MIFF 2015 - Day 17

Sigh, another year over. 53 films watched, several missed, but overall it was a reasonably good year. There was a definitely lack of excitement amongst the crowds though. We weren't just going through the motions, but nothing really seemed to capture the imagination. Sure there were excellent films, but nothing really seemed to break out. People weren't talking it seemed. Or maybe they were all on Twitter and I missed it. Still, I had a good time. Now, onto the final day of reviews.

Best of Enemies

In 1968, ABC was the lowest ranked of the three national networks in the USA. With the Democratic and Republican conventions taking place, they didn't have the money to do coverage the way the other two networks could. So instead, they hired Gore Vidal and William F Buckley Jr to debate each day, and more or less invented the pundit television that pervades to this day. The animosity between the two men was palpable, and to see two highly educated and articulate men attempt to tear each other down is hugely entertaining. But behind it, there's a nuanced understanding of the medium of television, and how this format is ultimately a debilitating form of debate. Vidal wins decisively, with Buckley losing his cool and obsessed by it for many years to come. Vidal likewise relives it frequently, for different reasons. It's a wonderfully constructed film that has a lot more to say than just celebrating a legendary debate.

Deep Web

Digging into the case of Ross Ulbricht, aka Dread Pirate Roberts, and the Silk Road, this documentary doesn't limit itself simply to the fairly interesting case of the theoretically anonymous online drug marketplace, it reckons with the mission statement of the site, and the larger implications of the technology. You wouldn't think a drug marketplace would include harm minimisation amongst its goals, but it turns out that was one of them. And strangely enough, there are some statistics to support the idea that it reduced violent crime a bit. But the more interesting stuff comes around how the detectives managed to compromise the servers and track people down. Evidence that was not allowed to be presented at the trial, despite being part of the FBI transcripts, pretty clearly demonstrates that the way they claim to have accessed the site was not the truth. Which leads to the conclusion it was a dedicated hacking effort, without warrant, on a foreign server. The legal and privacy implications are fairly serious, but in a post-Snowden world unsurprising. At the end you're left with a number of questions about government overreach and the surveillance state. Ross Ulbricht very likely is the founder of Silk Road, but how he was unmasked is kind of disturbing.

Under Electric Clouds

I liked this film, but bits of it are a chore. The work is rewarded when it all comes together at the end, but it can test your patience. But visually it's amazing, and very very Russian. By that I mean long takes, philosophical conversations and elliptical narrative. Of Alexey German Jr's two films that I've seen, I prefer Paper Soldier, but this is still great. I took it mostly as an allegorical reflection on the state of Russia, and how the post-Yeltsin era saw hope very quickly fade away. There's a telling moment late in the film when a young woman simply assumes that some kids are locked up for doing something bad, as the state wouldn't imprison them otherwise. The erasure of history is a theme through the film, and its outcome is seen in that simple scene.

Brand: A Second Coming

A really interesting look at comedian Russell Brand and his trajectory from drug addicted celebrity to social justice revolutionary. It really goes seem to cover his whole life, unvarnished. There's footage of him smoking heroin, and the dull look on his face is chilling. What's interesting is to see how intense a figure he is. When he pursued fame, he did it with a single-minded focus. And when he had his moment and realised how empty it was, his pursuit of social justice becomes equally focused. The documentary also looks at the ways the media has attempted to marginalise him for his stands, and his own responses to that. Brand is a complex individual, and while he might not change the world, the film makes it clear that he's changed a lot of people's lives for the better. With social enterprises, advocacy and other things, he's inspiring. And also very funny.

MIFF 2015 - Day 16

Hmm, nothing particularly great today, solid, but not special.

How To Change The World

Telling the story of the origin of Greenpeace, this is an interesting look at the birth of the global ecology movement, and the egos involved. The film is cleverly structured, with Barry Pepper (sounding like Johnny Depp) narrating sections from Bob Hunter's memoir, while the surviving members of the original group either contest or agree with his account. It shows how they grew from an idea of direct action and awareness building into what we know today. One of the more interesting things is how one of the members is now a climate change skeptic and critic of Greenpeace. If you want to learn about the early days of Greenpeace, this isn't a bad place to start.

Ryuzo and his Seven Henchmen

Takeshi Kitano is clearly having fun these days. Here, he's telling the story of a bunch of geriatric yakuza who are bored and come out of retirement. But they're old and a bit useless, humoured more than feared, save for their encounters with some younger gangsters who don't identify as yakuza, even if they behave a bit like them. It's all just an excuse for some really broad comedy, and lacks the depth of Kitano's older gangster films. Lots of plot threads are set up and ignored in pursuit of the gag, which tells you what they were going for. But it's funny, enjoyable and disposable.

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine

I wish Alex Gibney would stop narrating his documentaries. He's the least interesting thing about them, and his musings don't tend to add a lot. The cinema was half empty for this screening, either because people have given up on the Comedy Theatre due to the uncomfortable seats, or else the word on the film wasn't great. It could be either really. Gibney assembles a bunch of people to tell the story of Jobs the arsehole, which isn't exactly news. It's well known he wasn't a very nice man, even if his drive did lead to some major revolutions in how we use technology. The film attempts to tell the story of both, but falters when it tries to interrogate its central question. Why were so many people upset when Jobs died? Why are people devoted to the Apple brand? The failure is in the structure, as the question is asked at the beginning and the end, but in between is mostly concerned with the character of Jobs, rather than how he wooed the world. It's got some great anecdotes, but it doesn't really hold together as anything more than that. It asks a question, then doesn't bother trying to answer it. Possibly because the question isn't really about Jobs himself, but the marketing of Jobs and Apple, which is a different topic entirely.

MIFF 2015 - Day 15

Today was a very good day.

Theeb

Young Theeb (it means wolf) and his older brother Hussein are the sons of a sheik, recently deceased. When a man from another tribe arrives with an English officer, Hussein is charged with helping them reach a particular well for some kind of rendezvous. Theeb runs after them, and since the Englishman is determined to reach the well, they let him stay. What follows is a series of misadventures that leaves Theeb caring for the man who killed his brother, as it's the only way he'll get out of the desert alive. It's a gorgeously shot film, with some amazingly tense action sequences and presents an interesting perspective on the first world war. For Theeb and the people he encounters, the war is less of an issue than the introduction of the railway, slowly taking away a way of life and driving men to desperate acts to survive.

Mediterranea

A topical film about two friends from Berkina Faso who travel to Italy seeking work and a better life for their families. It's a quietly observational story, following them the whole way, their experiences on a boat, being robbed by bandits on their way to Libya, living in a shanty town in Italy and trying to get work and residency permits. It's a sad story, full of love for its characters and willing to look at the complexities of their situation. There's an interesting moment towards the end as well, as an employer talks about his own grandfather's experience emigrating to the US. It showcases the commonality of the experience, while also showing that empathy has eroded. And when that hope is taken, it's shattering.

808

A paean to one of the most influential pieces of music equipment ever made, the Roland 808. The film has an enormous amount of contributors telling us all the ways that this one drum machine changed the face of music, defined the sound of decades and continues its influence through to today. There were only 12,000 ever built, but they're still in high demand. If you love electronic music in all its varied forms, this is a film to learn how much of it was born from a single machine and a lot of producers who fell in love with it and experimented heavily with it.

Deathgasm

Pure cinematic joy. Heavy Metal, Zombies, Angry Teens, Chainsaws and Satanists. It's hysterical fun, full of amazing gore effects, awesome metal tracks and a bunch of actors who really sell the story of an evil metal hymn that summons demons to walk the earth. Basically, it's kind of like Evil Dead, if Ash was more Slash. A film to watch with a large audience cheering every insane moment. I had so much fun with this.

MIFF 2015 - Day 14

A day of weird films, 50/50 on the quality though...

Khalil Gibran's The Prophet

Oh man, this was bad. A really irritating framing narrative about a mute child, her mother and an imprisoned poet/revolutionary doesn't help. The basic setup is that Mustafa (voiced by Liam Neeson) is being released from seven years detention and being sent back to his homeland. As he is escorted through the streets he runs into people who require wisdom, and so sections of The Prophet are recited, with animation provided by different people. Some, like Bill Plympton's, are effective and interesting. Others, like Nina Paley's, are a bit too silly to work. And saying that bums me out, because Sita Sings the Blues is one of my favourite films. But overall, the film generated more laughter than reflection. It didn't help that I found a lot of Gibran's text a bit facile as well. It needed a better structure and framing story to give depth to the quoted sections. As it is, it's just a series of empty quotations occasionally made beautiful by the talents of particular animators.

Yakuza Apocalypse: The Great War of the Underworld

Miike is at it again. This is a seriously insane piece of WTFery that manages to deliver crazy amounts of entertainment. The basic plot is that the yakuza boss is a vampire, and when he's killed in a double-cross, he bites his lieutenant and turns him into a yakuza vampire too. But then the lieutenant starts biting civilians, who become yakuza. Soon there's nobody for the regular yakuza to bully around, just lots of people acting like cinematic cliches of yakuza. This presents them with a bit of an existential crisis. And then some dude in a frog suit turns up and starts beating on everyone. It has a weird kind of internal logic, but mostly it's just an excuse to do lots of silly things and entertain the audience. Lots of laughing and clapping. Much like Why Don't You Play In Hell? from last year, I can't see this being as much fun without a crowd cheering along, but it was a perfect MIFF party film. Demented fun.

MIFF 2015 - Day 13

Hoo boy, three extremely heavy documentaries today.

A German Youth

A strangely constructed documentary about the rise and fall of the Baader Meinhof group in postwar Germany. It begins by setting the scene of a Germany wrestling with the guilt of the war and the divisions within the populace over that guilt. Then we're introduced to Ulrike Meinhof, a leftist journalist who appears on television programs and writes columns. We're shown short films made by students aimed at celebrating socialism and class consciousness, rebelling against teachers and authority in general. As we progress, we learn about how Germany made many forms of dialogue and protest illegal, banning street marches, prosecuting lawyers who defended leftists, etc. Slowly, the leftist students are pushed away from mainstream debate. And then they form the Red Army Faction and take to acts of violence to make their points. The film doesn't blink from the fact that they went from being articulate voices to angry terrorists. But it also examines the idea that when you take the voice away from someone you disagree with, they'll find another way to shout. The final scene is an argument between two people on what democracy is. It's fascinating, and depressing, showing the allure of fascism is its promise of order and comfort.

Only the Dead

This film will give you PTSD. Michael Ware was a journalist for Time magazine and CNN during the Iraq war. He carried a camera with him because it was more efficient than a notebook for recording what was happening around him. And out of the 300 or so hours of footage he took over the many years he worked in Iraq, we now have this harrowing film about a side of the war you may not have seen. He not only embedded with US troops, he also rode along with insurgents and learned a lot about the complex nature of the Iraq war. But the main point of the film doesn't appear to be about letting you know about that, it's about the horrors of war and what it does to a person, even a non-combatant. The film contains a lot of death, you see a lot of people die, and the horrors mount. This is a film about darkness, and how even good people can do awful things as war strips them of their humanity. It's a powerful film, and most definitely not for the faint hearted.

3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets

The murder of Jordan Davis by Michael Dunn was a major case and a test of Florida's "Stand Your Ground" laws in relation to self defense. Dunn claimed that he asked for some kids in the car next to him to turn down their rap music, and they then threatened him with a shotgun so he fired 10 bullets at them. The only thing was, there was no gun, and he only claimed there was a gun after going to the police. He never told his fiance about a gun or claimed self-defense. The documentary follows the entire court case, and includes Dunn's calls to his fiance from prison. He honestly believes he acted righteously, but slowly it becomes apparent that he's convinced himself something different happened to allow him to live with himself. There's a lot of questioning of a culture that endorses killing rather than de-escalation as an acceptable answer to a tense situation, and the representations of black culture that create fear in others. While the film has the "happy" ending of Dunn being convicted on all counts, it leaves you with the deeper question of how the US has reached such a place where killing someone just because you're scared of them is even remotely considered defensible.

MIFF 2015 - Day 12

Messed up asian girls, a literary legend and a creepy documentary were the fare for today.

Wonderful World End

An interesting take on "me" culture in Japan tells the story Shiori, a 17 year old student who dreams of being a model and actress, and her number one fan Ayumi, a 13 year old girl. Shiori is constantly twitcasting, blogging and trying to build her social media profile to help boost her chances of fame. She cosplays professionally for fan photographers, and that's where she meets Ayumi, who has run away from home and ends up being taken in by Shiori's boyfriend, causing ructions in the relationship. But the two quickly shift from being rivals to best friends, almost lovers but the film never quite pushes over the line. Instead it's more of an obsessively close friendship, as Shiori depends on Ayumi's adoration for validation as her nascent career sputters. It detours into surrealism towards the end, which kind of works and kind of doesn't, but it does lead to some very funny moments. Definitely a fun little film.

The Liar

You don't have to like your lead character to like a film. The Liar pretty much proves that. Ah-young is a young Korean woman who lies about her life continually. She visits shops and buys expensive items, only to cancel before delivery. She inspects lavish apartments, then excuses herself before signing the contract. She tells her friends her boyfriend is a teacher with rich parents. She tells her boyfriend her family is rich and successful. She's escaping some unpleasant truths, her mother abandoned them, her sister is an alcoholic and her father is on the run, hiding from people to whom he owes money. All that in theory should make you sympathetic to her, but she's a sociopath who continues to lie and sabotage everything good in her life and other people's to try and achieve some weird catharsis. Even when she swears off lying, her truth telling is almost worse. Kim Kkobi as Ah-young is incredible. She betrays very little in her expression, while hinting at the conflict deep within her. It's a bitingly dark comedy about consumer culture and the escapism it promises.

Burroughs - The Movie

An old documentary about William S. Burroughs, thought lost but newly discovered and restored. There have been a lot of films about Burroughs, but this distinguishes itself with the level of access to so many people, especially the man himself. Filmed across the late 70s and early 80s, we see Burroughs with friends like Terry Southern and Allen Ginsberg, his son William Jnr, his lover/assistant James Grauerholz and even a brief bit with the painter Francis Bacon. We get readings performed at punk rock venues, a fairly complete biography and even a conversation between Burroughs and his brother. Most of the material has been covered elsewhere, but the moments between Burroughs and his son stand out. Few other films even bother to mention William Jnr, their relationship and the effect his passing had on Burroughs. Here it's dealt with, making this an important addition to anyone wanting to learn more about the man behind the legend.

The Nightmare

There's a good film about Sleep Paralysis waiting to be made, but this isn't it. It's a bit unfocused and ignores of a lot of interesting perspectives in favour of restaging people's nightmares repeatedly. It's trying to be a horror movie about a real phenomenon, but the budget is a bit lacking so a lot of the moments come off a bit hokey. But there's clearly something very interesting to be had out of this. Mentioned are things like recurring motifs that happen across cultures, shadowmen, talking cats, things like that. One of the more interesting people interviewed mentions Jung, which seems like a good launching point to investigate more. But then it's back to restaging people's bad experiences. The only genuinely scary moment in the film comes when someone mentions that telling people about it seems to make them suffer it as well. There were a number of walkouts the moment that fact got mentioned. I can't say I blame them. It sounds like a terrible thing to experience, I just wish the film had delved deeper into the whole thing rather than attempted to be a bad horror movie.

MIFF 2015 - Day 11

A good run today, some excellent documentaries and fun, weird one.

Chasuke's Journey

Heaven is populated with hack screenwriters, writing the scenarios of our lives. Chasuke is a tea server, serving tea to the writers and occasionally admiring their work. When another writer kills off one of his favourite characters, Chasuke descends to earth to save her. It's a bit of a spoof on Wings of Desire, but it's ripping on way more than that. The first half of the film deconstructs various hackneyed plot devices and storylines. But then things get extra weird. Chasuke decides that since he has the power to change things, he will, and becomes an angel who heals the sick and becomes a national celebrity. Only to realise he was once human, and then remembers he was a yakuza. The second half isn't as successful as the first, but it's pretty good all the same, as some outraged writers in heaven conspire to assassinate him and Yuri, the girl he saved. Seriously odd, and really fun.

Sherpa

An incredibly insightful look into the lives of the Sherpas, who live in Nepal and have made their name guiding people up to the summit of Mount Everest. But that work comes at a cost, and many men have died helping foreign climbers get to the top. The filmmakers were present for one of the worst disasters in Everest history, when 16 men died in a day, sparking what in effect became a union movement amongst the Sherpas. The tensions between the tour operators, tourists, government and the Sherpas are all examined, the sources of frustration, some of the causes and in particular the lack of recognition these men get for making the path to Everest achievable for so many. It's also a visually spectacular film, with breathtaking shots of Everest and the surrounding area.

Peace Officer

Dub Lawrence is a former sheriff, he founded one of Utah's first SWAT teams in the 70s. In 2008 that same SWAT team killed his son-in-law in a standoff that was totally out of proportion to the threat presented. Dub's an interesting man, a detective by trade and by nature, and he is our guide to the escalating militarisation of the US police force. Looking at his son-in-law's homicide, as well as two other cases of police violence, the film looks at the methods and tactics of the police, and asks how any of the behaviour demonstrated is in any way proportional to the threats perceived to exist. The point is made that when a police officer kills someone wrongfully, they receive the benefit of the doubt. However, when an officer breaks into a house unannounced brandishing a weapon, the homeowner does not receive the same benefit of the doubt. And in one case examined, that failure to announce led to a shootout resulting in the death of an officer and the suicide of the man who killed him. Police attitudes and actions in the US are coming under increasing scrutiny, and this is a timely film to question whether the training and tactics currently used need to be rethought. As one officer succinctly puts it, all it takes is one police homicide to turn an entire community against the people who are meant to be protecting them.

MIFF 2015 - Day 10

Another fiver. I must be getting my second wind...

Song of the Sea

What a way to start the day. This is a gorgeously animated children's story, taking a bunch of celtic myths and weaving them into a fantastic adventure. Ben and his little sister Saoirse live with their father on a small island. Their mother vanished when Saoirse was born, their father still grieves her and Ben resents Saoirse, who doesn't speak. But it turns out she's a selkie, part seal, and Ben and Saoirse get caught up in an adventure involving fairies, wicked owls, a witch and the titular song of the sea. There are points where it's at a Miyazaki level of character art, and the story is full of strong messages about the importance of emotions, even if they scare you. It's definitely one to take the kids to see.

7 Chinese Brothers

Dammit MIFF, you tricked me! A deadpan comedy starring Jason Schwartzman, basically doing his usual schtick. It sounded appealing. And it is mostly. But dammit, I'm still pissed coz it becomes quickly apparent that it's another bloody mumblecore film. Ok, so for the most part it's a good one, mainly because Schwartzman is such a charismatic actor, but I still hate the genre... Even if I didn't mind this one.

Being Evel

Wow, Evel Knievel was a bit of a dick. This doco isn't a hagiography, it's a warts and all portrait of a man who made his name doing ridiculous stunts. He paved the way for the extreme sports of today, and it's no coincidence that the documentary is mostly narrated by Johnny Knoxville of Jackass fame. But geez, he wasn't a nice man. In fairness, it's a complete portrait, and talks about his good as well as his bad. There's a lot about how he started, and there's a lot about his achievements as well. People may have beaten his records, but they did it on custom built bikes. He did it on regular ones. For anyone interested in Evel Knievel, this feels like a very rounded view of the man and the legend.

Cartel Land

An extremely brave documentarian goes out onto the front lines of the war against the drug cartels in Mexico to record a citizen militia that formed to combat them. The autodefensas slowly take back their state, but find themselves becoming the thing they despised. Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, another group of vigilantes have formed their own border patrol and try to curtail cartel incursions into the USA. We're presented with a complicated situation that looks almost impossible to resolve. In Mexico, the government is depicted as being in league with the drug cartels, and the autodefensas end up being taken over by a cartel, then armed by the government. The level of betrayal and corruption is staggering. Meanwhile in the US, the militia there has been classed as a hate group, as they too get colonised by people bringing their own issues into the equation. In the end, we're left with a picture of crime out of control, governments unable to do much about it, and people taking the law into their own hands and becoming the thing they hate. Depressing really

Haemoo

And the prize for most inappropriately timed sex scene goes to... Seriously, who feels like shagging after they've seen all their friends butchered and the captain of the ship murder the ship's engineer. It's just a dumb blockbuster horror, as an impoverished fishing captain agrees to smuggle some illegal immigrants from China to Korea. When they hide them in the hold for an inspection, they end up dying and everyone starts to lose their minds. Especially when they find out one girl survived. It's attempting a more serious take on the same essential setup as Donkey Punch, and it's just as ridiculous. A bit of fun, but nothing more.

MIFF 2015 - Day 9

I appear to have wrestled the evil stomach bug under control, so today I was back with a vengeance.

1001 Grams

The session was sold out, and judging by the conversations I overheard, it was due to a lot of people being fans of Bent Hamer's earlier film Kitchen Stories. That's why I was there too. And like Kitchen Stories, 1001 Grams is a deadpan comedy about people measuring and recording things. In this case, it's the kilo, as our heroine Marie works with her father at the Norwegian institute that certifies measures as accurate. They have their own reference kilo, and when her father has a heart attack, she takes his place at the annual convention where everyone discusses the kilo, compare theirs to ensure it's accurate, and offend other nations by being gauche. (There's an hysterical scene where one scientist tries to suggest that having something everyone agrees on, like the kilo, is the path to world peace. His African counterpart shuts him down rather eloquently.) The plot is basic, as Marie meets a guy and falls in love, but the path taken is as idiosyncratic as you'd expect from Hamer. It's another little gem.

Robot Overlords

Possibly the closest we'll get to a big screen adaptation of John Christopher's Tripods trilogy, at least for now. They never directly reference the books, but the influence is felt here and there. Robots invade the earth and a few weeks later they rule the planet. Now everyone must stay indoors, or else risk being vapourised. To guarantee compliance, everyone has a device implanted in their skull to track them. When some kids work out that an electric shock will disable the device, they go on an adventure to find a missing father. Along the way they uncover some sordid dealings with a collaborator played by Ben Kingsley, who's keen on their mum, played by Gillian Anderson. It's a solid piece of young adult entertainment, though it strains against its budget occasionally, with some of the CG not quite as solid as it could be. But you won't care, because the story rips along happily. It reminds me of the kind of films I dug when I was 13 or so, and I still do.

Nasty Baby

Umm... Sebastian Silva is a director whose work I have mixed feelings about. The Maid and Old Cats are brilliant works of humanist black comedy. Magic Magic... I hated Magic Magic. This kind of blends those two feelings together, in a deliberate provocation. The story of a gay couple trying to help their friend get pregnant, it plays with a lot of different ideas. There's the dynamic between the three of them, then there's the street they live in, where there's a mentally handicapped old man who randomly harasses people. The story progresses until a third act turn that takes you completely by surprise and led to a few people walking out of the cinema. In the Q&A afterwards, Silva defended himself both hysterically and articulately, and when he points out everything the film has done, it's hard to say that the twist comes out of nowhere. He just pulled a trick on you. But even so, it seems kinda weird to take the story in the direction it goes, and they don't quite interrogate it enough to feel very satisfying. But I still loved the film, just with mixed feelings.

The Assassin

I have a rule. No Taiwanese films. It took a few years of MIFFing to confirm it wasn't bad luck, Taiwanese cinema is just boring. I have a few fond memories of Goodbye, Dragon Inn, but I also don't forget that mostly I was checking my watch and debating whether to walk out of the cinema. So, why the hell did I choose to watch The Assassin? One, there wasn't anything else that was interesting scheduled. Two, Shu Qi stars, and she's a luminous screen presence. And that fact remains unaltered. She's great in this, as are most of the other actors. But geez, it takes its time to get the plot rolling. Lots of long contemplative takes, but Tarkovsky this ain't. There were plenty of people walking out of this one, as it meanders its way towards the few bits of plot it has to play out. When it all finally comes together, it's kinda cool, but damn... The end is so abrupt I burst out laughing. It doesn't amount to much, and Taiwanese cinema is still boring, but it's not as bad as some.

Coin Locker Girl

A Korean gangster drama, this one tells the story of Il Young, a girl found abandoned in a train station coin locker. A cop in debt finds her as a kid and sells her to Mom to settle his account. She grows up to be one of Mom's enforcers, collecting debts until she meets a nice young guy whose dad owes money. This being a Korean film, the romance doesn't last long and Il Young is on the run. You can see the trajectory of the film fairly clearly by the mid point, but that doesn't matter. It's about the grim cycle of crime, the toll it takes on all involved, and how ruthlessness is rewarded. The performances of Mom and Il Young are pretty stunning too. Mom is a scary gangster.

MIFF 2015 - Day 8

No films today. In related news, stomach bugs suck. :(

MIFF 2015 - Day 7

Today was a day for celebrating cinema.

The Wolfpack

One of the most anticipated documentaries of the festival didn't disappoint. Telling the story of the Angulo family, who raised 7 children inside their lower east side apartment in Manhattan, and almost never let them leave. The children grew up learning about the outside world mainly through cinema, and re-enacted their favourites as a way to pass the time. The film opens with them playing out Reservoir Dogs, complete with prop guns they made from cardboard and tape, and we also see Pulp Fiction, The Dark Knight and a few others. This would have made an excellent double feature with Raiders!, as both deal with cinema as a kind of therapy. But what's interesting about this film is that it doesn't go for easy shots at the father who is kind of abusive, kind of protective. There's a bit of empathy for him, as he explains he kept his children in the apartment out of fear of what was happening in their block. Drug deals, murders, he wanted them safe. But he was also abusive to their mother, and they don't shy away from that fact either. There's not really a strong narrative in the film, it's more portraiture, showing these children as they grow up and break free of their parent's restrictions and step out into a world they've only known via a screen. It's not what I was expecting, but it's amazing all the same.

Turbo Kid

There's a different kind of love for cinema on display here. One of the best films the 80's never produced. It's a throwback, a post-apocalyptic exploitation film with heroes riding BMX bikes and firing energy beams from their power gloves. There's a clear love for the dodgy genre films of the time, the sort that you'd get from Roger Corman, Charles Band and the like. It's never arch in its references, more just taking the vibe and making it its own. And the story is really sweet, ultimately. A boy who read comics about the Turbo Rider stumbles across an actual Turbo Rider suit, and tries to become a hero. With his friend Apple, a manic girl who turns out to be a robot, and a gruff arm-wrestler, they fight an evil warlord and save the wasteland. With lots and lots of comically awesome gore. It's a great party film, with really engaging performances from the two leads, and a genuinely good heart at the centre of all the violence and craziness.

MIFF 2015 - Day 6

Today was all about groups of men coming together. Some for good, some not so good.

Raiders!

Many years ago, Popcorn Taxi screened what is probably the most legendary fan film ever. A shot for shot remake of Raiders of the Lost Ark, made by a bunch of kids over a period of seven years. This documentary tells the story of that film, the guys involved, the various dramas they had in their families, and the one sequence they never managed to shoot, the plane fight and explosion. Going to Kickstarter, they raised funds to film it, and the shoot serves as the framing device for the documentary. The relationships between the boys, now men, and the family lives are just as interesting as the film itself, with not everyone still friends, and some only just becoming reconciled to each other. It's a funny, affecting piece of storytelling. And stay for the end credits. They're worth it.

The Club

It's almost a psychoanalysis of the Catholic Church. In a small house in a small town, a group of retired priests train a greyhound and keep to themselves. Except that they've all been disgraced, excommunicated for various crimes. Some are paedophiles, one a war criminal, another so senile that he cannot remember why, and nobody else can either. They're cared for by a nun who has her own crimes to atone for. And then a priest turns up to look at shutting the place down. For a time, you feel a sense of hope, that the priest is part of a new wave looking to confront and atone for the sins of the past. But slowly we realise he's just as dedicated to hiding these men, and while he wants to do good, he won't let the church be shamed. And outside the house, a drug-addled victim of clerical abuse hurls insults. The way the whole thing plays out is very smart and insightful, with an ending that's both sad and satisfying.

MIFF 2015 - Day 5

A bit of a mixed bag today, but interesting.

The Russian Woodpecker

A documentary about an artist trying to get to the bottom of what caused the Chernobyl disaster. He links it to a nearby military radar installation that was meant to allow them to scan beyond line-of-sight, bouncing signals of the ionosphere of the earth. Different officials claim different things, it worked, it failed, it was never operational, etc. But it was definitely transmitting, the signal disturbed radio waves across Europe and the US, and became known as the Russian Woodpecker for its staccato signal. As they delve deeper, a theory emerges that the Chernobyl disaster was orchestrated to prevent the dud device getting field tested, as the punishment for wasting funds in such a way was death. The investigation manages to piss off enough people that they're threatened by the secret police, lending some credence to the theory. Or maybe not. At the end, it's all very murky and there are no answers, just a strange signal that has restarted inside Russia.

Racing Extinction

Louis Psihoyos' followup to The Cove takes a look at the illegal trade in endangered species, as well as the reality that we are in the midst of a mass extinction event, as animals disappear faster than we have the ability to document them. It's notable for its positive approach to this however. Where people were overfishing sharks, they go in and help the fishermen transition to tourism which makes them more money than fishing ever did. This isn't a finger-wagging documentary that's ignorant of the broader circumstances that drive behaviour. It's so much more positive and hopeful, with a few answers rather than lots of brooding. Here's hoping the message catches on.

As a side note, I remember back when The Cove screened at MIFF, the Q&A afterwards was nearly hijacked by a militant vegan who wanted to talk about more than just dolphins. Louis politely shut him down and returned the discussion to the film. The vegans were showed up again tonight. This time using the Q&A to announce they were handing out leaflets to encourage people to take a vegan challenge. Funnily enough, this time the message was in keeping with the film, but it's the second time this festival I've seen people hijack a film to sell their own message. I wonder if it's going to become a thing.

Victoria

The single take film is slowly becoming its own genre, like found footage films. And Victoria highlights one specific limitation of the form. Context. You're locked in a moment, all information must come from the moment. And in this case, we needed a bit more I feel. Victoria meets Sonne at a nightclub, and in the course of several hours flirts, drinks, becomes the getaway driver for his friend as they rob a bank, goes on the run, kidnaps a baby and evades the police. There's a few leaps in narrative logic that are a bit hard to get past. The main one being that she's fallen so deeply for Sonne in the short time they spend together that she'd agree to do any of what comes after. But she does, so in theory, character is action / action is character, so that's the kind of person she is. I just had a very hard time buying it. Also, the film is awfully long, with a near perfect ending thrown away to continue for maybe another 40 minutes to an hour that adds nothing to the story. It's long, dull and self-indulgent. Pure style with no substance.

MIFF 2015 - Day 4

Today was a good day.

Democrats

I'm kind of in awe of the fact that this film exists. It follows the two chairs of COPAC, the Constitutional Select Committee set up to create a new constitution for Zimbabwe following the fallout from an obviously fraudulent election that left Robert Mugabe in power. Douglas Mwonzora from the opposition, and Paul Mangwana from Zanu PF, Mugabe's party are thrown together and they travel the country to get feedback from the populace on what the new constitution should say. And we see first hand the power of Mugabe's organisation as people are threatened into silence, meetings are stacked with party members bussed in from other areas, and the whole process becomes a farce. But somewhere along the way, Mangwana stops trying to derail the process and tries to create a genuinely good constitution. At the end, he observes that their differences faded as they worked together. It suggests something hopeful, but then Mugabe destroys that with a single sentence, and Mangwana learns that his own party is amazed he's still alive, since he was meant to have died from an "accident" during the process. It's an eye-opener into the fraught process of trying to bring real democratic change to a country that's only known a sham for decades.

The Lobster

Yorgos Lanthimos has been on my radar for years, but I've never been able to sit down to one of his films. Both Alps and Dogtooth are sitting in my Netflix queue, but I know he makes absurdist parables and coping with lots of weird with subtitles has meant I've never been in the right mood to sit down and watch. With his English language debut, I was ready. I'm glad there were no subtitles, as there was more than enough to process as it was. It's a world where if you're single, you have to go stay at a hotel with every other single person, and you then have 45 days to find a match and pair off, or else you get turned into an animal. Colin Farrell plays David, who would like to be a lobster if he fails to find love. But through a series of misadventures in his quest, he joins the "loners". People who hide out in the woods and sanction anyone who loves another in their group by cutting their lips or worse, and conduct terrorist raids on happy couples. It's basically the worst date movie ever, as everyone desperately pretends to be a match to someone else, or else attacks them for having found one. As a critique of culture it's perfect however, as anyone who's ever had a friend begin a conversation with "So, I have this friend you should meet..." will attest. And the end is a powerful statement on the difference between faking something to fit in, and sacrificing something for love.

Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon

Some may think of Saturday Night Live as the birthplace of many a comedy legend, but way back before it became the institution it now is, most of the legends were working for the National Lampoon. In a surprising reveal, National Lampoon turned down the chance to create what would become Saturday Night Live, but all that meant was that the producers hired away their talent. People like Jim Belushi, Harold Ramis and Bill Murray. It's incredible to see how many influential comedians and writers got their start at the Lampoon, and it's effect on the culture. A potted history of a huge moment in American comedy, it's one for anyone interested in the source of so much of what's now regarded as classic comedy.

MIFF 2015 - Day 3

Well, this was a mixture of depressing and disappointing. Onwards...

The Look of Silence

I think this may be the film of the festival. Joshua Oppenheimer's followup to the horrific The Act Of Killing, he flips the camera from the perpetrators of the mass murders in Indonesia in the 1960s to Adi, the brother of one of the victims, as he speaks to the killers and tries to get some kind of acknowledgement or apology from them. Instead, he gets a lot of "I was just following orders" and in one case, a brutally direct threat that the people in power would willingly do it again. But while it illustrates how damaged the country still is by the horrors of that time, Adi is a one man truth and reconciliation commission. He just wants to heal the wound by acknowledging it. Instead we come to understand how horrific the times were, and that the shadow cast by them is long. It's an unsettling and powerful piece of filmmaking, and a superb companion piece to The Act of Killing.

The Hunting Ground

Depressing in a wholly different way, this time focusing on the epidemic rates of rape on college campuses in the US. The film ends with a shocking statistic, that over 100,000 women will be raped on campus this year. But much like other stories of institutional abuse and coverup, the crimes themselves pale in comparison to the treatment of the victims by the institutions. The forensic detail applied to how the business logic of colleges incentivises them to ignore the crimes bears strong resemblances to the logic applied by churches. Here's hoping that this film will get people as angry about educational institutions failure to care for their students as they are angry at churches for covering up child abuse. The fact that 20% of students on campus will experience sexual assault is something the colleges should be actively trying to combat, not cover up and victim blame.

Two Shots

Ugh. We've left the depressing behind, now it's just disappointing. A short film blown out to a feature, the narrative and character work that started off so promising is totally destroyed by tacking a totally unrelated set of scenes on to the second half. Some blackly comic moments, but the last half ruins everything. Barely worth mentioning as a result.

Sleeping With Other People

Jason Sudekis and Alison Brie play two people who lost their virginity to each other in college, then meet again 12 years later in a sex addicts meeting. That setup is quickly discarded and replaced with a fun comedy about two people choosing to be in a non-sexual relationship so that they can't screw it up (even if they can't admit to each other that's why they're doing it). It's light, funny and extremely ribald. The end is a bit of a letdown, as for a moment it looked like the film was going for something a bit different and surprising, but it's still good fun and everyone's great in it. Though it will probably be remembered more as the film where Alison Brie models lingerie for reasons that seem less than essential to the plot.

MIFF 2015 - Day 2

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me. :) The annual tradition of Yum Cha continues, and the number of attendees seems to increase as well. And this time they came around with the Char Siu Bao twice! I ate a lot. And then I binged on films...

Thank You For Playing

I've been following the game That Dragon, Cancer for years. A deeply personal game about a family processing their grief as their infant son is diagnosed with cancer, it's an insight into how a game can be more than shooting someone in the face. The interactivity can breed empathy. There's a powerful scene midway through the film as the game is shown at a convention. What follows is a montage of players rendered speechless, wiping away tears. The film is an extension of that, inviting us into a deeply personal experience of both creativity and sadness. It's a wonderful film about an awful but common experience.

Tales of the Grim Sleeper

Nick Broomfield takes his headphones and boom mike to the streets of South Central LA to document the unpleasant history of a prolific serial killer. The Grim Sleeper, as he was known, operated for roughly 25 years and is suspected of killing hundreds of prostitutes. But what starts as a bit of true crime investigation becomes something far greater, as Broomfield explores the social structures that allowed the crimes to go unsolved for so long, despite huge amounts of evidence building up. In the process he exposes police indifference, and perhaps more disturbingly, community indifference. Lonnie Franklin, the man accused of the crimes, was a man who gave people work, a minor kingpin. And so his friends and community thought of him as weird and pervy, rather than criminal. But slowly they all begin to tell their stories, admitting their doubts, and wondering how they could have missed it. Less shocking (depressingly), but just as bad, is the police indifference, with anecdotal evidence suggesting a number of police officers actually supported the killings as a way of "cleaning up the streets". At the end, you're left with a portrait of a society that has totally broken down, with nobody in authority willing to change it. It's a horror movie.

He Never Died

Henry Rollins plays Jack, a terse and guarded man who spends his days eating at a diner, playing bingo at the local church, and bribing hospital interns for "medication". Then a daughter he didn't know he had turns up, as well as some gangsters who are looking for the intern. He deals with each in a gruff and taciturn manner, and in the process we learn Jack is immortal. There's some nice pieces of misdirection before his true identity is revealed, but that's just the icing on a cake of weird, noirish humour. It's a great film with Rollins delivering an excellent central performance, and lots of decent supporting roles too. The sound mix was a bit off in the screening, but that did little to dampen my enthusiasm for the whole thing. I picked it solely on the basis of Rollins, but the whole package delivered.

99 Homes

A sad and increasingly tense story of a man who loses his home and then ends up working for the man who evicted him. Slowly, he ends up doing the same thing, making money from kicking people out of their foreclosed homes and then flipping them. In some ways, it's a post-crash version of Wall Street. Michael Shannon plays Rick Carver, the evicting realtor, and pretty much anything Shannon does is worth watching. And there's a moment where Rick gives a speech about the reason he works to evict people, and Shannon's face tells a totally different story to monologue. He's an amazing actor. Andrew Garfield as Dennis Nash gets the less showy role, and towards the end his journey feels a bit nonsensical. Some of the choices Dennis makes seem kinda stupid and out of character, but as a friend observed, that might have been the point. An exploration of the human cost of the financial crisis, and how dirty people have to be to get out from under, it's gripping viewing.