Month in Stubs: FEBRUARY

Good evening one and all it’s that time of month again, behold February’s edition of Month in Stubs, a running series where I spotlight the cinematic ventures I’ve enjoyed or endured, for better or worse. This is a doozy!

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The Room (no review yet)

Yes, that one. Well, actually that joke could go one of two ways. You’ll either know what I’m talking about immediately or you’ll read on thinking I’m about to write a glowing summary of Lenny Abrahamson’s incredible indie that recently had its shot at Oscar glory. It would be fun to lead you on but I thought it best to clarify how this is going to go upfront.

This month I saw none other than Tommy Wiseau’s ever faltering labour of love on the big screen for the first time at the Prince Charles Cinema. It’s a film that no one should see and everyone should see. Written, directed by, and starring Wiseau this unappreciated disasterpiece has garnered quite the cult following since its misunderstood release in 2003. It truly is an experience like no other and I’ve had that experience almost seven times in varying degress of toxic inebriation. To describe The Room in words would serve it an injustice, it’s that bad.

Fostering a dangerously low 3.5 on IMDb speaks volumes for the people that believed it was going to be good, or at least get better, and came away disappointed if they even made it to the end. But it’s a film that demands an appreciation of its terribleness (this mini review deserves stupid made up words), its silliness, its damning rewatchability and endless quoteability. There are a lot of bad films out there but none other like this festering cest pool of directorial ego-mania that refuses to give up even after it has descended way beyond the mad hatter’s tea party, down, down into the depths of cultdom where only truly terrible movies can be appreciated for their inexplicable establishing shots, shaky edits, and laughable script.

Don’t come to me with your Manos or Jurassic Shark until you have witnessed Wiseau’s dreadful masterpiece. If you have the time I’ll even take you but be sure to buy plenty of plastic spoons: a reference with more clarity after a quick YouTube search, I’ll let you have the pleasure of finding that by yourself. It even garners the highly coveted * Timeless Classic rating.

p.s Based on Greg Sestero’s frighteningly candid account of the making of The Room, as told in his book ‘The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made,’ James Franco has taken it upon himself with a group of writers to dissect the mysteries of what actually went on inside Wiseau’s head during production. Will The Room finally hit the mainstream?

The Big Short

After my little open love letter to The Room it’s back to business as usual with The Big Short. Winning the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay Charles Randolph and Adam McKay drafted a deft adaptation of Michael Lewis’ densely important non-fiction piece on the housing crash that sent the global economic big wigs into turmoil and dragged every honest soul down with them. Here’s what I had to say, follow the link for a full review:

“A film about the 2007 financial crisis is, naturally, bound by long, indecipherable words, phrases and acronyms created by those who want to make it as difficult to understand as possible, a point that Gosling’s Vennett makes pretty clear early on. However, The Big Short is anything but ‘bored’ or ‘stupid’.” – * * * * Must-see

Deadpool

I feel like I don’t talk about Deadpool enough. I mean, I’ve only written three separate pieces with two honourable mentions found here, here, here, here, and here. But if the market demands it I shall stand and deliver.

Quite simply it is awesome (discovery of gravity ‘awesome’, not Keeping up with the Kardashians ‘awesome’ – my sister-in-law may disagree). Its R rating attracted a lot of attention in pre- and post- phases of its release so I won’t go into detail of what happens, for that you can follow the fourth link above: speaking of ‘fourth’ the fourth wall breaks make Deadpool what it is and Ryan Reynolds delivers some of the best comedy lines we’ll see for a long time. Want to find out more read an excerpt below or just jump straight into the goody bag and get all sticky.

“What makes Deadpool so incredibly unique is it’s faithfulness to the original comic material combined with Ryan Reynolds’ desire to give the fans what they want, how they want it. Smutty, inappropriate, resreshingly un-PC, violent, and incredibly self-aware (the digs at X-Men and Wolverine are brilliant). Everything a Deadpool movie should be and everything that the silent Deadpool who cameoed in X-Men Origins: Wolverine was not.” – * * * * Must-see

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Well that was a lot of fun! I hope you enjoyed my insights into February’s rather bizarre cinematic offerings from tragic love stories, a global recession, and a potty mouthed anti-hero. Keep your eyes peeled for a two part feature coming your way this week. Let’s just say Cinema is cranking it up a notch for March.

~ “You’re tearrrrring me apawwwrt Lisaaaaa!”