Launch Party, Issue Teaser, and Editor Watchlists
Launch Party, Issue Teaser, and Editor Watchlists
Here's what In The Mood Mag has been cookin' up for you this winter...
Save the Date: Issue 6 Launch Party
To celebrate In The Mood Mag’s upcoming issue, we’re teaming up with The Bleeding Edge to present an evening of readings and short films in Toronto!
February 16th • Doors: 7:30pm
The Pilot, 2nd Floor (22 Cumberland St) • PWYC
Facebook Event
WITH READINGS BY:
EJ Kneifel
Stella/Tago
Fan Wu
Sennah Yee
AND SHORT FILMS BY:
Sophy Romvari
Steffi Tupe
Raphael Lotus Jackson
Issue 6 Teaser ❄️
Here are some wintry excerpts from some Film Diaries coming up in our next issue…
Ravenous (1999)
It’s 1847 and Guy Pearce’s John Boyd has been shipped off to a remote fort in California, a punishment for his wartime cowardice. He arrives, still-trembling, to six inches of snow, prime territory to encounter a scenery—and then some—chomping Robert Carlyle as the mysterious soldier Calhoun and a legend about the Wendigo, an insatiable cannibal who steals the power of his victims.
Grisly bone snapping and open-mouth chewing in wet, unctuous Foley are accompanied by a tinkling Blur soundtrack and MTV screen wipes because outside of the period setting, it’s still 1999. What else could harmonize the cartoonish cruelty of relentless westward expansion, of unchecked territory grabs, of the Oregon Trail before it was Candyland-ified?
The Dead Mountaineer’s Hotel (1979)
by Jaime Chu
It is currently -8 degrees Celsius in Tallinn, Estonia, where the film print of The Dead Mountaineer's Hotel is housed at the Estonian national film archives; and -17 degrees in Shymbulak, Kazakhstan, where the film, a detective story that takes place at a ski resort cut off from the outside world by an avalanche, was shot in 1979. Shymbulak is the largest ski resort in Central Asia where the Soviet Olympics team used to train. There is a view of the ski lifts at the resort on WorldCam; the vibe—the low-res but luscious high contrast, the cold, capricious blue tint, the untamed lens flare and the destabilizing angle—is not that different from the opening shots of The Dead Mountaineer's Hotel. Out here, anything ordinary or anything absurd could happen.
Our Editor-in-Chief’s 2023 Watchlist
I have never made a watchlist that I genuinely intended to complete (completing things is not my strong suit). But this year, in the spirit of self improvement, I have made a list of 93 films I am committed to watching. Below are some of my truly lofty goals.
1) I used to have a habit of falling asleep during screenings, especially in film classes (too many sleepless nights agonizing over an essay or commiserating in the campus pub). Which, all these years later, gives me a creeping sense of doubt: Have I actually seen City Lights? How much did I get through The Battle of Algiers before drifting off? Did I dream Strangers on a Train? This year I will keep the lights on, splash cold water on my face, and find out.
2) I am aiming to make a dent in the 64-titles-long list of ‘80s movies my boyfriend handed to me in a dimly-lit bar early in the relationship, after I had mentioned, off-hand, that I had an aversion to the decade (too much bad hair, too many precocious preteens). I said I would watch them (À Nos Amours, Sudden Impact, River’s Edge) without exactly meaning it. But 5 years later, I have kept the notebook pages with the handwritten list—and I will keep my promise.
3) Not having the constitution of a completist (far too distractible) I am pushing myself to watch all my unseen Lars von Trier, Claire Denis, and Catherine Breillat: the major, living auteurs of the affliction called BEING A WOMAN.
4) As a passionate Baz Luhrmann fan, I deeply regret bitching out and not putting Moulin Rouge on my Sight & Sound Greatest-Films-of-All-Time ballot. So as penance, this year, I will finally watch Australia.
5) On the list: Frigid landscapes, difficult women, technicolour melodrama, 80s Godard, silent epics, Moonlight (2016).
6) Not on the list: Wistful americana, summer films, Martin Scorsese, so-bad-they’re good, Avatar: The Way of Water.
7) Finally, I resolve to log everything, no matter how embarrassing. In December 2022, feeling overwhelmed and worn-out, I ignored my writing and stayed up late watching the Minions movies. Did I enjoy them? Yes. Did I log them? No. I will be better.
Our Managing Editor’s 2022 Movie Moments
by Sennah Yee
I thought I’d look back and share some of my top movie experiences of ‘22: new releases, rewatches, and new-to-me discoveries...
1) This decadent brownie that I ordered at Cineplex VIP to pair with my edible and Ambulance lol 😋
2) Seeing Safe for the first time, crying out of sheer shock and awe at Julianne Moore’s performance during her speech... whewwww!
3) Crash at the TIFF Bell Lightbox with props in the lobby and an intro from David Cronenberg, pre-recorded on his phone, sitting in his Tesla that he said could play the film in the car while you drive lmao.
4) Sobbing on the couch with my husband through Before Sunrise, Sunset, and Midnight back-to-back-to-back in a single night!
5) Doing an Escher’s staircase rewatch of every Jackass movie during our wedding anni vacation in this cursed order: 4.5, 3.5, 2.5, 1, 2, 3, 4.
6) At a cottage past midnight, watching the Elvis ‘68 Comeback Special on a laptop with friends, eating grilled peaches with yogurt and honey. Squealing and screaming in shock at his full leather outfit, and a fan in the audience saving a piece of lint from his cheek in her purse. I bought my first pair of leather pants months later...
7) Getting to know my namesake after watching Senna — texting my dad, telling him that I finally understand the hypnotic pull of watching cars go around and around over and over again and again, and his emotional text back.
8) Multiple people sending me Timothée Chalamet’s IG post of the Bones and All trailer that dropped on my birthday as a birthday greeting, knowing about my huge Timmy crush... 💀