MIFF 2018 - Day 2

Our New President

As a survey of Russian television propaganda, it's interesting. As a documentary on Russian coverage of the 2016 US election, it's a disappointment. Needed a good editor to tighten it up.

Damsel

A silly film that delights in messing with your expectations. A man goes to "rescue" the woman he loves from the clutches of another man. And when it all goes wrong, she spends the rest of the film fending off the "help" of every other man she encounters. It's slight, but fun.

Three Identical Strangers

Triplets separated at birth accidentally find each other 19 years later. It sounds like a fairy tale, until you learn why they were separated. What seems like negligence turns out to be a heavily designed psychological experiment. It's some seriously disturbing stuff, and an important insight into the scientific mindset of the time. Those interviewed from the project are fairly unrepentant, almost ghoulish in their anticipation of what could be learned. But for the siblings denied their family, there's only sadness.

The World Is Yours

Imagine a Guy Ritchie film about loser gangsters, but with heart and empathy. It's hugely entertaining, weird and funny, but with a good heart.

Bodied

Skewering privileged white people agonising over race relations and cultural appropriation while also reckoning with the uglier aspects of battle rap, this is really funny, stylish and a bit of a mess. But the great characters carry the film, and the rap battles are excellent. It's a YouTube original, so go look it up.