The Kings of Pastry

It's always impressive to watch people who have strived to be the best in the world at something, better than humans really should probably have the right to be.  Looked at properly, whether this is the people in The West Wing (at least filtered through Aaron Sorkin), or Steve Wiebe in The King of Kong, it's bound to be a fascinating experience.  The directors of Kings of Pastry prove this once again as they follow the attempt of 16 world class pastry chefs to be recognized as a Meilleur Ouvrier de France (Best Craftsman in France) - the elite ranks of chefs allowed to wear the distinct tri-colored MOF kitchen collar.  Over the course of less than 90 minutes more emotional attachment to the partcipants and dramatic tension is generated than in most Hollywood blockbusters.

My full thoughts are now posted at Three Imaginary Girls. 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1

I really wanted to love the seventh Harry Potter movie.  I've read and loved all the books but have been more erratic getting out to see the films.  I enjoyed the last probably the most as Hermione, Ron, and Harry got older resulting in a movie that had as much to do with its relationship aspects as magic and wonder.  Maybe it was partly my sleepy state coming in the door, but I felt generally underwhelmed at this entry in the franchise.  If you're still a fan you'll want to see it - and personally I still can't wait for the finale.  So at some level it's probably not worth dissecting the film much beyond, some exciting moments but generally a little more boring than I'd have preferred.

The plot is pretty similar to the books.  What - you HAVEN'T READ THE BOOKS?  That's pretty much a mistake.  Please stop reading and go do that.  I'll be here when you get back...  Now, sure - I didn't start the books until maybe a year ago, but once I started I zipped right through them all with glee.  There's no reason not to just dig in.  Trust me - please...

Rather than attempting a comprehensive review I'm just going to go lazy with a set of random observations.  If it's coherent analysis you're looking for that's fairly similar to my opinion you can checkout Imaginary Amie's review.

• As always Hermione steals every scene she's in.  And most of the best lines are ones that wink back at the characters backstory from the earlier films.  Such as the "hey, we need Hermione - we'd never get anything done without her".
• This time I spent perhaps too much time thinking - "really, he hasn't outgrown those glasses?"
• I didn't remember Voldemort looking quite so much like The Master from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• As I do remember feeling that this last book had a disconcertingly large amount of time spent camping perhaps the occasional dullness should have been anticipated on my part.
• I felt like I was watching a video game at times given the frequency of murky flashbacks cut scenes
• I can't help but feel this maybe came from trying to get two movies out of one book - just gave themselves too much rope perhaps...
• The film does shine at moments - in particular the two solid action pieces.  The first right at the start, and then a second later in a London greasy spoon.

Like I said, still looking forward to the finale - which I will be sure to be more well rested for than I was in this case.



Screening Notes:
Got a chance to see this early on Wednesday night at the Pacific Science Center IMAX. While I believe the film deserves to be seen on the large screen, I think IMAX doesn't add that much if anything to the experience. My vote is definitely for catching it at the re-opened Cinerama - where you can enjoy a Cupcake Royale treat in place of the usual popcorn. They also stock Theo's Chocolate - but SIFF Cinema already makes that seem a bit passe. I've only been to the Pacific Place IMAX twice, but I've been transfixed both times by it's retro feeling Hayden Planetarium circa 1982 design aesthetic (even though it was build much later). The atmosphere of the evening was pretty perfect (as you can see in the Space Needle shot) - dark and stormy.

No shortage of marketing material in the IMAX lobby

I was given a wristband, a hand stamp AND a physical ticket. I was honestly quite surprised after all that that they didn't search everything in my possession.  But as it turned out the screening was blissfully free of security goons.

Pacific Science Center home of the Harry Potter Exhibition seemed a worthy location for the preview screening.

Seattle weather set the mood nicely for the film Wed. night.

After.Life

The film opens with Anna (Christina Ricci) who is in the midst of a pretty poor looking relationship with Paul (Justin Long).  She's seeming awfully depressed - to the point where she manages to totally misunderstand his intention when he takes her out to dinner to tell her about his big promotion and propose.  Why he wants to marry Anna is one of the most confusing aspects of a film whose clear purpose is to keep you guessing at just what's going on.  But before we can fully ponder Paul's relationship issues Anna races off from the restaurant and manages to end up dead in a car accident.  Or does she?  On one hand the dead theory is plausible as we see her in a funeral home, on a table with the Deacon (Liam Neeson) the creepy proprietor of the establishment prepping her body (which has been pronounced dead) for a wake.  On the other hand she sits up and talks to him - which in most cases is pretty decent evidence of the not dead hypothesis. 

Deacon explains to her that he has a gift that allows him to speak with the recently deceased before they fully shuffle off this mortal coil.  Anna, who's clearly never heard of Occam's Razor and/or is drugged out of her mind accepts this explanation even while complaining she'd rather not be dead.  It's this tension of possibilities as to what's up with Anna (and by extension) Deacon that we revolve around and around throughout the course of the film.  The picture (mostly) effectively keeps you alternating between being convinced she's dead and then convinced she's not.  In my mind by the end it's quite clear as to what was going on - but I'm sure one could still argue practically anything in the film if they were inclined.  The film was creepy, squirm inducing and occasionally bloody in a way that I think many people will enjoy.  While it had me mentally engaged - by the end it fell into my special category of being a "so - did I really need to see that?" film. 

There are existential questions that one must sometimes wrestle within in this world.  Most typically these involve life, death, and your opinion of Ethan Hawke.  After.Life's contribution the universe of such challenges is whether you're willing to put up with every cliche known to man about life/death, overt manipulative sound effects and Justin Long in a serious role in order get mentally fucked with while you ogle Christina Ricci being very naked.

I never really I understood what was going on in Anna's head, nor why Paul was interested in her.  The film did effectively keep me bouncing back and forth in my head and had some serious squirm inducing moments.  At least for a film watcher like me of weak constitution.  Other than the central conceit about whether she's dead or not (and how fucked up Neeson's character is if she's not) there's not a lot of original ideas in the film.  Given that there is one big original concept I'm probably being nit-picky.  It's just that all the "death gives life meaning" and "most people don't live the life they want to" eventually dragged on me.

It will keep most people guessing - even though by the end when I felt I was clear on what happened it did end up presenting a lot of questions to me about the storyline as I felt there were holes.  Fans of horror may dig it more than I did.  For now I'll settle for not having nightmares from all the creepy.



Screening Notes: I saw this film as part of the 2010 Seattle Polish Film Festival.  Which was pretty surprising to me as the most "Polish" thing about it was director and co-writer
Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo.  By that definition the Seattle Jewish Film Festival should have screened The 40 Year Old Virgin because Judd Apatow directed it.  But it was probably the 2nd best thing I saw at the festival this year - though as I only saw 5 films (and a few minutes of a sixth) that might have just been poor selections on my part.

Holy Business (Poland)

A movie about a couple of semi-estranged brothers who at first feel they've been screwed by their father having the gall to die, leaving the bulk of his estate to the church.  Only to then learn that they've been willed a car that may have been owned by the pope.  At which point I suspect we're supposed to believe hilarity ensues.  I have to say that's what I expected as well.  It actually took quite a while into this film for me to grok that it just wasn't going to pay off in the way a movie about a car owned the pope simply ought to.  The basic problems were that

• I didn't care about the characters
• it wasn't funny
• and the first two issues weren't helped by the editing which occasionally had me wondering if there was a defect in the reel nor the sloppy translation which was distractingly, consistently grammatically incorrect.

The townspeople may or may not know the real deal with the car, there's a random loanshark who's perhaps too mean-spirited for this sort of film, a foreign wife who wants to get pregnant, and some rather out of nowhere violence snuck in.  I really wanted to like this film but couldn't really muster the effort.  Similar to getting up the wind here to write in more depth on the film.  In short - just look for another "formerly owned by the pope" film next time you're in the mood.  I can't quite put my finger on why, but I believe there are actually other pics in this genre.

Update (Dec 18, 2010): Question for readers - I noticed an uptick of people coming to this posting recently.  Was wondering what sent you searching for information on this film.  If you wouldn't mind posting in the comments where you're from and why the film's on your radar I'd love the feedback.  Thanks!

Boxing Gym

My fuller review of this film appears on Three Imaginary Girls - I've just clipped a capsule of it out below.  The film is playing at the Northwest Film Forum this week.

Boxing Gym is a documentary, perhaps unsurprisingly about a boxing gym.  If one closed their eyes and imagined what it'd be like to be invisible, at a boxing gym for a period, incapable of interacting with your surroundings and suffering from selective attention deficit disorder then you would have a good sense what to expect with this film.  Except of course for the fact that your preconceived notions about such an environment may not 100% match up with the true voyeuristic experience.  Except when it does.


This is definitely a niche audience film, and for those who enjoy a slow - deep look at something it may be worth checking out.  It's very well put together from an editing perspective and I appreciated getting a chance to live in another world for 90 minutes without having a break a sweat.  I can't say it's my usual sort of fare nor that I loved it - more a "hey, that was at least somewhat interesting" reaction to the affair.  Which still puts it significantly higher than a fair number of flicks I've caught this year.  ;-)  Just don't go without being well rested if you do check it out.  The film's "meditative style" can lull you gently to sleep if one isn't careful.

Something different to do Friday night (and Saturday morning)

If you're looking for something different, and I believe quite a lot of fun this weekend you might want to look into the activities surrounding a visit to Seattle by the folks on a book tour for Destroy all Movies - a definitive (and well illustrated) guide to every onscreen appearance of a "punk" in a film during the 20th century.  If you're like to learn more you can pop over to Three Imaginary Girls where I've elaborated on the details of the book signing at Scarecrow Video and the quadruple feature following at the Grand Illusion Theater.  Both of which played a role in the genesis of this just crazy enough to be awesome text.

Piggies (Poland)

A Polish town on the border with economically more robust Germany is going to have tensions. Some people are going to be employed below their potential and/or engage in questionably legal arbitrage across the border. At some point it's all too easy to get used to this reality onscreen. But when you bring children into the mix - and make the mix revolve around the sex trade things are suddenly a lot harder to take lightly.

Piggies takes what in part can be viewed as an allegory for the general exploitation of a weaker economy by a stronger one and adds a very personal dimension. Tomek (Filip Garbacz)  is a young, bright boy full of optimism and a desire to help his friends as family (not to mention his astronomy club). At the same time he's naive, barely questioning where his slightly older best friend is getting his money. And even when he does learn he's hard pressed to understand why asking to borrow some of it to try and impress a girl is so wrong given how it's "earned" at the hands of pedophiles.

Piggies is slang for girls who prostitute themselves for material goods. As Tomek's innocence fades away as he's caught up in this world of underage prostitution and violence. This is a rather brutal film - though more psychologically than full of violent images (though those exist as well). It's painful to watch the arc of Tomek's story and not just because all these evils are entered into in pursuit of less than necessary for survival consumer pleasures. Though it's so well acted it seemed worth the effort. Normally I would put this in the category of "that's the sort of thing I can live without seeing". But in this case I'm glad I made an exception.

Four Lions (UK)

My full length review of the unlikely terrorism comedy Four Lions appears at Three Imaginary Girls.  But since you've come all this way I'll throw in some extra video treats by way of a trailer and some unused footage from the movie which was distributed in the film's press kit.  Did I like it - in a word yes.  I recommend checking out the film - though if you're not a fan of black comedy you might want to read the full review first.  Even if you're not a big dark comedy person I'd say the dialog is funny enough to consider going regardless.  Though if you're like me you may leave feeling badly about laughing.  After having spoken with director Chris Morris I don't think that's quite what he's shooting for.  But his perhaps more direct goal of making this horrible problem (and some of our responses) the object of ridicule was definitely successful in my opinion. 

• My full length review at Three Imaginary Girls
• My interview with the director Chris Morris
• A shorter version of my review at Heeb Magazine. 

Wonderful Summer (Poland)

On Thursday night I attended the opening night of Seattle's 18th annual Polish Film Festival.  First off congrats to the organization for starting something and keeping it running for 18 years.  Far more important than my opinion of any one film.

Before the main film a short film played, named appropriately given it's content, Animated History of Poland.  Very technically well done it's essentially a continuous evolving shot that runs through the history of Poland.  Which from what I can tell featured a lot of fighting, lots of horses, and not too many women.  It was sort of hard to follow the history if you didn't know it already (so many feudal squabbles).  But I do look forward to playing the video game version when it comes out. ;-)

Now, onto the film itself.  Wonderful Summer sounded pretty interesting from the description.  So first, let's take a look at that;

Often called Poland’s first black romantic comedy, the film unfolds in a funeral parlor. Eighteen-year-old Kitka has the unusual gift of being able to communicate with her dead mother’s spirit. Kitka’s mother visits her to fulfill one mission – she wants to make sure Kitka does not miss out on true love with the boy who lives and works next to her.

While I knew this sort of high-concept film could be a flop I was more than optimistic.  Picturing a nagging, maybe know it all mom hounding her daughter from beyond the grave to make the right choices and get married.  Unfortunately, the film kicking around in my head proved a good deal more interesting than the actual film.  What transpires is a pretty basic story of a woman with poor career prospects, whose mother died young, taking care of her borderline alcoholic father and trying to figure out what to do with her life.  She's presented with two stark, opposing choices - a slick funeral services guy her grandfather sets her up with and the stone cutter perhaps nicer guy that works for her dad.  If your definition of "nicer guy" includes taking her home drunk from senior prom where he (being older) was the photographer and then letting her get drunker and strip while he takes photographs of her.  As presented she must choose of of these guys and be with him for the rest of her life while he (presumably) supports her.  Yep, you've come a long way baby... ;-)

Two of the basic problems with the film in my view included

• that it's not especially funny.
• and it's not particularly romantic

not enough of a disincentive for a "romantic comedy"?  OK, a few more issues (which may include partial spoilers)

• The ghost mom almost never speaks to her daughter.  So the chances for interactions are poor - and basically no exploitation of what seems like the potentially richest vein of comedy in the ploy.
• The choices between the two men are so stark it feels rather silly.  Nude picture taking aside one guy is good and decent, and the other ... well ... he works in a funeral home.  And this isn't one of those films that plays against stereotype and shows such folks as helpful and honest.  They're presented as preying on folk's emotional weakness due to the death of a loved one.  Not to mention being extremely ambitious and acting fairly callous towards Kitka's feelings
• There feels like maybe there's an important subplot chopped out.  My sense is that there's more slipperiness going on at the funeral home.  Especially as the man courting Kitka's father seems to feel as though his son is doing a chore trying to hook up with here - yet keeps prodding him.  Given the comment early on about the grandfather giving Kitka his fortune I wondered if something was going on where the jerky guy was after more than a little nooky.   
• Kitka seemed a somewhat too intelligent to go with Mr. Smooth jerk guy.  Even though going for such fellows seems to be a hallmark of Polish romantic comedy.
• The ending where she goes off with the final guy seemed too arbitrary.  If not for the poor car maintenance habits of the winning suitor she likely would have ended up with the other bloke.
• I need to say just one more time - not that funny, and not the sort of film where I cared that much who she ended up with.  Given how easily I fall for this sort of thing that perhaps says something.

On the plus side the young woman who plays the Kitka is mostly enjoyable to watch even though she's not given that much to work with.  And the subtitling is spectacular - clean and bright and easy to read.  Though a friend who speaks Polish suggested the dialog is fairly dumbed down in translation.  Which could explain my overall feelings on the film.

One day of Polish film down, several more to go.  Though as I write now I've already missed the Friday screenings.  Hopefully I'll get at least the four more in this weekend and next I need to break even on my pass.

Screening Notes:
My stronger review of the night goes to Crow restaurant where I got a kick-ass lasagna before the film while enjoying one of their specialty (and special) cocktails. 

the aforementioned lasagna

The "Scottish Meadow"

Just some of the evenings possible options

Monsters

This post is a duplication (with perhaps one extra picture) of my review that also appears on the Three Imaginary Girls site.

In the opening minutes of Monsters the plot's major backstory points are swiftly covered.  Some years ago NASA detected alien life outside of earth.  A ship bearing samples was on the way back for study when it crashed in Mexico.  In an example of space age imperialism, within a few years new creatures started appearing on the scene.  The Mexican and US military have been fighting a holding action against these new beings ever since. Keeping them quarantined (supposedly) within Mexico.  Held back by military power and a tremendous border wall it seems the era of MTV Spring Break Cancun is over.  Onto this new world order the film makers have grafted a more classic relationship / road movie bringing a little bit of something for everyone.

Sam (Whitney Able) is in Mexico when an attack by one of the aliens leaves her injured, though still adorable.  She needs to get out of the country before the government shuts down the borders in anticipation of alien migration season.  Enter Kaulder (Scoot McNairy) a photographer on the payroll of Sam's wealthy publisher father.  Seriously against his wishes he's assigned to take her out of the country.  A bit of a dufus it shows through in several ways not the least of which how somehow feels himself a superior guide although he's the only one of the two who speaks Spanish.  Their journey, both physical and personal form the remainder of the story.  There are monsters out there - the film's consistently torqued up tension rarely lets you forget that.  But to my eye it's the relationship drama that just happens to be set in the midst of an accidental alien invasion that makes the film memorable.  The two actors have solid chemistry and they sell the universe in which the film is set.

If I didn't know better I'd think the entire piece was an elaborate Hollywood exercise calibrated to bring in couples with some sci-fi/action for one and a romantic drama for the other.  In that and other ways Monsters seems to be about confounding expectations.  Are you watching

(a) an ultra low budget (reportedly $15k) indy sci-fi picture about aliens run amok in Mexico?
(b) a relationship drama of two people finding each other on an extended road trip?
(c) an allegory of US/Mexican relations>
(d) just the latest example of hot cephalopod on cephalopod action to come out of Hollywood this year?

Regardless, it was a fun ride that managed to push both my tension packed thriller and relationship drama buttons in a purely positive sense.  That's not to say on reflection there aren't some flaws but the overall effect seems likely appeal to a fairly broad audience.  Just so long as ones expectations aren't for more hardcore sci-fi genre fare.  In some ways the two most recent and obvious comparisons for this film are District 9 and Cloverfield.  It's like District 9 in the sense that it shows that a modest budget with a solid plan can make compelling cinema (oh, and also of course plays with the space aliens vs. refugee comparison).  And it did remind me in some ways of Cloverfield - though in a 180 degrees less terrible sense.

Carlos (France)

Carlos is an epic length treatment of the life and times of “Carlos the Jackal.” It’s spread out over quite a few hours, including dialog spoken in more languages than you likely have fingers and shot across a wide range of locations. In short, this French film covers a lot of ground. Depending on your mood and world view it’s either;

(a) an extended history lesson on one of the more famous terrorists of the late 20th century. And how states used terrorists as pawns during the cold war to their immoral advantage.

(b) an extended history on a freedom fighter for the world’s oppressed peoples.

(c) a metaphor of how the young start out with the best of intentions and ideals only to be ground down though the myriad petty distractions and corruptions of life

(d) just another story about a guy too in love with his penis

To find out more you can follow this jump over to the rest of the review at Three Imaginary Girls.

An interview with Chris Morris Director and co-writer of Four Lions

This past week I had the fortune to have an opportunity to sit down with Chris Morris the director and co-writer of Four Lions which makes effective comedy out of one of the most unlikely of topics - a homegrown British terrorist cell.  After some warming up discussing the media’s irrational glee in over-hyping minor meteorological events from rain in San Francisco to the thought of snow in Seattle we jumped into discussing the film.  Ranging from Spinal Tap references and how to live your dream of being a Penguin through virtual reality, to spousal support of would be terrorists and back again to the art of swallowing unusual objects a fair amount of ground was covered that afternoon...

You can listen to the interview below in it's entirety (except for the BS'ing about the weather), or if you'd prefer to read instead and on a classier, more well rounded website feel free to mosey on over to Three Imaginary Girls where the transcript awaits...

One Hundred Mornings (Ireland)

This month's entry in the STIFF Nights series was One Hundred Mornings an end of the world flavored talky talky coming out of Slamdance with some of that buzz folks are always yakking about.

To my mind One Hundred Mornings sort of fits into the category of small, conversationally focused indy films that we've been seeing lately that take the more traditional formula and mash it up with an alternative genre. That includes the fabulous recent films Cold Weather and Monogamy. In this case writer/director Conor Horgan choose his "one from column (b)" option as "vaguely explained apocalypse."

We meet two couples living in a small cabin outside a small town. It seems like the sort of vacation spot people would head off to from the big city. They're a bit bored but otherwise healthy and with a good sized stock of food. Though being unsure how long they're going to be stuck there food rationing is the order of the day.  Throughout the film they deal with a variety of issues from folks stealing their stash, how far is too far to go to survive during the apocalypse and why even at the end of the world it's not the greatest idea to secretly sleep with someone other than your partner.  Perhaps as it turns out especially when it's the end of the world.

Oh, like many of these movies it's a good reminder about how maybe having an extra shotgun and some ammo secreted can really come in handy during the end days.  I'm wondering if the NRA might be an untapped source of funding for these Apocalypse stories... 

I was curious how things would turn out, though at times I was closer to bored than I would have liked to have been.  The setup is intriguing, but I didn't feel as though the dialog was in the same league as some of the other mash-up genre films I've seen this year.  Didn't feel like something exceptional that you need to seek out.  

Screening Notes: As mentioned above I caught One Hundred Mornings at Central Cinema during the monthly night where Seattle's True Independent Film Festival (STIFF) takes over (admission free with your 2010 STIFF pass).  I'd skipped the prior month but I've generally been trying to make it over consistently for this series.

This month in addition to the film I got to try out their new order food via your smartphone tech.  It worked quite well, though I still think it's a poor idea to encourage cellphone use during the film.  I did get more consistent service than usual (probably because I didn't need to wait to flag down a server to put an order in).  But there's no way to not have the flashing lights be annoying.  Folks seemed to try to shield them, but still nothing like that's perfect.  The user interface for the website used is dark which I think is intended to minimize the flashing lights.  That would probably work pretty well except you still generally need to unlock the phone to make it work - which has a bright background for most folks.

That said I did sort of have an unnatural amount of fun playing with the app when my interest in the film faded slightly.  The pay from your seat option is cool as well - though if they could integrate paypal it'd be extra sweet.  Oh - and at least the night I was there they were running a promo that if you used it you got a free popcorn.  As Central Cinema uses real butter that's nothing to scoff at...

My plate of edamame hummus before the screening - which seems to be my go-to snack at Central Cinema. The pepper jelly really works.