I am still dealing with losing my mother. It is better now than it has been before, it is ongoing.
One thing I started doing again last year, as evinced by my previous entry, was going to the movies. On average, I go once a week. It is engaging.
Of late, as in filims I have seen in the last year and change or so, the following stuck with me for various reasons.
- Maestro
- Ferrari
- Dumb Money
- Irina's Vow
- The Fall Guy
- Furiosa
- MaXXXine
- Die Alone
- My Old Ass
- Azrael
- Super/Man
- The Apprentice
- Goodrich
- The Substance
- Speak No Evil
- Rumours
Maestroand Ferrariare superb biopics of Leonard Cohen and Enzo da Asshole Ferrari (in his middle years) respectively. Dumb Money is a true story about how ordinary working people used social media to get back at powerful Wall Street Bankers, a kind of Margin Callwith appearances by good guys.
Irina's Vow is the superbly-done true story of a Polish woman who rescued Jews during the Second World War. The Fall Guy is a superb reboot of the Lee Majors TV show (and Emily Blunt's best work to date.) Furiosa is a breathtakingly shot, intensely engaging iteration of the Mad Max franchise. MaXXXineis a masterfully done slasher that fairly portrays the adult industry. Die Alone is a post-apocalyptic zombie movie that is actually about love and caregiving. My Old Ass is a beautiful time-travel movie, a Doctor Who for ordinary people dealing with ordinary issues. Azraelis a stunningly shot zombie movie filmed in the captivating Estonian forest. Super/Man is a powerful documentary on Christopher Reeve and how he triumphed and even grew after his injury. The Apprenticedeals with Donald Trump and Roy Cohn's relationship. Goodrichis a beautiful family drama that deals with improvising/Auftragstaktik in the face of the unexpected.
The Substance is a gore-rich horror filim which is more about the horror of low self-esteem and having an outer locus of control. Speak No Evil is a slasher filim with the inimitable Aisling Franciosi (of TV's The Fall and of last year's Last Voyage Of The Demeterfame.) Rumoursis a postapocapalyptic monster filim with the leaders of the G7 Group of nations and some poor zombies.
Irina's Vowis the filim that stands out most to me right now. That is because I saw it at a time when the Kirsten Dunst vehicle Civil War was still fresh in my memory. Civil Warwas heaving promoted, Irina's Vow less so. Irina's Vow is, in my unhumble opinion, the better filim. Irina's Vow is classy and, despite the horrors it depicts, full of hope. Civil War is basically Kirsten Dunst cursing like Andrew Dice Clay while engaging in juvenile hi-jinks and one-upsmanship. Maciej Nawrocki's character in Irinia's Vow and Jesse Plemon (aka Mr. Kirsten Dunst)'s character in Civil Warare basically the same person. The difference is that Nawrocki's character has culture, class, and professionalism while Plemon's character is pure, unadulterated trash. Irina's Vow is a Canadian filim and Civil War is an American filim. And therein lies what my differing appreciation of these two filims says about me, or, more precisely, my perception of changes.
Previously, I had not been a particular fan of Canadian filim and TV. Trailer Park Boys, Corner Gas and Schitts Creek, frankly, repulse me. They are basically Canadian TV versions of Deliverance, The Wild And Wonderful Whites Of West Virginia, and Honey Boo-Boo. Canadian sci-fi, like Continuum, Lost Girl, Orphan Black, Killjoysand Dark Matter has generally been excellent, but has nowhere near the Canadian popular acclaim that vile whiskey tango garbage like Trailer Park Boys and Tous Le Monde En Parle does.
So, when I saw Irina's Vow, a Canadian filim made to the standard of Downton Abbey and Dark Shadows, with not a single person in the whole movie, not even the Canadian lead, sounding like inbred hicks à la Michael Hogan and Jordan Peterson, outclass a major Hollywood picture like Civil War, I was moved.
In a like vein, Die Alone and My Old Ass are both also Canadian filims whereas The Substance is an American filim with a major Hollywood name in it. Die Alone deals with a very grim situation and My Old Assdeals with hard situations, but both of them have hope and love, elements which are entirely lacking in The Substance. Now, Rumours is also a Canadian filim, but it is a complete charlie foxtrot that does not know what it wants to be, while Goodrichis an American filim that has the pain and also the warmth of Die Alone and My Old Ass, which reiterates the fact that a filim's country of origin, in and of itself, is no guarantee of that filim's calibre.
However, Irinia's Vow, Die Aloneand My Old Ass, as did Continuum, LostGirl, OrphanBlack, Killjoys and Dark Matter before them, show that the Canadian government is entirely justified in passing laws to protect Canadian filim and television from the domination of the FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google), as Howard Law details in his superb book Canada Versus California. Law being a former union official, some may see my advocacy for his book and his cause as being a turn towards the left on my part. It is not. The very same FAANG Howard Law identifies as being enemies of Canada, were also identified as being enemies of America by the late LouDobbs, hardly anyone's idea of a leftist. Opposition to the FAANG, in other words, is something that can unite America and Canada (and the European Union) in this age of division.
On an ancillary note, can someone explain to me why The Marvels is supposed to be so bad while Deadpool & Wolverineis supposed to be so good? Near as I can tell, they are overwhelmingly the same filim. Lots of only-in-Hollywood deus ex machina that anyone who has ever seen a football/soccer or baseball game can tell is highly improbable. The same thing applies to the very hyped difference between last year's Flashand Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destinyon the one hand and Fast X and Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning on the other. The moral of this paragraph is "Never Take Movie Advice From Council Estate-Dwelling YouTubes Mopes Who Think That Marines Come From West Point." In particular, as I noted in my previous entry, said Council Estate-dwelling Yobos and second-generation Aargon da Assguards/Sargons of Akkads/Carl Benjamins, made tonne after tonne of videos bashing 2023's Gotham Knights TV show, which introduced me to the ver-so-lovely Anna Lore. As neurologist and psychiatrist Dr. Richard Restak says in How To Prevent Dementia and as neuroscientist and musician Daniel J. Levitin says in Successful Aging, one way to preserve cognitive function is to always learn something new, to always explore. If you are young, fully fit and live in a nice safe neighbourhood like Holcomb, Kansas or Hayden Lake, Idaho, this can take the form of exploring your physical environment. For those who do not have the luxury of these prerequisites, other avenues are necessary. Going to the movies is one such avenue, and so is watching new TV shows--or, more precisely, being open to experiencing movies and TV shows that are not already in the repertoire.
So, for me, watching Gotham Knightsand seeing The Marvels was also about introducing me to new actresses I had never heard of. And I cannot, for the life of me, fathom exactly what is supposed to be so horrible about Brie Larson. She may have politics that differ from mine, but, much like the Dixie Chicks of twenty years ago, she did not go over to the enemy and pose on anti-aircraft artillery used to shoot down Western planes. Alison Brie, in other words, is no Jane Fonda, and those who obsessively bash her are spoiled brats who do not remember the 1970s--when the Weather Underground was bombing people left and right and when the 1977 Summer of Sam riots in the Bronx killed exactly one more person than died in all of the Charlottesville riot.
It is all about perspective--and being willing to explore and learn new things. In that vein, I watched Big Brother 26 this summer after two decades away from it. My previous favourite BBcontestant was Shannon Dragoo, but that was more for her pictorial work. This summer, I was initially attracted to the show again by Leah Peters and Makensy Manbeck, to be honest. Then, Leah said something that warmed my heart and kept me coming back each episode; "Never speak ill of the chill!" She further won my heart when she was Head Of Household when she said that she was a chubby chaser, and she had me melting in her post-show interviews when she demonstrated an exceptional sportsmanship is saying she was proud of Makensy, who betrayed her as commentators far and wide have pointed out. Likewise, Tucker, Joseph and T'Khor all demonstrated sportsmanship in saying that they did not bear a grudge against anyone--in contrast to other contestants who could not wait to badmouth fellow contestants.
In a like vein, there are two current shows that I am following, one that I like. The one that I am merely following is Rescue Hi-Surf. I am following it because it has Arielle Kebbel; unfortunately, her appearances are more along the lines of a cameo, and the show as a whole is basically a 21st century Baywatch, only even dumber. Doctor Odyssey, on the other hand, is likeable (if, admittedly, outlandish), especially because of the lovely Phillipa Soo.
Being open to new things has its perks.