2010 CIFF: Final Thoughts

So the 34th annual Cleveland International Film Festival is over, and as I finish my first year volunteering I must say that it was a truly wonderful experience. It was a great interacting with staff, patrons, and other volunteers while working and seeing films. In total I saw 10 feature films and 26 shorts, some good some bad. I also fell asleep during 2, which is an example of how tiring a festival can be. I made new friends and would encourage all to volunteer or just attend next year's festival.

2010 CIFF Closing Night: Looking For Eric

May 2010 Lamplighter Review In a time when American comedies rely on gross-out gags and then expect us to care for infantile grown men, a humanistic British comedy like Looking for Eric is like a breath of fresh air. It is directed by Ken Loach and tells the story of a named Eric, wonderfully portrayed by Steve Evets. He is undergoing a mid-life crisis. His kids don't respect him, his ex-wife won't talk to him, and he has just been in a car crash. He eventually admits that he can’t remember the last time he was happy.

After some meditation exercises with friends, Eric is visited by an imaginary friend in the form of Eric Cantona (played by himself) the star player of the soccer powerhouse Manchester United in the 1990s and Eric's favorite player. As he begins to heed the advice from his make-believe hero, Eric begins to pick up the pieces of his life. From this description, you may think this is the usual tale of self-redemption, but if you think you know where this is going and how he gets there, you are sadly mistaken. We are lead down roads we cannot anticipate into an ending that is inspired and uproarious.

While engaging the viewer with its comedic elements, Looking for Eric also succeeds by drawing us in with its human elements, making us care about its characters. Though some of the characters are rough around the edges, the filmmakers have nothing but love for them and what results is a kind, observant, and profound film experience while managing to be utterly hysterical at the same time.

Original Review Well the time has come and closing night, the last film is upon us in my first volunteer year for the Cleveland International Film Festival. This year the film selected to close this years fest is Ken Loach's Looking For Eric and it was a truly wonderful selection. Looking for Eric stars a postman named Eric (a wonderful Steve Evets) who is undergoing a mid-life crisis. His kids don't respect him, his ex-wife won't talk to him, and he has just been in a car crash. He can't remember the last time he was happy. After some meditation exercises, Eric begins to see an imaginary friend in the form of Eric Cantona (played by himself) the star player of Manchester United in the 90s and Eric's favorite player. With advice from his hero, Eric begins to pick up the pieces of his life. But if you think you know where this is going and how he gets there you are sadly mistaken. This is the kind of British comedy that Americans just aren't capable of. It is kind, observant, and profoundly human while being utterly hysterical at the same time. What a great film to end a great film festival with.
***1/2

2010 CIFF: The Last Truck

The Last Truck: Closing Of A GM Plant is the wonderful and heart-wrenching documentary short that was nominated for an Academy Award. I reviewed it further down the blog or you can view it here. It was preceded by a short. Here's that review:
The Palace Of Light
Hilarious short shows Post's Shredded Wheats CEO trying to hold back his company from progress. There are many sharp points and funny moments in this 13 minute film. ***1/2 

2010 CIFF: Independent Short Jury Awards

The Jury Awards worked the same way, except that they awarded more films. We were again shown seven shorts, and I was a little disappointed with some of the selections, though there were some good ones. These films are eligible for Oscar contention and I placed an asterix after ones not screened. Here are the reviews:
Alma*
Lost and Found*
Home
Home is a surprisingly bland and empty short made with home photographs and having to do with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. **
The Devil's Wedding
Devil's Wedding is a darkly comic, well-written, and disturbing short about Satan getting hitched. ***
Get Happy*
Claiming The Title: Gay Olympics On Trial*
Ana's Playground
Well-made short about a girl risking her life to regain her lost soccer ball in a war zone neighborhood. ***1/2
We Were Twenty*
Cigarette Candy
Well made and well acted short about a Marine's homecoming just rings false. **1/2
After Tomorrow*
Beast
Again well-made but extremely convoluted Danish short about domestic abuse. **1/2
Expiration
Wonderfully conceived and executed short about the dangers of drinking expired milk ****
The Best Part Of My Day
Cute but long and obvious short. **1/2
Heal*
reviewed here **1/2
The Beauty Of Damage*
Winter Fugue*
reviewed here ***1/2

2010 CIFF: Independent Short Audience Awards

This program was determined by audience vote and before the program, we were told what the top ten shorts were, informed that we would only view seven, and that the winner of the audience awards was not available because its print had already been shipped to its next destination. bummer! Still the shorts shown were of decent quality. I will try to view the three that didn't play. Here are the top ten with an asterix next to the ones that didn't screen:
12 Stones*
Lost and Found*
Heal
Heal tells the story of a Middle Eastern boy who finds he has a special power in the time when his village needs him. I didn't think this was a top-notch short though it was kind of powerful at the end. **1/2
Nico's Challenge
Wonderful documentary detailing a one-legged boys attempt to scale Mt. Kilimanjaro for charity. ***1/2
The Action Hero's Guide To Saving Lives
Amusing short in which a Bruce Willis like cop is called in to handle a hostage situation.
***1/2 
Pigeon: Impossible
Ok short detailing an FBI agent dealing with a bothersome pigeon. **1/2
Big Guy
Disturbing short in which the fake-Superbad dude starts a relationship with a bulimic brothel worker. **
Banana Bread
Saw this earlier in the week, reviewed here ***
Table 7
My favorite short of the program shows what happens behind the scenes at a Chinese restaurant. ***1/2 
Lights*

2010 CIFF: A Town Called Panic

 

The festival's late night showing tonight was a delgihtful, funny comedy from France, filmed with little figurines done entirely in stop-motion animation. The ludicrous story revolves around two friends, Cowboy and Indian, trying to plan the best birthday for the other friend horse. Their plans of course go horribly wrong and the trio find themselves in situation I can't even begin to explain. Though maybe in the same league as other stop-motion classics such as Wallace and Gromit, ATCP is filmed in the same vein with the same warm and charming sense of humor.
***

2010 CIFF: The Last Campaign

Well, today was the day it hit me. After watching hours of film and volunteering all week I was utterly exhausted. I had tickets to see a double feature before my shift today started. The first film was called the Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner. Since it was nominated for an Academy Award Best Documentary Short, I reviewed it here or you can scroll down the blog to view it. The director introduced the film which was pretty neat. After nodding off a little towards the beginning the film, I decided to skip the second feature which was called Convention and was supposed to detail the Democratic Convention in August 2008. I figured I didn't need to see two liberal documentaries in one day. I was so tired that I decided not to volunteer today and skip the midnight screening I had tickets for called Storage. I didn't realize how exhausting a film festival can get!

2010 CIFF: A Call Girl

Today the late show I caught after volunteering was a Slovenian film called A Call Girl. The film's editor who introduced the film said it was originally called Slovenian Girl but the American distributor's thought it would fair better under A Call Girl, so there you have it. Anyways, the film is about a young college student who sells herself to pay for rent and school. It opens with her visiting an obese client who has a heart attack and dies. It turns out he is some government bigwig and the police begin looking for the girl to question her. This was basically the description I read in the CIFF film brochure and I decided to see it because it sounded to be like a capable thriller, and for a while it is. However the film shifts tones to much from thriller to comedy to drama and doesn't really know what it wants to be. Also many interesting storylines do not payoff and the film feels incomplete. I did like the performance of her father as a suicidal musician who cares about his daughter, but even his scenes felt out of place. A Call Girl is a movie that sets things up very well but never follows through.
**1/2

2010 CIFF: Garbo-The Spy

Garbo: The Spy is a unique historical documentary in that it has a sense of humor, and in that instead of listening to old British historian bores drone on, we are shown clips from classic WWII and spy films on top of the expected stock footage for which the old British historian bores to drone on over. The documentary tells the story of a Spaniard acted as a spy for the British while pretending to be a spy for the Germans. He is depicted as enigmatic and intelligent, contriving the most grandiose of schemes and also saving himself from the most dangerous of situations. The most pertinent part of his story is the role he played in D-Day, and how he helped the Allies win the war. I really liked the structure of this documentary in how it tells an interesting story that unfolds like a good film.
***

2010 CIFF: Independent Shorts Program 8

When I was volunteering, I was told that the shorts programs were the most popular screenings at the festival. So, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the 8th set of the Independent Shorts Program today. It was a nice mix of different kinds of shorts, including live-action, documentary, and animated, and also ranging among different types of tones. Here are brief individual reviews of each short in this program:
Down In Number 5
The first short of the program is also probably the best. It tells the story of a dying man's efforts to secure a future for his disabled son. It is exquisitely filmed and heart-wrenching. ***1/2 
Cricket
Cricket is a mercifully brief Japanimated short. ** 
When I'm Not Alone
This is also a wonderful short, a documentary about a woman who was abused so bad and so long that she thinks she is a man. However, it is not a weepy film that makes you feel sorry for the person, but rather an uplifting story about succeeding despite obstacles. ***1/2 
Banana Bread
Short tells about an overprotective, hypochondriac mother who continually nags her grown son on the cell phone, though he has a secret she should be worried about. Funny short, though the joke begins to wear thin. *** 
Winter Fugue
This finely realized short tells the story of a young woman who's inventor father has recently died and left his New York apartment a mess for her to clean before selling it. However, her father may have one last surprise up his sleeve. ***1/2 
Helpless
Helpless takes place in a police station and recalls an incident from several different point of views. Certain elements in this short irritated me but at the same time I enjoy these kind of exercises. ***
The Shopkeeper (Dukandar)
Indian film tells the story of a mischievous boy with a vivid imagination who is given the task of watching his father's shop during a crucial cricket game. This one didn't really work for me, but it had its moments. **1/2  
I Want To Spend The Rest Of My Life With You
Very short short is darkly humorous as a destined couple meet. ***

2010 CIFF: Quest For Honor

I concluded my day by seeing Quest For Honor, a sixty minute documentary which was preceded by the wonderful Academy-Award winning documentary short Music By Prudence (which I'll review further down the blog, or click here). Quest For Honor wasn't a bad documentary. It just wasn't an interesting one. Maybe I've gotten used to the in-your-face Michael Moore style of documentaries or maybe it was just too late, but this one didn't really peak my interest though it was about an important subject. It opens with CNN's Anderson Cooper reporting on an "honor killing" in Iraq where a woman has been brutally beaten to death for betraying her husband. The film then follows a group that tries to protect women from these killings. We also meet a victim of an attempted murder, a journalist who writes about these horrid happenings, and a policeman who is investigating one such murder. Though this is an important issue, I thought it could have been presented in a less tedious fashion.
**

2010 CIFF: Applause

After two days of volunteering and seeing films I took a day off and was back today for a movie before and after my shift. I started the afternoon out seeing a Danish film called Applause. This is the kind of film where the lead performance is the whole movie, and that should be no surprise since it is about an alcoholic stage actress trying to reform her life. Though her career is still strong and she is still a celebrity, Thea has lost her husband and relinquished her kids. Now she desperately wants her children back, if only she can stay off the bottle. We have seen this scenario many times before, but I think why filmmakers return to it again and again is for the performance and here Paprika Steen delivers a home run. She plays Thea as an angry woman, upset at her ex, furious with her visible aging, and ultimately furious with herself. She plays her with such ferocity, you aren't quite sure how a trip to the park with her children will turn out. Though we have seen this type of film before, Steen's performance is one to behold.
***

In The Heat Of The Night

The key moment of the film comes in the very beginning and is the same line everyone remembers. It is the moment when Virgil Tibbs asserts himself when the Sparta, Mississippi Police Chief belligerently asks what he's referred to as in his hometown of Philadelphia. Virgil replies, "THEY CALL ME MR. TIBBS!" and the audience cheers while some think, this movie was made in 1967-sentiments they will ask again during the infamous slap scene. Indeed, In The Heat Of The Night challenged racial stereotypes and caused a stir when it was released, but at its heart it is an old fashioned murder mystery/detective story (at a time when these stories were still fun and not set in CSI labs). The plot revolves around the murder of a rich industrialist. A well-groomed black man is arrested for the crime, shown to be innocent, and then heads the case as he is a top homicide detective from up north. He is given aid from the reluctant new Chief of Police Gillespie, and of course the two men form a bond as the movie progresses. The movie oozes southern atmosphere, though I learn it was filmed in Illinois. Though Sidney Poitier turns in a wonderful performance, the movie is stolen by Rod Steiger in his academy award winning role as the beer-bellied, gum chewing, southern speaking police chief. I would have liked a neater wrap-up to the film's mystery, but this is a wonderful film on so many different levels, and one that inspired a revolution.
****

The Graduate

The Graduate represents a triumph of film directing, a generation defining revolutionary film, and what many won't recognize as a misinformed or convoluted story. We all laugh as the naive recent college grad Benjamin Braddock fumbles his way through an affair with the manipulative, controlling, and sexy Mrs. Robinson, and then cheer for him as he tries to woo her daughter Elaine. Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft are superb in their roles throughout and Mike Nichols commands his camera like no other person ever has (I'm serious, this is one of the most sure-handedly directed films ever). The dialogue is spot on and the comedy still works, not too mention the great Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack. It's just a matter of story when it comes to Katharine Ross's Elaine. What does Benjamin see in her? Is it the fact that Mrs. Robinson forbids them seeing each other? Well it can't just be just that thrill that gets him entirely out of his aimless funk. I mean, they go on one date, she doesn't say a word and begins to cry because he acted like a jerk. Then she runs away, and he follows her in what can only be described in today's terms as stalking. Then you know the rest, but by the end this is a couple who don't know each other from anything and may or may not be right for each other. Look at the picture above and wonder if they aren't thinking the same thing. Or maybe that's the point.
****

2010 CIFF: Retrospective Screenings

Since festival films are usually hit-or-miss, I thought why not taken in a couple of proven films that are shown as part of a retrospective series, and since this year's films were 1967's The Graduate and In The Heat Of The Night, where could I go wrong? The actual name that is given to the retrospective screenings is called From The Page To The Projector and is actually an award given to those who have made contributions to literature and film. This year they decided to award Mark Harris, whose book PICTURES AT A REVOLUTION details the five Oscar nominated Best Picture nominees from 1967 (the other three are Guess Whose Coming To Dinner, Bonnie and Clyde, and Doctor Dolittle[he explained this nomination]) and how they changed Hollywood and America. He spoke before both screenings, after the second screening, and in between when he received his award. He seemed very genial and well versed in film. Before reviewing these two classics, I just wanted to state how great it was to witness them on the big screen and to see how they helped to usher in the revolution.

2010 CIFF: Van Diemen's Land

So the Cleveland International Film Festival has kicked off again and for the first time I have decided to volunteer, rather than just patronizing a few of the films. After 6 hours of collecting ballots, tallying patrons, and ushering I was ready to enjoy a film. And although it was a stinker, I really enjoyed the film festival atmosphere (as I sensed the many who came out for it today did) and I would encourage you to come out and support it. Here is my review of the midnight movie I just got out of called Van Diemen's Land, which contains minor spoilers:
     As the film begins, it offers us the prisoner's two choices: enslavement with brutal work and cruel punishment or escape through the harsh and unforgiving wilderness. The men choose the latter and are off on a grueling battle with Mother Nature, but of course they will find that the real enemy is themselves (it doesn't help that the seven men are from opposing British and Irish backgrounds). This film had potential, but soon it becomes a nasty, nihilistic, and gruesome tale that plays out like an And Then There Were None version of Saw. There is no point to all the mayhem and carnage accept for the fact that it was supposedly based on a true story of an 1822 escape by prisoners on the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land in Tasmania. What makes everything worse is the extreme self-seriousness of the story, especially in the narration. A good survival in the wilderness story can be the most fun of films, but not the way this one was handled. It does score points for its wilderness shots, but even the cuts are sloppy and the film shows the sign of its low budget.
**