It's been over for more than a week, but upon writing this, it will finally be over for me.
The closing night feature might just be my favorite film of the festival (time may tell.) THE MISOGYNISTS sounds like the kind of movie I should hate. At least, it features characters I should hate. Set on election night 2016 in a hotel room full of booze, cocaine, and two guys who supported Trump. And they're celebrating with booze and cocaine. Especially Dylan Baker as Cameron (you know Dylan Baker, you've seen him, but you've never seen him get a leading role where he can chew the scenery like this.) His compatriot Baxter (Lou Jay Taylor) is a little more sedate, hoping Trump can pivot from the campaign rhetoric and be a good President. He's also worried about his wife, who is afraid of the incoming Trump administration. Of course, Cameron makes fun of him for his wife--an impediment that Cameron has recently shed, which is why he lives in a fucking hotel room now. Anyway, a night of booze, drugs, prostitutes, and sick revelations are ahead for them. Everyone has strong opinions on the election, and everyone gets their fair share of mockery for them. Now, "fair share" does mean that Trump supporters are in for a lot more mockery. But Hillary supporters--in the form of Baxter's wife and the two prostitutes (who don't even know if they're up for working that night) are also showed as less than stable geniuses. Through it all there's a recurring bit of magic where the hotel TV room spontaneously turns on and shows scenes in reverse (perhaps a sign of how the outcome is turning the clocks back in so many ways.) It's a wild night and a wild movie that I'm very glad I saw, but I'm not sure if I ever want to watch it again. Well, maybe to inflict it on my friends. I might want to do that.
And then I ended Indiefest with THE MAZE. It's based on the true story of the 1983 prison break from what was supposed to be the most secure prison in Europe. The thing is, you kind of need to know a little bit about the sides in the Northern Ireland "troubles" at the time. And I'm kind of a dumb American, I didn't get all...or much...of the references there. There is an exciting prison break drama in there, but my lack of both context and sleep rendered it kind of ineffective for me. Which I guess is a shame. I could tell there was great acting, and a story that is resonant with a time or place. It's just a time and place that is too foreign to me.
And with that, I finally declare Indiefest 2018 closed. Some films were great. Some films were great to sleep through, but it's always a fun party.
Total Running Time: 178 minutes
My Total Minutes: 470,510
Showing posts with label indiefest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label indiefest. Show all posts
Sunday, February 25, 2018
Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 14
A.k.a., the penultimate night. Also, Valentine's Day. I love you all! I hope you had a great Valentine's Day!
First up was THE MANHATTAN FRONT, a hybrid art-film about historical events but also media manipulation which could be relevant today if it wasn't so saturated with academia. The presentation started with pamphlets being handed to everyone in the audience to explain the historical context. I still haven't read the one I got, not that I don't like reading or don't like history. It just felt like a red flag that the movie can't explain itself. So it's a story of a German saboteurs, the U.S. labor movement, and WWI. It mixes silent film footage from the time with reenactments, but the reenactments highlight the artificiality of the medium. E.g., the set of a theater is revealed to be a miniature. I get what the director/professor Cathy Lee Crane is doing. It's just a shame that her techniques to highlight the artificiality actually made it less interesting to watch. I don't know, maybe your mileage may vary, but as it is I was so lost and bored I couldn't really tell you what the plot of the sabotage even was. Maybe that paper handed out before the movie explains it all. But if a single sheet of paper explains your point better than a feature length movie, that doesn't say much good about the movie, does it?
And then it was time for an Indiefest tradition, the Anti-Valentine's Day Power Ballad Sing-a-Long. Much like opening night, this was an opportunity to skip and go home early, since I've been to quite a few of these. But I figured I'd at least check out the beginning, and I ended up dancing and drunkenly singing along to everything. The beer/cider was flowing from the concession stand, and I was totally lit. I'm not sure if I remember any of the songs other than the classic "Shot Through The Heart" (which used to end the show, but was introduced early to pump the crowd up) and the finale with "Bohemian Rhapsody" (where I didn't have to watch and read the lyrics, I turned around, faced the audience, and led them all. A wonderfully drunken, stupid night. Like Valentine's should be.
Total Running Time: 179 minutes
My Total Minutes: 470,332
First up was THE MANHATTAN FRONT, a hybrid art-film about historical events but also media manipulation which could be relevant today if it wasn't so saturated with academia. The presentation started with pamphlets being handed to everyone in the audience to explain the historical context. I still haven't read the one I got, not that I don't like reading or don't like history. It just felt like a red flag that the movie can't explain itself. So it's a story of a German saboteurs, the U.S. labor movement, and WWI. It mixes silent film footage from the time with reenactments, but the reenactments highlight the artificiality of the medium. E.g., the set of a theater is revealed to be a miniature. I get what the director/professor Cathy Lee Crane is doing. It's just a shame that her techniques to highlight the artificiality actually made it less interesting to watch. I don't know, maybe your mileage may vary, but as it is I was so lost and bored I couldn't really tell you what the plot of the sabotage even was. Maybe that paper handed out before the movie explains it all. But if a single sheet of paper explains your point better than a feature length movie, that doesn't say much good about the movie, does it?
And then it was time for an Indiefest tradition, the Anti-Valentine's Day Power Ballad Sing-a-Long. Much like opening night, this was an opportunity to skip and go home early, since I've been to quite a few of these. But I figured I'd at least check out the beginning, and I ended up dancing and drunkenly singing along to everything. The beer/cider was flowing from the concession stand, and I was totally lit. I'm not sure if I remember any of the songs other than the classic "Shot Through The Heart" (which used to end the show, but was introduced early to pump the crowd up) and the finale with "Bohemian Rhapsody" (where I didn't have to watch and read the lyrics, I turned around, faced the audience, and led them all. A wonderfully drunken, stupid night. Like Valentine's should be.
Total Running Time: 179 minutes
My Total Minutes: 470,332
Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 13
Two more movies on the final Tuesday of Indiefest. But first I had to grab some dinner at Ushio Raman, just across the street from the Roxie. I had the spicy black garlic ramen, and it was freakin' delicious. I recommend it highly.
And the reason I ate there is because the first film of the night was RAMEN HEADS, a fun and funny documentary about the ramen-obsessed chefs and fans in Japan. Chef Osamu Tomita is the star, the reigning king of ramen and a bit of a local celebrity. He obsesses over mixing the perfect broth, the "slurpability" of his noodles, everything about it. In fact, although he has several "apprentices" working for him, he doesn't trust anyone else to make his ramen. If he takes the day off, his shop is closed. And he doesn't really teach his apprentices anything. If they want to become great ramen chefs, they need to do it like he did--by tasting the leftovers from customers' bowls and reverse-engineering great ramen. The movie explores other chefs (my favorite is the guy in the small shop in Tokyo who ascribes no great significance to ramen. He's served thousands of bowls in his career, and it's just a simple, cheap dish, and his job is about speed and simplicity, not haute cuisine. It also explores briefly the history of ramen, how it was borrowed from China and became Japanese with soy sauce, and became popular as a cheap, fulfilling meal in the post-war period. But it always comes back to Tomita. I get the sense that the filmmakers wanted to do a wide-ranging exploration of ramen, but when they found him they realized he was the star. And they were right. He's as entertaining as his ramen is delicious (allegedly. I've never tried it myself. Maybe I need to make a trip to Japan.)
And then in keeping with the theme, I got stinkin' drunk before RON GOOSENS: LOW BUDGET STUNTMAN (oh, who am I kidding, I've been drunk through the whole festival.) If you look them up on IMDb, you'll find that the team behind this hilarious flick have worked together many times, and you can see that chemistry here (I need to check out their New Kids series, which is referenced in this film.) We open with Ron Goosens making good on a bet to pay his bar tab--to jump his car over an open drawbridge. He fails spectacularly, but his triumphant yell of "I'm totally shit-faced!" makes him a YouTube superstar (and get's the whole country triumphantly yelling "I'm totally shit-faced!" That's not enough to impress his wife, who threatens to leave him unless he proves he's "still got it" by bedding sexy star Bo Maerten (another main member of the comic group.) So he at least gets on set by being a stuntman. A low budget stuntman, who gets injured in crazy ways with every attempted stunt, but doesn't feel a thing because he's still shit-faced all the time. But there is more than just drunken humor to this film (although it is the main draw.) It turns out, to get in good with Bo, he needs to sober up--her dad was an alcoholic and she won't touch the stuff or associate with anyone who does. And when he's sober...he starts to realize how pointless his life has been--at least, the parts he can remember. Despite the drunken stupidity (I mean, it starts with a scene of drunk driving, something that really can't fly in an American movie) he becomes a sympathetic character, and you really end up loving him by the end.
Total Running Time: 176 minutes
My Total Minutes: 470,153
And the reason I ate there is because the first film of the night was RAMEN HEADS, a fun and funny documentary about the ramen-obsessed chefs and fans in Japan. Chef Osamu Tomita is the star, the reigning king of ramen and a bit of a local celebrity. He obsesses over mixing the perfect broth, the "slurpability" of his noodles, everything about it. In fact, although he has several "apprentices" working for him, he doesn't trust anyone else to make his ramen. If he takes the day off, his shop is closed. And he doesn't really teach his apprentices anything. If they want to become great ramen chefs, they need to do it like he did--by tasting the leftovers from customers' bowls and reverse-engineering great ramen. The movie explores other chefs (my favorite is the guy in the small shop in Tokyo who ascribes no great significance to ramen. He's served thousands of bowls in his career, and it's just a simple, cheap dish, and his job is about speed and simplicity, not haute cuisine. It also explores briefly the history of ramen, how it was borrowed from China and became Japanese with soy sauce, and became popular as a cheap, fulfilling meal in the post-war period. But it always comes back to Tomita. I get the sense that the filmmakers wanted to do a wide-ranging exploration of ramen, but when they found him they realized he was the star. And they were right. He's as entertaining as his ramen is delicious (allegedly. I've never tried it myself. Maybe I need to make a trip to Japan.)
And then in keeping with the theme, I got stinkin' drunk before RON GOOSENS: LOW BUDGET STUNTMAN (oh, who am I kidding, I've been drunk through the whole festival.) If you look them up on IMDb, you'll find that the team behind this hilarious flick have worked together many times, and you can see that chemistry here (I need to check out their New Kids series, which is referenced in this film.) We open with Ron Goosens making good on a bet to pay his bar tab--to jump his car over an open drawbridge. He fails spectacularly, but his triumphant yell of "I'm totally shit-faced!" makes him a YouTube superstar (and get's the whole country triumphantly yelling "I'm totally shit-faced!" That's not enough to impress his wife, who threatens to leave him unless he proves he's "still got it" by bedding sexy star Bo Maerten (another main member of the comic group.) So he at least gets on set by being a stuntman. A low budget stuntman, who gets injured in crazy ways with every attempted stunt, but doesn't feel a thing because he's still shit-faced all the time. But there is more than just drunken humor to this film (although it is the main draw.) It turns out, to get in good with Bo, he needs to sober up--her dad was an alcoholic and she won't touch the stuff or associate with anyone who does. And when he's sober...he starts to realize how pointless his life has been--at least, the parts he can remember. Despite the drunken stupidity (I mean, it starts with a scene of drunk driving, something that really can't fly in an American movie) he becomes a sympathetic character, and you really end up loving him by the end.
Total Running Time: 176 minutes
My Total Minutes: 470,153
Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 12
Catching up on the final week of Indiefest, two shows on Monday, so let's jump right in.
First up was the short, RICE BALL. A Japanese man and his son return from his wife's funeral. While talking about her, and how to move on, the father makes a very simple snack--rice balls. But not the way his wife made them. It's a simple dish, but somehow carries the character of the person. And the difference is a striking point of how she's gone, but also something to bring the father and son together. Very quiet, simple, and striking.
First up was the short, RICE BALL. A Japanese man and his son return from his wife's funeral. While talking about her, and how to move on, the father makes a very simple snack--rice balls. But not the way his wife made them. It's a simple dish, but somehow carries the character of the person. And the difference is a striking point of how she's gone, but also something to bring the father and son together. Very quiet, simple, and striking.
And that led into the feature, HER MAGNUM OPUS. It's a mostly wordless, beautiful passing of the seasons through dance. A circle of friends gather to celebrate their mentor. They party, they dance, they celebrate life. It's not about the narrative, it's about a sense of joy, and of change. And it's another one of those kinds of movies where if you maybe doze off for a bit, every time you wake up there's something beautiful on screen. I wouldn't say it's a great movie to fall asleep to, but it's a good movie to wake up to.
And then a comedy of Los Angeles, THE CALIFORNIA NO. Elliot is a junketeer. That particular kind of writer who asks the same questions to celebrities promoting their movies over and over again. It's a living...well, it doesn't pay that much but he gets to see movies for free and hang out with famous people. And he's got a successful wife. But in the opening scene, at couple's therapy, he finds out he's in an open marriage. Or at least his wife is. When he lets his frustration and aimlessness ruin one of the junket interviews, he's suddenly a pariah. The "California No" of the title is the uniquely Californian (I'd like to think uniquely Los Angeles) method of rejecting someone--by simply ignoring them (I think the rest of the world calls that "ghosting" now.) He pins his comeback on writing an expose on a famous actor, although he pitches it to him as a fluff piece to reinvigorate his career. Wacky hijinx ensue, in a very funny flick that makes me thankful I don't live in Los Angeles.
Total Running Time: 160 minutes
My Total Minutes: 469,977
My Total Minutes: 469,977
Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 11
The big second weekend wraps up, with more shorts and then a couple of features.
Shorts 4: Fateful Intersections. The dramatic shorts program.
ON THE ROAD: A repeat from last year's Another Hole in the Head genre festival. From Poland, a couple of murderous scam artists target the same woman driver on a remote road. But surprise, she's not all she seems to be, either.
WHOEVER WAS USING THIS BED: A psychological thriller about a married couple, and a mysterious caller, who won't take "you have the wrong number" for an answer. And then the husband starts getting curious about the woman on the other end of the line.
THE SMOKE: From Russia, a story of a policeman and his drug-dealing son, how they keep secrets from each other and the deadly results.
PLUCK: An English woman traveling through Europe, becoming infatuated with a young Italian man. A dream-like adventure, and a rare cinematic glimpse into the female erotic gaze.
Shorts 4: Fateful Intersections. The dramatic shorts program.
ON THE ROAD: A repeat from last year's Another Hole in the Head genre festival. From Poland, a couple of murderous scam artists target the same woman driver on a remote road. But surprise, she's not all she seems to be, either.
WHOEVER WAS USING THIS BED: A psychological thriller about a married couple, and a mysterious caller, who won't take "you have the wrong number" for an answer. And then the husband starts getting curious about the woman on the other end of the line.
THE SMOKE: From Russia, a story of a policeman and his drug-dealing son, how they keep secrets from each other and the deadly results.
PLUCK: An English woman traveling through Europe, becoming infatuated with a young Italian man. A dream-like adventure, and a rare cinematic glimpse into the female erotic gaze.
Shorts 6: The Girls Are Alright. Light comedy shorts.
THE MAKEOVER: Some people can pull of a certain fashion statement, and some just can't.
NORTH AND NOWHERE: From Bellingham, WA (full disclosure, I was a Bellinghamster as a kid) comes a story of a woman, her ailing dad, the family farm, and her unique solution to the situation.
THE BILL: It's all fun and games until you have to split the bill. It can turn the best of friends into mortal enemies.
LESBEHONEST: I'LL BE ALRIGHT: Sometimes break-ups are a good thing. Sometimes they send you into a weird spiral where you nearly hook up with three different women at your party. And when that happens, you need a good gay friend to keep you grounded.
FLIP THE RECORD: Filipino-American kids in the Bay Area in the 80's. They're trying to become DJs, and are surprised to find the little sister, Vanessa, has some mad skills.
THE MAKEOVER: Some people can pull of a certain fashion statement, and some just can't.
NORTH AND NOWHERE: From Bellingham, WA (full disclosure, I was a Bellinghamster as a kid) comes a story of a woman, her ailing dad, the family farm, and her unique solution to the situation.
THE BILL: It's all fun and games until you have to split the bill. It can turn the best of friends into mortal enemies.
LESBEHONEST: I'LL BE ALRIGHT: Sometimes break-ups are a good thing. Sometimes they send you into a weird spiral where you nearly hook up with three different women at your party. And when that happens, you need a good gay friend to keep you grounded.
FLIP THE RECORD: Filipino-American kids in the Bay Area in the 80's. They're trying to become DJs, and are surprised to find the little sister, Vanessa, has some mad skills.
Next up was the feature, THE MIDNIGHTERS. A solid entertaining caper flick, with an equally solid father-son relationship at the center. I guarantee if you watch movies at all, you've seen the lead Leon Russom (maybe you know him as the Malibu police chief in THE BIG LEBOWSKI) but you've never seen him in the lead role, and he's fantastic when he's finally given the chance. He plays Victor, a safe-cracker finally out of prison after serving a 35 year stretch. He has no intention of going back, but he doesn't really fit in the outside, either. And then he finds out he has a son he never knew about. Danny is kind of a chip off the old block. Not a safe-cracker, but a criminal. And one who happens to have a score lined up...he just needs a safe-cracker. Victor reluctantly takes on the role not just of safe-cracker, but mentor to Danny. Something Danny doesn't entirely embrace, since Victor was absent for his whole life. But then, Victor can easily point out Danny's gullibility, and how his partners are not the least bit trustworthy. It's a cool movie with a great story and great characters. And the ending twist is excellent.
And I ended the weekend with MINDHACK (aka THE MAD GENIUS PROJECT.) Starting with the seemingly minor problem of plastic bottle pollution, Mason attempts to "hack the mind" until he can solve it. But so far the biggest thing he's accomplished is giving himself hallucinations of Finn, his id-fueled inner voice, who torments him for being so timid. But forces of evil (if you can distinguish good and evil in this cyber-punk world) also want to exploit his tech, so he has to fight them. You know, the plot isn't exactly important, or particularly intelligible. This movie is all about style. And while it falls for some hacker-haven cliches, the style is pretty cool.
Total Running Time: 318 minutes
My Total Minutes: 469,817
My Total Minutes: 469,817
Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 10
The big second weekend started with lots of shorts, starting with Shorts 3: The Best of Us. Stories of great people doing great things.
BEYOND THE PLATE: ERIC WOLFINGER: The life and art of Eric Wolfinger, a globe-trotting food photographer, learning about different cultures by sharing in their food. Darn good way to do it.
JESSZILLA: Jesselyn “Jesszilla” Silva is a kick-ass little girl. 10 years old, and in love with boxing. She trains hard and already has plans to go pro. Her father...well, he's not exactly thrilled, but he's totally supportive.
SEVEN DATES WITH DEATH: Moreese Bickham was on death row for a long, long time. Longer than anyone, in fact. And then a lawyer took his case, proved there were mitigating circumstances in his case, and as an inmate with good behavior for over 37 years, he was eventually released as a free man.
THE TREE PROPHET: The story of David Milarch, founder of the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive. Attacking the problem of the loss of ancient trees with a combination of scientific techniques and religious zeal. Awesome.
THAT'S MY BOY: A profile of Sonu, a friendly man with lots of friends. And he's an excellent cricket player. So good he used to be on the national team. On the woman's national team. Now he's a voice for transgender acceptance.
Then the next program was Shorts 5: The Hustle. Dark comedy shorts, just my style.
MERYL FUCKIN' STREEP: A cautionary tale about how selling out to Hollywood can turn you plastic. Starring Barbie dolls.
JEFFREY: An exotic dancer who's in it for the art. He's not a sell-out looking to create something sleazy for the Vegas-style shows. He wants to bring safe, sexy dance moves to the public square.
LAURELS: Film festivals should be fun. But sometimes they can be very stressful for the filmmakers. Especially if you have to share hotel rooms. And especially if you don't get along with your roommate. It can get downright scary.
FUNEMPLOYMENT: Not much fun at all. Isaac sucks. He sucks at babysitting. He sucks at comedy. He's a shitty roommate. Shitty enough that when his roommate humiliates him after he brings his tinder date home, you don't sympathize with him, you sympathize with the roommate.
VALENTINA: Hot days are the worst. Especially when you're working. And especially when it gets so hot that your vagina starts complaining. Loudly.
PASTRIES: An Italian short about a self-absorbed actor who drags his girlfriend into a good-luck ritual of giving pastries to a homeless man. But things go tragically wrong when the homeless guy doesn't want his fucking pastries.
THE POET AND THE PROFESSOR: Ariel and her two men, in two dysfunctional affairs. The poet is an abusive filmmaker living in his girlfriend's luxury apartment but screwing (and abusing) Ariel on the side. And her professor is a depressed, pill-popping, married man. You just hope the whole time that maybe, just maybe, she'll get a gram of self-esteem and leave them both. And there is a moment where it looks like it might happen.
Next up was a feature film, FOR NOW. A California road trip movie, from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Hannah and Connor are brother and sister. Their beloved parents recently died, and they're both dealing with it. Connor is a professional dancer in Europe, but Hannah got him an audition with the San Francisco Ballet, which could be a great opportunity for him. Or it could be more about how Hannah wants him nearby instead of half a world away. Joining them on the road trip is Hannah's boyfriend Kane, who is planning to propose if he ever gets just the right moment. And also Hannah's best friend Katherine, who you just know is going to hook up with Connor even though it's a pretty terrible idea. The plot meanders, allowing the movie to be more about characters...who are also kind of meandering. For their flaws, they're all sympathetic people, and the acting is great. I have to be in the right mood for these kinds of films to work for me. And I mostly was that day, so it was fun.
And the final show of the night started with the short SPRING AFFAIR. Two women on a hunting trip. Hunting a fairly unusual prey.
And then the feature MUSCLECAR, another one in the small Australian series in this year's festival. The premise--a car that runs on blood and the owner who kills to keep it running--reminded me heavily of one of my favorite movies, BLOOD CAR. Perhaps I was wrong to have that movie in my mind going in, because for all it's Ozsploitation sex and violence, I was disappointed because BLOOD CAR is so much better. Anyway, Bambi buys a car she can't afford. In fact, she can't even afford to put gas in it. But with a little voodoo help, she runs it on a particularly alcohol-rich blend of frat-boy blood. And gives it a heart. And...gets a little too intimate with it. That sounds better than it really is. Maybe it needs tarantulas, deadly tarantulas in vending machines.
Total Running Time: 334 minutes
My Total Minutes: 469,499
BEYOND THE PLATE: ERIC WOLFINGER: The life and art of Eric Wolfinger, a globe-trotting food photographer, learning about different cultures by sharing in their food. Darn good way to do it.
JESSZILLA: Jesselyn “Jesszilla” Silva is a kick-ass little girl. 10 years old, and in love with boxing. She trains hard and already has plans to go pro. Her father...well, he's not exactly thrilled, but he's totally supportive.
SEVEN DATES WITH DEATH: Moreese Bickham was on death row for a long, long time. Longer than anyone, in fact. And then a lawyer took his case, proved there were mitigating circumstances in his case, and as an inmate with good behavior for over 37 years, he was eventually released as a free man.
THE TREE PROPHET: The story of David Milarch, founder of the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive. Attacking the problem of the loss of ancient trees with a combination of scientific techniques and religious zeal. Awesome.
THAT'S MY BOY: A profile of Sonu, a friendly man with lots of friends. And he's an excellent cricket player. So good he used to be on the national team. On the woman's national team. Now he's a voice for transgender acceptance.
Then the next program was Shorts 5: The Hustle. Dark comedy shorts, just my style.
MERYL FUCKIN' STREEP: A cautionary tale about how selling out to Hollywood can turn you plastic. Starring Barbie dolls.
JEFFREY: An exotic dancer who's in it for the art. He's not a sell-out looking to create something sleazy for the Vegas-style shows. He wants to bring safe, sexy dance moves to the public square.
LAURELS: Film festivals should be fun. But sometimes they can be very stressful for the filmmakers. Especially if you have to share hotel rooms. And especially if you don't get along with your roommate. It can get downright scary.
FUNEMPLOYMENT: Not much fun at all. Isaac sucks. He sucks at babysitting. He sucks at comedy. He's a shitty roommate. Shitty enough that when his roommate humiliates him after he brings his tinder date home, you don't sympathize with him, you sympathize with the roommate.
VALENTINA: Hot days are the worst. Especially when you're working. And especially when it gets so hot that your vagina starts complaining. Loudly.
PASTRIES: An Italian short about a self-absorbed actor who drags his girlfriend into a good-luck ritual of giving pastries to a homeless man. But things go tragically wrong when the homeless guy doesn't want his fucking pastries.
THE POET AND THE PROFESSOR: Ariel and her two men, in two dysfunctional affairs. The poet is an abusive filmmaker living in his girlfriend's luxury apartment but screwing (and abusing) Ariel on the side. And her professor is a depressed, pill-popping, married man. You just hope the whole time that maybe, just maybe, she'll get a gram of self-esteem and leave them both. And there is a moment where it looks like it might happen.
Next up was a feature film, FOR NOW. A California road trip movie, from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Hannah and Connor are brother and sister. Their beloved parents recently died, and they're both dealing with it. Connor is a professional dancer in Europe, but Hannah got him an audition with the San Francisco Ballet, which could be a great opportunity for him. Or it could be more about how Hannah wants him nearby instead of half a world away. Joining them on the road trip is Hannah's boyfriend Kane, who is planning to propose if he ever gets just the right moment. And also Hannah's best friend Katherine, who you just know is going to hook up with Connor even though it's a pretty terrible idea. The plot meanders, allowing the movie to be more about characters...who are also kind of meandering. For their flaws, they're all sympathetic people, and the acting is great. I have to be in the right mood for these kinds of films to work for me. And I mostly was that day, so it was fun.
And the final show of the night started with the short SPRING AFFAIR. Two women on a hunting trip. Hunting a fairly unusual prey.
And then the feature MUSCLECAR, another one in the small Australian series in this year's festival. The premise--a car that runs on blood and the owner who kills to keep it running--reminded me heavily of one of my favorite movies, BLOOD CAR. Perhaps I was wrong to have that movie in my mind going in, because for all it's Ozsploitation sex and violence, I was disappointed because BLOOD CAR is so much better. Anyway, Bambi buys a car she can't afford. In fact, she can't even afford to put gas in it. But with a little voodoo help, she runs it on a particularly alcohol-rich blend of frat-boy blood. And gives it a heart. And...gets a little too intimate with it. That sounds better than it really is. Maybe it needs tarantulas, deadly tarantulas in vending machines.
Total Running Time: 334 minutes
My Total Minutes: 469,499
Saturday, February 24, 2018
Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 9
Catching up from a couple of weeks ago. Two movies...whatever night this was
First up was RABBIT from Australia, billed as Outback Noir. It starts with a cool premise--twin sisters (both played by Adelaide Clemens,) one of whom has been missing for a long time, presumed dead. But the other one has vivid dreams that makes her believe her sister is alive and in trouble. So she tries to use her psychic link with her twin to track her down, and finds some really baddies who are torturing her. It's got gruesome bad guys, and a cool premise, but it never really came together for me. Maybe I was just too tired to appreciate the subtleties. Maybe I was miffed that despite the title there wasn't any freakin' bunny in it! But it ended up being kind of a disappointment.
Then the second show started with a short, WHEN I WAKE, a story that takes place shortly after the election of a horrible, traitorous President, who enacts public policies restricting women's freedom. Yeah, like that would ever happen.
And then the feature, TORMENTING THE HEN. A lesbian playwright and her girlfriend travel to a remote retreat, so she can work on her latest play. It's supposed to be a quiet, woodsy resort, a nice place for her to work and her girlfriend to take a vacation. But their neighbor is kind of a creeper. Not that he makes complete overt threats. Mostly he just...mows the lawn. He mows, and mows, and mows. Which is obviously a pretext to keep an eye on the girls, but it's never clear if he has evil intent or is just curious and somewhat autistic. But none of that really matters, since I snoozed through most of it anyway. My understanding is it's supposed to be making a statement about men's feeling of entitlement to enter spaces where women want to be left alone. But talking to a few of my female friends afterwards, they were also bored and kind of jealous of my nap.
Total Running Time: 187 minutes
My Total Minutes: 469,164
First up was RABBIT from Australia, billed as Outback Noir. It starts with a cool premise--twin sisters (both played by Adelaide Clemens,) one of whom has been missing for a long time, presumed dead. But the other one has vivid dreams that makes her believe her sister is alive and in trouble. So she tries to use her psychic link with her twin to track her down, and finds some really baddies who are torturing her. It's got gruesome bad guys, and a cool premise, but it never really came together for me. Maybe I was just too tired to appreciate the subtleties. Maybe I was miffed that despite the title there wasn't any freakin' bunny in it! But it ended up being kind of a disappointment.
Then the second show started with a short, WHEN I WAKE, a story that takes place shortly after the election of a horrible, traitorous President, who enacts public policies restricting women's freedom. Yeah, like that would ever happen.
And then the feature, TORMENTING THE HEN. A lesbian playwright and her girlfriend travel to a remote retreat, so she can work on her latest play. It's supposed to be a quiet, woodsy resort, a nice place for her to work and her girlfriend to take a vacation. But their neighbor is kind of a creeper. Not that he makes complete overt threats. Mostly he just...mows the lawn. He mows, and mows, and mows. Which is obviously a pretext to keep an eye on the girls, but it's never clear if he has evil intent or is just curious and somewhat autistic. But none of that really matters, since I snoozed through most of it anyway. My understanding is it's supposed to be making a statement about men's feeling of entitlement to enter spaces where women want to be left alone. But talking to a few of my female friends afterwards, they were also bored and kind of jealous of my nap.
Total Running Time: 187 minutes
My Total Minutes: 469,164
Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 8
A couple of excellent documentaries this night, starting with FAR WESTERN. I'm not even a fan of country western music, but there's something just incredibly fun about watching the Japanese enjoy it (is that racist?) After WWII, radios in Japan played western music, catering to the tastes of the occupying American forces. But there was also an audience of Japanese who just fell in love with the music, and starting making it themselves. And there's nothing ironic or mocking in their love of country music. It brings the music out of the country, out of certain regions, and makes it world music. Charlie Nagatani is the star, with his evangelical zeal to bring the joy of the music to Japan, but it also follows several Japanese country musicians as they tour America, the homeland of the music they love. And the great thing is how wholeheartedly they're welcomed into the community. They play festivals, they get American audiences dancing and cheering, Charlie even performs at the Grand Ol' Opry. It's just nothing but fun, fun, fun.
And then the next show was a stand-up comedy program, starting with the short SQUIRRELS DON'T JUDGE. Morgan Ruzzo is a 60-something transgender lesbian. Ehsan Mafi is an Iranian-American and devout Shia Muslim. And they're both stand-up comedians, getting to know each other as they perform together in shows together. It kinda tests my theory that if everyone had a sense of humor, they could get along together much more easily. And...that turns out to be pretty true.
And then the feature, the hilarious GINGER NATION. Shawn Hitchins is a redhead. He's also gay, and tells the story of how he became a sperm donor to his lesbian friends. He gleefully breaks taboos, talking about sensitive subjects of prejudice with grace, fierce, and most of all humor. I laughed the whole way through, and although I'm neither gay nor capable of pregnancy, somehow at the end I would've been honored to bear his little leprechaun children.
That was a fun night.
Total Running Time: 174 minutes
My Total Minutes: 468,979
And then the next show was a stand-up comedy program, starting with the short SQUIRRELS DON'T JUDGE. Morgan Ruzzo is a 60-something transgender lesbian. Ehsan Mafi is an Iranian-American and devout Shia Muslim. And they're both stand-up comedians, getting to know each other as they perform together in shows together. It kinda tests my theory that if everyone had a sense of humor, they could get along together much more easily. And...that turns out to be pretty true.
And then the feature, the hilarious GINGER NATION. Shawn Hitchins is a redhead. He's also gay, and tells the story of how he became a sperm donor to his lesbian friends. He gleefully breaks taboos, talking about sensitive subjects of prejudice with grace, fierce, and most of all humor. I laughed the whole way through, and although I'm neither gay nor capable of pregnancy, somehow at the end I would've been honored to bear his little leprechaun children.
That was a fun night.
Total Running Time: 174 minutes
My Total Minutes: 468,979
Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 7
This night started with a surfing documentary, BETWEEN LAND AND SEA. But a rather surprising setting for a surfing doc, the North Atlantic coast of Ireland. Yeah, when you think of the Irish you think "surfing" right? Anyway, the cool thing about surfing documentaries is the cinematography. Cool freakin' surfing scenes, this film's got 'em. So cool, that even if you're kind of exhausted and can't really stay awake, every time you open your eyes, something freakin' cool looking is happening on screen. Maybe it would've been better to see this on ample rest and really pay attention. But as it was, it was a pretty great film to kinda power-nap through (at least, through bits of it.)
The next show started with a short film, PROGRAM, about virtual reality and a woman trying to use it to fix an old love that didn't work.
And that was the lead-in to the feature, SEQUENCE BREAK. Based on the description, this should've been a movie I enjoyed more. A Cronenbergian story of a boy who repairs old arcade video games, the girl who enters his life, and the mysterious game that takes over his life. But I didn't get around to writing this until a couple of weeks later. And now I can't remember any of it, so I guess it didn't make much of an impression on me.
Total Running Time: 175 minutes
My Total Minutes: 468,805
The next show started with a short film, PROGRAM, about virtual reality and a woman trying to use it to fix an old love that didn't work.
And that was the lead-in to the feature, SEQUENCE BREAK. Based on the description, this should've been a movie I enjoyed more. A Cronenbergian story of a boy who repairs old arcade video games, the girl who enters his life, and the mysterious game that takes over his life. But I didn't get around to writing this until a couple of weeks later. And now I can't remember any of it, so I guess it didn't make much of an impression on me.
Total Running Time: 175 minutes
My Total Minutes: 468,805
Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 6
A night of suicides movies, so let's start this the same way that both movies ended.
The national suicide hotline is 1-800-273-8255. If you or anyone you know is having any thoughts of suicide, please call.
I started the night with the documentary THE S WORD. That word, of course, is "suicide." It's a fearless and heartfelt profile of several people who have attempted suicide but survived. In particularly, it focuses on those who work to prevent others from take their lives. It features many personal stories from wonderful people, and exemplifies what I've come to call the central paradox of suicide. That is, that suicide is often called "a selfish act." Which may or may not be true, but it's almost never done by selfish people. The stereotype of the suicidal person thinking "when I'm dead they'll all be sorry" is, if I may use some salty language, bullshit. Rather, they think (incorrectly,) "when I'm dead I won't be such a burden to everyone, and they'll all be better off." That's as unselfish as you can get (also as wrong as you can get)--sacrificing your own life for the betterment of everyone else. Those who want everyone to feel bad are just assholes. And assholes don't tend to kill themselves. They don't die to make everyone else miserable. They live to make everyone else miserable.
And then the second film of the night was the based-on-reality drama, HOLDEN ON. Holden Layfield was a good, popular kid. He was a high school football player, and a humble, generous, friendly guy. He was popular at his school, had good friends, had a bright future. And as the movie tells us very early on, he's dead. He suffered from mental illness, which he hid from everyone, including those closest to him. It's painful--intentionally so--to watch him suffer and struggle, and for those around him to just be confused and not know how to deal with him. He starts self-medicating, drops out of society. But when he is around, he's friendly, smiling, flashing a peace sign. It's obvious that the film is a labor of love made by people who knew him. But there's also a bit of a universality to his story. I can personally testify--even if self harm is not a possibility--that some of the friendliest, most generous people are masking pain with their smile. #IAmHoldenOn.
Total Running Time: 194 minutes
My Total Minutes: 468,630
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Jason guess to Indiefest--Day 5
Catching up slowly. Two more last Monday.
First up was Shorts 1: What You Don’t Know About Me.
TWO STRANGERS WHO MEET FIVE TIMES: Over the course of a life, two strangers learn a bit about prejudice and being kind to your fellow man.
TWENTY MINUTES: A 30 year old man with Asperger's syndrome is moving out to his own apartment. It's only 20 minutes away from home, but it's still a big step.
COUNTERFEIT KUNKOO: From India, the story of a woman escaping from an abusive marriage and the difficulty in that culture for a woman living on her own.
NEW NEIGHBORS: A black family moves into an all-white neighborhood. So the mom, always looking out for them, goes door to door to introduce themselves and assure everyone they live in the neighborhood so don't call the cops if you see them hanging around. A pretty uncomfortable way to approach the realities of racism (of course, not as uncomfortable as dying because of racism.)
SEVEN MINUTES TO CLOSING: If an asteroid is on its way to Earth and we're all doomed, how would you spend your final minutes? Looting? Getting drunk? Pricing candy in your convenience store?
OUTLINES: A teenage girl meets her dad's prostitute, and has an interesting heart-to-heart talk.
First up was Shorts 1: What You Don’t Know About Me.
TWO STRANGERS WHO MEET FIVE TIMES: Over the course of a life, two strangers learn a bit about prejudice and being kind to your fellow man.
TWENTY MINUTES: A 30 year old man with Asperger's syndrome is moving out to his own apartment. It's only 20 minutes away from home, but it's still a big step.
COUNTERFEIT KUNKOO: From India, the story of a woman escaping from an abusive marriage and the difficulty in that culture for a woman living on her own.
NEW NEIGHBORS: A black family moves into an all-white neighborhood. So the mom, always looking out for them, goes door to door to introduce themselves and assure everyone they live in the neighborhood so don't call the cops if you see them hanging around. A pretty uncomfortable way to approach the realities of racism (of course, not as uncomfortable as dying because of racism.)
SEVEN MINUTES TO CLOSING: If an asteroid is on its way to Earth and we're all doomed, how would you spend your final minutes? Looting? Getting drunk? Pricing candy in your convenience store?
OUTLINES: A teenage girl meets her dad's prostitute, and has an interesting heart-to-heart talk.
And then the feature, BLACK CAT, a spoof on true-crime documentaries. New evidence reopens an old case about a car crash that killed a popular actor/director. Duke Moody, an inept childish wannabe filmmaker is making a documentary about it (and has been stalking the suspect for years.) Throw in an obsessed cop who is sure that this chuckle-fuck did it. And then throw in a protective new girlfriend.... well, protective isn't the right word. More like...psychotic. Especially when she learns the truth. It makes for a pretty funny and exciting 50 minute ride. Unfortunately the movie is 85 minutes long. A lot of fun, but another example of what I call a "feature length short"--which are pretty common for independent film festivals.
Total Running Time:
My Total Minutes:
My Total Minutes:
Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 4
Right after THE BIG HEAT, I ran as fast as my fat ass could move to get to Indiefest and RUMINATIONS. Fuck the Super Bowl, I'd rather watch a documentary about a wild and influential drag artist. Rumi Missabu was one of the founders of the famed Cockettes drag musical group in San Francisco. The film is a collage of his life. Art, drag performance, being roommates with Cindy Williams (from Laverne and Shirley, for you millennials out there,) to touching Andy Warhol and even stranger celebrity encounters. The inspiration of the Sunni poet Rumi. The drugs. The founding of the Cockettes. The Cockettes getting too big for their original vision. Fresh bread laced with cum. And then his later years, where he's got health problems but is also the top archivist of Cockettes material, which he is donating to the New York Museum of Modern Art (IIRC) and not to any local queer organizations (for reasons he won't discuss, beyond the fact that 10 years ago he definitely would have, but not now.) It's probably appropriate, given a life that seems to have gone everywhere possible, that it's impossible for me to appropriately summarize it. But I will say, nearly everyone who was interviewed on camera was laughing through every story they told. If you can live a life that leaves everyone laughing about your stories, I think you've done it right.
Then I caught another Indiefest retrospective, PASSING STONES was from Indiefest 2001, back in the pre-Jason days. And I've heard so much about this movie that it was built up to legendary proportions in my mind. And it fucking delivered. It's one of those underground, unpolished, indie films that just don't seem to exist anymore. Leon (writer/director/star Roger Majkowski) is a 30 year old "circulation manager" (i.e., paperboy.) One of his regulars, an old man, gives him his normal Christmas bonus envelope, then goes back inside and blows his brains out. Turns out, he got the wrong envelope. His family (who thought he died years ago) got a few buck. Leon got a ton of cash and a cryptic letter (in Polish) about how the rest of the money in underneath stone. So his fucked up family (him and his abusive brother) meet the dead guy's even more fucked up family--featuring a catatonic mother and a barking crack whore. All leading to buried treasure! Beautiful and insane. I'm so glad I finally saw this. Oh yeah, and the religious content in this movie was just insane.
But not as insane as the religious content in VIDAR THE VAMPIRE, a Norwegian horror-comedy about a devout Christian farmer and his strict mother. Vidar was mocked as a kid, told he will never get a girlfriend. Now as an adult...it's true. So he prays to Jesus to let him feel the pleasures of the flesh, rather than just the pages of a Playboy. And Jesus obliges, turning him into a vampire through an act of irrumatio (Google it, but maybe not at work.) Turns out, Vidar can't quite find a comfortable place as a whoremongering prince of darkness either, and so he seeks the help of a psychiatrist (the framing device of the movie.) It's all a wild, blasphemous ride about finding your own way in the world and how horribly you can twist the words of the Bible. My favorite of the festival so far.
Total Running Time: 255 minutes
My Total Minutes: 468,270
Then I caught another Indiefest retrospective, PASSING STONES was from Indiefest 2001, back in the pre-Jason days. And I've heard so much about this movie that it was built up to legendary proportions in my mind. And it fucking delivered. It's one of those underground, unpolished, indie films that just don't seem to exist anymore. Leon (writer/director/star Roger Majkowski) is a 30 year old "circulation manager" (i.e., paperboy.) One of his regulars, an old man, gives him his normal Christmas bonus envelope, then goes back inside and blows his brains out. Turns out, he got the wrong envelope. His family (who thought he died years ago) got a few buck. Leon got a ton of cash and a cryptic letter (in Polish) about how the rest of the money in underneath stone. So his fucked up family (him and his abusive brother) meet the dead guy's even more fucked up family--featuring a catatonic mother and a barking crack whore. All leading to buried treasure! Beautiful and insane. I'm so glad I finally saw this. Oh yeah, and the religious content in this movie was just insane.
But not as insane as the religious content in VIDAR THE VAMPIRE, a Norwegian horror-comedy about a devout Christian farmer and his strict mother. Vidar was mocked as a kid, told he will never get a girlfriend. Now as an adult...it's true. So he prays to Jesus to let him feel the pleasures of the flesh, rather than just the pages of a Playboy. And Jesus obliges, turning him into a vampire through an act of irrumatio (Google it, but maybe not at work.) Turns out, Vidar can't quite find a comfortable place as a whoremongering prince of darkness either, and so he seeks the help of a psychiatrist (the framing device of the movie.) It's all a wild, blasphemous ride about finding your own way in the world and how horribly you can twist the words of the Bible. My favorite of the festival so far.
Total Running Time: 255 minutes
My Total Minutes: 468,270
Sunday, February 4, 2018
Jason goes to Indiefest--Opening Night
Indiefest and Noir City overlap this year, causing me to make some difficult decisions over the weekend. But I had to be at opening night.
The opening night musical party started with STUCK, the film adaptation of a hit musical. Set inside a New York subway car, it starts with the train stopping, and everyone being stuck for a while. People from all walks of life have to just...sit there. But of course they don't. They talk, they fight, they sing, they get to know each other. Oh yeah, most importantly they sing, that's worth saying twice. The setup is pretty gimmicky, but the music is catchy enough and the characters are fully developed enough to transcend the gimmick and make you care about them. Each one starts as kind of a stereotype, but the point is to look beyond the stereotype and get to know each one of them as people. Who knows, maybe some of them might even stay in touch after the train starts moving again. That was fun.
Now I had been up since 5 a.m. for work, so I was a bit hesitant about staying for GIRL WALK//ALL DAY, a 71 minute dance party which I had seen before (mostly, I confess I dozed off a bit when it played back in 2012.) But I did want to see all my Indiefest friends and stuck around for at least the beginning. And ended up still there at the end, and even dancing along with the enthusiastic crowd. Great event for opening night. I don't think there's any way I can keep that energy up all festival.
Total Running Time: 161 minutes
My Total Minutes: 467,273
My Total Minutes: 467,273
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Jason goes to Indiefest--Closing Night
The final night of Indiefest 2017 started with one more screening at the Alamo Drafthouse, the odd Brazilian coming of age story KILL ME PLEASE. I liked this a lot, but somehow wished I had liked it more. 15 year old girl Bia becomes obsessed with a series of local murders. I mean, everyone is talking about them, but she's downright obsessed. Like, similar to how normal 15 year-olds are obsessed with...sex. Actually, the ideas of sex and death...and abuse and rape...permeate the film. But just on a fantasy level. To a large extent, this is a movie about the fantasy life of 15 year old girls, including all the dark fascination with rape fantasies and murder. And maybe I'm not the target audience, but I found it fascinating without being particularly insightful about any of it. But it was gorgeously shot. The cinematography deserves heaps of praise.
And finally, I ended the festival in Israel with OMG, I'M A ROBOT!?! High action wackiness abounds as mild mannered Danny is dumped by his girlfriend Noa. He's just not macho enough. In a fit of despair, he attempts to slit his wrists (the right way, down the arm, not across!) only to find not blood and guts underneath but wires and gears. Turns out, he's a robot! He can shoot lasers from his hands, has super strength, doesn't feel pain...except that he still feels pain because he's still kind of a wimp. Also, Noa didn't dump him, she was kidnapped. Time for a heroic rescue! What a fun way to end the festival.
Then a last beer at Dalva with a few of my front-row friends, and Indiefest 2017 is finally in the books.
Total Running Time: 176 minutes
My Total Minutes: 419,428
And finally, I ended the festival in Israel with OMG, I'M A ROBOT!?! High action wackiness abounds as mild mannered Danny is dumped by his girlfriend Noa. He's just not macho enough. In a fit of despair, he attempts to slit his wrists (the right way, down the arm, not across!) only to find not blood and guts underneath but wires and gears. Turns out, he's a robot! He can shoot lasers from his hands, has super strength, doesn't feel pain...except that he still feels pain because he's still kind of a wimp. Also, Noa didn't dump him, she was kidnapped. Time for a heroic rescue! What a fun way to end the festival.
Then a last beer at Dalva with a few of my front-row friends, and Indiefest 2017 is finally in the books.
Total Running Time: 176 minutes
My Total Minutes: 419,428
Jason goes to Indiefest--the Penultimate Night
Possibly the best night of Indiefest this year, with some truly powerful movies.
SOME FREAKS starts as a simple high school outcasts romance, but takes some strange turns and never ceases surprising. Matt has is missing an eye and teased for his eye patch. Jill is the new girl in school and significantly overweight, but with a smart abrasive personality that makes certain people (e.g., me) like her immediately. After a bit of awkwardness, they hook up and have a great senior year romance. She also happens to be the young aunt of Matt's best friend, openly gay and even more openly dorky Elmo. Then they all go off to college, and I don't want to spoil anything but it starts taking viciously dark twists. A well made movie about flawed characters who show that it's not their superficial traits that make them freaks, but their horribly damaged psyches.
And then the Indiefest jury award winner (insider secret--the IndiePass holders are the jury, and that includes me) HUNKY DORY. The trailer has been quietly making me tear up all week, and I'm pleased to report the full movie lives up. In a just world, this would be a star-making turn for Tomas Pais, who plays Sidney, a wannabe rock star who makes a living as a drag queen and borderline male prostitute. Equally great is Edouard Holdener as his 11 year old son George. A hectic weekend starts with George showing up at Sidney's home, after his mentally ill mother dropped him off and disappeared. Sidney clearly loves George, and does his best to not let on how horribly inconvenient his appearance is, at a time when his personal demons are tearing him apart and about to lead to some pretty drastic decisions. The chemistry between the two leads is amazing, showcasing the infinite capacity for a father's love and a son's forgiveness. Beautiful and amazing.
Total Running Time: 185 minutes
My Total Minutes: 419,252
SOME FREAKS starts as a simple high school outcasts romance, but takes some strange turns and never ceases surprising. Matt has is missing an eye and teased for his eye patch. Jill is the new girl in school and significantly overweight, but with a smart abrasive personality that makes certain people (e.g., me) like her immediately. After a bit of awkwardness, they hook up and have a great senior year romance. She also happens to be the young aunt of Matt's best friend, openly gay and even more openly dorky Elmo. Then they all go off to college, and I don't want to spoil anything but it starts taking viciously dark twists. A well made movie about flawed characters who show that it's not their superficial traits that make them freaks, but their horribly damaged psyches.
And then the Indiefest jury award winner (insider secret--the IndiePass holders are the jury, and that includes me) HUNKY DORY. The trailer has been quietly making me tear up all week, and I'm pleased to report the full movie lives up. In a just world, this would be a star-making turn for Tomas Pais, who plays Sidney, a wannabe rock star who makes a living as a drag queen and borderline male prostitute. Equally great is Edouard Holdener as his 11 year old son George. A hectic weekend starts with George showing up at Sidney's home, after his mentally ill mother dropped him off and disappeared. Sidney clearly loves George, and does his best to not let on how horribly inconvenient his appearance is, at a time when his personal demons are tearing him apart and about to lead to some pretty drastic decisions. The chemistry between the two leads is amazing, showcasing the infinite capacity for a father's love and a son's forgiveness. Beautiful and amazing.
Total Running Time: 185 minutes
My Total Minutes: 419,252
Jason says Farewell to the Hypnodrome, then rocks out with a few 80's Power Ballads
Happy Valentine's Day (a few days week later) loyal readers!
Of course, I spent it with my loves. First and most important, my girlfriend.
Second, the Hypnodrome and the Thrillpeddlers. I was there when they opened 13 years ago with Welcome to the Hypnodrome (even before, when they were doing their Shocktoberfest show out of the old Odeon Bar,) and eventually the party had to end. I hate to use the "G" word, but I'm afraid they're being gentrified out of the city. But not until one last hurrah, with an immediacy and intimacy that made it a truly special show. This wasn't an audience coming to watch a show, this was a family celebrating an era while mourning it's end, with all the laughter, tears, singing, and drinking that entails. And it ended with a promise that their currently-in-rehearsal show Amazon Apocalypse will go on...somewhere, somehow. Here's hoping that's not the end.
And then third, I made my way back to the Roxie for Indiefest's traditional Power Ballads Sing-A-Long. More drinking, more singing, more 80s outfits and outrageous hair. But I didn't need a wig, and I got enough head-banging in for it to hurt the next day (Shot Through the Heart always does that to me.) Another beautiful tradition.
Running Time: 60 minutes (approximately how long I stayed for the Power Ballads)
My Total Minutes: 419,067
Of course, I spent it with my loves. First and most important, my girlfriend.
Second, the Hypnodrome and the Thrillpeddlers. I was there when they opened 13 years ago with Welcome to the Hypnodrome (even before, when they were doing their Shocktoberfest show out of the old Odeon Bar,) and eventually the party had to end. I hate to use the "G" word, but I'm afraid they're being gentrified out of the city. But not until one last hurrah, with an immediacy and intimacy that made it a truly special show. This wasn't an audience coming to watch a show, this was a family celebrating an era while mourning it's end, with all the laughter, tears, singing, and drinking that entails. And it ended with a promise that their currently-in-rehearsal show Amazon Apocalypse will go on...somewhere, somehow. Here's hoping that's not the end.
And then third, I made my way back to the Roxie for Indiefest's traditional Power Ballads Sing-A-Long. More drinking, more singing, more 80s outfits and outrageous hair. But I didn't need a wig, and I got enough head-banging in for it to hurt the next day (Shot Through the Heart always does that to me.) Another beautiful tradition.
Running Time: 60 minutes (approximately how long I stayed for the Power Ballads)
My Total Minutes: 419,067
Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 12
It's a week after the fact, but we're down to the final stretch. Two more shows on Monday, starting with the final shorts program, #WTF. Hooray for weird-ass shorts!
CANDY-GASMS: How a woman eats candy. How a man eats candy. How a leather-harness clad fetishist eats chocolate....
AARSA: From India, a janitor in a dance studio takes his chance to become a beautiful dancer.
THE COUNSELOR: Based on a true story, in 1971 at a crisis center hotline, a suicidal teenager calls in and is talked off the edge...but Ted Bundy.
GOLDEN SHOT: I saw this one last year at Cinequest. Machines, powered by light, spend all their time and effort trying to keep the lights on. But one has the daring idea--build the sun.
THE HISTORY OF MAGIC: ENSUENO: A funny animated piece about a reckless teenage girl in West Texas.
MADE IN SPAIN: Stop-motion insanity as a day at the beach gets crazier and crazier.
MINOR TURBULENCE: A pilot and co-pilot go through their routine while their attention is really on what happened in each of their home lives.
ODDBALL: A glimpse into the world of the local film archive, Oddball Films.
ZAAR: A suicide bomber goes to a diner. And meeting the friendly locals makes him doubt his mission.
Next up was DESIRE WILL SET YOU FREE, a vibrant tour through the queer Berlin scene. There's a story there...something about an American who falls for a Russian and shows him around the clubs. But I was tired/drunk, so I didn't follow that all that well. Mostly it was just a very colorful, funny, and queer-positive tour of Berlin, with stars such as Peaches and Nina Hagen. Lots of fun.
Total Running Time: 176 minutes
My Total Minutes: 419,007
CANDY-GASMS: How a woman eats candy. How a man eats candy. How a leather-harness clad fetishist eats chocolate....
AARSA: From India, a janitor in a dance studio takes his chance to become a beautiful dancer.
THE COUNSELOR: Based on a true story, in 1971 at a crisis center hotline, a suicidal teenager calls in and is talked off the edge...but Ted Bundy.
GOLDEN SHOT: I saw this one last year at Cinequest. Machines, powered by light, spend all their time and effort trying to keep the lights on. But one has the daring idea--build the sun.
THE HISTORY OF MAGIC: ENSUENO: A funny animated piece about a reckless teenage girl in West Texas.
MADE IN SPAIN: Stop-motion insanity as a day at the beach gets crazier and crazier.
MINOR TURBULENCE: A pilot and co-pilot go through their routine while their attention is really on what happened in each of their home lives.
ODDBALL: A glimpse into the world of the local film archive, Oddball Films.
ZAAR: A suicide bomber goes to a diner. And meeting the friendly locals makes him doubt his mission.
Next up was DESIRE WILL SET YOU FREE, a vibrant tour through the queer Berlin scene. There's a story there...something about an American who falls for a Russian and shows him around the clubs. But I was tired/drunk, so I didn't follow that all that well. Mostly it was just a very colorful, funny, and queer-positive tour of Berlin, with stars such as Peaches and Nina Hagen. Lots of fun.
Total Running Time: 176 minutes
My Total Minutes: 419,007
Monday, February 13, 2017
Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 11
5 more movies, as the second weekend wraps up. We're down to the home stretch left.
First up was the documentary CHEER UP, from Finland. It's about the world of competitive cheerleading, seen through the worst team in Finland, the Ice Queens. Ever since SPELLBOUND, I've had a particular affinity for documentaries about eccentric competitions. Everything from Air Guitar to pizza dough tossing to Rock, Paper, Scissors to memory sports. So this should be right up my alley, and competitive cheerleading is relatively mainstream. And I enjoyed it, I just thought it could've been better. Using a 'fly-on-the-wall' technique, we see the Ice Queens come in dead last at the local competition. So their coach travels to the world championships in Plano, Texas to learn some tips and pick up some inspiration. Armed with a new attitude and a tougher philosophy, she returns and works her team harder than ever before. There's some resistance, some girls kind of drop out for a bit, but come back when they decide it's important. And the new, reenergized team is ready to come out strong in their next competition. Some of the best parts are the slow motion close-ups of the girls working on their routine. In slow motion, it looks less fun and more like the serious athletic feats it really is. But I said it could be better, and what I mean is that I think the fly-on-the-wall approach becomes limiting. It's good enough to make me curious about the sport (is it particularly popular in Finland? Why do all the teams have English names?) and about the characters (we see some of their home life, but never once do I get a sense of why they want to be competitive cheerleaders.) There's nothing wrong with a fly-on-the-wall, but this called for some more traditional interviews to set up the story better.
And then I saw another documentary that used an observational approach, although at least the characters in MYRTLE BEACH addressed the camera. But that mattered little, since I found them pretty insufferable and the movie alternately exploitative and boring. I gladly dozed through a good chunk of it. So instead, I'll tell you a story about my positive experience at the screening. Most people there (in the full-to-capacity 50-seat Little Roxie) were actually there to see the short (which I'll get to shortly) including the woman who sat next to me. She was hard of hearing, and had with her a hearing assistance dog--a very friendly and adorable pug. And he came over and sniffed me and let me pet him (I checked that it was okay first) and then climbed right up into my lap. So for about the first 20 minutes of the film, I got to pet an adorable lap dog, until he got bored, climbed down, and explored as far as his leash would let him. That was by far the best part of the film.
And then after the feature was the short, LADY BOUNTIFUL. A late (i.e., after the guides went to press) addition to the festival, this is a 20 minute film-poem about Joan Von Briesen. She's 85 years old, an artist and ultimate recycler, scrounging the trash of San Francisco to find things to use in her work. She even in the movie finds a fake breast, which turns useful as she has cancer and is about to undergo a mastectomy. She claimed she was in fact wearing it at the Q&A, I took her word for it and didn't check (sorry, my sense of decorum is more powerful than my journalistic zeal!) A lovely movie about a lovely woman. I feel bad for the people who walked out of MYRTLE BEACH and missed this. But I also feel bad for the people who watched all of MYRTLE BEACH.
MYRTLE BEACH and LADY BOUNTIFUL play again on Tuesday, Feb 14th at 7:15.
Next up, another movie with a fly-on-the-wall approach, but this time a narrative film (although it took me a little time to realize it,) LUPE UNDER THE SUN. Lupe (Daniel Muratalla) is a Mexican immigrant, working in peach farms in the U.S. He travelled there to make money to send back to his family, but now he hasn't seen his family in several years. He's old, has health problems, drinks a bit too much (lots of Coors Lite) and is full of regret for all the life he has missed away from his wife and kids. Moreover, he's having an affair with another immigrant, and she's filling his heads with ideas that his family has forgotten him and his kids hate him. Fears that unfortunately are founded, as he discovers when he calls them after wiring them some money. It's a slow, contemplative, melancholy film. One that shows the life of oft-overlooked people, and doesn't allow a lot of happiness in.
LUPE UNDER THE SUN plays again on Thursday, Feb 16th at 7:15.
Next up was technically the closing night film, but Indiefest always repeats their weekend shows over the next week. LITTLE BOXES is a subtle dramedy about the strange "nice" racism that exists in small, liberal towns where gosh darn it, if a black guy ever moved in, we'd be totally nice and welcoming about it. I've come to realize that I grew up in one of those towns, so this was particularly interesting. Interracial couple Gina (Melanie Lynskey, who also had a small role in the opening night film FOLK HERO AND FUNNY GUY) and Mack (Nelsan Ellis), and their sixth grader Clark (Armani Jackson) are moving out of their Brooklyn life so that Gina can start her new career as a college art professor in Rome...WA. Rome, WA does not actually exist, and as an old Bellinghamster, I was interested in what part of the state it was supposed to be in. Given that Wenatchee is referenced as a nearby town and it's on the way to Seattle, this puts it in the Eastern foothills of the Cascades, not quite to the dusty might-as-well-be-Idaho shitty part of the state (I kid because I love.) In any case, it didn't really look like the Washington I remember, and for good reason--it was shot in Harrison, NY and Newburgh, NY. Anyway, they get there an people are friendly. Kind of going out of their way to be friendly. And not hiding very well that it's unusual for a black guy--and especially a mixed race family--to live there. Clark quickly falls in with two white girls who are excited because the town "totally needed a black kid." But to be popular, Clark abandons his kinda nerdy, book-loving true self and tries to fit in and learn the misogynistic rap music that the white kids like, thinking it's cool because it's black. Weird, weird dynamics. The parents are dealing with their own shit, too. Gina is nervous about work and fitting in. Mack is a writer who has been struggling to come up with a second novel and is making some money writing an article about food vlogs, complicated by the fact that the movers are late so all their stuff is on a truck somewhere between New York and their new home. Oh yeah, and their house has mold. As a metaphor for the ugly rot just below the pleasing surface--and the fact that only Mack can smell it--it's a strong metaphor, if a little on-the-nose. All in all, this is a great movie about attitudes that are a little hard to discuss (paradoxically, maybe harder to discuss as overt expressions of racism become easier?) And it's particularly remarkable that so much of the story is carried by the child actors, who are pretty terrific.
SUPERPOWERLESS plays again on Wednesday, Feb 15th at 6:30 at the Alamo Drafthouse.
Total Running Time: 428
My Total Minutes: 418,831
First up was the documentary CHEER UP, from Finland. It's about the world of competitive cheerleading, seen through the worst team in Finland, the Ice Queens. Ever since SPELLBOUND, I've had a particular affinity for documentaries about eccentric competitions. Everything from Air Guitar to pizza dough tossing to Rock, Paper, Scissors to memory sports. So this should be right up my alley, and competitive cheerleading is relatively mainstream. And I enjoyed it, I just thought it could've been better. Using a 'fly-on-the-wall' technique, we see the Ice Queens come in dead last at the local competition. So their coach travels to the world championships in Plano, Texas to learn some tips and pick up some inspiration. Armed with a new attitude and a tougher philosophy, she returns and works her team harder than ever before. There's some resistance, some girls kind of drop out for a bit, but come back when they decide it's important. And the new, reenergized team is ready to come out strong in their next competition. Some of the best parts are the slow motion close-ups of the girls working on their routine. In slow motion, it looks less fun and more like the serious athletic feats it really is. But I said it could be better, and what I mean is that I think the fly-on-the-wall approach becomes limiting. It's good enough to make me curious about the sport (is it particularly popular in Finland? Why do all the teams have English names?) and about the characters (we see some of their home life, but never once do I get a sense of why they want to be competitive cheerleaders.) There's nothing wrong with a fly-on-the-wall, but this called for some more traditional interviews to set up the story better.
And then I saw another documentary that used an observational approach, although at least the characters in MYRTLE BEACH addressed the camera. But that mattered little, since I found them pretty insufferable and the movie alternately exploitative and boring. I gladly dozed through a good chunk of it. So instead, I'll tell you a story about my positive experience at the screening. Most people there (in the full-to-capacity 50-seat Little Roxie) were actually there to see the short (which I'll get to shortly) including the woman who sat next to me. She was hard of hearing, and had with her a hearing assistance dog--a very friendly and adorable pug. And he came over and sniffed me and let me pet him (I checked that it was okay first) and then climbed right up into my lap. So for about the first 20 minutes of the film, I got to pet an adorable lap dog, until he got bored, climbed down, and explored as far as his leash would let him. That was by far the best part of the film.
And then after the feature was the short, LADY BOUNTIFUL. A late (i.e., after the guides went to press) addition to the festival, this is a 20 minute film-poem about Joan Von Briesen. She's 85 years old, an artist and ultimate recycler, scrounging the trash of San Francisco to find things to use in her work. She even in the movie finds a fake breast, which turns useful as she has cancer and is about to undergo a mastectomy. She claimed she was in fact wearing it at the Q&A, I took her word for it and didn't check (sorry, my sense of decorum is more powerful than my journalistic zeal!) A lovely movie about a lovely woman. I feel bad for the people who walked out of MYRTLE BEACH and missed this. But I also feel bad for the people who watched all of MYRTLE BEACH.
MYRTLE BEACH and LADY BOUNTIFUL play again on Tuesday, Feb 14th at 7:15.
Next up, another movie with a fly-on-the-wall approach, but this time a narrative film (although it took me a little time to realize it,) LUPE UNDER THE SUN. Lupe (Daniel Muratalla) is a Mexican immigrant, working in peach farms in the U.S. He travelled there to make money to send back to his family, but now he hasn't seen his family in several years. He's old, has health problems, drinks a bit too much (lots of Coors Lite) and is full of regret for all the life he has missed away from his wife and kids. Moreover, he's having an affair with another immigrant, and she's filling his heads with ideas that his family has forgotten him and his kids hate him. Fears that unfortunately are founded, as he discovers when he calls them after wiring them some money. It's a slow, contemplative, melancholy film. One that shows the life of oft-overlooked people, and doesn't allow a lot of happiness in.
LUPE UNDER THE SUN plays again on Thursday, Feb 16th at 7:15.
Next up was technically the closing night film, but Indiefest always repeats their weekend shows over the next week. LITTLE BOXES is a subtle dramedy about the strange "nice" racism that exists in small, liberal towns where gosh darn it, if a black guy ever moved in, we'd be totally nice and welcoming about it. I've come to realize that I grew up in one of those towns, so this was particularly interesting. Interracial couple Gina (Melanie Lynskey, who also had a small role in the opening night film FOLK HERO AND FUNNY GUY) and Mack (Nelsan Ellis), and their sixth grader Clark (Armani Jackson) are moving out of their Brooklyn life so that Gina can start her new career as a college art professor in Rome...WA. Rome, WA does not actually exist, and as an old Bellinghamster, I was interested in what part of the state it was supposed to be in. Given that Wenatchee is referenced as a nearby town and it's on the way to Seattle, this puts it in the Eastern foothills of the Cascades, not quite to the dusty might-as-well-be-Idaho shitty part of the state (I kid because I love.) In any case, it didn't really look like the Washington I remember, and for good reason--it was shot in Harrison, NY and Newburgh, NY. Anyway, they get there an people are friendly. Kind of going out of their way to be friendly. And not hiding very well that it's unusual for a black guy--and especially a mixed race family--to live there. Clark quickly falls in with two white girls who are excited because the town "totally needed a black kid." But to be popular, Clark abandons his kinda nerdy, book-loving true self and tries to fit in and learn the misogynistic rap music that the white kids like, thinking it's cool because it's black. Weird, weird dynamics. The parents are dealing with their own shit, too. Gina is nervous about work and fitting in. Mack is a writer who has been struggling to come up with a second novel and is making some money writing an article about food vlogs, complicated by the fact that the movers are late so all their stuff is on a truck somewhere between New York and their new home. Oh yeah, and their house has mold. As a metaphor for the ugly rot just below the pleasing surface--and the fact that only Mack can smell it--it's a strong metaphor, if a little on-the-nose. All in all, this is a great movie about attitudes that are a little hard to discuss (paradoxically, maybe harder to discuss as overt expressions of racism become easier?) And it's particularly remarkable that so much of the story is carried by the child actors, who are pretty terrific.
LITTLE BOXES plays again on Thursday, Feb 16th at 7:15. It also has distribution through Netflix, so keep an eye out for it.
And finally, I ended the night with a clever, low budget, local superhero...ish movie, SUPERPOWERLESS. Bob (Josiah Polhemus) used to be a superhero. He was Captain Truth, the savior of San Francisco, along with his sidekick Liberty Boy (our own local filmmaking hero, H.P. Mendoza.) But in his 40s, his powers started to disappear, to the point where he doesn't really have any anymore. Punches hurt him now. He can't run that fast. And flying...well, flying was never a matter of running and jumping, it was about falling and then...deciding not to fall. So the only way to test if he still can do it, is to take a chance that might kill him.
But he doesn't have a bad life, exactly. He's got his respectable if not fancy home in the city. He's got a beautiful and loving girlfriend Mimi (Amy Prosser) and he has his friends--most notably a homeless ex-psychiatrist Dr. George Holst (Pepe Serna) who helps him talk through his issues. Their backstory sounds pretty intriguing...I would see a prequel/spinoff just about that. Anyway, Mimi and the good doctor convince Bob to write his memoirs--if not for publishing, at least to work through the process and deal with his mid-life crisis. So he does. And he gets an editor. And when they meet he finds that "Daniel" is actually "Daniell" a pretty young woman who becomes really interested when she finds out he's Captain Truth. So of course that sets off a little wishful thinking about her. It's a very clever concept, that capitalizes on the popularity of superhero flicks but doesn't feature a single scene of super powers. Rather, it's a heartfelt drama about reaching middle age and realizing what you once had is gone, and what you dreamt of may never happen, but learning to appreciate the good things you do have.
But he doesn't have a bad life, exactly. He's got his respectable if not fancy home in the city. He's got a beautiful and loving girlfriend Mimi (Amy Prosser) and he has his friends--most notably a homeless ex-psychiatrist Dr. George Holst (Pepe Serna) who helps him talk through his issues. Their backstory sounds pretty intriguing...I would see a prequel/spinoff just about that. Anyway, Mimi and the good doctor convince Bob to write his memoirs--if not for publishing, at least to work through the process and deal with his mid-life crisis. So he does. And he gets an editor. And when they meet he finds that "Daniel" is actually "Daniell" a pretty young woman who becomes really interested when she finds out he's Captain Truth. So of course that sets off a little wishful thinking about her. It's a very clever concept, that capitalizes on the popularity of superhero flicks but doesn't feature a single scene of super powers. Rather, it's a heartfelt drama about reaching middle age and realizing what you once had is gone, and what you dreamt of may never happen, but learning to appreciate the good things you do have.
SUPERPOWERLESS plays again on Wednesday, Feb 15th at 6:30 at the Alamo Drafthouse.
Total Running Time: 428
My Total Minutes: 418,831
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 10
The big second weekend kicked off with a 5-show Saturday, starting with some shorts, #Love&Death
HE AND SHE: In a single shot, this German film shows a man driving a car full of his stuff to move in with his girlfriend. Then he gets a call and she breaks up with him. Then he gets some booze and cigarettes at a gas station convenience store. And then he meets a nice older lady who gives him a hilarious new perspective.
BONE GUITAR: A super-short animation of the ghost in an old guitar who gives it new life.
DEAR DEATH: Stewball the horse is haunted by the fear of death. So he writes Death a letter. And Death replies.
DOLL: You have to be pretty. Just like those dolls. The doll-obsessed personal trainer has a creepy back story, and an even creepier hobby.
THE GOAT ON THE ROOF: An animated retelling of a long life, with a long love (over 50 years married.)
MOLASSES AND LEMON: An experimental examination of love...and how painful it is.
PENNY FROM HEAVEN: From the UK, the spirit of a woman who killed herself must save 1,000 souls in order to get her wings and be a real angel. This is the story of number 999, and the particularly poignant beginning of number 1,000.
TEMPORARY: A man who performs in-home pet euthanasia sees it as his calling. But he has an ethical dilemma when he's asked to perform a very special procedure.
TEN YEARS: A couple is celebrating their 10th anniversary in Las Vegas. That night, they have a very sobering conversation about their relationship, spurred by how she noticed him looking at other girls. He claims he's happy being married to her, but can that ever be 100% true?
THANK YOU MR. IMADA: A legendary director, and his powerful technique for coaxing great performances out of struggling actors. Very funny.
DEAR DEATH: Stewball the horse is haunted by the fear of death. So he writes Death a letter. And Death replies.
DOLL: You have to be pretty. Just like those dolls. The doll-obsessed personal trainer has a creepy back story, and an even creepier hobby.
THE GOAT ON THE ROOF: An animated retelling of a long life, with a long love (over 50 years married.)
MOLASSES AND LEMON: An experimental examination of love...and how painful it is.
PENNY FROM HEAVEN: From the UK, the spirit of a woman who killed herself must save 1,000 souls in order to get her wings and be a real angel. This is the story of number 999, and the particularly poignant beginning of number 1,000.
TEMPORARY: A man who performs in-home pet euthanasia sees it as his calling. But he has an ethical dilemma when he's asked to perform a very special procedure.
TEN YEARS: A couple is celebrating their 10th anniversary in Las Vegas. That night, they have a very sobering conversation about their relationship, spurred by how she noticed him looking at other girls. He claims he's happy being married to her, but can that ever be 100% true?
THANK YOU MR. IMADA: A legendary director, and his powerful technique for coaxing great performances out of struggling actors. Very funny.
#Love&Death plays again Tuesday, Feb 14 at 7:15
And then I saw SALTWATER, part of the festival's tribute to the recently departed local filmmaking legend Lise Swenson. Jenny is getting married. And she wants to get married in her grandmother's (and mother's) wedding dress. But her mother insists she doesn't have it. It must still be with her eccentric aunt, who has hoarded most of the family heirlooms. She lives down by the Salton Sea, an ecological disaster (mainly due to lack of outflow) in southern California. While there, she learns of the vibrant artistic community living amidst the ecological decay, a state that mirrors her own dysfunctional family. She fights with her aunt, who is pretty particular about how she lives her life. She fights with her mom, who is stubborn in opposite ways. Both she and her fiancee cheat on each other...kinda. He takes a friend to a lecture on "orgasmic touching" and practises what they learned, then she retaliates by letting a local artist paint a scene on her nude body. And as her aunt falls ill, her brief visit is extended, and the Salton Sea becomes more and more a reflection of her own tears (saltwater) but also a source of artistic freedom and inspiration. Eventually she will have to decide where she goes next in life. Beautifully done.
Then the next show started with a short, VIDEOCLUB. Nacho (Vigalonda, of TIMECRIMES, one of my favorite films, and my favorite blog post) is in a new video store. And this store has everything. Rare movies. Impossible to find movies. Never released movies (like Jerry Lewis' infamous THE DAY THE CLOWN CRIED.) Even future movies, like E.T. RETURNS. This video store is like heaven!
And that was the lead-in for the Argentinian film, 2001: WHILE KUBRICK WAS IN SPACE. With riots on the street and frequent break-ins, 2001 was the worst financial crisis in the history of Argentina. And a trio of young people try to escape by...watching movies, hanging out, going on a road-trip in a stolen pink car to go to the national Paper Airplane competition for a chance to compete in the world championships in Europe.... Nothing goes as planned, and the shitty reality of 2001 (including a brief mention of the World Trade Center) plays out just as shitty as it really was, in stark contrast to the space-age marvel that Kubrick imagined. Oh, and the best part is when their car gets suck in the mud overnight and they're rescued the next day by a farmer who is the spiting image of Stanley Kubrick himself.
2001: WHILE KUBRICK WAS IN SPACE and VIDEOCLUB plays again Sunday, Feb 12 at 9:15 at the Alamo Drafthouse
Next up was EMPTY SPACE, a story of an overweight man who leaves Chicago to escape the bullying he faces daily and live in the aptly-named town of Protection, Illinois. His grandmother had a cabin there, and he moves in, gets a job washing dishes at a local diner, and tries to find some solace in his solitude. While there he meets a charming blind girl named Lily, and they develop a friendship that soon becomes something more, if he can get over his shame and body issues. He also befriends a kind of bratty little girl who steals food, crashes at his place, and basically avoids her alcoholic father. Each in their own way give him a chance to be a hero, if he doesn't completely blow it. A nice, tender story with characters you care about and real emotion. Very well done.
EMPTY SPACE plays again Monday, Feb 13 at 7:15
And then finally, I ended the night with HERE ALONE, a psychological drama with post-apocalyptic zombie genre trappings. Ann is living in the woods, foraging to survive. She's a survivalist, but we learn through flashbacks that she wasn't always like that. Her husband taught her a lot when they fled the virus outbreak with their newborn daughter. But given that neither the husband nor the baby are around, we know pretty quickly that those flashbacks are going to become pretty bleak before they catch up to the present. In the meantime, we see a lot about the logistics of survival, from foraging for food to some pretty disgusting ways to hide from zombies (e.g., using animal feces to mask your scent.) After a mostly unsuccessful foraging raid for canned goods, she runs across two more survivors, Chris and Olivia. Chris is hurt (but not infected) so Ann helps Liv bring him back to her camp and nurse him back to health. Like in so many zombie movies, mistrust is natural. But I liked that they moved passed it and worked together--at least for a time. Turns out Chris was married to Liv's mom (I assume he's not Liv's father, though, since she never calls him "dad"--I might have missed that explanation.) And now...maybe he's falling for Ann. In any case, they're heading north where it seems like the outbreak has been kept at bay. But Ann has made her little camp for herself here, and is opposed to moving. So it becomes a three-part human drama about relationships, dealing with past trauma, and how to move forward in the future. There just happens to be zombies, but other than that it's not much of a genre movie. Except for one twist at the end that is pure genre, and I'm still processing how I feel about that. Overall, a great little film.
HERE ALONE plays again Tuesday, Feb 14 at 9:30
Total Running Time: 441 minutes
My Total Minutes: 418,404
My Total Minutes: 418,404
Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 9
Two movies--kinda--on Friday.
First up was STRAWMAN, an experimental drama from rural China. Xiatian has a tough life. His parents are gone. His little brother is bullied at school. His sister works as a maid at a hotel where she's sexually harassed by her boss. And he turns to petty crime to make a living. It's beautifully shot, and as a window into a part of China that isn't often seen, it's pretty interesting. His struggles are easy to sympathize with, even if his actions aren't always sensible. And there's not a lot of chances for even little victories in his life. It's kind of pessimistic, which I suppose given his situation makes it pretty realistic.
And then I raced over to the Brava Theater to see as much of THE BIG LEBOWSKI as I could. The Big Lebowski party has been a staple of Indiefest almost as long as I have been going. Lately they've been "shadow-casting" the movie (playing the movie while actors act it out on stage.) And I always have to check it out because my friend Ira is the best damn Walter Sobchak ever. I got there pretty early in the film--right when the Dude is meeting with the Big Lebowski the first time. And I don't have to recap the film, I assume everyone who wants to see it has. And the shadow-casting was excellent (although I've heard rumors of behind-the-scenes drama, on stage it seemed to work pretty well.) Plus I always like a party where there are plenty of White Russians and/or oat sodas (beer.)
Total Running Time: 162 minutes (figuring I missed about 30 minutes of BIG LEBOWSKI, between arriving late and hanging out at the bar a couple of times.)
My Total Minutes: 417,963
First up was STRAWMAN, an experimental drama from rural China. Xiatian has a tough life. His parents are gone. His little brother is bullied at school. His sister works as a maid at a hotel where she's sexually harassed by her boss. And he turns to petty crime to make a living. It's beautifully shot, and as a window into a part of China that isn't often seen, it's pretty interesting. His struggles are easy to sympathize with, even if his actions aren't always sensible. And there's not a lot of chances for even little victories in his life. It's kind of pessimistic, which I suppose given his situation makes it pretty realistic.
And then I raced over to the Brava Theater to see as much of THE BIG LEBOWSKI as I could. The Big Lebowski party has been a staple of Indiefest almost as long as I have been going. Lately they've been "shadow-casting" the movie (playing the movie while actors act it out on stage.) And I always have to check it out because my friend Ira is the best damn Walter Sobchak ever. I got there pretty early in the film--right when the Dude is meeting with the Big Lebowski the first time. And I don't have to recap the film, I assume everyone who wants to see it has. And the shadow-casting was excellent (although I've heard rumors of behind-the-scenes drama, on stage it seemed to work pretty well.) Plus I always like a party where there are plenty of White Russians and/or oat sodas (beer.)
Total Running Time: 162 minutes (figuring I missed about 30 minutes of BIG LEBOWSKI, between arriving late and hanging out at the bar a couple of times.)
My Total Minutes: 417,963
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