Usually the film fest is something I want to talk about, but this year I had a dreary experience that shut me up for nearly a month. Well, that plus laziness. And curling. And laziness.

The animated shorts were all pretty good. I had to miss what was apparently the best collection of live shorts thanks to a change in time and venue. Way to go, douchebags. The other two collections were middling. Of the documentaries I saw, Chicago 10 was pretty decent, while Becoming John Ford was a complete waste of time. Not until they introduced the film did I discover it was commissioned by Fox to deal solely with Ford's years at that studio. So, two important films covered (My Darling Clementine and Grapes of Wrath). No John Wayne. No Informer. It was like...I dunno, buying a Beach Boys box set to find it only covered the Bruce Johnston era.

Features...Control was deserving of its hype, and Weirdsville was better than it had any right to be. The Signal and Stuck were pretty lame.

Unfortunately I signed up for a two-year membership. If the Fest doesn't shape up its act next year, I'm done with them.