Nowtopian

More film capsule reactions:

The 12 Labors
Set in Sao Paolo, Brazil, this story of a young man two months out of two years in juvenile jail who gets a job as a motorcycle messenger, is a good look at Sao Paolo and its insane traffic, class divisions, etc., but like too many Brazilian films, it’s predictable, a bit cliche’d, finaly boring for the telenovela shallowness of the characters. Kind of Brazil’s version of Horatio Alger, the poor kid who heroically escapes a life of crime… heartwearming and sleep inducing–of course it was my 4th movie of the day when I saw it!

Daratt
Set in Chad, the story of a young man about 20 or so named Atim, meaning orphan, who listens to the Truth and Justice Commission’s decision to grant general amnesty to all war criminals from the Civil War. His blind grandfather then bids him to get justice for his dead father by killing his murderer. That man turns out to be a baker and strong Muslim now, aware he caused a lot of harm in his life. Atim travels to his city and becomes his apprentice, wrestling with is urges to shoot him throughout. The great climax, the man wants to adopt Atim and accompanies him to meet his father. (Atim, who is occasionally quite animated and charming, is mostly sullen, filled with rage, and quite mute.) Instead they find grandpa in the desert waiting for Atim’s return. He demands that Atim humiliate the man like his father was, so he is forced to disrobe. Then grandpa says “execute him!”–Atim saves him by feigning it, shotting in the air. Grandpa orders the coup de grace, and Atim feigns it again, fooling the blind grandfather. Atim joins grandpa and they walk away opposite from the terrified baker. Grandpa asks “did you hand shake?” and Atim says “no” and grandpa says “now you are a man.” End of movie… !

Sounds of Sand
Relentlessly bleak, a too-healthy family with beautiful smiles and teeth are forced to migrate when their Sahel village water dries up. The bulk of the film is their impossible trip across the desert, attacked by drug-addled “rebels” and slowly dying of thirst, losing their goats and belongings, one son is taken hostage, another is killed pointlessly. The little girl who was threatened with smothering at the outset of the film, is the only one to survive with her father, when they are saved by a UNHCR patrol from coma in the stark white desert. The refugee camp seems like paradise after this film!

Continue reading SF Int’l Film Festival! Part 2

I’m completely immersed in the Film Festival… here are a bunch of capsule review/reactions to some of the 18 films I’ve seen so far after the first week:

Bamako
Remarkable film set in Mali, depicting an almost mythical trial pitting African “civil society” against the World Bank and IMF. Brilliant speeches, smart critique of neoliberalism, great acting, esp. by a woman writer and the final two jurists, a white Frenchman and a black Malian woman… meanwhile a gorgeous nightclub singer brackets the film, singing a haunting tune, first with pleasure, and last in tears. Her husband is a taciturn observer, brooding and increasingly depressed through the film, who finally suicides at the end, after early on ruminating with a videographer friend that death is better than life. The stats and facts are compellingly presented while daily life unfolds in the courtyard/courtroom… the old white lawyer defending the World Bank and globalization is very well presented, too, avoiding the easy cliche of a stupid proponent of the ideas under attack. A brilliant movie, works on so many levels!

Strange Culture
Lynn Hershman’s latest, a one-hour documentary on the Critical Arts Ensemble and Steve Kurtz’s chilling story, busted by overzealous Buffalo police after the sudden heart attack death of his wife. Not a great cinema experience–they were clearly starved for B-roll–but such a creepy and compelling story that I still liked it. Curious juxtaposition of actors and the real subjects of the story, with allusions to the corporate targets of the CAE’s work being not exactly responsible but intersted in suppressing Kurtz’s work. But mostly it’s about the DoJ and the local prosecutor’s obsessive efforts to advance politically by carrying through this insane prosecution.

Jindabyne
Really creeping story with great acting from Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney, about some Aussie working class guys who go fishing, find the murdered body of a young aboriginal woman (the murder starts the movie) but rather than reporting it and dealing with it immediately, they carry on fishing for four days. When they come home and report it, the whole area is scandalized, and the dysfunctional fissures in all their lives grow worse, nearly shattering their already fragile accommodations. Painful to watch, very well presented, typical “moderns” who are bitter, frustrated, lost, in denial, and out of touch with their basic humanity. Flashes of humanness erupt throughout, like lightning illuminating a dark landscape of alienation.

Continue reading SF Int’l Film Festival! Part 1