Today I saw the film that will, without question, be my favorite movie of the festival and one of the best movies I’ll see all year. I LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED it. I could not have loved it more. If I could, I would marry this movie. I sat through the whole thing with a huge smile slapped across my face. I laughed a lot (and loudly) and even cried at the end because it was that good.
The movie was called Imagine Me and You and I will continue to lavish praise upon it later in this entry. I just had to get some of my immediate post-screening euphoria out before proceeding to the recap of the rest of day.
[calmly breathing in and breathing out…calmly breathing in and breathing out…]
Okay, so I started the day with a quick promenade around the Four Seasons area to see if there was anyone strolling about. I had seen (attention Jennifer! attention Jennifer!) Viggo Mortensen being interviewed live at the hotel on a local TV morning show an hour earlier, so I thought he might still be around. Sadly, he was not. And neither was anyone else. But fear not, Jennifer, for I will not give up until he hops a plane outta here!
My first movie of the day was Douches froides (5/8), a French film whose title translates to Cold Showers, but a film which was promoted in such a way as to make it sound much steamier than it actually is. (Dial it down a few notches, hyperactive programmer and fest co-head, Noah Cowan.) The film tells the story of three teenagers: Mickael (Johan Libéreau), his girlfriend Vanessa (Salomé Stevenin), and the new kid on the judo team (Pierre Perrier), who enters into a curious and ultimately problematic love triangle with them. The film is a tiny bit racier than the standard North American teen films – and there are PLENTY of naked young men running around with their genitalia on full-frontal display – but overall it proves to be more of a chaste character study than a shocking sex drama, which was totally fine.
I followed that with a fantastic documentary called The Devil & Daniel Johnston (6/8), about the career of the titular, little-known but cult-superstar American singer-songwriter…whose talents were (and still are, to some extent) eclipsed by his mental illness. Tracking his life and musical endeavors from the early 1980s to present day, the doc paints a moving portrait of a troubled artist plagued (quite literally) by his inner demons. It reminded me a LOT of Mayor of the Sunset Strip, which played TIFF a few years ago and which I also loved. Both films are set in the music world, both are excellent and both made me cry. It repeats tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon, so if you’re in Toronto, reading this and pondering what to see on a Saturday afternoon at the festival, give this one some serious consideration.
Afterwards, I had a craving for ice cream, so I bought what turned out to be the most expensive ice cream cone ever (for what I got, I mean). I’d like to give a shout out to Laura Secord, for their ridiculously overpriced cones – which are TINY and which ring up at a hefty $2.66 for a miniscule single scoop! No more ice cream for dinner.
And then…The Best Film of the Fest.
*sigh*
I had a feeling about Imagine Me and You (8/8…a FULL PIE!) when I read about it in the program book. The cast looked good, the story looked fun, and it’s always nice to throw a romantic comedy into your festgoing mix. It was one of my must-see movies this year and one I was really looking forward to.
Oh, how right I was!
It was so funny, so sweet, so romantic, so pitch-perfect in all the right ways! Piper Perabo stars as Rachel, who’s newly married to Heck (Matthew Goode), a fantastic guy who’s like the love child of Hugh Grant and Rupert Everett. But, on their wedding day, Rachel locks eyes with the florist, a gay woman named Luce (Lena Headey, in a role that will steal the hearts of gay women everywhere!), for a brief but life-changing moment. For reasons she can’t explain, Rachel finds herself drawn to Luce in a powerful, soulmates-forever, completely confusing (for Rachel) way. For her part, Luce is wildly attracted to Rachel, but does her best to quash her feelings since Rachel is, you know, apparently straight and very clearly married.
Superbly paced, wonderfully acted and cleverly sidestepping so many rom-com clichés, the film does everything right (that’s right, I said it, EVERYTHING!) and is easily one of the best lesbian movies I’ve ever seen…and it’s written and directed by a straight man! (Ol Parker, aka: Mr. Thandie Newton.) The chemistry between Headey and Perabo is so powerful and intense that it practically leaps off the screen and smacks you in the face, and the supporting cast (including Celia Imrie and Buffy’s Anthony Head as Perabo’s parents) is divinely hilarious. Imagine Me and You is this year’s Love, Actually or Four Weddings and a Funeral.
It repeats Sunday afternoon at 3:15, and I cannot recommend it enough. If I haven’t made it clear by now: Go. See. It.
And while I’m elated to have seen it, I’m a teensy bit bummed that I saw it so early in the festival. It’s now set the bar SO high that I fear it may force me to compare all future TIFF ’05 films to its heartwarming magnificence. “Well, that was good, but it was no Imagine Me and You!”
But, man. I loved it so very much.
Tomorrow, three movies and (fingers crossed!) Catherine Keener!
Celebrity Sightings: Zero. Much to my EXTREME dismay, neither Headey nor Perabo showed for their film’s WORLD PREMIERE!!! I mean, come ON! I thought they’d sure things! It’s the first time their movie was being shown, EVER. But no. Dammit.
Roger Ebert Sightings: Nope, not yet. But I just saw some entertainment reporter on TV gushing about having just run into him. WhatEVER.
Line Buzz: My line-mates were somewhat quiet today. There was some less-than-glowing chit-chat about Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic, the comedian’s one-woman show. And the funniest “review” I heard was actually while I was in my seat, waiting for Imagine… to begin. Two women were discussing what they’d seen the previous day, and one of them had seen Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the new Val Kilmer/Robert Downey Jr. movie. When asked what she thought, the woman said, “Val Kilmer is FAT! And he’s FAT in real life, too!” Hee. And tomorrow, I’m planning on launching my own line-buzz PR assault for Imagine Me and You -- everyone I meet is getting an earful about how great it is! So there.
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7 comments:
Good grief.
Blog spam.
That's no fun. I got go into the technical aspect of how the spam works, but it's intrically tied into blogspot and how it works.
To comment on Sarah Silverman, I thought it was hilarious... perfect for midnight madness... maybe people were offended, I dunno, but between the comedy and the music (maybe I'm the only one who liked the songs she sung), it was great.
Yeah, I think Sarah Silverman is definitely not for everyone. But, to her credit, this woman still said she was glad she went. The program book description made me think it's a racier version of Sandra Bernhard's Without You I'm Nothing.
Did you love it more than cake?
Funny, on IMDB, Imagine Me & You's official website links to the BBC, which calls the movie Click. It looks like it will be released under that name in the UK on November 4, 2005.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfilms/releases/click.shtml
!!!
Yes, I actually DID love it more than cake.
Which is shocking, I know. But true.
I think watching the movie *while* eating cake might be the ideal scenario.
And I believe "Click" was the film's pre-"Imagine" title. There's some other movie coming out this year (or next year) called "Click" (I think it's an Adam Sandler movie...?), so they may be trying to avoid that title now.
I prefer Imagine Me and You. It has a kind of dreamy vibe to it that fits the movie perfectly.
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