Jason goes to SF International--day 4

Yesterday (Saturday) I started off with a challenge--"Colossal Youth", so today I decided to start light, with "Up, Up, and Away", a collection of family friendly short films. Let's jump right in:
"First Flight"--I've seen this one before, but I don't remember where. An uptight businessman learns to loosen up to help a baby bird learn to fly.
"Dorme"--An awesome visual trip through dreamland. Here's a pic of the director Sylvia Binsfield, star Zachary Nascar, and cinematographer Svetlana Cvetko:


And here's another pic of the dreaming boy Zachary Nascar with the little emperor in his dream, Brent Sakihara:


"Knuffle Bunny"--A very sweet story of parents, their baby girl, and her stuffed bunny. Based on a kid's book of the same name.
"Ricochet"--Marbles, racism, politics, and learning to share.
"The Fan and the Flower"--I've seen this before, too. Bill Plympton's one non-f'ed up movie, about the love affair between a ceiling fan and a potted plant.
"I Want to Be a Pilot"--In the slums of East Africa, a little boy dreams of flying to a world where his parents are still alive, he's not impoverished, and kids aren't afraid to play with him just because he's HIV positive. Kind of heavy for a kids movie.
"Peter Pan Has Grown Up and John Lennon Is Dead"--But Peter Pan still visits kids and shares Tinkerbell with kids who need a little hope.
"Ride of the Mergansers"--A short documentary about the birth and first days of a clutch of hooded merganser hatchlings. Adorable.

And the I went to another shorts program, the distinctly not kids-friendly "Desperately Seeking Images". Here we go:
"Woman and Gramophone"--Woman, alone, bored, plays things other than records on her record player.
"We Are Everywhere"--A bit of quick thinking saves some youths from getting mugged.
"Tube With A Hat"--A father/son journey to repair a busted television set in Romania.
"Greyhounds"--Two couples--one considerably more sexually free (and believe German is the sexiest language in the world), spend a night of drinking. I had to look up that a greyhound is a drink made from vodka and grapefruit juice.
"Waiting For Yesterday"--Okay, this movie was one of the awesomest I've seen in a while. Everyone lives backwards (dies, then grow young, then are born). Except one guy is bumped in the bathroom by a guy fleeing the authorities, and he suddenly starts living forward. The revolution is on, bitches!
"Dear Bill Gates"--An e-mail on video to Bill Gates, regarding Corbis--his underground archive of images, the largest such private archive in the world. Connections between Microsoft, archiving, images, and the fire still buring under Centralia, PA (see my review of "The Town That Was").
"Strip Show"--People make strange requests to an internet porn star. Things like make a banana smoothie, drink it, light your high school diploma on fire, buy fire insurance...we have great rates!
"Making the Balkans Erotic"--A short doc on the making of an art installation "Balkan Erotic Epic". Here's some interesting tidbits of Balkan culture and tradition: Men traditionally hump the ground to make it more fertile. During inclement weather, women will lift their skirts and expose themselves because Balkan gods are afraid of vaginas. Oh, the things I learn at film festivals.
"Nude Caboose"--Guy Maddin goes hi-tech in this cell phone video story of a conga line, chasing the tail, and butt-punching. I love Guy Maddin, can't wait for his "Brand on the Brain" later in the festival.

So after the pair of shorts programs, it was time for a documentary. Specifically, "All in This Tea" about famed local tea importer David Lee Hoffman. Hoffman is a big proponent of chinese teas (traditionally most teas in the U.S. are from India) and local organic farming. He's an adventurer and world traveller who travels to China, buys tea directly from the farmers (stuffing his nose into big bags of tea), and imports it to the US, bypassing (sort of, as much as he can politically) the Chinese factory tea production. He was the only foreigner invited to China's first conference on organic tea. Directors Les Blank (who travelled to China with him) and Gina Leibrecht have crafted an engaging movie about a Hoffman's boundless enthusiasm. And in the end, it's about as exciting as a documentary about tea can be. It made me want to have a good cup of tea. Here's a pic of (left to right) David Lee Hoffman, Gina Leibrecht, and Les Blank.
Oh yeah, and the movie also featured a cameo by Werner Herzog, the famed director and star of Les Blank's short movie "Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe" (to settle a bet with then-fledgling documentarian Errol Morris). But I digress....

Next up was a South African indie comedy "Bunny Chow". The day before they planned to start shooting their script about stand up comedians travelling to a gig at a rock festival, their producers pulled out the funding, so they shot the whole thing guerilla style--black and white, sneaking their cameras around the festival without permits. The name comes from a traditional snack treat--a loaf of bread hollowed out and filled with a spicy curry of veggies and meat (sounds freakin' delicious, I want one!) The dish is a metaphor for the mixing pot that is South Africa, particularly in the youth overcoming their history of Apartheid. Three young comedians are struggling both professionally and in their personal love lives. Kags is kind of the ringleader, a bit of a bully (verbal, not physical), and a womanizer. Joey is a goofy looking (i.e., has hair like mine) Muslim (but not really devout, although he gets pissed when his girlfriend feeds him pork). And Dave is the new guy in the group, funny in person but a disaster on stage. Though the story kind of meanders, the energy is always high, it's more about the wild characters than the narrative. And ultimately, it's about learning to be yourself. Pretty good. Here's a pic of director John Barker:


And finally, there was the Brazilian poor black youth drama, "The 12 Labors". The main character is Heracles, a young man who's been to juvenille prison, but is trying to turn his life around. But as his name and the title suggest, doing so in the slums of Brazil is a Herculean achievement. His cousin helps him get a job as one of São Paulo's many motorcycle delivery boys. It's a dangerous profession, mostly involving careening through the busy traffic at high speeds. And his twelve labors are more about intelligence and keeping his cool in the face of overt racism--things like having to climb 25 flights of stairs to make a delivery when the freight elevator is out and the security guard won't let him on the passenger elevator (simple solution, climb one flight and catch the elevator on the second floor). So many times he has the chance to lash out at the injustice of society, but it's his Herculean task to move beyond it and better himself. Very well done, once I finally understood it (it took me about 1/2 way through to "get it"). Here's a pic of director Ricardo Elias:


And that was Sunday at the festival. Two more movies tonight.

Jason goes to SF International--day 3

I should start with a note about the new Kabuki theater. The longtime home of the festival used to be owned by AMC, but when they bought up the Metreon, anti-monopoly rules forced them to sell the Kabuki. And the buyer was Sundance, making it their first Sundance theater. They've remodeled all the auditoriums (except for the big screen #1) with stadium seating, and it still has that new theater smell. Nice. Anyway, although it's a bit far from home, and I'm typically only here for festivals, I'll be keeping an eye on how Sundance runs a theater. First thought, though, is stadium seating reduces the capacity, which might be okay normally (I don't know if it's usually full), but is a drawback during the festival.

Okay, on to the movies. First up was the challenging Portuguese movie "Colossal Youth". Pedro Costa's near-documentary on the slums of Lisbon. Shot with non-actors (and the third in a series of which I haven't seen the first two). The central character is "papa" Ventura, a resident of a nearly empty slum that's being torn down. He's being relocated to a nice, clean (sort of sterile) new apartment, but continues returning to his old slum, visiting with his "children" in both locations. It's a challenging film--2 1/2 hours with no real narrative. I found myself daydreaming on more than one occasion, but was quickly drawn back by his interesting compositions and use of light and shadows. It almost worked for me as a series of fascinating paintings (owing to his always static camera).

Then there was a distinct change of pace (for the better) with the samurai revenge comedy "Hana". Souza is a ronin (masterless samurai) in a time with no war, when samurai are generally worthless. However, he is on a revenge quest to kill the man who killed his father. Problem is, he's kind of an inept swordsman, better suited to teaching writing and abacus. Still, he finds his place in the country, meeting and befriending a nice widow and her eight year old son. So it kind of complicates things when the target of his revenge turns out to live in town. But, through a little cleverness, he manages to satisfy his revenge requirement and "make rice cakes out of shit"--which is the films central metaphor.

So after that, I had to run out of the credits to catch the Italian film "The Caiman". Both beginning and ending with a film-within-the-film, it's the comic-political story of Bruno, a film producer who's down on his luck. He hasn't made a film since his last action flop "Cataracts", which he made with his wife who now wants to separate. His Columbus epic is floundering, but his luck turns around when he's given a script by novice Teresa. The script is for "The Caiman", the story of a guy who gets a pile of money (billions of lira) literally dropped on him from the sky. Skimming through it, he sees it's a comic romp in which the lead starts a TV station, buys his own town, gets into politics, and gets into trouble when the authorities question where he got the money. But he doesn't read carefully enough to get that it's about Prime Minister Berlusconi. Suddenly he finds himself making the sort of lefty political film he's always avoided. He himself voted for Berlusconi, but the crew is dedicated and most would work for free. It's simultaneously a filmmaking satire and a political satire. And for me, as a novice in Italian politics (although I do know who Berlusconi is), the filmmaking part works best (not that I'm a filmmaker either, but I've met enough and seen enough movies about movies to know a bit). Still, even without knowing Italian politics, I found it hilarious.

And then, with barely a break, I saw "Jindabyne". This is actually being released by Sony Pictures Classics, so it's normally a film I'd avoid at a festival, but it worked best in my schedule. It's an Australian picture starring Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney. They're a married couple with a young son in a small Australian town of Jindabyne. He owns a service station and is a hard-working man. His one big vacation of the year is a fishing trip. But this year, they find something unexpected--the body of an aborigine woman. However, since they don't know her, it's too late for her, and they have no cell phone reception, they decide to finish the weekend of fishing rather than hike back to the road and report it immediately. This turns out to be a bad decision, as all the hatred that should be aimed at the unknown killer is instead aimed at them, and the racist implications tear the town apart. I mentioned the "unknown" killer, but in fact he's introduced early to the audience and is there through the whole movie as an ominous presence. But there's really where this deviates sharply from a Hollywood flick. It's never about finding the bad guy and bringing him to justice. That's too simplistic--black and white. Instead it's about finding the good and bad in a good guy who did a bad thing and bringing the community to resolution. It's an excellent drama, full of complex characters and great acting..

And then it was time to drink some free Stella Artois. Years ago the midnight movies used to be sponsored by Guinness (and used to all be at 11:30 or later, but that's another rant), and old-timers like me remember those days fondly. Nothing against Stella Artois, it just seems that Guinness, as a very dark beer, is more appropriate for the late shows. Anyway, as sponsor Stella Artois gets to run their commercial (tagline: "perfection has its price") before the movie. Friday night I got the brilliant idea to punctuate Stella's ad by shouting out the Guiness "brilliant!" It was a huge comic hit, and produced a few echoes in the audience. So Saturday I repeated it, and still got a laugh and a heckler calling out "you said that last night!" It still warmed the cockles of my heart. And if there's one thing I love more than movies, it's warm heart cockles.

Anyway....

The late show last night was "Ghost Train", a j-horror flick about a haunted subway tunnel. It throws just about every j-horror trick (creepy artifacts, close-ups on eyes, deformed photographs, grey-skinned ghosts jumping out of the shadows) at you, and what it might lack in creativity, it makes up for in energy and humor. It starts with a little boy finding a lost subway pass, then shortly thereafter being taken from the train by a ghost. Then a little girl, Noriko, finds the same pass, turns it in, and shortly thereafter goes missing. So her smart but awkward big sister Nana goes searching for her, and with the help of her new friend (who used to shun her, but is now trapped by a demonic bracelet found on the train) and a disgraced train driver (forced into office work for seeing demons on the tracks) she uncovers a horrible secret past to the tunnel. But not before the ghosts get their fair share of scares (and kills). Well done, showing there's still a little life left in j-horror.

Jason goes to SF International Film Festival--day 2

Or day 1 for me, since I didn't shell out $50 for opening night. By the way, absolutely no one took me up on my offer/challenge to suggest what movies I should see. That's still available, I've only tentatively scheduled myself through Sunday.

Anyway, I saw two movies tonight. First up was "Falling", and I've already used my freedom to change my mind at the last minute. I was going to see "Unforseen", a documentary about the battle over a housing development. Then I re-read the description of "Falling" and saw the word "Altmanesque" which beat out the fact that it was a chick flick about a reunion of women who were high school friends. I was immediately pleased with my decision when one of them burst into uncontrollable laughter during their former teacher's funeral (it wasn't because of him, but over the children's choir's singing). So begins a day that begins with a funeral, proceeds to a wedding, and is full of drinking between and after (except for the pregnant one of the bunch, she's actually conscientious about avoiding booze). It's very funny, with some stabs at pathos, and oddly punctuated with very American music (oh yeah, it's an Austrian film).

Then I had quite a long break, almost an hour (I'm not sure yer, but it seems this year the festival is programmed to frustrate my attempts at seeing as many movies as possible. For example, if the "late" show were at midnight instead if 10:45, I could've fit another movie in.) Then I drank as much free Stella Artois beer as I could. Then I saw "Black Sheep". Gore, comedy, and sheep from the first country I think of for all three--New Zealand. Director Jonathan King owes a debt to Peter Jackson--not just for paving the way with "Bad Taste" and "Braindead", but for creating WETA Workshop which did the monster sheep effects. A story of monster zombie sheep, created by...ahem.. "unconventional" breeding methods. The half-sheep, half-human hybrids run amok, and wacky hijinx ensue. There's also some good fun poked at stupid organic farming hippies. Awesome!

And that was my first night of SFIFF. Tomorrow I plan on seeing: "Colossal Youth", "Hana", "The Caiman", "Cecile B. DeMille-American Epic" and "Ghost Train". But please, convince me to see your favorites instead. Or tell me what to see later in the week.

Jason watches "Zodiac"

I've been meaning to see it for a while, and just caught it before it left theaters for good. I saw it at the Cerrito Speakeasy, the sister theater of the Parkway. It was my first time at the theater, and they have a pretty nice setup, and of course beer and pizza (although I only had one beer, not a full pitcher like I had with "Grindhouse").

Anyway, as far as the movie, I was most interested in seeing it because it's directed by David Fincher. With a resume that includes "Alien 3" and "Fight Club", it's fair to say his career has had its ups and downs (although I actually have a soft spot for "Alien 3", in a nihilistic, fuck-you-world way, even more than "Fight Club"). But the real surprise is he hasn't made a movie in 5 years. "Panic Room" wasn't bad, it was just needlessly indulgent in places (what's with flying the camera through the handle of a coffee mug? What does that show other than David Fincher has a hard-on for visual tricks?). Well, in "Zodiac" Fincher plays everything pretty straight. Not many tricks other than one scene where Robert Graysmith (Jake Gylenhaal) hallucinates Zodiac's cipher symbols all over the newsroom. Even the violence, while there, is sedate in comparison to his earlier works. It's as if Fincher is making a concerted effort to just tell the story in as straightforward a manner as possible. The result is a perfectly good movie, particularly the stellar cast (Gylenhaal, Robert Downey Junior, Mark Rufallo, and even the supporting characters like Philip Baker Hall, Brian Cox, Anthony Edwards, Chloë Sevigny, etc.) It also has a flair for making the excruciating minutiae of police work and inter-jurisdictional squabbles interesting. Ultimately, it's hampered somewhat by the fact that it's officially an unsolved case and so there isn't a big resolution, although it does point to a likely suspect. And interestingly, 3 different actors play the Zodiac in different murder scenes, none of whom plays the main suspect, so trying to glimpse his face in the shadows will just frustrate you.

In the end, it plays everything so straight, and is so long (2 hours, 38 minutes) that it started to stretch my patience. It remained interesting the whole time, but in a way I kind of missed Fincher's earlier visual showmanship, even if it was kind of distracting in "Panic Room".

Jason watches "Grindhouse"--again

At the Parkway, drinking beer and eating pizza, like God intended. Congratulations to "Grindhouse" on being the first movie I've watched twice this year.

In other news, I've heard that test screenings of a split-up "Grindhouse" completely bombed over the weekend. So it's staying on as one movie. Hooray! On the other hand, it's been a commercial disappointment. Booooo! But here's my thoughts, for what it's worth. There's no reason that should've cost $50M+. Don't get me wrong, I think it's brilliant and worth ever penny, and $50M is not much for a Hollywood movie. But they could've gone for even more of a low-budget gritty cheesiness (or cheesy grittiness) and brought it in under $10M, and that could've been even more in keeping with the grindhouse aesthetic. So for the sequels, don't even worry about being the #1 movie or getting it into 4,000 screens. Go for the cult appeal, and just go all-out, low-budget, sleazy insanity. Who cares if the herd doesn't like it, pander to the sickos like me!

Other thoughts on seeing the movie again: How did I forget to mention that Tom Savini tears it up in a brilliant role as the deputy in "Planet Terror"? I loved the Quentin Tarantino cameos in both movies, but it's weird that when he's on screen, it immediately becomes his movie. That's fine in "Death Proof", which is his movie, but it's kind of unsettling in "Planet Terror". Mainly because he feels like more of a Tarantino character than a Rodriguez character. Understandable, but I think Rodriguez let Tarantino be a little self-indulgent in his cameo (still, gotta love "rapist #1"). And finally, the Parkway had a genuine intermission between the movies, which was awesome (for people who had drunk lots of beer and really needed to pee). More kudos to the Parkway for totally getting it!

And finally, a guy at Sleazy Sundays suggested to me that in "Death Proof", the first half is a movie within a movie and the second half is real. That is, Kurt Russel is playing an actor playing a character named Stuntman Mike. The first half is the movie within the movie, then in the second half he goes a little nuts and believes himself to be that character, but totally fails at it, getting his ass kicked by a bunch of girls. Perhaps he believes his lines about the car being death proof and thinks he's invincible. It would explain why he suddenly becomes such a whiny little wimp after getting shot. But then again, getting shot would explain that, too. Ultimately, it's an interesting theory, and I can't reject it outright, but I don't really buy it. But come to think of it, does his scar disappear in the second half? I don't recall. Damn, now I'll have to see it a third time!

Jason watches the final Sleazy Sunday--"Gone to the Grindhouse"

Sigh, I wish every day could be a Sleazy Sunday!

Okay, first up was the original grindhouse exploitation trash classic, 1934's "Maniac" by Dwain Esper. And as an extra bonus, it was introduced by Dwain Esper's grandson Damin Esper. Here's a pic to prove it:

Okay, the movie itself borrows liberally (i.e., steals) from Frankenstein and from Edgar Allan Poe. Couched (barely) as an educational film about various stages of psychosis/dementia, it's the story of a mad scientist who has developed a way to bring the dead back to life by transplanting a beating heart he keeps in a jar. However, his assistant Buckley (who's really only good at impersonations) fails to find him an acceptable specimen. So the scientist comes up with a brilliant plan--order Buckley to shoot himself and then he'll bring him back to life. Unfortunately, Buckley doesn't like the plan, so instead he shoots the doctor and starts impersonating him (see, his skills come in handy). Then things get weird, with a cat-eyeball eating scene and some pre-Hays code boobies (sort of, apparently this was after the code went into effect, but before it was really enforced).

Next up was the utterly hilarious "Preacherman". Albert Viola plays (and is credited as) the titular lecherous preacherman Amos Huxley. After being caught with the sheriff's daughter, he's run out of town and beaten unconscious. He wakes up after being rescued by moonshiner Clyde and his beautiful and horny daughter Mary Lou. Wacky freakin' hijinx (often musical hijinx) ensue as the the preacherman spends time "ministering" to Mary Lou (in the guise of the angel Leroy) and running the moonshine operation with the stated aim to raise money to build a church. Freakin' hilarious! And I just hope someday to be able to use the line, "I'm going to close every hole you've got, and open up some new ones!"

And finally, it just got crazier with "The Black Gestapo". Watts. Mid-70's. The neighborhood is run by the mob (the least convincing mob ever, as the white muscle looks more like undercover cops than gangsters, but they are pretty freakin' cruel). The People's Army, under command of General Ahmed tries to defend the people and ease suffering by running a food store and detox clinic. But Colonel Kojah has more militant plans to defend their turf by confronting and killing the mobsters. He's successful, but then moves in on their gambling and prostitution business, being an even worse boss than the mob was. So General Ahmed has to take his army back. A ridiculously cheesy morality play about power corrupting, bursting into a cinematic orgy of black-on-black crime. Wow.

And that's Sleazy Sundays.

Jason watches "Hot Fuzz"

And it's hilarious. 'nuf said.

Okay, I'll say a little more. Not only do they do to action movies what they did to horror movies in "Shaun of the Dead", they also do a pretty good job of throwing in sly references to their first movie. That is, they simultaneously mock, pay homage to, and make a better movie than the majority of the genre. And they do a great job of mocking small town values. Or rather, instead of the values themselves, they mock the obsession with small town values. Excellent, brilliant, and deserves an even higher score than their 88% fresh rating on rottentomatoes.

Oh yeah, and even with just the little teaser, I can't wait to see Simon Pegg in "Run, Fatboy, Run" this fall.

Okay, that's it.