Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Oh, my god, I’m tired and it’s late, and I’m still putting these reports together. Still, I can’t go to bed yet. There’s too much good stuff here, and I want to put it all up for you. Like this report from the San Francisco Indiefest...
Hi Harry,
Long time reader, first time writer, blah blah blah. Hmmm...what other cliches am I supposed to put in here. Aw, screw it, let's get to the movies and I'll save the cliches for the end.
Okay, just to set this up, last night (Thursday, February 5th, 2004) was the opening night of the 6th annual San Francisco Independent Film Festival (aka Indiefest). It's a great festival--small enough to see everything, but large enough to make that task entirely non-trivial. And it consistently has the best lineup of any festival I've attended. The schedule is online as www.sfindie.com. Anyway, this is my third year in a row seeing all the films at indiefest. The past two years, I just documented the films for my family and close friends, but this year I thought maybe you'd be interested, too. So here's my opening night report. If you post it, I'll keep sending more. Otherwise, I won't clutter your inbox with anything more.
Anyway, enough yakking, on to the movies!
The opening film was "Break a Leg". It's a pretty good comedy about a struggling young actor named Max Matteo (John Cassini) who's having trouble getting the much-needed break. He's definitely talented, and always seems to be the second choice for the role. After an audition, he learns that although the director preferred him, the producers are going to go with a better known TV star, rather than "build a cast" around him (I won't give it away, but how he learns this is one of the funnier scenes in the movie and the point where I went from 'this is kind of amusing' to 'this is damn cool!'). Anyway, he's had enough, so he decides to go all Gillooly on his competitor, inspired by his friend (Jennifer Beals), who was offered a part in a big budget movie but lost it when her foot was broken (freak accident--she was run over by a unicycle). He just plans to take a baseball bat to the guy's leg, but wacky hijinx ensue and he ends up accidentally killing the guy. But at least he's got his break. Well, the rest plays out as a hybrid comedy/police thriller, with a great cameo by Eric Roberts as a bankable star fresh out of rehab that Max just has to shove down a stairwell.
Afterwards, the director (Monika Mitchell), and several of the stars--John Cassini, his brother Frank Cassini, Jennifer Beals, Rene Rivera (who plays a detective who goes undercover as an actor to track Max down), and Barry Primus (who plays Max's agent, Ira Goldstein) were there for a brief Q&A. The most interesting fact is that they are currently working on a deal for distribution, so this might be coming to theaters soon.
The other movie of the night was "A Revengers Tragedy", directed by Alex Cox ("Repo Man", now there's a movie I haven't seen in a long while) and based on the play by Thomas Middleton (for those of you, like me, who aren't literature buffs, he's a contemporary of Shakespeare). It's one of those movies where they use the original dialogue, but transplant it to a different time period (a la Baz Luhrman's "Romeo + Juliet"). In this case, modern(-ish) England(-ish). It's maybe better to think of it as an alternate universe, but it can definitely be described as "punk". Anyway, you have to put up with the archaic verse, and the sometimes difficult accents. But if and when you get past that, the story is bloody good fun.
Christopher Eccleston plays Vindici (literally, the Revenger, and I presume a pseudonym), returning to town after an unknown period of time. The opening shot sets the tone perfectly. A bus rolls slowly into town, vears off the road, crashes to a stop. We discover that everyone on the bus, including the driver is dead, except for Vindici. It's never explained how or why they're all dead, and if Vindici did it or if it's some malice on the part of the Duke (who is the soon-to-be-revealed villain). Vindici walks through town, and is accosted by a gang of punk kids. He kicks the crap out of them. We know immediately a) he's a survivor, and b) he's an ass-kicker. We find out soon enough that he is back solely for revenge. You see, the Duke (Derek Jacobi) lusted after Vindici's bride. When she refused his advances, he poisoned the entire wedding party (the Duke, conveniently, runs a catering service). We also find out that the Duke's eldest son (Eddie Izzard, in a fabulous role!) has a similarly lusty nature, and his target turns out to be Vindici's sister. More plot twists and general wackiness ensue, including murder, fratricide (best line: "It's of no benefit to kill a YOUNGER brother!"), incest, and necrophilia. And it's all gorgeously shot, and the only thing more flamboyant than the acting is the make-up. Even when you can't understand the dialogue, the sheer perverse over-the-topness keeps it from ever getting dull. Because it's the Revengers Tragedy, the end is never really in doubt. There are rules to tragedy after all. But, without giving anything away, I'll just mention that by ending the movie five minutes early it could very, very easily become the Revenger's Comedy. And I liked that. The Tragedy part felt tacked on, obligatory, and untrue, a false denial of the bloody good fun the audience enjoyed (or endured) for the previous two hours. Or maybe that's just me. Maybe I'm just a sicko.
And that's that. I went to the after party for a bit and had a little free Sierra Nevada (Indiefest has sponsors, but they're mostly alcoholic beverage companies who instead of giving money give free or discount booze for their parties) and hung out with the festival staffers. It was allgood.
Okay, tonight I've got 4 films, then 6 on Saturday and 5 more Sunday. If I don't have time to write you before then, there will be a nice big update on Monday.
Oh, and now back to the cliches a first time poster is supposed to add. I guess I'm supposed to say something about why I never wrote you before. Well, quite honestly I don't think my reviews are very interesting. I'm not very discriminating, and I simply like movies way too much. If at all possible, I will talk about what I liked about a movie, and gloss over or ignore what I didn't like. It's very hard for me to write a negative review. Even though I liked these movies, it's entirely possible nobody else will (actually with these ones, I honestly think that's impossible). As such, I don't think I'm useful as a reviewer (hmmm...maybe I should have put that before my reviews.... Sorry). But what changed my mind was the thought that maybe I'll clue you or your readers in on an undiscovered movie. So don't think of me as a critic. My greatest use is not in telling you if a movie's good or bad, but in telling you that a movie exists.
If you use this, go ahead and use my real name.
--Jason Wiener
Don’t be so hard on yourself, Jason. We’re a fairly democratic outfit. We’re glad to have your voice chime in on these particular films, and I appreciate you taking the time to write.
"Moriarty" out.
