Kew Gardens Gazebo

The drums of TIFF are rumbling louder and louder as the days pass. By this time next week, I’ll be knee-deep in the fray. I’m already meeting new people, and many more are on their way.

Seriously kids, I couldn’t be more excited if I was twins.

In the meantime I try to take care of chores, stock up on food, clean up the joint, and generally do all of the things that will go undone one the TIFF starter’s gun goes off.

There will still be films watched through it all…but probably with dishrags and dirty laundry in-hand.

Is it Thursday yet?

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For your listening and reading fulfilment, I give you…

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My friend Courtney Small went and did something awesome. He raised his game by launching a splendid and engaging new website named Cinema Axis. He’s even assembled a whole team of critical avengers to help his cause. Go take a look and follow it in all the various capacities.

The Chicks with Accents are back, and they’re celebrating Nik’s birthday. Listen in as they discuss the films that shaped them as people.

This time next week – almost exactly this time next week – Brian J. Roan will be rolling into Toronto for TIFF. Before that though, he took a CANYONS-shaped bullet for us…and somehow came up smailing.

I’m not dead certain that I’ll be seeing a new film this weekend, though if I do THE GRANDMASTER would be the most likely candidate. After reading The Black Sheep’s review, I’m not sure I need to make a point to see it theatrically.

I never weighed in last week on the whole “Bat-fleck” trend (I’ll wait until we see footage), but Andrew has – and he’s done so with great eloquence.

Rich Watson reads the drive-in theatre its last rites…and wonders if its passing is neccessarily a bad thing.

Have you noticed how many young readers’ book series have been turned into movies these last dozen years? Every series of books that gets to three volumes is suddenly treated as a hot commodity. Fandango Groovers examines the trend, for better and for worse.

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Meanwhile, the Tweet of The Week comes from a director many of us know and love. Rian Johnson has a bit of fun with the trend of crowd-sourcing films…

 


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Enjoy!

10 Replies to “Everybody’s Talkin’ 8 – 30 (Chatter from Other Bloggers)”

  1. Thank you for the link 🙂

    I think I should just get off the net during TIFF lest I explode due to jealousy. Anna is anyways making sure of that.

  2. I wasn’t even gonna write that piece, but I kept seeing people talking about this corporate-sponsored effort to help save drive-ins, and I knew there was more to the story than what was being talked about – like why drive-ins are going extinct. So there you are. Thanks for linking.

    1. I’ve had a weird push and pull surrounding arguments on film presentation. On the one hand, I’ve argued that grindhouses and B theatres have no place anymore unless they are somehow making a go as bargain basement options.

      When one can watch something in HD with surround-sound at home, you MUST provide them a reason to get off the couch…and inferior presentation isn’t it.

      At the same time, I’ve argued that some get TOO caught up in the bells and whistles…like complaining if a film isn’t perfectly masked, or if the sound mix isn’t the latest and greatest. It leaves me wondering if they’re going to see a movie or watch a tech exhibition.

      Somewhere in between there has to be a happy medium.

  3. Thanks for the kind words, and overall support, of the new site. It truly means a lot. I am still working out a few of the kinks, which comes with learning WordPress on the fly, but the general response has been surprisingly positive.

    1. It takes a bit of getting used to, especially since Blogger is so plug-and-play. It doesn’t take long for it to become second nature though. We’ll toast to The Axis at dinner tonight.

  4. Thanks for the inclusion! THE GRANDMASTER was a grand disappointment. I would wait on that one and watch one of Wong Kar-wai’s many other great films instead, if I were you. Happy TIFF!

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