Milwaukee Film Festival Day Ten 10/3/2009

Film #20 - Kimjongilia

Day 10 of the Milwaukee Film Festival ended up being my last day of the festival. After the screening of Kimjongilia, I just made a decision, after seeing the rest of the films I had lined up for the day, to call it quits at 20 movies, which I think is a respectable amount of films to watch over the course of 9 days.

I always come away from the film festival with ideas on what to do differently, and almost every year I think, "Take time off from work." And year after year, I don't do that, thinking I can handle it. I think that I'm going to have to employ that idea next year, and stick with it, because the nature of my day job (marketing and writing) has a pace that doesn't really lend itself to sharing time with an 11 day film festival. Though my notes helped me out this year, I would like to do more writing shortly after I screen a film, rather than struggling to get my thoughts together weeks later.

I miss a couple of the venues that used to have the film festival, namely the Times Cinema, but I don't have a lot of complaints about the Marcus North Shore theater. Obviously, parking wasn't a problem, and the theaters were large and (if you didn't sit in them for 10 hours) the chairs were comfortable. I did feel less of a connection with other film goers than I had in previous years at the Times Cinema; there was less conversation before and after the film, which is invaluable. However, all in all, the experience was a great one, and I was incredibly impressed with the caliber of films that were offered. With time and logistics thrown out the window, I could have seen at least another 25 films that looked good.

I look forward to covering the festival next year, which has already been announced for September 23 - October 3, 2010. That gives me nine months to prepare for another great experience.

KIMJONGILIA
Director: N.C. Heikin
USA/South Korea/France - 2009 - Korean with English subtitles
Previous Screenings:
Sundance Film Festival 2009
San Francisco Film Festival 2009


Kimjongilia refers to a hybrid red begonia specially developed to bloom on North Korean Kim Jong Il's birthday; part of an attempt by the dictator to show that the people of North Korea really do love him and aren't oppressed. There are several defectors profiled in this documentary that tell a different story (and one that most of the world already knows) and expose the atrocities that they personally had to endure at Kim Jong Il's hands.

Most of the atrocities occur in prison work camps, where people are shipped for "injustices" like having a newspaper with the president's picture on it lying on the floor. North Koren law dictates that three generations of a family be purged, so if your grandmother is found guilty of an injustice, every member of the family through their grandchildren is also sent to the prison camp and subjected to torture, extreme hunger and, in some cases, death. First-hand interviews with people who escaped the camps, or were eventually released are harrowing and heart-breaking. Regardless of the time that had elapsed, the frustration and raw anger is palpable in these subjects. Kimjongilia also addresses the mistreatment of North Korean soldiers, who are subjected to malnutrition and starvation, as well as the plight of North Korean defectors; some risk being repatriated if they are caught in China, otherwise they have to make it through Mongolia to get to South Korea.

Though I was kind of lukewarm about the film as a whole, I couldn't help rolling my eyes, every time Hiekin would show scenes of interpretive dancers dramatically and oddly dancing to portray the horror we were being told. The witnesses, facts and footage did just fine and this inclusion was unnecessary, and frankly, really annoying. Anyone who is educated on current events isn't going to learn much of anything new by watching Kimjongilia, but it is certainly compelling to hear about the conditions and policies from people who have experienced them first-hand.

2 stars out of 5

Milwaukee Film Festival Day Nine 10/2/2009

Film #18 - Outrage
Film #19 - Crimes and Misdemeanors

Going into the last weekend of the Milwaukee Film Festival, I was excited about the evening's screenings. Not only was I going to be seeing a documentary that was on my short list of films I wanted to see this week, but I was going to be watching one of my favorite Woody Allen films in the presence of its star, Martin Landau. Landau was in town for the weekend, attending two screenings of Crimes and Misdemeanors, and the world premiere of his latest film, Lovely, Still, and sat down after the screening Friday night to talk about his experiences on this film, and on acting as a whole.

"Only bad actors try to show their feelings. Good actors repress their feelings." I hope that budding actors and filmmakers were taking notes during the talk back, because he certainly uttered some gems. A member of the Actor's Studio (he was accepted the same year as Steve McQueen) he was accepted after his first audition, an almost unheard of feat. He currently is serving as the head of the Actor's Studio in California. Landau was incredibly lucid and well-spoken, intelligent and charming. He answered the many questions with relish, even seeming to want to continue after almost 45 minutes. I had to laugh to myself at one point when he was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Milwaukee Film Festival, because I was thinking about Woody Allen's character in Crimes and Misdemeanors, clinging to his award he received for documentary film making at the Cincinnati Film Festival as his wife retorts, "They gave an honorable mention to anyone who showed up!" Landau is a man who has won many awards, including an Academy Award, but his acceptance of the award given to him by the Milwaukee Film Festival was full of humility and humbleness. And I don't think it was just his great acting chops.

OUTRAGE
Director: Kirby Dick
USA - 2009 - English
Previous Screenings:
Tribeca Film Festival 2009
Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival 2009 - Award Winner



A film that investigates allegations and censored media coverage of homosexual scandals involving politicians such as Idaho Senator Larry Craig and Florida Governor Charlie Crist, among others, Outrage is a no-holds-barred look at how the progression of gay rights is being continually undermined, sometimes most vociferously by notoriously closeted politicians.

I screened this film with at least 200 other people, an admirable crowd for a late afternoon matinee on a Friday, and though I will admit that at first I was just having fun finding out which hypocritical politicians and pundits are allegedly gay, Outrage quickly became something much more important, which surprised me. Personally, this film was not a hard sell for me. I am, and always have been a very strong supporter of equality for gay rights, so I didn't feel like I was going to learn anything new, or be moved beyond what I may already have been moved by in the past. However, I not only learned about and, (true to the title) was outraged by the voting records on gay rights by these men - they are among the worst in the entire Senate and Congress - but began to question my thoughts on "forced outings" of politicians. I used to be categorically against it because I feel that is a personal and private decision, but the arguments made for this practice on gay Republicans was a compelling one; namely, how can someone support a party that is against everything they stand for?

Outrage is full of footage that support its thesis, and contains interviews with several openly gay politicians, including Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin (whose presence on the screen received a round of applause from the audience). One of my favorite politicians, Barney Frank, who, in response to allegedly gay Republican Rep. David Dreier's (another anti-gay rights bully) insistence that he was turned down for a job due to his "moderate" views, practically snorted as he quipped, "Yes, in the sense that I marched in the moderate parade last summer and went to a moderate bar." However, the most compelling testimony was from former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, who recounts his experience of coming out of the closet and though it not only tore his family apart and sank his political career, he felt like himself for the first time, and the sense of relief and enlightenment was profound. Hearing this from a guy who seemingly lost everything was really eye-opening.

Director Kirby Dick has an uncanny ability, not unlike the guys over at The Daily Show, to not only find fantastic archival footage, but footage that completely contradicts something that is said years later. No one is safe; even my beloved National Public Radio (NPR) is taken to task for censoring a review of this film. In Outrage, Kirby kicks Washington's closet door open and the result is an incredibly powerful film that is emotional without resorting to name-calling or being maudlin.

4 out of 5 stars


CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS
Director: Woody Allen
USA - 1989 - English




Crimes and Misdemeanors is really two films within one. In one part, Judah Rosenthal, (Martin Landau) a well-respected doctor and philanthropist with a charming wife and two children finds himself with a mistress that he can't get rid of, without resorting to extreme measures. In the other part of the film, Cliff Stern, an unsuccessful documentary filmmaker is asked to film a profile of his brother-in-law Lester, (Alan Alda) an ego maniacal television producer who produces popular trash. Though married, Cliff falls for Halley, (Mia Farrow) the producer of the documentary series. The two sides of the film only meet once, near the end of the film, but similar themes are examined throughout each portion of the film.

This has always been one of my favorite Woody Allen films because it was a couple of years before his implosion when he went through his personal problems and took out his frustrations in a misogynistic frenzy on his female characters in subsequent films. I say all of this as a strong Woody Allen fan, it of course just needs to be acknowledged that he had a "dark" period. And not dark in a good way. Crimes and Misdemeanors is dark in a good way, as it is very thought-provoking and frustrating at the same time. Judah is such an unsympathetic character that it's hard to care about his situation, but one can't help it because Landau somehow makes everything seem like such a surprise; like he can't believe that he's done any of what he's done. Meanwhile, the Cliff side of the coin, certainly the source of the comic relief and sweetness injected into the film, is in the same boat, marriage/adultery-wise, but he is much easier to relate to. Where the two sides meet, we see that redemption comes for one and not the other, which makes the film that much more dark and introspective.

Warmly lit like Hannah and Her Sisters, another Allen film of this era, Crimes and Misdemeanors is a wonderfully intimate film that I think is often overlooked. It also contains one of my favorite scenes of any Woody Allen film; the scene where Cliff reveals his finished documentary to Lester gives me a headache from laughing so hard. It's scenes like that one, inter cut with terrifyingly dark behavior from Jonah, a seemingly genial man who is a pillar in his community that make Crimes and Misdemeanors a complicated classic.

4 stars out of 5

Milwaukee Film Festival Day Eight 10/1/2009

Film #16 - Shall We Kiss?
Film #17 - Big Fan

Day 8 was a difficult one, both physically and philosophically. Since I hadn't taken any time off of work during the festival, the time commitment was starting to take it's toll on me, as were the theater chairs - as comfortable as they may seem for a screening once in a while, my back was really starting to rebel against them and I was starting to walk like Quasimodo. Equally grueling was my decision making process on what films to see for the evening. Shall We Kiss? was a no-brainer because it didn't really interfere with anything, but the 7pm showing of Big Fan was going to cause a problem if I wanted to see the 9pm showing of a movie that was really high on my list, Il Divo. Because Big Fan had a lot of hype and there was an indication that the director was going to be there, I decided to choose that one. Unfortunately, the director did not appear, but the experience wasn't entirely a bad one. In fact, it gave me the idea to keep my festival book handy and see if I can Netflix the films I wanted to see but missed and do some follow up coverage in a few months.

In a funny side note, the film that I had planned to see when I was trying to see Il Divo, was Bliss, a film that looked good, but again, the lure of being able to attend a talk back with a director was too compelling. When I got out of Shall We Kiss? and saw a line of about 300 people waiting to get into a theater my heart sank because I realized that, though I was able to scoot into a theater first due to my press credentials, it was going to be a packed theater, which makes spreading out to take notes a little awkward. However, when I asked a person in line what she was waiting for (just to be sure) she said, "Bliss". I couldn't believe it. Meanwhile, there wasn't even an usher in front of the door for Big Fan, I just walked right in. Talk about making a lot of mixed decisions that evening...

SHALL WE KISS?
Director: Emmanuel Mouret
France - 2007 - French with English subtitles
Previous Screenings:
Cleveland International Film Festival 2009
Palm Springs International Film Festival 2009



In a chance meeting, a man and a woman are mutually attracted to one another, but are committed to other people. As the woman struggles with the temptation of sharing just one kiss, she relates the cautionary tale of a friend who had a similar thing happen, and what became of her life after succumbing to the events that spiraled out of control after just one kiss.

Shall We Kiss? is actually comprised of a couple of films within one film; there are the scenes between the newly introduced couple, the meat of the film, which is the woman's story, and then another tale told by the man. All together, the film is very interesting, with a rich story about love and fidelity (or a lack thereof). The entire film was reminiscent of a Woody Allen film, without the nebbish character(s) and high neurosis; focusing instead on adult relationships that do not always have components that can be categorized as black or white.

The acting was commendable, and truthfully, despite the nagging feeling that I needed to race out of the film as soon as it ended to make another screening on time, I was absolutely riveted from start to finish and thoroughly enjoyed the entire film. I would almost like to see it again because there are some subtle sub contexts that I may have missed the first time around due to a few distractions in the theater. Shall We Kiss? is a film that doesn't rely on bells and whistles to drive the story along; rather its strength is in its complex narrative.

4 out of 5 stars


BIG FAN
Director: Robert D. Siegel
USA - 2009 - English
Previous Screenings:
Sundance Film Festival 2009


Paul Aufiero (Patton Oswald) is a super fan who lives his life devoted to the New York Giants football team. Living at home with his mother and working as a parking garage attendant, he spends his nights writing manifestos about his team and how they are going to beat their opponents that week, then calls in to a local late night sports radio show to read his words and sound "off the cuff". While battling his feelings of low self-worth based on his living situation and career, his delicate psyche begins to spiral more out of control when he and his best friend Sal (Kevin Corrigan) spot his hero, Giants star linebacker Quantrell Bishop at a gas station. After following him to a club in Manhattan, Bishop takes him for a stalker (and is mad that, unbeknown to Paul, he had witnessed him at a drug buy) and severely beats him. Paul's decision to not press charges get a number of people on his back and makes him the object of ridicule, especially to his on-air super fan rival, Philadelphia Phil (Michael Rapaport), culminating in a surprising and dark ending to the film.

I have to give Patton Oswald credit for his acting in this drama, but it's not completely against type, based on some of his previous television work. He specializes in playing nerdy, affable losers, but the main difference is that rather than being affable, Oswald's Paul is obviously a guy on a constant low-boil who we know is eventually going to get pushed over the top. Oswald particularly shows some good acting chops after his beating, when he is forced to confront the need to reconcile his love for the Giants with his complete humiliation.

Big Fan is Robert D. Siegel's feature film debut, but his writing pedigree is pretty impressive; former Editor in Chief of The Onion as well as having written the screenplay for Darren Aronofsky's film The Wrestler. Big Fan has some similarities with his previous screenplay, mainly really beaten-down, low characters who exist on the fringes of society, largely under the radar. Though I didn't feel nearly as sad as I had throughout most of The Wrestler, there was definitely a sadness to Big Fan that made some of the comedic moments almost awkward to laugh at, because in truth, there is really nothing funny about Paul's situation. Though if I'm going to make all of these comparisons, I do have to say that, despite the heavy and crazy ending in Big Fan, it was nothing compared to the ending in The Wrestler, so though this isn't a feel-good movie, you're not going to want to go into a corner for a while when it's done.

Big Fan is a different kind of movie, and I have a feeling it wasn't what most of the audience I screened it with expected. There seemed to be a lot of Patton Oswald fans in the audience, and though they got plenty of him on the screen, he wasn't the guy they normally see on the small screen, and I think there was some disappointment. Conversely, I found this refreshing, and coupled with Siegel's good script, I didn't think the film was among the best I've seen, but it's definitely good.

3 out of 5

Milwaukee Film Festival Day Seven 9/30/2009

Film #14 - An Animated World
Film #15 - Rashomon

One thing that struck me off the bat when seeing An Animated World was that it was a really good crowd for a week day show. It was a Wednesday at 5:15, so obviously the people there made an effort to be there. There was another thing that struck me, however, and that was the number kids that were in the audience with their parents. Knowing how these animated shorts showcases can go, this seems either misguided or incredibly progressive - I hope these kids can read subtitles quickly...

After the shorts showcase is a reprint of Rashomon, which is incredibly exciting to me since A) It's one of the greatest movies ever made and B) I will finally have some company with me since my boyfriend Chris and one of my best friends, Jay, is going to be joining me for the screening. If there's anything I love more than watching a good film, it's watching a good film with loved ones.

AN ANIMATED WORLD
Directors: Various
Countries: Various

(No stars will be attributed to each short, only mini-capsule reviews)



Please note - if you are interested in seeing any of these shorts, most are available on You Tube for viewing

Mutt - Director: Glen Hunwick
Australia - 2008 - 7 min
A dog waits desperately for his craggy owner to play ball with him on a ranch in the Australian Outback, and the owner wants nothing to do with the dog except to put him to work. Computer animated, this one was kind of cute, but there wasn't a whole lot there.

Lapsus - Director: Juan Pablo Zaramella
Argentina - 2007 - 4 min

A surreal black and white study in animation involving a nun who can't stop saying "Oh my God!" I thought this one was brilliant, both in its simple animation, and the clever way Zaramella created humor and a bit of a story with nothing more than a couple well placed frames of animation. This one was definitely one of my favorites.

Photographs of Jesus - Director: Laurie Hill
USA - 2008 - 7 min

A narrator who works at the National Archives discusses funny and ludicrous requests he hears. Another excellent short. Between the narrative and the witty animation, mostly stop motion animation of photographs and objects in the National Archives, this was extremely entertaining.

Cattle Call - Directors: Mike Maryniuk & Matthew Rankin
Canada - 2008 - 4 min

What takes place inside a cattle auction. I thought this one was just okay, I was more interested in the mixed media approach to the animation than what was actually happening at the auction.

Yellow Sticky Notes - Director: Jeff Chiba Stearns
Canada - 2007 - 6 min

Chiba Stearns animated his life on yellow sticky notes for a couple of years, including major world events around him. I loved this short because even though the format was simple, it was incredibly moving, especially since the director/animator completely opens up his life to us. Sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's poignant, but the entire short was mesmerizing.

Western Spaghetti - Director: PES
USA - 2008 - 2 min

Cooking a meal, but with Western pop culture references instead of actual consumable ingredients. I thought this one was really clever; this stop-motion animation short was certainly one of the most creative, but PES was also able to make a subtle point about Western pop culture. Examples of the substituted "ingredients" were Pick-Up Sticks used as spaghetti and a Rubik's Cube cut up like vegetables and stir fried.

Hot Dog - Director: Bill Plympton
USA - 2008 - 7 min

An ugly bull dog desperately wants to become a fire dog. It is no secret among anyone who knows me that even though I can appreciate animation, particularly animation showcased in this kind of format, I'm not exactly a fan of the genre. Along with that glowing endorsement of my feelings for animation, I have to say that I consider Bill Plympton's work to be some of the most unbearable that, when forced to, I have to endure. This is the second time I had to sit through this screeching, spastic, annoying short (the first was at a screening of Oscar nominated shorts - this was not one of them, rather on the "short list") and I hope I've done my due diligence at this point and never have to see it again.

Saint Feast Day - Directors: Annelaure Daffis & Leo Marchand
France - 2007 - 15 min

On the annual Saint Feast Day, ogres have free reign to feast on children, but one ogre is vexed that he doesn't have teeth at the moment to do so. I absolutely loved this one and laughed really hard during most of the short. The mixed-media animation really worked well, and I loved that the directors would insert animated figures among what was clearly stock footage; it created a great comedic effect. Definitely dark humor, and I'll admit there weren't a lot of people sharing my mirth at ogres seeking to eat children, but I stand behind my glowing review!

The Yellow Bird - Director: Tom Schroeder
USA - 2008 - 12 min

A ranch hand reflects on his life after he bumps his head. Unfortunately, that was the best description I could give this one because honestly, I had no idea what the hell was going on in this short. There were flashbacks to the guy's life, but nothing really connected, so everything just seemed random, and not in a good way.

Skhizein - Director: Jeremy Clapin
France - 2008 - 14 min

A man is hit by a meteor and finds himself exactly 9 centimeters off from where he is supposed to be. I had seen this short before as well; it was an Oscar-nominated short, and brilliantly done. When I sat through it this time, I felt a sense of dread because I was listening to everyone around me laughing at the site gag of the guy with his head through the wall when it should be through the window, etc., but knowing what was coming made me think, "You're laughing now - if you truly get it, you won't be laughing in about 10 minutes..." Turns out the guy is schizophrenic, and what's worse, he can feel it happening, summing up his displacement predicament with, "I am exactly 9 centimeters from myself. You've lost it, you're beside yourself." Brilliant and devastating.

RASHOMON
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Japan - 1950 - Japanese with English subtitles

(I've previously reviewed this film, so I am pasting that review, with a few short comments about the experience and restoration preceding it)




I was so thrilled to have the pleasure of not only seeing Rashomon on the big screen, but also to view the frame-by-frame 35 mm restoration. Though I love film in almost any format, I do love the idea of seeing a classic film on something tangible, like celluloid, so this was an immense treat for me. I was also pleased to see a decent crowd show up for the film; a classic film readily available on DVD and not costing $10/ticket is not the easiest sell in Milwaukee, so I was heartened by the attendance. As expected, Rashomon lived up to my memories and I came away from the experience with continued admiration for Kurosawa.

Review:

Rashomon, Akira Kurosawa's 1950 film about a horrible crime and the various versions of the "truth" that come to fruition during the investigation is absolutely amazing, pure and simple. The story is told four different times, each time from the point of view of one of the participants. The basic story of the crime is that a bandit (Toshiro Mifune) comes across a husband and wife traveling through the forest. The bandit, Tajomaru, seduces/assaults the Masako (Machiko Kyo) after tying up her husband Takehiro (Masayuki Mori), and soon after, Takehiro is dead. What happens between the times Tajomaru encounters the couple and the discovery of Takehiro's body is what is left to be discovered. Masako, Tajomaru and even Takehiro (with the assistance of a medium) each tell their account of the story, each taking blame for Takehiro's death. The fourth telling is from a passer-by, and the audience is left to decide which is the true account.

I absolutely loved this film. I had heard that Yimou Zhang's Hero had, if not as an homage, employed the same technique of storytelling and perspective, but seeing this great film was a real treat. The story is original and rich, and Kurosawa always is able to pull great performances from his actors. I found Rashomon to be extremely compelling from start to finish, and even managed to be really creeped out at one point. (The psychic medium is pure, unadulterated nightmare fuel) From the very little that I know of Japanese cinema of the 1950's & 1960's, I realize that Kurosawa was not the only director, but he certainly was the trailblazer and set the bar for the genre for decades to come. His peers were putting out material, it was just fairly primitive. (It is easy to forget that not every country's film industry was as opulent as America's) To see this kind of film, a film that is actually incredibly simple, but so ingeniously conceived of and executed makes me remember why I have been and always will be both a student of and lover of film.

5 out of 5 stars

Milwaukee Film Festival Day Six 9/29/2009

Film #12 - Bronson
Film #13 - The House of the Devil

I did not attend any films on Day 5 of the film festival, so these are reviews for Day 6, a day which turned out to be pretty exciting.


BRONSON
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
UK - 2009 - English
Previous Screenings:
Sarajevo Film Festival 2009 (Award Winner)
Sydney Film Festival 2009 (Award Winner)


Bronson is the true story of Britain's most dangerous prisoner, Michael Peterson, (Tom Hardy) who was originally sentenced to seven years in jail in 1974, but due to his violent behavior, has been behind bars for 34 years; 30 of them spent in solitary confinement. Later changing his name to Charles Bronson, his biggest downfall is his need to make a name for himself, and regardless of attempts at rehabilitation, his true nature continues to surface.

There a lot of really great things about this film, but the best has to be Hardy. Critics have raved about his performance, calling it a "tour-de-force" and "legendary", and I couldn't agree more. Knowing nothing about the subject of the film I can only imagine how Hardy embodies the role, but he was absolutely mesmerizing, combining charm and humor with terrifying rage and violence. The role was very physical, with Hardy allegedly gaining 100 pounds of muscle to play it. Interspersed throughout the film are scenes in which Bronson is telling his story to an audience on stage, using various masks and costumes. Hardy goes balls-to-the-wall (sometimes literally) with his portrayal, at times spending several scenes completely naked. He transforms from raging maniac to a prostrate and drooling mental patient to a (temporarily) upstanding citizen marching around in an ill-fitting suit, all the while with the posture and looks of one of those mustachioed characters with dumbbells from the early twentieth century, all with a little humor and a little terror. One scene, which takes place at a "rave" being held for mental institution patients, stood out to me that I couldn't shake for a couple of days: Bronson is sent to the institution and is very heavily medicated because they don't know what else to do with him, and while the patients "dance" to the Pet Shop Boys, Bronson is just sitting in a chair, drooling constantly until he screams in rage and frustration because he is drugged and can't move, but he is still somewhat cognizant of his situation. Later, he decides he needs to get out of there and go back to prison, so he decides to strangle another inmate, and his transformation from drugged look to evil and aware was very subtle and gave me chills. It takes a talented actor to make the audience sympathize with a psychopathic madman, even find him somewhat charming, but Hardy pulls it off flawlessly. If he doesn't get recognition from this film, I hope that he gets a name soon.

Bronson has been called "A Clockwork Orange for the 21st century", and I agree with the comparison, at least visually, though it is not as deep, thematically as the latter. There are several surreal scenes with bizarre costumes that appear to be direct nods to Kubrick's classic, and certainly a pivotal scene in an art studio was an homage. The film is violent, but not over the top - I think Fight Club was more graphic - and fast paced and stylish; think Matthew Vaughn or Guy Ritchie without the hyper-spazzy effects and edits. The style of the film is not made up of an overload of jump cuts and quick edits, rather it has panache, which fits right along with Bronson himself. Like it or not, you know you're witnessing what are probably some terrible acts, but you can't look away for a second or you'll miss something interesting. I really enjoyed Bronson, but didn't come away from it questioning myself the way I did the first time I really loved a film like, say, A Clockwork Orange. Perhaps it was because it didn't give me a lot to ponder, it simply gave me a great hour and a half of cinematic enjoyment.

4 out of 5 stars


THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL
Director: Ti West
USA - 2009 - English
Previous Screenings:
Tribeca Film Festival 2009




Samantha Hughes (Jocelin Donahue) is a college student who desperately wants to find an apartment off campus so she can get away from her slutty roommate. She finds the perfect place, but is in danger of not getting it because she doesn't have enough rent money up front. She gets a babysitting job that quickly becomes weird when it turns out the couple do not have a child, rather an elderly mother upstairs they want her to look after, and to top it off, she is in a creepy mansion in the middle of nowhere. The $300 they offer her is enough to convince her to take the job, however, and after she begins to explore the mansion, she discovers the reality of her terrifying situation.

Hearkening back to the great late 1970s and early 1980s horror films like Halloween or The Changeling, The House of the Devil is one of the best films I've seen recently that I don't want to see, if ever, for a long, long time - I was absolutely terrified throughout most of it! I fully admit that I'm a complete wuss when it comes to horror films that are done well; even in film school we would be studying a Dario Argento film in class as if it were a lab report, it was so clinical, but I would be the one digging my nails in my palms and trying to hide the fact that I was squinting behind my thick rimmed glasses. I found myself doing the exact same thing in the crowded theater the evening I saw this film, but I knew what I was in for since my boyfriend Chris had warned me, "I saw the trailer and it could be really f-ing creepy." The genius of The House of the Devil is that with a couple "holy crap!" moments, there is a really slow burn of tension until all hell breaks loose. Donahue spends half the film creeping around the house, sometimes with a large butcher knife, but you have no idea when someone (or something) is going to surface behind what seems like 350 doors and windows in the house, and by the way, what was that sound??

Special mention needs to be made about the music in the film. Jeff Grace's original music is almost as scary as the film itself, and it is used for optimal effect. There were a couple of times where the music itself was so scary that I wanted to cover my ears to make it go away. Another excellent use of music was during a scene involving Samantha, in the beginning of her tenure on the job, dancing around the house with her Sony Walkman and headphones on, blaring "One Thing Leads to Another" by The Fixx. I normally would have enjoyed this, but since we, as an audience were already uneasy at this point, the concept of this girl dancing around with really loud music impairing her senses was almost too much to bear.

The audience I saw this film with was a lot of fun and had no problem shrieking, yelling out warnings or the occasional expletive when scared or tense. It was really refreshing to have a low budget film that is stripped down to the simple necessary elements needed to scare the pants off of an audience, without a ridiculous amount of gore or cheap thrills. I think that most of us left the theater feeling like we'd seen something kind of special, knowing it wouldn't hit the mainstream theater-going audience. The House of the Devil is the best film I've seen recently that I don't, if ever, want to see for a long, long time. Though I may not have "enjoyed" myself during the film, I have to rate it according to effectiveness and how well it met its objective, so while I would normally give it 3 stars, I have to give it 4 stars because it was that good at what it set out to do. To quote an audience member I encountered in the ladies' room after the film: "Even this huge, over lit bathroom seems terrifying to me right now!"

4 out of 5 stars

Milwaukee Film Festival Day Four 9/27/2009

Film #7 - Theater of War
Film #8 - Seraphine
Film #9 - The Best of Shorts
Film #10 - The Yes Men Fix the World
Film #11 - Chef's Special

Rolling out of bed at 9 a.m. is normally not a problem for me on the weekends, considering I'm up and around at 6 a.m. during the week and am not famous for staying up late (anymore). However, getting out of bed followed by the suddenly monumental task of getting in the shower in order to be at the theater for 12 hours was insurmountable to me. I filled up on a bowl of cereal and threw a couple of granola bars in my bag to sustain me for the day and then I was off to the theater.

Unfortunately, though I walked into the theater 25 minutes early, I became acutely aware that the promise that pass holders get first seating if they're lined up 15 minutes before the show didn't apply to first shows because lo and behold I walked into a packed theater. OCD Shelly immediately started growling at the people who were sitting in my normal perch (there goes my ass groove) but I managed to find a seat close the front where I could not only see the screen but do abdominal exercises as well since I was in this whacked out rocking chair thing. Unfortunately I couldn't see anything else because the lighting was so bad, and since my "penmanship" is negligible on a good day, I knew I was going to have to find my secret decoder ring when going through the notes for Theater of War. All things being equal though, I was happy because I was about to see a documentary starring my favorite contemporary actress, Meryl Streep.

Throughout the day I managed to stave off my hunger with Diet Pepsi and the occasional granola bar, and even though I had to endure sitting next to a woman who apparently thought it would be a good idea to bathe in patchouli before going to see Seraphine, I did see some great films on day 4, and one not so great film. We experienced technical difficulties during The Yes Men Fix the World which caused us to miss about six minutes of the film, and after sitting through a Shorts program that had films on a couple different formats, causing long pauses between, and the final film of the day started 25 minutes late due to technical difficulties (on a Sunday night mind you - anyone who knows me knows how I rarely go out on Sunday nights because they're my last gasp of relaxation before the week) which caused us to start an almost 2 hour film at 9:45 p.m. Despite exhaustion by the end of the day and a growling stomach that would scare off Genghis Khan, the day went well.

THEATER OF WAR
Director: John W. Walter
USA - 2008 - English
Previous Screenings:
Tribeca Film Festival 2009
Melbourne International Film Festival 2009





Theater of War, a documentary about the creation, process and staging of the Bertolt Brecht play, "Mother Courage and Her Children", which was adapted in 2006 by Tony Kushner for The Public Theater/NY Shakespeare Festival in Central Park. The play features Meryl Streep in the lead role as Mother Courage and a strong supporting cast, including Kevin Kline. The film chronicles the production of the play, but it also looks at Brecht's politics and motives for writing the play, which was ultimately a response to the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) of the 40's and 50's, written after Brecht became a Marxist and substitutes the current Iraq war for the original World War II setting.

Meryl Streep begins the film by saying, "We all live off the war." This statement is revisited several times throughout the documentary, which has a strong underlying theme of the (sometimes tumultuous) marriage of politics and art. A large part of explaining the history of the play and Brecht's motivations fall on Jay Cantor, a novelist who teaches a class in Marxism and Brecht at Tufts University. One of the "11 unfriendly witnesses", Brecht, shown in archival footage at a HUAC hearing, toys with the committee by pretending he had a horrible grasp of the English language, stating later, "If you look like you have a bad grasp of the language, they'll ask you less." His assistant director at the time described the sight as, "He turns it into a play, a comedy written by Brecht." "Mother Courage" was conceived after the Hollywood 10 went to jail and he returned to Germany after leaving the U.S.

Theater of War is a very good film, though certainly high on the "dry" scale, which really works for me. Unfortunately I was constantly being interrupted by someone behind me who would make, "hmmmm interesting" sounds every time they weren't snoring, so that got to be old pretty quickly. When I was able to block that out, however, I enjoyed the movie immensely. Streep is an amazing actress, and it's no secret that she's my favorite contemporary actress, but in this film we are able to see how much of an intellectual she is. And though until this point I had not read any of Brecht's plays, discovering his creative process and motivations absolutely make me want to explore his work. Like "Mother Courage", the documentary is multi-layered, and is inter cut with footage and protesters from different wars throughout history, and, like the play, the obvious underlying theme was, "We don't like war." However, this was not a main ingredient in the conceit of the piece, and ultimately, the play and supporting footage and interviews come across as heavy, but not heavy-handed.

3 stars out of 5


SERAPHINE
Director: Martin Provost
France - 2008 - French with English Subtitles
Previous Screenings:
Newport Beach Film Festival 2009 (Award Winner)
Seattle International Film Festival 2009 (Award Winner)


In 1905, a devout Catholic housekeeper named Seraphine (Yolande Moreau) leaves the convent she is with and begins painting gloriously colored canvases at the age of 41, simply chalking it up to "God's work". When she is "discovered" seven years later by her new employer, German art critic Wilhelm Uhde (Ulrich Tukur), he takes her to acclaimed shows in Europe and eventually, New York's Museum of Modern Art, but her success is interrupted several times, mainly because of war; interruptions that, exacerbated by a burgeoning mental illness, ultimately cause her to suffer a complete break from reality.

Seraphine is based on a true story, and is a powerful, amazing film, due in large part to Moreau's incredible performance. Though Seraphine is a simple woman, the performance is complex. Seraphine is a woman of few words, and most of her emoting is done through facial expressions and body language. She exhibits weariness and a heaviness that exceeds her actual physique that made me exhausted just watching her, and when she is joyful, it is infectious; she really pulls you into her corner. Moreau is a French actress, so you may not be able to place her, but after a few minutes I was able to recognize her as the landlady from the film Amelie.

The pacing of Seraphine is slow, but exquisitely so. Director Martin Provost is not afraid of lingering on a shot for longer than usual, or what is actually conventionally comfortable. For example, the last scene of the film consists of about three minutes of Seraphine walking up a hill; and instead of being boring or distracting, the audience I was in were mesmerized, and, in many cases, crying. Seraphine is an extremely emotional film, due in large part the rich and tragic story and sublime acting. Though Moreau was the star, Tukur should be commended for his subtle performance. He may come across as emotionally stunted, but his ultimate gift to Seraphine is the greatest she could have received and you realize how deeply dedicated he really was to her. Though there were a few charming parts, Seraphine quickly punches you in the gut before you realize what is coming, and truly, the film is better because of it.

4 stars out of 5

THE BEST OF SHORTS
Directors: Various
Countries: Various

(No stars will be attached to these, just mini-capsule reviews)

Please note - if you are interested in seeing any of these shorts, most of them are available on You Tube for viewing.

Rope a Dope - Director: Laurent Briet
USA - 2008 - 6 min

A young girl has a "bring it on" moment, challenging a boxer to jump rope. This short was good, but not great. However, it was entertaining, flashy with quick editing and, for lack of a better word, "cute".

John and Karen - Director: Matthew Walker
UK - 2007 - 4 min

A polar bear awkwardly begs forgiveness from the girlfriend he wronged. And she's a petulant penguin. I loved this one. It was my favorite for Oscar contenders last year and it wasn't even a nominee, just on the short list. This humor in this one is purely visual, and probably a little abstract for a lot of audiences - only a few of us were laughing, but we were laughing HARD.

Short Term 12 - Director: Destin Cretton
USA - 2008 - 22 min

Counselors try to relate to and help institutionalized teens, while working on themselves. I thought this short was interesting, and actually I forgot that I was watching a short because there was a fairly full-bodied story and a lot of back story revealed through conversations and actions, without stooping to exposition.

The Herd - Director: Ken Wardrop
Ireland - 2008 - 4 min
Footage of a deer who suddenly begins to hang out with a big herd of cattle. Short and sweet, this certainly was the cutest of all of the films. Inter cut with short takes of interviews with the farmer who owns the cattle, along with his mother, the story turns hilarious when she is simultaneously telling the camera that her son wouldn't disturb the deer, while the son of course is saying he wouldn't think twice about getting rid of the deer if it got in the way. Cute, funny and pleasant.

Next Floor - Director: Denis Villeneuve
Canada - 2008 - 12 min

During an opulent dinner party, a table of gluttonous guests find themselves sinking lower and lower. The grotesque dinner guests attack their food like predatory animals and shovel it in like they are going to be hibernating, when suddenly the floor shakes and the they drop through the floor. After a moment to compose themselves (and get brushed off by the help) they continue their feast. This happens repeatedly, with the head waiter announcing "Next floor!" each time. The film is highly stylized, but I could relate to the opening and then closing shot of the film after a while; the shot was of the waiter just staring directly at the camera, and I felt the same, kind of like, "Ohhhkaaay..." Maybe I should attach a Dante's Inferno bent to it to make it more substantial, because whatever its aim, if there was one, I didn't get it.

Lies - Director: Jonas Odell
Sweden - 2008 - 14 min

Three stories of lies people tell: a con man, a drug-addicted mother trying to pass as "normal" and a boy who steals from his mother. Exquisitely animated, using silhouettes and avant garde graphics. I would have liked the short a lot more, I think, if the credits had not been white against a white background; I could barely read them and my Swedish is a little rusty. And by a little rusty I mean non-existent. This did provide an interesting perspective, however, because I was forced to only pay attention to the visual and I felt like I was watching a work of art; though I did feel like I missed out because the bits of the stories I was able to catch seemed interesting and I wanted to know more.

Princess Margaret Boulevard - Director: Kazik Radwanski
Canada - 2008 - 14 min

A woman defiantly confronts the frustration and confusion that are the effects of her Alzheimer's disease. Straight forward, interesting and sad, this film documents what is probably the last weeks she is going to spend on her own. There really isn't a lot to say about this one, but it is good.

Spider - Director: Nash Edgerton
Australia - 2007 - 9 min

A man takes the wrong approach to apologizing to his girlfriend for being immature. What can I say about this short? I don't even know how to describe it, other than as a cautionary tale about playing practical jokes. Easily my second favorite short, and it only reinforced my sense of humor is, when I found myself the only one laughing at one point, after a particularly shocking moment. Spider ends with such a shocking bang that the audience was both yelling various exclamations, like the one I was repeating, "Holy sh**!" and laughter and clapping. It was one hell of a way to close out the compilation, got people talking, and I promptly e-mailed everyone I knew to look it up on You Tube.


THE YES MEN FIX THE WORLD
Director: Andy Bichlbaum & Mike Bonanno
USA - 2009 - English
Previous Screenings:
Sundance Film Festival 2009
Berlin International Film Festival 2009



The Yes Men are a group of activists who practice "identity correction" by a number of methods, but their most frequent and successful projects have involved creating fake Web sites for various companies who commit corporate or social wrongdoings on the public. They wait for an invitation from a speaker's bureau, convention or news program who have mistaken them for the real deal and then agree to speak, where they generally make ridiculous statements under the guise of being that company's high-level representative. They fool people more often than one would think, and the results are always entertaining. In The Yes Men Fix the World, the two prominent faces of the group, Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno (not believed to be their real names) take on Dow Chemical on the 20th anniversary of the atrocious chemical disaster in Bhopal, New Orleans and HUD after the Katrina disaster, and the New York Times.

This was one of the few films that I had on my list as a must-see since I have been a fan of this group after watching their first film, The Yes Men, made in 2003, where they engaged in similar activities, but with different companies. Personally, I find this kind of corporate espionage to be gratifying and entertaining. Their actions speak for themselves, and provide most of the humor in the film, but there were a few priceless moments, (one involving a Tom of Finland backdrop for a conservative pundit) that had me dizzy from laughter. Satire, when done well, is priceless. In order for it to be done well, there has to be a large amount of intellect injected into the mayhem. Sascha Baron Cohen has perfected his mixture of gross-out humor, social commentary and intelligence; The Yes Men have done the same in their milieu. While I was in tears laughing, I was also at times learning of atrocities I had never heard of, or had heard little of. The Yes Men aim to make a point, like Michael Moore aims to make a point, there are just two different approaches: one is heavy-handed, one is absurdist.

And let's not forget the set of iron balls on these guys. To stand in front of hundreds of people (and in the case of Dow Chemical, being filmed for an international audience of millions via BBC America television) and not only impersonate a high-ranking official of some sort, but then as Exxon, get people in their audience to hold lit candles while telling them that the candles were made of a substance they invented called "vivoleum" that was made of the people killed in Exxon chemical spills? I unabashedly love these guys, and I want people to see this film, even if it's just food for thought.

4 stars out of 5


CHEF'S SPECIAL
Director: Nacho G. Velilla
Spain - 2008 - Spanish with English subtitles
Previous Screenings:
Palm Springs International Film Festival 2009
London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival 2009



When doing research about Chef's Special, I kept seeing thinly-veiled references to one of my most beloved directors, Pedro Almodovar, so I was eagerly anticipating this film. Unfortunately, I soon found that the only similarities I could find were the language and the two main actors, Almodovar staples. Chef's Special is the story Maxi (Javier Camara), a gay chef and restaurant owner, who finds himself precariously juggling work and a social life, with the delicate balance toppling once he receives custody of his two children, whom he has managed to avoid until now. To complicate matters, he finds himself in a love triangle between himself, his best friend Alex (Lola Duenas) and an internationally-known soccer player named Ramiro (Fernando Tejero) who happens to be closeted. All of this mayhem is occuring while the promise of a visit from an unannounced (but expected) Michelin Guide food critic, whose good review could guarantee the restaurant's success.

Even reading my summary, I find that this movie really should have worked, for many reasons. From my experience, Spanish directors can do comedy very well, and this, coupled with the fact that I'm a bit of a foodie, should have guaranteed at least some enjoyment. But alas, I found none. In fact, I saw this film after a long day at the Milwaukee Film Festival and was actually worried about watching the food on the screen, but it turned out that I needn't have worried since cooking had no place in this film, despite the theme, which was... interesting. The comedic elements were played as bad slapstick, and the plot was barely there, with actors emoting by widening their eyes and flailing their arms around. Most perplexing to me was that this film was sponsored by the local GLBT organization, whereas I found the constant "fag" jokes to be completely offensive, and neverending.

Truthfully, there isn't a lot for me to say about Chef's Special, because I can normally come up with coherent things to write when I'm given at least some kind of decent material to work with, even if it's substantive in a bad way; but Chef's Special was nothing more than a waste of my time, which is a real bummer, since I take every opportunity I can to pontificate on any kind of film, good or bad. Admitting that I'm not even able to talk about a film is probably the worst thing I can say about it.

When looking for a good Spanish film experience, watch Volver or Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! and don't waste your time with this one.

1 out of 5 stars

Milwaukee Film Festival Day Three 9/26/09

Film #5 - The Beaches of Agnes
Film #6 - Art & Copy

*Movie reviews at the bottom of the post*

A relatively short day today - since Art & Copy put the kibosh on the mid-evening film I wanted to see, I'm just seeing two films today, with a full day ahead on Sunday. I'm really bummed because, while the last thing I should be thinking about is going to more movies, the Times Cinema is hosting the Manhattan Short Film Festival this weekend. Unfortunately, I've been looking forward to this event for several months now, and of course, voila, I can't go. Now I'm available tonight and they don't have a 9pm show. Grrr.

Sitting before the first film, The Beaches of Agnes, I am acutely aware of a couple of things: despite the relatively small crowd, there is another odor problem in the theater, and that perhaps the people in the aisle across from me should have invested less money on movie tickets and more on Lever 2000. (They've been very pleased to tell anyone in a 4 foot radius that they have purchased tickets to several movies!) Also, the enormous bowl of cereal I ate for breakfast in order to hold me over until the evening is kicking in and consequently I am starting to get drowsy... not good considering it's 2:30 pm. Damn you Cap'n Crunch!

Not exactly enamored with the film, I decided to treat myself to a soda to cheer myself up before the next movie, Art & Copy. So far, the highlight of my day had been watching two 12 year old boys giggling while they took pictures of the marquee reading "Jennifer's Bo" with their cell phones. The low point, even below the lackluster first film I'd seen, was that 3 minutes later, a grubby child with a death wish crashed into me and spilled orange soda all over my arm. Luckily, when I returned to the theater I was able to see that there was a huge line developing for the film, so I was going to be experiencing it with a good crowd. When I actually settled down in the theater I only had two complaints: the high school chick sitting in front of me who must have been there either on a dare or for extra credit who wouldn't put her phone away- (and of course, she was at the perfect angle where I was the only one who would be bothered by the constantly lit-up screen while she texted her little fingers off) -but this problem solved itself as a result of she and her friend leaving halfway through the film. (???) The other thing was a theme that I had noticed throughout the festival, that the presenters rarely, if ever, announced that there was going to be a short film preceding the feature. There will be more about notable events occurring as a result of keeping the audience in the dark about pre-features in future posts, but it would just be a good practice for the presenters to re-adopt because it just lead to confusion for the most part.

THE BEACHES OF AGNES
Director: Agnes Varda
France - 2008 - French with English subtitles
Previous Screenings:
Venice Film Festival 2008
Toronto International Film Festival 2008


The Beaches of Agnes is an autobiographical documentary of filmmaker Agnes Varda, a strong player in the French New Wave movement with films such as Cleo From 5 to 7 and The Creatures. Varda was heavily involved in film making and surrounded herself with other artists and filmmakers of the time (Alexander Calder was a friend) and was married to director Jacque Demy. (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg)

Knowing all of this, I went into the film excited to see what I thought would be a profile of a really interesting woman - I mean, this woman was a radical who directed a film about the Black Panthers in the 1960's that I studied in film school! - but instead it was a heady, hypnotic and surreal overview of Varda's life, directed by Varda herself. The conceit was, admittedly, an interesting one; Varda hired actors to stage several moments in her life, and she would film them, along with archival photographs and voice-over narration from Varda. Indeed, many of the people she worked with over the years did appear on screen, either via a current interview or historical footage, so we were able to hear from Godard, Piccoli and even Harrison Ford (??? I know.) but there was just something lacking for me.

The Beaches of Agnes is certainly imaginative, but I felt it was somewhat boring, probably because I am pretty straight forward when it comes to documentaries. Though creative, I looked hard to see a little more informative content rather than disparate scenes from Varda's life, and there were many times when I was unclear what was real and what was recreated, which admittedly may have been intentional. This is a Cesar-winning film, and I can see its value, and I know that it will appeal to a certain audience, but I wasn't in it.

2 stars out of 5


ART & COPY
Director: Doug Pray
USA - 2008 - English
Previous Screenings:
Sundance Film Festival 2009
Seattle International Film Festival 2009


Art & Copy is an intensive study of the advertising industry and the minds behind some of the most famous ad campaigns in advertising history. Billed as a look at the "real Mad Men" of the business, the film is an exquisite behind the scenes look at this influential industry.

With Art & Copy, name the iconic ad and you will get the story behind it, and probably an interview (and, if you're lucky, a primer on how the creative process works) with the people who created it. Some of the visionaries featured are Lee Clow (Apple Computers' 1984 and the current iPod campaign), Dan Wieden (Nike's "Just Do It" campaign) and my personal favorite, George Lois (Tommy Hilfiger, among others). These men (and some women) exhibit incredible creativity, vision and foresight, and the net result is usually something incredibly simple like, "Got Milk?" that can make people slap their foreheads and wonder why they didn't think of it first.

Hearing the stories behind the ads is a wonderful thing to witness, and are at times funny and poignant. When discussing his inspiration behind the "Just Do It" campaign for Nike, Chow reveals that he actually heard about Gary Gilmore, who, while in the electric chair was asked for final words which were "Let's Do It", which obviously struck a nerve. Within the same campaign, while promoting women and girls in sports, the filmmakers played Nike's "If you let me play sports" commercial featuring young girls telling the camera the benefits of female sports participation, and there was barely a dry eye in the theater.

Personally, I would have found this film fascinating even if it weren't as well done based on my profession. Being in Marketing, I considered everything I was seeing as a learning experience and sage advice. One favorite tip: "I never work with a committee. People have a committee in the first place to share the blame." Though most of them have different personalities, most are colorful (especially Lois, who garnered the most laughs with his dark humor and sailor-like vocabulary) but all have the passion for their profession in common. Watching Art & Copy is a sublime experience, and in doing so, it partially follows a philosophy that is postulated during the film: It's not about the product, it's about people wanting to be part of the group that "gets it", whether it be humor or whatnot. In this case, the product was outstanding and I wanted to be part of their group.

4 1/2 stars out of 5