OFF THE MAP (d.
Scott has made a little film of immense impact, beautiful to look at,
filled with memorable characters, emotionally resonant...just a gem of
a film. Essentially it is a coming of age story of a smart,
amazingly self-sufficient young girl in a quite eccentric, but centered
family in rural New Mexico. Joan Allen, in one of her best ever
performances, plays her mother as 1/2 Navajo earth mother, solid,
stable. Sam Elliot plays her father, wracked by deep
depression. Into their lives comes a IRS auditor, who ends up
sticking around...a remarkable performance by Jim True-Frost, who was
so good in the 2nd The Wire
series on HBO. Gotta mention another solid performance by J.K.
Simmons as the father's dim witted best friend. All in all the
acting is superb. Scott directs with a sure hand, with long takes
and slow pans which emphasize the size and grandeur of the New Mexico
countryside. Apparently this was originally a play; but there is
no staginess here other than the finely honed dialog. I was so
involved in the film that I literally didn't want it to end. ***
1/2
THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS (De Fem Benspaend)
(d. Jorgen Leth & Lars von Trier, Denmark)
Honestly, this film just about went over my head. I had never
seen the seminal Danish short film "The Perfect Human" by Leth, but
enough of it was shown in this film to get the general idea that it was
a somewhat abstract film about what comprises a person...made in the
'60s with the actors against a stark white background. Somehow
von Trier got Leth involved in remaking his film five times (well, 4
actually, with the 5th being von Trier's own version) with various
impediments put up by a comically tyrannical von Trier. The only
version that I found interesting at all was #4, an animated short in
the style of Linklater's Waking Life. Otherwise, I guess this is something
of a theoretical deconstruction of the filmmaking process through the
always revolutionary mind of von Trier. I find him and his
attitudes so annoyingly supercilious. Anyway, I fought sleep
during parts 2 and 3. I'm just not sure what the point of all
this was, except that it did introduce the remarkably sensible and
excellent filmmaker Jorgen Leth to me. Apparently he just
can't shoot a bad frame despite all of the obstructions put in his
path. ** 1/2
GO FURTHER (d. Ron Mann, U.S.)
This documentary continues one of this year's festival's major themes,
namely the irresponsibility of corporations like Monsanto ("milk is blood
and pus due to Bovine growth hormone developed by Monsanto") and the
paper manufacturers who clear cut, despoiling the environment and
making products which are destroying the earth and the human
race. Woody Harrelson is the main spokesman for a 2001 version of
the Merry Pranksters bus ride...this time a bus and bike trip from
Seattle to Santa Barbara lecturing to colleges and making the point of
living organically. Quite entertaining, if mostly preaching to
the converted. The star of the documentary turns out to be one of
the crew, a junk food addict named Steve, who kicking and screaming
goes along with the raw food diet of the bus ride. He provides
the real spark of the trip. Otherwise the film wouldn't have
worked. ** 3/4
REMEMBER ME, MY LOVE (d. Gabriele Muccino, Italy)
Muccino is one of my favorite directors. His high school drama, But Forever on my Mind,
was the highlight of the 2000 SIFF for me. It also starred the
director's younger brother, Silvio, who is one of my favorite
actors. However in this film Silvio has a relatively minor
role. This is the incredibly dense and fast paced story of a
troubled family: husband unhappy with his marriage
and career who meets up with a former flame (the wonderful Monica Bellucci) in full mid-life crisis mode;
insecure wife, a schoolteacher who wants to return to acting, played by the lovely Laura
Moranti; teenage daughter determined to forge a career as a tv dancer
no matter what it takes; and feckless teenage son trying to find a
place in the world. The script is very complex, cross cutting
smartly between the interlocked family stories. There's enough
here for two movies...but the director's energy and fine ear and eye
never waver. This is a big, pop film, worthy of Hollywood but
much smarter than anything likely to come from there.
Bravo! Gabriele. I'm looking forward to your next
films. *** 1/4
OPEN WATER (d. Chris Kentis, U.S.)
Yikes! This is a very inexpensive film, shot on video (and looks
it). The story is simple: a happily married young couple on
a Caribbean vacation take a scuba diving cruise and are carelessly left
behind in the open sea. Perhaps because of how it was shot, I got
intimately involved with the couple's plight...the film pressed almost
all of my neurotic fear buttons at once. Rarely do I feel such
visceral fear watching a movie. That's the good part. But
the film does look amateurish and does show its low budget. The
acting isn't great...but it is adequate and effective. I can't
see how this film will get released; but it is quite an
experience! ** 3/4
BEREFT (d. Tim Daly, Clark Mathis, U.S.)
This was shot in HD 24P and presented with video projection which was
actually quite nice and very sharp...though the colors were
occasionally off. I'm not going to dwell much on the story.
I didn't like the film very much. It's all about a young woman
from a Waspy Vermont family driven to the brink of insanity by the
grief of her husband's death in an automobile accident. There is
one really interesting performance here, by Tim Blake Nelson. But
the rest of the acting is only serviceable and sometimes downright
disappointing as with the usually reliable Edward Herrmann. I
think this is a Showtime tv movie. ** 1/4
A wide-screen war movie about an Italian platoon trying to hold the
southern flank in the long-term battle that took place in Northern
Africa in October, 1942. The British enemy is faceless, and the
scope of the film is limited to a small group of soldiers and what it
is like to be on the losing side of a savage month long trench-war
battle of attrition. The film is narrated by the central
character, an at first naive volunteer college boy who arrives among
hardened veterans as the battle is winding down and almost certainly
already lost. Good acting, quite good verisimilitude of the
effects of war...the film is grueling and realistic. One scene of
the platoon pinned down by an incredibly artillery barrage is quite
realistic and terrifying. The film isn't all that
original...there have been a spate of realistic war films
recently. But it is an admirable effort to show what happens to
the losing side in a battle. ***
SNOW WALKER (d. Charles Martin Smith, Canada)
I almost didn't go to this film, since it sounded lame and I'd heard some equivocating buzz.
But I'm glad I did, as it turns out to be a quite well made survival
epic. Berry Pepper is the star here, as a former WWII pilot, sort
of a charming rogue, love-em-and-leave-em type. It is 1952 and
Pepper is flying the Northwest Territories tundra for a commercial
outfit headed by James Cromwell (always such a fine actor.) He's
transporting a sick Inuit girl when the plane goes down. There
are some occurrences which stretch credulity; but overall the film is
quite involving. The Inuit novice actress, Annabella Piugattuk was a
perfect choice to play the role. No irony here, this is a
straightforward adventure story shot on the real location and looks
great. ***
I
must be getting old, since I'm finding it almost impossible to watch
more than 5 films in a day, even when I mostly like all the
films. Last night I quit before the 9:30PM slot (since the film
broke at the 7:15 film, it was so late in starting that there would
have been no time to get to the next theater anyway.) This year
they are staggering the starting times by up to an hour within each
time slot, which isn't working very well for people who must somehow
change venues in time for the next feature. On the other hand,
this year the festival intro film at every screening is very short and
to the point. All festivals should do this; long promos get
aggressively boring after too many repetitions. Anyway,
today I am going to try to watch 6 films. Wish me luck.
CAVEDWELLER (d. Lisa Cholodenko, U.S.)
I've never liked Kyra Sedgwick as an actress; but in this film she
grated less than usual. Actually, I enjoyed the film a lot more
than it possibly deserved. Sedgwick plays a woman raised in a
small Georgia town who deserted her two small children and her abusive
husband (Aidan Quinn playing against type and doing a fine job) to run
away with a rock band and its charismatic lead singer (Kevin Bacon in a
brief cameo). When Bacon's character is killed at the start of
the film, Sedgwick returns home with her third daughter to a judgmental
town and a difficult period of adjustment. Actually, the
narrative and acting are all quite good here; but the film isn't quite
as affecting as it might have been. And what is it with the
title? It had nothing at all to do with anything that I could
discern. ** 3/4
DEAR FRANKIE (d. Shona Aurbach, Scotland)
This is a splendidly acted and directed little film about a mother, and
her 10 year old deaf son. I'm not going to elaborate about the
clever set-up, except that the boy is writing to his missing seafaring
father who is scheduled to return to Edinburgh...but in reality the
boy's mother has developed an elaborate ruse about the existence of
this father. It's a film of rare sensibility which tugs at the
heart without making a single misstep into bathos. Emily Mortimer
is wonderful; but it is the kid, played beautifully by Jack McElhone,
who steals this movie. *** 1/4
DANDELION (d. Mark Milgard, U.S.)
Sometimes I like a film 'way more than it deserves on the
surface. This is one of those films where my judgment is
compromised by my admiration for the lead, in this case the amazing
Vincent Kartheiser, who plays a passive, tender "good" boy whose life
is falling apart. The film has several good actors (Arliss Howard
as the father who commits a horrible act of betrayal, Mare Winningham
as the weak, alcoholic mother, and especially Taryn Manning as the wild
girlfriend), and the cinematography of the Eastern Washington
countryside is stunning. The film is perhaps too slow paced, and
the main character too passive and internalized for it to totally
work. But I really liked this film. ** 3/4
HANGING OFFENSE (Cette femme-là) (d. Guillame
Nicloux, France)
It's been a while since a film at SIFF has engendered so much
conversation. Nobody seems to really understand it, although
practically everybody liked it. It's a darkly atmospheric
policier thriller, with the main character being a middle aged female
captain played with dark intensity by Josiane Balasko. A woman is
found hanged in a forest, an apparent suicide. But our captain
has suspicions that it is murder, and a complex game of cat and mouse
ensues. She is suffering from insomnia, and often dozes off and
dreams, which is confusing since it is almost impossible to
differentiate between the captain's dream states and reality. The
film was intentionally too complexly tied up in dream logic for my
tastes. Anyway, Eric Caravaca, whom I like as an actor (so good
in Son frère) is quite good here as Balasko's detective partner. The film could definitely use a second viewing to clear up a lot of loose ends and puzzling occurrences. ***
THE MOTHER (d. Roger Michell, U.K.)
Anne Reed is superlative in this wonderfully observed, beautifully
directed film. She plays a 60-something woman whose older husband
dies, and who isn't close to her two children...unhappily married,
businessman son; insecure daughter. Her grandchildren hardly know
her. But she moves in with her children despite their
estrangement and blossoms and comes alive gradually...even commencing a
sex life, especially with a much younger man dynamically played by sexy
Daniel Craig. This is a beautifully written original script by
Hanif Kureishi, who explores class, gender and race dynamics better
than practically any other writer. None of Roger Mitchell's
previous films (Changing Lanes and Notting Hill,
for instance) prepared me for the inventiveness, sense of composition
to set mood, and skill with actors that he demonstrates here.
This is a remarkable character study which is a highlight of the
festival so far. *** 3/4
MOI CÉSAR
(d. Richard Berry, France)
César Petit is 10 1/2 years old and 4'6" tall. That's
almost all you really need to know about this film, it's mentioned
several times. He's also chubby and feels inferior. The
film is mostly an unlikely adventure where César and his best
friend and the cutest girl in their class go on an extended
excursion. There are some laughs here...the film isn't entirely a
kids flick. But the film really doesn't amount to much. **
1/4
CAPTIVE (d. Gastón Biraben, Argentina)
Christina is a well adjusted teenager attending religious school in
Argentina in 1994 when her life is turned topsy turvy by the allegation
that the parents she has always known had stolen her as a baby from a
"disappeared" couple during the junta dictatorship in the late
'70s. Her natural grandparents had been searching for her for 15
years, and a court order restored her to her real family. Only
she was perfectly content with her adopted parents. This is a
beautifully made film with a superb, moving performance by the teenage
girl lead actress. The script is good enough that the political
backstory is clear even to a foreigner. Good job. *** 1/4
THE TESSERACT (d. Oxide Pang, Thailand)
Oxide Pang is a flashy director, maybe even too flashy. This is a
thriller centered around smuggling a concentrated brick of opium.
Jonathan Rhys-Meyers plays a dissipated English businessman, very much a Graham Green character, who is in Bangkok
on business, staying at a rundown hotel. At the same hotel are
a lady psychologist doing a study of Thai kids in an effort to replace
her own dead child, a mysterious female assassin, and the bell-boy, a
cute, petty thief Thai kid who is the fulcrum for all the action.
There are several story threads running simultaneously, and the
editing mixes and matches scenes and time-lines shamelessly.
Still, the story is mostly coherent by the end, although it took a
while before it made any sense at all. Definitely style over substance. ***
MARIA FULL OF GRACE (d. Joshua Marston, U.S.)
I'd heard good things about this film from people who saw it at
Sundance. It's a well made little film about a young Columbian
girl who finding herself pregnant decides to become a drug mule for the
money. The story is fairly predictable; but the central
performance is strong enough to carry the film. Funny thing, the
same day the two latina actresses in Captive
and this film both give similarly solid performances - strong young
women whose outward stillness conceals inward emotional depths.
This is a definite audience pleaser. ***
ANATOMY OF HELL (d. Catherine Breillat, France)
Breillat is at her most philosophical and confrontational in this film
which richly earns its NC-17 (actually triple-X) rating, if it even
gets distributed uncut in this country. I found the dialog and
narration to be impossibly pretentious and opaque...something about the
immutability of men brutalizing women. The story, what there is
of it, is of a woman who is saved from suicide in a gay club by a gay
man whom she offers to pay to watch her sexualize herself for four
consecutive nights. The man was played by a well endowed Italian
porn actor...and I found it impossible to believe that he was gay at
all since he contributed to the heterosexual degradations so
enthusiastically (if that is the right word for such unemotive
acting). This is the Last Year at Marianbad
of porn flicks, endless shots and droning narration, with scenes which
push every boundary of sexual depravity ever shown on screen to a sold
out ordinary audience. I thought there would be some walkouts, or
at least protests...but the audience stayed put, although there was
lots of nervous laughter, mainly from the women in the audience.
As a gay man I was totally squicked out by some of the scenes.
Yet, Brillat is undoubtedly a brilliant filmmaker in that she brings an
amazing eye for intriguing compositions to the most squalid of
situations. I've given this film anything from a ** to a ***
rating so far, depending on my mood.
BEFORE SUNSET (d.Richard Linklater, U.S.)
Linklater's nine year old Before Sunrise was
one of favorite films of the '90s, a talky but extremely romantic story
of a one night stand between two smart and attractive people walking
around Vienna. This film has the pleasant conceit of picking up 9
years later as the two protagonists meet again in Paris. Julie
Delpy's Celine has changed narry a whit in the meantime; however Ethan
Hawke's Jesse has become more gaunt as he's grown up. Anyway,
what makes this film so resonant and satisfying is precisely the
continuum of the feelings from the first film, the way the characters
pick up where they left off, slowly disclosing their past and present
situations and reestablishing their emotional bond. The present
film frankly isn't as good as the first, too talky and contrived
(though no director in the world does tracking shot dialog as well as
Linklater). Still, in the fondly remembered glow of the first
film, this was a very satisfying experience. ***
ZATOICHI (d. Takeshi
Kitano, Japan)
I once liked Kitano's films a lot. But after this and his previous Japanese Opera based Dolls,
I'm dismayed that he is becoming too enamored of arty setpieces at the
expense of his undoubted expertise at depicting violence. This
time he devotes too much of the film to "Riverdance" rhythmic
dancing and weird side trips, though they are sometimes amusing.
Anyway, the central story is about a blind swordsman who wanders into a
small town which is under the thumb of two cruel samurai gangs which
are exploiting the common folk. He passively gets involved in
setting things straight. There's plenty of rapid fire swordplay
here, though everthing seems too fast...wham, bam, blood spurts and
dead bodies. There's a particularly interesting youngish ronan
bodyguard who provides counterpoint to the eponymous, elderly, blind
masseur. Their conflict is epic and amost makes up for the
perfunctory nature of the rest of the film. ** 3/4
TALE OF TWO SISTERS (d.
Kim Ji-woon, Korea)
This film is one of those atmospheric Asian ghost stories complete with
personality transformations and so many red herrings that one becomes
dizzy trying to follow it all. That is if one isn't bored out of
ones gourd as I was. I couldn't separate the characters: two
sisters and their wicked stepmother who all looked identical to
me. The film has a few jolts of surprise and horror, and looks
admirably creepy. But I hated just about every minute of it and
wanted to exit the theater. * 1/4
EVERGREEN (d. Edid Zentelis, U.S.)
A made in Seattle film which will never see the light of day, most
likely. It's a shot on video, projected in video (though it
looked very good on the big Egyptian screen) low budget film with some
fine character actors fleshing out a good cast. Bascially it is a
story of a lower class girl ashamed of her family who gets involved
with the good looking son of a dot.com wealthy (but neurotic)
family. Mary Kaye Place is great as the rich boy's agoraphobic
mother, and Noah Fleiss is all grown up and looks good as the
boy. I've always thought he was one of the better kid actors and
it's good to see he has a chance for a fine adult career. The
girl was played by impressive newcomer Addie Land who has an
interesting look, innocent and naughty at once. I also liked Gary
Farmer as her mother's poker dealer boyfriend. Cara Seymour and
Bruce Davison round out the impressive cast. But the story was
fairly predictable and only occasionally well written...and the
direction was downright uninspired. Still, a pretty good film for
what it was. ** 1/4
TOUCH OF PINK
(d. Ian Iqbal Rachid, Canada)
This is a gay coming out comedy in the vein of A Wedding Banquet,
only without Ang Lee's directoral genius. Still, the script was
well honed and inventive; and the film looked great. Alim is a
Canadian Moslem living in Britain and lovers with an attractive British
economist. He has an imaginary friend, Cary Grant (a hilariously good
imitation by Kyle MacLachlan) stemming from his lifelong interest in
old movies. His Indian mother visits from Canada and Alim and his
lover Giles are forced back into the closet to try to fool her.
Great fun, imaginative writing, good visuals, can't ask for much more
than that in a gay comedy. ***
At the last minute I changed my schedule to watch this Brazilian film
which I'd heard good things about, and I'm glad that I did.
Murilo Benício is sensational as an ordinary guy who on impulse
has his hair peroxided blond by his girl-friend to be, which apparently
changes his life as he gradually becomes a hardened killer. For
the most part he rubs out bad people; and in the lawless Rio society he
is lionized. He's really a unique character, the perfect
anti-hero: tender to his pet pig, callous to the women in his
life, strangely sympathetic despite the terrible things he does.
Part comedy, part thriller, much more urbane than City of God, for instance, and a lot more entertaining. *** 1/4
One of the major themes of this year's festival is the plight of latina
teenagers. Here it is a 14 year old girl living in poverty on the
rural Chilean coast. Katty's father is in prison, her mother is
being exploited by the grocery store owner where she works, her older
brother is using sexual favors with a musician to escape town.
Yet through all this miserablism, she keeps her chin up...as her
teacher says..."be happy". Not that it is easy, as life throws
the kitchen sink at her. The film doesn't look great; but it has
soul. ***
DOWN TO THE BONE (d. Debra Granik, U.S.)
Speaking of miserablism! This is a shot and projected in video
(and looks it, ugh) low budget film about a woman coke addict who must make the choice of
living for her two kids, or letting the drugs sink her even deeper into
misery. I've admired the actress Vera Farmiga in the cable series Touching Evil, and she is superb here. Also interesting is the Canadian
actor Hugh Dillon, who played the abusive father in my favorite
Canadian tv series, Degrassi High: Next Generation.
Here he is sympathetic and simply pathetic as a male nurse closet
heroin addict that Farmiga falls for. A couple sitting in front
of me brought their two teenage sons to see the film, and as the woman
hits bottom and bares her breasts, they left. NOT a film for
teenagers, I guess; whatever possessed them to bring their kids to this
film? Actually, it's a hard film for anybody to watch. But
very truthful and well played. ***
WONDROUS OBLIVION (d. Paul Morrison, U.K.)
This is a fun film running in the "films for families" section, though
its themes are probably too big for young children. Sam Smith
plays a dreamy 11 year old kid, son of Polish Jewish immigrants in
South London in the late '50s, who is obsessed with cricket, although
the coach at his posh private school accuses him of "wondrous oblivion"
when it comes to his talent on the field of play. One day a
cricket-mad black Jamacan family move into the flat next door, and the
neighborhood of intolerant Brits have a new target for their
prejudices. Delroy Lindo is outstanding as the colorful father of
the raucus Jamacan family. I have no interest in or knowledge of
cricket; but that really wasn't an impediment to enjoying this
film. Maybe the message of tolerance for religious and racial
differences is hit a little too hard. Still, this well written
and acted film works. ***
MINOR MISHAPS (d. Annette Olesen, Denmark)
Boy. I wasn't engaged by this talky comedy about an eccentric
extended family, despite some good writing. I found myself dozing
and lost track of the plot. About half way through I decided that
I wasn't getting anything from the film and walked. Others didn't
have the same problem. W/O
SEX IS COMEDY (d. Catherine Breillat, France)
Anne Parillaud is annoying as the talky, overly intellectualizing
director of a sexy French film-within-a-film in this otherwise quite
amusing film, very different from the other Breillats that I've
seen. Her leading man, a brooding narcissist fitted with a huge
erect dildo for the climactic scene of Parillaud's film, is wonderfuly
portrayed by Grégoire Colin, who was one of my favorite actors
as a youthful leading man and has become a very hot adult actor.
The leading lady, as played by the young beauty from Breillat's Fat Girl, Roxane Mesquida, is a pouty young thing who loathes the leading man. Comparisons must be made between this film and Day for Night,
another film about the making of a film from the conflicted director's
point of view. The current film is just as good at realistically
nailing the filmmaking process. I didn't expect to enjoy this
film as much as I did. ***
DONNIE DARKO: THE DIRECTOR'S CUT (d. Richard Kelly, U.S.)
Debates will rage all over the land as to whether Kelly has improved
this wonderful film with his recut. I was a huge fan of the film
when it came out, watching it four times in its initial run and rating
it as the best American film of 2001, though I haven't watched the film
since on DVD. However, I never really understood it. The
current film, by adding some explanatory material in the visible form
of the contents of the book on time travel which was on the film's web
site, is made more
comprehensible. But right from the start some changes in the
music and especially in the re-editing of the wondrous "Head Over
Heels" montage near the start of the film, cast some doubts in my mind
about this recut. Still, the basic film remains a near
masterpiece and I had almost forgotten how great Jake Gyllenhaal was in
this film. The Q&A with the director afterward was not
particularly illuminating, though one question: what are the most
egregiously bad theories about the film that have been made on the
internet? elicited some great examples (I wish I had recorded the
answer). *** 1/2
A great evening of film was only enhanced by Téchiné's
lovely and totally absorbing period romantic drama. Taking place
at the same time as the recent Bon Voyage,
the period in 1940 when the Germans were advancing on Paris and the
populace was in panic mode fleeing from the advancing army, the film
follows a woman refugee on the road South with her two children.
Emmanuelle Béart is lovely as ever and amazing as the woman
whose husband is dead and whose world is falling apart.
Téchiné, as usual, gets wonderful performances from the
kids...especially newcomer Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet as her 13
year old son. But it is Gaspard Ulliel who steals the film.
He plays an illiterate, but survival smart 17 year old on the run who
merges with Béart's family with unexpected consequences.
This is a near great film, which isn't ruined by its abrupt and poorly
conceived ending. The film apparently didn't have the same affect
on the audience, which didn't applaud at the end, as it did
on me. *** 1/2
SECRET FESTIVAL #2
The Secret Festival is not fully subscribed this year. My theory
is that the past couple of years have been a disappointment of poor
programming. So far the festival has made up for it this year in
spades. The second film is an extraordinary American indie,
another film that I've been awaiting with bated breath after its
festival responses. *** 1/2
WHO KILLED BAMBI (Qui a tué Bambi?) (d. Gilles Marchand, France)
Marchand has constructed an effective, if slow building,
thriller. Laurent Lucas plays a steely eyed sexual predator
surgeon who drugs and molests some female patients in one of the most
antiseptically stark hospitals ever filmed. His nemesis, shot
usually in tight close-ups which makes her an especially intimate
heroine, is a student nurse who herself becomes a patient of the
doctor. This is one creepy film, where everything comes together
quite nicely due to the fine direction and production design. The
hospital, so modern and mechanized, becomes a major element in the
accumulated menace that the audience feels. ***
9 SOULS (d.Toshiaki Toyota, Japan)
Maybe I'm getting old; but I just don't seem to be able to stick it out
through films which aren't engaging me on any level anymore. This
is a comedy about nine disparate men who escape from prison and go on a
supposedly amusing rampage. I wasn't finding it amusing, and when
I started dozing off from boredom I decided to walk and have a
leisurely lunch instead of wasting my time. W/O
I loved this absorbing disfunctional family comedy. I guess I'm
just a sucker for this kind of film. Oshri Cohen is nothing short
of breathtakingly good as Shlomi, handsome 16 year old boy and youngest
son, who has devoted his energies to salving the discords of his raucus
parents and siblings by cooking wonderful food. He's failing in
school because of dyslexia; and nobody has noticed that he's actually a
polymath genius who has effectively hidden his talents for the sake of
his family. Filled with lovely observations and details, blessed
with a fine cast and a script which provided intense identification on
my part, this film was a total winner. *** 3/4
This is another heartwarming affirmation of the human spirit type film,
only I found it slightly overlong for its slender plot. Once
again, it is an amazingly effective central performance which makes the
film: in this case Grandma Eka, played by the remarkable, stooped
old lady actress, Esther Gorintin whom I had recently seen and fondly
remembered in a minor, but memorable, role in Carnage.
Here she plays the mother and grandmother of a French speaking Georgian
family whose eldest son has emmigrated illegally to Paris to make a
living. The family decides, probably unwisely, to keep the
accidental death of her son from the old lady, and the plot develops
from that central lie. Once again it is the accumulation of
telling details which makes the film work. No flashy filmmaking,
just some solid performances (Dinara Ddroukarova is also quite good as
the bilingual granddaughter who yearns for a life of her own).
*** 1/4
LEARNING TO LIE (d. Hendrik Handloegten, Germany)
Fabian Busch is an ingratiating actor, a Seth Green lookalike who
projects a sympathetic character even when he's acting like a
heel. Here he is convincing as he ages from age 18 through
sixteen years of affairs with several women. The only woman he
stays committed to is his first love, a political leftist, president of
the student body in his high school, who leaves for America and
disappears from his life. Good script, well cast, I was totally
absorbed by the character Helmut's commitmentphobic life story.
***
DRIFTERS (d. Wang Xiaoshuai, China)
This film was so slow to get going that it almost lost me; but I'm sort
of glad I stuck around. It's the story of a Chinese guy who had
made the dangerous journey abroad, smuggled himself into the U.S., had
a little boy, then was turned in as an illegal by his in-laws and
deported back to China. He's depressed, hardly talks, on the outs
with his family as the film starts. When his 2 year old son is
brought back to China by his in-laws for a visit he is denied
visitation and complications arise. The pace of this film is
occasionally excruciatingly slow, with long pauses and periods of
nothing happening on screen. Still, this is a story of love and
family, and more or less works on an emotional level. ** 1/4
PATER FAMILIAS (d. Francisco Patierno, Italy)
In contrast to Drifters,
this is a fast paced, complex story of a group of Neapolitan young men,
all of whom come from poor, working class families. Their family
situations (each has a conflict with his father) and the general milieu
of gang violence leads to a series of events with dire consequences for
all. The director, apparently new to film from a career in tv and
commercials, uses many film tricks: high contrast flashbacks, out
of focus, jump cuts. The film is structured on two or more time
lines and is hard to follow and keep all the characters straight.
But after the film I had a chance to discuss the plot with several
people, and the story finally came into focus. It is one of those
films that are hard to watch at the time, but which prove to be much
more satisfying in the afterglow. ***
PRIMER (d. Shane Carruth, U.S.)
Speaking of films that are difficult to understand, this one is a
doozy. Probably not since my first experience of watching Donnie Darko,
have I been so mystified, and at the same time so completely
entertained, by a movie. Carruth has constructed a super
low-budget ($7,000 before the 35mm blow up) mind-bending science
fiction film without special effects about four guys working on the
side in a garage who inadvertently develop a machine that can send
people back a few hours into the past. The plot is complex, and I
defy anybody to get it on one viewing. But I think that maybe it
does hold together as a thriller through all the paradoxes of its plot
machinations. In any case, Carruth is some kind of
filmmaker. He wrote, produced and starred in this film,
apparently without knowing much about any of these tasks before
starting the film. It's the kind of film which excites one's
jaded sense of wonder. *** 1/4
A PROBLEM WITH FEAR (d. Gary Burns, Canada)
Burns has constructed an amiable futuristic comedy which is also a
trenchent satire of our media inspired obsession with the dangers of
modern life. Paulo Constanzo, heavily made up with stylish
lipstick and giving a great, dead-pan, humorously phobic performance, and Emily Hampshire, playing a loopy
fashion victim at full tilt, work together in a mall in downtown Calgary.
They're caught in the midst of a "fear storm" when seemingly benign
things like elevators, escalators and revolving doors go crazy and the
entire city is affected. Photographed in the same ghastly green
flourescent patina as the director's previous waydowntown,
the film looks authentically futuristic without a great deal of special
effects. Urban angst has seldom been more amusingly
portrayed. *** 1/4
STRAIGHT-JACKET (d. Richard Day, U.S.)
Briefly (because this is simply a bad movie) this is a comedy about a
Rock Hudson type gay movie star in the '50s. It attempts
to be stylish and retro, but in comparison to a similar period film, the
gloriously designed Down With Love, or even the ridiculously uneven Die, Mommy, Die! this film comes up sadly short. Bad
acting, a cliché ridden script, leaden dialog, cheesy sets, I could go on
and on. The only thing it has going for it is that it is blythly
gay and despite all its flaws is not boring. *
BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS (d. Stephen
Fry, U.K.)
Fry's film, on the other hand, is full up to the brim with lively
repartée, glorious sets, good acting, and a witty literate
script based on an Evelyn Waugh novel. It's a social satire of
the antics of vapid upper class Brits just before the breaking out of
war in 1939. The leads, Emily Mortimer and Stephen Campbell
Moore, are amiable but somewhat boring impoverished social
climbers. It's the great supporting cast which shines here.
I've become a huge fan of James McAvoy from the BBC series State of Play, and
here he has a small, but vital role as a young lord who is also a cruel gossip columnist for press lord Dan Aykroyd's muckraking
newspaper. This film falls short of similar classics of the type,
for instance Brideshead Revisited. Still, it's a lot of fun to watch. ***
BRIGHT FUTURE (d. Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Japan)
One of these days I'm going to give up going to Kurosawa films, since I
just don't get them. Actually, this is one of his more
approachable films, a mostly coherent narrative about a couple of
slacker 20-somethings and a horrible crime that one of them
commits. A poisonous red jellyfish is the central metaphor here,
the best piscine cameo since the tropical fish that stole Tsai's The River. But
ultimately this is a pretty slow and (for me) pointless film. **
1/4
DONAU, DUNA, DUNAJ, DUNAV, DUNAREA (d.
Goren Rebic 89 min.)
This film is a valentine to the Danube river, and also a moving story
of a group of lost souls who travel its length from Vienna to the Black
Sea on a small excursion boat. The main characters are the
elderly ship's captain and a 19 year-old boy that may or may not be his son by
his long estranged ex-wife, a famed former Rumanian Olympics swimming
champion, now dead. There are several other characters on the
boat, each with his own story of loss and loneliness. Beautifully
shot, the film moves with the rhythms of the river and I found it
emotionally satisfying. A note that Robert Stadlober, who was so
good in another SIFF film a few years ago, Hans-Christian Schmid's Crazy, is a young German
actor to watch for. ***
GARDEN STATE (d. Zach Braff, U.S.)
I've always liked Braff, even before his superb sitcom Scrubs (for instance, the completely overlooked 1999 film Getting to Know You).
Here he's the hyphenate auteur of a wonderfully inventive, if somewhat
self-indulgent, American indie. Andrew (played in his typical
deadpan, slightly sarcastic style by Braff himself) has returned to his
New Jersey roots from his low-level soap opera acting gig in L.A. for
his mother's funeral. The fim is essentially about his Odyssey of
self-discovery. Nice supporting cast, especially Peter Sarsgaard
as his old best buddy and Natalie Portman (returning to the form of Beautiful Girls
as the ideal girl next door type). The story is familiar; but
Braff brings a light touch and fresh attitude which lifts the film out
of the ordinary. ***
THE PYTHON (d. Laila Pakalnina, Latvia)
Some films seem so pointless that they just must be a metaphor that I'm
not catching on to. This one fits that bill to a tee. It
takes place in a school in Latvia, and is about one weird day when a
beaver, a monkey and a python all escape within the school and chaos
ensues. I suppose in an alternate universe this is funny
stuff. But for me it was a snooze fest. * 1/4
CAPONE (d. Jean Marc Brandolo, France)
There must be something in the air, since I also dozed through the
center portion of this much better French buddy cum roadtrip
film. Capone is a race horse, a splendid pacer who may or may not
be of championship calibre. Its owner (though he's scamming
several people) hires a taxi driver to drive him and the horse from
Paris to Lappland where the horse is to race in a major race, all this
while being chased by a couple of tough guys that think they now own
the horse. Good acting, some nice scenery. But all in all
nothing great here. ** 1/2
TURN LEFT, TURN RIGHT (d. Johnny To, Wai
Ka-fai, Taiwan)
Claud Lelouch's And Now My Love,
is one of my all-time favorite films...which tells a lot about my
sentimental romantic streak. This film, a huge departure from
Johnny To's usual thriller genre films, is very similar to that French
film: a story of how fate keeps apart two people who are supposed
to be together. The two characters are sympathetic and well
played by the attractive Japanese actor Takeshi Kanashiro and cute Gigi
Leung. The story for me was an enchanting fairy tale...probably
too stretched out for credibility; but I gladly submitted to its
charms. Especially admirable editing and a fine director's eye
for composition. *** 1/4
TRIPLE AGENT (d. Eric Rohmer, France)
This film is another departure for the octogenarian Rohmer, a talky and
detail filled thriller about a low-level White Russian expatriot in
Paris in the late 1930's and his lovely Greek wife, who was an
accomplished, though unknown painter. Some of my friends were
turned off by the accumulation of minutia about the political realities
of that era; but I found it all quite interesting. I didn't get
emotionally invested in the characters, to be sure. But I don't
think that was what Rohmer had in mind here. Anyway, my intellect
was piqued and I found the film intriguing: this could easily
have been the basis of a good Alan Furst spy thriller. ***
STANDER (d. Bronwen Hughes, South Africa)
No secret that Thomas Jane is one of my favorite American actors.
Here he attempts an unlikely South African boer accent, playing a
police captain in Johannesburg. Forced to kill a black man face
to face in a 70's era Soweto riot, he has an epiphany of conscience and
out of the blue becomes a bank robber. The film is vaguely
reminiscent of Bonnie and Clyde,
without the Bonnie. Jane's character is a stalwart
anti-hero...one roots for him despite all. It's a dark film; but
it worked for me as a straightforward action film. ** 3/4
WALK ON WATER (d. Eytan Fox, Israel)
I really liked Fox's Yossi & Jagger, but that film didn't prepare me for the control and power of this immaculately made drama. This is a huge
progression, and Fox must now be ranked as a world class
filmmaker. Lior Ashkenazi (so great as the attractive, neurotic
protagonist in Late Marriage)
here plays a Mossad assassin whose next target is an aging Nazi war
criminal who may be returning to Germany. Ashkenazi is set up to
work for the ex-Nazi's grandchildren as a driver during the gay
brother's visit to his sister who is living in a kabutz. This is
an emotionally devastating drama of personal redemption which affected
me deeply. *** 3/4
CONTROL ROOM (d. Jehane Noujaim Egypt/U.S.)
The control room refers to Al-Jazeera, the Arab television station,
and this is a documentary of how they covered the 2nd Iraqi War in 2003. Lots of interviews
with the insiders of the station along with other journalists and
American forces spokesmen. We see some pointed examples of
Al-Jazeera's coverage, which apparently isn't as one-sidedly
anti-American as I'd thought. But in retrospect it does point out
the folly and utter cluelessness of the American leaders such as Bush
and Rumsfield. I thought the film wasn't edited quite tightly
enough; but it did make its points and my interest never flagged.
** 3/4
THE LAST TRAIN (d. Alexei A German, Russia)
This is an amazingly bleak and brutal (and for me quite boring) black
& white wide-screen film about a German doctor stuck behind the
lines of the Russian front during the horrendous winter of
retreat. Lots of trudging through blizzardy white-scapes.
Lots of despairing soldiers and Russian civilians. Everybody is
sick and racked with coughing spasms. It's almost unwatchably
horrifying. Except that the sheer boredom engendered by the
endless tracking shots and slow pans kept me from becoming involved in
any way. ** 1/4
FESTIVAL EXPRESS (d. Bob Smeaton, Canada)
I almost didn't go to this film, having planned on another; but the
chance watching a fun rock and roll documentary after all the sturm und drang
of the previous films was too good to miss. And I'm really glad
that I did. This is a film about a 1970 rock concert trip by
train through Canada by some of the top acts of the period. The
film features some of the best footage ever put on film of Janis Joplin
plus great stuff by The Band and the Grateful Dead and other
groups. But it is the Joplin material (she is in great voice and
seemed to be very much on one of her up phases) which is the real
attraction here. There are also a number of impromptu jam
sessions by the musicians on the train, which apparently was a
wonderful experience for all even though the concert tour itself was a
financial disaster. This film is very much in the Woodstock or Monterey Pop
vein of rock film, without the heavy special f/x of the former and with
a lot of the feeling of exhilaration of the latter. Wow!
Worth the wait. *** 1/2
Only 2 films today. One film failed to arrive at the festival in time and was replaced by The Last Train, which I wouldn't watch again for all the tea in Russia. Then the excellent film Facing Window
started late and had a Q&A afterwords with the great director
Ferzan Ozpetek which I stayed around for. By then it was too late
to make it to any other film. The staggered starting times of
films which was initiated this year is often not very good for making
it to films in far away venues. It's one of the few things about
this year's festival which isn't running extremely well. Most
screenings are starting promptly and even with several sell-outs I
haven't had a problem getting into any films yet (I just knocked on
wood!) Also, for the most part, the projection this year has been
fine. No out-of-sequence reels, out-of-focus or uncentered
screenings. A few bad reel changes, though. Still, way
above average for the festivals I've been to.
UNTOLD SCANDAL (d. E
J-yong, Korea)
I've now seen the Dangerous Liason
story done at least three times, and this is every bit as good as any
other version. Actually, the story translates very well into a
Korean film of nobility and manners in the 18th century. This
film has unbelievably wonderful costumes, makeup, hair, sets.
Every visual aspect was under total control and seemed authentic.
The acting was above average. Maybe it is just a cultural thing,
but the only problem with this film was that I failed to connect
emotionally with the characters, even the good lady who was seduced and
destroyed. Still, the best looking film of the festival so
far. ***
FACING WINDOW (La Finestra di fronte) (d. Ferzan
Ozpetek, Italy)
Ozpatek is a fine director. Every one of his movies has been of
high interest; but maybe it was something in the air since I didn't
connect emotionally with either of the films I saw today. This is
the story of a married couple who despite a couple of wonderful
children find themselves at a point in their relationship where they
aren't going anyplace. As the director said in Q&A they are running
at different speeds, the husband a few steps slower than the
wife. They get involved with an old man, a Holocaust survivor who
may be suffering from Alzheimer's; and the wife gets involved with the
handsome neighbor whom she has been watching across the way through her
kitchen window. Events occur, people evolve; but I never got
fully engaged despite the undoubted skill of the director and
actors. There's even a stalking aspect to this film which I found
unsettling in such a romantic melodrama. Still, Ozpatek can't
help but make a diverting film. ***
INFERNAL AFFAIRS #1 (d. Andrew Lau, Hong Kong)
High
production value policier about long-term moles infiltrating both an evil
gang and the Honk Kong police. I'd seen the film at last year's SIFF; but I knew that
another viewing could only help to explain some of the things I was
confused about during the first viewing. I'm not sure that things
were any clearer this time around; but the film is so fast-paced and
entertaining that it hardly matters that I still was confused by the
characters and their motivations. For more discussion click on the title link to my first viewing. *** 1/4
INFERNAL AFFAIRS #2 (d.
Andrew Lau, Hong Kong)
The second part of the trilogy is a prequel to the first, which further
confuses the issue by going deeper into the twisted relationship of the
various mole's bosses as they set up their long term moles into each
other's organizations. Once again, I got lost in the myriad plot
twists and mysterious character transformations. But it didn't
seem to matter. Things move along briskly, the characters are
interesting and attractive. I kept getting tantalizingly close to
figuring out what was going on. The puzzle itself is the main
satisfaction here. ** 3/4
INFERNAL AFFAIRS #3 (d.
Andrew Lau, Hong Kong)
In part 3 an attempt is made to close things out by presenting the
action of Part 1 again from a slightly different point of view and
combining it with a simultaneous, separate time frame plot taking place
a year later about the consequences of the action in Part 1. An
entirely new character, possibly the super mole, is presented; and the
story seems to go off the rails into a false reality based on the
insanity of one of the characters. Honestly, I'm only
guessing. The story gets so overly complex in part 3 that it
calls into doubt what I had thought I had understood in the first two
films. I still found the whole to be an entertaining crime saga,
but it did seem to lose its edge as it went along. ** 1/2
HARRY & MAX (d. Christopher Munch, U.S.)
Brutally
honest, well written story of 2 boy-band
brothers with incest overtones. Bryce Johnson, who plays the alcoholic
older brother, is a major find! I liked it even better the second
time around when the shock of seeing such taboo subject matter so
sympathetically portrayed in a movie had worn off. For a more
comprehensive review, click on the title link to my first viewing of
the film. *** 1/2
SECRET FESTIVAL #3
Supposedly the first public screening of this film by a major
filmmaker. As far as I was concerned this was an inept
failure. *
BEST OF YOUTH #1 & #2 (La Meglio Gioventù) (Marco Tullio Giordana, Italy)
I'm treating this sprawling 6 hour family saga as one film. It
was originally beautifully shot, probably on HD 24p video, though only
occasionally does it look like anything other than gorgeous 35
mm. Also, it apparently was conceived as a television series; but
the political atmosphere in Italy changed, and the film was never shown
on the state supported network. It does show its television
provenance by an emphasis on intimate close-ups and its melodramatic
framework. That being said, this film is still one of the great
achievements of modern Italian cinema. What makes this film
special is its novelistic script, which examines several characters in
depth through its almost 40 year span. Also, the acting from top
to bottom is superb. Especially notable is the actor who is at
the center of the piece, Luigi Lo Cascio, who convincingly ages (one of
the only weaknesses of the film is how the women, played by the same
actresses throughout, don't show the passage of time
effectively). For me, one of the important factors that made the
film such an emotional catharsis was the use of familiar incidental
music throughout: the score from Jules and Jim
by George Delarue, so beautiful and so right here. This is one
film which builds as it goes along. The 2nd part is especially
effective at weaving its spell. By the climactic scenes, I was an
emotional wreck. *** for part one **** for part two.
VODKA LEMON (d. Hiner Saleem, Armenia)
This film was Armenia's entry for the foreign film Oscar and was the
only film that I missed during that competition. I figured I had
to see it, even though I was somewhat movied out from the previous 8
1/2 hours of films on this Sunday. Vodka Lemon
refers to the local vodka, which actually is almond flavored...a
metaphor for Armenia, supposedly. Anyway, this is a typical
Eastern European black comedy, a story of a wretchedly poor village and
its inhabitents, mostly old people who didn't have the gumption or
wherewithall to escape to greener pastures. It takes place in
winter, and the snowscapes are breathtakingly beautiful. But the
story never really engaged me. ** 1/4
INCIDENT AT
It's my feeling that mocumentaries work best when there's just enough
realism in the execution that one can willingly suspend one's disbelief
and go with it as a straight documentary. I was able to do that
here, due to a script which was so convoluted as to be Charlie
Kaufmanesque (I can't imagine that director Penn and colaborator Werner
Herzog weren't influenced in some ways by Kaufman's Adaptation). Anyway, I found this film to be quite entertaining and amusing. ***
BLOOM (d. Sean Walsh, Ireland)
I've never been tempted to read James Joyce's Ulysses,
knowing full well that it is too difficult a book for my
sensibility. I imagine that this is a fine job of adapting that
unadaptable book to the screen, though I found myself bored and
confused. The acting is fine here, especially Stephen Rea as
Leopold Bloom. Most of the film is done with narration playing
the form of interior dialog, while the visuals are mostly close ups of
the actors' faces showing their emotions and thoughts through their
eyes. But the sense of place, production design etc. were all
just about perfect for its daylong journey through 1903 Dublin.
It was all tastefully frank, sexually explicit, beautiful, smart; but
just not my cup of tea at all. ** 1/4
LA VIE PROMESSE (d.
Olivier Dahan, France)
Isabelle
Hupert does her usual fine acting job in this French road trip.
She plays a streetwalker in Nice, mother of two though she has run away
from her family years before. Circumstances make her and her
teenage daughter flee on a journey of lost souls, where they connect
with Pascal Greggory (more attractive here than in Raja)
an escaped convict on the lam. Quite picturesque, even
occasionally moving. But the film felt pretentious and ponderous;
and I was underwhelmed. ** 1/2
PLAYTIME (d. Jacques
Tati)
I've
never been much into Tati. Actually, I'm not a particular
aficionado of the entire genre of visual slapstick comedy. But
the opportunity to watch this acknowledged masterpiece in a perfect
70mm print on the huge Cinerama screen was too good to pass up.
I'm glad I did, even though it was touch and go whether I'd even make
it into the theater since the film was a total sellout and I was forced
by my schedule to arrive only 10 minutes before the start. This
film has some touches of Chaplin (especially Modern Times),
some René Claire (especially A nous la liberté), even a touch of the visual magic of Andersson's Songs from the Second Floor. The screen is constantly filled with Tati's inventive
shtick, every scene topping the ones before, sometimes so full that
it's hard to grasp it all. I'm still not a fan of this sort of
nearly silent visual comedy on screen; but I can recognize genius when
I see it. *** 3/4
METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER (d. Joe
Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky)
Berlinger
and Sinofsky were hired by the heavy metal supergroup Metallica to
chronical their comeback from a fallow creative period aided by a group
dynamics psychologist. What was captured on film was a
fascinating story of some creative and rich rock stars hitting bottom
and struggling to keep it together enough to continue as a band.
The film was extremely well shot and edited, the subject matter
fascinating. Altogether a classic of the rock film genre even for
someone like me who has never heard a Metallica song or was interested
particularly in their music at all. *** 1/2
25 DEGREES IN WINTER (d. Stéphane Vuillet, Belgium)
This is a screwball, romantic comedy about a somewhat befuddled
Spaniard living with his young daughter in Brussels after his wife
deserted them, who hooks up with a pretty Ukranian refugee who has
arrived illegally in Belgium searching for her missing husband.
Carmen Maura is wonderful as usual as the Spaniard's busybody
mother. The film is fun to watch; but it's all pretty pat and
predictable. ** 3/4
SLIM SUSIE (d. Ulf
Malmros, Sweden)
Speaking of screwball, this film is that in spades. It's the
story of a young guy who returns to his small Swedish town searching
for his missing younger sister. The film is inhabited by a
sorry group of greedy weirdos and misfits; and the plot, centered
around the search for a dead old lady's money, is sufficiently
convoluted to keep it interesting. There is a certain school of
crazed, manic Scandinavian filmmaking of which this is a good, if
minor, example. ** 3/4
THE TULSE LUPER
SUITCASES 1 (Peter Greenaway, Planet Earth)
Greenaway has started an ambitious multi-media project about...well,
I'm not sure what it's about actually. Nor do I care much.
The first film is a visual pastiche of multi-images centered around
this guy Tulse Luper who lived through most of the twentieth century
and apparently collected things in suitcases. I got through three
of the hundred or so suitcases: containing respectively coal,
toys, and...hmmm, the fact that I can't remember is why I walked.
I loved the obsessive and obviously brilliant Greenaway's first few
films; but starting with Prospero's Books he left me behind. W/O
MONSIEUR N (d. Antoine
de Caunes, France)
Reel three of this movie was wound backward, and it took over a half
hour to fix the problem. I was fascinated by the film before that
improptu intermission; but it took some time for me to get back into
the narrative, and I think the film suffered for it. A lot of the
audience left; but I'm glad I stuck it out. This is a bleak and
beautiful wide screen epic about Napoleon's last years in exile on the
island of St. Helena. It is narrated and centered on a British
lieutenant who was charged with shadowing Napoleon, who was still
emperor in his own mind and lived high among his court of greedy
and sometimes treacherous courtiers. The film is weirdly
reminiscent of another starkly beautiful film about soldiers in a
remote place, Laconte's Widow of St. Pierre.
It also has a story similar to the Ian Holms version from the same era, The Emperor's New Clothes. Philippe Torreton is a very convincing Napoleon, and
Richard E. Grant gives a delicious performance as the obsessed military
governer of the island. But it is newcomer Jay Rodin as the fresh
faced lieutenant who lights up the screen. ***
THE GRAFFITI ARTIST (d. James Bolton, U.S.)
Bolton was the director of the interesting and controversial, if rudimentary, Eban & Charley.
This time he has made an ugly looking video even more rudimentary, a
two character film about a couple of young taggers who are really
talented street artists. One of them is gay and lives an aimless
street life in Portland and Seattle, when he meets and befriends a
fellow artist, who at least has some monetary support from his mother,
though he too is wandering the streets. The film is reminiscent
of van Sant's Mala Noche in its structure and feeling. It also resonates with the recent Mexican film A Thousand Clouds of Peace,
in that its wandering camera finds strange beauty amidst the urban
squalor. It is slow and reflective; and some will certainly find
it pointless. For me it worked despite everything, mainly because
the main character played with doe like, blank-eyed simplicity by the
attractive Ruben Bansie-Snellman was quite compelling. ***
THE COLDEST DAY (d. Xie Dong, China)
Like last year's take on failed relationships, Zhang Yibai's Spring Subway,
this is a stark tale of infidelity among what passes for the middle
class in today's China. The passive lawyer at the heart of the
narrative is undergoing a seven year's itch. His wife is having
an affair with a younger traditional dancer, and he himself is
attracted to the wife of a client drug dealer whom he is attempting to
get out of prison. Blah blah blah. Boring stuff. But
it is shot artistically, a lot of the action shown in weird reflections
(for instance one typical scene is played reflected off of a
fishbowl.) I had trouble staying awake; but the film does show a
visual flair hard to ignore. ** 1/4
CRIMINAL (d. Gregory Jacobs, U.S.)
This is a reasonably entertaining American remake of the pretty good Argentinian sting film, Nine Queens.
I liked the original enough to have watched it twice, and the current
film is frankly not as good as the original, even though Diego Luna
gives an impressively charismatic performance. Anybody who has
seen the original will not find anything new here to make it worth
forking over real money. ** 1/2
BORED IN
According
to this film, there are supposedly 150,000 people making love every
night in Brno, Czech Republic. This is the zany, bawdy comedy
representation of some of these people during one madcap night. I
could sense that the audience was enjoying the film; but I found it
tedious and visually flat. ** 1/4
LITTLE MEN (d. Nariman
Turebayev, Kazakhstan)
Sometimes
I'm not certain why I find some ostensibly similar films tedious and
others compulsively watchable. This film is about two ex-army
buddies who are working the streets of a Kazakhstan city selling
inferior merchandise to gullible pedestrians. Max is a great
salesman, but Beck is totally unsuited to the job. Frankly, not
much happens: they meet girls, they do some work, they wander
through their lives, they argue and make up. But somehow I was
drawn into these characters' barren lives and lived it with them,
feeling edified and entertained by...well, not much. As I said
before, it's a mystery why this film worked as well as it did.
Perfect casting and good, nuanced direction is my best guess. ***
It's
time for an overview of this year's festival. I have a feeling
that my average ratings will show that the films weren't quite as good
as those of the past two years, especially during the last week.
That being said; I still liked well over a majority of the films.
Also, the death of film has been greatly exaggerated. Certainly
there were a few digital video films, some of which looked great,
others terrible. But the vast majority of the foreign films here
were not only shot on film, but most of them were shot in super 35mm
and shown in wide screen scope format here. There were a
number of projection snafus this year, more than usual. On the
other hand, just about all the films showed up and there were
remarkably few screenings that didn't start within a minute or so of
their scheduled time. That made it possible for me to see most of
films I had scheduled, even when the timing was tight and the distances
between theaters great. I drove to most of the screenings and had
little trouble parking for the first 3 weeks. However, I did
receive my first parking ticket ever at this festival, for parking
within a crosswalk...$38. Not bad for 5 straight years of driving
in a city which has a tremendous parking problem. The B&B
that I have stayed at this year was very convenient, only 5 minutes
from the free internet cafe and three of the five film venues.
But it won't be available next year, as the owners are selling
out. I've had two possible offers for free lodging next year; so I guess
I'll be doing SIFF again next May! I love Seattle and this
festival. I wish it could continue year round. The new
director, Helen Loverage, and programmer, Carl Spence, have done a great job of keeping the festival
efficient and innovative, while maintaining the high user friendly
standard.
TROLLYWOOD (d. Madeleine Farley, U.K.)
This documentary, which was partially shot in my own neighborhood in
L.A., is an attempt to show the plight of the homeless street people
who seem to be everywhere in Los Angeles. The supermarket
trolley, stolen and used as a mobile home by many of these people, was
the central metaphor used by the filmmaker. The film does make
its point with some good interviews and subjects. But the
photography and editing were so poor as to rob the film of much of its
effectiveness. Add to that the annoying presence of the British
director, who is no Nick Broomfield when it comes to directoral
insertion, and this film just didn't work. * 3/4
NOBODY KNOWS HOW TO TALK TO CHILDREN (d. George Roca, U.S.)
Jack and Meg White are an amazing 2-person rock group, The White
Stripes. Jack plays a guitar somewhat reminiscent of Hendrix and
Clapton, a dense bluesy, rock sound. Meg is an interesting
drummer who seems to have a nack of using appropriate silence to
counterpoint her huge sound. This documentary/concert film shows
the band performing at a small New York club, The Bowery, and also
follows them backstage where chaos reigns. The film was shot and
presented in relatively poor B&W video, somehow processed so that
the action is constantly smearing, I suppose by increasing the time per
frame and decreasing the sampling. The sound was terrible, the
audio virtually impossible to hear in the backstage material; and the
sound mix of the performance was also really bad...the vocals were
muddy and almost lost. All that said, the film still is a
valuable document of the club playing days of a great band. It
isn't quite Don't Look Back, but it has the same feeling of vitality and future importance. ** 1/2
PATERNAL INSTINCT (d.
Now here is a video documentary that really hits it out of the
park. Mark and Erik are a NYC gay couple, together 10 years, who
decide after much deliberation to hire a surrogate mother to bear two
children, with each of them siring one. They were lucky in their
choice of mother in finding Wen, a self-described witch who lives in
Maine with her husband and teenage son; and who somehow had developed a
mission to provide children for a gay couple. God couldn't have
written a better script than what befell these real people. The
filmmakers managed to stay completely removed from the story, the
characters were all wonderfully articulate. Things worked out
with just the right amount of drama and angst. The finished video
looked and sounded great, a tribute to some remarkable videography.
You've got to be lucky as well as skilled to make a documentary
like this. *** 1/2
PROTEUS (d. John Greyson, Canada/South Africa)
Greyson has made a low budget digital video about the plight of two gay
prisoners, one white, one black, in 18th century South Africa. It
isn't very good...the acting is mediocre, the direction surprisingly
flat. No particular effort was made to make the film authentically 18th
century...there were some strange anachronisms. Still, the script
was good enough to hold my interest. ** 1/4
THE MIDDLE OF THE WORLD (O Caminho Das Nuvens) (d. Vicente Amorim, Brazil)
This Brazilian film was based on a true story about a family:
family, mother, 5 kids ranging from mid-teen to baby, who somehow
bicycle 2,000 miles through Brazil from the rural north to Rio de
Janero. It is beautifully shot; but the acting is only average
and the story failed to engage me completely. ** 3/4
RUNNING ON KARMA (d. Johnny To, Wai Ka-fai, Hong Kong)
This is a policier/thriller with more than a little of a supernatural
bent (including flying kung fu, or whatever), which was a little too
far out for me. Andy Lau inhabits an amazingly realistic muscle
suit as he plays an ex-Buddhist monk turned boxer/Chippendale dancer
who can sense people's karma. He gets involved with the female
CID cop who arrests him for indecent exposure, and all sorts of bloody
karmic mayhem follows. Ultimately the film lost me, though it was
fun enough on the way as to be not a total waste of time. This
isn't as visually interesting as the usual Johnny To film; but it does
have his humorous touch of the absurd. ** 1/2
DEATH AND TEXAS (d. Kevin DiNovis, U.S.)
I wasn't planning on seeing this film, since I had heard rumors that it
wasn't very good; but the rumors were wrong as they often are.
This is a satiric mockumentary about a famous football tight end who is
about to die on Texas's death row; but who is released under heavy
guard the day before his scheduled execution to play for Austin's
football team in the MegaBowl. The film plays a heavy anti-death
penalty card deftly and even subtly. Presented in digital video,
it was shot in 24p HD, so it looked good. It had a really good
cast including Charles Durning and Mary Kaye Place which belied its
under $200,000 budget. Diverting, well written and executed, this
is a model of the format. *** 1/4
LOVE
ME IF YOU DARE (Jeux d'enfants) (d. Yann Samuell, France)
I don't even know where to start in critiquing this deleriously
romantic but very black comedy. First of all, I often wonder
where they get the title mis-translations on some of these foreign
films. The original French, which means "Children's Games" is
much more fitting, since the film is about two strange kids who go
through childhood, adolescence and well into adulthood playing an
obnoxious and destructive game: something like dare or do.
The film is extraordinarily well directed, sort of a dark Amélie
on crack. But it certainly isn't likable, although its two lead
actors, Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard have a wonderful
chemistry. ***
RIDING GIANTS (d. Stacy Peralta, U.S.)
Stacy Peralta proved in Dogtown and Z Boys
that he respects the history and understands the addiction to the fast
and dangerous board sports. Here he examines big
wave ocean surfing, and has beautifully structured a rigorous
historical document which is also a dynamite surfing extravanza.
Interesting, informative (he interviews many of the now superannuated
surfers who literally invented the sport as they went along),
thrilling. Kudos especially to the film editor...I've been there
in my past, edited surfing footage; and I know full well how hard it is
to give structure to this sort of material. Ultimately not quite
as satisfying as Peralta's skateboard epic; but nicely done. *** 1/4
MEMORIES OF MURDER (d. Bong Joon-ho, Korea)
The Korean cinema has excelled recently in making policiers. This
film is about a serial killer who is raping women and tying them up in
a ritualistic way somewhere in the sticks of rural Korea. The
police are sympathetic bumblers, and the film has its comic overtones
which takes away from its edge. It's enjoyable, for all that,
though somewhat overlong at over two hours, especially since it really
is pretty straighforward visually and doesn't have all that much
original to say. ** 1/2
WILD SIDE (d. Sébastien Lifshitz, France/Belgium)
I wasn't a fan of Lifshitz's depressing gay drama Presque Rien,
so my expectations were low. However this film is definitely a
step upward in developing an artistic gay cinema. Stephanie,
née Pierre, is an attractive pre-op transsexual, a street putain
who is involved in a 3-way releationship with a Russian drifter and a
young Arab-French male hustler. In typical French fashion, the film
presents a slice of life with lots of talk and not much plot.
Still, I found it somehow beautiful to watch and ultimately a
satisfying film, almost at the level of the Dardenne brothers in its rigor. *** 1/4
MIX (d. Steven Lovy, U.S./Hungary)
Mix is a
coming of age story about an American young man whose Hungarian
immigrant father wants to be a classical pianist; but he would prefer
being a disk mixer for raves. He's also a horny young man who
surfs the internet's porn websites. When his grandfather back in
Hungary dies, father and son fly to Budapest and the film is a wild and
wacky adventure through modern Hungary. Alex Weed is
astonishingly good as the boy, his attractive naivite reminded me of
Elija Wood. He even shows a remarkable talent for Tibetan throat
singing. And the film features an extraordinary soundtrack,
mixing all sorts of musical genres. I was exhillerated by this
film, and left the theater floating. I'm glad that it was the
last film of the day for me. *** 1/4
SECRET FESTIVAL #4
An American indie film, another prominent festival success. Good film; but I felt I'd seen films too similar. ***
MAX RULES (d. Robert Burke)
Sigh. I guess I'm too old for such a silly kid's film. It was very much like Spy Kids,
only it didn't have anything like the great special effects or
Rodriguez's directoral brilliance. In fact the whole enterprise
seemed like amateurville to me. But the SIFF audience seemed to
eat it up. * 1/4
YOUR NEXT LIFE (d. Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, Spain)
This year's breakthrough actor has been the Spaniard, Luis Tosar.
However, this isn't his best film of the festival. The film is
set among the isolated farmers of a remote valley high in Spain's
Cantrabrian mountains. Two elderly dairy farmers are feuding
amidst governmentally imposed changes in their way of life. It's
up to their children to attempt to resolve the mess. It's sort of
a Romeo & Juliet story as
Tosar's eldest son of one of the feuding landholders falls for Marta
Etura's eldest daughter of the other. The film really belongs to
Juan Diego as the girl's resolute father. The sheer physical
beauty of the locale and some fine acting make up for some soapish
melodramatics. ** 3/4
FEAR AND TREMBLING (d.
Alain Corneau, France, Japan)
Sylvie Testud is remarkable in this memorable office comedy, sort of a Franco/Japanese version of Mike Judge's Office Space.
Testud plays a young Belgian woman, born in Japan, but forced to leave
against her will when her family returns to Europe when she was
five. Still, Japanese culture had made an imprint on her, and she
returns after university speaking perfect Japanese and accepted on a
one year contract to work for a big Tokyo company. The film goes
a long way in explaining the inscrutable sociology of Japanese office
culture. It's funny and pointed and unsparing. *** 1/4