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Seattle International Film Festival: LOVE & SEX, ONE MORE KISS, LOVE'S LABOURS LOST, and more

Published at:  May 25, 2000 12:27:09 AM CDT

Well geeks, Optimus Prime contacted Father Geek about a month ago to see if AICN would be interested in covering The Seattle International Film Festival. I told him that we would enjoy having reports sent in from the fest. Well, here's his first report from the great Northwest...


Hey Father Geek,

Here's the first batch of reviews from the Seattle
International Film Festival. I will be seeing a ton, and probably two more reports will follow.

Love's Labour's Lost

I did manage to see the opening film, Love's Labour's Lost. Usually for
an opening film at a major festival, the films actors and director show
up. Not in this case though. The only one who bothered to show was
Alicia Silverstone, she was on stage for about 30 seconds, said "cool,
awesome, fun..." and then left. The crowd laughed at her stupidity and
she slunk out the side entrance, I don't think she even stayed for the
movie.

Kenneth Branagh and Shakespeare go together like Ham and Cheese, take that
analogy for whatever it means. I just wonder where Branagh's career would
be without Shakespeare. This film is a bit of a departure for an adaption
from him. It's set in the 40's right before WWII. There's musical
numbers mixed throughout, including show-tune classics like "There's No
Business Like Show Business" and "They Can't Take That Away from Me."
There's homages galore to the films of this period. Most of them I didn't
catch because I don't know these films well, the most obvious one being
the end of Casablanca.

The story concerns a King and his three buddies, who've sworn off love
and to study all that they can. Along comes a Princess and her three hand
maidens. Of course they all fall in love, and the appropriate singing and
dancing ensues. Branagh is Bewrone, one of the King's buddies, and as
usual does a good job with the role. Silverstone is the Princess, and the
only one in the film who seems out of place. Is it just me, or is the way
she talks really annoying, she talks out of the side of her mouth. Even
Mathew Lillard (of Scream fame), is pretty good in his small role.
Overall it's a fun film, that makes fun of itself, but thankfully it's
only an hour and a half long.

The Wisdom of Crocodiles

A strange, macabre film, starring Jude Law. As a crocodile? The film
opens with Jude at the scene of a gruesome car wreck. He's a little more
interested than just the standard bystander. We then find him at the
underground, where he saves a woman from jumping in front of a train. He
makes her fall in love with him, and then kills her, sucking blood from
her neck. Don't worry about spoilers, because this is all in the first 5
minutes.

This movie then turns into a completely different story. A romantic drama
about Jude's new love, the eccentric Anna. His love affair is intermixed
with his meetings with detectives who have him as a suspect in the two
previous murders. There's also a sub-plot about a gang of thugs, Jude
ends up fighting them kung-fu style, in a fun little scene. The film is
wrapped up quite abruptly and lamely, we never fully learn what the deal
is with Jude's condition. We're fed until we're about half full, but not
satisfied.

One More Kiss

A U.K. production about a girl dying from brain cancer. Sarah decides to
leave New York to die in peace in her homeland of England. She visits her
ex-boyfriend Sam, who she hopes to reconcile with. Sam's wife is none to
happy about Sam running off to spend quality time with Sarah. Add in Frank
as Sarah's father, played by the very charismatic James Cosmo
(Braveheart).

This is a film about re-evaluating life. How the choices we make affect
us and the people around us greatly. It's about the long lost love
between a man and woman, and father and daughter. How we should live
every moment to the fullest, because we never know when the end is coming.
Some of these scenes work well, some fall flat. It's a decent little
character study.

Love and Sex

This was the most enjoyable film I've seen so far. A small romantic
comedy, that continues in the tradition of the two word title of this
genre, Kicking and Screaming, Walking and Talking, etc. Why this title
wasn't taken long ago is beyond me. Anyways... Famke Janssen is Kate,
a writer for a women's magazine. She assigned an article that escorts us
through her past relationships, including voice-over. Like in most movie
relationships, she dates interesting jerks, such as a moronic B movie
star, a professional basketball player, and a music video director who's
still married. But her most important love has been Adam, played by Jon
Favreau (Swingers), he's the tortured artist type.

I found it funnier than most romantic comedies told from the woman's
perspective. Besides who she dates, the relationships are pretty
realistic, with real-life, every-day kind of problems. I found
myself nodding my head in agreement many times. Jon is his usual likeable
self. It was nice to see Famke play a small, "normal" person type
role, instead of the over-the-top action heroine. Look for it on video,
if your into this genre.

This is Optimus-Prime signing of for now.

http://optimus-prime.homepage.com/



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    Readers Talkback

  • May 25, 2000 8:13:02 AM CDT

    I'm first?

    by glaze

    I would tend to agree that most of Branagh's best work has been adaptations of the Bard and he should be credited for bringing Shakespeare to so many people who might never have been exposed. I wish he would make another suspense thriller though as he did with Dead Again. That is one of my favorite films in that genre and there is no Shakespeare in sight which shows that he is capable of doing other things just as well when he puts his mind to it.

    Reply to Talkback

  • May 25, 2000 9:27:26 AM CDT

    First in line to kiss my butt. ..

    by gravtchik

    Anyway, Of all these films, I've only seen Love's Labor Lost, an I thought it was pretty darn cool. I'm speaking as one who did get the homages sprinkled throughout; Maybe it's pathetic to be so happy so see this type of musical up on the stage, but I left the theater still humming the theme from "anything goes". . .Anyway, Matthew Lillard was great, but my absolute favorite was Adrian Lester. He was the best.

    Reply to Talkback

  • May 25, 2000 9:54:45 AM CDT

    Famke ... !

    by murphyx

    X-MEN X-MEN X-MEN. No I don't have anything useful to contribute. I'm happy with Famke playing action-heroines...why not I say...it's better than seeing her slip straight-to-video with this kinda TRASH. Love and Sex with Jon Favreau? Brrr.

    Reply to Talkback

  • May 25, 2000 3:09:40 PM CDT

    THE MISSION

    by brian oblivion

    I have heard that HK director Johnnie To's 1999 masterpiece THE MISSION will be at this festival. Anyone in the vicinity should make a point to see it. Definitely the best HK movie since the handover/ mass exodus, maybe the best ever.

    Reply to Talkback

  • May 25, 2000 4:51:09 PM CDT

    Mission Rocks!

    by sinople

    If you can't see it on the big screen you can pick up the DVD. Awesome movie. Anthony Wong really rocks as Curtis the triad hairstylist. Simon Yam is sauve as ever. Really cool movie. Hey Harry why no mention of Milkway and Johnny To on AICN? I thought this site was the epitome of cool?

    Reply to Talkback

  • May 26, 2000 12:02:16 AM CDT

    See my review on THE MISSION

    by janchik

    I have seen THE MISSION long time ago and written a film review for this wonderful movie...

    My film review is on http://www.globility.com/~janchik

    OR

    go to Yahoo serach engine and type "Jan Chik" and you'll find my site

    Click "CURRENT LONG FILM REVIEW" and you'll find my film review for THE MISSION

    Reply to Talkback

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