Film fest wrap-up

I suspected (and was ultimately right I think), that we had seen the best film first almost as soon as I'd seen in. Son of Rambow was just delightful, full of humour and pathos in equal measure. Even thinking about it now, I can't figure out how they managed to create seperate but interlinked arcs for three fully fleshed out characters without making one or the other seem forced or clumsy- in fact I can't think of anything I'd change about the movie at all. It was a great kid's film, perfect for what it was- I highly recommend it. For the scene in the sixth-form common room if nothing else.

We followed this one with Diary of the Dead, a 'requel' of Night of the Living Dead, except this time the protagonists are filming themselves, a la The Blair Witch Project. Now, I thought this was a pretty decent film all around. Although it did sucumb to the horror-movie trope of making all your characters as annoying as humanly possible (is this so we don't feel so bad when they buy it as a result of their own stupidity?), I thought it had a lot of interesting things to say about new media and its effect our relationship to the news and footage of ourselves. One of the central tenets of the film was that the media was covering up the zombie apocalypse, and it was up to the people themselves to document what was happening. But then once the film is over, George Romero himself comes out for a 15-minute Q&A and says no I've got it wrong, actually his point was to show how new media was 'just noise' and he himself preferred it when there were only three networks telling you the news- even if it had spin, you knew it was spin so could compensate. While I don't disagree with many of this points, I think I really disagree with his conclusion, and it was odd to hear a filmmaker tell you that the actual theme of his movie was the exact opposite of what you thought it was. Still, he did say, to his credit, that he just likes to raise the questions, not give the answers, so it's nice that his film was open-ended to interpretation in that regard.

We saw Romero again the next night, but there was not a lot of new information imparted in the hour-long 'conversation', which I attributed mainly to the inanity of the questioners. People were asking the most ridiculous questions which Romero had trouble answering, in many cases because I don't think there was an answer, at all. For example, one questioner took about two minutes to ask this question, which I am paraphrasing and cleaning up here, the actual question she asked was far, far more incomprehensible than this one, which was: "Most zombie movies seem to be made from the point of view of a critique. Do you think there will ever be a zombie movie made from the point of view of a dissent?" Maybe that question  got a round of applasse in film school but the father of zombie films just stared at you blankly, you must feel pretty fucking stupid.

Someone asked me how Jar City was and I said: "It was like CSI: Reykjavik." And it really was. The scenery looked great, very desolate, which matched the mood of the film perfectly, but the central crime was not much more interesting than those you see in any number of weekly procedurals.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson, was a real treat. While I get the feeling I wouldn't have personally got along well with HST, he was such a force of nature that you can't help but be entertained by his life story. Loads of archival footage intercut with fresh interviews and Johnny Depp reading HSTs own writings kept things clipping along very entertainingly. They probably spent a little too much time covering the McGovern campaign, as this throughline held little interest to non-American viewers, and they inexplicably skipped over the writing of Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas with just a minor mention (perhaps because the movie had covered this territory already?), and they also never covered his fiction, which was surprising to me. Still and all, this was a good ride through a remarkable life.

Dead End Drive-In was advertised as part of the 'Ozploitation' festival, meaning that it was meant to be shlocky and low-budget, and it most certainly was, but there was also something vaguely existentialist about the premise- basically, that all the teenagers are locked into a drive-in and told they could never leave. While the main character constantly asked: "But why? This is crazy!" and seemed rightfully terrified of the prospect, every other character just sort of shurgged and started to build a new life inside the tiny confines. The ending didn't really address the issue, but for raising it, I give this movie props.

I read the book of The Wave when I was a teenager and it has often preyed on my mind. I think, like a lot of people, I've always been very interested in how totalitarianism arises, and how the public responds to it. I think how people respond to the warning signs (or fail to respond, as is more often the case), and thinking about how I would respond, is a pretty interesting part of both history and thinking forward (perhaps this is why I am so interested in the US political scene at the moment). The film of the book, while occasionally requiring a suspension of disbelief in order to swallow fully, is an interesting case-study of how people not only accept totalitarian thinking, but actually embrace it and create it themselves out of their own pack-mentality thinking. One thing I didn't notice while watching the film but that Judith pointed out in her review, something that I think is very true, is that facism usually requires some 'other' in order to galvanize the masses, and this movement lacked that. I don't think this hurts the film overall (which I found very good), but is important to note, should you be watchful for signs of totalitarianism in your own society :)

Let the Right One In was an intruiging, somewhat sweet little vampire film that was also quite wierd in a lot of ways- not always a bad thing, but I wouldn't call this the best of fest by any means. It's a pretty simple story- boy meets girl, girl is a vampire, vampire helps boy wreak vengenace on some local bullies. There are some interesting set pieces along the way, and there's an amusing mystery regarding the identity of the girl's father that I only figured out in the last few seconds of the film (this was done in a very satisfying manner, I must say), but on the whole I found it a bit sparse.

Ah, now if we're talking exploitation movies, Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer is where it's at! Did this have a story? Maybe, I don't really remember! It did have demons, the guy who played Freddie Krueger, and a hero with anger-management problems. While certainly not in the Evil Dead Leagues, it was certainly inspired by those films, and did them fairly proud. Watch if you want something mindless.

On the other end of the spectrum, Caramel was a quiet, thoughtful, sometimes very beautiful film that followed the lives of five women in Beirut, and the most interesting part of the film to me was getting a glimpse into a culture that is at times very similar to our own, at other times frighteningly different. I did think that with five character arcs to cover, each was given very short shrift, with only one character much character development- most of the other story setups were simply introducing the character before quickly moving on. That said, it was still one of the more enjoyable films of the fest.

Continuing in the vien of looking into other cultures from a feminine perspective, the animated Persepolis was also definitely one of the highlights. Essentially the autobiography of a young woman growing up in Iran, this film also touched on what it is like to live in a totalitarian society (well... theocratic tyranny). It was frequently funny, often sweet, but permeated with a sort of slowly growing horror. But through it all Marjane, the narrator, director and writer, keeps an inner strngth and pride that gets her through the most trying of times. I was really touched by this film and think it was definitely in my top three- I really recommend you give it a look.

Ugh- don't get me started on Dead Daughters. A three-hour, endless oddyssey of boredom. I could tell you the plot but, God, why bother? It was terrible. Terrible dialogue, terribly shot, terribly edited, dark to the point of incomprehenisibility. Half the audience walked out, and I kinda wish I'd joined `em.

The Crazies was a real disappointment. I've wanted to see this movie for at least a decade, and the premise- a town is quarantined after an accidentally deployed chemical weapon sends the population raving mad- had a lot of potential (potential that was realized, essentially, in 28 Days Later), but absolutely failed to deliver on almost every count. I hate to say it, but there was a distinct lack of people acting crazy in this film! Apart from homicidal mania, I think the only "crazy" person was someone absent-mindedly sweeping up on a battle-field after everyone else has been shot. Unimpressive.

[REC] was, like Diary of the Dead, another zombie movie shot entirely from the perspective of a hand-held camera. The difference between them, however, was huge. This Spanish film is set almost entirely in the confines of one building, sealed off from the outside by the authorities, and tracks the slow progression from order to chaos as the occupants of the building turn one by one into zombies. There's not much more plot than this, but the movie is clearly designed as a roller-coaster, with the audience jumping and screaming on multiple occasions (I actually can't remember the last time I've seen a movie that had this sort of visceral reaction from the audience), and then laughing at ourselves a few moments later. Like all of the hand-held camera movies, it has a pretty bleak ending, but it's a fun ride along the way.

In addition to film-fest, last weekend was the Jim Henson film fest, at which I saw The Muppet Movie, The Dark Crystal, two episodes of Fraggle Rock, Dog City, and an episode of The Storyteller. All good stuff, obviously.