Irish Car Bomb

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En Francais, les eleves.

Last night me and some of the usual suspects were invited by Mosaic and Stella Artois for some fun and a movie. I brought along my good friend Randeep (#broforceEast) and we all met up at Hank’s and were treated to Diet Coke cocktails, a live DJ, and a whole lotta munchies. I particularly liked the Ratatouille-smothered take on poutine. The pre-screening reception felt like one of those really fun birthdays you went to as a kid. We were treated to an amazing flare bartender who literally set the bar on fire, an illusionist, cotton candy, a photo booth, and yes, loot bags! They even invited hair stylists from Toni & Guy to style the hair of those of us who were interested. My hair has gotten long so I figured I would give it a shot. An interesting experience to say the least as it was my first time allowing a stylist to touch my locks. Lots of fun was had and the food was great with plenty of little distractions to keep us all busy until it was time to head over to the movie.

As the reception neared its end, a large limousine arrived to shuttle us over in style to the Elgin Theatre for a special screening of Route Irish directed by Ken Loach. I wondered why we were being taken to a film with very heavy subject matter after all the tomfoolery of the party, but perhaps it’s just that the showtime worked well with the timing of the reception?

The film had lots of potential as it was meant as an exposé on mercenaries in the Iraq war, however I felt that the scope of the issue was too extensive to fit within the confines of what was essentially a revenge film. Perhaps balancing character development and political awareness within the relatively short frame of the movie’s length weakened it slightly. It did have its moments however, and I think I can safely say that this movie had the best car bomb scene I’ve ever seen in film. I wonder if Loach is aware of the unintended pun inherent in having a car bomb in an Irish movie. I find that people at the TIFF tend to be overly eager to gush their reviews because of the personal touch meeting the director or cast brings with a premiere of a film. For me, however, I guess I still try to judge the movie based on its own merits and despite being being in a theatre full of people who could not wait to tell Loach that this movie was “incredible” I would like to exercise my right to be different from the crowd.  It’s not a bad movie by any stretch, mind you, it’s just that outside of the main character and perhaps his “girlfriend” there is little character development so it’s hard to feel for the deceased mercenary friend of the main character, whom he is avenging. It would have been fine if Route Irish was the kind of movie 127 Hours was, but unfortunately that’s not the case. Overall, despite feeling somewhat incomplete, Loach’s film was effective in shedding light on a troubling issue and I still give Kudos to Loach for his gutsy attempt at tackling the grim situation that few – outside of readers of the Economist and Poli Sci majors like me – have read or heard about.

The pink one on the right is sweeter

Jon goes for the bread basket.

Jon thought is would be funny to ruin my picture in front of the branded backdrop. I forgave him because he bought me a glass of Drambuie. Confidentially, it was hilarious but you had to be there. This shot was taken by Deanna aka @shopsterium.