solace in cinema : A vast wasteland of movies

I love it. Day-Lewis looks creepy as hell in the trailers for Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘There will be blood’ and he seem to be able to do the same in poster form too. Well either creepy, or like he just let go of a fart, tried to hide it, but it was obvious to everyone else in the room that it was him.. but in some circles they call that acting fuckfaces.

I’m still annoyed that both ‘There will be blood’ and ‘No Country for Old Men’ aren’t playing at the London Film Festival (currently going on) although it’s rumoured that the surprise film might be PTA’s film, that always get sold out to smug BFI memebers before any of the public can get a look-in. nice.

Poster via Impawards

I posted a link to this in the mini-review of this film below, but I think it’s worth posting directly again, because the more I remember about the documentary, the more I think how much I liked it. The trailer features a couple of excerpts of some really shocking news footage they used in the film of Police Helicopters dropping a bomb onto the roof of a house where a group of black radicals were held up (A siege the police started)

A look at the life of imprisoned political activist and former Black Panther member, Mumia Abu-Jamal, who’s death sentence for killing a police officer was overturned in 2001 due to errors made during his original 1982 sentencing hearing.

Here’s the myspace page and here’s the page where you can find out about screenings at the LFF

Kidz in da Hood
Dir: Catti Edfeldt and Ylva Gustavsson

I was wary off the bat with ‘Kidz in da Hood’ (Förortsungar) because of the ‘kool’ spellings in the title, that coupled with the fact that it was a ’street’ movie for children made me start to worry for my sanity before I even sat down in the screening. ‘Kidz..’ is the story of a young immigrant girl who along with her grandfather finds refuge in a young musicians flat on a council estate in Sweden. I was unaware that ‘Kidz..’ is kind of a musical as It didn’t mention it in the blurb I read and when a character broke into song (or rap) I was like ‘oh jesus…’. Here’s the thing.. I fucking HATE musicals.. I really can’t stand them, they’re just below cheerleading and mime in my scaling of the dramatic arts. I don’t know what it was about this film but something won me over even with the actors throwing in the occasional song. The child leads are all good, rating high on the cute factor without ever slipping into little rascals territory and the adults are also sincere and likable. The standouts are obviously Beylula Kidane Adgoy as Amina (her first acting role) and Gustaf Skarsgård as Johan (son of Stellan Skarsgård no less).

Despite my initial hesitations ‘Kidz in da Hood’ was a charming film, ideal for kids and adults alike. It’s not perfect but has some great performances, a plot that skips along and the occasional Swedish kid rapping.. which is actually much better than it might sound.

Rating: Kidz in da Hood is 96 minutes long and feels like exactly that

You can check out the non-subtitled trailer on the official swedish site here

Book tickets here

The Heartbeat Detector
Dir: Nicolas Klotz

Ok here’s the imdb synopsis for this film “Paris, today. Simon works as psychologist in the human resources department of a petrochemical corporation. When Management gets him to investigate one of the factory’s executives, Simon’s perception becomes disturbingly chaotic and cloudy. The experience affects his body, his mind, his personal life and his sensibility. The calm assurance that made him such a rigorous technician starts to falter.”

“A secret NATO train filled with US Marines is halted by a bolshy local station master; rambunctious Balkan farce moves inexorably to tragedy as the soldiers and townspeople try to fraternise.”

Sitting down to watch what I thought was going to be a dark satire on the conflict in Kosovo, and American military interference in foreign wars wasn’t an easy sell first thing in the morning. Saying that, if there’s one thing the London Film Festival has taught me it’s; don’t judge a film until you’ve actually watched it. ‘California Dreamin’ turned out to be an incredibly sweet ‘farce’ (for the want of a better word) that never overtly tried to hard to be oddball or charming yet pulled off both with skill.

The story essentially revolves around a couple of central characters, Doiaru the Romanian station master and black marketeer, who seems to live by the adage ‘If I can be an asshole, I will be an asshole’, Captain Jones (played by Armand Assante… last seen in multiple direct-to-video movies from my youth) a military intelligence officer in charge of seeing their package (a large container.. of unknown contents) reaches it’s destination, and The Mayor who’s attempting to welcome the soldiers to his town in order to gain investment in the region and generally manage the whole situation.

‘quirk’ is a difficult thing to put your finger on in a film, but is easy to overcook. There’s films I’ve seen in the past that portray Eastern Europe as this weird place, full of colorful characters and weird cultural differences; ‘Everything is Illuminated’ is one that springs to mind, that was so heavy handed and trite I could barely stand it. When a film sets out to be consciously ‘quirky’ I personally can smell it coming a mile away, and it grinds on me. ‘California Dreamin’ did everything right in that respect, tell a story, set-up your characters and play it out as best you can… and let ‘quirk’ come naturally to the situations.

There’s a scene in the film where the town throws a party for the soldiers, and the townspeople have obviously gathered all their American memorabilia in one place including some incredibly odd paintings of cultural icons like George Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the mayor wears a hap-hazard ’stars and stripes’ tie, and an Elvis impersonator shows up to sing. It’s with elements like this that the film really triumphs, it doesn’t try to rub the laughs in your face, but rather just adds elements into the mix and trusts that the audience will see the humor in it.

Some subjects, although seemingly interesting documentary fodder are always going to be difficult to watch when they’re committed to celluloid. Certain things are just genuinely difficult to digest, other things are ultimately not as interesting as the filmmakers thought they would be and some things… well…they’re difficult to take seriously, no matter how balanced and serious in tone a documentary may be. ‘Zoo’ a snapshot of the lifestyle of a Seattle man referred to by his internet moniker ‘Mr Hands’ who died from internal bleeding due to “interaction” with a horse falls heavily into the latter category.

It’s 10.30 on a Wednesday morning and I’m rushing to get to the press screening at the BFI of ZOO, it’s an internal struggle because on one hand I hate missing the beginning of films.. but on the other hand I’m rushing to see a film about zoophilia, a difficult topic to be presented with at the best of times. I’m sure you can see where I’d have problems. I’d read a few reviews of ‘Zoo’ before sitting down in the theatre and was aware what I was about to see was tastefully treated, and if nothing else, a film I should be able to say that I’ve watched.

First off, the striking thing about Zoo before you even touch on the uneasy subject matter is that the film is beautiful. Like stunningly beautiful, I don’t know what kind of cameras they used or who the cinematographer was… but the film really is gorgeous to look at. The story is told through audio interviews with all the people involved in the ‘incident’ and it’s aftermath while the visuals are recreations of what the subjects are describing. It’s an interesting style for a documentary to adopt but meant the scenes I was being presented with were separated from the less-than-glamorous reality that the voices are discussing. In the end it made me feel that what I was watching was at best a vacuous video experiment or art exhibit.

The audio interviews are interesting and provide more insight than the ponderous and over-stylised moving images ever do. It’s fascinating to hear different takes on the whole subject; including talking to the family of ‘Mr Hands’, the police that dealt with the aftermath, hospital staff that looked after the man, and his internet acquaintances that were present on the farm where it took place. The problem lies really in the lack of people who were willing to stand up and talk about it.

I really do have a lot of love for the London Film festival, they always seem to have a good mix of mainstream films i’m looking forward too, arthouse films i’ve been reading about and then they throw them all in with a bunch of dark films from Denmark i’ve never heard of and new cinema from China. It’s a great mix.

So here’s a quick line-up of films i’m looking forward to at the LFF, based purely on my first glance through the brochure. I’m sure there’s a lot more i’ll want to see as I hear about films from friends or read reviews of something I’ve missed.

Eastern Promises & Darjeeling Limited (Dir: David Cronenberg / Wes Anderson)
I’m lumping these two together as they were announced ages ago and I think it goes without saying that I’m really looking forward to both of them. Viggo playing a russian mobster and kicking the shit out of people in steam baths, and Owen Wilson and Adrian Brody wrestling on a train in india.. you can count me in.

Lions for Lambs (Dir: Robert Reford, Stars: Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Tom Cruise)
My interest in this film is more curiosity than anything else, I’m hoping it’s more political drama/corridors of power than overly-important commentary on the ‘war on terror’ because that’s how the trailer strikes me. I also find it difficult to watch Tom Cruise on screen anymore… he gives me the creeps… but still I’ll be checking it out.

Lust, Caution (Dir: Ang Lee. Stars: Tony Leung, Joan Chen)
Ang Lee for my money is one of most consistantly great directors working today. His new film looks really similar to ‘In the mood for love’ but that’s such a fantastic film that comparison only makes me want to see it more. Plus I grab hold of any chance I get to see Tony Leung on screen… the guys incredible.

I’m not there (Dir: Todd Haynes)
This is that interesting looking film about the life of Bob Dylan, with everyone from Christian Bale to Cate Blanchett playing him over the course of his life. Looks different if nothing else… and I read a couple of good reports from the Toronto film festival.

I just got back from the London Film Festival press launch. There’s a lot of really great looking films playing this year and as soon as the press screenings kick in at the beginning of October I hope to be covering as much of it as I can….

I’ll comment more later on the films that are playing.. meanwhile here’s the press release from the LFF:

Opening the Festival on Thursday 17 October is the UK premiere of David Cronenberg’s EASTERN PROMISES with Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts and Vincent Cassel, whilst Wes Anderson closes the Festival on November 1 with the UK premiere of THE DARJEELING LIMITED, starring Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody.

Hosting 7 World, 29 European and 128 UK premieres, the Festival welcomes both familiar faces and newcomers, showcasing established and emerging talent throughout the 16 day cinematic celebration. The programme includes the latest work from Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion winner Ang Lee (LUST, CAUTION), Alexander Sokurov (ALEXANDRA), Abdellatif Kechiche (THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN), Jan Svĕrák (EMPTIES), François Ozon (ANGEL), Sean Penn (INTO THE WILD), Ermanno Olmi (ONE HUNDRED NAILS), Michael Haneke (FUNNY GAMES), Adoor Gopalakrishnan (FOUR WOMEN), Takeshi Kitano (GLORY TO THE FILMMAKER!), Andrew Dominik (THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD), Todd Haynes (I’M NOT THERE) and Nobuhiro Yamashita (THE MATSUGANE POTSHOT AFFAIR). Audiences will also discover debut feature directors including: Céline Sciamma (WATER LILIES), Rodrigo Plá (LA ZONA), Shivajee Chandrabhushan (FROZEN) and Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud (PERSEPOLIS).

British filmmaking talent is strongly represented by Penny Woolcock (EXODUS), Garth Jennings (SON OF RAMBOW: A HOME MOVIE), Nick Broomfield (BATTLE FOR HADITHA), Asif Kapadia (FAR NORTH), Richard Attenborough (CLOSING THE RING) as well as by newcomers Simon Welsford (JETSAM) and Joanna Hogg (UNRELATED), and a selection of documentaries and shorts.

Cinema-goers will also be transported around the globe with films from 43 countries including Israel, Lebanon, China and Korea, and with a special event ROMANIAN CINEMA: THE NEXT NEW WAVE?, exemplified by Cristian Mungiu’s Palme d’Or winner 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, 2 DAYS and Cristian Nemescu’s CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’ (ENDLESS). Spain’s Iciar Bollain directs MATAHARIS while Hungary’s ISKA’S JOURNEY is directed by Csaba Bollók and Austrian IMPORT EXPORT comes from Ulrich Seidl. Argentinian double-bill: COPACABANA by Martín Rejtman with STARS by directing duo Federico León & Marcos Martínez, sits alongside a strong Japanese presence including Masayuki Suo’s I JUST DIDN’T DO IT and Cannes Grand Prix winner THE MOURNING FOREST by Naomi Kawase while Jia Zhangke’s WU YONG (USELESS) hails from China.

If you haven’t entered your name for a chance to win tickets to the opening night of frightfest: Maybe you should. Find all the details here

I’ll draw the winners at random at 5pm today.

We don’t run give-aways very often… mainly becuase I don’t have anything decent to give away. Except of course.. the gift.. of sweet lovin. Which is actually harder to give away than you might imagine. Anyway.. get to the point.

The awesome London horror film festival ‘Frightfest’ kicks off next thursday (the 23rd of August) and we have 10 passes to the opening night to give away. The Passes cover the following stuff:

- 28 Weeks Later ‘Special Event’, where producer of the film Andrew MacDonald will be presenting deleted scenes and extras from the dvd release of the film. 20th Century Fox will be supplying ‘Goodies’, which can never be a bad thing

- The UK premiere of ‘Black Water’, an aussie giant-croc movie. I know nothing about this film other than It’s Australian and has giant crocs. If it’s good.. great, If it’s bad the crowd reactions at frightfest nearly always make it worth sitting through.

Check out the trailer here

- The film will be followed by exclusive footage from Neil Marshall’s ‘Doomsday’ (very excited about this)

If you’d like a pass all you need to do is drop your name in an email, put ‘Frightfest’ in the subject line and send it to me. Next tuesday (the 21st) I will pull 10 peoples email at random to receive the passes. good luck!

The festival is held at the Odeon ‘West End’ in Leicester Square, so obviously if you live in Alaska don’t bother entering. sorry

This year there’s more than a couple of other things playing that I really want to check out too: ‘The Signal’ is playing on Friday, a low budget zombie/crazies movie that was a big hit at festivals in the U.S. ‘Shrooms’ is that killer mushroom movie I was laughing about a couple of months ago.. also playing late friday night. The Shia le Beouf does ‘Rear Window’ movie ‘Disturbia’ plays on Saturday accompanied by a late showing of ‘The Devil Dared me too’ the NZ stuntman movie.

The sick part of me wants to sit through a double whammy of Uwe Boll films on sunday; ‘Postal’, and ‘Seed’ but i’m not sure my constitution can take it. I might throw up a lung If I watch two in a row. terrible filmmaking can do that to you.

There's nothing wrong with loving animals… they're lovable! But there's a line you don't cross. The Sundance Film Festival annunced its non competitive line up recently, but one film I didn't notice in the Documentary section, was a film called "Zoo". Its a documentary about a man who died having sex with a horse.

"The unusual death, that garnered its share of infamy when it occurred in 2005, is the topic of Seattle filmmaker Robinson Devor's new documentary that will be one of several films premiering at the Sundance festival in January, Editor & Publisher reported."

You know what? I'm not sure why… but I find myself strangely intrigued by this! I know very little about the incident, having caught only speculative rumours at the time and tossed them aside as perverse nonsense, but a man dying, whilst having sex with a horse… At the least, its not the kind of film you'd usually find at sundance. That being said, Geoff Gilmore, the director of the festival has been quoted saying: 

"We are witnessing a broadening of the traditional independent arena. In this year's festival there is a breadth of subject matter, vision and innovative storytelling that is transforming the old idea of the American indie film"

I'm looking forward to hearing some reviews of this movie, and fully expect a lot of Mr Ed and Wilbur jokes to boot!

 Source: IESB