CINEQUEST 19 FINAL RANKINGS (MichaelVox)
Posted by MichaelVox
Originally posted at MichaelVox
My 12th year. Will be remembered as the year the Twitter took off and updates were sent back and forth while the festival was in full swing. My biases are away from low-budget films in English and towards foreign dramas. I rarely find film festival comedies funny, which I believe is what they set out to be.
Countries represented this year: Hungary, Serbia, Switzerland. Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, China, Costa Rica, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Liberia, Norway, Pakistan, and Turkey. Where else do you get a chance to see this kind of variety without the help of Netflix?
My final count was 28 films and one shorts program.
Best Fiction:
1-HISTORIAS EXTRAORDINARIAS — Argentina — Three characters and their stories are told by an unseen narrator
2-SOF SHAVUA B’TEL AVIV (FOR MY FATHER) — Israel — Suicide bomber has 48 hours to live among, learn about, and fall for, the Jews he set out to kill
3-JOHNNY MAD DOG — Liberia — Boy soldiers ruthlessly kill and rape while overseen by older violent men
4-THE PHOTOGRAPH — Indonesia — Nightclub singer attempts to improve her life by becoming the assistant to an ancient photographer
5-FIRAAQ — India — Intertwining stories of Hindus and Muslims unsuccessfully living together in the era of terrorism
6-A NYOMOZO (THE INVESTIGATOR) — Hungary — Humorless pathologist is offered a payday if he kills someone he believes he has no tie to
7-MANNEN SOM ELSKET YNGVE (THE MAN WHO LOVED YNGVE) — Norway — A boy in a high school rock band is conflicted when he finds himself attracted to the new tennis-playing, artistic, beautiful boy even though he knows he has an almost perfect girlfriend
8-PAZAR-BIR TICARET MASALI (THE MARKET: A TALE OF TRADE) — Turkey — Struggling businessman tries to bring much-needed medicine across the border even though he won’t make a profit
9-BE HAMIN SADEGI (AS SIMPLE AS THAT) — Iran — Housewife and mother feels invisible and artistically stiffled
10-CE QU’IL FAUT POUR VIVRE (NECESSITIES OF LIFE) — Canada — Inuit man taken from his home and family for TB treatment in Quebec City in 1952
11-NOME PROPRIO (CAMILA JAM) — Brazil — Passionate young woman with no sense of privacy exposes her thoughts, secrets, dreams, and body to an eager online readership
12-UN AUTRE HOMME (ANOTHER MAN) — Switzerland — Man with no opinions of his own becomes film critic in small village by copying better-known critical material
13-FINNISCHER TANGO (FINNISH TANGO) — Germany — Con man pretends to be disabled and falls in with a group home and learns a little something about himself
14-RAMCHAND PAKISTANI — Pakistan — Father and son are taken into custody for wandering too near the Indian border and adjust to life in prison
15-TANDOORI LOVE — Switzerland — Indian chef on a film location falls for Swiss woman working in an alpine restaurant
16-EL CAMINO — Costa Rica — Children flee abusive grandfather and attempt to cross the border into Costa Rica from Nicaragua, but the dangers are at least as great on their journey as they were back at home
[Avoid the ones below here]
17-LOS (CUT LOOSE) — Belgium — Journalist wants more serious stories to report on and begins writing about immigrant’s experiences coming to Belgium and falls for a beautiful Palestinian
18-UN ROMAN POLICIER (A POLICE ROMANCE) — France — Arab rookie and French police chief investigate drug dealers and a relationship with each other
19-ESZTER HAGYATEKA (ESTHER’S INHERITANCE) — Hungary — Woman with family home falls a second time for her scoundrel brother-in-law
20-CORPSE RUN — USA — Tech-savvy youth play videogames and talk incessantly about their generation
21-TURNEJA (THE TOUR) — Serbia — Semi-famous theater troupe takes a tour of the war-ravaged countryside
22-CAPERS — USA — Three different bumbling crime gangs filmed in three different cinema styles
23-NA LEPOM PLAVOM DUNAVU (THE BEAUTIFUL BLUE DANUBE) — Serbia — Cabaret + Shortbus + Irreversible = Loveboat with value added sexual favors
24-WAKE — USA — Young woman tries her luck dating people she meets at funerals. I tried my luck watching this. I got through 30 minutes
Documentaries:
1-WITCH HUNT — USA — Working-class couples unjustly thrown in prison based upon coached evidence of children
2-JOHNNY CASH AT FOLSOM PRISON — USA — Landmark live album has interesting back story
3-ROCK PAPER SCISSORS: A GEEK TRAGEDY — Canada — These people take Rock Paper Scissors very seriously
Impossible To Categorize Or Review Without At Least A Half Dozen More Viewings:
1-CANARY — USA — Replacement organs are sometimes repossessed if the host doesn’t follow their care and feeding correctly?
Fell Asleep But Heard It Was Terrific:
1–YE CHE (NIGHT TRAIN) — China — I have no idea
Review: Generic Thriller (Cynthia Corral)
Posted by Cynthia Corral
I can’t say that I wasted 90 minutes of my life at the theater this evening, because I did get some good nap time in. But I can’t say that you should go see this film either. At all. Ever. The misleading title probably didn’t help expectations, but not even in the Cinequest film description are you told that the entire film is constantly narrated by strangely boring Steven and takes place solely on the stage of the SJSU theatre. There is no “thriller”, generic or otherwise. There is a strange killer of blondes that runs around pretending to stab and shoot people, but it’s really only funny for a couple minutes – and don’t even let that bit get you excited, it was NOT exciting. This was not even a poorly thought out SNL skit lengthened to a full length feature – it was a long, rambling stream-of-consciousness with no thought provoking ideas or comedic moments, and most especially, it had no Thriller. Read more
Review: Truffe (Jason Wiener)
Posted by Jason Wiener
Originally posted on Jason Watches Movies:
Truffe is the movie so weird that it knocked The Investigator out of my #1 ranking in Cinequest (so far). A French film from Montreal, shot in black and white (and my only complaint is that many of the subtitles were white on white–very hard to read) it takes place in the near future when global warming has caused a tone of truffles to grow right in the middle of Montreal. This was great for a year, but the glut on the market has caused prices to crash. Charles is by far the best truffle hunter, with a nose of superhuman sensitivity that makes him a local celebrity. It’s so good that he’s attracted the attention of some weird people who run a fur scarf company. Their scarves have a nasty habit of coming to life and biting/choking people, but for some reason they’re also in the truffle business, selling canned Mr Truffle brand truffles in from men with refrigerators strapped to their backs. Yeah…well, they make him an offer and he needs the money, so he goes to work for them. I don’t know if it’s an allegory on selling your individuality to the corporate world, or if it’s just a bunch of weird stuff that happens. A sci-fi horror comedy unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
Truffe has no more showings at Cinequest. Sorry, but it has been released on DVD in Canada (and I already ordered mine from Amazon.ca)
Go here for the CQ page.
Go here to wait for Amazon.ca to have more DVDs in stock (sorry, I think I snagged the last one last night).
Review: The Investigator/A Nyomozó (Jason Wiener)
Posted by Jason Wiener
Originally posted on Jason Watches Movies:
First up [on Monday was] a brilliant Hungarian crime thriller/comedy (at least I found it funny), The Investigator. For about 5 hours, this was my favorite film of the festival (yeah, [Monday, Mar 2] was a good day). Tibor Malkáv is an assistant pathologist, used to looking at death and not blinking. In fact, he’s unfazed by anything, although he does have a little facial tic that gives him away. When the woman at the local diner flirts with him, he brushes it off, but is willing to go to the movies with her. He’s just that kind of “nothing affects me” kind of guy. However, he needs money for his mother, who’s dying of cancer unless she gets into a special clinic in Sweden. It just so happens a mysterious one-eyed man who calls himself Cyclops has an offer for plenty of money–he just has to kill a guy. Easy, he’s used to death, this guy must have done something wrong, and since he has no connection to the guy, he’ll never be a suspect. He doesn’t agonize over the decision, he just does what he has to do. Problem is, he’s immediately a suspect, because there is a connection between them that he didn’t know about. He established an alibi, but suddenly he has to investigate who set him up. This is something that his personality is perfect for–cool, passionless, but meticulous with keen observation skills. I won’t spoil the plot, but I’ll just say he’s way too fuckin‘ cool for words, and his performance (for which he’s won awards at other festivals) is one for the ages.
The Investigator plays again on Mar 6 at 7:30 pm.
Go here for the CQ page and to buy tickets.
Review: Canary (Jason Wiener)
Posted by Jason Wiener
Originally posted at Jason Watches Movies:
Last Sunday I saw what might be the toughest movie to “get” in Cinequest–Canary. Alejandro Adams makes it clear early on that he’s not going to be making anything clear. For the first 10 minutes you watch a Russian family having a conversation in Russian with no subtitles (I’ve been told it’s a really banal, boring conversation, too). The camera is hidden half behind walls, etc, making you feel a bit like a peeping tom. And in the middle of it all, a mute girl stands watching, hiding (but not very well, it seems like the family just ignores her). She holds a spray can and a small cooler with a heart logo on it. Finally it cuts to one family member lying on the floor (presumably she sprayed him) and she’s smearing blue jello on his abdomen. We learn later soon that she’s an organ redistribution specialist working for the Canary Corporation. But we never see an operation, never a drop of blood. We learn about Canary instead through an advertising bull session where executives are throwing ideas back and forth. The key to their business is the “conscientious use” clause in their contracts. Abuse your organ, and you don’t get to keep it. You can even have a Canary representative certify your baby’s organs at birth, in case they need a transplant later on. Of course, that signs them up for the conscientious use contract, too. This is a world explicated through banal, sometimes bizarre conversations. Canary organ redistribution specialists flirt with the nurses in the hospital. A TV news crew pitches ideas and interviews a crackpot who thinks–for some reason–that Canary might be evil. No, Canary is good. The organs provide life for many people, not just one. And the conscientious use contract is easy to follow if you just eat Canary brand organic foods. There’s satire, there’s allegory, there’s banality and acceptance of horrific realities. Reactions I went through while watching this ranged from ‘genius!’ to ‘what?’ to ‘I think this violates the conscientious use clause for my eyes!’ Not an easy movie to watch, not an easy movie to understand, and not an easy movie to forget.
Oh yeah, and all the “Repo!” fans who will see this movie because of the organ repossession angle and hated it because there’s no blood–ha ha, jokes on you!
Canary plays again Mar 7 at 4 pm at the San Jose Rep.
Go here for the CQ site and buy tickets.
Go here to learn more about Canary Industries.
Review: Shorts Program 2: Document: The World (Cynthia Corral)
Posted by Cynthia Corral
Christmas in Tent City – One of the best of a great group, Francisco and Roberto Jiménez tell the story of a childhood Christmas 60 years ago, after having emigrated from Mexico. Switching between talking heads with the brothers and beautiful illustrations detailing the story, you can’t help but shed a tear when his mother cries.
Drag King – I was disappointed to realize this movie was not about actual Drag Kings. Oh no. This film was red-neckery at its most perplexing. In Lake County, California, there is a demolition derby where the drivers also tow boats behind their cars. I don’t know why. I didn’t understand this movie at all. It got a huge applause though.
Forced into Comfort, Fighting for Apology – GOOD GRIEF. The Comfort Women in Japan did not volunteer to be raped, beaten and tortured. SHAME ON YOU JAPAN. This was an EXCELLENT film.
Naming Pluto – About the woman who actually named the planet (she was 11 years old at the time). It was a really interesting film. Although when I started giggling every time they said “discovered Uranus” and “observations of Uranus” I knew I probably watch too much South Park.
Pickin’ and Trimmin’ – My mind started drifting the moment the old man started mumbling about… ZZZzzzzzzz. I think I probably should have liked it, but I didn’t, and it was torture for me waiting for it to end. Don’t hate me if you thought it was charming.
Rare Chicken Rescue – LOVED this one. About a man suffering from depression who raises very rare chickens. And these birds are Gorgeous. At 26 minutes, it was just starting to lose my interest when suddenly a tragedy hits and I woke right up again. I would watch this one again just to see those gorgeous birds. Here is a trailer to give you a taste of the film (but not a taste for chicken).
Review: DANCERS (Marya Murphy)
Posted by Marya
Never have I seen a dancing movie less about dancing. There is dancing, but it’s plot-irrelevant, used as visual poetry and texture. The dancing reflects the mood of the protagonist, Annika (Trine Dyrholm), bright and beautiful in her ebullience, discordant and wrong when she is conflicted and afraid.
Annika (I totally want to steal that name if I ever have another girl-kid) brought to mind Sally Hawkins’ Poppy in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky: personified sunshine and lightness. But where Poppy played carelessly with her angry, male counterpart, Annika approaches Lasse (Anders W. Berthelsen) with tentative persistence and struggles with her attraction to a possibly dangerous man. It’s difficult to imagine why this delightful, gorgeous, sensual woman is unattached. There are hints of past “normal” boyfriends, and we gradually perceive her to be under her mother’s control. Lasse accuses her of having a belated rebellion, but it seems to run deeper than that. Her attraction to Lasse, who is dark and unsmiling but magnetic, is immediate and enduring. The two leads are fantastic. Lasse’s pained brutality pitted against Annika’s ardent hope and new, but deeply-felt, need.
The director evokes menace in tiny ways: I held my breath as Lasse suddenly raised his arm while Annika’s back was turned; and Annika running alone, sensual and vigorous in early scenes, becomes terribly suspenseful after we learn a bit more about Lasse’s past.
It’s a redemption tale, or possibly a story of the triumph of love over reason. The final dancing scene conveys a happier and more whole Annika, glowing with possibility. Her choice in the end is her own, whether right or wrong, and she is fortified by the choosing as much as by love.
Tags: Anders W. Berthelsen, CQ19, DANCERS, Pernille Fischer Christensen, Reviews, Trine Dyrholm.
The Mob Ranks CQFF19 Films Thus Far (Sunday Morning Edition)
Posted by MichaelVox
Hey. MichaelVox here.
Today, Sunday, is the 4th full day of Cinequest 19. It’s time to see how some veteran Cinequesters have ranked what they’ve seen so far this year. Feel free to add your own comments. There are more than 150 films this year, they can’t all be spectacular. By the same token, you don’t want to be the only person who didn’t experience the movie everyone’s talking about this year. These lists are changeable and preliminary and grouped together in “clumps of quality”.
Without further ado, a few ordered lists:
MichaelVox (12th CQ):
FOR MY FATHER
HISTORIAS EXTRAORDINARIAS
WITCH HUNT
THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE
JOHNNY CASH AT FOLSOM PRISON
ESTER’S INHERITANCE
ANOTHER MAN
CORPSE RUN
A POLICE ROMANCE
CAPERS
WAKE
—–
Mike Weston:
DANCERS
THE MAN WHO LOVED YNVGE
THE MARKET
WAKE
—–
Annette M. (13th CQ):
THE NECESSITIES OF LIFE
THE MARKET
TRUFFE
SALUTE: THE PETER NORMAN STORY
THE FRIEND
SHORTS: COME TOGETHER
ROCATERRANIA
SHORTS: THE HEREAFTER
HOW AM I NOT GOING TO LOVE YOU?
BITTER AND TWISTED
A POLICE ROMANCE
FINNISH TANGO
NIGHT TRAIN
—–
Steve Rhodes (13th CQ):
WITCH HUNT
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS
WAKE
DANCERS
JOHNNY CASH AT FOLSOM PRISON
CAPERS
NIGHT TRAIN
BITTER & TWISTED
—–
Pischina (11th or so CQ):
WITCH HUNT
CAPERS
TWO MILLION STUPID WOMEN
HOW AM I NOT GOING TO LOVE YOU?
HISTORIAS EXTRAORDINARIAS
THE SKEPTIC
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS
CORPSE RUN
—–
RandomCuriosity:
CAPERS
NIGHT TRAIN
—–
Review: BITTER & TWISTED (Marya Murphy)
Posted by Marya
I’m not sure how to approach a review of BITTER & TWISTED. The synopsis and trailer are misleading, perhaps necessarily. It’s the kind of film that must be taken as a whole. The synopsis leads one to believe it will be a slightly quirky, rather dreary and melodramatic story about the effect of the death of a loved one on those left behind (with a little gayness thrown in for good measure). And it is that. But while skimming along with a fairly conventional story, it consistently and delightfully defies expectations, while always remaining genuine and truthful. It is outrageously funny at times, while never flouting its gently melancholic tone. And the quirk never stretches toward camp, but stays within the realm of the real.
Christopher Weekes (also interviewed here at CQ Central) wrote and directed this, his first film, and I’m eager to see what he does next. He cast himself in a charmingly cipherish role as Ben, the brother of the deceased Liam. It’s a role he seems to recede into, and an unlikely one for a child actor turned writer/director, which makes it all the more brave. He’s joined by a marvelous cast including the talented and beautiful Zooey-Deschanel-like Leeanna Walsman as the girlfriend of dead Liam, Indigo, who’s caught up in an affair with an older man. Noni Hazlehurst is marvelously moving as the grieving and lonely mother and wife of the emptied-out father played by Steve Rodgers. The four main characters are rich and fully-realized, and the lesser characters, the sister Lizzie and the scene-stealing Matthew Weston as Ben’s special friend, Matt, are developed enough to make the audience want more of them.
The film is well-written, confidently directed and brilliantly cast. Christopher Weekes has a great future, and I hope he finds a way to make more films. And to cast me in them.
Tags: BITTER & TWISTED, Christopher Weekes, CQ19, DRAMEDY, Reviews.
Review: Rock, Paper, Scissors (Jason Wiener)
Posted by Jason Wiener
Originally posted at Jason Watches Movies:
A movie that had most of the audience guessing, “Is this for real?”, Rock, Paper, Scissorsis (I’m not kidding) a documentary about the world championship of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Plenty of people asked if this was actually a mockumentary (not in the Q&A with the director, but amongst ourselves afterwards), and I’ll go on record as saying I believe it is a real documentary. The premise (guys taking a simple activity way too seriously and competitively) reminds me a lot of Air Guitar Nation (the world championships of air guitar), which also had a strong ‘is this for real?’ vibe. Anyway, the RPS championship is the brain child of brothers Douglas and Graham Walker. They didn’t know if anyone would show up, but instead it turned into a niche cultural phenomenon (and a huge money sink for them), with larger than life figures like the zen-like Master Roshambollah (who was at the screening) and C. Urbanus–who becomes the sympathetic hero for promoting the sport, teaching the strategy, and then always losing in the first round. Oh yeah, about “strategy.” It does exist, and it’s surprisingly more complicated than you’d think. Ideally, perfect randomness is a zero-sum strategy. But people can’t truly be random, so the trick is to guess your opponent’s non-randomness, and counteract it. And, of course, he or she is trying to do the same. Basically I’d sum up the strategy as “out think your opponent, but not yourself”. There are even terms for series of throws–Avalanche (Rock, Rock, Rock), Bureaucrat (Paper, Paper, Paper), Scissors Sandwich (I can’t remember if it was Scissors, Paper, Scissors or Paper, Scissors, Paper), etc. Seriously, mathematicians and game theorists write papers on RPS strategy. And if all this wasn’t weird enough, the Walker brother’s World RPS Society gets challenged by the flashy upstart USA RPS League. That’s right, a former potential business partner starts a commercial league that gets sponsorship, actually makes money, uses Playboy Playmates as RPS models. The Walkers refuse to go along, claiming they’re destroying the purity of the sport. A truly bizarre story, where the humor comes from taking something silly way too seriously.
As I think about it, there’s actually a small niche of films like RPS. Anyone up for a trilogy of RPS, Air Guitar Nation, and Pizza! The Movie (the documentary that includes competitive pizza dough tossing, not the narrative comedy that I haven’t seen)?
Rock, Paper, Scissors plays again on Feb 28 at 12:15 pm and Mar 8 at 5:15 pm (both times at the Camera 12 theater).
Go here for the CQ program notes and to buy tickets.
Go here for the official website.
Tags: CQ19, DOCUMENTARY, Reviews, ROCK PAPER SCISSORS.