1939 - Thor: The Dark World

I have to be deadly honest here.  This is the first of the Marvel films that I've been 'meh' on.  And it was especially disappointing because the first Thor was so goddamn good, and I expected very little from it (maybe why I liked it so much).  In some ways I think that they just attempted to do too much, be too big.  We don't need every single Marvel film to be about saving the entire world - do the stakes really need to be THAT high every single time?  The more sci-fi the films get the less interesting they are.  And I'm not down on sci-fi films, I think the problem is that they found a way to really ground the early films in this series, but now that all the fantasy elements are in place it just muddles it a bit.  I liked that Iron Man had to deal with that to some extent though.  I don't know, I guess, for me, I just think they can do so much more with simplicity and don't give themselves enough credit for that.  It's the small moments in these kinds of films that really speak volumes - and this one had no small moments.  Shame, really.  It was nice to have Portman integrated into the plot in a much stronger way though.  I should end with saying that I didn't hate the film - I just didn't really enjoy it all that much, and it's one that I likely won't find myself revisiting.

1866 - Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

I don't know why exactly but I really felt a strong desire to revisit this film.  And I can't recall my first reaction, but I think that I liked it a lot more this go around.  It's got a pretty great soundtrack, and both Dennings and Cera are charming in their roles.  Jay Baruchel gets to play a douchebag, which is pretty goddamn fun to watch.  If you never got a chance to check out this little coming-of-age romantic comedy it's absolutely worthy of your time.  It's the kind of film that just puts a smile on your face.  The world is shy some great real-life adventure films like this one, and I'd love to add my own stamp at some point.  It's sweet, it's funny, what more can you ask for.  I highly recommend this bad boy, especially since we're (hopefully) past the point where everyone wants to bag on Michael Cera.  Give it a go if you haven't already - and if you have - it's absolutely worth the re-visit!

1757 - The 40 Year Old Virgin (commentary)

I've been getting my studio space set up for editing my new film Sex After Kids, so I threw this on in the background with the commentary which includes a ridiculously large amount of people.  It's interesting listening to commentaries with actors because you very quickly get a sense of who are interesting and fun people, and who are very desperately trying to be as interesting and fun as the people whom it comes naturally to.  It's goddamn awkward to listen to sometimes.  As I'm going to be working around the studio for the next few days in the evening there's a good chance I'll check out the commentaries on the other Apatow films as well.
Part of the issue with watching an Apatow film on DVD is that you never get the theatrical cut, you get his bloated version - which isn't a bad thing - but it's tricky to make a comedy really work after it's pushing two hours.  It's interesting to hear them on the commentary talking about how most of the crew had no idea how they were going to possibly string this thing into a film in the end.  A large part of what Judd does is he slaps down two cameras and just has the actors throw a bunch of stuff out and see what happens.  I can see how this could work quite well, but it's also a reason that the visual style of the film is pretty damn ugly.  It looks like a badly shot three-camera-sitcom in some scenes - which I'm not sure if I noticed before. 
The commentary doesn't offer a whole lot of insight into their productions, but it is entertaining if you like this group of people.  If you don't, then steer clear. 

1728 - New Girl: season one

Before the beginning of this new television season I had a bit of a crush on both Zooey Deschanel and Kat Dennings.  I'm not officially in love with Zoie from this show, and really have no interest in following Kat after the shit-show that is 2 Broke Girls polluted the air-waves with it's awkward desperateness.  But that's not what I'm here about.
New Girl was my favorite pilot of the year - it jumped out and announced what it was and I liked it from the get-go.  A lot of people have said that it's the show that got strongest and better as it went, but I always always a fan - however I agree that the show continued to get better the more it embraced the amazing ensemble cast that it had.  Zooey is lovely on her own, but throw the rest of this ensemble into the mix and you're kicking with gas.  The jokes are fast, furious, and smart.  I was impressed by how much ground they covered this season and never seemed to be lacking for material.  It makes me excited for future seasons.  It would be easy to label this show as being quirky, and perhaps it is, but the way it uses it's quirks are a helluva lot of fun.  It's a show that will poke the hell out of it's characters, but it's also a show that's willing to show how much they care for and need one another.  I'm a big fan of serial television, but New Girl could easily be my favorite episodic that's lightly serialized. 
If you avoided this show please give it a shot.  Jump in mid-season and you'll be just fine. 

1573 - Thor

This was a film that I was only half thinking of going to see, so when a friend suggested that we see it I didn't put up too much of a fight.  Besides, this is the kind of film that you really want to see on a big screen (Bridesmaids, the film I wanted to check out, arguably, works just as well on a small screen).
So for those who don't know Marvel has been doing a pretty cool job of laying the ground work for a series of films all leading up to The Avengers, and this film is no exception.  It has a simply stunning cast.  (I had no idea that was Idris Elba until the end credits!  Nor that it was Colm Feore under all that Frost Giant make-up!)  Chris Hemsworth is really excellent here.  I find myself falling a little out of love with Kat Dennings these days, and far more in love with Natalie Portman. 
The best thing about this film is that it's a fun ride - and it's got a wicked sense of humor.  It spends the first act taking the character seriously inside of his world, and then throws it all on his head when he gets to ours.  I won't ruin any of the comic greatness - you'll just have to check it out yourself.
Hiring Kenneth Branagh to direct this film was an inspired and interesting choice.  As a man who knows his classic theatre, with the Norse Gods involved I have to say that I'm sure he found the themes and storyline compelling, but knew how to weave them and not take the film itself too seriously.  Lots of great stakes and character turns - great fun for the entire family.
So for a guy who didn't really care about seeing this film at all, I'm walking out with a decent recommend.  And it's under two hours, which is impressive since most companies think that epic and long belong in films like this just for the sake of it.  I could go on about it's many virtues, but I'm tired.  Ready for bed.  So if you haven't already, and are the least bit interested - give it a shot while it's still in theatres.

1565 - Defendor

A friend of mine is a reader for several of the different funding agencies here in Canada, and he mentioned having read and liked an early draft of this.  That combined with a bunch of actors, both famous and local, that I love - my only regret was I didn't get a chance to support this while it was still in the theatre. 
It's the story of a mentally challenged man (fetal-alcohol syndrome) who is convinced that a man named Captain Industry killed his prostitute mother when he was a child, and so he's become a vigilante known as the Defendor (NOT Defender!).  What surprised me most about this film was that it would have been so easy to just go with the dark comedy, but there's some goddamn heartbreaking moments here - some real harsh stuff.  It's stylized, but there feels like there's an honesty to how it all transpires throughout.  There's a lot going on but somehow the tone of this film works for it completely.  It's not cheesy, it's not shlocky.  It takes some superhero genre stuff and plays with it in an interesting way that fits emotionally and dramatically as well for a guy that's real.  Woody Harrelson is simply fantastic in this role, funny, endearing, heartbreaking.  It's a film worth seeing regardless, but if absolutely nothing else it's a film worth seeing for his performance.  For anyone who trashes Canadian cinema, give it a check out - if we made more films like this we would certainly be in a better situation with our film industry.  It's dark, yet accessible, dark and yet I think it would play well to a wide audience.  Go.  See.  It.
DefendorDefendor [Blu-ray]Defendor [Blu-ray]  Defendor [Blu-ray]

1401 - Daydream Nation

This film is in the Canada First program at TIFF, which is the program we would have been in had we been selected. So I was excited to see this for several reasons - the first being that it's Canadian, the second because my new friend Katie Boland is in it, and third because I fucking LOVE Kat Dennings.
Kat is great in this, she builds on a lot of the great stuff we've seen her doing in films, but at the same time really has a chance to shine within the material that she's given. Jon Joffin's cinematography was fantastic and the music selection added a really nice emotional touch to the film. Katie is pretty damn awesome in her scenes as well and manages to steal a few great moments. I look forward to working with her at some point (that goes for you as well, Ms. Dennings!)
If I have to give criticism to the film it's this - it's very ambitious in that it wants to be a lot of different things, and I think that the film suffers a bit because of it. Films often use the 'coming-of-age' blanket to justify a passive protagonist that doesn't really have a goal or agenda, but just drifts through. It helps a lot when that protagonist is Kat Dennings though. There is a lot to like and enjoy about this film and I really hope that it gets an audience inside and out of Canada. I think that the writer/director, Mike Goldbach, is someone we're going to see time and again, and if you're reading this Mike, I'd love to buy you a beer sometime and talk shop.

1197 - The House Bunny

This is the kind of film I probably wouldn't have chosen to watch, but it had enough of the right elements that I wouldn't fight watching it either. Namely the writers (Legally Blonde scribes) and the cast, Faris, Dennings, etc... There's some great writing in here, and some nice plotting as well. A few times I couldn't help but feel that the jokes could have worked better, and not that they weren't written well or properly, but the execution was off. Some really really funny stuff here. When it's working - it's really working, and when it's not, it's still fun.

1188 - Charlie Bartlett

This is a film that grabbed my attention right from the trailer. I was interested in this character. Wanted to see more. It could have been so cliched, but it wasn't, it was lovely. Watch out for this Anton Yelchin kid, I see him doing lovely things. The story is honest about the current climate with kids and medications and how they're feeling. If anything they could have gone a little deeper, but it could have been preachy too. A solid cast keeps that from happening. Downey Jr. and Hope Davis are great, but I loved Kat Dennings here. I wanted to love her in Nick and Nora, but something about those characters just kept it from happening - utterly smitten. I would have done backflips to make this girl love me in highschool. Again, I see lovely things for her, gotta love a girl that throws an Annie Hall "la de da" line into the film. Check it out if you see it in the video store. Sweet, fun film.

1155 - Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

The more I think about this film the more it grows on me. The first half of it is... odd. It was hard to tell if Cera and Dennings just had no chemistry, or the point was that they were just missing how good they should be for each other. I have to assume that latter because when the film finally starts working, it works well. A pointless subplot about her drunken friend that only serves to chew up screen time detracts only a little. Perhaps it's unfair to say it's pointless, I'm sure it's meant to illustrate something in Norah's character, it's just too bad we don't give two figs about her friend. Cera, as a heart-broken teen, gives his least enthusiastic performance, which doesn't mean to say he's bad, he never is, but he's just kind of there. The film has a great closing line, which I won't ruin here. It's cute for sure. Worth a rental.