My October Adventures!

Welcome to October Adventures! I’m going to say this right now…October was an adventure in some ways but nothing that I can really talk about here yet. Its some real life stuff that I’m working through right now which did cause some hiccups in the original blogging plans and well, the many festivals that happened to pop up with their last minute accreditation approvals so it was a little wild in general. Call this an update on the original commitments as a lot of stuff didn’t go as planned, but here we go!

Halloween/Horror Marathon – Extended

First things first, the main focus of October was the Halloween Marathon. Suffice to say, I stopped about halfway through the month and then switched gears into other commitments. Some did match the theme more than others but overall, I will talk about some little things happening potentially next month. Right now, I’m still working through it. However, because Halloween Marathon aka Horror Marathon is a big part of my year and I don’t want to cheat my way out of it as I haven’t even completed the main feature franchise film reviews, I’m going to be extending it for another 2 weeks or so to make up for the second half of the month. I still have some other reviews to wrap up which I will talk about in other sections of this update but it will be potentially going on simultaneously as I get rid of all the backlog in terms of movie reviews and festival coverage.

50th edition – Festival du Nouveau Cinema Overview

The first festival coverage to give me accreditation the day that it started was FNC 2021. Now, I’ve covered Festival du Nouveau Cinema a few years already and they have some great movies most of the time. Very arthouse and different from my normal wheelhouse including some Oscar nominated films even, however, the last minute thing threw me for a loop. Its not exactly anyone’s fault but my own since I lost track of what festivals I had applied for so didn’t realize that everything was clashing together. With that said, I truly did want to get more done for this festival however, due to work and life reasons, this festival was the one that suffered the most. It also occurred to me that this festival might truly be above my capabilities anymore as a lot of films while intriguing, its a sea of so many unknowns that in the process of decision-making, its a fear of choosing something that I didn’t like that worried me the most, causing less films being chosen as well.

However, I am still sitting on a few films that I haven’t reviewed yet. You can check out the films I have reviewed to this point. I did pick some pretty fun ones.

Compartment No.6
Bound
The Noise of Engines
Wood and Water
Days

I still have a short films compilation as well as two reviews coming up soon.

Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2021

Toronto After Dark ran for a swift 5 days event. This is the first year that I got the full media accreditation and not only short films (which is what I got in 2019). In all my festival coverage time, I do feel that TADFF has the best press support team. I had issues with the virtual platform and they helped me out immediately that evening. Plus, the press coordinator was pretty cool and did check on likes and dislikes from the festival which I hadn’t got in other festivals before. A really lovely experience overall. The technical issues did set my coverage plans a little behind but I did end up catching everything that I intended on watching. With this being horror film focus during October, it did have priority during those few days and there were some fantastic discoveries.

You can check out the reviews below:

Canadian Shorts After Dark
Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It
Post Mortem
Nightshooters
Ditched
The Free Fall

Blood in the Snow Film Festival

The final film festival to come in is Blood in the Snow Film Festival! Now, this one is a little unique as it has its virtual platform at as a three day event at the end of October. Suffice to say, no reviews have been posted considering the delay on my reviews over this weekend however, they will be coming up soon. There are a few films that I’ve reviewed previously so there’s only a few movies for this part.

However, this festival does have its on location festival (of course, I’m covering remotely as I’m not in Toronto) during November 18 to 23 which I will have reviews up for that line-up probably around mid-November. It might be the final wrap-up for the extended Halloween marathon as it seems to fit. If you are in Toronto, you can see if you want to go check it out. The line-up is on the website: bloodinthesnow.ca

Tranquil Dreams Podcast – Hiatus

As a final update, due to just everything going on, I’ve decided to put the Tranquil Dreams podcast on hiatus for now. I have other projects going on and coverage and its just too much at the moment. Plus, I’m not too happy with the What’s Up structure that I’ve been doing. I want to really focus on creating some shows that highlight my initial idea of why I wanted to start the podcast in the first place. Its going on hiatus so that I can get it back on the drawing board. Get some ideas and structure set and bring it back with content that I think will be more fun to record and more interesting in general.

ON THE SIDE NOTE: If you are looking for podcasts, I’m still co-hosting Movies and Tea and Game Warp with Elwood so you can still find them on most platforms where you can listen to podcasts. Movies and Tea is in its female directors season so you can check out which directors and their respective films made it on our list for this season.

A Little Life Update
(one of the reasons for the slowdown this month)

So…the last two updates I’ve talked about not feeling too good overall and its been truly taking a toll on me. As much as I want to keep the blog running as it did, I’m slowing down to focus on myself a little bit. Most of it is restructuring my lifestyle a little and getting back to some form of routine. Its working for the most part as you can see that I’ve been posting a little more frequently lately. However, I have decided to change my sleeping routine (aka sleep earlier) and get back to some healthy lifestyle with more workouts and healthier eating. This stuff all takes more prep time and dedication so more time there means less time for the blog. I am finding my routine over this month so its been going rather on track. That’s all I’m going to say for now but that is one of the main reasons.

I’m hoping that November will have some more normalcy in posting. The goal is to get a post up every other day. I’m definitely not lacking in content to write, but I just need to find time to do it.

That’s it for this October “Adventures”!
Hope you all had a Happy Halloween!
I sure hope everyone’s month has been much more exciting and healthier and feel good!

FNC 2019: Adoration (2019)

Adoration (2019)

Director (and co-writer): Fabrice du Welz

Cast: Thomas Gioria, Fantine Harduin, Benoit Poelvoorde, Emmanuelle Beart, Beatrice Dalle, Laurent Lucas

Paul is a 12 year old boy who lives with his mother, a nurse working at a mental institution in the middle of a forest. While visiting his mother at the clinic, Paul crosses paths with Gloria, a schizophrenic teenager, and falls in love with her to the point that he decides to help her escape at all costs after she commits a crime. The pair embarks on a trip across the Ardennes woods which will reveal the extent of Gloria’s dangerous madness and Paul’s devotion to her. – Letterboxd

Some people say that our first loves are the deepest and most memorable. It certainly would apply to Adoration who sees a 12 year old boy, Paul’s fascination and infatuation with the latest resident, Gloria at the psychiatric clinic where his mother works. This story is mostly through the eyes of the main character Paul, played by young actor Thomas Gioria. Independent stories usually like to use the view of one character and it works very well as it keeps the story fairly straightforward while leaving it space for the unknown to happen. The audience learns with the leading character and is able to connect with their situation. In this case, Adoration does a rather good job.

Thomas Gioria does a fairly good job at bringing Paul to life the most subtle and quiet way. Paul is a shy boy who lives secluded from everyone and keeps to himself mostly so when a beautiful teenager Gloria (Fantine Harduin) literally bumps into him, its no surprise that he will be fascinated at not only someone around his age but also the questions of why she keeps trying to run away from the clinic which in his mind should be for her own good. However, Gloria is a convincing girl whether its because Paul chooses to believe her situation or maybe his attraction to her makes him feel the need to protect her but he follows through after she makes a huge “mistake” to run away. Its the journey to Gloria’s grandfather’s home and the time spent with these two characters and their increasingly toxic relationship. To be honest, Paul’s character is rather dialed down that while the movie is mostly seen through his point of view, its Gloria’s slow reveal of her psychological problems that become the shocking elements and simply how much she is able to keep Paul in her control while also having him also be somewhat of her anchor because of their reliance on each other.

Toxic relationships between these two teenagers are the heart of the film. Against some impressive musical pairing as well being able to start off the story in a fairly light-heart escape and the innocence of the characters (especially Paul) gives them room to grow on this journey of running away. The story ends rather abruptly but at the same time, leaves the audience room to ponder on  this relationship and where it can take them especially as they are just teenagers and dealing with some rather extreme situations especially as Gloria seemingly does fluctuate between the good and bad days simply with triggers. The ending is a bit of the headscratcher but its easy to see how its deliberately meant to be that way because it doesn’t quite matter where these two go but rather what Paul chooses despite now understanding the situation that he’s in.

Adoration is a teenage runaway story essentially. Is it completely expected what they go through? Probably not. Is it hard to imagine that Gloria was “lying” to Paul about her situation? She technically wasn’t because in her mind, this is all real. Despite its predictable elements, the setting on the forest and wilderness and having the different strangers that they meet on the path as well as the way Gloria’s character peels away in all its layers of mental illness is done with a lot of detail and care. For a young actress like Fantine Harduin, it is one outstanding performance that is well worth a watch.

Adoration has one more screening during Festival du Nouveau Cinema on October 20th at 4pm at Cineplex Odeon Quartier – Salle 10. You can find more info HERE.

My Weekly Adventures: Fun Times, Celebrations and Bad News….

Talk about a packed two weeks which never quite felt that way. Busy times, Fun times, Celebrations, and well, what 2018 year would it be without some bad news, because lets just say, that is how life has been this year. I’m still trying hard to be positive but this year is taking a lot to stay happy about everything when we’re getting a lot of things to be worried about or be sad about. I spent a lot of yesterday reflecting hence why nothing got released. These things happen and its all about finding a balance between getting this space updated and also dealing with the personal life stuff, right?

Festival du Nouveau Cinema

Festival du Nouveau Cinema has come and gone through the first 2 weeks of October, ending yesterday. I had the wonderful opportunity to have ticket vouchers after I tried to sign up for media. I’m not a big site even if I’ve been around for a while so I’m still very grateful for having that especially seeing the situation I’ve been in lately. Its my first time at this festival and I have to say there were some hidden gems in there for sure. A lot of movies that I honestly thought were fantastic. Very indie and very deep and going for this profound feeling for the most part. There are a few exceptions to the equation but I liked most of my choices since I actually went into all the movies blind, no trailers and just read the description a little. With that said, I had some stuff to deal with and now I am still missing 3 reviews from the festival which will be released this week.

Being at this festival the first time, I think that everything is really nice. Its especially a great contrast to fantasy especially as it focuses more on dramas and thrillers and you will see the selection is very international. I don’t watch a lot of dramas but I might have filled up my drama quota in the past two weeks. I don’t really mind it as long as the story is worth it. However, this festival is a completely different beast because unlike Fantasia being held pretty much on the Concordia downtown campus, this one is in a general area where you can have films in on theatre and have to run to a theatre 15 to 20 minutes away. I had that for one time and lets say that I won’t schedule films 30 minutes apart from each other again because that was a nervewrecking experience especially when the showings sometimes did tend to start 5 to 10 minutes late. Not exactly a complaint but it added in some running. Either way, thats all I have to say about it.

Here were my final movie selections:

• Ash is Purest White (China, 2018)
• Burning (South Korean, 2018)
• La Version Nouvelle (Canada, 2018)
• Mirai (Japan, 2018)
• The Guilty (Denmark, 2018)
• Socrates (Brazil, 2018)
• Sticks and Stones (Denmark, 2018)
• Tourism (Japan, 2018)
• Firecrackers (Canada, 2018)

Cinema Recall Podcast: Movies We Love That Everyone Hates

The That Moment In podcast hosts sat down for a second round. This time, The Vern thought up a fantastic idea of discussing our Top 3  Movies that We Love That Everyone Hates. It was a fun time to hang out and hear all our choices. I’m sure these shows are a feat in itself to edit so many thanks to The Vern for putting this together and thinking up such a great idea, which you will see has various parts. The other ones I’m not a part of but you should follow Cinema Recall to not miss these shows and all the other ones.

As for this one, I can’t embed the podomatic player so I’ll just send you all over to the That Moment In post to play it. Here you go!

3rd Wedding Anniversary

Our cause for celebration this time goes to our third wedding anniversary that happened during the week. We follow the gift materials giving thing for fun so this year was leather. We had decided on fairly personal preference sort of items so on Saturday, in between our little adventures that I will talk about in the next 2 parts instead of a fleshed out post, we snuck in some free time to go do some shopping. My husband wanted leather gloves and we found them  fairly quickly. For myself, I wanted a new purse which took a few more stores to find because I’m picky about my accessories. Either way, we ended up finding it. Moving onto the adventures portion…

A Historical Visit Around Warden

Before we got to Sherbrooke for our little adventures, through some coincidence, we ended up going to Warden, which is a small town in the Eastern Townships. One of my clients has two properties there and it turned out to be some historical heritage behind it and he ended up showing us around his properties and telling us about his collections and stories and such. I thought it was really awesome and super nice that he took the time out for that. He showed us around for about an hour. My husband was a bit skeptical at first but he loves history so everything was right up his alley. Not to mention the area is absolutely gorgeous. It is private property so I felt it inappropriate to take any pictures there.

Public Market in Sherbrooke

After that, our first stop was at the public market in Sherbrooke. I won’t expand too much about it here since I am thinking of putting together a haul post so I can highlight some brands and products and stuff. It was a pretty neat spot.

Sherbrooke Met La Table

We skipped Sherbrooke Met La Table last year. I can’t remember why exactly. I think it was just a schedule issue and work issue and such. But we went back this year and went out of our comfort zone to try out some Iranian cuisine at a restaurant called Persepolis. It had a really awesome sounding menu. I have an individual post for this going up in the coming week as well. And that wraps up the general chat about our 3rd anniversary celebrations.

A Quick 2018 Gardening Update – Closing

On Sunday, perfect for after the bad news mentioned below, I went out for a day of closing the garden. I’m sorry that the gardening updates kind of fell off but consider this a wrap-up for the 2018 segment. I’ve done some massive trimming on the ferns and the hydrangea bush (look at the pile that I got rid of). I also did trim back the lilac and took down the barriers and harvested remaining veggies from the vegetable garden but forgot to take a picture of it.

A Family Passing

I don’t usually share a ton of private stuff here other than adventures and whatnot. However, this is still a blog so I’m keeping a part of it personal especially for this segment. If I happen to not post as much (although I have a lot planned still..its my way to deal with things sometimes), we got news yesterday that my grandmother passed away. She had a long life (over a hundred years old) and I’d hope to say a good and healthy one for a good part of it. It saddens me of course but I grieve very slowly over people so its not really showing just yet. However, it is weighing down on my heart and mind so things may get quiet or it might just cause a lack of motivation to write. We’ll see how it goes but I’m dealing with that right now. Here’s sharing a picture of 2012 when I went to Hong Kong to visit above.

Cute Kitty Pic

As a final note, posts might be a little sparse. I’m working on some stuff right now but I have a really bad habit of not grieving when I should so I’m going to take some time to you know, do that. I’ve been slightly trying to recuperate and just relax a little and not stress out. So, forgive me if both the Halloween marathon or the wrap-up for Festival du Nouveau Cinema takes me longer. I’m working hard to get it all done but still trying to make sure that I’m okay. Its been a rough year overall so its just getting back to a positive mindset.

That’s it for this Weekly Adventures!