In response to your image text question: yes.  Yes, I will be.

I saw it last night.  It's very Sokurov-y, in that it's mostly the camera following Faust (and, eventually, the devil) as he wanders around an early modernish German town and its environs, mixed with the outlines of the Faust tale.  It's also really consciously ugly (with a few stunning bits, too).  I'm honestly not…

I thought Alois Nebel was considerably better than a C-.  (I know, grades, whatever, but still.)  I will grant that I am drawn to things Soviet/post-Soviet, which perhaps affected my appreciation for the film.  But,for one thing, the film is based on comic books.  You can certainly argue that it would have been more…

Which was actually pretty fun, in a weird way.  The collective "oof," I mean—it's pretty cool that the whole (giant) audience was in that mental space.

Well, damn, now I'm more annoyed that all The Loneliest Planet's public screenings are at times I can't make.

He then further cemented his place in my heart by "whispering" "who's that one?" several times during the film (Alois Nebel, and he was confused when one [animated] character grew a beard).

I saw Chicken with Plums on Friday night, and had decidedly mixed feelings about it, in part because I think it's a decidedly mixed film.  The basic story isn't really all that fable-like, but it was presented in a very, er, fabulous way.  And the visual style was lovely at many points (such gorgeous cigarette smoke!)…

The best thing I heard at the festival yesterday was the man sitting behind me who wasn't that happy with the movie he'd just seen (from context, possibly the Iranian one you mention above) because "I don't go to the movies to see a slice of life."

I think it's less the "power of love" and more "only connect."

Yup. That's what Adam Shankman claimed on Fresh Air. And… agreed.

@ Really—well, they had Ellenore dancing three times in five dances in this order, so that's clearly not why they didn't arrange things more evenly.

It's got to be ballot stuffing. And the result is also that Ellenore stopped dancing like halfway through the show. Which sucks.

That sounds pretty much like what mine would have been.

Yeah, I wonder if the first season you see is almost by definition filled with the most memorable dances. I started watching in season 4, and the people and dances from that season—even some of the bad ones—are far more memorable still than a lot of the ones from the summer, or from this season.

I thought the line was "lurk much," not "look much." (Says a [usual] lurker.)

Surprised and not
I find myself feeling sorry and a little sad for Channing. Kevin I expected—I actually wouldn't have been surprised if he'd gone home last week, and in a way I wish he had as Peter and Karen might have stood a better chance at that Broadway number. But I was hoping Mollee would go home, and after…

Well, considering that three weeks ago they fit ten partner dances, introductory packages, and then solos for four and an elimination in the same two hours… yes, it's a little padded right now. I sure hope they switch to two dances next week, or it's going to be just ridiculous.

But very much not the GIANT RED RUFFLED ones from the intro solos. Because those were among the more puzzling costuming choices on an show in parts entirely based on puzzling costuming choices.

I think that's partially because it's doing two thing. On the one hand, it's the third book in a series, and so has to do service to that. But then it also brings in such a huge other thing, with the story of the banned book trial, that it kind of throws the first part out of joint.