I had the pleasure and the privilege of seeing Jodie Mack's: Dusty Stacks of Mom: The Poster Project, at one of Toronto's best film festivals, Images Festival, with live Jodie Mack performance alongside. It was honestly one of the best most inspiring film experiences I've had in ages. She's a genius, and it made me feel like a genius for living in Toronto, going to Images and choosing to see her film (which I mean as a compliment to her and Images for their great progamming).
One of my biggest regrets was missing the Olivier Assayas newie at TIFF. One of my all time fave directors, I definitely am excited for this take on the French 60s from him, looks like lots of shades of Bresson as well, which is never a bad thing!
My friend Jon makes the most amazing video compilations of his friends, this is the most epic one he's made so far, and I love it more than words can say.
I just did a post on films I'm excited about and completely missed this little beauty - of course. Beyond the Black Rainbow is showing AMC somehow (for the non-North Americans its like Hoyts or similar super commercial cinema) but it looks friggin rad - Jodorosky x Daft Punky x sci-fi vibes all over it! Also its CDN!
2011 was the year I met Whit Stillman, hopefully 2012 will be the year I meet Hal Hartley, but at least I KNOW I'm seeing him in a Q and A in March at IFC for a Book of Life screening, which randomly coincides with my trip to NYC between contracts. Now I just have to meet Noah Baumbach and Richard Linklater and my 90s verbose slacker film dreams will have all come true.
Consolation prize for missing out on Fiona Apple tickets :/
PS In other Hal Hartley news I wrote about his films and got to share my obsession with limerance here
I saw Joachim Trier's film, 'Oslo, 31 August' at TIFF last year, and I totally loved everything about it. Understated, starring semi-hip 20-somethings, who are contemplative and somewhat morose, quirky narrative style - yes, I'm SO on board! Not that I want in anyway to reduce a beautiful, affecting, work of art like 'Oslo, 31 August' to a bunch of conventions that I just happen to always love, because well, its better than that. Definitely one of my faves of last year, that I feel like not many people saw, and as such, I'm kicking myself that I forgot it for The Playlist Underrated/Overrated.
I'm also halfway through Reprise (his first film), and I can't believe I love it as much as 'Oslo, 31 August', maybe more! I hope I don't have to wait another 5 years for the next Joachim Trier movie (say it ain't so).
It was Gregg Araki's birthday on Saturday. I'm crap with friends b'days, hell my own parents are hard enough, so goes without saying, I totally didn't realise it was Gregg's. Opening Ceremony did though! They curated a cute little dress in OC x screen cap ode that you can check here.
Seeing Gregg in conversation a TIFF Bell Lightbox was one of my all time fave events of the year - a year which included shaking Whit Stillman's hand, moving to Toronto, spending a month in Thailand with my best gal pal, going on a road trip to Detroit and visiting the Mo-town museum and seeing EMA, Louis CK, Malcolm Gladwell (and bajillion other peeps) live. So you know it was pretty good.
Though it wasn't that long ago I was spouting superlatives about Cafe de Flore, I also just saw We Need to Talk About Kevin this week. I only saw Morvern Callar a few months ago, despite my good intentions. Lynne Ramsey has an undeniable aesthetic, which everyone seems drawn to, she somehow makes things affecting and poignant without being completely devastating and bleak (in a Lars Von Trier or John Cassavettes kinda way). This film is rad and you should totally see it, and read the book, because its awesome (love you Lionel Shriver).
I've been catching up on some of the films I missed at TIFF this year, including 'Cafe de Flore' which totally devastated me. As opposed to "tragic" young love stories like 'Like Crazy', which just make me feel old and five different types of cynical, 'Cafe de Flore' has so much going for it. It had character development and believable relationships - sorry 'Like Crazy' you were just 2-by-4 and all sorts of lame.
'Cafe de Flore' is also relatively free of bad romantic cliches, and instead has a healthy 'mount of bourgey introspection and a lot of 'fate' talk - which I love, yes, I'm a sucker for some of that interconnectedness of the universe guff, so it ticked a lot of boxes for me. Did I mention the fact that the closest they got to star power was Vanessa Paradis and that she couldn't look further from a 'glamazonian'?
The setting couldn't be further from Woody Allen's 'Midnight in Paris' Paris either, despite the touristy, nostalgic title, this is no romantic 'City of Lights' type-of-deal. However it still looks beautiful, I guess its hard to make Paris look ugly.
Though the film's tribute to music feels a bit over earnest at the time, it feels true enough for the cheeseball middle aged club DJ character - yes I swear I did actually like this film. BTW that role was sooooo perfectly cast, from the bad tattoo's down to over-sculpted biceps - and his GF toe rings.
