SIFF hot take May 19, 2018 at 05:39PM

Catwalk: Tales from the Cat Show

WHITE WOMEN. SO MANY WHITE WOMEN. charming doc about the Canadian cat show circuit, shaped around the competitors for the #1 and #2 kitties. it was interesting and well-made, and very repectful of the participants, but to me the whole circuit felt kind of tatty and sad. plus one of the featured cats was a Persian and they are so ugly to me, I just don't get the appeal. it showed with a short called Cat's Cradle about a couple in Florida who run a sanctuary for geriatric cats. this will be on PBS soon. they were wonderful and they have this mega-catio habitat with suspended bridges and chase toys on pulleys. nice storytelling, lots of cute kitty footage. supposedly they have a cat cam site that I will share later.

SIFF hot take May 20, 2018 at 03:01PM

Hearts Beat Loud

sweet slice of life about a family in transition. daughter is going to college, dad is winding down his business, grandma is getting senile. dad and daughter make indie rock together. I liked it in spite of basically nothing happening. Nick Offerman is pretty much perfect as is the young woman who plays the daughter. and it helped that the music really was quite fine.

SIFF hot take May 20, 2018 at 03:24PM

spending the day at The Bay today. one of the special things about this theater normally is that they don't show any prescreening ads (with a curtain over the big screen) and the audio is orchestral film scores. that really highlights all the advertising garbage in the SIFF preshow projection. I can't grudge this way of rewarding sponsors, but it's a powerful reminder that The Bay leaves ad money on the table because they believe in the experience. I'm glad they're my neighborhood theater.