Hey folks, Harry here... I'm really looking forward to checking out a number of these titles. In particular, even though he didn't like it, CSA. And of course I want to see Batman in THE MACHINIST! Batman's on a roll! Here ya go...
Harry,
This is my first e-mail to you, although I'm a longtime reader. I'm just back from the frozen hills of Utah, and I thought I'd let you know what I saw and what I liked. Just call me Grib.
My wife and I saw six films, and five of them were wonderful. The lone exception was "CSA: Confederate States of America," which was awful. We waited three hours to get a waitlist ticket, which made the experience all the more disappointing. Of course the film contained some shockingly racist material, but that was the point, and that wasn't what made it so bad. It fails miserably because it is a satire that is almost entirely devoid of humor. The format, a mock British made-for-TV documentary with commercials and newsbreaks, became tedious almost from the start. It just didn't work. An example: there's an ad for the CSAF, the Confederate States Air Force. It's just like a US Air Force ad, with two letters changed. That's the extent of the imagination that went into the ad. It's just not funny. I think I chuckled maybe three times during the whole film. The audience was not responding to the material. The director and his family were there; I felt bad for them. I would be surprised if this film gets picked up. It is interminable.
Now for the good ones, in order of preference:
1) I LIKE KILLING FLIES: This documentary, shot and edited by Matt Mahurin for $6000, chronicles a year in the life of one of the most truly unique people you'll ever meet on film, New York restaurant owner Kenny Shopsin. Kenny and his wife started a restaurant in a small space with a closet-sized kitchen 35 years ago. Over the years, Kenny has fed his loyal customers 900 dishes of his own creation, including several hundred soups. Through interviews with Kenny, his family and his customers, Mahurin creates a film that is alternately hilarious, dramatic and heartbreaking. Kenny's customers and family become the captive audience for his frequent philosophical and sociological rants, but they and we come to realize that as offensive and confrontational as Kenny can be, his musings contain kernels of truth and insight that help us learn as much about ourselves as we do about him. Kenny obviously suffers from OCD and countless neuroses, but Mahurin manages to get to the heart of what inspires the fierce loyalty that Kenny's family and customers show him. Go see this movie. It is the film of the festival.
(I met Michael Gross, Stephen Keaton from "Family
Ties," at this screening at the Sundance Institute.
He's a wonderful guy.)
THE BEST THIEF IN THE WORLD
2) THE BEST THIEF IN THE WORLD: the first dramatic feature from Jacob Kornbluth ("Happy Accidents"), this film hits you like a punch to the gut that takes your breath away. Set to a pulsing hip-hop score by Prince Paul, "Thief" tells the story of Izzy, an eleven-year-old New Yorker whose parents love him but simply do not have time to attend to his needs. His father (David Warshofsky) has suffered a stroke which has caused partial paralysis and permanent brain damage.
His mother (Mary-Louise Parker) is struggling to cope with the loss of her husband as a lover and wage-earner while at the same time learning to deal with bathing, dressing and feeding him and trying to figure out some way to communicate with him. Izzy, meanwhile, has developed a curious way of asserting some measure of control over his chaotic circumstances: he breaks into people's apartments and rearranges their furniture while they are away (sometimes he leaves obscene messages and takes a shower in their bathroom), knowing that the knowledge that someone took enough time to do this will be more terrifying to the homeowner than a simple burglary.
I
won't give any more away. I'll just say that the film
is a fascinating and harrowing study of the
overwhelming stimuli that bombard our youth, and the
pressures that can pull even the most well-meaning
parent away from her children in their time of need.
The only misstep was a Greek chorus consisting of two
little boys who spout obscene, misogynous rap lyrics
into the camera at several junctures in the film. My
wife found it totally heavy-handed and thought it
should be removed entirely; I found it to be an
effective reminder of how early our society begins
working on the malleable young psyche, but I felt that
the boys should appear only at the beginning and end
and not throughout the film. This is a powerful piece
of work. Kornbluth, Michael Rosenthal, who played
Izzy, and Warshofsky spoke after the screening. I
congratulated Rosenthal (who had no previous acting
experience) on a job well done. This is a powerful
film. Watch for it on Showtime, which funded the
project.
BROTHER TO BROTHER
3) BROTHER TO BROTHER: This debut feature from Rodney
Evans is an effective portrait of modern-day New York
and the city as it was during the Harlem Renaissance.
A young painter meets an old Renaissance poet, who
takes him, via flashback, on a vivid tour of the black
literary and artistic explosion of the thirties. We
meet such luminaries as Langston Hughes and Zora Neale
Hurston as they struggle to make an authentic black
voice heard in a world in which editors wanted to
spice up and dumb down the material to make it
palatable to a white audience. The flashback scenes
are more effective than the modern-day ones, but this
is not to say that the film does not work on both
levels. This is a personal, well-researched film that
does not back down from its material or compromise in
any way. I hope it finds an audience.
THE FIGHT
4) THE FIGHT: This documentary feature by Barak
Goodman chronicles the 1936 and 1938 prize fights
between Joe Louis and German boxer Max Schmeling. Set
against the backdrop of the rise of Nazi Germany, this
film is a gripping portrait of two boxing matches that
transcended the world of sport to take on global
importance. Schmeling dealt the American psyche a
serious blow by pummeling the previously unbeaten and
seemingly invincible Louis into submission in the
first bout. Previously ignored by Germany's
dictatorial government, Schmeling was embraced by
Hitler, Goering and Goebbels as a symbol of Aryan
strength after his victory. Despite his Jewish
heritage, Schmeling basked in the adoration of the
Nazi Party and the German people. The film builds
toward the inevitable rematch, which was captured by
Warner Bros. on a 35mm print that the filmmakers were
able to obtain after an exhaustive search, much to the
film's benefit. This is a remarkable achievement,
made more so by the expert editing job turned in by
Lewis Erskine. "The Fight" is as good as documentary
film gets. Watch for it on PBS's "American
Experience" in the coming year.
THE MACHINIST
5) THE MACHINIST: I was lucky enough to score tickets to the world premiere of this dark thriller in the tradition of "Vertigo" and "Memento." Christian Bale lost 63 pounds to play the emaciated machine operator Trevor Reznik, who hasn't slept in a year. He is rapidly deteriorating both mentally and physically, and the film walks an ever-shifting line between hellish reality and terrifying dreamscape. I can't say any more without giving the plot away, so I will close by encouraging folks who like a taut, challenging thriller to check it out. It's not a perfect film, but the spectacle of Bale's grotesque physical transformation, the haunting imagery, and a Hitchcockian pace and score make this a highly commendable piece of work. Bale's performance is award-worthy. Although he looked fine at the after-screening Q&A, and he's gained the weight back, I can only imagine that this role presented very real risks to his physical and psychological health.
That's it, Harry. There are some good films (hopefully) coming soon to a theater near you.
Grib
