One Day I Will Post Something Timely

Or, as an alternative title, I considered, "Review: She's Out of My League". Because, well, that's what I'm doing. Late.

A good analogy lept to mind today - relationships rot from the inside. If they're going to rot, that is. And if they do, that seed of disharmony begins in there somewhere and spreads until neither person (nor both) can contain the decay, and it falls apart. There is truth to that. It happens all the time. It can happen when people have good, supportive friends and family, people who try to help hold things up with you. I've seen even these ideal situations fail because inside the skin of that pairing, there was something wrong.

She's Out of My League isn't about this phenomenon, but instead about the opposite - the failures that can befall two essentially compatible people and their relationship because the people and circumstances surrounding them seem set against them at every turn. It's a compelling way to approach the telling of a love story, and it makes you wish that the rest of the world would just leave them alone, no matter how unrealistic that is.

Canadian Jay Baruchel is Kirk, an airport security worker (officer?) who does a kind deed for Molly. Molly (Alice Eve) is a stunning well-to-do event planner, and thanks to being mistreated by her last boyfriend, she's drawn to the safe, nice guy quality of Kirk. To his amazement, they begin dating, and that's where the trouble starts. The fact that they are in any way associated becomes the guffaw of their friends and family. Slowly, the firm belief seeps inside the walls and the only two people whose feelings should matter begin to listen to the feelings of everyone else.

Overall, this is a fun movie to watch, and it had a lot more meat on its bones than I expected. I've discussed all that now, so the only other thing you need to know is that it's worth seeing - it's funny, and surprisingly genuine. A competent, amusing supporting cast surrounds the leads nicely. Recommended for people who want a little more brain to their rom com.

Beautiful

well I met you at the blood bank
we were looking at the bags
wondering if any of the colours
matched any of the names
we knew on the tags
you said see look at that - that's yours
stacked on top with your brother's
see how they resemble one another
even in their plastic little covers

and I said I know it well

that secret that you know
that you don't know how to tell
it fucks with your honour
and it teases your head
but you know that it's good girl
'cause it's running you with red

then the snow started falling
we were stuck out in your car
you were rubbing both my hands
chewing on a candy bar
you said ain't this just like the present
to be showing up like this
as the moon waned to crescent
we started to kiss

and I said I know you well

that secret that we know
that we don't know how to tell
I'm in love with your honour
I'm in love with your cheeks
what's that noise up the stairs, love
is that christmas morning that creaks

and I said I know it well
and I know it well
and I know it well
and I know it well
and I know it well
and I know it well
and I know it well
and I know it well

-Bon Iver

Oh, Joss. How you play with our hearts.

This post will be rife with Joss Whedon fan discussion (or commentary, since I think you need some kind of two-way conversation to qualify as discussion) and also spoilers regarding all episodes of Dollhouse (of which only one remains to air next week) and also of Firefly. I'll try not to really talk about Buffy or Angel very specifically because I'd like to keep this whole thing under a million words.

But seriously, if you aren't all Whedon-current, bail out now.

Imagine a world where all the Joss Whedon shows are merely teased and never realized. All of them. As in, imagine for a moment that Buffy ended, say, when Angel went to hell. Or that Angel ended when the Irish half-demon guy died. Doyle! I liked Doyle, man, why did he have to die? Because he's in Joss' world, and that is a damned unsafe place. It's not like other showrunners have never killed off a character or two, but seriously. Oh, Wash.

Dollhouse, the Whedon show whose destiny seemed doomed from the first episode, joins Firefly as something very unique, very niche, and very short lived. I want to be clear that Firefly stands in my mind as the pinnacle of missed opportunities, as in, given the choice I'd save it and not the ever weirder Dollhouse. Alas, neither was to be for more than the exact amount of time necessary to get people invested. Oh, the episodes that never were.

Both of these Whedon shows really make me sad because I have watched the OTHER two to their conclusion. And, damn it. Because remember what happens to Giles as Buffy went on? Willow? SPIKE? Remember the growth? And on Angel, the line was a little squiggly, but it got us all to Fred's arc. To Wesley's. These are the moments we'll miss. Who knows where Dollhouse would have gone eventually. I assume still the apocalypse, but I also assume it would have taken longer to get there.

For an interim amusement, please go here and laugh hysterically at other commentary regarding a certain broadcaster and their handling of other beloved 'properties'. Honestly, it's like watching a belligerent drunk try and wrestle a pig.

Moving along, Whedon and Co have managed to retain their crown not only in producing shows that resist wide interest while simultaneously being awesome at best and merely unique at worst, BUT also - writing just the best villains!

I can't think of a villain that was ever made central in a Joss Whedon show that was not totally engaging. I'm sure there have been ones that weren't quite as terrific, but each one I can some up with is memorable (obviously) and delicious to watch. Most recently, Boyd, who is crazy and driven by a choice that is less crazy by far. Alpha - the flip side of Echo's coin who Alan Tudyk made both scary and funny. Angel, Spike, Drusilla, The Mayor. Oh, The Mayor! He was just so nuts and yet so much the doting Dad. Plus I think there was a witch in there somewhere and some flaying which left an impression.

Whedon's stuff doesn't always land on two feet, or four feet, but man do they make cool leaps. Here's a not-insane idea, Joss: try and make your next idea something that can be put together more cheaply. You can do plenty with little money. And get Enver Gjokaj. That dude is the SHARK FROM JAWS.

Up In the Air

This is a late post, both because I haven't posted since August and because this film came out on Christmas Day. But what do I care, I just want to write a review. Maybe one day I'll write one on time, but dreams are so fleeting.

Up In the Air is a film for the times. The way I felt Fight Club was a film for the turn of the millennium, this is a film for now. Countless news stories fly around like loose sheets of paper in a cold draft - they all have figures about unemployment rates, percentages of cuts to budgets and payrolls, about the struggle of the everyman and woman just to make end's meet - but they are abstractions of the situation. Up In the Air tells the story on the ground. It's a tough story to watch.

While others are grounded by the obligations of their lives, Ryan lives everywhere, owing no loyalty to anyone save his frequent flyer program. He likes it that way, and even if we do not share the desire to live like him, we can believe as we look on that he is happy. Mostly.

George Clooney plays Ryan, who is hired to fire those people whose superiors don't have the guts to do so themselves, and he doesn't take the job lightly. He may enjoy the lifestyle of detachment this job affords him, but he doesn't enjoy dismissing people from their work - instead he focuses on genuinely pushing these people towards the opportunities now open to them in the light of unemployment. An easier sell coming from a man who believes in the unencumbered life. During seminars held in tiny hotel conference rooms all over America, Ryan asks that his audience imagine the components of their lives - things AND people - stuffed into a backpack that they must tote around; the straps, he points out, weigh heavily.

Clooney plays a potentially unlikable character very sympathetically, and he is supported and complimented by Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick. Farmiga's Alex does a lot to draw Ryan back to ground level, and Kendrick arrives as Natalie - the new blood at work who pitches firings over webcam to save airfare. Ryan protests so Natalie has to go on the road with him to see what the job is really like.

Not surprisingly, it's bleak. Especially now. It's a testament to the performances in this film that you can feel the contrast between the desperation of the world versus the connections, even momentary or midguided ones, as bright candles grouped in a large, cold room. Hope is in short supply, and though we know this having lived through the world ourselves lately, this film really puts you in front of the locomotive. Still when characters are looking at one another in the eye, they are sharing something real, very nearly holding each other for warmth, and we can feel it.

Ryan, to me, becomes more admirable as the film develops - he demonstrates the desire to be there for others even though he is doing his best to fly safely above all human drama. A credit to the screenplay is that the reasons for Ryan being this way are only (maybe) hinted at - we are left to assume he was either hurt or just was always this way - either explanation would be fine. Ryan is no less caring for his past, whatever it is, and he takes risks that we want him to take and we go with him in feeling vulnerable.

This is Jason Reitman's third film, and he has solidified himself as one of the best directors working today (before this he helmed Thank You for Smoking and Juno). This is stark, engaging filmmaking that will demand repeat viewings in the future, perhaps after this climate shifts. For now, it is too real - a credit to everyone involved.

True patriot love, in all thy sons command

Here is a case a bit long in the can now - this is a story broken some time ago, but it's been carrying on for a while thanks to a court case related to some threats uttered by a parent towards the principal at the heart of this storm. Catch up here and here.

Canada's national identity, and specifically the way in which we are inclusive of the traditions, practices and habits of our incredibly multicultural population, is of great interest to me. A quick perusal of the comments left by readers of these stories reveals a very bipolar set of attitudes in this country; be a Canadian or get out, or else be whatever you are and Canada will accomodate. Those arguments form the hard extremes but it's the softer, stickier middle in which we find reality, made up of all the players trying like hell to make sense of who we are in a rapidly changing world.

Canada, unlike the United States, is a country which I understand to have a rich tradition of immigration that we acknowledge. While our neighbours to the south leave out the 'u' from 'neighbour' and leave out identity other than 'American', we are more inclusive of heritage that isn't realy ours. Mine is Scottish for example - it's the answer people want when they ask you where you're from, you see. I'm not from there, but my mother is and Canada isn't really a place you can be from just yet - right?

It's cheeky, indeed. But everyone in my generation - by which I mean first generation - is complicit in this lack of identity, and it's going to change one way or another. Canada is a young country, and part of growing up is figuring out who you are - a process not lacking for drama and strife.

And so we are party to these conflicts, Mr. Millet's a prime example. What's a guy to do in a country such as this, but try to accomodate everyone? It's an approach that's found enemies in the more traditional, who value practices like the singing of the anthem as symbols. As some of our symbols have already fallen by the wayside - the Lord's Prayer was a change lamented, too - then those who find them to be crucial to our identity will fight to keep them. And it's their right to. It was also Millet's right to make a decision he felt was in the best interest of his community. It was the right of parents to level complaints at the decision, and so on, in a fashion that overall represents a healthy, mature dialogue.

No one had a right to stand up in parliament, either in ignorance or definance of fact, state that Millet had banned outright the anthem from his school. No one had a right to email and telephone Millet to issue death threats. And Bradley Howland did not have the right to walk into Millet's office and threaten to beat him senseless in the school parking lot. But all these things have happened now, and this is the price we pay for being confused as a ntion about who we are. I should say it's the price Millet has paid - his days of being a principal are, at least for the moment, done.

For the record, though I personally take issue with anyone who wants to live in this country and yet doesn't want to make themseles a part of the Canadian community, I don't feel Millet acted in a way that was not patriotic. The opposite is true, I think, because one thing that has made up the reality of this nation has been it's multiplicty of voices, and Millet was doing his best to address them all. Still, mother was right - you can't please everyone.

In some cases, the people who arrive to live here in Canada have come from wildly difficult circumstances. The rest of the world not being like Canada, I'm sure it's an attractive option to come to a place where you can be Canadian in title and remain anything else in practice. But this is a way of living in Canada that should be carefully thought on. That way of thinking will never foster the maturity of a nation - and we have difficult times ahead as we struggle with the question of where to draw the line in our 'tossed salad' population. I would never advocate the States' melting pot scenario, but their approach is not lacking for spirit, even if it is lacking perspective.

My personal opinion is that some traditions should be held up as the symbols they are - the national anthem perhaps being one of the most important. It's a song and verse that exists to be sung in unity, has lines about unity, about inclusion. In this context, it is being sung or at least heard by children, who, whether their parents are from Canada or not, are attending school in Canada, the nation furnishing their education - a right guaranteed in this nation to all children.

So no matter where you're from, even if you're not a Christian and you're not totally sure about that 'God keep our land' line, sing the damn anthem, because glorious and free is what this nation is, and you don't need to have a crucifix on your wall to wish it kept that way.

Some people living in this country have to be told 'no' once in a while. It's not a vindictive 'no', and it's not a divisive or restricting 'no'. But, no, you cannot send your kinds to public school and insist they don't sing our national anthem because your religion prohibits it. No, you cannot tell me it isn't a Christmas tree, etc. This is one of the most tolerant, accepting nations in the world, but Canada, never being able to say no, will become nothing if we can never insist that we are something. We are a nation. And if you live here, be a Canadian. We welcome you. And you in turn might welcome others by having diversity in heritage as your common ground.

I hope everyone does contemplate this from time to time. It's tough to live next to the cultural dominance of the United States, to be a Commonwealth member of the Queen's maternal United Kingdom, and to have such a multitude of voices within our own borders - and still know what we want to see when we look in the mirror.

District 9

Earlier this week I had the chance to check out G.I. Joe over at the AMC. I think Rebecca and I agreed in the end that it was fun (and funny). I got exactly what I wanted from that picture, which was mindless, geeky entertainment. Watching District 9 within days of of that other film, though ... has given me sci-fi whiplash.

District 9 is a complex, intelligent, visceral, disrtubing film. It is emotionally self-aware, historically self-aware, and does what all great sci-fi does - it tells a story connected essentially to our humannity and hinges that story on something that doesn't really exist. It's great what-if material, so in my mind it sits very nicely next to Sunshine and Eternal Sunshine as cinema that looks deeply at human beings by way of a far-fetched premise. Children of Men comes to mind also, but that film didn't move me to discomfort as much as this one did, and that's saying something.

Over at AICN, Harry Knowles has hyperbolized a bit by glazing over mention of two of the other films above to claim that District 9 is the first great sci-fi of this new millenium. I think that's hyperbole, at any rate. Any of the three above are great in my eyes, and they're all remarkably different. District 9 is without a doubt the ugliest exploration of the human heart, however.

It isn't that there are no virtues in the frame. But the characters (the human ones, anyway) of this picture are mostly vile. And mostly self-interested. Ignorant. Power-hungry. Just plain stupid. And stupidity, even, in this film is depicted as shockingly dangerous and evil. The plot here unfolded to leave me embarrassed to be a human. The aliens, who live throughout a slum outside Johanesburg in their own filth to be ruled by gang law and who eat cat food for lack of a better option, come out looking far better. It's a comparison that just doesn't sit right.

I don't want to break down plot because I found myself in the rare position of watching this film without trailers and press coverage having ruined the overall story. It's how you should watch it to.

Mention should be made of first-time feature director Neill Blomkamp and his deft control of every aspect of this film. It turns on a dime so many times that I had no idea where we would head next. The effects were flawlessly integrated, and the action was tightly accomplished without ever being confusing. Impressive for doc-style shooting.

Also, first-time actor Sharlto Copley provides the most unlikely and well-performed protagonist that I can currently think of. Never have I so HATED a character before and yet been completely willing to follow him along as the film moves forward.

Some people will probably dislike District 9, but that's alright. It really isn't for everyone. It's great, but it's sci-fi, and it's brilliant but it's unpleasant (to put it lightly) much more than seldom. If you can stomach it, though, prepare your brain and glue your eyes to the screen. It's no G.I. Joe.

Nightmares are Upside-Down Fairy Tales

SPOILERS about DOLLHOUSE ahead:

It's been a while since I've written anything here, since not every episode of television I've watched has riveted me for a while. Until this week's Dollhouse that is. By the way, if you haven't seen it yet, get on out of here and go watch it (then come back, obviously). Fringe has been good, very good even, other Dollhouse eps have been good, Terminator's done, so is BSG, Lost has been, well, Lost.

Seriously, SPOILERS. Biggest spoiler of the season ... probably, I mean maybe the finale will top it, but we'll see. It's just one shot I'm talking about, but I'll get to that down a bit.

Seriously, I like what Whedon and company do with their metaphors, symbolism, plot parallels and so on. I like that they flip things completely on their ears and that in this show, blood seems to come out every time they do it. It's frightening, the world of Dollhouse. I thought about comparing the complete limbo of conventional morality in this show to that in Battlestar, but this is a far more decadent animal. The characters in BSG all got pushed to great heights of moral utilitarianism, doing the best they could in a situation that threatened the extinction of every human being alive. But not Dollhouse. Those stakes don't exist here, in fact ... I don't know what the stakes are having just re-read that.

In Dollhouse, so far the greatest risks have been of losing a favourite character, perhaps, or if you want to get really grand, the technology on showcase has considerable threat if you consider that it could (and has) been used against people's will. But they have complicated all the other stances. Apparenly, the dolls are volunteers, and they get paid (somehow) when their stint is done. But they have illustrated, without really getting very grand with the stakes at all this week, just how dangerous the Dollhouse is.

I was feeling apprehensive watching the top of this week's episode because I had read a synopsis stating that Alpha would reveal himself. Now, everyone who's seen a horror film knows, if you build suspense that hinges on an unseen threat, you'd better make that threat materialize in a scary, credible way. A lot or horror films and tv screw this up. I think Dollhouse just did the exact opposite. It's easy to lose your grip on what this show is - it's sometimes a detective story, drama, sci-fi, action, thriller, and so far, horror only as an afterthought or, yes, a threat. So when Alan Tudyk suddenly walked right at the camera and viciously cut into Victor's face - having spent the rest of the episode aping an agoraphobic envoronmental geek, the threat was about as credible as anything I've ever seen. And that was the shot I was talking about.

The turnaround in tone was so abrupt, it was as though you were watching a PG-rated cop drama, where people say darn and heck, and suddenly it becomes an R-rated psychological thriller in which a simple break in becomes an assault, a rape, even. I was scared shitless.

I've had some trouble with the show, partly because I don't think Dushku is up to the task (that would challenge the very best actors out there), partly because of the aformentioned multi-genre free for all that places in the show, like the dolls, in constant identity flux. But I want to know where this goes and I pray FOX lets us find out for more than one episode forward.

And finally, as though it wasn't clear enough: I always knew I liked Alan Tudyk. I knew that because I liked Wash in Firefly, and even that bit part in Knocked Up. But Christ. In what must have amounted to about 3 minutes of screen time at the end of the episode, he blew the goddamn shoes of every other character in this show. Later this week, I gather he'll be back, and we'll see if he can keep that fever pitch of absolute psychotic villany up on high. Personally, I expect he can.