A return to stimulation...

Hello, Readers welcome to this weeks critical analysis. This week was the most banal I've had in years I won't bore you with the details, I'll just say that because of this it was necessary to imbibe a vast plethora of media, as a result I have a meaty review for you. I hope you enjoy it.

"Breathless(Ddongpari)," is the first film of director, "Yang Ik-Joon", who also plays the lead "Sang-Hoon" an incredibly violent and unapologetic debt collector. I wanted to take a moment to convey just how violent this movie is, the beatings are savage and seem to take an eternity, you almost want to scream at the screen for him to stop as his switches arms to continue pummeling. That is the point in this film the violence is not glamorous it's base and savage. Korean cinema genre seems to specialize in the archetype of anti-hero. The Korean films  "Old Boy" and "The Man From Nowhere" are other excellent examples of main characters we cannot sympathize with, but still feel for. Sang-Hoon doesn't change as person during the course of this film he stays the violent thug he was at the beginning. I applaud the directors decision to dodge the cliche, of prodigal son. I enjoyed this film and you will too readers, if you can get past the violence.

I have read everything that ,Vancouver based author William Gibson, has ever written and I have been eagerly anticipating the release of  "Zero History," his newest novel, for sometime now. Gibson's work focus's mainly on technology and culture and how people adapt to living in between creating vibrant sub and counter culture's. This book is definitely of that genre and is set in the same world as "Pattern Recognition" and "Spook Country" a near mirror version of our own. I, like many other Gibson fans prefer his early works of "Cyberpunk". During my reading of the book I noticed that certain words were used to evoke the presence of various cultural ideas: "Steampunk", "Tesla" "Banksy" and "Oligarch" this felt backwards to me these terms should have been less talismans for summoning the images and instead be inferred from the actual content. However this may have been intentional as advertising is an important concept within the story, so then I suppose we're just left with a stylistic qualm. It really did remind me of a salesman dressed in a loud sports coat gesticulating wildly while talking at machine gun pace, all smoke, no mirrors. I'd say give it a read, but you will be disappointed if you're expecting a return to the "Cyberpunk" nirvana of Gibson's early work.

I've seen some strange films in my time and "Rubber" is definitely one of them. At face value it seems to be about an inexplicably animate tire coming to terms with life, obsession and destructive psychokinetic powers This is not how ever what this movie is about. This movie is about the act of viewing a performance so familiar to all of us: suspension of disbelief. This film is in many respects closer to a high art film however unlike high art which tends to take a complex subject and reduce it to a simpler form it instead opted for the better option of taking the concept and explaining it simply in a way we can understand and immediately grasp.  That of B-horror movie. I'm not certain the movie was completely successful in what it was trying to convey, but at least it wasn't elitist and inaccessible. I liked this film, it's interesting and novel.

I hope you enjoyed this installment of the critical Canadian see you next week.

Swirling Chaos

Hello Everyone.  This week  I will be delving into the realm of Chaos and sunshine, I will be reviewing "Californication". It's going to be fun folks.

 "Californication" now in its fourth season is based around Hank Moody (played by David Duchovny) and his attempts to win back Karen the love of his life and mother of his daughter Becka. Standing in Hank's way, is "The swirling Chaos" which consists of  sex, booze and the city of LA itself, a city that doesn't really place much value on love.  This show is a very pertinent as it deals with issues that affect all of us like divorce, failure to live up to other people's expectations and the fact that a person may be talented, but totally unable to live a productive life. In the show we really get a chance to see Hank differently through the eyes of every character  from Becca his daughter who begins the show absolutely adoring Hank, and then as she grows up begins to question whether Hank really respects women. To Karen who saw such promise in young Hank and is made so cynical by the reality of him: womanizer and drunk. To Charlie his manager and best friend who having looked after Hank for years now needs Hank to look after him in turn during his own mid-life crisis. To Hank himself who having tried for years to escape California and return to New York no longer even mentions the possibility of escape his life is in LA now and it's a toss up which will ultimately kill Hank the booze, the smokes, or the city.

As far as the acting goes Duchovny plays Hank, with humor and sensitivity having had certain parallels to the character in his own life having struggled with sexual addiction and in a way I'd say this is his catharsis. Another standout performance is by Madeleine Martin who plays Becca. I enjoyed how she plays a troubled teen far wiser than Hank much preferable to just angst ridden and dumb. This is a SHOWTIME show which means that it is a showcase for the core characters and the bulk of the writing goes into them and it shows, so the quality usually wobbles a little throughout a series The series is worth watching for its frank and often funny sex scene's even if you don't really care for the acting. This is a personal favorite and I feel a bit bad being so harsh on it. Check it out.

Well that's all I had time for this week. I hope to put out more content next week, see you then!

Charlie sheen, irrational fear, and everything you never wanted to know about your mother.

Welcome back. As I'm sure, some of you tuned into the Oscars last week.I wanted let you all know that your favorite critic managed to win himself a three month pass to  "MUBI", by making more accurate predictions than Roger Ebert, go me! Anyway this week I thought I'd change up my review method just a tad and as I reviewed so many movies last week I'm going to review. One Film, "Incendies". One book, "The Zombie Survival Guide"  and finally the best television show of 2010, "Boardwalk Empire". Enjoy.

 The best way I have of describing "Incendies" is this: All of us have mothers, who all had lives, both before , and presumably, after we were born. Assume your mother has died and left you a mystery , and assume to solve it you must delve into the uncomfortable area previously discussed add in a religious genocide as a starting point and you begin to grasp the territory this movie inhabits. It is not a narrative, but a reconstruction of a life that has passed, and a story that could never be told. Haunting stuff.

"The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from The Living Dead" is perhaps the most cutting satire I can recall reading in recent memory. It takes the form of survivalist manifesto and revised history to examine the fear so prevalent in America today. By putting these fears under the blanket of "Zombie " anxiety over the possibility of terrorist attacks and alien invasion, not to mention simple racism ,become even more comical, picture Charlie Sheen folks. The author Max Brooks, is the son of Mel Brooks and his influence is apparent. This is not a book you will find yourself guffawing to, but you may find your self chortling to it, and it will definitely make you smile.(Thanks for the movie recommendation mum!) 

In case you didn't already know, The board game monopoly is based on Atlantic city of the twenties and this is the setting for "Boardwalk Empire." It is the time of vaudeville, the speak-easy and prohibition. The sets and costumes are typical of an HBO production, flawless. The characters are complicated and definitely not two dimensional stand out performances by Steve Buscemi as Nucky Thompson ,Treasurer/shadow boss of Atlantic City, Kelly Macdonald as Margaret Shroeder a suffragette and Michael Shannon as Nelson Van Alden, the scariest prohibition agent of all time, make this show sensational. Not to be missed and I can't wait for season two.

Well folks, we have come yet again to the end of my post. See you all next week.