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Sex and Death 101
Easily the most pleasant surprise of the festival, Sex and Death 101 turned out to be a comedy that exceeded every expectation. Written and directed by Daniel Waters, the screenwriter behind Heathers (but also Hudson Hawk, Batman Returns, and Demolition Man) the main draw for me was the involvement of AICN favorite Patton Oswalt (who plays a small role.) It was a cute idea, but often times cute ideas like this work for about 5 minutes before they get tired. Fortunately that is far from the case here.
Simon Baker plays a ladies man who is finally settling down to get married when a mysterious list in e-mailed to him with 101 names – which is of every woman he's ever slept with and will sleep with, in chronological order. When Baker decides to use the list for evil rather than good, all hell breaks loose and a strange secret organization tired to reel him in before he exhausts the list and the questions become about what brings the sudden stop about.
The movie stumbles a bit at first, being just a bit clumsy at explaining the conceit of the film – but every time the movie becomes a little forced or uninteresting, Patton Oswalt shows up for some much needed comic relief. Fortunately, about 15-20 minutes in, with the concept fully explained and all that exposition out of the way the movie becomes an uproarious sex comedy, with Simon Baker braving the hazards and rigors of the list all for the reward of some easily gotten poon.
And yes, there's plenty of Patton Oswalt gold sprinkled throughout including the nugget "Blowjob on a stick."
If I have any real complaint outside of the initial fumbling, it is that I'm not the biggest fan of the last 30 seconds. The film seemed to be ending in a very original place, but then takes one final left turn that I wasn't the biggest fan of. It didn't ruin the movie, but it did keep it from being near perfect in my mind. This isn't by any stretch the best film of the festival – but it was a lot of fun. If you're a fan of a good old fashioned sex comedy, Sex and Death 101 hits all the right notes. Recommended.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Adorable. Simply adorable. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time is anime for people who don't like anime. It's a cute, sweet, romantic tale of a young girl who accidentally acquires the ability to travel brief distances through time. At first she begins to use it for her own trivial benefit, but soon begins to realize that each of her jaunts is having unforeseen effects and when her meddling leads to potentially fatal consequences, she's run out of juice to stop it.
The animation is beautiful and stylish and the storytelling classic and very linear – so those who normally find themselves confused or just annoyed by the oddball, and often nonsensical, conventions of a lot of modern anime will find this a stunningly refreshing change of pace. But at the same time it includes many of the staples that keep anime lovers coming back for more.
I'd give no pause towards recommending this to one of anyone who "hates" anime. This is playing on a completely different level than a lot of the stuff that usually makes its way over to our shores. It is well crafted, family friendly, original entertainment that can be enjoyed by pretty much anyone. Highly Recommended.
Son of Rambow
There was a lot of buzz on this one, and the fact that there was only a single drove the wait for this to almost a fever pitch. The crowd was excited and there seemed no way that a UK coming of age flick about two boys making their own sequel to First Blood could ever live up to the hype that was brewing over it. But it did. You want to talk about perfectly sweet, innocent and charming coming of age film making, then look no further than Son of Rambow.
It's the tale of two boys – one a member of an extremely restrictive religious community much like the Amish and the second a completely unsupervised child who freely lies, steals, cheats and makes pirate videotapes. When the sheltered child witnesses his very first film, First Blood he begins fanaticizing about being the son of John Rambo and teams up with the second boy to make a movie about the adventures in his dreams.
The result is an incredibly sweet tale of two kids finding in one another what they can't find from their families. And at the same time, it is about the awesomeness that is John Rambo! Complete with all the requisite elementary school humor and all the 80's throwbacks that will make you mumble to your significant other (Oh god, I remember scented erasers…) this movie is a trip down memory lane combining 80's nostalgia, sharp writing and an intense love for films and filmmaking. In other words, you would be hard pressed to find a film more geared towards the AICN audience than this.
Highly entertaining, but most importantly Highly Recommended. This is a very special film and probably the best of the recent British coming of age imports. If any of this sounds like your cup of tea, I tell you now that it is.
Until next time friends, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em.
Massawyrm
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