So many dates lately! The mister and I were lucky enough to get passes for the Toronto After Dark Film Festival's summer screenings this year, and were able to check out a double feature of Joseph Khan's Detention and V/H/S, a multi-director found footage fright fest. Needless to say, I was super excited about Detention, and Matt was thrilled to see V/H/S (there are currently no distributors for this movie so we may have been the only Canadian audience to be able to see it in theatre).
Detention is an awesome little "indie" described as "Scott Pilgrim meets Scream." Basically, a movie for pop-culture junkies like me with lots of laughs. It stars Josh Hucherson (he of The Hunger Games) and features a bevvy of great young actors and Dane Cook, who I normally loathe, but found exceptionally funny. This movie had lots of funny little pops, great dialogue, amazing cultural references and so many 90s throwbacks, I just about died. Just really great fun. (Favourite line from the movie, "Did you know Oasis is the #1 Beatles cover band kids at Grizzly High were conceived to?")
V/H/S is more of a horror-gross out (compared to Detention) film made up of 5 vignettes. It's centered around 5 guys who are being paid to go into a house and find a specific VHS tape for an unnamed person/group. The guys (thuggy vandals) go into the house and start watching some of the tapes the find. Each tape is a mini-horror directed by a different curernt-day indie horror director. Every aspect of this movie was filmed with hand-held and I am STILL nauseated. 12 hours after the fact. Some of the stories were great, others were so-so, but for me, the shaky cam made the movie unbearable. We may have been the only in-theatre audience to be able to check this movie out, but that may not have been a bad thing, either. I think this would probably be better on the small screen....especially for those of us who get motion sickness. Here's the trailer (I'm linking instead of embedding because there are lots of boobs and gore and it's definitely not SFW or kiddie eyes).
The great thing about these summer screenings is that it's gotten Matt and me really hyped for this year's After Dark festival. Some of the best Sci-Fi, Horror, and other "nerd" genre movies we've seen in the last few years have been screened at this fest, and the newly renovated Bloor Hot Docs Cinema is the perfect location.
The festival is about 3 months away, and they will be announcing the programing during this year's Festival of Fear at the end of August. If you are into sci-fi, horror, action or any other of those types of films, or if either of the movies we saw last night suit your fancy, it may be worth while to buy tickets to a few of the screenings....or send the kids to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a week!
The Toronto After Dark Film Festival Runs October 18-26.
It was less than two weeks ago when we got news of Katie Holmes' surprise divorce filing in NYC to her mega-star husband Tom Cruise. There's been SO much speculation around this, I wanted to try and get all our ducks in a row for one nice, neat roundup as news today says that the couple have already settled.
The interesting thing to me is how quickly Tom settled. Why is it interesting? Well, most of the commentary swirling around the divorce has focused on Tom's very public (and often mocked) love of Scientology. The Today show reported last week that there were other actresses that the group "auditioned" before settling on Holmes (including Scar-Jo, Sophia Vergara and Penelope Cruz, who Cruise had already had a relationship with). But what's true? Let's get a little backstory.
Katie was enamored with Tom from a very early age and she seemed ready and willing to fill the shoes of a "good" Scientology wife. They quickly became an item and as we all remember, Tom did the CRAZY YELLOW COUCH JUMP on Oprah, followed quickly by a pregnancy announcement and fairytale wedding at an Italian castle. The rumours are that Katie was offered money for every year of their marriage, plus bonuses for every child born. No one is sure what may be the truth on the prenup, but with this settlement happening so fast, I assume some of it is at least partially right.
What I do find incredibly interesting is that Katie filed on a Friday while Tom was off filming (and on his birthday) and before he had responded, rumours were swirling that she would file for an emergency hearing in NYC. This would have posed a few problems for the notoriously private Tom. The biggest one being that the proceedings would then become public...which is where I think the Scientology aspect fits in.
Scientology is a notoriously secretive group, currently run by a man who some people consider to be a tyrant. This man, David Miscavige, is also Tom's best friend and a man who lavishes gifts on Cruise. Some people are speculating that at Miscavige's insistence, Tom was trying to get little Suri into a very strict Scientology learning program which would have seen her taken away from her mother and forced to go through "Audits." Recently, while Holmes was in China, she found out that Cruise had left Suri in the hands of some "Scientology people" that mama didn't know and that was what sent Katie over the edge. It appears Tom has been waiting for Suri to turn six—the youngest age in which Scientologists believe it is safe to audit kids and Katie realized she can't keep her baby safe from that while still married to the third most powerful man in the church.
So this has me thinking that being married to super-power Tom, knowing more than most lay-people might and Katie's attempt at an "Emergency Hearing" basically said to Tom "I know about your church and will spill it ALL if you don't give me what I want." And that made Tom scared. The same week Katie filed for divorce, L. Ron Hubbard's (the group's founder) granddaughter left the church, as did Miscaviage's father and his wife. Reports also surfaced that Miscaviage's wife has not been seen since 2006 (he denies this).
The day the divorce news broke, I said, "This divorce will be the end of the Co$ (Church of Scientology), whether or not Katie set out to do it." And, if sources are to be believed, that's probably not a bad thing.
So spill it, what do you think caused TomKat's divorce?
I know, I know. Date night? Really? Well, yes and no. Yes, if you've got a dude who loves film and understands subtext. No if your mister thinks that this is a movie SOLELY about stripping or that it's a comedy. I know this is a movie that my husband will really enjoy, but for this date, I went with my two besties, Ari & Jessy.
The movie theatre only had women—four of whom were pregnant and two who were over 60 and had possibly the best running commentary I've ever heard during a film, "It must be alcohol! Strong alcohol!" (party drug GHB) "Oh, well look at that!" "That's his penis!"
If you are looking for something very in your face, well, the dancing/stripping is, but the film and story are more "Slice of Life" with an abrupt start and finish. I have seen a lot of people dogging this movie because there's no "plot". Well, yes and no. Yes, because Alex Pettyfer's character "Adam" is loosely based on Channing Tatum's experiences as a male stripper in the early 2000s and what came along with it. No, because the film overall is more about gender politics and the consumerist machine that runs Western culture right now. This movie, with it's hyper sexuality is not really ABOUT sexuality. At all. A good example of it is the character of Johana, played by Oliva Munn. She's so "whatever, it's fun!" about sex and sexuality that it doesn't even occur to Mike (Tatum) that she may have some depth or something else about her. The guys also just go on stage and do their job and lose any idea that this is something that is actually sexual for them.
But that's not to say that this movie doesn't showcase some....ahem....assets. I have never, up until this weekend thought that a) Channing Tatum was anything more than a pretty boy not-great-actor from movies like She's the Man or Step Up. B) that I even cared about men dancing. Well, I learned something about myself this weekend. I learned that men that can dance are INCREDIBLY sexy. This is definitely a Channing Tatum vehicle. His acting was surprisingly real, emotional and raw. His dancing...well, those of you who have seen the movie know that if I say "Sweat pants Pony routine" that I mean THE GREATEST THING I HAVE EVER SEEN.
We saw this movie at 2pm on a Saturday afternoon and talked about it for 12 full hours. Every 10 minutes. I get that this may not be for everyone, but if you go in expecting "sexy strippers" you'll be disappointed. If you go in knowing that this is a real-life, slice-of-life style dramedy, you'll be better for it.
Yes, there's funny moments but there are also totally sad moments and great epiphanies and incredible acting. Steven Soderbergh created a perfect balance of humour and seediness without making it pornographic. I can't recommend Magic Mike enough and cannot wait for it to come out on Blu-Ray, where I'm hoping each one of the complete dance numbers will be in the special features....in full.
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