Deadgirl

In case anyone tries to tell you otherwise, I have to clear one thing up: I LOVE zombie movies. Something about the inevitable hopelessness of fighting a horde of deranged once-human monsters is nearly endlessly entertaining to me. But you can only sit through that plot so many times before you start to want something a little more complex.

Enter Deadgirl, a zombie movie that's really not a zombie movie at all. Two teens find a dead, naked women strapped to a table in an abandoned mental hospital. Only she's not really dead, since she tries to bite their faces off when they start to untie her. So what would any disfunctional teenage boy do with a helpless naked woman? Needless to say, the titular character remains tightly restrained for a good part of the film.

All this sounds remarkably dark and pessimistic, which it is, but here's the good part. Because the zombie here is completely helpless, the real plot involves the gradual implosion of the teens who find her, and their circle of friends. While this is still not a particularly nice story, the counterpoint of a coming of age drama mixed with such a unique plot device to drive the whole thing along really works.

Disclosures

The second attempt at shorts falls a bit closer to the SIFF we've come to know and feel ambivalent about.

Easily the low point is "It's In The P-I", a pointless and functionally useless look at a failing Seattle institution. Unfortunately, due to his otherwise quite interesting career, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut Sparks is probably second from the bottom. It's not particularly bad, but it just doesn't really make a punch, despite having a couple good actors and good direction. The script probably should have been scrapped altogether, or else rewritten into a feature where the characters would have the space to really dig into the innuendo that they attempt here, rather than making broad passes that leave no subtlety to the performance.

On the top of the list is a fantastic animated attempt from Japan. Kudan is nearly impossible to describe, involving alternate dimensions, heads in jars, and a man-headed cow fighting the grim reaper. But it's well worth seeing.

ShortsFest Opening Night

Shorts packages at SIFF are usually a bit spotty, but at least for the opening package this year they seem to be surprisingly consistent.

Standouts include 2081, an adaptation of a Vonnegut short story in which the future has become "equal" by the calculated addition of weights to handicap the strong and intelligent; The Bake Shop Ghost, a somewhat sacharine but well done story of a lonely old woman; and my personal favorite, Next Floor, a fantastically surreal presentation of a party that just won't stop.

Hansel And Gretel

Bearing only loose resemblance to its fairy tale namesake, Hansel And Gretel is a relatively light take on the Japanese Horror genre.

A man has a car accident on a remote stretch of highway, and stumbles off into the woods to collapse. Upon waking, a smiling young girl greets him, and takes him back to a secluded house where he is fed and cared for by a family with three young children, until the parents disappear, and the children start calling him Uncle.

The acting, writing, and cinematography are good, but the plot is a bit uneven. Specifically, the whole thing seems to be building toward a nice scary demonic climax, only to suddenly switch course about halfway through. Not an entirely pleasant surprise, since trying to build empathy for a dark force usually makes the entire presentation weaker.

So the tone is a bit inconsistent, and the ending a bit unsatisfying. Still, there's something charming about parts of it, and in the end the whole thing is fun if a little underwhelming.

The Hurt Locker

The best way I can describe The Hurt Locker is: the best damn war movie I've ever seen.

Raw, authentic, and terrifying. You get an awesome sense of the feeling of helplessness experienced by troops in Iraq, The choice to focus on bomb technicians is a superb one, putting the viewer immediately at the heart of the worst part of the Iraq war.

The acting from the leads is amazing, and they're supported by several high-profile cameos that give the film an eerie sense of drifting among the other more flashy offerings in the genre.

This film is perfect, and everyone needs to see it.

Rembrandt's J'Accuse

It's hard to tell whether this film was a spoof or a serious dissertation. Several other festival goers seemed convinced that it was a spoof, but that was based more on Greenaway's previous work than anything in this film itself. Personally I saw no reason to think it was a spoof, and I like to think I can usually pick up on sarcasm.

The film begins with the premise that modern art viewers are "impoverished in visual vocabulary", and goes through 31 "mysteries" in Rembrandt's famous painting The Night Watch. Commissioned as a local militia portrait, the painting does contain a number of odd elements, including a youth with an obscured face firing a rifle at another man, and a series of odd expressions and symbolism. However, the theories advanced for the meanings of these oddities are presented as "historical re-enactments" with absolutely no supporting evidence.

Overall the presentation is pompous and confusing. Taken as a spoof it's mildly amusing, taken as a real piece of scholarship it's poorly done. Either way it's confusing. A bit of humor makes it only vaguely tolerable.

Bluebeard

Bluebeard is based on a very charming idea. Two young girls are playing in an attic when one of them starts to read the story of Bluebeard to the other, and we are presented with a re-enactment of the story they read (a folk tale in which a young girl marries a misunderstood rich-but-ugly man).

At first the execution seems good. The young girls in the meta-story are charming and very cute together, and the fairy tale portion is done pretty well. However, before it really gets a chance to go anywhere, the story begins to take odd turns. Poorly placed breaks to the meta-story to reveal random details of their school and home life, or discourses on marriage and homosexuality, while charming, don't seem to really fit. And the folk tale takes an odd turn from somewhat realistic to fairy tale logic. One or the other would be fine, but the shift in tone is confusing.

In addition, the cinematography becomes increasingly cheesy as the film progresses, not least due to a sequence of staircase ascent/descent shots which are done by repeating a single shot of the actor walking past a camera 4 times in a row.

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

The last five minutes really kills it for me, though. At the climactic moment of the fairy tale, one of the meta-girls scares the other and she falls to her death, while the French cavalry show up in a complete deus ex machina moment and save the heroine from her suddenly murderous husband. The film ends with a 20 second shot of her staring at the camera stroking his bloody severed head on a platter. Basically it's a total cop-out in both stories, and while it seems like it's supposed to be climactic, it falls completely flat.

Not a total loss, since the first half or so is pretty nice, but pretty deeply flawed as well.

The Higher Force

I don't know that I've seen an Icelandic film before, but after this one I'll definitely keep a lookout for them.

The Higher Force follows a low-level organized crime lackey as he bumbles his way through trying to move up the ranks and get revenge on the people who pick on him. Full of dry humour and perfectly flawed characters, it feels a lot like some of the offerings from Denmark or The Netherlands.

The writing and the characters really make this. A little fragmented in parts, but the characters hold it together.

Fear Me Not

A father on health leave from work joins an experimental anti-depressant trial and begins to reveal a darker side of himself.

The tense situation is built up pretty well here, with the entire thing having a wonderful air of inevitability. The actors are well cast, and the writing is fine. The entire thing feels a little cheap, though, and a plot twist at the end might not work twice.

Overall a solid thriller, but it feels like it's missing something to really push it over the edge.

Moon

I've been a fan of Sam Rockwell since I saw Lawn Dogs on basic cable in 9th grade. He tends to play relatively understated characters, and sadly not a lot of leads, so I'm always grateful for anything that gets him out there. I'm also a fan of retro sci-fi, which focuses on real people rather than explosions and special effects, so my expectations going into this were pretty high.

Even so, I was completely blown away. Sam Rockwell is mesmerising in this role. The movie as mostly him alone on the screen for an hour and a half, and I couldn't look away. The special effects are brilliant, with the externals of the lunar base shot in miniature on a sound stage with fantastic results. The writing is amazing, standing out as an instant classic without relying on surprise plot twists or gimmicks.

The director, Duncan Jones, said they drew inspiration from 70s classics like Silent Running and (indirectly) 2001. I say he far surpassed those. He managed to capture the feel perfectly, while adding an element of modern special effects and modern acting that was never achieved in the old classics, and makes the entire thing much more magical and empathetic. If you have a chance to see this, do not pass it up.

Warlords

A friend had this to say after seeing this movie: "There are movies where Jet Lee cries, and then there are good Jet Lee movies." I'm paraphrasing, but the point is valid. There's something about a movie that requires Jet Lee to cry, and further that fails to require him to kick a tremendous amount of ass, that just doesn't really work.

Warlords is the story of three friends who rise through the Chinese military in some ancient dynasty in a series of daring victories. Fighting, betrayal, and intrigue end up with a lot of people dead, but by the end I was having a hard time caring. The visuals are beautiful as always in this type of film, and the acting and music are fine as far as that goes. The plot gets pretty fragmented in the second act, though, which really doesn't help make me care about the climax. Maybe worth seeing if you're into this particular sub-genre, but as someone who really isn't, I can't say that I recommend it.

Terribly Happy

Another solid entry from Denmark. A big-city cop is transfered to a remote town, and tries to deal with suspicious people and strange local customs. Then about halfway through it switches pace into more of a thriller/suspense piece.

Dark and brooding (in a really good way throughout). The acting is strong but understated. The visuals and writing are solid, even surprisingly creative at times. The ending could have had a little more punch, but the energy is so strong through the whole thing that I didn't mind too much.

Khamsa

Khamsa is the story of an 11 year old half-Gypsy, half-Arab boy growing up in Tunisia. The predictable stuff for a "troubled youth" plot shows up -- entanglements with crime and thievery, family troubles, run ins with the law, etc. But what makes Khamsa stand out a bit is the quality of the acting, and the general pacing.

The dialog (at least the translations in the theatrical release) are pretty well nuanced, and for a group of relatively young actors the cast does quite well. There's no tendency to over-emote like many of these films end up with, and while they don't hit the extreme dramatic highs, the whole thing is very believable.

The cross-section of life in that particular culture is well done, and the character comes off as reasonably sympathetic by the end. The direction and editing especially do plenty to keep things moving along, and I found my interest held pretty evenly until the climax. Which, by the way, is well worth it. My opinion of the film went up quite a bit in the last half hour, even though I was relatively pleased with it before then.

My Dear Enemy

A gambler is confronted at a racetrack by a woman to whom he owes money, and they spend the day going around town while he tries to get the money together.

Good acting and good direction, but the overall plot and pacing are pretty slow. We do learn some interesting things about the characters as the plot goes on, understanding more of their history and their relationship with each other. In a way it's really a romance, as the most important part of the plot is the woman falling back in love with the man, or at least learning to forgive him.

Overall it's pretty good in a sort of Broken Flowers, extremely understated way. Maybe a bit too slow, but as a very understated romance it works pretty well.

We Live In Public

Part mad scientist, part Andy Warhol wannabe, Josh Harris is certainly an interesting character. As a documentary subject he was a fantastic choice. Switching between internet mogul, cult leader, insane clown, and rural farmer, his life in the past 20 years has been an eerie set of living predictions about the course of technology with the growth of the internet.

It's probably useless to describe the series of ultra-voyeuristic "experiments" he ran in th 90s, because the truth as it was meticulously recorded on video is so much stranger than you could expect. The documentation is fantastic precisely because he was obsessed with video surveillance, and the idea of cutting together a documentary from the 5000 hours of footage he had stored, including interrogations bordering on torture, is unnerving at best.

While the editing is fair, the whole thing feels a little raw. I suspect this is because he is such an unbalanced figure and there was no sane plan behind a lot of his projects. The whole thing could have benefited perhaps from some coverage of other projects from people in the same circles at the time, or more coverage of the reaction in society. As it is, the story is so fantastic that it's a bit hard to connect it to reality. A good effort, but a bit hard to place.

$9.99

Stop motion animation often tends to be cutesy, or at least a bit cartoonish even when the subject matter is serious. $9.99 is a rare gem of a movie, portraying a number of unattractive and unhappy people in fantastic detail. The small touches throughout the film are fantastic, from gently glowing cigarette tips to the sweat and grime on every character.

The voice acting is superb as well, opening with Geoffrey Rush, who is always fantastic. The characters express a fair amount of emotion for being relatively realistic, and they're helped by solid writing in the script.

The plot overall is what really makes this work, with a sleepy suburban setting slowly turning into a dreamy fantasy world. It's slow, but the process of discovering that other world is very rewarding.

Tulpan

Like goat placenta? See Tulpan.

The struggles of a small family on the Kazakh steppe. The husband and wife are trying to make a living, the wife's brother is trying to find a wife. There are some interesting moments when some bits of western culture filter into their remote home, but overall the pacing is slow, and the struggles they face are a bit hard to connect with. Some bits of humor stick, but compared to the length of the movie they're a bit sparse.

Well done in its way, but not great.

Departures

Wow. The first half was a bit slow and maybe a bit too slapstick compared to the second. But the second half... sniffles from all over the theater. Some absolutely beautiful scenes. The acting was fantastic, the music was used incredibly well. Some very nice, simple cinematography as well.

My only complaint is that they could have explained a bit more of the social stigma surrounding morticians in Japanese culture. I'd just happened to read about it a bit the week prior to seeing this, and that understanding certainly helped convey how important some of the character reactions were. That lack of context might make this a bit harder to catch on with American audiences.

But wow. So good. I went into this expecting to be a bit underwhelmed because of the hype, and left completely blown away.

Dead Snow

Nazi Zombies are awesome. Unfortunately they don't appear in Dead Snow, but cursed Nazi ghouls rising from the dead to reclaim their plundered gold is the next best thing, and there's plenty of that.

The basic setting: three young couples, an isolated ski cabin, and a horde of undead Nazi soldiers. Plenty of gore, creative disembowelment, and explosive head shots. The direction is good, the acting is better than average for this type of film, and the pacing is quite good. Plenty of startling moments and cheesy fake-outs.

If you don't like a LOT of blood, don't see this. If you do, it's worth the time.

Bronson

Going into Bronson I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The only other films I'd seen from Nicolas Winding Refn were the Pusher trilogy, and Bronson certainly delivered a more slick and psychotic feel than those.

It's difficult to do a character study of someone who's an unrepentant psychopath. But while Charlie Bronson remains a terrifying figure throughout, the movie gets as close as possible to making you feel his frustration, childish as it is.

That does it for the character. As for the movie itself, the direction and settings are quite fantastic. A number of clever devices allow a very chilling narration between scenes from Bronson's life, and definitely help drive home his instability.

Tom Hardy does a fantastic job portraying the main character, switching moods totally in a split second, and generally tearing up the screen. I have to think he had a lot of fun filming this.

In the end it's a bit hard to watch, just because the character is so messed up. But what's there is fantastic and surreal, and worth watching again.

Paper Heart

I keep thinking I'm going to get tired of Michael Cera, but it never happens. Although honestly, Charlotte Lee completely steals the show here (as much as the main character can steal it, but as she says at one point, "Michael is way more successful than me").

Charlotte plays herself, shooting a documentary about why she can't fall in love. Michael Cera plays himself as the guy she falls for during shooting. The awkwardness level is through the roof, but they play off each other perfectly. And a series of fantastic interviews fill out the documentary, along with 4 ingenious puppet show segments to illustrate select interviews.

I honestly can't tell which parts were ad-libbed and which were totally scripted, which is part of why it works so well. Even though you know the general premise is fake, the interviews are very genuine, especially the one with a playground full of children.

The direction is low key, the production on the puppet shows is fantastic, and the acting is perfect. The entire thing is charming to the point of being disgusting. I loved every second.

The Immaculate Conception Of Little Dizzle

Local movies are always a mixed bet. A lot of the ones last year were interesting more for the local angle than entirely on their own merits. And while Dizzle suffers just a little bit from the same problem, it's a much stronger movie in general.

An odd message in a bottle sets off a rant and a change in careers for the main character. Wacky adventures ensue with his new coworkers at an office cleaning company, but things quickly devolve into experimental cookies and drug trips.

The story holds together pretty well, although the third act could have used a little heavier hand in editing. The acting is great for a local film, and good in general. The special effects actually stand out pretty well, with several hand- and computer-animated freak-outs adding a very neat feel to the whole thing, and reminding me perhaps of a slightly flashier version of Michel Gondry at times.

Overall every element works well, and for an offbeat sci-fi in the general style of Vonnegut or Pahlaniuk it's a lot of fun.

Trimpin: The Sound Of Invention

Don't get me wrong, Trimpin was a fun movie. It was neat to see the output of a local artist captured on film, especially footage from several sessions of him collaborating with the Kronos Quartet.

The direction was fine, acting in a fairly removed documentary style. The editing was pretty good, cutting together various one-off exhibits with progress on the Kronos collaboration and culminating with footage from the performance they eventually produced.

But at the same time, it's a little hard to find something really compelling in the story. Sure, the man has done some amazing installations, but there are an equal number of entries that are just plain weird. And while it's neat to see some of his creative process, it's also hard to really capture the spirit of it on film when it's such a spatially rich art form. In the end I think I'd rather just see some of his work up close. As a catalyst for that the film works, but maybe not much more than that.

Modern Life

I've said it many times before, that the best documentaries are those with no narration. The director who can get the subjects to speak for themselves is the one I want to watch. However, when the director must narrate and conduct interviews with the subjects, is it really to much to ask that they don't blatantly fish for controversy?

Modern Life claims to be a tribute to rural farmers in southern France, but from the first set of subjects on more than half the time is taken up with the director asking ridiculously leading questions and trying his hardest to stir up controversy. Granted these are probably not the easiest people in the world to get talking on camera, but that doesn't make it any less irritating to watch.

There are some good sides to the film, however. The shots of the countryside are beautiful, and several of the subjects do give a hint of some pretty interesting characters. But if the director had a point, it was lost on me. Most of the interviews felt me leaving either confused or sad, rather than inspired. But nobody offers any solutions, or even really addresses the issue. The basic message is at best, "farm life is hard, and old people are stubborn". Not a very profound message in the end.

Worth watching for some interesting people if you can get past the director. But not a must see.

I Sell The Dead

The midnight shows are always a bit of a risk. Horror movies can be either pretty awesome, or pretty terrible and fragmented. I Sell The Dead falls somewhere in between. The story is of pretty standard quality. The dialog is suitably cheesy, with plenty of jokes (some of which work better than others).

The settings are actually quite well done, with good atmospheric effects. I spent quite a few minutes enjoying the sensation that something was going to jump out and grab the characters.

Dominic Monaghan and Ron Perlman are both very enjoyable, and the rest of the cast is suitably grimy and toothless.

Basically this is a fun film if you're into black comedy. Otherwise probably a pass.

Baby Love

There's a certain style of movie that the French do really well. Trendy urbanites, usually in Paris, gently but firmly confronting social issues, with a little comedy thrown in. The French also tend to name their movies terribly, at least in the English translation, and on both counts Baby Love is about the norm.

The story is framed by the legal prohibition on homosexuals adopting in France, but the bulk of the story revolves around the relationships of the characters and only briefly skirts the social issue. But the characters are charming and likable, the acting is good, the directing and score are fine. Not the best movie ever, but worth watching.

Shrink

Dreamy and beautiful. It's relatively rare to find a really good ensemble drama outside of Paul Thomas Anderson's movies, and this is one of the really good ones.

For most of the movie the plot drifts in and out of small vignettes in the lives of Hollywood actors, agents, shrinks, and students, rendered against a beautiful sound-scape reminiscent of Stars Of The Lid. Sometimes only seconds long, the brief glimpses set a fantastic mood, while building a story so subtly that I found myself surprised when I realized how much foundation had been laid.

The entire cast is excellent, but Kevin Spacey is in rare form, possibly even more enjoyable to watch here than in American Beauty. Several climactic scenes had me nearly in tears from his expression and presence alone.

The plot and writing are very solid. It's not easy to weave such a scattered plot into something that grabs your attention.

This type of film in general is one of my favorites, and I'm always ecstatic when I find another that lives up to the genre. As the first show of the festival, this is a very good sign.