tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-179382942024-03-14T01:13:41.643-07:00If You Can't Say Anything Nice...Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.comBlogger397125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-3914955407163398612020-01-04T20:27:00.002-08:002020-01-05T17:58:29.298-08:00Top Movies of the DecadeIt's interesting to go back and look at my top ten lists for the past decade, and see where I would have changed things, shifted the order, even had a film drop out and another take its place. I've looked at the movies I've watched over the past decade and chosen the ones that stick with me the most after they've come and gone, and just like my yearly top tens, I suspect this is a fluid list, subject to change depending on my mood and the time of day.<br />
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1. <i>A Separation</i><br />
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I remember walking out of the theatre wondering how this Iranian film would be topped. Clearly, the answer was it wouldn't. The dissolution of a family was portrayed with great intensity and intelligence in Baumbach's <i>Marriage Story</i>, but as good as that film was, this was the movie that set that bar at an unreachable height.<br />
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2. <i>The Florida Project</i><br />
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In a lesser filmmaker's hands this would have been the cinematic version of poverty porn, but instead we are treated to moments of joy and love to very much equal the heartache and pain of the lives of the characters. And the ending, filmed surreptitiously with an iPhone, is a moment of transcendence.<br />
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3. <i>Moonlight</i><br />
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A heartbreaking and heartfelt tale of a love and growth, this is the sort of film to make you realize you <i>can</i> understand and empathize with someone else, even if almost every aspect of that person's life is foreign to your own.<br />
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4. <i>Roma</i><br />
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Gorgeous, a deliberate pace, offering up its revelations and answers bit by bit, and with some of the most glorious long shots I've seen in many years.<br />
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5. <i>Shoplifters</i><br />
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A story of loveable and loving petty thieves, who know family is what you make it, and even more important, know when family is not working for others who need it.<br />
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6. <i>Parasite</i><br />
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It strikes me as I see this side by side with my 5th choice that this and <i>Shoplifters</i> are of a piece, about family and doing whatever you can to survive. There is a different sort of tragedy here than in the Japanese film, permanent of a different nature and more shocking, accompanied by great humour.<br />
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7. <i>Spotlight</i><br />
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One of those movies that, as my wife noted when it ended, feels like old times. A serious film about a serious subject, great tension even as we know how things in this true story pan out.<br />
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8. <i>Mad Max: Fury Road</i><br />
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There was some good science fiction these past ten years and, speaking as a science fiction and fantasy author, some mediocre and shitty SF as well. This one stood head and shoulders and maybe even elbows above them all. Audacious and witty and thrilling and imaginative, a movie where the title character isn't even close to the main character.<br />
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9. <i>Paterson</i><br />
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Almost nothing happens, the one time a gun fires it proves to be something else, Adam Driver's wife is a special kind of strange and you can see he adores her and wants her to be whoever she wants to be, even as he continues to drive a bus in order to write his poetry. Delightful.<br />
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10. <i>You Were Never Really Here</i><br />
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Watching moments of violence play out via black and white security cameras in silence in the corner of the screen, seeing Joaquin Phoenix as a somewhat-overweight schlub who cares so very deeply, and now we sit and wait and wonder when Lynne Ramsay will be allowed to make her next movie.<br />
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Also-rans: <i>Boyhood, Arrival, The Irishman, Little Women, Tree of Life, The Way Way Back, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Get Out</i>.Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-53474848611378412412019-12-30T20:25:00.001-08:002019-12-30T20:26:41.354-08:00The Movies of 2019<div class="p1">
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<span class="s1">I watched 95 feature-length movies this past year, and saw 39 of those in the theatre, as indicated by an asterisk (*) before the name of the film. I also saw 16 shorts, 12 of those on the big screen (at a film fest). My top ten, accompanied by a whole load of Almosts, follows at the end of this.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I also managed to see movies from 20 different countries (although Canada was only short films this year), which is a record for me:</span></div>
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Australia</div>
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<span class="s1">Canada</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Columbia</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Denmark</span></div>
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<span class="s1">France</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Iceland</span></div>
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<span class="s1">India</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Ireland</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Japan</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Lebanon</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Mexico</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Netherlands</span></div>
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<span class="s1">New Zealand</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Poland</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Senegal</span></div>
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<span class="s1">South Korea</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Spain</span></div>
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<span class="s1">UK</span></div>
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<span class="s1">USA</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Vietnam</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski</i> (2018) USA - An excellent Netflix documentary about a once-famous Polish artist and sculptor who was mostly forgotten for the last 40 years of his life, rediscovered by underground comix creators living near him in California in the 1970s. It takes some wild turns, opening up a story that will leave you with your mouth hanging open many times.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Darkest Hour</i> (2017) UK - A decent movie, and I can see why Gary Oldman received his Oscar. That said, as with so many biopics, if often felt very piecemeal. The one good part about that is at least it was limited in the scope of time it took in.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Paddington 2</i> (2018) UK - So delightful, and I can’t believe I put it off this long. And yes, Hugh Grant really does deserve all the accolades.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Dealt</i> (2017) USA - An interesting doc about Richard Turner, a card mechanic - magician - who is totally blind. More interesting for the sheer pigheadedness he demonstrates, and the patience his family offers in return.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>12 Strong</i> (2018) USA - A serviceable film, yet another based-on-a-true-story film about the Afghan war. Helped by a good cast in some cases, but some of that good cast is sorely underused.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Bad Times at the El Royale</i> (2018) USA - A clever thriller/mystery, quite violent, although not as over-the-top as a Tarantino movie would have been, which I’ve heard it compared to. Great cast, lots of excellent surprises all the way through.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Three Identical Strangers</i> (2018) USA - A very interesting documentary that takes some dark turns. We had some issues with questions left hanging at the end as regarding the fate of one of the subjects, and I hesitate to say more because it’s worth seeing without spoilers, even now.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>The Favourite</i> (2018) UK - Wild and brilliant and so very well acted. Often somewhat Gilliam-esque, I found, with some wild camera angles and lens choices. As well, the movie was shot on 35mm film with only natural light, including in many cases only candles, very much like Kubrick did with <i>Barry Lyndon</i>. It’s astonishing to look at.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Brexit</i> (2019) UK - Benedict Cumberbatch is excellent in this docudrama retelling of how the Leave campaign won. An original on HBO, it’s another very good political retelling.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>They Shall Not Grow Old</i> (2018) NZ - An absolutely outstanding documentary about WW1, film from the day cleaned up and timed right and colourized, all narrated by soldiers who had been interviewed for the Imperial War Museum. Gorgeous.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>The Catcher Was a Spy</i> (2018) USA - An okay thriller that takes a number of liberties with the facts and puts the thrilling parts in kinda the wrong part of the film.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Close</i> (2019) UK - A good thriller that takes the expected gender roles and flips them nicely, including one character being fridged. It’s hard-nosed, the fights not easy for star Noomi Rapace, but it does stumble a bit when it tries to delve into the personal lives of its main characters.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>Shoplifters</i> (2018) Japan - A wonderful film about what it means to be a family, and how it doesn’t have to be blood that ties us together and makes us look out for each other. Surely would have been in my top ten last year and stands a good chance for this year.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>Cold Pursuit</i> (2019) USA - A darkly funny revenge thriller that is a remake, directed by the same guy who did the Scandinavian original, <i>In Order of Disappearance</i>. A couple of Coen brothers nods are here, one very good, the other quite over-the-top. Worth seeing.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>High Flying Bird</i> (2019) USA - I’m not a big basketball fan, but Steven Soderbergh’s film about the politics of players and ownership was excellent. Soderbergh shot this entire movie on iPhone, and aside from a few specific lighting issues the phone’s camera seems to have it looking good.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>The Breaker Upperers</i> (2018) New Zealand - One very funny movie that goes far beyond passing the Bechdel Test. It’s written and directed by the stars, two very funny women who also do a great job of depicting a great friendship.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>If Beale Street Could Talk</i> (2018) USA - Remarkable camera work here, very affectionate and deeply personal. This would have been in my top ten for 2018 if it had made it to town before year end.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Minding the Gap</i> (2019) USA - A moving, devastating, and in the end uplifting documentary. It starts seeming like it will be about skater kids and quickly turns into a deep dive into broken lives, domestic abuse, and strength and love. Oscar-nominated.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>A Star is Born</i> (2018) USA - It does live up to its hype, and I’m disappointed I didn’t see it in the theatre. Some excellent performances, the music is excellent, the love story both moving and devastating.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Behind the Curve</i> (2018) USA - An unsurprisingly irritating documentary about Flat Earthers.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Free Solo</i> (2018) USA - I had to cure my own fear of heights by, believe it or not, jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. his movie came close to bringing back that fear. An astonishing tale of obsession.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>Captain Marvel</i> (2019) USA - This was much better than I thought it would be. A great answer to Captain America fighting the fascists overseas, in that this one is Captain Marvel fighting the fascists at home. Fun without being silly, and a thrilling statement I think a lot of unaware critics missed the point on.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Apollo 11</i> (2019) USA - A stunningly good documentary, full of footage hidden away for decades, and edited so deftly it surely deserves an Oscar nomination. I was on the edge of my seat, even though of course I knew what was coming next.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Triple Frontier</i> (2019) USA - Famously took its time getting made, with all sorts of stars attached before backing out, and when you hear those stories you worry about the final product. But it isn’t bad, actually. A good cast, some genuine tension (especially with the helicopter), and a more nuanced treatment of soldiers than so many of the recent rah-rah military films.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Searching</i> (2018) USA - Surprisingly effective and even emotional (although my wife would disagree, as she felt there was too much disconnection). Really, though, it should have been marketed as a horror for parents of teens and tweens.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Ralph Breaks the Internet</i> (2018) USA - A fine and fun and heartfelt sequel, but there isn’t too much else I can say about it.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>A Private War</i> (2018) UK - Good movie, good performance, but I’m beginning to feel like Rosamund Pike is usually trying just a little too hard. Interesting to look back at this and think on how understated Stanley Tucci was in his much smaller role.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>Us</i> (2019) USA - For such a genuinely silly idea, this sure does nail it. Freaky and spooky and tense and some great performances, especially (of course) Lupita Nyong’o.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>I Am Richard Pryor</i> (2019) USA - A bog-standard talking head documentary, interspersed with some archival footage, that nonetheless is enjoyable because of its subject.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Green Book</i> (2018) USA - I avoided seeing this on the big screen and honestly could have given it a miss at home. Surprising how I could feel disappointed watching a movie I expected to disappoint me.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>Shazam</i> (2019) USA - Great fun. Leaned in heavy on the delightful silliness of the comic, and yet carried a nice emotional heft.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Anthropocene: The Human Epoch</i> (2018) USA - I’ve been a fan of photographer Edward Burtynsky for years now, and this movie perfectly translates his work to film. Stunning and disturbing.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Border (Gräns)</i> (2018) Sweden - I see filmmaker John Waters added this to his top ten of the year, and if you know John Waters and his work that should tell you plenty. A seriously messed-up film that deserves your attention.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>Avengers: Endgame</i> (2019) USA - Lots of bang, lots of noise, lots of fun, a good job of making you care about the characters. But it’ll take a lot more than that to convince me we should be getting these movies as often as we do.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Leave No Trace</i> (2018) USA - Ben Foster, like Joel Edgerton, is quietly turning out some quality work that not enough people are aware of. An excellent, quiet film, with powerful performances by Foster and by Thomasin McKenzie.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Cold War</i> (2018) Poland - Maybe not the same heights as the filmmaker’s last movie, <i>Ida</i>, but still gorgeous and glorious.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Last Breath</i> (2019) UK - A tense and intense documentary, although I will admit the subject matter feeds on a deep and almost pathological fear of mine, so it really had me on the edge of my seat.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum</i> (2019) USA - The incessant violence is of no interest to my wife, and I don’t blame her, but this was still an excellent addition to a riveting series.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much</i> (2017) USA - A fascinating look at obsession of a different type, about a wannabe game show contestant.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Equalizer 2</i> (2018) USA - If the first one was a fun and more violent, adult-rated version of <i>Home Alone</i>, this one was mostly just an admission that some creators are not interested in treading new and interesting ground.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Venom</i> (2018) USA - Oddly better than I expected, especially when viewed through the lens of a deeply bizarre friendship. Even love.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Stan & Ollie</i> (2019) UK - I’m not a big fan of biopics, but films that take a closer look at one segment of the lives of people are more interesting to me. This handled that well, and the performances are outstanding.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Rim of the World</i> (2019) USA - A fun alien invasion film where the heroes are teens. Not quite at the level of <i>Attack the Block</i>, but it deserved more attention for sure.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>Godzilla: King of the Monsters</i> (2019) USA - Woof. What a mess.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>Late Night</i> (2019) USA - A significant lack of realism only briefly disengaged me from some great characters and interactions.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>I Am Mother</i> (2019) Australia - A decent post-apocalyptic science fiction film, tightly focused.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>Yesterday</i> (2019) UK - Enjoyable with a lovely ending, but on the second-best film of the year based on the rock music of my youth.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>Spider-Man: Far From Home</i> (2019) USA - Another tremendous MCU film with an ending that had me practically squealing with delight.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>Midsommar</i> (2019) USA - There are some great moments, and some hilarious moments, but sometimes the humour might not have been intended. Much too long, and that’s without having seen the longer director’s cut. I did like it, though, even if it sounds like I’m complaining. Swinging for the fences gets you my appreciation whether or not it all works.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Bohemian Rhapsody</i> (2018) UK - The sort of biopic I tend not to care about. Some good performances, but by no means an Oscar-worthy film.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>*The Last Black Man in San Francisco </i>(2019) USA - Perhaps the most beautifully-shot film I saw this year, wit an emotion heft we so rarely see.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>Burning</i> (2018) South Korea - Like almost all South Korean movies, this goes places films from other places would not dare to. A dark and effective psychological thriller.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood </i>(2019) USA - Another alternate history from Tarantino, a tremendous film. The only question I have is how many people are going to understand that Pitt’s character is an unreliable narrator, considering his charm and looks?</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>Blinded By the Light</i> (2019) UK - The best rock and roll film of the year. Great fun, great musical moments.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>It Chapter Two</i> (2019) USA - Almost but not quite the biggest disappointment for me, especially considering how much I enjoyed the first one.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>The Peanut Butter Falcon</i> (2019) USA - This movie was a delight, and seeing so many mentally handicapped people in the theatre reminded me just how much representation matters.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>Tigers Are Not Afraid</i> AKA <i>Vuelven</i> (2019/17) Mexico - Dark and unsettling story about homeless children trying to get by after drug wars have taken so much from them. Turns into possibly a ghost story, possibly a Mexican version of <i>Pan’s Labyrinth</i>.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"><i>The Biggest Little Farm</i> (2019) USA - A fun documentary about the trials of starting up an organic farm in spite of knowing next to nothing about farming. Beautiful cinematography.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>Official Secrets </i>(2019) UK - Gripping true story about a whistleblower within Britain’s intelligence network, with some terrific acting.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">*<i>Monos</i> (2019) Columbia - Young people left to their own to guard a hostage for terrorist/freedom fighter group. What could go wrong? Turns out, lots. A very good film.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Booksmart</i> (2019) USA - The hardest I laughed this year. We watched at home and probably should have had the subtitles on so my wife could understand what was happening. So many wonderfully-realized characters, solidly feminist, just all around a winner.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Furie</i> (2019) Vietnam - A decent, although not great martial arts movie with a female lead. Worth seeing, though.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Arctic</i> (2019) Iceland - Like Redford in <i>All Is Lost</i>, Mads Mikkelsen says an awful lot with very few words. Riveting.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Toy Story 4</i> (2019) USA - I don’t know how they keep managing it, but Pixar’s sequels in this series have all been quality, and this one is the same. Not quite the heights reached earlier, but still excellent.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Laundromat</i> (2019) USA - Probably minor Soderbergh, but still very good with a great cast. Didn’t speak to me quite as strongly as <i>The Big Short</i> did, although still a valuable lesson on film.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Ad Astra (2019) USA - Probably the angriest I was watching a movie this year. It was gorgeous to look at, but aside from the absolute science stupidity, so much of it felt like it had been plotted by a ten-year-old.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>In the Tall Grass</i> (2019) USA - An all right adaptation of a story by Stephen King and Joe Hill, with some genuine tension, but it only rarely pulled me in deep.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>In the Shadow of the Moon</i> (2019) USA - A science fiction time travel cop thriller with a really cool twist towards the end. Workmanlike otherwise.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Häxan</i> (1922) Denmark -<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A sorta documentary from back in the silent film era, accompanied by live music, which all makes for a remarkable evening at the movies. For the year this was very dark indeed.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Capernaum</i> (2018) Lebanon - A devastating portrait of refugees in Lebanon, acted by real refugees. Would have been one of my top films of 2018 if it had made it here that year.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Terminator: Dark Fate</i> (2019) USA - Better than I anticipated, and a nice touch making it so female-centric. Not a classic but a nice step up from the last one.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Tell Me Who I Am</i> (UK) 2019 - A documentary about one twin with memory loss from an accident being taught his history by his other twin, with a banger of a shock near the end.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Wild Rose</i> (UK) 2018 - Terrific movie about a country singer in Scotland, about her attitude and her legal problems, and while it follows a fairly standard redemption path it’s worth watching for that joyful turn and for some great music, including a song co-written by Mary Steenburgen.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The King </i>(2019) UK - Less historical drama and more one that plays with Shakespeare’s works, Joel Edgerton wrote this and has a fine supporting role. Some outstanding battle scenes to boot.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Jojo Rabbit</i> (2019) New Zealand - Hilarious right up until the gut punch reminding you where and when this takes place. I can’t imagine anyone other than Taika Waititi pulling this off, and he does it so well. Bonus points for really dragging out the “Heil Hitler” scene.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Parasite</i> (2019) South Korea - Easy choice for my favourite movie of the year. A tremendous thriller about class, family, and poverty. Not a misstep in the whole thing.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Doctor Sleep </i>(2019) USA - A decent adaptation of the Stephen King book, a sequel to The Shining that manages to straddle both the book and the original Kubrick movie. I really appreciated the director using actual actors to take on the roles of the original actors.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>A Vigilante</i> (2019) USA - This was a remarkable movie, disappointing that it had no traction on release and showed up on streaming with no fanfare at all. Strong feminist story, and if it weren’t for the dumb thing she said after the latest Clint Eastwood movie was released I would have said between this and <i>Booksmart</i> 2019 should have really been Olivia Wilde’s year.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Dolemite is My Name</i> (2019) USA - Eddie Murphy is fantastic in this, and the story is a delight.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Extra Ordinary</i> (2019) Ireland - A movie about a woman who doesn’t want to use her special talent to help get rid of unwanted ghosts, but falls into it anyhow. One of other finest comedies of the year, and Barry Ward puts in not just one of the best comedic performances of the year, but possibly of the decade. Seriously, he works some magic with his role.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Daniel Isn’t Real</i> (2019) USA - A darker version of the memorably mediocre movie <i>Drop Dead Fred</i>, about an imaginary friend (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s son). Okay, with a nice twist near the end, but only middling.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>The Vast of Night</i> (2019) USA - A first movie, made on a shoestring, and stunningly gorgeous. There are a couple of jaw-dropping long tracking shots and a great sense of mystery. Well worth seeking out.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Jallikattu</i> (2019) India - A film about masculinity and violence, filled with stunning imagery, but perhaps a bit too loud and frantic.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>The Wretched</i> (2019) USA -<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A decent horror movie about a witch who kills people and then lives inside their skin, and the boy next door who realizes what’s wrong and tries to fight back.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>The Irishman</i> (2019) USA - Forget the issues with the digital de-ageing, which only took me out of it for a few minutes at the very beginning. The acting is remarkable, especially by Joe Pesci, and three and a half hours flowed by without catching me up at all.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Atlantique</i> (2019) Senegal - A beautiful story of love and loss and greed that turns, surprisingly, into a very different type of ghost story.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Knives Out</i> (2019) USA - A great murder mystery with twists and turns and tremendous performances from an all-star cast. Fun.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Dark Waters</i> (2019) USA - A darker, male-centred <i>Erin Brockovich</i>, based on the true story of a lawyer who takes up the cause against DuPont and the damage done by their production of Teflon. If anyone would challenge Joe Pesci for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, my hope is it would be Bill Camp, who is incredible in this.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Guilty</i> (2018) Denmark - A good Danish thriller that takes place entirely in an emergency call centre. We learn more about the cop taking the calls as the movie goes on, as well as the person he is trying to save, and the final multiple reveals don’t feel like a cheat.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker </i>(2019) USA - I saw it, I don’t mind I saw it, I hope I won’t have to see another for a good long spell. I understand why some people are upset about Rose being sidelined, but I am old and cranky and had trouble caring even when the original characters were on-screen.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Aeronauts</i> (2019) UK - An exciting action movie about flying a balloon in 1862, kind of based on a true story (from the excellent book <i>Falling Upwards: How We Took to the Air</i>) although with Felicity Jones inserted as a female balloon pilot instead of who flew with Eddie Redmayne’s character instead. The aerial photography and stunts were incredible, and it was originally to be released on IMAX, which I am sorry never happened.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Marriage Story</i> (2019) USA - Certain Oscar nominations for ScarJo and for Adam Driver. Hard to watch when you’ve been from a divorce, but I managed to get through it and am so glad I did. For a movie so disturbing and upsetting it ends on a lovely high, if bittersweet, note.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Little Women</i> (2019) USA - Glorious and joyful, even as it is accompanied by tragedy. I wanted to watch it again right away.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>I Lost My Body</i> (2019) France - The story of a severed hand making its way across Paris to reconnect with its owner, this animated film has a real emotional heft and strong symbolism. Best animated feature of the year, but not for children.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Report</i> (2019) USA - Adam Driver again, who was everywhere in the last few weeks of the year, as the man who brought the CIA’s torture program to light in an obsessive, Herculean effort that took many years. Annette Benning plays an uncanny likeness of Senator Dianne Feinstein.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Short Films</b></span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">If I could find a link I supplied it, since short films are often more difficult to track down.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Period. End of Sentence.</i> (2019) USA - An excellent documentary short that won the Oscar, about menstrual rights and activism in India. Ntflix</span></div>
<div class="p3">
<span class="s1"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Anima</i> (2019)<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>UK (15 minutes) - Thom Yorke of Radiohead doing a lengthy music/dance video, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Excellent. Netflix.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Frankenstein’s Monster’s Monster, Frankenstein</i> (2019) USA (32 minutes) - An okay spoof/mockumentary starring David Harbour, and while it goes over the top too many times, I do realize that was the point. Netflix.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Make Me a Sandwich</i> (2019) Canada (3 minutes) - A clever short horror about domestic strife.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>The Video Store Commercial</i> (2019) Canada (4 minutes) - An actual commercial for a real video store in Calgary, and it was glorious.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>In Sound, We Live Forever </i>(2019) USA (12 minutes) - A nice horror/thriller piece in which most of what happens is background or in the past, sound jammed up against peaceful yet increasingly ominous visuals. <a href="https://vimeo.com/311840375"><span class="s2">https://vimeo.com/311840375</span></a></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Bedtime Story</i> (2019) Spain (9 minutes) - About a witch watching a family from an apartment across the way. Suitably creepy.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Fears</i> (2019) Spain (5 minutes) - A creepy monster-in-the-closet story accompanied by an overly obvious ending.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>The Boogeywoman</i> (2019) USA (18 minutes) - A horror about a young woman’s first period. The first half, in a roller rink, is much more effective than the second half when she is wandering the deserted city streets. <a href="https://vimeo.com/319593523"><span class="s2">https://vimeo.com/319593523</span></a> (Trailer only.)</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Changeling</i> (2019) UK (9 minutes) - A very creepy story about a new mother and the transformation on her baby. <a href="https://vimeo.com/352026129"><span class="s2">https://vimeo.com/352026129</span></a> (Trailer only.)</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>The Hitchhiker </i>(2019) Australia (13 minutes) - A great short film about vampires, terminal illness, and friendship.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Re-home</i> (2019) USA (8 minutes) - Clever conceit, about re-homing loved ones like pets because of the skyrocketing cost of living. <a href="https://vimeo.com/336160774"><span class="s2">https://vimeo.com/336160774</span></a> (Trailer only.)</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Lili</i> (2019) Netherlands (8 minutes) - A screen test, #MeToo, and how it all goes wrong for one man. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qoj8y4SrsQk"><span class="s2">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qoj8y4SrsQk</span></a> (Trailer only.)</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>A Noise That Carries</i> (1019) Canada (15 minutes) - I worry that what was meant to be a scary part just ended up feeling silly, because I’m pretty sure our laughs came when they weren’t intended.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Girl in the Hallway</i> (2019) Canada (10 minutes) - I would rank this as one of my top ten if it was feature length. As it is, a devastating must-watch. <a href="https://vimeo.com/363023845"><span class="s2">https://vimeo.com/363023845</span></a></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
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<span class="s1"><i>My Grandfather’s Memory Book</i> (2018) USA (5 minutes) - A lovely animated short by a Pixar animator about his grandfather’s drawings about his life. <a href="https://vimeo.com/294401577"><span class="s2">https://vimeo.com/294401577</span></a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<br />
I had more trouble narrowing the list down to a top ten for the year, at least after the first three. But here goes:<br />
<br />
1. <i>Parasite</i><br />
2. <i>The Irishman</i><br />
3. <i>Little Women</i><br />
4. <i>The Last Black Man in San Francisco</i><br />
5. <i>Knives Out</i><br />
6. <i>Us</i><br />
7. <i>Jojo Rabbit</i><br />
8. <i>Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood</i><br />
9. <i>Atlantique</i><br />
10. (Tie) <i>Dolemite is My Name/Marriage Story</i><br />
<br />
Movies that on another day might have forced their way onto this list are <i>Border, Blinded By the Light, The Peanut Butter Falcon, Tigers Are Not Afraid, Monos, Official Secrets, Booksmart, A Vigilante, The Vast of Night, Dark Waters, I Lost My Body, The Report</i>, <i>Paddington 2, The Favourite, They Shall Not Grow Old, Shoplifters, If Beale Street Could Talk, Minding the Gap, Free Solo, Apollo 11, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch, Leave No Trace, Cold War, Burning, The Biggest Little Farm, Arctic, Toy Story 4, Wild Rose, The King, Extra Ordinary,</i> and <i>Capernaum. </i>Several of these were 2018 films, which is why I kept them off the top ten.<br />
<br />
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</style>Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-53024048850233220002019-11-10T21:34:00.000-08:002019-11-10T21:44:31.202-08:00This Mess With ChiZineMy novel<i> Napier's Bones</i> was published a number of years ago by ChiZine. It sold well, and I saw a decent amount of money from it, for a small press. Like lots of other authors, apparently, I often had to go digging for that money, and I did bring it up with two other authors over time. Once in person at a convention, and that was greeted with a shrug, a "Whaddaya gonna do?" The second time was via email, and I was told they were having the same problem.<br />
<br />
But I would push, and get a response, and eventually see the money. Or at least some of the money. But every time a promise was made, that promise was broken, and I would have to push again.<br />
<br />
I realize now I should have yanked the book. I had considered doing so a couple of times, but in both instances money arrived and I let the thought fade away.<br />
<br />
I live a different life than a lot of other authors. I work a full-time blue collar job, my wife has an excellent academic career, and we have two adult sons, one we just finished putting through university, the other in his 3rd year. We are not wealthy, but we do just fine, thank you. Starving artist I ain't.<br />
<br />
I also spent two or three years seriously considering giving up on this writing biz altogether. Frustration, not just with ChiZine but also with certain other people and groups had conspired to leave me exhausted and disinterested. Time spent as the Canadian Regional Director and then publicity director for SFWA and newsletter editor and then president of SF Canada soured me on groups and groupthink, I stopped attending conventions, dropped a whole shitload of Facebook friends and contacts (many of them have sought me out afterward, and that's just fine).<br />
<br />
All this is to explain I had no contact with the "whisper network," did not even know such a network existed.<br />
<br />
I need to tell you something else. Before we each got married to our respective spouses, many years ago, Sandra from ChiZine and I had a brief romantic relationship, although mostly long distance. It didn't end badly, it just... ended. My view of this may therefore be considered by some to be skewed, and that's fair.<br />
<br />
So I'm not going to badmouth people for things I did not witness, and I'm not going to share stories about anything I did experience, because I don't think they are important to this situation. I will note however that there are <i>many</i> editors and publishers and authors who fall into the category of asshole, and if that was all this was there really wouldn't be anything there.<br />
<br />
But it isn't, and aside from my own issues, I believe the people who have come forward. And it breaks my damn heart to see people I knew and liked back in the day having been put through so much.<br />
<br />
I also frustrates me - not, I should note, to the level of being pissed off, since we all deal with these traumas in our own way - that I didn't know. That none of these people ever thought to mention any of this to me, or that they were afraid if they did so I would sell them out.<br />
<br />
As if the years I spent working hard for them and their rights meant nothing.<br />
<br />
But those days were long years ago, and maybe everyone forgot what I once did. Hell, sometimes I forget, it's been so long. And if I knew it was happening to me, then probably I should have opened my eyes and assumed it was happening to others.<br />
<br />
What's done is done, though. I've asked for and received an accounting of the year's royalties, but the immediate response I got was followed by silence when I pointed out a possible discrepancy. I will give it a few more days before deciding what the next step will be.<br />
<br />
One more thing: A certain review site came on Twitter and blasted CZP and the complicit authors (and really, I have no idea how many there might be, because I really still am out of touch) but worded it thus: "Chizine seems to be rife with shady practices, and vile authors..."<br />
<br />
I called them out on this, suggesting this sounded like they were happy to lump all CZP authors in with this group, and was told I was "nit picking a badly worded phrase" and I should "excuse the phrasing."<br />
<br />
Oh, and that they had "never even heard of" me.<br />
<br />
Here's the thing. I had never heard of them, either, but that wasn't important. This is a big tent, unruly and bursting at the seams but always growing larger nonetheless, and we're not going to know everybody. But unless someone has done wrong by you or your compatriots, there is no need to shit on them.<br />
<br />
So for those few people who lived the tweets this review site wrote in response to me, I will remember. It's not a threat, nothing with meat on it, just self-preservation. If I ever do attend a con again and we find ourselves in the same space I will just walk away, cause no scene, just ghost. Because life is too short, you know?<br />
<br />
Late addendum: Here's a <a href="http://file770.com/as-authors-share-more-chizine-experiences-others-part-ways-with-czp/">link</a> that helps explain much of what has gone on.Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-41903158499528126612019-01-09T13:06:00.003-08:002019-01-09T13:07:59.911-08:00Books! We Have Books!I am weeding books in preparation for downsizing and am therefore tossing them up here first for sale (such as it is). I've divided them in science fiction/fantasy/horror (SF/F), regular fiction (F), non-fiction (NF), comic-related (C), and advance reader's copies (ARC).<br />
<br />
They're listed by category and then title, with the author name following, because I started that way and don't feel like backing up to fix it.<br />
<br />
I don't list condition. If that's an issue for you, let me know. If someone contacts me about a book and I notice something, I will let them know. A few books will be remainders, and I will note that when asked about the title.<br />
<br />
Hardcovers, $2 each, trade paperbacks $1 each, mass market 25 cents. Oversized books will depend on what it is, but some will be in that range. Buy 6 for the price of 5. If you don't live in Saskatoon we will discuss mailing costs, depending on how many you want and how you want them sent.<br />
<br />
Contact me at derrylm@gmail.com<br />
<br />
Also, the types of books are:<br />
<br />
HC - hardcover<br />
TP - trade paperback<br />
MM - mass market paperback<br />
OS - oversized<br />
<br />
SF<br />
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Throne of the Crescent Moon MM - Saladin Ahmed</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Company Town TP - Madeline Ashby</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The New Hugo Winners Vol II HC - ed. Isaac Asimov</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Ship Breaker HC - Paolo Bacigalupi</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Real Unreal: Best American Fantasy Vol. 3 TP - ed. Kevin Brockmeier</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Summerland HC - Michael Chabon</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Crank Autumn 1994 TP - ed. Bryan Cholfin</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Tesseracts 8 HC - ed. John Clute and Candas Jane Dorsey</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Invisible Library TP - Genevieve Cogman</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Tesseracts 15 TP - ed. Julie Czerneda and Susan MacGregor</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Silent HC - Jack Dann</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Vanishing Acts HC - ed. Ellen Datlow</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Adventures in Unhistory HC - Avram Davidson</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Strain MM - Guillermo De Toro and Chuck Hogan</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Valis TP - Philip K. Dick</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Steampunk Trilogy HC - Paul DiFilippo</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Word of God TP - Thomas M. Disch</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Vellum TP - Hal Duncan</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Again, Dangerous Visions 2 MM - ed Harlan Ellison</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Edgeworks 1: Over the Edge, An Edge in My Voice HC - Harlan Ellison</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Demon Redcoat MM - CC Finlay</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Patriot Witch MM - CC Finlay</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">A Spell For the Revolution MM - CC Finlay</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Graveyard Book HC - Neil Gaiman</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Ocean at the End of the Lane HC - Neil Gaiman</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Gravity Wells TP - James Alan Gardner</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Spook Country HC - William Gibson</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Road to Science Fiction 32 MM - James Gunn</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Bored of the Rings MM - Harvard Lampoon</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Starlight 2 HC - ed. Patrick Nielsen Hayden</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Guardian of the Dead TP - Karen Healey</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Fireman TP - Joe Hill</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Northern Frights 3 TP - ed. Don Hutchison</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Northern Frights 5 HC - ed. Don Hutchison</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Deepdrive HC - Alexander Jablokov</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Tesseracts 7 HC - ed. Paula Johanson and Jean-Louis Trudel</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book HC - Terry Jones and Brian Froud</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Sandman Slim MM - Richard Kadrey</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Moon and the Other HC - John Kessel</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Bag of Bones HC - Stephen King</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Outsider HC - Stephen King</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Under the Dome HC - Stephen King</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Logorrhea TP - ed John Klima</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Wind’s Twelve Quarters TP - Ursula K. Le Guin</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">North of Infinity TP - ed. Micheal Magnini</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Counting Heads HC - David Marusek</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Evolution’s Shore TP - Ian McDonald</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Mission Child HC - Maureen F. McHugh</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Nekropolis TP - Maureen F. McHugh</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Moon and the Sun HC - Vonda N. McIntyre</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Perdido Street Station TP - China Mieville</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Railsea TP - China Mieville</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Scar TP - China Mieville</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Nebula Awards 28 TP - ed. James Morrow</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Victory of Eagles HC - Victory of Eagles</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Who Fears Death TP - Nnedi Okorafor</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">On Spec magazine TP - #s 73, 76, 80-89, 91-94, 96-98, 101, 102, 104, 106, 108, 109</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Stress of Her Regard MM - Tim Powers</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Colour of Magic MM - Terry Pratchett</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Boneshaker TP - Cherie Priest</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Gold Coast: Three Californias TP - Kim Stanley Robinson</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Unconquered Countries HC - Geoff Ryman</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Was TP - Geoff Ryman</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Nebula Awards 29 HC - ed. Pamela Sargent</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Crossing the Line TP - ed. Robert J Sawyer and David Skene-Melvin</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Crook Factory HC - Dan Simmons</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Drood HC - Dan Simmons</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Lovedeath HC - Dan Simmons</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Terror TP - Dan Simmons</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Gray Lensman TP - EE “Doc” Smith</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Servants TP - Michael Marshall Smith</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Arkwright HC - Allen Steele</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Coyote MM - Allen Stele</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Spindrift MM - Allen Steele</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Distraction HC - Bruce Sterling</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Anathem HC - Neal Stephenson</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Cryptonomicon HC - Neal Stephenson</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Diamond Age HC - Neal Stephenson</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Photographing Fairies TP - Steve Szilagyi</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Defining Diana TP - Hayden Trenholm</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Deathless HC - Catherynne M. Valente</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Annihilation TP - Jeff Vandermeer</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Fast Ships, Black Sails TP - ed. Ann and Jeff Vandermeer</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Journey to the Centre of the Earth TP - Jules Verne</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Reluctant Voyagers HC - Elisabeth Vonarburg</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Farthing MM - Jo Walton</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Ha’Penny MM - Jo Walton</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Just City HC - Jo Walton<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Philosopher Kings HC - Jo Walton</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Spin HC - Robert Charles Wilson</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Who Censored Roger Rabbit? MM - Gary Wolf</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Home Fires HC - Gene Wolfe</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Soldier of Arete HC - Gene Wolfe</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Soldier of the Mist MM - Gene Wolfe</span></div>
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<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Nebula Awards 22 TP - ed. George Zebrowski</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">F</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Fool’s Progress: An Honest Novel TP - Edward Abbey</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Big Trouble HC - Dave Barry</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Further Adventures of Halley’s Comet TP - John Calvin Batchelor</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">A New Anthology of Canadian Literature in English TP - ed. Donna Bennett and Russell Brown</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller TP - Italo Calvino</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Time & the Hunter TP - Italo Calvino</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Bliss P - Peter Carey</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Murther & Walking Spirits HC - Robertson Davies</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Pady Clarke Ha Ha Ha HC - Roddy Doyle</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Woman Who Walked Into Doors HC - Roddy Doyle</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Stones HC - Timothy Findley</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Telling of Lies HC - Timothy Findley</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Five Canadian Plays TP</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Collector TP - John Fowles</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Cherry Blossoms TP - Wes Funk (signed, for some reason, to Angela</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Caleb Williams TP - William Godwin</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Swan Lake OS HC - Mark Helprin, ill. Chris Van Allsburg</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Blessing Way MM - Tony Hillerman</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Coyote Waits HC - Tony Hillerman</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Dance Hall of the Dead MM - Tony Hillerman</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Fallen Man HC - Tony Hillerman</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Finding Moon HC - Tony Hillerman</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Sacred Clowns HC - Tony Hillerman</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Round Rock TP - Michelle Huneven</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Ha-Ha TP - Dave King</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">No Great Mischief TP - Alistair MacLeod</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">News From a Foreign Country Came HC - Alberto Manguel</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Counterpoint TP - Marie Moser</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The River Beyond the World TP - Janet Peery</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">A Concert of Voices: An Anthology of World Writing in English TP - ed. Victor J. Ramraj</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Wide Sargasso Sea TP - Jean Rhys</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Beautiful Joe MM - Marshall Saunders</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Star Wars: The New Essential Guide to Alien Species TP</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Star Wars: The New Essential Chronology TP</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Star Wars: The New Essential Guide to Vehicles & Vessels TP</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Restoration HC - Rose Tremain</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Waiting For Columbus HC - Thomas Trofimuk</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Night of the Moonbow HC - Thomas Tryon</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Forest Laird MM - Jack Whyte</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Winters’ Tales TP - Jonathan Winters</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">A Man Jumps Ou of an Airplane Wearing Dad’s Head TP - Barry Yourgrau</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">NF</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Down the River TP - Edward Abbey</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Spoken Here TP - Mark Abley</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Life That Lives on Man MM - Michael Andrews</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Tomb of God HC - Richard Andrews and Paul Schellenberger</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Last River HC - Todd Balf</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">National Geographic Dinosaurs OS HC - Paul Barrett</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">On a Cold Road TP - Dave Bidini</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Tropic of Hockey TP - Dave Bidini</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Writing on Gordon Lightfoot HC - Dave Bidini</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Universe Below HC - William J Broad</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs TP - Steve Brusatte</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Scholastic Canada Book of Lists TP - ed. James Buckley, Jr. et al<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Day the Universe Changed TP - Jams Burke</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman? HC - Bent Corydon and L. Ron Hubbard, Jr.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">A Beginner’s Guider to Drawing Comic, Caricatures & Cartoon Strips TP - Peter Coupe</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Creative Source Sixth Annual Edition HC</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Toally Useless Skills TP - Rick Davis</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Greatest Show on Earth HC - Richard Dawkins</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Magic of Reality HC - Richard Dawkins ill. Dave McKean</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Roman Aromas: Smelly Old History TP - Mary Dobson</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Victorian Vapours: Smelly Old History TP - Mary Dobson</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">A Critical and Cultural Theory Reader TP - ed. Antony Easthope and Kate McGowan</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">More Joy of Photography TP - Eastman Kodak</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">In the Empire of Ice HC - Gretel Ehrlich</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Miner’s Canary HC - Niles Eldredge</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">An Edge in My Voice TP - Harlan Ellison</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Witchcraft Oracles and Magic Among the Azande TP - EE Evans-Pritchard</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Mysterious Monsters HC - Daniel Farson & Angus Hall</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Virtual Clearcut HC - Brian Fawcett</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Adventure of Nature Photography TP - Tim Fitzharris</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Bad Trips TP - Keath Fraser</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Fighting Fisherman HC - Raymond Fraser</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Gone to New York HC - Ian Frazier</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Hogs Wild HC - Ian Frazier</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Big New Yorker Book of Dogs OS HC - intro Malcolm Gladwell</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Tipping Point HC - Malcolm Gladwell</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Wait Till Next Year HC - William Goldman and Mike Lupica</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Panda’s Thumb MM - Stephen Jay Gould</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Victoria: A History in Photographs TP - Peter Grant</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Schrodinger’s Kittens and the Search for Reality HC - John Gribbin</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Marley and Me HC Illustrated edition - John Grogan</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The New Comics TP - ed. Gary Groth and Robert Fiore</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Worst Rock n’ Roll Records of All Time TP - Jimmy Gutterman & Owen O’Donnell</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Walking With Dinosaurs OS HC - Tim Haines</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Scottish Myths & Legends TP - Judy Hamilton</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Victorian and Edwardian Photographs HC - Margaret F. Harker</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Stigmata HC - Ted Harrison</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Paper Dinosaurs HC - David Hawcock</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Art of Color Photography TP - John Hedgecoe</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Going Too Far HC - Tony Hendra</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Mysteries of Magic HC - Stuart Holroyd & Neil Powell</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Alberta: A History in Photographs TP - Faye Holt</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Fatal Shore HC - Robert Hughes</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">On the Sky HC - Robert Hunter</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Talk Talk Talk HC - Jay Ingram</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Guinea Pig Diaries HC - AJ Jacobs</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Know-It-All TP - AJ Jacobs<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">To See Every Bird of Earth</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Flu HC - Gina Kolata</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Mapping the Deep TP - Robert Kunzig</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Cod TP - Mark Kurlansky</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Religion Inc. HC - Stewart Lamont</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Black Book of English Canada TP - Normand Lester</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Missionaries:God Against the Indians TP - Norman Lewis</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Golden Ratio TP - Mario Livio</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Rest in Pieces TP - Bess Lovejoy</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Operation Mincemeat TP - Ben MacIntyre</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Stolen Words TP - Thomas Mallon</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">A History of Reading HC - Alberto Manguel</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Measuring the Earth With a Stick HC - Bob McDonald</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">How to Photograph Sports & Action TP - Robert McQuilkin</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Mexico City: The Monocle Travel Guide HC</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Bare-Faced Messiah HC - Russell Miller</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Worldwalk MM - Steven M Newman</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period Vol. 2A 7th ed.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Daddy Cool TP - Hugh O’Neill</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Holidays in Hell HC - PJ O’Rourke</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Apocalypse Culture TP - ed. Adam Parfrey</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Red or Dead TP - David Peace</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Watch the Skies! HC - Curtis Peebles</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Diary of Samuel Pepys 1660 TP - Samuel Pepys</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Do Not Sell at Any Price TP - Amanda Petrusich</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The Best of Photojournalism/9 TP</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance MM - Robert M Pirsig</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Insect-Opedia HC - Hugh Raffles</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The Mask of Nostradamus HC - James Randi</span></div>
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<span class="s1">A Fire on the Mountains HC - Oakland Ross</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Imaginary Homelands HC - Salman Rushdie</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The 34-Ton Bat HC - Steve Rushin</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The Lemur’s Legacy HC - Robert Jay Russell, PH.D.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Paradox of Choice TP - Barry Schwartz</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">holidays on ice HC - David Sedaris</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The Nature Photographer’s Complete Guide to Professional Field Techniques TP - John Shaw</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Why People Believe Weird Things HC - Michael Shermer</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Galileo’s Daughter TP - Dava Sobel</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The Planets HC - Dava Sobel</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Unmasking the Forger: The Dossena Deception HC - David Sox</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Travels With Charley MM - John Steinbeck</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Britannia: 100 Documents That Shaped a Nation HC - Graham Stewart</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Light Elements TP - Judith Stone</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Great Divide HC - Studs Terkel</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Eats Shoots & Leaves HC - Lynne Truss</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Cat’s Pajamas TP - Tad Tuleja</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Perennial Gardening Guide TP - John M. Valleau</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Lafayette in the Somewhat United States - Sarah Vowell<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
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<span class="s1">Five Minute Challenge #1 TP - Ken Weber</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Consilience HC - Edward O. Wilson</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Pumping Ions TP - Tom Wujec</span></div>
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<span class="s1">C</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Classic Illustrated Through the Looking Glass TP - Kyle Baker</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Orbiter HC - Warren Ellis, Collen Doran, David Stewart</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Beowulf TP - based on the Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary screenplay</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Marvel 1602 TP - Neil Gaiman, Andy Kubert, Richard Isanove</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Great Expectations TP - Rick Geary</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Bayou Vol. 1 TP - Jeremy Love</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">In Your Face TP - Doug Marlette</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Mr. Gazoo TP - Tom Toles</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Doonesbury: The Original Yale Cartoons TP - Garry Trudeau</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Mage: The Hero Discoverd V-two OS TP - Matt Wagner</span></div>
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<span class="s1">The Raven and Other Poems TP - Gahan Wilson</span></div>
<br />Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-66169484066920326482018-12-31T22:03:00.000-08:002019-01-02T18:36:43.234-08:00The Movies of 2018<style type="text/css">
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<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">I did not see anywhere near the number of movies this past year I've seen in previous years. In 2017 I saw 74 movies, 34 on the big screen. In 2018, I only saw 61, 23 in the theatre. I will note I saw Lady Bird on January 1, but had included it in my 2017 list. The number of countries is down again, from 10 to 9. I have every intention of changing that up this coming year. As a reminder, I live in a city essentially in the middle of nowhere, so there are many films that come late, if they come at all.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The countries?</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">Australia</span></div>
France<br />
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">Indonesia</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">Israel</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">Mexico</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">Norway</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">South Korea</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">UK</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">USA</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">Here's the list. As in all my other yearly roundups, an asterisk (*) indicates I saw it in the theatre. I've included a short note with each, but caution I am not doing this as a critic.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>The Post</i> (2017) USA - A top notch Spielberg film, very timely not just for what it says about the press in the Trump age, but also how men are always shutting down and shutting out women, even as they pay no attention to this fact.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Kong: Skull Island</i> (2017) USA - Gloriously cheesy, and better fun than I would have imagined. Not a classic, but I did enjoy it.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Hitman’s Bodyguard </i>(2017) USA - Jackson and Reynolds play up the cliches about themselves, and it makes for some fun. I enjoyed it well enough; decent fodder for a plane ride, which is what it was.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>I Am Not Your Negro </i>(2016) USA - Outstanding documentary and I wish I had seen it earlier. Shocking to see how society has traveled pretty much no distance towards decency in all these years.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Icarus</i> (2017) USA - An excellent documentary that started with one conceit, about a bike rider who thought he would dope for a year and see if it improved his results, and ended with a huge story that (sorta) brought down Russian sports.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Hostiles</i> (2018) USA - Good western about troubled and troubling characters coming to terms with their pasts and about the humanity they might still be capable of, even in the face of the evil they’ve done in the past. But the ending breaks down, feels ridiculously colonialist and even patronizing.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Polka King</i> (2018) USA - Wow, is Jack Black ever great in this. Based on the true story of Jan Lewan, the self-styled Polka King, who ran a Ponzi scheme and ended up in jail. Some portions seem too outlandish to be true, and yet they were. Like his meeting the Pope.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore </i>(2017) USA - Excellent and strange thriller written and directed by Macon Blair, who starred in Blue Ruin. Kind of goes crazy with the violence at the end, in a way that had us laughing. I appreciated, too, that Ruth’s bad-assery at the end wasn’t about fighting but rather about finding inner strength.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Phantom Thread </i>(2017) USA - Outstanding, quiet, the sort of movie that was more common back in the ‘70s. No criminal escapades, no thrills, no explosions, just a beautiful and sometimes tense film about people and relationships.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Elle</i> (2016) France - Isabelle Huppert is outstanding and certainly earned her Oscar nod for this movie, but wow, what an odd and creepy movie, full of characters very difficult to like.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Ritual </i>(2018) UK - A decent horror film, well done at not going overboard on the reveal until close to the end. Yeah, the creature is a tad ridiculous, but well-handled, I thought.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Black Panther </i>(2018) USA - An excellent MCU movie, although, as I believe I have noted before, eventually there gets to be a sameness to all the CGI battle scenes. These are superheroes, dammit, and therefore have to be able to fling themselves about or fly or hurl the baddies through walls. But a tremendous story, one of the best bad guys the MCU has seen, and a wonderful cast.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Annihilation</i> (2018) USA - Very good version of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach novels. Dark and purposefully slow, thoughtful, gorgeous, and a wonderful soundscape. And the scene with the “bear” and the three of them tied up in the chairs was as effed-up creepy as possible.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Murder on the Orient Express </i>(2017) USA - Gorgeous and fun with the camera work, although I sometimes think the all-star cast was a bit wasted, since this was primarily the Kenneth Branagh show. Still, I enjoyed it.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble</i> (2015) USA - The opening sequence was an absolute thrill, and the rest of the film can’t keep up with that, but it was still an excellent documentary.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Zookeeper’s Wife</i> (2017) UK - A decent enough film, but I’m happy enough having seen it on a streaming service and not having paid extra to see it in the theatre.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Mudbound</i> (2017) USA - Excellent film about race, about conflict, and atmospheric as all get out.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>The Death of Stalin</i> (2017) UK - Hilarious and so very very dark. An awful lot to appreciate in this film, so it may be odd to single out the actors using their own accents, but I am going to do that anyhow.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Ant-Man and the Wasp</i> (2018) USA - Good fun, and it's nice for a superhero movie to work on a (pun intended) small scale, rather than end-of-the-world stuff.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Memoir of a Murderer </i>(2017) South Korea - Astonishing and dark film, full of disturbing twists and sowing plenty of confusion.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Avengers: Infinity War </i>(2018) USA - My favourite MCU film in quite some time, which is a surprise, considering how unwieldy it could have been. Said with the knowledge that it’s actually only part one, though, so incomplete.</span><br />
<span class="s1"><br /></span>
<span class="s1"><i>I, Tonya</i> (2017) USA - Both Robbie and Janney were excellent in this, and I find myself weirded out that Bucky from the Captain American films is in this. Nicely crazed, although I don't have to go digging for background facts to guess they pushed the envelope on the facts now and again. Enjoyable. </span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Molly’s Game</i> (2017) USA - Aaron Sorkin’s first directorial effort, and a pretty decent one at that. Plays at some times almost like a thriller.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Cargo</i> (2018) Australia - A very good and quite moving zombie movie. Nice to see Martin Freeman carrying a film like this.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Deadpool 2</i> (2018) USA - Funny and fun and, wonder of wonders, the fight and action scenes were largely secondary to the rest of the film. Better than the original, I thought.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Solo</i> (2018) USA - Better than I expected, but not anything approaching good. The wide shot in the dark room of the card-playing scene was absolutely gorgeous, though, the only thing that stands out for me. Certainly not going down as a classic.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>You Were Never Really Here </i>(2018) USA - An astonishing, gripping, slow and quiet thriller, disturbing and violent, but often at a remove.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Game Night </i>(2018) USA - One smart and very funny action/comedy, full of nice twists and turns and people by interesting and relatable (if often very odd) characters.</span><br />
<span class="s1"><br /></span>
<span class="s1">*<i>Mission: Impossible - Fallout </i>(2018) USA - Another excellent addition to the set, full of absurd and fun stunts and set pieces.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Hereditary</i> (2018) USA - Creepy as hell, upsetting and unsettling. I thought the ending went a little too over the top, but still an excellent horror.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Their Finest Hour </i>(2017) UK - A decent enough WW2-era film that mostly deals quite well with women’s rights, although it might stumble a bit with that near the end.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Sorry to Bother You</i> (2018) USA - An astonishing if somewhat raw debut film, full of wildness and weirdness. Bonus points for being a very strongly pro-union movie.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society </i>(2018) UK - Another WW2-era story, a nice enough froth to enjoy one evening.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>BlacKKKlansman</i> (2018) USA - Not nearly as funny as the trailers made it out to be, and that’s good. Not first-rate Spike Lee, but even his minor stuff is well worth seeing.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Juliet, Naked</i> (2018) UK - Another Nick Hornby adaptation, in this one Ethan Hawke continues his apparently Very Good Year. Not an instant classic like High Fidelity, but I would say it approaches About a Boy.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>All the Money in the World </i>(2017) USA - After having watched Danny Boyle’s excellent miniseries Trust, it seemed sensible to watch this movie, about the same events surrounding the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III. I know the series had a few more issues with veracity, but I enjoyed it a little more than this, which was still a good movie.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Angel</i> (2018) Israel - A fairly decent movie about an Egyptian, the son-in-law of President Nasser, who ended up as a mole for the Israelis.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Tag</i> (2018) USA - A fun comedy which, sadly, drops much of the actual true story in what i suppose is a sop to streamlining. Most remarkable for the fact that Jeremy Renner’s arms were broken during filming and they had to digitally erase the casts.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Murder Party </i>(2007) USA - Hilarious and VERY rough around the edges, the first feature from Jeremy Saulnier, financed largely by credit cards, his own and those of the cast (who were also the crew and producers).</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Hold the Dark </i>(2018) USA - As opposed to Murder Party, Jeremy Saulnier’s latest film is a fine work, sharp and well-made and extraordinarily violent. I don’t know if I buy the initial premise that brings Jeffrey Wright’s character to the north, but once he’s there it all works very well.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>First Man</i> (2018) USA - Riveting and astonishing, especially if seen on the IMAX screen. Ryan Gosling’s Neil Armstrong is a distant and cool character, but it still works. The launch and flight and landing scenes are all nerve-wracking, and when Armstrong and Aldrin land on the Moon and the screen expands to account for the IMAX film it is a thing of wonder.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i> (1968) USA - So glad to see this on the big screen in celebration of its 50th anniversary.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>22 July</i> (2018) Norway - The true story of the terror attack in Norway, and of its aftermath. Directed with his usual attention to real life detail and often using non-actors, Paul Greengrass (who did the same with United 93) created a gripping film that needs to be included in the discussion of the year in film but too often may be forgotten.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>The Old Man & The Gun </i>(2018) USA - A fine piece of work by Robert Redford and Sissy Spacek and Casey Affleck. Another true story, although again with many things changed. The meeting between Redford and Affleck was everything that the meeting between De Niro and Pacino in Heat was, although with more humour.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Night Comes For Us</i> (2018) Indonesia - Compared by many to the <i>Raid</i> movies, for a time it seems to be just a series of set pieces designed to one-up each other with violence. It gets better, but never matches the panache of the Gareth Evans-directed <i>Raid</i> and its sequel.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead </i>(2018) USA - An okay doc about Orson Welles and the making of <i>The Other Side of the Wind</i>, which only this year finally was patched up and released, on Netflix. And which I have yet to watch.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Apostle</i> (2018) USA - Speaking of Gareth Evans (<i>Raid</i>), his first big English-language film is a dark fantasy and, not surprisingly, pretty violent. Worth watching.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Ballad of Buster Scruggs </i>(2018) USA - As in almost every Coen Brothers film, there is not a lot (read: any) of diversity in the cast. Put that aside, though, because this is an incredible and very dark - yet fun - movie.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Widows</i> (2018) USA - A tremendous heist thriller with a great cast and a nice twist.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Isle of Dogs </i>(2018) USA - Wes Anderson has made better movies, but still enjoyable and loopy and fun.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Endless</i> (2017) USA - A simple low-budget SF movie about two brothers who return to a cult they once belonged to, for one last visit, and almost get stuck there forever. And ever.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Crazy Rich Asians </i>(2018) USA - Yes, it was as fun as everyone says, but I do find my tolerance for watching the plights of the super rich lessens as time goes on. Even though they seem to try and impart a similar lesson late in the film.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Rampage</i> (2018) USA - A big bag of dumb. Fun dumb, but still dumb.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Roma</i> (2018) Mexico - Glorious and gorgeous. There are four lengthy shots that still stand out in my mind: of the forest fire; the student riot; the hospital; and at the beach. The first time I saw it was on Netflix, and am happy to have seen it in the theatre when it was re-released. The sound design was amazing in the theatre, and seeing it the second time unearthed new things for me. A wonder of a film.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Bird Box</i> (2018) USA - An excellent horror/thriller that will receive comparisons to The Quiet Place, but really, it stands on its own and treats the problem with its own logic. A great cast backs up a very good Sandra Bullock, and I was certainly on the edge of my seat many times throughout.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Mary Poppins Returns</i> (2018) US - Outstanding. A great trip down memory lane, and the best Disney remake/sequel I’ve seen.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Calibre</i> (2018) UK - A terrific and tense Scottish thriller about a hunting trip gone wrong, a horrible accident accompanied by awful decisions leading to a horror that<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>affects a whole lot of people. Also, a haunting final shot that seems almost unrelenting.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*<i>Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse</i> (2018) USA - Not the best movie of the year, but man oh man, it was certainly the most enjoyable. Such a smart, clever, fun film, self-knowing and really on the ball about the character’s comic book, TV, and movie history.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Upgrade</i> (2018) Australia - A very good SF/action piece with an atypical ending. The acting by Logan Marshall-Green is excellent: scenes in which is body is doing one thing and his mind wants to do something else are tremendous, believable no matter how ridiculous they might seem.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Ready Player One</i> (2018) USA - Well, not as bad as many people have been saying, but certainly not anywhere near the top of Spielberg’s films. The only real highlight for me was Mark Rylance as Halliday. Yes, even the hair.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Won’t You Be My Neighbor?</i> (2018) USA - A fine but only moderately emotional documentary about Mr. Rogers. There was some depth to it, but sometimes it didn’t feel like quite enough. Perhaps when everyone talked about the emotional heft and all the tears I expected to react more strongly, and yet I didn’t.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">My Top 10 of the year was a little easier this time around, with the only question up until the end was if I included my 10th pick, since it was actually a 2017 film. In the end I decided it needed to be there, since it didn't come to town until 2018.</span><span class="s1"></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">1. <i>Roma</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">2. <i>The Ballad of Buster Scruggs</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">3. <i>Sorry to Bother You</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">4. Y<i>ou Were Never Really Here</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">5. <i>Annihilation</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">6. <i>Memoir of a Murderer</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">7. <i>Widows</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">8. <i>22 July</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">9. <i>The Old Man and the Gun</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">10. <i>The Death of Stalin</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Interestingly, I didn't see anything this year that made me angry. I suppose part of it is me getting too old to bother with obvious crap. My honourable mentions, mostly in order of when I saw them: <i>The Polka King</i>; <i>I Don't Feel At Home in This World Anymore</i>; <i>Phantom Thread</i> (would have been on the 2017 top ten if I'd seen it in time); </span><i>Mission: Impossible - Fallout; </i><i>Ant-Man and the Wasp; </i><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Black Panther</i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">; </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Mudbound</i><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">; </span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: initial;">Avengers: Infinity War; Game Night; Hereditary; BlacKKKlansman; Hold the Dark; First Man; Apostle; Isle of Dogs; Bird Box; Mary Poppins Returns; Calibre; Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse; Upgrade.</i></div>
Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-30443452844053974922018-02-17T17:38:00.000-08:002018-02-17T17:38:18.249-08:00Foreign Language FilmsI had a look at the movies I've watched over the past decade or so, and put together a list of the non-English titles I thought worth watching. Certainly some are better than others, not just in the way we normally think of movies but also in the level of filmmaking ability, as a couple approach amateurish. But they're still all good, at the very least, often excellent, sometimes capital-G Great.<br />
<br />
28 countries, not counting co-productions, which spreads the monetary pain in making these features. Weighted heavily towards South Korea, because I love me some excellent Korean cinema. And I haven't, speaking of Korea, included <i>Snowpiercer</i> on this list, since it is primarily English. I did, after some deliberation, include <i>Okja</i>, though. My house, my rules.<br />
<br />
I certainly see some gaping holes now that I've done this list, though, and will need to patch them.<span style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"> </span><br />
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span>
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span>
<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 14px;">Argentina:</span><br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Wild Tales</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span>Austria:</div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Goodnight Mommy</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p2">
Brazil:</div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Year My Parents Went on Vacation</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p2">
Canada:</div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Les affamés</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p2">
China:</div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Mermaid</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Kung Fu Hustle </i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Shaolin Soccer</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Ip Man</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Denmark:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Hunt</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Department Q</i> trilogy</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">France:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Intouchables</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Micmacs</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Tell No One</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>I’ve Loved You So Long</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Amélie</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Lost in Paris</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Elle</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Germany:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Lives of Others</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Lore</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The White Ribbon</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Holland:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Frankenstein’s Army</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Hungary:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">White God</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">India:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Lunchbox</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Indonesia:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Raid: Redemption</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Raid 2</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Look of Silence</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Iran:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>A Separation</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Offside</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Israel:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Zaytoun</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Band’s Visit</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Italy:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>I’m Not Scared</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Japan:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Jiro Dreams of Sushi</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>13 Assassins</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p2">
Mexico:</div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Desierto</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p2">
Morocco:</div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Horses of God</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Norway:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Headhunters</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Troll Hunter</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Poland:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Ida</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>In Darkness</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Russia:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Italian</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p2">
South Africa:</div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Tsotsi</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">South Korea:</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1"><i>Train to Busan</i></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1"><i>Pandora</i></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1"><i>The Tiger</i></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1"><i>My Love, Don’t Cross That River</i></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1"><i>The Villainess</i></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1"><i>Kundo: Age of the Rampant</i></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1"><i>A Hard Day</i></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1"><i>Oldboy</i></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1"><i>Mother</i></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1"><i>The Host</i></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1"><i>The Good the Bad the Weird</i></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1"><i>The Wailing</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1"><i>Okja</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p2">
Spain:</div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Orphanage</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Pan’s Labyrinth</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p2">
Sweden:</div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Force Majeure</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>We Are the Best!</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Let the Right One In</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo</i> trilogy</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>A Man Called Ove</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p2">
Thailand:</div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p2">
Turkey:</div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Mustang</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span>Vietnam:</div>
<div class="p1">
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><i>Owl and the Sparrow</i></span></div>
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</style>Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-78096287487849834982018-01-06T19:09:00.000-08:002018-01-07T10:43:13.746-08:00The Movies of 2017<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">I saw 78 movies last year, 34 of those on the big screen. Those numbers are up, which may be an indicator that both of my boys are grown and at university, with the younger one away from home. I have more time, even with Peak TV still being on us.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">On a downward trend was the countries of origin, down to 10 from 11, and a previous peak of 16. Something like 50 of the films were American, which is a tad frustrating. Less focus on blockbusters would probably correct some of this trend. The countries were:</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">Belgium</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">Canada</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">Denmark</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">France</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">Japan</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">Mexico</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">New Zealand</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">South Korea</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">UK</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">USA</span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">
<span class="s1">Anyhow, here's the list. Short descriptors and thoughts accompany each title, and an asterisk (*) shows which films were in the theatre. Keep in mind these aren't proper reviews. Most films are from 2016 and 2017, but the only reason a movie from 2016 would qualify for my top ten list would be if it was not released here until then. And remember, I'm not writing these blurbs as a critic; other people have written excellent reviews you can find if you're curious about any of these titles.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Hidden Figures (2016) USA - Tremendous film. In many ways it’s a standard biopic, but well-acted, with an appealing story that was important to tell, too long unknown.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Manchester By the Sea (2016) USA - Some outstanding performances, and told without attention paid to normal storytelling structures. It ends when it damn well wants to, there are few satisfactory resolutions. and characters drop in and out as they please. In other words, just like life. Too white, too male, perhaps, but still riveting and heartbreaking.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Train to Busan (2016) South Korea - An astonishing and thrilling zombie film, on of the best of that type I have ever seen. Absolute rush, with characters of great depth and surprise.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) USA - Crazed and violent and with a strange but nicely logical world. Odd for me to praise such a violent film as such, but this is gorgeous to watch.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Queen of Katwe (2016) USA - Lovely true story about a girl in Uganda who helps lift herself and her family from destitution thanks to her skill at chess. And such a great final credits sequence.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Twenty Feet From Stardom (2014) USA - Excellent doc about backup singers.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Our Kind of Traitor (2016) UK - A decent Le Carre spy thriller, but nothing extraordinary.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Legend of Tarzan (2016) UK - I didn’t dislike the movie, but even though it tries, it still can’t shake the colonialist background. Also, it tries too hard to behave like a superhero film a few times.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected World (2016) USA - A Werner Herzog documentary, and therefore much more interesting than one would imagine.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Get Out (2017) USA - Outstanding horror/thriller/race commentary.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Logan (2017) USA - A magnificent and moving superhero movie, dark and gritty and powerful.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Pete’s Dragon (2016) USA - Fun and light remake of the cartoon.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Paterson (2016) USA - I loved this movie. Peaceful and a gentle pace, full of poetry and where the most exciting scene, involving a gun, involves not a single shot. Beautiful.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Pandora (2016) South Korea - Exciting film about a disaster at a nuclear power plant. The Koreans can make a thriller like nobody’s business, and add features Hollywood can hardly ever manage to handle, or even think about.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Kill Command (2016) USA - A decent SF film, although not anything to make me sit upright.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Allied (2016) USA - Brad Pitt as a Canadian in a WW2 spy drama with Marion Cotillard. Decent, but again, nothing to write home about.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Cold in July (2014) USA - I’m sorry I missed this when it first came out. A very good revenge thriller.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*T2 Trainspotting (2017) UK - This was excellent, and I think at another time it might have made a bigger splash, but really, only the first one could truly capture the zeitgeist.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Department Q: The Keeper of Lost Causes (2013, 2016 in NA) Denmark - The first of three crime films (perhaps done for TV originally: I’m not sure). Good solid Scandinavian fare.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Personal Shopper (2017) France - An outstanding and disturbing ghost story, quiet and with a nice turn by Kristen Stewart.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Colossal (2017) USA - A wonderfully feminist movie, not willing to pull punches in showing us just how screwed up and unlikeable people can be and yet how you can still care for (some) of them. Anne Hathaway is tremendous in this.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) USA - A fun but noisy superhero film, second verse, same as the first.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Tickled (2016) New Zealand - A startling and unsettling documentary about, believe it or not, what purported to be the world of professional tickling. Really, this one gets dark very quickly.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Deepwater Horizon (2016) USA - Effective enough. About what you would expect from a Peter Berg film starring Mark Wahlberg. Lots of macho but emotional heroics.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Desierto (2015) Mexico - A very good thriller, about Trump’s America before Trump. Jeffrey Dean Morgan and his dog hunt Mexican immigrants for sport.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Get Me Roger Stone (2017) USA - A documentary about one of the worst people in America. It was good, but I’m still having trouble processing whether or not it was worth watching, as he is such a horrible man.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Boy and the Beast (2015) Japan -<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>A good but not great anime about an orphan boy who finds himself in another world and apprenticed to a beast with a temper.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Tiger (2015) South Korea - Excellent film about an old Korean who helps in a tiger hunt under the Japanese occupation. Highly recommended.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Department Q: The Absent One (2014) Denmark - Another in the very good Danish police series of films.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Wonder Woman (2017) USA - The best of what is admittedly a mediocre string of DC superhero movies. Overall very good, but I have to admit the ongoing carnage is beginning to lose me, and the big set piece at the end was also something of a letdown.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Department Q: A Conspiracy of Faith (2016) Denmark - The 3rd and, I believe, last of the Department Q films. The trauma the lead has suffered throughout this and how he deals with it is quite affecting.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*It Comes at Night (2017) USA - An excellent and disturbing<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>kinda-horror starring Joel Edgerton, who as of late has been ending up in a lot of movies I like.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Catfight (2016) USA - A fine dark comedy that takes a very dim view of human nature.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Birth of a Family (2017) Canada - A moving documentary about a family of four First Nations children who were sent away from their mother by the government and did not find each other again until they were adults. The camera tags along on a reunion trip as they get to know each other.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Girl With All the Gifts (2016) UK - A zombie movie with a difference is going to start to sound tiresome, especially since this is one of at least three I saw and enjoyed in 2017, but this was, and it worked.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Baby Driver (2017) USA - If this was nothing but style it would be a successful venture, but Baby as a character is a winner. Tremendous film.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Okja (2017) South Korea - An excellent Netflix original full of great adventure and ethical questions. Although I will say Tilda Swinton is leaning more and more to over the top roles as time goes on.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Dunkirk IMAX (2017) UK - Seeing this on IMAX was a smart decision. A gorgeous film to see in that format, thrilling, and with a tremendous use of time.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Logan Lucky (2017) USA - One of the funniest movies of the year, a great cast that does not go wasted, and director Soderbergh again shows how well he can pace a caper flick.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Lost in Paris (2017) Belgium - A funny and odd duck of a movie that might put a few people off, I suspect. In English and French, so you don’t always have to deal with subtitles. Something of an homage to silent film comedies, with plenty of slapstick and situational humour.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Megan Leavey (2017) USA - About what you would expect for a fact-based film about a woman who gets her life together by joining the military and becoming a dog handler then fighting to bring that dog back from Afghanistan.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Candidate (2010) USA - An all right short film from DUST, and you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FzdrPRmCLQ</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*The Trip to Spain (2017) UK - If you’re seen the other two films, you’ve seen this one, and if you’ve enjoyed the other two you will enjoy this one. By this point, though, these movies are just comfortable trips with a couple of friends, and the antagonisms and and plot points are just minor contrivances to remind us this is marginally fictional. Still, I have fun with the interactions between Coogan and Brydon.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">My Love, Don’t Cross That River (2014) South Korea - A sad and beautiful movie about the last few months together for a Korean couple after 76 years of marriage.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Rules Don’t Apply (2016) USA - Warren Beatty does well to make this movie (which he directs and plays Howard Hughes) not about him. A decent comedy.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Awakening (2011) UK - A decent horror film, the type with a surprise but not with blood and guts.</span><br />
<span class="s1"><br /></span>
<span class="s1">*It (2017) USA - An excellent horror that in many ways felt like a Spielberg film. And the clown was, to me, horrifying. And I'm not afraid of clowns.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Lost City of Z (2016) UK - Slow moving but excellent fact-based film, and I have to say I am really enjoying seeing the roles Robert Pattinson is picking for himself after the Twilight movies.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) USA - Quite mediocre, really offering much of the worst superhero movies are capable of.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Blade Runner 2049 (2017) USA - As close as any SF movie (barring one that was clearly allegorical) came to making my top ten of the year (and I’m still vacillating on that as I write this). Gorgeous, a tremendous set of relationships, and some stunning world building.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">1922 (2017) USA - A very good Stephen King adaptation, released on Netflix.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Cameraperson (2016) USA - A convoluted and impressive documentary about Kirsten Johnson, interweaving many of her own documentary subjects with footage of her own life shot by herself.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Split (2016) USA - In a perfect world James McAvoy would see an Oscar nod for his multiple parts in this almost-return-to-form for M. Night Shyamalan. And the delight I felt at the end is no surprise considering my love for one of Shyamalan’s earlier movies.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Lucky (2017) USA - A wonderful, moving, fitting sendoff for the late and great Harry Dean Stanton, a movie that is entirely about death but one in which nobody dies (not even President Truman, David Lynch’s escaped tortoise).</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The Big Sick (2017) USA - An excellent comedy in which one of he main characters lies near death for much of the film.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*The Florida Project (2017) USA - My choice for film of the year. Human and humane, heart-breaking and heart-lifting, with incredible performances by a very young Brooklynn Prince, by (believe it or not) Instagram star Bria Vinaite, and by Willem Dafoe as the nicest motel manager ever. The stunning final shot was captured on the sly using an iPhone.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">A Monster Calls (2016) UK - AN all right YA novel adaptation in which Sigourney Weaver, presumably to attract American investment, plays an English grandmother. Nice ending.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">War For the Planet of the Apes (2017) USA - Yes, I liked it, but no, I’m not as big a fan of this series as others are. Andy Serkis and the mocap crew he works with do an incredible job, but it’s not in my wheelhouse, I guess.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Thor: Ragnarok (2017) USA - AS Taika Waititi is one of my favourite directors, the chances were good I would like this movie. That was wrong, though: turns out I loved it. Great, geeky comic book fun.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World (2017) USA - A very good documentary about native Americans and Canadians who led the way into rock and other popular music. Although not rap, which means there was nothing about groups like A Tribe Called Red.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Free Fire (2016) UK - Ridiculously violent and an absolute blast. The movie is essentially a two hour long fire fight.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Tragedy Girls (2017) USA - Two girls addicted to getting attention on social media kidnap a serial killer and then begin to copy his crimes. A funny and clever conceit, done well enough, but perhaps with the distance of age it becomes more difficult for me to fall in more deeply.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*My Friend Dahmer (2017) USA - Excellent movie, based on a rue life comic book, about three friends who “befriended” serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer when they were in high school. Disturbing, with excellent turns by Anne Heche as his mother and by Ross Lynch, who seems to have been only in teen and Disney projects before, as Dahmer.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*The Villainess (2017) South Korea - There were two woman-as-unstoppable-weapon movies this year, and this one easily outstrips Atomic Blonde. It opens with a 1st-person camera view that is wild and bloody, which switches to 3rd-person in a way that took my breath away.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Dave Made a Maze (2017) USA - Great fun, a movie about a bored artist who builds a maze from empty cardboard boxes in his living room one weekend while his wife is away, and gets lost in it. She goes in with a search party and camera crew to find him, and yes, it is as surreal as it sounds.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Blade of the Immortal (2017) Japan - The 100th film from Takeshi Miike, I found it a little aggravating in some places. I felt especially that the young girl was wasted and left hanging.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Les affamés (2017) Canada - A Quebecois zombie movie, obviously done on the cheap but also done very effectively. As well, some of the things the zombies do are not only creepy but fresh, which added to my enjoyment.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Patriot’s Day (2016) USA - Another Peter Berg hagiography, another one where he teams up with Mark Wahlberg. There’s a formula here, and it’s effective.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">I,Daniel Blake (2016) UK - A moving, frustrating, sad, happy film from great British filmmaker Ken Loach, about an older man trying to navigate the system after a heart attack means he can’t work anymore.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) USA - Stunning and upsetting, not the comedy the trailers initially made this out to be. Some moments of rage, some moments of absolute humanity, and what looks like a cheat near the end turning into a powerful ending.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Wind River (2017) USA - Would make an interesting companion piece to Thunderheart (both films also feature Graham Greene as a local, native, police officer). This one does, I think, a slightly better job of avoiding the White Saviour fallback, and is in fact a very good and tense film.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Atomic Blonde (2017) USA - A decent movie with some great action sequences and a nice couple of plot turns, but see my notes earlier about The Villainess.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Supergirl (2016) USA - A fine doc about a young Orthodox Jewish girl who is also an excellent weightlifter.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Star Wars (2017) USA - I enjoyed it, but was not as taken with it as so many others.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Frankly, I think Rose and Fin were given short shrift and Poe was too irritating and hot-headed. And that slow motion chase scene! And that planet with the gamblers! Ugh.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">!The Shape of Water (2017) USA - Stunning. Gorgeous. And what a cast. Yeah, Michael Shannon was more of a pantomime villain, but it didn’t stop me from falling in love with this movie. Also, Sally Hawkins is The Bomb.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Coco (2017) USA - When I watched Up I cried in the first ten minutes. This one I cried for the last ten. Another excellent Pixar film.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Detroit (2017) USA - While I am sure some parts were dramatized a bit more than where reality pointed, I was astonished and appalled to read up on this later and see just how much of his movie was based on actual events.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">*Lady Bird (2017) USA - Loved this movie, and it is another of several this year that found just the very right beat to end on.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span>My top ten for the year was difficult, and titles bumped around and in and out a few times. The only for sure choice was the number 1 position, and the top 4 stayed steady, although may have changed positions with each other now and again. Everything else saw some bigger movement.</div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<ol class="ol1">
<li class="li1"><span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">The Florida Project</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">The Shape of Water</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Get Out</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Lady Bird</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Paterson</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Baby Driver</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Logan</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1" style="font-size: large;">Train to Busan</span></li>
<li class="li1"><span class="s1" style="font-size: large;"> (Tie) Lucky/Colossal</span></li>
</ol>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">My honourable mentions, in no particular order: Blade Runner 2049; Into the Night; Thor: Ragnarok; I, Daniel Blake (which was 2016); Wind River; Les affamés; It; The Villainess; My Friend Dahmer; The Big Sick; Logan Lucky; Okja; Dunkirk; Pandora; Coco; Personal Shopper.</span></div>
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Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-87899566957019369842017-12-20T21:07:00.002-08:002017-12-20T21:07:13.703-08:00Ads at the MoviesI wrote a series of Tweets about my recent adventures in the movie theatre, but Tweetdeck made a hash of threading, so I am gathering them here in order for the sake of posterity. I'm @derrylm in case you choose to find me there:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;">8 or 9 ads before THE LAST JEDI. I turned to my son and said “Soon we’ll be seeing 3D ads.” Put on our glasses and watch THREE 3D ads. Fuck you, </span><a class="link-complex" data-user-name="CineplexMovies" href="https://twitter.com/CineplexMovies/" rel="user" style="color: #2b7bb9; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">@<span class="link-complex-target">CineplexMovies</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"> . </span><a class="link-complex" href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23MagicLantern" rel="hashtag" style="color: #2b7bb9; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank"><span class="hash">#</span><span class="link-complex-target">MagicLantern</span></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is opening here soon and if they have fewer ads they’ll get my money.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">My wife and I saw THREE BILLBOARDS a couple weeks ago, same nonsense. An adult audience, some who maybe don’t go to movies that often, forced to watch almost 20 minutes in ads.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">Why do I even bother? I have a big screen at home, I sure as hell don’t need 3D (paid for it so I could reserve a seat), and in most cases I can wait to see a movie, thank you very much.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">The evening for me and my son, including snacks, cost about $70. For the privilege of watching unending ads. The same goddamn ads that have been running before movies for weeks or even months.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">When this bullshit first started I actually convinced a theatre full (well, partly full) of people to stand and face away from the screen until the ads were done. But we’re sheep, and it’s unlikely I could do that again.</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">I do have two small rep cinemas here in town. Both play the odd ad, but not the obnoxious onslaught. I don’t need to see the processed cheese I saw tonight, not first-run anyhow. I should be paying my money to see the smaller films.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">And I do! THE FLORIDA PROJECT, PATERSON (starring Kylo Ren!), DAVE MADE A MAZE, THE VILLAINESS, LUCKY, PERSONAL SHOPPER and more were all excellent films seen on those screens. So much less stress, so much more interesting cinema.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #292f33; font-family: HelveticaNeue, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-size-adjust: auto; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;">Anyhow, that’s all. I know I won’t get any satisfaction, and there will be times when I am still forced to attend a film in the </span><a class="link-complex" href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Cineplex" rel="hashtag" style="color: #2b7bb9; text-decoration-line: none; text-size-adjust: auto;" target="_blank"><span class="hash">#</span><span class="link-complex-target">Cineplex</span></a><span style="text-size-adjust: auto;"> commercial hellhole. But those times will be much fewer.</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-6655477675265684462017-03-27T17:34:00.000-07:002017-03-27T17:34:16.598-07:00Saskatchewan, the Sask Party government, the City of Saskatoon, and LibrariesHere is the letter, with links, that I sent yesterday to Premier Brad Wall, Minister Don Morgan, and my MLA Eric Olauson. I have added a couple of things as a postscript at the end:<br />
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Dear Premier Wall, Minister Morgan, Mr. Olauson,</div>
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First, please let me quote Minister Morgan from the news the other night: "With the internet, people are using E-readers - they're not going to the library to buy a book; they're getting it online. A lot of libraries that they belong to give them some free e-books as well, so I think that is the future of libraries across North America."</div>
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This is so insanely wrong-headed, so completely against the facts and research, that I can't help but wonder if this was a last minute decision to make it look like you all are tough on big spending. A last minute decision done without any actual research of your own.</div>
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Libraries these days are far more than places to borrow books. They are important to people without the resources to buy books, yes (incidentally, Minister Morgan, you <i>borrow</i> books from a library. You don't buy them), and interestingly, the people without the money to be able to purchase books are very often the people who also don't have the money to buy e-readers. These same people are also often the ones who don't have a computer at home and use library computers for school research, for replying to emails, for filling out job applications, and more. Libraries also host community functions, improve digital literacy, and are in general an important centerpiece for the community. Especially for people who are from a lower socio-economic situation than any of you or of me. Which also brings to mind people who are homeless, or near as such, who often use libraries for shelter of a sort. Some libraries, like Edmonton's main branch, even have social workers on hand to help clients such as that: Edmonton is a fine example of a city that invests in its libraries in order for them to maintain their relevance, rather than writing them off due to out of date early 20th century thinking.</div>
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I'm linking to a couple of things about public libraries, and while I fear that your lack of attention to detail regarding your initial decision means you're going to just gloss them over, I would encourage you to have a closer look. Libraries are an important locus for the community, be it a large city or a small town. It encourages literacy and is there as an important resource for all citizens. I ask you to reconsider this wrong-headed and destructive decision.</div>
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<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/15/neil-gaiman-future-libraries-reading-daydreaming">Neil Gaiman on libraries</a></div>
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<a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/09/15/libraries-at-the-crossroads/">Pew Research Center on libraries</a></div>
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<a href="http://martinprosperity.org/media/TPL%20Economic%20Impact_Dec2013_LR_FINAL.pdf">Economic Impact of the Toronto Public Library on the City of Toronto</a></div>
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Postscript: The cut for libraries in the province's cities is 100%. No more funding. Now, I don't want to let city hall off the hook, which is why I have included them in the header at the top. The main branch downtown is a decrepit concrete monstrosity, left behind in an age when a lot of cities have been doing important and interesting things with their central libraries. But it's still there, still important to the community, and deserves better.</div>
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I'm also adding this link about the f<a href="http://cfla-fcab.ca/en/advocacy/canadas-library-community-embraces-digital-accessibility-cultural-infrastructure-and-indigenous-language-supports-in-budget-2017/">ederal budget and libraries</a>, supplied to me by my wife, an academic librarian.</div>
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People in Saskatchewan, please take the time to <a href="http://www.legassembly.sk.ca/mlas/">contact your MLA,</a> the premier, and Minister Morgan. They've done a lot of ugly things with this budget, but for me this one stands out.</div>
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Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-47247722503778017732016-12-30T20:22:00.000-08:002017-01-02T18:09:01.382-08:00The Movies of 2016I saw 70 movies this year. As usual, the majority of them were from the comfort of my couch, but I’m pleased to note I did get out to see 25 of those on the big screen, down from 30 last year. As with previous years, movies I saw in the cinema are marked with an asterisk (*).<br />
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Also in keeping with previous years, if I saw a movie from 2016 that I know I would not have been able to see in 2015, I include it in my estimation of my favourite films of the year. Movies from 2014 and before do not receive that consideration, although I still list them here. Obviously, the only movies listed are ones I saw for the first time. Just because I’m happy to go back to the well with, say, Casablanca or Last of the Mohicans, doesn’t mean I need to mention them here.<br />
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There were lots of outstanding television shows this year, which also cut into my movie watching time. But I did see more this year than last, which is a good thing. It’s unfortunate that American films were so prevalent for me this year, but part of that was just availability as well as timing. Here’s the breakdown for that:<br />
<br />
Countries<br />
<br />
Canada - 2<br />
China - 3<br />
Hungary - 1<br />
Indonesia - 1<br />
Ireland - 2 <br />
New Zealand - 2<br />
South Korea - 2<br />
Thailand - 1<br />
Turkey - 1<br />
UK - 8<br />
USA - 47<br />
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Eleven countries. This is not a good trend. Last year I also saw films from 11 countries, and in 2014 from 16 countries. There were no Iranian films this year, none from Japan, from any South American countries, from Australia, from France, or Spain, or Germany, or Russia, or anywhere in Scandinavia. This is a shame, and I will have to make an effort to fix this. Some from these countries are already on my horizon, so I’m hopeful for 2017.<br />
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Anyhow, on to what I saw this year, accompanied by a brief note about the film. Keep in mind I’m not engaging in film criticism here; I already have enough writing on my plate without getting into more than the already overload of extra time involved in just putting together this list.<br />
<br />
*The Revenant (2015) USA - Better, again, than a lot of my friends thought (looking back to last year and Hateful Eight). I appreciated it a lot more for the quieter scenes, though, rather than things like the bear attack.<br />
<br />
Band of Robbers (2015) USA - A fine bit of fan fiction about Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn as adults in the here and now. Clever and funny and loopy.<br />
<br />
Sicario (2015) USA - Would have been on my top ten from last year if I’d seen it then. Outstanding look at the ethical dilemmas of the war on drugs.<br />
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*Hail, Caesar (2016) USA - Funny and rousing and dark, not the light Coen Brothers movie so many people thought it was.<br />
<br />
Room (2015) Canada - Powerful, and one of the few times in my life I’ve felt a movie lived up to every aspect of the book.<br />
<br />
*The Lady in the Van (2015) UK - This could have gone so wrong, been one of those clever movies with a goofy character, but no, instead it was a smart meditation on how we treat others, how you don’t have to actually like someone to give them respect.<br />
<br />
Finders Keepers (2015) USA - Bonkers documentary populated with people who should not be in real life, should instead be in a Coen Brothers movie.<br />
<br />
*10 Cloverfield Lane (2016) USA - A pretty decent thriller that nicely ramps up the tension until a rather ridiculous ending. John Goodman is outstanding.<br />
<br />
Brooklyn (2015) UK - A nice love story and period piece, quiet and thoughtful.<br />
<br />
*Eye in the Sky (2015) UK - Terrific movie about the moral quandaries of war and the use of drones. Not loud and obnoxious, but rather filled with quiet, dread-filled moments.<br />
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Hush (2016) USA - A terrific thriller/horror about a deaf and mute woman living in the woods and having to fight off a very nasty stranger.<br />
<br />
*The Jungle Book (2016) USA - Wonderful, and a rare movie that’s worth seeing in 3D. Some tremendous voice casting, the kid who plays Mowgli is outstanding, and Favreau does a fine job telling the story. Also, the CF effects are eye popping.<br />
<br />
Beeba Boys (2015) Canada - A decent gangster movie about IndoCanadian gangs and crime. Not perfect acting, but enjoyable. And the primary colours at the start were stupendous.<br />
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*Everybody Wants Some (2016) USA - Hilarious, and a wave of nostalgia that hit me like a tsunami. Even better, as much as this movie is about young and horny men, we did not detect misogyny, nor anything rapey. This was a movie involving mutual consent, a fine line to walk.<br />
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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2016) China - Doesn’t hold a patch to the first movie. The stunts and wire work are frenetic, not graceful, there is too much CGI, the bad guy over the top.<br />
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The Irish Pub (2013) Ireland - A quite lovely documentary about, well, Irish pubs. The characters who run the pubs make this well worth seeing.<br />
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Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) Thailand - Uncle Boonmee is dying and spending his last days with family, and is visited by the ghost of his dead wife and his long lost son, who is now in the form of something similar to Bigfoot. With glowing eyes. Not an easy movie to explain, and probably not easy to digest for people used to a steady diet of Hollywood storytelling. But still, a wonder.<br />
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White God (2014) Hungary - A marvelous and disturbing film, a strange fantasy about what goes wrong when we turn on our best friend.<br />
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*Captain America: Civil War (2016) USA - Probably the best Marvel movie, especially in the quiet spy movie moments, rather than the action-adventure spy movie moments.<br />
<br />
The Witch (2015) USA - Man, did this movie ever freak me out. A fine horror film with a whole lot of veracity in its historical detail.<br />
<br />
*The Nice Guys (2016) USA - Very funny movie, a slightly more sour (and yet sweet) Rockford Files for grown-ups.<br />
<br />
The Champions (2016) USA - A moving doc about Michael Vick’s fighting dogs and what happened to them after.<br />
<br />
Mustang (2015) Turkey - This is a beautiful film, the story of the irrepressibility of a group of sisters and how society and family contrive to beat them down, steal their independence and strength, and how while some can be taken, never all.<br />
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The Good Dinosaur (2015) USA - Perhaps a trifle from Pixar, but still an excellent trifle.<br />
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The Mermaid (Mei ren yu) (2016) China - Another Stephen Chow film, who I believe is one of the funniest filmmakers working today. But this film takes his bizarre non-linear thinking and storytelling to lengths his previous films have not. And yet I still was in tears time and again, laughing harder than I have since, well, since Chow’s last film.<br />
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*Finding Dory (2016) USA - Fun, and while a little superfluous at the beginning, the new characters who come in partway through make it special.<br />
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Blackhat (2015) USA - Michael Mann may not always make a good movie, but he will always make a good looking movie.<br />
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Midnight Special (2016) USA - By the same director who made the excellent Mud, this was the second-best SF movie of the year, with an as-usual great performance from Michael Shannon and another from Joel Edgerton as a friend who has committed himself as deeply as possible.<br />
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The Look of Silence (2014) Indonesia - I can’t believe it took me this long to see this disturbing, deeply unhappy documentary about the killings in the Communist purge in 1965 Indonesia. And of course, I’m doing it backwards, since I now need to see The Act of Killing, done by the same people and about the same topic, two years earlier.<br />
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*Raiders! The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made (2016) USA - I read the book when it came out and was so pleased they turned this into a movie. Three boys, sometimes two, did a shot for shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark over the space of many years, a labour of love that saw them grow into adults before it was finished. Such a great story, and a very enjoyable film.<br />
<br />
*Ghostbusters (2016) USA - I had fun, and was pleased with the decision to remake this with female leads, but wish they had taken the time to do something a little more original, something with a fresher storyline.<br />
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People Places Things (2016) USA - A romance that doesn’t pander, a lead with a fun and fine sense of humour, appreciated by his (gorgeous, delightful, delighted) twin daughters, and relationships that are real, complicated, worth delving into.<br />
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*Hunt For the Wilderpeople (2016) NZ - One of my favourite movies of the year, deep and sad and happy and funny and silly. Taika Waititi just keeps getting better and better, and this film made me happy in so many ways.<br />
<br />
The Finest Hours (2016) USA - A fairly decent movie, based on a true story, of lives saved by undermanned Coast Guard in the 1950s.. It hits all the beats, is a feel-good film, but of course feels formulaic.<br />
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*Star Trek Beyond (2016) USA - I enjoyed some of this, which is a huge step up over the last Trek movie. So it’s good news I’m not getting angry just thinking about it right now.<br />
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In the Heart of the Sea (2015) USA - Another fairly decent movie, based on a true story, that hits all the beats and has good performances. But as with all Ron Howard movies, it has a basic stodginess to it, Hollywood at its most Hollywood-like.<br />
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Jurassic World (2015) USA - Blah. I had such high hopes, seeing how the raptors were trained, but it didn’t work out so well. So-so.<br />
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Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (2015) USA - I thought this series started off fairly well, but, while I thought the last book was a mediocre mishmash, this is more of a disaster. Ick.<br />
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*Florence Foster Jenkins (2016) UK - Like many biopics, this takes liberties with some of the story, changes things up, narrows the story to make it flow a bit better. But it’s great fun, Streep is incredible as the title character, High Grant is better than I’ve seen him in many years, and there is a moving, if unconventional, love story here. <br />
<br />
The Lobster (2016) UK - The coldness and distance the characters can be a bit off-putting, but this is a remarkable movie, with a bizarre conceit that says a lot about individuality, about love and about relationships.<br />
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Sing Street (2016) Ireland - Delightful, from the director of Once. The story of a boy in ‘80s Ireland who gets sent to a rough and tough religious boys’ school, meets a girl, and decides to impress her by starting a band. Even though he’s not a musician. I would say one of my favourite things about this is the trip the viewer takes through different fashions and styles related to the music of the era, but that would give short shrift to the brilliant characters. <br />
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*Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) USA - My favourite animated film of the year. This was glorious and absolutely beautiful.<br />
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*Hell or High Water (2016) USA - There’s a lot of beauty in the aching destruction of a livelihood and the loss that inhabits this film. Couple that with intelligent directing and some magnificent performances and you have one of the best films of the year.<br />
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Boy (2010) New Zealand - Taika Waititi is fast becoming one of my favourite directors, and I’m so pleased I was finally able to see this, the movie where he really started to make him name as a feature film director.<br />
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Life, Animated (2016) USA - A tremendous and moving documentary about a young man with autism who learns to connect and communicate with the world via Disney animated films.<br />
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Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) USA - All I can say is I’m glad I saw this while on a flight. Man, what a dog.<br />
<br />
*Dr. Strange (2016) USA - An enjoyable MCU movie, as most of them have been. I will note that it rises above most strictly based on the fight going forwards in time while the world goes backwards around them. Very well done, very smart.<br />
<br />
London Has Fallen (2016) USA - We only watched this because a high school classmate of my wife plays the Canadian Prime Minister. He dies early, which doesn’t explain why we watched all the way through. I guess because even a mediocre movie is hard to shut off.<br />
<br />
*Arrival (2016) USA - One of the two best SF movies of this century (the other being Children of Men, natch), and a moving story about the sacrifices we make for the ones we love. In this case, even when we know where those sacrifices will lead.<br />
<br />
Underfire: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro (2016) USA - An excellent little documentary about a WW2 soldier who brought a camera with him to war, and was given permission to use it, and the access non-military photographers were not afforded.<br />
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Anthropoid (2016) (UK) - Equal parts every day war thriller and thrilling assassination plot film. The final sequence is as tense as anything you will see.<br />
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Sea Fog (2014) South Korea - As with pretty much all South Korean films, you’re bound to be fooled if you think this is going somewhere conventional. An outstanding and, unsurprisingly, upsetting thriller.<br />
<br />
*Fantastic Beasts and Where to FInd Them (2016) UK - Meh. I enjoyed some aspects, but never felt the magic of even the most mediocre Harry Potter film.<br />
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FInding Vivian Maier (2013) USA - Another excellent documentary, of finding 100,000 or more photographs taken by an insular nanny who had shot amazing street photography her whole life.<br />
<br />
*Moonlight (2016) USA - The best film of the year is also one of the quietest. A wonderful meditation on sexuality and identity, on family and friendship, and such a beautiful film, too.<br />
<br />
Best of Enemies: Buckley vs. Vidal (2015) USA - A good documentary about the TV debates between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley, Jr. An intriguing glance back at a time many of us forget about.<br />
<br />
Sour Grapes (2016) USA - Interesting documentary about a scam involving high-priced wines going for auction, sometimes for millions of dollars.<br />
<br />
A Grand Night In: The Story of Aardman (2015) UK - A decent documentary about Aardman Animation, home of Wallace and Grommet.<br />
<br />
The Wailing (2016) South Korea - A sprawling, strange film that starts as one thing and becomes something else, with plenty of stops in between. But in the end, a very satisfying and thrilling horror movie. As with pretty much all excellent Korean films, you’re never completely sure where you’re at.<br />
<br />
Spectral (2016) USA - Famously shelved by the studio and picked up by Netflix, this Aliens ripoff/homage is actually not too bad, although the character development of the grunts is just about nonexistent. But still tense and exciting and enjoyable.<br />
<br />
Ip Man (2008) China - I don’t know why it took me so long to watch this martial arts biopic, but I do know I will soon watch the sequels.<br />
<br />
For the Love of Spock (2016) USA - A decent documentary about the life of Leonard Nimoy, by his son.<br />
<br />
*Rogue One (2016) USA - A better Star Wars films than any we’ve seen in many years. And I appreciated the unremitting bleakness of things, even with the frequent leavening of humour. I did not, however, appreciate the two CGI characters; frankly, it would have been better to see them as different actors.<br />
<br />
*Loving (2016) USA - The best of the two Jeff Nichols films of the year. There is a quiet moment, one line spoken by Joel Edgerton’s character in response to a question by his lawyer, that is the most emotional and most devastating line spoken in movies this year. The sequence that follows, images laid over top of the presentation to the Supreme Court, include a remarkable moment involving a rope being tossed over a tree branch that made me gasp in fear, and then smile with delight.<br />
<br />
Magnificent Seven (2016) USA - A decent remake. The think I liked the best was the fact it was all people of colour (plus the woman) who survived at the end. I also liked that this wasn’t a gore fest, even though there were a lot of deaths.<br />
<br />
Money Monster (2016) USA - An okay film that tries to be more than it really is, I think. A message movie with a conventional plot and predictable twist, plus a George Clooney performance that was dissatisfying.<br />
<br />
*Fences (2016) USA - Tremendous performances, and very moving. My only qualm was that this felt stagey, given to us not far off from is origins as a stage production. There is a verbosity to the type of character populating a movie like this, and that eventually serves to distance me, at least when watching it on the screen.<br />
<br />
Don’t Breathe (2016) USA - Tense and thrilling, and I enjoyed all the telegraphing, the camera swooping in constantly and showing us something that we therefore know will be used later in the film. And Stephen Lang, as the blind vet with the dark secret, is as always a marvel. But the films sometimes gets too caught up in itself, and also goes to the well too often.<br />
<br />
*La La Land (2016) USA - My gripes? Ryan Gosling is not a very good singer, and I wish we had a Gene Kelly equivalent in a movie like this to give us the muscular dancing a film like this deserves. That said, I loved it nonetheless. Much about this movie felt right, and the looks given at the end packed almost as much emotional punch as anything I saw this year.<br />
<br />
Run All Night (2015) USA - Liam Neeson, Ed Harris, Joel Kinnaman, Vincent D'Onofrio, Bruce McGill and Nick Nolte (uncredited) all play roles you've seen them in a thousand times before. Watched it on cable early morning of December 31 after the dog had woken me up. You'll note I don't list any of the female stars of this movie. There's a reason for that.<br />
<br />
Top Ten<br />
<br />
1. Moonlight<br />
2. Hell or High Water<br />
3. Arrival<br />
4. Sing Street <br />
5. La La Land<br />
6. The Witch<br />
7. Hunt For the Wilderpeople<br />
8. Loving<br />
9. Mustang<br />
10. The Lobster<br />
<br />
Honourable Mentions<br />
<br />
These were all movies I liked enough to at least consider adding to the top ten. The likelihood of all of them fitting at one time or another on that list, depending on the vagaries of my mood, is small of course. Sicario would have been on my top ten for the year before, but I made an illogical and arbitrary decision to not include it on this year’s list, in spite of what I said earlier. Kubo and the Two Strings, Eye in the Sky, Everybody Wants Some, Midnight Special, Florence Foster Jenkins, The Wailing, and Hush all received closer consideration for inclusion.<br />
<br />
The Revenant; Band of Robbers; Sicario; Room; The Lady in the Van; Finders Keepers (my favourite documentary of the year); 10 Cloverfield Lane; Brooklyn; Eye in the Sky; Hush; People Places Things; The Jungle Book; Captain America: Civil War; The Nice Guys; Everybody Wants Some; The Mermaid (Mei ren yu); Midnight Special; Finding Dory; Florence Foster Jenkins; Life, Animated; The Wailing; Fences; Don’t Breathe<br />
<br />
Addendum: Edited because not only did I miss a movie, but that movie was an easy choice for my top ten. Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-46308993324137192072016-12-08T18:46:00.000-08:002016-12-08T18:46:00.717-08:00My Worst Flight StoryRather than clog up a friend's Facebook wall, I thought I would share this here, in this (more than) fallow space.<br />
<br />
When the boys were little Jo was flown to Windsor, ON, for a job interview. Deciding I wanted to tag along, I booked a flight via Air Miles (the boys would stay with their grandparents for what was a long weekend). Because U of W booked Jo's flight, I wasn't able to book on the same one. Instead, I was able to book so we arrived close to the same time, in Detroit. From there we were renting a car to drive South to Canada (yes, really).<br />
<br />
We flew together to Minneapolis, then connected on two different planes, which departed 10 minutes apart. My seat partners were an elderly couple flying to Pennsylvania, me on the aisle, she in the middle, he at the window. The husband needed oxygen to get through the day, but couldn't fly with the bottles, so he had a rental waiting for him on the other end. In the meantime, we played crib and chatted a whole lot. We being the wife and I, since the longer he went without oxygen the more difficult he was finding his day.<br />
<br />
But then, a giant storm blew in over Detroit, and we spent time going in circles, or what the pilot called "punching holes in the air." This kept on for 4 or 5 hours until he announced we were going to be forced to land.<br />
<br />
In Saginaw.<br />
<br />
When we got on the runway we were the 4th or 5th large plane on the tarmac, waiting for a small airport to get the staff and equipment in to be able to handle the thousands of people that might be getting off there. This was pre-9/11, but there were still security requirements, which meant we couldn't leave the plane. There was no more food, no more water, a couple on the plane had were coming home from China where they had adopted a toddler who, I am always happy to remember, the people on the plane were happy to chip in and entertain.<br />
<br />
These were also the days before ubiquitous cell phones. I managed to get up to the cockpit to talk with the pilot and co-pilot to ask if they knew where Jo's flight was. They didn't know, of course, but said they would find out. An hour or so later, the co-pilot made an announcement. "Ladies and gentlemen, if Derryl Murphy is still on this plane... what am I saying? Of course he's on the plane. Anyways, can he come up to the cockpit?" Everyone laughed, I went up front, and when I got there he dialed a number with his own cell phone. When someone on the other end answered, he handed me the phone. It was Jo, using a phone that belonged to a guy on her plane.<br />
<br />
Yes, she was still on the tarmac, but we couldn't figure out who's plane belonged to whom. We were pleased to be able to talk with each other, that we weren't both off somewhere even more distant. We hung up, sure we'd get together soon.<br />
<br />
But then I watched two planes take off, and then it was announced that our own flight crew was over hours, and we would have to get off. When the airport crew got around to us. Over a thousand people, and our plane was almost the last, I think. By the time we got in, all the pizzas they had brought in to feed us were gone (I've never seen so many pizza boxes in my life), but I did score a bottle of water and two lousy cookies. Everyone I asked was no help about Jo, couldn't tell me anything about her flight number, and she was nowhere in the horde of people. And so I resolved to stay there until I could figure out where she was. I called her parents, asking if they'd heard from her, which was a sure way to get them worrying, as of course they had not.<br />
<br />
There was a bus going to Detroit, but I chose not to take it, in case Jo was still going to arrive. After the bus, there were still hundreds of us, and it was like Dunkirk. Cabs and private vehicles of all types (I remember an old rusty Chevy Suburban, for instance). I insisted I would stay at the airport all night if need be, but they were shutting down at midnight, and so I was a part of the last crew of 9 who left. In a stretch limo, of all things. A glorious ride.<br />
<br />
They sent us to a hotel they'd assured us was ready to take us, but that wasn't the case. There was a dentist convention in Saginaw, and there were not a lot of rooms to be had.<br />
<br />
Now, I don't know if you've been to Saginaw, so if you haven't, let me tell you there is no There there. Everything seemed far away from everything else, freeways and stores and hotels and whatever, all spread out. And when we got to the hotel, as noted, they had to rooms. But they were hard on the phones, calling around, trying to find us places to stay.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, word had gotten around that Jo and I had lost each other. As I sat in the lobby, people would walk by at 2 or 3 minute intervals, each one of them saying the same thing:<br />
<br />
"Find your wife?"<br />
<br />
"No."<br />
<br />
"Find your wife?"<br />
<br />
"No."<br />
<br />
"Find your wife?"<br />
<br />
"No."<br />
<br />
And on and on. <br />
<br />
I made another call to Jo's parents, and they still hadn't heard from her. I told them what was happening up until then, then went back to sit. As I was sitting, one of the desk phones, in between an out-going call, rang, and the clerk who answered said "Who? No, I'm afraid we don't have anyone here by that name."<br />
<br />
I jumped and took the phone from his hands, knowing absolutely it was for me, and sure enough, it was Jo. She was in Windsor, had caught a ride with three women who had rented the last car at the airport, she had thought I had flown out, and they had let her ride even though she only had a few bucks Canadian on her (the cab ride from Detroit airport to Windsor was also a challenge, but she managed it). She said she would tell the hotel about me arriving the next day, I wished her luck for her interview (without a change of clothes, without most of her toiletries), and that was that.<br />
<br />
A few minutes later they hustled us out to a bus to take us to another hotel. When it was full, the driver tried to shut the door, but a woman forced her way on, said her husband was already on the bus, and she wasn't "going to end up like him." Pointing at me. We all laughed.<br />
<br />
The next hotel had a brand new desk clerk and a late night security guard. She booked us in slowly, nervously, but she managed, while he wrote down wake-up call times. I think I managed about 5 hours sleep that night, and shared a cab back to the airport with a couple of other refugees the next morning.<br />
<br />
At the airport all of our luggage was piled in a small mountain, and I picked through and found mine and Jo's. Then I stood in line and quickly got on an empty flight to Detroit, had Jo's bags retagged for me (really different before 9/11).<br />
<br />
What worked for me didn't work for others, though. One person was flying to Europe, but the domino effect of this storm meant the only flights available for her to get to London were via Seattle and Asia. And then I met the older couple. He had spent the night feeling like he was drowning, they were going to miss their granddaughter's wedding, but they were carrying on. I think it was going to take three connections to get to Philadelphia. He certainly looked awful.<br />
<br />
Added fun: The rest of the day. My rental car was there for me, but when I got to Canada Customs I discovered they didn't like Canadians renting cars in the US and bringing them to Canada. I almost lost my shit at the agent, he called his supervisor, and I was allowed in but advised to not do this again. Then I got to the hotel and they had no idea who I was, and of course I couldn't get a hold of Jo. I showed them my driver's license, which had the same home address as was listed on the booking, and eventually they let me in. Where I fell asleep, but forgot to put up the Do Not Disturb sign, and was awakened by housekeeping, because I didn't hear them knock.<br />
<br />
We don't book flights like that anymore. Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-26550085010850442172016-04-03T17:57:00.002-07:002016-04-03T17:58:47.878-07:00The Movies of 2015I plain old forgot to come here and update this earlier in the year. Oops.<br />
<br />
Didn't see as many films in 2015. Partly this was because I've been busy with other things: writing, the boys, life in general. Partly it's to do with more TV shows of quality being available. Shows like Happy Valley, Jessica Jones, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and more.<br />
<br />
Anyhow, in 2015 I saw 60 films, although a few of them were shorts, including some seen at Saskatoon's Fantastic Film Fest. That's down 10 from last year, but I saw 30 in the cinema (denoted with *), up from 27, although again, some were shorts.<br />
<br />
It doesn't feel as if I was quite as international last year. 11 countries in 2015, 16 in 2014. I must fix that for 2016. Here's that list:<br />
<br />
Argentina - 1 <br />
Australia - 2 <br />
Austria - 1 <br />
Canada - 2 <br />
France - 1 <br />
India - 1 <br />
New Zealand - 3<br />
South Korea - 2<br />
Sweden - 2<br />
UK - 8<br />
USA - 37<br />
<br />
Anyhow, here's what I saw last year, followed by my personal top ten of the year. I do count some movies from 2014 in my final assessment, depending on whether or not they were possible to see upon release.<br />
<br />
*The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014) USA - A couple of nice moments as well as tremendous emotional anchoring by Martin Freeman as Bilbo couldn’t save this unholy mess of a movie. I used to think there was plenty Jackson could do with the battle scenes, since in the book Bilbo took a knock to the head and missed pretty much the whole damn thing. But no, the battle (aside from the funny but not clever injection of Billy Connolly) was interminable, the changes made bothering even me, definitely not a purist.<br />
<br />
Rich Hill (2014) USA - Disturbing and so very sad, and yet some moments that were remarkably uplifting. These kids have been given the short end of the stick all their lives, and yet they still work to get by.<br />
<br />
Pride (2014) UK - Very enjoyable, with an excellent cast. As usual, I sometimes find myself wishing these movies based on real people and events wouldn’t feel the urge to create fictional characters to add to the group, but happily some of the characters were actual people of the events.<br />
<br />
Housebound (2014) New Zealand - The funnest and funniest horror movie I’ve seen in quite some time. At least until the other horror movie from New Zealand I saw this year. Some nice twists and turns in this one.<br />
<br />
*The Babadook (2014) Australia - Creepy and powerful, and a reminder that horror films often seem to be the places where you can find the strongest female characters, those who have the most agency.<br />
<br />
*Wild (2014) USA - A nice vehicle for Reese Witherspoon, this is an emotional film that almost teeters over the precipice once (the two hunters, who may or may not be threatening to be worse) but pulls back and, again, gives the character agency.<br />
<br />
*Wild Tales (2015) Argentina - Hilarious and horrific in equal measure. The wedding sequence is quite rightly the one most people talk about.<br />
<br />
Force Majeure (2014) Sweden - Another funny and slightly disturbing film, this one about uncomfortable dynamics in a family after the husband turns tail and runs in the face of a possible disaster. Cutting and sometimes vicious, too.<br />
<br />
Atari: Game Over (2014) USA - An intriguing little documentary about the mystery of cartridges for one of the worst games ever made (ET for Atari) being possibly buried in a dump, and the archaeological detective work done to find them.<br />
<br />
Big Eyes (2014) USA - Tim Burton, exhibiting a (slight) return to form after a rather horrific spell. Perhaps it helped that there was no Johnny Depp in this one.<br />
<br />
*Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) USA - I enjoyed it well enough, but in the end it’s a big, noisy, flashy, expensive mess, and reminds me how tired I am of the stakes always being upped in these movies so that the end of the world is always what’s on the line.<br />
<br />
*Ex Machina (2015) USA - An excellent little film, more about character and the philosophy of what it means to be human than it is about the explosions and adventure that so often marks current SF films. Although, as noted below, explosions and adventure don’t have to be a bad thing.<br />
<br />
*Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Australia - A remarkable, explosive, adventurous film that is also very subversive. Make no mistake: Max may be the title character, but he is not the main character. This is a film about and driven (sorry) by women.<br />
<br />
Selma (2014) USA - A decent historical film that wisely picks a smaller slice of time rather than the broader sweep of the entire civil rights movement.<br />
<br />
Korengal (2014) USA - A follow-up (I hesitate to say “sequel”) to Restrepo, another excellent documentary about life for soldiers deep in enemy territory in Afghanistan.<br />
<br />
Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015) UK - Violent and cheeky and a whole lot of fun. Probably my favourite (big screen) comic book adaptation of the year.<br />
<br />
*Spy (2015) USA - Very funny, and who knew Jason Statham could be as hilarious as he was here?<br />
<br />
Kundo: Age of the Rampant (2014) South Korea - A good (but not great) Korean film, which feels odd to write, because Korean films very often blow me out of the water. Still worth seeing, though.<br />
<br />
Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me (2014) USA - Sad and sometimes difficult to watch, a nonetheless somewhat uplifting film about the power music has to keep Glen Campbell’s life and deteriorating health on a temporary even keel.<br />
<br />
*Inside Out (2015) USA - Another triumph for Pixar. Simply lovely, and so very moving.<br />
<br />
*Slow West (2015) New Zealand - A film about the American west made in New Zealand by a Kiwi director. The best western I’ve seen in ages, this one lives up to its title, a slow burn leading up to a horrific, nail-biting climax. And then, the perfect finish.<br />
<br />
*Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation (2015) USA - The best of the lot, and how does the 5th movie in a series get to be that way? Great fun.<br />
<br />
What We Do In The Shadows (2014) New Zealand - One of the funniest movies I saw this year, a mockumentary about vampires.<br />
<br />
Kill the Messenger (2014) USA - A decent movie about the true events surrounding the reporter who uncovered the CIA’s involvement in arming the Nicaraguan rebels and coke smuggling, and the efforts made to smear him.<br />
<br />
’71 (2014) UK - Thrilling and tense and sad, about a British soldier trapped behind “enemy lines” in Northern Ireland and trying desperately to get to safety. Had one of two great turns by Sam Harris that I saw this year, the other being in the MI film. Watch for him.<br />
<br />
*Ant Man (2015) USA - I think this was the best superhero film of the year, although, again, it doesn’t hold a patch to Jessica Jones on Netflix.<br />
<br />
Tig (2015) USA - Another moving documentary, this one about the comedian Tig Notaro. Even though I knew what was coming, her final performance is awesome and brave and inspiring.<br />
<br />
Locke (2013) UK - Finally got to this one. Tom Hardy to me is a cipher: I’m never sure what he really looks or sounds like, and playing a Welshman in this just adds to it. Excellent film.<br />
<br />
It Follows (2015) USA - An excellent horror film, although I would like to see a sequel that deals with the disposability of sex workers on the street, because the ending surely doesn’t, even though it leaves the question wide open.<br />
<br />
Lucy (2014) France - Blah. Quite lousy, a sign we should allow fewer ten-year-olds access to screenplay writing software.<br />
<br />
Rosewater (2014) USA - A good, heartfelt film. Especially nice that Jon Stewart didn’t inject himself into it.<br />
<br />
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau (2014) USA - An appalling (in a good way) documentary about the shit show that arose from a movie that, no matter what the hopeful folks say, was likely going to remain a shit show, just of a different type.<br />
<br />
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015) USA - Very good documentary, frightening to see the control exerted and the abuse given.<br />
<br />
*The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015) UK - This was much more fun and clever and suave than I anticipated. Not a classic, but it stood up well.<br />
<br />
*Mistress America (2015) USA - Another enjoyable Noah Baumbach film, although I did prefer Frances Ha from 2012.<br />
<br />
*Mr. Holmes (2015) UK - Ian McKellen is wonderful as an aged Sherlock Holmes. The central mystery is not world-shattering, but it still means very much.<br />
<br />
The Lunchbox (2013) India - Not only an astonishing look at one small aspect of a very different culture, this is a very sweet love story.<br />
<br />
*Cop Car (2015) USA - Kevin Bacon as a cop in a fair amount of trouble, and two young boys are a part of why he’s in trouble. Extremely tense thriller.<br />
<br />
*A Way Out (2015) USA (Short)<br />
<br />
*Goodnight Mommy (2015) Austria - Horrific and frightening thriller/horror, I only felt let down by the little sung coda at the very end.<br />
<br />
*Heir (2015) Canada (Short)<br />
<br />
*A Hard Day (2014) South Korea - Proving once again that some of the best thrillers come from South Korea, this is an excellent film that has a very funny and very tense set piece involving a remote-control toy car and a dead body.<br />
<br />
*Green Room (2015) USA - By the director of the also-brilliant Blue Ruin, this is another great thriller, a very tense movie involving a punk band, neo-nazis, and Captain Picard.<br />
<br />
*The Stomach (2014) UK (Short)<br />
<br />
We Are What We Are (2014) USA - A decent horror/thriller about a very dysfunctional family.<br />
<br />
*The Martian (2015) USA - A top notch science fiction film with a very likeable main character. <br />
<br />
*The Walk (2015) USA - An all right movie with astonishing special effects, best served if seen in 3D on the big screen. But the story itself was captured much better in the documentary Man On Wire.<br />
<br />
Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015) USA - Not as appealing a documentary as I would have hoped. The music selections are largely drawn from the sort of thing only obsessive completists would want to hear.<br />
<br />
*Bridge of Spies (2015) USA - Not the highest calibre Spielberg movie, but still very good. A spy movie of a different sort.<br />
<br />
Jupiter Ascending (2015) USA - Ick. Much like The Fifth Element, this felt like a movie based on the dreams of a 12-year-old, except it made even less sense.<br />
<br />
Kung Fury (2015) Sweden (Short) - A crazed, deliberately mediocre-looking homage to bad ‘80s cop shows and ‘70s martial arts flicks. Hilarious.<br />
<br />
Beasts of No Nation (2015) UK - An excellent film made for Netflix, with a great performance by Idris Elba.<br />
<br />
*Spotlight (2015) USA - Outstanding. At the end my wife said to me, “It feels like I’ve just read a really good book.” <br />
<br />
Back in Time (2015) USA - A fun if light documentary about the making of Back to the Future.<br />
<br />
*Remember (2015) Canada - A decent thriller about two elderly men and the effects of the Holocaust, but the ending borders on ridiculously unbelievable. Both Christopher Plummer and Martin Landau are excellent.<br />
<br />
*Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) USA - Fun. Felt like a Star Wars movie should. Which may be partly because it matched a lot of the first film beat for beat.<br />
<br />
*The Big Short (2015) USA - Tremendous and funny and not afraid to deal complicated ideas to its audience, even when it tries to explain them.<br />
<br />
A Walk in the Woods (2015) USA - A so-so film based on a very funny book. A shame Paul Newman couldn’t have made this with Redford, instead of Nick Nolte, although even then I question whether or not it would have really worked.<br />
<br />
Trainwreck (2015) USA - Very funny, very NSFW.<br />
<br />
*The Hateful Eight (2015) USA - I know a bunch of my friends weren’t fans of this, but I really enjoyed it. Some neat twists and turns, as is Tarantino’s wont.<br />
<br />
A few movies came close to making the top ten. As always, a list like this might change depending on my mood. I could see adding The Big Short, Housebound, Bridge of Spies, What We Do In The Shadows, Beasts of No Nation, Ex Machina, The Babadook, Rich Hill, Korengal (my favorite documentary of the year), '71, or Force Majeure to the list. And yes, that's <i>eleven</i> more movies right there.<br />
<br />
1. Spotlight<br />
2. Mad Max: Fury Road<br />
3. The Martian<br />
4. Slow West<br />
5. A Hard Day<br />
6. Inside Out<br />
7. Green Room<br />
8. Mr. Holmes<br />
9. Cop Car<br />
10. Wild TalesDerryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-70591822893040791872016-01-21T14:11:00.000-08:002016-01-21T19:20:00.094-08:00Interviews with Trapper BudFor the past two or three years, as many of you know, I have been <a href="https://twitter.com/TrapperBud">tweeting the diaries</a> of Bud Murphy, my grandfather, who spent a decade, starting in 1929, trapping with his father in the Northwest Territories. When I finished with those I dove right into the diaries of his dad, Matt Murphy, who went up for one season in 1925/26 and then again when Grandpa went with him.<br />
<br />
I've also been putting up photos, not only ones that were taken by Grandpa, but some that have been passed on to me by others, and tweeted great information and questions and answers from readers, people who have turned this project in family history into a crowd-sourced project of local history. A wider scope, with Grandpa and then Matt still at the center of the view, has opened up tales and vistas I did not think possible, and I am grateful every day for the opportunity to share and to sometimes have that spirit of sharing reflected back on me and my family.<br />
<br />
Heck, I even sometimes get phone calls from a gentleman who knew my great-uncle Neill, and we chat about his own time in Yellowknife and the people he knew.<br />
<br />
Today, I'm pleased to be able to share another level of that history with you.<br />
<br />
Somewhere between 1984 and 1986, after my grandmother Elda Murphy died, my father George and I sat down with Grandpa and interviewed him, on tape. I've been sitting on these tapes all these years, and found them (at least, I hope I found <i>all</i> of them. Can't be sure, and you'll see why in a moment) at the same time I found the diaries.<br />
<br />
But tapes that are 30+ years old are not guaranteed to work, and I didn't want to just throw them in the one tape deck we still have in the house and discover I had created a disaster. I also had an old computer and didn't want to digitize things and, again, discover that I'd caused even more problems. So I researched what was the simplest way to turn these tapes into digital files, and then, about a month ago, I bought a new computer. Then I bought the cord to move the interviews from the deck to the computer, brought the deck upstairs, hooked up everything...<br />
<br />
...and still almost screwed up. Badly.<br />
<br />
Two tapes went into the Tape A spot, but both got chewed up.<br />
<br />
The good news, though, is these tapes weren't the interviews with Grandpa. No, they were music, both by friends (and so still irreplaceable). I grabbed a third tape and put it in Tape B, and everything worked.<br />
<br />
And so, fingers crossed and breath tightly held, I put in the first tape, hit play on the deck and record on the computer, and watched (not listened, since it was transferring in silence) as steady lines turned into jumping sound waves. Everything seemed to be working.<br />
<br />
And so, lucky me, lucky family, lucky you. What we have in the following link are four separate files, all from the same interview, my Dad and I sometimes asking questions for clarity, but mostly listening to Grandpa talk about his time in the NWT.<br />
<br />
I do warn you in advance, though, that it's Amateur Hour at the Murphy household. This was all done on a Toshiba boombox I had had since I was about 15. No external mic. Whenever a tape ended I would jump up to flip it over or put in a new one, but Grandpa would not stop talking. Sometimes I'm able to reel him back, sometimes not. In the meantime, there's a fire crackling in the background. Sometimes (including early on) the phone rings, or the dog barks, or my mom interrupts. But really, not only are you hearing the history involved in Grandpa's early life, you're also witnessing the chaos of a suburban Edmonton home in the mid-80s, so think of that as a kind of history as well. Less interesting, frankly, but it's still there.<br />
<br />
Finally, let me state what a joy it has been to sit and listen to Grandpa's voice again. He died in 2004, and while I could hear his voice in the back of my head when I was inputting his diary entries, this is definitely different. The discovery and recovery, even though I knew the tapes existed, has been a real thrill. My regret now is that I didn't do the same with my other grandparents, and I hope that at least some of you, as you read this, will feel the spark to go out and start collecting your own family history.<br />
<br />
Part One is <a href="https://soundcloud.com/trapper-bud/trapper-bud-interview-part-1">here</a>.<br />
<br />
Part Two is <a href="https://soundcloud.com/trapper-bud/trapper-bud-interview-part-2">here</a>.<br />
<br />
Part Three is <a href="https://soundcloud.com/trapper-bud/trapper-bud-interview-part-3">here</a>.<br />
<br />
Part Four is <a href="https://soundcloud.com/trapper-bud/trapper-bud-interview-part-4">here</a>.<br />
<br />
You can access all four in one place <a href="https://soundcloud.com/trapper-bud">here.</a>Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-6190883193989099952015-08-12T19:00:00.001-07:002015-08-12T19:00:33.923-07:00@TrapperBud and his Brush With DeathToday in the mail I received a package from my parents, an old brown envelope addressed to Grandpa as “Mr. Cyril M. Murphy, Whitelaw, Alberta, Can., postmarked Mar 17 1941 at 11pm at the GPO on New York, NY. It has a 3 cent stamp on it that, for some reason, is Canadian, a red King George VI from 1937 (I’ve done some research). Also stamped on the envelope are the words “POSTAGE DUE 6 CENTS.” Worthy of note is the fact the enveloped has been opened with a letter opener, pretty much a tool of a bygone era these days.<br /><br />Inside the envelope are two stories, likely not the original contents, both of them attempts by Grandpa to tell the same story. These are a part of the @TrapperBud legacy, one I am keen to share, but clearly too long for Twitter, and so I have turned to this blog as a home for this story. The one I have transcribed below is likely the final draft, as the other has scribbled-out words as he corrected himself while writing, and I will supply footnotes to indicate when the stories diverge. He was operating on memory here and made a small dating error, it seems. But read and enjoy and don’t get too caught up in small details.<br /><br /><br />By*<br />Mr. Cyril M. Murphy<br />Whitelaw, Alberta, Can.<br /><br />The Stampede of Caribou*<br /><br />I was a Barren Land trapper for ten years and during that length of time I had several narrow escapes from death, one of which a large herd of stampeding caribou took part in.<br /><br />My father and I had been on Artillery Lake for four years and as the fur had not been very plentiful the last couple of years we decided to move to new trapping grounds. After much scouting around we made plans to settle on Back River about one hundred and fifty miles North East of Artillery Lake.<br /><br />We left Artillery Lake on the fifth of May 1933* with our dogs and a canoe on the tobaggan with about four months supply of food. We travelled on the ice as the big lakes do not open until the end of July in the north. We arrived on Back River on the eighteenth of June, still on ice. After a hard pull for the dogs for fifteen miles over bare ground we arrived at our previously picked out camping place.<br /><br />It took us about a week to get our camp into* shape for the winter and then came the task of getting our wood supply. It took us about a month of hard work to get what we thought would do us for the winter. The only wood that is available* in that country is small green willows about one inch thick and they are found only along the edges of the small creeks.<br /><br />As we were short on food it was decided that I should take the canoe and the Johnson Outboard motor and make the trip to Reliance, two hundred and fifty miles south. The ice was just breaking up* in Aylmer Lake which delayed my start until the fifth of August. This lake was the beginning point of my trip as the Back river was too shallow for travelling on by canoe and engine.<br /><br />With food for a week, a small tent, my rifle and sleeping bag I started out to walk the fifteen miles to Aylmer Lake, where the canoe and engine had been left. As I came up over a ridge about five miles from the lake I saw a herd of about five thousand caribou feeding along the base of the ridge. These Caribou come from the North East by the tens of thousands about the end of July and move on to the South West, making a big circular tour and come back through again from the North East about the last* of September.<br /><br />Not needing any meat at the time I never bothered to take my rifle from the case which was an oversight* on my part which I regretted very much a few minutes later*. Suddenly I saw two bulls jump into the air, which is common of Caribou when something startles them. Thinking nothing of it, as I thought it was me they had spotted I kept on walking, but instead it was a couple of big grey Arctic wolves out after a caribou dinner.<br /><br />Immediately all of the caribou stampeded and as they were coming straight towards me I did not have time to pull my rifle from its case. The only chance for my life that I could see was to make a run for the nearest large rock, which was about fifty feet away. When I got closer the rock looked pretty small but I couldn’t get any further as the leading caribou brushed my clothes as I fell on my face behind the rock. They came thundering on, some going on either side of my shelter but a large number jumped over me and the rock.<br /><br />It seemed hours that I lay there tensely waiting to be trampled to death by thousands of hoofs, but it was only a few minutes until they had all passed. When I finally stood up I was shaking so badly I could not steady myself enough to put the rifle to my shoulder to fire at the wolves which were only two hundred yards away, still chasing the caribou.<br /><br />That was the closest call to death I ever had in my ten years I was trapping in the N.W.T. and I don’t want another like that.<br /><br />
* The other version does not include is name and address<br />
<br />
* No underlining in the other version<br />
<br />
* He says twenty fifth in the other version. Going back to the diary doesn’t really pin it down, but it seems to be between the two dates<br /><br />
* “In” shape in the other version<br /><br />
* He doesn’t say “available” in the other version<br /><br />
* He doesn’t say “up” in the other version<br /><br />
* He says “end” instead of “last” in the other version<br /><br />
* He writes “an oversight” in tiny script above the sentence, a late addition in the other version<br /><br />
* After “oversight” he writes “which I was to regret a few minutes later” in this version<br />Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-47587745054324831632015-06-17T20:29:00.000-07:002015-06-18T20:37:27.271-07:00In Which I Discuss Traffic Issues With the City of Saskatoon: A One-Way Conversation<i>Edited, to add the City's response and my own response to that, down at the bottom. </i><br />
<br />
I've written a couple of letters to the city's Contact Us website. Here's the first one:<br />
<br />
On June 16 just after 7pm it took me 15 minutes to drive from the Lawson
Civic Centre to the SW corner of the mall at Primrose and Warman. The
traffic was horribly backed up, and the surprise came at the end when I
reached Warman and found that the right lane was closed just before the
corner, forcing those vehicles to merge into the left lane. The only
reason for this was to keep people from turning right onto Warman, which
was alr<span class="text_exposed_show">eady blocked off and therefore
there was no way to turn right. As soon as we got onto Warman
southbound, it was two lanes again. So my question is, why not just put
up signs advising drivers that they won't be able to turn right at
Warman, instead of blocking traffic? Are Saskatoon drivers illiterate?
No, scratch that, I've seen how Saskatoon drivers behave, and this is
entirely possible. However, I think your construction and engineering
teams are giving us short shrift. If someone is already on Primrose with
the intention of turning right on Warman, and if they don't pay
attention to signage, they won't be turning right whether or not your
Traffic Flow Incoveniencing Device is in place or not. In the meantime,
the rest of us - already weary from the closure of the University
Bridge, the closure of Warman Road, the decrepitude and soon-to-be death
of the Traffic Bridge, non-stop potholes and who knows what other road
construction - would appreciate the chance to be treated like adults who
can sometimes make intelligent decisions and not have to deal with
seemingly-deliberate attempts to stopper traffic flow for no better
reason than "we have this neat electronic sign that we paid for and
therefore should use it as often as possible." I thank you for your
attention to this matter, as well as your patience with my rambling.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="text_exposed_show">And here's a second:</span><br />
<br />
<span class="text_exposed_show">Well, after yesterday's email to you folks (unanswered, by the way, but I accept that it has only been 24 hours: an eternity in this digital, everybody-hooked-up world of ours, but barely an eye blink for a governmental bureaucracy), it turns out that the electronic sign on Primrose was indeed moved. Good news! Sadly, though, the sign was only moved about 5 meters or so. This time (about 6:15pm), Warman Road north from the SW corner of Lawson Heights Mall was open so that people turning right could do so, but since one can also turn left from the right lane, there are many cars in that lane anticipating they might be able to do so. And again, since there are no signs anywhere between the Lawson Civic Centre and the corner, this comes as a surprise to those drivers. Although today allow me to offer kudos to Saskatoon drivers, who did a much better job of handling the surprise zipper merge. I can't speak, however, to how those drivers handled their dismay or even anger on finding there was again no apparent reason for this traffic blockage. Warman Road going south has no construction at this moment, tonight the road going north was also open, so again it seems the only reason this electronic traffic sign and accompanying pylons are in place are to a) aggravate local drivers, and/or b) get some usage out of an expensive sign that was just going to be sitting around anyhow. For your benefit, I have taken a picture and tweeted it to @cityofsaskatoon via my @derrylm account. You can see it here: https://twitter.com/derrylm/status/611371551015829504 I will be back in that area tomorrow, and do so look forward to seeing where the sign has been moved to then. Perhaps in the middle of the intersection? </span><br />
<br />
<span class="text_exposed_show">Then today I heard from Chris, with City of Saskatoon Transportation:</span><br />
<br />
<span class="text_exposed_show">Good Morning Mr. Murphy,</span><br />
<br />
<span class="text_exposed_show">Thanks for the emails and your sense of humour.</span><br />
<br />
<span class="text_exposed_show">Warman Road is being re-surfaced so that is the reason for the lane closure. I know it can be </span>confusing when a lane is closed down and you see no personnel around but it could be the crew contracted to do the work isn't at that specific location at the moment you drive by. The lane restrictions have to remain as the condition of the road is unlikely in a safe driveable condition.<br />
<br />
The sign should be in the same place today unless, due to your picture showing it's [sic] awesomeness, someone has come and stole it.<br />
<br />
Thanks for your patience as the City tries to get as much road work done as they possibly can over our short construction season.<br />
<br />
Have a good day,<br />
Chris<br />
<br />
To which I responded:<br />
<br />
Hello Chris, and thank you for your reply.
<br />
<br />The electronic sign was gone today. While it is possible the sign was
moved by someone human, I worry that it may have arrived at some form of
self-awareness, and respectfully request you have someone check the
manufacturer's label to make sure it doesn't say Cyberdyne Systems. If
it does, then I know a fellow with a nice facial scar who might be able
to send me back in time to last autumn in order to try and stop this
asphaltocalypse.
<br />
<br />In the meantime, while the City was good enough to place signs up in
advance telling drivers to get into the right lane this time (as opposed
to the right lane being closed without signage the past two nights),
there were no signs telling approaching drivers that, even though there
was one lane open going southbound, we fools coming off of Primrose
would not be allowed to turn left onto Warman. It was like the people in
charge of signage felt it would do us all some good to receive a
surprise, today's surprise being that in order to go left you had to
turn right and then drive a very long distance in order to double back.
<br />
<br />I suppose, though, this made as much sense as the electronic sign
(Cyberdyne Systems T-300) blocking the road when there was no actual
construction going on at the time. I understand the need to do the road
and bridge construction now (8 months of winter, 4 months of
construction are the two seasons, I know), but, at the risk of sounding
like the classic definition of insanity (yet another side bar: Doing the
same thing over and over again, expecting a different result), I only
ask that the drivers be warned so that we can make decisions about how
to get where we're going in advance of arriving at the point of no return.
<br />
<br />
<br />
Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-26398990432292288432015-01-01T11:26:00.000-08:002015-01-01T11:26:11.212-08:00The Movies of 2014The number of movies I saw this year went up again, from 61 last year to 69 (with a proviso or two, which I will get to), although the number seen in the cinema dropped slightly from 28 to 27. I’ve pretty much stopped seeing any film with my older son, and now the youngest is beginning to go off in his own direction as well. He has said he wants to see the last <i>Hobbit</i> with me, but life keeps him very busy. We shall see if I get to it in 2015. As for past years, click on the "movies" hashtag at the end of this and that will take you to see my past few entries.<br /><br />Other numbers? Of the 69 I saw, 17 were documentaries. 16 countries were responsible for what I saw, although Spain is more than a stretch, and oddly (considering how much I enjoy South Korean movies), the only offering from South Korea this past year was <i>Snowpiercer</i>. But considering the Indonesian film was made by a Welshman, and last year I saw a German film made by an Australian, I suppose we truly are watching a global art form, so I counted them that way. The countries were: Australia; China; Denmark; France; Indonesia; Ireland; Israel; Japan; Morocco; Netherlands; Poland; South Korea; Spain; Sweden; UK; USA.<br /><br />As usual, some of the movies are from other years, including a few from much earlier. I choose to list them if it was the first time viewed, but only 2014 or 2013 (if unavailable to me before then) films are eligible for the top 10 or for my newly-minted list of honourable mentions. I’m not a critic, I don’t get paid to go see movies, and time is often difficult to find, so there are lots of films I haven’t seen and wished I had (top of that list right now is likely <i>Nightcrawler</i>). As well, living in the boonies as I do means there are movies that haven’t made it here yet. I count <i>The Babadook</i> and <i>Force Majeure</i> among the tops of those, although I discovered to my pain that <i>The Babadook</i> did play for one measly showing here at the Broadway a few months ago as part of the Saskatoon Fantastic Film Fest, as did a bunch of other good looking films. I must pay better attention in 2015.<br /><br />I also, besides life with the family and work and writing and reading, try to find time for a few new TV shows, most of them these days also on Netflix, so that eats into movie time as well. <i>Happy Valley</i> was the best discovery of the year in that area, and if you have the service and haven’t watched it yet, do yourself a favour and check it out.<br /><br />Netflix is a place I go see documentaries, a genre I mostly enjoy by myself in this family (although, contrary to what I said about my older son, Aidan did come to the theatre to see <i>Jodorowsky’s Dune</i> with me). Some I watch not out of anticipation of a great film, but rather to see something about a subject that interests me.<br /><br />As well, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention Science and <i>Interstellar</i>. There were some complaints about the science in the movie, which struck me as frequently wrong-headed. Yes, you can have issues with something, but eventually you’re going to look like a one-noted special interest group if that’s your only reason for liking or not liking something. In truth, it’s become a common issue throughout film: there were complaints from the stage community this year about how <i>Birdman</i> didn’t properly portray live theatre, and complaints (apparently in a drumming magazine) about how <i>Whiplash</i> didn’t truly show jazz drumming. The film critic Matt Zoller Seitz had a great response on Twitter for this, and my own contributions, if I had chipped in, would have possibly been “Let me tell you about what <i>Bringing Up Baby</i> got wrong about Apatosaurus,” or “Let me tell you about what <i>The Big Lebowski</i> got wrong about bowling. And marmots.”<br /><br />There were also complaints that Interstellar didn’t make sense, or was too metaphysical. That’s fine, but some of those complaints came from people who really like <i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i>, so I don’t buy it. Perhaps I discuss Interstellar too much, since there were other movies I ranked above it, but those issues seemed to me to be especially prevalent with that film, maybe because as a SF author I find myself more often in those circles.<br /><br />That’s enough preamble. Here’s the list of what I watched in 2014.<br /><br /><i>Jack Reacher</i> (2012) USA - Actually pretty good, for what it was, and Werner Herzog was believably freaky as the bad guy. Also, a friend was an extra in one scene, so I had to watch it just to see her. <br /><br />*<i>Lone Survivor</i> (2014) USA - Tense and exciting and more than a little gruesome. I was happy that not all Afghans got short shrift, and indeed, even the epilogue sings their praises in a couple of different spots. Not one to be seen if you’re sensitive to blood or extreme pain.<br /><br /><i>Rush</i> (2013) USA - Decent but kinda typically Ron Howard movie. Follows all the notes that type of movie is supposed to.<br /><br /><i>Deceptive Practice: The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay</i> (2012) USA - An interesting if not anywhere close to groundbreaking documentary about the magician and card player.<br /><br /><i>Good Ol’ Freda</i> (2013) UK - Enjoyable doc about the woman who was the Beatles’ personal assistant.<br /><br /><i>Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father</i> (2008) USA - Took a long time to see this very upsetting doc about murder and suicide, precisely because I knew what was coming. But still worth watching.<br /><br /><i>The Woman Who Wasn’t There</i> (2012) USA - Another doc, a strange one about a woman who claimed to be something she wasn’t.<br /><br /><i>Veronica Mars</i> (2014) USA - Not sure why I felt the urge to watch a movie based on a TV series I never watched, but I did enjoy it. Nothing extremely marvelous, of course, but fun enough.<br /><br />*<i>The Room</i> (2003) USA - One of the worst movies ever, and very proud of it. We saw this with the director/writer/star and the co-star, and it was everything I wanted it to be. A fun evening.<br /><br />*<i>Captain America: The Winter Soldier</i> (2014) USA - Aside from the “Hail Hydra” moments and the great big explosions at the end, this was a great superhero movie, more of a spy thriller than a bombastic comic book movie.<br /><br /><i>The Intouchables</i> (2011) France - A lovely film about friendship. Highly recommended.<br /><br />*<i>The Grand Budapest Hotel</i> (2014) USA - As usual, Wes Anderson has created a great movie full of quirks and quirky characters, presented on film with rigorous formality, as if on a stage.<br /><br /><i>Big Star: Nothing Can Hurt Me</i> (2012) USA - A fine documentary about one of the greatest bands most people have never heard of.<br /><br />*<i>Jodorowsky’s Dune</i> (2013) USA - A mind-blowing doc about a movie that never was but perhaps should have been.<br /><br /><i>The Secret Life of Walter Mitty</i> (2013) USA - I was surprised I enjoyed this as much as I did. Not great, but affecting, and as a former photographer and photo clerk I have to say I appreciated the final cover photo.<br /><br />*<i>The Wind Rises</i> (2014) Japan - As usual, a marvelous film from Studio Ghibli. Who would have thought the story of the creator of the Japanese fighter plane the Zero would be so affecting and lovely?<br /><br /><i>The Family</i> (2013) USA - A minor halt in Robert De Niro’s career slide. Also, a bit of a wink to Michelle Pfeiffer’s role in Married to the Mob. Fun, if slight.<br /><br />*<i>The Raid 2</i> (2014) Indonesia - Not as balls to the wall as its precursor, but still a great action movie with some of the most insane fight scenes anywhere. I’d love to see the director get his hands on a superhero property and mess with it.<br /><br /><i>Zaytoun</i> (2012) Israel - A good if rather ordinary-feeling film about an Israeli fighter pilot and the Palestinian boy who rescues him from his captors in Lebanon.<br /><br /><i>Elysium</i> (2013) USA - I had high hopes for this, but it was at best an ordinary SF film with loftier goals than ability to attain them.<br /><br />*<i>Godzilla</i> (2014) USA - A decent and enjoyable monster movie, far better than the Matthew Broderick iteration, and it does a nice job of teasing us with the monster.<br /><br /><i>The Iceman</i> (2012) USA - Michael Shannon, as it seems he always is (even when he plays a nice guy), quite disturbingly on edge in this one.<br /><br />*<i>Edge of Tomorrow</i> (2014) USA - A thrilling military SF film, and so many of us couldn’t argue with seeing Tom Cruise buy it in so many different ways. That said, he was very good in this movie.<br /><br /><i>The Monuments Men</i> (2014) USA - Might go down as my biggest disappointment of the year. “Hey, let’s make a movie so we can all get together and hang out and crack lines at each other!” <br /><br />*<i>X-Men: Days of Future Past</i> (2014) USA - Time travel in a superhero movie done well. <br /><i><br />Best Worst Movie </i>(2009) USA - A mildly fun doc about the people who were in Troll 2, which was neither the sequel to Troll, nor about trolls. Especially interesting when you see George Hardy finally realize how he’s letting this all get away from him.<br /><i><br />Frankenstein’s Army</i> (2013) Holland - The coolest practical creature effects I’ve seen in years. Not a perfect movie, but definitely worth seeing.<br /><br /><i>Dear Mr. Watterson</i> (USA) 2013 - A decent doc about the creator of Calvin and Hobbes.<br /><br /><i>Jesus Camp</i> (USA) 2006 - Another older and disturbing doc I finally caught up on.<br /><br /><i>The Lego Movie</i> (USA) 2014 - Well, this was everything I was told it would be. An absolute blast.<br /><br /><i>The Lone Ranger</i> (USA) 2013 - Actually better than I expected. But honestly, I expected only the worst.<br /><br /><i>Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons</i> (China) 2014 - There is a scene involving blood in this Stephen Chow (<i>Kung Fu Hustle</i>) movie where I laughed harder than I’ve laughed in years. Overly long and a little diffuse at some points, it is still funny and exciting and worth seeing.<br /><br /><i>Grand Piano</i> (Spain) 2014 - A deliberate homage to Hitchcock (even the main character’s name is a giveaway), this is a taut, fun thriller, a little preposterous but well worth watching. All American, but the director is Spanish and the film is listed as thus.<br /><br />*<i>Dawn of the Planet of the Apes</i> (2014) USA - I enjoyed this much more than the first remake. Exciting and with believable characters, human and ape.<br /><br />*<i>Tracks</i> (2014) Australia - A moving true story about a young woman who has not a lot of room in her life for human interaction, and her trip across the desert interior of Australia with camels and her beloved dog.<br /><br /><i>Enough Said</i> (2013) USA - One of James Gandolfini’s last roles. He’s good in a light little romantic comedy like this, but it won’t go down in the annals of time as one of his great roles.<br /><br /><i>The Battered Bastards of Baseball</i> (2014) USA - A Netflix original doc, about a Single A baseball team owned by Kurt Russell’s father in the 1970s. Good fun.<br /><br />*<i>Guardians of the Galaxy</i> (2014) USA - Epic and hilarious and peopled with characters you care about, this was everything a superhero movie should be.<br /><br /><i>Milius</i> (2013) USA - A doc about a Hollywood screenwriter of a different stripe. An interesting enough story, if you already have an interest in such things.<br /><br />Snowpiercer (2014) South Korea - What a weird and wonderful SF movie. And Tilda Swinton absolutely ruled in it.<br /><br /><i>Alan Partridge</i> (2013) UK - A very funny Steve Coogan movie, albeit another one in which he plays a rather insufferable individual.<br /><br />*<i>A Most Wanted Man</i> (2014) UK - One of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s last films, this spy thriller very much sits in the same category as <i>Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy</i> (both were from books written by John le Carré) or <i>The American</i> (both were directed by Anton Corbijn). It’s slow and thoughtful, and Hoffman puts on a master class.<br /><br /><i>Horses of God</i> (2013) Morocco - A very disturbing and sad fictionalized account of terrorist bombings in Casablanca in 2003, of how children and young men turn to fundamentalism and ultimately to killing because of the circumstances surrounding them.<br /><br />*<i>Boyhood</i> (2014) USA - I found this quite affecting, and proof that you don’t need the finest actors in the world to tell a moving story.<br /><br /><i>Blue Ruin</i> (2013) USA - A tense indie thriller. Lots of blood and violence, but unlike so many other movies of this type, the violence here has real impact and truly doesn’t solve anything.<br /><br />*<i>Calvary</i> (2014) Ireland - Much more tense and disturbing than I expected (the ads made it look like a typical Irish black comedy), with a remarkably moving ending.<br /><br />*<i>The Trip to Italy</i> (2014) UK - Very funny, again, and I enjoyed the meta part when they discussed how sequels usually aren’t as good as the first time around. Also, I desperately want to go there, stay where they stayed and eat where they ate.<br /><br /><i>Ender’s Game</i> (2013) USA - First off, the opening narration set me off, completely unnecessary since the same thing is gone over later during training. It’s a lazy cheat. Otherwise, as odious as Card’s beliefs are (I ensured I wasn’t paying to watch this movie, aside from the premium cable price for the movie channel it was on), I suppose it was OK. But not a lot of wonder in the movie, I found.<br /><br />*<i>Gone Girl</i> (2014) USA - Tremendous and tense and I’m very glad I didn’t read the book. Also ludicrous in many ways, but Fincher pulls it off with ease. <br /><br /><i>Terror at the Mall: The Nairobi Siege</i> (2014) USA - An excellent and gripping documentary from HBO about the terror attack in Nairobi. Makes great use not only of CCTV footage (and there was a lot) but also still photography shot in such quick bursts it almost looks like film.<br /><br />*<i>Fury</i> (2014) USA - A tremendous war movie with great performances. Some tropes are dipped into, but they are still put to good use.<br /><br /><i>Hours</i> (2013) USA - One of Paul Walker’s last films, this is a fine little thriller/drama, quite tense and smart.<br /><br />*<i>The Phantom of the Opera</i> (1925) USA - Another part of the Silence is Golden series at the Roxy, one of my favorite movie theatres anywhere. Seen with musical accompaniment by about 20 members of the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra as well as a pianist/organist from LA. A marvelous evening.<br /><br />*<i>Interstellar</i> (2014) USA - Remarkable and emotional, even as it maintains its adherence to rationality. This is SF with an immense sweep and deserves to be seen on the biggest screen you can find. Some minor problems, yes, but it sucked me in and moved me a whole lot.<br /><br /><i>The Hunt</i> (2013) Denmark - A very difficult movie to watch, about false accusations of child abuse and the tragic affects on the accused, his friends and family, and the entire community. The buildup of the accusations just in the few sentences the head of the kindergarten speaks is mind blowing and frightening. Tremendous.<br /><br />*<i>Birdman: or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)</i> (2014) USA - Absolutely marvelous, a serious indictment of the pop culture/comic book scene that’s taken over so much of movies and more these days. Great acting, amazing cinematography, and a wonderful ending.<br /><br /><i>Ida</i> (2013) Poland - Some of the most arresting cinematography I saw this year, with a brilliant use of negative space, this is a quiet and uneasy film with two powerful central performances and an offhand shock that comes with little or no time to think about it. A great meditation on faith and family and the horror of loss.<br /><br />*<i>Whiplash</i> (2014) USA - Powerful and disturbing with some amazing acting. Hard to like what happened in the film, but not hard to be blown away. And wow, what a finish.<br /><br />*<i>The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1</i> (2014) USA - There were some highlights for me, including Katniss visiting the wounded and a reasonably tense extraction mission, but that second one is also a small example of why I’m having some problems with this series. Katniss has very little agency, and generally when she acts it’s because she is forced or coerced to, either by someone on her side (Plutarch) or the other (Snow). The extreme example of course is the end of the last movie, when they took her to District 13 but couldn’t tell her for fear of giving it all away.<br /><br />*<i>John Wick</i> (2014) USA - A pretty decent thriller, much more existential and slow-paced than most of its ilk. There comes a point in the film where I was sure, absolutely positive, it must have been based on a comic book, but no, it’s original. And quite clever, I might add.<br /><br /><i>Altman</i> (2014) USA - A decent documentary about the director Robert Altman. I thought the narration, by his widow, was quite enjoyable.<br /><br /><i>We Are the Best!</i> (2013) Sweden - A delightful and somewhat meandering film about three young girls (all about 13) in 1982 who - despite two of them having no musical experience at all - decide to form a punk band. The essence of innocence and fearlessness lies in these girls, and it’s wonderful.<br /><br />*<i>Foxcatcher</i> (2014) USA - Outstandingly creepy, a mood aided by some phenomenal sound design. This is a remarkably quiet movie, many of the conversations just a hair beyond the audience’s ability to hear, which makes it feel like we’re watching something on the sly, illicitly. A trio of great performances as well.<br /><br /><i>The Equalizer</i> (2014) USA - I liked it. The tells McCall’s character gave, all the OCD moments, really helped build who he was in my mind. And yes, the big set piece at the end was a kind of Home Alone for grown-ups, right down to the torch on the doorknob, although that was of course used in a different fashion.<br /><br />*<i>The Imitation Game</i> (2014) UK - Mostly excellent, and of course Benedict Cumberbatch is brilliant as Turing. The coda to the ending bothered me a bit: I knew by the reactions of people around me in the theatre that many don’t know about Turing and what happened to him, but still, the titles at the end feel a touch didactic and pedantic, and overlaid atop images of the group burning their papers and drinking beers felt a tad like the end of a TV movie. Some of it was perhaps unnecessary as well. But still, I really liked it.<br /><br /><i>7Up</i>, <i>14Up</i>, <i>21Up</i> and <i>28Up</i> (Various years) UK - Finally getting to the brilliant Michael Apted documentary series following English children from a broad cross section of society, every seven years. Still to watch: <i>35</i>, <i>42</i>, <i>49</i>, and <i>56Up</i>. At that point I’ll feel more equipped to talk about the project as a whole. But for the moment, I’m counting these as four movies, but accepting they fall into the “Yeah, but” category for the year.<br /><br />And so on to the top ten and honourable mentions. This list could change order any day (<i>Boyhood</i> in particular could slide up), and I could see a couple of the movies on the outside muscling their way in (<i>Snowpiercer</i>, <i>A Most Wanted Man</i>), but for the moment I’m satisfied with my placement.<br /><br />1.<i> </i><i>Birdman: or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)</i><br />2. <i>Ida</i><br />3. <i>Blue Ruin</i><br />4. <i>Whiplash</i><br />5. <i>Interstellar</i><br />6. <i>Grand Budapest Hotel</i><br />7. <i>Boyhood</i><br />8. <i>The Hunt</i><br />9. <i>Horses of God</i><br />10. <i>We Are the Best!</i><br /><br />Honorable Mentions: <i>Jodorowsky’s Dune</i>; <i>The Wind Rises</i>; <i>Edge of Tomorrow</i>; <i>The Lego Movie</i>; <i>Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons</i>; <i>Tracks</i>; <i>The Battered Bastards of Baseball</i>; <i>A Most Wanted Man</i>; <i>Calvary</i>; <i>Snowpiercer</i>; <i>Foxcatcher</i>; <i>The Imitation Game</i>Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-71151374775392618762014-12-21T15:13:00.001-08:002014-12-21T15:55:40.081-08:00Grandpa, Trapper Bud, and the Camera PouchThe first thing to note is that if this is of interest to you but you're not following @TrapperBud on Twitter, perhaps you should.<br />
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As background: My grandfather, Cyril "Bud" Murphy (although at the time he was known as "Spud," a nickname that would eventually be changed at the behest of his sister Mavis) went to the Northwest Territories as an 18-year-old in 1929, to accompany his father Matt Murphy as a fur trapper for the next decade, starting first along Artillery Lake and eventually moving to the Back River.<br />
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After Grandpa died, I inherited some of his old diaries, but set them aside and for a long time never looked at them. But when I did, I realized they were mostly in the ideal format for Twitter. Generally short and to the point, but often with amazing details about getting lost, about hunting and trapping, even about murder and suicide. Other family members stepped up and soon I had most (although sadly not all) of his diaries right through the next decade.<br />
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One of the best parts of this ongoing story has been new people, new stories, and new things coming out of the woodwork. And while I am working on telling people more about all of this in the future, there is one item I wish to show everyone right now.<br />
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I don't know what year it was, but on a recent visit with my dad he told me the story of Grandpa riding his dog team past what he would have called an Indian camp. At the time the only person there was a woman, and she needed help for some reason, so Grandpa stopped and gave her assistance. A few days later, riding back to his camp, a man came out and stopped Grandpa. Turned out they wanted to thank him for his help.<br />
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This was what he received.<br />
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When Grandpa had stopped, the First Nations woman had taken one look at Grandpa's 620 format camera and right away knew its dimensions. By the time he'd returned she'd made him a camera pouch from caribou hide and beads, and it fit perfectly. And since she knew him, I'm guessing, she added his initials (CM) on the flap, inside the red circle.<br />
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Grandpa was very proud of this pouch; I remember him showing it to me many years ago, but had forgotten about it. The camera no longer works, of course. The bellows are torn, and 620 film is no longer a thing. But lots of great photos were taken with it, gradually showing up on @TrapperBud, and this pouch is a great addition to the memories and the history, something for everyone to see.Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-74915865983399310442014-05-19T18:51:00.002-07:002014-05-19T18:51:53.308-07:00Trapper Bud, Otto Lanner, and a Hint at the Tragedy Behind "Northwest Passage"In my ongoing Twitter feed for @TrapperBud (the diaries of my grandfather when he was a trapper in the NWT in the 1930s), I've been typing in diary entries ahead of time so they are easier to slot in on TweetDeck. As I've been doing this I've been eagerly awaiting the first mention of Otto Lanner, and just the other day came across it. Otto, in case you're familiar with my short story "Northwest Passage," which was initially published in the magazine <i>Realms of Fantasy</i> and recently reprinted in my <a href="http://www.sunburstaward.org/2013-sunburst-shortlists">Sunburst-nominated</a> collection <a href="http://www.fairwoodpress.com/catalog/item/7650566/9490213.htm"><i>Over the Darkened Landscape</i></a>, was the inspiration for the character Swede in that story. <br />
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Another mention that came much earlier in the diaries and has already gone out there was of Emil Bode, who also figures in the same tragic sequence of events involving Otto. The inexorable march towards this is quite exciting for me to watch.<br />
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However, if you haven't read the short story, I'm not going to give it away today. I would hope you will follow the feed if you're interested, or at least check back here for notice when it comes up (and I promise to be better about using this space for this sort of thing).<br />
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What I will say is that, out of curiosity, I Googled Lanner's name and found a mention on Ancestry.co.uk from all the way back in May 2001, a woman in Sweden asking "My grandmother had a brother by name Otto Lanner. He came from the
parish Tuna in Sweden to the state of Alaska in the beginning of the
last century. I don´t know if he had any children?"<br />
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I looked on Facebook and found her name and sent her a message to see if this had been the same person, and today she contacted me. It appears he was indeed her great uncle, and I've been able to fill in some gaps for her, and will be forwarding on a photo. In return, she tells me she will send some photos of Otto from the early days.<br />
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@TrapperBud continues to open up all sorts of new and exciting avenues for me, and I'm thrilled to not only fall into this small slice of family history, but to welcome others and their own offshoots of that history. We really are weaving this together, or perhaps finding shards of a mysterious and broken past that fit together in surprising ways, offering new and expanded views of what came before.<br />
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For this, I'm grateful.<br />
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<br />Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-37141124012188139152014-01-15T19:38:00.002-08:002014-01-15T20:29:56.596-08:00The Movies of 2013Well, after a drop in the number of movies seen each year, 2013 saw an increase in viewing. Part of this can be attributed to Netflix, even though they’re usually not very up to date, and part of this can be attributed to more that interested me and, for some reason, more time to see it. <br />
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In 2012 I saw only 40 movies, but 2013 saw that jump all the way to 61, although there are some provisos to that number. While normally I track only movies from the current and previous year (to allow for the time it takes some to make it here to the backwoods), this number does include a few from years previous, including one from many years ago. Suitable notation will be made so you know which is which, and why. 46% of the movies I saw were on the big screen, but a crapped-out TV saw us move up to a 55 inch screen in the TV room, so that with a decent surround sound system does help the viewing experience.<br />
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Interestingly, but not surprisingly, I seem to have only purchased one BluRay during the entire year. I know I would like to start picking up Criterion discs, but have yet to commit to it. Otherwise, most everything I want to watch at home I can find online.<br />
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And so, here’s the list. As usual, any movie I saw in the theatre will include an asterisk (*), and if a movie is not from 2013 I will include its year of release. This time out I’m also telling you what in what country it was produced. When you get to the entry about Lore you’ll see why this interested me. As well, this year there are some 2012 movies I won’t rule out of my top 10 list, strictly based on whether or not I even was given the chance to see them in 2013. As a final note, let me remind you I am not a critic, I have a life, and therefore miss a lot of films. So this list is only from my tiny little corner of the world.<br />
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*Django Unchained (2012) US - Typical sharp, stylish Tarantino, with plenty of violence and, being a revenge fantasy, loads of improbabilities. Not quite as ahistorical as Inglorious Basterds, and not quite as good, but still enjoyable.<br />
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The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) US - It worked well for what it was, the old comic geek in me appreciated that Gwen Stacey was there at the start instead of Mary Jane Parker, but I do question why it had to be done this way so soon. Still, the hints of the next movie look interesting.<br />
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Headhunters (2011) Norway/Germany - A crime thriller with Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (of Game of Thrones fame). Tense and smart and I do recommend seeing it before the supposed American remake shows up. <br />
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Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) US - A small indie film about 3 magazine employees looking to interview the guy who placed an ad seeking a companion for his time traveling. There was a side story I at first question but which ended up being right for the movie, and the ending is almost as perfect as any ending on this list could possibly be.<br />
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Seven Psychopaths (2012) US - I didn’t mind it, but it seemed a little too caught up in all its cleverness. Sam Rockwell plays unhinged quite well, but to see him at his best there was another movie this year to watch.<br />
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Wreck-It Ralph (2012) US - Absolutely delightful. The voice casting was spot-on, the story heartfelt and the characters and animation tremendous.<br />
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*Silver Linings Playbook (2012) US - I enjoy David O. Russell films, and this one was no exception, but I never know exactly where he’s going to take me. I suppose that could be good, but for a movie about two damaged individuals, this one seemed to be fairly tightly controlled. Not antiseptic, but like a story that knew all the beats it had to hit and made sure it landed on them hard.<br />
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*Pacific Rim (2013) US - Sue me if you want, but a giant robot vs giant monster movie with shots like the one of Idris Elba coming out of the top of his Jaeger with the sun shining down from behind him like a halo is about nothing but iconography, the images of movies and heroes and our fears, and it did almost everything right.<br />
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*Man of Steel (2013) US - Dizzying, numbing, with a disappointing finish. That said, the scenes with Kevin Costner as Pa Kent were real and sometimes heartbreaking. He seems to have reinvented himself, and I hope it holds.<br />
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*Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) US - Last year it was Prometheus, this year the movie that made me very angry was this one. “Hello? I know we said we wouldn’t do it because it would mess with history and the time stream, but I’d like to place an intergalactic direct call to the original Spock so he can solve a plot point for me with me having to do any actual, you know, work on the story.” See also: white guy playing a Sikh character. Also see also: Klingons as an afterthought. Also also see also: regurgitating only some parts of an old plot from the series, rather than finding something original. Argh. Now I’m getting angry again.<br />
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*Iron Man 3 (2013) US - Comic book geek I may be, but I have no history with the Mandarin, so what happened with his character didn’t bother me. That said, that particular sleight of hand did feel like a bit of a cheat. The good news was this was still a good fun punch/blast ‘em up.<br />
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*Mud (2013) US - This movie was a pure wonder. Superb acting, tense filmmaking, a marvelous cast, great dialogue. <br />
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*42 (2013) US - A decent sports movie with a unique (for him) turn by Harrison Ford, although at the same time the whole thing is still very much of a piece with almost any other sports movie.<br />
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*Room 237 (2013) US - A very strange documentary about people with conspiracy theories and strange beliefs about Stanley Kubrick and The Shining.<br />
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*The Shining (1980) UK/US - And while I saw this when it first came to theatres, I include it here because I saw it as a part of a double bill with Room 237. Very nice to be able to see it on the big screen and in that company.<br />
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*From Up On Poppy Hill (2013) Japan - Another marvel from Miyazaki. This one was no fantasy, unlike so many of his others, but grounded in the reality of a post-war Japan leading up to the Tokyo Olympics. It delights me to report that this is Brennan’s (who is 14) favourite of all of the Studio Ghibli films.<br />
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The Last Stand (2013) US - Schwarzenegger is back, and doing a fine job of making fun of his age and decrepitude while still being a tough guy. A very good actioner.<br />
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Mama (2013) Spain/Canada - A decent enough horror film with an ending that just pissed me off no end.<br />
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The Bay (2012) US - Barry Levinson, you helped create the greatest TV crime drama of all time, and you did some decent things with this, but found footage? Really? Still, a tense enough thriller/horror flick.<br />
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End of Watch (2012) US - A good cop drama, although somewhat episodic, which disturbs the flow a few times.<br />
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Premium Rush (2012) US - I was surprised how much I enjoyed this one. The bike-messenger-as-savant trick worked well for me.<br />
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Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011) Japan - A lovely little documentary about a top sushi chef in Japan. Well worth watching.<br />
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Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011) UK - The slightest of slight. Enjoyable, I suppose, but it didn’t take me anywhere.<br />
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The Hunter (2011) Australia - While the tension was real and the acting tremendous, the conceit, not only of the existence of the thylacine but of why it needed to be killed, was a huge, ridiculous stretch.<br />
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*Kon-Tiki (2013) UK/Norway/Denmark/Germany/Sweden - Interesting fact: they filmed this in both English and Norwegian, doing separate takes for each. Good movie, about a story that once captured our hearts and minds but which most of us have forgotten about.<br />
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*World War Z (2013) US - A whole lotta stupid going on. Yeah, it was tense and exciting, but so much of that was manufactured in ways that took me out of the picture.<br />
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*Trance (2013) UK - A Danny Boyle thriller, which means there are going to be moments of sheer bliss and moments of undeniable silliness as he asks you to buy into things.<br />
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*The Way Way Back (2013) US - Outstanding movie. Sam Rockwell deserves an Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actor. Fun and sweet and moving and peopled with all sorts of interesting characters.<br />
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*Much Ado About Nothing (2013) US - Very well done and enjoyable. But now I want to go to Joss Whedon’s house.<br />
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*Skull World (2013) Canada - A strange and quirky documentary about a guy who makes armor and weapons of of cardboard and then has battles with others who do the same. Unending childhood, in other words. It came as no surprise to note what his favorite type of music was.<br />
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*The World’s End (2013) UK - While not as crazy funny as the previous two Cornetto Trilogy movies (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz), this still worked very well, and even piled on more of the interactions between characters who had forgotten how to get along.<br />
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In the Loop (2009) UK - Funnily enough, I was out of the loop on this one, and didn’t even know about it until after James Gandolfini died. Very funny, very dark, and Peter Capaldi (whom I have liked very much since Local Hero) his so brilliant in it.<br />
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Oblivion (2013) US - A mediocre Tom Cruise SF movie with a premise that Moon did much better.<br />
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Into the White (2012) Norway/Sweden - A decent little film based on a true story, of Luftwaffe and RAF airmen forced to survive together in the Arctic. Rupert Grint, AKA Ronald Weasley, does a convincing Scouse accent.<br />
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*In A World (2013) US - I really liked this one, about a young woman trying to break into the male-dominated world of movie trailer narration. Funny and smart.<br />
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The Impossible (2012) Spain - Yeah, I know it’s white people suffering in a tragedy while surrounded by many non-white people also suffering, but it is loosely based on a true story. Decent, and it does flip things upside down a bit by having the natives do the rescuing.<br />
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*Gravity (2013) USA - Astonishing. This one pinned me to the back of my seat and didn’t let me up. Emotional and thrilling and exhausting, and a second viewing didn’t change any of that for me. There are few films I think 3D are ideal for, but this one was for sure.<br />
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This is the End (2013) USA - Funny and at the same time the sort of irritating that only comes from a bunch of guys using frat-boy humor to give each other knowing nods and winks.<br />
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Ain’t in it For My Health (2010) USA - An excellent documentary about Levon Helm, once the drummer for The Band, as he lives out the last of his life.<br />
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*Nosferatu (1922) Germany - Another event at the Roxy, the local repertory cinema, where they host a fundraiser with a silent movie, music supplied by members of the Saskatoon Symphony Orchestra. It had been a long time since I’d seen the movie, and I found if I set aside my 21st-century expectations, it still held up.<br />
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*Captain Phillips (2013) USA - Tom Hanks does a good job, and the Somali actors (who were not actors before this movie) were wonderful. I know this is one of those “true” stories that is heavily disputed, so I found it easier to watch this as just a fiction. Nice to see a thriller in which the protagonists are not relying on newly-found Rambo skills.<br />
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The Sapphires (2013) Australia - It seems obvious that Chris O’Dowd is set to play the same character in every movie he acts in, but I’ll give that he’s clever and likable, even when he isn’t supposed to be likable. Another fact-based movie that messes with the truth in the service of a supposedly better story, it is (mostly) light and good fun.<br />
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*12 Years a Slave (2013) USA - Everything good you’ve heard about this movie is true. So hard to watch in so many spots, this is nonetheless an amazing film with some incredible acting.<br />
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Monsters University (2013) USA - A lot of very good fun, and it almost recaptures much of what made the original so special. Sadly, there is no character like Boo.<br />
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I’m Not Scared (2003) Italy - I watched this based on a recommendation, and am here to tell you it was an astonishing find. Disturbing and tense and a very real look at how children react to outside pressures, this one needs to be watched.<br />
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*The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013) USA - Good, better than the first, but, as with the book, I find myself disturbed by Katniss’ lack of agency at the end.<br />
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*All is Lost (2013) - Robert Redford is a wonder in this, a very quiet and draining movie that works hard to break a lot of conventions. The ending will leave you thinking, too.<br />
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Europa Report (2013) USA - A very smart science fiction film with actual, you know, science. Especially astonishing considering how cheaply it was made.<br />
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Frances Ha (2012) Netherlands - Not sure why the listing says this is a Dutch film, since it’s all Americans and mostly takes place in New York. Funding, I guess. The title character, as played by Greta Gerwig, is likable and more than a little floundering in her life. A nice story about normal people, with normal lives.<br />
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The Trip (2010) Greece - Same deal with place, since this is clearly a UK film. Funny and wry, and now I’m obsessed with Rob Brydon’s Tiny Man Trapped in a Box. <br />
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Blackfish (2013) Iceland - A disturbing documentary about captive Orcas, especially Tillikum, and Sea World and the industry it has created and is fighting very hard to hang onto.<br />
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*Philomena (2013) USA - But really UK. I liked that this film had some smart, adult things to say about the nature of faith, from both sides of the divide. A fine film.<br />
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Stand Off (2011) New Zealand - But really Ireland. Don’t let the poster fool you, this is a clever little film with Brendan Fraser doing what he does well, albeit having aged a bit. Plus, it has Colm Meaney!<br />
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*The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) USA - I lost count of the times where this movie played like a video game. But still, I got what I paid for, what I expected, and therefore had a good enough time.<br />
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The Short Game (2013) USA - A fun and delightful documentary about young children (7!) at the world championship of golf. You don’t have to be a golf fan to enjoy this.<br />
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Oldboy (2003) Korea - Finally. And every bit as disturbing as I’d heard.<br />
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Do the Right Thing (1989) USA - Also finally. I can’t believe it took me this long. And Radio Raheem was Robbie from the Raimi Spiderman movies!<br />
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Lore (2012) Australia - All in German, about the children of an SS officer trying to get across the country to their grandmother’s house at the end of WW2. But directed by an Australian. Very good movie, and the payoff at the end is extremely powerful.<br />
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The Angels’ Share (2012) UK - For director Ken Loach this is something of a trifle, but still an enjoyable one. I of course have a weak spot for anything about single malt.<br />
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*American Hustle (2013) USA - Tremendous acting, including a nice surprise appearance, and some of director David O. Russell’s strange little quirks make for a very good movie, but I always feel like he’s reaching when he throws in a happy ending (see: Silver Linings Playbook).<br />
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Stories We Tell (2012) Greece - But really Canada. And why the hell couldn’t she find financing here? This documentary, made by Sarah Polley and about the search for her real father, is incredible. There’s a scene near the end when the camera revolves through most of the people involved, focusing in as they think on their lost friend/spouse/mother, heartbreaking not just for what it includes but for what it doesn’t.<br />
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I tried to watch Oz the Great and Powerful but couldn’t stomach it. Just awful.<br />
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And so to the top 10 of the year. Remember, while this is primarily 2013, if a 2012 movie is included, it's because there was no way for me to see it in its release year. If you have problems with the order of 1 and 2, keep in note that this is strictly because of how the first one hit me. I'm not saying it's a more important film; I'm saying it had a bigger impact on me.<br />
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1. Gravity<br />
2. 12 Years a Slave<br />
3. The Way Way Back<br />
4. All is Lost<br />
5. Mud <br />
6. From Up on Poppy Hill <br />
7. In a World <br />
8. Stories We Tell <br />
9. Lore<br />
10. Frances Ha<br />
<br />
ps I made a mistake, forgetting all about Mud and All is Lost, so some movies have been moved around, and American Hustle and The Short Game displaced. Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-51838985945871179412013-12-12T11:41:00.001-08:002013-12-12T20:35:38.299-08:00News From Back in the DayToday the mail brought a bunch of goodies for my ongoing @TrapperBud project. For anyone not aware of this, I am tweeting the diaries of my grandfather, "Bud" Murphy (yes, Bud, even though at the time he was called "Spud." It's what we knew him as) from his time as a trapper in the Northwest Territories. The current set of entries are in late 1929.<br />
<br />
Anyhow, a bunch of diaries from my father, uncle, great-uncle and second cousin arrived today, via my dad, as well as some ephemera. While the diaries lend themselves nicely to Twitter's format, some of these items may not. In those cases, when appropriate, I will put them up here.<br />
<br />
The first is an article from either the <i>Edmonton Bulletin </i>(which died in 1951) or the<i> Journal</i>. It's been clipped, and nowhere do I see the date. However, I feel it safe to say it was written some time in the late 1930s. There are a few clues to that assumption. First, Grandpa is mentioned in the article, and he was in the north for pretty much all of the '30s. Second, the article seems to have been on the second page of the paper, and what remains of the front page mentions Edmonton mayor John W. Fry. Wikipedia tells me he was mayor from 1937 to 1944. Also on the front page is a British United Press article dated May 21 from Vancouver entitled "Unemployed Sit-Downers Still Control," about an "efficiently organized army of unemployed" engaged in a sit-down strike. So, the Great Depression. Since elections were in November, this would be 1938 or 1939. I'm guessing 1938.<br />
<br />
The unnamed author is breathless in his statements about just how barren and alien the north must be, so much so that I'm surprised Grandpa hung onto it for all of his life. He was always sure to mention how wild and bare and dangerous the north was, sure, but never without telling me about how great it was as well. He respected it <br />
<br />
As a point of interest, Edmonton in 1938 had a population of 88,887, as opposed to a metropolitan area that sits at over one million today, over 800,000 of them in the city itself.<br />
<br />
BARREN LANDS TRAPPERS LIKE LIFE IN THE NORTH<br />
---------<br />
No More Exciting Than Clerking in Store Hardy Men Declare<br />
---------<br />
<br />
Running a trap line in the barren lands is no more exciting than clerking in a city store, not nearly so dangerous as trying to cross a city street, and is a darn nice way to earn a living if you don't mind doing without a few comforts, is the unanimous opinion of eight barren lands trappers who arrived in Edmonton Friday afternoon in a Mackenzie Air Service plane piloted by Archie Vanhee.<br />
<br />
The party, consisting of M.P. "Matt" Murphy, and his son, C.M. "Spud" Murphy, George Magrum and his son John, A.J. Knox, Allan "Skipper" Stewart, J.W. Cooley, and John "Tin Can Johnny" McKay, have spent the past winter, and many others, trapping in remote parts of the barren lands about 200 miles north and east of Fort Reliance.<br />
<br />
TREKKED 400 MILES<br />
<br />
To reach the plane at Fort Resolution, the men trekked by dog team more than 400 miles across the dreary, frozen wastes of the barrens, bringing their winter catch of furs on sleighs with them. The country in which they trap is so remote that even the Indians and the Eskimos shun it and, except for wolves, foxes and caribou, these white men are its only inhabitants.<br />
<br />
The two Murphys spent the winter trapping along the Back river, within 60 miles of the Arctic Circle. The Magrums trap north of Aylmer Lake, Stewart was trapping at Muskox Lake, as does Cooley, while "Tin Can "Johnny" McKay traps far to the eastwards, on the eastern side of the Thelon river, beyond the game sanctuary. Knox traps north of Aylmer Lake.<br />
<br />
BARREN WASTE<br />
<br />
The country in which these men trap is a barren, rocky waste, traversed by numerous little streams and lakes. Beside these lakes grow small patches of scrub willow, and it is upon these patches of willow that the trappers depend for their supply of fuel.<br />
<br />
In order to live in the barrens during the long cold winters, when the icy wind howling out of the north, drives even the foxes and wolves to shelter for days at a time, these men spent two months each fall preparing for the winter's work.<br />
<br />
Cabins, usually canvas topped mud huts, are set up at strategic points along their trap lines. Then, for nearly a month, the trapper busies himself laying in the winter's supply of fuel.<br />
<br />
Frome (sp) the sparse willow thickets, the men cut branches of willow -- usually less than half an inch in diameter.<br />
<br />
ADEQUATE SUPPLY<br />
<br />
These willow branches are piled onto the sleighs and skidded across the barrens behind a team of six or seven dogs. Sometimes they have to carry their wood as far as 50 miles. And they must be sure that an adequate supply is laid in, because a man must have fire to live in that frozen land. For weeks he will cut and bundle willow roots and shoots, and haul them to his cabins and pile them where they will be readily accessible.<br />
<br />
After the supply of wood is laid in he must lay in a supply of meat. There must be not only food for himself, but food for his dogs, and bait for the traps. Fish are plentiful in the streams and lakes, and the country is the natural home of caribou. But it takes two or three weeks to catch enough fish and shoot enough caribou to last through the long winter.<br />
<br />
REPAIR EQUIPMENT<br />
<br />
The traps and equipment must be repaired and put in good working order. Supplies of coffee, tea, tobacco and canned butter, bacon, flour and other supplies brought in from Fort Reliance.<br />
<br />
When these things are finished the trapper is ready for the winter. Then he walks miles behind his team visiting his traps marked by mounds of snow. Foxes and wolves are taken from the traps and skinned, and the skins stretched. The trapper is a busy man.<br />
<br />
LIVE THERE BY CHOICE.<br />
<br />
But these men of the north would rather live there than anywhere else. "We live there by choice. We think that trapping is as good a way to earn a living as any other. We don't mind going without inner spring mattresses and the comforts of home. And we prefer being up there where we aren't bothered by salesmen, politicians or reckless drivers. And after a short holiday we are all going back," stated Stewart -- known to these men as "The Skipper" -- and the others nodded their agreement. They don't waste words. Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-30156573575110751632013-03-25T20:07:00.003-07:002013-03-25T20:08:34.796-07:00Words of Others on SteubenvilleI've been collecting a variety of pieces on the rape, bizarre citizen reaction, and ensuing court case in Steubenville. Items for my teenaged boys to read. They're good kids, and I know damned well that Jo and I have taught them well enough to know what's Right and what's Wrong, and how to treat women, girls, men, boys, and of course animals.<br />
<br />
But I also know that they are teenaged boys, and I know that sometimes, usually the most inopportune times, the ol' brain cells take a short holiday. Just because I've raised them well up to this date doesn't let me off the hook; it's an ongoing job, and while I trust them to make me proud, I also trust them to sometimes follow along with the crowd and not realize what they have done until after the fact. The good news is, that sort of action usually involves something much more minor than sexual assault, rape, or even sexual harassment.<br />
<br />
I was going to link to these pieces one by one via Twitter and Facebook, say something short and sweet, and then stand over them as they read. But today I read something that made me feel as close to physically ill as reading anything has made me feel in many years. And so I thought, Yes, I have to share this with the boys as well. Because they need to understand that shit can be smeared by people who are ostensibly intelligent, who are lucky enough to have some sort of platform, and who are so full of themselves that they would never condescend to accepting any opinion that might damage their precious worldview.<br />
<br />
With that in mind, I give you the <a href="http://www2.macleans.ca/2013/03/23/land-mines-in-our-sexual-landscape/">latest idiocy from Barbara Amiel</a>, in <i>Macleans</i>', which likes to pretend it's a news magazine in the spirit of <i>Time</i>, I suppose. Go read the article, and then, once you've shaken clear all the awful images that come to mind, come back and think with me on this: how can someone, even someone so clearly abhorrent as Barbara Amiel has apparently become, simultaneously take such repulsive stands on rape, on child pornography, on assault, and even say a few good words about society degrading because of all sorts of things she disagrees with. It's a grab-bag of horrid, classist, full-on disgusting declarations, all neatly wrapped up in one simple package. The editors at <i>Macleans</i>' should be ashamed, and I sincerely hope they receive letters from large numbers of people cancelling their subscriptions.<br />
<br />
So now we need to wash away the bad taste in our mouths. How about we start with <a href="http://accidentaldevotional.com/2013/03/19/the-day-i-taught-how-not-to-rape/">the teacher who taught her students how not to rape</a>? Yeah, that's a good one. Encouraging. And you see what I mean about teen brains? Sometimes the kids are taught wrong from the start, but sometimes they just don't put two and two together right away, but give them a chance, and the majority of them will figure it out.<br />
<br />
Tabitha Southey had some <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/columnists/rape-is-still-treated-as-a-matter-of-sex-but-i-know-better/article10243048/">good (and sad) things to say</a> about this in Saturday's <i>Globe and Mail</i>. In the same paper Elizabeth Renzetti wrote very well about <a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/bystander-guilt-how-do-we-ensure-our-kids-have-the-courage-to-act/article10254960/">helping our kids to have the bravery to act</a>, rather than just watch, and even laugh along.<br />
<br />
And, no surprise, John Scalzi wrote a couple of excellent blog posts on the matter, "<a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/03/21/two-simple-observations-regarding-women/">Two Simple Observations, Regarding Women</a>," and a <a href="http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/03/19/stubenville-and-cnn-and-the-rest/">bit more on Steubenville</a>, which includes these two key rules, which make sense and therefore frustrate me to no end that they have to be repeated:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>One’s own poor judgment does not excuse the poor judgment of others.</li>
<li>Nothing excuses rape.</li>
</ol>
Finally, if you haven't seen it, <a href="http://www.ivillage.ca/blog/health/womens-health/watch-anti-rape-video-goes-viral">watch this short video</a>. There have been plenty of memes going around on Facebook and elsewhere lamenting the fact that women starting university often have to be taught about how to avoid rape or sexual assault, and yet there is little effort being made to tell men instead, Well, no, that's not a good thing to do. So here we have an answer, as small as it might be.<br />
<br />
If you have boys, I hope that some day you will find the appropriate time to discuss these issues with them. If not, this is all still worthwhile, for all of us. <br />
<br />Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-45501613117386403172013-01-10T18:12:00.001-08:002013-01-10T18:14:22.736-08:00The Movies of 2012Another drop in movies seen this past year, which on the face of it seems odd since by most accounts 2012 was a far superior year to 2011. But, you know, life. The kids keep me busy, work keeps me busy, writing keeps me busy, and 2012 was the year I finally got an Apple TV and hooked up to Netflix, so there is that. First thing accomplished upon that purchase, actually, was to find the delicious goodness we'd been missing with <i>Downton Abbey</i>. Cramming in all of those episodes takes time!<br />
<br />
In 2011 <a href="http://derrylmurphy.blogspot.ca/2012/01/movies-of-2011.html">I saw</a> 48 movies, which was a drop from the year before. 2012 only brought me to 40 movies, two of which were significantly older than the usual fare, but which are listed because I saw them on the big screen. 44% of the movies I saw were in the theatre in 2011, as opposed to 58% in 2012. If I were to guess as to why this is, I'd say that the lack of nearby video stores, coupled with Netflix being readily available and yet not carrying many truly current movies are the main reasons. That said, it made sense to see many of these movies on the big screen, something I can't always say.<br />
<br />
Here's the list. Any movie seen in the theatre will include an asterisk (*), and for those movies not released in 2012 I will include their year of release.<br />
<br />
*The Grey - I went into this ready to ridicule it for making wolves into the bad guys and feeling like it was probably going to be Sarah Palin's ultimate wet dream. I came out astonished to have seen something of a paean to atheism, to say nothing of a quiet yet brutal thriller. And the best plane crash since Castaway, possibly even better.<br />
<br />
Chronicle - While I tire of the found footage movies still being flung our way, this one wasn't too irritating. Decent, even, although whiny teens no longer occupy a soft spot in my heart, being the father of teens now.<br />
<br />
*In Darkness - A Polish movie, based on a true story, of Jews being hidden in the sewers by a local man who initially starts out only thinking about money, but soon grows into more altruistic reasons. Outstanding.<br />
<br />
*The Secret World of Arietty - Out in 2010 in Japan, but it didn't make here and in English until last year. Miyazaki didn't direct, but he did have a hand in the script, and this adaptation of the children's novel <i>The Borrowers</i> was tremendous.<br />
<br />
21 Jump Street - Funny and raucous, a well-done entry in the sudden onslaught of gross-out comedies.<br />
<br />
*The Hunger Games - My son Brennan, a huge fan of the books, was a little harder on this than I was. That said, it was more than OK, less than excellent.<br />
<br />
*The Raid: Redemption - A martial arts/police/crime thriller in Indonesian directed by a Welshman. Incredibly intense and exciting.<br />
<br />
*The Cabin in the Woods - This was apparently a love or hate movie, and I fell into the love camp. Great gooey fun.<br />
<br />
<br />
*Beasts of Southern Wild - A revelation, and worth all the hype. Yeah, you're not supposed to like the dad, nor are you supposed to be pleased with the poverty. But instead of viewing it as an apologia (as I heard from a critic on the radio today), view it as a triumph of human spirit.<br />
<br />
Bernie - If you haven't seen it you may have trouble processing this, but now that the Oscars have been announced I find myself disappointed that Jack Black did not receive a nomination for Best Actor. Because he really was that good. A better feel-good movie about a murderer you won't find these days.<br />
<br />
*The Avengers - Sloppy and sometimes bothersome, but some great characters and chemistry redeemed it.<br />
<br />
*Moonrise Kingdom - I love Wes Anderson's stagey presence in his movies, his calm detachment, his quirky characters. But even with all that, this was his warmest movie in years, and it's a damn shame it didn't get any love from the Academy.<br />
<br />
*Prometheus - Woof. Listen, you've proven you can run moments after having an emergency C-section, so why can't you just run to the side? What a ridiculous movie. The more I think about it, the angrier I get.<br />
<br />
*Brave - Not as light a Pixar movie as some might have it, its family dynamic still suffers a bit in comparison to the real emotion of Up and Wall-E, probably because it ended up feeling more like Disney and the Lessons Required in such movies.<br />
<br />
*The Dark Knight Rises - I liked Bane as a character, I liked Catwoman, I liked some of the set pieces, and I was appalled by the not-so-hidden message that the ordinary people can't and shouldn't think and act for themselves.<br />
<br />
*Looper - A smart time travel thriller. Quite enjoyable.<br />
<br />
*Argo - Yes, there were cars chasing the plane, characters were sometimes composites, and it gave short shrift to the Canadian contribution, but this was still an enjoyable film, and it's surprising how tense I felt considering a knew what was coming.<br />
<br />
*Skyfall - Lost me when he rode on the back of the monitor lizard. Would have pulled me back if Sean Connery had played the Scottish gamekeeper, although Albert Finney was perfectly serviceable. But still enjoyable.<br />
<br />
*Lincoln - Daniel Day Lewis really is all that and a bag of chips. And the movie itself was wonderful. Yes, I know Spielberg knows how to pull my strings, but if he's going to do it like this, I'm OK with it.<br />
<br />
*Life of Pi - The most gorgeous movie I saw last year. Stunning, and more so in 3D. And it made me feel good. Which may sound odd, if you've seen the movie and know my views on god and religion.<br />
<br />
*The Hobbit - 3D was not absolutely necessary, but I did see it that way, and in 48fps as well. The sharpness that gave made it feel like I was watching an episode of <i>Planet Middle Earth</i>, waiting for David Attenborough to start narrating at any moment. Enjoyable, but it could have used some editing.<br />
<br />
*A Separation (2011, but since it was the very end of the year, I will count it as 2012) - Magnificent and distressing Iranian film about the collapse of a family.<br />
<br />
Centurion (2010) - A pretty decent film about Roman soldiers on the run for their lives in ancient Britain.<br />
<br />
The Lincoln Lawyer (2011) - Good thriller with Matthew McConaughey.<br />
<br />
Midnight in Paris (2011) - I couldn't rave about it as much as others, but I did like this movie. For me, this is closer to a return to form for Woody than some previous outings.<br />
<br />
X-Men: First Class (2011) - I'm now at the point where I can honestly say I enjoy a good superhero movie, but can't think of anything to say about them. Overload.<br />
<br />
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) - Very good, especially the mocap work by Andy Serkis as Caesar.<br />
<br />
Fright Night (2011) - A quite good remake of the original horror flick.<br />
<br />
Colombiana (2011) - Dime-a-dozen revenge thriller.<br />
<br />
Contagion (2011) - Spooky, and it felt all-too-real. I especially liked how Soderbergh looped it back to the beginning.<br />
<br />
Moneyball (2011) - This was a very good movie, which surprised the heck out of my wife.<br />
<br />
50/50 (2011) - A movie about cancer that makes you feel good, and doesn't cheat doing it. Well done.<br />
<br />
The Ides of March (2011) - As I noted, most people have been saying that 2012 was better than 2011 for movies. But there were a whole lot of movies that were really took you places without requiring stuff blowing up. Tense and interesting and well-acted.<br />
<br />
The Descendants (2011) - Another excellent Clooney film.<br />
<br />
The Muppets (2011) - And this one was way fun, as well.<br />
<br />
*The Artist (2011) - Good. Not worth all of the fuss, I thought, but still fun to watch.<br />
<br />
*Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011) - I very much loved this movie, and if I'd been able to see it in the year it was released it would have been on the top of my list. Gary Oldman was a marvel. Watch how calmly he reacts to the bee in the back of the car, and then see the back of his neck in John Hurt's apartment in the next scene.<br />
<br />
*Thief of Bagdad (silent, with symphony) (1924) - A fundraiser at our excellent Roxy Theatre, this is the Douglas Fairbanks movie, completely and ridiculously overacted, and every moment was a blast.<br />
<br />
*Lawrence of Arabia (1962) - My all-time favorite film, re-released and cleaned right up, on the big screen the way it was meant to be seen. Glorious.<br />
<br />
And so on to my Top Ten(ish). Again, only movies from 2012, aside from the odd foreign film that couldn't get here at the original release date.<br />
<br />
1. A Separation<br />
2. Beasts of the Southern Wild<br />
3. Lincoln<br />
4. Life of Pi<br />
5. In Darkness<br />
6. Moonrise Kingdom<br />
7. Bernie<br />
8. Argo<br />
9. The Grey<br />
10. The Raid: Redemption/The Cabin in the Woods (tie)<br />
<br />
I have seen Django Unchained, but didn't get to the theatre until the new year, so that will have to wait. And I promise to try and be more diligent.Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-2575195910422944442012-11-11T18:46:00.000-08:002012-11-11T18:46:57.834-08:00Lawrence of Arabia (mostly) the way it was meant to be seenJo and I went to the theatre to see my all-time movie today, <i>Lawrence of Arabia</i>. For its 50th birthday the film has been given a remarkable <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/movies/lawrence-of-arabia-mended-returns-to-screen-and-blu-ray.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0">facelift</a>, and leading up to its Blu Ray release it has come to movie theatres, what is supposed to be a four hour and seventeen minute event, including the intermission.<br />
<br />
I own the movie on DVD, and even though it came out one year before I was born, I was lucky enough to see it on the big screen once before. As noted in the article linked to above, though, the version I saw was not that optimal. Still and all, I felt very lucky to have seen it in a movie theatre at all, and was delighted to be able to again.<br />
<br />
There were a couple of issues to note in an otherwise perfect day (aside from the fact that sitting for that long, even with an intermission, apparently gets harder the older I get. Go figure). First of all, the quality of the digital "print" was indeed spectacular, but like pretty much every other digitally-projected movie, it did seem a little dimmer, a little more washed-out than it should have been. Still gorgeous, but not as good as it would have been on film. That said, it wouldn't look anything near as good if it had been on film, so that's a push.<br />
<br />
Also, a couple of times in the second half of the movie, there was a slight jump of lost information or else a problem with the projector, a stutter, if you will. I will assume that it might have been a fault with the download process, and that the Blu Ray will be just fine.<br />
<br />
When I last saw the movie in a theatre, the screen was the old-style big screen, with a much wider aspect ratio, and with a deep concave curve. The advantage to this, besides getting that immersion that a David Lean epic filmed with 65mm stock deserves, is that wide horizon shots tend to follow the curve (if I recall correctly, and I have to remind you this was a long time ago). On this screen, with no or little curve, the result is the horizon curves instead, making a slight smile of a line. I suspect most people don't even think anything of that, but to me it was a tad disconcerting. <br />
<br />
The final problem is the funniest, and also the saddest. When the movie starts (and the same after the intermission) there is a five minute overture with a black screen and music playing. No surprise, the people who work at the theatre had no idea that this was the case, and a couple of times tried to start it and then stopped it so they could fix the "problem." Finally, someone pointed out the error to the young employee who came in to explain the situation to us and we actually got to watch the movie.<br />
<br />
Problems aside, this is still a great movie, one that deserves to be seen on as big a screen as you can find. I know it plays once more here in Saskatoon, on November 14, and if you can spare the time and can manage to lengthy sit-down, I strongly recommend it. The bonus for that is it should end a few minutes sooner than it did today, since the staff are hopefully all going to be aware of how the movie starts.Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-2303314458876331382012-09-15T17:01:00.004-07:002012-09-15T17:01:56.349-07:00Late News Hits Just As HardI know that relying on social media and parents is a flawed policy for finding out about news in a timely fashion, but how is it that <i>today</i> I find out that Brad Greenwood (a former boss and an important part of the indie book retailer scene in Western Canada) <a href="http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/Brad+Greenwood+helped+build+legendary+independent+bookstore/6990130/story.html">died</a> on July 19? Really, this makes me question the value of FB and the like even more: I have friends (and family) in Edmonton who must have known about this, who surely can't have forgotten that I worked at Greenwoods' in the 1980s. So either some of them posted something but it went by so fast I never saw it, or they didn't post at all, but either way it's frustrating.<br />
<br />
We shouldn't have to rely on something like FB or Twitter to update us on the news, good and bad, that hits our lives. We should, however, know that sometimes we need to pick up the phone, or even send along a direct email, for crying out loud. It may indeed be difficult to remember who is connected with each other, I understand this, but the inability to move forward when that lack of conviction hits you is a sad thing.<br />
<br />
Or am I just spitting into the wind here? When a friend's father died not long ago, I made the effort to contact the mutual friends who I know would have wanted to hear the news. Some were contacted via phone, others by email, which while less personal is still at the very least direct.<br />
<br />
Facebook and Twitter are useful, yes, but I believe they have demeaned the very meaning and value of contact in our lives. Nobody phones anymore (well, nobody phones <i>me</i>, and maybe it's because I'm turning into this crotchety old man who shakes his fist at kids these days. The data is inconclusive), and so if I want to talk with anyone it's me who almost always picks up the phone.<br />
<br />
This saddens me, and the news of Brad's death coming so late just adds to the pile-on. Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17938294.post-35892420343410856572012-09-12T19:18:00.001-07:002012-09-12T20:24:40.397-07:00Making Changes In Consideration of My Mental HealthI am finding that certain aspects of social media (primarily Facebook, but some Twitter as well. Google+, not so much, since I barely go there) are really starting to get under my skin, to the extent that I'm having sleep problems and certain other issues, and so I thought I would lay out some thoughts about what I need to do to take care of myself. The end result will likely mean I am going to thin the herd, on Facebook at least, but such is life in the digital age.<br />
<br />
But first, I need to lay out some ground rules:<br />
<br />
1. If you and I disagree about politics or religion, but you post on your own wall, I have no problem with that, and hopefully you don't have one with me doing the same. If you choose to disagree with something I have posted on my own wall or Twitter feed and can manage to do so respectfully, then we can stay friends. If you can't, then I will pull the plug. No warning.<br />
<br />
2. The exception to that is if you post something that is so over the top offensive that I can't find any justification for keeping you around. The most recent example is the putz who wished that Chris Brown would smack Rhianna back to where she was with her first album. Sorry, jokes about abusing women don't get a pass from me. Announcing you're sure a specific group of people are going to Hell for not behaving as you do is another way to lose me.<br />
<br />
3. If you're a hypocrite, I may end up walking away as well, no muss, no fuss. I get to decide what makes a hypocrite in my mind. Which, ironically, could strike some as hypocritical. But there it is. Some hypocritical action (or rather, inaction) is going on on Twitter right this moment, actually, and I suspect if I don't see anybody step out and address the issue I'll say something and then stop following several people. Some of whom I know.<br />
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4. If you complain that I am posting too much about something to do with my life and/or my family, then obviously you've lost track of the "defriend" function, and therefore I will take care of that option for you. I am on social media partly because I am an author (see next point), but I am also largely here because of family and friends, and because we live far away from most of them, and they wish to know about what's happening with my family. <br />
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5. I'm a writer, and am therefore aware of the need for self promotion, but I tire of much of what passes for self promo on the web these days. When I have a book come out, I announce it. When good news comes regarding the book (big sales, great reviews, etc.), I announce that. If it's up for an award, or eligible for one, I may post a reminder about it. But here's what I won't do: I won't send a broadcast message asking you to buy my book; I won't do the same asking you to specifically nominate my book; I won't target you with a specific message asking any of those same favors; I won't expect you to buy my book just because I bought yours; and I won't by yours just because you bought mine.<br />
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Why? Because it all creates undue and unfair pressure. I know I could just choose to ignore any of these things, but it's not that easy. Human nature steps in and takes over in different ways for each of us, and while I can go a long time without getting uptight about any of these things, eventually I turn into a pressure cooker and feel like I'm about to explode. It's easier to just remove the problem at the beginning.<br />
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I also doubt that I will join groups that I am invited to become a part of. There may be exceptions, but it's just stuff to clutter up my email inbox, and again, it's a subtle pressure to belong, not to something that's about us, but more about <i>you</i>. Because it's <i>you</i> who posts, it's you who gives me the latest scoop. And I think, if we're friends, then I already get that elsewhere.<br />
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When I started thinking about this, I initially thought it would be easier to get rid of people who are FB friends or Twitterers and whom I only know online. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that wasn't the case. I have two FB friends who approached me because of something I said or because we had a mutual friend, Chris Kaboombee Winchester and Ed Otter, who both post interesting stuff that doesn't lay anything heavy on me (Chris was an extra for The Hobbit! How cool is that?). I enjoy reading their updates, and am happy when my other friends are also interesting instead of relentless. <br />
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I know, I know. Mea culpa and all that. I've often been relentless, and I am sure quite irritating. I'll still have things to say, but I do promise to not be so overbearing. I hope. But in the meantime, understand that if any of this happens online, it does not necessarily mean things are bad in real life. I still hang with people at conventions, even if I don't follow them online. Aside from the putzes, of course.<br />
<br />Derryl Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00770159992186256355noreply@blogger.com5