Nothing Wins the Justice

I've found out today that I have quite a lot of work ahead of me in the near future, but also that I will be able to take it a little easier over Easter, and ease my way into the crunch-time. Now, this probably isn't great advice, since doing some of the work now would seem to be the smart way to approach this problem, but I am resigned now to the idea that this form of planning does not really do one any good in academic circles, where tasks just balloon out to fill the time allotted.

As such, I'm left with a bit of free time, and no particular idea (for the time being) as to how to use it. This leads me to the problem of what we funky dudes might want to go do tomorrow night (Thursday, 9th of April), which in turn leads me to think... how about watch a movie?

Two movies I'm interested just came out; one of which opens on the day, where the other premiered yesterday.

Now, the one I obviously want to go see is Star Trek, the latter... but for some arcane reason (perhaps to cash in on the NerdFest crowds - a shrewd move by the filmmakers), it won't actually be in cinemas until May 7th.

The other, however, is most definitely on, and will be showing in the Newtown Dendy and also at the Dendy in Opera Quays.

Now, our prior group outing of going to watch a Dendy movie together wasn't exactly stellar - largely because the movie (Tales of Earthsea) made no bleedin' sense. I have a good feeling about this one, though, and the fact that it's also claymation means I'm sold.

The movie is called Mary and Max. To quote the Dendy site:

"Based on a true story, Mary and Max traces the 20 year friendship of two eccentric ugly ducklings who form an accidental pen pal friendship, and subsequently learn to love, feel and accomplish their dreams."

I love the idea of two people who are different in every way developing a mutually beneficial friendship through letter-writing because one of them simply picked a random name out of a foreign phonebook to ask what life was like on the other side of the Earth. I also like that the film is claymation, it's made by the same folks as Slumdog Millionaire (which I liked greatly), and has a cool Noir sort of visual style - subverted by the tone. I found this quote on IMDB:

"While the world is painted in gloomy hues of brown and grey and the characters lead bleak lives, the genius of the script is that the characters never wallow or feel sorry for themselves. The tone is kept humorous and balanced allowing us to be moved by the characters as they stumble through life but also laugh at their foibles and observations of the world they struggle to fit into. Not since Muriel's Wedding has Australia produced so fine a comedy with such rich detail and I probably got even more laughs out of this."

Anyways, it sounds like something I might enjoy, and I think some of you will feel the same way. Moreover, Ash and I just got back from Japan, so it would make a great evening for us NWTJ peeps to all get together, catch up and eat dinner, etc. Those of you who want in, let me know in the comments where and when you'd prefer to go see it tomorrow night.

If you'd like a bit more information, here's the movie site.

It shows in Newtown at 10:30am, 12:30pm, 6:30pm and 8:30pm; also in Opera Quays at 12:20pm, 4:15pm, 6:20pm and 8:15pm.

My suggestion would be for us to gather up a group of fabulous folksters and go see the film at the Opera Quays cinema at 8:15, but it would be extremely convenient for me and others if we were to instead duck out of uni and walk directly to Newtown Dendy to catch the 6:30 session there. I'd be happy with both.

Ranneko: I'd be up for this, though I might regret the reduction in set up time it will result in.

Syfro: Hrm, if it's a choice between Claymation and waiting a bit for Star Trek, I'd rather wait a bit for Star Trek. I have nothing against Claymation, but it's hard to compete with The Neverhood.

And besides... Star Trek!!

Also, if you're got a bit of free time around Easter, why not hit up a spot of RanLan?

Ranneko: Oh yeah, the Circular quay one would probably work better for me, plus we can have dinner before hand.

Elo: No thanks. Not really into Claymation

cK: This movie seems a little.. bleh.. how about we go see Monsters Vs Aliens? :D

I'm all for dinner tho, get a time organised.

Ash: Same as Elo and cK here.

Also, raid night for Elo, Jorb, Nem, Reg and myself.

GrubLord: I was sorta in the mood for something artsy rather than something hollywood, but I'm not all that set. What's Monsters vs Aliens?

Mind you, if Raid Night is why everyone has been so keen on Friday instead... then I guess we ought to do Friday instead.

Jorb didn't out-and-out say Raid Night when I asked him, but I suppose I should've suspected.

Also, I guess I can just go watch this with a certain lady-friend if you guys would rather see something else, and watch Monsters vs. Aliens or something with you guys on Friday.

GrubLord: Also, Bawg, as I said in the post, Star Trek ain't out until May 7th. Also, there's no reason not to do both.

There'll be a Star Trek outing just after NF, more than likely.

RJorb: The Jorb is keen on this movie, or in the alternative could easily be roped into another.

Friday night would be preferable, however. Not so much for raiding reasons, but moreso to avoid the potential of prematurely cutting short precious canoodling time.

GrubLord: She could always come along, you know.

Arthouse films are big with teh gurlz.

Ranneko: Well, I'm keen not to do this Friday, for reasons that should be pretty obvious. Other than that, it doesn't typically take much to convince me to go see a non-horror film with friends. So pretty much any night I don't already have plans would work for me.

Elo: Umm Friday is also Good Friday where everything is CLOSED.

Elo: hmm seems my information was incorrect and they will be open

Ash: Some corrections:

Cinemas are open on Good Friday. It's no longer the 70s Elo.

Mary and Max was not made by the same people who made Slumdog Millionaire. They share the same film distributor.

Max is a 44 year old, 300 pound man. Daisy is 8 years, 3 months old. Initially anyway. I think they end up 64 and 28 by the end.

GrubLord: How are those corrections? I just didn't go into that much detail, and Elo already corrected himself.

You're right about the distributor part, but it's not like any of us expected Bollywood Claymation... what the same distributor chooses to fund can certainly be an indicator of quality.

Ash: When I started typing, Elo hadn't corrected himself.

Distributors act as an agent between makers and exhibitors. Sometimes they are a subsidiary of the production company. In this case, it is false to claim the same people made the movie, when the two production companies (Melodrama Pictures and Celador Pictures) are not quite the same. You wouldn't want people to go to the movie under false assumptions, would you?

The last bit isn't a correction. Just a tidbit.

Ash: Gah, should be Celador Films. There's also an extra character floating around there. Give me comment edits!

GrubLord: Write 'em yourself.

As I said, you're right about the distributor part. Not that it matters, because everyone's going to Raid Night.

Ran and cK seemed vaguely interested, but Ran has things to do and cK wasn't that keen to begin with, so I basically cancelled it.

Tomorrow's RanLAN, so I don't think we'll be watching anything Friday - but we could, I suppose.