After staying awake for 72 hours straight you start to hallucinate. Nothing too serious, it's mostly peripheral - you might see a payphone walking across the street or some kind of rodent suddenly dart out then disappear. The hallucinations aren't dangerous, but they make for an interesting drive into the village when you're racing to hand in your movie for the World Ski and Snowboard Fest's 72-Hour Filmmaker showdown.
That's right, the second biggest local film event of the year (I'm partial to the Heavy Hitting B Grade Halloween Horror Film Festival) is back and with teams shooting all weekend, so don't be surprised if you end up caught in the crossfire. The top films screen Tuesday night at the Conference centre. Doors are at 8 p.m. but tickets will be sold out long before that.
Local teams have a pretty good track record of beating out the imported film school 'professionals' so if someone you know approaches with a camera in hand and asks you to do some crazy shit you'd usually never consider, help 'em out. Plus, they've probably been up for 60-plus hours eating only slivers, pepperoni sticks and gummy bears. You don't want to anger someone in that state.
Another big local film shindig coming this weekend is the Whistler premier of Rock Paper Scissors: A Geek Tragedy. Several years in the making, Rock Paper Scissors is a documentary chronicling the rise of the ubiquitous childhood decision-making game (also known as RoShamBo) into an international sport where 'athletes' compete for a World Championship title and thousands of dollars in prizes.
Focusing on Doug and Graham Walker, Toronto brothers who've spent years incubating the simple game into an organized worldwide competition, Rock Paper Scissors outlines the history of the sport and introduces some of it's most dedicated competitors and throw-sequence strategies - a Rock Avalanche is always good but never underestimate the deadly Scissor Sandwich.
The middle section of the film drags a tiny bit but the third act brings the real drama, when bigwig American TV producers looking to help elevate the Walker's 'hobby' to the next level end up starting a competing RPS championships in Las Vegas, complete with Playmates and an amped-up television commentary. Old loyalties are tested, souls are sold, and the film transcends its fun, quirky concept and digs into themes of selling out and the danger of letting the fun stuff you love doing become a business where $$ starts making all the decisions. I imagine some pros in this town can relate to that.
Rock Paper Scissors: A Geek Tragedy plays on Saturday, April 18 at 7:30 p.m. at the Rainbow theatre. Producer Pat McKinnon lives in Pemby and he mentioned there are rumours of an impromptu RPS tournament after the screening. You'll have to check out the flick to find out exactly where. Also hit up the website, www.rpsfilm.com.
At the Village 8 they are opening 17 Again , the latest adult-magically-becomes-a-teenager-again movie starring Zac Efron. I've said it before and I'll say it again - piss on this shit. Efron blows and I think he wears lipgloss too.
Also opening is State Of Play, an uninspired take on the corporate conspiracy plot starring Russel Crowe as a rule-breaking reporter and Ben Affleck as a politician who can't act. Not bad, but not great either. On the other hand, Crank: High Voltage stars Jason Statham as a guy with an electric heart, who at one point has to dry hump an old lady to build up enough static electricity to stay alive. Stupid, mindless and awesome. Did I mention Amy Smart returns for this sequel? I'm totally in - if you stay awake for three days then go see Crank - it's like a sensory
