Well here's more on SXSW from Eateneye this time... Father Geek and Harry are off now to takein some more flicks...
THE NAVEL
This is a small Russian film made in the Dogme-95 style. It's about a man who can't find wealth in the city so he moves to the country with his uncle in search of happiness. This movie is very bad. Nothing happens. It felt like the longest 80 minute movie ever. The characters and plot do not develop. In fact, the character and plot do not do anything. It's boring, don't even think of seeing it.
CAMURA OBSCURA
This is a great idea that got muddled. This is a story of a photographer who is forced to get a job taking crime scene photos because he needs the money. However, taking pictures of the dead bodies makes him go crazy, he begins to believe that he can make the bodies live by filming them in lively positions. Technically speaking, this film is great. The lighting is sharp and moody. The filming is close and well executed. The editing makes even a camera shooting seem intense. The plot and acting are where the movie fails. Despite the interesting above mentioned premise, it's not what the film ends up being about. Instead, this film is about dirty cops and how the photographer is abusing his wife. It's almost as if more than one writer wrote this script, but the writers wrote different scripts and someone pieced them together. It's part drama, part thriller, and part action. But together it doesn't work. The main actor is not very good and his wife is only pretty good. The only real saving grace was the bad guy. He was so original that it's a shame he was wasted in this movie.
HAMLET
ROMEO AND JULIET was a great movie and I love it, but I also hate it for the Shakespeare movie it has spawned. HAMLET the latest Shakespearean adaptation should never have happened. It stars Ethan Hawke as Hamlet and that's where the problems begin. Ethan Hawke plays his character with a constant whispered vengeance. It's dreadful. I'm not sure if the other characters simply followed suit or if this was a directorial choice, but all of the characters talk the same way. I wanted to scrape my eye and ears out. Even Bill Murray was awful. Not only that, but it's obviously a very small production. They could not afford blasting caps for when someone gets shot. They could not afford to make a bullet hole in glass. They did not use a crane for the film. This movie should never have been made.
THE WILGUS STORIES
This was a very sweet trio of stories about a farm boy named Wilgus. All three of them happen. The stories are very short. The whole thing only lasts an hour. They aren't so much about Wilgus as they are about the other characters in the story. Each story is just him talking to another character. Most of the conversation is just about that other character. I don't have any real problem with this except that it makes Wilgus the weakest of the characters. The whole thing is nice though. Kind of chicken soup for the soul. It's a good change from the standard SXSW movies.
LOVING JEZEBEL
This movie won the Audience Award for best narrative and I can sort of see why, but it doesn't deserve it. It's a romance about a guy who always falls for girls who are married or dating. There are a lot of fabulous looking women and a few funny moments, but it's just trite fun in the end. Kind of like a one night stand. Love 'em and leave 'em. Maybe worth a rental if it comes out on video.
THE TARGET SHOOTS FIRST
This movie won both the Critic's and Audience Award for best documentary but I wasn't really impressed. The documentary is about a man who gets hired at Columbia House (famous for the 12 records for a penny concept). He taped everything he did at work for the next year or two. In the end, it's supposed to be about the reluctance that he feels about working for "the man" after he's been a punk rocker for so long. However, unlike BEYOND THE MAT, I didn't feel anything for this guy. I didn't really care about any of this here. To much of the movie had to be draws from this guy's narration. It was too much telling and not enough showing. I couldn't draw my own conclusions.
HIGH FIDELITY
Great fun. Hilarious and, in a sense, a very real romance. It was a lot more realistic than most romances. It's about a music fanatic who has no success with woman. There's a lot of great music humor and John Cusak is hilarious. The only small qualm I had was that there were a few throw away characters, like the musician girl. They sort of wasted screen time.
