May 1, 2012
A Spring Evening
“It isn’t easy to love something as much as you love a child. It’s like looking into the sun.” — P. S. Hoffman
A short video I shot the other evening as Claire and I were playing outside.
Family
January 11, 2012
Sledding
Last weekend, we took Claire outside for a little walkabout in her sled. I filmed the little outing, and cut this together.
December 31, 2011
You go, Hugo.
Every year, our office opts for a “Christmas movie” instead of a Christmas party. While watching a movie instead of having a typical office party means that we don’t have the opportunity to walk into work the next day shameful of the antics that played out the night before, it does mean that we get to eat popcorn for lunch. Normally, we’d rent a DVD and watch it on one of large screens we have access to, but this year, we decided we’d try going to the theatre instead, and got our mitts on tickets for a 11:50am showing of Hugo a few days before Christmas.
Hugo is not your standard talking-dog-playing-hockey family film. There is excitement, adventure, and slapstick humor, but there’s also a lot of time spent on character development, particularly in the second half. This makes Hugo a family film that the younger part of the family is probably going to be a bit bored of at times, but one that mom and dad will hopefully like quite a bit.
This is also the first time I saw a 2D version of a film and wished I’d seen it in 3D. I heard a lot about the great use of the gimmick effect before seeing the film, and once it started, I was imagining the snow flying out at me and the enormous clockwork turning right in front of my nose. Even in 2D, however, Hugo is a beautiful film, and while it’s not set in 1970′s New York City, director Martin Scorsese obviously feels right at home in 1930′s Paris.
Ben Kingsley is great here, and Sacha Baron Cohen is (surprisingly) perfectly cast as the Station Inspector bent on sending the title character to an orphanage. The young actors in this movie certainly hold their own, especially Chloë Grace Moretz, who after Kick Ass, Let Me In, and now Hugo, is well on her way to being a leading lady despite only being fourteen years old.
Hugo is a lot of fun, and if you’re film and film-history fan, there’s a lot here to enjoy.
December 29, 2011
“Watch the icy patch!”
I’ve saved the best for last.
The final movie in our annual Christmas Movie Marathon is one that brings back a lot of memories. It’s one that I watched every year on television as a kid, and spent years looking for on VHS, and later, on DVD. Though technically a TV special (and not a theatrically-released film), I still consider it my favorite Christmas movie.
A Muppet Family Christmas bring us The Muppet Show gang spending the holidays with their Sesame Street and Fraggle Rock counterparts. It was the first time Jim Henson’s creations all shared the screen, and as kid who grew up watching each of these shows individually, it was a spectacle to behold. It brings back memories of sitting by the Christmas tree in my pyjamas, sharing the couch with my mom and dad and sister with our little television set glowing in the corner of the living room.
Nostalgia aside, A Muppet Family Christmas is a really fun little movie. It’s often overshadowed by another Muppet Yuletide classic—The Muppet Christmas Carol—though still has a loyal following. For anyone who, like I, enjoyed each of Henson’s TV series, there’s even more to appreciate here as the characters from each show meet up for the first time. Animal’s reaction, for example, after seeing Cookie Monster devour an entire plate of Christmas cookies and the Swedish Chef’s measuring of Big Bird whilst preparing Christmas dinner makes me laugh every time.
The movie concludes—and I’m not giving anything away here—with the entire crew singing Christmas carols. The image is a prefect representation of Christmas itself: family and friends coming together, singing and being joyful, as the fireplace blazes and the snow falls outside. On a nostalgic level, not unlike Home Alone, A Muppet Family Christmas brings me back to my childhood, just like every time I decorate a Christmas tree or attempt to wrap a Christmas present.
A copy of A Muppet Family Christmas can be hard to find, but if you can get your hands on it, it definitely deserves your attention, and I hope it becomes part of your Christmas tradition as it has ours.
December 12, 2011
“A lovely cheese pizza, just for me.”
Few films bring on overwhelming rushes of nostalgia for me like Home Alone. There’s no way to determine the number of times I’ve watched Kevin fear sharing the Hide-A-Bed will Fuller, eat ice cream while watching Angels With Filthy Souls, and light Joe Pesci’s head on fire. But let me tell you friends: it’s a lot.
For me, Home Alone is the film of my youth, and although I’ve quoted it for years (and can pretty much recite the entire screenplay while watching it), I had never considered it a Christmas movie. Growing up, it was an adventure flick about a clever wise-ass kid setting traps for dumb-ass crooks. “This is [his] house. [He has] to defend it.” *chick chick*
Over the years and as I’ve continued to watch this movie on a regular basis, what I see in it has changed. Home Alone is a Christmas movie. It is also, very obviously, about family. Kevin gets his Christmas wish a few days early, making his kinsfolk disappear (to France without him) and he spends the next few days living on his own realizing how much he misses them, and even teaches the local shovel-slayer about family along the way.
Home Alone, just like Christmas, brings me back to my childhood. It reminds me of being a kid and playing with my sister and sitting beside our multi-coloured Christmas tree watching movies. Also, tell me: does anyone do Christmas cinema like Chris Columbus? I think not.
This is why it made for the perfect film to kick off our annual Christmas Movie Marathon.