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Apr 04 2013
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film

The Evil of Banality: Spring Breakers and F. Scott Fitzgerald

It was serendipity, I guess, that brought these two topics together. I’d been very excited to watch the new Harmony Korine film Spring Breakers after seeing its critical reception and its exciting trailer.

In the interest of full disclosure, up until this point, I’d never seen a film by the director that I’d actually liked, so this was kind of a departure for me being into this. And, being as how I live in Edmonton and not Vancouver, or Toronto, or anywhere really, it took a little while for the movie to get here.

In the mean time, I had a reading assignment to get through. In talking with Devin Bruce, who you might remember from his appearance on The Spoiler Show a few months back, I got in contact with a U.S.-based podcast called The Bookhouse Boys. Since they liked me for some reason, we decided that I’d appear on their show, and that we’d talk about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s second novel, The Beautiful and Damned, as Devin and I’d briefly talked about Gatsby on my show.

The Beautiful and Damned

So by the time I was able to check out the only worthwhile movie in the critical discussion (I saw Stoker right when it arrived here, and really enjoyed it, but not much else was worthwhile for new stuff), I’d already read a book about alcohol abuse, violence and hedonism that, in my mind, meshed really well!

Fitzgerald’s book, which is loosely biographical, is about Anthony Patch and his wife Gloria: two members of the Twenties élite, who spend most of their days carousing, drinking and boozing. The story is at once simple and complicated, as the two enfants terribles continue on their hedonistic death-spirals while their finances and hopes run out over a series of increasingly dire events. Anthony is in line for a fat inheritance, and fritters away his sober hours attempting to write. Gloria was basically the belle of the ball her whole life, and flirts around with a gig in the movies and wasting her youth.

Once I’d finally seen Spring Breakers, having this story in the back of my head for the duration was, to my mind anyway, the beginning of an interesting critical perspective on the film. If you listen to my appearance on The Bookhouse Boys, you can see my initial thoughts on the film, but I’d like to elaborate a little more here. As Spring Breakers has been the seeming sole focus of critical energy in the film world for the past few days, I won’t spend too much time on it, but here’s a brief synopsis: four girls attending school in Kentucky (I think…) have an immutable goal in mind – they are going down to Florida to experience the Spring Break shenanigans they’ve been promised their whole lives, and they’re not going to let a lack of funds get in their way.

And they do. The Spring Break experience shown in the film is exhilarating in its pounding demonstration of banality. The eponymous “Beautiful and Damned” of Fitzgerald’s title are to me a perfect distillation of the constant state of party that exists there. Both women and men, but mostly women, are reduced to their component body parts, and shot in a blindingly brilliant and slow hyperreal style, while dubstep assaults the ear canal. While it was infuriating at the time, now I keep thinking about how the audience was revolted by the bill of goods they were being sold. Like the Breakers, we too have an ancestral knowledge of what Spring Break is supposed to be: it’s been sold to us by MTV and music videos, so much so that jokes on Arrested Development about it make sense, even though I’ve never been there in person.

When the curtain is pulled back on Korine’s Three Card Monte game, when we’ve become disgusted by the culture of Spring Break (ie. right away), and numbed to the female flesh on display, and the copious alcohol and drug use ceases to look fun, that’s the moment at which I thought of ol’ Fitz. The characterization in the two works is equally sketchy: Gloria and Anthony are in love in the same banal way that James Franco’s Alien loves Faith, absolutely, or at least to the extent that he loves his shorts in every colour. Where Gloria’s last-ditch attempt to make some cash is to lean on an old admirer to get a screen test, the Breakers have been recorded their entire lives, exhorting one another to accept the meshing of fantasy and reality, to pretend their robbing the chicken shack is “like a movie”.

On the podcast I mentioned that one reason Fitzgerald may have seen fit to have certain passages in the book written down as plays, complete with stage instructions, etc. is that his characters have the empty interior lives that have become all too commonplace nowadays. When they are at a wedding, rather than experience the ceremony and whatnot with their full being, they resort to bits they’ve seen off-Broadway, or perhaps at one of the many cabarets featured in the novel. Spring Breakers shows this facet of the American experience brilliantly, with current media touchstones like My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and nostalgiia-inducing (for people my age and a bit younger anyway) music from Britney Spears. Alien keeps Brian de Palma’s Scarface on an infinite loop in his house, as he’s been told by generations before him that this is how a gangster acts.

The recurring, hypnotic motif that underlies the film is the phrase “Spring Break Forever”. It’s usually intoned by Franco, but sometimes the girls say it as well. The film wonders what it would be like to actually live in that world forever; what would your life look like if you were solely devoted to hedonism and the acquisition of money over all else. You might be able to look back to the Roaring Twenties, that great decade of American excess, for the answer.

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Jan 05 2013
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film, sitting in the dark with strangers 2012, the spoiler show

Sitting in the Dark With Strangers 2012: Part Two

Continuing on with the big list of movies I saw this year (Part One here). There’s a few here I might not be able to summon up a lot to say about, so please bear with me if that’s the case.

30. Ted

I was over Seth MacFarlane by the time Family Guy came back from its initial cancellation on FOX umpteen years ago. This didn’t really do a lot for me, even though it was apparently quite a huge hit. I found myself thinking more about the mechanics of being a small stuffed bear rather than laughing at the jokes. How much beer and drugs would it take to intoxicate such a creature. How does he go to the bathroom? How much force can he really put into punching Mark Wahlberg in the fight scene, which I admit, was pretty good. I also liked the party where the guy from Flash Gordon showed up.

My problem with MacFarlane is that he’s conflated in his head somehow that the obscurity of a reference is a good indicator of the hilarity of a reference. What he forgets is that a lone reference, just sitting there out in the open like that, does not equal a joke. Many fine jokes can be made by incorporating references to obscure things, don’t get me wrong, but there needs to be an actual joke constructed around that. This is also the problem with The Big Bang Theory, btw. Except their geeky references are more like “people who enjoy comic books”, or “the act of playing a video game”, so as to not intimidate their vast fanbase with a fact outside of their philosophy.

29. Turn Me On, Goddamnit!

Not much for me to say on this one, it was a pretty good coming-of-age comedy out of Norway. If that sounds like something you’d be into, it is a fine demonstration of such, with equal parts hilarity and Nordic sadness.

28. Damsels in Distress

Here’s another one where I don’t have much to say about it. The only other film I’ve seen by Whit Stillman is The Last Days of Disco, which I thought was really good. This one though, it didn’t feel like it toed the line between parody and tragedy as well. I can’t for the life of me figure out Stillman’s views on the jockish fraternities on the campus. He does get a great deal of mileage out of how jaw-droppingly stupid some of the guys in the frats are (especially the guy who never learned colours, and his girlfriend’s defense of such), but are we supposed to actually like them? They’re not quite a bunch of loveable losers like Animal House, nor are they the assholes usually presented by the phrase “fraternity brother”. I just don’t know. Stillman is pretty great at turning a phrase, so if you like good dialogue this is an excellent demonstration.

27. Lockout

This movie would have gone up at least five spots, at least, had it actually been called SPACEJAIL. I have a similar theory with regards to the Mark Wahlberg abs-showing vehicle (I’m assuming, I never saw it), Contraband, which should by all rights be called MONEYBELT. As it is, Lockout is a serviceable thriller melding a space movie with a jail movie, or moreover, the plot of Escape From New York with I dunno, Sunshine? The CGI is laughably bad in some parts, but almost charmingly so. Kind of like Casa de Mi Padre, which I just watched the other night and as such did not fit into the list. Both films are kind of sublimely ridiculous, in a fun way. Still, the title is so generic it actually makes me a little mad to look at it.

26. Coriolanus

If you’ve seen Titus or the 1995 Richard II movie, you’ve seen that a Shakespeare play adapted to modern day can work pretty well. This one also works pretty well, but I think Taymor’s decision in setting Titus very explicitly in Rome as opposed to Coriolanus‘ being somewhere indistinct makes it the better film. Roman stuff still works to a point, but there is a real difference between their society and the modern day which I think makes a direct translation difficult. Still, this one had really good action sequences, almost on par with something like Black Hawk Down.

25. Brave

This movie seems like it did what it set out to do? There’s a base level of excellence to be found in almost every Pixar movie for sure, this is down here mostly for personal taste reasons I guess. Didn’t quite reach the heights of Toy Story or Wall-E for me. Or Up, which everyone other than me didn’t seem to like all that much.

24. Skyfall

This is probably my favorite of the Daniel Craig Bonds so far, although I should probably rewatch Casino Royale at some point again soon. It suffered somewhat from the “villain who has read the script” syndrome, which a lot of movies have these days. I really liked Ben Whishaw, apart from his understanding of computer network security, and Ralph Fiennes is also pretty good for what he is given. With the status quo retained at the end of the film, I’m definitely interested to see what’s next. It was a gorgeous-looking film to be sure.

23. The Avengers

Many people have said why this movie is good, including myself and some other nerdy types on the Jay n’ J podcast, so here’s some things I didn’t like about it: A complete misunderstanding of Loki’s trickster character. 400 or so goddamn mentions of the “Tesseract”, which is a much more grown-up name than the “Cosmic Cube” supposedly. A valiant, though in the end unsuccessful attempt to make Hawkeye cool. The complete disregard for the ending of Thor, an ending I didn’t even like to begin with, but at least paid attention to. The heroes being put into a situation where they must slaughter other beings as classic comic book approaches to violence are seen as not being cool enough for the movies (apparently). That said, it’s not like I’m not going to watch the next one, so mission accomplished I guess.

22. Jiro Dreams of Sushi

This movie made me so friggin’ hungry. A beautiful realization of the world’s best sushi maker and his humble life.

21. Argo

A perfectly competent political thriller, which almost made me tense. I really liked the Hollywood stuff, including Jack Kirby! Also, there was a shout out to Planet of the Apes, which is always nice. The biggest laugh release of all comes at the end where you see all the attention to detail paid to each character’s appearance except for one … ;)

20. Cosmopolis

I think the big theme in my movie watching this year is that of adaptation. This will come up again with my number 14 pick, but Cosmopolis did a pretty great job of adapting a supposedly unfilmable novel. The characters spoke in strange sorts of declarations about the modern world instead of to each other, which follows the plan laid down in the original novel. It is a little difficult in film-form to explain just exactly what Packer is doing without the lengthy explanations delivered in the novel, but I can see why they didn’t want even more expository dialogue in this movie. This one will probably grow on me a little more as time goes on. I’d like to watch it again, at least.

19. The Secret World of Arrietty

Miyazaki, like Pixar, ensures a high standard of quality in all of his studio’s releases. This is a lovely little tale.

18. Killer Joe

What a sleazily great flick. It has single-handedly made me take Matthew McConaughey seriously as an actor. Wonderfully twisted gallows humour and one of the most depressingly low-stakes (money-wise) crimes put on film. The song at the end is hilariously well-chosen. For a regular Hollywood release the scenes and emotions put onscreen are quite startling, so much so that I wonder how on earth this was done first as a stage play. It boggles the mind, and definitely makes me want to check out Friedkin’s first adaptation of a Tracy Letts play, Bug. I wonder if it reaches the Grand Guignol heights of Joe‘s crazy finale.

17. Beyond the Black Rainbow

I mentioned this as a SELL ME ON IT on Episode Nine of The Spoiler Show, so I won’t say too much more here. A dream-like pace, an amazing grasp of imagery and set design and a nightmarish setting combine with an incredible knowledge of this point in film history. I definitely recommend this movie, which has now reached Netflix Instant.

16. 21 Jump Street

Fun on a bun. Perhaps somewhat disposably fun, but fun nonetheless. Where Killer Joe made me take McConaughey seriously, Jump Street showed me that Channing Tatum is a pretty great comic actor, and should stick to doing such roles from now on.

15. Looper

Could never had lived up to the expectations I had going into it, as Rian Johnson’s track record is pretty much above reproach in my mind. I might be being a little harsh on Looper by putting it at this spot, but I think this shows just how good a year we had for movies. Probably would have been in my top 5 in a less stellar year. The “thirty years of Joe’s” life bit was a beautiful piece of filmmaking. Shane Carruth of Primer worked on this too, and he’s got a new one coming out in 2013 that I’m pretty excited about. I’m pretty sure Looper will rise in my estimation as time wears on, it feels like it’s going to enter the art-scifi canon in much the same way as an Alphaville.

14. Dredd 3D

I talked about adaptation above, and this film is an excellent example of adaptation done right. Dredd 3D probably didn’t do that well at the box office as it was too close to its dour subject material. I like the comics in 2000 AD for the most part, and was able to get on this movie’s grim and gritty and satirical wavelength, where I guess many others couldn’t.

13. John Carter

I have a soft spot in my heart for troubled adaptations of classic sci-fi literature. Case in point, David Lynch’s Dune (which I mention a bit here), I probably think about that movie much more than any normal person does. The similar John Carter suffered from the fact that the original texts were so amazingly influential, with Star Wars, Avatar, The Last Starfighter and many others drawing from the tropes it laid down.  I read them all when I was little, so I was basically the target audience for this movie. The bland title was a huge mistake, they should have definitely called it either the title of the first book, A Princess of Mars, or perhaps even just John Carter of Mars. That was a huge misstep in so many ways. I feel like many young girls would have liked to see Dejah Thoris be a badass warrior science princess, had they been told that she was in the movie rather than just “John Carter“. I’ve read that the director thought the character himself was a lot more prevalent in pop culture than he was, which I guess explains it. I bet he knows better now…

12. Chronicle

I was pretty worried last year about the oncoming spectre of a live-action adaptation of anime classic AKIRA. But then Chronicle came along and proved it could be done, probably better in a lot of ways. I haven’t checked lately, but hopefully the Hollywood AKIRA in progress will notice that this great little movie did it much better than they ever could. I knew I liked this movie when one of the main characters uses their special power in such a way that the oft-annoying found footage aesthetic is given a legit reason to keep existing. I don’t want to spoil it, but rest assured, the people behind this movie understand the genre of teenage super-angst, and not only that, were able to build on it. They didn’t talk down to their audience, and that respect shows in the final product.

11. Grabbers

Probably the biggest, most pleasant surprise I had in a movie theatre this year. I saw Grabbers as part of Edmonton’s awesome horror film festival Dedfest, one of the head honchos of which I interviewed on The Spoiler Show not too long ago. It combines the humanity and hilarity of an Edgar Wright film with something like Tremors, which I also have a pretty big soft spot for. Seek this one out, it was a greatly enjoyable movie.

I should have the top ten part of my list done in the next few days here, as well as Season Two of The Spoiler Show’s just around the bend now. Stay tuned.

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Jan 01 2013
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film, sitting in the dark with strangers 2012, the spoiler show

Sitting in the Dark With Strangers 2012: Part One

Hey there folks, it is once again time for the fifth (!) installment of my annual movie review post! The first few were on facebook, and I actually had to hunt around for them in preparation for this year’s list, because facebook is dumb. If you’d like to check out the previous years’ lists, here’s 2011 and 2010. The list is entirely subjective and somewhat mercurial. Each movie could probably shift around a spot or two as time goes on. I’ll let you know which ones I saw at my favorite theatre, the Metro Cinema at the Garneau.

As always, we start off with the movies I thought were the crappiest of the year. If you’re worried about SPOILERS for these movies try reading a book or something because who cares. They suck. I also might not write anything about a movie if I don’t think I’ll have something insightful (or at least funny) thing to say about it. Some of the release dates might seem a little hinky, but I’m working from the North American release dates on Wikipedia if that answers anything. My list, my rules.

36. The Innkeepers

This is the first movie by horror auteur Ty West that I’ve seen, and while it didn’t thrill me in the slightest (note its chart position), I’m somehow intrigued to see another of his films someday? I don’t really know how that works. This movie was boring and not scary. I can appreciate the attempt at replicating films from the period, but whereas something like Grindhouse synthesized all the best parts of that genre/mode/whathaveyou and then tried to top them, this one attempted to recreate the slow burn of a period film done on the cheap and just fell flat for me. That said, I’m still interested in West’s The House of the Devil, because I think it looks cool. Someday, I guess.

35. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia

OUTA takes the idea of a police procedural to a whole new level/low by essentially setting its investigation in two and a half hours of real time. I probably wasn’t in the best mood to watch this one, and the visual presentation at the theatre was compromised by a really bad digital transfer, so I couldn’t even enjoy the assumed pleasures of  misty landscape photography and the massive moustaches that tamed them. This is a highly subjective choice for me, as the movie’s probably not all that bad, but it got under my skin somehow as something I didn’t like. Sue me. Here’s a great tweet from my friend that explains it quite nicely.

34. Hit and Run

A strange combination I’d never seen before, I’ll give it that: a car chase/crime movie meets a relationship workshop. Dax Shepard and Kirsten Bell are a couple who’ve recently come to an impasse in their relationship. While he’s happy living a bucolic rural lifestyle, Bell has the opportunity of a lifetime to teach conflict resolution at a prestigious college. Shepard would like to support her, but he’s a former getaway driver who’s in the witness protection program after a heist gone bad. When a deadline is placed on Bell’s opportunity, Shepard has no choice but to drive her there, even though his old enemy Bradley Cooper lies in wait.

Honestly, this movie just felt like an excuse for Shepard to drive around in fun cars and spend time with his fiance Bell. He apparently did the stunt driving himself, which I guess is pretty cool, but doesn’t really make for a movie per se. Also, I’ve never lived in the Southland, but it couldn’t be that far between their town and where the college was, could it? This may be my Canadian Prairie upbringing kicking in, but it doesn’t seem like it’d take more than 8 hours of driving or so? Not three days or whatever it was.

33. The Dark Knight Rises

Talk about a disappointment, especially considering how we devoted a whole episode of The Spoiler Show to hyping ourselves up about it. The first two Nolan-era Batman movies were pretty decent (I actually prefer Batman Begins to the much more lauded Dark Knight), but this one just took the wheels off the bus and then just sat there for two and a half goddamn hours. In much the same way as Stockholm Syndrome set in as I watched the similarly shitty Spider-Man 3, the villain Bane was the only thing I can think back on and enjoy as the heroes were pretty awfully done overall. This isn’t to say that Tom Hardy’s Bane was some sort of coup either, I could only imagine that the recording sessions where they got the voice down consisted of him getting half-cut, balancing a spoon on his nose and attempting to do a Sean Connery accent. Fun, but not scary or anything. His villainous plan was ridiculous and dumb, and Batman spent two thirds of the movie coming back from injuries (nothing undercuts the ending of The Dark Knight more than the realization that Batman basically retired after Harvey shot him. Retired and hobbled around his mansion for 8 years! What a pussy!)

What I was looking for in TDKR was what I’m sure is now antithetical to Nolan’s spandex-free aesthetic. I’d like to see a procedural approach to Batman, one where we get to revel in him scaring the shit out of criminals, solve mysteries with his wits and crime computer, and hook up with beautiful ladies, which I will admit is one of the few bits they did do in this one. There was a pretty cool part with him taking out a crook as a strobe light flashes, but compared to even the modicum of crime fighting found in even Batman Begins this wasn’t much. This “Honest Trailer” says it all better than I can really.

32. Prometheus

We already talked about this at length on The Spoiler Show Episode Five, but as you could probably tell by its ranking, Prometheus has not really risen much in my estimation. It’s a shame, really. Much like another work whose subtitle alluded to the same Titan, the film is a patchwork creation, although in this case it doesn’t really equal the sum of its parts. You’ve got the philosophizing on humanity’s creation from 2001: A Space Odyssey, the body horror of Cronenburg circa The Brood (in addition to that of the original Alien saga, obviously), the AI-life conundrum posed by Blade Runner, etc., etc., etc. I will say though that it was an absolutely gorgeous looking film, unfortunately populated by good actors playing absolutely moronic characters. If you’re a fan of the works of H.R. Giger I’d say that this one even more so than its ancestors is an excellent showcase for his work, especially in the last third of the movie. Here’s a fun fact: the building that all the bad shit goes down in was originally designed by Giger for Alejandro Jorodowsky’s abortive Dune project as a Harkonnen citadel.

Here’s another great Honest Trailer, which does a great job of summarizing the many faults of the movie’s plot:

31. The Hunger Games

I only went to see this one as Lady E. was doing it on her podcast. It’s not really my thing, I guess, the film seemed competent enough at what it set out to do. Watching Battle Royale right afterwards though, also for the podcast, it’s clear that the Japanese film was able to display a much wider range of emotions and reactions in its cast than Hunger Games. I’m told that there is a lot more nuance and allusion in the book, which is great, but probably won’t be enough for me to want to revisit the franchise. I was a little put out though that Katniss never actually kills anyone in a way that forces her to deal with the horror of her situation. All of her assailants are put down reflexively or almost by accident, even though the first half of the movie sets up a scenario in which these kids have been training to kill each other for months. It just feels like a bit of a cop out, an attempt by the suits to keep Katniss marketable, at the expense of making her interesting.

Just for fun, here’s one more Honest Trailer (I got a little addicted to these things): 

Tune in soon for the next ten movies on my list counting up.

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Dec 15 2012
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the spoiler show

The Spoiler Show Notes (Supplemental) – Let’s All Go to the Lobby with KEVIN MARTIN!

Hey folks, Matt here with a supplemental Spoiler Show episode for you. This week, I had the privilege of sitting down on the couch at The Lobby and talking to Kevin Martin, owner and operator of that fine establishment. He’s also half of the dynamic duo that run Dedfest, Edmonton’s yearly horror film festival and monthly retrospective screenings at the Metro Cinema.

http://spoilershow.podomatic.com/entry/2012-12-15T19_16_51-08_00

We talk at great length about the state of movies these days, how to run a successful video store, things we’re looking forward to in genre cinema and the Disney/Lucasfilm merger, among other things. Plus, we’ve got a (predictably) film heavy SELL ME ON IT to cap off the interview. Check it out!

Here’s a trailer for my SELL ME ON IT, GATE OF FLESH!

And here’s one for Kevin’s, CHEERLEADER CAMP, aka. BLOODY POM POMS! (Love the rap music in the trailer. Classic)

Finally, here’s a link to Mr. Plinkett’s review of TITANIC, which we discuss in the episode:

Mr Plinkett v. Titanic

As ever, the Creative Commons attribution link for our theme song can be found here:

“Bonaparte – I Can’t Dance” (Noise Problems Selections) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

If you have any burning questions for The Spoiler Show, or want to suggest a topic, our email address is spoilershow (at) gmail (dot) com.

The Spoiler Show is now available on itunes! So check us out there for fun and frivolity. If you want to use our Podomatic site, check it out here: http://www.podomatic.com/profile?public=1. You can plug our rss feed into your readers, too, it’s right here: http://spoilershow.podomatic.com/rss2.xm

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Dec 15 2012
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the spoiler show

The Spoiler Show Notes – Episode Twenty-Five: Grab Bag!

Hey there folks, here’s a new Spoiler Show comin’ at you! This week, Marcus and I talked about all kinds of stuff today, from the current state of the Movember project to the release of the new GTA trailer.

As ever, the Creative Commons attribution link for our theme song can be found here:

“Bonaparte – I Can’t Dance” (Noise Problems Selections) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

If you have any burning questions for The Spoiler Show, or want to suggest a topic, our email address is spoilershow (at) gmail (dot) com.

The Spoiler Show is now available on itunes! So check us out there for fun and frivolity. If you want to use our Podomatic site, check it out here: http://www.podomatic.com/profile?public=1. You can plug our rss feed into your readers, too, it’s right here: http://spoilershow.podomatic.com/rss2.xm

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Nov 21 2012
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the resolution project

The Resolution Project Season Two: Never Let Me Go (2005)

Video Accompaniment: Linda Ronstadt, “What’ll I Do?”

The Resolution Project Season Two: For my New Year’s resolution last year (2011), I decided to try and read all one hundred of the novels picked by Time Magazine as the best since their inception in 1923 to the list’s publication in 2005. I got almost halfway through. I’ve decided to bull-headedly push on through and try and finish the challenge, continuing with the same caveat as before: I’ve exempted myself from reading books I’ve already read, leaving eighty-six or so left to go. Some spoilers may lie ahead, so be warned if you’re the type to be bothered by that. It’s not really worth getting that angry about though.

Never Let Me Go cover

“I’m not saying we necessarily went around the whole time at that age worrying about the woods. I for one could go weeks hardly thinking about them, and there were even days when a defiant surge of courage would make me think ‘How could we believe rubbish like that?’ But then all it took would be one little thing — someone retelling one of those stories, a scary passage in a book, even just a chance remark reminding you of the woods — and that would mean another period of being under that shadow.” (p.51)

The Elevator Pitch: In the late 1990s, a woman named Kathy is a “carer”, a person whose job it is to drive all over England and help people out in convalescent homes. When she was young, Kath lived at a special school in the countryside called Hailsham, which I don’t want to tell you too much about right here. Suffice it to say, Kath and her young friends, who we meet over the course of her reminiscings, are very special children who were educated at Hailsham for a very interesting purpose… (Hint: bring a tissue while reading this one)

What I knew about this book, its subject and its author going in: While I was being coy about the big secret that surrounds this book up in the Pitch, I knew about it going in due to the fact that this book had a pretty well-regarded film adaptation two years ago. I think I’m going to try and check it out soon, potentially once I cheer up some. I’d heard of Kazuo Ishigiro before, with regards to The Remains of the Day, but I hadn’t read anything by him before this one.

Thoughts: Hi there. It’s been a while, now hasn’t it? As you will no doubt remember, being rabid fans of The Spoiler Show as you no doubt are, I’ve mentioned once or twice the fact that I’ve changed jobs. I’m not using this to excuse myself from my sacred duty of reading these books (so you don’t have to in many cases), but as a matter of fact I’ve been busier now than in the past. Doing a weekly podcast is potentially one of the factors in this. Sure, I’ve read a bunch of books since finishing The Kindly Ones back in summertime, but I haven’t really thought about the less entertaining ones on the Time 100 list. I’m trying to get back in the swing of things though.

Anyway, Never Let Me Go. This is a pretty excellent read, and one that I wish I hadn’t been spoiled on early on. Yes, I do realize the irony in that statement considering the blurb above this review, as well as the name of my podcast, etc. I do wish, though, that I could have been in on the ground floor seven years ago when this book came out. The real emotional power Ishigiro wields throughout this narrative comes from the amazing, frail, gormless, beautiful innocence of his protagonists. When I first started reading, the fact that Kath’s job allows her to traverse the countryside almost at will, without, say, gene-police or something out of Cloud Atlas hunting her clone ass down was kind of confusing. Why wouldn’t you try to escape the spectacularly shitty hand that “life” has dealt you? This is of course the plot of both The Island and the far superior Parts: The Clonus Horror, which are all basically the same story as this one.

Parts: The Clonus Horror poster

It dawned on me pretty quick though that the Hailsham School is basically one giant pot of classical and operant conditioning, with a dash of isolation. The quote above, about the woods, is a marvelous example of form and theme and plot all rolled into one deliciously depressing burrito. As much as you’d want to empathize with the kids in the book, on a certain level their upbringing is so alien to most that you just have to accept the fatalism and fear that they operate under at all times. I guess the basic premise of the book is sci-fi, but it’s pretty lo-fi and awful to have to care for and raise all of these poor children rather than using bacta tanks or something. It’s heartbreaking. Add to the fact that the Hailsham School has as its sole emphasis development of artistic creativity in its charges, and you basically had a one-way ticket to Sadnesstown for this reviewer.

I’d be interested to know just how Ishigiro researched this novel. The interactions he describes between the children at various stages in their upbringing felt incredibly real to me. The children were not little Cuckoos or anything like that, they got into the same little spats and crushes that I remember from that time. It’s absolutely marvelous, and makes me want to seek out The Remains of the Day.

“None of you will go to America, none of you will be film stars. And none of you will be working in supermarkets as I heard some of you planning the other day. Your lives are set out for you.” (p. 81)

Similar books on the Time 100 list: The cynical jerk half of me wants to recommend Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret for fans of Never Let Me Go because it’s kind of a funny comparison, but I do honestly feel that the voices of Margaret and Kath have the same ring of authenticity about them. Aspiring grad students could potentially base a thesis on the suffocating feel of the nightmare England present in both Never and The Golden Notebook?

Total pages read since January 1st 2011: 16530 pp. (2071 this year)

Total books on the Time 100 list read: 58/113, or 51% complete.

Next up on the Resolution Project: Money (1984) by Martin Amis. Maybe.

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Nov 14 2012
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comics, film, graphic content

Graphic Content Media Domination!

Josie poster

Big week for us here at Graphic Content this week, as we have two (TWO!) media appearances to talk about. First, E and I made another appearance on Edmonton’s best comics podcast, Podcast! The Comics, the official party organ of Comics! The Blog. They’ve partnered with us again, this time to present 2001′s Josie and the Pussycats on November 20th! While James’ definition of a Christmas movie is a bit restrictive, in my opinion, we had a pretty good chat all around. Check it out!

Podcast! The Comics logo

Secondly, two weeks ago, we were interviewed by the campus newspaper of our alma mater, The Gateway! We had a great time talking to Ramneek Tung about the concept behind the series, and there might be a few Easter eggs about future screenings in there too… Check it out right here.

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Oct 09 2012
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the spoiler show

The Spoiler Show Notes – Episode Eighteen: Another Family Affair, featuring Ian Bowes!

This week on the Spoiler Show, we are once again joined by my little brother Ian Bowes! Marcus makes a half-hearted attempt at psychoanalyzing the two of us after an update into his historic namesake, we talk video game news (specifically current indie darling FTL and rumors about the upcoming Metal Gear Solid movie).

http://spoilershow.podomatic.com/entry/2012-09-28T11_13_27-07_00

Also, we drop some exciting news about a potential future guest!

Here’s a track from Marcus’ SELL ME ON IT this week, Kanye and Jay-Z’s WATCH THE THRONE!

Here’s a trailer for Ian’s first SELL ME ON IT, BORDERLANDS 2!

And here’s a Let’s Play for Ian’s second SELL ME ON IT, FTL – Faster Than Light!

As ever, the Creative Commons attribution link for our theme song can be found here:

“Bonaparte – I Can’t Dance” (Noise Problems Selections) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

If you have any burning questions for The Spoiler Show, or want to suggest a topic, our email address is spoilershow (at) gmail (dot) com.

The Spoiler Show is now available on itunes! So check us out there for fun and frivolity. If you want to use our Podomatic site, check it out here: http://www.podomatic.com/profile?public=1. You can plug our rss feed into your readers, too, it’s right here: http://spoilershow.podomatic.com/rss2.xml

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Jul 06 2012
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the spoiler show

The Spoiler Show Episode Six – TV For Nerds

Well hello there, friends out in Radioland! It’s time for The Spoiler Show! This week, Marcus and I attempted to talk about what we’re enjoying in the current TV universe, but instead got sidetracked (whaaa?) into a discussion of two TV shows where the universe is routinely saved, namely Star Trek and Doctor Who. We both remembered how long Star Trek has been a part of our lives, and also got into a spirited little sidebar about TV piracy.

The Spoiler Show Episode Six – TV For Nerds!

The Spoiler Show Episode Six – TV, Mostly the Geeky Stuff

Starfleet Pie Battle

This is also appropriate: 

The amazing essay contrasting DS9′s view of the universe with TNG’s can be found here: http://wrongquestions.blogspot.ca/2011/04/lets-see-whats-out-there-part-iv-keep.html. All of the work on that site is absolutely excellent, so make sure to check it out. I think the only thing we really spoil in this episode is a bit at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, so we’re probably all right there.

We have a theme song now! The Creative Commons attribution link for it can be found here:

“Bonaparte – I Can’t Dance” (Noise Problems Selections) / CC BY-NC-SA 3.0
If you have any burning questions for The Spoiler Show, our email address is spoilershow@gmail.com. The feedburner link for the show is here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/spoilershowpodcast. If you want to add us to your itunes queue, just click the “Add to itunes” link at the feedburner page.
Join us again next week for a look into the world of video games!
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Jun 29 2012
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the spoiler show

THE SPOILER SHOW EPISODE FIVE – PROMETHEUS ROUNDTABLE

What’s that? It’s #spoilerfriday again? Well it must be time for another episode of The Spoiler Show! This week, Marcus and I are joined once again by Jeff “Old Man Time” Turner, as we engage in a spirited roundtable discussion of Ridley Scott’s PROMETHEUS. It’s a no holds barred look at the overarching themes and imagery of the film, with spoilers aplenty. Does this much-ballyhooed movie live up to all the hype? Listen and find out!

The Spoiler Show Episode Five – Prometheus!

The Spoiler Show Episode 5 – Prometheus

Prometheus movie poster

As is to be expected, this is an incredibly SPOILER heavy episode of what is called, oddly enough, THE SPOILER SHOW. Unless you don’t care about the events that occur in PROMETHEUS, make sure you’ve watched it first. Incidentally, the essay Marcus refers to can be found here: http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/584135.html#cutid1

We have a theme song now! The Creative Commons attribution link for it can be found here:

If you have any burning questions for The Spoiler Show, our email address is spoilershow@gmail.com. The feedburner link for the show is here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/spoilershowpodcast. If you want to add us to your itunes queue, just click the “Add to itunes” link at the feedburner page.
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