Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In)

This was the film I regretted most missing at this year's Fantastic Fest. Everyone I spoke to who saw it called it the best film of the festival, an opinion that was ratified by its receipt of the audience award. Since then, the film has continued to win accolades, most recently inclusion on the Austin Film Society's top-ten list for 2008.

With a limited release including Austin, it's time to soak this in. For all the cold, darkness, and stillness, both in the brilliantly-frigid cinematography and in the souls of the characters, the film is filled with a warmth of devotion. This film starts with a slow build, and never really ramps up the pace, but it doesn't need to; it go just far enough and gets there is just the right time. I have to give credit to the author/screenwriter, director, and editors for such wonderful pacing.

If you have a chance to see this film, please, let it in.

Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In)
2008, 114 minutes, directed by Tomas Alfredson

Secret Window

This is Johnny Depp at his character actor best. Build a character that the audience likes so much, it doesn't matter where it goes.

Secret Window
2004, 104 minutes, directed by David Koepp

The Incredibles

Incredibly, I've never seen this before, but I watched it with my father Thanksgiving evening on TV. Wow, they put a lot of commercials in shows now. You'd think they're asking the few without a DVR to go buy one.

This was a good film. A little dark, sure - I was surprised to see death in a "children's" film, but the plot was solid, the pacing great, and the dialog entertaining. Where's the sequel?

The Incredibles
2004, 115 minutes, directed by Brad Bird

Quantum of Solace

I'm disappointed. Sure, it started fast - picking up right where Casino Royale leaves off - but the action is frantic and choppy, lacking the focus and drive of the first film. Then the drive just goes into neutral, and the film drops into a mobster-of-the-week story. The intensity of the story line just doesn't maintain the action I hoped for.

I look forward to the next film, so we can again see driving action and get anywhere in the overall arc.

Quantum of Solace
2008, 106 minutes, directed by Marc Forster

Casino Royale

Raw. Rash. Sharp. Brutal. Tragic.

Casino Royale
2006, 144 minutes, directed by Martin Campbell

To be honest, I saw two separate, 30-minute snippets at my wife's aunt's house on Independence Day - Miami and Venice. I knew what to expect, but it is still a shock.

Eagle Eye

I could have seen this last month at Fantastic Fest, but I chose to see small-budget Surveillance instead. Afterwards, having been not-so-enthralled with my choice, I thought that maybe the big-budget studio dropping would have been the better option.

Anyway, back from vacation, I finally caught up to the point that I could catch a film, and this was still on my list. It starts well - action scenes unfolding in a way I hadn't seen before. But then, halfway through, all that unexpectedness ends and it becomes rote formula. I guess it's an acceptable run-of-the-mill modern thriller, but I think the independent film was the better option.

Eagle Eye
2008, 118 minutes, directed by D. J. Caruso

Friends & Crocodiles

I saw this tonight on BBC Prime, in an efficiency apartment close to the heart of Vienna, Austria. It was, as my wife said, a little strange film.

It's a thought-provoking film, full of the kind of inter-personal struggle and self reflection that I used to despise in film. This one wasn't awful; it just doesn't really go anywhere far enough to provide satisfaction.

Friends & Crocodiles
2005, 109 minutes, directed by Stephen Poliakoff

City of Ember

And this is why I go to festivals. Per the director Gil Kenan, this was the "premiere [of the] finished film for the first time in front of a live audience." What a pleasure to attend.

Sure, there are some spots where I think the plot could be tightened, but it's a beautiful telling of a great story. It's a fine ending to another film festival.

City of Ember
2008, directed by Gil Kenan

Rock N Rolla

OMG it's complicated. It takes the first 20 minutes just to introduce all the characters and their motivations. Oh, wait - yeah, it's a Guy Ritchie British gangster film. Of course.

It's really no different than Snatch. But, if you liked Snatch - and I did - you'll probably get a kick out of this one too. I did.

Rock N Rolla
2008, 114 minutes, directed by Guy Ritchie

Role Models

This was officially the "first screening of the final print of the film", aka the world premiere. Director David Wain and star Paul Rudd attended. As a "stupid" adult comedy, I don't tend to expect much. Sure, I didn't so much like Zack and Miri, but audience laughter can go a long way towards correcting the deficiencies typical of the genre.

For this one the biggest problems were the holes in the plot. Weird as that sounds for an adult comedy built on stupid laughs and double entendres, it just wasn't sufficiently realistic for its own made-up world. Movie-long plot drivers get summed up in single sentences, or just get dropped entirely for the sake of the central theme.

But it was full of consistent laughs that played well with a movie-loving audience. If you want to see a comedic love story featuring Elizabeth Banks this fall, certainly pick this one over brand Z.

Role Models
2008, directed by David Wain

Alien Raiders

As my last non-"secret" screening of the festival, this acts as my final choice from the standard lineup. I intended to see it at a midnight screening earlier in the week, which, as it turns out, was the world premiere. The director said, "Warner Bros. calls it a 'special advanced screening', but as far as I'm concerned it's the premiere."

Aliens invading Earth. Who's been taken over and needs execution, and who's an innocent to set free? It takes a special kind to make that call, and they have set their sights on a grocery store in small-town Ohio. Alas, it was sooo obvious from the start how things would all turn out, but the story was still fun to follow. This is well worth a rental.

Alien Raiders
2008, 85 minutes, directed by Ben Rock

Appaloosa

Ok. Well I was all set with a rant about how they announced a new secret screening last night at 11:00, ten minutes after I'd left for the day, then they put the rest of the tickets up for sale at 11:00 Wednesday morning (instead of 90 minutes before the first show time), so that when I arrived at noon Wednesday to get my Thursday tickets, they were all sold out, then how I didn't want to see stupid Burrowers anyway and I'd rather go give me dinner money to Maudie's again.

Then my optimism prevailed and I stood, in the lobby, while the secret screening sat, Burrowers sat, the other two films sat, and I was left as the last man standing, literally. When Ed Asner failed to show, I was offered one of the reserve seats and got to see this preview screening of Appaloosa.

So, I retract all those bad things. It worked out.

One of the ways I define "adventure" is a film that seems to have run through a solid story arc, and then it picks up and keeps going in a new direction, often (but not always) in a new locale. This western fits the bill, with a well-told, complex story, much longer than expected. If you yearn for the days of western film, and still enjoy the way Hollywood makes them now, this is well worth admission.

Appaloosa
2008, 114 minutes, directed by Ed Harris

Astrópía

This is - hands down - the best genre film for gamers of the 2000s. They hit all the right points. Drag your buddies out of WoW, take those dice out of their hands, and get them to a screening.

"At least this one doesn't start in a bar."

Astrópía
2007, directed by Gunnar B. Gudmundsson

Tôkyô zankoku keisatsu (Toko Gore Police)

My god, that's crazy fucking shit. This is no doubt best-of-show for splatterfest.

Tôkyô zankoku keisatsu (Tokyo Gore Police)
2008, 110 minutes, directed by Yoshihiro Nishimura

The Brothers Bloom

I didn't see any films last Monday night, opting instead for a great series of shorts by Nacho Vigalando followed by the Fantastic Fest awards ceremony. Tuesday I was back at the grind.

This movie is best summed by two choice quotes from the film:

"He writes his cons like dead Russians write novels - with dramatic arcs and vulnerable heros and shit."

"- This isn't an adventure story.
- What are you talking about? It totally is!"

I don't think the plot is as subtle as it wants to be, but it's still a good play. Definitely recommended.

The Brothers Bloom
2008, 109 minutes, directed by Rian Johnson

JCVD

This is Jean Claude Van Damme's Lost in Translation. Faced with the reality of aging, he makes up for years of shitty action films by making one with almost no action at all. See this as soon as you can, and grab your buddies at the office to bring along.

JCVD
2008, 96 minutes, directed by Mabrouk El Mechri

The Crème (The Cream)

Man gets facial cream that, when sparingly applied, makes everyone else see him as a celebrity - until it wears off. Hilarity ensues. But then he lets a good thing rot. What an idiot. Can he pull it out?

The Crème (The Cream)
2007, 83 minutes, directed by Reynald Bertrand

Terra

First Sunday screening. This one was preceded with two near-finished clips of Disney's Bolt. It looks great and is going to be another hit for the whole family. Terra, on the other hand, is too violent for kids, but it's an epic adventure in it's own right. There's plenty of political overtones and anti- war themes, but that's appropriate these days. And it was a really pretty story; one to cherish. I'd happily watch this again, preferably with my wife and (adult) friends.

Terra
2007, 85 minutes, directed by Aristomenis Tsirbas

Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer

Awesome.

Film-stealing performance by Robert Englund, followed by even more awesome.

Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
2007, 85 minutes, directed by Jon Knautz

Seventh Moon

Ugh. Shakey-cam. I should have seen it coming. What else should I expect from the director of the Blair Witch Project.

The was a "good" film. It hits all it's marks. It just didn't do anything unexpected. Everything was by the book. Is it worth seeing in the theater? Absolutely if you can stomach shakey-cam. Just don't expect brilliance.

Seventh Moon
2008, directed Eduardo Sánchez

Santos

This Chilean production was so new it lacked synchronized subtitles. On the face this is a comic-book superhero (oops sorry DC, "santos") story, built with dialog and cinematography perfectly drawn from the small pages, but this is no kids story. Ignoring the occasionally raunchy language and bits of nudity, the film is intended for adults because it's a love story in disguise - a mostly sad one at that.

I liked the film - don't get me wrong - but the funny parts of the film weren't enough to balance the sad parts. I don't think that was the intent. I look forward to the prequel and sequel to bring a sense of closure.

(The director said this wasn't the final version - he has 10 minutes more to cut for release. Maybe he'll balance it out.)

Santos
2008, 100 minutes, directed by Nicolás López

Chugyeogja (The Chaser)

One film has minor technical difficulties, and the whole day's schedule is shot. I missed the first ten minutes of this one while foolishly watching the credits for Left Bank.

The Chaser is a gritty crime drama. Ex-cop turned pimp realizes his missing girls are all going to the same number. He sets out to save the latest one before she, too, is sold away. If only that was all the culprit did to them...

Spoiler Warning
This movie has what I'd call a "progression ending," kind of like the Empire Strikes Back. The hero finds a small sense of inner focus and a new purpose in life, but ultimately it means everything else went very, very wrong.

Chugyeogja (The Chaser)
2008, 125 minutes, directed by Hong-jin Na

Linkeroever (Left Bank)

As expected, Alamo's wireless network failed yesterday. It's not the signal strength that's the problem, it's the DHCP server or the router. Eventually they just run out of or stop serving IP addresses. Thank goodness for Maudie's Cafe down the street and their free, functional wireless.

Anyway, I don't have much to say about Left Bank. It's a dark film, with predictable turns and a confusing ending. If you're up for run-of-the mill occult secret drama, go for it.

Linkeroever (Left Bank)
2008, 102 minutes, directed by Pieter Van Hees

Feast 2: Sloppy Seconds

I'm hesitant to say something bad about low-budget film. I know that a director has to work with what he's given, and in this case he was given half the money of the first film to make two sequels. But... I'm just disappointed. Feast was really good. This just wasn't.

The first movie was a great splatterfest, with a reasonable plot and special effects that were surprisingly good. This time they didn't try as hard. The first film established that the monsters wear skulls and skins to hide their appearance - which also helped carry the suspense. This time, there were just too many "beasts" walking around in rubber suits. Come on guys, slap on the furs and skulls and it would look better and fit fine.

Then, a splatterfest needs to have, you know, deaths. The first movie started out by killing the first "main" character in less than a minute. This time too many survived. Sure there was splatter - plenty of arterial blood and goo and gore and other body fluids - but the characters just got up and kept going. It wasn't realistic even for a low-budget alien-invasion horror film.

I'm glad I saw Feast 1, because after watching this I never would have rented the first.

Feast 2: Sloppy Seconds
2008, 90 minutes, directed by John Gulager

Your Name Here

What the frak? People writing when high aren't as funny as they think they are.

Phillip K. Dick non-biography.

Your Name Here
2008, directed by Matthew Wilder

Surveillance

Told as a series of nothing-held-back flashbacks contrasted with less-than honest testimony, this crime story unfolds in a dramatic way. And then, uhh...

Surveillance
2008, 98 minutes, directed by Jennifer Lynch

Vikaren (The Substitute)

Alien substitute teacher. Just the concept is funny. Then, when it's rendered with such a charismatic cast of adults and children, and perfect cinematography, backed by a worthy script, it confirms the best reason to attend film festivals: to see great movies.

Vikaren (The Substitute)
2007, 93 minutes, directed by Ole Bornedal

Dark Floors

"Everything's falling apart."

I've never heard of Lordi, and I don't know about their 12-movie story arc. But this film was very well crafted, with a very unexpected but surprisingly sufficient ending. A group of staff and patients at a hospital are caught in an elevator during a power short. When power returns and the doors open, something has changed. Floor by floor, as they make their way down, it just gets worse...

This isn't the usual meaning for the tag "descent into madness", but I have to reuse it here for the literal truth.

Dark Floors
2008, 87 minutes, directed by Pete Riski

This is in English, clearly intended for a wide audience.

Hvordan vi slipper af med de andre (How We Get Rid of the Others)

Lifted from the film, criteria for execution:

THE NEW COPENHAGEN CRITERIA
1 : Citizens that have received, over a long period of time, welfare or other social support, with the exception of state pension.

2 : Citizens who have willingly bypassed Danish law for the purpose of personal gain, including social fraud, systematic moonlighting, tax evasion, etc.

3 : Drug addicts and those who abuse recreational drugs, alcohol, etc.

4 : People who place excessive strain on the hospital system, far above the average.

5 : People who are incapable of caring for their own children.

6 : People who are out of work for unusually long periods of time. Including pensioners who have been invalided prematurely.

7 : People who have lived on the edge of the law for many years. Those who have often been in contact with the courts, swindlers, criminals, even though they haven't necessarily been convicted.

PARDON/EXEMPTION FROM PUNISHMENT
1 : It isn't enough to live up to a single criterion; it is recommended that at least three criteria are achieved before punishment is meted out.

2 : If an individual citizen - even though the person in question qualifies for several criteria - can provide some sort of proof that he or she has contributed to any kind of unselfish activity for the benefit of the common good then the individual will be free from punishment.

-----------------------------------------

It's an extreme. I have to wonder how many in my country would see this and think "Yeah, let's cut the dead weight. Nothing good ever comes from that class of society." Scary. See this one with intelligent friends.

Hvordan vi slipper af med de andre (How We Get Rid of the Others)
2007, 94 minutes, directed by Anders Rønnow Klarlund

I've seen this translated as How to Get Rid of the Others, but the above name was that used in the on-screen translation.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno

And so it begins - another film festival. This year I'm stressed because I can' t take off any work, due to upcoming travel. My first film is the opening-night extravaganza - the U.S. premiere of Zack and Miri Make a Porno at the galliant Paramount. Makes this feel more like SXSW.

Adult comedies can be great. This one was really good, even brilliant at times, but it also got pretty uncomfortable. If your going to see it, do so in a theater full of those who will love it, so you can share in their laughter to lighten the mood.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno
2008, 102 minutes, directed by Kevin Smith

It's not really "softporn", but there's enough adult content make it worthy of the tag.

Feast

I picked this one up at Vulcan Video on South Congress tonight, not because I'm a big fan of splatterfests, but because the sequel is premiering Friday night at Fantastic Fest, it's the best thing in its time slot, and I'm a big fan of watching films in order. It turns out rentals are free at Vulcan on your birthday, too, so that worked out well.

I skipped this at the fest a few years ago, but the sequel preview looked good. Splatterfests skip most the shocks and all that disturbing phychological stuff to give lots and lots of guts. That, together with the fun, campy feel, made this movie pretty damn good. I'm looking forward to the sequel.

Feast
2006, 98 minutes, directed by John Gulager

I Think We're Alone Now

This is a documentary about two people who have been obsessed with 80s pop star Tiffany since, well, the 80s. It's really kind of scary, especially the filmed interactions with Tiffany. I know some people feel broken and need to be made whole, but that can't be an excuse to bring that sort of fear into the life of someone else - especially someone they claim to care about.

I think this was officially the first film I've watched streamed on the internet. Appropriate, then, that it crashed 6 minutes in and took 30 minutes to get working again. (Hint: Firefox on Windows, unstable. IE on Windows, unstable. Firefox on OSX, wouldn't even start. Safari on OSX, flawless.)

I Think We're Alone Now
2008, 70 minutes, directed by Sean Donnelly

Ocean's Eleven

My wife recommended this series to me, having seen part of the third in a hotel months ago. We both sat down to see her Netflix copy of the first movie tonight.

I like this sort of large-cast adventure, with all the bits and pieces falling into place. I'm not sure why I skipped this one on release, as it kept me from seeing the rest. I'll fix that shortly.

As to be expected, some of the plot points are made for film. Big machine with green goo that knocks out power to the city? Heh. I appreciated it for the fun the props department must have had thinking it up. There's nothing wrong with a little fun, and this move was full of it.

Ocean's Eleven
2001, 116 minutes, directed by Steven Soderbergh

The Forgotten

I liked this film, about a woman whose lost child has been wiped from the memory of everyone but her. It has all the right pieces of a psychological thriller, with the added elements to keep the plot turning. I think my only complaint is the sense of helplessness it imparts on humanity. I see why the alternative ending was not chosen; at least in the theatrical version the internal strife gives her a small sense of victory.

The Forgotten
2004, 91 minutes, directed by Joseph Ruben

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

The Mummy franchise is designed to milk the same story over and over. The first problem is that the story isn't theirs - it's Indiana Jones with more guns. I've seen both of the previous films (and part of the spin-off Scorpion King). There's nothing that wrong with them, as cheese is fine when it's what I expect.

The issue this time was the setting and characters. Brendan Frasier just doesn't look old enough to have a twenty-something kid. Given that he's not even 40, he's not. A quick review shows that the first film was set in 1921, and the second in 1933. So he was 15 in the first movie? I guess they needed to hand the franchise off while Frasier was still under contract, and maybe that contract specified that he won't wear a little gray dye in his hair.

Anyway, this movie suffers from a common affliction among sequels: Too Many Characters. For every sequel you have to add a bad guy and sidekick. Too many of the characters saw far too little screen time, and the character development (such as it should have been, which isn't asking much) didn't have enough time.

One of my coworkers gave it the rating: "Beat's work." I think that depends on the work.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
2008, 112 minutes, directed by Rob Cohen

Satan's Slave

With insomnia comes bad movies. This one is at least a horror, or so it seems from the first 15 minutes. Then it just dissolves into fragmented plot of love and despair, brought about by the sudden death of the heroine's parents. Eww, witchcraft, nudity, incest. It's a horror, all right.

Satan's Slave
1976, 86 minutes, directed by Norman J. Warren

Fleshburn

I received this on a "Horrible Horrors" collection several years ago, but have never watched this one. It's good for something to do in a pinch.

This film is just awful. It's a slow-paced, wilderness survival psychological thriller. Except there's no thrill. They're all idiots. On the other hand, I have gotten the checkbook balanced while watching it.

Fleshburn
1984, 90 minutes, directed by George Gage

The Dark Knight

Finally, I had a chance to see this. The hype has been tremendous, and, while the movie was good, I don't think it lived up to my unreasonably high expectations. Christopher Nolan wanted to produce a very dark film, and I think the plot went the correct way to achieve that. The problem was that they limited the on-screen violence too much. Dark films need to be dark, not PG-13.

Still, I like the tight feel of the story. They integrated several plot elements of the first film into the second, and the switch of lead actress wasn't a problem, even having seen the other film a week ago. I look forward to the next installment.

The Dark Knight2008, 152 minutes, directed by Christopher Nolan

Batman Begins

The usual superhero line adds a villain per movie, and a sidekick every other. As with the last Batman series, eventually they decay to inane. When they retooled one that I still remembered I chose to pass. Now, with the buzz of the second in the new line, of course I had to grab this first.

I think the film starts weakly. Who is this mythical group of fighters, already set up and skilled, who solely want to help him? Machine of the gods is how Batman begins? Anyway, it mostly gets better. If only he could fix that cheesy growl. I'm expecting the improvements to continue into the next film.

Batman Begins
2005, 140 minutes, directed by Christopher Nolan

Hellboy II: The Golden Army

I saw Hellboy II: The Golden Army a few days ago. I haven't posted anything about it because I haven't felt much about it.

To be clear, like most of these comic book conversions, I have no history with the franchise. In this case I saw the first film in the theater on a whim. It was ok - campy - but with sufficient cuteness in the plot and characters. Demon who likes kittens, hah.

This time though, I just didn't feel it. People who drench themselves in the series probably got a kick out of Red and Blue getting drunk and singing love songs together. I just didn't get it. There seem to be plot drivers - like the public opinion of Hellboy - that appear to drive the story then vanish again without resolution. Honestly, I just don't think this was a good Hellboy story to tell. I'm sure there are others that would have made a better movie.

I'll try again next week when the next superhero movie releases.

Hellboy II: The Golden Army
2008, 120 minutes, directed by Guillermo del Toro

Hancock

Hollywood loves super heros. So do the rest of us, apparently. Here's another one (yawn). Again I know nothing about this franchise. The action is good, but meh, I just don't like the story. I'll try again next week when the next super hero film releases.

Hancock
2008, 92 minutes, directed by Peter Berg

Super Size Me

I've recently started watching Morgan Spurlock's "30 Days" documentary series, and found it relatively intriguing. It's a timely coincidence, though, that my Netflix DVD is Super Size Me, his documentary that launched his career, a film that I missed on its initial release.

Morgan's matter-of-fact reporting style is rather nice. Plus he knows how to mix in the right amount of back research along with his story arc.

Given the changes McDonald's "coincidentally" made after this premiered (elimination of Supersizes, flexibility in sides), this has to be one of the most influential documentaries of the decade. It's worth a viewing.

Super Size Me
2004, 100 minutes, directed by Morgan Spurlock

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

I didn't intend it this way, but watching the Temple of Doom last week really helped psych me up to see this. It's been out a few weeks, but my wife actually wanted to go see it, and it's worth the wait to get to see a movie with her.

Since I had my realizations about the scripting in Temple, I had this one all figured out from the start. Who cares about continuity errors? Who cares how improbable the events seem? It's all about the adventure, the thrill of the hunt, the glory of knowing It's Out There. I'm sucked in. The commie accusations against Indiana genuinely make me angry. It's fantastic.

I think the thing I liked least was the obvious overtones of next-generation sequels, something the Last Crusade avoided in its concise wrap. Sure, I loved to see another Indiana Jones movie, but come on, George, we don't want you to milk this one 'til it's raw, too.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
2008, 124 minutes, directed by Steven Spielberg

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

As a child this was my least-favorite in the series. It just never seemed to fit. The graphics certainly haven't lived up well. Certainly worse than the move that preceded.

The whole story just seems contrived. I'd readily accept it if it was one of several movies filmed about the adventures of Dr. Jones, but as one of three (now four), it just doesn't seem significant enough. Far too much deux ex machina.

Maybe I've figured it out. This is a C-grade adventure film. I'd appreciate it on those merits, except it's bookended by two of the top films of the genre.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
1984, 118 minutes, directed by Steven Spielberg

Se7en

This week's Netflix is new to me. I can appreciate a gritty crime drama, and I found myself liking this one quickly. The story starts immediately and draws you in, without resorting to shock shots for surprise. The story was solid, despite the fact if I saw the ending coming for an hour. It's horror without the stupid, even if it leaves me depressed with the world.

Se7en
1995, 127 minutes, directed by David Fincher

Post Impact

Last month, in planning for a European vacation, I utilized our fancy new DVR's Dish Pass feature to record every show about Germany. In addition to the expected fare (Rick Steve's Europe, Smart Travels, Passport to Europe), it swept up a host of biographies on the pope, History's Misteries' "Nazi Ghost Train", and a cheesy little Sci Fi channel original called Post Impact. Why not?

Oh, you know what? I've seen the last 15 minutes of this movie - twice. I remember this SolStar
thing. Wow, what a disappointment. Maybe it will make sense this time. Or not.

Decent movie for lovers of third-rate action-based science fiction, which I guess means Sci Fi hit their mark.

Post Impact
2004, 90 minutes, directed by Christoph Schrewe

Iron Man

The movie industry has been mining Stan Lee's long-gone creative years for content now for a decade. Some of them have been good, some of them have been awful. Of course I'd heard all the good things about this one. When I sat down at my local Alamo Drafthouse Thursday night, I had the highest hopes. Then it starts - and I'm disappointed. I think the art of the exposition is slipping away. It all seems kinds cheesy.....

.... but oh man, that's cool. The action is great, the tech is great, the plot warms up well after its creaking start. And I can say nothing bad about Gwyneth Paltrow with red hair and freckles. As the film ends, in a way I'm sad. I fear for the future of the series. This one ends so gorgeously, that I can't help but predict its downhill slide. But then, I'm again rewarded for always staying through the credits. Ok, there's hope.

Iron Man
2008, 126 minutes, directed by Jon Favreau

Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet

This documentary starts out strong, introducing a topic entirely new to part of its audience: "chip music", a genre based on the audio capabilities of 1980s video game hardware. I'm just not sure they had enough material for a full-length film. Maybe it's because they get to the 2006 New York Blip Festival within 15 minutes, then keep going back to it intermixed with artist commentary. There's no forward motion. Maybe it's because every artist says the exact same damn thing over and over again - the music is "fresh", "new", "pushing boundaries", "creatively driven by the self imposed technical restraints".

The film does feature music from every artist that performed at the Blip Festival, but even that gets redundant for someone perhaps not ready to appreciate the nuance of 8-bit music. My recommendation is to put the film on in the background while doing something else, and tune in as you wish. It's a solid rental - just not theater quality.

Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet
2008, 82 minutes, directed by Paul Owens

Flawless

(Note that I saw this Wednesday night, after Bananaz, Wellness, and Goliath. This review, like all the others, is based on notes taken during the screening. Pay no attention to the date when I finally get around to posting it.)

Finally, after a day of disappointment, here's a film that deserves praise. The story about a 1960s robbery of a De Beers knockoff is a bit predictable, but I really liked the cinematography, filmed in a style that makes it look like a period movie. The movie is set as a flashback from present-day, and halfway through the film I was wishing they hadn't told me how it ends, wanting to be surprised by the finish. I'm pleased to say that I was. This is definitely worth a screening to the sophisticated film crowd.

Flawless
2007, 108 minutes, directed by Michael Radford

Goliath

Again, I've been misdirected by SXSW's poor film categorization. WTH does "Special Screenings" mean? From the limited description text I thought this would be a comedy, but I was sorely mistaken. Instead, from the "long, uncomfortable scene" school of filmmaking, comes a feature film about a depressed post-divorce man desperately seeking his lost cat. Ooh, sadness. And this guy's just an idiot. Stupid film.

Goliath
2008, 80 minutes, directed by David Zellner

(The last 20 seconds don't make up for the rest of the movie.)

Wellness

The description on the SXSW site for this film, like most others, is quite vague, but as this won the jury prize for best narrative feature based on its first showing, I'm hyped going in. My joy deflates quickly. The movie is filmed like a documentary, exclusively with hand camera work, and the pacing is set to match. But it's the story that just drags me down. "Ahh, here's what it's like to be a sales guy with a jackass boss." "Ooh, 90 minutes watching a man fall for a scam, watching his final dreams wash away." This is just sad.

Wellness
2008, 90 minutes, directed by Jake Mahaffy

Bananaz

It's day six of SXSW, and my busiest day left. My first feature this afternoon is Bananaz, a documentary on the band Gorillaz. Admittedly, I've only heard their two big hits, one of which I bought on iTunes. But the concept of a real fake band interested me, and I thought I could see more, learn more, and perhaps grow to appreciate more of their story.

Alas, this documentary won't help me do so. It should have been subtitled due to poor audio, which greatly detracted from the experience. Scenes of them being the band chatting / bullshitting I guess help establish their personality, but it slows the pace way down, especially when they mumble everything except the curses. As Damon, one of the founding members, put it in a brief moment of clarity: "Americans like you to be nice. They want you to explain things clearly." Yes, yes we do.

I did enjoy where they showed the process of laying down tracks for a new song, something I hadn't seen in such detail in a documentary before. But I felt that they skimped on the animation aspects, something I couldn't get anywhere else. Whatever I thought of the band before, it's basically unchanged.

Bananaz
2008, 92 minutes, directed by Ceri Levy

Second Skin

Walking in, I wasn't really sure if this was to be a complement or detriment to one of my chosen hobbies. I was very, very disappointed. The documentary focuses on a few small aspects of online gaming - the potential for addiction and effects on health and relationships. They make a cursory effort to show the other side, but even then they use a series of stereotypical "gamer" couples to make a weak counter point, before going back to the theme they want to ram at their audience: game companies are drug dealers, and those on the games are geeks, unable to hold a job, maintain a relationship, or take care of their health. Only the scant few minutes devoted to the benefits for the severely disabled game the games any credit. Where's the couple who lead normal lives, have great jobs, travel, attend movie festivals, built themselves a house, and, oh yeah, play World of Warcraft? The only person that comes close in the film is being shown as "breaking the habit" to get on with his life.

I know there are people who are prone to addiction, but that's true for many, many hobbies, most of which never receive such continuous bad press. The worst part to me is that, while I know there is a darker side, I also know that these games can be played in a healthy, normal manner, just like any other hobby. The general public seeing this film will only have the stereotypes imprinted on them again. For this, I recommend no one ever watch this again.

Second Skin
2008, 95 minutes, directed by Juan Carlos Pineiro Escoriaza

Shot in Bombay

This isn't my genre. It isn't my topic. But the director certainly had a compelling fabric to weave, and weave it well she did. This was an singular intersect of events in the life of Sanjay Dutt.

Shot in Bombay
2008, 101 minutes, directed by Liz Mermin

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

The latest film from a team whose earlier works (40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up) I greatly enjoyed, Forgetting Sarah Marshall implies that its focus is on the end of the relationship, not the beginning. But that's only half the story. While there's little character development, it's an emotional journey for the lead actor from start to finish. Unfortunately, like many adult comedies, they schlock on the humor through uncomfortable situations, leaving my cringing and unable to watch half the time. But the reference jokes and straight-up funny stuff is plentiful, too. I recommend seeing this one in the theater, so you can laugh with the audience for full effect.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall
2008, 111 minutes, directed by Nicholas Stoller

Dance of the Dead

After far too much of the "stupid people" motivation for conflict in a comedy, good old "zombie gonna eat yo head" is delightfully refreshing. And while there's nothing really new here, Dance of the Dead puts all the right pieces together in just the right way, for a perfect presentation. (See Flight of the Living Dead for a film that I consider "average" for the genre.)

I highly recommend this zombie beat-down.

Dance of the Dead
2008, 95 minutes, directed by Gregg Bishop

The Promotion

My second feature today was another comedy, the bigger-budget film The Promotion. It's a little slow paced - quite a bit slower than the last film - but it has the deep, evolving character development that the other film (The Marconi Bros.) lacked. You get to like both main characters, which left me sad for part of the film because one of them had to lose. I'm sure that wasn't the director's intent, and the story works out acceptably in the end. Maybe I'm just burnt out on the genre right now. I skipped my next film - yet another straight-up comedy - and look forward to the comedic gore fest that awaits at midnight.

The Promotion
2008, 85 minutes, directed by Steven Conrad

The Marconi Bros.

I dragged this morning, missing my first film. My second screening was the animated shorts lineup, so my first feature-length production today was The Marconi Bros. I get very frustrated by the stereotype "screw-up" who keeps cruising through life unchanged. Unfortunately that was the focus of this film - there's little character development from beginning to end. On the positive side, the pacing was delightfully quick and the actors were fantastic in their roles. I really felt Anthony's frustration with his brother. (Heh, the actor who played him, Brendan Sexton III, is sitting a few seats over in the lounge here.)

The Marconi Bros.
2008, 82 minutes, directed by Michael Canzoniero & Marco Ricci

(Today's showing was the second screening for this film.)

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

It was incredibly stupid, but filled with deep laughs that make it feel so good. The audience responded very well to the film, and it was hard to not pick up on the enthusiasm. Plus John Cho, Kal Pen, and Neil Patrick Harris participated in the Q&A, which was really lively and fun. From Cho: "It felt simple, right, and stupid."

Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
2008, directed by Jon Hurwitz & Hayden Schlossberg

They showed what amazingly was an R-rated cut. Yes, they're all fake. Apparently it's ok as long as it's not real. Well, most of them.

Mister Lonely

This narrative features an all-star cast: Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, James Dean, Madonna, the Three Stooges, etc. Yet they just can't lift it out of the deep mire of introspection set at an impersonator's commune in France. It's a portrait of sadness. Will they find salvation? When nuns fly.

Mister Lonely
2008, 108 minutes, directed by Hormony Korine

Note: During the Q&A, someone noted the director's earlier work and asked why this one was filled with so much more hope. Apparently his last one was truly fucking depressing to make this one seem light in comparison.

Crawford

Documentary filmmakers are attracted to politics like bees to nectar, and it is no different here. The story focuses on the families and friends of Crawford, Texas, during the first seven years with the new neighbor-in-chief. But the story keeps pulling back to the politics. Maybe they're inseparable; it's not that I mind the story being told, but I'm not sure it's what the director meant to say. Regardless, the filmmaker found found wonderful characters and captured them at their prime.

Crawford
2008, 74 minutes, directed by David Modigliani

Secrecy

The staple of SXSW is documentary. Not usually my favorite genre, they're A) better than average at SXSW, and B) hard to avoid. Still hung over from last night (due to lack of sleep, not excess <...>), my first was Secrecy.

This film looks at U.S. government secrecy efforts from World War Two to the present day. The directors do their best to paint a balanced picture around their chosen theme - namely, that some secrecy is good, but that all-too-often the government uses the same power of secrecy to hide its mistakes. The theme and topic are broad - probably too broad for an hour and a half - and so it's hard to cover the spectrum of issues. My wife pointed out that the Valerie Plame events were completely neglected, for example.

In my opinion, the arguments and eloquence of Charles Swift were the highlight of the film.

Secrecy
2008, 85 minutes, directed by Peter Galison & Robb Moss

OTIS

The new Alamo at the Ritz has a smaller theater than the old Alamo Downtown. Blocking off four entire rows for cast and crew seemed excessive, but I really appreciate the performers in a film actually showing up for the premiere. Most of the time, if an indy film scores a big-name star, they miss the premiere because they are, you know, a star, meaning they have work to do.

There's not enough zany gore-fest films being made today, and I found this a refreshing addition. The entire cast just seemed to enjoy the movie making process, and it showed with splendor. The entire major cast, except Daniel Stern, participated in the Q&A and confirmed my impressions. Best quote, when asked about her favorite part of the film, from Ashley Johnson: "I rather enjoyed being - shackled... That sounds kinda weird." Weird indeed.

OTIS
2008, 100 minutes, directed by Tony Krantz

21

My second film of SXSW was the opening night screening, a big-studio production premiering just before its theatrical release. 21 is loosely based on the book Bringing Down the House, about the MIT blackjack team that took Vegas for millions. They made some drastic changes as Hollywood is prone to do - added a Harvard Medical motivation so the main driver isn't "merely" greed, and rewrote the love angle - but I found it surprisingly good. The screenwriters had a strong story to start from, and their flourishes didn't didn't detract from the rich, lively plot.

21
2008, 123 minutes, directed by Robert Luketic

Humboldt County

And here it is again. The 2008 South By Southwest Film Festival kicked off with a great start last night, with three movies I found quite adorable. My favorite part of SXSW is that the movies range so widely outside my usual genres, yet I always find some remarkable films.

My first screening was the world premiere of Humboldt County, which at first glance is little more than a drug culture film, exploring the marijuana culture from an outsider's point of view. But very quickly you can see that it's much more than that - in fact, it's not that at all. It dives into a journey of self discovery, and then flourishes as a story of love and family.

The film was stolen by young star Madison Davenport, who summed up the film well in the Q&A. "Peter - he can be whoever he wants to be."

Humboldt County
2008, 97 minutes, directed by Darren Grodsky and Danny Jacobs

Gattaca

Not to dwell on a theme, but I tend towards sci fi. My current Netflix offering is Gattaca, a movie I missed in the theater. This is more sci fi than Jumper or similar action movies with a cheesy plot twist; true science fiction doesn't need special effects or choreography.

I quickly disliked the narration during the early flashback, but it was quickly over, and the story arc develops well from there. If you love the science fiction story, you'll enjoy this film.

Gattaca
1997, 106 minutes, directed by Andrew Niccol

Jumper

I was going to complain about Jumper - about Hayden Christensen's awful intro narration, the shallow characters and plot development, the pacing that was just off - but then I realized that those aren't the problems with this movie. The problem is that the special effects are too good. This is a great low-grade sci fi action film trapped in a high-grade sci fi budget. With a tenth of the funds they could have made a truly great D-grade sci fi film. Instead, they just made an awful B-grade movie.

I can't wait for the sequel, assuming of course that its funding gets sliced.

Jumper
2008, 88 minutes, directed by Doug Liman

TimeQuest

Reviewing films is definitely helping my memory of them. With the time to work out and set my thoughts, I'm able to recall more and discuss more about the movies I've seen. At the same time, knowing that I have to write a review has made me far more critical of the quality of the film itself. Today's DVD special, TimeQuest, seems like the kind of film I would have loved - or at least tolerated - not that long ago. But today I couldn't stomach it.

Where is the plot? It just starts out as a discordant series of events with no sense at all. Finally after 30 minutes some sense of story appears out of the murky depths of cheese and sap. It's not just that the plot is overly-fascinated by the Kennedy mystique; it's that the plot is barely recognizable, the pacing is atrocious, and the acting downright awful. Only the Traveler, played by Ralph Waite, seemed to be interested in his job.

Of course I did make it to the end, and the plot seems more focused as the awful way the story was told fades away. Maybe there's hope for this one, yet.

TimeQuest
2002, 95 minutes, directed by Robert Dyke

Cloverfield

I didn't take notes during the film; I couldn't take my eyes off the screen. It's survival horror meets sci fi at its best, with a particular story and feel and I've never seen before. The handi-cam work might bother some, but to me it just helped maintain a constant sense of unease. I especially liked the brief clips of old tape to keep a grounded base in Normal, just to show how insane and surreal things had become.

Cloverfield
2008, 84 minutes, directed by Matt Reeves

P.S. No more apocalypse films for a while, ok? At least not set in New York.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

When Arnold Schwarzenegger entered politics, with his blustering grandstands and naivety, I chose to stop patronizing his films. I haven't seen one on more than ten years. It seems, though, that as his political ambition can rise no further, and as he's seen what it really takes to get things done - compromise - that he's evolved into something more humble. With that in mind, I took the opportunity to watch something I'd missed.

With the Terminator series created over two decades, it lacks the plot rails of a typical trilogy. Instead, each movie stands on those before it, but builds on its own. I found little to dislike in the third installment. The action picks up immediately, and the story takes little time to reflect on the past. Yet again John Conner fights back against the rise of the machines, and yet again only one unit is sent back to kill him, and conveniently one older model returns to save him. With his mother Sarah dead, John is instead joined with a forceful yet reluctant Kate, who is destined to share a fate similar to John's.

The action sequences are good, if rushed from start to finish. I only saw a few places were the special effects had aged beyond appreciation. I'm satisfied that the trilogy is complete. (Please, Arnold, don't pull a Stallone and make another one next decade.)

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
2003, 109 minutes, directed by Jonathan Mostow

Transporter 2

I liked Jason Statham a lot in the first movie I saw him in - Snatch. I wish in subsequent films he hadn't been shaped into a cookie-cutter action hero. A least the first Transporter movie had the right mix of action and scenery to make a decent film. In this also-ran installment, the "special" effects are far less impressive.

The DVD commentary claims that all the driving shots are "real" plus added effects, but the end effect is low-grade CGI. At first the martial arts action scenes were the only respite from mediocrity, but even those fell into cliché. "Now let's see Statham take on a line of gooks with a pole. Now let's see it with a fire hose."

Transporter 2
2005, 87 minutes, directed by Louis Leterrier