Wednesday, September 28, 2011

I'm not done yet

It's the 28th of Sept, my nieces birthday, and not even 10 days since TIFF11.

I've been letting things gestate over the past 10 days in prep for reviewing all the movies I saw, uploading all the video intro's I filmed on my phone, and giving my top 5 list, which is always tough but fun.
So far, notable titles that you should see if you get the chance
"CAFE DE FLORE"
"TAKE SHELTER"
"MARTH MARCY MAY MARLENE"
"DEATH FOR SALE"
"UNDEFEATED"
"THE ORANGES"
and the list could go on.

Honestly, I had an AMAZING tiff, with very very few craptastics flicks, zero "Oh my god I want to walk out"s and only one dozed off because 845am is far to early to start a 3 hour slow moving cop procedural from Turkey

SO, reviews and video's and pictures and stuff to come.

If anyone is even reading this.  haha
Seriously, let me know....  Far as I know i'm the only one reading this.
-Tomas

Monday, September 12, 2011

Just a little update

I know I'm behind already and its only the 5th day.
Reviews are written they just have to be inputted.
ALSO
I'm compiling videos of all the director introductions to their films.
no qna's as I don't want to spoil, and also if you want to experience those, get to tiff yourself.

So. Lots more to come.
Couple small highlights.  Martha Marcy may Marlene is great and gets under your skin.  Extraterrestrial is a quirky rom-com with the mist uneventful alien invasion ever.  And Goon is crass and rough but fun.

Also saw James Franco randomly.
Of tiff.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Quickie day 2 take 2

Silly phone blogging.
Now I have to try and recreate my brilliant reviews that had been typed out on my phone. Then deleted. 
Here goes.

THE HUNTER.  Good movie. Man vs nature vs man.  While watching Mr Dafoe is great, there's only so much walking through the bush and putting little circles on maps a man can take.  The underlying corporate thriller is under used, but hinted at enough to make it seem ever present.  Both the hunting of an extinct animal and the corporate element seem to take a backseat to a story of a man who is paid to look the other way as a profession, but decides not to anymore.   Good but not great. 7/10

GOD BLESS AMERICA.   Hilarious. My opinion was most likely skewed by the laugh riot that was bobcats intro.and QnA period but the film rang true, in a scary way.    Basically a mismatched due of a divorcee 45 year old guy and a high Schiller start driving cross country taking out the people that are making America the giant tool box it is. People like American idol judges and guys that take up two.parking spaces because they can.   Its crass and rude and shocking and hilarious (they kill a baby! A baby!!!) But that all adds to its likability as an over the top grandstand to douchbags everywhere to smarten up and stop being dinks.  I also think its this crassness and ultra violence that will make it a cult hit by the very people its making fun of. 

Quickie for day 2 cause i know you vant wait

My day started at the tiff box office JUST before the lunch rush. Thank god. Man it was busy.  And while the big board wasn't up to date on what was still available and was very annoying I will say this. The girl that helped me, and those around me, had the patience of a saint as I went through second third forth and random selections.  Now my tiff is packed with close to 40 films. 

Here's what I saw yesterday.

URBANIZED.   Very good doc about "the city" as a whole and as an idea. Shots of Toronto made all who viewed it compare each bike lane story, each use of abandoned space story, each low income housing story and compare it to where we call home.  We didn't so great.     Impactful and full of a better way of living thinking urbanzied was fairly spread out and lacked the storyline of a feature.    That said. When you see the trees in stutgart getting ripped down its one of the most inpactful moments in a movie I've seen yet. "After ww2 when the city was bombed and winter hit, people still didn't cut down these 200 year old trees" says an activist.   Wow.

THE HUNTER.  part

Friday, September 9, 2011

Test

Just testing that this is working.

First day, quickie...

So, first night TIFF 2011, pretty good.

INTO THE ABYSS is both disturbing (those are real peoples bodies up on the screen, I don't think I'll ever get used to seeing that) Hilarious (nice name tattoo on your arm, what would you do if you and Betsy break up. - Well, I guess I'll get sucks tacked on right under it) and hopeful (why are there so many hummingbirds)   All in all very good and very Herzog.

Le HAVRE,  meh.   There are elements that make it friggin' awesome, like crisis of authority, moral compasses and masterfully crafted comedy (seriously though, the guy with the briefcase handcuffed to his wrist at the beginning never gets mentioned again?), but there were also elements that made it seem first flm out of school-ish.  Framing was odd, almost all down the lens, tons of headroom, and the pace was that of molases.   technical aside the performance were fun, when there were people on screen who performed and weren't just blank faced stand ins who seemed to have accidently walked on set.

THE RAID.   WHOLLY FUCKING SHIT!!!!   this movie blew me away.  There was maybe 10 minute during the whole thing where I didn't feel like I was being kicked in the head along with the insanely talented martial arts stars.  BONUS points for also being the best"yet to be a video game" idea, seriously, rockstar watch this film!     Couldn't sleep till nearly 5am due to adrenaline.  Thanks Mr Evans, you welsh bastard (meant in the nicest of ways)

Aside from that met up with people I only see once a year for a week, and it's looking like it's going to be a good tiff...

More / better reviews to come, photo's, and clips of Colin and Cameron's MM intro..
-T

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Tiff 2011 on a thursday

It's almost 6pm and that start of TIFF 2011 is on in 30 minutes with the bat shit crazy herzog and a doc about murder and crime fame.  
Doubt it shall be as much a shock as 2009's opener for me "Antichrist" or last years silly ass "film socialism" where I think Goddard actually wanted to piss everyone off.

Reviews and comments of the week to come.  This year over scaled down from 50 to 30 but I will probably se more than that.
T