More reviews from Scotland reached Geek Headquarters in Austin, Texas today... we're about to wrap this fest up... buuuuut never fear, we've got the great, phantastic Venice Festival from Italy starting up right away... sooooo there will be little break in film fest coverage. Our main man Rav is headed there from Austin, and our Euro-AICN editor Robert from Rome will have reports on this grand olde dame of festivals too... but for now we've got additional reviews from Edinburgh for you...
Long time fans, first time review. Just got back from the Edinburgh Film Festival, an interesting collection of Hollywood and beyond.
My Little Eye (SPOILERS BELOW)
Big Brother meets Blair Witch. This film has it all; sick humor, tense moments, jump-out-of-your-seat thrills, impromptu sex and a finale that is not only disturbing but "right on the money". Five young Americans sign up to live in some remote house for 6 months having their lives televised (Big Brother) for a million dollars. Of course everything falls apart on the last week, the powers that run the show, send the contestants disturbing gifts, an outsider makes a suspicious visit and finally the true reason for the game becomes apparent (internet-snuff). Players are subsequently murdered and the supposed winner/survivor and the competing serial murder are totally blindsided by the whole project. This film is not for the weak and I saw a couple of people rush out of the theatre crying before the film really got going. Did they even read the synopsis? Horror film fans will appreciate the spirit of this movie, there is no Scream-esque irony or winking at the audience, just good old fashioned chills and thrills.
Dark Water
Boy do the Japanese know how to create a mood. Ring director Hideo Nakata's Dark Water squished and squelched with atmosphere from beginning to end. While not as creepy as Ring, Nakata's ghost story built up enough spookiness and dread to satisfy me. The story is pretty basic, mother and daughter move into an old, water-logged apartment building where a young girl recently disappeared and things get steadily creepier from there on. A child's bookbag keeps popping up, mysterious sounds from the vacant apartment upstairs, water leaking from the ceiling, and a mysterious child keeps popping up on the apartment's security video. All of this adds up to a great payoff at the end, followed by a completely unnecessary postscript. The festival organizers pulled a great stunt before the movie began. Walking into the theater we all received official Dark Water yellow rain slickers and were told to put them on when we sat down. A few folks put on the slickers, but most of the audience played it cool and didn't put them on (does Scotland have air conditioning?) One of the organizers came out to the front of the theater and told everyone to put on the jackets because the sprinkler system was going to be turned on for a publicity photo. Everyone scrambled to get their jackets on before they got drenched, pictures were taken, and then the joke was revealed, they were just kidding, suckers, fooled me.
The Happiness of the Katakuris
This was my first exposure to Japanese madman-genius Miike Takashi. After having read reviews of both Katakuris and some of his sicker stuff like Audition and Ichi, I was really looking forward to the film, a musical/comedy/zombie/claymation flick. A family opens an inn out in the country on speculation that a road will be built nearby bringing lots of foot traffic and money. A few guests arrive and end up dead, prompting the family to bury the corpses in the nearby swamp. The dead rise, volcanoes explode, and the songs keep coming. Filled with some crazy musical and dance numbers, brilliant claymation, and some hilarious performances from the father, son, and deranged US Navy pilot who really steals the show, the Happiness of the Katakuris is an amazing and earnest musical, the Sound of Music meets The Evil Dead.
The Backyard
The Backyard, Paul Hough's documentary on backyard wrestling, is at times disturbing, hilarious, and incredibly sad. Bored kids from California to England have apparently taken it upon themselves to ignite, beat the shit out of each other with barbed wire covered clubs, and throw one another through burning tables to be more like their heroes in the WWF. There is some amazing footage of these kids doing some pretty major damage to one another, including the film's saddest character, the Lizard, who dreams of having his own plastic action figure. Unfortunately, Hough chose to focus on the hilarious and disturbing features, relegating the sad to a brief glimpse into why a pair of brothers in Nevada have taken it upon themselves to turn their backyard into a burning vision of hell. Another scene showing the Lizard's rejection was a highlight, showing the young man's reaction to the death of his dream. I really wanted to know why these kids were doing what they were doing and why their parents were letting them. The movie reminded me of one of those compilation videos that you see advertised after midnight on Fox. Hough had a great subject to probe and I wanted to dig much deeper.
The Trespasser (O Invasor)
From Brazil, Beto Brant's Trespasser is a gritty and griping examination of guilt, greed, corruption, and crime set in Rio's seedy ghetto, whorehouses, glittery bars, and bedrooms. Shot on digital film, Brant's story tells the tale of two businessmen who hire a hitman to kill off their business partner. Ivan has pangs of guilt over the contract, but Giba, who also happens to run a whorehouse, never looks back. The hitman goes a little overboard and ends up shooting their partner as well as his wife. Ivan and Giba get through the funeral and believe that they are home free, until the hitman, Anisio played by Paulo Miklos, shows up unannounced at their construction business office to squeeze more money out of the two men and to help run the business in his own special style. Anisio is a loose canon, taking shit from no man, especially not Ivan, who fears that Anisio will ruin everything. Completely amoral, Anisio is an amazing character, who has risen from the ghetto and takes what he wants. Miklos who looks like Travis Bickle's deranged older brother, shines in his performance, one moment charming, the next a brutal psycho that you would cross the street to avoid. At the end of the movie, everything comes together nicely, and we are left with the message that crime does indeed pay in Brazil if you have enough money to get away with it.
Surprise Movie
When you advertise a surprise movie as a "revelatory experience" and "seeing Pulp Fiction with no idea what it was about, who was in it, or that the guy in the back of the car was going to get his head blown off by Travolta" you better have something to back it up with. Artistic director Shane Danielsen should be taken to court for false advertising, because The Bourne Identity falls far short of being a revelatory experience, and isn't even in the same zip code as Pulp Fiction. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Bourne the first time I saw it back in June, but come on! Pull some strings, get something really cool next year. I was hoping that the movie would be Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, a hometown favorite, but no such luck. Before the movie was unveiled, Danielsen said that he wanted to make up for last year's surprise movie, Planet of the Apes. Bourne kicks Apes up and down the block, but I'm afraid it ain't good enough.
call me Enzo,
