Cinequest – Page 25 – The Movie Gourmet

Cinequest at mid-festival

March 13, 2016March 7, 2016 by movie gourmet

We’re halfway through Cinequest 2016. What are the biggest hits and the most delightful surprises?

BIG MOVIES

Cinequest programmers hit a home run with the Opening Night rouser Eye in the Sky, the thriller-meets-thinker from Oscar-winning director Gavin Hood. The screening was preceded by Cinequest co-founder Halfdan Hussey’s interview of Hood, which was probably the best ever on-stage interview in festival history (at least that I have seen).

The Cinequest audience also loved another Spotlight Film, the Norwegian disaster movie The Wave.

INDIES

Film festivals are very important to first-time directors, and Cinequest 2016 has hosted some world premieres of two wonderful debuts:

Love Is All You Need?: The hard hitting exploration of homophobic bullying and hate crimes is the most sensational film at Cinequest. COme to think of it, “hard hitting” is an understatement.
Lost Solace: Highly original psychological thriller and a brilliant directorial debut – my personal favorite so far at this years festival.
Heaven’s Floor: Absorbing and character-driven autobiographical drama about a most complicated woman and the choices that indelibly affect several lives.

WORLD CINEMA

As usual, Cinequest is screening some real gems from other nations. The best have been:

The Memory of Water: This Chilean drama explores grief, its process and its impact and might just be most masterful filmmaking achievement at Cinequest 2016. Exquisite. Probbly the best cinematic achievement at this year’s Cinequest.
Demimonde: Sex, intrigue and murder in this operatic Hungarian period drama.
Magallanes: A Peruvian psychological drama about those wrongs that cannot be righted.
Fever at Dawn: Urgent period romance between Holocaust survivors, with an unexpected nugget at the end.

DOCUMENTARIES

The usual solid batch of Cinequest docs:

Chuck Norris vs. Communism: The subversive impact of movies (ANY movies) on a culture-starved society.
Dan and Margot: A very personal look at schizophrenia from the schizophrenic’s point of view.
The Promised Band: A group of Israeli and Palestinian women seek to fight through the cultural, legal, political, military and security barriers between them by forming a girl band.
The Brainwashing of My Dad: Personalizes the effects of right-wing media on mood and personality as well as on the political culture.
Gordon Getty: There Will Be Music: Insights into the quiet passion and creative process of a most unusual classical composer.

WOMEN FILMMAKERS

This year, Cinequest presents the world or US premieres of sixty features and sixty-nine shorts. And of these 129 premieres, 64 were directed by women! These include Love Is All You Need?, Heaven’s Floor, The Brainwashing of My Dad, Dan and Margot and The Promised Band.

STILL TO COME

I’ve only seen The Daughter so far, but these upcoming films look promising:

February (Shipka Kiernan from Mad Men, Emma Roberts) March 12; and
The Adderall Diaries (James Franco, who will be making a personal appearance) March 12;
The Little Prince (already spoken of as a contender for the 2017 Animated Feature Oscar) March 13.
The Daughter: Based on an Ibsen play, this Australian drama is Cinequest’s Closing Night film and packs a powerfully emotional punch. March 13.

Bookmark my Cinequest 2016 page, with links to all my coverage. Follow me on Twitter for the latest.

Cinequest: FRIENDS EFFING FRIENDS EFFING FRIENDS

March 6, 2016 by movie gourmet

In the sex comedy Friends Effing Friends Effing Friends, several twenty-somethings start hooking up with each other in random combinations, even though some are in relationships. The sexual entanglements predictably lead to both comic situations and hurt feelings.

Happily, sometimes there is Truth in Advertising, and there is a lots of Effing in Friends Effing Friends Effing Friends. There’s so much sex that, although it has a real plot and much better acting, it wouldn’t be totally out-of-place on late night Showtime.

The cast is young, appealing and able, and Friends Effing Friends Effing Friends works as a trifle (and there’s nothing wrong with that). Its world premiere was at Cinequest.

Cinequest: SEARCH ENGINES

March 6, 2016 by movie gourmet

The contemporary and topical comedy Search Engines takes on our obsession with We see an extended family Thanksgiving – and everyone is bowing into that screen-gazing posture. All the characters are preoccupied by their smart phones as they text, video, read recipes and blog away. Suddenly, something blocks their coverage, and we see what happens when all the screens go dark.

Search Engines has a promising cast (Daphne Zuniga, Joely Fisher, Natasha Gregson Wagner and even Connie Stevens!), and they all perform well. The strongest part of Search Engines is its topicality, but as mildly amusing as it is, it just ain’t a knee slapper.

Cinequest: HEAVEN’S FLOOR filmmaker interview

March 4, 2016 by movie gourmet

Here’s an interview with the Lori Stoll, writer-director of Heaven’s Floor.

[NOTE: THIS INTERVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS]

The Movie Gourmet: The protagonist Julia is so restless, and the restlessness seems to drive her impulsiveness. Is she just naturally restless, or is there some deficit in her satisfaction that is filled by Malaya?

Lori Stoll: Both really. Her experience with Malaya forced her to grow up. When she says she just wants to be good, she sincerely means it, even when being good required her to take responsibility for her actions and take other people into consideration. Julia’s natural state is one of restlessness, always looking for an escape – a character flaw that clearly gets her in a heap of trouble.

Having said that, Julia sees the best of herself in Malaya, but she doesn’t realize it until Malaya rejects her and is about to leave. At that point Julia also realizes that her actions created unintended consequences. Julia chooses to take responsibility for her wanderlust, terminating her gallivanting around the globe. When she promises her son she is grounded she means it.

TMG: Do you think that Julia, once more satisfied, is still impulsive?

Lori Stoll: Julia grew up through the experience of blowing up her life- perhaps she would like to continue to act on her impulsivity, but has learned to consider the who she is hurting by her decisions. However Julia’s restlessness did create her family.

TMG: So the movie starts with “Based on a true story” and ends with stills of the real Malaya and the obligatory “Any resemblance to real persons” disclaimer. How much of this story really happened this way? The arctic rescue for example?

Lori Stoll: The arctic rescue happened. The emergency shelter happened. Actually most of what was filmed in the arctic really happened and it was much more treacherous in reality, which we were unable to capture on film. For example, the rescue took place in a blizzard, and we had to slide down a frozen waterfall in the middle of the night. When we finally made it to the lodge in Pang, I was as banged up as Julia is in the film. I did lose my film on the ice and I was stuck in Pang for 10 days. I gave Malaya and her friends my candy bars and my sled. And she did ask me if she could tell her friends that I was her mother. Both Malaya’s mother and grandmother died. I did go back up for the funeral, and I did bring her back to LA with me. US Immigration did inform us that for Malaya to stay in Los Angeles she had to be legally adopted, and she was given a visa good for a one month stay in the US.

TMG: Movies are not often kind to characters who resist someone’s “following their heart”, no matter how impractical or whatever the consequences to others. Yet your depiction of the husband Ed is very sympathetic, as someone reacting with understandable resistance to impulsive, unilateral and life-changing commitments. Will you share any of the real back story on that relationship?

Lori Stoll: It’s funny, I see Ed as you do, he’s married to this crazy woman, he really loves her, and his biggest fault is being overwhelmingly practical. It’s complicated – he loves her, he wants her to be happy, he tries to understand her.

Julia feels held down by Ed, and forced into a conventional relationship. She resents his practically. If you are asking about my husband and our real backstory, clearly spontaneously adopting an almost teenage child from another culture created a lot of conflict. Having said that, I’m happy to share with you that today my husband and I are together, Malaya is 27 and the executive producer of Heaven’s Floor, and our son Zach is 20 and a sophomore at the University of Chicago.

TMG: The Arctic scenes are really impressive. How did your background in photography inform the film’s cinematography for the Arctic scenes? You are a first time director, and I see that your first time DP for the Canadian locations is a veteran camera operator. How “hands on” were you in the cinematography?

Lori Stoll: Regarding the cinematography, I was very hands on. I’ve been a photographer for 30 years, and I’m most comfortable working in a visual medium. Having said that, both George Billinger (Arctic DP) and Danny Moder (LA DP) are both so talented. For a first time director, I truly had the A team for my crew.

Heaven’s Floor’s World Premiere is tonight at Cinequest with more screenings on March 6 and 11.

Heavens Floor official website

Today, March 4 at Cinequest

March 4, 2016 by movie gourmet

Cinequest hosts the world premiere of LOST SOLACE — LOST SOLACE

Today at Cinequest DO NOT MISS these two indie world premieres:

Lost Solace: Highly original psychological thriller and a brilliant directorial debut.
Heaven’s Floor: Absorbing and character-driven autobiographical drama about a most complicated woman and the choices that indelibly affect several lives.

And there’s one of the top documentaries, Chuck Norris vs. Communism: The subversive impact of movies (ANY movies) on a culture-starved society.

Bookmark my Cinequest 2016 page, with links to all my coverage. Follow me on Twitter for the latest.

Movies to See Right Now

March 4, 2016 by movie gourmet

I am completely absorbed with Silicon Valley’s own film festival, Cinequest. Check out my up-to-the-moment coverage both on my Cinequest page and follow me on Twitter for the latest. I especially recommend tonight’s world premieres of Heaven’s Floor and Lost Solace. Both films will screen again Sunday night. You’ll also have a final chance to Lost Solace on Thursday and Heaven’s Floor on next Friday.

In theaters:

The Oscar-winning Best Picture Spotlight – a riveting, edge-of-your-seat drama with some especially compelling performances.
The movie that should have won Best Picture, The Revenant, an awesome and authentic survival tale that must be seen on the BIG SCREEN. I predict that The Revenant will be the biggest winner at the Oscars.
The movie that I admired more than either of those, the Irish romantic drama Brooklyn, an audience-pleaser with a superb performance by Saoirse Ronan.
The deserved Oscar winner for Screenplay, The Big Short – a supremely entertaining thriller – both funny and anger-provoking.

The Coen Brothers’ disappointingly empty comedy Hail, Caesar contains some cool Hollywood parodies.

In honor of the opening of this year’s Cinequest, this week’s DVD/Stream of the Week is the Danish drama The Hunt from the 2013 Cinequest. The Hunt is available to rent on DVD from Netflix and to stream from Netflix Instant, Amazon Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, Google Play and PlayStation Video.

Here are two very contrasting recommendations for movies playing on Turner Classic Movies this week. First, 0n March 8, we have a time capsule comedy from the master of movie silliness Richard Lester (Help, The Three Musketeers). The Ritz is a farce set in a gay bathhouse – in 1976, when this was a remarkably novel setting. Look for the not-yet-famous F. Murray Abraham, Treat Williams and John Ratzenberger. Then on March 10, TCM screens M (scroll down for comments), a proto-noir and a most darkly compelling serial killer movie from 1931.

Cinequest: MAGALLANES

March 3, 2016 by movie gourmet

The title character in the Peruvian psychological drama Magallanes is a loser, but is he a lovable loser? Played by Damián Alcázar, Magallanes bounces around from odd job to odd job. He can’t break even driving a borrowed outlaw taxi around the squalid streets of Lima, he lives in a basement hovel and he has one friend. Magallanes glimpses a person from his past, and it rocks him into a series of life-changing events.

Magallanes starts out as a caper movie. But we learn that his one friendship is from his military service in a death squad unit, dispatched to repress the indigenous population with the harshest methods. What this unit did years ago has scarred all the characters (except two snarky cops), and Magallanes is revealed to be a study of PTSD.

What is driving Magallanes’ behavior in this story? We find that we is trying to right a past wrong. But what? And by whom? The revelation in Magallanes is that some wrongs cannot be righted.

Magallanes is a showcase for Mexican actor Alcázar, whom U.S. art house audiences saw in John Sayles’ Men with Guns and as the lead in Herod’s Law. Alcázar makes Magallanes so sympathetic that the movie’s climax is jarring and emotionally powerful.

I saw Magallanes at Cinequest, where it plays again on March 10 and 12.

Cinequest: LOST IN MUNICH

March 3, 2016 by movie gourmet

Ah, those nutty Czechs. Here, we think we’re watching a political spoof. Then, a third of the way in, Lost in Munich becomes a mockumentary on the “making of” the movie we thought we were watching. The joke is on us and on the incompetent and unlucky fillmmaker characters and on the Czechs themselves.

There’s a particular dry deadpan in some Czech cinema, and the best example may be a Cinequest film from two years ago, Polski Film. The Czechs are happy to make fun of themselves and their European neighbors (in this case the French). The movie-within-a-movie centers on Czech hard feelings from French Prime Minister Edoaurd Daladier selling out the Czechs in the 1938 Munich Agreement with Hitler. A dim French diplomat tries to smooth things over by bringing Daladier’s 80-year-old pet parrot, but the parrot turns out to be counterproductively politically incorrect, the parrot is parrotnapped, and the comic absurdity of Lost in Munich goes on from there.

Lost in Munich is pretty successful when it mocks the making of a snake-bitten movie where everything that CAN go wrong…You’ll probably like this movie if you have a taste for absurdist cinema. Lost in Munich plays Cinequest again on March 11 and 12.

Today, March 3 at Cinequest

March 3, 2016 by movie gourmet

Today’s audience-pleasers: epic romance and epic sexual intrigue. Cinequest brings us these two sleepers from Hungary:

Fever at Dawn: Urgent period romance between Holocaust survivors, with an unexpected nugget at the end.
Demimonde: Sex, intrigue and murder in this operatic Hungarian period drama.

Bookmark my Cinequest 2016 page, with links to all my coverage. Follow me on Twitter for the latest.

Cinequest: LOST SOLACE

March 2, 2016 by movie gourmet

The Canadian psychological thriller Lost Solace takes a highly original premise and turns it into a pedal-to-the-metal thriller. It’s an astonishingly successful debut for director and co-writer Chris Scheuerman.

Co-writer Andrew Jenkins stars as the psychopath Spence, whose life is devoted to exploiting women, stealing their stuff and emotionally devastating them to boot. Spence is remarkably skilled and seems unstoppable until he unwisely ingests a recreational drug – he starts suffering hallucinatory episodes that are intensely emotional. Here’s the brilliantly original core of Lost Solace – having the occasional fit of feelings and empathy really gets in the way of being a coolly cruel psychopath.

Spence targets the emotionally fragile rich girl Azaria (Melissa Roxburgh). Melissa is burdened both by the care for her violently psychotic brother Jory (Charlie Kerr) and by years of verbal evisceration by her prick of a father, Chuck (Michael Kopsa). Able to peg Spence as a scumbag, Jory offers Spence a share of his inheritance to kill Chuck. It’s a plan hatched by a psychotic – what could possibly go wrong? Add an ambitious physician (Leah Gibson) who is eager to cash in on a cure for psychopathy, and we’re off to the races.

Scheuerman is an economical story-teller who lets the audience connect the dots. Spence doesn’t even speak until well into the movie. But Scheuerman spins a great tale, and as he reveals his characters, we see that Chuck may be every bit as fiendish as Spence and that Betty the doctor, may be just as greedy. There’s plenty that can unravel Spence’s Perfect Crime, and that’s what keeps us on the edges of our seats.

Andrew Jenkins is completely believable as both the supremely confident Spence and, later, as the Spence determined to steel his way through his unexpected confusion. The rest of the cast is exceptional, too, especially Kopsa and Gibson.

So far my personal favorite at Cinequest 2016, Lost Solace will have its World Premiere on Friday, March 4, and screen again on March 6 and 10.