MIFF Day 4
No theme today, just good fun.
RESURRECT DEAD: THE MYSTERY OF THE TOYNBEE TILES
Across the USA and even in South America, tiles with a strange message have been appearing since the early 1980s. Are they the rantings of a madman, a prank that's still running or some colossal art project? The message itself is bizarre, but the ways in which it has affected peoples lives is even stranger. Justin Duerr, Colin Smith and Steve Weinik are obsessed with finding out the truth behind this strange message:
TOYNBEE IDEA
IN KUBRICK'S 2001
RESURRECT DEAD
ON PLANET JUPITER
As it turns out, even David Mamet is involved in this, albeit tangentially. What's amazing about this doco is that it actually lucks out in finding some plausible answers through some amazing coincidences and pure dogged investigation. Justin, Colin and Steve are meticulous, and uncover a wealth of information. It's wonderfully told, with an appropriately strange Elfmanesque score. The things you'll learn are completely bizarre, but I don't want to spoil it. Seek this one out and discover it for yourself.
WIN WIN
Paul Giamatti is pretty much a guarantee of a good film, and this is no exception. It's a bog standard mid-budget American indie comedy with a good heart and a few flawed characters screwing up massively while remaining decent human beings. It's nothing special, but it's entertaining and really funny.
THE FUTURE WILL NOT BE CAPITALIST
A short film about the history of the headquarters of the French Communist Party. A study in architecture, it's pretty cool to see such an interestingly designed building.
DETROIT WILD CITY
Basically a vision of America eating itself alive, this is a film about the death of Detroit. Stripped of industry, the city is slowly being cannibalised for scrap while whole areas are overtaken by crime, or nature, or both. There's people who have taken over derelict spaces and turned them into farms for the local community, others are destroying crack houses and turning them into public parks, and still others are just leaving. Plenty of people still work in the city, but few actually live there. It never really comes to a point, but its varied vignettes give an insight into the death of American industry, and what that's meant for the place of its birth.
END OF ANIMAL
God bless the Koreans and their crazy cinematic ways. This little gem is small, focused and really weird. While riding in a cab on the way to stay with her mother, a strange man joins Soon Young and starts counting down the seconds. And then the world ends. The strange man is gone, but communicates with Soon Young via the only working piece of technology remaining, a walkie talkie. She meets other people who are all pretty nasty pieces of work, and ignores every piece of advice the strange man gives her, to her detriment. It's hard to like a film where everyone is either evil or just too damn willfully stupid to be sympathetic, but that's kinda the point here. For much of the runtime, I was thinking this was some kind of allegory about people refusing to listen to God, choosing their own way rather than accepting a well-intentioned direction. But while the stranger says he loves everyone, God isn't the only one who loves a sinner. It's a nifty little story with some nice ideas to chew on.
THE UNJUST
Good fun, but about half an hour too long, this is a story of a corrupt cop and a corrupt public prosecutor locked in a battle of wits. It's actually pretty cool, since the people they're taking kickbacks from are locked in a war over a property deal, so they're each trying to knock the other out to let their side win. Add in a case about a child-murderer they're both assigned to and you've got a really twisty and tense thriller. Sadly, it gets a little too twisty towards the end and starts to lose itself as what is meant to be karma biting back feels a little too contrived, especially as one corrupt cop seems fine with bribes but is suddenly not cool with executing gangsters. Great concept, and a solid film for the most part, but too long and too silly at the end. There'll probably be a Hollywood remake sometime ala Infernal Affairs. Hopefully it'll go the same way and improve on the weaknesses in the original.
RESURRECT DEAD: THE MYSTERY OF THE TOYNBEE TILES
Across the USA and even in South America, tiles with a strange message have been appearing since the early 1980s. Are they the rantings of a madman, a prank that's still running or some colossal art project? The message itself is bizarre, but the ways in which it has affected peoples lives is even stranger. Justin Duerr, Colin Smith and Steve Weinik are obsessed with finding out the truth behind this strange message:
TOYNBEE IDEA
IN KUBRICK'S 2001
RESURRECT DEAD
ON PLANET JUPITER
As it turns out, even David Mamet is involved in this, albeit tangentially. What's amazing about this doco is that it actually lucks out in finding some plausible answers through some amazing coincidences and pure dogged investigation. Justin, Colin and Steve are meticulous, and uncover a wealth of information. It's wonderfully told, with an appropriately strange Elfmanesque score. The things you'll learn are completely bizarre, but I don't want to spoil it. Seek this one out and discover it for yourself.
WIN WIN
Paul Giamatti is pretty much a guarantee of a good film, and this is no exception. It's a bog standard mid-budget American indie comedy with a good heart and a few flawed characters screwing up massively while remaining decent human beings. It's nothing special, but it's entertaining and really funny.
THE FUTURE WILL NOT BE CAPITALIST
A short film about the history of the headquarters of the French Communist Party. A study in architecture, it's pretty cool to see such an interestingly designed building.
DETROIT WILD CITY
Basically a vision of America eating itself alive, this is a film about the death of Detroit. Stripped of industry, the city is slowly being cannibalised for scrap while whole areas are overtaken by crime, or nature, or both. There's people who have taken over derelict spaces and turned them into farms for the local community, others are destroying crack houses and turning them into public parks, and still others are just leaving. Plenty of people still work in the city, but few actually live there. It never really comes to a point, but its varied vignettes give an insight into the death of American industry, and what that's meant for the place of its birth.
END OF ANIMAL
God bless the Koreans and their crazy cinematic ways. This little gem is small, focused and really weird. While riding in a cab on the way to stay with her mother, a strange man joins Soon Young and starts counting down the seconds. And then the world ends. The strange man is gone, but communicates with Soon Young via the only working piece of technology remaining, a walkie talkie. She meets other people who are all pretty nasty pieces of work, and ignores every piece of advice the strange man gives her, to her detriment. It's hard to like a film where everyone is either evil or just too damn willfully stupid to be sympathetic, but that's kinda the point here. For much of the runtime, I was thinking this was some kind of allegory about people refusing to listen to God, choosing their own way rather than accepting a well-intentioned direction. But while the stranger says he loves everyone, God isn't the only one who loves a sinner. It's a nifty little story with some nice ideas to chew on.
THE UNJUST
Good fun, but about half an hour too long, this is a story of a corrupt cop and a corrupt public prosecutor locked in a battle of wits. It's actually pretty cool, since the people they're taking kickbacks from are locked in a war over a property deal, so they're each trying to knock the other out to let their side win. Add in a case about a child-murderer they're both assigned to and you've got a really twisty and tense thriller. Sadly, it gets a little too twisty towards the end and starts to lose itself as what is meant to be karma biting back feels a little too contrived, especially as one corrupt cop seems fine with bribes but is suddenly not cool with executing gangsters. Great concept, and a solid film for the most part, but too long and too silly at the end. There'll probably be a Hollywood remake sometime ala Infernal Affairs. Hopefully it'll go the same way and improve on the weaknesses in the original.
posted by Andrew Lee at 12:15 AM
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