So I go to this 24-hour bad movie marathon at NU each year in late January. As it's run by a student organization, competence fluctuates depending on which kids are in charge. Usually we hear something about lineups and ticket availability some time in late December. This year...nada. Until yesterday, when they sent an email saying tickets would go on sale this morning.

Okay, no problem. I'm local; it's not like I have meetings to go to today. It's become an annual ritual to go up to Norris and wait several hours for the box office to open; chat with the die-hards I only ever see in that line every year about what they're showing or should show, etc. So I go over to get ducats for me and friends. Only the ticket limit they sent the public differed from what they sent the ticket office. Fortunately the short onsale notice caught many of the usual line-waiters unawares, so it was not a hassle, other than the stupidity of it all, to go back to the end of the queue and get the rest of what we needed.

Still no idea what they're showing. Today's debacle doesn't bode well for the event. To say nothing of the potential Amateur Night in the projection booth.

Oh, that one...
I was confused to see Road House playing at the Siskel as part of a film noir series until I clicked through to the listing.

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.

Let's all go to the moooo-vies...

Here is my Chicago International Film Festival schedule, if anyone is interested in some titles and would like to meet up. I'm too lazy to give you links; check the site for summaries.

*=River East, all others at Landmark.

10/05 Shorts 2 (anim), 7 pm
10/06 Signal, 10:30
10/07 Shorts 1 noon, Stuck 10:30
10/08 *Becoming John Ford 5:00 [Jersey turnpike not included. -ed.]
10/09 *Chicago 10, 7:00 [Peter Cetera not included. -ed.]
10/15 Shorts 4, 6:45, Shorts 3 9:30
10/16 Control 6:30, Weirdsville 9:30