SFF Selections 2015: "Little Men"

Little Men * * * *



     No one writes dialogue like Ira Sachs. A master of understanding the intricacies of human speech, his films observe conversations as though heard from life. Absent of exposition and theatricality, pregnant with sub-text, and brimming over with sentiments unsaid: his words are mine, yours, human. "My parents are married, they just don't live together." says a buoyantly authentic Brooklyn teen. "I don't understand..." responds his sensitive and artistic friend. And "neither do I." comes his pointed and vulnerable reply. These words ring so true because they honestly convey how kids, nay how people speak when un-masked and genuine before one other. The people who speak them are Jake and Tony, the simplistically and earnestly genuine titular Little Men of Sach's latest exploration of interaction in a world filled with those who scheme and posture behind complex defensive facades.

SFF Selections 2015: "Time Out Of Mind"

Time Out Of Mind * * ½

     Time Out Of Mind (Oscar-nominated writer/director Oren Moverman's third feature) doesn't tell a character's story, but instead simply watches one. The story Moverman observes isn't made up of a plot per say, but rather of little episodes that anyone could go out and see any day -which when strung together, form the chronology of a man's life. That man's name is George, and he is homeless. Observed through windows and reflections, in the midst of crowds and often not central to the camera's focus, George isn't even easily identified as primary through much of his onscreen placement during the film. As though apart of a moving game of "Where's Waldo?" played out on the tapestry of lives that is New York City: his conversations are obstructed by the sounds of others, pedestrians encroach on the audience's view of him, and the honks of horns and sirens of the city never cease to interrupt the words he speaks.

SFF Selections 2014: "Lies I Told My Little Sister"

Lies I Told My Little Sister * ½

      Imagine Tracy Lett's Pulitzer-prize winning August, Osage County as produced by the "Lifetime" network. Imagine Violet Weston's cancer being over-sentimentalized with sap lines like, "Anything could happen to anybody at any moment...", "She wasn't cast iron, no one's cast iron!", and the classic, "Every heart has its graveyard." Imagine Violet and Barbara's wrestling match taking place in the sand at a beach (looking like the actresses were in fear of harming one another) and ending in one straddling the other as they giggle. Imagine a romance cropping up mid-way to ultimately provide the story's emotional climax and conclusive resolution after grief, family reconciliation, and personal growth had been established as the plot's core themes. Imagine all these things and you will have a pretty clear picture of what sitting through Lies I Told My Little Sister is like.

SFF Selections 2014: Richard Ayoade's "The Double"

The Double * * * ½

     IT Crowd actor turned film-maker Richard Ayoade turns in his second directorial effort on the heels of official SFF selection Submarine's success with his deadpan Dostoevsky-inspired The Double. Jesse Eisenberg's Simon is easily the least noticed man on the planet. Working at quite possibly the worst-lit office of all time doing nondescript clerical work (either Tim Burton or a '40s-era private-eye seem primed to pop out of a cubicle at any given moment), in one scene he looks at a photograph of company-head "The Colonel" and it's notable that there's actually a reflection in the frame's glass. His own mother can't even pick him out in a television ad for his company, asking, "Which one was you?" Befuddled at how to reply, Simon bumbles, "I'm me!"

SFF Selections 2014: "The Congress"

The Congress * * * ½

     Having meticulously replicated the Wright-brothers' flying machines, real actress Robin Wright's fictitious son of The Congress brags, "I build in the world of jet planes and space ships." He is a living master in a dying field. Less a master of her own skill-set due to the "lousy choices" her agent incessantly references, the Robin Wright of The Congress is also in a dying field: acting. In the first of two scenes in which Wright's agent Al addresses her with a monologue -the camera transfixed as her face reacts (like in Birth's timeless long take or the newly minted classic shot of Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years A Slave), Wright's eyes silently expel tears as Al (a world-weary Harvey Keitel) says that the studio has only one more last chance to offer. This last chance is "scanning": the studio systems assumption that all actors are driven by money rather than artistry.

SFF Selections 2014: "Mood Indigo" -All Style, No Substance

     Friday the 4th, Rory Kennedy's doc Last Days In Vietnam opened 2014's Sarasota Film Festival. Having skipped this year's opening night film, my interaction with this year's fest began last night at 6:00PM with the first of the 31 films/events that make up my itinerary. Up until this post's publishing, Rodney&Roger devotees may have noticed the blog's longest hiatus from regular postings in years...

SFF Selections 2013: "Red Velvet" Review & My Interview With Director Aude Cuenod

Red Velvet * * * *

   

     With the popularity of film's like Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive or Christopher Nolan's... well anything, the "film-noir" is cinematically in vogue. A staple of all great noir conspicuously absent from many "neo-noirs" of late is the femme fatal: the beautiful, mysterious, powerful woman who lets noir's men think they hold a good set of cards when she in fact holds the whole deck. With DePalma-esque eroticism, Aude Cuenod's masterful genre short Red Velvet not only finds noir's seemingly lost femme fatale, but its small cast of essentially three is almost entirely made up of women (subverting the genre's archaic gender dynamics in much the same way the Wachowski's Bound did).

SFF Selections 2013: My Interview With Chloe Domont, The "Joyful Girl"

     Sunday sadly concluded the 15th annual Sarasota Film Festival; I watched 31 films, attended 32 screenings, and basked in the numerically immeasurable joy of cinema over the course of its 9 days. Perhaps it was just due to my personal schedule of films, but this year's festival screenings seemed to bring with them more film-makers than ever before. I had the privilege to hear from and even meet multiple directors, producers, writers, actors, and even composers after many film's screenings. Shamelessly promoting this blog, I handed each and every film-maker whose work I admired Rodney&Roger's business card in hopes of procuring interviews. Tonight, before posting my Day 3 Pt. 3 review of Still Mine, I'd like to share the first of said procured interviews (there are plenty more to come!) that I had the privilege to conduct through email with the short film Joyful Girl's writer/director, Chloe Domont:

Joyful Girl * * * ½

SFF 2013 Day 3 Pt. 2: "Nothing Without You"

Nothing Without You * * *

     Director Xackery Irving's suspenseful Nothing Without You transfuses an amalgamation of genre archetypes together to make something new and fresh. Charged with the erotic tension of Fatal Attraction and Wicker Park, seen through the inconsistent perspective of an unstable narrator such as those in neo-noirs like Memento or Shutter Island, and with a pace like Following's that never quits, Nothing Without You is an independently made thriller that bests many of its Hollywood contemporaries.

SFF 2013 Day 3 Pt. 1: Period Pieces and the Problems of Pacing and Passion -"In The Fog" & "Therese Desqueyroux"

     On Sunday, Day 3 of the festival, I saw four different films. My busiest day to date, I was especially looking forward to its last two movies. Period pieces with good production values, they each seemed ripe contenders to be some of the best films of the festival. But my first two ended up surprising me -both turning out to be rather good (and after introducing myself, I slipped Nothing Without You's award-winning director my card... so hopefully my posting of an email interview will be forthcoming). Unfortunately my final two disappointed though. They communally suffered from problems of pacing and a lack of passion (I thankfully got my "period film" fix though with last night's superb Renoir) . The first of the final two (In The Fog) was so slow in fact that after it ended I turned to my friend Jillian and joked, "I can't keep up with these fast paced action thrillers!" to which she retorted, "It was like Mission Impossible in [Russia]!". This morning I'll post my reviews on Sunday's back two, but keep an eye out for the soon-to-come reviews of my earlier Day 3 films: Nothing Without You and Still Mine.

In The Fog * *

SFF 2013 Day 2 Pt.2: "Reality"

Reality * * * ½

     When Sidney Lumet's Network 
was released in 1976, it was an indictment on how television had abandoned any notion of integrity in favor of panning to the masses. Thirty-seven years later, Matteo Garrone's Reality depicts a man panning to television. In Garrone's film, man's wants don't determine what's on TV, TV determines what man wants. The opening aerial shot slowly descends to the tune of Reality's whimsical score, transforming into a surreal tracking shot of a horse-drawn carriage in modern-day Italy as it enters through palatial gates to arrive at an obscene wedding, where, in the same continuous and unbroken take, the audience is given a tour through a bizarrely beautiful cotton-candy-colored dream of sights, sounds, and characters. This long-shot where the camera seemingly wanders through the party to establish the film's characters is reminiscent of scenes from I Am Love, The Leopard, and even Coppola's The Godfather. In the camera's initial descent, it sees cars on the road before it sees the carriage -establishing a modern setting that is confused by the inclusion of horses and Victorian attire, causing the audience to wonder on the film's title: What defines "reality"? Time? Attire? Signs of the familiar?

SFF 2013 Day 2 Pt. 1: How Not To Make A Documentary -"Which Way Is The Front Line From Here" & "More Than Honey"

     And so the waiting in line has begun! Today marked the first full day of programming at this year's Sarasota Film Festival and along with the movies, it brought with it one of my favorite aspects of the festival: the great conversations that spring up while waiting in line. This year I got proactive in the proselytization of this blog and actually had business cards printed (they seemed a better option than last year's habit of constantly scribbling down the URL on scrap paper for anyone I talked to). In fact if you are reading this now, then there is a great chance I handed you one of these in line.

Rodney&Roger's Official Business Card

SFF 2013 Day 1: Opening Night, "Blackfish", In The Shadow of Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert 1942-2013

     Yesterday the sun rose over a day that would open the 2013 Sarasota Film Festival and the first in 70 years that wouldn't greet Roger Ebert. As many of you know, Roger passed Thursday afternoon. He announced two days prior (on the 46th anniversary of his hire date as the film-critic for the Chicago Sun-Times) that the fracture which had caused him problems since before Christmas was revealed to be a cancer. He left this world with the love of his life, Chaz, right by his side. Her beautiful words can be read HERE. Blog-readers, I was truly heartbroken by the news.

SFF: "Think of Me" (Retitled "About Sunny") Review/ Bryan Wizemann Interview

     I'd like to start this, my first post since the Colorado theater shootings, by taking a moment to pause and remember. Remember those who lost their lives and those lives that were saved. Remember that there is a God and that He has a plan. It is when tragedy strikes and that plan is less evident that we must remember it all the more. Christopher Nolan said best what is in my and I'm sure all of our hearts, "I would not presume to know anything about the victims of the shooting, but that they were there last night to watch a movie. I believe movies are one of the great American art forms and the shared experience of watching a story unfold on screen is an important and joyful pastime. The movie theatre is my home, and the idea that someone would violate that innocent and hopeful place in such an unbearably savage way is devastating to me." Take not for granted that it was not your "home" that was invaded that early Friday morning.

Think of Me * * * *

SFF Jury Prizes

     Last night the 14th Annual Sarasota Film Festival came to an end. I'm sure I'll be suffering from symptoms of film-deprivation and withdrawal soon enough, but I think all the blogging I have yet to do will keep it alive for awhile. At the Filmmaker Tribute and Awards that preceded the Closing Night Film, this year's jury winners were announced. I want to share who won... and who should have:

Narrative Feature Competition Winner:
Elena

     Having seen every film in contention save for 11 Flowers, I can definitively say that this was hands-down the best film in competition. It was one of the few four-star films I saw, a truly Hitchcock-ian masterpiece of paced tension and subdued brilliance (my review is soon to come). It's nice to see the best film win.

SFF: Day 4 -Alps

Day 4 (part 2):

Alps * * * ½

     Judging from his last two features, director Yorgos Lanthimos specializes in films centered around social experiments. In his last film Dogtooth, he used the story of homeschoolers brainwashed and shut in by their parents to examine the effects of a leading power (ranging from governmental to parental) using misinformation and lies to instill obedience in others and maintain authority. It was a depraved, even disgusting film (an alleged dark comedy whose humor escaped me), but shouldn't any authority's abuse of power be met with disgust?

SFF: Day 4 -Restoration

Day 4:

     I saw three movies on my fourth day at the festival, but in honor of two of the friends I've made (I'll call them Easy Rider and Less Is More) waiting in one of the many lines I've spent time in this week, I'm going to blog on the third before I write on the second. So today I'll be reviewing Restoration, then my next post will be on Alps, thus saving The Intouchables for sometime after that.

Restoration * * ½

     A film is the summation of its parts, but sometimes they just don't add up. Restoration's parts are great in and of themselves, each of them well-crafted like the furniture Fidelmen (its protagonist) restores. The film's sum can't equal its individual qualities though: strong reality-rooted-performances that stray from sensationalism, its fittingly mournful violin-heavy musical score, and a well-written script. Its central problem can be summed up with one word... "emptiness".

SFF: Day 3 -Monsieur Lehzar

Day 3 (part 2):

Monsieur Lehzar * * * *

     There are two way to unnaturally die: by causes outside of one's control, or through events brought on by one's own actions. The Oscar nominated Monsieur Lehzar shows how one man copes with the effects of one, while absorbing the backlash and debris from the firestorm of the other.  Though slight in its scope, it tackles this most universal of experiences: death -bringing to mind other small-scale but profound masterworks like Starting Out in the Evening or The Visitor.

     The contradiction of children is that they can be simultaneously simple and complex creatures. Though nuance may escape them, pretense cannot fool them. But the discovery of the reality of death is a molding and unsettling time for any child.

SFF: Day 3 -Polisse & The Big Picture

Day 3:

Polisse * * * ½

     The toll child-abuse takes on its victims has been much publicized through social services and child-protective agencies, but what of the toll taken on those working through child services to end the abuse? Counseling and rehabilitative therapy are available to the children who undergo these horrors. Rehabilitation can only begin when the horror ends though, so there can be none for those protective workers whose horrors never cease -wading through the muck for children each day. Polisse (the winner of 2011's Jury Prize at Cannes) examines the effects of being the rescuers on the "muck-waders".

     It begins as a startlingly desensitized film, glazing over masses of victim-stories depicted in blunt, sexually explicit, and borderline vulgar sequences. These initial scenes are overly long and seem uninvolved and emotionally disconnected from the plethora of abuses depicted and described -observing them only at a distance (from a bird's-eye-view).

SFF: Day 2 -Peace, Love, and Misunderstanding

Peace, Love, and Misunderstanding * *

     This film had the potential to be a slight, but pleasant little comic gem. It has Jane Fonda hysterically parodying a stereotype of herself: she claims to prophetically dream, her basement's filled with pot, and she dances howling under every full moon. And it showcases promising young Nat Wolff's potentially star-making comedic turn as Fonda's awkward grandson. The plot revolves around the reunion of conservative and uptight Diane (free-spirited Catherine Keener in a horrible case of mis-casting) and her hippie mother Grace (Fonda) after twenty years of estrangement. After her divorce, Diane packs up the kids and heads to Grandma's place in Woodstock to escape the reality of her pain.

     The film's problems, there are many, center around the film's indecision on its view of Grace. It starts off by satirizing, parodying, and generally making fun of her free-love hippie lifestyle, but then it comes to embrace it -making her philosophies on life the film's guiding principles and standards for morality.