Afterhours

VIFF - Oct. 11 and 14, 2010

The last six.

Monday

Born to Suffer. Great movie, very funny. Delicious characterization and situations.

Certified Copy. Somewhat strange - you never know if they're married or not, which is supposed to be the point, I guess. Entertaining enough, and beautiful Tuscan scenery.

Another Year. Interesting slice of life movie, so not a lot of plot, but with very engaging and believable characters.

Thursday

Me, Too. The summary says it all: "An absorbing and at times moving look at life for someone with Down syndrome... " The male lead was very engaging and believable.

Whirligig. A fairly entertaining comedy.

October. If I were forced to choose a dud for this year, this one would be closest, though I guess it was somewhat interesting, if a bit weird.

I'd definitely see numbers 1, 3 and 4 again, but probably not the others.

That's it for this year - 19 films and not a real dud among them. My only regret is that I missed seeing the documentary Waiting for "Superman", which I learned about only after it was too late to see it.

VIFF - Oct. 9, 2010

Four today, more or less pretty good.

Made in Dagenham. An interesting fictionalized account of the struggle for women's equal pay rights in Britain. Fun!

King's Road Eccentric characters acting eccentrically save this one from being a dud, though just barely. Not much plot, and a bit too much yelling and screaming for my taste...

Cold Weather An interesting detective story, unusual because it is American and yet relies mostly on actual detecting a la Sherlock Holmes rather than violence, car chases and other staples of American crime drama.

My Words, My Lies - My Love Engaging story about a author who actually wasn't one, and the consequences of his rise to fame. A bit predictable in places - it was clear that the real author had to die somehow.

Three more on Monday.

VIFF - Oct. 7, 2010

Three more pretty good ones. My luck is holding this year; no duds yet in a total of nine films so far.

Gallants. A comic take off on the kung fu genre - the stars are the same, just a little bit older .... . I've never seen an actual kung fu movie, and judging by the comments I overheard afterward, I missed many in-jokes; nevertheless, a very funny film.

Route 132. More about coming to terms with grief than a crime spree. Good funny bits as well - altogether, a well put together and interesting film.

Down Terrace. A very funny and very black black comedy which gets funnier as the body count mounts.

VIFF - Oct. 4, 2010

Three more today, one excellent and the other two pretty good.

The Infidel. Hilarious! Many great lines re Jewish-Muslim relations and prejudices. Played to a sold-out house, and the festival is putting on two extra screenings.

Kawasaki's Rose. Interesting story and good characters.

Our Life. Good story set in contemporary Italy.

I'd certainly watch the first again; probably not the others.

I found out today what happened to the trailers. This year, instead of trailers, there's some sort of contest on, and each day, they're showing a random scene of a short movie called The Warden, and the audience is supposed to rearrange the scenes into the movie. I think I prefer the trailers - they were usually pretty funny.

VIFF - Oct. 1, 2010

The film festival is here again. A few negative changes from previous years: apparently no "trailers" this year (one of the best features of previous VIFFs), nothing but junk food at the concessions (they used to have fruit and veggie bowls!) and a management policy that makes patrons with successive films in the same theatre leave the theatre in between, for no apparent reason (they used to let you stay put and read or whatever).

The films: so far, so good.

Sawako Decides. OK film, with a few good funny bits, but a bit slow-paced (and thus too long), and with a bit too much histrionics for my taste.

Lucky. I chose this one as a "filler" between the other two, but it turned out to be a quite interesting documentary on the effects of a lottery win on the winners' lives. Somewhat gratifying that the winner most in control of his current life is a former mathematics professor. The best line in the film: "Winning the lottery is like adding Miracle Gro to all your short-comings."

Pinoy Sunday. Pretty funny film centred around trying to get a couch across the city of Taipei. The best of the three.

The next three are on Monday.

VIFF - Oct. 15, 2009

I saw the last three yesterday, all pretty good.

Crackie I generally go to see films produced in Newfoundland, my home province, if only to see what's new. Usually it's a comedy, and a pretty good one. This one was more serious, and I found it surprisingly moving in places.

A crackie is a Newfoundland term for a small, yappy, snappy dog, and indeed, there was one such in this film. Yet the term could be applied to the main characters as well – the heroine and her grandmother. An interesting tale following a few generations of parental neglect and its inevitable consequences.

Today is Better Than Two Tomorrows A documentary that follows two Laotian boys on their way to becoming Buddhist novice monks. Engaging, and with magnificent scenery. An impressive film, especially since it was made made without a film crew.

Letters to Father Jacob Well acted and not a bad story, though I found the revelation of Leila's story a bit contrived and a little unconvincing somehow.

That's it for this year. While I saw more films than ever this year, oddly and gratifyingly, fewer of them turned out to be duds – I must be getting better at interpreting the advertising verbiage printed in the film guide.

VIFF - Oct. 12, 2009

Three pretty good films today.

Nora's Will Funny, with the humour coming from both the characters and the plot.

An Education. Funny and witty, with some choice comments on the purpose of education.

The White Ribbon. A somewhat grim story (in black & white) on the theme of social repression in Germany pre-WWI. A bit slow paced, but engrossing.

Three more on Thursday; then that's it for this year.

VIFF - Oct. 8, 2009

Todays films:

The Damned Rain. Strong plot, sympathetic characters; altogether an engrossing film. Worth the time spent watching it.

Unmade Beds. In contrast to the first film, boring, unsympathetic characters, little or no plot. A waste of time - I left before the end, as did many others.

The State of Old. Eight shorts about being old (more or less). Some were memorable (Danzak, A Glorious Morning, Invisible Old People, Irene); the others not.

Cow. The best of today's viewing. Very funny despite the extreme violence (which, in the context of war, did not come across as gratuitous). Definitely recommended.

The next three are on Monday (Thanksgiving).

VIFF - Oct. 3, 2009

Four films today:

Excited. A not bad story about a guy with premature, er, "excitement". Funny, and some good characters (the mother, especially).

Castaway on the Moon. Mostly funny despite the somewhat unbelievable premise and plot. The best bits are the main character's attempts to find enough to eat, and his fantasies of noodles with black bean sauce.

A Cargo to Africa. The best of the four by far. Good story, sympathetic characters and unforced humour. Definitely recommended.

Cooper's Camera. The dud of the day. The idea is good – a family Christmas from hell – but the film is vastly overblown. Basically, everyone gets drunk and yells and screams at each other. The humour, which could have been drawn more subtly from the characters and the usual tensions surrounding Christmas, is instead raucous, exaggerated slapstick based mainly on drunk gags. Still, the audience appeared to like it, judging by the laughter.

That's it until next Thursday.

VIFF - Oct. 2, 2009

Just one film today: A Shine of Rainbows. A disappointment, really. No believable conflict, no real character development or even real characters to start with. Predictable plot: as soon as it's hinted that the mother is ill, we know she'll die and her husband will have to come to terms with the kid. Nielsen is unbelievable as a mother and Quinn is not much better as her husband – the kid (John Bell) is a better actor than either. A sugary, feel good film, but not much else.