Friday, February 10, 2017

Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 6

Two more shows on Tuesday, starting with the shorts program #LOL. Hooray for funny shorts!
SWIPED: A funny little animated piece about addiction to our smart phones and tablets. Note: this was definitely not written on my phone.
FANNY PACK: An Indian father, a rebellious daughter, and a misunderstanding in the airport.
THE INSPECTOR AND THE UMBRELLA: A slapstick cartoon about an inspector whose day is ruined by an uncooperative umbrella.
THE LAST LAUGH: More of a drama about comedy, but with some classic jokes, as old comedians prepare for another show and reminisce about their long careers.
THE MASSAGE: A wife gives her husband a shoulder massage, and notices a new mole on his neck. Hypochondriac humor.
SERVAL AND CHAUMIER, MASTER OF SHADOWS: Rival magicians--one a former apprentice of the other--duel in a French village, until a new form of magic replaces them both.
SHY GUYS: The difficulties of peeing in a public restroom. Normally...talking does not help. This was the funniest one in the program.
SOIREE: You know that feeling when there's a circle of friends talking and you're trying to wedge your way into the circle? Pretty funny if you take it to the extreme.
WIFEY REDUX: From Ireland, even if your marriage has grown stale, a father will do anything to make sure his daughter is happy. Wait, that sounded kind of creepy. It's not...too much.

And then we ended the night with the feature ZEN DOG. Okay, I have to start by saying I didn't know anything about Alan Watts prior to this film. And judging by the response, you kind of have to be a fan to really dig this film. At least, you have to be somewhat familiar with his work on lucid dreaming. Without that, for me this became one of those 'beautifully shot lullabies' that had pleasing visuals and kind of put me to sleep. Which...in a way made this film a kind of lucid dream for myself. The plot, as I could follow, was about Mud (yes, our hero is literally named Mud) and his boring day job running a failing VR company. So his cousin turns him on to lucid dreaming, and he ends up going on a bizarre cross-country trip in his dreams--and in a psychedelic VW. Well made, and pretty cool, but I don't think I was the target audience. The target audience thought it was a brilliant masterpiece.

Total Running Time: 189 minutes
My Total Minutes: 417,448

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