Buddha's Rhubarb Of Opinions On Media

Glib Reviews of Recent movies (and not so recent) Major! - Directed by Annalise Ophelian In the last few days I actually got my butt out to see a couple of films, that couldn’t have been more different, but were both quite satisfying in their own ways. It’s summer, and festival season. Right now there’s the Queer Film Festival, aka Out On Screen, as well as one of my favourite local cinematheque yearly series, their Film Noir series. On Thursday after work I wandered down to the getting slightly easier to find SFU Goldcorp Theatre at SFU Woodward’s on Hastings Street, for the Vancouver Queer Film Fest presentation of ‘Major!’ A wonderfully uncliched in structure and tropes documentary about the legendary trans icon and elder, Miss Major Griffin-Gracy. Known mostly as Miss Major, or Mama, or Grandma to those in the community she has known, loved and helped. Mostly she has spent her life helping others. From being a den mother to young trans, and queer folks for decades...

Glib reviews of recent-ish DVD and/or Blurays Bone Tomahawk This is one weird movie, or really maybe it’s two weird movies or three. Weird western definitely, of the more bookish Jonah Hex kind of tales. Not the movie, the 70’s version of the Comics is my touchstone. Ol’ Jonah was grizzled as heck and dealt occasionally with some spookier creepier western elements, in a very pulp western type of way. The first few minutes of the film were all about Sid Haig’s ode to Slim Pickens in his portrayal of a deeply cynical murderer and brigand who stumbles across into a burial ground and horrors unseen but seared in your brain in a very verite styled opening. Maybe there are a few short films in this movie that I like more, the more I write about it, defomitely more than when I sat down, to give it a middlin’ review, but thinking about it in review as opposed to the more visceral vibe of right after the movie ends, literally with a thud. If you are a fan of slow moving wester...

Glib Reviews of recent DVDs and Blu Rays. Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens - Directed by JJ Abrams I might be the only person I know who didn’t see this in the theatre, at least of those I know interested in it. Not everyone is a Star wars fan. Anyway, for vague lazy reasons, I never bothered seeing this in the theatre. And I probably still could, despite it being on disc/streaming already, it’s still playing in theatres here and there I think. While I enjoyed it quite a bit, I found my expectation that most of my enjoyment would come mostly from nostalgia, (something you can’t underestimate in terms of cinematic pleasure;) to not quite be the case. A film that reminds (in a good way) of other films that energized and inspired you goes a long way to a positive review. I was more interested in the new characters, and the fact they fit the vibe of Star Wars whilst being actors of a far greater calibre actors than the old fogeys in this episode who in my opinion, really ...

Glib Reviews of DVDs and Blu Rays Entourage (the movie) - Directed by Doug Ellin. Wow, this is a show whose humour has not aged nearly as well as it’s cast might have in real life. I had no idea that this had been made, until it hit dvd, months ago. I have avoided it because the show itself had already run out of gas when it ended a few years ago. It ended right around the time I started transitioning from male to female. Why is this relevant? Well, simply as a parallel to the decline of my patience for sexist backslapping bro-humour mirroring a concept that hasn’t aged well in my eyes, nor I think in general, like me pretending to be male.  The coincidental timing really struck home as the movie started.  I think back when the show first aired, I was still trying so hard to be a bro, zinging my bro-pals in those cliched sexist ways. it was fun, or seemed to be fun that I could be a part of. slagging your own masculinity, or that of others was such a huge part ...

Glib Reviews Of Recent DVD Releases Matinee Double Feature Edition, kind of. I recently watched a couple of DVDs based on the recommendation of one of my former co-workers from my video store days, which ended in 2014, but seem like ages ago somehow. Both films were pretty disturbing, and despite the very big differences in style and sensibility, had the same kind of message, that ‘regular’ people do very bad things sometimes, and sometimes they pay a karmic price, but sometimes not at all. Nasty Baby - Directed by Sebastian Silva An interesting double bill, which in my case means I watched one of these each over two afternoons. It’s been ages since I did an afternoon movie watch, let alone two days in a row. Nasty Baby came first, directed and starring Sebastian Silva as a queer artist named Freddy living with his boyfriend Mo in what seems to be Brooklyn. He has some pretentious video art installation ideas using adult babies. All the characters are intriguing...

Glib Reviews of Recent DVD/Blu Ray releases Mississippi Grind Directed by Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck Decent buddy flick/road picture from directorial tandem of Fleck and Boden. Ben Mendelsohn and Ryan Reynolds have some real bro-chemistry, as an older/younger gambling team. Mendelsohn’s Gerry really personifies someone who rarely knows when to quit while he’s ahead. His desperation and addiction to one more hand, one more dice roll, is palpable in pretty much every decision the character makes. Why Reynolds’ obnoxiously charismatic Curtis gloms onto Gerry as much as Gerry gloms on to him, is a bit more of a mystery, that is perhaps simply, their chemistry. He seems to like hanging out with Gerry, as much as anything, but both characters are self destructive and complete committment-phobes. There is a dynamite Blues soundtrack, and the montages of neon and nightlife from cities along the road from Iowa to New Orleans are well done, if a bit touristy. I really dug the ...

Glib Reviews Of Recent DVD Releases Tangerine - Directed By Sean Baker Tangerine is one of those films that ‘feels like’ it was shot chronologically. The first few scenes are a bit rough, the acting is a bit iffy, but as the characters of Sin-Dee and Alexandra walk endlessly through their drama filled Christmas Eve Day in L.A. The picture gets more gripping, the cinematography, the acting and the script all get better, more polished in a low budget way. The locations give a nice grimy seventies feel to the whole thing. Sin-Dee (Kitana Kiki Rodriguez) is especially unlikeable at the beginning of the film, her single mindedness in finding her pimp/boyfriend and the girl he ‘cheated on her’ with while she was doing a month in jail, is not terribly nuanced. The buffer of the her best friend Alexandra (Mya Taylor) trying to keep her from all the drama she is creating, while trying to hustle tickets for a show she is doing that night keeps the whole thing from being one note. ...