Sitting at C’est What, sipping a Dennison’s Weissbeer. I love this place. If you’re in Toronto and you haven’t been here, you need to come.

Order the antijitos.

How fitting that in the same week I would see Fahrenheit 9/11, I would watch Aleksandr Nevsky (imdb | rotten tomatoes | buy it). True, Moore’s movie isn’t technically propaganda (as the state definitely had no input) and doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not, but both films are out to get somebody.

While any film from 1938 will seem unimpressive and a bit trite by today’s standards, you have to marvel at the achievement when you put it in context. To have a battle sequence of such grandeur must have been groundbreaking. So many actors — no CGI soldiers here — and scene after scene of battle must have been hell to shoot. And, having watched it, I can see a few little nods that other movies have made to it — e.g., the opening sequence of The Hunt For Red October (imdb | rotten tomatoes | buy it) — which is rather cool.

If you can sit through a 65-year-old 2-hour black & white subtitled 13th century Russian epic, this is the movie for you.

Phew.

I’m a little disappointed that the Liberals and NDP can’t combine for a majority. Chuck Cadman, c’mon down.

We watched Monster (imdb | rotten tomatoes | buy it) last night. You know, a year ago, if you’d told me there was a movie that featured many, many instances of Charlize Theron making out with Christina Ricci, I’d likely have wet myself. But after watching it…not so hot. Not so hot at all, actually.

Ahem.

The movie…wasn’t great. It was good, maybe even very good. But Charlize Theron was just so unbelievably, convincingly…I don’t know, just NOT Charlize Theron as any of us have known her. And for that, she deserved an Oscar.

Shatner to cover Pulp.

Sweet Jesu I’m tired. Yesterday wiped me out.

Must…stay wake…long enough to vote!!

No surprise: the NDP and Liberals had a pile of people out at today’s Pride Day parade.

Also no surprise: no Conservative representatives, though there were some — *ahem* — lively Stephen Harper banners…

Holland are through, setting up a semifinal match against Portugal. This means two things:

1. I’ll be wearing my new shirt (which just happens to be bright orange) a lot
2. Duarte and I will be at war on Wednesday

After an unsuccessful attempt to see Michael Moore’s new movie Fahrenheit 9/11 Friday night (the Cumberland was sold out for the 7:00, 7:40 and 9:30 shows), we tried again at a different theatre last night. Fortunately, friends picked up the tickets way in advance and heeded the theatre employee’s advice to “get there early”. There was already a line for the theatre – I’ve never seen a line for any movie at Canada Square before – but it started moving as soon as we arrived.

The movie is playing at a lot of theatres here in Toronto. 5 or 6 theatres downtown, several more in the ‘burbs…and not just small theatres either. The giant multiplexes too. Early reports say it took is >$8MM on Friday alone, and by Sunday night should surpass the total box office of Bowling For Columbine, to date the top-grossing documentary ever. Even more amazing, Fahrenheit 9/11 could win the weekend while playing on fewer than 900 screens. Most films that win opening weekend play on 2,500+ screens.

The review is here.

Saw Michael Moore’s new documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 (official site | rotten tomatoes | imdb) last night. It was as I expected: heavily slanted against Bush (of course), a bit sketchy on the linkages & conclusions at times, and a lot to take in all at once, but it’s as advertised: a simmering 2-hour indictment of Bush as puppet, idiot and all-around shitty president.

Don’t worry, he lambastes others as well: the usual suspects (Rumsfeld, Cheney, Ashcroft, etc.), democrats (for not fighting back against the Supreme Court decision to uphold the fake election results, for not trying to stop the war against Iraq, etc.), evil companies (Halliburton, Enron, United Defense, the Carlson Group, etc.) and more.

But most of his vitriol is saved for Bush, and he makes no secret of this. Anyone who asks Michael Moore if his movie is unbiased will get laughed at. He has an agenda here, and well he should. While pushing a man out of the white house may not be the typical role for a documentarian, Moore is saying things that need to be said and showing images that need to be showed. How many people ever saw footage of Bush’s limo being pelted by eggs on inauguration day? How many of us saw the kind of images from Iraq, of dead toddlers and torn limbs and the like, shown on the news? How many of us got to hear angry screeds from soldiers about what a waste the Iraq war is? None of us have even seen pictures of the coffins of American soldiers returning home, as the White House doesn’t want our delicate sensibilities upset by the idea of soldiers being killed (though it should be noted that this policy was established by Bush Sr. during Gulf War I). Moore’s movie shows us things Bush and his handlers don’t want their own public to see. It shows us in such a way that we leave the theatre in mild disbelief, with anger to spare. Hopefully it lasts until November.

The quote that Bush so clumsily tries to get out at the end of the film is, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” If the American voters elect this warmongering idiot again, they’ll truly go down in history as the greatest fools of all.