PFF35 Day Five: Slow Burn

Films both necessary and sublime

Possible Love. (L to R) Sul Kyung-gu as Ho-seok, Jeon Do-yeon as Mi-ok, Cho Yeo-jeong as Ye-ji, Zo In-sung as Sang-woo of Possible Love. Courtesy of Netflix.

Didn’t quite intend to see these in order of increasing favorability but that’s kind of how it ended up anyways. No clear sign yet that I will be Seeing Everything but I might have to bite the bullet lest I see the entire movie spelled out online.

The Blow (Julien Gaspar-Oliveri): B

A rather fantastic performance and some claustrophic direction surrounding a film that’s rather ordinary when you take a step back from its chokehold. I had gathered it was about some sort of abusive relationship from something I read around Cannes as well as from the synopsis and programmer Trey’s opening, and to be fair the film doesn’t dance around it exactly (in fact, it does eventually come out and say it, which is part of the whole theme of repression etc). Diego Murgia is a truly great physical performance, all tight body language suggesting that of a child and the sort of neediness that hides something much darker. It’s a slow-motion break-down and the inevitable blow-up is itself devastating. Walking out though, I’m not quite sure it really has much new or interesting to say, and I think the dramatic score puts too fine a note on things. It may not be anything groundbreaking but in its own way it does capture the toll abuse takes on a person and how it can be difficult to separate that abuse from love.

A Long Winter (Andrew Haigh): B+

Sure, it may not be the open wound that All Of Us Strangers was. Dareisay, even a bit cold. Haigh’s restraint in this case subverts your expectations in a number of interesting ways – even the repressed queer longing, gently sketched out, declines to take any obvious plot routes and instead becomes another sort of secret released as the winter begins to thaw out. All the performances are quite good; Hechinger and Moss-Bacharach are both enormously compelling to watch and like the rest of the film, they tend to underplay the drama that results in a lot of careful subtext. Admittedly it does get somewhat slow and meandering once the winter itself really settles in since there’s not a whole lot anyone can do, but Haigh remains one of our more underrated visual stylists and that’s really helped by the beautiful Colorado mountains. Not sure if this is a fuller theme but I really dug the clash between the much older house and town and the encroaching 50s technologies; no overt signing but lots of texture.

NAZA (Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor): A-

Not quite what I expected in terms of form. Abraham and Szor utilize archival B-roll and frequent pillow shots (not sure what else to call them) observing Tel Aviv in the night that draws out a lot from the mere sight of, say, a Target logo on a building or the fact that so much of the city resembles a European one. They’ve been open about the content of the film having been published in several places long ago but it does feel different to hear these people actually say it out loud and try to justify so many clear war crimes that your only response is to scoff when they dance around comparing themselves to Nazis. As a film itself it is rather beautiful though the specific form of observing people in their apartments and blurry TVs with the news on it isn’t exactly a new tactic. In a way it’s a strange companion piece to Digger: yes it’s necessary and vital but I can’t help wonder if it will actually move the needle, and whether it serves a purpose after that. It definitely makes me think of my own complicity in the horrors of the world and how I should be doing better, but how is one supposed to do better against what appears to be an entire country parched for blood and a systemic infrastructure dedicated to turning murder into a game and desensitizing everyone? Similarly to No Other Land, I also have qualms with the inclusion of real life bombing footage that shows dead bodies uncensored. Obviously those are on our timeline everyday and it’s real things that people have to see. Do we need to see it though? Is it not enough to see a man wailing in pain, yelling that he told his daughter to watch out for her siblings? Anyone with a single moral fiber will already be outraged by the concept of NAZA (collateral damage) itself. I don’t know that you should be able to pay money to see such pain in a distant location.

Possible Love (Lee Chang-dong): A

Talk about ethics in documentary filmmaking. Lee’s clearly thought a lot about exploitation even in a fictional story and he combines that with a rumination on class and love that – like Burning before – builds up slowly until it all comes bursting out of the surface in an inevitable shock. The film largely belongs to Jeon Do-yeon and Cho Yeo-jeong – the latter doing what feels like a less comic and more self-aware take on her character from Parasite – but the big showstopping scene belongs to Lee veteran Sul Kyung-gu, who spends so much of the film harboring a deep well of sadness that reveals itself to be simmering rage and shame. Through flashbacks and different camera styles, Lee interrogates what it means to make a documentary in total, when everything could be an opportunity to film and you can’t help seeing them as subjects as much as you want to see them as friends. It’s dense in its contrast of class, of hierarchy in speech and and age. It not officially be a Dekalog remake anymore but the opening quote of “Thou shalt not covet” attains power nonetheless. It’s thoroughly enjoyable to listen to the characters speak as it is to observe the careful details and fine-tuned comic moments. I really must watch his other films, let’s hope it doesn’t take almost 10 years for the next one.

PFF35 Day Four: Heavy Hitters

(Mostly) Bangers, (Most of) The Time

So far among the best days I’ve had at the fest, with only one I’m more mixed on. I think by now all my Centerpieces are just about finished except for Closing Night, which feels a tad strange but perhaps appropriate. Schedule will remain fluid based on what I hear from people.

Tender Loving Care (Mike Leigh): A-

Allow me to join the chorus singing the praises of Leigh’s potential last feature. Had expected Kate O’Flynn to be great of course (haven’t been fully aware of her dramatic work, I didn’t recognize her in Widow’s Bay after seeing Happy-Go-Lucky) but hadn’t expected to fall so in love with Alice Bailey Johnson (also a Leigh veteran, from Mr. Turner and Hard Truths). Sometimes a bit blunt but it expands in some really lovely and heartbreaking ways, retaining his core sense of humor; one of the funniest scenes of the year consists of Paul Jesson sitting in a chair reading an Atlas thanks to the editing. Don’t think it’s necessary to have seen Career Girls to pick up on some of the quoting of his past work but it adds just a little spice to proceedings. More than anything it’s just such a joy to hang out with these girls and the parents, they feel so lived in like the best of his work with a hint of darkness hanging around the margins, and ultimately kind of a hopeful, if mournful, final message. A worthy film to end on. Someone please put Kate and Alice in a million more parts together.

Fjord (Cristian Mungiu): C+/B-

It’s Fjine. Not an inherently despicable track to take with this story, apparently based on a real life event from 2016 (which explains the extremely jarring presence of a brand-new PlayStation Vita in one scene). I agree with others that the deck is pretty stacked in favor of the family, even though I still came out feeling like they shouldn’t be doing that to their kids. One thing to dispute on the nature of a “slap” and the language barriers that could make discerning seriousness difficult; another to have a child stand up in class and say homosexuality is a sin (plus having Sebastian Stan leering in the background of his maybe-closeted daughter, as well as a gender identity poster in a school). Maybe it’s unrealistic for that to happen but in my mind it doesn’t really reckon with what type of things we should be tolerating under “religious views”. The fact that both Stan and Renate Reinsve seem to be pretty decent parents all things considered feels like a missed opportunity, given how annoying at best Evangelicals can be, not to mention the ideas swirling around of the far-right using this for their own ends even if they are kind of right. Stuff about the real problems being at home also kind of landed flat for me, just seemed disconnected no matter how many Norwegian flags are in the background. Beautiful landscapes but you’d have to try real hard to make those look ugly. Wouldn’t have given this any award at Cannes, much less the Palme, but I guess court room scenes are the big draw now.

Behemoth! (Tony Gilroy): B+

Didn’t know much about this going in beyond Pedro Pascal as a cellist directed by Tony Gilroy, which is probably the best way to experience it. He talked in the Q+A about the title coming about as a code name for another project and really liking it as well as it being inspired by his life in the biz, and I wouldn’t disagree with those who say it’s a bit messy and all over the place. That element is kind of what made it work for me though: as slippery as the timeline can get, it does feel unique to dive into memories inspired by specific tracks that function as diagetic music, and Gilroy seems to have had as much fun flipping through tones and genres as the numerous composers did riffing on scores. Pascal is good in the main role for the most part but doesn’t particularly stand out to me as owning the screen, but he does have a way with a one liner and he’s very pretty to look at. Olivia Wilde isn’t in it as much as you’d think from her second billing but she plays such a chaotically funny demon that I totally get why she’s there; I actually said “Oh god” when I realized she was coming up in one scene and I honestly could’ve used more of her or at least more backstory. A fascinating oddity and as diplomatic as Gilroy is, it feels like the kind of thing you deserve from Disney after making the only Star Wars piece widely considered “good” by the vast majority in ages. Hope he gets more.

Josephine (Beth de Araújo): A-/A

Brutal and unsparing but remarkable in its sensitivity. Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan have gotten and will receive much praise for their performances (easily the former’s best work) and justly so but don’t let Mason Reeves get lost in the weeds either. It’s the kind of movie that lives and dies on the strength of a child performance and she handles it with such aplomb. Never saw de Araújo’s debut Soft and Quiet though I have been intrigued; her work here is completely assured, making great use of dissolves and transitions as well as the San Francisco fog on a visual level, but she excels at trapping the viewer in Josephine’s state even when she isn’t using a POV camera (it does break once or twice from that, and I’m not sure that was totally needed), often cutting back to her face for key moments. I’ve seen a lot of reviews quibble with the parents for not taking her to therapy in the aftermath and being horrible parents generally but putting aside the fact that there’d likely be no movie (or at least not an interesting one): both genuinely believe they’re doing what’s in the best interest for her, unable to get outside their own feelings on the horrible event. Pynchon has a line in Vineland comparing something difficult to explain as “explaining rape to a child” and this is basically that extended to an entire film, reckoning with how much she should know about both the incident and themselves, while the girl herself struggles with the sudden crushing reality that the world is unsafe and a gender may not be able to be trusted. My praise is tempered a little mainly from some moments that feel a little like “owns” – specifically in the very well-done court scene, which I’m sure has happened before even if it’s a little overboard – and I did wish it ended slightly earlier even though it finds the perfect grace note to land on. A small distributor named Sumerian Pictures has it, and I highly urge anyone interested to check it out. It’s a real reckoning with childhood trauma and the ways parents accidentally hurt their kids, and a major work.

PFF35 Day Three: You Cannes See Everything

Turns out the critics were right.

Just to get this out of the way: I have no idea if I will See Everything in one of these dispatches. It’s rough enough trying to fit in 3 hours, more so when it’s not part of a festival. Hopefully I can avoid spoilers before then. All my social obligations should be taken care of now (with apologies to Half if I don’t get around to it) so I’m also hoping to get in at least one 5 film day before this ends. Sorry for slacking, and thank you to my lovely friends Steven, Jared and Max for their respective parties. La Bola Negra thoughts will be on Letterboxd as soon as Netflix puts it in Philly.

Iron Boy (Louis Clichy): B/B+

Exceedingly lovely. Gorgeous watercolor animation will be the star of the show; I really loved the way character’s facial expressions are drawn and especially the quick-motion gags and tilts (heh) into fantasy. Was surprised to learn that Clichy has mainly been an animator on 3D CGI films before – most notably WALL-E – not so much so to learn he did actually wear a back brace when he was 10 like main character Christophe; it really feels autobiographical but strangely not very specific. It’s not really about disability so much (though it does make you appreciate the ADA a whole lot) and follows a relatively typical coming-of-age path to the story, though I do appreciate only a few period markers that probably stand out more to the French. The voice cast is uniformly excellent though, and the animation really is so beautiful that it’s worth a watch. Easy to see why this won Jury Prize at Un Certain Regard.

Fatherland (Paweł Pawlikowski): B-/B

Dunno if I’ve underrated this one. Handsomely crafted for sure, with a great Sandra Hüller performance as Erika Mann (daughter of famous writer Thomas Mann), and like Cold War, Pawlikowski manages to get in and get out without overstaying his welcome. I found it faintly boring at times, especially in the back half once the Manns go to Eastern Germany, perhaps because I was expecting more tension between father and daughter on the outset (potential title meaning?) There’s some interesting political themes towards the beginning when you realize just how recently the Holocaust has ended; when Erika slaps her ex-husband Gustaf Gründgens, he was literally close friends with Hermann Göring and probably actively contributed to the Nazis. Other talk about the split between communism and capitalism as Germany looks towards a future as well as Thomas Mann’s own centrist position is fertile ground, which somewhat gets disturbed by the suicide of his son Klaus, a thing I somehow forgot was a plot point. I don’t necessarily think it’s a problem of unfamiliarity either with the characters or real life, but the drama and angst never materializes quite enough for me to generate much heat or ardor. Can’t say yet if this is the best Hüller of the year until I see Rose.

All Of A Sudden (Ryusuke Hamaguchi): A

Talk about a relevant title: it even shows up immediately this time! Honestly I was a bit surprised by how much I loved the dynamic between Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto; credit to Hamaguchi as well who somehow managed to make a scene consisting of what amounts to a 15-minute lecture on a whiteboard feel riveting, not to mention the walk-and-talks that don’t call attention to themselves, or the scenes that start out in near total darkness before slowly becoming brighter as the sun rises (which never failed to wow me). I think what makes it work for me is that it feels like genuine conversations about Marxism and inequality, working through what it means to try and work towards a utopian ideal when there’s so much systemic and material pressure pushing down against you from almost all angles. And of course, it winds up incredibly moving when the inevitable terminal cancer finally emerges. Part of you wishes for the impossible to happen and it’s a credit to all that that doesn’t feel like a stupid want so much as a lament. Easily among the best films I’ve seen at fest so far, and sure to be among the year’s finest.

PFF35 Day Two: Highest 2 Lowest

Some of the year’s best and one of the worst.

I had penciled down today as a tentative 5 Film Day, depending on whether I could get to the final screening in time after this one let out. One thing I always forget when scheduling is accounting for bumpers and introductions, not to mention delaying things so people can get seated. That’s always meant a certain degree of fluidity and with the rain today and incoming I wouldn’t be surprised if I call it early again. Luckily it stopped after the last one today because hoo boy.

The Assassin(s) (Hur Jin-ho): B+

JFK if the thesis were not only plausible but maybe what actually happened (along with being way less homophobic). I’ll admit there’s a lot of moving parts going along, and it would’ve helped if I had a better grasp on Korean history, especially in the dictatorship period. Taken as a mixture of Journalism Procedural and Police Procedural, it works like gangbusters. Occasionally blunt and speechifying but it works like gangbusters as entertainment, and you know I love seeing Big Chunky Technology.

Rehersals For A Revolution (Pegah Ahangarani): A-

Kind of film that can really sneak up on you in ways that I don’t think I really want to spoil. Suffice to say I was unprepared for it to get pulled into the present and it’s bracing the way it functions as both a memoir, history of revolutions, and an ongoing portrait of resistence. Ahangarani uses the wear and tear of the archival material to fantastic effect, and the jump in quality serves as the perfect marker for time passing, while her narration is poetic without trying too hard. Perhaps the most surprising companion piece to Digger, in terms of a filmmaker asking themselves why they’re making a film, and the audience why they’re watching it, what is this all for. Answers that question in a really lovely way.

Paper Tiger (James Gray): A-

I suspect Adam Driver is going to get most of the attention and justifiably so (Miles Teller ain’t too bad either). But no one should be sleeping on Scarlett Johansen, who pulls off a piece of physical acting that’s quite astonishing to witness. At times it feels a little like Gray is straining to bridge her story with the main one involving an engineer getting too involved in the particulars of his shady business partners, but in the end it coalesces into a story about family, sacrifice, of knowing when your time is near and what you’re gonna do about it. New York itself features once again, period detail standing out just subtly enough and lending an atmosphere of coming change. Devastating, but maybe one I’ll need to dig in more since I’ve only seen Ad Astra.

Club Kid (Jordan Firstman): D

Went into this one practically cutting open my sternum and pulling out my ribs in order to keep my heart open; the premise had always sounded a bit corny and like many of the extremely online, I found Firstman fairly annoying from time to time. So please trust me when I say that I tried so hard to meet it on its terms and might’ve actually fled the theater had it not 1) been completely sold out and 2) lack the Mike D’Angelo Walk Out ability. I concur with Adam Nayman on finding it reactionary: specifically, I find it reactionary in a way that feels like Firstman throwing his community and possibly his extended friend circle under the bus in a cheap bid for respectability points and Serious Artist credentials. Yes, I might’ve taken issue with some of the plot even if I’d liked it more. It’s not the most sturdy, nor are the characters particularly well drawn or defined. But there’s something rancid in the idea of having a guy who – as far as we know – is a complete Gold Star Gay somehow having sex with a woman that results in a child (if it wasn’t rape). There’s also numerous cheap shots taken throughout, whether it be jokes for the gays or the way the camera frames the club as inherently scary or dangerous due to all the drugs and the sex and whatnot. Somewhere in there I could see a movie in there I’d maybe even love, but I find it rich that someone who talked as much public shit about Heated Rivalry went on to make a movie about 10x more geared towards a straight audience down to barely even showing any explicit sex or nudity except in the most leering terms. Reggie Absolom innocent, Diego Calva innocent, Colleen Camp innocent.

PFF35 Day One: A Slow Start

Easing into things on opening night.

Usually I’ve tried to see two films on opening (at least since Black Dog and September 5) but unfortunately this year, the schedule didn’t quite work out for Never After Dark, which I’ve been quite curious about and should be coming to Shudder eventually. I would’ve seen You Can See Everything if they had a showing today before 4; expect that to come at least some time next week if I find an opening, because otherwise I’m gonna get spoiled. For this one, you’ll get something I saw weeks earlier but is technically still an opening night:

The Only Living Pickpocket In New York (dir. Noah Segan): B

A film I’d heard about from some festival or another but hadn’t much looked into beyond buzz for John Tuturro (who is quite good). The beginning scenes – with their “day in the life” qualities – were quite compelling, so I was a little disappointed when it stopped being so episodic and instead became much more plot based revolving around a typical MacGuffin stolen from the Mafia. Props should be given to Segan – in his second directorial effort after Blood Ties, which I also saw – for not turning this into Uncut Gems, but it never feels substantial enough in either story or theme to really generate ardor (it’s well shot with a nice score, and at least a couple neat editing choices, one near the end). Tuturro is fantastic as you’d expect, and one late breaking scene with him and Tatiana Maslany basically justified the whole affair. Nice enough time, but not really anything revelatory.

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother: A-

Saw this way before the fest but since it’s included in the official lineup – albeit as a pre-screening – I’m throwing it in here along with my director interview for Joysauce. One of the year’s best: stylish, with action scenes that really make you feel the impacts and Mahershala Ali absolutely owning the screen in ways Kevin Feige should be ashamed of. But it’s also one of the few American films that really takes Islam seriously in terms of the belief, and I loved the contrast between Latif’s strict adherenece and Pastor Hwan’s (a wonderful John Cho) anti-porn crusades. Not to mention the fact that the story is basically just a guy trying to find milk for his infant daughter and forced to deal with a bunch of bullshit that doesn’t concern him, that’s always fun. I have a feeling Amazon’s bungled this release yet again, so I highly recommend getting to it in theaters now, and again when it inevitably comes to Prime streaming. I would totally watch it again without five watermarks on my laptop.

PFF34 Day 10 and 11: End of the road

Should we even do a list this year???

As mentioned previously, because of a hectic schedule and less films than expected on the final day, I’m just going to combine both days into one and end with a summary.

Silent Friend (Ildikó Enyedi): B

If ever there was a vibes movie, this one’s it. Most of the time I enjoyed the imagery; it gets real interesting somewhere around the second act with the student in the 70s taking care of the houseplant that may be able to communicate with some sort of language. The rest of the stories have different resonances (the Turn-Of-The-Century one most prominently) and there’s the connecting thread of the tree and history, but Enyedi keeps it thematically loose for the most part. So deliberate I started to get restless during it, and while I see it reaching for grand emotion, I don’t think it gets there.

The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonça Filho): B+

Probably should’ve expected something from the director of Bacarau to get wild. Filho shows great creativity in the sequences involving the leg but the meaning of it as it relates to the story feels way more elusive unless it’s something that actually happened around the same time (he keeps panning to a portrait in some scenes, which I assume is the current ruler of Brazil). Wagner Moura does an excellent job, and there’s some resonance with our current times; I do think it could’ve done a slightly better job at situating it in context given the overall complexity of the story.

Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie (Matt Johnson): A-

Had meant to watch at least some of the webshow before going into this and now having seen it, I think going in blind was the best possible choice. Seeing it with an enthusiastic crowd most definitely helped – the energy was truly electric – though Johnson and McCarroll don’t lean too much on running gags and if they do, they’re easy to pick up on. Lots of laughs to be had from the truly outrageous “How the fuck did they do that?” stunts to stupid background gags to the perfect use of a passerby. Made me want to check out the show in earnest, and it’s probably the best thing the Canadian government has spent money on in the last few years.

Primate (Johannes Roberts): B/B+

You know exactly the reason why you’re going into this movie, and so do the filmmakers luckily. Roberts slices basically everything extraneous down to the bone, which on one hand means it gets to the goods pretty fast. On the other, that means there’s barely any actual character development or much of a plot but honestly, who needs either of those things? It’s a good slasher flick with all the right tensions and some very good monkey VFX to be a fun time, not to mention some truly gnarly gore. When the biggest complaint is that it’s lit too dark, I guess you aren’t doing too bad.

The Plague (Charlie Polinger): A

About an hour and a half of detailing why 12-13 year old boys are some of the most evil sociopaths on this planet and doing it with sharp direction. Body horror elements are overstated to the point where it might’ve been better to lose them entirely, but then again the scariest part is really the arbitrary nature of childish cruelty. Everett Blunck is fantastic as a realistically awkward pre-teen while Kayo Martin is a demon sent from hell; you know exactly who this kid is, you have met him. Polinger films beautifully eerie underwater footage, often cutting off the heads of the subjects to leave just dangling torsos, and he ends it with a startling abstract image. For all that might be familiar about it, I don’t know another film that gets how unintentionally useless adults can be in bullying situations and how that peer pressure extends until you can’t even recognize yourself anymore. Difficult to shake; could give you flashbacks.

Dead Man’s Wire (Gus Van Sant): C+

Spent the entire runtime thinking that Bill Skarsgard looked distractingly like Michael Shannon and I have no idea if that was part of his acting choices or just a result of it being the 70s despite him not looking like the guy at all). In any case, reasonably compelling even if he’s the most annoying man alive; it doesn’t help that Van Sant layers in references to Dog Day Afternoon, a far better film in basically every aspect. Never really bought into the attempt at sympathy through an Evil Bank, which is perhaps among the biggest failings. Any movie that features My’hala this prominently – and thus reminds one that Industry will be coming back – can’t be wholly negative; she’s a great reporter.

Is This Thing On? (Bradley Cooper): B

Braced for cringe faildad, ended up with a kind of nice romantic comedy. Much better direction than writing, though apparently it’s based on a real story so some of the events can’t be blamed. Arnett isn’t too bad as a standup – and it also gives him a Bojack reunion with Amy Sedaris. Not really much going on but not entirely unpleasant. I should really check out A Star Is Born one of these days.

Sentimental Value: A-

Immensely moving, knotty family drama. Attention will deservingly be on the trio of Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgard, and Elle Fanning but I want to bring attention to Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as Agnes, not the most central character but in a way the more difficult role having to reconcile the more difficult feelings. Main reservation is what purpose the flashbacks – though affecting – serve in relation to the story of the film. They seem to be narrated by the same actor as in The Worst Person In The World but they’re so infrequent they come across as a little jarring. I’m sure I’ll be able to parse that connection when I haven’t spent 11 days straight watching movies.

And so we’ve finally come to the end. Including Lesbian Space Princess (which I didn’t actually see at the festival), I watched a total of 40 films. Had I been able to get into Hamnet I might not have gotten that much. Would I advise doing that? Not really, unless you have an exorbitant amount of free time and/or can take off the time to do so. I at least have the benefit of not being jet-lagged or expected to crank out words, which has been helpful in avoiding regret on takes. Overall, the slate this year was mostly highs; nothing really disappointed me, nothing made me want to sprint for the exit, and there weren’t any huge disasters. At most I would only criticize NEON for holding back on several high profile screenings, which just isn’t very good for anybody and in general leads to a shitshow. All I know is making a year-end list is going to be absolute murder, and because I’m going to be submitting ballots this year, I’m not doing an actual writeup. However, you can go check out the full list of everything I saw here. I will do my best not to change it too much but know that I make no promises. Till next time, ie whenever I have a take I can’t pitch anywhere or something extremely dumb.

PFF34 Day 9: Testify

Not quite a full day.

Decided against doing a full day, since I missed Kika due to a couple running over, and I wanted to transcribe an interview so I could condense and file next week. Don’t anticipate any of those issues today. Apologies on this one coming out late, just had too much going on.

Songs of Forgotten Trees (Anuparna Roy): B/B+
Deserving winner of the Orizzonti directing prize, even though thinking back on it I don’t know that it really contains that much in it. Thought for a while it was trending in a love story direction, and while the vibes are there it’s more an enigmatic friendship. Roy doesn’t dive into how these two women met or how long they’ve known each other, and the whole recurring bit with the trees and forgetting is poetic, but seems to lack something. Another pretty good debut that deserves at least a few more eyes.

*Keep Quiet and Forgive*. Credit: PBS Films

Keep Quiet and Forgive (Sarah McClure): C+/B-

Powerful stories, functionally directed. The focus seems mainly to be on Lizzie’s book and Voices Of Hope but there’s a surface level examination of both. If you’ve read the ProPublica and other stories on sexual abuse within Amish communities, you basically know the gist here and while there is value in hearing their words straight from them, McClure doesn’t really offer much else other than reiterating the systemic nature of the abuse as well as tying it into similar Mennonite cases. A full history on both sects would probably be unnecessary but you won’t really get much info out of them. Decent as a piece of journalism, some questions about when it was filmed notwithstanding and it does contain some very disturbing moments (like the drawing). Good intentions only take you so far.

*The Testament of Ann Lee*. Credit: Fox Searchlight

The Testament of Ann Lee (Mona Fastvold): A-

Ecstatic and feverish but oh so earnest. Ann’s faith is never much in doubt – which is somewhat refreshing – and Seyfried’s truly magnificent performance shows why people would choose to live in celibacy to follow this sort of odd Mancunian woman. Reports of it being a musical might be slightly oversold, though there are a few song sequences that appear to be separate from others; one of Fastvold’s best choices is to have all the songs be diegetic, so the sailors on the boat yell at them to shut up while they’re trying to worship. Those worship sequences are absolutely mesmerizing in their coordination, the rise and fall of the music with its occasional pieces of anachronism (an electric guitar coming in right as an eclipse fills). Of course it’s not as reachingly thematic as The Brutalist but in some way, there’s a tighter emotional core in the story of a woman who wants to do her best for God; it might be a little too hagiographic of her as well, though I don’t recall the Shakers ever having some of the worst bits of American Cults, but the whole modesty part of it can raise a few eyebrows. Moment I knew it was something special was “I Am Running, I Am Mad”.

Man Finds Tape (Paul Gandersman and Peter S. Hall): B+

Rating’s a little lower than expected but being completely honest, I cannot justify putting it in the same tier as Noroi: The Curse or even my beloved Red Rooms. Which isn’t to say it’s shallow so much as shifts focus slightly in a way that lets some things fall by the wayside, and while it’s gripping, I wouldn’t exactly call it scary (save for a couple of moments towards the end). Really dug the faux doc aesthetic, especially as someone who enjoys watching Nexpo vids on creepypasta; Gandersman and Hall deeply understand those communities and the way things spiral out of control not only in “real life”, but also eventually in the story itself. Not a movie that ends up explaining much, which might all be for the better. In any case, though it might not have been about snuff as I’d expected, it swerves in interesting ways to scratch that horror itch for me.

Tomorrow: Combining Saturday and Sunday into one because I can feel myself slowing down, and this is already behind.

PFF34 Day 8: Is This All There Is?

A grabbag before the rush.

Going to try to keep these short going forward, since I’m anticipating a full weekend of 5 movie days. At some point I’ll also go back and fix some of the formatting and captions as well.

Wild Foxes (Valéry Carnoy): B-/B
Fairly standard coming-of-age with a dash of boxing for that extra “punch”, if you will. Carnoy freshens it by making Camille (Samuel Kircher) already the best in his class, outgoing and gregarious up until a bad fall sets him back. Couldn’t quite figure out the connection between the plural of the title and whether the foxes – which Camille feeds and ends up kickstarting the plot – relate as a whole to the testosterone fueled teenage antics of his friends. I admit to also finding it a tad bit frustrating with regards to the treatment of the character’s fear and especially how it impacts his friend Matteo (Faycal Anaflous), which isn’t even beginning to get into racial or class disparities. Dunno whether his ornamental girlfriend’s interests figure in at all, though it seems for a minute he might switch sports. Calling it inspirational is a stretch but in the end it fulfills the requirements of its genre.

Nuestra Tierra (Lucretia Martel): B/B+

If you want an indication of how much I’ve slacked when it’s come to Venice and sundry coverage this year, I didn’t realize this was a documentary until looking up bits on Letterboxd before the screening. I’ve only seen The Headless Woman (Zama is forever on the list) so I’m not particularly equipped to say whether this fits into Martel’s overarching style or interests. What I can say is it features some rather cool usage of drones, including one shot where a bird flies into it and sends it tumbling to the earth, perhaps in synergy with the falling camera from the video detailing the shooting of Javier Chocobar. He was the leader of the Chuschagasta, an indigenous Argentinian community that had existed for centuries before they were brought into conflict with a mining operation. More than a little connection to last year’s No Other Land though obviously there’s less footage to comb through and less immediacy, since this was a settled court case. Martel largely gives voice to the Chuschagastas, showing their archival photos, playing their stories and forming the fabric of a community still trying to get recognized by a country overwhelmingly influenced by Europe. At times I could feel my attention drift a bit which isn’t necessarily its fault, though it does seem to detour a bit from the case itself in trying to sculpt a history. When it focuses, it’s incredibly damning, but often times beautiful and vibrant; as much as the history of violence is important, so is the history of the people themselves.

It Ends (Alexander Ullom): B+/A-

Come for the horror inflected logline about four friends trapped in a loop of Florida highway; stay for the gradual shift to existentialist drama. Spent a bit of the opening wondering if the dialogue was going to try to hard to be current, eventually relaxed into it as Ullom establishes a rhythm and a routine of driving, stopping, exploring, then getting back in. All four actors are uniformly excellent, establishing who they are and what they mean to each other within a few scenes and always coming across as realistic youths. Ullom also makes a smart choice to remove all of the survival barriers including the need to sleep, meaning that the conflict turns increasingly philosophical as the foursome debate whether they’re dead and if there’s any meaning in their situation. It’s not the most controlled script – though Ullom shows a deft hand at editing – but it’s never tedious. You could easily view it as a metaphor for life, bolstered by the hopeful ending. For all that it feels targeted to GenZ, it’s pretty cross-generational and maybe even eternal. At the very least it’s a trumph of low-budget filmmaking, reminding me the most of James Ward Bykirt’s Coherence without the sci-fi thrills.

Train Dreams (Clint Bentley): B

Perfectly fine, occasionally moving. Joel Edgerton’s reserved yet warm, nailing the emotional scenes as required and doing a pretty good job of it. I think part of the problem for me is the amount of voiceover narration; that probably would’ve told me it’s an adaptation even if I hadn’t gone in knowing and really it just made me want to read the book. At its best when it’s focusing on the relationship between Robert and Gladis (he has great chemistry with Felicity Jones), could’ve used at least a tad more focus on the experience of immigrants given how much it haunts the movie. Confirmed from a couple review scans that it does, indeed, feel Malickean what with all the nature shots and the sunsets and the love. Of course the camera is largely static and as much as I’ve felt bored by Malick, he does have the capacity to stun. Perhaps I’m being a little too hard on it. Not Oscar Bait by any means and all the parts are there, it just never quite gets to transcendence. I almost wish I’d gone to Reflections In A Dead Diamond.

Tomorrow: Attempting the first of a few full days, including Amanda Seyfried’s Christian Musical and a movie that might be about snuff.

PFF 34 Day 7: The Nature Of Truth

Except for one, I suppose

Not too bad of a day. Found yet another late-breaking surprise; I guess I haven’t been too stingy with the high grades.

Christy (Brendan Canty): B

AKA: Christy (Ireland), as presented in the guide to distinguish it from the Sydney Sweeney Christy (US). Similar in some ways to Urchin in that they’re both slice-of-life portraits of a downtrodden man in the British Isles, though despite Canty’s direction not being quite as showy as Dickinson’s I think I kind of liked this a little more. Spent a good portion wondering if it was going to spring some sort of twist regarding either the title character, his half-brother Shane, or both; dunno if it’s better that it declines to do so and it might be that I misunderstood an earlier Instagram video not as a Pedo Hunter one but of a fight Christy was in. The best scenes come courtesy of Jamie Ford’s Robot, so named because he’s in a wheelchair. He’s just a ton of fun to listen to as he banters back and forth, I could’ve watched an entire movie centered around him. Really as a whole it shines when it’s just hanging with Christy and the people of the Council he finds himself with, not so much when it’s leaning into typical social issue patterns. Thoroughly pleasant watch with lots of beautiful boys.

Growing Down (Bálint Dániel Sós): B+
Bit shocked I hadn’t heard more about this before now, although a quick Wikipedia check shows me it was in the Perspectives section at Berlin (for feature debuts). Grabbed me practically from the beginning, with its overwhelming sound over the title card before a quick cut to a camera sailing into a car window. Sós demonstrates a pretty stellar grasp of technique, from the precise edits to the stark black-and-white cinematography, not to mention distance. He and screenwriter Gergő V. Nagy craft a rather knotty ethical dilemma: widower Sándor (Szabolcs Hajdu) – at a critical moment in his relationship with his girlfriend and fellow single parent Klára (Anna Háy) – witnesses a potentially life-threatening accident involving his son Dénes (Ágoston Sáfrány) and her daughter Sári (Zonga Jakab-Aponyi) and in a split second choice, decides to lie for his son. It’s austere and tense as several relationships, not to mention a human life, threaten to completely crumble under the weight of parental love and/or selfishness… and then Sós occaisionally throws a lifeline, like a scene – shot from afar – involving a birthday gift that in lesser hands could be derail the whole thing but instead comes off as a facet of life that keeps going on even in the face of complete tragedy. The kind of utterly singular and controlled vision you want from a debut, and simply beautiful to look at too.

Blue Film (Elliott Tuttle): A

Yet another singular debut, this one even more spectacular and quite possibly the best thing I’ve seen at the fest. All I knew going in was it involved a camboy, Aaron Eagle(Kieron Moore), hired for the night by a mysterious stranger Hank (Reed Birney); what I only got hints of from my friend – hi Zoe – was that sexual abuse was involved but still, I don’t think anything could’ve prepared me for how gripping and unsettling this would be. Tuttle has crafted a two-hander (always at risk of being too stagey) interrogating the nature of desire and the reasons why people turn out how they do. In a way, it’s a good pairing with Springfest entry Predators, another film asking why someone would do such a heinous thing. Moore and Birney are simply astonishing together, the former alternating between the highly guarded Straight Masc Dom persona and the latter layering on a regretful older mentor. Like a lot of my favorites, the two play around with the idea of performing and truer personality, captured especially in a deeply uncomfortable yet strangely erotic scene involving age-play, shot in the kind of consumer grade video that resembles a porno you’d find on some tube site (I wish I’d written down some of the comments from the livestream that opens the film, both it and Moore’s dialogue are perfect encapsulations). Both the producer at the Q&A and the introduction stressed that it will be controversial; it’s circling distribution but had trouble even finding a festival that would accept it. That’s entirely understandable given the way it extends Birney’s character understanding. But that’s not the same as excusing, and the constant back-and-forth is where the film derives the most power. It’s perhaps the most honest film I’ve seen about taboo, kink, and responsibility, one that might be a difficult sit but is the kind of thing queer filmmakers should be getting full support for.

Sham (Takeshi Miike): B-/B

For all that Miike’s prolificacy is harped upon, rarely do we ever get to see that range beyond the outre and the most violent or wacky. After all, when you’ve directed over 100 films across genres and demographics you’re gonna have to be able to adjust to fit the material. Sham might be Miike’s most restrained film but for those who associate restraint with something like Audition are probably going to be disappointed. Not so much because of the lack of violence or whatnot, but more that this ripped-from-the-headlines story chooses the wrong track to focus on, at least at first. That opening features some of the Miike we know, as middle school teacher Yabushita (Go Ayano) goes off on a highly xenophobic rant about mixed-race Japanese to Ritsuko Himuro (Ko Shibasaki), then proceeds to subject her son Takuto (Kira Miura) to such an extreme regiment of bullying it’s almost impossible to believe. Which is kind of the rub, as from what I can tell; screenwriters Hayashi Mori and Masumi Fukuda (who wrote a book about the case) fashion something like a Rashomon story and in Miike’s hands, it’s suitably gripping and well acted, but the actual case seems to be far more definitive then you would think. Although its tempting to compare it to Hirokazu Kore-Eda’s Monster – what with the bullying and the split narratives that circle back – at its heart it’s much more similar to Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt. Had it just been a courtroom drama and a film about a wrongly accused teacher or even just about bullying, it could’ve been stellar. Unfortunately, despite the 2-hour runtime it never digs into the circumstances around the case, like the media frenzy (now there’s an interesting one, a film about an alleged bully being himself bullied by the media) or the histories of the parents, or even the Japanese school system. None of this might bother you in the moment while watching – except when questions arise that could be related to Japanese legal proceedings or the like. I wouldn’t go as far as to call it a Lifetime/TV Movie – it’s a little too well constructed for that. If anything it’s proof that we’ve been sorely deprived of Miike’s true skill and range but still we get some stuff like a great title drop.

Tomorrow: I look for things to fill in my schedule.

PFF34 Day 6: Investigations

More than halfway there.

With The Mastermind today, I’ve basically seen all of my most high profile choices (only Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent are left). So far haven’t really had much in the way of disappointment or misses barring Hamnet and Sirât so hopefully those come around sooner rather than later. Here on out it’s all new to me.

The Good Sister (Sarah Miro Fischer): C-

Inert MeToo drama that barely gets to what it even promises. I was intrigued by the idea of having to reckon with your own sibling committing an act of sexual violence, but there’s no indication that lead character Rose even understands why she’s being called to testify and barely seems to struggle with it at all. The movie itself struggles to provide any sort of drama or intrigue, merely gesturing to themes without really doing a whole lot beyond that. Couldn’t bring myself to work up all that much ire; more on the side of failure but not anything to really be bothered about.

Hysteria (Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay): B

Now here’s something with a thorny dilemma. Grabbed me from the starting premise, in which assistant director Elif – amidst an incident involving a burned Qu’ran on the set of a historical film – loses the keys to a producer’s apartment she’s staying at, and subsequently the tapes she was responsible for. Büyükatalay uses the burning as a jumping off point to ask questions about artistic integrity and representation, early on featuring a character noting how Europeans tend to make films about racism in their countries to absolve themselves. It’s self-aware enough to see that Elif has a lot less to lose than the extras accused of theft and while the two threads don’t always feel cohesive, they come together in a confrontation scene that gives a great jolt. Not quite sold on the ending but I appreciate the swings it takes without fully biting the hand.

The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt): A-

Talk about someone who knows how to end a film. I really have not kept up with Reichardt as I should, though given the rumblings about Showing Up I know she’s capable of being quite funny. Screen Unseen Attempt The Mastermind is indeed quite funny for much of its run time; the centerpiece art theft (calling it a “heist” feels like giving it too much credit) got a big laugh from me out of one line as did the prep and the aftermath. Reichardt’s editing is sublime, swift and lean, very pleasing on the jump cuts but lingering just as long as it should. Josh O’Connor remains magnetically watchable, enormously charismatic in the beginning but still with that deep well of sadness that only grows as his competence and arrogance dims. Like his performance in La Chimera (a movie I must revisit), he’s skilled at revealing the depths of a silence and simply staring. The political thread running throughout the background is part of what makes the ending so good, and I really dug the jazzy score from Rob Mazurek. I perhaps blanked out only a couple times (late in the day and all) and I do wish Alana Haim was afforded more to work with. As funny as it all is, it never loses sight of the depths of O’Connor’s failures as a father, a husband, and all around person.

Resurrection (Bi Gan): B+

Must a film be coherent, thematically or narratively? Is it not enough to watch 6 discrete, lusciously filmed mini-movies about the senses as well as Chinese cinema history? Yes, actually. It’s been almost a decade since I’ve seen Long Day’s Journey Into Night and this is definitely a film from the director behind that. The whole thread about “deliriants” and “other ones” and “dreaming” barely felt like a thread, to be honest, or even a frame story. Not that I particularly minded as somewhere within the second story I started treating it more like an anthology of metaphor and just kind of rocked with the mini stories happening. Occasionally dull and not all that emotionally involving, but every so often Gan provides the razzle and dazzle, and that can be enough for the vibes.

Tomorrow: Some under-the-radar picks, and I check in with what Takeshi Miike is doing.