Last weekend, there was a film festival in our town. If you don’t know what these are, it’s basically a way for movie lovers to go and see some famous actors and directors presenting their films. It’s also a way for independent film makers to get their movies shown on the big screen. So last weekend, I saw 5 movies (one was in regular theaters) and a set of student shorts. Just two days ago, I saw another new movie in theaters. Most of these you can see on DVD, but one or two probably won’t be a wide release if there is any release.
Burn After Reading (theaters)
From the directors of No Country For Old Men, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and O Brother Where Art Thou comes another great movie. Like most of the Coen brothers’ movies, this one is a dark comedy about a bunch of people who are all confused idiots. The acting was great, with one of the best casts in a while with George Clooney, Frances McCormand, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, and Brad Pitt. They each play their parts perfectly as we should expect of them. Some of it wasn’t AS funny as I hoped it would be, but it’s still the best movie in theaters since The Dark Knight. If you have any interest at all in this movie, go see it, if not, just rent it later, you won’t regret it.
43/50 Ducks
Student Academy Award Winning Shorts (not sure if you can see them them)
From 6 different college film directors comes this collection of some weird, and some powerful short films. I’ll break them each down into the categories.
Animation(tie): Art’s Desire: A well done, 4 minute animation of paintings coming to life and drawing better lives for themselves. It brought some laughs, and probably deserved the award. It was a little jumpy in the animation but these aren’t proffesional, so I’ll let it slide a little more. You can see this one on the internet here. 38/50 Ducks
Animation(tie): Mirage: The weaker of the two that tied for first is in 3D. It’s VERY weird, even for me, with a water dwelling person(?) who needs to fill up their tank with water to stay alive. Animation is ok, but nothing spectacular, it wasn’t funny or powerful, I’m sure there were better choices than it. 25/50 Ducks
Narrative: Rundown: This was my 3rd favorite of the bunch, about a news reporter who accidently ran into a pregnent lady in her car, and then reporting about it on T.V. The film is powerful, with great acting and story. I can’t find too much wrong with it except the fact that it didn’t take chances on the cinematography. 45/50 Ducks
Alternative: Fission: A solid alternative film about, well, not really sure what its about. Something about a guy who is laughing at his shadow that’s trapped in a wall. REALLY weird, but its a good weird, keeping you interested the whole time, even if you have no clue whats going on. 35/50 Ducks
Documentary: Cross Your Eyes Keep Them Wide: About an art studio in San Francisco that lets mentally challenged adults come and make their art, this was easily my second favorite. It’s told without any narration from anybody, just showing their art and having them say how much fun it is. One of the best documentaries I’ve seen, short or long, there could be no way that any other could match it. 48/50 Ducks
Honorary Foreign Film: Nevermore: While it was my dad’s least favorite, I think that it was a masterpiece. Its the longest, about 1 hour, but I just kept wishing that it wouldn’t stop. The shot choices are beautiful, matching the best cinematographers in Hollywood, and the acting was great. It was a little weird for mainstream movie watchers, but for a film lover, it was perfect. 50/50 Ducks
Overall, it was 40/50 Ducks
It’s My Party (DVD)
A solid movie about a gay man who got contracted with AIDs and threw a party before he would kill himself. I like the subject matter it brought up, dieing before becoming a vegetable, but it just didn’t make me connect with the characters all too well. I cared for him, but it didn’t bring the emotions of sadness I think it meant to. After the movie was done, and the director talked about it, you could see that he was very proud of it though, since it was based on a true story from his life. If you want to see it, then you shouldn’t dislike it, but if you’re a homophobe, don’t see it.
35/50 Ducks
La Bamba (DVD)
About the musician Ritchie Valens, this was tied for my favorite full length movie at the film festival. While in technical terms, it was all just above average, it really does make you feel for him, even more so than Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash film. Acting was very good, but what made it so good was the music and the emotions. Lou Diamond Phillips, the main actor in it, talked about how it started his succesful career, putting him on the radar. I think that of all the movies that I saw, this one was the most mainstream and could be liked by anyone, unless you just hate good music.
45/50 Ducks
Around the World in Two Round Trips (not availible, U.S premier)
The other movie that was tied for my favorite, this one was an excellent documentary of a Brazilian family that sailed around the world along Magellean’s path. It keeps you interested with funny stories from the trip and history lessons about Magellean. From beginning to end, it keeps you hooked to your seat, not wanting to take that trip to the bathroom. The subtitles though were the only problem, since sometimes you couldn’t read them because of the color of font. Otherwise, it was my favorite full length documentary of all time.
45/50 Ducks
P.T. 109 (not on DVD, maybe on VHS)
Starring Cliff Robertson (Uncle Ben in Spiderman) as John F. Kennedy, this was about Kennedy’s experience in the war. Everything in here was average, the acting, mood, writing, and directing. While it was a great story, I just think that it could have been told better with less of an upbeat tone. War movies should be grisly and violent, (Saving Private Ryan, Apocalypse Now) not happy. The bad part is though, we didn’t see the most important scene in the movie, since the disc or film was messed up. I liked it, but it could have been better.
35/50 Ducks
Righteous Kill (theaters)
Starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, there was no way that this movie could be horrible. But other than their acting, the rest of it was, like P.T. 109, average. The script had some good scenes with funny dialogue, and good action, but it’s horrible compared to a lot of the movies that are also in the “crime drama” genre. I hoped that it would end well, with a big twist at the end, but the “twist” was so easy to spot 20 minutes before that I wasn’t surprised at all. If you like crime dramas, then you shouldn’t be dissappointed, just don’t look for anything great here.
35/50 Ducks
