Seems Tridel, ye builders of all condos bold, big and beautiful, have now dubbed Yonge/Eglinton “The Republic of Yonge & Eglinton” as they get set to build their new condo at Broadway/Yonge (starting, I’m pleased as punch to say at $275K and going to $2M). Nothing like Tridel coming in to move condo prices higher. Hooray!

Indigenes (Days of Glory)
This film is in the running for the 2006 Best Foreign Film Oscar. It is directed by Rachid Bouchareb and tells the very forgotten story of Moroccan soliders who fought for France during World War II. Not surprizingly the film traces themes of racism, alienation and intolerance as the soliders fight their way from Morocco through Italy and into France itself. The three main characters are excellent in their roles and the bond of brothership that they create carries the movie. The battle scenes are, well, battle scenes like any other film. But it’s in the story beneath the battles this movie champions. The release of this film was timely. Succesive French governments have fought tooth and nail to avoid paying these veterans their duly earned pensions (think of our own government’s delay on properly bringing closure to the China’s head tax). The movie rectified this situation. My rating 7 out of 10.

Ethan Mao
This 2004 effort by part-time Canadian director, Quentin Lee, centers on the story of a young asian, Ethan Mao (played by Jun Hee Lee), who is kicked out of home for being gay when his step-mother finds a gay porn magazine. He heads into hustling to make ends meat (pardon the pun) and meets up with a Hispanic teenager, Remigio, who takes him in. However, Ethan is keen to return home simply to get his dead mother’s necklace. That trip though ends up turning bad when his family returns home unexpectedly and he and Remigio end up taking them all hostage. This is a gay coming of age story a little outside of the box. It is gritty and serious and had some real dramatic moments. The sound mixing (at least on the dvd I got) needs work but all-in-all the acting and production are very good. In fact, I thought the movie got better and better as it progressed. But then, gosh, what was Quentin thinking with the ending? Picture the next to last frame when Ethan and Remigio are about to (spoiler alert) head out to meet the cops. Ethan spouts some corny line that “as I was standing there about to blow my brains out, I closed my eyes and thought of you, and you were the only reason I didn’t”. OMG, gag me with a spoon. My rating 6 out of 10.

Michael Bryant’s New Political Angle
Seems my local Member of Provincial Parliament, Michael Bryant is trying a new political angle to get votes. It’s the “look-like-Jack-Bauer” approach. On the way to meet
Tennis Star Suzie for lunch Monday, I saw a picture of him in the subway. Doesn’t he look like Keifer Sutherland? Weird.