The Vancouver International Film Festival started more than two weeks ago and concluded Friday. “Zack Mosley” saw 65 of the movies screened. That works out to more than four features per day, every day including weekends, for 16 straight days.
Only two films get Zack’s coveted 10 out of 10: Chilean Cristián Jiménez’s “Bonsai” and Michel Hazanavicius’ “The Artist,” featuring supporting turns by John Goodman, Missi Pyle, Malcolm McDowell, James Cromwell, Penelope Ann Miller and Joel Murray.
Greetings, Harry et al, from the 30th Vancouver International Film Festival. You may remember me from last year, when I saw sixty-two films. This year I managed a grand total of sixty-five. An impressive number, I’m told. But work commitments, a cold and general eyeball exhaustion kept me from seeing everything on my list, including new films from Pedro Almodóvar, Béla Tarr and the Dardenne brothers. Whoever programmed a 2.5 Béla Tarr film at 9:30 pm on the 14th day of the festival is a sadist. It would have been my sixth of that day. I'm pretty sure there's something about this in the Geneva Convention.
I'll keep my preamble short and sweet this year, because everything I said last year still applies. Rating films is a purely subjective business, even though critics are usually compelled to declare opinions with objective authority. I've broken each review down to a logline, a personal opinion and a numerical rating. Do not put much stock in that last bit. It's difficult to convey the experience of watching a film in 420 characters or less (I post these reviews as one-off Facebook statii while the festival is running), so a numerical rating helps to quantify how I felt about it.
I found myself in disagreement with many other festivalgoers this year. Maybe my screenwriting efforts have finally turned me into a pedant, I don't know. I do find that I’m able to point to specific dramaturgical issues when I don’t like something, but that doesn’t necessarily make me correct. People loved BULLHEAD and hated KILL LIST. No one was as ecstatic about BONSÁI as I was. I even overheard someone in line proclaiming their enjoyment of LOW LIFE. I heard rave after rave for films I had no interest in seeing. Like I said, it’s all subjective.
Everyone likes lists, so let’s start with a TOP 10:
- THE ARTIST
- BONSÁI
- KILL LIST
- PURE
- MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE
- THIS IS NOT A FILM
- DREILEBEN
- SURVIVING PROGRESS
- TYRANNOSAUR
- GIVE UP TOMORROW
And now, the full reviews, in the order I viewed them:
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1. POR EL CAMINO - An Argentinean banker and a Belgian free spirit travel the Uruguayan countryside. Why are road movies so alluring to first-time directors? Probably because it's an easy narrative framework to hang one's hat on. Despite the journey device (also a journey to self discovery, of course) and a standard boy-meets/loses/reclaims-girl structure, POR EL CAMINO possesses not a jot of dramatic conflict. 5/10
2. ELENA (d: Andrei Zvyagintsev) - A woman takes action to secure a fair share of her ailing second husband's estate, in order to provide for a procreatively irresponsible son from her first marriage. A slow-burn that observes its characters with a clinically detached lack of moral judgment, ELENA didn't quite punch me in the gut like Zvyagintsev's 2003 masterpiece THE RETURN. But that's an awfully high bar. 8/10
3. ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA (d: Nuri Bilge Ceylan) - A murderer leads an entourage of authorities to a body he buried in the Turkish countryside. There's a mystery here, replete with subtle clues, but I doubt it can be solved. There are procedural elements, but no tangible answers once the procedures have been carried out. Cannes darling Ceylan's latest is elusive and vexing, but also mesmerizing. 8/10
4. BLACK BUTTERFLIES (a: Carice van Houten) - A biopic of South African poet Ingrid Jonker, whose life follows the artist's standard downward trajectory, with all the usual trimmings: compulsive sex, substance abuse and mental illness. I've had it bad for van Houten since BLACK BOOK, and she's incredible as Jonker. If only she was incredible in a film that didn't feel like every other artist biopic ever made... 6/10
5. SURVIVING PROGRESS - I'm calling it early: Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. More of a companion piece to Ronald Wright's soon-to-be-prescient "A Short History of Progress" than a direct adaptation, this film places its emphasis on the present instead of the past. And the future? Human progress is basically laying track one step ahead of a moving train, does anyone still doubt the inevitable derailment? 9/10
6. HAPPY PEOPLE: A YEAR IN THE TAIGA (d: Werner Herzog) - Think Dick Proenneke's ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS with Herzog narration and you're getting warm, although warm is the wrong word for this study of life in Siberia. The footage, shot by Russian Dmitry Vasyukov, is an amazing glimpse at a world rarely seen. Herzog's fascination with 'new images' must be the reason for the presence of his master editorial hand. 8/10
7. THE MILL AND THE CROSS (a: Rutger Hauer) - Pieter Bruegel's frieze "The Way to Calvary" is pitched as a cinematic experience. Not unlike the Van Gogh segment of Kurosawa's DREAMS, the film unfolds in a series of painstaking tableaus. Perhaps the most interesting approach to art history I've ever seen, but then again I'm a card-carrying Philistine. Truthfully, I was bored out of my skull. BRUEGEL/10
8. BULLHEAD - (SPOILERS) A Flemish boy has his balls smashed off with a rock and grows up to be a growth hormone addicted cattle worker with a penchant for busting heads. Does that sound tedious and predictable? No? Despite a what-the-fuck premise, BULLHEAD is convoluted and unpleasant. A hulking thug with no balls is a decent idea for a character, but the drama is so po-faced serious that it just ends up silly. 4/10
9. KILL LIST (d: Ben Wheatley) - Two mercenaries turned hit-men take a job that leads them into a sinister world of HOLY SHIT. The director of DOWN TERRACE is back with something bigger, darker, bloodier. KILL LIST somehow balances droll British humor, high tension thrills, and balls out gore. I've never seen anything like it, but it all works beautifully. If you only see one hilarious bloodbath this year... 9/10
10. THE SINGING CITY - A German opera company prepares for an ambitious (and revisionist) production of Wagner's "Parsifal" in this behind-the-scenes documentary. If operas were released on DVD, this would be the type of thing you'd expect to see in the special features. All of the key figures and departments are observed fly-on-the-wall style (no talking heads), providing a raw look at artistic process. 6/10
11. THE SANDMAN - A self absorbed twit begins to leak sand (yes, literally, sand) for no apparent reason, and only the waitress he despises can help him. Airtight high concept comedy structure (think LIAR LIAR) but with a whimsical color-outside-of-the-lines style (think Gondry). Not just sight gags and visual comedy, there's plenty of witty rapport. I can't wait for Hollywood to shit out an uninspired remake. 8/10
12. BUMRUSH - A ragtag crew of meathead bouncers unites to defend a strip club from Haitian gangsters. Not since SEVEN SAMURAI or RIO BRAVO has a film... nah I'm just fuckin with you. This is like a two hour version of a rap album skit, except French Canadian. The cast rolls about 50 deep, headed by John Wayne in an Affliction t-shirt and Montreal's answer to Omar Little. So mal it's actually kinda bon. 5/10
13. PURE - A poor suburb urchin's love of Mozart lucks her into a receptionist job at the Gothenburg symphony, but her stimulating new life begins to spiral out of control. I could stare at Alicia Vikanders for two hours without the whole formality of a movie, but hallelujah, this stunning ingenue can ACT. A smart script pushes her into a tight corner and then busts down the walls for a clever, ironic ending. 9/10
14. WITHOUT - A girl with trouble in her past provides assisted living care for an invalid old man, but strange doings are afoot. Most filmmakers cut scenes that don't advance plot or character from a movie. Whoever made WITHOUT decided to only use these scenes. When a few plot points and revelations are finally meted out, the math doesn't add up. Oh well, at least the pointlessness included full frontal nudity. 4/10
15. MAN WITHOUT A CELL PHONE - A Palestinian's quest for love and marriage is fraught with obstacles, while his father wages a jihad against a newly erected cell phone tower. I probably won't remember anything about this one by the end of the festival. Sketched too lightly to leave much of an impression, this was a time slot filler that was pleasant and easygoing enough, but held few surprises. 5/10
16. PINA (3D) (d. Wim Wenders) - A tribute to legendary dance choreographer Pina, featuring the performances of dancers who knew and loved her. I am so utterly not the target audience for an arty dance movie. I must admit this Pina lady had some creative ideas, and Wenders makes good use of 3D, but I was just there to snag a good seat for the Miike flick. DANCE AIN'T MY THING/10
17. HARAKIRI: DEATH OF A SAMURAI (3D) (d. Takashi Miike) - A desperate samurai's seppuku bluff is called in excessively brutal fashion, prompting his outraged father-in-law to take revenge. A rich, complex study of duty, honor and the absurdity of ritual suicide. So far so good, but Miike opts for a style that even a samurai would find too rigid and formal. Works for the subject, but 13 ASSASSINS was more fun. 7/10
**NOTE: My HARAKIRI rating might go up after a 2D viewing. This movie should not be 3D. It would be better suited to black and white than the third dimension. The photography was dark, murky, and mostly shallow depth of field. Besides that it was my fifth movie of the day, and PINA's 3D had already fried my eyeballs. I ended up taking my glasses off for about half the show.
18. MY PIECE OF THE PIE - A laid off factory worker/single mother takes a job as a maid/nanny/confidante to one of these mustache-twirling villains of finance we keep hearing about. Class conflict ensues. Messy and unfocused, with a third act that crashes off the rails. The standout here is Gilles Lellouche, who swaggers like a French Bobby De Niro but manages some nuance for a character who doesn't deserve any. 6/10
19. THE JEWEL (a. Toni Servillo) - An Italian multinational corporation commits fraud. Man, a lot of films this year are about money. It's almost as if people are having financial issues these days, or something. THE JEWEL's portrait of a crafty CFO's attempts to keep his increasingly dubious company's shit together is an argument for fraudulence as the modern corporation's natural state of being. 7/10
20. RESTORATION - A struggling furniture restoration specialist is given a chance to restore his soul when his apprentice finds a priceless but damaged Steinway piano in the back of the shop. This is a quiet character piece, and the characters feel layered and genuine. But the central metaphor in this Israeli drama is a bit too pat. On-the-nose, even. Must... resist... joke... about... Jewish... noses... 7/10
21. FOOTNOTE - Father and son Talmudic scholars are placed in uncomfortable opposition when a clerical error causes the wrong philolog to be notified of a prestigious award. Sharp writing and direction keep FOOTNOTE entertaining, but I think someone forgot to attach the final reel. 103 minutes of set up is paid off with a smash to black. Oy gevalt, if you're going to leave me hanging, at least make a point. 7/10
22. INNOCENCE (d. Jan Hrebejk) - A 14-year-old girl accuses her doctor of sexual abuse. But is she a compulsive liar with a crush, or is there more to the family man than meets the eye? This did-he-or-didn't-he dynamic is aces, but in what seems like a trend of the day, the third act drops the ball. I'm not even sure what happened to the ball, a big exposition-dump came out of left field and ran away with it. 7/10
23. THE SALT OF LIFE - A retired Italian man prowls Rome for a young mistress in an attempt to sow some stale oats. It's gotten to the point that it's refreshing to see a film festival flick portray an older European gentleman as something other than instant panty remover. This is kind of like a highbrow version of SUPERBAD or AMERICAN PIE. Light, amusing, and charming in that specifically Italian way. 7/10
24. PLAY - Five black kids intimidate two white kids and an Asian into giving up their cell phones/valuables over the course of an afternoon. That's it. No reversals, no twists, just the most prolonged mugging I've ever seen, lensed entirely in long takes and wide shots. I tried to figure out if anything is being said on a symbolic/allegorical level, but all I came up with is offensive clichés. Dull dull dull. 4/10
25. LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE (d. Johnnie To) - Several characters with financial problems get dirty when the East Asian stock market shits the bed. I can't quite put my finger on what's wrong with this, but it's a mess. Disparate plot threads intertwine in meandering and ultimately meaningless ways. The characters are unsympathetic, and unlike victims of the real life crash they all walk away clean. 4/10
26. TASTE THE WASTE - A globe-trotting documentary about the truly shocking amount of perfectly good food that is thrown in the trash for bullshit reasons. Unlike, say, SURVIVING PROGRESS, this problem has easy solutions that we're too lazy and stupid to implement. The filmmaking is competent, but competent may not be sensational enough for this type of preaching to be heard beyond the choir. 7/10
27. THE SWORD IDENTITY - A master swordsman arrives in a village of martial artists, and knocks a whole bunch of dudes out to prove his style. Sort of. There's no way to reduce this thing down to one sentence without taking a few editorial liberties. At first I was digging the wuxia, as it's impeccably stylized. But from one wacky, bloodless episode to the next (no deaths, many concussions) the story lost me. 6/10
28. TAKE THIS WALTZ (d. Sarah Polley) - Michelle Williams has a highly compatible baby-talk and tickling type of marriage with Seth Rogen, but greener grass Luke Kirby shows up with his skinniness and his artful stubble and his rickshaw. The central theme of "all new things become old" feels like genuine sentiment, but Polley smothers emotional truth with indie quirk. Not as poignant or assured as AWAY FROM HER. 7/10
29. HEADSHOT - An honest cop is framed for murder, goes to jail, becomes a hit-man, becomes a monk, gets involved with dangerous women, is shot in the head, survives a coma, sees the world upside-down. Not necessarily in that order. A convoluted, non-linear plot could use some Buddhist discipline and simplicity, but there's a lot to like about this Thai neo-noir. The hard-boiled lead has the right amount of grit. 7/10
30. TARGET - Six Russians stop aging after they visit an astrophysics compound, nonsense ensues. I love Eastern European sci-fi. This is no SOLARIS, nor is it an O-BI O-BA or a KIN-DZA-DZA or an UGLY SWANS. People will call it cerebral, but it's all empty obfuscation. Bloated, pretentious, and utterly devoid of anything resembling a "story". Looks expensive. Wish they made a Lem adaptation or two instead. 4/10
31. STARBUCK - A prolific sperm donor/perpetual manchild discovers via class action lawsuit that he is the father of 533 (adult) children. A comedy crowd-pleaser that hits all the right notes. High concept, textbook character arc, and just enough of its own Montreal personality to sidestep the pitfalls of a high concept and a textbook character arc. Paging Ben Stiller for the Hollywood remake. 8/10
32. SLEEPING BEAUTY (a. Emily Browning) - A beautiful girl is drugged and fondled by dirty old men for a living. A situation looking for a story. Attempts a sort of Kubrickian off-kilter approach to the dialogue and staging, but elicited a lot of confused laughter from the crowd. Poor Emily Browning spends most of this movie butt naked. My 12-year-old self would have stayed up late to watch this on Showcase. 5/10
33. JOURNEY ON THE WILD COAST - A newlywed couple spends a year hiking, paddling and skiing 6,500km up the Northwest coast, from Seattle to Cold Bay (I think?) Alaska. Similar to some friends showing you their vacation videos, except in this case their vacation was amazing. These hippies are nuts. The filmmaking is as amateur as you'd expect, but the scenery is as beautiful as you'd expect. It evens out. 7/10
34. KORAN BY HEART - Young Muslims compete to recite memorized passages from the Koran in this documentary. Some of these little whippersnappers don't even speak Arabic! They've just spent their entire education committing a 600-some-odd page book to memory, phonetically. If you're a Koran enthusiast or love seeing prodigious children in action, you might get something out of this. It was a gap filler for me. 6/10
35. THIS IS NOT A FILM -`When the Iranian government slaps a 20-year filmmaking ban on director Jafar Panahi, he decides to document himself not making a film. This is the film that he didn't make. In political context, a brilliant fuck you. I wasn't exactly entertained while watching it, but with reflection it's grown more playful, complex and intellectually satisfying. I almost wonder if the ending is staged. 9/10
36. INNI - A concert film featuring Icelandic spellbinders Sigur Rós. Includes some rare early candid footage of the band in between songs. If you're a fan, Bob's your uncle. I like Sigur Rós, I might give loving them a try after this. The footage is intimate and close, shot in a smoky, luminescent black and white that pairs nicely with the dreamy emotion of the music. An art film for an art band. 8/10
37. THERE ONCE WAS AN ISLAND - The Mortlock Islands of Papua New Guinea and the 1000-year-old culture they sustain are vanishing under the rising tides of global warming. A tiny plea for massive change that won't be heard in time. Even my withered black heart was touched as paradise sinks and the natives battle inevitable doom. But it's not all heavy message, cinematography and editing are a cut above most docs. 8/10
*38-40. DREILEBEN - A triptych of films from the "Berlin School". Each revolves around a manhunt for an escaped murderer hiding in the woods, each from a different but concurrent perspective. The individual threads don't give a total account of events, so the overarching theme becomes the narrowness of POV. The esoteric details of the case are left to the viewer, a puzzle with both missing and extra pieces.
38. DREILEBEN: BEATS BEING DEAD (d. Christian Petzold) - A hospital intern falls for the type of girl you shouldn't fall for, and spends a lot of time in the woods with her, despite the killer on the loose. The investigation is all background chatter in this first installment. Our leads and their non-starter relationship would seem to have little to do with the big picture, were it not for a lurking threat... 9/10
39. DREILEBEN: DON'T FOLLOW ME AROUND (d. Dominik Graf) - A criminal psychologist joins the manhunt, but a reunion with an old friend dredges up messy personal history. This installment is the closest thing to police procedural, and the mystery seems resolved when it's over. But again the case elements are backburnered. A more personal investigation dominates our lead's attention, and thus the narrative. 9/10
40. DREILEBEN: ONE MINUTE OF DARKNESS (d. Christoph Hochhäusler) - A murderer escapes captivity and takes refuge in the woods, but turns out to be more sympathetic than the frothing psychopath we're expecting. Meanwhile a detective uncovers new details about the case that led to his original conviction. By now we know and dread the ending, leaving only the strange odyssey of a psychologically broken fugitive. 9/10
41. THE FAIRY - The night porter of a Le Havre hotel falls in love with a fairy/crazy lady, Chaplinesque physical comedy ensues. This is like a live-action cartoon, or a silent talkie. Whatever that means. It's hard to tell how this would play alone at home, but I can tell you it's gangbusters in an auditorium with 500 other people. This French gem had me laughing harder than any other movie I've seen this year. 8/10
42. BONSÁI - A Chilean writer reflects on the demise of a beautiful but mistake-riddled first relationship as he pens a beautiful but mistake-riddled first novel. Struck an eerily personal chord with me, but that's none of your business. It would be easy for a tale of melancholic intellectuals to get bogged down in self indulgence, but BONSÁI is one of the most nakedly real films about love that I've ever seen. 10/10
43. LE HAVRE (d. Aki Kaurismäki) - A French shoe-shine shelters an African refugee, but a nosy inspector is on the prowl. I think what happened is that Le Havre cleaned up most of the magical business from THE FAIRY, but like Normandy sand it gets in everything, so some of it leaked into this movie. Warm and colorful, with a rich cast of characters and a heart on its sleeve. But a bit twee for my tastes. 7/10
44. POLICEMAN - The badass leader of an Israeli counter-terrorist team awaits the birth of a child, while a naive group of Jewish terrorists (not a typo) plans an attack against economic oppressors. The structure is unusual: we see one plot, then the other, then they're smashed together. I want to see a version where they're intercut à la HEAT or AMERICAN GANGSTER, but somehow the binary structure worked for me. 8/10
45. TRASH (d. Benoît Pilon) - When his son is pricked by a discarded needle, a garbage man takes it upon himself to rescue a random hooker from drugs. Huh? Kind of a disconnect there, no? I can't care for a guy who always makes the stupidest decisions possible. Think of your kids, tell your wife, don't snort that, etc. A dud on the heels of THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE, perhaps because Pilon wrote the script this time. 6/10
46. IN DARKNESS (d. Agnieszka Holland) - A Polish sewer worker hides a group of Jews from Nazi persecution in the sewers under the Lvov ghetto. A relentlessly bleak 2.5 hours, and a taxing experience. But how can I fault a Holocaust film for being too grim? The form matches the content, and Holland does play that one note really, really well. It's no surprise that this is up for Academy Award consideration. 8/10
47. THE COLOR WHEEL - Snarky siblings hash out their issues during an uncomfortable road trip. Consists mostly of HIS GIRL FRIDAY-speed dialogue that seems improvised and overwritten all at once. Funny in spurts, but the laughs are derived from ugly characters being ruthlessly mean to each other. The ending is daring, I suppose. The filmmaking is sub-CLERKS point-and-shoot. For mumblecore acolytes only. 6/10
48. SISTERS & BROTHERS (d. Carl Bessai) - Four groups of siblings fall out then make up. This film doesn't need a blurb, it needs an essay on the state of the Canadian film industry. I liked Bessai's mild, safe, lightly-sketched sensibility enough to rate FATHERS & SONS 8/10 last year. This year I'm wondering why I'm even rationalizing a soft pass for this sort of ephemera. We can do better. CANADIAN FILM EH/10
49. LOW LIFE - Bourgeois and immigrant fuckwits under the mistaken impression that they're poets shuffle around like Rohypnol addicts spouting vacuous purple prose at each other. A TV left on white noise has more to say. Constant ambient droning on the soundtrack made me feel like I was stuck in a coma. Pull this movie's plug already. I dislike using the word pretentious but this film is Rated P. Insufferable. 2/10
50. 40 DAYS AT BASE CAMP - Mountaineers acclimate at the Mount Everest base camp(s) before tackling the summit in this nuts-and-bolts documentary. A variety of Everest-related topics are covered, including abandoned corpses and garbage disposal. For the denizens of one of the most extreme environments on the planet, these people seem pretty normal. Herzog would have sussed out the weirdoes. 6/10
51. MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE (a. John Hawkes) - A young girl escapes a dangerous cult, but cannot escape the memory of the painful trauma she endured there. A psychological thriller that realistically portrays how these groups tick. Two timelines are seamlessly intercut, a blend that reflects the broken, paranoid mind of the lead. Youngest Olsen sister Elizabeth acts circles around the twins. 9/10
52. THE GREEN WAVE - A documentary about the 2009-2010 Iranian presidential election protests. Includes animated adaptations of blogs and twitters from Iranian protesters in the thick of it. This subject is a total outrage, so any exposure for it is a good thing. But it's the subject that works me up, not this film. The animated segments are much clumsier than their obvious inspiration, WALTZ WITH BASHIR. 6/10
53. EL BULLI: COOKING IN PROGRESS - Spanish restaurant El Bulli shuts down for six months to test strange molecular gastronomy concoctions for the next year's menu. Mad scientists make edible art, not "food". Personally I'd need a burger afterwards. Oil and water just doesn't eat like a meal. But that's not the point, wow factor, etc. I'm a recovering Food Networkaholic with no cable TV, so this hit the spot. 7/10
54. ROADIE (a. Ron Eldard) - Fired by Blue Öyster Cult, an aging roadie returns to the Queens neighborhood where he grew up. Tonally confused. How could the concept play as anything but a comedy? But for some reason this is mostly a depressing drama about a pathetic loser who doesn't arc. Why is so much screen time devoted to making a sandwich? Is the incomplete sandwich a metaphor for this sad sack's life? 5/10
55. THE GIRLS IN THE BAND - A history of female jazz musicians, their unrecognized influence on the genre and their perennial battle with male chauvinism. Slow pan-and-zooms across still photographs, archival performance footage, talking heads... yes ma'am, it's a documentary! I learned, I laughed, I liked the music. A surprising amount of these gals are still alive, now adorable little old ladies. 6/10
56. TYRANNOSAUR (d. Paddy Considine) - A raging drunk and an abused woman find unlikely salvation in each other. Blake Snyder suggested a protagonist should save a cat (ie. do a good deed), to win over the audience. Our hero kicks his dog to death in the first scene of TYRANNOSAUR, yet I felt for him by the end. Credit Peter Mullan and the map of pain on his face. Considine's feature debut is remarkably assured. 8/10
57. GIVE UP TOMORROW - Paco Larrañaga has been in jail since 1997, charged with rape and murder. This documentary presents the indisputable case for his innocence, and the outrageous miscarriage of justice that put him on death row. Almost DEAR ZACHARY-level sad. Mother of the victims Thelma Chiong is a Philippino supervillain. There is hope that this passionate doc will finally THIN BLUE LINE Paco out of jail. 8/10
58. PASSIONFLOWER - A prepubescent girl watches her mentally unstable, sexually volatile (by early 60s standards) mother behave badly, and acts out in response. This Canadian indie is just dull. It's not poorly acted, poorly shot, or even poorly conceived. It covers similar ground to some of the Betty/Sally Draper stuff in MAD MEN. It's just dull, a character piece with no compelling reason to exist. 5/10
59. FLIRTING WITH HEIGHTS - A nature documentary by Jean-Michel Bertrand, who spent four years in the Swiss Alps patiently capturing never-before-seen footage of rare wildlife. The photography in this film is jaw-dropping. You have to love this guy. It's not enough to film something no one has ever filmed before, he also has the temerity to do it at magic hour. Poetic narration provides a nice personal touch. 8/10
60. WE CAN'T GO HOME AGAIN (d. Nicholas Ray) - The director of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE gives filmmaking equipment to inept hippies and edits their footage together in an experimental montage. This film was actually completed in 1972, but has been restored and re-released in 2011. They should have left it alone. A handful of critics will declare brilliance, everyone else will wonder which circle of Hell they're in. 3/10
61. THE ARTIST - A silent film star must adapt to the arrival of the talkie. THE ARTIST is silent, black and white, and perfectly executed from its opening titles to its revelatory last word. So convincing and authentic that only its utter polish betrays the feeling of watching a lost classic. This is what movies are all about, a delirious love letter to the past that gives me hope for the future of cinema. 10/10
62. ALPS (d. Giorgos Lanthimos) - A nurse, a paramedic, a gymnast and a coach pretend to be dead people to comfort the grieving. I had to look this logline up because I had no idea what this movie was about. I'm baffled by the love for this DOGTOOTH guy and his arbitrary weirdness, to tell the truth. It's all just random absurdity to me. Aside from his command of style, what is Lanthimos getting at? Anyone? 6/10
63. BLACK BREAD - A young boy witnesses a brutal murder at the hands of a cloaked, possibly supernatural figure, but in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War his father is accused of the crime. Has all the hallmarks of a Guillermo Del Toro film, but the story is a bit diffuse to sustain the tone set by the violent opening scene. With all the fantasy, folklore, secrets and lies I lost track of the mystery. 7/10
64. LETTERS FROM THE BIG MAN (a. Bigfoot) - A forestry service worker is watched by a shy, environmentally conscious Sasquatch. Maybe I would have liked this new age sleep-aid better had I worn yoga pants and balanced my chi before the screening. Cheap, amateurish, boring as all get out. The Sasquatch creature effects are actually quite decent, but I can't really watch a movie if my eyes won't stop rolling. 4/10
65. SUNFLOWER HOUR - Four wildly inappropriate hopefuls audition for a spot on children's puppet show The Sunflower Hour. Full disclosure: I personally know a bunch of people involved in this movie, so for the sake of integrity I'm avoiding a verdict and striving for objectivity. It's a mockumentary. The humor is mostly lowbrow. The filmmakers clearly love their characters. The milk gag is pretty funny. POKER FACE/10
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And that’s it! Another successful year at the Vancouver International Film Festival. 2011 has been a bit of a slow year at the cinema, aside from THE TREE OF LIFE, DRIVE and CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS nothing has really gotten me too excited. But now I have several films to add to that list, and awards season to look forward to.
If you use this, call me Zack Mosley. I feel silly using an alias this year.
