Smart Words About Cinema
Opening night—rarely a strong point of SIFF—arrived with one of the least memorable films of recent memory, but more frustrating one that had already opened theatrically in New York to tepid reviews. The First Grader, the dramatized odyssey of an 84-year-old man who takes up the Kenyan’s government’s promise of universal education to learn to [...]
As you may already know if you attended SIFF’s Opening Night, The First Grader goes down easy, despite pedestrian scripting and direction. Quickie’d and ranked (C+) weeks ago by Entertainment Weekly, this forgettable flick about a onetime Mau Mau warrior determined to learn to read in his old age relies on two attractive performers—Naomie Harris [...]
The line-up for the 37th Seattle International Film Festival, which opens on Thursday, May 19 with the Opening Night Gala screening of British/Kenyan film The First Grader, directed by Justin Chadwick, and runs for 25 days at venues throughout Seattle, Renton, Everett and Kirkland, was officially announced at its press launch today. Among the 257 [...]
The 36th Annual Seattle International Film Festival ran for 25 days, from Thursday, May 20 through Sunday, June 13. Here is Parallax View’s coverage and guide to SIFF resources . Official sites: SIFF homepage SIFF Week by Week: SIFF 2010 Awards, Attendance and Return Engagements (Sean Axmaker) PV Dispatch 5 – Get Low, Get Hip, [...]
[Originally published in Queen Anne & Magnolia News, June 9, 2010] When it comes to cinema, for some of us (not naming names here), the terms “Russian” and “lugubrious” tend to be interchangeable. So encountering a movie like Hipsters is either liberating or deeply unsettling to one’s core values. This rollicking musical comedy, or comedy [...]
[Originally published in Queen Anne & Magnolia News, June 2, 2010] Among the trio of directors crowned as Emerging Masters by the 2010 Seattle International Film Festival, Australian Ana Kokkinos seems a mite premature. On the evidence of the three Kokkinos films I’ve seen—Head On, Blessed and The Book of Revelation (not in SIFF but [...]
[Originally published in Queen Anne & Magnolia News, May 26, 2010] What are film festivals and film critics good for? Well, for one thing, discovering and boosting new or under-appreciated talent. And don’t discount the power of such visual and verbal exposure: that’s precisely how a little film called The Hurt Locker stole the Oscar [...]
[Originally published in Queen Anne & Magnolia News, June 9, 2010] Notes on the final week by Richard T. Jameson and Kathleen Murphy Protektor (Marek Najbrt, Czech Republic/Germany, 2009; 98 mins.) The World War II years remain an inexhaustible source of dramatic material, and as our culture grows ever more amnesiac, it’s probably salutary that [...]
[Originally published in Queen Anne & Magnolia News, June 2, 2010] Richard T. Jameson and Kathleen Murphy light up the third week of the festival Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo (Jessica Oreck, USA, 2009; 91 mins.) Buried in this all-over-the-map meditation on Japan’s fascination with insects are lovely, nearly mystical moments. Did you know that there’s [...]
[Originally published in Queen Anne & Magnolia News, May 26, 2010] Some authentic rarities this week in this week’s SIFF archival programs. Saturday, May 29, 1 p.m. at Harvard Exit brings Senso, a 1954 film by Luchino Visconti that’s come to the screen in several versions — including one with English dialogue by Tennessee Williams [...]
Seattle International Film Festival audiences bestowed top Golden Space Needle Awards on The Hedgehog, Winter’s Bone and Cell 211 (among others) while juried awards singled out The Reverse and Marwencol at the awards brunch of the Seattle International Film Festival this morning. But before we get into the lists of winners, here’s a few SIFF [...]
Hipsters (Russia, dir: Valery Todorovsky) – In 1955 Moscow, where the Soviet citizenry fills the streets in a palette of industrial blue, black and gray, a group of culture rebels parade about in rainbow colors that in America would be crimes against fashion—a cacophony of plaids and checks, greens and yellows and purples and other [...]
[Originally published in Queen Anne & Magnolia News, May 26, 2010] Richard T. Jameson and Kathleen Murphy scope out the fest’s second week The Hedgehog (Mona Achache, France, 2009; 98 mins.) This quietly affecting French fairy tale features one of the most adorable children ever, a grave-faced prodigy whose thick, curly blond hair always gets [...]
[Originally published in Queen Anne & Magnolia News, May 19, 2010] Something familiar, something peculiar Something appealing, something appalling Goodness and badness, manifest madness! Something convulsive, something repulsive Something aesthetic, something frenetic Something that’s gaudy, something that’s bawdy Tragedy tomorrow, comedy tonight! That’s the ticket! This year’s Seattle International Film Festival promises to deliver all [...]
[Originally published in Queen Anne & Magnolia News, May 19, 2010] Hand me a film festival catalogue and the first thing I’m going to look for is the archival stuff. It’s not just that the odds (and classical discipline) favor an older movie being better than a new one. A lot of worthy films have [...]