Saturday, March 4, 2017

Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 4

Friday kicks off a big weekend, and the start of my vacation. For the next week I'm not working my regular job, I'm a full-time Cinequester!

We started with...drinking! A couple of beers in the festival lounge, then off to the Soiree at Mosaic. More Stella Artois, a little vodka, and a tasting of Glenfiddich, so I was nice and toasted for my first film of the day.

THE SOUNDING is the story of Liv, and how she chooses to live. She doesn't speak, and she lives on an island with her grandfather. He was a successful neurologist, and has called his colleague and former student Michael to come take care of her. He comes to learn that his former mentor is dying, and the reason he brought Michael there was so he could take care of Liv when he passes away. Michael also comes to realize that she can speak, she just chooses not to. And when she does, she speaks exclusively in Shakespeare quotes. So Michael, despite his mentor's explicit wishes, decides to have her committed to a psychiatric institution. And that's when she starts to get really feisty. Unfortunately, that's also when all the booze started catching up with me, so I'm a little hazy on this bit. But her rebellion plays out entirely in the words of Shakespeare, and revolves around the question of whether she's really insane or just a strong-willed maverick. At times it plays like an exercise in whether Shakespeare really does encompass all of life--can you have any and all conversations solely through Shakespeare quotes? But the strong vision and acting keep it grounded in the human drama rather than literary theory. And the end result is pretty powerful.

THE SOUNDING plays again:
Sun, Mar 5 4:15 PM at the Hammer Theatre
Tue, Mar 7 9:10 PM in Redwood City
Fri, Mar 10 2:15 PM in Redwood City

And then I caught Shorts 7 - Comedy Favorites. Hooray for funny shorts!
NO OTHER WAY TO SAY IT: A voice actor tries to nail just the right tone for an ice cream ad, while also getting disturbing texts from her mom. With some autocorrect mischief thrown in.
POINT AND SHOOT: A couple of would-be criminals get a little lesson, from Donald Sutherland.
RUSSIAN ROULETTE: Not actually Chatroulette, but using a similar website a lonely London girl meets a lot of strange and unappealing men. And then a Russian cosmonaut, chatting from space. But space is boring, he wants to see her tits.
SHOUT AT THE GROUND: A rock band in New Zealand. Driving, yelling, examining the heist that cost them their entire pay for the weekend. Also puking. Lots and lots of puking.
THE CALL OF CHARLIE: One of my favorites from Holehead last year. Don't you hate it when you set up a date between your two friends (one of whom is a tentacle-faced monster) and some other friends stop by unannounced and ruin everything?
THE CARD SHARK: The game is 5 card draw. The players are a little boy and...his goldfish.
THE ELEVEN O'CLOCK: A psychiatrist tries to treat a patient with a very difficult disorder--he thinks he's a psychiatrist. Hilarious hijinx ensue, as the audience is left to wonder who's the real shrink.
THE GAMES WE PLAY: A night of drinking with friends. And a new relationship is put in jeopardy by a silly "what if?" game. Just for the record, if given the chance I would travel the universe with aliens rather than stay here. I'd miss my friends, but...traveling the universe with aliens!
WHO'S WHO IN MYCOLOGY: A hilariously bizarre Czech film. A girl who is passed out drunk. The trombone player who takes her home. Her home full of mold samples and books on famous mycologists (scientists who study fungi.) And a bottle of wine and a tricky corkscrew. At one point, everything gets upside down.

Shorts 7 plays again:
Sun, Mar 5 3:50 PM in Redwood City
Mon, Mar 6 4:30 PM in Redwood City
Thu, Mar 9 8:30 PM in Redwood City

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