They Shoot Actors, Don't They?

Kat's Top TIFF Picks

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 07:00:01 PDT

Not to be outdone by Jeff, here is my list of most anticipated TIFF 2010 titles. I tried very hard to whittle it down to only ten, with five honourable mentions, listed below, all of which overlap with Jeff's list anyway.

A Horrible Way to Die
Adam Wingard | USA
Ever since Jeff brought Wingard's Pop Skull to Toronto's Over the Top Fest a few years back, I have been curious about what he'd do next. This story of a serial killer who escapes from prison and a woman whose past is slowly catching up with her sounds intriguing and clever. Penned by Simon Barrett, who was last at TIFF with 2004's Dead Birds.

The Butcher, The Chef and The Swordsman
Dao Jian Xiao | Hong Kong, China
The first film in Midnight Madness from mainland China is about a kitchen cleaver forged out of the swords of the world's top martial artists. If it really is like Ashes of Time meets God of Cookery meets Tampopo, then I can't wait to go for 2:00am food in Chinatown after the screening.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Werner Herzog | USA
Herzog. 3D. Some 3000 year old cave paintings. It sounds too good to be true, doesn't it?

Curling
Denis Côté | Canada
Last year Denis Côté delivered Canada's most fascinating film of the year with the strange and compelling documentary-ish Carcasses. This year, he returns with something the TIFF guide refers to as 'accessible' - a portrait of a single dad in rural Quebec who has a deep love of curling. Perfect.

Cirkus Columbia
Danis Tanović | Bosnia & Herzegovina
I thought 2001's No Man's Land was just about the best film ever made about the disintegration of my homeland. Tanović has been making a name for himself outside of Bosnia since, with films like L'Enfer and Triage. Now he's actually back in the old country for the first time since his '01 Oscar winner. I can't wait.

Erotic Man
Jørgen Leth | Denmark
Remember The Five Obstructions, that amazing documentary in which Lars von Trier tries to make his mentor/idol make a shitty film by imposing absurd obstructions onto him, only to be frustrated every time by the master's ability to create something wonderful? Well, the master is back with a feature that's touted in the TIFF guide as his "most radical and personal work", an exploration of aging, loss and of course, sex.

Our Day Will Come
Romain Gavras | France
The image in the programme book has a bald-headed Vincent Cassel surrounded by glum looking redheaded children. I don't need much more than this to be convinced to see this "hallucinatory quest for a land of imagined freedom", to be honest. Plus, I've heard a rumour that it's considerably weirder and not at all the video Gavras directed for M.I.A., which features redheads being persecuted and blown up for ten minutes. This fact piques my interest further.

Red Nights
Julien Carbon, Laurent Courtiaud | Hong Kong, China, France
First time directors make it to Midnight Madness with a "pulpy, fetishistic thriller" that's centred around the hunt for a valuable artifact and the staging of a Peking Opera, The Jade Executioner. Giallo-meets-espionage written by the French and taking place in Hong Kong.

The Sleeping Beauty
Catherine Breillat | France
I love "bracing explorations of female mythologies" and I also love Breillat's take on sexuality. I expect her fairy tale story about a young princess and some witches to be as grotesque and brilliant as only she can make it.

Tabloid
Errol Morris | USA
Morris takes on a story about a beauty pageant queen with an IQ of 168, which programmer Thom Powers almost calls too weird to describe in the programme book without spoilers? Count me in.

One honourable mention must definitely go to the conversation between Bruce Springsteen and Edward Norton as part of the Mavericks program (I really love the Boss).

Since that's not technically a film, here are five other titles that I can't wait to see for reasons Jeff has already articulated: 22nd of May, Boxing Gym, Cold Fish, The Last Circus & Super.

Jeff's 15 Most Anticipated Films of TIFF 2010

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 22:36:34 PDT

The final titles of the Toronto International Film Festival’s 2010 lineup were announced today. Here are the fifteen films that I’m most eager to see:

22nd of May
The new film by Koen Mortier looks to be kinder and gentler than his first film, Ex-Drummer, which was a brilliantly dark comedy. Either way, I can’t wait to see it!

A Horrible Way to Die
The new film from Pop Skull director, Adam Wingard is about an escaped convict in search of his ex-girlfriend who has run away to try and start a new life. Like with 22nd of May, the strength of Wingard’s last film would be enough to have me excited about this, but more reasons to be excited are that it stars Joe Swanberg and AJ Bowen, and is written by Simon Barrett.

Boxing Gym
Probably the best documentary filmmaker in the biz, Frederick Wiseman is back at TIFF for a second consecutive year, with a documentary about a boxing gym (did you guess that?) in Austin, Texas.

Burke and Hare
A new John Landis film?! A new John Landis film about grave robbers, starring Simon Pegg, Andy Serkis, Isla Fisher, Christopher Lee, Tom Wilkinson, Tim Curry, and Jenny Agutter!?!?! GIMME!! EDIT: Burke and Hare is no longer appearing on the TIFF website.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Werner Herzog has made a 3D film. It’s a documentary about cave drawings.

Cold Fish
Sion Sono’s epic, Love Exposure, was one of the best films of last year, so I’ve got high expectations for his new serial killer flic. High expectations which I’m pretty confident will be met.

Confessions
When a middle-school teacher’s four year-old daughter is killed, becomes convinced that two students in her class are responsible and decides to take her revenge. This total 180 from the director of Memories of Matsuko, Tetsuya Nakashima, was a huge hit in Japan, and that it’s playing TIFF after already having its North American/International Premiere at the NYAFF is a sign of quality.

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame
New Tsui Hark! Starring Andy Lau! That’s all I need to know.

I Saw the Devil
Kim Ji-Woon, the director of The Good, The Bad, The Weird returns to horror with a film starring Oldboy’s Choi Min-sik and TGTBTW’s Lee Byung-hun.

Jack Goes Boating
Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a guy who’s setup on a date by friends. The first date goes well enough to warrant a second. Hoffman then makes plans to make that date the best date ever. WHAT COULD GO WRONG?! This is also Hoffman’s directorial debut.

The Last Circus
Set in the Spanish civil war, two clowns feud over the same woman in this dark comedy directed by Alex de la Iglesia. Sounds good to me.

Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen
Donnie Yen, Anthony Wong, and Shu Qi! Watch the teaser.

Norwegian Wood
I really like the Murakami book this is based on, so let’s see if the film does it justice.

Super
Finally, James Gunn! It’s been way too long since Slither came out. Rainn Wilson stars as a man whose wife (Liv Tyler) leaves him for a drug dealer (Kevin Bacon), so he takes up crime fighting. Also starring Ellen Page as a young fan of Wilson’s crime fighting work who wants to team up and be his sidekick. With Gunn’s dark sense of humour, I predict great times.

Vanishing on 7th Street
I’m keeping myself in the dark about this one after having watched the excellent teaser trailer. Brad Anderson’s Session 9 is one of the best horror films of the last decade, and this looks like an excellent addition to his filmography.

So yeah… Blah, blah, blah. Those are the fifteen films I’m most excited for. It was hard to narrow it down to just fifteen. It could easily have been twice as long.

Centurion

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 13:25:02 PDT

Neil Marshall | 2010 | 97 min | UK

I was very excited when I heard that Neil Marshall was tackling the story of the 9th Roman Legion who went missing in the frontier of the empire's territory in 117 AD. What would Marshall conjure up? A reinvention of Gaelic vampire lore? A period return to his werewolves? Oh boy, I had looked forward to that for a long time. Well, the wait is over! And Centurion delivers nothing new.

My problem with the movie is not that I was disappointed by its lack of supernatural hoo-ha, however. The story is interesting enough: a legion is decimated by a local army employing guerrilla tactics that are totally alien to the Romans, and is wiped from the official history books. And the calibre of talent is remarkable, led by Michael Fassbender and Dominic West. Unfortunately, the script just goes through the usual paces, delivering a few character surprises, but mostly favouring the path of countless other action films. Even the action set pieces are dry. There are some gory moments, plenty of tight camera work rendering those moments largely indecipherable, and virtual buckets full of CGI blood jetting forth from CGI wounds. By the time a comely unarmoured woman is introduced, you know exactly where everything is heading.

Though I did very much enjoy most of the cast, I do have one casting gripe: Ulrich Thomsen, who plays Pict leader Gorlacon, was done up to look far too much like Sting for me to have ever taken seriously on screen. "Is that Sting? Why is Sting so mad? That might be Sting," etc.

On the bright side, the photography in the English and Scottish countrysides is beautiful. Marshall seems to recognize this as the highlight of the film, too, because he really got his money's worth with that helicopter rental. There are countless extreme long shots of our heroes and their pursuers racing across hilltops and plains. These running shots could be a drinking game if anyone were willing to give Centurion a second watch.

At 97 minutes it absolutely drags its way to the end. Apparently there is a 120 minutes cut in Finland as well? Good God. Centurion is not terrible, but the best that can be said about it is that it is serviceable. On the heels of Doomsday, The Descent, and Dog Soldiers, it is very disappointing that Marshall would accept that as good enough.

Backyard, Toronto

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 09:59:29 PDT

Paul Bartel's Cannonball. Some fried chicken, a couple cans of Steam Whistle, and sixteen millimetres of David Carradine projected under the stars is my recipe for a perfect summer night. RECOMMENDED.

Arab on Radar, Toronto

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 09:49:42 PDT

These guys are still monsters of rock and Toronto audiences are still sedate. I swear the oldies at the Jesus Lizard and Devo reunion shows earlier this year gave it harder than most of the undergrad crowd at Saturday's show. I have gone to shows in a lot of different cities and Toronto beats them all when it comes to sitting on hands and practically yawning through all but the buzziest of buzz bands. And what was up with that gent shouting, "CHINESE STARS" between each song? I gave him a scolding and he quieted for a few numbers, then returned with a fury for the encore. I don't know if the audiences here are spoiled or if the average age when one realizes having fun is more important than looking cool is really out of whack in this city. At any rate, I don't want to get down on the show. Mr. Pottymouth and co. killed it and I had a smile on my face they entire time. Another band struck from the bucket list.

This entire post makes me sound seventy-eight years old.

I Got Your Americana Right Here, J Crew

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 09:07:58 PDT

These images were taken between 1938 and 1944 by photographers from the US government's Farm Security Administration (FSA) and Office of War Information (OWI). They were intended as documents are typical American life, concentrating on rural areas. However, as World War II loomed large for the States the photographs took on the distinct tone of propaganda, shifting toward factories full of primped and posed men women Working Hard to Defeat Hitler. Regardless of their uses at the time, these gorgeous photos are a rare colour glimpse at America of the period.

High resolution digital scans are available for free use here. Thanks to Rick Prelinger for the tip.

EDIT: The Huffingpost Post is totally ripping me off.

Today's Nightmare Fuel

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:35:46 PDT

AAAAAAAH! End of History beer is a thing that exists! It is a 55% alcohol beer presented inside, yes, an actual taxidermied stoat or grey squirrel. Only twelve bottles of this particular beer were made, so this is a publicity stunt more than anything, but still. . . way to infuriate God.

You can find more info on the brew, as well as a terrible video, over at the BrewDog blog.

Death Wish 3

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 12:58:21 PDT

Michael Winner | 1985 | 92 min | USA

East New York City, 1985: a time when crime ran rampant and cars exploded at the slightest provocation. Mean streets indeed for architect/crime fighter Paul Kersey to return to, particularly when played by a then 63 year-old Charles Bronson.

Kersey buses his way back to the big city to see an old friend and arrives just in time to hear his final words. His friend had been the latest of many to suffer a violent beating at the hands of local toughs who all look like Adam Ant (including a baby faced Alex Winter). That death cannot stand, will not stand, and the fearful neighbourhood residents have little to do but watch as Kersey takes revenge and causes massive, massive collateral damage.

Far more than the prior revenge films, Death Wish 3 is stunningly bizarre. From the off-kilter direction, to the dialogue ("They killed the Giggler, man!"), to the funk/no wave hybrid soundtrack of Jimmy Page, Death Wish 3 is relentless is the best possible way. This was the third and last Death Wish for director Winner and the second from the 80s action producer giants Cannon Films. All parties involved go for broke. The violence comes fast and heavy, and no one is satisfied until city blocks have been completely devastated. And among all that rubble and amorality, wall to wall laughs.

As the death toll rises around Kersey yet again, Bronson all but shoulder shrugs his way through his performance. At those moments he does speak (according to supporting actor Ed Lauter, he didn't enjoy delivering lines), his delivery is at once psychotically detached and comedic; which is to say, perfect. He shrugs off the death of his wife and coos over his custom Wildey Magnum (the gun's manufacturer later featured the film in a commercial promoting the same!).

Romantic interest Deborah Raffin, playing lawyer Kathryn Davis, also offers a delirious performance and the strangest first date you have ever uncomfortably witnessed. She hates her sister, loves sports, and enjoys taking home brooding strangers after she aids their release from jail onto skid row. Aforementioned Ed Lauter also deserves a gold star for his role as a bipolar cop who salutes friend and foe alike as "dude."

Of course, Death Wish wouldn't be Death Wish if our man didn't soundly dispose of all the street trash ruining grocery runs for everyone. Sure, Kersey takes care of the young punks, but to what end? As the film wraps, wild gangs of geriatrics have pulled out their heaters and tasted blood. . . and loved it.

If you don't watch this movie you hate freedom.

A spotless 35mm print of Death Wish 3 plays again at Toronto Underground Cinema this Sunday, August 1, at 7:00.

The World Cannot Live Half Slave, Half Free

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:50:41 PDT

Anti-Hun propaganda postcards from Belgium, circa World War I. Click on the images for larger versions.

Show Me Your "Office"

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:14:40 PDT

York Boulevard, Hamilton. See also, "Why I Ain't Post So Much" and "Forever Commuting."

Steam of Life [Miesten vuoro]

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Tue, 04 May 2010 13:16:13 PDT

Joonas Berghäll & Mika Hotakainen | 2010 | 82 mins | Finland

Can you think of a single thing not to love about a documentary that's 100% naked men in saunas? I know, me neither. But get your mind out of the gutter. The men in Steam of Life aren't, in most cases, particularly sexy. Nor do they, I suspect, give a fuck about whether they look good for the camera. They're just regular guys, with droopy skin, beer bellies or concave chests, bad tattoos, and whatever other flaws you might imagine a random cross-section of the Finnish population to have. What makes the film spectacular is not the gawking at naked men part. It's the fact that these men, who come from a culture that privileges the strong, silent, tough-guy type, all open up in the sauna and share honest, frank stories about their lives.

Apparently, in Finalnd, if you can hot-box it, you can turn it into a sauna, and the saunas in the film are as diverse as trailers and phone booths, tents and underground mines. The sauna is a national passion in Finland that I can't think of a parallel or equivalent to here in Canada. We simply can't relate to how central this ritual is to the daily life of the average man, but Steam of Life sure gets us close to understanding the value of the ritual - and not just for your complexion.

Some of the stories are funny, and some are utterly heartbreaking. The men reminisce about their lives, their children, their lost loves and changing fortunes. It's an unbelievably intimate and frank view into their lives. Their willingness to let the filmmakers shoot them naked in the sauna is actually the least intimate part of it. When the emotions start pouring out and the tears start flowing with the sweat and steam, it's unbelievably touching, funny, sad, and uplifting all at once.

My own love for Finland burns with the fire of a thousand suns, but in this case the quality of the film speaks for itself, and it's not just my gross cultural bias that leads me to endorse it. The audience at the first Hot Docs screening gave the two young filmmakers the most raucous round of applause I've seen yet, stopping just short of an ovation. Truly a beautiful glimpse into the warm heart of an outwardly icy group of men.

Small Wonders

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Mon, 03 May 2010 07:55:45 PDT

Tally Abecassis | 2010 | 52 mins | Canada

I wish that this film, which director Tally Abecassis spent ten years creating, had been better. I wanted to love it, and while I fell in love with a couple of the characters in it, I couldn't help but feel that the cumulative effect was not as powerful as it should have been.

The film follows three small business owners - proprietors of the kinds of weird neighbourhood shops you pass by every day, and hardly notice. Or, perhaps you wonder how they could possibly still be in business, with their old, dusty signs and cluttered storefronts. The three people she selects are hardware store owner Jae-Gil, a Korean tomboy who was known back home as "Miss Key" for her lock-picking abilities; Peter, the wisecracking watch repairman who complains about the loss of his youthful good looks but whose livelyhood is actually threatened by his failing eyesight; and Norman, a dapper photographer who runs an old fashioned portrait studio.

All three businesses are constantly on the brink of financial ruin - Jae-Gil's because of the increasing number of big box stores crowding out her over-stuffed, tiny hardware haven, the other two simply by the ravages of time and age on their owners, and the inevitable changes of technology. After all, most people throw out a watch rather than having it repaired these days, and nobody goes to a portrait studio for passport shots when you can get them done at any corner store.

Abecassis visited the three struggling entrepreneurs for a decade, and watching them age, go through divorces, heartaches, and the inevitable closure of at least one of their shops is, indeed, touching. But somehow, an element of intimacy is sorely missing from these very personal tales. It's as though a vast distance was maintained between her and her subjects in spite of the fact that the relationships have lasted for such a significant period of time. A fascinating subject, to be sure, and a must see for anyone who loves those weird old nooks & crannies in their own neighbourhood.

And Everything is Going Fine

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Sat, 01 May 2010 07:36:18 PDT

Steven Soderbergh | 2010 | 89 mins | USA

Steven Soderbergh's portrait of his friend and onetime collaborator Spalding Gray is intimate, touching, and at times very funny indeed. Gray starred in Soderbergh's King of the Hill in 1993 (a story that is touchingly retold in the doc) and Soderbergh has been working on this documentary for about five years - pretty much since Gray's death. The documentary weaves a biographical narrative worthy of Gray's own storytelling gifts, using nothing but clips from his taped monologue performances and a few select TV interviews he did over the course of his career. The stories he tell are loosely chronological, beginning in his early childhood, through his college years, his mother's suicide and the tumultuous decades that followed.

The stories about Gray's personal life - his troubled mother, his own difficulties in maintaining healthy relationships, his struggles with fatherhood - are undeniably touching, but perhaps even more interesting are the clips in which he talks about his development as an artist, the path that made him the unique monologuist we all know and love. He discusses writing, acting, the creative process itself, shedding some light on how that signature style was developed.

Soderbergh made very much the right choice in letting Gray speak for himself in this documentary, sifting through what must have been hundreds of hours of footage to create the final monologue of a gifted storyteller, a summary of his entire life. Retellings of the story of his monther's breakdowns and her eventual suicide, his own struggles with manic depression, his recurring suicidal fantasies and his strange obsession with water (in one clip he talks about always orienting himself in relation to water, wherever he is) provide an eerie sense of foreshadowing for Gray's untimely demise, in the East River, most likely by his own hand.

In the film's final scene, Gray is distracted by the lonely howling of a dog or wolf in the background. The camera stays on him while he pauses to listen to the animal's lamentation, and a lifetime of pain and brilliance is suddenly, heartbreakingly visible on his face. I got a little misty, I can't deny it.

For fans of Gray's work, this is a loving and respectful tribute. For those who don't know his monologues, it's actually a pretty good introduction to the style, the humour, and the strange, compelling character of Spalding Gray.

And Everything Is Going Fine screens again on Saturday, May 1. Click here for more info.

Disco and Atomic War

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 10:51:52 PDT

Jaak Kilmi | 2009 | 80 min | Estonia + Finland

Disco and Atomic War is the story of the evolution of television on the edge of the Iron Curtain. The capital of Soviet block Estonia, Tallinn, was so close to the Western nation of Finland that eager Communists with modified televisions could receive their broadcasts. The US State Department was quick to realize that this battle in the heads of young Communists was as important as any battleground. As the Dallases and Knight Riders poured into Soviet homes, US cash poured into Finland, helping them construct dazzling high transmission towers.

The film is told from those who were on the front lines: inventors building antennae out of scrap metal; young campers waiting for the first broadcast of Emmanuel; cousins corresponding about scandals among the Ewings.

In less capable hands the subject of broadcast television in Estonia would surely be a dry talking heads picture. While director Jaak Kilmi doesn't shy away from offering the insights of media professors and government historians, it is the flourishes of the personal stories told in beautifully spare recreations and the bevy of perfectly selected stock footage that makes Disco and Atomic War such an arresting treat to watch. It is as brilliant a synthesis of storytelling and straight information delivery as I think I have seen. The film manages to capture the enthusiasm of youthful fan devotion so strongly that it that makes the alien concept of a cloak and dagger struggle to see your favourite program easy to empathize and relate to.

I loved Disco and Atomic War. So much so that I give this movie my highest recommendation: MANDATORY STATE-SPONSORED VIEWING.

Disco and Atomic War plays Hot Docs on April 30 and May 1. Check here for schedule and watch the trailer here.

Candyman: The David Klein Story

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 10:59:24 PDT

Costa Botes | 76 min | 2010 | New Zealand + US

Via friends, relatives, and other uncritical sort, Candyman: The David Klein Story tells the tale of the inventor of Jelly Belly jelly beans who had his work ruthlessly stolen from him by a faceless corporation. Or not. David Klein came up with the concept for gourmet jelly beans in the late seventies. He worked hard in tandem with an established confection company to develop the highest quality product and his natural sales and showmanship took Jelly Belly to the top shelf of candy products. Many names and faces related to Klein's business dealings are thrown around in the early portion of the film making them difficult to keep track of, but the larger picture of Klein's life and the candy's development are reasonably easy to follow. What becomes clear late into the murk of this picture is that Klein is a very friendly man with very little business acumen. Whether the result of altruism or not, he made several poor decisions with his business and no longer owns the Jelly Belly name and the once popular face of the brand is now forgotten.

Tellingly, both of Klein's children have producer credits on the movie. Candyman is a love letter to dad and an effort to restore his legacy, and it suffers greatly from family trips down memory lane and anecdotes about what a great, kooky fella Klein is. Even at only 76 minutes the movie feels heavily padded. The final act soliloquies from Klein's son and a lengthy aside about Ronald Reagan are among the elements that feel completely out of place and tacked on to hit the feature length mark. Weird Al Yankovic even has several scenes, for God's sake. At first I assumed his presence was due to him being a family friend, but soon it becomes clear: no, Weird Al is simply a candy enthusiast. He frequently describes Jelly Belly candies as "quite good."

The financial details of Klein's deal with the company who now owns Jelly Belly are not mentioned until near the close of the film. I suspect it is because those details make it even more difficult to relate to Klein's "trials." Klein is fond of hyperbole and speaking about how Jelly Belly "ruined his life," but what Jelly Belly actually did was provide him with a significant income for most of his adult life without robbing him of the chance to complain about it. That is a tough struggle to get behind.

Candyman plays Hot Docs on May 1 and 4. Check here for schedule and watch the trailer here.

The Story of Furious Pete

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 10:23:00 PDT

George Tsioutsioulas | 2010 | 85 min | Canada

Pete Czerwinski was hospitalized for anorexia as a young man. He weighed 120 pounds and his organs were so taxed that his heart was about to fail. He received comfort and support from his family, particularly his mother who battles disease of her own, and began recovering during the lengthy bed rest. Once he was released from hospital Pete began an intense fitness and bodybuilding regimen. His appetite returned in spades. Following a night out with friends, Pete consumed four massive hangover helping breakfasts on a dare. Other restaurant patrons gathered around the delicious spectacle, and Furious Pete was born.

A great deal of time is spent talking about Pete's battle with anorexia as well as his parent's trials with illness. Czerwinski has been through a lot and is not shy about sharing it. He is a warm and open man and the film would not work at all were he not. His unassuming character and unlikely carriage for a competitive eater make him a great subject to follow into this world.

There is nothing visually remarkable about Furious Pete, but it is shot well and edited cleanly. However, the great burden of budget documentaries, stock music, does pops up again here (music is credited to Stockmusic.net).

Pete Czerwinski is followed on his daily training routines as well as on the road to professional eating competitions. Watching competitive eaters eat is disgusting, particularly in slow motion. It is also wildly entertaining. The eating scenes in Furious Pete may be some of the purest pleasures and gross outs of my film going life. As a bonus, I appreciated the chance to witness competitive eater trash talk. Getting trash talked by a grown man in overalls seems like it would be particularly galling.

During these travels the politics of the different professional eating leagues are also brought to light. Yes, there are professional eating leagues. Plural. I could have probably watched an entire film learning about their origins and watching the jostling between organizations, but the broad strokes are covered in the way they relate to Pete's story.

The weakness in Furious Pete is that at no point does the director ask, "Do you think competitive eating is just the flip side of your eating disorder? Is it another way to control your environment? Do you think it is ultimately as harmful as your anorexia was?" That's a shame, because I really would have liked to have seen that probed into. There is slight attention paid to the possible health ramifications of Pete's eating, but he is given a clean bill of health on camera and it is left at that. The director clearly had a certain tale in mind, though, and I understand those questions would interfere with the feel-good vibe of Furious Pete. If you are looking for a hard hitting investigation you can forget it, but Furious Pete does offer a unique, if light, glimpse at a strong man and his gross world.

The great pay off of the film is finally seeing Pete eat a 72 ounce steak in real time over the closing credits. Three camera set-up, running clock, completely captivating.

The Story of Furious Pete plays Hot Docs on April 30 and May 9. Check here for schedule and watch the trailer here.

talhotblond

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 09:37:20 PDT

Barbara Schroeder | 2010 | 83 min | US

Oh, Internet, is there anything you can't ruin? Marinesniper and beefcake were co-workers, online gamers, and IRL friends. Talhotblond was an 18 year-old girl named Jessi, a fellow gamer, and a serial online flirter. She became friend, then cybersex partner, to both men. She seemed to take as much delight with the online affairs as with pitting them against each other. While beefcake grew tired of talhotblond and made an effort to distance himself, marinesniper plunged deeper into his online persona, losing himself in violent fantasy. While talhotblond goaded them on further, beefcake was completely ignorant that he was about to become the focus of marinessniper's rage and the last piece needed for him to completely dissolve into delusion.

The opening moments of talhotblond gave me pause. It begins with a voice-over from beyond the grave: an actor telling us he is the murder victim of the story and is about to show us how everything went wrong. Right out of the Sunset Boulevard playbook. Or something. Aesthetically, talhotblond is a minor mess of computer graphics and canned music, but the story is so compelling that the television newsmagazine format is forgivable. It avoids salaciousness in favour of weaving a very clever narrative through interviews, text conversations between the three players, and the guiding voice-over. Yes, the voice-over that made me cringe at the beginning turned out to be a smart device to keep me invested. The interviews cover the key players in the case and offer welcome analysis on the motives behind the snowballing of the online relationships.

Barbara Schroeder takes on a lot with this film. Not only is it her first credited feature as a director, she is also the chief reporter, writer, and editor of the piece. I am very much looking forward to what she tackles next.

I will not offer anymore about the story because it provides some great surprises, but suffice to say talhotblond is a fascinating glimpse of crime and alienation in the 21st century. This story is prime "ripped from the headlines" Law and Order material. What? That's a compliment coming from me! Shut up.

talhotblond plays Hot Docs on May 1 and 2. Check here for schedule and watch the trailer here.

These Girls

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:41:37 PDT

Tahani Rached | 2006 | 68 min | Egypt

These Girls is a documentary portrait of a small group of girls who share companionship in the brutal and violent streets of Cairo, Egypt. Unfortunately, These Girls goes out of its way to insert so much whimsy and romance into the lives of these teenage prostitutes and runaways that virtually all of the impact is lost. The music, editing, and extended dances sequences all conspire to reduce this film to near parody. Yes, i said extended dance sequences. In one scene, a man washes out a found styrofoam cooler with rags to act as a makeshift crib for a girl's newborn baby. It is a disturbing moment- or it would be were it not played for laughs. The theatre thought it was adorable. Those homeless people are so inventive! Cute!

Also problematic is that the film gives no context to their lives or community so a great deal of cultural references are lost. The same can be said of the heavy reliance of euphemistic language like "slept with" or "love" to indicate rape, kidnapping, and prostitution. And to avoid any problems with what seems to be a predetermined story arc, when a girl is arrested or otherwise disappears, she is given no more than a quick mention and is quickly forgotten in favour of the other main "characters."

There is a great documentary that could made about these young women, who are strong, intelligent, and open about their day-to-day struggles, but this is not it.

The above is a repost of a March, 2008 review. These Girls plays Hot Docs on May 7. Check here for schedule and watch the trailer here.

The Canal Street Madam

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 10:23:49 PDT

Cameron Yates | 2010 | 91 mins | US

Sometimes a filmmaker can become so close to their subject that they forget about the elements that actually make the subject compelling to an outsider looking in. Instead, the filmmaker's own experience fills in their film's obvious gaps while several key Ws are ignored, avoided, or forgotten. This possible scenario occurred to me over and over as I watched The Canal Street Madam.

Jeanette Maier was a New Orleans madam who ran a brothel with her mother and daughter that catered to the city's elite. While she was busted and sent to prison following an FBI sting, those elite when untouched and unsullied. Director Cameron Yates picks up with Maier following her release from prison as she tries to make ends meet without being involved in sex work for the first time in many years. She does media appearances, reconnects with her family, and rekindles her entrepreneurial spirit, all with varying degrees of success.

Madam primarily consists of the standard interviews and fly-on-the-wall footage as she goes about her days, but it also contains some interesting video elements culled from Maier's own home movies. They are great additions, depicting parties, the family's Christmas morning, and so on, but certain pieces are needlessly recycled several times until they only serve as a distraction.

The biggest issue I had with the documentary is that it carries on without ever filling in the background details regarding Maier's crimes, arrest, and conviction. We are given some information via local television news clips near the beginning of the movie, but the FBI operation and subsequent trial, though frequently mentioned, is never unpacked. This is a massive oversight. If a documentary can't answer the most pressing questions about a subject, why does it exist?

The rest of Maier's family grants little information either. Aside from her daughter, Maier's family has only fleeting appearances and no real contributions to the story. But since you have her on camera, why not talk with Jeannette's mother about how the two got involved in running a brothel together? How did mom get into prostitution and what did she think of her daughter becoming involved? These may be old stories to friends sitting around the dinner table, but EVERYONE IN THE AUDIENCE wants to know.

There is some good humour in the movie and Jeanette Maier is a compelling character, but with such a thin story the result is a bit of a freak show. While making public appearances Maier frequently states that what happens "between two consensual adults" should be no one else's business, and while I believe that to be true, it is a statement, not an argument. If the film wants to hold up Maier as a victim of injustice and really investigate the issue it keeps trotting out, then there should have been an effort to discuss the prohibition of prostitution and the effect it has had on Maier, her family, and the women she worked with. Vague allusions are not enough to keep this documentary afloat.

The Canal Street Madam plays Hot Docs on May 4 and 6. Check here for schedule and watch the trailer here.

The Parking Lot Movie

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 22:26:06 PDT

Meghan Eckman | 2010 | 74 min | US

Cool boss-who-doesn't-want-to-be-called-boss Chris Farina has assembled a strange colony of men to work in his Charlottesville, Virginia parking lot. Many are philosophers, though anthropologists are also mined as ideal attendants/ students of human nature. The "insanely overeducated" gang work adjacent a university and its associated bars, wiling away the time between jerk-handling with invention and conversation. That is a recipe for some serious theories about cars, man's subservience, and the nature of renting empty space, man.

Presumably an insider among the attendants' circle of friends, director Meghan Eckman captures the theories and gallivanting from unguarded subjects. They often engage in behaviour and conversation, by turns silly and hateful, that one would think they would make an effort to hide from strangers. Luckily, these men possess wonderfully dry senses of humour that transform the dullest of subject matter into a fun visit with people you would like to know better.

If you are among the scores and scores of people doing too little labour with too much brain power you will relate to the attendants' plight and thoroughly enjoy watching their coping mechanisms. They may have achieved the perfect synthesis of work for profit and "hanging." Hanging is a key concept in this doc. Is this what Bob Dobbs meant when he sought Total Slack? Do these guys have it ALL FIGURED OUT? Maybe. Maybe.

The Parking Lot Movie plays the Hot Docs documentary film festival in Toronto on May 1 and 3, with a special garage rooftop screening on May 7. Check here for the schedule and here for the trailer.

The Game Done Changed

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 16:54:47 PDT

David Mills, writer of Homicide: Life on the Streets, NYPD Blue, The Wire, and the upcoming Treme, has died at the age of 48.

The Cribbster remembers this gem from Mills delivered to journalism students seeking advice on writing: "I don’t know. . . uh. . . It’s a little like fucking: You do it more, you get better at it. Other than that there’s not much else I can say.” Check out David Mills' own blog, Undercover Black Man. It is definitely worth a read. Forty-eight is far too soon to go, but thank goodness for the work he has left us and thank goodness for DVDs. Mills changed the game with television, and he was one of the few who changed it for the better.

Lil' Scarface

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 15:26:30 PDT

A home video has surfaced of elementary school children making liberal use of the word "fudge" in their play adaptation of the violent climax of Brian De Palma's Scarface. That is premise, anyway. The piece itself is a clever-ish put on.

I would add "obviously," but apparently not everyone is in on the joke. In fact, I find the funniest thing about the video to be the outraged comments it has elicited. "Yes - I have kids - and this is R-Rated material - someone has a screw loose big time - idiots," opines bapwebdesign, while beachkween delivers the impassioned type-scream, "NO WONDER KIDS ARE MESSED UP TODAY AND THE WORLD IS ABOUT TO END - THE PARENTS AND TEACHES OF THIS SCHOOL SHOULD BE SHOT - WTF???" Even the artistic community itself takes exception to the piece, as antoniotheartist offers, "Those kids could have has as much fun doing a play about WALL-E." Indeed.

Geoff Boucher outed the video as the work of Jonas Akerlund, the director most recently behind Lady Gaga's stunning "Telephone" video. Even without the director's name floating around, the video has several tells: the uploader cindymomof6 joined four days prior and has only uploaded the play video and "favourited" three humourously earnest Christian message videos; the complete silence of the supposed families in the audience as the bizarre action unfolds; the video's mere existence.

For whatever reason Akerlund seems to have taken a run at Michel Gondry territory. So why the dip into the viral pool? The Gaga video is the most high profile project he has done in years, so maybe he is ramping up for promotion of a big feature following his dead-in-the-water Horsemen film of last year. Akerlund has always had a great eye, but so far he has been unable to sustain that for a full movie. Hopefully he can capitalize on his recent success to turn out a great feature. Sure, a sequel to the overwrought drug tragi-comedy Spun may seem like the worst idea ever, but just imagine this: "And the Oscar goes to... CGI Brittany Murphy!" Call me, Jonas.

EDIT: TMZ is reporting that the video was actually done by Marc Klasfeld. He directed The LA Riot Spectacular, a comedy about the aftermath of the Rodney King beating starring Snoop Dogg. Yes, that exists. Try not to bust a gut watching the trailer. Also, writing about the same stuff as TMZ? I am garbage.

You can watch Scarface School Play after the jump.

Hot Tub Time Machine

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 21:35:00 PDT

Steve Pink | 2010 | 100 mins | USA

The experience of watching Hot Tub Time Machine was a strange one. As a former John Cusack devotee who wasn't crazy about his work in the '00s, I expected to find this entertaining but at the same time a bit cringe-worthy. I was worried that the comedian-stacked cast and Snakes On A Plane-ish funny but maybe ironic but maybe just literal title would not actually add up to an awesome comedy. And yet, I found myself laughing out loud consistently throughout.

Adam (John Cusack), Lou (Rob Corddry) and Nick (Craig Robinson) play three old pals whose glory days of '80s teendom are behind them. Adam's a jerk whose girlfriend has just left him. Lou's a full blown alcoholic who hasn't outgrown his party animal behaviour. Nick is a failed musician who works in some kind of puppy salon. In an attempt to revive their friendships and their sad lives, the three estranged best friends (accompanied by Cusack's nephew Jacob, played by Clark Duke) head to their old vacation haunt, a ski resort by the name of Kodiac Valley, where a drunken night in the hot tub lands them back in 1986. How and why? It's got to do with some spilled drinks, but really, does it matter? While the three 40-somethings (now back to being their teen selves) relive the good times, Jacob tries to ensure that his own birth doesn't get erased by their time traveling shenanigans.

I'm sure the arguments about whether Hot Tub Time Machine is able to live up to its own hype will continue for a little while longer. Here are three good reasons to go see it in the meantime:

1. Rob Corddry. As Lou, the Mötley Crüe-loving total fuckup of the friend group, he manages to be simultaneously hilarious, completely pathetic, and strangely attractive. He's magic.

2. The cameos. Crispin Glover as the one armed bellboy provides the film with some really enjoyable recurring gags, and a big time comedy veteran is surprisingly endearing as the hot tub repairman. Both might have been kind of lame but are funny and sweet instead.

3. The ski patrol villains. A shout-out to the world of '80s jock vs. geek teen flicks, this crew of well coiffed cool guys think our time traveling heroes are hiding something, and they're hell bent on stopping them. They're even named Blaine and Chaz, as any ski dudes should be.

Bonus points for a guy in a bear suit who keeps randomly popping into the action.

The Runaways

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:42:32 PDT

Floria Sigismondi | 2010 | 109 min | US

A rough, all-girl rock group fronted by a blonde lolita. Money in the bank, right? The band's life was short, but a year after forming they were headlining shows with Cheap Trick and Van Halen as opening acts. A year after that they were on a world tour and recording a television special in Japan. They released three studio albums before breaking up in early 1979. The Runaways were a cultural milestone, not that you would know it from watching The Runaways (aside from its few "big in Japan" moments).

The Runaways focuses primarily on the relationship between guitarist/ singer Joan Jett and singer Cherie Currie from their first meeting until Currie eventually drops out of music when drugs take too great a toll. Currie's family life also has some screen time, and Jett is shown kissing different girls. I was surprised that Dakota Fanning not only turns in the first decent performance of her young career, but she does a terrific job as Cherie Currie. Kristen Stewart is also good, and slightly more involved as Joan Jett than her usual scowl-acting allows. Unfortunately, the talented Alia Shawkat plays "Robin," the composite bassist, but is left completely line-less due to legal threats.

The Runaways best functions as a Music Delivery System and Nostalgia Generator, which it performs to perfection. When in clubs, jam spaces, and on stage, the movie is thoroughly captivating. I say that with the exception of ham-fisted scenes of the band "jamming" out a hit tune in a couple minutes of riffs and lyrical free styling that turns out magically. I always find such scenes painful to watch. They are the laziest of shortcuts and you don't have to have a gold record to feel how false they ring.

Floria Sigismondi has shown that she has an inspired flare for visual storytelling. We see moments of it in The Runaways, but Sigismondi seems bored when the story is about something other than drug use or performance. The result is a collection of memorable music videos strung together by vague scenes of a band imploding. So much energy is expended presenting the band's drug use it comes at the expense of portraying the recording of their albums, which gets one short scene, or the reception of those albums. Since the movie covers such a small window of time it is ridiculous for it to glaze over huge events in their career. That disinterest extends to the character summaries at the end of the film. While Currie, Jett, and producer Kim Fowley are all given the "where are they now" treatment, Lita Ford, Sandy West, and the myriad bassists are ignored. That is silly and inexcusable.

All this complaining may create the impression that I hated The Runaways. I did not. I enjoyed watching it, though it left much to be desired even while I was watching it. At its essence it is little more than an improved take on Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains. That may or may not be enough for you. The Runaways is good, but I wanted more than good.

However, if the music isn't really what you're after anyway, the superior youth debauchery vehicle starring the real Cherie Currie is Adrian Lyne's Foxes. I cannot recommend that movie enough.

Bodyguards & Assassins [Shi yue wei cheng]

aaron@theyshootactorsdontthey.com (They Shoot Actors, Don't They?) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 08:28:17 PDT

Teddy Chan | 2009 | 139 mins | China / Hong Kong

At the Asian Film Awards which wrapped mere hours ago in Hong Kong, the two top acting awards went to veteran Chinese actor Wang Xueqi and Hong Kong heartthrob Nicholas Tse, who played Master Li and his kindly rickshaw driver, respectively, in Bodyguards & Assassins, Teddy Chan's star studded historical epic. Loosely based on real events, the film looks beautiful but ultimately lacks the serious ass kicking needed to make it a truly fun ride.

The tale is set in 1905, and Sun Yat-sen is on his way to Hong Kong (then a British colony) to plan a revolution to overthrow the crumbling Qing Dynasty in China. Revolutionary Chen Shaobai arrives in Hong Kong a few days before Sun's arrival, to meet Li Yue-tang (Wang Xueqi), a businessman who's been helping to fund the cause. As Sun's arrival draws near, a convoluted sequence of events forces Li to throw full support behind the revolutionaries, rallying a group of men including his rickshaw driver (Nicholas Tse) and a mysterious beggar (Leon Lai) to divert the assassins so that Sun can enter Hong Kong, meet his cohorts and leave safely. While this motley crew tries to protect Sun, Li's young wife has hired Sum Chung-yang (Donnie Yen), a man with whom she has some history, to tail the group and protect her husband. Simon Yam also briefly appears as an exiled Qing General living in exile and disguised as the leader of an opera troupe.

There's a lot of set up, many characters to follow and several side plots (such as the rickshaw driver's touching romance with the lame daughter of a local photographer), so the talk-to-action ratio is a bit out of whack. However, when Master Li's son Li Chongguang is chosen to act as the decoy for Sun Yat-sen in an elaborate rickshaw and foot chase through the city streets, the kung fu finally begins, and it's pretty good.

It's clear from the start that this is the sort of epic blood bath that might end well for "history" but not for any of the individuals involved. As the action escalates, Donnie Yen unsurprisingly has the best fight choreography, and Leon Lai has the most impressive scene, as he battles a whole team of hook and chain wielding assassins with nothing but a deadly black iron fan. The film has had its theatrical release in Asia, and seems unlikely to land on the big screen in North America anytime soon, but look for it on BluRay - the DVD is already out.