From The Vancouver International Film Festival, We've Got Reviews For BALLAST and THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE WEIRD!

Beaks here...

Oh goodie! Someone else has seen, and loved, THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE WEIRD! Moriarty hasn't shut up about this thing since returning from Fantastic Fest, and his unbridled enthusiasm, while admirable, makes me want to dropkick him back to Austin. This is now equally as annoying as listening to friends rave about LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. The below reader also took in Lance Hammer's BALLAST (check out the trailer here), which impressed some very discernin' folk at Sundance this year. It's currently playing at the Film Forum in NYC, and will open in Los Angeles on October 17th. I shamefully missed the screenings for this, but I plan to catch up with it soon.

Hello from British Columbia! I just got back from a couple screenings at the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF…like TIFF, only not as well-known). A friend and I attended the Canadian premiere of Lance Hammer’s Ballast, as well as a sold-out screening of The Good, The Bad, and the Weird. I know a lot of coverage has been given to GBW here recently, so I’ll save my thoughts on that until after I’ve talked about Ballast. Straight up, Ballast is an excellent film, and easily one of the best that I’ve seen all year. It’s being hailed as part of the “New American Realism” movement, which focuses on small, personal stories told with elements similar to the Dogme movement such as natural lighting and hand held camera work. Part of what makes Ballast such an involving and powerful film is the fact that it makes you forget that you are watching an invented story. I hesitate to summarize the plot, because I’m still not sure that there was an actual “plot.” Events happened, characters grew and changed, relationships were forged, and it all felt so incredibly real and organic, that I’m finding it almost impossible to think of it as an actual written plot. Basically what happens is, a man commits suicide, and the rest of the film is about how his family -- his teenage son, his ex-wife, and his brother -- deal with the fallout. That’s it, in a nutshell. But what unravels before the viewer is an experience that doesn’t happen often in films these days. The screen becomes a window into the lives of these people. What unfolds never once feels plotted, planned, or contrived. It feels like a natural evolution of the lives we see before us. The last time I had this sense while watching a film was Children of Men, or After The Wedding. The world in which the people (I hesitate to say characters, because the non-actor cast inhabits their roles with such authenticity) live is brought to life in such intimate detail, that it feels like it exists just beyond the screen. Lance Hammer won the directing award at Sundance with this film, and it is well deserved. His sense of place and his dedication to capturing the complete feeling of the film’s setting, the Mississippi Delta region, is a huge boon to the film. His use of non-actors from the region, lends true authenticity to his story. Hammer was present at the VIFF screening and revealed that a good deal of the film was improvised and enhanced by the natural character of his cast and their knowledge of their world. The editing is carefully and artfully implemented to give full attention to the actors and their extraordinary work. The camera work is almost entirely hand held, which ably captures the raw, realistic improvisational work. It finds images of stark beauty out of ordinary situations (the cinematography was also awarded at Sundance). Special mention must be given to the sound design, which plays a large role in capturing the feel of the Mississippi Delta. The pattering rain, the old car engines, the gently breathing dog, the cloud of sea gulls -- the soundtrack is dominated by ambient noise, and features absolutely no music of any kind (except for the ambient tunes of a bar). It is an inspired choice and one that completely immerses the viewer into the film’s world. Overall, this is an extraordinary first film, the kind that ought to turn heads. And while I wouldn’t say it is an instant classic (the ending was a bit too abrupt, and it takes a while to connect with the characters), it is certainly worth seeing. Rarely have I ever felt so immersed in a film’s world, and invested in the simple day-to-day lives of its characters. As a study of rural American life, it reminded me of the recent Shotgun Stories; the two would go well together as a double bill. I suspect this will generate some more buzz once it gets a wider release, and I look forward to Lance Hammer’s future work. If this comes to a theater near you, do yourself a favor and seek out this gritty and poetic experience. The other film of the night was The Good, The Bad, and the Weird. Obviously, it’s been talked about quite a bit on AICN recently, so I’ll just throw in my two cents and agree with the majority consensus: this is a fun, fantastic, simply joyful work of film. It strides a careful line of homage and originality, tipping its hat to Leone while engineering brilliant new situations of its own. The sold-out crowd in Vancouver enjoyed every last second, and applauded wildy at several points throughout the film. I’m trying to think of favourite moments, but the whole experience just meshes into one feverish kinetic dream. The Weird, played by Kang-ho Song, is a delightful character of wit, charm, deadly skill, and idiocy. The Good (Woo-sung Jung) is an Eastwoodian badass of the highest order. The Bad (Byung-hun Lee) is a great villain, a killer who could give the Joker a run for his money. All three would make great characters on their own, but thrown together, their interactions make for sublime entertainment. Each of the main three have their own specific look and style that oozes cool, quirkiness, and danger with every frame. This is one of the best action films of the year. It is kinetics as high art, action filmmaking jazzed up and taken to a level of excitement unachieved by many Hollywood blockbusters. To that end, the stunts are unbelievably skilled and dangerous-looking. I’ll be seeing a documentary at VIFF later next week called Action Boys, which takes a look at the Korean film industry’s stunt men, specifically those who worked on this film and other great films like The Host. I’m looking forward to seeing the work put into this instant classic. Long story short, I loved GBW, and according to the pleasured sounds of the audience around me, a lot of other people loved it too. It’s worth the steadily growing hype. Ji-woon Kim’s vision is worth a look, or ten. I can’t wait to see it again. If you use this, call me Crunchy Canuck Nathan Douglas http://filmatical.wordpress.com/ https://www.youtube.com/stoneridgefilms