“What he wanted was a model. Someone who could teach him, by example, how to kill. Robert had never aimed a gun at anything. It was a foreign state of mind. So what he wanted was someone else who had acquired that state of mind: who killed as an exercise of the will “
Timothy Findley “The Wars” , 1977
“The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry” initially canters on for 30 minutes being a cute feel-good Harlequinesque romance and then darkens quickly and becomes haunted by tragedy, jealousy, infidelity and a whole host of evil vibes. But through this transition from light and fluffy in the immediate moments it spans over a decade. You are patting yourself on the back for 30 minutes knowing exactly where the film is heading. Yes you may be partially correct as A.J. and Amelia fall predictably in love. Yawn.
But as you become complacent the film takes a twist and becomes complicated and far more complicated and emotional spinning off in directions you thought it not capable of attaining. At some point the cheesy film morphs into an epic worthy of your reflection and perhaps a few tears. The beautiful people you thought were beautiful are all terribly flawed except perhaps for that little abandoned girl Maya that gives life and meaning to many lost souls.
And yes the power of the book to kill, unite, divide and cause great happiness and insight. An initially lightweight amusing piece of fluff transforms itself into a far more serious film worthy of a watch if you get off your pompous ass and give it the attention it deserves. I watch mostly indie films but this has the potential to climb in the box office without having to appeal to those whose intellectual ability stops with “Top Gun Maverick”. Yes I saw that sad film on my Air Canada flight back from Athens to Toronto a couple of weeks ago.
On October 7th the film is to be launched in 9 Canadian cities.
Solid acting throughout totally absent of cheese! This is no ‘Gone with the Wind” but its future is far brighter than a cheese ball romantic romp.
You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqhHtZncOPI
Based on Gabrielle Zevin’s best selling (New Yok Times) novel.
RKS Film Rating 91/100.
1.Columbia Crest H3 Merlot 2018 ($20.95) 91/100
It is rather odd that in the Liquor Control Board of Ontario’s Vintages Catalogue for the August 13, 2022 release JamesSuckling.com gives the wine a 90 rating in a review dated July 12, 2021 stating it should be consumed now which is one year after the LCBO put it in its shelves.
On the nose black plums, blackberries, licorice, black cherry and a hint of lavender. A full-bodied wine which is running on just about zero tannins. Cocoa, blackberry with a bit of a burn due to a daunting 14.5% alcohol. Whereas many Washington wines have a very approachable character making them ideal for sipping this Merlot is somewhat austere and best suited for food. Just about any pasta with a rich local field tomato-based sauce with or without meat would suit this which means for most of the United States and Canada you better get cooking before those local field tomatoes are replaced by sick Mexican imports that are more like mush than tomatoes.
Drink last year (just kidding!)
(Columbia Crest H3 Merlot 2018 Horse Heaven Hills, Columbia Valley, Columbia Crest, Paterson, Washington, $20.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 209874, 750 mL, 14.5%, RKS Wine Rating 91/100).
2. Joel Gott 2018 Washington Columbia Valley Red Wine ($25.95) 88/100
Joel Gott is known as a reliable quality producer of fair priced wines. This wine is a blend of 53% Merlot, 37% Cabernet Sauvignon, 7% Syrah, 2% Malbec and 1% Zinfandel. 75% of the wine was aged in New American oak and 25% in two-year-old American oak.
The new oak influence is definitely noticeable but not flashy or overpowering. Notes of blackberry, blueberry with a bit of licorice and root beer. On the palate the wine is firm and assertive. The high % of Merlot does not make the wine plush and smoky. There are some back of the throat tannins but overall, they are moderate. There is a slight brackishness to the wine and it finishes hot mixed with black cherry and a bit of cocoa.
(Joel Gott 2018 Washington Columbia Valley Red Wine, Joel Gott Wines, Napa, California, $25.95, 750 mL, 13.9%, RKS Wine Rating 88/100).
3. Chateau Ste Michelle Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley 2018 ($22.95) 91/100
CSM is a well-known Washington State wine producer. You might want to say it is part of the Washington State Holy Grail! On the nose very dense blueberry. e.g. fresh blueberries and a wild blueberry pie brushed with a bit of tar. Blueberry a classic Cabernet Sauvignon tip-off!
On the palate yet more blueberry (with some blackberry) reminding me of the huge batch of blueberry jam I made in July and the freezer blackberry jam I made in late August. I would think for a change we can say this would match some Welsh Cheddar Cheese (Collier’s) with some blackberry jam on the side. Nothing hidden or camouflaged here. Straightforward, simplistic but delicious but ensure slightly chilled!
(Chateau Ste Michelle, Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley 2018, Chateau Ste Michelle, Patterson, Washington, $22.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 269357, 750 mL, 13.5%, RKS Wine Rating 91/100).
When in Thessaloniki Greece I make it a point to head over to the revitalized Port district to visit the Museum of Photography that never disappoints with its monthly themed expositions. Architecturally a modern gem and always low key in terms of attendance. In September they had an exhibition entitled “Fred Boissonnas and the Mediterranean”.
Boissonnas (1858-1946) was a renowned Swiss photographer the collection at the Museum is based upon the collections of the Library of Geneva and the Central Library of the Aristotle University in Thessaloniki. Most of the photos were taken in Greece. He was very prolific in Greece between 1903-1930. Whilst in Greece he visited over 100 locations to shoot his photographs that capture Greece of a different era yet capturing the essence of the Greek spirit alive today.
Although the Exhibit has been disassembled one is always treated to a wonderful assemblage of photographs in a relaxed and unhurried environment at the Museum of Photography in Thessaloniki.
The Thessaloniki Museum of Photography Warehouse A Pier A Port Area.
So we are staying at Sweet Home Boutique Hotel in the Plaka district in the heart of touristy Athens near the Acropolis and Syntagma Square. I hear American accents and Yanks everywhere. In fact there has been such an influx of American tourists this September leaving me thinking where have all the Greeks gone?
Just down the street from our hotel there is a restaurant called Athinaikon on 34 Mitropoleos Street. It is a very hip looking place that could very well be a top end eatery in New York or Paris. But at our farewell dinner there are no Greeks in the restaurant. It is full of Americans completely underdressed, loud and cocky. Have the Greeks been outnumbered or are they heading for the hills? Greece desperately requires tourist revenue to survive and all foreigners are welcomed (how sincerely?) with open arms. Restaurants like this serve top quality food but I would rather feel like I am in Athens than in Manhattan.
We arrive bedraggled in Athens after an overnight flight from Toronto. Ordinarily if these were pre-COVID times we would risk waiting two hours in Athens for a connecting flight to Samos but instead decided to say overnight 17 kilometres from the Athens Airport at a town called Vravrona at a hotel called Dolce by Wyndham. The hotel faces the water but we are in a cliff view room. There are two conventions going on one with physicians from Australia. The hotel is massive probably a 4 star. But it is impersonal. Whilst the convention hotel is a type of property I am familiar with in North America I have never seen something like this in Greece. Nice accommodation great location but a Greece I am not familiar with.
Logic declared after a short nap best to have a light supper at the hotel and crash out for an early morning flight to Samos but I am in Greece so why eat in a North American style hotel. So we trudge on a path and by goodness Vravrona seems to be somewhat of an Athenian beach town not surprising with its beaches. Finally hit the main drag but not much there. We do manage to find a psarotaverna (fish tavern) called Korali (The Coral) in a small town called Artemedia. Delicious seafood. For two some ouzo to start then a half litre of white wine with grilled octopus, calamari, Greek salad, eggplant dip, fries, zucchini fritters and a complimentary dessert. For 41 Euros no complaining! The Greece I am familiar with.
Back to Dolce in an exhausted trance to listen to some Moroccan hip hop and trundle off to bed. This hotel has multi convention rooms, basketball, tennis, volleyball multiple pools and restaurants. With these features why leave North America! No burger and pizza please! Chicken fingers for the children.
“Apart from the peculiar tenets of individual thinkers, there is also in the world at large an increasing inclination to stretch unduly the powers of society over the individual, both by the force of opinion and even by that of legislation: and as the tendency of all changes taking place in the world is to strengthen society, and diminish the power of the individual, this encroachment is not one of the evils which tend spontaneously to disappear, but, on the contrary, to grow more and more formidable.”
Gimli is a small town in Manitoba, Canada. In 1983 an Air Canada flight from Toronto to Edmonton ran out of fuel and miraculously coasted from 41,000 feet to an airfield in Gimli Manitoba. So I was piqued in seeing “Gimli” as part of the title to “Tales from the Gimli Hospital”.
Written and directed by Guy Maddin in 1988 “Tales from the Gimli Hospital” was one of those artsy films without any hope for commercial success. Well the creaky film has been the beneficiary of a 4K remastering shown at the most recent Toronto International Film Festival.
The promo material I received indicated the film was a “cult classic” on the midnight movie circuit. In the cult classics “Reefer Madness”, “Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “Night of the Living Dead” the plot may have been simplistic but was loved by many. In “Tales From the Gimli Hospital” the plot may be simplistic but its extremely artsy production may cause many viewers quickly to lose a connection with the film.
Gunnar and Einar the Lonely are in quarantine (sound familiar?) due to some plague that leaves strange scars on the bodies of its victims. The hospital is in a barn and the animals below heat the hospital above which is more like a barn than a hospital. And the nurses are lithe and in revealing uniforms. We see the tales of Gunnar and Einar the Lonely so you will be presented with a plot that is understandable. Given COVID the film may have some relevance with quarantine, political manipulation and plague death. Is this a driving reason the film was remastered?
The issue, or perhaps the attraction, is the rough and abstract black and white cinematography that add absurdity and mysticism to the plot. Maddin as a director could be said fixated on silent film as that is what “Tales from the Gimli Hospital” essentially is. A homage to or satire of silent film? Perhaps none of this but simply an attempt to create a silent film some 70 years after the fact?
While the plot and storyline can be grasped the technique is fascinatingly obscure and frustrating. This Canadian production with Icelandic dialogue thrown in now and then highlights the Icelandic immigration to Manitoba.
The film alters between dream, nightmare and symbolism.
The film recently showed at the Toronto International Film Festival. If it truly is a midnight cult classic (do such films still show at midnight?) it would make a great bill with “Rocky Horror Picture Show”.
RKS Film Rating 81/100.
Marsanne and Viognier are often companions in a blend creating a very unique stye of wine. Lots of tropical notes like mango and peach with pineapple. Viognier on its own is also or can be quite tasty. Here in Ontario countries of origin for Viognier would primarily be France and Australia.
Does Ontario produce Viognier? Yes it does but in limited quantities. During the “ravages” of COVID we headed out to St. David’s in Niagara and met some friends at Fielding Estate before heading off to our inn. A massively disappointing Viognier there. Also from Niagara pre COVID I picked up some Viognier from Stratus Vineyards. Great at the tasting room but it did not age well as it turned a bit funky.
So we try yet again with a KEW Vineyards 2018 Marsanne (75%)/Viognier (25%) from the Beamsville Bench with just over a thousand cases produced.
On the nose it reminds me of the slightly funky Stratus Vineyard Viognier. Wood and Viognier must be handled delicately. The oak here is a bit overpowering. The funk obfuscates the mango, pineapple and peach and holds it under its thumb. You know the Rolling Stone’s Song “Under My Thumb!”
On the palate that damn oak hangs around like a pack of blackflies. Yes there is the mango, pineapple and peach but again its been choked by the French oak it was resting in for 8 months. Even then not much character to reward an eager palate. It is quite neutral and unimpressive.
Ontario if you want to produce a Viognier or a Viognier blend that can match Australian or French competitors at the same price you have some work to do.
While I wait for the great Niagara Hope I think I’ll stick to the Yalumba Y Series Viognier from Australia ($14.95) or D’Arenberg’s Hermit Crab ($17.95).
(KEW Marsanne/Viognier 2018, VQA Beamsville Bench, KEW Vineyards, Beamsville, Ontario, $19.95, 750 mL, 14%, RKS Wine Rating 85/100).
“Honest to God, I think it’s this goddam New York. What I think maybe we’ll do, if everything goes along all right, we’ll get ourselves a little place in Connecticut maybe. Not too far out necessarily, but far enough that we can lead a goddam normal life. I mean she’s crazy about plants and all that stuff. She’d probably go mad if she had her own goddam garden and stuff. Know what I mean? I mean-except you-who do we know in New York except a bunch of neurotics. It’s bound to undermine even a normal person sooner or later. Know what I mean? “
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