chameleon, comedian, corinthian, and caricature

Top 10 Films of 2012

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 03:04:00 -0500

1. THE MASTER (Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson)

2. ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA (Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan)

3. MONSIEUR LAZHAR (Dir. Philippe Falardeau)

4. TAKE THIS WALTZ (Dir. Sarah Polley)

5. MAGIC MIKE (Dir. Steven Soderbergh)

6. CLOUD ATLAS (Dir. Andy & Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer)

7. THE CABIN IN THE WOODS (Dir. Drew Goddard)

8. COSMOPOLIS (Dir. David Cronenberg)

9. LINCOLN (Dir. Steven Spielberg)

10. MOONRISE KINGDOM (Dir. Wes Anderson)

Honorable Mentions: THE GREY, SKYFALL, THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES, RUBY SPARKS, SOUND OF MY VOICE

Dishonorable Mentions: THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, PROMETHEUS

RU-4 ponders life’s biggest question in Kim...

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 19:56:00 -0500

RU-4 ponders life’s biggest question in Kim Ji-woon’s chapter, ‘The Heavenly Creature’.

Photo

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 01:47:00 -0500

Undone - Luke Lalonde (as featured on ‘The 2012 Loss...

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 00:20:00 -0400

Undone - Luke Lalonde (as featured on ‘The 2012 Loss Leader: A Paper Bag Records Compilation).

I took a drive through the countryside yesterday, and this song came through the stereo just as the sun began to pass behind the hills.

Summah 2012 Bucket List

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 01:09:00 -0400

1. Return to post-secondary life and get things on track.

2.Take multiple road trips.

3. Cut down on the bad stuff, specifically liquor and pizza. Lump exercise into this entry, even though that’s less likely than simply adjusting my diet.

4. Finish reading that Pauline Kael biography I started ages ago, and pick up Clive James’ Cultural Amnesia.

5. Catch a couple more Blue Jays games in T.O.

6. Re-visit THE WIRE through DVD marathons.

7. Figure you out.

Photo

Fri, 18 May 2012 14:38:00 -0400

Posters - Youth Lagoon [from the 2011 album ‘The Year of...

Tue, 08 May 2012 11:42:00 -0400

Posters - Youth Lagoon [from the 2011 album ‘The Year of Hibernation’]

The opening track off the debut album from 22-year old Trevor Powers. This album, along with Trust’s debut TRST, will surely come to define my summer.

Six of my favourite people on this week’s installment of...

Wed, 02 May 2012 01:06:15 -0400

Six of my favourite people on this week’s installment of my favourite podcast, Comedy Bang Bang. Talk about an Anniversary Party!

(From Left to Right) Annie Clark (St. Vincent), Scott Aukerman, Harris Wittels, James Adomian, Brett Gelman, and Zach Galifianakis.

"They heard me singing, and they told me to stop/Quit these pretentious things, and just punch the..."

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 02:28:00 -0400

“They heard me singing, and they told me to stop/Quit these pretentious things, and just punch the clock.””

- Neufeld, Parry, Gara, Butler, Butler, Chassagne & Kingsbury; Arcade Fire

After an extended hiatus from intimacy, I’m ready again for love. Still, I don’t want a...

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 01:02:00 -0400

After an extended hiatus from intimacy, I’m ready again for love.

Still, I don’t want a girl simply for the novelty of having one. I can’t just be with someone purely for the sake of it. My expectations won’t allow adequacy. I want a girl who challenges me, pushes me, enriches my existence. I want exploration, not confrontation. I want a girl who respects herself more than she respects me. I want a girl with taste, or at least the cultural and intellectual curiosity to humor me. I want a girl with her own interests, who I can argue with and still come away admiring. I want a girl whose vocabulary exceeds my own, that I may suffer humility and defeat in her presence. Ultimately, I want a girl who can compliment my identity, not define it.

It would appear I don’t want a girl at all. I want a woman.

Shoom - Trust [from the 2012 album ‘TRST’]

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 20:12:00 -0400

Shoom - Trust [from the 2012 album ‘TRST’]

Arctic Monkeys [from NME]

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 03:39:07 -0500

Arctic Monkeys [from NME]

A brief explanation of 2001, from Kubrick himself.

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:31:25 -0500

Joseph Gelmis: The final scenes of the film seemed more metaphorical than realistic. Will you discuss them — or would that be part of the “road map” you’re trying to avoid?

Stanley Kubrick: No, I don’t mind discussing it, on the lowest level, that is, straightforward explanation of the plot. You begin with an artifact left on earth four million years ago by extraterrestrial explorers who observed the behavior of the man-apes of the time and decided to influence their evolutionary progression. Then you have a second artifact buried deep on the lunar surface and programmed to signal word of man’s first baby steps into the universe — a kind of cosmic burglar alarm. And finally there’s a third artifact placed in orbit around Jupiter and waiting for the time when man has reached the outer rim of his own solar system. When the surviving astronaut, Bowman, ultimately reaches Jupiter, this artifact sweeps him into a force field or star gate that hurls him on a journey through inner and outer space and finally transports him to another part of the galaxy, where he’s placed in a human zoo approximating a hospital terrestrial environment drawn out of his own dreams and imagination. In a timeless state, his life passes from middle age to senescence to death. He is reborn, an enhanced being, a star child, an angel, a superman, if you like, and returns to earth prepared for the next leap forward of man’s evolutionary destiny.

That is what happens on the film’s simplest level. Since an encounter with an advanced interstellar intelligence would be incomprehensible within our present earthbound frames of reference, reactions to it will have elements of philosophy and metaphysics that have nothing to do with the bare plot outline itself. What are those areas of meaning? They are the areas I prefer not to discuss because they are highly subjective and will differ from viewer to viewer. In this sense, the film becomes anything the viewer sees in it. If the film stirs the emotions and penetrates the subconscious of the viewer, if it stimulates, however inchoately, his mythological and religious yearnings and impulses, then it has succeeded.

– Kubrick interviewed by Joseph Gelmis, 1969

“Only a few films are transcendent, and work upon our minds and imaginations like music or...

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 03:00:00 -0500

“Only a few films are transcendent, and work upon our minds and imaginations like music or prayer or a vast belittling landscape. Most movies are about characters with a goal in mind, who obtain it after difficulties either comic or dramatic. “2001: A Space Odyssey” is not about a goal but about a quest, a need. It does not hook its effects on specific plot points, nor does it ask us to identify with Dave Bowman or any other character. It says to us: We became men when we learned to think. Our minds have given us the tools to understand where we live and who we are. Now it is time to move on to the next step, to know that we live not on a planet but among the stars, and that we are not flesh but intelligence.”

- Roger Ebert, discussing Stanley Kubrick’s masterwork, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.

Having just re-visited 2001 at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto — in 70mm, no less — I certainly understand Ebert’s reaching sentiments; however, I find myself incapable of agreeing with them. I remain unconvinced that there is a next “leap” forward. Ebert presents an interpretation of naive optimism on a supreme level; one that I’m not comfortable siding with. Nonetheless, Kubrick’s film is indeed extraordinary, and worthy of the biggest screen permitted.

Top Films of 2011

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 22:06:00 -0500

1. Tie: The Tree of Life & Melancholia, Dir. Terrence Malick & Lars Von Trier

2. Certified Copy, Dir. Abbas Kiarostami

3. The Skin I Live In, Dir. Pedro Almadovar

4. Incendies, Dir. Denis Villeneuve

5. Hanna, Dir. Joe Wright

6. Bridesmaids, Dir. Paul Feig

7. Meek’s Cutoff, Dir. Kelly Reichardt

8. Fast Five, Dir. Justin Lin

9. Of Gods and Men, Dir. Xavier Beauvois

10. Win Win, Dir. Thomas McCarthy

Honorable Mentions (In Alphabetical Order): Attack the Block, The Company Men, Drive, Fright Night, I Saw the Devil, Midnight In Paris, Rango, The Trip, We Need To Talk About Kevin

Dishonorable Mentions (In Alphabetical Order): Battle: Los Angeles, The Change-Up, Drive Angry, The Hangover Part II, Your Highness

Significant Releases Not Yet Screened: A Separation, Kill List, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Jane Eyre, Take Shelter, Margaret, The Artist, Shame, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Films Screened (In Chronological Order): Season of the Witch, The Company Men, The Roommate, The Mechanic, Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, Of Gods and Men, I Am Number Four, Drive Angry, Certified Copy, Girl Walks Into a Bar, Rango, Take Me Home Tonight, I Saw The Devil, Battle: Los Angeles, Limitless, The Lincoln Lawyer, Win Win, Sucker Punch, Hobo with a Shotgun, Insidious, Source Code, Super, Hanna, Meek’s Cutoff, Your Highness, American: The Bill Hicks Story, Scream 4, Atlas Shrugged: Part 1, Fast Five, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Thor, Bridesmaids, Midnight in Paris, The Hangover: Part II, The Tree of Life, X-Men: First Class, Beginners, Submarine, Super 8, Green Lantern, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Horrible Bosses, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Captain America: The First Avenger, Crazy Stupid Love, Attack the Block, Friends with Kids, The Change-Up, Final Destination 5, Moneyball, Red State, Fright Night, Drive, The Skin I Live In, Retreat, Margin Call, Melancholia, We Need To Talk About Kevin

Total: 58

Ray Ban Vision - A-Trak (feat. Cyhi Da Prynce) (Digital...

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 21:02:00 -0400

Ray Ban Vision - A-Trak (feat. Cyhi Da Prynce) (Digital Single)
Now that I own a pair of Light Havana Cats 5000, it seems only appropriate.

Lover’s Spit [Redux] - Broken Social Scene [from the 2004...

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 07:00:00 -0400

Lover’s Spit [Redux] - Broken Social Scene [from the 2004 album ‘Bee Hives’]

Another track that instantly conjures moments of quiet beauty in my life.

I’m reminded of a very particular moment, in fact. Several years ago, I hosted a weekly radio show with a couple friends and while leaving the studio to this record, I passed a girl sitting in the lobby of the station. She was literally lost in the song; her eyes were distant, yearning. Words weren’t necessary. They weren’t required. With the sound coming out of the speakers, and the look on her face, all was communicated. I smiled and closed the door behind me.

Film Review: FOUR LIONS (WARP FILMS)

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 20:18:00 -0400

In times of global crisis and despair, one of the most fundamental coping mechanisms humans employ is humour. Within our current climate the term ‘political satire’ is often heard in respect to socially-aware or politically-tempered humour, though until now, there hasn’t been a true comedy about terrorism. Religion in film is largely off limits; the more extreme aspects of it even moreso. The practice of Islamic jihad especially is perhaps the singlemost taboo subject in the world, and for good reason. It is of suspect purpose that one would decide to portray even in a work of fiction a character, or set of characters, whose life ambition it is to blow up. However, the handful of films that have attempted to extract comedy from current acts of global violence (including, but not limited to, Team America: World Police and Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay) have dealt largely more with Western preconceptions or the general lack of insight associated with the Western World, rather than a genuine look at the terrorists themselves. This trend is unfortunate, as it is not necessarily an offensive target given the right angle. Through well-researched, insightful comedy audiences stand to gain further understanding of other cultures, as well as come to terms with uncomfortable realities. More importantly, there is an inherent catharsis in discussing uncomfortable subjects through comedy. Writer/Director Chris Morris, along with writing partners Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, and Simon Blackwell, challenges viewers in his 2010 film Four Lions, but only on a superficial level could it be considered offensive, as the film’s focus is not really terrorism, but the frequent idiocy found within terrorism. To clarify, Four Lions is not a film about Muslim idiots; it is a film about idiots who happen to be Muslim. The way in which this subject is handled is both precious and sincere.

Four Lions focuses on five young Muslim men in the town of Sheffield, England. While one of them ─ the central protagonist, Omar ─ has aspirations that seem rooted in a small sense of rationale, the other four are committed for all the wrong reasons. Despite living a quote-unquote “normal life”, with a loving wife and son and traditional middle-class home, Omar feels the Western world has become greedy and materialistic, and that the globalization of the world is a disgrace. The other four just want to blow stuff up. It is through these misguided intentions that the film presents its ultimate tragedy.

Admirably, the film’s cross-hairs are not pointed solely at fundamentalist religion, but also the police whose motivations are to prevent the protagonist’s act of terrorism ─ one scene includes an MP justifying police actions in accidentally shooting the wrong man by saying “the report indicates that the police shot the right man, but as far as I’m aware, the wrong man blew up”. Similarly skewered by the filmmakers is the character of Omar’s brother, Ahmed. Ahmed, unlike Omar, is a committed scholar of the Muslim faith; though in spite of all his ‘proper’ wisdom, he too has his flaws, particularly his refusal to speak to Omar while his wife is in the same room. In including these other forms of satire, the film brilliantly portrays idiocy, and indeed inconsistency, on all fronts; not just from the lead characters. In fact, if there is one set of characters that exemplifies competence, it is the terrorist training camp visited by Omar in Pakistan; surely not an accident on director Morris’ part.

The ultimate example of idiocy in the film ─ or perhaps more accurately, lunacy ─ is the character of Barry, the unofficial leader of the suicide bombers. Barry is a white Muslim convert who has essentially converted to the Muslim faith as a platform to spew his hatred; for example, his “master plan” is to bomb a local mosque which in theory will “radicalize the moderates”. Prior to becoming Muslim, Morris states Barry was a neo-Nazi; indeed, he sees his Islamic conversion less a necessity than an opportunity. Unsurprisingly, Barry was based on an individual discovered by writers Morris et al. during their research. As Morris says in an interview with Salon Magazine, “There was a real-world right-wing activist who began studying the Qur’an, at first to educate himself about his racial and ideological enemies, and who ended up converting himself. There have been quite a few of these white converts who’ve taken on the most extreme kinds of Islam. It’s almost as if they’ve given up so much, and gone through so much change, that they follow it all the way to an illogical conclusion” (O’Hehir, 2011). In a film centred on extreme acts of terrorism, Barry is the single character devoid of sympathy. He’s also one of the funniest, if for all the wrong reasons.

It must be stressed that Four Lions is an incredible success of critical awareness. It critiques possibly the touchiest subject in the world with great insight and depth, while retaining an oddly consistent tone throughout. It is an even more effective piece of fiction in the Western world, where death is a distant and often suppressed idea. Again in the Salon interview, Morris explains: “There would be a typical movie way to end this story and bring some closure to these characters’ stories, and that movie ending might have been more entertaining and satisfying. I wanted to resist that. I think that [ending] relieves you of the burden of thinking about this, of scratching your head and asking, ‘What the hell was that about?”’ (O’Hehir, 2011). For Morris, the finality of death is a concept worth consistently imprinting on the viewer of the film. This is incredibly unique in an industry where death is all but removed, or presented in synthetic, romanticized form.

Ultimately, the film’s greatest strength is its ability to present a part of the world that is frightening and uncomfortable, and through comedy ─ and by the climax, profound sadness ─ show viewers something they have been continually blind to. Morris doesn’t subscribe to the Western World’s fearful exaltation of terrorists. He doesn’t have a quiet respect for them. The Guardian writes, “the film is brutally unimpressed with the moral idiocy of suicide bombing and suggests that the only sane response is derisive laughter” (Bradshaw, 2011). Morris and his writing partners Armstrong, Bain, and Blackwell craft a film that is equal parts pathos, melancholy and tar-black humour. It is indeed the rare case in which the viewer’s subjectivity of humour is challenged; even facetious individuals could find problems with the film, and they wouldn’t be entirely wrong to do so. Four Lions is a divisive, subversive, and polarizing work; it is also a culturally essential one.

Works Cited

Bradshaw, Peter. “Four Lions.” The Guardian. 6 May. 2010. Web. 21 July. 2011.

Four Lions. Dir. Chris Morris. Perf. Kayvan Novak and Nigel Lindsay. Warp Films, 2010. Film.

O’Hehir, Andrew. “Sundance: Terror Comedy Blows Up.” Salon. 27 Jan. 2010. Web. 21 July. 2011.

Stevens, Dana. “These Bombs Go To 11.” Slate. 11 Nov. 2010. Web. 21 July 2011.

‘Behind the Scenes of the Suburbs’ B&W Photo by...

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 19:02:00 -0400

‘Behind the Scenes of the Suburbs’ B&W Photo by Eric Kayne

"We'll Miss You. Goodnight!" -- JUL 30 2011

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 02:22:00 -0400

Montreal’s Arcade Fire opened for U2 on the final date of the highest-grossing rock and roll tour of all time; the 360 Tour. The show was, in a word, superlative.

Arcade Fire Set-List

(Entrance Music) Beautiful Day - U2

1. Ready to Start

2. Keep the Car Running

3. No Cars Go

4. Haiti

5. The Suburbs

6. The Suburbs (Cont.)

7. Month of May

8. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)

9. We Used to Wait

10. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)

11. Rebellion (Lies)

12. Wake Up

13. Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

As Arcade Fire concluded their set and U2 prepared to take the 360 stage for the final time, thematically linked songs began to play over the PA system; It’s The End of the World (As We Know It) by R.E.M., The Stones’ The Last Time, The Beatles’ Hello Goodbye, Elton’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, etc. It was obvious U2 were doing their best to pluck at the heart strings, and it worked. It was difficult to deny the power of hearing I’m Leaving on a Jet Plane as two Canadian Airforce fighter jets flew repeatedly over the festival grounds. And then, The Final Countdown to…

U2 Set-List

(Entrance Music) Space Oddity - David Bowie

1. Even Better Than the Real Thing

2. The Fly

3. Mysterious Ways

4. Until the End of The World

5. I Will Follow

6. Get on Your Boots

7. I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For / The Ballad of Springhill

8. Stay (Faraway, So Close!)

9. Beautiful Day

10. Elevation

11. Pride (In The Name of Love)

12. Miss Sarajevo

13. Zooropa

14. City of Blinding Lights

15. Vertigo

16. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight / Discothèque

17. Sunday Bloody Sunday

18. Scarlet

19. Walk On

Encore:

20. One

21. Hallelujah / Where The Streets Have No Name

Encore 2:

22. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me

23. With or Without You

24. Moment of Surrender

25. Out Of Control

26. 40