J (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} funkyplatypus) wrote,@ 2008-04-26 19:36:00 |
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| Current mood: |  accomplished |
| Current music: | Elvis Costello- "B Movie" |
You can read me the riot act...
The festival is over.
All in all, I saw 32 movies in the span of twelve days, falling just short of my 35-movie goal. That's alright, though, considering I saw 13 last year when I was aiming for 15. Next year I guess I'll be up in the fifties, if I can make time for it.
As with any festival, it was a mixed bag. You had a lot of very good, creative and imaginative movies, a couple remarkable ones and a few forgettable and/or overindulgent clunkers. What's funny is that, in a festival setting, you don't really have any discrimination. There was only one film that I walked out of due to annoyance and that was mostly because I had company and felt like a dick for putting them through a shitty movie. Other than that, I was quite happy to just sit there and take it all in.
I got to watch most of the movies I wanted to see. Others, because of schedule or availability issues, had to be sacrificed or replaced by other movies. Possibly the best movie I saw in the entire festival was a beautiful little Taiwanese picture called "Help Me Eros". I didn't think much of it after the initial screening, but it stuck with me. As I walked back home that night I couldn't get the picture out of my head, and I had watched 5 movies that day. I had to go back and watch it again, so I caught another screening of it the next day and it cemented my opinion.
This is one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen. Every single shot was so carefully framed, so gorgeously lit, it was almost like leafing through a picture book. It is desolate and slow-moving, but the images and music are so powerful you don't notice that 5-minute shot of an apartment building. It doesn't feel forced or pretentious in any way. It just feels like whoever made this is the loneliest person in the world.
"Smiley Face" was a surprisingly funny look at a disastrous day in the life of a pothead after she takes one too many bong hits and eats a whole batch of a certain type of muffins, leading to a number of fuckups that culminate in... well, you're better off watching the movie. It's stoner humor for sure, but a real breath of fresh air and a delight to watch in the middle of an indie film festival populated with symbolism-heavy betacam-shot dramas.
"Zoo" was one of my favorite movies in the festival-- a startlingly honest, strikingly gorgeous documentary about a famous case of zoophillia. The movie eliminates any sleaze from the subject matter and just presents the story in the most respectful way possible. It doesn't glorify, it doesn't villify, it doesn't make sweeping generalizations. It deals with one very particular case, and does so with great aesthetic attention. Strongly recommended.
"I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK" was absolutely stunning. Something completely different for Chan-wook Park coming out of his "revenge trilogy", but just as great. This is a psych ward story that borders on romantic comedy. It treats its characters, naive, childlike and insane, with respect and indulgence. We are part of their fantasies. We don't laugh at them, but with them. And the movie pulls it off. Not bad for someone who just a few years ago directed bloody, gorey incestuous revenge flicks.
Also of note, an extremely DIY indie movie called "Wellness" about the crumbling hopes of a sad and aging man who thinks he's tapped into a revolutionary new product that's going to change the world, but ends up being nothing more than a glorified pyramid scheme. "Deficit" was the directing debut of one Gael Garcia Bernal, now a B-list Hollywood actor. I went into the screening expecting to hate it, but it turned out to be a surprisingly decent little movie that kind of falls apart by the third act. "La Chatte a deux Tetes" was an intriguing french... dramedy? About a night at a porn theater. I saw enough cocks and explicit gay acts in this movie to last me a lifetime and left feeling like I desperately needed to take a shower, which I guess means the movie did its job.
Other highlights: a few music documentaries. The most compelling being Julien Temple's brilliant "Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten", which told the story of the Clash frontman. I love Joe Strummer. Always have. But apart from the story of The Clash told through the awesome Don Letts documentary "Westway to the World", I knew remarkably little about him. This masterfully put together documentary explores everything about Joe. From his family history to his boarding school days, his time as a squatter playing pubs with The 101ers, the rise and fall of The Clash, his descent into near-insanity and his tragically cut short career with The Mescaleros. Joe was a fascinating individual with a strong and contagious love for music and people. It was great to see this celebration of his life and accomplishments in a theater full of Clash fans that were probably not at all familiar with his work with The Mescaleros.
Also screening were two other Julien Temple documentaries, "Glastonbury" (about the festival) and "The Filth and the Fury" (about the Sex Pistols). They were both enjoyable and admirable examples of Temple's collage style of documentary filmmaking, using everything from cartoon clips to TV adverts to tell the story.
There was also a wonderfully taciturn documentary about Patti Smith called "A Dream of Life". I hesitate to even call it a documentary about Patti Smith. It was more like a documentary with Patti Smith. It was an exploration of love and loss, of mortality and aging. It's about family relationships and the passing of the torch from one generation to the other. Truly powerful stuff.
Thirty-two movies... and I could write so much about each one of them, good and bad. But I'll spare you.
Life has been moving along. My birthday was a couple weeks ago. I am now effectively twenty one and still totally in denial. I feel like I've lived ten thousand lifetimes and yet I feel so completely inexperienced and unprepared to function in adultland. I'm worried I've become more infantile and codependent as the years go by as opposed to mature and independent. I'm more frustrated with myself than I've ever been. I guess I'm in a slump. So here's where 21 finds me. I can only hope it's all upwards from here.
Anyway! Other than that, what else is new? We had an office inauguration party last night where at some point a certain loudspoken American employee grabbed the microphone and decided that it would be a good idea to do an "office trivia contest" that resulted in one of the most awkward and tense moments I've ever been a part of. I had to get the hell out of there, so I went to the patio where I had a forty five minute conversation about Keane and how much they suck, except I didn't participate in the conversation with anything other than random-ass stream-of-consciousness gibberish, to which the other party would go "Right!" before continuing his hateful rant against Keane. If I had been in any other mood, it would've been hilarious.
Other things:
- The new Elvis Costello, "Momofuku", is apparently incredibly awesome and was recorded with the aid of Rilo Kiley's lead singer What's Her Name. I will be picking it up as soon as the CD is released.
- How the hell did I miss this?!
- I recently saw some pictures of Neve Campbell topless from some movie. She has fat-man tits. It's disturbing and shocking. Now every time I see Neve Campbell, I can't help thinking of her oddly shaped fat-man tits.
- Also, what is with this sudden rush of actresses taking their gear off when they're past their prime and nobody cares anymore?
- I wanted to write about how excited I was about the new Batman movie, but that would just be repetitive of me at this point (as if writing about how frustrated I am with myself isn't repetitive enough already!).
- "4 Minutes" effectively combines the three people who most annoy the shit out of me in the music business-- Madonna, Justin Timberlake and Timbaland. Throw Juanes in there and you got yourself the most annoying song in the history of music.
- When will Justin Timberlake start looking older than 19?
That's it, I'm done.
OH WAIT, NO I'M NOT!
Ahh, Mike. What an exquisite pleasure it is to sit next to you every day in the office and hear you say things in your funny German accent. Even the simplest, most mundane things. Like, "I want some coffee", or "I lost one of my socks today", or "I really really really like bananas".
Lauren showing once more the standard of professionalism that the English uphold in the workplace.
More Mike.
And more still!
Early-morning cinephiles waiting to buy tickets to the festival.
Lauren being Lauren.
Me being a total dickwad.
Us together, being cute.
The name of this lingerie store caught my attention. "Sweet Victorian"?
Corrientes avenue, Cine Cosmos, where a drunken homeless man accused me of being a government spy.
This is the office inauguration party. See? Everybody's having fun.
Uber Director extraordinaire, Amilcar Galarza, being his charming self.
And again.
Always the tall guy who's relegated to the back of group pictures, :(.
People reacting to the camera.
People dancing.
Okay, now I'm done!
