fuzzyblog

CIFF 29, Entry #3

This will be a short re-hash of what was supposed to be Entry #1.

Administrivia first: I'm doing this not so much to share with the world (that's just a questionably beneficial side-effect), but so that I won't forget too much. Really. Many times in the past few years, when asked what good movies I've seen, I can rattle off that day's features (and shorts), one or two from previous days...and then a lot of "uh....umm....errr....well I think there was this good Mexican flick last Friday...". With the Festival program guide and some serious memory-dredging, I can generally reconstruct everything, but it's way easy for stuff to slip out of memory when you're seeing 4 or 5 movies a day, every day, for 9 days in a row. Frightening, especially given the investment in tickets--but the experience of seeing so many good, not-even-showing-at-the-Cedar-Lee movies is worth it.

Also, at least in theory, I'll be able to make some intelligent recommendations to the students doing the CWRU Film Society schedules for the next couple of semesters.

Anyway, on to the films, in a total non-chronological order:

Me, You, and Everyone We Know

Fantastic! I think the first move I gave the highest rating to (1 out of 5/excellent). The word 'poop' comes up in a way that even Dave Barry can't get away with--and in the context of a 7-year old going to far in an on-line chat it's even better. Of course this is a Film Festival (capitals used on purpose), so there are some features with Very Bad Things happening to both children and adults (The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things is an excellent movie in that category--more about it later), but this isn't one of those movies. Don't miss seeing it if you have a chance.

Whoa. Just had a weird t-shirt moment. I'm sitting at a table by the Hard Rock café, next to a window looking out at Huron Rd., and wearing a t-shirt that says "f___ society". A woman just walked by, did a double-take, and said "Excuse me, may I make a comment about your t-shirt?"

"Yeah"

"How do think society got here if there weren't a lot of people doing that [pointing at the 'f-blank-blank-blank']?"

She obviously has no idea that "blank blank blank" stands for "ilm"...entirely as the shirt's designer intended. I love it when stuff like this works. I also wonder if the woman who spoke to me has any idea that the whole conversation and my impression of it is being posted to the internet more or less immediately--and what she would think if she did know.