In Which I Regain A Part of Me That Had Been Lost
I watched The Meg yesterday and it was life-changing. But I should start at the beginning. I love film — I mean, who doesn’t? — and used to go to the movies all the time. Especially after I moved downtown to an area that has a discount movie theatre. Once a week or so, I’d…
Oscar Thoughts
My mother has abandoned me. Last night, she notified me that she had no intention of watching the Academy Awards with me on Sunday. And I don’t really blame her, because let’s face it, the Oscars are usually deadly dull. What makes it fun is watching it with someone and sharing snarky/admiring comments about the…
Cake
Cake is a movie about a woman who lives with chronic pain. Claire, played by Jennifer Aniston, has the kind of pain that makes it difficult to move and difficult to be polite. She is cranky and bitchy and incredibly honest. She is also dealing with a great deal of emotional pain, although it takes…
The Girls with the Dragon Tattoos
Last summer, I immersed myself in Stieg Larsson’s Millenium universe and loved every minute of it. I wish I could read these books again with that fresh sense of discovery, but alas, this is not possible. Instead, I’ve been watching the movies and although I know the storyline, there is still a feeling of surprise…
2010 Moby Dick: A Celebration
Saturday evening, at about 8:28pm (OK, at exactly 8:28pm), I finished the first draft of The Book. Cue sparkling confetti falling from the ceiling, popping of champagne corks and triumphant blasts from the horn section in the corner of my living room. You’d think, right? It was, rather to my surprise, what my brain had…
Hype
I’d planned to do my own Best Movie Oscar nominees post, but the effort was hampered by… well, life. However, in the last week or so I’ve had the opportunity to watch both The King’s Speech and Black Swan and other than both being Best Movie nominees and both the actors playing the main characters nabbing an…
A Wish for Less
I miss subtlety. I miss allusion, hints, intimation and mere suggestions. This is not a moment of wistfulness that is unfamiliar to me, but what brought about this latest attack of longing for a light touch was watching the trailer for Let Me In, the American version of Let The Right One In. The Swedish…
Larger Than Life
Those of you who – breathlessly? – follow the ramblings that I call my tweets – know that I spent last weekend doing two things: working and watching Lawrence of Arabia. I found out that I tried watching it once before and that I’d only made it about 41 min. in before abandoning the effort….
Favourites
I spent a significant part of the summer in the company of one of my very favourite books, one that I’ve now read about seven times or so. Every time, it is just as good as the last time I disappeared into this world between its covers (or megabytes, if you’re looking at the audio…
Irreplaceable Treasures
I rented Leap Year last week and it’s a good thing I had a coupon and got it for free or I would’ve been stomping back to the store, demanding my money back. Load of formulaic crap with the same amount of originality, soul and entertainment as a paint-by-numbers rendition of a stag by a…
In Which We Discover I Am a Total Wuss
Not that we didn’t know this already… I used to like roller coasters, loved the release of tension, sheer terror, sense of being alive that came with a ride on a good one. And then when I was fairly young, my father took me on this old, rickety coaster made of wood (and possibly held…
Metamorphosis
Another sidetrack – must be something in the water? I’d intended to write something about rumpled reporters connected to blathering on about two movies: State of Play and The Soloist and then… well. You’ll see. Suffice to say is go rent ’em. Being witness to fantastic actors – Russell Crowe and Helen Mirren in State…