Globes and Games

The Walker Art Center kicks off their Global Lens film series today, which will run through May 18th. The series is an annual touring festival supported by the Global Film Initiative. From the Walker's website:

"Recognizing that few Americans have the means or the will to travel outside the U.S.—especially beyond Europe—Susan Weeks Coulter has created a funding program that provides ways for Americans to experience other cultures—through cinema. Now in its fifth year, the Global Film Initiative supports filmmakers from developing nations..." (my emphasis)

Yeah, so this program is essentially tailor-made to my passions in life. I'm a little stretched just coming out of the MSPIFF last weekend, but I'll definitely do my best to check some of these out, and continue to champion the Global Film Initiative at every opportunity.

__________________________________________________________

Matt (MNRaul) has set up a fantasy movie league. Yes, we've gone from football to baseball to box office. I've never done this before and I'm not really sure what the best strategy is, but come along and try it with us! You choose 8 movies that will be released from May2 - July 28. If your movies do well at the box office, you do well in the game. You have to choose them carefully, though, as you have a limited budget. What are the sleepers? What are the certain blockbusters?

Since this is the first season, we'll take it easy. Maybe I'll come up with a prize by the end of it. Registration closes on May 20, just in time for Indy IV.

Sign up now, anybody! It takes two seconds, and it's free. Click here to register. Then find out private league. We're playing "Box Office Moguls" and the league name is Getafilm. The password is "hoon". Then you give your studio a name and pick your movies. Let me know if you have trouble. Let's see who's ready to be a producer!

__________________________________________________________

Jeff Sauer pointed me to a really interesting post from a blog called Strange Maps. Yesterday they analyzed a Volkswagen ad that shows three world maps, cartograms in fact, distorted "in relation to the average budget per feature film, the number of films produced per capita and the total number of films produced per country." Check it out here.

New Zealand boasts the highest average budget per feature film, Iceland produces more films per capita than any other country, and maybe not so surprisingly, the U.S. produces more films overall than anybody else. Those are cool facts, but what I find most interesting is the analysis they provide of what we don't see. Great idea, VW, but I'm not sure if it works as an ad. I'm still a Toyota loyalist.

On the Horizon: Encounters at the End of the World

THINKFilm and Discovery Films present Encounters at the End of the World, a new documentary by acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog (Rescue Dawn, Grizzly Man).

Ever been to Antarctica? Me neither, believe it or not. I'd say we both have about the same chance of going to the moon as we do getting down to South Pole. Fortunately, people like Werner Herzog bring it to us with films like Encounters at the End of the World, a bizarre look at a bizarre place and the bizarre people and animals who inhabit it. No, not Eskimos - you're in the wrong hemisphere (and they're not bizarre). I'm talking about about a place where the sun's in the sky for five months. Straight. Where people on the fringes of society conduct science experiments that we'll never understand. Where the creatures from your nightmares live.

Werner Herzog shows us this world with equal parts humor and affection, both of which are accidental to his always funny monotone narration. The people he interviews are primarily scientists: scuba diving cell biologists, death-defying volcanologists, and a guy studying neutrinos with a massive helium balloon, just to name a few.

If listening to brainiacs talk about how much they love the end of the world doesn't do it for you, consider checking it out for the scenery. The deep sea is one of my greatest fears, and though this was fully reinforced by the film, there is one majestic tracking sequence underwater that I found incredibly beautiful. It was literally otherworldly, and it left me slack-jawed.


There's currently no trailer for Encounters at the End of the World, but I'll amend the post if and when one materializes. In the meantime you can check out the misleading stills on the official website. None of them show the many people we meet, nor do we really get sense that the film is actually about anything. But it is. It's about the end of the world, and there's no place like it.

Make the journey if you're so moved, and find my full review when Encounters at the End of the World opens on June 11th.

UPDATE (6/4/08): Trailer is up, check it out at The Documentary Blog.

REVIEW: The Visitor (A-)

Background: Actor Tom McCarthy's first film as a writer and director, The Station Agent, was a critical darling in 2003 and truly one of the most original American films to come along in the last 10 years. His second film, The Visitor, explores more conventional terrain albeit with mostly unfamiliar faces. You know Richard Jenkins as "that guy" from maybe 20 movies over the last two decades, and he was most recently in The Kingdom. Co-starring are Hiam Abbass (The Nativity Story, Munich) and relative newcomers Haaz Sleiman and Danai Jekesai Gurira. A piece of trivia: McCarthy developed the theme for The Visitor when he was presenting The Station Agent on a cultural exchange program in Beirut.

Synopsis : Walter Vale (Jenkins) is a widowed economics professor at a community college in Connecticut who finds joy in little in his life besides a glass of Cabernet. Tired of his teaching duties and stuck in a creative rut, he can hardly even motivate himself to go through the motions of his job, let alone actually do any work. When he's sent to present a paper at a conference at NYU, he's given a new lease on life. Upon discovering an undocumented immigrant couple living in his vacant NYC apartment, he finds himself oddly attached to them. Tarek (Sleiman), a Syrian, plays the djembe at local jazz clubs. His Senegalese girlfriend, Zainab (Gurira), makes and sells jewelry at an outdoor market. Walter is sympathetic to their plight and becomes somewhat of a father figure to them over the next 10 days. He watches Tarik play the djembe with equal parts envy and childlike awe; the drumming releases some innate emotion that he can't otherwise express, and he's soon drumming with Tarik at every opportunity. You can sense the third act of the film coming, but it's not simply Tarik's mistaken arrest and detainment. His mother, Mouna (Abbass), soon arrives from Michigan, vowing to remain there until he is released, despite the fact that neither she nor Zainab can visit him due to their legal status. Walter, in the meantime, has found his life's new calling in the mission to free Tarik before he is deported. His motive to help is genuine, but it's no doubt aided by his budding romance with Mouna. There aren't a lot of places the story can go from here, so I'll stop...

I Loved:
+ The drumming. As a former percussionist myself, I couldn't help my legs from going along with it.
+ Richard Jenkins, who almost certainly has his breakthrough performance here - 30 years into his career.

I Liked:
+ Danai Jekesai Gurira, who brought the film to another level with her excellent performance as Zainab. I am going insane trying to place her from another movie, but this is her first film credit. Maybe I actually know her? She graduated from Macalester College here in St. Paul. It's really early, but if her name came up in the Oscar buzz at year's end, it wouldn't bother me.
+ The somewhat abrupt ending. Initially I was irritated, but I soon accepted the fact that sometimes life just happens that way.

I Disliked:
- Tarek. He was a likable guy, but almost too much so. I wouldn't go so far as to call it manipulative on McCarthy's part, but it's pretty easy to elicit sympathy for a character who's perfect in every imaginable way.

I Hated:
- Nothing.

Grade:
Writing - 9
Acting - 10
Production - 8
Emotional Impact - 9
Music - 5
Significance - 5

Total: 46/50 = 92% = A-

Last Word: With only two films to his credit as a writer/director, Tom McCarthy has demonstrated an incredible ability to put square pegs into round holes. His characters are completely mismatched, but he creates incredibly intimate connections between them. While The Visitor doesn't necessarily achieve the grand vision McCarthy may have had for it as a referendum on America's treatment of immigrants, it still works splendidly as a glimpse into one man's rediscovery of his life. Richard Jenkins delivers a painfully honest performance, and early calls for an Oscar nomination are justified. His Walter Vale carries so much emotion that a simple smile appears to unload years of grief, yet Jenkins never exaggerates (like Haaz Sleiman) or missteps, which is vital since the film almost entirely depends on him. The film lags just a bit after Tarek's detainment, but the arrival of Mouna - while not seeming entirely natural - adds a romantic, comforting aspect to what would otherwise be a really depressing story. I think I prefer the quirks and the characters of The Station Agent, but I admire Tom McCarthy's ambition with The Visitor and I'm confident in calling him, at only 39 years old, one of the most promising American filmmakers of his generation.

Recap: 26th Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival

The 26th Annual Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival wrapped on Saturday night, a full 17 days after opening with Tom McCarthy's The Visitor. All things considered (including the fact that I missed the first five days of the festival), I would say the 2008 fest was a smashing success. We didn't have the films or the stars of Toronto, Cannes, or Sundance, but we had some special moments (where else would Pond Hockey have three screenings, let alone sell all of them out to standing room?). Check out the photos of the festival VIPs - great backdrop from St. Anthony Main, isn't it? Anyway, here's my breakdown:

LOWLIGHTS:

• Missing the first five days, which included screenings of The Visitor, Young @ Heart, Son of Rambow, Tuya's Marriage, Momma's Man, and At the Death House Door.
• Tickets were $10. I can't really complain since I mostly used my volunteer passes, but anyone could have regretted that expense on some of the bad films, especially the short ones.
• Managing ridiculous people in lines.
  
• Some promising movies that didn't live up to my expectations: Black Coffee, Jar City, and the worst movie I saw, Big Dreams, Little Tokyo.
• Festival Director Al Milgrom's introduction of the closing night event at Block E, which he at one point called a "farewell address." Throughout the festival, I heard nothing to refute the rumors that the Oak St. Cinema will close permanently in September. What will happen to Minnesota Film Arts? Who knows.
  

HIGHLIGHTS:

• A handful of terrific films. In the order that I saw them: OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, Dry Season, The Edge of Heaven, The Grocer's Son, American Teen, Up the Yangtze, and Encounters at the End of the World.
• Free or $0.50 parking at the St. Anthony Ramp.
• The secret screening, which ended up being The Wackness. I didn't even see it that night because I was upstairs working, but it was totally sold out and is a great idea for future festivals.
  
• The Q & A session with Nanette Burnstein, director of American Teen.
• The staff at St. Anthony Main, who were pretty friendly and fast during the huge rushes.
• My lesson in the science of projection from Bill Walker, one of the tireless festival projectionists. While the movies were playing during my volunteer shifts he explained to me the history of 35mm film and showed me how the old school set-up works. I'll probably never see movies in the theater in the same way again. It was like Cinema Paradiso, except I'm not a little boy and the theater isn't nearly as cool as the Paradiso.
• The Closing Night screening at Block E, followed by a free private party at Seven across the street. Great to see a movie like Encounters at the End of the World on a massive screen, and the food was pretty decent later on as well.
• "Meet Me at the Matinee" - the infamous film festival trailer that most people loathed. Sure it was absolutely and in every way bizarre, but after a few viewings I ended up liking it, and by the end - loving it. Now we'll never see it again. It was a moment in time that I'm already nostalgic for.
• The many travels I had, from Iceland to Chad to Turkey to Indiana to France to Morocco to Germany to The Netherlands to China to Costa Rica to Ethiopia to Antarctica. A new global outlook in 2008. Nice.
  

And maybe the biggest highlight? Being among my own people. Seeing the same freaks day after day who, like me, consider it worthwhile to spend 17 straight days in a movie theater, often for hours on end. Of course I didn't actually do that, but it was encouraging in a really weird way to see people who did.

300 Words About: Iron Man

I wasn't one of the people in the theater shrieking and hugging my friends after the post-closing credits teaser following Iron Man, which is important to mention because I think it explains why was I fairly underwhelmed by the film. As a (disconcertingly early) start to the summer movie season, it was perfectly adequate. As a significant milestone in the comeback of future Oscar-winner Robert Downey, Jr. (next in The Incredible Hulk and Tropic Thunder), it was very necessary. But as a memorable movie that fully grabbed my senses and left me gasping for breath, it...well, it wasn't. Understand that I'm not calling it a bad movie. It received an 82% based on my calculations, which is nothing to scoff at. My issue with it, I think, was that it didn't set itself apart from the Marvel franchise, and I'd like to blame director Jon Favreau. The elements for a terrific movie are all there: better-than-average acting, cool gadgets, some chuckle-inducing dialogue, and a pretty decent, somewhat meaningful story to work with. But this is no Batman Begins. For one thing, Favreau underutilizes the comedy and overuses the gadgetry. For all the time we saw Tony Stark (Downey, Jr.) hunched over a work desk or strapping things to himself, can anyone explain to me what the magic was behind the technology? And for what seems like a pretty simple story, were all the tedious exchanges necessary between Stark, Obadiah Stane (an almost unrecognizable Jeff Bridges), Jim Rhodes (Terrence Howard on autopilot), and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow)? My point is, Favreau didn't make me, a non comic-book reader, really care about what was happening, and he didn't provide enough action, character depth or even enough fluffy Downey-Paltrow exchanges to make up for it. Iron Man didn't disappoint me, but nor did it overwhelm me. The film is glossy, shiny, and light - more aluminum than iron.

REVIEW: Up the Yangtze (A)

Background: About 15 years ago, the Chinese government broke ground on the Three Gorges Dam, which will be the largest hydroelectric power station in the world when it's finished in a few years. The length of the construction should give you an idea of how unfathomably massive this thing is - over a mile long and over 60 stories high. The dam will, of course, raise the level of the fabled Yangtze River by an incredible scale, and the devastating effect on the local population is the subject of Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang's new documentary, Up The Yangtze. The film is the feature length debut for Chang and it had its U.S. premiere in competition at Sundance in 2008. Check out the trailer, and if you unfortunately miss Up the Yangtze in the theater, make sure to watch it on 10/14/08 as part of PBS's phenomenal P.O.V. series.

Synopsis : Chang gives us a personal background of his grandfather's stories about the Yangtze river (including a chilling poem by Mao Zedong: "The mountain goddess if she is still there, will marvel at a world so changed.") before focusing on the film's two subjects. Yu Shui, 16, is the eldest child of peasant farmers who live on the banks of the river. She wants to continue her education but her parents need her to work to support the family. Chen Bo Yu, 19, is an attractive, charismatic, spoiled only child from an urban, middle-class family. Both teens end up working on a cruise ship that eerily ferries its Western passengers on a "Farewell Tour" of the Yangtze's sights. Yu (known on the ship as "Cindy") struggles with her impoverished background and uncertain future; she couldn't be more out of her element, and her poor language skills relegate her to the kitchen. Bo Yu ("Jerry") charms the passengers with his singing and smiling, but like many young Chinese in a one-child state, he's used to being the center of attention and doesn't understand the meaning of humility. The story of these two is framed by an unbelievably rich study of Chinese culture and its symbolic relation to what's happening with the dam and the two million people displaced by its construction. There's no reconciliation at the end of this - the project is happening, period. Chang's motive is to simply help us empathize with those in an impossible situation.

I Loved:
+ The shockingly impressive time-lapse shot of the river's water level rising.
+ The moments of genuine comedy that are well placed and never inappropriate.
+ Getting an intimate look at life on the Yangtze river - the mysterious landscapes and bizarre nautical voyages.

I Liked:
+ That Chang didn't get his hands dirty with Michael Moore-style attempts at confronting the stubborn government or dam developers (because what would be the point of doing so now?).
+ The moving musical score, and Chang's well-timed narration.

I Disliked:
- The editing, and some of the video quality. A few sequences didn't flow very easily and the last shot left me puzzled.

I Hated:
- The utter desperation that you feel watching the situation unfold. More than once I either threw up my hands or pounded my fist in exasperation.

Grade:
Writing - N/A
Acting - N/A
Production - 8
Emotional Impact - 10
Music - 5
Significance - 5

Total: 28/30= 93% = A

Last Word: Do what you can to see Up the Yangtze at first opportunity. Yung Chang masterfully weaves power, wealth, culture, humility, sacrifice, tradition, national pride, poverty, and environmental concerns into a rich tapestry worthy of the world's attention. The production of the film is unpolished, but the raw footage is extremely potent, and the gray, smoggy feel to it brings an added sense of realism (funny to say for a documentary, but it's true). There are symbolic images that you'll remember long after it's over: a man literally carrying his house on his back, a family living by candlelight, cruise ship passengers ignorantly posing for pictures in Chinese dynastic costumes. One of the most ironic aspects of Up the Yangtze, a searingly tragic film, is that it's frequently funny, if only for moments at a time. Some of the responses from the people Chang interviews are staggering, causing your smile to dissolve as soon as it forms - "It's hard being a human...being a common person in China is more difficult," jokes a shopkeeper before bursting into a fit of tears. The unique aspects of Chinese culture are on such brilliant display in Up the Yangtze that we Westerners will have difficulty understanding them with one viewing. What kind of society would allow this to happen? "Sacrifice the little family for the big family," laments one peasant. Chairman Mao would be proud.

300 Words About: The Year My Parents Went on Vacation

O Ano em Que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias (The Year My Parents Went on Vacation) is the kind of film you don't realize has totally engulfed you until it's almost over. You think you've seen it before, the set-up seems familiar, there's no major incident. Then you realize, no, actually you don't know this story; you don't know the experience of a 12 year-old boy whose activist parents, desperately looking for safety under Brazil's military dictatorship in 1970, unknowingly leave him with his already-dead grandfather in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in São Paulo. Amidst the frightening circumstances, young Mauro (Michel Joelsas, in his film debut) displays fierce independence and bravery while quickly befriending his grandfather's neighbor, Shlomo (Germano Haiut), and the flirtatious tomboy, Hanna (Daniela Piepszyk), who also lives in the building. Our experience is Mauro's: we don't understand what's being said in hushed tones or where our parents are, and we're not immediately comfortable with Shlomo looking after us. We just want our parents to come back as soon as possible, and in the meantime play as much table soccer and watch as much of the World Cup as possible. Director Cao Hamburger takes his time on the way to the film's moving (and somewhat surprising) end, and all we can do is pass the time with Mauro and his friends. This is no Home Alone in Brazil, however, as there are moments of real pain in between the frequent laughs. The cinematography and production design (it was filmed on location) bring an added dimension of intimacy to the story, and Joelsas, who was reportedly selected from a group of almost 1,000 auditionees, wonderfully carries the film from the first frame to Mauro's final, indelible voiceover. The Year My Parents Went on Vacation is an inspired work, and was Brazil's official submission for Best Foreign Language Film in 2008. I didn't even mention the political and cultural importance of the story, but the film has definitely made its mark in the country, garnering a whopping 13 Cinema Brazil Grand Prize nominations in 2008. It's sweet film about a sour time in Brazil's history.