1766 - Looper

I can't remember the last time I saw a film on opening weekend.  It's been a while.  I'm still behind and haven't seen Rian Johnson's last film "Brother's Bloom".
So, first and foremost, as always I enjoyed the hell out of Joseph-Gordon Levitt - he's on such an amazing streak right now.  They make-up job they do on him to make him more like Bruce Willis is pretty impressive for the most part.  The film is pretty fun - for those unaware it's about a future where time travel was invented and then made illegal, and crime syndicates use it as a way to get rid of people by having a "looper" on the other end kill them and dispose of the body.  Sound complicated?  It is.  In fact, it's complications like this that, ultimately, keep the film from really working for me.  I enjoyed it a lot.  Emily Blunt was enjoyable as well, and the kid in it was goddamn phenomenal - what a discover he was!  There's so many fun and inventive sequences and it's entertaining and worth checking out.  If I ever get around to watching it again I'll get into all the nit-picky stuff that really nagged at me, but I'll let it go and not ruin anything for you fine folks.
If you're curious, at all, as to the nature of my nit-picky, it has, mostly, to do with just the complete brushing aside of even trying to explain why and how the time travel works - it just feels a tad lazy - like an amazing concept was had and to avoid having to make it logical they just decided to avoid explanation.  Bitch, moan, just enjoy the film already, right?
It's being billed as a thinking man's action film, and I'll give it that, just don't think on it too hard or it might start falling apart on you.

1765 - Louie: season three

If you've read my reviews of the past seasons of this series, this will come to no surprise to you.  Louie C.K. is my favourite comedian, and Louie is, hands down, my favourite comedy series currently on the air.  In terms of enjoyment this series is on a par with the films of Woody Allen for me.  The humour is often subtle, but it packs an honest punch and it makes you force a mirror onto yourself and your own life, but without ever being ridiculously heavy handed.
This season told much more of a straight story than the previous.  It would appear that Louis decided to tell a more fluid story of love and loss, aspiration, and reality.  SPOILERS AHEAD.  From meeting the girl of his dreams to watching her slip away in a terrible fashion, from being groomed for one of the top spots in his profession, to suffering in a moat of depression, this season was about Louie having to get out of his lonely funk and do something about himself.  And he's succeeded admirably. 
There is absolutely no other series like this on television and it's the kind of thing that would be just impossible to replicate.  It's unique because it allows one of the greatest entertainers of our generation to just go out there and tell the story he wants to tell.  Here's hoping they let him tell lots more.

1764 - Young Adult

Holy shit it's been a long time since I've watched an actual film.  Spending my evenings on Sex After Kids has kept me more-or-less away from cinema, but since I had a break tonight I thought I'd treat myself to a film I've been meaning to see for quite some time. 
I'm a big fan of a lot of the people involved in this film, and I'd yet to see a Jason Reitman film I hadn't liked.  Let's cut the shit - we all know that Charlize Theron is a pretty damn attractive woman, but she's also one that's not scared to look or be ugly in a film, and so for a guy like me, that makes her all the more attractive.  She plays a pretty despicable person here and it works because she does it in such a fascinating way that you just can't wait to see what she'll do next.  At first I wondered, what does she really see in the Patrick Wilson character, but then it started to make more sense to me - he's not the point - he's kind of a loser himself - her issue is her bullshit ties to the past and I can identify with that.  Patton Oswalt was pretty damn great here as well and I can understand why a lot of people think he was robbed from some award nominations.
For those who see the Diablo Cody/Reitman reunion please know that this film and Juno are pretty far removed from one another - this one is a little more difficult to swallow - it's not about selfish people becoming better people - it's more about selfish people realizing that they need to be less shitty and move the hell on.  It's not the kind of film I think I'll ever need to own or revisit, but I'm glad I finally caught it all the same!

1763 - The L.A. Complex: season two

This is a tricky one to right up because I've got some friends that are involved in this series and, if I'm honest, I'd love to work on this show if it comes back for a third season (please, oh please come back for a third season).  After the first season I liked this show a lot - there were some story lines that I wasn't crazy about and characters that I wasn't big on - but this second season came back swinging and realized that it was okay to not like all of the characters, so long as they were made interesting.  What's strongest about this series is that it has absolutely no problem with upsetting the status quo and putting it's characters through hell.  You actually believe that a character might leave and never come back, because that happens, because that's true to life.  This world inside of this show is messy, and despite being a bit of a soap opera, it's also quite real.  Characters are given hard choices, and even when they win they have to do so by losing something else.  Martin Gero and his writing staff understand how much loss plays into victory, and there's always sacrifice, especially when it comes to something so personal as following your dreams. 
If you're in Canada you can watch this series for free off of Much Music's website - otherwise I'm sure there's re-runs and on-demand type stuff.  It's easily my favourite Canadian series, and I'm proud of the work they've done on it.  As Jewel Staite in the (hopefully not series) finale, "We made something".  They certainly did.  And also the season wrapped up quite well, I could personally go for another round.

1762 - Weeds: season eight

It has been a long-ass ride to the end of this series.  Regardless of quality it's one of the more unique series in it's willingness to completely re-invent itself and it did so in some pretty amusing ways.  I was ridiculously impressed when the series actually sent Nancy off to prison and forced her to pay for her crimes.  This season was all about coming full circle, getting back to the suburbs and the heart of the story, and it did so in kind of a clunky way.  What comes now will be SPOILER RIDDEN, so proceed with caution…

As previously mentioned, this series has never had an issue re-inventing itself, jumping ahead in time, etc… so it wasn't a huge shock that the finale would jump ahead…. eight years?  Is that right?  And looking at the other jumps in time, and the seasons themselves it seems as if the entire series takes place over… what 13-15 years?  That's kind of amazing, really.  It almost felt like they re-watched the first season of the series to see what they should revisit here…. Scotson.  Check!  Shane's fascination with Pittsburg - check!  Silas and Megan - check!  Andy and the Rabbi chick - check!  Doug and his gay son - check!  Jumping ahead so far for the finale also meant forcing a lot of focus on a new actor as Stevie, the character who was probably given the least amount of focus for the rest of the series.  Am I happy that they all found peace at the end?  Sure - and I like that it left Nancy feeling pretty fucked up, and that Andy never gave in.  Their relationship was always the highlight for me.  Both Mary-Louise Parker and Justin Kirk are absolutely phenomenal, and their chemistry has been a huge plus to the show, and probably the chief reason that I always returned to it.  Their scene on the spot where her first husband died was a thing of beauty and pain and was easily one of the shows finest moments. 

So farewell to this show - I can't say I'll miss it terribly as I watched it more to see how it would end up - it ceased being the must-watch show that it started out as.  Kind of like an ex-girlfriend whom you have an amicable break-up with.  You still like them but you don't love them anymore, and don't think much about them when they're away. 

1761 - Breaking Bad: season five

I'm a tad behind on writing about this one as well - although only a week so cut me some slack :)  Needless to say, this is season five (or the first half anyway - I'm still considering the next season as season six given that it's a year break) and so this is going to be ridiculously SPOILER HEAVY.  Get out now if you're not caught up of the series.  And if you're just starting, enjoy the ride!  You're in good hands.
So it's been a hell of a ride watching Walter White go from good guy to buy, from Mr. Chips to Scarface.  And it's seemed awfully effortless.  Bryan Cranston is peerless in just how fucking good he is in this type of role.  After the hell he went through last year it was delightful to watch Walt come into his own while still cleaning up the mess that his pride had gotten him into.  And what amazed me the most was how as soon as Skyler finally broke through to him… Heisenberg went away.  Walt saw that he's well-over-achieved his dream.  And beautifully, that's when the other shoe drops.  Although he doesn't know it yet.  If I have one complaint it's that we didn't get to see Hank freak out more at the ultimate discovery.  Although how goddamn exciting is it to know that Hank is in 'the know' going into the final eight episodes?  So many ways this could go down, and we know that we're in good hands with Vince Gilligan and crew.  Shame we have to wait a year, but it's worth it if the final chapter is anywhere near the quality of this series thus far.  Easily one of the best television series of all time.

1760 - Community: season two

So I'm ridiculously behind on this series (season three just added to Netflix - huzzah!).  This is a series that I admire the hell out of, even if I don't absolutely love it.  It's hilarious and has a cast that I find phenomenally enjoyable.  The guys I want to hang with, the women I want to date.  But not because they're beautiful (which they are) but because they just seem like a helluva lot of fun to hang around.  This series is unlike any other in it's ability to constantly test it's format.  You could argue that really all they do is play with genre within their own universe, but I'd argue that that's easier said than done.  They do this, sure, but they don't abandon their characters or arc to do so.  Is it about a community college?  Not really.  It's about, like all great sit-coms, a dysfunctional non-traditional, family. 
I don't imagine that this series is for everyone, but if you're a comedy fan and a bit of a nerd, you could do a hell of a lot worse.  It'll be interesting to rapidly consume the next season and then see what happens when they come back sans-Dan Harmon...

1759 - True Blood: season five

This could very well be a record low for me in terms of this blog.  As most of you regular readers know I've spent this summer making my second feature film Sex After Kids, and so with that my evenings and weekends essentially disappeared - and now that I'm in post-production it's not much better.  I expect that later this fall I'll be catching up on my viewing in a major way so stay tuned for that!
In the mean time, True Blood!  True Blood is a messy show, and it's not just because of all the sexy gore.  It's pretty famous for starting seasons with a bunch of seemingly random and pointless storylines, and then finding a (usually pretty neat) way of getting them all together by the end.  But sometimes they just have terrible storylines like Terry and his war-ghost thing.  If this show was a hamburger, that would have been the bread crumbs you put in when you just don't have enough of the good stuff to make it a proper meal. 
I'm going to get into some SPOILERS, so avoid the rest of this if you're not caught up on this season.  This season was more-or-less about the looking war between humans and... everyone else, I suppose.  They showed it in a nice small way with a hate-monger group, and that was a good indication about how there were probably groups of people like this all around.  We got re-introduced to a newly vamped Rev. Steve Newland (awesome), as well as big-bad Russel (who went out in about as anti-climatic a way as possible).  The surprising highlight of this season for me was Tara as a vampire.  I never thought Tara would become one of the most interesting characters on this show, but they did a phenomenal turn-around with her.  And the decision to have the slow-play between her and Pam was just pure wonderful.  Can't wait to see more of them.  Eric is probably my real favorite character - he's the most complex - not a villain, not a hero, but he's got a good heart beneath it all.  He gives a shit when it counts, but he's not afraid to get his hands dirty.
Another one of the stronger character moves was slowing turning Bill from this pansy vampire that we first met into... well, I can only assume that he's going to be almost pure villain when we return next season.  It would have been a complete shock to have killed him all together - but the choice they've made here, if done properly, is pretty damn delightful.
I don't love this show, but it's absolutely a guilty pleasure of mine.  If you want to see a wonderfully campy soap opera about vampires, werewolves, and other creatures in the deep south - it doesn't get much more fun than this.

1758 - Knocked Up (commentary

This film is a huge leap forward for Apatow as a filmmaker.  Not only is it visually miles ahead from his first film, but the storytelling feels tighter (even in this extended version) and the emotions more toned.  You get a real sense that he's in command of his craft here.  The commentary was was entertaining enough with Apatow, Rogen, and Bill Hader along.  They start off promising that it's going to be like a film school in a box, but it's not really.  Still enjoyable enough for fans though!  Made me want to re-watch it with the commentary off!
One more night of unpacking in the shop... one more Apatow film :)

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. 

1756 - To Rome With Love

Full disclosure - I'm a Woody Allen nut.  I didn't get to see this just as it came out as we were moving that weekend, so I was happy to catch it now.  Woody has a wonderful ability to attract some of my favorite actors into his projects - and here he even scored two of my favorite Canadian actresses with Alison Pill and Ellen Page!
This is ensemble-Woody, and to be honest, it just wasn't my cup of tea.  There was, as always, some wonderfully inspired comedic moments and lines, but all in all I just found it floudering a tad.  It was a bit uneven and all over the place - four stories intercut - some taking place over weeks, others in a single day.  Not that I can't get over that, but it just felt odd.  And the thing felt a little heavy with exposition.  I don't want to bag on Woody here since I love the bulk of his work (that might be even saying it lightly), but I have a hard time recommending this one.  It's essentially about a slew of self-centered people who get to see what life is like on the other side (mostly by cheating on their spouses) and then get to return to their regular life consequence free when it doesn't work out.  Catch it on Netflix if you're really curious.

www.jeremylalonde.com

Greetings all!  I've finally redone my website - which I was hating on quite a bit for the longest time and it just became that thing that I didn't want to deal with...
So check it out - I've uploaded stills from all my films - more from Sex After Kids will be coming soon.  There's some videos on there, including a short I did years ago called Hoff's New Direction.  But most importantly I'll be starting a NEW BLOG!  I'm not abandoning this one, but I'll be using the one on my main website to talk more about my creative process, projects, and myself in the industry, where I'll keep using this blog to talk about the stuff I'm watching, reading, etc... My goal will be to update it once a week or so.  People were complaining that all my film news was getting lost in the other posts here so I thought I'd make it cleaner for all of you!  So check back often - I've got something else I'm cooking up that I hope to start releasing in the fall...

1755 - The Dark Knight

I'm in the midst of putting together the final pieces of my geek-office and so I thought I'd throw this on in the background while I worked.  This is not a background kind of film.  It's the kind of film that just absolutely consumes you and draws you in, in no small part to the man in the photo above.  There isn't much here that I can say about Heath's performance in this film that hasn't been said already.  It's truly magnificent and it's the large reason why this film is the strongest of the Nolan-Batman trilogy. 
The plotting of the story in this one is quite masterful.  The theme of chaos and order, what's fair and what just happens because the world can be a shitty place.  It doesn't feel like the stuff of comic books so much as it feels like the stuff of real life.
I can't wait till one day down the line when I can sit down and marathon this entire trilogy.  Probably won't be until my kid(s) are old enough to watch. 
If you haven't seen it, it's your loss.  Not only is it one of the best comic book films of all time - it's just a great goddamn movie as well.

1754 - The Dark Knight Rises

I'm on this a few days late (was shooting this weekend!).  I think I expected that the world, in general, was bound to be disappointed by this film in some way.  The love for The Dark Knight was so wonderfully grand that to surmount it would be near impossible.  And so, honestly, it's almost unfair to even try and compare the two.  But then you get guys like Harry Knowles rip it to shreds because he doesn't believe that the film got what Batman was all about.  Well godforbid that someone decides to shake things up in a decades old character…
I have to say that it's a feat in and of itself to make a nearly-three-hour film feel like it moved along at a non-stop pace.  I never found myself bored or lacking enjoyment.  I was glued and enjoying it the entire time.  Bale has never really been the reason for me to enjoy this series - nothing against him by any means, he's just not one of those actors that really does anything for me one way or another (although I quite like him in The Prestige).  Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt all shine like the top of the Christler building here and give us characters and story to care about.  Given how complicated the plot is I was impressed that each of the characters had a pretty decent arc.  One thing that was quite interesting was hot little 'Batman' there actually was.  I'm not going to get into specifics at all here because the film has just come out and I want you to enjoy it yourselves.  I will say that it's a very satisfying conclusion to a pretty damn fine trilogy.  Nolan has done what may in time be considered his masterwork, and if it is, there's no shame in it whatsoever.  I look forward to a time where I can sit back and marathon the entire series.

1753 - The Big C: season three

When the second season ended on a cliff-hanger that assumed we might not be seeing Oliver Platt returning, I was pretty impressed by the bold move.  I was instantly unimpressed when they whisked it away right from the get-go in this season.
I'm going to rant for a moment about what I think is an essential issue when it comes to the Showtime series of shows.  It's a company that fosters really bold and original ideas - but doesn't know what the hell to do with them to the point where it just feels like it drags stories on to no end and for no good reason.  It has a laundry list of shows like this one, Californication, Dexter, United States of Tara, Nurse Jackie, wherein these fucked up main characters do whatever is most convenient at that moment to ensure that the series continues on a few seasons more, rather than offering an honest progression.  Some of those shows above do it worse than others - but sadly none of them really feel like the series are going towards anything, or have an over-all game plan.
In a world where almost everyone has been touched by the illness of cancer, I have no idea why I'm supposed to like the character of Cathy who is a bi-polar bitch.  Gotta give Linney props for making her human and likeable in small doses, but you can't fix what's a problem at the core.  We have no reason to care for her, and less for her family as they go on.  The supporting cast has become cartoon characters with quirks.  Andrea (now Ibabu) has absolutely no reason to be on the show outside of being the quirky outsider.  Son Adam is now, for whatever reason, religious.  Paul is a self-help guru, and brother Sean, the character whom had the most morals and dimensions, is not a running gag. 
Will I come back for a fourth season?  I'm sure I'll check out an episode or two, but I just don't know - in a world full of shows I've yet to see, I'm not sure this one is worth my time anymore.  It's a shame since there's a lot of great talent involved.  Alas.

1752 - Brave

I took my three year old son to see this - as his first film in the theatre it was absolutely magic to watch him experience this.  Big theatre, big sound.  He kept looking to me with this wonderful astonished gaze.  As long as I live I'll never forget that smile and amazement.  And now I'm sad knowing that it'll pass as this kind of thing becomes more 'normal' for him.
So I didn't know much of the story going into this, outside of it being a bit of a girl-power story.  But what this film really is, at it's core, is the story about a daughter and a mother, and how they have to learn to accept and embrace one another.  It's quite lovely in that, and the ending brought a bit of a tear to my eye.  I have to say that I found the mother's transformation a tad quick, wherein suddenly she was won over by what her daughter wanted - but I let it go.  It had all the staples of a solid pixar film - lots of laughs - lots of heart - smart and entertaining.  More than happy for it to be my little guy's first theatrical experience.

1751 - I Love Your Work

This damn movie has been sitting on my desk from zip.ca for (literally) months.  So I finally popped it in.  I liked it, but I didn't love anything about it.  I found it a little difficult to buy Giovanni Ribissi as this hulk of a leading man, if I'm to be completely honest.  It's essentially a film about a famous actor having to figure out how to deal with their fame.  It's a bit insider-baseball, and it's just a really hard story to relate to on any level - unless, I suppose, you're an actor.  I don't really have a strong opinion on this one either way, which I think it sadly the worst thing you can feel about a film - ambivalent. 

1750 - Hear No Evil, See No Evil

I can't tell you how many times I watched this film as a kid - and I recently saw this on a friend's netflix cue and so it brought back so many memories.  For those who haven't seen it, it's a classic comedy about a man, Gene Wilder, who is deaf and befriends a blind man, Richard Pryor, and the hijinks when they get mixed up in a murder.  This was my introduction to Pryor and he did so well with it that for a long time I actually thought him to be blind.  Ahh the magic of cinema when you're a kid.  It's a fun high-concept film that really does well by it's concept.  Kevin Spacey plays a moustache twirling villain here.  If you've never seen it it's worth giving it a click - a solid rainy afternoon comedy flick :)

Tough Shit - Kevin Smith

Kevin Smith was one of those icons I had whilst I was in high school and trying to figure out how to become a filmmaker.  I had won a playwriting competition and the woman interviewing me for a local paper told me I should check out this "Kevin Smith dude - he made his film putting  money on his credit cards", and so my next trip into the city I bought every he'd done up to that point that was on VHS (that's right - VHS, bitches!) and at that point it was Clerks, Mallrats, and Chasing Amy.  And it was really interesting seeing the differences between the three - and being a high school student I used to revisit films quite a bit, I think I saw those three films a shit load of times - and forced them on others.  Chasing Amy was also the first film that I double-dipped and bought on DVD as well. 
I'm aware of Smith's shortcoming as is he, but was very curious what'd he have to say in a motivational book such as this.  The first chapter begins with a nice little bit to help ground us all and remind us that we all started out as a load of sperm.  We all are winners already, just by being alive.  The entire book is filled with stories from Smith, some old, some new, but written from his own POV and filtered through the idea that he's trying to help the reader learn about life through his experiences, good and bad. 
I can sum up what the book is about pretty quickly - Smith's main advice is that you have to figure out what it is in life that makes you happy, and just find a way to make it your life.  Life's too short to not be doing something you don't love.  I don't disagree at all, and I've always lived my life this way - so there you are - I just saved you many hours of reading - unless you want all the Smith stories, then by all means pick it up.  There's some pretty great ones there, especially when he talks about the state of the film industry these days. 

1749 - Goon

I've been wanting to see this film for a long time but just kept missing all the opportunities - but thanks to the beauty of Netflix here it is!  First off, I'm a big fan of a lot of people in this film - Baruchel, Schreiber, Pill, and the director Michael Dowse, so I was primed to enjoy this film.  Despite being a Canadian I'm not really into hockey or sports in general, although growing up in the house of a guy who loved the Leafs I picked up enough to be able to appreciate the game - and my family was close with Marty McSorely so I know a thing or two about hockey goons (no offense, Marty!). 
This is a big fun film and told a great hockey story in the way that I think Score: The Musical wishes it had.  Nothing personal against that other recent Canadian hockey flick, but it was a tad hokey for my personal sensibilities, and Goon gived more with my personal tastes. 
Sean William Scott is pretty damn great here as a lovable loser who just wants to do best by those that he cares about.  He's dumb as a puck, but he'll stick by you till the end.  It's impossible to not love this character.  I like that the film never becomes a typical sports film and really just focused on the aspect of Goonery as it's main focus.  There was some geniune winces that came out of me whilst watching.
If you're Canadian and a lover of all things hockey, this ones a no brainer - check it out and spread the word damnit.  It's the kind of film our country needs to make more of in term of it's wide appeal and pure enjoyment.  Good on ya, Baruchel.  Good on ya!