confessions of an amateur cineaste

Sunday was Manufactured Landscapes, mostly because I had seen a trailer for it at the SIFF preview. It follows photographer Edward Burtynsky on a trip to China, where he takes large-scale photos of the effects of manufacturing. It’s alternately beautiful and depressing, showing both how we’ve taken from the earth and the waste we generate, in addition to the working conditions of the people who deal with all of these things.

It’s not didactic, which I appreciated. It doesn’t have to be.

Also Sunday I suddenly added five more movies to my schedule. The first new one was yesterday, Battle of Wits. It was uneven, with bits of pure cheese and terrible effects, but when it was good (the look & feel, which was surprisingly rough & textured for a story based on a comic, and of course everything Andy Lau did) it was awesome.

And now, for the film festival! I started with a midnight, and I haven’t recovered yet. Them, a French thriller about a couple who makes the mistake of living in a spooky old house in the woods & awakens one night to strange noises… dun dun dun. It’s gritty and effective, keeping the tension high by not ever showing too much. I guessed the twist early on, but that didn’t make it any less creepy.

It was preceeded by a short, “The Eyes of Edward James”, which didn’t do much for me.

The next day was Monkey Warfare, which I picked because it starred Don McKellar & Tracy Wright, both of whom are always worth watching. It’s an extremely low-budget film about a couple living off the grid in Toronto, and how their lives get shaken up by their new pot dealer. I liked it a lot. It’s different, but dirtied up enough to not be quirky. Also, the soundtrack & the final credits are awesome.

It also was preceeded by a short, “Order Up”, a dark comedy which starred Illeana Douglas and about half worked.

Sundance favorite Once started screenings this month. I saw it at MOHAI, complete with a Q&A with the director & stars and a mini-concert, which was pretty awesome.

As for the movie itself, also awesome! It’s technically a musical, but as it’s about musicians it’s totally organic & real, not cheesy. I mean, I enjoy the cheese, but this isn’t that kind of a musical. Very touching & satisfying. Yay!

The best review of Spider-Man 3 came from a friend who said they laughed for a lot of the movie, but they were pretty sure they were only supposed to be laughing about half of the time.

It’s like this. I went with a group. We had a lot of fun. But it was not a good movie. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of time spent on the Harry/Peter dynamic, as I am a fan of James Franco in general and the Harry character in particular. Too bad it wasn’t a Green Goblin film. It probably would have been slightly less emo.

In better genre film news, I saw Hot Fuzz a second time, and it continues to be awesome. Also, I was able to catch the cameos this time around. Good times.

I’d heard a lot of buzz about Waitress — probably an inevitable effect of reading Whedonesque — but I had really gone to see it mostly for Nathan Fillion, and for that it was definitely worth it.

The casting all-round was great. I had a good time at it, there were lots of things I really liked, and I haven’t seen a movie in some time that felt or looked the way this one does in a while, but I still have issues with the ending and some of the characterization. It’s clear, though, that Shelly was a great talent, and it’s a tragedy that we won’t see more work from her.

Annie Hall is my favorite movie of all time, so obviously I jumped at the chance to see it at the Northwest Film Forum.

It’s really a perfect film. This is the first time I’d seen it with anyone else, which was great, and the first time I’d seen it big (relatively — the Film Forum is a seriously tiny venue) so there were a number of visual details I had missed before, especially with Annie’s photographs. The only quibble I had was an ongoing framing issue, but that’s the theater’s problem. It must have been an off night for the projectionist.

Can I say anything about Lawrence of Arabia that hasn’t been said before? No. I cannot. All I can say is that I have waited years for the opportunity to see it in a theater, flat-out refusing to see it on video, and that it was well worth the wait.

I can’t find any evidence of this now, but I could swear that when it was up on the Cinerama website it said it was the first in a series of 70mm films they were going to present. I hope that is true, because it would be totally awesome.

It occurred to me recently that I had totally forgotten to write up The Host. I mean, there are loads of things I haven’t managed to post about, but this one I flat-out skipped over, which is lame, because it was an awesome movie.

It’s a monster movie, yeah, but one with a great functioning disfunctional family, banding together to thwart the authorities & the monster to rescue their little girl, who is pretty darn tough herself. Good stuff.