EIFF: Saturday 26th

The penultimate day of the festival began, as usual, with a screening from the Mitchell Leisen retrospective - namely, TO EACH HIS OWN - and it was the best one of all. A woman's weepy, TO EACH HIS OWN will delight those of you who revel in the over-the-top melodramas of George Cukor and Douglas Sirk.

Told in heartbreaking flashbacks by an impressively made up (and de-glamourised) Olivia De Havilland, the film charts the story of a girl who is forced to give up her only son and has to follow his life over the next two or three decades vicariously through his adopted mother. Always from afar, always unable to tell the boy the truth without hurting others, de Havilland observes, tortured and heartbroken.

I'm probably not giving away much by telling you that there is a happy ending - if you're a fan of these kinds of films you already know that, and if you're not then this film is unlikely to be your cup of tea anyway - but it got happier still after the film's release when the film earned the leading lady her first Best Actress award.

A quick trip down to the Scottish Parliament followed (my first visit - and the debating chamber was still closed following that beam incident), in order to see George Alagiah at the Festival of Politics, where he gave us his thoughts on multiculturalism and the immigrant experience. Fascinating it was, too.

It was then back to the Film Festival, where I took in the next in the 70s retrospective, HEAD OVER HEELS (or, as it was originally released and titled on this print, CHILLY SCENES OF WINTER). It starred John Heard and Mary Beth Hurt as a couple who meet, fall in love and then part, only for him to spend his life miserable and desperate to get her back. It sounds like standard rom-com stuff but while it was both romantic and comedic, it was a lot darker than romcom conventions would allow and painted an engrossing, amusing and at the same time slightly depressing picture of the power of love and longing. A pleasant surprise among a lot of more well-known pictures.

Documentary 51 BIRCH STREET began as a filmmaker documenting the life of his family, in particular his parents, but ended up as something a little more unsettling. It's hardly in the same territory (or of the same quality) as CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS but it's certainly a little unsettling. Three months after his mother dies, his father remarries (to his secretary from many years before) and a series of diaries kept by his mother reveal that married life was not exactly bliss.

If there's a flaw with this film, other than the crappy letterbox projection efforts of Cineworld, it's that it takes too long to reveal exactly who the film is about. It bounces back and forth between the mother, the father and the kids until you're not entirely sure what the focus is on. The comparison to CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS is an obvious one but I'm afraid it's one in which 51 BIRCH STREET ends up considerably inferior.

I finished the night with another in the 70s retrospective season, this time George A. Romero's THE CRAZIES.

This low-budget shocker doesn't feature zombies, like his more famous films, but it does have people going insane and killing each other so that's still quite nice. Some of the scenes have not aged well but the documentary style of shooting still holds up remarkably.

Media students could have a field day writing an essay about this film as a Vietnam allegory (there are a lot of not-so-subtle touches throughout that are obvious even if you're not looking at them) but the impression portrayed in the film of ineptitude on the part of senior members of the US government and army could just as easily be pulled from today's headlines.

A real classic to finish the night, leaving me with just the closing day's films to cover. I'll be back soon!

EIFF: Friday 25th

Kicking off with a Mitchell Leisen film again, PRACTICALLY YOURS is a comedy that sees a misinterpreted radio signal result in heroic pilot Fred MacMurray returning home from the war to find himself engaged to a woman co-worker from his office. It's been called a one-joke film and one of Leisen's weaker efforts, including by Leisen himself, but I really enjoyed it. It might not have had the highest number of laughs but it certainly kept me amused, and was helped by the ever reliable MacMurray and Claudette Colbert as the odd couple.

It was a much darker tale which followed - the documentary A CRUDE AWAKENING: THE OIL CRASH. As you'd expect from the title, this film details our reliance on oil, the effects it's having on the world and how we're running out of time to do something about it. The film is very good at hammering home the bad news but not so hot at offering up potential solutions. Nevertheless, it's an important and sobering film that everyone should see for their own education.

Walter Hill's THE DRIVER featured in the 70s retrospective in a nice print - I've seen this movie before (indeed, I wrote about it briefly in a post about Ryan O'Neal several months back) but to see it on the big screen was something else. The characters (all of whom are nameless and simply credited as The Driver, The Player, etc.) are all perfectly cast with Dern playing psycho cop, Adjani playing moody but beautiful and O'Neal doing just the right amount of nothing to be cool. It's the car chases that make the movie though, proving Hill's action credentials which he later put to good use on THE WARRIORS, and this is the main reason for seeing the movie in a cinema rather than on TV.

THE RING FINGER is a French adaptation of a Japanese novel, and perhaps it's this clash of cultures that rendered it such a bizarre film that is very difficult to get to grips with. A young woman gets a job at a place that preserve things for people and - forget it, the more I try to explain it, the more confusing it'll sound. Weird.

MIKEY AND NICKY was the first let-down of the 70s retrospective. Essentially an entire movie of Peter Falk and John Cassavetes wandering through the streets talking to each other (a lot of which was improvised, apparently) as some form of examination of male friendship with Falk trying to help the unhinged Cassavetes. It's not just dull; it's frustrating - because I could not figure out for the life of me why these two characters would still be friends when Cassavetes spends the entire movie being an insufferable prick.

Sadly it didn't get any better as I finished the day with a late night screening of THE PRODIGY, a low budget crime thriller from America that unfortunately gives a whole new definition to the word "amateur". The movie looked really cheap, which I can forgive; but there's no excuse for filming a script this bad, especially when you're going to have equally bad actors attempt to act it. I pride myself on a strange personal principle that I will never walk out of a cinema screening before the end credits roll. This film came very close to breaking that.

Just two days of EIFF coverage to go - it'll be online soon!

EIFF: Wednesday 23rd

The opening film on Wednesday, again from the Mitchell Leisen canon, was the pairing of Marlene Deitrich and Fred MacMurray in THE LADY IS WILLING. She's a single woman who needs a husband in order to adopt the child she has taken under her wing; he's a doctor who really wants the money to move into research; a marriage of convenience is proposed.

It's easy to see where all this leads but it's a lot of fun getting there and the leading couple are excellent together. Of the romantic comedies in the Leisen retrospective, this is one of the better ones.

There was a slight detour via the book festival next as I took in historian Frederick Taylor's lecture on the history of the Berlin wall. Fascinating it was too.

From Cold War politics to modern day politics and my next movie was the documentary AL FRANKEN: GOD SPOKE. The former Saturday Night Live star, satirist and writer hit the headlines when Fox famously tried to sue him over the title of a book he wrote about the right-wing media bias... and he won. This film follows the aftermath of that victory as he continues his campaign (including his attempts to get that lobotomised chimp out of the White House) and launches his own liberal radio station.

The documentary wanders a bit but is never less than entertaining thanks to the presence of Franken, who manages the incredible task of being politically savvy but extremely funny at the same time; a stark contrast to the cold appearance of Anne Coulter or the incredible anti-Franken views expressed on Fox News.

THE UNCERTAIN GUEST is a Spanish thriller in the Hitchcock mould. A young man, having just split with his girlfriend, lives alone in a large mansion. One night a stranger appears on his doorstep asking to use the phone. The host obliges but almost as soon as the guest enters the house, he disappears - but could it be that he is still hiding somewhere inside?

The film is wonderfully tense with a dark sense of humour throughout. There's a shift half way through the film as well, when we suddenly begin to think differently about the protagonist and start having doubts about who really is the victim. I can't remember the last film I watched that made me spend so much time holding my breath.

The final film of the night was the Norwegian movie NEXT DOOR, a compact thriller about a man pestered by two strange girls that live next door to him. It's pretty brutal in places and won't be to everyone's taste but it's a compelling little movie. If there's one problem it's that it's very obvious early on where the film is heading - particularly if you've seen films like the superior THE MACHINIST - but it's still a fun ride and the final scene will still pack a punch regardless of how early you figured everything out.

EIFF: Tuesday 22nd

Tuesday's viewing began, as always, with the Mitchell Leisen retrospective and this time it was HOLD BACK THE DAWN. Once again the film was a romance with comedic elements but I'd stop short of calling it a romantic comedy. The story of a man who intends to marry a US citizen so that he may get a visa is once more a dark tale with an air of depression and despair, reflected in the location where the film takes place. No more the brightly-lit city residences - now we're in a grim Mexican border town full of desperate people in desperate situations. Another fine effort from Mr Leisen.

This was followed on my schedule with BLACK BRUSH, a slacker comedy from Hungary about a bunch of chimney sweeps who do no work and try to hatch elaborate plans to make money. I'd almost describe this as Kevin Smith's CLERKS if he'd been Hungarian, but the key difference between the two is that while they both might be structured similarly and share the same look, BLACK BRUSH isn't actually very funny. It's scooped lots of prizes elsewhere, including its homeland, so maybe I'm missing something but to me it's a flop.

Sadly it was more of the same, albeit slightly improved, with the British/Czech comedy SHUT UP AND SHOOT ME. When a man's wife is killed while on holiday, he decides that he can't live anymore and after a failed attempt at suicide he enlists the help of a local to kill him. This is a comedy though, and the murder attempts don't go to plan, leaving a trail of death and destruction behind them - not to mention an angry hitman with whom they become entangled.

Despite a promising start, there are only sporadic moments of laugh-out-loud humour - it's never a laugh riot. Sadly there are very few films that are more difficult to sit through than a comedy that isn't funny and my double bill of BLACK BRUSH and this film represented a real ordeal.

It was a pleasant surprise then that the next film I saw, which I'd been slightly sceptical of, was one of the triumphs of the festival.

ZIDANE: A 21ST CENTURY PORTRAIT follows the titular footballer for the course of a game using cameras placed all over the stadium. We don't follow the play and with the occasional exception we have no idea what is happening elsewhere on the pitch - we see only Zidane as he passes, waits, runs, thinks... it's not a completely original concept (a similar film of George Best was made in the 1970s) but it's executed superbly.

It's difficult to take from my description just how riveting the film is but I was captivated from start to finish and it's telling that the gentleman I sat next to admitted to never watching football but described this movie as absolutely enthralling. I agree.

LOUDQUIETLOUD: A FILM ABOUT THE PIXIES does exactly what it says on the tin. The documentary follows the influential US rock band not in their heyday when they were so underappreciated but rather during their 2004 reunion and tour. The filmmakers behind this movie have done a good job in carving out a watchable documentary with the material available because despite the fact that guitarist Joey seems to be the only member of the band without major issues, the group are actually not that interesting. On stage they're magic, off stage they hardly talk to each other. You sense that there was a real struggle to make this film interesting but for the most part it succeeds.

EIFF: Monday 21st

More quick thoughts, this time on Monday's movies. Usual disclaimers about proof reading and sleep apply.

ARISE MY LOVE

The latest effort in the Mitchell Leisen series was a far more serious effort than normal (though not without comedic touches) and was less a romance than a call to arms for the US to join the war. I love watching these old war effort pictures and this one can sit proudly alongside the various Michael Powell propoganda movies. Great stuff.

WRISTCUTTERS: A LOVE STORY

After committing suicide, a young man finds himself in an afterlife where all suicide victims go - a little like here, only slightly worse. It's surprisingly funny for a film about such depressing material but unfortunately the attempts at lovable quirkiness completely give way at points to gratuitous weirdness. One to watch, but flawed.

DEAD MAN'S CARDS

A British gangster-style flick - if that doesn't tell you all you need to know then let me assure you that this is a contender for the worst film of the festival. All the macho posturing, brutal fights and blokes swearing at each other cannot disguise how awful this movie is, and the terrible acting by almost the entire cast only hammers it home. One or two pieces of music on the score were good, but that's about as kind as I can be without being a liar.

THE SPOOK WHO SAT BY THE DOOR

Another film from the 70s retrospective - on the surface it's just another blaxploitation flick, but when you get into it it's so much more. It's a revolutionary movie, an angry call to black people across America to wage war on their white oppressors. They don't make them like this any more - and probably never will again. Dated in many ways but excellent all the same. This retrospective season continues to be the highlight of the festival.

Another day at the EIFF

We're getting there, gradually. Here's what I watched on Sunday. Once again I'd remind you that it's late and I can't be bothered checking for spelling errors.

REMEMBER THE NIGHT

Today's opener, again from the Mitchell Leisen retrospective, is again a romantic comedy although one that is slightly darker in tone again. Barbara Stanwyck is a reoffending shoplifter who is remanded into the custody of prosecuting D.A. Fred MacMurray for the Christmas holidays. A quick trip back to see his family soon results in (and I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying it) her seeing the error of her ways and the two natural enemies falling for each other.

The lead couple sparkle and the film's feel-good factor and family Christmas setting would make it suitable for a double bill with IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE if you ask me.

FIRST LOVE

Inspired by the real-life 3-million-yen heist of the 1960s (and a book in which a woman confessed, many years later, to be the robber), this Japanese movie is a subtle blend of heist movie and agonising romance (with the emphasis on the latter) against the backdrop of a changing Japan. The film really begins to sag in the middle but the heartbreakingly beautiful ending means all is forgiven. You'll need patience to make it all the way through - don't go expecting huge action set pieces for the heist itself either.

WALKING TO WERNER

Linas Phillips is a filmmaker from the currently popular trend of budding directors who see cheaply shot documentaries as the way to get their films made and make stars of themselves at the same time. I really wish he hadn't bothered.

Inspired by Werner Herzog's infamous cross-country trek on foot to see a sick friend, Phillips decides he is going to walk the 1200 miles to Herzog's house just to meet him (despite Herzog's assurances that he will not be in the country at the time).

Many things become obvious on the trip - Phillips clearly wants to be Herzog but lacks any of the wit, style or charisma; he soon resembles the kind of madman that Herzog himself usually turns the camera on; he offers nothing insightful (the characters he meets are all, without exception, far more likable and interesting than he is); we're told that the trip results in him "finding himself" though there is no such evidence on screen.

This film is a stinker and perfectly illustrates the downside of the digital film revolution.

THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED

This documentary is a fascinating and very entertaining look at the way the MPAA in America is run (for those of you not familiar, they're the folks that give films ratings in the US). It's not just funny and interesting, but also makes you realise that in many ways they're even shadier than Britain's own BBFC. Sure, there's a lot wrong with our system but it's a hell of a lot more transparent than the US one if this expose is anything to go by. Contains lots of nudity. Which is nice.

ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE

Wow. I've never seen this one before but it played as part of the "They Might Be Giants" retrospective and I'm glad I caught it. Robert Blake plays a police officer who dreams of making detective only to find out that it's not all it's cracked up to be when he finally makes it. It's an interesting counter to EASY RIDER, and the chance to see Conrad Hall's breathtaking cinematography on the big screen (in what was, it must be said, a marvellous print) was worth the admission alone. The scenes in the desert are particularly impressive - like a cross between all the best elements of John Ford westerns and MAD MAX car chases.

More this weekend!

A couple more days from my EIFF schedule

Hmmm, last night's promised update never quite materialised, did it? My PC crashed just as I was about to start and as it was 1:30am I took that as a sign that I should just go to bed instead. But to summarise another couple of days, here's what I saw on Friday and Saturday last week.

I apologise if today's entry is riddled with spelling mistakes. It's almost 2am, I'm tired and I want to go to bed so I can't be bothered proof reading it. I should also point out that if any of my thoughts (not just from today) make you want to see any of the films at the EIFF, some of them will have repeat showings as part of "Best of the Fest" on Sunday - tickets available now and only a fiver.

EASY LIVING

This Mitchell Leisen film was another comedy but this time with a lot more slapstick. Most of the humour has actually aged well (a lot better than many comedies of the 30s and 40s) and is still laugh out loud funny. Good start to the day (I followed this with Mark Thomas at the Book Festival, which was entertaining and informative).

SPECIAL

A real-world superhero film, sort of. It's a low budget indie film from America, about a guy who agrees to test a new kind of drug but unfortunately suffers side effects, namely the belief that he has superpowers. Naturally, especially since he's a comic geek, he chooses to dress up as a superhero and fight crime, which is slightly hampered by his complete lack of superpowers.

It's a neat idea and well executed in places (I liked the way the point of view kept changing between what the hero believes is happening and what is actually happening). Unfortunately the majority of the supporting characters are two-dimensional nobodies - the hero's two friends in particular look very much like someone watched too many Kevin Smith movies and tried (but failed) to imitate them.

ANTS IN THE MOUTH

Competent thriller set in pre-Castro 1950s Cuba. Begins to wander a bit towards the end, but it's an entertaining throwback to classic noir.

MIDNIGHT

Another comedy from Mitchell Leisen and another triumph as per EASY LIVING. Notably, Billy Wilder was involved with the writing, which could explain a lot of the humour.

NEO NED

He's a young skinhead neo-Nazi racist; she's a black girl who believes herself to be the reincarnation of Hitler; naturally they fall in love. The most bizarre relationship since Elvis and JFK in BUBBA HO-TEP (what do you mean you've never seen BUBBA HO-TEP?) is a success, and it's largely due to the two leads but especially Jeremy Renner in the title role. Violently confrontational and yet touchingly sweet with a wonderful feel good ending.

MR PILIPENKO AND HIS SUBMARINE

Documentary about a man who dedicates 20 years of his life (to the chagrin of his wife) to building a submarine, despite being pretty poor and, more importantly, living in the middle of the Ukrainian steppe. Interesting subject that could have been delightful in better hands but this one suffers from the fact that so much of the character interaction appears to be staged and also from the second half of the film being interminably slow-moving.

COLOUR ME KUBRICK

The story of Alan Conway, a man who, in the early 90s, conned a lot of people by convincing them he was Stanley Kubrick - despite looking nothing like him and knowing very little about any of his films. John Malkovich clearly has a ball in the title role (and gets to wear a series of outrageously camp outfits) but the film takes too long over what is a very thin story and what results is a series of cons on various people that seems to take up most of the film before anything else eventually happens.

TWELVE AND HOLDING

While not quite as dark as MYSTERIOUS SKIN when it comes to looking at childhood trauma, this film certainly has its share of dark material, detailing the lives of a bunch of kids and their problems, all of which kicks off with the twin brother of one of them being accidentally burned to death.

It's not all doom and gloom though - there's plenty of humour and the film benefits from having a cast of young kids who not only manage to avoid being annoying but actually turn in great performances (and the aformentioned Jeremy Renner pops up doing a fine job again). I guess the closest thing I can think of to a precursor is STAND BY ME but I'm certainly not suggesting that if you like one you'll like the other. Nevertheless, this is one of the stronger films I've seen in the festival.

SHEITAN

Mad French horror film that finds a bunch of youths falling victim to a family of inbred mentalcases in a farm in the French countryside. Vincent Cassell is a delight as the toothy headcase who is father of the family and the final minutes are totally, unbelievably mental; but really the Belgian film CALVAIRE (which aired at the EIFF a couple of years back) already covered much the same ground.

I may have another update tomorrow night or, failing that, sometime at the weekend. Stick around!

More EIFF: 70s classics and crap horror

Okay, still playing catch-up but here's what I saw on Thursday.

SWING HIGH, SWING LOW

The next film in the Mitchell Leisen retrospective reunites Fred MacMurray and Carole Lombard in what is, in my humble opinion, a pretty standard romantic comedy (all the usual obstacles are overcome, and it's not as funny as some of the others in this retrospective). It was apparently a pretty rare screening though (they had to use a beat-up old 16mm print) so that's nice.

THE HIRED HAND

Peter Fonda's western is about half an hour of story stretched out to a full length feature film by his endless series of camera tricks and lingering landscape shots. It must be said though that, rather than being style over substance, this is one instance where the style becomes the substance and adds to the overall mood of foreboding and despair. You also can't look at the relationship between Peter Fonda and Warren Oates in the film and not find yourself thinking that, love scenes aside, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN maybe wasn't that groundbreaking after all.

Excellent film, and the first one I've managed to see in the other main retrospective this year, which concentrates on the "lost" voices of the New American Cinema of the 1970s, i.e. all the ones that get forgotten about when people are talking about Scorsese, Coppola, Lucas, etc.

THE EMPIRE IN AFRICA

Yeah, I've already told you about this one. Don't make me relive it.

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS

And what better way to recover from my Sierra Leone ordeal than with a quirky effort from the aforementioned 1970s retrospective (and the film that gave the season its name).

George C. Scott plays a former judge who, upon the death of his wife, went mad and now believes himself to be Sherlock Holmes. Together with Joanne Woodward's psychiatrist, who just happens to be called Dr Watson, he sets out to find his nemesis Moriarty, by way of a series of clues that he manages to contrive entirely by himself (all the while evading the people who are trying to have him committed).

It's a very funny film but at the same time it's oddly touching, nowhere more so than in the final scene. Ending on an unexpected note, it's a brave way to end the film and yet it's so utterly perfect that when it's finished you just can't imagine it ending any other way.

This retrospective comes up trumps yet again.

THEM

This pedestrian, cliche-ridden French horror film sees a young couple being menaced by a bunch of ghostly figures in a mansion in the country. There's nothing supernatural about the villains though (and in fact once you see what they are they're even less scary) and if nothing else it demonstrates why some establishments don't trust people in hoodies.

Not a very good film at all, but full marks for effort to the ever-excellent Cameo cinema for adding to the experience with their own contribution to the atmosphere (you had to be there).

I'll try to post some more tomorrow...

The EIFF in full swing

I guess I'm playing catch-up here. Let's go back to before my unpleasant experience (see last blog entry) and round up the films I saw on Wednesday. I can barely remember what day it is now to be honest.

HANDS ACROSS THE TABLE
Another film in the Mitchell Leisen retrospective, another romantic comedy. Carole Lombard and Fred MacMurray (doing his best James Stewart impression) are the couple at its heart this time and while they make a great pairing the film itself is a pretty standard affair for romcom territory. The ending is predictable but at least there's a refreshing detour into darker territory first.

THE KILLING OF JOHN LENNON
This fractured, hallucinatory effort follows Mark Chapman in the months leading up to his infamous act in New York. The dream-like quality of the film makes the two hours a real slog and eventually the style-over-substance approach just becomes grating. Given the notorious outcome of this story there's a surprising lack of tension and matters are not helped by the film continuing just when you think it's ended. And that happens about half a dozen times.

ART SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL
Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes reunite after their critically acclaimed GHOST WORLD adaptation but alas this time their cinematic treatment of Clowes original comic material fails to hit the mark. There are too many styles (teen comedy, emotional drama, murder mystery... the film can't decide so how can I?) and the film ends up a muddle. This is only exacerbated by the cast of largely uninteresting characters who aim for the quirkiness of GHOST WORLD but fall some way short. You're always on to a loser when your lead character is one of the most boring in the movie.

THE HOST
Move over Japan and Godzilla, the Koreans are making their mark on the Asian monster movie! The story is simple - chemicals dumped in a river (by the US, and based on a real event) cause a river-bound mutation which grows to enormous size and terrorises the people of Seoul.

It's great fun but manages to be serious when necessary; it's silly but not childish; gruesome without being gross. It might be CGI but it's just as enjoyable as the traditional rubber-suited efforts of Japan. In short it's a big popcorn movie like the Americans wish they still knew how to make. And most pleasant of all, the monster is in full swing within the first quarter of an hour, and in daylight too! None of this slow build up, night-bound, a-bit-at-a-time malarky - it's a full-on monster mash from the word go, and the most fun you'll have at the pictures this year. Particularly if, like me, you're sat next to a woman who leaps three feet out her seat every time the monster appears.

EIFF - it begins!

DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY

My first film at this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival was the opening presentation in this year's director retrospective (subjects in the previous years being Michael Powell and Valerio Zurlini, both of which kicked all manner of ass), which in 2006 is dedicated to Mitchell Leisen.

Yeah, I admit it, I'd never heard of him either.

This one is from 1934 and will sound familiar to anyone who has seen the Brad Pitt-starring MEET JOE BLACK, being the inspiration for said recent update.

The Grim Reaper decides to take a three-day holiday and spends time with a rich family in a big mansion but, whoops, falls victim to mortal desires. Old Death himself falls in love.

The film looks lovely, with the baroque sets positively bursting out the frame. On the other hand, some of the performances and speech are very stilted in that old-time movie way. Of course to some that just adds to its charm.

The scenes with Death in his natural state are actually rather spooky, while the romantic in you will surely be warmed by the love-conquers-all finale (more so than the love-conquers-all finale of NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET PART II: FREDDY'S REVENGE, which was just pish).

I also love how these old movies end immediately when the story reaches its natural conclusion rather than adding on some epilogue which usually turns out to be a bit of an anticlimax.

Not a bad start, then. I'm now off to check out a couple of newer films - if I get time later tonight I'll post my thoughts on them too. Keep checking back for updates!