Reading: City of Saints and Madmen
Music: Pete Seeger
TV/Movie: The Visitor
Link o' the Day: TumbleTap.com


We watched an odd duck of a little movie last night: Happy-Go-Lucky a British film directed by Mike Leigh and starring Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, and Alexis Zegerman. I'm still mulling over the movie in my head, trying to decide what I think of it.

In short, it's about a 30 year-old woman, a primary school teacher, named Poppy who lives in Camden with her best friend Zoe. Poppy is one of those eternally sunny and optimistic types. There was a point during the opening credits where she's riding her bike, grinning like a loon, when I wanted to keep shouting "Bonjour, Amelie! Bonjour!" (I can be a bit of a prick. I behaved myself, though.) Anyway, she's eternally cheerful (despite living in London) and the movie is pretty much about her being faced with a series of challenges to her sunny disposition. Her bike is stolen. One of her students is getting violent. She has a strained relationship with one of her sisters. She encounters a homeless man. A bunch of little things that many of us encounter every day. She manages to cope with each encounter fairly easily. No real challenge. Then there is her odd relationship with her driving instructor (who kept reminidng me of that Family Guy line, "The British are a lovely people...not physically, of course.) who's a bit of a nut job.

Poppy's radiant look on the world and constant giggling gets on her intructors already-frayed nerves, but there's a love-hate thing going on which explodes in her face a bit.

To say that she learns something isn't being untruthful. Her sunniness never really fades, but one suspects by the end that she may be a little less naive. Maybe about people. Maybe about how her relationships work.


Structurally I was given the impression of a Merchant-Ivory film turned on its head. Instead of two school chums facing challenges and growing up in some exotic locale, it's about a grown woman and her friends in an urbanish locale who want to delay growing up as long as possible. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I can relate to that.

Oveall, though, I dunno. It was kind of like having a peanut butter and jelly sandwich without enough peanut butter, or maybe not enough jelly (depending on your preference). I thought something was lacking. Granted, I don't think I was the movie's target audience, but I expected a little more.

So do I recommend it? Yeah...why not. It's a good movie to watch with your loved one. I would have been pissed to pay theater prices to see it, and I don't think I'd have purchased the DVD myself, but I could have seen renting it, or catching it on cable. It's one of those Miramax indie darlings, so obviously it struck a chord with a lot of people.

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Rumor has it...Al Pacino (the actor) has a brother-in-law named Robin Williams (not the actor). Robin Williams (the actor) has a second cousin named Albert Pacino (not the actor). It was this revelation during a party at director Christopher Nolan's house that the three of them decided to work on 2002's Insomnia.

A lot of work today, unsurprisingly. Basically more of the same from yesterday--which was itself a hugely productive day. Let's see if we can't do this two days in a row.

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Today's link is a little self-serving, but I'm glad to finally have it live and routed the way it's supposed to be. Today's link is homepage for TumbleTap.com the newest, most exciting name in graphic novels. Give us time.

Cheers!