Plan B - Skip Bumbershoot and watch the shorts online

SIFF will be posting some of the shorts from the 1 Reel Film Festival on their site. They've currently got Winner Take Steve which I saw during SIFF. Looks like more stuff is on the way...

They've also put up a great festival website which is a mini version of the pages they maintain for the full Seattle International Film Festival.

Army of Shadows - a different sort of undead

This movie really grew on me in the time between I saw it and when I'm writing this. I liked it alright straight after viewing. But the fact that the characters are still bouncing around in my mind a day afterwards is making me realize it's power.

This is a dark, quiet, serious film that deserves to be seen. No action sequences, explosions or other things that come to mind in a war film. There are lots of great reviews across the net including a collection of links at this site. All the characters seem to do what they do because they know it to be right even though a painful death is their expected reward. In most cases you have a brief glimpse into their occupation before the war (civil engineer, philosopher, etc.). Knowing it to be true makes it all the more chilling to realize how otherwise normal people can accept even the murder of their friends if they believe in the goal.

13 Tzameti trailer - WTF???

I went to the Harvard Exit Landmark theater this afternoon to watch The Army of Shadows. It was slow moving yet attention holding, dark and thought provoking. I'll write something on it later. But it kept since 1969 so I figure it's safe for me to vent about the trailers before the movie first. Specifically the one for 13 (Tzameti). Now I like 13 Tzameti quite a bit. My festival writeup on the 13 Tzametic is one of the shorter one for something that grabbed and held my attention. And to whomever cut the preview I saw I must calmly say "IT'S SHORT AND VAGUE FOR A FREAKIN' REASON!". So to summarize

a. Do see 13 Tzameti if you like intense psychological thrillers filled with super immoral people.
b. Do not watch the trailer first. If you're at the theater cover your eyes and ears immediately.

It's not as though the trailer tells you the entire ending. It just makes the first third of the film boring, takes away 50%+ of the shock of finding out what's going on and leaves you only wondering about one specific aspect of the film's outcome. You'll probably still get something out of it, but it's not going to be quite the same. You only get one first time.

Most disappointing was that this was a smaller film at an art-house theater. I'm pretty much used to this with Hollwood fair. That they wonder why people don't go to the movies anymore when all you need to do is watch the trailer is strange. But I guess they figure it's not such a big deal if you start the movie knowing the John Tucker may not actually die (though I haven't seen it yet - so don't ruin it for me if he does ;-) ). There's just got to be a better way to sell a movie like 13 Tzameti than to lay out such a critical portion of the story in the trailer.

Great opportunity to catchup on short film

Bumbershoot is coming up in Seattle. Better known as an incredible array of inexpensive music it's also a three day mini-film festival. The focus is 100% short film. I haven't done it in the past but I'm going to shoot for at least one solid day this year. Follow the link for the lineup. My personal bet is on Monday 9/4.

Where's my turquoise t-shirt and white blazer when I need it?

My inadvertent flight from art-house cinema continued this weekend with a viewing of Miami Vice. OK - I'll admit it I loved that show and I love many of Michael Mann's films. I had a brief moment of concern with Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx fox starring. My concerns were for naught. Thankfully Mr. Foxx managed to avoid combining this with his budding singing career and the film held together nicely. As always Mann gives a great feel to the film. It's not Heat, but given the low expectations you're likely to go in with it's a nice ride. Utterly predictable most of the time - come on, try to tell me you don't know where the doomed couple is off to for drinks midway through the film. But unpredictable in that it does such a good job with a remake of a TV show that's slid into parody over the years. Mann slides between sharp in-focus closeups and broader shots with the enhanced grainy look of 70/80's films. Or maybe that was just the projector at the theater where I saw it. The sound there was atrocious so maybe I'm just reading more into it than was there. ;-)

My memory is that that beyond the clothes, cars, and hair stubble it was a pretty dark show for it's time. The film keeps things in line with that while updating the look overall. Though it keeps the stubble. Wouldn't be Miami Vice without that.

For Mass Consumption

If you've read this blog you might get the impression my time spent in the dark is limited to sleeping and non-Hollywood fair. Possibly both at the same time. But I'm pretty equal opportunity when it comes to movie watching. I do draw the line at a point (way before "Little Man" for the record). But I do like the film of all stripes. I haven't seen as much as I'd like recently but below are the few I remember seeing and not mentioning before.

• Scoop - best funny Woody Allen film in quite a while. Of course it's a lot of Woody being Woody so one might recognize parts of it from other films. Scarlett Johansson is fun as well. I laughed very hard many a time - can't say more than that in the way of a compliment. To be warned your mileage may be trail off depending upon your spiritual distance from NYC. There were several moments when my laughter could be heard well above the stone silence in the rest of the theater.
• Clerks 2 - If you liked Clerks the odds are pretty good you'll like this one. More laid back than some of the other recent Kevin Smith movies. It's not Mallrats but worth the coin. 'nuff said.
• An Inconvenient Truth - Al Gore displaying a presence and coherence that might have made him the president had it been captured earlier. Good film - important message. Not sure if it's going to convince those die-hards on the other sides. But compelling if you're wondering how strong the science is.
• Devil Wears Prada - Goofy but pretty damn fun. Worth the price of admission for Meryl Streep giving you a lesson on how not so bad your boss truly is. There was a bit of a message about how the fashion world is more important than you think it is (which wouldn't be a high bar in my case) - but easily ignorable.
• My Super Ex-Girlfriend - Nice idea, fun actors, weak flick. If you've seen the trailer you pretty much get the film. Maybe OK as date movie if your date isn't feeling like something particularly funny or interesting. What that says about your date is up to you.