Juno
Giving teenage pregnancy the Hollywood treatment could have easily resulted in sickly sweet, sentimental rubbish. Instead, a sharp script and excellent lead performances backed up by a stellar supporting cast have produced a film that manages to be both pro-life and liberal. With its honest, insightful and at times hilarious dialogue, along with a simple but compelling plot, Juno is the antidote we needed to Knocked Up. While more popular, Knocked Up occupied a neverland where models sleep with dorks, then screw their careers to raise the bastard offspring, all among a mire of tired jokes and bad acting. All that’s needed now, for balance, is a film where a middle-class, financially-stable married couple chose abortion because, while their situation is ideal and all their friends already have children, they’re just not ready.
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More timeless than current’. But I recently finished a long and complicated novel about Hollywood in the 60s, 70s and 80s, and am just now buckling down to write a short nonfiction book about this film, part of a series for Soft Skull Press. A little peremptorily written off as a mere ‘entertainment’, and also overshadowed by the in-fact-not-quite-as-good Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, this is a pretty dazzling effort: a coded Watergate-conspiracy narrative, a comment on the perils and pleasures of being fooled that’s also twice as much fun to watch as you remember. Which was pretty fun to begin with.
West Edmonton’s Fantasyland Hotel
Fantasyland Hotel is located in the West Edmonton Shopping Mall, Alberta, Canada. It first opened in 1986 and the main characteristic of the complex is its original themed-room styles, which include Hollywood, Roman, Polynesian, Truck, Victorian Coach, Canadian Rail, Arabian, African, Igloo, Western and Waterpark. All up, the hotel has a total of 120 theme rooms in eleven different styles. Read more
Also by XAVIER TOBY
Valentino: The Last Emperor — Fashion documentary
A documentary about one of the world’s most famous fashion designers? Hmm. Not a film I’d ever choose to see, but sometimes we do what we don’t want to in order to make friends happy. It’s called compromise apparently, and the experience reminded me that any material, if well structured and presented, can make a decent film. The filmmakers follow the over-tanned Valentino Garavani and his long-term lover and business partner Giancarlo Giammetti. Read more
Larry David plays a slight variation on his Curb Your Enthusiasm incarnation, spouting some of the most articulate rants on humanity in Woody Allen’s new comedy. I enjoyed last year’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona, but this is definitely better. It’s a spectacularly executed comedy farce, with the action constantly escalating along the way, adhering to the old comedy formula of putting the characters through hell for big laughs. Read more
Black Dynamite blaxploitation movie trailer
One very angry and unstoppable man wages war against drugs and malt liquor. A take-off of the old blaxploitation films, this is parody at its best, with many knowing nods to camera and hilarious moments involving clichés taken to their extremes. There’s the Asian kung-fu master, pimps and orphans hooked on heroin. It all begins with Black Dynamite being spurned on his quest for blood after his brother’s brutal murder, and then pushed further for the love of a good woman. There are hoes and guns, along with catchphrases and great one-liners. See it.
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With their improvisational, pyschedelic sound, San Francisco band Wooden Shjips are putting the proverbial finger to the formulaic output of much of the current chart toppers. We interviewed guitarist Erik “Ripley” Johnson recently. Read more
Cambodian born photographer Frederic Chaubin is the editor of French magazine Citizen K. His photo series on bizarre buildings built in the former Soviet Union during the 1970s and 80s is absolutely fascinating. Read more
Boxfresh is a British streetwear company notable for its emphasis on DIY fashion. Their Boxfresh vs Series, a collection of collaborations ranging from straight fashion into the bicycle arena, has just launched their latest battle — between Boxfresh and Pete Fowler, of Super Furry Animals artwork fame. Read more
So I interviewed Bianca, one half of Coco Rosie, the other morning. Love their music: very dramatic, almost operatic in its scale yet imbued with a sense of sonic unease that carries the divine melodies well beyond their maudlin minor key progressions. Read more
Interior design website, Apartment Therapy, just posted some amazing pictures of ’70s rock stars in their parents’ homes. My favorite is of David Crosby and his dad [below]. The two look so completely opposite of each other that it’s hard to believe that it’s Crosby’s real dad. They also look like they’re barely concealing the contempt they have for each other. Crosby’s father was an Academy-Award-winning cinematographer who shot Tabu and High Noon, amongst other well-known films. Read more
Andrew Fagan, lead singer of The Mockers, the poppiest New Zealand band of the 80s, came around to my place once when I was an impressionable 10-year old with stars in my eyes and a head full of shiny, shiny melodies. Read more
Man, I remember shaking my tail to Come on Eileen many moons ago — when rat-tails were a right of passage and Molly Ringwald held both the lock and the key to my tiny pitter pattering heart. Back then it was all ice-skating and fairy floss; skateboards and trading cards. It was bags of chips by the rusty school fence and sunburnt faces on crackling summer days. Read more
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Creative advertising packaging
Despite the intentions of many, it’s not so often that advertising — as an industry — truly thinks outside the box. Yet, when executed well, clever eye-catching advertising actually works. It does. As these examples will attest to. Read more
Trip out with Sparrow Vs Sparrow’s retro illustrations, I love their aesthetic, color use and sense of humor. Read more
1970s and 80s Soviet Union buildings
Cambodian born photographer Frederic Chaubin is the editor of French magazine Citizen K. His photo series on bizarre buildings built in the former Soviet Union during the 1970s and 80s is absolutely fascinating. Read more
Yum, yum, cupcakes are fun. These creations are so clever, so arty, so damn bizarre that it would almost be a shame to eat them. Almost! Read more
Wheeeeee! This game is so freaking fun! You move your cursor over each dot to make them split into four smaller dots ad infinitum.
Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more
Tired of having your food stolen by sticky-fingered coworkers or roommates? Bullies taking your kid’s lunch? Well, worry no more. Anti-Theft Lunch Bags are sandwich bags that have green splotches printed on both sides, making your freshly prepared lunch look spoiled. So don’t suffer the injustice of having your sandwich stolen again! Read more
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