Work With What You Got

I saw this Canadian movie Goon last night and totally I loved it.  I tripped up over it on The Movie Channel (which is pretty spot-on, most of the time).  Or maybe I loved Seann William Scott and what a brawler he was. And ditto for Liev Schreiber.  Jay Baruchel -- who played the hockey-obsessed best friend -- co-wrote it.  Not surprisingly, it's based on a true story about Doug "The Hammer" Smith. I don't know what's cooler -- the tale of his life run amok or the story of how the movie got made.  Filmmaking is so convoluted sometimes that it's amazing any big budget projects get made at all.

Goon vaguely reminded me of that Paul Newman movie Slap Shot, which is still hilarious.



Here's a compilation of Doug Smith's career in hockey.  Some of it is actually kind of breathtaking.  It's hard enough for me to throw a left hook with my feet planted on the ground. I can't even imagine trying to pull that off in ice skates.  Why was I not surprised when they revealed at the end of the film that he's a police officer now?




Oh -- and this poppy little ditty was all over the end credits. Who in the world is Socalled and why havent I heard of him before?

That rapper should sound really familiar -- it's Roxanne Shante!

Foreign Movies You Really Should See...

...and yes, they're all french. not that it matters. something in me tends to get giddy over things that intrigue me, and these trailers -- and the blurbs and the buzz that are trailing them in the press -- seem promising. art should excite you, shouldn't it? let's face it: if you and your date don't leave a movie talking about what you've seen, it probably wasn't worth watching.



house of tolerance is about a parisian brothel in the early 20th century. i have no idea what the plot is but here's an interesting tidbit: the soundtrack features the music of the moody blues. now that's ballsy, i'll admit -- especially if they tap into their earlier stuff -- but imagine what they would have had on their hands if they'd used muddy waters stuff instead. or lightnin' hopkins. or big momma thornton. or...



tomboy is about a prepubescent girl that pretends to be a boy. i'd love to see a movie about this. i was a tomboy -- and i still am, pretty much. it wasn't intentional. i was just being myself.

when do you ever see movies about this subject matter? i'm very curious to see how it's handled.



the artist -- a silent movie, shot in black and white, set in the 20s, and filled with foreign actors that most americans aren't familiar with in the least -- is getting a massive push from the bigwigs. it's about two artists and the trajectory of their careers as silent cinema diminishes in popularity and talkies become all the rage.

it's easy to forget that with movies, images are supposed to tell you the story -- not words. watching a modern-day silent movie that harkens back to hollywood's golden era should be a refreshing change of pace.

i wonder: outside of the usual major metropolitan areas, can most people in this country see these films? not that they'd want to but wouldn't it be nice to have the option?