Category: Movies

"The dragon is hungry."

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In an attempt to relax yesterday (after a bunch of Christmas shopping, and before I go back to work for the rest of today) we watched two movies: Doubt (imdb | rotten tomatoes), which I liked for the scenes of such exceptional acting talents as Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffmann squaring off (and not much else), and Frost/Nixon (imdb | rotten tomatoes) which had a little prodigious talent of its own in Frank Langella.

I don’t know if I liked Doubt‘s story so much as I loved the way in which the story was told. As for Frost/Nixon, while there was nothing exceptional about the telling, the story itself was obviously very interesting. The little details and behind-the-scenes stories of such monumental events usually are.

7 hours and 4 minutes I can't get back

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Last weekend I had an urge to watch a big, dumb, loud movie. I didn’t get to fulfill it (I watched Enemy At The Gates, which was big and loud, but not so much with the dumb), so last night I suggested we see what was sure to be the very epitome of big, loud and dumb. And man, did 2012 (imdb | rotten tomatoes) deliver. It was ridiculous, poorly scripted, badly acted end-of-days porn. Did it look stunning? Absolutely. Did it carry you along to the point that you barely notice 2.5 hours have gone by? Yup. Did we roll our eyes so far back in our heads that we could give the chair-kickers behind us the stinkeye? Oui. Entertaining, sure, but I would have hated myself if we’d actually spent money on tickets.

Oh, and avoid the Yonge/Dundas AMC on a weekend night. It’s like a stupid kid bomb went off in there.

I’m not sure what to say about Drag Me To Hell (imdb | rotten tomatoes) except that I’m just not a Sam Raimi horror fan. I didn’t like the Evil Deads or Army of Darkness, probably because I didn’t see them as a teen. I never found it scary, and I didn’t find it funny either…at least not how they intended it. I’m amazed that it holds a 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, but I guess I shouldn’t be. There’s a lot of nostalgic Raimi love out there.

Finally, just now, Nellie and I watched a documentary that we nearly scheduled during this year’s film festival: King’s Ransom (imdb) by Peter Berg. I’m glad now that we didn’t. There was nothing there I didn’t already know, and I don’t know much emotional insight you can get out of your subject when you’re about to tee off.

To make my shit movie weekend complete, Nellie wants us to watch Red Dawn (imdb | rotten tomatoes) tonight. She claims it’s a classic, but her criteria for such a designation is that a) it came out in the 80s, and b) she liked it.

Things I learned this weekend

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  • Nellie’s vacations are always bittersweet for me. As an introvert I love the alone time, but I always miss her too.
  • Two years after I saw Once for the first time, I watched it again. Still just as amazing. The scene in the music store where he teaches her “Falling Slowly” gave me chills, just like it did the first time.
  • The city of Toronto is holding a design contest for a revamped north building at St. Lawrence Market. Good. I love the farmer’s market on Saturdays, but that building is both hideous and a logistical nightmare.
  • Eighteen pound cats do not enjoy falling into bathtubs full of water. They enjoy it even less when their owner takes too long drying them off because he’s nearly strained a rib muscle from laughing.
  • The Santa Claus parade seems ridiculously out of place when it’s foggy and 14 degrees. Oh, and fucking November.
  • That said, I’m excited that Swiss Chalet has the festive special up and running already.
  • There are few three-word sentences in moviedom as cool as “Gregor fucked us.”
  • If I ever own a house I’m going to make my living room into a replica of Cumbrae’s, complete with butchers and bags — bags, people — of pulled pork.
  • My team was teh suck last night (except for Carey Price) and hasn’t been very good at all this year.

Leslie, My Name Is Evil

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Our final film of the fest was a bizarre one: Leslie, My Name Is Evil (tiff | imdb). Director Reg Harkema introduced it as virulently anti-realist (I’m paraphrasing here) and that was about accurate. It’s hard to describe, other than to say it’s unlike any other surrealist examination of the Manson family murders in the context of the Vietnam war (and featuring a love story) that you’ve ever seen. Full points for audacity, and for making everything I described above pretty friggin’ funny.

B-, but I’ll knock it up to a B for superb use of a Black Angels song.

Accident

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Accident, or Yi Ngoi in Cantonese (tiff | imdb) was the only second choice that we ended up with, since Whip It tickets were in short supply. Still, Whip It will be out soon and the guide’s description of Accident reminds me of a film we saw one year ago today, The Ghost, which would have been very good except for the awful score and sound mix.

Likewise, Accident would have been pretty good, but it fell down on execution. The idea was very cool, but they didn’t do nearly as much with it as I thought they could have. I don’t want to give away too much in case anyone reading this is a fan of Hong Kong cinema and plans to see the film, but it seemed like they could have made that a real cat and mouse. This just felt like they sissied out around the time the second act began.

C+

Valhalla Rising

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Valhalla Rising (tiff | imdb) was our third film, and first of the year back at our old familiar haunt: the Ryerson theatre. This film didn’t make the first draft of our schedule, but after hearing some early buzz and watching the trailer again, we swapped it in. I mean, c’mon…the awesome Mads Mikkelsen playing a savage mute warrior named One Eye who goes off to fight in the crusades, and allegories of religious warfare ensue? Oh, I was there. I was there yesterday.

Unfortunately it didn’t quite live up to my expectations. Or it did at first, but then lost them. It started off with a…well, not a bang so much as the thud of rock hitting a skull. Incredibly violent at the beginning and for various bursts throughout, but the bulk of the film plodded along to the point of tedium, beautifully shot though the tedium may have been.

It’s weird…I liked it, but I would have liked it so much more if they could have found some pace.

C+ B+

[UPDATE] The more I think about this film the more I like it. The images from the ‘plodding scenes’ keep racing through my head, even as I watched another movie, and since that was the only weakness I could think of, I’m upping my grade.

Triage

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Film 2 of 5, Triage (tiff | imdb) made it on my list because it was directed by Danis Tanovic (who made No Man’s Land all those years ago). Nellie might have been influenced by the fact that Colin Farrell stars in it. I can’t criticize her too much for that; if I’d noticed that Paz Vega was in it when I read the guide that might have swayed me too. Vega wasn’t here, though, and Colin Farrell was, so there hordes of losers hanging out on Yonge Street trying to catch a glimpse of him. Tragic.

Anyway…the film. Very powerful stuff, as you can see if you read the TIFF guide’s description. Great performance from Christopher Lee and an amazing turn from Farrell. As unlikely as it seems, this felt like a reasonably fresh look at war. My only complaint, strangely, is that it was too short. It felt like the second half of the film, the aftermath, progressed too quickly. I wanted more time with Lee and Farrell interacting; it felt too rushed, too easy.

Still, a very good film, and one that solidifies Tanovic in my mind as someone who gets a guaranteed green light from me when picking my TIFF schedule.

B+

The Ape (Apan)

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Last night we saw our first of five festival films (phew!), The Ape, or Apan in Swedish (tiff | imdb). It is, Nellie and I agree, a prototypical festival film. Interesting, but way too outside the mainstream to ever have a wide release, or maybe any release at all in North America.

Taking my cue from the TIFF guide, I can’t reveal anything about the film. The camera rarely left star Olle Sarri, indeed it seemed desperate to keep up, but the audience was left in the dark as to what was happening (just as the actor was, for the most part) as we chased along behind. It got shocking and very tense, and never made it easy on the viewer. In the Q&A after, director Jesper Ganslandt played coy with people who inevitably and aggravatingly ask “what did x mean?” or “what did y symbolize?”, I suppose hoping those audience members would realize that they’re part of the art too. Personally I was glad that I got to be part of it last night.

Not a stunning start to our festival, but certainly a natural one.

B-

"I think all we can aspire to in this situation is a little bit of grace."

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Oh, it was a movie-watching weekend, it was. We’re still trying to whittle down the PVR storage before going on vacation, but today we went to the Scotiabank theatre for a little Natsie killin’.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was better than I thought it would be. Woody Allen movies can be hit and miss with me, but I’ve found his more recent films (which don’t star him or a reasonable facsimile thereof) really enjoyable. All four main actors in this are fantastic, but Barcelona itself was a huge part of the film. It looked as cool and interesting and complex as any of the characters. Maybe Woody has a new muse to go along with New York.

I’d been avoiding Away From Her (imdb | rotten tomatoes) for a while, partly because I’d read mixed reviews, and partly because Alzheimer’s scares the living shit out of me. While I can say that finally watching it did nothing to assuage the latter, it did a great deal to refute the former. I thought it was excellent, and awful, and heartbreaking, and so very well done. Alice Munro’s words, Sarah Polley’s direction and gargantuan performances from Gord Pinsent and Julie Christie made it at once nearly unwatchable and nearly perfect.

Shifting gears just a tidge, Inglourious Basterds (imdb | rotten tomatoes) was pretty much as advertised: a violent, talky piece of revisionist history about Nazi-killing. There were  a lot of great scenes — the savage finale in particular — but Cristoph Waltz nearly stole the show in the first ten minutes. Brad Pitt felt pretty out of place there…I found myself longing for Aldo Raine as played by Daniel Day-Lewis. Alas, I wasn’t asked to take charge of casting. Still, a highly enjoyable 2.5 hours.

"Could you go a bit slower with the clicks there?"

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deliriumtremens

Here’s what we’ve done with our last 24 hours:

  • Went to work. Okay, well, this was mostly me. Just needed to catch up from last week and get a head start on the coming one.
  • Saw District 9 (imdb | rotten tomatoes) at the Varsity, which was excellent. Good film all around, but what blew me away was how not-fake everything looked. Tons of social, racial and economic commentary too. Highly recommended if you’re into that sort of thing.
  • Had dinner at Volo, quaffed a couple of beers (two of which you can see above, including my Delirium Tremens) and watched the parade of interesting up and down Yonge Street.
  • Dropped our TIFF picks in box #30. We switched our picks at the (almost) last minute, ditching the Peter Berg documentary and adding Valhalla Rising. Watch the trailer and you’ll see why. It looks like Braveheart, but more violent and less cheesy. And Danish.
  • Scooted out to Liberty Village and bought (well, ordered) a new couch at West Elm, then had lunch at The Brazen Head.

Now, happily, we’re done for the day and can relax with bad movies (Nellie’s watching Hallowe’en 6 as I type this) and France planning.