confessions of an amateur cineaste

The main thing I’m baffled by is why Monster House is coming out in July and not at Halloween. Possibly because then it can be out on DVD in October. Anyway. I went because it had shown at the film festival and that fact intrigued me. And also because it was free, and I have this irrational fear (well, aren’t they all?) that if I start passing things up things will stop coming my way. So there you go. I really need to subscribe to the festival or to the Warren Report or something so I can be more discriminating.

But anyway. The story was cute enough, in spite of the fat jibes *eyes pocket soap box* but I didn’t find the animation style appealing. I think it’s the second feature with the motion capture (the first being the very creepy Polar Express), and though this one was more stylized & thus not as dead-looking, I still didn’t like it.

It’s a fine family friendly flick, though. And the house was cool. *shrug*

I think my expectations might have been too high for Starfish Hotel, or maybe it was end-of-festival ennui, or maybe it just wasn’t that good. I had expected it to be a thriller, vaguely supernatural, and the dream sequences early on kept my hopes up, but then it turned into a basic noir-esque story that tried to be interesting by emphasizing sexual elements. It didn’t work.

Familiar tropes and images can add depth to a film, but here they put me in mind of other recent films that had told far more compelling stories (Brick, for doing something new and interesting with noir, and Donnie Darko, for the rabbit and the sort of slipstream effect.) I see that it has a low score on IMDb, so I feel vindicated.

(PS This is the last update tonight! Yaaay!)

Two of my favourite movies ever in one evening! Clearly this is Best. The Thin Man is technically a mystery, but who cares about the plot? The point is Nick and Nora’s gin-soaked banter, and what banter it -is-! Fantastic. I haven’t seen the various sequels since I was a child, but I know they are all out on DVD now. (And in a boxed set! How can I resist?)

Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World is, of course, a masterpiece. I first saw it primarily because Billy Boyd was in it, and look what it began. It was particularly lovely to watch it again now that I have made more headway in the books. The attention to detail in this film is beyond compare, and it is clear that Peter Weir has a boundless love for the world created by Patrick O’Brian.

I’d meant to see The Baxter when it was in the theaters because I have found that indie films with Michelle Williams tend to be good. (I didn’t understand why people were so surprised when Brokeback Mountain came out. They should have seen Me Without You & The Station Agent, for starters.) But this one only played Seattle for about five minutes so there you go.

A Baxter is the guy who the leading lady dumps for the leading guy, and this was a charming retellling of the traditional romantic comedy from his point of view. Cute even though I didn’t particularly care for the Baxter himself, but Michelle’s character was great, and there was the bonus of an excellent performance by the aways-awesome Peter Dinklage as the wedding planner (-awesome-) and also one by Paul Rudd as the proof that everything is circular.

This was great. It surpassed Perhaps Love as my second favourite film of the festival, but there’s something special about the magic of Wristcutters that is keeping it in first place.

But! None of that is about C.R.A.Z.Y., which is a gay coming of age story set over two decades in suburban Quebec (filmed in Montreal). It’s fantastic and complex and yay.

Sadly, it won’t be getting US distribution because the costs of the music licensing for the States were too formidable. I’m not surprised; I had actually wondered at how they had been able to afford the soundtrack. Frequently Q&As at the festival will reveal what songs the directors really wanted but couldn’t afford the rights too.

(A small moment of glee that totally won’t translate to text, but i want to remember:
Pierre-Luc: “I’m not gay” …(beat) … “in the film.”
Audience: *cheers*
Pierre-Luc: “…or in real life.”
Audience: “Awww.”)

Also I enjoyed “America is a problem” (in regards to distribution, but how widely it applies!) & “I have a psychological aversion to speaking English”. (He’s Quebecois and brought a translator, though he was only really needed for finer points.)

I’d been waiting to see Mysterious Skin for some time now, and it was definitely worth the wait. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was brilliant as promised, and the rest of the cast was strong as well. Disturbing and hard to watch.

And why did I not see Childstar ages ago? Everyone is in it! The casting of the two father figures (Alan Thicke as TV dad and Eric Stoltz as biological & California dad) was particularly inspired.

I wish I had the opportunity to see Don McKellar’s short films. Release a DVD! Or, hell, just stick them on iTunes. I’d pay. Sadly, I’m probably the only one.

In spite of using many of the queer film tropes, Go West managed an original voice thanks to the setting of 1990s war in Yugoslavia, which allowed the life or death stakes to be on the basis of something other than sexuality. It also featured some of the queerest sex* I’ve seen on-screen for quite some time. I scored it up for that, but down for the framing device, which was totally unnecessary. On the whole, though, very moving, and highly effective at putting me in a world I know very little about.

*Queer, though -technically- het. Awesome.

First-time director Julia Kwan brings us Eve and the Fire Horse, a sweet Canadian film about two young sisters making sense of their mid-70s world and the conflicts between Buddhism and Catholicism. Some delightfully imaginative moments, and overall utterly charming. The writer/director’s next project is Generation X. I look forward to seeing her work develop.

I somehow managed to miss Million Dollar Baby when it was out in theaters, which actually took some skill as I rather like Hilary Swank (or at least I did prior to the award season for M$B) and I remember it got critical buzz right from the beginning.

I also remember getting spoiled for the ‘controversial’ subject matter of the second half of the film. I don’t know if I would have enjoyed it more if that hadn’t happened. I am of the opinion that a piece of work should stand up regardless (for example, The Sixth Sense & LA Confidential are both worth seeing more than once in spite of their twists, but A Beautiful Mind is not.) Million Dollar Baby might be one that suffers. It’s still solid, and Clint Eastwood in particular is wonderful but as directorial outings go, Mystic River is vastly superior.

(I might be spammy. I have a lot of catching up to do since I have had dodgy internet access. I will let you know when it is over.)

The Window was presented as a part of a noir afternoon at the festival, and I wish I would have realized that earlier; I would have gone to the one preceeding it as well.

The story centers on a young boy (back in the good old days when you could “traumatize children” on film) who witnesses a murder, but as he has a history of an overactive imagination & storytelling, no one believes him … except the murderers. The child star, Bobby Driscoll, was given a miniature special Oscar for his work, and it was quite well-deserved.

They screened a gorgeous new print from the Film Noir Foundation, and it was very cool to see with an audience full of vocal reactions.