Hey folks, Harry here with the latest from Rotterdam and The Last Lizard, who has a host of ok to very good movies to tell us about this time. In particular - IN MY FATHER'S DEN has a bit of legendary status for me. Kiwi King of Damn Fine Cinema Exhibition... Anthony Timpson clued me onto this film pre-Toronto where it blew everyone away. This is definitely one of the key films to keep your eyes and ears at full attention for.
Hey Harry/Mori,
I’m back for day seven of the festival. Two more days to go after this, and I’m doing better than I had expected – but all that can change with one night of too little sleep, so I’m knocking on wood as I write this...
I'm also resending Day 3 & 6, because Hotmail screwed those up the first time...
Day 7 (3 February)
A blue automobile (Okuhara Hiroshi) (3 out of 5)
This minimalist drama starts off well, but ambles a little too much. It’s about a young DJ who was involved in a car accident in his youth. As a result he’s turned into a distant and cold person who attracts everyone he meets but subsequently pushes them away. At one point, his girlfriend’s sister falls for him and they have an affair.
The film remains interesting for as long as it does because of its sense of humour and its melancholy atmosphere. Besides the bastard of a main character, the protagonists are all pretty likable. Unfortunately, the film offers few surprises and features an improbable, deus-ex-machina-ish ending, followed by an absolutely superfluous final ten minutes.
Still, like I said, it’s not all bad – just leave the theater ten minutes early and you end up with a reasonable film.
Moolaadé (Ousmane Sembene) (3,5 out of 5)
Damn, that Ebert is turning sentimental in his old age, isn’t he? I went to see Moolaadé on his recommendation, and while not a bad film, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen such a manipulative melodrama.
Moolaadé is about the practice of female circumcision in Africa, and how the women of one particular village rise up in protest against it. One day four girls escape the circumcision ceremony and seek shelter at the home of a local woman, the second wife of a well-respected inhabitant of the town. She protects them with a moolaadé, which is a sort of anti-curse that makes sure that the children remain under her protection as long as they don’t leave her house. When her husband comes home, he tries to pressure her into conceding to the demands of the village elders and canceling the moolaadé.
Just like Beautiful boxer, earlier this week, the film features subpar acting, stilted dialogue and plenty of tearjerk moments, but, again like the Thai film, is saved by its sense of humour. Unfortunately, the far too happy, damn near utopian ending drag the film down a little.
Tarnation (Jonathan Caouette) (4 out of 5)
Of course, this film was released in the US long ago, so I’ll not bother you with a plot description. Suffice to say, Caouette’s tale about growing up with and without his schizophrenic mother, like any other highly personal document, is very hit-and-miss. For every resonant piece of home movie material, there’s an uninteresting minutes-long montage of unrelated images.
Two sequences stand out: at the beginning of the film, an eleven-year-old Jonathan plays a young mother who confesses to the camera that was physically abused by her ex-boyfriend and the father of her child. It’s an eerily realistic performance, and it brings home very forcefully what the onscreen text couldn't: this kid must have had it pretty rough to be able to give a realistic performance like that. And Jonathan’s last monologue in the film is one of the most heartrending examples of soul-searching ever put to camera.
Caouette loses himself at the end: the way he confronts his mentally ill old grandfather as to why he let his daughter be subjected to shock treatments is way out of line and has the whiff of sensationalism.
In my father’s den (Brad McGann) (4+ out of 5)
This New Zealand family drama tells the story of Paul Prior, a war photographer who returns to his hometown for his father’s funeral, after having left seventeen years ago, right after his mother died. He doesn’t get a warm welcome: his brother Andrew still feels bitter about Paul’s abrupt departure, and his ex-girlfriend Jackie blames him for never having contacted her. Upon returning to his father’s secret hiding place, where they spent may hours together, Paul meets a young girl by the name of Celia there. He strikes up a friendship with her, but when she disappears, Paul becomes the prime suspect in her possible murder.
In my father’s den is at its best when it deals with Paul’s past and the relationships he had with his brother and the other inhabitants of the village. Clearly something bad happened before Paul left, but only slowly do we uncover what that thing was. The scenes with Celia, who turns out to be Jackie’s daughter, are the most compelling of the film.
The film’s atmosphere is comparable to that of Clint Eastwood’s Mystic river, every action in the past having a consequence in the present.
Unfortunately, just like in Mystic river, the eventual resolution of the thriller elements of the plot hinge on too many coincidences, which weakens the dramatic impact of the film somewhat.
Undertow (David Gordon Green) (4+ out of 5)
Another film that’s already been released in the US of A, but because this one hasn’t been out that long, I’ll just give you a quick plot summary. Chris, an eighteen-year-old boy, and his twelve-year-old brother Tim live with their father out in the middle of nowhere in Georgia, where the family moved when the mother died. The boys help out their father on the farm, and Chris looks after Tim, who is a frail little guy with recurring health problems. One day, their uncle Deel visits them looking for his father’s inheritance, and eventually kills the boys’ father. Chris and Tim take a run for it, and so begins a chase through the Georgian countryside.
Though there are a lot of familiar Green elements in this film, such as the lyrical mood that permeates the film and the slightly off characters the boys meet in their travels, but the director strikes a new path with the focus on the thriller elements of the story. To be honest, the plot is pretty standard, but Green’s attention to detail in the characters and the scenery lift Undertow up above standard genre fare.
Although some of the peripheral characters are severely underdeveloped, this adds to the sense of being constantly on the run. Besides, the main characters are all fascinating, especially the troubled antagonist, who even manages to gain some sympathy for his horrible actions.
Though it’s not up to the standard Green set with George Washington, Undertow is still very much worth seeing, especially for a film that was conceived as a “cross between an adventure story and the Dukes of Hazzard”, as the director mentioned before the film!
That’s it for today; I’ll be back tomorrow with reviews for, among others, The big red one – the reconstruction. I’m also going to see a Surprise film tomorrow, so who knows what we’ll end up with?
The Last Lizard, signing off.
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