A SCHIZOPRENIC LOVE STORY (2012)

A SCHIZOPHRENIC LOVE STORY

San Antonio Film Festival

As my journey through this very unique film festival continued, this screening was compelling because of the ability to get a little bit of an insider's view of the film business.  The film itself was entertaining and a fairly light and unique take on crippling mental illness.  The main character suffers from a trio of delusions in the form of three eccentric people... fortunately if you've seen Beautiful Mind you can understand the angle this film is taking towards the portrayal of this guy's madness.  Through the process of his therapy and medication, and a friendly neighbor and love interest who decides to show up at his door.  Bruce Davison, who is best known to me as the guy who played the Senator that was turned into a mutant by Magneto in X-Men but who was also nominated for an Oscar, also has a small role and gives this film a little more clout.

The screening was attended by cast and crew, and it was a blast to see the people up on the screen right down in the multiplex afterwards to answer questions.  What was fascinating was how they talked about setting a film in a simple scene in order to prove to investors that they can make a low budget film with a compelling story.  That opened up a new idea on how to appreciate movies.  No one has a big budget to portray their complete visions as first-time filmmakers.  What they can do is try to weave an interesting tale with those limitations of scope and budget, and A Schizophrenic Love Story is an example of using the the perspective of a troubled mind to take a movie into weird realms while staying within a very simple setting.

INTO THE WAKE / SAN ANTONIO FILM FESTIVAL

INTO THE WAKE (2012)

WIFF 2012 FILM

Upon coming to terms with missing a chance to join Marge and Steve in Madison for my fifth Wisconsin film fest in a row with them, I was excited to find out that a film they had watched was playing at the San Antonio Film Fest!  Also, as an example of how many films are out there that will never be blockbusters, Into the Wake was the ONLY film from the dozens playing in Wisconsin in April that made its way to my new town's festival.

First off, Into the Wake made me nostalgic for the Upper Midwest.  Most of the movie's dramatic scenes are shot in what appears to be in the North Center or Ravenswood neighborhoods of Chicago, as well as around scenic vistas by the Wisconsin River that I became very familiar with.  Just like the Dark Knight movies taking place on the streets of Chicago had a weird effect, I think the familiar landscape personalized the cinematic experience for me.

 

About the film itself, I would consider it a slightly shallower take on Winter's Bone that is a tad less believable and a smidgen less well acted.  Given that Winter's Bone was incredible on so many fronts though, that means that Into the Wake was pretty darn good.  The thick rich vein that comes with backcountry family rivalries can be tapped to many ends, and the filmmakers gave the story a style and intensity it deserved.

 

Enjoying these recaps!  Maybe I'll make it a daily clip!

TRASH DANCE (SAN ANTONIO FILM FESTIVAL)

TRASH DANCE (2012)

So, now begins my recollection of my San Antonio Film Festival experience.  From June 18-24 I sampled a few movies.  A little different that the very popular and fun Wisconsin Film Festival, which I attended from 2008-2011.  First of all, hardly any details of the scheduled films were released beforehand.  The theaters weren't very full.  During the short film showcases I had to wait minutes at a time for the projectionist to load up the next 2 minute film.  These films were often student films of varying quality... some had very local colors and themes.  So, it is not something that I would jump at the chance to go again.  It's not an immerse film experience, and not a user-friendly festival to say the least.

BUT, what was interesting about this festival was ACCESS to the filmmakers.  One movie had it's world premiere and the filmmaker came up to greet me and remembered my name.  The cast and crew were available at most screenings.  I'm now facebook friends with two of the filmmakers.  What made this special was that by seeing the physical people that attempted to make their cinematic visions with a limited scope and budget it really personalizes the experience in a whole new way.  There were some real technical and thematic faults with these movies but you can tell there was a passion behind them, and it convinces you that with enough drive (and the willingness to commit money of course) anyone can make something, and it can have many redeemable qualities.  It was a real insiders experience.  I just wanted to watch some unique movies, but I was surrounded by aspiring filmmakers who talked about the business of making movies and using this fest as a forum as a testing ground to get their careers started.  

Trash Dance was my first film screened during the three days that I attended the festival, and while the theater was empty and the film was only 60 minutes long, it actually probably had the most compelling theme of the festival.  A choreographer in Austin specializes in creating pieces that make blue collar activities artistic. She wants to create a performance using real trash workers.  She is a real Austin weird artistic type but through patience and understanding recruits folks that don't seem to have any interest in interpretative expression begin to rehearse for her work.  You feel that tension.. that feeling that this is really out of place for her to be doing this.  But the life stories of the workers and the way she crafts something that respects what they do shows that you can't judge anybody at face value or working class level.  From the lady's spacey eyed thoughts on dance you think you'll have maintenance workers dancing around in leotards but it's pretty magical what she pulls off.

More entries from the San Antonio Fest forthcoming!

Jonah

THE INTOUCHABLES

THE INTOUCHABLES (2011)
2012 WIFF selection

I am far from the 2012 Wisconsin Film Festival now, but this film was the Audience Favorite at that festival, and it found its way to the Santios Bikou theatre a few weeks ago.  The Bijou is near my apartment, they show artsy movies, and it's one of those movie cafes like the Alamo Drafthouse.  Nice to have it nearby.

This is about the most interesting and entertaining version possible of a very cliched premise.  Basically you have two people from different walks of life forced by circumstances to spend time with eachother, and each person learns a little more about themselves in the process.  But it is warm and charming, with unique twists given the French setting and the race issues in that country.  It's not  enough to overpower the feeling that you've seen this before, but worth a try.

In case you haven't noticed, I am trying a one film per post format.  I hope to address every film I've seen despite the backlog, and maybe somedays I'll want to give a simple recap or another day I want to do some tangential essay about how the movie relates to life experience.  We'll see how it goes.

TRON (1982)

Enormous credit has to go to the Matrix for introducing the concept to me of a complete alternate reality created by computers.   These films aren't really comparable, but I think for my generation the Matrix was a gateway drug to this kind of heady science film, stylized in a slick way that the MTV generation could find appealing.  Now we have this earlier interpretation, where the computer wasn't a prison for humanity's minds but a universe where elements of a data network were personified into characters with distinct relationships to their system.  Pretty geeky stuff but approachable if you try just a little bit to understand it.

I can't imagine how mind-blowing this must have been for people from 1982 to see this.  1982... when I was one year old!  You have to excuse me for laughing at the special effects, because  sometimes it was just too much.   "Why don't they fill these graphics in!" I was saying to myself.  But in actuality Tron likely pushed movies to the absolute edge of what they could accomplish visually for it's time.  I might assume that a movie focusing on innovative graphics would be all flash but no substance, but I actual found very little movie cliches that could take me out of the story for the duration of the film.  I think it's effective, in particular, when you have to focus on the alternative lingo of a new world.  Finding out what a "program" means to these characters, as well as a "user", and an "MCP" gives you an additional puzzle to acclimate to this universe.

I think the power of a completely realized cinematic world is that you actually feel like you were cheated by the movie's running time in that you couldn't explore this world for days.  Tron isn't some overhyped baby-boomer geek fetish.  It's the real deal... a stunning and exciting visual kaleidoscope with a solid story and concept.

Grade:  A-

NUMBER 7

NUMBER 7 FILM OF 2011

 

URBANIZED

So, here I am now, moved from Chicago to San Antonio in a big career and big life move.  I was able to build off of a small portion of my work in Rockford into a new position that is full of challenges and new opportunities.  My municipal organization is different, this big city is very different, and the range of duties and tools at my disposal are at times better and at times more frustrating than my old position.  My title is "Senior Planner" but the explanation of my position to outsiders is getting more and more difficult.  "What planners do..." is becoming a hard question to answer, as the academic pursuit of a planning degree gets further distant from the practice of fitting into a multifaceted group of professionals... some of which don't need to know how important your training is, but rather what you can deliver to the department. 

With time I now have great memories of seeing this movie in the Gene Siskel Film Center (one of my final cinematic experiences) in a theater full of urban planning students, a few old professors and scattered groups of oddball planning enthusiasts.  Urbanized showed for only a limited run and this was the final screening.

This film wasn't perfect.  I was joking with my Chicago planner friends that this wasn't quite the propaganda I was looking for that could turn people to the dark side and be full flag waving supporters of community planning.

What it provided was something more nuanced however.  These vignettes of the complicated situations that arise when folks try to organize space is a reflection of the often chaotic contexts in which planners work.  What is one group's opportunity for grand urban transformation is another group's destruction of natural heritage.  As I work more on specific projects and physical sites in my work I'm going to try not to lose sight that planning is an inherently philosophical profession.  Whether it's a suburban cul-de-sac or a gentrifying neighborhood, planners can't exist unless there is a universal understanding that organizing around the good of a community is an approach that can provide benefits to everyone. Urbanized encouraged that kind of conversation in an age of individualism, and it makes it essential viewing, and at least a top ten film for me.

Cleaning

The halfway point of the year has almost passed, so soon I will need to roll off my Favorite Films of 2011 for safekeeping.

For now a little housecleaning as I was dragged out to see some fairly pleasant big-screen blockbusters over the past few weeks.

MEN IN BLACK 2 (2002)

Almost completely forgettable.  Saw snippets of this on Cable TV over the years and trusted the reviews that said it was a crappy sequel.  I only watched it to take advantage of my uncle's big TV and to prepare myself for #3, which he bought me tickets to see in McAllen when I visited them over Memorial Day weekend.

MEN IN BLACK 3 (2012)

I have to say I was really surprised when I read reviews that said this was actually good.  Maybe a good 10 years is enough to let the motivation for a cop-out sequel to die down a bit and for someone creative to tackle this world again.  And actually, while it didn't completely shed its sequel grime (a telltale sign is the tongue-in-cheek repetition of tired elements of previous movies), it was engaging and weird, with a really powerful ending.

GOD BLESS AMERICA (2011)

Ah, back to obscure indie movies.  This movie was promoted by Writer/Director Bobcat Goldthwait on no less than 2 comedy podcasts which I pay attention to.  I was worried that it wouldn't reach my area.  But it did play in hipster-haven Austin when I visited.  First off, this was my first experience in the Alamo Drafthouse Austin Ritz, right on the main strip of clubs and music venues downtown.  Great theater with full restaurant service.  Neatest of all, it wasn't your chain cinema roll of previews they showed prior to the movie, but a mixture of clips that really prepared you for the movie.  I'm talking Bobcat Goldthwait comedy clips, the climatic scene of Taxi Driver, previews for vigilante movies, and disturbing exceprts from the trashiest actual reality shows like Toddlers and Tiaras and My Super Sweet 16.  The movie isn't perfect but taps into a dark place, the kind that feels like it would be such a release to lash out at the mean-spirited ignorance and stupidity of the world with brutal violence.

PROMETHEUS (2012)

My first visit to San Antonio's IMAX multiplex... a lush and beautiful science fiction film that demands your attention at first but reverts (not in an entirely bad way) to chaos as the monsters take over.  Ain't It Cool's review says it is best to not think too much about Alien when watching, which is very difficult to do.  Especially for someone who gets a kick out of quality foreshadowing (Star Wars Episode III for example) it was hard to ignore the callbacks to gory invasive alien procedures.  But if you don't try to make too much sense of it and evaluate it on its own it's pretty satisfying


MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (2011)

Oscar Count

Best Picture 4/9 -- Best Director 4/5 -- Best Original Screenplay -- 2/5

OK, there's been a consistent cleverness in Woody Allen's movies throughout, but a cynical side of me is thinking that he's given too much credit just for not being terrible with some of his recent movies.  I haven't had time to watch any movie he made in between 1989 Crimes and Misdemeanors and 2006's Match Point, so I can't judge, but this was entertaining but minor.

OK, line them up for the next month of viewing.  I'll be back.