5 November 2010, early morning
The second film I saw at TIFF was Red Nights. This was the first of two midnight madness screenings I attended. As in previous years, Midnight Madness is by the far the best movie going experience at TIFF. The lines are long, but the crowd is full of serious-ass cinema fans. Red Nights was a very well done erotic thriller. It marks the return of Carrie Ng to the big screen. Ng plays a murderer. There is an ancient Chinese artifact a few people are trying to get. There is a French lady who scams her. It’s a strange film. I liked it, but I was hoping for ‘more’. I had very high expectations. (Perhaps too high.) The soundtrack was kick ass. It’s definitely worth watching if you have the chance.
The Red Nights page at the TIFF website.
Movies
4 November 2010, early morning
Shima and I watched Capote over the weekend. (Netflix for the win!) I can’t believe I hadn’t seen it sooner. The movie is a look at Truman Capote during the period of time he was writing the book In Cold Blood. I wasn’t familiar with the book prior to hearing about the movie, but after watching the film I very much want to read it. Capote wrote about the murder of an entire family in a small town in Kansas at the hands of two robbers. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Capote, and does an excellent job with the part. All the other actors in the film support him wonderfully. Clifton Craig Collins, Jr who plays the murderer Perry Smith manages to be sympathetic while also always having a creepy undercurrent to everything he does and says. The film suggests there was a real conflict between Capote’s genuine interest in the lives of the murderers and his compulsion and self-interest in finishing his book. There are all sorts of scenes where he goes from having a sincere and serious discussion with Perry to joking around in New York. The contrast in the scenes is stark. The film makers manage to balance the two sides of the man really well. Capote is an excellent film.
The official Capote web site.
Movies
4 November 2010, early morning
I finally signed up for Netflix this past weekend. Everyone had been complaining about the selection, but they seem to have enough movies to keep you busy for quite a while. I noticed they had a film I had been dying to see for ages, Luc Besson’s Angel A. (The trailer is excellent.) The film stars Jamel Debbouze as a down on your luck do-nothing and Rie Rasmussen as a mysterious woman who helps him turn his life around. Rie Rasmussen is smoking hot. The movie basically takes place over the course of a couple days, and more or less opens with an “It’s a Wonderful Life i’m going to jump off a bridge because no one loves me” moment. From there we get to watch Debbouze and Rasmussen interact, and that’s really where the charm of the film comes from. The entire movie is shot in black and white, and looks gorgeous. The cinematography is great. The film also features a pretty awesome sound track. I really enjoyed the movie.
The official Angel A website.
[2] Movies
- Clearly, we're still getting used to the notion of being a single city.
Obviously there is a real disconnect between what the suburbs want and what the city wants. This is understandable, they are both very different places, with different needs. The city is never going to be un-amalgamated, so we as citizens need to figure out what the bests ways are to govern such a huge and varied city. What we are doing now doesn’t seem to be working too well.
29 October 2010, early morning
I thought a new milestone in my quest to get people to call the neighbourhood Blansdowne was reached a little while ago when Toronto Life used the name in an article about Drift Bar. Well almost, they referred to the area as Blandsdowne. That doesn’t even make any sense. There is nothing Bland about Blansdowne. More so, where are they getting the extra ‘D’? This is why no one reads Toronto Life.
The Globe and Mail mentioned my neighbourhood by name in their recent article about the area. I was pretty excited, but then I realized they too spelled the name wrong. What local calls the area Blandsdowne? Seriously? (I’m not even going to touch on the super obnoxious “let’s sell homes” tone of this piece.) This is why no one reads the Globe and Mail.
Journalists of the city: Bloor + Lansdowne = Blansdowne.
[4] Bloor and Lansdowne
- Is it bad that the election outcome I'm most excited about is just the damned thing being done?
Matt (more or less) makes the case for Smitherman. Unsurprisingly, I disagree with a bunch of his arguments, but he’s certainly not the only one making them. I think it will suck if Ford wins, because the guy is a giant dumbaclot. I just don’t think that’s reason enough to vote for Smitherman. Maybe the crazy-ignorant people who want to drive cars into bicyclists deserve their day in the sun? I’ve certainly enjoyed the 7 years of awesome that was Miller’s take on the city.
[1]
- Husband confronts abortion protesters.
[Aaron Gouveia] and his 16-weeks-pregnant wife went to a women’s clinic in Brookline, Mass. for an abortion after discovering that their baby had a congenital deformity with no chance for survival. On their way in, they were confronted by images of dismembered fetuses and two women yelling, “You’re killing your unborn baby!” Enraged, Gouveia decided to confront the protesters while his wife was in surgery, and he caught the whole interaction on his cellphone. In an essay for The Good Men Project, he admits to feeling a bit “foolish for getting so heated” in the moment, but who can blame him? Not to mention, any foolishness on his part is overshadowed by the Christian protesters’ decidedly un-Christ-like behavior.
Good on this guy.
(via Radmila) [2]
