SIFF Reflections and Reviews Week 1: May 20 - May 26

I've fallen way behind in my SIFF 2014 reviews over these past couple of weeks. I've seen some amazing films and I hope they come your way in a small art-house theater or on Netflix in the near future.

3 Mile Limit - New Zealand
A sweet film set in 1965 New Zealand that tells the true story of Radio Hauraki, the pirate radio station that was started by a handful of dedicated friends and rock-n-roll fans who fought the New Zealand government who controlled the airwaves with an iron fist at that time. I was totally unfamiliar with this story and found the film quite delightful.

We Are The Best - Sweden
Set in 1982 Stockholm, the awesome coming-of-age story of three teenage outcast girls who form an all-girl punk band and whose friendship bonds them as family. Uplifting and exhilarating; every girl between the age of 12 and 82 should see this movie. The three young leads are amazing.

Mystery Road - Australia
A dark, moody, well done murder mystery, tackling the tough subject of racial tensions in modern-day Queensland. Combining aspects of a classic Western with a police procedural, this tight thriller keeps you engaged. The first of 3 films this festival for me that featured Hugo Weaving in a major role. He's having a good SIFF. Aboriginal actor Aaron Pedersen in the lead role as Detective Jay Swan was a revelation. Where has this tall drink of water been all my life?!

Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed - Spain
Hands down, one of my favorite films of this year's festival. This is a heartwarming, lovely comedy set in 1966 southern Spain. It tells the story of Antonio, a high-school English teacher in Madrid who uses lyrics from Beatles' songs to teach his kids and considers himself somewhat of a super-fan. When Antonio finds out that John Lennon is filming a movie in the coastal town of Almeria, Antonio sets out in his little Fiat to meet his hero and tell him just how much his music has made an impact on his students. Along the way he picks up two different hitchhikers, a young pregnant woman, and a runaway teen boy. This is one of those films that sums up why I bother going to SIFF every year - I would never be exposed to a wonderful film like this otherwise. Fingers crossed that Netflix eventually picks it up.

International Male - Various countries
A collection of short films focusing on gay men, ranging in subject, content, genre, and quality. My faves were probably the US "Dragula" featuring an unrecognizable and wonderful Barry Bostwick as an aging LA drag queen, and the Iranian "Aban + Khorsid" a heartbreaking story of a gay couple killed because of their love.

The Turning - Australia
An ambitious, groundbreaking, spectacle - 18 different short stories that are woven together into this staggering piece of work. Featuring pretty much every Australian actor working in the industry today. Hugo Weaving (drink!), Cate Blanchett, Naomi Watts...a million others. Not for everyone, but I enjoyed it. This will definitely be coming to your local art-house theater this summer.

The Amazing Catfish - Mexico
A touching family drama introducing us to Claudia a lonely young woman without any family who is hospitalized for appendicitis and there meets Martha, a single mother of 4 in her mid-forties who is dying of AIDS. A fast friendship and a close maternal bond forms between Martha and Claudia, with Martha recognizing that Claudia needs her family, and that Claudia may be the solution that they need to go on making it as a family after Martha dies. I had a hard time connecting emotionally to this film, although it had all of the ingredients to hook me, it just never did. I'd still recommend it though.

Remote Control - Mongolia
Every year, I try to see at least one SIFF film from a country that I've never seen a film from. This year, one of these entries was this drama about a young man who runs away from his rural village and attempts to eek out an existence in the big city. The description in the SIFF catalog did not at all accurately describe this movie's story. I'm still on the fence about it. My friend Ross really liked it; and we managed to discuss it for like 40 minutes afterwards in a coffee shop, so maybe that's what good film is all about.

I Am Big Bird: The Carrol Spivey Story - USA
Unlike previous years, this SIFF I've only seen 2 documentaries. This one about the puppeteer for Oscar the Grouch and the man who has worn the Big Bird framed costume for almost 5 decades was a real gem. Carroll Spivey attended the screening with his lovely wife and was so entertaining. AND he brought Oscar!! It was so great to see my favorite "Sesame Street" character up close. Yes, of course Oscar the Grouch is my favorite. Have you met me?

The Healing - Australia
Completing my Hugo Weaving SIFF trifecta was this moody little movie about a prisoner who learns about redemption and rehabilitation from taking care of birds at a minimum security prison in Melbourne. Everyone in my audience seemed to enjoy this film more than I did. It wasn't terrible; it was just "fine".

Post Seattle Snowpocalypse 2012

 First came all of the snow on Wednesday, January 18, 2012. It started around 3:30 AM and kept going and going, snowing a constant blanket of that powdery white that compacts so well and makes for great snow balls. By late Wednesday night the temperature had dropped significantly, and the shit on the ground was freezing and turning into ice.
The next morning we woke to this horror: A world covered in ice. And around 10AM it started to snow again and continued until the afternoon, when it changed to dumping a frozen sleet on the ground.

By Friday it was all over; except for the thaw and the digging out. The amount of shoveling, ice-picking, and glacier removal that I had to do to unearth my car so that I could drive the 2 miles down the road to see my father was ridiculous.
The Seattle side streets today are still a slushy, wet, treacherous mess. But at least one good thing came out of this shut-in week: I watched and cleared out HOURS of programming from my dvr. And I didn't lose power once.
It's the small things.

2009 SIFF Notebook - Day 1-3 review

The 2009 Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF) or as others amusingly call it - SIFF (Standing In line for Foreign Films), is underway.

I'm certainly not one of those scary SIFF "platinum pass" people that take the festival entirely too seriously and attend the opening and closing galas and go to hundreds of films during the 3 weeks that the festival lasts. But I definitely try to attend at least a few films each year. My record was I think 2004 when I saw 20 films, last year I only made it to one.

This year I bought a 6-pack pass and as of today, Day 4 of the festival, I've already seen three films and will probably see a couple more before the holiday weekend is through, so I'm off to a good start.

Robin and I met up Friday night for my first film of the festival, the documentary Trimpin: The Sound of Invention

This Trimpin dude (who only uses his surname like the eccentric he is) is totally crazy in the best possible ways. He's an artist, inventor, engineer, mad-scientist, musician, composer - genius! While I was familiar with some of his musical installation art pieces in different places like the Frye Art museum and the EMP, I didn't know anything about Trimpin so I really found this documentary about him to be fascinating. He's such a character! It was also great because Trimpin and the director of the film, Peter Esmonde were there to answer questions afterwards.

Next up for me on Saturday was the French film "Cliente" but translated for the festival as French Gigolo. Met up with my friend Ross who's in town from Portland for SIFF. I enjoyed this film about a successful woman in her 50s who, having been burned by love in a bitter divorce, satisfies her needs for sex and companionship by occasionally hiring male escorts. The performances by the lead actors, and even more by the supporting cast were excellent. And I enjoyed that although the film takes place in Paris, there isn 't any of the cliche "Parisian" shots evident. Truly the film could've been taking place in any city. But I did want the movie to be funnier for some reason. It was actually fairly dramatic and a little depressing. But good nonetheless.

The second movie I saw Saturday evening was the Spanish gay comedy Chef's Special. Although filled with cliches and a little silly, I really enjoyed the hell out of this film about Spanish chef and restaurateur Maxi, whose life changes when he's forced to take in his two children from a marriage that ended when he came out of the closet years before. Again the film is very silly, but everyone in it is delightful, especially the cute Benjamin Vicuna as Horacio, a closeted futbol star who falls for chef Maxi.

I'm looking forward to more SIFF films over the coming weeks.

I Protest

GMAC Insurance company put out their annual "which state has the suckiest drivers" test results today.

Supposedly the state of New York has the worst drivers. No, that can't be right. Washington state, at least in all the counties I drive in has the worst fawking drivers in the country. I don't care what this survey says.