Attention filmlovers: If you attended TIFF 2005, I want to hear your Best and Worst picks of the fest. List at least 3 (and up to 5) in each category. This year, I saw 11 films (less than a third of Joe's 35) and enjoyed the diversity of my choices and the access to stars on the red carpet. After 13 years, I also think I'm getting better at film selection, but you be the judge:
MM's BEST of TIFF
1. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (for Robert Downey Jr's narration and the director's surprises)
2. Thumbsucker (for Keanu's lines and Tilda Swinton's and Lou Pucci's performances - see it in theatres now!)
3. C.R.A.Z.Y. (because it was real, touching and uniquely 70's Canadian)
4. a tie: Corpse Bride (for the chance to meet Johnny Depp on the red carpet at the Elgin) and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (because I got to see it with Les Boys and it prompted such discussion afterward)
5. Sketches of Frank Gehry (for the relaxing pace and beautiful examples of his work)
MM's WORST of TIFF
1. Beowulf & Grendel (we walked out - need we say more?)
2. Entre ses mains (In His Hands) - how many times can you walk back into the arms of a killer?
3. Nanook of the North (well, at least the throatsingers were interesting)
Okay TIFF (and VIFF) veterans - let's hear from you! Post your comments on this blog or email me - you know where I live!
haikugirl / MM
Friday, October 07, 2005
When bad movies happen to good actors
As promised, Jan's review of The Dying Gaul.... really, really dying....
Hi MM
Saw The Dying Gaul last night - Campbell Scott, Patricia Clarkson & Peter Sarsgaard - how could you go wrong? Lotsa ways apparently. Sarsgaard plays a fledgling screen writer that has written a screenplay called The Dying Gaul - the story of a homosexual couple based on his own relationship with his former lover, now dead from AIDS. Scott plays the movie mogul that buys the play for one million dollars, on the condition that it is rewritten as a hetrosexual aids story. Clarkson is Scott's bored, smart, frustrated screen-writer wife. The couple form a tight relationship with Sarsgaard - Scott becomes his lover, and Clarkson begins to anonymously chat with him on gay chat sites. All sounds fairly promising, and you can't really blame the actors for the problems with this one. The pacing is off, and there are some bizarre cinematic choices, particularly to show the "chat" between Sarsgaard and Clarkson - at one point it is shown as their disembodied speaking heads. Made me think of SCTV's takes on Bergman, and I don't think that was the intention. Clunky, awkward, and boring. Have to give Sarsgaard points for the hysterical weeping breakdown he has after a sexual encounter with Scott - bizarre high pitched choking crying that was genuine enough to be uncomfortable to watch, but my praise ends there. This is apparently based on a play - can see that it could work well on the stage, but this is one reaaaaally bad adaptation.
-Jan
I love Jan's reviews
Too bad for Peter Sarsgaard
Just rent Garden State
Hi MM
Saw The Dying Gaul last night - Campbell Scott, Patricia Clarkson & Peter Sarsgaard - how could you go wrong? Lotsa ways apparently. Sarsgaard plays a fledgling screen writer that has written a screenplay called The Dying Gaul - the story of a homosexual couple based on his own relationship with his former lover, now dead from AIDS. Scott plays the movie mogul that buys the play for one million dollars, on the condition that it is rewritten as a hetrosexual aids story. Clarkson is Scott's bored, smart, frustrated screen-writer wife. The couple form a tight relationship with Sarsgaard - Scott becomes his lover, and Clarkson begins to anonymously chat with him on gay chat sites. All sounds fairly promising, and you can't really blame the actors for the problems with this one. The pacing is off, and there are some bizarre cinematic choices, particularly to show the "chat" between Sarsgaard and Clarkson - at one point it is shown as their disembodied speaking heads. Made me think of SCTV's takes on Bergman, and I don't think that was the intention. Clunky, awkward, and boring. Have to give Sarsgaard points for the hysterical weeping breakdown he has after a sexual encounter with Scott - bizarre high pitched choking crying that was genuine enough to be uncomfortable to watch, but my praise ends there. This is apparently based on a play - can see that it could work well on the stage, but this is one reaaaaally bad adaptation.
-Jan
I love Jan's reviews
Too bad for Peter Sarsgaard
Just rent Garden State
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Letter from VIFF
I wanted to post this letter with reviews from a friend attending the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) - thanks Jan:
Hi there Mary Margaret!
Hope all is well. Am currently in the throws of VIFF - and what a different experience! Imagine being able to get tickets to films you want to see just by walking up to a ticket wicket and asking for them...also, nice price (10 films, $87). Of course, you don't get the celebs either.
Have seen a couple of winners so far - The Squid & the Whale, which should come out soon. Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels as a couple, both writers - he also a prof, with a writing career on the demise, she on the rise. They divorce, and the story is largely about how it affects their two sons. Really liked it, an not just because Jeff Daniels' self-involved demi-god-wannabe character confirms every suspicion I have about profs/writers. Both funny & painful. Also a great comic role by Billy Baldwin as a local tennis pro. Also lovely was a french film When the Tide Comes In, about a travelling actress who gets involved with one of her audience members. Nice not only because the protagonists don't fit the ideal specs you'd find in a North American film. And finally, saw Life With my Father, Quebecois film about two sons dealing with their charismatic, ailing, womanizing father. Shades of the Barbarian Invasions, which I gather was being filmed at about the same time. Needed some editing, but otherwise quite good.
I am looking forward to seeing E.I.I. once VIFF is over - saw a bit on Gogol Bordello on The New Music, looks very fun. My next review will be for The Dying Gaul, with Campbell Scott.
Jan
Hi there Mary Margaret!
Hope all is well. Am currently in the throws of VIFF - and what a different experience! Imagine being able to get tickets to films you want to see just by walking up to a ticket wicket and asking for them...also, nice price (10 films, $87). Of course, you don't get the celebs either.
Have seen a couple of winners so far - The Squid & the Whale, which should come out soon. Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels as a couple, both writers - he also a prof, with a writing career on the demise, she on the rise. They divorce, and the story is largely about how it affects their two sons. Really liked it, an not just because Jeff Daniels' self-involved demi-god-wannabe character confirms every suspicion I have about profs/writers. Both funny & painful. Also a great comic role by Billy Baldwin as a local tennis pro. Also lovely was a french film When the Tide Comes In, about a travelling actress who gets involved with one of her audience members. Nice not only because the protagonists don't fit the ideal specs you'd find in a North American film. And finally, saw Life With my Father, Quebecois film about two sons dealing with their charismatic, ailing, womanizing father. Shades of the Barbarian Invasions, which I gather was being filmed at about the same time. Needed some editing, but otherwise quite good.
I am looking forward to seeing E.I.I. once VIFF is over - saw a bit on Gogol Bordello on The New Music, looks very fun. My next review will be for The Dying Gaul, with Campbell Scott.
Jan
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Everything is Illuminated
This movie was at the festival on Mon Sept 12 at 9pm but I couldn't see it because I was at Dave Chappelle's Block Party. Instead, Mary Long and I picked it for our movie night out Fri Sept 30 when it opened in Toronto. We loved Everything is Illuminated MMMM and recommend it to friends and family. Other reviewers don't seem to agree.
Written for the screen and directed by Liev Schrieber (he of Scream 3, Manchurian Candidate and Hamlet fame) this is a solid directorial debut. Based on the critically-acclaimed novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, this film is all about the characters - including the dog. Elijah Wood (Jonathan) goes to Ukraine in search of a woman in an old photo who apparently helped his grandfather Safran escape the Nazis. Jonathan is a 'collector' literally collecting things he encounters and bagging them so he won't forget. When he gets to Ukraine, he finds Alex Jr as his 'trusted interpreter' and Alex's grandfather Alex Sr. as the 'certified guide' who says he's blind and won't travel without his 'seeing eye bitch' a hilarious dog named Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. This unlikely band travels through rural Ukraine (the credits suggest it's really Czechoslovakia) in their 'rigid search' for Trachimbrod - the town where the photo was apparently taken. This proves to be tougher than they thought because no one has heard of it.
Alex Jr's English is 'not so premium' but the actor Eugene Hutz he is also the lead singer of Gogol Bordello and wrote and performed much of the music on the movie's soundtrack - a kind of Ukrainian gypsy/pop/klezmer music. I think I'll pick it up to add to my own collection. This film is funny and touching, some scenes are wonderous, and it will make you pine for your own grandparents and past. My brother Steve should be the first to see it.
road trip through Ukraine
everything in the past is
illuminated
P.S. Movie clubbers, our next film is Elizabethtown, then Paradise Now.
Written for the screen and directed by Liev Schrieber (he of Scream 3, Manchurian Candidate and Hamlet fame) this is a solid directorial debut. Based on the critically-acclaimed novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, this film is all about the characters - including the dog. Elijah Wood (Jonathan) goes to Ukraine in search of a woman in an old photo who apparently helped his grandfather Safran escape the Nazis. Jonathan is a 'collector' literally collecting things he encounters and bagging them so he won't forget. When he gets to Ukraine, he finds Alex Jr as his 'trusted interpreter' and Alex's grandfather Alex Sr. as the 'certified guide' who says he's blind and won't travel without his 'seeing eye bitch' a hilarious dog named Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. This unlikely band travels through rural Ukraine (the credits suggest it's really Czechoslovakia) in their 'rigid search' for Trachimbrod - the town where the photo was apparently taken. This proves to be tougher than they thought because no one has heard of it.
Alex Jr's English is 'not so premium' but the actor Eugene Hutz he is also the lead singer of Gogol Bordello and wrote and performed much of the music on the movie's soundtrack - a kind of Ukrainian gypsy/pop/klezmer music. I think I'll pick it up to add to my own collection. This film is funny and touching, some scenes are wonderous, and it will make you pine for your own grandparents and past. My brother Steve should be the first to see it.
road trip through Ukraine
everything in the past is
illuminated
P.S. Movie clubbers, our next film is Elizabethtown, then Paradise Now.
ADPi photos
The ADPis are tired of being proper and prim... so starts one of our many songs. Coming soon to this space: photos and captions of the reunion. Stay tuned!
ADPi Reunion
Spent a wonderful, whirlwind weekend in Winnipeg at my sorority reunion Sept 23-25. Alpha Delta Pi (Beta Theta chapter) celebrated 75 years at the University of Manitoba campus and sisters travelled from far and near to attend: Anna Dovolis came from Minneapolis, Shelley Blair came from Hamilton, Jennifer Yeo came from Vernon, BC, Laura Drosdowech came from New York, and Karen Arnold and Monica Hertzberg were there to laugh, sing and party. I got to attend all the events with my Mom because she was an ADPi before me (making me a legacy). We had lunch and a tour at the Manitoba Legislature on Friday, Sept. 23rd, a gala Dinner & Dance at the Hotel Fort Garry on Saturday night, complete with a group photo and lots of singing, and a brunch on Sunday before I had to leave on the Air Canada flight with Shelley to come back to Toronto. It was so heartwarming to see so many dear friends and mothers again (several of us were legacies and some Moms have been in sorority over 50 years). The ADPis also sing to a sweetheart at every formal and this year my Dad was chosen as sweetheart. I even managed to squeeze in a drink with my movie reviewer friend Alison Gillmor on Friday night at the Hotel Ft. Garry - what a beautiful living landmark! Hardev, sorry I missed you but it gave me lots of ideas for our 25th SJR Reunion next year. Photos to follow.
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