CINEMANIA:

Okay, I don't have time to get into this right now, but suffice to say I'm pissed. I'm pissed cuz I invested eighteen hours of my life in the Oscar broadcast only to be told that the Academy is a bunch of pussies. I'm pissed cuz the Academy picked Sean Penn in retard mode over Mickey Rourke in laying it all bare for the world to see mode. But mostly I'm pissed cuz I even care.

Mickey Rourke gave the best performance of the year in a film that was MUCH better than any of the other five nominated pictures (yeah, Aronofsky got jobbed too.) What a buncha pussies.

Kittens Inspired By Kittens

I have no words.

Hunger Wins! Hunger Wins! Hunger Wins!

Seriously, great news, and excellent choice. Well done, Victoria Film Festival jury.

VIFF

Sunday, Feb. 8

Driving With My Wife's Lover (Korea, 2008, Kim Tai-Sik)

Driving With My Wife's Lover rounded out my 2009 Victoria film festival experience, and in some ways a great choice to finish things off.

VIFF

Saturday Feb. 7, 2009

That's My Time (Canada, 2008, Adamm Liley)

When comedian Irwin Barker was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of terminal cancer (leiomyosarcoma) and given twelve months to live, he was faced with the choice of glumly giving in to the inevitable, or embracing the opportunity to go out on his own terms.

VIFF

Feb. 6, 2009

Bart Got a Room (USA, 2008, Brian Hecker)

The film, defined pretty accurately by writer/director Brian Hecker as a John Sayles teen comedy passed through a Woody Allen sensibility, is probably best described as (for all the positive AND negative connotations of the word) cute.

This is perhaps the funniest opening in the five year history of the show.

Fatboy Slim BPA Toe Jam, featuring David Byrne

BPA Toe Jam, South Park Style

VIFF

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Tiger's Tail (Ireland, 2006, John Boorman)

Primarily a Prince and the Pauper-like tale, with a few measures of The Scarlet Letter, the Biblical story of the prodigal son, and a tiny pinch of the social conscience of Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels, John Boorman's film has a lot of elements of greatness, but they do not coalesce into anything very significant because just as he appears on the verge of saying something interesting, Boorman veers off course and

VIFF

Tuesday, Feb 3, 2009

The Auteur (USA, 2008, James Westby)

Remember that old Catskills joke that Woody Allen cites at the end of Annie Hall? Well, an adapted version works well here.

Moviegoer #1: Oy. The jokes, they were so tame. So limp. So predictable.

Moviegoer #2: Vey. And so few of them!

That's my response to The Auteur in a nutshell.