Yes, there was a moment of smug self-satisfaction after reading Caitlin's comments here. Before knowing the effect of my praise, last night at four am, before crawling into my cold bed, I decided to throw Amnesiac into the CD player and fall asleep to it (I love the irony of it, but one cannot live on irony alone), however, I was so tired that I didn't even make it to the end of "Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box." I didn't even feel that tired before I got home, but once my head hit the pillow...wham!

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I'm going to get back on the subject of movies right away here, because being the obsessive film fan that I am, I simply cannot go for very long without talking about movies in some way, whether an offhand allusion to a line from a favourite comedy or verbally trying to throttle a friend who has the gall to insult a Star Wars film in my pressence.

I went to see Finding Neverland this evening. Having seen 57 of the films released thus far in 2004, I can say that this is a great film that does live up to its expectations. It's not a loud obnoxious film, but rather a film full of life and imagination. Johnny Depp is, as usual, excellent as J.M. Barrie - sometimes it really bothers me that he got famous for his role in Pirates, good as he was, because people don't realize how good this guys range is. From film to film, he's never quite the same. He doesn't rely on his personae to carry a film, but rather inhabits the characters that he plays. Kate Winslet is also excellent, adding this to her role in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind earlier this year, and I'm predicting at least one Oscar nomination for her. Actually, I would be surprised if thsi film doesn't get nominated for Best Picture. In a year full of "biopics," here is film that truly stands on its own, not only with insight into a facinating life, but as story in and of itself, full of joy, sadness and imagination.

Imagination. That's really what made me love the film. All other aspects aside, this is a film that further inspires me in the belief that writing and storytelling do matter, and are of grave importance in this world. Barrie's exhortation to young Peter that he must write, whatever, be it what he does during the day or the "talking whale in your head" that is our imaginations. Writing is important, and it's something that I need to make a more conscious effort to make the time to do so.

This blog is good start. That's one of the great things about blogging, is that it's an easy way to practice writing something. Not that anything that I write on here is very good or anything, but the practice of making writing a familiar and comfortable part of life is a good one. Now I need to unlock my imagination and work some more on the ideas I have for novels, essays, comics and screenplays. All those things are in there and, with practice, I can bring them to life.