with words I thought I'd never speak

Today was the last day of the film festival. I've been BOOKED UP this entire past week, seeing movies or going to panels from 8am to 10pm or even midnight on a couple nights. Barely had time to eat, no time for homework, didn't get much sleep, and I definitely caught a cold. But it was amazing. I've seen a lot of REALLY great stuff. Carnage, with Kate Winslet and Jodie Foster, was amazing, and it played out in real time in one location, I ADORED it. Jeff, Who Lives at Home, which was my last movie of the festival, was excellent and funny and all of the scenes were improvised, which I find fascinating. Also the co-writer/co-director who came to accept the award on behalf of him and his brother, Jay Duplass, was SUPER ADORABLE. The Artist, which was opening night, was gorgeous and really intersting. A silent black & white movie. Butter, with Jennifer Garner and Olivia Wilde, was a surprise hit, and was HILARIOUS. We Need to Talk About Kevin was fucking disturbing but... good? Crazy as hell, but Ezra Miller was great, and he was also in Another Happy Day, which I ADORED. Ellen Barkin and the writer/director Sam Levinson were here with that. Bringing Up Bobby was Famke Janssen's writing/directing debut, and I really enjoyed that a lot, and also she is gorgeous in real life. Ray Liotta was here with The Son of No One, which I thought was really great; it reminded me of The Departed, kind of? Coriolanus was really interesting... Wasn't expecting it to be THAT Shakespearian, but it was, and I thought it really worked. And A Dangerous Method, that was pretty great, and kinky, and kind of funny as well. Loved Kiera Knightly in it. Aaron Eckhart and James Marsden were both here also but I didn't get to see them (though I did see James both in a theater and outside the hotel. LOVE.). The Muppets movie had it's world premiere last night, but I opted not to wait in line to try and get a rush ticket for that, and I also didn't have a ticket for tonight's closing night movie, Like Crazy, but I'm cool with that. I ended on a really great note this afternoon (with Jeff and the Jay Duplass Q&A).

Old movies: I also saw Barry Lyndon, which was... LONG AS FUCK and I thought it was kind of boring, but Alec Baldwin and James Toback came out to talk about it so that was neat, and Born of the Fourth of July, which I hadn't seen either, but that one was really great. Oliver Stone came to talk about that, and to accept an award. Lily Tomlin was also here with The Late Show, and to be honest I remember her more than the movie! She was great, though.

Indie movies: Let Go was really quirky and interesting and definitely cute. And Take Me Home, about a woman who gets in a taxi and they travel from NY to California, that was pretty sweet and cute. There was also A Year in Mooring, with Josh Lucas and James Cromwell (who I saw many times) which was so atmospheric and gorgeous, I really enjoyed it because it didn't go through the traditional Hollywood structure. Inuk was really great too, set in Greenland, and there were no professional actors, it was crazy. All the kids were actually from the children's home up there, and the hunters were actually hunters. It was so great. The guy was a documentary filmmaker with them for a long time before asking them to be in this narrative.

The documentaries that I saw were stunning. To be honest, I think I liked them more than the narrative films. It's much harder to choose a favorite, in any case. PressPausePlay was AMAZING, and it's actually available for download on their site and you should check this shit out. It's right up your alley, and it made me so emotional about art and music and creativity. These Amazing Shadows was about the National Film Registry and it was really great too, and it's going to be on PBS on Dec 29th at 10, you should check that out too. The Bully Project was kind of mindblowing. It was about school bullies, and kids who committed suicide, and it followed a kid around at school and FILMED THE BULLYING and fuck, guys, I was crying my way through that one. The City Dark was about stars and the night sky, and light pollution in cities and even its effect on the human body. It was FASCINATING and also really stunning, but I have a thing for stars and astronomy. They made connections between breast cancer and constant light! I ate that shit up. Oh, and GROW! was about young farmers--young people getting passionate about organic farming. I liked it more than I thought I would, and the filmmakers were around all week, they were pretty great. All of the documentaries were so gorgeous, I loved them.

I went to these "Coffee Talks" almost every weekday morning, and those were fantastic. It's like a really casual panel, more like a conversation, a bunch of students and filmmakers/actors sitting around this lounge area with coffee and doughnuts having a conversation about whatever the topic of the day is. I also went to a Young Director's Forum, which was very intersting, and Bill Borden and Shawn Ku were there, and Shawn was adorable and really funny. And I went to this last-minute Screenwriters/Finding an Agent panel, and there were these two women there who were managers (as opposed to agents) and their little discussion was just so enlightening and great and I met them both afterward and gave them my card, which is always exciting. I tried to stay after the movies during the Q&As, which were pretty much all great, though of course there's always a person in the audience who asks a dumb question or embarrasses themself. Anyway, there were also several beautiful short films, which I won't name alll of, but I think North Atlantic was my favorite (also the writer/director is SO CUTE). That and Winter Frog (grenouille d'hiver). Of course I loved the two about death, but they were both beautiful, touching little stories. There were a couple good animated shorts and student shorts that I liked too.

SO, NOW, the film festival is over, and I get to sleep an extra hour tonight because of the stupid time change thing, and TOMORROW, I need to do the homework I haven't even had time to think about all week. Also tommorow will be a reading of my play on my school radio station. Which will (should) be fun! It was last year. But it also eats into my day because I'm going to be at the radio station for like 4 or 6 hours. D: But omg, once I get that done and my homework for Monday done, then I can CHILL a bit, because the rest of the quarter (JUST TWO WEEKS OMG) is much more relaxed. Haha, everyone was gearing up for the film fest and now we all gotta take a breath. I did have a chance to meet with my producer and OMG she walked into my apartment with the "how can I help you" attitude and when she walked out I felt like SUCH a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. She's great and I love her already.

Fandom-wise, I've been keeping track of things but haven't been able to participate much since I've been in movie theaters or lines ALL DAY EVERY DAY, but I am quite excited about this Adam + Queen thing going on tomorrow. There better be uploads ASAP, since I won't be home for it! Anyway, I've also missed writing a lot; sulwen and I were on a roll with our LBB (and... other things) and then I had to just abandon everything all week, so that kind of sucked. So next week we'll get back to writing and relaxing and omg I can't wait. It has been the MOST FUN. Also, Adam and Sauli are being the most precious about their anniversary right now on twitter and it's killing me with cute. I keep meaning to get back on lj more often but... well. I'm glad I can keep track of everyone via twitter, even if not many people on here are following me there.

AMAZING.

BRILLIANT.

NOT-REALLY SPOILERS:

( MOSTLY JUST CAPSLOCKE )

SORRY, IT'S 3:15 IN THE MORNING AND AS MIKEYWAY WOULD PUT IT: MY MIND WAS BLOWN.

good idea: starting homework when it's assigned, then finishing it well before it's due.

bad idea: ignoring homework and starting it the night before it's due, at 10:40pm.

take a guess at which idea I had.

in other news, I rather liked Kingdom of Heaven, though I did think it was too dark most of the time. there's a time and place for darkness, and most of the time, I just want to see what's on the screen, really. I liked Orli's hair, though. lol

and in still other news, mock_the_stupid is hilarious.

ETA: Not due until Friday, yayness! unfortunately, that is now tomorrow, and I still don't have near enough of it finished. FUCK.

and so much stuff has happened! first of all, in TV land...

- The Office: Casino Night - OMG JIM. CRYING. LOVE. AWWWWWWW. ♥ SO MUCH.
- The Beatles' Help! movie - CRACKTASTIC. I think the best part was watching them mess around in the snow, LOL.
- the Monk and Psych holiday specials - were nothing really special. >.< but any new Psych is good, because it is adorable. :P

in the mail today came the movies Reign Over Me, which looked really good, so I can't wait to watch it, and THE FLYING SCOTSMAN. YAY!!! I also have Hairspray from the store, and that really has to go back, but I haven't watched it yet...

in school news, I got an A in Studio Production. as if I could've gotten anything else. and a B in math, which means I didn't do fantastically on the final, because before the final, I think my grade was about a B+... and I don't have my grade for Italian yet, but my grade prior to the exam is a 92.8, which is ALMOST an A, I think. I looked up the books I need for next quarter: Italian uses the same book I already have, which is very nice; Physics requires like, 4 different book/workbook/study guide things, booo; and the two books for Writing Fiction look AWESOME. can't wait to get those in my hands. :D

as I said a while ago, cute guy had something else going on and couldn't come to Sweeney Todd, but it's always fun when my dad and I see movies together, so I really wasn't too bummed. the movie was AWESOME. and the blood was very Tim Burton-ish: bright bright red, and therefore not very disgusting. there was a lot of it, though. but there was so much humor in the movie too, it was really cool. and then the costumes were awesome, and the singing was alright, and it was just soooo cool!! I do think the gothy makeup was overdone in a couple of scenes, though. but overall I liked it. I can't wait to see it again when it actually comes out. lol!!

currently, I'm rearranging furniture in the house. amazing how just rearranging a room makes it look so much cleaner. LOL of course, there's actual cleaning being done as well, much to my annoyance. :P my friend is coming over on Sunday night and staying until Monday to help us clean (she's getting paid to clean, btw. I wish I was getting paid. >.<) I think the grandparents are coming on Wednesday, which doesn't leave a whole lot of time... and then my dad's birthday is on Saturday next week, so that's when we're going to have the first big family dinner of the holidays, I think.

other randomness:
- I'm in chapter 4 of The Golden Compass, and so far I realllllly like it. hopefully I'll be able to finish it before I go see the movie.
- omgwtf coyote? there was a coyote in our backyard earlier today!! WTF? for reference, I live in the very densely populated suburbs. O.o
- ever since classes ended, I've been staying up extremely late at night and waking up extremely late in the morning. I dunno why. my body rebels against waking up early now. :P
- FotR last night = ♥. I don't know why I get so fangirly when the movies are on TV, seeing as I have them on extended edition DVD.... :P
- there's a part near the end of The Attack of the Unsinkable Rubber Ducks (which I finished recently and really enjoyed) that I agree with SO MUCH that I was literally saying "YES, EXACTLY!!" out loud as I listened. I don't want to spoil anyone or spark an argument or anything, so I'll just say that the passage pertains to religion and leave it at that.
- tony emailed me a photo of us from the weekend we first met. awww, we're so little! apparently we were 12, but we certaily don't look it from the picture. lol
- I started writing a Dom/Viggo ficlet a few days ago and it has since grown into something much more involved than I was planning. but there will still be porn, don't worry about that. *g*

( The Lincoln Project premiere - cut for spoilers and length )

*sigh* Wow, that was longer than I thought it was going to be. The gist of it is, the movie was great. Could'a been better, but it was pretty impressive. :)

I watched Mel Gibson's Apocolypto. ( spoilers )

And as a side note, I watched the "making of" bonus feature and omg the clips of Mel Gibson in action were so cute. He was dancing around and being very hands-on and it just looked so fun.

OMFG BEST MOVIE YET.



better, more coherent review to come. and until then, see ack_attack's majorly spoilery post, because i agree with her on ALMOST everything she mentioned.

My first SIFF movie of the festival: a documentary about the Apollo space missions.