Bad business, Public Relations, and Poutine

And now for something completely different... A public airing of a poutine-reated grievance.

Excuse me for steering away from the normal topic of this blog, but I'm cranky right now. I'm cranky because one of my favourite companies, Smoke's Poutinerie, slightly slighted me.

If you've never heard of Smoke's, I feel bad for you. They're a little joint that solely serves poutine, and they do a hell of a job at it. They offer a ridiculous variety of poutine with great toppings, check out their menu at the link I've provided above if you want to learn more.

I've spent a lot of time, and money, at Smoke's. The only one open as of today in Winnipeg is in the Exchange District, right across from my favourite watering hole, the King's Head pub. It's only minor hyperbole to say that Smoke's changed my life by opening poutine-related doors I never knew were possible.

So, my heart skipped a beat when I saw this tweet...

My thought process:

1) "Oh sweet, Smoke's is doing a promo for free poutine"

2) "Hmm, I have to drop my roommate off at the MTS Centre right away, maybe I'll swing by and grab one."

3) "Wait, this is at 885 Regent? That's a new location"

4) "THAT'S A NEW LOCATION BY MY HOUSE"

5) "HURRY UP ROOMMATE I NEED TO GET YOU THERE AND THEN BACK TO 885 REGENT IN AN HOUR"

I was so happy. So, so happy. I dropped roomie off, passed by many possible food places that I could have went to (I had originally planned on hitting up Shwarma Kahn) drove about 15 minutes out of my way to find the new Poutinerie.

I walked up to the door at 3:10, with 20 minutes to spare. Assuming they'd only be offering a small regular poutine, I was hoping I'd be able to pay a surcharge to add some delicious toppings. 

I grabbed the handle on the door. It was locked. I can only assume the look on my face was similar to that of a child who's just found out that (SPOILER ALERT) Santa Claus isn't real.

A nice looking older gentleman with a grey moustache came to the door, gave me a menu and said "We officially open on Monday". Before he could close the door, I mentioned the tweet I'd seen earlier.  He responded by saying "That was hours ago" and closed the door.

I was heartbroken. 

I went back to my car, light-headed, dizzy. It reminded me of the time I was refused a slow dance at a grade six sock-hop.

I figured I must have misread the time on the tweet, that I saw a mirage, that it was too perfect to be true. That I was wrong.

I pulled out my phone. No. I was not wrong, cleverly-disguised-as-a-nice-older-gentleman-who-is-obviosuly-a-poutine-demon.  The tweet was sent only 44 minutes ago.

I walked back to the door, vindicated. I knocked twice. The Poutine Demon looked, saw me, and was clearly annoyed. He opened the door.

"What?"

"The tweet was sent 44 minutes ago."

"That was on Toronto time"

....

........

............

Okay, I get that you're old, and Poutine Demons probably don't have a lot of use with Twitter, but THAT'S NOT HOW TWITTER WORKS.

I told him that was bad business. He responded by blaming it on head office.  He clearly looked down on me, and closed the door in my face.

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So yeah, that sucked. And it got me pretty riled up. I study communications, and I'm mostly interested in Public Relations, so this got me thinking about the PR aspect of being snubbed like that. Is it good business to piss off a customer, when you're clearly in the wrong? No. Is it bad PR? Well, not really. I'm only one member of one of their publics, so they can probably afford to piss me off.  That's why I'm writing this blog post, and why I trashed them publicly on Twitter (it's been about an hour and fifteen minutes since I tweeted them, and there's been no response).

Is it petty for me to do this? Yeah. Is the effort I've put into doing this post worth it? Probably not, but it's a Saturday afternoon and I've got time to kill before the Jets play the Leafs, so what the hell.

As well as thinking of it from a PR perspective, I thought about it from a restaurant employee perspective. I've worked as a server and bartender at a franchised restaurant for six year now, (I'm legally prohibited from naming them in my social networks due to a social media policy all employees are forced to sign, but they're the number one sports bar in Canada that specializes in Italian food and a casual, family-oriented dining atmosphere) and we see ridiculous complaints every single day. Most of the time it's because we genuinely screwed up. When that happens, we fix it. Sometimes though, the customer isn't right. Sometimes the customer is delusional. Sometimes the customer just wants free shit. We don't always bow down to their demands in these situations, but no matter how hard it is, we make sure the customer knows his or her concerns are being heard, and we do the best we can to rectify the situation.

We never close doors in people's faces. We never talk down to them. We always try and make it right.

Smoke's didn't do that today. The (I'm assuming) manager displayed poor communication skills, poor business skills, and he lost a customer for life, two days before his store opens up.

So while it might not be bad Public Relations, it's definitely bad business.

Epilogue.

I ended up getting Panago on the way home. I'd never been there before, but the two young women working were super awesome. They talked a little of hockey with me, made suggestions on the menu, and cooked me a bad-ass steak and mushroom pizza. Top shelf, Panago. Who needs cheese curds anyway.

- DP

George Clooney, Justin Bieber, and a 19-year-old sex worker walk into a bar....

Before we begin, an Oscar season haiku...

So many good movies

Will I ever see them all?

Drowning in homework

So while I'm doing my best to plough through the rest of the movies I haven't seen before March 2nd, they might have to wait until Reading Week. In the meantime though, the movie industry never stops, which means there's always new trailers to watch. Thankfully, most of them only take up about two minutes of my time.

The Monuments Men

I saw this trailer before catching The Secret Life of Walter Mitty in theatres last Friday (before you give me shit for watching this over an Oscar contender, allow me to point out that Walter Mitty was the inaugural review of this blog).  I really enjoyed the trailer, but anything with Clooney, Damon, Murray and Goodman is guaranteed to get my attention.

The concept seems like a neat twist on an event (WWII) that's seemingly been mined from every conceivable angle. The Monuments Men are apparently a military task force given the job of ensuring that European art isn't destroyed by Hitler and the Nazis. Cool idea.  (Side note: Goodman and Murray as soldiers? I'd have a tough time believing that even if they were in their twenties.)

I feel like the movie's got a great shot to say something about art and how meaningful it really is to our society, as well as the connection that people can have with it. The trailer seems to hint at these themes.

Or, it could be a shitty George Clooney vanity project where he blows shit up with his buddies.

Trailer: 3 Stars

Catch it on Netflix.

Afternoon Delight

Finally, finally, finally a leading role for Kathryn Hahn. She's been nothing short of phenomenal in supporting roles, stealing scenes in Step Brothers, Parks and Recreation, We're the Millers... Basically anything funny and quirky from the last 5 years. This movie gives her a shot to carry a film, and I'm pulling for her to knock one out of the park. 

Josh Radnor though... He feels like a one-note trombone to me. His character Ted on How I Met Your Mother is the low point of the show, and the one feature film I've seen him in, Liberal Arts, was good in spite of him, not because of him.

I have absolutely no idea who Juno Temple is, but she plays a 19-year-old stripper/sex worker/nanny, so that should be fun.

The trailer was full of great lines ("To hook? Is that the verb") and had some great visual gags as well. As is mandatory in any quirky comedy, Jane Lynch plays a psychiatrist. 

This just premiered at Sundance, so I'm not sure how wide of a release it will get, but if you can, I'd probably go See It.

Trailer: 4 Stars

Justin Bieber's Believe

Presented without comment. (Except for the fact that "Are you aware you could be the next train wreck" is sounding pretty prophetic right now).

#Believe

And the nominees are....

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (how stuck-up is that name?) announced their 2014 Oscar nominees yesterday morning. The awards will be held March 2 in Los Angeles, and I figured now would be a good time to take a look at the trailers for the Best Picture nominees that I haven't talked about in this space yet.

The Best Picture nomination format has changed a bit over the last decade. For 65 years, up until 2008, The Academy would nominate five films, just like it does in every other major category. However, feeling that deserving films weren't even being recognized with a nomination, in 2009 and 2010 ten films were nominated for Best Picture.  For the past 3 years, and now this year once again, The Academy uses a complicated algorithm that makes my brain hurt because math is hard to settle on somewhere between 5-10 nominees. For the third year in a row, they've settled on nine nominees.

I've had a chance to review six of the nine trailers for films nominated for Best Picture in this space so far, and I figured I'd take a look at the other three today. I do plan on making some predictions before the big date in early March, but as of now I've only seen three of the nominees for best picture, so I've got some "work" to do.

If you want to go back and see what I had to say about the other nominees, you can find my reviews for Her and American Hustle here, for Nebraska here, for Dallas Buyer's Club and Wolf of Wall Street here, and for Gravity here.

Captain Phillips (Six Oscar Nominations)

This was one movie I meant to go see in IMAX, but I never got around to it since it was playing at the same time as Gravity. I still haven't caught it, but I'm excited, just like I was the first time I watched this trailer.

Before I'd ever seen the trailer, someone mentioned to me that it was "a pirate movie with Tom Hanks". I was basically picturing Splash 2, with lovable, parrot-toting pirates and and awe-shucks Tom Hanks along for the ride, so this was a little bit different.

The trailer does a great job on a couple of levels. It manages to establish that this is a Tom Hanks movie within the first five second, and gives him plenty of screen time. It gives us a great look at the main problem in the movie, even though it was only about ten seconds, watching the pirates latch the ladder on to the ship was pretty powerful for a trailer.

I also really liked the main pirate talking to Tom Hanks, with the great line "I am the captain now." That role is played by Barkhad Abdi, who actually received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor in his first ever on-screen role. Fun fact: Abdi was driving a cab in Minneapolis before he got this role. Minneapolis cab drivers are notorious for leading tourists around on wild, out of the way routes to drive up their fares, so I guess he had a little bit of practice being a "pirate".

Trailer: 3.5 stars

Philomena (Four Oscar Nominations)

I remember watching this trailer months ago while looking for material to write about in this blog, and not including it because I though it was cliché and yawn worthy. Nothing has changed.

None of the jokes landed for me (except for the "I never knew I had a clitoris" one at the very end that I must have missed the first time around... But there's something a little weird about hearing Judi Dench say the word clitoris) the music was horrible and tried to be "uplifting", and it seemed like another movie that paints all journalists as scumbags until they stumble upon a story that changes their lives.

Apparently, the film is worthy of a Best Picture nomination, but the trailer did an absolutely horrible job of getting me excited for the film. That being said, I'll be sure to check it out before March 2.

Trailer: 1 Star

12 Years a Slave (Nine Oscar Nominations)

12 Years a Slave took home the Golden Glove for Best Picture (Drama) this year, and it's expected to repeat with a Best Picture statuette this March. It's not hard to see why from the trailer. It's a twist on the typical American Slave movie we've seen done in so many ways; a free black man from New York is kidnapped and sold to a plantation in the South.  The material is super compelling.

I haven't seen the film yet, but I'm anxious to see it. I say anxious and not excited because I'm sure director Steve McQueen doesn't hold anything back. It looks to be a brutally honest showcase of the horrors slaves were faced with in the 19th century.

That being said, the cast of the film, highlighted by Michael Fassbender and Chiwetel Ejiofor (both nominated) and supported by Paul Giamatti and Brad Pitt, should knock this material right out of the park.

Trailer: 4 Stars

Holiday movie roundup — The Wolf of Wall Street and American Hustle

Hello everyone, I hope you all enjoyed your holidays.  My December was filled with snow in my shoes, frost on my eyelashes and my car refusing to start. Pretty standard stuff for Winnipeg.

I had a great chance to recharge my batteries, hang out with friends and family, and eat some turkey.  I even managed to sneak in a trip to Florida.

While all that family, friend and food stuff is great, the best part about the 'most wonderful time of the year' for me is the movies released during December. The major studios generally save their best for last, hoping to generate buzz in order to make some noise during awards ceremonies.

It can be tough to see all of the quality movies released during this time, especially living in a small market like Winnipeg. The month-long break I had from classes gave me a chance to catch a couple of the movies I've been anticipating, and I thought I'd look back on them real quick to start off the new year.

The Wolf of Wall Street

I'm a sucker for anything featuring Marty or Leo, and was so hyped on this movie I actually caught it opening night, December 25th.  The movie's based on the real life exploits of financial crook Jordan Belfort, who made a mint peddling penny stocks in the 1990's.

Wolf is over two hours long, but it flies by at a frantic pace. Leonardo DiCaprio is at his absolute best here; transforming from a tame business man to a cocaine and quaalude fuelled party monster with an unending appetite for more and more money, basically after one meeting with Matthew McConaughey.

The way the film was shot reminds me of Scorsese's 1990 mobster classic Goodfellas, with DiCaprio narrating Wolf much like Ray Liotta did.  Much of the movie is dedicated to showing off the high-flying excess enjoyed by Belfort and his pals (most notably Donnie Azoff, wonderfully portrayed by Jonah Hill) and the movie has been criticized by many for glorifying Belfort's scam and lifestyle. Christina McDowell, an indirect victim of Belfort's, even wrote an open letter to Scorsese and DiCaprio, condemning the film and pleading with the world to ignore it.

I tend to think critics of the film are underestimating the audience. Sure, it's easy to get caught up in the excess and the parties and go along for the drug-fuelled ride, but at the end of the day, walking out of the theatre, I would imagine most people know that what Belfort did was wrong.  The latter third of the movie shows him crashing back to earth, losing his money, his wife, and his kid.  Much like at the end of Goodfellas, he doesn't get away with it scot-free.

The movie serves as a cautionary tale. Not only against ending up like Belfort, but a warning to not become like those he scammed, falling for an impossible chance at making a quick buck. The final scene of the movie shows Belfort speaking at a large conference, giving a seminar on sales. The camera pans over the crowd, staring at him like sheep, showing the audience that a conman can only be successful if he has people willing to be conned.

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American Hustle

  

I could hardy contain my excitement when I briefly talked about this trailer a few weeks ago, and I was not disappointed. The entire cast of the movie works wonderfully together, and this was probably the most fun I've had at the movies all year.  I'll watch Jennifer Lawrence in anything, she's an absolute fireball on the screen, but she doesn't show up in this movie until over 30 minutes in. I didn't even mind, because the heat between Amy Adams, Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper was almost too much to stand without throwing JLaw into the mix.

The plot in the movie was a little hard to follow at times, but actually pretty interesting. Honestly though, that's not why you're going to see this. You're going to see it for the stars, for the ridiculous costumes, and for the insanely good soundtrack.  

The movie's just an absolute blast, and it's so ridiculous it sometimes feels like it's about one step away from a full on musical. I mean that in the best way popular.  My friend Lauren put it best, simply saying "It made me want to dress, dance, and have fun like they did".  The 70's, man.

Also, Bradley Cooper beats the heck out of Louis C.K. with a rotary phone. It's hilarious.

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I managed to get out and catch the other JLaw movie in theatres over the break as well.  The second instalment in The Hunger Games series was a vast improvement on the first. The second book was my favourite in the series, but the movie was better than the first for more than just the source material. Director Francis Lawrence did a great job of raising the stakes with this movie, I'm just a little worried about the studio splitting the third book into two movies.

I didn't spend as much time at the theatre as I would've liked, but I plan on seeing a couple more movies in the next few weeks. At the top of my list are Inside Llewyn Davis and Her, both of which should make some noise at the upcoming Academy Awards.