We have our TIFF tickets. We have full bellies from Eggstasy. We have a good movie under our belts. We have to go back to work tomorrow.

3/4, etc.

Two more movies to report.

• Sometime over the lazy long weekend we watched The Clearing (imdb | rotten tomatoes), which was maybe a little better than I expected. RT had rated it pretty low, but I’m a big fan of Robert Redford so I had hope. The actual result was somewhere in between my hopes and fears (which sounds dramatic, but really people, it’s just a DVD). I’m glad they didn’t go where most Hollywood writers/directors would’ve taken it, but I’m also disappointed that it didn’t live up to the potential that it created in the first 3/4 of the film. It could have gone in some very interesting directions, but the end felt…I don’t know, almost apologetic. It’s a little disappointing, but it’s still better than fucking Underclassman.
• The Constant Gardener (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was the only film released this weekend that didn’t look hideous. Indeed, it looked pretty decent, so after picking up our TIFF tickets with CBGB we decided to go see it. It turned out to be even better than I thought; I half assumed it would slide downhill into a typical chase / shooter / clichefest, but it stuck with being a political film. I’ve read other reviews claiming it was too slow, but I think that so long as you’re a grownup and can actually sit through a documentary or episode of 60 Minutes you shouldn’t have any trouble. Highly recommended.

We’re such dinks. We’re such bobos.

Today I got up and put on some plain-looking (though very expensive, of course) pants from m0851 and an oh-so-socially-conscious t-shirt (unbleached cotton, not made in a sweatshop, blah blah) from American Apparel and we set out to do a little shopping. Nellie bought some extravagantly expensive shampoo before we went to Whole Foods (where I paid $10 for a salad and $4 for a half-pint of raspberries). We then walked to Summerhill, stopping at All The Best (for a $7 carrot loaf) and the Summerhill LCBO for some wine (referring to it as simply “pinot”, Sideways-style). We returned home (via public transit, of course) to our small, spare, over-priced condo where we watched Reality Bites. Later, after I read another chapter from my MBA textbook (and maybe a few pages of the Spin) we plan to cook sea bass. After all, we need our strength to stand in line for the film festival tomorrow.

Sometimes I think I can hear my father rolling his eyes at me three provinces away.

Hey, we’re not so screwed after all. We just got our email from the TIFF box office, and we got all our first picks:

• 3 Needles
• These Girls
• Sorry, Haters
• Winter Passing
• Thank You For Smoking

On Friday, the fun begins. It seems so sad to only see five films up there…too bad my course falls right in the middle of the festival. Oh well. C’est la vie MBA.

CBGB were in the same box as us, and they got all theirs as well (three 1sts, two 2nds). They also start off with 3 Needles, and this being their first festival we can introduce them to the world of pre-film lineups, caffeine-addled seat mates and post-film fanboy questions.

Wanting to wind down the week and dreading more visuals of what’s happening on the US gulf coast (trust me, I’m not ignoring it…it’s been running through my brain every minute for the past five days), we watched two of our Zip movies:

• In Good Company (imdb | rotten tomatoes | metacritic) wasn’t quite what I expected. The trailers made it look like a typical boy-meets-girl, father doesn’t approve, hijinks and angst ensue kind of movie, but it wasn’t that. It focused on the relationship between Topher Grace and Dennis Quaid, both of whom were very good; the relationship between Grace and Scarlett Johansson was secondary. It was a good easy flick: not heavy by any means, but not stupid either. Entertaining, we’ll call it.
• Equilibrium (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was like one part Brave New World, a splash of Fight Club and a healthy serving of The Matrix. I had high hopes for the action after the initial shootout-in-the-dark, but the rest of the fights just looked silly. Predictable, wooden & old news. I’m not even sure how this one got on my list…I think it was from an article I saw about underrated movies. Somebody screwed the pooch on that one, says I.

There’s not much I can say about the Hurricane Katrina aftermath that hasn’t been shouted from the rooftops already. The way I see it there are three possible reasons this could have happened (not the storm, but the response — or lack thereof — to the storm and subsequent flooding):

1. government and emergency officials were sufficiently prepared for this but there was nothing they could have done to prevent it;
2. government and emergency officials were not sufficiently prepared…
   1. but are reacting as best they can;
   2. and reacted slower than we (the public & the media) expected because the vast majority of flood victims are poor and/or black

The first statement is obviously false; Katrina’s path over New Orleans was predicted at least 48 hours prior to it making landfall, and multiple experts had warned of the specific risks to New Orleans since 2001. Furthermore, troops and supplies have been days in reaching the city and FEMA has been proven horribly disorganized thus far.

2a might be true, but my gut tells me the truth is closer to 2b; the media, and a lot of the American public, seems to agree. Honestly, ask yourself this: what would possess the president to stay on vacation for three days during what might well end up the worst natural disaster in his country’s history, when he cut a previous vacation short based on the faint hope that a lone brain damaged white woman in Florida might actually still have cognitive ability?

I once spent three days in New Orleans. A desk clerk at the hotel expressed shock that I had run across the street for a burger, telling me, “That’s a black people’s Wendy’s.” On that day, five years ago, I was amazed at the level of racism that still exists in the south; I’m far less shocked today that it’s still alive in Washington.

I simply do not understand.

OK, I don’t know who’s doing them, but check out the following four keyword searches that hit this blog today (except for the first one…and dear god, let it be true):

• salma hayek coming out
• softball -cheney -this is going to be big -olympics -dies -die -widow -handicapped -democracy -snow
• my mother-in-law’s cleavage
• casey ebsary

The hell?

They drew box #36 for the film festival, and we’re in box #12. We could be s-c-r-e-w-e-d.

Insane. Racist. Cowardly. Whiny. Scary. Tragic. Unbelievable.

Holy CRAP, this looks good.

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