Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 4

On Friday, I watched some movies, then wrote about them

First show started with the short NIGHT FISHING WITH CORMORANTS. A beautifully flowing, abstract, musical film with dancing swatches of black (and a little red) on a white background.

That was the lead-in for ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHT, which so far wins the prize for the biggest surprise regarding how much I liked it. I really took a chance, based more on scheduling than interest, and came out loving it. It's beautiful, lyrical, and musical and just so well done it rises far above it's high-concept premise. That premise is a look at lives at night all over the world. A trucker doing a night run with her son in Quebec, a night art installation in Paris, tons of bats flying out of a cave in Texas, People running the Twin Towers memorial lights in NYC (and the ornithologists studying the birds who get disoriented by it). Then there are religious celebrations--Dia De Los Muertos in Mexico, Easter Sunday night in Greece (where rival teams shoot thousands of rockets at each other). And there's the sleep and alertness lab that studies people who work the night shift (a fairly modern innovation, but one society can't operate without) and find ways to keep them alert and their melatonin up (it's linked to increased health and happiness, including lower rates of cancer). Each one of these stories (and there are plenty more) would make an interesting 5-10 minute short, but the way they all flow into each other here, with such a natural, soothing rhythm is just perfect. I wouldn't want to see it any other way.

So next up I saw DYING TO DO LETTERMAN. I'd been drinking with these guys all week, so I was pretty sure I'd like their movie. And it met all my expectations--funny and inspiring. Steve Mazan is a stand-up comedian. Since he was little, he always wanted to perform on David Letterman. And he worked the little clubs, honed his craft, got some recognition, and waited for someday when Letterman's people would call him. Then he got cancer. That sort of put a deadline on "someday". So this movie follows his quest to get on Letterman. Importantly, he wants to be on Letterman as a comedian, not as a cancer patient. He's not asking to be put on out of pity if he's not good enough, he's just asking for them to maybe look at him a little earlier since he doesn't have forever. Of course, you're totally rooting for him all the time, and I won't give you any spoilers. You'll have to see the movie to find out if he got on Letterman, or for that matter if he's still alive (ummm...if you see Steve Mazan running around Cinequest promoting his movie, pretend you don't see him. That's a spoiler!) Excellent fun, I didn't at all mind the a-hole who started the standing ovation at the end (chill out, that was one of Mazan's jokes)

The filmmakers have been running around giving people "I'm Dying To...." (fill in the rest) buttons. I already had a couple. But after the movie, I was dying to give Steve Mazan a hug.

I almost forgot, D2DL was preceded by a short, BARKO, a charming little animated story of a put upon clown in the doggy circus, tormented by the star poodles and haunted by his cruel former owner. Finally, he finds a place he belongs.

Next up was MARROW. Also by a filmmaker (Matt Wilkins) whom I've been drinking with all week (I think this might ruin my reputation as a thoughtful and unbiased journalist). Anyway, MARROW is a psychological thriller of a single mother dealing with her passive-aggressive son and the memory of her recently deceased father. That, plus an injury that immobilizes her on the couch for a while. And the effort renovating her rundown house. Oh yeah and giant mutant rat hiding in her walls (scientific name: ratticus metaphoricus). Great acting (Frances Hearn as the mother and Wiley Wilkins as the son have worked together before, and definitely have an easy comfort with each other). It is pretty slow, but fight through the boring parts and it is rewarding.

And then, after just a couple of drinks at the meetup, I was back for the midnight film BAD BEHAVIOUR. That extra U in "Behavior" is for "Uuuhhh...we're Australians!" It starts off fast, with the psycho brother-sister team Emma and Peterson killing a poor tourist for no apparent reason other than he's French (okay, not a bad reason). They're cutting a swath of murder across Australia, and they end up in the small town of Cecil Bay. But before we get to that inevitable mayhem, we meet some of the residents of the town, who are all engaging in more or less bad behavior of their own. There's a wife cheating on her husband (with her boss), there's a husband kidnapping his wife's lover, and there's a party full of drunken teenagers who break into the neighbors house looking for more booze. There's a lot of build up, followed by buckets and buckets of blood. Awesome. It's also done a PULP FICTION-esque non-linear timeline, that totally works. But seeing it at midnight when I was exhausted means I'll probably have to see it again in order to really get all of it. Maybe I can convince the guys at SF Indiefest's Another Hole in the Head to play it this summer.

Total Running Time: 350 minutes
My Total Minutes: 225,536

Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 3

And people are already asking me what's my favorite. Fuck, it's early! I don't have a favorite yet!!

Anyway, 3 more programs, in a long day of shorts.

First up, a program of 3D shorts.
COCA-COLA: THE BUBBLE: What's an ad for Coke doing in a film festival? Okay, it's a cute ad, but still.

COCA-COLA ZERO AND MENTOS: ROCKET CAR: I repeat my previous question. But also say a Coke + Mentos rocket car is pretty damn cool.

THE VIEWER: A telepath interrogates an architect. And the result breaks not just the subject's mind, but mine.

LIGHT THE WICK: A freestyle skiing highlight reel, and probably the best use of 3-D in the program (THE VIEWER is a close second, in that the 3-D was really cool, but I can't imagine LIGHT THE WICK without 3-D).

SAFETY GEEKS: An hour long short with about 10 minutes worth of good jokes. The Professional Occupational Safety Hazard (P.O.S.H) team is a bunch of clueless idiots who show up to the scene of an accident and investigate, preventing help from arriving and causing more chaos until they get to the bottom. There are some absolutely hilarious moments, but way too much dead time in between.

And unless I dozed off for a moment, WILD DOGS RUN was programmed but didn't actually play. Anyway, it's an Italian music video that's available (in 2-D) on Youtube.

Then after a short break to hit the VIP Soiree and have a drink, and to hit a drugstore for cough drops and Kleenex (It sucks trying to do a film festival with the sniffles), I was back for my one feature of the night, HERE'S THE KICKER. It's the story of a young couple, Brittany (a make-up artist who has taken a crappy job doing makeup for porn) and Simon (an ex-NFL kicker who blew out his knee and has taken a crappy job as a caterer). Nothing is going for them in L.A., so they pack up and move back to Victory, Texas (where her family lives) with the plan of opening a combination salon/saloon (you know, so guys can have a beer and watch the game while their wives get their hair done). And it turns into a road trip from hell as Simon is beset upon by an old friend (a Mormon who is lapsing from the righteous path) and his father (an alcoholic who is no longer in rehab). And all this time he's keeping a secret--he's been offered a college scouting job in So Cal, and he wants to take it. When you see enough movies, eventually you've seen pretty much everything. Alcoholic dad, difficult road trip, young couple with problems brought on by poor communication...check, check, check. I could go on, but I list this just to say that the realism and subtlety of the performances makes this movie work and keeps it from being cliche. Oh, and it's also plenty funny.

And then I ended the night with the Animated Shorts Program:
ALMA: I actually saw this one at SFIFF last year. A little girl sees a doll in a toy store that looks just like her. So she wanders in.
THE COW WHO WANTED TO BE A HAMBURGER: A Plymptoon, and it's exactly what it says it is, and exactly what you'd expect from Bill Plympton's sense of humor.
DENMARK: A marionette shrimp tries to fly an underwater rocket, in this video from the Portland Cello Project.
THE FANTASTIC FLYING BOOKS OF MR. MORRIS LESSMORE: A Buster Keaton look alike lives with the secret life of books. Totally charming.
THE LIPPSET DIARIES: Arthur Lipsett was a celebrated experimental animator, who succumbed to depression and suicide. This is not based on his actual diaries, which are lost, but on imagination/speculation of what he must have gone through. And it's beautiful and haunting.
LUNA: In a world where everyone rides a unicycle, the little guy who stands on his feet and reaches for the moon is thought crazy...until he surprises everyone.
THE MOON BIRD: Turns out orphan girl tears are the most powerful force on earth...er, the moon. Take that, evil sorceress!
PARASOL: An animated chase/crash drawn directly onto paper parasols. That was weird and awesome.
POLO'S ROBOT: In the future, even our prestigious miniaturization-through-ingestion jobs will be done by robots. What?!
RED SNOW: A brother stands up to defend his brother from the onslaught of bullies with snowballs. It's a metaphor for war.
THE THOMAS BEALE CIPHER: It has destroyed everyone who has tried to crack it. And the latest cryptographer is as close as anyone has ever been. To bad the feds are after him for spying for the Germans. Oh yeah, and it takes place during WWII.
WHEN I AM KING: An amazing stop-motion wood-burned technique (about five hours of work per second of film). And a story of clever boy who makes his little palace in the trees and invites his ghostly friends over for a banquet.

And that was Thursday at Cinequest. Now it's about to really begin, with a long weekend of films.

Total Running Time: 309 minutes
My Total Minutes: 225,186

Jason goes to Cinequest--Day 2

All about the movies, here we go:

First up was HEAT WAVES, from Montreal. When social worker Gisele's husband dies, she finds A) her husband hadn't been 100% faithful, and B) she now has her pick of potential new suitors--friends, colleagues, a 20 year old suicidal kleptomaniac former client. Guess who she goes for.

Okay, I'm going to pause right here and proclaim my general disdain for movies about women knowingly making awful romantic decisions. I've seen it enough to declare it a cliche--women are the weaker, emotional sex and so it's dramatic when they can't avoid the bad boy even when they know it's a bad idea (because they can't actually make decisions based on their brain, just their hearts). It usually aggravates me to no end.

Okay, back to HEAT WAVES. This has all those elements that should turn me off, but the story is handled so well--with the right mix of humor, pathos, and conflict--and Marie-Therese Fortin does such a great acting job that I actually sympathized with her. More than "felt pity" I "sympathized" in that I could understand why she felt compelled to make her dumb decisions (it's beyond just base attraction) and possibly why her dumb decisions weren't so dumb after all.

Next up I crossed the street to the San Jose Rep for I AM. Big time Hollywood comedy director Tom Shadyac (ACE VENTURA, BRUCE ALMIGHTY, PATCH ADAMS) was living the "good life" when a few years back he took a bad spill on his back and suffered a concussion. Worse yet, he suffered post-concussion syndrome, where the symptoms of a concussion last long (up to years) after the event. This is a serious thing, almost invariably resulting in depression and at least thoughts (if not action) of suicide. Well, Tom suffered this and as the symptoms slowly receded he used this as a jumping off point to examine his life, human nature, and the two biggest questions in the world: "What is wrong with the world?" And, "What can I do about it?" The intermediate result (because the story is still evolving) is this film. And it's a film that mixes the Einstein Podolsky Rosen experiment with Ghandi and psychic empathetic yogurt. Yeah, it goes pretty much everywhere, sometimes hitting and sometimes missing. But the them that ties it all together is that...we're all tied together. Secondarily (or rather, logically flowing from that theme) is that pursuit of unlimited wealth isn't making us happier, and in fact is a mental disease (particularly when your neighbor is homeless and eating out of the trash). Shadyac keeps it constantly entertaining, even when moments are aggravating. I'm sure I've bought too much into the scientific story to buy all the new age hippie bullshit.

I'd like to take a moment to take exception to what is said many times in the movie, that "science is just another story." Science is a process--not what is in science textbooks. Science isn't a story, science is a tool for changing stories. Calling science a story makes as much sense as saying a typewriter is a story (after all, the output of both can be stories).

Luckily (or frustratingly, depending on your point of view), Shadyac allows for multiple paths for approaching his central thesis of interconnectedness. There's a story that when the Israelites were wandering through the desert, Moses' tent had doors on all four sides. The idea being no matter how you approached him, you were welcomed. And that's like, a metaphor, man! Anyway, the point is that for all the people who will be inspired to reject science (because we once thought the world was flat) and embrace aboriginal mysticism, there are also people like me who are more inspired by arguments about how Darwin was misinterpreted/co-opted (The Descent of Man mentions "survival of the fittest" twice and "love" 95 times, and Darwin argued that more than anything it was man's capacity for cooperation that was his greatest evolutionary advantage) or that mirror neurons show that humans (as well as many other animals) are biologically hard-wired for sympathy. And then there are the far out experiments, like the psychic empathic yogurt.

Einstein was quoted as saying if there was a imminent catastrophe and he had only one hour to save the entire human race, he'd spend 55 minutes defining the problem, and 5 minutes solving it. I don't think it matters whether I believe that living a more charitable, sympathetic, interconnected life will really make the world appreciably better. Maybe it'll just make me, and the people around me, happier. In any case, I think Tom Shadyac and his cadre of interviewees did a fine job of defining, redefining, re-examining, and exploring the nature of the problem.

Or I don't know, maybe if I just hoard all the world's atmospheric Argon I'll finally be happy.

Anyway, afterwards Tom Shadyac was presented the Kaiser Permanente Thrive Award and we had an engaging Q&A with a very receptive audience. I would've like to stay through the end, but I had to run off for my next movie.

And that started with the short THE TANNERY, an animated short of nature, predators, death, spirits, and the difference between being killed for your meat and killed for your skin. Plus it's got a bunny. I like bunnies.

And I ended the night with LITTLE BABY JESUS OF FLANDR. I saw the three Down's Syndrome Wise Men give the baby Jesus (or maybe just some random newborn) the gift of 6 slightly crumpled cigarettes. That would be enough to tickle my irreverent (okay, blasphemous) sense of humor. But there's a lot more going on. Beautifully stark (mostly) black and white cinematography (for some reason I was always drawn to the very high tree branch with three long swings hanging from it). And the three Wise Men (really three drunk beggars) get into arguments and conflicts about faith. There's something poignant and funny (without being mocking) about three actors with Down's Syndrome arguing about faith, miracles, and temptation. An audacious film, and if only my brain were working better I know it was full of quotable lines.

And then it was all over but the drinking (more and more, Cinequest has become a drinking festival with a film problem). I skipped over to the Maverick meetup at Clubhouse (right next to the Rep) and hung out and had a few drinks with head programmer Mike "Cuddles" Rabehl. And eventually got a ride home with my buddy Ira (star of PUPPYMEAT PRODUCTIONS PRESENTS the glass slipper, premiering next Wednesday).

Total Running Time: 249 minutes
My Total Minutes: 224,877

Jason goes to Cinequest--Opening Night

And I've been tweeting so much it was tempting to write @cinequest or #cinequest.

Anyway, once again the greatest south bay party (arguably the greatest Bay Area film party, but don't let Indiefest or SFIFF hear that) started it's 21st version last night. People say that means Cinequest is old enough to drink, but those who can do math realize that Cinequest #1 was when it was 0 years old, so at Cinequest 21 it's really only 20 years old (note to those who point out that it actually did start in 1990 and skipped a year in 1995--that's because the festival moved from November to it's current March calendar spot, so Cinequest still isn't really 21 until November). Which means that 3 years ago when I made sweet love to Cinequest it was technically statutory rape (oh, no!)

Aaaaaanyway, we had the opening comments from Halfdan. Mayor Chuck Reed showed up, and Intel VP Sean Maloney was introduced with a stirring tribute to his persistence and patience in recovering from a stroke to once again become a competitive rower. He was there to introduce his friend Martin Cooper, the Motorola engineer and inventor of the cell phone, who had some apropos comments to make about innovation, passion, and persistence (in the early days, they were told the market for portable phones only numbered in the 10's of thousands at the most). Then finally the film...

And that film was PASSIONE by John Turturro. I loved his ROMANCE AND CIGARETTES, but this was a very different film. And that's not a bad thing. It's a very well made film, but surprisingly challenging for an opening night film. Turturro plays the narrator/tour guide to Napoli, a city of great hardship and great cultural/musical treasures. He introduces it as a passionate city, with a paradoxical "I love you, but if you're not willing I'll also take your sister" ethos. But that's not a paradox he's interested in resolving, more like a world he's playing in. The movie is mostly a series of musical performances, contemporary and historical, and the kind of film you could walk in and out of and enjoy just the same (proposed experiment: set up a room where PASSIONE is playing on continuous loop, and see if wandering in and out for a day is more or less rewarding than sitting and seeing it in one shot). None of that is to say it was not enjoyable. It's clearly a well made movie, and every scene has something interesting and beautiful, both visually and aurally. It's just a lot to process in one go. I heard a lot of comparisons to BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB, but to me it reminded me more of the hybrid not-quite-documentaries of Werner Herzog.

And then I went to the opening night party. Crowded as usual, I drank a lot, ended up standing behind Mr. Turturro's table for most of the night (I'm sure I'm cropped out of the background of many pictures of him), and chatted with many filmmakers, including the people from BAD BEHAVIOR, MARROW, SNOW, and DYING TO DO LETTERMAN. Now I have to see all their movies. Which I'm sure will be a pleasure. Eventually I left the party for the night, but the 13 day party is just beginning.

Total Running Time: 95 minutes
My Total Minutes: 224,628

Jason hosts Bad Movie Night--THE EXPENDABLES

More like THE UNWATCHABLES amirite!?

Yeah, so I started watching the Oscars at the Roxie's legendary "Up The Oscars!" party, but had to bail early to get over to the Dark Room and host Bad Movie Night. Normally I'd take any opportunity to skip the narcissistic festival of self-fellatio that is The Oscars. But why did I skip it for an even bigger festival of self-fellatio? Tons of action stars (plus Dolph Lundgren) get together to make a dumb-ass movie about some made up Caribbean island that's under the thumb of some drug lord and...fuck it, I just can't care. You know what happens if that island isn't freed? NOTHING!!!! Life goes on. Sucks for the hundreds of people living on the island, but you know what? The island is made up. So I don't care what happens to them.

I will say, it's definitely the movie for anyone who has been dying to see the playful, homoerotic competition between Dolph Lundgren and Jet Li. And for anyone who has wanted to see that...I'd tell you to seek help, but I think you're beyond hope.

Running Time: 103 minutes

My Total Minutes: 224,533

Jason spends the day at the Red Vic with the Film on Film Foundation

Embarrassing confession. I've lived in the Bay Area over 10 years now, and have never made it out to the Red Vic. It's kind of a schlep from my home in Fremont, but I make it to other SF theaters (e.g., the Roxie) all the time. I don't know, maybe it's the extra transit from BART, or that they don't host the big film festivals. Doesn't matter, I busted my cherry there last Saturday, with the good folks at the Film on Film Foundation, and it was a blast of animated fun.

First up was GUMBY 1, the optimistically titles first (and only) feature length Gumby film. It came out in 1995, same year as TOY STORY. I remember hearing rumors that Art Clokey was offered substantial money for Gumby to appear in TOY STORY, and passed to make his own money. You can argue the business wisdom of his decision, but something as weird as GUMBY 1 could only come from one man's vision unfettered from committee decisions. A weird tale in which the Blockheads foreclose on the family farmers' lands, and Gumby and his band hold a benefit concert. The Blockheads kidnap Gumby's friends and make duplicate robots to wreak havoc...and then things get weird. He's green, he's clay, he's a cosmic display, he's Gumby. And by far the highlight has to be the Gumby vs. Robogumby lightsaber battle (incidentally, the sound was done by Skywalker sound, so you know George Lucas had to know about this and give it the okay). Wow!

While Gumby was trippy for the simple, handmade charm that celebrated Gumby as a clay-based space alien (with a sad-sack pony and a dog that cries tears), the second movie was a claymation masterpiece of complexity by Will Vinton, the man who coined the term "claymation." Based on the life and works of Mark Twain, the framing device is Twain travelling in a steamboat/airship to reach Haley's comet for his final act. Along the way are stowaways Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Becky Thatcher. It starts out with very childlike whimsy, but quickly transitions into some rather mature, adult whimsy (The Diary of Adam and Eve) and even a little darkness with (The Stranger), until a conclusion that explicates and celebrates the necessary existence of everyone's dark side. I don't know why I had never heard of this film. It's an absolute masterpiece.

And finally, things went full adults-only with Peter Jackson's early bad taste puppet extravaganza, MEET THE FEEBLES. I've seen it many times before, and it's still fun (if crudely structured and lacking a narrative flow). In a Muppets-esque variety act, the star bunny (oh yeah, there were bunnies in all three films, which of course tickled my fancy) has V.D., the knife-throwing frog has a drug problem (brought on by his experiences in Nam), the diva hippo has a weight problem, her producer boyfriend Bletch the walrus is banging some pussy (an actual cat) on the side and taking part in the shady business of drugs and pornography. And that's just the tip of the sleazeberg. The only thing that would make it better is if we had an impromptu sing-along to the Sodomy Song.

So yeah, that happened.

Total Running Time: 270 minutes

My Total Minutes: 224,430

Jason gives away his Cinequest Pass

As in previous years at Cinequest, I am both Press (in fact, an "esteemed media member" according to my Press Credential approval e-mail) and a supporter at a level that gives me a Mavericks Pass. So once again, I have to come up with a contest to give away my pass.

Last year it was all about encouraging someone to write more about film (and specifically, Cinequest).

Blogsturbation is soooo last year. Now it's all about the twitter (that's right, you will need to have a twitter account to enter). And in fact, I feel like celebrating the greatest feature of twitter--utterly concise stupidity.

A few days ago as a bit of a joke I tweeted that I wanted to dress as Vampira for the world premiere of PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE in 3-D. So here are the rules: To enter you have to @ reply me (start your tweet with @puppymeat) and include #CQFF in the tweet. That leaves you 125 characters to come up with a pithy, compelling argument as to why somebody with a body closer to Tor Johnson either should or should not dress up as Vampira.

You can enter as many times as you want, but the winner will be chosen as the best single tweet. I won't give you any extra points for multiple tweets.

Deadline is midnight, Sunday February 27. Cinequest starts Tuesday, March 1.

Note: my final decision as to whether or not to dress as Vampira is not necessarily dependent on the winning tweet. It'll have more to do with my comfort level and whether I actually have time/resources to do it. Of course, compelling arguments do move me.