Yummy or Crummy?

Lucretia and I aren’t going anywhere for the Memorial Day weekend… Just too much to do around the house and to prepare for our trip to Japan in July. But that doesn’t mean we can’t check out a few films!

Youth Run Amok is a collection of short films about being a child or a teenager. It was mostly sad and depressing — but one of them, called Warlord, was funny and didn’t take itself too seriously, so it stood out. I also liked Aruba, about a boy who takes matters into his own hand so he can escape a bad situation. The photo is from another one, The Saddest Boy in the World, which was OK.

Then we stayed at Harvard Exit for Paris je t’aime, a collection of 18 mini features, all directed by a different director, all set in Paris, and all about love. Mostly love between two adults, but with some exceptions. It felt a bit long towards the end, but almost all the mini stories were beautifully shot and enjoyable to watch. Some were pretty funny, too. Gus Van Sant, the Coen brothers, and Wes Craven are among the directors, and Juliette Binoche, Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Natalie Portman star in the film… along with many more famous names and faces.

Short stories are great for film festivals. If it sucks (which wasn’t the case for most part today), it’ll be over soon! We sat near the aisle for both screenings today, but didn’t get the urge to get up and leave.

Woo hoo! SIFF 2007 is finally here. POP is once again one of the grand sponsors, on the account of the work we have done for their box office application and the website. So once again, I was lucky enough to get a sponsor pass that gets me into all regular screenings. I’ll have to purchase tickets for special events like galas or forums, but for most part it’s great to be able to run around and see films without having to be too discriminating because of the price.

The opening film this year was called Son of Rambow. It was a very, very cute film about crazy imaginations, a home-made movie, and friendship. The main characters were sweet, not tooth-achy but more in a satisfying way. And funny, too. Someone at work accurately described the humor as Rushmore-like.

I must say that McCaw Hall as the opening venue was very impressive, too. I know a lot of people were probably there on a free ticket just like I was, but SIFF still did a great job filling up the place, and creating a great excitement around the event. As usual, Gary Tucker did an awesome job of making the daunting task of reading the sponsor list funny and participatory. (This concludes the Yummy part of the post.)

So that was Thursday night… Lucretia and I decided to take advantage of the Memorial Day weekend by checking out some movies while the buzz from the opening night celebration is still strong. So Friday night, we went to see Pleasant Moments (Hezké chvilky bez záruky), a Czech film about a female shrink whose “endless parade” of patients seem to drive her crazy by the end. I must say, we did not enjoy this movie very much. Some people might say that this is exactly the style of movie to expect from a Czech director, but if that’s the case I’ll have to say, “No, thank you” to all movies from that country. I’m trying to stay somewhat open-minded about this, but shaky camera work, faded colors, circular plot with no real progression, bad acting, bad dialogue, and even bad translation combined to make a pretty bad experience for both me and Lucretia. When I went to see Once last week, the director was happy with the sometimes shaky camera movements because he was able to achieve authenticiy without making the film ugly. And I completely agree — it was a beautiful film. Unfortunately I can’t say the same about this film — it got ugly! But hey, don’t take my word for it. Go see for yourself!

Once is a contemporary musical film about two young musicians who fall in love. The story couldn’t be simpler, which highlighted the great music and the gritty, “realistic” looking cinematography even more.

In addition to the free screening of the film, we were treated to a Q&A session with the director John Carney and actors/musicians Glen Hansard of The Frames and Markéta Irglová. More on this down below.

I can’t say anything bad about this film. Every character was likable, even a street drunk who tries to steal money from the main character. That might be counterintuitive, to have a whole cast of likable people. But that’s not to say that the main characters do not face any challenges. They can’t help but make music, but they also have their daily responsibilities to make the ends meet. They have family to care for and think about. They can’t run off and be together forever after no matter how romantic that might feel. It’s the way this film resists the Hollywood-esque urges in every way that makes it charming. I especially liked the last scene, where a more “produced” film would have taken the same scene up another notch in terms of cinematographical “trickery,” but Carney used just enough of the unexpected angle to communicate the main character’s feeling. It was crystal clear without being too over-the-top.

After we arrived, we were pleasantly surprised to learn that the director and the two actor/musicians who play the main characters would make an appearance. The Q&A after the film was insightful and funny. It’s always nice to see artists showing passion for their craft in a fun-loving way (as opposed to self-absorbed and too serious, like how some people can be). We learned about how Hansard and Irglová wrote some of the songs together, the different approaches for directing music-centric scenes and straight acting scenes, etc.

Then Hansard and Irglová performed some of the music from the film. Hansard even used the broken-ass guitar that his character uses in the movie. They were taking audience requests — it was fantastic. These artists have every reason to be excited about this project — go see this film if you can! It’ll be playing in SIFF, and will open in Seattle in June.

Official movie site

Yummy! I’ve missed a bunch of free SIFF screenings in the last month, so I was glad to make one finally. They’re really gearing up for the main festival to start, so there’ll be many more events leading up to it. Unfortunately I’ll probably miss most of them!

Anyway about the movie. I liked it — let’s get that straight. It was a pretty solid crime thriller, and I probably can’t say much more without spoiling the ending. Sort of reminded me of The Dying Gaul, as in it was a well-written, well-acted, and beautifully-shot movie. But it’s about rich people, and it’s almost too beautiful. (Like, for a guy that doesn’t know how to wear a tux, Ryan Gosling’s character looks REALLY good in a suit.) And for that reason it’s not real enough, and it ends up being a pretty forgettable movie. Again, I liked it, but it wasn’t profound or anything like that. However, please put this in perspective by remembering that my favorite movie of all time is Jerry Maguire.

As for acting, I loved how Ryan Gosling (first movie I’ve seen him in since Half Nelson) takes the mumbling, wincing, and chuckling to the new level of acting. Anthony Hopkins might as well have had the Hannibal mask on for this movie, going strong with the familiar whispering of witty and sometimes creepy remarks.

I bowled a perfect 300 today in Wii bowling today!

8 BIT: a documentary about art and video games

Our friend Shi Kai told us about this movie, so we checked it out together at Northwest Film Forum this weekend. I thought I knew what to expect, because in the last year or so I have seen a good amount of works inspired by old-school video games, mostly in the visual arts category. I remember seeing an artist featured in Readymade, and in most cases I see these things through forwarded links from friends and co-workers, probably because it’s a subject that resonates with many people my age and the hipster DIY culture.

So I thought this would be like a collection of all those links and articles, showcasing the pieces and the artists, and talking about their motivation, etc. Well, the documentary did that, but it went much deeper.

The movie treated this kind of art as a new movement, something that takes us beyond modernism and post-modernism. Sadly I’m not familiar enough with the official definitions of these terms, so I can’t write intelligently about the validity of the claim that Marcin Ramocki (the director) makes. But it was interesting to sit through the post-screening Q&A with Ramocki. Basically the meat of his claim is that this is no longer part of modernism or post-modernism because we live in a world where reappropriating previously existing work has become an acceptable (almost encouraged in some cases — he pointed to object-oriented programming as an example) medium for working, including art. So reappropriation is no longer a taboo, and it’s certainly not a criticism of the original work. It’s something we have yet to define academically, and he seemed both excited and discouraged about that, like we are screwed because we can’t keep up.

While I would have been happy enough to see a slideshow of cool art inspired by nostalgia such as Atari and Nintendo, I was even more pleased to have caught this film in its limited showings. My only criticism is that it was a bit heavy on the scenes about the chip music, which tends to get annoying after a while. But Ramocki did admit that he loves this stuff and that it was already cut down substantially. When you love something, I guess you can’t hide it!

Note: I created a category called SIFF Screenings to mark all the posts I write after I get to see a free movie thanks to the SIFF membership benefit.

God Grew Tired of Us is a documentary about the “Lost Boys” from Sudan who came to the United States after fleeing the violence in their homeland.

It is a film that is both uplifting and sad. It is uplifting to see these young men have such a great outlook on life after facing so many unbelievable challenges. Their life in the US is by no means easy, but they do reap some deserving rewards as they continue to be true to their roots, and work towards what they believe is the right thing.

It is sad because it reinforces the other side of the material wealth we enjoy here in the US, some of which inlcude: the working poor who must take on two, three shifts to keep up; the culture of alienation where strangers feel no connection to one another, “even though they’re all Americans”; and racism, stereotypes, and the culture of fear against foreign individuals. The film reminds us that no matter how many text messages we exchange with our friends, these boys from Africa can experience far richer connections with their loved ones, precisely because of what they lack.

It’s a pretty emotional film, with some not-so-subtle calls to action attached. For one the display of names of Hollywood stars connected to the film are obvious (Brad Pitt, Nicole Kidman, Catherine Keener, and more I’m sure), and the screening in Seattle made available some supplemental material that could be used for further education, as well as to find additional foster homes for the boys still in Africa. Also one of the boys in the film organizes a rally to educate the Americans about the situation in Sudan. I think a documentary is a pefectly good vehicle for something like this, so I would welcome this kind of propaganda!

Highly recommended, if you can catch a screening. It also won the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at last year’s Sundance.

I know, I know. Everyone else blogging about getting a Wii used that spelling. But I can’t help it. It’s just so exciting. I feel so shallow and silly for being excited about a video game console. Maybe it’s the fact that Lucretia and I won it in a raffle at my employer’s holiday party. It was the top prize of the night, and we had won the DS (would have been our second one) prior to the Wii drawing — but when our number was called for Wii, I jumped up and returned the DS for Wii. I didn’t want to be a prize hog!

Anyway, the gameplay is sweet. It’s amazing how sensitive the controller is. A slight turn of your wrist is all you need to tweak your bowling or golf swing. And I can easily believe all the reports of people getting injured and breaking stuff while playing the game. (I already banged our Wiimote on the low ceiling. It doesn’t seem to be broken just yet, though!)

Here’s Lucretia playing tennis. And yes, I was planning on gutting it out with our old POS TV, but now with Wii in the house, I may have to upgrade soon.

And to add to the excitement, Wii now has a web browser. Hmm — I can watch a Flash video of a show on YouTube using the Wii browser on my TV. Love how everything comes back full circle…

And finally, these are our Miis.

Russell took me to the Niners-Hawks game on Thursday. Last time the Seahawks played in Seattle at night, it snowed like hell and the city was paralyzed. This time, a crazy windstorm hit the city, and whole two days later we still don’t have power at home. Crazy!

Anyway, I enjoyed the game very much. Not just because I’m a Niner fan, but because Qwest Field is a great place to watch a game, and our seats were pretty close to the endzone.

As expected, some idiots made ridiculous remarks at me just because I was wearing a red hat, a red jacket, and cheering for the Niners. (Sheeesh, some people…) For most part the crowd was tame and reasonable. We made conversations with both the Hawks fans and the Niners fans. Everyone was in good spirits, enjoying the game, despite all the wind and the rain — at least until the Niners broke the game open with the fourth-quarter comeback. But I didn’t get any plastic bottles thrown at me or anything — so I’m happy! I hope to come back for another game, when things are a bit less wet — so that I can worry less about being cold and drink more beer!

Bobby (2006), The Weinstein Company

Once again, I took advantage of a free screening preview offered from SIFF. This time it was Bobby, a movie about the day Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, as told from perspective of various people who were at the Ambassador Hotel for one reason or another to witness the tragedy.

It’s a simple premise, really — the movie begins in the morning of June 6th, 1968, and it constantly switches shots between the 22 characters’ lives as it leads up to the finale of RFK getting shot in the kitchen. We see many different types of characters, each with their own set of problems. The movie basically gives us the glimpse of what it was like to live in that time, with the reality of an unpopular war staring most people in their faces. And with two of the most influential figures in recent history brutally assassinated, the all focus — and hope — was on Robert Kennedy to change the world, something his brother and Dr. King couldn’t continue to do.

We see everything through the characters’ eyes. All shots of RFK are actual clips from the 60′s, and when he is “in” the movie they obscure his face so it’s unclear who’s playing him. The point was not necessarily to tell the story of RFK, but to show that everyone was profoundly affected in their own ways by everything that happened during that era. The movie’s climax and the finale come with Kennedy getting shot and carried off to the hospital. Even though for the entire length of the movie we see these characters’ stories develop, we don’t get to see how they are affected by this particular tragedy.

That seems to be the most common criticism of the movie, that all the subplots are overshadowed by one man’s death at the end. I personally didn’t mind it that much. All that the subplots really represented was the confusion, anger, and the hope that many people felt. Rather than tidying up the meaningless details of the subplots, I appreciated that the movie ended the way it did, because it somehow drew more attention to RFK’s overall message of hope, tolerance, and demanding a little bit more from one another as we try to make the world a better place. It sounds cheesy, but that’s all it was, wasn’t it? It’s easy to see the pararell between the movie and what’s happening today. Not just Vietnam and Iraq, but the culture of divide. By bringing his message to the forefront, rather than the negative impact of the events, I think Emilio Estevez (who wrote and directed the film) was just trying to inspire us to come together and hope, like they all were ready to do with RFK as a president. Overall I liked the film. It’s a Yummy!

Some of my negatives with the film — sometimes the dialogue was kind of predictable and cheesy. I have to admit that Ashton Kutcher as a stoner/drug dealer was pretty funny, but there were too many “easy-laugh” scenes of the two campaign workers getting high and being jackasses. And oh yeah, Ashton’s character getting busted at the end seemed highly obligatory, afraid to appear like they are condoning drug use. Lindsay Lohan was average in both appearance (intended) and acting (probably not). Scenes in the kitchen with Edward (Laurence Fishburne), Miguel (Jacob Vargas), and Jose (Freddy Rodríguez) were good and engaging, but a bit heavy-handed.