Hey folks, Internet Celebrity Harry Knowles here with a report from Whatever The Hell You Want upon a sampling of his five days upon the sun drenched beaches of Park City, Utah! That's right this righteous surfer dude braved the waves to hang ten with some mighty flicks... Dear God that's an annoying way to write right? Awesome! Well without all the gab, I'll hand ya over to Whatever The Hell You Want...
Hey Harry,
I was at Sundance for the first 5 days and I got back earlier today and was reading some of the reviews. I saw a few films that were not mentioned yet so I figured I would write a review. So here's a bunch of reviews and you can use the ones you want. They are all pretty short and spoiler free.
The first film is a Russian film called A Place on Earth. It was one of those long filsm that really has no point. Before the movie started the director said there would be a Q & A for anyone that was left when the movie ended. The film is about a small commune of hippies/poor people living in a house in Moscow. There are scenes of adults having sex in front of the children, and in the middle of the film when the main character castrates himself one of the audience members fainted. They stopped the film and we had to wait about 20 minutes while the paramedics came to see if the guy was alright. The movie has a very claustrophobic feel to it and the acting and cinematography were both good. However, the film simply had no point and just went on and on for over 2 hours. The scene when one of the drunk homeless guys lies down on a bed and crushes a baby just seemed rediculous.
I also noticed you didn't have a review of Storytelling, so here it goes. I was really looking forward to this film and was somewhat disapointed. I didn't hate the film, I actually liked it a bunch. As you might know, the film is divided into two sections, Fiction and Nonfiction. The first part is too short and it is quite obvious that there was a lot of scenes cut to get an R rating or for running time. (That doesn't include the big red box covering up the sex scene). The second part is longer and much better. I would have been happier if Todd Solondz had scrapped the first part and fleshed out the second part. Now don't get me wrong, I liked this film and I definately reccomend it, but it's not as good as Happiness or Welcome To The Dollhouse.
Another film I saw was Face, a film about Asian American women living in New York. I really liked this film and thought it was much better than The Joy Luck Club. It's kind of a "chick flick" but it was very well acted and had lot's of good music in it. It also has a great performance by Treach.
Streeters was another film that I saw. This was a very intense movie about Mexican street kids living in the sewers. The story follows one kid as he tries to find his long lost father and tries to evade gang menmbers who want to kill him. It is a very powerful and sad movie filled with amazing acting and a very tragic ending.
Lola was the only film that I saw that I didn't like. It wasn't a terrible movie but it wasn't that good. The story revolves around Lola a sweetly naive girl who leaves her boyfriend one night and meets up with a hooker who is traveling to see her mom. After they are both attacked Lola assumes the girl's identity and goes to see her mom. The acting is very good but the film doesn't go anywhere and takes a really long time to get there.
I have a bunch of more reviews if you want to hear them. Maybe I'll send them tomorrow. Call me Whatever The Hell You Want.
