Germany. Highly recommended.
A movie about a grumpy, prejudiced old guy saddled with an immigrant kid. Its odd, that sounds like a total, done to death cliche of a premise. But there are a million ways to tell the same story, and some of them, like this one, just stand out.
The director was asked how he pulled such an amazing performance from his female lead, playing a 6 year old Turkish girl. When she was supposed to look thoughtful he gave her addition problems to do in her head, and when he wanted her to look confused he gave her multiplication. Anyway, she was very good. Its set in Nuremburg, and there are a lot of great shots of the old city. An audience member who was German asked about the “:dialects” that were used. I think we would say “accent”. I guess Nuremburg is in the south, and the lead actor is sort of a Tommy Lee Jones: enough of an accent to sound southern, but not hard to understand at all. If you know German. I forget that a place like Germany has regional speech differences, it all sounds like German to me.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Safety Not Guaranteed
USA. Highly Recommended. Sometimes at SIFF we go to movies we don’t think we are going to like for basically logistical reasons, and end up loving the movie. The kiss of death on this one is that it is a local production which, alas, often equates to being bad film making.
I loved this movie, as did the rest of the audience, except, apparently, the grouchy looking lady next to me. (Not, I hasten to add, Marion, I went alone.) It did everything a comedy is supposed to do, which is make people laugh. The ending is perfect. As I mentioned in a post last year that both of you may remember, Scifi is a really good genre for low budget film making, because you can make up any facts you like to make the scenario work and the audience will go along. This is a romantic comedy. A big element of the story is whether the male lead is crazy, or on to something, or both, and they make this hold up really, well. They make knowing/ironic use of various movie tropes like the character who is supposed to be a plain-jane portrayed by a hot actress. Her role is really very nicely constructed, and she has all the best lines. Mary Lynn Rajskub, The actress who was Chloe O’Brien, my favorite character in “24" has a cameo.
I loved this movie, as did the rest of the audience, except, apparently, the grouchy looking lady next to me. (Not, I hasten to add, Marion, I went alone.) It did everything a comedy is supposed to do, which is make people laugh. The ending is perfect. As I mentioned in a post last year that both of you may remember, Scifi is a really good genre for low budget film making, because you can make up any facts you like to make the scenario work and the audience will go along. This is a romantic comedy. A big element of the story is whether the male lead is crazy, or on to something, or both, and they make this hold up really, well. They make knowing/ironic use of various movie tropes like the character who is supposed to be a plain-jane portrayed by a hot actress. Her role is really very nicely constructed, and she has all the best lines. Mary Lynn Rajskub, The actress who was Chloe O’Brien, my favorite character in “24" has a cameo.
Liberal Arts
USA. Recommended
This one will probably get released and do well. Very well made romantic comedy. Apparently, the cast is well known, although the only actors I recognized are the great Richard Jenkins and Allison Janney in character roles. Its basically about getting older and maturing, in one sequence or another. It is, I suspect, aimed as much at boomers as at the demographic represented by the main characters. Funny movie very effectively acted. There are lots of those lines that you know must be scripted, but seem so perfect to a moment that its hard to believe.
This one will probably get released and do well. Very well made romantic comedy. Apparently, the cast is well known, although the only actors I recognized are the great Richard Jenkins and Allison Janney in character roles. Its basically about getting older and maturing, in one sequence or another. It is, I suspect, aimed as much at boomers as at the demographic represented by the main characters. Funny movie very effectively acted. There are lots of those lines that you know must be scripted, but seem so perfect to a moment that its hard to believe.
Goodbye
Iran. Probably a very good movie.
There was a technical problem, the subtitles were about 10 minutes out of synch with the movie, or it seemed so. Lots of people left, us included. The movie centers of a woman trying to be treated decently, which differs in degree but not greatly in kind from the difficulty experienced by a lot of people who want to be treated decently in highly organized countries, ours included of course.
The director is appealing a six year jail sentence is Iran for his movies on charges of “assembly, collusion, and propagandizing against the regime.”
There was a technical problem, the subtitles were about 10 minutes out of synch with the movie, or it seemed so. Lots of people left, us included. The movie centers of a woman trying to be treated decently, which differs in degree but not greatly in kind from the difficulty experienced by a lot of people who want to be treated decently in highly organized countries, ours included of course.
The director is appealing a six year jail sentence is Iran for his movies on charges of “assembly, collusion, and propagandizing against the regime.”
Monday, May 28, 2012
Woman in the Fifth
France. Pretty Recommended.
A French movie, mostly in French with two Hollywood stars. The director is from almost everywhere in Europe except France. I’m not sure what that is about. I have a bit of an attitude toward Kristin Scott Thomas. She seems to have a taste for roles portraying people I seriously dislike, often in that genre of movie I think of as privileged-people-making-themselves-unnecessarily-miserable. Except she has been in a number of French movies and I generally like both her character and the movie. She is great in this movie. Her character is intended to be very enigmatic, the audience is not 100% sure she even exists. She does this wonderfully. She conveys the ambiguity of the character as surely as if she were winking at the camera, without being a bit obvious even about that.
There is a storyline in this movie that is always intriguing. Guy randomly walks into a café and with no particular plan becomes involved in that scene, becomes one of the people in the ecosystem of that random café. Walk down the street and a door will be open, look in and people are interacting and there is a little universe spinning on its own axis in there. Behind every door.
Its best to see some movies without knowing anything at all about the story. This is one of those. Try not to read anything. All I will say about it is that there is one element that is often used in movies that I think is kind of a cheat.
A French movie, mostly in French with two Hollywood stars. The director is from almost everywhere in Europe except France. I’m not sure what that is about. I have a bit of an attitude toward Kristin Scott Thomas. She seems to have a taste for roles portraying people I seriously dislike, often in that genre of movie I think of as privileged-people-making-themselves-unnecessarily-miserable. Except she has been in a number of French movies and I generally like both her character and the movie. She is great in this movie. Her character is intended to be very enigmatic, the audience is not 100% sure she even exists. She does this wonderfully. She conveys the ambiguity of the character as surely as if she were winking at the camera, without being a bit obvious even about that.
There is a storyline in this movie that is always intriguing. Guy randomly walks into a café and with no particular plan becomes involved in that scene, becomes one of the people in the ecosystem of that random café. Walk down the street and a door will be open, look in and people are interacting and there is a little universe spinning on its own axis in there. Behind every door.
Its best to see some movies without knowing anything at all about the story. This is one of those. Try not to read anything. All I will say about it is that there is one element that is often used in movies that I think is kind of a cheat.
Breathing
Austria. Recommended.
A young guy on work release will either find a reason to be a whole person or will remain a fuck-up. I see this as kind of a man vs. machine story. (Machines often win in these stories.) In this case Man is the guy and the Machine is our apparatus for disposing of the excess population. The audience roots for the guy, of course, and every time something even a little nice happens to him its heartening.
A young guy on work release will either find a reason to be a whole person or will remain a fuck-up. I see this as kind of a man vs. machine story. (Machines often win in these stories.) In this case Man is the guy and the Machine is our apparatus for disposing of the excess population. The audience roots for the guy, of course, and every time something even a little nice happens to him its heartening.
Rose
Poland. Recommended, with a warning.
This is set in the aftermath of WWII in a really horrible place. A part of Poland whose inhabitants, the Masurians, just to stay alive had to adjust their loyalties every 50 or 100 years or so from Poland to Prussia to Germany to Poland again then back to Germany under the Nazis, and then to the Soviet Empire. So, everyone hates everyone. The Nazis thought the Poles were defective, the Poles hated both the Germans and the Russians, The Russians were commie bastards. Pretty much everyone hated the Masurians at a time where there was no limit to the crap available to dish out to despised groups of people and in a place where the fighting had turned everyone feral.
It’s a love story between two people trying, against all odds, to get back to normal. It’s a very engaging story and the audience really roots for things to go well. Stories set in the immediate aftermath of a war always interest me. The norms have all been destroyed, people are choosing which to adopt and which to discard. There are possibilities that do not exist in normal times. There is also a bit of man-with-no-name style western in this movie. The main guy kind of shows up from no where and we get little by way of his backstory, and he is a definite good guy hero type.
It being a love story, complications ensue and some of these are pretty violent and creepy, hence the warning. The violence and creepiness took me pretty close to my personal threshold, which is not that high.
This is set in the aftermath of WWII in a really horrible place. A part of Poland whose inhabitants, the Masurians, just to stay alive had to adjust their loyalties every 50 or 100 years or so from Poland to Prussia to Germany to Poland again then back to Germany under the Nazis, and then to the Soviet Empire. So, everyone hates everyone. The Nazis thought the Poles were defective, the Poles hated both the Germans and the Russians, The Russians were commie bastards. Pretty much everyone hated the Masurians at a time where there was no limit to the crap available to dish out to despised groups of people and in a place where the fighting had turned everyone feral.
It’s a love story between two people trying, against all odds, to get back to normal. It’s a very engaging story and the audience really roots for things to go well. Stories set in the immediate aftermath of a war always interest me. The norms have all been destroyed, people are choosing which to adopt and which to discard. There are possibilities that do not exist in normal times. There is also a bit of man-with-no-name style western in this movie. The main guy kind of shows up from no where and we get little by way of his backstory, and he is a definite good guy hero type.
It being a love story, complications ensue and some of these are pretty violent and creepy, hence the warning. The violence and creepiness took me pretty close to my personal threshold, which is not that high.
Madrid, 1987
Spain. OK movie.
“My Dinner with Andre” naked and in Spanish. I’ll say I like this better than “My Dinner’, and not because of the nudity, which was pretty understated. The horror show that was the mid 20th Century started early in Spain, and lasted a lot longer there. The movie in large part is the occasion for a character who went through that crap with his dignity intact to muse coming to grips with a world where its not so challenging to live honestly. His muse is a very pretty cardboard cutout with the word “youth” written on it. Some people liked this movie a lot more than I did.
“My Dinner with Andre” naked and in Spanish. I’ll say I like this better than “My Dinner’, and not because of the nudity, which was pretty understated. The horror show that was the mid 20th Century started early in Spain, and lasted a lot longer there. The movie in large part is the occasion for a character who went through that crap with his dignity intact to muse coming to grips with a world where its not so challenging to live honestly. His muse is a very pretty cardboard cutout with the word “youth” written on it. Some people liked this movie a lot more than I did.
My Brother the Devil
United Kingdom. Recommended.
Let this be the occasion for me to bitch about the movie descriptions in the various SIFF guides. For a start they can be completely misleading. In this instance the blurb contains a spoiler, that mortal sin of movie guides, presumably in order to appeal to a niche audience. This one is especially egregious in that highlighting it shows that the blurbographer pretty much missed the main point of the movie. So do not read the blurb if you can manage it.
Set in youth gang culture in London its about what most guy movies are about: loyalty. This youth gang culture is not white soccer hooligan types but native Londoners of Arab and African descent. Interestingly, its not Arabs vs. Africans, but one group of Arabs and Africans vs. another similar group. The competition among gangs is incidental to the competition between gang life and straight (in the sense of, like, getting a job or a degree) life, which is the main conflict of the movie in various ways.
The lead actor bears a striking resemblance in both visage and manner (and accent) to the young Jude Law. The cast also includes the excellent Saïd Taghmaou, who played the torture guy in Three Kings, the guy with the deathless line "What is the problem with Michael Jackson?".
Let this be the occasion for me to bitch about the movie descriptions in the various SIFF guides. For a start they can be completely misleading. In this instance the blurb contains a spoiler, that mortal sin of movie guides, presumably in order to appeal to a niche audience. This one is especially egregious in that highlighting it shows that the blurbographer pretty much missed the main point of the movie. So do not read the blurb if you can manage it.
Set in youth gang culture in London its about what most guy movies are about: loyalty. This youth gang culture is not white soccer hooligan types but native Londoners of Arab and African descent. Interestingly, its not Arabs vs. Africans, but one group of Arabs and Africans vs. another similar group. The competition among gangs is incidental to the competition between gang life and straight (in the sense of, like, getting a job or a degree) life, which is the main conflict of the movie in various ways.
The lead actor bears a striking resemblance in both visage and manner (and accent) to the young Jude Law. The cast also includes the excellent Saïd Taghmaou, who played the torture guy in Three Kings, the guy with the deathless line "What is the problem with Michael Jackson?".
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Oslo, August 31
Norway. Total drag of a movie.
Our bias against Scandinavian movies is reinforced. Really depressing movie with no discernible point, and the most rudimentary and meaningless story telling. Movie that follows this one guy around for a day. There are movies that do this wonderfully and we love. This is not one of those. Its like watching creepy paint dry.
Our bias against Scandinavian movies is reinforced. Really depressing movie with no discernible point, and the most rudimentary and meaningless story telling. Movie that follows this one guy around for a day. There are movies that do this wonderfully and we love. This is not one of those. Its like watching creepy paint dry.
Kill Me
Germany. Recommended.
A buddy movie. An escaped convict is assisted by a depressed teenaged girl who demands only that he agree to kill her once he is clear. Pretty great premise. One of the first things I thought about in watching this was, hey, its present day Germany, where can you run to? The highly civilized world has made anonymity pretty much obsolete. Turns out you run to Africa. Of course.
There is a scene in, just coincidentally, “The Fugitive” (one of my favorite movies) where Harrison Ford is walking along a dark road at night and a woman stops her car and picks him up. No explanation and no follow-up. There just had to be more story to be told about this encounter, and presumably there just was not time to tell it. I really wonder why that one scene was left in. There is an eerily similar scene in this movie, and a couple a little less eerily similar. One of the actors was at the showing, and someone asked the excellent question, “Were there any scenes you wish had made it into the movie?” It turns out that one of the minor characters in the movie originally had a much larger role, but all of it was cut except for two or three scenes.
A buddy movie. An escaped convict is assisted by a depressed teenaged girl who demands only that he agree to kill her once he is clear. Pretty great premise. One of the first things I thought about in watching this was, hey, its present day Germany, where can you run to? The highly civilized world has made anonymity pretty much obsolete. Turns out you run to Africa. Of course.
There is a scene in, just coincidentally, “The Fugitive” (one of my favorite movies) where Harrison Ford is walking along a dark road at night and a woman stops her car and picks him up. No explanation and no follow-up. There just had to be more story to be told about this encounter, and presumably there just was not time to tell it. I really wonder why that one scene was left in. There is an eerily similar scene in this movie, and a couple a little less eerily similar. One of the actors was at the showing, and someone asked the excellent question, “Were there any scenes you wish had made it into the movie?” It turns out that one of the minor characters in the movie originally had a much larger role, but all of it was cut except for two or three scenes.
Trial on the Road
Russia. Recommended
This was filmed in 1971, and has a much older feel to it. Black and white movie. Set in the winter of 1942 among partisan fighters against the Nazis. For some reason the Soviets banned this movie. Not sure why, it makes the Russians seem pretty heroic which, indeed, they were. Pretty much a classic war movie with a nice twist. A guy in a German uniform beats a partisan into submission and then surrenders to him, saying he is a Russian soldier who was captured and impressed by the Germans. He wants back into the fight on the right side. The film has terrific portrayals of the stock characters of war movies: the grizzled field officer, the popinjay lieutenant, the willies and joes, and we get terrific performances from the character actors.
This was filmed in 1971, and has a much older feel to it. Black and white movie. Set in the winter of 1942 among partisan fighters against the Nazis. For some reason the Soviets banned this movie. Not sure why, it makes the Russians seem pretty heroic which, indeed, they were. Pretty much a classic war movie with a nice twist. A guy in a German uniform beats a partisan into submission and then surrenders to him, saying he is a Russian soldier who was captured and impressed by the Germans. He wants back into the fight on the right side. The film has terrific portrayals of the stock characters of war movies: the grizzled field officer, the popinjay lieutenant, the willies and joes, and we get terrific performances from the character actors.
L’Afrance
France. Meh.
OK, Marion liked this movie a lot. I would have left early, and compromised by taking a nap. Highly educated Senegalese in France endlessly debating whether ‘tis best to stay in Europe and have, like, a life or to go back and help fix the broken country. The leading guy keeps sweating his illegal status and also sweating that going back seems best. The French can go on and on about the philosophical and moral implications of... just about anything well past the point that I want to shout “Make-A-Damn-Decision”, and these guys are pretty French in that respect. But Marion thought it was a good movie.
OK, Marion liked this movie a lot. I would have left early, and compromised by taking a nap. Highly educated Senegalese in France endlessly debating whether ‘tis best to stay in Europe and have, like, a life or to go back and help fix the broken country. The leading guy keeps sweating his illegal status and also sweating that going back seems best. The French can go on and on about the philosophical and moral implications of... just about anything well past the point that I want to shout “Make-A-Damn-Decision”, and these guys are pretty French in that respect. But Marion thought it was a good movie.
Valley of the Saints
India. Recommended.
There are several things going on in this movie. It is set among the people who live and work on Lake Dal, which has been a resort area since the days of the Mughals in the 1600's. Of course, it is dying from all the humanity, and that is one story line. It is in Kashmir and a lot of the action of the movie is driven by civil unrest and a curfew that was actually occurring during the filming, so the scenes of soldiers and demonstrations is mostly real. (Kashmir is the largest Muslim populated area in India, so there you go. By the way, the reason we have such problems with Pakistan: Kashmir. True story, but not part of this movie.) So there is a bit of John Sayles style social commentary going on, but it interferes with the story not at all. The story is about two young guys trying to get something going for themselves. Good story, well told. There are a lot of gorgeous shots of the lake. Mostly non-professional actors including the leading man, who was terrific. So almost everyting the audience sees is the real deal. He wrote a couple of songs that are in the movie. He actually is a boatman on Lake Dal.
There are several things going on in this movie. It is set among the people who live and work on Lake Dal, which has been a resort area since the days of the Mughals in the 1600's. Of course, it is dying from all the humanity, and that is one story line. It is in Kashmir and a lot of the action of the movie is driven by civil unrest and a curfew that was actually occurring during the filming, so the scenes of soldiers and demonstrations is mostly real. (Kashmir is the largest Muslim populated area in India, so there you go. By the way, the reason we have such problems with Pakistan: Kashmir. True story, but not part of this movie.) So there is a bit of John Sayles style social commentary going on, but it interferes with the story not at all. The story is about two young guys trying to get something going for themselves. Good story, well told. There are a lot of gorgeous shots of the lake. Mostly non-professional actors including the leading man, who was terrific. So almost everyting the audience sees is the real deal. He wrote a couple of songs that are in the movie. He actually is a boatman on Lake Dal.
The Intouchables
France. Recommended.
First off, François Cluzet has quite a resemblance to Dustin Hoffman. Hoffman would probably take this role, which must be a challenge for an actor: he can’t move his body, all his acting was from the neck up. On one level this is a pretty standard heartwarming story with some standard plot elements. Rich paralyzed guy, streetwise hustler type, but with heart, conned into becoming caregiver. Complications ensue. It is really very well done, and is pretty funny. Hollywood is seldom able to do both of these things in a movie.
First off, François Cluzet has quite a resemblance to Dustin Hoffman. Hoffman would probably take this role, which must be a challenge for an actor: he can’t move his body, all his acting was from the neck up. On one level this is a pretty standard heartwarming story with some standard plot elements. Rich paralyzed guy, streetwise hustler type, but with heart, conned into becoming caregiver. Complications ensue. It is really very well done, and is pretty funny. Hollywood is seldom able to do both of these things in a movie.
Daas
Poland. Highly recommended.
I liked this more than anyone else I have talked with. I think it compares favorably to “Chinatown”, but I got a weird look when I said that. A movie about a major historical event that I never really heard of. Set in 1776, of all years, in Vienna centered on a cult led by Jacob Frank, a Polish Jew who had lived in Turkey and who had decided he was the messiah. Also he could grant immortality. At the time he was a really big deal. He encouraged his people to commit all the sins they could because conventional morality is for suckers. Good way for a cult leader to do what cult leaders do which is so very often to have sex with as many cult followers as they can manage.
Most of the action of the movie centers on a couple of guys trying to bring him down for all the bad stuff he did. Last Honest Man stuff. Its not a movie about Jacob Frank, it’s a movie about guys trying to get the right thing done with the Hapsburg version of the cops and the courts and the inside players and the dangerous thugs.
As always with period movies, I could not get enough of the great clothes these guys wore. Also, part of the storytelling includes a woman who had locked in syndrome after a stroke, and boy was she treated right. Really, normalization at its best.
I liked this more than anyone else I have talked with. I think it compares favorably to “Chinatown”, but I got a weird look when I said that. A movie about a major historical event that I never really heard of. Set in 1776, of all years, in Vienna centered on a cult led by Jacob Frank, a Polish Jew who had lived in Turkey and who had decided he was the messiah. Also he could grant immortality. At the time he was a really big deal. He encouraged his people to commit all the sins they could because conventional morality is for suckers. Good way for a cult leader to do what cult leaders do which is so very often to have sex with as many cult followers as they can manage.
Most of the action of the movie centers on a couple of guys trying to bring him down for all the bad stuff he did. Last Honest Man stuff. Its not a movie about Jacob Frank, it’s a movie about guys trying to get the right thing done with the Hapsburg version of the cops and the courts and the inside players and the dangerous thugs.
As always with period movies, I could not get enough of the great clothes these guys wore. Also, part of the storytelling includes a woman who had locked in syndrome after a stroke, and boy was she treated right. Really, normalization at its best.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
SIFF Diary
OK, so the reason I started this blog is to post commentary about every single movie I see at the Seattle International Film Festival. It starts next week. I did this last year on Facebook, and came to fundamentally dislike, as well as never quite understand, Facebook.
Just to begin, here is a re-post of the review I did of SIFF itself toward the emd of the festival last year. It is kind of mean spirited to mention flaws when SIFF fundamentally enriches the planet. But here goes.
SIFF
USA. As SIFF winds down I thought I would do a review of SIFF itself. And this one time I will do the traditional reviewers job of talking smack about the subject. So let me first say that SIFF is amazing. There are not many things for which I will give up all of my free time and most of my sanity for 3 weeks a year. SIFF manages that. Three completely non-ironic cheers for SIFF! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Great, Great movies. I actually do not go to many non SIFF movies. Most movies do not measure up.
OK thats done.
I like to watch Mad Men and Breaking Bad and The killing on AMC. I have evil Comcast and can time shift my viewing. Watching the on demand episodes, they do have commercials (and let me here say that the remote control Comcast hands out is made of dung) and the commercials include ads for the show that is being watched. “Hey, person watching Mad Men, you should see how great Mad Men is.” What are they thinking. Really, does anyone know? Do they know? SIFF does the same thing. Before the movie begins they play 4 or five trailers for SIFF. I have seen these trailers 45 times now, and they have become torture to me, in addition to the pointlessness making me crazy.
And then before the movie one of the programmers gets up and makes a little speech. Necessary announcements. Off with cell phones and their kin, the director will/will not be here, applause for the donors (blessed be the donors, by the way). The end time for the movie. The majority of the people who do this, though, feel the need to inject a bit of personality into the proceedings, with uniformly lame results. These people know movies, they pick the movies and do it well. Like most movie lovers (me included) they are probably frustrated performers. But, it must be said, frustrated because they are not good at it. Thats fine too, but I just sat through 5 pointless trailers I’ve seen 40 times, can I please not listen to any more of you than I need to and please watch a movie? Please?
I am convinced that many of the blurbs on the SIFF website are written by people who have not seen the movie. I understand. There are so many movies, so little time. They describe a movie like the movie being blurbed, but different. The most egregious of many examples is calling “Burke and Hare” a comedy about grave robbers. Burke and Hare were real people and were not grave robbers, they murdered people and sold the bodies, and the movie shows the funny ways people can be murdered for their bodies. So, SIFF, no, it was not like “Garden State”, it was like a comedy about the Boston Strangler. (By the way, let me say here in case I forgot: Fuck you, John Landis.)
In order to do the wonderful things SIFF does they need to have a lot of volunteers. A lot of them. And they are polite and helpful and enthusiastic. Again, all non-ironic praise for the volunteers. But. They hand out ballots for the movies with the exact amount of assertiveness I would use for smallpox vaccine, its hard to get in the door. They congregate around the entrance/exits so getting out of the theater (to get to your next movie that starts in ½ hour someplace else) is like going through airport security with your shoes on. On a movie that is going to fill the theater 1/4 full, tops, they treat Back to Back passes like letters of transit on the Lisbon plane. To a line of, say, 8 series pass holders they will call out “Platinum Passholders may enter!” as if they worry maybe they should have brought their plastic shields to hold back the hoards of non-platinum pass holders who may appear from hyperspace and rush the door. One year at the now lamented Uptown, they had closed off one of the entries to the theater. I asked why and the volunteer explained that they had figured out a better way for people to enter the theater. This to people who go to movies all the time and really do know how to find a seat in a movie theater. Volunteers! This is fun! Be loose! Its going to be OK!
Just to begin, here is a re-post of the review I did of SIFF itself toward the emd of the festival last year. It is kind of mean spirited to mention flaws when SIFF fundamentally enriches the planet. But here goes.
SIFF
USA. As SIFF winds down I thought I would do a review of SIFF itself. And this one time I will do the traditional reviewers job of talking smack about the subject. So let me first say that SIFF is amazing. There are not many things for which I will give up all of my free time and most of my sanity for 3 weeks a year. SIFF manages that. Three completely non-ironic cheers for SIFF! Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Great, Great movies. I actually do not go to many non SIFF movies. Most movies do not measure up.
OK thats done.
I like to watch Mad Men and Breaking Bad and The killing on AMC. I have evil Comcast and can time shift my viewing. Watching the on demand episodes, they do have commercials (and let me here say that the remote control Comcast hands out is made of dung) and the commercials include ads for the show that is being watched. “Hey, person watching Mad Men, you should see how great Mad Men is.” What are they thinking. Really, does anyone know? Do they know? SIFF does the same thing. Before the movie begins they play 4 or five trailers for SIFF. I have seen these trailers 45 times now, and they have become torture to me, in addition to the pointlessness making me crazy.
And then before the movie one of the programmers gets up and makes a little speech. Necessary announcements. Off with cell phones and their kin, the director will/will not be here, applause for the donors (blessed be the donors, by the way). The end time for the movie. The majority of the people who do this, though, feel the need to inject a bit of personality into the proceedings, with uniformly lame results. These people know movies, they pick the movies and do it well. Like most movie lovers (me included) they are probably frustrated performers. But, it must be said, frustrated because they are not good at it. Thats fine too, but I just sat through 5 pointless trailers I’ve seen 40 times, can I please not listen to any more of you than I need to and please watch a movie? Please?
I am convinced that many of the blurbs on the SIFF website are written by people who have not seen the movie. I understand. There are so many movies, so little time. They describe a movie like the movie being blurbed, but different. The most egregious of many examples is calling “Burke and Hare” a comedy about grave robbers. Burke and Hare were real people and were not grave robbers, they murdered people and sold the bodies, and the movie shows the funny ways people can be murdered for their bodies. So, SIFF, no, it was not like “Garden State”, it was like a comedy about the Boston Strangler. (By the way, let me say here in case I forgot: Fuck you, John Landis.)
In order to do the wonderful things SIFF does they need to have a lot of volunteers. A lot of them. And they are polite and helpful and enthusiastic. Again, all non-ironic praise for the volunteers. But. They hand out ballots for the movies with the exact amount of assertiveness I would use for smallpox vaccine, its hard to get in the door. They congregate around the entrance/exits so getting out of the theater (to get to your next movie that starts in ½ hour someplace else) is like going through airport security with your shoes on. On a movie that is going to fill the theater 1/4 full, tops, they treat Back to Back passes like letters of transit on the Lisbon plane. To a line of, say, 8 series pass holders they will call out “Platinum Passholders may enter!” as if they worry maybe they should have brought their plastic shields to hold back the hoards of non-platinum pass holders who may appear from hyperspace and rush the door. One year at the now lamented Uptown, they had closed off one of the entries to the theater. I asked why and the volunteer explained that they had figured out a better way for people to enter the theater. This to people who go to movies all the time and really do know how to find a seat in a movie theater. Volunteers! This is fun! Be loose! Its going to be OK!
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