Here is where I will keep track of the flicks I've watched. If you see typos or errors, or you really like what I wrote, or maybe you flat out disagree with me. Don't be shy! Lemme know what YOU think.
I had a pretty good day. Had good eats and a long walk - found a park modeled on Versailles. Lotsa flowers
I was feeling kinda raw at the start, but I kept just doing things as I thought of them and that gave me good feels of efficacy. Too often I think, I should do whatever, see a chore attached to an object, but move on to some other activity. Just little things, like calling the pharmacy for a refill. I did get shut down there - I found out my prescription for test strips was suspended because I got a med that's supposed to lower my blood sugar. I had to get a special authority to get it - Jardiance. I told my doctor I wasn't going to try the new psych med, 3rd gen to the 1st gen one the hospital made me take until I was also on the diabetes med. It's actually supposed to protect my kidney function as well. I'm supposed to drink a ton of water, and somehow that's part of the mechanism - you pee out the excess glucose. Something like that anyhow. I'll be able to eat carbs if I want I guess, but without test strips, how will I know how many carbs I can eat? People talk about Canada having free healthcare but it's tightly managed and how much you pay for medication depends on what kind of insurance you have and what province you're in. Regional disparities are biggie sized. Another hoop to jump through, - gots to get another special authority for making sure my blood sugar is okay. I immediately felt despair due to my medical trauma. Too many times I've had to negotiate the medical system. I know I could be grateful, but honestly it's a fucking chore looking after my fucking failing body.
I was talking to Joe about my feels, how I felt my pain body looming, an undifferentiated mass of woe suffusing my being as my morning began - well 2pm is when I arose, went to bed around 6am after all. I tried to identify why I felt shitty and I tracked it down to feeling lonely. This covid and depending mostly on social media for my peoples time - and mainly shallow interactions eh. I don't feel connected to others. I don't feel seen or heard. I guess lots of people in the same boat. Isolation be part of social distancing. I did txt my mom and sister and niece right after, and made arrangements with my friend down the road to have a picnic when Popeye's opens. Got to connect with the people I care about.
I got an Indigenous NFB link sent to me from my screenplay group - this vid spoke to me.
It's been a hard week. Friday news came out about ground penetrating radar being used to confirm that 215 children's bodies were dumped in an unmarked graveyard at the Kamloops IRS.
Sad fucking shit but worse still, that night my niece was raped.
It's been difficult dealing with her sexual assault because of the distance, she's in Regina, and I'm far from her in Vancouver. And there's already some difficulty in communicating with her. We mostly use messenger, with the odd audio message back and forth - no actual calls or facetime. It's made figuring out what actually happened to her very difficult. I feel frustrated that she hasn't gone to the police, her story seems to change too. Did she tell the cops about the sexual assault and they ignored it, as she last said, or did she not say anything because she was embarrassed and afraid of the man who raped her? She initially said she asked them not to charge him, but that could have been the assault, not the rape? He beat her up so she wouldn't tell his girlfriend is what she said too. Her leg is in a cast. Tonight she said that she told the cops and they did nothing because her rapist is a white boy. Um he looks like an NDN to me, but whatever. Joe right away said that we should call them. Cops asked if we were making a complaint. Uhn Yeah, but we want to know what happened - FOI act, can be requested in writing but ongoing investigations only the victim can be told info. Ugh.
Damn right I'll make a complaint. I just don't know what the fuck happened. She might not either. There's a good chance she was roofied. Told her we could do a group call to support her in contacting the cops, but it sooo doesn't seem like that's something she wants to do.
I'm so mad and sad and just fucking fed up with the whole situation. I don't know how to help her get through this. I don't know what will help her deal.
Yesterday I talked to a shrink. I had a list of things I'd written down, areas of diagnosis I wanted to explore - Asperger's ADHD, what other personality disorders I might slot into besides Bipolar. My desire there was to figure out what would be the most effective, efficient form of therapy, but I got shut down. Especially around Aspergers. Dude said something like, "You present really well and follow conversational conventions." Yeah, but that's because I've learned coping strategies...
Whatever I guess, I got referrals for 3 different places. It's nuts that I got fast tracked since I was in the hospital, and I still waited more than a month to get this shrink appointment. And who knows how long I'll be waiting before these therapy things come online for me. Triage in the medical system is leaving a whole lot of people out in the cold.
Sad business. Joe noticed he perked up when I said I was willing to explore medication. I'm not hopeful I will like meds, but I'm gonna give them a chance. Only once I get the diabetes med that will conteract the higher blood sugars that the psych med is supposed to produce though.
I get so tired of trying to stay on top of all my medical shizz. not enough spoons!!!
I woke up late, after noon and puttered around with coffee and messenger, had a video chat until home support came. I had a shower then munched the scrambled eggs Joe made.
I put on the tv to watch the Jets/Oilers playoff game but Joe wasn't into it and we finished off Minari. Then I watched the Billboard Awards. Was a big Canadian content, Toronto night with The Weeknd, Drake and Marshmello performing, and taking home awards.
I liked The Weeknd's performance, felt very LA with all the vehicles.
Awards show, and news are about the only thing I appreciate about having cable. Feels weird watching tv, I always feel like I'm wasting my time. Commercials are fascinating though, the consumer culture they push, their power is undeniable, especially the food commercials. The allure of a well crafted ad, well it's no wonder it's such a big industry - drives desire and that's what the big money folk need is more consumption. buy buy buy
I can't get into new shows. I see intriguing ads and titles that give me pause when I'm scrolling the guide, but fack it feels boring too.
I just don't care enough. I'm not grabbed easily with the time commitment.
I was checking the blog and saw all this drafts and published a couple, but fucking annoyingly didn't make sure to change date.
Whatever
I think I'll start up a diff blog anyhow, one where I just write whatever instead of focusing purely on the things I watch. I'm not watching as much movies as I used to anyhow. Since I moved to my new place, I can count on my fingers the flicks I watched in last 2 months approx - far cry from my old habits of multiple movies a day.
I was feeling crap the other day. Figured out it was because of unpacking some books and letting go of a number of them.
Esthero - I don't want to let you go playing as I ponder this chain of events lol
I've always been very attached to the things I own. I gave up a Henry Miller - Quiet Days in Clichey. Dude I met at hostel that I stayed at when I first moved to Vancouver gave it to me. I found a transfer and a postcard in it. . Rilke - Letters to a Young Poet I don't remember who gave me that or if I bought it myself, but I liked the dedication in it. I like when you can tell a book had a life before you had it.
Books are romantic like that.
Any object can be I guess, if you think about it. You can wonder on who made it, where it travelled from, any number of axis of what it is could take you on a thought journey. All I'm saying is my things hold stories, and unpacking them, I realized these books maybe don't fit who I am anymore, don't complement where I want to be, and there's loss in that.
I haven't been this riveted by a tv show since I can't remember when. It's dark and grim and serial killer convoluted, with Hugh Dancy's Will Graham jittering along careening down the wilfull manipulations of Mads Mikkelsons Hannibal Lecter. It's always grimly gorgeous even when it's grotesque, espcially when it's grotesque with a grand guignol somber ghoulish beauty bathed in darkest blood and pathos. This Hannibal is under wraps and contained, all dressed to the nines in his suits, of humanity practicing his psychiatric skills on various hapless patients. Gillian Anderson guests as Hannibal's shrink and she's puzzling, haven't quite figured her out yet.
It's a great show and I hope it airs all 7 of the seasons Brian Fuller has envisioned. Apparently he has yet to get the rights to Silence of the Lambs from MGM, but if he doesn't, he said he would approximate the story line with similarly named characters.
You're
not a thinker Jesse!", paraphrase of dialogue sums up this film pretty
well. Athletic glory is not important really, but that's just me I
guess. I feel like this status quo pro, individual responses to systemic
problems, with its huge disdain for the importance/effectiveness of the
power of political action, so squandered the legacy of Jesse Owens. The
best parts were the blurbs at the end over the photos of the real
people explaining what happened to them after the '29 Olympics. There
were a bunch of Olympic athletes in the theatre and they ate it up with a
corporate sponsored spoon, makes sense that they would though. They
are cogs in the machine of sport being fed on hopes of glory. Also who
the hell cast Jason Sudekis as the coach?? Made it seem like satire
right from the start.
Hello Destroyer 2016 written and directed by Kevan Funk Hello Destroyer was the last film of the TIFF Top 10 showing in Vancouver tonight, simultaneously with a screening in Toronto. That meant that the director wasn't able to attend, but there were 5 guests for the post screening Q&A - one of the producers, Haydn Wazelle, and other members of the cast: Sara Canning, Kurt Max Runte, Paul McGillion, and drum roll ....future most valuable NDN player....Joe Buffalo.
It's a hockey movie, but mostly it's a movie about the toxic trap of masculinity. Working title of this could have been "It's Hard Being a Hockey Boy", because holy shit it is! Guys have it rough, and they are brutal with each other, and especially brutal engaging in their sport, and to those of their sex who don't keep to the gender lines.
The movie uses the milieu of junior hockey to show how tragically narrow the acceptable parameters that comprise masculine identity are, and the terrible toll such restrictive roles can take. Also the ruthless capitalism and exploitive nature of sports and industry as a whole is an overarching theme.
In the Q&A, I asked if the inclusion of native iconography in the film was deliberately provocative and the producer said yeah. The team is called The Warriors, and there's a scene in the beginning where the game star is given a headdress regalia to wear in the locker room after the game as a reward for his prowess as a player. bleagh. There's also a character who is NDN - my fav - played in his first feature role by the wonderfully understated and emotive Joe Buffalo. He's one of the few characters allowed to show compassion for the hockey boy sundered from his team. After I asked my question about the Native content - he threw it back to me - saying he loved that the team was called The Warriors because a Warrior is a good thing to be, and of course for us NDN's, hell yeah that's f'n right on :D He asked me what I would have them be called. I said I didn't know, but then in that so common way, after the moment had passed, my answer came to me - I would have used Spartans - since they were famous for sacrificing the members of their tribe no longer deemed useful.
It was a sad sad f'n film, and how could it be anything but - the commodification and exploitation of athletes and the dearth of allowable human expression our society affords for male identity is so detrimental to the psyches of our men, and that our boys are currently learning how to contort and suppress their natural human impulses and needs in order to become the men this system demands is the most pressing and ongoing disaster our society collectively faces - see TRUMP.
More of that provocative NDN content in this scene:
I believe it's getting released in March. Not sure how wide, or if that's a theatrical run, or on a streaming platform or what, but however it plays, you'll get your chance to see it this spring.
Directed by Dan Mazar from a screenplay by John Phillips
This was my first promo screening this year, the only one I tried for so far, and it turned out to be an entertaining watch. I told someone I hoped it would be like Bad Santa, and when I looked it up while waiting on the screening to start - yes! Written by the team who brought you Bad Santa and Borat, among others. :D
First the good - it's rude as fuck, and really funny - I laughed a lot. It's sexy, silly, and sweet, and it has anti-materialistic, and follow your bliss, heart positive, along with sex positive values. And in spite of the rudecrudeness, it's very family values oriented too. De Niro and Efron have the most screen time, but I thought the scenes with the supporting characters had the best humour. Aubrey Plaza kills, as an unashamed girl on the make, with that inimitable dead pan delivery of the filthiest lines. She's got that schtick down pat. Adam Pally plays the most inappropriate cousin ever, and Jason Mantzoukas is an over the top ridiculous drug dealer with the best connections.
Now for the bad - it's super white bread, with a trajectory you can see a mile off, and it's chock full of stereotypes standing in for real people. The plot has Zac Efron as Jason Kelly, a thwarted photographer pushed into business law, who's about to get married to a horribly shallow fiance, in order to solidify his father's as well as his own career. Robert De Niro, Dick - of course that's his name - Kelly, wants to rescue him from that doom, by taking him on a spring break road trip to Florida. Dirty Grandpa is an old school "real" man, ex-military type, reifying and endorsing paternalistic, patriarchal values, where women are sexual objects, and/or mothers, men bond by insulting and abusing each other, while shoring up their masculinity identities by putting down queers and women. All that's framed as right on, men being men, kinda shit.
That it's casually and constantly homophobic was also irksome, especially since the way the token queer character is handled is supposed to redeem De Niro's queer-baiting commentary.
Dirty Grandpa spends all his interactions with this lone queer character, Tyrone, (Brandon Mychal Smith), making fun of him, until he witnesses him being harassed in a bar, by a group of homophobic and hostile black men. Tyrone isn't capable of defending himself, of course - It's De Niro to the rescue - with the aid of his Grandson - teaching Zac the importance of taking a punch to the face, and defeating them with his mad special ops skills - nobody makes fun of that queer but me! Later he charms the same thuggy men with his weed and Wu Tang knowledge, because that's what black people respect, I guess. White man to the rescue! And that's another thing - the big reveal on Dick Kelly is that he was training insurgents during his military career, not just being a mechanic like his family thought. Hmmm, I read that as unacknowledged superhero man, but the fact that De Niro has to keep that shit on the down low, and his country got major blowback in the form of 9-11 is pretty right on in terms of condemning those values. There was a scene where De Niro gives a major head injury to a jerky jock and that was just way too much too. I dunno. I'm on the fence about this movie - is it condemning mas macho? Kinda sorta depends on whether you agree with those values or not, I guess.
Finally, I was totally squicked by a scene where a father sees his child interacting with Zac Efron in a way that looks sexually abusive, even though it's totally innocent, and also some by the way Aubrey Plaza fetishized De Niro's oldness. Tell me that you've fallen and you can't get up - ridiculous right??? I might be reacting on an ageist level there, but it seemed like the implication was she was recreating previous sexual abuse. In both cases I laughed, but there was definite discomfort - why da F did you go there??? - in my laughter too. I'm uncomfortable when sexual abuse is made light of. :(
It's such a dumb movie that it's hard to take any of it seriously, though, and I think most people who will watch this, won't notice any of the things I took issue with. And that's kinda sad, because the patriarchy is invisible almost always to the people who uphold it.
I saw 30 movies in February: One film festival, 2 shorts, 9 documentaries, 18 narrative films, and most of a movie marathon. Even though I saw What We Do In The Shadows 3 times, it wasn't my favourite flick. That would be Dog Day Afternoon - one of my 9 rewatches, first time seeing it in a theatre though. 50 Shades of Grey is my worst movie of the month, maybe ever. It's super bad and not in that good campy way. Though it has the possibility to get elevated to a great comic experience if people get clever with comeback lines. I don't see that happening except in a rifftrax way. That would make it watchable. It's a well made movie with pretty people, and great locations, just it's brain dead and offensive on a dialogue/plot level. Even with the advantages of AVX size, I came very close to ditching the tedious show, and I regret that I contributed to its box office take.
I was super excited about the 24 Hour Movie Marathon that The Cinematheque put on, but as it unfolded and yet another movie I'd already scene came on screen, (of the 15 films they showed, I'd seen 12), I lost my enthusiasm. It's to be expected, maintaining attention over 24 hours is a dicey proposition to begin with, but especially when you get tired, it's harder to care about or stay awake if it's a story you already know. I wish they'd shown better movies at the end. I had to stand up to get through Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure without falling asleep.
I really liked what programming I caught at The Toronto Black Film Festival. Specifically, the documentary, "Sound of Torture", about the kidnapping of Eritreans in The Sinai desert, and "Ninah's Dowry", a narrative about a Cameroon woman in an abusive relationship that illuminated the societal aspects supporting that abuse, were both especially captivating and harrowing.
AIDependence, about the plethora of NGO's operating in Haiti was an eye opener around the negative consequences and self serving nature of charitable enterprises.
Here's my list, rewatches in italics.
Vancouver Asahi
This is a highly entertaining and educational movie, even if you don't like baseball. It's so well done with super high production values. They recreate Vancouver's Japantown in a seamless fashion. The racism that the Japanese people had to deal with is hard to watch though.
Through A Lens Darkly
Great documentary about Black identity through the medium of portrait photography. It also played at The Toronto Black Film Festival.
Keep On Keepin' On
Clark Terry mentors a blind musician. Super music doc!!
Dog Day Afternoon
I saw this in Toronto as part of the Cineplex Classics. It was great getting to see this on a big screen. Al Pacino is so good in this, plays such a likeable psycho guy.
Project Almanac
Omg such a dumb movie. Kids doing idiotic stuff when they find a time machine.
Jupiter Ascending
I had high hopes for this since it was made by the Wachowski's but it's a serious disappointment. I fell asleep during it. :(
Wild Card
Solid man movie entertainments. A remake of Heat (1986), starring Las Vegas!! (and Jason Statham), based on a William Goldman novel/screenplay.
Toronto Black Film Festival
Growing Up Positive
Contrast of 2 young women, one black and one white, and their respective experiences growing up HIV positive.
Sewing Hope: The Story of Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe
Uganda's Civil War created soooo many orphans. Sister Rosemary set up a training school to help some of these young women. Narrated by Forest Whitaker.
AIDependence: The Many Ills of the NGO system
Charities are self serving opportunistic drains on poor nations.
Betty's Blues
Awesome music and super cool animation!
Ninah's Dowry
This movie was hard to watch. Women are chattel still in Cameroon. Well done.
Sound Of Torture
This documentary made me cry. The failure of the world at large in responding to this Eritrean tragedy is unconscionable.
What We Do In The Shadows
Funnest fauxmentary ever!!
What We Do In The Shadows
The Wrecking Crew
Doc on the session musicians responsible for most every good song made in the US in the 60's though to the 80's.
The Girl Who Walks Alone At Night
Style and ennui for days.
True Romance
Glad I got to see this on a big screen. Dennis Hopper reminds me of my dad in this soooo much. I love you daddy!!
King: A Filmed Record...Montgomery to Memphis
Racism is fucked up. Really good historical doc. Watch this if you want to see the real story behind Selma.
Nightcrawler
This should have got some kind of Oscar nod. Best breakdown of capitalist tropes and the snakes that get ahead since Wolf of Wall Street.
50 Shades Of Grey
Bad, bad movie. The makers of this should be punished.
The Lazurus Effect
Well made and entertaining horror with SF trappings, if predictable and trite. Nothing you ain't seen before. Think Flatliners + Event Horizon - space.
What We Do In The Shadows
The Duff
Solid teen romantic comedy in the vein of John Hughes. Like Mean Girls or Easy A, takes on the clique system and bullying in high school with aplomb.
24 Hour Movie Marathon
Groundhog Day
One of Bill Murray's best roles. Nice to see it on a big screen.
Memento
Was good to see this on a big screen, but watching the terrible drama unfold knowing the outcome, is much worse than puzzling it out cold.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
More silly teen time travel. Super romantic - I'm sure its target audience appreciates it though.
Primer
Watching it again, knowing the time travel aspect, I appreciated this more as an explication of the interpersonal politics of start up businesses.
Orlando
This was my favourite view of the marathon. It's super gorgeous and interesting on more than just a narrative level. Metafeminist happenings abound.
A Brief History of Time
I ducked out for some of this to get Subway. Good companion piece to The Theory of Everything in terms of showing more of Hawking's life, but it doesn't cover his latest theorizing.
This January, I saw 26 movies, 3 of them documentaries, plus 5 shorts. The first was on Netflix, and the rest were in various theatres: Vancity - 8, Cinematheque - 5 +3 shorts, The Rio - 5, International Village - 3 +1 short, and Scotiabank - 3.
My favourite movie this month was Cabaret.
I see most of my flicks at Vancity and The Cinematheque because it's free for me, plus they have great programming, but I will go to any theatre if they're showing something I want to see. The Rio is fun, and has a very casual laid back atmosphere. They have the best late night retro programming on Fridays, not to forget affordable cheap date movies on Mondays and Tuesdays. I appreciate their creative drink menus and grown up boozy food combos, plus there's a grilled cheese option. International Village has more art house programming, and I like their new drink machine - so many pop flavours you could try! Some of the theatres there are small, but they also have quite a few seats with armrests that lift up to make cozy twosomes. The best screen, aside from IMAX, is at Scotiabank though. The main AVX theatre there, is massive with spectacular sound. I love love love seeing movies there, just the hugeness and rumble sound at the start of their feature presentation trailer is enough to get me grinning. I didn't see anything at Metropolis, or 5th Avenue this month, but I like them too. 5th Avenue tends towards showing indie/arty stuff and Metropolis has AVX too, but it's their DBOX seats that makes it worth the trip for the blockbuster shows. Once in a while I'll make it out to Landmark's cinemas in New West or North Van. And I like seeing movies at SFU Woodwards too. Cinematheque has the best popcorn though. Real Butter!!! Plus they have so many things to sprinkle additional flavour on your corn. I'm a fan of blending yeast, spike and Valentina hot sauce.
Trailers for everything I saw, except 3 of the shorts.
Cronenberg could have made this as the third offering of his as yet unfinished violence trilogy. It reads like a more sophisticated Wolf of Wall street or Scarface in it's take on the examination of capitalism - greed as the invisible hand that like a medusa midas touch turns everything it grasps for to stone.
It's got the 80's down pat and that reminded me of Scorcese - the Sopranos. it's such a NY state of Mind movie - mostly take place in New Jersey. You'll understand why people rank on NY as a shithole when you see the locales they use to shoot.
Javarier Bardeem was supposed to be the Oscar Issaac character Abel B? but he dropped out for some reason, and Jessica Chastain campaigned hard for her boy - they went to acting class together at Juiliard.
Dude is talented man.
so is she. Looking all Michelle Pfieffer with her blonde drape and armani wardrobe - totally authentic, the fashion house lent them stuff from 1981 after chastain requested, saying she thought her character would only wear Armani.
A Most Violent Year comes out today and this soundtrack song sums it up real well. I liked it. Think Sons of Goodfellas or The Sopranos. Dude trying to get on up in the straight world, but it operates just as wicked as the thug life.
2014 was a such a great year for me in terms of movie watching. I started volunteering at an art house theatre again, so I've been able to see far more and better movies than I managed to in past years. I didn't see as many movies at the 2014 VIFF, since I had family visiting while it was on, but I still got in 30+.
Thinking on what I saw this year that impressed me most, I keep coming back to Le Sel de La Terre, (The Salt of the Earth), which is actually a documentary about the reknowned photographer, Sebastião Salgado. It's somewhat a false dichotomy to pit docs against fictional fare, but for sure documentaries are impressing me more than the nonfic films lately, and I don't think that's because I'm seeing bad movies either. Seems like more resources are spent to less effect making shitty movies, but that's a whole other subject. Primarily written and directed by Salgado's son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, with Wim Wenders, Salt is a gorgeous, gorgeous film, that has devastating insight into the problems facing humanity. What's more important, it offers hope and solutions too, principally through showing the efforts of one man. Granted, most of us don't have as much personal wealth, social pull and power, to work with as he does, but it's definitely inspiring to see what he has done with his sway. The world and society aren't doomed, and that you can make a difference, is what I came away with. I missed the beginning, which I don't think matters much in my evaluation either. I just missed out on more awesome examples of Salgado's premier photojournalism. I can't wait until I get a chance to see it in it's entirety, I only wish it could be at the Performing Arts Centre's humungo screen again.
In terms of fictional films, I saw sooooo many good ones. Birdman, Dance of Reality, The Editor, Force Majeure, Foxcatcher, Grand Budapest Hotel, Locke, Mommy, Nightcrawler, Nymphomaniac, Snowpiercer, Under The Skin, and Whiplash, are some of the standouts released this year that I managed to see, and I saw a lot of older films that were awesome too. Finally got to see Touch of Evil! Not to forget the Cronenberg and Jodorowsky stuff I was missing, plus I got a few more Godard films under my belt as well.
I saw a ton of good docs too, volunteering at a documentary festival definitely helped my numbers there ;) 69: Love, Sex, Senior, 1971, 20,000 Days on Earth, Advanced Style, Art and Craft, A Brony Tale, The Case Against 8, Crazywater, A Fragile Trust, Freak Out!, Huicholes: The Last Peyote Guardians, Honour Your Word, The Internet's Own Boy, Jodorowsky's Dune, Life Itself, Mirage Men, The Overnighters, Plot for Peace, The Red Army, The Reunion, Whitey: The United States vs James J. Bulger, are the best that I can recall at the moment.
My top 2014 regular movie pick is Wild though, and I notice while it's not a documentary, it is a dramatization based on a true story - the memoir that Cheryl Strayed wrote about her epic 1800 km hike along the Pacific Coast Trail. It's my top choice because it's one of the films that had the most emotional resonance for me, and also because it had a very humanist theme of acceptance. Plus, visually it's practically 100% camping porn. I think Reese Witherspoon has a good shot at taking home an Oscar for her performance.
Perhaps films based around real life experiences are simply bound to have more profound and relatable emotional payoffs.
I loved the soundtrack too.
Since I've been watching more and BETTER flicks, I've noticed I generally have less desire to articulate my opinions on them. I don't know if that's because I have less time to so, what with seeing more altogether, and having time taken up by work too - probably both. In any case, I've decided I'll make time to at least keep track of every film I see and post a trailer or poster pic, even if I don't express any judgements about them. This is my film nerdery rising up I guess, but there's something oh so satisfying about making lists, and documenting your actions.
I have yet to see these 2014 offerings: A Most Violent Year, A Most Wanted Man, Accused, American Sniper, Annie, Begin Again, Belle, Beyond The Lights, Big Hero 6, Black or White, The Book of Life, The Boxtrolls, Cake, Calvary, Camp Xray, Cheatin', CitizenFour, Corn Island, Dear White People, The Drop, Elsa & Fred, End of the Tour, The Equalizer, Exodus, The Fault in Our Stars, Fort Bliss, Fury, The Gambler, Get On Up, Goodbye to Language, The Guide, The Homesman, How to Train Your Dragon 2, The Humbling, The Hundred Foot Journey, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, Inherent Vice, The Judge, Kill The Messenger, Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, Leviathan, Love is Strange, Low Down, Magic in the Moonlight, Mateo, Men Women and Children, Miss Julie, Mr. Turner, My Old Lady, Obvious Child, Olvidados, The One I Love, Pride, The Railway Man, The Rover, Rio 2, St Vincent, Selma, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, Song of the Sea, Still Alice, Two Days, One Night, Tangerines, Timbuktu, To Kill a Man, Top Five, The Tribe, Unbroken, Wetlands, White Bird in a Blizzard, White God, and Winter Sleep, among others.
So good movies and the opportunity to opine on them abound in my queue still. :)
Nebraska was my first VIFF gala and what a great way to start off the 2013 festival. I predict Oscars for both Alexander Payne, and Bruce Dern - at least nominations, if not the actual awards.
It's such a warm, touching flick. At times hilarious, while others will make your heart all squishy. I liked it so much, when I got an invite to a promo screening, it was a no-brainer to see it again. I enjoyed it just as much the second go round, but I took more notice of the values it both criticized and exalted.
It's a beautifully human film, that visually stuns with Phedon Papamichael's Walker Evans style, B&W cinematography. He packs it full with long static shots of endless prairie vistas and medium shots of small town, and rural life, that imbue the stark imagery with a retro longing quality for times gone past. It made me oh so homesick and nostalgic for the prairies. It has a lovely instrumental soundtrack too, produced by Mark Orton and the rest of the Tin Hat Trio rebanded, (as Tin Hat), for the first time since 2005, to create their varied takes on American roots music.
Alexander Payne is known for his relationship tales, and usually they involve more upper and middle class protagonists - this one is a little more down to earth in portraying rural farm folk, and small town people, but it still contains the same acerbic criticism, and upholding of certain values of Payne's other flicks. There's a privileging of the values of the have mores, over the lesser blessed. And although there is much criticism, ultimately, the ideals of patriarchy and it's egoic concerns, are implicit in the content and resolution of conflicts within the plot.
The plot is simple. The Grants are a small family of 4 living in Billings Montana: David, an electronics salesman, (Will Forte), his older brother Ross, a local news caster (Bob Odenkirk,) their parents, Kate, a former hairdresser, (June Squib), who is a reductive caricature of the foul mouthed, and hostile nagging female, that constantly hectors everyone, especially the silent and stoic alcoholic father, Woody, (Bruce Dern) who suffers from the effects of Alzheimer's. Woody believes that he has won $1,000,000 through a magazine sweepstakes mail out, and wants to collect his winnings in Nebraska, since his family is unable to convince him that the sweepstakes is a scam. Much of the humour in the film is through the interactions with their extended family. Woody is the youngest of 7 brothers, and his brothers never left the small town of Hawthorne, Nebraska, where they grew up.
What struck me most in the film, was how selfish everyone was regarding their actions with one another. Everyone kept a ledger that was very unbalanced, noting only where they gave, and not when they benefitted from the generosity of others. This attitude reflects the American ideal of the so called self made man, which in turn gave rise to the disconnected nuclear family, all of which are based on the hierarchical patriarchal mode. There is criticism of this mode, but acceptance of its primacy is ultimately supported through the actions of the characters.
There is a exploration and dismissal of the value of fairness in the film too. There is a distinct differentiation between wealth that is perceived as earned or unearned. The recognition of fairness is something that is innate, and not just to humans - we are born with a moral capacity to judge others for their behaviour around fairness, and William Damon's 1970's studies demonstrated that equality bias in how children would rather something of value be destroyed than see it unfairly divided. The operational modes that dismiss these values are supported by many factors and over the course of the film the justifications and reasons behind the foibles of the main characters are revealed.
Stacy Keach's character Ed Pegram, reminded me of my father with his aggressive macho posturing. Pegram was a prime example of the selfish perspective - yeah this is a the nature of being human - we see everything through the lens of our own needs, but in this instance the relative wealth of his old partner became intolerably unfair. As Ed puts it, the windfall money Woody didn't even earn - it wasn't right that Keach didn't have a stake in it. From his perspective, he had given more to Woody than he got, so he was the victim! The fact is, when you look at things from a relative perspective, it's always possible to cast oneself in the poor unfortunate category, vis-a-vis another. And doing so justifies selfishness. It's just as easy to see yourself as better off, but that will generally create discomfort, and since the idea of fairness is so ingrained, we come up with reasons to justify inequity - based on merit and personal accomplishment.
When Will punches Ed in the face, I guess we're supposed to cheer at the old bully getting his comeuppance - an eye for an eye and all that. But the way Ed's face fell when he saw how carefully Woody folded the letter and placed it in his pocket, it was apparent that Ed understood that he'd been being needlessly cruel to an old befuddled man. Ed looked ashamed. This could have been a moment for transcendence of the violence as a resolution to conflict model, but no. David's measured and deliberate response plunges us back down into the usual old egoic macho competitive concerns. David defends his dad's honour and decks an old man. The young bull pushes the old one out of the dominant position. It doesn't represent any kind of change really, just a change in who's doing the bullying.
What are the roots of the silence and stoicism of the Grant men? Could it be they are all PTSD traumatised from their war experiences? Could the very model of masculinity that demands they maintain a dominance over the earth and everyone else in their lives, women and children included, and also a similar control over their devalued "feminine" feelings be the cause? When one of the wives tells Woody that his brother has an injured foot. The brother's response? "It's ok. It just hurts." Rigid gender roles do hurt - men and women both. The Grant cousins Bart, (Tim Driscoll) and Cole, (Devin Ratray), delight in showing dominance over their cousin David's leisurely drive to their town from Billings. They operate out of a competitive, zero-sum, paradigm. You're either on top, or on the bottom - there's no such thing as equality. In addition to being of lower consciousness, they're low status too - unemployed, and most troubling, they're also convicted sex offenders doing community service for rape - though they and their mother deny that reality. And of course the denial of rape culture is very strong everywhere, but especially in this conservative family values community, the acceptance of men hurting women seems to be par for the course. In fact there is a de-facto acceptance of violence in many forms, though from the females it's more verbal. Kate is very vicious in her treatment of everyone - she's always been a bitch as Ed flat out tells David. Women who exert any form of power, especially sexually, well they're sluts and bitches ain't they?
The old homestead, that was hand built by the grandfather with the help of his brothers, had been abandoned and left to moulder back into the land. The value of family helping one another - these are what Payne seems to be championing throughout the film, that mythical past of living on the land, "salt of the earth" as Kate references one family, is not a lost utopia either. Here too, there's rot in the foundations of that patriarchal model. When Woody is in his parent's bedroom, he says "I would get whipped if they found me in here." He seems oddly nonplussed when he says, "There's no one here to whip me now." The reins of power in the hierarchical patriarchal model are those very same same whip hands that subjugate.
And the satisfying moment in the film where you discover how much Woody wanted to be the provider of THINGS for his sons - sure he wanted a truck and a compressor, but mostly he wanted to leave the money for his boys. He was ashamed that he had failed to provide for his grown up sons, long out of the house and living their own lives. David tells him he shouldn't worry about that, they're fine and he turns the tables and provides for his father those totemic objects of desire. The satisfying resolution of the film is when Woody gets to act as if he won a million dollars; he's driving down his old hometown streets in his prize winner hat, waving to the folk and leaving them with the impression that he's now a rich man. What does this illusion support? The idea that what other people think is MORE important that truth. That it's a pretty great thing to pull a fast one, and have the appearance of relative success, then lord it over the folk and community you abandoned before you take off with all that supposed unearned wealth. Of course it's just a fantasy version of doing that, but there's still something really smug and soulless in taking pleasure in the idea of simultaneously thumbing your nose and humble bragging about wealth.
And what of the road not taken? Ed tells David he wouldn't have been born if not for his intervention - Ed was the one who convinced Woody to stay with Kate instead of leaving her for the woman he loved - as Ed describes her "a halfbreed from the reservation."
There are only 2 instances of POC in the movie, this off hand and derogatory mention of a Native woman, and a scene where Woody goes to the garage he used to own. The first reference is a brief example of the NDN standing in for freedom and spiritual truth, which of course patriarchy does not allow. Hohum. In the 2nd, there are 2 Hispanic, presumably Mexican immigrant men working in Woody's old garage and Woody's attitude towards them is judgmental. He dismisses them, saying "They don't know what they are doing." This is an almost invisible recognition of the racist realities of rural white bread America's hostile reaction to the increase of POC in the population.
One of the most poignant scenes of what could have been, arises near the end when Woody is driving through the town saying goodbye. He passes by Peg Nagy, (Angela Mcewen), the woman he dated before he met the woman he'd spend the rest of his life with, and the expression on her face at his leaving was one of tender longing and contemplation for that imaginary life of love they could have had. Made my heart rise in my chest.
There was one scene that I had to ask the writer Bob Nelson about after the gala screening. Towards the beginning of their travels to Nebraska, David and Woody pass by a double locomotive with the engines coupled in opposing directions. This was such a perfect visual metaphor for the way Woody was at odds with his family, I wondered if Nelson had written it into the script. He hadn't, and he couldn't tell me whether it had been a deliberately created scene, or just one of opportunistic synchronicity. I lean towards the latter, but who knows, because there were a lot of visual puns, one which made me chortle aloud, when Woody and David take a leak on the roadside next to an farming irrigation apparatus.
No they aren't peeing here:P
Nebraska is a road trip flick and that style of film always brings to the fore, the issues in the relationships between the folk on the journey. The strength in Payne's film derives from his understanding of the mysteries of family - how we can fool ourselves into thinking we know and understand our loved ones completely. Especially the roles of family can be barriers that keep us from seeing our family members as wholly unique and complex. We are all many faceted and often present only a slice of ourselves in interactions. With some people we are merely acquaintances, or coworkers, to others life partners, to our parents and our children, we will too often be confined in the dynamic of child or parent. But really, we are capable of being much more whole in our interactions with all people, not simply presenting an aspect of who they expect us to be.
The movie emphasises the value of love and support for your family, for good or ill, and that can be problematic if that enables selfish or self destructive actions, but honouring the values of acceptance, forgiveness, and above all love, are generally speaking, practices that have the potential to create a better place for everyone. I think the film overall is more an exploration of problematic values than supportive of the status quo, and it's really such a great flick in terms of the performances that I can't in good faith do anything other than highly recommend it.
I was trepidatious some about going to this, leery that it was going to be awful like all those terrible sitcom like, bumbling man, sexist comedies, Seth Mcfarlane and ilk, like making, so I almost bailed on going, especially since my husband didn't want to see it. I decided to go though, because I was pretty sure it was a remake of Starbuck - a film that got great buzz the year it screened at the VIFF. And yeah, it is a remake and it's even written and directed by the same guy, just transplanted from a Francophone Montreal locale to a more marketable NYC English language setting.
Vince Vaughn is a bumbling man child in this, but he's a doofus with an arc, and yeah it's the usual guy gets serious about shit when he's about to become a parent tale, but this flick adds in the so ripe for hilarity complication of his having to deal with 533 biological children wanting to meet their sperm donor dad, known to them only by the ID "Starbuck".
I liked it. I've always liked Vince Vaughn, even in his asshole roles, since I think he's a cutie-pants sweetheart, but especially that his character in this is a lovable fuckup, is something I can relate to. I'm really comfortable identifying with the characters who stumble and struggle eh? :P
It's a fun movie with the a sweet message about family values, and doing the right thing. Sure it's got a happy ending, but what's wrong with that? Every movie doesn't have to be all traumatic and dramatic to have some deepness. Yeah, it's a male lens on parenthood too, but I'll overlook its white bread, falsely presented, middle class positioning, in favour of it's over arcing messages on the importance of love, accepting, redemption, and family.
The chubbed up Chris Pratt, is really funny as the best friend lawyer, and I'm pretty sure I saw Patrick Huard, (who played Starbuck in the original), in a small uncredited cameo. And I'd say seek out the original too, if you'd rather hear this story told on a smaller, culturally specific, scale - en Francais.
I read the Orson Scott Card book this movie is based on when I was a teenager, but the only thing I remembered clearly was the arc of the boy becoming a Nietzschean superman soldier, and how he ended up shrugging off that training in the face of his encounters with the supposed enemy bug race.
The movie pays short shrift to that transformative end, and is basically a bunch of Harry Potter kid soldiers in kamikaze training school, who spend most of the flick playing zero g quidditch laser tag. It's a bombastic pro-military recruitment flick, and its fascist, or would that be speciest?? mentality was way to ugh for me. I found it specious for sure, and even though the effects are great, it's actually pretty boring. I liked the portrayals of bullying and social engineering, but the best part for me was seeing all the tough little guys in the movie. Ben Kingsley has a small role as a Maori with honorific facial tattooing and he looks awesome.
On the way home from the movie, I passed by a launch party for the latest release of Call Of Duty Ghosts. And it struck me that this is exactly the crowd the movie was made for - it's bound to appeal to the kids and other folk with childish black and white morality toolsets, who are into playing war games. It's a natural fit, since I think they buy into the horrible idea of killing being honourable, especially when that murder has been justified through the idea of othering the enemy to be inhuman. Also, through the emphasis on "national defence", which too often is doublespeak for aggressive offense, of course. Unfortunately, it's a sad truth that a majority of people have been indoctrinated in these terrible beliefs worldwide, and this movie does more to reinforce that mentality than plant the seeds of peace and redress briefly referenced in the coda.
I was born shortly before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, so I grew up steeped in the mystique and glamour of the astronaut. I think every kid of my generation had dreams of being an astronaut, at least until we realized how much talent and work that would entail. This movie is about as close as you can get to the experience of what that would actually be like in terms of the amazing visuals. For sure, it's a gorgeous, spectacular, technical achievement, but I don't know that it's a very accurate portrayal of what those space folk get up to task wise though. In fact I doubt that it is, because it for sure isn't accurate in depicting how I imagine astronauts would behave under the circumstances presented in the flick.
Sandra Bullock commands the most screen time, but she's framed as a doofus in comparison to the mission commander played by George Clooney. It's his last mission and he's channeling his usual charm of the cock of the spacewalk, and has oodles of experience compared to the neophyte startrekker, Bullock. She was recruited to install some kind of medical scanner of her design, that has been repurposed for space use, so she's a genius engineer. As Clooney says, NASA doesn't waste it's time on uselessness. However she sure doesn't act like she's got any brains in her head for much of the flick. I kept thinking, did she even go to astronaut school? She's mentions that she had 6 months of astronaut training, but whatever for that, because the whole movie she's bumbling her way through one crisis to the next, doing DUMB things. I kept groaning at the way she was written. It was just way too much like misogynistic, WOMAN DRIVER bullshit. Especially since there was no need to have her making stupid mistakes either - the beauty of a space tale, is with the setting being such a hostile environment, things could just HAPPEN without the need for human error.
Bullock's character does have an arc - she's lost a child and since then has been living a very circumscribed life - just working. Not living to work, or working to live - work is the only thing that keeps her going. So literally and virtually, she's lost in space. And the way this is resolved I found irksome too, because when she regains her will to live, through a spiritual moment - she gives credit to CLOONEY, for choices she makes on her own. Ok, these are aspects of spirituality that I can get behind - to honour the ineffable and have a sense of awe or transcendence, also a feeling of connection to the people we love who have passed, and it's great too to recognize that we don't do anything on our own, but build on the work of others. Unfortunately, I thought that the movie framed these spiritual truths in a very dualistic male/female manner with her being the ignoramus and receiver of edjumacations - the usual humble female role thang eh?
And there was also the fact that the first guy to die - the red shirt - well he had a brown face. And the bad guys in this could have just been asteroids, or circumstance, but NO - they're RUSSIANS cluttering up the orbital areas of the earth with their malfunctioning space junk. Too sexist, too white, too Manifestdestiny Pro-American. Still it looked real good, and it's exciting as hell. I think it's going to be especially enjoyable for those not prone to notice its embedded disdain for women.
I just found out about this short film made Alfonso Cuarón's son Jonas - he's also the co-writer of Gravity.
I really liked seeing this mirror perspective to the same scene from Gravity, because in the film, I didn't understand the language of who it was she was talking to when she was undergoing her egoic death. I had assumed he was Chinese, maybe a Laplander. I had an inkling it was somewhere Northern because of the dogs, but that was just guessing. What I did understand was that he was a simple man who had a family. And what's the point of this scene? I think this high tech flick about a women who is not in touch with her needs, contains this portrayal of Native People because the Cuaróns are using them to represent a "natural" life style, where human relations are paramount over ego, and its concerns for achievement. That's what movie folk tend to use us Indigenous types for anyhow - spiritual shorthand for living in balance with nature. This is something that is a timely and important value, and since it's a concept that is so undervalued in current society, the fact that the NDN's are invisible is actually quite appropriate.
Spoilers….I had a lot of problems with Gravity and they all related to
gender. I really didn’t like how incompetently Bullock was framed in
context with Clooney. She was always doing STUPID stuff, at first being the
stumbling, bumbling, screaming, female being rescued and hauled around by
Clooney, and then doing her usual flustered lady thang, in reaction to the
implacable relentless monster – space. After some thought though, and
after seeing the short film Cuaron’s son did – it shows the conversation
Bullock has with the guy on Earth from his perspective – I came around
to understanding that aspect being a direct result and possible subversion of patriarchal gender values. Yes, the way she was portrayed had too much of the awfulness of gender stereotyping, but she could just as easily have been a male character. I think the choice of casting the role as a woman was deliberate: not
because women are incompetent compared to men, but largely because patriarchal values read women as having a higher humanistic capacity BECAUSE of their gender and life
giving caregiver roles. It’s more the norm for women to have feelings, than to repress
them, and for them to be vulnerable and grow is also more acceptable. That these aspects of herself were parts she had lost and rejected, set the arc of her character's growth, and framed the moral message of the film - to reify the importance of our connection to others, the earth and the environment. In some ways it might have been more of a push back against gender stereotyping to have a male character transforming this way, but I think having a woman navigate the vacuum of space jockey ego achievement, gave more strength overall to the rejection of the patriarchal systems that puts so much weight on things that have very little to do with the rest of society. True her return could also be read as her failure to get er done up there, and a call out to "get back to the kitchen and make sammiches", but that's a small mind response, and really what's more important than making sure our kitchen - the earth - is looked after, and each other too.
