R.W.D. AT SUNDANCE '11
BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE. THE TRAVELS OF TRIBE CALLED QUEST.
A Tribe Called Quest is an American Hip Hop Band formed in 1985 that achieved a great deal of success with their first three albums and disbanded in 1998, but then got back together in 2005 to tour the country again. Their became recognized as innovators at fusing hip hop with jazz and hip-hop winning them some prestigious awards. Even so, I just didnt get it. Maybe I’m too much of a white Brit Methodist and I never ever got to meet such characters as Q-Tip (also known as Kamaal Ibn John Fareed, and formerly Jonathan Davis). But at least I tried. And for an entire 45 minutes.
BECOMING CHAZ
This highly personal film documents part of the journey that Chaz Bono takes to become a transgendered man. He is remarkably brave, strikingly honest and an extremely likable person who allows the cameras to record the crucial steps of taking the necessary hormones and then having the vital breast surgery and how all of this effects not only his partner Jenny, struggling with her own sobriety, but also his family. His mother gives a thoughtful and considered interview and is later seen being more supportive on David Letterman TV Show, but despite her carefully chosen resolute words, it is clear that Cher is really struggling with accepting her child’s life altering changes.
This is the latest work from two of my favorite queer filmmakers Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato who hooked me back in 2000 with ‘The Eyes of Tammy Faye’ and have been producing sensationally stunning movies and TV ever since. This movie will however stand up as one of their best in their extensive output of excellent work. Go see …. BUT maybe don’t take Cher with you. Or better still turn the TV dial to the new OWN Channel as Ms Oprah Winfrey already has plans to show this one real soon.
★★★★★★★★
BEING ELMO.
A look behind the man behind the puppet who is one of the most cherished characters watched by millions of kids every day on Sesame Street. This fascinating story is of how Kevin Clash went from awkward teenager growing up in dilapidated area of Baltimore and ended up as part of Jim Henson’s team of Muppeteers and eventually taking over artistic control of Sesame St. itself. Kevin the man is as likeable as Elmo the puppet; a determined workaholic who damaged his own home life by his relentless drive to perfect his art and bring joy to so many kids around the world.
A compelling movie of a beguiling man that was a real treat to watch...... and as a plus point, it's narrated by Ms Whoopi Goldberg.
★★★★★★★★
THE BENGALI DETECTIVE
This ingenious documentary follows the most unlikely man ever to be a detective, and his ham-fisted staff, as they tackle a wide ranging and often-bizarre set of cases. One minute they are tracking down counterfeit shampoo, the next following a cheating husband, and then a brutal triple murderer. In between all this they find time to enter a Television Talent Dancing Show even though not a single one of then has any sense of rhythm, but they are still happy enough to be abused by the pretty female choreographer who forces them through their paces wearing quite ridiculously camp outfits. And if this wasn’t enough the Detective's young wife dies and we are treated (!) to the sight of a ritual Hindu Funeral Pyre.
Despite the fact that there are far too many strands of stories to follow, this movie is unreservedly truly delightful. If only US (or UK) Reality TV was half as natural and real as this, it may even be worth watching.
This is on my list of ‘go see’, and do it before it gets the ‘Hollywood Treatment' as a major studio has purchased it to turn it into a Major Feature Film. Lets only hope they pick Ms Zeta Jones to play the wife!
★★★★★★
Click for the first Trailer
THE CATECHISM CATACLYSM
Father Billy is an awkward young priest who seems to be losing interest in the Church much to the concern of his Superiors who urge him to take a vacation to think things through. Having no real friends at all he tracks down an old school chum who he manages to begrudgingly agree to take a short canoe trip with him. They have very little in common which I guess was meant to be the basis of the comedy in the movie, but as I found it so totally unfunny I never actually lasted long enough in the theater to see how the trip finished.
As we dashed out there was genuine laughter from the small audience, so maybe it’s just me. But then again, maybe it is not, as I obviously have less catholic tastes.
THE CINEMA HOLD UP
Four teenage boys who live in Mexico’s Guerrero colony and have too much time on their hands and they spend most of it drowning their problems in a haze of marijuana, lusting after the girls in the park, skateboarding, and spraying graffiti over the neighborhood walls. One day when they are both bored and broke they come up with the mad idea of robbing the local cinema.
The plot soon appears ill conceived, as does the movie itself, and after an hour of being bored out of my skull, we checked out the theater. The promise the movie offered never materialized, but the fact it was an Official Selection at Sundance … no mean feat … means that it must have some redemption, that I failed to find
CiRCUMSTANCE
This coming-of-age story tells of two teenage girls, who are best friends, dealing with all the restrictions of growing up in Iran today. The girls are exploring their emerging sexuality as they become part of Tehran’s underground party scene. When an older brother straight out of drug rehab becomes a religious zealot and even joins the infamous Morality Police, the once liberal outlook of their wealthy families starts to dramatically change, and the girls very existence is in danger.
This incredible movie from first time director Maryam Keshavarz is a superb, if not scary, look at the conflicts and struggles in contemporary youth culture in Iran. Extremely moving … and brave … and helped by an excellent cast, beautifully photographed, great soundtrack. A definite must-see.
★★★★★★★★★
CODEPENDENT LESBIAN SPACE ALIEN SEEKS SIMILAR
As the title suggests this is a very campy take on all those wonderfully dreadful Sci-Fi 'B' Movies. The Aliens are convinced that their over-active emotions will destroy the ozone of their planet and the only way around this is go to earth and have their hearts broken. One Alien finds a lesbian stationary clerk who is so out of it she never grasps the fact that she is dating someone from another planet, while another two Aliens realizing how needy earth women are decide to settle with each other and an abundant supply of cheesecake.
It ‘s a great late night movie to watch when you are tucked up in bed (with an earthling) and want to have a good laugh before you nod off.
★★★★★★
A FEW DAYS OF RESPITE.
This movie opens with two Iranian gay men who are fleeing their country (to avoid being executed as is the norm for homosexuals in Iran) and they have been dropped off at a railway line in the French countryside from where they can walk to the Station and catch a train, which will eventually get them into Paris. Mohsen the older man thinks it best that they don’t appear to be together and so he sits on the train next to a woman who he has helped board and she starts chatting and by the time they have reached their destination has offered him a few days work painting some rooms in her apartment.
That took up the first hour of this 80-minute film and the most interesting thing that happened so far was watching the paint dry, so we left. I’m guessing from all the furtive looks that the woman fancied Mohsen but then got upset (and maybe did something stupid?) when she discovered that his boyfriend was back in the wee hotel. Despite the title, there was no respite for us, and if you do sit through to the end, then pls. let me know what happened and I will try and look interested.
THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD
Morgan Spurlock who picked up an Oscar Nomination for his tongue-in-cheek documentary on fast food ‘Supersize Me’, is back on form with his take on the thorny subject of product placement, marketing and advertising in movies. He naturally takes it one step further by getting this whole movie financed entirely by the subject he is examining. A madcap but kind of very shrewd idea which when he explains it, all makes perfect sense. In his steady hands, his very quick wit and more than a dash of his scathing humor he succeeds in not only getting the film made, but it is a superbly entertaining one too.
★★★★★★★★
THE GUARD
This joyous wee movie tells the story of Sergeant Garry Boyle a member of the Irish Garda (Police) in a remote town in Galway. Sgt. Boyle has a very subversive sense of humor, a confrontational personality, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes, and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international drug-smuggling ring that has brought an FBI Agent to his door. What unfolds is an unpredictable and exhilarating sort-of-cops and robber story.
This superbly irreverent comedy is the debut feature of writer/director John Michael McDonough, but it is the gifted cast that makes it such an hilarious treat. Especially the incomparable Brendan Gleason whose flippant deadpan performance is priceless. Unmissable.
★★★★★★★★★
GUN HILL ROAD
Enrique returns home to the Bronx after a lengthy spell in Prison to discover that Angela his wife is distant to say the least, and his son Michael is now a transgender woman and known as Vanessa. None of this sits well with headstrong Enrique who views these changes as a personal threat to his masculinity and to his position as head of the household. His only way of coping means that he soon slips back into his criminal ways and almost risks losing everything.
An impressive first feature from writer/director Rashad Ernesto Green that so neatly captures a slice of life in this Latino neighborhood. It’s a complex family drama that sensitively tackles all their issues unflinchingly with more than tad of humor. A tough subject superbly filmed, and a joy to watch.
★★★★★★★★
HAPPY HAPPY
Set in the middle of winter in the middle of nowhere in the middle of Norway this very cold ‘comedy’ is about two couples bored with each other and they try a bit of wife swapping to liven things up. Well, it's not exactly like that as one of the husbands hits on the other man, but when rejected has to make do with the other wife instead. Two other memorable things : for some unexplained reason one couple has adopted an african child who looks even darker in this landscape, and secondly they eat moose meat at every meal which I guess makes sense.
An interested well constructed movie but I’m not sure if it’s the fact that you don’t really get to like any of the rather annoying characters, or just the fact that there is all that snow, but this was not an engaging film.
Originally titled ‘ Sykt Lykkwlig’ in Norwegian, so maybe something was lost in translation cos it certainly was not 'Happy Happy'.
P.S. It subsequently won the Grand Jury Prize for Best World Drama, so I could be in a majority of one this time, but somehow I think not.
★★★★
Click for original Norwegian Trailer
KABOOM
An unrestrained and completely over-the-top pansexual campus comedy by famed queer filmmaker Greg Araki. Brilliant funny at first until ridiculous supernatural elements of the story totally lose the plot and ruin the last 20 mins, of a very promising movie.
This one is already being shown in cinemas in NY & LA and will soon be available on V.O.D.
★★★★★★
KNUCKLE
A Documentary shot over 12 years about 3 close-knit families of Irish ‘Travelers’ who aim to settle decades of long standing clan feuds with bare knuckle fighting. The language is as violent as the brawls themselves. Completely fascinating but spoiled by uneven editing that haphazardly mixes the chronological order that confuses the plot.
It has been bought by HBO to be made into a fictional series : the mind boggles.
★★★★★★
LIFE IN A DAY
You Tube linked up with Academy Award winning director Kevin MacDonald and celebrated producers Ridley and Tony Scott and invited the whole world to film whatever happened in their lives on one single day : July 24th 2010. They were totally overwhelmed when some 8000 people from 192 different countries sent in over 4000 hours of footage, but somehow from all of that have constructed a rather brilliant 90 min movie.
Most of it is very happy and very personal. The message of the movie is one of connection. In the words of the producers ‘regardless of where we live, what language we speak, or our circumstances in life, we all need to connect with others to make our lives whole.’ Corny as it may seem, it actually works and the result is an amazing cornucopia of so many astonishing different lives that make a real cinematic experience.
★★★★★★★★
Click for Trailer
LOST KISSES
Manuela is a teenager living with her dysfunctional family in a working class suburb in Sicily when a newly installed statue of the Madonna mysteriously loses its head. Manuela claims she had a visitation by The Virgin Mary who tells her exactly where the head is hidden. Word gets out and suddenly Manuela’s ‘miracle’ is the talk of the neighborhood and her apartment is overflowing with people demanding more miracles.
It's an eccentric and rather bizarre comedy with its rather exaggerated characters and too many irrelevant scenes that seem to add nothing to the plot at all. Disappointing
★★★★★
MARTHA MARCY MAE MARLENE
Martha escapes from an extreme Cult where she has been living and moves in with her newly married older sister and tries and live a ‘normal’ life again. The trouble is that Martha was probably never ever ‘normal’ even before she suffered all the abuse from the members of the Cult, so her attempts at assimilating herself into her sisters new life risks all their happiness esp. when her paranoia kicks in, as it does often for no real rhyme or reason.
This psychological drama was being misguidedly over-hyped as potentially the big breakout movie of Sundance i.e. this year’s The Winter Bone (a 2010 that went on to get 2 Oscar nominations). It is an interesting and good movie but its flawed script leaves the story floundering at times, and our interest along with it too. The biggest selling point is the fact that it stars Elisabeth Olsen, the younger sister of THOSE twins, and she, unlike her siblings, can actually act.
★★★★★★
OLD CATS
Isadora and Enrique are an elderly couple living in a large comfortable apartment with their two old cats. The bane in their life is their highly strung daughter Rosario and her butch girlfriend Hugo who want them to bankroll their latest hare-brained money-making scheme. However Isadora is in the early throes of Alzheimer's and she does something quite unexpected, and everything changes.
This enchanting and engaging movie is written and directed by Sebastian Silva and Pedro Peltrano, the talented pair of Chilean filmmakers who bought us the Award Winning delightful hit 'The Maid' and in fact some of the same cast are in both movies. Highly recommended.
★★★★★★★★
PAGE ONE : A YEAR INSIDE THE NY TIMES
A wonderful insight behind the scenes of one of the world’s greatest newspapers in a tumultuous period where it deals with its very own survival, as well as competing newspaper groups, in a rapidly evolving new world that has completely changed the landscape of the news media. The other major news story the movie focuses on is the emergence of Wiki Leaks and its power-mad and somewhat unstable leader Julian Assange who proves to be as difficult to handle as the news he wants to process.
This riveting movie makes compelling viewing as you realize how very earnest the editorial team is in their efforts to maintain an impeccably high standard in all their reporting and writing. The one star that shines bright from this documentary is David Carr who emerged from his own very colorful and drug hazed past to become one of the very best analysts and commentators on current media affairs. He is a real joy to listen too, and I’m going to ensure that (along with the must-read pieces from op-ed writers Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich) I will never miss Mr. Carr’s work ever again in the future. Totally fascinating.
★★★★★★★★★
PARIAH
A brilliant coming-of-age story of a butch black highly intelligent teenage girl who struggles to reconcile being gay within the confines of her conservative middle-class home. Her meddlesome bible-thumping mother is in denial of both her husband’s infidelity and her daughter’s sexuality thus creating more angst.
A thought-provoking film enlivened with some neat touches of humor from first time writer/director Dee Rees. It shows a tough story in a really refreshing manner and despite the focus on the strains it places on this family, it never gets melodramatic.
P.S. Its been picked up by Participant, a major Film Distributor which may mean that it will get the larger audiences it deserves and not just be restricted to film festivals.
★★★★★★★★
REAGAN
This excellent documentary on the B Movie Actor who became the 40th President of the US makes no bones of the fact that people either loved the man or absolutely hated all he stood for. When you fall into the later group it is hard to be dispassionate about seeing a film about an enormously important figure in one’s own history that managed to make a privileged few extremely wealthy at the cost of so many other lives. And tough to think good about a powerful man who stood and ignored the AIDS epidemic explode on his watch and wouldn’t even publicly acknowledge it's very existence until it was far too late for many people. Like another moving documentary we also saw at Sundance ‘We Were Here’, if nothing else we need these movies to remind ourselves of how the reality was, and not how history will re-write it in the future.
★★★★★★★
SHUT UP LITTLE MAN
In 1987 two young men moved from Wisconsin for the bright lights of San Francisco and ended up leasing a dreadful apartment in a great neighborhood. With paper-thin walls they soon heard every minute detail of the running battle between the two alcoholic middle-aged men who shared the next-door apartment. One was a raging homophobe and the other a flamboyant queen. The constant screaming matches and viscous fights were scarily very entertaining so the young men hung a microphone outside their window and for the next 18 months taped all the abusive altercations.
They made copies of their tapes to just give to friends who in turn made more copies to give to their friends, and before very long they became an underground sensation. The notoriety led to comic books being written, and then a play and several different attempts to convert the whole story into a movie. And this movie tracks it all from 1987 until the present time and includes the not-so-young-men-anymore actually meeting up with their neighbors some 20 years later.
I totally loved it as the whole thing is too funny for words, and a nice reminder that we had viral hits way before the internet and youtube.
★★★★★★★★
Click for Teaser
SING YOUR SONG
A stunning documentary on Harry Belafonte singer/actor/activist that with a treasure trove of wonderful archived footage gave an in-depth insight to this biography of this multilayered and inspiring man.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Click for Trailer
SUBMARINE
Fifteen-year-old Oliver Tate is decidedly weird and extremely delusional which is all part of his charm. When he’s not day dreaming at school about the imagined outburst of nationwide grief that would occur if he died, he has two big ambitions. He is desperate to lose his virginity before his next birthday, and he also wants to save his parents’ marriage when he thinks his strait-laced mother is having an affair with their New Age weirdo neighbor. Ho sober act. He aggressively pursues Jordana a self-professed pyromaniac to be his girlfriend, and after they ‘consummate;’ the relationship his idea of romancing her is discussing where Nietzhe got it all wrong.
This wonderfully quirky comedy from Wales of all places is an absolute gem. The two young leads turn in performances that hint at real stardom ahead for them, and alongside them as the mother is Sally Hawkins who I initially really loathed in ‘Happy Go Lucky’ and has now become one of my favorite actors, (don’t miss Made in Dagenham).
For me, ‘Submarine’ is quintessential Sundance: giving an audience to a wee independent very accessible comedy that would normally otherwise fall under the radar.
★★★★★★★★
TERRI
Terri is a fat adolescent boy who lives with his ailing uncle in a small suburban town. He is a bit of a loner who insists on wearing pajamas to school (cos they’’re comfortable) and he is teased relentlessly by the other pupils at school and totally ignored by all the teachers until one day the Mr. Fitzgerald, the Vice Principal, takes him under his wing. Mr. Fitzgerald sees a lot of himself in this insecure and misunderstood kid, and he encourages Terri to not only believe in himself and that life should not just be endured, but actually enjoyed.
This captivating comedy succeeds so well because of the two main lead actors. John C Reilly adds his usual deft touches in making Mr. Fitzgerald both believable and likable, but it is the breakout performance from young unknown Jacob Wysocki as Terri that makes this movie a real joy to watch.
★★★★★★★★
THESE AMAZING SHADOWS
When Ted Turner bought some major Film Studios back in the 80’s he ended up owning a lot of treasured classic movies and decided that he wanted to update them to introduce them to a new audiences. He dabbled with a new process called colorization, which gave computer-generated color to black and white movies, which was met universally with an outcry that he was tampering with our movie heritage. The strength of the protests eventually led to the formation of the National Film Registry, part of the Library of Congress that each year selects 25 movies, or film clips, to be added to the Registry and saved for the nation and future generations.
This fascinating look behind the scenes on whole process of which movies make it and why, is interspersed with interviews from notable filmmakers and archivists alike, plus plenty of clips of their sometimes surprising choices.
This is a must-see for anyone remotely interested in movies at all, and if actually know anyone on the Board, do tell them that I would love to help out anytime they need it.
★★★★★★★★
TYRANNOSAUR
Joseph is a tormented self-destructive and angry drunken old man whose sad life seems one violent episode after another. One day he runs into a Charity Thrift Store to avoid a mob and encounters Hannah the Manager, who as devout Christian. offers to pray for him. On a subsequent visit he soon discovers that Hannah’s life is far from perfect and she has more than her fair share of problems. What develops in this unconventional love story is unexpected and almost as bleak as the setting of this Northern British town.
This movie is the impressive directing debut of actor Paddy Considine who extracts peerless performances from Peter Mullen and Olivia Colman in a truly fascinating drama.
★★★★★★★★
WE WERE HERE
An emotional and moving account about all the wonderful men and women that died from AIDS in San Francisco. That devastating era is traced through the testimony of 5 people from all walks of life who elegantly articulated their memories to the thousands of people who are physically gone but who are certainly not forgotten
Compassionately filmed by David Weissman, whose previous movie was a doc on a SF institution from the 80’s ‘The Cockettes’, this movie may not have anything ground breaking new to add to the scenario, but it recognizes the importance of bearing witness whilst the people left behind are still alive.
Essential viewing, but take a box of Kleenex with you.
★★★★★★★★
Thirty years ago Andrei Fillipo was the renowned director of the Bolshoi Orchestra when his starry career was abruptly cut short and he was dramatically fired mid concert for hiring Jewish musicians. He has now been reduced to being a janitor at the Bolshoi Theater and when he’s cleaning the Director's Office one day a Fax comes in from the prominent Chatelet Theater in Paris inviting the Bolshoi to play there. Filipov steals the fax and decides to re-form his old orchestra to perform in their place and so sets about gathering together an odd assortment of rather scruffy musicians from his Gypsy and Jewish friends to pay his beloved Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto once again.
