Paul Levinson
Paul Levinson's novels include The Silk Code & The Plot To Save Socrates; his LPs Twice Upon A Rhyme & Welcome Up; his nonfiction including Fake News in Real Context, The Soft Edge & Digital McLuhan have been translated into 15 languages.
Review of Blood Red Sky
I'm not the biggest fan of vampire movies, but I really liked Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and Netflix says Blood Red Sky is currently its most watched new movie, so I gave it shot. And I think it's outstanding, or, more precisely, a powerful, original mix of two venerable genres -- terrorist hijacking of a plane, and vampires -- with pounding action throughout and a great can't-catch-your-breath ending.
Paul LevinsonPublished 8 days ago in Horror
Review of In the Heights
My wife and I saw In the Heights, the Jon Chu movie on HBO Max, based on Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical play. We really loved it. It's a righteous joy of a movie, symbolizing everything that's good about America. That would be that when left to our own devices, we are a land of dreams that can come true.
Paul LevinsonPublished 12 days ago in Beat
Review of McCartney 3, 2, 1
The first thing I want to tell you about McCartney 3, 2, 1 -- Rick Rubin's incandescent black-and-white three-hour six-episode interview with McCartney on Hulu -- is that in addition to being mind blowing and musically joyful, it made me very sad.
Paul LevinsonPublished 13 days ago in Beat
Review of Summer of Soul
My wife and I just saw Summer of Soul on Hulu. We loved it. It's a musical documentary, directed by Questlove, about a festival in Harlem in July 1969, in what is now Marcus Garvey Park. Around the same time as Woodstock and human beings first walked on the Moon. The concerts were superbly recorded -- both sight and sound -- at the time. The line-up included included Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, Nina Simone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, the Fifth Dimension, the Staples, Mahalia Jackson, the Chambers Brothers, David Ruffin (he had just left the Temptations), and more. The mystery is why hasn't this been seen until now?
Paul LevinsonPublished 13 days ago in Beat
Review of The Tomorrow War
I saw The Tomorrow War on Amazon Prime Video late last night. Some myopic critics gave it mixed reviews. I thought it was just excellent. And not because of the time travel, which was ok, but because of the unfolding plot of the movie, which brings in interstellar species, climate change, and parent-child relationships in an original and rewarding way.
Paul LevinsonPublished 28 days ago in Futurism
Review of Debris
Debris 1.1: Some Probability of Gems Among the Pieces Debris debuted on good old NBC -- a fast-paced, surprisingly deep piece of science fiction, that had real potential.
Paul LevinsonPublished 2 months ago in Futurism
Review of Mare of Easttown
Mare of Easttown concluded on HBO last night. One downer of a mini-series, brilliantly acted, but with resolutions so sombre it could have been Jude the Obscure near Philadelphia.
Paul LevinsonPublished 2 months ago in Criminal
Review of The Nevers, Part I
The Nevers 1.1: Never Say Never I wasn't going to watch The Nevers. I'd pretty much given up on superpowers on television after Heroes. On the other hand, how can you resist late 1890s London, the prime of Victorian times, the birth of The Time Machine, on the cusp of the 20th century? I couldn't, and I'm glad of it.
Paul LevinsonPublished 2 months ago in Futurism
