Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
Looks like we’ve got at least two guys writing in from this fest, and today, Ade’s got a nice selection of stuff to discuss:
More reviews from the Philadelphia Film Festival. The diversity of films this year is really impressive.
Oldboy
The “Danger After Dark” series gets off to a great start with Oldboy. There have been countless reviews of OldBoy on this site so there is no need to go into plot details. It’s a very powerful film that stays with you long after you have left the theater. It sucks you into the story and makes you feel like you are going through it with the main character Oh Dae-su. Anyone who is a fan of this web site needs to see this film as it slowly makes its way across the U.S.
Kontroll
Another “Danger After Dark” film. It’s from Hungary and is also slowly making its way across the U.S. It’s about a misfit band of ticket attendants in the Budapest subway system. Unlike here in the U.S., it appears that you can just walk on to the subway in Budapest without paying. The ticket attendants walk the subway stations and ride the trains, checking random people for tickets. You get fined if you don’t have one. The movie starts out with someone reading a disclaimer that the movie does not in any way reflect real ticket attendants in the Budapest Metro subway system. As the film goes on you can see why. These ticket attendants harass passengers, get into fist fights, and participate in a game called “railing”. It involves jumping on to the tracks and racing to the next station before the next train comes along and runs you over. The antics of this misfit band of attendants are framed by a story involving a hooded killer who is pushing people in front of the trains. The movie is like a black comedy, but with some suspense thrown in dealing with the killer. It was very entertaining up until the end. I didn’t quite understand the ending.
On a side note, during the film the fire alarm went off in the theater and everyone was evacuated. The projectionist must have been sleeping and didn’t turn off the projector until 10 minutes after the alarm went off. So I missed 10 minutes of the movie.
Macked, Hammered, Slaughtered & Shafted
A different kind of “Danger After Dark” film. This one is a documentary about the ‘70s Black Exploitation (“blaxploitation”) films. It covers the rise and fall of these films, and includes interviews with many of the stars of those movies. We hear from Ron O’ Neal (Super Fly), Rudy Ray Moore (Dolemite), Antonio Fargas, Fred Williamson, Jim Brown, Jim Kelly, Glynn Turman, and others. As the ‘70s began, there were U.S. movie studios struggling and on the verge of bankruptcy. They decided to make cheap movies for the black market and see what happens. “blaxploitation” films were born. The interviews with Jim Kelly alone may make the film worth seeing. As a huge fan of Asian kung fu movies, he was the only black person in the U.S. doing similar films and I was a big fan. In about 1978 he suddenly couldn’t get a job, even though all of his films were popular. He talks about why his career ended, while an inferior talent like Chuck Norris became a big star. This documentary is filled with interesting details for anyone interested in that genre of films. The one piece missing is an interview with Pam Grier. The director, David Walker, was on hand to answer questions afterwards. He says that he was told by distributors that he can only get distribution if he interviews more white filmmakers or studio heads to validate the information. Quentin Tarantino is a huge fan of “blaxploitation”, as he based Jackie Brown on the genre, so he was an obvious suggestion. The director’s response for now is that he won’t do it. So you may, or may not, ever see this film in a theater near you.
One Missed Call
This is a “Danger After Dark” Japanese horror movie, directed by Takashi Miike. A young woman named Yumi has friends who fall victim to an unexplainable phenomenon. A person’s cell phone rings and displays the message, “one missed call”. When the person checks the voice mail they hear their own voice making a final statement before death. Eventually, Yumi gets the “one missed call” message and the race is on to figure out the source of the messages and figure out a way for her to avoid her friends’ fate. Could it be the angry spirit of a young woman who died with a grudge? Hmmm… sounds familiar. I didn’t like any of the American remakes of Japanese horror films, but I had never seen the original Japanese versions. I thought that maybe I was missing something. But judging by this film I’m not missing anything. This was no better than any of the American remakes. I almost fell asleep half way through the movie. There is already a sequel to this film in Japan, but I doubt it will make it to next year’s film festival.
School of Seduction
This Spanish film is a “battle of the sexes” comedy. Radio personality Sandra Vega gives advice about relationships on her radio program. She prides herself on knowing how to keep the upper hand when it comes to men. A “playa” named Oscar decides to start a school for teaching men how to seduce women. He comes up with a scheme to get publicity for the school by calling in to Susan’s show as “Dani Danissimo”. The listeners fall in love with “Dani” and Susan’s ratings go through the roof. Susan and “Dani” develop a “love-hate” relationship. Things have gotten so out of hand that Oscar doesn’t know what to do, while the radio station program director wants Susan and “Dani” to start a new show together. Susan wants no part of it…
Victoria Abril does a great job as Susan. The movie is amusing, and makes for good conversation when going home with your significant other.
Heroin Town
This documentary was inspired by a 60 minutes report on the small town of Willimantic, Connecticut. According to the report by Dan Rather, Willimantic is a town full of heroin addicts and hookers, whose “headquarters” is the Hooker Hotel. This documentary puts into question the validity of that report. The hooker hotel is actually an old hotel named after its founder, not for the alleged profession that takes place there. The hotel has basically become low cost housing for the poor. The film maker visits this hotel and talks to the residents. He hears a very different story that what Dan Rather reported. Because of the 60 minutes story, the town leaders are trying to put the hotel out of business. This documentary was shot and edited by local Philly filmmaker Josh Goldbloom. He does a good job of showing the other side to the 60 minutes story, creating a very compelling documentary. Josh was on hand for a Q&A after the movie, but I had to leave in order to make it to another screening.
More to come this weekend!
Ade’
Thanks. Looking forward to it.
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