Unbearable Detail

Books
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days by Jeff Kinney
Stitches by David Small
The Day-Glo Brothers by Chris Barton, Tony Persiani
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
Cautionary Tales for Children by Hilaire Belloc

Movies (DVD)
Funny Games dir. Michael Haneke
Is Anybody There? dir. John Crowley
Tokyo! dir. Michel Gondry, Léos Carax, Bong Joon-ho
Eden Log dir. Franck Vestiel
The Informers dir. Gregor Jordan

Maximum Safety

Movies (theater)
An Education dir. Lone Scherfig
Avatar dir. James Cameron

Movies (DVD)
Be Kind Rewind dir. Michel Gondry
Drillbit Taylor dir. Steven Brill
Helvetica dir. Gary Hustwit
The Italian Job dir. F. Gary Gray
Yuvvraaj dir. Subhash Ghai

Books
Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman

Revealing Meditation

Movies (DVD)
Karma Aur Holi dir. Manish Gupta
Dasvidaniya dir. Shashant Shah
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead dir. Sidney Lumet
Waltz with Bashir dir. Ari Folman
The Edge of Heaven dir. Fatih Akin
Waiting... dir. Rob McKittrick
The 6th Day dir. Roger Spottiswoode

Finely Detailed

Movies (DVD)
X Men Origins: Wolverine dir. Gavin Hood
The Taking of Pelham 123 dir. Tony Scott

Movies (theater)
Red Cliff dir. John Woo

Books
Paul Goes Fishing by Michel Rabagliati

Methodical Plotting

Movies (DVD)
Fighting dir. Dito Montiel
Bride Wars dir. Gary Winick
Crossing Over dir. Wayne Kramer
Run, Fatboy, Run dir. David Schwimmer
Mad Detective dir. Johnnie To, Wai Ka Fai

Monty Python and the Holy Grail dir. Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones

Books
The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo

Bleakly Furious

Movies (DVD)
Observe and Report dir. Jody Hill
The International dir. Tom Tykwer
Gangster dir. Anurag Basu
Lymelife dir. Derick Martini

Books
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw by Jeff Kinney
Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? by Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert

Intricate and Disturbing

Movies (DVD)
From Hell dir. The Hughes Brothers
Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who! dir. Jimmy Hayward, Steve Martino
The Visitor dir. Thomas McCarthy
Management dir. Stephen Belber
Grey Gardens dir. Michael Sucsy
Stupidity dir. Albert Nerenberg
Apaharan dir. Prakash Jha

Quirky and Apologetic

Movies (DVD)
Push dir. Paul McGuigan
The Great Buck Howard dir. Sean McGinly
Nothing Like the Holidays dir. Alfredo De Villa
I am Legend dir. Francis Lawrence

Books
The Beats: A Graphic History by Harvey Pekar et al.
The End of the World as We Know It by Robert Goolrick

Fire of Rage

Movies (DVD)
Mangal Pandey: The Rising dir. Ketan Mehta
Wonder Woman dir. Lauren Montgomery
The Pink Panther 2 dir. Harald Zwart
The Lookout dir. Scott Frank
Adam Resurrected dir. Paul Schrader
Ghajini dir. A. R. Murugadoss

Movies (theater)
Law Abiding Citizen dir. F. Gary Gray
This Is It dir. Kenny Ortega

Books
The Neddiad: How Neddie Took the Train, Went to Hollywood, and Saved Civilization by Daniel Pinkwater
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney

Sex and Comedy

Movies (DVD)
Duplicity dir. Tony Gilroy
State of Play dir. Kevin Macdonald
Birds of America dir. Craig Lucas
Fanboys dir. Kyle Newman
The Brothers Bloom dir. Rian Johnson
Year One dir. Harold Ramis

Books
Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan

Surreal Landscape

Movies (DVD)
Land of the Lost dir. Brad Silberling
Drag Me to Hell dir. Sam Raimi
Tintorettor Jishu dir. Sandip Ray
Adoration dir. Atom Egoyan

Skewed Perspective

Movies (theater)
Capitalism: A Love Story dir. Michael Moore

Movies (DVD)
Bedknobs and Broomsticks dir. Robert Stevenson
Plaster Caster dir. Jessica Everleth
Being Cyrus dir. Homi Adajania
Intequam dir. Pankuj Parashar
The Last Metro dir. Francois Truffaut
Midnight Meat Train dir. Ryûhei Kitamura
Banaras dir. Pankuj Parashar
Grande École dir. Robert Salis

Books
Lowboy by John Wray

Full Disclosure

Movies (theater)
The Invention of Lying dir. Ricky Gervais, Matthew Robinson
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs dir. Phil Lord, Chris Miller

Movies (DVD)
Short Cuts dir. Robert Altman
Yeti: A Love Story dir. Adam Deyoe, Eric Gosselin
Drona dir. Goldie Behl

Out of Control

Movies (DVD)
Jodhaa Akbar dir. Ashutosh Gowarikar
Ace in the Hole dir. Billy Wilder
Three Times dir. Hsiao Hsien
Miss March dir. Zach Cregger, Trevor Moore
The King of Comedy dir. Martin Scorsese
JCVD dir. Mabrouk El Mechri
Beauty and the Beast dir. Jean Cocteau

Books
Yggyssey: How Iggy Wondered What Happened to All the Ghosts, Found Out Where They Went, and Went There by Daniel Pinkwater

Second Chance

Movies (DVD)
The Class dir. Laurent Cantet
Dark Days dir. Marc Singer
Solaris dir. Steven Soderbergh
Choke dir. Clark Gregg
City of Ember dir. Gil Kenan
Doogal dir. Dave Borthwick, Jean Duval, Frank Passingham
Mithya dir. Rajat Kapoor

Movies (theater)
Bright Star dir. Jane Campion

Books
Byron in Love by Edna O'Brien

Out of Balance

Movies (DVD)
Aaja Nachle dir. Anil Mehta
Bugaboo dir. Sujit Saraf
Hamlet 2 dir. Andrew Fleming
Valkyrie dir. Bryan Singer

Movies (theater)
Ponyo dir. Hayao Miyazaki
The Informant! dir. Steven Soderbergh

Books
Lewis Carroll in Numberland: His Fantastical Mathematical Logical Life by Robin Wilson

Uneasy Transition

Movies (DVD)
17 Again by Burr Steers
Paheli dir. Amol Palekar
Bigger Stronger Faster* dir. Christopher Bell
After the Wedding dir. Susanne Bier
Religulous dir. Larry Charles
Shine a Light dir. Martin Scorsese
Charlie Bartlett dir. Jon Poll

Movies (theater)
Extract dir. Mike Judge
Inglourious Basterds dir. Quentin Tarantino

Wholesale Transformation

Movies (theater)
Thirst dir. Park Chan-wook

Movies (DVD)
The Workshop dir. Jamie Morgan
Role Models dir. David Wain
Anything Else dir. Woody Allen
The Pursuit of Happyness dir. Gabriele Muccino
Dev dir. Govind Nihalani
The Last Lear dir. Rituparno Ghosh
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead dir. Tom Stoppard

Books
Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey
The Devil's Storybook by Natalie Babbitt

Last Hope

Movies (DVD)
Sunshine dir. Danny Boyle
Cassandra's Dream dir. Woody Allen
Get Smart dir. Peter Segal
Taxi to the Dark Side dir. Alex Gibney
Rang De Basanti dir. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra

Movies (theater)
(500) Days of Summer dir. Marc Webb

Soul Searching

Movies (DVD)
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired dir. Marina Zenovich
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People dir. Robert B. Weide
Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder dir. Peter Avanzino
Gaslight dir. George Cukor
The Secret Life of Bees dir. Gina Prince-Bythewood
A Jihad for Love dir. Parvez Sharma
Guru dir. Mani Ratnam

Movies (theater)
Cold Souls dir. Sophie Barthes
The Collector dir. Marcus Dunstan
Spread dir. David Mackenzie
District 9 dir. Neill Blomkamp
Funny People dir. Judd Apatow

Shared Camaraderie

Movies (DVD)
Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs dir. Peter Avanzino
Futurama: Bender's Game dir. Dwayne Carey-Hill
The Darjeeling Limited dir. Wes Anderson

Movies (theater)
The Women dir. George Cukor

Books
The Story of a Marriage by Andrew Sean Greer
Y: The Last Man by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra

Arrested Adolescence

Movies (DVD)
The Fall dir. Tarsem
Forgetting Sarah Marshall dir. Nicholas Stoller
Dharm dir. Bhavna Talwar
Brideshead Revisited dir. Julian Jarrold

Movies (theater)
The Organizer dir. Mario Monicelli
Frank Zappa's 200 Motels dir. Frank Zappa

Shrouded in Mystery

Movies (DVD)
Traitor dir. Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Burn After Reading dir. Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
The Reader dir. Stephen Daldry
The X Files: I Want to Believe dir. Chris Carter

Movies (theater)
Chéri dir. Stephen Frears
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince dir. David Yates

Books
Buddha Boy by Kathe Koja

Interrogating the Past

Movies (DVD)
Amu dir. Shonali Bose
The Band's Visit dir. Eran Kolirin
Dor dir. Nagesh Kukunoor

Movies (theater)
Brüno dir. Larry Charles

A Taste of Death

Movies (DVD)
Ghost Town dir. David Koepp
Reprise dir. Joachim Trier
The Other End of the Line dir. James Dodson
Waitress dir. Adrienne Shelly
Love in the Time of Cholera dir. Mike Newell
Decameron dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini

Movies (theater)
Creature from the Black Lagoon (in 3D) dir. Jack Arnold

Books
Nation by Terry Pratchett
Embroideries by Marjane Satrapi

Unlikely Alliance

Movies (DVD)
Sex, Lies, and Videotape dir. Steven Soderbergh
The Wackness dir. Jonathan Levine
The Women dir. Diane English
Madly Bangali dir. Anjan Dutta
Kaalbela dir. Gautam Ghosh
Baghead dir. Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass

Two Sides

I was on a trip to Hawaii, but I still squeezed in a few movies and a book in the last two weeks.

Movies (DVD)
Underdog dir. Frederik Du Chau
American Gangster dir. Ridley Scott
Contract dir. Ram Gopal Varma

Books
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway

Under a Curse

Movies (DVD)
Penelope dir. Mark Palansky
Oldboy dir. Chan-wook Park
88 Minutes dir. Jon Avnet
Let's Talk dir. Ram Madhvani
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi dir. Aditya Chopra

Movies (theater)
Night and Fog in Japan dir. Nagisa Oshima

Live Hard & Play Hard

Books
The Hoboken Chicken Emergency by Daniel Pinkwater

Movies (DVD)
The Wrestler dir. Darren Aronofsky
What's New Pussycat? dir. Clive Donner, Richard Talmadge
Lakeview Terrace dir. Neil LaBute
Appaloosa dir. Ed Harris
Miss Pettigrew Live for a Day dir. Bharat Nalluri

Amorphous Mess

Movies (DVD)
RocknRolla dir. Guy Ritchie
Marked Woman dir. Lloyd Bacon
Australia dir. Baz Luhrmann

Movies (theater)
Star Trek dir. J. J. Abrams
Angels & Demons dir. Ron Howard
Up dir. Pete Docter

Books
Mrs. Astor Regrets: The Hidden Betrayals of a Family Beyond Reproach by Meryl Gordon
Bookhunter by Jason Shiga

Dogged by Memory

Movies (DVD)
The Night Buffalo dir. Jorge Hernandez Aldana
Body of Lies dir. Ridley Scott
Soul Men dir. Malcolm D. Lee
Faltu dir. Anjan Das

Virgin Territory

Movies (DVD)
Standard Operating Procedure dir. Errol Morris
Sex Drive dir. Sean Anders
Smart People dir. Noam Murro
Slumdog Millionaire dir. Danny Boyle
Twilight dir. Catherine Hardwicke
Changeling dir. Clint Eastwood

Being Who You Are

Movies (DVD)
Beautiful Ohio dir. Chad Lowe
Let the Right One In dir. Tomas Alfredson
Mumbai Meri Jaan dir. Nishikant Kamath
Yes Man dir. Peyton Reed
Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na dir. Abbas Tyrewala

Books
The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry

Dream Life

Movies (DVD)
Rock On!! dir. Abhishek Kapoor
Nobel Son dir. Randall Miller
The Duchess dir. Saul Dibb
The Tale of Despereaux dir. Sam Fell, Robert Stevenhagen

Waiting for the Truth

Movies (DVD)
Frost/Nixon dir. Ron Howard
Zack and Miri make a Porno dir. Kevin Smith
Pineapple Express dir. David Gordon Green
Bachna Ae Haseeno dir. Siddharth Anand

Books
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson

Born Again

Movies (DVD)
The Spirit dir. Frank Miller
Azur et Asmar dir. Michel Ocelot
Milk dir. Gus Van Sant
Persepolis dir. Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud
Sleuth dir. Kenneth Branagh
Bedtime Stories dir. Adam Shankman
Doubt dir. John Patrick Shanley

Books
Swallow me Whole by Nate Powell

Going Overboard

Movies (DVD)
Donkey Punch dir. Oliver Blackburn
The Day the Earth Stood Still dir. Scott Derrickson
I.O.U.S.A. dir. Patrick Creadon
Vicky Cristina Barcelona dir. Woody Allen
Timecrimes dir. Nacho Vigalondo

Challenging Pessimism

Movies (DVD)
Happy-Go-Lucky dir. Mike Leigh
Beverly Hills Chihuahua dir. Raja Gosnell
Tell No One dir. Guillaume Canet
Seven Pounds dir. Gabriele Muccino

Movies (theater)
Adventureland dir. Greg Mottola
Sunshine Cleaning dir. Christine Jeffs
Monsters vs. Aliens dir. Rob Letterman, Conrad Vernon

Books
Nothing to be Frightened of by Julian Barnes

Balancing Act

Movies (DVD)
Rachel Getting Married dir. Jonathan Demme
Gardens of the Night dir. Damian Harris
Bolt dir. Byron Howard, Chris Williams
Hirer Angti dir. Rituparno Ghosh
Mommie Dearest dir. Frank Perry
Swapner Din dir. Buddhadeb Dasgupta
Quantum of Solace dir. Marc Forster

Movies (theater)
I Love You, Man dir. John Hamburg

Books
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

Concealment and Disclosure

Movies (DVD)
Un Secret dir. Claude Miller
Punisher: War Zone dir. Lexi Alexander
The Princess Bride dir. Rob Reiner

Books
The Big Necessity by Rose George

Innocence and Humanity

Movies (DVD)
The House Bunny dir. Fred Wolf
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas dir. Mark Herman
Synecdoche, New York dir. Charlie Kaufman

Movies (theater)
The Love of Siam dir. Chookiat Sakveerakul