AB = Abjectly Bewildered

What a gong show my home province is becoming.

I mean, yeah, we have always had our fair share (and a bit) of small-minded folks with big mouths, and the friction between those who want smaller government and less taxes versus those who think paying a little more to give people a hand up is a worthy societal investment has maybe been a little more discernible here, sure. 

But in the past few weeks, the provincial UCP government has taken a really weird and hard turn towards authoritarianism that is becoming really troubling.

First they introduced Bill 18, which will require provinical authorization for federal grant funding to reach university researchers, to ensure compatiblity with "Allberta priorities."

Then Bill 20, which will not only introduce political parties to municipal elections, but gives the provincial government the ability to amend or suspend municipal bylaws and even remove councillors if they deem them unworthy!

Oh, but don't worry they tell us, only Edmonton and Calgary elections will have political parties (for now). Surely this will placate the 70% of Albertans who have made it clearly known they want their local politics non-partisan.

And while there is no direct UCP involvement that I am aware of, I can't help but feel that the police behind this weekend's violent clearing out of student encampments at the Universities of Calgary and Alberta may have the same leather-clad glove on the end of their respective leashes as well.

These were students, protesting what they feel is their institutions' participation in genocide in Palestine. They demanded the university cut ties with Israeli academic institutions and pull all investments from companies that operate in the country - similar to what student protest demanded for apartheid South Africa 30-odd years ago.

For their temerity, they were tear-gassed and driven off with batons. Meanwhile on the QEII highway though, if you want to occupy a rest stop with your white nationalist pals, just hoist up an "Axe the Tax" flag so the RCMP know whose side you're on, and you will be left in peace. Just like the border blockade down in Coutts last year, right up until word slipped out about a plan some participants had to "off the pigs."

What do you do for an encore, my home province for nearly five decades now?

What's that? You're gonna let the Take Back Alberta crowd now sock-puppeting the UCP board advise on health policy and pressure changes to vaccination rules? What the actual hell? It is not bad enough that measles is amking a comeback due to this anti-science quackery, now a Calgary riding association is hosting anti-vaxx celebrities too?

Oh, and apparently our sitting government can now have a 4.5 yr mandate now, pushing the next "fixed" election date 6 months down the road from May to Octoberso it doesn't face too much intereference from wildfire evacuation notices. 

Give me strength. 

It is really bothersome, and moderately terrifying and I am tired of pretending this creeping fascism is just business as usual. And I used to love living here! Now I find myself daydreaming and yearning that the blimps in Blade Runner were real, and that a new life awaits me on the offworld colonies.

Sigh. Hell of a birthday blog, isn't it?

Bumps, Bruises and Laughs - The Fall Guy, Reviewed

It might be true for cars as well, but some of my favourite movies are hybrids; adept at doing more than one thing. I like sci-fi more than horror, but put them together in The Thing and you have one of my favourite films. I tend to prefer action to comedy, but blend them in something clever like Lethal Weapon and I am likely to be there. 

And director David Leitch has certainly established his action bona fides with Atomic Blonde (and co-directing John Wick), and his Deadpool 2 makes him a dab hand with comedy, but can even he wrangle together an action-rom-com, regardless if it has two tremendously charismatic leads in Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt?

You know, I think he can. We saw The Fall Guy tonight and it ticked all three boxes, pretty much.

My commitment to spoiler-free coverage means I will tell you as little about the plot as possible. I mean, the A-plot, the story driver. There isn't a lot to say about the B-plot either I suppose, suffice to say that my favourite Iron Man writer Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3) gives that angle way more room to play than I expected. Leitch even gets to do some directorial cleverness with the interchanges between stuntman Colt Seaver (Gosling) and director Jody Moreno (Blunt) where no action is even happening. Suffice to say that it is nice to see the characters actually work at earning a potential happy ending, whether they get it or not, as opposed to just letting it happen and having charm and chemistry carry you over the goal line.

The A-plot, well, gosh, it's...it's a lot, is what it is. And maybe it feels a teensy bit contrived in places, but honestly, we've all seen worse. What is critical is that it makes ense in the moment, and carries enough mystery and opacity to carry the viewer from an outrageous, psychedelic fight scene to an over-the-top chase scene that ends up having a fight in it, and so on. All while not only pursuing leads and an emotional reconnection, but also perhap the most elusive cup of coffee ever.

The Fall Guy is a big, loud summer movie, about making a big, loud summer movie, and it reinforces my long-held belief that it is a solid miracle that any movie gets made, ever. And when those movies are both entertaining and good, that is the biggest miracle of them all.

At the end of the day, the mystery is fine, the hurt people reconnecting is great, but to me, what The Fall Guy is about is just how far we are willing to go for the people and things that we love. And one of those things is making (and watching) movies.

When producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) tries to bring Colt on board after a long absence, she asks him, "What is the message behind all of my movies?"

"That...nihilism is a viable worldview?"

What follows is a great little exchange about the insidious interface between art and commerce where movies dwell, and this, combined with the actual drama of producing a blockbuster movie is what makes it work - in a subtle way, it may be the most metatextual film I have seen since The Lego Movie. And relationships and honesty are at the heart of that part, all wrapped in stunts and laughs like sexy bacon.

Even beyond the stars, there are lots of people to like in The Fall Guy; Aaron Taylor-Johnson is great as Tom Ryder, the Hollywood 'face' that Colt's stunts make look so good. And I am always happy to see Winston Duke (M'Baku from Black Panther), and as stunt coordinator Dan Tucker he gets as many good lines and film references as action gags.

But the action gags alone make it worth seeing this in theaters. If you have any affection for the planning, hard work and artistry that goes into making an epic stunt, there is more than one to enjoy - including one that broke a Guinness World Record. Director David Leitch is a former stuntman, and he and Ryan Gosling have been vocal about this film being a love letter to the stunt community, and also a chance to spotlight the fact that it is well past time that this critical part of cineman be given its own Academy Award category.

The Fall Guy doesn't do a whole lot that is really new, but it is the brightest, loudest, funniest love story you are likely to see this summer...if you are into that kind of thing.