Little Talks

This piece of British imperial film from the 1930s would never have been my first choice for a weekend movie, but I had to watch it in a class on popular culture in interwar Britain. The imperial attitude of the interwar years comes out quite clearly in this film. Full of stereotypes, blackface, and "othering", this movie is probably better as a piece of popular culture to be used for study than as an accurate representation of colonialism. I'm not sure that I could bear to watch it purely for entertainment purposes. And I'm not saying this because the movie is awful, but because it just feels...offensive. Having been written by the British as a way of promoting and justifying their colonial activity, the soldiers are portrayed as heroes and the native peoples of the fictional Middle Eastern country are either naïve, savage, or evil. Plus several of them are played by white men in blackface, which just felt wrong. The story is fairly simple (and quite a common narrat...

I came to the realization yesterday that a lot of my recent loves in film and TV are feminist pieces. This is not intentional, I swear, but I am drawn to female-driven programs like Orphan Black and The White Princess . Perhaps this is a more subconscious factor in my choice of show. When I read an interview for The White Princess this week, I discovered that the show is intentionally very female-driven. There was actually a discussion about the way that the male characters are almost entirely passive, at the mercy of the women around them. It's very much a reversal of the way the history is traditionally written, and I think that the variations from text to screen are a result of making the show more female-driven. The men in the show function as love interests and pawns more than anything else. The women manipulate them, lie to them, cause them fear or attempt to comfort them when they're afraid, etc. And I realize that this is not all that far off from what happens in Orp...

[Warning: contains mild spoilers] I first read this book when I was eleven. I remember being really fascinated by it, but having to return the copy to school at the end of the year even though I wasn't done reading it. So I took it out of the library, but by then I was unsure what part I had reached and I frankly don't remember finishing it...maybe that's because I never did. Nonetheless when I thought about trying to get back into really good, classic fantasy, this book came to mind and I knew I needed to read it again. What makes this book so great isn't the writing or even the setting, although those definitely add to the overall atmosphere. The thing that  stands out most about this book is that it's not an archetypal fantasy story of good versus evil. Instead, it is a story that uses magic to discuss the darker side of humanity and a young man's internal struggle with the darkest parts of himself. There are no major battles in the story, and magic is ge...

You know those instances when God just continually sends you the same message? The past two days have been like that. God has been helping me to understand what it is that is keeping me from having a close relationship with him, and the main reasons are pride and fear. It's hard to admit to pride, especially for people who don't like to boast...but pride can be subtle and quiet. Pride is thinking you're better than people, or that you can do things on your own. It's a hard thing to spot in your life, and harder to fix. Fortunately, God doesn't ask us to change on our own - He's here to help.

[Warning: contains spoilers] This movie is set about three years after the last one, and Kirk is getting bored of all the exploration and peace missions. Luckily for Kirk this is a movie, so we know something big is going to happen. Kirk is also upset because his birthday is coming up, which makes him think of his father and what it means to live up to that legacy as well as make his own. Uhura and Spock are going through a rough breakup, so our main characters aren't in the best place emotionally. When they stop in Yorktown, Kirk asks to be promoted to a council job on base and to have Spock take his place as captain. Finally, our conflict begins. The Federation receives a distress signal from an alien whose ship has apparently malfunctioned, stranding her crew on the far side of the nebula, and the Enterprise is sent on a rescue mission. As they approach the planet, the crew is attacked by a small army of ships, the Enterprise is destroyed and the crew is scattered. Scotty mee...

I feel that I should start this post by letting you know that I have not always been a fan of short stories. In fact, I still find that I'm quite picky about how interesting and symbolic they are. (Seriously, if you've ever read Canadian short stories, you'd probably get bored. I did. Even the symbolism can't make the prairies that interesting.) That being said, it seems odd that I would choose to read this, right? A little. But I found it on sale; plus the idea of rewritten and new fairy-tales has intrigued me since the day I started watching Once Upon a Time . I figured it was worth checking out. However, I have to say that this was not quite what I was expecting. Many of these were completely new stories, but maybe I was too picky because I felt like there were elements lacking from some of them. Many of the stories also felt very YA which, if you know me, was a little off-putting. There was a real mix of fantasy and real-world settings, mythology and magic, gods ...

Can we please just take a minute to appreciate how amazing Sing Street  is? I just watched it again, and I think it is the best movie ever! It is so heartfelt, funny, weird, sad, and wonderful. The music is downright amazing! The characters just capture your heart. I could watch it on repeat. I always feel so inspired by the brotherly love, and the idea of chasing your dreams and being an artist.  There are so many great lines in that movie, but following that thought I have chosen this one: Isn't it so fulfilling to create? Makes me want to spend every day writing my books and coming up with new ideas. Never give up on your dreams, my friends! Use the gifts God has given you; follow the Creator's example and create!

The third of John Carney's musical masterpieces (the others being Once and Begin Again ), Sing Street is a coming-of-age story set in 1980s Ireland. The great thing about Carney's musicals is that the music and singing don't just come out of nowhere; instead, the main characters are musicians and most (if not all) of the music that is heard throughout the movie is the music that the characters write and perform. In Sing Street Conor, the youngest of three, is forced to go to a new public school when his family can no longer afford to send him to a private school. Conor struggles to adapt to his new school, especially as he continually chooses to push back against the overly strict principal of Synge Street CBS. He makes a friend, but he also makes an enemy of the school bully. Meanwhile, tension grows at home as his parents fight and his drop-out brother adds to the family conflict by living at home and depending on his struggling parents. Walking home from school, Con...

[Warning: contains some spoilers] I've seen some horror movies in my time, but I always thought that the Saw movies were slasher flicks. And I guess they are, but the first one is not at all what I expected. The killer is an absolute psycho - there's no denying that! Yet I was surprised by how cheesy, freaky, and unpredictable this movie was. There is not a ton of suspense, which I suppose makes the movie less frightening, but I think that suspense can be the best element to use in making a horror film if it is done right. But what Saw lacks in suspense it makes up for in violence. Jigsaw is a serial killer who traps people in situations that are impossible to escape. He always provides a potential escape, usually in the form of a puzzle or a physical obstacle, but attempts to escape inevitably hasten the victim's death. I feel like the victims are a little stupid in these situations, though. Rather than attempt a risky escape, why do they not try to bide their time in ...

So I half-heartedly published this Sunday Sayings yesterday. I barely knew what to say, but for some reason I wrote it anyways. And then I noticed this morning that I published it instead of saving it for today. Oops! But after watching Orphan Black last night, I've decided to make a new post. Can you believe how close we're getting to the end of this amazing series? I'm both excited and sad to see the end of this show. But I like where it's going! Just wish it wasn't moving so slowly.

[Warning: spoilers ahead] La La Land was not what I was expecting. It is a story about the desire to make it big in Hollywood. The plot is simple enough; an actress and a musician, both hoping to get their big breaks, repeatedly cross paths. At first they don't get along, but eventually (somewhat suddenly) they start a relationship. They slowly find more successful jobs, although they don't necessarily get what they want. Mia is doing what she wants, but barely getting by. Sebastian finds fame and success, but he is basically just a sell-out. One day their career paths take them in different directions. Jumping ahead several years, we see that Mia is now a very successful actress, and Sebastian owns the jazz club he always hoped to have. However, they are no longer together. And then, painfully, we are forced to watch them imagine what their lives would have been like if they'd never split up. The most upsetting part of this is that their lives are basically the same, exc...

[Warning: contains spoilers] I came across this book in a newsletter, I believe. As a child who was obsessed with Narnia, and an adult who is fascinated by the consequences of Wonderland on Alice's reality (though I have, admittedly, never read the book), the idea of this book intrigued me immensely. What I was not expecting from this book was a murder mystery. Nonetheless, it was well-incorporated into the theme of interworld travel. The thing is that the tone of the book was not at all what I expected. I was really interested in reading a short story about the psychological consequences of interworld travel, and possibly a debate about the validity of alternate realities. However, the story makes it quite clear that the alternate realities are, in fact, real. And while the kids are taught to accept the fact that they will probably never get to go back to the worlds they've left behind, there is still a hope instilled in each of them that they can one day go back to where t...

The Tales of Beedle the Bard is yet another amazing addition to the Potterverse that really helps to bring the wizarding world to life. I love that the book is written as though Rowling is a muggle who was allowed to copy the version of the text which was once owned by Dumbledore and Hermione and has published it for all the rest of us muggles to enjoy. It even has added commentary from Dumbledore and Rowling, explaining the meanings of the stories and clarifying certain wizarding concepts. For a while now I've wondered how hard it must be to create a new fairy-tale, but Rowling has clearly succeeded in making not one, but five. They feel like the kind of nursery rhymes or fairy-tales that you've heard all your life, but they fit right into the wizarding world that Rowling has created. These stories were easy to read and very enjoyable. I can just imagine reading these to my children someday, along with the classic fairy-tales and Disney stories. Not only are the tales clev...

So Canada officially turns 150 this weekend! It's nice to be home for the celebrations. After being in so many countries with histories running back hundreds of years since their political foundations, it's crazy to think that Canada is still such a young country with the potential to shape itself. Of course, even Canada has some negative parts of its past that we'd like to forget, but I'm hopeful for the future.