Sundays:
Currently watch: The Amazing Race, Web Soup (occasional), Mythbusters (occ)

New: Homeland (Showtime, 10PM, Oct 2) - Clare Danes’ new spy thriller sounds like one of the best received shows of the season, though it’s on Showtime, so I won’t see it for a few years.

Pan Am (ABC, 10PM, Sep.25) - Unlike the Playboy Club, Pan Am seems to be taking the 60’s Mad Men vibe in its own direction, namely a direction with Christina Ricci and puffy fluffy clouds. I’ll probably like it for a season then let it go, like Desperate Housewives.

Mondays:
Currently watch: ummm…

New: Terra Nova (Fox, 8pm, Sept 26) - really, I’m only expecting to be interested in this through the set-up. If it’s a 2 hour pilot, I’ll probably make it about the first hour, if an hour, then I’ll give it 20 minutes, which is about 10 more than the Cape.

Tuesdays:
Currently watch: Rick Mercer Report (occ)

New: Man Up (ABC, 8:30, Oct.18) - these “dude parent” comedies seem to be coming from all angles, but this looks to have a solid cast of character actors and a POV that doesn’t suffer these foolish fathers lightly. I will likely watch the pilot and the odd episode here or there unless it’s really, really good.

Wednesdays
Currently watch: Modern Family, Cougartown

New: Free Agents (NBC, 8:30, Sept.14) - I wasn’t actually expecting to watch this but I caught the pilot on-demand this weekend and it was really, really good, surprisingly so.

Up All Night (NBC, 8:00, Sept. 14) - I’m not sure I’ll be sticking with this one. I think the cast is great, but it’s yet another “new parent”/”dude parent” comedy and you get your fill of those after a while.

Suburgatory (ABC, 8:30, Sept 28) - Jeremy Sisto, Ana Gasteyer, Alan Tudyk… that’s some solid cast work there. It looks to be a dry, fish-out-of-water single-camera family comedy, something I’ll probably catch on-demand week-to-week if it’s any good.

Thursdays:
Currently Watch: Community, Parks and Rec, 30 Rock

New: How To Be A Gentleman (CBS, 8:30, Sept.29) - Looks to be one of those crappy laugh-track comedies from CBS, yet, it’s got Murry from Flight of the Conchords so I want to see that just a little bit (but it’s also got Kevin Dillon from Entourage, so ugh). I’ll likely be done with it by the first commercial break.

Person of Interest (CBS, 9:00, Sept.22) - A JJ Abrams produced show starring Michael Emerson, I’ll give it a half dozen episodes just out of Lost loyalty.

Fridays:
Currently Watch: Fringe, The Soup (occ)

New: A Gifted Man (CBS, 8:00, Sept.23) - Patrick Wilson playing an asshole? I don’t believe it. Then the ghost of his dead wife turns up and guides him to atone for his ego… or something. Its pilot is directed by Jonathan Demme which may just make it the best looking pilot this season, so I’ll maybe give it a go.

One of the more surprisingly popular products we were selling were Living Dead Dolls, odd little figures that are like traditional dolls in form but with a more macabre wardrobe/make-up. Most of them are original designs, but they also have a line of Dolls licensing horror film properties, like Freddie Krueger. I cycled through a few boxes of these dolls, and the people buying them were primarily women, but of all different appearances, wardrobes, and ethnicities. But I only had one child come by, a little girl, likely 7, perhaps 8 years old dolled up (literally) in an exceptionally accurate Chucky (from Child’s Play) outfit. Her (I’m assuming) father, a scruffy looking man with unkempt hair and somewhat frumpy clothing, brought her to the table and she stared up wide eyed at the Dolls. In my own prejudgements I assumed that her father, being of the appearance, is of the Fangoria set, (afterall, who dresses up their kid as Chucky for a convention?) and thatthis poor little girl was an unwilling accomplice in his freaky obsession. But he asked her what she was looking at and she jumped up and down with as much, if not more glee and excitement then I saw out of any other child at the show, exclaiming “Captain Spaulding! Captain Spaulding.”

Captain Spaulding is the character played by Sid Haig in the Rob Zombie films “House of 1000 Corpses” and “The Devil’s Rejects”. He’s described in his Wikipedia entry as “a vulgar clown” and “a loveable asshole”, not exactly descriptions of a child-friendly character. This little girl’s obvious familiarity with the character indicates that she’s had exposure to this character, and that gave me a chill up my spine. A child that age should not be exposed to such material, certainly not intentionally. Their minds and understanding of social dynamics and human interactions aren’t ready to handle scenes of that nature. This little girl, I have to say, I don’t want to meet in ten years, because I fear for the damage that’s been inflicted upon her psyche. Hopefully she manifests it into something productive… a career as a coroner or a taxidermist. Or perhaps as a teen she will rebel from her parents’ morose tendencies into book-learnin’ and physics or conservationism. Fingers crossed.

Of course, this is quite predated by “the holy apocalypse”, complete with four horseman, but, for a few millenniums, that was largely all we, as humanity, had to sustain ourselves and our clear desire to see our race eradicated with. But we are a smarter society now, or at least more aware of what’s going on in nature, in biology, in science and technology, economy and commerce, so we know enough to know that a negative event in any one of disciplines, exacerbated to some ridiculous degree, could end it all.

Of course the ELE (”extinction level event”) isn’t all that likely, afterall crocodiles and some fish survived whatever apocalypse it was that dinosaurs couldn’t, so some ones, and/or, some things will carry on regardless of what happens. In our modern end-of-the-world myth-making, this is where the fun is, the survivor scenario, what happens to those left behind, how does everything change, and so often the point seems to be, well, “as bad as the apocalypse is, society’s now kind of better than what it was, no?” Let’s face it our society sucks,that’s why chaos and calamity is some weird dream, or at least fascination. It’s like the ultimate freedom, no work, no rules. There’s also no food, no fuel, no people, and often no hope, but there you go, the price you pay for an adventure.

But just know this, if there are survivors, it’s not likely to be you is it. Sure, you might learn to syphon gas and run a generator, but can you hotwire a plane? Can you skin a rabbit? Can you drink the water without getting dysentery? Can you survive without the internet to guide you? Did you forget to download Wikipedia to your solar powered ebook reader? Well, you’re screwed.

Reading some of those distasteful, idiotic, and narrow-minded comments to that video has sparked many different emotions in me: anger; outrage; repulsion; sympathy… yes, sympathy. People making comments like the ones that appear on there are victims of their own circumstances… I can stereotype, but I won’t, although judging from grammar alone, it’s evident they’re poorly educated, as likely to be teenagers as they are twenty- to forty-somethings. They’re likely living in communities of the downtrodden, where petty crime is common, social development is virtually non-existent, and they’ve essentially been left to their own devices. Written-off, as it were. They want something or someone to blame for their circumstances, so they blame everyone, the government, the police, the immigrant population. It’s the same in run-down communities in larger cities in North America, the poor are kept poor and avoided unless there’s trouble and their ignorance is exploited, by politicians, corporations, the media, criminals. It’s hard to rise up against the system when the system is so heavily working against you and is so nebulous that you don’t even know you’re being oppressed, or you’re being oppressed in such a way that you’re actually being given the tools to repress yourself. Diet, alcohol, drugs, sports, music, movies, television, video games, porn… all means of escape. There’s a good side to each, but the bad side is so much less work. Why think about anything when it’s so easy not to, when it’s so easy to leave the thinking to others and just consume, with often great pleasure received with such minimal exertion.

Then there’s the flip-side, escaping into these things, and putting so much of your mental and/or physical energies into doing so. I escape into comic books and televison and movies and comedy, I invest myself into them and then take the time to think about them and relate my thoughts and experiences with them via reviews and blogs.
Why?
What do I get out of it?
What I get… I get to escape the real world. Fictional worlds, and why I love them so much, is because they’re not reality. Even when they reflect reality, when a comic or film establishes that character exists in “our reality”, it’s not really our reality. It’s the reality of the writer, of the creators, who manipulate the people, the situations for dramatic effect. Someone’s a racist, it’s because they were written that way, usually as a reminder of the potency of racism, but fake racism is never as upsetting as the real thing. Fake racism can be dealt with, addressed, changed, snuffed out… there’s a beacon of hope that you rarely encounter with its real world counterpart. Much in the same way, any negative situation can have a positive encounter.

I just saw the trailer to “Margin Call”, a film that takes place inside an investment bank just prior to the huge 2008 market collapse. What I was left wondering, at the end of the trailer, is why anyone would want to see that film? There’s absolutely no redemptive arc to that story, at least not in the real world scenario it’s based on. The bad guys didn’t get punished, the corporations that enabled the event to happen were given billions of the public’s money to keep going, and they turned around and just screwed everyone again. There’s no good guys there, the government isn’t looking out for its people, and the criminal justice system wasn’t allowed to do its job. It’s yet another reminder that there’s a hierarchy at play in the world, and if you’re not in the game then you really don’t matter. This film may have some conclusion with an arrest or two, and the collapse of the firm, but the potency of the real world won’t allow an escape into such a narrowly distinct fantasy.

I like to escape, because in escaping there’s always someone in control. All stories are the domain of their writers and things happen because they’re willed to happen. I seems that every facet of the real world is often out of any single person’s control. I can see why some people need to believe in God in order to cope, some people just need to believe there is someone in control.

I like to escape because in escaping you can fix the troubles of the world is relatively simplistic strokes. In Star Trek, humanity is bridged, exploring the stars together, rather than warring with ourselves. I’d like to assume that in the Trek world we’ve managed to get our shit together, and there’s no such thing as a third-world or a first-world nation, but that everyone is treated equally to the same education and is offered the same opportunities as anyone else and most people act selflessly. It’s a delicious dream. But we’re here, now, poisoning ourselves with our diets, consuming resources from the earth only to give them back in such a way that they toxify everything they touch, and scrambling for fame, recognition and money but without any concept of how to earn it. There was a time when the people who made it on television got there because they had talent, not just tits.

I don’t read the newspapers or news sites or watch the news very often. I don’t know what to do with the information given to me from these sources other than get angry. I feel helpless so much of the time, thus I see art as a way to get away from that feeling, and even when art reminds me of the real world, it’s great, because it’s a real world I’d like to live in, one that has some sense of order to it, not just chaotic smashing atoms everywhere.

In the land of fake believe so ofter there’s only one, sometimes two or maybe three obstacles facing the people in the story, sometimes they’re physical barriers, or malicious people, or the more ethereal “system”, but there’s no way for any story to concisely build up and extrapolate upon all the real-world facets that get in our way, from the faceless legion of competitors for jobs, to the marketing execs that push poison on you and call it food, to environmental concerns, etc. It’s almost a relief when there’s just one “bad guy” for Batman to tackle, or one corporation for Erin Brockovich to oppose. In 24 pages of a comic, or in 2 hours of a film, a nasty thing can be identified and taken care of in such a way that nothing so big in life ever is.

I used to invest incredible amounts of time to understanding the minutia of DC Comics continuity, and the same for Star Wars. I would escape into these places because there was a finite amount of information to learn. I wasn’t ever expecting to receive it all, but I knew at some point there was an end to it, a point where it was possible that I had encountered everything there was to know about Blue Beetle or Lak Sivrak. I would know every relevant thing that happened in their lives, I would have read most of the thoughts they’d ever had, I would understand the events of their universes and how they impacted each and every character (to a point). I often have trouble understanding how I impact the people around me, I sometimes don’t know the right thing to say. I sometimes want to undo something I just did and try it again. If I could plot out my life into a three-volume, 1200 page story, I’m certain I could make the perfect life, with just the right amount of pathos and joy, to make a utopia for myself that isn’t pristine, but perfect in its flaws. It could be close to how I lived my life but I’d be a better person, and the world would be a better place. I wouldn’t waste so much time thinking about what was wrong, but actually understand how to correct it.

But, I don’t understand. I know what’s wrong far too often, but I’m ill equipped to handle it. It’s sometimes so obvious that I get irate because others don’t see it. Or, others do see it, but like me, have no concept of how to act on it. There’s a system, the system is broken, and now the only ones who can use it are only in it for themselves. Villains are all around, and there’s really no one fighting them, which is why I escape, because in my flight from reality, they get what’s coming to them, and as a result, we all do too.

It started in 2006, with CBC Radio 3 podcasts and the occasional other miscellaneous music podcasts, but by 2008 I had tired of what the CBC was serving me and my good friend GAK had started his own radio show/podcast at CITR in Vancouver, so I had a suitable replacement. “Radio Free GAK” (now “Exploding Head Movies”) was like an extension of the mixtapes/cds we used to send to each other, only now, GAK’s mixtapes were getting heard by the masses, and more professional, and solidly formulaic (in a good way). I realized having stuff piped into my ears at work and during travel to and from work was a great way to dull the tedium of the workday, and was easier and less conspicuous entertainment/distraction than surfing the web all day.

In late 2008 I was searching around the net for Christmas related tunes, looking for Corky and the Juice Pigs’ “Christmas Dreams”. In the organic and fluid process that is killing-time-with-web-surfing, I made it to Bob Oedenkirk and David Cross’ website where comedian Doug Benson had a column called “I Love Movies”, and it turns out he had a podcast. I subscribed and that was it. Fairly quickly I became obsessed with the L.A. comedy scene, fostered by the Doug Loves Movies podcast, and, moreover the Comedy Death Ray podcast which I caught on with in its first few weeks. All this great comedy for free was mind blowing to me, but it was only twice a week, about two hours worth of material. That wasn’t enough. I started looking for more, seeing if there were comedians I could readily identify who had podcasts, trying out a CBC Radio comedy podcast (which wasn’t very good) and then just exposing myself to comedy podcasts at random, seeing what would stick.

I had caught the first season of John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up, and recognized the name Marc Maron from there, but didn’t quite recall the act. I quite enjoyed almost every comedian on Oliver’s series (I knew most of them already anyway) so I figured if Maron was solid enough for Oliver to put on his show then I should give his podcast, WTF, a shot, starting with the episode on which Oliver appeared. I was hooked, fascinated not just by the stories behind so many comedians, the raw and honest interviews Maron managed to elicit, but also by the raw, honest, and often hilarious ramblings, usually about his own life and neuroses Maron prefaces his shows with. I liked comedy before, quite a bit, but I can honestly say I didn’t understand stand-up comedy beyond just what made me laugh. Now, I love stand-up, I love comedy, I love the science and form behind it, fascinated by the damaged personalities, and intrigued by the craziness of the industry that chews them up and spits them out on a regular basis.

Shortly after discovering WTF, I came across Chris Hardwick’s Nerdist podcast, and I guess I sort of self-identified with the mantra of the show, exploring the “nerd” in all types of popular culture. After a year or so of twice-weekly WTF, and the weekly CDR Radio, Nerdist and Doug Loves Movies, more and more podcasts started to creep out into the open, with Scott Aukerman forming the Earwolf podcasting network, developing new shows, all of which I’ve given a shot and most of which I still listen to. Nerdist has spawned “Nerdist Industries” which is slowly developing new podcasts. Paul F. Tompkins, easily the most prolific and funniest guest on Comedy Death Ray, spawned his own monthly Pod F. Tompcast, which just capped off its first year with a brilliant live show version. The Onion AV Club had their own podcast for a while, but after they stopped podcasting, they started a weekly podcast write-up where I’ve since come across StarTalk Radio - hosted by planetarium runner, PBS host, and frequent Daily Show guest Neil deGrasse Tyson - which talks science in popular culture with comedic undertones, as well as Judge John Hodgman, a “People’s Court”-style podcast for petty arguements between friends and family members, presided over by the erudite John “I’m A PC” Hodgman, and most recently, my new favourite podcast, Mike and Tom Eat Snacks, hosted by former “Ed” stars Tom Cavenaugh and comedian/actor/writer Michael Ian Black sitting down and assessing snacks. Simple but brilliant.

The problem is I have too many twice-weekly, weekly, monthly and sporadic podcasts, most of which I enjoy, but I don’t have enough time to listen to them all. Not only that, but the podcasts steal a lot of brainspace, not to mention time, away from doing other things, mostly writing and thinking about things. At this point it feels like other people are doing the thinking for me. Weirdly enough, I should add, I don’t listen to any movie or comic book review podcasts, which is what I spend much of my energies writing these days… well, “How Did This Get Made”, Paul Scheer’s bi-weekly tearing through of a crappy movie is technically a review podcast, but it’s so narrowly focussed it doesn’t quite count.

I was thinking of dropping “Who Charted”, the weekly Earwolf podcast starring comedian/rapper Howard Kremer and Mrs. Scott Aukerman, Kulap Vilaysack going over the top five movies and a random music chart with a special guest each week. The delight is in Kremer’s ridiculous questions, Kulap’s infectious giggling, and the frequent complaining about how horrible all the top everything is. However, after a few dud weeks I was ready to let it go, but then came three solid weeks in a row featuring Marc Maron, Bob Oedenkirk, and Scott Aukerman which has granted the show a reprieve.

I’ve actually stopped listening to all of the Nerdist podcasts, enjoying the “hostful” (aka “guestless”) banter between Chris Hardwick, Jonah Ray and Matt Myra far more than when they have a guest in their midst. I will tune into the odd guested episode if I have an interest in the guest, but I find the three-on-one set up to be awkward (since the three hosts have a natural repartee which most of the guests don’t comfortably gel with).

Ultimately, I’m going to have to pare my listening list back to at most 10 hours a week. I get most of my listening in at work or on my commute to work, so whenever I take time off I’m not consuming any of the podcasts and fall far behind, rarely able to catch up. (I still have a handful of WTFs amongst others to catch up on from taking a week off over a month and a half ago). No matter what, I’m sticking with the “classics”, Doug Loves Movies, Comedy Bang Bang (formerly CDR), WTF and Exploding Head Movies. That’s about 5 hours right there. Outside of these all the rest are somewhat expendable, but looking at my list, I can’t decide what to cut.

Mondays: WTF, Comedy Bang Bang, Mike and Tom Eat Snacks
Tuesdays: Exploding Head Movies, How Did This Get Made (bi weekly)
Wednesdays: Who Charted?
Thursdays: WTF, Nerdist hostful, Judge John Hodgman (seems to be on hiatus)
Fridays: Sklarbro Country, Doug Loves Movies

Occasional:
Pod F. Tompcast (first of every month)
Scott Free (Scott Thompson’s infrequent podcast)
Seanpod (Sean Cullen’s infrequent podcast)
Affirmation Nation With Bob Ducca (a daily 2 - 5 minute podcast I listen to in chunks)
Superego (a monthly sketch podcast)

I guess I need to at worst stick with what I have and not try anything else out… or who knows what might happen.

So today, after a long, dust-gathering hiatus, the geekent blog archives are back in full… and more. As part of their import, WordPress suggested changing the user name of each so that the archives are more distinguished and easier to find. Thus the archives map out like so:

Author - Graig: geekent.com January 2009 - present

Author - geekent: geekent’s buy nothing year January 2008 - January 2009

Author - gkentetc: geekent’s “entertainment etc.” off-shoot page for reviews, purchases lists, and entertainment commentary from July 2003 - Sept 2008

Author - graigkent: this would be all the “geekent.com” blog content from “Dirty Monkey Bugspray Fun” in July 2002 through to end of 2007

Author - gkgk: this is the content from the shared blog “Dirty Monkey Bugspray Fun”, which also had posts from GAK and ryan which you will find on this page, Aug 2002 - July 2004 (some, if not all of this content may have been duplicated into entertainment etc.)

There are no author links so I’ll have to figure out how to rectify that… but the search function is working great if you’re looking for any specific reviews or past commentary or life events or whatnot.

Like any crazy obsessive I clipped images from magazines - Wizard, Previews, Comics Scene, Overstreet’s Fan, Comic Shop News - and wallpapered my room with them in a colourful, borderline unhealtly collage. It wasn’t just the walls, it was the ceiling too. I woke up many a time with a clipped Joe Quesada drawing of Ninjak or John Byrne She-Hulk resting on my face, a white spot on the ceiling where the image should be, and, immediately, was again.

I can’t even count the number of times, or hours spent, reorganizing my comic book collection into different sorting methodologies, sometimes alphabetical, sometimes by character, sometimes by company, sometimes by how much I liked them. I think a lot of these reorganizations didn’t make sense and hence necessitated another floor-covering re-sort. My dad, handy guy that he is, made a rather massive (and I recall, extremely heavy) bookshelf for my comics, one which held the equivalent of seven long-boxes worth. Once I ran out of room on that (which was pretty much immediately), he built into my closet a shelving system that featured a swinging shelf that provided an additional 33% more storage, yet I still required at least three long boxes of additional storage beyond that.

I wouldn’t say my life revolved around comics, but it wasn’t far off from it either. I cared about comics, I cared about the characters, I cared about the creators and the health of the industry and my local comics shop as much as, say, my friends or my education. My dream, like any fixated-on-comics kid, was to be a comic book artist, and in the last two months of my high schooling I had written and illustrated a full 24-page comic as a creative writing project, which actually turned out okay, in retrospect (but is not nearly as pro as I thought at the time).

When I knew I couldn’t commit to the discipline being an artist required I turned to writing and put together pitches, constantly making notes for character and story ideas, and even writing up a few scripts (though doing so by hand has made them borderline illegible so many years later). But deep down I didn’t really commit to being a writer either, as, like so many of us who dream of creating our own comics, I was fearful of moving beyond the fantasy of it, and actually contributing to the comics community. Those pitches and notes never went anywhere but in a file folder.

Deep down I feared I wasn’t cut out for the creative lifestyle (and man, you really have to commit to your craft if you’re going to do it, and even then expect failure but don’t lose hope for success). My alternative - my back-up plan - to drawing and writing was entrepreneurship - owning and operating my own comic book store, another part of the fantasy I had long held. I even did a co-op credit working at my LCS (a trend I started that continues to this day there), which led me down the path to the Business Administration program in my post-secondary education. But by the time I hit University, reality had knocked on my brain hard. As much as I loved comics, as much as I wanted to be a part of it, it wasn’t my reality and I knew that the sensible me inside wasn’t going to let it be. My reality was button-downed business, not exposing one’s talent (or lack thereof) to the world at large to be embraced or rejected (the fear of success and fear of failure are equally potent). Where I grew up, we had one success story in show business… Paul Schaffer, Letterman’s band leader. There was no one else to look up to, and I was no trail blazer. I didn’t care about the business world, I cared about comics, but I was too naive to know what to do about it, and far too incapable of venturing outside my comfort zone to try.

Those who can’t do, teach. In entertainment, those who can’t do, review.

My obsession with comics faded somewhat throughout university, as I was exposed to the broader culture of entertainment. That enthusiasm spread to television, movies, and music so that by the turn of the millennium I was buying CDs and DVDs as religiously as comics. I started to review things on all fronts which I’ve continued to do over the past decade. It’s not creatively satisfying, but I know I’ve gotten pretty good at it. I’ve committed to it more than I’ve committed to any other activity related to the creative fields, to the point were I was working towards a make-or break venture in 2008 that utterly fell apart in one quick server fail and nearly obliterated all passion I had for everything entertainment.

Not long after that I became a real grown up (you would think getting married and being a step-dad would’ve done it, but nope, not quite). I got my financial affairs in order, I bought a house, my daughter was born, and very, very quickly, all that stuff I thought I was so passionate about didn’t matter as much. I like movies, I like music, I like television, but I’ve started to be okay doing without them for stretches of time. Comics, though, I still love comics. But I don’t love them like I used to. They’re like an old friend, they still matter to me, I still care about them, but they’re not as important as they used to be. I see them once a week, but I’m not checking in with them every day like I used to.

My stepson is about 2 years away from the age where I really started investing myself in comics, and his personality right now is very much like mine was at his age. What he loves are comics, toys and television, just like I did way back when, to an almost exclusive degree where going to any extracurricular activities is just taking time away from reading and watching and playing. I’m seeing the signs and he might be an asocial nerd-in-progress (like me). Not unpopular or a “loser” but trench-headed in the mindset that fantasy and escapism are more important or more interesting than the real world. I get it. I used to be there and occasionally would like to go back there. But I wonder, should I encourage, discourage, or completely let him discover his own path in this regard? It didn’t serve me too badly in the long run, but it also held me back somewhat from having a greater, more adventurous youth. I have to wonder.

Funny thing is, I still have all the dreams I used to…of becoming a comic book writer and artist (though the artist skills have long atrophied but I’m hoping one day to get the time to rebuild those too) and even to run my own comics shop (though I know that possibility will probably disappear almost completely in the next 15 years). I doubt I’ll ever make it as a full-time pro, but if I ever achieve the discipline to work on something day after day (rather than, say, watching four episodes of Angel on Netflix in an evening, or spending two hours writing blog posts) I can actually put something out there, stop commenting and actually create. I don’t think I really care anymore if people don’t like it (I’ve had enough negative comments from just reviewing that has steeled me to the internet’s troll-ful ways) and I’ll probably be incredibly grateful (though not too much so) to the people that do.

February 4
The King’s Speech - with the most Oscar nominations this year (12) the King’s Speech has a lot to live up to and if it succeeds it only does so with the lowered expectations that the Oscars have induced. The film, is, simply put, a crowd-pleasing historical light drama, the kind of amicable pap that Oscar winners Forrest Gump and Slumdog Millionaire revel in. In this regard it’s a shoe in. The performances by Geoffry Rush and Colin Firth are entertaining and engaging, Firth particularly exuding a tangible sense of loneliness (although his stuttering affectation seems cartoonishly exaggerated). Though warm, the film’s directorial style is fairly generic and the story is placed inside a comically predictable structure that hits every note right where it’s supposed to be. It’s a shoe in for best film, and Firth and Rush both are strong contenders for Best Actor and Supporting.

Predators - Robert Rodriguez’ sequel to the first Predator finds Adrien Brody, Topher Grace and a half dozen other humans placed on an alien habitat, a game reserve actually, and pitting their survival skills against a trio of Predators. There’s not much more to it than that, but director Nimrod Antal provides a relentless kineticism to the proceedings, and I actually buy Brody as a bad ass mercenary. The character work is strong, especially with so little character development, and the action is old school, with CGI kept to a minimum, the physicality coming through. It doesn’t vary much off the 1987 original, but then it doesn’t have to. This will be a (slightly edited for violence and language) Saturday afternoon classic in the years to come.

MacGruber - Although one of my favourite Saturday Night Live skits of recent years, I acknowledge that it is incredibly one-note, and transitioning it to any longer format would be a challenge. So star Will Forte, director Jorma Taccone and John Solomon started from scratch, in a sense, which sounded like a positive shift for an SNL film, but in reality just made it pretty much another typically mediocre entry in a long line of sketch-to-film transitions. Where MacGruber failed the most was in establishing its lead character, who is supposed to be a legendary warrior, pulled from retirement to save the country from a nuclear threat via his old nemesis, but it turns out he’s inept, a coward, and a whiner. I’m not sure how much mileage a MacGuyver parody would get this day and age but with these things you go one way or the other… either he’s inept, inept but comedically effective, or super-competent, but you can’t have all three. There’s some funny and fun moments, and Taccone stretches his low-budget nicely, capturing the 80’s action vibe nicely, but at the same time it never comes together all that well as either an action movie or a comedy.

February 5
Enter The Void - a dash of Wim Wender’s Wings of Desire, a pich of Aronofski’s Requiem For A Dream, a hint of Boyle’s Trainspotting, the aroma of David Lynch, all added to a strong base of Kubrick, from Eyes Wide shut back to A Clockwork Orange and 2001. Irreversible director Gaspar Noe once again delivers a challenging cinematic experience but in this case a much softer, if not necessarily kinder or gentler one. The story is ridiculous, the acting is bad and it’s probably pretentiously long, but it’s an incredible experience nonetheless. A 2 1/2 minute barrage of epileptic seizure-inducing opening credits set to a thudding, glitched-out industrial track gives way to 2 hours and 40 minutes of head-trip psychedelia and a high-school level interpretation of metaphysics. A young Canadian lives in Tokyo with his sister, both orphans, he a low-level drug dealer, she a stripper. When a drug deal goes bad, a heavily foreshadowed conversation on buddhist afterlife plays out as he monitors the world and people he left behind occasionally tripping back into his own memories and nightmares, revealing his past and his relationships with the people he watches over. The opening sequence is shown in first-person perspective, as we tour through Tokyo via the character’s eyes (literally, the screen blinks and everything) and hear his internal monologue. The post-death sequences are shot with detachment, hovering above the cast and the city, floating closer and further away, in and out of rooms, through walls etc. The spirit through whose eyes we follow the world is occasionally sucked into the light (the source of which varies) where we experience the trip, literally and figuratively, through some type of nether realm emerging on the other side sometime in the past, sometimes stepping ahead in time, sometimes in a different place but in a parallel time to what we just witnessed. It’s an incredibly voyeuristic film, ending its journey with a trip through a sex hotel, the result predictable, but no less visually compelling. I can’t say I love it, but as an experience it’s certainly like little else I’ve ever experienced.

February 6
Easy A - I looked up Emma Stone on IMDB immediately after this film in the hopes that my appreciation for her can also be attraction without it being criminally lecherous. She was, mercifully, about 20 when she shot the picture. And what a picture. Since the 1980s many have tried, and none (that I can think of) have succeeded in making a teenage comedy that matches the style, humour and cleverness of John Hughes’ oeuvre. The 80’s had a heyday of pictures like these, not all of them under Hughes’ direction, but for some reason Hollywood has forgotten how to make a picture that shows high schools in their best light, as a place of tortured existence but not a prison and certainly not without its highs. Mean Girls was the last, best example, but didn’t have the Hughes’ sensibility. Easy A turns the Scarlet Letter into a Hughes film and Stone’s Olive into a modern-day Molly Ringwald. The cast is loaded with incredible supporting talent including Thomas Hayden Church as Olive’s English teacher and the brilliant Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson as her parents. Olive is intelligent, but not infallible, while her parents jovial, playful but loving and attentive reflect intensely in her character. The script is wry and extremely charming, and Olive and her family so appealing that I didn’t want to leave them. There’s no immediate impetus for a sequel and yet I want more than anything to spend time with these characters again.

February 7
The Town - On Blu-Ray we started watching the 2 1/2 hour extended director’s cut of the film, but after a few glitches 20 minutes in we reverted to the theatrical cut. I’m not certain the film demands the additional 25 minutes, but it does feel as if many characters within the film get short-shifted, especially Jeremy Renner’s intensely compelling and challenging James, who seems to disappear throughout long sequences involving Ben Affleck’s Doug courtship of his own robbery victim Rebecca Hall’s Claire. I’m not sure if the film lingers too long on Doug and Claire’s destined-for-failure relationship or if it’s just the morals of Doug pursuing it to begin with that didn’t jibe with me, but the other aspects of the film, including Jon Hamm and Titus Welliver’s investigation into Doug and crew’s robberies, were Heat-level intense, and James’ bloodlust doesn’t ever really pay off like it seems it should, nor does the insight into “the Town” really pay off like it’s set up to (though I did get more hints towards that in the first 20 of the extended version). Affleck’s nicely crawled out of his joke hole and proven himself a skilled director, an equally likeable actor and yes, even and Oscar winning writer.

February 8
Exit Through The Gift Shop - the question is, how much of Mr. Brainwash is a put-on? And does that invalidate his art. Or does it further validate it in a quasi sense because it’s part of the larger art of duping people into buying mass-produced fake art as part of this film, itself an art project? It makes my brain hurt… in a good way. A very pleasing and entertaining movie.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work - She’s kind of horrific to look at, and her career has taken so many compromised turns that it’s honestly hard to see what there is to take seriously about Joan Rivers. This film puts it all back into perspective, the groundwork she’s laid for so many other comedians, the tremendous successes and even more the embarrassing failures both professionally and personally, and the seemingly unending drive to work, be known and be seen. She’s a fame hound, and though she’s perhaps not happy about it, she certainly accepts that it is her life and her lifestyle. She’s a diva, a primadonna, and she’s still a hell of a comedian, though, at times a bit too unaware of her own material. A fascinating look at a too easily forgotten or ignored personality.

February 9
Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #1
Secret Six #30
Adventure Comics #523
Batgirl #18
Batman and Robin #20
Justice League Generation Lost #19
Red Robin #20
THUNDER Agents #4
Unwritten #22
X-Factor #215
SpongeBob Comics #1

February 16
Morning Glories Vol 1 TPB
Fables #102
Doom Patrol #19
Green Lantern #62
Legion of Super-Heroes #10
Young Justice #1
GI Joe Cobra #13
SHIELD #6
Captain America Man Out Of Time #4

February 22
All-Star Superman - Grant Morrison’s original story contained 12 stand-alone stories that formed a general arc. The animated adaptation of this arc pares it back somewhat, retaining much of the wonder and heart but at the same time not fully capturing the entire spirit of the book. If animation has a drawback, particularly these DVD-direct features that Marvel and DC put out, it’s that they regularly fail to capture the sense of natural movement, dialogue or progression, opting instead to get to the good stuff, which is lots of spectacle and fighting. They seem to have the worst time dealing with plain clothes situations, where characters need to be normal and speak in casual tongue. Disney and Pixar’s rarely have a problem with this, so I’m not sure what the constraint is for these guys, except (I guess) they need to keep costs down and time tight. Anyway, the first third of ASS is stilted in a way, and flows rather unnaturally for a feature (like they were segmented chapters of a story, imagine that) but the last act of the film is enthralling, at times gorgeous, frequently exciting and clever, and ultimately kind of beautiful. It’s truly a shame that it doesn’t work so well in the beginning. The sad fact behind this was it was purchased in tribute to Dwayne McDuffie, one of my most respected comic writers and a damn fine story man in animation, and though ASS is a nice product to go out on, I hope there’s still an original story of McDuffie’s in the works somewhere that can act as swansong.

February 23
Sixth Gun #9
Justice League Generation Lost #20
Teen Titans #92
Captain America #615
Detective Comics #874

Netflix
Micmacs - Jean Pierre Jeuenet may not be beholden to but is certainly partial to whimsy, a form of lightheartedness that isn’t quite comedy but doesn’t preclude it either, and hasn’t had a home since the 1930’s when doe-eyed, lash-batting startlets made way for hungry, heady Gone With The Wind melodrama. Where independent filmmakers in North America use quirk, and most European or Asian filmmakers use absurdity, Jeuenet uses earnestness, a sense that what you see is what you get, even if it is most peculiar. Jeuenet’s characters have a willingness to accept themselves, their situation and their place. They don’t aspire, they don’t dream, they’re content even when downtrodden. It’s not relentless enthusiasm or annoyingly upbeat, it’s affable. The story of Micmacs could rise and fall between any number of extremes (from outright silly, to puzzlingly bizarre), but it maintains a consistent pace of playfulness and sweet endearing so as never to elevate, shock or disarm its audience. It’s as if Jeuenet just wants to bear witness to an audience full of wry grins. But it’s not going to be everybody’s flavour. It’s unnatural, unrealistic, and old fashioned. It’s an Ewoks vs. the Empire scenario and while it’s cute, if you think about the logic it’ll drive you nutty.

January 2
Louis CK: Chewed Up - not sure if I’ve sat through much of CK’s comedy before but after a full year of comedy podcasts he’s been touted practically as the second coming of Carlin, and the hype isn’t far off. The man has a comedy agenda like no other, and he’s brilliant at executing it as witnessed here. As an aging man with kids, I’ll say it speaks to me in a way that it might not have a couple years ago, but I still think I would have found it brilliant (if making marriage and fatherhood sound like a ridiculously bad idea). The old tale about comedians losing their gifts once they start talking about their kids, it’s shit, and CK paves the way for how to do it right.

January 4
Secret Warriors Vol 3
Superman: Nightwing and Flamebird
Doom Patrol #19
X-Factor #213

January 6
Gavin & Stacey Season 1 ep1 -2 (netflix)
Hyperdrive Season 1 ep1 (netflix)
That Mitchell and Webb Look Season 1 (netflix)

January 7
Archer Season 1
The Bedwetter by Sarah Silverman - the first few chapters, dealing with Silverman’s socially-crippling bedwetting disorder are the serious meat-and-potatoes of this book, and are powerfully resonant, which makes the rest of the book, where Silverman flourishes into her own groundbreaking comedic persona a little less enticing. There’s a lack of storytelling trajectory to the remaining book that makes it a little disappointing after these initial chapters, which is likely Silverman’s earnestness and modesty coming into play. It’s surprisingly readable, although anecdotal and light on the jokes.

January 9
Me, You and Everyone We Know (netflix) - it’s all about connections, how people connect with one another, and how people communicate with one another and how what one person says is always filtered by the person it’s being said to. It’s a remarkable, assured film which has a cast of a dozen characters, each with an important contribution and moment to the film. It deals with Todd Solondz-esque themes but instead of mining misery and disturbing concepts for drama and comedy, it mitigates the awkwardness with sincerity. This isn’t a film out to do bad things to its characters or show its characters as bad people, it wants its audience to connect, rather than push them away.

January 11
Winter’s Bone (r) - How deep does blood run and how important is it? In the Ozarks an extended family of distant relatives are primarily in the meth-cooking business. 17-year-old Ree is the sole provider for her two younger siblings and her mentally incapacitated mother, her father recently busted for cooking. Now having skipped bail and putting their house up for collateral, Ree’s life and family are about to be usurped unless she can find her father or prove that he’s dead. It’s a methodically paced film, following this young woman who has no options or choices except do everything she can or give up. She’s thrust into the midst of her father’s world, dangerous, aggressive, desperate and desolate. An incredibly well-made and potent exploration of a microculture, it’s earned its accolades. Compare thematically to True Grit.

Date Night (r) - Adventure comedies like this usually revolve around younger, prettier couples, usually a first date scenario to bring the couple together. So it’s nice to see this well-tread plot that instead gives way to an everyday, boring, suburban couple, and explore what it means to be married and responsible to one’s family and partner. It’s not quite that deep but it does explore it nicely for a moderately-budgeted hollywood release. NBC Thursday night staples Fey and Carrell make for a realistic-enough couple and have the comedy chops to carry a film like this without getting to dry or melodramatic. It’s not terrific but it is cute.

January 12
Batgirl #17
Justice League: Generation Lost #17
Red Robin #19
Secret Six #29
THUNDER Agents #3
Unwritten #21
Captain America: Man out of Time #3

January 13
Zach and Miri Make a Porno (netflix) - I used to be a huge Kevin Smith fan, but somewhere along the way I realized that his juvenile sense of humour and his questionable abilities as a director make many of his films unwatchable once you’re cognizant of his limitations. I have to admit I thought Jersey Girl was a nice step forward for him, in trying something different and acknowledging some semblance of maturity. Then he made Clerks 2, which, while quite funny in parts, reinforced all of Smith’s shortcomings once again. Zach and Miri is the middle ground between Jersey Girl and Clerks 2, a romatic comedy but with lots of bodily functions humour. It’s low brow, and yet funny… but the real winning element are the comedic and dramatic skills of Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks and Craig Robinson (Robinson’s entire performance is comedy gold). Once again, Smith uses some of his regular players (Jason Mewes, Jeff Anderson) who, lets face it, are only acting because of Smith and otherwise wouldn’t have careers beyond DTV film. There are definite weak points, but also some really strong points, and there’s a sense of craft to the story and progression thereof (bending cliches into a twisted, dirty version of themselves). My favourite part would easily be the Justin Long and Brandon Routh cameo as gay lovers… Routh, here and in Scott Pilgrim, has proven his comedic timing (although much of the heavy lifting is done by Long, but the reactions from Routh and Rogen are terrific). Smith still has a ways to grow but he’s still got a knack for comedy and sentimentality that he could exploit larger should he choose to apply himself.

Pulling Season 1 (ep 1 - 3)(netflix)
Farscape Season 1 (ep 1 - 2)(netflix)

January 14
Howl (r) - A quasi documentary/artistic interpretation of the Gainsberg poem “Howl”, the obscenity trial it manufactured, and a look behind the curtains and the meaning/background of the words. James Franco (sporting one of the worst fake beards this side of Matthew Fox circa Lost season 6) imitates Gainsberg’s cadence and plays talking head to a tape recorder providing insight into his own backstory as it relates to the poem. Meanwhile animated sequences provide visual accompaniment to the poem as read by Franco, and the poem is repeated once again in a black and white beatnik bar sequence, and again in the courtroom. There’s 45 minutes of a solid, compact story of historical relevance, and 40 minutes of tedious poetry brow-beating. I’m not a fan of poetry.

January 15
Black Swan - The more distance I have from this film, the more time I have to think about it, the more I appreciate it, definitely, but I think the more I like it as well. Initially after viewing it I wasn’t sure what to think. It was a potent experience but I wasn’t sure I liked it. I was more than impressed by Natalie Portman, for all that she gave to the role, and the final sequence was momentum-fuelled, beautiful and dizzying. It’s not until the third act that the psychological underpinnings of Portman’s character are called into question, but once they are the entire film begins to make sense, as do the characters around her and their actions. There are genuinely shocking moments, and an overall intensity propelled by Clint Mansell’s masterful score that seem almost comedic from a skewed perspective, as if Aronofski were playing a cruel trick on the ballet theatre crowd. The film slathers on melodrama like butter on a Tim Hortons bagel, and it will either please or put off the viewer. The story within the story has the dance troupe performing a bold new interpretation of Swan Lake, with the obvious joke being that hey! so is this film. It’s an audacious movie that challenges all facets of film production as well as all who watch it. Film of the year? I think so.

January 19
Legion of Super-Heroes #9
Tiny Titans #31
X-Factor #214
GI Joe/Cobra II #13
Young Justice #0
Fantastic Four by Hickman vol 1+2
xxx by Woody Allen

January 25
Dark Reign: Fantastic Four

January 26
Detective Comics #873
Justice League: Generation Lost #18
Teen Titans #91
Captain America #614
Sixth Gun #8