Terence Trent D'Arby - Who's Loving You

You've Got A Friend - Carole King

A few thoughts on Interstellar

Verdict on Interstellar: A gorgeous at times trippy ride through our known universe and beyond but filled with too many WTH moments and plot holes bigger than the Grand Canyon. Laudable that Christopher Nolan and his co-writing brother wanted to tackle the big question of LOVE as a thread bigger and stronger than anything else the world has to offer in particular the love between a parent and a child yet wrapping that in a lot of mumbo jumbo quasi scientific jargon or perhaps even barely scientific to the uninitiated, which is most of us, feels like a bit of a cheat. If we don't understand too well we'll simply assume that they know what they are talking about and won't question too vigorously. That sort of thinking bugs me because it points to a desire to remain deliberately opaque in order to float above the viewer's understanding. It didn't really work for me, I couldn't leave my critical brain behind let's face it a lot of the film simply did not make sense, black holes, gravity, time warps, "possessed" library, tesseract etc...What did make sense was the bond across the distance although even that left me strangely detached. I should have been responding in a more emotional way, either the film was too manipulative on that score or I've become progressively desensitized, still not sure.

My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: Get ON UP - very short take on James Brown biopic

My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: Get ON UP - very short take on James Brown biopic: For a film about the hardest working man in show business, the godfather of soul and x other number of monikers this film was surprisingly l...

Get ON UP - very short take on James Brown biopic

For a film about the hardest working man in show business, the godfather of soul and x other number of monikers this film was surprisingly lackluster and I'm not sure why.  The acting was top notch throughout by both main and supporting actors.  There was something a little schizophrenic about this film, at times it felt right on the money and at other times it completely let me down.  Can be summarized thus:  it's both dazzling and boring in equal measures, at least it was for me.

Ultimately it was a meh for me never really liked James Brown only like a few of his songs, not surprisingly one of the standout sequences, for me, was the performance of "This Is A Man's World" which given the volatile nature of his relationship with women turns out to be quite ironic indeed..  Story is told in episodic fashion, not chronological which would have been OK if there had been more emphasis on Brown's creative processes which were totally given short shrift in this film. There was little in terms of the civil rights background and struggles  which were going on at the time except for one totally gratuitous scene staged more for effect than for enlightenment. His relationship with women was also poorly done, still don't know how many wives, kids he had etc....he was an abuser but that was barely touched upon. It's significant that the one time Brown hits one of his wives the director chooses to only show the after effect of the hitting so as not to somehow taint Brown's image.
 Chadwick Boseman was phenomenal as Brown although he was difficult to understand, he could have kept the cadences of Brown's speech, which were quite particular, and placed a lot more emphasis on refining the  elocution. It's frustrating when one has to fight to understand the main actor throughout most of the film. Also a stand out was Nelson Ellis as the long suffering band mate Bobby Byrd who only gave up on Brown towards the middle of Brown's career when the singer was at the height of his success and received rapturously in France.  Felt that Dan Akryod did an OK job as Ben Bart, Brown's manager, a mere sleepwalking role for him with a paycheck at the end or maybe I'm being cynical. James Brown's legacy as a musical prodigy still holds.  He was an uncompromising genius when it came to his music, would have loved to feel the beat more in my heart rather than be told about feeling it.

My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: Lucy film review The Beginning of the End

My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: Lucy film review The Beginning of the End: Lucy the latest opus by director Luc Besson telegraphs its lofty ambitions pretty early on,Lucy our oldest female ancestor is the underlying...

Lucy film review The Beginning of the End

Lucy the latest opus by director Luc Besson telegraphs its lofty ambitions pretty early on,Lucy our oldest female ancestor is the underlying heroine of  the film which begins and ends with her....sort of since at that point she and the other flesh and blood current Lucy have morphed into one all encompassing consciousness.  I did say lofty in my opening sentence.  Besson is the French equivalent of Michael Bay with a Gallic twist, he's a little more "intellectual"  in his pursuits which doesn't necessarily mean he's successful in his various filmic endeavors some are pure pulp fiction and some are Lucy.
Through a series of unfortunate circumstances and choice of lousy friend/boyfriend Lucy who just wants to have a good time in Taipei while pretending to study (mid to low IQ- lol) ends up an unwilling mule with her stomach sewed shot filled with a new designer drug of an electric blue hue destined for the voracious appetites of the European market.  Three other male mules are in a similar predicament and will all be landing in different European cities to unleash their illicit "treasure".  It's never made entirely clear why Lucy ends up in a cell somewhere possibly for the enjoyment of low-level jailers before being sent out, that much is hinted at with the lecherous looks and groping.  In the process of resisting her freshly opened stomach is kicked and the drugs released in her system.  These drugs have the power to increase brain capacity from zero to hero ok maybe not zero I'm exaggerating for effect here and maybe not quite hero either although Lucy does take her revenge on those who have wronged her which includes the main bad guy played by Choi Min-sik with scenery chewing relish.
With the experimental drug coursing through her system Lucy's brain cannibalizes itself and everything around her,neurons firing exponentially till she's absorbed all that is knowable in the world and returned to a state of pure awareness.
The film opens with a central question:  All these years of evolution and what have we done to the world, this followed by a quick montage of positive and less desirable outcomes. Here Besson won't get much argument from me, the bad far outweigh the good  look at the state of the world right now and be afraid be very afraid.  At this precise moment in history things are going to shit pretty fast and the end is nowhere in sight, it's downhill all the way.  Does Lucy answers this fundamental question, i.e. does increased brain power to 100 make a difference well it turns out it's pretty awesome and fun what will at the telekinesis,telepathy,supernatural stuff and general mind fuck control but that's about it, the basic question is left unanswered and it's back to square one with the original Lucy for what we can suppose will only be a repeat.  It turns out all Besson wanted was a kick ass woman in a gorgeous body with some pretty trippy pictures thrown in, your brain on fake cinematic acid no more wiser or smarter.
Quite a few things broke the spell for me along the way.  Lucy's phone call to her maman while being operated on to get the drugs out of her system, drugs which she will  later have renowned scientists pumping back intravenously so she can get the full payload and achieve the desired 100.  Morgan Freeman lends his voice and not much else to supply the desired gravitas and make it sound like it's real science with lofty goals and not a matinée popcorn movie.  Another shot really got to me.  Lucy on her way to the airport changes her hair color and style  with a flick of her wrist from blond to black, why stop there and not change her whole appearance, the point is it's a gratuitous shot in a film filled with them add that to a shot of her feet shod in Leboutins with the signature red signaling that there's always time to shop for the best and most chic regardless of brain power.
I wasn't bored, the running time is short Besson likes to hit you fast and hard.  Had to admit it was fun seeing a woman hitting back for a change too bad it takes superhuman brain power in order for that to happen, we're royally screwed if that's what it takes.  Always did have a fondness for Besson's earlier female incarnations in Nikita and The Fifth Element, for that reason and Scarlett Johanssson he deserves a pass, recommended with some reservations, it's perhaps the dumbest film about increased brain power around.

My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: A Curious Oddity called NOAH- My take

My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: A Curious Oddity called NOAH- My take: I never intended to go see Noah.  My curiosity got the better of me for two major reasons.  I'm a fan of the director Darren Aronofsky, ...

A Curious Oddity called NOAH- My take

I never intended to go see Noah.  My curiosity got the better of me for two major reasons.  I'm a fan of the director Darren Aronofsky, he had never worked on a such a huge, symbolically loaded canvas plus a mostly positive review in Salon tipped the balance in Noah's favor.

Noah is not a complete disappointment, some elements of the film especially the brutality of men,the destruction of the environment, the whole ecological message still resonate with passion and profundity. This is a serious, somber film because the destruction of planet earth by man made forces and then by divine intervention are not mere trifling matters.  These are survival issues and they are accorded the respect and treatment which they are due.

Russell Crowe returning to the passion of his earlier roles plays Noah a man destined for great things, Jennifer Connelley is equally excellent as Noah's resourceful wife.  The tale is the first well known apocalyptic tale but it's presented in the film without any sense of grounding in biblical times save for a brief introduction highlighting the fall of Adam and Even and their banishment from the Garden of Eden.  Other than that the word God is never mentioned, the word creator is used instead.  When the film opens Noah has witnessed the murder of his father after having been told by him of portentous things to come.  Later on an older Noah now played by Crowe is seen living a semi bucolic seemingly idyllic life with his family consisting of wife and three sons.  They are vegetarians one might even call them vegans since they only eat the greens and fruits which nature provides.  They do not eat meat.  They have retreated from the world of men whose punishing activities have slowly destroyed the earth and all its bounties.  At this juncture the script asks us to follow a somewhat tortuous path, machinery is glimpsed, mining is alluded to, the term industrial might have even been used.  It's obvious that the script is a mash up of biblical allusions and tales of modern man in the modern world.  For people who are deeply religious and consider the Bible to be gospel this might be viewed as offensive.  I didn't have any such problem, on the contrary, it was interesting to witness a novel take on such a well known story.

Noah and his family leave after one of Noah's visions.  He seeks the help of his grandfather played with a lot of panache by Anthony Hopkins.  A flood will come, Noah must build an ark big enough to house all of earth's creations. The ark is built with the help of a sacred seed giving rise to a bountiful forest and the Watchers, great lumbering stone giants who are pretty awesome in terms of the CG effect.

That's the story in a nutshell.  Here are some of the things which didn't work for me.  I kept being distracted by the costumes which I would term artistically deconstructed.  A lot of woolens, some leather, buttons, great coats with hoods which I could see myself wearing (haha), these distractions kept me wondering who was doing all the sewing.  It seems trivial but it took away from the seriousness of the message pointing out the fact that this was an ambitious work of creative fiction which fell short of igniting a debate about the ruinous path which man and woman, ancient and modern, had been set on.  The fakery of the clothes was merely symptomatic of the fakery of everything else.  All the animals in the arc, once they're in there they're put fast asleep by some kind of aromatic herb dispensed like incense via smoke.  That's all it takes for the animals to keep from eating each other.  The arK feels more roomy than it actually looks from a bird's eye view and not entirely convincing when you start to break it down.  Lastly I was appalled at the brutal choice which Noah was prepared to make , gender discrimination at its most disturbing.  I should have been more moved than I was yet in the end all I felt was a bemused indifference.  In closing I would also like to mention Ray Winstone as the tribal Lord Tubal cain.  He infused each scene with a ferocity which was palpable. For him the choice was always clear man is destined to put his imprint on the earth, the creator is an absent landlord. This is not an entirely misguided view of the creator since he's not much of a presence in the film, he is often invoked but seldom answers leaving Noah and us to puzzle things out on our own.

Ani DiFranco - Done wrong

My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: Travels are over- back to film criticism - Review ...

My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: Travels are over- back to film criticism - Review ...: Québec director Denis Villeneuve has certainly proven himself to be very eclectic in his choice of subjects so far. From Polytechnique about...

Travels are over- back to film criticism - Review of film ENEMY

Québec director Denis Villeneuve has certainly proven himself to be very eclectic in his choice of subjects so far. From Polytechnique about the University of Montreal massacre to Incendies nominated for an Oscar in 2011 to the recent very well received Prisoners  starring Jake Gyllenhaal and a scary Hugh Jackman to his more recent baffling offer, Enemy also starring Villeneuve's new muse Jake Gyllenhaal.
Honestly I still don't know what to make of Enemy.  I didn't dislike it but I didn't love it either. There are some things to admire about it and other things which are simply monotonous and frankly quite boring.  I would not qualify it as an entertaining film, certainly a challenging one which in this age of sugary confections which pass for movies can only be a good thing.  It reminded me of early David Lynch at his most opaque with a dollop of scary Cronenberg thrown into the mix.  Not a bad combination, certainly a very volatile one.

Based on Portuguese Nobel winner José Saramago's book The Double the story is a fairly straightforward one.  Adam Bell (Jake G.) leads a monotonous existence.  His life is an uninterrupted set of every day repetitive occurrences.  He takes the bus, teaches a course on history where he expounds on capitalism/power and how to maintain a stranglehold on the masses virtually verbatim with little passion or inclination to provoke discussion, walks back home, has semi-indifferent sex with his not quite live in girlfriend Mary and starts all over again the very next day.  It's your average mind numbing sad sack existence from which, seemingly there is no reprieve.  All this is filmed in a brown,beige,off white, sickly green palette accompanied by an ominous tonal music which portents of strange things to come.  As an aside I am getting very tired of this kind of sepia only tones creeping into so much of today's cinematography, I long for vibrant splashes of technicolor, in this film even the green of the grass or the trees is muted. It doesn't help that Toronto has never appeared this ugly or this forbidding. The endless towers dwarfing the life below them and the strange appearance of a giant billowing spider floating above the city do nothing to ease the spectator's unease.  Spiders and or a presumed arachnophobia are a component of the film which opens on an all male private sex club where spiders such as tarantulas are squashed by 8 inch heels, the act is suggested rather than carried out to its logical conclusion.

After viewing a film suggested by a colleague, Adam wakes up nagged by an image he has seen in the film.
Yes there it is, his exact doppelganger posing as a bell boy.  Adam is startled but at the same time suffused with unsuppressed excitement, finally something unusual happening in his life.  After some research he discovers the actor's name is Anthony St. Claire. Anthony has a pregnant wife named Helen.  The two end up meeting and their lives become entwined as each of their partners become pawns in a game of guess who this is although it's unclear if Helen knows or is just on a fishing expedition when she asks Adam posing as Anthony "how was class today?"  Personally I think that's a red herring meant to confuse and obfuscate.

There are a lot of shots of the actors pensively staring out into space.  The characters don't appear to react in what I would term "normal" ways.  Upon seeing Adam, Anthony's doppelganger  Claire doesn't immediately tell Anthony about it, instead she lies on the sofa mute, teary eyed and then finally accuses Anthony of "knowing about it."  It's all very meaningless and improbable as a reaction. Furthermore the characters don't actually talk to each other,they don't listen to music, they don't watch t.v. (how very mundane) they don't engage with any other characters (or ever so briefly) they don't eat, they have sex more as a penance than an actual joyful encounter....in short they merely exist to be captured in front of the camera as static and unwilling participants in their own dull existences.  Gyllenhaal is fine in both roles.  He captures the lumpy,bored professor Adam  and the swagger and intensity of the actor Anthony very well.  He can be both handsome and ordinary, that's his physical gift.
The women are also captivating both bringing vulnerability and strength to their respective roles Sarah Gadon  as Anthony's wife Helen is an especially luminous presence.

The film pulses with a menace which is never completely realized or fulfilled, as such it's more style than substance but the style does carry it along for most of its viewing. The film can be summed up as metaphysical  horror, more intellectual unease than actually physically frightening.  The alluded too reference of spider as woman one squishing the id of the male psyche (Anthony) the other inhibiting and power draining (Adam) could have been better explored instead of being given a rather oblique treatment forcing us to put the pieces together in ways that aren't always satisfactory. The end is either a joke or a grotesque in your face punch line, as for me I haven't decided yet which it is but the image does stay with you long after the film is over.

A little bit of this and that in Melaque, Mexico

At this point I'm still not expecting a huge amount of traffic for my blog but do want to thank the two or three fateful readers, thanks sis, merci Johane et Tammy.  I have a few observations to share. If you are amongst those who might enjoy a relaxing, relatively inexpensive vacation in Mexico as opposed to settling for an all inclusive which does have its own advantages Melaque might be for you. First of all the positives:  As I've stated before nothing much changes here in some ways that's unfortunate because there's still a lot of garbage, crumbling buildings, defunct sidewalks etc...Recently we attended a fundraiser to supply Melaque Obregon and Coastacomate (a nearby village) with garbage cans, okay great endeavor but isn't that something that the city council should do as a matter of course???? We've been coming here for over ten years on and off and not one single garbage can has ever appeared on the beach, it's the same now as it was then.  True it's difficult to change well ingrained attitudes, Mexico is slowly coming around to the idea of recycling although stores still automatically dish out plastic bags unless you specifically ask them not to.  We have a little mountain of plastic bags on the kitchen table in our room, I don't have a specific shopping bag and we're just here for a short time...lame excuse I know, thankfully we don't do a lot of shopping since we're mostly sticking to eating breakfast and the occasional lunch.
Melaque has probably one of the nicest beaches in Mexico.  It's situated in a lovely bay with view of hills and rocky outcroppings.  The beach is around five kms. long and extends from Melaque all the way to the town at the other end called Barra de Navidad.  It's walkable and we have done it before but it's too hot right now and it's not going to get any cooler.  People who have been coming here a long time say it's one of the warmest they've ever seen and that includes the ocean which is downright tepid.  Speaking of the ocean there are these tiny fishes which insist on bumping into you and giving you a little dab of exfoliation....hey some people pay for that! Haha.  It's a little freaky at first.  They mostly bump against your thighs and legs they're tiny as I've stated but they're hard to see because the water gets churned up by the waves.  Some of the people at this hotel are so freaked out by them they won't go in the water.  We just consider it a little playful nudge plus they only do it at certain times of the day so you have to time your entries accordingly.  The people in this town are super friendly with Canadian flags galore much more Canadians, mostly from British Columbia and some from Alberta, it seems like they're the only players in town.  The anglo-Canadians stick together although they do spread themselves a little more thinly than the Quebecois do.  The Quebecois really stick together, nothing unusual there, it's something we've noticed in the past.  They like to do things as a group in general, I suppose they really do enjoy each others' company which is fine.  Quebecois discovered Melaque quite a few years ago and some of them even drive here all the way from Quebec which would be a hell of a trip.  We've done it from B.C. and it can get pretty harrowing especially weather wise.
It's difficult to believe that some people have been coming here to this same hotel for the last thirty years!  They're mostly all old timers know each other quite well from vacation time spent together.  It reminds me a lot of Lake Chapala and Ajijic where the same phenomenon occurred except with expatriates.  There's always a time for Pilates, bingo, dominoes, bridge, water exercises etc...we're not joiners hence we don't socialize that much although I'm a social creature by nature so do try and talk to the various people here.  It gets lonely when the other person in your life is not all that talkative.  It's a recurrent problem whenever we travel and I know with certainty that it will never cease to be a problem.
I can't say for sure whether this will definitely be our last trip to Mexico, we've said that before and here we are.  The beach is lovely and virtually empty, water is great, can't complain about the weather etc...the main problem is food.  There is and always has been a total lack of variety in what's being offered regardless of which restaurant you go to and regardless of the amount you pay.  It's mostly the same boring fare on offer.  We've tried high end and we've tried low end, invariably it's a huge disappointment.  There are hardly any vegetables used in the cooking except for some shredded cabbage, one or two slices of tomatoes and cucumbers and, if you're lucky, the odd avocado.  Living on tacos every day which most Mexicans don't seem to mind at all is not exactly an inspiring thought.  I could deal with it and have dealt with it but not everybody is built the same way and I do admit it does get tedious going out looking for a decent place to eat. It starts to feel like searching for the Holy Grail, okay slight exaggeration there and yes it's easy to get frustrated over the whole food issue.  I've already had three shrimp burgers, one of which in Puerto Vallarta, was very good  while the others were passable, that damn Bimbo bread it folds in on itself till all you get is a soggy mush.
Went to the market on Wednesday in Obragon, the market used to be a relatively small affair which has now morphed into something huge with gringos walking around sweating profusely and high fiving each other....LOL  Yes it's a very small community here and eventually you will run in into someone you know which can be either good or bad depending on one's point of view.  At the market I bought banana bread from a gringa and delicious lemon slices, felt bad about not buying something from a local but did taste the strawberries (watery) and blackberries (acidic) therefore did not buy them.  It really felt like they were commercially produced on a huge scale hence the lack of taste.  You've never tasted a more luscious strawberry than the white ones they grow in France, now those are mouth watering no doubt about that.
For a news junkie I'm feeling totally out of the loop.  Watching CNN is an extremely painful tedious experience with their endless self-promotion of shows.  Even shows which might interest me lose their allure after having seen the adds for them what feels like a million times.  The height of ridicule the CNN station broadcasts from Hong Kong I kid you not....Instead of getting news about Mexico, Central and South America we get news about China, Australia, Thailand, it's bloody ridiculous.  I don't understand why it's always touted as one of the greatest news network in the world.  In my humble opinion it sucks big time, we only watch it out of desperation for news of any kind.  There's going to be a huge celebration starting March 9th to celebrate the birth of San Patricio the patron saint of the town....expect lots of fireworks starting around 5 in the morning, should make for short nights and considering I'm not sleeping all that well, you get the picture.  I'll be blogging about that, it should be exciting.  Stay tuned adios for now.

My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: Melaque,Mexico redux

My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: Melaque,Mexico redux: New post, new time and more than two bars for the internet connection, must grab the opportunity and take advantage of it while I can.  Befo...

Melaque,Mexico redux

New post, new time and more than two bars for the internet connection, must grab the opportunity and take advantage of it while I can.  Before addressing the title I forgot to mention one of the most important things about the Yelapa trip.  On the way back we saw a mother whale and her baby.  She came quite close to the boat.  It's always weird how a hush descends as soon as a whale is sighted with everybody holding their collective breaths waiting for the breach.  When the breach does come it's a general surge of happiness which infects todo el mundo, I need a whale sighting every day, if only we could bottle it.

The trip to Melaque was only eventful in that what should take four hours (and that's generous) considering the distance of 225 kms. took about 7 hours on a pretty rough road with lots of potholes, reminded me of Montreal actually....haha Ok Montreal is not that bad.  It was nice arriving in a place that we know so well, this will be our fifth time here, not surprisingly not much has changed. Melaque seems to be one of those towns which time forgot hence the repeat customers.  Some people mostly Canadians and mostly from B.C. have been coming here on a regular basis for the last twenty years.  They stake out a favorite hotel and bingo before you can write snowbird they're back with the look of the true devotee in their eyes.  Actually Melaque is a bit of a rough around the edges town. Not much seems to get fixed, road conditions are generally appalling, the garbage could use a little more picking up and the food options in terms of grocery consist of two main stores.  The one which gringos prefer is called Hawaii for some arcane reason.  It stocks fruits native to Mexico of a fairly dubious quality but sometimes one gets lucky.  It's hopeless trying to buy other types of fruits like nectarines,grapes etc...they take too long to get here.  Better to stick to avocados which are plentiful, generally excellent, pineapples, bananas and sometimes guavas.  Guavas have the most incredible smell they perfume an entire room but you have to get them just right otherwise they're rather gelatinous and lumpy.
We have a beautiful room it's a suite and it's quite large with three double beds and one single bed.  The kitchenette is decent size wise but it's not well stocked. Went to ask for a toaster and a coffee maker, no dice, none to be had. There is a common kitchen for those who have single rooms but travelers pretty well brought everything either beforehand or on this recent trip.  We are settling for healthy breakfasts of granola, bananas, yogurt, milk, apples (yes they're OK) and I add a little thick condensed milk to mine.  I also bought some coconut rounds which I shred and add to the mix. It's very tasty and nutritious.  We also bought instant coffee which is fine, we only have the one cup in the morning. For lunch I'm alternating sandwiches with avocado,mayonnaise, ham or tuna with iceberg lettuce.  The bread is Bimbo which is the biggest maker of bread, sweets, cakes etc... in Mexico.  Bimbo bread is very very limp and soft even the whole grain one, evidently that's the way they like their bread. Of course most Mexicans still prefer their corn tortilla to anything else, they eat those by the truckload and I can see why much better than Bimbo bread.
Our room has a big balcony overlooking the beautiful bay and the beach. Actually Melaque probably has one of the best beaches in all of Mexico. It's huge, the sand is nice and it doesn't slope too much unless it's an El Nino year with big waves.  The beach stretches all the way to another town called Barra de Navidad, we've walked the entire beach in the past more than once. I'm not sure we will do it this year, it's so hot. The sun seems hotter and the water is warmer than it's ever been no problem getting in that's for sure.  Another plus it's virtually deserted unless there's a Mexican holiday or a weekend when Mexicans come down from Guadalajara for a little R&R.  Many of the gringos are retirees and for some strange reason they seem to shun the sun, many of them don't even go swimming in the ocean.  A few will splash around in the pool but mostly they're content socializing with each other, playing cards, drinking beer and organizing the occasional collective meals. There is one such lunch tomorrow which doesn't always please some of us who are naturally anti-social, not my case, although there are people here (men more than women) who don't seem to get out of their rooms and gripe and whine and complain a lot.
It's a bit disconcerting walking around town.  There are Mexicans of all ages, lots of kids, families and then there is this population of aging gringos in various states of vigor and or decrepitude.  Wow did I just write that....ooops Not including ourselves in that category of course.
Other things I've noticed, in general Mexicans are pretty well glued to their cellphones like everywhere else in the world it seems.  Bootleg CD"s and DVD's which used to be a "thriving" industry are slowly disappearing.  Even here they're listening to music through their phones and watching shows through other devices although with such limited connectivity it's a bit of a mystery how they manage to download anything.  I couldn't even download a little "movie" sent by our daughter, was going to take hours literally.  I had to quit.  I'm sitting outside writing this enjoying the warm air, relishing not having to wear heavy encumbering clothing although the nights are a little long even with air conditioning. The appliance blows too much cold air at once to have it going all night.  Luckily the pillows are soft not rock hard like they so often are and the beds are not cement beds, they're nice and comfortable.  The price for all this comfort and beauty is a mere 700 pesos or about $59.00 a night, it's a little more than we're used to paying in Melaque.  On the plus side it's close to town and all the amenities plus there's no walking to the beach involved and the pool is a decent size.
I might update again in a week or so. Don't anticipate anything momentous happening. For now we are content staying put, there might be a fishing trip on the horizon, nothing definite yet.  Hope you've enjoyed reading this, hasta luego amigos.

Yelapa and Beyond

I'm starting to get used to those two dreaded phrases when trying to work on the internet: Processing your request (ie get ready for a long wait) and Google Chrome is not responding (what else is new).  A little b%^&$#*(& is good for the soul if nothing else.
The day for Yelapa started out beautifully, it was going to be another hot sunny day, that's the kind of weather dependability a girl could really get used to.  We were to meet at the newly constructed pier at 9:30 but this being Mexican time it turned out to be more like 10:30 departure, nothing unusual there. The boat was one of those typical Mexican launchas extremely sturdy with a powerful motor about 20 of us on board, all gringos of course.  I was actually surprised at the fair amount of Americans thought many of them had given up on Mexico with all the travel advisory scares but it turns out Canadians are now being singled out for an advisory warning of dangerous travel not that it's really stopping determined Canadians fleeing the harsh winter conditions and seeking some respite from the cold.
The trip took around one hour, we motored along stopping briefly at Los Arcos famous for its abundant sea life and beautifully colored fishes similar to Nemo for those of few familiar with the film.  One of the guides threw some food in the water and they all rushed merrily to the surface.  It was a lovely kaleidoscope of colors with the beautiful green turquoise sea as its backdrop.  I was able to take a few good pictures.
Yelapa is a small town set in a bay with plunging tropical covered foliage mountains, bougainvilleas everywhere in a rioting of colors.  I wish we could grow these trees in Canada they yield such happy flowers and with such abundance, not stingy at all.

We settled in some beach chairs ready to soak in the day, there was a free drink to be had with the price of your ticket. The cost was 280 pesos per person, about $25.00, not cheap but not too onerous either although prices have gone up in Mexico not sure how the average Mexican with a modest income is coping, not very well I suspect.  We were told there was a waterfall somewhere in the jungle which necessitated a walk uphill and through the village.  We were helped along the way by two lovely little girls who wanted to make sure we wouldn't get lost.  The waterfall itself was nothing spectacular of course I don't want to brag but after having seen Iguazu the widest falls in the world in Argentina everything else fails in comparison and this was no exception.  The setting in the jungle with all that lush vegetation was still very pretty.  We made our way back down, crossed the river channel and then it was beach time, swimming and dolce farniente. Ah the life of Riley it's a real tough one but somebody has to do it.  We got back around 4:30 and left the very next day for Melaque on a second class bus, cheaper but much longer and hard on the posterior with deeply rutted roads.  We are now ensconced in the rather palatial sounding Las Brisas de Melaque where we have a suite, 4 beds (anybody want to come????) a balcony with a gorgeous view of the bay.  Strangely there are barely any waves, we have never seen Melaque without waves and the water is almost lukewarm with a few colder undercurrents.  One can easily stay for hours in the water.  The sun is fierce but we have access to an umbrella from the hotel.  My battery is dying will post later some time this week with a few timely, or not, observations on the state of Mexico and changes I've noticed in general after a four year absence.  Hasta pronto.

Leaving on a jet plane from a very cold Quebec

Left as planned on February 12th, that date couldn't come soon enough.  We have enjoyed the bracing cold temperatures but it was definitely time for a change.  Arrived at the airport with time to spare thanks to my querida sister, gracias Annie.  We embarked on time and even arrived about twenty minutes earlier than anticipated, apparently the winds were favorable.  A couple of observations on airplane traveling, it's fast, it's convenient, it costs a lot in fuel which doesn't make me feel very good about my carbon footprint, it's ever expanding with all the traveling we're doing and have yet to do. We must try and make up for the waste in other ways and just deal with our guilty consciences.  The food this time around was barely palatable. Usually Air Transat food isn't bad or maybe I'm just so bored with sitting there I wolf it down regardless. This time there were only two options: Fettucine Alfredo or Boeuf Bourguignon. Why do they always insist on Fettucine Alfredo it's the most toxic pasta dish there is in terms of calories. If I ever meet this Alfredo I'm going to give him a piece of my mind. In any case Alfredo was not to be had it was a huge success with this group of travelers, wouldn't have chosen it in any case. The Boeuf Bourguignon was bourguignon in name only but enough with the boring travel food.
Arrived in Puerto Vallarta where transportation wise you can either take a local,noisy, belching bus which visits every single colonia (neighbourhood) along the way or an overpriced taxi.  We chose the latter, I did get him to go down 100 pesos better than nothing.  The hotel Hacienda de Vallarta is a sprawling rather tortuous affair with hidden corners, steps,side entries etc.  In fact we knew this hotel and had visited it once before while in P.V.  The room is great it's very big with one double bed and two single beds and the shower has hot water, yeah!  There's also A.C. which makes a lot of noise and doesn't seem to cool down the room all that much.  We just turned it on I was sweating writing this but won't complain it's been a while since I've experienced sweating.  We ate tacos from the friendly taco vendor just around the corner and they actually tasted really good with the corn tortillas.  Woke up not too too early went for a buffet breakfast, 59 pesos per person which is around $4.50 and then off to the beach.  The water was lovely, we swam for quite a distance before walking back.  They've built a brand new pier it's quite different looking, lots of steel although it's already showing signs of corrosion with the sea and wind taking their toll.  We found the house where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton had their torrid affair while filming the rather execrable Night of the Iguanas directed by a John Houston already past his prime. The house is called the Kimberley House not sure why and it was completely gutted. Apparently it's been in a constant state of renovation for the last few years not that we could tell.  The woman who owns it and other houses near it apparently made her millions
 through a thriving phone sex operation business, this might just be one of those hard to refute rumors which have a way of floating around when it comes to Mexico.
Tomorrow we are off to beautiful Yelapa, it's a secluded beach on a bay and there's a splendid water fall near by.  The boat ride is over 2 hours, it should be great fun and a gorgeous outing for Valentine's day.  We're a bit conflicted as to when we should leave for Melaque, we might want to spend more time in P.V. where there's always something going on.  Then again we can't forget the appointment with the dentist.  We're giving up on going to Puebla.  There has been some disturbing news recently concerning some of the areas where we might have gone, including an elderly couple who got murdered and their house ransacked near Guadalajara and Lake Chapala where we initially had intended to retire.  Okay that's neither here nor there but Puebla on the map is very far, long bus rides maybe late night arrivals, dragging suitcases around and we've already visited some of the greatest colonial cities in the world.  Somehow it didn't feel right this time, sometimes one has to listen to one's gut feeling.  Getting on the net can be very frustrating, it takes forever to log on, watch the wheel spinning round and round. I might not be able to update as often as I want for now hasta luego and Happy Valentine.

My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: Thoughts on Parkland and The Fifth Estate

My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: Thoughts on Parkland and The Fifth Estate: It seems appropriate to critique the films Parkland and The Fifth Estate in tandem.  Both deal with events of momentous importance for the w...

Thoughts on Parkland and The Fifth Estate

It seems appropriate to critique the films Parkland and The Fifth Estate in tandem.  Both deal with events of momentous importance for the world, events which continue to shape history either through conspiracy theories in the case of the Kennedy assassination or through the ethics of the dissemination of sensitive information via unnamed sources through the website Wikileaks.
I must admit to approaching the film Parkland with a remarkable lack of enthusiasm due to its subject matter: the aftermath of the Kennedy assassination in Dallas on that fateful November 22nd, 1963.  To state that the topic of this assassination has been exhaustively studied, either through conventional channels or through more peculiar means via conspiracy theory books, websites and just plain nut jobs, would be an understatement.  At some point Kennedy fatigue is bound to set in.  My interest in the film was mostly sparked by the news that Tom Welling was going to have a feature role in its making.  I've been a fan of the actor since Smallville so this was exciting news.  Much to my chagrin he is featured very little as head of Kennedy's security detail.  In fact Parkland is one of those wanna be prestige projects with a lot of famous actors attached seemingly because they want to be a part of something profound and influential. In my estimation the film would have had the same resonance with no name actors which is to say a moderate resonance in terms of critical acclaim or the events which the film seeks to illuminate.
Apparently the film was a pet project of Tom Hanks who was determined to see it realized.  It's directed in an indifferent, competent fashion by Peter Landsman a director I know nothing about.
The film focuses on the critical hours following the shots heard around the world.  For such a momentous event the film is a rather dull affair. The barely alive President is rushed to the emergency room of the Parkland hospital with Jackie his wife pitifully cradling part of his brain in her hands in one of  the most affecting part of the whole movie.  Thereafter we witness the valiant efforts of the staff to try and save JFK and then a whisking of the corpse back to the Presidential plane (yeah Tom Welling) and off to Washington.  Most of the time is spent looking at the dying president with very grim faces,understandably so,yet the lack of passion in filming these pivotal scenes yields a certain ennui. I wanted to be engaged but I wasn't. The heavy use of archival footage renders the film inert as we witness the shots, without the benefit of sound, through the googly eyes of Abraham Zapruder played indifferently by Paul Giamatti.
The only part of the film which managed to capture my attention was the part concerning the brother of Lee Harvey Oswald ,their mother and Lee Havey's wife with the aftermaths of the shooting hanging over their heads and sure to do so for the rest of their lives. In conclusion the film was full of good intentions,historically accurate yet a lifeless recounting of an event which changed a nation and the world.  It felt incomplete as if most of it had been left on the cutting floor waiting vainly to be reanimated.

The Fifth Estate directed by Bill Condon and starting almost there mega star Benedict Cumberbatch in the role of Julian Assange, is also potentially full of good intentions but ends up feeling confused and a virtual character assassination of Assange himself which the film never fully assumes.  We meet the mysterious Assange through a hacker acquaintance of his the soon to be partner in "crime" and de facto second in command Daniel Berg.  Their relationship is a fractured affair.  Things go smoothly at first until Assange's thirst for truth and his disregard of the danger posed to his "anonymous" sources bring things to a head in particular with the leaks attached to private Bradley Manning which rocked the U.S. military establishment to its core.  The director tries very hard to make this a propulsive affair with
 endless jetting by Assange between capitals in Europe and Kenya where Wikileaks revelations will lead to the assassination of two Assange acolytes.  To signal its hip factor as befits a movie about a hip character ample use is also made of technology, cryptic messages, split screens, undecipherable references to hacker know how in short so much is piled on that it becomes a bit of a bore just sifting through all the garble.  The problem with a film tailored as a wannabe thriller resides in the fact that it lacks a credible villain.  Sure Assange is not an especially pleasant guy but we more or less already know this from interviews and portraits gleaned here and there in the conventional press.  The jury is still out on whether Assange is guilty of the rape charges brought against him which he has vehemently denied. Meanwhile he's still waiting,not very patiently I suspect, in exile in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London although that hasn't put an end to Wikileaks revelations to wit Edward Snowden being its most prominent whistle blower to date.
Cumberbatch is great in the role and Daniel Bruhl in the role of Everyman Berg is also excellent. The film is peppered with well known actors in minor roles, a trend it seems for another prestige project with high intellectual significance (cough). Assange remains an enigmatic problematic figure to the end.  With a more rigorous script placing greater emphasis on motive rather than subjecting us to great bouts of frenetic keyboarding the film might have gotten somewhere.  As it stands it's an unfinished mess with some need of serious editing.

Review of Dallas Buyers Club

Dallas Buyers Club opens with a bang.  We're on rodeo grounds and Ron Woodroof a would be cowboy in his spare time and electrician in his regular joe job is giving it hard to two "ladies" under the stalls.  Right away we know this guy's no woos, he's a heterosexual full blooded male and it's important to note this since this is a movie about Aids and being HIV positive at the very beginnings of the deadly disease which will hit especially hard in the gay community.  For a time and in some circles it was even branded the queer disease.
The story is based on real life Ron Woodroof played in a go for broke performance by Matthew McConaughey.  The physical transformation of McConaughey is quite startling but I had seen quite a few previews of this film prior to going to see it in its entirety and therefore knew what to expect.
The time is 1985 Rock Hudson has died of Aids, panic has yet to grip the gay community but when people start dying in record numbers communities will start to organize all across the U.S.  In that respect founding the Dallas Buyers Club was not unique although it's portrayed as being quite singular in the film.
Woodroof is hospitalized after passing out in his trailer and told at the hospital that his blood has tested positive for the HIV virus, in short order he has thirty days to live.  One of the more sympathetic doctors is played by Jennifer Garner. She will become an unlikely ally as the story progresses.
Hard playing, hard boozing, pill popping, prostitute frequenting, sex addict Ron Woodroof is not a pleasant character.  He's a raging homophobic and thus considers it a supreme injustice to his manhood to have fallen prey to the queer disease.  I have to say that even after his so-called conversion and semi-acceptance of the gay/transgendered milieu he never quite grew on me.
Woodroof refuses to go easy into the night and becomes determined to procure himself with any illegal and unapproved medicine which will prolong his life.  While the disease is spreading pharmaceutical companies are competing to come up with a cocktail which will do just that while, at the same time, enhancing generously their bottom line.  Unfortunately clinical trials which will lead to an eventual approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) take too long and Woodroof eventually ends up in Mexico where he finds a cocktail which appears to be working.  He sets up a partnership with a transgendered woman called Rayon played by Jared Leto with sensitivity and panache.  Thus the Dallas Buyers Club is born.  Rayon is an invented character placed there to make Woodroof's conversion more plausible to the viewer.
I have read a few articles by gay activists condemning the portrayal of Rayon by a straight man.  I personally don't feel there is any merit to such criticism.  Throughout history men have portrayed women, women have portrayed men etc...Art should transcend such reductive arguments. It is not necessary for the portrayal of Rayon to be effective to have a transgendered actor playing the role arguments like that just muddy the waters.  The film was never meant to be an exhaustive chronology of the ravages of Aids rather it is the story of a man's journey in uncharted territory yet despite its pro-gay attitude the film never manages to overcome a certain lack of empathy for the people such as Rayon and other members of the gay community who are portrayed as extremely passive in the face of this horrible disease.
Nevertheless it is an appealing story of mitigated triumph over adversity. Woodroof is forced to confront a medical and pharmaceutical system disinclined to give all the help it can unless it can make a tidy profit.  His fight against the FDA is the real deal and the beating heart of the story. While Woodroof himself remains a problematic figure, at least for me, he does attain a certain measure of redemption for his early homophobic ways. The renowned Québécois director Jean-Marc Vallée never sinks into sentimentality where sentimentality and romanticism might have been easy to mine.  The story is told in a straightforward manner without any embellishments and once again as in  the case of August:Osage County the acting elevates it above the ordinary.

My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: Review of August:Osage County

My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: Review of August:Osage County: With the death of their father (suicide) two Weston girls, Barbara (Julia Roberts) and Karen (Juliette Lewis) are forced to reunite with the...

Review of August:Osage County

With the death of their father (suicide) two Weston girls, Barbara (Julia Roberts) and Karen (Juliette Lewis) are forced to reunite with their mother Violet (Meryl Streep) and the youngest sister Ivy (Julianne Nicholson) as well as other members of the extended family.  Written by the playwright Tracy Letts who also adapted it for the screen the subject matter itself, dysfunctional family forced to confront certain ugly truths, is rather banal, it's the competent execution by director John Wells  and the stellar acting by a dream cast which lifts it above, but only just slightly, the shamelessly lurid and melodramatic.
It's always difficult bringing a play to the screen and Wells is not entirely successful in erasing a certain "stacticity" typical of such endeavors.  Yet there is fluidity here too and a conscious attempt to get away from the stagy aspects by allowing the camera a little more room to roam and filming some scenes outdoors to make full use of the glorious Oklahoma sunlight.  The matriarch Violet is a thoroughly unpleasant character full of bitter truths which she dishes unconditionally. She is a truth advocate even if it stings although she is less than truthful about her own failings which are many.  Diagnosed with mouth cancer, yes one of the salient  plot ironies, with a pale regrowth of hair, wielding a never ending cigarette like a weapon, she is played with venomous relish by Meryl Streep.  This is probably one of Streep's strongest performance since The Iron Lady which I refused to see because of my personal aversion to Margaret Thatcher.  I did however see the previews of that film and Streep had Thatcher down pat.  This is a meatier role in some respect since there is no point of reference to another.  She is not impersonating but creating wholesale and the ultimate creation is absolutely terrifying achieving at times "Medeaesque" proportions. Although Violet doesn't kill her youngs she maims them horribly and takes undisguised pleasure in doing so.  It's a miracle her husband survived this long.  The portrait is not entirely without nuance, one scene in particular involving cowboy boots and the young Violet, brings to light a childhood which was less than pastoral.  In Violet's own words her mother was an evil woman which might explain why she became just as rotten.
Besides Streep's unforgettable performance the real revelation here is Julia Roberts as the eldest daughter Barbara.  She is ferociously unforgiving, strong, bitter, newly separated from still tag along husband Bill (Ewan McGregor) mistrustful and fearful of Violet yet prepared to impose her will on her increasingly pill addled mother.  One line in particular stands out after a violent confrontation which has them both on the floor, Barbara yells out:  "You just don't get it: I'M IN CHARGE NOW."  This is one of the few times where we see Violet cower and whimper.
This film is definitely the Streep/Roberts show.  Juliette Lewis as Karen delivers the weakest performance while Julianne  Nicholson is haunting as Ivy.  The rest of the cast is uniformly good although the male actors are mostly wasted in secondary roles particularly Benedict Cumberbatch and Dermot Mulroney.  I suppose it's always interesting for actors to sign on to a prestige project like this one with such powerhouse actresses attached, no blame to be  assigned here.  In fact it's been a great year for actresses in general I hope this ushers in not just a trend but a conscious effort to write great roles for actresses of all ages.
I give August: Osage County a modest endorsement, it didn't have the WOW factor that a film like 13 Years a Slave had but it's definitely worth more than a passing look.

léo ferré - avec le temps

My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: Overview of some recent films I've seen in the las...

My Travels And A Little Bit of This And That: Overview of some recent films I've seen in the las...: This is not going to be a comprehensive critique of all the films I've seen merely a gentle overview which may stimulate some of you to...

Overview of some recent films I've seen in the last few weeks before end of 2013

This is not going to be a comprehensive critique of all the films I've seen merely a gentle overview which may stimulate some of you to go see the films reviewed or not. It's been a good year for films, in general, the roster has been quite rich and that's a good thing.  With the gradual disappearance of DVD's courtesy of Netflix and ITunes I worry that watching films the old conventional way, in a movie theater, will also become extinct in the not so distant future.  Perhaps this fear is unjustified, perhaps not.  Was talking to someone who has lived here for the last twenty years.  He distinctly remembers lines snaking around the block to catch a film in our little theater which still boasts five screening rooms.  I have never seen a lineup that big even for so-called marquee names like the Hunger Game franchise or any of the other blockbusters of the year which have all been screened here lasting only a few weeks at best.  True the community itself is not big, twelve thousand maybe double that in the summer although there are many communities of similar size or bigger not far away and no theater within a forty km. radius, that's a relatively big pool to draw from.  Technology is changing everything too fast and not always for the better.  I will revisit this topic in a few years to assess the state of theater going options meanwhile here are a few reviews of my latest forays.

Marius and Fanny:  Directed by Daniel Auteuil

A double bill French, no subtitles which would be a shame in any case since it's set in Southern France, Marseille specifically where the accent is so picturesque and half the fun of the movie.  This story of young, wronged love has been told many times but it still felt fresh in the hands of director and actor Daniel Auteuil and the young lovely actors he entrusted the main roles too.  Marcel Pagnol a native son of Marseille and its most famous auteur wrote the story which has been filmed more than once.  Fanny is in love with Marius but Marius has been bitten by the bug of the unknown he wants to escape the narrow confines of the bar where he works with his dad César who is also its owner.  Fanny accepts to let him go when an occasion presents itself for him to crew on a sailboat.  In her heart she knows he will never be happy until he experiences a life of adventure.  Shortly thereafter Fanny discovers she's pregnant and accepts to marry Panisse a much older man who well aware of the situation is willing to consider the child as his own and give him his name.  Panisse is a very honorable man, César approves of this choice even though he knows Fanny will never love someone other than Marius.  Marius reappears but Fanny, her heart breaking, decides to stay with Panisse, end of story.  It's simple, it's eloquent, it's heartfelt.  The one problem I had has more to do with the filming itself which was filmed more as a play than as a movie.  The camera was rather static, the sets were few and some of the action felt "staged" as a result.  Perhaps for financial reasons Auteuil did not make use of the beautiful Midi scenery.  There were a few overhead shots of Marseille and Notre-Dame de la Garde I wanted to see more of those since I was born right below the great cathedral true beacon of Marseille.  There were also a few excursions into the glorious Mediterranean "calanques" with the pines, the cicadas, the bouillabaise (fish stew) and the aquamarine water.  Would have loved more of those although the film was never meant as a travelogue of the region I'm letting maudlin sentimentality take over.  It's doubtful anybody reading this will have a chance to see these two films but if you're at all intrigued try seeking them out online if you have to.

Ain't Them Bodies Saints:  Directed by David Lowery

David Lowery is a young director I wasn't aware of prior to watching this film and he shows some serious promise. Again this is a story of young interrupted love,difficult to quibble with such eternal themes. Bob and Ruth love each other passionately.  One day a robbery goes horribly wrong, a shooting ensues, a gun is fired and a policeman is shot.  Ruth fired the shot but Bob having just discovered that Ruth is pregnant takes the fall. While in prison Bob has only one obsession, escaping and reuniting with Ruth and his child.  Comparisons have been made between this film and Terrence Malick's Badlands which featured a similar theme of star crossed young love and was also set in Texas.  Like Malick Lowery makes abundant use of the scenery and lets it speak for its characters, there is a lot of silence in between the words although that silence can speak volumes.  He makes great use of natural light although he's partial to sunset rather than sundown like Malick.
These are facile comparisons there will be ample opportunity for Lowery to prove whether he can go the distance as a director.  Malick has been notoriously spotty having completed only six films in a career spanning four decades, not a tremendous output, Lowery with three films to his credit is already halfway there in terms of sheer production. Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara have genuine chemistry and Ben Foster as the wounded cop turned protector is also very good.

The Wolf of Wall Street:  Directed by Martin Scorsese

I had great hopes for this one, I've been a fan of Scorsese's work since earlier on in his career.  Raging Bull is still one of the greatest films of all times, a genuine hit you in the heart and guts masterpiece.  The term masterpiece is bandied around far too often but in the case of Raging Bull it's a deserving crown.  Of course there have been hits and misses in his career since those early days. The remake of the Chinese Infernal Affairs renamed The Departed and for which Scorsese won an Oscar was never as good as tight or as enthralling as the original and,in my opinion, not deserving of the Oscar.  Scorsese should have won for either Taxi Driver or better yet Raging Bull the Academy is often very shortsighted. Regardless I intended to discuss The Wolf of Wall Street and lay this one to rest.  I read somewhere that both Scorsese and Di Caprio couldn't wait to option the book on which the film is based.  I suppose it has a lot of the lurid elements Scorsese appears to prefer,drugs,sex, wantonness, lack of morality,violence not of a gun variety but of a predatory nature nonetheless and as a bonus not one single great female character.  This is something I have come to notice over the course of Scorsese's oeuvre.  He's a guy guy's director he simply cannot portray a female character without turning her into some kind of caricature either saint, sinner or both, bimbo or temptress, they never feel real, maybe Scorsese has a lot of unresolved mommy issues.
The film chronicles the rise and "fall" of  Jordan Belfort at first a small time trader who is content to swindle mom and pop's hard earned cash with the promise of untold returns on penny stocks.  Not satisfied with this scheme he soon graduates to bigger and more profitable targets, i.e. people who can afford to lose a lot of money and are just as greedy as Jordan Belfort and his crew of disreputable, amoral traders whose single soul destroying mantra is:  MONEY, MONEY, MONEY and its inevitable corollary: MORE,MORE, MORE.
The film is directed with brio and assurance, it's Goodfellas on an extra dose of steroids, without the guns and the murders reveling instead in the excesses of Wall Street gangsters in all their grotesqueness. The term reveling is well chosen Scorsese is having a lot of fun and so are Di Caprio and Jonas Hill, Belfort's second in command.  It's hard to fault the performance of Di Caprio he is in every frame, delivers long lines of dialogue to harangue his troops on a daily basis, loses control of his motor movements, forced to crawl to his car upon having taken one too many Quaalude and generally embraces these excesses with a kind of wanton abandon rarely captured on film.  It's definitely a one of a kind performance all the more since it didn't require any use of prosthetics, weight gain, weight loss the usual accoutrements of what constitutes a great performance.
Belfort is seductive in the same way that a poisonous snake can be both seductive and repulsive. For me the repulsion was stronger than the seduction and after three hours of unrelenting ugliness I found myself wanting
Belfort and cohorts to be arrested and put away for a very long time.  I suppose Scorsese wanted the excesses to speak for themselves, representative of that era when the sky seemed the limit for these young Turks of Wall Street and screwing people was the name of the day, the way the game was played.  Sadly it wasn't enough, I wanted a more potent statement, a more potent condemnation especially in light of the fact that nothing has really happened to most of the major players who brought about the crash in 2008 and
 that still stings, it stings a lot.  It's unfair to demand a political treatise from Scorsese who has never shown an inclination to do that in any of his films. He is content with observing, witnessing and letting the film speak for itself and I suppose, in the end, that will have to do.

American Hustle:  Directed by David O. Russell

American Hustle is a sparkling concoction like very good champagne it goes down rather easily although it's not quite the "Grand Cru" I was expecting given the considerable talent attached to the project.  The year is 1978 Jimmy Carter is President and everything still seems possible before the big crash of the 80's will put a stop to the party before resuming in earnest in the 90's.  Irving Rosenthal and his mistress Sydney Prosser aka Lady Edith Greensley, a fictitious British aristocrat with ties to the banking world, are successful small time grifters content to fleece unsuspecting clients eager to be fleeced in the if it's too good to be true it undeniably means it is.  This all comes to an end when their scam is uncovered by a zealous yet very unstable FBI agent with the name of Richie DiMaso.  The actors, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence as Irving's deliciously crackpot blond bombshell of a wife Rosalyn are all uniformly great.  I would especially like to single out Amy Adams who is absolutely riveting as the conniving half of the duo with breasts semi-exposed for most of the film via waist plunging necklines she is sexy and fearsome with a hint of vulnerability. Of course everybody's hiding something in this film and the narrative thread of what and who is real runs throughout as a taught undercurrent. The period is lovingly recreated from the clothes, to the hair, to the makeup to the furniture everything is spot on.  I do have a few quibbles with the plot which at times veers on the incoherent, frankly it's a bit of a muddle if you're not paying close attention. Is it the best film I've seen in 2013 no....not for me, that honor still goes to the harrowing 12 Years a Slave which I already reviewed in my blog.

World War Z -  Directed by Marc Foster

I resisted renting this one for a while after watching too many zombies on The Walking Dead. I was feeling a bit of zombie overload although some people can never get enough of the soulless eaters. In a sense it's fitting that so many apocalypses feature zombies.  They are relentless, ravenous and their hunger for human flesh is never satisfied, sounds like the bankers, corporate cronies, CEO's and traders from Wall Street and beyond.  They too are never satisfied, their greed is unparalleled except it's a much more destructive yet more difficult to detect force, it works by increment after small increment till everything is consumed.  At least with zombies it's clean and efficient plus they leave nature alone, they're not into exploitation or their exploitation is not venal it's of a more carnal variety.
Marc Foster seemed to be an unusual choice for directing this latest apocalypse but upon reflection he does have a rather varied "oeuvre" to his credit.  To name a few:  Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland, Stranger Than Fiction, The Kite Runner and Quantum Solace, not a bad résumé.  He does a very good job on this one too.  Some scenes are downright startling and terrifying, the one with the zombies climbing on top of each other to scale a wall is a winner, it does stay in your head and kudos to the poster too which is wonderful.  Brad Pitt does a credible job as the lone man against the hordes, he's brave, he's smart, he's a loving husband and father, in short he's everything you might want in your hero if the apocalypse ever came your way.  I won't spoil the ending although I'm sure many of you will be able to guess how it ends, in that way it's very predictable.  It's not irredeemably black like The Road which is post apocalyptic when everything has gone to hell already.  If you like zombies this one's for you.