Jason Goes to Cinequest--Day 4

The big first weekend begins. Also, I'm officially on vacation and am Cinequesting full time until the end of the festival. First thing, I checked into my luxury suite at the Fairmont for the weekend. Then it was just about time for the VIP Soiree at The Grill on the Alley, conveniently located in the Fairmont. A couple of hours of too many drinks, and I was ready for the first movie.

Nina, in the woods, or at least in the tall grass

My first film of the day was the world premiere of  NINA OF THE WOODS, from returning Cinequesters, Charlie and Wendy Griak (THE CENTER, Cinequest 2015 #ItsNotACult). They're back with a completely different kind of thriller. Megan Hensley plays the titular Nina, a young actress who in the beginning appears to have botched an audition for a TV reality series about supernatural phenomena. Not her fault, really, the production team are totally unprofessional, barely paying attention to her and carrying on distracting conversations in the background--the kind of rude people who you wish would just disappear. Anyway, she actually does get the part, because they want her as a local to lend some authenticity to their story about the allegedly haunted, ancient woods. Except they're not really interested in authenticity, because they're plan is to stage everything. But plans don't always work and it seems there really is something there. Not any sort of traditional monster, though. Just...well, things get strange and I don't want to reveal more. It's far more meditative and quiet than any thriller I've ever seen, but it's beautifully shot (using the natural beauty of Grand Rapids, Minnesota) and wonderfully acted, showing that the mysteries of being a human in an unfamiliar and puzzling situation is more unsettling than any made-up monster.

NINA OF THE WOODS plays again 3 more times:
Mon, Mar 9 at 9:00 PM in Redwood City
Wed, Mar 11 at 5:05 PM in Redwood City
Sat, Mar 14 at 6:30 PM in Redwood City

And then it was time for some bat-shit crazy insanity, with the world premiere of FRIED BARRY. Barry is...pretty indescribable, you just have to experience him. 

Barry, completely fried. The role Gary Green was born to play 

He's a drug addict and abusive husband and father, but that was before he was abducted by aliens and put under their control, presumably so they can navigate the world (of Capetown, South Africa) while blending in. Although blending in is not Barry's strong suit in the best of times. The whole thing plays out as a kind of hyper-active, drug-fueled, fish-out-of-water comedy, but in a sort of crazy environment that I couldn't imagine anyone fitting in. I could get weird and philosophical about how by making it an alien visitor story it offers an outsider's perspective about the insanity of the human condition. But really, it's all about crazy adventures and nods to 80's movies...oh, and 10-second pregnancy. And it gives Gary Green (who is apparently a pretty famous extra in South Africa) a chance to go totally wild and rule this movie.

FRIED BARRY plays again two more times:

Sun, Mar 8 at 6:35 PM in Redwood City

Tue, Mar 10 at 9:30 PM in Redwood City

Once the movie ended, the Cinequest Social at Mosaic was just winding down, so I took a bunch of the hardcore partiers up to my suite and celebrated Cinequest until about 3 A.M. But I still got up in time to write this and have a morning drink at the lounge before my first film of Saturday. Because that's how I Cinequest! 

Total Running Time: 188 minutes

My Total Minutes: 522,596

Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 3

Another day, another full dose of Cinequest!

First up was the short THE CUNNING MAN. An old man collects roadkill and other various dead animals. The authorities have their eyes on him, but this cunning man has a cunning plan, which is a pretty cool surprise. (It's probably worth noting that "Cunning Man" or "Cunning Folk" is a term for folk healers who use magic. I don't think it's very common in America. At least, I didn't know the term until I googled it this morning)

This man is, in fact, very cunning

That was the lead-in to the feature, SLITS (FENDAS), from Brazil. This contemplative film follows a quantum physicist Catarina in her travels. But what she's studying is nothing like quantum physics as I know it (and not that I'm a professional, but that is what I studied in school.) It's more a study of images and sounds. Specifically, creating a new phonetics of sound spaces via light passing through slits in images. Which is an excuse to get really artsy with images and manipulating them on screen while distorting sound. There are many scenes which were beautifully framed and shot, but overall it's slow, contemplative piece that struggled to keep my attention.

One of the many beautiful travelogue shots in SLITS, where I either took a really
long blink or she managed to skip a few floors when ascending that spiral staircase

THE CUNNING MAN and SLITS plays again Saturday, March 7, at 10:15 am in Redwood CIty 

Next up, ...a few drinks and a bit of food at the Soiree at Cafe Stritch. Then I hadn't drunk with anyone in the next time slot, so I checked out the spotlight film THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY at the California Theatre. It's an art world thriller starring Mick Jagger and Donald Sutherland, and featuring less than a single atom of subtlety. We open by meeting art critic James Figueras (Claes Bang) in a presentation that makes it clear that he is not to be trusted, and that he revels in the manipulative power he has as a critic (I can relate!) And he quickly meets his love interest, Berenice (Elizabeth Debicki) and they have a quick fling. He takes her along on his great opportunity to meet famed collector and seemingly omniscient Joseph Cassidy (Mick Jagger, Jaggering it up all over the place.) And he gives him an opportunity of the lifetime to interview renowned artist Jerome Debney (Sutherland, reveling in his opportunity to play such an enigmatically pompous character--his most famous work is a blank frame.) Well, the power--or rather the opportunity for power--totally goes to Figueras' head, and he becomes a thoroughly despicable villain. Oh, and you might notice that flies are a metaphor (e.g., you might notice when he explicitly describes how flies are a metaphor for sin in medieval art.) Like I said, subtlety has no place in this film, but it's still a pretty fun ride, if you're willing to watch such an unlikable character for that long.

THE BURNT ORANGE HERESY only played that one time at Cinequest, but it's being released in the U.S. by Sony Pictures Classics, so it'll be available soon.

And finally I ended the night with DARK WHISPERS Volume 1, a short horror anthology all directed by women. The connective thread is Clara, a young woman who has inherited from her mother a book of scary stories. Each story is a short, and each short affects her in some way. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of anthology movies, unless you really have a framing device that can tie them together, and this isn't it. I probably would have liked it more as just a collection of short films, because all of them were creepy, tight, and right to the point. As a short film collection, it's great. And I understand that not everyone is like me and will go see short films, so if an anthology framework helps these shorts get seen, I approve. And my favorite was the stop-motion animated one, GLOOMY VALENTINE.

DARK WHISPERS plays again multiple times at Cinequest
Friday, March 6 at 1:15 PM in Redwood City - better hurry!!
Sat, March 7 at 9:30 PM in Redwood City
Mon, March 9 at 1:30 PM in Redwood City

Total Running Time: 291 minutes

My Total Minutes: 522,408

Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 2

Now the festival's starting in earnest. Although I'm still working my day job, so just 2 shows last night. But first, a couple of drinks in the lounge at the Continental Bar, and then some food and drinks at Rookies Sports Lodge, featuring a wine pouring of Cabernet and Chardonnay from J Lohr.

That's a heck of a beverage Frankie is enjoying there

Then I wandered over to the Hammer Theatre just in time for LOVE TYPE D. Frankie just got dumped, again. And in the worst possible way--her boyfriend sent his 11 year old science nerd brother to break the news to her. Worse yet, since he's a science nerd and keeps up on the latest papers, he informs her that she probably has the newly discovered "dumpee" gene. See, some people dump others, some people get dumped, and she's genetically destined to get dumped. This bit of pseudo-science is the premise behind this comedy. The pleasing illusion that it's your fate--not your faults--that cause one to repeatedly fail at love. There's a whole institute set to study it and find...well, not a cure, but effective "hobby therapy" to let the unlovable live...marginally palatable lives. There are several funny bits (especially the super-concentrated pheromones that make men fall in love while simply angering/confusing their soon-to-be-ex-girlfriends). Overall it's very enjoyable, largely on the strength of Maeve Dermody's performance, but it does suffer slightly from what I call the "90 minute short" syndrome--when a movie had an idea that would be really effective and snappy as a 20 minute short, but stretches a little thin when it's feature length.

LOVE TYPE D plays again three times:
Thu, Mar 5 2:30 PM at the California (OMG! That's like now! Run!)
Sat, Mar 7 12:20 PM in Redwood City
Sat, Mar 14 12:45 PM in Redwood City

So I didn't have time to stick around for any Q&A, because I had to run to the 3Below for the shorts program (really, TV pilots program) "Shocks, Thrills, and Dark Visions"
ASKING FOR A FRIEND: Sometimes you come home and see your roommate standing over a dead body that's bleeding out and soaking into the carpet. You know, one of those days. Looks like the start of a hilarious dark comedy series.
R. L. ALMAN'S PETER PAN: A clever re-imagining of Peter Pan, set in modern San Francisco, where the evil Hook corporation is gentrifying all the artists out of there.
S41NT: A hacker's adventure with government conspiracies. Looks like it could take several seasons to untangle, but this was a good introduction.
SUCKED IN: A very short (think a concept for a pilot) and funny twist on a woman being stalked by a dangerous junkie who knows she was stealing (he assumes drugs) from her hospital. Spoiler alert--she wasn't stealing drugs.
GLITCH!: Unless I blacked out for 24 minutes, this one actually didn't play. And a lot of people were confused at the end thinking there was one more film to go. So I'm going with it didn't play...I guess there was some sort of glitch?

Some of Peter Pan's fairies, in R. L. ALMAN'S PETER PAN

Shocks, Thrills, and Dark Visions plays again Saturday March 7 at 4:15 in Redwood City

Then over to Chacho's for one last beer and then home. Because there's more Cinequesting to do tomorrow (which is now today)!

Total Running Time: 185 minutes
My Total Minutes: 522,117

Jason goes to Cinequest--Opening Night

It's been too long since I've blogged, but guess what, I'm back!  Time to drink, eat, drink, watch movies, drink, meet filmmakers, drink, and write about it all!

Of course, the first place I went to, a couple of hours before the opening night film, was the VIP lounge in the Continental Bar. A smattering of hardcore festivals were there, but as soon as I settled in with a couple of drinks from my favorite bartender Lee, the place filled up. I guess I'm a trend setter! (which is like an Irish setter, but instead of Irish, I'm trendy).

Anyway, after catching up with some old friends, making some new ones, lots of hugs (Covid-19 be damned!) it was time to mosey next door to the fabulous California Theatre movie palace and settle in for the opening night film. Of course, first a lot of celebration and opening remarks, and a spot of stand-up comedy by the very funny Matt Donaher. 

John Pinette, being very funny, I'm sure.
I mean, I can't be 100% sure because this is a
picture so I can't hear him speak, but everything he
said in the movie was pretty hilarious...

Is this caption too long? Probably

Then the feature presentation, the documentary JOHN PINETTE: YOU GO NOW. If you're like me, John Pinette wasn't a household name but when you saw him you immediately recognized him as that very funny fat guy who was on lots and lots of shows (most famously, the final episode of Seinfeld, although I first remember him on Alf.) Well, in showcasing his talent and through interviews with his admirers in the comedy world (and for some reason, Bill Gates?) you realize what an enormous (pun only slightly intended) talent he really was. A very funny guy, who definitely played on his physical size for laughs. And sadly, like most comics there was a dark side to this. The self esteem, the health impacts, the fear that he wouldn't be as funny or as popular if he lost weight. And that led to prescription drug addiction, and ultimately his death in 2014 (officially of a pulmonary embolism). The film was made by people who knew him personally, and I think it's fair to say weren't happy that reports of his death just called him "the fat guy on the final episode of Seinfeld." So they went out of their way to collect archival footage and testimonials of how great he really was. I have to say, it was darn convincing, and despite his tragic ending, a really fun way to open the festival with elation (the theme of Cinequest 2020)

There will be an encore screening of JOHN PINETTE: YOU GO NOW on Monday, March 9 at 6:45 at the Hammer Theatre (first time Cinequest has had an encore of their opening night film!)

Then it was off to the Glass House for the after party (albeit somewhat slowly, because I had to stop and say hi to nearly everyone there. It's fun to be locally famous, but it's also hard work!) A few more drinks and meeting more filmmakers and then it was time for me to call it a night. Gotta pace myself, it's a long festival!

Most importantly, the following filmmakers learned how to play my game and drank with me, guaranteeing I'll see their films (if I can find a way to fit it in my schedule, splitting the festival between San Jose and Redwood City makes it harder than in years past):

SLITS [Edit: actually it was the preceding short, THE CUNNING MAN, who I drank with]

HELTER SHELTER (in Shorts Program 9: Home & Away)

NINA OF THE WOODS (from Cinequest alums, Charlie and Wendy Griak!)

FRIED BARRY

AN EXQUISITE MEAL

THE LAST DAYS OF CAPITALISM

WHERE IS NANCY?

SCHWARZ, WEISS, BUNT

NIRMAL ANAND'S PUPPY

THE TALL BIKE JOUST (From Cinequester Emeritus and master of smart people doing dumb things, Sam Frazier, Jr.) part of Shorts Program 7: Comedy Favorites

Ummm...and I forget which one in Shorts Program 11B: It's a Mad World (which only plays in Redwood City on weekends, so I can't make it and will have to watch the online screener instead)

[Edit: Oh yeah, and A BAD PLACE. Of course I drank with the lovely and talented Jessica Cameron, Holehead alum and finally a Cinequester! I just forgot to circle the film because I've kinda...already watched a screener]

Running Time: 80 minutes

My Total Minutes: 521,932

Jason goes to Cinequest--Closing Night

I guess I should finally write this. It's been a while, so this will have to be extra-short reviews. Sorry.

Of course, despite the long night before, I was still up and in the lounge for drink number one on the final day. Or was that not me but...the Tito's Bandito?!!!

Look out for the self-proclaimed Tito's Bandito!

First up was BRING ME AN AVOCADO, an excellent little local drama. It's the story of tragedy befalling a good, loving family. Specifically, in the form of a mugger shooting and seriously wounding the mother. So the father has to step up and take care of the kids. But he has help, in the form of his sister-in-law and her best friend. Tragedy brings out strength. But over time, that strength diminishes and...moral failings surface. But it's to the credit of the movie and its excellent cast that even as you watch people fail, you still sympathize with them and believe their motivations. Ultimately, the strength of family love wins out over the messiness of life, but not without a struggle.

Then it was time for TEEN SPIRIT, starring the lovely Elle Fanning, recipient of a Maverick Spirit Award. She plays a small town girl who loves singing and gets a chance to shine in a televised pop singing contest, Teen Spirit. Elle does all her own singing, and I'm no expert but I thought she sounded good. The plot is a bit formulaic, but fun. The best part by far is Zlatko Buric playing the creepy looking old guy who cheers for her when she's performing in the bar, but who turns out to actually know talent and ends up being her (deeply flawed, alcoholic) mentor. So let that be a lesson to the volunteer who was introducing a film a couple of days before and tried to shame me and my friend when we cheered at the mention of Elle. Sometimes the creepy looking drunk guys cheering are actually just cheering in deep admiration for talent, not because they're creeps. (Note: I took that whole exchange as a joke and exchanged a thumbs-up with him afterward.)

The lovely and talented Elle Fanning.

Then I had time for a quick VIP reception at the Grill in the Fairmont, a few drinks, a few snacks, and then back to the California for a Life of a Maverick Award presentation to educator and innovator Esther Wojcicki.

And then finally time for the closing night film, THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE. Terry Gilliam's quest to make this film has become a thing of legend, even spawning the first (that I know of) "Unmaking-Of" documentary. Well, he's finally done it, through the story of a frustrated commercial filmmaker (Adam Driver) who had shown so much promise when he made his student film of Don Quixote. His strategy at the time was to find locals in Spain to play the roles, for added realism. And he happens to find himself in that same spot in Spain, and looks up the old shoemaker (Jonathan Pryce) who played his Don Quixote way back then. But he was confused then, and senile now, and believes he really is Don Quixote and Sancho Panza has come back to take him on a new adventure. What ensues is pure, mainlined Gilliam. Extravagant set design, a head-spinning story (although maybe that was all the booze) and a celebration of obsession and pursuit of art and beauty, even if (especially if!) it drives you absolutely mad!

And then it was all over but the drinking. First the official after party, and then the unofficial but traditional after-after party in the Fairmont lounge, and finally up to my suite for the last drinks with the last few die-hards at about 4 am.

And with that, another Cinequest is in the books...unless I finally find time to watch all those screeners...

Total Running Time: 328 minutes
My Total Minutes: 502,625

And since it was asked after I crossed my 1/2 a million minute mark:
Total Running Time of Cinequest movies I saw this year: 4,878  minutes
My Total Cinequest Minutes: 63,066*

*Since 2005, when I started counting. So this doesn't count my few Cinequest years before that. But it is fair to say I've spent a lot of time there.

Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 12

The penultimate day! And I was legitimately hurting by then. But sometimes you have to play through the pain. So here was the last Saturday at Cinequest:

I started with...well, let's be honest, I started with drinks in the lounge at 10 am, like every day. But after enough of that, I went to the movies.

The first show started with the short INTO THE PLAINS, starring Maggie Alexander, a returning Cinequester whose previous film ENTHUSIASTIC SINNERS...I slept through. Look, my blog has some integrity, if not intelligence. Anyway, this time I more or less stayed awake (by the end of the festival, I don't really know what I'm watching vs. what I'm dreaming,) and it's a very good and gripping story of a woman who is avoiding her husband, "working late," and not facing their shared trauma of losing a child. Instead, she just takes off.

That was paired with the feature, RITOMA, a fascinating and inspiring documentary about the worldwide reach of basketball. Worldwide, as in...all the way to nomadic tribes in Tibet. Even more amazingly, it made it all the way to MIT (okay, I can kid because my alma mater literally had a documentary made about how much they suck at basketball.) Anyway, Tibetan nomads learn basketball from NBA broadcasts in their free time. They've got a little skill, a lot of enthusiasm, and zero sense for the strategy of the game. Bill Johnson was an assistant coach for MIT, and he learned about the basketballing nomads, so he comes up with a wacky plan. He travels to Tibet, teaches a team, and sets up a tournament with 8 local teams (and some visiting Americans.) And they have a blast. It's clear from the beginning, although there is a "hero" team, it really doesn't matter who wins. This is all about the fun they're having. International sports diplomacy on the smallest scale possible.

Blah blah blah, more drinks in the lounge. Ya know, I think I blame "Hambone."

Then back to the movies for a German crime thriller, CUT OFF. It's a satisfyingly gruesome story of a forensic pathologist who discovers a capsule inside a victim's skull. Inside is a note that leads to the realization that his 13 year old daughter has been kidnapped and threatened. This leads him on a wild chase with the help of his bumbling intern, with more notes hidden inside more victims, and a roundabout plot involving the an old case where he couldn't provide enough evidence to put a murderer away for long enough. Like most overly elaborate thrillers, the plot steps way outside the bounds of credulity, but ignore that and it's a lot of fun, and is twisty enough that I couldn't quite see the ending coming.

Next up was Shorts Program 4 - Animated Worlds. Hooray for cartoons!
THE BACKWARD ASTRONOMER: The decadent but empty romance of the wealthy, until a young man learns to be a backward astronomer and look down on the world from the moon.
FREAKS OF NURTURE: A young woman learns that her mom is amazing, in a cool stop-motion short.
FUN MORE: Super short, overlapping tasks and crude line drawings.
GUAXAMA: Memories of children on the beach, literally drawn in the sand.
I'M OKAY: Expressionist artist Oskar Kokoschka in WWI. Animated in a very playful style.
INANIMATE: A puppet has a sort of mental breakdown and starts questioning reality. Expect the unexpected.
MR. DEER: Animals on the subway. Being animals, just like people do.
NOT YET: A Hungarian film about a child searching for his mother. TBH, I don't remember much about this one.
ON THE DAY YOU WERE BORN: With simple line drawings, a man starts growing on his 45th birthday. Soon he can't fit his house, or his clothes, and then there's just a naked giant walking through town with his dong hanging out. Very funny.
PRIZEFIGHTER: Heavyweight champion Jack Johnson beat the whole world. But he was still subject to racism.
RANDOM THOUGHTS: Man Hurts Hotdog. Other anagrams. The story of an animator submitting to a film festival. Possibly based on Cinequest. From Steven Vander Meer, of SALMON DEADLY SINS (Cinequest 2014).
SELFIES: Made from selfies, about selfies.
SOLILOQUIES: A teen with anxieties, based on the life of filmmaker Julia Song.
TRUMP BITES: Bill Plympton animates actual Trump quotes, in his inimitable way.
TWO OF EVERY KIND: A couple of peacock queens make snarky comments about the others on the ark.

Then more shorts, Shorts Program 3 - Sci-Fi,  Fantasy, and Horror. Hooray for the far-out films (but not quite Mindbenders)
8:27: Earlier in the fest I saw THE LAST SUNRISE, which was a long form Chinese story about what happens if the sun goes out. This is a German take, and a more humorous take, on the same premise. Based on the time it takes light to travel from the sun to the Earth.
BOOK OF THE DEAD: A gorgeous CGI dream/nightmare about the process of dying...and returning.

I just really, really, really like this image

DAZZLE BEAST: A dirty underworld, and a young girl with a little magic.
THE GIVE AND TAKE: A funny story of an old eighties video game, a helpline that shouldn't really work anymore, and a cosmic glitch that allows it to work, and change the life of the guy answering the line.
HENRIETTA BULKOWSKI: Stop motion animation of a hunchback woman who wanted to fly, but could never look up. So she spent her life building a plane, only to find a bigger surprise.
JUMPY: An 8 bit videogame character has a lot of determination. He just needs to make that one big jump, but he keeps missing and getting increasingly frustrated.
LIFE ON MARS: A dying father convinces his little son that they'll meet again--on Mars.
NADINE: Superpowers and overcoming hate.
NEGROLAND: A poor black town, if the residents there were zombies. Or at least, if they were quarantined and mistreated like zombies. Actually, maybe it's a documentary about Flint, Michigan.
SHOULD YOU MEET A LADY IN A DARKENED WOOD: A nicely creepy animated piece about a taxidermist and his final prize. But the lady turns on him.
SINGULARITY: A brief consideration of super-intelligent artificial life.
TERMINALLY IN LOVE: Lovers, memories, fantasies, and dreams.
THE MISSING TRAIT: Inspired by the art of Magritte, a man...and his hat, are looking for the thing that is missing. Maybe an apple? Very cool.

And finally, I ended the night with BLOOD PARADISE, a very Swedish film featuring some gratuitous violence and the most gratuitous nudity of all of Cinequest. This wins the Skinequest prize this year. Robin Richards is a best-selling sleazy crime author, but she's in a bit of a rut. Her last book kinda flopped, and she has no inspiration for her next. So her publisher has an idea--send her to a Countryside Farm rustic resort for a little peace and quiet and hopefully some inspiration. But it's all just a little off, starting with the creepy driver Hans who claims to be her biggest fan and insists she calls him "Hans, Bubbi." Hans' wife is jealous and thinks they're having an affair. The farmer is a weirdo with a secret, his sister never speaks, his son is a gun nut. And it's all hilarious and sleazy, in a perfectly Swedish way, if that makes sense. At least, it has a Swedish sense of dry absurdity. I'm not sure if there's a stereotype of Swedish sleaze, but for now, for me, this is it.

And that was the end of Saturday. At least for the movies. There was still the matter of heading back to my hotel to drink with friends and filmmakers into the wee hours of the morning. First in the bar lounge so as not to disturb the sleeping guests. Then after they kicked us out at 2 am up to the room.

Total Running Time: 517 minutes
My Total Minutes: 502,297

Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 11

It's all over but the writing now. For brevity's and sanity's sake, I'm skipping over most of the drinking and just writing about the movies now. Here's what went down on the last Friday of Cinequest:

It started the day with Shorts Program 1 - Inbound Visions. More than any other, the shorts program where you should expect the unexpected.
THE 17: The true story of a truly unjust law in El Salvador. It's bad enough to criminalize abortion, but classifying miscarriage as abortion and jailing women who experience it? That's beyond bad.
CHICKENS: Racist cops try to cover up a murder. The chickens come home to roost.
HAYLEY: A flight attendant might be paranoid, or she might actually be saving a little girl from trafficking.
LAMB: Led to the slaughter, like women in Hollywood to powerful predators.
NOCTURNE: A retirement home, a guest, and pie. Surprise.
NOTRE MORT: What do you do if you find your own dead body in the wilderness?
NURSERY RHYMES: For the life of me, I don't remember what actually happened in this one. But this image is pretty striking, isn't it?

THE REVOLUTIONARIES: From returning Cinequester Jadrien Steele (VICTORIANA), a story based on bombings by American radicals in 1970, in hopes of sparking a revolution. After an accident, one woman wants out, and suspicion, reprisal, and manipulation is the result.
THE WIND PHONE: In Otsuchi, Japan, there is a phone booth with a long line of people waiting to make a call. Their calls are ones of loneliness, missing their loved ones, maybe even regret. This phone isn't connected to anything.
WOMAN IN STALL: A woman goes into the bathroom, into a stall, and starts doing what she came there to do. A man knocks on the door. Did she run into the wrong bathroom, or is he a creep?

Next up was Shorts Program 6 - DocuNation. Hooray for real-life stories!
49 MILE SCENIC DRIVE: A brief history of San Francisco's famous scenic drive, the choice of the artist to design the signs, and the controversy when the design was recently changed.
BONES: Some artists just feel their art in their bones. And one uses that to make bones out of marble.
DOUBLE EXPOSED: A woman reflects on the home movies of her grandfather. Over footage of the one movie-making mistake he ever made (see the title) she reveals a much worse transgression of his.
I AM THINKING OF PIERRE CARDIN: A clever and colorful homage to the style of the great designer.
LION IN A BOX: A short, mostly animated account of a proud veteran's experiences with sexual assault, starting in boot camp when her drill instructor offers to make things either "very easy" or "very hard" for her.
NAZI VR: A fascinating look at the latest (possibly last ever) Nazi war crimes trial, which used a VR reconstruction of the camp to prove that the guard on trial couldn't have missed what was going on around him.
PROJECT CHICK: A look at artist Kim El from Pittsburgh. A poetic look at her life and work.
SHADES: Caring way too much about emojis.
SHOUT AT ME!: The training of a luchadora, and how she uses wrestling to combat violence and judgment against women.
THE SPRING THEY DIDN'T SEE: Shocking and depressing visual account of a Kurdish genocide, including the use of chemical weapons.
SUPER 80: An 80th Birthday party shot on Super 8. And how the love of his wife keeps him feeling super.
SWAN: A ballet performance. And it's beautiful.
THE SWIMMER: Swimming. And the thoughts that go through your head on a long-distance swim.

Next up was RED LETTER DAY, a hilarious, cynical, and gruesome horror flick from Canada. It takes a ridiculous premise, leaps far outside the realms of the believable, and completely fucking delivers. The day starts more or less normally in an affluent suburban town of Aspen Ridge. That is, until people check their mail. Seems like everyone has gotten a mysterious red envelope. Inside are instructions--you've been paired with someone in town, based on your social media presence you are the most antagonistic towards each other. Well, now it's time to kill them before they kill you. And let the mayhem begin! Of course, most people would refuse to kill. But the fear is there, and fear makes you irrational. The action follows one family around as they...kinda...try not to kill anyone, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to survive. I heard a lot of people grumbling about this one on the way out, but if you read the synopsis in the guide and were expecting something else, I think that's your mistake. This completely delivers on its outlandish premise, and has a lot of fun along the way.

What wouldn't you do to protect your family?

Then it was time for THE BLACKOUT. No that's not a description of my mental state at this point of the festival. Rather, it was the first episode of a new Russian television mini-series. Or maybe the first half of a two-part made-for TV movie? We were a little unclear on the concept, but in any case we only saw the first half. Which opened with an exciting premise--it's the near-ish future, and for some unknown reason communications between most towns on earth have been severed. Most of the world has gone black, except for a small area in Eastern Europe. We meet the main cast, the visuals are like a snazzier and more militarized take on BLADE RUNNER, and we almost get to find out what's going on. Seriously, that's the cliffhanger of the first episode. Whatever is in the woods outside town is about to come out and attack, and then credits roll. Apparently it'll be on Russian TV in the fall, and coming in some form to the U.S. in November.

The good news is because the slot was planned for two parts, we had a lot of time between this and the next film, which I spent going to the Maverick Meetup at Mosaic and having exactly one beer, then deciding what I really wanted was a burrito. So I stopped at Taco Mania (hey, it was closer than La Vic and just about as good, although it's true that nothing beats the orange sauce)

Then it was back to the Hammer for EVERY TIME I DIE, a clever and entertaining thriller. Sam is a paramedic, he has friends, but his life isn't great. He has blackouts, and visions of him accidentally killing his little sister Sara when they were little. He's also got a best friend, Jay, who invites him to a weekend at a lake house. Jay's wife Poppy has a sister Mia, and neither Jay nor Poppy know that Sam is already having an affair with Mia, and for that matter neither does Mia's husband, Tyler. Okay, confused yet, because it's easier to follow in the movie than in my terrible writing. Anyway, Mia wants to break it off, Tyler finds out about it, and when Sam tries to leave, Tyler runs him off the road, chases him down to the lake, and murders him. End of story? Not really, because Tyler's consciousness just floats into another body. Specifically, Jay's. That's the supernatural premise, and it's very well done. Sam, inhabiting other bodies, tries to both get back with Mia and reveal Tyler's crime, but isn't believed because, of course, he's in a body that's obviously not Sam's. It's a clever premise, and makes for an entertaining ride that's a spin on the "ghost possession" genre from the ghost's point of view. Really cool, and also a bit philosophical about the nature of identity.

And finally, the midnight movie, starting with the short COME CORRECT. You gotta know what to wear, and what to order, if you want to hang out in the swankiest bar in town. And if you get it wrong, you can either leave, or challenge the bartender to a shake-off. All you need are skills...and a man with an epic beard to be the judge.

And that was the lead-in to the feature, TERROR NULLIUS, a movie edited together from the history of Australian (and if I'm not mistaken, a little New Zealand) cinema, as well as the history of Australia itself. The title is a play on the concept of Terra Nullius, which was used as a legal excuse for invaders to steal aboriginal land. So classics like MAD MAX; PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK; PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT; ROMPER STOMPER; THE BABADOOK (which in this movie turns you gay) etc. as well as more obscure fare are edited together in a sort of story about feminism, gay rights, aboriginal land rights, and more. The stereotypical (and cinematic) outlaw Aussie persona is turned around to one who is finally standing up for the aborigines and against colonialism. Or maybe not, it's such a head-spinning ride and it was so late at night all I really know is I fucking loved it.

Wait a minute... one of those characters wasn't in the original ROAD WARRIOR

Total Running Time: 512 Minutes
My Total Minutes: 501,780

Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 10

Five films last Thursday, as we're finally coming down the home stretch

First up, after a few drinks in the lounge, was a Georgian film, HORIZON. Giorgi is a young man who is somewhat starting his life over. He has officially separated from his wife Ana, and he has a sense of freedom and opportunities open to him for the first time in years. Basically, his whole life is on the horizon (at least, I assume that's the point of the title.) So he moves out to the country, living with his new best friend and enjoying country pastimes like fishing and duck hunting. Well, "enjoying" isn't exactly the right word. He muddles through them with his friend. And pines for Ana. His whole life is on the horizon, but the trouble with that is the horizon is always too far away to reach (don't @ me, flat-earthers) and so he never really gets there. The acting is good, the natural vistas are pretty, and the movie is a slow, "slice of life" drama. I will trust you to know if you like those. If you're a fan of those kinds of movies, this is a good one. For me, it comes down to whether or not I'm in the mood at that time. And it's so late in the festival and I'm on so little sleep that I need something with a little more kick.

HORIZON plays one more time Sun, Mar 17 3:45 PM in Redwood City

Next up was the documentary GIFT, a beautiful, colorful documentary about artists and the gifts they give to the world. Specifically, it's about artists who give away their works. There's a "moving garden" exhibit where the audience each takes a flower, as long as they can give it away to someone else. There's an artist collective who turn a threatened building into a living museum to protect it and the inhabitants. And, of course, there's Burning Man, that thing in the desert that has enshrined the "gift economy" into its values (we won't mention how much you have to spend just for a ticket there, not to mention supplies to live out there.) I have a little bugaboo about Burning Man docs, only because I've been going for a couple of decades and no documentary has ever captured my experience, instead pushing insistent optimism and purity of the Burning Man ethos. But really that's my hangup. This movie is legitimately great and beautiful, although probably about 10-15 minutes too long, since I started getting bored and sleepy at the end.

Then I had time to catch about half of the TV Dramas Shorts Program
THE SHADES: A man is on trial for a violent crime against a woman. His lawyer, who seems completely bored with the proceedings, gets him off on a due process point. So the community takes matters into their own hands. And the lawyer is part of it, but since it's only the pilot it doesn't reveal everything. This one was intriguing enough I'd be tempted to follow the series all the way through.
NICE IRANIAN GIRL: A short comedic series that is exactly what the title says. Well, specifically it's a nice Iranian girl living in the U.S. and trying to balance cultures.
TUCSON SALVAGE: Based on the book by Brian Jabas Smith, it's a look at the lives of some of the most marginalized people in Tucson. And it's really depressing.

Then I bailed early for some VIP Soiree time at Cafe Stritch. Sorry, I just needed a break.

Then an English thriller, THE UNSEEN. A young well-to-do couple has a happy life with their young son, until tragedy strikes in the form of a pool accident, and they lose their son. Gemma has panic attacks that literally strike her blind (a real condition...I forgot the medical term...it's very rare to happen in both eyes but that's what she has.) When this leads to an auto accident, a stranger named Paul steps in and helps. And he develops a friendship with Gemma and her husband Will. In fact, they become such good friends that Paul invites them to his country guest house so they can get away for a while and maybe get their lives back together. Of course, with the festival theme of Expect the Unexpected, Paul is more than he appears and it becomes a thriller. Which I guess isn't too unexpected because I said that in the beginning. Anyway, the acting is great, the surprises are satisfying, and overall it's a good story well told.

THE UNSEEN has two more screenings Sat, Mar 16 4:00 PM and Sun, Mar 17 1:15 PM, both in Redwood City

And I ended the night with Shorts Program 9 - Hidden. Expect the Unexpected!
BEN AND MIMI - MIMI AND BEN: A love triangle of a woman, her husband, and her pet caterpillar.
BLACK HAT: A distracted orthodox Jewish man keeps leaving his hat behind. And one night, he leaves it in a potentially very dangerous place.
THE BUMBRY ENCOUNTER: A young couple, lost on a mountain rode, witness what may be a U.F.O. But the authorities have other ideas...ideas that a mixed-race couple just shouldn't be. A great story of manipulation.
BUNNY MAN: Some young people in Vancouver talk about ethnic stereotypes. Then a Bunny Man walks in. My favorite!

The titular Bunny Man

DOLOR: Stop motion animation about the pain of losing a loved one.
FAUVE: Two kids play a game of trickery and one-upsmanship. Until things go wrong.
THE FISHERMAN: An old man talks to a fish. No wait, reverse that. A fish talks to an old man. People think he (the old man) is crazy. But the fish has an important message.
GUNS FOUND HERE: A fascinating look at the center that traces gun records back to their owner. In any police procedural, they "run a trace" on a gun. These are the guys who do that trace, and how the law is designed to make it difficult and time-consuming, so that there is no national gun registry.
NEFTA FOOTBALL CLUB: A donkey carrying a package of white powder. They say it's laundry detergent, but it's really something else. Anyway, a couple of kids find it. The older brother knows what's up, but the younger brother has a much better use for that white powder. A very funny Tunisian story.
SPECIAL DELIVERY: No one is more lonely than the mailman around Valentine's Day.

Shorts Program 9 - Hidden has two more screenings: Sat, Mar 16 2:30 PM at 3Below, and Sun, Mar 17 10:30 AM in Redwood City

Total Running Time: 474 minutes
My Total Minutes: 501,268

Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 9

Wednesday. Five more films. Let's go. I think this was technically my "rest" day. Not that I stopped watching films, I just slowed down my drinking. Even the bartender noticed that the Tito's Bandito (confession--my alter-ego!) was a little slow on the draw. Don't worry, the Bandito will be back!

The Tito's Bandito. Have you seen this man?

Anyway, I started the day with BITE ME, A surprisingly sweet vampire love story that completely rejects the supernatural vampire myths (in fact, it starts with the protagonist looking into a mirror). 

Instead it's about fringe counterculture and finding love with a mundane. Sarah identifies as a vampire, in that she hangs out with fellow self-identified vampires and feels weak if she doesn't drink some human blood every week or so (no biting, all from willing donors, mostly in the community). She and a couple of her friends have been living in what they claim is a church, and therefore not paying taxes. So that gets the attention of the IRS, and James is the agent assigned to audit her church. And they turn out to get along very well. Even if it goes against the norms of both societies (it's interesting to think of the parallels between James' intolerant Christian friends and family and Sarah's too-cool-for-mundanes subculture) and especially against all professional codes of conduct (don't start dating until the audit is over!) they just kinda can't help it. It's funny and colorful, and in the end has a totally sincere message about how nobody is too special for ordinary, run-of-the-mill love.

It's so much fun when people ask my favorite film of the festival to yell out, "BITE ME!"

BITE ME plays again Sun, Mar 17 10:45 AM in Redwood City

Next up was LAST SUNRISE, a very clever sci-fi from China. It starts with a very simple but high-concept premise--the sun goes out. And not that it's slowly fading, it just rather suddenly blinks out, and what are the consequences of that? Obviously it's dark (dark enough for some beautiful vistas of the stars.) It's also cold and getting colder. And with plant life dying there's no more oxygen. Also our orbit is now more or less a straight line. Astronomer Sun Yang (I assume the name is intentional) was one of the few who saw it coming, but he's still not immune. He and his neighbor Chen Mu team up and work to survive I an increasingly cold world (both physically and emotionally) and make it to district 4, where allegedly there's a sanctuary that can save them--or at least prolong their survival. Really, without the sun all life on Earth is screwed pretty quickly, so it's more about the reactions of people to their impending extinction. Do you bind together in allegiances? Do you trust other people, or fight to protect yourself above all else. Really fascinating, although by the end you start to feel every minute of the 104 minute running time. It's great, but kind of exhausting (probably doesn't help that I was exhausted going in.)

LAST SUNRISE plays again Sat, Mar 16 6:30 PM in Redwood City

Then there was no time for Q&A, because I had to run off to the next show, which was Shorts Program 2: Family, For Better or Worse. All the different ways that a family can be:

ARCANGEL: Family can be a man and his elderly woman (maybe mother, maybe just friend) whom he's trying to get services for
BOY BOY GIRL GIRL: Family can be a gay couple and the drug-addicted lesbian couple who are carrying their baby girl.
THE CIRCLE: Family can be an aunt, spending the day with her niece before breaking some bad news
HAVE IT ALL: Family can be a working mom and her baby, and the exhausting comedic adventure of going to a work meeting
I AM MY OWN MOTHER: Family can be the mom who gave you up for adoption, and doesn't want you now, even if you're carrying get grandchild

MOVING ON: Family can be a surprise revelation after a dad's funeral
NAYSAYER: Family can be a father, barred from seeing his own son, who takes matters into his own hands. But in a recurring theme of the festival, his grip on reality is not good.
ONE CAMBODIAN FAMILY PLEASE FOR MY PLEASURE: Family can be one refugee family helping another, in the new paradise of Fargo, North Dakota
POZOLE: Family is food, even if it violates your dietary restrictions.

This is family

Next up was WBCN AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, about a Boston cultural institution in the late 60s through the 70s. A great indie radio station that combined rock and roll, politics, and rebellion (which is the only way to do rock and roll.) For a brief time it was the cultural institution of Boston. If you said you listened to the radio you didn't have to specify WBCN, that would be redundant. People would listen and turn their radios out the window so neighbors could hear. Legend has it you could walk across town without a radio and never not hear it. Using a wealth of archival footage, the film tells the story of a square entrepreneur and a gaggle of student radio DJs who first booked some overnight time on a failing station, and had the radical idea of playing what people were actually listening to. That turned out to be a winning formula, and by staying true to those roots they grew to become an institution. And then...they kind of knew it was over when they moved to some of the most prestigious real estate in Boston and really went "professional." But for a period it was an amazing place. Discovering new artists. Publicizing anti-war protests. Doing real investigative journalism (with their official "New Dissector"). I didn't live in that time or place, but the movie kind of makes me wish I had.

There was a time when these guys were the avant-garde of culture in Boston. Really.

And finally, I ended the night with a short and a feature. First up was the short, AMERICAN MUSCLE. It's a cool episode of a late night street race, directed by a guy who might or might not know how real it is. A story of leaving it all on the pavement to win a car, money, or at least some respect. Hopefully this short will get be expanded into a feature. At least, that's the plan.

And finally, APARTMENT 413 was an excellent thriller with a clever comedic touch. I don't want to give too much away, but it's part of the festival theme of mental illness and questioning reality (I guess in Cinequest-speak, they call it "Expect the Unexpected.") Marco has a good life...or at least an okay life. He has a girlfriend. They have a baby on the way. They have an okay apartment. He just needs a job so he can support them. But he has some bad habits. He oversleeps and misses an interview. He gets bored filling out applications and takes a break to play video games...for most of the day. And he's got a much, much bigger problem. Someone is leaving creepy notes around the apartment to threaten him. Or he finds a cell phone and some creep starts sending him messages that his girlfriend's baby isn't really his. Or he cleans the apartment and a second later it's a mess again. He starts questioning his own grasp on reality so much that he takes pictures of things to prove to himself and his girlfriend what's really real. Like I said, no spoilers, but expect the unexpected. Very well done!

AMERICAN MUSCLE and APARTMENT 413 play again Sat, Mar 16 10:30 AM in Redwood City

Total Running Time: 524 minutes
My Total Minutes: 500,794

Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 8

5 more films on Tuesday, as we're now over the halfway point. Time for some quickie reviews, because I've reached the point of the festival where I can't do much better.

First up was a trip to Canada and the fossil fuel industry for CIRCLE OF STEEL. Wendy is an engineer, fresh out of school starting her new job. She might not like the oil and gas industry, but it's a job and she likes it more than being unemployed. There's also not much to do in this small town--pilates at home, Internet dating, drinking at the bar. Yeah, so it's not the good life, but it's better than unemployment. Oops, except there are rumors of unemployment and her last performance review was only rated "Acceptable." So she's likely to have bigger problems than a shitty job. Chantelle Han is excellent as Wendy, and the movie has fun with what easily could've been a really bleak premise.

Next up was AN AUDIENCE OF CHAIRS. A talented and popular concert pianist seems to have her life in order. And then it falls apart. And I confess I dozed off during the "incident" that estranged her to her family. But I was awake for the long struggle to regain her mental health and win them back. Carolina Bartczak gives a knock-out performance, depicting the struggles of someone going through a disease that alters her reality (which is kind of a recurring theme of this years festival.) And the ending is good, showing the importance of the smallest victories against illness.

Then for some silly fun, with the British comedy KILL BEN LYK. A serial killer is running around London killing everyone named Ben Lyk. So...if you're a Ben Lyk, you should probably lay low, right? Well, if you're a marginally famous YouTuber, you vlog about it and worst case, the views on your murder will be through the roof. Scotland Yard gets involved, and whisks all Ben Lyk's into a safe house, which is very convenient...for the murderer. Now he doesn't have to run all over town. In a bit of a CLUE-like setup, the Ben Lyk's start dropping. We do eventually get the backstory of why all this is happening, and it's funny and satisfying. But the most fun is just watching all the idiotic Ben Lyk's reactions to what's going on.

The next show continued the theme this year of including music videos before the features. SNEAKS - MONEY DON'T GROW ON TREES is a good song with a cool video, and rather than a review I'll just provide a link so you can enjoy it yourself.

That was the lead-in for ALL MY NIGHTS, and Italian thriller that for one reason or another I just couldn't get into. I've talked to several audience members who loved it, so don't take my word for it. A woman--Sara--escapes into the night in a seaside Italian town. A stranger--Veronica--picks her up, and brings her to her home. And the security is pretty quickly broken, as there were more twists and turns than my sleep-deprived brain could follow. Sorry.

ALL MY NIGHTS plays again Friday Mar 15, 3:10 PM in Redwood City

And finally, I ended the night with Shorts Program 7: Something Funny. Hooray for comedy!
TELLING PEOPLE YOU'RE NATIVE AMERICAN  WHEN YOU'RE NOT NATIVE IS A LOT LIKE TELLING A BEAR YOU'RE A BEAR WHEN YOU'RE NOT A BEAR: Made me laugh while providing important advice for avoiding getting mauled--and avoiding pissing off Native Americans.
THE BROWNLIST: Made me laugh while exposing the intricacies of how to be ethnic but not too ethnic in Hollywood. Especially if they've already cast someone super-Asian in another part.
HOLDING: Made me laugh when do strangers are put on hold at the same time. Seriously, maybe that suicide hotline should hire an extra operator.
HOOK UP 2.0: Made me laugh with a sorority girl and her clever approach to casual college encounters. From Cinequest vet Dana Nachman (BATKID BEGINS, PICK OF THE LITTER) and edited by Cinequest super-vet Kurt Kuenne.
HOW TO APPLY FOR A SEXUAL POSITION: Mad me laugh at the idea of a bureau licensing new sexual positions. Also, WTF is wrong with Cleveland?
HOW TO OUT-DRINK YOURSELF: Made me laugh with a recipe for new life goals. All it takes is a little time travel!
I WILL NOT WRITE UNLESS SWADDLED IN FURS: Didn't make me laugh...because it didn't play (because, if the rumor mill is correct, it was poached by another festival.) But it makes me laugh to post the online guide picture for it.

Seriously, either this film didn't play or I completely blanked on it.

MADE PUBLIC: Made me laugh when "I do" is put to an online vote. If only 50.01% of your friends agree, should you still get married?
PEGGY: Made me laugh when the perfect wife and mother is challenged at her son's birthday party.
THE PUPPET MASTER: Made me laugh when a sinister mastermind's plan hits a little snag.
SORRY NOT SORRY: Made me laugh when a husband-wife war starts with plums and ends with a perfect plan coming together.
SPOONING: Made me laugh thinking about the old adage of "no small roles, only small actors." Still, it can be tough getting typecast.
THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MY SISTER: Made me laugh because...incest is just always funny.
WHITE GUYS SOLVE SEXISM: Made me laugh because it's about damn time!

Shorts Program 7: Something Funny plays again Sunday Mar 17, 8:00 PM at the Hammer Theater

Total Running Time: 445 minutes

My Total Minutes: 500,270 (like I said, we're over the halfway point!)

Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 7

The second week starts with a five-film Monday. Or rather, it really started with a couple of early drinks in the festival lounge.

The first film of the day was BORDERLINE, one of the more challenging films I've seen in the festival--and not just challenging due to the 144 minute running time. A story of love, obsession, self-destruction, and writing, it's shot mostly in oppressive close-ups of the characters faces. Director Anna Alfieri stars as Anna (essential, herself.) She has her first lesbian relationship with Robyn. It becomes an obsession, intermixed with her obsession to become a great writer. That gets in the way of the relationship, as she simultaneously gets overly attached and feels she doesn't deserve the relationship unless she becomes a great writer. So it ends, and she spirals into self destruction. And it's brutal and difficult to watch, but more than that it just drags on and on. It's 144 minutes, and you feel every minute of it. And I've been told at least 20 minutes had already been cut out of a previous cut. I think there's probably a good story in there--keep cutting.

BORDERLINE plays again Tue, Mar 12 6:00 PM and Fri, Mar 15 9:30 PM, both shows in Redwood City

Then, after a few more drinks, I caught the bizarre and twisted surrealist neo-noir Western with possible political overtones, LAKE OVER FIRE, from those wacky, wacky Norwegians. A small town gets along well, riding their motorbikes and singing, while wearing fluorescent-trimmed cowboy hats atop their motorcycle helmets. The local mine (mining those little plastic beads you can iron together to make designs) has made the town wealthy, but with that wealth comes greed, in the form of The Cowboy. Different factions of the town are set against each other, murder and false accusations are the order of the day, and those peaceful townsfolk who try to bring everyone together fail horribly. Probably the funniest movie I've ever seen to feature repeated torture of a baby (relax, it's not a real baby, it's just an actor.)

I could describe more, but it really has to be seen to be believed. Too bad that was its last screening in the festival. Sucks to be you!

Well, well, well, we got a group of bad-asses here!

Then a couple more drinks in the lounge, and off to the Australian coming-of-age drama, SUBURBAN WILDLIFE. Four friends just graduated University. So adulthood begins. Well, it'll begin soon enough, after sufficient partying has been had. So drunken stupidity is the order of the day, and for once I'm not the one serving it up. Maybe this didn't quite speak to me because all the characters eventually learn something about growing up, and I've never really had that lesson. I've never had a need for the party to stop (then again, I've never started the day by stepping into a bowl of my own vomit, so I got that going for me.) Anyway, I really wanted to like this movie, but it was hard because I really didn't like any of the characters. So I found myself just counting the minutes until I could run off the the Soiree (at neighboring bars of Chacho's and San Patricio's) and drink some more.

SUBURBAN WILDLIFE plays again Sun, Mar 17 3:00 PM in Redwood City

So yeah, the Soiree was good. But this time I didn't just slam down a few drinks. I also gorged myself with fried Mexican junk at the buffet. Happy belly!

The next show started with a cool animated short, CROW: THE LEGEND. With a great voice cast including John Legend, Constance Wu, and Oprah Winfrey, it tells the Native American legend of the crow--once a brightly colored bird with a beautiful voice, his magnanimous quest cost him his plumage and his dulcet tones, but he did save all his friends, so it was worth it.

That was the lead in to the feature, LUCKY FIFTY. Regular readers of my blog (and I know that includes at least some of the team of this local production) know that my most common criticism is that a movie drags on too long. I call these "feature length shorts"--movies with a simple idea that are badly stretched out to 90 minutes. So it's refreshing to see a movie that knows it has a 56 minute story and doesn't tack on a minute more. Well done!

As for the story, Jay (Lawrence Kao) is a writer, trying to get any investor interested in making his script. After being turned down again, he's throwing a little tantrum behind the office where Monica (Jaya Prasad) finds him. And he finds a $50 bill. Monica is also a struggling actress, so they decide to use this new windfall for a day of fun on the cheap, starting with some tacos! They have a fun day and night, and seem to be on the same page in all ways. The next day he drives her home, and as luck would have it her boyfriend is interested in his script. If only he'd make some changes so it's not so...minority driven. A nice little story of the struggle of making it in an art that is at all times also a business, and the challenge of staying true to your vision.

LUCKY FIFTY plays again Tue, Mar 12 12:15 PM in Redwood City; Sat, Mar 16 5:30 PM also in Redwood City; and Sun, Mar 17 1:15 PM at the Hammer Theater.

And finally, I ended the night with COME, SAID THE NIGHT, a weird and creepy horror thriller about the Greek Gods. Or at least, about a family that still believes in them. Roy Grady is an eccentric single father (his wife died some time ago, and if it was explained I missed it.) His eldest daughter Magda also passed on just last year, and he and his two children (13 year old daughter Sprout, and young son Percy) are in their remote wood "sanctuary" to pay homage to her. At first they just seem a little eccentric. They worship the Greek Gods (particularly Harpocrates, the God of Silence) and he homes schools them to protect them from "otherness"--like the idea that the Gods aren't real or worse yet, there's just one singular God in charge of the multitude of different things. But he never really raises his voice to them, he definitely cares about them. And the kids have their quirks--for Percy, hypochondria that keeps him from almost never exposing his hands; for Sprout, sleep paralysis and the belief that a Gorgon is haunting her--but they all love their family. Which is not to say that it's entirely surprising when things turn dark an murderous, triggered by a little bit of "otherness" in the form of a beautiful park ranger and her son who is just Sprout's age. Well developed characters and a good story well told makes for a good end to another long day at Cinequest.

COME, SAID THE NIGHT plays again Wed, Mar 13 6:00 PM in Redwood City

Total Running Time: 489 minutes

My Total Minutes: 499,825

Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 6

The big first weekend finished, and I had a pretty light day of films--only 4 on Sunday

First up was THE TRUTH ABOUT MARRIAGE, from returning Cinequest master Roger Nygard. With his trademark sense of humor and a rapid-fire editing technique, he takes us on a worldwide journey, starting close to home with his own friends and ranging as far as the amazing Don Blanquito, the most single man in the world (now married.) He ponders why a product that fails half the time and requires constant upkeep when it does work...is so popular? Full disclosure, this is a review written by a guy who has never been married, of a movie by a guy who has never been married, and is surprisingly optimistic about the institution. And he does come up with an answer in the end. And it's a satisfying one. So all was write with the world. Except for the fact that this was its last screening in the festival, so if you want to see it I don't know how you can. I'm sure it'll be released eventually.

Next a few drinks in the lounge. Then a few more drinks, and finally it was off to GROUPERS, a sick and twisted revenge fantasy about torturing homophobes...for science!

Confession, I got too drunk in the lounge before this film, and ended up mostly taking a nice nap, but I loved the ending, and I pieced together from my friends more or less what happened before. So...good job team! I loved the ending. Sometime I plan to really see the rest of it.

GROUPERS plays again Fri, Mar 15 9:30 PM in Redwood City.

So I then decided to skip the Soiree and the Meetup and go into sobering-up mode, which was a good idea.

The next show started with the music video SECOND HAND LOVERS. A cool music video with a lot of synchronized bodies (presumably the baggage of ex-lovers) following a guy around. Really clever.

Then the feature, GUEST ARTIST. Jeff Daniels wrote and stars, a rambling meditation on art and writing and alcoholism (appropriate given my sobering up mode,) based on his play based on a true incident (Mr. Daniels was not present to explain.) He plays famous playwright Joseph Harris, who hasn't written anything in about a decade, because he's been drunk. He's not to happy to be in Lima, PA to write a world premiere for the local theater. But Kenneth Waters (Thomas Macias) is absolutely ecstatic to meet him, he's a big fan. And they'll have a wild night in the train station, Kenneth trying to pick Joseph's brain, and Joseph trying to convince Kenneth to buy him a ticket back to New York so he can get out of this nothing town where no one would ever go unless they absolutely had to. It's a very funny, caustic, entertaining night. The one-room setup probably works great on stage, but is a little stifling on the screen--some effort could've been taken to make it more cinematic. But the strength of this film is its writing, and that crackles while jumping from hilarious to serious and surprises in the end with a bit of unexpected political bite. Very well done.

GUEST ARTIST plays again Wed, Mar 13 5:15 and Sat, Mar 16 7:30 PM. Both screenings are in Redwood City

And then I ended the night with ELECTRIC LOVE, an endearing rom-com about dating in the age of Tindr and Grindr, albeit with a surprisingly 80s aesthetic (I'm assuming Los Angeles just never wanted the 80s to end.) Tindr and Grindr have made hooking up easier than ever (also a point made in the first film of the day, THE TRUTH ABOUT MARRIAGE, so they made excellent bookends) but making romance work is still difficult--maybe more so when options are so easy. You still have to navigate annoying roommates, polyamorous podcasters, Internet trolls, best friends who may or may not be romantic rivals, and Grindr hookups who really aren't gay so stop calling them gay just because they used an app to find another guy to have sex with! (Confession...I've never actually dealt with that one...or really most of the complications I listed.) The film handles them all with sweetness and humor and provides a pair of appealing pair of leads in Adam (Zachary Mooren) and Emma (Mia Serafino, who is gorgeous). A really fun film to end a really fun day.

ELECTRIC LOVE plays again Wed, Mar 13 3:00 PM in Redwood City and Fri, Mar 15 10:00 PM at the California Theatre.

Total Running Time: 356 minutes
My Total Minutes: 499,336

Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 5

Saturday was my first (of many) days of full-on morning-to-night Cinequesting, starting with the first drinks (a Tito's Bloody Mary) in the lounge at 10 and ending with "springing forward" an hour to 3 am. But let's get to the actual movies

First up was TRAVEL BAN: MAKE AMERICA LAUGH AGAIN, a hilarious documentary about Muslim comedians in Trump's America. Or at least, that's the focus now. It actually starts with comedians going back in the pre-9/11 days, with an interesting backstory of how the legendary Mitzi Shore promoted Muslim comics at her legendary Comedy Store, sensing that there was a war brewing between America and the Middle East, and that they needed to be presenting a positive face of Muslims in America. The stand-up sets showcases in the movie had me laughing harder than I have in a long, long time (and my friends now that I'm someone who enjoys a good laugh.) At the same time, the news footage and cell phone videos of vicious, vile, racist attacks make me fear for the soul of my country. But fortunately, the movie gives the answer, as one of the comics (I'm sorry I forget which one) puts it, "Comedians are the doctors of the soul." Well said, and well proved in this movie.

TRAVEL BAN: MAKE AMERICA LAUGH AGAIN plays once more, Wed, Mar 13 8:20 PM in Redwood City.

Next up was a couple more drinks in the lounge, then to the California Theatre for a program that started with the music video STAND DOWN. With visuals reminiscent of NATURAL BORN KILLERS, Billy Bob Thornton plays a vet suffering from PTSD, heading for the ultimate showdown with...himself.

Then the feature was a different type of showdown, THE TINY LIFE OF BUTCHER DUKE. 20 years ago Butcher Duke could've been someone. He was a local tennis star, and won a contest to win a double-wide mobile home if he could only beat local ex-pro Creek Thomson in a best 2 out of three games match. And he took the first game, but Creek came back and crushed him in the next 2. Now 20 years later he still lives with his mom--at least, until she kicks him out. He's estranged from his daughter--who is getting married to a guy who is much like Butcher (some obvious daddy issues that are never explored because it's funnier to just let the audience ponder it.) And he coaches a team of children who are just...awful at tennis. They won zero games last year, and it doesn't look like they've improved at all. But he's got a chance at redemption. Creek's son, Delta (holy sh*t, I just got that joke) has taken over the tiny home business...and is running it into the ground. So as a promotion, he'll take on a rematch with Butcher, this time for a tiny home. And Butcher's luck is looking up, as Delta is truly, truly terrible at tennis. But there are more twists in store in this largely improvised comedy that is intermittently funny and often just kind of meanders. But even in the midst of meandering it's always a pleasant little ride that never takes itself seriously and really picks up at the end.

This man could really use a tiny home

THE TINY LIFE OF BUTCHER DUKE plays again Mon, Mar 11 9:20 PM in Redwood City; Wed, Mar 13 7:30 PM again in Redwood City; and Thu, Mar 14 2:50 PM in the California Theatre

Then the next show started with another music video, HEART KILLER. Who needs a review when I can just post a link.

That was the lead-in to ADONIS COMPLEX. A vacation at a lake house turns creepy and deadly when their fitness-obsessed host Tad is a little...too obsessed. Actually, it's not just the obsession, it's his...unorthodox theories on health and body-building. Oh yeah, it's a full-on horror/thriller with Tad as the monster and plenty of surprises about how far he'll go with this endeavors. Well acted and scripted, it's a nice creepy, occasionally cringe-worthy (at the risk of giving away spoilers, I have a bit of a phobia about needles) affair. Well done!

ADONIS COMPLEX plays again Mon, Mar 11 7:30 PM; Wed, Mar 13 8:45 PM; and Sat, Mar 16 1:00 PM. All screenings are in Redwood City.

Then for a little lighter fair, THE BRA is my favorite film of Cinequest 2019 so far. I love silent films (although I'll probably be missing the Buster Keaton program next Friday, if only because I've seen those films so many times and there's so much else to see.) But I can say I did see an excellent, beautiful, and surprising silent film at Cinequest with this one.

Okay, technically I wouldn't call this a "Silent" film, as the rhythmic soundscape is actually very important to it. But it's a dialogue-free film, and it's delightful. The marvelous Miki Manojlovic stars as Nurlan, a cargo train drive in Azerbaijan. As part of his daily route, he goes through a town where people have to run out of the way and pick their laundry off the line before his train comes through destroying it all. So part of his job is also returning odd articles of laundry that get snagged on his train. On his last day, he snags a blue bra. So his first journey in retirement is searching the village--modern day Cinderella style--for the owner. Which causes some pretty funny interactions with the locals, whom he's only seen from way up in his train. It's a wonderfully playful ride, and in the end it doesn't really matter who the proper owner is. The real bra is the friends we made along the way.

No words necessary

THE BRA plays again Tue, Mar 12 8:30 PM at 3Below; Sat, Mar 16 10:00 PM in Redwood City; and Sun, Mar 17 1:15 PM at the California Theatre.

Then another wonderfully creepy thriller, but one that takes a little while to get going. THIS IS OUR HOME is the story of Reina and Cory, a young couple who is going through some rough times, and trying to put their troubles aside with a tip out to Reina's secluded childhood home. Early one, they have an incident with a flat that shows Cory's immaturity, pride, stubbornness, and incompetence. The kind of scene that makes me hate him and not care about him as a protagonist. Hence there was a bit of a barrier to overcome for me to care about him, and that's why I said it takes a little while to get going. So when a little boy shows up and claims to be their son Zeke, it's mysterious and weird, and weirder sill when Reina humors him over Cory's objections. Things really get going when Zeke and Reina start teaming up against Cory. And then it gets really weird, dangerous, and scary. But since it's all happening to the character I fucking hated, it was all good!

THIS IS OUR HOME plays again Sun, Mar 10 8:30 PM at the Hammer Theatre; Wed, Mar 13 9:30 PM in Redwood City; and Fri, Mar 15 2:30 PM, again in Redwood City.

And finally I ended the day with a Cinequest tradition, always one of my favorites, the Mindbenders Shorts:

I SEE THROUGH YOU bent my mind when that guy tried to rip her face off. (Also when it played twice because it didn't play right the first time)

LOA'S PROMISE bent my mind when CGI robots take over an abandoned Argentinian ghost town.

MAKR bent my mind when that exorcist has more than he bargained for with a Djinn 

PENANCE bent my mind when people use the Bible to keep people from living their own lives, but luckily these Latinas take their own selves back.

TAKEN FROM ME bent my mind when robbers turn into snacks

TiCK bent my mind when vampires were burned away like bloodsucking insects

ULYSSES bent my mind when that fisherman caught a mermaid. And then...with what he did next. 

WAKEY WAKEY bent my mind when dreams and reality converge with tragic results.

WE GOT A MONKEY PAW bent my mind when wishes go awry. Maybe collecting occult artifacts is not the best hobby.

YOUR FRIEND bent my mind when a man learns that a robot--no matter how realistic--is no replacement for a real, existing, human friend.

YOUR ORDER HAS ARRIVED bent my mind when arrival announcements take over a guy's life.

Shorts Program 5 - Mindbenders plays again Sun, Mar 10 3:35 PM in Redwood City; Mon, Mar 11 4:35 PM also in Redwood City; and Fri, Mar 15 4:45 PM at 3Below

Total Running Time: 521 minutes

My Total Minutes: 498,980