obsession? what obsession?
So, it's possible I'm a tiny bit obsessed with Callum Keith Rennie. I've been frantically Netflixing stuff he's in, and reading back files on the lovely community
the_ckr_files. Thought I'd share some of my notes here. (I've tried to keep these non-spoilery -- no more than would be found on a back-of-the-box summary.)
Wilby Wonderful
This is one of the first c6d things I saw, and I've probably watched it twenty times in the last six months. I could not love this movie more if it was rolled in rainbows and coated with puppies and delivered to my front door by penguins. 'Cause, y'know, suicide attempts bring the warm fuzzies. Or something. The whole cast is very, very good; I like the music; I like the interweaving stories. Just a little gem of a movie.
Hard Core Logo
OMG, Billy's eyes. His soft voice. The knife-licking. Can I watch that part again? Knife. Lick. Mmm.
Flower and Garnet
Good movie. Sad -- upsetting even. CKR's character is a single (widowed) father with a teenage daughter and 8-year-old son. He is so dysfunctional, and at some points so scared. High angst-to-hope ratio. Beautiful acting; not so much with the sexy, though.
Falling Angels
Also very good. Dysfunctional family in the 1960s. The actor who played Ava in Supernatural is in it -- she's very good. Also Miranda Richardson. *hearts* Again, beautiful acting by all, but not so much with the sexy.
Existenz
Hated it. I want my two hours back. Callum's only onscreen for a couple of minutes, anyway. Why is this one always named to "tag" him in articles and stuff?
Suspicious River
This is an interesting one. A quarter of the way in, I was hating it: heavy-handed metaphors, clunky writing, hateful characters. I loathe Gary (CKR's character), partly because of his "aw-shucks-sensitive-country-boy,-slightly-damaged" persona -- got some bad associations with that. (And I still can't decide whether Gary was faking his accent or CKR should never, ever, ever attempt a Southern U.S. accent. Or who knows, maybe it was a perfectly performed accent that I'm not familiar with -- I'm not very good with accents.) Anyway, I finally did get caught up in the movie, and. Huh. It's good. Very, very dark. Molly Parker is brilliant, as is CKR. (Their acting makes the writing seem bad to me. The actors would create these subtle, beautiful layers of meaning in a look, and then the dialogue comes along and -- clunk, screech! -- tries to sum up the moment in a few clumsy words.)
The Outer Limits episode, "Corner of the Eye"
A moderately watchable episode of a Twilight Zone knockoff -- 22 minutes of material stretched out to fill 44 minutes. Callum has about 5 minutes of screen time, during which he looks sweetly tortured and strung out. In his element, in other words. But it's not a great role. One or two shots use the ... is it the Riverview Hospital? Riverside? A building that seems to show up in every TV show filmed in Vancouver -- I recognized it from Supernatural and Dark Angel.
The Invisible
Eh. Watchable, but nothing special. It's really a teen movie -- made me feel old! Callum has a smallish role as a police detective. He did fine, but it could have been anyone in that role. He looks good, though.
Men with Guns
I watched this after listening to the podfic of brigantine's Out from Under, so I saw Mamet as Ray, and it was heartbreaking! He looks like Ray; the crossover seems all too plausible. The character is badly messed up -- drug-addicted, strung out, suicidal -- and it hurts so good to picture Ray like that (as long as Fraser is going to be there to rescue him!. Marvelous h/c opportunity). Anyway, the movie is OK for itself -- small-time hoods get in over their heads, like Pulp Fiction without the flashiness -- but wonderful for watching CKR as graceful, dangerous Mamet.
Bliss episode, "Six Days"
Terribly cliched -- but then, it's kind of supposed to be. It's as formulaic as a Harlequin romance. With that caveat, I kind of liked it. Drifter sexes up lonely farm wife: he makes her laugh, he pays attention to her, he washes dishes and still knows how to fix a tractor! Again, transparently "what would be the perfect man," but hey, it works for me. It's nice seeing women's cliches onscreen (and makes an interesting reminder that yeah, it's men's fantasies that dominate tv/movies). The the_ckr_files post on this includes the immortal line "I don't know whether to fuck him or make him soup." Also? Naked Callum. Yum.
Twitch City
I'm a few episodes in to this now. It's good! Not usually laugh-out-loud funny, but every so often something will strike me as deeply funny -- it's a pretty intelligent show. Callum's not in every episode, but it's definitely worth watching anyway. Besides, Molly Parker (*hearts*), Don McKellar (Darren Nichols in Slings & Arrows), Dan MacIvor, other Canadian Actor Bingo names. And all their cute Canadian accents!
Next up on the Netflix queue: Normal, Picture Claire, and Unnatural and Accidental. And Last Night is coming in from Amazon.
the_ckr_files. Thought I'd share some of my notes here. (I've tried to keep these non-spoilery -- no more than would be found on a back-of-the-box summary.)
Wilby Wonderful
This is one of the first c6d things I saw, and I've probably watched it twenty times in the last six months. I could not love this movie more if it was rolled in rainbows and coated with puppies and delivered to my front door by penguins. 'Cause, y'know, suicide attempts bring the warm fuzzies. Or something. The whole cast is very, very good; I like the music; I like the interweaving stories. Just a little gem of a movie.
Hard Core Logo
OMG, Billy's eyes. His soft voice. The knife-licking. Can I watch that part again? Knife. Lick. Mmm.
Flower and Garnet
Good movie. Sad -- upsetting even. CKR's character is a single (widowed) father with a teenage daughter and 8-year-old son. He is so dysfunctional, and at some points so scared. High angst-to-hope ratio. Beautiful acting; not so much with the sexy, though.
Falling Angels
Also very good. Dysfunctional family in the 1960s. The actor who played Ava in Supernatural is in it -- she's very good. Also Miranda Richardson. *hearts* Again, beautiful acting by all, but not so much with the sexy.
Existenz
Hated it. I want my two hours back. Callum's only onscreen for a couple of minutes, anyway. Why is this one always named to "tag" him in articles and stuff?
Suspicious River
This is an interesting one. A quarter of the way in, I was hating it: heavy-handed metaphors, clunky writing, hateful characters. I loathe Gary (CKR's character), partly because of his "aw-shucks-sensitive-country-boy,-slightly-damaged" persona -- got some bad associations with that. (And I still can't decide whether Gary was faking his accent or CKR should never, ever, ever attempt a Southern U.S. accent. Or who knows, maybe it was a perfectly performed accent that I'm not familiar with -- I'm not very good with accents.) Anyway, I finally did get caught up in the movie, and. Huh. It's good. Very, very dark. Molly Parker is brilliant, as is CKR. (Their acting makes the writing seem bad to me. The actors would create these subtle, beautiful layers of meaning in a look, and then the dialogue comes along and -- clunk, screech! -- tries to sum up the moment in a few clumsy words.)
The Outer Limits episode, "Corner of the Eye"
A moderately watchable episode of a Twilight Zone knockoff -- 22 minutes of material stretched out to fill 44 minutes. Callum has about 5 minutes of screen time, during which he looks sweetly tortured and strung out. In his element, in other words. But it's not a great role. One or two shots use the ... is it the Riverview Hospital? Riverside? A building that seems to show up in every TV show filmed in Vancouver -- I recognized it from Supernatural and Dark Angel.
The Invisible
Eh. Watchable, but nothing special. It's really a teen movie -- made me feel old! Callum has a smallish role as a police detective. He did fine, but it could have been anyone in that role. He looks good, though.
Men with Guns
I watched this after listening to the podfic of brigantine's Out from Under, so I saw Mamet as Ray, and it was heartbreaking! He looks like Ray; the crossover seems all too plausible. The character is badly messed up -- drug-addicted, strung out, suicidal -- and it hurts so good to picture Ray like that (as long as Fraser is going to be there to rescue him!. Marvelous h/c opportunity). Anyway, the movie is OK for itself -- small-time hoods get in over their heads, like Pulp Fiction without the flashiness -- but wonderful for watching CKR as graceful, dangerous Mamet.
Bliss episode, "Six Days"
Terribly cliched -- but then, it's kind of supposed to be. It's as formulaic as a Harlequin romance. With that caveat, I kind of liked it. Drifter sexes up lonely farm wife: he makes her laugh, he pays attention to her, he washes dishes and still knows how to fix a tractor! Again, transparently "what would be the perfect man," but hey, it works for me. It's nice seeing women's cliches onscreen (and makes an interesting reminder that yeah, it's men's fantasies that dominate tv/movies). The the_ckr_files post on this includes the immortal line "I don't know whether to fuck him or make him soup." Also? Naked Callum. Yum.
Twitch City
I'm a few episodes in to this now. It's good! Not usually laugh-out-loud funny, but every so often something will strike me as deeply funny -- it's a pretty intelligent show. Callum's not in every episode, but it's definitely worth watching anyway. Besides, Molly Parker (*hearts*), Don McKellar (Darren Nichols in Slings & Arrows), Dan MacIvor, other Canadian Actor Bingo names. And all their cute Canadian accents!
Next up on the Netflix queue: Normal, Picture Claire, and Unnatural and Accidental. And Last Night is coming in from Amazon.