Jason goes to Cinema By The Bay and sees AMITY

Instead of sticking around for a fifth documentary at Docfest on Saturday, I had to go to Japantown to see this film. And since I just barely mistimed the bus route, I hoofed it from the Mission to Japantown (specifically, from the Roxie to the New People Center)--approximately 1.7 miles in 30 minutes. So I officially got my exercise. Anyway, on to the film.

By the time an actual female character shows up in Alejandro Adams (AROUND THE BAY, CANARY, BABNIK) newest film AMITY, the female presence is conspicuous through its absence. This is approximately at the 50 minute mark of the 80 minute film. So it's pretty remarkable that the central relationship in the film is actually between a father and his daughter. Or, to be more precise, it's between an absentee, divorced father and his estranged daughter, on the night of her graduation. He has decided to fly in and surprised her by renting a limo for the night for her to party in. But she blows him off and he's left alone with the limo driver. The limo driver happens to be a former military counselor, so he has some insight on the human condition and this guy in particular (who doesn't just have problems connecting with his daughter or ex-wife, he seems to have problems relating well to anyone.) And while the limo driver is an excellent source of insight for the audience, he still doesn't seem to be able to get through to the man.

Oh, and once the female presence is introduced, it sort of goes into overdrive with the limo filling up with drunk, kinda slutty (or at least slutty acting at the moment) women. It's like the movie wants to have just as bad of a relationship with women as its main character does. And it reminded me of something that happened to me on the BART a couple of years ago, that is probably an irrelevant tangent but possibly very relevant.

I was BARTing home (to Fremont, end of the BART line) and there were a couple of young ladies (maybe college students, but probably high schoolers. I'm old enough now that all you young 'uns look alike to me.) They were obviously tipsy and going on and on about how tired they were and how they still had to go to another party after they got off the BART at Fremont. I tend to carry Foosh energy mints on me (to help make it through the 5th movie in a marathon day.) And because I'm a fundamentally nice guy (don't let my Twitter feed fool you) and because I was tired of the girls complaining about how tired they were, I offered them some caffeine mints. One girl looked at it and said, "What are these, roofies!" Then she grabbed one, ate it, grabbed another, and forced it into her friends mouth. Now I am never, ever, ever one to say, "she was asking for it" but I suppose if I were consistently hanging out with women like this, I would probably have a low opinion of them. Maybe the point is I imagine the main character in the movie spending most of his time with women like this (when he's around women at all.)

Yeah, so anyway I'm not sure if that meant anything. And I'm pretty sure I got sidetracked from the movie. Maybe the point is I imagine the main character in the movie spending most of his time with women like that (when he's around women at all.) And I will say that thought bugs me because it feels like I'm blaming those women rather than blaming him for being an unlikable jerk. But I will say Alejandro's movies are consistently provocative, even if I can't always say they were fun to watch.

Running Time: 80 minutes
My Total Minutes: 303,336

Jason watches THIS IS NOT A FILM

This is the story of director Jafar Panahi, an Iranian filmmaker whose latest script was not approved by the authorities. In fact, for his...well, the idea of such censorship is so foreign that I don't know exactly what for, but he has been sentenced to a 20 year ban on making movies. No writing, no directing, no interviews, etc. But he thinks he has found a technicality. He can still read his already written script on camera to his friend Mojtaba Mirtahmasb. Part day-in-the-life of a stymied and frustrated filmmaker, and part retelling of his banned screenplay, we see him field phone calls and play with his pet iguana in between bouts of film-telling (which remember, isn't technically filmmaking.) And we also see from the windows the chaos and rioting in the streets right after the disputed elections.

As for a re-telling of a never made film,...well, the process of telling a film doesn't work. And that's the point and the frustration. As a day-in-the-life of a censored filmmaker...well, he seems to live in enough luxury (his place looks pretty nice, and he has a rather expensive looking big flat-screen TV to show his movies on) and there's just not enough context (at least, not enough for this typical America) to show his frustration (there is, of course, an important difference between comfort and happiness.) But as a bold statement of "fuck you" to the censoring authorities, it works brilliantly. And I instantly liked Jafar enough that I hope nothing bad has happened to him as a result.

Running Time: 75 minutes
My Total Minutes: 276,983

Jason watches HOUSE OF PLEASURES

Well, that was pretty.

It's the story of a house of prostitutes in turn of the century Paris, as their not-really-idyllic life slowly erodes around them until eventually the house has to close. The set design is beautiful. The costumes are beautiful when they're worn, and perhaps more beautiful when they're not. As for the story and characters...it's so-so. There is one woman--the Jewess--who has an unfortunate night with a regular client and ends up with her cheeks cut in a permanent Joker grin...so much for her career. But I think the story spreads itself too thin across all the girls for her (or anyone's) story t really resonate. Perhaps it's not about story but creating an atmosphere and evoking a certain time and place, and a business that while the external trappings have changed is still going strong and still isn't good for the girls.

Running Time: 122 minutes

My Total Minutes: 276,127

Jason watches SOUND OF NOISE

I seem to be doing a pretty good job of being just over a week late with my updates.

Anyway, this was an absolute crowd-pleaser (or would've been, had there been a crowd at the Monday matinee when I saw it.) A gang of anarchic drummers terrorize. The one man who can track them down is Amadeus Warnebring. He's the son of many generations of celebrated musicians, obviously named after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and...he's completely tone-deaf. His brother is a famous conductor, and he's always out of place surrounded by musicians at the family parties. But he can recognize the ticking of a metronome (it haunts his memories of music lessons as a child) and he's a darn good cop. Plus he has the (dis)advantage that everything the percussionists use as instruments (including people) suddenly becomes mute to him. Add in a love interest with one of the drummers, and you've got yourself a story.

But this isn't really about the story. It's about the musical set-pieces. They invade a hospital, a bank, the concert hall (during an important concert) and finally the city's entire electric grid. And the pieces are dazzling and clever. Sure, they're also destructive, but from the safety of a movie screen they're just great escapist fun. It's sure fun to fantasize about marching into a bank and rhythmically shredding all their cash. #occupymusic

Running Time: 102 minutes

My Total Minutes: 275,705

Jason watches KILL LIST

Which was playing at the SFFS screen last week. I actually saw it last month at Indiefest, but I kinda dozed off in parts of it. Plus, as it turns out, it's a film that rewards multiple viewings.

First, I realized that I didn't actually sleep through too much last time. But there is still so much more I noticed a second time. In particular, how much of the shocking final action is mirrored in seemingly innocent early scenes. I want to avoid spoilers, so no details but I will say it's pretty incredible. Also, I completely forgot to mention last time how all the victims on the kill list thank the assassins before they do their work. And I understand the cult better now, and I think I have an explanation for why. But again, I can't get into that without spoilers. If you want to talk more about it, just e-mail me or find me at a local (SF Bay Area) film festival and talk to me.

Running Time: 95 minutes

My Total Minutes: 274,627

Jason watches MARGARET

There's an English classroom discussion (with Matthew Broderick as the teacher) in MARGARET on the line from King Lear, "As flies to wanton boys are we to th' gods,/They kill us for their sport." The debate is between the scholarly consensus--that the gods don't give a shit about humans, our lives and our problems--and a student who contends that maybe the point is that we cannot understand the gods anymore than a fly can understand us--i.e., we are just too stupid to see the big picture. My takeaway from MARGARET is a combination of the two. The gods don't give a shit about humans. More importantly, humans don't really give a shit about our fellow humans. And it's because we are all as stupid as flies. I'm at a bit of a loss to think of another movie that is this engrossing despite having no character I really liked (and only a few that I didn't actively dislike.)

The story revolves around Lisa Cohen (Anna Paquin,) a privileged private-school girl in New York. One day, while shopping for a cowboy hat as if it's the most important thing in her life (and honestly, it probably is) she witnesses a bus accident that results in a death. In fact, more than witnessing it she probably caused it by distracting the driver (Mark Ruffalo.) Worse yet, she lies on the police report--saying the light was green when in fact it was red--to avoid responsibility (and maybe to save the bus driver, too.) According to much of the press about this movie, this event becomes the catalyst for her personal transformation. I disagree--I don't think she transforms all that much. Without giving too much away, I will say there's a catharsis at the end, but not much of a transformation. She simply goes from having her whole life revolve around her personal petty dramas to her whole life revolving around her personal "important" dramas. Perhaps there's a transformation and maturation that is implied after the final scene, but for much of the movie her biggest transformation is from a typical teenage drama queen to a strung out drama addict (is there such thing as a drama crack whore?) As an example, there is a scene (spoiler alert) near the end where she blurts out that she had an abortion. I don't believe she actually had one, she just said that for the attention and drama (end spoiler.)

There are plenty of other moments of high personal drama, which I won't get into for fear of more spoilers. It's only very near the end does the victim's best friend Emily (Jeannie Berlin) call her on her bullshit, screaming that, "this is not an opera! And we are not all supporting characters to the drama of your amazing life!" I think that pretty well sums up my frustration with the character.

But I must be very careful to not confuse my dislike of her character with a dislike of the movie. I actually liked the movie quite a lot. The different threads--her teachers, her mother (an actress--someone who literally makes her living by faking dramatic emotions), her mother's boyfriend, her friends, her debates at school (especially over 9/11 and the Israel/Palestine issues), the loss of her virginity, etc.--all tie together to create a pretty rich and multi-faceted portrait of not only Lisa's character but all the characters.

In fact, the more I think about it, what I like about it the most is that it is multi-faceted enough that I might be completely wrong about the whole movie. In fact, as I think about it more (particularly the ending) maybe the point is that all drama is personal, and the way to bring meaning to your life is to embrace the personal drama in it.

Hmmm...

I don't really believe that, but I do believe that it would be possible to interpret MARGARET that way.

Running Time: 150 minutes

My Total Minutes: 267,091

Jason spends a lovely evening with Don Hertzfeldt

Oooh! That sounds like it might be romantic. It wasn't. It was a night of somewhat twisted cartoons, culminating in his new one IT'S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY, the culmination of the "Bill" trilogy (Billogy?) But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Don Hertzfeldt is a multiple-award-winning and staunchly independent animator. Probably most famous for his Oscar-nominated short REJECTED. He also grew up in my current hometown of Fremont, CA, so I can bestow on him the semi-official title of "Pride of Fremont" (former title-holder: MC Hammer). Oh, and he was honored with the San Francisco Film Festival's Persistence of Vision Award last year, and of course I was there. It's arguably not really a "Lifetime Achievement" award, but it's still pretty amazing to get something like that at age 33.

Anyway, on to last Thursday's show, which as I said was to showcase his new film, but I'm getting ahead of myself. We started with WISDOM TEETH, which I think should be the litmus test of whether or not you like Hertzfeldt's undeniably twisted sense of humor. This is actually one of his more recent films, and most twisted (nice to see he isn't entirely mellowing with age).

Other early works shown were BILLY'S BALLOON and INTERMISSION IN THE THIRD DIMENSION (part of THE ANIMATION SHOW 2003 edition).

And then on to the Bill trilogy. When he got the Persistence of Vision award, we were treated to the first two, EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY, and I'M SO PROUD OF YOU. In the first one, we meet Bill--a typical Don Hertzfeldt stick figure who lives in a world that is sometimes also stick figures, sometimes photo-real, and sometimes some strange netherworld. We learn his phobias (grocery store fruit displayed right at crotch level), and his weakening grasp on reality. We learn he has been diagnosed with some condition, and while there are good days and bad, his condition is generally deteriorating. It of course has the twisted Hertzfeldt sense of humor, but there's also a sense of affection for the character and melancholy at his plight. In I'M SO PROUD OF YOU, we learn Bill's family history, going back through several generations of thoroughly messed-up people who tend to get run over by trains.

And finally, IT'S SUCH A BEAUTIFUL DAY. Bill's condition is worsening, and this may just be the end of Bill. Like in the previous two films, there are a lot of meandering detours, so explicating the story is awfully hard. But he has bad days, and good days (when he goes on long walks and enjoys the view). And he goes on long drives, meets people he knows but can't remember. Has a brain test where they shut off one hemisphere of his brain (actually, I can't remember, maybe that was in one of the previous ones, but I think it was this one). He meets his father, who abandoned him with his mother (who had her own dementia problem) as a baby. And then he...well, the movie ends and I don't want to give it away. But let's just say there's something about Bill that will live on forever.

Then afterwards Don got up on stage and answered questions for maybe half an hour. He's a very engaging guy and talked about how important seeing an audiences reaction is, since he often works alone at odd hours and only hopes what he makes will work. And, of course, we made him recount the story from his days as a high school student in Fremont, taking his one and only art class, which was also taught by the shop teacher. I can't do it justice, but the gist is a student accidentally cut off her fingertip in the paper cutter, and after the student was rushed to the nurse the teacher just tossed her fingertip in the trash rather than put it on ice so they could reattach it.

Ahhh...good times!

Total Running Time: 77 minutes

My Total Minutes: 259,276

Jason goes to the SFFS Animation Festival

Part of the SFFS Fall Season. I've only managed to fit one day into my busy schedule. But I saw three pretty great programs on Saturday.

First up, an adorable little movie NOCTURNA. Tim is a little boy in an orphanage (or maybe boarding school, it wasn't quite clear). He's sort of the quiet kid the other kids make fun of, and he's horribly afraid of the dark. In fact, every night he pushes his bunk to the window so he can look at his star--Adhara. His mother told him that his star would always be there to watch over him. But one night, his star disappears and that sends him on an adventure into the world of the night--a world known as Nocturna. He meets his cat, Tobermory (cats are responsible for making children go to sleep, but it turns out Tobermory is more of a sleepy head himself) and the giant Cat Shepherd. Turns out, the sounds and sights of the night aren't random--flickering streetlights, crickets chirps, branches rustling, wind, fog, everything is the tireless, never ending job of the denizens of Nocturna, ruled over Moka. But tonight, there's a terrible new danger to Nocturna, and Tim goes on an adventure to save his star--and as it turns out all the lights in Nocturna. Just a beautiful, charming adventure.

Then the second show was a shorts program (some short films, some music videos) called Ball of Confusion.

CRYSTALLINE: A musci video for Björk's song Crytalline. Points of light hit the moon, while crystals grow from below ground, and the disembodied, lit up head of Björk sings in the sky.

CENTRIFUGE BRAIN: A hilarious look at how extreme amusement park rides are really experiments in vertical centrifuges.

FINGER FIGHTER: Mortal Kombat, with fingers. And a really cool and funny surprise end.

THE HOLY CHICKEN OF LIFE AND MUSIC: Giant chicken creatures play opera music.

LEVITATING: A woman goes through her daily life while levitating a few inches above the ground (stop motion of her jumping). Mostly mundane tasks--shopping, ironing, etc.

POINT DE GAZE: Images of lace, which can serve as a music video for 4'33".

POSSESSION: By Aideen Barry, who also did Levitating. Similar technique used to show the repetition of suburban life and the surreal horror within. Includes eating a whole table full of desserts and cutting the grass with scissors stuck in your hair.

REULF: Little angular critters of color bring color to black and white Paris.

SPLITTING THE ATOM: A Mezzanine music video. Sci-fi war scenes, featuring a giant devil bunny! Giantdevilbunny! Giantdevilbunny! Giantdevilbunny! Giantdevilbunny!

SUNDAY: Church, visiting the grandparents, squashing quarters on the railroad tracks. Squashing an animal in the car (boor bunny!) making friends with a grizzly bear who stuck his head in through the window. Canada is weird, man.

THE THIRD & THE SEVENTH: Old cameras, lots of books, wild architecture. I don't know exactly what it's "about" but the whole thing was beautiful.

WILD LIFE: An English gentleman in the 1900's moves to Canada to become a rancher. He is not at all equipped for such a life, but at least he's very polite.

And then I finished up with a bit of Japanese weirdness, MIDORI-KO. The 10 year labor of love by master artist Keita Kurosaka. As a little girl, Midori loved vegetables but refused to eat meat because she always felt bad for poor animals. Now as a young woman she's a scientist researching and growing odd-shaped but delicious vegetables. Meanwhile, elsewhere five characters--one each with an eye, ear, mouth, nose, and hand for heads--bear witness to a mysterious vegetable pod brought forth by the sun's laser eyes. Out of the pod pops some sort of squash, which flies through the air and lands in Midori's apartment. There she finds it has a baby's face, and while her scan of it reveals it's all vegetable matter, it's a sentient vegetable. So she raises this little veggie as her son, protecting it from the odd denizens of her apartment building (including an old man and his fish-headed lover). And then things get weird. Beautiful, surreal, and grotesque. Of course I loved it!

Total Running Time: 215 minutes

My Total Minutes: 256,073

Jason watches I THINK IT'S RAINING

It was the opening night of Cinema By The Bay, part of the SFFS fall program, and probably the only film I'll see in this program.

This is the directorial debut of Joshua Moore, programmer for the SF Jewish Film Festival. So I already knew he could pick good films, but it turns out he can make them, too.

The film is mostly a character study of Renata (Alexandra Clayton). She's seems a bit of a quirky free spirit, opening the film with a monologue about always moving forward, until a little girl offers her an ice cream cone (What flavor? Yummy!) Then we see her wandering through San Francisco, getting drunk and disruptive, being both funny and annoying. And we see her taking some medication, and having a few breakdowns. And we learn that she's back in San Francisco after some unexplained absence. Presumably it had something to do with those breakdowns, but at least San Francisco is welcoming her with open arms.

And then she meets Val. And equally quirky guy, waiting for a bus in the rain. It's raining, she has an umbrella, he doesn't, but rather than just wait under the bus stop shelter, he decides to chat her up and try to get under that umbrella with her (opening move, pull out a cocktail umbrella and try to huddle under it). And it works, and it looks like romance might be in the air. At least, it might be if she can drop her quirky defenses and not have another one of those emotional breakdowns.

As a final point, I kind of hate the cliche of saying "the city is a character!" but g-d damn if it isn't appropriate here. I just loved that it's set in a very distinct San Francisco, but San Francisco for insiders (residents or frequent visitors like myself). There's not a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge or cable cars (or Coit Tower, the Transamerica pyramid, or anything recognizably San Francisco to someone who has never been here). Instead, it's the San Francisco of Muni buses and BART tickets (although using a BART ticket as a bookmark was kind of nostalgic for me, everyone is on Clipper now). In fact, now that I rack my brains, I'm not sure if the words "San Francisco" were ever spoken. I felt it made the movie work on different levels depending on if you're familiar with SF or not. If not, it works perfectly well as a universal story, it could happen in any city. If you know San Francisco, it's a unique story that could only unfold in exactly that way in exactly that city.

Running Time: 92 minutes

My Total Minutes: 254,217

Jason goes to Hong Kong Cinema--Day 2

A nice, relaxing, 4 film Saturday. Let's jump right in

First up, a bit of craziness with CITY UNDER SIEGE. What can I say about this? A somewhat psychotic circus troupe constantly picks on their clown Sunny (Aaron Kwok, showing his comic chops). Sunny, for what it's worth, sort of brings it upon himself, claiming to be "the master of the twin daggers," when they already have a knife-thrower. And then, while searching for some hidden treasure, they're exposed to a biotoxin left over by the Japanese in WWII, and it turns them all into hideous evil super-mutants. Or rather, all but Sunny become evil super-mutants. Sunny is dropped on a ship, then tossed in the ocean, and washes up on shore as a waterlogged fatso. He meets Angel, a local news beauty. He loses all the water overnight, and becomes a heroic, normal looking, semi-mutant (mostly, he has strength, speed, and can actually throw knives accurately). And then the fight is on, with the help of Angel and a couple of police investigators who are completely unfazed by mutants (they talk so much about having battled other mutants that their scenes feel like a sequel to some other movie). Very fun.

Next up, a literal San Francisco/Hong Kong connection with MERRY-GO-ROUND. A story of choices, memories, regret, and loneliness. Eva and Nam both live in San Francisco, and while they aren't friends they have run into each other before in the Chinese American community there. They both, coincidentally, decide to return to Hong Kong. Eva to deal with her deceased grandfather, Nam to...it's less clear, but she starts by delivering a letter from her friend Merry (who has leukemia) to her online boyfriend. Along the way their lives become intertwined more (the boyfriend--who becomes the disinterested object of Nam's affection--is Eva's nephew, etc.) and the central character turns out to be an elderly mortuary worker, who takes Nam is as an assistant, and who also has a history with Eva (Ella Koon, who plays Nam, also plays young Eva in flashback scenes). It's a slow developing story, but with excellent performances and a thoughtful script, it's ultimately rewarding if you stick with it.

And then the delightfully entertaining destruction of sexual stereotypes, ALL ABOUT LOVE. Macy is a hard-working activist, who opens the movie by marrying a gay man so he can get residence and stay with his lover (a friend of Macy's). The plan, of course, is to divorce as soon as he gets permanent residence. Macy herself is a lesbian. Or she was, then she turned straight for a while, now she's back to girls. As the hardcore lesbians complain, she's one of those bi-girls who just "eat and run." Well, she's got bigger problems than just her moribund love life (although that's the problem her lesbian friends are trying to fix)--she's pregnant. But things turn around when she sees someone special in her pregnancy class--her ex from 12 years ago, Anita. They broke up (really, Macy dumped her) when they were way too young to settle down, but now (in a delightful sequence where they walk each other back and forth to their homes) they reconnect and realize a spark is still there. So two pregnant lesbians give it a go at lasting love. Meanwhile the very confused father's get in on the act. And as they both debate whether to keep both babies or abort one (or even both), everyone has an opinion. Ultimately resulting in a family with two babies, four mothers, and two fathers. Funny and delightful, but with just a few things that bugged me. [Spoiler alert!] One, there are scenes of the pregnant women drinking wine--apparently this just isn't as taboo in Hong Kong as it is in America. Second, one of the father's is married but his wife is never shown (talked about a lot, but never shown) and presumably when he decided to be upfront and take care of the baby, she would find out and have something to say (presumably it happened offscreen?). And finally there's a scene at the end where they all go out dancing, and I kept wondering 'who is taking care of the babies?' Of course, they surely hired a babysitter, but it bugged me that after so many scenes of taking care of the babies they didn't show that. [End spoilers] But beyond that, it's a pretty delightful movie.

And finally, we ended the night with a little Johnnie To produced (but not directed, eh left that to Law Wing-cheong) brutality in PUNISHED. The master Anthony Wong stars as a business tycoon. He's got money and power, and he has a problematic, drug-addicted daughter. Or at least he does for a while--she is kidnapped, the kidnappers extort millions from him, and they kill her anyway. So now he and his loyal and capable bodyguard are out for revenge. And it gets brutal and bloody without leaving the realm of believability (i.e., it's not the most violent movie out of Hong Kong, but the violence is used wisely). And Anthony Wong's acting raises it above a standard revenge flick and turns it into a smart reflection on grief (literally a reflection, beginning and ending on a Bolivian salt flats that become like a mirror of the sky after it rains.)

Total Running Time: 433 minutes
My Total Minutes: 248,942

Jason goes to Hong Kong Cinema--Opening Night

The SFFS Fall Season has officially begun. A series of weekend mini-fests, starting with Hong Kong Cinema. I just caught one movie last night, the late show action comedy, MR. AND MRS. INCREDIBLE.

10 years ago, there were two great superheroes. Gazer Warrior (high flying kung fu master with heat vision eyes) and Aroma Woman (also a high flying kung fu master but with a flower attack that renders the victim a babbling, hallucinating idiot). They were so popular their followers urged them to fight to find out who is the greatest superhero. But they had other ideas--run away, retire, romance, marriage, and a peaceful life in Rainbow Village (where there's a double rainbow every day). And that's where they are today. She cooks, he's the leader of the village guards, and they keep their powers secret. They've just saved up enough to by a secluded house by the sea, and now maybe they're ready to have a child. Boooring...we (and it turns out, they) want Gazer Warrior and Aroma Woman to come out of retirement. And of course, eventually, they do, at a Kung Fu ranking competition that is clearly the cover for something more sinister. On the way there, there's too many side distractions, mostly around how the doctor prescribes a little more excitement in their life, so they try to have a fight with each other (we're to believe they've been married 10 years and don't know how to have a fight?) But ultimately it's funny, playful, silly, and rides easily on the chemistry of the two leads, Louis Koo and Sandra Ng, who reappears in the festival in ALL ABOUT LOVE and ECHOES OF THE RAINBOW (sadly, she won't be here in person).

Running Time: 100 minutes

My Total Minutes: 248,509