Snobbin: Beautiful Trash in the Pop Culture Gutter

Film Four: Dark Wind (1991). I have not seen this Tony Hillerman adaptation in years. While it was the only fiction film directed by famed documentarian Errol Morris, this one feels cobbled together because he left the project before completing his vision. Lou Diamond Phillip's tentative performance as Jim Chee and Gary Farmer's assured one as Deputy Cowboy Albert Dashee do little to help the fragmented narrative, and poor editing gives a boom mic star power that it does not deserve.  While I enjoyed the acting, I can't really recommend this one. Instead, if you are interested in adaptations of the Chee and Leaphorn mysteries, I suggest watching the 2022 AMC television series Dark Winds starring Zahn McClarnon, Kiowa Gordon, and Jessica Matten.

I recently finished watching the last season of Longmire , a show that I believe only got better when it moved to Netflix. A & E cancelled it, despite good ratings, because it did not directly appeal to the 18-35 age demographic. The writing and plot development improved as the show started focusing more on major themes and story lines and not story-of-the-week subplots. While the show's general premise is typical cop show fare, the strong characterization and settings give the show a primacy over similar procedurals. While I enjoyed the show, I never got around to reading the books even though I watched dutifully for six seasons. Once I started reading The Cold Dish , I realized how hard it will be not to binge the book series. The books are a treat. Craig Johnson's prose is punchy, and the characters are even better realized. Walt Longmire's love for Rainier beer and obscure literary metaphors, as well as other character's predilections and habits, become crys...