Cinequest

Cinequest: TOMMY BATTLES THE SILVER SEA DRAGON

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Luke Shirock in TOMMY BATTLES THE SILVER SEA DRAGON

Tommy Battles the Silver Sea Dragon has to be the bravest and most artistically ambitious movie premiering at Cinequest. In his debut feature as director, writer, composer and star Luke Shirock has imagined a guy put on trial by his own subconscious.  Tommy (Shirock) has feeling of unresolved guilt about his mother’s death that have troubled his life and impacted the relationship with his girlfriend Carolyn (Celine Held).

The trial is a nightmare, surreal and Kafkaesque.  We see Tommy’s life in flashbacks, and learn just how accurate his own view of his life may or may not be.

And here’s what makes Tommy Battles the Silver Sea Dragon so singular.  It’s a musical – all set to Shirock-composed music.  This could have been titled Inner Torment: The Musical.

Held is very good as Carolyn, and David Andrew MacDonald is compelling as The Prosecutor.

Reportedly, Tommy Battles the Silver Sea Dragon was made on a $500,000 budget, which is difficult to imagine given the rich look of the film and some of the special effects and the shots on the water.  Certainly, Luke Shirock is an artist swinging for the fences.   Cinequest hosts the world premiere of Tommy Battles the Silver Sea Dragon. Here’s a link to the trailer.

TOMMY BATTLES THE SILVER SEA DRAGON

Cinequest: THREESOMETHING

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Isabelle Chester and Sam Sonenshine in THREESOMETHING

In the cheeky and original comedy Threesomething, Charlie (Sam Sonenshine) and his buddy Isaac (James Morosini) invite Charlies’ friend Zoe (Isabelle Chester) to engage in a three-way sexual encounter.  That pitch alone is one of the funniest three-minute, fifteen-second, openings to a film I’ve seen in years.  But then Threesomething finds the ridiculous moments in both the sex itself and in the all-consuming passion of new infatuation.  After a crisp 72 minutes, Threesomething‘s ending is very fresh and non-formulaic, posing just enough ambiguity about the characters’ futures.

Co-writers Morosini and Sonenshine have identified the comic possibilities within the notion that a threesome is more or less symmetrical. Let me explain it this way.  What if your idea of a threesome is three participants, but it evolves into two participants and a spectator?

Lust and love are such ripe sources of comedy because we humans are most ridiculous when we are the most absorbed and single-minded – and that is definitively the case while having sex.  And everyone’s sexual fantasies and fetishes – even if shared with one’s sexual partner – are laughable or creepy to someone else.  Threesomething reaps the laughs from these situations without being sit-commy.

This is the Are you good? generation.  Threesomething’s commentary on the compulsive over-checking in and over-supportiveness is all very sharply witty.  And over-sharing is the core of Charlie’s relationship with his mother (Dru Mouser, who steals all of her scenes).

Sonenshine is just about perfect in his reactions during the threesome.  He is fantastically gifted at playing both awkward discomfort and contained frustration.

Chester’s performance has several highlights, beginning with Zoe’s takes on the initial proposition and a particularly ill-timed outburst of weeping (inspired).  As the story concludes, watch Chester’s face as Zoe considers and reconsiders how comfortable she really is in her choice of partner(s).

Threesomething is Morosini’s directorial debut and the first feature screenplay for both Morodini and Sonenshine.  Comedy is hard to write, especially comedy as smart and original as this.  Cinequest will host Threesomething’s world premiere.

Cinequest: MR. FISH: CARTOONING FROM THE DEEP END

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Mr Fish in MR FISH: CARTOONING FROM THE DEEP END

What does it really mean to be a “fearless” or “uncompromising” artist?  That’s the question explored by the documentary Mr. Fish: Cartooning from the Deep End.  Mr. Fish is an extremely talented political cartoonist, filled with rage against social injustice.  A gentle soul in person, especially with his delightful daughters, Mr. Fish’s profound anger is expressed in his brilliant work.

a Mr Fish cartoon in MR FISH: CARTOONING FROM THE DEEP END

Mr. Fish’s art is always intentionally provocative.  And oft hilarious.  And sometimes pornographic.  And even heartbreaking, with two characters gazing at a portrait of John Lennon:

          Uh oh- I think we’re fucked

          Why?

          Because give peace a chance seems nostalgic.

One would think that anyone as talented as Mr. Fish could afford to economically survive, if not to flourish, in modern America.  But three things are holding Mr. Fish back from financial success.  One is the declining market for newspaper-purchased cartoons as newspapers themselves melt out of existence.  The second is that Mr. Fish’s principles don’t allow him to fine-tune his art to be more accessible to a commercial audience.  Finally, Mr. Fish is oblivious to any opportunities to make money created through new media.  He does toy with a television pilot and gets a part-time day job in commercial art, but he really isn’t comfortable with the word “paycheck”.

Asked about not having an audience, Mr. Fish calls it “heroic”.  His wife brings home the bacon.  She is totally in tune with his art (although she could do with fewer erect penises in it).  But, weary of shouldering all the financial responsibility, she observes that not making money is all fine and good as long as you don’t expect to spend any.

The consequences of being admired by peers for living his principles but being not able to pay the family’s bills have been explored in Trumbo, among other recent narrative films.  This is the real deal.

a Mr Fish cartoon in MR FISH: CARTOONING FROM THE DEEP END

Mr. Fish: Cartooning from the Deep End is the first feature for director Pablo Bryant, a veteran documentary cinematographer. Bryant knows a genius when he sees one and fills the film with Mr. Fish’s art; the effect is intoxicating. Stick around to the very end of the closing credits or you’ll miss some of Mr. Fish’s best.

Cinequest: MARISA IN THE WOODS

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Patricia Jordá in MARISA IN THE WOODS

In the Spanish dramedy Marisa in the Woods, Marisa (Patricia Jordá) is at a personal and career crossroads.  She’s burnt out from her job with a touring theater troupe and takes a needed break.  Unfortunately, she doesn’t get any support from her network of friends and colleagues, all of whom are needier than she is.  Her bestie is literally hysterical, over-dramatizing everything in her life until it leads to a tragedy.  Finally, Marisa finds some empathy after reconnecting with a teacher from her past, who has changed gender.

Marisa in the Woods is an acid commentary on first-world problems and the complaints of the self-absorbed.  As Marisa bounces from one dissatisfied friend to another, we are treated to a tour of Madrid locations, all the way to the magical realism at the ending.

This is a very witty film, obviously influenced by early Pedro Almodóvar (not a bad thing), but without Almodóvar’s frenetic energy.  Marisa in the Woods is the first feature for writer-director Antonio Morales.  Its US premiere will be at Cinequest.

Cinequest: LUBA

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Nicole Maroon in LUBA

Exploring the challenges of co-parenting with an addict, the realistic Canadian drama Luba is topped off with a ticking time bomb finish.  Luba (Nicole Maroon) is a struggling single mom whose estranged husband Donnie (Vladimir Jon Cubrt of Hannibal and Designated Survivor) is a crackhead.  Donnie really loves his son, and Luba tries to let her son create some memories with his dad.

Unfortunately, Donnie is helpless to his addiction  At his best, he is manipulative, sponging Luba’s last few discretionary dollars.  At his worst, he is dangerously irresponsible.  Then Donnie decompensates and goes lethally out of control.

In a futile attempt to make ends meet, Luba lives a hamster wheel experience, bouncing between multiple crappy waitress jobs and childcare that she can’t afford.  Her only emotional and babysitting support comes from other busy moms and from Donnie’s sympathetic mother.  Co-star Vladimir Jon Cubrt wrote Luba and completely captures the essence of Luba’s life – she’s trapped without any moment of relief or enrichment for herself.

Luba doesn’t have unrealistic expectations.  She just wants to pay the rent on time, have some adult male companionship, and, being Canadian, play an occasional pickup game of ice hockey.  Cubrt’s screenplay vividly brings alive another fundamental truth – the grinding impact of living with an addict’s roller coaster of self-sabotage.   Luba’s attempts at moments of normality keep getting hijacked by Donnie’s selfishness.  Repeatedly, respite suddenly turns into panic.  This is Cubrt’s first screenplay, but he has written three original stage productions for the theater company he founded in Toronto.

Luba is the first feature for director Caley Wilson.  This an authentic and relatable drama with an ending that works as a thriller. Cinequest hosts Luba’s world premiere.

Cinequest: I HATE YOU

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Lawrence Kao and Lauren K. Montgomery in I HATE YOU

In the indie romantic comedy I Hate You, two very different twenty-somethings meet cute.  Kelly (Lauren K. Montgomery) has plunged from one relationship to another and is particularly angry that the terms of her lease force her to stay in an apartment with her ex and his horny new girlfriend.   Chi (Lawrence Kao) is an obsessive gamer who still lives with his mom.

Chi is not Kelly’s type but, then again, her type is a jerk.  He is, however, way less experienced than she is.  You’ve probably already guessed that they will get together, so that’s not really a spoiler.  But she’s a workaholic, and when she’s off her laptop, she wants to analyze their relationship.  Chi just wants a domestic life without much drama.

While following the usual arc of a romantic comedy, I Hate You mostly avoids dipping into rom-com clichés, and the ending is not predictable.   I Hate You was written by Brad Kageno and Pyung Kim and is Kageno’s debut as a feature director.

This is an amiable and entertaining film.  Cinequest hosts the US premiere of I Hate You.

Cinequest: HUNTING LANDS

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Marshall Cook in HUNTING LANDS

In the slow burn thriller Hunting Lands, Frank (Marshall Cook) is living a solitary life as a subsistence hunter in a forest cabin, a long pickup drive outside his northern Michigan hometown.  Frank is a guy with serious wilderness skills, loading his own ammo and field dressing the large mammals that he fells with a single shot.  He witnesses a serious crime in the woods and is immediately driven to make things right – but not in the way we expect.

Frank has nobody to talk to, and we see him silently triage the situation and begin a hunt for the perpetrator.  Silent observation comes naturally to a hunter, and we see him wordlessly patrolling the small towns in his pickup, as he tracks down his human prey.  We see what Frank sees, and one of the most pivotal characters is only seen in long shot until the last 15 minutes or so.

HUNTING LANDS
HUNTING LANDS

Hunting Lands is the first feature from writer-director Zack Wilcox, a story-teller who is thankfully willing to let the audience connect the dots.  Because Hunting Lands is only 83 minutes long, Wilcox can take his time watching Frank watch others.  Even as Frank is still and quiet, the audience is gripped by what he is going to do next.

An original character, Frank seems unusually self-aware for a hermit.  When he finally gets in a conversation, he turns out to be an articulate guy who understands and can explain why he has become a recluse.

Wilcox follows Billie Wilder’s screenwriting advice – “don’t hang around”; the ending is not even one second too long.  And Wilcox knows that a little ambiguity about what happens afterwards can pack a punch.

Cinequest will host the word premiere of Hunting Lands.

HUNTING LANDS

Cinequest: THE GO-GETTERS

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Tommie-Amber Pirie and Aaron Abrams in THE GO-GETTERS

The bawdy lowbrow comedy The Go-Getters centers on the antics of two almost lovable losers who go to absurd lengths to avoid making an honest dollar.  We meet Owen (Aaron Abrams) when, sleeping in an alley, he is awakened by being pissed on.  Soon Lacie (Tommie-Amber Pirie) enters the movie, lying in a fetal position on a restroom floor, vomiting on Owen’s shoes.

The two are denizens of a dive bar owned by Owen’s brother.  Owen is a hop-head whose gift is stealing his brother’s merchandise.  Lacie is a pill-popping hooker whose pimp operates out of a booth in the bar; the pimp says that his Blockbuster card is worth more than Lacie’s, uh, charms.  Lacie’s five-dollar hand job is so inept that one john fakes a male orgasm to get it over with.

These two are utterly base, venal and addiction-driven, which drives a comedy one might describe as a light look at substance abuse.  Hitting bottom, of course, is entirely individual.  These two have long since zoomed below what most of us would consider the bottom.  There’s really seems to be no limit to how low they’ll go.

The humor comes from their continual scheming to get something for nothing – or nothing except increasing loss of dignity.  The Go-Getters works as an absurdist exploration of an addict’s unceasing need to place his or her need above the interests of anyone else.  This comes across most effectively in a very funny scene where a taxi driver forces them to pay their fare, and each’s sense of depraved self-interest is revealed.

The Go-Getters‘ world premiere will be at Cinequest.

Cinequest: AMATEUR

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Jazmín Stuart in AMATEUR

The taut Argentine thriller Amateur reminds us of Psycho, but with more grisly killing and sexual perversity.  A new hire at a television station is combing through some old tapes and discovers a sex tape (hence the title).  He becomes obsessed with the woman in the tape and later meets her in real life. As in Psycho, a serial killer suddenly takes over the story, and Amateur plunges into tales of blackmail, kidnapping and a sordid back story of sexual exploitation.  Trying to solve the first murder, the police stumble along as the bodies pile up.

The original sex tape is only the first layer of voyeurism in Amateur. More and more characters video record and view the actions of others.

Jazmín Stuart is very good as a woman that the audience is likely to underestimate at the beginning of the film  There is a moment in Amateur when she has just had a consensual sexual encounter but her eyes start to signal that something is terribly wrong; it’s unforgettable.

Alejandro Awada is perfectly cast as a guy who seems formidable at first; we keep learning that he has more and more assets, including his trophy wife.  His easy-going affect of geniality and confident charm is an effective juxtaposition to the monster he is revealed to be.  Awada delivered another excellent supporting performance in the overlooked neo-noir The Aura.

The veteran producer Sebastian Perillo makes his writing and directing debuts with Amateur.  The US premiere of Amateur is at Cinequest.

Cinequest: 7 SPLINTERS IN TIME (OMPHALOS)

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Edoardo Ballerini in 7 SPLINTERS IN TIME

7 Splinters in Time has to be the trippiest film in this year’s Cinequest.  The detective Darius (Edoardo Ballerini – Corky Caporale in The Sopranos) is seriously confused.  He can’t remember large chunks of his past.  And then he’s confronted by an exact look-alike in a most unlikely place.  Soon, even more doppelgängers arrive in the story.  Darius is trying to figure out what’s going on- and so is the audience.

We go from place to place and, possibly, from time to time.  And Darius and/or his lookalikes keep showing up.  It’s as if one’s life were depixelated, digitally compressed and then defectively reassembled.  Artifacts from other periods of time – Polaroid camera, rotary phone, microfiche viewer – are clues that time travel may be involved here.

Story threads are braided together, some more vividly nightmarish than others.  There’s plenty of eye candy and sometimes there’s the feeling of Fellini on Dexedrine.  If you like your movies linear and unambiguous, you will likely be impatient until the explanation in the last 20 minutes.  But it’s fun to settle in and try to figure out what is going on.

7 Splinters is the feature film debut for writer-director Gabriel Judet-Weinshel.  To depict Darius’ different realities (what he calls the “fractured psyche”), Judet-Weinshel used 8mm, 16mm, 35mm film and analog still film, along with the full range of digital, from low-resolution 30-frame video to the large format digital Red Camera.  The effect is very cool.

Greg Bennick is excellent as the hyperkinetic mystery figure Luka.  Lynn Cohen is a howl as the salty curmudgeon Babs, Darius’ elderly neighbor.  Both are effective counterpoints to Ballerini’s chilly and stony Darius.

The beloved character actor Austin Pendleton plays The Librarian, a much more pivotal character than initially apparent.  Pendleton has a zillion screen credits, including Frederick Larrabee in What’s Up, Doc? and Gurgle in Finding Nemo.  I think I heard his character say, “You are the lizard warrior”.  It’s that kind of movie.

Cinequest hosts the world premiere of 7 Splinters in Time.  The film is listed under its alternative title of Omphalos, so you can find its screenings here in the Cinequest program.

Greg Bennick and Edoardo Ballerini in 7 SPLINTERS IN TIME