stormblog

Part 1 – Movies

We saw a midnight screening of Indigenous Shorts. There were ten five-minute films. My favorite by a long shot was Ebony Society, out of New Zealand. It’s about two teenage boys who go on a stealing spree on Christmas Eve and find a baby in a house that they are robbing. I was amazed at how much of a story was told in five minutes. It also met my shallow criteria of having a happy / heart warming ending. I really loved it.

Then we saw The Details, which was filmed in Seattle and stared Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, Laura Linney and Dennis Haysbert (David Palmer from the first 24 season). I had low expectations going into it because of all of the trouble they had filming it. But it was really good and the audience loved it. The actors did a great job. After credits ended, Toby took the stage. It was really fun to hear them talk about how great Seattle is and how good it is to film there.

Then we saw The Oregonian. Someone at dinner put it nicely. He appreciated it like he appreciates avant garde music. He listens to it with a respect for the artist, but he wouldn’t pop it in for a road trip. I, on the other hand, can only say I didn’t like it. While I appreciated the edginess of it and the images were often interesting, the reason I didn’t like it was because I thought I was going to puke throughout the entire movie. It was not because of the intensely gory graphics – like a woman walking in on a man raping her corpse and watching another man put an omelet in the gaping wound in her corpse’s back. (I know, right?) I felt like I was going to get sick because the camera shots were so choppy and the noise was so loud that I felt motion sick. The background noise was a loud screeching dispersed with the sound of static radio. Sorry to all of the talented artists who poured their heart into it, but it was a long 82 minutes for me.

Then we saw Catechism Cataclysms, another movie filmed in Seattle that I also really liked. I can’t say too much about it because I don’t want give any plot away. It’s funny until it gets dark. Once again, the actors were great and I loved the dialogue. It stars Robert Longstreet who is making all sorts of news with his show on HBO and some of the other movies he was in at Sundance.

Part 2 – Celebrity Sightings

Ray Liotta
Ben Kinglsey