Toronto After Dark - DAY 2

“I saved us some seats!”Chris in the tone of voice better suited for a ten year old kid showing his parents his A+ paper. I glanced around the empty theater and turned back to his grinning face. I half expected him to throw up a hand and go “HIGH-FIVE!”

You know the guy in line that’s hopping from foot to foot as if he needs to pee? You may arrive early every time and this is guy is always there first! That’s Chris.

I’m the hobo looking fellow slumped in his seat. I'm fighting a losing battle with his eyelids because I spent most of that morning dancing to techno beats with his fellow filmgoers. I’m also the poor sucker has a Philosophy paper that needs to be handed in first thing Monday morning.

Don’t worry. I’m watching movies instead. I have my priorities straight.

Idiots and Angels proved to be familiar stomping ground for bat-shit insane (And really nice guy) Director/Animator/Writer Bill Plympton: It has his grotesque caricatures of humanity, the crazy animated directorial touches and screaming (lots of screaming). After a lengthy break from feature filmmaking, Bill decides to scale back from his last two major works: ‘Mutant Aliens and the STILL unreleased (In North America) ‘Hair High’, and instead grab simple concept and run with it. In this case, it’s the story of an unlikable man being gifted with a pair of Angel Wings. There’s definite creativity on display here, but the smaller scale and a lack of laugh-out loud moments make it more of an interesting (and slightly un-engaging) animated experiment then a successful film.

The Chilean super-hero film Mirage Man does everything right. It’s not an outright comedy, nor is it a serious faced commentary on the genre. It’s a simple story with a solid emotional core, a sly sense of humor and proves to be another step forward (After the unwieldy Kiltro) toward action stardom for star Mark Zardoz. Its action is quotient is high, but mostly composed of people getting hit in the face and falling hard on cement.

The third film of the night was the sold-out screening of REPO: THE GENETIC OPERA. I reviewed it already HERE, but after a second viewing, I can confidently state it holds up even better. I kept my opinions in check this time, let the music roll over me, and really got hooked. I didn’t realize till now that the ENTIRE FILM is music. The only parts that aren’t sung are a handful of phone calls. The screenwriter/grave robber said they have three discs of music ready to release! The film opens in Toronto on November 21’st.

The last film DONKEY PUNCH dealt with a bunch of beautiful rich people doing stupid things on a boat and then paying for their stupid mistakes in grizzly ways. The film wasn’t boring, it had a mean streak a mile long and the cast did a good job it they were trying to get me to hate all of them. Character motivations are all over the place (At one moment two people will want each other dead and then the next they’ll be speaking casually) and the ending is abrupt in a way that makes you go “But the character could just…Aw…Never mind.”