Well folks, its Father Geek back again with another report from Rio on their great film fest currently going on down there. So here we go, off to the land of Carmen Miranda, and...

THE RIO DE JANEIRO INT¹L FILM FESTIVAL, THE­ 2ND BATCH...

Some of the movies in the fest have already found distributors in Brazil and they are promoting them to the press in quite fun ways. I have to point out the tranvestite giving away free candy for everyone in the room, who looked exactly like John Cameron Mitchell in "Hedwig And The Angry Inch",

But let me cut to the chase, and our 1st film tonight:

KIPPUR (Israel/UK, 2000).

This is Amos Gitai¹s follow-up to "Kadosh", which I haven¹t personally watched all of this myself, but I have been told it¹s a pretty good movie. I¹m gonna sound like a jackass, but I have serious trouble keeping the same level of attention on something for way too long and we know how these Israeli films go. I have the tendency of nodding off. It happened on Kippur, but it was at least interesting enough to make me not only survive through it, but to try watching a few more like it some more.

Not that "Kippur" is a triumph, anyway.

"Kippur" is based on the director¹s memoirs from when he had to fight arabian and sirian forces on the Battle Of Yom Kippur. It shows how he and his friend are left behind by their platoon and they join the rescue team for the war wounded. The movie is very contemplative, but it¹s way too cold and impressively unpersonal. So,OK, it doesn¹t get piegas, but on the other hand, you just don¹t get involved with it. There are some beautiful parts like when they try and rescue the body of a wounded soldier, but keep getting stucked on the deep mud. It goes on for like six minutes straight and it¹s perfectly both comical and tragical (suddenly, calling that "tragicomical" seems unappropriate). All in all, it¹s aninteresting effort, but for some people, it¹ll be the next best thing after Prozac.

THE TAKEN OF THE EMBASSY (La Toma de La Embajada, Colombia, 2000)

There¹s two comedy TV shows which have got to be the greatest mexican success around here, called "Chaves" and "Chapolim Colorado (The Red Thumb)". I wonder if they have ever been broadcasted on the States. Because , they are so poorly produced and yet so entertaining, you¹d know what I mean when I said it feels like a special two hours episode of those shows.

"The Taken..." is a Colombian effort to produce a political thriller. Of course you¹d have to respect the serious monetary restrictions on that country¹s film industry, but in this global village, you can help but think it could have been produced on some north american backyard. It portraits the real taken of Dominican Republic¹s Embassy by a political group during a party that was going on. They demand the release of 311 political prisoners and some money to help them on the battle against dictatorship and some more of that coke (Bad joke, but they ARE colombians). Or else,shoot, shoot, bang bang those hostages.

Yeah, so they were short on money to make this one and it shows, the end credits are a total mess, one totally unnecessary sex scene (if one could ever think there could never be an unnecessary sex scene), BAAAAAD continuity, but guess what? I was entertained the whole time. You¹d have to assume it was good, right? So it was... I guess...

CAPTAIN CORELLI¹S MANDOLIN (USA/France/England/Greece, 2001)

There¹s no major spoiler for "Captain Corelli¹s Mandolin" like saying: this movie is übercrap. "Captain..." is one big mistake from frame one to end credits. I will start with the good stuff: the locations are beautiful (like you¹d pay to watch a movie because of its locations ­ get some money and fly to Greece, you cheap bastard!), John Hurt (but not his character) and Irene Papas.

And the rest of the movie is just bad.

Based on what it seems to be a really big book with no pictures, the movie tells the story of some girl (Penelope Cruz, without her famous mustache, but with really big, bushy and shiny armpits) named like a venereal disease who is in love with Christian Bale, a fisherman and a retarded immature guy. John Hurt is Penelope¹s father and the doctor on the island. Christian Bale leaves for war. Comes back home, all fucked up. Greece loses battle. Italian soldiers take on the island. Nicholas Cage is Captain Corelli, but not his mandolin ­ which is not even a mandolin, but a portuguese guitar. Christian Balegoes to war AGAIN, leaving Penelope to play hard to get with Nicholas Cage until they eventually fuck or fall in love or something like that.

Only when tragedy starts to kick in, the movie gets a little bit interesting. But you are gonna have to endure 110 mins. of some of the worst accents of the year, awful acting (Nicholas Cage, please return your Oscar on "Mistakes of the Academy" section), the cliché-made quilt called screenplay, one awful unbelievable romance and dialogues that¹ll make you cringe so hard, your gums will bleed for days. When John Hurt start to philosophe on love ("Love is like a white dove flying on the blue sky, over the wide ocean just to shit on the head of some unhappy man on land...", stuff like that), you¹ll wish he¹d choke on his fake mustache. John "Hurts" is more like it.

But at least he prints some dignity to his character. It¹s not like Nicholas Cage playing ol¹ happy italian (acting classes with roberto Begnini are a big no-no), Penelope Cruz playing greek spanish woman and Christian Bale trying to be serious ­ you just don¹t buy it. War scenes are a mess (why is everybody trying to go "Saving Private Ryan" everytime when dealing with a war scene?). When Penelope says toNicholas Cage she¹ll lay on the road just to stop him from going to war, you¹ll wish you¹d run over her yourself. Surely there¹ll be some critics praising this movie as an awesome tale of humanity or a beautiful love story. Don¹t buy it. There¹s suspicion its release will be pushed back due to the events in New York, but it should be pushed back for its crapness.

THE ANNIVERSARY PARTY (USA, 2001)

This is the directorial debut by Alan Cumming and Jennifer Jason Leigh. It¹s already been released on the US, so I won¹t waste my time describing the plot. The movie flows great, the digital video looks damn good, the actors are on the money (I didn¹t expect such great cast). It¹s a really entertaining dramatic comedy, flaws a little bit on the ecstasy bit, but the non-pretensious feel and the charisma of it won the audience. I know that¹s not even close to a review. I just wanted to say I liked it a lot.

HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH (USA, 2000)

Everybody was expecting it to be this year¹s "Velvet Goldmine". It¹s light years better than that. This is one great little glam rock musical, written, directed and starring the very talented John Cameron Mitchel. He shines as Hedwig, a tranvestite touring with his rock band across the US, following the cities where Tommy Gnost, a big rock star whose success owes to the songs he stole from Hedwig him/herself. During the tour, Hedwig tells his life story.

Most of the plot is told to us through the songs, which are really great rock songs. You walk out of the movie as a fan. The movie manages to turn you into one. You¹ll end up wanting to watch one of their shows. I¹m trying not to rave the movie, as it became obvious there¹ll be a lot of people that¹ll hate it. But I thought it was so vibrant, I can¹t see its flaws, or recognize them, I just can point out the good stuff about it, like someone in love with somebody so-and-so looking.

Shouts out to Michael Pitt, one of the very annoying kids from Dawson¹s Creek, taking on a quite daring role with dignity. You wouldn¹t expect that from the guy. I wanna be dressed as Tommy Gnost this Halloween, that¹s fer sure.

"Hedwig..." feels like one hell of a rock show. Doesn¹t falls flat or boring like "Velvet Goldmine", the director doesn¹t use the theme to show off his skills, nor the screenwriting uses its unusual characters and plot for cheap malabarisms and pure kitschness. It has respect for what they want to show us. And boy, it feels refreshing nowadays.

The festival has scheduled some fine movies which I intend to write about soon: Dario Argento¹s "Insomnia", "Battle Royale", "Red Paint", "Amelie" and a few more. I¹ll try to keep in touch and improve my english on the process. I¹m aware I need to.

That's all for now...

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