SIFF the Second
May. 25th, 2012 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tiggymalvern
5 more days, 5 more films! I've already surpassed my total number from last year, when I was feeling apathetic. Details below, since nobody reads these but me anyway.
First on the list, the black comedy God Bless America. Middle-aged Frank is divorced, newly out of work, and then he's told he has an inoperable tumour. Before he kills himself, Frank decides to improve the world by killing the most vapid, self-involved and obnoxious person he can think of, who happens to be a reality TV star. Encouraged by a bored teenager, he then continues his killing spree to free America from its own idiocy.
Like most black comedies, this one has moments that work brilliantly, others that don't so much (and people may not agree on which are which), but it definitely had the late night audience screaming with laughter. If ultra-violence isn't your thing, you may want to skip this one; but the most memorable thing about it was the crazy spoof TV shows, which in all their stultifying dumbness were really no exaggeration at all. When the satire worked, it was awesome. 7/10.
Safety Not Guaranteed was a film with a big buzz about it after a successful showing at Sundance. It was also filmed in Washington state, so it had local kudos, and all screenings for it sold out well in advance. Someone places a classified ad looking for a time travelling companion - "Bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed." A team of magazine writers desperate for a story set out to investigate.
Sadly, it was not exactly the film I was expecting, nor did it really live up to the buzz. The sci-fi element was minimal, with the time travel element really just a hook to hang the comedy and relationship dramas on. It certainly helps to keep the budget down! It was a perfectly competent film, just not a great one, and I was hoping for a little more than a rom-com. 7/10.
Cloudburst. Stella and Dottie have been together for over 30 years, but Dottie is now almost blind, and growing increasingly frail. Dottie's grand-daughter arranges her move to a nursing home, despite Stella's objections. Stella sneaks Dottie out of the home, and the two women plan to drive to Canada and get married, picking up a hitch-hiker along the way.
Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker are fabulous as the elderly lovers. Sometimes the comedy grew a little too farcical for my taste, but the banter between the two was great, and the film's commentary on love and commitment was extremely moving. There was one moment when it was unsubtly thumped home with a sledgehammer, which I could have lived without, but overall it was entertaining. 7/10.
Wrinkles (Arrugas). This film was so good! It's a Spanish animated film, based on an award-winning comic of the same name, set in a retirement home. When Emilio's son and daughter-in-law put him in a home, he is befriended by Miguel, who manipulates the other residents to alleviate the boredom. Everyone in the home lives in fear of being sent Upstairs, where the terminal dementia patients are housed, and there is a conspiracy to hide the symptoms of friends.
I just loved this film to bits. It's alternately funny and horrifying, delightful and sad, with a host of wonderful characters. The pre-film speech told us that the film-maker was given the choice of making a live action film, but chose animation to stay closer to the feel of the original comic. I think this choice was absolutely correct - the animation was charming, and allowed the serious points about end of life care to be made, while maintaining a certain distance. With real actors, a few scenes might have been too harrowing. 10/10.
My last film for this week was High Ground, a documentary about a team of disabled US war veterans who set out to climb a 20,000 foot Himalayan peak. The film follows the group from initial training in Colorado through to the final attempt on the peak, cut with the soldiers telling their stories in interviews.
I felt the main flaw with this film was that it tried to spread itself too thinly between too many people. It's difficult to connect with a dozen subjects or feel the depth of their stories when we only ever get a few sentences from each before the next cut, and we're listening to someone else's struggles. I appreciate that if you're going to organise this kind of adventure, you want to take a decently large group of people, but in trying to give them all equal screen time, the film did itself no favours. There were also issues with buzzy sound at this screening, which made it hard to catch the dialogue at some points, and hardly helped (we were given free vouchers to see another film due to the technical problems). Still, it was a good film with great scenery and interesting subjects. 8/10.
First on the list, the black comedy God Bless America. Middle-aged Frank is divorced, newly out of work, and then he's told he has an inoperable tumour. Before he kills himself, Frank decides to improve the world by killing the most vapid, self-involved and obnoxious person he can think of, who happens to be a reality TV star. Encouraged by a bored teenager, he then continues his killing spree to free America from its own idiocy.
Like most black comedies, this one has moments that work brilliantly, others that don't so much (and people may not agree on which are which), but it definitely had the late night audience screaming with laughter. If ultra-violence isn't your thing, you may want to skip this one; but the most memorable thing about it was the crazy spoof TV shows, which in all their stultifying dumbness were really no exaggeration at all. When the satire worked, it was awesome. 7/10.
Safety Not Guaranteed was a film with a big buzz about it after a successful showing at Sundance. It was also filmed in Washington state, so it had local kudos, and all screenings for it sold out well in advance. Someone places a classified ad looking for a time travelling companion - "Bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed." A team of magazine writers desperate for a story set out to investigate.
Sadly, it was not exactly the film I was expecting, nor did it really live up to the buzz. The sci-fi element was minimal, with the time travel element really just a hook to hang the comedy and relationship dramas on. It certainly helps to keep the budget down! It was a perfectly competent film, just not a great one, and I was hoping for a little more than a rom-com. 7/10.
Cloudburst. Stella and Dottie have been together for over 30 years, but Dottie is now almost blind, and growing increasingly frail. Dottie's grand-daughter arranges her move to a nursing home, despite Stella's objections. Stella sneaks Dottie out of the home, and the two women plan to drive to Canada and get married, picking up a hitch-hiker along the way.
Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker are fabulous as the elderly lovers. Sometimes the comedy grew a little too farcical for my taste, but the banter between the two was great, and the film's commentary on love and commitment was extremely moving. There was one moment when it was unsubtly thumped home with a sledgehammer, which I could have lived without, but overall it was entertaining. 7/10.
Wrinkles (Arrugas). This film was so good! It's a Spanish animated film, based on an award-winning comic of the same name, set in a retirement home. When Emilio's son and daughter-in-law put him in a home, he is befriended by Miguel, who manipulates the other residents to alleviate the boredom. Everyone in the home lives in fear of being sent Upstairs, where the terminal dementia patients are housed, and there is a conspiracy to hide the symptoms of friends.
I just loved this film to bits. It's alternately funny and horrifying, delightful and sad, with a host of wonderful characters. The pre-film speech told us that the film-maker was given the choice of making a live action film, but chose animation to stay closer to the feel of the original comic. I think this choice was absolutely correct - the animation was charming, and allowed the serious points about end of life care to be made, while maintaining a certain distance. With real actors, a few scenes might have been too harrowing. 10/10.
My last film for this week was High Ground, a documentary about a team of disabled US war veterans who set out to climb a 20,000 foot Himalayan peak. The film follows the group from initial training in Colorado through to the final attempt on the peak, cut with the soldiers telling their stories in interviews.
I felt the main flaw with this film was that it tried to spread itself too thinly between too many people. It's difficult to connect with a dozen subjects or feel the depth of their stories when we only ever get a few sentences from each before the next cut, and we're listening to someone else's struggles. I appreciate that if you're going to organise this kind of adventure, you want to take a decently large group of people, but in trying to give them all equal screen time, the film did itself no favours. There were also issues with buzzy sound at this screening, which made it hard to catch the dialogue at some points, and hardly helped (we were given free vouchers to see another film due to the technical problems). Still, it was a good film with great scenery and interesting subjects. 8/10.
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no subject
Date: 2012-05-27 01:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-05-27 03:56 am (UTC)God Bless America was good, mindless entertainment; it's just hard to sustain real depth when your premise is 'fight bad shit with mass murder!'