MIFF 2013 - Day 17
A GLIMPSE INSIDE THE MIND OF CHARLES SWAN III
Will this course-correct Charlie Sheen's career? Probably not, but it does show he can still act. Roman Coppola's surrealist story of a man struggling to deal with his much younger girlfriend dumping him delivers repeatedly in both comedy and humanity. There were moments, especially early on, where it looked like it was going to turn into a vaguely misogynist rant against the unfairness of people not loving you for being a dickhead, but it very smoothly slides into a gentle satire of the kinds of reactions men have to being denied the object of their affection. I could have done without the fourth wall breaking credit sequence, but everything up until that point is golden.
PRINCE AVALANCHE
Or, why it's bad to read Walden. Paul Rudd and an unrecognisable Emile Hirsch (he packed on the weight for this role) are two men putting down the dividing lines on a stretch of road devastated by bushfire. Rudd's character is a self-important outdoorsman, while Hirsch's is young and horny. It's just a two-hander, but it's got an awesome soundtrack by Explosions in the Sky, and the story as it develops turns into something really good. I suspect the material could easily be dull in other hands, but with these actors and the excellent David Gordon Green directing, it's a really enjoyable film.
BLUE RUIN
Featuring the most incompetent man-bent-on-revenge in cinema history, this is a frustrating and funny tale of cycles of violence. It's basically just a tit for tat revenge thriller, but pretty much at every turn our hero screws things up, runs away frightened or gets himself into a jam. And because of all this, it's a reasonably fresh take on the revenge thriller. The plot is nothing special, but the way scenes play out are either excruciating or slightly unexpected.
THE EAST
Brit Marling is now three for three. She's got to be one of the most interesting writer/actors around. This time she's playing a corporate spy, sent to infiltrate an eco-terrorist group who are punishing the CEOs of corrupt companies with doses of their own medicine. Literally, in one case. As she comes to understand their cause more, she starts to sympathise, even if she's repelled by the extreme nature of their acts. I've noticed a theme in the films Marling writes, they're all stories of people transformed by pretending to be someone else. I wonder what her next transformation will be? Whatever it is, I can't wait to see it.
And with that, MIFF 2013 is at an end. Back to reality. At least until next year.
Will this course-correct Charlie Sheen's career? Probably not, but it does show he can still act. Roman Coppola's surrealist story of a man struggling to deal with his much younger girlfriend dumping him delivers repeatedly in both comedy and humanity. There were moments, especially early on, where it looked like it was going to turn into a vaguely misogynist rant against the unfairness of people not loving you for being a dickhead, but it very smoothly slides into a gentle satire of the kinds of reactions men have to being denied the object of their affection. I could have done without the fourth wall breaking credit sequence, but everything up until that point is golden.
PRINCE AVALANCHE
Or, why it's bad to read Walden. Paul Rudd and an unrecognisable Emile Hirsch (he packed on the weight for this role) are two men putting down the dividing lines on a stretch of road devastated by bushfire. Rudd's character is a self-important outdoorsman, while Hirsch's is young and horny. It's just a two-hander, but it's got an awesome soundtrack by Explosions in the Sky, and the story as it develops turns into something really good. I suspect the material could easily be dull in other hands, but with these actors and the excellent David Gordon Green directing, it's a really enjoyable film.
BLUE RUIN
Featuring the most incompetent man-bent-on-revenge in cinema history, this is a frustrating and funny tale of cycles of violence. It's basically just a tit for tat revenge thriller, but pretty much at every turn our hero screws things up, runs away frightened or gets himself into a jam. And because of all this, it's a reasonably fresh take on the revenge thriller. The plot is nothing special, but the way scenes play out are either excruciating or slightly unexpected.
THE EAST
Brit Marling is now three for three. She's got to be one of the most interesting writer/actors around. This time she's playing a corporate spy, sent to infiltrate an eco-terrorist group who are punishing the CEOs of corrupt companies with doses of their own medicine. Literally, in one case. As she comes to understand their cause more, she starts to sympathise, even if she's repelled by the extreme nature of their acts. I've noticed a theme in the films Marling writes, they're all stories of people transformed by pretending to be someone else. I wonder what her next transformation will be? Whatever it is, I can't wait to see it.
And with that, MIFF 2013 is at an end. Back to reality. At least until next year.
posted by Andrew Lee at 10:37 PM
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