If you think I’m tired today, wait until you see me tomorrow.

When it rains, it pours.  The last month has been ridiculously busy!  A few weeks ago I finished up my contract job with the gov’t and fled back to more familiar territory, landing an advertising gig with Stuff.co.nz.  Because starting a new job isn’t challenging enough, I also bought a ukulele and started attending a how-to-play class once a week.  And in addition to that, I put in some serious volunteer time with the NZ film festival, ushering for 20+ films in 2 weeks.  On the basketball front, winter tournament travel has been put on hold, but I’ve still been playing several times per week.  We even played an exhibition game last week against a h.s. team from Iowa, of all places.  I will own up to being hungover as all fuck thanks to a certain film festival afterparty which wound down at 6am, but despite all that we won handily by 10.  Which explains what they were doing in NZ in the first place, instead of a more competitive country…

But Lynn, I hear you say, I kind of hate basketball.  What about this film festival?  Don’t you have some films to crow about?  Well, blog faithful who are probably just my parents, let me forcefully recommend the following:

Four Lions
This was easily my most anticipated film of the festival.  I’ve been a big fan of writer/director Chris Morris since uni, when I discovered his short-lived TV series Brasseye.  The film follows a group of would-be jihadists as they plan a suicide bombing in London.  And it’s a comedy.  It’s a grim subject, and I was impressed by how successfully he balanced the funny with the devastating.  He used a similar structure to Hitchcock (the whole Cinema of Attractions thing), making you laugh really hard and punishing you a second later with something sobering.  The result is an intensely dark comedy which I can’t recommend enough.

A Town Called Panic
This film wasn’t on my radar going in to the festival – I only saw it because a spare usher shift was available and a friend at work had mentioned it.  But wow, talk about a movie after my own heart.  It’s a claymation film from Belgium, ostensibly for children, with a cracked-out sense of humor.  If you enjoy horses with purses and drunkenness and upside-down undersea worlds and robotic penguins and millions of bricks, this movie is for you!  Apparently it’s on Netflix Streaming right now, so you all really have no excuse not to check this one out.

I Am Love
Just a gorgeous film, this one.  Tilda Swinton (the lady, not the cat, may he rest in peace) plays a wealthy Russian socialite married into an Italian family.  And for a couple hours we get to watch them find various truths for themselves via some beautiful cinematography and excellent sound editing.  It was a joy to watch.  If that’s not enough to get you to see it, consider it the cinematic equivalent of pouring out a 40 for Michael’s dearly departed cat.

Wah Do Dem
A Brooklyn hipster goes on a cruise to Jamaica alone thanks to an ill-timed breakup, ends up stranded in the country with no wallet, shirt or shoes, and makes his way to the US Embassy in Kingston via misadventures.  This film should have been insufferable (it was made for like $50k with handheld cameras and non-actors) but it was actually rather wonderful.  It captured the whole range of foreign travel experiences, from the horrible to the sublime, and really just made me happy to be out in the world, misadventures and all.

The Room
Let’s face it, we all knew I was going to love the shit out of this movie.  I am a big fan of terrible movies, and The Room was one of  the best/worst I’ve seen.  A must-see – and don’t forget to watch for the spoons…

So there you have it!  And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some homemade focaccia (rosemary + grape) to check on…