Saturday was a late start movie-wise, so we had a restful morning of frenzied cleaning and packing. We took another carload to Lee's parents' place and got rid of a heap of old clothes, shoes and books. (Donated them in a clothing bin).
My wardrobe is freakishly tidy now. Freakish I tell you.
After all that we went into town for The Bothersome Man, a Norwegian film that starts with the lead character committing suicide. He wakes up on a bus to...somewhere. He starts a new life in a new apartment with a new job. All anyone wants to talk about is interior decorating. Is he in Heaven? Hell? Purgatory?
It's a film with a measured pace, but plenty of awesome moments. There was laughing out loud and cringing and all sorts of stuff. I liked it.
Then we powered up to Brooklyn where Lee tried to park on a bus stop. We saw Death at a Funeral, which is a British comedy of the best sort. It featured Wash from Firefly as a nervous man given LSD early on, so he acts crazy. It's awesome. There's heaps of plot lines and the story takes place over the course of a day, the day of the patriarch of the family's funeral.
The whole audience was laughing its collective ass off. Go and see it when it comes out, that is an order.
Saturday night after that we went grocery shopping, because we are bad ass party animals.
Sunday, brunch at Sweet Mother's Kitchen; yummy waffles.
Then I went to the Embassy to see The Last Picture Show and Lee went home and did some serious kitchen cleaning.
Last picture show is a sad story about a teenager coming of age and a small town falling apart. Made in the seventies bu set in the fifties, it stars baby Jeff Bridges and baby Cybill Shepherd and was very good. I liked it a great deal.
Then I gave in and bought my owl hoodie. Yay owl hoodie! We spent a pleasant afternoon with Jase and Chelle and then headed back in to Te Papa for the last two movies of the festival.
The Great Happiness Space, a doco about a Host Club in Osaka, and focussing in on the #1 selling Host, Issei. I expected this movie to be more light-hearted than it was. It was very good and I was amazed at the honesty of the interviews everyone gave to the camera.
In case you don't know, Host clubs are pubs where women go and spend money to be attended to by a Host. The hosts are good looking men there to make them happy, and sell them the idea of romance. A lot of the girls fall in love with the hosts, and spend thousands of dollars every visit to drink with them.
It was well made, and very good but rather sad. All those lonely people...
So that's it for another year. No more film festival for me. I am kind of relieved, it takes a lot out of me and especially when I am working full time as well. Plenty of great films this year though, so as ever it is a bittersweet ending.
On the up side this morning my plushie Totoro pencil holder came and it's sitting on my desk being cute at me.
PoF: OWL HOODIE RULZ
CO: stupid belly