Though not yet announced officially on the main TAD site, Twitch is declaring Alone (MP review) as the winner for the 2007 audience choice awards. This is very good news. This little Thai horror flick had me nearly gasping for breath with the scares and then totally enthralled with a great story to boot.

     While predictions of a travesty looming as Troma’s Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (MP review) stood a good chance of taking the honor, I’m pleased to say that that theory can be laid to rest. The crowds in Toronto seem to concur with my personal pick for the best movie at TAD this year: Alone (a possible limited theatrical release may be imminent and a bullshit American remake is already in the works).

     I know this won’t be relevant to most of the readers here, but anyone who lives in the southern part of Minnesota need to head over to Minnesota State University campus at Mankato to check out their oldies, but goodies 12 hour film festival. A dontaion of just $20 gets you in… and just check out the lineup up films you get to see on the BIG SCREEN for your twenty bucks!…

NOON - This Is Spinal Tap
One of the funniest and most quotable films of all time. Easily in my top ten comedies and the original mockumentary.

1:40- Dr. Strangelove
In my top 5 films of all time. Kubrick rules all.

3:30 - Gimme Shelter
Haven’t seen this yet, but funny enough this is the topic of discussion for next week’s Movie Club Podcast. So this is a great opportunity to see it the way it was meant to be seen and know what the hell we’re talking about on the show next week!

5:00 - One Hour Break
Grab some food, stretch your legs, or enjoy the trailers and film shorts running.

6:10 - Animal House
Amazingly enough, I have not seen this. Good time and place to finally see it though eh?

8:15 - Shaun Of The Dead
Also in my top 50, one of the most original and funny movies of the last decade. Pegg and Frost are dynamite together. Zombies and comedy. How can you go wrong?

10:00 - Blue Velvet
Not my favorite in the Lynch series, but certainly a must see. Dennis Hopper is ridiculous in this. It’ll be fun late at night too.

     You can visit the KMSU Film Fest Official Page for all the details on where to go and how to get tickets. They also have embedded trailers for all the above films. So it’s worth stopping by just for the Spinal Tap trailer.

     Wow! LOADS of fun at this year’s Toronto After Dark Film Festival. As you could see from other posts here and there, there were a lot of fun people to chat with and get drunk with. Although the film selections this year weren’t quite as strong as they were in 2006, I still had a blast and spent entirely too much money on fun fun fun.

     On to the movies. As I said, not as strong as last year. There were several really good movies, but no really great titles like last year’s Funky Forest or Behind the Mask. That being said, there were a lot of good things to see and my personal awards go as follows:

GOLD: Alone - this was a close call, but the higher budget, great story and sleeker look finally won me over. Especially when this type of film isn’t usually my thing.
SILVER: Blood Car - amazing what a fella can do with such a minimal budget. Funny funny funny. One of the best experiences in the theater at TAD this year.
BRONZE: Mulberry Street - a terrific zombie picture that really picks apart (no pun intended) the lead characters with almost no budget. The stars and director showing up was a big plus.
- honorable mention: Murder Party - not Behind the Mask, but what a way to close the festival! Great acting and a unique story was really fun. Again, kudos to the producer/main star to show up and get drunk with us at the closing party.

     With these fun movies also come some duds. Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead was one such dud. One of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, but with the midnight festival crowd it became more fun than anticipated and worth every penny. I can’t say the same for Crispin Glover in Simon Says. This was hands down the worst movie I have seen all year and I pretty much loathed every poorly acted second of it. But again, some of these duds are actually what make the festival experience fun because it provides for great conversation and debate, plus they make that next movie on the docket that much more enjoyable.

     Meeting new people and/or meeting people that I’ve known for a while, but finally face to face is the real treat at TAD. Seeing Kurt (Cinecast co-host), John Allison filmgrotto (and MP blogger), Serena from themovieblog, Sarah (Pop Journalism), Jay from DVDwolf, Steven from Filmopia, Mack and Todd from Twitch, Leah from Anchor Bay, Bob the Builder zombie dude (can’t remember his name, but a good guy), Jay Cheel from FilmJunk and so many more new faces and friends and I can hardly count them all on ten hands.

     I really encourage all to check out this Festival if you have the means next year. It’s a fun and intimate festival with a great director and terrific programmers. I can’t wait to see the lineup for next year already. You can see synopsis’ and reviews for all the titles over at Movie Patron’s TAD headquarters. If you’re into martial arts, zombies, slashers, original and zany comedies, unique documentaries or fantastical animation, I highly encourage you to stop in. There’s something in this line-up for nearly everyone!

Mack (Twitch), Me and John Allison

Serena (themovieblog) and Sarah Gopaul (PopJournalism.ca)

Rodrigo Gudino (founder of Rue Morgue Magazine)

A great place to buy illegitimate DVDs

     More fun at Toronto After Dark. So much fun in fact that I’ve neglected to get any writing done. It will all be up by the end of the weekend over at the Movie Patron After Dark Headquarters. But the first 6 or 7 reviews are available right now.

Kurt and Todd Brown from Twitchfilm.net.

Bad camera setting shot of Lloyd Kaufman (Troma Films).

Hanging with themovieblog writer, Serena Whitney.

Some of the Zombie crowd for Automaton Transfusion.

Out to lunch with FilmGrotto’s John Allison.

The fabulous Bloor Cinema. All the screenings are here.

     More updates and picture to follow over the next few days. For more info on the festival, check out our full spread of titles, reviews and trailers at our headquarters, or visit the official TAD site

     Here are some pictures from The Toronto After Dark Film Festival. Once I finally got my luggage from the airline, everything has gone fairly smooth and it’s been a real blast. I have tons of pics to post over the next few days, but here are a few from the first couple screenings. Remember I didn’t have my luggage, hence the same clothing in several pics.

By the way, you can see our review for each of the films at our After Dark headquarters if you are so inclined.

With festival director Adam Lopez (awesome host).

Two of the programmers, Todd Brown from Twitch and Peter Kuplowski (short films).

Hanging with legendary film maker Uwe Boll.

Jay Cheel from FilmJunk.com and the documentary blog.

The CN Tower in Toronto.

My wife preparing for the midnight screening.

     More updates and picture to follow over the next few days. For more info on the festival, check out our full spread of titles, reviews and trailers at our headquarters, or visit the official TAD site

This may be a bit late (as the festival started on the 17th of October) but I just thought it would be interesting to do a post about it. There is always a lot of talk about TIFF and TAD but since I am nowhere near where those take place I thought I would mention the film’s showing at a festival a little closer to home for me. Here are some of the films playing that stand out to me:

Widely known films:

4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days - Winner of this year’s Palm D’Or

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Highly anticipated movie starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck.

The Darjeeling Limited - Wes Anderson’s new film.

I’m Not There - Bob Dylan biopic starring Cate Blanchett and Christian Bale (both and many others playing Bob Dylan (wtf?))

Eastern Promises - New crime thriller by David Cronenberg

Juno - This year’s Little Miss Sunshine

Into The Wild - Sean Penn’s new film that has taken years to get made.

Lust, Caution - Some say “masterpiece” while others say “pointless”. Still peeking my interested though.

Sicko - How can I resist?

Lesser Known:

City of Men - from the makers of City of God but inevitably inferior. Still want to see it though.

Far North - not sure why I am interested in this but I am.

Chop Shop - The name alone makes me want to see it.

There are many, MANY more obviously but I just thought I would point out a few. Check out the website here.

     Well folks, it’s finally here. 7 Nights of “cinematic mayhem” at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto. Opening tonight with the zombie picture, Mulberry Street, I’m really looking forward to meeting many of you readers and contributors. It should be a good time.

     For a full spread on TAD, check out movie patron’s coverage throughout the weekend and all next week over here. We’ll be reviewing each film and full and also some random news and event coverage right here at the blog; so stay tuned for that as well. Also look for new Cinecasts with Kurt and Andrew once or twice throughout the week (actual face to face conversations) and possible film maker and festival staff interviews. SHould be a load of fun over the next 8 days or so.

Special thanks to Kurt and family for their accommodations and free food/beer.

     I haven’t been following this too closely (because I can’t go); but AFI constantly sends me emails about their big festival coming up. I have to admit, the lineup is is a lot cooler than the After Dark lineup, but that should be obvious. Anyway, if you’re in the Los Angeles area between November 1st and 11th, you may want to check out the full line-up and schedule and purchase (fairly inexpensive) tickets right online.

For full lineup and schedule, CLICK HERE. Some of the many films (many of them world and/or US premiers) showing throughout the festival include:

Biggies:
LIONS FOR LAMBS
JUNO
THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS
WITH YOUR PERMISSION
THE SAVAGES
4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, 2 DAYS (2007 Cannes winner)
DEFICIT (my boy, Gael Garcia Bernal’s directorial debut)

see more titles by unwrapping here…
Read the rest of this entry »

     I was browsing around over on the American Film Institute site and I discovered that they are having a 40th anniversary film festival. They are showing 11 movies and each of those movies is being presented by someone famous associated with the film. Tickets are only $25.00 for a movie and it would be really cool to check out a few of the movies. Unfortunately the festival is sold out.

     When I was first reading about it I thought the movies were being shown sequentially which would have been really cool, but they are actually all being shown in one even. It still would be cool to be there just to hear Clint Eastwood talk about Unforgiven or Jack Nicholson about One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

     We’ve mentioned this film before, but it bears repeating now that it has screened for some critics. The Bob Dylan biopic, I’m Not There premiered yesterday at the Venice Film Festival and apparently has critics raving. Consider this on my most anticipated list for fall 2007. It’s got Oscar bait written all over it and most inviting for me, is the unorthodox cast of characters to play Dylan at various stages of his life: Bale, Ledger, Gere, Ben Whishaw, Marcus Carl Franklin.

…a black actor in his early teens, Marcus Carl Franklin, plays the musician as he arrives as an unknown in New York at the age of 20, while 57-year-old Richard Gere represents him at the age of 32. Heath Ledger and British actors Christian Bale and Ben Whishaw take on other periods.

     Most intriguing to me of the six actors to play Dylan in the film, is the spectacular Cate Blanchet. There is some early Oscar talk already about Blanchett’s performance and of that I have no doubt. The director, Todd Haynes, recently did a press interview, and here are a couple things he had to say via The Guardian:

…the representation of Dylan in the mid-60s was always meant to be played by a woman. “I felt it was the only way to resurrect the true strangeness of Dylan’s physical being in 1966, which I felt had lost its historical shock value over the years.

Cate was scared; she told me many times that this was a very scary challenge for her. It took her a long time to commit to it … I told her it’s good to be terrified, that you’re taking a risk and sometimes that’s really when the surprises happen. I guess it at least convinced her to give it a shot.”

     The film mixes black-and-white footage with colour sequences and real news footage of American protests in the 1960s and scenes from the Vietnam war. Richard Gere (57), who is playing Bob Dylan at age 32, describes the script as “bizarre.” Sign me up! Here’s a clip of Blanchet as Dylan (followed by the teaser trailer in the unwrap link):

for the teaser, click here…
UNWRAP TEXT or SHOW **SPOILER**

     The Toronto After Dark web site has just officially anounced its first seven titles to screen at the festival; running October 19-25. Though I’ve already provided synopsis’ and trailers for all seven films in an easy to read format, if you feel you MUST go elsewhere to get the info or you have to have it from the original source, head over to TorontoAfterDark.com for more details.

     Also, they’ve released a short preview of the first seven titles all in one action packed vignette, which you can see below:

     If you’re overwhelmed with the sheer amount of possibilities at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, Todd over at Twitchfilm has meticulously gone through each title and found the link to the title’s official web site or trailer (or both). It’s been really easy to check out all the films playing and see what they’re about via the trailers. Good work Todd. head on over to the “one stop trailer shop” at Twitch.

     The Toronto After Dark Film Festival is just a few short weeks away. At last year’s event, I saw 13 feature length films in five days; four of which entered into my top 20 of the year, two in my top 10 and 2 in my top 100 of all time. A film entering my top 100 is not easy, so it was well worth the drive from Minneapolis.

     This year’s festival has expanded to include even more great films (14 feature length and 36 shorts!) and over a longer timeline. With more financial backing and more time, MoviePatron’s coverage should be a bit more extensive this year: including some “on location” cinecasts and interviews with stars, film makers and guest hosts from other movie web sites. And of course Kurt and I will do at least one (probably more) regular length Cinecasts from the event.

     Anyway, to see the seven films announced so far, complete with trailers and synopsis, head over to the Movie Patron After Dark Headquarters for all the info so far. We’ll keep updating it as things progress. Thanks to John from FilmGrotto who scooped up all the info at the Toronto FanExpo.

UPDATE: all TAD previews are now directly commentable.

     I‘m not a huge fan of France; but I think I may move there so I can go to the Cannes Film Festival each year and see this amazing stuff before everyone else (I JUST saw Wind that Shakes the Barley last month, which won at Cannes a year ago now).

     Anyway, one of the films I am anxious to see, even more so now than Wong Kar-Wai’s film, is The Coen Brothers (Fargo, Lebowski, O Brother) newest effort, No Country for Old Men. This trailer was brought to my attention thanks to Cinema Fusion, and I can honestly say that this has maybe taken over as my most anticipated film of the year.

     This is Joel and Ethan doing something dark and evil (closer to their earlier work like Blood Simple or Miller’s Crossing) instead of their recent fun stuff - i.e. Lebowski. Apparently being praised fairly well at Cannes, which this blog failed to cover properly, I am most excited about this movie.

     The point of this post is that the trailer has been released online and I am most excited for this to get a theatrical release in North America SOON!

     I’m not exactly sure what the premise is based on the trailer, but ever since The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, I am a Tommy Lee Jones fan. Also, this is strangely devoid (at least in the trailer) of any signature Coen actors (like Turturro, Stormare, Goodman, etc.). Throw in slowly growing in popularity actor Josh Brolin, and this looks fantastic. Check it out and leave your thoughts in the comment section below…

     From now until the 27th, The Cannes Film Festival will have a 24 hour live camera feed of all the happenings on the red carpet leading up to the Grand Théâtre Lumière at the Palais. During highlighted premieres, there will be commentary and interviews with IFC host Matt Singer.

Thanks to Mad about Movies for the news…

     This is a damn cool feature that IFC is sponsoring. I still wish I had cable and the IFC, but this makes me happy enough. Most excited am I to see Wong Kar-Wai and the gossip about his new film, My Blueberry Nights. As well as Kim Ki-Duk’s new project. Head on over and catch all of my jealousy, which is The Cannes Film Festival.

     Although I’m quite a few days late on this, better late than never right? Anyway, here’s the official one-sheet (which is a little too “yippee-skippee” for me, but I still like it) and screening schedule for The 60th Annual Cannes Film Festival — ooooh I wish I was going. With screenings of new films from Wong Kar-Wai, Kim Ki-Duk, The Coens and so many more I can hardly contain myself. Last year’s winner of the Palme d’Or, Wind that Shakes the Barley (MP review), finally hit American theaters but a month ago. So to know that I will have to wait that long again for this year’s crop of films and likely the winner, is unbearable. Enough of my rants. Without further ado, I give you the 2007 line-up for the biggest and most important film festival in the world, CANNES!

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION JURY:
Stephen Frears, British director (president)
Marco Bellocchio, Italian director
Maggie Cheung, Hong Kong actress
Toni Collette, Australian actress
Maria De Medeiros, Portuguese actress
Orhan Pamuk, Turkish novelist
Michel Piccoli, French actor
Sarah Polley, Canadian actress
Abderrahmane Sissako, Mauritanian director

OPENER:
“My Blueberry Nights,” Hong Kong-France-China, Wong Kar Wai

CLOSER:
“The Age of Darkness,” Canada, Denys Arcand

IN COMPETITION:
“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” Romania, Cristian Mungiu
“Alexandra,” Russia, Alexander Sokurov
“Auf der anderen Seite des Lebens,” Germany-Turkey, Fatih Akin
“The Banishment,” Russia-Belgium, Andrey Zvyagintsev
“Breath,” South Korea, Kim Ki-duk
“Les Chansons d’amour,” France, Christophe Honore
“Death Proof,” U.S., Quentin Tarantino
“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly,” France, Julian Schnabel
“Import/Export,” Austria, Ulrich Seidl
“The Man From London,” Germany-France-U.K.-Hungary, Bela Tarr
“Mogari No Mor,” Japan, Naomi Kawase
“No Country For Old Men,” U.S., The Coen Brothers
“Paranoid Park,” France-U.S., Gus Van Sant
“Persepolis,” France-U.S., Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
“Promise Me This,” France-Serbia, Emir Kusturica
“Secret Sunshine,” South Korea, Lee Chang-dong
“Silent Light,” Mexico-France-Netherlands, Carlos Reygadas
“Tehilim,” France, Raphael Nadjari
“Une Vieille Maitresse,” France, Catherine Breillat
“We Own the Night,” U.S., James Gray
“Zodiac,” U.S., David Fincher

OUT OF COMPETITION

GALA SCREENINGS:
“A Mighty Heart,” U.K., Michael Winterbottom
“Ocean’s Thirteen,” U.S., Steven Soderbergh
“Sicko,” U.S., Michael Moore

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS:
“Boarding Gate,” France, Olivier Assayas
“Go Go Tales,” U.S., Abel Ferrara
“U2 3D,” U.S., Catherine Owens and Mark Pellington

     The NEW site for this year’s “Toronto After Dark Film Festival” is online and available now HERE. A lot of the links claim “coming soon” so keep checking back often. Call for film submissions will begin on Tuesday, March 27th. Other key dates are listed at the site as well as links to upcoming TAD events announcements. be sure to sign upfor their newsletter HERE so you get all the free info as it is released.

     A more fantastic time cannot be had at the movies, so make sure to sign up and clear your calendars for 2007’s Toronto After Dark Film Festival, taking place Oct. 19th-25th. We’ll see you there!