Four more programs on Sunday, the last day of the short-but-intense festival.
The first two programs were short programs, starting with the local high school program REEL FRESH. This is the program of shorts made by students in video production classes in the Santa Cruz County Regional Occupational Program (ROP).
Ummm...this was almost two weeks ago, and I don't have a list of the films with descriptions. I do remember being pretty darn impressed at what high school kids could do. And I remember it ended with one that turned into a documentary about why their movie project failed, and it was pretty funny. But other than that...sorry I don't remember them that well.
Then graduating from high school to college we saw the UCSC shorts program Desire Obscured. This time I do have the advantage of a list of films, so here we go.
UNTITLED: An experimental, backwards, hand-drawn animated piece about memories of childhood.
BITS AND PIECES: Home movies...pieced together...to make...I don't know what.
DAYDREAMERS: A student's mind wanders, and in her wandering mind, she lives in a musical.
RUNNERS, SWIMMERS, BANDERS, AND TRACKERS: A sort of "ride-along" documentary on the day in the life of scientists tracking and banding birds in the South Bay.
A RIFT BETWEEN: The difficulties of trying to reconnect after years of estrangement.
I'M BLACK AND I THINK I SHOULD BE PROUD: A personal documentary, using Superman as a jumping off point, about white people dominating the television landscape and a dearth of black role models.
FERN BABY FERN: A woman and her prize-winning fern...who becomes a little too emotionally attached with her.
LOVE, OBSESSION, DESIRE: Director Carmella Crissman explores issues of femininity, sports, and body perception in a series of scenes dressing (and undressing) her in a baseball uniform and a dress...and playing baseball in a dress...and really, really enjoying holding a bat in her hands.
HIGH WIND ADVISORY: A daughter interviews her father on camera about his cross-dressing, which he kept secret for so long. Issues of trust are brought to the surface.
VENUS: A black and white animated homage to Venus Xtravaganza, who...I admit I had to look up on Wickipedia to understand who she was.
PRIMAL: Stan is bullied by Ted, just for talking to his ex-girlfriend Sarah. Sarah defends Ted. More bullying, leading up to a horrible event in a pool, that leaves everything changed.
FRAGMENTS: An experimental piece made from what looks like 8 mm home movies.
Then the next show was a short followed by a feature. First the short, MAGI, about the magic of Christmas. Specifically, about how on Christmas an excited little boy learns something about how sick with cancer his mom really is, and what sacrifice really means. Very sweet, and a little heartbreaking.
And that led into the feature documentary, ANNIE: IT'S A HARD KNOCK LIFE. It's a behind the scenes look at the recent Broadway revival of Annie. Specifically, about the kids and the choreography behind the featured song "It's a Hard Knock Life." There's some historical context from the writers of the musical, a little dig at the movie for making the song too fun, a nod to Jay Z and how he re-purposed the song to apply to life in the ghetto. But most of all, it's about the kids. Starting with auditions, we see how hard they work to get the steps right, how hard the choreographer works with them (and doesn't seem to know how to tackle it until very near the end) and how they somehow still manage to stay kids and laugh and have fun with it. It's a pretty pleasant film, and leaves the audience with a smile (this isn't a hard-hitting exposé on the working conditions of child actors--by all accounts they seem well taken care of.) I was just hoping all the way through we'd finally get a performance of the full song...and spoiler alert, that's exactly what you get for the finale.
And finally (only two and a half weeks late with this post) I ended the festival with the very funny CEMENT SUITCASE. Franklin is a wine salesman in Yakima Valley. And he's good at his job--he's very personable, knows a lot about wine, and gets people to laugh and buy a lot. Only problem is, he hates his job. It's not fulfilling. Instead, he has all these wild, impractical ideas that aren't of any financial value--like building a structure out of shopping carts and calling it Carthenge. Plus, he finds out his girlfriend is cheating on him and he...does nothing about it. Actually, he befriends the guy. Oh, and he can't keep up with the mortgage payments on his mom's house, so he's looking for a roommate. The only guy to answer his listing is an eccentric who breaks into his house. They have wacky adventures (including an explanation of the title) and despite a major nervous breakdown, Franklin ends up...well, somewhere. It's a movie that encourages you to...if not follow your dreams, at least indulge the crazy ideas you have, even if you can't make a living off them. Maybe not the most practical message, but it sure is fun to watch.
And that's my (very late) take on the 2013 version of the Santa Cruz Film Festival.
Total Running Time: 349 minutes
My Total Minutes: 342,365
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Jason goes to the Santa Cruz Film Festival--Saturday, November 9th
Okay, I'm officially waaaaay behind on my blogging, so this will have to be unfortunately short.
First up on Saturday was a program of LGBTQ themed shorts collectively titled Genre Queer:
CHANGE OVER TIME: Genre - avant garde/experimental. Subject - sex reassignment. In an autobiographical, semi-animated poem director Ewan Duarte examines his first year on testosterone therapy and contemplates the changes ahead of him.
CONTRIBUTION OF A VERSE: The struggles of Jo, a genderqueer teenager who has been kicked out of her home. She lives in her car, showers in the school locker room before classes, and scrounges for whatever food she can find. A tough life, with almost no support, and invisible to the teachers.
PLANÈTE ROUGE: Two gay men in Los Angeles meet on grindr and go on a date. A look at a first date that's as sweet, tender, and (extra)ordinary as any first date.
STRAIGHT DOWN LOW: An adolescent noir film with a gay twist. A smart young man investigates a gang murder, with some surprising results.
Then the next show was the documentary MUSICWOOD, and it was a real surprise. Starting with the fine are of guitar-making, it gives a quick primer on the specific types of wood that are best for making guitars. And it specifically focuses on the spruce that is the best wood for the face/soundboard of the guitar. See, a lot of the woods used in making fine guitars are actually being rapidly depleted. And given that you need a pretty large piece to make a guitar face, you specifically need old growth spruce. So the film moves to southeast Alaska, home of the largest forests of old-growth Sitka Spruce in the world. The thing is, these forests are under the control of the Sealaska native corporation, and without a lot of other economic opportunity, they're being rapidly clear-cut. Just a tiny fraction of the wood goes to guitars, but the luthiers (did you know that's the word for guitar makers? I didn't, and I find that pretty cool) have a pretty vital interest in keeping enough old-growth trees around for their needs. So enter a three-way discussion between Sealaska (who wants economic activity), Greenpeace (who wants an end to clear-cutting, period) and the guitar makers (who want a sustainable source of spruce). Sometimes things get tense, sometimes they're downright cordial. To many natives, their visit is kind of a wake up call that they've gotten away from the land. On the other hand, they don't really have a lot of other opportunities. And on the other other hand (apparently this is a three-handed issue, at least) many of the natives complain that they don't see any of the benefits of the timber industry and the pollution has actually decimated their subsistence fishing. It seems like the obvious solution is to get Forest Stewardship Council certification, ensuring that the forestry practices are sustainable, and allowing them to charge more for their wood. But at least by the end of the movie, that's still not settled and negotiations were strained to the breaking point. I don't know if there are updates on this, but the movie gives you a good overview of the issue, from an interesting point of view, and full of gorgeous shots of Southeast Alaska forests (and illuminating shots of clear-cut forests.)
The next program started withe the short BARE AS YOU DARE: PORTLAND'S WORLD NAKED BIKE RIDE. Umm...that's exactly what it sounds like. The world naked bike ride is a (counter-)cultural phenomenon that takes place in several cities, and Portland's is one of the biggest. We get to briefly meet some of the participants--from long-time riders and organizers to first-time riders who are nervous not just about riding naked but about being in a movie about it. And we also get to see some of the audience and their reactions--from stunned, to amused, to wanting to join in.
And that was the lead-in to the feature, THE ORGANIC LIFE. Director Casey Beck turns her camera on her boyfriend, Austin Blair for a year-in-the-life look at the grueling, low-paid, but somehow rewarding work of being a certified organic farmer. Spurred heavily by his desire to eat good food, Austin starts working for Paul’s Produce in Sonoma, CA. Paul Wirtz proves to be an excellent mentor for Austin, and Austin's enthusiasm invigorates Paul. In fact, in the Q&A afterwards Casey and Austin revealed that one of the original ideas for the film was to focus on the relationship between Paul and Austin. Unfortunately, Paul simply isn't very charismatic on camera, and they wisely chose to focus the film on their own relationship instead. So we get to see the frustrating moments, the times when they (Casey especially) question the decision (did she really study film to live on a farm?) And it becomes more than just a story about growing organic vegetables. It's a story about growing a life, about creating a home, and about two people sharing their life. And that's pretty freakin' cool.
And then a real oddity, DIAMOND ON VINYL. Henry has an odd...hobby? Fascination? Quirk? I don't know what to call it, but he likes to record conversations, play them back, and study them. He's a big fan of the Safe at Home series--records of people having mundane conversations. The idea is you play them when you're out so that would-be burglars think people are home (what happens if you're out for more than 90 minutes? Umm....) Anyway, his latest recording--of him and his fiancee having sex--doesn't go over so well when she finds out about it. Even less well when she rewinds the tape and hears him practicing proposing to her...including him voicing his own doubts. Well, she kicks him out, he obsesses over her. He meets a fun, spontaneous young female photographer (the opposite of everything he is) who...fixes him? Not really? Breaks him? He was already kind of broken. But definitely dangerous, as they act out various imagined/practiced conversations and blur the line between fantasy and reality. Not said in all of this is what the heck is up with Henry anyway. It's never said, but I assumed he had some sort of high-functioning Aspergers Syndrome that made him unable to carry on a real, spontaneous conversation and so he was practicing every possible conversation in order to fit in.
Then I skipped the late movie to go to the Big Lebowski party instead. Interesting, Indiefest has done this party for ten years in San Francisco. This is the first year of doing it in Santa Cruz, and nearly everyone upon entering the party went straight to the screening room to watch the movie. I, instead, had an obligatory White Russian before moving on to "oat soda" and having...several of those. Hung out with The Dude and Walter for quite a while, somehow ended up at a vegetarian restaurant downtown at ~3 am before heading back to the hotel to sleep it off. Woke up with quite the hangover the next morning, but that's a story for a different blog post.
Total Running Time: 306 minutes
My Total Minutes: 342,016
First up on Saturday was a program of LGBTQ themed shorts collectively titled Genre Queer:
CHANGE OVER TIME: Genre - avant garde/experimental. Subject - sex reassignment. In an autobiographical, semi-animated poem director Ewan Duarte examines his first year on testosterone therapy and contemplates the changes ahead of him.
CONTRIBUTION OF A VERSE: The struggles of Jo, a genderqueer teenager who has been kicked out of her home. She lives in her car, showers in the school locker room before classes, and scrounges for whatever food she can find. A tough life, with almost no support, and invisible to the teachers.
PLANÈTE ROUGE: Two gay men in Los Angeles meet on grindr and go on a date. A look at a first date that's as sweet, tender, and (extra)ordinary as any first date.
STRAIGHT DOWN LOW: An adolescent noir film with a gay twist. A smart young man investigates a gang murder, with some surprising results.
Then the next show was the documentary MUSICWOOD, and it was a real surprise. Starting with the fine are of guitar-making, it gives a quick primer on the specific types of wood that are best for making guitars. And it specifically focuses on the spruce that is the best wood for the face/soundboard of the guitar. See, a lot of the woods used in making fine guitars are actually being rapidly depleted. And given that you need a pretty large piece to make a guitar face, you specifically need old growth spruce. So the film moves to southeast Alaska, home of the largest forests of old-growth Sitka Spruce in the world. The thing is, these forests are under the control of the Sealaska native corporation, and without a lot of other economic opportunity, they're being rapidly clear-cut. Just a tiny fraction of the wood goes to guitars, but the luthiers (did you know that's the word for guitar makers? I didn't, and I find that pretty cool) have a pretty vital interest in keeping enough old-growth trees around for their needs. So enter a three-way discussion between Sealaska (who wants economic activity), Greenpeace (who wants an end to clear-cutting, period) and the guitar makers (who want a sustainable source of spruce). Sometimes things get tense, sometimes they're downright cordial. To many natives, their visit is kind of a wake up call that they've gotten away from the land. On the other hand, they don't really have a lot of other opportunities. And on the other other hand (apparently this is a three-handed issue, at least) many of the natives complain that they don't see any of the benefits of the timber industry and the pollution has actually decimated their subsistence fishing. It seems like the obvious solution is to get Forest Stewardship Council certification, ensuring that the forestry practices are sustainable, and allowing them to charge more for their wood. But at least by the end of the movie, that's still not settled and negotiations were strained to the breaking point. I don't know if there are updates on this, but the movie gives you a good overview of the issue, from an interesting point of view, and full of gorgeous shots of Southeast Alaska forests (and illuminating shots of clear-cut forests.)
The next program started withe the short BARE AS YOU DARE: PORTLAND'S WORLD NAKED BIKE RIDE. Umm...that's exactly what it sounds like. The world naked bike ride is a (counter-)cultural phenomenon that takes place in several cities, and Portland's is one of the biggest. We get to briefly meet some of the participants--from long-time riders and organizers to first-time riders who are nervous not just about riding naked but about being in a movie about it. And we also get to see some of the audience and their reactions--from stunned, to amused, to wanting to join in.
And that was the lead-in to the feature, THE ORGANIC LIFE. Director Casey Beck turns her camera on her boyfriend, Austin Blair for a year-in-the-life look at the grueling, low-paid, but somehow rewarding work of being a certified organic farmer. Spurred heavily by his desire to eat good food, Austin starts working for Paul’s Produce in Sonoma, CA. Paul Wirtz proves to be an excellent mentor for Austin, and Austin's enthusiasm invigorates Paul. In fact, in the Q&A afterwards Casey and Austin revealed that one of the original ideas for the film was to focus on the relationship between Paul and Austin. Unfortunately, Paul simply isn't very charismatic on camera, and they wisely chose to focus the film on their own relationship instead. So we get to see the frustrating moments, the times when they (Casey especially) question the decision (did she really study film to live on a farm?) And it becomes more than just a story about growing organic vegetables. It's a story about growing a life, about creating a home, and about two people sharing their life. And that's pretty freakin' cool.
And then a real oddity, DIAMOND ON VINYL. Henry has an odd...hobby? Fascination? Quirk? I don't know what to call it, but he likes to record conversations, play them back, and study them. He's a big fan of the Safe at Home series--records of people having mundane conversations. The idea is you play them when you're out so that would-be burglars think people are home (what happens if you're out for more than 90 minutes? Umm....) Anyway, his latest recording--of him and his fiancee having sex--doesn't go over so well when she finds out about it. Even less well when she rewinds the tape and hears him practicing proposing to her...including him voicing his own doubts. Well, she kicks him out, he obsesses over her. He meets a fun, spontaneous young female photographer (the opposite of everything he is) who...fixes him? Not really? Breaks him? He was already kind of broken. But definitely dangerous, as they act out various imagined/practiced conversations and blur the line between fantasy and reality. Not said in all of this is what the heck is up with Henry anyway. It's never said, but I assumed he had some sort of high-functioning Aspergers Syndrome that made him unable to carry on a real, spontaneous conversation and so he was practicing every possible conversation in order to fit in.
Then I skipped the late movie to go to the Big Lebowski party instead. Interesting, Indiefest has done this party for ten years in San Francisco. This is the first year of doing it in Santa Cruz, and nearly everyone upon entering the party went straight to the screening room to watch the movie. I, instead, had an obligatory White Russian before moving on to "oat soda" and having...several of those. Hung out with The Dude and Walter for quite a while, somehow ended up at a vegetarian restaurant downtown at ~3 am before heading back to the hotel to sleep it off. Woke up with quite the hangover the next morning, but that's a story for a different blog post.
Total Running Time: 306 minutes
My Total Minutes: 342,016
Friday, November 15, 2013
Jason goes to Midnites for Maniacs for a triple-bill of Acid Westerns
I'm a week behind on my blogging, and in some ways that's a good thing. It gave me some time to think about what to write (so it will be all the more disappointing in the moments where I got nothing.)
THE LONE RANGER (2013): Midnites for Maniacs mission statement is to honor and appreciated unseen, under-appreciated films. I read Jesse Hawthorne Ficks review of THE LONE RANGER too late to catch it when it was still in it's regular theatrical run (full disclosure for those who don't know, Jesse also runs Midnites for Maniacs and has been pushing this movie for months.) Re-reading it today...I'm tempted to just say "me too" and be done with it. He certainly points out a lot of things that bewildered, angered, or bored many critics, and interprets them in a way that makes it clear that the filmmakers are a lot smarter than their critics. In full disclosure, the one thing I couldn't quite reconcile on my first viewing was the slapstick self-parody moments in what I thought was a surprisingly deep movie. I felt it undercut the fact that's smarter and deeper than most people will acknowledge, sort of saying "hey, don't take me seriously" even though it makes some pretty good points. But Jesse makes some good points about that, and convinces me (not that I wasn't already convinced) that I should watch this again.
This movie is in large part an origins story, but not really about the origins of the character of the Lone Ranger. It's about the origins of the myth. It's about how--and why--we tell stories (specifically stories about America, and stories on film). It's weird that the first (that I caught) of dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of movie references is to THE RED BALLOON. This is chock full of movie references, from the origin of cinema with THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY to...well, at least to Verbinski and Depp's first PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN. And that's more than just a game for cinephiles, this movie is obsessed with the art of telling stories--and making you think about storytelling.
Now the elephant in the room, is that this is Tonto's story far more than the Lone Ranger's. It's actually told by an aged Tonto in 1920's San Francisco to a young boy in a Lone Ranger mask. And for about half the movie I was thinking 'If only they had called the movie TONTO instead, people would have loved it.' It would be like WICKED retelling THE WIZARD OF OZ from the witch's point of view (not that Tonto is ever the villain, but retelling stories from a non-traditional point of view has been pretty popular in modern literature for quite a while.) But then something pretty cool happens. John Reid (Armie Hammer) finally understands why Tonto kept telling him to wear the mask, and he puts the mask on. And when see him shortly afterwards, and the William Tell Overture plays...well, my heart started racing. I finally got to root for him, and it was all the better for knowing I was doing it for the right reasons. For nearly two hours this movie had told me to forget everything I know about the Lone Ranger, to even hate the myth or at least feel guilty about the white male-centric nature of it. And then it gave me a Lone Ranger to believe in, and earned it's title.
Jesse ends his review with some thoughts about Tonto's meditative walk during the end credits, and speculated about its meaning. Here's my thought. Just before the credits rolled, Tonto finishes telling his story to the little boy in San Francisco. He (the little boy) thinks about it, puts his Lone Ranger mask on, and says, "Never take off the mask." I think Tonto's walking off to finally rest and pass away in peace knowing that at long last he finally told his story to someone who got it.
And now it's way too tempting to think about that in terms of the success (or lack thereof) of the movie. Verbinski et al. actually knew they were making a movie that's difficult to get. A movie that takes multiple viewings (and on screens bigger than your damn phone.) And maybe they can let this movie rest peacefully if at least one kid gets it. I'm pretty sure I'm not (yet) that 'kid who gets it.' I'm not sure that Jesse Ficks, as big a fan as he is, is the 'kid who gets it.' I'm not sure if Quentin Tarantino, who has an intimidating knowledge of film and put this on his top ten of the year list, is the 'kid who gets it.' I'm not sure that there is any 'kid who gets it' yet, really. But if all it takes is one...I'm convinced it can happen. But it will be quite an undertaking, because this movie is big and deep.
DEAD MAN (1995): Well, after THE LONE RANGER left my head kind of spinning, almost anything would be a bit of a let down. So I was grateful to follow this with a movie I had seen before. But only on home video, and not since it was first out. It's slow, it's black and white, it's poetic, it's weird. Johnny Depp as William Blake (not the old English poet, but you'll be forgiven for that mistake) arrives in a frontier town with a letter offering him a job as an accountant. But he's too late, the job has already been filled. And he's out of money, and he meets a girl, and he sort of kills the guy who is attacking her. Which is bad, because he's the son of the guy who runs the town (same guy who through him out on his ear.) So wounded and hunted, he goes on the run and meets an Indian named Nobody (Gary Farmer) who becomes his guide to...well, to fulfilling his death. I think there's something wrong with me that when I saw it back in college I didn't run out and learn all about William Blake's poetry (or his drawings.) When I was in college, I thought I was deep and smart for liking it. Now I feel shallow and dumb for realizing how little I get this. Also, I'll confess that I kind of dozed off for some parts of it.
WALKER (1987): And finally, after a theater crawl to the Roxie, we got this piece of the extreme weirdness. Alex Cox (REPO MAN, REVENGERS TRAGEDIE) directed Ed Harris in this story based on the real life William Walker. In the beginning, he's the leader of a band of American mercenaries in Mexico, facing certain annihilation. But a freak sandstorm gives them cover to escape and he returns to America where he's promptly put on trial. He gets off pretty easily (there's a strange air about him that no matter how many bad things happen he's supremely confident, calm, and sure of success). Cornelius Vanderbilt calls for a meeting with him, and tasks him with leading a coup in Nicaragua to secure transportation lines between the Atlantic and Pacific (this was in the 1850's, well before the Panama canal.) So he goes...and he slaughters them. And he makes deals with the local officials. And the locals fight back. And he promises him men no harm will come to them even as they're being slaughtered. And he becomes President...for a year, before everyone rises up, overthrows him, and executes him. Basically his story is the least successful version of 'White American sticks his nose where it doesn't belong and screws everything up' ever. And the contrast between the action on screen and his hilariously upbeat letters home is priceless...and resonates with other recent "They'll greet us as liberators!" moments.
And that was M4M's salute to Acid Westerns. Next month for Christmas on December 20th they'll be doing HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS (1995), LOVE ACTUALLY (2003) and...we don't know yet.
Total Running Time: 364 minutes
My Total Minutes: 341,710
THE LONE RANGER (2013): Midnites for Maniacs mission statement is to honor and appreciated unseen, under-appreciated films. I read Jesse Hawthorne Ficks review of THE LONE RANGER too late to catch it when it was still in it's regular theatrical run (full disclosure for those who don't know, Jesse also runs Midnites for Maniacs and has been pushing this movie for months.) Re-reading it today...I'm tempted to just say "me too" and be done with it. He certainly points out a lot of things that bewildered, angered, or bored many critics, and interprets them in a way that makes it clear that the filmmakers are a lot smarter than their critics. In full disclosure, the one thing I couldn't quite reconcile on my first viewing was the slapstick self-parody moments in what I thought was a surprisingly deep movie. I felt it undercut the fact that's smarter and deeper than most people will acknowledge, sort of saying "hey, don't take me seriously" even though it makes some pretty good points. But Jesse makes some good points about that, and convinces me (not that I wasn't already convinced) that I should watch this again.
This movie is in large part an origins story, but not really about the origins of the character of the Lone Ranger. It's about the origins of the myth. It's about how--and why--we tell stories (specifically stories about America, and stories on film). It's weird that the first (that I caught) of dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of movie references is to THE RED BALLOON. This is chock full of movie references, from the origin of cinema with THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY to...well, at least to Verbinski and Depp's first PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN. And that's more than just a game for cinephiles, this movie is obsessed with the art of telling stories--and making you think about storytelling.
Now the elephant in the room, is that this is Tonto's story far more than the Lone Ranger's. It's actually told by an aged Tonto in 1920's San Francisco to a young boy in a Lone Ranger mask. And for about half the movie I was thinking 'If only they had called the movie TONTO instead, people would have loved it.' It would be like WICKED retelling THE WIZARD OF OZ from the witch's point of view (not that Tonto is ever the villain, but retelling stories from a non-traditional point of view has been pretty popular in modern literature for quite a while.) But then something pretty cool happens. John Reid (Armie Hammer) finally understands why Tonto kept telling him to wear the mask, and he puts the mask on. And when see him shortly afterwards, and the William Tell Overture plays...well, my heart started racing. I finally got to root for him, and it was all the better for knowing I was doing it for the right reasons. For nearly two hours this movie had told me to forget everything I know about the Lone Ranger, to even hate the myth or at least feel guilty about the white male-centric nature of it. And then it gave me a Lone Ranger to believe in, and earned it's title.
Jesse ends his review with some thoughts about Tonto's meditative walk during the end credits, and speculated about its meaning. Here's my thought. Just before the credits rolled, Tonto finishes telling his story to the little boy in San Francisco. He (the little boy) thinks about it, puts his Lone Ranger mask on, and says, "Never take off the mask." I think Tonto's walking off to finally rest and pass away in peace knowing that at long last he finally told his story to someone who got it.
And now it's way too tempting to think about that in terms of the success (or lack thereof) of the movie. Verbinski et al. actually knew they were making a movie that's difficult to get. A movie that takes multiple viewings (and on screens bigger than your damn phone.) And maybe they can let this movie rest peacefully if at least one kid gets it. I'm pretty sure I'm not (yet) that 'kid who gets it.' I'm not sure that Jesse Ficks, as big a fan as he is, is the 'kid who gets it.' I'm not sure if Quentin Tarantino, who has an intimidating knowledge of film and put this on his top ten of the year list, is the 'kid who gets it.' I'm not sure that there is any 'kid who gets it' yet, really. But if all it takes is one...I'm convinced it can happen. But it will be quite an undertaking, because this movie is big and deep.
DEAD MAN (1995): Well, after THE LONE RANGER left my head kind of spinning, almost anything would be a bit of a let down. So I was grateful to follow this with a movie I had seen before. But only on home video, and not since it was first out. It's slow, it's black and white, it's poetic, it's weird. Johnny Depp as William Blake (not the old English poet, but you'll be forgiven for that mistake) arrives in a frontier town with a letter offering him a job as an accountant. But he's too late, the job has already been filled. And he's out of money, and he meets a girl, and he sort of kills the guy who is attacking her. Which is bad, because he's the son of the guy who runs the town (same guy who through him out on his ear.) So wounded and hunted, he goes on the run and meets an Indian named Nobody (Gary Farmer) who becomes his guide to...well, to fulfilling his death. I think there's something wrong with me that when I saw it back in college I didn't run out and learn all about William Blake's poetry (or his drawings.) When I was in college, I thought I was deep and smart for liking it. Now I feel shallow and dumb for realizing how little I get this. Also, I'll confess that I kind of dozed off for some parts of it.
WALKER (1987): And finally, after a theater crawl to the Roxie, we got this piece of the extreme weirdness. Alex Cox (REPO MAN, REVENGERS TRAGEDIE) directed Ed Harris in this story based on the real life William Walker. In the beginning, he's the leader of a band of American mercenaries in Mexico, facing certain annihilation. But a freak sandstorm gives them cover to escape and he returns to America where he's promptly put on trial. He gets off pretty easily (there's a strange air about him that no matter how many bad things happen he's supremely confident, calm, and sure of success). Cornelius Vanderbilt calls for a meeting with him, and tasks him with leading a coup in Nicaragua to secure transportation lines between the Atlantic and Pacific (this was in the 1850's, well before the Panama canal.) So he goes...and he slaughters them. And he makes deals with the local officials. And the locals fight back. And he promises him men no harm will come to them even as they're being slaughtered. And he becomes President...for a year, before everyone rises up, overthrows him, and executes him. Basically his story is the least successful version of 'White American sticks his nose where it doesn't belong and screws everything up' ever. And the contrast between the action on screen and his hilariously upbeat letters home is priceless...and resonates with other recent "They'll greet us as liberators!" moments.
And that was M4M's salute to Acid Westerns. Next month for Christmas on December 20th they'll be doing HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS (1995), LOVE ACTUALLY (2003) and...we don't know yet.
Total Running Time: 364 minutes
My Total Minutes: 341,710
Friday, November 8, 2013
Jason goes to the Santa Cruz Film Festival--Opening Night
I haven't been to the Santa Cruz Film Festival since...[looks up his records]...2007. And even then I only made it down for one movie. Mostly that's because of a combination of A) it's kind of a long schlep down there, and B) it used to be in the spring, and butted up against the big San Francisco International Film Festival, which took all my time and energy. Well, two things happened in the past year that made me give it another look: A) it moved to the fall, which...is still heavy with lots of mini-festivals (e.g., 3rd i, the SFFS Fall Season, Jewfest South, etc.) but doesn't have the the big dog dominating the calendar, and B) Jeff Ross, the impresario or Indiefest, joined their team as director. Now he doesn't really do any programming of the movies, but he puts on a darn good festival and I like to support his work (and I'm looking forward to the Lebowski Party on Saturday).
Anyway, after fighting a little bit of traffic down from Palo Alto after work, I made it there with about 15 minutes to spare before the opening night film, GOODBYE GAULEY MOUNTAIN: AN ECOSEXUAL LOVE STORY. Beth Stephens and her wife Annie Sprinkle travel to West Virginia (the state where Beth was born and raised) to protest mountain top removal (MTR) by coal mining companies. But they're not your typical eco-warriors. Annie is a former sex worker/current sex educator and they are both "Ecosexuals." That is, they take tree-hugging a bit to the extreme side. They don't think of "mother" Earth, but instead take the Earth as a lover, engaging in the sensual delights of nature (I've never seen so many vaguely erotic shots of tomatoes in my life.) And they ceremonially marry various aspects of nature--the water, the sky, and in this instance the Appalachian Mountains. That's the climax of the movie, and it's pretty fun, but the journey there is even more interesting. They meet a variety of locals, including legendary (and recently deceased) Keeper of the Mountains Larry Gibson. He's an inspiring guy and a lot more should be devoted to him in another movie (sadly, he's not around to give any more interviews).
The movie played to a very like-minded audience in Santa Cruz, and of course I'm like-minded as well (fuck MTR! I don't care if half the electricity in the U.S. comes from coal. It shouldn't, and even so we used to be able to extract coal without blowing up entire mountains.) But for my money the best scene of the movie was when they had a surprisingly agreeable conversation with a guy (the boyfriend...or husband? I wan't quite sure...of Beth's childhood friend) who considers himself a tree-hugger but still supports MTR. It's in no small part because his livelihood depends on it, and his argument eventually devolves to 'In The Bible, God gave man dominion over nature' but it felt like the one time the thesis of the film (MTR is bad, and here's a creative way to combat it) was challenged. This is my personal taste, but I'd rather see a film that challenges my beliefs than one that reinforces them.
Running Time: 70 minutes
My Total Minutes: 341,346
Anyway, after fighting a little bit of traffic down from Palo Alto after work, I made it there with about 15 minutes to spare before the opening night film, GOODBYE GAULEY MOUNTAIN: AN ECOSEXUAL LOVE STORY. Beth Stephens and her wife Annie Sprinkle travel to West Virginia (the state where Beth was born and raised) to protest mountain top removal (MTR) by coal mining companies. But they're not your typical eco-warriors. Annie is a former sex worker/current sex educator and they are both "Ecosexuals." That is, they take tree-hugging a bit to the extreme side. They don't think of "mother" Earth, but instead take the Earth as a lover, engaging in the sensual delights of nature (I've never seen so many vaguely erotic shots of tomatoes in my life.) And they ceremonially marry various aspects of nature--the water, the sky, and in this instance the Appalachian Mountains. That's the climax of the movie, and it's pretty fun, but the journey there is even more interesting. They meet a variety of locals, including legendary (and recently deceased) Keeper of the Mountains Larry Gibson. He's an inspiring guy and a lot more should be devoted to him in another movie (sadly, he's not around to give any more interviews).
The movie played to a very like-minded audience in Santa Cruz, and of course I'm like-minded as well (fuck MTR! I don't care if half the electricity in the U.S. comes from coal. It shouldn't, and even so we used to be able to extract coal without blowing up entire mountains.) But for my money the best scene of the movie was when they had a surprisingly agreeable conversation with a guy (the boyfriend...or husband? I wan't quite sure...of Beth's childhood friend) who considers himself a tree-hugger but still supports MTR. It's in no small part because his livelihood depends on it, and his argument eventually devolves to 'In The Bible, God gave man dominion over nature' but it felt like the one time the thesis of the film (MTR is bad, and here's a creative way to combat it) was challenged. This is my personal taste, but I'd rather see a film that challenges my beliefs than one that reinforces them.
Running Time: 70 minutes
My Total Minutes: 341,346
Jason goes to Jewfest South and finds that THE WORLD IS FUNNY
Back at the SVJFF for antother movie last Wednesday night.
THE WORLD IS FUNNY is the first half of a line (ending with "...and so we laugh") made popular by the Israeli comedy group HaGashash HaHiver. I had never heard of them before but apparently they were (still are?) hugely popular cultural icons and the pride of Tiberias, a town of some ~40,000 people in the north of Israel on the Sea of Galilee. I had never heard of them before, but the opening text made it clear that they are the inspiration behind this film (whether it's made in a style similar to their comedy, or just made by fans depicting fans, I can't really say.) The movie also takes place in Tiberias, and follows a loosely connected cast through...well, not really comic adventures. More like tragedy, or comi-tragedy. The title doesn't really refer to actual humor, but to how laughter is used to dispel anxiety...in life in general and in Israel in particular. There's a man coping with his girlfriend's terminal brain cancer. A father and son who bring their eldest son home from the hospital after waking up from a 10-year coma. A young cleaning woman who visits everyone, a writing workshop, a mysterious pregnancy, a much less mysterious pregnancy. It would be impossible to try to describe the plot (although I guess I just did) precisely because there isn't much of one. A lot of stuff happens, but it's more about getting to briefly know these characters, their anxieties, and how they deal with it through comedy--particularly the comedy of HaGashash, whose lines they quote to each other (and one member shows up for the climax to the film, explaining that since one of the original trio is dead, there can be no reunion.)
Incidentally, from what I can glean a lot of their humor was elaborate wordplay, which would make it pretty hard to translate for a non-Hebrew speaking audience. Kind of like explaining Abbot and Costello's "Who's on First?" to non-English speakers (or those who don't know baseball, for that matter.)
Running Time: 122 minutes
My Total Minutes: 341,276
THE WORLD IS FUNNY is the first half of a line (ending with "...and so we laugh") made popular by the Israeli comedy group HaGashash HaHiver. I had never heard of them before but apparently they were (still are?) hugely popular cultural icons and the pride of Tiberias, a town of some ~40,000 people in the north of Israel on the Sea of Galilee. I had never heard of them before, but the opening text made it clear that they are the inspiration behind this film (whether it's made in a style similar to their comedy, or just made by fans depicting fans, I can't really say.) The movie also takes place in Tiberias, and follows a loosely connected cast through...well, not really comic adventures. More like tragedy, or comi-tragedy. The title doesn't really refer to actual humor, but to how laughter is used to dispel anxiety...in life in general and in Israel in particular. There's a man coping with his girlfriend's terminal brain cancer. A father and son who bring their eldest son home from the hospital after waking up from a 10-year coma. A young cleaning woman who visits everyone, a writing workshop, a mysterious pregnancy, a much less mysterious pregnancy. It would be impossible to try to describe the plot (although I guess I just did) precisely because there isn't much of one. A lot of stuff happens, but it's more about getting to briefly know these characters, their anxieties, and how they deal with it through comedy--particularly the comedy of HaGashash, whose lines they quote to each other (and one member shows up for the climax to the film, explaining that since one of the original trio is dead, there can be no reunion.)
Incidentally, from what I can glean a lot of their humor was elaborate wordplay, which would make it pretty hard to translate for a non-Hebrew speaking audience. Kind of like explaining Abbot and Costello's "Who's on First?" to non-English speakers (or those who don't know baseball, for that matter.)
Running Time: 122 minutes
My Total Minutes: 341,276
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Jason goes to Jewfest South--Sunday, Nov 3
A couple more Jew-flicks last Sunday, so let's jump right in.
We started with the documentary KOCH, a mostly-loving tribute to Ed Koch, the man and legend who for some time dominated and defined New York City. Now I know pretty much nothing about New York City politics today, much less 1978-89 when he was mayor. So I can't really render an opinion of the man as a leader. I can say that the movie shows quite a few people remembering him fondly, and more than a couple who remember him with disgust. They say he was an enemy to black people (although he got their support in his first mayoral race, he then shut down an culturally important but expensive hospital in Harlem.) They say he was an enemy to gays (although he did campaign for and implement some anti-discrimination laws, he didn't do much about the AIDS crisis when it was first exploding.) They also say that he was gay (In his first campaign--against Mario Cuomo--there were signs saying "Vote for Cuomo, not the homo.") In fact, a lot of the conflict with the gay community seemed to stem from the belief that he was gay but refused to come out of the closet, robbing them of an important political ally. There's a very interesting part where Koch in 2012 answers those rumors with a very well-articulated response--essentially amounting to "it's none of your damn business and I refuse to answer so that others won't have to answer either" that is simultaneously utterly convincing and convinces me he really was gay. But so what? There's so much more to him. The cantankerous, sharp-elbowed, rough-edged New Yorker who brought the city back from the brink of bankruptcy, replaced blighted, abandoned neighborhoods with new public housing (really the first city to do this, back when Reagan was gutting the federal housing projects) and...well, again I know nothing of New York politics, but if this movie is to be believed he made New York what it is today. And I guess that's a good thing. The movie takes place shortly before he passed away, during the time when the Queensboro Bridge was being named after him. And it shows a man who--though getting on in years--could still motivate a crowd and loved being important more than anything else.
Next up was CLOSED SEASON, a very interesting WWII drama. It's told in a flashback by an Israeli man retelling his story to a young visitor who claims to be his biological son--which gives away a great deal of the plot there. A Jew on the run is discovered by a German farmer who is illegally hunting a deer. Taking pity, he brings the young man home, and even though his wife is nervous (she's clearly not a fan of Jews, and even less a fan of getting into trouble for one) he puts him up in the barn in exchange for various chores. And since the farmer is impotent the most important chore is to father a child for him. Yeah, with the wife whose not really happy with it but goes along out of a sense of duty. At least...at first it's a sense of duty. Then the physical contact leads to emotional connections, and...well...when she does get pregnant she decides not to tell her husband right away so they can try at least a few more times. Needless to say, trouble ensues. I fear I might have given too much away in this review, but believe me I've left quite a few twists out. I'll just leave it at that and say it's a very interesting and slightly disturbing film.
I didn't stick around for ROMAN POLANSKI: A FILM MEMOIR because A) I'd already seen it before and B) I'm not really a fan of how it portrayed his legal troubles. But if you want to read what I wrote about it last year at Jewfest North, go here (about halfway down the page.)
Total Running Time: 199 minutes
My Total Minutes: 341,154
We started with the documentary KOCH, a mostly-loving tribute to Ed Koch, the man and legend who for some time dominated and defined New York City. Now I know pretty much nothing about New York City politics today, much less 1978-89 when he was mayor. So I can't really render an opinion of the man as a leader. I can say that the movie shows quite a few people remembering him fondly, and more than a couple who remember him with disgust. They say he was an enemy to black people (although he got their support in his first mayoral race, he then shut down an culturally important but expensive hospital in Harlem.) They say he was an enemy to gays (although he did campaign for and implement some anti-discrimination laws, he didn't do much about the AIDS crisis when it was first exploding.) They also say that he was gay (In his first campaign--against Mario Cuomo--there were signs saying "Vote for Cuomo, not the homo.") In fact, a lot of the conflict with the gay community seemed to stem from the belief that he was gay but refused to come out of the closet, robbing them of an important political ally. There's a very interesting part where Koch in 2012 answers those rumors with a very well-articulated response--essentially amounting to "it's none of your damn business and I refuse to answer so that others won't have to answer either" that is simultaneously utterly convincing and convinces me he really was gay. But so what? There's so much more to him. The cantankerous, sharp-elbowed, rough-edged New Yorker who brought the city back from the brink of bankruptcy, replaced blighted, abandoned neighborhoods with new public housing (really the first city to do this, back when Reagan was gutting the federal housing projects) and...well, again I know nothing of New York politics, but if this movie is to be believed he made New York what it is today. And I guess that's a good thing. The movie takes place shortly before he passed away, during the time when the Queensboro Bridge was being named after him. And it shows a man who--though getting on in years--could still motivate a crowd and loved being important more than anything else.
Next up was CLOSED SEASON, a very interesting WWII drama. It's told in a flashback by an Israeli man retelling his story to a young visitor who claims to be his biological son--which gives away a great deal of the plot there. A Jew on the run is discovered by a German farmer who is illegally hunting a deer. Taking pity, he brings the young man home, and even though his wife is nervous (she's clearly not a fan of Jews, and even less a fan of getting into trouble for one) he puts him up in the barn in exchange for various chores. And since the farmer is impotent the most important chore is to father a child for him. Yeah, with the wife whose not really happy with it but goes along out of a sense of duty. At least...at first it's a sense of duty. Then the physical contact leads to emotional connections, and...well...when she does get pregnant she decides not to tell her husband right away so they can try at least a few more times. Needless to say, trouble ensues. I fear I might have given too much away in this review, but believe me I've left quite a few twists out. I'll just leave it at that and say it's a very interesting and slightly disturbing film.
I didn't stick around for ROMAN POLANSKI: A FILM MEMOIR because A) I'd already seen it before and B) I'm not really a fan of how it portrayed his legal troubles. But if you want to read what I wrote about it last year at Jewfest North, go here (about halfway down the page.)
Total Running Time: 199 minutes
My Total Minutes: 341,154
Jason watches CAPTAIN PHILLIPS
Huh, somehow with all the film festivals and everything else going on, I found time for a mainstream movie. And it was a pretty good one. Tom Hanks, of course, does a great job. So does everyone else. And Paul Greengrass (BOURNE SUPREMACY, UNITED 93) does a great job of making it feel very real. In fact, that was the major response I had immediately after watching it--it felt very, very real (because, of course, it's based on a true story.) And that overwhelmed me so much that it wasn't until a couple of days later that I realized how different and subversive it really is. I'm going to have to get into spoilers here, but since the story was plastered all over the news just a few years ago, I think that can be forgiven. In any case, don't say you weren't warned.
For the first half of the movie, it plays out like a tight, expertly-crafted action/suspense film. Tom Hanks is cool and collected as Capt. Phillips. He doesn't have weapons, but he has guile and knowledge of his ship. He's very clever at getting messages to his hidden crew letting them know exactly what needs to be done. And it's effective...up to a point. Once the pirates shove him into the lifeboat and launch into the water to head to Somalia, it's a different ballgame and a different movie. And it's not just that Phillips is reduced to nothing more than a hostage, it's that the central conflict in the movie changes. Instead of wily Capt. Phillips vs. vicious pirates, it's 4 young, scared Somali boys against the might of the U.S. Navy. Not that you necessarily root for them, it's that you root for a resolution without bloodshed (alas, knowing the real story that's just not to be. Maybe a later generation that doesn't know the story would have a more fulfilling time with the movie.) In the end, the greatest trauma Capt. Phillips experiences isn't having his ship taken over or being a hostage, it's having three kids shot right in front of him and their blood splattering all over him. And that's unlike any action movie I've ever seen. Bravo, Paul Greengrass!
Running Time: 134 minutes
My Total Minutes: 340,955
For the first half of the movie, it plays out like a tight, expertly-crafted action/suspense film. Tom Hanks is cool and collected as Capt. Phillips. He doesn't have weapons, but he has guile and knowledge of his ship. He's very clever at getting messages to his hidden crew letting them know exactly what needs to be done. And it's effective...up to a point. Once the pirates shove him into the lifeboat and launch into the water to head to Somalia, it's a different ballgame and a different movie. And it's not just that Phillips is reduced to nothing more than a hostage, it's that the central conflict in the movie changes. Instead of wily Capt. Phillips vs. vicious pirates, it's 4 young, scared Somali boys against the might of the U.S. Navy. Not that you necessarily root for them, it's that you root for a resolution without bloodshed (alas, knowing the real story that's just not to be. Maybe a later generation that doesn't know the story would have a more fulfilling time with the movie.) In the end, the greatest trauma Capt. Phillips experiences isn't having his ship taken over or being a hostage, it's having three kids shot right in front of him and their blood splattering all over him. And that's unlike any action movie I've ever seen. Bravo, Paul Greengrass!
Running Time: 134 minutes
My Total Minutes: 340,955
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