Whew!
We had a busy, fun, exhausting weekend.
Friday night was Fido, a zombie comedy. If you took an episode of Lassie and replaced Lassie with a zombie played by Billy Connelly, you would have a fair idea of what the movie is. Zombies have arisen, blah blah blah, but an enormous corporate conglomerate has domesticated them through the use of a collar, and as long as the collar is activated their desire for human flesh is contained. And what do people do with millions of zombies? Why, put them to work at all the menial bullshit jobs that they don't want to do! Zombies are your garbagemen, your paperboys, your lawncare providers, your heavy labor. They are seen as basically machines, and their previous existence while alive is never spoken of. The neatly drawn lines of the world start to blur when Timmy, a friendless and sensitive litle boy picked on by his schoolmates, befriends his pet zombie and starts asking questions of the entire arrangement. Ignored by his zombiphobic father, Timmy and his zombie Fido play games and frolic in the countryside, as much as one of the shambling undead can frolic. It was absolutely darling.
The film takes place in the fifties, and Keeping Up with the Joneses involves owning at least one zombie so that your neighbors don't think you're 'strange.' A really odd, sweet comedy about the dichotomy of being dead on the inside vs being dead on the outside. I really encourage you to see it, if you liked Shaun of the Dead or Pleasantville. Carrie-Ann Moss from the Matrix films plays the protagonist's mother, and she was dead-on perfect as the model housewife of the fifties. And the whole thing is a send up of course, but the satire never moves beyond a gentle prod. More aspects of zombie-human interelations could have been explored, but it's nice to see a film back off sometimes, rather than dive into the most depraved subjects it can.
( Last weekend we were photographed at the Florida Film festival, and if you go here and go down to Photos, Olens: Who Got Flashed, I'm in picture 2 of 22. You probably can also see the pic of the filmmaker who was there and whom I loathed so much, he's in a beanie and there's a person in some kind of fursuit with him. I have a habit of hating every picture I take so I am making the decision to like that one whether it's good or not; also, Nathan is standing next to me, and the girl I met there, Mary)
Saturday was being filmed for a UCF student documentary. We went to our favorite comics shop and as I was actually walking around with some comics in my hand and not acting as though my boyfriend had dragged me in against my will, these two students asked me to talk about the shop a little bit and why I liked it. I mentioned that it's nice to go to a shop that's still fairly heavy on the books rather than running games or selling anime, the staff are friendly and helpful and most of all respectful, and that I liked the costumed performers who jump around on the side of the road on Saturdays. It helps me remember the city isn't just an outgrowth of Disney and the theme parks, but that it has its own interests, et cetera.
Then we went to Marie's birthday party at Cafe Tutu Tango. I got her a copy of Pyongyang by Guy Delisle, and she was overjoyed because she'd heard about it on NPR and had been meaning to check it out. So I felt pretty good about that. I was also feeling good because I drank a lot of tasty beer. It was delish.
Sunday was lounging around and getting over the hangover, and also meeting maelstromsl's little doggy, Rivet. PRECIOUS! Her head is so tiny and her ears are so big! What a darling. And smart. I am envious.
Then we went to Kate and Ashley's for dinner and watched Idiocracy, and I played with her cats. Even Devo, the cat that attacked my hands, was pleasant and cuddly.
So all in all, a great weekend. It's good to be out doing things again, even if I still value my downtime.
Friday night was Fido, a zombie comedy. If you took an episode of Lassie and replaced Lassie with a zombie played by Billy Connelly, you would have a fair idea of what the movie is. Zombies have arisen, blah blah blah, but an enormous corporate conglomerate has domesticated them through the use of a collar, and as long as the collar is activated their desire for human flesh is contained. And what do people do with millions of zombies? Why, put them to work at all the menial bullshit jobs that they don't want to do! Zombies are your garbagemen, your paperboys, your lawncare providers, your heavy labor. They are seen as basically machines, and their previous existence while alive is never spoken of. The neatly drawn lines of the world start to blur when Timmy, a friendless and sensitive litle boy picked on by his schoolmates, befriends his pet zombie and starts asking questions of the entire arrangement. Ignored by his zombiphobic father, Timmy and his zombie Fido play games and frolic in the countryside, as much as one of the shambling undead can frolic. It was absolutely darling.
The film takes place in the fifties, and Keeping Up with the Joneses involves owning at least one zombie so that your neighbors don't think you're 'strange.' A really odd, sweet comedy about the dichotomy of being dead on the inside vs being dead on the outside. I really encourage you to see it, if you liked Shaun of the Dead or Pleasantville. Carrie-Ann Moss from the Matrix films plays the protagonist's mother, and she was dead-on perfect as the model housewife of the fifties. And the whole thing is a send up of course, but the satire never moves beyond a gentle prod. More aspects of zombie-human interelations could have been explored, but it's nice to see a film back off sometimes, rather than dive into the most depraved subjects it can.
( Last weekend we were photographed at the Florida Film festival, and if you go here and go down to Photos, Olens: Who Got Flashed, I'm in picture 2 of 22. You probably can also see the pic of the filmmaker who was there and whom I loathed so much, he's in a beanie and there's a person in some kind of fursuit with him. I have a habit of hating every picture I take so I am making the decision to like that one whether it's good or not; also, Nathan is standing next to me, and the girl I met there, Mary)
Saturday was being filmed for a UCF student documentary. We went to our favorite comics shop and as I was actually walking around with some comics in my hand and not acting as though my boyfriend had dragged me in against my will, these two students asked me to talk about the shop a little bit and why I liked it. I mentioned that it's nice to go to a shop that's still fairly heavy on the books rather than running games or selling anime, the staff are friendly and helpful and most of all respectful, and that I liked the costumed performers who jump around on the side of the road on Saturdays. It helps me remember the city isn't just an outgrowth of Disney and the theme parks, but that it has its own interests, et cetera.
Then we went to Marie's birthday party at Cafe Tutu Tango. I got her a copy of Pyongyang by Guy Delisle, and she was overjoyed because she'd heard about it on NPR and had been meaning to check it out. So I felt pretty good about that. I was also feeling good because I drank a lot of tasty beer. It was delish.
Sunday was lounging around and getting over the hangover, and also meeting maelstromsl's little doggy, Rivet. PRECIOUS! Her head is so tiny and her ears are so big! What a darling. And smart. I am envious.
Then we went to Kate and Ashley's for dinner and watched Idiocracy, and I played with her cats. Even Devo, the cat that attacked my hands, was pleasant and cuddly.
So all in all, a great weekend. It's good to be out doing things again, even if I still value my downtime.