[Freya-dæg] An Audience With Your Highness

{Your Highness‘ movie poster, found on Wikipedia.}

Plot Summary
The Good
The Bad
Judgment
Closing

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Plot Summary

There is an ancient prophesy in the land that says that if a great warlock can lay with a virgin when the two moons meet, he will create a dragon. The Order of the Golden Knights has stopped the warlock before, but many years later all of the knights of the Order have been wiped out, a great warlock has arisen and the moons begin to converge.

Of course, none of that matters to the brash prince Thadeous, son of King Tallous (Charles Dance) and brother of the all-favoured Fabious (James Franco). He’s about as concerned with prophecies and quests as a bear is with a block of cheese. But when his brother returns from yet another successful quest with the virgin Belladonna (Zooey Deschanel) only to have his wedding crashed and his bride carried off by none other than the great wizard Leezar himself (Justin Theroux), Thadeous is forced by his father to join Fabious on his quest to save his bride and ultimately the kingdom.

Will Fabious be successful in averting a doom that will envelope the land, though he is beset on all sides by villains both traitorous and bad? Will Thadeous grow to be more than a spoiled bawd of a king’s son? Or will Lazeer prevail?

Only by watching can you find out if this disparate bunch of questors can break Leezar and make him scream Your Highness!

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The Good

Your Highness‘s cast is simply star-studded. Zooey Deschanel, James Franco, and Charles Dance, – all of them have sizeable roles in the film and bring all of their acting chops to bear on the film as a whole. What’s more, even the lesser known Danny McBride does a great job as Thadeous.

But what really sends this movie over the top in terms of the acting is the sheer devotion that all of the players show to keeping things medieval. The dialogue, the delivery, everything is nicely tinged with the very stuff of high fantasy. It isn’t necessarily accurate to actual historical fact, but neither are many high fantasy stories, and neither are many of the medieval romances on which they’re based – something which this movie gets quite close to being.

However, rather than being written by some gallant-minded self-styled bard, Your Highness is closer to what might have come about had Geoffrey Chaucer ever wrote a non-historical verse romance.

The movie’s writing is also quite strong, and though the plot develops in a more or less expected way, there’re enough fantastical elements to keep your interest throughout all of its 100 minutes.

The movie also nicely straddles the line of satire while also keeping the movie’s illusion in tact. Watching it, it’s very easy to get the sense that the actors know that they’re playing in roles and through ridiculous situations, but they maintain their act all the same. The fourth wall is left firmly in place, so much so that the best analogy is that this movie is the way that players of a D&D game might imagine their own games as they’re playing them.

And, just like many a D&D game, the movie has some unexpectedly dark moments, such as when the quest seems to be entirely hopeless and Fabious exclaims that “Belladonna will get raped and die” if they don’t get to her in time.

But, most importantly, setting this movie apart from In the Name of the King, is that nothing in it is contrived for the sake of action or a good laugh. Instead all of the jokes arise out of the characters’ personalities and the setting itself.

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The Bad

However, Rotten Tomatoes’ consensus on this movie does have it right – the jokes here are almost all based on the same theme. In this regard it’s kind of like something that Trey Parker and Matt Stone might have written, and it does run the risk of getting a little thin by the end. Though that remains as only a risk.

Also, there are some things in the movie that are pretty outlandishly off when it comes to medieval culture, even that of a fantasy realm. Such as this:

Powdered wigs and pale faces weren’t quite a male fashion statement until the 18th century, which is just a few centuries too late.

There are also some elements introduced early on in the movie that could use some more explanation: Thadeous’ distaste for mechanical things (focused entirely on his brother’s mechanical bird companion), and why the “triangle face” that Courtney (Rasmus Hardiker) pulls scares him.

{The horrific “triangle face” in action.}

However, as the film picks up and goes on, these things are forgotten by viewer and writer alike. Adding them into the development of Thadeous would have made this movie all the stronger, though. Perhaps, in fact, instead of just temptations to indulge himself, he could have had to face a mechanical being with a “triangle face” in the labyrinth where they find the Blade of Unicorn.

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Judgment

Your Highness is a grand farce of a medieval romance comedy. The humour can be overbearing, but the actors, the script, and the chemistry between them all keeps things going at a lovely trot from start to finish. What’s more, this movie passed one of the ultimate tests: it was as fun to watch a second time as it was the first.

So, Freya, don’t mind the lewd way in which this one comes on to you as you scoop it from the Field of Fallen Films, nor its lascivious words as you fly with it from there to where all great movies deserve to be.

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Closing

A Glass Darkly is going to be undergoing some changes starting next week.

Monday’s and Friday’s entries will continue as usual, but instead of Annotated Links throughout the week and an editorial in the middle, Annotated Links will be moved to Saturday and expanded to five links from three. The editorial is being dropped and will be replaced with a brief update on my writing endeavours that goes live every Sunday.

Check out the first of these Sunday entries on the 17th of the month!

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[Wōdnes-dæg] On Education, Work, and Passion

Introduction
Troubled Times for Work
Closing

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Introduction

Today’s editorial isn’t based on any one article so much as it is on experience and general reading.

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Troubled Times for Work

Those currently in their 20s are media darlings, in their own strange way. No, we aren’t all starring in a hip new TV show or sporting roles as extras in an upcoming movie of tremendous importance. Instead, we’re bucking the trend that’s been accepted and unquestioned practice in the Western world for centuries.

Many of us who have taken the road of education to get where we are are not quite where we expected ourselves to be. We’re living with our parents and/or working a job that doesn’t require our university or college-acquired knowledge possibly to pay off debt incurred by that education. If you’re in your 20s, chances are, at least one of those is true for you – possibly even all three are.

Reading through articles found on my own and passed onto me by friends and family, it seems that society as a whole is quite disturbed by this. Post-secondary-educated youth living with their parents into their late 20s? Humanities majors and masters serving coffee and waiting tables? Massive debt holding the youth back? The second question may not be anything new, but it’s still mentioned consistently enough.

Yet, as direly scarce as fitting employment may be and as impossible as the prospects of following the old “high-school –> post-secondary –> work” life model appear, this doesn’t necessarily mean that society is in crisis. Rather, it’s in the middle of an opportunity.

As difficult as it can be to stride through debt, go back to living with your parents, or to work a job that you could’ve been hired for fresh out of high school, the old life model’s being disrupted gives those of us in these situations the chance to do something different. It gives us all a chance to step back and to really ask what we want to do with ourselves and what we need to do in order to get there.

The economy is still stabilizing, and the job market is as rocky as ever. But passion is as important as ever, and it’s something that can be started anywhere, even if you’re not working in the safe and secure 9-5 style job that the old life model dictates. It’s strange, and it can be frightening, but we’ve gone off model and it’s for the better.

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Closing

Check back here on Friday for a journey amidst ribald jokes looking for gems in Your Highness.

And, in the meantime, be sure to check out my video game writing here.

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Blog Update: Putting a Premium on Time (Update Entry #11)

Contrary to what I posted in the last update, I’m going to try to get both the editorial and the creative writing entries back up this week. I’m also going to be giving updates on the last few items on this list every three days from here on in – so the next one will come on Thursday.

Along with the list’s growing shorter, I’m also returning to most regular updates since I’ve joined the ranks of the underemployed. It’s not a job I can see myself in five years down the road, but it’s a surer way than my freelancing has been to date to help cover the costs of searching for a job requiring English/creative writing/writing/editing skills while based in a small, rural town. This job’s also something that puts a premium on time thereby making it much clearer and easier for me to work on fiction.

At any rate, here’re the to-do lists’s stragglers:

• Sent out two short stories to magazines;

In the process of making time to edit, and search out good homes for them.

• Outlined the entirety of the fantasy novel that I’m currently writing;

Perhaps more important than any list of key events, I’ve finally figured out the climactic event for this novel. I’m going to be outlining the chapters shortly. Hopefully within the next three days.

• Completed five of those chapters;

The chapters I have right now seem like they need to be re-written, and, in fact, I may end up doing so. As per the next five chapters of the novel? I am still fleshing out what needs to happen to the novel’s various characters on the way towards and away from the climactic moment.

• Completed the next act (four scenes) of an audio drama I’m working on;

An outline for this act is going to be constructed first. I need to give myself a coherent end point for the act, since that will fuel my jog towards it.

For my writing about video games, check out my writing about video games here. Also, keep an eye out over the next few days for the launch of another (yes, another) blog that I’ll be using as a play log.

And, don’t miss tonight’s creative writing entry, Wednesday’s editorial, or Friday’s galavant into David Gordon Green’s Your Highness.

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[Moon-dæg] An Edit of an Oldie

Context
Alchemical Links
Closing

{One of many bizarre and fascinating images from medieval alchemical texts. Image found on janeteresa.com.}

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Context

Tonight’s piece is an edit of one of the many variations I wrote for an exercise that demanded a poem be written using “old oatmeal,” “gore,” and “possibility.” It’s from almost three years ago, and so was written during the early days of my MA studies in Victoria, BC.

I hadn’t been writing much poetry while I was in South Korea, so things were a bit rusty, but an MA writing group helped me to re-invigorate my poetry writing.

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Alchemical Links

Old oatmeal on the edge of a spoon
has seen things change from soft to hard to soft again.
Thinking, thoughts like oats and water
Mixed and heated until inseparable
In combinations only possible with that water
and those oats, plus unremembered heat degrees.

Something plentiful made into
something not found in big boxes or on strips
Only in rare conflagrations of perfectly shared passions
Birthing the possibility of true outcomes.

The tender green and virulent potential
of not green is staggering;

The world is no longer separated,
Joined only by a great chain, holding
Down the sequence.

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Closing

Check back here on Wednesday for a new editorial, on Thursday for the next blog update entry, and on Friday for some sleuthing for the saving grace of Your Highness.

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Blog Update: Posts Will Return (Update Entry #10)

I’ve completed enough of my list to start posting some regular entries again. On Monday, I’ll have a new piece of creative writing up, the rest will start back up again next week.

This is what’s left to do:

• Created and posted a hyperlinked portfolio page on these blogs;

Done. You can find it here.

• Sent out two short stories to magazines;

In the process of making time to edit, and search out good homes for them.

• Outlined the entirety of the fantasy novel that I’m currently writing;

I’ve written out a list of key events in the novel and am building a chapter-by-chapter outline in my mind as I type this.

• Completed five of those chapters;

The form of these chapters is slowly taking shape.

• Completed the next act (four scenes) of an audio drama I’m working on;

The plan from update number eight still needs to be implemented.

While you wait for this blog to come back up, check out my writing about video games here.

And, don’t miss next Friday’s hunt high and low for the good in David Gordon Green’s Your Highness.

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