My New Director/New Film Festival

A few nights after my first visit at ND/NF this year, I was invited to a screening of the film chosen for closing night and its after party. Unlike my rather disorienting reaction to Monday's show, it was clear I was not only emotionally invested but applaud director Xavier Dolan's freshman effort in I Killed My Mother, the Canadian submission to this year's Academy Awards. As complex as it is brilliant, the journey of one relationship between a teenager and his mother is sure to be relevant in some variation to anyone who ever had an argument with their mother.

Being a semi-autobiography, the 20-year old (!!!) Dolan crafted this impressive tale that I wished I had the ability to write down such heartbreaking moments. At the after party, my friend and I were hoping to meet the dapper dressed Dolan to congratulate, who also starred in the film, but alas... he was whisked away somewhere by John Cameron Mitchell and never returned.

Sidenote: Alice Tully Hall turned out to be one gorgeous facility.

My Happiest Girl In The World

At last night's New Directors/New Films festival screening of the Romanian film, The Happiest Girl In The World, I found myself surprised by the content of the international festival hit. Given the premise of:

"When a plucky provincial duckling of a young lady wins a contest, she must travel with her parents to the buzzing metropolis of Bucharest to claim her prize."

I was expecting a tamer version of 'Little Miss Sunshine', the unexpected twist of the prize being a cameo for a commercial made this film much too real for me. Set against the backdrop of a commercial shoot, our heroine must navigate her needs against her parent's and also deal with the cruel world of commercial production. While it doesn't have the sharpest script, I couldn't look away because both me and my friend are very familiar with this nonsense world. In fact, at various points of the film, it was cringe worthy how painfully real the portrayals of commercial agencies and clients' set behavior were. It was just a relief to see the rest of the audience laugh at the absurdity of what goes on just to remind me we weren't sitting in on someone's cruel joke.

My Australian Open Film Festival

What a genius idea, combining two of my loves into one. This year's Australian Open had their inaugural 'Changing Ends' film festival, a collective of tennis themed short films. Sure, it's still in an amateur stage, but the winning film completely captures the Australian Open atmosphere- fun, light and full of promise. Check out "When I Grow Up":

"Fault. Fault.... Fault." (AO)

My TIFF Experience

I don't know why I don't attend these things more often, but I seem like enjoy most of the film festivals I have attended in my life. Perhaps it's because I know that I'm in the company of fellow film enthusiasts who are just as excited to see what the top filmmakers of the world have to offer. Whatever the reason is, the result is the same- people are just giddy to be there.

I had the chance to travel up north to Toronto a couple of the weekends ago to check out a few flicks with longtime buddy Eric and short time buddy Jordan. It wasn't until then that I realized how great of a town Toronto really is. It's clean, people are friendly and everything is easily accessible.

So what exactly did I see? The studio release of 'The Informant!' with Matt Damon and 'Fish Tank', a BBC funded grit drama. And even if the genre of the two films couldn't be anymore different, the mere experience of watching them in a great environment resulted in the same bliss.

How's that for an ambiguous film review?