San Jose’s Cinequest 22 film festival has ended. For me, Cinequest 22 meant seeing 17 features, a short and several interviews and Q&As with filmmakers – all including several world and US premieres. I saw my share of American films, but I also saw movies from China, Spain, Belgium, the Slovak Republic, Argentina, Hungary, Russia, Sweden and Norway.
Among the festival crowd, movies about overcoming disability and disease seemed to be the most popular. I generally preferred the comedies and romances that prove that it is still possible to write a good movie in those genres.
I especially liked two of the biggest movies in the festival: the zany Chinese action film Let the Bullets Fly and the drama about the American education system Detachment (I’ll be commenting on Detachment on Wednesday before its release this weekend).
There were some smaller films that I hope gain distribution: King Curling, the Norwegian comedy about a curling star who must go off his psych meds to win the big match; the Argentine modern-day spaghetti western Salt; and the hipster screwball comedy Percival’s Big Night. If given the chance to see these films, American audiences will love them.
Here’s the trailer for King Curling.