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.