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I agree about Deadgirl, it's pretty worthless. I was bored by the 20 minute mark, it's not even remotely scary/clever (or whatever the film is trying to do).

Oh well, I am seeing Slumdog Millionaire tonight, so let's hope it lives up to the hype.

Has anyone here seen both the original cut of Hounddog and the newly recut version? I ask because I just saw the recut (release) version and really liked it, but never saw the older one. Good Southern gothic, I thought. Will post a full review closer to its release date.

Can a living corpse be raped? Do the undead have the ability to give legal consent? Sounds like a gray area in the law that a savvy screenwriter could spin out to a third-act courtroom climax.

"Not Quite Hollywood" is better than "Visions of Light," "My Voyage to Italy?" Wow.

"Happy Go Lucky" is my least favorite Mike Leigh since "Career Girls." Damn, another TIFF letdown. Everyone seems to adore Sally Hawkins' performance, but she grated on my nerves much of the time. She's like this annoying hybrid of Rita Tushingham at her twee-est, ethereal mid-60s Geraldine Chaplin and pre-"Six Feet Under" Rachel Griffiths.
"The Burning Plain" seemed a little better than expected,
maybe because my expectations were so low due to the lukewarm early reviews. Theron is better than she's been in years, possibly since "Monster;" Basinger basically repeats her great "Door in the
"Floor" performance which is fine by me; and newcomer Jennifer Lawrence (who won an award at Venice) blew me away.
Overall, it's a perfectly creditable directing debut by screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga. Interestingly, Robert Elswit and John Toll share a cinematography credit.
Commercially it's probably doomed, though: it'll be damn lucky to hit "21 Grams" numbers.

Great to hear that Secret Life of Bees works. I know people who love the book but when the movie was announced with the Hallmark movie of the week cast of Latifah, Fanning and the horrid Hudson I wrote it off. Glad to put it back on the list.

Fast rundown of today's 5 movies:
"Resurrecting Adam." Another flatliner from Paul Schrader despite a bravura performance by Jeff Goldblum that, sadly, will be largely unseen. Miniscule commercial potential.
"Synedoche, New York." Charlie Kaufman's "8 1/2," and one of the most enjoyable films I've seen so far at TIFF. The middling response it received from American critics at Cannes baffles me. A commercial longshot, but a cult following is assured.
"The Wrestler." Very, very solid. The closest thing to a mainstream movie Aronofsky's ever directed, and possibly his most all-around satisfying as well.
"The Other Man." Might've worked better as a French movie starring Isabelle Huppert and Daniel Auteuil. Neeson and Linney fail to recapture that old "Kinsey" magic.
"Pride and Glory." Beautifully shot by Declan Quinn and solidly acted, this long-in-the-can Gavin O'Connor movie can't shake off a crippling case of deja vu. Besides the classic Lumet films it clearly emulates, it's much too similar to such recent cop flicks as "We Own the Night" and, yes, "The Departed."

Chris, Not Quite Hollywood is a bit different to My Voyage to Italy. For one, Mark Hartley (the director of NQH) doesn't put himself into the action. Also, Hartley made the movie because the "ozploitation" titles had been all but written out of my country's cinema history. I, personally, new about quite a few of them but there were plenty that I'd never even heard of (Fair Game, in which QT got his inspiration for Death Proof's Zoe-Bell-on-the-hood car chase).

I'm glad you liked it, Dave! It's definitely the most fun I've had in the cinema so far for 2008. I'm slowly, but surely, making my way through the more prominent titles that the film discusses. I reckon Dead End Drive-In and Patrick are pure cinematic classics, ones like Thirst and Mad Dog Morgan (with Dennis Hopper) are great shlocky entertainments while Howling III: The Marsupials is dreadful, however I had seen that before seeing NQH and I found the clips quite hilarious so maybe I should revisit.

It's great hearing the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dennis Hopper, Sigrid Thornton, Brian Trenchard-Smith and the likes revisit this crazy time that I would have loved - especially as someone who so closely follows my national cinema with sadness at the lack of genre or, hell, hits in general that we produce. I personally liked Wendy Hughes' talking about how the critics reviewed her tits instead of her acting.

Really great fun, whether you're aware of the movies being discussed or not.

Oh, I wanted to include that not even Aussie audiences were all that excited about the prospect of Not Quite Hollywood as it'll barely cross the $200,000 box office mark. It was, however, a big hit at the festivals it screened at and the film's distributor (Madman) are the distributors of many of the "ozploitation" titles on DVD so they'll make money from them more than the doco itself.

Having said that, maybe something about it will tickle the fancy of American cinemagoers?

Here's a quick rundown on Monday's films.
ADAM RESURRECTED---Another Paul Schrader flatliner despite a bravura Jeff Goldblum performance that nobody will ever see. A
commercial nonstarter.
SYNEDOCHE, NEW YORK---Charlie Kaufman's "8 1/2," and one of the most enjoyable movies I've seen at IFF so far. The tepid (American) critical response this received at Cannes baffles me. Like all Kaufman flicks, a cult following is predordained.
THE WRESTLER---A solid, solid work. While easily the most conventional Arnofsky film to date, it's also his most all-around satisfying.
THE OTHER MAN---Might've worked better as a French movie starring Isabelle Huppert and Daniel Auteuil.
PRIDE AND GLORY--As beautifully shot (by Declain Quinn) and solidly acted as it is, this long-in-the-can Gavin O'Connor flick is handicapped by a terminal case of cop movie deja vu. Maybe if "The Departed" and "We Own the Night" had never existed, this would have stood a chance of attracting a theatrical audience. DVD should be a lot kinder.

....sorry for the double post.
i'm having a bitch of a time with my internet connection, and the first posting didn't seem to have registered, so I just did it again...

Religulous: Scattershot social satire that wears out its welcome at the half-way point. Could've made a classic one-hour HBO comedy special.
A Christmas Tale: The only TIFF movie so far that's a lock for my 2008 10-best list. Desplechin in peak form.
The Hurt Locker: Kathryn Bigelow's brilliantly directed Iraq-set thriller will probably be blasted by critics for its lack of a political p.o.v. And ignored by audiences--that is if it ever finds a distributer--because of its b.o. poison Iraq setting and low-wattage cast.
For shame.
Martyrs: Weinstein (allegedly) has U.S. distribution rights, but expect a direct-to-video launch a la the eminently superior "Inside." The fest program billed this Gallic splatter flick as another "Haute Tension" and "Inside" although it feels more like a Miike J-horror throwaway instead. Things don't get interesting until the final half hour when it finally gets around to explaining that title. By then you're likely to be too bored (or disgusted) to give a damn. I know that I was.

i already said it in the other thread but i can't resist a second little shout out for my girl kathryn! back in the saddle again (or tank, as it may be for 'hurt locker')

Camel: I would like to go on record as giving a big thumb's up for Wendy Hughes' tits.

teehee, I'm sure she'd be pleased beyond a doubt!

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