I’ve stream-rented Triangle of Sadness for today. The Fabelmans will be next, leaving only Avatar: The Way of Water, which I don’t plan on seeing now if ever.

But given my lifestyle of TV and books, I’m actually surprised I’m coming that close. I’ll rank my favorites before we get to the March 12 ceremony, but in place of Avatar, I’m going to include Aftersun, which clearly belongs. And among others, I really need to see Till.

First, let’s cover last week’s duo.

Elvis

With Baz Luhrmann directing, I knew I was in for a wild ride. But the first five or 10 minutes of Elvis were so chaotic, such pure madness with screens split and split and split, that if it had gone on that for another five or 10 minutes, I would have shut it down.

Instead, the movie found a daffy, dazzly rhythm that didn’t make me want to hide, and I was fine the rest of the way.

Austin Butler, nominated for Best Actor, is worth the price of submission. He brings Elvis to multidimensional life without parody. Between Butler and the script written by Luhrmann and three others, I felt I was getting Elvis from the inside out.

And then, there’s Tom Hanks as Col. Tom Parker.

Jon Weisman @jonweisman

@ericstephen I'm still processing, but Hanks is in a sweet spot between the Kids in the Hall's headcrusher and Milton from Office Space.

I read over and over again that Hanks’ performance had to be seen to be believed, and boy was that true. Hanks has done some weird stuff in his storied career than people seem to remember — see The Cloud Atlas, if you dare. While Hanks’ also turns Parker from a name to a fully realized character, surreal as he was, I’m not sure I ever stopped simply gawking at him.

Even for casual Elvis fans, Elvis might not tell you much that you wouldn’t already know. I didn’t need to see it, but I have no regrets about sticking around.

All Quiet on the Western Front

All Quiet is a technically superb, well-acted, potent and grisly drama (directed by Edward Berger, who was nominated for an Emmy for the Showtime limited series Patrick Melrose) adapting Erich Maria Remarque’s world-renowned novel about the human tragedy of trench warfare in the first World War.

Especially at the time of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it probably never hurts to be reminded of the terror of war at the ground level. Movies have a power that news coverage often lacks.

At the same time, we had Dunkirk in 2017, 1917 in 2019, and while those films are from several years ago now, they still seem fresh. I’ve also kind of had my fill of the dichotomy between old generals eating caviar while the young soldiers eat dirt. Overall, All Quiet has a parallel with Elvis here — the viewing experiences were strong, but in terms of story, not groundbreaking.

What also matters is this: Elvis is 159 minutes. All Quiet is 147 minutes. Triangle of Sadness, next on my list, is also 147 minutes. I don’t have anything against the occasional 2 1/2-hour movie, but seeing three of them in a row is just about punishing. That’s close to the length of an eight-episode season of television drama, and I’m rarely going to push myself through that in a week.

Small aside: I have been watching Tulsa King, the Paramount+ series starring Sylvester Stallone. As a drama, it is almost completely goofy, but I mean that as a complement. It’s easy and entertaining. More to the point, each episode is about 40 minutes long, and at the risk of sounding as old as, um, I am … that length is such a breath of fresh air.

Braking Away

Speaking of the completely goofy, you might remember (if you haven’t repressed) “Those bastards cut my brakes — what now?” from earlier this month, when I imagined what I could do if my car couldn’t stop going downhill from Mulholland Drive in my fair but urban city.

Today, Bob Timmermann took things a step farther with some actually useful information on that topic and more. No excerpts here — head over to Bob’s free Substack to check it out.

Cover me? No, cover you

Okay, without further ado or adon’t, let’s get to the 17 book covers that my friends be loving.