Coming Distractions June 23th, 2009

Waltz With Bashir
Confessions of a Shopaholic
Inkheart
Phoebe in Wonderland
Pink Panther 2
The Code
Dragon Hunters
Bob Funk
Leonard Cohen: Live in London
Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus
Last Year at Marienbad

Have you ever had that feeling when you are walking through the town where you live, the town where you've lived for years upon years, and you suddenly really see the place? And it doesn't look strange, but it no longer looks familiar. The town looks like it could be every place, any town, but it's still specific. You know its particularities well. And you have this moment of seeing this town so humid and so still (like a photograph, like the feeling of driving past Chicago; the falsely timeless look of all the houses crowding toward the highway as you curve away to someplace else), and yet the town so in motion, cars zipping by. This overwhelming feeling of both motion and stillness that makes you feel as if you could die sometime in the near future, because of the (also maybe false) sense of this moment's significance, but you're glad you're probably not going to die soon and still you are surprised that you live anywhere, in any place, at all?

Speaking of places, there's this big one to our north (you've probably heard of it): Canada. It's where Leonard Cohen is from (of the new Live in London DVD)! Those Canadians have also made some pretty awesome movies. The (some would say, sadly under-watched) film Léolo, like Mr. Cohen, is also from Quebec, as are Lilies (which interweaves theater with reality in a surprisingly pleasing manner), and Bon Cop, Bad Cop.


One of my all-time favorite directors, David Cronenberg, is from Toronto and has made many of his movies in his homeland. (Dead Ringers, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises, Crash, Videodrome, Scanners).


Director Bruce McDonald is also a native of Ontario. I would strongly recommend Highway 61 (about a young Canadian barber's odyssey with a strange woman and a corpse to New Orleans), and I am very excited for the upcoming Pontypool, because there is always room for another good zombie movie (not Canadian but also upcoming and exciting: Dead Snow (Nazi Zombies)(Norway) & Zombieland (Woody Harrelson & Emma Stone killing zombies)(USA))


Guy Maddin is of Winnipeg, and specializes in a very entertaining modern day twist on silent film. He uses many of the techniques of a bygone era, such as smearing the camera lens with vaseline, in a highly original manner in such films as The Saddest Music in the World, Brand Upon the Brain, the upcoming My Winnipeg. Canadian band The Weakerthans have a song about Winnipeg. Check it out.

Other Canadian films: Porky's, Away From Her, 32 Short Films about Glenn Gould, The Sweet Hereafter, C.R.A.Z.Y., Meatballs, New Waterford Girl, and Prom Night (1980). Also: Dan Akroyd.
Yay for Canadian film! Am I missing any of your (most/least) favorites?