Noche de Tapas!!

October 26 was the inauguration of Pepe, the new wine cave, lounge and tapas hangout spawned by Veronica and Jorge of Torito Tapas Bar, voted one of (Toronto Life's Top 10 Best New Restaurant) in Kensington Market. Antonio hosted the event with multiple tastings the newest wines coming from the cellars of Finca Los Nevados. Chef Carlos Hernandez delighted us with savory tapas of serrano ham, chorizo, croquettes, tortilla espanola, and manchego cheese. The wines paired marvelously for a delightful eve of funky house jazz courtesy of in house DJ. Bumped into an old colleague from Over the Rainbow who claimed he recognized me from the wine scene but my Sicilian witch doctor's memory served me right. Jeremy and I worked together 17 years ago in the rag trade before he left to launch his own sales agency and I poured over Chaucer and the Fairie Queen.

Across the Universe et al.

I was sort of hot and cold on this one when I saw it in the TIFF book at last month's festival and I should have stuck to my instincts. Julie Taymor's Across the Universe is a baby boomer's dream come true about 1960's angst, love, loss and redemption infused with a wall-to-wall Beatles songbook. Where Moulin Rouge soared and this film fizzes are in the gaping holes of the narrative that are hard to fill with smushed strawberries and tiring psychedelic sequences of blue people in tents. Although if truth be told, the singing and choreography are solely spectacular. I would have liked to learn more of Prudence-the-lesbian from Ohio or about JoJo the guitartist's life in Detroit---hard to do with an ensemble cast that mixes a Liverpool limey looking for his GI American father who befriends an Ivy league dropout and then moves to New York in with Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix wannabes and the draft and 'Nam and the civil rights movement and police brutality and Bono the Walrus and Joe Cocker and Eddie Izzard the Kite Man and....who cares? Obviously the freedom 55 crowd that made up the majority of the audience. ***

The She Found Me
Helen Hunt wrote and directed this film about an adopted Jewish woman trying desperately to have a baby with her dolt of a husband played by the weenie Matthew Broderick. She resists adoption from her pushy dying mother and well meaning brother even after Weenie dolt dumps her and she takes up with an adorable yet exhausting and bordering-on-schizo bloke played by the edible Colin Firth. WASP queen Hunt does not have Jewish believeability despite the Sabbath candle lighting and reconnecting with birth mother (played by Bette Midler) solely because she plays the same character she always plays (i.e.Mad About You Jamie or As Good As It Gets Carol or Cast Away Kelly to name a few). ***

Married Life- My least favourite flick of this year's festivale. Chris Cooper plays Harry a middle-aged, middle-class, post-war family man having an affair with should-not-be-blonde widow Kay (Rachel McAdams). In his love for Kay, Harry decides to pop off his smart and sensual wife Pat (played by the stunning Patrica Clarkson). Plagued by jealousy, Harry's best bud Rich (Pierce Brosnan) swoons Kay for himself leaving crusty Harry with a botched murder scheme and Pat's own knickers around her ankles for some other horndog in their dysfunctional 1950's circle of Jones'. The film flops because there is positively no chemistry to be found anywhere with any of the characters. Cooper is a fine actor but Harry's character is an utterly unbelieveable paramour for lusty Kay. Even as Rich sweeps Kay off her feet, or Pat's doing the nasty at the cabin with you-hoo, there is nary an iota of lust or caution or pash or nothin'. **

TIFF Updates

Sorry for being a shitty blogger but I have not stopped (but to belch and expel other gases). TIFF feels like moons ago and before these films make wide release I thought I'd throw in my two cents.

Elizabeth the Golden Age

Hands down. Stamped it. Double locked it. No rubbsies. Cate Blanchett is the BEST actress working in Hollywood today. I have become obsessed with all things Tudor as a result of her SPECTACULAR performance of the regina vergine opposite sexy Clive Owen as Sir Walter Raleigh and Geoffrey Rush as Sir Francis Walsingham. This is the film I have been waiting for all year and Indian director Shekhar Kapur does not disappoint. Although I was expecting some sexytime betwixt Cate and Clive (Sir Robert Dudley he is not) but Kapur more than makes up for it with an amazing montage of the fall of the Spanish Armada. Elizabeth was 55 at the time and past her blushing English rose prime although she still beats the tar out of her lady-in-waiting and sends Raleigh to the Tower for fornicating. Kapur sat down for an intelligent and surprisingly long (he loves talking about this film) Q&A where I asked him how much creative license he allowed himself given that his films will ultimately become texts for learning about the period for this and generations to come. We can expect a third part to this trilogy about the end of Elizabeth's life but Cate's gotta be older and willing to do it.*****

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

With the exception of one train robbery we are largely spared the predictable shoot ups of America's most notorious outlaw and his band of ho-bo-pick-em-up-bad-guys-for-hire. Filmed in Winnipeg, Calgary, and Canmore (director Andrew Dominik failed to comment on filming in Manitoba's capital and when asked in a press conference by a journalist from the Winnipeg Free Press, he answered 'Yeah. Calgary was great...) 'MM thinks she caught a glimpse of her brother Sam who played an extra in the train robbery sequence.

The film is composed of mostly watching creepy Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) stalk Jesse (Brad Pitt) for 2 hours and 40 minutes. Not a huge fan of Westerns or the dialogue flick of which this film is both. Sam Shepard gets star billing and is in the film for 5 minutes. Pitt, however is outstanding as the dark, scary, bad guy you love to root for. My bet is he'll be nominated for (and likely win) the Oscar depending on the competition. ****

In Bloom

Beautifully shot In Bloom is Toronto-trained director Vadim Perelman's (House of Sand and Fog) second feature starring Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood, and Eva Amurri as high school BFFs Diana and Maureen. When a colossal tragedy strikes their school, adult Diana (Uma) reflects on what could have been. Given the subject matter several scenes are hard to watch. Wood's main squeeze Marilyn Manson was in the audience for moral support and wee Evan (she just turned 20) flashed her brilliant cut waaayy too many times in the Q&A following the film.
TIFF programmer Jane Schoettle gave us the poop on the film's distribution. Word is it has been sold everywhere except for Canada and the U.S. (likely given its Columbine/Dawson College theme). *****

Michael Clayton

So far so good on all of our TIFF '07 picks. Started out the festival with Michael Clayton starring George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, and Sydney Pollack. First time director Tony Gilroy, (screenwriter who gave birth to the Bourne Identity, Supremacy, and Ultimatum franchise) packs a wallop with his saga of a corporate corruption. Wilkinson is exhausting as the bi-polar legal genius who threatens to tank his high powered New York law firm and the unconscionable biochemical multinational (headed by Tilda Swinton) that they represent. Clooney's Michael Clayton is the firm's 'janitor', called into the contain and mop up the mess it makes apart from his own hacked up life plagued by addiction, divorce, debt.

Clooney takes on corporate greed even in this fast paced Hollywood blockbuster sure to sweep the box office off its feet! *****

TIFF begins!!

Good box karma this year. Box 66 out of 75 and we were in Box 29. Got all of our picks but STILL had to wait in the scorching line for 5 hours on Labour Day to swap Chaotic Ana for Helen Hunt's directorial debut in Then She Found Me. I was humming and hawing over Before the Devil Knows You're Dead because j'adore everybody's favourite creep, Phillip Seymour Hoffman but it will likely come to the theatres soon and we can save it for a film club. My sister says Colin Firth is everyone's dream husband and I should not pass up on seeing him in zee flesh for a look at Capote sans greasy combover. Soooooo, the final list is as follows:

Michael Clayton - George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Sidney Pollack
In Bloom - Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood
Then She Found Me - Helen Hunt, Colin Firth
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck
Elizabeth: The Golden Age - Cate Blanchett, Clive Owen, Geoffrey Rush
Married Life - Pierce Brosnan, Chris Cooper, Patricia Clarkson, Rachel McAdams

Les boys are back in town and we have made prelims for Senator size martinis for Monday night. Bon festival!!!!

Where does the time go?

Even the world's most dedicated bloggers slack when life's crap weighs them down. 2007 has been just that kind of year. Loss, illness, divorce, toxins...we've been ravaged by it all.

However, the spring has not been without its highlights:

My magnolia bloomed and I am feeling less like Ms. Weezer every day.

The haikugirl team was recognized for best use of the theme of Faith for the documentary short "Marathon Women" for the IDC which premiered at Hotdocs.

Attended a shwank tasting for the Sante Wine Festival at the Carlu. Sampled some lovely South African reds and a surprisingly good Ontario shiraz (shock!). Although the invitation strictly said 'eat before you come' the Daniel et Daniel catered event featured amusebouche comme ca . de puny.

Primadonna: Confessions of An Italian Princess will have its debut at the Montreal Fringe Festival this June. Featuring a clever bit on 'Messing with the Malocchio' from Mamma Mia! Good Italian Girls Talk Back! (ECW Press, 2004). Stay tuned for a documentary on the malocchio featuring an interview with yours truly....

AAM Syndrome

Needed a break from my intense Italian cousin visiting from Parma (home of parmiggiano and prosciutto). Antonio crossed the pond to exploring medical residency options in Ontario and the U.S. The young surgeon does not suffer fools lightly and Antonio Alpha Male Syndrome was boiling over. Had some of the typical U.S. customs nonsense at the Lewiston border crossing ("We're a country at war, Ma'am").

We outsourced Easter brunch at Villa. The proprietors of the site in Bloor West turfed Il Fornello (appartently only a month to month lease) but not before copying their menu and concept to a T.