Following a freak May snow storm Tuesday, I spent yesterday at home, in my pajamas. I know I live in Winnipeg, which is well known for it's frigid winter tempatures, but spring is USUALLY nice and warm. Of course, no matter how bad it is, you just can't win with Winnipeggers. I have learned since moving here that one of the features that distinguishes true Manitobians is the inability to admit the weather is bad... by citing how bad it's been in years past. Example: I've lived here for almost five years and have seen some ungodly winter lows: -40-45 C! But no matter how cold it gets I'm reminded that I have yet to experience a "true Winnipeg winter". Even this past winter, which saw the coldest of cold tempetures and more snow than the past 30 years, didn't suffice. "That's almost a real Winnipeg winter".

On Tuesday, a mere day after I contemplated wearing shorts to work, as nearly 30 cm on snow fell, this old guy told me, "Well, of course it's no where as near as bad it was 2 million years ago." Strangely, this did little to console me.

While enjoying a snow day, I finally seat down and watched Jackie Brown. Now I'm a huge Tarantino fan; have been for a long time, but for some reason, I've only ever seen the first 20 or 30 minutes of this film. When Pulp Fiction came out I saw in 13 times in the theatre, but this film I didn't even go once. Maybe it's that it was an adaptation of someone else's work (though it's Elmore Leonard, who I generally like). After finally watching the film in its entirety, I've come to the conclusion that it really is one of Tarantino's best films. Stylistically, it's on par with the phenomenally visual Kill Bill; the dialogue is as sharp as (sometimes even sharper than) Pulp Fiction. This is a great film, with stand out performances: Pam Grier has never been better; Robert Forester is brilliant, Michael Keaton is great, Sam Jackson... is Sam Jackson. There isn't a character who isn't note perfect, from DeNiro to Fonda; everyone is exactly as they should be.

Film Review:

Elephant (Gus van Sant)

My wife brought this home last night, and to be honest, I had completely forgotten that this had even been made. I remember thinking, when I first saw a preview, "this looks interesting"; but it slipped from my mind until I was confronted with the DVD case by the TV last night.

In an age of sensationalism and exploitation, it was refreshing to find Van Sant's subtle, thoughtful examination of a school shooting. In the hands of another director, this film would have been filled with blaring heavy metal music, trumped up "excuses" and rapid fire editing. We're not given much back story on any of the characters, but there's a remarkable sense of intimacy created nonetheless: snips of conversations and long tracking shots make us feel part of this world. Of course this is not a real intimacy and maybe that's the point, maybe that's highschool: a bunch of people with no real shared interests stuck together through circumstance. Though we feel for these kids, we only know as much about any of them as anyone in highschool knows about anyone else; we see what other students would see. We watch the kids who are picked on; we hear the rumours of teen pregancy; we see evidence of neglectful parents. Truly, almost any one of these kids could be the ones to snap...

Through a clever handling of time Van Sant brings us to the moment of crisis early in the film, but he respects us enough to flashback without the obvious "earlier that week" title. He expects his audience to follow the story, to participate in the story. There are no easy answers in Elephant.

Okay, so i completely screwed up the "post a day" thing, but I won't go on and on about how "I'm trying". Why bother?

I've been going through the episodes of the newly released to DVD "Freaks and Geeks". I really enjoyed this show when it was on TV, but didn't really appreciate how good it was because episodes were shown out of order; and some episodes weren't even shown on network televsion (probably delayed because of some stupid presidental address or something). Having gone through all 14-15 episodes, I can say without quesiton, this was one of the best American shows in recent memory. The characters were honest, not stereotypes; the shows were genuine, not cheesy "happy endings". Also, a kickass soundtrack!!!!