No, I really haven’t forgotten about this joint. I’ve just been spending more time at Facebook lately. But I don’t really wanna start a blog-type thang over there because I like the privacy of this one. I mean, my whole family is on Facebook and one of the first things I was advised by a fellow blogger who suggested I write this thing in the first place was to keep a lid on it when it comes to my family. He said that even if I didn’t write about my family (which, largely, I haven’t), I’d prefer the freedom of not having to wonder about editing this or that based on the possibility of family reading it.
So this place is sticking around.
I do have lots to write about but am concentrating on getting my shit together at the moment, so, in the meantime, here’s an interesting documentary for you to watch.
I found it posted at Free Documentaries. It dovetails kinda nicely with the book I just finished reading a few weeks ago: Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine, which is all about what she calls “disaster capitalism”. The film–a 2002 film by Adam Curtis, which aired on British television–is about how 20th century North American society became based on consumerism and self-interest. It’s quite a fascinating–and frightening, and frustrating–story.
Okay, so I just got back from (finally) seeing Paranormal Activity and the only thing that was really scary was the behaviour of the audience. The theatre was filled with teens and pre-teens and I swear everyfuckingsingleone of them got up (usually they did it in pairs), ran up the aisle and out into the lobby, visited out there, then came running back down the aisle to their seats–and it seemed like everyfuckingsingleone of them did this three or four times during the short running time of this film.
Do you have any idea how much willpower I had to summon to not stick a leg out into the aisle?! It was a tremendous amount, I assure you. Tremendous.
I was sorta surprised to see any kids there because I thought the damned thing was Restricted. So I figured I must’ve been wrong about the rating. But when I got home and looked it up, nope–it’s rated R. And I am really and truly not exaggerating when I say that I’ll bet I was the only person in the room who was older than 18. If I’d realized at the time that it was Restricted, I’d've gone out and gotten my money back as well as demanded a free pass for another screening. Srsly. Shit.
So you’re gonna hafta keep in mind that the audience really did put a dent in my ability to just sit back and enjoy this film. It was hard to stay focussed on anything aside from my burning desire to annihilate the entire room.
I am somewhat amazed to see all the glowing reviews for this thing… Maybe the comparisons to The Blair Witch Project (which still successfully creeps me the hell out, as I proved to myself on the night before Hallowe’en, when I sat up late, watching it alone in the dark!) set my expectations too high. I mean, okay, there are a couple effective “boo!” scares and a couple decent “creep-me-out” moments but, otherwise, umm, it is sorta boring. And the characters aren’t particularly likable. And it sure didn’t help that every single visit from the spirit or demon (there is some debate within the film about whether it is one or the other) is telegraphed from a mile away on the soundtrack. I suppose that is supposed to make the hair on the back of my neck stand up in anticipation but all it does is make my eyes flick across the screen, looking for the first sign of the thing’s presence. So when it happens, it isn’t exactly startling–it is just expected, fer crissakes.
A lot of reviews complain about the shakycam but I didn’t find it nearly as bad as it was in Cloverfield or District 9. In fact, I don’t think I even really noticed it after the first few minutes. Then again, I may have cut that issue off at the pass by purposefully sitting in the back row, where shakycam effects are less noticeable.
Anyhow, the one thing I did like about it was that the horror (such as it is) is kept offscreen. Whether it is by hook (that is to say by design–as in Robert Wise’s The Haunting) or crook (by which I mean for practical reasons–as in Steven Spielberg’s reluctance to show much of the balky mechanical shark in Jaws), when the source of the horror is kept largely offscreen, I am of the school of belief that the audience’s fear is intensified because it cannot see it. So kudos to the filmmakers for keeping whatever the hell it is offscreen.
I got a call today from a friend of mine who told me about an upcoming event at the Revue Cinema in Toronto where he is on the board of directors… I have a lot of respect for the folks running the Revue, as they are really encouraging local independent filmmakers with their Drop Your Shorts series of screenings and, now, hosting the Zombie Short Film Festival on October 30th.
From the festival FAQ:
What are the criteria for submissions?
Your film must be shorter than 25 minutes long. It also has to involve zombies in some way.
I have a terrific zombie film, but it’s longer than 25 minutes. Can I enter it anyway?
Sorry…but we need to be firm on the running time, in order to accommodate the viewing needs of our jury and the logistics of the official screening. You are welcome, however, to split the film into shorter segments and enter them as separate submissions, if you wish.
What format should my submission be?
Please submit a DVD in NTSC format, so that it will be playable on a North American DVD player.
When is the submission deadline?
Midnight. October 1, 2009.
Submissions can be from anywhere (not just Canada).
…I’ll bet my friend Craig wishes he’d gone ahead with that zombie-LDS missionary film he’s been pondering for years. Perfect venue for it.
Toronto Star film critic Pete Howell takes an annual pre-festival poll of film critics, industry folks, festival programmers, bloggers, and buffs to get a feeling about which films are the most highly anticipated at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival. He limits you to 3 films, and your justifications are limited to a single sentence for each.
This year’s fest starts today and runs to the 19th, and I’m heading to town from tomorrow ’til the 14th. Normally, my visit to the festival is planned around the films I wanna see. This year, however, my visit to the festival is planned around a concert I wanna see.
When Pete asked me for my 3 films, though, I chose them without regard to whether or not I would actually be able to see them at the festival. That was beside the point. The point was to choose 3 films I was really keen to see. Which I did. But, as it happens, I won’t be able to see any of ‘em while I’m there. Argh!!
A Town Called Panic
This puppetoon plays as part of the Midnight Madness programme. It is based on a Belgian tv show of the same name, created by Vincent Patar and Stéphane Aubier. As a kid, I was much more apt to pull the cowboys and indians and horses out of the toy box than the Barbies, so it really does look like my childhood toys got together to put on a show. It is stop-motion animation that is charming in its crudeness (I’ll post a couple eps of the show here so you can check it out yourself). In fact, it is, perhaps, that very “backwardness” of the look of it that makes it so appealing to me. Well, that and the absurdity of it.
Life During Wartime
Writer/Director Todd Solondz has made some films I love and when he describes this as being somewhat related to two of my favourites (Welcome to the Dollhouse and Happiness), I am curious to see what he does with the characters that recur. Darkly humourous (what some more gentle souls might call scabrous) satire is Solondz’s gift… the screenplays are so smart, the narrative structures so interesting, the honesty so startling.
My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done
Well, you already know how I feel about Werner Herzog… He actually has two films appearing in this year’s festival. One of them makes me a little nervous–something called Bad Lieutenant, which may or may not have anything to do with Abel Ferrara’s film of the same title (it certainly appears to be related), starring the frequently execrable Nic Cage. It could be great or it could be horrendous. I can’t quite picture it being anywhere in between…
But Pete would only let us pick three films, remember, so I reached for the other new Herzog instead. I hadn’t even heard of it before it was announced for TIFF.
It is based on a true story (which will certainly not stop Herzog from inventing most of the story–on a search for the ecstatic truth, the real truth is just a starting point for him) about an actor who takes a role much too seriously.
David Lynch is the producer. Lynch and Herzog: now, there’s a match made in either heaven or hell, depending on your P.O.V.
After years of hoping for it, I am thrilled to see that the diary Werner Herzog wrote while he was making his epic Fitzcarraldo has finally been translated into English! The only way this could be better news would be if he had also released an audiobook version—I would love to hear him read it. The NY Times’ Janet Maslin has a review here and they have published an excerpt as well.
Do you need a daily fix of Cannes? The Toronto Star’s Peter Howell is doing a daily vlog from this year’s festival (which is more than I can say of my own coverage of Hot Docs, heh-heh!). I’ll post today’s vid here but I’m a bit slow on the uptake, as he began doing this yesterday.
Pete’s daily updates can be found here. You can be fairly sure he will be covering all the high profile films at the festival.
