Past seven days

I caught a few films during the long holiday weekend, what about you?

How Much Does the Trojan Horse Weigh?
Killer Trilogy
Kon-Tiki
Paul
The Princess and the Warrior
Rex the Runt
Sunset Stories
Tonight You're Mine
The Way Way Back
What Maisie Knew
Xmas Without China

CLFF 2013: Route of the Moon

This is a lighter road film/father-son comedy-drama from Panama that I saw at last month's Chicago Latino Film Festival. Tito is a professional bowler but is an albino, so he fears being made fun of.  He is invited to compete in a championship, and really wants to go, but just about this same time his estranged father Cesar in San Jose needs looking after.  Cesar has heart troubles and is a former boxing coach living in the past, believing he can still coach the next big champion.  Being a still active guy, the fact that his son is a champ in a "non-athletic" sport annoys him.  Their personalities also don't match, as Tito is closemouthed and Cesar is large as life. Against doctor's orders, Cesar drives himself and Tito back from San Jose but along the way picks up an attractive young hitchhiker, Yadia, because the bus won't also take her dog (although it runs away shortly after Cesar offers her a ride).  Her presence and perception of the father/son dynamics is what eventually gets Tito to realize that his father needs to be fulfilled as much as he does himself, even if it is in a small way.  As expected in films of this sort, Cesar too learns to appreciate his son’s personality.  Both men can give a little in order that each gets a little.

CLFF 2013: Peru Sabe

More and more I see television productions being entered into film festivals, or even getting some screen time in general theaters.  Most of them are in the documentary vein.

This documentary definitely felt like a television travelogue type show. There were two well known chefs who went around Peru and talked about how cooking is making social change in that country (the film is subtitled Cuisine as an Agent of Social Change), one of whom is the chef of El Bulli (which you might recall has its own documentary about it)—Ferran Adria. The other is Gaston Acurio, “the most famous chef you’ve never heard of” who has 31 restaurants in 12 countries.

CLFF 2013: In the Middle of Heaven

This plot could easily be transported to any country. An office executive Andrea at a design and advertising firm barely sees the janitor Gualberto who works at her building. She is a A-type personality but her boss challenges her to deliver a project much sooner than expected. Although she is only in her thirties, she sees the writing on the wall when he also gives a younger attractive rival the same opportunity, so Andrea needs to work all weekend to deliver. Unfortunately it is her birthday this weekend, and her best friend, who is also her trusted assistant, has to remind her which restaurant her boyfriend is meeting her at. Her friend/assistant encourages her to take some time to celebrate but Andrea angrily responds that she is not dedicated like herself to work on the weekend, and their friendship is tested.

After a bit Andrea feels guilty about breaking her birthday date with her boyfriend, but spills something on her blouse at the office and attempts to wash it before the date. She goes up on the roof of the office building to hang up her blouse to dry, but does not realize that the door that was propped open locks from the inside. Gualberto's colleagues had propped it open so that he could exit, as he was cleaning up for the night in a roof shed. Of course she closes the door in order not to be seen without her blouse.

As expected, once she and Gualberto are trapped on the roof, Andrea throws her weight around, making assumptions about Gualberto's intelligence, class etc. Gualberto good-naturedly takes it all in stride as he's seen these types of personalities before, and actually tries to help the ungrateful Andrea by offering her a soccer team flag as a blanket, or sharing his apple for a meal, or scrounging up an old tortilla to cook on his camp stove, as the night goes on.

There are a couple opportunities to call for help when Andrea's boyfriend comes to look for her, or when they throw a water bottle to a passerby, or when they try to get the attention of someone in the apartment building across the street, but all are unsuccessful. They both talk about their families--Gualberto's daughter whom he tries to instill his love of soccer to, and Andrea's father who tried to do the same to her. They find common ground when Andrea admits to Gualberto that she only pretended to like soccer to spend time with her dad and suggests Gualberto treat his daughter more like a girl than a boy.

Past seven days

Summer movie season has begun!  My first of the summer movies--Star Trek Into Darkness.

Elomea
The Hangover Part III
Private Eye
Star Trek
Star Trek Into Darkness
Stash Sixpack
Take Shelter
This Is The End
When I Walk

CLFF 2013: From Tuesday to Tuesday

From Tuesday to Tuesday, from Argentina, was the first film I saw at the recent Chicago Latino Film Festival.  It's a dark story that takes place over a week, thus the title. The main character is Juan, a worker in a small clothing factory, who also has a night job as a bouncer. Due to his bouncer job, he works out a lot at a gym to bulk up, but the membership fee and the protein shakes are expensive for his budget. His factory co-workers make fun of his workout efforts and belittle him, because he keeps silent and doesn't fight back. Every day he stops at a convenience store to buy a treat for his daughter. His wife saves their money and hopes to have enough to repair the leaking roof of their home, but Juan instead wants to use the money to buy workout equipment to open his own gym.

These details about Juan's life come into play together when one night he witnesses the convenience store lady being attacked, and uses this encounter to his own advantage. As in several of the Latino films I saw, and probably prevalent in those macho cultures, women's rights and identities are not very well respected. Juan blackmails her attacker for money. Although Juan does not actively hurt the convenience store lady and keeps his involvement secret from her, his actions are shockingly unexpected as to the personality we had seen until then--the meek and silent "gentle giant" is suddenly ruthless in order to fulfill his dream of opening a gym.

Past seven days

This was short film week as I caught a few programs where short films were featured.  One, the Midwest Independent Film Festival, a festival that instead of screening programs over one or two weeks, hosts a screening once a month, and scheduled their annual Female Filmmakers night (which I listed on the previous Past seven days).  Several Midwestern female filmmakers offered narrative and documentary short films.

At a weekend-ish event, the Chicago International Film Festival/Cinema Chicago also hosted an annual event, their CineYouth screenings as well as their film challenge over a few days.  These short films are all made by young filmmakers, from as young as nine years old this year, up to age 21 (when they age out of this program).  Youths from around the world are invited to participate and I saw films from as far away as India and Australia, but there was a strong showing from local filmmakers and some from several film schools around the country.  Needless to say there are a bunch of talented kids out there!


Child's Play
CineYouth 2013
Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench
Prometheus
Run If You Can
Save the Date
Up the Down Staircase

CIFF: Volcano

This screening from Iceland at 2011's Chicago International Film Festival was billed as an unconventional "coming of age" story. When referring to coming of age stories, we are used to seeing portrayals of the confusing years of puberty, but in Volcano, the person coming of age is the just-retired Hannes. In small ways we see how Hannes dominates his family and this story is of his realization that he has to mature emotionally as well take responsibility for things that should matter to him, namely the people in his life.  The film was written and directed by Rúnar Rúnarsson.


Hannes is reluctantly giving up his job as a school caretaker, where he relishes his small bits of power. After his retirement party, Hannes briefly considers suicide, but instead takes his retirement to heart. After all, his wife Anna is more than happy to cook his meals and clean his clothes, what more can he desire?   That desire seems to be fishing in his dump of a boat, which springs an awful leak, prompting Hannes to prop it up in the back garden to repair.

But Anna suffers a stroke, leaving her in a comatose, vegetative state. This, coupled with an overheard conversation between their grown children criticizing him, makes Hannes suddenly realize how selfish he has been, and with gusto he aims to take care of his wife's every need, a grand gesture payback for all she has done for him over the years even if she can't appreciate it.  But Hannes finds the job a bigger physical and emotional toll than he can take, and we see him teetering on that fine line of increasing Anna's pain medication to end both their suffering.

Devil's Diary

This is a made for TV Canadian movie. A teen girl plays a prank on her friend at a cemetery, leading to the discovery of an evil object. Ursula, the moody one, finds a blank diary by a gravestone which she believes is something special, although her friend Dominique pooh poohs that idea.

When kids at school pick on Ursula, she writes revenge tales in the diary, which come true. The head of the mean girls, Heather, instigates her entourage to steal the diary, but she finds it empty. It's because another of the entourage, falling under the power of the diary, has kept the real thing for herself and uses it for her own devices.

Meanwhile, Dominique, concerned about the strange change in Ursula's demeanor, consults her local priest. He and another priest realize the Devil's diary is real and tries to get the diary back. Dominique tries to form an intervention for Ursula but it is too late.

Wait Until Spring, Bandini

A typically scripted story of an immigrant Italian family, headed by Joe Mantegna, just prior to the Depression. The film is told mostly from the view of the eldest son, young Arturo.

Bandini (Mantegna) is not taking care of his wife and three boys very well. They're behind in rent and running a tab at the grocery store. Bandini's best bet is betting, in poker games, although he doesn't do very well in that either.

A friend gets him a temporary job fixing the fireplace of a rich widow (Faye Dunaway) and her loneliness compels her to make moves on Bandini and eventually make an offer of marriage, which he refuses out of "honor." But stress in providing for his family brings him back to her. Although he remains faithful, he is tempted by the widow's wealthy lifestyle and beauty.

Meanwhile Bandini's wife (Ornella Muti) is trying to keep the boys in line: Arturo who doesn't take the church confessional seriously, August who has aspirations to become a man of religion and thus often admonishing what is a sin, and the innocent little Frederico.

Things become more stressful when Bandini stays even longer at the widow's, which Arturo, being the eldest,  begins to understand is a problem, but his mother is naively hopeful for his quick return.

Past seven days

It's been busy the last few weekends so I haven't had a lot of time for movies.  This last one was no different.  I did watch a few TV DVDs though, the series Monk starring Tony Shalhoub, and Callan, an old spy series starring a young Edward Woodward.

GF*BF
Midwest Independent Film Festival--Female Filmmakers
The Kings of Summer
The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Past seven days

The Chicago Latino Film Festival ended and it felt like a better and more enjoyable experience than last year.  Although I missed out on one film that was sold out (May Days), my choice of a replacement movie (Did You Score?) was a lighthearted romantic dramedy told from the male perspective that I still enjoyed.

Anima Buenos Aires
Blancanieves
Peru Sabe
Speechless
Student Academy Award Films