Hey folks, Harry here... Repojay has done an amazing job of coverage throughout the festival... and here he is with the final report of the fest for him... And he's got a ton of movies to tell us about... Here ya go...
OK, here's my final update a little late (festival ended 2 days ago), but when I went to type one in on Saturday, the computer erased it accidentally just as I was finishing and I was too pressed for time to see another movie to start again.
MEN OF HONOR (Dir. George Tillman, Jr.)
As you'd expect from the trailers, Robert De Niro and Cuba Gooding, Jr. have a field day chewing up every scene they're in. Too bad the movie never rises above typical Hollywood drama, but at least it's a decent view.
The story revolves around the first African-American Navy diver and the racist struggles he had to overcome. The diving scenes are very tense and the darkness in the murky waters make for some suitable drama. As mentioned, both De Niro and Gooding do a nice job acting, especially Gooding who is more subdued than I'm used to seeing.
The major issue is that everything seems too pat. Secondary characters just aren't developed to anything substantial, especially Gooding's wife. However, this is one that I'm sure will be a solid watch on video and do real well as there are no holes and mainstream Hollywood watchers will be satisfied.
THE MONKEY'S MASK (Dir. Samantha Lang)
Oh goody. An independent lesbian murder mystery. In all fairness, maybe I wasn't in the mood to see gay indie cinema at this screening, but I thought this Aussie film was way too contrived and just a regurgitation of other gay indie flicks of recent years.
The plot has a lesbian PI investigating the disappearance of a poet college student. This leads to questioning of her professor (Kelly McGillis!) which leads to an affair with said professor. When student turns up dead and leads to other poet lovers and professor turning up interesting clues, things just get too silly instead of dramatic.
Making matters worse is a voiceover by said PI who tries to sound like a film noir narrator, but doesn't as she focuses on female anatomy about as much as the case. Not good. In the end, nothing shocks and everything is boring. Including the poetry in the film.
THE PRICE OF MILK (Dir. Harry Sinclair)
The movie bills itself as a man, a woman and 117 cows and that about sums up this wonderfully surreal cute comedy from Down Under.
The story follows the life of couple Lucinda and Rob. When Lucinda's friend tells her to test the marriage since they never had a fight, she starts with simple things that do not shake Rob. When their quilt is stolen in the middle of the night (!) by a gang of golfers (!!) for their mom who is stealing all the quilts in town (!!!), Lucinda makes a deal to trade her quilt back for all their cows (!!!!).
What comes before, during, and after is very cute and often hysterical in very surreal fashion. Little things in the film are what makes it so charming along with the simplemindedness of the couple. It's heartwarming, cheerful, and might actually qualify for family viewing, if your family can handle a bit of the off-kilter.
THE KING IS ALIVE (Dir. Kristian Levring)
The Dogme 95 manifesto is alive and well in The King Is Alive, the first of the Danish films to be in English.
The plot finds a busload of tourists stranded in the middle of the African desert with no way of communicating for help. To pass the time as they wait for anyone, one of the passengers recommends they put on a production of King Lear.
Jennifer Jason Leigh and Bruce Davison are the names amongst the excellent cast who inject lots of humor into their slow descent into mayhem under the desert sun. All the tensions are explored as well including sexual ones, marital strife and the usual food and water stuff.
Filming in Dogme 95 actually helps this film greatly as the strength of the sun washes out the picture and the graniness accents the sweat and sunburn. Both drama and comady, it's not quite as special as Celebration, but certainly more entertaining than Mifune.
THE ISLE (Dir. Kim Kiduk)
This one was a shocking surprise as the Korean film is lyrically beautiful and wonderfully shocking all in one. It seems like it would be slow, but this is certainly not for the squeamish.
The story revolves around a fishing motel where there are little huts on floats spread out over a lake. Men come there to fish or take prostitutes and it's overseen by a mute caretaker who silently observes and gets involved in her tenant's lives.
One of whom is an enigmatic man who is trying to kill himself. When the caretaker stops him, they slowly begin a love/hate relationship that becomes a twisted S&M type of thing in ways you would not expect. It's visually horrifying to watch what they do to themselves, let alone to each other, but you just can't take your eyes off the screen. Let's put it this way, you'll never look at fish hooks the same way again.
The movie is all the more special with some very lyrical cinematography and very little dialogue letting the images speak for themselves. With that, the movie moves pretty slowly, but it's under 90 minutes, so do stay with it as the images continually get more disturbing. No distributor yet, so if it hits your festival or see it anywhere, please make sure you watch this. It will not disappoint!
To get an idea of the imagry, go to www.theisle.co.kr and check out some of the stuff there. Even though it's Korean, just click on the photos and video to get an idea of the mood.
SAMOTARI (Loners) (Dir. David Ondricek)
I never expected a film from the Czech Republic to look so alluring and have a story so compelling and humorous, but this film certainly has that.
It takes the upheaval of the new, open Czech society and puts it into the intertwined stories of several 20 and 30 somethings in Prague. You have Robert who is a player who avoids relationships. He works at a travel agency with Lenka, who is married to acclaimed surgeon Ondrej, who is a little wacko and is stalking Hanka, a former ex who also just left her DJ boyfriend Peter and is also friends with Robert. Intertwined are about 3 or 4 other characters who each desperately try to bring themselves together with attempts at meaningful relationships only to alienate themselves with their different idiosyncracies in their lives.
All of the characters are very firmly developed with humor and pathos all rolled into one. You can follow them all easily and care and wish they would succeed, even if you know they'll ultimately be alone. The photography is also surprisingly beautiful and, while by the end of this festival I was sick of ensemble pieces, this one still stuck out and was very enjoyable.
FAST FOOD, FAST WOMEN (Dir. Amos Kollek)
This comedy was a very simple low-budget NYC flick that, while rather dull visually and filled with some average acting, was still so witty with it's script that it was fun to watch.
Bella works as a waitress at a NYC diner. As she turns 35, she's got issues to work out in her love life. Can she stay with the married playwright or should she go out with Bruno, the man her mother fixes her up with? Should she follow her friend's advice? Then there's the 3 old men who frequent the diner who are also on their own sexual conquests.
The script is wonderful and extremely funny. Made funnier by a lot of NYC humor, as you might expect. Tons of zinger one liners also aid the film and, while it looks like a cheaper Showtime movie, feels like a little comedic gem by the shape of the script alone.
DLUG (The Debt) (Dir. Krzysztof Krauze)
This Polish film is based on a true story, but is also fairly slow and bleak which takes away from the interesting impact it could have had with the serious violence.
When some friends can't get a bank loan in new capitalist Poland to open a scooter business, they turn to another friend for help. When that deal falls through, he still claimed they owe him for expenses. When the dollars start mounting up like loan sharking, so does the drama and the violence.
It's too bad that although the story is a very interesting one, the movie moves along too sluggishly. Also, the violence inflicted on all parties is fairly strong, but not really strong enough to an audience weaned on Reservoir Dogs, et al. The story of a group of friends who unwind when bad things enter their lives has also been done several times over and this doesn't really add anything to offer.
The most compelling thing about the flick is that it was true. Outside of that, it didn't really do much for me.
SANGER FRAN ANDRA VANINGAN (Songs From The Second Floor) (Dir. Roy Andersson)
If anything from the Netherlands could be the opposite of Dogme 95, Songs From The Second Floor is it. Highly staged, stylized vignettes compose a magical, uneven movie.
The movie follows several odd characters: a man who burns down his furniture store, a man who just lost his job, a magician who bungles a magic trick. Throughout all that, there's a traffic jam in the city not to mention the weird group of people who keep flogging themselves.
All ridiculously surreal, the 46 vignettes are shown without edits. It's interesting to see it all develop because it was put together without a script and all done in the director's massive studio.
The problem is that the uniqueness wears off halfway through and as the humor turns to drama, the film begins to wear. It is certainly a bright concept, and the surreal images and storyline (what there is of one) is intriguing, but only for about an hour.
Well, that's it for this year's festival. I will now close my eyes for about a week. Until next year's fest...
REPOJAY
