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Awards Season: Week 1
Was feeling really burned out heading into Monday, but it's here and so am I and here we are! Keeping on keeping on.
Officially owe the government $800 for not being able to adequately prove I lived here in 2012, likely more to come as they reevaluate other years too, but I'm still not as stressed out about it as I was before. Yes it sucks, but at least it's DONE, I've got credit to lean on if I need to, and I never would have been able to get the house without the returns I got at the time, so if I've got to pay back part of them now, fuck it, it was ultimately worth it. Also, I found my 2010 and 2011 T4s in a box, so I can at least TRY using those for those years, and then come 2015 I have credit card statements, which had BETTER be enough. Still, I'll worry about all that shit if/when it happens.
In a similar monetary vein, Stratford tickets are on pre-sale to the general public for this week only, so I could actually get shelling out for those out of the way now if I really wanted to (they open up for sale fully next month), but I'd have to figure out the logistics of my trip first; when I'm going, how I'm getting there, where I'm staying, etc, so I know when to get the tickets for. I want to take at least a week off, maybe two, and it can't be earlier than August, since The Miser doesn't open until then, but beyond that, I don't have much to work around outside of... work. ANYONE WANT TO JOIN ME IN A FUN ONTARIO ROMP? PLAYS! SWANS!
It finally got cold, so thinking about August makes me happy right now. Even so, it's so late in the year I don't hate it? It only started getting below -20 a couple of days ago so I'm not totally exhausted by it yet, and the wind hasn't been bad enough to make it unbearably miserable yet. Just brisk winter days with a light dusting of snow! How novel!
Mad dehydrated, think I may be coming down sick. Mom's been deathly ill for about a week, so it was probably only a matter of time. Drinking lots of water to try and combat it, I guess!
Bought a soundbar right before the tax news came down, so I can enjoy 'better than before if not as good as proper speakers' sound in my bedroom for my final big purchase until these money issues are sorted out. Definitely no more nighttime burrito orders for the foreseeable future. :o( Also, Christmas is cancelled at our house? But that's unrelated, mom's been super stressed out by it so me and Dominic pretty much just told her not to worry about it, we'll just exchange cards and go to the movies or something. I'm mildly bummed, but honestly, I just desperately want to get all our shit unpacked and put away (it's been more than half a year! I refuse to let this place get like our old one!) far more than I want to deal with putting up decorations at the moment. Once the house is clean, it'll be a different story, you know?
Movie trailer hype checks!
Black Widow: Hyped!
Wonder Woman 1984: Surprised to be hyped as hell!
Ghostbusters: Afterlife: Disappointingly unhyped?
Anyway, my quest to end the decade by watching ONE HUNDRED MOVIES IN A MONTH continues, even if I'm falling slightly behind:
From Russia with Love (1963): TRAIN FIGHT! TRAIN FIGHT! TRAIN FIGHT! Ugh, I love this movie so much. Favourite of the Connery films, favourite of the Terence Young films, just a solid outing all around.
The Bear (1988): THE LION KING FUCKING WISHES.
Goldfinger (1964): TIME TO GET GOOFY! The first and best of the Guy Hamilton movies, this is a real fun one, with all his horrible bullshit trademarks like JW fucking Pepper still simmering on low so they don't get in the way of the absurd nonsense good times. The crotch laser table remains such a great scene.
Journal d'une femme de chambre (1964): Really good, but everyone in it save Jeanne Moreau is just so unrelentingly awful, and they only get more so the longer it goes on. I was burned out even before the child rape/murder entered into it. EXHAUSTING. And what the hell was that ending??
The Hitch-Hiker (1953): SO GOOD. The ending was something of an anticlimax, but the rest of the movie was so tense and claustrophobic (even with all the wide open desert shots), that when it came, it felt like the first time I could breathe in an hour. Low budget pulpy exploitation noir at its finest. Loved it.
Thunderball (1965): HOPE YOU LIKE SWIMMING. I really like when the goofy ones alternate with the more grounded ones, but man, as technically impressive as all those underwater scenes are, they make me zone the fuck out like NOTHING else on this planet. Probably my favourite Felix until Jeffrey Wright is in this one, he's got a real 'silver fox Clint Eastwood' vibe to him. Also, I don't care if I don't have the figure for it anymore, all I want for Christmas remains, as it has every year since I was a teen, a recreation of Domino's bathing suit, I love it so damn much.
The Three Musketeers (1973): Stylish and goofy and lavish and FUN, just really a lot of dumb fun. Also Oliver Reed's Athos is extremely daddy.
The Four Musketeers (1974): More sexy, swashbuckling silliness, with a surprisingly downbeat ending to cap off all the slapstick goofs. Like... it's seriously bleak at the end, I don't understand how it works as well as it does. This was supposed to be a Beatles movie! Really dug it. Athos: still EXTREMELY daddy.
Richard Lester! (1998): Not sure if this one should count towards my total, it's really just a nice half-hour long interview with the guy. Fuck it, I'm counting it.
The Bigamist (1953): So I bought Letterboxd Pro during the Black Friday sale since it was like 15 bucks for the year, and all the stats it gives are PRETTY TASTY, but they are also sometimes illuminating, like the way it really shows me at a glance how white and male most of my viewing history is. There were three women in my top 20 most-watched directors of the year as of the beginning of the month, so I'mma try to look out for more of them as my random watches continue, which is how I got here, watching another Ida Lupino flick after The Hitch-Hiker (and I guess The Trouble with Angels a few months back). Anyway, I really liked this movie, it does such a good job of never excusing what the main character does while still making his actions completely sympathetic. He's not a bad dude, just... kinda spineless, and the way the hypocrisy of bigamy vs. adultery is pointed out is real nice. Also, there was a moment early on where it really seemed like it was gonna be a 'she didn't satisfy her wifely duties so of COURSE he cheated' sort of thing, but then the movie digs deeper and has him really reach out to his wife before it got to that only for her to be genuinely oblivious that he's kind of in crisis?? Way more nuanced an approach than I'd expect from this era. One of those rare times when anything other than an ambiguous ending would have done an extreme disservice to the characters. There's no good ending for everyone here, so there's no ending for anyone, and that's the way it should be. None of them deserve that sort of tragic finality. It was really weird and distracting that they kept reminding us Edmund Gwenn was Santa, though.
Not Wanted (1949): Another really interesting, shockingly sympathetic (for the time period and subject matter, I mean) outing from Lupino. That birth scene was straight-up horror. And the moral of the story is NEVER DATE A MUSICIAN.
You Only Live Twice (1967): Let's! Get! Racist! Japanese Bond still looks like a Romulan. I still want a Little Nellie.
Burning Bush (2013): Okay, so this is TECHNICALLY a miniseries, but fuck it, I'm counting it as three movies, anyway, the episodes were long enough. Anyway, I haven't watched much Czech prestige television before, but this was very good, and after it and A Dry White Season, I'm really yearning for something where the good guys actually get to WIN against the evil government bad guys in the end, without having to wait decades for the oppressive regime to finally topple.
Diamonds Are Forever (1971): Guy Hamilton's back! And all the women are useless idiot bimbos for the next three movies! Hooray! In the inclusion column, at least we get creepy gay henchmen? This movie's a damn hot mess and Connery looks SO much older than he did when he gave up the role in '67, but I do fucking love that Vegas strip car chase a LOT.
Live and Let Die (1973): AND THE ROGER MOORE ERA BEGINS. This has got a lot more to recommend it than the last one, even if it's the most racist one since You Only Live Twice. Love the villains, Yaphet Kotto's always boss as hell, and Tee Hee is super underrated as the first proper 'normal dude but with a random physical disability and/or metal body part' henchman. Also, I've always enjoyed the dichotomy of the first Moore theme being by Wings after Connery!Bond's 'like listening to the Beatles without earmuffs' line. GET OUTTA HERE, OLD MAN, THIS IS THE FUTURE. In the inclusion column, ummm, Bond makes out with a black chick for the first time? Right before she freaks out and gets killed? Ugh, Rosie Carver deserved so much better. I do love that opening, those people who just walk around in fake New Orleans funeral parades to cover up murders every day have the best job.
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974): AND SO END THE HAMILTON FILMS, with Mary Goodnight accidentally pushing doomsday machine buttons with her ass and being unable to read labels. Sigh. Christopher Lee is such a great fucking villain, though, I actually really enjoy this movie, nauseating Hamiltonian misogyny aside. In the inclusion column... Hervé Villechaize? Anyway, I will never forgive this movie for having possibly the single coolest car stunt in film history and putting a fucKING SLIDE WHISTLE OVER IT. THE MOORE ERA GETS BETTER FROM HERE. And also way worse, lol.
Iron Man 2 (2010): Tony and Natasha and Coulson and Stan Lee and Garry Shandling and DJ AM WHY IS EVERYONE IN THIS MOVIE DEAD NOW???? ;___;
So that brings my total to... 23/100. Not even a quarter of the way there, nine days into the month. Gonna have to step it up, Decembond will only take me so far on its own!
Officially owe the government $800 for not being able to adequately prove I lived here in 2012, likely more to come as they reevaluate other years too, but I'm still not as stressed out about it as I was before. Yes it sucks, but at least it's DONE, I've got credit to lean on if I need to, and I never would have been able to get the house without the returns I got at the time, so if I've got to pay back part of them now, fuck it, it was ultimately worth it. Also, I found my 2010 and 2011 T4s in a box, so I can at least TRY using those for those years, and then come 2015 I have credit card statements, which had BETTER be enough. Still, I'll worry about all that shit if/when it happens.
In a similar monetary vein, Stratford tickets are on pre-sale to the general public for this week only, so I could actually get shelling out for those out of the way now if I really wanted to (they open up for sale fully next month), but I'd have to figure out the logistics of my trip first; when I'm going, how I'm getting there, where I'm staying, etc, so I know when to get the tickets for. I want to take at least a week off, maybe two, and it can't be earlier than August, since The Miser doesn't open until then, but beyond that, I don't have much to work around outside of... work. ANYONE WANT TO JOIN ME IN A FUN ONTARIO ROMP? PLAYS! SWANS!
It finally got cold, so thinking about August makes me happy right now. Even so, it's so late in the year I don't hate it? It only started getting below -20 a couple of days ago so I'm not totally exhausted by it yet, and the wind hasn't been bad enough to make it unbearably miserable yet. Just brisk winter days with a light dusting of snow! How novel!
Mad dehydrated, think I may be coming down sick. Mom's been deathly ill for about a week, so it was probably only a matter of time. Drinking lots of water to try and combat it, I guess!
Bought a soundbar right before the tax news came down, so I can enjoy 'better than before if not as good as proper speakers' sound in my bedroom for my final big purchase until these money issues are sorted out. Definitely no more nighttime burrito orders for the foreseeable future. :o( Also, Christmas is cancelled at our house? But that's unrelated, mom's been super stressed out by it so me and Dominic pretty much just told her not to worry about it, we'll just exchange cards and go to the movies or something. I'm mildly bummed, but honestly, I just desperately want to get all our shit unpacked and put away (it's been more than half a year! I refuse to let this place get like our old one!) far more than I want to deal with putting up decorations at the moment. Once the house is clean, it'll be a different story, you know?
Movie trailer hype checks!
Black Widow: Hyped!
Wonder Woman 1984: Surprised to be hyped as hell!
Ghostbusters: Afterlife: Disappointingly unhyped?
Anyway, my quest to end the decade by watching ONE HUNDRED MOVIES IN A MONTH continues, even if I'm falling slightly behind:
From Russia with Love (1963): TRAIN FIGHT! TRAIN FIGHT! TRAIN FIGHT! Ugh, I love this movie so much. Favourite of the Connery films, favourite of the Terence Young films, just a solid outing all around.
The Bear (1988): THE LION KING FUCKING WISHES.
Goldfinger (1964): TIME TO GET GOOFY! The first and best of the Guy Hamilton movies, this is a real fun one, with all his horrible bullshit trademarks like JW fucking Pepper still simmering on low so they don't get in the way of the absurd nonsense good times. The crotch laser table remains such a great scene.
Journal d'une femme de chambre (1964): Really good, but everyone in it save Jeanne Moreau is just so unrelentingly awful, and they only get more so the longer it goes on. I was burned out even before the child rape/murder entered into it. EXHAUSTING. And what the hell was that ending??
The Hitch-Hiker (1953): SO GOOD. The ending was something of an anticlimax, but the rest of the movie was so tense and claustrophobic (even with all the wide open desert shots), that when it came, it felt like the first time I could breathe in an hour. Low budget pulpy exploitation noir at its finest. Loved it.
Thunderball (1965): HOPE YOU LIKE SWIMMING. I really like when the goofy ones alternate with the more grounded ones, but man, as technically impressive as all those underwater scenes are, they make me zone the fuck out like NOTHING else on this planet. Probably my favourite Felix until Jeffrey Wright is in this one, he's got a real 'silver fox Clint Eastwood' vibe to him. Also, I don't care if I don't have the figure for it anymore, all I want for Christmas remains, as it has every year since I was a teen, a recreation of Domino's bathing suit, I love it so damn much.
The Three Musketeers (1973): Stylish and goofy and lavish and FUN, just really a lot of dumb fun. Also Oliver Reed's Athos is extremely daddy.
The Four Musketeers (1974): More sexy, swashbuckling silliness, with a surprisingly downbeat ending to cap off all the slapstick goofs. Like... it's seriously bleak at the end, I don't understand how it works as well as it does. This was supposed to be a Beatles movie! Really dug it. Athos: still EXTREMELY daddy.
Richard Lester! (1998): Not sure if this one should count towards my total, it's really just a nice half-hour long interview with the guy. Fuck it, I'm counting it.
The Bigamist (1953): So I bought Letterboxd Pro during the Black Friday sale since it was like 15 bucks for the year, and all the stats it gives are PRETTY TASTY, but they are also sometimes illuminating, like the way it really shows me at a glance how white and male most of my viewing history is. There were three women in my top 20 most-watched directors of the year as of the beginning of the month, so I'mma try to look out for more of them as my random watches continue, which is how I got here, watching another Ida Lupino flick after The Hitch-Hiker (and I guess The Trouble with Angels a few months back). Anyway, I really liked this movie, it does such a good job of never excusing what the main character does while still making his actions completely sympathetic. He's not a bad dude, just... kinda spineless, and the way the hypocrisy of bigamy vs. adultery is pointed out is real nice. Also, there was a moment early on where it really seemed like it was gonna be a 'she didn't satisfy her wifely duties so of COURSE he cheated' sort of thing, but then the movie digs deeper and has him really reach out to his wife before it got to that only for her to be genuinely oblivious that he's kind of in crisis?? Way more nuanced an approach than I'd expect from this era. One of those rare times when anything other than an ambiguous ending would have done an extreme disservice to the characters. There's no good ending for everyone here, so there's no ending for anyone, and that's the way it should be. None of them deserve that sort of tragic finality. It was really weird and distracting that they kept reminding us Edmund Gwenn was Santa, though.
Not Wanted (1949): Another really interesting, shockingly sympathetic (for the time period and subject matter, I mean) outing from Lupino. That birth scene was straight-up horror. And the moral of the story is NEVER DATE A MUSICIAN.
You Only Live Twice (1967): Let's! Get! Racist! Japanese Bond still looks like a Romulan. I still want a Little Nellie.
Burning Bush (2013): Okay, so this is TECHNICALLY a miniseries, but fuck it, I'm counting it as three movies, anyway, the episodes were long enough. Anyway, I haven't watched much Czech prestige television before, but this was very good, and after it and A Dry White Season, I'm really yearning for something where the good guys actually get to WIN against the evil government bad guys in the end, without having to wait decades for the oppressive regime to finally topple.
Diamonds Are Forever (1971): Guy Hamilton's back! And all the women are useless idiot bimbos for the next three movies! Hooray! In the inclusion column, at least we get creepy gay henchmen? This movie's a damn hot mess and Connery looks SO much older than he did when he gave up the role in '67, but I do fucking love that Vegas strip car chase a LOT.
Live and Let Die (1973): AND THE ROGER MOORE ERA BEGINS. This has got a lot more to recommend it than the last one, even if it's the most racist one since You Only Live Twice. Love the villains, Yaphet Kotto's always boss as hell, and Tee Hee is super underrated as the first proper 'normal dude but with a random physical disability and/or metal body part' henchman. Also, I've always enjoyed the dichotomy of the first Moore theme being by Wings after Connery!Bond's 'like listening to the Beatles without earmuffs' line. GET OUTTA HERE, OLD MAN, THIS IS THE FUTURE. In the inclusion column, ummm, Bond makes out with a black chick for the first time? Right before she freaks out and gets killed? Ugh, Rosie Carver deserved so much better. I do love that opening, those people who just walk around in fake New Orleans funeral parades to cover up murders every day have the best job.
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974): AND SO END THE HAMILTON FILMS, with Mary Goodnight accidentally pushing doomsday machine buttons with her ass and being unable to read labels. Sigh. Christopher Lee is such a great fucking villain, though, I actually really enjoy this movie, nauseating Hamiltonian misogyny aside. In the inclusion column... Hervé Villechaize? Anyway, I will never forgive this movie for having possibly the single coolest car stunt in film history and putting a fucKING SLIDE WHISTLE OVER IT. THE MOORE ERA GETS BETTER FROM HERE. And also way worse, lol.
Iron Man 2 (2010): Tony and Natasha and Coulson and Stan Lee and Garry Shandling and DJ AM WHY IS EVERYONE IN THIS MOVIE DEAD NOW???? ;___;
So that brings my total to... 23/100. Not even a quarter of the way there, nine days into the month. Gonna have to step it up, Decembond will only take me so far on its own!
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I'd also really want to pop up there and see you even if you can't make it, but that'll all depend on how much money this racks me up to start with, lol
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ugh they're just so delightful THE COSTUMES! THE CHOREOGRAPHY! THE DOG CHESS!