Another round of the CFL Playoffs are about to kick-off. Here are my picks for tomorrow's matchups:
B.C. Lions/Edmonton Eskimos: it's hard to envision Edmonton winning this game. They beat B.C. early on in the season but the Lions convincingly defeated them twice down the stretch, one game with a score of 36 to 1 (although if I'm not mistaken injuries were a key factor in Edmonton's loss in this instance). The game's being played at BC Place and the Lions have won 10 of their last 11. That being said, Ricky Ray's no stranger to big games and has demonstrated in the past that he knows how to win them. In the last 35 years, Edmonton has played for the Grey Cup 14 times and are statistically due for another appearance (they haven't made it since 2005). British Columbia only made it 7 times during the same time period although Saskatchewan has defied the odds in recent years. Travis Lulay doesn't have the same depth of experience as Ray but he has been compared by some commentators to Anthony Calvillo and he played exceptionally well this year. I think the game will be close with both teams playing well, the winner of the turnover differential emerging victorious, the winner of that turnover differential being B.C.
Winnipeg Blue Bombers/Hamilton Tiger-Cats: don't know how many times I've seen Hamilton lose big games to the Blue Bombers. Don't really want to dwell on it. Winnipeg beat the Ti-Cats 3 times this year and defeated them during their last playoff meeting in 2001, after Hamilton had eliminated Montréal. The Ti-Cats have also played inconsistently this season, being unstoppable one week and a total mess the next. But something about the only team to not enter the last week of the regular season with a 10 and 7 record winning the Grey Cup after stringing together three outstanding and unexpected performances in a row makes sense to me, logic be damned. Hamilton hasn't experienced much success in the playoffs since 2001 and are hungry for victory. I think Kevin Glenn dismantles his old team tomorrow and the Tiger-Cats play for the Grey Cup on November 27th.
*Ouch
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Conviction
A brother falsely incarcerated. A sister dedicated to setting him free. Unwavering belief synthesized with focused raw acute determination. An inspiring film modestly elevating the power of hope while proving that it's not just for the naïve or the foolhardy.
Tony Goldwyn's Conviction could have been much more sensational, attempting to sentimentally cater to our manufactured desires for explosions and vindictive polarized constructs. It could have melodramatically situated its plot within a broader context, focusing on life in prison, media dramatizations, or the challenges presented by trying to raise a family, work, and finish law school with hardly any financial or social resources. But it doesn't examine these dimensions, preferring to zero in on an unbreakable bond forged between brother and sister, investigating their relationship primarily in order to provide extended insights into the constructive potential of an enduring commitment.
Betty Anne Waters (Hilary Swank) isn't about boasting or vilifying or emoting, she prefers to achieve her goals objectively and doesn't let anything or anyone stand in her way, most of the time, even though the odds stacked against her seem insurmountable.
Kenny Waters (Sam Rockwell) isn't quite so level headed seeing how he's serving a life sentence for murder, but his sister's prudent, logical, affable recurring presence helps temper his suicidal tendencies.
Swank and Rockwell play their parts well and one of the only things missing from their interactions is an extended scene, one which probes the depths of their characters more thoroughly, without resorting to heartbreaking platitudes.
But such a scene perhaps would have been misplaced in Conviction, since it effectively works within the mainstream to instructively use a generic form to reach a wide audience for whom its message is much more positive than one latently conditioned by cynicism.
The structures preventing Kenny from being exonerated are formidable and entrenched. But they can still be challenged and remodelled.
One day at a time.
Tony Goldwyn's Conviction could have been much more sensational, attempting to sentimentally cater to our manufactured desires for explosions and vindictive polarized constructs. It could have melodramatically situated its plot within a broader context, focusing on life in prison, media dramatizations, or the challenges presented by trying to raise a family, work, and finish law school with hardly any financial or social resources. But it doesn't examine these dimensions, preferring to zero in on an unbreakable bond forged between brother and sister, investigating their relationship primarily in order to provide extended insights into the constructive potential of an enduring commitment.
Betty Anne Waters (Hilary Swank) isn't about boasting or vilifying or emoting, she prefers to achieve her goals objectively and doesn't let anything or anyone stand in her way, most of the time, even though the odds stacked against her seem insurmountable.
Kenny Waters (Sam Rockwell) isn't quite so level headed seeing how he's serving a life sentence for murder, but his sister's prudent, logical, affable recurring presence helps temper his suicidal tendencies.
Swank and Rockwell play their parts well and one of the only things missing from their interactions is an extended scene, one which probes the depths of their characters more thoroughly, without resorting to heartbreaking platitudes.
But such a scene perhaps would have been misplaced in Conviction, since it effectively works within the mainstream to instructively use a generic form to reach a wide audience for whom its message is much more positive than one latently conditioned by cynicism.
The structures preventing Kenny from being exonerated are formidable and entrenched. But they can still be challenged and remodelled.
One day at a time.
Monday, November 14, 2011
Green Lantern
An ancient force of evil has been accidentally released from his secluded prison and now seeks the destruction of all. The only thing standing in the way of his vengeful assault on the Guardians of the Universe and their home planet of Oa is an interstellar police force known as The Green Lanterns. The Lanterns were created after the Guardians harnessed the green essence of the Emotional Spectrum of Willpower to forge fearless warriors. One of the Guardians attempted to harness the power of Fear as well, but was unable to manage its infernal malevolence, and it warped his once impeccable constitution, transforming him into Parallax.
Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is a test pilot on Earth, playing by his own rules and wary of responsibility. When Green Lantern Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison) is mortally wounded by Parallax, he expediently travels to Earth to allow his ring to choose a worthy successor (the ring being made of pure will, it possesses the ability to discover those who are pure of heart and have the mental fortitude to safeguard the Universe). The ring discovers young Jordan who reluctantly accepts its heroic demands and then travels to Oa to begin his intergalactic training.
At the same time, Abin Sur's body is discovered by the American military who then ask scientist Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) to perform an autopsy of sorts. Little does he know that Parallax has infiltrated Sur's body, leaving his essence behind. Hammond unknowingly absorbs this essence and begins transforming into an apprentice of pure evil. After Jordan fails in his initial attempts to join The Lanterns, he returns to Earth only to discover that he must protect it from Hammond's twisted momentum.
And Parallax's, who decides to destroy Earth in order to gain enough power to attack Oa. And since the best of his fellow more committed Lanterns failed in their attempt to defeat Parallax, he must defend his home planet, on his own.
With the help of the power of love.
It's a lot more fun to write about what happens in Martin Campbell's Green Lantern than it is to watch. Many of the scenes are rushed and packed tightly together which results in wooden and scant character development. Increased depth of character would have helped its script differentiate itself from similar films like The Last Starfighter, by creating distracting personalities whose insights construct a world of their own.
The Lanterns also give up on defeating Parallax far too quickly considering that they're supposed to be fearless and number over 3,000. This allows Jordan to demonstrate that he is the ultimate Lantern, thereby working within the old "the greatest heroes are the ones who distance themselves from their profession while performing exceptionally well day after day" aesthetic, but I'm afraid that my will still has trouble manifesting this particularity.
None of the other Lanterns help Jordan in the end either, which supports the idea that individuals need to make it on their own, but severely limits the roles social networks play in one's professional development.
Green Lantern basically lacks the backstories, crescendoes, wit, and depth that has made so many successful superhero films, as if they figured they could simply follow the traditional formula without introducing compelling contemporary content, more of a banal commercial calculation than an entertaining film.
Enjoyed how the Green Lanterns function nevertheless, having the freedom to materialize their creativity at will in order to leverage innovative productive and practical solutions.
Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds) is a test pilot on Earth, playing by his own rules and wary of responsibility. When Green Lantern Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison) is mortally wounded by Parallax, he expediently travels to Earth to allow his ring to choose a worthy successor (the ring being made of pure will, it possesses the ability to discover those who are pure of heart and have the mental fortitude to safeguard the Universe). The ring discovers young Jordan who reluctantly accepts its heroic demands and then travels to Oa to begin his intergalactic training.
At the same time, Abin Sur's body is discovered by the American military who then ask scientist Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) to perform an autopsy of sorts. Little does he know that Parallax has infiltrated Sur's body, leaving his essence behind. Hammond unknowingly absorbs this essence and begins transforming into an apprentice of pure evil. After Jordan fails in his initial attempts to join The Lanterns, he returns to Earth only to discover that he must protect it from Hammond's twisted momentum.
And Parallax's, who decides to destroy Earth in order to gain enough power to attack Oa. And since the best of his fellow more committed Lanterns failed in their attempt to defeat Parallax, he must defend his home planet, on his own.
With the help of the power of love.
It's a lot more fun to write about what happens in Martin Campbell's Green Lantern than it is to watch. Many of the scenes are rushed and packed tightly together which results in wooden and scant character development. Increased depth of character would have helped its script differentiate itself from similar films like The Last Starfighter, by creating distracting personalities whose insights construct a world of their own.
The Lanterns also give up on defeating Parallax far too quickly considering that they're supposed to be fearless and number over 3,000. This allows Jordan to demonstrate that he is the ultimate Lantern, thereby working within the old "the greatest heroes are the ones who distance themselves from their profession while performing exceptionally well day after day" aesthetic, but I'm afraid that my will still has trouble manifesting this particularity.
None of the other Lanterns help Jordan in the end either, which supports the idea that individuals need to make it on their own, but severely limits the roles social networks play in one's professional development.
Green Lantern basically lacks the backstories, crescendoes, wit, and depth that has made so many successful superhero films, as if they figured they could simply follow the traditional formula without introducing compelling contemporary content, more of a banal commercial calculation than an entertaining film.
Enjoyed how the Green Lanterns function nevertheless, having the freedom to materialize their creativity at will in order to leverage innovative productive and practical solutions.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas
Good God. What the hell happened to Christmas?
It seems as if the traditional Christmas special has been warped and welded into a devious pot smoking lingerie modelling gangster frolicking schism, just in time to usher in the 2011 holiday season. A special crafted for those who have grown weary of the predictable patterns worked into the yearly festive Frostyesque line-up and are hungrily seeking a palpable harbinger of mainstream subversion, of decadent diversions, of subterranean incursions.
Fully endorsed by Santa.
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas provides such content and insouciantly precipitates a brazen comical maelstrom into which the politically correct is unwittingly thrust.
As Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Hal Penn) frantically search for a new Christmas tree.
Trying to make sense of the ways in which this film confronts stereotyping is challenging. It's as if representatives of two minority groups are saying that due to the institutional barriers firmly established by the Anglo-Saxon majority it's impossible for us to successfully integrate into the mainstream, but we'll still give it a shot, and playfully present you with exactly what you would expect, based upon your own preconceptions, while opening up a resultant critical space in your public sphere, and affectively plunging within full throttle.
You see, the mainstream often prevents minorities from successfully integrating into its culture. It does so in order to horde the prominent signs of achievement and associated luxuries for itself. As minorities still seek to earn a living and take care of their families, they must find a way to do so in the underground, using the only resources they have available to their general advantage (selling narcotics etc.). If racist institutional representatives and policies promote these stereotypes and they are upheld by their ethnic non-professional counterparts, and progressive legislation such as affirmative action is suppressed, you directly stifle an enormous degree of potential, and keep generations of prominent public role models from ever being able to productively apply themselves.
Therefore the underground becomes their outlet and they carve out an existence within while demonstrating that some of the 'demonized' resources they control (marijuana) aren't really that bad and would legitimize their 'unlawful' pursuits if legalized.
There's some of this in A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas and they definitely take things to new levels as they nurture a tormented frustrated blockaded aesthetic while working within a form that has been culturally stabilized.
All the while applying new meanings to concepts like marriage, family, and friendship.
And smoking that reefer.
It seems as if the traditional Christmas special has been warped and welded into a devious pot smoking lingerie modelling gangster frolicking schism, just in time to usher in the 2011 holiday season. A special crafted for those who have grown weary of the predictable patterns worked into the yearly festive Frostyesque line-up and are hungrily seeking a palpable harbinger of mainstream subversion, of decadent diversions, of subterranean incursions.
Fully endorsed by Santa.
A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas provides such content and insouciantly precipitates a brazen comical maelstrom into which the politically correct is unwittingly thrust.
As Harold (John Cho) and Kumar (Hal Penn) frantically search for a new Christmas tree.
Trying to make sense of the ways in which this film confronts stereotyping is challenging. It's as if representatives of two minority groups are saying that due to the institutional barriers firmly established by the Anglo-Saxon majority it's impossible for us to successfully integrate into the mainstream, but we'll still give it a shot, and playfully present you with exactly what you would expect, based upon your own preconceptions, while opening up a resultant critical space in your public sphere, and affectively plunging within full throttle.
You see, the mainstream often prevents minorities from successfully integrating into its culture. It does so in order to horde the prominent signs of achievement and associated luxuries for itself. As minorities still seek to earn a living and take care of their families, they must find a way to do so in the underground, using the only resources they have available to their general advantage (selling narcotics etc.). If racist institutional representatives and policies promote these stereotypes and they are upheld by their ethnic non-professional counterparts, and progressive legislation such as affirmative action is suppressed, you directly stifle an enormous degree of potential, and keep generations of prominent public role models from ever being able to productively apply themselves.
Therefore the underground becomes their outlet and they carve out an existence within while demonstrating that some of the 'demonized' resources they control (marijuana) aren't really that bad and would legitimize their 'unlawful' pursuits if legalized.
There's some of this in A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas and they definitely take things to new levels as they nurture a tormented frustrated blockaded aesthetic while working within a form that has been culturally stabilized.
All the while applying new meanings to concepts like marriage, family, and friendship.
And smoking that reefer.
CFL Playoff Picks
The following are my picks for this weekend's CFL Playoff matchups:
Calgary Stampeders/Edmonton Eskimos: Edmonton has home field advantage but the Stampeders have played better as of late. In fact, after winning their first 5 games of the season, the Eskimos only won 6 of their next 13. Alberta's finest played 3 times this year with Edmonton winning twice but the Eskimos have yet to face Calgary's new starter, Drew Tate. I find predicting who will win when these teams play based on stats to be frustrating and even so I can't find any that give either team a significant edge. Edmonton didn't finish the season well but the game's being played at Commonwealth Stadium. If the Eskimos get to Drew Tate early and often, throwing him off his game, Ricky Ray should be able to lead his team to victory. I don't think this will happen. Stampeders by 7.
Hamilton Tiger-Cats/Montréal Alouettes: Hamilton finally rose to the occasion when playing the Alouettes this year and won 2 of 4 at home. That being said, they haven't won in Montréal for almost ten years. At McGill Stadium. This game's being played at Olympic and the Ti-Cats have a history of defeating Montréal in the playoffs in (somewhat) recent years. Hamilton hosted playoff games in the first round of each of the last two seasons, losing them both. I think the pendulum swings in the other direction this weekend and Hamilton pulls off their first playoff victory since 2001, on the road.
Calgary Stampeders/Edmonton Eskimos: Edmonton has home field advantage but the Stampeders have played better as of late. In fact, after winning their first 5 games of the season, the Eskimos only won 6 of their next 13. Alberta's finest played 3 times this year with Edmonton winning twice but the Eskimos have yet to face Calgary's new starter, Drew Tate. I find predicting who will win when these teams play based on stats to be frustrating and even so I can't find any that give either team a significant edge. Edmonton didn't finish the season well but the game's being played at Commonwealth Stadium. If the Eskimos get to Drew Tate early and often, throwing him off his game, Ricky Ray should be able to lead his team to victory. I don't think this will happen. Stampeders by 7.
Hamilton Tiger-Cats/Montréal Alouettes: Hamilton finally rose to the occasion when playing the Alouettes this year and won 2 of 4 at home. That being said, they haven't won in Montréal for almost ten years. At McGill Stadium. This game's being played at Olympic and the Ti-Cats have a history of defeating Montréal in the playoffs in (somewhat) recent years. Hamilton hosted playoff games in the first round of each of the last two seasons, losing them both. I think the pendulum swings in the other direction this weekend and Hamilton pulls off their first playoff victory since 2001, on the road.
Trickle
Unchallenged reiteration
formulaic inspiration
dismissed abrasive observation
morbid stoic incantation.
formulaic inspiration
dismissed abrasive observation
morbid stoic incantation.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Tower Heist
Was incredibly disappointed by Brett Ratner's Tower Heist. Generic films don't have to be terrible. If their writers try to at least create four or five unexpected witty provocative scenes wherein something distracting takes place they can be salvaged. But they have to hold our attention before they can affectively destream it. Tower Heist presents one boring mundane predictable scene after another, as if they were trying to mimic the aesthetic built into a swiffer wet jet ad in order to peddle jokes that make television's Whitney seem hilarious by comparison. It was like the inspiration behind this script was vacuuming or cleaning behind the fridge. Unmitigated stubborn concrete tedium disseminated by performances who are only noteworthy because they managed to successfully convince me that they were taking their work seriously, regardless of the fact that they must of wretched upon first reading over the material. There's one moment where Matthew Broderick at least looks as if he's aware that he's starring in an cup into which you spit but it's subtle enough for him to still be able to convince the powers that be that he's a team player.
I like films wherein rich assholes who steal from struggling workers are punished and I like that this happens in Tower Heist, but the execution is uniformly lacking in skill, insight and perspicacity, and the plot, racist in structure.
Don't be sucked in by the cast or the ads. Tower Heist isn't worth it and reminds me why I haven't wanted to see an Eddie Murphy film since Bowfinger.
I like films wherein rich assholes who steal from struggling workers are punished and I like that this happens in Tower Heist, but the execution is uniformly lacking in skill, insight and perspicacity, and the plot, racist in structure.
Don't be sucked in by the cast or the ads. Tower Heist isn't worth it and reminds me why I haven't wanted to see an Eddie Murphy film since Bowfinger.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
SUPER
Some superheroes have vast financial and intellectual resources at their disposal which they use to champion justice. Others develop superhuman strength after having directly embraced science's unpredictable diversity. Still others are born with exceptional gifts for which they are ridiculed and ostracized by their fellow citizens. And others are simply nurtured by an alien land whose environment provides them with a permanent degree of invincibility.
But my favourite superheroes are regular average joes who grow tired of corruption's prosperity and take to the streets in a homemade outfit to distribute discipline and punishment with bluntly accurate precision.
Superheroes like SUPER's Crimson Bolt (Rainn Wilson) and his enthusiastic sidekick, Bolty (Ellen Page).
Crimson Bolt has experienced two perfect events throughout his life which have helped him to overcome an existence otherwise filled with depression and humiliation.
The day on which he helped a police officer fight crime, and that on which he married love interest and ex-drug addict Sarah (Liv Tyler).
But as SUPER begins we discover that Sarah has fallen prey to a local drug-dealing thug (played by Kevin Bacon) who encourages her latent addictions in order to steal her away from her loving and devoted trustworthy husband.
After complimenting his eggs.
That same husband decides it's time to fight back and save Sarah once more, and guided by the forces of instinct, love, and over-the-top Christian superhero The Holy Avenger (Nathan Fillion), he makes a red suit, picks up a wrench, and tells crime to shut-up as he bashes its representatives in the head with said wrench while wearing his red suit.
And playing by the unwritten rules.
As Serial Mom coalesces with Q-The Winged Serpent and becomes what Mystery Men should have been, SUPER psychotically delivers a sensationally laid back hard-boiled piece of cinematic mayhem, swathed in a deadpan frank ready-to-wear elasticity.
Not crafted for the feint of heart or those searching for technological hyperactivity, its comedic intuition and adventurous spirit still distill a universal sense of vigilante dexterity, as one short order cook rediscovers what it means to despair.
But my favourite superheroes are regular average joes who grow tired of corruption's prosperity and take to the streets in a homemade outfit to distribute discipline and punishment with bluntly accurate precision.
Superheroes like SUPER's Crimson Bolt (Rainn Wilson) and his enthusiastic sidekick, Bolty (Ellen Page).
Crimson Bolt has experienced two perfect events throughout his life which have helped him to overcome an existence otherwise filled with depression and humiliation.
The day on which he helped a police officer fight crime, and that on which he married love interest and ex-drug addict Sarah (Liv Tyler).
But as SUPER begins we discover that Sarah has fallen prey to a local drug-dealing thug (played by Kevin Bacon) who encourages her latent addictions in order to steal her away from her loving and devoted trustworthy husband.
After complimenting his eggs.
That same husband decides it's time to fight back and save Sarah once more, and guided by the forces of instinct, love, and over-the-top Christian superhero The Holy Avenger (Nathan Fillion), he makes a red suit, picks up a wrench, and tells crime to shut-up as he bashes its representatives in the head with said wrench while wearing his red suit.
And playing by the unwritten rules.
As Serial Mom coalesces with Q-The Winged Serpent and becomes what Mystery Men should have been, SUPER psychotically delivers a sensationally laid back hard-boiled piece of cinematic mayhem, swathed in a deadpan frank ready-to-wear elasticity.
Not crafted for the feint of heart or those searching for technological hyperactivity, its comedic intuition and adventurous spirit still distill a universal sense of vigilante dexterity, as one short order cook rediscovers what it means to despair.
The Exterminating Angel
As times change and different political aesthetics present themselves, a dinner party is held for Mexican elites in Luis Buñuel's The Exterminating Angel. Everyone gathers for a delightful evening accompanied by delicious food items and accomplished musical entertainments.
There's just one problem.
For some indeterminate reason, the majority of workers feel compelled to leave before dinner is served and after dinner none of the guests is capable of leaving the room within which the festivities have expired. Confined together with nothing but their social relations to sustain themselves as the limited resources at their disposal are slowly consumed/utilized, those theoretically possessing a heightened sense of proper and refined conduct descend into madness, as the pet bear freely wanders to and fro.
At his or her leisure.
The external world becomes curious regarding the status of the imprisoned professionals but also find themselves unable to penetrate the invisible, intangible barrier.
As if a feudal set of social divisions has been challenged by a mischievous deity who demands that the well-to-do intimately embrace the circumstances which those who uphold their lavish caprice negotiate daily.
Unable to acknowledge a system wherein opportunity is available to all, or the fact that their luminescence is dependent upon semantic classifications which have designated the activities of working others as undesirable, time exasperatingly passes, and knowledge desperately self-destructs.
There's just one problem.
For some indeterminate reason, the majority of workers feel compelled to leave before dinner is served and after dinner none of the guests is capable of leaving the room within which the festivities have expired. Confined together with nothing but their social relations to sustain themselves as the limited resources at their disposal are slowly consumed/utilized, those theoretically possessing a heightened sense of proper and refined conduct descend into madness, as the pet bear freely wanders to and fro.
At his or her leisure.
The external world becomes curious regarding the status of the imprisoned professionals but also find themselves unable to penetrate the invisible, intangible barrier.
As if a feudal set of social divisions has been challenged by a mischievous deity who demands that the well-to-do intimately embrace the circumstances which those who uphold their lavish caprice negotiate daily.
Unable to acknowledge a system wherein opportunity is available to all, or the fact that their luminescence is dependent upon semantic classifications which have designated the activities of working others as undesirable, time exasperatingly passes, and knowledge desperately self-destructs.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Jules et Jim
And two friends, comfortable in each other's presence, accepting and appreciative of their differences, curious and generous, fall in love with the same woman. Their friendship is strong enough to survive petty jealousies but their rational approach must coalesce with a temperamental vengeful beautiful seductive other, someone created for all to desire but none to possess, as they attempt to recalibrate ancient volatile amorous restrictions, and logically come to terms with that which is scientifically forbidden.
Humble temperaments and a disregard for material goods produce a congenial state of affairs within which archaeology plays a constructive role and time is distended within its seemingly constant particularity.
Only the unanticipated extremes of the one, the refusal to tolerate anything but a complete and unadulterated submission, as they seek to sustain a subjective set of checks and balances, upon which they remain on top, threatens to dissolve things.
Sulphuric acid for the eyes of men who lie. Lips set in stone. Paris and trips to the countryside.
What is left unwritten.
The introduction of permanence disrupts Jules et Jim's carefree aesthetic through the blinding championing of victory.
Solutions chaotically present themselves.
Effects need not be taken into account.
Humble temperaments and a disregard for material goods produce a congenial state of affairs within which archaeology plays a constructive role and time is distended within its seemingly constant particularity.
Only the unanticipated extremes of the one, the refusal to tolerate anything but a complete and unadulterated submission, as they seek to sustain a subjective set of checks and balances, upon which they remain on top, threatens to dissolve things.
Sulphuric acid for the eyes of men who lie. Lips set in stone. Paris and trips to the countryside.
What is left unwritten.
The introduction of permanence disrupts Jules et Jim's carefree aesthetic through the blinding championing of victory.
Solutions chaotically present themselves.
Effects need not be taken into account.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
The Devil's Double
Caligula meets Scarface in Lee Tamahori's The Devil's Double, a sickeningly volatile portrait of Saddam Hussein's lunatic son Uday and the unfortunate subject coerced into functioning as his double(Latif Yahia). Dominic Cooper plays both roles and displays a remarkable tenacity in their execution.
It's a shame they're so difficult to watch.
I have no idea what Uday Hussein was like while living but if the acts he's depicted unleashing in The Devil's Double are even seriously exaggerated he must have been a first rate fucker. The spoiled capricious tyrannical salacious vindictive murderous son of a despot, he never holds back when it comes to satisfying whatever whim crosses his mind, and operates within a mad ethical spectrum wherein he is the insane judge, jury, and executioner. If you should displease him, his forces will destroy you and everyone you love, brutally. Unfettered, energetic, unconditioned jouissance, with unlimited resources at its disposal.
As it pursues its desire.
He needs a double to represent him in public and the humble Latif tries to successfully yield to his will. The two form a tempestuous public/private yin and yang as they carve a place for themselves in their culture's destiny. Love interest Sarrab (Ludivine Sagnier) melodramatically complicates things as she craves them both. Munem (Raad Rawi) tries to maintain a hemorrhaged degree of order as his upright constitution continuously confronts Uday's.
Oddly, Saddam (Philip Quast) isn't presented as a monster and he occasionally attempts to keep Uday in check. Uday's brother is shown in a dimly flattering light as well as he responsibly handles his political affairs.
The film staggeringly balances the two sides of Uday's identity as it attempts to reasonably analyze a maniac while working within his irrational frame. According to Tamahori's portrait, there's little room for ambiguity in the construction of Uday's constitution.
Adolescence meets power and refuses to accept responsibility. Pleasure endures without consequence. A populace rages and weeps. Madness ruins a civilization.
The argument can be made that if reprobates like Uday were given free reign in Iraq to do as they pleased, their elimination represents a victory for liberty. But externally inflicting such liberation on an oppressed people robs them of the catharsis obtained from settling the matter for themselves. It also sets up a dangerous set of circumstances wherein the 'liberators' eventually become the 'oppressors' thereby opening up critical domains which attempt to justify the excesses of the usurped as their authoritarian rule becomes more appealing in the aftermath.
Helping the people's revolutionary goals after they've been set in motion and then departing after the misery has been removed is a different matter.
It's a shame they're so difficult to watch.
I have no idea what Uday Hussein was like while living but if the acts he's depicted unleashing in The Devil's Double are even seriously exaggerated he must have been a first rate fucker. The spoiled capricious tyrannical salacious vindictive murderous son of a despot, he never holds back when it comes to satisfying whatever whim crosses his mind, and operates within a mad ethical spectrum wherein he is the insane judge, jury, and executioner. If you should displease him, his forces will destroy you and everyone you love, brutally. Unfettered, energetic, unconditioned jouissance, with unlimited resources at its disposal.
As it pursues its desire.
He needs a double to represent him in public and the humble Latif tries to successfully yield to his will. The two form a tempestuous public/private yin and yang as they carve a place for themselves in their culture's destiny. Love interest Sarrab (Ludivine Sagnier) melodramatically complicates things as she craves them both. Munem (Raad Rawi) tries to maintain a hemorrhaged degree of order as his upright constitution continuously confronts Uday's.
Oddly, Saddam (Philip Quast) isn't presented as a monster and he occasionally attempts to keep Uday in check. Uday's brother is shown in a dimly flattering light as well as he responsibly handles his political affairs.
The film staggeringly balances the two sides of Uday's identity as it attempts to reasonably analyze a maniac while working within his irrational frame. According to Tamahori's portrait, there's little room for ambiguity in the construction of Uday's constitution.
Adolescence meets power and refuses to accept responsibility. Pleasure endures without consequence. A populace rages and weeps. Madness ruins a civilization.
The argument can be made that if reprobates like Uday were given free reign in Iraq to do as they pleased, their elimination represents a victory for liberty. But externally inflicting such liberation on an oppressed people robs them of the catharsis obtained from settling the matter for themselves. It also sets up a dangerous set of circumstances wherein the 'liberators' eventually become the 'oppressors' thereby opening up critical domains which attempt to justify the excesses of the usurped as their authoritarian rule becomes more appealing in the aftermath.
Helping the people's revolutionary goals after they've been set in motion and then departing after the misery has been removed is a different matter.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Beginners
Percolating a playful, creative, laid back, inquisitive aesthetic, wherein a son convalesces after his father's death thanks to the assistance of a gentle, curious partner, friendly and caring, challenging and supportive, Mike Mills's Beginners evocatively examines freedom through a palliative lens and a spontaneous framework.
Oliver (Ewan MacGregor) didn't know his father was gay until he came out in his seventies after his wife's death. Hal (Christopher Plummer) had enjoyed being married but with his wife's passing decided to openly explore other sides of his personality. Oliver responds with surprise and confusion but due to his open-mind isn't bogged down by bigoted preconceptions. Hal's terminal cancer complicates matters as he refuses to acquiesce to his doctor's corresponding prescriptions.
Oliver remembers these moments along with many from his childhood as he comes to terms with his father's death and falls in love with partner Anna (Mélanie Laurent). The story mimics the thought patterns of a melancholic mind as it searches for an indecipherable stratagem from which to rediscover joy.
As refreshing as Ghost World, Beginners lacks the predetermined bells and whistles that accompany so many polarized narratives and comfortably occupies the middle ground. It doesn't definitively judge, it doesn't segregate, unless the character in question happens to have been consistently segregated and has trouble not definitively judging as a consequence.
Its relaxed pace and sympathetic deliveries mask an unfaltering ingenuity disguised as a lackadaisical reflection.
Oliver (Ewan MacGregor) didn't know his father was gay until he came out in his seventies after his wife's death. Hal (Christopher Plummer) had enjoyed being married but with his wife's passing decided to openly explore other sides of his personality. Oliver responds with surprise and confusion but due to his open-mind isn't bogged down by bigoted preconceptions. Hal's terminal cancer complicates matters as he refuses to acquiesce to his doctor's corresponding prescriptions.
Oliver remembers these moments along with many from his childhood as he comes to terms with his father's death and falls in love with partner Anna (Mélanie Laurent). The story mimics the thought patterns of a melancholic mind as it searches for an indecipherable stratagem from which to rediscover joy.
As refreshing as Ghost World, Beginners lacks the predetermined bells and whistles that accompany so many polarized narratives and comfortably occupies the middle ground. It doesn't definitively judge, it doesn't segregate, unless the character in question happens to have been consistently segregated and has trouble not definitively judging as a consequence.
Its relaxed pace and sympathetic deliveries mask an unfaltering ingenuity disguised as a lackadaisical reflection.
Real Steel
The latest Rockyesque film to hit the big screen is Shawn Levy's Real Steel, a fun and heartwarming story of how a dead-beat dad (Hugh Jackman as Charlie Kenton) and his feisty son (Dakota Goyo as Max Kenton) forge a strong bond through the power of fighting robots. It isn't the most original narrative although it does creatively work within an established tradition.
And Jackman's love interest Bailey Tallet (Evangeline Lilly) doesn't give up on him even though his reckless ways have proved to be remarkably unprofitable.
Whereas humans were still thought to be at the centre of various cultural dimensions in Rocky's day, in the time of Real Steel technological innovation has usurped their active role. Rather than directly taking part in ridiculous battles which regularly present themselves, proxies abound which can effectively fill in as disaffected combatants. Hence, boxing has been replaced by robot boxing and ex-boxers can continue to make a living boxing if they purchase a robot and expertly learn the subtleties of its dynamic controls.
But can such expertise generate results formidable enough to resiliently defeat the ultimate representative of technological fortitude, Real Steel's Zeus and its mastermind the bumptious Tak Mashido (Karl Yune), without continuing to maintain a multidimensional working person's perspective within the heart of its dynamic cultural trajectory, enhanced by love?
Fortunately it still cannot.
But when robots take over and start making movies for themselves will the human dimension still continue to persevere as the principal factor motivating their legendary decision making?
The answer is potentially fermenting somewhere within communist China.
And Jackman's love interest Bailey Tallet (Evangeline Lilly) doesn't give up on him even though his reckless ways have proved to be remarkably unprofitable.
Whereas humans were still thought to be at the centre of various cultural dimensions in Rocky's day, in the time of Real Steel technological innovation has usurped their active role. Rather than directly taking part in ridiculous battles which regularly present themselves, proxies abound which can effectively fill in as disaffected combatants. Hence, boxing has been replaced by robot boxing and ex-boxers can continue to make a living boxing if they purchase a robot and expertly learn the subtleties of its dynamic controls.
But can such expertise generate results formidable enough to resiliently defeat the ultimate representative of technological fortitude, Real Steel's Zeus and its mastermind the bumptious Tak Mashido (Karl Yune), without continuing to maintain a multidimensional working person's perspective within the heart of its dynamic cultural trajectory, enhanced by love?
Fortunately it still cannot.
But when robots take over and start making movies for themselves will the human dimension still continue to persevere as the principal factor motivating their legendary decision making?
The answer is potentially fermenting somewhere within communist China.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
The Thing
Wasn't that impressed with Matthijs van Heijningen's remake of John Carpenter's The Thing. Carpenter's version has strong character development, a cohesive skillfully manufactured presence which accentuates the heightened sense of stoic desperation, patient timing which delicately constructs the stifling paranoid aesthetic, a haunting soundtrack which anxiously disrupts any calming sentiments, and convincing special effects which have steadfastly survived the test of time. It's one of the best sci-fi/horror films I've seen, directed by a master working in the prime of his career.
Van Heijningen's Thing works as a mildly entertaining film that pays homage to Carpenter but, like many Friday the 13th movies, focuses too intently on its main characters, leaving little room for the supporting cast to establish itself (thereby failing to intensify the bond between audience and text). None of the performances match that of Kurt Russell's or Keith David's, and apart from some dismissible deviations, the script parallels that from Carpenter's far too closely, and lacks the timing and pacing etc. that enables it to endure.
Rather than remaking the film and revitalizing the narrative's life force, Van Heijningen relies on balances already cultivated in the 1982 instalment, and expects their latent influence to free him from having to intricately reimagine his subject. There are funny scenes where characters stop to ask one another how they are doing while raging fires burn and power dynamics are lampooned as individuals attempt to retain control, even though such attempts challenge the decrees of logic which their scientific pursuits are theoretically supposed to uphold, but it's as if we are expected to deductively relate to specific stock performances whose dynamics are taken for granted rather than being creatively and internally nurtured, which adds a slapdash quality to the affect, and destabilizes its innovative instincts.
There's also the issue of how both films allegorically salute xenophobia but that's another matter.
The 21st-century Thing. Was Carpenter's work crafted during a moment when studios cared about both profit and product and consequently encouraged artistic exploration in the construction of their modes of expression?
Probably not, but Carpenter's movie works on a number of levels that are simply not present in this remake, which seems to have only been distributed to sell tickets.
Carpenter didn't want to sell tickets.
No he did not.
Van Heijningen's Thing works as a mildly entertaining film that pays homage to Carpenter but, like many Friday the 13th movies, focuses too intently on its main characters, leaving little room for the supporting cast to establish itself (thereby failing to intensify the bond between audience and text). None of the performances match that of Kurt Russell's or Keith David's, and apart from some dismissible deviations, the script parallels that from Carpenter's far too closely, and lacks the timing and pacing etc. that enables it to endure.
Rather than remaking the film and revitalizing the narrative's life force, Van Heijningen relies on balances already cultivated in the 1982 instalment, and expects their latent influence to free him from having to intricately reimagine his subject. There are funny scenes where characters stop to ask one another how they are doing while raging fires burn and power dynamics are lampooned as individuals attempt to retain control, even though such attempts challenge the decrees of logic which their scientific pursuits are theoretically supposed to uphold, but it's as if we are expected to deductively relate to specific stock performances whose dynamics are taken for granted rather than being creatively and internally nurtured, which adds a slapdash quality to the affect, and destabilizes its innovative instincts.
There's also the issue of how both films allegorically salute xenophobia but that's another matter.
The 21st-century Thing. Was Carpenter's work crafted during a moment when studios cared about both profit and product and consequently encouraged artistic exploration in the construction of their modes of expression?
Probably not, but Carpenter's movie works on a number of levels that are simply not present in this remake, which seems to have only been distributed to sell tickets.
Carpenter didn't want to sell tickets.
No he did not.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Tsurugidake: Ten no ki (The Summit: A Chronicle of Stones)
Mountains. Climbin' 'em. Exercising precision in their classification. Work rationalized according to stubborn bureaucratic consistencies. An imperial map in the making.
Japan's military has one more mountain to catalogue before said map can be expertly articulated.
All they need is the right person for the job.
Yoshitaro Shibasaki (Tadanobu Asano) has climbed his fair share of mountains but finds the unconquered Mt. Tsurugidake somewhat intimidating. Pressed by his superiors to perform for posterity he overcomes his initial hesitation, with the aid of volumes delicately cared for by his local librarians, and proceeds unabated. At the risk of offending villagers whose religion forbids challenging Mt. Tsurugidake's treacherous peaks, he finds a local guide (Teruyuki Kagawa as Chojiro Uji) and begins his quest. Together they search for a route to the summit, hoping to outwit the adventurous Alpine Club who has declared they will climb the mountain first, thereby hoping to tarnish the military's reputation.
While Yoshitaro and Chojiro explore using equipment crafted by the ingenuity of the Japanese people, the Alpine Club adopts European technologies.
A number of survey stones must be placed at the top of the peaks which surround Mt. Tsurugidake as well, in order for the military's mapmakers to realize their cartographic ambitions.
Towers must also be built around these stones. Time callously ticks past. A team of courageous individuals is assembled. The snow keeps falling.
Daisaku Kimura's Tsurugidake: Ten no ki (The Summit: A Chronicle of Stones) is an epic tale, modestly crafted according to traditional guidelines. An intransigent macho administration makes shortsighted decisions while a group of bold workers heroically carve new ground. Elsewhere lines are crossed but respect is maintained as openminded resiliency takes into account alternative points of view.
In fact, apart from the military administration, respect permeates every aspect of this film and it was comforting to watch as people didn't get bogged down by petty differences for 139 minutes.
The result is a subjective victory for two tenacious teams who refuse to let the pursuit of an intractable ideal disrupt their herculean achievement.
Sticking together. Trying to find a way. Accepting that the realities structuring certain professions are simply larger than life. And continuing to strive onwards even though survival instincts consistently question the logic of your perseverance.
The creation of this film directly corresponds to the endeavours bravely undertaken internally and externally by its cast, a harmonious collaboration firmly sustained between subject and object.
Japan's military has one more mountain to catalogue before said map can be expertly articulated.
All they need is the right person for the job.
Yoshitaro Shibasaki (Tadanobu Asano) has climbed his fair share of mountains but finds the unconquered Mt. Tsurugidake somewhat intimidating. Pressed by his superiors to perform for posterity he overcomes his initial hesitation, with the aid of volumes delicately cared for by his local librarians, and proceeds unabated. At the risk of offending villagers whose religion forbids challenging Mt. Tsurugidake's treacherous peaks, he finds a local guide (Teruyuki Kagawa as Chojiro Uji) and begins his quest. Together they search for a route to the summit, hoping to outwit the adventurous Alpine Club who has declared they will climb the mountain first, thereby hoping to tarnish the military's reputation.
While Yoshitaro and Chojiro explore using equipment crafted by the ingenuity of the Japanese people, the Alpine Club adopts European technologies.
A number of survey stones must be placed at the top of the peaks which surround Mt. Tsurugidake as well, in order for the military's mapmakers to realize their cartographic ambitions.
Towers must also be built around these stones. Time callously ticks past. A team of courageous individuals is assembled. The snow keeps falling.
Daisaku Kimura's Tsurugidake: Ten no ki (The Summit: A Chronicle of Stones) is an epic tale, modestly crafted according to traditional guidelines. An intransigent macho administration makes shortsighted decisions while a group of bold workers heroically carve new ground. Elsewhere lines are crossed but respect is maintained as openminded resiliency takes into account alternative points of view.
In fact, apart from the military administration, respect permeates every aspect of this film and it was comforting to watch as people didn't get bogged down by petty differences for 139 minutes.
The result is a subjective victory for two tenacious teams who refuse to let the pursuit of an intractable ideal disrupt their herculean achievement.
Sticking together. Trying to find a way. Accepting that the realities structuring certain professions are simply larger than life. And continuing to strive onwards even though survival instincts consistently question the logic of your perseverance.
The creation of this film directly corresponds to the endeavours bravely undertaken internally and externally by its cast, a harmonious collaboration firmly sustained between subject and object.
Monday, October 10, 2011
La sacrée
Fertility. Structure. Beer.
Dominic Desjardins's La sacrée has it all, and as its lighthearted romantic-comedic aura ferments, a jovial buzz is effervescently disseminated.
The Franco-Ontarian town of Fort Amiable has seen better days. The economy has yet to rebound from the closure of the local canoe factory and while the local residents remain upbeat, they still hold serious reservations regarding their future.
Enter François Labas (Marc Marans), son of the former canoe factory's owner who is blamed for the undesired closure. He seeks to wed a wealthy cosmetics heiress (Marie Turgeon as Sofia Bronzeman) but must impregnate her before wedding bells can ring. Unfortunately, he's sterile, and broke, and in danger of having his intricate web of devious lies exposed, thereby spoiling his plans for the unforeseen, and leaving him blindly tethered to the unknown.
Can the legendary La sacrée beer, locally brewed by the residents of Fort Amiable in the past and reputed to actively assist in the reproductive process, reinvigorate the lads and facilitate his dreams?
Or will he lose his favourite game and be turned out in the streets with nothing but credit card debt and incomparable charm to sustain him?
As he perseveres.
A picturesque portrait of a resilient conman, La sacrée provides opportunity for the dynamic while distributing limits to their productivity. Presenting a cheerful cast of sprightly characters, examining the marketing potential of the clarified anglicisme, suggesting that love can be truly exciting if and only if it builds upon a volatile foundation, and consistently transitioning from one pristine Northern Ontario scene to another, La sacrée enlivens the traditional struggling small town narrative, while thoroughly making use of the sacrament of confession.
And the supporting cast is given plenty of room to manoeuvre as their innocent hopes reflect a cohesive pastoral communal ideal.
The first feature comedy to be made in Ontario entirely in French.
Dominic Desjardins's La sacrée has it all, and as its lighthearted romantic-comedic aura ferments, a jovial buzz is effervescently disseminated.
The Franco-Ontarian town of Fort Amiable has seen better days. The economy has yet to rebound from the closure of the local canoe factory and while the local residents remain upbeat, they still hold serious reservations regarding their future.
Enter François Labas (Marc Marans), son of the former canoe factory's owner who is blamed for the undesired closure. He seeks to wed a wealthy cosmetics heiress (Marie Turgeon as Sofia Bronzeman) but must impregnate her before wedding bells can ring. Unfortunately, he's sterile, and broke, and in danger of having his intricate web of devious lies exposed, thereby spoiling his plans for the unforeseen, and leaving him blindly tethered to the unknown.
Can the legendary La sacrée beer, locally brewed by the residents of Fort Amiable in the past and reputed to actively assist in the reproductive process, reinvigorate the lads and facilitate his dreams?
Or will he lose his favourite game and be turned out in the streets with nothing but credit card debt and incomparable charm to sustain him?
As he perseveres.
A picturesque portrait of a resilient conman, La sacrée provides opportunity for the dynamic while distributing limits to their productivity. Presenting a cheerful cast of sprightly characters, examining the marketing potential of the clarified anglicisme, suggesting that love can be truly exciting if and only if it builds upon a volatile foundation, and consistently transitioning from one pristine Northern Ontario scene to another, La sacrée enlivens the traditional struggling small town narrative, while thoroughly making use of the sacrament of confession.
And the supporting cast is given plenty of room to manoeuvre as their innocent hopes reflect a cohesive pastoral communal ideal.
The first feature comedy to be made in Ontario entirely in French.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
The First Grader
Post-colonial Kenya. A public education system is introduced. Free education for all is announced. The vast majority of new students are children.
But one 84-year old former member of the Mau Mau resistance who fought against the British seeks an education as well. Determined to learn how to read and write in order to have a better understanding of his surrounding worlds, and read for himself what is written in a letter he received from the government, he stubbornly adheres to the rules when his initial attempts to gain access are rebuked, and is eventually given admittance to an overcrowded rural classroom.
Kimani N'gan'ga Maruge (Oliver Litondo) becomes a peculiar presence at school but one whom facilitator of learning Jane Obinchu (Naomie Harris) finds endearing. The administration does not share Jane's sentiments and consistently reminds her that by 'everyone' the government means 'every child' and that they already do not have the resources to teach every child and would be incomprehensibly overwhelmed if every adult sought a free education from grade 1 onwards as well. Their statistical analysis coalesces with the community's jealous censure of Maruge's activities to make life exceedingly difficult for both teacher and learner.
But they endure.
Justin Chadwick's The First Grader is a powerful film that demonstrates the enormous benefits that can result from exceptions, or, in this case, literal applications, when the practical ethical results outweigh the economic forecasts. Obviously with scant resources at their disposal a Department of Education would be unable to educate every illiterate citizen right off the bat, let alone every child, but seeing how only an extremely small percentage of such citizens over the age of 20 would choose to be educated with children, why not make an exception for those who do, instead of blindly upholding a rigid principle?
Taxation is at the heart of the matter and the question of whether or not you want to pay higher taxes in order to ensure your children/relatives/friends/neighbours mature in a dynamic learning environment fully equipped with engaging professionals and resources (the same ones provided for students of private schools) that vigorously nurture and develop their gifts?
Maruge's gifts are nurtured and developed and he has a positive influence on his fellow classmates as well. His struggle to learn functions as a prominent example of someone courageously seeking to receive the same remarkable educational opportunities that many people in Western countries simply take for granted.
But one 84-year old former member of the Mau Mau resistance who fought against the British seeks an education as well. Determined to learn how to read and write in order to have a better understanding of his surrounding worlds, and read for himself what is written in a letter he received from the government, he stubbornly adheres to the rules when his initial attempts to gain access are rebuked, and is eventually given admittance to an overcrowded rural classroom.
Kimani N'gan'ga Maruge (Oliver Litondo) becomes a peculiar presence at school but one whom facilitator of learning Jane Obinchu (Naomie Harris) finds endearing. The administration does not share Jane's sentiments and consistently reminds her that by 'everyone' the government means 'every child' and that they already do not have the resources to teach every child and would be incomprehensibly overwhelmed if every adult sought a free education from grade 1 onwards as well. Their statistical analysis coalesces with the community's jealous censure of Maruge's activities to make life exceedingly difficult for both teacher and learner.
But they endure.
Justin Chadwick's The First Grader is a powerful film that demonstrates the enormous benefits that can result from exceptions, or, in this case, literal applications, when the practical ethical results outweigh the economic forecasts. Obviously with scant resources at their disposal a Department of Education would be unable to educate every illiterate citizen right off the bat, let alone every child, but seeing how only an extremely small percentage of such citizens over the age of 20 would choose to be educated with children, why not make an exception for those who do, instead of blindly upholding a rigid principle?
Taxation is at the heart of the matter and the question of whether or not you want to pay higher taxes in order to ensure your children/relatives/friends/neighbours mature in a dynamic learning environment fully equipped with engaging professionals and resources (the same ones provided for students of private schools) that vigorously nurture and develop their gifts?
Maruge's gifts are nurtured and developed and he has a positive influence on his fellow classmates as well. His struggle to learn functions as a prominent example of someone courageously seeking to receive the same remarkable educational opportunities that many people in Western countries simply take for granted.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Starbuck
Donating sperm for cold hard cash.
The thought's likely crossed every man's mind but for Starbuck's David Wozniak (Patrick Huard) it reappeared again and again until he had earned more than $20,000. Never thinking that his donations were particularly fertile and would eventually be used to father over 500 children, he continued to live his carefree life, working for his father's boucherie while racking up $80,000 in debt with a group of thugs.
But his sperm was used to father 533 children and over 100 of them become curious in regards to the identity of their fecund dad and come searching after discovering the fertility clinic's lack of diversity.
David is somewhat taken aback to discover he has over 500 children but can't help but wonder what his legion of offspring are like. He refuses to admit his identity and they decide to try and discover it through recourse to the law, but as the legal proceedings progress, he begins to anonymously search them out one by one thanks to an envelope of corresponding portfolios with which he is provided before the beginning of the trial.
The children are surprised by the pseudo-guardian angel who keeps appearing in times of need yet take a shine to his adolescent enthusiasm.
The group of thugs to which David owes $80,000 are less beaming and decide to make things more difficult for him and his family as time passes.
His strong and determined yet sweet and loving partner Valerie (Julie Le Breton) also does not find his youthful ethos to be picturesquely scintillating after discovering she's pregnant, and proceeds to intensify his real world pressures all the more.
As a matter of consequence.
The film's hilarious and surprisingly light-hearted considering its subject matter. Emphasizing the importance of working for family if things such as following a schedule or pursuing best practices don't come easily to you, Starbuck also accentuates the benefits of family when it comes to discovering innovative solutions for complicated unanticipated problems, while subtly investigating different generational attitudes towards religion, championing a social framework wherein nurturing is directly proportional to responsibility, highlighting the enormous benefits/debilitating pitfalls of constantly embracing spontaneity, and thoroughly cultivating the value of friendship.
Ken Scott's background portrait of Montréal captures the city's intense dynamic cultural mosaic, presenting scene after scene of enlivening multidimensional detail, while riding a bike or taking a stroll through town.
Cinematography by Pierre Gill.
The thought's likely crossed every man's mind but for Starbuck's David Wozniak (Patrick Huard) it reappeared again and again until he had earned more than $20,000. Never thinking that his donations were particularly fertile and would eventually be used to father over 500 children, he continued to live his carefree life, working for his father's boucherie while racking up $80,000 in debt with a group of thugs.
But his sperm was used to father 533 children and over 100 of them become curious in regards to the identity of their fecund dad and come searching after discovering the fertility clinic's lack of diversity.
David is somewhat taken aback to discover he has over 500 children but can't help but wonder what his legion of offspring are like. He refuses to admit his identity and they decide to try and discover it through recourse to the law, but as the legal proceedings progress, he begins to anonymously search them out one by one thanks to an envelope of corresponding portfolios with which he is provided before the beginning of the trial.
The children are surprised by the pseudo-guardian angel who keeps appearing in times of need yet take a shine to his adolescent enthusiasm.
The group of thugs to which David owes $80,000 are less beaming and decide to make things more difficult for him and his family as time passes.
His strong and determined yet sweet and loving partner Valerie (Julie Le Breton) also does not find his youthful ethos to be picturesquely scintillating after discovering she's pregnant, and proceeds to intensify his real world pressures all the more.
As a matter of consequence.
The film's hilarious and surprisingly light-hearted considering its subject matter. Emphasizing the importance of working for family if things such as following a schedule or pursuing best practices don't come easily to you, Starbuck also accentuates the benefits of family when it comes to discovering innovative solutions for complicated unanticipated problems, while subtly investigating different generational attitudes towards religion, championing a social framework wherein nurturing is directly proportional to responsibility, highlighting the enormous benefits/debilitating pitfalls of constantly embracing spontaneity, and thoroughly cultivating the value of friendship.
Ken Scott's background portrait of Montréal captures the city's intense dynamic cultural mosaic, presenting scene after scene of enlivening multidimensional detail, while riding a bike or taking a stroll through town.
Cinematography by Pierre Gill.
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Moneyball
Brad Pitt must have loved Moneyball's script at first glance. He's given the majority of screen-time and only one other actor is provided with the lines to contend a memorable performance. The film's about a baseball general manager's (Pitt as Oakland's Billy Beane) struggles to introduce a new style of management/recruitment/strategizing in order to field a playoff contender with a limited budget, the style being based on sabermetrics, the specialized objective analysis of baseball statistics gathered from actual game-time activities, notably a player's on-base percentage. Pitt lectures, wheels, trades, demotes, admonishes and deals while throwing things around and confidently battling formidable egos. The film effectively demonstrates what it's like to champion the new within a set of firmly established guidelines that have been unquestionably governing the order of things since they were set in place and consequently naturalized through the act of unconscious repetition. Risks must be taken. It all must be laid on the line. A number of unanticipated factors and potential points of diversification must be calmly and patiently ignored/incorporated as their rational characteristics challenge or correspond to the plan in question.
The film's a lot easier to watch if you're a baseball fan whose interested in the trials of an innovative general manager. Lotta baseball goin' on and your response to the predictable trajectories may be more enthusiastic if following a team's condensed unheralded controversial season interests you.
Or maybe it won't, I don't know.
The relationship between Beane and his daughter (Kerris Dorsey as Casey Beane) offers a distraction and adds a familial dimension to his professional predicaments. Apart from his relationship with his daughter, he definitely lives and breathes baseball 24/7 each and every day always. Was impressed with Jonah Hill's reticent yet incisive performance, exemplifying the possibilities which occasionally exist for recent graduates who aren't afraid to challenge the establishment.
The film's a lot easier to watch if you're a baseball fan whose interested in the trials of an innovative general manager. Lotta baseball goin' on and your response to the predictable trajectories may be more enthusiastic if following a team's condensed unheralded controversial season interests you.
Or maybe it won't, I don't know.
The relationship between Beane and his daughter (Kerris Dorsey as Casey Beane) offers a distraction and adds a familial dimension to his professional predicaments. Apart from his relationship with his daughter, he definitely lives and breathes baseball 24/7 each and every day always. Was impressed with Jonah Hill's reticent yet incisive performance, exemplifying the possibilities which occasionally exist for recent graduates who aren't afraid to challenge the establishment.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Tree of Life
Smoothly flowing gently falling slightly billowing lightly floating metaphors, a series of remembered events stitched together through fluid dreamlike sequences, delineating foundations, from which identities are constructed. A father, a mother, a family, a routine. A strict routine, a strict father, a housewife, a code. Mr. O'Brien (Brad Pitt) unwaveringly sticks to his code whereby his rule is absolute and his every whim, non-negotiable. His wife acquiesces, his children grow, he arrives at work on time, tithes week-in, week-out. A subjective interpretation of a governing structure attempts to supply youth with a disciplined set of ground rules from which a reasonable degree of economic stability can be confidently expected, through the years. No discussion, no questions, just stilted secure repetitious order blindly and diligently recreating itself, again. There's a lot of depth to the scenes in this film and Malick poetically intertwines manifold transitions with incredibly versatile images which in themselves create a byzantine subtext whose hydra-like character challenges the narrative's status quo.
But I don't think it's meant to do this, it seemed more like Malick was supplying as much beauty as he possibly could to suburbia, to a conservative way of life, using a surrealist form to structure his traditional content, with instinct guiding the positioning of his imagery as opposed to planning, whereby Tree of Life develops a naturally secretive grace, as it bids farewell to one dramatization of the North American middle-class.
On the one hand, it elevates patriarchal dispositions to a cantankerously coy precipice, taking content that has been recycled ad nauseum and demonstrating that it can continuously be insightfully replenished if you're willing to put in a little time and effort.
On the other, it eclipses sundry previous manifestations of this particular vision to the point where it seems possible that it's trying to put an end to this storyline once and for all, playing the ultimate winning hand, the graceful capitalist end-game.
Don't mean to be applauding Tree of Life too much. I found the seemingly random quotes which accompany much of the imagery to be irritating (especially since they're supposed to have some sort of ethereal quality) and was happy to comfortably rest my eyes here and there, as Mr. O'Brien and his children had yet another coming of age moment.
It would be a great film to study more closely and definitely leaves the door open for multiple critical accounts which can be situated within various intellectual markets in order to facilitate conceptions of particular ethical viewpoints from which the effects of diverse cultural phenomena can be momentarily diagnosed.
Naturally graceful, or a graceful nature, either way Tree of Life has me examining this dialectic, and has, for me anyway, instilled it with a remarkable life force that I'll find difficult to ignore for some time to come.
This is where film can be different from reading yet just as powerful. In a book like In Search of Lost Time you come across dialectics constantly to the point where you've been bombarded with so many you suffer from intellectual overload. Sometimes it's nice to take one and use it as a general frame in order to study its vicissitudes specifically, and so on.
But I don't think it's meant to do this, it seemed more like Malick was supplying as much beauty as he possibly could to suburbia, to a conservative way of life, using a surrealist form to structure his traditional content, with instinct guiding the positioning of his imagery as opposed to planning, whereby Tree of Life develops a naturally secretive grace, as it bids farewell to one dramatization of the North American middle-class.
On the one hand, it elevates patriarchal dispositions to a cantankerously coy precipice, taking content that has been recycled ad nauseum and demonstrating that it can continuously be insightfully replenished if you're willing to put in a little time and effort.
On the other, it eclipses sundry previous manifestations of this particular vision to the point where it seems possible that it's trying to put an end to this storyline once and for all, playing the ultimate winning hand, the graceful capitalist end-game.
Don't mean to be applauding Tree of Life too much. I found the seemingly random quotes which accompany much of the imagery to be irritating (especially since they're supposed to have some sort of ethereal quality) and was happy to comfortably rest my eyes here and there, as Mr. O'Brien and his children had yet another coming of age moment.
It would be a great film to study more closely and definitely leaves the door open for multiple critical accounts which can be situated within various intellectual markets in order to facilitate conceptions of particular ethical viewpoints from which the effects of diverse cultural phenomena can be momentarily diagnosed.
Naturally graceful, or a graceful nature, either way Tree of Life has me examining this dialectic, and has, for me anyway, instilled it with a remarkable life force that I'll find difficult to ignore for some time to come.
This is where film can be different from reading yet just as powerful. In a book like In Search of Lost Time you come across dialectics constantly to the point where you've been bombarded with so many you suffer from intellectual overload. Sometimes it's nice to take one and use it as a general frame in order to study its vicissitudes specifically, and so on.
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