Haven’t had much time to write.  Got another busy day today, so just a few quick things:

• Ghost Town:  an otherwise completely ordinary film was quite funny thanks to Ricky Gervais
• The People Speak:  Howard Zinn, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and Chris Moore along with surprise guests Marissa Tomei and Viggo Mortensen discuss the documentary based on Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States.  Spotted in the crowd were Tim Robbins, Danny Glover, and Naomi Kline.
• Zack and Miri Make a Porno:  Kevin Smith at his best – probably his best work.
• Not Quite Hollywood:  “Rock”umentary about Oz-sploitation films – crazy and fun.
• L’Heure d’ete:  SNOOZEfest!
• Good:  it took some discussion afterwards for me to decide if I liked this film.  I do.

I’ve taken lots of good video and some not so good pictures but the computer I’m using is wayyyy too slow – will upload when I’m home.

Ok, busy couple of days…  the party on Day 3 was totally fun – we got all dressed up and went to the place and enjoyed some complimentary wine and food (roast beef, assorted hors d’oevres and cheeses, oh my!) and performances by members of the cast of the revival production of A Chorus Line.  Unfortunately we couldn’t stay long, as we had a screening to get to.

Religulous was fantastic, (probably hired) protesters and all!  The documentary is essentially an hour and a bit of Bill Maher running around making fun of people of faith followed by a call to arms for the large silent minority of non believers in the world to speak up and stop letting the world be run by people who believe in fairy tales.  The film won’t win over any converts, but if you’re a fan of Bill Maher and a bona fide skeptic, you’ll be entertained.  The Q&A was great too – I have some video to put up, unfortunately I ran out of room on my camera and couldn’t take as much as I’d have liked.

Just dropping in quickly after a screening of A No-Hit No-Run Summer, a great little French Canadian film.  Set in Montreal summer of 1969, a 12 year old kid who’s obsessed with the Expos’ first season and dying to play ball himself, tries out for the local team but is denied.  His dad, previously unenthusiastic about his son’s obsession with baseball, decides to start up a b-team for all the kids who’d tried out but didn’t make it onto the main team.  The film is beautifully shot and has a really warm nostalgic feel about it.

Now we’re just getting ready to go out to a party for Every Little Step at 6:30 which will probably just be a short visit since we’ll have to get lined up nice and early for Religulous at the Ryerson later on tonight.  Bill Maher is an idol of mine – I can’t wait!

Just a quick rundown – guests arrived late last night and so not much time for writing over the next few days…

First flick was an Irish black comedy, A Film With Me In It – funny as hell – wickedly funny script, great performances by the actors, and a truly dark and absurd plot.  Really enjoyed the movie, too bad about the audience… well, too bad about the woman sitting next to us anyway – one of the types that needs to laugh a little too loud, and react a little too much, and just comes off as fake and irritating. Didn’t ruin the experience, but came close a couple times…

Later on we saw the new Richard Linklater film, Me and Orson Welles. I’d really been looking forward to this one, and it was great – I was a touch tired though and a few parts of the film dragged a bit. But Linklater is a master film maker and as always he pulls some incredible performances from his actors, in particular Christian McKay who played Orson Welles.  I took a bunch of vid of the Q&A after, I’ll try to get that uploaded soon.

A very rushed cab ride later and we checked out the Gala screening of Burn After Reading. We’d never done the big hollywood Gala, and I’m glad that we did, but don’t think we’ll do it again.  We knew we’d be seated up in the balcony, but when we finally got up there after waiting out the massive “Priority Seating” line, we were rushing from section to section as volunteers told us “this section is full!”
and finally got seated as the introduction to the film was just finishing in a section normally reserved as “obstructed view” seating.  The film was fantastic though – the Coen brothers were in their element, doing what they do best.

On to day three – we have invites to a party for Every Little Step tonight – we weren’t able to fit the film into our schedule, but who doesn’t love a party?