An easy day--just 4 movies. Of course, one was a 4 hour and 12 minute epic with constant foreign language voiceover narration. More on that in a bit.
First up was a Russian film, The Bet, based on a Chekov short story. A simple dark comic story of obsession, arrogance, and mania. Maxim works for Viktor. One night at a party, they debate the death penalty vs. life imprisonment. Viktor believes in the death penalty (essentially that life imprisonment is nor more than an extended death penalty). Just to be contrary, Mxim takes the opposite position, insisting that life even behind bars is worth living. A night of drinking leads to a bet. Maxim will be "imprisoned" in Viktor's guest house--he'll be fed and clothed but can never leave. If he survives 15 years Viktor will give him 15 million dollars (or whatever the Russian equivalent is, it was translated at 15 million dollars). If he doesn't, he works for Viktor for free--for the rest of his life. Really, really high stakes. It's expected that Maxim goes a little stir crazy, even in the first month. What's more interesting is that Viktor starts going a bit crazy trying to defeat Maxim. This movie really should have been better, but a lot of the simple technical aspects got in the way. I don't usually mind hand held "shaky cam" work, but this was particularly jarring and not for good effect. Particularly silly is a "whoosh" sound effect accompanying a camera pan. Really? That doesn't make much sense. All the time I'm supposed to be concentrating on Maxim going crazy or Viktor going crazy, and instead I'm thinking about how the cameraman is going crazy.
Next up we travelled to Australia for Bitter and Twisted. With a name title like that, I certainly expected it to be funny, and it was in fact a dark, dry comedy (sort of, I guess it was technically a drama). It's a story of how one traumatic event has lasting impacts on everyone. As we open the movie, Liam Lombard is dying (looks like from an overdose, but I don't think that was every explicitly said). His family watches the paramedics try to save him, to no avail. Now the father is a fat slob, struggling in his job selling cars, and unable to get it up for his wife. This makes her feel unattractive, and after a lot of complaining she goes out to a bar and picks up a much younger man. Meanwhile surviving son has become close friends with a local boy. Perhaps very close friends. But there's some question of whether he's gay, because he also hits on Liam's girlfriend. She hasn't been the same either, carrying on an affair with an older married man. They also have a surviving daughter. She doesn't seem to have too much wrong with her, although her mom is worried that she's starting to have sex too early (she swears she isn't, and that whole plotline goes nowhere). Yeah, tragedy is laid bare with a very dry sense of humor. It's three years past the incident, so it's no longer appropriate for to be a whole lot of wailing and crying. Society says they're supposed to be over it by now, but they obviously aren't.
Then there was the screwball relationship comedy, Two Million Stupid Women. Which is more like 2 women being stupid times a million. It's Melissa's birthday, and she's excited because it's the first time she's had a boyfriend on her birthday (more simple math--that means she's never kept a relationship an entire year). She goes to meet her boyfriend, only to find his cock in some other slut's mouth. So instead she's going to have the birthday from hell, starting by getting excruciatingly drunk with her best friends Anna and Todd. In a drunken rage, she keeps insisting that the bartender (also a friend of s) tells her she's "stupid, pathetic, and should leave him alone". When he obliges, she finds it oddly cathartic. So she hatches an idiotic plan to hit rock-bottom (and thereby start over as a smarter dater) by tracking down all her ex-boyfriends/hookups and getting them to say the same thing. The mantra, "You're stupid, pathetic, and should leave me alone" dominates the movie. It takes a predictable course, as humiliation after humiliation is dumped on her, to the point where it strains the relationships among her, Anna, and Todd as well. The movie has a lot of good wild comic energy, although sometimes more flailing than funny. A little overwritten, and sometimes overacted, but still pretty funny.
And finally, that 4+ hour foreign language epic I alluded to earlier, Historias Extraordinarias (Extraordinary Stories). At its purest, this is a story about stories, and how everyone has one. In particular, Mr. X, Z, and H are the heroes of three interlaced (but not intersecting) stories.
In the first, Mr. X is walking to his new boring job when he witnesses a murder (or an attempted one). A man gets out of a tractor. He's carrying a briefcase which he hides under a hay bale. Two men drive up in a truck. They get out, talk to the tractor man for a while, then one goes back to the truck, picks up a rifle, and shoots tractor man. They leave (without finding or taking the briefcase). Mr. X walks up, finds the briefcase. Tractor man stands up and pulls a gun on him. Mr. X takes the rifle (left by the man from the truck) and shoots tractor man, killing him.
In the second, Mr. Z is taking a new job in a manager role for The Foundation. His job is boring as hell, except when he gets to go on the road. Then he follows the map and clues left by his predecessor, and finds out the man was living a secret life (or many). Mr. Z gets wrapped up in the mysteries of his predecessor.
And finally, in the third story Mr. H is hired to travel down a river and photograph monoliths left as part of a project by a corporation. Unfortunately, another man was hired to blow up all those monoliths.
All three stories have sub-plots of tangential characters, and everything is told with an omnipresent voice-over narration (making it a bit of a marathon of reading for 4+ hours, since it's in Spanish with subtitles). I don't want to give away the plot, because first it would take too long and second it's almost beside the point. It's really a movie about stories and how to tell them. Everyone in the movie has a story, and interlacing the three stories proves to be a powerful, almost hypnotic experience.
It's tempting to think, since the three stories are unconnected, that it could be re-edited into three ~80-90 minute movies. And it could, but it wouldn't be at all the same. There's a fascinating tension in exploring the stories from every angle. The opening scene I described in story 1 is repeated in long, medium, and close up shots. There's an interesting interplay of cutting between the stories. One will be getting very interesting, and then it opens a new chapter following a different story. On the one hand, you're frustrated because you wanted to follow the first story more, but on the other hand you're reminded of how exciting the other one is. And really, it's this tension, the juggling of all the stories, that keeps everything interesting and makes the 4 hours fly by. I mentioned it's tempting to think of re-telling everything as three movies. But it's exactly that interplay that would make that not work.
Oh, and one final point. This whole movie (other than the physical prints of the film) was made for about 50,000 dollars (or euros, I'm not sure which. Either way, very impressive).
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 7
5 more movies, plus a Maverick Spirit Award. No time for filler
First up was a documentary about a pretty amazing guy, Rocaterrania. Renaldo Kuhler is truly an individual. In the opening moments of the film, he talks about the importance of a balance between fantasy and reality--reality is the meat and vegetables of the meal of life, while fantasy is the dessert. Growing up on a ranch, he was always alone and started playing with imaginary friends. He had a meticulous, overactive mind, and a talent for drawing. This lead him to pursue the realistic in his vocation as a scientific illustrator working in a museum. And he pursued fantasy in his imaginary--but absolutely realistic--world of Rocaterrania. Set in the rocky terrain (hence the name) tucked between the U.S. and Canada in upstate New York, Rocaterrania was settled by Eastern Europeans (one half of the land is known as New Serbia). It has a complete history, with monarchs and revolution. It has cosmopolitan cities (it's Schwarz opera house is currently undergoing renovations), and various ethnic groups (including a rather vibrant Hasidic Jewish community). Rocaterrania could only be created by a truly unique individual, and the near-tragedy is that it could have disappeared without anyone ever knowing about it. Renaldo Kuhler is a tough guy to get to know, and director Brett Ingram talked to him for over a decade to win his trust and put together this movie. He tends to live in a bubble, and probably would've been happy to pass on without anyone ever knowing about his little world. Now, thanks to the film, there will be a show of his illustrations and descriptions of Rocaterrania in his native Raleigh, NC. Personally, I'm envisioning books about it (the illustrated history of Rocaterrania, anyone?), narrative films about it, etc. The theme of Cinequest this year is "Transform", and here's perhaps the best example. Through the power of art, Renaldo Kuhler has transformed fantasy into a complete world.
Next up was the Danish movie, Dancers, which is only tangentially about dancing. Annika teaches children in a dance studio. She lives a pretty sheltered life there. Possibly the only problem is the electricity is flaky. Luckily, the electrician, Lasse, is kinda cute. The attraction is obvious, but Lasse seems very tentative. He admits he has been in prison, and is worried what she'd think. He says it was for fraud, and Annika's okay with his explanations. But soon mysterious phone calls suggest that he was in prison for something much worse. Without giving too much away, this is a movie about tentative love, honesty, secrets, and how bad decisions can haunt you forever. Good acting and an interesting moral quandary pulls along a movie where really very little actually happens.
Then I just had time to dash over to the other theater for the Israeli film, For My Father. Tarek is a suicide bomber, preparing for his mission in Tel Aviv. He's doing it for his father's honor. His explosive vest is strapped on, and if he doesn't go through with it there's a cell phone trigger so his handlers can "activate" him remotely. In fact, that trigger is wired through his belt buckle so that if he tries to take off the vest, it'll go off. There's really no turning back. So at 8 am on a Friday he gets himself in position in the middle of a crowded marketplace, pushes the button, and...nothing happens. The switch is defective. He hurries out of the market, finds an electrical repair shop, removes the switch, and asks the repairman if he can fix it (without telling him what it's for). He can't, but he can replace it, but he has no replacement in stock. Tomorrow is the Sabbath, so he won't get a replacement until Sunday morning. Tarek convinces his handlers (over the phone) to not activate him, give him until Sunday morning when the market will be crowded again. And so it looks like he's spending the weekend there in Tel Aviv. With nothing but time on his hands, he helps the electrical repairman fix his roof, and talks with the girl who owns the kiosk across the street. Keren is a bit of a punk with dyed-red hair, but she comes from an orthodox family. Her father refuses to talk to her (you can guess from the title there are a lot of daddy issues in this movie), but her "friends" from the community aren't afraid to come by and harass her, trying to get her to renounce her ways and return home. She and Tarek start a bit of a friendship, and when he defends her it becomes a bit more. It never gets sexual (obviously, he can't take of his jacket and reveal his suicide vest), but it is romantic. Over the course of a Sabbath (which just happens to be her birthday) all the reasons he has for his mission melt away. But he's still trapped. This movie handles a very difficult subject with a surprisingly light and deft sense of humor and romance. One of my favorites of the festival.
Then I actually had time to get some dinner--a burrito at La Victoria, and then it was over to the fabulous California Theater for The Least Among You. Based on a true story (although with names, places, and events changed), it's the story of Richard Kelly (Cedric Sanders, who incidentally is from Anchorage, AK--Alaska pride, represent!), a kid with a bright future. He graduated with straight A's, and although his mom wants him to join the seminary, he's already lined up a good paying job working at a computing company. All that changes when he's unjustly arrested during the Watts riots (oh yeah, this takes place in 1965), and as his plea bargain he has to spend his probation in the seminary (yeah, I bet his mom had something to do with striking that deal). No problem, he's a good student. Just keep good grades for a few semesters, then he can drop out and take that computer job. Thing is, he doesn't know he's the first black student in the history of this seminary. The president (William Devane, doing an excellent job as a wolf in sheep's clothing) personally selected him for the noble purpose of breaking down these barriers. He quickly finds it won't be easy, with racism ranging from thinly veiled to not-at-all veiled. His only friend seems to be the kindly janitor/gardener/handyman Samuel (Louis Gosset, Jr., playing a kindly mentor role that seems quite natural to him). The movie travels some pretty well-worn territory (the lowly janitor as a mentor, corrupt officials, racist classmates, gang troubles at home), but finds some neat surprises amongst the cliches as well (I really liked his Texan roommate who turns out to be the least racist of all his classmates). But mostly a lot of good acting and direction make the well worn paths still seem fresh and new.
After the movie, Louis Gossett, Jr. was on hand for a brief on-stage interview and was then given Cinequest's highest honor--the Maverick Spirit Award. During his interview, Gossett Jr. spoke eloquently and humorously about being a mentor and his Eracism Foundation. And finally, there was a Q&A with director/writer Mark Young, Louis Gossett, Jr., Cedric Sanders, and most interestingly the real-life man who Richard Kelly was based on (and I apologize I forgot his name).
Then I had just enough time to run back to the Camera 12 for Shorts Program 2: Document the World:
A Christmas in Tent City: A touching family story. Two successful brothers, Francisco and Roberto Jiménez, recall their difficult childhood as migrant workers.
Drag King: Rednecks tie boats behind their cars and go racing. Hilarious.
Forced into "Comfort", Fighting for Apology: The Korean "comfort women" who serviced the Japanese army in WWII were not volunteers. I thought everyone knew that. Apparently the Japanese still don't.
Naming Pluto: This was my favorite of the group. With all the controversy over Pluto being demoted to dwarf planet (or planette), it was fun to learn how an 11 year old girl in Oxford gave Pluto it's name. Now 89, she finally sees Pluto through a powerful telescope.
Pickin' and Trimmin': Laid back barberin' and music makin'. Some absolute amazing guitar and banjo skills.
Rare Chicken Rescue: Mark Tully saves rare breeds of chickens. It's the least he can do, since they saved him from depression.
First up was a documentary about a pretty amazing guy, Rocaterrania. Renaldo Kuhler is truly an individual. In the opening moments of the film, he talks about the importance of a balance between fantasy and reality--reality is the meat and vegetables of the meal of life, while fantasy is the dessert. Growing up on a ranch, he was always alone and started playing with imaginary friends. He had a meticulous, overactive mind, and a talent for drawing. This lead him to pursue the realistic in his vocation as a scientific illustrator working in a museum. And he pursued fantasy in his imaginary--but absolutely realistic--world of Rocaterrania. Set in the rocky terrain (hence the name) tucked between the U.S. and Canada in upstate New York, Rocaterrania was settled by Eastern Europeans (one half of the land is known as New Serbia). It has a complete history, with monarchs and revolution. It has cosmopolitan cities (it's Schwarz opera house is currently undergoing renovations), and various ethnic groups (including a rather vibrant Hasidic Jewish community). Rocaterrania could only be created by a truly unique individual, and the near-tragedy is that it could have disappeared without anyone ever knowing about it. Renaldo Kuhler is a tough guy to get to know, and director Brett Ingram talked to him for over a decade to win his trust and put together this movie. He tends to live in a bubble, and probably would've been happy to pass on without anyone ever knowing about his little world. Now, thanks to the film, there will be a show of his illustrations and descriptions of Rocaterrania in his native Raleigh, NC. Personally, I'm envisioning books about it (the illustrated history of Rocaterrania, anyone?), narrative films about it, etc. The theme of Cinequest this year is "Transform", and here's perhaps the best example. Through the power of art, Renaldo Kuhler has transformed fantasy into a complete world.
Next up was the Danish movie, Dancers, which is only tangentially about dancing. Annika teaches children in a dance studio. She lives a pretty sheltered life there. Possibly the only problem is the electricity is flaky. Luckily, the electrician, Lasse, is kinda cute. The attraction is obvious, but Lasse seems very tentative. He admits he has been in prison, and is worried what she'd think. He says it was for fraud, and Annika's okay with his explanations. But soon mysterious phone calls suggest that he was in prison for something much worse. Without giving too much away, this is a movie about tentative love, honesty, secrets, and how bad decisions can haunt you forever. Good acting and an interesting moral quandary pulls along a movie where really very little actually happens.
Then I just had time to dash over to the other theater for the Israeli film, For My Father. Tarek is a suicide bomber, preparing for his mission in Tel Aviv. He's doing it for his father's honor. His explosive vest is strapped on, and if he doesn't go through with it there's a cell phone trigger so his handlers can "activate" him remotely. In fact, that trigger is wired through his belt buckle so that if he tries to take off the vest, it'll go off. There's really no turning back. So at 8 am on a Friday he gets himself in position in the middle of a crowded marketplace, pushes the button, and...nothing happens. The switch is defective. He hurries out of the market, finds an electrical repair shop, removes the switch, and asks the repairman if he can fix it (without telling him what it's for). He can't, but he can replace it, but he has no replacement in stock. Tomorrow is the Sabbath, so he won't get a replacement until Sunday morning. Tarek convinces his handlers (over the phone) to not activate him, give him until Sunday morning when the market will be crowded again. And so it looks like he's spending the weekend there in Tel Aviv. With nothing but time on his hands, he helps the electrical repairman fix his roof, and talks with the girl who owns the kiosk across the street. Keren is a bit of a punk with dyed-red hair, but she comes from an orthodox family. Her father refuses to talk to her (you can guess from the title there are a lot of daddy issues in this movie), but her "friends" from the community aren't afraid to come by and harass her, trying to get her to renounce her ways and return home. She and Tarek start a bit of a friendship, and when he defends her it becomes a bit more. It never gets sexual (obviously, he can't take of his jacket and reveal his suicide vest), but it is romantic. Over the course of a Sabbath (which just happens to be her birthday) all the reasons he has for his mission melt away. But he's still trapped. This movie handles a very difficult subject with a surprisingly light and deft sense of humor and romance. One of my favorites of the festival.
Then I actually had time to get some dinner--a burrito at La Victoria, and then it was over to the fabulous California Theater for The Least Among You. Based on a true story (although with names, places, and events changed), it's the story of Richard Kelly (Cedric Sanders, who incidentally is from Anchorage, AK--Alaska pride, represent!), a kid with a bright future. He graduated with straight A's, and although his mom wants him to join the seminary, he's already lined up a good paying job working at a computing company. All that changes when he's unjustly arrested during the Watts riots (oh yeah, this takes place in 1965), and as his plea bargain he has to spend his probation in the seminary (yeah, I bet his mom had something to do with striking that deal). No problem, he's a good student. Just keep good grades for a few semesters, then he can drop out and take that computer job. Thing is, he doesn't know he's the first black student in the history of this seminary. The president (William Devane, doing an excellent job as a wolf in sheep's clothing) personally selected him for the noble purpose of breaking down these barriers. He quickly finds it won't be easy, with racism ranging from thinly veiled to not-at-all veiled. His only friend seems to be the kindly janitor/gardener/handyman Samuel (Louis Gosset, Jr., playing a kindly mentor role that seems quite natural to him). The movie travels some pretty well-worn territory (the lowly janitor as a mentor, corrupt officials, racist classmates, gang troubles at home), but finds some neat surprises amongst the cliches as well (I really liked his Texan roommate who turns out to be the least racist of all his classmates). But mostly a lot of good acting and direction make the well worn paths still seem fresh and new.
After the movie, Louis Gossett, Jr. was on hand for a brief on-stage interview and was then given Cinequest's highest honor--the Maverick Spirit Award. During his interview, Gossett Jr. spoke eloquently and humorously about being a mentor and his Eracism Foundation. And finally, there was a Q&A with director/writer Mark Young, Louis Gossett, Jr., Cedric Sanders, and most interestingly the real-life man who Richard Kelly was based on (and I apologize I forgot his name).
Then I had just enough time to run back to the Camera 12 for Shorts Program 2: Document the World:
A Christmas in Tent City: A touching family story. Two successful brothers, Francisco and Roberto Jiménez, recall their difficult childhood as migrant workers.
Drag King: Rednecks tie boats behind their cars and go racing. Hilarious.
Forced into "Comfort", Fighting for Apology: The Korean "comfort women" who serviced the Japanese army in WWII were not volunteers. I thought everyone knew that. Apparently the Japanese still don't.
Naming Pluto: This was my favorite of the group. With all the controversy over Pluto being demoted to dwarf planet (or planette), it was fun to learn how an 11 year old girl in Oxford gave Pluto it's name. Now 89, she finally sees Pluto through a powerful telescope.
Pickin' and Trimmin': Laid back barberin' and music makin'. Some absolute amazing guitar and banjo skills.
Rare Chicken Rescue: Mark Tully saves rare breeds of chickens. It's the least he can do, since they saved him from depression.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Jason announces the release of Viva! on DVD
Just taking a quick break from Cinequest to check my other e-mail. I got an e-mail from Anna Biller about the release of her film Viva!, the sexy Indiefest hit a couple of years back. My review is here (near the bottom of the page). And I'll just copy and paste the e-mail from here for you. Wish I could be at the party tonight, but I'm up here in San Jose going to Cinequest:
Please come to a screening of VIVA by Anna Biller, to celebrate the DVD release of this long-awaited film!
Tuesday March 3rd, at 8:00 PM
The Silent Movie Theatre
611 N Fairfax Avenue, Los Angeles, 90036 / 323-655-2510
Congratulations to cast, crew, friends and supporters, and hope to see you all there!VIVA is a highly stylized film that draws on classic exploitation cinema for its look and characters. Saturated to the hilt with vibrant color, and exquisitely detailed in its depiction of the period, VIVA looks like a lost film from the late '60's, even down to the campy and self-assured performances, the big lighting, the plethora of negligées, and the delirious assortment of Salvation Army ashtrays, lamps, fabrics, and bric-a-brac. Whether you're looking for naked people dancing, alcoholic swingers, stylish sex scenes, a sea of polyester, Hammond organ jams, glitzy show numbers, white horses, blondes in the bathtub, gay hairdressers, or psychedelic animation, VIVA has it all!
Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 6
Four more movies on the halfway point through the festival. This schedule of partying all day, working all night is getting brutal.
First up, a brilliant Hungarian crime thriller/comedy (at least I found it funny), The Investigator. For about 5 hours, this was my favorite film of the festival (yeah, today was a good day). Tibor Malkáv is an assistant pathologist, used to looking at death and not blinking. In fact, he's unfazed by anything, although he does have a little facial tic that gives him away. When the woman at the local diner flirts with him, he brushes it off, but is willing to go to the movies with her. He's just that kind of "nothing affects me" kind of guy. However, he needs money for his mother, who's dying of cancer unless she gets into a special clinic in Sweden. It just so happens a mysterious one-eyed man who calls himself Cyclops has an offer for plenty of money--he just has to kill a guy. Easy, he's used to death, this guy must have done something wrong, and since he has no connection to the guy, he'll never be a suspect. He doesn't agonize over the decision, he just does what he has to do. Problem is, he's immediately a suspect, because there is a connection between them that he didn't know about. He established an alibi, but suddenly he has to investigate who set him up. This is something that his personality is perfect for--cool, passionless, but meticulous with keen observation skills. I won't spoil the plot, but I'll just say he's way too fuckin' cool for words, and his performance (for which he's won awards at other festivals) is one for the ages.
Next up was the other Hungarian film in the festival, and a completely different experience. Esther's Inheritance is the story of a woman and the man who robbed her many times throughout her life. 20 years ago Lajos married Esther's sister even though he was really in love with her. He's charismatic, but also a horrible, amoral thief and liar. He returns for a one day visit, and you just know he's there to steal something. Turns out, he's there to steal everything, simply be igniting lost passions. He doesn't come alone, bringing an array of people, most notably a daughter who is after her inheritance--a family ring. This was well acted and beautifully shot, but I couldn't help thinking it was just very, very melodramatic and there was no good reason for Esther to be making the decisions she did--decisions she knew were stupid at the time. I guess I just didn't find Lajos as charming as he was supposed to be, and that's just something you have to take on faith.
Next up was the Serbian comedy, The Tour. Regular readers will know that I have a fondness for Serbian comedies (or really, any Balkan comedies) and they'll also know that Cinequest is the only festival I know of that plays them on a regular basis. Balkan comedies are characterized by absurd, dark, slapstick humor. In this case, it's a comedy set during the war in 1993 (because nobody knows how to throw a hilarious war like the Serbs). A theater troupe in Belgrade is mostly isolated from the war. They put on their costumes and do their plays and the bombs fall nowhere near them. But on their off day they take a paying gig of a one day performance for the soldiers near the front. Turns out it's very, very near the front, and the soldiers don't care about their stupid antics. They get stuck there much longer than intended, and at various times end up captured by Croats and Muslims. It's political, comedic, tragic all in one, walking the fine line with grace and guts. It's a movie that can make you laugh one moment then feel bad about laughing the next. I suppose it's not for everyone, but this is exactly the kind of movie that makes me love Balkan comedy movies.
And finally, Truffe is the movie so weird that it knocked The Investigator out of my #1 ranking in Cinequest (so far). A French film from Montreal, shot in black and white (and my only complaint is that many of the subtitles were white on white--very hard to read) it takes place in the near future when global warming has caused a tone of truffles to grow right in the middle of Montreal. This was great for a year, but the glut on the market has caused prices to crash. Charles is by far the best truffle hunter, with a nose of superhuman sensitivity that makes him a local celebrity. It's so good that he's attracted the attention of some weird people who run a fur scarf company. Their scarves have a nasty habit of coming to life and biting/choking people, but for some reason they're also in the truffle business, selling canned Mr Truffle brand truffles in from men with refrigerators strapped to their backs. Yeah...well, they make him an offer and he needs the money, so he goes to work for them. I don't know if it's an allegory on selling your individuality to the corporate world, or if it's just a bunch of weird stuff that happens. A sci-fi horror comedy unlike anything I've ever seen.
I see it's not playing again at Cinequest, but it's out on DVD in Canada already. Congratulations Truffe, you're the first film at Cinequest I immediately found and bought the DVD of.
And...that's it. That's Monday at Cinequest, and I'm all caught up with my reviews. I think I'll go sleep now.
First up, a brilliant Hungarian crime thriller/comedy (at least I found it funny), The Investigator. For about 5 hours, this was my favorite film of the festival (yeah, today was a good day). Tibor Malkáv is an assistant pathologist, used to looking at death and not blinking. In fact, he's unfazed by anything, although he does have a little facial tic that gives him away. When the woman at the local diner flirts with him, he brushes it off, but is willing to go to the movies with her. He's just that kind of "nothing affects me" kind of guy. However, he needs money for his mother, who's dying of cancer unless she gets into a special clinic in Sweden. It just so happens a mysterious one-eyed man who calls himself Cyclops has an offer for plenty of money--he just has to kill a guy. Easy, he's used to death, this guy must have done something wrong, and since he has no connection to the guy, he'll never be a suspect. He doesn't agonize over the decision, he just does what he has to do. Problem is, he's immediately a suspect, because there is a connection between them that he didn't know about. He established an alibi, but suddenly he has to investigate who set him up. This is something that his personality is perfect for--cool, passionless, but meticulous with keen observation skills. I won't spoil the plot, but I'll just say he's way too fuckin' cool for words, and his performance (for which he's won awards at other festivals) is one for the ages.
Next up was the other Hungarian film in the festival, and a completely different experience. Esther's Inheritance is the story of a woman and the man who robbed her many times throughout her life. 20 years ago Lajos married Esther's sister even though he was really in love with her. He's charismatic, but also a horrible, amoral thief and liar. He returns for a one day visit, and you just know he's there to steal something. Turns out, he's there to steal everything, simply be igniting lost passions. He doesn't come alone, bringing an array of people, most notably a daughter who is after her inheritance--a family ring. This was well acted and beautifully shot, but I couldn't help thinking it was just very, very melodramatic and there was no good reason for Esther to be making the decisions she did--decisions she knew were stupid at the time. I guess I just didn't find Lajos as charming as he was supposed to be, and that's just something you have to take on faith.
Next up was the Serbian comedy, The Tour. Regular readers will know that I have a fondness for Serbian comedies (or really, any Balkan comedies) and they'll also know that Cinequest is the only festival I know of that plays them on a regular basis. Balkan comedies are characterized by absurd, dark, slapstick humor. In this case, it's a comedy set during the war in 1993 (because nobody knows how to throw a hilarious war like the Serbs). A theater troupe in Belgrade is mostly isolated from the war. They put on their costumes and do their plays and the bombs fall nowhere near them. But on their off day they take a paying gig of a one day performance for the soldiers near the front. Turns out it's very, very near the front, and the soldiers don't care about their stupid antics. They get stuck there much longer than intended, and at various times end up captured by Croats and Muslims. It's political, comedic, tragic all in one, walking the fine line with grace and guts. It's a movie that can make you laugh one moment then feel bad about laughing the next. I suppose it's not for everyone, but this is exactly the kind of movie that makes me love Balkan comedy movies.
And finally, Truffe is the movie so weird that it knocked The Investigator out of my #1 ranking in Cinequest (so far). A French film from Montreal, shot in black and white (and my only complaint is that many of the subtitles were white on white--very hard to read) it takes place in the near future when global warming has caused a tone of truffles to grow right in the middle of Montreal. This was great for a year, but the glut on the market has caused prices to crash. Charles is by far the best truffle hunter, with a nose of superhuman sensitivity that makes him a local celebrity. It's so good that he's attracted the attention of some weird people who run a fur scarf company. Their scarves have a nasty habit of coming to life and biting/choking people, but for some reason they're also in the truffle business, selling canned Mr Truffle brand truffles in from men with refrigerators strapped to their backs. Yeah...well, they make him an offer and he needs the money, so he goes to work for them. I don't know if it's an allegory on selling your individuality to the corporate world, or if it's just a bunch of weird stuff that happens. A sci-fi horror comedy unlike anything I've ever seen.
I see it's not playing again at Cinequest, but it's out on DVD in Canada already. Congratulations Truffe, you're the first film at Cinequest I immediately found and bought the DVD of.
And...that's it. That's Monday at Cinequest, and I'm all caught up with my reviews. I think I'll go sleep now.
Monday, March 2, 2009
Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 5
Five more movies on Sunday. Let's get right to it.
First up was Salute: The Peter Norman Story. One of the most memorable images in Olympics history, certainly the most memorable image of the 1968 Mexico City games, is this one:
Tommie Smith on the gold medal platform, John Carlos on the bronze, fists raised in a black power salute to protest racism in America. Now look at the white guy on the podium with them. That guy is Peter Norman, Australian sprinter, who had just turned in his best time ever--20.0 seconds in the 200 meters. In any previous Olympics, that would've been a gold medal and a new Olympics record. It is still the Australian record. Now let me point out a few things about this picture. First, along with the raised fists all three athletes are wearing buttons over their left breast. These buttons are for the Olympic project for human rights. Not an IOC sanctioned organization (at the time), this was actually part of the protest, and Peter Norman took part. Another interesting bit of trivia--notice that Tommie is raising his right fist and John his left. That's because 20 minutes before the ceremony, when they decided to do it, they suddenly noticed one of them had forgotten his black gloves back at the village. It was Peter who pointed out if they're each raising one fist, they can share the pair of gloves.
Peter Norman was a devout Christian, raised in the Salvation Army to believe in equality for all. He was not uncomfortable on that podium, he supported them 100%. For his stand, he was mysteriously left off the Australian team in 1972 (they in fact took no sprinters, despite the fact that he qualified for the 200m about a half dozen times). He became lifelong friends with Smith and Carlos, touring and lecturing with them on human rights causes. When he died in 2006, they were pallbearers. He was a funny man, often joking that if the black American athletes had gone through with a proposed boycott, it would have had a profound impact on his life--he'd be a gold medalist! When a statue was erected of Smith and Carlos giving the salute at San Jose State (they were SJSU athletes, and that statue is just blocks from Cinequest) he was left off, as was his wish. Instead, the silver medal podium has a plaque dedicating that spot to Peter Norman, and inviting anyone to stand there if they want to speak out against racism. Peter Norman was a wonderful man, and this is a wonderful movie celebrating his personality and his life. Although really, it's not just about him. It could've easily been title Salute: The Tommie Smith, John Carlos, and Peter Norman Story because they have just as much screen time as him.
Next up was a comedy with the rather lofty goal of defining its generation--the video game generation. Corpse Run opens with a 1989 quote from the CEO of Nintendo, claiming that if video games really influenced kids, they would be eating little pills and listening to repetitive electronic music--cut to a scene of a rave. This is a movie unapologetically about video game geeks. It makes the case that the defining moment of the generation wasn't the space shuttle Challenger exploding, it was the release of Nintendo. It revels in leet-speak, acronyms, and its own gamer language. When they do get together in the real world, no one knows how to speak to girls (even though Brea Grant from Heroes stars as Liberty, a gamer geek chick), and they play capture the flag Sega vs. Nintendo. The film does a clever job of mixing video game style footage in with real life. And oh, yeah, there's plenty of real life in it. Really, I'm not a gamer, and only got about half of what they were talking about. But the life stuff I liked. The main real-life plotline is Nick (writer/director John-Michael Thomas) meeting and falling for Kei, a girl who's into anime as much as he is (but not into gaming). For the first time in his life, he actually doesn't feel like playing video games. Bad for his friends, who are trying to beat a rival team in some World of Warcraft knockoff (okay, I'm not even enough of a gamer to know if the game they're playing is a real or something made up for the film). It's easy to dismiss this as a gamer movie, but it's just as much about not gaming and finding your place in the real world (or possibly replacing the entire real world with a virtual one). It's a coming of age story for a generation that might or might not come of age in time for their midlife crisis.
And speaking of people who are so obsessed with some silly pastime that they never grow up, this happened to be my 100th movie (feature length program) I saw on the big screen this year. Yes, I know March just barely started. Shut up!
Next up was a good old psychological/supernatural thriller, The Skeptic. Timothy Daly stars as Bryan, a lawyer and hardcore rationalist. His aunt just died, and he doesn't get the least bit emotional because a) she never seemed to like him anyway, and b) he gets her big old house. His reaction causes some tension between him and his wife, so he goes to live in the house, although throughout the film everyone who knew him when he was a little boy warns him against it. With good reason--of course it's haunted. Of course, there's no way a rationalist skeptic like him will believe that. The only thing that bothers him is when a will shows up leaving the house to a local college's fringe science program (the professor refuses to use the world "supernatural" insisting what he's studies--ESP, etc.--is completely natural, just poorly understood). But then, when he starts hearing things he goes back to the professor for some answers. One of the more interesting dynamics is how the professor studying paranormal events is a better skeptic than Bryan. When Bryan comes to tell him he's seeing things, the professor admits there's never been a visual event that's anything more than a hallucination. To the professor, it's evidence that Bryan is cracking up, not that there are ghosts. And you know what...that just might be the case. A good story, well told, and exciting if a little conventional. Tom Arnold also co-stars and brings some good comic relief.
And then I saw what might be the toughest movie to "get" in Cinequest--Canary. Alejandro Adams makes it clear early on that he's not going to be making anything clear. For the first 10 minutes you watch a Russian family having a conversation in Russian with no subtitles (I've been told it's a really banal, boring conversation, too). The camera is hidden half behind walls, etc, making you feel a bit like a peeping tom. And in the middle of it all, a mute girl stands watching, hiding (but not very well, it seems like the family just ignores her). She holds a spray can and a small cooler with a heart logo on it. Finally it cuts to one family member lying on the floor (presumably she sprayed him) and she's smearing blue jello on his abdomen. We learn later soon that she's an organ redistribution specialist working for the Canary Corporation. But we never see an operation, never a drop of blood. We learn this through an advertising bull session where executives are throwing ideas back and forth. The key to their business is the "conscientious use" clause in their contracts. Abuse your organ, and you don't get to keep it. You can even have a Canary representative certify your baby's organs at birth, in case they need a transplant later on. Of course, that signs them up for the conscientious use contract, too. This is a world explicated through banal, sometimes bizarre conversations. Canary organ redistribution specialists flirt with the nurses in the hospital. A TV news crew pitches ideas and interviews a crackpot who thinks--for some reason--that Canary might be evil. No, Canary is good. The organs provide life for many people, not just one. And the conscientious use contract is easy to follow if you just by Canary brand organic foods. There's satire, there's allegory, there's banality and acceptance of horrific realities. Reactions I went through while watching this ranged from 'genius!' to 'what?' to 'I think this violates the conscientious use clause for my eyes!' Not an easy movie to watch, not an easy movie to understand, and not an easy movie to forget.
Oh yeah, and all the "Repo!" fans who will see this movie because of the organ repossession angle--ha ha, jokes on you!
And finally, I saw the Russian comedy The Compassionate One. A gruff Russian police officer is in charge of the local drunk tank. He abuses the prisoners with games like the "water game" (place a beer on a table, whoever can make through the fire hose to the beer gets to drink it. When no one does, drink it yourself in front of them). One night a Buddhist monk is brought in. He's not actually drunk, but because he was on the train tracks bowing at an oncoming train and got run over--sober people don't do that. He refuses to say a word, until the officer is going through the monk's meager possessions and grabs a simple little bowl, claiming it's his now. Turns out, that was the former Dalai Lama's bowl, and by claiming it he revealed himself to be the reincarnation of the holy, most compassionate, Dalai Lama. He's got a following now, whether he wants it or not. When he tells his followers to stop bowing to him and get up and go home, his words get twisted into divine wisdom. He needs to get away, so he forces a drunk tank regular to hide him in his little village. Wacky hijinx of course ensue, and he learns that a) being a spiritual leader isn't such a bad thing, and b) maybe, in his own way, he's not so bad at it.
And that was how the first weekend of Cinequest ended.
First up was Salute: The Peter Norman Story. One of the most memorable images in Olympics history, certainly the most memorable image of the 1968 Mexico City games, is this one:
Tommie Smith on the gold medal platform, John Carlos on the bronze, fists raised in a black power salute to protest racism in America. Now look at the white guy on the podium with them. That guy is Peter Norman, Australian sprinter, who had just turned in his best time ever--20.0 seconds in the 200 meters. In any previous Olympics, that would've been a gold medal and a new Olympics record. It is still the Australian record. Now let me point out a few things about this picture. First, along with the raised fists all three athletes are wearing buttons over their left breast. These buttons are for the Olympic project for human rights. Not an IOC sanctioned organization (at the time), this was actually part of the protest, and Peter Norman took part. Another interesting bit of trivia--notice that Tommie is raising his right fist and John his left. That's because 20 minutes before the ceremony, when they decided to do it, they suddenly noticed one of them had forgotten his black gloves back at the village. It was Peter who pointed out if they're each raising one fist, they can share the pair of gloves.
Peter Norman was a devout Christian, raised in the Salvation Army to believe in equality for all. He was not uncomfortable on that podium, he supported them 100%. For his stand, he was mysteriously left off the Australian team in 1972 (they in fact took no sprinters, despite the fact that he qualified for the 200m about a half dozen times). He became lifelong friends with Smith and Carlos, touring and lecturing with them on human rights causes. When he died in 2006, they were pallbearers. He was a funny man, often joking that if the black American athletes had gone through with a proposed boycott, it would have had a profound impact on his life--he'd be a gold medalist! When a statue was erected of Smith and Carlos giving the salute at San Jose State (they were SJSU athletes, and that statue is just blocks from Cinequest) he was left off, as was his wish. Instead, the silver medal podium has a plaque dedicating that spot to Peter Norman, and inviting anyone to stand there if they want to speak out against racism. Peter Norman was a wonderful man, and this is a wonderful movie celebrating his personality and his life. Although really, it's not just about him. It could've easily been title Salute: The Tommie Smith, John Carlos, and Peter Norman Story because they have just as much screen time as him.
Next up was a comedy with the rather lofty goal of defining its generation--the video game generation. Corpse Run opens with a 1989 quote from the CEO of Nintendo, claiming that if video games really influenced kids, they would be eating little pills and listening to repetitive electronic music--cut to a scene of a rave. This is a movie unapologetically about video game geeks. It makes the case that the defining moment of the generation wasn't the space shuttle Challenger exploding, it was the release of Nintendo. It revels in leet-speak, acronyms, and its own gamer language. When they do get together in the real world, no one knows how to speak to girls (even though Brea Grant from Heroes stars as Liberty, a gamer geek chick), and they play capture the flag Sega vs. Nintendo. The film does a clever job of mixing video game style footage in with real life. And oh, yeah, there's plenty of real life in it. Really, I'm not a gamer, and only got about half of what they were talking about. But the life stuff I liked. The main real-life plotline is Nick (writer/director John-Michael Thomas) meeting and falling for Kei, a girl who's into anime as much as he is (but not into gaming). For the first time in his life, he actually doesn't feel like playing video games. Bad for his friends, who are trying to beat a rival team in some World of Warcraft knockoff (okay, I'm not even enough of a gamer to know if the game they're playing is a real or something made up for the film). It's easy to dismiss this as a gamer movie, but it's just as much about not gaming and finding your place in the real world (or possibly replacing the entire real world with a virtual one). It's a coming of age story for a generation that might or might not come of age in time for their midlife crisis.
And speaking of people who are so obsessed with some silly pastime that they never grow up, this happened to be my 100th movie (feature length program) I saw on the big screen this year. Yes, I know March just barely started. Shut up!
Next up was a good old psychological/supernatural thriller, The Skeptic. Timothy Daly stars as Bryan, a lawyer and hardcore rationalist. His aunt just died, and he doesn't get the least bit emotional because a) she never seemed to like him anyway, and b) he gets her big old house. His reaction causes some tension between him and his wife, so he goes to live in the house, although throughout the film everyone who knew him when he was a little boy warns him against it. With good reason--of course it's haunted. Of course, there's no way a rationalist skeptic like him will believe that. The only thing that bothers him is when a will shows up leaving the house to a local college's fringe science program (the professor refuses to use the world "supernatural" insisting what he's studies--ESP, etc.--is completely natural, just poorly understood). But then, when he starts hearing things he goes back to the professor for some answers. One of the more interesting dynamics is how the professor studying paranormal events is a better skeptic than Bryan. When Bryan comes to tell him he's seeing things, the professor admits there's never been a visual event that's anything more than a hallucination. To the professor, it's evidence that Bryan is cracking up, not that there are ghosts. And you know what...that just might be the case. A good story, well told, and exciting if a little conventional. Tom Arnold also co-stars and brings some good comic relief.
And then I saw what might be the toughest movie to "get" in Cinequest--Canary. Alejandro Adams makes it clear early on that he's not going to be making anything clear. For the first 10 minutes you watch a Russian family having a conversation in Russian with no subtitles (I've been told it's a really banal, boring conversation, too). The camera is hidden half behind walls, etc, making you feel a bit like a peeping tom. And in the middle of it all, a mute girl stands watching, hiding (but not very well, it seems like the family just ignores her). She holds a spray can and a small cooler with a heart logo on it. Finally it cuts to one family member lying on the floor (presumably she sprayed him) and she's smearing blue jello on his abdomen. We learn later soon that she's an organ redistribution specialist working for the Canary Corporation. But we never see an operation, never a drop of blood. We learn this through an advertising bull session where executives are throwing ideas back and forth. The key to their business is the "conscientious use" clause in their contracts. Abuse your organ, and you don't get to keep it. You can even have a Canary representative certify your baby's organs at birth, in case they need a transplant later on. Of course, that signs them up for the conscientious use contract, too. This is a world explicated through banal, sometimes bizarre conversations. Canary organ redistribution specialists flirt with the nurses in the hospital. A TV news crew pitches ideas and interviews a crackpot who thinks--for some reason--that Canary might be evil. No, Canary is good. The organs provide life for many people, not just one. And the conscientious use contract is easy to follow if you just by Canary brand organic foods. There's satire, there's allegory, there's banality and acceptance of horrific realities. Reactions I went through while watching this ranged from 'genius!' to 'what?' to 'I think this violates the conscientious use clause for my eyes!' Not an easy movie to watch, not an easy movie to understand, and not an easy movie to forget.
Oh yeah, and all the "Repo!" fans who will see this movie because of the organ repossession angle--ha ha, jokes on you!
And finally, I saw the Russian comedy The Compassionate One. A gruff Russian police officer is in charge of the local drunk tank. He abuses the prisoners with games like the "water game" (place a beer on a table, whoever can make through the fire hose to the beer gets to drink it. When no one does, drink it yourself in front of them). One night a Buddhist monk is brought in. He's not actually drunk, but because he was on the train tracks bowing at an oncoming train and got run over--sober people don't do that. He refuses to say a word, until the officer is going through the monk's meager possessions and grabs a simple little bowl, claiming it's his now. Turns out, that was the former Dalai Lama's bowl, and by claiming it he revealed himself to be the reincarnation of the holy, most compassionate, Dalai Lama. He's got a following now, whether he wants it or not. When he tells his followers to stop bowing to him and get up and go home, his words get twisted into divine wisdom. He needs to get away, so he forces a drunk tank regular to hide him in his little village. Wacky hijinx of course ensue, and he learns that a) being a spiritual leader isn't such a bad thing, and b) maybe, in his own way, he's not so bad at it.
And that was how the first weekend of Cinequest ended.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 4
This was my big 7 movie day. So let's go right to the movies.
First up was a great, fun documentary, Gotta Dance. In 2007 (I think?), the New Jersey Nets put out a call for dancers for a new halftime show called "The Netsationals". The catch--the minimum age limit was 60 years. That's right, bring the grandparents out and teach them to dance hip hop. This film follows the 13 hopefuls (12 women and one man, Joe, who was surprised that all the other men who showed up for the audition were actually just there to support their wives, not to try out) selected for the inaugural season, from tryouts to practice to their performances. A couple of them are grandmothers of Nets Dancers, and it's cool how the bond with their granddaughters is strengthened by the dance team. One standout is Betty/Betsy. By day, Betsy is a kindergarten teacher, and there's nothing more important than that. She's shy and introverted, and would never get on stage and dance in front of 20,000 fans. So at night she becomes Betty, a hip-hop aficionado and the leader of the Netsationals. Anyway, starting out it looks pretty awkward as these old people try to learn to dance hip hop. They know it's silly, but they work really hard to make sure people cheer for them and laugh them, not at them. It's a really tight practice schedule, and by the time they're taking the court for their first performance, I have butterflies in my stomach. But they nail it, and suddenly everything explodes. They're in USAToday, on Good Morning America, traveling all over the country doing shows. This isn't in the movie, but director Dori Berinstein revealed in the Q&A that she's producing a "Gotta Dance" show on Broadway and putting it on a cruise line (first night is a screening of the film, the rest of the week are hip hop lessons for any seniors who want to learn, the last night is a performance from those who took the lessons). A couple of diva issues creep up, and the lead up to the second performance is even more nerve-wracking. In the final performance they do a "Anything you can do I can do better" routine with the Nets' children's dance team, that's really, really cool. Yeah, this was an excellent, fun story well worth showing up for a 10 am screening.
Next, I went to see As Simple as That, an Iranian film about the day in the life of an unhappy wife and mother. I have to confess, I'm one of the small group of cinephiles who just isn't in to Iranian film, no matter how excited the rest of the cinephile community is about it. I find it slow and boring. I always go back to Hitchcock's quote about how "some movies are a slice of life, but I want my movies to be a slice of cake". Iranian film is too much life, not enough cake for my tastes. I saw this film entirely because it fit best into my schedule in this time slot, and because I'm willing to take a chance (at Cinequest, if it's a choice between a couple hours of rest or seeing a movie I probably won't like, I'll go see the movie). Well, let me start by saying it's beautifully photographed. Taraneh is home all day, serving the demands of her children and neighbors. Although she asks for help, her son is always running up to play on the roof with his friends, her daughter accidentally lets dinner burn, her husband is home very late and is non-communicative or even oblivious (perhaps he works to hard, but he just takes her for granted). It's a story of someone who gives and gives and never gets back, and ultimately I find it impossible not to sympathize with her. Talking with a friend after the movie he pointed out that much of the difficulty is that her emotions are very supressed. She suffers silently, and there's not a great emotional outburst underlining her suffering. This is very much a cultural thing, where it's more important to be the good wife and mother rather than show your emotions, even to your closest friends. Even to those who are suffering the exact same way. In an American film, there would be a big blow-up fight. In an Iranian film, a neighbor asks for help from "a happily married woman" and she can't bring herself to confess that that's not her. So in the end, I thought this movie was okay. I'm happy I saw it, but I'm still not going to jump on the bandwagon and embrace Iranian film in general.
From Iran I moved to the Pakistan/India border dispute, with Ramchand Pakistani. Based on a true story, Ramchand is a Pakistani Hindu child from a small village near the Indian border. He belongs to the lowest caste--the untouchables. In 2002, border tensions were high over the Kashmir region. And Ramchand made the mistake of accidentally wandering across the border. He's picked up by Indian guards. So is his father when he runs over to reclaim him. And so they spend the next 4+ years in an Indian prison. The Indians (at first) assume they're Pakistani spies. The Pakistanis assume they're Indian spies (because they're Hindu). Even when it becomes clear that they're innocent, they're left to rot in prison because that's just what happens to border crossers. For the first year, they aren't even officially registered into the prison (since it's overcrowded already), and if you aren't registered of course you can't be released. But an interesting thing happens. Since prison is now their life, the movie, instead of being about injustice, becomes about life. Ramchand is growing up in prison. A new (female) guard is put in charge of him--his chores and his teaching. At first she's horrified to learn he's an untouchable, but soon she learns there are no castes in prison (which is sort of the tagline to the film). And her friendship with Ramchand is perhaps the sweetest thing in the movie. Meanwhile, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the life of Ramchand's mother back in Pakistan. She's lost a husband and a son, and her story--from grief to defiance and even at one point to acceptance and trying to move on--is just as fascinating and approached with just as much humanity as the prison story. For those looking for a happy ending, since it's a true story I don't think it's a spoiler to say that eventually they are released from prison and Ramchand is reunited with his mother (his father is released a little while later).
Then I joined my friends Ron and Yoli (Cinequest virgins) for a couple of movies. First we went for a little drink. On the way we ran into Halfdan and I introduced them. It took me a couple of years of going all out at the movies before I got to shake Halfdan's hand. They got to shake his hand before seeing film 1. That's beginner's luck.
First we went to see Shorts Program 3: Animated World. Here's the rundown:
Chainsaw: A brilliant piece about chainsaw safety, bucking bulls, sex, cheating, bullfighting, Frank Sinatra, and death. There's a segment on chainsaw safety, it changes suddenly to the death of a famous bucking bull (named Chainsaw). Then to the death of a famous bullfighter. And then just as the 'WTF?' vibe reaches its height, it ties it all together brilliantly.
Chicory and Coffee: A beautiful claymation love story of a frugal wife who substitutes chicory for her husband's coffee. When she finally passes of old age, the gruff grandfather laments that coffee will never taste the same again.
Glance Back: A day in the life of photo-realistic virtual Abraham Lincoln.
Inquisitive Snail: Hilarious. The snail learns secrets. Secrets make it fat. Secrets are delicious.
Kaleidoscoptics: Chaotic, colorful, a little perverse. I think it's fair to call this experimental.
Lies: Fast paced, three stories about lies. A conman who breaks into an office over Easter weekend and fools the guards into thinking he's an accountant. A schoolboy who steals 100 crowns from his mother's purse and then has to pretend to have stolen it elsewhere. And a drug addict who has lied her whole life. Fascinating, sometimes funny, and very fast. One of the cases when sitting in the front row does me no favors, as it's a little too fast to read subtitles and see the action.
Life on a Limb: Mortal enemies meet in a doctor's waiting room. A lumberjack...and a tree.
Our Wonderful Nature: Hilarious, hilarious slow-motion capture of two male water shrews fighting over a female. It takes seconds, but what happens if you slow it down?
Run: Stop motion music video of spiders, power sockets, spacemen, and...I don't know what. But it was cool to watch.
Slaves: Of course, we had to end with a traumatic animated documentary about childhood slavery in Africa. A little out of place, given how much laughs were in the rest of the program, but a very good movie anyway.
Then Ron, Yoli and I had to see the next film because we had already taken a ride on their couch. Billy Was a Deaf Kid is a bizarre little comedy about some really aggravating people. The film opens with the couple Archie (co-director Rhett Lewis) and Sophie (Candyce Foster) sitting on a couch, waxing their nose hairs (and for Archie, his unibrow). She slaps him a few times, because that's something she always wanted to do. His turn--he spits in her face for the exact same reason. Playful games, taken too far--that's the theme of the movie. Finally they go and rescue Archie's brother Billy (Zachary Christian) from his sister's house. Billy is deaf, but Archie straps a big clunky play radio and microphone on his head. He believes Billy can hear through that, and his belief is supposedly confirmed by a code of blinking (never mind that people always blink). Billy never speaks, rarely even reacts to the world around him. In this movie, he's really just an omnipresent prop. Well, they ride an old couch down the street, take it through the carwash (which looked kinda painful). They practice accents (Archie can't do a British accent without squinting), they run from the cops and hide in a dumpster (for no good reason). And they test their relationship--more spitting, more slapping, more testing of boundaries. That's where they become a truly aggravating couple. Many times in the movie they break up and get back together--all over the course of a day. It's that time in an evolving relationship where you can't quite just be yourself. You have to pretend to be someone more interesting, more "out there", and end up pushing it too far and being an asshole. But it sure is funny to watch.
Next up was New Brooklyn, a difficult drama about survival. Marta (Blanca Lewin, who is a huge star in her native Chile) has moved to New York to be an actress. She hasn't had much luck, and is all alone save for her roommate (and that's not so great, given what her brother Eddie does to Marta). She begs her boyfriend Alvaro to move up to New York with her, and eventually he does, just to break up with her. Meanwhile she does get work on a really shitty movie. The director's an asshole who always wants her to show a little more flesh. But one of the producers, Brad, is really nice and she's maybe falling in love with him. But as the city, Eddie, Alvaro, and life in general dumps more and more on her (her check from the movie bounces, making her lose her chance at her own apartment), she learns to find some inner strength and fight back. The scene where she gets some revenge (real and symbolic) on a subway thug drew cheers, and things might just start going her way. But this isn't a happy movie, and there isn't a happy ending for her. A downer of a story, but well made and well acted, especially by Blanca Lewin.
And after that, I finished the night with a sick, bloody werewolf womedy, Audie and the Wolf. Actually, werewolf is the wrong term, this is a were-man movie. The star is a kind wolf, the pet of a wise old Indian. However, on a full moon he turns into a bloodthirsty human. In his human form, he has no memories and is motivated only by a hunger for meat. When the feds surround and kill his Indian master, he's on his own, and wouldn't you know it, there's a full moon tonight. He's picked up by a Hollywood starlet (still in wolf form), whom he promptly kills that night (when he changes to human form). But she doesn't stay dead. Yeah, his victims become zombies. And as the body count rises, the basement starts to get crowded. Now I need to introduce Audie. She's a punk girl who works for a grocery delivery company. He calls (barely remembering how to use the phone) and asks for a delivery of meat. Somehow she shows up, although neither he nor her know the address (yeah, there are a few plot holes). There is immediate chemistry, and they fall in love--so sweet. But, of course, the body count rises (the starlet's agent, director, gardener, etc. show up, and all die). Audie brings in a psychic and a priest to try and understand his curse--they end up eaten as well. Lots of blood, and lots of laughs. Best line: "If she didn't want to be eaten, she shouldn't have been made out of meat!" I loved it.
And that was last Saturday at Cinequest. And I'm way behind in my reviews.
First up was a great, fun documentary, Gotta Dance. In 2007 (I think?), the New Jersey Nets put out a call for dancers for a new halftime show called "The Netsationals". The catch--the minimum age limit was 60 years. That's right, bring the grandparents out and teach them to dance hip hop. This film follows the 13 hopefuls (12 women and one man, Joe, who was surprised that all the other men who showed up for the audition were actually just there to support their wives, not to try out) selected for the inaugural season, from tryouts to practice to their performances. A couple of them are grandmothers of Nets Dancers, and it's cool how the bond with their granddaughters is strengthened by the dance team. One standout is Betty/Betsy. By day, Betsy is a kindergarten teacher, and there's nothing more important than that. She's shy and introverted, and would never get on stage and dance in front of 20,000 fans. So at night she becomes Betty, a hip-hop aficionado and the leader of the Netsationals. Anyway, starting out it looks pretty awkward as these old people try to learn to dance hip hop. They know it's silly, but they work really hard to make sure people cheer for them and laugh them, not at them. It's a really tight practice schedule, and by the time they're taking the court for their first performance, I have butterflies in my stomach. But they nail it, and suddenly everything explodes. They're in USAToday, on Good Morning America, traveling all over the country doing shows. This isn't in the movie, but director Dori Berinstein revealed in the Q&A that she's producing a "Gotta Dance" show on Broadway and putting it on a cruise line (first night is a screening of the film, the rest of the week are hip hop lessons for any seniors who want to learn, the last night is a performance from those who took the lessons). A couple of diva issues creep up, and the lead up to the second performance is even more nerve-wracking. In the final performance they do a "Anything you can do I can do better" routine with the Nets' children's dance team, that's really, really cool. Yeah, this was an excellent, fun story well worth showing up for a 10 am screening.
Next, I went to see As Simple as That, an Iranian film about the day in the life of an unhappy wife and mother. I have to confess, I'm one of the small group of cinephiles who just isn't in to Iranian film, no matter how excited the rest of the cinephile community is about it. I find it slow and boring. I always go back to Hitchcock's quote about how "some movies are a slice of life, but I want my movies to be a slice of cake". Iranian film is too much life, not enough cake for my tastes. I saw this film entirely because it fit best into my schedule in this time slot, and because I'm willing to take a chance (at Cinequest, if it's a choice between a couple hours of rest or seeing a movie I probably won't like, I'll go see the movie). Well, let me start by saying it's beautifully photographed. Taraneh is home all day, serving the demands of her children and neighbors. Although she asks for help, her son is always running up to play on the roof with his friends, her daughter accidentally lets dinner burn, her husband is home very late and is non-communicative or even oblivious (perhaps he works to hard, but he just takes her for granted). It's a story of someone who gives and gives and never gets back, and ultimately I find it impossible not to sympathize with her. Talking with a friend after the movie he pointed out that much of the difficulty is that her emotions are very supressed. She suffers silently, and there's not a great emotional outburst underlining her suffering. This is very much a cultural thing, where it's more important to be the good wife and mother rather than show your emotions, even to your closest friends. Even to those who are suffering the exact same way. In an American film, there would be a big blow-up fight. In an Iranian film, a neighbor asks for help from "a happily married woman" and she can't bring herself to confess that that's not her. So in the end, I thought this movie was okay. I'm happy I saw it, but I'm still not going to jump on the bandwagon and embrace Iranian film in general.
From Iran I moved to the Pakistan/India border dispute, with Ramchand Pakistani. Based on a true story, Ramchand is a Pakistani Hindu child from a small village near the Indian border. He belongs to the lowest caste--the untouchables. In 2002, border tensions were high over the Kashmir region. And Ramchand made the mistake of accidentally wandering across the border. He's picked up by Indian guards. So is his father when he runs over to reclaim him. And so they spend the next 4+ years in an Indian prison. The Indians (at first) assume they're Pakistani spies. The Pakistanis assume they're Indian spies (because they're Hindu). Even when it becomes clear that they're innocent, they're left to rot in prison because that's just what happens to border crossers. For the first year, they aren't even officially registered into the prison (since it's overcrowded already), and if you aren't registered of course you can't be released. But an interesting thing happens. Since prison is now their life, the movie, instead of being about injustice, becomes about life. Ramchand is growing up in prison. A new (female) guard is put in charge of him--his chores and his teaching. At first she's horrified to learn he's an untouchable, but soon she learns there are no castes in prison (which is sort of the tagline to the film). And her friendship with Ramchand is perhaps the sweetest thing in the movie. Meanwhile, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the life of Ramchand's mother back in Pakistan. She's lost a husband and a son, and her story--from grief to defiance and even at one point to acceptance and trying to move on--is just as fascinating and approached with just as much humanity as the prison story. For those looking for a happy ending, since it's a true story I don't think it's a spoiler to say that eventually they are released from prison and Ramchand is reunited with his mother (his father is released a little while later).
Then I joined my friends Ron and Yoli (Cinequest virgins) for a couple of movies. First we went for a little drink. On the way we ran into Halfdan and I introduced them. It took me a couple of years of going all out at the movies before I got to shake Halfdan's hand. They got to shake his hand before seeing film 1. That's beginner's luck.
First we went to see Shorts Program 3: Animated World. Here's the rundown:
Chainsaw: A brilliant piece about chainsaw safety, bucking bulls, sex, cheating, bullfighting, Frank Sinatra, and death. There's a segment on chainsaw safety, it changes suddenly to the death of a famous bucking bull (named Chainsaw). Then to the death of a famous bullfighter. And then just as the 'WTF?' vibe reaches its height, it ties it all together brilliantly.
Chicory and Coffee: A beautiful claymation love story of a frugal wife who substitutes chicory for her husband's coffee. When she finally passes of old age, the gruff grandfather laments that coffee will never taste the same again.
Glance Back: A day in the life of photo-realistic virtual Abraham Lincoln.
Inquisitive Snail: Hilarious. The snail learns secrets. Secrets make it fat. Secrets are delicious.
Kaleidoscoptics: Chaotic, colorful, a little perverse. I think it's fair to call this experimental.
Lies: Fast paced, three stories about lies. A conman who breaks into an office over Easter weekend and fools the guards into thinking he's an accountant. A schoolboy who steals 100 crowns from his mother's purse and then has to pretend to have stolen it elsewhere. And a drug addict who has lied her whole life. Fascinating, sometimes funny, and very fast. One of the cases when sitting in the front row does me no favors, as it's a little too fast to read subtitles and see the action.
Life on a Limb: Mortal enemies meet in a doctor's waiting room. A lumberjack...and a tree.
Our Wonderful Nature: Hilarious, hilarious slow-motion capture of two male water shrews fighting over a female. It takes seconds, but what happens if you slow it down?
Run: Stop motion music video of spiders, power sockets, spacemen, and...I don't know what. But it was cool to watch.
Slaves: Of course, we had to end with a traumatic animated documentary about childhood slavery in Africa. A little out of place, given how much laughs were in the rest of the program, but a very good movie anyway.
Then Ron, Yoli and I had to see the next film because we had already taken a ride on their couch. Billy Was a Deaf Kid is a bizarre little comedy about some really aggravating people. The film opens with the couple Archie (co-director Rhett Lewis) and Sophie (Candyce Foster) sitting on a couch, waxing their nose hairs (and for Archie, his unibrow). She slaps him a few times, because that's something she always wanted to do. His turn--he spits in her face for the exact same reason. Playful games, taken too far--that's the theme of the movie. Finally they go and rescue Archie's brother Billy (Zachary Christian) from his sister's house. Billy is deaf, but Archie straps a big clunky play radio and microphone on his head. He believes Billy can hear through that, and his belief is supposedly confirmed by a code of blinking (never mind that people always blink). Billy never speaks, rarely even reacts to the world around him. In this movie, he's really just an omnipresent prop. Well, they ride an old couch down the street, take it through the carwash (which looked kinda painful). They practice accents (Archie can't do a British accent without squinting), they run from the cops and hide in a dumpster (for no good reason). And they test their relationship--more spitting, more slapping, more testing of boundaries. That's where they become a truly aggravating couple. Many times in the movie they break up and get back together--all over the course of a day. It's that time in an evolving relationship where you can't quite just be yourself. You have to pretend to be someone more interesting, more "out there", and end up pushing it too far and being an asshole. But it sure is funny to watch.
Next up was New Brooklyn, a difficult drama about survival. Marta (Blanca Lewin, who is a huge star in her native Chile) has moved to New York to be an actress. She hasn't had much luck, and is all alone save for her roommate (and that's not so great, given what her brother Eddie does to Marta). She begs her boyfriend Alvaro to move up to New York with her, and eventually he does, just to break up with her. Meanwhile she does get work on a really shitty movie. The director's an asshole who always wants her to show a little more flesh. But one of the producers, Brad, is really nice and she's maybe falling in love with him. But as the city, Eddie, Alvaro, and life in general dumps more and more on her (her check from the movie bounces, making her lose her chance at her own apartment), she learns to find some inner strength and fight back. The scene where she gets some revenge (real and symbolic) on a subway thug drew cheers, and things might just start going her way. But this isn't a happy movie, and there isn't a happy ending for her. A downer of a story, but well made and well acted, especially by Blanca Lewin.
And after that, I finished the night with a sick, bloody werewolf womedy, Audie and the Wolf. Actually, werewolf is the wrong term, this is a were-man movie. The star is a kind wolf, the pet of a wise old Indian. However, on a full moon he turns into a bloodthirsty human. In his human form, he has no memories and is motivated only by a hunger for meat. When the feds surround and kill his Indian master, he's on his own, and wouldn't you know it, there's a full moon tonight. He's picked up by a Hollywood starlet (still in wolf form), whom he promptly kills that night (when he changes to human form). But she doesn't stay dead. Yeah, his victims become zombies. And as the body count rises, the basement starts to get crowded. Now I need to introduce Audie. She's a punk girl who works for a grocery delivery company. He calls (barely remembering how to use the phone) and asks for a delivery of meat. Somehow she shows up, although neither he nor her know the address (yeah, there are a few plot holes). There is immediate chemistry, and they fall in love--so sweet. But, of course, the body count rises (the starlet's agent, director, gardener, etc. show up, and all die). Audie brings in a psychic and a priest to try and understand his curse--they end up eaten as well. Lots of blood, and lots of laughs. Best line: "If she didn't want to be eaten, she shouldn't have been made out of meat!" I loved it.
And that was last Saturday at Cinequest. And I'm way behind in my reviews.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 3
Three more movies last night, let's get to it.
First off was the Mexican coming-of-age drama How Could I Not Love You?
(Como no te voy a querer). Hugo's a huge futbol fan, cheering for his local Pumas team with a group of hooligans. In fact, he dreams of someday playing for them. His family and his girlfriend Julia have other plans. They want him to study, get an education, and have a good career (instead of driving a bus like his dad). He wants nothing to do with that, preferring to pay a hooligan friend to "fix" his grade. His laziness especially causes friction with his sometimes abusive father. Especially because his father drives a bus and every week the hooligans hijack a bus to go to the Pumas game. I suspect he'd be okay with Hugo just being a soccer fan, but it's really rolling with the hooligans that upsets him.
When I first saw this, I thought it was just okay. It's well put together, with some fine acting, but nothing I haven't seen before. The themes--young love, family obligation, cycles of abuse, learning (too late) from the mistakes of your father, etc--are all things that are very common, universal themes in movies (probably in all art). But as I think on it more this morning, there's a level of realism that puts it a little notch above. It explores all those themes, but wraps none of them up cleanly. It's as messy and complex as real life. Well done.
So then, after a quick appearance at the Vivid nightclub for the official VIP Soiree, I was off to the fabulous California Theater for The Birth of a Nation. Now I must join the ever growing fraternity of film reviewers who have to reconcile the technical brilliance of this film with it's abhorrent subject matter. First for the brilliance. D.W. Griffith practically invented editing as we know it today (him and Eisenstein). The Birth of a Nation was the first "blockbuster" film, and the first to establish feature films as the standard filmgoing experience. In a time when people went to nickelodeons (i.e., paid just a nickel to get in) to see 20 minute 2-reelers, he unleashes a 3+ hour 12-reeler and people lined up to pay $2 each. 40 times the average movie rate. That's like charging $400 to see one film today, and people did that (you and 2 friends could see everything in Cinequest with a film and forum pass for that price!). And still today, the story moves along, and everything flows with a dramatic purpose. There can be no doubt that this was not just a breakthrough for its day, but dramatically (but not thematically) still holds up today. And it was the highest grossing film today until another Civil War/Reconstruction epic surpassed it--a little flick called Gone With the Wind.
Interesting, I noticed that I just raved about its technical brilliance without ever mentioning the plot. Reminds me of all the book reviews of "Lolita" that praise the language without ever mentioning it's about pedophilia. Here's the capsule summary--A northern and southern family are friends. The Civil War tears them apart. Reconstruction is even worse, as carpet-baggers and the newly enfranchised Southern black voters "crush the Southern Whites under the heels of the Southern Blacks". Finally, the Ku Klux Klan is formed to fight for the supremacy of the Southern Whites, finally ruling the day. The Union is reunited symbolically with two marriages between the Northern and Southern families.
Okay, now you should understand the moral abhorrence side of this. I can't be a Griffith apologist. This was not just a product of a different time and place, the racism isn't incidental it's intentional and the entire political point of the movie is White Supremacy. When it premiered, the fledgling NAACP protested the film, and still protest it today. And they should--it is still used as a Klan recruitment tool today, in fact its premiere spawned the creation of the modern Ku Klux Klan (the original Klan had pretty much died out, and the new Klan was about hating everyone--Jews, Catholics, etc.--not just blacks). Now I wasn't alive in 1915 when the film premiered, so I can't speak directly to the state of race relations in the U.S. at the time. I know they were much worse than today. But I get the sense that while white supremacy wasn't the radical, insane, paranoid, fringe position it is today, that Racial Equality wasn't such a radical idea, either. This was a time when we had a serious debate in our country (for several decades) about racial equality, and Birth of a Nation solidly and intentionally (not incidentally or obliquely) came out against it. There's no two ways about it, and it sickens me. That's all.
Now I'm looking forward to Intolerance next Friday. Hopefully even more impressive and a little better on the morality side.
Oh yeah, and Dennis James rocked the mighty Wurlitzer organ, as he always does!
Anyway, after all that I needed a drink and a samurai flick. The drink came courtesy of the Mosaic lounge (formerly Paragon) in the Hotel Montgomery. Sadly, since changing from Paragon they somehow got rid of any bartender who can make a decent martini (okay, in fairness I only had one. Maybe there's another bartender there who can make one).
Anyway, the final film was Samurai Avenger: The Blind Wolf. It was freakin' awesome. A low budget B-movie mashup of a spaghetti western and a samurai epic. Of course, these two genres naturally go together, just ask Akira Kurosawa (and that's the last time I'll compare this to a Kurosawa film). This "Sushi Western" is the desert quest of a blind man looking for vengeance. 8 years ago, a horrible criminal named Nathan Flesher raped and killed his wife, forced him to gouge his own eyes out, and then killed his daughter. He survived, trained, and is out for revenge. There are 7 assassins between him and his goal. Kill each one in turn, then kill Nathan Flesher. He gets some help from the mysterious Drifter (Jeffrey James Lippold, who was in attendance and had girls in the audience swooning over him). Crazy fun with witches, samurai C-sections, zombie warriors, and hypno-boobies! Yeah, hypno-boobies!
And that was Friday night at Cinequest.
Oh yeah, I saw my pass! It still exists, and is getting passed around. I saw there were a number of comments, and I'll have a big task transcribing all of them at the end (especially if this is just what I got in 3 days). Here's a little blurry sneak peak of the first page of the notepad:
Thank you everyone who has written in the notepad so far! And also feel free to e-mail me your comments on the movies. That will get them up online much earlier.
Anyway I'm off to more movies in just a bit. You probably won't read much more from me for the rest of the weekend (except on my Twitter feed). I have a massive 7 movie day today, 5 more movies tomorrow, and I'll have almost no time to write until Monday.
First off was the Mexican coming-of-age drama How Could I Not Love You?
(Como no te voy a querer). Hugo's a huge futbol fan, cheering for his local Pumas team with a group of hooligans. In fact, he dreams of someday playing for them. His family and his girlfriend Julia have other plans. They want him to study, get an education, and have a good career (instead of driving a bus like his dad). He wants nothing to do with that, preferring to pay a hooligan friend to "fix" his grade. His laziness especially causes friction with his sometimes abusive father. Especially because his father drives a bus and every week the hooligans hijack a bus to go to the Pumas game. I suspect he'd be okay with Hugo just being a soccer fan, but it's really rolling with the hooligans that upsets him.
When I first saw this, I thought it was just okay. It's well put together, with some fine acting, but nothing I haven't seen before. The themes--young love, family obligation, cycles of abuse, learning (too late) from the mistakes of your father, etc--are all things that are very common, universal themes in movies (probably in all art). But as I think on it more this morning, there's a level of realism that puts it a little notch above. It explores all those themes, but wraps none of them up cleanly. It's as messy and complex as real life. Well done.
So then, after a quick appearance at the Vivid nightclub for the official VIP Soiree, I was off to the fabulous California Theater for The Birth of a Nation. Now I must join the ever growing fraternity of film reviewers who have to reconcile the technical brilliance of this film with it's abhorrent subject matter. First for the brilliance. D.W. Griffith practically invented editing as we know it today (him and Eisenstein). The Birth of a Nation was the first "blockbuster" film, and the first to establish feature films as the standard filmgoing experience. In a time when people went to nickelodeons (i.e., paid just a nickel to get in) to see 20 minute 2-reelers, he unleashes a 3+ hour 12-reeler and people lined up to pay $2 each. 40 times the average movie rate. That's like charging $400 to see one film today, and people did that (you and 2 friends could see everything in Cinequest with a film and forum pass for that price!). And still today, the story moves along, and everything flows with a dramatic purpose. There can be no doubt that this was not just a breakthrough for its day, but dramatically (but not thematically) still holds up today. And it was the highest grossing film today until another Civil War/Reconstruction epic surpassed it--a little flick called Gone With the Wind.
Interesting, I noticed that I just raved about its technical brilliance without ever mentioning the plot. Reminds me of all the book reviews of "Lolita" that praise the language without ever mentioning it's about pedophilia. Here's the capsule summary--A northern and southern family are friends. The Civil War tears them apart. Reconstruction is even worse, as carpet-baggers and the newly enfranchised Southern black voters "crush the Southern Whites under the heels of the Southern Blacks". Finally, the Ku Klux Klan is formed to fight for the supremacy of the Southern Whites, finally ruling the day. The Union is reunited symbolically with two marriages between the Northern and Southern families.
Okay, now you should understand the moral abhorrence side of this. I can't be a Griffith apologist. This was not just a product of a different time and place, the racism isn't incidental it's intentional and the entire political point of the movie is White Supremacy. When it premiered, the fledgling NAACP protested the film, and still protest it today. And they should--it is still used as a Klan recruitment tool today, in fact its premiere spawned the creation of the modern Ku Klux Klan (the original Klan had pretty much died out, and the new Klan was about hating everyone--Jews, Catholics, etc.--not just blacks). Now I wasn't alive in 1915 when the film premiered, so I can't speak directly to the state of race relations in the U.S. at the time. I know they were much worse than today. But I get the sense that while white supremacy wasn't the radical, insane, paranoid, fringe position it is today, that Racial Equality wasn't such a radical idea, either. This was a time when we had a serious debate in our country (for several decades) about racial equality, and Birth of a Nation solidly and intentionally (not incidentally or obliquely) came out against it. There's no two ways about it, and it sickens me. That's all.
Now I'm looking forward to Intolerance next Friday. Hopefully even more impressive and a little better on the morality side.
Oh yeah, and Dennis James rocked the mighty Wurlitzer organ, as he always does!
Anyway, after all that I needed a drink and a samurai flick. The drink came courtesy of the Mosaic lounge (formerly Paragon) in the Hotel Montgomery. Sadly, since changing from Paragon they somehow got rid of any bartender who can make a decent martini (okay, in fairness I only had one. Maybe there's another bartender there who can make one).
Anyway, the final film was Samurai Avenger: The Blind Wolf. It was freakin' awesome. A low budget B-movie mashup of a spaghetti western and a samurai epic. Of course, these two genres naturally go together, just ask Akira Kurosawa (and that's the last time I'll compare this to a Kurosawa film). This "Sushi Western" is the desert quest of a blind man looking for vengeance. 8 years ago, a horrible criminal named Nathan Flesher raped and killed his wife, forced him to gouge his own eyes out, and then killed his daughter. He survived, trained, and is out for revenge. There are 7 assassins between him and his goal. Kill each one in turn, then kill Nathan Flesher. He gets some help from the mysterious Drifter (Jeffrey James Lippold, who was in attendance and had girls in the audience swooning over him). Crazy fun with witches, samurai C-sections, zombie warriors, and hypno-boobies! Yeah, hypno-boobies!
And that was Friday night at Cinequest.
Oh yeah, I saw my pass! It still exists, and is getting passed around. I saw there were a number of comments, and I'll have a big task transcribing all of them at the end (especially if this is just what I got in 3 days). Here's a little blurry sneak peak of the first page of the notepad:
Thank you everyone who has written in the notepad so far! And also feel free to e-mail me your comments on the movies. That will get them up online much earlier.
Anyway I'm off to more movies in just a bit. You probably won't read much more from me for the rest of the weekend (except on my Twitter feed). I have a massive 7 movie day today, 5 more movies tomorrow, and I'll have almost no time to write until Monday.
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