Saturday, April 8, 2017

Jason goes to SFFILM--Day 3

Two more movies on Friday, but first a little party in the festival lounge, featuring a couple of drinks made with a Steven Soderbergh adventure, in alcohol form, Singani 63. That was freakin' tasty!

And then the world premiere of PEOPLE YOU MAY KNOW, a very funny movie about the possibilities and dangers of social media. Jed (Nick Thune) is a freelance photo editor and Photoshop wiz who spends all day staring at a screen and therefore doesn't feel the need to add to it by joining social media. He also likes to personally entertain himself by photoshopping himself into the pictures he works on (not the ones he sends to clients, just ones he keeps for himself.) Well, when a friend convinces him to join Facebook, he finds that those photoshopped pictures are pretty popular. Tasha (Halston Sage) meets him in a coffee shop, and decides to take him on as a project--turn an unknown into a social media star. She already knows he's a nice guy, and he has Photoshop skills, so they go big pretty quickly. They even meet Usher, who totally doesn't remember that time in Vegas when they met, but the picture is online so it must be true and they were just really drunk and should hang out again sometime (oh yeah, Usher was there at the premiere, too) But, of course, there's a dark side to all of this, too. The Internet is a great place to meet people, but it's also a really easy place to lie to people. And not just big 'Here's a picture of me with Usher!' lies (seriously, I saw Usher last night, but didn't get a picture with him.) There's also the little lies like 'I forgot to tell you I'm married...' Which is what happens to Jed when he runs into an old high school flame, Franky (Kaily Smith Westbrook.) A very funny movie, with some clever insights into the power and problems of social media.

And then I rushed over to the Roxie just in time for the Dark Wave show, THE TRANSFIGURATION. Milo is a black teenage loner who may or may not be a vampire. In any case, he has a thirst for blood, and a fascination with vampire movies (although when he finally sees TWILIGHT, he things it sucks--not realistic at all.) The local older kids call him a freak, and beat on him, but he has methodical ways to set up and take his victims. One day, a slightly older white girl named Sophie moves into his building. They become friends, he shows her his vampire movies (she is the one who convinces him to check out TWILIGHT.) While their friendship grows, his problem with the local bullies gets worse. It's a slow boil drama that's more about character and atmosphere than bloodshed and violence, and it makes for a strong, compelling story with a powerful, philosophical ending.

Total Running Time: 188 minutes
My Total Minutes: 425,418

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