Worldwide Short Film Festival 2009, Part 3

The Spleenectomy, dir. Kirsten Smith.

I love Anna Faris. She combines the comedic quality of Jean Harlow and Carol Burnett, and yet is completely unique. In this adorable short, she plays a twin sisters: one a successful doctor, the other a bored, dumb housewife who dreams of being an actress. She recites lines form a soap opera in front of her genius young child, and through a strange mix-up ends up performing major surgery on a local theatre director. That might be a bit of a spoiler, but Faris is such an amazing performer. She knows just how far to go without making her characters into characatures.

The Intruder, dir. Mikael Kreuzrigler

I'm a big fan of ghost stories. I love being kept on the edge of my seat, clinging to the arm rests, waiting for something to come out of the shadows. In this wonderfully suspenseful short, a young woman comes home to find evidence of an intruder and her mother in an almost catatonic state. Anyone who has come home late at night knows that creepy feeling, know that the sounds and things you see out of the corner of yours eye are your imagination ... maybe. Kreuzrigler blends an amazing sound mix with shadows in mirrors which had me jumping in my seat.

Out of Control (Fuera de control), dir. Sofia Carrillo

This is one of the best stop motion animation films I've ever seen. I'm not even sure I could tell you what was happening. But that is irrelevant. It is gorgeous and sensual. Eyeless dolls cry in sepia tone print, a strange cavern reminiscent of hell in 'Orphee'; various other dolls and strange creatures inhabit this odd world. It's almost impossible for any description to do this film justice.

Worldwide Short Film Festival 2009, Part 2

Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death, dir. Nick Park

Has there ever been a bad W&G short, or feature? Well, admittedly I found the feature a little long; I think Nick Park's stories and style are best suited to shorts. That being said, this is a gem. Wallace falls for a glamorous bread model (not as weird as it sounds) and Gromit becomes the detective, yet again. I watched this with an audience of children, which I love to do, since they don't hold back the laughter. Park even manages to pay a brief homage to the film Ghost, which is odd for a film being watched by kids, but they laughed as much as I did. A great addition to the Wallace & Gromit film collection.

Danse Macabre, dir. Pedro Pires

This is a brilliant and somewhat disturbing experimental short of dead bodies in various stages of movement. Obviously they are not moving on their own (or so one would hope), but Pires captures the body in its various moments of rigor mortis. I couldn't help but wonder who these bodies were while living. Pires places & finds bodies in an odd assortment of locations; a house, a morgue, a hospital, the middle of nowhere. Each body is almost trying to tell its own story through these final movements and positions. Is the soul trying to find its final release to heaven, or stay inside to keep out of hell? It's so rare to see such interesting experimental shorts these days. Unpretentious and mesmerizing.

This is Her, dir. Katie Wolfe

At the first shot, the audience sees a woman moaning and writhing on a bed; what appears to be orgasmic climax turns out to be a woman in the final stages of labour. The narrator is this mother; during the 12 minutes, she tells what will happen in twenty years: her husband will leave her for a younger woman. The audience will then meet that woman in the current time, as a young girl. The mother narrates the stories of the various people in her life and how they will betray, blame or desert her. Usually this narrative device is seen in reverse (a person looking into their past). Wolfe very cleverly reverses it; we see the situations as they are and hear the narrations of what will be. Funny, smart, and more than a little sad.

I Knew it Was You, dir. Richard Shepard

You probably know John Cazale's face, but would not be able to name except by his characters: Fredo, Stan (in two films) and Sal. Cazale only acted in five films before his death in 1978, but they are: The Godfather, The Godfather II, The Deer Hunter, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Conversation. All of these are considered some of the best films of the 1970s, and in not small way because of him. This is an HBO documentary, so stylistically it is pretty standard fare. But Cazale was obviously such a tremendous actor, not only in and of himself, but for those he worked with as well. I'm not sure exactly why the director chose to include interviews with actors who hadn't met Cazale (other than I suppose to show his influence); the interviews with those with whom he worked - Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, and Meryl Streep, to whom he was engaged at the time of his death - are far more interesting. But it a fitting tribute to a great and almost forgotten actor.

Worldwide Short Film Festival 2009, Part 1

I'm a huge fan of short films. In many ways they are much harder to make than features. Having to tell a story in less time forces minds to get creative, to be succinct and precise, to not waste time and get to the point quickly and efficiently. WSFF 09 offered up some great ones.

The Spine, dir. Chris Landreth

Chris Landreth won an Oscar for his first short animated feature, Ryan. His second shows that his first was not just beginner's luck. The Spine is a surreal puzzle, where Landreth examines psychological trauma in a group therapy session. Gordon Pinsent voices Dan, a man seemingly smothered by his wife Mary. The various members of the therapy group have differing problems expressed physically: one person appears to be two different people sewn together, the therapist is a large hand, and the skin of Dan's face and head are coming off like the pieces of a puzzle. Landreth examines the transformation of Dan after his wife leaves him, and his eventual dissolution. Landreth has an innate understanding of the effect of a person's mental state upon their body, and exaggerates this to tremendous effect. Landreth explores all sides to the story. The animation forces the audience to examine their own minds, and imagine the color of their own spines, and how their mental problems might manifest physically. A haunting film.

The Water, dir. Kevin Drew

Ontario Gothic is a very distinct branch of gothic literature/film. Ontario does not have ancient estate homes or rolling moors. Ontario has cabins and frozen lakes and endless wilderness. Musician Kevin Drew has crafted a film that never fully explains what is going on. But this is unimportant. It is a film of mood as oppose to story, a perfect recipe for a short. Veteran Canadian actor David Fox and Irish actor Cillian Murphy are (supposedly) a father and son who pull a mummified body off a frozen lake. It is unwrapped and thawed to reveal a young woman (Leslie Feist). Is she Murphy's mother? Sister? Potential lover? How long has she been frozen, and why has she been awakened now? This film provides questions, but no answers. But the audience is so wrapped up in atmosphere it doesn't matter.

Love You More, dir. Sam Taylor-Wood

It's hard not to remember the first time you had sex For most of us, it probably happened with little warning and was over so quickly it was hard to believe it actually had finally happened. Taylor-Wood finds the intimate moments: the look of the boy as he gazes at the girl's shoes under her school desk; the sound of the burning joint; the movement of the dial on the rotary phone; the clink of beer bottles. A boy and a girl discover each other over a punk album and go all the way fairly quickly, while the record player spins the song over and over. It's a sensuous reminder of the first time for sex, and perhaps a bit of love as well.

One of Those Days, dir. Hattie Dalton

Dante saw Hell as infinite and worsening circles; Sartre said hell is other people; the Greeks saw hell as a strange underground cavern. For Dalton, hell is British civil bureaucracy. Derek Jacobi and Joanna David are a middle-aged British couple on Judgement Day, trying to make their way through queues and hallways and brochures on the rights of the gluttonous to clear up a clerical error that might send them to the burning fires instead of Heaven. Is it possible to lead a blameless life with the exception of internet porn? Satan doesn't think so.

Dress to Impress

Scaramouche is certainly one of the most expensive restaurants in Toronto. Situated in a fancy classic Toronto apartment/condo building, at the top of the old lakefront hill, it is certainly the place to go if you have about $200 – 300 to spend on dinner and really want to impress someone. My mother and I went last year when she was in town, and enjoyed both the food and the excellent service so much we decided to go again. After all, if you’re going to spend money on a nice meal, you might as well go for the best. (I have also been to Canoe a couple of times, an equally expensive restaurant, and the service is pretty bad. Scaramouche wins hands down for the quality of its servers.)

When one is going to a restaurant of this kind, one would expect that a certain dress code would be observed. Presumably anyone making a reservation (which is essential) would have done their research and would know this is a classy place. I wore a red dress and heals; my mother wore black trousers, shirt, a nice jacket and nice black flats. These were not black tie outfits, but a little step above “Sunday best” and I felt suited the location. When we arrived, a young woman came out of the restaurant wearing jeans, a t-shirt and shoes that looked like slippers with a peace symbol on them. Just after my mother and I were seated, a couple were seated at the table next to us. The woman was wearing what looked like a black slip that barely covered, well, anything, and the guy was wearing a button down blue shirt, jeans, and sneakers. I saw numerous people (mostly men) dressed in similar attire; that is to say, clothes one would wear to the local pub, or in some cases, to a bar or to hear music play at somewhere like The Rivoli. Later in the evening, another couple were seated near us; the woman looked like a hooker, wearing a leopard print slip that should not be seen out of the bedroom; but at least the man was wearing a suit,

Maybe I’m being a clothing prude (though I doubt it, I was showing off some leg and a bit of cleavage); maybe I’m being a snob. But again, I don’t think so. Whatever happened to showing some respect: to the person you are going out with, to the location, to the occasion? Whatever happened to looking nice, not because you had to go to a meeting, but because it was appropriate?

I suppose it is part of the self-centered attitudes that we see more and more in our culture these days. The only thing that matters is money. Someone could say, “I have the money to pay for this, and if I want to wear my Tevas and jean shorts, that’s what I’m going to where.” This happens frequently at a restaurant owned by a friend of my Mum’s in Nova Scotia. I would never wear jeans to her place, and yet she frequently has customers who look like they wandered in from the beach. Money beats respect.

There is also a bit of sexism in attire I find these days. Too often, I’ll see a woman dressed to the nines on the arm of a man dressed like a slob. Apparently he has no respect for his date or the effort she’s put into looking nice. She has to do the work; he just shows up. (But perhaps this is also a money issue; he pays, so he can wear what he wants. She doesn’t pay, so she needs to look good.)

This is what is comes down to: respect versus money. Personally I like dressing up, I like looking nice, or dressing to what I think is the appropriate level for the location, occasion, and my companion, whomever that might be. I have respect for the effort being made to serve me, the ambiance and décor of the location, and yes, the money I’m spending. But I am getting something for that money, and the least I can do is appreciate it.

Being Human

I'm not quite sure how I happened upon the new BBC series Being Human; late night, punching in some random words on Youtube, and there it was. Since Buffy made genre television cool again, shows that feature creatures of the night and nightmares have become increasingly popular (Fringe, Supernatural). And not just for genre geeks anymore.

One of the reasons I love British television is that actors are generally not afraid to look bad; that is to say, they're not afraid to be unlikable. For example, Hugh Laurie on House. No American actor could play that role, because they would want to find some redeeming qualities and have everyone say, oh gosh darnnit, we just love you anyway. But House is generally, thoroughly unlikable, and only a British (or perhaps European) actor could pull that off. And not be a stereotype in the playing of it. But I digress.

Being Human is about a vampire, a werewolf, and a ghost who share a house in Bristol (a city I've only been through on a bus, but always heard was great). Mitchell, the vampire, has been this way for nearly a century, and is an outcast from vampire society for (rarely) indulging in human blood. George has been a werewolf for a couple of years (?). They work as orderlies at the local hospital, and move into a house that is being haunted by Annie, who died in the house and can't seem to move on to the next plain of existence. The pilot aired in February of 2008, and the series (almost entirely recast) aired several months later. (Read more detail on Wikipedia)

I loved the pilot. It was dark and gothic, with wonderful British humor and a moroseness that is not seen on North American television. These were ordinary people who were mightily pissed about their situation. Mitchell, portrayed in the pilot by the tall, skinny, pale Guy Flanagan, had resigned himself to his situation. George (played by Russell Tovey, the only main cast member to return to the series) was the most morose and angry at having to leave every because once a month he becomes a monster (arguably a less desperate situation than Mitchell's). Annie has an almost psychotic attachment to the house where she died, and fears she will disappear if she tries to leave. Of course, George and Mitchell can see her because they aren't human.

The show does change some of the traditional metaphysics and rules of ghosts and vampires (not werewolves - they stick with the change only at the full moon). Mitchell can go out in daylight, though he generally wears a hat and sunglasses. Although he eschews human blood, it never is made clear if he drinks animal blood (though later in the series it would seem that only human blood really is sufficient, at least for other vampires). So if a vampire can survive without human blood, what's the big deal? Well, apparently it's like a drug. Still, this inconsistency is a bit bothersome. Annie is seen by some people, though it remains inconsistent as to who and for what reason. Her powers develop the longer she remains on earth, but again, the inconsistencies are bothersome.

I can say I wasn't sure if I like it, but considering I watched all six episodes of the first series on youtube, I guess I do like it. I'm not sure I love it, yet. The series still needs to develop. And the plots are fairly predictable: Mitchell's ongoing guilt of turning one particular woman into a vampire and his war with the bad vampires; George trying to have a life despite his condition, and the terror it brings him; Annie tried to figure out what she hasn't "moved on". It's a bit of a soap opera, really. But it's a fun soap opera with vampires and ghosts.

Russell Tovey as the werewolf George is definitely the star of this show. He is an uber-geek, a guy with an off the chart IQ who speaks several languages, can't talk to women, who once a month transform into the epitome of masculine sexuality. When he freaks out, as he does often, it is raw and painful and amazing. Aidan Turner plays Mitchell; of course he is gorgeous, and brings that Angel-like nobility of the tortured vampire soul; but he is far more likable. Lenora Crichlow as Annie, to my mind, is the weak link of the bunch. The original Annie, Andrea Riseborough, was far superior and more believable as a funny and quirky girl, a girl you could imagine living next door, and you couldn't imagine as dead, which is what the role requires. (I'll admit I skipped over a lot of Crichlow's scenes, as I find her rather boring.) I would have rather seen Riseborough go through Annie's transformations; her rendition of the character would have been far more interesting and enjoyable.

In fact, the central theme of the show does not seem to be about being a monster or coping in the human world as a monster (or kind of monster), but about death. (Though isn't everything? Either that or sex). As in Torchwood, death does not seem to be a happy thing. (In the first episode of Torchwood, there is a device which can briefly revitalize the death; the Torchwood folk ask the dead person who they killed and what they saw; according to these dead folk, there's nothing on the other side. Though this could be a lack of memory). Mitchell stays with a man who is dead but will shortly wake up as a vampire, apparently with terrible memories of his brief time in death. George virtually dies every time he transforms, with unimaginable pain; Annie whispers to someone what death really is, and drives that person insane. Annie is already dead; Mitchell can die, but will likely live a long, long time; George dies once a month. They are the trifecta of death, if you will. As such, they form their own little world in their house. In such states of trauma, they can only be close to other similarly traumatized people.

A great series? No, but a good one, with potential. Hopefully CBC will pick it up.

Drag Me to Hell

There are no new stories, or so someone said once. They're probably right. But there are new ways of telling stories. Even stories about curses, gypsies, and evil bank managers. Drag Me to Hell may not be the most original story, but Sam Raimi is still a great filmmaker (despite a few hiccups), and his first horror film in nearly a decade is a fine return to form.

The plot in a nutshell: Christine is working as a loans officer at a bank, but is up for a promotion to assistant manager. In order to prove herself, though, she must make "tough choices". So she denies a loan extension to an elderly woman who is about to lose her house. Unfortunately for Christine, this woman is a gypsy who curses Christine for shaming her. Christine has three days until a demon takes her to burn in hell for eternity.

During these three days, Christine is haunted by the demon which is slowly manifesting itself. You know what's coming. As Raimi shows Christine looking around rooms, you know you're going to get a flash of something evil and a fight. And even though you know it's coming, you still jump in your seat. These are traditional horror devices which Raimi took to new levels in his early work. Now he is taking advantage of modern film technology to make these moments even more frightening. Raimi also uses a lot of close ups. This works for the film; the audience needs to examine the faces, to see how the skeptic begins to believe, how the psychic must be believed, and how this pretty blonde girl, who really has a good heart, is going to burn forever. (and really, blondes do get the short end of the stick in horror films. I'm glad I'm a brunette.) The plot may be a bit predictable (and the dialogue not so great - never Raimi's strong area), but my god if it isn't fun.

And if you'll all forgive me for getting a bit academic, to me this was also a film about capitalism and feminism. Christine wants to help the old woman. But banking is a man's world. "Male" qualities such as being aggressive and self-serving. "Female" qualities, such as consideration and understanding are not welcome. When Christine decides to deny the old woman an extension, she does so in order to gain favor in this male business world. As her time runs out, she must continually go against her own instinct and nature to stay alive, even possibly imposing her fate on someone else. Again, "male" qualities must supercede Christine's nature. Her nemesis "loses" when he displays "female" qualities (i.e. breaks down and cries). In a world goverened by capitalism, it is impossible for a woman to succeed unless she displays so-called male agressiveness (of course women who do so are generally considered bitches.)

But that is just my academic spin. Drag Me to Hell is a great, fun, scary movie. Raimi mixes the right combination of story, character and effects to have the audience almost continually on the edge of their seats. Nothing like gross bodily fluids and scary old ladies to get the blood pumping. Even if I had paid, it would have been worth it, just for the fun.

Top 10 reasons why gay marriage shouldn't be legalized

I found this on facebook, written by "Mana Bear", a friend of a friend. It says exactly what I want to say, so I will just copy it:

1) Being gay is not natural. Real people always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Brittany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in the world.

9) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children.

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans