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. 

Embarrassingly untimely Tribeca Film Festival thoughts:

Before I forget about Tribeca entirely I wanted to jot down some of my impressions of this year's fest.

Full list is below, but you'll see that my absolute favorites were YOSSI and TAKE THIS WALTZ.   That latter of course is my favorite EVAHHH OMG. Should I shut up about it for now? Will I ever?

It was a fine year for me and Tribeca. I saw 17 of the 19 movies I planned. I ran out of steam at the end, which is none too surprising considering the challenge of working full time, then movies on nights and weekends, plus a few extra-curriculars.

The year belonged to Alex Karpovsky, who directed Rubberneck, starred in Supporting Characters, and had a guest-starring role on Girls premiering just before Tribeca.

Notable for me was the fact that I really disliked the film that won the Audience Award.  Called ANY DAY NOW. This almost never happens. Jury awards - sure. That's a crapshoot, c'mon.  But the audience? I mean. That's me. Who am I if not the audience.  If anything, I typically find an autience award winner good but overrated. At worst. But this one? Nearly walked out.  I found it sappy and its characters painfully one-dimensional.  I don't begrudge anyone for liking it, because there's no denying it had a good heart. 

All my Tribeca films:

Yossi (9)Rubberneck (6)Supporting Characters (7)Babygirl (5)The Revisionaries (7)A Better Life (6)Jackpot (7)Take This Waltz (10)Sleepless Night (8)Off Label (4)Caroline and Jackie (5)Russian Winter (5)Resolution (8)Side by Side (7)Any Day Now (3)First Winter (8)Down East (7)

A Bunch of Take This Waltz Tribeca Q&A Snapshots - Michelle Williams, Sarah Silverman, Luke Kirby

The Tribeca Film Festival kicked off with two of my favorite things - drinks with @ninjaworrier, and high quality Israeli cinema.

Tribeca started today! That means my pal @ninjaworrier is in town, as evidenced below.

For a film festival that's in my backyard I tend to under-attend year after year.  A few screenings here or there, sure, but I am usually terribly distracted when it's Tribeca time.  This year I'm not fucking around, though.  I have 20 tickets, including two (one for me, one for John) for Take This Waltz. 

The first film of the festival for me was YOSSI which is the "10 years later" sequel to the Israeli groundbreaking gay army drama YOSSI & JAGGER which I liked.  I might have loved this one even more, though. 

It's a decade after the events that ended Yossi's tender two-year romance with his fellow officer in the Israeli army.  He's going through the motions of a life and medical career but past events have left him a lonely and scarred man, until one day a patient with a familiar face happens to come into his hospital, stirring up feelings he's forced to face.

So sweet, so moving, so intimate, heartbreaking, hopeful. Great music including Keren Ann (paging Shiri!) and some good classical stuff too.  I was totally lost in this guy's world for an hour and a half,

Folks: Please help me choose my films for Tribeca.

Here is the first draft of my choices.  Please tell me if I am missing something vital, or including something disastrous?

Yossi
Rubberneck
Downeast
Supporting Characters
Jack & Diane
Baby Girl
A Better Life
Mansome
Nancy Please
Freaky Deaky
Fame High
Sleepless Night
Take This Waltz
Off Label
The Giant Mechanical Man
Russian Winter
Resolution
Side by Side
Any Day Now
Queen: Days of our Lives
The Avengers
The Flat
Downeast

So I might have just emailed everyone I know in NYC...

To encourage them to see Take This Waltz when it plays the Tribeca Film Festival on April 21st.

This was my favorite film at the Toronto Film Festival in 2011. I was completely intoxicated by it, from the first scene.  I love. This. Movie.

You might be interested in seeing this movie if you enjoy quality cinema, starting Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Luke Kirby and Sarah Silverman,and directed by Sarah Polley who made AWAY FROM HER. Please watch the trailer, and get excited.

Here are some production stills to admire. YAY I CANNOT WAIT TO SEE IT AGAIN!