Author: Dan Dickinson

"I can't become king if someone else already sits on the throne."

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In a belated attempt to see more of the best movies of 2007 (as ranked by critics anyway) we rented four movies yesterday in preparation for a lazy cinematic weekend. We watched two last night, and they were both great.

Eastern Promises (imdb | rotten tomatoes) won the top prize at this year’s TIFF, and was mentioned as a worthy follow-up to A History Of Violence. The hype was right; while it started off a teensy bit slow for my tastes, it quickly tightened up into an angry fist of a movie. Viggo Mortensen was just amazing, as usual, and while Naomi Watts seemed rather underused, I’d prefer that to artificially inflating her part to meet her star power. A little too violent for me to recommend to some people, but an excellent film overall.

Once (imdb | rotten tomatoes) is the kind of film that restores your faith in…well, a lot of things. The “musical” genre. Filmmaking as a whole. Even friendship and love. It was made for $100,000 yet packed more emotional punch than any movie made for 100 times as much. More than half the film was music, but it was so unlike a typical musical simply because the music was part of the movie, not just a random melodic interlude. The relationship between the two leads fills and crushes your heart at the same time. If you’re the kind of person who only sees the latest Jerry Bruckheimer / Michael Bay fireworks show, you should avoid this; you won’t recognize it for the brilliant piece of art that it is.

[tags]eastern promises, once[/tags]

She rolled her Rs…her beautiful Rs.

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I just got off the elevator with a mother and her little girl. The girl saw the elevator button marked “R” (which opened or closed the rear doors — we were in the larger freight elevator) and started playing the word game: “Ar is for…rabbit!” The mother, although appearing incredibly tired, encouraged her to keep going.

Little girl: “Ar is for…ice cream.”

Mother: “No, honey, I is for ice cream.”

Dan [inside voice, thankfully]: “Actually, ‘Ar’ could be for ‘Arse cream’, which technically is correct and, let’s be honest, much funnier.”

Good thing I’m an introvert and don’t talk to people, otherwise I might’ve thought that was funny enough to share and found myself being beaten with a diaper bag.

[tags]elevator, ice cream[/tags]

Like a thief in the night. Actually, it was exactly like that.

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Well, some joker got hold of my credit card number last night and used it to buy a bunch of stuff online. Mainly kids things, probably all highly fence-able. Luckily it was my “online” card, the one I use if I’m buying from a smaller online store that I don’t trust the way I trust, say, Future Shop. I’d noticed a fraudulent (or possibly mistaken) transaction on my card yesterday from the International Spy Museum in Washington D.C.; clearly that wasn’t me, so I called my card issuer. The agent took my info and sent out the paperwork they need from me, but apparently didn’t put a flag on my card or anything ’cause this morning the guy racked up a ton of purchases. Another call to my issuer and the card was canceled.

That’s the first time I’ve ever had fraud on my own card, to the best of my recollection. However, the secondary card worked exactly as it was meant to, so I guess it was the best possible outcome of a bad situation.

I get the sense that I’m unusual for having gone this long (buying as much stuff online as I do) without experiencing fraud. Is that true? Anyone care to share?

[tags]credit card fraud[/tags]

Happy anniversary to me

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At this very moment four years ago I was probably doing some boxing day shopping with my father and brother, and was seven hours away from making an honest woman out of Nellie.

.:.

I’ve watched a ton of movies in the last few days, so here’s the synopsis: The Good Shepherd was actually pretty boring, and Angelina Jolie is really starting to scare me; Friends With Money was a chick flick, but the four lead actresses were so good it was almost worth it; Haven was one of the worst films I’ve ever seen and I have no idea how it got on my list in the first place; Shame was a rather shoddily-done documentary about an incredibly interesting topic so it balanced out; Spider-Man 3 was kind of entertaining but was the worst of the series by far, and 300 looks frigging amazing on Blu-Ray.

Whew.

[tags]anniversary, the good shepherd, friends with money, haven, shame, spider-man 3, 300, blu-ray[/tags]

Because it's that time

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December means best-of lists. I’m starting with what I considered to be the best albums of 2007. In past years I’ve pussied out and not ranked them; not so this year. While 2007 lacked a clear and classic winner like The Woods or Funeral, the top three are all quite good.

  1. Kings Of Leon . Because Of The Times
  2. Arcade Fire . Neon Bible
  3. The Besnard Lakes . The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse
  4. Radiohead . In Rainbows
  5. Spoon . Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
  6. Raising The Fawn . Sleight Of Hand
  7. Explosions In The Sky . All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone
  8. Band Of Horses . Cease To Begin
  9. Okkervil River . The Stage Names
  10. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club . Baby 81

Neko Case‘s Live From Austin, Texas was among the best I bought all year, but I don’t feel right including a live/compilation album on that list. Other good ones included Ongiara by Great Lake Swimmers, The Kissaway Trail‘s eponymous debut and Let’s Stay Friends by Les Savy Fav. My two biggest disappointments were Challengers by The New Pornographers and Icky Thump by The White Stripes; both were good, but not of the killer quality I’m accustomed to hearing with those two bands.

Over the next few days I’ll be doing my best films (so far) and best songs list.

[tags]best albums of 2007, best music of 2007[/tags]

My brain and eyes might just explode

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Yowzah, that was quite a morning. I guess not going home this year freed us up to purchase some bigger-ticket items for each other (which we normally wouldn’t want to try to get on a plane), so I am now the proud owner of a Blu-ray DVD player and Nellie now has a wine fridge. We certainly got lots of other cool stuff as well, but suffice it to say the DVD player’s been a little distracting; I’ve already hooked it up and watched Superbad.

I also got 300, the Spider-Man Trilogy and the seemingly-made-for-high-def BBC series Planet Earth on Blu-ray, as well as The Bourne Ultimatum in standard DVD format (it’s only on HD-DVD for now). Nellie got Freaks And Geeks: Season 1, Young Guns, Young Guns 2 and Never Been Kissed.

I got a few books too: My Boring-Ass Life by Kevin Smith, The Book Of Dave by Will Self and The Cult Of The Amateur by Andrew Keen. Nellie got A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore.

Right now Nellie’s making Christmas dinner (everything except the turkey, of course) while A Christmas Story plays in the background. I don’t know if she’ll be able to top last night’s kick-ass meal (lemon pepper shrimp, scallops, cheese, chocolate & a bottle of white wine I bought her last year) but I’m willing to let her try.

Happy Christmas, everyone.

[tags]christmas, blu-ray, wine fridge[/tags]

Happy holidays, everybody!

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A work day that was supposed to end at noon actually didn’t end until after 3:00, but that’s ok. It wasn’t exactly a tough one. I had one little errand to do in Yorkville, and it took about 15x longer than it should have, but I pretty much expected that.

.:.

Ah, the Liquor Dome. Craptacular then (by which I mean my university years), craptacular now.

.:.

R.I.P., Oscar Peterson, a true Canadian music legend.

[tags]liquor dome, oscar peterson[/tags]

"Oh, that name is intolerable. It suggests midgets working in a factory."

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Apart from getting up very early to buy groceries (I wanted nothing to do with a grocery store on the 23rd of December) it’s been a lazy, relaxing Sunday. Gift wrapping and corporate finance will come later; we decided to spend the morning watching movies.

We actually watched Keane (imdb | rotten tomatoes) yesterday, not today. It was not an easy film to watch, I thought, but it was impressive for two reasons: the nauseating feeling you got seeing this man get hurled into and out of madness, and the performance of Damien Lewis. He was on the screen for practically every second, every scene, every shot, and to so skillfully show this man being buffeted by the forces that afflicted him must’ve taken incredible patience. Damien Lewis might just be the most underrated actor out there.

Keane represented the last of our Zip movies. When it’s returned, my account will officially be closed.

Shifting gears, we watched Who Killed The Electric Car? (imdb | rotten tomatoes), a documentary about…well, you can probably guess. Some documentaries are haphazard and jump all over the place, or seem designed only to outrage, but this one had a very clear narrative and a real quality of production that you don’t often see from the genre. Lots of background and facts, but presented clearly and concisely. The story of the GM EV1 electric car is interesting, but the story about the car’s quiet demise — which I’d not really paid attention to — is rife with intrigue and conflict. Highly recommended.

Oh wait…shifting gears…I just got that. Sorry. I hate puns. They’re lazy humour.

Finally, about an hour ago, we watched Mrs. Henderson Presents (imdb | rotten tomatoes) which was ok, but not great. Cute and clever, to be certain, and the two leads — Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins — were awfully good, but it veered too close to schmaltz (and dove nose-first into sentiment, for that matter) too often. I suspect it would’ve been labeled a good family film except that there’re naked ladies every which way you look.

[tags]keane, damien lewis, who killed the electric car, gm ev1, mrs. henderson presents, judi dench, bob hoskins, windmill theatre[/tags]