More movies

Well, it is a good thing I wrote a few things down when the Hot Docs festival ended! It's been only two weeks, but my mind has been otherwise occupied.

I saw 11 movies altogether. Most of them seem to have involved music or comedy, which is always a good thing.

Mavis! is about Mavis Staples, who has been singing gospel and pop and everything for decades! There is a trailer here. It was toe-tapping and enchanting and made me want to sit down and chit-chat with the grande dame herself.

Lowdown Tracks was also about music-making, but the musicians it dealt with are homeless or transient or just plain poor, and in Toronto. Some of the people were working out drug problems, several had been abused as children, most were regaining some stability. (I'm sure there are many more street musicians with similar stories who are not as articulate as these.) There was talk of a record for sale, but it was going to be a bit complicated and I'm not sure how that has progressed.

Monty Python: Meaning of Live was, duh, about Monty Python and their 2014 live shows at the O2 in London. They joked that they needed to pay someone's mortgage, but really they needed to pay off lawyers after a brouhaha over Spamalot. A trailer is here, and of course, the Mick Jagger ad for the show is here. It was great to see a bunch of old guys reliving their youth on stage! And since I had seen the old movie the week previously, it was double the fun.

I think on the same day as seeing Python, I saw Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead,  a movie based on this book about the National Lampoon. I was not a great fan of the magazine and didn't know that much about it, but I had to pick up a couple of extra movies (I *had* to) from a limited selection, and this seemed better than a movie about the Taser. It turned out to be full of completely awful humour, really funny awful humour. We all cracked up at things that were shockingly politically incorrect. Totally offensive and fun.

There are still more to go, but enough is enough for one day, and I am too tired right now to find you any pictures. Lame, I know.