We finally got around to get­ting a mem­ber­ship in the local video store and now are in the process of catching up on all the releases from the last year or so.

It’s so nice to be moved in, and to be in an area that offers so much variety and live­li­ness. There’s Cabbagetown on one side of us, Bloor/Yonge on the other, Church Street within walking dis­tance; the Don Valley and all its sur­rounding charms are right across the street, stores and restau­rants of every kind all around. It’s a com­pletely dif­ferent world here.

So the movies, yeah. First off, Bill Murray shows that he is a better actor than ever before in Broken Flowers, written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, the insane genius behind the sur­real Johnny Depp film, Dead Man. This movie, also star­ring Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy (who is sorely missed since Six Feet Under ended last August), and Jeffrey Wright is def­i­nitely one of my favorite movies of 2005. Even Jessica Lange is enjoy­able, some­thing I cannot say for most of the other roles I’ve seen her in. A nice little bonus was seeing Chloe Sevigny in a subtly pow­erful role, some­thing she pulls off mas­ter­fully, again. The story and the pacing might not be for everyone’s taste, but the acting of these amazing people trumps any lag in scripting. Frances Conroy’s Dora just com­pletely wiped us off our feet. She is one bril­liant and beau­tiful actress.

After I returned Broken Flowers, I wanted to pick up some­thing else that would blow me away (some­thing 95% of the movies in stock at the store were promising not to do). I had heard about The Brothers Grimm before, but had refused to pick up some­thing star­ring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger, in protest of their once hyper­bolic pop­u­larity. However, to my pleasant sur­prise, it seems that in the tra­di­tion of Brad Pitt and others before him, these 2 gave in and went to acting classes some­where along the way. Ben Affleck, a cohort of Matt Damon in the old days, appar­ently still thinks he’s too cool for school.

To my shock, The Brothers Grimm was directed by Terry Gilliam, a bit of infor­ma­tion I hadn’t known before. Of course, being the immense Monty Python fans that we are, we had to pick it up. Gilliam’s movie, funded by Dreamworks, is superbly filmed, and, in true Gilliam fashion, has some utterly unfor­get­table moments. Monica Bellucci gives a chilling per­for­mance as the mes­mer­izing Christian Queen vil­lain. Peter Stormare is hilar­ious and moving as Cavaldi, the soft-hearted Italian tor­ture artist. The spe­cials and com­men­tary on the DVD were fan­tastic as well. Can’t wait for the day Terry Gilliam casts Alan Rickman in one of his films!