Wednesday, April 21, 2010

I heard she likes to hit the chocolate... HAAAAAARD!

Monday morning I woke up hazily, unhappily staggering toward a realization that I must return to real life after my nine-day vacation of standing (which sometimes turned into sitting) in long lines, driving between venues, listening to filmmakers and actors, eating a ridiculously insane amount of cranberry raisinets, and, yes, watching movies.

And the movies, on the whole, were superb.  As a group, this was among the strongest roster of films I've seen in my nearly decade of attending the Florida Film Festival.  The quality, neither, did focus itself in one area.  Some years the shorts are great, while the narrative features lack.  Other years, the documentaries clearly outshine the shorts.  But this year, I could have easily picked favorites among shorts, narratives, documentaries, domestic, and international.

So here I go with some recommendations.  Most may never get released at a theater near you.  Some may not even get a DVD release.  But these are among my favorites, so try your best to seek some of them out.


Saturday, April 10, 2010

Like a chicken with its head cut off.

I'm on vacation, which must mean it's time for another Florida Film Festival.  The 19th installment of what is steadily becoming one of the premiere fests in the southeast will focus on what has long been one of its charms, Southern hospitality.  With the Enzian as its main location, the dinner theater will once again be a host of not only movies, but a series of food and wine celebrations.  And as is customary, an interesting slate of food-related films will populate the schedule.