The first thing you notice about The Dead Man and Being Happy (El muerto y ser feliz) is the narration. Breaking every film school precept, the narrator describes what we are seeing for ourselves. Then he confides a fact that we can’t see, but with the caveat, “But you aren’t supposed to know that yet”. As the movie goes on, it’s clear to us that some of the narration is patently false.
And then there’s the sound design: all the sound in the film is abruptly silenced every time the narrator is about to hold forth. The effect of the narration and the sound design is to let us know that The Dead Man and Being Happy is pretty wacky and doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Give credit to director and co-writer Javier Rebollo for creating a decidedly offbeat and completely entertaining Argentine road movie. A professional hit man in his sixties (Jose Sancristan) is dying of cancer, loads up with pain medication and goes on a final road trip. He picks up a woman in her mid thirties (Roxana Blanco) with her own demons, and they, seemingly randomly, drive around and across Argentina. We’re not talking tourist Argentina here. The prickly pair drives around way out in the boonies, stopping at shabby roadside cafes and inns, even visiting a lake that belongs in an apocalyptic sci-fi movie. Of course, we all know how the hit man’s trip must end.
The whole ride is funny and curious and intoxicating.
In the Turkish dramedy One Day or Another (El yazisi), writer-director Ali Vatansever does a better job writing than directing. The story seems to contain four threads, each about a different couple; but Vatansever cleverly reveals one decades-long romance by illustrating stages of that story with the other seemingly contemporaneous relationships. In a funny side story, a French backpacker happens upon the town and is mistakenly embraced as the new English teacher. The child actors are especially good. Unfortunately, the directing is clunkily paint-by-the-numbers. But it is still a worthwhile and enjoyable film.
You’ve never seen a film like the absurd Czech comedy Polski Film, in which four Czech actors play themselves banding together to make an ill-fated movie with Polish financing. Think of a film-within-a-film mockumentary made by Christopher Guest’s repertory company with the actors in their own personae – and with a touch of Bunuel; then flavor the whole thing with the Czech Republic’s own unique humor. Of course, there are also comments on the Poles and a very funny German joke.
A Czech tabloid concocts a false story that one of the actors is dying of cancer; he uses the lie to gain the sympathy of a beautiful Polish actress and then must continue the charade. Another actor enjoys getting reactions from friends and even passersby by acting outrageously; we never quite know whether his meltdowns with his colleagues are real or performance art. And then there’s the Czech GPS system that berates drivers for not following directions – actually voiced by one of the stars of Polski Film.
This movie is not for anyone who needs to understand what’s going on at all times, but those who will just let it unfold will be rewarded. Unfortunately, the trailer is in Czech without subtitles, so we non-Czech speakers miss out on the deadpan humor.
We’re now in the final two days of San Jose’s Cinequest Film Festival. It’s been a good year for thrillers at Cinequest, and you can still see Lead Us Not Into Temptation, Dose of Reality and Chaos, as well as the German dark comedy gem Oh Boy. Check out my CINEQUEST 2013 page for comments on these films, plus another 20 or so that I’ve seen.
In the theaters, I recommend The Gatekeepers, a documentary centered around interviews with all six surviving former chiefs of Shin Bet, Israel’s super-secret internal security force; these are hard ass guys who share a surprising perspective on the efficacy of Israel’s war on terror. The Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side) documentary Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God is now playing on HBO; it explores the Catholic Church’s decades-long cover-up of priest abuse from a Wisconsin parish to the top of the Vatican (and I mean the top). I admire Steven Soderbergh’s psychological thriller Side Effects, starring Rooney Mara, Jude Law and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Quartet is a pleasant lark of a geezer comedy with four fine performances. The charmingly funny Warm Bodies has made my list of Zombie Movies for People Who Don’t Like Zombie Movies. The drama Lore is about the innocent children of monstrous people, but its intensity is so unrelenting that it wearies the audience.
I haven’t yet seen the Chilean historical drama No (with Gael Garcia Bernal), which was nominated for the 2013 Foreign Language Oscar and opens widely today. Nor have I seen Emperor, with Tommy Lee Jones as Gen. Douglas MacArthur leading the American occupation of Japan. You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
You can still catch the Academy Award winning Argo, as well as Zero Dark Thirty and Silver Linings Playbook. To ride the momentum of director Ang Lee’s surprise Oscar win, Life of Pi is now out again in 3D, which I recommend. The Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Picture, Amour, is brilliantly made and almost unbearable to watch.
My DVD of the week is still Undefeated, last year’s Oscar winner for Best Documentary.
Ranging from wry to hilarious, the German dark comedy Oh Boy hits every note perfectly. It’s the debut feature for writer-director Jan Ole Gerster, a talented filmmaker we’ll be hearing from again.
We see a slacker moving from encounter to encounter in a series of vignettes. Gerster has created a warm-hearted but lost character who needs to connect with others – but sabotages his every opportunity. He has no apparent long term goals, and even his short term goal of getting some coffee is frustrated.
As the main character wanders through contemporary Berlin, Oh Boy demonstrates an outstanding sense of place, especially in a dawn montage near the end of the film. The soundtrack is also excellent – the understated music complements each scene remarkably well.
Here are my top picks from San Jose’s Cinequest Film Festival so far. I’ve updated my CINEQUEST 2013 page, which includes comments on all nineteen films that I’ve seen to date at the fest.
Topping my list so far is the inventively constructed French thriller Lead Us Into Temptation. A middle-aged married man does a good deed for a beautiful young woman and finds himself the pawn in a dangerous game. Lead Us Not Into Temptation plays again on March 1 and March 9.
The American thriller Dose of Reality packs wire-to-wire intensity and a surprise ending that no one will see coming. Dose of Reality is playing Cinequest again on March 5 and 9, and will release on DVD and VOD on March 26.
The deadpan American comedy Congratulations! sends up the police procedural and will screen at Cinequest again on March 5.
The very dark and suspenseful French Chaos is centered on a creepy character that you know is up to no good, but the audience has to wait to find out what he plans and why. You can see Chaos at Cinequest on March 7.
The compelling The Deep tells the fact-based survival story of a shipwrecked Icelandic fisherman’s ordeal in frigid waters.
In The Shadowis a Czech paranoid thriller that won Best Film at the Czech Film Critics’ Awards and was the Czech submission to the Academy Awards. It plays at Cinequest on February 28, March 6 and March 8.
In the Belgian drama Offline, we meet a character struggling to redeem himself. You can see Offline at Cinequest on March 5 and 7.
In the solid American drama Solace, three stories are interlinked. Solace plays Cinequest again on March 6.
In the documentary We Went to War, the filmmaker goes to small town Texas to revisit the Vietnam vets who were the subjects of his 1970 I Was a Soldier. It’s a poignant snapshot of a 40-year-old war that is still going on for the participants and their families. We Went to War is told successfully in a style that contrasts from other talking head docs. We Went to War will be screened again on March 5.
The documentary Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton as Himself shares the extraordinarily rich life of the Zelig-like George Plimpton. He was somehow able to marry the most highbrow literary world with cheesy TV celebrity. You can see Plimpton! at Cinequest on March 8.
I haven’t yet seen it, but the Danish drama The Hunt (plays on March 6) has been univerally acclaimed at other festivals. Mads Mikkelsen (After the Wedding, Casino Royale, A Royal Affair) stars as a teacher wrongly accused of child molestation, spurring hysteria in his town. Mikkelsen won the Best Actor award at Cannes.
I’ve also heard credible good buzz on two other films that I haven’t seen: the Turkish comedy One Day or Another and the American comedy The Playback Singer.
After seeing Lawrence of Arabia digitally restored in the very impressive Sony 4K, I wanted to point out that, also recently restored in Sony 4K, Taxi Driver plays on March 6 and Dr. Strangelove plays on March 9.
And again, you can always check my CINEQUEST 2013 page, which also includes comments on Aftermath, The Almost Man, I Am a Director,The Sapphires, Panahida, Pretty Time Bomb, Welcome Home and White Lie.
The American thriller Dose of Reality packs wire-to-wire intensity and a surprise ending that no one will see coming. A woman is found in a bar’s restroom after closing time, apparently beaten and raped, but unable to remember by whom. Two bar employees are the only possible suspects. Both deny it, and the woman launches a series of searing mind games to determine her attacker.
Fairuza Balk (American History X, Almost Famous) commands the screen as the woman. Her character, coming from a place of utter victimization, becomes totally dominant over the men. The most interesting of the guys is played by Rick Ravanello, a veteran TV actor with 77 acting credits on IMDb. Ravanello’s eyes are uncommonly able to portray dimness, cunning, tweaked impairment, guilt and terror.
But, although it’s a compelling movie for the first 75 minutes, Dose of Reality is all about the Big Surprise – which is on the scale of The Crying Game. Afterward, I was able to identify at least four clues in the story, but none of the 250 audience members at Dose of Reality’s Cinequest world premiere was unsurprised. Actor Ravanello recounts that when he first read the script, he got to the end and blurted “No Fucking Way!”. Writer-director Christopher Glatis has a real winner in Dose of Reality.
Dose of Reality is playing Cinequest again on March 5 and 9, and will release on DVD and VOD on March 26.
In the solid drama Solace, we meet two characters talking in a confined space about a matter of life and death, then another couple in a separate story and finally another setting with two more characters. The three tales are effectively connected together at the very end by writer-director-editor Vandon N. Gibbs.
I’m looking forward to Gibbs’ next work. The middle segment is a little too stagey, but Solace keeps the audience engaged throughout and the denouement is compelling. The best of the cast are Russell Durham Comegys as a regretful hit man, Dupree Lewis Jr. as a street hustler and Rhoda Griffis as a wronged wife.
I saw Solace at its world premiere at Cinequest. Solace will be playing at Cinequest again on March 6.
In the unsettling and suspenseful French Chaos (Désordres), a teacher moves to a rural area only to have his family stalked by one of his new students. It doesn’t take too long for us to figure out that the student Thibault is up to no good, but we can’t guess his plans or his motivation. Writer-director Etienne Faure has created a story that grips the audience as Thibault is revealed to be more and more twisted and dangerous.
In a performance reminiscent of Robert Walker’s Bruno in Strangers on a Train, Niels Schneider plays Thibault. The always reliable Isaach De Bankolé (Night on Earth, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, 24) plays the teacher who seeks his bliss but who underestimates the kid’s weirdness. Sonia Rolland (Josephine Baker in Midnight in Paris) plays the teacher’s wife; so beautiful that she can make your teeth hurt, Rolland is excellent as a woman who moves from aggrieved to reckless with breathtaking speed.
[BTW later this year Sonia Rolland joins Niels Arestrup (A Prophet, Sarah’s Key, War Horse) and Julie Gayet to star in 72-year-old director Bernard Travenier’s political dark comedy Quai d’Orsay, filmed at the real UN Security Council.]
Three documentaries are dominating this week’s cinematic landscape:
The Gatekeepers is a documentary centered around interviews with all six surviving former chiefs of Shin Bet, Israel’s super-secret internal security force. These are hard ass guys who share a surprising perspective on the efficacy of Israel’s war on terror.
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, now playing on HBO, explores the Catholic Church’s decades-long cover-up of priest abuse from a Wisconsin parish to the top of the Vatican (and I mean the top).
56 Up is the surprisingly mellow next chapter in the greatest documentary series ever. Starting with Seven Up! in 1964, director Michael Apted has followed the same fourteen British children, filming snapshots of their lives at ages 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42 and 49 – and now at 56.
We’re now in the third day of San Jose’s Cinequest Film Festival. I’ve updated my CINEQUEST 2013 page, which includes comments on The Sapphires, In the Shadows, Lead Us Not Into Temptation, The Almost Man, Panahida, Dose of Reality, White Lie, Aftermath and The Hunt.
Opening this week, the drama Lore is about the innocent children of monstrous people, but its intensity is so unrelenting that it wearies the audience. You can read descriptions and view trailers of upcoming films at Movies I’m Looking Forward To.
You can still catch the Academy Award winning Argo, as well as Zero Dark Thirty and Silver Linings Playbook. To ride the momentum of director Ang Lee’s surprise Oscar win, Life of Pi is now out again in 3D, which I recommend. The Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Picture, Amour, is brilliantly made and almost unbearable to watch.
My DVD of the week is another documentary, Undefeated, last year’s Oscar winner for Best Documentary.
Turner Classic Movies is celebrating the Oscars with its annual 31 Days of Oscars, filling its broadcast schedule with Academy Award-winning films. This week, the lineup includes Inherit the Wind and Elmer Gantry.
