(cross-posted from Toronto Screen Shots)

After a few brief weeks of unemployment, I began working again at the beginning of October. It’s just a few days a week for now, but it’s likely to grow into a full-time position before long. I’m working for a small but mighty distributor called Kinosmith. I’d been aware of them for a while, but didn’t realize that the company was only founded in early 2007. Or that up until now, it’s been essentially a one-man operation. Robin Smith has worked in the Canadian film industry for more than 20 years, for companies such as Capri Releasing, Seville Pictures, Lions Gate, Alliance Atlantis, and the Toronto International Film Festival, and he seems to know everyone. But he made it clear upon meeting me this summer that he needed some help. Although my main areas of responsibility will eventually be the web site and social media initiatives, for the past few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of administrative work. It’s been a great way to begin to understand the business, and I look forward to absorbing some of Robin’s expertise as we continue to work together. I consider myself extremely lucky to have been in the right place at the right time.

I had been emailing back and forth for the past few months with another industry veteran, Oliver Groom, proprietor of Project X Distribution, a specialized DVD label that puts out the work of British filmmaker Peter Watkins as well as a few others. We finally decided to meet in person for a drink and since Oliver and Robin had recently partnered up for their DVD releases, Robin came along too. All three of us got along well from that first meeting and after another get-together and a few emails, Robin asked me to come and help him out. He recently moved his home office to Oliver’s house and so even though I work for Robin, I see Oliver a lot as well.

If I haven’t been writing here as often as usual, it’s not because I’ve been watching fewer films. On the contrary, I’m also helping out by watching screeners submitted to Kinosmith as well as catching up on the films we’re releasing now. Robin has built up a very impressive catalogue of films in just over two years, and lots of filmmakers want to work with him, so things are very busy. It does bring up a bit of an ethical dilemma for me. I don’t intend to refrain from reviewing films that happen to be distributed by Kinosmith, but I want to be completely transparent about my relationship to the distributor. Do you think it will be enough to put a standard disclosure notice at the beginning of any blog entry that deals with a Kinosmith title? I promise not to give any film preferential treatment, but I don’t want to ignore them, either, especially if I’m ever somehow involved in the decision to acquire the film for Kinosmith.

In any case, I’m very excited to be indulging my passion for film and learning more about the business side of things. It’s a great opportunity and I’m very thankful to Robin and Oliver for taking me under their wing.

from Consolation Champs

Working for Kinosmith

cross-posted from Toronto Screen Shots

On Wednesday, my wife Brooke and I will be flying to Iceland for the fifth edition of the Reykjavik International Film Festival. We’re staying for the entire duration of the festival, which runs from September 25th through October 5th, and in addition to seeing films, we’ll be doing some sightseeing. We’ve rented a car for the entire time, and are hoping to see as much as we can, including the Golden Circle (the geyser at Geysir, the waterfall at Gullfoss and the site of the world’s oldest parliament at Þhingvellir National Park), the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa, and possibly an overnight stay on Vestmannaeyjar, the Westman Islands. Other planned activities include whale-watching and horseback riding, depending on the weather.

All that to say that I haven’t quite decided how I’m going to cover the film festival yet. Ideally, I’ll be able to blog as usual, posting reviews shortly after seeing the films, but because it’s a vacation, I might just be having too much fun to post right away.

Though the entire schedule hasn’t yet been posted, the main program (Open Seas) features the following 18 films:

• 33 sceny z zycia (33 Scenes From Life) – Malgorzata Szumowska
• Pandoranin kutusu (Pandora’s Box) – Yesim Ustuoglu
• Adoration – Atom Egoyan
• Avant que j’oublie (Before I Forget) – Jacques Nolot
• Piao lang qing chun (Drifting Flowers) – Zero Chou
• Il y a longtemps que je t’aime (I’ve Loved You So Long) – Philipe Claudel
• Good Cats – Ying Liang
• Revanche – Götz Spielmann*
• Frygtelig lykkelig (Terribly Happy) – Henrik Ruben Genz*
• Barcelona (A Map) – Ventura Pons
• Venkovský ucitel (The Country Teacher) – Bogdan Slama*
• Zui yao yuan de ju li (The Most Distant Course) – Jing-Jie Lin*
• A Feast of Villains – Pan Jian-Lin
• My Winnipeg – Guy Maddin*
• O’Horten – Bent Hamer*
• A Nyomozó (The Investigator) – Attila Galambos
• Dos Miradas (Two Looks) – Sergio Candel
• Til døden os skiller (With Your Permission) – Paprika Steen*

Some of these played at TIFF this year and some others were released earlier, but I haven’t seen any of them. So far, I’m planning on seeing the ones marked with asterisks based on either recommendations from friends or just my own interest. If you have any recommendations I haven’t marked, please comment and let me know why I should see them.

from Consolation Champs

Off to Reykjavik

Brooke and I got home last night from four days in New York City. While Brooke attended the Origami USA annual convention, I was free to wander the city and get into mischief. The weather was incredibly hot and humid and there were unpredictable and wild storms on both Saturday and Sunday. Since I had my Edirol R-09 digital recorder with me, I decided to record my thoughts instead of trying to keep a written blog. Forgive the rambling nature of these, but I thought it might be an interesting way to document my time there.

Saturday June 28, 2008

Episode 1: McCarren Park, Brooklyn

Duration: 7:58

Episode 2: McCarren Park, Brooklyn (after my tour of the Brooklyn Brewery)

Duration: 2:52

Episode 3: Hotel Kitano, Manhattan

Duration: 1:57

Sunday June 29, 2008

Episode 4: Hotel Kitano, Manhattan (morning, before almost drowning at the Pride Parade)

Duration: 2:55

I meant to record a few more episodes, especially since my experience on Sunday was so crazy. I walked out to Fifth Avenue to catch the Pride Parade and ended up following it all the way down to Christopher Street, about 40 blocks. Just as I got there, the heavens opened and without an umbrella, I was drenched. The rain didn’t let up for more than an hour so it kind of put a damper on some of the specators, though to their credit, the parade marchers kept up appearances. Well, except when the storm first broke and the parade stopped. I’ll never forget the sight of four drag queens huddled under a tiny umbrella trying to keep their wigs dry. Later, as I made my way back uptown, I tried to huddle under various awnings with hundreds of others. It was interesting sharing a bit of shelter with a group of soggy drag queens! By the time I got back to my hotel, my shoes, pants and shirt were waterlogged and I even had to spread all my paper money out to dry. Luckily the Euro 2008 final between Germany and Spain was on TV so I wrapped myself up in a robe and watched that.

Later, instead of going out to see a comedian (Eddie Izzard’s show was sold out, and Brooke doesn’t know Patton Oswalt at all), we just decided to see Pixar’s new film, Wall-E. First we ate at Empanada Mama, somewhere we discovered on our last visit in January. Delicious, reasonable and a short walk from the cinema which was on 42nd St.

On Monday, I met up with filmmaker Aaron Katz for breakfast (I’d met him the previous weekend in Toronto when he was here for Generation DIY) at Junior’s in Brooklyn and then went to the IFC Center to see Daisuke Tengan’s film The Most Beautiful Night in the World, screening as part of the New York Asian Film Festival. After that, a quick stop at Italian Wine Merchants to pick up few bottles from my favourite Slovenian wine producer (Movia) and then back to the hotel to meet Brooke and catch our shuttle bus to the airport.

Another great trip, and I’m still only just discovering what this amazing city has to offer.

Oh yeah, pictures are up on Flickr. Fair warning: lots of origami models.

from Consolation Champs

New York Audioblogs

It figures that I received a package from Amazon UK today with a whole bunch of Region 2 DVDs that I bought on sale. You see, I’m in the thick of HotDocs, reviewing a bunch of films over at my film blog Toronto Screen Shots. Nevertheless, I can’t wait to check these out over the next few weeks:

• A box set with Roman Polanski’s Knife in the Water, Repulsion, and Cul-de-sac, along with 8 shorts (Anchor Bay)
• Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (Artificial Eye)
• Michael Haneke’s Time of the Wolf (Artificial Eye)
• Lucile Hadzihalilovic’s Innocence (Artificial Eye)
• Ken Loach’s Land and Freedom (Artificial Eye)
• Mike Leigh’s Life is Sweet (FilmFour)
• Keisuke Kinoshita’s Twenty-Four Eyes (Masters of Cinema)
• Alan Parker’s Bugsy Malone (Optimum)

If that weren’t enough, a screener for Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly arrived this week, too, which I’ve been eager to see. Brooke is reading the book right now and raving about it.

I think the sale might be on for a while yet, especially on the Artificial Eye releases. If you have a region-free DVD player, these are some great deals.

from Consolation Champs

Region 2 Bargains Arrive

I’ve always been a big supporter of the BarCamp concept (a free self-organizing “unconference” where everyone is expected to contribute or participate), although the original BarCamps are way too technical for me to understand, never mind contribute. So I was happy to find out that CaseCamp Toronto is happening again on April 29th. CaseCamp is a marketing version of BarCamp, with people presenting case studies, and because there’s a big crossover with my favoured tribe of web nerds, there’s usually a heavy dose of social media wonkery. For some reason, these only appear to happen in Canada. My only disappointment is that it’s happening at the exact same time as two other potentially interesting events: StartupCamp 2 and Raindance’s free “99 Minute Screenwriting School.” If anyone makes it to either of those two, would you mind reporting back? And if you’re interested in CaseCamp, sign up soon. There are almost 100 people coming already!

from Consolation Champs

CaseCamp Toronto 7

The lack of posts around here has been on my mind lately. I’ve just come through an incredibly busy time and can finally relax. A bit. My company’s annual huge wine tasting event was yesterday and I’m hungover in every conceivable way. It’s been a lot of work, and it’s finally finished. But in case you think I’ve been completely absent from the web lately, well, you’d be wrong. Evidence:

• Podcast of the panel I moderated (Ghost In The Machine: Spirituality Online) at this year’s SXSW is now available.
• I was featured along with my friends Philip and Ian on an episode of Livebait.tv about Hot Docs.
• Related to the Livebait.tv story, my new film blog Toronto Screen Shots has been going like gangbusters, and I’ve got a huge stack of great DVDs to review.

So, although there hasn’t been a lot of text here lately, you can see and hear me in a few different places.

from Consolation Champs

Still Here! And There! And There!

I know this post is long overdue, but it’s actually taken me this long to recover physically and mentally and catch up a bit at work. This year’s SXSW was even bigger than last year, and despite the fears of my friends and I, it was actually somehow a bit more manageable. This was probably due to a few factors. First, I had a panel to prepare for and that allowed me to focus on that to the exclusion of almost everything else on the Saturday. Another sadder reality was that Brooke’s father passed away just a week before I was to fly to Austin. We spent almost the entire next week with her mum in Collingwood, about an hour and a half north of Toronto. That made it pretty impossible to think about or plan my week too carefully. For a few days, it wasn’t even clear I’d be able to make the trip at all. But in a strange way, it made me less anxious about the panel and about figuring out what I wanted to do every hour of every day. I was just happy to be there. And just so you know, Brooke was able to spend some quality time alone with her mum that week and sent me on my way with her blessing. She’s amazing like that.

I didn’t attend a lot of panels, or take a lot of photos or notes, so I thought I’d just give you a list of highlights and lowlights:

Highlights

• My panel was great. It was a pleasure and a privilege to meet some very sharp people who also happen to be warm and genuine about their faith. I’m really hopeful that I can be involved in something like it again next year.
• Sticking around a few days was a great idea. Although I didn’t buy a Music badge, there were heaps of free day shows. I got to see The Buzzocks(!), The Polyphonic Spree, Apples in Stereo, Peter Bjorn and John, Robyn Hitchcock with Peter Buck and Okkervil River. There was even free food and beer.
• During one of the parties during Interactive, I was chatting with my friends Kevin and Baratunde when we were joined by a personable young guy talking about films. He introduced himself as Joe and said he was acting in a film that was at the Film festival. During our 40 minute conversation, it dawned on me that we were hanging out with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, star of The Lookout. He turned out to be a great guy, smart and interesting but completely unpretentious.
• As a panelist, I got a complimentary Gold badge which allowed me to attend both Interactive and Film events. I took the opportunity to see a few films (Reign Over Me, Exiled, and Eagle Versus Shark) and this was a great break from the intensity of hanging around with smart geeks or rocking out at concerts.
• The panels and keynotes I did attend were almost all interesting and valuable.
• I focussed more on my writing about film and made a number of useful contacts. My decision to launch Toronto Screen Shots was based on attending a great panel called “Blogging About Film.”

Lowlights

• The weather in Austin this year was kind of crappy. It rained for several days, which made getting around fairly miserable.
• Hotels were expensive and filled up really early. Despite sharing with my friends Neil and Kevin, which involved spending five of my eight nights on either an air mattress or a rollaway bed, it still cost me more than US$1,000. I’m going to book my room by July or August next time.
• Almost everyone I know had some travel snafus on the way home. I wasn’t immune. I flew back Saturday from Austin to Detroit without incident, but my flight from Detroit to Toronto was cancelled for “unscheduled maintenance.” Despite the fact that it’s a one hour flight, there were no flights available until Monday or Tuesday, and the airline would only pay for one night’s accomodation. I banded together with a few other Torontonians and we took a taxi across the border to Windsor and jumped on the train. I got home about seven hours late, and it cost me more money, but there was no way I was staying two days in Detroit, especially at my own expense. Boo airlines!
• As always, the week went by far too quickly and I didn’t get to spend nearly enough time with people. There were a few people whom I’d wanted to meet for the first time, and didn’t get the chance. Ah well, I’ll be back next year!

from Consolation Champs

SXSW 2007 Wrapup

I’ve been back from SXSW since last weekend but of course have been exhausted and swamped with work. I have, however, taken some time to collect all of my film-related writing on a brand-new weblog called Toronto Screen Shots. I’m hoping to collaborate with a few other film writers there and feature some exciting new content in the coming months. Please visit and let me know what you think!

P.S. Yes, I’ll post something about SXSW soon, probably this weekend.

from Consolation Champs

Toronto Screen Shots

The Shutka Book of Records (Director: Aleksandar Manic, Czech Republic, 78 minutes): This month’s Doc Soup screening was one that I’d heard absolutely nothing about beforehand. Shutka is a small town in Macedonia that boasts that it is the unofficial capital of the Roma (Gypsy) people. Though not rich in material goods, its inhabitants are rich in imagination, and almost everyone proclaims himself a “champion” of something. Obscure pursuits such as hunting vampires, training geese to fight, and collecting obscure cassettes of Turkish music are all fair game in the townspeople’s constant quest for one-upmanship.

I had some issues with the film’s tone. Even though the film was made in 2005, it was uncannily close to some of the scenes of the “Kazakh” village in Borat. This film, ostensibly a documentary, also used a slightly comical “narrator” (actually actor Bajram Severdzan, from Emir Kusturica’s Black Cat, White Cat) and the abundant humour brought it so close to parody at times that I felt that perhaps the whole thing was a put-on. According to the reviewer for the Chicago Tribune, (aptly-named) director Manic has called it an “acted documentary,” which only muddies the water.

As well, and as another reviewer noted, there is an unspoken undertone of grinding poverty. These people, although indomitable and at times charming, are the sort of uneducated, superstitious bumpkins who would rather spend their welfare money on a lavish party for their son’s circumcision ceremony than on his school fees. Though there is a discernible Roma culture evident, one wonders whether it thrives only because of a lack of any alternative. Without meaningful work or future prospects, people are bound to end up spending all of their waking hours boasting, stealing, arguing and worrying about evil genies. It’s entertaining, but it somehow felt wrong to be entertained. The few attempts made by the director to get us to empathize with many of the residents’ desire to “fly away” to the riches in the West felt buried under the weight of the jaunty anthropological style (including faux-archival black and white footage). At the end of the film, I felt somewhat like I’d emerged from a carnival sideshow. (7/10)

from Consolation Champs

The Shutka Book of Records

Yes, it’s hard to believe, but I’ll be attending my seventh South by Southwest in a few weeks. Things will be a little different this year for a number of reasons.

1. This year, for the first time ever, I’m speaking on a panel. Not seeing anything on the schedule about the subject, I proposed a panel on faith, and it was accepted. It’s entitled Ghost in the Machine: Spirituality Online and it’s scheduled for Saturday March 10 from 5:00-6:00. I’ve assembled a panel of rock stars who will say most of the intelligent things, but I’m still nervous and excited.
2. As a panelist, I received a free Gold pass this year, which means for the first time I can attend both Interactive and Film events. I’m still unclear how ticketing to film screenings works, but I’m hoping to actually see a few films this time. A few of the scheduled films recently screened at Sundance, so it might be a good chance to see some stuff that won’t make it to Toronto until at least the fall, if at all.
3. The Interactive section of the conference ends on Tuesday, but I’m not leaving Austin until Saturday morning, so I’m hoping to catch a few bands during the Music portion, and just generally hang out in one of my favourite American cities with some of my favourite Americans.

If you’re going to be there, make sure you say hello! And it’s also acceptable to buy me a Shiner. After all, I’m a crusty conference veteran now!

P.S. Make sure to check out SXSWBaby for the latest news and updates.

from Consolation Champs

7th Annual Pre-SXSW Post

[The Oscars have] got nothing to do with standards of good moviemaking. And I mean nothing, as in what’s left when you take zero from zero, multiply it to infinity and divide it the number of times Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, Ingmar Bergman or Akira Kurosawa won for Best Director. (Which was zip, by the way.)

Geoff Pevere is spot-on in his hilarious lambasting of the Oscars. But I’ll still probably watch them.

from Consolation Champs

Oscar Loathing

I’ve never been to the Sundance Film Festival, and have no burning desire to hang out with the stars in a ski resort in Utah, but I have been trying to follow a bit of what’s going on. Here are a few films that I’m hearing good things about and which, with any luck, will make it to Toronto either at HotDocs or TIFF:

• Son of Rambow
• For the Bible Tells Me So
• Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten
• King of California
• Snow Angels

The film summaries are from the much more attractive and usefully-designed Unofficially Sundance site.

from Consolation Champs

Watching Sundance from Afar

The nominations were announced for the Oscars yesterday. I’ve been seeing fewer feature films lately, but I do manage to catch more documentaries. Of the five nominees, I’ve only seen two so far, but I plan to try to see all of them if I can before the Academy Awards are handed out on February 25.

The nominees for Best Documentary are:

It’s nice to see that documentary film is serving some of its most important purposes in these films: to bear witness, and to kick us in the conscience. It’s interesting to note that two films deal with Christianity (both deal with forms of toxic Christianity, in my opinion), two deal with the Iraq war, and one with a global crisis. No uplifting films, this year, sadly. Times are tough.

If you’ve seen any of these, what did you think? Who’s your bet to win? My money is on Al Gore’s sobering PowerPoint presentation on climate change. Not the most creatively filmed, but certainly the most urgent, and it managed to present information in an entertaining and mostly guilt-free way that made me want to make some changes to the way I live.

UPDATE: In a bit of cross-blog linkery, I’ve listed the losers in this category for the past few years over at Runner-Up! Check ‘em out!

from Consolation Champs

Oscar Nominations: Documentaries

I’ve got the first two issues of Wholphin, the McSweeney‘s-affiliated DVD magazine of short films, and was wondering when the third was coming out. In checking out their site, I discovered that included on the upcoming issue will be a 15-minute excerpt from the strangest and most-wonderful film I’ve seen in a long time, Funky Forest: The First Contact. That’s reason enough to rush out and buy it when it comes out in mid-December.

Here’s a bonus interview with the three directors of the film.

And here is a good attempt at reviewing an almost unreviewable film.

Watch the trailer

from Consolation Champs

Wholphin Issue 3, now with Funky Forest!

Janji Joni (Joni’s Promise) (Indonesia, director Joko Anwar): Thanks to excellent film site Twitch, I scored a couple of free passes to this Indonesian film, playing at the 10th annual Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival. It’s the story of Joni, a film reel delivery guy, and his quest to deliver all of his reels on time and win the girl of his dreams. It’s a sweet and simple film, and the feature debut of its director, Joko Anwar. This is the first film I’ve ever seen from Indonesia, and it was certainly great to see what life in Jakarta is like, as well as hear some of the many Indonesian rock bands on the soundtrack, but the film still felt a little too cute to me. The leads are very attractive, but the humour is extremely broad, not unlike what you’d see in most Bollywood fare, and the characters are paper thin. Technically, the director has done a lot with what must have been a miniscule budget, and he pays tribute to film fans, as well as many of his favourite directors. In fact, the film tries very hard to be an Indonesian “Run Lola Run” but without the dark side of that film. In the end, it was entertaining but simple.

Perhaps it wasn’t fair that I’d just seen the new Bond film Casino Royale the night before. With surely less than 1% of that film’s budget, I’d say Anwar has done pretty well. And I’m glad to have gotten a glimpse into life in another place.

Janji Joni Official Website

(6/10)

from Consolation Champs

Janji Joni

Yeah, I know. I should be completely film festivaled out by now, but this one looks interesting. The Toronto After Dark Film Festival features sci-fi, horror and fantasy films with a strong dose of Asian cinema. It runs from October 20-24, and I’ll miss the weekend section, but I’m definitely trying to get to the Monday screenings at the Bloor Cinema:

• 6:45pm – Tokyo Zombie
• 9:30pm – Funky Forest: The First Contact

Still images from “Funky Forest: The First Contact”

I’m bummed to miss the opening night film, Special, starring two of my favourite character actors. Michael Rapaport in a rare leading role, and Jack Kehler. Check out the trailer. Just the fact that the music in the trailer is “Popcorn” by Hot Butter makes me want to see it. But it looks equally funny and sad. Apparently there’s some problem with the film getting North American distribution, too, so this might be a rare opportunity to see it.

from Consolation Champs

Toronto After Dark Film Festival

Excellent interview with Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, the filmmakers of Jesus Camp, conducted by Canadian evangelical film critic Peter Chattaway.

from Consolation Champs

Jesus Camp Interview

Lights in the Dusk (Finland/Germany/France, director Aki Kaurismäki): This is the third film in Kaurismäki’s “Helsinki Trilogy” (the others are Drifting Clouds (1996) and The Man Without a Past (2002)) While I haven’t seen the first, this film shares many thematic and formal elements with the second film, and I enjoyed it just as much.

Koistinen is a lonely security guard who is ignored by his co-workers; that is, when he’s not being teased by them. His life is soon turned upside down by a femme fatale, with heartbreaking results. Despite the grim-sounding plot, the film is full of the director’s trademark deadpan humour. And I’m in awe of how he can make the film just radiate love despite the mannered acting and awkward staging. Perhaps it has to do with the warmth of the lighting and the colour palette, as well as the use of nostalgic music and art direction. Whatever it is, from the first frame, you know the director loves this sad sack and wants us to love him too.

The films of the Helsinki Trilogy all deal with people on the margins, and it’s clear that Kaurismäki’s sympathies lie with the common people and not with those whose success or power has dehumanized them. He is a true humanist, and his “heroes” all bear their sufferings stoically; in fact, they quite literally personify a “never-say-die” attitude, and that makes them admirable. Their hangdog expressions may make us pity them, but it’s their core of inner strength that makes us love them.

(9/10)

from Consolation Champs

Lights in the Dusk

Lake of Fire (USA, director Tony Kaye): A monumental (152 minutes!) documentary on the abortion issue filmed over a 15-year period, Tony Kaye’s film is likely to become a classic. The film covers all kinds of ground and features interviews with many people on both sides of the issue. Perhaps surprisingly, quite a few of them have intelligent things to say.

There is quite a lot of (and I’d say too much) coverage of the extreme fringe of the pro-life movement, including the string of killings of abortion doctors in the 1990s, and a very strange and possibly insane man who runs an organization called Lambs of Jesus. Too often, the pro-life camp is described as simply an extension of the Christian Right’s agenda. While that may be largely true, there are millions of other people with pro-life views that are much less extreme, who are not necessarily marching or picketing abortion clinics. It would have been nice to hear from some of them. One interesting pro-life advocate was writer Nat Hentoff, a liberal atheist. In the pro-choice camp, there were a few notable voices, including lawyer Alan Dershowitz and Frances Kissling of Catholics for a Free Choice. Then there were those who appeared to be in the middle somewhere, including several medical bioethicists and even Noam Chomsky, who was perhaps the most eloquent voice in the film.

I suppose the extensive coverage of the shootings of abortion doctors may have been included to balance the equally disturbing images of abortion procedures, including the doctor “piecing together” the body parts of the fetus after the procedure. Any honest film about abortion needs to address these very real images.

I believe it may have been Chomsky who stated that abortion comes down to a difficult choice between two (and possibly more) competing but authentic values. He also pointed out that if pro-life supporters claim to be concerned about children, there were lots of easy ways to help the many suffering children in the world, but that few were actually doing much about it.

The film concludes with two segments where I found the use of music to be manipulative. One is the statement by a nurse who was severely injured in an abortion clinic bombing, and the final longer segment follows one woman as she goes through the entire abortion procedure, from filling out forms to her sudden breakdown as she tries to tell the interviewer she’s “relieved.” The images and stories were powerful enough without the need for swelling strings in the background. As well, it’s not always clear when each part of the film was shot, or whether we’re seeing things in chronological order at all, and for a film that covers 15 years of a changing political landscape, it would be nice to have a timeline and even some statistics to see how things are changing.

Other than those relatively minor misgivings, this is a landmark film and has set a high standard for feature length documentaries dealing with this relatively neglected subject. The two and a half hours went by very quickly, and I was even left wanting more. Director Kaye says he has lots more and could even make the material into a television series. I for one would be interested.

(8.5/10) – my graphic doesn’t show half-points

from Consolation Champs

Lake of Fire

El Ratón Pérez (The Hairy Tooth Fairy) (Argentina/Spain, director Juan Pablo Buscarini): I don’t think I can write a substantial review of this film since I was so sleepy during it. The week is catching up to me, and because I was with my wife and sitting in such a comfortable and dark environment, I dozed off a few times. The film itself was quite good, though. A combination of CGI and live-action, El Ratón Pérez is the story of what happens to children’s teeth when they place them under their pillows. Unlike in North American and northern European culture, the Latin American and Spanish legend is that a mouse named Mr. Perez takes the tooth away and replaces it with a coin. Nothing terribly original about the film, but it was well-made and charming, and the many children in the audience seemed to appreciate it. One distraction was that they had someone reading the English subtitles into a microphone for the younger viewers. Having that competing with the Spanish-language soundtrack as well as the subtitles made watching the film more difficult.

Visit the film’s web site

(7/10)

from Consolation Champs

El Ratón Pérez (The Hairy Tooth Fairy)

Exiled (Hong Kong/China, director Johnnie To): Among lovers of Hong Kong cinema, Johnnie To is legendary. He had three films showing in this year’s festival (Election (2005) and Election 2 (2006) screened together, as well as this film) and this was my first experience seeing one of his films. I’ll be seeking out some others. Exiled is an incredibly well-constructed film. It’s like a Swiss watch, with every scene precisely set up and choreographed and nothing wasted. To has created a self-contained world and set his characters loose in it. Set just around the time of Macau’s reversion to the Chinese government, it concerns a group of hit men who come together when their boss orders a hit on one of them. Two pairs of men arrive at the target’s new home. The first to warn him, the second to kill him. After a kinetic set piece involving three shooters, precisely 18 bullets, and the target’s wife and infant son, the group ends up helping still-alive Wo move furniture into his new place, before settling down to eat.

The mixture of action, comedy, and sentiment is probably a staple of Hong Kong gangster films, but I found it fresh. The plot continues when the assassins agree to give Wo some time to carry out one last job to make some cash for his soon to be widowed wife and orphaned child. Things don’t go as planned, however, and the film bumps along from set piece to set piece until an inevitable but satisfying end. Each choreographed set piece is set up in such a way as to heighten the anticipation, and you almost don’t mind that none of these trained killers seems to be a very good shot. It’s enough that they’re all ludicrously macho, swilling scotch from the bottle and smoking as they fire bullets at each other.

Seeing this one on the big screen is a must, just for the sound. The musical score, by Canadian Guy Zerafa, veered between James Bond and spaghetti westerns, with a bit of mournful harmonica thrown in. It worked perfectly, as did the fact that the viewer can hear every single shell casing hit the ground throughout the film. Even the gunshots themselves seemed different from those in American films, with less blast and more metallic sounds. It certainly helped create atmosphere. While this and the choreographed gunplay never let you forget you’re watching a created thing rather than any semblance of reality, that actually made me more appreciative of the creator. He’s certainly created another Johnnie To fan.

Visit the film’s web site

(8/10)

from Consolation Champs

Exiled

Blindsight (UK, director Lucy Walker): I loved this, and not just for the obvious reasons. Blindsight is a documentary about a group of blind Tibetan teenagers who attempt to climb one of Mount Everest’s sister peaks. Now, this kind of thing is usually a can’t miss. Inspirational. Moving. Pretty standard, right? And even if the film were just that, I’d still have liked it. But it was so much more. Blind herself, German Sabriye Tenberken established a school for blind children in Tibet, in a culture that sees blindness as a curse, as evidence that a person did bad things in a previous life. Many of the children at the school have been shunned their whole lives, and at best, are a burden to their families. As part of their education, Tenberken shares with them the story of American Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. She sends him a letter inviting him to come and visit her students. Instead, he comes up with a plan. He’ll arrange an expedition for them to climb 23,000 foot Lhakpa Ri and provide all the guides and equipment. Sabriye finds six willing participants and this is when the fun starts.

Erik’s team are mostly American, mostly male, and mostly sighted. As experienced mountaineers, they’re Type-A personalities, very gung-ho and goal-oriented. Sabriye is European, female, and blind, and the students for her are more than a “project,” no matter how well-intentioned. Additionally, the students are Tibetan, and not old enough or confident enough to always stand up for themselves. As the expedition unfolds, they become pawns in between the two adult “sides,” wanting to please both, while at the same time wanting to gain the confidence that comes from accomplishment. As an additional obstacle (other than being blind, that is), they are speaking English as a second or in most cases, a third language, and struggle to understand and make themselves understood.

When it turns out that none of the students have any climbing experience, and that some are much more coordinated than others, it begins to unravel Erik’s original plan for them all to reach the summit together. As both students and teachers begin to suffer the effects of high altitude, decisions must be made as to whether to continue on or to send some down the mountain. Among the effects of high altitude is increased irritability, and you can see how this feeds the conflict between the adults. At the risk of oversimplifying, on one side are those for whom the destination is all, and on the other are those who just want to enjoy the journey. I won’t tell you how it all turns out, except to say that this was one of the most surprising and thought-provoking stories I’ve seen in a long time.

The film also weaves bits of each climber’s story into the narrative, and this was sorely needed, since once on the climb, the kids tended to keep their heads down and their mouths shut. With all the drama going on around them, that wasn’t surprising. The backstories are by turns charming and heartbreaking, and I found it very strange that I found myself closer to tears at the beginning of the film than at the end. This was contrary to my expectations, and another pleasant surprise.

In addition to all the human drama to cover, director Walker and her small crew had to contend with the frigid and oxygen-deprived conditions herself, lugging equipment up the mountains and hoping it wouldn’t break down. As with all great documentaries, the filmmaker was just lucky enough (or smart enough, or prepared enough) to be at the right place at the right time, and she’s captured a very special story that has as much to say about people who want to do “what’s best for the kids” as it does about the kids themselves.

Visit the film’s web site

Braille Without Borders (Sabriye Tenberken’s organization)

(10/10)

from Consolation Champs

Blindsight

While I’m going on about films, I’d be crazy not to mention Ironweed Film Club. This is a monthly service, a bit similar to Film Movement (except they’ll actually deliver to Canada!), but the films are mostly documentaries with a progressive viewpoint. The price is US$14.95/month, and all the films I’ve received so far have been excellent and thought-provoking. Here are some of the films they’ve featured over the past few months:

• April 2006: Street Fight
• May 2006: The Education of Shelby Knox
• June 2006: Private
• July 2006: Shakespeare Behind Bars
• August 2006: Genesis
• September 2006: American Blackout

The way I discovered them was while searching for a DVD of “The Education of Shelby Knox,” an amazing documentary I saw at Hot Docs in 2005. Another bonus is that even when some of these films are available on DVD elsewhere, Ironweed’s are almost always cheaper and often include bonus films.

FULL DISCLOSURE: If you click the Ironweed link above and sign up with them, I get a free month. But my desire to get lots of free months should tell you how much I really value a service like this. Please sign up!

from Consolation Champs

Ironweed Film Club

The Sugar Curtain (Spain/Cuba/France, director Camila Guzmán Urzúa): Strangely and almost unintentionally apolitical, this film is a personal remembrance of growing up in the 70s and 80s in Cuba. The director seems to have shot all of the footage herself, making it more like a home movie. And it’s incredibly nostalgic, with lots of comparisons of old photos with the present. But the film’s thesis, if I can use a word that strong, is impossible to prove in this context, even if it’s correct. The director seems to be saying that life in Cuba in her childhood was good, that Castro’s revolution was achieving positive results and that the end of the Cold War was disastrous for Cuba. But this is pretty self-evident. We see a lot of run-down or abandoned buildings that were in good repair thirty years ago. We hear interviews with her classmates who agree that things aren’t as good anymore. I don’t want to sound facetious, but I could probably make a pretty similar film about my own childhood.

When she talks to students at her old high school, about the only privation she can uncover is that they no longer get snacks. In the director’s childhood, they got chocolate biscuits and fizzy drinks. But in a society where the government provided so much (and still does, compared with the rest of the world), these examples seem a bit forced. I’m sure life in Cuba is difficult for many, but from the evidence of the film, it still seems to be doing pretty well. For a society that has withstood a trade embargo from the world’s richest nation for more than fifty years, and whose biggest benefactor cut it off more than fifteen years ago, it’s doing remarkably well. Its children are literate and fed, and it seems to have avoided the extremes of poverty seen in many parts of the Caribbean and Latin America.

Unfortunately, I think the director’s complaints are fairly universal. The idealism we feel in our youth turns into disillusionment as we age. The forces of globalization and capitalism are affecting Cuba, even as Castro tries to hold them at bay. The fact that the director and many of her classmates left Cuba in the 1990s (during the “Special Period” that followed the end of the Cold War, a time of tremendous economic hardship for Cubans) also clouds the picture. How does her memory of Cuba as a socialist paradise differ from the memories of the anti-Castro crowd in Miami, who remember pre-revolutionary Cuba as a different kind of paradise? Both are unreliable and nostalgic.

While the film was enjoyable as a window into one person’s experience, and it was great to see the modern footage of life on the island, overall I found it unsatisfying.

(6/10)

from Consolation Champs

The Sugar Curtain

The Way I Spent The End Of The World (Romania/France, director Catalin Mitulescu): This was an earnest but uneven film about life in Romania during the final months of Ceausescu’s rule in 1989. Teenaged Eva and her young brother Lalalilu live with their parents and suffer the hardships of living under a hated dictator. Since their neighbour is a cop, they have to be careful what they say, and Eva’s parents encourage her budding romance with the policeman’s son Alex because of what the family connection could do for them. Instead, her rebellious attitude gets her expelled from her school and sent to a technical school for troubled students. There she connects with another neighbour, Andrei, whose family have already been punished for protesting against the regime. Together they make plans to escape Romania by swimming across the Danube, but when the crucial moment comes, Eva turns back.

Meanwhile, Lilu is plotting with his friends how to kill the dictator. Young Timotei Duma is very reminiscent of Salvatore Cascio, who played young Salvatore (Toto) in Cinema Paradiso. Which means he was extremely cute, and some of his scenes were the best in the film. There are two whimsical scenes where we seem to enter his childlike world: one is set in a submarine taxi where all the villagers can be taken to whatever city in Europe they wish to visit, and the other visualizes the boy blowing a huge chewing gum bubble that becomes so large that it floats away. Clearly, the theme of escape is on everyone’s mind.

I wish there had been more scenes like that. Instead, most of the film consists of Eva’s various meetings with Alex or Andrei and very little dialogue. For a main character, she was just a little too enigmatic. I definitely felt the film could have used a bit more dialogue and a bit more editing to speed the pace a bit. As well, the ending could have used a bit more explication. There are some pictures of Ceaucescu on live television and what appears to be live coverage of him fleeing but there is no explanation. For Romanians this might be self-evident but for the rest of the world, we could use a little bit of help.

The ending itself is quite lovely, with the increasing tension suddenly released with Ceaucescu’s fall. And there were some moments of dark humour, as when the students are required to sing patriotic songs about how wonderful their lives are in Romania when it’s plain that everyone is living in misery. But there is a bit of unexplained business at the end surrounding the policeman and his son Alex that bothered me. As well, there were a few strange cinematographical choices throughout the film that proved distracting. Scenes would be clumsily blocked by objects as if the director didn’t quite know where to place his camera. It’s not a huge surprise to discover that this is Catalin Mitulescu’s first feature film.

(7/10)

from Consolation Champs

The Way I Spent The End Of The World

Offside (Iran, director Jafar Panahi): Filmed during an actual qualifying match for the 2006 World Cup, Offside works brilliantly as both a comedy and a tragedy. The film follows the fortunes of a group of young women who are caught trying to sneak into a football match at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium. The country’s Islamic religious leaders have decreed that women may not sit with men at sporting events, lest they be exposed to cursing and other morally questionable behaviour. This hasn’t stopped the country’s young female fans, who continue to sneak in using various tricks. But Panahi focuses on a small group who have been caught and are being detained agonizingly close to the action. They beg the bored soldiers guarding them to let them go or at least to let them watch the match. The soldiers tell them they shouldn’t have tried to get in, that they could have watched the game at home on TV. They banter back and forth in almost real-time as the game continues, just off-camera.

There is one very funny sequence where a young soldier accompanies one of the girls to the restroom. Since there are no female restrooms at stadiums, he has to clear the room of any men before he can allow her to go in. Plus, he makes her cover her face so no one can see she’s a woman. This is accomplished using a poster of Iranian soccer star Ali Karimi as a mask, with eye holes punched out.

You get a real sense that even the soldiers are baffled by the prohibition, and are only carrying out their orders so as to hasten the end of their compulsory military service. One soldier complains that he was supposed to be on leave so he could take care of his family’s cattle in the countryside. Little by little, the girls and the soldiers talk to each other, and there are numerous small acts of kindness on both sides to show that these are basically good people living in terrible circumstances. However, the soldiers’ constant reminder that “the chief” is on his way lends a sense of menace, since we don’t know what sort of punishment the women will face.

Unlike most Iranian films, which are known for their strong visuals, Offside is filmed in a realist style with no artifice. In fact, the film was made during the actual qualifying match against Bahrain that took place on June 5, 2005. The “plot” in many ways was determined by the result on the pitch. If Iran won the match, they would qualify. If they lost, they would not. Since the World Cup has come and gone, I don’t think it is a spoiler to say that Iran won the match. The scenes of celebration at the end of the film were real and spontaneous, which gave the film a real authenticity. Seeing how much this meant to the people of Iran was deeply touching.

As well, one of the young women makes reference at the end of the film to seven fans who died during the Iran-Japan match on March 25, just a few weeks before. They were trampled to death after police began to spray the crowd with water to move them in a certain direction. Knowing that this was a real-life tragedy added another level of poignancy to the celebrations.

I don’t want to go off on a long political tangent, but this film gave me real hope that there are those in Iran who are hoping for change and working at it. Iran is a nation of young people, and it is only a matter of time before they take the place of their elders in the political sphere. Films like this one show the proud spirit of the Iranian people in spite of their present difficulties, and it’s my sincere hope that there is a brighter future for them.

Interview with director Jafar Panahi

Good review from Sight and Sound magazine

(9/10)

from Consolation Champs

Offside

The Host (Korea, director Bong Joon-ho): A huge box office hit in Korea, The Host is a good old-fashioned monster movie, and a lot more. The director introduced the screening by saying that the film isn’t really a monster movie at all, but an emotional Korean family drama, and he’s right, mostly.

The family in question is a strange one. There are no mothers and no spouses, just a grandfather, his three unmarried children, and the daughter of his eldest son, whose mother abandoned her shortly after she was born. The grandfather and eldest son run a food stand next to the Han River, and one day, a gigantic lizard-like monster emerges from the water and attacks the people picnicking along the riverbanks. In the process, 13-year-old Hyun-seo is carried off before the horrified eyes of her father Kang-du. The family grieves together in the hospital to where they’ve all been quarantined until Kang-du receives a staticky cell-phone call from his daughter, who is alive and begging him to come and rescue her from the monster’s lair, somewhere in the sewer system.

The reason for the quarantine is that the government believes the monster is carrying some sort of virus and are trying to limit exposure to the rest of the city. The problem is that they’ve called back all the troops that they’d first sent to capture the monster, and now it falls to this dysfunctional family to find their child. After breaking out of the hospital, the whole group embarks on a search and rescue mission armed only with a couple of rifles and sister Nam-ju’s bow (she’s a bronze medal-winning archer). They’re all ineffectual in unique ways. While Nam-ju (Bae Doo-Na, so great in last year’s Linda Linda Linda) is an excellent archer, she’s slow to take aim, which cost her the gold medal. Brother Nam-il is a university graduate who can’t find work, so he’s turned to booze. And Kang-du is just generally lazy and a bit dim-witted.

There is quite a bit of humour in the way the family members interact, as well as a fair bit of social and political satire at the expense of both the Korean and U.S. governments (the Americans are blamed for dumping toxic waste that created the monster in the first place). This was amusing, though pretty heavy-handed.

The cinematography made use of lots of rain and cloudy skies to convey the claustrophobic feeling of the sewers even when we weren’t actually there. In fact, the only sunny skies in the film occur just before the monster’s first appearance.

While I did find the film enjoyable, I felt it ran a bit long, and stretched credibility a few times too many. It’s a monster movie, after all, so maybe I shouldn’t have had such high expectations. The effects are well-done and it was certainly fun to watch, but it’s not an art film by any stretch of the imagination. The theme seemed to be that even dysfunctional families are still families, and that we need to take care of each other and not expect our governments to protect or rescue us.

(7/10)

from Consolation Champs

The Host

The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema (UK/Austria/Netherlands, director Sophie Fiennes): Not as salacious as it sounds, this is a three-part documentary (each episode is 50 minutes) featuring Slovenian superstar philosopher/psychoanalyst Slavoj Zizek. Zizek takes us on a journey through many classic films, exploring themes of sexuality, fantasy, morality and mortality. It was directed by Sophie Fiennes, of the multi-talented Fiennes clan (she’s sister to actors Ralph and Joseph).

I enjoyed this quite a bit, although I think it will be even more enjoyable on DVD, since there is such a stew of ideas to be digested. Freudian and Lacanian analysis can be pretty heavy going and seeing the whole series all at once became a bit disorienting by the end of two and a half hours. It didn’t help that an ill-advised coffee and possession of a bladder led me to some discomfort for the last hour or so.

My only real issue with this is that Zizek picked films that were quite obviously filled with Freudian themes. He spends quite a bit of time on the films of Hitchcock and David Lynch, not exactly masters of subtlety. I would have liked to see him try to support his theories by using a wider range of films, although that’s really just me saying I’d like to see part four and five and six.

Zizek is very funny, and part of the humour was watching him present what amounted to a lecture while inserting himself into the actual scenes from some of the films he’s discussing. So, for instance, we see him in a motorboat on his way to Bodega Bay (from Hitchcock’s The Birds) or sitting in the basement of the Bates Motel (from Psycho). Which is not to say that his theories are not provocative. Even when I found myself disagreeing with him, it definitely made me think a little more deeply about the films. Which is exactly what he’s trying to accomplish.

Visit the film’s web site

(8/10)

from Consolation Champs

The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema

When I dropped off our picks, we were in box 17 and the randomly-drawn starting box was 22. There were 40 boxes in all, so that meant we were in the 36th of 40 boxes. Bad news. Brooke got all ten of her films, which only figures. My friend Jay only got 3 of his 9 films (he got two tickets to one, though). I managed to get half of my ten choices. So, after more than three hours of lining up and lining up again this morning, here is my final schedule for this year. I only missed out on three films, since I was able to get tickets to alternate screenings for two others:

• Saturday September 9, 12:15pm: The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema (UK/Austria/Netherlands, Director: Sophie Fiennes)
• Sunday September 10, 3:45pm: The Host (South Korea, Director: Bong Joon-ho)
• Sunday September 10, 6:30pm: Offside (Iran, Director: Jafar Panahi)
• Monday September 11, 5:30pm: The Way I Spent the End of the World (Romania, Director: Catalin Mitulescu)
• Tuesday September 12, 8:15pm: The Sugar Curtain (France/Spain, Director: Camila Guzmán Urzúa)
• Thursday September 14, 5:30pm: Blindsight (UK, Director: Lucy Walker)
• Thursday September 14, 9:00pm: Exiled (Hong Kong, Director: Johnnie To)
• Friday September 15, 6:15pm: El Ratón Pérez (The Hairy Tooth Fairy) (Argentina/Spain, Director: Juan Pablo Buscarini)
• Saturday September 16, 11:45am: Glue (Argentina/UK, Director: Alexis Dos Santos)
• Saturday September 16, 4:30pm: Lake of Fire (USA, Director: Tony Kaye)
• Saturday September 16, 9:00pm: Lights in the Dusk (Finland/Germany/France, Director: Aki Kaurismäki)

9/15/06: I dropped Glue and picked up El Ratón Pérez (The Hairy Tooth Fairy), due to the Waking City game which starts tomorrow. As well, Brooke’s seeing the film tonight and wanted me to go with her.

from Consolation Champs

TIFF 2006: Final Schedule

For anyone who’s interested, you can read all of my previous coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) here:

http://www.consolationchamps.com/archives/film/tiff/

As well, I’ve covered the Hot Docs documentary film festival since 2004. Those reviews are here:

http://www.consolationchamps.com/archives/film/hot_docs/

from Consolation Champs

TIFF Review Archives

For the past two days, I’ve been working my way through the 440 pages of the programme book and have figured out ten films I’d like to see that fit into my schedule:

• Saturday September 9, 2:30pm: The Way I Spent the End of the World (Romania, Director: Catalin Mitulescu)
• Saturday September 9, 6:15pm: Indigènes (France, Director: Rachid Bouchareb)
• Sunday September 10, 12:30pm: The Sugar Curtain (France/Spain, Director: Camila Guzmán Urzúa)
• Sunday September 10, 3:45pm: The Host (South Korea, Director: Bong Joon-ho)
• Sunday September 10, 6:30pm: Offside (Iran, Director: Jafar Panahi)
• Tuesday September 12, 7:00pm: Renaissance (France/Luxembourg/UK, Director: Christian Volckman)
• Thursday September 14, 5:30pm: Blindsight (UK, Director: Lucy Walker)
• Friday September 15, 7:45pm: D.O.A.P. (UK, Director: Gabriel Range)
• Saturday September 16, 4:30pm: Lake of Fire (USA, Director: Tony Kaye)
• Saturday September 16, 9:00pm: Lights in the Dusk (Finland/Germany/France, Director: Aki Kaurismäki)

The next step is to hand in our choices (I’m splitting a 30-coupon book with my wife Brooke and my friend Jay) tomorrow morning and then pick up our tickets next Monday. If we don’t get all our choices, I have a few second choices up my sleeve. But I’m crossing my fingers we’ll get everything.

from Consolation Champs

TIFF 2006: Early Picks

This isn’t showing at TIFF this year, but it looks really fascinating. Chilling, actually. Perhaps it will be one of the Doc Soup documentaries in the fall? I hope so. Check out the trailer.

from Consolation Champs

Jesus Camp

It’s almost that time of year again. From September 7-16, Toronto is taken over by celebrities and celebrity hounds, partying into the wee hours and clogging up Yorkville with their bling. Oh, and they show a few films as well.

I’ll be attending for the 12th year, though I’m only seeing ten films again. Without taking vacation time off work (which I’m saving for our trip to Slovenia just after the festival ends), ten is about the limit for me.

I was a little bit excited for about thirty seconds when I saw that the official TIFF web site is offering a feature called “Your Blogs”. That is, until I read part of the lengthy terms and conditions:

Uh, no thanks. Instead, I’ll be posting my reviews here as always, and cross-posting them to TIFFReviews, a site which has been covering the festival since 2004.

The complete film list was released yesterday, so now comes the hard job of deciding what to see and when to see it. If I’m careful, I might just be able to avoid anyone famous.

from Consolation Champs

TIFF 2006: Preliminaries

Brooke and I went to see An Inconvenient Truth tonight, which was fantastic. The horrible thing was sitting through three car commercials before the screening. I’ve been starting to count the number of commercials that are for cars and I’d say, according to my unscientific guess, that one out of every three commercials I see these days are for automobiles or things that support the automobile industry. We are truly addicted to these things. I don’t mean to sound high and mighty. Though we don’t own a car, we borrowed my dad’s gas-guzzling SUV to drive up to see Brooke’s parents this weekend. But the car culture is so pervasive, we don’t even notice it anymore, and I think that’s dangerous.

from Consolation Champs

Inconvenient

Sometimes movies are more than just movies.

Roger Ebert wrote a scathing review of a sadistic horror film called “Chaos”. The creators responded, and then Ebert wrote this stirring response. (via tbit)

from Consolation Champs

Ebert on Evil

I’m not really old enough to remember it, but the “Jesus People” movement was a full-blown phenomenon in the late 1960s and into the early 1970s. Centred mostly in northern California, hippies began getting into Jesus and these “Jesus Freaks” turned the established church on its ear. One of the most influential figures in this period was a young man with the unlikely name of Lonnie Frisbee. Lonnie’s ministry was influential in the foundation of two of evangelicalism’s biggest denominations. And yet, his name has disappeared from most accounts of the movement. Why? Because Lonnie was gay.

David di Sabatino has made a documentary film about Lonnie and it will be shown here in Toronto later this month as part of the Reel Heart Film Festival. I’m very interested in seeing it, but I do find one thing interesting. The director, who is an evangelical, talks about Lonnie’s homosexuality as a “struggle with sexual sin” and points to Lonnie as an example of a flawed prophet. Sadly, Lonnie died from AIDS in 1993, but I wonder what would have been the outcome if Lonnie had been able to embrace his sexuality and be accepted in the evangelical movement for what he was, without feeling like he had to live two separate lives.

Film critic Peter Chattaway conducted a lengthy interview with director di Sabatino back in April and the director says that Lonnie was raped as an eight-year-old child and that this might explain his fragmented identity, but I always find it funny that Christian people always need some “explanation” for someone’s sexuality. It’s more likely his fragmented identity was a result of not being able to tell people close to him about his homosexuality for fear of being denounced.

That being said, the film sounds like it genuinely tries to understand a complex individual, and I hope I’ll get to see it. It doesn’t hurt a bit that there are lots of Larry Norman songs in the soundtrack.

Note: Music was a huge factor in the Jesus People movement. Here’s a great site with lots of history on “Jesus Music”.

from Consolation Champs

Who Was Lonnie Frisbee?

Ok, everyone knows I love movies. But I just wanted to relate that I just voted on my 500th movie over at IMDB. For the record, the film was House of Sand and Fog (2003) and I gave it an 8.

Tonight, we watched one of two films I picked up from Spanish director Álex de la Iglesia. He directed one of our favourite films from last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, called Crimen Ferpecto (Ferpect Crime) (2004), and I was happy to see two more of his films on DVD on one of my occasional visits to Bay Street Video.

Acción Mutante (Mutant Action) (1994) is his first film and it is set in a future society ruled by good-looking people. Acción Mutante are a terrorist group made up of disabled, ugly outcasts. Wacky and dark, but also full of biting satire about the media and the general superficiality of polite society.

We’ll watch the other one I picked up later this week. It’s called Muertos de Risa (Dying of Laughter) (1999) and it promises more skewering of the media and the entertainment business.

Note: I guess I’ve now voted on 501 films…

from Consolation Champs

Movies Movies Movies

Dave is putting together a list. He’d better not forget my favourites: Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H. Macy, M. Emmet Walsh, John Turturro, and the inestimable Jack Kehler.

from Consolation Champs

The Fifty Greatest Character Actors…Ever!

Lost Children (Germany/Uganda, 2005, Directors: Ali Samadi Ahadi, Oliver Stoltz, 98 minutes): All three of the films I saw today were about “children in peril” but none were more horrifying than this one. Northern Uganda has been caught up in civil war for almost twenty years. The rebels of the “Lord’s Resistance Army” make it their primary tactic to kidnap children from local villages, forcing them to fight in their army. Children as young as 8 are taught to kill with guns and knives, and those who don’t share in the atrocities are killed themselves, often by other conscripted children.

Catholic relief agency Caritas is running a reintegration centre for those children who manage to escape the rebel army. It is a formidable challenge. Often the children have physical injuries, either sustained in battle or in their harrowing escapes. The mental damage is much harder to repair. They often have nightmares, and are terrified of being reabducted. Their families are suspicious of them, and are also afraid of being targetted again by the rebels. In these circumstances, the social workers and doctors at the centre have their hands full.

We meet Jennifer, 14, who spent five years with the Lord’s Resistance Army, fighting government troops and terrorizing civilians, all the while being raped regularly as a commander’s concubine. And Opio, just 8 years old, describing how he bashed in a man’s skull with a rifle butt. Then there is sensitive Kelama, 13, who was forced to kill a woman in front of her child and who now can’t stop dreaming about her. All these children have a long road ahead of them, first reintegrating with their families and communities, and then hoping that the rebels don’t return for them.

It’s difficult to “rate” films like this, because they don’t really function as pieces of art. Instead, they fulfill another aspect of the documentary’s role, that of bearing witness. In that sense, this film is a clear-eyed look at some of the most horrifying crimes against children ever perpetrated. By making children do their killing for them, the so-called “Lord’s Resistance Army” have killed the childhoods of these children. As they piece together the shreds of their humanity, they are no longer children. What they will become is a mystery.

Information on helping the children here.

Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers

(9/10)

from Consolation Champs

Lost Children

Bunso (The Youngest) (Philippines/United Kingdom, 2004, Directors: Ditsi Carolino, Nana Buxani, 64 minutes): Tony is 13, Diosel and Bunso are 11. They are in prison for stealing. All around them are hundreds of other inmates, both minors and adults. The directors had unprecedented access to one of Manila’s prisons where the population are pretty much left to their own devices. Guards are rarely seen, and there are few private cells. Instead, the prisoners seem to feed, clothe and shelter themselves. The children are nominally part of the “Minor’s Ward”, but with over 150 crowded into one room, and exposed to the elements, many of them find somewhere else to sleep. Though violence and rape are only hinted at, it’s clear these tiny boys are in danger. A few of the adult inmates try to protect them, but wonder where their parents are. In many cases, the parents forced the kids onto the street in the first place, where many of them begged or stole out of hunger. For some, prison may actually be safer.

The filmmakers were working with UNICEF to document conditions in support of an overhaul of the juvenile justice system in the Philippines. The law has been ready since 1997, but getting any action from politicians has taken this long. There are signs that it might not be too much longer before children this young are spared the horrors of an adult prison. Unfortunately, it’s too late for those who have become hardened by their prison experience and end up back on the street to sniff glue and get into trouble with the law again.

(8/10)

from Consolation Champs

Bunso (The Youngest)

Xiara’s Song (USA, 2004, Director: Liz Garbus, 36 minutes): Xiara is a precocious 7-year-old whose beloved father is in prison. She is not alone. More than 10 million children in the US have a parent incarcerated. This film examines the effect on the life of young Xiara. It’s clear that she idolizes her rapper father, and tries to stay connected with him by writing her own songs that she can sing to him over the phone. But she’s also angry and takes her frustration out on her mother, who has broken up with Xiara’s father. At one point, she admits that she started stealing, hoping that she would be caught and sent to the same prison as her dad. Despite his attempts to steer her clear of trouble, it’s unclear whether this bright and beautiful little girl will be able to hold her life together without his presence.

(8/10)

from Consolation Champs

Xiara’s Song

The Swenkas (Denmark, 2004, Director: Jeppe Rønde, 72 minutes): This film was really unlike any other documentary I’ve ever seen. The Swenkas are a group of about 20 Zulu men who gather each weekend to “swank”: they dress up in fancy suits and jewellery and compete before a judge to see who is the most stylish. Sort of a “Lord of the Bling” (ooh, couldn’t resist!). But it’s more than just fun for them. Swanking represents self-respect, and these men emphasize certain values such as cleanliness and sobriety. It’s as if the old adage “Clothes make the man” has come to life. Even though some may think these men are spending far too much money on their clothes, it seems to have given them the pride they need to be successful in life. Certainly no one in their families complains. Besides, sometimes they compete for large sums of money (or even, now and then, a cow.)

The reason the film stands out is the way it has been crafted. Director Rønde uses the framing device of a fictional narrator, an old Zulu vagabond who tells us a bit about the group, but also sets up the dramatic arc of the story: the leader of the Swenkas has just died, and his son is grieving and thinking about abandoning the group. This storyline gives the film the feeling of a fictional film, and at times it’s hard to believe that the whole thing isn’t carefully scripted.

The director explained afterwards that he never told the participants what to say, but that since Zulu culture is built around storytelling and the Swenkas were all used to performing, each participant had no trouble “performing” in the film. But they really were working through a difficult time in the life of their group.

The result is a beautifully shot, and even more beautifully edited film that feels more like a fable. The recurring themes are hope and the relationship between fathers and sons. The director actually told us that this film is the second in a trilogy about faith, hope and love, and I found myself really eager to see the other films. A standard documentary approach, with interviews and such, would have made an interesting film. Jeppe Rønde’s unorthodox approach has given us a transcendent one.

More information on the film here.

(10/10)

from Consolation Champs

The Swenkas

A Perfect Fake (Canada, 2004, Director: Marc De Guerre, 57 minutes): Ovid’s myth of Pygmalion forms the basis for this exploration of how technology is helping us design more and more convincing representations of human beings. Whether it’s CG movies, games, pornography, or latex “love dolls”, people (mostly men) are looking for other people (mostly women) that they can completely control. This is especially widespread in Japanese culture, where digital “characters” have become like pets or companions for many people, and not just children. One commentator states that since modern life is so unpredictable and communication so difficult, people are looking for companions who don’t change, who give them comfort. De Guerre enlists a number of academics to muse on the relationship between our desires and the implications of having a non-human representation to help us fulfill them.

We meet a few Japanese men who have taken things to an extreme, with one man showing off his collection of over forty love dolls in an apartment he rents especially for them. A few people found some of this stuff disturbing and a number of them walked out, but I think these extreme cases are only heralding the way our society may be headed. As dolls and computer software become more sophisticated, how many people will leave behind any attempt at human interaction whatsoever? It’s a bit creepy to consider, and the film conveyed that feeling very effectively.

(8/10)

from Consolation Champs

A Perfect Fake

Lifelike (Canada, 2005, Director: Tally Abecassis, 52 minutes): This may very well be the first film ever made about taxidermists. Lifelike takes a whimsical look at the people who make their living stuffing and mounting dead things. It turns out that these are people who take their jobs seriously, but not themselves. Dave can laugh at how he decided to become a taxidermist one day while shopping with his fiancèe at Home Depot. We follow him along with a few other taxidermists as they prepare for the annual Canadian championships in Orillia, giving the film a sort of “Best in Show” feeling.

We also get to meet a few of the customers, including Janie, who is having her beloved Jack Russell terrier freeze-dried, and Benoit, a former big-game hunter with an entire house full of trophies, including a giraffe, a tiger and a lion.

While it’s vaguely interesting to muse on the reasons people want trophies like these, it was more interesting to me to see how taxidermy involves elements of both craftsmanship and artistry, and the film is most compelling when letting us watch these guys work. While the tone is by no means serious, it also doesn’t condescend, and I think the filmmaker hits just the right balance between amusement and respect.

(9/10)

from Consolation Champs

Lifelike

Gymnast (USA, 2005, Director: Edet Belzberg, 96 minutes): Filmed over a period of at least four years, this film follows three elite gymnasts as they try to qualify for the 2000 US women’s Olympic team. There is two-time national champion Kristin, serious and shy, bubbly and beautiful Alyssa, who tends to lose her concentration at important moments, and tiny underdog Morgan, who at 15 is three years younger than the other girls but twice as driven.

Competitive sports is a deeply complicated arena for young people, and the film expresses some of the ambiguities very clearly. All three young women make very clear that they are in gymnastics to pursue their own dreams and that they’re not under pressure from parents or coaches to do anything that they don’t want for themselves. But we also see coaches who are so caught up in the competition that they ignore clear signs of injury. By the time the Olympics have come and gone, none of the three seem happy, although they all made the team. Each girl came out of the experience damaged, either physically (poor Kristin undergoes the first of many surgeries for a stress fracture before the documentarian’s camera) or emotionally (Alyssa seems bitter about the whole experience, while Morgan can’t seem to string a sentence together without choking up.)

It’s hard to watch people’s dreams die, but before we start pointing the finger at “the horrible sports industry”, we have to remember that these girls chose to put themselves into competition. All of them were not only talented, but driven enough to reach the highest levels of their sport. Were they not athletic, they’d have had their hopes dashed in other endeavours, I think.

The process of realizing that our dreams are not always attainable is a painful milestone on the way to adulthood, and though it is hard to watch it unfold in front of a camera, I came away with a real respect and affection for these young people. One odd thing about the film (and this may have been deliberate on the part of the director) is that we don’t see any other aspects of the gymnasts’ lives. We see a very small part of their family lives, but nothing about school, nothing about their friendships. It’s as if they only really exist in the gym. While that may seem to be true, it’s not really true, and so I think the director uses it to heighten the tension. Later in the film we finally get to see the girls dressed in street clothes, and it’s a dramatic change.

I’m sure more than a few people will see this film as an indictment of youth sports, but I think that’s too simplistic. Athletic competition is just one more area where eager and idealistic children are forged into slightly cynical adults. That’s not a bad thing, but it can be difficult to watch. I found myself cringing watching the network footage of the competition, since I knew the injuries that each gymnast was so carefully trying to hide from the judges.

(8/10)

from Consolation Champs

Gymnast

Say Amen (Israel, 2005, Director: David Dery, 65 minutes): Director David Dery is the youngest son in a large Moroccan-Jewish family. For this Orthodox clan, family and children are the first priority, and for gay David, this poses a serious problem. He has only shared his secret with his two sisters, and the rest of the family are losing patience with his singleness.

Filming over a period of several years at a series of family gatherings, David slowly begins to realize that he needs to come out to his family members. For someone who has always hidden behind the camera, this is difficult, and this film doesn’t always succeed for that reason. We have an awkward gay Orthox Jewish man’s own coming-out home movies, and it doesn’t necessarily make the most coherent film. But we certainly get a glimpse of a large and complicated web of familial relationships and the incredible machine-like pressure on David to conform. That he summons the courage to actually confront this unruly brood is pretty amazing. And family being family, things are never as bad (nor as good) as they sometimes first appear.

(7/10)

from Consolation Champs

Say Amen

Keep Not Silent (Ortho-Dykes) (Israel, 2004, Director: Ilil Alexander, 52 minutes): This film takes us into very strange territory, following the lives of ultra-orthodox Jewish women who happen to also be lesbians. Most of these women are not able to live openly, so the filmmaker had to film very discreetly, blurring faces or filming behind curtains, so even the visual language of the film spoke of the way these women had to hide. But it was not all gloomy stuff. One woman, Ruth, the mother of six children, has an arrangement with her husband that she can visit her lover each night and even spend the night twice a week. Their rabbi told them that as long as they can keep the family and marriage together, Ruth’s lesbian “affair” was not a sin.

Not so for poor Yudith, who seeks to live openly. Her rabbi tells her that her behaviour is wrong, flat out. Still, she wants to have a religious ceremony to celebrate her commitment to Tal, her lover. Her brother and sister are supportive and the ceremony is attended by many friends, but Yudith still cries because her mother and rabbi father would not come.

A sensitive look into the lives of women under enormous pressure to keep very silent about their sexuality. Many are devoted mothers of large families, and will not risk exposure for fear of the social consequences their children and husbands will face. The spiritual tensions involved in remaining religious in these circumstances are also hinted at, though are not as fully explored as I would have liked.

More information on the film here.

(8/10)

from Consolation Champs

Keep Not Silent (Ortho-Dykes)

Battleground: 21 Days on the Empire’s Edge (Canada/USA, 2004, Director: Stephen Marshall, 84 minutes): Most of the documentaries produced about the Iraq war (and also, for that matter, the Vietnam War) have really been about ourselves. Our motives, our politics, our guilt. What Stephen Marshall has done in Battleground is let us see the war from the perspective of ordinary Iraqis. This is even more remarkable when it’s noted that Marshall, one of the founders of the Guerrilla News Network, admits that much of his previous work was “agitprop”, slanted and polemical. That this film, shot over three weeks in late 2003, is so balanced is thanks in part to a little bit of serendipity.

On the plane to Jordan, Marshall sits next to Farhan (or “Frank” as he now calls himself), a beefy Iraqi-American on his way back to try to find the family he left behind after the first Iraq war. Heeding the encouragement of the first President Bush after Iraq’s army had been pushed out of Kuwait, Farhan joined other Shia Muslims in rising up against the regime of Saddam Hussein. But when Saddam began airstrikes against the rebels, the Americans did nothing, and 100,000 Iraqis perished. Farhan was lucky. He was shot and tortured, but managed to get out of the country with the help of some American soldiers. Fearful of reprisals against his family, he spent 13 years in America without making contact and now he’s returning, not knowing even if any of his family are left alive. This storyline alone would have made a compelling and heartbreaking film, but Marshall weaves Farhan’s story throughout the film, including several tearfully joyous reunions.

There is also Raed Jarrar, an engineer (and incidentally, one of Iraq’s most famous bloggers) monitoring the presence of depleted uranium in American shells used against Iraqi targets. With his Geiger counter, he goes from place to place trying to warn people away from areas of contamination, but with little success. Poor Iraqis melt down the shells and tank wrecks to sell for scrap iron. Contaminated scrap iron.

Then there is the female translator who longs for a return to the days of Saddam, arguing with the Egyptian businessman who thinks the American defeat of Iraq will help it join other “losers” like Germany and Japan into developing into an economic powerhouse. And the American tank commander who cynically predicts that the war isn’t about democracy or oil, but about geopolitical strategic interests, “over the next fifty to a hundred years.”

One thing stood about all the Iraqis in the film. Like any other culture, and especially one with thousands of years of history, the Iraqis are a very proud people. The worst thing about the current occupation is that it is humiliating for the Iraqis. First they were humiliated by Saddam, and now by the Americans. This is something that the American army doesn’t seem to understand yet, how powerful this feeling is, especially when it becomes a rallying point for the insurgency. Even though there are lots of political, ethnic and religious factions in the country, they may yet unite around a shared sense of humiliation, and then things could get even uglier.

All in all, this was a riveting journey into a war zone. And instead of focussing on the explosions, as our simple-minded media have been doing, the film feeds the hunger of viewers like me to see real Iraqis, living their lives under such incredible pressures. There are all kinds of opinions, from full support of the Americans to outright hostility, but people are eager to speak their minds. One of the film’s most moving moments came near the end, when a man said (in my rough paraphrase), “The Iraqis are not the enemies of America. America should stop creating enemies for itself and instead create friends. You can never feel safe in the world if you don’t create friends instead of enemies.” I only hope this film helps even a little bit.

Watch the trailer for the film here.

(10/10)

from Consolation Champs

Battleground: 21 Days on the Empire’s Edge

A Decent Factory (Finland/France, 2004, Director: Thomas Balmès, 79 minutes): In this documentary, Finnish cellphone giant Nokia sends its recently hired Ethics and Environmental Specialist to China to audit one of its suppliers’ factories. But instead of a manifesto on the dangers of outsourcing and globalization, we get a much smaller film about cultural differences. Well, it’s not exactly that simple, either. I guess this one just didn’t catch fire for me the way I thought it would. Sure, the Finns find labour law violations. But in the presence of the factory’s European management, they tend to focus on small things (some chemicals are stored near the toilets) and gloss over the bigger issues (not a single employee at the factory has signed a contract). The truth is that the entire Chinese manufacturing sector operates by very different rules than the Europeans are used to. I looked forward to hearing the auditors interview the mostly-female employees of the factory, but when they do, they discover the sort of complaints made by factory workers everywhere: their superiors insult them, the cafeteria food is bad. The truth is that none of them actually complain about the low wages, or the forced overtime or mandatory deductions for food and accomodation. It seems like they are content to live in single-sex company dormitories. Things that seem to horrify the progressive Finns don’t seem to faze most of the Chinese.

So, at least by focussing in so tightly on one factory, I think it’s impossible to look at the bigger issues involved in globalization and the migration of jobs overseas. Many of the issues seem to involve more than just economics. There is a lot of cultural disconnection going on as well.

That’s not to say I’m an apologist for unfair labour practices. There are widespread problems with almost all of China’s factories, hinted at by the film. Most factories keep at least two sets of books; one to show the government and auditors like Nokia’s, and one more accurate set. And the issue of government corruption is not even mentioned.

So, even though the film failed to address these issues in a larger context, it was still an enlightening visit to a place where most of the world’s manufacturing will be done in the future, if it’s not already being done there now.

(7/10)

from Consolation Champs

A Decent Factory

Beneath the Stars (Sweden/South Africa, 2004, Directors: Titti Johnson and Helgi Felixson, 105 minutes): The film follows Frieda Darvel, one of Cape Town’s many street kids, as she pursues her dream of leaving the streets for a singing career. At the beginning, things look bright. Frieda has been selected for South Africa’s “Popstars” TV show, and makes quite an impression on the nation. But all the offers of help (apartment, voice lessons, recording contracts) come to nothing and pretty soon, Frieda is back on the street, sniffing glue with her boyfriend. Though there is a sort of family for Frieda here, there is no future. Many people try to help her, but we’re left feeling uneasy when one of her early backers secures funding for a “reality show” on homeless teens, and when it falls through, simply disappears. In fact, I felt uneasy a lot of the time watching the film, because if people recognize Frieda at all, they immediately demand that she sing for them. Although she clearly loves to sing, it becomes obvious that for many she is just a performing animal and they have no real interest in her as a person. The line between helping her and using her was even a bit fuzzy when I began to think about the filmmakers. That is, until the story took a bit of a twist.

After being invisible for the first two thirds of the film, suddenly directors Johnson and Felixson quite literally enter the frame and invite Frieda to come back with them to Sweden for three months. A reluctant Frieda finally agrees and it is in Sweden where she is finally able to kick drugs and make a real commitment to staying off the street.

She returns to South Africa with some trepidation, but at the film’s end, she is living in Cape Town and beginning to create an independent life for herself.

The film is generally quite effective with the exception of a couple of things. I thought the middle dragged a lot, with far too much footage of sleeping street kids. The misery of their lives was well apparent by this point in the film and it slowed the pace down unnecessarily. Secondly, due to the episodic structure, the film felt a bit disjointed in a few places. We see Frieda with different hairstyles in successive scenes and it makes it unclear how much time has passed. All in all, a powerful film and one that shows that that the personal involvement of the filmmakers is not always a bad thing. The film reminded me a little of Born Into Brothels in that respect.

(8/10)

from Consolation Champs

Beneath the Stars

The Cross and Bones (Canada, 2005, Director: Paul Carrière, 69 minutes): Drumheller is a town in the Alberta Badlands where a lot of dinosaur bones are buried. It’s also the site of an annual Passion Play put on by area churches. The director tries, somewhat clumsily, to get the sparks to fly between the “Creationists” and “Evolutionists” but it’s just not that interesting. The film is also burdened by cheesy voiceover narration and an even cheesier soundtrack. Worse, the fellow who plays Jesus in the Passion Play is a smarmy real-estate agent from Calgary. The only person I found remotely sympathetic in the whole film was the guy who plays Jesus’ understudy, who is the only Christian shown who is not constantly singing crappy worship songs, mugging for the camera or saying dumb things about science. He simply says he’s a human being with faults, too, that he doesn’t have it all figured out, but that he wants to learn “to love people like Jesus Christ did.” But he sort of gets lost behind all the freaks. Did I mention there were also bikers? No, well, it’s not like they really added much more to the mix. A disappointment, considering the extremely clever title.

(6/10)

from Consolation Champs

The Cross and Bones

The Education of Shelby Knox (USA, 2005, Directors: Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt, 76 minutes): This film follows the life of 15-year-old Shelby Knox, a teen living in conservative Lubbock, Texas. Though from a conservative Christian Republican family, Shelby is a feisty and compassionate campaigner for sex education in the public school system, feeling that their “abstinence-only” policy is ignoring the obvious, including higher than average rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. The film follows her over a period of three years, as she begins to question the easy answers offered by her church, her school, and her community. She works with a city-funded group, the Lubbock Youth Commission, but when local politicians force the group to tone down its activism, she quits and begins working with a group of gay teens to help them start a Gay Straight Alliance group at school. Despite the fact that Shelby herself has pledged to remain a virgin until marriage, she recognizes that not everyone in her community wants (or in the case of the gay students, is able) to make the same choice. This film is a balanced and compassionate look at one young woman’s political and spiritual awakening. In light of the currently raging culture wars, it’s a must-see for people on all sides of these issues.

(10/10)

from Consolation Champs

The Education of Shelby Knox

It’s that time of year again. So, even though I’m crazy busy at work, I’ve got tickets to 11 documentaries showing at this year’s Hot Docs documentary film festival. Here’s what I’ll be seeing:

• The Education of Shelby Knox
• The Cross and Bones
• Beneath the Stars
• A Decent Factory
• Battleground: 21 Days on the Empire’s Edge
• Keep Not Silent (Ortho-Dykes) / Say Amen
• Gymnast
• Lifelike / A Perfect Fake
• The Swenkas
• Xiara’s Song / Bunso – The Youngest
• Lost Children

from Consolation Champs

Hot Docs 2005

I love the CBC. I subscribe to their excellent documentary mailing list and if you live in Canada, you owe it to yourself to watch or tape Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis’s excellent film The Take, which is airing on Thursday March 24 at 8:00pm.

I saw the film last year at Hot Docs, and called it “a fascinating look at what happens when the unemployed decide to take matters into their own hands“.

Here’s the official film site.

from Consolation Champs

Canadian? Catch “The Take” Next Week

A few days ago, I wrote an entry on my other blog about Nazi resistance heroine Sophie Scholl.

Also a few days ago, I began using online bookmark tagging service del.icio.us in earnest.

Today, I found my pal John‘s links. I added one of them, a film blog, to my list.

The latest entry is talking about the Berlin Film Festival, where a new German film was screened dealing with the life of Sophie Scholl.

from Consolation Champs

Serendipity

Photo by Zana Briski

On Tuesday night, Brooke and I went to a screening of Born Into Brothels, which has been nominated for an Oscar in the Best Documentary category.

Photographer Zana Briski has been documenting the lives of prostitutes in Calcutta’s red light district since 1997, and became very interested in the lives of the children there. Most of them have very few prospects and many of the girls are expected to follow their mothers into the business. She began teaching the kids photography and then decided to document their work and lives in a film. The result is stunning, heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time. The images themselves are beautiful and the children’s charisma and real talent jump from the screen. The best part of this film is that it is actually helping to change the lives of its subjects. Briski started Kids With Cameras, a non-profit organization which is selling books and prints of the children’s photographs to fund their educations. The project is so successful that it’s being expanded to several sites, including Haiti, Cairo and Jerusalem, and a school is being built in Calcutta with the proceeds.

Don’t miss this film if you get a chance to see it. Even if you can’t see the film, visit the website and have a look at the images. And please, consider helping.

from Consolation Champs

Born Into Brothels

Well, I’ve finally come up with my lists. That’s right, lists plural. I decided that since I see so many documentaries now, that I’d give them a separate list. All films were released in 2004, though I saw a few of them in 2005. A few of the foreign films may not have been released in North America yet, but I saw them at film festivals. The first number following the title is my IMDB rating (out of 10) and the second is the current average among all IMDB voters. Clicking an asterisk will take you to my review of the film (usually only for films seen at the Toronto International Film Festival).

Best Films

1. Sideways — (10/8.2)
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — (10/8.6)
3. The Aviator — (9/8.0)
4. The Incredibles — (9/8.3)
5. Crimen Ferpecto (Spain) — (9/6.2) *
6. Les Choristes (France) — (9/7.6) *
7. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou — (8/7.4)
8. The Door in the Floor — (8/6.9)
9. La Mala Educación (Spain) — (8/7.5) *
10. Open Water — (8/6.1)

Best Documentaries

1. Super Size Me — (9/7.8)
2. Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson — (9/9.3) *
3. A League of Ordinary Gentlemen — (9/6.8)
4. Fahrenheit 9/11 — (8/7.9)
5. Mondovino — (8/7.1) *
6. Control Room — (8/7.9)
7. Tying the Knot — (8/9.4)
8. Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession — (8/6.0) *
9. Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism — (8/7.7)
10. Salvador Allende — (8/7.2) *

What were some of your favourites?

from Consolation Champs

The Best Films Of 2004, According To…Me!

Here is an interesting thread discussing the National Society of Film Critics’ list of “100 Essential Films”. And if that’s not enough, here’s a whole page of film lists. (bless you, rebecca)

And for those of you who are waiting with baited breath for my own “Top Films” list, I refuse to disappoint. But, gimme a few more days, will ya? I’m still seeing some stuff.

And the “Essential 100″? I’ve seen 32.2. I’ve watched two of the episodes of the Decalogue so far. Plus, I tried watching another on the list and turned it off after half an hour (Happy Together? How ironic!).

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Film Lists A-Plenty!

Very very funny and interesting report about a night out to see a movie in mainland China. The best part was about the loud conversations going on all over the theatre in Cantonese, especially the guy on his cellphone. A very different experience, indeed. The entry on buying pirated DVDs is also great. (via boingboing)

from Consolation Champs

Going to the Movies in Guangdong

Slate’s wine columnist Mike Steinberger weighs in on Sideways, perhaps my favourite film of 2004. Though he generally likes it, he can’t help but display some typical wine geek insecurity. He worries that Paul Giamatti’s portrayal of Miles Raymond, a character who is, in his words, “a bit of a wine asshole” will reflect badly on all wine lovers. He implicitly worries that people might think the character’s arrogance and selfishness somehow flow out of his being a wine connoisseur. Mike, relax! Miles is a character in a movie. He’s not representing everyone who loves wine. He’s not representing all middle-aged men. And no, Mike, he’s not representing you.

Although I do consider myself a wine lover, I’m not obsessive, and the thing I liked most about the film is that it’s not particularly about wine at all. It’s about life, with all its disappointments and its pleasures. And it’s about the crazy broken people who live it.

UPDATE: About an equal number of people get it and don’t get it on the eGullet Forums. When someone says the movie isn’t believable because a “true wine geek wouldn’t…”, I just had to roll my eyes.

from Consolation Champs

Wine Geek Insecurity

Here’s an excellent introduction to the magic of Bollywood, including a whole lot of free MP3s. (via boingboing)

from Consolation Champs

Bollywood for the Skeptical

Somebody peed on Rex Reed’s cornflakes again:

NY Observer: It’s Anarchy! Film’s New Hacks

At least he’s consistent. Almost everything he hates, I love, although I think we can find some common ground over Hudson Hawk. But honestly, Rex, why so cranky? (via bombippy)

from Consolation Champs

Jealous of Youth?

Police in Paris have discovered a fully-equipped cinema in the caverns underneath the city. It appears to be the work of the “Perforating Mexicans”, one of the city’s secret societies of “cataphiles”, people who enjoy exploring the hidden network of catacombs and tunnels that stretch for over 170 miles. This reminds me of the Troglodistes in Caro and Jeunet’s film Delicatessen. (via kottke)

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The Real Underground Cinema

I’m incredibly psyched after watching the trailer for Wes Anderson’s next film, The Life Aquatic. Not only is Anderson my favourite contemporary filmmaker, he also shares my musical taste almost exactly. His soundtracks are genius, and in this trailer alone, he uses some great music:

• Gut Feeling – Devo
• Ceremony – New Order (thanks, Frank!)
• Queen Bitch – David Bowie
• Starman – David Bowie

Also, how cool is it that the name of famous oceanographer Steve Zissou’s (Bill Murray!) boat is the Belafonte. Can’t wait! (via paul)

from Consolation Champs

The Life Aquatic Trailer!

Cyberbud Johnny has hatched a great new film blog called CinemaToast. Check it!

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A Toast to CinemaToast

The Online Film Critics Society’s list of the Top 100 Overlooked Films of the 1990s. I’ve seen 35. Overlooked, indeed. (via tbit)

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Overlooked 90s Films

Brooke and I saw Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960) the other night. It was my first time seeing it, though Brooke has seen it several times before, and says it’s one of her favourite films. Frankly, I had mixed feelings (though I gave it an 8 on IMDB). Some people can immediately dissect a film into its parts and can expound at length on the editing, the cinematography, the sound design, and lots of other “technical” aspects of the movie. I’ve never been able to do that, at least not upon my first viewing. I guess I have to ingest the whole before I can talk about any of the parts. And for me, the whole was somewhat unsatisfying, even disturbing.

I tried to distance myself from the obvious charms of the movie: Paris in the Sixties, exciting “French New Wave” flourishes like jump-cuts, the gorgeous Jean Seberg. And what I found was a film about two people with no souls. Michel and Patricia are completely amoral and aimless, and I could find no sympathy for them. This always makes watching a film difficult for me. And even though Brooke grudgingly agreed with me, it was still clear that she loves the film and I, well, not so much.

I was struggling to figure out whether it was just me being contrary, so I grabbed Pauline Kael’s book For Keeps off our bookshelf. Imagine my relief when I read:

I think seeing the film for the first time at the age of 39 has a lot to do with it. If I’d seen it twenty years ago, I may not have suspected that the characters are poseurs, that even the filmmaker may be a bit of a poseur. I might have mistaken their chilling soullessness for “cool” and tried to imitate it.

When I see Breathless again (and I think it is worthy of another viewing), I certainly will pay more attention to the revolutionary camerawork and editing. With the moral vacuum at the heart of the film now recognized and named, that seems to be the only place left I’d want to look.

from Consolation Champs

Breathless

I’ve added recently watched films to the sidebar along with ratings. The ratings are out of 5, with a dimmer circle denoting ½. This is so it correlates with my IMDB ratings, which are out of ten. The idea has been shamelessly stolen from Robot Johnny. I hope you don’t mind, John. Please don’t send The Iron Giant over again…

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Screened

You know how I love these film lists! Here’s an interesting one. Well, interesting to me anyway. Arts and Faith has assembled a list of the Top 100 Spiritually Significant Films. I’ve seen 41.2. The fraction is due to their decision to count multiple film sets as one choice (ie. Kieslowski’s Three Colours trilogy, Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, Kieslowski’s Decalogue). I’ve only seen 2 of the 10 segments of Kieslowski’s Decalogue.

(via dashhouse)

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Faith and Film

Brooke and I watched the AFI 100 Years, 100 Songs special on television last night. No real surprises, but I did learn something. I’d always assumed that “New York, New York” was an older song, from the ’40s or ’50s, but it was actually written for Martin Scorsese’s musical flop of the same name in 1977! Yeah, right in the middle of the punk explosion! I was gobsmacked.

In the same vein, where was the Ramones’ “Rock ‘n Roll High School”?

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AFI’s 100 Years, 100 Songs

The New York Times has published a list of what they consider the best thousand films ever made. Never mind the audacity. How many have you seen? As of this moment, I’ve seen 224, but there are at least half a dozen that I’ll be seeing in the next month or so. Still, that’s less than a quarter of them!

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1,000 Best Films!

Winged Migration (2001) is less a documentary than a visual poem about the beauty of flight. The film follows several species of migratory birds (ducks, geese, cranes, swans) on their flights and the experience is one of actually flying with the birds. It’s quite amazing, but would be more powerful as an IMAX film. If you have a big TV, rent it right away. Otherwise, wait for it to be on a large screen near you.

I also watched the “making-of” documentary (at 53 minutes, it’s almost as long as the 90 minute feature), and it kind of wrecks the illusion to find out that the birds are more akin to actors in a film than subjects in a documentary. That’s all I’ll say.

Rating: 8/10

from Consolation Champs

Winged Migration

Dateline Hollywood: “Non-hipster denied entrance to ‘Lost in Translation’”

This site is hilarious. It’s like The Onion but without all that serious political satire that makes my head hurt. I especially like the fact that they have a “printer-friendly” and a “printer-antagonistic” version of each article. Somebody at Dateline Hollywood really knows their CSS stuff! (via boingboing)

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Dateline Hollywood Newsflash

Almost more impressive than the upcoming 9-disc special edition of The Alien Quadrilogy is the exhaustive (and as of this writing, not yet completed) review over on The Digital Bits.

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Nonodisc Quadrilogy?

Ok, you MUST go and read my long-lost pal John’s review of the Ben and Jen trainwreck Gigli. John also makes some very good fonts that I once used on this site, which was how I first made his acquaintance, oh, about five years ago. His site, now including spiffy blog, joins the sidebar today!

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Giggly

I’d seen What’s Up, Doc? (1972) on “best of” lists for years, but was always a bit afraid I’d be disappointed. This was Peter Bogdanovich’s homage to the screwball comedies of the 1930s, and these things can be pretty bad in the wrong hands. But I must admit I laughed quite a lot. Barbra Streisand is not my favourite singer in the world, but she’s actually quite a good comic actress. Ryan O’Neal plays the straight man perfectly. But for me, the highlight was watching the hilarious work of the supporting actors, including Madeline Kahn in her first film role, Austin Pendleton (looking an awful lot like Dave Foley from Kids In The Hall), and especially Kenneth Mars. It was also a treat that the setting was San Francisco, and the requisite car chase scene was riotously staged up and down the hills. To top it off, there’s even a jab at O’Neal’s most well-known role in Love Story (1970). The new DVD release has commentaries from Bogdanovich and Streisand, though I didn’t get a chance to listen to those.

from Consolation Champs

What’s Up, Doc?

Finally rented this. Not being a fan of the TV show, I’d mostly heard about Jackass from friends at my last job. It’s not really a movie, so it’s hard to judge whether it’s “good” or not. The stunts range from gut-bustingly funny to unwatchable, with the majority somewhere in between. Watching it by myself was obviously not as much fun as it would have been with a whole bunch of frat boys, but I still laughed. Brooke flat-out refused to watch it after the first 5 minutes. I guess this kind of humour is strictly a “guy thing”. Strangely, the only thing I could not watch was the paper cuts stunt.

I can’t really pass judgement on this kind of thing, even though it is dumb. There’s something inside all of us (guys, anyway) that just can’t help laughing at stupidity. And if these guys want to risk their lives, or at least their private parts, they’re welcome to it. I’m sure they made an obscene amount of money from this movie, too. But after watching almost 90 minutes of this stuff, I’d had enough. And for a few of the unfortunates in the movie, I suspect they’ve had enough, too.

It was interesting to note some of the surprising (and not-so-surprising) participants in the movie, like Spike Jonze, Lance Bangs (maker of the “Slow Century” documentary about Pavement and married to Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker), Rip Taylor, Henry Rollins, and Tony Hawk.

from Consolation Champs

Jackass: The Movie

Hearts and Minds (1974) is a powerful documentary about American involvement in the Vietnam war. Perhaps the reason it packs such a punch is that it was filmed before the war was actually over, and it argued passionately that America’s involvement was wrong. For that reason, at the time of its release it was quite controversial. Now, almost thirty years later, history has caught up with Peter Davis’ film, and its arguments seem almost self-evident. That is, unless you look at the current American involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq. Personally, I couldn’t stop thinking about those countries while watching the film. When the interviewer asks a former bomber pilot whether America or Americans have learned anything from their experience in Vietnam, he laments, “I think we’re trying hard not to.” Sadly, I think history has proven him right.

One of the most compelling subjects of the film is Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the 7,000-page Pentagon Papers to the media in 1971. This document was a report, commissioned by the US Army and classified as top secret, of American decision-making in Vietnam from 1945-1968. Ellsberg was prosecuted for his actions, but the case was dismissed on grounds of government misconduct against him. His recently published memoir Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers looks like a fascinating read.

from Consolation Champs

Hearts And Minds

Interesting column over at Christianity Today about the good, bad, and just plain ugly portrayals of Christian believers in the movies.

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Christians In The Movies

Brooke and I went to see the aptly-titled Spellbound (2002) yesterday. I must say that I’ve never watched a documentary that had me on the edge of my seat the way this story did. The film follows a group of eight children (11-13 years old) who are contestants in the 1999 Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee. The filmmakers show us their home lives, their backgrounds, introduce us to to their parents and teachers, and just as we begin to root for them, they whisk us off to the competition where, along with almost 250 others, all but one will be eliminated.

It was so refreshing to see a film about “good” kids, instead of troubled ones. To be honest, it actually has me thinking about teaching again. I trained as a teacher, and taught middle-school aged kids for my placement. There’s something about kids this age that just appeals to me. Still goofy and child-like, they’re also realizing their intellectual powers and indulging their curiosity. Spellbound was thoroughly enjoyable. As with all documentaries, this might be hard to find, but it’s worth the effort.

This one actually may get better when it comes to DVD. Because it was filmed four years ago, it might be interesting to get an update on the kids now, some of whom would be graduating from high school this year. Another reason is that I think it looked like it was filmed in 16mm, so it doesn’t really benefit from being blown up for the big screen.

from Consolation Champs

Spellbound

Lists of Bests compiles all the lists of highly-rated books, films, and music into one place. Best of all, you can use their checklists to keep track of how many you have read, seen, or heard. For the curious, my page is here. It makes me realize how few books I’ve actually read… (via alison)

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Lists of Bests

Sorry for all the film-related blogging, but I couldn’t pass this one up. Eric Idle is set to direct his first film since The Rutles (1978). This one is entitled The Remains Of The Piano, and it’s a sendup of all the Merchant-Ivory English costume dramas. The cast sounds fantastic (Geoffrey Rush, Anjelica Huston, Billy Connolly), and according to this story, it’s being filmed in the UK and Canada. I wonder if I’ll see any of these folks wandering the SARS-free streets of Toronto later this summer? (via metagrrrl)

from Consolation Champs

The Remains Of The Piano

I live in Canada. Therefore, I’m supposed to love hockey. But I don’t love hockey. I’ve tried. But, I can see a little bit of the beauty of the game, and I appreciate the skills of the better players. So, after years of people telling me how much they loved the film Slap Shot (1977), I watched it a few months back. I hated it. Not only did it focus exclusively on the thuggish violence which mars the game, but it seemed to go over the top with vulgar and offensive dialogue. And though playing it all for laughs, oddly the film seemed supremely unfunny to me. I was extremely disappointed that Paul Newman would be associated with such dreck.

Finally, I’ve found someone who says exactly what I want to say. A review from Sports Illustrated, no less. From 1977. So now, when asked about the film, I can just say, “What he said.”

from Consolation Champs

Cheap Shot

As promised, here are my thoughts on the handful of films I watched this weekend:

• Hard Core Logo (1996) – I’ve seen most of director Bruce McDonald’s films. He’s pretty well-known in Canada, and almost all of his films are “road movies” in one sense or another. In this film, he follows Hard Core Logo, a Vancouver punk band reunited for one last tour across western Canada. Though there are lots of laughs, This Is Definitely Not Spinal Tap. Even though his characters look like typical rocker louts, there is so much going on under the surface that it breaks your heart. A funny but heartfelt exploration of perpetual adolescence, male bonding, ambition and desperation, Hard Core Logo is even more enjoyable for anyone who’s ever been (or wanted to be) in a band. (As a bonus, the film stars Canada’s own version of Brad Pitt, the excellent and very cool Callum Keith Rennie). (8/10)
• Fast, Cheap, And Out Of Control (1997) – This was a little bit disappointing. I’d seen Errol Morris’ later film Mr. Death (1999) and found it fascinating. In this film, though, even though he has four eccentrics to follow around (a lion-tamer, a topiary gardener, an expert on naked mole rats, and a robotics scientist), he mostly just conducts talking head interviews, and cuts in shots of the circus, and of a laughably bad B-movie starring famed lion-tamer Clyde Beatty. I just didn’t find the subjects all that interesting, and Morris never really explores their motivations or their lives outside of their careers, interesting as those might sound. (7/10)
• Salesman (1969) – From the Maysles Brothers (Gimme Shelter, Monterey Pop, When We Were Kings) comes this unsettling portrait of door-to-door salesmen. In this case, the film is especially interesting since they’re selling Bibles to Catholic families. All the sales tricks are there, with a special dose of guilt. Most interesting is the portrayal of Paul, one of the older salesmen, who is realizing he may have “lost it.” His desperation is painful to watch. (9/10)
• Dark Days (2000) – This film was a revelation, in more ways than one. First-time (and completely inexperienced) filmmaker Marc Singer had heard about a group of homeless people living in the train tunnels under Penn Station in New York City. After getting to know them for more than three months, he came up with the idea of making a documentary film about their lives. He thought that he could use the money the film made to find housing for all of them. The “subjects” of this documentary were full-fledged participants in the resulting film, serving as crew as well as cast. Singer lived with these people, out of love and sometimes necessity (he ran out of money for the film and was himself homeless for a while), and he lovingly portrays the humanity of this community. And it is a community in every sense. People build their own shacks underground, furnish them with found items, and are even able to hook up electricity. I can’t say enough about this film. This might be the only film I’ve ever watched straight through twice, just so I could hear Singer’s fascinating commentary. There’s also a 45-minute “making-of” which is essential viewing. A perfect soundtrack from DJ Shadow and a hopeful ending round out the experience. A must-see. (10/10)

from Consolation Champs

Bachelor Documentary Film Festival

My favourite movie from last year’s Toronto International Film Festival was Ken Loach’s Sweet Sixteen. It opens today in New York and Los Angeles, and might make it to an art-house cinema near you, though it’s far from an art film. Elvis Mitchell liked it, too (NY Times, free registration required). Try to see it, even though it might get lost in the hype around that other movie.

from Consolation Champs

Sweet Sixteen

Back in the early 80s, I remember seeing a soundtrack album for a film I’d never seen. The lineup was impressive: The Police, XTC, Echo and the Bunnymen, Devo, Oingo Boingo. The film was called Urgh! A Music War (1981) and it was a compilation of concert performances from about 35 of the best of the current “New Wave” bands. I never saw the film, nor did I buy the soundtrack, but I’ve been trying to track it down for a few years now.

The film is long out of print, but luckily for me, I found a Yahoo! group dedicated to its revival. Through them, I’ve managed to obtain a DVD copy ripped from an old laserdisc. Though the goal of the group is an authorized DVD release, there is so much red tape due to the licencing of music rights, etc. that this will have to do. I’m excitedly watching the film right now. And, due to some delays with customs, I was mailed a second copy. If you live in Canada, and you’re interested, send me an email or comment below. We’ll work something out.

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Urgh!

One of my favourite Toronto bands from the punk era is The Diodes. And recently I discovered that one of my favourite Diodes songs was actually a cover. The Shape of Things To Come was actually written by the well-known songwriting team of Cynthia Weil and Barry Mann, for a film called Wild In The Streets (1968). Reading about the film made me eager to see it, and also to hear the song as it was originally performed. Unfortunately, the film is long out of print and never came out on DVD. But thanks to Suspect Video, I was able to rent an old VHS copy, and this morning, I sat down to watch it.

While the phrase “so bad it’s good” comes to mind, it’s really not even that good. Though I laughed a lot, I’m not sure I was meant to. I’ve never really been a fan of “exploitation” films, so I’m not sure my criticisms will make any sense, but I think this is the sort of film that was made in the 60s to try to cash in on the youth market, while at the same time exposing some of middle-class America’s irrational fears of the youth movement.

Max Frost (Christopher Jones) is a 22 year old rock star, with his own entourage of druggy hippies (including Richard Pryor as drummer “Stanley X” and a guitarist with a hook for a hand!). After lending his support to Senate hopeful Johnny Fergus (Hal Holbrook), he somehow manages to get the voting age lowered to 15, and then has himself elected President. He quickly enacts legislation banishing everyone over the age of 35 to concentration camps where they’re permanently dosed with LSD. Very very weird. Oh, did I mention that Shelly Winters gets to play his shrieking mother?

I think this might be a good movie to watch with some friends while drinking heavily. Otherwise, it makes no sense at all. For instance, I had no idea that America’s youth were so interested in voting. And when they descend on Washington to demand the vote, they seem to have no other political issues to protest. There are no civil rights marches, no anti-war protests, just free love and LSD, babies!

And the songs? Well, let’s just say The Diodes rock.

from Consolation Champs

Wild In The Streets

I’ve watched two very different documentaries about musicians over the past couple of days. Standing In The Shadows Of Motown (2002) gives some long-overdue attention to The Funk Brothers, who were the backing band for more than 50 Number 1 hits from Motown recording artists. While the film was enjoyable, it suffered a bit from a lack of historical context, as well as some glaring interview omissions (where were Berry Gordy, Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin, etc.?). Since it was dealing with a large group of musicians, it took a sort of wide-angle look, but it didn’t look very deeply.

I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (2002) is an entirely different sort of film. Director Sam Jones follows the band Wilco as they record their fourth album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Along the way, original member Jay Bennett is fired, and the band are dropped by Reprise Records. With their completed album in hand, they are forced to shop it around to other labels for almost another year. This is a close-up view of a group of highly talented and creative people in the crucible, being ground down by the business side of the music industry, even as they are making the most ambitious music of their lives.

Both films feature lots of performances. In the Funk Brothers film, the band play old Motown classics, backing present-day vocalists, with mixed results. Ben Harper, for instance, doesn’t quite fit the Marvin Gaye mold. The Wilco film more seamlessly blends the performances into the flow of the film. Jones also filmed entirely in black and white, and though a first-time director, he’s an award-winning photographer and his sense of composition is flawless. Like Wilco’s music, the film is polished and beautiful.

Both films are worth your time, though, and if you are able to see them on DVD, both include lots of outtakes and extra music.

from Consolation Champs

Two Music Documentaries

I just heard about Jennifer Lopez and fiancé Ben Affleck’s plan to remake the classic film Casablanca with themselves in the lead roles. Luckily, there is a petition online to try to stop this madness. My favourite comment from one signatory: “Just kill them both and send me her body.”

Go and sign now.

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Just Say No To J.Lo and Ben!

The Kid Stays In The Picture (2002) tells Robert Evans‘ own story of his rise and fall as the head of production at Paramount Pictures, which during his tenure, produced such classic films as Rosemary’s Baby, Harold and Maude, and The Godfather. Based on his autobiography, it’s a self-congratulatory, innovative, and fascinating look at a Hollywood insider. After a disastrous decade in the 1980s, including a drug bust and rumours linking him to a murder, Evans is producing again, most recently for the successful romantic comedy How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days.

The best part of the film, shown during the end credits, is a 1976 clip of Dustin Hoffman doing a spot-on imitation of Evans. Hilarious.

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The Kid Stays In The Picture

I have surprisingly little to say about last night’s Oscar ceremony. I was pleased that Chicago didn’t sweep everything. I was pleased that The Pianist got some recognition. I enjoyed Adrien Brody‘s speech, especially the snogging he laid on Halle Berry. I was disappointed that three of the year’s best movies were essentially ignored: About Schmidt, Adaptation, and Far From Heaven. I wasn’t surprised that Michael Moore made an ass of himself (but I still like him). And though I don’t like Eminem, I’m glad his song won. I liked Steve Martin’s low-key but sometimes biting humour. And I’m happy that they finished by midnight. That is all.

Some friends told me that the Independent Spirit Awards were much better, and I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to watch them.

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Oscars

In 1964, British television aired a documentary entitled Seven Up, in which they interviewed a group of 14 seven-year old schoolchildren. Every seven years later, another documentary appeared to follow the progress of their lives. 42 Up (1998) is the latest of these films, and it is utterly compelling. The way the film maps the course of these children’s dreams and aspirations through the years gives you a real insight into both their individual lives and the society in which they grew up. My only regret is that if I watch any of the earlier films, I’ll know what happens afterward. Watching this film made me wonder if I’d like my life to be documented in this way. It must have been difficult for these people as middle-aged adults to look back on some of the things they wanted when they were children or teenagers or young adults. Happily, this film finds almost all of them in a period of contentment as I suppose is the task of middle-age. Highly recommended, although I’d try to track down some of the earlier films first.

from Consolation Champs

42 Up

As is her custom, Brooke tries to make us see as many of the Oscar-nominated films each year as possible. Last night, we watched Unfaithful, starring Richard Gere and the Oscar-nominated Diane Lane. I don’t have a lot to say about it, other than that it was an above-average thriller with some mildly spicy sex scenes.

Two things are interesting about it, though. First, it is a remake of a French film, Claude Chabrol’s La Femme Infidele, which is loosely based on Madame Bovary. This makes me want to see the original, which is probably sexier and more thrilling, or at least sexier. Second, I recognized a piano arrangement of the Radiohead song “Exit Music (For A Film)” and it turns out it’s performed by Brad Mehldau, and a live version was included on the CD Mix Of The Month for May 2002, sent to me by Josh Benton. He’s so way ahead of the “cool curve,” it’s scary.

from Consolation Champs

Unfaithful

Ok, the grouch is me. The nominations for the Oscars were announced today, and I was a little disappointed. I enjoyed Chicago as much as the next guy (and even more than I thought I would), but I think its 13(!) nominations are way out of line. Nothing against Queen Latifah or John C. Reilly, but I really didn’t think they did all that much to deserve their nominations.

Especially galling is that Dennis Quaid’s fine fine work in Far From Heaven was overlooked, as was director Todd Haynes. I was also surprised to see both Adaptation and About Schmidt shut out of the Best Picture and Best Director nominations.

I guess that with a war looming, Americans would rather see escapist fluff like Chicago than more quirky, difficult, challenging, or yes, depressing movies. Which is why I think it will sweep most of the awards it’s nominated for. And that’s too bad, since it’s not a terrible movie. It’s just not a great movie.

Another surprise was that Talk To Her, the acclaimed film from Pedro Almodovar, was not submitted by Spain as its entrant for Best Foreign Language Film. I bet it would have wiped the floor with the other nominees, though I haven’t seen it yet. It gives me a little hope that one of my favourites, The Man Without A Past, might have a chance. I wrote a little about that film here.

As always, I covet your comments.

from Consolation Champs

Oscar/The Grouch

Newly-discovered: Humphrey Bogart in The Lord of the Rings! (18.5MB Quicktime)

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Bogie Baggins?

The film Russian Ark (2002) is the first film shot in one continuous 96-minute take. No cuts, no editing, no second chance. Wow. (via kottke)

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The One-Shot Film

I mentioned recently how I’d seen a bunch of movies and gave my rating out of 10 for them. Well, for those who didn’t know, the indispensable Internet Movie Database lets you vote on every film in its database, and I’ve been obsessively doing just that for at least 2 years now. I now have 255 films in my vote history, and though I’ve probably seen more films than that, this is a pretty good indication of how many films I’ve seen in the past two years or so. I find it useful to figure out any gaps in my film history knowledge, as well as just being a neat way to contribute to the collective opinion. Here are some neat pieces of trivia (neat for me, anyway!):

• Films from the 1930s: 1
• Films from the 1940s: 11
• Films from the 1950s: 11
• Films from the 1960s: 16
• Films from the 1970s: 20
• Films from the 1980s: 23
• Films from the 1990s: 63
• Films from 2000: 31
• Films from 2001: 44
• Films from 2002: 35

I’ve found that people tend to rate recent films much too highly, and I’m not averse to going back and changing my rating after a few months. My criteria are that something that’s well made but not particularly memorable should be no higher than a 6 (ie. most so-called summer blockbusters) and that 10 can be given to a film that’s not necessarily considered a classic by everyone, but that I find myself watching again and again. If you haven’t yet tried out this neat feature of IMDB, you should check it out. Just click “Vote Here” next to the user ratings on any film.

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Rating The Movies

We finally went to see Adaptation (2002) last night. Though I’m still not feeling particularly articulate after seeing five films in four days, I will say it’s probably the best film I’ve seen this year. I just smiled and giggled my way through it, constantly amused and surprised. And Nicolas Cage, once at the top of my list of favourite actors (mostly for Raising Arizona (1987), mind you), has climbed back up the list after an astounding plummet. There will be awards given to this film, though I’m surprised so few people seem to have seen it so far. Get thee to a multiplex!

Also, exchanged Christmas gifts with my friend Brent tonight. I gave him The Simpsons – The Complete Second Season, and he gave me…the same thing. I lived with Brent so long we just think the same way. We did this last Christmas too, I think.

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Adaptation=10

We’ve seen four films in the past couple of days. I’m unable to form any coherent criticisms right now but here they are, listed in order of enjoyment (my own idiosyncratic rating out of 10 is in brackets):

• About Schmidt (9)
• Catch Me If You Can (8)
• Gangs of New York (8)
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (7)

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Eyes…Glazing…Over

Brooke and I went to see Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) this afternoon, and although I enjoyed it immensely, there were a couple of things I didn’t like. First of all, I resented the fact that Gimli the dwarf has been reduced to comic relief. I didn’t mind the occasional joke at his expense in the first film, but in this segment he’s been stripped of all dignity. Conversely, it seems like the filmmakers felt the need to make Legolas the elf a bit more macho, giving him some of the film’s more outrageous stunts. I found this shift in emphasis sort of cheapened the characters I’d grown to love in the first installment. My only other criticisms would have to do with the more episodic nature of the story, cutting between three different plot lines, but I know that director Peter Jackson did the best he could. My friend Brent, who’s read the books numerous times, was dismayed to find that there are many more deviations from the text in this film as well, though he hasn’t outlined them for me yet. All in all, I didn’t find it as satisfying as the first film, but it still has me excited about the finale. I just have to wait another 12 months!

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The Two Towers