EIFF: Repo The Genetic Opera

A last minute decision, I think I’m glad I saw this.

It was so wholly and completely not what I would ever have seen if I didn’t have what amounted to a free-pass to it, and was already in the theatre within minutes of the film starting so all I really had to do was sit back down. (Obviously it was well-anticipated by someone: A bunch of goth, tattooed, facial-ringed, black nailpolished creepy someones who I made sure to beat to the parking lot after the movie so I could be safely on the road in my locked car before they slithered by. That said, that is what I like about EIFF: seeing new movies, out of my comfort range movies, opening my horizons movies and just pure luck of the draw movies.)

In a nutshell, the movie is set in a future where people’s organs have been failing, so a megacorporation clues into financing new organs for people; if you fall behind on your payments, however, your organs are repossessed. And it’s a “goth opera”. Anthony Head (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Paul Sorvino (Law and Order), Sarah Brightman (no television series to plug here) and Alexa Vega (shockingly, the sister from the Spy Kids movies ... didn’t recognize her ... wow, did I like her here) play pivotal roles. I enjoyed the music, and the actors named here really sold their performances. (if you’re wondering, as long as Paris Hilton wasn’t lipsynching to someone else’s voice, I’d say she’s adequate here. I noticed she wasn’t ever expected to sing with any of the “heavyweights” in the movie, though, which was probably a purposeful choice). It was kind of a gory, darker, creepier, gothic novel inspired Rocky Horror Picture Show. I can definitely see midnight showings of this movie on college campuses (and squares like me rushing to their cars to burn rubber afterwards).

EIFF: Pontypool

This was such an original pleasure to watch, really. A funny, scary pleasure that lost me when it got a bit cerebral near the end, but a pleasure. A town falls victim to ... something. Doesn’t it? Set solely in a radio station slash church basement, we only hear what’s going on. We don’t get to see it. And aren’t our imaginations so much more horror-susceptible than anything a filmmaker can create through angles, makeup and lighting? The “reveal” of the how and why the town is now zombie-fied is where I started slipping away, and the explanation of how to reverse the effects – indeed, whether it’s able to be reversed – is similarly implied rather than confirmed. At least I think it is. At the Q&A after the movie, I wanted to ask the director “Uh ... what just ... uh ... huh?” But that seemed rude. Still, it really got me, so that's a thumbs up in my book.

Edmonton International Film Festival (EIFF)

Have all-access pass, will sit in dark theatres all week. Because these will be festival movies, I’m not going to use my usual rating system.

Edit: I was going to give a new rating system -- but I've decided against it. The point of festivals is to see movies you may not have access to, or to see movies you may not otherwise see, in the company of other movie lovers -- who, might I add, will not talk throughout the movie, kick the back of your chair incessantly, or arrive in the middle of the movie and disturb you trying to get to their seats. These moviegoers respect the movie experience as much as the movie. A pleasure. Really.

Watch this space for news of Secret deodorant chick's obituary

Allow me to digress from my usual movie reviews and turn your attention to the small screen:

I feel the need to confess now and avoid the rush: if I ever come across that actress from the new Secret deodorant commercials on the street, I'm going to shove her innocent and fresh armpits up her own poopchute and pull them out her nostrils. Others may be tempted to blame the company, or the creators of the commercial, but what pushes me over the homocidal edge is that vapid airhead waste of oxygen's "performance." You gotta be some kind of poster chick for mental limitations to get your single digit I.Q. to come across when you're a brunette. Bitch? Easy for brunettes. Wind whistling through your cranial space from one ear to the next under a dark shade of hair? Your brain stem must be exhausted from just keeping your bodily functions online day in day out.

The House Bunny

I saw this immediately after seeing "Traitor". Odd choice perhaps ... but I enjoyed this. It was exactly what you would think it would be, and Anna Faris is just clueless enough to still come off genuine and sincere. It probably helped that she was not the butt of every joke. I mean, sure it was far-fetched and superficial -- but aren't all these kind of movies? As if frat boy movies are indicative of realistic student life on campus, or progressive in their portrayal of boy-girl relationships. I enjoyed seeing this kind of fluff from a chick point of view. Verdict: Movie Rental (if you're into this frat-girl kinda thing)

Traitor

I hadn't heard much about this movie, so I'm guessing you may not have either. And that is just wrong. This is a wonderful espionage/thriller without the venomously blatant anti-Muslim sentiment that is so very popular -- and blanketly destructive -- these days.

[When I was a child, I wanted very much to visit the USSR because I just would not believe the popular contention that an entire country's (or consortium of countries') citizens could be bloodthirstily evil, down to their last baby. I saw on old Jimmy Stewart movie once where government agents "correctly" identified a communist because "he didn't attend church on Sunday." I wasn't going to believe in this unilateral evil until I saw it for myself. I wasn't willing to blindly tow such an ethnocentric line, and hate people I knew little about and never met. Especially because those who were asserting that I should hate all of USSR's citizens because they hate all of us were wholly and completely oblivious to the hypocrisy of that statement. Not exactly the type of people who I would take at their word.]

Muslims are the new Communists -- I know that's not news to any of you -- and as such they are a popular short-cut for movie makers who wish to have an instantly recognizable and feared enemy to oppose their protagonists (The Kingdom, anyone?). But this movie takes the instantly recognizable and exposes the folly of our assumption of what we actually think we are recognizing here. I hope people see this movie and really hear what it is saying. [If the chicken-littles of the world crying that Muslims will bring the sky down actually crunched the numbers, they'd probably have to conclude that the Crusades, Spanish Inquisition and Salem witch hunts -- just to name a few of Christianity's biggest hits -- have killed more innocent people in the name of their God than Muslims have to date. We've "forgiven" Christians this transgression, however, by accepting that those who were responsible for such atrocities were extremists warping their religion's doctrine to their own fanatical whims. A case of withholding from the goose what we've offered to the gander, perhaps? But then, as the old joke goes, "statistics can be manipulated to prove any point the researchers wish: 67 percent of people know that". And, hypocrites rarely let technicalities like proof and logic get in the way of their hystrionics.]

But I digress on my own fanatical whims. As a movie, this one was compelling. Characters you care about. Escalating action and stakes. Drama, conflict, subterfuge, regrets, passion and sacrifice. See it and open your eyes, or just see it and enjoy your eyes. Verdict: First Run Theatre. Go Now!