Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing!

Saw this last Friday Oct 27 at Varsity with Mary and Pavlina and LOVED IT! The movie is an engaging piece about the chicks and their lives after "the incident". Very emotional and a great girl power flick.

Afterward we went downstairs to Indigo to get their new album Taking the Long Way - awesome. Missed their concert in Toronto but you can check out the film and their tour schedule online and maybe catch them at a venue near you.

Film Club is still on for Volver on opening night Nov 3rd. It's been a high estrogen start to the season with Dixie Chicks followed by Volver. One reviewer said: "this film is mostly about women, girls sticking together across generations, separations and misunderstandings, bonding and being able to rely on each other."

Girl Power Film Club:
Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing,
followed by Volver

Happy Hallowe'en!
(C'est l'Hallowe'en, C'est l'Hallowe'en...)

The Prestige

Went for brunch Sunday Oct 22 at Tinto on Roncesvalles with Sue Duska from Calgary and met her brother Nigel and his wife Teresa. Teresa Kelly was there with the lovely Pascale and then we went our separate ways in the rain. Rich and I took the Queen streetcar clear across town to the Beach Cinema to see The Prestige. Very interesting movie about rival magicians played by Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. Richard was still thinking about it the next day at work.

Thanksgiving... mmmmmm

Had a yummy, happy Thanksgiving weekend. We had beautiful weather and I was on a rampage in the kitchen. After grocery shopping early Saturday, we became the House of Meat: I cooked rack of lamb for Thanksgiving on Sunday with cranberry orange sauce, roasted root vegetables and garlic mashed potatoes, followed by my signature chocolate pecan pie. Then Rich cooked a spicy, perfectly medium rare Prime Rib Roast on the holiday Monday. Is your mouth watering yet? MMMMMMmmmmm....... We even have chicken in the freezer so I can make a delicious Moraccan couscous when the next cold spell hits.

Off work Tuesday (great shopping) but back to the madness yesterday. Today I have an e-learning conference downtown with SkillSoft.

Andy Warhol

Went to see Andy Warhol / Supernova at the AGO, subtitled Stars, Deaths and Disasters. Curated by David Cronenberg - with his smooth narration on the audioguide - the show was interesting, albeit a little short and repetitive. The familiar silk screens are there, including the AGO's own Elvis as well as Elizabeth Taylor and Jackie Kennedy. The exhibition covers work from 1962-1964 and shows 4 looping films - each running 8 hours or more - so what you see depends on when you go. When I started my tour, girls were eating bananas on a couch, half an hour later there was explicit gay sex.

I especially loved 2 pieces: Andy's photo portrait, by artist Robert Mapplethorpe taken in 1986 only a year before Andy died, and a gorgeous silk screen print in the second room that showed a woman who had fallen from a building onto the roof of a car. She was lying on her back, perfectly intact in a delicate position, with the roof of the car poetically rumpled around her. Stars, Deaths and Disasters indeed.

India at TIFF

Whoops - only posting my TIFF reviews now for two great films by Indian directors:

Kabul Express - from Director Kabir Khan deals with two Indian journalists who get dropped in Afghanistan (literally) and try to score an interview with the Taliban. Shooting this movie was apparently dangerous but like No Man's Land from 2001, this film speaks more to the similarities between the cultures and the futility of war.

The Indian community was out in full force swooning over the dishy (and funny) male stars John Abraham and Arshad Warsi. The actress who played the "American journalist" was so NOT from this continent that her scenes got in the way for me but still, this was one of my most enjoyable films at TIFF this year. MMMM

The Namesake - the latest film from director Mira Nair was very touching and highly personal. It is her adaptation of the novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri. Having just seen Bride and Prejudice on TV yesterday followed by Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightly, I remembered that the last Indian wedding I had seen on film was during The Namesake. Essentially this is an immigrant story: an Indian couple go to live in the US, the husband a lecturer at the university, the wife adjusting to their apartment and the snow until they find a place in the suburbs. They have 2 children, a boy and a girl and name the boy Gogol, after the father's favourite author. Gogol is played by Kal Penn, of Harold and Kumar go to White Castle fame. His acting is a bit wooden but that doesn't detract too much from the full arc of the tale. I like the journey back to India the family takes together and how they celebrate in their home, right up until it is sold. It is interesting to see another culture deal with prejudice, choices and guilt. See it and call your parents. MMMm

Different directors
Two brave settings and stories
Message is the same

Club Film 06-07

Les amis, it's time to start thinking about MOVIES for our film club this winter. Here is what I propose:

I would start this Friday October 6 but Mary is away for Thanksgiving weekend so let's say:

Friday October 13: Manufactured Landscapes

Friday November 3: Volver (release date)

Friday December 8: Breaking and Entering (release date)
- directed by Anthony Mingella with Jude Law, Robin Wright Penn & Juliette Binoche

All 3 were at the festival. We can even squeeze in Babel with Brad after it opens on October 27th. Then plan for something else at Canada's Top Ten in January.

Check the IMDB movie release listing for more films/dates.

Club Film is coming soon
Time to catch up on TIFF films
Hope you like my picks!