so far

Alright so here's an update of Cinefest so far. I'm taking tonight off in the hopes of shaking off some of this fatigue but I'm not holding my breath.

Monday the gala presentation was Happy Go Lucky and was my first film of the week. This was probably the film I was most excited about seeing. Unfortunately, it was bad. It was really, really bad. I likened it to a really long, really bad episode of The Gilmour Girls. The main character is supposed to be quirky and lovable like Amelie. For me, she succeeded in being only annoying and somebody I wanted to grab and shake repeatedly. Amelie she was not. Not in her wildest dreams. The plot goes nowhere, the characters are unlikeable, and the dialogue is far too staccato and painful to listen to. Some people loved this movie but I just couldn't wrap my head around it and if Sally Hawkins wins an Oscar for this I just might boycott.

Followed that by a cute little documentary called Just Say It which focused on public speaking - North America's #1 fear. For an early project it was pretty well done and had a good pace to it.

After that, a mockumentary called Let Him Be about a young couple off to discover if John Lennon is really alive and living on a farm in Northern Ontario. Not a great film but you can appreciate what he was trying to do. That and he got all weepy in the Q&A after the film and that was kinda cute.

On to the gala presentation of Fifty Dead Men Walking, a really really good film about the story of Martin McGartland who lived the double life of a secret agent to the IRA and the British goverment. This film was intense and hard to watch at times but moved quickly and did a good job capturing the rawness of that time in history. It also stars the handsome handsome Jim Sturgess who, even though he's playing this scruffy, dirty and grubby guy, you still want to smooch him up. And any movie starring Ben Kingsley has to be good. If I had to complain, it would be about some of the more graphic torture scenes which made me do the "Eeek!" and then arm punch to my boss sitting next to me, and the inclusion of Rose McGowan the most useless actress in the world.

Today we saw a movie about meth-addiction called Run Rabbit Run that sadly killed the buzz of the great gala the night before. This movie tried really hard to be edgy and graphic and succeeded in being only mildly interesting. The cast was here and we got to meet them and while they were lovely, polite and gracious, the movie itself didn't jive with me. It did make me never want to go anywhere near crystal meth though so maybe it did achieve its goal after all.

And that's it for me so far. There's some good movies playing tonight but I really can't go anywhere near them. I already took a giant nap right after work and I suspect I may have another before the night is done. Tomorrow I'm off to some other Northern Ontario stuff during the day and then perhaps the gala film of Stone of Destiny (who's director Charles Martin Smith is here at the festival -- he was in The Untouchables!!) and then The Brothers Bloom.