#AdaTIFFmems - The time Don McKellar implied I was fat

The big countdown clock on the TIFF Festival page today is showing 40 days until the start of TIFF 2015 - also dubbed TIFF 40.

As I alluded to in my last post, I would like to share some random TIFF-related memories for the 40 days leading up to the festival, so let's kick it off with...

The Time Don McKellar thought I was fat!

This one actually isn't during TIFF, but rather at TIFF's international film festival for kids, which in 2001 was still called Sprockets.

That year I was supposed to be helping out with tech, wiring speakers, setting up equipment etc, but I had a stupid freak accident right before the festival and sprained my ankle.  Since I couldn't balance on crutches and lift speakers at the same time, they found me a desk job at Canada Square, which was signing volunteers in and out with my friend and fellow volunteer Valesca.

Filmmaker/actor Don McKellar was at the theatre for a special Sprockets event that night and he came over to talk to then volunteer manager Bob, whom he was acquainted with.  He was quite nice, and even took a poloroid of Bob, Valesca, and I, in which the perspective of the photo made it look like Valesca and I were much larger than Bob.  Don McKellar made a comment about this, but his choice of words made it sound like he was implying Valesca and I were fat.  Mr. McKellar was quite embarrassed when he realized his poor choice of words, he got a bit flustered and even tried to back pedal, explaining that he was calling Bob shrunken, not us fat.

(I may still have the alleged photo somewhere in my home, I will post it at a later time if I manage to find it)

TIFF40 and Ada17

On a more personal note, I was recently asked by the TIFF Volunteer Office to share my favourite volunteer memory as part of a video project they are working on.

Those who know me well, would probably say I'm big on memories.  I'm in love with the past, up until my late 20's I kept very detailed journals about the various social events my friends and I attended. I poured my thoughts, unfiltered and rambling, into notebooks and online journals (I'm a little bit afraid to reread some of that stuff sometimes, it's like when I stopped writing fiction, all emotions and their intensity were transferred into those diaries.  Anyway...) My obsession with 'the good times', in addition to the fact that I have been a TIFF volunteer for 16 festivals now (coming up on my 17th), means I naturally have many stories swirling around.

Oddly enough I couldn't think of a single 'favourite' story, not even an inappropriate celebrity story that I should not be sharing. I eventually thought of a couple things to say.  At one point I turned to Facebook to see if my friends that I'd met over the years at TIFF had any input, mostly that led to some inside jokes and light discussions.  I don't know how many people I know will echo this sentiment, but I always say my decision to volunteer for the Toronto Film Festival in 1999 has made all the difference in my life. I didn't know it then, but this decision would be about so much more than just a love of film; the friendships that I've made, the people I've met, and much of how I've evolved in some way ties back to TIFF.

The TIFF 40 celebrations has got everyone looking back, so I'm jumping on the bandwagon.  I had such a good time remembering all the zaniness we've gotten up to over the last decade and a half that I'd like to share 40 TIFF-related memories leading up to the festival.  Not ranked in any way, just 40 little tales that come to mind and make my heart happy to share.  Hopefully through these stories you'll start to understand why I make the statement above as I do.

In turn, if you have any stories about me at TIFF (preferably happy, but I'll take the good with the bad), I invite you to send them to me and I'll post them alongside my memories. I would ideally like to post one memory for each of the 40 days leading up to TIFF 2015, but we'll have to see how realistic that is.

Shall we hashtag it all #AdasTIFFmems?

On second thought, who cares if I'm in your TIFF memories or not.  If you have a good story share it! Can't wait to see what you guys come up with!

Insomnia. Also...

No, not the movie... just this writer.

If you are also having trouble sleeping, try giving this a read... it's what I've watched and read between March to June...

-------------------------

numbered = films
not numbered = TV
" " = started books/plays
n = 2015 release
f = my first time viewing 
(#) = number of episodes watched


-------------------------


2/27-3/1
House of cards (8)

3/2
House of cards (2)

3/3
House of cards (1)

3/4
House of cards (1)

3/5
House of cards (1)
49. Obvious Child - f
Big Bang theory (1)

3/6
The walking dead (1)
Banshee (1)

3/8
Banshee (1)
50. Hector and the search for happiness- f

3/9
The Amazing Race (3)
Bates Motel (1)

3/10
The walking dead (1)

3/11
The Following (2)

3/12
Seven up (30min documentary)

3/13
Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown (2)
7 plus seven (52 min doc)
Banshee (1)
The Amazing Race (1)

3/14
51. Pretend We're Kissing - f n

3/16
52. Divergent - f

3/17
Bates Motel (1)

3/18
53. Shooting the Musical - f n

3/19
54. Insurgent- f n
The Following (1)
The walking dead (1)

3/20
The Big Bang theory (3)

3/21
Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown (1)
55. 21 Up - f

3/22
The Walking dead (1)

3/23
Bates Motel (1)
The Big Bang Theory (1)

3//24
The Following (1)

3/25
56. The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel - f n
The following (1)

3/26-27
Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown (2)

3/31
57. Spy - f n
Big Bang theory (1)
"The DUFF"

4/1
Big Bang theory (1)
Bates Motel (1)

4/2-6
Anthony Bourdain's parts unknown (1)
The Amazing Race (1)
Game of Thrones (1)

4/7
Bates motel (1)
The following (1)

4/8
Game of Thrones (2)

4/9
Seth's Dominion (doc not feature length)

4/10
Game of Thrones (1)
58. Last of the Elephant Men -f

4/11-5/1
Game of thrones (8)
59. The circus dynasty - f n
60. Thank you for playing- f n
"The queen's fool" by Phillippa Gregory

5/2
61. The arms drop - f n
62. 3 still standing- f n
63. Speed sisters - f n
Bates Motel (3)

5/3
64. The cult of JT Leroy - f n
65. Original copy - f n
Anthony bourdain's parts unknown (1)
Game of thrones (1)

5/4
Bates Motel (1)

5/5-5/6
Game of Thrones (1)
Amazing Race (2)

5/7-5/9
Amazing Race (3)
66. The Avengers: The Age of Ultron - f n
Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown (1)
"9 lines of metro" (travelogue comic by Neil Slorance)
The following (1)

5/10
67. The age of Adaline - f n
"Seven days in Berlin" (travelogue comic by Neil Slorance)
The following (1)

5/11
Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown (1)
Game of Thrones (1)

5/11
Bates Motel (1)

5/12
Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown (1)

5/13-16
68. Banksy Does New York- f n
69. Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of belief- f n

5/17
70. Clouds of Sils Maria - f n
Game of thrones (1)

5/18
The Following (1)
The Amazing Race(1)
The mind of a chef (1)

5/20
71. 50 shades of grey - f

5/21
72. Seeking a friend for the end of the world - f

5/22-24
"Optic nerve 14" Adrian tomine
"Seconds" Brian Lee o'malley
Game of Thrones (1)
73. John wick - f

5/26
74. Pitch perfect
75. Pitch perfect 2 - f n
The mind of a chef (1)

5/27
The mind of a chef (1)

5/28
The mind of a chef (1)

5/29-30
76. Late Quartet - f

5/31
77. 54 (Director's Cut)
Game of Thrones (1)

6/1
The Following (1)

6/2
The Following (1)
The Mind of a chef (1)

6/3
The Following (2)

6/4

The Following (1)

6/5
78. Jodorowsky's Dune - f

6/7

Game of Thrones (1)

6/9

79. Boyhood

6/10

80. Dazed and confused 

6/12

81. Before Sunrise

82. Before Sunset

6/13

The Mind of a Chef (1)

83. Me and Earl and the dying girl - f n

6/14

Game of thrones (1)

6/15

84. From Macau to Vegas - f

6/18

85. Before Midnight 

6/19

86. What's your number? - f

6/21

87. Searching for Sugarman - f

6/23

88. Chicken with Plums - f

6/24

89. Brokeback Mountain

6/26

90. Mortdecai- f (worse movie I've seen this year)

6/27

Under the dome (2)

6/28

91. Madame Bovary - f n

6/30

True detective (1)

92. The DUFF - f

February - the month that movies go to die or succumb to illness

...oh no wait, that's just me succumbing to illness!

One minute it was 30 Films in 31 Days, then February rolled around and work picked up, but before the brunt of that could hit me - the flu did instead. And that was that. I lost two weekends in an already short month, and spent about 2.5 work weeks in a fog.  Being able to speak at an audible level again was a triumph, and only coughing in the late night and early morning now is downright sensational.

I can't claim illness was the sole cause of my absence, there was also a little something called House of Cards (which I think took up one of the weekends where I wasn't so sick...).  I binged through 8 episodes, nothing to brag about I know, and when I went in to the office on Monday, was informed by my boss that he and his friends got through them all in one sitting (harkens back to the legends of the LOTR or GOT marathons doesn't it?)  Afterwards I thought "why did I stop Sunday night and go to bed? I would continued and when he found me facedown on my desk on Monday I could've claimed "house of cards" and he would have understood.  Next year...

So...how 'bout them Oscars? I don't know if there are any readers of this blog who only read the blog and not follow me on other forms of social media? I highly doubt it, therefore I'm sure you're aware that I like to use the major film/TV awards shows to practice my live tweeting.  Not that I've ever searched for the definition of "live tweeting" but I've been led to believe it involves recapping information as well as providing some commentary, I think this year I just leaned towards providing fashion commentary.  Pretty ludicrous coming from someone who's hardly an authority.  Still, I had my fun and as always I thank you for not unfollowing me over the past couple of months. I'm still trying to figure out why everyone was freaking out over Margot Robbie's outfit at the Oscars though, it's well-fitting dinner & cocktail attire on a beautiful woman, but that's about it.

As for Birdman taking Best Picture over Boyhood, I'll say it... it was a shame.  Not because Birdman doesn't deserve accolades, but because it didn't deserve to be titled 'best film of the year'.  It was 'the finest technical achievement of the year' and it was 'michael keaton's best performance ever'.  Period. No more. But moving on...

You'll get to see my Top 10 of 2014 at some point, now that no one cares I'm no longer feeling the pressure (my apologies to like the one reader who might care... Jerry? Maybe Lynette too?)

In attempts to get a little back on track (before I go on vacation next month... so maybe I can be "on track" for a couple of weeks?) I'm looking forward to seeing some of what the Canadian Film Fest has in store later this month, as well a couple of blog columns in their infancy on Toronto Film Scene about Canadian Film History and Movie Merch (yes, one is so related to the other...).  Here are the links to the inaugural entries in case you missed them:

http://thetfs.ca/2015/02/26/canadian-film-history-oscar-winning-actors/
http://thetfs.ca/2015/02/12/movie-merch-hot-topic-dresses-like-favourite-movie/

Lastly (for now) I had previously alluded to how I wanted to recap my media consumption like Steven Soderberg did, so I'll leave you with my notes from Jan/Feb to puruse/ignore as you see fit.

--------------------------

numbered = films
not numbered = TV
" " = started books/plays
n = 2015 release
f = my first time viewing 
(#) = number of episodes watched

Jan 1-7
1.In Time - f
2.Fury - f
3.the avengers

4. How to steal a million - f
5. 71 - f n
6. The bling ring
7. Funny girl - f
8. Selma - f n
"The forbidden game trilogy"
"It's not easy being green"
9. What Richard Did

1/8
10. Kingsman: The Secret Service

1/9-11
11. The fifth element
12. Inherent vice - f n
13. A clockwork orange
"Dark crystal creation myths vol 1"
"Secret societies"

1/12

14. 13 Assassins

15. Foxcatcher - f

1/13

16. The Ides of March - f

"A bunch of pretty things I did not buy"

1/14

17. What we do in the shadows

18. The Babadook- f

1/15

"The cute girl network"

1/17

19. American Sniper - n f

1/18

20. Wild - f

21. 127 Hours

1/19

22. Lovelace - f

1/20

23. Out of Africa - f

1/21

24. American Hustle

25. A Place in the Sun

1/23

26. Triplets of Belleville- f

1/24

27. Two days, one night - f n

28. And god created woman

1/25

29. A girl walks home alone at night - n f

30. Once Upon a time in America

1/27

31. Revenge of the Green Dragons

32. The Killer

1/28

33. Hard Boiled

1/29

34. 20 Feet from stardom -f

1/30

35. Guardians of the Galaxy

1/31

36. Still Alice - n f

2/1

37. Cake - n f

2/2-5

38. Jupiter Ascending- n f

Banshee (3 ep)

"Shallow Grave" (John hodge)

2/6

Banshee (1)

39. Life as we know it - f

2/7

Banshee (1)

40. Bridget jones's diary

2/8

Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown (1)

2/9

Anthony Bourdain's parts unknown (1)

"Act like a lady, think like a man"

2/10

41. Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason- f

2/11

The Walking dead (1)

Game of Thrones special 

2/12-14

42. About Time

43. The Philadelphia Story

Banshee (1)

Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown (1)

2/15

Better Call Saul (2)

44.War and Peace - f

Big Bang Theory (3)

2/16

The Walking dead (1)

"Trainspotting" screenplay by John Hodge

2/19

45.Xmen days of future past 

2/20

Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown (2)

2/21

46. (Korean movie whose title I could not translate) - f

47. It's Complicated 

48. Bringing Up Baby - f

2/22

Big Bang theory (2)

2/23

Big Bang theory (1)

2/24

Banshee (1)

Big Bang Theory (1)

2/25-26

The walking dead (1)

2/27-3/1

House of cards (8)

I'm not too sick to catch the Oscars tonight!

I just woke up in the middle of the night and realized that the Oscars are today!

Despite best intentions, I have been down for the count the past few days suffering from a socially acceptable form of the plague... I believe others call it 'the flu', and my Top 10 Films of 2014, like the rest of my writing assignments, lie in a state of half completion.

The best I have to offer you is my "short list", if only to show you how uninfluenced/influenced I am by the outcomes of the Oscars tonight. Please check back soon to find out which films made my top 10 and which are honourable mentions...

Boyhood
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Mommy
The Imitation Game
The Theory of Everything
The Lego Movie
That Awkward Moment
Eden
Interstellar
What We Do in the Shadows
Life Itself
Pride
Whiplash
Nightcrawler
Fasten Your Seatbelts

Some quick Oscar predictions (until this round of meds kick in again...), where I'm rooting for the frontrunner in many of the categories...

Best Actor in a Leading Role - Eddy Redmayne (sorry Michael Keaton)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role - J.K. Simmons (hands down)

Actress in a Leading Role - Julianne Moore

Actress in a Supporting Role - Patricia Arquette

Best Cinematography - The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Costume Design - The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Directing - Alejandro Gonzales Inarrritu

Best Film Editing - Boyhood (though part of me wonders if it should be Whiplash, also I'm rather surprised that David Fincher made a film this year and it wasn't up for Best Editing... go figure)

Best Music (Original Score) - The Theory of Everything (should be The Imitation Game)

Best Original Song - Glory (should be Everything is Awesome)

Best Production Design - The Grand Budapest Hotel

Best Adapted Screenplay - I don't know will win, but part of me thinks American Sniper should win

Best Original Screenplay - Birdman (should be Grand Budapest Hotel)

Best Picture - Boyhood

With that, I'm headed back to bed!  Happy Oscars!

Back to the 90's and Back to Steve Soderbergh's 2014

Before I forcefully cram more of my 90's movie memories down your throats I want to draw your attention to another blog that's been generating a bit of buzz in the world wide film web.

As a number of you must have seen (if not read meticulously) Steven Soderbergh shared a list of everything he watched and read in 2014.

http://extension765.com/sdr/22-seen-read-2014


Comb through it if you must (hopefully we'll hear from you again in 2-3 days...), I personally skimmed and never made it past April.  The reaction I've seen has largely been one of interest, some people are deep in analysis, asking why he watched particular films twice, others argue that it's really not that much compared to what they themselves consume (those that broke down the numbers make a good point, I probably watch the same number of films as Soderbergh does in a year, but then again, I don't also have an award winning writing/directing career on the side...)

What I found most interesting was the simple way in which he recorded everything, putting his TV series in caps, books in italics.  It's a concise, elegant way of coding things.

Let me backtrack a second... One of my new year's resolutions (and I haven't done this resolution thing in a while now) was to reestablish my list of "movies that I watched over the year", something that was inspired by my friend Alex Carter many years ago, but a habit I fell out of with the advent of GetGlue (whose every goodness was completely undone by the shift to TV Tag).  These lists were particularly useful when coming up with my top movies of the year, or just being able to look back and seeing what I watched.  The common practice during 30 Films in January is to use letterboxd.com, a great site... that still doesn't have a mobile app.  Hence my desire to re-start that list on Evernote (one of my favourite mobile apps, I don't know how anyone can live without it).

Seeing Soderbergh's list has sparked my imagination and amibition of record something similar for myself in 2015!  Perhaps even slightly more ambitious because in my original list I am listing my films by number (so I know offhand at any point in the year how many films I've watched) as well as giving a coding for films that are new releases (easy reference come Top 10 of 2015 time) and films I've seen for the first time.

I think the result is going to be muddled and obviously generate a lot less interest.  However I may post some of it on this blog from time to time for those who are curious what consumes my time so much that I never talk to them anymore.

And now... Back to the 90's - Can't Hardly Wait

My mom always likes to point out what a stupid movie Can't Hardly Wait is every time I tell her I'm watching it.  So it's an annual conversation pretty much.

Can't Hardly Wait is definitely a movie that has the potential to kill brain cells, but it's also amazingly awesome.  Preston, Amanda, Kenny, et al from Huntington High were class of 1998 just like me.  I saw this movie at Sherway Gardens back when Sherway Gardens still had a theatre. It was June 1998, pretty much when I was getting ready to say farewell to Lakeshore C.I. so I'll always remember them fondly as fellow graduates.

Other reasons I like Can't Hardly Wait:  I love large ensemble casts, I love the exploration and integration of high school cliques, and I love how the cast was a who's who of failed teen TV dramas of the late 90's/early 00's (I think half the cast of Popular must have roles/cameos in this movie, and let's not forget Jason Segel)

The cliques in Can't Hardly Wait are interesting to me in that it was a modernization of say, The Breakfast Club, that and it wasn't simplified down to one individual to represent a group.There were multiple cliques that were kind of like offbeat weirdos and that was something I could very much relate to.  It was a time when everyone was striving to be different, at Lakeshore we had the alt rockers hanging out at the front of the school, us half academic/half artsy types hidden in the Art Hall, the cool kids at their table by the vending machines in the cafeteria, and lord knows where the computer geeks, avant-gardes (who were all Polish from what I remember), etc got to.  We interacted between cliques, which is a realistic representation of high school.  Plus let's face it, who wouldn't love Preston Myers? And Kenny Fisher!!!

 Back to the 90's - Cruel Intentions

TIFF really got into the good stuff in the back end of  this series.  Cruel Intentions is one of my all time favs, based on the tale of Dangerous Liaisons (which is also one of my all time favs!) It was the first time Sarah Michelle Gellar did a villainous role since her part in Swan's Crossing (which I reminisced about in a previous blog post), I really wish she'd done more roles like that, she's much more suited to it than trying to righteous.

It goes without saying alongside the soundtrack (Placebo! The Verve!) I was in love with Ryan Phillippe, but let's not for Joshua Jackson's Blaine Tuttle, I have an appreciation for a cute cunning gay man - so long as he's on my side.

Cruel Intentions lived on in the early 00's when we were auditioning actors for our film projects in University.  Half the girls who came out performed monologues by Kathryn Merteuil from the film, to the point even I had them memorized for years.

Back to the 90's - Empire Records

Of the entire series programmed by TIFF, I was most excited about Empire Records.  Yes, it's one of my favs right up there with Can't Hardly Wait and Cruel Intentions, but unlike the other two, I never had an opportunity to see Empire Records on the big screen.  I'd seen the trailers in theatres, but though I waited patiently for it to screen at Sherway, it never did!  I couldn't determine from an internet search whether Empire Records never had a release in Canada or just not a wide release, either way, after 19 years I was finally getting my chance to see it in a theatre!

Dec 19, 2014 was Rex Manning day! Seeing the whole gang on screen (in the original cut not that crappy re-mix they tried to con us with the in the late 00's) was nothing short of magical.  The idea of working in a record store with all my friends was the dream in 1995, hell, it still is...

Without conscious effort, Empire Records permeated my life, even to this day!  At the time of the film's release, I had just about every single piece of clothing Liv Tyler and Renee Zellweger wore.  Lines from the movie made it into my every day utterances, even now you'll occasionally hear me exclaim "What's with today, today?" and of course there's AJ's response when asked by Warren why he glued the scattering of quarters on the floor... (I'll give you a hint: scroll up to the title of this blog!)

 And now a disappointing denouement...no, no, I'm not purposely trashing Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.  The truth is for whatever reason, I've never seen it.  It screened at Lightbox on Boxing Day, when I was, of course, busy shopping and I have not been able to find a copy for download since.

So there you have it, the end to our happy trip through the 90's.  This felt like but a taste, hopefully TIFF will program Back to the 90's Part 2 sometime this year...?

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... ???