Mladen and Del review ‘Predator: Badlands’
Image courtesy of 20th Century Studios.
“Predator: Badlands” Starring Elle Fanning as Thia/Thessa, Dimitrius Schuster-Kolomatangi as Dek (the Predator), Rohinal Nayaran as Bud, and others. Directed by Dan Trachtenberg. 1 hour 47 minutes. Rated PG-13.
Plot summary: Dek, the runt from a litter of Yautja, must prove he’s a good Predator by executing an impossible hunt to earn his “cloak” and the respect of his Father’s clan.
Spoilers: Undoubtedly
Mladen’s take
You won’t believe what you’re about to read because it ain’t the general notion of what a Predator universe film is supposed to be. “Predator: Badlands” is – are you ready – a very good character‑driven buddy movie that’s also laden with creature roars, chitters, and screeches, lots of explosions, plenty of adventure, and doses of humor in all the right places at the right time.
Oh, the movie is about friendship and belonging and family and loyalty, too. Not the Trump administration type of loyalty where fealty is practiced by assholes to appease higher-up assholes, but loyalty to good people who are willing to stake their lives to protect you.
My God, I sound like Del. No?
You should also know that Badlands has an “Alien” and “Aliens” vibe. The bad guys work for the Weyland‑Yutani Corporation. The corporation is still in the business of harvesting, growing, breeding, etc., bioweapons as it does in the Alien movie franchise. In Badlands, it’s after the Kalisk, which is what our hero, Dek the Predator, also wants but for a different reason. Huh, wonder why Director Dan Trachtenberg inserted the evil company in the Badlands flick, which, yup, sets up a sequel.
There is nothing novel about the Badlands story‑telling foundation but the story‑telling is done beautifully.
Dek, the runt from a litter of Yautja, must prove he’s a good Predator by executing an impossible hunt to earn his “cloak” and the respect of his Father’s clan. Schuster-Kolomatangi does a good job conveying CGI Dek’s frustrations and foibles. He also does a good job speaking Yautja‑ese, which demands the throaty clicks that are used in some African languages. More important, Schuster‑Kolomatangi evolves Dek from a one‑dimensional honor‑seeking Predator to a Yautja who learns that belonging is more than trying to fulfill an imposed birthright. The family he helps build during his adventures and misadventures on planet Genna is far more important than the clan he was born to.
But, Elle Fanning as good “synth” Thia and obedient synth Thessia, is the spark that carries the film. My goodness, and this is tough to admit, Fanning is as smart, charming, and pretty as Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who stars in top‑notch movies such as “10 Cloverfield Lane.” I now adore two actresses for the same reasons. I suspect they’d be as cool and intelligent face‑to‑face as the characters they play in films.
Fanning’s Thia wanted more from life than to serve Weyland-Yutani and its AI comptroller, Mother. She saw Genna and its flora and fauna as magnificent beings in their own right better suited for study and understanding than exploitation for profit without mercy. She protected Dek even when he refused to admit he needed protection. And, she accepted Bud from the get-go, patiently but inexorably showing Dek Bud’s value as a member of their newly established clan. And that was before they realized what Bud is.
As Thessia, Fanning acted the opposite of her Thia character. Thessia was all pragmatism and programming as Weyland‑Yutani wanted. She was intimidated when she spoke to Mother (the MU/TH/UR 6000 computer system). She had no concern about deactivating and stowing her fellow synth Thia because Thia showed a tendency to think and act to the detriment of executing corporate missions.
I’ll avoid going into detail about the Badlands cinematography and sound. I’ll say this, though: Both are superb. A Dolby theater is the be‑all for action thriller sci‑fi movie watching. Man, the film looks and sounds like you’re on Genna trying to dodge plants that behave like octopus tentacles or are sharp enough to flense you. The Kalisk can re‑integrate its head with its body even after the head is severed and goes tumbling meters away.
“Predator: Badlands” is the first completely enjoyable sci-fi film I’ve seen in a long time. What was the one before that? “Shin Godzilla” from 2016. No question. Badlands is an A. How do you know I know? Because I don’t even care that Badlands is rated PG-13. And, as with “Shin Godzilla,” I’m counting the days to its release on 4K disc.
Del’s take
I’ve never understood the logic of the Predator universe.
You’ve got these aggressive sociopathic hunters who prize violence above all else, yet they possess high technology, suggestive of a more cooperative civilization. After all, it takes a village to create a shoulder-mounted blaster with triple-laser sighting, right?
If future movies elaborate on the Predator culture they should suggest the Predators we see are a caste of violent monsters separate from their more civilized brethren, like MAGA, except the Predators actually walk the talk. The MAGAts are definitely keyboard warriors and Meal Team 6.
Overall I think the Predator movies have held up well as a franchise. Others, including the endless Alien, Terminator and Die Hard movies, devolve into absurdity over time, but the Predators just keep soldiering on, even the Alien vs. Predator movies, which I thought were pretty good. The only Predator movie I can remember actively disliking was “Predators” with Adrien Brody, which struck me as a pointless bloodbath.
Every new movie seems to advance the evolution of the Predator species and “Badlands” does that to a greater extent than its predecessors. Where the creatures were solitary hunters in the past, Dek has a name and a need for companionship, though he rationalizes that need as a use of “tools.” Only later does he tacitly accept that his new “tools” have become members of his “clan.” That would be a clan of choice, a concept not lost on members of the LGBTQ community. Maybe Dek is gay! Maybe his nickname is Bubba.
It pains me to do this but I’m going to give Mladen credit for (a) accurately and effectively summarizing the movie and characterizing its content. There’s not much for me to add except, “What he said.” I didn’t see “Badlands” at a Dolby Orgasmitron thingamajiggie-equipped theater so I can’t speak to the splendid audio effects, but they sounded pretty good at my low-rent showing. And I too was impressed with the acting – I remember Elle Fanning as the insufferable pain-in-the-ass brat from “War of the Worlds” so it was nice to see her portraying a character I could get behind. I did think the pet Bud was contrived and kind of silly – that is until I found out what it really was.
Also, I was impressed by the way the writers further wove together the Alien and Predator universes. I now have a mental association between the fictional Weyland-Yutani company and Peter Thiel’s all-too-real (unfortunately) Palantir. Weyland-Yutani might have a tad more soul.
I’ll keep this short: “Predator: Badlands” is a good movie. Don’t waste it on streaming. You need to see it before it rolls out of town, even at a theater equipped with one of Mladen’s Dolby Orgasmitron thingamajiggies.
I’m giving it an A.
Mladen Rudman is a former journalist and technical writer. Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and writer.
Image courtesy of Del Stone Jr.
Somebody in Fort Walton Beach, somebody in the deepest, darkest heart of the South, where hatred of the LGBTQ community is so ubiquitous it’s practically taught in schools, had the courage to paint their driveway in Pride colors.
Thank you.
The moment I saw it, I almost cried.
To know that one other person here has offered a shoulder to lean on, to uplift us when we are surrounded by daily assaults from the Trump regime and violent, Jesus-hating radical Christians … well, what can I say?
It’s beautiful. It brought me a moment of hope in these dark afternoons.
I’m sending you a Christmas card. I may even drop off a poinsettia. Merry Christmas to you.
And thank you.
About the author:
Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”
Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.
As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.
Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .
Image courtesy of Focus Features.
“Bugonia” Starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Aiden Delbes. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos. 1 hour, 58 minutes. Rated R. Theatrical release.
Plot synopsis: Two young men kidnap the CEO of a pharmaceutical company after becoming convinced she’s an alien invader masquerading as a human being.
Spoilers: No.
Del’s take
“Bugonia,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ most accessible film, is dramatic, violent, weird, gory and hilarious – in other words, it’s the strangest movie you’ll see this year.
I can’t pin down the message. Is it a condemnation of Big Pharma or a larger indictment of corporate greed and inhumanity? Does it mock MAGA-like conspiracy theorists or is it a cautionary tale about the military-industrial complex? It appears to wear all of those hats and none of them. In the end, I wasn’t sure what to make of it.
The story is about Teddy (played by Jesse Plemons), who believes high-power Auxolith CEO Michelle (Emma Stone) is an Andromedan who has come here to eliminate mankind by way of pollution and climate change. Teddy hatches an insane plan: He and his autistic cousin Don (Aidan Delbis) will kidnap Michelle, shave off her hair so she can’t communicate with her fellow Andromedans on the mothership, and force her to set up a powwow with the Andromedan emporer. Teddy hopes to convince the emporer to withdraw the Andromedans who are fucking up the Earth, allowing the planet’s ecosystem and psychic balance to be restored … or something like that.
But all plans go awry when contact is made with the enemy. Don is the conscience of the pair and begins to question Teddy’s reasoning and motivation, especially when it becomes known Teddy’s mother Sandy (Alica Silverstone) participated in an Auxolith medical trial way back when and now lies in a coma at a corporate medical facility. And Teddy’s childhood babysitter, sheriff’s deputy Casey (Stavros Halkias), who molested Teddy when he was a young boy, comes sniffing around as Michelle lies chained to a cot in Teddy’s basement.
Through it all Teddy remains maniacally determined to negotiate a withdrawal by the Andromedans so that everything on Earth can become good again. Michelle is equally determined to extract herself from the clutches of these two lunatics and resume her empty life as a powerbroker in the world of Big Pharma. It’s all very bleak but leavened with sardonic humor, and you almost believe it’s going to work out. Almost.
The first act is plodding but as things careen downhill through the second and third acts, events move along rapidly, in synch with the unraveling of Teddy’s plan and his sanity.
All three primary actors do superb work here. Oscar nominations wouldn’t surprise me. And Lanthimos has put together a fairly intricate movie where all the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed, weird as it is.
But again, the movie’s subtext seems inconsistent. At times it’s supportive of the Michelle character and her worldview, at other times bitterly critical. Then there’s Teddy, alternately portrayed as a decent guy made cynical by Big Pharma or a complete whacko. Don’s character remains true to his nature throughout, a noble savant swept away by forces that don’t make sense to them or us.
I think people who like this sort of thing will love “Bugonia,” and others who don’t will hate it. In some ways it reminds me of another movie with “bug” in its title, 2006’s “Bug” with Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon. That movie also featured a kind of hostage-taking, and characters who were grappling with altered perceptions of reality. Or were they?
“Bugonia” is cleverly written and some of Michelle’s soliloquies are pure gold of modern corporatespeak. After about the halfway mark the movie becomes impossible NOT to watch. Still, as an entertainment value, I thought it was lacking – too violent, too inconsistent in its messaging, and just too strange. For that reason I’m giving it a B-. It has amassed a 70 percent Rotten Tomatoes score and earned $5.8 million over the weekend, putting it in fifth place at the box office. By the way, I was the only person in the theater, so get thee to a movie theater for the next big showing, which I expect will be “Predator: Badlands.”
Mladen was out fossil hunting and couldn’t join me for “Bugonia.” Why does he need fossils when he’s got ME for a friend?
Mladen Rudman is a former journalist and technical writer. Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and writer.
Image courtesy of Del Stone Jr.
This was the scene at Casa Del Mar for last night’s Spookfest. A few observations:
A. I managed to sit in that driveway for five hours with only one pee break, a new post-Young Del record.
B. My first trick-or-treaters arrived at 5:41 p.m. When I went to bed at 10:30 I could still hear them outside.
C. Usually there’s a 50-50 mix of young kids to teenagers. This year there was a definite majority of young kids.
D. My oldest trick-or-treater had a beard.
E. Nobody offered me alcohol this year.
F. I was watching John Carpenter’s “Halloween” on the laptop while handing out candy. The laptop froze probably five times during the playback. One cause was constant Microsoft updates. Other causes … unknown.
G. During the one and only sex scene in “Halloween,” A PG-rated clip of P.J. Soles and her boyfriend gyrating under the sheets, a group of teenaged trick-or-treaters arrived. I quickly learned to pause the movie and in some cases, lower the screen.
H. I had loaded up on Snickers bars this year because they were always the No. 1 choice in the past. No more. Smarties is now the new popular candy.
I. I used a votive candle in my jack-o-lantern and it stayed lit the entire night.
J. How many trick-or-treaters did I have? I didn’t count. But I started with five of those big $30 bags of candy and I now have one.
K. The kids were mostly polite, though I noticed more kids this year wanting to grab fistfuls of candy.
L. There were more adults than kids, though the adults didn’t ask for anything. They were escorting.
M. FWBPD was riding through the neighborhood on electric bikes, complete with flashing lights.
N. The best costume of the night belonged to a kid who made a box, decorated it with lights and graphics, and wore it over his entire body. He was a box of Topps trading cards.
O. On Halloween nights past things usually wrapped at 8:30, 8:45 at the latest. Last night I called it quits at 9:20 but as I said, I could still hear kids going up and down the street at 10:30 when I went to bed.
P. Today I found three pieces of candy in the driveway dropped by kids.
About the author:
Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”
Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.
As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.
Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .
Image courtesy of Angel Studios.
“Truth & Treason” Starring Ewan Horrocks, Rupert Evans, Ferdinand McKay and Daf Thomas. Directed by Matt Whitaker. 2 hours, 1 minute. Rated PG-13. Theatrical release.
Plot synopsis: Angered by the arrest of his Jewish friend and disillusioned with Nazi Germany after hearing wartime BBC broadcasts, a German teen recruits two of his friends to help circulate leaflets condemning Adolf Hitler – with catastrophic results.
Spoilers: Yes.
Del’s take
I should have liked “Truth & Treason” a lot more than I did.
The story is terrific, about a group of teenage boys who sneak out after curfew to spread anti-Nazi leaflets and essays across the city of Hamburg, Germany in the early years of World War II as the Wehrmacht juggernaut is rolling across Poland, western Europe and Russia.
The parallels between 1940 Germany and 2025 America are undeniable and terrifying. As somebody who read William Shirer’s excellent “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich” and told himself “It could never happen here,” I found myself shuddering at the image of Nazi recruiting posters that bear an uncanny resemblance to the ICE recruiting memes I saw online just last week.
But “Truth & Treason” is strangely lifeless. The story is told with the callow earnestness of a Boy Scout merit badge project, depriving it of an emotional heart.
That’s too bad because it’s a fascinating story about actual events. Ewan Horrocks plays Helmuth Hübner, a 16-year-old German teen who is part of a posse of four boys – himself, Salomon Schwarz (played by Nye Occomore), Karl-Heinz Schnibbe (Ferdinand McKay) and Rudi Wobbe (Daf Thomas). They jump off bridges together, beat up obnoxious Hitler Youth leaders together, and read subversive books. Then, Helmuth’s older brother returns from the front with a forbidden item – a radio that allows the boys to hear broadcasts from outside the country. It is from those broadcasts Helmuth learns the truth about Nazi Germany. Meanwhile Salomon, who is Jewish, is picked up by the SS and dispatched to Auschwitz. The convergence of those two events radicalizes young Helmuth, who borrows his church’s typewriter to create leaflets critical of Hitler and the Nazis. A local SS officer, Erwin Mussener (Rupert Evans) finds some of Helmuth’s leaflets and launches an investigation. From that point the movie follows the expected trajectory.
The problem with “Truth & Treason” is that it never really develops any of its characters as people, and it glosses over the entanglements of relationships so that when the story reaches its inevitable conclusion, there’s not much in the way of an emotional climax. Mladen will probably fuss about that because he’s not a touchy-feely kind of guy but in this case an emotional bond between character on screen and person sitting in the audience is crucial to the film’s success, yet there’s little to no attachment because nothing much is done with the characters as living, breathing human beings.
Instead, the movie focuses more on the mechanical process of storytelling. Helmuth’s transformation from uncommitted Hitler Youth member to risk-taking radical occurs quickly and without sufficient demonstration. I mean, yes, we see Salomon taken into custody by the Gestapo and yes, we hear radio broadcasts denouncing Hitler. But somehow it’s not enough and then boom! we’ve moved on to the next step in the process.
The only character who rises above the mundane is Rupert Evans as Mussener, the SS investigator who, like Helmuth, begins to realize the Hitler regime is built on a foundation of lies. He is torn between his duty and his humanity, and Evans does an excellent job of portraying this growing inner conflict.
The movie takes pains to stress two points which are relevant to 21st century America. It wraps with a quote attributed to Russian lawyer and dissident Alexy Navalny: “Sometimes the greatest rebellion is to simply speak the truth!” The other appears in a coda presented as the credits roll – I believe it was director Whitaker who appeared and urged moviegoers to “Practice courage,” an unmistakable call to action for resistance against the fascist lies propagated by the Trump regime.
“Truth & Treason” is a timely and important movie about an act of courage, but in my opinion the story is not told as well as it could have been. Therefore, instead of giving it an A score, I’m giving it a B.
See it, yes, but don’t expect to come out of the theater with tears in your eyes.
Mladen’s take
Let’s get honest about Truth. The word has no meaning today, probably never has at any time in history.
Truth is an obnoxious concoction of beliefs and historical contextlessness. Its users wield Truth as though it’s the same as Fact.
Day in and day out on the internets, we are exposed to Truth. Truth about eye shadow and Botox, about paleodiets and veganism, about Democrats and Republicans, about the economy and unemployment rate, about cryptocurrency, about the war in Ukraine, about the slaughter in Gaza and Darfur. If a story in a newspaper or magazine or on the web has Truth in its headline, I never read it. Truth is nothing more than someone’s opinion about Fact. If there is no Fact involved at all, Truth is Bullshit.
Boy, that was therapeutic.
So, for me, the film “Truth & Treason” already had a big-ass strike against it even before Del and I sat down to watch it. The movie should’ve been titled “Fact & Treason” because Fact exists no matter what we believe to be Truth. The Fact is that Hitler started World War II in Europe and three years later authorized the full-scale bureaucratization of the Final Solution. The Fact of industrial slaughter of millions of people is appalling and hideous all on its own. There’s nothing that neo-Nazis or holocaust deniers can do to change the Fact. What they can do is try to sell you the Truth. The Truth of the genetic inferiority of the Slavic races. The Truth of the financial takeover of the planet by Jews. The Truth of homosexuality as unnatural.
Fact, on the other hand, needs no spokesman. Fact needs no interpreter. Fact needs no political party. Fact takes no sides. Fact is.
It came to pass, of course, that the kid pamphleteer in “Truth & Treason” faced a Nazi judge who effortlessly pointed out that the Allies fighting the Axis had their own cruel histories of barbarism and colonialism and murdering the innocent. Yes, the Nazi judge was a piece of Hitler‑enabling slag. And, yes, the Nazi judge was correct about American and English and French conquest of peoples not as well armed with weapons or propaganda. He, too, spoke the Truth as he defined it.
Truth lets us take sides, no matter who is offending whom. Fact is undisputable. All the governments of the states fighting World War II were savage, and, as Fact now shows, would be again. Their Truths prevailed because they were able to suffocate Fact with bullets and bombs and global trade.
In “Truth & Treason,” the pamphleteer and judge contorted or ignored Fact to speak the Truth as each understood its meaning. In “Truth & Treason” only Evans as Mussener showed that he understood the difference between Truth and Fact. He then made a choice. Mussener decided Truth was better than Fact.
Del is correct, “Truth & Treason” speaks to the times we now face. But, then again, Fact shows that humanity has sucked and always will. The failure of “Truth & Treason” to mitigate that Fact pisses me off. The movie generated an antagonist who was far more compelling and alert than the teenaged protagonist, who, of all things, liked opera, which to me is nothing more than organized screaming. And that’s Fact.
“Truth & Treason” notches a C+.
Mladen Rudman is a former journalist and technical writer. Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and writer.
Image courtesy of Disney Studios.
“Tron: Ares” Starring Jared Leto as Ares, Greta Lee as Eve Kim, Jodie Turner-Smith as Athena, Evan Peters as Julian Dillinger and others. Directed by Joachim Rǿnning. 1 hour 59 minutes. Rated PG-13.
Spoilers: Sure.
Mladen’s take
Don’t listen to the other critics talking crap about “Tron: Ares.” It’s a good movie with a touch of heart despite the sometimes too loud Goth industrial electropunk score and its very, very vivid color palette.
I saw the film (twice) in 3D, once in IMAX and the last time in a plain ole theater. Wholly guacamole did the reds of the filmography and the Nine Inch Nails soundtrack dig deep into my brain’s sensory lobes. After, oh, 45 minutes of exposure to the pulsating everything on the screen and the raucous thumping of lows and highs coming from the speakers I got tired, if not frustrated, by the frenetic aural and visual activity. But, like the trooper I am, I persevered to see the guts of computers anthropomorphized into human forms reflecting the good and bad of our species, as well as humans being human.
Jared Leto does a good job as Ares, a program that evolves from a data‑spouting automaton following directives without question at the beginning of the film to a human-like being trying to understand the difference between right and wrong while chasing the “Permanence Code.” Jodie Turner‑Smith as Athena was a confident, menacing foil to Ares’ introspective side. She kicked ass and came back for more again and again. No “Impediment” was going to stop her from completing her mission.
Ares’ wish to “live” made it/him sympathetic. Who among us doesn’t want to stop taking orders from The Man to chase our dreams? Obedient Athena – obedient to the “user” who runs her “Grid” – is determined to fulfill her directive – find human Kim, teleport her to the Grid by deconstructing her, reconstruct her as a digital copy, and extract the Permanence Code from Kim though it will kill her. Athena’s single mindedness, if it could be described that way, is chilling.
The Ares and Athena antagonism unfolds amid a feud between corporate titan and good gal Kim, charmingly played by Lee, and corporate titan and bad guy Dillinger, effectively played by Peters, as they pursue the Permanence Code for the artificial creations their hyper‑fast, algorithm‑driven, and laser‑spewing machines produce. Permanence means that programs like Ares and Athena manifesting in the Real would survive longer than 29 minutes, the confounding limit of their life spans outside their home world. Of course, Kim wants to use permanence to feed humanity, provide health care, and develop alternative fuels. Yeah, Dillinger wants to sell permanence weapons to the military.
“Tron: Ares” is a B+. There’s no need to see it in 3D, which costs more. It just worked out that way for me. I suspect the film’s loudness and vividness was amplified by the 3D, bringing the film close to sensory overload.
Del’s take
I barely remember the 1982 “Tron” (I think I watched it drunk) and “Tron: Legacy” exists in my memory as a single image of Jeff Bridges standing atop some towering digital artifact. In truth the premise of these movies – that flesh-and-blood human beings can be digitized and loaded into a computer, then reconstituted thanks to the miracle of laser 3-D printers – is so freaking stupid I’m not willing to suspend my disbelief.
That’s weird because many of the movies I love – “The Matrix,” “Cloverfield,” “Star Wars: A New Hope” (the best “Star Wars” movie EVER and I don’t care what Mladen says) – are based on stupid premises yet I love them just the same. If I were having this conversation with a therapist he or she would want me to drill down to the real reason I don’t like them.
I think it’s because the plots are so very very standard-issue, unimaginative good-guy-vs.-bad-guy pablum we’ve seen a bazillion times in the past: Loser squares off against powerful dude – the love of a good woman is at stake – and somehow, despite EVERYTHING, the loser succeeds and becomes a not-loser, which I guess we call a winner.
That’s “Tron: Ares,” only this time the loser is a digital proprietary program that malfunctions … and develops a soul. I’m not sure how you 3-D map a soul but that doesn’t stop “Tron: Ares” and let’s just say he follows the trajectory of all these superhero and quasi-superhero movies to their inevitable conclusion. At least the Marvel movies have the decency to throw in some self-deprecating humor. None of that here.
The movie is gorgeous to look at although the digital domain, with its dominant red and black color palette, reminded me of Hell. The special effects were what you might expect from a movie who’s sole artistic virtue is special effects.
Jared Leto was wooden as Ares but then you can’t blame him – he was playing the part he was given. Really, everybody here did an adequate job of filling their roles, although Gillian Anderson and Evan Peters are always better in anything they do.
My understanding is that one of the major draws was the Nine Inch Nails soundtrack. I was expecting something on the order of Vangelis’ score for “Blade Runner,” but no, that would not be an apt comparison. Trent Reznor went all Teutonic Goth and produced a hammering, thunderous score that relentlessly beats you into a bloody, cowering pulp hiding behind your seat on the sticky floor. It’s way too much. I came out of the theater feeling like I’d gone 10 rounds with Oleksandr Usyk.
The other night I cleansed my palate with one of the greatest science fiction-horror movies of the ’60s ever made, the vastly underrated “Quatermass and the Pit.” My God, what a movie! It reminded me that good films that tell original stories really do exist in more than just concept. I hope one day to see another movie that inspires that kind of enthusiasm from me. In 2025 it seems Hollywood is more focused on churning out “content” and making as much money as possible. Art is no longer part of the equation. How sad.
Mladen was too generous in his rating of “Tron: Ares.” It’s really worth only a C+. Even the original arcade game it’s based on was better, though good luck finding a functional machine today.
By all means, see “Tron: Ares” in a theater. But bring your headphones to filter out some of the thunder.
Mladen Rudman is a former journalist and technical writer. Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and writer.
Photo courtesy of NARA & DVIDS
Did you hear Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, aka Gestapo Barbie, recently spent $172 million of YOUR tax dollars for a couple of swanky new private jets so that she and her chestnut-colored Lady Clairol hair extensions can jet-set around the globe in comfort and luxury?
Do you appreciate the atrocious optics of this purchase?
At a time when almost 300,000 civil servants have been fired from their jobs so the government can save money and apply those savings to paying down the national debt. …
At a time when almost 15,000,000 Americans are being thrown out of their health insurance coverage so the government can save money and apply those savings to paying down the national debt. …
At a time when government agencies and services are being gutted so the government can save money and apply those savings to paying down the national debt. …
At a time when WE are being told we must cut back, sacrifice and do without so the government can save money and pay down the national debt. …
SHE spends $172 million of YOUR tax dollars for a couple of swanky new Gulfstreams so that she and her chestnut-colored Lady Clairol hair extensions can jet-set around the globe in comfort and luxury!
Are you fucking kidding me?
And would you like to know how many of those saved dollars have actually been applied to paying down the national debt? Go ahead. Take a guess.
ZERO.
ZERO DOLLARS have been applied to paying down the national debt, because debt remediation is paid through budget surpluses and there won’t be a budget surplus this year. In fact, that Lizard King in the White House and his moronic minions have added another 4 TRILLION DOLLARS to the national debt.
The national debt is now higher than 40 TRILLION DOLLARS.
And Gestapo Barbie just spent another $172 million of YOUR tax dollars on a couple of swanky new private jets so that she and her chestnut-colored Lady Clairol hair extensions can jet-set around the globe in comfort and luxury.
That $172 million would have allowed almost 22,000 people to regain their Medicaid coverage.
If this doesn’t piss you off – if this doesn’t ENRAGE you – you are one dumb son-of-a-bitch.
About the author:
Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”
Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.
As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.
Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .
Image courtesy of Warner Bros.
“The Conjuring: Last Rites” Starring Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mia Tomlinson and others. Directed by Michael Chaves. 2 hours, 15 minutes. Rated R. Theatrical release.
Plot synopsis: Paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren are drawn into a final investigation when their daughter becomes involved with a family being stalked by demons inhabiting a cursed mirror.
Spoilers: one large spoiler toward the end of the review.
Del’s take
Mladen was out of town and I was bored, so I decided to throw in with Spooky Season and catch an afternoon showing of “The Conjuring: Last Rites.” Good thing it was daylight. I was the only person in the theater, which was scary enough. I would not have wanted to walk to my car in the dark!
Why hasn’t Vera Farmiga won an Oscar? She’s clearly a terrific actor, bringing expressiveness and pathos to her characters, no matter if she’s Norman Bates’ mother in “Bates Motel” or the two-timing Alex Goran of “Up in the Air.” She is the warm heart and brighter soul of the very dark “Conjuring” franchise, which includes:
“The Conjuring” (2013)
“Annabelle” (2014)
“The Conjuring 2” (2016)
“Annabelle: Creation” (2017)
“The Nun” (2018)
“The Curse of La Llorona” (2019)
“Annabelle Comes Home” (2019)
“The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It” (2021)
“The Nun 2” (2023)
“The Conjuring: Last Rites” (2025)
In “Last Rites” she continues a series of excellent performances as Lorraine Warren, the real-life paranormal investigator who, with her husband Ed, brought the idea of ghostbusting into the mainstream by way of their involvement in the Amityville Horror in which a New York couple claimed their house was inhabited by a violent demonic presence. That case itself led to the production of a series of movies and best-selling books.
“Last Rites” suggests an end to the “Conjuring” series but do you seriously believe any movie studio in its right mind would shut down a franchise in which the most recent installment generated $440 million in box office receipts? If anything “Last Rites” works as a springboard to launch a whole new series of spooky investigations – but with new characters.
Patrick Wilson’s Ed is ready to call it quits after suffering a near-fatal heart attack and his wife, Farmiga’s Lorraine, is on board with retirement. But daughter Judy (Mia Tomlinson) finds herself under constant psychic attack by ghosts and demons, brought into renewed fury by a haunted mirror picked up at a thrift shop by the Smurl family of blue collar West Pittston, Pennsylvania. This same haunted mirror has a history with Judy, having almost taken her life at birth. Judy and fiancé Tony (Ben Hardy) are drawn into mortal peril when Judy sees the Spurl’s predicament on TV and recognizes her connection. In the process she convinces her parents to take on one last ghostbusting gig and events proceed downhill from there.
The story is told through a series of flashbacks that bounce back and forth from periods of Judy’s childhood to the present, which is set in 1986. While it would seem to focus on the Spurl’s haunting, and Judy and Tony’s terror-cladded involvement, it’s really about Ed and Lorraine’s last hurrah. And we know it’s their last hurrah because at the end of the movie Ed – brace yourself for a spoiler – hands the key to the room containing the Warren’s haunted curious and artifacts to Tony. Expect future “Conjuring” installments starring the Judy and Tony duo.
“Last Rites” requires a bit of attention from the audience due to its constant shifting of viewpoint but overall it’s a decent piece of work by Chaves, who has helmed other “Conjuring” installments.
But is it scary? I’m hesitant to answer that question. Few horror movies scare me these days – my friend Hawk tells me that’s because I’m a horror writer and my senses have been dulled to all things that go bump in the night. I thought “The Ring,” “The Grudge” and “It Follows” were very scary, but horror movies that require gore or jump scares to frighten their audiences don’t do much for me. I thought there were a couple of scenes in “Last Rites” that were definitely creepy but overall I didn’t find it scary so much as long. At 2 hours and 15 minutes it seemed to go on forever.
Still, it’s a decent movie and I wish some of you had been in the theater with me as I wouldn’t have been so creeped out by the idea that there was nobody present to hear me laugh – or scream!
I’m giving “The Conjuring: Last Rites” a solid B. If you want to see it in theaters you’d better hurry – it’s been in theatrical release for awhile and will move on soon.
It’s a terrific movie for Spooky Season – if you don’t go alone.
Mladen Rudman is a former journalist and technical writer. Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and writer.
Image courtesy of Lionsgate.
“The Strangers: Chapter 2” Starring Madelaine Petsch, Gabriel Basso, Ema Horvath and others. Directed by Renny Harlin. 1 hour, 38 minutes. Rated R. Theatrical release.
Plot summary: After their car breaks down during a cross-country trip, Maya and her boyfriend, Ryan, are forced to overnight at an Airbnb in the remote woods. During the night, three masked strangers terrorize the couple, leaving Ryan dead and Maya severely injured. In “Chapter 2,” Maya awakens at a hospital. But all is not as it should be, with hospital staffers and law enforcement behaving strangely. Then, the masked murderers return, compelling Maya to flee into the woods where a new round of stalking commences.
Spoilers: Absolutely!
Del’s take
Mladen and I have been writing movie reviews since 2004 when we reviewed “The Host” for Brenda Shoffner’s Showcase at the Northwest Florida Daily News. By my count this review, “The Strangers: Chapter 2,” will be our 168th foray into Movie Face-Off, as we call the body of our work. If I had the money I’ve spent watching movies with Mladen for Movie Face-Off, I could probably buy a lifetime supply of Preparation H. We don’t get paid, and as of this writing there are no ads on my website, where Movie Face-Off is now hosted. ( delstonejr.com )
Why do we do it? I’m pretty sure Mladen would agree we do it because we enjoy it. We love movies and we love seeing them in theaters. Movie theaters are one of the few remaining venues in America where you can rub shoulders with your fellow man. As Americans, with their infernal work-from-home, order-online mentality, slowly descend into whatever pathology disallows human contact and interpersonal communication, movie theaters remain a final bulwark against the impending decay of solitude. We encourage people to see movies in theaters. The screens are bigger, the sound is bigger – everything about the experience is bigger, sticky floors included.
This painful intro has a purpose. I want to make sure you understand Mladen and I really love movies because I’m about to do something I’ve done only once in our 21 years of writing movie reviews – give a failing score to a movie. If you choose to see “The Strangers: Part 2,” see it in a theater, though I’m not sure seeing it in a theater will save it. Never has a film so offended me with its calculated ineptness.
“The Strangers: Chapter 2” is fucking awful – maybe not “Plan 9 from Outer Space” awful but probably the worst movie you’ll see this year, which is strange because Renny Harlin is a pretty good director / producer. I thought “The Long Kiss Goodnight” and “Die Hard 2” were terrific films and he’s got a ton of other credits that are at least passable. Not so with “Chapter 2.” I actually apologized to Mladen afterward because it was I who recommended it.
I went into this movie thinking it was a sequel to 2008’s “The Strangers,” the Scott Speedman-Liv Tyler horror film about a young couple who are terrorized in their home by a trio of masked slashers. Wrong. It’s a “re-imagining” of the 2008 film and was preceded by “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” which I’ve never heard of. Incredibly, “The Strangers: Chapter 3” will be released next year.
It follows the same basic plot as the original but has been updated to account for changes (not advances) in technology – the couple is assaulted in a backwoods Airbnb, and everyone carries smart phones that clearly aren’t serviced by Starlink because they never have a signal.
Why Harlin decided to make a trilogy from the thin gruel of this story baffles me. There’s hardly enough going on here to make one movie, much less three, and boy does it show. Scenes are distended and padded to the point of absurdity, which screws up the pacing and gives unnecessary gravitas to inconsequential plot developments. The story is infested with dream sequences and flashbacks that annoy and distract the viewer. And then Harlin attempts to explain the inexplicable – why these people are doing these terrible things. That was the dubious “charm” of the original – good people had bad things done to them for no apparent reason. Here, of course, there is a reason – somebody was abused as a child so they grew up to become an axe murderer.
The acting was, in my opinion, as soul-draining as every other aspect of “Chapter 2,” but what’s an actor to do with such a crappy screenplay? The subordinate characters, who were supposed to project menace in a way that would prevent the viewer from identifying the real killers, were hammy to the point of self-parody. It was impossible to tell who was who, and so much of it relied on the viewer having seen “Chapter 1” to understand what was happening that it made no sense if they hadn’t. The characters behaved in such idiotic and incomprehensible ways that I couldn’t take anything I was seeing very seriously. Remember that scene from John Carpenter’s “Halloween” when Jamie Lee Curtis stabs Michael Myers in the eye with a butcher knife, then drops the knife next to his body instead of making sure the job was finished? Remember how stupid you thought she was? That’s pretty much everything in “Chapter 2.”
And then, to sit through an hour and a half of this crap only to discover there is no ending, that we must wait for “Chapter 3”?
Forget it. I don’t care. I’m offended.
Unsympathetic characters behaving in stupid ways in a trilogy that barely rates a single movie? No thanks. I won’t be spending my precious old-fart discounted ticket dollars on such a waste of time.
I’m giving “The Strangers: Chapter 2” an F. I’m all for seeing movies in a theater, and I do love movies, but this film smelled like 5-day-old chicken bones and I won’t make that mistake again.
If Mladen rates this anything higher than an F I’m going to ask him to draw a clock that reads 10:53 because his cognitive abilities are clearly in the shitter.
Mladen’s take
Yeah, what Del said. He’s correct about “The Strangers: Chapter 2,” except for one thing. This terrible, terrible … terrible movie is an A.
In between Del and I commenting out loud on the film – we were the only audience – Mystery Science Theater 3000-like, I tootled off on a journey of imagination and wonder and revelation. My trip of the mind was triggered by two of the film’s phenomena. They forced me to avoid dismissing the movie as tripe. I couldn’t help but relish its ridiculousness.
The first phenomenon was our serial killer-evading Maya’s beautiful hands and mesmerizing nail polish. It was the color of gold, always shimmering. I could care less about her but I sure as hell wanted her hands and their nail polish to survive.
The second was curiosity. As the movie progressed, I started to thinking about all the obstacles to efficient killing posed by the masks worn by the killers. Two of the Trump administration wannabe staffers donned porcelain doll masks. Very pixie. Very disarming. Both were women. The hulky man had a sack over his head. A bit scarier but a mask depicting Stephen Miller would’ve made me release my bowels.
Think about it. A doll mask, something that you may see on a child during Halloween, constricts your view. Its distance from your eyes would play all sorts of shadow‑n‑light tricks on 3D visual processing. So, how the hell does one of the Dollfaces put a crossbow arrow through an Oregon state police trooper’s eyeball at a billion paces at dusk shooting downhill? Huh? I say it’s impossible. The masks would also interfere with smell. Our frightened and irrational heroine Maya was bleeding so much all the time, you’d think at least one of the two Dollfaces would have detected a strong odor of iron in the air as they got closer to their quarry. But, no, the masks masked Maya’s draining blood supply even when killer and kill-ee were just a foot or two apart.
What about Sackhead? The rough burlap sat even farther from his eyes than the pixie masks of the girls. The eyeholes were ovoid and of varying size. Every time he moved his head, the sack would take a different shape, rendering a consistent view of his environment all fractals and glimpses. The sack also covered his ears. Sackhead must’ve suffered from diminished hearing. Jeez, bare-footed Maya, brain the motherfucker with a monkey wrench from the back as he walks past your hidey-hole. He would neither see nor hear you sneaking up.
In all three instances, doll masks and burlap sack, breathing under exertion would be very difficult. I can see Sackhead burying his long-handle axe into the morgue attendant’s abdomen and chest a couple of times with vigor. But, sustained penetration of ribs and sternum, not to mention bone-vibrating impact with the floor below the body, without proper oxygen intake would cause lactic acid build up. No? All of a sudden the implement would become as heavy as “The Strangers: Chapter 2” was light on coherence, direction, and scares. Don’t give me no adrenaline crap either. Dollfaces and Sackhead were used to killing. I doubt that they got all excited about it. Killing was their job. I sure as hell never get excited by my job. Why would they get excited about theirs?
The film’s most memorable features were Maya’s hands and nail polish. They had me all but delirious they were so perfect. Come on, the film’s director must’ve chosen the gold nail polish for a reason. I bet he chose the color after querying AI.
So it came to pass that I started rooting for the hands and the vibrant nail polish:
“Come on, Maya, now that you’ve self-stitched the deep, oozing knife wound in your abdomen, go to the creek to rinse those pretty hands and nail polish. Can’t have blood on them, can we? It dulls the gold finish.”
“Whoa, whoa, Maya, stop stabbing the killer pig that just gored and bit through one of your legs with so much determination and force. You’ll chip a nail. The polish might flake off. Stop.”
“Maya, Maya, slow down. Punching the window frame that won’t budge open risks damaging your hand. A bruised hand will not look as good with the gold nail polish.”
I’ll likely see “The Strangers: Chapter 3,” with or without Del. Can’t help it. I need to know. Does the gold nail polish live?
Mladen Rudman is a former journalist and technical writer. Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and writer.
Have you seen the idiotic meme being circulated by President Goldfish Crackers?
I should think the president of the United States could afford to hire proofreaders to check this crap before he publishes it to social media.
I’ve fixed it for him this time. In the image above, his original meme is on the left. My corrected version is on the right.
I’ll send him the bill.
About the author:
Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”
Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.
As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.
Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .