The Killers....well...killed

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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 :-).