explorations in toronto art.

Over the weekend I visited Communication Gallery on Harbord for the first time, to review the current exhibition for BlogTO. While it might not have been my top pick for the most interesting exhibition on right now, most things G20-related still generate a lot of buzz—and a lot of angry comments.

Though I don’t think the exhibition really succeeds in what it purports to do—”delving into the impact of the arrests made during the G20 summit,” says the artist’s statement—the response it has since triggered, garnering 40+ comments yesterday afternoon, is proof positive of the power of portraiture.

My review of “Prisoners” went live yesterday. Read it here!

I had the pleasure of a movie in last night, and we watched Milk.

I think it’s worth mentioning first off, that I generally like politics-related movies, and biopics, so it had good chances coming in. But wow. This was incredible for several reasons beside my aforementioned personal biases.

1: Archival footage. Yes, maybe this is a dorky thing to be wowed about, but the film’s almost seamless use of archival news footage, whether cut into the film straight-up or inserted into a TV in a scene, really helped to ground everything in reality. For someone like me who has barely ever been exposed to anti-gay bigotry, I had a hard time remembering and realizing that legislative issues like Prop 6 actually existed. To see people talking about this stuff on old news broadcasts somehow helped make it real. Not to mention the air of 70s authenticity it lent the film.

2: Acting: We know that Sean Penn won the Oscar for his portrayal of Harvey Milk, so there’s that. But I was incredibly impressed with the characterization of his opponent & colleague Dan White, the film’s main villain. Of significant note is the fact that he was played by Josh Brolin, who starred in another recent political biopic, playing the troubled, human side of another often-demonized politician.

3: Casting: This one didn’t really hit me until the end, because I’m pretty unfamiliar with all the people involved in the story. The closing titles explained who the supporting characters really were, what they did following Milk’s murder, and in some cases, what they continue to do today. The sequence also included photographs and footage of the people they were based on. Somehow it hadn’t dawned on my that Milk’s boyfriends, campaign managers, close associates and friends were all real people, and the accuracy with which they were portrayed was astounding. It was by no means the focus of the movie, but it was a good touch.

All these factors served to hammer home the fact that, once upon a time, these were real people in a real struggle— of course the movie is not a documentary, and some things were dramatized, but it’s chilling to think about the fact that people  were in danger of losing their jobs because of their sexual orientation. That, and it’s just a really touching and affecting story of struggle, connection, and personal relationships, that’s told in a really dramatic and real way.

Bottom line, this movie ruled and I really recommend it!