Cinequest – Page 25 – The Movie Gourmet

Cinequest: MY GOLDEN DAYS

March 13, 2016 by movie gourmet

The first love depicted in Arnaud Desplechin’s coming of age film My Golden Days is completely evocative. That first love is inevitable even if the young lovers don’t know it yet, and then filled with passion, importance, obsession, angst, conflict, breakups and makeups. And then it runs its course.

The performance of Lou Roy-Lecollinet as the unpredictable object of the young protagonist’s affection really elevates My Golden Days. Roy-Lecollinet has looks which won’t attract every guy, but would be irresistible to some. She’s able to convincingly play a girl with a devastating combination of confidence, forthrightness, charm, wit, impulsivity and a wandering eye.

That story makes up the core of My Golden Days, a flashback bookended by the contemporary, middle-aged version of the protagonist (Mathieu Amalric). The story of young romance is perfect – one that we can all recognize. But, in the epilogue, the Amalric character (who has lived a full and eventful life in the 15-20 years since) is oddly still fervently bitter about what happened years before; with that distance, most of us would look back with nostalgia or, at least, a wistful acknowledgement of lessons learned. I was a bit put off.

And what’s with the lame title My Golden Days, which makes this sound like the story set in a retirement home? The original title is Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse which I think translates into Three Memories of My Youth – that would be better and there’s gotta be plenty of more appealing and descriptive titles.

My Golden Days, which I saw at Cinequest, is a movie that anyone who is decades removed from first love should see.

EYE IN THE SKY: thriller meets thinker

March 13, 2016 by movie gourmet

Thriller meets thinker in Eye in the Sky, a parable from modern drone warfare. Eye in the Sky poses this question: is it acceptable to neutralize the very worst evil in the world when it requires the simultaneous taking of the most innocent life?

If we are to pursue drone warfare as a morally acceptable military option, we must see what happens on the ground so we understand it. Eye in the Sky asks if we can stomach it once we’ve seen it.

Is the choice framed too simplistically in Eye in the Sky? No, the starkness of the choice in this film brings clarity to the question that we must ponder. Star Helen Mirren and director Gavin Hood have said in interviews that they expected married couples to argue different points of view after seeing this movie.

As Eye in the Sky’s star, Mirren commands the screen as few can and is especially fierce here. Jeremy Northam excels as the chief ditherer. Barkhad Abdi (Oscar-nominated as the Somali pirate in Captain Phillips) delivers another charismatic performance.

But this is Alan Rickman’s movie. In one of his final performances, Rickman plays the military commander who understands how difficult the choice is – because he’s already made it. Now he must navigate through all the other characters as they behave with varying degrees of belligerence, ambivalence and avoidance. It’s a supremely textured performance, layered with his wry humor, contained frustration and quiet determination.

At its Cinequest screening, director Gavin Hood said that he is as proud of Eye in the Sky as he is of his earliest films, A Reasonable Man and the Oscar-winning Tsotsi. He should be.

Cinequest: WHY ME?

March 13, 2016 by movie gourmet

In the paranoid Romanian drama Why Me?, an able young prosecutor is assigned to bring down a corrupt kingpin, but is frustrated at every turn. Is the system fixed? This is Romania, so you tell me. This is based on real events. However, there are much more entertaining examples of paranoid, cynical mysteries – and much, much better examples of Romanian cinema.

Cinequest: THE BLACKCOAT’S DAUGHTER

March 13, 2016 by movie gourmet

I was looking forward to the horror film The Blackcoat’s Daughter (recently retitled from February) because it stars Kiernan Shipka, whose work on Mad Men I admire. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that the wooden dialogue and the plodding, contrived story reminded of the worst drive-in cinema of the early 1970s. Easily the worst film at Cinequest 2016. I walked out.

Encore Day at Cinequest

March 12, 2016 by movie gourmet

My picks for Encore Day, Sunday, March 13:

The Other Kids 11 AM Hammer Theatre Center
A completely fresh and authentic coming of age film – and a triumphant directorial debut.

Love Is All You Need? 1 PM California Theatre
This is the Cinequest film that will be the most talked-about across the nation. It’s a vivid and sometimes excruciating examination of the impacts of homophobic bullying, hate speech and hate crimes.

The Promised Band 4 PM Camera 12 – Screen 10
This documentary is a successful exploration of the effects of mutual isolation and a very explicit snapshot of the barriers to travel and social integration between Israelis and Palestinians.

The Daughter 6:45 PM California Theatre

This emotionally powerful Australian drama is Cinequest’s Closing Night film. Top-rate Aussie cast includes Geoffrey Rush and Sam Neill.

Magallanes 6:45 M Camera 12 – Screen 10
This Peruvian psychological drama seems to start out as a lovable loser heist film, but turns out to be an exploration of PTSD. Mexican actor Damian Alcázar brings home the jarring climax. emotionally powerful. Along with The Memory of Water, the best foreign film at Cinequest 2016.

Cinequest: LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED?

March 12, 2016 by movie gourmet

The hardhitting drama Love Is All You Need? has been the biggest sensation at Cinequest, and is sure to be the Cinequest film most talked-about nationally. It’s a powerful and often excruciating examination of the impacts of homophobic bullying, hate speech and hate crimes.

Writer-director K. Rocco Shields uses the novel approach of inverting gender and sexual preference roles, so the world of Love Is All You Need? is 90% homosexual, with the heterosexuals as the despised minority. Shield has expanded her 20-minute short of the same name by adding additional story threads. At the Cinequest debut, Shields said that teachers have been disciplined for showing the short in their classes.

The story is set in a Midwestern college town dominated by a conservative evangelical Christian pastor. A 12-year-old girl is questioning her sexuality, and male and female college students are exploring their own sexuality. None of them are treated well in the local community. Shields has taken actual hate speech from sermons from the despicable Westboro Baptist Church and put them in the mouth of homosexuals trashing heterosexuals. (I don’t the word “gay” in this post because in Love Is All You Need? it’s used by homosexuals to describe heterosexuals, along with various homophobic epithets.)

The emotional and physical brutality keeps piling on itself, right up to a reenactment of the Matthew Shepherd murder. It’s unrelenting to the point that the audience is battered and exhausted, not unlike 12 Years a Slave. Because it’s such a grim film-going experience, I’m not seeing Love Is All You Need? as a hit with general audiences, but I do expect it to become a cultural sensation. It’s uniformly well-acted, and young actress Kyla Kenedy is particularly convincing. It’s quite an achievement by K. Rocco Shields, and well worth watching.

Cinequest: THE OTHER KIDS

March 12, 2016 by movie gourmet

The entirely fresh coming of age movie The Other Kids traces ten kids who are about to graduate from high school in Sonora, California. The problems that these kids face, how they think about themselves, how they communicate with their parents is remarkably realistic – so much that sometimes it looks like a documentary. The fact that it was shot on a very low budget on location in the decidedly unposh Gold Country town of Sonora contributes to a cinema verite flavor. The young cast is also excellent, and there’s nary a false moment. It’s triumphant debut for writer-director Chris Brown.

Since I saw The Other Kids, I’ve considered this recurring question: Why do I like this movie so much when I don’t even like teenagers? It’s got to be Brown’s masterful story-telling and the authenticity of the characters.

Cinequest: THE GREAT SASUKE

March 12, 2016 by movie gourmet

Mikiko Sasaki’s ever surprising The Great Sasuke starts out with the most essential element of a documentary – a compelling subject. Here it’s a Japanese pro wrestler who achieved stardom after bringing a Lucha Libre mask (and a wife) from his training days in Mexico. Between 1992 and 2006, The Great Sasuke won championships and filled large Tokyo arenas. He especially thrilled audiences with his aerial moves (that’s when he climbs up on the turnbuckles and jumps off on to the hapless opponent). But all that combat has taken a toll on his body, and now he is headquartered in his obscure hometown 300 miles north of Tokyo, performing in front of a couple hundred on folding chairs or floor mats. So far we have the familiar story of an athlete aging out of fame and success, but two aspects of The Great Sasuke make this story much more interesting.

First, this guy NEVER takes off his mask. We see him striding down the sidewalk in a business suit, briefcase in hand – fully masked. And we see him eating breakfast with his kids, vacuuming the floor, driving, brushing his teeth – all in his mask. He’s even developed a technique for changing between his everyday mask and his performance mask – all in a way that doesn’t let anyone glimpse his face. (At the Cinequest screening, director Sasaki said that The Great Sasuke’s wife insisted that she would not be married to a guy who didn’t take the mask off in the bedroom, and The Great Sasuke’s kids have seen his face, too.)

Second, he’s a quirky guy who plunges himself in to offbeat (and doomed) schemes to set up business enterprises and even run for political office. He is completely sincere and just couldn’t work any harder, but he won’t listen to anyone tell him that his plans are completely half-baked. He may be a force of nature, but it’s pretty hard to sway voters when you’re campaigning on street corners in a wrestling mask. It all adds up to a good movie experience.

Cinequest: STAYING ALIVE

March 12, 2016 by movie gourmet

The Swedish comedy Staying Alive treads the now familiar ground of An Unmarried Woman – a woman’s husband has traded her in for a newer model, leaving her to address the challenges of self-identity, parenting, sexuality and economic survival in an post-marriage environment. Staying Alive has two things going for it – an appealing performance by its lead actress, Agnes Kittelsen, and some bawdy, broad humor from her bestie.

Staying Alive is mildly enjoyable entertainment, but there’s really no other reason for this film to have been made.

Cinequest: REMEMBER ME

March 12, 2016 by movie gourmet

Remember Me is an odd couple comedy about two mismatched cousins who visit their grandparents just as the old man dies so they have to take grandma (the great Rita Moreno) off on a road trip to the old folks home. Remember Me is written and directed by Steve Goldbloom, who also stars as the more professionally successful and reserved cousin; Joel Kelly Dauten plays the wild man cousin, banging around between failed fantasies. Both guys are emotionally stunted in their own ways.

The dead grandpa situation is very funny, and there’s a witty joke about the Goldbloom character’s day job as a guy who reads news stories about wars in the Third World for NPR (without ever leaving the US to cover a story). But these two immature thirty-year-olds just aren’t interesting enough to carry a feature film.

Rita Moreno is very good, but this is a one of those man-child-coming-of-age movies. That subgenre is getting tiresome, as was Remember Me.