My Windsor film festival

There are more films I’m not going to see than see. That’s not a reflection on the film festival, Nov 5 – 10, which has its most ambitious program yet, with 65 films and 97 screenings, with an added day (Tuesday – Sunday)!....But we all have temperaments, biases, preconceived notions (rightly or wrongly), or tastes that simply don’t appeal. The other reason is because I’ve seen some of these films before (including Beyond the Hills, Pieta, Reality, The Attack) – and I counted nine that had been screened in the general Detroit area over the past year (including Adore, Austenland, Frances Ha, Fruitvale Station, I’m So Excited). Most of these, by the way, are good... In the next few posts I’ll mention some of what I’m not going to see, some of what I’m definitely planning to see, and a list of maybes……So, here, among others, are what I’m not seeing, unless really convinced otherwise: The Act of Killing (I’ve pretty much had it to here with stories of genocide and strife, no matter how searingly relevant), Blue Caprice (it seemed I lived through the nauseating DC Beltway sniping attacks immediately after 9/11), The Broken Circle Breakdown (it may be an Oscar submission but bluegrass ain’t my bag), Fruitvale Station (urban violence doesn’t turn my crank), Girl Most Likely (it has Annette Bening but is another going-home-to-Jersey type tale & reminds me of films like Silver Linings Playbook, which I disliked, even though set in Philly). I’ll studiously avoid a couple of martial arts films, because martial arts or any sort of physical fighting no matter how “artful” leaves me cold and bored – the films are The Grandmaster and Man of Tai Chi. I’ll avoid Short Term 12 because it’s about borderline teenagers, and I’m not too into borderline teenagers……In my next post I’ll have my picks for the fest…..Tickets are now on sale at www.windsorfilmfestival.com. They go on sale at the Capitol Theatre box office next week.