I always like these reports from smaller regional film festivals. They may not have the influence or the hype of Toronto or SXSW or Cannes or Sundance, but they tend to be a chance for filmlovers to see movies that might otherwise never play in their areas. So when we get a report like this, I know that the person who wrote in is a passionate film fan. Thanks, “Ade.” Check this out:
The 16th annual Philadelphia Film Festival kicked off on April 5th! There will be nearly 300 films, from all over the world, shown over 14 days. Most of the American films also end with Q&A sessions with the director and/or stars of the movie. Here are mini-reviews of some of the films I have had a chance to see this first weekend:
Exiled – This year’s fest includes a special program called “Asian Gangsters”. I definitely plan to see every film in this program, with Exiled being the first. Exiled is a Hong Kong film directed by Johnny To. It starts off with an attempted hit on a retired mobster named Wo. Two mobsters arrive at his home to kill him, while two more arrive to protect him. After a brief exchange of gunfire, the men inexplicably sit down for dinner to negotiate. They decide to ignore the hit order given by mob boss Fay, and do a job together. Their job is to kill a young up and coming mobster. But just as they are about to execute the hit, mob boss Fay shows up to negotiate a deal with the young mobster. He sees the five men and wonders why his original hit order was ignored. Guns are drawn and bullets start flying. The 5 men escape, but boss Fay is determined to hunt them down. Eventually, they realize that the only way to end things is with a face to face showdown with Fay. This movie exists in a world in which shootouts can happen anywhere, no innocent bystanders are affected, and there is no police intervention. It’s a modern Spaghetti Western. This movie is filled with stylish gun battles. Sometimes the battles are hard to follow. The problem I have with the movie is that the storyline makes no sense. The story is just an excuse to move to new locations for a new gun battle. The film is worth seeing just for those scenes, but it would have been better if those battles could have been a part of a better story.
Feel – Feel follows four men as their stressful days end with a trip to the Asian Garden “massage parlor”. Nathan (William Baldwin) is a successful married businessman who visits the same masseuse every week. Tony is a grown man who is angry that he still lives with his mother. He just doesn’t want to go home after he finishes work at the gym. Buck is an elderly man who spent the day at his wife’s gravesite, and decides that a good “massage” might make him feel better. Jeremy is a traveling carpet salesman whose fiancée calls him constantly, all day, to discuss wedding plans. Each man is assigned to a different young Asian masseuse. Each one has her own personality, and each man has a completely different experience. We end up learning just as much about each masseuse as we do about the men. This movie doesn’t go as expected. It’s not just a simple humorous story of four guys getting a “happy ending” at a massage parlor. The movie is actually a funny, but also serious, character study of the four men and the four masseuses. Some people may be disappointed that the movie is not just about “Happy endings”, but I was fascinated by all these characters and their different stories. The director, Matt Mahurin, was on hand for a Q&A session afterwards. Two of Asian actresses (Sakura Sugihara & Seiko Higuma )were also in the audience, and they looked as beautiful in person as they did on screen.
War/Dance – Documentaries are always a big part of the Phila. Film Festival. War/Dance is the first on my schedule this year. This documentary follows 3 Ugandan children as they prepare to represent their tribe in a national music and dance competition. They are huge underdogs because their tribe lives in a poor government army camp. They are basically refugees in their own land because rebel forces have taken over their area. The movie doesn’t just document their preparation for the competition. That part is interesting in and of itself. But it also includes unbelievable interviews in which the children talk about how they ended up being at this military camp. Rebels have killed some of these children’s parents right in front of them, or abducted them and forced them to be a part of the rebel army until they had a chance to escape. One heartbreaking scene involves one of the children taking a trip to her father’s grave. Another heartbreaking scene involves one of the children being allowed to talk to a captured rebel general. He wants to find out if his brother is still alive. These children talk about atrocities that it would be hard for me to even write on paper. Preparing for this music and dance competition is a happy escape for these kids. It’s the only time they don’t think about all the things they have been through. They get to the national competition and the assumption is that they don’t have a chance to compete against all these other schools. But it ends up being a bad idea to underestimate them. This is a very educational and uplifting documentary.
Red Road – This film comes by way of Great Britain and Denmark . It centers around Jackie, who works for a security firm. The city is covered by cameras, and Jackie sits at the monitors every day looking for possible crimes or reporting crimes. She is a lonely woman, who has lost her husband and daughter. Her only companionship is a “quickie” every 2 weeks with a married coworker. One day she spots Clyde , who she knows to be an ex-con. She becomes obsessed with him. First by following his every move on camera, and then by becoming involved with him personally in her off time. She begins hanging out with him and his friends, and eventually has sex with him. Immediately after she has sex with him, the story of why she is obsessed with him finally begins to unfold. The problem is that I had almost fallen asleep by then! And then just as the story picks up, it leads into an unsatisfying ended. This movie is a grand jury prize winner from last year’s Cannes Film Festival, but I don’t see why. The film spends way too much time following Jackie’s obsession with Clyde , with the audience not being able to understand why. This could have been a good movie with some editing to pick up the pace. It was much too slow for me.
August the First – August the 1st is the date of Tunde’s graduation party. He has been postponing the date of the party because he has a special surprise guest. The guest is his father Dipo, who has been in Nigeria for the past 10 years. Tunde welcomes him with open arms, but the rest of the family is not so happy. Tunde’s older brother Ade (the first time I’ve seen a character with my name in a movie) suspects that he is here for some other purpose, and his sister wants nothing to do with him. His mother and grandmother are also upset. As the day progresses, Dipo tries to make peace with everyone and Tunde tries his best to facilitate a peaceful family reunion. It turns out that Tunde wants to go back to Nigeria with his father, but his father does have other ideas. More family drama ensues as the party lasts well into the night. This a good movie, that is well acted with good character development. It is well paced, as I was drawn into the mystery of what Tunde’s father really wants and felt for the characters as they respond to everything that comes to light.
Curse of William Penn – The festival always showcases a few local productions. This is a local sports film based on the premise that none of Philadelphia ’s 4 pro sports teams has won a championship since 1983 because of the “curse of William Penn”. The biggest sports curse used to be Boston ’s “curse of the Bambino”. This curse was broken when the Boston Red Sox won the World Series in 2004. The Curse of William Penn goes as follows:
There is a statue of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania who came up with the name Philadelphia , on top of Philly’s City Hall. There was a law that no building could be built taller than William Penn’s hat. In 1984, after the Phila. 76ers won a championship in 1983, the city agreed to allow the first building to be built taller than William Penn. There are now 7 skyscrapers taller than William Penn, and the Philly sports teams have lost 7 times in the finals Coincidence… the filmmakers think not.
Could it be bad management, bad players, bad fans, or even bad luck? The film argues against those theories and does it’s best to make the argument that there is no logical reason for Philly to have 4 pro sports teams, many of them championship caliber, and not win one yet. There are sports video clips and interviews with local sports talk show hosts and fans. The movie is very funny for those of us that are Philly sports fans. I’m not sure how it would play to the rest of the country.
Consequences - This is another local film. It begins by following 5 teenaged friends at a party, sometime in the ‘80s. They get high, fight, hook up with girls, and promise to be friends forever. The movie then switches to modern times, 4 of the 5 guys are now married, and they all still get together once a year for a trip to Philly for an Eagles game. They don’t just go to Philly for the Eagles game, but to also get high, fight, and hook up with girls just like they did in high school. This year they are going to Philly for the big Eagles/Cowboys game. The night before, they all get high and go out to get some “Action”. Two of them hook up with women and leave with them. They are drugged and end up chained in a room, and being forced to star in a sick man’s “shock film”. I won’t even describe what is done to these guys, but if you are easily offended you won’t want to see this movie. After the big game, the other friends decide to search the city for their lost buddies. They end up being captured and tortured as well, until there is finally an opening to try and fight their way out. I guess there are “consequences” to leaving your family to spend a weekend in the “shadowy, sex crazed underworld” of Philadelphia …
This film is really just a sophomoric piece of junk. Everyone overacts in the film, and some of the acting is so unbelievably bad that it’s funny. The story is not believable in any way, and the level of violence is unnecessary. The audience couldn’t help but laugh at the outrageousness of the film throughout. Some older people in the audience walked out of the film. The director Stephen M. Stahl was on hand for a Q&A afterwards. He was asked “what the fuck was that?” He seemed to actually take the movie seriously, as those in the audience who didn’t rush out as soon as the credits rolled thought that it must have been meant to be campy. This is definitely not a film that Philly can be proud of.
White Palms – This movie comes from Hungary , and it was their submission to the Academy for best foreign film Oscar consideration. It’s based on the real life experiences of the brother of writer/director Szabolcs Hajdu. The story starts off with Dongo being shown around at his new job as a gymnastics trainer. We then flash back to his training as a child. His trainer was a brutal taskmaster, and Dongo was one of his brightest students. But the trainer paid no favorites. He beat the children any time they made a mistake. Dongo tries to tell his parents that he is being beaten for nothing, but they insist that he must have done something seriously wrong. Seeing how these children are trained is not pleasant. The film then switches back to Dongo as an adult, getting upset and hitting one of the kids he is training. He doesn’t really understand that he did something wrong, but he is banned from training children. He becomes the personal trainer to a talented teenager who really isn’t that interested in gymnastics. They eventually become training partners more so that teacher/student. We then flash back to when Dongo is 16, and finally had enough of his brutal trainer. He runs away and joins the circus. The story once again switches back to the adult Dongo, who is competing in the gymnastics world championships with his teenage student. I think you can figure out the ending form there…
The style of jumping back and forth to different points of Dongo’s life does get annoying. The scenes of him as a child are the more interesting scenes. I wish the movie had focused on that even more so, with very little of his adult life. The movie does have an interesting twist at the end. It’s an interesting film, but nothing that will get people really excited.
Ade
