Slew

We’ve watched a whole raft of movies this weekend, some good and some disappointing:

• The Snow Walker (imdb | rotten tomatoes | buy it)
• Last Tango In Paris (imdb | rotten tomatoes | buy it)
• Hero (imdb | rotten tomatoes)
• The Passion Of The Christ (imdb | rotten tomatoes | buy it)
• The Lost Boys (imdb | rotten tomatoes | buy it)

Good, boring, good, self-indulgent and not horrible, in that order.

Oh, and although it’s slightly creepy because she’s only 21, I’m a little smitten with Annabella Piugattuk from The Snow Walker.

The CBC is issuing their list of the 50 essential songs of the last century. I’m not sure how they came to the conclusion, but it’s an interesting list. No doubt there are howls of protest going up across the country…or would be if anyone watched.

Just picked up our tickets. We lucked out by being 9 boxes off the lottery, and got all our first choices. Here’s the lineup:

1. Les Revenants
2. Creep
3. Undertow
4. The Merchant Of Venice
5. Hotel Rwanda
6. Mondovino
7. Saving Face
8. The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things
9. The Libertine
10. Trauma

Of course, some of our second choices looked great too…and now I’m wondering why we made them second choices. Oh well. That’s what Zip‘s for. Anyway, these were our #2s:

1. Childstar
2. Crash
3. I Heart Huckabees
4. Gunner Palace
5. Haven
6. The Woodsman
7. Omagh
8. Keane
9. Our Own
10. Quill

Our first 2 movies are this Friday. I’ll start posting the next day.

This morning someone had left their Porsche Carrera 2 – stalled, presumably – in the middle of the the intersection of Church & Bloor.

Sometimes I wish I had a camera phone.

Box 10, baby. Box 10. Since we’re in #19 we should get all our first choices. Sweet.

TIFF – Up To The Minute

Just watched Outfoxed (imdb | rotten tomatoes | buy it). There are no surprises in the movie, it’s obviously very opposed to the Fox approach to News, and casts Rupert Murdoch in a bad light in general. Hoop-a-dee-doo. Everyone knows Fox is completely biased, and their claims to be “fair and balanced” are laughable.

Now, it seems there are requests underway to bring Fox News to Canada. At first I was all for it — let’s let Canadians watch Fox News all they want; they’ll stop once that inevitable feeling of nausea strikes — but now I’m not sure. That is, I think they should still be able to broadcast in Canada, but I firmly believe that they should not be able to call themselves a news channel. The CRTC should monitor it, and every other network with a serious news broadcast, and force them to report objectively. Of course, this won’t be perfect; we don’t want bureaucrats watching each station, holding stopwatches to see which party gets the most airtime. Instead, typical organizing principles of news gathering bodies should be observed; if they’re not held to, the network loses the right to call itself a “news” organization. For example, any “news” organization where edicts are issued from upper management to the news department, research and on-air talent directing the tone and message of what’s reported would lose the ability to call themselves an objective news reporting organization.

I guess it follows that, since overly political broadcasts aren’t allowed outside of election ads, that network might lose its license. So be it. Do what you profess to do or be exposed as liars. Lying liars, in this case.

Envelopes have been dropped off. Box 19. And now…we wait.

Step 3 done. We’ve decided on our 1st and 2nd choices for all 10 films. Dropping off tomorrow.

Step 2 of the film festival prep – going to pick up the big white envelope – is now complete. We’re now in the midst of slogging through a bazillion movies and their showtimes. We’ll break out the fancy highlighter next and hand in our choices before Friday, and then leave our fate in the hands of the lottery ball. Or whatever they use.

“Calling the [Republican National] Convention a little manipulative is like saying Marcel Marceau was kinda quiet.”
-Steven Colbert