IFF Boston: Plan B

One thing I like about the September Boston Film Festival is that, with a little use of vacation time, it is humanly possible to see all the movies. Three at the Copley during the afternoon, take the green line two stops, two at Boston Common in the evening, and repeat. Not so at IFF Boston - it's spread over six screens in three locations (none of which are actually in Boston), the times are staggered to make theater-hopping difficult. Add to that that all of the movies aside from the midnights playing at Coolidge Corner are in the tiny screening room... well, I've already had to shuffle my plans; I was going to see Word Wars tonight and then catch the 11:30 Azumi at the Brattle (walking distance from my apartment) tomorrow. Instead, so that I can catch those two movies and Blind Horizon, I'll be catching Azumi at the Coolidge's midnight show. Since they're tacking a 20-minute short onto the front of a 2-hour-plus movie, it's almost a given I'll miss the Night Owl bus.

Anyway, here's my (new) plan:

Friday Midnight: Azumi w/ "Tomo" @ Coolidge Corner - Every film festival should have at least one movie that involves punching, kicking, blowing crap up, and, in the case of this movie, swordfighting. These movies should be sought out just so that you can get the full gamut of fun. Plus, it's directed by Ryuhei Kitamura, who did the absolutely insane Versus and is directing the highly anticipated Godzilla: Final Wars.

Saturday 12:30pm: Nightingale In A Music Box w/ "Jo Jo In The Stars" @ Somerville - A nifty-sounding movie with a science-fictional premise, plus an animated short.
Saturday 4:30pm: Double Dare @ The Brattle - Documentary on the stunt doubles for Wonder Woman and Xena. I'm hoping for something much better than The Red Trousers
Saturday 10pm: Blind Horizon w/ "Mrs. Meitlemeihr" @ Somerville - Spiffy cast in this amnesia thriller: Val Kilmer (who was great in Spartan) and Neve Campbell (who doesn't seem to be in nearly enough lately, even though the IMDB claims she's been working)

Sunday 12pm: Word Wars @ The Brattle - Documentary on competitive Scrabble. I love the very idea of competitive Scrabble.
Sunday 3:30pm: Flower & Garnet w/ "The Three of Us" @ Somerville - The most film festival-y entry I'll be getting to; a coming of age drama. Unless I go for something else - there's a thriller called Moonlight and a documentary called The Corporation at 2:30, although the latter looks like a 2.5-hour "Business = EVIL!" screed from the description.
Sunday 7pm: Luck w/ "The Frank International Film Festival" @ Somerville - Basically, I want to see the 8-minute short attached to the movie. :) Actually, the feature looks pretty good, too - Sarah Polley in an Atom Egoyan-produced comedy intrigues me.

Thankfully, The Saddest Music In The World opens at Kendall Square in a week, so I don't have to build my festival schedule around the one showing of that. If I was really smart, I would have bolted from Brookline the minute I couldn't get a ticket for Word Wars to see The Baroness And The Pig tonight, but it looks like I'll have to hope it gets picked up somewhere else, along with a couple of others.

So, anyway, I figure between this, the spiffy shows at the MFA next week, and the Boston Underground Film Festival, I should be able to stave off any pervy impulses to see Mean Girls until the big summer movies start coming out.