September 21, 2004
Pick-a-tures
This is a stand at Yonge and Dundas selling Che t-shirts, which was pretty funny after seeing The Motorcycle Diaries
These are the remains of the lobby of the uptown. The far end in the picture is the Yonge street side of the lobby. I took this through a tiny hole in a construction barrier.
Gaunt and Task hamming it up.
The awning of the Elgin (at night).
Posted by ThirteenDamnDollars at 11:31 PM
Best-O'-The-Fest!
Another year, come and gone. Time to have a quick look at the festival in whole and mention what the best films were. IMNSHO.
The best movies:
Z Channel - Absolute winner overall, and also winning the Best Documentary Ever prize, this is what the genre was made for.
Primer - Wins the Moves For People Who Think award!
Zebraman - Easily takes both the Best Childrens Feature prize and the Superest Hero Movie award.
Kung Fu Hustle - Winner in the Kung Fu category! All our base are belong to Stephen Chow, and we are grateful.
The Machinist - Narrowly capturing the Best Psychological Thriller prize, mostly because Christian Bale wins the Freakiest Actor award therein.
Ghost Inna Shell 2 - Takes the coveted Eye-Popping Splendour award.
Continue reading "Best-O'-The-Fest!"Posted by Task at 07:43 PM
September 20, 2004
Some thoughts on film criticism
The danger of relative rating.
So I'm looking at my reviews and I'm seeing all 3 and 4 stars and I start to think, gosh, I should have some more 1 and 2 star reviews. BUT NO gentle reader, I should not! Consider that the TIFF programme is meant to represent some of the very best films of the year, and further consider that of this 300+ film catalogue, I specifically picked the films I thought I would enjoy the most. It's not surprising that the films I saw I rated positively I guess.
Film changes your brain
I was wondering aloud after Demain on déménage if I would have liked that film 5 years ago. After all, it has French people walking through a cow pasture occasaionally spouting lines of seeming nonsensical dialog.
The fact of the matter is, watching movies changes how you watch movies. This is the problem with film critics. Someone who is paid to watch lots and lots and lots of movies, movies they wouldn't watch if no one paid them to, eventually, they are going to appreciate different aspects of film from your average movie goer, in fact, they will probably grow to be bitter and twisted and hate movies.
I suppose my question is, if I keep this up for another 10 years, will I think The Dangerous Thread Of Things is a work of genius? No, probably not.
Posted by ThirteenDamnDollars at 11:48 PM
Demain on déménage
A good French comedy.
Flighty and recently widowed Mom has just moved in with mousey and retiring Daughter. Everything is crowded and difficult. They decide to sell the place and move. This leads to a parade of characters passing through the house. Some leave and some become part of their life.
This film is in the Masters programme, and with good reason. The very first opening shot, a grand piano suspended in the air, swaying ever so slightly is masterfully economical way of upping the tension right from the start. Years and years of family history are conveyed to the audience with the smallest glance, the slightest pause. The dialog is sharp and lyrical, in beautiful one extended scene, it falls in to a spoken fugue of real-estate speak.
Posted by ThirteenDamnDollars at 11:42 PM
Arsène Lupin
Based on the classic Lupin stories, this is a great movie ruined by Spielberg Syndrome. That is, where a movie ends, and then goes on for another 45 minutes.
There are great characters here, from the cabal of baddie royalists, to the seemingly immortal femme fatale. The story revolves around the stealing and re-stealing of three crucifexes which will somehow reveal the location of a king's treasure. If the movie stopped there, with all the plot threads the audience cared about wrapped up, the defeat of the bad guys, the discovery of the treasure, the resolution of the father issues, this would have been a 4 star movie. Instead it keeps going and going and going, as if the director had too much beloved source material and could not bare to cut any of it.
Posted by ThirteenDamnDollars at 11:31 PM
Steamboy
This movie was ten years in the making, and it shows. That's both good and bad. There are lot of threads in the narrative that seemed left over, remnants from earlier versions of the story. Still the animation is amazing and the steam punk is amazingly cool.
It's Victorian England, Grandpa Steam and Father Steam have, while working for the O'Hara company, created the Steamball, a source of nearly limitless steam power and special effects. Now the steamball has been sent to Steam-boy back in england, evil people from the company want it to power their weapons they plan to sell to all comers, Father Steam is blinded by the UNSTOPPABLE POWER OF SCIENCE, Grandpa Steam wants the steamball destroied and Steamboy? He's on the run.
Posted by ThirteenDamnDollars at 11:20 PM
Saw
Two guys wake up in a dingy room, chained to the wall. They have mini audio tapes, place upon their person, saying that there is a way to escape. They quickly realize that they've been captured by The Jigsaw Killer, a man who puts people in situations that could easily kill them, but that they can escape if they're smart and put everything into it. One of the first items they find are a pair of hacksaws, too weak to cut through their chains, but strong enough to cut through their own leg, freeing them from their shackle...
Posted by Task at 11:03 PM
Trauma
There's a car accident, and the driver is in a coma for a week. When he wakes up, you find out his wife was in the car with him and that she's dead.
There's another murder that happened last week, a celebrity was killed. We find out shortly that our hero is an obsessive fan of this celebrity, that he's seeing a psychiatrist, and that he's a well known "crazy artist". There's no end to the list of questions you could be asking after the first half hour. All your questions are answered by the end of the movie, but I didn't enjoy the ride. I wouldn't really recommend this movie, but I can't give much of a reason for it.
Posted by Task at 10:44 PM
Steamboy
From the maker of Akira, it's an Industrial-revolution adventure epic! This movie is about Ray Steam, a young boy whos father and grandfather are both well-known inventors who are currently working in America for The O'Hara Foundation. Together, they manage to invent The Steam Ball, which is kind of like a steam-based battery. What follows is all kinds of adventure and intrigue as two groups battle for control of this new technology. Highly entertaining with great visuals, this movie is sure to become as classic as Ghost In The Shell.
Continue reading "Steamboy"Posted by Task at 10:15 PM
September 19, 2004
Arsene Lupin
An extremely stylish movie, Lupin is a legendary French jewel thief exactly the way Sherlock Holmes is a legendary detective. This movie shows his life from childhood to middle age and mostly involves his relationship with The Countess, an apparently immortal thief/killer/politcal intriguer. There are royalist plots, fabulous treasures, daring robberies, guns, horses, and women in full corsets and dresses.
A nice period piece with all sorts of action and adventure, plus some mystery and a love story thrown in for bonus points.
Posted by Task at 02:46 PM
Rahtree: Flower Of The Night
Absolutely the best exorcism-comedy movie ever made.
Good story, great cast, good acting, good sound, nice effects, and a good laugh to break the tension every 10 minutes, you could say this movie has it all. Originally thinking it was "just a horror flick, likely all splatter no style", I didn't get a ticket. Luckily, I was able to trade an extra ticket to Kontroll for a ticket to this.
Continue reading "Rahtree: Flower Of The Night"Posted by Task at 02:36 PM
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obesession
Here you have it folks, this movie is IT. If you wanted to see the TIFF but couldn't, this is the one you should catch when you get a chance.
What is this movie? Let me try to explain:
1) This is a movie about the love of cinema. Realize how fitting this is, because the entire audience at a festival film screening likely suffer from this "magnificent" obsession with movies.
2) This is a biography of Jerry Harvey, the man who made Z Channel what it was, a crazy cinema-obsessive that lived to enjoy good film.
3) This is a documentary about Z Channel, the 24-hour a day film festival in your living room. The first pay-TV station focussed on delivering movies of high quality to viewers for a monthly fee.
4) This is a recipe for how to make a fantastic film festival. Clips from landmark movies are interspersed throughout, there are constant references to the best films of the time, and interviews with great directors.
5) Quentin Tarantino is a crazy freak, and we are blessed in that we have him to make movies for us.
Yes, this is several movies in one. You can take it on a lot of different levels. Now I will attempt to explain...
Continue reading "Z Channel: A Magnificent Obesession"Posted by Task at 02:22 PM
Primer
I was totally unexpecting this movie when it happened. So was everyone else with me. It's been weeks since I read the description, so I had forgotten what this movie was even going to be about.
I'll start with the bad points: The sound sucks. I don't know why so many films this year have had such bad sound quality. Perhaps the director wanted some effect that bad sound quality creates, like confusion at what is exactly being said, or concentrated listening. I think it just needs a bit more work, though. Also, the film stock quality seemed low, images were grainier and more blurred than I liked. That, and the light levels were too high, the light bled a lot and images weren't clear. You expect a bit of this kind of thing in independant film though, so it's far from the end of the world.
My point here though is that despite it's failings in some technical areas, the incredible story being told more than makes up for shortcomings the film has. It's truly that good.
Posted by Task at 01:54 PM
Short Cuts #4
Just barely containing more good than bad, this shorts collection goes all over the map. No common style, theme, or even level of quality.
Continue reading "Short Cuts #4"Posted by Task at 01:31 PM
Breaking News
A group of thugs elude the cops and defeat them with such style and flair that the public is outraged, all because there was a news crew nearby and the whole thing is on the news. So the cops plan their revenge: they'll defeat the criminals and broadcast it, restoring their honor!
Only, the criminals have a webcam and a video phone. So they release their renegade footage to the media and it becomes an all-out image war!
Perhaps I'm being a bit too dramatic here, but it's a nifty spin on the cops & robbers genre and I was impressed with how it was done. The only thing the movie was missing was something to make it awesome. Certainly a good movie, with new ideas and some great scenes, but it doesn't elevate itself above similar style movies in any particular way.
Posted by Task at 12:12 PM
The FestEx (or "Read Me First! - Why we do this")
Before I get started on my reviews for all the rest of the films I've seen, I thought it might be wise to mention Why We TIFF. The past two days have been an excellent example of it, and most of my reviews are going to be heavily slanted by that.
Posted by Task at 11:51 AM
September 18, 2004
Kontroll
The subway system in post-communist Budapest runs on the honour system, sort of. Teams of ticket inspectors prowl the cars, asking passengers for their tickets. They are universally despised and frequently abused. We follow one such team, the misfits among misfits, as they harrass passengers, get beat up, chase cheaters, play russian roulette with subway trains and deal with a crazy who's pushing people on to the tracks.
Posted by ThirteenDamnDollars at 10:58 AM
Rahtree: Flower of the Night
It's a Thai exorcism comedy! A young girl is ill-used by a rich boy, and then she dies in her apartment. Her unquiet spirit drives other residents out, and the land-lady tries all manner of sharlatans and hucksters to drive her out.
This movie is scary and funny in equal measure, and the director earns both the laughs and the screams.
Posted by ThirteenDamnDollars at 10:49 AM
Eros
Eros is actually three short films about love. It's hard to assign a single rating to this presentation because the films are so widely disparate.
The Hand, by Wong Kar-wai recounts the entire history of an impossible love between a... lady of negotiable virtue and her tailor. It is lush and romantic, languid and beautiful.
Equilbrium by Stephen Soderbergh is a funny tale of a man haunted by dreams of a beautiful woman.
The Dangerous Thread of Things by Michelangelo Antonioni epitomizes all the worst cliches of high-cinema. Incomprehensible characters shouting lines of stilted, disjointed dialog. Long pointless takes. Cheesy symbolism (there's lots of towers, and cars driving through tight spaces, and the characters are always going through tunnels. So many tunnels). It does have hot women who like to take off their clothes, so it's not a total loss.
Posted by ThirteenDamnDollars at 10:38 AM
Ow, my Ass! (Where to sit)
Where to sit in the festival theaters
Paramount & Varsity
These theaters have the screen, 3-5 rows, then an asile parallel to the screen, then the rest of the seats. You want to sit in the centre of the row on the asile. There's leg room, and it's just about the right distance from the screen. These theaters have the most comfortable seats in the festival
Cumberland
There are no better or worse seats in these theaters. Go for an asile so you can at least stretch one leg out.
Isabel Bader Theater
This is actually a lecture hall as well as a theater and as we know, universities hate their students (more on this when we get to the Ryerson). Go for the front row of the balcony, or something in the middle of rows 4 - 10
The Elgin
You would want the front row of the first balcony, but the *entire* first balcony in this theater is always reserved for hoity-toity special Visa card holders. Sit nearish the front.
The Ryerson Theater
This theater has a good screen and good sound but the seats are torture. We have scientifically proven (by doing it) that it is more comfortable to sit on a stone stoop for two hours than the seats in the Ryerson. The padding in the seats is totally shot, they're at this weird angle, and there's no legroom. If you're really early in line, go for the front row of the balcony. Otherwise, go for the floor, near the front. Maybe bring your own stone stoop.
Posted by ThirteenDamnDollars at 10:28 AM
