The Blood Of Dinosaurs (2022) Fantasia 2022

Joe Badon is a director I really like. I loved his SISTER TEMPEST and THE GOD INSIDE MY EAR so I was looking forward to seeing his latest film, the short THE BLOOD OF THE DINOSAURS.

The film is  a short film that begins with with two people talking about the film we are going to see. The focus then shifts into a weird kids TV show ala Mr Rogers but on acid.  And then it goes all over the place ending with the birth of a girl named Purity.

As much as love Joe Badon's films I have to say "I'm sorry Joe, this film is a mess" . 

Its all over the place with all sorts of things being thrown at us which would be fine except the film only runs 14 minutes and there is too much here for that amount of time. Worse the film is supposed to lead into a film  called THE WHEEL OF HEAVEN and it ends with the couple from the start talking about that film so as a result the film doesn't end it just stops. Having managed to get the motor running and the car moving down the road he suddenly turns of the engine. We are left wanting to know where this goes but we are going to have to wait.

We shouldn't have to wait- More to the point you can't start and stop Joe Badon's films- you have to watch them from start  to finish in one go or else you don't get the full effect. I remember watching both of Badon's earlier features and loving the pacing, loving how you have to stay with them and not look away. Waiting and waiting  and then having it all click in a brilliant "AH HA" moment. Had I stopped or walked away the films would have collapsed. Here Badon slams on the breaks and he cuts his own throat. He stops us before he should have- now when we see the next film we will need to see this film again to have that one work.

I honestly don't understand what Badon did or why. We should have had a whole film not a proof of concept.

Honestly this is interesting (its a Badon film so how could it not be?) and it works until it stops. But the film stops and I want to see where this story is going. If you are like me not having  the whole story is just going to frustrate you because nothing is resolved.

For my money wait until Badon has the whole story filmed- then watch that because what's here makes me think he's going to be telling a hell of a story.

Unseen Repost: JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI

This is the story of a man, his restaurant(Jiro’s restruant is an expensive one with a meal starting at around 300 bucks for a meal which can last as little as 15 minutes. Of course if you want to go you’re going to have to book a month or more in advance), his sons and his sushi.

It’s a loving portrait of a man who lives for his work and what it takes to be the best. Beautifully shot, with a heavy use of Philip Glass music this is a great little film that makes you want to go out and have some sushi (several people at the end of the screening were going to head across the street to get sushi.) This is a neat portrait of wiley old man who strives to always improve and be the best at making sushi and has been awarded with accolades from around the world as a result. A tough task master Jiro puts his apprentices and sons through rigorous training, and he freely admits that if it wasn’t for their preparation of the staff he wouldn’t look so good at preparing the food for the guests.(There is revelation late in the film about the Michelin award- which reveals how good his training is).

Sadly Jiro and his eldest son can kind of see the end of the road for them and their restaurant. As they note the amount of fish is rapidly declining due to over fishing thanks to the explosion of sushi across the world.Sushi was once an expensive delicacy but now is available everywhere.(This film is an interesting counter point to the Oscar winning film The Cove about the men who fish for the fish that become sushi.) I liked this film a great deal.

Unseen Repost: BANG BANG CLUB (2011)

This is the story of four photojournalists who band together for safety and end up taking some of the most memorable pictures coming out of South Africa during the final days of Apartheid. The film follows the quartet from 1990 to 1994 when the first truly universal elections took place in the country. It’s the story of the unseen war where the people In power chose to create divisions in the black population so that they could hold on a little longer.

I probably should do a longer full review of this film, but to be perfectly honest as much as I can recommend the film, I found that the day after seeing the film, much of it had begun to fade from memory. What you need to know is that the cast is great. Even the big name Ryan Phillipe disappears into his role to the point you forget who he is. The set pieces where the guys go off to take pictures will amaze you and make you want to join them.(It’s some of the best stuff I’ve seen all year). It’s counterpointed by their home and office life which isn’t quite as amazing (and often down right cliché- you can see the romance between two characters from frame one).

Weaknesses aside the film is definitely worth seeing.

BABY GIRL (2012) is coming to iTunes and VOD Tuesday

There is a story here so stick with me.

I was working out the schedule for Unseen Film through November and I decided that I was going to  spend the two weeks following the New York Film Festival reposting reviews for films that were either so early in the existence of Unseen that most of you have never seen them or they were of really good films that really slipped off the radar. The first film I slotted was BABYGIRL which I saw back at Tribeca in 2012.

BABYGIRL is one of those films that I thought was going to be a film I saw and forgot, but which ended up haunting my mind. Its a film I would periodically check to see if it was available because I wanted to see it again. Considering that I can't remember any other film I saw that year that's saying a great deal.

So I put the series together. I got the art and I slotted the films with this film as the first one...

...and the next day I got an email from the PR people for the film- "Hey Steve-there is this great small film you probably don't know anything about coming to VOD and iTunes called BABYGIRL. Would you want to cover it?"

Yes I would- I was actually planning on doing just that. So instead of  running the piece in October I'm running it now. And instead of  ending on a plea that you should track this down I'm going to begin by saying this is out on VOD and iTunes Tuesday (Pre-order it here)

Here in the hope of getting you to see this small gem of a film- one that will literally stay with you for years after you see it (and that last bit is the really important part)- I'm presenting my Tribeca Film Festival review from 2012:

I didn’t want to see this film. I had gone out of my way not to see this at any of the screenings during the festival. However on Saturday night, desperate for something to keep the Tribeca experience alive, I broke down and watched the film as part of the Tribeca On Line Festival which was running free films.

Slap me up side the head for being stupid, this is a really good film.

This is the story of a young woman living with her mom. Forced to deal with the fall out from Mom’s poor choices in men, she decides to show mom how bad a choice the new guy is. At the same time she has to navigate the men in her own life.

Better than you think it is going to be and not falling into the trap that many similar urban dramas do, this film is surprisingly good. Buoyed by a great cast and marvelous soundtrack, this is a film that I really wished I had seen on a big screen instead of my small laptop’s screen. This is the sort of film that film festivals were created to highlight.

Track this one down


BABYGIRL Trailer from 108 Media on Vimeo.

In brief:Thought Crimes The Case of the Cannibal Cop(2015) Tribeca 2015

Having premiered at Tribeca and due to run on HBO on May 11 THOUGHT CRIME is a look at the cannibal cop case where Gilberto Valle, an NYPD officer was arrested and charged with plotting to kill and eat his wife and other women.

The film asks as a  portrait of Valle and an examination of the question of at what point do our thoughts become criminal. Its a question that is very important in this age of everyone throwing out all of their thoughts out in public via the internet. I don't know what to say. This is a good, if over long film that is sure to begin a discussion or six. You can't watch the film film and not have an opinion (everyone at Tribeca who saw it did).

As good as the film is there are a couple of things wrong with the film. Part of the problem is the editing which conceals certain facts about the case unfairly. How you think about the film hinges on when we are told certain pieces of information and the film doesn't tell you that what Valle did on the NYPD computer predated by months all the conversations about abducting women.  The juggling of the time frame deeply effects how the events are viewed.

The other problem is Valle himself. While he seems like a nice guy, its also pretty clear that there is something wrong with him. I got the feeling that had he not been caught he might have taken things even farther. He gave me the creeps and I couldn't really root for him.

Problems aside, this is definitely worth a look when it hits HBO on May 11

'Hacks and Stats: Love And Engineering (Tribeca, 2014)

Even though Love and Engineering is a documentary, it can at times feel like science fiction. There are protagonists, and there is a simple quest at hand: to see if love could be defined as a quantifiable concept thus allowing it to be conquered.

The cinematography is a glimmering florescent at times and combined with the modern feeling of the city of Helsinki can give a sense of looking at a constructed vision of the future. Adding to the mystique are occasional views of a cavernous bluish black room filled with rows of computer banks flickering blurrily. There is also a wonderfully catchy electro pop score, which I have not been able to get out of my head some weeks later.

IT engineer Anatas is something of a main character here, as he has devised a means, several actually, of finding out the answer. The fellow engineers in the film are like supporting characters, serving as something of a combination of subjects to observe, causes whom he tries to help (he coaches some through mock dinner dates via earpieces connected to a walkie talkie), and allies aiding him in his quest.

Various means of cracking away at the mystery of human attraction are employed, some humorous, like the coached dates described above, and some amazingly scientific, with participants hooked up to various wires and patches producing intense amounts of data. References to chemicals produced in the body and brain activity suggest the issue is being very meticulously researched.

But there are also amazing instances of humanness emerging from the circuitry. To varying degrees, the subjects change in ways that are delightful to behold. One takes on a persona of the ‘captain’ when wearing the uniform of a cruise ship commander makes him realize newfound ability to project confidence. Todor, perhaps the most engaging of characters shows an amazing growth in his sense of self-awareness, discovering that making progress toward finding a romantic connection leads to as much frustration as it does satisfaction, when difficulties arise that cannot be clearly calculated. His experiences speak to a truth of people shielding themselves from the hurt of rejection and difficulties of starting over by keeping to themselves.

Some aspects of the challenges facing these individuals working in highly specialized fields is illustrated very clearly with no need to show explanations or moments of discussion. Cameras at times survey the subjects’ personal rooms filled with various screens set up, revealing a vast world of interactions outside of that involving two face to face humans. Do these provide enough stimuli to convince one to neglect the latter? Is this sort of interaction in some ways more appealing? More instantly gratifying? Easier to control the outcome of? When it comes time to discuss their feelings about these possible hang ups, the candid answers of the subjects are both fragile and insightful, and relatable to the universal struggle of finding one with whom to share mutual affection.

Between Anatas’ practical ‘attraction hacks’, scientifically rendered truths, and social ventures outside of their comfort zone both with one another and in talking with potential girlfriends, Love And Engineering is bursting with discoveries at every level. I know I heard several murmured aha’s from amid the audience at key moments. You may want to bring a pen and notebook so you can refer to these ideas later in your own pursuits.

LOVE AND ENGINEERING screens Thursday the 24th and Saturday the 26th.  Click here for moreinformation or to buy tickets.

The Ludicrous Lessons of Miss Meadows (Tribeca, 2014)

The character Miss Meadows is as kooky as they come. A Mary Poppins-esque substitute teacher that is full of positivity, a stickler for grammar, and insistent on taking figures of speech literally, she also has a penchant for murdering society’s nastier elements in cold blood. Katie Holmes is the right actress to return to the screen and play the role, staying consistent to all of Meadows’ verbal and physical quirks, and doing coming off very naturally as she balances poise with lethality. One might expect a darkly comic good time seeing a displaced Meadows stir up a commotion in the world we know; clearly she just wasn’t made for these times. However, the world around Meadows is just as wacky, to the point of being nonsensical, and there are so many inconsistencies in its presentation that very little rings true. A made-for-tv sensibility adhering to black and white truisms of criminal minds suggests we take her struggle between following the law and doling out vigilante justice seriously…once in a while. But premises are put before us that are so ridiculous, they at worst insult viewers’ intelligence, at best leave them stranded somewhere between satire and deadpan seriousness, while never satisfactorily achieving either one.

One of the first major instances of coming apart at the seams arrives when Miss Meadows takes the first grade class she inherits as a result the original teachers’ fatal illness on an outing to the local park. A point of was made of noting that this is a class of economically underprivileged, academically underperforming students, but I’ve never seen a group labeled as such that behave in such a well-mannered fashion or have such a luxurious classroom environment, not to mention a blessedly small class size. Miss Meadows goes to a nearby fast food restaurant - she had promised hotdogs for all - where there happens to be a mass murderer at the end of a shooting rampage (don’t worry she takes care of him). It is when she returns that there is an editing cut from the restaurant to the park so sloppy and awkward looking, it is made glaringly clear that the two locations are nowhere near each other. Even without this unsightly cut, there is such a disparity between the two locations it's obvious they are not in the vicinity of one another. But like seeing the stitching on a badly designed item of clothing, it makes its shabby construction that much more apparent. 

In the same park on the same outing near an ice cream truck is a guy just hanging around who looks like a leering child-molesting pervert. And guess what, he is child molesting pervert. To be fair, this preponderance of villains in the same place and time does not go completely unaddressed; apparently the nearby prison has decided they cannot hold all of the criminals being convicted so they have just decided to release 800 of them or so into the world. Suddenly this is a world not like the comic book story Arkham Asylum – except at least in that Batman tale, there is the somewhat more logical premise of the convicts breaking out.

We are now faced with the impossible task of viewing Miss Meadows as a person who may be troubled and out of synch with her environment when clearly such a comic book fantasy world is exactly where she belongs. Who would criticize Batman if he were to run around in a cape and utility belt with this much villainy amassed in the same place? It makes Miss Meadows seem like perhaps the only sane character, which is strange considering her mother’s (another commanding performance by Jean Smart) influential words are clearly made out to be a message of misguidance.

Confusing characterizations also leave us unsure of which way the wind is blowing. That same menacing perp from before, when confronted by Miss Meadows, offers something like a voice of reason suggesting maybe Miss Meadows' bleak worldview is overly simplistic. However, not long after, in the midst of assaulting her and a student, when asked about changing his ways, his rationale is simply that he "changed again."

Miss Meadows behavior is not just randomly inspired. But when we do find out a dark secret from Miss Meadows’ past that keeps being hinted at in that schlocky looking manipulative Made-For-TV-Movie fashion, it is the most randomly conjured up criminal act occurring in a completely misplaced setting. The sort of thing that occurs in only the most delusional paranoid thinker’s mind. Perhaps this eye-for-an-eye world view is not that far off from the director’s intended message?

Miss Meadows is not devoid of some delirious fun. But if writer/director Karen Leigh Hopkins wants us to accept Miss Meadows’ vigilante-ism as a valid reaction to our world, the jokiness should probably go. Or if it is in fact all just for a laugh, then some of the very disturbing predatory acts (which give credence to the most blatant and obvious stereotypes) are very out of place.

I love fantastical premises and when satire is done well, I’m fully capable of suspending all manner of disbelief to enjoy a critical message. Inconsistently done, though, all manner of serious thought goes out the window and little remains except how well a film is made and how compelling or not a story is. If Miss Meadows is going to teach us about the difficulties of abiding by the law when the criminal justice system presumably fails us, she had better get the supporting details of her essay in order.

MISS MEADOWS screens Wednesday, April 23rd and Thursday, the 24th. Click here for more info or to buy tickets.

Looking back: Film Festivals 2013

This year we hit 31 film festivals and film series. This year we got a film out at Sundance, went international with Hot Docs, Toronto and Fantasia, found some new friends and visited with some old favorites. All the festivals gave us a ton of films we fell in love with.

There is no way to recount every festival, there were simply too many, with too many films and too many neat things happened. Since I can't recount it all I'll give you some highlights (in order of occurrence):

New York International Children's Film Festival every year the festival year gets going with the first jewel in my top five must attend film festivals. Why do I feel like I'm the only one who realizes how good this festival is? My god every year two or three of the best films of the year come from its screenings (Ernest and Celestine and Day of the Crows this year). and no one seems to notice until way after the fact.  It says Children in the title but the films are for everyone and just damn good. If the festival made any missteps its that its now so big its too scattered to get from the multiple locations. Still I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Tribeca We covered 80 features films this year. 80 features- plus lots of shorts. Its insane. However since I and the rest of Unseen Films are insane film nuts this festival is perfect for us. I think this may have become my favorite festival of the year. Its 6 weeks (Press screening start in March) and its lots of movies and lots of talk and lots of insanity. Hell, Mondocurry has us considering all going in on an apartment for this year. For me the best part is this is the one New York Festival where you get to see tons of movies without any preconceived notions since many of the films have never been shown anywhere before. This year I saw so many great films (The Rocket, Red Obsession, Frankenstein's Army, Before Midnight...) I can't wait for next year..

New York Asian Film Festival/Japan Cuts What can I say? JACKIE FREAKING CHAN . Thank you guys. Yea I know it was two weeks early but JACKIE FREAKING CHAN. I love this festival. I love the guys who run it. We hit almost every movie and we all had a blast. I know Japan Cuts isn't really part of NYAFF but they crisscross and I can't see them as anything other than one festival. My one fear about the fests is that Samuel has left the building and his ability to pick good Japanese films may be impacted, I know the influx of Asian film toward the mainstream has impacted their selecting process, but then again they found some winners like Bad Movie, The black films, Countdown, Juvenile Offender. I got to see Eric Kot prove he was the funniest man in the world and I saw this which made me cheer and proved Grady is no longer the greatest intro man going.

Fantasia was something we backed into. We had no intention of covering it, but the oppurtunity arose and I dove in with both feet. Wow Wow and wow. I had so much fun just seeing the movies I'm considering going to the festival in person next year. I loved the mind expanding nature of the choices, from Burning Buddha Man to Across The River to Thanatomorphose to Jack Attack and one of my favorite films of all time Decelerators. Yea there were some clunkers but even those were intriguing.

New York Film Festival is the longest running of the fests listed here and it's a great deal of fun. This year we had the joys of Captain Philips and The Immigrant and Costa De Morte. While this year was very up and down, it still was more up then down and the downs were better than most other festivals ups. My only real complaint with this grand old girl is more and more she's showing things that have screened elsewhere.  Still if you're not elsewhere its great to see the films.

Doc NYC latest addition of the big five of must see New York festivals is non-fiction manna from heaven. I love it. Its possibly the best programmed New York festival- I mean the bad films are only bad when compared to the best of the films screening. This is also a must ATTEND festival. you have to go. Most of the filmmakers are there so you get to listen to their thoughts and even talk with them. Truly a festival for and by film lovers. This year it gave me the chance to see my best film of 2014- Things Left Behind. You have to make time and attend next year.

Rocks Off Pro Wrestling- I went to one screening but this is old school. Its a film festival by fans for fans and it felt like home. I had such a good time that should it have the same vibe next year- where I'm planning on going to everything- I'll make the big 5 a big six. And oh yea- the Q&A that followed the film was one of the best I've ever attended.

The South Asian International Film Festival opened my eyes last year to South Asian film. I who knew nothing  last year I suddenly saw the wonderful things that was coming from the region. This year the collection of films impressed the hell out of me. There were some winners and even the not so much winners were really good. I can't wait for next year.

Lastly I have to say that I don't know what to make of  The New York Chinese Film Festival. Yes I got to meet Donnie Yen, but I'm not sure what to make of the festival. Its got great films, great guests but ran at an odd time (3 days midweek) and seemed to be badly managed (people were milling around waiting for Donnie Yen, did anyone really know this was happening? and the ticket screw up on opening night). This could and should be one of the best festivals of the year.  I'm hoping it gets better next year since this should be truly great.

Those are the highlights of this year. With 2014 only days away we're already working on next year with The New York Jewish Festival getting heavy coverage starting next weekend, and we're talking about covering a horror festival in Syracuse and another in Boise (no seriously). Who knows where we'll end up...

Some (Very) Brief Words with Christopher Doyle about ‘Underwater Love’

Although he’s not the film’s cinematographer, the favorable notices Wong Kar Wai’s The Grandmaster has been receiving out of Hong Kong today have finally prompted me to post this “chat” with his famous collaborator

Given the brevity of what follows there’s quite the risk here of an introduction to a Q&A running longer than the Q&A itself; still, I feel that some set-up for the following, heretofore unpublished, exchange is necessary. It was conducted back in early 2011, just prior to Underwater Love’s world premiere at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival (hence the reference to its bow in the first question). But why are there only three questions? Well, Mr. Doyle was in Hong Kong on a shoot, and so the festival publicist arranged for me to interview both him and director Shinji Imaoka simultaneously—the problem was that the latter (for reasons still unclear to me) never answered his share of the questions, and so the follow-ups to both gentleman languished as a result. Still, I’m happy that these orphaned thoughts from a world-class film artist have found a home, however belatedly.

Oh, and please know that I’ve reproduced the text verbatim from our email exchange. Usually, like many journos, I’ll edit my long questions down to short ones and clean up the responses as needed… but in this case I fear there’d be nothing left if I did that.

***

Kind of appropriate that this film is bowing on Earth Day, isn't it? What can you tell us about capturing the gorgeous natural imagery in this film? Did it make you want to shoot a nature documentary at some point? ;-)

xxxxxxx all the films i have made are a response to the physical : of the space of women of the fact that i have to burden 30 kg of camera on my shoulder every day of the last twenty years / I used to call myself the keith richards of cinematography , from this film i found the pink in my irish skin

What were some unique challenges or opportunities you faced with Underwater Love in comparison to your other work?

same shit different day . wonder of student film coniditions /making true intent to do something true : its all about people , and some people are kappas with big dicks ( and that helps )

Many of the shots of water, especially those in the second half of the film, are absolutely stunning. Was all of the lyricism achieved completely intentional, or did you ever try out certain things when shooting and then were pleasantly surprised by the results?

" its society's fault " i didnt choose the locations ( someone who knows what they are doing did ) ...but as in all the films we do its my job to respond to the space and light and constraints and intents of each film .... with a bit of experience you learn from what you have ( as one does in bed ) ... you respond to a space or a working situation or the abilities of the actors and so on to make the film you can become the film you want

###

A contributing editor at Metro, Peter Gutiérrez also writes for Twitch, and blogs on media and pop culture for School Library Journal. And you can find him on Twitter: @Peter_Gutierrez.

Infidel (2009)

Omid Djalili stars as Muslim who finds out that he was actually born Jewish. This creates an identity crisis that under normal circumstances would have been bad enough, but is compounded by the arrival of a radical cleric who is set to join his family.

Amusing comedy that I first saw as part of the Tribeca Film Festival On Demand service. This is a rather low key film with most of the jokes coming not from set ups and punchlines, rather from the interaction of the characters. This is not the raucous comedy of some of the recent big budget films, rather it's something smaller, a human sized comedy of regular people.

I like the film.

It made me laugh and chuckle and it distracted me for a couple of hours. However as you can tell from my lack of raging enthusiasm in either a good or bad direction is didn't make a huge impression on me, at least the first time I saw it. However in the years since then I've seen the film a couple more times and I find that I enjoy the film more with each screening. To be honest I still haven't put the film on by choice, however I find that each time I run across it on cable I stop and watch it.

Definitely worth seeing, it will amuse you, and I do look forward to seeing it again myself.

Petty Comics, Bad Romance...Petty Romance at Free Korean Movie Night

Petty Romance, the next film being shown in Korean Cultural Service’s free biweekly movie series, took me by surprise after the series' charming yet chaste previous entry, My Girlfriend is an Agent.  It’s quite a bawdy affair, with far more upfront sexual content than past Korean films that have been promoted as having such (Dasepo Naughty Girls is one, and from the psychological drama department, The Housemaid might even be given cause to blush).

With one foot firmly planted in the world of manga publishing, it tells the timeworn story of a guy and girl meeting up and going through the awkward motions of forging a romantic relationship.  Although commonly tread ground, there is added intrigue thanks to the humorous comic book storyline and a truly memorable and not at all stereotypically rendered female lead.

The couple meets when confident Jeong-bae, an acclaimed manga artist is enticed by an international eroticcomic competition, which promises the winner a hefty sum of reward money and a lucrative publishing deal.  This leads him to recruit a story writer, a position that equally headstrong (though in very different ways) Da-rim steamrolls her way into with much bravado and several embellishments on some less than stellar experience.  Her stint as a sex columnist for a women’s magazine would appear to be her greatest asset, yet she leaves this detail out at the interview.  She has no problem, however, blaming the shortsightedness of the entire Korean film industry for the lack of development on a progressive relationship story that she has supposedly written.   

From the moment the alliance forms, their personality clashes take over the show.  Jeong-bae sees himself as the visionary in charge, looking for ideas that will fuel his revered craft.  He is refined in his tastes and has a no-nonsense approach to his work.  Da-rim is far from being a workaholic.  She seems content to breeze by life, living in her rather resentful brother’s upscale apartment, and resistant to anything resembling a steady job.  While he attempts to maintain a razorlike focus on the comic, she is more concerned with uncovering any romantic intentions Jeong-bae may have towards her.    

They also have conflicting attitudes towards manga:  Jeong-bae wants to create a story that is meaningful and not cliche.  Da-rim views his aspirations as lofty but hollow, equating them to the empty onion peels remaining at the bottom of a jia jiang men noodle dish.  She sees comics as a place to be funny and, of course, sexually provocative.

Physical attraction between the two vies with the personality clashes and opposing artistic visions.  Rest assured, the pair do not make it easy for a connection to be formed. Or for that matter, a championship-winning erotic comic to be created.  

Although supporting characters are for the most part bland, playing up familiar stereotypes that stir up dust clouds along the main characters’ already muddled path, it doesn’t matter much.  The main attraction really is the central couple, in particular actress Kang-hee Choi’s performance as Da-rim.  She manages to be charming while also capturing an atypical combination of uncouth and witless.  She is frank about her interest in sex, although the vast experiences she speaks of may or may not be all that it is cracked up to be.

The manga angle serves the story in a few ways.  Several genre-inspired animations occur during the movie, depicting characters’ desires and fantastical self-perceptions. They also allow the film to push the boundaries of raciness beyond what could be carried out acceptably with actors and actresses.  One sequence is a particularly funny riff on the action movie Wanted.  Another neat trick of the movie is that amidst all of the explicit activity, both animated and either talked about or going on between other characters, Jeong-bae and Da-rim’s passion for each other manages to go largely unfulfilled, even through some awkward encounters that bring them extremely close. It is a story as much, if not more, about frustration as gratification.

For a rare look at the more adult side of Korean romantic comedies, strongly consider turning yourself over to Petty Romance.  Be forewarned, though, that if you are only interested in a naughty nibble, you may get more than you hoped for.  Over the course of its two hours, it’s more like a banquet with all the trimmings -- Expect the requisite changes in mood from frivolous to serious, with day trips, misunderstandings, jealousy, awkwardly cute romantic interludes, and unguarded admissions of true feelings along the way.  


Petty Romance screens for free on Tuesday, April 10, at 7:00 PM, at Tribeca Cinemas. See the Korean Cultural Service website for details.


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Shut Up Little Man (2011)

Wonderful documentary on the Shut up Little Man recordings and the entire audio verite genre.

The story begins when two friends from the Midwest, Eddie Lee and Mitchell D, move to San Francisco and end up taking an apartment next two two guys, Peter and Raymond, who would get drunk and verbally abuse each other at all hours of the day and night. When Eddie and Mitch were unable to get their neighbors to quiet down, they begin to record the fighting for evidence in case anything should happen.

As they recorded more and more of the fights they became fascinated by what they were hearing to the point that they would add clips into mix tapes or have friends over to listen to the live rows. Eventually through tape trading and rabid fans (such as Dan Clowes and Devo) the tapes took on lives of their own becoming the basis of plays, movies, comics and other art forms.

Using the return of Eddie and Mitch to the Bay Area as launching point the film looks at how the tapes were made, who their subjects were and how the the recordings just keep going on and on and on in popular consciousness.

A strange combination of funny, cringe inducing frankness and informative tract this is one hell of a documentary.

I put the film on because it sounded like a goof and a lark. Before going in I knew nothing of the subject or the film other that it played at New Directors New Films earlier in the year (I missed the screening because of a trip to the emergency room).
I was completely unaware of the whole cult of Peter and Raymond. It's not completely surprising since my strong interest in tracking down similar material was fading just as the tapes were starting to get popular.

As the film started I was bowled over by the insanity of it all. Peter and Raymond were clearly off their nut, and their rants were strangely addictive. The two guys Mitch and Eddie were instantly likable and you can't help but feel their terror at moving in next to the two crazies.

For me one of the film's joys is that it never runs out of steam. Watching the film I was pretty certain that the film's subject matter was going to run out, but the film twists and turns taking the recordings and adding not only what happens next (interviews, plays, comics and various attempts at filming them) but also the ideas of secret recordings made public. There is a hysterical sequence of Orson Welles bantering back and forth about how to do a frozen pea commercial, that shows how far reaching the verite subject reaches. The film also shows how similar things are happening to day with cellphones and the Internet putting everyone's rants as potential source material. (And of course there are mash ups with Christian Bale's rant intercut with one of Peter and Raymond's.

By the end I was left exhausted and slightly confused by a film that entertained and enlightened me, simply because it did more and unexpected things with it's subject matter.

Highly recommended.

Volatile Day, Bleak Night

The free screenings of Korean films brought to us by The Korean Cultural Service NY rarely seen in the United States continues with a second series of Hidden Gems of Korean Cinema. They have acclaim at festivals or in Korea, but do not make it here. The first film in this series is the harrowing drama, Bleak Night, released in March of this year. It is being screened Tuesday, September 6, at Tribeca Cinemas. The movie starts at 7 pm and seats are available on a first come first served basis. It is the first of several films that you will probably not want to miss.


There have been notable Korean films with troubled teenagers somewhere in their focus. Bleak Night is the first film to come to my attention that solely features high school-aged protagonists amongst a nearly all teenaged cast. This debut feature length film from the young and incredibly talented director, Sung-Hyun Yoon, gives audiences a frank look at the way juveniles interact with one another and perceive their world, while at the same time unfolding a tale that, as the title suggests, consists of some poignant tragic events. The movie gives me the sense of a uniquely Korean or Asian phenomenon, one that is very contemporary. Classroom scenes, for instance, evoke the same sort of unsettling anarchic franticness as depicted in the opening moments of Japan’s drama about damaged adolescents, Confessions. Some viewers, however, may find themselves relating to universal themes of the difficulties of approaching adulthood.

As the movie progresses, the focus settles on three male friends: Gi Tae, Yoong Dong-Yun, and Hee-Joon, who is more commonly referred to by the nickname Becky. Through their interactions, each one’s personality becomes more clearly defined. At the two extremes are Gi Tae’s impulsiveness as the class’ alpha male and oftentimes instigator, and the shy but quiet confidence of Becky. Added to the interactions between these friends are shifts in time to a few months later, which reveal that Gi Tae has died under unclear circumstances, as the boy’s father seeks out an explanation from friends and classmates.

This may be a film about kids for adults, but the audience is certainly not being pandered to. There is something very genuine and unglamorous to the way the characters behave. Comparisons would even be in order to 1995’s Kids, if that were a better and less sensationalistic movie. A very believable system is depicted with its own complex politics and hierarchy, yet it is dictated by the hotheaded temperamental nature of adolescence. The film’s realistic portrayal of today’s youth especially comes through in the dialogue, as well. Characters answer each other’s questions with their own questions or other vague responses. There is a maddening indirectness about it at all that is maintained consistently throughout.

Indeed there is a lot of suffering in the film. I prefer to use this term instead of ‘angst,’ which tends to be overused and suggests a kind of moaning over trivial things. The weight of the issues these characters take on at too young an age is truly heavy. At the core of these problems appears to be the students' inability to express one’s self. Confrontations resemble tribe-like mating rituals with characters verbally butting heads and puffing out chests, dancing around the issues at hand instead of dealing with them directly. When characters attempt to open up and express their feelings, they often do so with suggestions of violence, either spoken or physical in the form of leaning forward imposingly, jostling, slapping. So filled with insecurities and desperate to be independent are these kids, they are unwilling to let their guards down for a moment. This goes on until tensions reach their boiling point and verbal assaults are unleashed, done with so much pent up rage, it is like a sudden violent release of pressure that has been building and building with nowhere to go. The minor skirmishes become violent assaults. Misunderstandings lead to tragic self-inflicted wounds. This all leads to the severed ties that the viewer is left to make sense of.

There are serious implications to the film, despite its subtle nature. Who is guiding this generation? Or perhaps, a better question is: Who isn’t? Teachers are all but left out of the picture and other adults are pointedly lacking in any prominent roles. When Gi-tae’s father is seeking out answers, it is already after the fact. He seems slight and diminished during these infrequent sequences and is ultimately ineffective in his search. Gi-Tae, in an exchange with his friends that takes place before his demise, describes how he goes home to cook his own dinner every night, lucky to occasionally see his father for a moment. His mother is simply gone.

The director’s decision to sequence events out of order could come across as strange or even haphazard. As the end of the film approaches, events become more difficult to place within the timeline. The tension that had been built up so steadily before seems to dissipate and the final moment of confrontation between victim’s father and friend, where one might expect a powerful resolution, proves inconclusive. Any misgivings I had about the mastery of this film were erased after I had the privilege of giving the film a second viewing. The interspersion of past and present events is in fact very meaningfully constructed. Words and gestures hearken back to earlier moments, creating the sense of something possibly even bigger and harder to cope with than the events that were clearly shown, lingering under the surface. As for showing events before and after, but not including the actual tragedy at the film’s center, here the director drives home how muddled our understanding of those around us truly can be. If we don't seek out clearer communication, we can only speculate on the lives of those around us.

A possible part of the film’s appeal on the festival circuit and indie success in its native Korea is how emotion is expressed effectively without the use of elaborate set pieces or visual effects. Even background music is used sparingly, although the few moments of music used during the story and over the credits are made up of haunting electronic-tinged melodies. They leapt out at me and left me yearning to discover their source. It’s a minor touch, but one that further shows Yoon is a director of enormous potential to look out for and Bleak Night is a film well worth seeing.

Gainsborg (2010)

This is a wonderfully atypical biography of singer, songwriter, artist and father of Charlotte, Serge Gainsborg. This is the story of the man from his youth in occupied France during the Second World War until his death. It’s a film I failed to see at last years Tribeca Film Festival, and which seems to have only just picked up a US release. Unaware of the late summer release I got a DVD from the UK. Watching the film the other night, I found what was going to be a ten minute dip into the pond, instead became a late night in front of the TV past my bedtime.

I could fault the film for not being forth coming with dates and details about who was who and what was when, but on the other hand the film seems to assume that you know something of your subject. I really didn’t, but I didn’t care. Frankly the film paints such a wonderful portrait of it’s subject that you really stop caring about the details because you’re being so damned entertained by what you're seeing. There was a point where I realized that had the film not been true, I wouldn’t have cared about the details, and once that happened I stopped caring and just went with it.

On the other hand any film that has your main character interacting with cartoon costumes of himself can’t be held to be anything other than a portrait of the man as a human being rather than a completely historic document. Frankly by the end of the film I had the feeling that I had a better sense of the man than I would have had all the details been filled in.

Give a great deal of credit to director Joann Sfar, who manages to make a film that is anything other than typical. Yes, it covers the life of it’s subject, but it seems to tell you more about it than one normally would expect from a straight forward bio pic.

I really loved this film a great deal. Watching the film I was saddened that I didn’t get to see the film at Tribeca last year. I would have loved to have seen this in a theater and watched how people reacted. On the other hand by not seeing it at the festival I didn’t have to feel bad at not seeing the film again any time soon.

While its probably not one of the “best” films of the year, it’s looking to be one of my favorites.

When you can, give this film a shot.