Tip #8: Do a weighty movie for a change

The Banshees of Inisherin, now on HBO (or HBO Max, in my case) after a brief theatrical run, is well worth your time. But this tale of two friends who are having a bit of a crisis, is not the light, whimsical tale the trailers and ads promised. The movie, set in 1920's Ireland, is literate, allegorical, complex, violent, and frequently tragic. It's a good movie, though, and worth talking about. Just be aware of what you're getting if you tune in.

Tip #9: Fantasy laced with horror delivers

Stephen King's Fairy Tale pushes 600 pages, and in a genre I don't read very often, but I tore through it pretty quickly.  I found the non-fairy tale part set in our world (encompassing about the first 200 pages) as good as the fantasy story that eventually kicks in. But I thought the whole thing, a story of a boy and his dog and how they try to save a dying kingdom, was pretty entertaining reading from beginning to end.

Tip #10: A space opera for adults

While Star Wars often delivers excellent all-ages entertainment, the new series Andor (now streaming on Disney+) is unapologetically Star Wars for adults. The plots are complex so you need to pay attention, and we really see the brutality and moral compromises of war. Surprisingly, Star Wars has demonstrated that it is flexible enough to accommodate the more nuanced fare presented here.

Tip #11: Follow Matt Scudder around town

With my recent enjoyment of All The Flowers Are Dying in print and A Drop of the Hard Stuff on audio,  I only have one book left in Lawrence Block's classic Matthew Scudder detective series. If you read crime fiction, you really should dip into these books. They are talky but never tedious, nicely balance plot with Scudder's own interesting life, and feature New York itself is a major character: we see how the city changes over the course of this long series. I really hope Block writes another one or two of these.

Tip #12: Weather the long running time

Avatar: The Way of Water surpasses the stunning visuals of the first film, in both craftsmanship and in the variety of things we see, and I found the story to be a little more compelling and involving, too. But, yeah, it's long, more than three hours. But it really should be seen on the big screen. Just go already.

Tip #13: Stone Barrington still delivers

After reading the first dozen or so entries in the late Stuart Woods' (sadly, he passed earlier this year) Stone Barrington series, I'm still enjoying the different types of stories- some moody, some funny, some exciting- featuring Woods' lawyer, investigator and adventurer. Two Dollar Bill and Dark Harbor were two recent good ones. 

Tip #14: Weird horror is always good

Barbarian, which has nothing to do with Conan, is a decent, offbeat horror film now streaming in various places, following a theatrical run earlier this year. It starts off as an unsettling two-person drama but then launches into crazy horror that you won't soon forget.