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TIFF 2011: Wrap up and Recos

2011-09-19T10:07:00.010-04:00

So TIFF ends for another year. The red carpets have been rolled up, awards have been handed out and I really don't want to see any of the RBC/Bell/Lightbox/Cadillac/Princess Grace exhibit ads again.

For those of you wondering what you should be adding to your lists of things see over the next year in theatres or on your couch, here's how I'd categorize the 18 movies I saw at TIFF this year.

My Favourite Film of the Festival

Friends With Kids. Putting aside the fact that I am enamoured with Mr. Hamm and much of the cast of the film, I'm confident I would have loved it anyway. It's funny and real and well acted. Can "I want you to fuck the shit out of me" be the new "You had me at Hello"?? I would like to think I live in a world where that is possible.

Great Movies (I would absolutely recommend them)

Ides of March. Fantastic political thriller with wonderful performances all around. No matter what your political leanings (the best comment I've heard is that Democrats will like the first half of the movie and Republicans the second) the story will grab you and take you along for the ride.

Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope. Rock out with your Spock out. Even if you can't embrace your inner geek, the stories are heartfelt and well told.

First Postition. You will fall in love with these kids. And possibly want to put on your own dancing shoes.

Drive. Ryan Gosling is great as the Driver and Carey Mulligan is as lovely as ever. It's a stylistic, violent and fast paced 90 minutes.

Hysteria. Go to see it for the unlikely premise (it's about the invention of the vibrator). Stay for the performances and chemistry between Maggie Gyllenhaal and Hugh Dancy.

The Oranges. The age old story of a man taking up with a woman half his age is complicated by the fact that she's his best friend's daughter and their families share a neighbourhood and a lot of history.

Undefeated. Yes it was a real life version of Friday Night Lights.

Butter. A black comedy ostensibly about a butter carving competition, but really about politics, and a chance to see Hugh Jackman in a cowboy hat for the ladies and Olivia Wilde in fishnets for the guys.

Good Movies (perfect for an afternoon on the movie network or a flight selection)

The Decendants. Hovers on the border of Good and Great. It's George Clooney, and he's always watchable and the story was good, dialogue well written and supporting cast delivers. Just underwelmed me a bit and ended up first on the Good list.

Damsels in Distress. Whimsical and entertaining. Greta Gerwig is fantastic, and you have to enjoy a movie that includes elaborate dance numbers.

Page Eight. Pretty straightforward spy thriller elevated by a great cast and it's coming to TV later this fall.

Ten Year. A huge cast of characters reconnect for their 10 year high school reunion. People get drunk, feelings get hurt and secrets come out by the end of the night.

Restless. Mia Wasikowska's great and the story of a dying girl and a guy obsessed with death is simply and well told.

Union Square. Mira Sorvino gives a fabulous performance as a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown invading the life of her much more pulled together sister.

Violet & Daisy. Two teenage assasins get involved with a hit that ends up being more than they expected.

Don't Bother (I wouldn't waste your time unless you really have nothing to do)

Sleeping Beauty. Disturbing and disjointed. A brave performance by Emily Browning and some moments that really worked surrounded by a lot that didn't for me.

Sarah Palin - You Betcha!. Nothing new to learn here about the former Governer of Alaska.

Overall I was fairly pleased with my film slate and happy with my selections. I ended up getting a Q&A for 14 of my 18 films, which is my favourite part of the festival experience, and got to see a bunch of stars on stages and red carpets.

What was interesting to me this year was that there seemed to be very little momentum built behind any of the films, as TIFF has become somewhat known as the kickoff to the Oscar season. The people's choice winner (an award that has been won by The King's Speech, Precious and Slumdog Millionaire over the past three years) was Where do We Go Now, a lebanese film that I hadn't heard anything about in line all week. There seemed to by more discussion about award worthy performances than the films themselves. I have a feeling that it's likely because there seems to be a lot of award season bait that hasn't really been seen by anyone yet and didn't come to TIFF this year (The Iron Lady, J. Edgar, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close to name a few) and people are reserving their judgement a little bit. I guess we'll see over the next few months as we finish out the year!

TIFF 2011: Final Weekend! The Descendants, Hysteria and Page Eight

2011-09-18T15:37:00.006-04:00

I had three films Saturday and Sunday to finish up TIFF for 2011.

Saturday morning was The Descendants, the latest from director Alexander Payne (Sideways, Election) which stars George Clooney as the patriarch of a large extended family in Hawaii. He's the family trustee and the final decision maker on what to do with 25 acres of land which is being sought by developers. He's also dealing with the fact that his wife has been in an accident and lies comatose in the hospital and is trying to navigate through the tragedy as well as his relationship with his two young daughters, 17 year old Alex (Shailene Woodley) and 10 year old Scottie (Amara Miller).

Maybe my expectations were too high for this movie, as I'd heard wonderful things about Clooney's performance and the film has been popping up on the list of Oscar contenders, but I was a bit underwhelmed. The movie is very good and the performances are indeed wonderful (the biggest pleasant surprise for me was Woodley) but it didn't blow me away. If it were anyone other than George Clooney playing the role I don't know that it would be getting this level of attention (though I guess that should go without saying).

Saturday evening was Hysteria, the indie romantic comedy about the invention of the vibrator in 1880's England from director Tanya Wexler. The credits of the film kick off with the standard -this film is based on true events- claim only to be followed by -really- immediately afterwards. Yes, apparently women back in the day were often medically diagnosed with hysteria, the most common treatment of which was "pelvic massage" in order to induce "paroxysm". Not to get off on a feminist tangent (and an orgasm is probably good for all that ails you) but it is laughable looking back and seeing how men basically figured out a way to make any undesirable thoughts or behaviors from the women in their lives a medical issue.

The film stars Hugh Dancy as Mortimer Granville, a physician taken as an assistant into the women's treatment practice of Dr. Dalrymple (Jonathan Price). Dr. Dalrymple has two daughters who are as different as night and day. Emily (Felicity Jones) is the perfect, poised, piano playing, demure future potential wife and Charlotte (Maggie Gyllenhaal) is the progressive, outspoken, independent woman who argues with her father about the medical necessity of his practice and spends her time trying to teach and care for other women and children in an unfunded shelter. Which woman do you think is the right one for him?? Yes, we all know where the movie is going but it is a very entertaining trip nonetheless. The invention of the vibrator comes out of necessity (the poor man's hand is about to fall off) and accident through a discussion with his cheeky technology obsessed friend (Rupert Everett and dear god man, what the hell did you do to your formerly attractive face?!?).

I quite liked the movie. The performances were all good, particularly Gyllenhaal who was playing a character I liked, was compellingly watchable on screen and had a great accent (to my non-native ears anyway...but then my last example of an American playing an Englishwoman was Anne Hathaway in One Day so Maggie may be better off for the comparison).

This morning I lined up at Ryerson for the last time until next year for my final movie of the festival. Page Eight is a spy thriller from writer/director David Hare that was developed for and aired on the BBC this summer and is set to air here across the pond on PBS in November. Hare is best known as a playwright, though he has also written some major screenplays (The Hours, The Reader) and this is the first time he's directed a film since 1989.

The movie stars Bill Nighy as as Johnny Worriker, an old school MI5 agent. His boss Benedict (Michael Gambon) is also his best friend and confidant and when he dies suddenly after discussing a top secret file with Johnny and his coworker Jill (Judy Davis) he is reasonably suspicious. Over the same time period he has a far to coincidental (for his tastes) run in with his neighbour Nancy (Rachel Weisz) who has ties to the middle east and is trying to find out what really caused the death of her brother and is trying to hold together a relationship with his artist daughter (Felicity Jones) who has stuff going on in her own life.

It's a quite good, straightforward thriller made better by the amazing cast pulled together for the TV project. According to Nighy that is all based on the fact that everyone is willing to do whatever they need to do in order to work with Hare. Yes, did I mention that both David Hare and Bill Nighy attended the screening on the last day of the festival to do an intro and a Q&A? They were lovely and classy and made the movie better for being there. They discussed their long history of collaboration (this is their 7th project together), the political climate in the UK and the potential issues with US release and reaction, the differences working on stage, film and for television and the possibility of the character continuing into a second or third film. A fully satisfying end to TIFF for the year.

TIFF 2011: Violet & Daisy

2011-09-17T13:52:00.004-04:00

Heading into the TIFF homestretch and the final weekend of screenings.

Last night's movie was Violet & Daisy, the directorial debut of Geoffrey Fletcher (previously an Oscar winning screenwriter for Precious) and starring Alexis Bledel and Saoirse Ronan as the titular characters. Violet (Bledel) and Daisy (Ronan) are assassins, the numbers 8 and 9 quirkily sewn on to every piece of clothing they wear. They are also teenage girls who jump on beds, chew bubble gum and are obsessed Barbie Sunday, some sort of Britney Spearsish pop star. The movie opens with them dressed as nuns, carrying pizza boxes and telling each other lame jokes (meant to highlight Daisy's naiveté) before entering an apartment building and opening fire on a group of gunmen. Afterwards, after agreeing to their next job (and getting the details from Danny Trejo), they break into the apartment of their target, Michael (James Gandolfini), and promptly fall asleep on the couch waiting for him to return home. The job, of course, isn't as straightforward as they'd like and the girls and Michael fall into talking, eating oatmeal cookies and fending off the attack of another set of thugs also arriving to take Michael out. There are flashbacks and fantasy sequences and discussions, and in the end no real clear resolution or future direction for the characters.

The movie premiered on Thursday night and Fletcher hung around to introduce the film and do a Q&A following the screening. He took a lot of questions from the crowd but didn't provide a lot of really clear answers to them. Every response was just a bit vague, whether the question was about his influences as a director or the meaning or symbolism of elements of some of the sequences in the film.

Overall, I'd say the movie was fine (yeah, I realize how tepid that sounds as I write it but I don't have anything stronger to say). It was interesting to see a new side of Bledel who has always played pretty goody-goody roles. Some of the scenes were interestingly shot and the soundtrack was quite good. Between this and Damsels in Distress, I'm wondering if there was some memo that went out to Hollywood about naming female characters after flowers (a Rose shows up in the mix as well).

TIFF 2011: Union Square

2011-09-16T10:15:00.004-04:00

Last night's movie was the world premiere of Union Square, the latest from writer/director Nancy Savoca (Dogfight, If These Walls Could Talk).

It stars Mira Sorvino and Tammy Blanchard as Lucy and Jenny, sisters who have been estranged for more than three years, and takes place over about 48 hours. Lucy, who we meet first as she is erratically shopping and making phone calls, drops in on her sister's apartment (she lives in Union Square) unannounced and sets up camp on the couch. She's a bit of a whirlwind, clearly has some issues and is very emotional. Jenny is sedate, almost repressed, and has clearly not told her fiancé Bill (Mike Doyle) much about her family and most of what she has told him is a lie. What follows is a lot of talking, some confrontations, lies, resolutions and one drama-filled night out for the pair. It ends as a very interesting character study, without a clear tied up resolution.

I thought the movie was quite good. One of the great things about it is how the truths seem to unravel, almost like peeling back layers of an onion. Each time we discover something new I expected that issue to be the main crux of the relationship or problem to be resolved, but the movie continued to surprise me until the very end. Sorvino and Blanchard are also very well cast and give terrific performances in very different roles, playing off each other beautifully and completely believable as siblings.

Writer/Director Savoca, co-writer Mary Tobler, producer Neda Armian and actors Sorvino and Doyle attended the film and held a Q&A afterwards. Some of the interesting things we learned included the fact that the whole story seemed to come from a dare from Armian to Savoca to make a movie in her apartment (and that is indeed what they ended up doing) and that they filmed the entire movie in sequence, which is very uncommon. Sorvino talked about the character's motivations (you can tell she has great affection for Lucy) and about some of the improvisation in the film. Savoca discussed a bit about women in filmmaking (it was an estrogen heavy production), the casting and filming process and gave us a bit of a perspective on what would have happened to the characters after the final scene.

The movie doesn't have a distribution deal yet and I hope that it ends up finding it's way to an audience.

TIFF 2011: Damsels in Distress, Butter and Sleeping Beauty

2011-09-15T11:05:00.004-04:00

I took another day off yesterday (why isn't the three day work week sustainable?) and saw three movies.
This morning's movie was Damsels in Distress, a return to directing after a thirteen year absence for Whit Stillman (Metropolitan, Barcelona, Last Days of Disco).

The movie stars Greta Gerwig, Megalyn Echikunwoke and Carrie MacLemore as Violet, Rose and Heather respectively. The three schoolmates at a fictional east coast university take transfer student Lily (Analeigh Tipton) under their wing, introducing her to their attempts to revolutionize the student body through good hygiene, suicide prevention and dance numbers. The story is divided into chapters and they kind of seemed that way to me, almost presented like little vignettes instead of one plotline. The girls major issues of course come from the men in their lives, the exotic older man Xavier (Hugo Becker), the frat boys they are trying to 'improve' Frank and Thor (Ryan Metcalf and Billy Magnussen) and Charlie (Adam Brody) the lying charmer who threatens to come between them.

I think this one will end up solidly in the middle of the pack for me. It was entertaining, amusing, and very whimsical but didn't really grab my attention.

Stillman popped in after the film to do a Q&A, and I don't know if it was unplanned but the programmer hadn't announced that there would be one so a good chunk of the theater had filed out during the credits which is too bad. He discussed the development and casting process, working with a young cast and didn't really give a solid answer as to why he hadn't directed anything in 13 years and why this was the story he decided to start with.

After a lovely lunch with a friend including several glasses of prosecco it was back in line for the next round.

Butter is a story about the competitive world of butter carving. It's also a story about racism, infidelity, politics and prostitution. The movie was directed by Jim Field Smith (She's Out of My League) and stars a whole bunch of well known actors.

Jennifer Garner plays Laura Pickler, a conservative wife of 15 time butter carving champion Bob Pickler (Ty Burrell). When he is encouraged to hang up his tools to give an opportunity for someone else to win, Laura (with the intensity of a grown up Tracy Flick) decides she is not having it and enters the competition herself. Her chief competition is Destiny (Yara Shahidi), a young, black orphan recently taken in by yuppie couple the Emmets (Alicia Silverstone and Rob Corddry) who shows an unlikely talent in the butter carving arts. She's also up against a superfan of Bob's (Kristin Schaal) and a stripper/prostitute named Brooke (Olivia Wilde...in like her 5th movie of the year) who's out for revenge on Laura due to an unfortunate incident in a parking lot. Her backup includes a former boyfriend Boyd (Hugh Jackman) who will do pretty much anything to help Laura get what she wants.

It's possible the prosecco at lunch had me in a good mood to start off but I really liked the movie. It's very funny and the performances were good all around (particulary Wilde for me who stole every scene she was in). The film doesn't have a release date yet but was acquired by The Weinstein company and Harvey is already doing his best to drum up publicity for it, so I'd expect you'll see it in theatres fairly soon.

Last up for the day was Sleeping Beauty, the directorial debut of Julia Leigh which premiered at Cannes earlier this year and is being 'presented' by Jane Campion.

Emily Browning stars as Lucy, a student who seems to be working about 4 part time jobs, one of them as an amateur prostitute of sorts. She answers an ad and takes a job as a 'sleeping beauty', a prostitute who is drugged unconscious and left in a room with a man to be used as he wishes (short of actual penetration). We of course see what happens to her while she's unconscious but she starts to have a hard time not knowing and tries to figure out a way to see for herself. She's also got a job in some sort of medical trial, works as a waitress and has a relationship with a man she calls Birdman that isn't really explained. There are lots of fade outs from one scene to another and a rather abrupt ending.

Maybe it was the fact that the movie started more than half an hour late and it had been a rather long day but I didn't really get it. It was a bit too disturbing, arty and disjointed for my taste. The director attended and held a Q&A after the film and many of the questions and comments from the audience were very complimentary so it may be just me.

TIFF 2011: The Oranges and Undefeated

2011-09-13T21:29:00.004-04:00

Day off work today and I had two movies to see.

First on the schedule was The Oranges, from director Julian Farino, who's best known work to date has been as a director on TV series such as Entourage, The Office and Big Love. The movie takes place in a friendly New Jersey suburb (known as The Oranges) and centers around the relationships and entanglements between members of two families, the Wallings and the Ostroffs.

David and Paige Walling (Hugh Laurie and Catherine Keener) have a beautiful home, long marriage, two grown children in Toby (Adam Brody) and Vanessa (Alia Skawkat) and very little happiness in their lives. Terry and Carol Ostroff (Oliver Platt and Allison Janney) live across the street and have a grown daughter of their own, Nina (Leighton Meester), who hasn't been home to visit in years. Nina's return for the holiday season throws just about everything into turmoil. There's the friendship that she and Vanessa used to share when they were pre-teens that disintegrated in high school, her pushy mother hoping that she and Toby would get together and then most disastrously, the relationship that springs up between her and her father's best friend.

I really liked the movie. Now, I'm admittedly a pretty big Hugh Laurie fan (and frankly could totally see why a 24 year old would hop into bed with him) so I didn't have as much of an issue with the central relationship as people might. And really, while the David/Nina relationship is the pivot point of the movie, there is also so much else going on with the people around them. Alia Shawkat stole every scene as the daughter dealing with her former friend's betrayal, her anger and disillusionment with her father and her ambivalence as to her own future as she continues to live at home and put off starting her own life. Allison Janney and Catherine Keener were similarly wonderful as women dealing with disappointments and anger in their own ways.

Director Farino showed up to introduce the film and to do a Q&A following the screening. He talked quite a bit about the delicate balance he felt he had to maintain in the movie so as not to make the relationship seem predatory. He was asked if Meester was cast because she had previously played a somewhat similar role with Laurie on an arc of House and he said that while that wasn't why she was cast he thought it helped them with establishing the necessary chemistry between the actors. He was also very complimentary about the city of Toronto and the festival and how film-literate people seem to be (he's not the first or last filmmaker to pander to us...but we still appreciate it). The film doesn't have a distribution deal at this point but I'd imagine you'll see it in theatres some time next year.

Up this evening was the documentary Undefeated, which follows the 2009 season of the inner city Memphis Manassas Tigers who are attempting to have a winning season after years of losses with the goal of winning the first ever playoff game in the school's 100+ year history.

I had selected this movie because in reading the description I basically felt like it sounded like the real life version of a season of Friday Night Lights (and that show rocks). And really, it kind of was...with a little bit of The Blind Side thrown in for good measure.

The film follows the team's season highlighting the leadership of Coach Bill Courtney and the stories of three of the team members, O.C. Brown, the big, fast, talented player who is struggling academically and hoping to get to play football in college, Montrail "Money" Brown, the studious team leader, too small to play football beyond high school and hoping academics are the way out and Chavis Daniels who is fresh out of a 15 month stint in a junior penitentiary and is struggling with anger issues and how to be a member of a team.

The film is very well done and you find yourself getting swept along in the story as if it were a scripted sports film. The stories of the players and the town and the Coach and his family are all very moving. Are they successful and do they win their playoff game in the end? I'm not going to tell you and you shouldn't check before you see it because it's a much better experience to go in without knowing. The movie premiered at the South by Southwest festival earlier this year and was picked up by The Weinstein Company so I'm sure you'll get an opportunity to see it in a theatre or on the movie network at some point in the next year.

Filmmakers Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin along with Coach Bill Courtney himself were there and held a Q&A after the screening. Coach was given a standing ovation from the crowd as he was introduced. The season shown here was the last year he coached the team at Manassas (he was there as a volunteer coach for 6 years and worked with many of these players all the way through) and he's now coaching at the high school where his two oldest daughters are students and his sons will be attending and playing in the next couple of years. We got updated on where the players are today and how they are doing. Lindsay and Martin talked about how they decided to make this film and how they dealt with some unexpected events during the process.

TIFF 2011: Ten Year

2011-09-13T09:41:00.005-04:00

Last night's movie was the world premiere of Ten Year, the directorial debut of Jamie Linden (previous credits include the screenplays for We Are Marshall and Dear John) and tells the story of a group of former classmates coming together for their 10 year high school reunion.

It's a really large ensemble cast, including Channing Tatum and wife Jenna Dewan-Tatum as a couple (it's his reunion, she's along for the ride), his high school love played by Rosario Dawson who shows up with husband Ron Livingston in tow, married couples Chris Pratt & Ari Graynor and Brian Geraghty & Aubrey Plaza, Oscar Isaac as the guy who went away and got famous and spends the night catching up with Kate Mara, Scott Porter (Jason Street!) back from Japan along with his girlfriend and Anthony Mackie, Lynn Collins, Justin Long and Max Mingella as fellow classmates who's lives aren't quite where they wanted them to be 10 years after high school.

The movie was fine, probably about a 6 out of 10 if I had to rate it. The stories are interweaved nicely and while I wasn't surprised by any of the plot elements they were all well executed. It was fun to see Ari Graynor play the straight, sober counterpoint to Chris Pratt (who was hilarious as the drunken former high school douche) after her wonderful turn on the other side of that equation in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist. The song written and performed by Oscar Isaac was great and Aubrey Plaza was very fun to watch every time she showed up on screen. The chemistry among the cast was completely believable as people who had known each other for a long time.

A vast chunk of the cast were there, and I'm sure a bunch of other people involved with the film based on the rowdiness of the crowd at the Ryerson last night. Notable absenses were Chris Pratt who had been in town all weekend to support Moneyball and left Linden a message to read to the crowd (because he'd promised on his mother's life to do so), Rosario Dawson, Anthony Mackie and Ron Livingston. After the screening Linden brought them all up on stage for a Q&A session. They talked about the inspiration for the movie, the challenges of filming with such a large cast with so many stories to tell, how well some of them had known each other before filming the movie and how much better (or worse) this portrayal was compared to their own high school reunion experiences.

All in all, just another good night at TIFF.

TIFF 2011: Drive, First Position and Sarah Palin

2011-09-12T11:16:00.006-04:00

Sunday was my first three day movie of TIFF this year and I saw three pretty different films.

First up was Drive, starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan (making this my third year in a row of seeing one of her films at TIFF). The movie premiered earlier this year at Cannes and won a Best Director award there for Nicolas Winding Refn. Gosling plays the Driver (no other name given), a man who works at a garage and drives stunt cars on movie sets by day and criminals fleeing the scene of the crime by night. He lives alone, doesn't say much and has no personal life to speak of. He meets his new neighbour Irene and her adorable son in the hallway of their building and finds himself getting pulled into her life at the same time he's also getting pulled into a new business venture by his boss and mentor Shannon (Bryan Cranston). Other people involved in these entanglements include mobsters (Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman), thieves (Christina Hendricks) and ex-cons (Oscar Isaac).

It is a very well done, very stylistic, and very violent movie. I was a bit unprepared for the level of violence and must confess that I watched several scenes through finger covered eyes. Even so, I really liked the movie. Gosling is fantastic and I don't know whether this or Ides of March is more likely to get him an Oscar nomination this year, though it's unfortunate that the two great performances may end up working against him and splitting the vote. I renew my girlcrush on Carey Mulligan every time I see her on screen and though she didn't have all that much to do here, there were a few moments where she and Gosling had entire conversations without saying a word that were pretty magical.

More impressively for a 9:00am screening the morning after the premiere (and considerable partying I'm sure) Winding Refn, Gosling, Cranston and Brooks showed up to do a Q&A after the film. I fully believe that a couple of them had not yet been to bed. Winding Refn is clearly a bit insane (in the best possible way of course). He talked about how the movie got made (which somehow started with a story about how he wanted to kill Harrison Ford in a movie but didn't get to), how he and Ryan are 'telekenetic' and interjected some other bizarre comments as the discussion went along. Not counting being able to stare at Gosling, Cranston was easily the best part of the discussion, quick witted, very funny and entertaining.

Next up was First Position, a documentary by first time filmmaker Bess Kargman. The movie follows 6 different children from around the world between the ages of 10 and 17 who are competing in the Youth America Grand Prix ballet competition, which every year awards scholarships and even job contracts to those trying to make ballet a career.

It was a lovely, entertaining and heartfelt movie. You can't help but fall a little in love with these kids as you see how hard they work and hear about some of the hardships they've had to deal with in their young lives. The film was described as a labour of love by Kargman, herself a former dancer in her childhood, who has done a really good job with her first film. She seemed very excited to be presenting the movie at TIFF and was very grateful for the enthusiastic response of the crowd. I really hope she manages to sell the movie cause it would be nice to find it on the Movie Network or HBO Canada sometime and watch it again. She also brought along a few of the subjects of the film to answer a few questions and they were all very cute and pretty well spoken.

I finished up the day with the world premiere of Sarah Palin: You Betcha!, the newest documentary from Nick Broomfield and Joan Churchill which strives to tell us something new about the former mayor of Wasilla.

Broomfield and Churchill spent about three months in Wasilla, interviewing family members, friends and former friends, and enemies of Palin and also travelled to various locations in the states to pop up at Palin book signings to try to get an interview with the woman herself.

It's not a flattering picture of Palin, though I can't imagine anyone would expect one. She comes across as someone who could be dangerous with enough power. I thought the movie was good, but not great, and didn't really tell me much that I didn't know or already think about the woman. The one area that was somewhat new to me was the extent of the evangelical background and faith which seems to inform most of her decisions. I still can't believe that this woman is taken so seriously by so many people. The filmmakers were asked about fears for their safety (they're being optimistic and not worried), their thoughts on the political outlook (they think she might run) and their filmmaking style. They've already sold the movie and I'm pretty sure you should be able to find it in theatres in most major cities by the end of the year.

TIFF 2011: Ides of March and Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope

2011-09-10T22:56:00.004-04:00

The Ides of March, directed by George Clooney, and starring Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood is a great political drama. It is based on the play Farragut North, which itself was loosely based on the campaign of Howard Dean in the 2004 Democratic primary.

Gosling stars as Stephen Myers, a brilliant young political mind who is on the campaign staff of Governor Mike Morris (Clooney) in the democratic primary race, which is all coming down to the results in Ohio. The whole film basically comes down to Stephen being forced to make several decisions about what he is willing to do to win, how much he's willing to compromise his own values, and who he is going to be able to deal with hurting to achieve his goals. Hoffman and Giamatti are great as the dueling campaign managers, both examples of the people that Stephen doesn't want to become. Marisa Tomei shines in a small role as a political reporter who dashes some of his illusions on friendship. There were a couple of moments in the movie that just grabbed at my throat, particularly where the camera panned back and soundtrack came up where we'd normally be hearing dialogue. My friend probably said it best when she said she spent most of the film on the edge of her seat.

It was a Saturday morning screening, the day after the premiere...yeah there's no way Clooney is showing up to intro or do a Q&A for the film. The movie hits theatres on October 7th and is definitely worth seeing.

My second movie of the day was the world premiere of Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope, the latest documentary from Morgan Spurlock. Spurlock follows the journey of a bunch of different folks on their way to and throughout the four day convention held every year in San Diego, interspersed with interviews with folks who have built careers helped along by the Comic-Con crowd including Kevin Smith, Seth Green, Joss Whedon, Eli Roth and many many others.

If you are a lover of pop culture at all you have to be aware of what Comic-Con is, and the fact that it seems to continue to grow in scale and importance in terms of its influence on what pop culture is going to be focused on in the year to come (Kevin Smith described it in one of his interview segments as 'Geek New Year').

The movie was really, really good and entertaining. It definitely gave you a feel for what it would be like to be in the middle of it and the people he chose to follow and their stories were for the most part very moving and satisfying. For the first time in one of his documentaries, Spurlock doesn't appear on camera at all (which, to quote him means that "people who hate my movies could perhaps like this one"). All of the filming took place at or before the 2010 event and the stories followed included two aspiring comic book artists trying to break into the industry by showing their portfolios, a collector of action figures on a mission to pick up a specific item, the owner/operator of an online comic store who has been attending the con for more than 30 years and is trying to keep his business alive, an amateur costume designer hoping to turn pro with a team entry into the masquerade and a young couple who met at Comic-Con and who could possibly be getting engaged at this one.

Almost more fun than the movie itself was the action surrounding it last night. We were greeted by costumed characters on our long ride up the escalator at the Scotiabank theatre. Spurlock brought about 50 of them to the front of the room as he introduced the film, everyone from stormtroopers to Spiderman to a bunch that I was not familiar with (I am a nerd, but apparently not enough of one to catch all the references). After the screening Spurlock again took to the stage and brought up a whole crew of people for the Q&A including some of the folks in the documentary, a bunch of members of his crew and Mr. Stan Lee himself, whose highest bit of praise for the director was that he stayed awake for the entire movie. I don't think the moderator had to say one word as Spurlock managed the Q&A, doing a great job of getting some stories told, interracting with the crowd and bringing us up to speed on what's happened to the documentary subjects in the past year. This is the first time that Comic-Con has allowed a filmmaker this kind of access to the event and I think they definitely made a good choice in Spurlock. He shows us a funny and entertaining look at the phenomenon without resorting to making fun of those who are involved, and clearly has a lot of love for the crowd.

Getting to Comic-Con has been on my 'to do' list for a long time. One of these years I'm going to do it :-)

TIFF 2011: Friends with Kids

2011-09-10T08:39:00.004-04:00

I loved this movie.

You should probably take that endorsement with a small grain of salt since I'm sure I'm pretty much in the sweet spot for the film target market wise. Also because proximity to Jon Hamm likely makes every experience better. But I loved this movie.

Friday night at Ryerson was the world premiere of Friends with Kids, a comedy written, directed and starring Jennifer Westfeldt and produced with her long time boyfriend Jon Hamm. It also stars about 50% of the cast of Bridesmaids (Hamm, Kirsten Wiig, Chris O'Dowd, Maya Rudolph), Adam Scott, Megan Fox and Edward Burns.

Westfeldt and Scott play Julie and Jason, long time best friends who witness the relationships and friendships of the friends around them change (mostly for the worse) as they have children. Eventually they make a decision to have a child together as friends in an attempt to avoid some of those pitfalls. This arrangement makes other romantic entanglements complicated (Ed Burns and Megan Fox play the love interests), friendships with the other couples in their lives awkward at times (O'Dowd/Rudolph and Wiig/Hamm play the other sets of couples) and, of course, their own relationship has to go through some changes as well.

It was funny. Laugh out loud funny. The whole cast was great, the script was pitch-perfect (I could so recognize moments from my own 'friends with kids' lives) and Westfeldt has done a great job with her directorial debut.

Jennifer Westfeldt, Jon Hamm, Adam Scott and Megan Fox attended and held a Q&A after the screening. Unlike last night's mess, no one rushed the stage and the questions were all pretty good (especially from the adorable 10 year old). Westfeldt talked about how the project started years ago when she wrote the first 70 pages of the script and then it sat in the drawer for years. She finished it last year and had a reading of it at their home and they filmed it over 25 days last winter. There were some funny stories about working with the children and simulated explosive diarrhea diaper changes. Westfeldt was charmingly nervous about the unveiling of her baby but by my account she had absolutely no need for nerves. The movie doesn't yet have distribution but I can't imagine her leaving TIFF without a deal. It should definitely be added to your list to see when it hits theatres.

TIFF 2011: Restless

2011-09-09T10:26:00.003-04:00

TIFF kicked off yesterday and while most of the crowds were at Roy Thompson Hall trying to get a look at Bono and the Edge I was in line for my first film of the festival.

Restless stars Mia Wasikowska (my, she's been busy hasn't she?) and Henry Hopper (son of the late Dennis Hopper in his first role) as Annabel and Enoch, who 'meet cute' at a memorial service that she is attending as a friend of the deceased and he is crashing, what appears to be somewhat of a habit/hobby of his. She's a terminally ill cancer patient and he's a boy obsessed with death who hangs out with the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot from WWII. Of course they are perfect for each other. The movie was directed by Gus Van Sant (Milk, Good Will Hunting), with a quiet pace, well integrated sountrack and many lingering shots of both Wasikowsa and Hopper. And while Wasikowska is clearly the better actor of the pair I was pretty impressed by Hopper's first performance on screen. It was a good film. Not likely to be one I recommend seeing over others but by no means a waste of 90 minutes.

Van Sant, Wasikowsa, producer Bryce Dallas Howard (looking lovely and very pregnant) and first time screenwriter Jason Lew attended the screening and hosted a Q&A after the film. I was somewhat surprised to see Howard on the stage as I would have assumed upon seeing her name as a producer on the film that it was more of a token credit, but she seemed to have been quite an active participant. Apparently she and Lew went to school together and she was one of the first people to read the script and was involved with the film through the entire process including being on set through filming. Most of the questions were standard fare with answers about what it was like to work with Van Sant, the casting and filming process and the motivation for the script until the poor moderator had to deal with the man from the audience who, when given the last question of the evening, asked Wasikowska if he could have a hug. I really don't understand people who do something like this at a film festival. In the confusion the guy actually thought she had said yes and was in the process of rushing the stage when the moderator managed to stop him from ascending the stairs, all the while poor Mia looked terrified. Kind of a silly ending to an evening spent thinking about death.

TIFF 2011: The Film List

2011-09-07T10:37:00.003-04:00

Subject: Your Festival Order has been Processed

Just like that, I'm like a kid on Christmas morning hoping to unwrap a gift to reveal the must have toy du jour. I open my receipt with my breath held (just a little) and slowly read down the list of tickets and showtimes until I get to the bottom to see the magical absense of the word 'VOUCHER'...got em all baby. No waiting in line to try to redeem vouchers or shuffling of the schedule needed...woo hoo!

Here's what I'll be seeing over the next 10 days of TIFF:

Restless
Friends with Kids
Ides of March
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope (yes, I am a nerd, thank you for asking)
Drive
First Position
Sarah Palin - You Betcha!
Ten Year
The Oranges
Undefeated
Damsels in Distress
Butter
Sleeping Beauty
Union Square
Violet & Daisy
The Descendents
Hysteria
Page Eight

See you in line!

TIFF 2011: Here we go again!

2011-08-30T11:22:00.002-04:00

Well hello to the four of you who read this blog. I know, I know, another year went by and I wrote nothing at all in between film festivals.

To summarize the last twelve months in a nutshell, they were pretty great. Travelled to Turks & Caicos and the Bahamas to dive (first night dive! hammerhead sharks!), New York (3 times), Chicago, Paris and the cottage. Saw some wonderful theatre, attended a movie premiere with the fabulous Alan Cumming (he. was. awesome.), read about 150 books and watched entirely too much television. Met a few new babies, spoiled my adorable nephew and celebrated my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary. And now we're all caught up.

It's time for TIFF again! My favourite week (or so) of the year in Toronto and the best thing for alleviating the end of summer depression.

First for the sucky news, not to rehash my rant from last year but the powers that be at TIFF have made even *more* of the first screenings of movies "Premium" which means that not only are they twice the price of the regular screening but that they are ineligible for the advance order process. Basically, all the evening first run screenings at Roy Thompson, Elgin, Ryerson, Princess of Wales, and the Bader are now premium. Or, said another way, pretty much any screening that you can expect to have the stars attend.

Now, what bothers me isn't so much the price (well, that bothers me a little) but the fact that these movies can't be included in my order form. I think that maybe next year I need to reduce the amount of movies I try to preorder and try my luck at buying tickets for a few of those screenings when they go on sale. Or, they need to introduce a 10 ticket premium pack so that people can include those screenings in the order process. I don't know, I'm sure the pre-order process is incredibly complicated. I was just having a discussion last night about how it's possible that they haven't moved it online yet but imagining the disaster that would accompany that attempt.

Anyway, all that aside, I'm getting excited for this year's festival like I always do. What movie will emerge as the universally loved, heard about in every line, breakthrough? Which stars will be entertaining the paparazzi flitting about the city? What movie will I fall in love with that doesn't get the recognition it deserves?

And most importantly, when will I get my order confirmation email so that I can stop worrying about my schedule?

Time will tell!!

TIFF 2010: The Wrap Up

2010-09-20T15:36:00.007-04:00

11 Days. 300 films. 300,000 tickets. So went the line on the front of the official film schedule for TIFF this year. Well, I managed to see 16 of them and for your summary pleasure...here's how they fall out in my opinion.

My Favourite Film of the Festival

Made in Dagenham. I know I'm having a hard time separating the movie itself from my joy in the story of women fighting for equal rights in the world but it was just great.

Great Movies (you should absolutely see them in the theatre or before the Oscars next year)

Rabbit Hole. Nicole Kidman is back in form and Aaron Eckhart gives a wonderful performance too. A sad story about parents struggling to put their lives back together after losing a child.

Conviction. Hillary Swank again shines as a tough woman in tough circumstances. The true life story of a sister that won't give up on her brother's innocence.

Hereafter. Clint Eastwood directs three stories about death and what comes next.

Beautiful Boy. Won the critic's award for the Discovery programme and showcases fabulous performances by Michael Sheen and Maria Bello.

Inside Job. Charles Ferguson (previously Oscar nominated for No End in Sight) delivers an eductional and infuriating look at the financial crisis.

Never Let Me Go. If you were only going to either read the book or see the movie I would recommend the book, but there's room for both and I thought the translation to screen was done really well and cemented my crush on Carey Mulligan as an actress.

Good Movies (worth a rental or a good way to spend time on a plane)

Daydream Nation. A little dark comedy from a first time Canadian director. I'm sure you'll get a chance to see it on the Movie Network. Kat Dennings is compellingly watchable.

Super. Rainn Wilson as a sad sack vigilante superhero who is trying to save his wife but mostly just hits people over the head with a wrench. Ellen Page rocks as the unhinged sidekick.

Trust. A 14yr old girl falls prey to a pedophile. Worth seeing for the performance of Liana Liberato and Clive Owen's final scene.

Sound of Mumbai: a musical. Documentary about a group of kids from the slums of India who get a chance to perform. The kids, as you'd expect, will break your heart.

Buried. Ryan Reynolds in a box.

Easy A. Emma Stone is awesome as the precocious Olive (who needs Lindsay Lohan??) and the movie delivers exactly as it should.

Waiting for 'Superman'. The kids in lotteries trying to get into better schools anchor a lot of information about the educational system and provide a compelling narrative.

Skip it - not worth the time that could be spent watching better movies

Jack Goes Boating. Philip Seymour Hoffman's directorial debut is a bit slow and pretentious.

Stone. Edward Norton and Robert DeNiro can't save a story that doesn't seem to come together.

Stuff I didn't see that I heard really good things about in lines

The King's Speech. Everyone who talked to me about this movie loved it. It won the People's Choice award for the festival (past two years winners are Precious and Slumdog Millionaire) and Colin Firth is getting rave reviews for his performance (like, expect back to back Oscar nomination raves).

Black Swan. Natalie Portman is apparently also on the Oscar nom shortlist discussion for her performance as a disturbed ballet dancer.

127 Hours. It was on my schedule until I decided I wasn't sure I could sit through the amputation scene (further reinforced by reports of people passing out at the premiere). I've heard James Franco is great though and Danny Boyle gave great Q&A's discussing the film.

And that's it for TIFF for another year. Looking back I'm pretty happy with the selection and have another few to add to my 'must see' list. Now on to the fall TV season...

TIFF: Conviction and Stone

2010-09-19T21:18:00.000-04:00

My final day of TIFF started strong and unfortunately for the grand finale, ended on a kind of weak note.

First the good news. My morning film was Conviction, starring Hilary Swank in the true story of Betty Anne Waters, an unemployed single mother who went from getting a GED to getting a law degree and passing the bar so that she could fight for the release of her convicted brother Kenneth (played by Sam Rockwell), who was eventually freed based on DNA evidence in 2001 after spending 18 years in jail. (Sorry if that spoiled the movie for any of you, but if you had any doubt that this story would have ended up on screen had he not been freed you haven't seen enough movies).

It seems almost too easy to say that Swank excels, yet again, at playing a woman in a difficult situation. While never succesful playing the ingenue or in a romantic comedy (see P.S. I Love You), when she gets a part in her range no one is better, especially at playing real life women in tough circumstances. This is absolutely her movie, though Rockwell is great as Kenneth, and the focus is on Betty Anne's life and how she sacrificed it (in the words of her onscreen children) in order to save the only person who had been a constant in her life through their less than ideal childhood.

Last day of the festival and, as expected, no one from the film was around to talk about it but we did hear a bit about last week's premiere courtesy of the ladies room line. Apparently Betty Anne (the real one) was there for the Q&A, along with the film's director Tony Goldwyn (most well known as the Ghost baddie) and stars. Betty Anne is still working with the Innocence Project (who assisted her in her struggle) and managing a local bar and Kenneth, really tragically, died about 6 months after he'd been released in an accident. The news took a bit of the wind out of our sails but didn't diminish the movie too much.

And now for the meh news. My final movie of TIFF for 2010 was a bit of a letdown. Stone stars Edward Norton as Gerry, a prisoner who's served 8 years of a 10-15 year sentence and Robert DeNiro as Jack, the man responsible for reviewing him for parole. I had heard pretty mixed reviews all week talking to people in various lines who had seen the movie and I have to agree with those that said it wasn't very good.

Norton is always watchable onscreen and this is no exception, but he wasn't enough to make up for a story that just didn't say much to me. There's some sad backstory on the relationship between Jack and his wife (Frances Conroy), who have a long but clearly unfulfilling marriage. Gerry does a lot of talking and uses his wife Lucetta (Milla Jovovich) to maniputate Jack, who works her way into his life and an affair and pretty much acts like a sociopath. Gerry finds some obscure religion - though I don't know if we're meant to believe that this is real or just more manipulation - and eventually gets out of prison. Jack falls apart, retires and lives in fear that Gerry will come after him for sleeping with his wife. There's a confrontation in an alley that goes nowhere...and then it ends. And I walked out sort of bemused and unsatisfied, reminding myself that even though the festival ended on a blah note, for the most part I was really happy with my selection this year.

TIFF: Beautiful Boy and Easy A

2010-09-18T21:17:00.003-04:00

Friday afternoon got my final TIFF weekend off to a fairly dark start with Beautiful Boy, starring Maria Bello and Michael Sheen as a couple on the verge of separation dealing with the aftermath of the actions of their son Sam who has gone on a murderous shooting spree at his college before taking his own life.

While dealing with their own loss, the media frenzy and the curiousity and derision of strangers the two try to come to grips with their own feelings of guilt and responsibility and figure out where to go from there. They first escape to the home of her brother and sister-in-law (Alan Tudyk and Moon Bloodgood) before wearing out their welcome and holing up at a low rent motel in a kind of stasis...unable to face what's outside their door. It's very well done, and incredibly well acted by both leads (I was mildly distracted trying to remember if I'd ever heard Sheen do an American accent) and was picked up for distribution at the festival so is likely to hit movie screens at some point in the coming months. I particularly liked the fact that the movie didn't seem to offer easy answers to the question 'why did this happen' and made both parents flawed but sympathetic characters.

Then it was straight back into line for my least 'festival' movie of the fest, Easy A, which premiered at TIFF last weekend before opening in wide release on the same day I saw it here. I should admit up front, as anyone who knows me knows, I have a huge soft spot for teen movies in general so I was quite predisposed to love this movie. And even though parts of it strained my suspension of disbelief - most notably that there's no way that Emma Stone can play a convincing wallflower and the idea that the news that a high school student had sex would feed the rumour mill at all - I really did.

The movie tries to do for The Scarlett Letter what Clueless did for Emma and stars Emma Stone, who shines as Olive Pendergast, a girl caught up in a spiral of lies beginning with the fictitious loss of virginity to an imaginary boy and ending with a reputation as the school trollop selling sexual favours. Though in reality she remains virginal and pining for the boy she's loved since middle school, she decides not to take the abuse lying down and defiantly sews 'A's on all of her new provocative wardrobe. I'm sure it's not a spoiler to tell you that in the end everyone gets what they deserve and Olive goes off into the sunset with the boy of her dreams and the movie has a good time getting there. Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson seem to be having a great time playing Olive's wise, cool and pop culture savvy parents (almost too cool, their interactions were another believability strain) . Thomas Hayden Church and Lisa Kudrow show up as teacher and guidance counselor at the school who get pulled into the mess. And Amanda Bynes is funny (though a bit one-note) as the fervent christian leader of the school who shoots daggers at Olive with her eyes and leads the mob to destroy her reputation. If I were a betting woman, I would bet on the fact that I will rewatch this movie on my couch a time or two.

TIFF: Buried

2010-09-16T19:15:00.006-04:00

Ryan Reynolds is hot. And tall. And charming. And funny.

Okay, glad I got that out of the way.

Tuesday I was back to the real world at work so I only had one movie on the schedule in the evening. The movie was Buried, directed by Rodrigo Cortes and starring Reynolds as Paul Conroy, a American truck driver working in Iraq who awakens to find himself in a box, assumingly buried underground, with only a lighter and a cellphone. And that's pretty much the entire story.

Cortes introduced the film and thanked us all for coming, pretty much asking us 'you know this movie is just about a guy in a box right??'. In his comments upfront Reynolds said he hoped we enjoyed watching the movie as much as he hated making it. And I'm pretty sure he was only half joking. Filming this must have been really challenging both physically and mentally. The movie premiered at Sundance in January and has been fairly well received, and it's definitely given Reynolds a bit of indie cred. It's basically a one man show, with some voice work of actors on the other end of the phone, and he's very good in it. I found it a bit tough to watch and could just feel my shoulders tensing up throughout the 95 minute film.

The Q&A afterwards was good and showed off Reynolds at his most charming, pointing out his mom in the audience, suggesting an apt name for the sequel (there isn't one) and bouncing back and forth with Cortes. There were quite a few interesting questions and discussions about the technical nature of the filming (they had to use seven different boxes depending on the shot, Reynolds used a real lighter and cell phone to do much of the lighting) and one embarrassing one about the proposal which the moderator wisely cut off with 'how 'bout a real question' before Reynolds had to respond.

Good movie. Worth seeing. And I'll leave you with one more shot of Ryan for the day.

TIFF: Hat Trick Monday - 3 for 3!!

2010-09-15T14:49:00.006-04:00

I saw three movies on Monday and really liked all of them.

Started the day with Never Let Me Go, based on the acclaimed book of the same name by Kazuo Ishiguro. It stars Carey Mulligan (as narrator Kathy), Keira Knightly (Ruth) and Andrew Garfield (Tommy) who meet as schoolchildren at Hailsham, what appears to be an idyllic boarding school. While it's partially a classic love triangle type of story, their lives are complicated by the more serious fate that awaits them after their education.

The filmmakers have done a good job of not spoiling the plot details of the movie in the trailers and information I've seen so far, so I won't do it here. I will say that the movie is a wonderful adaptation of the beautifully written book and all three of the leads do a good job in their roles, particularly Mulligan in only her second major film. Definitely worth putting on your 'must see' list.

My afternoon movie was the world premiere of The Sound of Mumbai: a Musical, from first time director Sarah McCarthy. The documentary follows a group of children from the slums of India who have an opportunity to perform the songs of 'The Sound of Music' at a prestigious performing arts centre with a professional orchestra.

The kids profiled are all incredibly engaging and McCarthy does a great job of capturing the unselfconscious moments between the children, the rivalries that spring up, their family lives and their hopes that this opportunity will change their lives. There's a really interesting juxtaposition between these children and a girl who routinely performs at the centre and is clearly from a wealthy family. I found it a bit sad coming to the end of the concert and knowing that the kids were going to go back to life as usual the next day.

I have to also say that the Q&A was one of the best I've seen yet with folks in the crowd asking specific questions (and not rambling on with their own thoughts) and thoughtful answers from McCarthy. If only the guy who asked about the rights to the music had been listening to the woman who asked the question directly before him. Many of the questions centred around what was happening now to the kids in the movie and McCarthy talked a lot about having to tread carefully to figure out what the best way to support them would be, whether that be in improving the school itself or setting up individual scholarships or something else. I remember reading about all of the problems that the children from Slumdog Millionaire had springing out of the money involved and I think that it's probably a good strategy for the filmmakers to move cautiously. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on the film's website to see what the future holds.

I ended the day with the premiere of Rabbit Hole, directed by John Cameron Mitchell and starring Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart as two parents struggling to deal with the loss of their 4 year old son to a tragic car accident. It's based on the Tony award winning play and was adapted for the screen by the playwright David Lindsay-Abaire. Not the movie to pick if you're looking for something light but really well done. The performances throughout are really stellar, including supporting turns by Diane Wiest and Sandra Oh and I wouldn't be surprised to see Kidman on the Oscar ballet next year. And as sad as the premise of the film is, I was happy that it ended on a note of hope.

Mitchell introduced the movie, flanked by Kidman and Eckhart, but was fairly brief in his remarks. I do wish that if there is no plan to have a Q&A after the film (which there wasn't here), especially for screenings that are twice the price, that the filmmakers and actors would take a little more time to talk about the movie beforehand. Hearing about the process of making the movie and the thoughts of those involved is really one of the main reasons I go to the festival.

TIFF: Made in Dagenham, Jack Goes Boating & Hereafter

2010-09-14T18:16:00.001-04:00

Three movie day Sunday with mixed results.

First up was Made in Dagenham, which has officially became the first movie of the fest that I completely fell in love with. Probably partially because I think it was designed to push every feminist button I've got, but also for the great performances, fantastic soundtrack and overall wonderful story.

The movie is based on true events, though fictionalized with characters standing in as amalgams of their real life counterparts. It concerns a strike in the late 60's by the women who worked as machinists in the Ford plant, first over being classified as 'unskilled workers' and then further developing into a broader fight for equal pay to their male counterparts. It is directed by Nigel Cole who previously brought us Calendar Girls and filled with a cast of fantastic british actors including Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins, Miranda Richardson, Geraldine James and Rosamund Pike, with Richard Schiff (Toby Ziegler!!) standing in as the American Ford representative.

Cole and his two producers attended the early morning screening to introduce the film and then returned for a Q&A afterwards. I saw Richard Schiff sneak in just before the start to watch with an audience as well. They discussed the inspiration for the film (a radio interview reunion with some of the women involved) and making movies about women in general. Cole said it was because he really wasn't interested in making movies about men blowing things up, one of the producers mentioned the bechdel test which happily this movie passes in the first 30 seconds. All in all, a fantastic start to the day.

Next up was Jack Goes Boating, the directorial debut of Philip Seymour Hoffman who also stars as the titular Jack alongside Amy Ryan, Daphne Rubin-Vega and John Ortiz as two rather disfunctional couples.

Rubin-Vega and Ortiz are the married couple with major cracks in the foundation of their relationship. Hoffman is their misfit friend who's into reggae music, sports dreadlocks and doesn't seem to have much going on in his life and who they set up on a date with one of her colleages from work (Ryan). Much of the movie seems to be about Jack's elaborate preparations for date number two (learning to swim and cook a meal) where you just know that things are not going to go well. The movie is based on the play of the same name by Bob Glaudini (who also wrote the screenplay) and all of the actors (save Ryan) were part of the off-broadway cast of the play which gives the movie a feeling of history in the relationships.

I don't know...I turned to my friend at the end of the movie and said that I'm sure there was a great deal of deep symbolism in the movie but that I didn't really get it. She completely agreed. It's not unwatchable by any means and all the actors give good performances but it seemed a bit pretentious to me. Hoffman and his cast did a Q&A after the movie and most of his answers seemed to validate that point to me. I think one of them was of the 'the answer to that is that there is no answer' variety.

Finally, I ended the day with the one and only screening of Clint Eastwood's Hereafter at the festival. It was clearly a hot ticket and Yonge street had a couple of lanes blocked off at the theatre entrance to ward off the gawkers.

The movie deals with death and the afterlife with three seemingly unconnected stories that you know are going to end up connecting at some point. The movie kicks off and kick starts your heart with scenes of the 2004 tsunami and the unlikely survival of Marie Delay (Cecile De France), a french reporter who begins to struggle with her near death experience and is unable to slip back into her life. In England, twin brothers Marcus and Jason are trying to cope with an alcoholic mother and child services when tragedy strikes. In San Fransicso, George (Matt Damon) is trying to live a simple life as a factory worker and escape his past as semi-famous psychic who is able to speak to the dead. He meets a lovely woman in a cooking class (Howard) and is struggling to keep that relationship separate from his abilities (or curse as he believes it to be).

I really liked the movie, though I can't say I walked out loving it. I will say though, that parts of it are sticking with me and I'm still thinking about it 3 days later so that has to say something. I've realized that while I wasn't a huge fan of Eastwood as an actor I've become a pretty big fan of his work as a director and I think this movie will end up settling in there. I'm an even bigger fan of what he does in scoring his films and all of the music works beautifully. An interesting story, good performances, an international cast and some lovely quiet moments. Eastwood, Damon and Howard took to the stage to introduce the film but in the manner in which you'd expect Eastwood didn't have a lot to say and said the film should speak for itself. No Q&A afterwards (Boo!).

TIFF: Trust & Waiting for "Superman"

2010-09-12T07:32:00.006-04:00

Saturday morning kicked off with Trust, the second film from director David Schwimmer and a sharp contrast to his previous TIFF entry 'Run Fatboy Run'.

Clive Owen and Catherine Keener star as parents of a 14 year old girl (Liana Liberato) who discovers to disasterous results that the 16 year old boy she's been talking to online and over the phone for the past several months is really a pedophile who targets young girls online. I'd give the film overall a solid B- and the performance of Liberato an A+ who just ripped my heart out at times.

Schwimmer showed up to the morning screening (always appreciated) to introduce the film and was charming and well spoken. He said his desire to make the movie came out of his involvement with a rape victims group and provided us with some very scary stats on the prevalence of sexual assault.

Next on the docket was Waiting for 'Superman', which, as part of the Mavericks series was also going to include a panel discussion on the education system with director Davis Guggenheim, producer Lesley Chilcott, educator Geoffrey Canada and Bill Gates.

The movie is well done and well paced and follows the fate of several families who have entered their children in lotteries for entrance to one of few public schools in their respective towns with reputations and programs intended to get their students into college. Interspersed with their stories are facts and information about the public school system including historical context, international education ratings and stories of teachers and administrators who are trying to change the system and improve the lives of the children in their charge. The movie wraps up with learning the fate of each of the profiled children (who's odds of getting in to their schools ranged from 1 in 5 to 1 in 35) and it was heartbreaking to understand that their futures were largely tied to such a random fate. To the further delight of the crowd, Guggenheim brought out the families and children who had been the focus of the film to a standing ovation. Nothing pulls the heartstrings more than seeing adorable precocious kids who were clearly overwhelmed to be standing on that stage .

The panel discussion was interesting and all of the members are obviously well informed. The most compelling speaker to me was Geoffrey Canada who leads the Harlem Children's Zone in Harlem, New York. I will definitely be doing some more reading about him and his program. I found myself grateful to be a Canadian (it was a bit gratifying to see where we ranked on several areas of education in the film) though the panel was quick to say that it was important to be proactive on ensuring that we didn't fall into the same declines they've seen south of the border.

My main takeaway from the movie and discussion was that it was going to be necessary to change the administration of schools, especially dealing with the powers of the teachers unions, in order for real improvement to exist. There are more and more of these public charter schools and organizations being created in neighbourhoods all over the country but they are such a small portion of the total that it seems a bit overwhelming. What do you do if your child has only a 1 in 35 chance of getting into a school that will give them a quality education? Guggenheim talked about this as his main motivation in making the film as he passed public schools on the way to dropping off his children at the private school his family was lucky enough to be able to afford. So far my documentaries have been two for two at TIFF!

TIFF: Daydream Nation and Super

2010-09-11T08:13:00.008-04:00

Since I got home in time to get 2 1/2 hours of sleep last night I'm behind on the last couple of days of movies! Friday's double header included my first midnight madness experience and two very different films.

First up was Daydream Nation, a Canadian film and the directorial debut of Michael Goldbach which stars Kat Dennings, Josh Lucas and Reece Thompson. Dennings plays a recent small town transplant trying to reinvent herself against a backdrop of constantly stoned fellow students, a long burning industrial fire outside of town and, oh yeah, a serial killer wreaking havoc on the county. She begins an illicit affair with one of her teachers (Lucas) while also developing a relationship with a fellow student (Thompson) who has his own boatload of issues.

I really liked the movie and I'm going to give most of the credit for that to Dennings who is just gorgeous and compelling onscreen. Lucas was also great in a role that was a departure from anything I'd seen from him. The Director and cast attended and did a post film Q&A and told some entertaining stories about how they got involved with this dark little movie. I always like seeing debuts from directors at the festival because there's some vicarious excitement in being part of someone's being night and this was no exception.

After the movie we were wandering past the Ryerson exit and decided to stick around to watch the red carpet for Passion Play which was fun. Brian Austin Green has aged incredibly well. Mickey Rourke, as everyone knows, really hasn't. Megan Fox is gorgeous even though she looks a bit like her own waxed figure to me. And Bill Murray might just be the coolest man in the world.

The next movie was the midnight madness world premiere of Super from director James Gunn starring Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Liv Tyler (who all attended the screening) and featuring Kevin Bacon and Nathan Fillion (one of my TV boyfriends).

First, the midnight madness atmosphere was a lot of fun and I have to give kudos to the programmer Colin Geddes who seems to love his job and gave a fun and energetic intro to the film.

The movie itself seems like the latest in the 'superhero spoof' genre (see: Kickass) and stars Wilson as a bit of a sad sack who's wife leaves him for a drug dealer (Bacon) and drives him to create a real life superhero 'Crimson Bolt' with the encouragement of a local comic store clerk (Page) who pesters him to become his sidekick. Too be honest, it had a little too much blood and gore for my liking but fans of Gunn's 'Slither' will undoubtedly expect nothing less. But other than having to avert my eyes on a few occasions I enjoyed the movie, and the Holy Avenger tangents were particularly entertaining.

The post film Q&A was a lot of fun and totally entertaining. Gunn gave much of the credit to getting the film kick started to his ex-wife Jenna Fischer (of the Office) who apparently suggested Wilson for the role. Ellen Page seemed to enjoy playing this crazy character and Liv Tyler was stunning. Gunn also talked a lot about how he likes to make movies with his friends who've shown up in pretty much everthing he's done which also added to the party atmosphere on the stage. Which could have also been helped by the fact that it was almost 2 o'clock in the morning.

On that note, I need to get some sleep before the three movies on the schedule for tomorrow. I'll have to get to Saturday's movies next time.

TIFF: Inside Job

2010-09-10T09:40:00.004-04:00

My TIFF slate kicked off last night with one of only 6 screenings available on the opening day of the festival. Inside Job is a documentary from Charles Ferguson (of the Oscar nominated No End in Sight) which takes on the financial crisis of 2008, basically asking the question "How the hell did this happen??".

And now I'm depressed about the state of the world financial markets.

And I think I'm supposed to be.

My main takeaway from the film is that deregulation and lack of oversight were the main culprits of the meltdown. Not to take away from the greed and corruption of the financial industry at all because let's face it, if everyone played nice we wouldn't need rules in the first place. Or, as my friend Georgia put it, there are basically about 15-20 old white men who are running the banks, governments and the world.

While I don't want to try and rehash the points of the film itself I want to mention that Ferguson does a few things really well. He manages to cut throught the bullshit of the "it's all so complex you wouldn't understand" and pretty simply and straighforwardly explain the basics of some of the market instruments that were being used. He makes a very interesting connection between academic economists and how they aren't being incented to be impartial but rather have some extreme conflicts of interest in terms of what they are studying, publishing and teaching. And they managed to get some very powerful and influential people on the record (though far more declined to participate for fairly obvious reasons).

Ferguson and his producer Audrey Marrs presented the film and participated in a Q&A after the screening. While thanking the many people involved in the making of the film he gave a special thanks to his lawyers who I'd imagine were and will be quite busy dealing with some powerful men who really don't come off well in their interviews. He also discussed some of his motivations for making the film and said he really hopes the American public takes action and forces changes to the regulations.

All in all a good kickoff to TIFF. It's definitely a movie worth seeing, and I felt a little more educated coming out of it. There are worse ways to spend a couple of hours than listening to Matt Damon tell you things.

TIFF: What's on Deck

2010-09-07T10:34:00.002-04:00

TIFF officially kicks off on Thursday amid the craziness of the new premium screenings, box office location (again!), bed bug scares and the usual second guessing of film choices. I had a wonderful, no line, no hassle experience picking up my tickets yesterday and here's what made the final list:

Inside Job
Daydream Nation
Super
Trust
Waiting for Superman
Made in Dagenham
Jack Goes Boating
Hereafter
Never let me Go
The Sound of Mumbai
Rabbit Hole
Buried
Beautiful Boy
Easy A
Conviction
Stone

See you in line!!

(See? I knew I'd get over it.)

TIFF 2010: Not so much "The People's Festival"

2010-08-25T15:21:00.008-04:00

First of all, hello. I'm still alive. Apparently this blog has primarily become a place where I can keep an annual TIFF diary and then sporadically write some stuff between festivals. Thanks to those who've told me to get off my ass and write more...maybe I'll give that a shot this year.

In the meantime I need to get a bit of a rant off my chest.

Tuesday was the official schedule release for TIFF this year and I showed up bright and early to grab my envelope and programme book, eager to get to my desk and start flipping through the pages and marking off potential movies.

And then I came across the PREMIUM SCREENING STARS.

See those little black bars with the 4 stars on the right hand side of the boxes? Those indicate that the showing has been classified a "Premium Screening" and not a regular public screening and thus are ineligible for the advance order process and packages.

Now, trust me, I know that I'm not the first person to complain about TIFF getting more expensive and "elite" every year. See here, here, and here for some examples. But dammit, I'm getting sick of the 'not for profit' group trying to get as much money out of me as they can. Apparently here's one of the things that's "New in 2010"...

"We have redefined our definition of a premium screening around the experience you will have. These screenings are World or North American premieres and offer a premium experience including a red carpet event"

Which basically means...

"We're taking a bunch of the screenings that aren't Galas and turning them into them so that we can charge $40 a ticket"

Here's the thing. I've never had an issue with the fact that all the Gala screenings at Roy Thompson and the Elgin in the evenings were twice the price and couldn't be ordered in the 10 ticket package. They're the big flashy venues with all the press and red carpet space. But they've now taken my two favourite festival venues (Ryerson and Bader) and basically told me I can't see any of the first showings of movies there, which frankly are always the ones I pick because that's one of the main reasons I see movies at the festival...for the Q&A's and excitement of seeing movies before the rest of the world. And I'm sorry, but there is no 'red carpet experience' if you're actually attending one of these screenings. You're in line waiting for entrance and you get a 10 second glimpse as you walk by into the theatre.

Jason Reitman has mentioned in a few interviews that he always wants to premiere his movies at TIFF at the Ryerson because that's how he got his start and that he actually thinks about that audience when he's writing. Someone needs to tell him that his audience is going to be different next time around.

Don't worry about me...I'll get over it. I'm sure I'll come up with my list of 15 movies and end up excited for them by the time the tickets are in hand. It's just going to take me a little longer this time.

My Olympic bedtime prayer tonight

2010-02-27T22:59:00.003-05:00

Our Father whom art in Vancouver, hockey be thy name.

Thy will be done, the gold will be won, on ice as well as in the stands.

Give us this day, our hockey sticks, and forgive us our penalties as we forgive those who cross check against us.

Lead us not into elimination but deliver us to victory.

In the name of the Canadian hockey team, AMEN!

GO CANADA GO!!!

New Moon thoughts

2009-11-19T15:42:00.004-05:00

Thanks to my lovely friend Lara I got to go to an advance screening of New Moon last night and now you get to hear about it.

Let me say this up front. I am not a Twi-hard. Honestly. I don't believe in the magical love between Edward and Bella and find most of the overwrought obstacles put in their path more amusing than anything. BUT, I have read all the books, almost compulsively, because as silly as they are...once you start reading you must finish them, even if you find yourself screaming at the story (I mean, Renesmee...really?!?). It's been interesting to watch the Twilight phenomena from relatively early in the process to see what a rabid following has developed. I remember reading a bit about the casting and filming the first film and I honestly think Summit was unaware of what they had on their hands when they started on this whole journey. They are certainly reaping the rewards now.

A few things about the movie:

- It's deliciously cheesy. And really, if you were going to this movie expecting anything else you are going to be very disappointed and have been living under a rock for the past couple of years.
- I inadvertently giggled at several inappropriate points of the movie, including but not limited to the moment when Edward does his first slow-mo entrance, Jacob having to rip off his shirt in order to pat at the blood on Bella's forehead and pretty much any moment when Edward looked 'pained'
- There are a lot of actors in this franchise who really don't get much to do. Poor Jackson Rathbone seemed to have only 4 lines in the whole film and a really bad hair style on top of that. Nikki Reed and Rachelle Lefevre fared even worse with basically one scene apiece. Same goes for the crew of Volturri, Bella's school friends and pretty much anyone who isn't part of the lead trio
- The Bella/Charlie father daughter relationship has come a long way and provided some genuinely charming moments
- The effects were better than the first film and they did a pretty good job with the wolves in general
- There are several truly cute and or funny moments on the screen. Anna Kendrick's post movie monologue rocked. Bella's 'double-date' at the movies was cringingly funny.
- Rob Pattinson is pretty, no question. And he seems pretty self-deprecatingly charming in interviews. But his Edward is a bit....annoying. The pained expression, inexplicable departure, melancholy suicide mission and painted on abs, were not attractive on screen. Now some of this is absolutely the source material and not Pattinson's fault. But the trailer for his next film "Remember Me" aired before the movie and didn't shine a glowing light on his acting ability either (Oh, but I'll totally end up seeing it). He may have it in him to be a good actor one day but it isn't today.

Which leads me to...

A few things about why I'm solidly on Team Jacob (and also a dirty old lady):

- Taylor Lautner's abs. Look I resisted. Honestly. Popwatch has had an abwatch category for months. I told myself I wasn't that superficial. I am. He's really, really pretty.
- The fact that Taylor worked his ass off to keep the role after the first movie blew up and they thought he couldn't play it as the series went forward. The poor kid must be so sick of talking about how much time he spent at the gym and how much weight he put on but seriously, that shows dedication.
- Jacob's the warm body for Bella to curl up to. (Lautner's delivery of "108 degrees over here" was one of my fav lines of the movie)
- Lautner's protrayal of Jacob just seems so much more natural than Edward (which again, is likely 50% due to the source material)
- Jacob didn't take off on Bella and leave her to mope for months
- Did I mention how good he looks running around without a shirt?!?

So yeah, go see New Moon if you've read the book and want to see it come to life on the screen. Go see it if you're looking for some prolonged teen angst in your day. Go see it for the objectification of some pretty boys. Go see it for the cheese. But if you're looking for a quality film this weekend, you might want to avoid the line full of teenagers.

Return from Paradise

2009-10-18T22:11:00.003-04:00

I'm feeling a bit depressed tonight because I'm officially back in the real world. But I'm going to try to hold on to the warm fuzzy vacation feeling as long as humanly possible and try to prolong it a bit by documenting what was one of the most relaxing, fun and beautiful weeks I've had in a while.

Thanks to the planets aligning sometime at the end of August, 4 women managed to get points flights, vacation time and personal lives all sorted out to book a trip to Hawaii.

Hawaii.

Just hearing the word brings to mind sunny skies, beautiful beaches, brilliantly coloured flora and tropical drinks (well, that last one might be just me but I don't think so).

It's also way the heck out in the middle of the ocean and takes a full day of travel (especially when you get a two hour delay on the runway in Chicago due to overloading issues) to make your way there from Toronto. But the pain of that process is erased in an instant the minute you walk out on to your lanai.

Our lanai was located on the on the island of Ohau at a condo in the Ko Olina development on the west coast of the island. The place was, in a word, spectacular. I literally felt giddy every morning when I'd start the day off looking out at the ocean with a coffee in hand.

When I could drag myself away from the pool, lagoon or lanai on our property, here are just some of the ways I spent my time over the past week or so:

I got to spend 3 mornings of diving with the crew at Hawaii Nautical and got my dive count up to double digits at some great sites and saw a ton of ocean life including a couple of sharks, octopii, sea turtles, eels and a bunch of fish. The crew were great and the boat was amazing.

I got to spend a day completely geeking out with Lara over our shared Lost love on a Lost tour of the island. You can read her account of our adventure here. While our search for Jack and Sawyer was ultimately fruitless, we can at least tell ourselves that at some point we walked across the same pieces of sand (and in some cases parking lots) as our heroes.

I got to spend a day road tripping around the island with my friends, stopping at multiple beaches to watch crazy waves and even crazier surfers, committing shrimp homicide at a roadside truck and ending off the day with shaved ice, a sunburn and finding sand in weird places.

I got to do some shopping here and there and managed to fill my already full suitcase way beyond capacity with additions found at outlets, Target and Sephora.

And finally, I got to end the vacation with a 24 hour layover in Vancouver which allowed me to catch up with some West coast friends and have an amazing dinner overlooking the city.

Now, thanks to my PVR, I have some serious quality time to spend with my television over the next few days. Which I imagine will fill the time I spend awake over the next few nights as I try to readjust to the 6 hour time difference. So. Worth. It.

10 Reasons to love Kristin Chenoweth

2009-09-21T15:08:00.003-04:00

How cute is she?

Her acceptance speech (as best supporting actress in a comedy for Pushing Daisies) at the Emmy's on Sunday night was adorable and heartfelt and funny all at once. She's either an even better actress than I thought or was truly surprised and overwhelmed by the win. The plug for employment on her favourite shows was my fav part of the whole thing.

Her book: A Little bit Wicked is crazy entertaining and funny. She's open and engaging without coming off as self absorbed or vain with stories about her career path (beauty pagents, schooling and broadway), relationship with Aaron Sorkin (including a discussion about the character of Harriet on Studio 60), family life and even her weave.

She does 'Christian' right...not to be confused with 'the Christian Right'. Her faith seems to be important to her but I don't get a preachiness vibe from anything I've read or seen of her onscreen. And she seems generally tolerant and open minded.

"Taylor the Latte Boy" has brought me much enjoyment.

Wicked. Chenoweth was involved in the production from workshop to Broadway to the Tony stage. Every Galinda that follows her will be compared to her performance. The musical is one of the best I've seen and I love the fact that it's about 2 strong but very different women and how they become their best selves. I will be in line to see the movie they eventually get around to making.

She's a pretty versatile actress and singer, moving from opera and classical music to broad based broadway musicals to physical comedy and even drama (catch her turn on The West Wing if you don't believe me).

She's guest starring on next week's episode of Glee, one of several theatre and broadway vets who have lined up to appear on the show. I'm sure it's only going to make me love the show (and her) more.

She's a great talk show guest with multiple entertaining appearances with Letterman and Ellen and the rest of the lot.

Seriously, how cute is she??

TIFF: The Wrap-Up

2009-09-20T14:33:00.003-04:00

So TIFF is over for another year and I'm moving on to the Emmy awards and the fall TV season starting in earnest this week. But before I do, here's the final ranking of the movies I saw this year.

My Favourite film of the fest:

Up in the Air. Jason Reitman, you rock and I will line up for any movie you want to put on the screen. Clooney is flawed but dreamy and that slow smile and head tilt will hopefully show up in my dreams for a while. Farmiga, Kendrick, Bateman and everyone else on the screen are good too.

Great movies (watch for them to show up somewhere on the Oscar ballet next year):

An Education. Catch Carey Mulligan in her starmaking turn and stay for the performances of everyone else. A fairly straightforward story about a girl trying to figure out what she wants from life.

Bright Star. I cried, that says it all. A heartbreaking story that's beautiful to look at on screen. And hopefully will lead to Abbie Cornish being known for more than just the girl Ryan left Reese for.

Precious. Tough to watch but worth the struggle. It won the TIFF audience award this year (along with a bunch at Sundance), likely the first of many accolades heading to director Lee Daniels and supporting actress Mo'Nique.

Good Movies (worth your while, or, you'd be happy to watch them on a plane):

Youth in Revolt. News just broke that the movie's release date has been pushed to early next year into the dumping ground of January, which is too bad because it's truly funny and a good opportunity for Michael Cera to break out of his type casting rut with the Francois Dillinger alter ego.

Leaves of Grass. Edward Norton shines in a dual role in a movie that may be trying too hard to be quirky. Mostly entertaining and gets a 7 out of 10 in my books.

Whip it. Drew's directorial debut is nothing to be ashamed of. Fun and entertaining and Ellen Page is enjoyable as lead, though I'd like to see her as something other than the angsty alterna-teen sometime soon.

Passenger Side. Small independent film showcases Adam Scott and Joel Bissonnette as brothers struggling to maintain/rebuild a relationship while on a meandering drive around Los Angeles.

The movie I didn't see enough of to label:

Life During Wartime. Sorry Mr. Solondz.

TIFF: Life During Wartime and Up in the Air

2009-09-20T00:21:00.004-04:00

Final day of TIFF and two films on the schedule.

The first was Life During Wartime, the latest from director Todd Solondz is basically a sequel to 1998's Happiness cast with new actors. As you'd expect, it's pretty much dark and twisted. And if I'm being completely honest with you, the combination of a bad night's sleep and a comfortable seat meant that I dozed off a bit throughout the movie. There were some good scenes, and I love Allison Janney in pretty much everything she does but it wasn't enough to keep me completely engaged enough to stay awake.

I had no such issues for Up in the Air, my final film of the festival. Director and writer Jason Reitman officially has a perfect filmmaking record as far as I'm concerned (his two previous features, Thank you for Smoking and Juno also premiered at TIFF) and this one ended the festival on a high note for me.

George Clooney is perfectly cast as Ryan Bingham, a solitary man who's job is to come into companies and fire employees and who's only joy in life seems to come from racking up frequent flyer miles. He's joined on the road by an upstart go-getter played by Anna Kendrick (of the Twilight series, surprisingly very much holding her own sharing the screen with one of the biggest stars in the world) who he somewhat relectantly takes under his wing. Vera Farmiga plays a fellow traveler and she and Clooney, as basically two ships passing in the night, give us a tutorial on fantastic onscreen chemistry.

While there didn't seem to be a Slumdog Millionare this year in terms of 'the film that everyone is buzzing about', Up in the Air was consistently given high marks by everyone I heard from this week. And even on the last day of the festival, for it's third screening at one of the biggest venues, the Rush line was long and started filling in at least three hours before the start time. It's absolutely worth seeing when it opens up in December.

TIFF: Youth in Revolt

2009-09-15T23:45:00.000-04:00

Can we all agree that Michael Cera has been playing some slight variation of the same part for the past five years? And yet for some reason it hasn't quite become too much for me to handle (let's call it the Zooey Deschanel exception).

Making it my third year of Michael Cera TIFF premieres in a row, tonight's film was Youth in Revolt, based on the popular novel by C.D. Payne, and stars Cera as...wait for it...an awkward, precocious teen who's burdened with an overabundance of virginity and an underabundance of self confidence. But Cera also gets a chance to break out a bit by playing Nick's alter ego 'Francois', a complete bad ass who goads him into criminal behaviour.

I'd totally recommend the movie. More laugh out loud moments than I've had at a movie in a while. Great performances by Cera and his leading lady Portia Doubleday in her first major role. And entertaining supporting performances from Jean Smart, Zach Galifianakis, Ray Liotta, Justin Long, Steve Buscemi, Mary Kay Place and Ari Graynor.

And the post film Q&A with director Miguel Arteta, Cera and Doubleday was one of the best I've seen so far this year. Cera is just truly funny and engaging, and his improv background means he's never at a loss for a quick response. My favourite answer...the best part about playing 'Francois'? He got to stare down Ray Liotta...which was terrifying.

The movie comes out next month, and it's worth putting on your list.

TIFF: Precious, An Afternoon with Chris Rock and Leaves of Grass

2009-09-14T19:02:00.007-04:00

Is there anything better than taking a day off work and spending it at TIFF? Maybe it's starting off the day with brunch and a mimosa to kick it off :-).

My first film of the day was Precious..."the Oprah movie" to those of you following the front page pictures of premieres at the festival. Based on the novel 'Push', the movie is about an illiterate 16 year old girl who is pregnant for the 2nd time by her father and her relationship with her monster of a mother as she tries to escape her life, quite literally into fantasy at times.

It was a tough movie to watch. The violence and abuse are close to the surface throughout the film and there were scenes that drew audible gasps from the audience. The performance by the unknown first time actress who plays Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) is moving and powerful. Mo'Nique plays her monster of a mother and is rightfully on the early shortlists for an Oscar nomination. The film garnered a standing ovation for Director Lee Daniels, which in my mind was probably 60% merited and 40% a carryover of the Oprah effect. He seemed genuinely moved by the crowd reaction and took about 20 minutes of questions from the audience.

*This* was possibly the most painful part of the screening for me, due to quite possibly the worst moderator I've ever seen take the microphone at the festival. I was honestly tempted to walk up to the stage and take the microphone out of her hand because I'm sure I could have done a better job. At one point someone in the crowd asked a question about why the audience had laughed at a particular scene which caused about 100 members of the audience to yell the answer at him simultaneously and not only did the moderator not take control and move the process along, she added her own rambling thoughts about hightened reactions in the festival setting. Eventually (thankfully) Daniels basically took over and manged the whole thing himself.

After the heaviness of Precious I was even more thankful for the next item on the schedule. This afternoon's selection was not a film but part of TIFF's Mavericks program, a discussion series that includes dialogues, Q&As, short films and clips, which this year included Michael Caine, Peter Berg and Barry Levinson. Chris Rock comes to the festival with his new documentary 'Good Hair' (which opens next month), and after screening the trailer, sat down with the TIFF programmer for about an hour long interview followed by 20 minutes or so of questions from the crowd. It wasn't exactly what I expected as I thought there were going to be more clips shown from the documentary itself, but it was a nice alternative to sitting through three movies in the day and Rock's commentary on the movie, politics, growing up and filmmaking were about as entertaining as you would expect from the performer.

Best line of the afternoon? When someone in the audience asked for Rock's reaction to the whole Kanye West/Taylor Swift episode at the VMAs last night he said there was no way he was talking about Kanye only to get dissed in his next single..."there are way too many words that rhyme with Rock".

Final film of the night was the world premiere of Leaves of Grass, written and directed by Tim Blake Nelson. The film stars Edward Norton in a dual role as twin brothers, Bill who has left his southern roots (and accent) behind and become a renowed professor of classical philosophy and Brady who's still living in Oklahoma as somewhat of a mad genius when it comes to growing pot. Circumstances bring Bill back to town and he gets sucked into the mess of his brother's life, with the only bright spot being a local teacher and poet played by Keri Russell. I liked the movie...but didn't love it. I thought it felt like it was trying a bit too hard to be a Coen brothers movie, a thought only reinforced when they were on the list of folks being thanked at the end of the credits.

Attendees for the Q&A included Nelson, Norton, Russell, Josh Pais and Lucy DeVito (the daughter of Rhea Pherlman and Danny DeVito who sat in the audience beaming like the proud parents I'm sure they are). The cast discussed the challenges of playing (or playing opposite) a dual roll as well as what it's like to work with a director who's also an actor (Nelson also costars as Brady's best friend) and Nelson spoke about some of his motivations as a writer. And while I'll admit to a bit of a crush, I thought Norton was ridiculously charming :-).

TIFF: Bright Star and Whip It

2009-09-13T17:11:00.008-04:00

Day 4 of the festival and two films on the schedule.

The first film of the day (and my first and only early morning film of the festival) was Bright Star, the newest film from Jane Campion (The Piano) about the life of doomed poet John Keats (Ben Whishaw) and his romance with Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish). The movie was great. Moving and well acted and beautiful to look at and I was a bit of a blubbering mess at the end of it (and trust me, that doesn't happen often).

I'm always appreciative when filmakers show up for early morning screenings so it was a pleasant surprise to have Campion there to introduce the film and talk a little bit about it beforehand. She and her producing partner discussed their inspiration behind it and spent some time talking about the difficulty they had in getting it made due to a combination of the subject matter (she assured us that she felt the same as likely most of us sitting in the theatre about poetry before this project) and the fact that they didn't have any marquee names for the poster.

By my thinking, her casting was perfect across the board. Cornish and Whishaw are great as the leads and have you completely invested in the story even though you know it ends with Keats' untimely death (I'll quote Jane Campion herself here and say I hope I didn't ruin that for anyone). I was mildly distracted throughout the film trying to place the actor playing the part of Charles Brown, Keats' friend and seemingly biggest source of financial support. 'Where did I know him from?' I kept asking myself. A quick IMDB check revealed him as Paul Schneider...most recently of Parks and Recreation, Amy Poehler's NBC sitcom. That was definitely not a connection that my brain would have made while watching this period piece so good on him :-).

The movie is out in limited release later this month and it's definitely worth adding to your list.

My second film was the premiere of Whip It, the directorial debut from Drew Barrymore and boy did she have crowd out to support her. It officially eclipses last year's Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist as the film with both the largest "Reserved" section and biggest group of cast member attendees I've seen at the Ryerson. Here were the cast member attendees: Drew Barrymore, Ellen Page, Marcia Gay Harden, Juliette Lewis, Kristen Wiig (love!), Alia Shawkat, Zoe Bell, Andrew Wilson, Daniel Stern, Eve, Landon Pigg and Carlo Alban. Along with Shauna Cross, the writer of both the novel the film is based on and the screenplay and Michael Cera and Justin Long just hanging out.

Unfortunately the entertainment of the star power in the room may have eclipsed the actual film. I had read 'Derby Girl', the novel that provided the source material, last year, loved it, and was very much looking forward to the movie. Maybe my expectations were too high. I definitely enjoyed it, and I hope it ends up being successful because there is always room in the world for a movie about young women doing things that they are passionate about. And I loved that, while there was a love interest for Bliss (Page), the story wasn't all about the boy which was nice for a change. A perfect slumber party movie...remember those??

The movie started 30 minutes late after a lengthy introduction from Drew including effusive praise of each cast member individually, which is likely why there wasn't a Q&A afterwards. Though Drew stayed in her seat in the theatre until after the lights came up and yelled out her thanks to the crowd.

And now I'm home and off to bed...three movies on deck tomorrow!

TIFF: George Clooney is pretty

2009-09-12T18:45:00.007-04:00

I didn't have any films on the docket for today and after sleeping in, eating lunch and catching up on the premieres of Melrose Place and America's Next Top Model (don't judge) I decided to swing by the Ryerson for the premiere of 'Up in the Air', the latest film from Jason Reitman that's on the schedule for next Saturday as my last film of the festival. Honestly, because I figured I shouldn't pass up the opportunity to see George Clooney while he's in town :-).

Other than grabbing pictures of people at screenings I'm attending, I don't really do much star searching at the festival. And I've never stood with the crowds at one of the red carpets so this was my first experience watching the action for more than the few seconds it usually takes me to walk by on my way into the theatre. I don't know that I'd make a habit of it, but it was a fun way to spend an hour on a lovely Saturday afternoon.

The carpet was busy and the crowds were huge. It's the first time I've seen the entire street blocked off in front of the Ryerson for a premiere. And among the group around me shouting at various stars as they talked to entertainment reporters across the way from us were definitely those that took the process of autograph hunting seriously.

Stars passing by included Vera Farmiga (that's her in the white dress above), Anna Kendrick and Jason Bateman (love him) who are all in the film but also a bunch of people who aren't including Amanda Seyfried who must have had nothing better to do today.

And George, oh George. Lainey has always talked about how professional he is and how he goes above and beyond to work the publicity for all of his films and I'm going to have to agree from my brief perspective. He showed up early and worked the line. And not the line of reporters waiting to interview him (though he did a very quick pass by and shook all of their hands) but the line of fans out on the street and all around the red carpet area signing what must have been hundreds of autographs even with a broken hand.

Jason was pretty obliging as well.

The ladies never made their way to our side of the carpet, but I can tell you they all looked lovely from behind :-)

I'm very much looking forward to seeing the movie next week. Here's hoping Jason Reitman goes three for three. Now I've got to get ready for dinner out and two movies and a baby shower tomorrow.

I'll leave you with the biggest red carpet disaster I saw all afternoon...

No, I can't leave you with that. How bout this one?

TIFF: Passenger Side

2009-09-12T11:56:00.005-04:00

Friday night's film was Passenger Side, an indie Canadian film about two brothers driving around Los Angeles seemingly aimlessly and the cast of characters they run into en route. Elder brother Michael (Adam Scott) is a writer of no success who spends a day playing chauffeur for Tobey (Joel Bissonnette), a recovering drug addict who's 'errands' for the day end up being a meandering quest in search of something...someone.

Matt Bissonnette wrote and directed the film and as he discussed in the Q&A following the screening, casting his brother and good friend as the leads made the brotherly relationship completely believable and their rambling discussions were full of conversational shorthand that only comes with years of history. The soundtrack of the film was also great, a character onto itself. The film's producer, Bissonnette(s), Kimberly Huie (who played a drunken right-winger in one of the brother's encounters) and Scott attended for the post-film Q&A to discuss the film, the music and road trips in general. I'll pause to note that Adam Scott has one of those voices you could listen to forever and I was always happy when a question was posed in his direction (and as an aside, you should really check out the hilarious first season of Party Down if you want to see more of him).

All and all a solid film, and one that I'm sure will show up on the Movie Network at some point in the future for your viewing pleasure.

The film was preceeded by the short 'On a lonely drive' which was really pretty to look at but didn't seem to say much...so I really won't say anything about it either.

TIFF: An Education

2009-09-10T21:40:00.015-04:00

TIFF kicked off today and I really hope my first film is indicative of the quality of films I've got on the slate for the next 9 days.

An Education takes place in the early 1960's and stars newcomer Carey Mulligan as Jenny, a smart, pretty, curious girl who's a straight A student with parents pressuring her to gain acceptance to Oxford. But she strays from that path when she meets a much older man (Peter Sarsgaard) who tempts her with a life of fancy clothes, night life and even manages to somehow charm her parents into letting her spend a weekend in Paris.

The movie is based on a memoir by Lynn Barber and was adapted for the screen by Nick Hornby and boasts great performances all around. Mulligan is amazing in this film, and definitely worthy of the quiet Oscar buzz she's garnering. Alfred Molina's turn as her father is funny and charming. Rosamund Pike and Dominic Cooper are entertaining as the couple who, along with Sarsgaard, lure Jenny to the world of adventure. And Olivia Williams and Emma Thompson as her teacher and headmaster respectively are pitch perfect. Incidentally, watching a Sarsgaard love scene while watching the man himself react to the scene (he was sitting in the row ahead of my directly in my peripheral vision) is quite entertaining.

The post film Q&A wasn't the best I've seen at the festival, but I'm going to put that to the quality of the questions from the crowd (not that I had a better one to offer) as opposed to the actors as they were all quite charming.

After the film we played paparazzi at the exit door while the TIFF volunteers did their 'lock and load' for the stars' exits.

Here's Carey stopping to sign a few autographs as she was rushed through

Peter ran the gauntlet pretty quickly as well.

Alfred Molina and Dominic Cooper spent a little more time with the crowd

And Cooper's girlfriend Amanda Seyfried, who also has a film premiering at the same venue tonight at midnight (Jennifer's Body) came out to support him.

The poor girl may have been the most mobbed one there at her exit. And she somehow managed to miss the car and spent a few minutes in the middle of the street getting inundated for autographs and pictures before they swung back around to get her. Also incidentally, she and Cooper seem like a very sweet couple. They were sitting right in front of us for the film and at one point he removed his jacket and threw it around her shoulders as she was clearly getting a bit of a chill in the theatre. All together now....aaaawww :-).

TIFF 2009

2009-09-03T20:38:00.005-04:00

So the rest of the summer has disappeared and it's once again time for TIFF! Year after year, it saves me from the end of summer doldrums and bridges the gap to the new TV season :-).

First of all, I have to say that the festival has recovered from the epic fail that was the Toronto Life main building box office location and management and my experiences at the box office this year have been great. I've visited the big white tent in Nathan Phillips Square three times and even the double lineup this morning to first pick up my tickets and then exchange vouchers for the choices I didn't get went very smoothly. And I was once again fairy lucky with my ordering, receiving 7 of the 10 films I selected and was able to pick up an 8th of my original requests this morning. I felt very sorry for a few people in the line around me who were in a few of the last boxes who had received about 40-50% of their requested tickets.

Following my usual process I narrowed down the film list last week and here's what I ended up with after having to do a bit of reorganizing this morning.

An Education

Passenger Side

Bright Star

Whip it!

Precious

An Afternoon with Chris Rock

Leaves of Grass

Youth in Revolt

Life During Wartime

Up in the Air

Random ramblings

2009-06-25T09:27:00.003-04:00

Summer is here and mother nature finally decided to catch up with the calendar bringing a heat wave this week.

It would have been nice if my air conditioning at home was fixed before that happened.

I went so see No Doubt and Paramore at the ACC last week and it was awesome. I bow down to Ms. Stefani's abs and stamina. And was impressed that she actually sang live for the entire show (I'm looking at you Madonna). Paramore became one of my favourite bands last year and got a visibility boost by being included in the Twilight sountrack (as with everything involved in that franchise) and were great live, especially when you consider what babies they still all are.

Lainey's annual Smut Soiree was this week and while still enjoyable, the lack of air conditioning, lousy sound set up and continued talking of other folks over the panel's discussion led to a bit of a disappointment. Thankfully the swag bag delivered. And warm gooey cookies with shot glasses of milk are a fantastic idea.

Alan Sepinwall (great TV reviews/recaps) started doing a rewind a few weeks ago and recapping episodes of my beloved Sports Night which lead to me rewatching the entire first season in a flurry. So it's entirely his fault that I've now found myself sucked in to a Sorkinthon and have begun watching The West Wing from the beginning. I forgot how much I adored that show and couldn't wait until Wednesday evenings when it aired. And it's filling the gap as the summer show pickings are slim.

Though True Blood is back and I'm thoroughly enjoying the second season, even as I can't help comparing little details to what happened in the books. Speaking of which, the latest is on it's way to my library for me to pick up according to the Toronto Public Library website...yay.

It's my birthday on Monday and I'm having a bit of a hard time believing I'm turning 33. I moved to the city 10 freaking years ago...where the heck did the time go? On the plus side, I got asked for my ID when buying beer a few weeks ago so at least there's that.

I had one of those sort of perfect quiet moments this weekend when I was at the cottage. Nothing major, just standing on the deck at dusk looking out at the water. My parents and grandparents were inside having cocktails and getting ready for dinner and my dad was about to light the BBQ. And I'm generally not one for a lot of introspection but in that instant as I just stood there I realized how genuinely lucky I am. So thank you to all the people in my life who make me feel that way.

Season finale thoughts

2009-05-15T21:02:00.004-04:00

It's been a rather lazy long weekend and I've felt somewhat justified lounging on the couch with my PVR since the weather hasn't been 'seasonal' and I've completely caught up on my television viewing. Here's what I've been thinking about the season finales of some of my favourite shows (it goes without saying, but stop reading here if your PVR is backed up and you haven't seen em yet).

Chuck. Hallelujah!! The various 'Save Chuck' campaigns have apparently been successful and this wonderful show that was sitting on the bubble of cancellation has received a 13 episode renewal for next year. I'm choosing to just be excited about that and not worry about what the apparently required budget cutbacks will do to season 3. I caught an episode of this show mid way through the first season and then had to spend a few hours catching up courtesy of the folks at Television without Pity before adding it to my repetoire. It's fantastic and I can't quite understand why more people aren't watching. The last few episodes of this season closed out the arc on the creation of the intersect (featuring missing dad Scott Bakula!), had a pretty sexy (there but for the grace of a condom) hookup between Chuck and Sarah, a wedding for Awesome and Ellie featuring the musical sylings of Jeffster and most importantly (especially where next season is concerned) a Chuck who has actually been able to make the decision to be a hero instead of having it foisted upon him...a decision which came with a super upgraded Intersect and what looks to be a whole new set of skills.

Lost. OMFG Lost. How could you leave us with a flash to a white screen not knowing whether the quest to detonate the bomb had the desired effect?!? Well, of course you could, leaving us dangling is what Messrs Abrams, Cuse & Lindelof seem to do best. This season was as entertaining and frustrating as you would expect from one of the best shows on television. And sets us up perfectly for the final 16 episodes set to air in 2010. What are we do do in the mean time? If you're looking for a Lost fix, I'd highly recommend checking out Doc Jenson's colums for Entertainment Weekly or watching the interview with Lindelof and Cuse here.

House. Ok. In retrospect I knew the Huddy hookup was unrealistic. There's no way he was detoxing overnight and also no way (as much as she likely wanted to) Cuddy would have jumped into bed with him immediately afterwards. The final episode built slowly to the final 10 minutes, where House slowly realized the fact that he had been hallucinating the entire event. It will be interesting to see where they go from here, and I'm hoping we don't spend too long hanging out at the mental hospital at the beginning of next season because I want to see the series get back to dealing with weekly medical mysteries and a protaganist that is on his game. It was nice to see the Cameron and Chase wedding, and I'm also hoping that the producers find a way to get them more screen time in the future because their talents were wasted this year.

The Office. After the first UK copycat season, which I could never watch, every season of the office has ended with a big Pam & Jim moment and this one was no exception. Krasinski's moment on the phone in the hallway was awesome (though a friend recently pointed out that Jenna Fischer was a bit shortchanged by the fact that the moment of revelation of Pam's pregnancy was all about him). Moments in the last few episodes of this season were pretty classic...the inappropriate casual day attire, Kelly & Andy's dance off at the disco, the reappearance of Holly and the negotiation for the sale of the Michael Scott Paper Company were all either laugh out loud funny or completely cringeworthy, which is just how we like it.

Castle. Ok, first of all, I just need to put in a plug for this show. Start watching it, seriously. For the most part, it's a procedural so you're not going to be missing much by jumping in at the beginning of season 2 and everything else you can completely catch up on. Here's the recap so far: Richard Castle is a famous crime novelist who has just killed off his main character (think Patterson's Alex Cross) and gets pulled into a murder investigation because the killer is copying murders from his books. That initial investigation leads him to decide that detective Kate Beckett should form the basis for his new character and through connections to the mayor (among others) he gets himself permission to shadow her for material. It's a fairly basic premise and the cases that they investigate each week aren't all that original but that's not why you should be watching it anyway. First of all, Nathan Fillion is quite possibly the most charming lead ever. Now I'm probably biased since I've loved Firefly, Dr. Horrible, Waitress and pretty much anything else on his resume, but even friends who are not as enamoured with Mr. Fillion have said that this show has become one of their favourites. The chemistry between Castle and Beckett is wonderful and playful and entertaining as hell. But even better is the relationship between Castle and his daughter. The moment in the finale after he waited up for her to get home from her first dance was just so sweet and endearing. The season ended with Castle about to share some information with Beckett regarding the long ago murder of her mother...and I can't wait to see what it was and where they'll go from here.

Grey's Anatomy. I missed watching the episode live as I was out for the evening and unfortunately couldn't help being a little bit spoiled the next day with my inability to avoid various pop culture commentary websites. So by the time I watched the show I was fully aware that John Doe was actually George and even though the plot was done on ER first I felt like the folks at Grey's did it better. It was a really well done finale and ending with both George & Izzie's fates in the balance was an appropriate cliff to hang on. The moment when Arizona was telling Callie why it was so 'awesome' that George had enlisted managed to activate my tear ducts. It was nice to see Mer and Der seemingly in a healthy adult relationship. I love what Kevin McKidd has brought to the show in the character of Owen Hunt and his relationship with Cristina. I hope that we've seen the last of Denny, as much as I enjoy Jeffrey Dean Morgan. And oh, that last moment when the elevator doors opened and George stood there on the other side was killer.

Fringe. Oh J.J. you got me again. Of course you did. You've got a series with a smart, kick ass female lead, a completely charming partner in crime for her in Joshua Jackson and a brilliant, strange mystery to unravel that goes back to experimental childhood treatments (shades of Alias). Alternate realities crop up in sci fi all the time and the idea of deja vu as an indication of such isn't new, but Fringe did it well, as with everything else on this first season. The character of William Bell was omnipresent all season, as the founder of the mysterious Massive Dynamic and former partner of Walter Bishop (the incredibly entertaining John Noble) his name came up in conjunction with many of their investigations. His appearing in the finale (in the shape of Leonard Nimoy no less) was perfectly done, and the final scene with Olivia coming face to face with the man responsible for not only the experiments done on her as a child but seemingly all of the events that she had been investigating was a strong ending. Until the camera panned out to show us that the meeting was taking place in one of the twin towers, which told us more in a single image than they could have told us in minutes of exposition and it got even better.

And that about wraps up another season of television. There are a few finales to come (24, Gossip Girl, How I Met Your Mother, Ugly Betty) but the season is pretty much wrapped up. There are a few summer series that I'm looking forward to (True Blood, Entourage) but for the most part my PVR is going to get a break. Which begs the question, should I finally start watching The Bachelorette so that I have something on my TV schedule??

Today's Public Service Announcement

2009-04-22T09:16:00.004-04:00

This one goes out to all my smart, funny, feminist friends.

If you haven't watched Sarah Haskin's "Target Women" spots (they're all available on youtube) yet, you must get thee to a computer and do so immediately.

Here's a trio of my favourites to get you started...

"Well she's in for a surprise when unlikely suitor, high concept hijinks, unnecessary obstacle, true love, happy ending"

"Interested in sex? But afraid of having a baby? Trrryyy birth control."

"Ah Chocolate...orgasms AND childhood"

Diary of a Dive School Graduate

2009-04-15T10:56:00.013-04:00

Just back from one of the best vacations ever thanks to a relatively last minute decision to join my friend Georgia on hers. I mentioned last month that even just back from the cruise, I was feeling in need of another vacation and luckily enough, an opportunity to take one came up.

Generally speaking, I'm the organizer bunny when it comes to travel (and pretty much everything really). I'm big on pre-vacation prep...loose itineraries, accomodation and travel arrangements and printing off info on activity options. This time around as the 'joinee', I had to step outside my comfort zone a little bit and just take it as it came.

Georgia's vacation destination was Roatan, Honduras. The largest of the Bay Islands just off the coast of Honduras mainland. To be perfectly honest, until I got her flight itinerary, I had never heard of the place. I managed to have a whirlwind converstation with G before she took off and booked my flight less than a week before departure. She was lucky enough to have a two week stretch off work so left 6 days before me to get down there and settled in.

On Saturday morning my alarm went off at the ungodly hour of 3:30am and after a connecting flight from Toronto through Houston, I arrived in Roatan to a blast of heat and crazy sunshine and the highway robbery of a $20 cab fare to the lodge. We stayed for the week at Mariposa Lodge, a charming, relatively inexpensive lodge owned and run by a couple of fellow Canucks. They've got a fantastic location (right in West End), clean good sized apartments and a fully stocked DVD library for guests (which allowed me my usual habit of falling asleep with the TV).

After enjoying a few beers on our deck we took a wander around West End and settled in for a pina colada and the first sunset of the week.

Activities for the week included taking a water taxi down to West Bay beach one afternoon and enjoying a very lazy long lunch at one of the resorts and an afternoon reading on the beach, as well as renting a (rather sketchy) van and driving around the island for the day through the small towns, hills and beautiful beaches around the island. Evenings were spent grabbing a bite to eat and wandering from bar to bar grabbing a drink or a dance as we moved along. One night we caught the NCAA final game 'old school style' on the radio at a bar with a generator when the power was out (which happened pretty much every day for a couple of hours).

But what I spent most of the week doing was getting my PADI Open Water diving certification with the gang at Tyll's Dive. Diving is one of those things I always figured I'd absolutely love but never got around to actually doing. I even went on a vacation with my friend Tanja a few years ago and spent the week drinking margaritas around the pool while she got about 10 dives in (but that's another story). With 8 days at my disposal and a very open itinerary I figured this would be the perfect time to give it a shot.

And oh my word, I am absolutely hooked. I started swimming lessons when I was 6 months old and have always been a water lover but this took it to a whole new level. Taking the tests and exam in the classroom sections made me feel like I was back in school and the first time you find yourself breathing underwater is a bit unnatural but it's all worth it for the first moment you find yourself hanging out on the reef. Over 5 dives I managed to see what seemed like a million fish, a turtle, lobster, moray eel and some pretty cool coral formations. I found it very easy to get a bit mesmerized and completely lose track of time...thankfully someone else was keeping track of me.

If you're looking for a place to dive in Roatan I can highly recommend Tyll's. They were great with a complete newbie like me and a more experienced diver in Georgia. The groups were small, equipment well cared for and the atmosphere relaxed. Tell them I sent you :-).

All too soon the week came to an end with a final sunset and beer and a day travelling back to the real world.

Now I just need to figure out how I get back underwater :-).

End of Winter perfection

2009-03-23T09:07:00.003-04:00

Wow. What a perfect weekend.

I took a last minute holiday on Friday and headed up to the cottage to get in on the last weekend of winter and sure am glad I did.

Two days of perfect sunny skies and hours spent outside on the lake doing some skating, playin' some hockey and curling a stone or two.

Three mornings of curling up with mom and the dog and enjoying a coffee and Baileys while watching deer scamper across the lake.

Three runs down the lake on the snowmobile with the wind rushing and the sun shining down. Not to mention the absolute delight on the faces of the kids getting a quick loop around the bay.

Great meals that I didn't have to prepare (thanks to the chefs!) with good wine and even better company.

Cooperdog running after a tennis ball on the lake and overshooting it every time never gets less entertaining.

Watching my mother win the poker game was almost, almost, as good as winning myself.

So long to the lake...see you in the summer!

Hey there...what up?

2009-03-06T22:28:00.006-05:00

So I've clearly managed to be very lazy and haven't posted anything in a while (for the 4 of you reading :-) ) Here's what's been going on in my life for the past few months...

- I have a nephew. He's adorable. And my brother and sister-in-law seem to be adjusting to the parenting thing pretty well. It was a fun Christmas with the family with a new little one around. I've made the trip back home more in the past three months than I have in the last couple of years it seems to see him.

- Speaking of babies, I have 5 friends who have either just had or are about to have a baby in the next few months. Good thing I love to play Auntie.

- I had a great vacation on the 'Ships & Dip' cruise for the third year seeing fantastic music and great all around entertainment. Unfortunately the weather wasn't as accomodating but at least there were a lot of great distractions. This year's "find" is Butterfly Boucher, an artist from Australia...you should totally check her out.

- I'm thinking i need to go on another vacation soon.

- I can't believe it's already March.

- I am really, really enjoying the third season of Friday Night Lights (why aren't more people watching this show??). I want a man like Coach Taylor.

- Am also enjoying the ride on 'Lost'. Please, please J.J. don't disappoint me with the wrap up. If you do, I'm going to hear "I told you so" from a few naysayers who insist you're making it up as you go along.

- I fall a little more in love with Jon Stewart every week.

- I'm looking forward to seeing Spring Awakening on it's pass through Toronto. Saw it on Broadway a few years ago and loved it. It remains to be seen whether I'll get there more than once while it's in town.

The Killers....well...killed

2008-11-20T09:22:00.003-05:00

I've been to a number of concerts in the past few months and they've all been pretty great. But The Killers at Massey Hall on Tuesday were absolutely fantastic.

First of all, Massey Hall is one of my favourite venues to see a concert. It's relatively small (capacity is under 3000) and feels intimate, the acoustics are great and I just love walking into the old building. Mind you, I've been fortunate to have floor seats for most of my events which undoubtably improves on the experience. The wooden gallery seats offer little in the way of comfort or leg room and practically require hiring a sherpa to make the climb up the stairs...though still offer a better concert experience than the 300 level at the ACC or other large venue.

Now, the only thing that Massey Hall doesn't have going for it is that the crowds are often on the "polite" side. I have spent pretty much entire concerts sitting in my seat (which I decided to stick to after an unfortunate incident involving gum being thrown in my hair for having the audacity to actually be on my feet at a concert). That was not an issue on Tuesday. About 95% of the crowd were on their feet from the moment the band took the stage until the final bow.

The Killers new album (Day & Age) hits the shelves next week and world tour kicks off in the new year. In preparation for the tour, the band has played a number of smaller venues in a few major cities around the world, likely to work out the kinks performing the new material. From where I was standing, I really didn't see any. And I had a pretty good vantage point. Fourth row tickets on the aisle became 2nd row centre about 2/3 of the way through the concert when security detail managed to efficiently and quietly shuffle people around to fill in the area in front of the stage. The show itself was paced well combining the new material with better known hits (and they really have more of them than I had catalogued in my mind before the show) and Flowers is an endearingly dorky rock star with an impressive live voice.

They're back in Toronto to play the ACC in January and I'd recommend going if you were on the fence. As for me? As tempted as I am to see them again, I know that there's no way I'm going to top this experience so I'm better off with my memories....and all the vidoes on YouTube...

Don't screw up this election m'kay?

2008-11-04T14:33:00.004-05:00

I really hope you folks south of the 49th parallel don't screw this thing up today.

I lamented in my facebook status a few weeks ago that I would gladly exchange my just cast vote in the Canadian election for one in the election happening south of us today. I am admittedly (and a bit sadly) more informed about the political situation in the U.S. than I am in my own damn country, though frankly, I do believe that the policies of the States end up having a larger impact on my day to day life than those here. Also, the entire Canadian political spectrum seems to be about half as wide and exist entirely to the left of that in the U.S. to begin with. My TV hubby put it best the day after the Canadian election when he said that the Conservatives were elected in Canada...which is roughly equivalent to the "Ralph Nader lovers for Peace" party in the U.S.

Frankly, part of me is just going to be happy that the election is over no matter what the outcome. It strikes me as highly amusing that Canadians were able to call an election, campaign, vote (and actually determine a winner) all in the span of the final 10% of the time that McCain and Obama have been on the campaign trail.

A larger part of me has been watching the debates, enjoying my daily 'Daily Show' time more than usual, reading the blogs and wanting to shout at the screen half the time Palin opens her mouth and will be sitting in front of the television tonight waiting to see if Barack Obama will make history.

And check out this link to log your own vote in the American election...wouldn't it be funny (and again sad) if more Canadians actually registered their vote on this site than actually voted in the election we held last month?

The new TV season so far

2008-10-02T11:50:00.005-04:00

Now that we're into October and a good chunk of tv shows are back on the air...a couple of random thoughts.

Shonda Rhimes...you suck a little bit. Here's the thing...I (like many others) loved Grey's when it appeared on Sunday nights. I own the first three seasons on DVD and have gotten others into the program. I stuck around through last year's mess and even put up with Gizzie. And the Grey's premiere was fine. I appreciate the fact that you came right out and said that the ABC promo with Rose telling Dereck she was carrying his child was a complete misrepresentation, good for you. I'm glad that Christina's impalement never seriously put her in danger (cause we've had enough of that on this show) and loved the intro of Kevin McKidd. My bigger beef with you right now is with Private Practice. I rewatched a couple of episodes that aired over the last few weeks and was actually surprised by how much I enjoyed them and was looking forward to the premiere last night. But here's where you lost me...Naomi has somehow mismanaged funds, run the practice into the ground, is making borderline unethical medical decisions for money and had to have the big strong man come in and take over??? I almost threw something at the tv.
Heroes may just be losing me with the shifting futures, Mohinder reenacting The Fly, the petulant Hiro, Nathan's 'conversion' and the reappearing Linderman. I'm holding on by my fingertips mostly cause it's so much fun to see Veronica Mars and Weevil on the same show again.
I'm hoping that Fox sticks with Fringe and The Sarah Connor Chronicles even though the ratings aren't killer. For Fringe, because Joshua Jackson is just extremely fun to watch and he and Anna Torv have a Mulder/Scully chemistry about them and because as previously mentioned, I do worship a bit at the altar of J.J. Abrams. For Chronicles, because Lena Headey is great as Sarah and who knew how good Brian Austin Green would be at playing a bit of a badass?
Chuck has officially replaced Reaper as my favourite show about a 20-something slacker-boy forced to take on a 'job' he didn't ask for or want . Now, maybe that's not fair since Reaper hasn't even had it's premiere yet to try to win back my love, but it's a bit telling that that the season finale has sat unwatched taking up space on my PVR all summer.
What does it say about the fact that I taped the premiere of The Amazing Race on Sunday but have no desire to actually watch it...

TIFF: Final Day - Out with a Bang...and a Whimper

2008-09-13T14:45:00.006-04:00

I don't think it adequately expresses how much I loved this morning's film to say that it was my favourite of the festival. Every Little Step is a documentary that follows the casting process for the 2006 revival of A Chorus Line on broadway. From the opening casting call of over 3000 people to the final casting about 8 months later we meet many of the auditionees and can't help but develop favourites among the bunch. Throughout the process, through interviews with people involved in the original cast and snippets of the audio recordings made by Michael Bennett which inspired the original production, we also get a bit of the history of the show. It was entertaining, and touching, and the filmmakers managed to catch some incredible moments on film. Now, I'm a musical nut so this movie was clearly going to be right up my alley but I feel pretty safe in saying that it will appeal to a much broader audience than just my fellow theater lovers. One of the directors attended and held a lively Q&A which was amazing in itself for a 9:00am screening on the final day of the festival. He said that they were close to being able to announce a distribution deal so chances are you may get a chance to see it in the spring.

I mentioned to my friends as we walked out of the screening that I felt like maybe I should skip my next one so that I could end the festival on a high note but I didn't and headed to the Ryerson for my last film of the festival. I probably should have followed my initial instinct.

Genova is the latest film from Michael Winterbottom (A Mighty Heart) and stars Colin Firth as Joe, a father who moves his two daughters to Italy for a year after the sudden death of his wife in a tragic car accident. It wasn't the worst thing I saw at the festival (I'm looking at you Uncertainty) but it wasn't one I'd recommend anyone paying for. There were a bunch of scenes where the daughters seemed to be in danger in some way or another, with ominous music playing while they wandered through the narrow streets and alleys making their way home, that seemed really out of place. Catherine Keener was woefully underused as a university friend (who seemed to want more from Joe) who was helping the family getting settled. The youngest daughter sees the ghost of her mother and wanders off regularly and the oldest is sneaking off and sleeping with an older boy. And then it just ends.

Kind of like TIFF for another year.

TIFF: Uncertainty

2008-09-12T10:59:00.004-04:00

Uncertainty was not a good movie. It stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who is reminding me more and more of Heath Ledger) and Lynn Collins (who kept reminding me of Evangeline Lilly) as a couple who decide based on a flip of a coin whether to spend the July 4th holiday in Manhattan or Brooklyn. Like an inferior version of Sliding Doors, we then watch both possible outcomes.

The first scene, as they stand on the bridge and talk about how they're all so 'uncertain' of their decision was mind blowingly bad. After that, thankfully, it got a little better and was mindlessly entertaining (mostly because I find Levitt so charming) but it's one of those movies I'll pretty much forget. And though they announced that the directors would be on hand for a Q&A afterwards, when one of the programmers got up to say they were running late and would be another five minutes I decided I really didn't need to hear what they had to say about it and Denise and I took off to get home early and crawl into bed.

TIFF: Synecdoche, New York

2008-09-10T10:31:00.003-04:00

Tuesday's TIFF screening was the directorial debut of Charlie Kaufman's Synecdoche, New York. Given his track record of films - Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - I went in expecting something a bit surreal and twisted...and oh my did I ever get it.

I sit here still unsure about how I felt about the movie, though I can say that there were great scenes and fantastic performances which are definitely sticking with me. The film stars Philip Seymour Hoffman as Caden, a theater director who's body seems to be slowly shutting down, who has a wife (Catherine Keener) and daughter who seemingly disappear to Germany, another wife (Michelle Williams) and daughter who disappear to a better life somewhere (one supposes) and a mistress (Samantha Morton) who sticks around through most of his life. The story seems to twist in on itself over and over again as he directs a massive production of a 'real' performance including casting people as his wife and mistress. If that makes no sense to you reading it then I'm sorry but I can't really offer more in the way of explanation.

And Kaufman wasn't offering any of his own either. One of the first questions asked was one of those generic "can you talk about what x meant" things and he basically said no...he wouldn't talk about it what it meant to him writing it because he wanted the audience to take from it what they would. Keener and Hoffman showed up to be introduced before the film but didn't take the stage for the Q&A, which also seemed to be by design because they did stick around for the screening. Kaufman did take a lot of questions and was happy to talk about the process of making the film, writing the score and the performances. Just not to enlighten us on the film itself.

If anyone else sees it, I'd love to hear if you walked out as confused as I did.

TIFF: Triple play Monday

2008-09-08T18:03:00.006-04:00

Monday was my annual full day of films when I take the day off of work and hit three movies in one day.

The first was The Other Man, a film directed by Richard Eyre who most recently did Notes on a Scandal. The director kindly showed up to do a Q&A for this 9am on a Monday showing and was eloquent and entertaining discussing the film and his actors. The film stars Liam Neeson as a husband who finds evidence of his wife's (Laura Linney) infidelity on her computer and searches out the titular "other man" Ralph (Antonio Banderas). The film was in what has become familiar 'good but not great' territory so far this festival.

Then it was off to meet Denise for brunch before we got into line for the next screening of the day. The movie was Religulous, which had premiered at the festival Saturday night and I had noticed the "protesters" of the film as I left the screening immediately preceeding. The documentary, directed by Larry Charles and starring Bill Maher, takes a satirical look at the idea of organized religion and has Maher interviewing subjects from a variety of backgrounds. The film seems to work a bit too hard to be deliberately provocative and push peoples' buttons but it still works. It's worth seeing if only to be a starting point for discussion. Larry Charles showed up after the film to answer some questions and he was fine but to me seemed to be bored to be there. I'm sure he's getting a lot of the same questions about the film but I got a bit of a "I'm the smartest guy in the room" vibe from him that was a bit offputting.

My final film of the day wasn't until 9:45 so I had a fantastic afternoon nap and watched the premieres of Entourage and True Blood at home (I could get used to the not working thing).

I picked up Kate and we headed down in the rain for the premiere screening of Gigantic. Thankfully the rain slowed to a near sprinkle while we waited in line outside the Bader. Gigantic is a movie from first time filmaker Matt Aselton which stars Paul Dano (who also has an executive producer credit on the film) as a mattress salesman who stumbles into a relationship with the daughter of a customer played by Zooey Deschanel. He's also in the process of trying to adopt a baby from China, dealing with his own family and has his own personal stuff going on. Dano and Deschanel have fantastic chemistry (she's really great with everyone isn't she?) and the respective fathers (played by Ed Asner and John Goodman) are larger than life and entertaining. The film would definitely fall under the 'quirky' description. I won't say too much more so as not to spoil it, but there is definitely a polarizing plot within the movie, and Aselton knows it based on his delivery of "I've never had that question" to the first question asked during the Q&A. He and Dano attended and took a number of questions after the screening, which lead to me getting home after midnight and not looking forward to getting to the office in the morning :-).

TIFF: Zack and Miri make a Porno

2008-09-07T23:51:00.004-04:00

I figured I should show up extra early for the world premiere and only 'non-gala priced ticket' showing at TIFF of Kevin Smith's latest - Zack and Miri make a Porno. I was right. The line up started early and got long very quickly and I ended up sitting beside a guy who had been in the rush line since 1:00 for a 9:15 movie.

As the title would suggest, the film stars Zack (Seth Rogen) and Miri (Elizabeth Banks) as best friends and roomates who decide to make a porno (to solve their serious money issues). Of course, through the process they realize that they may have deeper feelings for each other than they had thought. The movie was very funny, a bit raunchy and truly kind of a sweet romance.

Kevin Smith, Elizabeth Banks, Jason Mewes, Katie Morgan and Ricky Mabe took the stage after the film to field questions. Smith is a pro at entertaining an audience, as you would expect if you've seen any of the 'An Evening With' films, and the Q&A was highly entertaining. Here's a little snippet of it for ya...and it should go without saying but obviously the language is NSFW.

TIFF: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

2008-09-06T23:14:00.008-04:00

First things first. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist is not this year's Juno. As much as the filmakers seem to be asking for the comparison...from their leading man to the credit sequence of the film to the killer soundtrack. It's just not quite that good.

It is, however, a charming movie with good performances from pretty much the entire young cast. Nick (Michael Cera) and Norah (Kat Dennings) meet at a bar where she approaches him to play her 'boyfriend for five minutes' to avoid the scorn of her school's resident mean girl Tris (Alexis Dziena). Unbeknownst to her, Nick is also Tris' ex boyfriend. The rest of the action takes place over a night in New York while they chase after a secret concert, try to keep track of her drunken best friend and run into their respective exes.

The director and the entire cast showed up for the movie. I actually had never seen a larger reserved section of seats at the Ryerson. The moderator did a pretty good job on the post film Q&A, kicking it off by announcing that she didn't want any questions that began with "I love you Michael", which I thought was funny. The cast has great chemistry and seem to truly like one another, with a bunch of chatter and a big group hug on stage before they settled down to take questions.

I was excited to see Jonathan Wright in his first movie role after absolutely loving him in the broadway musical Spring Awakening when I saw it last year. And, in the flurry of exits of the cast, I took the opportunity to tell him so afterwards :-)

TIFF: Me and Orson Welles

2008-09-06T10:12:00.007-04:00

First screening of the festival last night at the Ryerson for the world premiere of Me and Orson Welles. The film was directed by Richard Linklater (Dazed and Confused, Before Sunset and School of Rock) and stars Zac Efron, Claire Danes, Ben Chaplin and the fantastic newcomer Christian McKay as Orson Welles.

The story takes place over a week in 1937 and centers around a young actor (Efron) who gets a shot at a small role in the broadway production of Ceasar and gets pulled into the politics and backstage antics of the theatre troupe. It's based on the historical fiction novel written by Robert Kaplow and I was surprised to learn in the discussion afterwards how much of the story was factual. It was a solid movie and I enjoyed it, though I wouldn't put it on my 'must see' list. I was surprised by how charming and engaging Efron was, both in the film and during the Q&A afterwards, where he deftly managed breathless questions like "Zac, what's it like seeing yourself on the big screen?" (I mean, seriously??). Which was only topped in ridiculousness by the first question asked to Claire Danes being about My So Called Life.

Afterwards we joined my friend Lara outside the exit door to play paparazzi and caught the exit of Efron, Danes, Linklater and McKay. As you'd expect, the highest decibel of screaming and flashbulbs hit Efron as he exited the building.

Claire Danes looked lovely and brought the cute Hugh Dancy as her date.

McKay seemed overwhelmed by the whole experience and charmingly told the two teenagers who asked him for a picture "See, I played Orson in the movie".

All credit to my friend Lara for the pictures. Her camera and timing are so much better than mine.

TIFF time

2008-09-04T11:51:00.004-04:00

Ah TIFF...the week or so of entertainment that bridges me from the melancholy of the end of summer to the new fall television season.

As I mentioned, I was lucky enough to get tickets for 9 of the 10 films I had selected on my pre-order form. I was in box 30 of 78 for the annual lottery mess and they started filling orders with box 9 so I guess I did ok by being in the first third.

My screenings this year are heavily weighted to the 'Special Presentations' programme which seems to have experienced a growth spurt since last year. And other than a couple more 'indie' productions and one documentary, most of them are set to open before the end of the year. For anyone who's interested...here's how I ended up with my film list:

I picked up the giant program book (with all the rest of the folks in line) on Tuesday August 26th. Then I sat at my desk and flipped through the pages pretty quickly and marked all the movies that hit one of two criteria:

Was the director or one of the stars someone who I particularly liked
Did the title and/or quick perusal of the description grab my attention

Then - as the spreadsheet queen I am - I take all those those movies and throw all the data into excel along with the venues, dates and showtimes for each film. One pivot table later and I have a summary by day, venue and block of time (morning, afternoon or evening) of all the movies I'd be interested in seeing. After that it's all about picking one movie within each block, which is done by asking myself:

Is there anything in that block that falls under my 'absolutely must see' list?
Is it playing at the Ryerson (my fav venue)?
What is the likelihood of anyone associated with the film showing up for a Q&A (one of my fav parts of the festival)?
Is there something I wouldn't get a chance to see anywere else?
If I haven't picked one by now...maybe 'eeny, meeny, miney moe'? I've never faced the problem :-)

Then I fill out the advance order book. I only put in the request for my first choices and don't provide second alternatives (as you are able to do). I figure I'm only looking for 10 tickets (unlike some festival goers who see 30+ films) and it's easy enough to try to rearrange afterwards.

And after all that, I end up with my package of tickets which for the most part I stick with, though I've exchanged a ticket, picked up extras and missed a screening in the past. Here's where I'm going to be over the next 10 days...maybe I'll see you in line.

TIFF'08 Screenings

Me and Orson Welles (Ryerson)
Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist (Ryerson)
Zack & Miri make a Porno (Ryerson)
Other Man (Ryerson)
Religulous (Winter Garden)
Gigantic (Isabel Bader)
Synecdoche (Winter Garden)
Uncertainty (AMC)
Every Little Step (AMC)
Genova (Ryerson)

Signs of the end of Summer

2008-09-01T16:49:00.004-04:00

I was floating on the lake this weekend, enjoying the weather that we should have had in July, and looked up at the trees to see the edges of the leaves turning orange and red.
Seeing the back to school ads that always make me feel like it's time for a new year to start.
Setting my PVR for the start of the new television season. 90210 tomorrow baby!!
Standing in lines waiting to drop off my order form and then pick up my tickets for TIFF. I was lucky enough to get 9 out of the 10 films I selected :-)
Enjoying the last long weekend we have until Thanksgiving.

The Final Summer Tally

Weekends at the Cottage: 7

Concerts: 4

Musicals: 2

Weddings: 1

Non-cottage vacations: 1

Pedicures: 4

Margaritas: too many to count

Random Olympic thoughts

2008-08-20T15:54:00.009-04:00

Seeing people achieve their dreams is very inspiring

Hearing about censorship, fakes at the opening ceremonies and sweeping violent crimes under the rug by the Chinese government is depressing

Switching back and forth between the Canadian and American networks coverage of the games is entertaining

Reading/hearing all of the negative comments about the Canadian medal performance in the first week of the games swing to support and celebration after several great days and performances in a row is pretty ridiculous.

I love Simon Whitfield for putting it out there that he wanted to be on the podium, almost forcing Triathlon Canada to put up or shut up and celebrating when it all came to fruition...how Uncanadian of him :-)

I never look forward to the Olympics at all and then get swept up in watching for the entire two weeks every single time

I have picked up many, many Olympic boyfriends including but not limited to Michael Phelps, Adam Van Koeverden and Alexandre Despatie

You are welcome for the gratuitous photos

In Theatre news this week

2008-08-08T09:11:00.003-04:00

Avenue Q had the serious potential to be a let down. Only because I've been waiting to see it for so long! The first time I tried to get tickets was in New York in 2005, but I wasn't really surprised when there were none available at the TKTS booth since it had just surprisingly won the Tony the year before. But surely, when we where there in April of 2007 there would be tickets available, right?? Well, I went up to the board to see what was up for grabs and of course I was out of luck. I came back to my friends in line and said I apparently wasn't meant to see this musical at which point the gentleman behind us in line informed me that it was "always" there and had been available just the day before...so not helping! Anyway, just after we arrived back in T.O. last spring Dancap Productions announced it's line up and lo and behold it was coming to Toronto! After purchasing the tickets almost a year ago, I finally got to the show last night.

And I'm seriously happy to report that even with my (admitedly) high expectations the show did not disappoint. Funny, raunchy and surprisingly sweet with great performances across the board. I wasn't sure how the whole puppet thing was going to come off but the actors performing (often with their faces right next to the puppets they were playing) were great. The dual movements actually seemed to add to the experience. And if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes I would not have believed that some of the folks were playing the multiple roles on the stage.

Ads for the show loudly proclaim that the material is inappropriate for children...muppet looking puppets aside. And anyone expecting anything different with songs like "Everyone's a little bit racist", "The internet is for porn" and "Sucks to be Me", not to mention the puppet nudity and a character named Lucy the Slut, would be in for a big surprise.

If you were giving thought to the idea of seeing it before it moves on at the end of the month I'd highly recommend getting off your ass and going. I'd hazard to say it may be one of the top 5 musicals on my list!

The most absurd thing I saw last night

2008-07-30T13:31:00.004-04:00

Seriously? You push your tiny little dog around in a stroller?!?

And at the Eaton Centre no less, which is officially the Worst Mall in the World for Stroller Navigation?

I know I am...but what are you?

2008-07-22T13:59:00.007-04:00

I had an interesting moment of pop culture juxtaposition last week. I was in the the middle of reading Full Frontal Feminism, a book I was finding quite interesting. Though superficially aware of the issues that continue to face many women in their work and personal lives, I know I've lived a pretty cushy existence and have always pretty much taken for granted that I can do whatever it is I choose to do with my life. At the same time, I started watching the first season of Mad Men, the acclaimed AMC series about the lives of a bunch of advertising guys that takes place in the early 60s. Now, I know that this is just a television show but, man, how much would have it have sucked to be a woman born 50 years ago? (Not to mention any time period before that). The career prospects and comments made around the office, a pharmacist doling out birth control pills but warning not to use them lest you become a 'loose woman', the wife/mother role as the be all and end all of existence. The actresses on the show are wonderful but I almost find myself not liking their characters because I want to give them a shake and tell them to give the men in their lives a smack and tell them to smarten up and treat them like people.

Is the fact that I find the show (while very well done) to be so misogynistic a testament of how far we've come (and not in a Virginia Slims kind of way) or am I just being willfully ignorant about the fact that women still face these issues today?

I've had conversations with friends about the idea of feminism and heard a lot of the "Well, I'm not a feminist...but" type of comments (which is also a point that Valenti makes in the book). Why are we so seemingly scared to call ourselves feminists? Why is it that identifying yourself as such seems to automatically also classify you as a bitch? And why, as smart successful women, don't we consider it our responsibility to make sure that other women have the same opportunites?

So yes, I am a feminist and not afraid to call myself one. And in what is possibly the online posting I've forwarded most frequently over the years, I'll let Sars explain why you are too.

A night with David Sedaris

2008-07-10T21:46:00.004-04:00

I made my way to Indigo after work tonight for a reading and book signing with David Sedaris. I thought I was getting there in plenty of time for the 7:00 reading when I arrived at 5:45. Yeah, not so much. The seating area was already full and a lineup had started through the aisle. But I picked up my copy of the book and joined the end of the line which very quickly grew to hundreds of people behind me. He was doing about an hour and a half of signing before the reading in order to get a start on the crowd which was a very good idea. I was in the first 30 people in the actual line and I didn't get out of there until 9:30 so he will likely be there for hours yet.

Anyway, if you haven't read any of his books yet get thee to the library or bookstore immediately. Better yet, get a copy of a book on tape because hearing him read is even better.

He started by reading one of the stories from the book, moved on to an "animal fable" that is part of his next project and then finished up the reading with some random diary entries. All of them funny and entertaining. Then he took about half an hour to answer questions from the crowd. And then he took his seat at the table and started signing books and chatting with people. It's to his credit that he didn't rush people through the line and promised to stay until everyone's book was signed.

When my turn at the table came up he took my book and drew a funny little picture and signed it. After guessing my astrological sign (wrong...about 5 times) he came out with "What kind of shampoo do you use?". I wasn't sure where he was going with that one and said that it was usually whatever was on sale. And then he proceeded to pull out a hotel size shampoo from his recent stay at the Copacabana Palace in Rio de Janeiro and hand it to me. I will treasure it forever :-).

New York...the good stuff

2008-06-24T20:53:00.012-04:00

Before the aforementioned travel debacle, the trip to New York was fantastically fun...here's what we managed to fit into four days...

Thursday

Late lunch at the Blue Fin upon arrival at the W hotel in Times Square. Every good vacation should start by drinking something blue. I don't think I'd want to stay right in Times Square if I was going to be in the city for any length of time but for one night it was quite fun. Comfy, sleep encouraging beds...cool lobby/lounge...Bliss beauty products...

The Daily Show taping!!! We very thankfully had VIP tickets which guaranteed us entry and got us out of the long line outside in the sun. The warm up guy was a bit abrasive but Jon was as wonderful as ever for the pre show question period and the show was funny, funny, funny. The Gitmo piece was classic. Mike Myers seemed a bit disgruntled by the timing of his clip and the lack of setup but I don't think people would have laughed with the best setup possible...The Love Guru looks positively awful.

Dinner at Stanton Social in the lower east side...thanks for the reco Sarah!! Food was amazing and the atmosphere was great. We walked through what looked like a pretty big film shoot on our way to the restaurant but I couldn't figure out what they were getting ready to film. Took the subway back to midtown and hit Sephora to stock up on products that are still way cheaper in the U.S...what's with that??

Friday

I couldn't convince any of the other three girls to get up early for a walk so I made my way up to Rockefeller center to pick up an OJ at Dean & Deluca and catch Rihanna's performance for the Today Show concert series. After getting back to the hotel to find my friends slowly waking for the day we did some shopping on 5th avenue for the morning, checked out of the hotel and grabbed some lunch and spent the afternoon at Macy's on 34th street doing a bit more shopping.

After grabbing a quick dinner we went back to midtown to see In The Heights. It had just won the Best Musical Tony less than a week before and the place was definitely packed. It didn't blow me away and immediately have me wanted to buy the soundtrack (like Spring Awakening had last year) but it was a very good show. Amazing to realize that Lin-Manuel had started writing it while still in school and that it was his broadway debut. Then we made our way back to the hotel to pick up our checked bags and got a cab to take us out to Brooklyn...

Saturday

Our home for the rest of the trip was D's friend Gillian's place in Park Slope just over the Brooklyn Bridge. She was heading out of town for the weekend and very graciously offered us her keys. Trust me, we used the 'we're not paying for accomodations' excuse to allow us to spend money many, many times. On Saturday morning we walked around her neighbourhood and stocked up on Bath & Body Works products, shoes and some other shopping.

Saturday afternoon we split up and while Shawna and Denise went out to check out the mermaid parade at Coney Island, Mel and I went back into Manhattan to catch a second show. It was Boeing-Boeing starring Bradley Whitford (one of my many, many TV boyfriends), Gina Gershon, Christine Baranksi, Mary McCormack and Mark Rylance (who had just one the Tony as best actor). We had the best seats that I'd ever had on Broadway and were in the third row right in the centre of the stage. You could see the makeup smudge on the ladies' eyes and the sweat trickle down from Brad's brow (and there was a lot of it). The play was a farce and I spent a good deal of the 2 1/2 hours laughing. Afterwards we went back to meet the other girls on a patio, picked up some snacks and relaxed in the backyard(!) before getting ready to walk through the neighbourhood for a nice low key dinner at a restaurant that Gillian had recommended. Then we had to face the challenge of trying to fit all of our shopping into our suitcases as we packed up to get ready to head home.

Sunday

Got ourselves packed up and got a car back into Manhattan where we checked them at the Sheraton and then had a nice patio brunch. Meandered up to Central park to relax and wander which was a good idea until it started to rain. Hit a couple more stores on 5th on our way back to 30 Rock where we decided on the indoor activity of taking the NBC studio tour. It was fun to see a bunch of studios including Conan's and SNL's even if it did get kicked off with getting our flight cancellation notice while we were about to start.

All in all, the mess of the trip home couldn't spoil what was a fabulous weekend. The final tally included 7 pairs of shoes, sunglasses, a few shirts, Sephora and Bath & Body Works stock ups, and of course very sore feet and a need for some sleep.

New York to Toronto in 20 easy steps

2008-06-23T10:37:00.005-04:00

First of all...New York was fantastic...but I have to save it for next time.

Let me tell you about the most complicated way possible to get from La Guardia airport to Toronto.

Step 1: Have your 6:30pm flight cancelled and receive notification around 2:15pm while in line to start the NBC studio tour.

Step 2: Immediately call Air Canada to confirm cancellation (which they do) and try to reschedule yourself (and your two friends) to get home that day.

Step 3: Receive an alternate routing home with a 5:30 flight to Montreal and a 9:30 flight to Toronto arriving at 11:00pm. Feel kinda crappy about getting home so late when you were hoping to have time to unpack and relax but figure it'll be ok to be a bit tired for work on Monday. Proceed with your tour.

Step 4: Rush out to the airport for the 5:30 flight thereby missing your planned excursion to pick up cupcakes before heading out of town.

Step 5: Arrive at the airport to find that the 5:30 flight to Montreal has also been cancelled and join the line of people trying to figure out a way to get home.

Step 6: Get rescheduled on a 7:55 flight to Montreal which moves your connection to 11:00pm and gets you into Toronto at midnight. Be thankful that using the mobile Air Canada services and getting notification early means that you were fast on the draw to get rescheduled through Montreal in the first place, unlike many others in the line who are being handed lists of local hotels.

Step 7: Decide screw it, since you've now got another 3 hours before your flight you'll take a cab back into Manhattan and pick up your damn cupcakes...which are absolutely fantastically delicious.

Step 8: Have your 7:55 flight get delayed until 8:35

Step 9: Have the flight get delayed until 8:55 and start worrying about making your 11:00 connection

Step 10: Have the flight get delayed until 9:25 and realize that there's now a snowball's chance in hell that you're getting to Toronto that night.

Step 11: Arrive in Montreal at 11:15 looking for attendent who was supposed to be waiting to rebook connecting flights for people as per announcement made en route. Find no one in the Airport from Air Canada because they all took off at 11:00.

Step 12: Book it to the Hilton while on hold with Air Canada to confirm seats on the 7:00am flight to Toronto.

Step 13: Spend 45 minutes on hold

Step 14: Confirm 7:00am flights for all three of us

Step 15: Sleep for almost 4 hours

Step 16: Get to airport to check in for 7:00am flight. Can't use kiosk to check in, deal with confusion about reissuing ticket (which is already an old fashioned carbon handwritten paper) to fly out that morning.

Step 17: Stop to grab some food with your two poor pregnant friends who need to eat something.

Step 18: Get to the gate having everyone already boarded and the sign already changed for the next departure to Winnipeg and the gate agents saying that there is no one else on the flight to Toronto that's about to pull away from the gate. Then they look at our boarding passes and realize that they had just took us off the passenger list because they assumed we made the connection the night before. Thankfully make our way on to the plane.

Step 19: Arrive in Toronto...pick up luggage (which makes it with duty free booze thankfully intact since it had to get checked after we missed the connection)...grab cab to head straight to work to arrive 15 minutes late for your 8:30am Monday meeting.

Step 20: Try to figure out how long you need to put in at the office before you can go home and crawl into bed.

Honey, I'm home

2008-06-17T09:50:00.004-04:00

I'm heading to New York with the girls for a weekend of shopping, dining and shows.

More importantly, I'm going to see my tv husband on Thursday (don't worry, I know he's having affairs with others...we have an open relationship).

The only sad thing is that we're at the show the day after Steve Carell visits which would have been perfect. *so close* dammit! Our fellow canuck Mike Myers better bring the funny on Thursday.

Because there's not enough commentary on the SATC movie

2008-06-05T10:41:00.007-04:00

Okay. So I came into the movie with certain expectations. I have seen every episode of the series multiple times. The show is one of my top five of all time. And I have to say that I walked out of the theatre absolutely, completely satisfied.

I went opening night with 14 of my friends for what was one of the most unique theatre-going experiences of my life. All of the oft-repeated observations about the movie's audience were evident...the theatre was on estrogen overload, populated by groups of women attending together, and there were stilettos and makeup and an audience more done up for a movie than I've ever seen. And everyone was excited to be there.

I've been reading reviews that swing from 'it's sexy' to 'it's sexist' and was gleefully informed by one of my coworkers of the 0* review in the Globe before heading out last Friday to see it. Here are my responses to the most commonly made criticisms.

1. I KNOW that real women don't walk around in designer clothes and $400+ shoes everyday. And have seemingly unlimited time to spend sitting around in restaurants over drinks with their friends. But we wish we could. Since when do movies need to show real life?

2. Ditto the money they have to spend on New York real estate, decorating their homes and travelling at the drop of a hat. Not realistic. Got it. Now get over it.

3. Frankly I pretty much disregard any review written by a man and I don't care it that's sexist in it's own right. So much that made this show and these characters special was in the way that the friendship between these women worked. I'm sorry, but if you're not a woman you just can't appreciate it the same way.

4. Yes, almost 2 1/2 hours is pretty long, especially for a romantic comedy. But I didn't look at my watch once. I can't say the same for the interminable 113 minutes I spent watching You Don't Mess with the Zohan this week.

5. Yes, Jennifer Hudson's character seemed a bit tacked on. But not obtrusively so, and I thought it gave Carrie a few great moments where she realized how far she had come.

6. If you didn't watch the show then this movie was not made for you. Period.

That last one is probably the biggest. For those of us that are fans of the show it was like catching up with great friends that you haven't seen in a while. And the fact that we know these characters so well means that we come into the movie with all of the background that makes the events on the screen have much more emotional impact (says the girl who was fighting back tears with varying degress of success through most of the second half).

The movie is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. Everyone who's seen the trailer knows that Big is going to screw over Carrie (again) and set up the major conflict of the movie. Charlotte didn't get much of a plot at all, though the two moments where she went all mama bear on Big were fantastic. And Samantha had, for me, some of the best and worst moments of the movie (the two worst? There's no way she wouldn't have taken her hunky neighbour up on his offer and the silly 'let herself go and gained weight' scene.) As an aside, I sat about 10 feet away from her at the taping of the etalk Kim Cattrall interview and the lady looks fantastic, and thankfully not plastic or frozen in the face.

I'm also one of the people who think it's fantastic that a female driven movie (and one where all the stars are over 40!) was able to open at number 1 in the summer blockbuster season, and knock off Indiana Jones after only one week to boot. If its sucess, and that of Baby Mama earlier in the season, helps to get more 'movies for women' made then I'm all for it.

At the end of the day, Sex and the City: the movie has earned a spot on the DVD shelf next to the well worn set of the series. And that's the best compliment that I can give.

What's with all the cliffhangers??

2008-05-22T13:47:00.004-04:00

Unless you count the summer viewing options of So You Think You Can Dance, Big Brother, Canadian Idol and the like (which I totally do, but anyway) the television season is basically winding to a close this week with the two hour Lost finale (the mother of cliffhanger shows).

And is it just me or did there seem to be way more cliffhanger endings this season? I don't know if the strike shortening the season for scripted shows led to some serious readjustments of story lines or if it's just that I've managed to forget the usual end of season 'suck 'em in for next year' moves but here are the questions for which I'm waiting until September (or more likely October) for answers:

1. ER - Who was in the damn exploding ambulance?
2. Criminal Minds - Who was in the damn exploding SUV?
3. Desperate Housewives - 5 years later? And where the heck did Mike go??
4. Brothers & Sisters - William Walker had another child?
5. Ugly Betty - As much as I love Christopher Gorham, Betty damn well better have gotten her ass on a plane to Rome.
6. Gossip Girl - OK, Chuck leaving B stranded at the helipad is probably technically not a cliffhanger but damn it, how am I supposed to go without this show for 3 months??

Not to mention all of the shows that never came back after the strike...I will undoubtably need a recap of where they heck they ended off before they come back in the fall.

I think only two shows that I was watching actually got cancelled this year, and they were ones I really wasn't all that invested in (Men in Trees and Canterbury's Law). Which means I have room in my schedule to pick up something new. First on the list...

Joss & Eliza together again! Sign me up.

Sucked in by a vampire

2008-05-22T09:34:00.004-04:00

I read a lot. About 2-3 books a week depending on what else is going on. And I read pretty much everything, from biographies to business tomes, memoirs to mysteries, chick lit to crime, and everthing in between.

Lately I've been on a bit of a kick for both young adult fiction (so much better than it was when I was reading Sweet Valley High) and paranormal chick lit (which seems to fill the entertainment void left by Buffy). The combination of which seems to be met perfectly by the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer.

And yes, I realize that I'm late to the party on this one. She was just named as one of Time's 100 most influential people, the series has been called "The Next Harry Potter", and the movie being released this December is apparently turning the actors into the most searched for stars on the web. But in the spirit of 'better late than never' I'm telling you that if the idea of a teen vampire romance catches your attention at all, you should rush out and read the first three books in the series; Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse. If only to stay pop culturally relevant :-). And then you can join me in waiting for the conclusion of the series with Breaking Dawn which will be released on August 2nd.

The best TV shows of all time (this week)

2008-04-25T09:15:00.004-04:00

Two different people have asked me in the last week about what I would consider the top tv shows of all time. Clearly, this is something I need to share. So without further ado and in no particular order...here are what would make the top 5 list at this point:

Sports Night. Because even if the first three seasons of The West Wing are arguably Sorkin at his best, this is where he did it first. Because it was my introduction to Peter Krause, Felicity Huffman, Josh Malina and the multitude of Sorkin regulars showing up in bit parts. Because it died an early death thanks to the boneheads at ABC. Because even though the Damn Dating Plan was awful, the first season build up to the Dana & Casey kiss was fantastic. Because "you're wearing my shirt Gordon" is a moment that still gets me to this day. Because of the many, many, many quotable moments and expressions that I still manage to get into my day to day life (and rejoice when someone gets the reference). Every couple years the series gets popped into the DVD player and rewatched.

Six Feet Under. It has to say something that I waited almost two years to watch the final season even though it was sitting on my shelf ready to go. I just liked the idea that there were more episodes for me to look forward to. It was smart, and heartwrenching and funny and had an incredible group of actors...and it made me cry.

Sex and the City. Look, I'm a single 30-something woman. Of course I love this show :-). And yes, I've had the "which character are you" discussions with friends...over brunch natch. But beyond all of the frivolity and fashion and discussions about sexual proclivities, this show to me was about friendship. How no matter what other relationships where going on these women had each other. And it makes me thankful for all the fantastic friends in my life. It's also completely rewatchable and I stop flipping through channels to watch it on a regular basis...even though I own the DVDs. And I can't tell you how many times that situations and conversations I'm having with friends remind me of episodes of the show. Does that make me sad? Maybe...but it also means that the show gets it right.

Veronica Mars. It was smart. It was funny. It had great dialogue with fun pop culture references. It managed to weave a season long mystery arc with more contained mysteries of the week and keep each episode entertaining...twice. Kristen Bell's Veronica is a kick ass heroine. Logan Echolls is the bad boy we all want to reform. Great guest stars...Paul Rudd! Alyson Hannigan! Michael Cera! I loved this show and mourned it's ending. And it's the one show on my list that I don't have in my DVD collection, must rectify that.

Lost. I think J.J. Abrams is brilliant and will watch anything he puts his name on (Cloverfield is the exception to the rule). This slot almost went to Alias because I'm nervous about including Lost as it's not finished yet and could go off the rails or end in a mess. I was somewhat late to the bandwagon on this one because I missed the first season in the days before timeshifting and the PVR with two shows already in that time slot when it premiered (yes, I've mentioned that I watch a lot of tv so shut up). But after hearing rave reviews all season I picked up the first season when it came out on DVD a few weeks before season 2 was set to start. I figured I'd watch it over a few weeks and tape the first couple of episodes. Silly me. I spent an entire weekend glued to the television and was ready for the premiere the next week. This show has more OMG! moments than anything I can think of. And while I think the third season contained a few of a missteps (Nikki & Paulo...shudder), the negotiated end date of the series allows the men with the plan to execute it the way they wanted to...I just hope they don't disappoint me.

So there they are. If you're looking at the list and thinking 'she totally missed show x', you may be right. But these are my top 5 and I'm sticking by them...for now.

Your turn.

Open for business

2008-04-24T22:54:00.004-04:00

For all of you who were waiting breathlessly to see what I ended up deciding on the murphy bed...

Am officially ready for guests :-)

No day but today

2008-03-20T14:58:00.006-04:00

I saw Rent for the 5th time last night. And yes, I know this pales in comparison to the count of the legions of "Rentheads" out there. I've mentioned how much I love musicals before and this is the one that kicked it off for me. I saw it for the first time in London at the start of my post university European tour and it was one of those hair standing on end, goosebump experiences. I proceeded to listen to the soundtrack so many times that I can sing the entire thing from beginning to end (and have subjected more than one friend to my 'performance' on road trips...sorry folks).

It was made even more fun last night for the fact that I was introducing it to a friend that had never seen it before. At our pre-show dinner, D and I were doing our best not to oversell our excitement for the show to Vicky who was our Rent virgin, though we couldn't stop ourselves from busting out a line or two...maybe it was the martinis...probably not. I thought it was a good production and Vic loved it (thankfully). For me the show is made or broken by whoever is playing Roger and he was fantastic (and played by South African Idol winner Heinz Winckler). Before the show last night I had said to myself (and others) that it would be my fifth and final time and now I'm not sure about that. It's closing in New York after running for 12 years and I'm thinking if I get there before June it might be worth seeing there before they shut it down ;-).

I can tell you that the soundtrack will definitely get a run through on the 3 hour drive to the cottage tomorrow.

Have a good long weekend people!

Wanna feel 13 again?

2008-03-02T21:46:00.005-05:00

Here's the recipe:

- 7 girls with sleeping bags
- voting survivor style on which cheesy movie to watch
- 1 part 'Rock of Love'
- 3 hours of discussion (aka gossip) on celebrities, relationships and fashion
- copious amounts of food

- 3am talking til you're falling asleep in the dark

Wanna know the best part of doing this when you're over 30? (other than the fact that you don't have parents telling you to 'settle down and go to sleep')

Thanks Kate!

Beds...how much does size matter?

2008-02-14T15:01:00.006-05:00

I've been debating on getting a murphy bed installed in my second bedroom for awhile. It's sort of turned into a giant storage room and I figured there's likely a better way to use the space. I'm sure an actual mattress is much more comfortable for guests to sleep on than the pull out couch. And then I can move my couch up to the cottage and replace the pull out there with one that's actually younger than I am. So, I finally had someone from Space Solutions come by today to give me a 'design consultation' and quote.

Here's my dilemma...apparently if I want to have some actual storage space built in with the bed (shelves and drawers and whatnot) I really need to go with a double bed instead of the queen that I was thinking about. Whatdya think? Is a double bed good enough for my guests??

Vacation(s) aftermath

2008-02-13T09:53:00.011-05:00

So now what?? I've travelled from sea to ski in the past two weeks and now it's back to the real world with seemingly nothing else to look forward to.

Ah, but let's relive the memories shall we??

Ships & Dip III was truly fantastically fun. We arrived in Miami at about 1:00am on Saturday and checked into our airport motel (just couldn't justify spending the money to stay on the beach when we were heading out on a cruise). And while we had some thoughts of heading to the beach or doing some shopping on Saturday we ended up spending the day having cocktails around the pool and enjoying the sun. Am almost (almost) embarrassed to admit we ate both lunch and dinner in the hotel bar. But sticking around proved to be the first of many good decisions on the trip as we connected with Fin to get the shuttle schedule for the morning, got to say hello to Alan and Sean (of GBS) as they arrived and promptly copied our mojito order and reconnected with a bunch of people we had met on last year's cruise over appetizer dinners in the lounge.

Sunday's boarding was quick and uneventful. After strolling the ship and trying to get our bearings (trust me, this was much more difficult than it sounds, I ended up as the group navigator for the week and managed to get us pointed in the wrong direction only a couple of times) we got ourselves a beer and waited for our luggage to arrive. See, when you go on a cruise you tag your luggage and have to leave it with the porters as you arrive and then wait for it to be delivered to your cabin. It's like checking in at the aiport with the added anxiety of getting stuck on a ship with nothing to wear for the duration of your stay if your luggage goes astray. My little suitcase was there within about an hour and I was able to unpack and get organized pretty quickly. Mom's got dropped off sometime during the sail away concert so she could finally relax ;-). The mandatory muster drill (punchline: where's the ketchup) brings up thoughts of Titanic as you report to your station with your life jacket and hear about what would happen in the event of an actual on board emergency. And then we were off! 5 days of music and partying on the ocean.

I'm not sure I will never be able to enjoy a 'standard' cruise after the party that Sixthman puts on. In 5 days I think we saw 20 concerts and about 5 comedy sets, with full days in Grand Cayman and Jamaica in the middle there somewhere. I knew that the BNL and Great Big Sea shows would be great (and they were!) but all of the artists put on a great show. I enjoyed the smaller, more intimate sets by Jason Collett, Brian MacMillan, Joe Pisapia, Lori Cullen and Jason Plumb. And after missing them last year, I got to a Guster and Thinbuckle show. Mostly, it was just really cool to see really talented people jump up on stage and perform with each other spontaneously.

So to share a bit of the cruise, here are my two new fav GBS songs

Walk on the Moon...Thurs night Lido deck

Straight to Hell...Songwriters panel

And my other "new" find on the cruise was Boothby Graffoe who I managed to catch 1 1/2 times while on the boat. Funny, funny, comedian/singer/songwriter from the UK...and I'm not just saying that because we shared a seat on the shuttle back to the airport in Miami and I felt like I got my own personal 30 minute set ;-)

I've got to say, there's no way the John Mayercraft Carrier (which was getting ready to take off on the same boat on the day we got back) could have been half as much fun.

Mom and I also managed to make our way off the boat for a very fun excursion in Grand Cayman. We got to SeaDoo 4 miles out into the ocean to Stingray City, where we fed and held giant stingrays. Having never driven a personal watercraft on the ocean I was a bit unsure what to expect, only that it would likely be much different than taking off on our mostly calm lake. I think I got the hang of it after a while and developed a technique where I tried to ride through the waves like ski moguls but I also felt like I got a complimentary sea salt facial with the ride. The next day we spent a day on a beach in Jamaica drinking Red Stripe beer. And somewhere in all of that we managed to catch a few hours of sleep ;-).

We flew back into Toronto in the midst of a snowstorm, which was a reality slap in the face. Thankfully managed to get in with only a couple of hours delay. I feel like I'm tempting fate by even saying this but I've had nothing but good airline experiences recently.

And then I spent a whole 5 days back in the real world before heading out west for the weekend with some friends for what was supposed to be a ski outing. Not for me, of course, cause I may be the most inept person on the planet on a ski hill. My plan was to join them at Lake Louise, do some skating or just walking in the morning and spend the afternoon at the spa. Well, the best laid plans and all that...

Calgary/Canmore/Banff was cold this weekend. Seriously freeze your eyeballs cold.

Here's what Lake Louise can look like in the winter

Here's what it looked like when we were there

Not quite what we had planned :-). But we had a fun long weekend of relaxing, eating good food and drinking great wine. And at least managed to take the road trip to see Banff and Lake Louise...though I'll clearly have to go back and see it at it's best.

And that's what I've been up to for the last few weeks!

Come aboard...we're expecting you

2008-01-24T09:29:00.001-05:00

It's vacation time people. As of tomorrow I'm leaving the snow and cold behind and heading south. Plans include, but are not limited to, seeing the Barenaked Ladies, Great Big Sea, Sarah Harmer, Harland Williams and others perform, visiting Stingray City, and having a number of umbrella drinks on board, in Grand Cayman, Jamaica and anywhere else we manage to find a bar ;-). Have a good week or so while I'm not around to keep up with the news on the interweb...

I'm in Love

2008-01-11T11:47:00.002-05:00

Please meet the newest object of my affection. I believe we have a long and happy relationship ahead of us.

So I watch a lot of TV. I mean, a lot of TV. At any one time in the active television season I could be recording 25-30 shows a week on my PVR. (Now, of course, the strike means I've got some more time on my hands). I have a couple of friends who have mentioned planning an intervention to deal with my addiction. Now some of these people don't actually own televisions so really, what do they know?? When I finally got my hands on a PVR it felt like a religious conversion of some sort. It's not an overstatement to say it changed my life.

I have been watching all of this TV for the past 6 years on a 32” tube television, which wasn’t the height of technology when I purchased it at that time. (Why, I argued with myself, would I spend the extra $300 just to get a screen that was flat when I new there was better technology just around the corner). And since then I’ve been reluctant to commit, reluctant to spend the money, and fairly satisfied with the TV I owned.

I finally took the plunge. With the Christmas gift of some cash from my parents (with a cute little TV picture drawn in the memo section of the check) and the knowledge that my bonus this year was going to be my best ever, I headed out on Boxing ‘week’ to procure an HD TV. And have spent the last two weeks waiting for my spot in line in the delivery schedule. Well, last night it arrived. The very helpful delivery/installation guy helped me move the heavy old TV and the top section of the wall unit that housed the old TV and went to work connecting all of the wiring. After setting the TV up he said, “you know, I think your unit will still fit with the new TV”. And lo and behold it did, with mere millimeters to spare on either side. It looks IKEA custom designed it with this TV in mind…and I get to keep my shelf space!

I ordered a pizza (bad Heather!), poured myself a beer and settled in on the couch for the night. I’d still be there if I could. What the heck took me so long??

Hey, hey...it's January

2008-01-09T09:45:00.000-05:00

I was recently taken to task for not having updated this page in a while...who knew anyone was actually reading it?!? And then I realized I had a half written post from the week before Christmas when I was killing time (I mean, working really hard) at the office, which makes no sense at all now. So, in the spirit of starting off the new year with a clean slate, I'll start over.

I know I'm not the only one having a hard time getting my shit together and back to productivity after the holidays. As evidenced by last Saturday night's "We're not ready to let go of 2007 Pub Crawl", many of you seem to be in the same boat. I'm not sure why it seems to be harder this year. Maybe it's rebelling against another year passing and feeling like I don't have much to show for it. Maybe it's feeling a bit exhausted at the thought of all the things I need to accomplish in the coming months. Or maybe it's just too many late nights and too much drinking over the holidays (no seriously, look at my facebook pictures, I'm holding a drink at almost every occasion) that's taking a bit more time to recover from. Whatever it is, I'm hoping that the recovery is just around the corner and I'm back to feeling productive and energized.

And I have a lot of good stuff coming up in the next little while. The Toronto Rock season kicks off with the home opener this Friday and the 9th season of Section 111ers is set to begin. I'm seeing a couple of plays/musicals/movies over then next few weeks. And in three weeks from Friday I'm taking off to Miami to set sail on Ships & Dip III (cause II is best not remembered) with my mom and a bunch of bands and comedians and hitting Grand Cayman and Ocho Rios en route (what was I saying about giving up late nights and drinking?).

I'll tell you what I won't be doing...watching the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday night. I had at least three people call or email to express their condolences when the cancellation was announced (apparently I've been quite vocal about the Globes being my favourite award show). I've been coping with this strike to date, while lamenting the abrupt endings to some of my fav shows, but this just might be too much. C'mon people...get it figured out!! And before the Oscars dammit! The latest victim of the strike for me is Gossip Girl...are you watching this show? If not, you should be. Last night's episode was the last one they managed to get written and filmed and I really, really need to know what happens to S and B next.

It's beginning to look...

2007-12-04T22:40:00.001-05:00

I forget sometimes that once you get out of the city the snow tends to accumulate and stick around for a lot longer. I'm reminded of this every time my mom or friends come to visit and bring along their big winter boots to wear out on to sidewalks that stay pretty clear for the most part. This weekend wasn't one of those times. Watching the crazy blowing snow on Saturday night was definitely enough to kick me into the festive spirit.

My fantastic mom came to hang out last weekend and help me Christmasize my pad. Isn't my tree pretty? It makes me smile every night when I drive home from work and can see it sitting clearly in the window (gotta love timers).

I also made a last minute decision to take a long weekend and we also managed to make a dent in our Christmas shopping (though were a bit more successful shopping for ourselves) and seeing a Friday afternoon movie. We joined what seemed like a theatre full of mothers and daughters (though most of them were about 20 years younger than me) to see Enchanted, which was a really sweet, entertaining movie. And perfect for a winter afternoon.

In other news, I also had a really fun weekend hanging out with my 'niece' and introducing her to a girls' night. After the mess that was Dirty Dancing - the musical, it felt only right to get together with some friends, food and drink to watch the original. Bonus points if you know who had the empty glass ;-)

Dirty Dancing...a resounding meh

2007-11-22T10:52:00.001-05:00

Well, I wish I could say that the 'Dirty Dancing: the Musical' was as fantastic as I was hoping it would be.

First, let me preface this by saying I love musicals. I mean, really love them. And I don't think there's a woman of my generation who doesn't have a soft spot for Dirty Dancing, even if they don't love it. I went to see the musical last night with my three theatre going friends, and all of us had a fairly vivid memory of our first viewing of the film. It was a birthday party, or a sleepover and 3 of the four of us remember rewinding scenes or even the whole film to watch it over and over again. So you definitely had 4 people who were predisposed to love the musical.

And really? It wasn't so good. It wasn't so much a musical as it was a reenactment of the movie onstage, with a mostly soundtrack backing of the action. And that's probably ok. In fact, it probably wouldn't work if they had scrapped the soundtrack that we all know so well and had new songs for Baby and Johnny to sing dialogue at each other. The three performers who actually sang some of the key songs in the production were very good, especially the final performance of "I've had the time of my life".

My biggest gripe with the production, no question, was that anytime there was a section of added dialogue or plot that wasn't in the movie it was jarring. That's not to say that they shouldn't have added to or changed the story, but if they were going to do it they needed to do a better job. The character of Baby's mom was given a trio of extra scenes with Baby, Jake (Baby's dad) and Penny (the knocked up dancer) which I think were supposed to give the character more depth or something, but she really didn't need to be more than the '60's mom' in order to drive the story. There was a whole added in storyline about racial equality that was an excuse for Baby and Johnny to have another argument to expand on their differences and to flash a picture of Martin Luther King on the screen (yes, you read that correctly) to which my only response was...Really?!? There was a bunch of added lines to stress the 'class' differences in the groups of people in the story...did they think we wouldn't get that?!?

My other issues were more minor. The actor playing Johnny Castle seemed to be a bit too pretty and polished (like a Disney prince come to life is how D put it). I think I had a different perspective on the inappropriateness of the relationship between the two seeing it fresh as a thirtysomething instead of a tween :-). There were a couple of moments that really weren't supposed to be funny that elicited laughter from the audience.

The good things? The set design was incredible...absolutely amazing to see how they managed to bring all the different locations to the stage. The log scene in the woods and lift practice in the water were among the moments that stood out. The final dance performance, kicked off with Johnny rushing to the stage from the back of the theatre, made you feel like you were living in the movie. The general nostalgic memories that kicked in with the opening bar on almost every song.

All that said, I know I'll end up seeing it again during it's run in Toronto (however long it lasts). As a musical it wouldn't make the top 20 list of productions I've seen, but as a night out with the girls involving some martinis and a chance to reminisce, it definitely delivers. We walked out of the theatre with plans to get together to watch the movie Saturday night.

But I really hope this isn't a sign as to how the rest of my top five are going to deliver.

Hey! It's November

2007-11-21T11:39:00.002-05:00

Hello to the four of you who are breathlessly waiting for an account of what's going on in my life lately ;-)

I'm crazy surprised that it's almost the end of November. I'm not sure where most of 2007 really went. I mean, I was there and everything, but it seems to have been a bit of a whirlwind.

So, remember last month when I said I'd be heading to the cottage to rake a bunch of leaves and get further into the fall spirit? Yeah, not so much. My parents elected to head up there on a weekend when I had a wedding to go to so not only do I feel sad for missing out on the end of the season wrap up, but I feel incredibly guilty about leaving all the work for my parents. Do you think really nice Christmas gifts will make up for it??

I did get around to partaking in some Halloween festivities this year thanks to the encouragement of D, who elevates the enjoyment of the holiday to a whole new level. Her four costume tribute to Maria Von Trapp was inspired...fully augmented by the 7 carved Von Trapp children pumpkins. I also discovered that I have quite the talent for the shooter luge...who knew? :-)

I also managed to get around to my shopping trip to Buffalo with mom and sister-in-law which was fantastic. We were pretty much run off our feet at the end of the Longest Shopping Day Ever on Saturday but scored some fantastic deals and got a start on our Christmas shopping. I managed to make a couple of early Christmas gift purchases for myself with a snazzy new watch and purse. Isn't it pretty?? Shopping savings are definitely there to be had by crossing south of the 49th. First of all, the Canadian dollar being at basically par (which, I know, isn't quite as good as it was a few weeks ago) means that any brand is automatically going to be cheaper just because they haven't adjusted the 'list' price to account for the change in exchange. Coach purses that were $500 here were less than $400 there. But our biggest savings came from spending about 3 hours at Macy's. I had assumed the 'international savings card' 11% (who comes up with these numbers?) discount was only available at the Macy's in New York and Las Vegas, where they had visitors centres, but no, they had them right at the service desks at the Galleria. And then they had a 'sign up for a Macy's account and get an additional 20% purchases' thing going on. 31% off everything in the store?? Let me at it! We also stayed at a really cute hotel and managed to eat lunch at the Cheesecake Factory without an hour and a half wait for a table (here's a tip...ALWAYS check to see if there is seating available at the bar). Thanks to Vickie, the cross border expert, for the advice on the best border crossing spot, location for hotel and the Targets to avoid we had an absolutely no stress weekend. Well, except for the usual anxiety about getting back across the border ;-).

Otherwise I have been enjoying the fall television offerings (and am preparing myself for the ugly near future of a reality television bonanza for as long as the strike goes on). I'm *loving* the new Chuck, Pushing Daisies, Dirty Sexy Money, Gossip Girl and Reaper. And really enjoying the returning Friday Night Lights (why aren't more people watching this show??), Heroes (for the most part), The Office, and House (for Hugh Laurie).

And now we're coming up on December and I should be getting in the mood for Christmas. Part of me is feeling too lazy to bother to get all the decorations out...which I know I'd regret since I love coming home to the twinkling lights on the tree once it's up. My mom's planning on visiting next weekend to help with the decorating and do some Christmas shopping so I really shouldn't complain about the work, but it's never stopped me before.

And now, the top five things I'm looking forward to in the coming weeks:

Dirty Dancing the musical
KT Tunstall
weekend visits with Shawna and the munchkin and my mom
Bon Jovi
The multitude of Christmas parties, gatherings and brunches filling up my calendar

Stay tuned :-)

Post the Second

2007-10-16T15:43:00.000-04:00

So I've changed my mind and figured maybe I'd post once a month ;-). And lo and behold it's the middle of October. For most of the past month I just wasn't really feeling the fall/new season/back to school/reinvigorating vibe that seems to be infusing the people all around me. Probably partially because it hasn't seemed like fall yet, what with the 20 degree plus continuing weather.

But after spending part of the Thanksgiving weekend at the cottage stacking wood, raking leaves and doing other fall-y stuff and (starting to) pull out the fall clothes this weekend I think it's officially hit me.

So what's been going on in my life the past month you ask?

The Coolest Thing
Thanks to my friend Vickie, I got to spend a Sunday afternoon in a recording studio doing my best Supremes impression as a backup singer. Serena Ryder, who is an amazing singer, is releasing a Christmas song? album?? and I got to record some clapping and backup singing of the chorus with about 7 other people. Anyone who has sufferred through a long drive with me belting out along with the ipod should know what a dream come true this was.

The Most Fun Thing
Melanie hosted the 5th? annual girls dinner at her place with an incredible meal (as usual) with a lovely Tuscan theme, which also happenned to coincide with nuit blanche. We ate too much, drank too much, laughed too much and then tried to caffeinate ourselves with Rockstar coolers before heading out on the town to check out some art. I was unfortunately pretty underwhelmed with the whole nuit blanch experience. I think they could have improved it a lot by having everything a bit closer together and not sprawled out across the city. At least we got to see Denise's roommate perform ;-)

The Most Fortuitous Thing
Had a visit from my once semi-roommate Tanja to be my roommate for a week while she worked from the office here. It was great to catch up without as much rushing as usually happens when she's in town. We went to see The Drowsy Chaperone on it's return through Toronto to kick off the North American tour, had a couple dinners out, a fabulous brunch/shopping day and managed to catch a few of the fall tv premieres.

The Most Distracting Thing
So, I've been told a time or two that I really should be working in the entertainment business instead of my actual job because it's really what I'm passionate about. If only I could figure out a way to do that and still pay the mortgage. Anyhoo, enter tvbigshot (http://www.tvbigshot.com/), basically a fantasy league for television geeks. You get a $300million budget to acquire shows to start and then rack up points for overall ratings, timeslot wins, magazine appearances, ratings growth etc. and increase the value of your network if the value of the shows increases which allows you to sell them and buy others. (I'm currently ranked in the top 3% btw)

The Most Boring Thing
Oh yeah, work. Well it was the 'finalize the business plan' month which meant team reviews, planning overhead budgets with all the VPs, and oh forget it I'm bored just typing this. Suffice it to say the plans were presented and went well and I was able to cross a big 'to do' off the list.

That's about it folks. Join me next month when I'll likely be reporting on my last wedding of the year, a probable trip to the cottage for the leaf raking extravaganza and a possible trip to Buffalo to spend some hard earned Cdn$.

So here I am

2007-09-18T20:25:00.000-04:00

Well hello there.

So I seem to spend a bunch of time reading the blogs of various friends, acquaintances and other strangers. And from time to time I make a comment or two on what they've had to say. I've finally created my own so that, at the very least, they can be sure that it's me doing the commenting.

I really don't expect to post much. I'm a much better reader than I am a writer ;-)