The TIFF Hangover - 2015

Indeed what a hangover it was.  In TIFF 2014 I pathetically caught the TIFF cold right at the start of the festival and was ship shape by the end, watching everyone else fall prey. This year I held out until the very end, then as soon as I got home from watching the People's Choice film, my nose instantly started running. Grr...

I caught 29 films during TIFF 2015, the festival's 40th anniversary, plus some stuff beforehand.  I should also note that I have seen an earlier version of Into The Forrest in one of those research screenings, but I'm told there have been some significant changes made since so I cannot accurate judge the film based on my memory of it.

The films I saw this year included:

Pre-fest:

Ninth Floor - my TFS review
Brooklyn

My Short Cuts program consumption wasn't so straightforward this year, TIFF combined Canadian and International shorts and Toronto Film Scene was only committed to covering the Canadian shorts programming.  What this means is that I probably watched just over a third of the Canadian Shorts spread out through all the SC programs.  In short, follow this link for my capsule reviews and director interviews.

During the festival:

Hitchcock/Truffaut
Te Prometo Anarquia (I Promise Anarchy)
Demolition
Lolo
Girls Lost
Maggie's Plan
Anomalisa
The Danish Girl
Heat
Women He's Undressed
The Man Who Knew Infinity
The Dressmaker
Being Charlie
Zoom
Victoria
Baskin
The Steps
The Family Fang
Northern Soul
Ville-Marie
Stonewall
Keeper
I Smile Back
Legend
The Paradise Suite
Mr Right
Vertigo
Der Nachtmahr
Room

Everyone seems to be weighing in with their top 5, for me it was more like 3 standouts, and then 5 other films I would still highly recommend:

Standouts:

1) Northern Soul
2) The Danish Girl
3) Zoom

Also highly recommended:

• Women He's Undressed 
• Demolition
• Lolo
• The Dressmaker
• Mr. Right

Beyond that the remainder of the programming that I personally saw was of high standards this year. I would recommend 21 out of the 31 features I saw, and even then, some of the un-recommended 10 are in reality ok...

Zoom is three tales woven together in a story about a story about a story, presented in the mix of live action and animation.  It's got lots of wiry, dark humour, and of course, sex dolls. A Canadian/Brazillian co-production that I caught at the end of a 5-film day that managed to keep me awake and laughing throughout.

The Danish Girl will surely be an oscar contender for something. I personally hope it's best actress (best supporting actress?) for Alicia Vikander, she was definitely the standout even opposite a powerhouse like Eddie Redmayne in a skillfully crafted film.  This is my new favourite Tom Hooper film, granted I don't normally consider myself a fan, I cannot deny the merits of The King's Speech and even Les Mis had its highlights.

That said, I will admit it's far from perfect.  I've heard a couple people remark on the story unfolding at breakneck speed, leaving the audience detached from the characters never having properly taken the time to understand who their are and their inner workings. I agree it's a lot of story to cover, but this takes me back to a discussion I had at this year's TIFF overnight line with my friends Jae and Sachin about the importance of story vs character in the making of a film...

Jae admires a director's ability to recognize when a character has become larger than just the story he's in, and to follow that character down a path even if it deviates from the original intended plot.  It's important to be able to shift focus and take your audience on that exploration. (Jae, apologies if I'm way off your original point, but this is what I took away in my sleep deprivation) Whereas I'm more focused on the story, I'm willing to overlook a few character deviations, ie. silly out-of-character actions, if it means the story hits all the major plot points and gets to where it needs to be.

Anyway, this is how I felt about The Danish Girl.  I can live with the amount of story they pack into the film's running time (though it could've easily been another half an hour longer and it would have been just fine), I can take a leap of faith in both Lily and Gerda's evolving relationship and how they come to terms with it.  If anything, my hesitation towards The Danish Girl is that it chronicles the life of a transgendered individual from a privileged class, Lily obviously had the wealth and means to undergo treatments, surgery, and seek sanctuary from those who would scrutinize her behaviour.  What of those who did not come from wealth and fortune? 

This is a slight deviation from my discussion of my standout films, but my thoughts in the previous paragraph make me think about Stonewall, which focuses on a similar minority (albeit decades later), that is getting ALL the criticism.  Ok fine, having seen Stonewall as well, it rightly deserves a good portion of the backlash it's getting.  Not being overly familiar with neither The Stonewall Riots, nor the life of Lily Elbe, I can't say for certain... but I'm guessing The Danish Girl more closely chronicles the life of Lily vs Stonewall which is a fictitious story played out against the background of the events in New York City.

I've read a couple articles lashing out against the film Stonewall.  Should the golden boy quarterback from middle America have been portrayed as the hero of rebellion?... heck no, but it's one of those things that many may have dismissed or written off it wasn't presented in conjunction with a number of characters whom they claim are based on real people who participated in the events... that gives the illusion that our fictional hero is real too. Some of Emmerich's remarks about using that character to give mainstream audiences someone they could relate to is unsettling as well.  A strong story with good characters shouldn't need a draw, it should stand by itself and compel those who previously had no connection to the subject.  Or is that only my definition of good filmmaking?

And it is within those same parameters that Northern Soul (you see what I did there? ;) ) was my standout film of TIFF 2015.  Also a fictitious story, this time set in Northern English against the backdrop of the underground soul music scene, Northern Soul feels genuine and intimate.  It hits a few cliche notes and doesn't delve into the tough topics, the accents are challenging to say the least, but the infectious spirit of the movie never makes you consider tuning out even for a second.

Perhaps I have a bit of a soft spot for underground music movements, but it was a movement I knew nothing about until I saw the film, despite always having favoured faster tempo soul music.  Northern Soul also struck me a precursor for other scenes such as New Wave, Indie Rock, and Rave (real rave, not Zac Efron DJ bullshit)  Makes me want to re-watch 24 Hour Party People, and last year's Eden. Seeing director Elaine Constantine take the stage afterwards for the Q&A confirmed that was made by someone who was familiar with the films characters and setting. (I have a video of that Q&A that I will try to upload to my YouTube)

Another thing to note about what makes a successful film within this niche is that the good ones always place the greatest emphasis on friendship instead of politics, romance, or something else.  In tightknit communities such as these, connections are made from the music and the friendships, choosing to base it on anything else I think will make it harder to win over audiences.

Speaking of friendships (I'm just full of segues!) I cannot to a TIFF hangover post without mentioning all the random run-ins and movies I unexpectedly saw with friends over TIFF 40.  I tried my best to get photos with all my old friends as I ran into them (some more closely resemble shadows of my good friends as they were taken in darkened theatres)

I'm grateful to my readers for indulging me during the month of August and all my random festival memories.  I actually have a story from this year that I think will go down in the #AdaTIFFmems history books, we'll know for sure in the years to come...

It was only day 1 or 2 but as volunteers we already had access to some special screenings, including one to Julie Delphy's film Lolo (great film btw).  My generous friend Paul got a ticket to that show that he couldn't use, so he messaged me after he got home from his volunteer shift to see if I wanted it.  I already had a ticket but knew a couple others who were interested.  The challenge quickly became how to get the ticket from Paul as it was closing in on 1am and Paul was off to work and me to a film first thing in the morning.  We came up with the great idea for Paul to stash the ticket in his mailbox so that I, or anyone else, could grab it at any point before the film.

I didn't have any luck waking the first person, but just earlier had gotten a message from my TIFF-partner-in-crime (one of a few partners in crime I guess) Jerry F. that he was at Midnight Madness so I knew he was around. I was ready to climb in bed at this point, so my message to him said something along the lines of "If ur interested in a ticket to 11am screening of Lolo tomorrow, go to ### Jarvis St, and look for a ticket in the mailbox inside a supermarket flyer"

I love how Jerry doesn't question why there's a movie ticket stuffed inside a random mailbox in the middle of the night, his response after getting out of the theatre was simply "ok, heading there now" lol.  I was asleep or half asleep for the remainder of the events, but from what he tells me, he went and grabbed a bikeshare and went up to Paul's.  First he couldn't find the townhouses, then he couldn't find Paul's mailbox.  He didn't see a ticket in the mailbox but saw some supermarket flyers sitting nearby so he leafed through all of those too (haha) before sending me several text messages that woke me up enough to go message Paul.

Paul confirmed that he put the ticket in the mailbox after a short while, during which time Jerry had biked back to his car in another part of downtown. So Jerry drove up to Paul's again and finally got the elusive ticket.  He shared the entire story of his middle of the night scavenger hunt with me the next day at the Elgin where I nearly died from laughter.  Just another one of those things that happen during TIFF...

I'll leave you with some of my favourite photos from TIFF 2015:

The one where I'm two feet away from Geoffrey Rush!

My longtime friends Judith & Sue

My beloved #teamElign and #teamWG (Winter Garden) in our annual group photo

Christopher & I - friends for 26 years!

Random good looking people that I count amongst my friends (Irene, Christopher, Vincent, James, Davor) 

The Danish Girl Q&A with acclaimed director Tom Hooper

Jerry #1 (aka the 'TIFF husband' aka guy who went on the middle of the night ticket hunt) & I

The worse-lit photo in existence of Jerry #2 (aka my 'favourite stalker' - he's ok with this nickname for the record lol) and I

[pause for story:  I shared my google calendar with my schedule of films with Jerry and he accidentally merged it with his own film schedule, leaving him very confused...and very knowledgeable about my whereabouts lol]

Getting in the shot with two of my favourite ladies whom I work with the Orientation Sessions - Shaista & Lina

  Group shot from Vertigo screening and probably my favourite photo of  TIFF15... row selfie taken with the long-arm of Veronica (from closest to furthest... Veronica, Judith, me, Jerry, Sachin, Jae, Melanie, Melanie's friend (lol), Hope (hiding), and David) 

Back to the 90's - Back to 2014...

Happy New Year!

I trust I'm not the only person to have had a busy holiday season. I told myself "it's ok to fall behind on your blogs, no one has time to read them anyway"... Now here we are, weeks behind on the 90's movies series (which ended on Boxing Day) with thoughts more focused on Top 10's and 30 Films!

That's right, what's a January without 30 Films in 31 Days?  9 Years Strong (and badly promoted this year by yours truly), we are over a week into a January tradition!

Also on the list of to-do's every January (even though I've shamefully done this in February some years) is to provide one's Top 10 films of the previous year. While I read critic and website lists unabashedly, I try to stay away from friends' lists until I've finalized my own, this year few friends have posted their lists (yet?), but out of those who have, I've peeked at Mr. Nadarajah's list on chichdarling.com.  Jerry's a good friend and local film writer for whom I have a great respect.  He also declared early on in the year that Ida was one of the best films he'd seen, but I see from your list it was actually more like one of the 20 best films you've seen this year! ;)

I've been jotting down notes for my own top 10, hopefully to be posted before the month of January expires.  In the meantime let's touch on those Back to the 90's Films from the latter part of the 2014 program...

Back to the 90's Reality Bites

(some portions written in November 2014)

90's recap or not, I like to talk about Reality Bites a lot, so forgive me if you've heard some of this before.

Though it was made in 1993, I didn't see Reality Bites until a few years later when my uncle introduced it to me. I didn't think much of it the first time, but it really grew on me during subsequent viewings until it became one of my favourite 90's films.

I didn't really get the characters when I was 15... Lelaina, Troy, Vicky, and Sammy.  From everything I'd been taught up to that point, they were college graduates, and that meant they should've had everything handed to them on a platter.  Yes, this is what was instilled into me as an asian child growing up in the 80's/90's:  study hard and get into university, it is your ultimate goal and will solve all of life's problems and guarantee you happiness.

So you see why Reality Bites resonated more and more over time.  School didn't give us the answers, school didn't even get me a job, I finished university more lost than ever. Troy's friends implore him to go back and get his BFA in an early scene, I can't help but snicker whenever this part comes up.  I've got that piece of paper hanging on my wall, it represents memories of creative freedom, of a time when everyone bent over backwards to do everything different because that's what was expected, but it's never earned me a buck or solved any of my problems.

I miss film school all the time. And sometimes I even miss the slacker attitudes that defined young adults for a time.  Sure it gave those I grew up with a bit of a bad rap, but the possibilities somehow seemed greater then, greater than what youth of today have even (unless that's just the age talking...?)

Anyway, to me Reality Bites is the quintessential Gen X film, I'm surprised Amazon doesn't package it up with Douglas Coupland's book and promote it under the "customers who bought Reality Bites also bought this" section.

The only attitude I'm kinda glad has changed is the lessening of the appeal of Troy Dyer-types, that is, young women have been swayed by nerd culture (even if it does mean the glorification of the hipster) and other forces, and have moved away from the brooding artist types as the "dream male".  I mooned over my share of such guys growing up, and while some of them are still good friends (and much less brooding!), I have to say that many of them did not treat women well. Not in their self-absorption and moody outbursts. Girls of the 90's:  Troy Dyer is a jerk and we should've never put up with that.

Back to the 90's Romeo + Juliet

A visual feast of the 90's, and by that I mean Baz Luhrmann's visuals too.  Seriously though, was Leo DiCaprio ever more beautiful than he was in Romeo + Juliet?  I was 14 years old and Leonardo DiCaprio was 18 when I first decided I was in love with him, however when I went to see him in this movie, it was actually with my high school boyfriend on our first movie date.

As I say, Luhrmann's stunning visuals are pretty much guaranteed to delight, but as far as stories go, this has never been my idea of Will Shakespeare's finest.  Actually, I'm not even a fan of the bard truth be told, and this movie did little to change my opinions. It's one of those films where I like everything about it - Leo, the cinematography, the wicked soundtrack - except the story. I'm also not entirely sure what makes it so "90's" as to qualify this list other than our youthful worship of Leo and Claire.

For whatever reason, I had actually watched Romeo + Juliet just prior to the Back to the 90's series getting started, so I didn't see this film in and around the time it screened.  That week I chose another 90's film instead, another (loose) adaptation of Shakespeare's, The Taming of the Shrew this time, that I thought should've been included in this series but wasn't:  She's All That.

Ok, I get She's All That perpetuates the ridiculous Hollywood practice of throwing glasses and baggy clothes onto a pretty girl and branding her as an "ugly ducking", but the story underneath that was modernized and made much more relevant to 90's culture than Romeo + Juliet was, whose only real modern reference was the use of media to transmit news of events in Verona (what did Will Shakespeare use again? Voice of God? A minstrel?...kidding...) Laney Boggs may have had bizarre interests in interpretive theatre but you could relate to her character and what she went through as a teenager.

Back to the 90's - 10 Things I Hate About You and some more recent recomendations

Ok, let's start with rereading that famed Kat Stratford sonnet that made all of our young hearts ache :

I hate the way you talk to me,
And the way you cut your hair.
I hate the way you drive my car.
I hate it when you stare.
I hate your big dumb combat boots,
And the way you read my mind.
I hate you so much it makes me sick.
(It even makes me rhyme.)
I hate the way you’re always right.
I hate it when you lie.
I hate it when you make me laugh—
Even worse when you make me cry.
I hate it when you’re not around, and the fact that you didn’t call.
But mostly I hate the way I don’t hate you—not even close, not even a little bit, not even at all.

And a re-watching for those who need it:

10 Things I Hate About You is a contemporary overhaul of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, not being a big fan of the bard I've never read any of his plays outside of what high school forced me to read, therefore I'm not familiar with this one.  I do love the movie though.

I probably adore a larger number of romantic dramas and romcoms than I care to admit, but unlike a the bulk of them, I'm not ashamed to admit my love for this one.  Maybe it's got something to do with how no one conforms to gain love, or that every character is blatantly flawed but it makes them more endearing rather annoying. Also it might have something to do with being told that I look a bit like (an Asian) Julia Stiles and that my high school personality reminded people of Kat Stratford and Stiles herself. I realize 10 Things isn't free of cliches, but it's better than most.

Watching 10 Things set me off on a bit of a romcom kick.  Sure, the two romcoms I followed up with were actually films I had to review for Toronto Film Scene, but my editor did give me a list to pick from and I blatantly chose the romanaces.

One of them was Two Seater Rocket, which screened this past weekend at the European Union Film Festival, Austria's answer to Amelie-esque whimsy.  It was a galant effort, but didn't quite do it for me. It was a bit more reality-based and less forcefully delightful than Michel Gondry's Mood Indigo (a huge disappointment for me earlier this year), but still some ways from winning me over.

What I do recommend is EUFF's opening film Fasten Your Seatbelts, which actually has 2 screenings, so there's still a chance to catch it on Nov 30th. I mention in my review that "Writer and director Ferzan Ozpetek presents us with some familiar characters, but even in this charted territory, the film is still wholly engaging." - examples being mismatched lovers, a wild amorous friend, the flighty aunt, and even a token gay character.  The thing I like best about the latter is that while the character of Fabio is gay and acts like a cliche gay man sometimes, he's not in the film to serve as comic relief, he has a rather sad and endearing back story which I love.

What's also interesting about Fasten Your Seatbelts is the non-linear fashion in which the story is told - events unfold, jump, and loop back.  There are unanswered questions, and we don't always find how certain situations turn out, but Ozpetek has spun these events together in a way so that our not knowing actually gives us hope.  It's the feelings that he invokes through the journey that stay with you, the scenes and dialogue that are treated with a delicacy that makes these otherwise ordinary occurrences memorable.

After completing my reviews, I continued to indulge my girly self with a re-watching of The F Word (aka What If for our friends in the US... what a lackluster alternate title).  I guess the good thing is the film itself is not lackluster, and no matter how many times I watch it, I can always appreciate an ode to the city of Toronto.  The way I feel about The F Word is similar to 10 Things and Fasten Your Seatbelts, the flawed characters that I can love inspite of everything.

I don't recall if I've mentioned on this blog my flip-flopping feelings towards Director Michael Dowse, who also made another film that I love:  It's All Gone Pete Tong.  However his Q&A following the screening of that particular film left me with some feelings of negativity.  The first time I saw The F Word was at Canada's Top 10, it was also followed by a Q&A with Dowse and that was fine (though I didn't ask him a question this time).  So I guess, in short, it's fine.

Watch the film(s), it's always best to focus on the films.

Back to the 90's - The Craft & Pump Up The Volume

In the interest of getting caught up, I'm going to double up on this blog post.  There are some obvious similarities between the two films - both of which feature outcasts who find their voice and find their power... perhaps a little too much power.

For Halloween, TIFF appropriately programmed The Craft, the 1996 film that rocketed goth culture to mainstream popularity (much to the dismay of the true goths perhaps).  There's so much about goth culture that I agree and disagree with to this day, but what interested me most about The Craft wasn't the fashion and eye make-up (tho I am to this day a fan of box purses, heavy mascara, and Urban Decay makeup), it was their take on paganism as both positive and negative, targeting it to a teenage audience.  It wasn't a completely accurate representation of the Wiccan faith, but it blended many elements of real rituals that impressionable young minds may have found it hard to distinguish.

Having been interested in horror, magic, and supernatural things since an early age meant I'd read up on witchcraft long before I saw this movie.  Both the medieval persecutions and the Salem witch trials were familiar territory, I even knew a little bit about modern witchcraft including Gerald Gardner and Aleister Crowley's names (if you're not a Crowley fan, don't get uppity that I mention him in conjunction with Wicca, I'm just referencing what's widely out there, true or not).  Still The Craft was really the first time I'd seen paganism and witchcraft detailed on screen in such a manner, I had grown up more accustomed to stuff like The Witches of Eastwick.

Not long after The Craft there was Practical Magic (1998), a more adult take on magic maybe, but also kind of a crappy movie.  I don't recall too many prominent magic (or magick) films since, horror and fantasy genre flicks aside of course.  One needs to look no further than Queen St. West to know that goth culture has gone back underground, along with it the mainstream's fascination with paganism.

On a related note: The Craft star Fairuza Balk has most recently been involved with a documentary film called Beyond Clueless, which has been doing the festival circuit.  It takes a look at teen movies and their impact on contemporary cinema.  My (fellow 90's teen movie enthusiast) BFF and I checked it out at Hot Docs earlier this year, it didn't bowl us over but was a nice trip down memory lane.

Pump Up The Volume hit theatres in 1990, right at the start of the decade, featuring high school students who felt heavily pressured to conform.  This made the film very Gen-X in my eyes.  Having been born at the tail end of Gen X, and sometimes finding myself lumped into the (unrelateable) Millennials category in surveys, I'm part of that age group that in some ways feels the most lost because on top of potentially being a part of a more aimless generation, we're not even sure if we quite belong to it!  That's a whole other discussion though.

It wasn't until many years after Pump Up The Volume was made that I realized what a 90's time capsule the movie really is.  Waves of deja vu hit me watching these kids with boom boxes and cassette tape dubs.  Fine, these are also found in Facebook memes as well, but others went beyond.  Seeing friends on the phone with each other while simultaneously listening to a radio show reminded me of lunch hours with my friend Christopher, when we would race to our respective homes at lunch, call each other, and proceed to chat while listening to 680's Top 12 at 12 (groaning that our favourite rap song only made it to #2 while some bogus R&B track topped that day's countdown).  Then there is one scene in Pump Up the Volume where a girl holds the phone up to the radio so that her friend on the other end can hear.  I had a phase in middle school where my friend Dejana and I were addicted to a teen soap called Swan's Crossing (my first glimpse of Sarah Michelle Gellar being evil btw - more of that to come when TIFF screens Cruel Intentions!) I would program my VCR to record the show which aired at noon, but who could wait until after school?  We would dash to Dejana's whenever possible, but then there was the problem that we had to head back at 12:50 to make it before the bell, causing us to  miss the last 7 mins or so of the episode.  Our solution:  after school I would play back the last 7 mins I had recorded over the phone so that she would hear how the episode ended. 

A more personal connection I have with Pump Up the Volume is that a friend of mine loved Christian Slater and this movie.  Always having been a little insecure herself, coupled with a love of unusual things, Pump Up the Volume probably spoke volumes to Monique. The fact that she adored the film's star Christian Slater didn't hurt either. Monique is no longer with us, so when I see this movie I think of her and the good times we had in high school.

I'm not sure there has been many other movies like Pump Up the Volume since, please point out any glaring omissions.  It's my hopes that (as the end of the movie alludes to) technology has helped to give rise to a diversity of voices and so fewer people are finding it difficult to express themselves.  

Talk hard. Blog hard.

Back to the 90's - Buffy the Vampire Slayer

So I disliked Clueless in the 90's, but I thought the Buffy movie flat out sucked.  In 1992 my idea of monsters were Dr. Giggles and Candyman, not some vampires who got their asses handed to them by a blonde bimbo and Dylan McKay from 90210.  As well, those stakings in Buffy were not gruesome deaths, and the vampires merely bit your neck, showing a complete lack of creativity.  I wanted dismemberment. Then if you were to assess the psychological horror factor, this was definitely no Stephen King.

In conclusion, the Buffy movie was so beneath my snobby 13 year old notice that this was actually only my 2nd time seeing it because I have made zero effort to rewatch it in 22 years. Now, of course, I would later become a fan of the TV series and movie writer - now director/producer/god - Joss Whedon. Without getting into too much dissection, I would say that the TV series was a maturing and development of Whedon's writing skills.  The movie was like a weak pilot, a premise on which he was to expand, flush out, etc. I'm glad the movie was made, otherwise we would've never had the Buffy series, the Angel spin-off, the creed that Whedon needed to create everything that he's done to this day.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer the movie is like Christopher Nolan's The Following! It's what you tolerate and try to make the best of knowing what a genius the maker of that little project became.

Couple of parting thoughts:

I didn't look closely enough during these scene, but that's gotta be a bodysuit Hillary's wearing right? Man I still want those earrings!  Only thing is missing is a hair tie with a matching daisy flower on it.

Luke Perry looked so much better without the James Dean wanna be hair, he's pretty cute here.  David Arquette... ???

Back to the 90's - Clueless

This isn't related to this post's title, but regardless it's a passing thought.  I think it goes without saying that my life is manically (maniacally... which it can be too) busy, leaving me with very little time to contribute to this blog (which is unfortunate because I greatly enjoy it).  I was thinking how the only real opportunity I have in an average day to let my mind wander (aka muster up an ounce of creativity and come up with ideas for this blog) is in the shower.  Thus the first person to come up with a device that allows me to blog while I shower will have my money and unwavering devotion.  Just putting that out there...

That said, my TIFF experiences, only a few weeks ago prevalent and powerful, are admittedly starting to fade. I will have to try and get those thoughts down before they are gone away. (But then I'll just watch more moves and make new experiences :))

Today's blog though, is meant to get started on a trip back to the 90's!  Once again thanks to TIFF, I was overjoyed when they announced this program. It's a collection of campy teen favs from the decade in which I was a middle and high-schooler.  I could go down the specifics of memory lane, but my experiences aren't that different from everyone else who was a teenager of the 90's, and our connection to those years is pretty much like everyone's connection to their teenage years, regardless of the decade.  So I'll let the movies do the talking.

The launch of TIFF's Back to the 90's program made me realize that 1) I own 8 of the 11 films that are screening and 2) I wanted to re-watch them all! (Even the ones I don't own are only a download away ;)) So that's become my mission, watch the 90's film that's screening at Lightbox on a given week and write a little about my impressions of the movies, my memories of when I first saw it, etc. Actually for those who are also revisiting 90's favs, I would love to hear your thoughts and memories too - please proceed to the comments section!

So far I'm so-so for being on schedule but I'm trying here.  I was out of the country when Clueless screened in early October but got caught up over the weekend.

I never really liked Clueless when it came out 1995.  You see, I wasn't like Cher in high school... Ty maybe, but even then, not really.  My little floral skirts were more Lisa Loeb that Cher, and my box purses were definitely more inspired from The Craft. I was sometimes grunge, and loathed rap in favour of techno, euro, and other forms of underground dance music.  So me want to be like the girls in Clueless? As if.

That lame TV show that came after pretty well sucked too, do you guys remember it? So much bloody pink...

Later in life I was to learn that the plot of Clueless was based on Jane Austen's Emma, which I do like. That may have softened my harsh opinion of Clueless, but still it never really rocketed it up my movie list to the point where I wanted to purchase a copy for myself. As a result, I've probably only seen it like 4 times in my life.

Watching it this time was a novelty, like a cheesey throw-back, and it was a lot of fun.  Also young Paul Rudd, I should've paid more attention to former stepbrother Josh!  Oh, speaking of former stepbrother/stepsister, that element has alway been a little weird to me in Clueless.  Yet, Katherine & Sebastian in Cruel Intentions? No big deal. I never quite understood why that was? Maybe cause Katherine was so delightfully devilish? But that's another movie (that's screening later this year!)

Until the next movie...

The Movie Sounds Better With You - Eden at TIFF 2014

Eden caught my eye early on when I was reading the 300+ film synopsis for TIFF 2014.  Re-reading that synopsis now, I can see what caught my attention ... "EDM", "Daft Punk", "underground dance music scene of early-nineties".  I hate to criticize TIFF's beloved Cameron Bailey, who programmed Eden and wrote the synopsis, but I think that some of the film's essence may have been a little buried in the verbiage.

My preconception of Eden was also further skewed after speaking to a couple friends that had caught an earlier screening of the film.  They reported back that it was mediocre, but maybe in doing so it lowered my initially high expectations so that I wound up enjoying it more.  Also this is where I feel Mr. Bailey's eloquence may have mislead those who are not the target audience to see this film.  That's always a danger isn't it?  You want your film to come across as wide-reaching because you want a lot of people to see it, but if the wrong people wind up seeing it, then you get a slew of disappointing and bad reviews.

But let's focus on my experience with Eden, shall we?

It was the last day of TIFF 2014 and the last movie of TIFF 2014 for me. I staggered from Scotiabank Theatre down to TIFF Bell Lightbox, texting my friend Sachin on the way.  Though we didn't plan it, I couldn't think of a better person to see Eden with than Sachin, who is a friend of about 10 years, with whom I spent countless hours at one of two places - at TIFF or in the clubs.  I have a sneaking suspicion we may have gone to a Daft Punk concert together, and we count several DJs and promoters amongst our mutual friends.  Eden is a French reflection of our lives, our world, and our experiences.

Sachin and I at a club for Halloween 2005

The film is far from perfect, but so is life. I'm not familiar with Mia Hanson-Løve but countless articles tout her abilities in "capturing the intimacy of relationships".  I'm not sure that's best displayed in Eden, unless we're talking about the intimacies of his relationship with music. If anything it showed me how we pass through relationships, some more significant than others, each developing and ending differently, but ultimately a thing that's woven through our lives as a part of something bigger.  If anything, I thought Eden portrayed the intricacies of life itself.

Daft Punk's Toronto show in 2007

Main character Paul's own struggling career is contrasted against Daft Punk's.  Here in Toronto, we could contrast many friends' careers against Deadmau5's - once a candy kid we couldn't pick out of a crowd at a rave of thousands, while other hometown heroes the same age as him took the stage.  Now he's performing at the Grammy's and my old friends and acquaintances are still in Toronto, plugging away at day jobs in order to fund their music careers that are still primarily local performances.

Last Hullabaloo and specimen of digital photography from 2005

Don't get me wrong, this isn't some rave movie, it's not the 2014 version of Go. Even for the portions of the film taking place in the early 90's, Hanson-Løve doesn't go to the trouble of recreating arena rave footage, instead opting for moments of interaction at the door or in the DJ booth.  It's very much about the interactions. And the soundtrack. I was elated by the music and actually a little disappointed that few articles made mention of the excellent music selections.

Photo I took of DJ Joey Beltram in 2006. His anthem track Energy Flash is featured in Eden.

If you have a chance to see the movie (which hasn't been picked up yet, far as I've heard), you will see Paul meeting up with a group of friends - his musical partner, a promoter, and a bunch of people including several girls who are frequently around but not introduced by name in the movie... that would've been me in the Toronto version. (ie. the girl who was essentially nobody, but somehow never had to stand in line to get in ;))

What I'm driving at here, other than the opportunity to reminiscence about my teens & 20's, is that for those who lived it, Sven Hansen-Løve's experiences and contributions to the script of Eden is an accurate and detailed recreation.  It's going to resonate with those viewers,  but I have doubts it will translate to those that didn't maintain a similar lifestyle. While I think Paul's life experiences are very universal - aspirations, girls, drugs, and struggling with a mountain of debt, my own experiences with other films of this genre and even my own filmmaking experiences have taught me that people have trouble seeing past the partying (raving) lifestyle. It's unfortunate.

So... like my previous post about I Dream of Wires, if you're part of that small contingent for which I write these particular blogs, I recommend you keep an eye out for Eden. It's a nice little film and will provide you with hours and hours of reflection afterwards.

If you've read this far, I clearly have your captive attention (or you're really bored, therefore you might as well keep reading) so I'll leave you with a couple random but (presumably) interesting links:

• In my post about I Dream of Wires, I had additional links and nerdy info that I did not ultimately include in the interest of time... One band/group that I've followed for 20+ years is The Prodigy, from the first time I heard Chris Sheppard play "Out of Space" at one of his "live to air" broadcasts in the early 90's.  Liam Howlett is not-surprisingly the proud owner of a lot of synth toys... here is a list. 
• In that same post I also made reference to a film called Modulations by Iara Lee, she also made another film before Modulations called Synthetic Pleasures - focusing on the use of technology (circa 1995) by human beings..."from body piercing to bionics, to transform our environments, bodies and minds in search of pleasure" which is available on youtube --> http://youtu.be/muUklk8pTCE
• Finally getting back onto the topic of Eden, here is a good article I came across about the film and the importance of Daft Punk's role in it.
• Lastly, the title of this post is a play on words, it comes from club anthem "The Music Sounds Better with You" which was co-written by Thomas Bangalter of Daft Punk.

TIFF Overnighter 2011

With the start of single ticket sales, we're another step closer to TIFF11.  As it has been for some years now, the intensely (insanely?) devoted could be found outside Metro Centre as early as Friday morning, staking out a good spot for 7am, Saturday September 3rd when the box office begins processing sales.  My good friends J, Sachin, Eddy, and I were amongst these fanatics (not as rookies either!); this blog includes some of my recollections of the night.

The party began for me around 6:30pm Friday evening after picking up my daytime package; I was armed with camp chair, films notes, tarp (it was still raining when I left), bottled water, and whimsical hoodie.  The boys had been holding a spot for me, Sachin (with the help of our friend Darrin) had been there since 4:30 holding spots for us.  They'd met a kindred film soul in line named John, who was as good as family to us for the remainder of the night.  I sent out my obligatory tweet (#TIFFOvernightLine if you want to see how it played out live) and got settled in for a long night.

The great thing about pulling an overnighter with a group is you can spell each other off to grab dinner, restock water, take washroom breaks, go to the LCBO for a nightcap (haha), etc.  Other things that helped make our night better included the forecasted rain stopping early, poutine, and comics -- at least that was the magic combo for Eddy.

During civilized hours we had several visitors stop by to provide moral support, Darrin, Genevieve, Adil, and Jason amongst them.  Even more people tweeted/facebooked to say they were rooting for us.  We persevered with our film lists while simultaneously distracting each other with the standard nerd (movie or otherwise) fodder, by midnight we'd covered all the basics... Star Wars, LOTR, Harry Potter, Kevin Smith and were rehashing our Fan Expo experiences. Eddy lamented that we didn't bring playing cards, someone nearby lamented that nobody brought Settlers of Catan (omg what kind of folks am I camping with?? lol).

First round of reinforcements (aka round of coffees) came from Jason whom we sucked into our black hole of TIFF conversation in record time.  Yes, this is the thanks you get.  But overnight line hero has to be Chris B. who drove down from Yonge and St. Clair at 2am with a jug of coffee, cheese and cracker packs, and a stack of tuna sandwiches!  It was more than we could finish so we went scouting for tired, famished faces in line.

Every year I see a few familiar faces, we only ever seem to meet in this line up, so I use the opportunity to do a little catching up.  In the process meeting new friends as we've reached that point in the night where people will come together to talk about any(movie)thing in order to stay awake.  This is where I met a very enthusiastic Nicole Kidman fan and learned of the plot of Dogville in great detail.

3:30am I started considering sleep when I saw a plastic disc fly through the sky further back in line.  I go investigate and find two fellas (Matt and Mark) tossing a frisbee around!  Being a former frisbee enthusiast I immediately get in on the action after some quick intros, Matt tells me how early he got there and a bit about the films he wants to see between throws. 

Shortly before 5 I fall prey to my first power nap, and wake to rumblings that they are letting us in shortly.  There's a bit of confusion of the order of things, mutterings of an official line-up list (which some overnight campers did not catch wind of) but in the end the good old-fashioned honor system won out (not to mention with so many keen eyes watching, who would dare sneak in where they don't belong?) 

Just before going in, Mark, bringer of the frisbee, came by to say thank you for a good game.  I thank him for thinking to bring a frisbee and wish him good luck with his movies.  "Oh," he says, "I'm not really here for that..."  Ok... after he was out of earshot Sachin and I speculated whether Mark knew that there would be a bunch of people lining up and brought the frisbee in hopes someone would want to play, or if he just regularly wandered through Pecault Square in the middle of the night with a frisbee.  Either way, pretty random.

Once inside members were split into a separate line and Sachin and I found ourselves very well-positioned -- "Membership DOES have its privileges!"  Sachin exclaimed.  From 35th or so outside, we were now in the top 10.  J had a bit of a longer wait though.

At this point I was really fighting the exhaustion, camera crews were sweeping the line and many people wanted to get a picture of the line as they were coming in.  Though I tried my best to fight it, I'm sure there were still a lot of photos of me, passed out, face smashed against the side of my chair -- sexy.

6:50am and there's not even time for one final tweet before they direct us to the kiosks, we begin rattling off our long lists of movies so that orders will be ready to 'process' as soon as the clocks strike 7!

I was later informed that news stories reported disappointment at the TIFF box office that morning, there was a problem with buying online and people not getting what they wanted... I don't know what they were talking about!  I got EVERYTHING I wanted!  Needed 30 tickets and got all 30!  In 6+ years of this line-up, this was the highest success rate I'd ever had! This was echoed by Sachin and other patrons around me at the kiosks.  I say great job TIFF box office!  When I first came in the line set-up looked crazy, but I guess there is a method to your madness.

The TIFF11 campout itself was mostly pleasant, I was thrilled to have good company to keep me going through the night, some pleasant diversions, and a most pleasing outcome!  See you and your camping chair again next year!

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AFTERWORD

About the Cast:

"Sachin" is a contributing blogger for the TIFF Midnight Madness Blog
"J" is artistic - here is proof.
"Eddy" is a connoisseur of film, music, and comic arts.
"John" is utilizing his 25-and-under "student" status to see premium screenings for only $25.