I saw a Jen Warne clone riding a bicycle on my walk back to the B&B today. I did a double take, and I'm sure she thought I was checking her out or something.
...
I forgot to mention the funniest thing about my travel adventure to Toronto. The nice Asian lady said over the plane's intercom, in a rather cartoonish accent, "Hi, my name is Coco and I will be your fright attendant today." I kept thinking I was an unwilling extra in a Quentin Tarantino cheese ball horror flick.
...
At the beginning of each screening, they display a brief message notifying the crowd that piracy is illegal and that you may not photograph the screen in any way during the show. It started out as one guy early in the week, but now there is a healthy chorus of "Aaaarrrggggghhh!" It's only fitting, with Talk Like A Pirate Day coming up and all.
...
I was waiting for a screening to start today, and two young (early college age) women were talking at length about how much they knew about writing. Every third word out of their mouths was "like". "And, like, you should, like, never use, you know, like, 'to be'."
A hearty "Totally," replied her friend.
Valley Girl just now made it to Toronto, and they will be the next literary geniuses from the Great White North.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Review: Mad Detective
I saw Johnny To's Exiled last year at the festival and had a blast. The crowd was energetic and enthusiastic, and they should have been. He consistently brings interesting and funny Hong Kong crime drama to the festival. In Mad Detective, he teams up with Ka-Fai Wai, who also co-wrote the script, for the directorial duties.
The Mad Detective is Bun, whose methods of crime solving are beyond unconventional. In one scene, he solves a case by having another detective zip him up in a suit case and pushing it down several flights of stairs. During the Q&A, Ka-Fai explained that when writing the script for this film, they started with the question, "What if Van Gogh was a police detective?" That explains the scene where Bun (the Mad Detective) cuts off his own ear and gives it to a retiring police chief as a going away present.
That little stunt costs Bun his job and his marriage. His schizophrenia intensifies, Bun refuses to take his medication, and doesn't even realize that his wife has left him. And yet, his reputation for solving the most difficult cases lives on, and up-and-coming detective Ho seeks his help in solving a case that is haunting him.
The directors claim that they didn't intend for any scene in particular to be funny, but I doubt their comedic timing is accidental. The ending of the film is a little trite, but this is one of those movies where you're there for the ride, not the ride home. My imdb rating: 7/10.
The Mad Detective is Bun, whose methods of crime solving are beyond unconventional. In one scene, he solves a case by having another detective zip him up in a suit case and pushing it down several flights of stairs. During the Q&A, Ka-Fai explained that when writing the script for this film, they started with the question, "What if Van Gogh was a police detective?" That explains the scene where Bun (the Mad Detective) cuts off his own ear and gives it to a retiring police chief as a going away present.
That little stunt costs Bun his job and his marriage. His schizophrenia intensifies, Bun refuses to take his medication, and doesn't even realize that his wife has left him. And yet, his reputation for solving the most difficult cases lives on, and up-and-coming detective Ho seeks his help in solving a case that is haunting him.
The directors claim that they didn't intend for any scene in particular to be funny, but I doubt their comedic timing is accidental. The ending of the film is a little trite, but this is one of those movies where you're there for the ride, not the ride home. My imdb rating: 7/10.
Review: M
I stuck around for the Q&A for M, a South Korean film from director Myung-se Lee, so that I might understand what it was about. The director said that back in 2000, he had a dream that he met Alfred Hitchcock and the Mr. Hitchcock gave him a book entitled "M". Through an interpreter, Mr. Myung-se explained that this film was the manifestation of his search for the meaning of that imaginary book.
Believe it or not, that was a help. Not a big help, but it at least explained the nature of the film. The film played out, as the director said it would during the introduction: like you were waking from a dream. I know that it was amazing to look it. It took a lot of chances. It played with your mind. It showed alternate realities. It was hypnotic. It put me to sleep.
Now, It wasn't the worst thing to happen to me at the festival, but it is not for your average movie goer. This is beyond artsy. This will take people who normally consider themselves artsy, then push them to the limit, one of which could be REM sleep.
I do regret having fallen asleep, because who knows what I missed. I didn't fall asleep for long, at least not the first time, but this movie sometimes moved a little quickly, only in a way that drew you further into a hypnotic state. Yeah, maybe that's it, perhaps I was hypnotized by the film! Who knows what I'll end up doing today. I know that I awoke once thinking for a moment that I understood the Korean language, though to this day I only know one crude phrase passed on to me through my ex who in turned learned it from a coworker whose wife was Korean. I won't say what the phrase is, but it might result in you getting slapped.
The movie, as best I can guess, is about an aspiring author dealing with the death of his high school love. It may also be about his struggling marriage, the aforementioned dead girl dealing with her own significant loss (life) and her struggle with the decision to move on to the afterlife. I don't know. I'd say see it for yourself and let me know what you think, but I'm betting you won't and I couldn't honestly suggest that you should. My imdb rating: 5/10.
Believe it or not, that was a help. Not a big help, but it at least explained the nature of the film. The film played out, as the director said it would during the introduction: like you were waking from a dream. I know that it was amazing to look it. It took a lot of chances. It played with your mind. It showed alternate realities. It was hypnotic. It put me to sleep.
Now, It wasn't the worst thing to happen to me at the festival, but it is not for your average movie goer. This is beyond artsy. This will take people who normally consider themselves artsy, then push them to the limit, one of which could be REM sleep.
I do regret having fallen asleep, because who knows what I missed. I didn't fall asleep for long, at least not the first time, but this movie sometimes moved a little quickly, only in a way that drew you further into a hypnotic state. Yeah, maybe that's it, perhaps I was hypnotized by the film! Who knows what I'll end up doing today. I know that I awoke once thinking for a moment that I understood the Korean language, though to this day I only know one crude phrase passed on to me through my ex who in turned learned it from a coworker whose wife was Korean. I won't say what the phrase is, but it might result in you getting slapped.
The movie, as best I can guess, is about an aspiring author dealing with the death of his high school love. It may also be about his struggling marriage, the aforementioned dead girl dealing with her own significant loss (life) and her struggle with the decision to move on to the afterlife. I don't know. I'd say see it for yourself and let me know what you think, but I'm betting you won't and I couldn't honestly suggest that you should. My imdb rating: 5/10.
Review: Cassandra's Dream
Woody Allen's latest is Cassandra's Dream. It follows the fate the two sons of a struggling restaurant owner. Terry (played wonderfully by Colin Ferrell) is the gambling addicted auto mechanic with a loving wife. Ian (Ewan McGregor), meanwhile, works at his father's restaurant, but wants to make his mark elsewhere.
Terry gets into some financial trouble, if you call losing 90,000£ "trouble". Ian, who is trying to woo beautiful up-and-coming actress Angela Stark (Hayley Atwell), wants to become fabulous wealthy investing money in a sure-fire hotel project in California. What can they do? Turn to their wealthy uncle Howard (great supporting role for Tom Wilkinson), of course. But here's where the movie really gets started: Howard needs a favor in return. The rest of the movie follows the brothers' moral struggle with said favor and related repercussions.
There is a certain "flatness" to the movie I can't quite place, a sort of matter-of-fact storytelling that I don't quite know how to explain. But it has a very similar feel to Allen's most recent crime drama, Match Point, with a starkly different outcome. He seems to enjoy stories of English commoners struggling to elevate their social standing.
While I'll admit that Allen skillfully maintains suspense throughout the movie, the ending could use a little work. But, I think he enjoys that "this the end folks --sorry" sort of feel. And it took a screening of Mad Detective (review coming later today) to pull me out of the funk I was in after the screening. My imdb rating: 7/10.
Terry gets into some financial trouble, if you call losing 90,000£ "trouble". Ian, who is trying to woo beautiful up-and-coming actress Angela Stark (Hayley Atwell), wants to become fabulous wealthy investing money in a sure-fire hotel project in California. What can they do? Turn to their wealthy uncle Howard (great supporting role for Tom Wilkinson), of course. But here's where the movie really gets started: Howard needs a favor in return. The rest of the movie follows the brothers' moral struggle with said favor and related repercussions.
There is a certain "flatness" to the movie I can't quite place, a sort of matter-of-fact storytelling that I don't quite know how to explain. But it has a very similar feel to Allen's most recent crime drama, Match Point, with a starkly different outcome. He seems to enjoy stories of English commoners struggling to elevate their social standing.
While I'll admit that Allen skillfully maintains suspense throughout the movie, the ending could use a little work. But, I think he enjoys that "this the end folks --sorry" sort of feel. And it took a screening of Mad Detective (review coming later today) to pull me out of the funk I was in after the screening. My imdb rating: 7/10.
Review: Walk All Over Me
My last random Canadian film pick of the year was Walk All Over Me, from director Robert Cuffley. It stars Leelee Sobieski, who's had a couple notable film roles, so I thought it had potential.
I had a bad feeling about this film inside 45 seconds. Alberta, a young (20-ish, I'm guessing) woman, clumsily loses an envelope, which her equally young two-bit hoodlum boyfriend asks her to give to someone at the convenient store where she works. Violence ensues, and she escapes on a tour bus.
The tour bus ends up in Vancouver, where she hooks up with her cousin Celene. Celene appears to be doing quite well in her work as a dominatrix, but to a certain extent, it's all show. Anyway, Celene ruins some expensive clothing Celene has to have for a client that evening. Oh, how dreadful! What is Alberta going to do now!?!? Oh, I know, she'll pose as Celene for one of the many guys soliciting her services and rake in some quick cash.
As luck would have it, the harmless dork she picks from the bunch turns out to have mob ties and there you have your mayhem necessary for the rest of the script. Oh yeah, the script... I call it sophomoric, only because I'm not sure if "freshamanic" is a word and researching it on dictionary.com seems like too much effort for this film. My imdb rating: 3/10.
I had a bad feeling about this film inside 45 seconds. Alberta, a young (20-ish, I'm guessing) woman, clumsily loses an envelope, which her equally young two-bit hoodlum boyfriend asks her to give to someone at the convenient store where she works. Violence ensues, and she escapes on a tour bus.
The tour bus ends up in Vancouver, where she hooks up with her cousin Celene. Celene appears to be doing quite well in her work as a dominatrix, but to a certain extent, it's all show. Anyway, Celene ruins some expensive clothing Celene has to have for a client that evening. Oh, how dreadful! What is Alberta going to do now!?!? Oh, I know, she'll pose as Celene for one of the many guys soliciting her services and rake in some quick cash.
As luck would have it, the harmless dork she picks from the bunch turns out to have mob ties and there you have your mayhem necessary for the rest of the script. Oh yeah, the script... I call it sophomoric, only because I'm not sure if "freshamanic" is a word and researching it on dictionary.com seems like too much effort for this film. My imdb rating: 3/10.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Review: Dr. Plonk
Dr. Plonk was my "out of left field" pick for the year, a silent film about a scientist in the year 1907 who predicts the world will end in 2008. And it was made in Australia. It sounded strange enough to be a rewarding experience. I was sure to encounter some sort of social commentary about global warming, war, peace, intercontinental relations, something like that... yeah...
Not as such. It certainly paid homage to the silent films of old, only this one was the same length as modern day films with dialog. There are only so many times that a mad scientist kicking his deaf mute assistant in the butt can be humorous. And boy, that dog sure is funny, too! E gad! Those cops sure are clumsy! HA! HA! HA!
Okay, I laughed a few times, I'll admit, but this would have been a decent short film, maybe 20 minutes at most. There were about 40 seconds of social commentary. Aside from that, it was just physical humor. Not my cup of tea, apparently. My imdb rating: 4/10.
Not as such. It certainly paid homage to the silent films of old, only this one was the same length as modern day films with dialog. There are only so many times that a mad scientist kicking his deaf mute assistant in the butt can be humorous. And boy, that dog sure is funny, too! E gad! Those cops sure are clumsy! HA! HA! HA!
Okay, I laughed a few times, I'll admit, but this would have been a decent short film, maybe 20 minutes at most. There were about 40 seconds of social commentary. Aside from that, it was just physical humor. Not my cup of tea, apparently. My imdb rating: 4/10.
Review: Sleuth
Sleuth is a remake of a movie based on the play written by Anthony Shaffer. The original Academy award winning film starred Michael Caine as Milo Tindle, and Caine returns in the updated version has Tindle's adversary, Andrew Wyke. Jude Law takes over the roll of Tindle. Kenneth Branagh took on directing responsibilities.
I haven't seen the play or the original movie, but judging from murmuring I heard among the crowd, this movie is very much different than the original. I'm not sure about the play itself. This movie tells the tale of Tindle and his battle of wits with Wyke. Tindle is having an affair with Wyke's wife, and it seems to be a well known fact. Tindle comes to ask Wyke to grant his wife an easy divorce, but Wyke decides to have a little fun instead. The fun ends with deadly consequences for Tindle... or does it?
Set I, otherwise known as Act I goes to Mr. Wyke. Mr. Wyke loses set (Act) II decidedly, and set three ends shockingly or otherwise, depending on what you thought would happen.
I enjoyed Act I enough, though I'm not really big on two-man plays shot for the movie screen. I figure if I'm going to see a two-man play, I would just as soon see the play. Nonetheless, it was entertaining enough. Act II started well enough, then drug on a bit too long. Act III, well, by the time the shocking conclusion came about, I was just glad that it did so abruptly. For have a good first half, I give my imdb rating: 6/10.
I haven't seen the play or the original movie, but judging from murmuring I heard among the crowd, this movie is very much different than the original. I'm not sure about the play itself. This movie tells the tale of Tindle and his battle of wits with Wyke. Tindle is having an affair with Wyke's wife, and it seems to be a well known fact. Tindle comes to ask Wyke to grant his wife an easy divorce, but Wyke decides to have a little fun instead. The fun ends with deadly consequences for Tindle... or does it?
Set I, otherwise known as Act I goes to Mr. Wyke. Mr. Wyke loses set (Act) II decidedly, and set three ends shockingly or otherwise, depending on what you thought would happen.
I enjoyed Act I enough, though I'm not really big on two-man plays shot for the movie screen. I figure if I'm going to see a two-man play, I would just as soon see the play. Nonetheless, it was entertaining enough. Act II started well enough, then drug on a bit too long. Act III, well, by the time the shocking conclusion came about, I was just glad that it did so abruptly. For have a good first half, I give my imdb rating: 6/10.
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