Back To The Garden

A documentary film crew returns to interview subjects of a documentary shoot from 1988 in the present day, to see whether they've stuck with their "back to the hills" hippie roots (the subject of the original documentary).

The results are relatively uniform, with all of the featured participants actively pursuing their alternative lifestyle. And while this is pretty inspiring, the film glosses over a number of questions that it raises. These modern day hippies are shown using ruber hoses in farming, a Cat mini-loader, and solar panels, all of which are treated as solutions to industrial activity while ignoring the fact that they can only be obtained as the pinnacle of large-scale industrial activity.

Still, the ideas of simplicity, of being able to work within the system but still move toward the ideal, are all well taken. And it's definitely interesting to see several examples of people who have been in this lifestyle and are still happy and fulfilled twenty years later.

Food, Inc.

There are several people who have been writing about the breakdown of our food supply system for a number of years. Food, Inc. includes interviews with many of them, and serves as a good summary for their arguments as well as some good demonstrative examples that help to prove their point.

As far as new information, there's not much here. Reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defence Of Food, and a couple others gives basically the same message with more facts. But Food, Inc. does add a visceral sense of what the results of our food system really are. A number of truly disgusting scenes in modern meat packing plants are terrifying, and very necessary. And it also finds some illustrative examples of the human cost that results when the cheapest food available is packed with corn and fat.

Unfortunately, the only solutions offered are in the form of some flashing text at the end, which feels very tacked on, and somewhat condescending given that the people who will likely choose to see this film already know the type of common sense things they throw at you. But the rest of the movie is still valuable, and worth seeing.

Downloading Nancy

An absolutely terrifying look at the last days of a very disturbed woman. Nancy was molested by her Uncle as a child, and continues to play out the effects through self mutilation and destructive behaviour. Her husband has retreated into a numb haze of golf and scotch, convincing himself that their life is the suburban dream.

The story jumps around a bit chronologically, following the fulfilment of Nancy's destructive path as she confides her fantasies to her psychologist, dissociates from her husband, and meets a man on the internet who agrees to kill her.

The whole thing is shot in an extremely bleak style, and the setting feels very faded and claustrophobic. The acting is raw, but very good. The writing isn't flashy, but is haunting in places. Very hard to watch, but very powerful as well.

Serenity Prayers

One final attempt at a shorts package, and thankfully SIFF has redeemed itself, at least a little bit.

Easily the best of the bunch is Welgunzer, a fantastic piece involving time travel, a bathtub, and way too many aviator goggles. Next up is the short but sweet What's Virgin Mean? and the funny, if somewhat drawn out, Boutonniere. Immersion and November are both good as well, although a little preachy.

In the "why?" column are Control Master, and the intolerable The Day My Parents Became Cool. I really wish they'd stop booking mediocre films just because they happen to be shot in Seattle.

The Nightmare Factory

Okay, now I'm REALLY pissed off at the people who choose the short films. When I go to a package called The Nightmare Factory, and furthermore when it's described as "Unsettling dreams prepackaged for your dire convenience," I expect something at least a little dark.

Instead, we got weird (but not particularly scary) stop-motion photography, "nude" people covered head to toe in crocheted false skin fucking in the woods, and overgrown dust mites. Lame.

A couple pieces were good, notably Excision, a tale of amateur surgery and sibling rivalry, and the bizarre but enjoyable Horsefingers 3: Starfucker. The next best thing was Treevenge, a bunch of actors with evergreen branches glued to their arms pretending to maul children. Why do I even go to these anymore?

The Cock Collage

The third attempt at a shorts package, and I'm getting less and less pleased with the people who pick this stuff. As usual, gay-themed cinema is an iffy proposition, with a number of them feeling amateurish or at least strongly clichéd. It seems that gay film gets a pass on stuff that would get a straight writer or director sent back to film school.

Probably the most interesting piece is Yuri, a documentary about an eccentric old Russian man who was once a ballet dancer. The Back Room is also pretty good, building some strong but unique characters in a short time, despite its relatively broad writing.

The rest aren't particularly bad, just not that good either.

The Merry Gentleman

What's with aging actors playing hit-men? Michael Keaton jumps on the bandwagon, and it doesn't turn out too badly.

Like any good hit-man, Keaton's character is sad and mopey, and charmingly gruff, just waiting to be loved if only he could find the right woman. Enter a woman on the run from her abusive cop boyfriend. The combination plays okay purely on the strength of the actors involved to start, and an increasingly tense plot as the film moves on.

So while the characters may be a bit cliche, it's still fun to watch the whole thing unfold. And if none of the plot twists are particularly surprising, it's a pleasant enough attempt, and worth watching just for the two leads.