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
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I agree about The Squid and the Whale, but I thought Life with My Father was terrible (I actually walked out halfway through). I wanted to see The Dying Gaul; hopefully it will come back to Vancouver although Campbell Scott and Patricia Clarkson (while both great) are not exactly ‘stars’. I remember watching Hi-Life at VIFF a few years, which was very funny and also had Campbell Scott in a main role, but never heard anything about that film afterward.
My VIFF blog is http://www.livejournal.com/users/mathew5000/
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