Father Geek here with a report from the heartland, Minn./St. Paul, home of the Vikings and a very large group of regular BUTT-NUMB-A-THON attendees... well, they've got their own Film Fest going on right now annnnnd here's our 1st report from it. Looks like loads of fun film watching is in store for our friends up on the Canadian border...
Hey, Mr. E here, a Twin Cities boy volunteering for the 22nd annual MSPIFF. Just thought I'd send in a brief report since it's not likely you'll get any other coverage on this one. The films are scattered about both cities at various venues, so it's literally impossible to see more than half of them, but I managed to squeeze in four good ones today:
A TALKING PICTURE - the latest film by 96-year-old(!) writer/director Manoel de Oliveira stars John Malkovich, Catherine Deneuve and Irene Pappas, all speaking their native tongues and conversing on memory, history and language, among other things. The first half of the film follows Rosa Maria, a beautiful history teacher taking her daughter Joana on a cruise to Bombay to meet her father, an airline pilot. Along the way, they stop and see some of the most beautiful sites in the history of Western civilization: Marseilles, Pompeii, Athens, the Persian Gulf, etc., and Rosa Maria relates the legends surrounding these mystical places. The second half of the film brings the pair aboard a ship captained by Malkovich, who introduces them to Deneuve, Pappas and Stefania Sandrelli.
The film is a litlle tedious at times, but overall, interesting in a My Dinner With Andre sort of way, with an absolutely chilling surprise ending that hits like a sledgehammer - a very unexpected thing in such a talky movie.
3 1/2 out of 5.
WILBUR WANTS TO KILL HIMSELF - a wonderfully bittersweet film by Danish director Lone Scherfig (Italian For Beginners), this is the story of Wilbur (played by newcomer Jamie Sives), a perpetually suicidal young man who is continually rescued by his congenial older brother Harbour (Adrian Rawlins) and Alice (Shirley Henderson), a single mother who frequents the bookstore owned by Harbour. Harbour falls in love with Alice and marries her; unfortunately, a strong attraction also develops between Alice and Wilbur, who continues to contemplate suicide apparently whenever he gets momentarily bored.
Despite the subject matter, this film is often hilarious (especially in a children's birthday party scene involving vomit), and even when it takes a sad turn toward the end of the second act, it is never depressing or pessimistic. The film is well-written, beautifully photographed and has an ebullient air of vitality to it. the three lead actors are all excellent as well.
4 out of 5.
THE CORPORATION - definitely the most socially important film I've seen this year, this documentary is incredibly informative, thorough and, most surprisingly, utterly entertaining. I first missed the opportunity to see this in January at the Freedom Film Festival in Park City, Utah and I must say I'm glad I finally caught it. Co-directors Mark Achbar (who was present at the screening) and Jennifer Abbott (who also edited the film) brilliantly document the history and impact of the corporation both nationally and globally with ingenius narration reminiscent of the mechanical female voice-overs from "The Second Renaissance" shorts in The Animatrix, clever analyses of how a corporation works from the viewpoint of a psycho analyst and insightful interviews with the likes of Noam Chomsky, Harold Zinn and Michael Moore, whose documentaries were clearly an inspiration for the makers of this film.
I strongly recommend that everyone in America see this film. Achbar revealed in the post-film Q&A session that it does have a distributor and will be out soon. Don't miss it.
5 out of 5.
UNDEAD - a close tie for my favorite film of the day, along with The Corporation, this would also probably tie with Dead Alive as the most creative and unique zombie movie I've ever seen. Written, produced, edited, directed, etc., etc., by Michael and Peter Spierig, this film certainly has a similar style and feel to those of Peter Jackson's early masterpiece, but it also has the aura of a good old-fashioned '50s space invader movie. A series of meteorites fall from the sky, turning the citizens of the quaint Australian township of Berkely into flesh-hungry zombies. But there is something deeper going on here than an ordinary, everyday plague of zombies.
The gore and speciall effects in this film are extremely well-done (better, in my opinion, than the average big-budget FX extravaganza - Star Wars Episode I and II, for example), the lead hero and heroine (Mungo McKay and Felicity Mason) are absolutely badass, and, as I said before, the story is as creative as you could hope for in a zombie/space invader flick. A very, very fun movie.
5 out of 5.
Coming up in the next two weeks I will be seeing, among others, "Harvie Krumpet"; "The Red Jacket"; Saved!, starring Macauley Culkin and Jena Malone; MC5: A True Testimonial; "Living Dead Girl", starring Mark Borchardt of American Movie; Perfect Strangers, starring Sam Neill; and Beat Takehi's Zatoichi!!! Expect reviews of all these and more.
Mr. E
