My favorite two-week drinking festival (with movies) started last night. And I was there about 3 hours early to check in to the VIP lounge, have some Tito's, have some Stella Artois, have some Cuarenta y Tres.... And of course hug all my friends in there. Then we headed over to Cafe Stritch where I had an extra Arrogant Bastard Ale (not a sponsor, so no link for them, but I do love it!) and finally headed across the street to the California Theatre for the opening night program.
After the Cinequest trailer, the programmed actually began with RPG OKC, which I had already seen at Indiefest and it looked so much better on the giant screen at the California. That was the lead in to Cinequest's first ever Media Legacy Award, given to Indiewire's Senior Editor and Chief Film Critic Eric Kohn. Then we had a brief conversation with him about championing great under-seen films (where he called out me and my friend Phil in the first row for knowing and cheering all the films he mentioned.)
And then Martin Cooper, the inventor of the cell phone, received the Maverick Innovator Award. He had been at Cinequest before, so I actually knew some of the jokes he told (like how the first cell phone only had 20 minutes of battery life, but that was okay because it was so heavy you couldn't hold it up to your ear for 20 minutes.) He also opined on the future promises of technology, especially in health care and lifting people out of poverty. But my favorite part was when he asked if anyone didn't have a cell phone and the only one in the whole theater was my friend Roy. Awesome.
And then finally, we settled in for the opening night film, THE GRAND SEDUCTION, an English language remake of Jean-Francois Pouliot’s LA GRANDE SÉDUCTION (note: I've never actually seen the original.) It's set in a small Newfoundland fishing community--or at least what used to be a small fishing community. Now it's a community of people who collect welfare checks. Some even collect two welfare checks, one for them and one for their friend who signed over power of attorney to him (um...before he died.) That scoundrel would be Murray (Brendan Gleeson) but there's never really an attitude that he's a bad guy for doing this. He's just surviving, like everyone on the island. And if he has to lie a little bit to survive, so be it. What the harbor (don't call it a village) is really hoping for is to get the new petrochemical processing plant built there. Yeah, that doesn't sound like pretty work, certainly not as fun as fishing. But they need jobs. But in order to get the plant they need a doctor living there. Anyway, when the ex-mayor finds a doctor (with a bit of a cocaine problem) they might have a solution. Dr. Lewis (Taylor Kitsch) agrees to a one month trial, and all they have to do is convince him this is a place he wants to live. So out goes hockey, in comes cricket (the reveal of the cricket pitch from the boat is one of my new favoritest scenes ever!) And let him know that they're just fine with him using a little cocaine now and again (although it never really comes up again.) And commence with the spying and trickery to find out everything you can about him and use it to your advantage. And the thing is, it works. He falls in love with the harbor--or at least what the harbor is pretending to be. Oh, and did I mention it's hilarious? Especially when the petrochemical folks come to town to assess whether there are enough able-bodied workers for their plant. Or when they have to scrape together some bribe money for them. All in all it's a charming comedy about the importance of work for dignity, and how far you will bend the rules for that grasp at a dignified, honest living. Plus, [minor spoiler alert] it might be the first movie I've ever seen that ends with a harbor-wide simultaneous orgasm. So it's got that going for it, which is nice.
Then over to South First Billiards for some snacks, a lot more drinking, and a lot more hugging of Cinequest friends. And Cinequest 2014 is officially begun!
Total Running Time: 125 minutes
My Total Minutes: 353,252
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Saturday, March 1, 2014
Jason slips into a Vortex and sees a SPECTRE
It has been too long since I've hung out in the best underground movie lair in San Francisco. And at least in the immediate short term, it looks like they've avoided being gentrified out of existence. So I downed a couple of their award-winning* martinis, a little beer to wash it down, and then settled in for the movie.
SPECTRE (1977) stars Robert Culp as a world famous criminologist William Sebastian and Gig Young as his friend Dr. Ham Hamilton. William implores Dr. Hamilton to join him on his latest case, which despite their scientific skepticism seems to deal with the black arts. Seems a wealthy British businessman has been dabbling in the dark arts, and his sister is worried. Well, William is already convinced that demons are real, and has a pretty nasty wound in his heart for his experimentation. Dr. Hamilton is still the skeptic, but tags along out of loyalty. And then Robert Culp and Gig Young battle a freakin' demon! Fuck yeah! I think the demon was Astaroth...something like that, it was definitely an A name...and he was definitely an a-hole. (I crack myself up.)
Running Time: 98 minutes
My Total Minutes: 353,127
*That would be the "Jason's Favorite Martini Award."
SPECTRE (1977) stars Robert Culp as a world famous criminologist William Sebastian and Gig Young as his friend Dr. Ham Hamilton. William implores Dr. Hamilton to join him on his latest case, which despite their scientific skepticism seems to deal with the black arts. Seems a wealthy British businessman has been dabbling in the dark arts, and his sister is worried. Well, William is already convinced that demons are real, and has a pretty nasty wound in his heart for his experimentation. Dr. Hamilton is still the skeptic, but tags along out of loyalty. And then Robert Culp and Gig Young battle a freakin' demon! Fuck yeah! I think the demon was Astaroth...something like that, it was definitely an A name...and he was definitely an a-hole. (I crack myself up.)
Running Time: 98 minutes
My Total Minutes: 353,127
*That would be the "Jason's Favorite Martini Award."
Jason Watches THE LEGO MOVIE
And Everything is Awesome! Seriously, I just freakin' love this movie. And at 96% tomatomer, I guess I'm not the only one. Every day Lego builders construct fantastic creations all according to President Business' master plan. The thing is, his plan is to freeze the world once he has perfected it, using the power of the mysterious Kragle. But prophecy has it that The Special will discover the Piece of Resistance and stop the Kragle. Umm...don't worry, this will all make sense if when you see it. The adventure is a showcase of comedy and the infinite possibilities of imagination + Legos. And it's subversive. There are sly digs at a lot of silly cliches from cinema, Legos and life. There's a random Star Wars joke that kills. My favorite bit is how the 80s spaceman guy has a crack in his helmet exactly where those helmets always cracked. And it's got a pretty cool take on the serious master builders and whether they're just toys or a sophisticated system of interlocking bricks.
Oh, and a message to the right-wingers who complain that the villain is named "Business." You're wrong. You're just wrong. Watch the movie, there's a reason he's called Business but explaining it would be a huge spoiler. Now sometimes there are differences of opinions and people just see things differently. But that is not the case here. You're just factually wrong. This 100 minute toy commercial is not, in fact, anti-capitalist. Morons.
Running Time: 100 minutes
My Total Minutes: 353,029
Oh, and a message to the right-wingers who complain that the villain is named "Business." You're wrong. You're just wrong. Watch the movie, there's a reason he's called Business but explaining it would be a huge spoiler. Now sometimes there are differences of opinions and people just see things differently. But that is not the case here. You're just factually wrong. This 100 minute toy commercial is not, in fact, anti-capitalist. Morons.
Running Time: 100 minutes
My Total Minutes: 353,029
Jason goes to Midnites for Maniacs--Creative Killers
I'd like to start by once again thanking On the Road Mechanics for getting my truck back in good working order Friday morning. Without them, I would've been stuck taking a very slow series of buses home in the middle of the night, or bailing on the last film so I could take off while BART/Caltrain are still running. So seriously, this guy is awesome. And he'll drive right to wherever your car broke down, diagnose the problem, and usually be able to fix it quickly.
So anyway, I drove up to the Castro last week Friday, braved the insane traffic, found a good parking spot, and settled in for a triple bill of Creative Killers.
CLUE (1985): First up was this pretty hilarious comedy. And, interestingly enough, the movie I thought about the most afterwards. First of all, what a great comic cast. Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Martin Mull, Michael McKean, Eileen Brennan, Lesley Ann Warren...wow. I had seen it a few times, and always liked it, but hadn't seen it since college (which would be the mid 90s.) And I had never really thought about its importance in the history of movies. Not just basing a movie on a board game, which is something people still ridicule (heck yeah I wanna see HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPOS) but for the multiple endings. Now I didn't see it in theaters when it first came out. Partly because I was only 11 and wasn't going to movies on my own (and with our big family we didn't go out to the movies very often anyway.) But even at that young age I saw it as a crass way to sucker the audience into buying multiple tickets to see all three endings. It was a gimmick and a pretty transparently money-grubbing one at that. The thing is, on home video they slapped all three endings on, with some title cards saying something to the effect of "or it could have happened this way" and "but this is what really happened." And that was the way we saw it at the Castro (in 35 mm, of course.) And a couple of thoughts struck me. This way makes it very clear that there is one "right" ending. That wasn't the case when it was released in 1985 was it? That's...interesting. Does it take something away to designate one ending as the "real" ending? But more importantly, all three endings are equally plausible...at least given the ridiculous events in the movie. So is this kinda taking the piss out of the entire whodunit genre? There's a whole genre of films that make you wonder who the killer is, rewarding you with bragging rights over your friends if you get it right, and maybe making you feel a little stupid if you guess wrong. And CLUE, with its three equally plausible endings, shows how fraudulent those movies often are. Or maybe not. Maybe if you take the average whodunit, you can't really come up with three different twist endings and have them all make sense. Maybe CLUE is just brilliant that way. But either way I think I've just convinced myself that CLUE is way smarter than the average whodunit...and that's pretty fuckin' cool.
CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (1989): And now the serious, 'important' film of the the night. This was programmed months in advance, so its pure coincidence that M4M played this right at the time when Woody Allen controversies are back in the news. And I'm not touching the controversy with a 20 foot pole. The movie, of course, is great. As always, Allen puts together a great cast, and along with himself, he's got Martin Landau, Anjelica Huston, Alan Alda, and Sam Waterston. On the "Crime" side, Martin Landau is a doctor who has been having an affair for years. When his mistress threatens to tell his wife, he's faced with a moral dilemma. And when his brother proposes using some of his organized crime connections to "take care of her" he's faced with an even bigger moral dilemma. Meanwhile, on the "Misdemeanor" side, Woody Allen plays a documentary filmmaker who once won an award at a film festival. He loves movies, takes his niece to the matinee, etc. And to actually make some money, he sucks it up and films a puff, hero-worship documentary about his brother-in-law Lester (Alan Alda) who's a massively successful TV comedy producer (allegedly based on Larry Gelbart, who both Allen and Alan worked with.) While making it, he kind of hits it off with his assistant (Mia Farrow) who Lester also has eyes for. So he has his adulterous thoughts he has to struggle with. It's kind of gun to think of him as at a point where Martin Landau's character was about 20 years ago, and how things could've gone differently.) Woody Allen has always had a great insight into human foibles, whether milking them for comedy in so many films or using them to show us how horrible people are in this one.
THE DRILLER KILLER (1979): And finally, we ended the night with this Abel Ferrara cult classic. Abel himself stars as Reno, an artist who is struggling to pay rent, finish his masterpiece painting of a buffalo (for the life of me, it looks finished the whole time,) take care of his two female roommates, deal with the loud rock band practicing next door, eat pizza, etc. So he snaps and goes on a killing spree with an electric drill and a battery pack belt (for just $19.95.) This is the third time I've seen it, twice on the big screen, and...I'm not impressed. I'm sorry, I just don't see what's so great about it. The descent into madness is kind of disjointed and rambling, but that I don't mind. It's that the actual payoff--the drilling killing--is not that impressive. It looks fake, and weakly fake. I can appreciate this as a dirty grindhouse experience (especially when it's shown on a kinda scratchy 35 mm print) but I just don't like it as a movie.
Total Running Time: 294 minutes
My Total Minutes: 352,929
So anyway, I drove up to the Castro last week Friday, braved the insane traffic, found a good parking spot, and settled in for a triple bill of Creative Killers.
CLUE (1985): First up was this pretty hilarious comedy. And, interestingly enough, the movie I thought about the most afterwards. First of all, what a great comic cast. Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Martin Mull, Michael McKean, Eileen Brennan, Lesley Ann Warren...wow. I had seen it a few times, and always liked it, but hadn't seen it since college (which would be the mid 90s.) And I had never really thought about its importance in the history of movies. Not just basing a movie on a board game, which is something people still ridicule (heck yeah I wanna see HUNGRY HUNGRY HIPPOS) but for the multiple endings. Now I didn't see it in theaters when it first came out. Partly because I was only 11 and wasn't going to movies on my own (and with our big family we didn't go out to the movies very often anyway.) But even at that young age I saw it as a crass way to sucker the audience into buying multiple tickets to see all three endings. It was a gimmick and a pretty transparently money-grubbing one at that. The thing is, on home video they slapped all three endings on, with some title cards saying something to the effect of "or it could have happened this way" and "but this is what really happened." And that was the way we saw it at the Castro (in 35 mm, of course.) And a couple of thoughts struck me. This way makes it very clear that there is one "right" ending. That wasn't the case when it was released in 1985 was it? That's...interesting. Does it take something away to designate one ending as the "real" ending? But more importantly, all three endings are equally plausible...at least given the ridiculous events in the movie. So is this kinda taking the piss out of the entire whodunit genre? There's a whole genre of films that make you wonder who the killer is, rewarding you with bragging rights over your friends if you get it right, and maybe making you feel a little stupid if you guess wrong. And CLUE, with its three equally plausible endings, shows how fraudulent those movies often are. Or maybe not. Maybe if you take the average whodunit, you can't really come up with three different twist endings and have them all make sense. Maybe CLUE is just brilliant that way. But either way I think I've just convinced myself that CLUE is way smarter than the average whodunit...and that's pretty fuckin' cool.
CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (1989): And now the serious, 'important' film of the the night. This was programmed months in advance, so its pure coincidence that M4M played this right at the time when Woody Allen controversies are back in the news. And I'm not touching the controversy with a 20 foot pole. The movie, of course, is great. As always, Allen puts together a great cast, and along with himself, he's got Martin Landau, Anjelica Huston, Alan Alda, and Sam Waterston. On the "Crime" side, Martin Landau is a doctor who has been having an affair for years. When his mistress threatens to tell his wife, he's faced with a moral dilemma. And when his brother proposes using some of his organized crime connections to "take care of her" he's faced with an even bigger moral dilemma. Meanwhile, on the "Misdemeanor" side, Woody Allen plays a documentary filmmaker who once won an award at a film festival. He loves movies, takes his niece to the matinee, etc. And to actually make some money, he sucks it up and films a puff, hero-worship documentary about his brother-in-law Lester (Alan Alda) who's a massively successful TV comedy producer (allegedly based on Larry Gelbart, who both Allen and Alan worked with.) While making it, he kind of hits it off with his assistant (Mia Farrow) who Lester also has eyes for. So he has his adulterous thoughts he has to struggle with. It's kind of gun to think of him as at a point where Martin Landau's character was about 20 years ago, and how things could've gone differently.) Woody Allen has always had a great insight into human foibles, whether milking them for comedy in so many films or using them to show us how horrible people are in this one.
THE DRILLER KILLER (1979): And finally, we ended the night with this Abel Ferrara cult classic. Abel himself stars as Reno, an artist who is struggling to pay rent, finish his masterpiece painting of a buffalo (for the life of me, it looks finished the whole time,) take care of his two female roommates, deal with the loud rock band practicing next door, eat pizza, etc. So he snaps and goes on a killing spree with an electric drill and a battery pack belt (for just $19.95.) This is the third time I've seen it, twice on the big screen, and...I'm not impressed. I'm sorry, I just don't see what's so great about it. The descent into madness is kind of disjointed and rambling, but that I don't mind. It's that the actual payoff--the drilling killing--is not that impressive. It looks fake, and weakly fake. I can appreciate this as a dirty grindhouse experience (especially when it's shown on a kinda scratchy 35 mm print) but I just don't like it as a movie.
Total Running Time: 294 minutes
My Total Minutes: 352,929
Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 14
The penultimate night! Two more movies last week Wednesday.
First up was the comedy TOWHEADS. I was not familiar with the comedy of Shannon Plumb before, but one of my fellow festival pass-holders is a huge fan. And now I think I can count myself as a fan (ummm...not that I've gone out and perused more of her work, but here's her website.) Here she plays a version of herself, with her real-life husband and children co-starring, she plays a humorously bedraggled and put-upon mother going through a bit of a midlife crisis. She has the physical comedy chops to turn something as simple as pushing a stroller while carrying groceries into a slapstick adventure, without going so over-the-top as to be unbelievable. And she can also make her midlife struggle to find 'anything she's good at' seem not just funny, but poignant in a way that's more than just first-world problems. Yup, she's a talent that I've been remiss to not have known about before.
And finally, I ended the night with the documentary FLEX IS KINGS. It's a look at a unique, Brooklyn-based sort of street dance that has a strong following and intense competitions. It's kind of hard o describe, especially for an affirmed non-dancer like me. But it's funny, inventive, kinda dangerous looking with big leaps and wild contortions. Ah, according to Wikipedia it's "characterized by rhythmic contortionist movement combined with waving, tutting, and gliding. Flex dancers, referred to as flexors, often perform shirtless and incorporate hat tricks in their performance for showmanship." I guess that's a pretty accurate description. The movie introduces us to some colorful characters master flexors, up-and-comers, promoters, etc. all leading up to the premiere event, BattleFest. And the fun is just in sitting back and enjoying the dance.
And that was it for me at Indiefest 2014. Car trouble kept me from making it to closing night. Luckily thanks to Michael at On The Road Mechanics I was up and running again the next day. But between that and missing the first couple of days for a business trip in Switzerland, this was the first year I have a list of films I missed at Indiefest. TEENAGE I can see at Cinequest or when it comes out in regular theaters. And KARAOKE GIRL I can catch at CAAMFest. CHEATIN' I caught on a Cinequest screener, and CONGRATULATIONS! I saw at Cinequest last year (Paul? Paul? Paul!) But my apologies to the filmmakers of the following films, I don't know when or if I'll be able to see your films:
ALDO
DRIFT
REMEMBER YOU'RE SPECIAL
REZETA
YOU'LL BE A MAN
Still, I guess missing only 5 films out of the entire program is not too bad. And that's a wrap on Indiefest 2014.
Total Running Time: 169 minutes
My Total Minutes: 352,635
First up was the comedy TOWHEADS. I was not familiar with the comedy of Shannon Plumb before, but one of my fellow festival pass-holders is a huge fan. And now I think I can count myself as a fan (ummm...not that I've gone out and perused more of her work, but here's her website.) Here she plays a version of herself, with her real-life husband and children co-starring, she plays a humorously bedraggled and put-upon mother going through a bit of a midlife crisis. She has the physical comedy chops to turn something as simple as pushing a stroller while carrying groceries into a slapstick adventure, without going so over-the-top as to be unbelievable. And she can also make her midlife struggle to find 'anything she's good at' seem not just funny, but poignant in a way that's more than just first-world problems. Yup, she's a talent that I've been remiss to not have known about before.
And finally, I ended the night with the documentary FLEX IS KINGS. It's a look at a unique, Brooklyn-based sort of street dance that has a strong following and intense competitions. It's kind of hard o describe, especially for an affirmed non-dancer like me. But it's funny, inventive, kinda dangerous looking with big leaps and wild contortions. Ah, according to Wikipedia it's "characterized by rhythmic contortionist movement combined with waving, tutting, and gliding. Flex dancers, referred to as flexors, often perform shirtless and incorporate hat tricks in their performance for showmanship." I guess that's a pretty accurate description. The movie introduces us to some colorful characters master flexors, up-and-comers, promoters, etc. all leading up to the premiere event, BattleFest. And the fun is just in sitting back and enjoying the dance.
And that was it for me at Indiefest 2014. Car trouble kept me from making it to closing night. Luckily thanks to Michael at On The Road Mechanics I was up and running again the next day. But between that and missing the first couple of days for a business trip in Switzerland, this was the first year I have a list of films I missed at Indiefest. TEENAGE I can see at Cinequest or when it comes out in regular theaters. And KARAOKE GIRL I can catch at CAAMFest. CHEATIN' I caught on a Cinequest screener, and CONGRATULATIONS! I saw at Cinequest last year (Paul? Paul? Paul!) But my apologies to the filmmakers of the following films, I don't know when or if I'll be able to see your films:
ALDO
DRIFT
REMEMBER YOU'RE SPECIAL
REZETA
YOU'LL BE A MAN
Still, I guess missing only 5 films out of the entire program is not too bad. And that's a wrap on Indiefest 2014.
Total Running Time: 169 minutes
My Total Minutes: 352,635
Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 13
Okay, It's over a week late and the award winners have already been announced, so I guess I should finish my write-ups.
First up last Tuesday was a program of two shorts and one long, personal documentary.
I FEAR THE SHEARS: A dad's irregular, home-done bowl cuts have emotionally scarred ginger director Greg McDonald for life. This is a survivor's story, and it's pretty funny.
THE PHOTO MAN: The story of Mark Kologi, a collector and seller of "found" photographs. Odd little personal photos featuring people he has never met, sold to other people who have never met the people in the photographs. And interesting look into how we see into other people's lives.
And then the feature documentary, the intensely personal I HATE MYSELF :) (yes, the smiley is part of the title. No, this parenthetical is not. But wouldn't it be weird if it was?!) So most years I name a film as my "reward for seeing everything"--that is, the film that I might have skipped if I wasn't so committed to seeing as much as I can, and ended up loving. This year, I'm not sure I have such a film (and not just for the technical reason that I didn't actually see everything this year.) But this movie certainly fits the mold of previous winners. A surprisingly personal documentary where the subject (in this case, also the director Joanna Arnow) reveals more about herself than you would normally expect in a movie. What keeps it from being a real gem for me is that I simply...didn't like her. I love that she had the courage and strength to make this movie, but it seems like that's the only strong or courageous thing she has ever done. The movie centers on her relationship with James Kepple, described as a "poet-provacateur." He has that charismatic don't-give-a-fuck contrarian attitude that makes me wonder whether if I really pushed him about whether or not he gives a fuck about whether I believe he gives a fuck he would....where the fuck was I? Anyway, another way to say it is he's a hipster jerk, and she's in his spell. Her parents don't like him, and they're right to (they especially don't like that she filmed a sex scene with him and makes them watch it.) And that...while it's brave to explore it...in itself is not very interesting. And then we see the editor, Max Carson. And by which I mean we see all of him. He's a nudist, and the smartest and most interesting person in the film. And he was at the screening and did the Q&A nude. And again he was the most interesting part of the Q and A. Not because of the nudity, he just had the smartest things to say! I'm confident enough to say the best part of show was the naked dude, and there's nothing wrong with that. But his nudity is not really what made it interesting.
Then we took a little trip to Japan for a short and a feature. The short, HERE, THERE is a poetic look at the aftermath of Fukushima, the workers cleaning it up, and the fears of a girl in Tokyo.
And then the feature, THERE IS LIGHT (KURAYAMI KARA TE WO NOBASE) is a strange little story of Saori, a young woman who works for the company Honey Lips. She isan escort a prostitute, but with a very specific clientele. See, the company provides sexual services for the handicapped. So we get to meet an interesting assortment of clients, almost all of whom are played by non-actors with real handicaps. The heart of the movie is her relationship with one particular client, 21 year old Kenji, paralyzed from the waist down (the one non-disabled actor playing a disabled person. In fact, in an interview director Yukihiro Toda revealed that they had to make creative use of gaffer's tape to simulate his impotence.) It's a sweet...ish story. Sentimental without being sappy. Hopeful without necessarily having a traditionally happy ending. Good movie.
Total Running Time: 146 minutes
My Total Minutes: 352,466
First up last Tuesday was a program of two shorts and one long, personal documentary.
I FEAR THE SHEARS: A dad's irregular, home-done bowl cuts have emotionally scarred ginger director Greg McDonald for life. This is a survivor's story, and it's pretty funny.
THE PHOTO MAN: The story of Mark Kologi, a collector and seller of "found" photographs. Odd little personal photos featuring people he has never met, sold to other people who have never met the people in the photographs. And interesting look into how we see into other people's lives.
And then the feature documentary, the intensely personal I HATE MYSELF :) (yes, the smiley is part of the title. No, this parenthetical is not. But wouldn't it be weird if it was?!) So most years I name a film as my "reward for seeing everything"--that is, the film that I might have skipped if I wasn't so committed to seeing as much as I can, and ended up loving. This year, I'm not sure I have such a film (and not just for the technical reason that I didn't actually see everything this year.) But this movie certainly fits the mold of previous winners. A surprisingly personal documentary where the subject (in this case, also the director Joanna Arnow) reveals more about herself than you would normally expect in a movie. What keeps it from being a real gem for me is that I simply...didn't like her. I love that she had the courage and strength to make this movie, but it seems like that's the only strong or courageous thing she has ever done. The movie centers on her relationship with James Kepple, described as a "poet-provacateur." He has that charismatic don't-give-a-fuck contrarian attitude that makes me wonder whether if I really pushed him about whether or not he gives a fuck about whether I believe he gives a fuck he would....where the fuck was I? Anyway, another way to say it is he's a hipster jerk, and she's in his spell. Her parents don't like him, and they're right to (they especially don't like that she filmed a sex scene with him and makes them watch it.) And that...while it's brave to explore it...in itself is not very interesting. And then we see the editor, Max Carson. And by which I mean we see all of him. He's a nudist, and the smartest and most interesting person in the film. And he was at the screening and did the Q&A nude. And again he was the most interesting part of the Q and A. Not because of the nudity, he just had the smartest things to say! I'm confident enough to say the best part of show was the naked dude, and there's nothing wrong with that. But his nudity is not really what made it interesting.
Then we took a little trip to Japan for a short and a feature. The short, HERE, THERE is a poetic look at the aftermath of Fukushima, the workers cleaning it up, and the fears of a girl in Tokyo.
And then the feature, THERE IS LIGHT (KURAYAMI KARA TE WO NOBASE) is a strange little story of Saori, a young woman who works for the company Honey Lips. She is
Total Running Time: 146 minutes
My Total Minutes: 352,466
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Jason goes to Indiefest--Day 12
Now we're down to the final stretch. 2 movies a night from Monday through Thursday. And I am so grateful that Presidents Day is a paid holiday at my work. I really needed the chance to sleep late, update my blog, and spend a leisurely day before heading up to the movies.
First up was FORTY YEARS FROM YESTERDAY, set in the small town of King's City, California (co-director Robert Machoian's hometown) and starring non-actors (some from Machoian's family) it's a simple, carefully constructed, and surprisingly beautiful story. One day, after his morning run, Bruce comes home and finds that Suzette, his wife of 40 years, has passed away unexpectedly. We then follow two parallel paths, told through the quiet, ordinary moments that are usually left out of a movie. One path is Bruce's mourning process. Questioning his faith, talking to family, going through his days. The other path has a documentary feel, as the funeral home picks up and loads the body, cleans her, dresses her, and prepares her for burial. They are also training a new employee (I got the sense both the assistants were the mortician's sons, but I don't think that was ever said.) So we get a subtle glimpse into the process as he's learning the ropes.
I can't help but review this movie from a very personal perspective (more so than most of my reviews) because it's a very personal movie. I have friends--friends whose opinions about movies I respect quite a lot and usually agree with--who found this movie boring. They got nothing out of it, and I can understand that but I actually got quite a lot. As I've mentioned a few times on this blog, I lost both my paternal grandparents in the past couple of years. So I was back at the same cemetery three times (twice for burials, once for a headstone unveiling, with another unveiling upcoming this summer.) I was a pallbearer for both funerals and was guided by the same man (I don't know what you call the guy at the cemetery who oversees the logistics of stuff like that) and found myself both times thanking him for his help. And I realized something I could finally articulate after seeing this movie. We think at a funeral that we gather together with friends and family to find comfort in mourning together. And we do...but a group of fellow mourners are better at sympathizing than comforting, and that's an important distinction. Actually, a bunch of sad people can be really bad at providing comfort. Even when they try to make it a celebration of life and tell funny stories about the deceased, it's still not great comfort. But I found comfort in the fact that there are professionals who deal with the logistics of death and burial with grace, dignity, courtesy, and professionalism. At least, to me it's a comfort. Your mileage may vary.
I can't help but review this movie from a very personal perspective (more so than most of my reviews) because it's a very personal movie. I have friends--friends whose opinions about movies I respect quite a lot and usually agree with--who found this movie boring. They got nothing out of it, and I can understand that but I actually got quite a lot. As I've mentioned a few times on this blog, I lost both my paternal grandparents in the past couple of years. So I was back at the same cemetery three times (twice for burials, once for a headstone unveiling, with another unveiling upcoming this summer.) I was a pallbearer for both funerals and was guided by the same man (I don't know what you call the guy at the cemetery who oversees the logistics of stuff like that) and found myself both times thanking him for his help. And I realized something I could finally articulate after seeing this movie. We think at a funeral that we gather together with friends and family to find comfort in mourning together. And we do...but a group of fellow mourners are better at sympathizing than comforting, and that's an important distinction. Actually, a bunch of sad people can be really bad at providing comfort. Even when they try to make it a celebration of life and tell funny stories about the deceased, it's still not great comfort. But I found comfort in the fact that there are professionals who deal with the logistics of death and burial with grace, dignity, courtesy, and professionalism. At least, to me it's a comfort. Your mileage may vary.
And then to Poland for the opposite end of the timeline of life with BABY BLUES. 17 year old Natalia (Magdalena Berus) has a little baby Antek. She loves him, and is...generally a good mother. But she's still a teenager, and subject to all the various temptations of youth. For better or worse, she's intent on making sure having a baby doesn't ruin her own childhood. That's evident in the opening scene where she confronts her baby-daddy about his alleged infidelity and then confidently roller skates away with Antek in the stroller. The father, Kuba (Nikodem Rozbicki), is 18 years old and not much of a father at all. He's way more into skateboarding with his friends or just laying back and lighting up a joint. The colorful energy masks how serious it is to have a baby, particularly when you're still a child yourself. So while all these hijinx are going on, you just sort of know that the other shoe has to drop. Something horrible will happen eventually, and...I'm not giving away the ending. You'll have to watch it for yourself, maybe it all works out in the end (SPOILER ALERT: no it doesn't.) A pretty great movie, even given the technical glitch that disrupted the climactic scene.
Oh, and also add "blue" to the list of Indiefest themes this year--goldfish, pregnancy, breaking glass, vomiting, and blue. Not just in the titles--BLUE RUIN, BLUEBIRD, BABY BLUES, but it seems to be a recurring color theme, too.
Oh, and also add "blue" to the list of Indiefest themes this year--goldfish, pregnancy, breaking glass, vomiting, and blue. Not just in the titles--BLUE RUIN, BLUEBIRD, BABY BLUES, but it seems to be a recurring color theme, too.
Total Running Time: 185 minutes
My Total Minutes: 352,320
My Total Minutes: 352,320
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