New Moon thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 :-).