Review: Continental, A Film Without Guns (SIFF 2008)

It's night. An insurance salesman is riding the bus home. The bus arrives at a deserted stop, and he's the only one left on the bus. He gets out of the bus, stares out into the dark, and wanders off the road and into the forest.

So begins Continental, a film about death. But there's no funerals and caskets in this movie. Instead, the film portrays a set of characters, each experiencing their own version of death as part of changes happening in life, and shows how each character's story casually intertwines with others.

Take the wife of the aforementioned insurance salesman, dealing with the loss of her husband and an apathetic police force who suspects he ran off with a mistress. Or, take the guy who replaces the aforementioned salesman and is dealing with a shaky marriage while he lives out of a hotel room. Or, consider the shop owner with medical problems who's dealing with a gambling problem and trying to raise money for surgery. In each case, we have a death of some part of a character's life (husband, marriage, health) and we witness their struggle to deal with it.

But Continental isn't all doom and gloom. Surprisingly, it makes one laugh much more often than it makes one lament. There are several awkward situations that the characters are placed in that makes the audience first sigh, then snicker, and finally all-out laugh at the restrained reactions of the characters. This black-comedy approach balances the otherwise dark material that the film deals with, and thankfully so.

The acting of the film is spot-on. The pacing is a bit slow, but as long as you're in a casual, calm mood entering the film, the pacing combined with the musical overlays on some beautiful long landscape shots will leave you some breathing room and some time to ponder what's going on. Continental isn't a movie you'll talk about for years on end, but it does a decent job of making you care about the characters and their problems. And, the scenes of comic relief give you several chuckles to take home with you.

Overall rating: 6.5/10.0

Details:
Runtime: 103m
Countries: Canada
Languages: French / English

AmazonFresh Won't Deliver To Its Own Backyard

People at work were talking about AmazonFresh, Amazon's grocery delivery service that serves the Seattle area. I browsed their site, was impressed with their selection and their delivery options (pre-dawn delivery by 6am? Awesome!), and wanted to give them a try.

Trouble is, they won't deliver to our house.

Now, of course, they can't deliver everywhere. But we're pretty centrally located: we can walk to the I District, and bike to downtown and the ball fields. And get this: we live in proximity to the Amazon building. You know, the big PacMed building on Beacon Hill? Yeah, we can see it from our street.

Come on, Amazon, we know you can't deliver everywhere. But how come you deliver to West Seattle now, and can't deliver to folks living in your own backyard?

SIFF 2008

It's time once again for the Seattle International Film Festival. We've picked out 10 movies to watch. As always, I'll post reviews. And, as always, I'll point at the irony of Seattleites crowding into dark theaters to watch movies just about the time the weather's getting nice.

Mega Unhealthy Milk Shake

There's junk food. And then, there's mega-insanely-unhealthy junk food. Exhibit A: The Baskin-Robbins Heath Bar Shake.

That's right:

• 2310 calories
• 100 grams of fat
• 1560 grams of sodium
• dozens of processed and synthesized ingredients

Seriously, why is there not a Surgeon General sticker on this thing?

Heat Wave Is Coming

Normally I would not be excited about a heat wave, but given this is for an otherwise cloudy Seattle Spring season, and "heat wave" translates to mid-80s, I'm very excited that warm weather is coming! Steven posted about the details and probabilities of what we may see on this blog.

Nine Inch Nails Does Something Great

A few days ago Nine Inch Nails released their latest album on the 'net. For free. The album itself isn't their absolute best work (solid, though). The key here is the distribution and pricing.

• If you're a current fan, you'll probably download and listen to the album, taking note that NiN offered it to you for free.
• If you're a former fan, you'll probably consider listening to it, since it's free.
  
• If you're not a fan, you may consider listening to it to see if you like it, again since it's free.

The point? If you like what you listen to, I believe you'll be more likely to purchase NiN music in the future (or fill your collection with their back catalog). If not, you walk away with only a small time investment.

I think this move will both build the NiN fanbase and earn them more cash to boot. All by doing what musicians have been doing for ages: creating music for the enjoyment of others.

Lunchbox Laboratory Is Where Your Meat-Eating Dreams Will Come True

You know those ideas that come up when you're sitting around with friends while drinking, and pretty soon people are coming up with more and more outlandish things to pile on top of the original idea? For example,

"Hey, wouldn't it be cool if we opened a burger joint? One that specialized in burgers and went all out?"
"Yeah! But not just beef. Buffalo, pork..."
"...and duck! Maybe duck-pork?"
"And what if we served cool sides like tater tots, and milkshakes in lab beakers?"

"Yeah!" everyone would shout, take a swig of their drinks, and move on to other ideas.

Well, Lunchbox Laboratory to me is one of these outlandish, yet wonderful, ideas come to life. Run by Chef Scott Simpson of Fork fame, who's been through a lot in the past several months, this place is a burger joint to end all burger joints.

The basic gist is this: you pick a meat (beef, duck-pork, buffalo, among others) and a sauce (simple like ketchup to fancy like an aioli), and then add extras (cheese, bacon, olives). Tack on a side if you wish (tots, fries, topped with interesting things like bacon salt). Don't forget the milkshakes. While you wait, find a seat on a bench or chair and study all of the quirky Americana antiques on the wall, including the lunchboxes under the counter. In a few minutes, you get a giant, steaming burger, fries, and thick shake at your glass-top table. Dig in, and throw your granola-flax conscience out of the window for a glorious respite of meat-eating fun.

One word of caution: the burgers are large. Quite large. We ordered two, plus a side of fries and one shake, and were stuffed. Light eaters may wish to split one burger.

Lunchbox Laboratory will be even better as the weather improves in Seattle. While seating is limited inside the small building, they have several seats outside that will eventually be great to take in the summer weather, sip a cold soda, and bite into a juicy burger.