If you’re familiar at all with the Coen brothers and haven’t seen Fargo, it falls, in tone and style, almost squarely between O Brother Where Art Thou and No Country for Old Men. That is to say, it’s unbelievably hilarious, but unnervingly dark. A dark comedy. A dark comedy of errors.

At its core, Fargo is a movie about very simple people making very simple choices and ending up in ever-more-incredible situations. It’s a comedy of crime and begins when one very poor choice, and spirals out of control from there.

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This is the first installment of what will be a weekly round-up of things and stuff that have been going on throughout the course of the week. A chance to reflect and remark. So here it is.

Film

Upcoming in film is Martin Scorsese’s new film, a thriller, called Shutter Island. It looks utterly terrifying and a thriller like this, in the hands of a capable director like Scorsese, it’s bound to be incredible. It comes out in Canada on February 19 and we’re just waiting. With Maria and I both not feeling great over the weekend, we also spent a lot of time laying around and watching movies. Look for a bunch of reviews over the next few days; I won’t give anything away just yet.

Music

On the encouragement of someone who’s musical tastes I sufficiently trust, I dug out The Decemberist’s most recent album The Hazards of Love to give it another go. When I originally heard it—and reviewed it—I wasn’t a fan. It felt disconnected and obnoxious. It’s a rock opera, after all. Giving it another shot though and it’s growing on me, a little bit. I think, perhaps, I was originally too quick to judge but we’ll see. One thing I can say for sure, is that The Talking Heads greatest hits record has been on rotation on my iTunes since Christmas, when I got it, and it ain’t go anywhere.

Television

On the television side of things, there isn’t really anything else to discuss, it’s LOST. So many questions to consider after last week’s episode, and you can believe I’ll have a huge review up here after this week’s installment. I guess the one real question is: what the heck is going on?! But I’m also wondering about Richard, last we saw he was being dragged into the jungle by Fake Locke. And where’s Ilana? What was her job exactly, because it certainly wasn’t to save Jacob, she didn’t even enter into the room under the statue with the rest of her group—where did she go? And, what’s going on?!

Last week I twittered through the episode, it was fun, and I’ll be there again this week if you care to follow.

OK, I think that’s all for this week’s round-up. I’m off to do some dishes and bake some brownies for a Superbowl party; now if I can only remember which teams are playing…

Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes was an incredible ride, the whole way through.

As a die hard Sherlock Holmes fan, and not a fan of Diehard, I approached this movie with trepidation. Guy Ritchie is a skillful director, a master, in my opinion, but can be tasteless, violent and crude at times, too. I worried, as did the rest of Holmes’ devoted fans, what he might do once he got his hands on the franchise of the world’s greatest sleuth. In the end, I needn’t have worried, for Holmes was in very good hands.
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The Gathering Storm (2002) and Into the Storm (2009) are the first and second parts of an HBO-produced made-for-television movie series on the life of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. While they’re two very separate movies, with entirely different casts, produced seven years apart I think a review of them, in contrast and comparison, is the best approach to take.
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An incredible clip from the CBC archives featuring a young Lloyd Robertson interviewing a “street surfer” or “skurfer” in 1965.