BYOB Weeekend

Heading off to Steven Soderbergh”s 4.5 hour epic biopic of New Line co-founder Bob Shaye as the closer for this year’s TIFF. Can’t wait to see if the John Waters years are really better than the Lord of the Rings years or vice versa. But with Ben Kingsley as Tony Kaye, Robert Downey, Jr. as Wes Craven, Brett Ratner in a duel role as Michael DeLuca and himself, Noah Emmerich as Toby Emmerich and of course, Lyn Shaye as Bob… well, it should be interesting.
Leaving the rest to you, for now…

E-Mails… I Get E-Mails…

This one came from my sister, a rabid Hillary supporter… better than the usual jokes she sends… I only wish there was something funny about this…
=======================
This maybe oversimplified but still…
If you’re a minority and you’re selected for a job over more qualified
candidates you’re a “token hire.”
If you’re a conservative and you’re selected for a job over more
qualified candidates you’re a “game changer.”
Black teen pregnancies? A “crisis” in black America.
White teen pregnancies? A “blessed event.”
If you grow up in Hawaii you’re “exotic.”
Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, you’re the quintessential
“American story.”
Similarly, if you name you kid Barack you’re “unpatriotic.”
Name your kid Track, you’re “colorful.”
If you’re a Democrat and you make a VP pick without fully vetting the
individual you’re “reckless.”
A Republican who doesn’t fully vet is a “maverick.”
If you spend 3 years as a community organizer growing your organization
from a staff of 1 to 13 and your budget from $70,000 to $400,000, then
become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a
voter registration drive that registers 150,000 new African Amerian
voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, then spend
nearly 8 more years as a State Senator representing a district with over
750,000 people, becoming chairman of the state Senate’s Health and Human
Services committee, then spend nearly 4 years in the United States
Senate representing a state of nearly 13 million people, sponsoring 131
bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works
and Veteran’s Affairs committees, you are woefully inexperienced.
If you spend 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a
town with less than 7,000 people, then spend 20 months as the governor
of a state with 650,000 people, then you’ve got the most executive
experience of anyone on either ticket, are the Commander in Chief of the
Alaska military and are well qualified to lead the nation should you be
called upon to do so because your state is the closest state to Russia.
If you are a Democratic male candidate who is popular with millions of
people you are an “arrogant celebrity”.
If you are a popular Republican female candidate you are “energizing the
base”.
If you are a younger male candidate who thinks for himself and makes his
own decisions you are “presumptuous”.
If you are an older male candidate who makes last minute decisions you
refuse to explain, you are a “shoot from the hip” maverick.
If you are a candidate with a Harvard law degree you are “an elitist-out
of touch” with the real America.
if you are a legacy (dad and granddad were admirals) graduate of
Anapolis, with multiple disciplinary infractions you are a hero.
If you manage a multi-million dollar nationwide campaign, you are an
“empty suit”.
If you are a part time mayor of a town of 7000 people, you are an
“experienced executive”.
If you go to a south side Chicago church, your beliefs are “extremist”.
If you believe in creationism and don’t believe global warming is man
made, you are “strongly principled”.
If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and left your
disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you’re a
Christian.
If you have been married to the same woman with whom you’ve been wed to
for 19 years and raising 2 beautiful daughters with, you’re “risky”.
If you’re a black single mother of 4 who waits for 22 hours after her
water breaks to seek medical attention, you’re an irresponsible parent,
endangering the life of your unborn child.
But if you’re a white married mother who waits 22 hours, you’re spunky.
If you’re a 13-year-old Chelsea Clinton, the right-wing press calls you
“First dog.”
If you’re a 17-year old pregnant unwed daughter of a Republican, the
right-wing press calls you “beautiful” and “courageous.”
If you kill an endangered species, you’re an excellent hunter.
If you have an abortion you’re not a Christian, you’re a murderer ( forget
about if it happen while being date raped.)
If you teach abstinence only in sex education, you get teen parents.
If you teach responsible age appropriate sex education, including the
proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.
If you’re a Republican senator who solicits gay sex in an airport
bathroom, you get to return to your job in the Senate and are encouraged
to run for re-election.
If you’re a Democratic Senator who is out of public office and have an
affair, your political career is over and your wife who has terminal
cancer is to blame.
And finally:
Quiz question for the RNC, specifically those on the Religious Right.
Who is one of the most revered, and famous community organizers in
history?
……
………
…………
JESUS CHRIST

TIFF – Ghost Town

Not the movie… the festival.
This is one of the things I never understand about this event… there is a lot of power in how a “must attend” event is laid out, yet Toronto (like Sundance and Cannes) continue to treat the second half of their festivals as “if you build it, they still won’t stay four more days.”
On Tuesday, you couldn’t hear yourself think at the Bus Terminal Of The Damned Beautiful at the Intercontinental. There was rain, making the inside even crazier, but wall-to-wall people, photogs, journos, publicists, and gawkers. By Wednesday afternoon, you could have thrown the rock you wanted to throw all week and the only thing you could have hit was Jeff Hill & Co, so tired and beaten after a week that they would have just pulled the rock out of the bloody wound and asked, “Who lost a rock?”
Ya know, it’s nice to be able to wander into the few press screenings left without worrying that you are going to have to fight for a decent seat. But in this last day and a half, we’re not exactly getting the Best of the Fest to catch up with. This is not to dismiss the films that are showing, but a smattering of the films from the overbooked opening weekend would be nice… mostly because it was so overbooked and thus, impossible to keep up with. Last year, the festival came close to getting it just right with the press screenings… this year, there was a step backwards.
Even the public schedule is not much to choose from at this point in the fest, though the 4.5 hours of Che’ is on tomorrow morning’s (to afternoon’s) schedule.
Anyway… the weather is nicer today than yesterday… catching up with friends from up here is now possible… and I haven’t been to Pages Bookstore yet, so Queen St calls.

BYOB – 9,10,8

No time to discuss how scary it is that anyone in their right mind without strong right-wing ideas would consider voting for a ticket with a VP who can’t be allowed to talk to press…
What are you are talking about these days?

TIFF – chasing…

It’s almost time for a list of the films I really haven’t liked while here… but not right now… still running around like crazy.
One of the films I really did like – and again, not enough time right now to really go into it – was Malkovich in Disgrace, from the JM Coetzee book. A strong story. A nice piece of directing. But mostly, a fearless, unshowy, brilliant piece of acting by Malkovich. I mean, he gives it all up to this movie. All of his gimmicks… all of his vanity… all the stuff you expect to see when you see Malkovich. But he is fantastic as a vain, selfish, sad little man who can endure what he thinks he has control of, but who has to find new colors in himself when he is pushed beyond that place.
Commerciality is always discussed seconds after any rave up here… and I don’t know. It’s South Africa. it’s a dry piece, as befits the material. And it demands some work from the audience, mostly in the form of self-reflection. It isn’t spoon-feeding us. And I love that. But how will that sell?
Just a year ago, that might not matter as much. There were many more players and the money was flowing more freely. This is exactly the kind of small film that could lead to acting awards for Malkovich and, potentially, newcomer Jessica Haines. But more likely, in this climate, it’s IFC or Magnolia on a couple of NY/LA/Chicago screens before hitting DVD.
And so it goes…

TIFF – Mike Leigh Recommends…

I meant to put this up days ago, as I thought it would be nice for folks to get a recommendation from a great director who actually goes to see films at fests…
His pick, of 4 or 5 films he caught, was Tears For Sale, the Serbian film by Uros Stovanovic. Leigh was taken by the audacity and intellegence of the work. And when I see it later today, I hope to feel the same.
FOLLOW UP, 7:48p – Leigh’s advice was well taken, as Stovanovic has the kind of visual muscle to make him one of the next hot candidates for a Hollywood slot. The film is, essentially, a fairy tale filled with dark jokes, estrogen, sex, and explosions. Simplifying the story is probably a mistake, but I will offer the broadest strokes…
All the men in a Serbian town are off to war or dead… the last man of a reasonable age mines the grape field, the town’s only form of self-support, and dies in the process… this leaves the women drawing straws for the inevitably deadly task of gathering the day’s grapes (movie explosions and great visuals ensue)… two sisters, about to become 21 and 22 – spinsters in this period – work as professional wailers, as their mother did… when the women of the town try to get the elder sister to lose her virginity to “Grandpa,” her screams give him a heart attack and he dies… to avoid being burnt at the stake, the pair swears to find a man to bring to the women and their journey ensues.
And that doesn’t even take us to the first act break.
Sex, violence, men being blown out of cannons, women swarming, romantic love, wild hallucinations, lots of spider brandy, acts of kindness, and acts of betrayal all follow… all in a style that reaches beyond Gilliam with a profoundly Eastern European sensibility and a fascinating approach to the idea of the feminine.
Of course, it’s a specialty item, unlike the extraordinary (and also a visual feast) Slumdog Millionaire, which will speak to a much wider audience if Searchlight can find them. But this is a film that every American film fest should be chasing and should certainly get some form of domestic distribution. This is the kind of joyous foreign romp that film lovers should get a chance to see. I’m sure there will be some wrestling over whether it is politically correct… but it is filmicly thrilling… a rich dessert of imagery and ideas and pleasures which reminded me more that once, albeit with very different details, of Tom Jones… but with Angelina jolie and Gwynnie Paltrow as the sisters.
I don’t want to oversell. It isn’t the reinvention of the wheel. But it’s great movie-movie making. And that is more than enough to get me happy.

Hot Button – TIFF – Hurt Locker / Slumdog Millionaire

On the day known in the industry as the unofficial end of the Toronto International Film Festival, the festival felt like one of the great ones, if only for the day.
The best Iraq movie so far (closely nipping Nick Broomfield

Wrestler In The Searchlight

It looks like Rice, Utley, and Gilula found male ying to their female Bee yang as they picked up The Wrestler after a long night of partying on honor of Evan Rachel Woods’ 21st birthday. Quite a present.

Waiting On The Wrestler

So here we go… The Buy Movie Of The Fest… The winner at Venice… The Wrestler.
Every major is in the house… major newspapers… major dependents… major actors… all want to see if this is The One. Of course, the best part is the wrestlers or wrestler-sized men who are not stars, but who are here with the film.
It’s exciting. Exciting in a different way than many other great fest experiences. It’s a real-time event. It’s real-time excitement that makes grown men giddy, fearful, ready for a fight, ready to miss out (all eyes on Rice and Battsek if they get up during the film).
This is one part of TIFF. A rush. Not the heart of it all. But a piece we all crave.
And then… the movie.

TIFF – Catching Up A Little

I am discovering that using an iPhone to post updates is not unlike the early days of using Word… crashes and lost writing is a little infuriating…
But a poor craftsman blames his tools, right?
The Unexpected has become a theme for the festival. The expected films have been mostly mediocre or disappointing. But the little gems are beginning to sparkle. The hard part for you is that the media is understaffed and overmanned during this year’s fest. If I had $1000 for the number of times I have heard about budget cuts having an effect on the coverage – from the journos themselves – I would have more than is being spent by any of the mainstream media outlets on the fest… perhaps combined. It’s not pretty. And people who have jobs are appreciated.
That said, there is also a lot of whining at this fest. The local papers are complaining about everything from access to plus-ones to street closures. Bruce Kirkland took out the sledgehammer in the paper today.
Without smacking the festival around any more, I will say that the timing on becoming a facility owner at the same time as the North American indie movement is in the toilet and every festival in the country – including Sundance and other big ones – is suffering with money issues by way of decreased cash sponsorship, is unfortunate at best.
When I am asked to give advise to growing festivals, the first thing I always say is that they need to stay within their concept and not try to become “the next Sundance or Toronto.” Festivals are, in the vast majority, not for profit. Many run with deficits. And of course, the bigger the machine, the more green coal is needed to keep the fires burning. But the financial possibilities of a film festival are finite. And it seems that TIFF – which is also on its second co-director in two years and its third press office topper in three, both after years of prior stability – forgot this. What makes this festival special is the support of the local community. It’s timing also helped build it into one of the key fests in the world. But it was those hundreds of thousands of tickets sold that no one else had. But even huge ticket numbers are not enough to pay for any festival. Sponsorship closes the gap. But not so much in a recession.
Anyway… movies…
Fox Searchlight’s The Secret Lives Of Bees actually plays… and not just for girls. It’s in the spirit of Sounder and the Toomer story in The Great Santini and To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s clearly Dakota Fanning’s coming out party as a young woman, a stark contrast from Hounddog, which smelled of her exploitation by a well-intended by overreaching writer/director. Not so here. Gina Prince-Bythewood takes good care of Dakota and the entire cast.
It’s the story of a young teen white girl in the deep south who is in the poor care of her father, her mother killed in an accident – in which she was involved – as a child before memories. She escapes, along with a black woman whose life is threatened for standing up for herself, to her mother’s childhood hometown. They fall in with a family of three sisters who take the duo in like their own. The story, about love, redemption, and race (though I would not call it a film about race), continues from there.
Not Quite Hollywood may be my favorite talking-heads-and-clips movie ever. (That’s Entertainment is not really a doc, but just a series of great clips from great musicals… different animal.) It is complete, and informative. Bur mostly, it’s very, very entertaining, From the very beginnings of the Aussie film business to the sexual exploitation and self-mockery to the early car chase films to the uber-violent horror stuff to the combinations of both that changed worldwide cinema from Mad Max on… it’s a party for your eyes and memory banks.
Magnolia is planning on a first quarter 2009 release for the film… we’ll see what the theatrical life is like. But it is going to be one of those films you can turn on and watch over and over and over again, starting at any random point and walking away at any other point, knowing that you’ll watch more of it later… and then some more…
On the flip side, I saw a pretty worthless midnight movie last night… Dead Girl… which aches to be a social satire a la Heathers while using the repeated rape of a dead/alive girl – who “looks like a porn chick” – as the central action conceit. Uhhhh… no. It’s not as offensive as Hostel 2 because it is so much less professional and not nearly as smug. But it is pleased with itself and so was much of the audience last night… festival fever. If you stopped at any moment, like when the funny stoner dude who you like so much as a character happily grinds his hips, etc, into “dead girl,” and think, “That young man is RAPING a living corpse that would kill him if she could,” it just isn’t that amusing. And the satire part is just not sharp enough to be worth the effort.
That’s all for now… running… in the ran… ah, TIFF…

BYOB – Weekend

TIFF – First Real Surprise

There have been some good films so far, but with the talent involved, good shouldn’t be a surprise. But the first “wow, didn’t see that coming” for me is Nik Fackler’s Lovely, Still… a tiny movie about age and love and family, small in scope, but movie stylized, with two home run performances by Martin Landau and Ellen Burstyn.
I don’t have much time to write about it now, but all of those “Boynton Beach Club” movies that get distribution… this is going to be the king of them. Maybe it’s just $10 million in theatrical, but given the Academy composition and the very real love of these two actors, don’t be shocked to hear award buzz around this one all season.

TIFF – A Theme Rises

Great cinema in times of war is rarely about war directly. I am not 100% sure whether this is the subtext or context for the wave of deep, rich, but lighter films about family in Toronto this year.
The finest example so far is Arnaud Desplechin’s magnificent A Christmas Tale, which launched at Cannes in May. Two films from the sublime Kings & Queen, the film tells the tale of a family broken and mended by a loss and the very nature of the individual. Similar terrain as Rachel Getting Martied, but a lot closer (and far away from) Tom Bezucha’s The Family Stone. (In a twist, Bezucha is currently working on a remake of the French film, Man On The Train, another example of great emotion-driven French filmmaking.)
More later…

TIFF – Grazing

Grazing movies is somewhat antithetical to writing about films. No matter how we feel about films, each is a work of artistic intent and demands more than a cursory glance..: and that’s really what a 30 minute peek is… it’s like looking at one-third of a painting and analyzing it based on that.
Of course, you can often guess from a third what you will feel about the whole, whatever the medium. But drama (in all its forms) has more of a built-in tendency to curve unexpectedly.
There is a distinct difference between a fest, like this year’s, where there are so many unknowns and one where you have a parade of “musts.”. So I spent more time grazing on Day One than I would have liked… which means that some of the “let’s take a look” films just weren’t quickly sticky.
Very sticky were All Around Us, 35 Rhums (good, but not exceptional Denis), and Everlasting Moments, which as a dark and tough tale of a woman commited (to marriage), made a good bookend for the day.

Hot Button Review – Rachel Getting Married

Rachel Getting Married is the best Altman movie in 15 years.
Of course, this film is not by Robert Altman, but by Jonathan Demme, one of America