Happy New Year movie lovers! It's a brand new year with brand new movies, nevermind that I still have so much catching up to do with last year's movies. With a blink of an eye Awards Season is upon us again, my list of "must-see's" continue to grow (I'm digging deep for some American patriotism because I'd like to see Lincoln before the Oscars) and the holidays blew by so fast, I didn't even have a chance to write about my holiday movie escapades.
Every January I suffer from the same internal struggle... at what point do you draw the line and post your top movie list? One can only say "I just need to watch ________ before I make my list" so many times. As I mentioned above, I still haven't seen Lincoln, Salmon Fishing in Yemen, etc. I want to give all the major award contenders a fair shake, yet at the same time, while I'll make allowances to see Lincoln despite my not being very interested in the story, I am still completely dismissive towards Life of Pi (even if it is directed by Ang Lee, whose work up to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon I was very fond of). Movie obssessors do this by-the-way, you just never know where your next all-time fav may be lurking and you don't want to look back and say "I missed throwing that on my top 10 list" Back in January 2008, when it came time to make our lists for 2007, my friend Alex put There Will Be Blood in his number 1 spot without having even seen it. He went on blind faith that it would be the best film of 2007 while I left it off my list, and I've been jealous of his wisdom and foresight ever since.
To help facilitate getting through more movies is the annual... 30 Films in 31 Days! I hate to admit, but I'm off to a slow start out of the gates. I've only finished 2 movies in 2 days and I was starting to nod off at the end of movie number 2 last night (I will re-watch the last half hour of Fantastic Mr Fox tonight for good measure) While it doesn't look like we'll be much of a trending topic on Twitter (#30films31days), our facebook group is definitely abuzz with activity. In the past couple years we've had some enthusiastic members join in, I'm happy to say that the group has official expanded beyond my circle of movie fanatics, though I love them still (and there are plenty of us). Even if you just want to read some opinions and participate in discussions rather than watch 30 films, I would still encourage you to join the group.
It's been a while since we've had a 30 Films group outting, I'm personally going to take advantage of the $6 movie screenings at Cineplex Yonge & Dundas this month. There's lots of Hitchcock in the line-up and it's been a while since I've seen The Birds, so I might go catch a show. I'm also rather fond of Vertigo but I did pick up a copy of the movie last year and have yet to take off the plastic. I am mosted excited for Jan 27th's afternoon screenings of Infernal Affairs (the Hong Kong original, which I have never seen on the big screen) and The Departed (aka the Hollywood remake). They will be playing the double bill again on the evening of Jan 30th, but given that I'm a 9-5er, the Sunday will be better for me. Anyone who'd like to join me is welcome, it's a movie theatre, I couldn't care less whether we know each other or not, just come out! :)
December was a busy month for me on all fronts. My day job ramped up for the fist couple of weeks instead of down, which led to long days and much mental exhaustion. The number of dinners, parties, cookie exchanges, and other planned social events went up, and my holiday staycation because a steady stream of eating. Not that I'm complaining, I just think it's a miracle I got in any movies at all! I even had a chance to combine said eating with movies in a brunch meet-up with the other writers from iheartmoviesTO.com. Ever show up to to a get- together where the only thing you're expected to talk about is movies? It's awesome. Beats fielding questions like "how's work going?" and/or "so are you dating anyone new?" any day!
I mentioned I did squeeze in some movies. What's quality of life would I be living I couldn't get in a few movies a week right? Earlier in the month I'd gotten some passes from friends to advance screenings like Rust & Bone and The Guilt Trip. I've been intrigue with the former since it premiered at TIFF this past September. People seemed to have such a strong reaction to it, eitdher loving it or hating it. Most raved about it. One volunteer in particular that I'd spoken with about Rust & Bone told me how she was enthralled with the movie and ready to recommend it to the world until 15 mins before the end, when her entire opinion of the movie changed and she wound up disliking it. With hype and opinions like those, I've been dying to see Rust & Bone since.
For those not familiar, Rust & Bone is a French film centred around two people. He's an aimless, negligent father, who finds a bit of purpose in fucking and fighting. She's a killer whate trainer who's struggling to rebuild her life after suffering a horrible accident on the job. Ok, to be honest, I can't really discern what happened in the last bit of the film that was so opinion-altering. And because the film has had so much hype, I guess I was really expecting something mind-blowing and I did not get that. I don't hate the movie in any way, I'd watch it again if the opportunity arose, but I was really expecting something more. Marion Cotillard is a terrific actress, this performance was no exception.
I didn't know much about The Guilt Trip, but perhaps it was indicative that my mom did. It was a little bit out of guilt that I went to this screening with her, despite my being exhausted from work and having to struggle to stay awake. The lackluster camera work is what I used to justify 'closing my eyes' mid-scene, I argued to myself that I could still hear the jokes, but let's face it, I did nod off for some of the first half. I enjoy Seth Rogan in the same way that I enjoy Vince Vaughn, the circumstantial humour, somewhat dry remarks with moments of incredulousness (reminds me of myself), and always in small doses or the laughs get old real fast. This humour plays well off Barbara Streisand's character, I genuinely thought they were a good duo (though many may disagree). The jokes are funny and relatible for those who grew up with a somewhat protective, OCD mom, which I did. My own mother was in hysterics most of the way through, it really is a good movie to take your mother to as the content is never objectionable. Anyway, I'm glad she had a good time.
The most anticipated film of the season (for most, not me) was The Hobbit, which has had some pretty mixed reviews. I made sure to catch a high frame rate screening (The Hobbit was shot in 48 fps, double the usual 24 fps in convential film) and was impressed by the hyper-real 3D. All the descriptions are true, the video-game feel, the clarity and detailed textures. I can see arguements both for and against it, but only real complaint was that it somehow made me blink less, which severely dried out my eyeballs during the almost 3 hour movie. As for the story itself... I've never read any Tolkien (and have little desire to, though I do have some of his books now) but that has never kept me from enjoying the LOTR trilogy. I miss out on the delight in the details, and have none fo the background, but the trilogy stands on its own as movies. The Hobbit is the same, I think I'll enjoy it more as the trilogy progresses, because story set-up is necessary.
My own movie Christmas came early when I had the opportunity to attend the premier of Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino's new movie. The man himself was in attendance and naturally I went to the limits of crazy in order to get his attention again. One day I'd like to have a conversation with him, to show him that I'm an intellegent woman capable of more than waving dolls around and squealing non-sensical things, maybe even ask him to marry me, but in the meantime I'll do what I can to distinguish myself from the hoardes. He either did remember me from the Basterds permier or else faked it well. He signed my photo of the two of us (that was in the paper last time), and accepted the artword by my friend Jae Korim that I gave to him. You can read my review of Dajngo Unchained here. When I saw Django initially, I enjoyed it but wasn't as bowled over as I was after Inglourious Basterds. After having seen a few other holiday movie offerings though, I'm starting to see just how superior it is most of the other stuff on the big screen right now. Now I'm excited to see it again.
Though I was interested in checking it out too, Jack Reacher was not my pick the night I saw it. Tom Cruise is in the staring role in this movie based on a series of novels. There's promise in the characters, and I think it could potentially become a good series. However Jack Reacher just didn't grip me like the way The Bourne Identity (and the two that followed) did. Not even like the way Bond captures my attention, and we all know I'm not huge on 007. It suffered from painfully boring cinematography and often equally dull dialogue, when you want to rest your eyes during an action/thriller, there's a problem. Rosamund Pike was probably the best thing in the movie, even then I felt she was still under-utilized. I get that excessive violence isn't the goal of the movie, but there was room was flashier 'beat-up-the-bad-guys" action choreography, and a few more stunts. They were just lazy. Not gonna lie, I was replaying scenes from Django Unchained in my head during parts of Jack Reacher, it's just so much more interesting.
The other holiday blockbuster release I caught was of course Tom Hooper's Les Miserables, based on the very popular musical of the same name (which is based on the book etc.). While somewhat familar with the story, admittedly I've never been priveliged enough to see the musical (don't even ask me how that's possible), but there's an unmistakable Tom Hooper mark on the movie version that's hard to miss. He doesn't shy away from dwelling on intricacies and drawing out moments, and that can be a hit or miss with me (as it was in his previous film The King's Speech). I also have a limited patience with musicals on the big screen (as I do with operas on stage sometimes), what can be said in four lines of dialogue is often stretched out into a 4 minute song, which can get tedious (unless it's a Beatles songs, of course I'm very biased and been itching to watch Across the Universe again for some months now... completely off topic!). Critics and PR rave on about Anne Hathaway's performance, which is good, but not earth-shattering. Hugh Jackman is another whose singing I've heard so much about, but came up a little short when I was expecting it to fill the theatre. Every performer did their numbers live on the soundstage, which is impressive, but the talents that stood out for me were actually the unknowns... ie. Smantha Barks as Éponine, Daniel Huddlestone as Gavroche, and even Isabelle Allen as young Cosette. It's a worthwhile watch, especially if you're a fan of the show. The performances, the sets and costume, all commendable.
In conjunction with the Django Unchained release, I decided to go through the entire Quentin Tarantino catelogue just for the fun of it. So that was a lot of what I watched at home during December. I didn't pick up the Tarantino XX collection because I already had all his titles on Blu-ray, instead I wrote this article about my Top 5 QT movie music moments. Ok, fine, the two aren't really related but I needed some sort of segue. Check it out though. I also had a couple friends over for a QT movie day where we screened Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Jackie Brown.
Every Christmas (or thereabouts) I bust out my collection of favourite holiday films, and the collection is always growing. This year I had less time than usual to get them all watched, so regretfully I really had to pick and choose. I'd finally replaced my VHS copy of The Muppet Christmas Carol so I gave that a whirl. Muppets Letters to Santa was on TV and it was as horrible as I'd expect but it still warranted watching. Squeezed in some Home Alone because it felt like everyone on my GetGlue list was watching it. And of course, it's just not Christmas until I've watched my all-time favourite holiday movie: Bad Santa. It's vulgar, messed up, yet touching, with the greatest classical music soundtrack.
And for my Christmas finale... I finally went to the Sound of Music Sing-a-long at TIFF Lightbox (tried to get tix twice last year but it was sold out both times!) We were sitting behind some fun hecklers, which gave us a few extra chuckles. Unlike the Grease sing-a-long, I'm less inclined to clown around during Sound of Music and just sing along to the actual songs. At some point the props seemed unnecessary. But others' participation didn't bother me, and I'm glad I got to go this year.
Speaking of Lightbox, they also have some fun programming in the upcoming months. Some may frown upon them choosing to screen the films of Keanu Reeves, but come on eh? He's Canadian and all. Also this will be my chance to see My Own Private Idaho (my favourite Gus Van Sant movie, arguably not my favourite Keanu Reeves because that is probably Dracula - also on the line-up) on the big screen. It also reminds me that I haven't seen River's Edge in many years, that is also worth a re-watching, perhaps during 30 Films in 31 Days.
Gangster Squad and Zero Dark Thirty are also opening in regular theatres this month. Clearly there is no shortage of entertainment on the big screen in Toronto. That's all from me for now, see you at the movies!
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