18 1/2 Philadelphia Film Festival: Opening Night

Okay, so the Philadelphia Film Society and TLA Entertainment broke up. The Film Society will continue the Philadelphia Film Festival while TLA is starting its own festival called CineFest. The rift occurred a while ago but the two groups were able to work together one last time for April's awkwardly named Philadelphia Film Festival and CineFest 09. But now the split is official and it looks like Film Society wanted to get the jump on TLA by producing a mini festival this fall, the oddly titled 18 1/2 Philadelphia Film Festival (April being the 18th time Philadelphia has had a film festival). Anyway, for opening night they had one movie:

Law Abiding Citizen

This movie is exactly what it looks like it's going to be from the trailers. I think that's the fairest review I can give it. I've talked to people who think this movie looks terrible and people who think it looks awesome. They're both right. There's nothing really original or exceptional here but the film has a brisk pace that lets it keep the action coming without giving you too much time to think about the ridiculous plot or muddled social commentary. For me, this movie just barely managed to avoid drowning in a sea of mediocrity by keeping its head above water. But hey, there were some great shots of Philly and an awesome cameo that will probably be lost on anyone who isn't a local. There are worse ways to start a film festival.

Philadelphia Film Festival & Cinefest '09: Closing Night

Okay, last super-late post before I get to the new festival:

Salt of This Sea

Israelis and Palestinians, they've had their differences over the years. There's obviously a rich history to this region but what foes that mean to some New Yorker chick? That's the staggeringly inessential question that this film tries to answer. I think you're supposed to sympathize with this granddaughter of a Palestinian refugee but she seems like the epitome of "the ugly American". She barges into a strange country, makes ridiculous demands, and throws a tantrum when she doesn't get what she wants. This woman robs an Israeli bank because of the persecution she feels she has endured by the Israelis. Apparently Israel is so powerful that it can oppress third-generation immigrants in Brooklyn. And the nicer the Israelis get the more petulant this woman becomes! The Middle East has enough problems, we don't need American tourists stirring things up.

Marcello, Marcello

This charming little film takes place in a small Italian fishing village in the 1950s. The town has an unusual tradition where, on a girl's eighteenth birthday, all the boys bring her father a present and then he allows the bearer of the best gift to take his daughter on her first date. How they prevent teenage girls from going on dates until they turn eighteen is left unexplained. Anyway, our hero Marcello is the son of a poor fisherman and he never participates in this ritual because he can't afford presents (at least, not any presents that are good enough to get the girl). Of course, Marcello is in love with a girl and he must find the perfect gift for her eighteenth birthday. The problem is that her father is the mayor of the village and the other, richer boys are pulling out all the stops to win her hand. The tradition is especially weighty because so many villagers wind up marrying the boys who take them on their first date. Fortunately, Marcello notices that the mayor is woken up by a rooster every morning and realizes that presenting him with that rooster will be a far better gift than anything the other boys can buy. Unfortunately, the owner of the rooster hates the mayor and won't part with his pet for anything . . . except maybe for two bottles of a rare limoncello. Well, Marcello rushes off to a small island to locate the prized commodity but the sisters who make the stuff won't part with their precious reserves . . . unless Marcello can get something of theirs back from a shopkeeper. Naturally, this becomes a very complicated process and it is an absolute joy to watch Marcello scramble about the village trading favors to secure the one gift that will get him his love.

I Sell the Dead

Dominic Monahan stars in this horror-comedy about two hapless grave robbers in 18th century England. It's a fun movie but somehow not as much fun as it should be. I mean, it's good for chuckles, not laughs. It was disappointing, I really wanted to love this movie but I just couldn't get into it. The premise was great and the actors did their parts but it just didn't quite come together the way it should have. Amusing but not a must see.

Philadelphia Film Festival & Cinefest '09: Day 11

Okay, so I totally dropped the ball on this one but I want to wrap up the last film festival before I get to the most recent one. Most of this post was written six months ago. I just didn't get around to finishing until now.* Anyway, I'm sorry to keep you waiting. I know you've been dieing to read my thoughts on movies you've never heard of:

Training Rules

For decades the women's basketball program at Penn State war run by Rene Portland, an unrepentant bigot who wouldn't allow lesbians to play for her. In 2006 a student who stood up to her after being kicked off the team for her perceived sexual orientation. This documentary tells her story in the blandest way possible. I'm sorry, documentaries are suppose to be films and this felt like a "20/20" Special Report, even the 57-minute running time felt made for TV. On a scale of one to five (official grading scale of the festival) I give the story a four but the execution a two.

Surveillance

In general, I feel like police procedurals no longer have a place in the film world. With three versions of "CSI" and four iterations of "Law and Order" (not counting their documentary series) it seems like the stories are pretty well played out. This film sets itself apart by telling a story that couldn't be told on the small screen but I'm not sure that it's a story worth telling. The main thing this movie has going for it is the strong hand of director Jennifer Lynch (the daughter of a noted filmmaker). It's a slick, good-looking suspenseful flick with a ridiculous plot. This one, I give a two for the story but a four for the execution (again on a scale of one to five).

Straight for the Kill

Shorts program with a horror theme:

White Radishes - A man attempts to rescue a girl being used as radish fertilizer. Creepy and beautiful looking.

The Fairy Princess - Suspenseful film about a man who kidnaps unsupervised trick-or-treaters. Great ending.

I Don’t Sleep I Dream - This was weird. Like, weird in an I-don't-understand-what's-going-on way, not weird in a good way.

A Little Mouth to Feed - A woman who's been trying desperately to conceive is told by her husband that her constant calls to God are of no use. She decides to direct her prayers elsewhere and finally gets results. Creepy and suspenseful.

Rite - Very little dialogue is used in this stylish look at a society where everyone gets the end of their ring finger cut off as a symbol of adulthood.

The Painter of Skies - Beautiful but tedious animated film about an artist who must overcome his demons to produce a hopeful painting that he can put into his lighthouse machine to make the weather nice and return home . . . or something.

Side Effect - The babysitter is preparing a roast turkey - Look, I think we all know where this is going. The only thing about this film that's interesting is that instead of a hippie high on illegal drugs we're presented with an over achiever strung out on prescription meds that are supposed to keep her awake and focused. Oh, how societal fears have changed.

The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon - An attack from a spoon-wielding ghoul goes from annoying to torturous over a period of years as the relentless killer stops at nothing in this very funny spoof of horror trailers.

Treevenge - As awesome as it sounds! This pitch perfect parody of late 70s/early 80s horror films offers a look at Christmas from the trees' perspective and then the bloody, bloody aftermath as the plants take their revenge and the topiary revolution begins.

Hardcore Heroes and Heroines

Another shorts program, this time with a disturbing theme:

80% - "Hey, it's Jenn!" That was my first thought when watching this dark short about a dystopian future (or past, steampunk throws me off) where the world is dying of thirst. It's fun to see your friends on the big screen, even if you're a little confused about the plot. But two other people I know were in this short and it had a great look and an ominous tone so I was happy with it.

Pie of the Day - Amusing animated film but it seemed very derivative of "The Ren & Stimpy Show".

Piñata - Very funny stop-motion animation about a piñata who's given the opportunity to take his revenge on humans. His bloody, bloody revenge.

The M.O.D presents MoneyLEGS - Bizarre but awesome animated short about a bushel of money with legs and the men who love it (her?). I believe there was singing and dancing.

Rx/OTC - Experimental horror film. And by "experimental" I mean "nonsensical".

Inside ARM UVI #1: Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye - Man, I don't know what to make of this one. It was based on a video installation that was part of the fringe festival. There were images of women with their eyes gouged out spliced together with some porn so, uh, it was interesting.

Thanks Blood - I don't remember this one. It must not have been that great.

Smut Cave - A mock public-access cable show purports to review the latest trends in internet pornography. This week's topic? Cake farters. It's an absurd but highly entertaining look at a ridiculous world. I think I was most impressed with how perfectly they nailed the amateurish production values and awkward delivery style of a non-professional host.

Apprentice - Pretty good but very long short about a junkie and his young protege. It seemed like a fairly realistic portrait of what it would be like to addicted to crack, living on the streets, and making your living as a low-end male prostitute but I don't think that's enough to base a 40-minute film on. Oh well, at least it had a few god moments of comic relief.

Go Go 70s

This film tells the true story of South Korea's first generation of rock and rollers. It begins as a light-hearted story about a bunch of kids trying to make it as rock stars. They're young and reckless and seem to be having a great time introducing Korean audiences to songs like "Soul Man" and "Proud Mary". Their band, The Devils, is pretty rockin' and the youthful hijinks are fun. But as tension with their neighbors to the north increases the government imposes a curfew for safety and The Devils are only able to perform by circumventing the law. They find a loophole that allows them to perform in a hotel (night clubs are forbidden) as long as they get the audience in before the curfew starts and keep them in until the wee hours of the morning when the curfew ends. Needless to say, this makes for a pretty sweet all-night party. Okay, so we've got rock 'n' roll, teenage rebellion and hot go-go dancers. Everything is going well but our years of watching VH1's "Behind the Music" have taught us that it's only a matter of time before the inevitable fall from grace and a straight shot to rock bottom. Only this time it's not the drugs or the egos or the girlfriends that break things up, it's the authorities. Basically, the entire band gets arrested for playing Western music. Arrested and tortured. Tortured for playing music. Rev. Shaw Moore wasn't even that strict. You see, there was a military coup in South Korea in 1961 that lead to a dictatorship until the president was assassinated in 1979 (only to face another coup, and subsequent military dictatorship, in 1980). It was really a wake-up call to realize that our hippies had it easy.

*Oh, and I'm sure that nobody cares but I'm back dating this post so that the date matches the day I saw these movies, not the date I finally got around to posting. I actually do that for all my festival posts but there usually isn't a six-month difference.

Philadelphia Film Festival & Cinefest '09: Day 10

Joy of Singing

This spy caper is about government agents who are more interested in hoping into bed with the subjects of their investigation and each other than they are in finding the misplaced state secrets - Ah, the French! The case leads the agents to go undercover by posing as music students in this bizarre but delightful genre mash-up that gradually become more ridiculous as each scene passes without ever dropping it's deadpan tone. I know this is a cop out but I'm going to excerpt most of Raymond Murray's write-up from the festival guide because he does such a good job of summing up this unique film:

Odd is the first word that springs to mind when describing this effervescent French spy comedy, with the words witty, unpredictable, delightful and original following close behind. Secret agents Muriel (Marina Fois) and the boyish Philippe (Lorant Deutsch) are sent on a mission to find a USB key possibly hidden by Constance (Jeanne Balibar), the fetching widow of a recently killed black market uranium salesman . . . Will the alternately quarrelling and loving spy couple find the key? Er…that may not be the point in what director Ilan Duran Cohen (Grandsons, Confusion of Genders) calls an "anti-romantic comedy." It’s actually much more than that: it may be France’s first sexy musical/comedy/spy caper/thriller.

A Quay Brothers Sampler

Generally I don't understand what's going on in a Quay brothers film, in the strictest sense of the word, but that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy them. I mean, one of my favorite paintings is "Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War)" by Salvador Dalí and I don't understand it at all. I think it's about war because it's right there in the title and, clearly, nothing good is going on in that painting but that's as deep as my understanding goes. But that doesn't mean that I can't appreciate on a purely visceral level. For me, the Quay brothers are the same way. They have such a distinctive and imaginative style that it's impossible to look away. Their films always seem to have an otherworldly feel to them with an ominous, almost frightening, tone. I don't get them but they're beautiful in their own horrifying way.

The Beautiful Person

France has long ago abandoned the love triangle in favor of the love dodecahedron. The primary relationship in this film is between a student and a teacher (played by the guy from The Dreamers). Of course the teacher has to break up with another teacher and the student he's currently seeing before he can make a move. There are lots of secrets, betrayals, and broken hearts. It's a well-made film but trying to keep track of all the relationships gave me a headache.

American Violet

Based on a true story, this film hits all the usual tropes of the oppressed-person-takes-a-stand-against-the-system-of-injustice-by-going-to-court film but manages to keep it all fresh and immensely watchable. It stars Nicole Beharie (who you should keep your eye on) with a supporting cast that features Alfre Woodard, Tim Blake Nelson, Charles S. Dutton and a gentleman with the curious name of Xzibit. The case at the heart of this film deals with racist police actions in Hearne, Texas during the 2000 elections. The DA ordered a drug raid on an apartment building based on the testimony of one man with a history of mental illness. An innocent woman is arrested and compelled to make a plea bargain that would give her a suspended sentence and allow her to return home to her children. This arrangement lets the DA's office claim another conviction and increase the amount of federal money they are entitled to. It's a terribly corrupt system that preys on the weakest people in the county and glorifies the powerful. The film tells the powerful story of how Regina Kelly (Dee Roberts in the film) stood up to this injustice with the help of the ACLU and a local lawyer. It also features uniformly strong performances and a clever screenplay. In a few weeks it's going to start showing up in theaters and I think it will appeal to a broad audience.

Art of the Devil 3

I missed the first two installments of this Thai horror series, so I'm a little out of my element here. The plot seemed overly complex and soap operay but at lest part of that is probably me being thrown into the middle of a story. It's a decent film but it's one of those horror movies that's more gross than it is scary.

Philadelphia Film Festival & Cinefest '09: Day 9

Garbage Dreams

Cairo is the largest city in Africa and the Middle East but it has no official city-wide waste disposal system. This documentary tells the story of the Zaballeen, poor Egyptians who have been collecting garbage for 100 years (for a nominal fee) and then recycling it for profit. Their world is thrown into tumult when the government decides to modernize trash collection by hiring foreign firms. The Zaballeen complain because not only in their way of life being destroyed but their environment as well. While the Zaballeen pride themselves on being able to recycle 80% of the garbage they collect, the foreign firms are only able to recycle about 20%. When one of the Zaballeen boys takes a trip to Wales to see a high-tech recycling system, which is able to process 29% of refuse, he comments that it is quick but lacks precision. The Zaballeen do all their sorting by hand and are able to a lot more attention to detail. Oh, and the best part of the movie occurred in Wales when one of the boys said "Hey, did you see that car? It stopped so the pedestrians could cross the street!"

The Way We Get By

When soldiers and marines return to the U.S. from Iraq or Afghanistan over 75% of them arrive in Bangor Maine. When they get off the plane there are always civilians (including veterans) there to greet them and provide them with cell phones to call their loved ones. It's such a small gesture to show these men and women how much we appreciate their efforts but it really seems to mean something to them. This documentary explores the story of three senior citizens who are ready to drive miles in the snow at a moments notice to greet our troops. The film largely ignores the politics of the wars (as do the volunteers) in favor of more personal truths.

Plague Town

This horror film has a decently creepy premise but it just wasn't quite scary enough (or funny enough) to leave a lasting impression.

Sita Sings the Blues

Delightful film that tells the epic story of Rama and Sita juxtaposed against the director's autobiographical tale of romantic difficulty. The highlight of this film is the trio of Indian narrators who repeatedly mix up the details when they're not busy forgetting them all together. This leads to a great deal of comedic arguments underscored by the animation which quickly changes to adapt to the narrators ever changing story. The main problem I have with this film is that the excessive amount of musical numbers which bring the action to a screeching halt. Even more infuriating is the completely unnecessary intermission which eats up three minutes of screen time. An eighty-two minute film does not need an intermission! Fortunately, you can watch the film for free, either online or by downloading it, both ways will afford you the opportunity to fast forward through anything you find boring.

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life

I'm not going to pretend like I understood this rare feature-length film from the Brothers Quay. It was a long day and this was my fifth film so I had a hard time concentrating on what was happening. But I can say, without reservation, that this film looks beautiful.

Philadelphia Film Festival & Cinefest '09: Day 8

Old Partner

This Korean documentary tells the story of a 79 year-old farmer and his 40 year-old ox. They're both old, skinny, and nearly broken from a lifetime of hard labor. Watching what the ox is forced to endure makes you want to declare it animal abuse but the fact is that his master is working just as hard to survive. The farmer's wife may or may not be working as hard as the other two but one thing is for sure, she complains enough for the three of them. This movie has a lot of heart and a lot of humor.

The King of Ping Pong

Two middle school(ish) aged brothers are forced to confront some of the harsh realities of growing up in this quirky Swedish film. It's mostly about the rivalry between the older, overweight brother and the younger, handsome one and how it comes to a head when a family secret is revealed. I wouldn't say that I totally loved this one but the characters are very well drawn and the plot takes you down some unexpected turns. Those are two things that I really appreciate in a film.

Number One With A Bullet

This documentary about gun-violence and its relationship to hip-hop culture does a good job of raising issues and moderating the debate but aside from some thoughtful interviews with rappers it doesn't really bring anything new to the conversation. It's sort of a like a "Violence in Rap for Dummies", a great place to go if you don't know a lot about the subject but something you can probably skip if you're more well versed. Also, it suffers from not covering these issues as well as the film I saw next . . .

Heart of Stone

I walked into this basically expecting to see Lean on Me: The Documentary with the big difference being that it took place in Newark, NJ instead of Patterson, NJ. But principal Ron Stone of Weequahic High School isn't the no-nonsense, strict disciplinarian I was expecting. The tactics he employs mirror our strategy in Iraq, which probably tells you how bad things have gotten in our schools. Principal Stone works with the students who head up the local chapters of the Crips and the Bloods to keep the peace between the gangs. His strategy is not to keep kids out of gangs but to teach gang members how to resolve conflicts nonviolently. It's a shocking approach but one that acknowledges the reality on the ground. Stone even goes to the gang leaders when one of their members is having trouble in school. This leads to a comical scene where where the leader of the Bloods lectures one of his gang members about what he needs to do to graduate on time. He sounds more like the kids father than his crime boss. Another interesting thing that sets this documentary apart is the depth it goes into about the history of Newark and how it's changed over time. Weequahic used to be the number one high school in the nation in a largely Jewish neighborhood (one of it's many successful alumni is Phillip Roth). Many of the former students who attended Weequahic during the civil rights movement felt that there was a natural bond between the children of Holocaust survivors and their African-American classmates. Later, the Weequahic Alumni Association was founded as a way for the doctors, lawyers and other professional who graduated in the past to try to give a younger generation access to the opportunities that they had. It's a fascinating story and this film does a wonderful job telling it.

Zift

The title for this Bulgarian film comes from a substance that serves as a chewing tobacco/road filler and is used as a slang term for shit. The festival guide describes it as "a well-crafted thriller that uniquely combines elements of both neo-noir and Soviet pseudo-socialist art" and that's a better summary than I could give you. While it's a very watchable film, I'm not sure it succeeds at everything it attempts (and this is an ambitious film so it attempts a lot). The noirish plot will keep you guessing until the end but part of the reason is that it doesn't totally make sense. Fortunately, the film has the good sense to rebel against its ponderous mix of genres and include a sense of humor about itself. There are a surprising number of laughs in what could have been a very dour film.

Philadelphia Film Festival & Cinefest '09: Day 7

The Magic Hour

Delightful (but overlong) Japanese comedy about an actor hired to impersonate a legendary assassin but only told that he's filming an improvised movie. Needless to say, hijinks ensue. It has a lot of smart gags and a true love of cinema. Oh, and the ending is effing amazing.

Don't Look Down

I'd say that this Argentinian movie was about 35% sex and 60% mystic mumbo jumbo about sex. I've seen pornos with more intricate plots and deeper character development. I will attempt to quote two lines of dialogue from a conversation late in the film (I'm doing this from memory so they're not going to be completely accurate):

I know this is going to sound crazy but when we're having sex I am transported to other cites!

What, she has a hallucinogenic twat?

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the remaining 5% involved sleepwalking, a witch, and walking on stilts.

Food, Inc.

This may come as a shock to you but highly processed foods are unhealthy and businesses care about making money, not what's good for you. This is a well-made documentary but it's not exactly breaking any new ground. The whole time I was watching this I kept thinking of the scene in Fast Food Nation where Bruce Willis admits to Greg Kinnear that the beef has been contaminated by shit and then takes a big bite out of a juicy burger. But they were giving away books at this screening so I at least got to walk away with a copy of "Eat Safe" and "Skinny Bitch" so that's a plus . . . I guess.

GS Wonderland

Fun but ultimately unfulfilling movie about a Japanese Group Sound (GS) band in the late 60s. It has some of the charm of That Thing You Do! and genuine laughs but the film never fully delivers on the promise of its premise.

Mississippi Damned

This multi-family drama deals with the legacy of abuse and attempts to break free from a damaging cycle. In stark contrast to some other films I've seen this year that stretch thin plots to the breaking point, this movie suffers from a epic story that feels a little cramped in the 120-minute running time. This film has so much to say and so much ground to cover that I almost think the story would be better served by a miniseries or TV show. I think part of the problem is that it's a semi-autobiographical picture and the author wanted to put every defining moment from her childhood into it. Of coarse, when all is said and done, I'd much prefer a film with too much story than too little.

Philadelphia Film Festival & Cinefest '09: Day 6

4bia

This ended up being a light day because I had class and could only get in three screenings. First up, a Thai horror film divided into four (mostly) unrelated segments:

Happiness - I was very impressed with how this segment kept ratcheting up the tension with hardly any special effects. The story is about a pretty girl who begins receiving texts from a mysterious admirer while she's stuck at home with a broken leg. The director does a masterful job of creating fear out of nothing more than shots of a phone display and the general tone. I was upset that it only lasted half an hour.

Tit for Tat - A rapid editing style that would give Michael Bay a headache definitely distracted from what would've been a pretty decent story about revenge gone wrong. I mean, it had black magic, cute Asians in schoolgirl outfits, and an increasingly ridiculous series of deaths. It should have been right up my alley!

The Middle - This ghost story about four boys who go camping/whitewater rafting together is by far the goofiest of the segments. It also verges on being annoyingly self aware. The boys keep relating to their situation by mentioning other horror films in a good gag that gets run into the ground.

Last Fright - Decent segment about a cat fight at 30,000 feet between a stewardess and a princess after the princess discovers that the stewardess had a fling with her prince. But things really get going on the return flight when the stewardess is forced to watch over the corpse of the princess after the princess dies of complications from the first flight. The whole thing is a little ridiculous but they pull it off well enough.

Boy Interrupted

Great but tragic documentary about a boy who suffered from bipolar disorder and ended up taking his life at fifteen. The film offers an intimate look into how his family dealt with the disease and how the family dynamic changed over time. It's really heartbreaking to watch a great kid head down such a dark path. His loved ones do everything they can to change his trajectory but ultimately they're helpless to stop him from destroying himself. The boy's therapist gets to the heart of the issue when he says that bipolar is his profession's cancer, it kills people.

Able

The forward to this film informs us that the zombie epidemic begins as a paralyzing disease and then, after three days, the victim turns into a brain-loving undead monster. And that today is the third day. So it's zombie time, right? Wrong. The zombies don't show up for seventy-one minutes. This film is seventy-two minutes long. What happens for the first hour and eleven minutes you ask? Nothing.

At least it was preceded by a decent short, the French-Canadian Next Floor. It's about a a ravenous group of diners who dress like they're attending a formal 19th century dinner and proceed to gorge themselves on a meat feast until their combined weight sends them crashing through the floor. Then the process begins all over again. It's a stylish and beautiful looking short, I'd like to see what the filmmakers could do with a feature and some money.

Philadelphia Film Festival & Cinefest '09: Day 5

For My Father

Thanks to Corey, for the first time I had company for the whole day! We started off the day with this compelling Israeli drama about a Palestinian terrorist who is forced to spend a weekend in Tel Aviv after the button he planned to use to detonate himself failed. He ends up forming relationships with the electronics store owner who replaces his device and the beautiful shopkeeper across the street (both Jews). I'd just been reading about a recent study that found that people were more likely to become terrorists for social reasons rather than religious ones, so I was pleased to see that the lead was portrayed as someone driven to this act by issues having to do with his father's honor not religious doctrine. This is a challenging film that doesn't shy away from tough questions or give easy answers.

Art & Copy

This documentary made me not hate advertisers. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I mean, Nike has had some really inspiring ads for an evil corporation. But I think the most important thing I got out of film is a respect for advertising as an art. And that's something that's easy to miss when you're constantly bombarded with advertisements, especially when the vast majority of them are terrible.

Kisses

Two children run way from home one night and find themselves on a dark adventure in this Irish fairytail. The director gets wonderful performances out of the two young leads who highlight the first awkward steps into adulthood. They're kids who've had to grow up too fast but still haven't left childhood behind. The film begins in black and white but the farther the children get from home the more color is introduced into the pallette. In a way this story is a reflection of The Wizard of Oz. Only in this case it's the real world that is a more fantastic, and far scarier, place than home.

Goodbye Solo

This is the movie that so many independent films strive to be only to come up short. It's from a director who really caught my eye last year and who I hope has a long and industrious career. The plot involves a Senegalese cabbie in Winston-Salem, North Carolina who figures out that one of his passengers plans on killing himself and tries to involve himself in that man's life. But this isn't a film about plot, it's about the characters. So many characters in films are artificial, they don't look like real people, they don't talk like real people, and they don't act like real people. But Ramin Bahrani has found a way to humanity, in all its pathos, humor and messiness, onto the screen and for that I am grateful.

20th Century Boys

What I'm told is a very popular manga is turned into a mediocre movie in this litterary adaptation. As far as I can tell the central premis is that group of boys came up with a story about a supervillian and some kid they wouldn't let play with them decided to become that villian. So basicaly, some guys spends his entire life enacting a plan thoguht up by twelve-year olds, incluging the giant robot that terrorizes Tokyo. It's all very silly but it's mostly played straight. I had originally plannes on watching the second installment of this three-part series later in the festival but I think I'm just going to put 2 and 3 in my Netflix cueue and try to find something more worthwhile in that timeslot.

Philadelphia Film Festival & Cinefest '09: Day 4

Saving Grace B. Jones

Sucked.

Sun Dogs

Because Sucking Grace B. Jones started late, I had to watch this as a last minute replacement for The Nail: The Story of Joey Nardone. It's a somewhat compelling drama about people trying to find their way into adulthood set against a post-Katrina New Orleans. The characters have their own quirks but everything here falls into well-worn Indie territory.

Pressure Cooker

This documentary falls into the teacher-pushes-students-really-hard-to-achieve category but spices things up by including the inner-city-kids-learn-something-high-brow-that-you-wouldn't-expect genre for good measure. It's a fun and uplifting look at a culinary arts instructor from a high school in Northeast Philadelphia. Her tough talk and no-nonsense attitude leads all of her students to the finals in a cooking competition where they can win scholarships. She's basically the mother of every black stand-up comedian (if you don't stop crying she will give you something to cry about). This movie has everything: a sassy authority figure, students triumphing over adversity and a prom scene!

…Even Jesus Had an Accountant

Four diverse short films:

Character Study - Good-looking animated film but it was so brief that it ended before I really figured out what was going on.

Free the River Park: The Story of Citizens' Fight for the Schuylkill River Park - This documentary deals with residents' struggle against a train company to allow access to a park. There are two things you need to know about this conflict. One, it was completely wrong for the train company to block access. Two, this subject is really boring. I give the filmmakers credit for making a half-way interesting movie about it but, come on, I use this crossing a couple times a week and I don't give a crap.

The Last Duel - Very funny comedy that, without dialogue, tells the story of a duel that went so awry it lead to the outlaw of dueling.

Poet of Poverty - Fascinating documentary based on the letters of Camden's Father Doyle as read by Martin Sheen. It presents a heart-breaking look at a community stricken by poverty and crime which is where the rest of the county literally sends it's garbage and sewage. Father Doyle has been fighting the good fight for over forty years and while he has only seen Camden get worse in that time he still hasn't lost faith.

Not Quit Hollywood

I had no idea that Australia had a thriving exploitation film industry in the 60s and 70s (I just assumed Mad Max was a fluke) but now I'm really excited that a whole new sub-genre has been opened up to me. This documentary explores some truly awesome-looking Ozploitation flicks and, although it might just be a glorified clip reel with some talking head interviews thrown in, the editing is wonderful. One novel thing I think the filmmakers did was give a lot of screen time to a film critic who absolutely detests these movies. It's a great way to cut the unabashed praise given by comentaters like Quentin Tarantino and fitting with the modest B-movie ambitions of the subject. Anyway, I can't wait to sink my teeth into Mad Dog Morgan, The Naked Bunyip, Turkey Shoot and Howling III: The Marsupials.

Philadelphia Film Festival & Cinefest '09: Day 3

Hunger

Okay, so I overslept and missed the first half-hour of this (no more partying during the festival) so I can't give it a proper review but I will say that I had a favorable reaction to it. This film chronicles the treatment of Bobby Sands and other IRA inmates held at Maze Prison in the early 80s. The prisoners went on a hunger strike to protest their cruel treatment that caused Sands and nine others to starve to death. It's a tragic story that illustrates how there are no winners when terrorism is employed to protest colonialism.

Children of Invention

A struggling mother gets caught up in a multilevel marketing scheme while trying to provide for her children in this film sponsored by the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival. When the mom is arrested the two young kids are forced to fend for themselves and take a remarkable journey from the suburbs into Boston so they can withdraw birthday money from a bank account and start a business selling inventions. Despite the incredible nature of this story the director manages to keep things grounded. The film is described as semi-autobiographical and that really comes out in the naturalistic tone. It's a down to earth look at a family on the fringe of society struggling to get by.

This movie was proceeded by The Moth and the Firefly, a short film about a moth that is drawn to a firefly during a blackout. It wasn't that interesting.

Herb and Dorothy

This documentary tells the amazing story of Herb and Dorothy Vogel who managed to amass one of the world's best collections of minimalist and conceptual art on their middle-class salaries. In the early 60s they realized that Dorothy made enough as a Librarian to support a modest life for the two of them in their rent-controlled New York Apartment. This freed up Herb's salary from the Post Office to be used to acquire art. Over the course of thirty years the couple used their keen eyes to gather over 4,000 pieces in a collection that was conservativly estimated to be worth millions, which they stored in their one bedroom apartment. Eventually, they turned their collection over to the National Gallery (which was only able to handle 1,000 pieces) without asking for anything in return. The gallery did, however, decide to provide them with a small annuity in the event that either of them faced a major health crisis. Herb and Dorothy used this money to begin another collection.

No Boundaries

This film is sort of like a modern-day version of "Romeo and Juliet" set against a backdrop of immigration issues or a non-singing West Side Story. The leads were engaging but there was some truly cringe-worthy dialogue about love and a lot of contrived plotting. But seventeen of the filmmakers showed up to the screening and judging by the cheering for every name in the credits it sounded like 80% of the crowd knew someone involved with it personally, so this might be a shoe in for the audience award.

The Rocky Balboa Picture Show 2 - Rock Treatment

Short programs are always a mixed bag but this one was more consistently good than I'm used to. I'll go through them one by one:

Hair and Diamonds. Episode 9: Shaving - Animation and live-action combine in this dream-like film about a man shaving. Bizarre and sort of wonderful.

Trees - An old-timer tree attempts to pass on knowledge to a young sampling by way of an insane (and hilarious) monologue.

Another Bad Idea - This stop-motion animation follows a man as he attempts to catch a light bulb that appears over his head as he gets an idea. Surreal, amusing and too short to wear out it's welcome.

America's Game - An old-timer human muses wistfully about America's pastime only to discover that baseball players aren't as virtuous as he imagined. Pretty funny but it went on a little too long.

Dead Hooker Theater - Stagehands manipulate dead hookers through a rendition of Tennesse Williams' "The Glass Menagerie". In a word, awesome.

This One Time in Paris - A filmmaker visits the Eiffel Tower and finds one girl sitting alone amidst a sea of lovers but he can't get up the nerve to put down his camera and all he can do is sit and watch while a Frenchman sweeps in to woo the girl. Well, watch and mock. It was pretty cute.

American Terror: Company Man - Adapted from a comic book, this stylish animated short has a stunning energy and visual style.

The Institute of Séance - Delightful spoof of silent horror films.

Clowns Without Borders - About half-way through this film I realized it wasn't a joke.

Amerika Idol - Amazing documentary about a tiny village in Serbia that erects a statue of Rocky Balboa and faces a controversy that mirrors Philly's long conflict regarding the prop created for Rocky III.

Philadelphia Film Festival & Cinefest '09: Day 2

Landscape No. 2

What begins as a promising Slovenian political thriller is derailed half-way through when the main character, after figuring out that his best friend was murdered because of a document that reveals secrets powerful enough to reignite a civil war, decides to take a holiday with his horny girlfriend. This guy is a complete tool. Later, he gets a lectured for being a dick by a sociopathic murderer and I think we're supposed to take the killers side, or maybe learn a lesson. I don't care. It's so frustrating to see a suspenseful, well-made film devolve into absurdity because of poor plotting.

Rumba

This comedy was created by a trio of French-speaking Belgians, two of which also serve as the leads. I found it fascinating to watch because the leads look more like caricatures than people and they move in ways that seem alien. It's almost like watching a cartoon come to life, especially with the bold color palette. The largely silent nature of the film only adds to the surrealism that makes it impossible to look away from even if some parts drag on a bit long. Though I must admit that I was a little disappointed but only because I had high hopes for this after seeing the trios previous film. Ah, the burden of raised expectations.

Addendum: This screening was preceded by a short film called The Line. It's a somewhat amusing look at women waiting in line for the ladies room where the tension reaches absurd levels (a riot squad is eventually called in). I think it's a particularly notable film because, as far as I'm aware, it features the first on screen glimpse of a urinary director.

Mommy Is at the Hairdresser's

The clear winner for today was this affecting portrait of a broken French-Canadian family trying to make it through the summer of 1966. Told largely through the eyes of three siblings, this film paints a rich canvass of life in the suburbs. It examines how the characters come to grips with a reality that can be at times wonderful and liberating or cold and uncaring. Looking back on it, I'm amazed that they managed to touch on so many issues in such an organic way. If I gave you a list of the topics it covers (infidelity, prejudice, abandonment, homosexuality, tolerance, liberation, emerging sexuality, treatment of the developmentally disabled, etc.) it would just sound like a laundry list of 60s issues but this movie isn't about that. It's about lost people trying to find their way in the world and to me that's far more interesting.

Left Bank

So, this is a horror movie from Danish-speaking Belgium about a giant vagina in the earth. But not the good kind of Vagina. This was an evil vagina. An evil vagina that needs a woman to be sacrificed to it every seven years in order for the ground to be fertile. But it turns out that being eaten by a giant evil vagina, while certainly not good, isn't all that terrible. A quick side note to the budding filmmakers out there: If you're going to make a movie about a giant vagina that eats people, that movie should contain humor.