February 2015 = 30 SHOWS!!

I saw 30 movies in February:  One film festival, 2 shorts, 9 documentaries, 18 narrative films, and most of a movie marathon.  Even though I saw What We Do In The Shadows 3 times, it wasn't my favourite flick. That would be Dog Day Afternoon - one of my 9 rewatches, first time seeing it in a theatre though. 50 Shades of Grey is my worst movie of the month, maybe ever.  It's super bad and not in that good campy way. Though it has the possibility to get elevated to a great comic experience if people get clever with comeback lines. I don't see that happening except in a rifftrax way. That would make it watchable.  It's a well made movie with pretty people, and great locations, just it's brain dead and offensive on a dialogue/plot level.  Even with the advantages of AVX size, I came very close to ditching the tedious show, and I regret that I contributed to its box office take.

I was super excited about the 24 Hour Movie Marathon that The Cinematheque put on, but as it unfolded and yet another movie I'd already scene came on screen, (of the 15 films they showed, I'd seen 12), I lost my enthusiasm.  It's to be expected, maintaining attention over 24 hours is a dicey proposition to begin with, but especially when you get tired, it's harder to care about or stay awake if it's a story you already know.  I wish they'd shown better movies at the end.  I had to stand up to get through Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure without falling asleep.

I really liked what programming I caught at The Toronto Black Film Festival.  Specifically, the documentary, "Sound of Torture", about the kidnapping of Eritreans in The Sinai desert, and "Ninah's Dowry", a narrative about a Cameroon woman in an abusive relationship that illuminated the societal aspects supporting that abuse, were both especially captivating and harrowing.

AIDependence, about the plethora of NGO's operating in Haiti was an eye opener around the negative consequences and self serving nature of charitable enterprises.

Here's my list, rewatches in italics.

Vancouver Asahi

This is a highly entertaining and educational movie, even if you don't like baseball.  It's so well done with super high production values.  They recreate Vancouver's Japantown in a seamless fashion.  The racism that the Japanese people had to deal with is hard to watch though.

Through A Lens Darkly

Great documentary about Black identity through the medium of portrait photography.  It also played at The Toronto Black Film Festival.

Keep On Keepin' On

Clark Terry mentors a blind musician.  Super music doc!!

Dog Day Afternoon

I saw this in Toronto as part of the Cineplex Classics.  It was great getting to see this on a big screen.  Al Pacino is so good in this, plays such a likeable psycho guy.

Project Almanac

Omg such a dumb movie.  Kids doing idiotic stuff when they find a time machine.

Jupiter Ascending

I had high hopes for this since it was made by the Wachowski's but it's a serious disappointment.  I fell asleep during it. :(

Wild Card

Solid man movie entertainments. A remake of Heat (1986), starring Las Vegas!! (and Jason Statham), based on a William Goldman novel/screenplay.

Toronto Black Film Festival

 Growing Up Positive

Contrast of 2 young women, one black and one white, and their respective experiences growing up HIV positive.

 Sewing Hope: The Story of Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe

Uganda's Civil War created soooo many orphans. Sister Rosemary set up a training school to help some of these young women.  Narrated by Forest Whitaker.

 AIDependence: The Many Ills of the NGO system

Charities are self serving opportunistic drains on poor nations.

 Betty's Blues

Awesome music and super cool animation!

 Ninah's Dowry

This movie was hard to watch. Women are chattel still in Cameroon. Well done.

 Sound Of Torture

This documentary made me cry.  The failure of the world at large in responding to this Eritrean tragedy is unconscionable.

What We Do In The Shadows

Funnest fauxmentary ever!!

What We Do In The Shadows

The Wrecking Crew

Doc on the session musicians responsible for most every good song made in the US in the 60's though to the 80's.

The Girl Who Walks Alone At Night

Style and ennui for days.

True Romance

Glad I got to see this on a big screen.  Dennis Hopper reminds me of my dad in this soooo much.  I love you daddy!!

King: A Filmed Record...Montgomery to Memphis

Racism is fucked up.  Really good historical doc. Watch this if you want to see the real story behind Selma.

Nightcrawler

This should have got some kind of Oscar nod.  Best breakdown of capitalist tropes and the snakes that get ahead since Wolf of Wall Street.

50 Shades Of Grey

Bad, bad movie. The makers of this should be punished.

The Lazurus Effect

Well made and entertaining horror with SF trappings, if predictable and trite. Nothing you ain't seen before. Think Flatliners + Event Horizon - space.

What We Do In The Shadows

The Duff

Solid teen romantic comedy in the vein of John Hughes. Like Mean Girls or Easy A, takes on the clique system and bullying in high school with aplomb.

24 Hour Movie Marathon

 Groundhog Day

One of Bill Murray's best roles. Nice to see it on a big screen.

 Memento

Was good to see this on a big screen, but watching the terrible drama unfold knowing the outcome, is much worse than puzzling it out cold.

 The Girl Who Leapt Through Time

More silly teen time travel. Super romantic - I'm sure its target audience appreciates it though.

 Primer

Watching it again, knowing the time travel aspect, I appreciated this more as an explication of the interpersonal politics of start up businesses.

 Orlando

This was my favourite view of the marathon.  It's super gorgeous and interesting on more than just a narrative level.  Metafeminist happenings abound.

 A Brief History of Time

I ducked out for some of this to get Subway.  Good companion piece to The Theory of Everything in terms of showing more of Hawking's life, but it doesn't cover his latest theorizing.

January, 31 Days = 31 Shows

This January, I saw 26 movies, 3 of them documentaries, plus 5 shorts. The first was on Netflix, and the rest were in various theatres:  Vancity - 8,  Cinematheque - 5 +3 shorts, The Rio - 5, International Village - 3 +1 short, and Scotiabank - 3. 

My favourite movie this month was Cabaret.

I see most of my flicks at Vancity and The Cinematheque because it's free for me, plus they have great programming, but I will go to any theatre if they're showing something I want to see. The Rio is fun, and has a very casual laid back atmosphere. They have the best late night retro programming on Fridays, not to forget affordable cheap date movies on Mondays and Tuesdays. I appreciate their creative drink menus and grown up boozy food combos, plus there's a grilled cheese option.  International Village has more art house programming, and I like their new drink machine - so many pop flavours you could try! Some of the theatres there are small, but they also have quite a few seats with armrests that lift up to make cozy twosomes. The best screen, aside from IMAX, is at Scotiabank though.  The main AVX theatre there, is massive with spectacular sound.  I love love love seeing movies there, just the hugeness and rumble sound at the start of their feature presentation trailer is enough to get me grinning.  I didn't see anything at Metropolis, or 5th Avenue this month, but I like them too.  5th Avenue tends towards showing indie/arty stuff and Metropolis has AVX too, but it's their DBOX seats that makes it worth the trip for the blockbuster shows.  Once in a while I'll make it out to Landmark's cinemas in New West or North Van.  And I like seeing movies at SFU Woodwards too.  Cinematheque has the best popcorn though.  Real Butter!!! Plus they have so many things to sprinkle additional flavour on your corn.  I'm a fan of blending yeast, spike and Valentina hot sauce.

Trailers for everything I saw, except 3 of the shorts.

OC 87

Pelo Malo

Vancouver's Asahi

Kingsman: The Secret Service

Marriage: Italian Style

Violent

Song of Napoli

E'clisse

Canada's Top Ten Shorts

Bhittos/Rebel

Bison

Cutaway 

The Cut/La coup

Divorce: Italian Style

Empire Records

David Bowie Is

The Man Who Fell To Earth

Showrunners: The Art of Running a TV Show

All That Jazz

Big Hero 6

 Feast - short

A Most Violent Year

The Great Dictator

Cabaret

Inherent Vice

Selma

Half of A Yellow Sun

Felix et Meira

American Sniper

X- Men: Days of Future Past

Hippocrate

Bird People

A Most Violent Year

Cronenberg could have made this as the third offering of his as yet unfinished violence trilogy. It reads like a more sophisticated Wolf of Wall street or Scarface in it's take on the examination of capitalism -  greed as the invisible hand that like a medusa midas touch turns everything it grasps for to stone.

It's got the 80's down pat and that reminded me of Scorcese - the Sopranos. it's such a NY state of Mind movie - mostly take place in New Jersey.  You'll understand why people rank on NY as a shithole when you see the locales they use to shoot.

Javarier Bardeem was supposed to be the Oscar Issaac character Abel B?  but he dropped out for some reason, and Jessica Chastain campaigned hard for her boy - they went to acting class together at Juiliard.

Dude is talented man.

so is she.  Looking all Michelle Pfieffer with her blonde drape and armani wardrobe - totally authentic, the fashion house lent them stuff from 1981 after chastain requested, saying she thought her character would only wear Armani.

A Most Violent Year comes out today and this soundtrack song sums it up real well.  I liked it.  Think Sons of Goodfellas or The Sopranos. Dude trying to get on up in the straight world, but it operates just as wicked as the thug life.

Best of 2014

2014 was a such a great year for me in terms of movie watching. I started volunteering at an art house theatre again, so I've been able to see far more and better movies than I managed to in past years. I didn't see as many movies at the 2014 VIFF, since I had family visiting while it was on, but I still got in 30+.

Thinking on what I saw this year that impressed me most, I keep coming back to Le Sel de La Terre, (The Salt of the Earth), which is actually a documentary about the reknowned photographer, Sebastião Salgado. It's somewhat a false dichotomy to pit docs against fictional fare, but for sure documentaries are impressing me more than the nonfic films lately, and I don't think that's because I'm seeing bad movies either. Seems like more resources are spent to less effect making shitty movies, but that's a whole other subject. Primarily written and directed by Salgado's son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, with Wim Wenders, Salt is a gorgeous, gorgeous film, that has devastating insight into the problems facing humanity. What's more important, it offers hope and solutions too, principally through showing the efforts of one man. Granted, most of us don't have as much personal wealth, social pull and power, to work with as he does, but it's definitely inspiring to see what he has done with his sway. The world and society aren't doomed, and that you can make a difference, is what I came away with. I missed the beginning, which I don't think matters much in my evaluation either.  I just missed out on more awesome examples of Salgado's premier photojournalism.  I can't wait until I get a chance to see it in it's entirety, I only wish it could be at the Performing Arts Centre's humungo screen again.

In terms of fictional films, I saw sooooo many good ones. Birdman, Dance of Reality, The Editor, Force Majeure, Foxcatcher, Grand Budapest Hotel, Locke, Mommy, Nightcrawler, Nymphomaniac, Snowpiercer, Under The Skin, and Whiplash, are some of the standouts released this year that I managed to see, and I saw a lot of older films that were awesome too. Finally got to see Touch of Evil! Not to forget the Cronenberg and Jodorowsky stuff I was missing, plus I got a few more Godard films under my belt as well.

I saw a ton of good docs too, volunteering at a documentary festival definitely helped my numbers there ;) 69: Love, Sex, Senior, 1971, 20,000 Days on Earth, Advanced Style, Art and Craft, A Brony Tale, The Case Against 8, Crazywater, A Fragile Trust, Freak Out!, Huicholes: The Last Peyote Guardians, Honour Your Word, The Internet's Own Boy, Jodorowsky's Dune, Life Itself, Mirage Men, The Overnighters, Plot for Peace, The Red Army, The Reunion, Whitey: The United States vs James J. Bulger, are the best that I can recall at the moment.

My top 2014 regular movie pick is Wild though, and I notice while it's not a documentary, it is a dramatization based on a true story - the memoir that Cheryl Strayed wrote about her epic 1800 km hike along the Pacific Coast Trail.  It's my top choice because it's one of the films that had the most emotional resonance for me, and also because it had a very humanist theme of acceptance.  Plus, visually it's practically 100% camping porn.  I think Reese Witherspoon has a good shot at taking home an Oscar for her performance.

Perhaps films based around real life experiences are simply bound to have more profound and relatable emotional payoffs.

I loved the soundtrack too.

Since I've been watching more and BETTER flicks, I've noticed I generally have less desire to articulate my opinions on them.  I don't know if that's because I have less time to so, what with seeing more altogether, and having time taken up by work too - probably both. In any case, I've decided I'll make time to at least keep track of every film I see and post a trailer or poster pic, even if I don't express any judgements about them.  This is my film nerdery rising up I guess, but there's something oh so satisfying about making lists, and documenting your actions.


I have yet to see these 2014 offerings: A Most Violent Year, A Most Wanted Man, Accused, American Sniper, Annie, Begin Again, Belle, Beyond The Lights, Big Hero 6, Black or White, The Book of Life, The Boxtrolls, Cake, Calvary, Camp Xray, Cheatin', CitizenFour, Corn Island,  Dear White People, The Drop,  Elsa & Fred, End of the Tour, The Equalizer, Exodus, The Fault in Our Stars, Fort Bliss, Fury, The Gambler, Get On Up,  Goodbye to Language, The Guide, The Homesman, How to Train Your Dragon 2, The Humbling, The Hundred Foot Journey,  The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, Inherent Vice, The Judge, Kill The Messenger,  Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter, Leviathan, Love is Strange, Low Down, Magic in the Moonlight, Mateo, Men Women and Children, Miss Julie, Mr. Turner, My Old Lady,  Obvious Child, Olvidados, The One I Love, Pride, The Railway Man, The Rover, Rio 2,  St Vincent, Selma, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks, Song of the Sea, Still Alice, Two Days, One Night,  Tangerines, Timbuktu, To Kill a Man, Top Five, The Tribe, Unbroken, Wetlands, White Bird in a Blizzard, White God, and Winter Sleep, among others.

So good movies and the opportunity to opine on them abound in my queue still. :)