This Week In Tickets: 17 March 2014 - 23 March 2014

Quiet week, what with being busy at work and having a good chunk of my weekend claimed.

Not particularly complaining, mind you: There have been weeks at work when I have worried I'm not doing enough to be kept on, and the weekend was a chance to see a whole bunch of my immediate and extended family, if the reason for it is because my youngest brother and his wife are moving to Chicago for a new adventure and everybody who lives in the area is looking to wish them well. I won't lie - even though I didn't see Matt & Morgan as often as I'd like given that we can get to each others' houses with one bus line and a bit of a walk, it's going to be kind of different not having them nearby.

So, that made for a quiet movie-going week. I went to the Belmont World Film series to catch Ilo Ilo on Monday, which was kind of weird at first for much the same reason that the previous week's trip to West Newton was (the first leg of the trip out there was, once upon a time, my commute to work), but it was neat to visit the Studio Cinema in Belmont and catch a pretty decent film from Singapore.

Because the send-off party was at another brother's in Maine, it ate a bunch of the weekend, so I had to schedule my movie-going around that. That meant catching both Particle Fever and Grand Piano on Friday night, but those were both good choices: The former is as inviting a documentary on searching for the Higgs Boson as you're going to get (and, happily, still playing in Boston), while the latter is a thriller with a ridiculous premise that does a much better job than you might expect in using how unusual it is to the film's advantage.

After that, I went to Maine and spent some time verifying that my nieces are the cutest nieces as well as seeing all my brothers, many cousins, et al. On the way, we stopped at this place in the New Hampshire border, because Matt really likes pinball. I did manage to clean his clock at Burgertime, though.

I got back home just in time to head out to Arlington for what turned out to be the last in the Gathr Preview Series, Hide Your Smiling Faces. Pretty good way to go out, though it's a shame it was never able to get much traction.

Up next: The Boston Underground Film Festival.

Ilo Ilo

I've gotten a bit better about not missing programs at the various local theaters as I build "Next Week in Tickets" every week, so I was able to keep the annual Belmont World Film program in mind as it approached. It's an interesting program which does a fairly impressive job of getting movies that almost certainly would not have much other visibility in America at all up on the big screen, and supports them with guests to put what we see into context.

The trouble, at least from my perspective, is that it's out in Belmont, which means a non-minor trip for me, especially since I'm arriving from Burlington. I think the only bus route that goes by the place is the 73, which can be somewhat erratic in scheduling. The good news, though, is that the Belmont Studio Cinema is not a bad destination. It's run by the same guys as the West Newton Cinema, and it's actually kind of intriguing how they seem very willing to try different things, both in different locations and as something doesn't seem to be working. For instance, the last time I saw something at the Studio, they had computers set up along one wall of the lobby, doing a "cyber-cafe" sort of environment. Those are gone now (for the better - it's already a pretty cramped space), but they have opened the "Cafe Burrito" next door, with the theater's website making it clear that bringing one's order in from there is quite okay. They have even removed some seats from the single, fairly large auditorium to install tables; they're dotted around the room rather than concentrated in a particular area, which is kind of a neat choice.

I do kind of wonder, since there's no connecting door between the cinema and cafe, what the reaction would be if someone brought a pizza from the restaurant on the other side of the building in. On the other hand, that would be pretty unwieldy unless you sat at one of the table seats, whereas the burrito, I found, will fit nicely in a cupholder.

The movie itself was pretty good, and I found I liked it and saw more upon further reflection, and that tempers some of my dissatisfaction with the post-film discussion a bit. The guest was an immigration reporter who immediately started speaking about certain types of exploitation that weren't immediately evident in the movie, although they were important with a bit of time to mull it over. In general, it didn't feel as though she had seen the movie or boned up on the specifics of this in regards to Singapore to prepare beforehand. That was fine, in that a lot of people in the audience were less interested in discussing the movie as opposed to the issue anyway. Even by that standard, though, it was a lot of people with fairly vague opinions or memories of newspaper articles they read months ago.

I ducked out before the discussion was finished, which I almost never do, but the next bus would have been something like a half-hour later. There's certainly a good chance I'll be back some other time for this series or just to see another movie at the Studio sometime soon - big, single-screen theaters are a rarity that deserve support, and the ready availability of actual meal-type food at a reasonable price is certainly a draw when the movie is going to be your entire night out.

Ilo Ilo

* * * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 17 March 2014 in the Studio Cinema (Belmont World Film, digital)

You can finish Ilo Ilo and come away feeling like you've seen something more uplifting than it really is, and it would not shock me if a fair amount of people identified with the parents of a problem child, especially in the film's native land of Singapore. The tone of this film is carefully managed, enough so that it does not necessarily feel like it is condemning the exploitation of foreign workers depicted - at least, not until the pieces have been separated, added up, and put back together.

The kid on question is Jiale (Koh Jia Ler); he's constantly in trouble at his school and not much less trouble at home. Mother Hwee Lang (Yann Yann Yep) and father Teck (Tian Wen Chen) are stretched thin as it is, so they do what a number of families in a similar position do and hire a servant. A placement agency send them Teresa (Angeli Bayani), who had left her own child with family back in the Philippines to take this job, and while Jiale initially treats her even worse than his parents, a bond eventually forms that Hwee Lang finds threatening.

There's a scene a bit past the midpoint of the film that initially comes off as just sort of darkly funny: Jiale has been given a clutch of cute baby chicks to raise as pets for his birthday, and as he runs out to the balcony to play with them, the camera swings back to the living room to remind the audience that the family was having fried chicken for dinner. It doesn't quite become the movie's central metaphor, but the meaning isn't hard to extract as things play out a bit more; Teresa may feel like part of the family, but given that Hwee Lang is holding onto her passport "for safekeeping", she is in a bit of a cage as well - and a housemaid can be a luxury in the same way as a pet chicken.

Full review at EFC

The Fantasia Daily, 2013.11 (28 July 2013): The Lady Assassin, "Far-East Fragments", Vessel, See You Tomorrow, Everyone, and Doomsdays

Okay, not a lot of time to type all this in at first, but let's go with some pictures, since I tested the "can get to the Imperial in five minutes" thing pretty strongly on Sunday and Monday:



That there is Thai-Hoa Le (or, as credited, Le Thai Hoa) talking to "Action!" programmer Eric S.Boisvert after The Lady Assassin. Though he plays the villain in this Vietnamese production, he's a Montreal native back in town shooting X-Men: Days of Future Past, which made for an effortlessly bilingual Q&A, which I must admit impresses the heck out of me and makes things easier on everyone. He seemed to have a lot of enthusiasm for the Vietnamese film industry, pointing out how they shot this in native 3D and how a lot of folks who had managed some level of success in North America had come (back) to their homeland to help build it up.



Didn't catch the name of the host this time around - he was from the New York Friars' Club, which runs a comedy film festival - and he had Doomsdays director Eddie Mullins there for interrogation. I think there was other cast & crew there as well - I could have sworn that someone who was hanging around the line before the movie turned up dead midway through - but he faced it himself.

Some play was made of him having been a film critic, which made sending screeners around to friends kind of nerve-wracking, apparently. Some of the discussion reminded me just how self-taught I am here, as he talked about wanting to avoid continuity cutting whenever possible, and I just had the vaguest impression of what he was talking about. He also wrote the music for the movie himself, with the plan that co-star Justin Rice (who I keep hearing referred to as a musician rather than an actor when he appears in tiny indie films, although I don't know him as one) would backstop him, but Rice eventually got busy and folks liked what he did. And while I must admit that I can't remember much about the music a day later - it apparently has to be very sticky to make a big impression on me - I do recall thinking it was kind of fun at the time.

Today's plan: Saving General Yang and Helter Skelter at the Imperial, then The Dirties at de Seve, if I can make it in time. Willow Creek is highly recommended. I'm in the Boston Underground Film Festival shirt

My Nhan Ke (The Lady Assassin)

* * ½ (out of four)
Seen 28 July 2013 in le Cinéma Impérial (Fantasia Festival, HD)

The Lady Assassin is a so-so movie, but it does an admirable job of giving the audience what it shows on the poster: Pretty girls with weapons, but not a whole lot of hard-edged sex and violence that would ever make someone feel particularly uncomfortable. They play beach volleyball (twice!) to train, for crying out loud. Oh, and it was shot in 3D, and the opening scenes don't let you miss that.

It's fun, though. The story is as simple as can be and the characters are thin - it's the kind of movie where the various characters are thankfully color-coded - but it is very easy on the eyes, funny at spots, and has moments of pretty entertaining action even if they do hit some bad CGI at times. I wouldn't mind a local theater opening this for a weekend and seeing if they could get the local Vietnamese community (or anyone who enjoys good-looking women punching and kicking men in 3D) to come out.

Full review at EFC.

"Far East Fragments"

Seen 27 July 2013 in le Cinéma Impérial (Fantasia Festival, HD)

This is a crazy-strong selection of short films, featuring impressive animated works by Katsuhito Otomo, Yeon Sang-ho, and Masaaki Yuasa - plus a good gag from Singapore, another segment of the upcoming Otomo-led anthology, and... Well, there's one that's sort of a dud. But the good stuff is kind of great.

Vessel

* * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 28 July 2013 in Salle de Sève (Fantasia Festival, DCP)

Is there a name for the genre that includes films like Happy Accidents, Safety Not Guaranteed, and now Australian independent Vessel yet? There should be, as "maybe science fiction, maybe mental illness" is rather unwieldy. This one does its thing nicely enough, but could greatly benefit from choosing one of those maybes and sticking to it.

Ash (Mark Diaco) is an "Interfacer", one of a rare group of people on Earth who regularly has data dumped into his head by extra-dimensional beings, which the government insists he passes on. And while his handler (Christopher Bunworth) is pressuring him for an important formula set to be sent soon, the transmissions make him feel hollow and numb enough that he's visiting a therapist (Georgina Naidu) and living like he's homeless despite that likely not being the case. Today, he's desperate enough to feel human again that he's calling in favors from various friends to track down rumors of a miracle cure.

To say whether Ash's problems are caused by aliens is beside the point; viewers can play "real or delusion" with Bunworth's Operative character, the contents of what look like seizures, and maybe some of what happens in the last act all they want without it necessarily becoming significant one way or the other. There are titles at the start describing the history of these Interfacers, but since the whole movie is from Ash's perspective, there's no guarantee that they're the work of an omniscient narrator. What's important is the push-and-pull between Ash and his gift/handicap. Director Adam Ciancio alternates scenes of him wandering like a vagabond with him reconnecting with friends and loved ones, and there's something quite sad and telling about how he seems sincere and interested but is constantly asking for favors and leaving pieces of himself behind. It's an easy analog to, say, addiction, but not less effective for it.

Full review at EFC.

Minasan, Sayanora (See You Tomorrow, Everyone)

* * * * (out of four)
Seen 28 July 2013 in Salle de Sève (Fantasia Festival, HD)

I feel vaguely like we've been taking Yoshihiro Nakamura for granted. Though he got his start writing horror movies for the likes of Hideo Nakata, he's spent the last few years on a string of off-beat but surprisingly affecting movies that people have raved about at festivals - Fish Story, Golden Slumber, A Boy and His Samurai, and Potechi - but which just don't seem to get the attention (or legal release) that they deserve in North America. Even the description of this movie in the festival program focused more on frequent star Gaku Hamada. And yet, here Nakamura is again, taking another seemingly absurd premise and delivering something downright surprising.

In 1981, at the age of twelve, Satoru Watari (Gaku Hamada) refused to continue on to junior high - or, indeed, even leave the housing project where he'd spent all his life. It was, after all, designed to be self-contained, with shops and play areas and the elementary school. He set himself a schedule that includes regular patrols of the building and a plan to begin work at the cake shop on the ground floor when he turned sixteen. As the years go on, his 106 classmates start to move away and foreign workers displace hopeful families, but he stubbornly stays put even as things change around him.

Ah, but "stubborn" doesn't tell the whole story. Nakamura and co-writer Tamio Hayashi (adapting Takehiko Kubodera's novel Minasang, Sayanora) have something in their back pockets that makes this more than a fairy tale about an eccentric young man who is in line for a simple moral lesson, and they spring it on the audience seemingly out of nowhere just when the movie seems to have settled into a rhythm. It's a move that suddenly connects a great many pieces of what has come before, but also does not overly upset the tenor of the picture. This is a picture that reveals, rather than changes, and to excellent effect.

Full review at EFC.

Doomsdays

* * * ¾ (out of four)
Seen 28 July 2013 in Salle de Sève (Fantasia Festival, DCP)

Doomsdays has gags. Lots and lots of gags about a pair of guys who, figuring that the world is going to hell anyway, just walk around taking what they want as they go through a vacation town in upstate New York during March, camping and breaking into houses as opportunity arises. And most of them are darn funny, a crazy blend of nihilistic and innocent glee from characters that stars Justin Rice and Leo Fitzpatrick solidify almost instantaneously.

And then it gets better. Not so much deeper, but how many films like that can pick up a couple of new characters (kid Brian Charles Johnson and lady friend Laura Campbell) and have them fit into the ensemble almost perfectly with so little effort? Then a sort of story develops, but it never seems out of place for this lightweight slacker comedy that can play more like a sketch anthology than something with a beginning, middle, and end?

That sounds simple - and it is. Damnably hard to do well, though, and first-time filmmaker (and former critic) Eddie Mullins manages it exceptionally. It's a funny, funny movie that is going to delight some folks.

Full review at EFC.