Piling Up

It's 1:55 pm, I have about two hours left before my next event, and I haven't posted any kind of reaction to at least eight films now. I'm starting to feel like an air-traffic controller dealing with more and more jets circling above and the caffeine anxiety starting to really build up. Not to mention the other eight to ten more flicks I'll be seeing and responding to Monday through Thursday before heading home on Friday afternoon.

The un-assessed films are (a) Danny Boyle's initially bothersome but finally superb Slumdog Millionaire (which I took two hours to review yesterday but lost due to online access shutting off before I was able to save it); (b) Bill Maher and Larry Charles' Religulous, which I saw and mostly liked (with reservations) in Los Angeles; (c) Jonathan Demme's partly inspired, partly problematic Rachel Getting Married (also seen in L.A.); (d) Andreas Dresen's surprisingly touching Cloud 9 (which I saw here last Thursday), (e) Claire Denis' low-key but precise and absorbing 35 Rhums (ditto), (f) David Koepp's Ghost Town (ditto), a playful mainstream studio wanker that has no business being in Toronto, really, except to satisfy the ambitions of its distributor, Paramount Pictures; (g) Matteo Garone's savage, inescapably "real" Gamorrah, (h) Guillermo Arriaga's The Burning Plain, a layered and well-acted adult drama that doesn't really hit the mark; or at least isn't on the same plane as the Innaritu-directed films based on Arriaga scripts (h) Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Pormo, which I just saw this morning.

I'm not going to catch up. All my advance homework, hard work and dogged attempts to see everything I should see have come to naught. It's all collapsing into a heap. I just decided to blow off the Kevin Smith Zack and Miri press conference -- that will buy me an extra couple of hours.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on September 7, 2008 at 10:56 AM

comment #1

diesel Author Profile Page says ...

smart choice skipping the press conference but it'd have been neat listening to smith and rogen. that laughter of his is insane.

Posted by diesel Author Profile Page at September 7, 2008 11:55 AM

comment #2

Zimmergirl Author Profile Page says ...

Please do write you Slumdog review AGAIN because I'm curious about the first two thirds situation you keep mentioning. Is it annoying the way Moulin Rouge is annoying at first? (Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Set up. Take a swing).

Posted by Zimmergirl Author Profile Page at September 7, 2008 12:02 PM

comment #3

BlueBomm Author Profile Page says ...

Good God, Wells, just start typing in Word, okay? Eight (unfiled reviews) is Enough!

Posted by BlueBomm Author Profile Page at September 7, 2008 12:48 PM

comment #4

Jamie Author Profile Page says ...

Really liked Cloud 9 when I saw it at Cannes. Maybe a future American remake would be more commercially acceptable than a German film with naked elders...

Does the press conference skipping mean you didn't like Zack and Miri? I found it overall enjoyable with some really funny gags (the Glengarry Glen Ross joke that I am so annoyed they put in the red band trailer), but disliked the ending.

Posted by Jamie Author Profile Page at September 7, 2008 1:03 PM

comment #5

pchu Author Profile Page says ...

35 Rhums didn't move me that much. I admire the film but Denis has done better work.

Can't wait to see Slumdog tonight.

Posted by pchu Author Profile Page at September 7, 2008 1:15 PM

comment #6

Arran Author Profile Page says ...

I'd like to know what you thought of Zack and Miri, even if it's just a simple "good/bad/okay". Variety liked it; I'm curious to see if others will follow.

Posted by Arran Author Profile Page at September 7, 2008 1:24 PM

comment #7

D.Z. Author Profile Page says ...

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/ap/20080907/122079342000.html

Posted by D.Z. Author Profile Page at September 7, 2008 2:09 PM

comment #8

bfm Author Profile Page says ...

Did I miss your comments on The Women? You mentioned that you were going to see it, but I don't remember reading what you thought.

Posted by bfm Author Profile Page at September 7, 2008 2:15 PM

comment #9

tjfar67 Author Profile Page says ...

I imagine the Zack and Miri press conference could possibly be more entertaining than the movie. With Smith and Rogan involved, no one else would be able to get a f-word in edgewise.

Wasn't there a late eighties/ early nineties movie with the same premise as Ghost Town? (Near death experience causes a man to see ghost w/ unfinished business.) Ricky Gervais can be extremely funny, but I don't know about this one. I hope there is a Karl Pilnkington cameo.

Posted by tjfar67 Author Profile Page at September 7, 2008 3:13 PM

comment #10

d manhattan Author Profile Page says ...

I'm sure you have good notes as well as a decent, established way of dealing with such a pile. But I'll just go ahead anyway and offer my own unsophisticated way of handling it back in the day (redundant or not): For one film at a time, just to take another look at all the promotion materials, synopsis, video clips, browse all the press photos. A few decent thoughts and observations are bound to pop up, which can then be tied together with that overall view of the films merits and my notes.. But then I had a very iterative approach, just reworking and thinking until I felt that I got it right.

Posted by d manhattan Author Profile Page at September 7, 2008 4:44 PM

comment #11

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