Review - "Want to fight?"

Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive was my surprise favourite film of 2011, a vaguely ’80s crime drama that contrasted a smooth, stylish aesthetic with blunt brutality. It was also the first movie to really sell me on Ryan Gosling as an actor, the former London, Ontario resident immersing himself in the quiet and increasingly frightening role of the film’s nameless driver. It also had an amazing soundtrack courtesy of most-underrated-film-composer-ever Cliff Martinez and electronic artists like Kavinsky, College and Desire. So I was as psyched as possible to watch Only God Forgives, the second collaboration between Refn and Gosling, again featuring the music of Martinez.

But as Drive was as unconventional a crime thriller as they come—in spite of its premise, less The Fast and the Furious and more Manhunter with cars—Only God Forgives is as unexpected a follow up to Drive as I could have imagined. I went in expecting Drive, but in Thailand, and ultimately watched what felt like something Stanley Kubrick might have directed… but in Thailand. And that isn’t a bad thing.

Tangent - A Midsummer Night's Delirium

Pictured: the atmosphere inside my house.

Things I would prefer to this week's heat wave:

• Having my toenails yanked off one at a time.
• Running face first into a tree.
• Stubbing any and all of my toes.
• Being forced to replay the final episode of The Walking Dead game on repeat.
• Being shot non-vitally.

Obituary - Ryan Davis, 1979-2013

I feel like I’ve lost a friend I’ve never met.

Ryan Davis, co-founder, columnist and chief raconteur of video game news website Giant Bomb died last Wednesday at the age of 34. The news of his passing wasn’t released until this morning on Giant Bomb, and as of yet no cause of death has been mentioned. I respect the late Mr. Davis too much to speculate on the circumstances of his untimely death, so I’ll avoid the subject. Instead I just want to express my sincere condolences to his wife, whose name I unfortunately do not know and who tragically was only married to Ryan for a few days before his sudden passing last week.

Tangent - Canada: FUCK YEAH

AW SHIT IT'S CANADA DAY EVERYBODY.

TIME TO SHOUT OUT TO EVERYONE WHO HAS MADE THIS COUNTRY AWESOME AS HELL.