Author: Justin Page 27 of 65

In an instance of truly terrible timing, the Elderbeast and I watched V For Vendetta today—only realising when when we were already engrossed that we were watching it a day early.

It was viewed at the Elderbeast’s request, but it’s a film I like and so I was happy to comply. I’m not sure what had piqued his interest, but I suspect it’s something to do with the recent cultural impact of the Gay Fawkes mask, particularly since he wants his own mask now.

I missed seeing V For Vendetta when it first came out, and it was some years before I finally caught up with it on bluray. It’s one of those movies that I didn’t give too much thought to at first, but that I find I increasingly admire the more I that watch it. I gather that the message has been somewhat altered from the original comic book (much to Alan Moore’s typical chagrin), but I’d argue that the movie is instead dealing with a political landscape that is far more relevant to us–even now–than the politics of 1980s England.

I was worried that the Elderbeast might find the movie a bit heavy-going in parts, and warned him going in that it probably wasn’t the action movie he was expecting. I needn’t have worried. At the end he proclaimed: “That was a really good movie!” A simple critique, for sure, but a sign that something in there really struck home.

Tonight, in a slightly belated Friday Horror choice, we watched Trick’r’Treat—the excellent Halloween anthology film that not nearly enough people talk about. I’d only seen it once before, and that was right after I bought it (it was, in fact, one of the earliest blurays I bought; purchased entirely on the recommendation of a few trusted friends).

I thought I’d remembered it pretty well, but it turns out I’d remembered the broad strokes of the movie, but almost none of the details. I remembered images, but not where those images fitted into the story. I remembered the non-linear timeline it plays with, but not how delightfully baffling it ends up being. I remembered some characters, totally forgot others (I’d completely forgotten Anna Paquin was in it, for instance). Either way, it was fun to revisit Trick’r’Treat.

Afterwards I looked up action figures of Sam (the pumpkin-headed creature who is, ultimately, just one of the monsters that we are presented with). I thought some figures had been made at one point, but of course they’re not being made any more and, inevitably, prices have shot up into the hundreds of dollars. No way am I paying that sort of money for a sculpted hunk of plastic, but some people would.

Price jumps like this always fascinate me, and make me wonder what the formula for ‘value’ might be. Perhaps something like (time * desire / availability) …?

Some brief thoughts about Thor: Ragnarok, which I went to see tonight.

Firstly, I really like the character Thor (the movie version, at least) but I’ve not really loved either of the two Thor movies to date. The first one was perfectly fun and well made, but it’s not a movie I’ve felt compelled to go back to. The second one has the feel of something that could have been great, but got messed up somewhere along the line. Consequently, even despite the overwhelmingly positive word of mouth, I didn’t have high expectations of the latest one. I went in expecting to have a good time and some laughs, and that’s exactly what I got.

I suspect there might have been a better, darker movie with Hela at the centre. I enjoyed all of her scenes, as well as the sense of unstoppable threat that she presented, but she was forced into second place against the rest of the story (which is fairly standard for Marvel movies and villains). That said. I certainly don’t think Cate Blanchett was wasted—and it might even be a case where she was so good that you think you want more, when actually you’ve had exactly the right amount.

I thoroughly enjoyed the interplay between Thor and Bruce Banner, and all of the new characters for that matter—in fact, I would happily watch another movie featuring them all right away. At this point, I’m reasonably certain my favourite Marvel movie to date is Guardians Of The Galaxy Volume 2, which explains why the tone of Thor: Ragnarok worked well for me. It’s intriguing, however, that …

… and, yep, that’s all I got. This is an object lesson in why it’s sometimes not helpful to stop a writing session in mid-sentence. I’m guessing it wasn’t all that intriguing after all …

Had a weird surreal day today. I woke up convinced that my grandmother (in-law) had died in her sleep, mainly because I completely forgot she was in the house when I got up (which was unusual because I’m usually very aware of the presence of other people in my house). She was fine, of course, but the rest of the day continued to have a sheen of fakery to it. I kept thinking I was about to wake up, and it would all turn out to be a very vivid dream of a very typical Wednesday.

The feeling didn’t pass, but I didn’t wake up either. Not sure what it was all about, but it was very unusual.

Today was Actual Halloween, a.k.a probably my favourite ‘holiday’ of the year. I didn’t do much this year, barring a little bit of costume help for the Kinderbesten and filling a bowl with candy for trick or treaters, but I was still able to enjoy it all from a distance.

As I drove home, past the Kinderbestern’s school, I saw at least half a dozen families out trick or treating – it was great! Sure, it wasn’t quite like the trick or treating you see in eighties movies (or in Stranger Things 2), but it still made me very happy to see so many people out, dressed up and having a fun time.

The Kinderbeast (who had dressed up as a skeleton for school on Friday) is still a little young to go trick or treating, but the Elderbeast was keen. The only thing standing in his way was that he couldn’t decide on a costume. Finally, almost at the last minute, he decided to dress up as the most fearsome creature he could think of: a school teacher! With a shirt, tie, and spectacles on, he set out with his friend (who was awesomely dressed as Jack The Ripper). About an hour later they returned, with an impressive haul of candy (including some Lindor, which I quickly stole).

One of my favourite memories of the evening was answering the door to a group of kids and seeing their (presumably) Dad at the end of the driveway, in full Zombie Ghostface costume, waving amiably in a ‘hello neighbour’ moment.

Next year … maybe … it’ll might be the right time for some family trick or treating ….

Today the Elderbeast made me very proud, and it’s a sign of how far he’s come just in the last few months of this year.

So, I went to pick him up from school (and the Kinderbeast, too: I didn’t just leave one of them behind). However, the Elderbeast was not in his class. I saw his teacher, and her face pretty much told me that he’d messed up (that’s … obviously not the bit that makes me proud). Turns out he’d been messing around in class and had been sent to an entirely different room to complete his work … which he still hadn’t managed to complete properly!

So, yeah, still not proud at this point.

Following this, we had a bit of a talk: me, the Elderbeast, and his teacher. We talked about what he did wrong, what he needs to do right, what he’s capable of. Then we made our way home (me and the Elderbeast, that is: his teacher lives at the school, obviously. And, of course the Kinderbeast came too: I *still* didn’t leave him behind).

On the way home the Elderbeast immediately starts talking about how he’s going to get started on his literacy project. He talks about what he needs to do (spoiler: it’s to write a three-minute speech about a book) and he’s completely focused on getting it done. We get home. We talk about which book he’s going to talk about and pick one (we end up going with the Dragon Stone saga by Kristian Salva). He sits down and he starts writing. He writes for about 40 minutes, completely focused, and gets his three-minute speech written. And it’s pretty damn good too.

This is the same child who, earlier this year, I would have to fight with for almost a whole evening just to get a paragraph or two of writing done.

It’s an amazing turnaround from where he was at the start of the year. I hope it’s a sign of things to come.

In one of those remarkable coincidences that you Just Don’t Question, the release of Season Two of Stranger Things happened on one of my #childfree weekends! Staring directly into the face of this fortuitousness, I decided to take a bash at bingeing the series. It has been Much Time since I last binged anything–having kids tends to eat up your free time–and the closest I’ve come to bingeing anything in recent years is to watch a whole two episodes of a show each night for more than one night consecutively.

With Stranger Things 2 I, at last, had the chance to do it properly. Bear in mind, I didn’t want to just spend nine solid hours on the sofa: I did have some other stuff to do over the weekend, and I did want to savour the show a little bit. In some ways I was reluctant to binge it: it meant that I had to watch some of it during the day, which diminishes the atmosphere a bit, and it meant that it’d be over damn quick. However, the (most likely) alternative was to spend the next two months trying to fit in an episode or two a week …. which really wasn’t ideal either.

So, I hatched a Grand Plan: I would watch three episodes on Saturday (after shopping); three episodes on Sunday morning; then the final three on Sunday night.

And I did it! Which means that this is the point where you might want to look away for fear of spoilers (which I will try to avoid all the same, but they might sneak in all the same) ..

In short, I loved it. Season Two had a huuuge challenge before it: the first season was a massive hit and had the benefit of a deep, underlying mystery to keep driving it along. This time around we already know the score, but we want something as excellent and compelling as the first. Luckily, the Duffer Brothers have a number of aces up their sleeves. First, they have an amazing cast. Second, they have that amazing cast playing some great characters. Finally, with the combination of the Upside Down and the eighties small-town setting, they have a premise that can continue delivering all manner of creepy goings-on. This all makes it sound like it would be hard to fail, but getting all of those pieces into place takes serious skill.

Some of the things I liked most about this season? Eleven, obviously. A number of other characters that I thought were going to go one way, and went another way instead (I always like to be caught out like that). The new characters in general, particularly Max–who was so good that it feels like they should go back and digitally insert her into season one. The wonderful Aliens homage at the end of episode 6. The fact that the entire season could be subtitled: “Dustin Makes Very Bad Choices.”

I liked that all the characters developed in some way or other from season one, but the evolutions that I most appreciated were: Joyce Byers being given more warmth (but no less passion); Will Byers becoming a significant character, instead of a MacGuffin; and Steve Harrington becoming pseudo-Dad (or Big Brother). I also enjoyed the delicate handling of the love triangle between Max, Lucas and Dustin (which could have gone so icky in the wrong hands).

And they even end on a classic prom scene! Just like all good eighties movies should!

So, yeah, I just want to go and watch the whole thing all over again 🙂

Every year, until this one, my wife and I would hold a Halloween party. Halloween happened to be our wedding anniversary, so it was always a combined ‘Halloversary’ party (or ‘Hallowversary’ to some). Obviously that wasn’t going to happen this year. Nevertheless, I gave some thought to holding a Halloween party anyway. I went back and forth a little on that, but eventually decided I just did not have the headspace for it this year.

Luckily some friends stepped into the breach and held an awesome little party with games, costumes, prizes, and fantastic Halloween decorations. It was nice, at least for this year, to be able to maintain the tradition of a Halloween party without me having to actually hold the party (and likely break myself to do it).

Plus, I’m now even more inspired for holding a party next year.

Tonight, for Horror Friday, we watched a film called XX. It was another one that had come off a ‘hidden gems’ type list, and caught my interest partly because it’s an anthology film not only written and directed by women, but also featuring women as the main characters. It ended up a little bit of a mixed bag, but it’s still well worth the time.

Biggest highlight for me were the animations that appear at the start and end, as well as between each segment. They were made by Mexican animator Sofia Carrillo who uses children’s toys (dollhouses , bits of dolls, etc) to create eye-catchingly creepy stop-motion scenes. I’ve stuck a YouTube compilation of these animation sequences below, for the curious …

The standout among the stories was easily the second one–The Birthday Party–a black comedy starring Melanie Lynskey as a middle class mother who finds her husband dead in his office, but is nevertheless determined to go ahead with her daughter’s birthday party.

Of the others, the first segment–in which a woman’s entire family starve themselves to death after sharing some unheard secret–was intriguing, but ultimately frustrating due its lack of answers. Number 3 was a fun, Evil Dead style tale, in which a group of teens fall prey to an ancient spirit while camping. The final story was wonderfully made, but echoed Rosemary’s Baby a little too closely for it to hit home for me.

Overall, though, it makes a change from the usual and is well worth checking out.

Today I was exhausted. Absolutely shattered. I can only think that this was the after-effect of yesterday’s stress. Somehow all my energy was used up in keeping me functional for yesterday, and nothing was left for today.

Interesting experience.

I hope it never happens again!