Sad Movie Friday: Grave of the Fireflies

I recently watched the 1988 Japanese anime film, Grave of the Fireflies.  This is a depiction of the fate of a young brother and sister in the waning days of the Second World War.  Their house is destroyed in a fire-bombing and they are orphaned, and then things go downhill from there.

This is an extremely depressing movie, but very well made.  Interestingly, the animation was done by Studio Ghibli, very soon after their inception.  It enjoys a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 96%, and this is certainly appropriate.  However, I caution anyone contemplating watching it to be prepared for a downerific evening.

Here's Roger Ebert talking at length about this film, and Japanese anime in general:

The McMaster Effect

I have been bemused for several years at the way McMaster seems to outperform Alberta in many university rankings.  The latest Times rankings are only the most recent.  Are they actually better, or is there some metric that is capturing something that they do and giving it more weighting than it deserves?

Access Copyright

I posted earlier in the summer on the U of A's apparent move towards settling with Access Copyright, at a very steep premium.  In the latest CAUT Bulletin, there is a short piece about the increasing isolation of Access Copyright in the face of continuing challenges by universities to their extortionate demands.  This caused me to search the U of A website to determine whether they have followed through with their plans to jump aboard the badly listing HMS Access Copyright, and found that there is nothing newer than the June Folio article that provoked my original post.  It's the usual information blackout that we have come to expect from this administration.  Does anyone know whether we are still committed to this highly questionable course of action?

Economic Impact

Studies like this always make me a little nervous.  Yes, I agree that large research universities play a role in the economic development of the surrounding areas, and that such an impact can potentially be quantified.  My concern here is two-fold.  First, if the study is conducted by people at the university whose impact is being measured, and who therefore have an axe to grind, the credibility of the numbers can be called into question.  Second, should we really fall into the facile trap of packaging a university's value to the community in terms of tangible economic impact?  I would like to think that a strong public university that provides a rigorous education to its citizens is of great intrinsic value, regardless of its direct economic impact.

Movie Friday: Cabin In the Woods

I recently watched The Cabinin the Woods, having heard that it was something more than just a horror movie.  The fact that JossWheedon is associated with the project was definitely in its favor.  Anyone who calls back the stars of The Avengers just to film an after-the-credits gag showing them sitting around a table eating shawarma is OK by me.  And of course there’s Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, Firefly, etc., etc. 

Turns out Joss produced and co-wrote this with the director, Drew Goddard, and it definitely has his fingerprints all over it.  First of all, it’s really a deconstruction of the horror genre, with explicit attention paid to the clichéd archetypes (jock, slut, virgin, etc.), while adding some humorous counterpoint with the control room people—particularly BradleyWhitford (of The West Wing fame, not the Aerosmith guitarist) and Richard Jenkins, the latter being one of my all-time favorite character actors.  Stir in some thought-provoking material on society’s attitudes towards the young, torture porn, religion, and half a dozen other topics, and you have a fairly brilliant commentary on our modern entertainment-industrial complex.  It’s also hilarious.  See this movie if you have the chance.

Learn to Let Go

There's a lot of angst here about the current impasse regarding the new arena for the Oilers, with a not very hidden implied threat in the form of a trip by Katz group staff to Seattle just when they announce plans for a new arena.  One of the main sticking points seems to be a request for a $6M subsidy from the city even after all arena revenues are given to the Katz group, an apparent add-on that was not part of the original agreement.  I agree that it's odious behavior from someone who represented himself as an Edmonton booster when he acquired the Oilers.  But no one should be surprised when it plays out this way.  Professional sports franchise owners, with a few key exceptions, are billionaires used to operating in a climate in which every advantage must be seized.  Indeed, not exploiting every chance to squeeze that last drop out of the taxpayers probably seems immoral in a world where downsizing, outsourcing, and pension raiding are considered good business practices that are rewarded with higher stock prices.  For a timely reminder, one needs only look at the current officiating fiasco in the NFL.

So, in the current paradigm, one should assume that professional sports owners will behave like assholes, with no regard for the loyalty shown by longterm fans.  In the case of the Oilers, yes, this team is a civic institution whose loss would be a major blow to a city that has a lot of self esteem issues already.  But if people recognize this for what it is--unethical, manipulative tactics designed to maximize annual profit and the overall value of the franchise--maybe they can find it in themselves to assign a little less significance to the question of whether or not a team happens to be using their city's name.  And if it relocates, most people will probably find that life goes on just fine.

Running Behind Movie Friday: Looper

Incredibly hectic week, with no let-up in sight.  Still, it wouldn't be complete without Movie Friday.  This week, I want to highlight Looper, a very interesting sounding sci-fi movie with (once again) Joseph Gordon-Levitt.  It was very well-received at TIFF, and is currently running at 96% at Rotten Tomatoes.  The writier/director, Rian Johnson, previously did Brick, another Gordon-Levitt vehicle that I have commented on previously.

The description of this film also vaguely reminds me of the ultra-indie Primer, a truly messed up time travel movie.  I recommend it, but with the proviso that it will confuse and upset you.

Dreddful: Movie Friday

Here's a cheesy looking movie that I will probably have to go see:

I never saw the first Judge Dredd, in part because I was consciously avoiding Stallone's ouevre by that time,* and in part due to its awful reviews.  But this one looks much more promising.  I've been a fan of Karl Urban for a while--he was especially amusing in Star Trek and RED.  In this film, he seems to be channeling a sort of post-apocalyptic Clint Eastwood.  (Question:  was Eastwood ever in any sort of science fiction film?  Not that I can remember...)

*Update:  To be fair, one of my guilty pleasures is Demolition Man.  That movie never fails to make me laugh.  And it actually has a decent score on Rotten Tomatoes.