Wednesday, September 20, 2006
2:37
I’m taping Criminal Minds and CSI: New York. I’m done BSG and Lost. I don’t need to program on my game right now. And David’s looking forward to my post about 2:37. Thus, I blog.
On Sunday the 10th, Ricky and I went downtown to watch London to Brighton. This was a lesson in lateness. Long story short, we found out about the festival on the 24th of August, went to buy advanced tickets on the 25th but they were sold out. Morning of the next scheduled ‘advance-ticket’ sales, a bunch of movies were available, but then when I got to work they weren’t. Then, the day of, they had other tickets left for 2:37, but then I waited a few hours to make sure Ricky was awake before I called him, and then, again, the tickets were sold out at that time.
So, we headed downtown to watch London to Brighton at the R.O.M. I might blog about it later, but in short, it was good at the time, but in analysis it… actually feels sorta cliché and contrived, and… it didn’t feel that special. But it was still a good time. It’s not just the movie, it’s the experience
Standing in line with other hardcore movie people – the lady behind us in line bought the 50-ticket thing, so she planned to watch 45 movies in 10 days or so – and she was at Cannes and other festivals too. And when we got to the film, the directors were there and we had a bit of an intro with them, and afterwards there was a Q&A session about the movie, so I thought that was pretty cool to experience.
Anyway, London to Brighton was at 3:00, movie ended at 4:30 – explored a bit of downtown, went to china town, bought a few dvds =) and ate around there at a Sushi Place. We finished dinner around… 7:20? And 2:37 was playing at 8:00, back at the R.O.M., where we can take the subway back. It was already 7:20, so it wouldn’t make much sense not to at least try to get into 2:37.
(We didn’t get tickets for 2:37 – but with every movie, there might still be seats left over, so a line forms outside the movie venue – called the rush line. So, we decided to try our luck at the Rush line. And boy, was it worth it.)
So we got to the rush line, and it was sorta long, maybe 20 people in front of us. Blah blah blah, we get in. Our seats? Frontmost, rightmost. Wasn’t the best viewing angle or position, but still worth it.
So the director comes up, and explains his story – apparently, a few years ago the director tried to take his own life, and then the next day he started writing this movie. I think that was quite amazing. Ricky wrote a little bit about the Film Festival on his blog, so check that out too.
Before I continue, there’s a tiny problem which works both ways. I might say, “this movie is so awesome, go see it” – but then you can’t, or you won’t, for a while, or ever, I don’t know. Also, if that’s the case, I can be as spoilerful as I like, but then it reduces the impact when you do see it. So, I’ll treat it as any other movie, and try not to be too spoilerful.
Anyways, so before the movie begins, I already had some expectations for the movie. I needed it to be pretty real, and somewhat gruesome at some parts – something realistic, uncensored, horrifying, maybe. One of the things about the Film Festival is seeing movies that won’t appear anywhere else, or at least, without some editing. (speaking of which, to Ricky, I heard D.O.A.P. might actually hit US theatres pretty soon).
ANYWAY…. so the movie begins. It’s 2:37, school just ended, and someone has committed suicide. The janitor opens the locked bathroom door and the teachers and student sees who died – and then it flashes back, to the start of the day.
So the movie is about a bunch of individual teenagers, and each of their lives and their problems. There’s a pair of brother and sister, whose parents are rich. Problem is, the father sort of ignores the daughter and treats her unfairly, and he expects too much of the son – expects straight A’s and perfect everything.
There’s the gay guy who gets picked on, although he seems strong and quick-witted enough to not let it bother him too much – at least, not on the outside. There’s the guy who has bladder problems and everyone picks on him. There’s the girl who has an eating disorder (although I don’t think they portrayed it as well as they could’ve). And, there’s the jock which has a perfect life… or does he?
So that’s the basics of it. The movie follows each character as they cross each other in school, and they each have their own black and white self-moments, where they talk to the camera about what’s wrong or what’s right with their lives. You see each person from another person’s perspective as they pass each other in the school hallways.
In the first half, I was a bit disappointed – it was still a good movie, but I felt the gruesomeness was overexaggerated – until I got to the second half. The movie then lived up to what I heard about it. I’m not saying gruesome makes movies better, but for a Film Festival movie, I think it was something I needed.
I’m not sure what else I should say, without spoiling too much. The movie was well done, it looked like it had a good budget. It definitely was worth trying to get into. I thought I saw some symbolism at one point, which was nice, but then… well, it wasn’t, heh. Or maybe it was. And, I have to say, the suicide scene looked pretty realistic! Colour of the blood was right, and the way he/she cut into the wrist looked realistic. Well, I think they used a blood packet, which would make sense with the colour… but still looked really realistic.
Oddly enough, when the onscreen suicide occurred, something happened at the back of the audience – our guess was someone collapsed at the sight of blood. Later an ambulance came by and brought him to the hospital. We wanted to stay for the Q&A, but it was getting late, and they weren’t going to start until the ambulance came. So Ricky and I decided to leave… (on another note, there were plenty of buses running, so we didn’t actually have to leave)… grr… I would’ve liked Q&A – it’s all part of the experience.
(I just checked on IMDB: Before TIFF, London to Brighton scored 8.4; now it has 7.5. Before TIFF, 2:37 had 6.4; now it has 7.0)
Also, www.twothirty7.com .
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I’m taping Criminal Minds and CSI: New York. I’m done BSG and Lost. I don’t need to program on my game right now. And David’s looking forward to my post about 2:37. Thus, I blog. On Sunday the 10th, Ricky and I went downtown to watch London to Brighton. This was a lesson in lateness. Long story short, we found out about the festival on the 24th of August, went to buy advanced tickets on the 25th but they were sold out. Morning of the next scheduled ‘advance-ticket’ sales, a bunch of movies were available, but then when I got to work they weren’t. Then, the day of, they had other tickets left for 2:37, but then I waited a few hours to make sure Ricky was awake before I called him, and then, again, the tickets were sold out at that time. So, we headed downtown to watch London to Brighton at the R.O.M. I might blog about it later, but in short, it was good at the time, but in analysis it… actually feels sorta cliché and contrived, and… it didn’t feel that special. But it was still a good time. It’s not just the movie, it’s the experience Standing in line with other hardcore movie people – the lady behind us in line bought the 50-ticket thing, so she planned to watch 45 movies in 10 days or so – and she was at Cannes and other festivals too. And when we got to the film, the directors were there and we had a bit of an intro with them, and afterwards there was a Q&A session about the movie, so I thought that was pretty cool to experience. Anyway, London to Brighton was at 3:00, movie ended at 4:30 – explored a bit of downtown, went to china town, bought a few dvds =) and ate around there at a Sushi Place. We finished dinner around… 7:20? And 2:37 was playing at 8:00, back at the R.O.M., where we can take the subway back. It was already 7:20, so it wouldn’t make much sense not to at least try to get into 2:37. (We didn’t get tickets for 2:37 – but with every movie, there might still be seats left over, so a line forms outside the movie venue – called the rush line. So, we decided to try our luck at the Rush line. And boy, was it worth it.) So we got to the rush line, and it was sorta long, maybe 20 people in front of us. Blah blah blah, we get in. Our seats? Frontmost, rightmost. Wasn’t the best viewing angle or position, but still worth it. So the director comes up, and explains his story – apparently, a few years ago the director tried to take his own life, and then the next day he started writing this movie. I think that was quite amazing. Ricky wrote a little bit about the Film Festival on his blog, so check that out too. Before I continue, there’s a tiny problem which works both ways. I might say, “this movie is so awesome, go see it” – but then you can’t, or you won’t, for a while, or ever, I don’t know. Also, if that’s the case, I can be as spoilerful as I like, but then it reduces the impact when you do see it. So, I’ll treat it as any other movie, and try not to be too spoilerful. Anyways, so before the movie begins, I already had some expectations for the movie. I needed it to be pretty real, and somewhat gruesome at some parts – something realistic, uncensored, horrifying, maybe. One of the things about the Film Festival is seeing movies that won’t appear anywhere else, or at least, without some editing. (speaking of which, to Ricky, I heard D.O.A.P. might actually hit US theatres pretty soon). ANYWAY…. so the movie begins. It’s 2:37, school just ended, and someone has committed suicide. The janitor opens the locked bathroom door and the teachers and student sees who died – and then it flashes back, to the start of the day. So the movie is about a bunch of individual teenagers, and each of their lives and their problems. There’s a pair of brother and sister, whose parents are rich. Problem is, the father sort of ignores the daughter and treats her unfairly, and he expects too much of the son – expects straight A’s and perfect everything. There’s the gay guy who gets picked on, although he seems strong and quick-witted enough to not let it bother him too much – at least, not on the outside. There’s the guy who has bladder problems and everyone picks on him. There’s the girl who has an eating disorder (although I don’t think they portrayed it as well as they could’ve). And, there’s the jock which has a perfect life… or does he? So that’s the basics of it. The movie follows each character as they cross each other in school, and they each have their own black and white self-moments, where they talk to the camera about what’s wrong or what’s right with their lives. You see each person from another person’s perspective as they pass each other in the school hallways. In the first half, I was a bit disappointed – it was still a good movie, but I felt the gruesomeness was overexaggerated – until I got to the second half. The movie then lived up to what I heard about it. I’m not saying gruesome makes movies better, but for a Film Festival movie, I think it was something I needed. I’m not sure what else I should say, without spoiling too much. The movie was well done, it looked like it had a good budget. It definitely was worth trying to get into. I thought I saw some symbolism at one point, which was nice, but then… well, it wasn’t, heh. Or maybe it was. And, I have to say, the suicide scene looked pretty realistic! Colour of the blood was right, and the way he/she cut into the wrist looked realistic. Well, I think they used a blood packet, which would make sense with the colour… but still looked really realistic. Oddly enough, when the onscreen suicide occurred, something happened at the back of the audience – our guess was someone collapsed at the sight of blood. Later an ambulance came by and brought him to the hospital. We wanted to stay for the Q&A, but it was getting late, and they weren’t going to start until the ambulance came. So Ricky and I decided to leave… (on another note, there were plenty of buses running, so we didn’t actually have to leave)… grr… I would’ve liked Q&A – it’s all part of the experience. (I just checked on IMDB: Before TIFF, London to Brighton scored 8.4; now it has 7.5. Before TIFF, 2:37 had 6.4; now it has 7.0) Also, www.twothirty7.com . |