I just woke up, made myself a smoothie (banaba, blueberry, strawberry, guava juice), and am typing away in my bed. Love Saturdays.
Joined a film Meetup.com group a few weeks back and decided to check out one of their screening. So this Thursday I made my way to @district319 to see Sook-Yin Lee's new film Year of the Carnivore. Didn't read about the film before arriving. Like to take it in all at once.
Get home from a meeting with little time to spare. Change my shoes and jacket, retouch my makeup, pull my hair into a bun because it's been looking like hay as of late, and jump on the bus to Main and Hastings.
Get to @district319, pay my $12 bucks, meet Mohamed (the Meetup organizer) and walk into the holding area. A duo is playing guitar and singing. I find the music a little blase. Maybe it's the Asian motif of the place that's throwing me off. Tons of statuette dispersed throughout. Had seen photos beforehand but the space looks smaller in person.
I head to the bar to use the drink tickets I was given. Order my regular, jack and coke, but am told that the ticket is for wine only. I take a red and walk around. There are appetizers on every corner: grapes, crackers, some ghetto dip still in its plastic container. I munch on some fruit and lean up against the bar. Not in the mood to network.
Run into the girl I met at the door, Anny. She's very nice and introduces me to her friend (whose name I can't remember). I think about how easily I forget people's name, unless they stand out. Contemplate on what makes some shine and others shadows. Try to stay present and chat about the film and Will Sasso, from MadTV. He's here. I make a point of telling him he's really funny and chat about LA, and how to get into the acting world. Think of my friend Tara and maybe I'll come across some info to share with her. Although I know she would be horrified that I asked. Something about egos and acting. I learn nothing new. Same old story. Need to get work to get a work permit, no permit no work. Ah, catch 22s.
Off the lounge is the theatre room. It's huge, comparable to a regular cinema room but adorned with dynasty stone carvings suspended but bolted to the wall. Rather than row seating, the place is filled with red pleather armchairs. Craziness. I hope they recline.
Anny tells me I should have found a seat once I got here. Thought of it, but was too lazy to do it. I look and find one a few rows from the front. Not bad but not great. Save the seat with my jacket and go back to sipping on my wine. The alcohol rushes to my head. Wonder how long the film will be. I'm getting antsy.
I realize my camera's battery is dead. Shit. No photos. Anny takes a pic of me with Sasso and promises to email me it. I throw her my card. (FYI: Anny did send me the photo. Thanks!)
A lot of the cast and crew are in attendance, even the producer. Sook-Yin Lee is broadcasted via Skype. Her head is huge on the mega screen. Makes me laugh. She gives the low down of the film: a page of her own life, her first "clumsy" love. I take a look again at the flyer and see the line "Starving for Love". Interesting.
For those who haven't seen the film, here's the premise. Sammy Smalls (love the name) played by Cristin Milioti, is an undercover detective at a local grocery store. Her job: to catch da thieves. Once apprehended, the manager Dirk, played by Will Sasso, roughs them up in the back and snaps a photo for his wall of abuse. One lovely day, Sammy sets eyes on Eugene (Mark Rendall), a guitar-playing busker and falls head over heels. They sleep together and, well, Eugene isn't a fan. He says she needs a little practice. And so Sammy starts her journey of sexual self-exploration to impress a boy. At one point she goes as far as taking shoplifters into the woods, instead of leaving them to the wrath of Dirk, to teach her the ways of seduction.
The film is a mesh of funny, not so funny, probing, dramatic, and sad. I sit there, a little buzzed from the wine, and take it in.
I love the opening fonts. They catch my eye. Don't understand how some filmmakers can throw Times New Roman on a screen after so much work. Gross.
I'm glad it's not the quintessential Canadian film of bad lighting and bad acting. The cast is great, especially Cristin Milioti. You feel she is the character. She is a tomboy, a little uncomfortable in her own skin and confused as to what a "woman" really is. I find her sweet. I see some of my own cluelessness in her. In fact, I think she must resonate with most ladies. She is the cliche young girl, who takes great strides to digest what the world wants of her, only to realize she is what she is. The human journey in a nutshell.
While Minioti is the lead, Year of the Carnivore follows several characters: an old woman now wheelchair-bound and sans husband, Sammy's parents who have lost the spark, Eugene and his father who is recently widowed, a new mother and her reeducation of self. Sook-Yin Lee does a good job of intertwining the quest for love through their storylines, but I am most taken by Sammy. She actively seeks to change. While it may be for a guy, her character strives for growth. Fast forward: she takes Eugene back, even though he's a douche. Here's where my perception of things morph slightly.
I am now 30 years old. (Sidenote: I still find this incredibly weird.) To watch this film with 30 year old eyes is different and here's why. To see a young woman try to better herself or change for a guy especially makes me angry. I'm by no means a feminist (I guess in some regards) but it is the idea that the transformation isn't so much for her, it is for how she will be perceived, and in turn she gets what she shouldn't have aimed for in the beginning (a douche).
Fair enough. But here is where film imitates life, and I get a little frustrated. Mostly so because I see the Sammy in me. I remember that girl. The one who would do anything to be noticed and loved. I guess the phrase "Starving for love" does apply. But what is different is that the Sammies of the world change. (Or so you'd hope.) Eventually they see the slight modification to win love as too much. That to be a woman isn't one dimensional. Heels doesn't make a girl. Attitude does.
There's a scene in the film where Sammy tries to climb a fence in order to break into the pool and go skinny dipping. She falls to the ground and is about to give up when she sees the gate is open and walks through. This to me is love. Love is effortless...hard work, fair enough, but effortless. Sometimes you have to wait for the open gate and fuck the climbing of mountains.
I digress (again). The music in the film by Sook-Yin Lee, Adam Litovitz and Buck 65 was great. It was light and playful and a perfect background to the at times heavy-lightheartedness of the flick. The song with lyrics "I don't want to love you"...beautiful.
The shots were smooth, and character development was on point. Not a huge fan of the casting of Sammy's parents, but I think this lies in the fact that I can't separate Kevin MacDonald from Kids in the Hall.
After the film, the cast and crew spoke a bit on the film. Weird how at Q&A time there is always some loser who prefaces their comments with Remember me, we worked on blah blah blah project together. That shit is lame.
I asked a question but was nervous. The words didn't come out right. A perfect moment of sounding stupider than I am. Oh yeah, love those! I wanted to know if Sammy and Eugene's journeys were the same, or if Sammy was on the look for love and Eugene a quest. Her rebuttal was that all characters struggled with the same theme: fear. Fear to be part of the world, part of something greater, to fall in love and be devoured by it. All the characters are struggling to get to a point where they can reveal their true selves and be vulnerable. That the sexuality within the film was more a metaphor to the things that get in way of love that anything else. I agreed. Don't know if the subplots resignated with me as much as the lead but give SYL kudos for the depth of emotion she shared, both on and off camera.
For filmmakers: The script took three years to develop; five weeks to shoot; budget was 2.5 million dollars.
Asked Anny what she thought of the film. She said she liked it. Me too. Her friend was on the fence. Felt he couldn't relate, that it was dark and sad and that film to him should be light and a break from reality. I disagreed. Film is a reflection of life. I watch it to learn more about myself, not to lose myself. The insecurities of Sammy weighed on him. I add the film has a female sensibility. He says he sees himself as a human and not as a man. I laugh in my head. I've said that many a times, but now hearing it it sounds meaningless almost. He is so jadded that it comes off as insecure. He makes some mention of online dating sites and how no ones go for the short guy. (He is shorter, say 5'8".) I say confidence goes a long way. Anny nods.
And it is then that I realize his take on the film. He is Sammy and doesn't like it. Whereas I was Sammy (relationship-wise), and have grown. That is why human life is amazing. People cross our paths, we open, we share, we fall, we grow and we do it all over again. The one thing that plagues me though is that the moment Sammy recognizes her self-worth, Eugene is drawn to her and they get together. Why is it that when women are seen for who they really are we end up buckling at the knees. I don't see this as love, I see it as infatuation. Why quit your job, have a new sense of self and go to the person who wanted you otherwise. I get it. Youth. Love. But still lame. This isn't a film critique, this is a human critique. Year of the Carnivore portrays this journey well, the how much do you change for a person without losing yourself deal. Life = art.
Now for my rant. The film was good. Great humanity and depth. As for the credits, I'm a bit perplexed.
I was raised in Pitt Meadows. Not a fact I share with many. Maybe because I was bored in the burbs. Who knows. The opening shot of the film and I see my hometown. Hilarious. I laugh just like I did in Juno when I saw Coquitlam Centre in the background. Weird when what you've known all your life is reflected back at you. I digress. The film was shot in Pitt Meadows but no credits were made for the town, just Maple Ridge. So I go up to the producer after the film and tell her. She says only one shot was in Pitt Meadows so they put it under the Maple Ridge umbrella. @I#(*!&@*&$*#. There were two shots actually, but I realize I'm getting nowhere and should have listened to my instinct that she wouldn't give a shit anyway. I jump on the bus and have insane stomach pains. Evil eye. Holla to Pitt Meadows. I tried my best. (Note: This version is way more subdued. I was raging on Thursday but have enough tact not to display all the lovely four-letter words I know. :))
Check out Year of the Carnivore. In theatres June 18th in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal. Support!
For more information, go to http://www.yearofthecarnivore.com/.
Now I typically don't bring pen and paper to a screening, but kept notes throughout. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the film:
"Why be an artist if you can't eat a song."
"A lot of people think about sex instead of what they want from sex." "Go for variety."
"Cool is conservative fear dressed in black." (Stasia: I hate this quote.)
"Why are we here?" "Because you are available." (So true.)
"Why I am always surrounded by super annoying couples."
"Never entrust your self worth to a nob who's not worth it." (Great advice!)
"Trust...this requires closeness."
"I want to be with someone who wants to be with me, not you." (Don't we all.)
"Why is everyone so into self-improvement these days."
"You don't have to be gorgeous but you should at least look like a lady."
"I feel oppressed by my inability to walk in stilettos."
"More important than looking like a lady is feeling like a woman."
"I changed everything for you."
"You didn't want me the way I way and you still don't want me."
"It sucks out there."
"Take your tight pants and grins and get the fuck out."
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