independent film reviews

Photographer and girl meet on a nudist beach.
I guess erotic thrillers aren’t supposed to be that much more than erotic and thrilling. Summer Heat is pretty much exactly those two things, manifested in the form of two somewhat good-looking people with sexual attraction for one another and a loose plot about drug-dealing and an old man who is practically a pimp.

The storyline involves scene after scene of the main character finding himself in similar compromising and voyeuristic positions. Perhaps it is his experience with being a bird photographer for National Geographic, but he becomes an expert at stalking just about anyone and everyone. But not in a creepy way… more like in a… “I’m going to rescue you” type of way. He’s practically Superman when it comes to his saving his chosen lady (who he has known for maybe a few hours).

Summer Heat is entertaining and well-shot, especially with it being director Monica van de Ven’s first attempt at directing a film. The plot as it is, however, Summer Heat feels like a B-rated movie backed by quality camerawork. Entertaining, but bound to be taken more humorously than seriously.

Director:
Monique van der Ven

Producer:
Ate de Jong

Editor:
Job ter Burg

Screenwriter:
Edwin de Vries

Cinematographer:
Lex Brand

Music:
Christian Henson

Principal Cast:
Sophie Hilbrand, Waldemar Torenstra, Jeroen Willems

Cool graphic design doesn’t even make this film interesting.

An extremely minimalist take on the lives of four deeply unhappy people. Well-shot if you are fine with a drab color palette. Largely pointless. I mean, one can stretch potential meaning if one really wants to, but this film certainly didn’t make me want to. I’m only giving it minor consideration now that I am sitting here writing this review. Continental, despite its entertaining and clever title, is nothing more than somber entertainment that fails to make any memorable or long-lasting impressions.

Director:
Stéphane Lafleur

Producer:
Luc Déry, Kim McCraw

Editor:
Sophie Leblond

Screenwriter:
Stéphane Lafleur

Cinematographer:
Sara Mishara

Music:
Stéphane Lafleur, Hugo Lavoie

Principal Cast:
Marie-Ginette Guay, Gilbert Sicotte, Fanny Mallette, Réal Bossé

Language:
French

Rainier Wenger with one fanatically fabulous student.

One of my favorite films of the 2008 Seattle International Film Festival, The Wave is based off of a true story. Although the actual story takes place in Palo Alto, California, the film takes place in Germany.Teacher Rainier Wenger receives “autocracy” for his project week theme, instead of “anarchy,” as he previously wanted. A generally unconventional character, Wenger decides to undergo a project in his class when his students declare that they think a dictatorship can never happen in Germany again. For the week, Wenger declares himself dictator and becomes the ruling leader of his newly established autocracy.Before he knows it, however, his students, newly dubbed The Wave, have taken the project outside of school grounds. They extend fascism into the hands of unwilling participants and the project soon swings out of control.

Although greatly unrealistic and exaggerated at times, one has to remember that the film is based off of real events, and that is what makes the film powerful. The Wave is a study on how one charismatic leader can motivate a populus into doing his will. It is dictatorship on a very small scale, but the haunting part is that dictatorships always start from a small group of mind-washed individuals.

Director:
Dennis Gansel

Producer:
Christina Becker, Nina Maag, David Groenewold

Editor:
Ueli Christen

Screenwriter:
Dennis Gansel, Peter Thorwart, based on the novel by Todd Strasser

Cinematographer:
Torsten Breuer

Music:
Heiko Maile

Language:
German

Principal Cast:
Jürgen Vogel, Frederick Lau, Max Riemelt, Jennifer Ulrich, Christiane Paul, Elyas M’Barek

Mother and son.
Savage Grace is a tale about the incestuous relationship of a mother and her homosexual son. The entire film is an ever-deepening downwards spiral that is disturbing to watch. Yet, like a car accident, the viewer cannot help but be interested by the dysfunction; it’s twisted to watch, but it’s interesting.

Savage Grace is a drab-colored, slow-paced film that is beautifully shot and well-acted. Unfortunately for the film, however, it is based off of a true story and there is much more motive to the true story than there is to the movie. In Savage Grace, the incestuous relationship between the mother and son comes about from seemingly nothing more than simple perversion. In reality, the story is much more complicated. The film family was dysfunctional, but the film barely got to the roots of WHY they were. Despite good acting and what could have been an interesting tale if told correctly, this film is largely significant only for its shock value.

Director:
Tom Kalin

Producer:
Iker Monfort, Katie Roumel, Pamela Koffler, Christine Vachon

Editor:
Tom Kalin, John F. Lyons, Enara Goicoetxea

Screenwriter:
Howard A. Rodman

Cinematographer:
Juanmi Azpiroz

Principal Cast:
Julianne Moore, Stephen Dillane, Hugh Dancy, Eddie Redmayne

Language:
English

A cute, happy, dysfunctional cast!
I’ve come to take quite a liking to black comedies that come out of the Nordic countries. They often focus on untraditional subject matters and have underlying social commentaries; in the case of The Art of Negative Thinking, the focus is on disabled people — a demographic that is usually never made light of in American culture, which regards disabled individuals as practically helpless.

Those who have personal experience with disabled people or are particularly sensitive to the subject might find this movie to be callous and cruel. But that would be a simplified view on the subject. The movie does not set out to make fun of the disabled. The characters in the movie are unique individuals, each with their own mental and physical dysfunctions. Despite whatever quirks they have, they react to crisis in ways that any human being off the street might. The scenes that are hilarious are not hilarious because they contain disabled people; they are hilarious because they are studies on human emotion that take unexpected turns.

It seems at times like the characters are acting irrationally or intensely, making it easy to generalize that the movie is making a mockery of the disabled. But what’s important to note is that the three non-disabled characters in the movie act just as irrationally as the disabled ones do. If anything, the movie almost sets out to prove that the playing field is level, and that everyone has a little bit of crazy in them.

Director:
Bård Breien

Producer:
Dag Alveberg

Editor:
Zaklinka Stojevska

Screenwriter:
Bård Breien

Cinematographer:
Gaute Gunnari

Music:
Stein Berge Svendsen

Principal Cast:
Fridtjov Såheim, Kirsti Eline Torhaug, Henrik Mestad, Marian Saastad Ottesen, Kari Simonsen, Per Schaaning, Kjersti Holmen

Language:
Norweigan

They say when you’re hurting the deepest, it helps to drown yourself in the things you love. For some it might be in food and drink; for others, in the love of family and friends. But no post-separation binge has ever borne such interesting fruit as Nina Paley’s animated feature, Sita Sings the Blues. Born from a short animation Paley did while living in India and nurtured by her painful and sudden divorce, Sita is a generally light-hearted retelling of the Ramayana, a well-known myth of the Hindu tradition. Intertwined with the story of Sita’s undying love towards a mythically cold Rama is the rather straight-forward biography of Nina’s own experiences, with her being suddenly and shockingly abandoned by her husband after a long separation. And while the two may seem distant on paper, Paley easily reveals just how similar she and Sita are.

The story is told through a sequential rotation of animation styles, each revealing layers to the Ramayana (at least Paley’s interpretation of it). Animated shadow puppets narrate and provide humorous banter while debating the facts behind the Hindu myth. The Ramayana itself is acted out by characters pulled straight from classic tapestries, like a lush picture book come to life. These segments are typically followed by a charming and stylish musical sequence, an ode to the ups and downs of love set to the classic jazz warble of Annette Hanshaw. All three portions are light hearted and fun, with just the right amount of absurdly modern dialogue and visual puns galore.The last thread the film explores is the story of Nina, her husband Dave, and how they drifted apart. The animation is a jumble of rough scribbles and color splotches, set against visions of San Franscisco, India and New York clipped straight from the papers. Besides some slapstick involving the apartment cat, there’s not much humor associated with these segments, bringing quite the change of pace to the relatively light-hearted film. And while the segments are not embellished with defensive humor or softened with elaborate artistry, it’s the brisk pace of the film that allows these segments to bring weight to the film without dragging into an unpleasant “woe-is-me” tale.

While the film’s visuals may be the star of the show, the dialogue and sound are no slouch, either. The spastic back-and-forth between the three shadow puppets has more natural wit and provides more chuckles than even Ellen Page could hope to muster. While the humorous tangents may be a bit much at times, the script is light enough that it’s allowed these moments of wackiness without dumbing down the film whatsoever.

The musical features are a special treat as well, cleverly synched and astoundingly appropriate for Sita’s sad story. These segments on their own would make compelling viewing (not surprising since the film was sprung from a short film of one of these segments), but added into the mix they bring a new style of whimsy and fun to a film not lacking in either department.

While Sita Sings the Blues may have been born from heartache and pain, the colors and the sounds celebrate the ups and downs of love as well as the fruit our experiences bear. Though audiences may wish for a happy ending for both Sita and Nina, don’t be mistaken. Sita Sings the Blues is the happy ending.

Director/Producer/Editor/Screenwriter:
Nina Paley

Cinematographer:
Reena Shah

Music:
Todd Michaelsen, Masala Dosa, Rohan, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Nik Phelps

Principal Cast:
Featuring the Voices of: Annette Hanshaw, Aseem Chhabra, Manish Acharya, Bhavana Nagulapally, Reena Shah

Language:
English

The boys line up for their morning exercises.

Alone in Four Walls is a beautifully-shot look at youths who spend their time in reformatory facilities for youngsters between the ages up to the age of the fourteen. Husband and wife duo Alexandra Westmeier and Inigo Westmeier have managed to capture the stories of a population largely unknown to the world. Most of the boys in the film are from rural areas of Russia, and most of them are in the reformatory prison due to theft; a couple are murderers and rapists (although the rapists largely declined to participate in the film).

The facility the boys are at is practically a school. They are given hot meals, classes to take, and books to read. For some, the facility is a luxury that offers regular meals and a more stable life; Despite being forced to do occasional chores and missing their families, the boys enjoy comraderie with those their age and have no real worries. There seem to be no huge disciplinary problems, and almost everyone seems more content than discontent.

About eight boys are featured closely in the film, with each of them revealing varying degrees of information about their lives in the prison and prior to the prison. However, the film primarily focuses on Tolya, a good-looking and seemingly very intelligent fourteen year old who was put in the prison at the age of thirteen for murder. His counterpart to the murder, who was sixteen, was given twice the sentence, at an adult facility.

There is no denying that this film is powerful, but there were many things that the film only loosely touched on. As powerful as it was already, it could have been more powerful.

During the Q&A after the film, the audience raised many questions with regards to where the boys were from, how they fared afterwards, what the areas they came like were from, etc. Although the filmmakers did visit the families and neighborhoods of some of the boys, causation was a factor that was largely ignored. It was somewhat implied, but not enough. There were a few statements by boys who said they had to steal to buy clothes or food for themselves, but for the large part, the film left you wondering why those boys were in there in the first place. For those of us who are not as familiar with Russia as the filmmakers are, many questions seemed unanswered (although to a Russian, the answers would surely be obvious).

In some ways, it is hurtful of the film to place so much emphasis on Tolya. Tolya seems to stand out as a logical, peaceful kid, despite his history of murder. The fact that he has a tense relationship with his father who will not return his letters — and who later kicked Tolya out of the house, according to Westmeier — makes it all the more obvious just how little we know about the boys.

The last statistic of the film revealed that 91% of the boys who went to those reformatory facilities would not reform and would later find themselves in adult facilities, where they would face harsher conditions and harsher sentences. This disturbing statistic was yet another reminder that this film gives us a view inside the lives of these boys, but fails to answer why the boys would keep committing crimes, especially when they seem generally well-adjusted.

Director:
Alexandra Westmeier

Producer:
Alexandra Westmeier, Inigo Westmeier

Editor:
Alexandra Westmeier

Screenwriter:
Titus Maderlechner

Cinematographer:
Inigo Westmeier

The soldier from the second clip contemplates suicide!

Collections like Fantastic Parasuicides, which combine three shorts by different directors under one title, always manage to peak my interest. In this case, all of the three shorts explore the idea of “suicide,” and due to my preference for black comedies, I thought this collection would be right up my alley. What I discovered was that only one of the pieces really held my attention; the other two were interesting, but hardly memorable or really even worth watching.

The first piece, by Park SoYeong, explores a girl’s suicide after failing an exam. It’s wacky, off-the-wall, and complete with poorly shot action sequences and sound effects along the lines of what you’d find in Pac Man. All definitely on purpose, and all intolerable if you do not find juvenile, nonsensical humor funny. In my case, I found it slightly amusing, but it definitely kind of turned me off to watching the other two, even though the other two are nothing like this one.The second piece, by Jo ChangHo, is almost dialogue-free and explores one soldier’s hesitations about committing suicide. He rents a hotel room in which to do the deed, but things take a turn for the unexpected. I’m not quite sure what the point to this story is, asides from the fact that there is obviously some kind of parallel between the life of a chicken and the life of the soldier. Definitely slow-moving, and, in retrospect, my least favorite of the three.

The third piece, by Kim SeongHo, is the least amateur offering by a long shot. A 70 year old man has suicidal plans for his birthday when he realizes that no one has remembered his birthday; from there, he stumbles upon a suicidal youngster and saves him. The film ends with not one, but TWO unexpected twists. Beautifully shot and effective in telling a story that the viewer will care about for longer than the duration of the story itself — something that the other two shorts failed to do miserably.

Directors:
Chang-ho Jo, Seong-ho Kim, Soo-yeong Park

Producer:
Stanley Kwak

Screenwriter:
Seong-ho Kim, Soo-yeong Park, Chang-ho Jo

Cinematographer:
Hee-seok Na, Young-min Kim

Music:
Jae-hwan Jeong, Hyeon-suk Choi, Myeong-jong Kim

Principal Cast:
Yeo-reum Han, Tablo, Ga-yeon Kim, Hwi-soon Park, Jae-jin Jeong

Language:
Korean