Hooray for you, Mari Sasano.

This fall, I was shocked to hear that Adrienne Shelly was found murdered in her office. I loved her in Hal Hartley’s Trust, so it was really sad that she could die in such a pointless way. It wasn’t a crazy fan, it wasn’t a crime of passion. No, it was just some dude who got mad at her and killed her.

So it was great to see that her final film, Waitress, was so sweet and loving and full of hope and strength. Lovely, lovely Keri Russell plays Jenna, a waitress and pie cook at a diner. Her husband is controlling and mean, and she desperately wants to leave him and go see what her pie-making skills can get her in life. But then she finds that she’s pregnant. A new doctor in town (Nathan Fillion) takes her on as a patient, and their mutual attraction leads to an affair.

But instead of delivering the usual happily ever after, Shelly makes things beautiful, simple, and right. I don’t want to spoil it. You go see.

After the Fall is an intricate Arthur Miller play that is a veiled confession about his relatioships, most notably with Marilyn Monroe. The production is high-tech, with projections ablaze, but the most brilliant part of it is how the director puts his entire cast onstage, watching him as he relives his failed marriages. It’s such a simple thing, but it really gives the sense that we never leave people behind, they affect us good or bad, regardless. The first part is great that way, which is why the last act seems like a bit of a letdown. It’s so satisfying seeing all the characters flow in and out of Quinton’s (the Miller stand-in) life, but the last part of the play is mostly devoted to Maggie, the Marilyn character.

But it’s Arthur Miller, and what he’s great at is revealing a man’s flaws but showing also that he tries to make sense of it– we are all screwed up in some way, sometimes it leads to terrible consequences, but when it comes down to it, we’re all exactly the same. So what are we going to do? Sell each other out? Ignore the needs of others? Think about it.

To recap the events of the last week:

Went to see Citadel’s Oliver! It was going to be fun regardless of how much Paul dislikes musicals, since there was a real life dog in it! But the dog, as we learned, was out with an injury. Nevertheless, just hearing those songs (Food, Glorious Food! Consider Youself) was kind of surreal. And when that fails, there was always Pam Gordon’s breasts. Lovely and prominent!

I interviewed Shawn Colvin for the Journal. I think she’s pretty great, very down to earth and a little cynical. You get the sense that she not only loves music, she likes it enought to still listen to it. Her show was at the Maclab Theatre, a lovely venue with comfortable seats, and she was great to see. Funny, sweet.

Last night I went to catch the last bit of Darrin Hagen’s book launches. He’s re-releasing Edmonton Queen, 10 years later. I saw his first performance of the Lulu bit years ago at Loud N Queer, and so am really happy to see him taking it on again. Some people are weird about the idea of being responsible for the stories that they are given, but Darrin has taken on the role with panache. His Trailer Court Women book was also being launched, and that too is an important bit of Alberta fiction. There’s some cute pictures of little (though even at the time he was over 6 feet) Darrin, glasses and accordion.

Then, running into Trevor, we went to see the new Spider Man. What a glorious train wreck! Too many villains, too much girl-melodrama (dude, if you steal your best friend’s girl on his wedding day– AT THE ALTAR!– everything is NOT going to be OK.) and then the strangest Saturday Night Fever, finger-guns pointing, Spidey cruising the streets bit followed by a JAZZ NUMBER. Yes, Spidey jumping up on stage, calling for “Double time!”

Terrible, but mesmerizing.

An odd little movie, but with lots of dogs!

It’s directed by Mike White, which explains the uncomfortable/comic tone of the film. Molly Shannon is Peggy, an office worker who is friendly enough, but mostly keeps to herself. Her closest relationship is with Pencil, her beagle. When Pencil dies, she doesn’t know what to do with herself– she dates her neighbour (John C Reilly), who turns out to have been responsible for Pencil’s death, and Newt (Peter Sarsgaard), an asexual dog rescue worker who turns her onto veganism, which is at least some kind of constructive reaction. She also begins to read up on animal rights issues.

In her grief, she rescues more dogs than is legal, embezzles money from her job to send to animal rights groups, and starts to see her life in a very different way.

But the conclusion isn’t that Peggy is nuts. On the contrary. Instead, shows us how someone somes to accept herself and forms her beliefs, even if it’s something that not everyone believes in.

As a related aside, dogs really change people. At their best, they are accepting and loving. But when they are abused or neglected, their behaviour reflects their experience, even though they usually retain their natural impulse to be part of a social group. I think having dogs around is really a good way to learn compassion that way, and they allow us to open up to each other as well.

Walking Henry around the neighbourhood has really shown me a lot. People are more likely to say hi, or even stop for a chat. Kids run up to us. The other day, we walked by gloomy teenager, who brightened up when she say Henry. Henry makes goth girls smile! Dogs take us out of ourselves and make us realize that we are part of something much bigger. We can learn so much from them!