WINGS OF DEFEAT
Wrapping up my abridged film-festival experience (not a darn drop of rain or snow after I left early!) was a really great documentary profiling Japanese soldiers trained as kamikaze pilots in the final days of World War II. Of the many documentaries to choose from, all I had to do was read the topic of this film to make it one of my essential viewings that weekend. The filmmaker does have a connection to this story as a Japanese-American whose late uncle was trained as a kamikaze pilot, but that personal connection is not entirely relevant as the film allows for these complex yet likeable people to tell their personal stories. In a contemporary setting, this movie is very powerful in the light of a worldview after 9-11 that has reinforced the view of the 'other' as a monolithic evil entity. While I can understand the difficulty in finding sympathy for the modern version of suicide warfare based on terrorism and fanaticism, the human perspective of the Japanese side makes you understand their motivations, and allows you to sympathize even more with the individuals trained (some would say brainwashed) to die for their country as they were caught up in the war machine. The riveting scenarios that allow these men to fail their missions and live to tell their tales are powerful, vulnerable tales. I’m trying not to generalize here, but I think the suicide bombers of today are led to believe in a threat to their livelihood that is almost entirely existential. In the case of these Japanese soldiers preparing for a homeland invasion by the Allied powers, it’s incredibly difficult to label these people as evil fanatics, and more easy to them serving a hopeless patriotic cause through desperate measures. If you believe in the viability of moral gray areas in history, this is a very good documentary. It actually reminds of the film experiment of Flags of Our Father / Letters From Iwo Jima (I've only seen the latter), as far as it claims both sides had a noble reason to fight.
BON COP, BAD COP (supplemental entry)
And finally, we get to the Netflix online viewing I watched that same weekend to make up for the weather-induced early departure that allowed me to miss two interesting films from South Korea and Denmark, probably my two favorite foreign-film countries. This movie was in the 2008 Wisconsin film fest program.
This “foreign film” is from Canada but feels a little odd because it’s a bilingual film that takes place in the francophone and Anglophone parts of the country. Very odd that our neighbors to the North live in places that look and feel like America, but with French being spoken occasionally! This is pretty much an amusing buddy cop movie where a Montreal cop and an Ontario cop team up to solve a killing spree, but it’s understated and off-kilter in perhaps a uniquely Canadian way. I recommended this to my friends that lived in Burlington, Vermont for several years, since Montreal was the closest major city to them.
Once again, I’m very happy I went to this festival, and love the atmosphere and venues. I thought my freaky weather turnarounds would be over by April in Wisconsin, but I learned my lesson. I really want to have mini-film festivals using the movies from the programs for the past 2 years that I have access to on Netflix Instant.
For now it’s back to normally scheduled entries, including a masterpiece of a film essay on the 1999 movie Winslow Boy shortly, as part of the Film Snob series that just might be completed by the time of Obama’s reelection.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Wisconsin Film Fest Part 4
SHORT FILMS
After Silent Light there was another screening of 4 short films in the same theater. These were all great little slices of interesting fun, under the umbrella of the very broad theme of relationship. Film-makers of two of the short films were there to answer questions after the screenings.
Audience Award Winner –
Great for two reasons, it captures the odd dynamic between urban couples my age, and the subset among those couples that’s characterized by the smoking hot lady and the rather dishelved, unshaven, but assuredly awesome long-haired guy. It’s also filmed all around Wicker Park in Chicago, including actual intersections I’ve walked on many times! My big regret is that I was too shy to ask the filmmakers during the Q+A about what theater the final scene was filmed in. I would have sounded so urban and hip among the Madison crowd if I asked that question.
A Song Without a Name –
A calm simple film with improvised dialogue, that takes place over an overnight camping trip / first date. It’s deceptively straightforward as you smile at the warm-hearted innocence of the scenes, all the while as you toss ideas in the back of your head about how these two have anything possible in common to make something long-term work.
Una Y Otra Vez –
The least interesting of the four films, kind of a standard relationship drama, abridged for the short film format. Set among the Mexican immigrant community, though, it does have some unique cultural and structural twists.
The Last Page –
Of the many shorts programs offered, I chose this one because of the kudos in the festival guide that this final film was one of the most hilarious short film offerings of the festival. Definitely a huge crowd-pleaser, as a character fighting writer’s block runs into a bunch of slapstick mishaps, before his understanding girlfriend rescues him.
The most enlightening thing about this screening is it planted a small seed in my mind that filmmaking was actually accessible to a wide range of people. I doubt that making these movies is something affordable that doesn't require financial sacrifice and commitments of oodles of time beyond a required full-time job, but all of these movies take simple ideas and add some unique twists and produce accessible bite-sized art. I doubt that the believability of these characters could be sustained over a full-length movie, but 15-20 minutes works really well to capture a little authenticity in the human experience.
After Silent Light there was another screening of 4 short films in the same theater. These were all great little slices of interesting fun, under the umbrella of the very broad theme of relationship. Film-makers of two of the short films were there to answer questions after the screenings.
Audience Award Winner –
Great for two reasons, it captures the odd dynamic between urban couples my age, and the subset among those couples that’s characterized by the smoking hot lady and the rather dishelved, unshaven, but assuredly awesome long-haired guy. It’s also filmed all around Wicker Park in Chicago, including actual intersections I’ve walked on many times! My big regret is that I was too shy to ask the filmmakers during the Q+A about what theater the final scene was filmed in. I would have sounded so urban and hip among the Madison crowd if I asked that question.
A Song Without a Name –
A calm simple film with improvised dialogue, that takes place over an overnight camping trip / first date. It’s deceptively straightforward as you smile at the warm-hearted innocence of the scenes, all the while as you toss ideas in the back of your head about how these two have anything possible in common to make something long-term work.
Una Y Otra Vez –
The least interesting of the four films, kind of a standard relationship drama, abridged for the short film format. Set among the Mexican immigrant community, though, it does have some unique cultural and structural twists.
The Last Page –
Of the many shorts programs offered, I chose this one because of the kudos in the festival guide that this final film was one of the most hilarious short film offerings of the festival. Definitely a huge crowd-pleaser, as a character fighting writer’s block runs into a bunch of slapstick mishaps, before his understanding girlfriend rescues him.
The most enlightening thing about this screening is it planted a small seed in my mind that filmmaking was actually accessible to a wide range of people. I doubt that making these movies is something affordable that doesn't require financial sacrifice and commitments of oodles of time beyond a required full-time job, but all of these movies take simple ideas and add some unique twists and produce accessible bite-sized art. I doubt that the believability of these characters could be sustained over a full-length movie, but 15-20 minutes works really well to capture a little authenticity in the human experience.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Tuesday Again
OBSERVE AND REPORT (2009)
Now this is how I like my comedy. Crazy, dark, hilarious, and willing to go off on unexpected tangents in order to mine some actual laugh-out-loud moments. Everyone's funny in this.
EXILED (2007)
With the viewing of this interesting Catonese crime thriller I am proud to announce the completion of a long-term project to watch ALL of the movies on a single critics top ten list from 2007. The lucky film critic is Mike Russell of the Portland Oregonian, and I accessed his top ten list here. I didn't pick him because I like Portland or guys named Mike. I just went to Metacritic's top ten list summary site and found critics who had lists I had over 50% viewed. I've got to start somewhere to watch the ton of movies I have access to. His list is really good. Not a dud among the 10.
Now this is how I like my comedy. Crazy, dark, hilarious, and willing to go off on unexpected tangents in order to mine some actual laugh-out-loud moments. Everyone's funny in this.
EXILED (2007)
With the viewing of this interesting Catonese crime thriller I am proud to announce the completion of a long-term project to watch ALL of the movies on a single critics top ten list from 2007. The lucky film critic is Mike Russell of the Portland Oregonian, and I accessed his top ten list here. I didn't pick him because I like Portland or guys named Mike. I just went to Metacritic's top ten list summary site and found critics who had lists I had over 50% viewed. I've got to start somewhere to watch the ton of movies I have access to. His list is really good. Not a dud among the 10.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Wisconsin Film Fest Part 3
SILENT LIGHT
The film fest guide’s description gave warning enough. At the absolute basic core of this movie is a conventional well-worn plot about the moral complexities that come with an extramarital affair. I wouldn’t blame anyone for looking for another movie to see. But Silent Light was one of the few movies in the schedule that I had heard of… in the case of a review from The Onion’s A.V. Club, which gave it a very rare grade of ‘A’. Later on the Chicago Reader gave it an average rating, but the reviewers at that paper tend to be the ultimate film aficionados (snobs, being the word I use for myself, is too good for them). They criticize the cream of the crop of obscure indie movies, while putting old movies unavailable to home cinema viewers that maybe screened a single time in Chicago over the past 12 months on their top 10 of the year lists. I can’t rely on one critic to guide my film-watching, but The Onion has been fairly reliable (although giving an A- to Adventureland calls everything into question).
Anyway, the story of this amazing movie tells place on a Mexican Mennonite colony and the dialogue is in Plautdietsch. First of all, it was very intriguing that there were Mennonite communities in Mexico, and I had never heard of the Plautdietsch language, so the movie served as one of those cultural vignette films that plop me in a completely foreign situation that I have no context to understand.
Beautifully shots of this rural environment are patiently framed, and if there is one fault in this it is that it does allow you mind wander if you’re not prepared for how this movie will tell its story. After viewing Afterschool, however, I was in the zone that allowed me to appreciate visuals over substance. But while the dialogue in this movie is minimal relative to the way the director wants to focus on scenery, the universe Silent Light occupies is extremely compelling, with the slowly illuminating countryside being important to the overall environment these characters operate in.
The jealousy and bitterness that arise from this love triangle situation could cripple many families and relationships, but the spirituality of the landscape shape the moral compasses of these devout characters in unexpected ways. As the main character explains how he loves both his wife and lover, there was a little chuckle in the audience, but while we might have contempt for a typical male character talking in this way about his ‘burden’, in the context of this film you completely sympathize for him not because his betrayal his justifiable, but in every emotional line portrayed by the movie you understand that this culture seems to reflect on these moral weaknesses much more unique or deeply that you or I could imagine.
No film in recent memory has portrayed the countryside and nature as a calming influence so perfectly. The director’s sensitivity to this environment is incredible. Silent Light is meditative and magical, and the payoff for losing yourself in the mysticism of the movie comes in the amazing climax. The best part of my (abridged) film festival experience by far.
The film fest guide’s description gave warning enough. At the absolute basic core of this movie is a conventional well-worn plot about the moral complexities that come with an extramarital affair. I wouldn’t blame anyone for looking for another movie to see. But Silent Light was one of the few movies in the schedule that I had heard of… in the case of a review from The Onion’s A.V. Club, which gave it a very rare grade of ‘A’. Later on the Chicago Reader gave it an average rating, but the reviewers at that paper tend to be the ultimate film aficionados (snobs, being the word I use for myself, is too good for them). They criticize the cream of the crop of obscure indie movies, while putting old movies unavailable to home cinema viewers that maybe screened a single time in Chicago over the past 12 months on their top 10 of the year lists. I can’t rely on one critic to guide my film-watching, but The Onion has been fairly reliable (although giving an A- to Adventureland calls everything into question).
Anyway, the story of this amazing movie tells place on a Mexican Mennonite colony and the dialogue is in Plautdietsch. First of all, it was very intriguing that there were Mennonite communities in Mexico, and I had never heard of the Plautdietsch language, so the movie served as one of those cultural vignette films that plop me in a completely foreign situation that I have no context to understand.
Beautifully shots of this rural environment are patiently framed, and if there is one fault in this it is that it does allow you mind wander if you’re not prepared for how this movie will tell its story. After viewing Afterschool, however, I was in the zone that allowed me to appreciate visuals over substance. But while the dialogue in this movie is minimal relative to the way the director wants to focus on scenery, the universe Silent Light occupies is extremely compelling, with the slowly illuminating countryside being important to the overall environment these characters operate in.
The jealousy and bitterness that arise from this love triangle situation could cripple many families and relationships, but the spirituality of the landscape shape the moral compasses of these devout characters in unexpected ways. As the main character explains how he loves both his wife and lover, there was a little chuckle in the audience, but while we might have contempt for a typical male character talking in this way about his ‘burden’, in the context of this film you completely sympathize for him not because his betrayal his justifiable, but in every emotional line portrayed by the movie you understand that this culture seems to reflect on these moral weaknesses much more unique or deeply that you or I could imagine.
No film in recent memory has portrayed the countryside and nature as a calming influence so perfectly. The director’s sensitivity to this environment is incredible. Silent Light is meditative and magical, and the payoff for losing yourself in the mysticism of the movie comes in the amazing climax. The best part of my (abridged) film festival experience by far.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Wednesday (Not Tuesday) Report
Trying to cover movies you've seen before others you've seen creates confusion. That and a night meeting last night made me forget the important Tuesday statement of movies I've seen. Wisconsin Film Fest reviews will continue soon after.
THE DARJEELING LIMITED (2007)
You know I don't wish anything bad to happen to anyone, especially creative film directors, but I kind of hope something artistically dark happens to director Wes Anderson, because his style so fondly recalls Kubrick that I wonder what his take on a non-whimsical subject matter would be.
ADVENTURELAND (2009)
Begin Sarcasm...
So the totally unique thing about this completely innovative comedy is that this goofy guy meets this strange girl and they have a fling. But then this girl gets a little TOO weird and has a big bad secret and they have a fight. Then this goofy insecure guy, after a period of separation with this strange girl, realizes how awesome this girl really is and wants to get back together. Only, wait a darn second, the girl and guy are now in two different cities because their long-term life plans took them in different directions. But WHAT IF the guy changes his life plans in order to be closer to her? If the movie ended with their unexpected reunion wouldn't that totally not be cliche or yawn-inducing, let alone totally believable. And HEY, it's cool that it's in 1987, because the eighties had quirky music and clothes.
End Sarcasm
Sorry about that. There is no problem with a tried and true young teenage romance movie formula. But beyond that boring core, there has to be laughs. Superbad, which this director also made, had lots of laughs. This substitutes abstract seriousness and 80s nostalgia for jokes. Pretty big dissapointment. But if you have it on the background on a Sunday afternoon it wouldn't be too bad.
THE DARJEELING LIMITED (2007)
You know I don't wish anything bad to happen to anyone, especially creative film directors, but I kind of hope something artistically dark happens to director Wes Anderson, because his style so fondly recalls Kubrick that I wonder what his take on a non-whimsical subject matter would be.
ADVENTURELAND (2009)
Begin Sarcasm...
So the totally unique thing about this completely innovative comedy is that this goofy guy meets this strange girl and they have a fling. But then this girl gets a little TOO weird and has a big bad secret and they have a fight. Then this goofy insecure guy, after a period of separation with this strange girl, realizes how awesome this girl really is and wants to get back together. Only, wait a darn second, the girl and guy are now in two different cities because their long-term life plans took them in different directions. But WHAT IF the guy changes his life plans in order to be closer to her? If the movie ended with their unexpected reunion wouldn't that totally not be cliche or yawn-inducing, let alone totally believable. And HEY, it's cool that it's in 1987, because the eighties had quirky music and clothes.
End Sarcasm
Sorry about that. There is no problem with a tried and true young teenage romance movie formula. But beyond that boring core, there has to be laughs. Superbad, which this director also made, had lots of laughs. This substitutes abstract seriousness and 80s nostalgia for jokes. Pretty big dissapointment. But if you have it on the background on a Sunday afternoon it wouldn't be too bad.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Wisconsin Film Fest Part 2
Afterschool
I talked in my post about L'Avventura about the value of appreciating filmmaking style as a way to express wordless character development, and this film is an example of how understanding that fact about cinema helps me internalize movies a lot deeper. This film said a lot with very little human expression, and the style made it compelling when the main plot seemed too distracting to the bigger issues of the movie.
The subject matter in the film fest guide description of Afterschool definitely intrigued me... all I needed to know was that the film explored the detachment that comes with an adolescence raised totally on Internet culture. This is a pretty raw movie especially if you spent any amount of excessive time looking at YouTube clips, however funny and innocent, of total strangers doing things. Layer the emotional fragility of high school teenagers and place the main character away from the comforts of home at a boarding school, and you create an environment that allows for the computer and other electronic portals to provide a total distance from real human interaction. When the protagonist is compelled to say anything, it's barely a mumble of emotional expression and it's offered borrowed verbatim from something he just watched online. The film gets darker with this setup, and it definitely makes you uncomfortable. It's a borderline candidate for one of those movies you SHOULDN'T screen for a group of friends just looking for a interesting thing to watch (a friend told me Deliverance is the ideal example of those kinds of movies).
Personally I'm oddly accepting and fearful of the multitudes of access points to knowledge and entertainment that in prehistoric times (pre-Internet) might have required an organized physical gathering of people. Online shopping, dating, online book clubs, film review blogs (heh) and cyber-everythings have made global socializing and discussions convenient but it's also a curse. Afterschool tries to tap into the tattered emotional tapestry that might exist if many of our strong desires and interests are filtered through a passive observation of a computer screen.
This was the director's first film and he really tackled this movie in a riveting way. Mixing the amateur YouTube style video with traditional indie filmmaking and interesting framing, he really creates a interesting relationship between the characters, as they view violence and reality through their own cameras, and the audience, as they watch or are obscured from viewing voyeuristic subject matter. I am excited to see how this director handles other themes.
I talked in my post about L'Avventura about the value of appreciating filmmaking style as a way to express wordless character development, and this film is an example of how understanding that fact about cinema helps me internalize movies a lot deeper. This film said a lot with very little human expression, and the style made it compelling when the main plot seemed too distracting to the bigger issues of the movie.
The subject matter in the film fest guide description of Afterschool definitely intrigued me... all I needed to know was that the film explored the detachment that comes with an adolescence raised totally on Internet culture. This is a pretty raw movie especially if you spent any amount of excessive time looking at YouTube clips, however funny and innocent, of total strangers doing things. Layer the emotional fragility of high school teenagers and place the main character away from the comforts of home at a boarding school, and you create an environment that allows for the computer and other electronic portals to provide a total distance from real human interaction. When the protagonist is compelled to say anything, it's barely a mumble of emotional expression and it's offered borrowed verbatim from something he just watched online. The film gets darker with this setup, and it definitely makes you uncomfortable. It's a borderline candidate for one of those movies you SHOULDN'T screen for a group of friends just looking for a interesting thing to watch (a friend told me Deliverance is the ideal example of those kinds of movies).
Personally I'm oddly accepting and fearful of the multitudes of access points to knowledge and entertainment that in prehistoric times (pre-Internet) might have required an organized physical gathering of people. Online shopping, dating, online book clubs, film review blogs (heh) and cyber-everythings have made global socializing and discussions convenient but it's also a curse. Afterschool tries to tap into the tattered emotional tapestry that might exist if many of our strong desires and interests are filtered through a passive observation of a computer screen.
This was the director's first film and he really tackled this movie in a riveting way. Mixing the amateur YouTube style video with traditional indie filmmaking and interesting framing, he really creates a interesting relationship between the characters, as they view violence and reality through their own cameras, and the audience, as they watch or are obscured from viewing voyeuristic subject matter. I am excited to see how this director handles other themes.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Wisconsin Film Fest Part 1
Jumate/Jumate
My first screening was two medium short nonfiction films. This first one was about a dwarf Romanian Gypsy that makes money as a street performer in Barcelona, with the help of a full-grown daughter. It's always interesting to hear a unique life story, but this served as a little vignette, nothing more. The details of her story were a bit hard to follow.
Dolls: A Woman From Damascus
This was a little bit more compelling because it tied an individual woman's plight with greater issues in Iranian society. However, the limitation of its message is due to the film focusing on this one woman's particular story. The 50 or so minute film juxtaposes two stories. First, is a vignette about a young conservative Iranian woman raising two small kids and putting professional ambition aside to be a good housewife. Scenes from her life are alternated with commercials for Fulla, an Iranian Barbie doll, and interviews with the marketers of the popular product reveal the changes made in the clothing and types of Fulla products based on objections from the religious Iranian community.
It's an interesting duality, and if the film had more time to explore more people and parts of Iran, I'm sure I could make a better connection between both subject matters. What I told my friend though, is that these nonfiction and fictional snapshots of societies that are supposed to be so foreign and occasionally 'evil', as in the Axis of.., are illuminating in how human their struggles are and how normal their households seem. I don't need convincing that we all share more commonalities than differences in the world, but it seems like if more of this films reached the mainstream consciousness, there would be no room in our discourse for threatening aggressive military action towards nation's led by belligerent political actors.
My first screening was two medium short nonfiction films. This first one was about a dwarf Romanian Gypsy that makes money as a street performer in Barcelona, with the help of a full-grown daughter. It's always interesting to hear a unique life story, but this served as a little vignette, nothing more. The details of her story were a bit hard to follow.
Dolls: A Woman From Damascus
This was a little bit more compelling because it tied an individual woman's plight with greater issues in Iranian society. However, the limitation of its message is due to the film focusing on this one woman's particular story. The 50 or so minute film juxtaposes two stories. First, is a vignette about a young conservative Iranian woman raising two small kids and putting professional ambition aside to be a good housewife. Scenes from her life are alternated with commercials for Fulla, an Iranian Barbie doll, and interviews with the marketers of the popular product reveal the changes made in the clothing and types of Fulla products based on objections from the religious Iranian community.
It's an interesting duality, and if the film had more time to explore more people and parts of Iran, I'm sure I could make a better connection between both subject matters. What I told my friend though, is that these nonfiction and fictional snapshots of societies that are supposed to be so foreign and occasionally 'evil', as in the Axis of.., are illuminating in how human their struggles are and how normal their households seem. I don't need convincing that we all share more commonalities than differences in the world, but it seems like if more of this films reached the mainstream consciousness, there would be no room in our discourse for threatening aggressive military action towards nation's led by belligerent political actors.
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