Movie reviews: Redefining the chick flick

Though not at all intentional, I’m realizing that the last three movies we watched on DVD all feature strong women characters. Two were even directed by women. Only one qualifies as a “traditional” chick flick. (Also realizing… I’d rather write about this than the election.)

**½ Bright Star (May 2009) – Rental
Abbie Cornish, Ben Whishaw. Story of the unlikely romance between poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne.

She says: Surprisingly engrossing for a slow-paced movie in which comparatively little actually happens.
He says: Yeah, that was slow paced. Like, glacial.

***½ Catfish (September 2010) – Rental
Documentary. Nev Shulman’s roommates decide to do a documentary about his long-distance friendship with an eight-year-old artist and her family, which develops in a way none of them expect.

She says: I got very caught up in the twists and turns of this real-life story. The additional interview on the DVD is also well worth watching for those lingering questions.
He says: I was surprised how interesting I found that. I was expecting something different, maybe more terrible, but it was still really fascinating.

*** The Runaways (April 2010) – Rental
Dakota Fanning, Kristen Stewart. A look back at the story of The Runaways, the first all-girl rock band.

She says: It focuses mostly on Cherie Currie, whose biography this is based on, and secondarily on Joan Jett, the movie’s producer, with the remaining Runaways mostly treated as background players. Though at times you feel an urge to run in and protect these very young women from some of these experiences, overall it was kind of inspiring. Nice music sequences. And a great reminder of how awesome Joan Jett is.
He says: Is it over? I think I fell asleep. I guess I was really tired from the canoeing. How did it end?
She says: Joan Jett became a big star.

 

 

Niagara-on-the-Lake in March

With joint March birthdays as an excuse, we got away for a long weekend, visiting Toronto and Niagara-on-the-Lake. In Toronto, one of us got to the Tim Burton Exhibit at the TIFF Bell Lighthouse, while another visited MEC. There was definitely a strong Johnny Depp’s presence at the Burton exhibit (like Depp’s outfit from Edward Scissorhands), but most impressive was really Burton’s own paintings and sketches.

Mostly, though, we were there to visit with the sisters and their families, which was nice. We were well fed and had some interesting discussions on topics such as technology, politics, pet ownership, and Canadian wines.

In Niagara-on-the-Lake, we stayed at Harbour House Inn for the first time. We were really impressed with that. We had selected one of their more modest offerings, but it was still quite a large room with fireplace. This was the bathroom:

Bathroom at Harbour house

The rooms also had an iPod dock, big-screen TV, DVD players, and fresh-made cookies. They also offered a very good European-style breakfast; DVD rentals (current movies; DVD player and big-screen TV in the room); a daily wine tasting; and shuttle service to and from restaurants for dinner—all included in the price of the room. Which, because it was low season and we had booked on Expedia, really wasn’t that extravagant. (Apparently, quite a different story in the summer.)

And of course, while there, we visited a number of wineries. Our big discovery, I would say, was Caroline Cellars, which our Harbour House shuttle driver recommended. We had certainly found some nice wines at other wineries, but they were quite often over $20 a bottle. At Caroline’s, we honestly liked everything we tasted, and all were under $20. Some well under. We were particularly impressed with the 2007 Cabernet Franc ($15.50) and the Bradley White (Sauvignon Blanc), at just $11, but we also got the Enchantment (Riesling / Gerwurtz) and 2007 Cab Sauv. None available at LCBO.

In terms of location, Megalomanic (nearer to Beamsville) was the most fun, as it’s up on a hill, and you get a great view. (Maybe I’ll add photographic proof later). We tried three wines there, including a Riesling so cold you couldn’t tell how it tasted (not so useful, that), and bought the Bigmouth Merlot ($25), a fairly bold red.

Other visits (over two days):

  • Tawse Winery, known for good but not cheap wines. We got a Riesling and a 2008 Pinot noir there—at $54, the most we spent on one bottle.
  • Creekside Estates, a source for a 2009 Sauvignon Blanc and 2007 Shiraz.
  • Coyote’s Run, which offers the interesting experience of tasting the same wine grown in two different soils. They’re noticeably different. We bought a Red Paw Chardonnay here ($22) that we’ve been enjoying this week. Full but not overly oaky.

We also tried mostly new (to us) restaurants this time. Stone Road Grille may have impressed us most. Jean had foie gras poutine (!) followed by duck confit. I had the Chef’s salad (which included duck confit, Niagara Gold cheese, and quail’s egg) and a pasta stuffed with sweet potato entree that was just amazing. Each item on the menu had a recommended wine (from all- Canadian list), and each entree was offered in a smaller portion, which was great. Then there was the dessert of chocolate mousse with salted caramel ice cream, chocolate chile sauce, and spiced almonds. Yum. (And not too big a portion, either.)

Our fanciest meal was probably at Hillebrand Winery, where we had a three-course lunch. Can’t complain about the food quality there, either, and they did a very good job of matching the food to the wine. That was a big midday meal, though, so supper that night was at the Old Winery restaurant, which offers more pizza and pasta. All well-prepared, though, with good-quality ingredients.

So the only disappointing meal was at Inn on the Twenty, where we had lunch on the way in. It was mostly good—I was quite happy with my bison and mushroom main—but Jean’s mussels just weren’t fresh enough. Several weren’t open and those that were tasted kind of fishy. A restaurant of a certain caliber shouldn’t serve sub-par mussels.

And between all that eating and drinking, we did a little shopping, some walking, a lot of relaxing. Weather was quite cooperative for March, either sunny but cool or cloudy but warmer. After this week, there’s no complaining about that!

Movie review: Canadian film fest

In the wake of the Genies, we saw the two main contenders on the weekend.

*** Barney’s Version (January 2011) – Theatre
Paul Giamatti, Rosamund Pike. A movie built around Barney Panofsky’s relationships—with his father, his friends (especially Boogie), and the three Mrs. Panofsky’s.

She says: Very well-acted, engaging, funny in parts, but a lot of tragedy as well. A realistic love story at its heart. Just barely passes the Bechdel Test, though.
He says: I enjoyed it. Paul Giamatti is a really good actor.

? Incendies (April 2011) – Theatre
Lubna Azabal, Rémy Girard. After their mother’s death, her children (twins) are told to locate the father and the brother they knew nothing about. It leads to a tragic voyage of discovery about their mother’s past.

She says: Very well-crafted, completely compelling, but a dark story with a really disturbing twist.
He says: God, that was so depressing. I’m really disturbed now. Why would anyone want to see that?
She says: I think the fact that it’s affecting you so much shows that it’s a good movie.
He says: No. It was terrible.
She says: The story is terrible. (And I’m grateful that the worst of it wasn’t actually shown.) But I still think the movie was good. It was haunting.

How to Compose Popular Songs That Will Sell

No, I can’t tell you how to do that. Trust me, if I could compose popular songs that would sell, I wouldn’t be toiling away in the tech industry. Just like Hugh Grant in About a Boy, I’d be living a life of leisure paid for by my song royalties, all cool toys and artfully tousled hair.

Another person who doesn’t feel he really knows how to compose popular songs that will sell is Bob Geldof, who therefore mockingly uses that as the title of his new album. Now much better known for his ongoing humanitarian work with Africa (Live Aid and all all that), as a musician he’s mostly remembered for one song: 1980s “I Don’t Like Mondays.” (Mind, if you’re only going to be remembered for one song, that’s a really excellent one to be associated with.)

It’s not entirely correct that’s been his only success. Particularly in the UK, the Boomtown Rats had numerous top 40 (and other number 1) hits, and even as a solo artist, “This Is the World Calling” and “The Great Song of Indifference” were pretty big hits. Not to mention his being the cowriter of everyone’s favorite rock Christmas song, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”

He is a rich man, but the fact is, that’s more from his TV productions (did you know he created Survivor?) and other business holdings than from song royalties. He loves making music but, he says, doesn’t feel comfortable trying to sell it.

So the title is amusing, and apt, and layered in meaning. But is it any good? Well I think so. I’d say it’s better than any of his other solo albums, other than Sex, Age, and Death. Geldof calls this new album the companion to that one. That one, written as he emerged from a deep depression brought on by his marriage ending, was very dark, deeply personal, and hauntingly intense. This one, written as he amazes in the restorative power of love in second marriage, is much brighter, still fairly personal, and incredibly varied in musical styles (including a couple hauntingly intense numbers).

A lot of the songs are pretty catchy. There aren’t any I don’t like. I already love “She’s a Lover” and the hidden track at the end, “Young and Sober”, which synopsizes his entire life in an amusing three minutes. So will it sell? Unlikely, given the decline of album sales in the music industry as a whole. But the mighty few who find their way to this record won’t be disappointed, I don’t think.

PS Excellent 15-minute documentary about Bob Geldof, the musician, then and now: http://vimeo.com/20829390

I wish my country were a little bit better

The Conservative’s attack ads against Michael Ignatieff (I refuse to link to them) have such a peculiar tone. Like our main worry about him should be that he used to work at Harvard. Or ending the one ad that seems to run particularly frequently with this “ominous” Ignatieff quote:

I wish my country were a little better.

Really?

Him wanting to improve Canada is supposed to make us not want to vote Liberal?

But clearly, the Conservatives think that’s bad. So the Conservative’s political goals, then, are to make Canada worse?

You know, that actually explains a lot…

Movie review: When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts

*** When the Levees Broke (August 2006) – Rental
Spike Lee documentary looking back at Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.

She says: This four-part documentary uses copious interviews, mostly with those involved, to tell the story of Hurricane Katrina. You revisit parts you heard about at the time, and learn a great deal that you probably did not. I remain stunned at just how badly the US government treated its own people, at the time, and afterward.
He says: This is a bit of downer.

A ballet at the Moulin Rouge and a symphony in space

The recent calendar has been a little busy, starting with a surprise party for Jean last Friday (at Verses), and a Valentine’s Dance on Saturday (at which we received some nice comments on our dancing, actually), and ending with another Verses dinner this Saturday, with a dance class and practice night fit in there as well.

And we also attended…

Moulin Rouge: The Ballet

The first ballet we’ve been to since, I think, the Ballet Béjart tribute to Freddie Mercury, quite a few years ago, in Montreal.

This one featured the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, and took place in our home town concert hall. It was inspired by the Bahz Luhrmann movie, but didn’t imitate it so closely as to get into copyright trouble. So though it is still a love triangle between a woman who works at the Moulin Rouge, an impoverished artist, and a more powerful man, they aren’t the same characters as in the movie. We still get a tango scene, and green fairy scene, but not at the same points, nor for the same reasons, as in the movie.

No matter. The plot isn’t the point in a ballet; it’s just window dressing for the dancing. And that setting and themes made for some really lively dancing. It particularly came to life, of course, with the extended can-can scene inside the Moulin Rouge. That part begun with an unfortunate flub, in which one dancer was nearly dropped, but otherwise the dancing was nothing but impressive. (Not that I’m any expert.) I wasn’t sure what Jean thought of the whole thing, but he assured me he found it enjoyable—even though he knows this may mean has had to attend another ballet in another 10 years or so.

And Friday, we had tickets to Symphony in Space.

Space image

This was a KW Symphony Pops concert intended to feature music with a astrological theme. So there was some Star Wars music, some Star Trek music, and some things you wouldn’t expect, like Bach’s Bradenburg Concerto, which apparently is out there on a space capsule somewhere, searching for intelligent life.

I’ve never seen conductor John Morris Russell before, but man, what an enthusiastic, lively personality he is. Along with being interested in science as well as music, he’s quite passionate about education, so the show also featured some young performers. The most adorable thing was seeing all these tiny violin players trot out to join the symphony in Suzuki’s “Variations on Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. Brought back memories of my own violin-playing days. But these kids were much better.

The second half was hosted by an astronaut, Bjarni Tryggvason, who guided us through the planets of our solar system as the symphony played excerpts from Holst: The Planets and a bit of Mozart (Jupiter). This part was also accompanied by these gorgeous NASA photos of the various planets. It was really hard to get bored during this concert.

The conclusion featured the Eastwood Collegiate Concert Choir accompanying soloist AJ Bridel on “Defying Gravity” from Wicked. Man, does that girl have chops. Remember that name: She might be someone someday.

All in all it was one of the most enjoyable symphony performances of the season. Well worth making time for!

Movie review: Made in Dagenham

A bit behind, as we saw this a while ago…

**½ Made in Dagenham (November 2010) – Theatre
Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins. Set in Britain in 1968, shows how women workers at a Ford plant achieved pay equity with men though labour action.

She says: Really positive view of history that you realize must have been streamlined somewhat for dramatic purposes, but still makes for a pretty engaging movie.
He says: It was mostly good, but it was slow in parts.

The movie ends with the point that having achieved this milestone, the concept of “equal pay for equal work” for women spread throughout Britain, then through other industrialized countries. Of course, that’s for unionized jobs with clear pay scales. The picture is a bit more murky in other cases, as per this recent chart comparing men’s and women’s wages in US.

Gender gap in wages (US Bureau of Labor Statistics)

This is your cold on Cold-FX

ColdFX bottleColds used to always run their predictable course with me:

  1. Throat scratchy.
  2. Throat sore and scratchy.
  3. Nose starts to run.
  4. Nose becomes faucet; Kleenex stores deleted.
  5. Nose starts to clear; cough sets in.

If lucky, the whole thing would be over in around 7 days. When unlucky, residual stuffiness / coughing would linger for some weeks afterward.

So last Wednesday, when my throat felt scratchy, I felt a certain sense of doom. Not for the first time, I dosed with Cold-FX in response. (Per their recommendations—six pills the first day, then four, then two.) I have found that, for me, Cold-FX tends to lessen the severity and duration of colds. But this time, it was quite extreme. Really, I had a mildly scratchy throat and a bit of coughing at night, for about five days. No fatigue. No stuffed-up nose. No real sense that I ever needed a cough drop or a Tylenol sinus or anything.

Was that even a cold? Jean says no (partly because he didn’t catch anything at all). But I definitely had some sort of throat thing for a few days. It was just super mild.

Oh, well. No sense in worrying about not being sick. And I don’t know whether Cold-FX deserves any credit or not. But I’m certainly keeping it on hand…

Congratulations, Arcade Fire

… On winning Album of the Year at the Grammy’s. Which I actually didn’t realize would be such a shock to everyone who isn’t me. (Cause it was certainly the best 2010 album I heard all year…)

And congratulations, Grammy’s, on giving Neil Young an award for an actual song (not just nice music repackaging), thus eliminating one from your embarrassing top 10 list of people who’ve never won a Grammy.

And to all the people in Twitter-ville so very, very upset that the Grammy’s dared award Album of the Year to a band they’ve never heard of… I gave you my very mature response:

Nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah. My band rules.