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Wednesday, September 07, 2005  Even though the 2005 Boston Film Festival starts this Friday, the website still isn't fully updated. Fortunately, the full lineup finally appeared online a few days ago, and tickets just went on sale. It runs through Tuesday the 13th, and while it may be the 21st annual edition, this year's schedule feels a tad thinner than recent ones. Maybe I'm just spoiled by the ever-increasing excellence of the springtime IFFBoston, or how good last years 20th anniversary fest was, but choosing from 17 feature-length films over five days underwhelms, and none of them really jump out and grab me yet. In past years I've been excited about the guest of honor, an actor or director who receives the "Film Excellence Award". It's recently been presented to Steve Martin, William H. Macy, and Kevin Spacey. This year? It looks like it goes to director Ben Younger... for directing Boiler Room and Prime? Hmmm. Would make a little more sense if it was going to Prime's Meryl Streep, so maybe Younger is accepting it for her. (and, of course, I reserve the right to edit this if that's the case). Maybe I'll be more psyched up for the fest after I see a couple films that interest me, like Kiss Kiss Bang Bang or Four Lane Highway, Swimmers or North Country. There's a bunch of interesting documentaries on tap, too, and I may check out Buddy or Casting About. Locally-produced independent film Touched, will open this year's fest on Friday, Sept. 9 at 8pm at Loews Theatres Boston Common (where the entire event is taking place). Director (and Newton native) Tim Bogart and star Jenna Elfman will take questions after the screening. Randall Batinkoff, Samantha Mathis, Diane Venora, and Bruce Davison round out the cast. A new award for Best Documentary will be presented this year, and it'll be named in honor of the late David Brudnoy, who passed away last December. Beloved around New England, Brudnoy was founder of The Boston Society of Film Critics, chief movie critic for The Tab newspapers for more than two decades, an extremely popular and successful radio talk-show-host, and a professor at Boston University. (update 9/8: The first ever award will go to Buddy, about former Providence, RI Mayor Buddy Cianci.) Other films that will be showing at the 2005 Boston Film Festival: "Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang" (Boston debut)It's very cool that nearly all of this year's screenings feature Q&A sessions with filmmakers, definitely a higher proportion of them than past years. You can download a full .pdf file with dates and descriptions right here, and to buy advance tickets online, head to Fandango. Adult tix are $10 plus a $1 service charge. I just grabbed a couple for Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which I'm betting will sell out first.  Post-script to a post: I occasionally feel like I've got some kind of weird blog-based sympatico thing going on with Frank and his Toronto-based Chromewaves. More than once I've got a subject in my draft folder that he covers (mo' fully, of course) the very same day. He'll write something reflecting my exact thoughts on a band (like his recent DCFC post), or mention the Toronto stop of a Boston rock show that I'm excited about. He's got my comic-book obsession covered, shares my long-standing Richard Thompson love, and hell, he named his site after one of my favorite Ride songs. And so last week I start to write-up this here post about the impending Boston Film Fest, and the daily Chromewaves missive appears in my RSS reader... previewing the Toronto Int'l Film Festival, of course. I stand in CW's ever-present shadow. And it's a fine place to be. But If I ever start posting something new every single damn day, you'll know that I've either been cloned or lost my job... (And, of course, I wrote that last bit before I found out Frank actually just lost his. Sorry 'bout that, chief.)  |
 neil halstead live in cambridge, ma on november 14th, 2008 previously: joy formidable - boston 2011 recent posts on the 'nac... on the nightstand boston-area music bloggers
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