tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-339075922008-08-27T16:10:30.303-04:00Joshnoreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-43808107384177159572007-09-12T14:32:00.000-04:002007-09-12T14:36:56.825-04:00

Absolutely huge break today - 6 hours. So this is a part 1 of todays update. It's A Free World The latest Ken Loach film. I like Loach - he puts out good work. Not exactly inspiring and uplifting work, mind you. But good. This one is about a woman trying to start up a 'recruitment' agency in London - casual/day labour for EU immigrants. Interesting tale, as she starts out cutting corners and

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-45968461680184921472007-09-12T00:17:00.000-04:002007-09-12T00:36:47.918-04:00

A small aside. Damn these fracking Hollywood bigshots with their damn fancy toys. I've seen a half dozen iPhones in use since the festival has started. I'm starting to seriously consider mugging one of these schmucks for it - knowing my luck tho, I'd probably nab a 4Gb model. Instead, a hearty "screw you" to Ted F. Rogers. You know why, you bastard. Vexille This movie had so many "homages" to

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-19395303928484628672007-09-11T10:25:00.000-04:002007-09-11T10:54:38.524-04:00

Y'know. I forgot how much these early films take a toll on me. Been running the last couple of days on a pretty severe sleep deficit. Slightly less than pleasant. Mongol I suppose that the years of movie watching has made me a touch jaded. You'd think that a sprawling epic-y movie about the rise of Genghis Kahn to power, with plenty of nifty battle scenes would get someone going. 'Cept, its

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-72491295232659561622007-09-09T20:01:00.000-04:002007-09-09T20:22:13.465-04:00

The upside of not squeezing 5-6 films into a single day is that you dont have to run like a mofo to get from one film to another. You can take a more or less leisurely jaunt from theater to theater. The downside is that you get too much time between films sometime. Yesterday saw a 5 hour gap (ably filled with a tasty interlude at Terroni). Today's got a 3 hour gap, which I'm currently in the

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-53286474853717503012007-09-08T23:58:00.000-04:002007-09-09T00:21:42.929-04:00

Relatively quick recaps - I'm dog tired, and need to get this out before I forget everything by morning. Jar City Or as I've been calling it, CSI: Rejkyavik. Icelandic murder mystery. Pretty good as these things go - the lead was quite good, and the whole thing held together nicely. Apparently it was the most popular Icelandic film ever - seen by 100,000 people! Which doesnt seem like a lot,

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-18148649840900820892007-09-08T00:49:00.000-04:002007-09-08T01:09:56.128-04:00

Toronto Hydro Wireless is cool and all, but reception inside the Paramount is teh suck, so herewith is a transcription of notes made earlier today. Joy Division You should always come out of a documentary having learned something. I came out of this one knowing the inspiration for Elaine Benes's funky dance movies. A superb documentary on the rise of the Mancunian super-band Joy Division into

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-54554402732815511482007-09-07T11:31:00.000-04:002007-09-07T11:49:07.015-04:00

Its the Paramount. I dont care how much some financial institution pays for branding/naming rights. It started as the Paramount, it'll always be the Paramount to me. Yes. I'm fully aware of the irony inherent in that statement. I've got a gaping hole in my schedule today - my first film just ended, and the next (also at the Paramount - like all my films today. Love when that happens) isnt until

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-86772435795777723222007-09-07T00:33:00.000-04:002007-09-07T00:51:36.658-04:00

I dont know if its been all the drinking I've been doing in the last year, or if perhaps its the incipient signs of Alzheimers, but I always wind up being perpetually surprised each year at the wholesale incompetence of the Festival crew. For something like the n'th year in a row, the very first freaking film of the festival was delayed - they seated us 20 minutes late, and the film didnt start

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-38526615995280401362007-09-05T17:05:00.000-04:002007-09-05T17:07:28.298-04:00

A small note to those who may be camping out, awaiting the 2007 installment of '30 seconds of snark' with baited breath. Like. Chill out dude. Go outside. Smell the flowers. Have sex.

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-1158387932706891112006-09-16T02:13:00.000-04:002006-09-16T02:25:32.800-04:00

Celebrity sighting #2: Bryan McCabe walking with his wife and kid along Cumberland. Exciting, I know. Nue Propriete Good film. Reminded me a little too much at times of my own childhood, what with all the fighting - between brothers, and between the mother and (divorced) father. P-Giddy and I almost came to blows before the movie even started, arguing about the relative merits of Isabel Huppert

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-1158297475548618712006-09-15T00:51:00.000-04:002006-09-15T01:17:55.626-04:00

From an intrepid reader, who answers my question about Big Bang Love, Juvenile A: 46 oku nen no koi = 46 things to always remember about love Or 4,600,000 thoughts about love. No quatloos until you can tell me how they got Big Bang Love, Juvenile A from that. Furthermore, someone must have been reading about my mother's clever 'go to wrong theatre' plan for they've come up with an

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-1158209270891484512006-09-14T00:34:00.000-04:002006-09-14T00:48:04.206-04:00

Rain and an incipient head cold. Always a joyous combination at the Festival. Mon Colonel This has got to be like the 5th film on French-Algerian subject matters in the last 2 years of the Festival. And I keep on seeing most of 'em. I dunno. I have an odd fascination with the era. Decent - will inevitably kick of comparisons to Iraq. But what doesnt these days. Pan's Labyrinth In the words

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-1158125491185376592006-09-13T01:01:00.000-04:002006-09-13T01:31:32.043-04:00

Today's lesson is entitled "How to get into any film in the festival, even if its sold-out", and is based on some sterling.. ahhh... 'research' by my mother. Its quite a cunning plan. First, buy a ticket to some film. Doesnt have to be on the same day, or even in the same theatre. For best results, make sure its a film that nobody wants to see, like The Complete History of Yugoslavian Ditch

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-1158036734570467022006-09-11T23:19:00.000-04:002006-09-12T00:52:14.610-04:00

If it seems that all my amusing stories are coming by way of other people... its well.. because I'm leading a boring life here at the festival. Nothing all that interesting is happening to me. Possibly a good thing, as interesting in this context tends to mean 'blood-pressure elevating'. Today's amusing story comes from noted correspondent, the Notorious P.E.G. who had... err... fun at the

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-1157941234289448182006-09-10T21:45:00.000-04:002006-09-10T22:20:34.346-04:00

Uneventful day - only 3 films. Well. I had 4, but I bailed on one on account of a) fatigue, b) it wasnt getting good reviews and c) it might have caused me to be late for my next film. For my sins, I got dragged up and down Queen St W., looking for this mythical wool emporium. Palimpsest Polish psychological thriller, which I claim was evocative of Jacob's Ladder, an observation which elicited

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-1157866126473160352006-09-10T00:22:00.000-04:002006-09-10T01:28:46.566-04:00

This is going to be a slightly abbreviated entry - its late and I'm dog-tired. Dont have time for hours of witty repartee. From a strictly shoe-leather point of view, today was completely different from yesterday. Paramount - Isabel Bader - Paramount - Ryerson. The only saving grace was that I had a fair amount of time between films, so I could get between venues at a leisurely pace. Today also

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-1157779665228559192006-09-09T00:28:00.000-04:002006-09-09T01:32:24.296-04:00

One of the goals that we are all striving for is to schedule a day where all the films are in the same theatre. Preferably the Paramount, tho the Varsity comes in a close second (due to its proximity to the Greatest Public Washroom in the World). The advantages of everything in a single location are well.. obvious. Only a single film in the Ryerson kept me from festival nirvana. Curses. In

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-1157692534203785182006-09-08T01:14:00.000-04:002006-09-08T01:15:34.210-04:00

The Notorious PEG (rightly) points out that some of my irritation with Barley is the overt partisanship in it. The movie is quite clearly sympathetic towards the Republican cause. I like my movies to be a tad more nuanced, rather than being overly one-sided.

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-1157690436809153662006-09-07T23:57:00.000-04:002006-09-08T00:43:47.816-04:00

And... we're off. Not without some complications, of course. Hope this doesnt serve as an omen for the rest of the festival. The Wind That Shakes The Barley was oh.. 10 minutes late in starting. Heck, it was like, 5 to 6pm before the the line started moving. Completely inexcusable. Its not like there was a film in the Ryerson beforehand, preventing an early entrance. For the first film of the

Joshnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33907592.post-1157482235271187382006-09-05T14:43:00.000-04:002006-09-05T14:50:35.273-04:00

With the festival starting in just 2 days, we're in the calm before the storm. Of the 48 films selected, I wound up getting getting 47, with only Borat being the outlier. Shame, but its coming out in November or so, so eh... In any case, stay tuned for your daily supply of pithy reviews that'll make you cry out for Ebert and the twit.

Joshnoreply@blogger.com