Last night Cineplex was kind enough to invite me to a showing of the new Daft Punk video at their brand new UltraAVX theatre at John and Richmond (no need to mention a bank here, is there?). Impressively, the video clocked in at over two hours (!) and included quite a strong narrative. Truth be told, I found the narrative to be more compelling than Daft Punk’s appearance in the piece which, given the otherwise engaging effects laden production, seemed a little unnecessary and a lot cheesy.

It can certainly be said that this is otherwise a step in the right direction for the twosome. Moving forward from their performance pyramid, it appears they’re now touring with an entire city that can fit inside a very compact traveling package, the size of a standard standup arcade game case (not one of those newfangled large screen behemoths with guns and straps and shaking chairs).

Speaking of shaking chairs, there sure was a lot of low-end with that UltraAVX audio system. I was a little concerned with our neighbours who were trying to watch someone chop their arm off in solitude. To ease my stress, I tried to recline in the fancy chair I fell into earlier in the evening, but it just kept popping me back up as though we were approaching a runway.

Thankfully, the perfectly sized screen and middle row seating grabbed my attention once again as I discovered we’re not actually 3D until we’re Daft Punk 3D. Staring at my hands now is still rather confusing. No body suit, no light strips on my arms, but I still feel a whole dimension more than director Joseph Kosinski implied. What could this mean?

One thing’s for sure, I didn’t expect the greatest 80s soundtrack ever made to be released in 2010. If you’re a fan of Moroder’s Midnight Express or the soundtrack to Michael Mann’s Manhunter, you’ll dig this one.

Trigger debuted tonight at the Bell Lightbox as part of TIFF. I wasn’t there but Daniel Macivor, Trigger’s screenwriter, has a nice piece in the Toronto Star from earlier this month talking about how friends were driven to complete the film when the lead, Tracy Wright, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer prior to shooting.

My brother, who worked on the film, had this to say yesterday:

We are proud to have worked with Tracy Wright and a team of selfless souls on this piece of Canadiana which will be premiering at TIFF on Sunday. There are not enough projects that we get to work on that leave a lasting impression on our lives. This film is one of those for me. A truly unique experience and a genuinely collaborative process. Passion.

Tracy was supported by such a fantastic cast of great Canadian artists including Molly Parker, Don McKellar, Sarah Polley and Callum Keith Rennie, with Brendan Canning from Broken Social Scene handling the musey, and all directed by Bruce McDonald.

The trailer’s currently the first one highlighted on Apple’s trailer site. You can watch it here. And hopefully have a chance to see the film in wider post-TIFF release.

Running. Back home. You can too. Click. Click.

Well, this is funner than words, so just watch:

From the documentary, Playing For Change: Peace Through Music, musicians from around the world are mashed up into a stirring rendition of Ben E King’s Stand By Me. Gorgeous stuff.

More from Playing for Change.