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!

Porter Air

Read on CP24 that Porter Airlines won approval to fly out of the Toronto Island Airport. No one is probably more thrilled about this than our friend Paul who's been working to build Porter Air for months now. Check out their website http://www.flyporter.com/ and see the groovy cartoon raccoon mascot (how urban Toronto is that!)

But all is not without controversy as this USA Today post shows. Having our Mayor against you isn't fun but the choice to fly another airline to Ottawa or Montreal is definitely appealing. Stay tuned to see how this evolves.

Showcase Ontario 2006

Since the Spring, I have been working on the Steering Committee for Showcase Ontario 2006. This education and exhibition takes place at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and attracts about 6000 attendees each year, mostly from the public sector.

Last night was the Showcase Merit Awards Dinner and one of the initiatives I'm working on won an award for Working Together for our partnership with the federal government: The Institute I&IT E-Learning Gateway. Yesterday I finally met the people I had been working with virtually since last November and we received our award and enjoyed a lovely dinner and celebration. I had also organized an E-Learning Panel that afternoon which included 3 panellists and generated a lot of excellent questions and discussion.

Today is Day 3 of Showcase and my team OPS Learning & Development has another panel discussion about how our branches support the OPS HR Plan. It's going to be busy going to the show and helping prepare for the panel at 2:00 today.

Between the SJR Reunion, the FilmFest and Showcase, September has been a hectic month. I'm looking forward to some downtime in October - can't believe Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away!

Fall tv

Monday night saw 3 minutes of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and was not impressed. Think I have to get in on an episode from the beginning but I'm having trouble seeing Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford as anything but Chandler and Josh (from West Wing).

A much better show is Smith starring Ray Liotta and Virgina Madsen. He is a high-end thief who holds down a day job but plans elaborate heists. His team is hard core and last night's show had interesting composition and high production value. I will be watching it again next week for sure.

Paris, Je t'aime

This final festival flick was the perfect ending to a great fest. Paris, Je t'aime is a compilation of short films by 21 international directors made for a delicious 2 hours of gorgeous scenes of Paris and unique situations and storylines.

Alexander Payne (co-writer and director of Sideways) showed up as Oscar Wilde in Pere Lachaise cemetery to coach a commitment-phobic Brit to go after his fiancee - this by Wes Craven. Payne also wrote and directed a charming French "essay" overdubbed in good French with a bad American accent by a middle-aged postal carrier. Another funny one was Joel and Ethan Coen's scene at Tuileries Metro station where Steve Buscemi gets into trouble waiting for the train. Tom Tykwer did a mini Run Lola Run with Natalie Portman and her blind boyfriend and Isabel Coixet help show a philanderer the error of his ways in a Bastille restaurant.

Some films touched upon racial tensions and the gap between the social classes, while others were just dull. The Gus Van Sant one was just like him: somewhat annoying and pointless. The one about vampires by Canadian director Vincenzo Natali was particularly lame (his movie Cube which came out of the Film Centre and was mediocre at best but apparently it has a massive following in Europe.)

Ultimately, the film compilation was like a wine tasting: you open up each bottle, nose it then swish it around in your glass for a few seconds, and in the first taste you pretty well know how good it's going to be. Some wines you savour every last drop, others you spit half out into the bin. How fun to be an armchair traveller basking in the glorious views and stories of such a great city. MMMMm

The Banquet

The Banquet was a gorgeous but bloody tale of ancient China. Beautiful costumes, sets and music. I always like to see at least 1 bamboo forest in every festival and the scenes in this theatre in the forest were unbelievable. Lovely to see the beautiful Ziyi Zhang (of House of Flying Daggers and Memoirs of a Geisha) in action.

Essentially, it is a retelling of Hamlet so everybody dies and they're pretty sneaky about it (here, take my wine, oh, it's poisoned.... here, grab my sword, oh, it's poisoned.) And of course, the poison is the most deadly thing on earth (next to the human heart ;-)

If you like Crouching Tiger, you'll like this. Another 2 hour investment. MMMM

subway advertising - what up?

Saw a subway car plastered with ads for Jericho, some new tv show. There's a picture of a good looking group of young people in the foreground and and what looks like a sinister mushroom cloud in the background.

I don't know anything about the show but the ads sound dumb - read them and see:

Jericho. The day everything changed.
Jericho. In times like these, can hope survive?
Jericho. An ordinary guy. An unexpected hero.

Holy grilled cheese sandwich Batman! I liked Citytv's ad for Supernatural last season: "Hot guys. Hot show." Obviously style matters more to them than content...

TIFF Press Conferences

Since we've been living in our house and have Bell ExpressVu, I've missed having access to the Press Conferences on Rogers cable (running 24 hours a day).

This year, I no longer need to feel left out. I can watch the TIFF press conferences on ExpressVu channel 307 and have seen several good ones this week: Volver, Babel, Dixie Chicks, Kabul Express, Breaking and Entering, Fay Grim. The moderators are sometimes annoying but it's great to hear stories from the stars and directors. Sean Penn is already in trouble for chain smoking throughout his press conference.

The only downside are the horrible, repetitive trailers for the hosts who are supposed to be taking us to the stars and hot spots. For favourite movies they list: Lady and the Tramp, Back to the Future, Dazed and Confused and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Only 1 guy talks about movies that were at TIFF last year but he also starts with the question "What are you wearing" which I haven't heard on any red carpet outside of Hollywood.

Snow Cake

Snow Cake was a good vehicle for Alan Rickman and Carrie Anne Moss but they were not there tonight. Sigourney Weaver was, along with other principal Canadian cast members, but I didn't pull out my camera in the theatre (besides the fact you get yelled at for doing that now which has never been the case in all my years at the fest).

Snow Cake was filmed in Wawa, Ontario (with the big Canada goose by the lake). The producer Niv Fishman (who produces Slings and Arrows) celebrated the screenwriter as someone to watch. I thought Saturday's film Stranger Than Fiction had stronger writing. I found most of the opening exchanges between Rickman's character Alex Hughes and Vivienne (Emily Hampshire) were heavy with cliches.

The writing got fresher and the performances were fine but it's tough to watch someone play an autistic adult, even though Sigourney Weaver was pretty convincing. Some scenes were a bit too much - like we were watching I Am Sam. Would be interesting to watch on tv or to rent on DVD. As a UK-Canada co-production I expect it will end up on tv sooner or later. Scenes of driving in northern Ontario and Rickman's quest to get to Winnipeg made me smile. MMM

Winter in Wawa
Don't want to eat a Snow Cake
Alan Rickman kicks

Golden Door

Golden Door from Italian Director Emanuele Crialese was a touching, inventive film. I liked his vision and although the pacing was slow, it was realistic. It followed a family in Sicily at the turn of the century as they struggled with their decision to emigrate to the new world. After seeing postcards with giant vegetables and animals and money trees and climbing to the top of the mountain and leaving their rock offering for the madonna to wait for a sign from her, they decide to go ahead. Father and sons trade their animals for clothes and leave with Nonna and the two neighbourhood girls who were "promised" to two Americans. At the port, Charlotte Gainsbourg starts to hang around them and claims she is travelling with them because her American fiance dumped her.

Scenes on the boat were more than half the screen time (and felt as long as it probably was for the travellers). The entry requirements and examinations at Ellis Island seem excessive and discriminatory to us today but immigration still requires variations of these requirements for immigrants today. There was no score but the director used 2 songs: Michael Buble, Feeling Good ("It's a New Dawn, It's a New Day, It's a New Life....) and Nina Simone, Sinnerman (a rythmic, rollicking spiritual that still sings in my head). For the director's clever use of milk and oversized vegetables and a haunting group shot as the boat leaves port, I give it MMMm

Golden Door was slow
pacing matched the new world trip
no wonder I fly

After the flick we walked and walked through downtown checking out restaurants around Yonge and King and ended up grabbing a quick pint at a quaint Irish pub.

Radiant City - Sept 12 part deux

Richard and I have seen every film that Calgary Director Gary Burns has brought to TIFF. Radiant City is a documentary about suburbia shot mostly in Calgary. My friends in Winnipeg know the co-director Jim Brown who works for CBC. The treeless developments with an endless maze of cul de sacs and 2 car families hit home. But despite their large lots and 2 car garages, many of these people are no further away from their neighbours than me.

That's not my main problem with this movie. The repartee, particularly by the eloquent 12 year old, is engaging as are the interesting suburbatrivia. As the story starts to escalate to a wierdly tragic end, the directors shoot through their documentary status and reveal that they used hired actors who were not a real family and that most of the film was scripted. HOW CAN THIS LEGITIMATELY BE PART OF REAL TO REEL??? Aren't there rules? How can they do this and build us up for a fall? Yeah, maybe the suburbs are evil but the do-cirectors are evil for misrepresenting their project. For fraud and being about 25 minutes too long, MMm (better than Guy Maddin but not by much. Canadian filmmakers what's happening to you???)

grim suburbia
Radiant City it's not
neither is this film

The Fountain

Director Darren Aronofsky is married to Rachel Weisz. She stars in his new movie The Fountain with Hugh Jackman. It takes place in 3 eras: 1500 AD during the Spanish Inquisition, present day 2006 and 2500 AD. The leads are reincarnated and connected in each epoch. In Spain, Rachel is Isabella and sends her conquistador out to find the Tree of Life for its amazing restorative sap. In present day, Hugh is a research doctor trying to find a cure for his wife Izzy's growing brain tumor. In the future, Hugh is bald and does a lot of yoga in a bubble where he lives with the Tree of Life (whose bark has hairs that respond to his touch) and he is haunted by visions of his wife. The bubble is floating through space trying to reach a dying star (shabalah?).

I loved my TIFF companion Ivana's reaction to the movie: "If I see another star explode I'm going to lose my mind." This film was ambitious and didn't quite deliver. Fans of Aronofsky's Pi and Requiem for a Dream (both of which feature his mainstay Ellen Burstyn) may like this film. The director warned the audience to put those out of their minds. I haven't seen them but this guy is one of the American indie darlings who's graduated to bigger budget films. Just cuz you have a script idea with a time travel hook, pretty good actors and tons of special effects, doesn't mean you have a compelling, touching film. Rachel Weisz looked good on the red carpet for a young mom and flattered her husband by telling us that "seeing your husband be really good at what he does is sexy". Well, I think I have more right to say that than she does. MMM or EVS (meaning WHATEVER - as Rock Star Supernova finalist Toby Rand would say)

Rachel Weisz looks great
Hugh made a sexy doctor
wait for DVD

10 Items or Less - Sept 11 part deux

10 Items or Less is a charming low budget film starring Morgan Freeman as an actor who is considering a role in an indie film and gets dropped off at a dumpy grocery store and meets Paz Vega, the fast-thinking, efficient cashier in the express lane who knows the score but is having trouble mustering the confidence to find herself another job.

When Morgan's ride doesn't show - she lets him ride with her and they have a lovely adventure getting the keys from her ex, shopping at Target, and doing a "run-through" for the "role" in her upcoming "audition" (aka interview). Both leads are charming and Director Brad Silberling (Moonlight Mile) succeeds in capturing the buddies' wit and tenderness on a sunny afternoon in LA.

A treat to see both stars at The Elgin but you can wait to rent it. MMMM

10 Items or Less
Checkout line and list for life
What's in your Top Ten?

For Your Consideration

Noon Monday at the Elgin. We took the day off work and were not disappointed. For Your Consideration, directed by Christopher Guest, was the film Norman Jewison was most looking forward to at TIFF 2006. It was a hilarious sendup of all things Hollywood: Entertainment Tonight, MuchMusic (specifically Much on Demand style shows), Charlie Rose (and his penchant for telling his guests stories and interrupting them), and the stars' obsessions with winning the Oscar prize.

When Catherine O'Hara's character gets wind of Internet buzz that she may be up for an Oscar, her imagination goes into overdrive. At first, she's all about "the work" on her small film Home for Purim. Then the fabric of the film starts shifting and she looks like a plastic surgery victim gone wrong.

In a rare move, they had Q&A after the Elgin screening and ALL the stars were onstage: Director Christopher Guest (Best in Show, Waiting for Guffman) and all the regulars from those movies: Fred Willard, Harry Shearer, Catherine O'Hara, Jane Lynch, Bob Balaban, Jennifer Coolidge, the other guy from Spinal Tap, Parker Posey (I LOVE her), and co-writer Eugene Levy. They talked and joked for a half hour (as funny as the film!) which kept us smiling as we walked up the road to Salad King - one of the best cheap Thai restaurants in the city (and a favourite haunt for nearby Ryerson students). Definitely one of our favourite moments at TIFF 2006, despite the sad anniversary of September 11th. MMMMM

relax, laugh and watch
For Your Consideration
mocking Hollywood

Catch a Fire

Tim Robbins towered above everyone in the red carpet line as we went into Catch a Fire at the Elgin. He gave a solid performance as Nic Vos, the Colonel who apprehended and questioned suspected terrorists in South Africa in the late 70s, and turned in a convincing Afrikaaner accent. His prime suspect was Patrick Chamusso, a foreman in the Secunda oil refinery who was accused of planting the bomb that blew up part of the refinery. Only, he wasn't there that night - he was out of town coaching a boys soccer team and spending the evening with his son by another woman. For this reason, he refused to provide an alibi for his non-involvement but, after seeing his wife tortured, he confessed to the crime. The injustice led him to leave secretly for Mozambique and join the African National Congress (ANC) which was actively involved in terrorist activities at that time. After surviving a slaughter at the ANC base, he became a key player in planning another, more deadly explosion at the refinery.

The movie is powerful and Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher) does a great job playing Chamusso. Luke, Robbins and the beautiful Bonnie Henna who plays Chamusso's wife all looked great onstage. At the end of the screening, they introduced the real-life Patrick Chamusso who waved from the loge. If you're up for tough subject matter, this is a worthwhile and moving film with a positive message: forgiveness and reconciliation are the true paths to freedom. MMMM

Patrick Chamusso
African freedom fighter
forgiveness is key