In this time of the year, when movies

like FINAL DESTINATION 3 have a shot at being the Number 1 movie in the country, I take great solice in the fact that where I live where there are art houses.

This weekend, I saw MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS, the movie that Dame Judi Dench is nominated for Best Actress for this year.

In the movie, Judi Dench plays Laura Henderson who shortly after her husband's death, to relieve her boredom, buys a West End theater, the Windmill. With his cigars and pomaded coif, Vivian Van Damm (Bob Hoskins) is the manager she hires and immediately locks horns with. He wants complete artistic freedom, she wants to meddle. After the Windmill's initial success dwindles, she comes up with idea of doing a show in which the girls onstage appear naked.


It's wartime in London, and between Blitzes the theater does a thriving business in servicemen. Despite its scandalous reputation, the show itself is relentlessly tasteful, in the manner of '40s Hollywood musicals: In order to stay within the bounds of official censorship, the girls pose decorously as tableaux vivants. They're nudie cuties serving the cause of king and country.

Dench's role is so in her comic range that it would be easy to mistake it as her doing it in her sleep. The key to her performance is the depth of feeling beneath the imperiousness.
Henderson is nobody's fool, but as the film rolls along we start to realize that it is foolish passion she truly craves.
She finds it with Van Damm, who is as no-nonsense as she is. (Theirs is a real-life story). Van Damm and Mrs. Henderson are forever fighting each other because, of course, they recognize how much alike they are. Although Van Damm has a wife, his bickering with Mrs. Henderson mimics a marriage in which the jabs are really love pats. In one particularly memorable comic scene, an assistant interrupts the two of them at full throttle and is informed by Mrs. Henderson that "you must never interrupt a perfectly good argument."

There is plenty of Wit like that in MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS, compliments of Screenwriter Martin Sherman, who is at his best with these kinds of exchanges, and Director Stephen frears keeps things moving briskly along. The film is crafted very well: you watch the emotions slide from Witty Banter to utter sadness in one fell swoop, and at no time do you ever feel like you are being manipulated emotionally by a bunch of hucksters.

The director, like his actors, understands how high theatrics especially with show people, often hides deeper emotions.

Mrs. Henderson Presents presents theatre life with gusto! It's a nice break from the February Movie Blahs!

A

It has been a while since I've posted to this Blog.

A few people have been wondering if I had died or not. No, I am very much alive. Life has been interfering with movie-going. Between being quite tired after work and trying to walk for exercise, and actually taking a VACATION with the family to Disneyland, I have been quite busy indeed!

Oscar Nominations were announced, and in my previous post my predictions were 4/5s accurate (Unless you count my wildcard, then I was 100% accurate). The Nomination that I wasn't sure about was the Best Picture nod for CRASH. When the picture was first released I thought it would be a shoe-in, but in the past, the Academy Members have had short memories for pictures that were released early in the year. This is why, if your wondering, that most of the pictures that want to be considered for nominations are released towards the END of the year.

The other nominations were expected. This looks like the year Brokeback Mountain will win best picture, and it is very well deserved.

In the some of the other categories, I think the winners will be:

Best Actor - Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote

Best Actress - Felicity Huffman for Transamerica

Supporting Actor - George Clooney for Syriana

Supporting Actress - Rachel Weisz for Constant Gardener

Those are my predictions, so feel free to use them and win your Oscar Pools!


A Killer of a movie..
I went to see Final Destination 3. It was the middle of the afternoon, and I was bored. I'm sorry I did. It was horrible. the "gore" wasn't, and I almost fell asleep during it. I can't think of a single redeeming factor for the movie. F-

Things are slowing down for me now, and I'm out of Vacation mode. I'll try and post more frequently.

Oscar Noms

I'm posting this at 5am My Local time. They are rehearsing the nominations announcement as we speak, using such great names as MILLION DOLLAR BABY as the potential nominees. This is false of course, but at 6:30am my local time, the real nominations will be announced. These are my guesses as to what till be nominated for best picture..

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
CAPOTE
CRASH
GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK
WALK THE LINE

My wildcard pick will be MUNICH.

I'll follow up after the nominations are announced, with my picks as well.

5:12am Calgary Time. Just got them in under the wire.

No movie has had MORE Debate around it

than Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain.

""You know I ain't queer," Ennis tells Jack after their first night together. "Me, neither," says Jack."

The most common way this movie is being described is it's "A Gay Cowboy Movie", which really oversimplifies it, and is totally unfair. The movie is about forbidden love.. it's the story of a time and place where two men are forced to deny the only great passion either one will ever feel. Their tragedy is universal. It could be about two women, or lovers from different religious or ethnic groups.

The movie doesn't try and give any message, it doesn't try to tell us "This is bad or good".. it does nothing but tell the story of these men. It stays on these men, never wavering, never looking at the big picture.

The movie starts in 1963, when Ennis (Heath Ledger) and Jack (Jake Gyllenhaal) are about 19 years old and get a job tending sheep on a mountainside. Ennis is a boy of few words and he can barely open his mouth to release them; he learned to be guarded and fearful long before he knew what he feared. Jack, who has done some rodeo riding, is a little more outgoing. After some days have passed on the mountain and some whiskey has been drunk, they suddenly and almost violently have sex.
"This is a one-shot thing we got going on here," Ennis says. Jack agrees. But it's not.
Years pass. Both men get married. Then Jack goes to visit Ennis in Wyoming, and their undiminished urgency passion stuns them. Their lives settle down into a routine, punctuated less often than Jack would like by "fishing trips."

Make no doubt, in any other hands, Brokeback Mountain could have just been "a gay cowboy movie, but because the movie focuses so intently on the story of Jack and Ennis, it understands the individual characters, the more it applies to everyone. Hence, the story becomes a tragedy, the story of forbidden love, something that could never be. That what makes this movie deserving of all the praise it's getting, and will probably get it best picture this year.

Brokeback Mountain - A

Yes, I fully realize that I gave King Kong high marks as well. How can I give a movie like Brokeback Mountain and King King the same grade? Well, King Kong is a great POPCORN Movie. I never thought Kong is high drama.. it is what it is.. a matinee movie, something along the lines of early Spielberg. Brokeback Mountain gets an "A" for story, performances, and direction.

It's been a busy couple of days, and I'm

trying to play catch up with reviews. Here's the first of a bunch I'm working on:

THE PRODUCERS
I'm a big fan of the 1968 version starring Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. Back then it was it was a cutting satire, and has gone down in cinema history as one of Mel Brooks' classics, along with Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein.

I would have loved to see the LIVE Broadway version of THE PRODUCERS with Nathan Lane, and Matthew Broderick, but didn't make it to New York, due to that "lack of money" thing that keeps putting up roadblocks to doing fun stuff like seeing broadway plays. Thank god the movie version is the next best thing.
When I say "the next best thing" I mean that this film version is EXACTLY like the stage play. It's almost as if director Susan Stroman took the camera, dropped it in FRONT of the stage and filmed a performance.
The film has the look and feel of a play, right down to sensing where the intermission is, and the end of the acts. It just has that "live performance look" that is rarely captured on film, which is a interesting take.
You can't really say much about Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, except they've transferred their roles onto film. They play well off each other.
The movie felt a little too long for my liking and the pace started to drag near the end as a result, but it was a nice diversion. - C+

On a Side note - I would pay almost anything to see someone write a Biopic of Abbott & Costello and cast Nathan Lane in the roll he's DESTINED to play (and win an Oscar for) as Lou Costello. That's all I could think of watching this movie.

Don't forget to add yourself to this sites Frappr! Map, and soon be ready to discuss films in the Forum

I'll be starting a forum

Soon, thanks to Frappr (Which is where you can add a marker to your part of the world, I would love to see where everyone is from), I'll be starting a forum for my blog, where everyone can talk about movies, etc.

KONG The 8th Wonder of The World!

After many years, Peter Jackson has finally brought his version of KING KONG to the big screen. Jackson saw the original version on TV when he was 9, and it became a major influence on his life. The wait was worth it. Jackson has created the ultimate popcorn flick.

Because of Jackson's love for the original 1933 film, the question wasn't whether he'd be true to the original, but how he could justify expanding the 100 minute running time of the original classic into a 3 hour spectacle.

Jackson, and his screenwriting partners (Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens) have achieved this by expanding on EVERY part of the story, providing backstory, more thorough characterization, on events that were only alluded to in the original, and then using all the images and ideas Jackson has stored in his mind since his childhood, have taken the story and expanded it onto a much larger canvas.

What has ended up on the screen is nothing short of impressive. Jackson set his version in 1930's and adhered closely to Cooper and Edgar Wallace's grandly tragic story of a mighty beast brought to ruin by beauty and civilization. The emotional content is just as potent as Kong's sad solitude and embrace of companionship, are conveyed with simplicity and poignancy.

The movie in many respects takes its time to get rolling. Some people may find the 70 minutes it takes to get to see KONG boring, especially young kids. The opening act does an outstanding job of welcoming people into the story, especially into the tough prospects faced by pretty struggling actress Ann Darrow (Watts) once her vaudeville show closes down. Facing similarly desperate straits is filmmaker Carl Denham (Jack Black), whose backers want to shut down his new adventure-themed picture and who suddenly lacks a leading lady for it.

Denham's motto is, "Defeat is always momentary," and when he chances upon Ann, who believes that "Good things never last," he solves both their problems by spiriting her aboard a ramshackle tramp steamer bound for an unmapped island where Carl hopes to find the subject for his new production. Unlike the original, this "Kong" takes the trouble to flesh out passengers and crew.

Carl essentially kidnaps writer Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody), a serious playwright enormously admired by Ann. In a great move, Carl houses Jack in a large below-decks animal cage, and the scribe spends most of the voyage behind bars working on the scenario. The trip takes long enough to have Driscoll and Ann fall in love, and for Denham to announce that their actual destination is a fog shrouded Skull Island.

It lives up to its name when, after a perilous arrival between soaring rocks, they go ashore to find countless skeletons at a bleak coastal fortress. In due course, the adventurers are surrounded by possessed natives both terrifying and terrified, the latter caused by whatever lurks in the jungle behind an enormous wall. Ann is kidnapped by the natives, and is offered as a sacrifice to KONG, the 20 foot gorilla that lives beyond the wall.

Kong's status as the lonely old man of Skull Island is cemented in a touching scene between him and Ann on his craggy promontory, from which he can endlessly watch the beautiful sunsets and contemplate his status as the last of his breed (Jackson thoughtfully includes a glimpse of a giant gorilla skeleton at one point).

There were 2 things KING KONG had to accomplish for me to like this movie. 1) I had to be drawn IN to the world, and believe that the Ape was real. 2) I had to believe the connection between KONG and Ann Darrow, see their interaction, and become emotionally attached to the situation.

What Jackson has accomplished with KING KONG in my mind is nothing short of amazing. The movie is just over 3 hours, and yet the pacing is quick enough to make it feel like a 100 minute running time. The mix between action sequences, and developing the relationship between KONG and Ann is just the right blend, and at the end, since you know what's going to happen, makes it even more heartbreaking.

That the unlikely relationship at the movie's core comes so plausibly alive is a huge tribute to Watts. She does her share of requisite screaming, but she makes Ann resourceful when she tries to amuse and distract Kong, bold in the way she defies him and open-hearted in her accessibility to her captor's plight, which is wonderfully expressed in the eyes and animated facial expressions. Naomi Watt's performance completely won me over, and proved Jackson made the right choice in using a big name actress in the Role

For me, KING KONG fires on all cylinders and provides what all the movies this SUMMER was lacking.. excitement and an engaging story. This is easily one of the best films of 2005.

KING KONG - A

Note: if you want to see behind the scenes stuff early, go out and buy the Peter Jackson Production Diaries. Throughout the entire shooting of the movie, Jackson created mini web documentaries on the making of the movie, and posted them on the KONG IS KING website.

The PRODUCTION Diaries aren't available on the site any more, but the POST Production Diaries are. The Diaries give you an appreciation of the work that goes into making a movie of this magnitude.

There is a point, early on

in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire where Potter, now 14, exclaims "I love magic" and for the first time in the series, I could understand why.

Since I'm a few weeks late in reviewing the movie, and it has grossed well over $250 million in North America, everyone knows the story. It's the fourth year at Hogwart's, and Potter and the gang now have to not only deal with their studies, they also have to deal with something else, their hormones. Potter also has to compete in the Tri-Wizards Tournament, a collection of 3 tasks which will determine the greatest wizard.

Director Mike Newell (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Donnie Brasco) has helmed this latest installment of the series with a steady hand, and has given us the darkest Potter yet. So dark in fact, that the film is rated PG-13 in the states.

When I was sitting in the theatre waiting for the movie to start, I was surrounded by a LOT of Potter fans and they were discussing the fact that maybe this movie should have been made in 2 parts, so everything in the book could have been shown. I can't really comment about that, as I haven't read the book so I can only judge the film on what appears on the screen, not the translation from page to screen. I've been told that J.K. Rowling has a a lot of input into the screenplay so I would assume that the movie doesn't disappoint her.

I went to the first Potter movie just to see what the commotion was all about, and sucked into the whole premise and world of Harry Potter. It's rare for that to happen to me, but what's even more rare is having it happen through 4 movies. I'm NOT going to the opening night of the Potter movies dressed up as a Wizard, and "casting spells" on the other "wizards" standing in line, but I do find myself enjoying the 2 hour+ visits (Goblet of Fire is 2.5 hours, with about 13 minutes devoted to credits) when they come around and almost always a few days AFTER the opening. B




GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK

So, I'm sitting in the theatre, waiting for this movie (any frequest readers of this blog know how long I've been waiting for this movie), and notice 2 things: 1) It isn't that full, and 2) There's NO ONE under the age of 30 in the theatre. Two very good signs for me.

I come home and look over my past blog posts and see how MUCH I've been waxing poetic over this movie before I saw it. All I can think is "How can I do a review that doesn't smack of bias after all the hype?"

Good night, and Good Luck looks at legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow's battle against the injustice known as the McCarthy hearings. Like the pioneering TV newsman it depicts, Good Night, and Good Luck, achieves something beyond entertainment. Like Edward R. Murrow, this drama is relentless in achieving its goals.

Last year Jamie Foxx became Ray Charles in the biopic Ray. This year David Strathairn becomes Murrow His performance, so focused and illustrative of Murrow's courage and idealism, is worthy of an Academy Award nomination, and he probably will get one.

This is the second outing for Clooney as a director, and he's picked some interesting subjects. I'm looking forward to the next film. B+

I'd like to take this time

to wish all my American Friends a happy thanksgiving!

Today as well, I'm wondering where everyone is from that reads my blog. Feel free to make your mark on my new map.

I'll be back tomorrow with a review of Harry Potter.

Here's a question for everyone,

and I'd like your input:

You are given a movie theatre for 24 hours. You want to show 12 movies. Which movies would you show? They can be any length, but you only have the theatre for 24 hours.

I'm interested in hearing your comments.

One movie that would be shown is Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense

Which ones would you show?

I got an email today that simply said

"Walk The Line looks good, I think... hmmm"

and I replied with "It does look good.. it's on my 'Oscar Watch/fall movie viewing' list for the fall. It's true, it is on the list.. Most of the movies on my list are no doubt going to get TONS of Oscar buzz, so here are some of the other movies that are on my "Oscar Watch/fall movie viewing" list(in no particular order):

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - easily the darkest of the Potter films so far, proving why the series has a strong adult following.

Walk the Line - about country music icons Johnny Cash and June Carter starring Joaquin Phoenix, who plays Cash, and Reese Witherspoon, who co-stars as Carter, is already on quite a few lists of films to watch for when nominations are announced.

Syriana - Writer-director Stephen Gaghan, who wrote 2000's drug war movie "Traffic," brings a contemporary story of the Middle East to movie screens. starring George Clooney and Matt Damon.

Brokeback Mountain - filmed in my hometown, and tells of the overwhelming power of love in a romance between two cowboys, played by Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger.

There are a couple of other movies that are just starting to show up in screening rooms to get their oscar buzz going:

The Woody Allen romance Match Point

Steven Spielberg's Munich, about the aftermath of the Palestinian attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics.

Those movies join a list of films I already think have a chance come Oscar time: Good Night, and Good Luck, Shopgirl, and Capote, which are now playing in theaters and have award ambitions for their actors -- David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow in "Good Night, and Good Luck," Claire Danes in "Shopgirl" and Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Capote."

Besides the usual films trying for Oscar considerations, there are a couple of others, both of which are no-brainers for being on the "must see list" this christmas season:

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - based on the children's books by C.S. Lewis that are populated by talking animals and tell of epic battles between good and evil that have a strong Christian slant.

And last but CERTAINLY not least:

KING KONG - Peter Jackson's remake of the 1933 classic telling of the Monkey that goes out on a wild night on the town with his date (Naomi Watts), and ends up taking a trip up (and down) the Empire State building. THIS movie more than any OTHER this Fall season I have high hopes for!

anyways, that's my lineup for the fall/Christmas Season. As you can see, I'm going to be quite busy, and I'll do my best to post reviews of all the films I see.

I never can understand how

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expects people to pick films for Oscar Consideration. I mean, in 2002, there were 279 Feature Films eligible for consideration for an Oscar.

The race for documentary films is even broader, this year, there were 82 documentaries eligible for consideration, and the Academy has narrowed the list down to 15. Normally, the documentary film categories just has people staring blankly at their Oscar Pool ballots, trying to make a pick from films that most people have never heard of.

This year, however, there are a few films that have made the first cut. Most notably is MARCH OF THE PENGUINS, which I reviewed a while back on this blog. Other notable films that made the cut are: Mad Hot Ballroom, which followed New York City school children learning and competing in a ballroom dancing competition, along with Murderball, which detailed the lives of quadriplegics who play a form of wheelchair rugby, and Rize, photographer and video director David LaChapelle's look into the dance world of krumping.

This list of 15 films will be narrowed down to 5, when the final nominations are announced January 31.

The story in my last post is still open. Anyone can contribute.

Everyone says they can

write a better story than most screenwriters, let's see how we can do:

"What a night" he thought laying in bed. I can't remember a thing. He looks at the alarm clock, 4am. The throbbing in his head matches the pounding at the door. "I'm coming!" he yells as he grabs a robe and wanders out of the bedroom.

The pounding gets louder at the door, until he opens it. "What do you.."

The Blast from the shotgun hits him square in the chest. He falls back into the room and hits the wall.

"There. I've done it. Time to..."

This is an open story. Now it's your turn. You can add to it in the comments section, and let's see where it goes.

Research shows that

Video Games make more money these days than movies. So, in a move that makes sense to someone in the Studio Chain, they want to tap into that market, and make movies based on them. For some strange reason, they think people will want to stop playing their games, and go see a movie BASED on the game they want to lure these people away from playing for 2 hours.

Let's suppose that the people playing the game can borrow their parent's car (or GET their parents to lend them the 10 bucks to go to a a movie and drop them off at the theatre), and remember how to get out of their parent's basement to actually FIND outside. What do they do when they get to the theatre? They aren't going to learn any Top Secret "exclusive moves to blast away aliens" or such. They'll sit wishing they were back playing the game.

And the other people that actually HAVE jobs, and don't have time for Video Games in their lives, what with knowing the secrets and pleasures of "outdoors"? Well they won't care about the movie.

DOOM will be Number one at the Box Office this weekend. I know this, and yet it doesn't change my opinion. Video Games are Interactive. Movies about video games aren't. The core audience eventually will realize that they could be at home BLASTING aliens, instead of watching other people blast them.

Or, maybe it will be a way to coax the gamers Outside and meet others of their kind.

I have to admit I never was

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER fan, I just couldn't get into it. However I do know people that watched the show religiously, and think that writer JOSS WHEDON is something of a genius.

So, most everyone I know was anxiously awaiting SERENITY, Whedon's big screen debut. I was busy the week that it came out, and couldn't make the group outing to see it. So, last night, driving home from my parents place, I decided on a whim to do 2 things... purchase a plunger, and finally go see SERENITY. I got my ticket, and walked into the small auditorium, which was 2 thirds... FULL

Fans of science fiction and fantasy are a special breed. They are, if anything, devoted to whichever writer/director they fancy. I got my seat, and tried to get comfortable. Then I listened to the conversations around me. I'm pretty sure I got enough of the backstory and Bios of all the characters in the movie that way. I gather that the major characters were from a short-lived television show, which put me at a disadvantage right away, since I had not seen this TV show.

The movie started, and there I sat. I stared at the screen, and tried to get absorbed into the story, which appeared to be about a crew of a ship named SERENITY.. whos crew was protecting their doctor and his traumatized sister from the alliance (whatever that is.. I think it's an offshoot of the Empire from Star Wars.) These "Rebels" are trying to find jobs, while the Alliance is looking for this traumatized girl. That's what I gathered, anyway.

I did notice a few things:

1) I saw a coffee maker in Serenity's dining room/kitchen that is an F.A. Porsche Design coffee maker made by Bosch

2) The first scene in the movie looks like a single camera move that moves through various locations in the ship. The whole "shot" must have lasted at least 4 minutes. This in fact had to have been 2 shots, since I think I saw a quick transition when someone was walking down some stairs, and the camera turned to show someone following him. I don't know for sure.

I just couldn't get into the movie. Everyone around me was laughing, but then again they already had a connection in some way to the characters via the TV show. I sat there, and I felt like I was missing listening to a lot of in jokes, and wasn't a part of it. After 70 minutes, I couldn't connect with the movie, and finally did something I haven't done in quite a while. I went to get some popcorn, and never went back in to the theatre. I walked past the popcorn stand, and straight to my car, and drove home.

Did I waste my money? Not really. In my mind, I went to see something that I wasn't sure I was my cup of tea, discovered it wasn't, and decided to leave. If I felt any connection to the movie, or sympathy towards the characters, I would have at least stayed to see the outcome.

Last night, I felt like I was invited to a party where I knew no one. Everyone else was enjoying the party, but I decided it was prudent that I leave, because I just wasn't having a good time. No harm, no foul.

Have you ever walked out of a movie? If so which one, and why?

I have discovered that

during a film festival, time goes by quickly. Between work, and then heading to movies, you run out of time for other things, like.. blog entries. For the duration of the Calgary film fest, My life consisted of: getting up, going to work, seeing 3 movies, and repeat. In total I saw 22 movies, and after the first 15 or so, they begin to blur together. Next year, I'll be more prepared, and bring a notepad.

Some of the movies I saw were short features, and I did try to see films from different countries, but a preference was given to Canadian features. The one Canadian movie that did stand out was EVE AND THE FIREHORSE, which also won the award for Best First Canadian Feature at the Festival.

There were others... CAPOTE was everything I dreamt it would be, and more.. I'm thinking this year the Best Actor Oscar is between Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Bill Murray (so far).

Ingmar Bergman's latest movie.. SARABAND was also a standout for me.

There was also a film shown from Singapore called 15 (Shiwu). It is the first work by Royston Tan and explores the adolescent world in a way that is dramatically marked with shots of a conflicted subculture and how a teenage boy can fall into a complete addiction to video clips and videogame aesthetics. 15 showed a side of Singapore most people never see. The visually dramatic film gives a haunting look into the lives of these five teenagers and emphasizes how people on the fringes of society desire the same love and companionship as anyone else. The boys of 15 only have each other, and their friendship is enough to get them through.

The Closing Gala was Beowulf & Grendel, a film by director Sturla Gunnarsson, had one of the more lively Q&As I saw all Festival

I learned a lot from this Film Festival, and next year I'll plan more carefully. A Notepad is a MUST, and I'll go for QUALITY, not QUANTITY, because I also learned that your bum gets quite numb after the 13th or so film.

One of the highlights of

the Film Festival is the chance to see locally produced films. Calgary has a great crop of talented filmmmakers, and this is a great time for them to show off their talents.

Today, I caught 2 films... one local, and one by Director Werner Herzog.

The local film is called REVERB, and is directed by Mark Edward Lewis, which screened to a sold out theatre..
REVERB is the story of Jeff Timmens (Played by local TV Host Dave Kelly), who's sent out by his boss at the Central Music Network (CMN), to Iopa, Iowa to cover the National Karaoke Competition. Hating the assignment at first, Jeff finds that the life of "Kroakers" is far more interesting and eccentric than he could have ever imagined.. and aloong the way Jeff finds himself with a story that combines divas and domestic disturbances, baptizing and backstabbing, winners and wineos.
The movie reminded me a lot of BEST OF SHOW, and it does a pretty good job of creating a mocumentary about the world of Karaoke. The Characters range from a choir members who sneak out early to Karaoke, to one girl who walks dogs and delivers singing telegrams for a living, The cast gives first rate performances. All in All, an enjoyable sitting. The screenplay never has any REAL surprises, but it has laughs. If you get a chance to see it.. make sure to sit through the credits. REVERB gets a solid C+

The second film was Werner Herzog's GRIZZLY MAN, which tells the story of Timothy Treadwell, a man who spent 13 summers up in Alaska studying and protecting the Bears, until he and his girlfriend were killed by a rogue bear in october 2003.
The docudrama uses footage from Treadwell's videos he shot up there, and during the entire film you start to get a sense of a man losing his grip on reality. Treadwell began to believe that he had more in common with the bears that humans, and you see a man that doesn't treat the bears with respect, but as equals which everyone knows, except Treadwell apparantly. It was funny, and wrenching to watch some of the video Treadwell shot of himself wandering around with bears, calling them by the Cutesy names he gave them. Towards the end, you can see Treadwell's distaste for humans grow, and his dellusion that he had a spiritual connection with the bears, and from the footage we see, the bears just mostly ignore him.
GRIZZLY MAN is one of those movies that could have EASILY gone over the edge. There is an audio tape that records the last moments of Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard as they're killed by the grizzly bear, but it is never used. There is one scene in the movie where Herzog is LISTENING to the tape, but all we see is his distraught face. GRIZZLY MAN was definately a must-see for me, and I glad I saw it. B+

REVERB! C+
GRIZZLY MAN B+

Day 1 went from one extreme

to another at the Calgary International Film Festival for my screening schedule.

First up was the Opening Gala:

Deepa Mehta's (Bollywood/Hollywood) WATER.
Set in 1938 Colonial India, against Mahatma Gandhi's rise to power, the story begins when
eight-year-old Chuyia is widowed and sent to a home where Hindu widows must live in penitence. Chuyia’s feisty presence affects the lives of the other residents, including a young widow, who falls for a Gandhian idealist.

WATER completes Deepa Mehta's elemental trilogy (Fire, 1996, Earth, 1998), and the production was not without controversy. In 2000, the project was temporarily abandoned as controversy surrounded the production when Hindu protestors in the holy city of Varanasi disrupted location shootings and vandalized sets. Some Hindu fundamentalists got a copy of the script, and decided that the story was anti-hindu. In 2004, the film was re-cast, filming began, and Water was completed in Sri Lanka.

The story unwinds in a leisurely fashion, but I found the movie to be fascinating to watch. The 8 year old actress that plays Chuyia, we discovered during the Q&A after the movie with the director, could not speak Hindu and learned all her lines phonetically. All in all, a great way to start the Festival off.

No sooner was the opening film over, than it was time for the second screening of the night, a Documentary called Put the Needle on the Record.

Put the Needle on the Record explores the world of dance music and the DJ's that bring it to life. The film features over 50 songs from top artists in the world of electronic music and over 40 interviews with electronic artists. Filmed primarily at the Winter Music Conference, a 5-day, non-stop party held annually in Miami, the film takes a look behind the scenes where the biggest DJ talents in the world come to see and be seen. It features interviews with artists such as Dirty Vegas, Paul Oakenfeld, The Crystal Method and Junior Sanchez.

Put the Needle on the Record has an interesting premise, but is about 23 minutes too long. The movie felt like a PG rated version of a GIRLS GONE WILD video, and I was getting a little bored.

What made tonight's screenings interesting, was the extremes of the Audiences. The opening gala had a rather formal feel to it, where the second screening was a 180 degree turn from that. Going from the red-carpet arrivals of Deepa Mehta and the star Lisa Ray, then entering the auditorium for the second movie with Dance Music blaring, reminded me the array of films I have to look forward to over the next week.

It only happens

once a year... and it begins tonight..

Lots more to come over the next week.

As I sit here in front of my computer,

safe and comfortable in my place of residence, I can't help but be haunted by all the images coming from New Orleans, as the residents there try and recover from the effects of Hurricane Katrina.

Now is the time for everyone to do what they can to help out. This effort won't take DAYS to fix, it will take MONTHS, if not YEARS to help the people of New Orleans get back to normal. I thank god that there are organizations like the RED CROSS, and others that are around to spearhead the effort. I pray that the looters will stop, and relief efforts can begin in earnest. This is not a time for lawlessness, it's a time of healing, and each person lending a helping hand. We did it for Tsunami, now we can do it for something closer to home.

Today has been labelled "International Blogging for Disaster Relief Day". If you peruse blogs today, you may notice that many of them may have changed the focus of their blogs to help raise awareness and help for the Hurricane Victims. This is my part.

You can check out this link for the Wikipedia on the hurricane, which is a fantastic resource on what happened, and what's going on. The Wikipedia is an open source encyclopedia, and is being added to on an ongoing basis.

You can make a Donation to the Red Cross, or the Salvation Army

Check out the following International%20Blogging%20for%20Disaster%20Relief%20Day'>Link, to learn more, and to track all the blogs covering the event today.

This is a time for everyone to band together and help out. It would be really cool if all Movie Theatres in Canada and the United States took $1 from every $5 pop they sell, and put it toward Hurricane recovery. That way everyone would make a difference in some small way.