| The 2006 Calgary International Film Festival – five theatres and over 300 films being screened over the course of 10 days can be a little overwhelming, even for the most sophisticated and hardcore cinephile. Fast Forward film critics help you decide which films might be worth your time and give the lowdown on some of this year’s submissions.
THE IDEALIST: JAMES BEVERIDGE FILM GURU
(Canada, 2004)
Directed by Nina Beveridge
September 23, 1:15 p.m., Globe
Beveridge opens this bittersweet tribute to her father by stating "James Beveridge was a famous filmmaker." Once you have stopped laughing at her delusions of National Film Board (NFB) grandeur (one straight-faced scene explains how documentary-making workshops prevented race riots in North Carolina in the ’60s), you will be able to appreciate this medium-length video's many strong points, such as footage of bygone eras, a childhood snapshot of our public-sector film industry, and the opportunity to hear an NFB veteran publicly describe a former colleague as "vicious, awful, a lousy filmmaker and worse in bed... smarmy dirt."
THE DESCENDANT
(Canada, 2006)
Directed by Phillipe Spurrell
September 30, 11:59 p.m., Plaza
A year after his mom’s death, James (Tadhg McMahon) returns to the house she was born in looking for answers. Instead, he is confronted with more questions. Why is grandma so fragile, why are the neighbours so suspicious and what is grandpa doing in the corn field with that axe? A more pertinent question is how did this movie ever get past the scriptwriting stage? The Descendant is the worst kind of by-the-numbers thriller that uses a supernatural edge and an inspired-by-true-events tag to wash away its many sins – a boring and incomprehensible plot, miles of shoe leather and the worst kind of indie flick friends-and-family acting. This is the kind of thing that gives film festivals a bad name.
BOMBAY CALLING
(Canada, India, 2006)
Directed by : Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal
September 28, 4:30 p.m., Globe
Here’s something interesting to do next time you get a phone call from a salesperson – before they get too far into their pitch, ask them where they’re calling from. Chances are pretty good that it won’t be the same city you’re in, or even the same country. In fact, they might just be calling from India.
Filmmakers Ben Addelman and Samir Mallal take audiences inside a Bombay call centre to put faces to the voices that the public has grown to despise. The familiar phrases "significant savings," "exclusive offer" or "one time deal" are a frustrating annoyance to most, but to the young people working for the call centre they are the keys to prosperity and a lifestyle beyond the traditional.
Revealing a combination of long and stressful work hours and late nights of partying, the film gives the audience a glimpse into the lives of these workers and their motivations to achieve in this new business world. For some it’s money, for some it’s freedom and for others it’s the chance to improve life for those they love.
So while balancing the good and the bad of this Western influence on the youth of India, Bombay Calling will definitely make you think about the effect you might have on someone thousands of miles away just by saying "No thanks, not interested" and hanging up.
COMBOVER: THE MOVIE
(USA, 2005)
Directed by Chris Marino and Tim Fenoglio
September 26, 7:15 p.m., Plaza
The lure of this film stems from a burning question that forms in your head the moment you see the title. Why am I compelled to sit through a 60-minute documentary on a subject so seemingly irrelevant?
Combover is little more than a montage of sad hairdos and the emasculated heads they’re attached to, interspersed with sequences of a pompous Marino (flaunting a full mane of hair) running around on his superfluous "quest" to bribe and ridicule these easiest of targets. That these filmmakers have absolutely no agenda (apart from gratuity) is more than apparent in this movie, that ends up being the structural equivalent to a Girls Gone Wild infomercial. There is no development here, nor any of the intelligence required for the type of good-natured humour one would expect from such a film.
Ironically, watching this film feels a lot like an encounter with a combover on the street. You are compelled to stare and, initially, you laugh, but as you walk away from it you sort of wince and think, "what the hell were they thinking?"
So it’s no surprise that the film’s greatest assets, the wonderfully eccentric comboverers paraded in front of the camera, are needlessly overlooked for their narrative potential. Had the filmmakers paused to explore the men behind the hair and dared to connect the dots between them, they might have found a film.
THE GUATEMALAN HANDSHAKE
(U.S.A., 2006)
Directed by Todd Rohal
September 25, 9:30 p.m., Plaza
Peculiar. Eccentric. Strange. Quirky. These are the words that will most likely come up when reading about The Guatemalan Handshake. Here’s why. The film tells the story of a peculiar town occupied by eccentric folks. A strange storm occurs at the same time that quirky resident Donald Turnupseed (Will Oldham) disappears, and from there we follow Donald’s friends and family as they try to deal with his absence. Truthfully, I have no idea what this film is actually about, but was captivated by the music, especially a song performed by Oldham and Sheila Scullen, who plays Donald’s girlfriend, Sadie. Director Todd Rohal, who up until now has only directed short films, certainly takes his time to focus on the details. While most of the film feels like it is trying a little too hard to be abstract, there are some funny moments that make it watchable and even mildly interesting.
YOU’RE GOING TO MISS ME
(U.S.A, 2004)
Directed by Keven McAlester
September 28, 6:45, Uptown Screen
Rock ’n’ roll is full of near-lethal falls from grace, but few are quite as curiously sad as that of Roky Erickson. As front man for psych-rockers The 13th Floor Elevators he’s a legend, but between his drug abuse and battle with schizophrenia, he has become a burnout and a hermit in Austin, Texas.
Rock-writer-turned-director Keven McAlester picks up his story in 1999, as Erickson became an unwitting pawn in his own custody battle. With help from ex-lovers, ex-bandmates and other key players, McAlester unveils the many faces of Erickson. You’re most likely familiar with the musical visionary who yelped his way through songs with James Brown-inspired abandon. Less recognizable is the ex-con who denounced God and his own humanity. Most distressing is the long-forgotten icon who turns on every appliance in the house hoping that the room-clearing white noise will silence the voices in his head. Part rock doc, part psychological exploration, You’re Going to Miss Me ably proves that truth is stranger than fiction.
MUSIC IS MY LIFE
(U.S.A., 2005)
Directed by Donnie L. Betts
September 22, 6:45 p.m., Globe
October 1, 1:00 p.m., Uptown
How many people make sure their life is filled with the one thing that really drives them? They work at jobs they hate, but at least it pays the bills. They’ve got the six digit salary, but spend so much time earning it they never get to truly enjoy everything else they could be doing. For an example of how much more fulfilling a life can be when it is full of the thing that one loves, audiences can look to Donnie L. Betts documentary on the life of Oscar Brown Jr.
A blend of archival footage, interviews and modern performances, Music is My Life creates a beautiful mosaic of a man whose life was his art because his art was what made him really live. It wasn’t for the money or the fame, most have never heard of him, he just did what he felt was in him to do. Poet, songwriter, performer, father, activist and so many more things to those whose lives he touched. From songs concerning slave-bidding, to casting a musical with members of a street gang, Oscar Brown Jr. saw no bounds to where music could take people.
But the film is not just a timeline of his musical endeavours, it brings the audience into the personal life of Oscar Brown Jr. through the voices of those who knew him and his own poignant personal reflections. With his influence in both the political and entertainment forums spanning decades, this film will ensure the continuation of that influence by introducing this important artist to a whole new generation.
SNEAKERS
(Holland, 2004)
Directed by Femke Wolting
September 29, 8:45 p.m., Uptown Screen
Sneakers is Dutch filmmakers Femke Wolting and Stefenie de Brouwer’s documentary look at the ins and outs of the running shoe phenomenon. The exploration begins by showing us the appeal of early sneaks, then presents all sides of the sneaker picture. The socio-economic aspect is explored by writer Scoop Jackson, leading into the relationship between footwear and hip hop/B-boy/skateboard culture. By the same strand, Scoop illustrates the celebrity element introduced to sell sneakers to the youth market using athlete endorsers such as Michael Jordan, Tony Alba and other hipster icons (in this case Spike Lee’s "Mars Blackman" character). The cultural impact is told through the words of T.J. Hooker (street fashion-finder), Deedee Gordon (editor-founder) and Michelle Burns (Tokyo correspondent/cool-hunter) all of Look-Look magazine.
Various aficionados and sneaker-philes are profiled during the running length of the film exemplifying the unmitigated impact of these special shoes on culture and vice-versa. The conclusion leaves us at haute couture. Designers like Yasuhiro Mihara and Alexander van Slobbe take lowly gym shoes and turn them into sanctified objects ready-made for divine worship.
Fast moving and bright, much like the spotlighted shoes themselves, the film is a lean and economical biography of the world’s most popular form of footwear. Although its running time is a sparse 52 minutes, it still manages to cover all the angles and neatly ties everything together before it reaches the finish line.
RADIOPHOBIA
(Spain/Ukraine/Russia, 2005)
Directed by Julio Soto
September 28, 4:15 p.m., Uptown Screen
Twenty years after the Chernobyl catastrophe, Radiophobia revisits the power plant and the ghost town that remains of the community built to accommodate the reactor’s workforce. Titled after the term used for people who were bodily affected by radiation, Julio Soto instead explores the emotional fallout in the lives of those who were forced to leave their homes and the fascinating people who resolutely decided to stay. Considering the far-reaching consequences of "the accident," as many locals refer to it, the filmmakers judiciously focus on one aspect of its impact. I can’t say this movie will change lives, but it’s an excellent little documentary.
Made for TV, the film boasts some stunning aerial shots and beautiful camera movement. Archival footage is woven with present-day images to powerful effect. The camera follows a handful of people as they search, undeterred by the threat of radiation, through now-derelict buildings for traces of the lives they left when the area was evacuated. The filmmakers also visit a tiny group living in the "forbidden zone." In an eerily post-apocalyptic scenario, residents of the scarred land catch fish, grow vegetables and, of course, make their own vodka, all the while scoffing at the threat of high radiation. These are the most interesting characters and sequences in the film, and there are too few of them. Presumably the film crew wasn’t interested in remaining in the area for long.
BARBIERS: UNE HISTOIRE D’HOMMES
(Canada 2006)
Directed by Claude Demers
September 23, 7:00 p.m., Eau Claire
October 1, 8:00 p.m., Eau Claire
Yes, it’s a man's, man's, man's world in the barber shops of Quebec, and this competent documentary works hard at making this not-really-all-that-endangered subculture come to life.
Unfortunately, there’s only so much of old Italian men talking about chicks and hair that I can handle at one sitting, and 78 minutes was well beyond my limit.
PAVLOV’S DOG
(Russia, 2005)
Directed by Katya Shagalova
September 27, 9:00 p.m., Eau Claire
Never mind the title; Pavlov’s Dog is about two Russian mental patients in love, not a famous scientist’s drooling pooch.
Maxim (Nikolai Ivanov) and Ksenia (Yelena Lyadova) are youthful lovers who happen to be patients in a mental institution. Their relationship is quite turbulent – when things are good, you couldn’t find a closer, more devoted couple. At other times, they use their knowledge of one another’s psychoses to inflict disturbing acts of mental (and at one point, physical) cruelty. Can their love survive their deep-rooted self-destructive tendencies or will difficult, uncontrollable Ksenia be carted off to a stricter sanitarium? Maxim pleads with the asylum employees not to send Ksenia away, assuring them that he will attempt suicide a second time if separated from his lady love. He sounds like he means it.
This film is an interesting look at the passions and insecurities of ordinary people who happen to be afflicted with severe mental illness. We are shocked at the mean tricks the inmates play on one another, but realize that the so-called "sane" characters do exactly the same thing all the time. Worth a look.
CANDY
(Australia, 2006)
Directed by Neil Armfield
September 28, 9:30 p.m., Globe
Dan (Heath Ledger) and Candace (Abbie Cornish) are just a couple of junkies in love. Their story, as told here, begins with a near-overdose — then things take a turn for the worse. It’s rare to find much cheer or genuine joy in any film about drug abuse (stylish frippery is another matter), but this absence always leaves me asking the obtuse question: why exactly did these characters think becoming junkies was a good idea, again?
To his credit, director Neil Armfield does try, in the first few minutes at least, to offer a sort of halcyonic glimpse of romance, which contrasts well with the inevitable heavy-handed descent into squalor, screaming and dysphoria that ensues. However, things go from bad to worse a little too quickly. Before one has really had a chance to invest much in the cardboard characters, Dan and Candy are suddenly, without much in the way of soul-searching or rationalization, prostituting themselves for the all-encompassing habit that apparently rewards them with little more than sleepiness and fuzzy vision. I sometimes think it’s not so much the desperate dependence, the agonizing withdrawal, or squandering of youthful promise that stops me from trying heroin, but the shocking tedium. Drug films make drugs look boring.
I AM (JESTEM)
(Poland, 2005)
Directed by Dorota Kedzierzawska
September 22, 9:30 p.m., Globe
October 1, 1:00 p.m., Globe
A young boy escapes from a Polish orphanage and joins the ranks of the rural homeless. Dorota Kedzierzawska has made a specialty of depicting the lonely world of children (her 1994 Crows is a modern classic). While each individual element of her latest work – cinematography, acting, storyline, music – is perfect, somehow they fail to add up to a great film, with the sepia-toned photography and lush Michael Nyman soundtrack at esthetic odds with the cinema-verite storyline.
However, compared to commercial North American cinema, this is well above par, and if you found the Dardenne brothers (Rosetta, L’Enfant) too aggressively realistic, I Am strikes a comfortable balance between truth and sentimentality.
THE 4th DIMENSION
(U.S.A., 2006)
Directed by Tom Mattera and Dave Mazzoni
September 23, 9:45 p.m., Globe
October 1, 3:30 p.m., Uptown
The midnight movie returns to form with The 4th Dimension, an evocative debut film from newcomers Tom Mattera and Dave Mazzoni. Shot in black and white on Super 16, the film reconnects in both spirit and tone with the efforts of Darren Aronofsky and Christopher Nolan. Eight years prior, their own inaugural films (also shot on 16mm) overcame shoe-string budgets with skilfully stark cinematography, challenging scripts and prominent scores, helping to revitalize the ever-struggling midnight market. Those films were Pi and The Following respectively, and fans of these should find happiness in The 4th Dimension.
Though it may not be on par with these films, The 4th Dimension is still a great first effort worthy of comparison. Its fractured narrative skirts through the life and dreams of Jack Emitni (a name reversed provides a clue), a neurotic genius obsessed with time and the places he appears to travel when he sleeps. I will say no more, and merely reassure you that if you submerge yourself in this film it will pay off handsomely in the end.
And while the dialogue is somewhat forced (particularly with Jack as a child), it is used somewhat sparingly because the real star of this film is the cinematography. Within each and every frame of this film, beautifully desolate set designs embolden the interplay of shadow and light to tell a story all their own.
If there’s beauty in bleakness, these gentlemen are holding a rose.
FIND LOVE
(U.S.A, 2006)
Directed by Erica Dunton
September 28, 9:00 p.m., Uptown Screen
Their flight is delayed. He’s going home. She’s in town for one day, chasing her dream of becoming a newscaster. He’s just learned that his girlfriend is pregnant. She’s unhappily married. They exchange awkward conversation and meaningful glances and somewhere along the way, somehow, despite the odds, they find, as the film’s title would have us know, love. U.K. director Erica Dunton’s second feature-length film is a charmingly low-key portrayal of an unlikely fling. Partly scripted, partly improvised, it plays out with almost documentary-like verisimilitude except, that is, for a few laboured bits – the guy proposing to their flight attendant, the lengths the lead characters go to in order to avoid learning one another’s names. But the film’s weaknesses – the thinness of the story, the dullness of the characters, the blandness of the dialogue ("Think of a number between one and 10." "OK." "What is it?" "Six," "Me too") are easy to ignore, glossed over as they are with skilful nonlinear editing and the almost incessant soundtrack by Múm, gorgeous whimsical toytronica music capable of making even my life seem unbearably romantic.
LINDA LINDA LINDA
(Japan, 2005)
Directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita
September 23, 3:45 p.m., Uptown Screen
Had it been made in the U.S., this story of teenagers forming an all-girl garage band would have collapsed under the weight of every hard-rocking chick-power cliché known to campus radio. But the Japanese have a gift for investing even the most questionable activities with dignity and beauty, and Yamashita’s delicately deadpan comedy duly transmutes adolescent awkwardness into the stuff of dreams.
It’s a slow, quiet film punctuated by loud, fast music, inevitably but not gratuitously cute. North American audiences may find the slow pace and understated exposition at odds with the ostensible subject, but this is simply an honest reflection of how the Japanese embrace Western cultural signifiers while at the same time keeping most of what they signify (at least, to us) at a very safe distance.
LA COUPURE
(Canada, 2006)
Directed by Jean Châteauvert
September 29, 9:00 p.m., Eau Claire
"It scares me." "You need me." "You never wanted us to be anything but lovers." "You think it will ever be like before?" "Sometimes I’d like to forget. Pretend it never happened." "I felt your gaze. You scared me." "We danced together. I was sure everyone was watching." "I was scared. I’m always scared." "I love you." "I’d have followed you if you asked." "I’m asking now." "It’s too late." "I need you." "You and your brother have something special, huh? I wish sometimes that you looked at me that way. That you loved me like him." "I thought having a child would put an end to it. That we’d have a normal life." "I’m tired of being here and needing you. I can’t take it anymore. Understand? I can’t take it anymore. I’m leaving you." "I need you." "Aren’t you scared?" "What does he want?" "He doesn’t know what he wants. He never has." "Two years without touching you. I started to think we’d broken free. A new life. Uncomplicated. Six months after my wedding, we were back in bed. It was unbearable. I just wanted you to stop. You turned my life upside down all over again. Why? What do you want from me? I don’t even know what’s real between us. I should hate you." "I can’t forgive you. I can’t stop loving you." "I didn’t mean to hurt you. You’re the only one I’ve ever managed to love." "You need me." "I’m scared." "Hold me. Hold me tight!"
MONKEY WARFARE
(Canada, 2006)
Directed by Reginald Harkema
September 26, 7:00 p.m., Uptown Screen
This movie is the bomb. The credits clinched it for me. Throwing out the standard hierarchal order that predominates all films sets, writer-director Reginald Harkema boldly delivers the credits, all credits, at the close of the film in a completely random fashion, his own name placed discreetly in the middle. This is followed by a Leonard Cohen song, which plays out in full against the text "Credits Continue Ad Nauseum." Finally, our experience is neatly capped by a guerrilla-shot sequence of Harkema (I assume) demonstrating to us how to build and explode a Molotov cocktail – bravo!
Which brings me to the film itself – a character study freed of resolution. The story centres on aging ex-radicals, Don and Linda, who have spent their latter years hiding from their checkered past while carving out a quiet, comfortable (if not tedious) existence scavenging discarded antiques to sell on the Internet. All is bearable until their pot-dealer is busted. Desperate, Don (Don McKellar rocking a handlebar moustache) enlists Susan, an impressionable, young pot-dealer as their new supplier and so begins a dynamic relationship of innocence versus experience versus "the man."
The anti-establishment films of the ’60s and ’70s are on full display here. There are even two great references to Easy Rider, including a kick-ass montage of an elated (a.k.a. high) McKellar cruising the streets on his bicycle while checking out all those lovely ladies.
And did I mention it also boasts the greatest final line of any film in recent memory?
FLANNEL PAJAMAS
(U.S.A., 2006)
Directed by Jeff Lipsky
September 27, 8:45 p.m., Uptown Screen
Sometimes, movies about relationships can be so tedious and predictable, like a pair of flannel pajamas.
Set in New York, Flannel Pajamas follows the relationship of two very different twentysomethings (Justin Kirk and Julianne Nicholson) struggling to find common ground and sustain love.
As they flail around, trying to look interesting and quirky, it becomes painfully obvious there isn’t enough substance in the script to make this movie interesting. The stilted dialogue made me want to cover my eyes and run away in embarrassment.
I’ve never seen two people argue in such monotone, emotionless voices and it’s unintentionally comedic. It’s almost unbearable to swallow and at times, intellectually insulting. I’d rather sleep in the raw than put on this boring pair of pj’s.
THAT BEAUTIFUL SOMEWHERE
(Canada, 2006)
Directed by Robert Boudreau
September 25, 9:00 p.m., Uptown Screen
That Beautiful Somewhere is set in northern Ontario in the winter, a bleak and frigid setting for a dark and quiet mystery. An archaeologist (Jane MacGregor) who suffers from an unexplained painful condition is summoned to help unravel the mystery of a preserved body found in a peat bog, a bog which is supposed to contain mysterious healing powers. She is teamed with a homicide detective (Roy Dupuis) who was a pilot in the Bosnian conflict, and who is at the end of his emotional rope as a result of a mother on life support and a healthy dose of Catholic guilt.
That Beautiful Somewhere has incredibly beautiful cinematography and skilled pacing throughout, and some fascinating ideas are introduced that beg for development, but somewhere along the line the original story intent seems to have gotten lost, resulting in a film which seems like nothing so much as one film with another film’s ending spliced onto it. Beginning as a subtle exploration into guilt, pain, healing and the nature of our relationship with death, the movie devolves suddenly and inexplicably into a specious myth invention regarding the healing bog, a predictable romance, and a truly unfortunate waste of Gordon Tootoosis’ acting talents, as a curmudgeonly backwoods eccentric with a penchant for playing the glasses while uttering vague hints and predictions. Tootoosis, Dupuis and MacGregor do their considerable best with the unsatisfying material, but it’s not enough to avert the betrayal of a great beginning.
MUTUAL APPRECIATION
(U.S.A., 2005)
Directed by Andrew Bujalski
September 29, 9:30 p.m., Uptown Screen
Following the not-very-epic story of pop singer-songwriter Alan Peoples (Justin Rice), who has moved from Boston to Brooklyn to try to put together a band, Mutual Appreciation is a slow-moving, discursive, shambolic, quirky and utterly beguiling portrait of the artist as a young man. The first few minutes are almost harrowing, until one gets used to all the nervous tics, awkward pauses, and stumbling elocution, at which point what might have struck you as bad acting begins to reveal itself as the endearing mannerisms of bright and charming, if somewhat guarded, twentysomethings. Soon, too, one stops raising one’s eyebrow at director Andrew Bujalski’s choice of res to enter in medias – whether Alan and his friends are baking cookies or simply slowly getting drunk in someone’s apartment, it hardly matters – the characters draw you in, and nearly every conversation, no matter how banal, becomes a pleasure to overhear. "I don’t think we’ve ever made out on your floor before." "My floor is filthy." "We should do cocaine." "OK?" "Everyone I know who’s done cocaine says they’ve cleaned their apartments in like two hours." "Are there any other drugs you want to do?" "No. Just the coke."
IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS
(U.S.A., 2006)
Directed by James Longley
September 30, 3:00 p.m., Uptown Screen
I don't generally approve of documentaries on politically sensitive subjects: books are a so much more rational medium, giving their audience an opportunity to evaluate each of their assertions dispassionately and formulate a coherent response before being marched on to the next one. But filmmaking does have the incalculable advantage of being able to convey a personal perspective compellingly and immediately, and, so long as one is open about the fact that it is the filmmaker's perspective that is being conveyed, not that of the subject, it is possible to do great work in this medium. Iraq in Fragments is a fine example of this.
Three sections, each set in a different location (centre, south, and north) provide three uncommented views of life in post-invasion Iraq – the first and third are shot from a child’s perspective, while the second segment accompanies followers of Shiite demagogue Moqtada Sadr to rallies and on paramilitary operations.
The intelligent choice of subjects, the director’s long-term commitment to the project (spending some six months in each location), and not least the beautiful cinematography, all make this one of the most memorable and meaningful "reality film" experiences of the last decade (along with Michael Glawogger’s Workingman’s Death, and Abolfazl Jalili’s Dance of Dust).
However, be forewarned that (much to his credit) Longley does not provide any of the contextualization we take for granted, so a good prior knowledge of the situation in the Middle East is required to understand exactly what’s going on at a political level in various scenes. I recommend the BBC’s "indepth" websites for a quick start, as well as the Electronic Iraq site to which Longley is affiliated, but please also try to read back-issues of at least two opposing serious magazines, e.g. The Economist and The Guardian Weekly.
F*CK
(U.S.A., 2005)
Directed by Steve Anderson
September 27, 6:45 p.m., Uptown Screen
Everyone does it.
Swear, I mean. From George W. Bush to Bono, we've all let a stream of expletives spew from our mouths in moments of anger, joy, carnal ecstasy and even as emphasis in casual conversation.
Filmmaker Steve Anderson probes the most used expletive of them all in F*CK, using interviews with notable users and opponents of the multipurpose word. It's hilarious, thought provoking and even shocking at times. Suturing together satire and solid statistics, he also points to something more troubling, the unstoppable rise of the F.C.C. south of the border and the burgeoning Christian-based moral organizations that bristle at the mere mention of the word. He also celebrates Lenny Bruce, one of the most notorious defendants of free speech in America, and also one of the most tragic. The film is dedicated to his memory.
Vintage footage of George Carlin musing as to why there are so many euphemisms for seven little words is drop dead hilarious. It's also entertaining to watch the moralists, including Pat Boone, showing us there is a wholesome alternative to potty mouth. In moments of frustration, he shouts his own last name – Boone!
An expletive is born.
ACTS OF IMAGINATION
(Canada, 2006)
Directed by Carolyn Combs
September 27, 4:00 p.m., Globe
Two young Ukrainian immigrants struggle to make a new life in a Vancouver suburb, battling the traumatic memories of their shared childhood and the mindless, appalling prejudices of a script that relies almost entirely on racial and ethnic stereotyping (of East Europeans, Asians and Arabs) for characterization.
From a technical point of view, however, this first fiction feature has many strong points. The visuals are exceptionally well-executed, the cast delivers heartfelt, if slightly awkward performances and the soundtrack is subtle and well-fitted to the film’s theme. So long as there’s no dialogue, all this works quite effectively to evoke a sense of uprootedness and nostalgia, but unfortunately these moments of grace are few and far between.
THE PUZZLING WORLD OF THE ENIGMA
(Canada, 2006)
Directed by James Rewucki
September 24, 7:15 p.m., Globe
This film is a documentary about a man who has tattooed his entire body as a blue jigsaw puzzle. He calls himself The Enigma because he’s desperate to be perceived as something more than a mildly articulate, semi-talented musician possessed with the desire to jam objects through his nasal cavity. The film tells his story by alternating between staged interviews and performances given by The Enigma.
The film attempts to present him as he wants to be perceived – a misunderstood Renaissance man struggling against the shackles of contemporary society, but we just can’t help but see the homely little man who read one too many comic books as a child (he readily admits that comic books were his motivating factor for the alteration of his appearance).
If there is charm to be found in this film it lies in the awkward posturing of an insecure man going to desperate measures to be viewed as significant. What I found most interesting (however unintentional) was the film’s ability to draw out my sympathy for the man behind the ink. Which is oddly appropriate when considering that the film itself is best enjoyed when it’s not taken at face value.
In other words, the true enigma here is the film itself.
MOJAVE PHONE BOOTH
(U.S.A., 2006)
Directed by John Putch
September 29, 7:15 p.m., Globe
The Mojave Phone Booth, directed by John Putch and written by Putch and Jerry Rapp, is an unoriginally written, acted, directed and produced film. It sorely lacks imagination in all that it tries to do. The film looks as though it was shot with a Super 8, and not in an artsy or stylistic way. It comes across as cheaply made and odd, with a home movie look. The script is simple and the storyline is full of movie clichés that don’t work in the film’s favour.
It follows a series of interconnected stories about characters who have various problems and seek solace in talking to a weird stranger named Greta on an abandoned phone booth in the middle of the Mojave desert. Greta listens to their stories and gives them advice. I have the feeling that the filmmakers were going for a deep and "otherworldly" theme in this film, but the vibe it gives off is unprofessional and bland.
Mojave Phone Booth reaches to be many things, among them – unique, smart and touching. Unfortunately, due to a script that no actor could make believable, horrible directing and a confused and insane storyline, Mojave Phone Booth becomes a lame attempt at filmmaking.
MANUFACTURED LANDSCAPES
(Canada, 2006)
Directed by Jennifer Baichwal
September 29, 6:45 p.m., Uptown Screen
In classic National Film Board style, Manufactured Landscapes uses one art form to explore another. With his large-format camera, Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky has been capturing man’s impact on the planet in epic, vibrant stills for 30 years. From the ship metal scrap yards of Bangladesh to the assembly lines of China, this mostly silent documentary chronicles the latest chapter in Burtynsky’s obsession with urbanization. While the artist in question is certainly a master and the subject matter deserves to be a hot-button topic, director Jennifer Baichwal’s MO leaves much to be desired. The opening shot of the film is a massive dolly shot that tracks down a seemingly endless assembly line. Once completed, Baichwal reveals Burtynsky’s take on the same scene. In one split second he tells the same story that Baichwal took six minutes to set up. The remainder of the film plays out the same way. If the film explored the methodology behind Burtynsky’s art or its controversial nature it might be worthwhile. Instead, the moving images are simply pale imitations of the photographs.
THE HAMSTER CAGE
(Canada, 2005)
Directed by Larry Kent
September 30, 6:45 p.m. (Wrap Gala), Globe
The Hamster Cage starts off promising but loses the viewer completely by the time the dead guy comes back to life for the second time. Full of dark, and sometimes disturbing humour, this film is too unrealistic to be taken seriously, even if it is a comedy. Stories of incest, pedophilia and all-around familial malfunction create an uncomfortable atmosphere in a film that could have been OK, if the already-mediocre story was not stretched to oblivion.
The Hamster Cage starts out as a family reunion of sorts, with Paul and Lucy, two siblings, coming home to their parent’s house for dinner. Lucy is upset to find out that her uncle Stan, who molested her as a child, will be coming as well. When he does arrive with a much-too-young girlfriend named Candy, things start to unravel. Long story short, Lucy ends up killing Stan and her brother helps her to dispose of the body. The only problem is that Stan keeps on coming back to life and rejoining the dinner party. Kent was probably going for funny with this, but it is so drawn-out and stupid that it makes one wish that Stan would just die already, and that the movie would finally end.
GARAGE
(Canada, 2006)
Directed by Edmond Chan
September 30, 11:59 p.m., Uptown Screen
October 1, 9:30 p.m., Uptown Screen
Although this film will probably be classified as gay cinema due to about 120-seconds of like-content, most assuredly, it is so much more than that. The story revolves around two people trapped in an underground parking garage, though this is merely a convenient diorama for the narrative. The real story is a grim atmospheric tale of conflicting personalities, personal isolation and ultimately, madness.
Protagonists Simon (a career-minded, self-centred yuppie) and Martha (a homely budding opera star from Newfoundland) meet early on and quickly come to the conclusion that for better or worse, they are stuck together without a means of egress. After trying all the possible exits to the garage they resolve to just wait it out, and then the real sparks begin to fly.
Although they have never met before, both characters seem to possess an uncanny knack for laying bare each other’s personal shortcomings and phobias. As they try to work out their differences, terror creeps into their makeshift purgatory forcing each in turn to confront their own inner demons and rise above petty conflicts.
At the best of times the filmmaker evokes elements of David Cronenberg and David Lynch with his surreal use of psychological horror. This whole feel is greatly aided by the atmospheric camera work by his director of photography, Rudolph Blahacek, and the moody score written and performed by Alice Ping Yee Ho. Certainly not a brilliant film, but not dull either, Garage is recommended for those interested in thoughtful Canadian cinema.
SAM’S LAKE
(Canada, South Korea, 2005)
Directed by Andrew C. Erin
September 24, 9:00 p.m., Globe
The first feature film from Canadian born director Andrew C. Erin has all the necessary ingredients of your typical summer-slasher variety – a superficial blend of good looking friends, a secluded cabin, unsavory local townsfolk, symbolic foreshadowing and a creepy underlying legend delivered via an ambient campfire glow. The latter of which actually manages to provide something a little more original to this otherwise formulaic story.
An escaped psychiatric patient murders his family before disappearing into the woods located near Sam’s Lake. Many years later, a group of friends descend on this locale where, after visiting the site of the murder, they come face to face with the horrible reality of the legend. It is in the retelling of this legend that we experience the film’s chilling and ultimately most convincing moments. The hazy, often distorted flashback sequences provide a window through which we glimpse the killer’s disturbing past. Although this effect leaves an imprint which is both intriguing and unsettling, the corresponding present day scenes fail to resonate with the same intensity.
While the film’s main character, Sam (Fay Masterson), threads together these scenes with a mysterious allure, her lake chums interact more like whiny teenagers than twenty-something urbanites. In this regard, the film trudges into familiar territory where the viewer comes to expect each one-dimensional character to follow the same gruesome fate as the last. In the end, your visit to Sam’s Lake will have you reaching for a life preserver long before you’ve even dipped your toe in.
SCREAMING MASTERPIECE
(Denmark, Iceland, Netherlands, 2005)
Directed by Ari Alexander
September 25, 9:30 p.m., Uptown Screen
October 1, 3:15 p.m., Uptown Screen
Iceland is a gorgeous country – black beaches, a complex language and monkeys. It has cultivated a vibrant arts scene of its own, reflecting the isolated nature of the place, particularly its music scene.
Or so Screaming Masterpiece says, a documentary that posits Iceland’s music was born from its general oddness and the Viking ancestors who kidnapped Irish women and spent their time writing poetry.
Rather than illuminate the thesis it puts forward, Screaming alternates between shots of crashing waves, mountains and concert footage. Presumably, you’re to make the connection.
Many in the film say Iceland’s music is neither European nor North American. Maybe it’s a bit of both – they like shoe-gazing, dirge-like chamber music and hilarious Euro keyboard bands. Don’t we all?
There’s neat archival footage of Iceland’s early post-punk scene and a baby-faced Bjork bobbing around on stage, performances of Sigur Ros’ beluga whale-like music and Mum’s change-rattling-around-in-a-washing-machine noises.
There’s also some bizarre scenes of bureaucrats bouncing around to wacky-ass art music and rapping from what appears to be the Icelandic Marky-Mark – straight thuggin’ in Reykjavik, y’all.
Still, even for a straight concert film, the performances are truncated and without context. For a country as hopelessly wacky and romantic as Iceland, we’ll have to wait for a doc that really explores what makes it so unique.
WORKINGMAN’S DEATH
(Germany, 2005)
Directed by Michael Glawogger
September 29, 3:00 p.m., Globe
Film festivals often pad their programs with documentaries to make up for their inability to present first-rate dramas, then cover up this shortcoming with pieties about keeping things real. But compare any film by the Dardennes to one by Michael Moore and you’ll see the fallacy of this reasoning.
This documentary, however, is not filler. A proletarian Baraka, Workingman's Death is an epic portrayal of man crushed by the wheels of industry. This journey from pre to post-industrialization plays out in five acts, covering subsistence mining in a post-Soviet ghost town, a Nigerian slaughterhouse, a shipwrecking yard in Pakistan, a volcanic sulphur farm in Indonesia and a steelworks in China, before winding up in the Ruhr, where an abandoned smelting plant has been turned into a historical theme park..
It’s about globalization, but avoids facile statements. It’s visually overwhelming, but not superficial. Enough time is spent in each location for the viewer to reflect on and understand what is being shown. The balance between north and south, post-communist and pre-capitalist, precludes political stereotyping.
CHEZ SCHWARTZ
(Canada, 2006)
Directed Garry Beitel
September 30, 9:00 p.m., Uptown Screen
Schwartz’s smoked meat sandwiches are legendary in Montreal, around Canada and across the world. Chez Schwartz examines the ongoing phenomenon that is Schwartz’s Deli in Montreal, taking the audience through a year’s work, talking to staff, management, clients and the panhandlers who work outside the door. Schwartz’s Deli is an all-male establishment, with men who have worked cooking steaks and cutting smoked meat for more than 40 years, a manager who started as a busboy 15 years earlier, waiters who meant to work for a year and are still there seven years later, and busboys who are moved to poetry by the ambience of the diner. Not to mention the three or four panhandlers who have been working the front door of Schwartz’s for 14 years or more.
Chez Schwartz begins as a colourful and warm look at a community establishment, but as the film wears on, a darker tone seems to emerge, one that doesn’t seem the intent of the filmmakers. From the sideways revelation of the relatively recent change in Schwartz’s unspoken "no coloured servers out front" rule and the polite tension between the United Nations-style multicultural staff, to the unconscious melancholy of staff who muse over the length of time they’ve spent at Schwartz’s; Chez Schwartz may be a celebrated local institution, but by the end of this documentary, the emphasis seems to have moved from "celebration" to "institution."
TRAGIC STORY WITH A HAPPY ENDING
(Canada, 2006)
Directed by Regina Pessoa
September 28, 6:30 p.m., Globe
Drawn with an angular, charcoal monochrome, Tragic Story with Happy Ending is, despite its seemingly oxymoronic name, a traditional black-and-white "becoming" narrative. A little girl whose heart beat faster than other people’s finds herself first the subject of the townspeople’s ridicule, then a necessary rhythm in their daily lives, and finally a deeply felt absence when the girl realizes her ultimate metamorphosis and transcendence. Strikingly rendered, its characters and world distorted and surreal, director Regina Pessóa’s seven-minute fairy tale is a passable ugly duckling story with the added message that, difference makes our lives richer, and in its absence we are poorer for it.
THE NORMAN McLAREN RETROSPECTIVE
(Canada, 2006)
Produced by the National Film Board of Canada
September 22, 9:00 p.m., Eau Claire
A Scottish painter-turned-animator whose best known work was created for Canada’s National Film Board, Norman McLaren melded a strong esthetic background with a continuing love of motion. The festival’s retrospective, which will feature works including Opening Speech, Stars and Strip, and Hen Hop, coincides with the September 5 release of a seven-DVD collection with 58 films, tests, unfinished films and support material (photographs, audio clips and more), along with 15 original documentaries.
While much of McLaren’s abstract filmmaking, melding music with images, appears to modern audiences like the visualization of media players, his career represents an early portrait of this kind of fusion. Begone Dull Care, created in 1949, was created by hand, cell by cell, bringing visual life to a song by the Oscar Peterson Trio. McLaren’s other work, including a short pixelation (live actors animated using stop-motion) film titled Neighbors, exhibits both a fascination with and a joyful indulgence in human motion, both as it exists and as it can be manipulated by film. While the Norman McLaren Retrospective may be a look back at one of Canada’s most important animators, it is also a reminder that even the familiar was an innovation, once upon a time. |
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