Clean House, Stranger than Fiction, and Rejections

I started cleaning house today. And by house I mean the blog.

I went through with a sharpened machete and slashed away at dead links. Now, it’s possible I nicked a link that I shouldn’t have, so if you notice yours has gone kaput, just tell me and I’ll bandage it up as best I can. Okay, maybe the link won’t have feeling in its lower extremities, or it won’t be able to wiggle its .com anymore, but that’s the price of living as a link on Tales at Twilight.

Okay, and 1 rejection from Chizine. I thought I’d just, you know, throw it out there. Notice there’s no number attached. Nope, just a casual, “by the way…”

And with that done, I can move on to what I really want to talk about, which is Stranger than Fiction, the new Will Ferrell movie. And once again most critics have their heads up their asses.

Simply put? Great movie.

Some critics claim that the writer tried to channel Charlie Kaufman, and failed. Sure, it had that Kaufman oddness to it, but failed? Hell no.

There’s also a camp of critics who claim the comedy fell flat. Once again, no. They were probably looking for Ferrell’s trademark wackiness, or some dense character that stumbles through the plot. And when they were confronted with a complex, thoughtful character, who is anything but stupid, they tuned out and said, “Not funny.” Want proof? One critic compared this character to Ferrell’s Ricky Bobby. Sorry, but you just can’t compare the two, other than the fact that Ferrell plays both characters.

Maybe it isn’t funny in the I just got kicked in the nuts sort of way–but that’s okay.

Think Jim Carey in The Truman Show, or even Eternal Sunshine. I don’t like drawing those comparisons, because that will only perk up those dense critics who made the connections as if to show how badly Stranger than Fiction failed, but I compare only to give you an idea of where this movie is coming from.

Don’t listen to the critics. Hell, don’t even listen to me. Just go see the movie.