hologram for a king, the movie, was pretty good, better than the book to me, more funny and poignant as well, thanks to tom hanks. my brother always said he was a brilliant actor and i agree at last, i'm a real slow learner of the obvious sometimes, but also he has grown and his body of work, really a body of work, he has become a fine actor from a good, and his expression is exquisitely nuanced. he can do sad and funny right together like life. i'd say he's become an artist of life. highest praise. ok maybe i gush, but i know damn well dave eggers has got to be gushing too, his book has been realized, the bones made a living breathing panoramic body. 
it says a lot about the state of things now that elude articulation. how paradoxical and bizarre modern business is. it's like babbitt or rabbitt or somebody like that, in the era of fake truth and true lies, in saudi arabia, in the desert of the real.  
while i was watching and tom hanks asked what the big daily gathering in jeddah was and he was told with a smile that's the public executions, i thought of trump doing his sabre dance with the saudi princes, with that sad crinkly visage and those stiff limbs that can't dance, those little hands on the big borrowed sword. ah, world.