Worth the mad dash across Queen St?

Okay, so I'm through my first full day, but it's 12:44 am and my first film tomorrow (today?) is at 9:00 am... So this blog will be short. My morning film tomorrow is Rendition, and I do want to see it, but it opens Oct. 19, and the premiere was tonight (at the same time as I was seeing an Ang Lee film) so the stars are highly unlikely to be there... so when my alarm rings at 7:30 am I may well decide to give it a pass.

Today was pretty good. First film Pink. A very strange but interesting film. It's a Greek film and I'm trying to think of how to describe it... All elements were odd/offbeat. The characters, the story, the filming style, everything. But all in all I'm glad I saw it.

Next was California Dreamin' (Endless). A Romanian film that did end up being well named -- endless. I was loving the film for about the first 90 minutes... Then I got restless and realized I had a time problem because I had a 6:00 pm screening at another venue. I'd figured that would be lots of time, since California Dreamin' (Endless) was at 3:00, so I figured I'd be out by 5:00... But no... I knew there was supposed to be a big explosive ending... so I kept waiting it out, but ended up leaving at about 5:40 (I'm not sure what I missed) and literally ran and then took a cab for 3 or so blocks and ran some more (once the traffic around Yonge and Queen got so bad running was quicker than the cab). But I made it. They only officially hold seats until 15 minutes before the screening, but they were still letting the main line in (hadn't even started dealing with the Rush folks) when I got there. Phew.

That film was worth the run, I think... But I was in the second row which was kind of difficult. It was called Then She Found Me and the filmmaker/star was Helen Hunt. This is a real "women's fiction" type story and although the Ang Lee movie is in my head right now... I think I really liked Then She Found Me. Hey, Colin Firth was in it. What's not to like. (He didn't show up for the screening, though.) It's about a woman dealing with her marriage ending, wanting to have a baby, meeting her birth mother, etc. etc. There were a few interesting/unexpected twists and Hunt was really good. Bette Midler plays her birth mom and one bizarre thing I hate to comment on, was that Hunt looked older than Midler. I admire Helen Hunt for not botoxing or eye lifting herself... but it was a bit strange that Midler looked younger. I guess it kind of fit their characters, though. Okay, I officially feel badly about noticing/mentioning this. I'm such a hypocrite.

The Ang Lee film Lust, Caution was pretty amazing. But I'm a big fan of his. During the intros, one of the producers made a joke about Ang Less going from a gay shepherd movie to a 2 1/2 hour Chinese porno... LOL. Lust, Caution is a spy-type story set in Shanghai in the 1940's and yes, there are some very graphic (and violent) sex scenes. It'll be interesting to see if this movie gets released in the US. Probably will with a NC17 rating. Can't imagine how they could cut it to avoid that rating. But then the ratings given by the MPAA are so arbitrary and bizarre, who knows... They showed some clips from 40's era movies during the film, including Casablanca, and I have a feeling these clips were chosen purposefully, but I'm going to have to think about that a bit more... One character does make a big/difficult/impulsive/tragic choice that's kind of motivated by love... but it's not like Casablanca in my mind... Will have to think about it once my head clears a bit. Maybe it was just showing the romantic nature of the protagonist? Hmmmm...

Anyway... I'd better try to wind down and get to bed! (Tomorrow's Brad Pitt day, not to mention the new Coen brothers movie!)