MIFF 2013 - Day 7
99% - THE OCCUPY WALL STREET COLLABORATIVE FILM
Much like the doco on Anonymous last year, this was a film I went into slightly hostile to the subject matter. The Occupy movement seemed to me to be too diffuse and ill-defined, but that's as much a product of poor reporting as it is communication. Coming out of this film I got it, and while I still have criticisms I agree with them almost whole-heartedly. The short version is: America is fucked. But the stories of different people addressing the issues just makes you more and more depressed. There's a retired Police Captain who explains that in police recruitment, personality tests are used to ensure you hire people with less compassion or emotional responses. That explains a lot of the abuses suffered by protesters. They document the fact that sometimes the police will willingly break the law, budgeting for payouts later on simply to ensure that an action they don't like can be broken up now. The economic disparity that's only accelerating is explained in historical terms, and the social unrest it brings is contextualised within that. Interestingly, they interview Naomi Wolf and she's less than sympathetic to the Occupy movement. I assume they meant to get Naomi Klein and someone got confused. But extra points for not interviewing Noam Chomsky. All up, a really interesting and informative film.
TOWER
Ugh, mumblecore moves north to Canada. I enjoyed bits of this, but everyone was checking their watch at some point. I did like the way it was almost entirely shot as a close up on the main character's head. It was claustrophobic, but created an interesting effect.
ANIMATION SHORTS
Always a highlight of MIFF, and this was no exception. There were some stunning animations this year, with standouts being: The Wolf, The Demon and The Moon, a spectacular and highly polished gem from local RMIT graduate Leanne Lee. Possessions by Shuhei Morita, a lovely CG animated piece that channels more than a little Miyazaki. And Requiem for Romance, by Jonathan Ng, sporting a gorgeous watercolour and brushed ink style with some beautiful kung fu and a solid story. The rest were great too, but these were the ones that stood out.
GALORE
So, I was meant to see Upstream Color tonight. I raced to the cinema, got in early, sat down. I was puzzled by the huge number of reserved rows, and then the presence of the festival director to introduce the International Premiere. WTF? This film came out months ago at Sundance. And then I realised I was in the wrong cinema. Fuckdammit. It was already 9:15 by this point, so there was no point running to the other cinema. I spoke the festival prayer, "Please don't suck", and settled in. It didn't work. Galore is a film where the amount of talent on display is almost painful to watch. And I mean that in a good way. This is really well acted, well directed, etc. But it's also overlong and dull. There's an entire subplot about a bunch of bullies that's totally irrelevant and should be cut out. It also commits the sin of having a character come in near the end and deliver a moralising monologue explaining the whole film. Cut it, you don't need to insult your audience. There's actually a real gem of a film inside this version, it just needs a more ruthless editor to bring it out. As it is though, it's not great. Which is a pity, given how gifted everyone who worked on it manifestly is.
Much like the doco on Anonymous last year, this was a film I went into slightly hostile to the subject matter. The Occupy movement seemed to me to be too diffuse and ill-defined, but that's as much a product of poor reporting as it is communication. Coming out of this film I got it, and while I still have criticisms I agree with them almost whole-heartedly. The short version is: America is fucked. But the stories of different people addressing the issues just makes you more and more depressed. There's a retired Police Captain who explains that in police recruitment, personality tests are used to ensure you hire people with less compassion or emotional responses. That explains a lot of the abuses suffered by protesters. They document the fact that sometimes the police will willingly break the law, budgeting for payouts later on simply to ensure that an action they don't like can be broken up now. The economic disparity that's only accelerating is explained in historical terms, and the social unrest it brings is contextualised within that. Interestingly, they interview Naomi Wolf and she's less than sympathetic to the Occupy movement. I assume they meant to get Naomi Klein and someone got confused. But extra points for not interviewing Noam Chomsky. All up, a really interesting and informative film.
TOWER
Ugh, mumblecore moves north to Canada. I enjoyed bits of this, but everyone was checking their watch at some point. I did like the way it was almost entirely shot as a close up on the main character's head. It was claustrophobic, but created an interesting effect.
ANIMATION SHORTS
Always a highlight of MIFF, and this was no exception. There were some stunning animations this year, with standouts being: The Wolf, The Demon and The Moon, a spectacular and highly polished gem from local RMIT graduate Leanne Lee. Possessions by Shuhei Morita, a lovely CG animated piece that channels more than a little Miyazaki. And Requiem for Romance, by Jonathan Ng, sporting a gorgeous watercolour and brushed ink style with some beautiful kung fu and a solid story. The rest were great too, but these were the ones that stood out.
GALORE
So, I was meant to see Upstream Color tonight. I raced to the cinema, got in early, sat down. I was puzzled by the huge number of reserved rows, and then the presence of the festival director to introduce the International Premiere. WTF? This film came out months ago at Sundance. And then I realised I was in the wrong cinema. Fuckdammit. It was already 9:15 by this point, so there was no point running to the other cinema. I spoke the festival prayer, "Please don't suck", and settled in. It didn't work. Galore is a film where the amount of talent on display is almost painful to watch. And I mean that in a good way. This is really well acted, well directed, etc. But it's also overlong and dull. There's an entire subplot about a bunch of bullies that's totally irrelevant and should be cut out. It also commits the sin of having a character come in near the end and deliver a moralising monologue explaining the whole film. Cut it, you don't need to insult your audience. There's actually a real gem of a film inside this version, it just needs a more ruthless editor to bring it out. As it is though, it's not great. Which is a pity, given how gifted everyone who worked on it manifestly is.
posted by Andrew Lee at 12:07 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home