How Do People Enjoy the Hobbit?

I saw the Hobbit last night with some great people and did not care for it at all. Further, I don't really get how people like that sort of thing. A very, very long movie, so long (as someone on twitter mentioned), there's enough time for the Hobbit to carefully read his employment contract. Surely that could have been cut? And magic birds? Magic mountain men? But the wizard doesn't seem to help much, except when everyone is about to die and he's all "oh wait, I'm a wizard, here you go".

Anyway. Cate Blanchett is still really pretty.

We only saw it because we couldn't get our collective shit together in time to see Django Unchained, which I will see soon.

I did nothing but watch movies over Christmas. That and eat and drink and smoke. It's a good thing I'm not super rich, or that would definitely be all I ever did. Also, I wrote 14 pages of a play. I think I'll make it a one act and perform it with willing friends at a party next spring. That's fun! Or "fUn!!!1!" I don't know you guys, death is coming for me. I'm still not dealing with this aging thing very well. This blog post has gone off the rails.

Oh, so I also watched "Safety Not Guaranteed" and "Take This Waltz". The first one is way better. The second one, Waltz, is worth watching for people who are moving to Toronto next year indefinitely and want to remember why that city is way more fun than Ottawa, like me. Also, Sarah Silverman in that movie will break your heart. She is so good. The whole thing is basically about Sarah Polley regretting leaving her first marriage. "Love the one you're with" is extremely depressing, as a theme, but it's not wrong. Not always. UGHHH, see that's what that movie does. See it though? Maybe?

Safety has the incredible Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass. Oh holy shit, you guys. It's so good. Funny, poignant, original, adorable characters...good life lessons!!! I'm not saying enough about how great it is. I'm bad at movie reviews. Let's call it a very strong recommendation.

Also, I met Plaza in LA last summer. She and Busy Phillips had to hang out with me for this charity thing. We drank beer and Plaza talked about getting high in Toronto (with other people, she didn't really like me being there, though Busy was super nice). And let me just say that Aubrey Plaza is the scariest human being in the world. Her eye contact would make you cry. BUT when she grinned in approval at a very inappropriate charades move I made (how do you act out Michael J Fox? Really, I didn't know, so I just started shaking my arms and legs. Everyone booed in the audience. Aubrey smiled and I felt MEGA VALIDATED). That's it, that's my story. Also, all famous people are 5'2".

Go see Safety Not Guaranteed!! It's guaranteed entertainment!!!! 

Oh My Queen

I'm getting drunk and recuperating from pneumonia chez my parents, who I told "I think I'm becoming an alcoholic" and they didn't laugh. Then my mom said she was looking at my cough syrup (the highly medicated barbituate prescribed 'good shit') and observed I seem to be taking 5x the recommended dosage, which is why I'm sleeping in until 4pm these last few days.

"Yeah, but I'm not coughing!" was my reply. Also, drug dreams are great. Last night I was on a magical horse farm and mystical dude with terrible timing was looking for me and we rode off into rainbow snow fields or something.

Anyway, here are some great things I've seen lately and other things I remembered loving in my fever dream:

"Angels in America", the Meryl Streep one. Good lord, I know all of Harper and Prior's lines down flat. I studied this play in theatre classes in undergrad. It's no surprise I identify with delusive valium addicts and paranoid drag queens. But you would like it too because it's fantastic, see?

I also saw this fantastic documentary called "The Queen of Versailles". It's about an extremely decadent, outrageously wealthy family, facing down-cuts after 2008. The personality that comes through is surprising. I am a shitty movie reviewer, since I can't think up the words that would convince you to watch this. There's a scene where awful children callously let a pet lizard die. Also, just watch it and take my word for it, ok?

Then I watched "Goon" again. It's very violent but the characters are lovable.

And finally, I rewatched the "Slums of Beverly Hills". This was my favourite movie when I was fifteen. I got very sad a few years ago when Natasha Lyonne got so sick and down on her luck. I'm happy she's better. I could watch this movie a million times. It's about a quirky family slumming it in...you know. Natasha and Marisa Tomei just play the most earnest, hilarious, vulnerable girls ever. It's a riot of a movie. I love it.

Y'all Don't Care

...but blog is on hiatus until I'm done exams. I will post a lot of my drunk/ high movie reviews around the holiday time though, since that is the only way I can get through family parties.

In the meantime, this is a fair representation of my ability to study for securities class, given my 0% understanding of economics:

Silverlinings Fever Time

So. I should be doing more to prepare for exams. But at least my amateur comedy attempts are going really well! I saw Silverlinings Playbook the other night. Yeah, it's pretty great. Jennifer Lawrence is the real goddamn deal. Bradley Cooper is less cute than normal, which helps the part immensely, and then Robert DeNiro reminds you why everyone makes such a big deal about DeNiro.

You would probably really enjoy it...Is it my absolute favourite of all time? Well, no. But it lives up to the hype about as much as I thought The Hunger Games did, and that's pretty good. Mental illness is a thing I know well enough...This movie certainly tries to show you that side of life, and they do it quite well. So well that I weirdly cried in the bathroom stall at the theatre after the movie because the character really reminded me of my friend who died.

Note: I cry DURING movies fairly often, the most psychotically being Brokeback Mountain (I cried for honestly the entire last third of that movie...my friend was laughing at me a lot) and The Whistleblower (oh HOLY GOD you guys, that one is SAD). Both of those are good movies (actually, Brokeback is one of my top five of all time) but at least Silverlinings is funny too. The crying AFTER the movie thing, that was new. Probably just sad about Jenn-- but what a realistic character, you know?

Also I have a fucking fever right now and I have no time to be sick. I hate hate hate being sick, blah blah obviously, but especially during end of term. Just because, here is another of my favourite underrated comedies (Hamlet 2-- check out my lawyer girl inspiration) and adequately rated drama (if I met someone and they were like "LA Confidential wasn't great" I would say "we will never be friends, sir/madam, that is for sure"-- and if that person was an authority figure of some kind, I would still say that in my head/ with my eyes)

Ben Schwartz foreverrrrrrr -- and Andrew Garfield

Quick note-- funniest hot guy currently working, besides Anthony Jeselnik. BEN SCHWARTZ. Ridiculous funny. See all his Collegehumor stuff immediately, and then watch Parks & Rec, and then go see his stuff on funnyordie...and then watch House of Lies too.

Behold!!

and also!!!

...and and and!

He also brings up in podcasts, or others do, that he looks like Andrew Garfield. Yeah, he does. AG is also a smokeshow. I saw him on Broadway last April, so I can say that with authority. But I'll recommend his stuff another day.

Smashed -- perfection & ugly dresses

I was excitedly waiting to see Smashed for three weeks. Sometimes I get a feeling about movies that I know will be amazing. I used to read tarot cards so I'm kind of psychic. The movie premonitions just confirms that, I say.

In the last year I had that feeling about Moonrise Kingdom, and correct! Wonderful, story-book charm and oddness so cute and funny, even my dad laughed. Yeah, some people don't like Wes Anderson. Fair. I disagree with those people, but I get it. Still, this one is his best. I'm not the only one to say that. Who the fuck is funnier than Bill Murray, right?

But Smashed, holy cow. It's about an alcoholic young woman who gets sober, but it's a comedy too. It's not easy to make a realistic addiction story that's also very touching. Think of 28 Days, which is still actually pretty sweet, but super well done and even more real. Realest of real. That's this movie. Literally a movie where you'll probably laugh and cry. Best thing I've seen in a very, very long time. If there were any justice, Mary Elizabeth Winstead would get an Oscar. And the onscreen relationship with Aaron Paul, who plays her husband, is the absolute sweetest and saddest. Do you like Breaking Bad? Then watch this!! Do you have a heart that beats?!?!?! Same thing.

And here is my actual favourite by Wes Anderson (find the entirety of Hotel Chevalier here):

Life is Ending By the Minute

I've never feared death and never understood why people get all worked up about it. UNTIL TODAY. The way I sometimes freak out about running out of time for immediate issues, like an assignment that's due or preparing for exams (also in my brain-fears right now, but that's the usual)-- today I thought "oh my god, I only have another 13 years to look hot, then I'm old." Even with a lot of work and lucky genes, I've got maybe 15-16 years. THAT IS SO LITTLE TIME, YOU GUYS.

Then it just goes and goes and you die. Maybe you die sooner! And there is nothing you can do about it!!

Pleasant thoughts. SO let's all fill up our slowly dissolving lives with good times and good movies!! I'm too busy with work to do a proper update today, so trust me these movies are great and you'll love them. If you don't, you can flick my arm and complain about your waste of 1.5-2hrs, since time is the one truly non-renewable resource we have. And I will be like "I'M SO SORRY" and I'll buy you a beer and do something memorable or ridiculous for at least 15 minutes to amuse you, which hopefully you will store in your memory and therefore extend your life by remembering more of it (IS THAT HOW IT WORKS?! I DON'T EVEN...)

Anyway:

Perfume!! Story of murder and Dustin Hoffman, really pretty ladies, really creepy premise, really wicked cool ending. This thing is all plot and intrigue. Super-underrated. Enjoy!!

Igby Goes Down -- I've seen it like eight or nine times and I'd see it again another twelve, maybe. Like Catcher in the Rye, but with Claire Danes and Kieran McCaulkin smoking pot in Central Park. Plus, Ryan Phillippe plays the douchebag role he was born to play.

The Secret Lives of Dentists-- I just love this, and especially if I'm sick. It's the absolute best movie to watch if you're sick in bed. It's also just straight-up amazing and sad and true-to-life. Hope Davis never does a bad flick.

Clean & Winter

Winter's Bone is what I call my favourite movie. It's a very moving story, and Jennifer Lawrence plays the toughest cookie of all time. This is the movie that got her The Hunger Games (and a lead actress Oscar nomination, if you care about such things)--and she is brilliant.

The best part of this movie is the character is human, but so fucking brave. She's terrified, she's up against the worst shit, she's 17, and she still gets the most amazing things done. It's things like this, watching characters on these journeys, that made the Greeks invent their epic dramas (according to Martha Nussbaum). Watch how it happens, watch what people are capable of, see into life a little bit.

Or hell, just be entertained.

It's on youtube, for now. As is Clean, with Maggie Cheung. That is another of my all-time favourites, also a story centring on a woman going through some super tough shit, but being unbelievable all the while. I like these movies because they don't tell you these girls are incredible in some montage of them strutting down a Manhattan sidewalk and walking fast in heels towards some fancy office job. The whole story builds, and you see by the others, by their interactions, by the relationships that you find in the middle, how awesome they are.

If I had half of what these fictional women have...well, you try. You always have to try to be better.

Here is a link to the best scene in Winter's Bone (watch it for five minutes and see if you're not convinced): [sorry you have to click through to get the pinpoint link]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE1ibJVeawQ&t=45m05s


And here is the entirety of Clean--

And just because it helped me do the splits and become weirdly good at yoga, here's Rodney Yee (this little 25 minute work out doesn't seem like much, but holy shit, do it everyday for a month and you will notice intense, magical results).

Deadwood -- don't let em grind you down

Go watch Deadwood, because if you want to see how people are insane and how things really are, with friends, acquaintances, colleagues...all the simultaneous jealousies and loyalties. You want to learn how to hold you head up when you know the people think you're awful, and they're not right, but obviously you're intolerable to them, and you hate them too, and this how it always always goes? Deadwood gets things so right, maybe more than Sopranos, more than Six Feet Under-- I can re-watch that old timey mud drama a million times. Also, no one is hotter than Timothy Olyphant. No one.

I'm not really a prostitute, but I identify with Trixie more than any other character of fiction.

Lawless --- Tom Hardy & Cardigan

"Lawless" is a great movie to see stoned in the afternoon. Probably pretty good sober at other hours too. I thought it was a cowboy movie because I didn't pay attention to the poster, I just walked by and saw Tom Hardy's face and Mia Wasikowska's name. That's enough and it didn't disappoint!

What is too bad about Tom Hardy though, is that now all you can hear is Bane voice. I think if he were back to his deadly sexy British accent, the Bane would go away. But here, in this early 1930s Prohibition era shoot-em-up, he was Bane with a cardigan. Really, no man can better rock a cardigan.

Shia LeBouffant is also in this, with funny hair and eyebrows that go up in the middle while he's terrified or crying, which is much of the movie. Mia plays a coquettish Mennonite girl or something. And Jessica Chastain shows up to pretty much look hot, and seduce Tom. Boobs, is what I'm saying. Artsy-actress boobs.

Totally worth seeing-- very adventurous, and excellent villain by Guy Pearce, who is always outstanding. Also Gary Oldman winks!! What's not to love?!

One little general point: it's 'based on a true story', and I know we love to root for the underdog, even when they're crooks...but there's one scene in this movie where Tom Hardy's character does something really horrific. In the context it wasn't unjustified, but, you know. It's gross. And that dude is still the hero. Smokeshow. I was just a little sad that I was loving up this slightly psychotic character. A real life person who could just murder-murder-shoot-etc...probably not so loveable?

But why think about it?! Fun movie!

And helpful too, (minor spoiler!!!--------)


Chastain literally throws herself at Hardy to get any action (the dude just moons at her, and the most she ever gets is like, him saying her name or a non-committal grunt of maybe affection?) This was so familiar to me and my current non-love life, that today I was just like "ok real-life cardigan man, you and I are done, I can't take your terror of women and mixed signal bullshit anymore". Because eventually a girl needs more.

If he were literally Tom Hardy though, I'd totally do anything.

Light and heavier

Light stuff--

I saw "Pitch Perfect" with a couple girlfriends and we laughed a lot. Musical silly comedies are fun and who can dislike Anna Kendrick? She can sing too! Which may have been the only reason she did the movie, but she's in Twilight as well so you know she likes pay checks. Just kidding, she's Oscar nominated! And based on her podcast appearances, seems like a cool cat.

A cooler cat is Rebel Wilson, and it's worth watching just for her. This movie was cute and worth seeing if you're into cute and forgettable fare. Also, I liked how the male love interest was pretty much the woman in the movie ("Why do you push me away?!"), played by the awesome Skylar Astin, who is in one of my favourite ridiculous musical comedies, that I super recommend: "Hamlet 2". A song from that psycho movie is my anthem during times of stress: "Raped in the Face".

(The only shit part of Pitch Perfect is the borderline racism sometimes, like some weird shit against Asian characters, but maybe I'm being overly sensitive. Whatever the joke was, it wasn't well done.

Dark stuff --

I also saw "Compliance", which, yikes. It's uncomfortable and I can't exactly say I recommend it. Like, read the story and you get it. It's well acted, but I couldn't help feeling like it was borderline...something. Exploitative is too strong a word, but it's in the right direction, you know? A movie that details what's essentially a pervert's successful torture and sexual assault of a young woman...especially because it's based on a "true story"...and you, as the audience, are watching it carried out...well, a little icky. Something icky about putting that story out there in this format.

Still, I think the intention is more so that this is an example of how people will do crazy shit under the mindmeld of authority. Milgram's experiments and Nazism proved that, and this does too...But, ok, as great as Dreamer Walker was in the part, it wasn't believable that a broke 19 year old who works at a fast food chain has a tit job, you know? I'm saying, showing lots of virile naked girl in a movie that's about something this horrific, just seems off-key. Maybe just watch the trailer and read the backstory. It is a decent film though. Not one I'd watch again or take my mom to. And given my law background, I kept flipping shit that people have no idea what their rights are, apparently. Really everyone-- know your rights!!

je ne regrette rien

I'm working hard on my French. Not school.

I saw "Laurence Anyways" last night and my French is definitely better. Holy shit, this movie is so good. I cried. It was beautiful. Like a very sad dream.

When I was a little girl my dad dragged me along to air-shows and I fell to the ground, crying with hands over my ears because the sound was so loud it hurt. I so hate planes. Somehow, this is my approach to love: I am putting my hands over my ears and squeezing my eyes shut super hard anyways.

What's so great about Xavier Dolan is his understanding, and lovely demonstration, of how much people can suck at love.

Argo Get Over Yourself

Argo was fine. A little boring though. From the trailer, you think it'd be a lot more exciting than what it delivers. Lainey (laineygossip.com -- the best gossip site) mentioned that when they showed the movie at the Toronto Film Festival, it didn't include the current post-script, which commends the Canadian involvement. Then people got pissy. Well no shit, the whole movie rather glosses over the Canadian involvement. Not that I care. Seeing it in Ottawa, it was cute how the audience loved the little canuck jokes. Oh, Canadians. We love any ounce of attention.

Like I said, fine. What's better? Anything by Xavier Dolan. XD also writes, directs and stars in movies, and he's cuter than Ben Affleck. Although, I do think it's adorable that the artist formerly known as Bennifer cannot resist a gratuitous shot of his own abs.

Here's something from Les Amours Imaginaires, a delightful XD film (it comes with English subtitles as well):

Ben's abs:

Non-sequitor:

I also highly recommend Rosetta Stone, if you want to learn a language. Or this guy's method, if you have self-discipline.

Looper Sucks

I saw "Looper" while drunk but it's so bad. I don't understand the good reviews at all. Here are some reasons it's terrible:

*The non-explanation of time-travel. The characters are like "ohh, you know that crazy time-travel shit, don't try to wrap your head around it!" Ok. I'm not going to expect a reasonable explanation of a fictional sci-fi phenomenon, but try something!! It's like the screenwriters put an asterisk on the script, to go back later and make a semi-plausible attempt at explaining the situation, and then never did. LAME.

*The uglification of Joseph Gordon Levitt's face. Why put a cute actor if you're going to fuck with his face, which by the way still looks very little like Bruce Willis? I don't like JGL nearly as much after listening to his Nerdist interview (he's kind of much less interesting than you'd think), but I usually enjoy him in movies. NOT HERE.

*The INSANE misogyny. This movie features a perfect, idealized woman who literally has zero lines. She says nothing at all. PERFECT LADY indeed. And another woman who lies in bed for 30 seconds and decides she simply must have sex with the gun-toting stranger living in her barn. Gross. Come the fuck on, Emily Blunt. You didn't need this money!

*The hilariously ridiculous plot-device that I should just spoil. It's supposed to make you think, but it just made me laugh at its idiocy. Look: anytime a movie relies heavily on the plot and suspense being carried forward by either an animal or a child actor, the thing is in trouble.

The only nice thing about the movie was Piper Perabo getting more work. You know what's better to see? "My Summer of Love", to see Blunt act and have an amazing story with actual gothy surprise, and "Lost and Delirious", to see Perabo prove she can act, and women prove they are more interesting than sexy legs and silent faces.

Pyjamas til 5pm

My friend and I had quite the adventure last night. Jesus Christ. I can't even begin to tell you. But I'm hungover big time.

Comfort movie watching is better than comfort food, because you have less reason to feel guilty. So let me recommend some Kirsten Dunst films. Kiki D gets a bad rap in the press sometimes, but it just so happens she stars in some of my all-time favourite re-watchable feel good movies:

"Marie Antoinette" -- watch if you feel alone and sad for no reason and like pretty things.

"Virgin Suicides" -- see above. Sophia Coppolla knows girls.

"Wimbledon" -- my favourite romantic comedy. Paul Bettany, aka Mr. Jennifer Connelly, is a total smokeshow. He is so British and adorable. People who don't think blond men are pretty may like this less. Remember when Reese Witherspoon tried with that sportsperson based romantic comedy that no one saw? Exactly. Because Wimbledon kills it in that genre. I'm watching this one now. Love it.

"Melancholia" -- Lars Von Trier movies are good if you find depression compelling and sometimes hate humanity. Definitely not for everyone, but many of my clever pals love this movie. It's gorgeous and KD was totally ripped off for awards nominations (probably because LVT said some stupid shit at Cannes.) See it!

Frozen Hands

I just spent the afternoon watching "Buck" and "What's My Number" on Netflix. I blame this flagrant escapism on the fact it snowed today and my apartment is a drafty nightmare. I feel like a character in an old-timey consumption novel. I basically need gloves to type.

"Buck" is about a horse-whisperer. I heard it was good. What? Not good. Pretty boring. Maybe non-horse people would find it more interesting, but it was basically like every horse clinic I've ever seen in real life. I had a psycho horse one time, and I wondered if this dude could have fixed him. But when he gave up on the psycho horse in this movie, blaming "possible brain injury" on the horse (which is exactly what my overpriced cowboy trainer said my awful horse had when he also gave up on him, $17,000 in training later), I knew it was just reality. Not miraculous. I like my German coach better, who said such horses should just be shot (humanely put down!). A horse that could kill you is just that.

"What's My Number" was delightful. Anna Faris and Chris Evans are both in such good shape and it was the kind of romantic comedy of which Mindy Kaling would approve. Me too.

Oh and when I mentioned podcasts, I forgot to mention "The Champs" (Neal Brennan, Moshe Kasher, DJ Dougpound). Really good talk, if you're fascinated to hear men talk openly about their lady-games. You should give it a listen.

Ghost Talk and Cathartic Ramble

If this were on Hairpin, it'd be called "The Best Time My Friend Killed Herself and I Spent A Year Trying Unsuccessfully to Get Over It"

Last night I took LSD and it was such a predictably terrible idea. As a light show of evil death worms slid around my bed when I tried to finally sleep, I made myself repeat a mantra that I would pull up from the nosedive of self-destruction.

Who can I blame for trying acid at 27? My dead friend that I'm mourning? No, she did not like drugs.

I'm mostly sad and awful today because it's my dead friend's birthday. This is the first birthday where she is just little pieces in the ground. So. I bought flowers and drove 45 minutes to her little grave in that tiny countryside graveyard. When I bought the flowers, the pharmacy next door had this huge collage of pink paper flowers for a charity, forming the words "Tree of Life". Pink was Jenn's colour. I lost my fucking mind. Tree of Life is the last movie I saw with Jenn, and I remember feeling awful at the time for making her watch it, since she was like "you always make me watch the weirdest depressing movies", but then she didn't hate it. I still felt this weird guilt though, after she died, that in a year that was to be her last, I'd let her down in so many ways, including that one stupid movie choice.

Then those words on the glass-- you don't want to believe. You know that 'signs' are the things of schizophrenics and delusive idiots. Fucking magic happens though. Because I was just crying and crying while driving there, which I didn't expect, and the countryside is so beautiful this time of year. I sat down in the grass and it was super windy, right next to her headstone and I bawled. Then this crow started screaming above me, and it was so windy, the bird was just floating above my head, yelling. So loud and weird, the hovering, that I took out my Eliot Smith blasting headphones and stared at it and I don't know what to tell you. That crows are my avowedly favourite animal and I love them? That I knew? I knew it was Jenn?

Anyway. Watch Mindy Kaling's show. I met her once, years ago, and she's the sweetest. Also, watch The Talented Mr. Ripley, because it was Jenn's favourite movie and it's not bad.

This is the link for a mental health charity run that Jenn's sister is doing. I haven't donated yet because I can't decide the decent amount to give, but I'll do it before the end of the day. I know nobody is reading this, but maybe Jenn's ghost is surfing the web.

Voices

Less worthless preamble! But still some: when I'm in my car, I often forget it's not soundproof. So today when a guy who is Not Into Me, but who I still pathetically text, wrote something transparently self-serving (ie-- "can you send me your notes?")...I don't know, back story might be needed, but basically I just started cackling hysterically (as I do sometimes...it's genetic and sounds unfortunate). I made these loud animal noises, mostly laughing, but maybe screeching, holding my phone up like baby Simba and squealing "phuuuuuucckkkk youuuuuu!!".

Then this dude who was walking his dog next to my car knocked on my window and shrugged in inquiry. I drove away.

Anyway, here are some great, or at least medium-good, podcasts!

"You Made It Weird" -- Pete Holmes (Long and meandering, but generally endearing and funny.)

"WTFpod" -- Marc Maron (Don't OD on Marc or you will be grumpy and misanthropic too).

"Doug Loves Movies" -- Doug Benson (Not for everyone, but I normally laugh a lot).

"This American Life" -- (NPR) Ira Glass (Probably the best podcast of all time).

"Cashing In With TJ Miller" -- Cash Levy & TJ Miller (really silly, but usually funny)

"The Nerdist" -- Chris Hardwick (Today they had Tom Hanks on...the Joan Rivers episode is epic.)

"Call Chelsea Peretti" -- Chelsea Peretti (I called into this one yesterday, but I did a terrible, awkward job of it and hopefully she does not put it on air).

"You Had to Be There" -- Nikki Glaser & Sara Schaefer (Nikki is so nice at answering my tweets).

My friend said this is garbage

My friends ask me to recommend books sometimes or ask about weird movies I like, so I thought I'd be really clever and write a worthless blog of reviews to point them to...instead of just telling them the book/movie? I don't know, but I just re-read the posts below, with critical eyes, and they're sooooo bad. Maybe I am just an asshole. My family are mostly all terrible. It makes sense that I'd also be awful.

Anyway, to my friends, don't see The Master because it's good, but you mostly hated that time I made us watch Dogville, or that other time we saw Tree of Life and it never ended and I was embarrassed by its nonsense.

Do see: Drop Dead Gorgeous, the 1998 one with Kirsten Dunst and debut performance of Amy Adams. SO FUNNY.

Don't read Bret Easton Ellis' "Less Than Zero". Do read "Must You Go" by Antonia Fraser, who had a years-long affair with a dude who won the Nobel Prize.

Almost like News

Over the last week I watched all 10 episodes of Aaron Sorkin's "The Newsroom". If at times I felt compulsively eye-rolly and shouted at the screen "Come on, Jim from the Office, it just gets boring when you marry Pam/Maggie and her wholesome button-up boobs!", I still think it's worth watching for the following reasons:

A) Olivia Munn's sexy economist character makes me wonder if I should re-visit my potential bisexuality (I mean, no-- I'm like Neko Case in that I'm a lesbian spirit trapped with an inconveniently straight sexual orientation...but just in case, call me Olivia/Sloan!)

B) Maybe we should all listen to a little bit of Sorkin's diatribe.

C) Emily Mortimer is always standing in front of me naked, bemoaning her flabby arms*, or raising sad British upper class eyebrows at the brutal murder of Scarlett Johansson**. Watch her stomp around in tight pencil skirts and chic blouses! She'll make a believer out of you!!

*Watch "Lovely & Amazing" if you're female and even if you're not.

**I spoiled the movie in question, but for anyone who missed the reference, just watch all of Woody Allen's movies to be safe. But not all at once. That'd be like smoking an entire pack after your first cigarette.

Coming soon-- Podcasts. Lots of podcasts. We should all be listening to podcasts all the time. Today while the bitchy (I always want to say 'cunty'--why is bitchy okay, but cunty is not? Bitch is an awful word and cunt is fun! I see many of my friends wince when I say CUNT CUNT CUNT CUNT CUNTY CUNT CUNT. See there, I'm trying to desensitize you. It's a fun fucking word. Nice and crisp. Try it! Let's take it back from the cunty cunt-haters!)

...ahem, while the cunty dental hygienist who has been my enemy for a decade squished her breasts against the top of my head while she muttered in French about the tragedy of my rough brushing technique (note-- she told me all my teeth would fall out by 30 and none have so far! My teeth are winners!!), I thought "ahh, this would be much better if I could listen to a podcast". While driving-- podcast! While savagely destroying my gums while I brush my teeth by the sink, I'm doing calf-raises and listening to podcasts! You get it!

More on that tomorrow. One last thought-- if you have a francophone enemy in your life, like one who works for dentists and is therefore evil incarnate, tell them you want to practice your French. Hostile diatribes are much more palatable if you understand 30% less, and the best way to beat an enemy is to pretend you think they're swell and worthy of respect.

Super Sad Time Visits

I read "A Visit From the Goon Squad" by Jennifer Egan last spring, when I should have been studying. No regrets, which is certainly not the book's message, but just my efficient style of living. This sucker won the Pulitzer, so you don't need me to tell you it's good. It is incredible. It's a book that I mentioned the first week of my summer job, friendless and dressed like a Mormon. Name-dropping that book made a wonderfully smart and better cultured girl from Montreal look me in the eyes and become my friend. Several months later we wandered around Amsterdam high on mushrooms and were mistaken for prostitutes when we stood on a corner in the red light district. Which we found hysterical. And then I dropped a plate of fries with mayo dramatically onto a centuries-old stone bridge, loudly declaring "I can't deal with the fact I have a mouth."

The power of books, is what I'm saying. You never know what will happen, but it's probably crazier than you'd guess.

That's what "Goon Squad" does. Post-post modern or whatever you want to call it-- some of these clever contemporary writers are taking it to the future. Not quite like Margaret Atwood's enviro-dystopian books "Oryx and Crake" and "The Year of the Flood". Those envision a near future when people drown and starve in the shitty shell of an Earth she thinks we're likely to inherit (her own views made clear in the chilling non-fiction "Payback").

"Goon Squad" does imagine some inevitable fraying. But it goes a bit farther into what people will remember and cry over in a time where communication speeds up and seeps into everything. "Super Sad True Love Story" by Gary Shteyngart goes even farther than that. I didn't like "Super Sad" as much as Egan's interwoven stories, if only because her fucked up characters are much easier to love. Though while Egan's book is definitely the superior work, Shteyngart lets his future world splay out in a weirder, yet creepily believable way. He describes a fall of the American Empire, and a world where people will stop reading, with young minds enmeshed in insta-images. Kind of like how my favourite girl from "Goon Squad" asks her lunch date if they can stop talking and just text, since she finds speaking exhausting.

Going even further, the young adults in "Super Sad" stylize with public nudity and recall fond childhood memories of watching violent anal porn. As my grandmother never said, it makes you think.

(Out of the five books I mentioned above, I think they're all worthwhile reads, but if you can only pick two, read "Good Squad" and "Payback".)