After a rather action-packed year off, Sean On Film is back. Last year, Maureen and I opted to go to Hawaii instead, where we pedaled bikes around Oahu for 100 miles, hiked around Waimea Canyon, took an aerial tour of Kauai, went snorkling, and got engaged. If you're going to miss the festival, that's pretty much the way to do it.
The Honolulu Century Ride was the culmination of a significant fund raising effort for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society through Team In Training. Maureen is a survivor of what she affectionately refers to as The Hodge, so it was a great way to give thanks for being able to hang out and have such a great time together. If you would like to take on a physical challenge, get free training to meet your goal, and raise money for a great charity, give them a try. It's a wonderful organization.
But this year I'm back, and with help. Now that we're married, Maureen owns half of this blog and will not only be running from theater to theater with me, but also offering her own reviews. Say hi, Maureen!
We're ticketed, both air fare (thank you frequent flier miles!) and festival-wise. We have a room booked at a B&B in Cabbagetown, a new neighborhood for both of us, as the last room was, as a certain Canadian songwriter might say, ungood. Alas, not much blog action will be coming in the near future, as the film schedule doesn't get released until sometime in the vicinity of August 23rd.
Hang in there, film fans. It's only 6+ short weeks away!
Monday, July 25, 2011
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Review: I, Don Giovani
In this piece of faction from veteran Spanish director Carlos Saura, I, Don Giovani tells the story of Lorenzo Da Ponte and the development of his second collaboration with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Il dissoluto punito o sia Il Don Giovanni. Sauro collaborated on the script with Raffaello Uboldi and Alessandro Vallini.
The tale begins in Da Ponte's youth, when he is forced to convert from Judaism to Christianity to enable his widower father's marriage to an 18-year old Catholic woman. When he's older, he trains to be a priest, but practices the fine art of debauchery of in his spare time. He is surrounded by inspiration for the story he ends up writing for Mozart's opera, and in fact his on-screen life plays out in opera fashion, complete with musical performances of songs from the opera.
The story is intriguing, with seduction, cheating, back-biting jealous divas, illness, and other great opera themes. The film works Da Ponte's real life drama into the story of Don Giovani in a very clever way, which is only fitting since most of Da Ponte's work was in the form of adaptations of previous work. But while the picture is visually impressive, it suffers a bit in the sound department. Some of the post-production re-recorded dialog didn't match up with the picture very well, which proved distracting. The bigger issue, though, were occasional dull patches in the plot. My imdb rating: 6/10.
The tale begins in Da Ponte's youth, when he is forced to convert from Judaism to Christianity to enable his widower father's marriage to an 18-year old Catholic woman. When he's older, he trains to be a priest, but practices the fine art of debauchery of in his spare time. He is surrounded by inspiration for the story he ends up writing for Mozart's opera, and in fact his on-screen life plays out in opera fashion, complete with musical performances of songs from the opera.
The story is intriguing, with seduction, cheating, back-biting jealous divas, illness, and other great opera themes. The film works Da Ponte's real life drama into the story of Don Giovani in a very clever way, which is only fitting since most of Da Ponte's work was in the form of adaptations of previous work. But while the picture is visually impressive, it suffers a bit in the sound department. Some of the post-production re-recorded dialog didn't match up with the picture very well, which proved distracting. The bigger issue, though, were occasional dull patches in the plot. My imdb rating: 6/10.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Review: Bare Essence of Life
My second to last day at the festival began with Bare Essence of Life, from Japanese writer/director Satoko Yokohama. Ken'ichi Matsuyama starred in the second consecutive movie in my schedule. Veteran Actress Komiko Aso plays love interest Machiko Kamiizumi.
In a jump of epic proportions, Matsuyama slides easily from a fugitive ninja in Kamui to a mentally challenged small-time vegetable farmer named Akito Mizuki in this film. Akito lives with his grandmother, who is trying to prepare him to survive on his own. With a mental age of about 7, things aren't going so well. Spoiler alert, I'm about to divulge the rest of the plot.
Machiko moves to the remote northern Japanese village from Tokyo, where the love of her life was decapitated in a horrific car accident. While the rest of the villagers whisper amongst themselves about her bad fortune, Akito falls in love with her. Initially, he freaks her out with his stalker behavior. That night, Akito, with the help of a local schoolboy, buries himself in the garden, with only his head sticking up out of the ground. The helpful neighborhood kid sprays the entire garden with herbicide, including Akito's head, and then heads home, leaving Akito planted. After being freed from his garden grave, he seeks out his love again, only this time she finds him more charming. Of course, Akito credits the herbicide application to his newfound success.
Now obsessed with giving himself regular applications of herbicide, he falls ill. As a result, presumably, his heart stops beating, but miraculously he's otherwise healthy as a horse. Eventually, though, he gets shot dead by hunters while on a field trip to the woods with Machiko and her class. Oddly, after the autopsy, the pathologist gives Machiko his brain in a jar presumably filled with formaldehyde, remarking that it's smaller than usual. She then takes the kids back to the woods, strangely unafraid that someone else would get shot. No one in fact does get shot, but they do stumble upon a bear. Machiko tosses Akito's brain in the direction of the bear, and she and the kids escape to safety while he munches on his dinner of formaldehyde-soaked human brain. The end.
And no, I'm not making this shit up.
I think the movie was supposed to be funny. However, I guess I don't find mentally challenged farmer jokes all that funny. Oh look! He's throwing the produce at the customers. Ha ha ha! She won't buy anything now, and he won't have money to pay his bills. Ha ha ha! My imdb rating: 3/10.
In a jump of epic proportions, Matsuyama slides easily from a fugitive ninja in Kamui to a mentally challenged small-time vegetable farmer named Akito Mizuki in this film. Akito lives with his grandmother, who is trying to prepare him to survive on his own. With a mental age of about 7, things aren't going so well. Spoiler alert, I'm about to divulge the rest of the plot.
Machiko moves to the remote northern Japanese village from Tokyo, where the love of her life was decapitated in a horrific car accident. While the rest of the villagers whisper amongst themselves about her bad fortune, Akito falls in love with her. Initially, he freaks her out with his stalker behavior. That night, Akito, with the help of a local schoolboy, buries himself in the garden, with only his head sticking up out of the ground. The helpful neighborhood kid sprays the entire garden with herbicide, including Akito's head, and then heads home, leaving Akito planted. After being freed from his garden grave, he seeks out his love again, only this time she finds him more charming. Of course, Akito credits the herbicide application to his newfound success.
Now obsessed with giving himself regular applications of herbicide, he falls ill. As a result, presumably, his heart stops beating, but miraculously he's otherwise healthy as a horse. Eventually, though, he gets shot dead by hunters while on a field trip to the woods with Machiko and her class. Oddly, after the autopsy, the pathologist gives Machiko his brain in a jar presumably filled with formaldehyde, remarking that it's smaller than usual. She then takes the kids back to the woods, strangely unafraid that someone else would get shot. No one in fact does get shot, but they do stumble upon a bear. Machiko tosses Akito's brain in the direction of the bear, and she and the kids escape to safety while he munches on his dinner of formaldehyde-soaked human brain. The end.
And no, I'm not making this shit up.
I think the movie was supposed to be funny. However, I guess I don't find mentally challenged farmer jokes all that funny. Oh look! He's throwing the produce at the customers. Ha ha ha! She won't buy anything now, and he won't have money to pay his bills. Ha ha ha! My imdb rating: 3/10.
Review: Kamui
After a couple films that occasionally seemed to induce more napping than anything, I needed some entertainment. Fortunately, the evening movie on the schedule was Kamui, director Yoichi Sai's version of the legendary tale of a fugitive ninja.
Ken'ichi Matsuyama takes on the role of the title character, who is born low on the social totem pole in 17th century Japan. As a way out, he becomes a ninja, but unhappy with performing the tasks required of him, he escapes to live a free life. As it turns out, the ninja society strongly adheres to the "Hotel Calfornia" rule, so Kamui spends a lot of time looking over his shoulder.
As it turns out, in 17th century Japan, ninjas have darned near super human powers. Kamui can do some neat tricks. For instance, his signature move is making it look like there are two of him. He cam also jump about thirty feet. These are handy skills to possess when you're a fugitive ninja.
Anyway, after some adventures in a forest, Kamui takes to the ocean. That turns out to be a rough life, and he winds up washing up on shore half-dead after a trippy run-in with a demented fisherman. The fisherman's daughter helps nurse him back to life, much to the dismay of her mother, who has secrets of her own. Some pirates show up, identities get exposed, and all hell breaks loose.
I'll leave the details out, in case you happen to catch this one. It's a fun story with lots of crazy ninja action, and the rather cartoonish low-budget CGI gives it the look of a live action anime film. My imdb rating: 7/10.
Ken'ichi Matsuyama takes on the role of the title character, who is born low on the social totem pole in 17th century Japan. As a way out, he becomes a ninja, but unhappy with performing the tasks required of him, he escapes to live a free life. As it turns out, the ninja society strongly adheres to the "Hotel Calfornia" rule, so Kamui spends a lot of time looking over his shoulder.
As it turns out, in 17th century Japan, ninjas have darned near super human powers. Kamui can do some neat tricks. For instance, his signature move is making it look like there are two of him. He cam also jump about thirty feet. These are handy skills to possess when you're a fugitive ninja.
Anyway, after some adventures in a forest, Kamui takes to the ocean. That turns out to be a rough life, and he winds up washing up on shore half-dead after a trippy run-in with a demented fisherman. The fisherman's daughter helps nurse him back to life, much to the dismay of her mother, who has secrets of her own. Some pirates show up, identities get exposed, and all hell breaks loose.
I'll leave the details out, in case you happen to catch this one. It's a fun story with lots of crazy ninja action, and the rather cartoonish low-budget CGI gives it the look of a live action anime film. My imdb rating: 7/10.
Review: Like You Know It All
From South Korea and writer/director Sang-soo Hong comes Like You Know It All (Jal aljido mothamyeonseo), the story of an art house film director and the folly of his day-to-day life. Kim Tae-woo takes on the role of Ku Kyung-nam, a director of critically acclaimed, but commercially unsuccessful movies.
The film begins with Kyung-nam attending a film festival as a judge. Quickly, it becomes apparent that the festival is much more about long nights of drinking with arrogant industry men and young attractive women than it is about screening movies. The screenings simply become a convenient time to catch up on sleep. The partying leads to one young woman delivering Kyung-nam a tongue lashing for leaving her defenselessly drunk at the residence of one of the other revelers. He soon leaves the festival, promising to review the movies on DVD instead.
Later, in one confusing scene, Kyung-nam visits the home of an old friend. The friend dies, and Kyung-nam sleeps with his wife while trying to comfort her. Moments later, the friend is once again alive, with no explanation as far as I could see, and throws a large rock at Kyung-nam, striking him in the face.
Kyung-nam's last adventure begins when he meets up with his college mentor, who he discovers has coincidentally married an ex-flame. This encounter begins with an admittedly hilarious moment of foreboding, but drags on in a confusing and seemingly endless series of conversations.
The irony of this movie is that it seemed like it was directed by someone just like the main character that the movie intends to make fun of. There were several funny moments on the film, but far too often I found myself wondering what was going on. My imdb rating: 4/10.
The film begins with Kyung-nam attending a film festival as a judge. Quickly, it becomes apparent that the festival is much more about long nights of drinking with arrogant industry men and young attractive women than it is about screening movies. The screenings simply become a convenient time to catch up on sleep. The partying leads to one young woman delivering Kyung-nam a tongue lashing for leaving her defenselessly drunk at the residence of one of the other revelers. He soon leaves the festival, promising to review the movies on DVD instead.
Later, in one confusing scene, Kyung-nam visits the home of an old friend. The friend dies, and Kyung-nam sleeps with his wife while trying to comfort her. Moments later, the friend is once again alive, with no explanation as far as I could see, and throws a large rock at Kyung-nam, striking him in the face.
Kyung-nam's last adventure begins when he meets up with his college mentor, who he discovers has coincidentally married an ex-flame. This encounter begins with an admittedly hilarious moment of foreboding, but drags on in a confusing and seemingly endless series of conversations.
The irony of this movie is that it seemed like it was directed by someone just like the main character that the movie intends to make fun of. There were several funny moments on the film, but far too often I found myself wondering what was going on. My imdb rating: 4/10.
Review: Tales From The Golden Age
Award winning Director Christian Mungiu brought together four other fledgling Romanian directors to direct five short films depicting life during Romania in the 1980s. Communist propaganda referred to the days of their rule as "The Golden Age". The five films each look at "legends" of the time in typically a humorous way. Apparently, there is a sixth film and these are being released as two separate films in Romania. I'm guessing they selected five of the six as a single film for the festival.
Each of the five that we saw told the story of a "legend" of the time.
Each of the five that we saw told the story of a "legend" of the time.
- The opening tale was that of a small town nervously preparing for the arrival of communist party officials, which ends with everyone getting drunk and then getting on a carnival ride with swings. Unfortunately, they forgot to leave somebody off the ride to stop it and simply had to wait for it to run out of gas.
- In a "forest for the trees" moment, state officials insist that alterations are made to a photograph before the newspaper can print it, but wind up needing an emergency recall of the morning edition.
- A family obtains a (live) pig through questionable means and, not wanting to draw attention of the neighbors, attempts to kill it via home made gas chamber, with somewhat predictable results.
- A man delivering truckloads of chickens finds a way to make a little extra by hocking their eggs part way through his route.
- A man introduces a young woman to a low stakes confidence scheme - tricking residents of apartment buildings into giving them returnable bottles, and then cashing them in.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Review: J'ai tué ma mère
The next film in this year's schedule was Canadian cinema part deux: the French language feature J'ai tué ma mère (I killed my mother). Xavier Dolan produced, wrote, directed and starred in this film. This is very convenient because you know who to blame if you don't like it.
This semi-autobiographical tale is about Xavier's relationship with his mother. For this film, he takes on the name Hubert, and his mother is not played by his mother, but rather by Anne Dorval. Hubert and his mother Chantale fight. A lot. Drop dead scream fests. In French. Québécois French, but French nonetheless. Hubert is mean, Chantale is mean, and it's hard to decide who's at fault, really.
One may choose to infer that the root of the problem is that Hubert has chosen not to divulge his homosexuality to his mother, though the film didn't directly state that. Hubert's father isn't much help, as he ditched the family years prior, deciding that parenthood just wasn't for him. Unable to deal with Hubert's rage herself, Chantale ships him off to a boarding school.
Along the way, Hubert strikes up a friendship with one of his public school teachers, Julie, and interacts with his main squeeze Antonin and his mother Hélène, who eventually outs Hubert in a chance encounter with Chantale.
Dorval gives a great performance as Chantale, especially in one scene when she rips the boarding school's director a new hole for suggesting that Hubert would benefit from a male influence in the home. Dolan is predictably convincing in portraying himself on screen. As a story, though, I found it a little frustrating watching these two people rip each other apart verbally for seemingly no reason whatsoever through most of the film. Sure, perhaps that's how the relationship was, but it doesn't necessarily make compelling cinema. My imdb rating: 5/10.
This semi-autobiographical tale is about Xavier's relationship with his mother. For this film, he takes on the name Hubert, and his mother is not played by his mother, but rather by Anne Dorval. Hubert and his mother Chantale fight. A lot. Drop dead scream fests. In French. Québécois French, but French nonetheless. Hubert is mean, Chantale is mean, and it's hard to decide who's at fault, really.
One may choose to infer that the root of the problem is that Hubert has chosen not to divulge his homosexuality to his mother, though the film didn't directly state that. Hubert's father isn't much help, as he ditched the family years prior, deciding that parenthood just wasn't for him. Unable to deal with Hubert's rage herself, Chantale ships him off to a boarding school.
Along the way, Hubert strikes up a friendship with one of his public school teachers, Julie, and interacts with his main squeeze Antonin and his mother Hélène, who eventually outs Hubert in a chance encounter with Chantale.
Dorval gives a great performance as Chantale, especially in one scene when she rips the boarding school's director a new hole for suggesting that Hubert would benefit from a male influence in the home. Dolan is predictably convincing in portraying himself on screen. As a story, though, I found it a little frustrating watching these two people rip each other apart verbally for seemingly no reason whatsoever through most of the film. Sure, perhaps that's how the relationship was, but it doesn't necessarily make compelling cinema. My imdb rating: 5/10.
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