Prepare for the Frankenstorm you say?

In sharp contrast to the work week, I don't spend too much time on my computer on the weekends.  The internet is my main source for news, current events, popular culture, information etc.  So it wasn't until last night that I really got a clear picture of the severity of Hurricane Sandy and how she could affect Toronto-area residents.  I have a somewhat skeptical view when it comes to weather warnings, having lived here almost my whole life, most weather warnings we get often wind up being embarrassing incidents over-preparedness - ie. the mayor calling the army for a snowstorm that never materialized.  However I've experienced a very real eastern seaboard blackout and a number of other power outages in my home over the last decade.  So here are my tips on how a movie maniac should prepare for a potential power out:

• Charge everything.  If Aftershock director Nicholas Lopez taught me anything in both his TIFF 2nd screening intro or in the movie itself, it's that our fancy smartphones quickly become nothing more than expensive flashlights during natural disasters, and when the batteries on those devices die they will become even more useless.  I don't imagine too many of us will lose our internet connections to the Frankenstorm, so let's make sure we have multiple ways to connect to it.
• Use a powerbar to charge everything.  Wouldn't want any of our precious devices to get fried in a surge if the power were to suddenly go out.
• Load some movies and back episodes of your favourite TV shows onto your iPads and tablets now.  I don't know about you, but my movies are stored on an external drive that connects only to my computer, which is a lot harder to get powered up in the event of blackout than my tablet.  In the event my internet (which in this case means my Netflix) goes with the power, I don't want to find myself grudgingly playing Angry Birds all night knowing that I could have been watching movies.
• Know where your devices are.  Seriously, when you misplace your phone in your home in broad daylight it's already a pain in the ass to find.  Imagine if you misplace it in the dark!
• All kidding aside, do take the necessary precautions and be safe.  Keep some bottled water in your home, have some canned or dry foods (I vote for Smart Food popcorn to snack on while you watch your movies in a blackout!)  Check to make sure your flashlights have batteries (because you could be reserving your iPhone battery for other apps instead of iTorch), and keep an extra blanket on hand.
• In your travels to and from the movie theatre (cause I know not everyone has a movie theatre just across the street like me) make sure your car has an emergency kit, and if you're out and about during bad weather, it's always a good idea to let someone know where you've gone and approximately what time you'll be back (letting them know what movie you're seeing is optional, I'd understand if you don't want to own up that you're at Alex Cross).
• [Optional] Add Twister to your movie viewing list!

Keep dry.  Keep safe.  And keep watching movies!

Cloud Atlas

As you may be aware from my previous blogs, I caught Cloud Atlas back in September during TIFF and it was one of my favourite films of the festival.  There are definitely some imperfections but overall I loved it.  In case you missed it, here is the review I wrote for I ♥ Movies TO when I initially saw it.  Cloud Atlas is currently in theatres.

When I first heard Tom Tykwer and the Wachowski’s were making a film a together my first reaction was “You can stop right there, I will be seeing it.”  In subsequent conversations about Cloud Atlas, I would be asked “Is that the movie with Tom Hanks and Halle Berry?” to which I replied “I don’t know who’s in it” for the longest time.  So now you have an idea what angle I’ll be coming from in this review.

The Wachowski’s will forever be associated with the Matrix Trilogy in my mind.  Visually spectacular, futuristic visions, pristine technologically enhanced settings contrasted with dystopian landscapes.  If nothing else I know I will be in for some serious eye candy whenever I go to one of their movies.  When it comes to their writing, I have utmost respect for their ideas, but lack confidence in their ability to consistently convey them.  

Tom Tykwer is really my true hero in this trio, since I first saw Run Lola Run I’ve been in love with his work.  He’s explored a number of different storytelling and visual styles, ranging from Run Lola Run’s short frenetic tale told over and over with varying outcomes, to linear gothic horror in Perfume.  My favourite is The Princess and the Warrior, where characters’ individual stories, the events that bring them together, and histories that shaped them are sewn in the editing.  While Tykwer is definitely capable of telling a straight-forward story with a beginning, middle, and end… it’s really the alternative methods he employs that really makes him shine.

What I’m getting at here is a flowery defense for the “story”, in its traditional sense, of Cloud Atlas.  Though I have not read the book, friends advise it takes a bit of effort to get into.  I can’t speak for the novel, but in the movie I can see why the story is difficult to glean.  However I feel the importance of the movie isn’t the story (or stories) so much as it’s about an overall idea.  I believe Cloud Atlas is about the idea that our lives our pre-destined, and that those whose lives are linked with ours are entwined into our past, present, and future.  Every aspect of the “story” beyond that only serves to reinforce that point.  It is in this idea and concept that the Wachowski’s and Tykwer make their masterpiece. (Well, that and the special fx make-up! I’m gonna be pretty annoyed if they don’t win an Oscar for it.)  

Fanaticism aside for a moment, I will readily admit I walked out of that theatre after almost 3 hours not entirely sure of what had happened but completely blown away by the visuals.  I only wish they could have shot this in IMAX.  The Wachowski’s don’t disappoint with their enthralling designs of the future, and Tykwer continues to contribute to the musical side of things as he has done in his previous films.  There are many layers and ways to approach Cloud Atlas.  The imdb synopsis describes how “one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution.” I don’t know if I even got that far, I was too occupied with the production design, the matching shots as the editing took us from one story to another, the music, random bursts of comedy, and swells and ripples of action leading up to the finale.

Make sure you stick around for the credits, you’ll be truly amazed by the make-up transformations.  I can’t wait to see this again when it opens in theatres October 26^th.

4.5/5

Screen (and Other) Haunts for Halloween

It's less than a week away from Halloween and I'm in the haunting spirit.  Clearly I'm pretty late in joining in on the festivities, there's been talks and blogs of Halloween for a full month now and I'm only throwing my 2 cents in 6 days prior.

This past weekend's Toronto Zombie Walk really helped a lot of folks get in the mood.  Ghouls from all around the GTA (a couple friends mentioned that zombies know how to ride the GO... important to know should there ever be an uprising and we need to get out of town!) gathered at Nathan Phillips Square before embarking enmass for...lunch/brains around the block.  The rain clearly doesn't affect them and only helps to keep the blood flowing, I kept a safe biting distance and observed them from the bridge over Queen St at the Eaton Centre.

And afterwards went to fish my friend Mikey from out of the carnage.  

S'cuse me, have you eaten a photographer named Mikey recently?

This is an annual event and the more zombies the merrier.  I chose to pose as a human being this year, cause hey, zombies gotta eat too.  Though I guess I was being a tease, because I also wore sneakers in order to be able to outrun them.  Is there anything that gets your blood racing faster than a zombie moaning and biting at your ear?

If live run-ins are a bit too much for you, perhaps it's better to stick to horrors that are safely encapsulated on the other side of a movie/TV screen.  The Toronto After Dark Film Festival kicked off this past weekend, featuring premiers of international horror/cult/sci-fi/fantasy films.  In a bit of poor planning and procrastination, I will sadly not be attending TAD this year.  For complete festival movie coverage, you can check out all the reviews here.

Last week was the season premier of one of my favoutie TV shows, I've been over the edge excited about the return of American Horror Story: Asylum.  While watching season 1 last year, I saw about 4 episodes in a night and had the most terrible night's sleep afterwards waking up constantly with the unnerving theme music echoing in my head.  If the premier was any indication, we should be in for a lot of creepiness once again.  Mad scientists, tortured and angry creatures, ghosts, and the mentally unstable always make a wonderful combination it seems.

In one of my previous entries I mentioned that seeing Berberian Sound Studio inspired me to re-watch Dario Argento's Suspiria, which I did over the weekend.  The main theme is still playing in my head, for those who know it, the soundtrack of that movie probably scares me more than the movie itself.  It's a 1977 film from Italian horror master Dario Argento about an American girl who goes to study at a prestigious German Dance Academy, only to learn there's more than meets the eye to the school and its teachers when students begin to suffer horrific accidents and go missing.  I always forget young Udo Kier is in that film, he was pretty cute too, who knew he'd become my favourite on screen creepy foreign weirdo?

Also part of my weekend viewing: the Hitchcock classic, Psycho.  If you're a horror/suspense/thriller/classic film fan/pretentious art student or grad and you've never seen Psycho, then you are a fraud, a disgrace, and we cannot continue being friends.  This is my favourite Hitch film, from the Saul Bass title sequence (for those of you who are interested, Bass did a number of Hitchcock's title sequences and movie posters, and also for countless more filmmakers in his 4 decade career.  In 2004 I got to see a exhibit of his work at the London Design Museum, certainly one of the most interesting exhibitions I've ever seen), to Bernard Hermann's score including the infamous chords struck during the unforgettable shower scene, to Anthony Perkins' superb performance.  I've studied the scene composition of this movie, read articles on the achievement in storytelling - where the heroine can be killed off 50 minutes into the movie without the story suffering any lapses in suspense to the climax.

There's still some days to go, other titles that are currently sitting on the shelf under my TV (my "purchased but not yet watched" shelf as I like to call it) that would be appropriate for Halloween-time viewing include Pontypool, The Faculty, and Weirdsville.  I would definitely recommend the former, which I haven't seen since I caught it at TIFF the year it screened.  I was reminded of The Faculty during a conversation with friends back in September, Best Buy in the US was selling the blu-ray copies for $6 so I picked it up.  Weirdsville is one of movies that I wanted to own (for cheap) at the time I bought it, but haven't really given much thought to again since.  (It's ok...)

Need more spookatcular inspiration?  Try Nick Watson's 31 Movies - A Halloween Countdown He's got it all, from classic Dracula (circa 1931) to foreign frights (Ringu).  As well, it's nice to know someone else liked The Mist as much as I did. If you didn't catch Cabin in The Woods while it was in theatres, now's a good time to watch it.

I guess it should go without saying:  check local rep cinema listings for a screening of Rocky Horror near you and get your fishnets ready.

So who's a fan of British TV and delinquent superheros?

Speaking of dressing up, spent my Tuesday night working on mine! (The jumpsuit's borrowed so I couldn't use stencil & spray paint.  The letters are cut from a sheet of adhesive vinyl, lined up with multiple rulers, and stuck down with great precision!) Hopefully everyone has a clue by now what your costumes will be (I speak like you don't have a choice whether to dress up and that's because you don't.  It's Halloween, have a little fun for pete's sake!)  Please send me photos of your get-ups, especially if they're movie/TV/zombie related. Happy haunting!

How Quentin Tarantino Helped Me Get Through University

Last night I was cleaning up some files on my relic of a computer.  A while ago I'd taken the last of the 3.5" floppy disks (for those who are too young to remember, we used to fancy storing our data in plastic coasters 12 years ago) and had them all copied to my harddrive (the entire box of discs probably amounted to 2MB), and amidst a mountain of WordPerfect and Microsoft Works files (which I have no idea how to convert) I found some some old papers that I wrote in university.

It's been suggested that I can make an argument for almost anything using Quentin Tarantino's films, and that once you get me started I may not shut up for days.  The paper below is proof.  It was written for a 2nd year film studies course, citing examples of Symbolism in Pulp Fiction.  Pretty mindless fare right?  In my defense, I never meant to regurgitate conversations from the bar (and Art Hall...for those who went to high school with me) and message boards to pass off as research for a university paper.  It was all supposed to have been very different.

There's no polite way to put it, even 12 years later... I hated my prof for that class.  Others loved her, she was my nemesis and to this day I believe she passed me so that we would not have to endure each other again.  There was a variety of possible topics for this paper, but our selection had to be pre-approved by our professor.  To avoid in-person contact (I may have already refused to physically attend her class by this point... that story another time) I fired off an email to her asking for approval to write a paper on Wong Kar Wai (whose films I was only beginning to discover at the time, and really much more appropriate for an arty film theory tie-in than guys wielding guns, and using the N-word 69 times.), and set out with a stack of video tapes and articles.  She replied 2 days before the due date to say I could not write my paper on Wong Kar Wai because she did not have enough knowledge of his films (which I think is b.s., just because she's deeply entrenched in her Eistenstein and Bazin doesn't mean she can't read the contents of my paper and grade my level of success in proving my hypothesis.  Wong Kar Wai was already an established director so clearly I wasn't making up a fictitious filmmaker.  Furthermore, Wong Kar Wai sits firmly on the list of postmodern Auteurs, a theory/movement that Bazin himself championed!  Sorry, I digress, I will go back to speaking like a normal person now...)  She basically gave me 2 days notice to dump all my research and start again!

That was my breaking point, hers wasn't the only course I had, plus whatever exams and productions I was involved with at the time.  So to appease the requirements of the paper I chose one of the simplest theories available to demonstrate, and picked a film that I knew so well, I could recite it backwards.  I didn't even have to rewatch PF (though I would've if I hadn't been so pressed for time), I just sat down and spit out the 2000 words.  I know this isn't profound writing, or ultimately even that informing.  But it's proof that it's advantageous to know your favourite movie inside and out, and demonstrates how I managed to pass a course just by writing about Quentin Tarantino :)  You gotta love that.

So here it is, the late-night bullshitting of a QT-obsessed 21 year old film student:

Random fact about me:  "Honey Bunny" is the only pet name I will answer to

Submitted to:  Dr. Lily Avrutin

Submitted by:  Ada Wong

Course:  MFP 026

Due Date:  Monday, April 3, 2000

The Super Cool Briefcase and Gold Watch of Ezekiel 25:17

The Symbolism in Pulp Fiction

             A movement, which began in the late 1880’s, Symbolism, arose as a result of opposition to realism.  Artists disappointed in the current state of rationalistic and materialistic society sought new values in spirituality and the pursuit of hidden meanings.  Symbolism has been found in film for decades from experimental to narrative, in Hollywood narratives it is most commonly used to add another deeper dimension to the story than that which is being presented on the screen.  A contemporary example of symbolism being used for such a purpose is Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, a seemingly chaotic bloodbath of a film about characters of the thieving, lying, and cheating sort.  Pulp Fiction utilizes symbolism to show cultural representations and underlying themes, it also includes discussions about symbolism and the different ways the characters interpret them.

           

            Symbolic references usually require some kind of pre-established connection between the nature of the symbol and the meaning, even though the actual perception is thought to be an internal relationship between that of the percipient and what is perceived (Whitehead, 8-9)*.  Tarantino, a child of pop culture and mass media himself, gives his audience little room for misinterpretation when illustrating his views on American culture.  Pulp Fiction makes reference to every decade after the Second World War and does so through iconography, showing that America today is nothing but a collage of times past.  Each scene contains elements from different decades be it objects, clothing, music, or verbal references.  Even in a simple setup such as the conversation between Vincent and Lance the drug dealer at Lance's house, there are multiple references to various decades.  Lance speaks of disco, seventies retro, bell-bottoms, and Vincent's car - a Malibu, all in under a minute.  On their date later that evening, Mia convinces her "Elvis Man"  Vincent to have their meal at 50's diner Jack Rabbit Slim's where their waiter is a Buddy Holly impersonator and they dance to Chuck Berry's "You Never Can Tell".  In the second story, The Gold Watch, Butch runs into the pawn shop owned by Maynard, which is like a collection of all the junk one can possibly collect over that period of 50 years.  In this pawnshop many horrific events take place, while Butch manages to escape, he feels a compulsion to return for Marsellus.  He searches the shop for a possible weapon and settles on a large samurai sword, representative of Asian culture where honour among thieves is seen as integral.

            The Gold Watch segment opens with a Vietnam War Veteran telling young Butch about the history and lineage of his family and this watch, Tarantino chose this particular war as it was around this time that the straightforward fashion that society treated lineage and time with began to disintegrate. (Rushkoff, 104)  Butch certainly did not do honourable battle like his father and those preceding him, but yet he still held on to the importance of lineage during times of chaos as he went back to retrieve his watch.  After the Vietnam War, many were changed, and Butch's family was no exception.  The watch symbolizes here the history and lineage that Butch still respects even after all the social changes that have taken place.  The whole film can be viewed as a sign the changes that have taken place, things are no longer straightforward and black and white, and neither is the arrangement of this film.

            One the themes of this movie is redemption, there are 3 examples that are most notable.  Butch decides to go back downstairs in the pawn shop to save Marsellus, in the process he gains redemption for killing the boxer Wilson in the ring the previous night. Marsellus allows Butch to go after rescuing stating "there is no me and you, not no more", Butch has redeemed himself with Marsellus and is free from him and his men provided he doesn't tell anyone about the events that took place and never returns to the city.  Jules lets Pumpkin and Honey Bunny go at the diner even after they've taken all his money and pointed a gun at him, he talks to them and tries to guide them rather than inflicting violence. He even prompts his partner Vincent not to shoot; he is a recently changed man and hopes to gain redemption in this way.  Less obvious is the needle, it is viewed by the drug addicted characters primarily as a tool for shooting up, but in a twist of fate it is also a giant hypodermic needle that saves Mia during her overdose.  The needle has redeemed itself, showing that is it more than merely an object of destruction.

            Hidden in the plot, one would also find many references to spirituality.  Jules has a preoccupation with his bible passage Ezekiel 25:17, which he likes to recite right before he kills someone.  He does this for the guys in the apartment when he and Vincent are retrieving the briefcase, and he recites it again for Pumpkin but does not open fire this time because he has changed his ways from the 'miracle' he has witnessed.  The briefcase Vincent and Jules go to so much trouble to recover is also a symbol of spirituality.  Its combination is 666 as we can see when Vincent first opens it to check its contents, the number of Satan.  This briefcase is to be delivered to Marsellus, who can be viewed as an evil personality.  The contents of the briefcase has caused much debate, but it is commonly believed to contain either Marsellus' soul or "the evil of all men", the latter adding to Marsellus' link to the devil.  We first see the golden glow of the briefcase when Vincent opens it up on the counter at the apartment, it is much like the glow given off by candles in a church.  The same type of light appears on the film and triggers the fade in of the scene as Jules and Vincent open fire on Brett, suggesting a relationship with the briefcase that is something unearthly.

            In times of trouble, and there are many of such times in this film, it is always important to "stay cool".  Doing so will keep you alive, and losing your cool will often get you shot.  In the apartment during the early morning, Brett is sitting down enjoying his Big Kahuna Burger when Jules and Vincent come busting in.  Brett is doing fine as long as he sits calmly passing his food and tasty beverage over to Jules when requested, but as soon as the gun is in his face and his friend is shot he loses his cool, starts stammering, and then is shot.  After his date with Mia, Vincent hangs around in her washroom giving himself a pep talk on staying cool and not sleeping with the "Big Man's" wife, in the meantime, Mia is outside overdosing on his heroin.  When Vincent and Jules show up at Jimmy's house with Marvin's brains splattered all over the inside of their car all three are on the verge of losing their cool, at which point they enlist the help of The Wolf who remains calm and saves them all from trouble.  Finally in the diner Jules urges Pumpkin and Honey to be cool, like "three Fonzie's", Pumpkin complies but Honey Bunny takes more a little more effort.  Both do end up "chilling out", as do all the customers, hence any shooting is avoided and everyone survives the robbery.

            Time plays the antagonist in much of the film, it is definitely not on Mia, Vincent, Butch, or Jimmy's side.  Like the norm of modern society, they are racing against the clock, only in much more dire situations.  Vincent is speeding down the street in his car while calling Lance on his cell phone with a dying Mia next to him, Lance scrambles around a cluttered room to find a black medical book, and him and Vincent have a hurried debate about who is to give Mia the adrenaline shot.  Butch is on a race for his freedom the moment he flees from the rink after he's killed the boxer, he phones his bookie to find out when he can pick up the money and plans to leave in the morning.  He is further pressed for time the following morning when he realizes that Fabienne has left his watch, the most obvious symbol of time, back at the apartment and has to go retrieve it.  After he successfully retrieves his father's watch, another setback occurs leading him running straight into the events of the pawnshop as he trys to flee from Marsellus.  Jimmy's preoccupation with time stems from the fact that two guys have just shown up at his house covered in blood and brains with a headless body in their car and his wife is due home in an hour.  Thankfully for those involved, each and every one of them managed in their situations.  The focus on time is not simply within the characters' lives but also with the film itself as time is cut up and rearranged, drawing attention to it by doing so.

            Vincent and Jules have on more than one occasion stopped to have discussions about the symbolic significance of certain events.  The first occurred as they waited in the hallway of Brett and company's apartment, they debated whether giving a woman a foot message was a sexual act.  A fellow gangster had just been thrown off a building for giving Marsellus' wife a foot message and the partners were arguing if the man had deserved it.  The foot message is a sign of trouble, trouble in relation to Mia Wallace, perhaps a sign Vincent should have heeded more carefully during their date that night.  Their views clash again in the diner when Jules is convinced that a miracle had taken place while Vincent dismisses it as a "freak occurrence".  There had been a third man in the washroom of the apartment who jumped out and fired straight at them, yet none of the bullets struck Jules or Vincent.  Jules took this as a religious sign, that God wanted him to live, and decided to give up his life as a gangster.  Vincent took this event as "another occasion to express dismay at the way things go in our unmannerly society" (Beebe, 1).  He learnt nothing in his reflections of the event and hence was doomed to repeat his mistakes, his lack of personal progression is what causes him to be killed by Butch two days later during the stakeout.  Jules had quit by this time and was no longer Vincent's partner, therefore his life was spared.  Finally Jules tries to rationize his favourite bible passage and what role he plays in it to Pumpkin as they sit at the table.  He had previously thought of it as only a cold sounding passage to recite before an execution, but in light of the events just past, he now gives it more thought.  Ezekiel 25:17 encompasses many different characters and Jules attempts to figure out who plays who symbolically, he comes up with three different scenarios where he is either the righteous man, the shepherd, or the tyranny of evil men.  He finally settles on the latter and decides to try to be the shepherd.

              In our perception of the external world we are familiar with the immediate presentation of the contemporary world, yet we cannot instantly relate to symbolic references unless there is a common link between the symbol and meaning that can be expressed even "without reference to the percipient" (Whitehead, 9).  Tarantino has painted us with a clear picture not only through his popular culture iconography of  the decades, but also through his characters.  While they may be cynics, mirrored in them sharply are our present anxieties.  Like Jules and Vincent's differing interpretations of the supposed "miracle", viewers tend to be divided on the meaning of this film.  John Beebe of the San Francisco Jung Institute sees the division comprised of those who see it as a "supreme occasion for indulging our regret at the deterioration of our culture's values" and those who make note of the "transformation in this country's historical valorizing of vengeance", although it may be as simple as those who see it only for it's violence and those who actually see the meaning beyond the surface.

* Please pardon the citations, I did not remove, yet do not have my citations list either.  I can provide if any legal types come banging on my door/inbox ;)

Supplementary (aka Better) Reading:
Wong Kar-wai - http://sensesofcinema.com/2002/great-directors/wong/
Auteur Theory - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auteur_theory 
ON THE Q.T.: Ch 2: PULP FICTION (The Cool) - http://blogs.indiewire.com/pressplay/video-essay-the-qt-pulp-fiction-and-cool

Berbarian Sound Studio at the New York Film Festival

(This entry stems from an excerpt of my travel journal, in which I chronicle my recent trip to NYC.)

I was recently in New York City and attending an opera at the Lincoln Center one night, when I noticed some posters there advertising the New York Film Festival.  I've been to the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC a few times but never NYFF. (so in the words of Barney Stinson... Challenge accepted!)  Upon checking their schedule online, I discovered there was a repeat screening of Berberian Sound Studio, a film that I'd very much wanted to see at TIFF but couldn't due to scheduling conflicts and nabbed tix.  The non-member price for tickets at the NYFF hovers around the $20 mark, comparable to TIFF, but since I rarely pay full price for tickets at the Toronto Film Fest, I did raise an eyebrow at the figure.  Oh well, our dollars are almost on par anyway.

 Though they've been around longer (50 years now), boast some big films, celebrity appearances, and interesting year round programing, the New York Film Festival is much smaller than our beloved Toronto International Film Festival.  Berberian Sound Studio was part of their Midnight Movies program (as was Barry Levinson's The Bay, from TIFF"s Midnight Madness program, which was well-received), and this was the repeat screening I was attending.  The film stars Tobey Jones as Gilderoy, a mild-mannered, soft spoken sound engineer hired over from England to work in an Italian Studio on a horror film.  The movie also doubles as a homage to the 70's Italian Horror genre, and the age of analog sound recording with beautiful artsy close ups of film being fed through a projector, Nagra tape recorders, and reels of winding mag stock.  Cinema tends to focus on the visual image, given our obsessions with HD and CGI, while we are treated to beautiful cinematography however we never see the film which they work on, we learn about it purely through sound.  Those not familiar with the workings of ADR (Additional Dialogue Recording) or foley might not understand at first what is happening, for those who've done foley work, the chuckles begin almost immediately.  As the recording booth screams grow shriller, and pressures of finding just the right melon to replicate the sound of a skull smashing starts to blur with Gilderoy's reality, we begin to delve into Lynch-ian dream-sequences of mounting psychological terror.  You'll likely find yourself quaking, despite not seeing a single drop of blood spilled.

It was such a treat to be able to see Berberian Sound Studio on a big screen with theatre surround sound, the layers of diagetic and non-diagetic sounds carefully crafted and combined make you perk up your ears the whole time.  I was very amused when the credits included a long list of "Screamers" including a "Special Guest Screamer".  Berbarian Sound Studio was aptly selected for TIFF's Vanguard Program over Midnight Madness, I think it's the perfect example to cite when describing the Vanguard Program as MM's "cooler, older sister".

After seeing Berbarian Sound Studio and writing this blog, I now have an urge to go watch Suspiria after I post this.

Ada's TIFF 2012

Now that the TIFF hangover (both the metaphorical and physical one) has not only worn off, but become a distant memory, we can truly reflect on the movie whirlwind that was the 11 days of the 37th Toronto International Film Festival. Well, that's my excuse anyway, and I'm sticking with it!

I'd heard a mix of comments after the initial film announcements, such as thoughts that TIFF was "playing it safe" with their line-up this year, and observations similar to my own that there seemed to be fewer Far East Asian films than usual.  Still, in 300+ titles, it can't be hard to fill your calendar.  Some folks who purchased TIFF packages this year complained about the lack of 9am Public Screenings, as these hardcore moviegoers rely on early starts in order to fit in up to 5 or 6 movies a day.  Those of us who used a combo including volunteer vouchers were able to go to 9am Press & Industry shows making that was less of a problem.  This was also the first year they split up the Members and Public box offices into separate locations and I personally had mixed feelings about that.  I didn't really see any advantage to using the Members box office until the second half of the festival where there were no line vs. long waits at the Public box office.

Other personal observations about my festival are that I think I watched the most English-language films this year than any other year.  While I was quite pleased overall with my selections, fell asleep during surprisingly few movies despite my schedule, and labeled more than the average number of films as "good", I would have to say there was no particular movie that bowled me over (ie. the year of Slumdog Millionaire).  The mix of volunteering, work, vacation days, and movies every chance I had was grueling but not unheard of compared to past festivals.  Next year it would be nice if I could manage an extra day or two of vacation, I only had two 5-movie days this year, that was partially of my own doing though as I felt the need to be at the 2nd screening of Much Ado About Nothing even if it meant spending time in Rush line instead of seeing an extra movie.

General Stats:
Number of movies watched: 28
Number of movies where I nodded off at some point:  6
Number of movies I want to own:  8
Number of failed rush lines: 1 (The Master, but then I rushed another film instead successfully.)
Number of successful rush lines: 8 (Strategy:  Early morning P&Is and early on in the festival)
Number of walk-outs: 0 (I was a little tempted for one, just because I was tired)
Most epic meal I took into a theatre to eat:  Sashimi combo with rice, soup, and salad
Celeb I got closest to:  Colin Farrell (mere centimeters away, and yet...no photo or autograph to show for it)
Celeb I most wanted to get close to but missed:  Bradley Cooper, Alexander Skarsgard, Ewan McGreggor
Best swag/freebie:  David's Tea (all you had to do was show your ticket stub)

Films that I saw:

Dial M For Murder in 3D - the Hitchcock classic as I'd never seen it before.  Prior to the screening we joked that for once we were looking forward to seeing something in 3D (my usual crew are not fans) and it just goes to prove that Hitch does everything better, even 3D!  I've seen Dial M a couple times before, and also the remake, A Perfect Murder.  It's not in your face and keeps your focus on the story.  The 50's were a different time when it came to justice and catching murderers, and while I'll never be a Grace Kelly fan, I do like this big screen classic.

Pusher - is Luis Prieto’s remake of Refn’s Danish original, which I have not seen, about a week in the life of a drug dealer whose life is spiraling out of control due to a series of unfortunate events.  Though not the most original tale, and visually a bit of a Guy Ritchie/Tony Scott knock-off, it's still entirely watchable and energetic as events are played out again a backdrop of an Orbital musical score.  You'll either appreciate or be frustrated by the ending, but I felt it went with the characters’ ambivalent personalities, an aspect of the writing that I really enjoyed. 

Perks of Being A Wallflower - just before I saw the movie, I read a review in which it's described as a film "that will appeal to mainstream indie fans".  This has since become my favourite new oxymoron, long after I watched and enjoyed the movie and the details have become a warm hazy glow.  It's based on a book of the same title that I read in my early 20's (er, I mean, last year! ;)) about a young man with a history of mental illness on the social fringes at school, when he meets two offbeat seniors who take him under their wing.  Together they cope with the usual coming-of-age issues, friendship, sexuality, first love, self-worth, and belonging.  Emma Watson is simply delightful as the endearing, irrepressible Sam, and Logan Lerman nails the lead role of Charlie. As for "mainstream indie" appeal... if you like the Virgin Suicides, Igby Goes Down, Garden State and that sort... trust me, you'll eat up Perks.

Painless - Bit of a fail on my part, I nodded off for parts of this movie due to fatigue as opposed to disinterest.  A man digging into his past learns of a Spanish hospital that once conducting bizarre rehabilitation experiments on a group of children who were incapable of feeling pain, in particular one boy who derived more fascination from the experiments that rehabilitation.  This movie was as much thriller as it was horror with a psychological element as well as scenes of gore.  I could blame the fact that it's a little slow moving for my nodding off, but in truth the slow reveal probably worked.  My main issue was that I guessed the ending half way through, as soon as one of the characters was introduced I knew exactly how it would play out.

90 Minutes - if I'm to believe what director Eva Sørhaug said in her Q&A, there is a whole cultural divide between North American and Norway that I never knew about.  She told us that the movie stemmed from her research on domestic violence leading to spousal killing, and that although Norway is supposed to one of the best places in the world to live, it also has the highest rate of this type of domestic abuse.  Her movie is about 3 different stories all centralized around domestic abuse, and she doesn't hold back when it comes to portraying graphic acts of violence.  One woman in the audience afterwards kept pushing Sørhaug to explain the motivations behind these male characters, beyond the "societal pressures and circumstances" that she'd mentioned, I'd venture to guess the audience member found these scenes so sadistic that she wanted justification for subjecting us to something so disturbing.  If you choose to see this movie, you will be in for an unsettling time, whether you think the overall product is good or not.

Silver Linings Playbook - Pat (Bradley Cooper) is fresh out of an institution trying to make a comeback in life - starting by getting his wife back.  He enlists the help of a troubled young widow (Jennifer Lawrence) and "an unexpected bond begins to form between them, and silver linings appear in both of their lives.” (from the Weinstein company synopsis)  Not the most original story every written, but David O. Russell makes it work.  He kicks it up a notch with superb casting.  Jennifer Lawrence and Robert DeNiro (as Pat Solatano Sr, the superstitious Eagles-obsessed patriarch) play up their characters’ quirks and eccentricities just right.  Also look out for Chris Tucker making a subtler-than-usual, but equally hilarious contribution. What makes the movie for me though is the dialogue, for every conventional aspect of the story, fresh lively banter makes up for it.  The exchanges between Lawrence and Cooper are charged, they’ll have you hanging on for every last retort and jape.

Much Ado About Nothing - I'm a bit hesitant to write this review.  I consider myself on the fringes of the Joss Whedon cult.  I have an immense love for what I've seen of his work, but confess I don't own much more than a few of his TV shows.  Meanwhile I'm closely acquainted to those who name their pets after him/his characters.  Anyway, I'm reluctant to write the review, not because I didn't like the film, but because I'm not sure I can accurately convey just how much of personal stamp he's managed to put on a Shakespearean play.  This project was a long time coming stemming from many Shakespeare readings Whedon and his wife would host in their home, which is also where Much Ado was shot, in just 12 days.  It's presented in crisp black and white, retains the original language but interpreted in present day.  For those  familiar with Joss Whedon's television creations, think of the times they did something different, ie.the Buffy "Hush" and "Once More With Feeling" episodes, despite the absence of Whedon's acclaimed dialogue they never felt out of place.  If anything, they felt even more like a Joss Whedon creation somehow.  That's the same feeling I got watching Much Ado About Nothing.

Writers - Is there anything more likely to pique my interest than dysfunctional families when it comes to movies? Here we take a father of 2 who is unable to get over his ex-wife, an angsty college girl dead set against monogamous relationships, a sensitive teenage boy in love with a troubled classmate, and a mother balancing life with a new husband while suffering quietly over being ex-communicated by her daughter... then make them all self-aware, constantly soul-searching, speculative writers!  There'll be no chance of normal there!  Yet, in a pretty typical fashion, we see them struggle, squirm outside their comfort zone, and come together in the most improbable circumstances... will they pull through as a family?  My cynicism aside, this is pretty decent work by first time director Josh Boone. I'm sure it helps to be supported by a talented cast -  actually with the likes of Jennifer Connelly, Greg Kinnear, Lily Collins, and a cameo by Stephen King, Writers is kind of like an indie film that isn't indie at all!  Just go with it, the movie isn't perfect but that's kind of the point, isn't it?

Byzantium - I was particularly excited to see Byzantium, Neil Jordan's first foray back into the world of Vampires since 1994's Interview with the Vampire staring Saoirse Ronan, the young actress who already has a long list of dark brooding roles in her movie repertoire.  This time, the tale is about 2 mysterious women (no fangs, no supernatural powers, no sparkling, just a lust for blood) trying to outrun their past, who settle in a rundown hotel on the English seaside.  Young Eleanor befriends a waiter and reveals her 200 year old story, meanwhile those who seek them are quickly catching up.  No matter what century Neil Jordan places his vampires in, he can't help but make them fascinating and elegant creatures, though Byzantium's story unfolds very slowly over the first hour and lacks Interview's fervor until about the last 20 minutes. 


Storm Surfers 3D - A big wave documentary featuring two legends of the sport as they search for the greatest unsurfed waves in the world is exactly the type of stuff you DO want to see in 3D.  I'd be impressed if they brought an iPhone with they to video the waves and have the device survive, much less whatever specialty equipment they did bring.  The footage is amazing, making up for the less interesting people that the documentary centres around.  It's visually spectacular, you need to go no further for a reason to see this.

Antiviral - Perhaps I can't get past the fact that he's a film school grad bankrolled by a famous daddy, but I really don't understand why Brandon Cronenberg's film has gotten so much attention at Cannes and is winning awards at TIFF.  I'm not saying the movie is bad, though it's far too self-indulgent for me, but overall I feel it's a thinly story woven out of a couple basic ideas and concepts.  He's clearly a great admirer of his father (and so am I...), his film is ambitious but, I feel, undeserving of the acclaim.  Kudos to the production design and special fx, it can't be easy to clean up all that fake blood from the pristine and sterile sets after each take.  Don't think I could've rolled my eyes any harder when the first question during the Q&A was "Do you feel a formal film education is required in order to become a successful filmmaker?" Gag.

Cloud Atlas - based on the novel of the same name that I've never read, I believe the key to enjoying this film doesn't lie in understanding the story so much as the overall idea -  the idea that our lives our pre-destined, and that those whose lives are linked with ours are entwined into our past, present, and future.  Everything directors Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski and Andy Wachowski present to us only serves to reinforce that point.  I will readily admit I walked out of that theatre after almost 3 hours not entirely sure of what had happened but completely blown away by the visuals.  I only wish they could have shot this in IMAX to enhance the production design and the Wachowski’s enthralling designs of the future.  And let's not forget the special fx make-up! I’m gonna be pretty annoyed if they don’t win an Oscar for it.


3 - A South American family comedy, that really isn't comical at all, about a man who insinuates himself back into the lives of his ex-wife and daughter.  Two hours of watching a family meander through life is not my idea of a good time.  You wait and wait for something to happen but there's really no reward for your patience.  It could pass as a portrayal of a family, but I was led to believe there would be chuckles.

Here Comes the Devil - I hesitate to weigh in on this movie, aside from being certain that the story was too slow-moving for my tastes at times, I must admit to nodding right off so for all I know I missed some really good stuff.  Parents Felix and Sol are very relieved when their teenage kids return safely after going missing for one night in some woods while they're vacationing, but soon realize their children have changed since the disappearance.  Also notable is the sound design of this film, if the story doesn't leave you with an unsettling feeling, the sound will (and I mean this in a good way... if that makes sense).

No One Lives - I want to say this movie is so bad it's good, but it might be a case of "it's so bad it's gone past good and back to bad again" (that is a line from my favourite movie Ghost World by the way).  A group of highway bandits run a couple off the road only to find a long-missing girl tied up in their trunk, too late they realize that these people are not who they seem and now there's a maniac all out to kill them... let the screams, blood, and guts fly!  The story is your standard gore fest fare, which is fine except it's laden with the most atrocious dialogue imaginable.  At first I thought I might have been a bit harsh, but in the climax the amount of dialogue diminished for about 10 minutes and it was amazing how much better the movie got in that time!  I saw this movie with my adolescent horror-story collaborator (I kid you not, I wrote horror stories with my friends in grades 7-9) and we snickered through it recalling when we wrote similarly horrible dialogue at the age of 13.  We both kept copies of our stories, think I'm going to send them to the producers of this movie.

Aftershock - From the moment director Nicholas Lopez and a member of his cast took the microphone in the intro for Aftershock, I knew it was going to be a good time.  They had a plane to catch and couldn't stick around for the movie, so they decided to have a PRE-show Q&A talking about working with Eli Roth and the inspirational role that the real earthquake in Chile had on the movie.  The movie focuses on a group of tourists and their local friends partying it up in Chile when there is an earthquake.  Environmental horror is very real but something most of us in Canada have no experience with, but the psychological element will have you gripping your chain arm same as if the heroine was about to be hacked to pieces by an axe murder.  Lopez captures the spirit of friendship and loyalty amongst his characters but also the dark side of humanity and adversity from the elements as the group fights for survival.  This is how I like my life lessons served up, bloodied with an occasional severed limb!

The Thieves - reeking of Asian commercial appeal, director Dong-Hoon Choi can't even deny the influence of Ocean's 11 in this slick technologically-laden heist.  It's a very international effort with 5 different language spoken in the movie by persons of varying ethnicities, though the humour is somewhat lost in the subtitle translations.  Some great action sequences including a chase outside of a building involving leaps from balcony to balcony and other fly-through-the-air narrow escapes.  It's a pleasant (if not super intellectual) way to pass the time, especially with all your Asian friends.

The Brass Teapot - Juno Temple and Michael Angarano are a young couple trying to make ends meet when chance presents them with a teapot that dispenses money every time one of them feels pain.  This is the comic macabre premise that takes us through better and worse in their attempt to get out of debt and climb up in society.  As the teapot payouts dwindle and it begins to demand more sacrifice from them, the couple must think of other (hilarious) ways to keep the money coming in.  This is my idea of a good, light comedy to take the whole family to (yeah, this is why I can't have kids).  As much as I have a soft spot for Juno Temple, this is not a particularly outstanding performance for her, but I don't think the script calls for outstanding as the story takes care of everything itself.  In our after movie discussion, we decided one of the best things about the story is that there isn't much speculation about the history of the teapot and why it came to be.  It's there, deal with it.  Now stub your toe and so we can go buy dinner.

Spring Breakers - I'm only familiar with Harmony Korine through his writing for Larry Clark, though I did walk into the theatre expecting "High School Musical Girls Gone Wild" and he totally delivered.  These girls aren't exactly having a car wash to earn money to go away for Spring Break, the plot (er, if you can call it that) thickens when a drug and arms dealer they've befriended bails them out after their earlier (tamer) exploits land them in jail.  From there it's a quasi-hallucinogenic ride through drug-addled monologues (by the very convincing James Franco), bikinis, machine guns, and Britney Spears songs.  Britney aside (though I am now a fan of "Everytime" and will forever think of James Franco's "sensitive side" when I hear it), the rest of the soundtrack is great.  Go in with expectations, or not, either way you'll walk out thinking "WTF???"

What Richard Did - Chronicling the leisurely summer Richard and his friends are enjoying, a moment of jealousy and one violent reckless action changes everything.  This is an example of how a slower-moving, smaller budget film can be good.  Though I saw it at 9am on Day 10 of the festival, I never once thought I should "rest my eyes" for a second.  Don't get me wrong, I clutched my coffee tight, but I didn't want to miss a minute of what was happening.  There's lots of character development and intricate portrayal, we get to know all sides of Richard from his time spent with friends to his solitary days in the countryside.  It's in the details and exchanges that we are shown, and not told, about Richard's world.  I will admit the details are becoming fuzzy now, but my good impression of the movie remains.  I would love to watch it again.

Jayne Mansfield's Car - again this movie had me so captivated I fell asleep for a good half hour.  Admittedly I regretted it as I do have an appreciation for ensemble casts in family dramas, and this one included powerhouse talent such as Billy Bob Thornton, Kevin Bacon, and the incomparable Robert Duvall.  I came to see Billy Bob (who also directed), but it was Robert Duvall that bowled me over with his performance.  Life within a wealthy southern family, already swirling with turmoil, is turned upside down with the death of the patriarch's ex-wife (who left him for an Englishman), bringing the British half-family over for a visit.  I watched the remainder 3/4 of the film intently after I awoke from my nap, and while the performances were great and the story engaging enough, overall I wasn't particularly taken by it.  Leaving the theatre and lining up in the washroom, I heard many rave about the film, but then noticed they were all fair-skinned, brown or ash blond hair, and about my parents' age... I guess the term I'm looking for is "North American Boomers"?  Anyway, this clearly leads me to believe that I was not the target audience for this film, and therefore should not feel bad that I didn't fully enjoy it.

The We and the I - for days leading up to my screening of The We and the I, there were many negative rumblings about this movie.  So I was delightfully surprised (and rather perplexed) to find that it was one of my top films of the festival.  Centered around a group of Bronx teenagers on the last day of school, their lives are revealed to us over the course of their bus ride home.  Gondry recruited a group of non-professionals from an after school program to star, so there's no point in expecting excellence from the acting. Look past it and you'll see some superbly woven stories about socializing between cliques, teenage pressures, sexuality, bonds of family, and much more.  It's actually a lot more like high school as regular folk live it, rather than the glossed over tales of John Hughes (not that I'm docking Hughes, I love him, but he was my escape rather than my reality growing up).  This is not your typical movie-watching experience, it's a lotta bratty kids shouting at each other on a bus, probably targeted at a 40 and under audience, and fully of endless dialogue instead of action sequences.  But if you're like me, you'll find it's intimate, provoking, and insightful.  Oh, and let's not forget the awesome soundtrack!  Made me almost want to climb on the bus with those hellions!

Frances Ha - Ok, if I had to be friends with Frances in real life, I would have to kill her.  As the subject of a black and white indie set in New York, it harkens associations to Woody Allen's Manhattan, and somehow makes her a most delightful train wreck.  The TIFF synopsis by Cameron Bailey describes that Frances Ha "captures the rhythms of an over-educated, underemployed generation more intimate with their friends than their lovers" and I couldn't put it any better.  There is a certain sadness in my heart  for how I can relate to the story and maybe something rooted in there is the reason we cheer for Frances, for being true and oblivious and blundering but endearing.

Bad 25 - Spike Lee makes a documentary about Michael Jackson with his beloved Album serving as a vehicle for a loving trip down memory lane.  There was no way this could go wrong (with Spike at the helm).  Featuring interviews with people involved in the making of the album and those inspired by Michael, we are privy to recording studio stories, details of Michael Jackson incredible work ethic, and learn about a certain "voodoo box" that rival Prince once brought to a meeting with Michael.  Spike progresses through the album track by track, splicing extended cuts of the "short films" (aka music videos) between interviews.  The running time is over 2 hours but you don't really notice.  Also Bad 25 will air on ABC in November.  Bonus:  I was able to get about 95% of the Bad 25 Q&A with Spike Lee at TIFF... here is my video:

Disconnect - Having overlooked the fact that this is from Henry Alex Rubin, the Oscar-winning director of Murderball, this was a surprisingly intense movie for me.  In a multiple story line, we get a close up look at terrifying consequences of online identity fraud.  From a family who faces financial ruin simply for being careless about websites they visit and who they chat with online, to teenagers playing a prank that gets completely out of control, to a reporter trying to get an expose story and not fully realizing the impact the media attention could have on her subject.  It starts off a little slow, but Rubin really builds in a crescendo to shocking events, all the while never diminishing attention on the delicate relationships between family, friends and strange bonds that can form during extenuating circumstances.

The Suicide Shop - Sorry to say this one didn't do much for me, maybe because it was sandwiched in the middle of a 5 film day, but the songs and humour were very so-so.  Something of an animated take on the Adams Family, The Suicide Shop seems so promising... it is about the morbid Tuvache family who runs Le Magasin des suicide.  To their dismay, their youngest child is growing up to be happy and cheerful, much to the family's disgrace.  What will they ever do?  Though the ending is decidedly predictable even before you enter the theatre, the cinematic journey that gets us there is kind of blase.  I wouldn't say it's bad, and perhaps more appealing to those who speak French.  My comprehension isn't good enough to understand the original lyrics but I'm picking up enough to know some of it is getting lost in translation.

What Maisie Knew - Onata Aprile is darling in the title role of this movie, she plays a 7 year girls caught in the midst of her parents bitter divorse battle.  Mom, an aging rock star played by Julianne Moore, and constantly traveling father Steve Coogan battle for custody of Maisie, though they are more interested in triumphing as the "better parent" than truly putting their lives on hold to care for their child.  Increasingly Maisie finds herself shuffled between step-dad Alexander Skarsgard and step-mom Emma Holzer instead.  The handling of the adaptation to screen here is terrific, the audience is not told the story so much as we observe with Maisie in her innocence and precociousness.  It was an absolutely delightful cinematic experience for me.

Sightseers - one of my movie-fanatic friends, whose opinion I can usually rely on, described this as a "sweet love story" to me after seeing it.  Well, Sightseers is described as a low-rent, modern-day British Bonnie & Clyde, so I bought his description and got myself a ticket to the 2nd screening.  To me it was more the tale of a socially awkward couple who unleash the dark side in each other, leaving a trail of corpses behind them.  In other words, it was good fun!

Fin (The End) - I have a soft spot for post-apocalyptic survival stories, as well as tales of friendship/reunions.  A group of friends reunite at a cabin in the mountains, many of whom haven’t seen each other in 20 years.  Things are going ok until an eerie flash in the sky leaves them without power, including their cell phones and cars.  They set out to search for help and find that they seem to be the only people left in the world, things get even worse as they start disappearing one by one.  The set-up, circumstances, and intermittent ‘reveals’ are well-executed.  Once in a while they border on overly-obvious but overall the story is well-paced.  Sadly the finale of Fin did not pack the punch I was hoping for, rather it meandered like a “Peter Jackson ending” (ie. multiple scenes that could all serve as endings, but then there’s just one more scene, and then one more… and then one more.)  Those hoping for scares aren’t going to get as many as you’d like, but as an ensemble friendship flick, it has all the elements I’m looking for.