October 27, 2006
This Just In: Stephen LeDrew Has Garbage Taste In Movies
Today's topic in The Star's increasingly mundane "20 Questions" feature - where they ask the three biggest mayoral candidates questions about a whole plethora of subjects - was Favourite Movies. Jane Pitfield picked It's A Wonderful Life, The Sound of Music, and Ben Hur, three great films in three seperate genres that are generally accepted by audiences and critics to be among the best of all time. David Miller chose Casablanca, Apocalypse Now, and Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip; another three respectable choices, with a great comedy routine thrown in for good measure.
But Stephen LeDrew's three picks were Penelope, an overly-sentimental TIFF-debuted screening starring Christina Ricci as a girl with a pig's nose; Something's Gotta Give, that movie about intergenerational love where Jack Nicholson is dating Amanda Peet and Diane Keaton is sleeping with Keanu Reeves; and, to top it all off, The Thomas Crown Affair - not the original, but the Pierce Brosnan remake.
Not one of the movies LeDrew chose has a user rating above 7.0 on IMDB, not one is critically acclaimed, and we've certainly never met anyone who ranks these three films anywhere near the top of their list. And there's a good reason for that: all three films are pretty mediocre. And they're Stephen LeDrew's favourite movies of all time.
Maybe it's just cause he liked Jack's glasses. Or fancies himself a Pierce Brosnan lookalike. Or maybe LeDrew thinks that those three movies are what "the kids" are watching nowadays. Maybe he was captivated by the way that Penelope's use of rich colour contrasted its incredibly dull and pedantic story. Maybe he just discovered "moving pictures" in 1999. Or maybe he just really, really wants to have sex with Amanda Peet. We'll never know. But it does beg the question - do you really want a mayor who considered the entire history of film, all the Godfathers and Shawshanks and Hitchcocks and Spielbergs...and chose Something's Gotta Give?
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Finally, something creepier about LeDrew than his coiffed eyebrows.
1) Maybe he was referring to the 1966 Penelope, directed by Athur Hiller and starring the late Natalie Wood (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060818/)? It seems very unlikely that he'd be aware of a film that debuted at the most recent TIFF, let alone one with no positive word-of-mouth.
2) It does, however, go a long way to validating a theory that occurred to me recently: the guy on the TIFF '06 poster is Stephen LeDrew.
http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2006/med/downloads/desktop_800x600.jpg
3) Kevin LeDrew is the guy in Broken Social Scene. But Frencher.
4) I just laughed when I read LeDrew's movie picks this morning; I didn't feel the need to castigate him for his awful selections. I'm as much of a movie snob as anybody, but there's a disconcerting nastiness to this post. You're taking his stupid response far too seriously, and criticizing him based on it - it's like taking him to task for his eyebrows; they're impressively silly but hardly a measure of his character. Your post is rather... Cal MacLean, but without the sense of humour.
LeDrew's bizzare choice can't help but recall Howard Dean, who while campaigning for the top Democratic spot several years back announced that his favorite song was Wyclef Jean's "Jaspora."
funny post!
Psst, Jonathan. Kevin Drew, not LeDrew. Just, you know, in case you bump into him on the street or something, and are all "Heeeey! Kevin LeDrew!". ;)
Um, or maybe he's being honest instead of telling us something he thinks will impress. Or maybe he's like me and gets his movies from the library.
Carrie: As I wrote, Kevin LeDrew is the guy in Broken Social Scene. But Frencher.
The weird thing is that they're not like guilty pleasure movies - like the ones you'd get at the library or something. It's not like Zoolander. They're just genuinely mediocre movies.
If Miller reallly wanted to impress, you'd think he'd choose something other than Richard Pryor's somewhat polarizing stand-up stuff.
The Thomas Crown remake has a well choreographed ending at the MET, and the actors are appealing people...seems an alright choice for a non-movie-snob, which is most people.
I'm with Jonathan, I don't understand the motivation of this post.
It's just supposed to be fun is all. I just thought that the contrast in choices between the three candidates was remarkable. 20 Questions has been pretty ripe for analysis and criticism so far.
Doh! Apologies, Jonathan, I missed the 'but Frencher' part. Carry on. ;)
All unnecessary and rude comments have been deleted from this thread.
As always, constructive comments are welcome, but anyone who just wants to rant should e-mail me to do so (david@torontoist.com).
Thanks,
David
My comment was constructive, but somehow deleted. What I was expressing was this: please don't make posts that are infantile and are just re-hashing the stories of other media outlets.
If you want to post something about the mayoral election, maybe try and talk to the candidates or let your readers know a thing or two that will help them along the way. The Star did the movie thing to break up their varied coverage of the race.
I'd like to see Torontoist be more than just a snide place for petty posts that do nothing to further the importance of politics in this city.
Eye, Spacing, the Globe and even the god-damn Sun are giving their readers good info in blog format so they can make informed decisions. This kind of posts on Torontoist, which nitpick useless details, clearly separate you from the good blogs in this city.
I'm not suggesting you cover the election like the above mentioned blogs, but I'd hope you put more thought and value into what you wish to give your readers.
"do you really want a mayor who considered the entire history of film, all the Godfathers and Shawshanks and Hitchcocks and Spielbergs...and chose Something's Gotta Give?"
do you really want to read an article about how Stephen LeDrew has poor taste in movies?
I think the strange choice in movies speaks volumes about LeDrew, mainly that he's not a movie afficinado and that someone took him to 'Penelope' at the Film Festival. This is particularly significant since his campaign manager, Arthur Potts, is a lobbyist at Municipal Affairs Consulting who lobbied on behalf of Showline Studios against building a new movie studio down at the portlands.