I very much enjoyed both Vampires v.s Sheep Man and Thank You for Smoking. I only saw one film yesterday, opting instead of drowning in film culture, to be a sociable person and see more people. Here's what I did:
Tuesday morning, went to a work meeting in town library. (Yeah, I know, work meetings in my holiday. I don't care. It gets me up, into town and organised early, I get to see friends from other libraries and it meant I could take off early on my last day of work last week.) After that I toddled over to my Angel In Law's place, and finished Zephfi's quilt while catching up and sampling tea. It was really nice to have some one-on-one time with her.
Lee called to say his whole block had lost power and he was being sent home from work. Then his Dad came home to take us on a test drive (they're looking for a new car, I talked A-i-L into considering a hybrid) so we were leaving just as Lee arrived and we got a lift to meeting Zephfi for lunch.
Lunch with Zephfi was wonderful, I got to give her the late birthday present, see the ring and talk a bit of corporation politics and fair trade stuff.
Then Lee and I took off to see Waves which is a documentary about Chinese students at Hutt Valley High. It was an intensely personal insight into the lives of four teens and very affecting. I found myself wanting to help somehow but I'm at a loss as to what I can do. Great movie, even if there are some typos in the subtitles. The director seemed really friendly and interesting too, she got mobbed by the international students in the audience as we were leaving.
Then Lee and I spent some quality time together before roleplaying started up again. Roleplaying was awesome fun, Steve's game Luck of the Joneses (a family sitcom game) where we all chose 'secondary' family members to the core cast of Joneses. I was the adopted kid, there was a cousin, the grandparents were both played and Steve was...a nerdy kid. Maybe he was a best friend who lived in the house too? I channeled C.R.A.Z.Y. and made my 15 year old boy have a main goal of "Prove I'm not gay" which was wicked fun, and had Seraph squirming at certain points.
Steve said he was going to start a thread on the forge, so I'll link to it when he does.
Thank You For Smoking is just fucking awesome. It's a hip, slick satire of modern American business, but it also seems so close to the truth that it makes you think as well. Aaron Echolls Eckhart plays the head Lobbyist for Big Tabacco, a man so good at his job of spinning the truth that you start to believe him. It's hilarious, and scary and wonderful film making. I was saying last night that it's sort of in the film making tradition of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang although thematically they have little in common, it's the same post-modern but incredibly entertaining irreverence.
So. Much. Love. Go and see it when it gets a regular release in about a month, alright? (Reading cinemas say 24th of August for the release, so that's pretty soon, really.)
The two shorts NZ:What We Do In the Shadows and USA but set in NZ:Sheep Man were very funny. I was jaded going in because Svend didn't seem to like them all that much but I was pleasantly surprised. I thought Sheep Man was just a hilarious send up of Grizzly man. Although some of the jokes probably wouldn't work if you haven't seen the original (like the OTT fake German voice over).
The vampires mockumentary was very well done as well. Jermaine was the traditional vamp with the poofy shirt and the 'spooky' way of talking. Taika was the straight middle Vamp and Jonathan was the epitome of ennui, reclining on the same couch, unmoving for all his interviews. I especially liked the turning-into-a-bat effects. Well worth a look, if it becomes available.
I was thinking of going for a run this morning, but I didn't want to and it was raining, so I did my pilates DVD instead. My body feels all weird now, not used to being stretched!
PoF: big warm skirt, rainbow socks
CO: making myself see China Blue this afternoon.