It was only a matter of time before Albert and David Maysles’
groundbreaking, cultish 1975 documentary Grey Gardens was turned into a
feature film. An uncomfortably intimate portrait of Edie Bouvier Beale
and her daughter Little Edie, socialites living in unbelievable
squalor, has already spawned a Broadway musical and endless fashion
editorials, thanks to Little Edie’s iconic head scarves and skirt-free
living. Director Michael Sucsy’s HBO movie of the week, shot around
Toronto, gives some context to these tragic lives—within the limits
of a MOW—before the raccoons and cats started using Grey Gardens
mansion as a giant litterbox, and before Big Edie (a spot-on
performance, even with old-lady prosthetics, by Jessica Lange) stopped
wearing clothes and began eating boiled corn in bed. However, the
biggest surprise is Drew Barrymore as Little Edie. A huge, volatile
personality that could have easily been overplayed as a caricature,
Barrymore, perhaps drawing on her own family’s crushing legacy, pushes
past the eccentricities to reveal an insecure, pained woman haunted by
broken dreams. Also, points for finally casting Jeanne Tripplehorn as a
young Jackie Onassis. As Little Edie would say, it’s staunch.
—Sue Carter Flinn
One Week
Directed by Michael McGowan (Mongrel)
When English teacher/frustrated novelist Ben (Joshua Jackson) learns
he’s suffering from stage-four cancer, he does what any self-respecting
movie flake would: he buys a motorcycle, casts off his boring life and
sets out for adventure—looking to “embrace randomness” and “searching
for moments.” On his road trip, he has the quintessential Canadian
experience—or at least the kind you’d expect him to have in an
unimaginative movie like One Week, full of Tim Hortons cups,
indie music, the northern lights and magical aboriginal drum-beating.
Ben learns important lessons about his life, and death; Campbell Scott
provides omniscient, pretentious narration, so we can, too!
—Lindsay McCarney
TV
Entourage: season six premiere
Really, is a review of Entourage’s season-six premiere any different
than a review of season two? Vince has sex, E is a tiny, whiny suck and
Arie yells at Lloyd. However, when the emotionally stunted posse
returns—Turtle is still in a committed relationship with Jamie-Lynn
Sigler from The Sopranos, E is moving out and Vince learns how to
drive—a newfound maturity threatens nature’s purpose for the show. No
one watches Entourage for character insight; it’s all about decadence,
ignorance and celebrity appearances. This season look for Autumn Reeser
(Taylor from The OC), Zac Efron and Matt Damon.
—SCF
BOOKS
The Halifax Street Railway
Don Cunningham & Don Artz (Nimbus)
Originally coil-bound and self-published by the authors in 2000,
this photo-heavy book shows how the growth of electricity’s delivery
and usage—the business of the grid—was entangled with public
transit for almost 100 years of this city’s history, from 1866 to
1949.
The authors offer more of an economic history than a social one.
They detail how companies were created and consolidated, championing
the financially connected people who always sat at the top calling the
shots. (By comparison, local government fares poorly in the authors’
view. In 1912, the city’s “onerous regulations” kept a company from
expanding in size and beyond the city’s control. A meddlesome
municipality? Sounds familiar.)
The two Dons also chart changes in streetcar models, lengths of
track, schedules and passenger loads. Too often, they’re descriptive
and not analytical in their approach. For example, the authors only
flick at social history, considering the impacts of the Halifax
Explosion, the two world wars and VE Day riots on the system. But they
don’t get into the everyday social and economic factors that influenced
ridership. Who could afford to use it? What communities were first and
principally served? What neighbourhoods were underserved, ignored? How
does the period covered in this book connect with the condition of
public transit today?
This article appears in Jul 16-22, 2009.