Wishing and hoping

As I mentioned last time, bits and pieces are doled out teasingly by the TIFF exec as the summer plods along. The Midnight Madness program has been made public and while I was looking forward to Chocolate, I may be getting my hands on a boot later this week and thus I'll pass at the fest, tempting tho' it would be to see a flick about a female autistic savant Thai boxer while surrounded by genre junkies hopped up on Jolt Cola in the Ryerson auditorium at one AM even for a second time.

As I wait for more announcements, I can't help but make my mental wish lists. I already mentioned Palermo Shooting, but now let me add Genova to the list. I just watched 9 Songs, and was reminded just how much I dig Michael Winterbottom's work and I'm hoping his latest gets programmed, hopefully in the Masters program. With the change this year bumping Special Presentations up to the more or less status of Galas, there's cause for worry that my anticipated picks are going to be priced out of my range, or if I decide to splurge on one or two I'll be stuck with nosebleed seats like I was for Clean in 2004. Winterbottom's a TIFF regular, so the odds are good IMHO that he'll be bringing Genova here in September.

And I swear, if one more person asks me what I thought of The Dark Knight I'm going to freak. Once and for all: half an hour too long and a botched ending. Beautiful cinematography though, especially of the cityscapes. Now taking bets on who the villain will be in part three. I'm stumped, seeing as how the remaining name-brand Bat-villains all have a fantastical element that would brush up hard against the gritty realism established in the onscreen Chicago (let's call it what it is). The Romero and Nicholson portrayals of the Joker may have tipped into the surreal but Ledger showed the character could be embodied as a human loony with a few smears of greasepaint. Unless Wayne Industries has been tinkering with genetic engineering as far back as the sixties, the Penguin seems unlikely, and the Riddler, oy, don't get me started. My vote's for Rose McGowan as Catwoman, though.