11-movie weekend

We are trying to see eleven movies this weekend. For no particular reason other than movies are awesome. 

Here is what is on the list:

This Is the End

Man of Steel

Silent Movie

Dirty Wars

20 Feet from Stardom

The Bling Ring

TBD

Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story

Much Ado About Nothing

Ozu double feature: Diary of a Tenement Gentleman and something else we forget

Should be good times. We packed a lunch. 

Upstream Color with Director Q&A Moderated by Steven Soderbergh

As my friends were losing their goddamned minds for this movie at Sundance and SXSW, I deliberately skipped it at both events, since I knew it was part of the spring slate at my local movie house.

In a bid to maintain its status as my favorite New York City movie theater, the IFC Center invited Steven Soderbergh to moderate a Q&A with the writer, director, and star of Upstream Color, Shane Carruth.

Even though I was subjected to all manner of hype, I'm glad I waited, 'cause this was a pretty unique event - one of those things that makes me breathlessly grateful beyond words that I live in New York City.

Now, the movie?  I was actually prepared to hate it. Usually any movie that elicits any "uh that made no sense" response from the masses is something I tend not to die for.  I've been a little better with that lately - Holy Motors being one super notable example of a head-scratcher that I loved.  Well, I'll go ahead and put this one in that same category.

It tells first of all a very strange story - and it tells it in a very unconventional and definitely artsy way. Combine those factors and I guess you'll alienate some.  But, it was too gorgeous and moving to dismiss on account of its weirdness.

What did I love about it?  Well first, the inherent intimacy.  There's nothing expected about the trajectory of the core couple in the film. You don't buy or not buy them because they're at "this stage" or "that stage" of their relationship.  You do immediately sense the deep connection between them. That moved me.

I also enjoyed that I thought I was totally following the very splintered story, and was also certain it was all metaphor, start to finish.  Then during the Q&A afterwards, turns out nope - totally literal.  Well, that's fine! I will still think about my own hypothetical meanings.  I guess you can do that with art.

It was not like anything else I had seen before.  I am sort of dying to see it a second time.

The Q&A was fun.  I was a little too deep in my own head trying to parse what I'd just seen to really pay close attention, but I enjoyed the rapport that Soderbergh and Carruth had.  A few of the questions asked were purely for comedic value - such as "are you the outdoorsy type?" and "this movie has no cats in it. What's up with that?"

Good stuff. Thanks, IFC Center.

My Year in Repertory Cinema

For as long as I can remember, I have been deservedly derided by my friends for having seen so few classics, despite being such a huge movie person. This was the year I decided to start to change that.  Slowly, of course – it’s an uphill battle at this point. Plus, it’s harder for me because I fail miserably at watching movies at home.  It’s just not my ideal environment – too many tempting distractions, and I cannot abide watching films with distractions.  That leaves me with theatrical experiences. But, I’m in luck; I live in the best city in the world for seeing older films.    

 

I wound up seeing around 42 “older movies” in theaters this year – mostly at the IFC Center, but also The Film Forum, Museum of the Moving Image and MoMA.

To be fair, I also saw Goodfellas and The Game this year, but not in a theater. Loved them both, especially the latter.  Oh, and I also watched Ghostbusters for the first time.  Twice!  It’s hard to appreciate a movie like that as much as I know I would have if I’d seen it as a kid – but I do at least totally “get” what the fuss is about.

I took advantage of some awesome programming from local movie houses – my favorite of which being the Universal 100 this summer at the Film Forum, where they showed multiple double features in honor of Universal’s 100^th anniversary. I saw my first, second and third Douglas Sirk films as a part of that. Such good stuff.

 

But, the IFC Center also spoiled me by showing a different Alfred Hitchcock film every weekend at 11 AM for months in a row. Of his notable ones I missed Rope, The Birds, Dial M for Murder and The Man Who Knew Too Much.

I want next year to be an even better year for me in terms of catching up on classics.  Also, I’m going to make an effort to improve my watch-at-home habits. And also to improve my keeping track of my watch-at-home habits. 

Here are a few notable “bests:”

Best Hitchcock (of the 11 I saw for the first time in 2012): Vertigo

Most Embarrassing Confession:  This was the year I finally saw Back to the Future 1 and 2

“What’s the Big Deal” Award: American Graffiti. Meh!

Most Fun: Miami Connection

Top Five Overall

5. Wake in Fright

4. Annie Hall

3. Imitation of Life

2. Vertigo

1. Three Colors: Red

Also amazing were Life is Sweet, The Conversation, Psycho, L’Enfant, Nashville, Oldboy, The Battle of Algiers, To Catch a Thief, Rebecca, Rosemary’s Baby

Here's the full list of older movies I saw theatrically in 2012:

Zelig

L'Enfant

Life is Sweet

Marathon Man

Annie Hall

The Conversation

Nashville

Oldboy

Funny Face

Murder!

The Battle of Algiers

Cape Fear

Shadow of a Doubt

Saboteur

Psycho

To Catch a Thief

The 39 Steps

Rear Window

Lifeboat

Hello, Dolly

Imitation of Life

American Graffiti

Vertigo

Baraka

Magnificent Obsession

Written on the Wind

Rebecca

Big River Man

Wake in Fright

Miami Connection

Robocop

The Spy Who Loved Me

Gasland

Torn Curtain

On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Rosemary's Baby

ExistenZ

Three Colors: Red

Annie

Back to the Future

Back to the Future 2

Ninotchka

Movies I need to see

No matter how many movies I see, I always seem to be behind on key titles!

Here's what's on my must-see list for this weekend, in order of urgency.   I've got to accept that I may just not fit them all in, I'm afraid.

1. Middle of Nowhere
2. Skyfall
3. Killing Them Softly
4. Anna Karenina
5. All the Romanian movies playing @FilmLinc except those I’ve already seen
6. A Royal Affair
7. Walk Away Renee
8. The Flat
9. Hitchcock
10. Rise of the Guardians
11. Lincoln again
12. Cloud Atlas again

The sheer size of that list is grounds for requiring at least a four-day weekend.    Gonna go work on trying to figure out how to stop time. 

In the meantime, suggest revisions to the order of that list and/or let me know if you want to join me!

Bad Behavior at the Movies

Tonight I can say I've seen it all.  I thought I had seen it all before, but I was wrong. Now, I've seen everything.

Nearly sold-out crowd for a midnight documentary.  People are jazzed up. Some are dressed up like the subject, as a kind of tribute. Everyone's cheering for the intro, folks are into the movie.

So everyone will behave, right? Surely they've come to actually, I don't know, watch the movie?

Not so fast. Two people seemed to have other agendas. Mr. Texto on the left, several rows in front of me, lost focus with the film not even 15 minutes in, and instead of having the decency to just graciously nod off, the emboldened sonofabitch thought he might see if anything on his mobile phone could entertain him further. Answer, unfortunately, was yes, as he proceeded to distract himself (and ~100 of his fellow movie-goers) every ten minutes for the next hour.

But our little attention-deficit poster child only gets takes the 2nd place trophy in the Most Annoying Person at the Midnight Movie contest I was holding in my own mind tonight.

No no - the big prize goes to Sally McSnapperson who, I presume, loved the movie so much that she felt the need to further document it by taking photographs with the camera of her smartphone.  She held the damned thing up to the light a few times, and an eager audience of filmgoers watched that shutter close more than once.  Sad news, though - the pics didn't turn out to her liking.  Don't worry though, guys, she wasn't going to give up that easily.  She could do better. The flash! She switched that feature on and went to town.  I'd say ten flash pictures from a two-minute period of the film are now sitting idly in her phone, ready for her to swipe through fondly as she rides the subway back to New Jersey or wherever the hell she crawled out of.

I'd now like to address the people sitting to her immediate left and right, as well as the full row directly behind her.  Were you just a bunch of raging pussies, or had someone actually bound your fingers for some reason, rendering you completely incapable of tapping the budding shutterbug?  I won't hear any excuses of just being too drawn into the film to have noticed it, because even if such captivation was possible, this was not the film to inspire such a comment.

Yours truly was of course the brave soul who wandered from the back row of the theater down to the middle of the third row to tap the crazy person on the shoulder and hiss "EXCUSE ME BUT THE LIGHT FROM YOUR CAMERA IS EXTREMELY DISTRACTING." She gave me a look of immediate compliance mixed with pure mortification that indicated it hadn't crossed her mind that there were other actual humans sharing the same space as she.

Because I'm a good person I will choose to forgive, but I will never forget.

Average ratings for the film festivals I've attended in 2012 to date.

Those of you ready to stage an intervention (my parents, my bank account, my boss, Jordan Hoffman, my countless imaginary boyfriends) will not be surprised to learn I have attended eight film festivals this year so far. 

I always rate the movies I see from a 1-10 scale where 10 is best and 1 is worst.  I just now put everything onto Excel and I thought I'd put up here how all the averages worked out.

If you'd asked me in advance how this would net out, I'd probably say I expected Sundance and Hot Docs to be the highest, and Tribeca and SXSW to be the lowest. And the others in the middle.

So I am fairly surprised to see that in fact this is where I ended up:



I work in quantitative market research and so I guess it is fair to say there are some entries where the sample size is a bit small to be relying on the results - but it's interesting anyway. 

 The highest rated one, Fantastic Fest, included two... I won't call them classics, I'll say re-issues I guess. Movies originally released over 20 years ago.

 There's no festival on here I regret attending.  I loved them all.

 The lowest ranked one (Seattle) would have been ranked higher if I could have included a title that I can't list on account of I signed an NDA.

 Is this an indication of the "best festival" or something like that? Eh - I tend to say now. I think one can attribute part of these findings to the quality of the films but a bigger part actually to the way I make my own decisions on what I'll see there.

I would imagine the more movies I'm able to see at a film festival, the higher the chances that I'll choose something "meh" just for the sake of filling a time slot.   And the fewer movies I'm able to see, I feel like I'm probably much more careful about choosing very wisely. 

I wish I could look back at averages from years past, but I don't know if any change year over year would more be attributed to my own standards tightening up or actual better/worse years for the program of each fest. 

I suppose at the end of the year I will post a long list of all the movies I saw as well as the ratings and stuff. For now I'll just say that I've seen 297 films including 40 at the IFC Center. And out of those 297, a total of 12 titles earned a "10 out of 10" rating.   But one of them was a TV show, two of them came out 50+ years ago and I just now saw them for the first time, and one of them came out last year. So.

Remaining fests this year are New York Film Festival and DocNYC.   I can't think of any others. 

Dor's Summer of Catch-Up

It's a widely known fact for which I am constantly derided: I have seen very few films that were released before the late 90's.  The late '90's is when I realized my spare time (other than the weeks I devoted to following a certain late '90's singer song/writer) was best spent in my local multiplex, seeing films. Or better yet, at my local Blockbuster, renting recent indies. 

Prior to that, my life consisted of dodging high-school homework by chatting up cute boys in AOL chat rooms.   Finally I chatted up the right person in an AOL chat room who said "you know what, Dor, let's meet in real life. And once we get along? Let's watch a shit ton of movies."

The late '90s is when I figured out that just anyone, and I mean anyone, could buy a $200 flight to Sundance and find themselves in the middle of a smorgasboard of indie goodness.  Which I did - remind me to post one day about my first Sundance back in the dark ages of January, 2000. (OVER TWELVE YEARS AGO 'CAUSE I AM REAL OLD NOW.)

I guess what I'm trying to say is -  No, I haven't seen Back to the Future.

I haven't seen that, and I haven't seen Jaws, and I haven't seen [fill in the blank with some horrendous blindspot].  Yes, everyone has them.  I'd like to think my number of blindspots is disproportionally high considering the fact that I've seen over 200 movies in a theater in the last six months.

My point, then, and thanks for allowing the meander, is that this is the Summer of Catch Up.  Can I save enough face? No, probably not, I'll always be gasping for air in this great dog paddle of cinephilia.  (Which may not be a word.)

And don't give me any more credit than I deserve. Really all I'm doing is trying to keep seeing movies in a time where the multiplex is largely dominated by things I don't want to see and the arthouse is taken over by movies I've seen once (or four times) already, thanks to Sundance, SXSW, SIFF, what have you.

• Enter the Museum of the Moving Image and their $150 dual membership with free tickets (shit, I am a sucker for free tickets)
• Enter the Film Forum's Universal 100 series and their $7 double features (not to mention tasty popcorn)
• Enter the IFC Hitchcock weekend programming (which is free for members), which is how I went from having seen one Hitchcock film to having seen eight.  Humblebrag. Yeah I know there are a million more.

If you're bored enough to peruse my stupid list of every movie I've seen in 2012 you'll see I've proudly taken in my first viewing of such classics as Old Boy, Nashville, Annie Hall and even Psycho. Which actually I didn't add to that list for some reason but I loved fervently.

And it's only mid-July!   I have even more catching up to do.

After perusing the schedules of MoMI, Film Forum, IFC, etc, if any one of my NYC pals wants to join, do holler.

Cinemania - a doc about NYC hardcore film buffs

I had never heard of this 2002 documentary, surprising as that may sound, until a week ago when my friend Mike told me that I absolutely had to see it. I ordered it straightaway from Amazon and watched it at my earliest opportunity.

I've seen countless documentaries about fandom, subcultures, and people on the fringes.  I dare say it's my favorite documentary sub-genre.  From sports fans to bird-watchers, I cannot get enough.  I wouldn't put Cinemania in the upper ranks in terms of quality within its contemporaries, but because of the familiar subject matter, I enjoyed it a great deal.

I desperately wanted to live-tweet my impressions as I was watching.  But I try not to be terribly irrelevant so I resisted the urge.

Allow me, though, to type here what I would have said.

I think the reasons I didn't think it was a better film was because of its unstructured nature.  Way too much time was spent following the subjects as they just wandered through pedestrian crowds and subway platforms going from movie to movie.

I also wouldn't not have minded a bit more diversity in the subjects.  Like - all these folks were hoarder types without jobs.  Maybe one can't find shades of grey within intense movie fandom - it's clear these guys are on a different level than I - but, it would have been interesting to see a slight variation.  Not only folks on the fringes.

I found it very interesting to see what movie theaters looked like 10-15 years ago. It looks like the Film Forum has not changed much. 

I wish the IFC center had been open while they were filming this.  I wonder if any of these guys are members. I will look out for them. I know at least one of them has died, though. (?)

I am particularly susceptible to this but… the movie makes me want to get off my couch and see movies. It's definitely stressful, like I am missing stuff. The subjects described this feeling of not knowing how to decide what to see, having so many conflicting showtimes, etc. That resonated for me.

I wasn't sure if most of these guys never see any first-run films, or of the movie just decided to focus more on their love for the old stuff, but it seemed odd that someone would love movies so much and not be as excited by what's coming as they are for what's past.

They don't seem to watch too much in their own homes but there was one scene where a couple of them did. It was sure painful to watch them pop in a DVD and watch it on the shittiest little TV. WTF guys.

I wish there were more interviews with programmers/theater staff.

Loved the MoMI stuff, 'cause I never went there before it was renovated

I would love to have one of these fierce motherfuckers behind me nowadays when there's someone on their smart-phone, or talking, or something.

I'm so glad I am not too particular about technical details. That's taking it too damned far.  I don't even usually notice.  I guess though once you notice, you can't turn it off, you can't unsee.

I really loved the concept of one's love life failing because it couldn't compare to cinematic images.  I'll be thinking of that comment for a while. As if I hadn't been thinking about it for some time already.

Overall I am quite thankful for the recommendation and glad I saw it. I'd like someone else to make a follow up with maybe a slightly different structure - a little broader, not necessarily focused on individuals but rather a community. I'd Kickstart that real quick.

In which I gush about the Museum of the Moving Image. GAHHH!!!

When I started writing this dorky blog, one of the first things I did was write a list of movie goals for 2012. At the top of that list was to visit the Museum of the Moving Image, which comes highly recommended by several movie-loving pals that I respect.

You could place the actual fountain of youth in Queens, though, and it'd probably take me a few months to make it out there. So, even as the fanatic consumer of movies that I've become of late, I still made only my first visit this past weekend.They're doing a Paramount in the 1970's series, so my friend Irene and I chose Marathon Man, a film I don't think I'd even heard of let alone seen. I didn't care much about what I saw there anyway - I just wanted to finally get there. What a gorgeous, gorgeous place. I had no idea Queens was this cool. Loved it. Even more than I was expecting to love it.

Sleek, clean, sexy, airy, open - are these the words that come to mind when you think of a movie theater? Think again. Granted, this place is, by definition, a museum. And I did not arrive early enough to explore this side of it.

Don't worry though, because in typical fashion I have joined up. It was actually crazy cheap. $100 per year and that includes unlimited access to their weekend programming. Queens folks - let's be movie buddies! I am going to live there! Especially while the IFC center is still showing Pina, Jiro Dreams of Sushi, and others I've seen before.

Oh, and Marathon Man was pretty great, too.

Miscellaneous movie rambles: TIFF, NYFF, Dark Knight Rises, Moonrise Kingdom. Et Cetera.

Since it's been a while since I've written anything here, I didn't want the five of you reading this (hi mom) to think I hadn't actually been seeing movies. As if!

Quite the contrary, of course.  Though the busiest I've been is a three-movie weekend a couple days back.  Reason being? Freakin' everything in theaters now is something that played a festival earlier this year making it something I've seen already.   Please put away your tiny violins.  The pity symphony is playing in my head already.

I'll catch up with a hodge podge.

Moonrise Kingdom - Yes, yes, yes!  Peek into my wallet and you'll find a perhaps surprising absence of the Wes Anderson Fan Club card.  I never joined, in part because the first one of his I saw was Rushmore and I plain old didn't get it (though upon revisiting I do see its merits).   Royal Tenenbaums was just fine.  The first of his I loved was The Life Aquatic.  The Darjeeling is weaksauce, something I felt like he made just to carry on his brand in an off year or something.  Fantastic Mister Fox delighted me as much as it could. But I now join a few of my friends in proclaiming that Moonrise Kingdom is far and away his best so far.  I don't find "but it's so Wes Anderson-like" to be a valid criticism.  Saying he has an engrained style is not interesting to anyone with eyes. Look past it, and you'll find too much depth, heart, and humor to be focused on any hipster sensibilities you may think he's cramming in.

I was expecting a bit more of Elena.  This would not have cleared my top ten of Sundance had I seen it there. But I think I was thrown off by a trailer that made it seem a bit more nail-biting than it turned out to be.  Not bad at all - in fact I'd probably go so far as to recommend it.  I suppose it was built up.

Five Broken Cameras - anguish.  Speechlessness.  This was made by a guy who broke, you guessed it, five cameras filming the protests he and his community organized against illegal Israeli settlements.  So many questions arose when I watched this, that I was cursing myself for not seeing it at a film festival where I would have no doubt benefited from the audience's outrage-fueled attempts to understand.  Though I suppose this is one topic not terribly easy to understand. I'll say that I'm glad I saw The Law In These Parts first. That was a pretty good primer.

More miscellany:

NY Film Festival ticket packages are on sale now for members. If I want the "VIP"est package I can pay $50,000 and get tickets to all the galas, two tickets to any screening, etc.   Who wants to go in on it with me? Anyone??   In all seriousness -  one strategy might be to do the $1,500 pack and get two tickets to any Alice Tully screening.  But this would involve actively avoiding in Toronto the 50%+ of NYFF films that will screen there first. Hmmm.  Something tells me that will not be the way to go.  If I had $1,500 extra lying around to support my movie hobby (spoiler: I don't) I'd spend it on the Video Free Brooklyn indiegogo reward level that involves Bobcat Goldthwait doing stand-up in my living room.  Similarly tempting.

Toronto Film Festival made an announcement that ticket selection for ticket packages will be available online this year, which interests me since I did plan to buy in advance this year for the first time.  But this does make me wonder:

1) Seriously, they weren't online before? Wow, Canada.

2) How much of a hot flaming stressful mess will that be? Remind me to take anti-anxiety meeds the day that happens.  I don't do too well with websites crashing when I am buying tickets. Stress.

I bought tickets with John and Mark to see the The Dark Knight Rises. Oh, but there's more - we are going to do the marathon. The complete trilogy. That is, after a full day of work, we'll march on over to 68th Street for the 6 PM (FIRST TIME IN IMAX) showing of Batman Begins (which I'm ashamed to say I've never seen all the way through).  Then, we will stay put and after a short break, we'll watch The Dark Knight again in all its glory. Followed by a midnight screening of you guessed it - The Dark Knight Rises.    Now that's going to be fun. Looking terribly forward!

Miscellaneous movie-related ramblings: Polisse, The Avengers, Hitchcock, SIFF, etc.

Since returning from Hot Docs a couple of weeks ago, my movie-going has been light, from a volume perspective.

A few things I did want to note, though.

This weekend alone, I've had a diverse film intake consisting of a Rooftop Films short program,  The Avengers, the 1935 Hitchcock spy drama The 39 Steps and then this morning Polisse.

It was my first Rooftop Films program of the year, and I ventured all the way to east 23rd Street for it. Which if you know me, is quite a distance for this staunch west-sider (sad, I know). These shorts were not for me.  Maybe it was the obnoxious people chit-chatting behind me, or the unexpectedly cool air causing my teeth to chatter. But, I think it was more the quality of the shorts.  Bizarre, pointless, anti-climactic. Maybe I'm a philistine.  But... I left early to catch The Avengers finally at Kips Bay.

I know I see a lot of littler movies but I have absolutely nothing against a blockbuster like this.  Spiderman, X-Men - I love these movies.  And their sequels (though never the third for some reason). Though I don't have any emotional connection to the comic books, that is, I didn't grow up to with these characters, I can still find something to enjoy in a good superhero movie.  I am perfectly happy to call The Avengers a good superhero movie.  Glad I saw it, wish I hadn't fallen asleep through about twenty minutes in the middle, won't probably buy the DVD, will certainly see the sequel. <shrug> No complaints.

The next morning was The 39 Steps, which is my fourth time seeing a (new to me) Hitchcock film at the IFC Center this month.   To say a movie is my least favorite, out of Pyscho, Rear Window and To Catch a Thief is not a very powerful statement because of course it was still pretty awesome. I am really loving this series the IFC Center is doing.  It's a bummer that I will miss Vertigo next weekend while I am in Seattle.

I may not have mentioned that I've booked four days in Seattle for the Seattle International Film Festival.  It's not technically my first time at SIFF since I did take in one screening of Bartleby (with Crispin Glover) maybe ten years ago. Nevertheless I'll feel like a total newbie and am looking forward to seeing movies AND discovering a few good bars, restaurants, crafty gifty type stores, coffee shops, etc.  I am staying in Belltown and I have a car so, the sky is the limit in terms of adventure times.  Should be fun.

The best thing I have seen this weekend (and probably one of the best things I've seen this year) is a French police drama called Polisse.  Wow, y'all.  It follows the child protection unit of a French police force as they go about the gritty, often devastating, sometimes astonishing and funny, always gripping work of these very human social servants. You can absolutely tell it was based on actual case files.  There were so many chances to push the story into melodrama territory, and some might say it went there, but I think the script towed a very subtle line and made the right decisions at every turn.  I don't know if I could watch it again but I would very highly recommend it.   Oh - and so many of the actors were familiar, mostly from movies I saw at Rendezvous with French Cinema 2012 also at the IFC Center.  Except for one of the leads, Joey Starr, who played a very different character in Sleepless Night.  And is apparently a French rapper.

Worth mentioning here, while I'm rambling, is a super annoying thing that happened this morning at the IFC Center. I arrived at 10:50 for my 10:55 AM movie and when I went in to grab a seat, I found the lights off, and a movie playing. Subtitles and all. I came back out to the lobby and said "did you tell me the wrong theater? There's already a movie playing there." The usher said no, that's where Polisse was showing, and it must be the trailers. So I went back in, took a seat, and was like that's weird, it's in French, and showing a cop and a kid. Sounds like Polisse, but that isn't meant to start for another five minutes. I go back out and again they tried to tell me it was the pre-show. I went back in one more time and was even more convinced.  I finally went out a third time and they agreed that they'd started the movie early accidentally, and they re-started it. 

I get that things happen.  Just last weekend, a movie started 30 minutes late. But I don't like that it took me three times to convince them that the movie had started early.  Do I not go there two or three times a week? Should I not clearly know the difference between the pre-show and the actual movie? The lights were off. The door was shut. This is not my first rodeo, folks.  Oh well. 

Later tonight I will see The Dictator, finally.  So ready to laugh after the heaviness of Polisse!

Five movies in two countries in four days

I didn't realize I had Monday off, so I scheduled myself to return from my Toronto mini-vacation on Monday morning in time for a full work day.

When I learned my company granted us the day off, and then I remembered my apartment belongs to my subletters til 6 PM, I knew I'd be going straight to the movie theater from La Guardia following my 9 AM arrival.

In Toronto, during the first free moment I had after work on Friday, I made a beeline for the TIFF Bell Lightbox and saw whatever ended up working OK time-wise, which in fact was GERHARD RICHTER PAINTING, a film about an artist whose name I'm embarrassed to say I hadn't heard of til I saw it on the Film Forum's "coming soon." You might as well know now - I'm neither very intelligent nor cultured. What can I say.

I did however take note of one of his pieces, a small one, at the MoMA last week and then was like yeah I could see that movie.

GERHARD RICHTER PAINTING was not a formal introduction to the painter in any way. Were I inclined to learn more about his influence on art, his upbringing, anything of the sort, Wikipedia would teach me a great deal even after watching an hour and a half movie all about him. I can tell you in great detail, though, how he paints. And it is definitely a credit to the filmmakers that I was totally entranced while watching. I'm not sure if you can spoil a documentary like this, so I feel okay mentioning that there were some truly frustrating/heartbreaking parts of his process where as a viewer I'd become fairly attached to the painting we'd watched him painstakingly create, only to stand by while he white-washed it, unsatisfied with the final product. This surprised me. My reaction, that is.

Also in Toronto I went to the former TIFF venue the Cumberland to see FOOTNOTE. This has been on my list for some time since it's rare to see an Israeli film that is anything but delightful and engaging. I would use those both of those words to describe this quirky family dramedy about competing father/son scholars. Having seen the trailer no less than five thousand times I was pretty sure I had this movie pegged, but it still managed to surprise me with both its ending and a few of the devices used to tell the story. Charming, but certainly the weakest of the four (of five) Best Foreign Film nominees I've seen from the 2011 Oscars.

Back in NYC as I said I made today a nonstop film assault at my three favorite downtown theaters. The IFC center was first on my list (and in my heart) for WE HAVE A POPE which I missed at TIFF and again at its sneak preview a few weeks earlier, which I ditched to hang out with friends in town. Sometimes there must be more to life than movies. They say. Anyhow - fine movie, not going to change my life. Actually more eh than anything. The only thing I've seen of the director's work was his Palm D'Or winning THE SONS ROOM which packed a much deeper emotional punch than this lightish fare.

Next I popped over to the Film Forum to check out THE ISLAND PRESIDENT which has been receiving glowing recommendations, most recently from my dear friend @janisgilman whose opinion I trust when she says she loves something (but not when she hates something).

THE ISLAND PRESIDENT was my favorite of the day and worked really well as an underdog story (both of a man, a political party, a nation, maybe the world). This is one of the climate change movies that made the strongest case for "NO REALLY, DO SOMETHING RIGHT FUCKING NOW PEOPLE" out of the many looming nightmare "humanity is fucked" documentaries that have been made. And it was also the one that, for me, focused more on what someone is actually doing to solve the problem than on proving that there's a problem in the first place. I find that a much more compelling tale than spending 88 minutes of a 92 minute movie describing in detail the downward path we're on, and then spending four of the final minutes on a tacked-on epilogue with a hopefully score playing over a couple of plucky folks coming up with some very "duh" ideas to fix things.

This movie worked on so many levels - as a portrait of someone persevering against immense adversity, as a plea for help from a beautiful place suffering in ways most people far away could never imagine, and as a wake up call for those ignoring problems that will surely land in their backyards sooner rather than later. Charming, inspiring, entertaining. Educational without being preachy or condescending. Just about everything I hope for in a non-fiction film. See it if you haven't yet.

My last film of the day (that I know of, it's not even 7 PM) was THE BULLY PROJECT. Or is it just called BULLY? At any rate, I've been wanting to see this since it was the toast of Tribeca nearly one year ago. I should have seen it back then, before I was tainted by all the praise, before I was influenced by the annoying as hell, sanctimonious publicity around the MPAA ratings debacle. Not that I don't hate the MPAA with a flaming passion. But. Anyway.

I donno about this movie, guys. I'm a human being, so there were absolutely some moving parts. I mean, most of it was moving. You can't be a living breathing person and not feel something very strong for these families and these kids who have suffered so much. But, I had some problems with the film if I am evaluating it objectively, or trying.

First of all, I get it. I get it. I get it. Bullying is bad. I feel like I was asked to watch four or five hours of raw footage of kids and families just dealing with the effects of it, before the film even started offering any slant or commentary besides "this is happening." And maybe that only bothered me because it's been so well covered in the past year since this was made - and I know, I know, I know. It's happening. Maybe most people seeing this in bumfuck Kansas or Florida or whatever won't be able to make the connections I feel like most people could have made in 30 minutes of "bullying is happening and it is bad" type of footage. You know what I'd like? I'd like the entirety of BULLY to be condensed into 30 minutes, and then I'd like another hour and a half of actually exploring the incredibly complex issue. Not just saying "it's entirely complex" or putting people in corners, in very black or white "these are the good guys and these are the bad guys" distinctions. Because I feel like that's how we'll start to actually maybe make some headway on solving the problem. And maybe it's a different movie - but I would have liked the film to speak with some experts - ANY experts - on the topic. Way too many personal stories; way too much footage of the CLEARLY well-intentioned administrators being made out to look ineffective. I am not a teacher and I know hardly any teachers but I think they're a fairly easy target and I can't imagine they're anywhere near the root of the problem.

This subject deserves more, I guess, is what I am saying. That's not to say anything about the intentions of the film - because without a doubt, awareness is a solid step in the right direction. The last 10 minutes were strong and they took way too long to arrive.

Also I could write a paper on how the movie completely glossed over the fact that so many of these families owned guns, advocated hunting, and at least one child talked about violence against animals. I digress - that gets a bit too political for this here viewing blog.

I'm glad I saw it, and I will not begrudge the film any of its praise. I was incredibly moved by the story of the gay high school girl - both her own strength and that of her family. I think there was something very interesting to learn about a comment her dad made about how his entire world view changed the day his daughter came out. It's a cliche to say it, but if the attention the film is getting means it's shown to any families in a similar situation who can take anything valuable from that father's tale, then it has been a success. I just think it is too loaded of an issue for this to be considered in any way shape or form the definitive documentary on the topic. I hope very much that it opens up a dialogue for richer, more nuanced, less personal and more objective takes on the issue.

THE DEEP BLUE SEA and #NDNF standout HEMEL punctuated my 6-movie weekend

I love this New Directors New Films festival happening now at MoMA and Film Society Lincoln Center!

On top of the two movies I caught yesterday, I was scheduled to go to one more today (HEMEL) which I was tempted to turn into two when I showed up impulsively for GIMME THE LOOT which I missed at SXSW.

Well, the darn thing was sold out, so I joined the standby line and was 20-minutes later denied entry, just barely, as I watched the guy in front of me (who had cut in front of me in line, no less) be the last person to get in.  No matter - I don't like getting let into movies 10 minutes after they've started, anyhow. I'm not a wait lister, at my core.

I did have my heart set on a six-movie weekend, though, which meant squeezing in THE DEEP BLUE SEA at the Paris theater around the corner instead.  I missed it at TIFF '11 and since I have a general fondness for Rachel Weisz, figured why not.

Well, I'll tell you why not.  Because that audience was full of useless good-for-nothing chatterboxes who had clearly not left their house in months if not years.  That's the only reason I can think of for their atrocious behavior in a public arena.    Conversations.  At full volume.  During the trailers. During the opening scenes.  I figured these 80 year olds just needed to get their yayas out and they'd quiet down once they got into the story. Not so, my friends.  I was surrounded by a chorus of conversationalists.  It's something out of a nightmare.  I switched seats multiple times, unable to talk (or glare) any sense into the offenders.   It's more than just being spoiled by the Drafthouse.  It's unacceptable and I almost walked out.

It's fair to stay that slightly informed my mood during the movie, but even so - it wasn't for me.  A beautiful, dramatic period piece with every shot framed and lit to perfection.  Yes, gorgeous. Nice job. But.  I didn't care too much.  The story dropped me in the middle of something without telling me who or why, and didn't get me there fast enough.  Eh.

I dashed out of the theater and ran back to MoMa for a 5:30 screening of HEMEL which I actually had a ticket for -- in other words, no need to hope and pray no d-bags cut me off in the standby line.

I'm not sure what stood out to me about the description of HEMEL or why I chose it in particular but I'm sure glad I did.  This is a compelling and at times uncomfortable Dutch drama whose main character could be compared to Michael Fassbender's sex addict in SHAME.    Except she's a young woman - at times defiant and unflinching in her conquests, other times wounded and unpredictable. She has a lot of sex - and she needs to.  A strong, focused, bold young woman with everything going for her - but nobody nobody who genuinely cares for her, except perhaps her art director father, with whom she shares a skin-crawlingly curious close relationship.

I really loved this!  It was totally one of those movies where I catch myself halfway through leaning forward in my seat, elbows on my knees, biting off what little fingernails I have left.  A performance like this is not one with Oscar clips but one that sneaks up on you in the way that you can't imagine this woman as anything but this character. If I were to by chance pass her on the streets of NY some day following the screening, I'd expect her to blurt out the c-word or give my (non-existent) boyfriend an inappropriately-flirtations once-over.

And the depth of her character! I got the feeling they could have taken this woman's story and made 20 different films about her.  There were so many sides to here to which the screenplay only alluded, that could have been compelling films in and of themselves.

I am not sure about the distribution plan of the film but I hope more of my movie-lover friends get the chance to check it out one way or another.