I don't think it's an example of the white saviour complex. I work daily with first nations and have spent tons of time on reserves. Both the fish and wildlife and law enforcement people, in a situation like this, would be 100% white.

I think this film is one of the most realistic depictions of modern reserve life I've seen on film.

"Olsen being cast for that character was quite random. Would have made way more sense for someone like Ray Liota."

I thought Renner saw his daughter and his daughter's friend--their intelligence, their toughness, their sensitivity--in Olsen's character.

Agree with this.

Also the fish out of water theme would be gone with someone like Liota. Not to mention the justice of revenge for missing women at the hands of a woman.

Started The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger today. Audible has it at 7 hours? I always thought these were long books... this thing like 250 pages?

Yeah, that one is short.


Btw audible UK are selling King's IT dirt cheap. Audible US might be the same.

Wong Kar-Wai to direct for Amazon. No matter how I adjust my rabbit ears, I can't pick up the Amazon channel, but for this I might go up on the roof.

A Wong Kar-Wai TV show?? Yes, please.

Holy **** kar-wai TV show! I think I just came a little.

have fun:
http://propstoreauction.com/view-auc...ge=1&items=100

IT- Really enjoyed everything about the movie except for the CGI. The kids were great and it definitely made me feel nostalgic. The R rating really allowed the movie to portray the mood of the book. I wish it was about 30 minutes longer so they could have spent more time with some of the characters. It's tough to give each character time when you have 7 kids. I read somewhere that there was a lot more footage of Henry Bowers, but it was cut from the movie because it didn't test well.

Honestly my biggest complaint was Pennywise. I thought the Georgie scene was really good (aside from the CGI death). I felt like he felt way too cartoonish and they relied on jump scares/darkness instead of actually being afraid of Pennywise. I liked the suspense built in the projector scene, but then when he actually appears as a giant clown, it kind of lost me.

Wow, I thought he was scary as ****. A new all time great villain iyam. Miles and miles ahead of Tim Currys portrayal. To each their own, glad you enjoyed it too. Such a well-done film.

Yeah if I had one complaint it would probably be the Henry Bowers element. Happy they had the rock fight but he's way less of a presence than he is in the book.

Hopefully they have a sick director's cut.

Unicorn Store - Brie Larson's directorial debut. She stars as an art school failure who now has no purpose until she receives a letter inviting her to a store where she's told that unicorns are real and her childhood wish of owning a unicorn can come true. All she has to do is to create an environment good enough to be a responsible unicorn owner. A not so subtle improve yourself on the inside to improve everything around you after-school special. Which is where this would have ended up if she hadn't somehow become attached to the script. It's ridiculous in a bunch of terrible ways (creepy boss hitting on her leads to her seriously asking someone "am I pretty enough to be sexually harrassed?" and then never resolving that storyline). 2/10

Downsizing - This is the worst film Alexander Payne has made. Really rough week for Matt Damon too between this and Suburbicon. It's a great premise that the story wastes by having no idea where to focus. A scientist has invented cell-level miniaturization which allows human to be shrunk to about 5 inches in total height. This is supposed to be a solution to resolve the global resource shortage that we are creating through overpopulation. But Damon's character can barely even be called a character. He's just a complete blank that moves from decision to decision with barely any motivation other than someone told him to. It's like Payne had so many different ideas he wanted to touch that he ended up not saying anything at all. 4/10

mother! - I really have no idea what to say about this movie. I liked it. There is no reasonable way to talk about it with people who haven't seen it. I think I could type out everything that happens and none of it would be a spoiler. And I could type out my interpretations of the allegory that the film really is and it would tell you almost nothing that happens in the movie. It's not really a horror movie but rather a movie that has some dark and violent imagery. My prediction is that at least half of the people here will hate this movie. 7/10

My buddy and I concurred that it could have stood to be 20 minutes shorter.

I did like the Pennywise character. He was like a Jack Nicholson. The child actors were all pretty good in their own little ways. They felt relatively distinct to me.

Once again, it isn't really a horror film you have to earn the resolution of, and that may or may not be disappointing to horror fans. I took it for what it was, and it was pretty good, IMO. If you are looking for real chills or whatever, then no Hollywood summer movie is going to be where you want to look.

alicia vikander and eva green? wow. i'll be watching that even if it is a 2/10.

Another Big Screen adventure!

Far distant future: 2019!

Boom goes Tokyo: check.

Randy Newman? nope.

Send in the clowns: check.

IT? nope.

Weird kids standing around staring: check.

Village of the Damned? nope.

Motorcycle Gangs: check.

Brando and Marvin? nope.

It's Akira!

I usually don't subscribe to the theory that a movie can be too weird, but Akira comes oh so close. I think it may have been the first of the great anime to escape Japan. If you ever get a chance to see it on the big screen...

Check it out.

The last cut of Blade Runner is being released in a limited IMax run... keep your peepers peeled.

Akira is one of the greatest animated movies ever made... right up there with Pinocchio, Spirited Away and maybe a small handful of others.

Many be some don't get it, or perhaps some don't understand it... but that doesn't diminish Otomo's masterpiece of supreme anime.

Fool for Love (1985, 35mm) - Adapted from a play; this usually irritates me and this wasn't an exception. Keeping a film, with theoretically boundless possibilities, inside of basically a few dressed up stage sets, usually does not work for me. The writing also tends to be that theater writing which I don't have a taste for.

I don't think I hated it, but I'm actually hard-pressed to recall how I really felt about it, and it was only 3 days ago (feels like forever).

Paris, Texas (1984) - Coincidentally starring the late Harry Dean Stanton. I believe this was my first Wim Wenders film, and it also didn't do much for me (though I definitely appreciated it more than Fool for Love). It's beautifully shot at least. Has an ending which is unsatisfying to me not necessarily because it's happy or unhappy, but because I do not agree with the decisions characters made and I believe that the film wants you to think they're good and noble decisions.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (35mm, first time) - Loved it, loved the music, loved the cinematography, loved the structure and how it doesn't linger. In the hands of a less competent director this 100 minute film would have been 145 minutes.

Moonrise Kingdom (35mm, second time) - Loved it, loved the music, loved the cinematography. Only 94 minutes long, awesome.

So before tonight I did not think I was a Wes Anderson fan and had really only seen Moonrise recently, plus Tenenbaums in the theater and Rushmore on VHS or DVD. The films I saw tonight were basically masterpieces and I'm looking forward to seeing 8 more (6 full, 2 shorts) of his this weekend.

I'm almost certain I did not appreciate Moonrise this much the first time. On this viewing it reminded me a lot of one of my faves, Burn After Reading, in that it's very often shot, scored, and written with "mock seriousness" (like playing intense booming war drum themes while boy scouts are hatching a plan, that sort of thing). I thought it was really funny, and moreso on the moments that are not as obviously funny (my laughs came at different times than most of the crowd). I think a lot of this just didn't click with me or I didn't quiiiite "get it" the first time; I probably just thought it was a bit quirky and that it was trying to be overly genuine all the time as opposed to silly.

Unlike Burn After Reading though, which takes the Seinfeld "no hugging, no learning" approach, Moonrise has a strong emotional core.

Without looking at lists to jog my memory, I think these are now both in my top 5 of the last 5 years, and they're possibly the top 2.

Not a movie but this should be appreciated in here (at least by Baltimore).

I'm finally getting around to watching Twin Peaks (the original). I think I may have seen an episode 15 years ago before discovering that the video store only had the first 2 or 3 eps of the series available. I'm a big fan of Lynch - not Baltimore's level of course, but man is this good. Better than I expected even.

3 episodes in and already there are so many memorable characters, each with their own quirks and secrets. The music is wonderful, so atmospheric. I'm really impressed with performances so far from Kyle Maclachlan and Laura Palmer's mother.

Lynch is a master at building suspense in seemingly innocuous ways. There's a scene early on where two lovers have a secret rendezvous. Once they're together it's shot close in on their faces with the rest of the shot pitch black. Between the odd distance, the lighting, and the music I found this scene exceptionally tense.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing the rest of the series, Fire Walk With Me, and then the modern episodes. If somehow any of you has missed the series is suggest checking it out.

Watched IT again today and while there is lots of great dialogue, particularly from Richie, I think my favorite line is Bill telling the group that walking into the house on Nieboldt Street is easier than walking into his own house.

mother! - There's lot of visually striking religious symbolism, but it's hard to determine what the point of it all is. A Catholic friend believed it's a critique of the cultish nature of religion in terms of its male-focus and misogyny. I think there's some truth to that as there are references to Jesus, Cain and Abel, Mary Magdalene and possibly other biblical characters.

I don't think that's the whole story though as a lot of other stuff happens that doesn't fit so neatly into religion. Aronofsky is aiming for surrealism, but ultimately he's thrown together a mish-mash of ideas that don't have much substance. His visual flair can't cover up the incoherence. Throughout the movie I was alternately intrigued, confused and bored.

I think you might like The Darjeeling Limited.

Final round of TIFF reviews. Finished with 20 movies. I'll do a little summary post afterwards I think.

Disobedience - Rachel Weisz plays the daughter of an orthodox Jewish rabbi who returns to her hometown after his death where she rekindles an intimate relationship with a childhood friend (Rachel McAdams). It's an interesting look into an orthodox community and the feeling of being trapped that can exist in small communities. It's well done but I've seen 7 movies in 3 days since this and it's fairly unmemorable. 5/10

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - This is fantastic. Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths) is a master of dark comedy. Frances McDormand plays the mother of a girl whose murder has yet to be solved months after the crime by a fairly incompetent small town police force (Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell). She takes out ads on three billboards on the edge of town to put pressure on the police force to keep up their investigation. I don't think there are three better actors for these roles than McDormand, Harrelson, and Rockwell. There's a scene in this movie where I don't think I've ever heard an audience go from a bigger laugh to a bigger gasp of horror in the same conversation. I love In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths but this is McDonagh's best movie. It also just won the TIFF People's Choice Award. This is the one everyone should see the first chance you get. 9/10

The Shape of Water - Only Guillermo del Toro could make a movie where the two main characters are a swamp creature and a mute woman and make something this beautiful. Michael Shannon is also one of the most talented actors working today. This is a great movie experience. It's also pretty cool that it was shown in the theatre that del Toro filmed some of the scenes in the movie. 8/10

Chappaquiddick - The story of Ted Kennedy and the death of a campaign worker when he drove off a bridge in Martha's Vineyard in 1969. Jason Clarke is okay but mostly forgettable in the main role. It's a well told story and a fairly interesting look at the political machine behind the cover-up of a scandal. 6/10

Kodachrome - This is a pretty good road trip movie between a man (Jason Sudeikis) and his dying ******* father (Ed Harris) with whom he hasn't had any contact in year. Harris plays a famous photographer who needs to take some rolls of kodachrome film to Kansas to be developed before Kodak shuts down the last remaining film processing facility. Elizabeth Olsen plays Harris' nurse and personal assistant. She should be in every movie. Fairly predictable but enjoyable. 7/10

Battle of the Sexes - Emma Stone and Steve Carell play Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs as they prepare for their famous tennis match that aired on ABC in 1973. Stone and Carell both give really good performances and the movie is fine but ultimately wasn't anything special for me. 6/10

Hostiles - I'll admit that I'm not the biggest Western buff here. But this just seemed like it had a lot of weird choices for something in the Western genre. Is mumble Western a genre? Christian Bale plays an Army Captain who is tasked with escorting a dying Native American war Chief back to his homelands in Montana from New Mexico. It's a film about duty and danger. But it's really slow and lacks a moment of impetus that usually drives a Western. 4/10

The Death of Stalin - This is a blisteringly funny satire by Armando Iannucci about the consolidation of power in the days after Stalin's death. Steve Buscemi, Jeffrey Tambor, Michael Palin, Simon Russell Beale are all fantastic. It also feels like a movie that you can watch over and over again and will get funnier on every watch. 8/10