Yesterday, while listening to NPR for the obvious reasons, we heard a terrific interview with Ralph Fiennes. Terrific because at the very end of the interview, Leonard Lopate throws a curve at the pointy actor by asking him why he pronounces his name Rayfe. A short pause follows, and then Fiennes cobbles together an answer along the lines of 'that is actually how it was pronounced historically.' Now if we could only ask Chloë Sevigny from whence that umlaut came! Alas, we can't, because she's not starring in The Constant Gardener, the only movie opening this weekend that doesn't look abysmal, which by default makes it look all the more appetizing. A thriller set in Africa, starrring Rachel Weisz and no Brendan Fraser. There are worse things you could do with a Friday evening and a bag of popcorn.

- But why would you hang out with that pretentious Rayfe when you can go see a weekend full of dance shorts at the Kick Up Your Heels festival? The programs are divided into He and She.

- Are you still thinking about going to see that Ashlee Simpson movie? Will nothing we suggest sway you from your desire to watch Ashlee act, badly, through a hackneyed MOW that somehow got dropped into a theatre by mistake? Then perhaps the first ever Toronto Hip Hop Film Festival will entice you to leave the wee jigger. Tonight they'll present The Freshest Kids, the "seminal documentary that follows the history of break culture through its ups and downs and current resurgence." It stars Afrika Bambaataa, Mos Def, Fab Five Freddy, Frosty Freeze, Kool Herc and Crazy Legs.
On Saturday they'll screen Amelie boyfriend Mathieu Kassovitz' La Haine.