Miami Jewish Film Festival Announces Free Hybrid Event with Drive-In, Outdoor, and Virtual Screenings of Record 145 Films, Runs April 14-29, 2021

Wednesday, March 24th 2021, Miami, FL. — The Miami Jewish Film Festival (MJFF), is proud to announce the program and plans for the upcoming 24th edition, which will be a hybrid of virtual and live programming events with a record-breaking 145 films in selection, and all screenings accessible for free. Running from April 14-29, three months later than their traditional dates in January, the festival will screen 100 feature films, including eight world premieres, over 20 North American premieres, and 45 short films. The lineup holds 39 first-time feature filmmakers representing 25 countries, and an unprecedented 47 films directed by women (32% of total program).   

The Miami Jewish Film Festival, the largest Jewish film festival in the world, has endeavored to make its film slate as widely available as possible by providing its entire virtual program and live event experiences, featuring drive-in and outdoor screenings, all available for free. Drive-in locations will all take place in the heart of the Wynwood Arts District, the arts hub of South Florida, while virtual screenings will be geolocked to either the state of Florida or the US. Virtual screenings will be hosted on Eventive.   

The opening night film of MJFF 2021 will be Honeymood, a heartfelt romantic comedy from Israeli writer/director Talya Lavie, who returns to the festivall following her previous acclaimed blockbuster, Zero Motivation, which broke two decades of Israeli box-office records and won six Israeli Academy Awards. The closing night film will be Howie Mandel: But, Enough About Me, a moving, funny, and uncensored profile of the versatile showman Howie Mandel that was produced during the pandemic. Both opening and closing night film presentations will take place at the North Beach Bandshell’s open-air amphitheater in Miami Beach. 

Deepening its mission to be the launchpad for the best Jewish and Israeli cinema in the world, MJFF is introducing a number of unique new programs and initiatives this year, including its inaugural Breaking Barriers/Building Bridges program that is dedicated to presenting stories that align the power that exists in the connection between the Black and Jewish communities in a time of rising racism and antisemitism. Films presented in this new program include Nancy Buirski’s A Crime on the Bayou; the concert documentary Dreams of Hope; the coming-of-age drama Tahara, starring Rachel Sennott; They Ain’t Ready for Me, about a black rabbinical student who leads a fight against gun violence; and Shared Legacies, about the African American-Jewish civil rights alliance that features Harry Belafonte, Jesse Jackson, and the late John Lewis.

MJFF is also introducing its new Headliners program that will spotlight acclaimed standouts and selected premieres from festivals around the world, including this year’s Academy Award entries from Israel — Asia, starring Emmy-nominee Shira Haas (Netflix’s Unorthodox) — and Latvia —  The Auschwitz Report. In addition to the Cannes Competition selection Here We Are; Eytan Fox’s Tribeca Competition entry Sublet; the black-and-white sweeping epic Shadow Country, winner of the Czech Film Critics’ Awards for Best Film; the documentary thriller Portrayal, about a family’s secret behind hundreds of missing artworks; the animated feature film Josep, by acclaimed French cartoonist Aurel; and a special under-the-stars presentation of the documentary Ronnie’s, about the world-famous Jazz club, that will take place by the Intracoastal Waterway in Miami Beach.

Playing in the festival’s Next Wave Competition, which is juried by 21-35 year-old college students and young professionals, are the International Premiere of The Little Things, the interfaith marriage documentary American Birthright, the stranger-than-fiction tale The Man of the Monkey, and the North American Premiere of The Young Kadyas.

Feature films receiving their World Premieres at the MJFF include the Ed Asner drama Tiger Within; Portuguese period drama 1618; Impossible Possible: The Amazon 5000 Story, the documentary chronicling a cancer survivor’s trek across the Amazon; the French biopic The Legacy of Aristides, about Portugal’s Schindler; the Roberta Grossman (Who Will Write Our History) produced Petit Rat; and Who Will Remain?, a documentary portrait of acclaimed Yiddish poet Avrom Sutzkever — described by the New York Times as the “greatest poet of the Holocaust.”

More than 20 films will receive their North American Premieres at the festival, including Yaron Shani’s Reborn, the final chapter in his acclaimed Love Trilogy; Displaced, which centers on a third-generation Holocaust survivor living in Berlin; and Jez: A Letter for Life, about a father’s efforts to document his life for his newborn twins as he battles with a rare form of cancer. Among the eight Ibero-American films set to premiere, four will receive North American Premieres: The Most Dangerous Man in Europe (Spain), Paternal (Argentina), Perón and the Jews (Argentina), and The Seven Boxes (Spain).

New this year, MJFF is launching a section dedicated to LGBTQ+ cinema that will feature the North American Premiere of In the Image of God, a moving documentary about a Rabbi’s struggles being born intersex and their transition to becoming a religious leader and an LGBTQ+ activist, as well as premieres of Francois Ozon’s Cannes breakout Summer of ’85, the Israeli slapstick comedy Kiss Me Kosher, the documentary Marry Me However, exploring the lives of Orthodox-Jewish LGBT members who willingly choose to marry heterosexuals and raise a heteronormative family, and the film Surviving the Silence, which delves into the unknown story behind the historic discharge of Col. Grethe Cammemeyer for admitting she was a lesbian during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era.

Diving into the 2021 Film Festival program by the numbers, MJFF audiences will be able to experience a lineup boasting 142 film premieres, including eight World Premieres, 22 North American Premieres, three U.S. Premieres, 14 Southeast US Premieres, and 40 Florida Premieres, among others, as well as over 50 conversations with filmmakers, stars, and scholars from around the world, including Howie Mandel, Ed Asner, Eytan Fox, and Anders Refn, among many others.

This year's poster is designed by Florida-native artist Kent Hernandez.

Full details on the program and tickets to the festival can be found at: www.miamijewishfilmfestival.org 

Nina Wu (2019) hits MOMI March 26 as part of their Midi Z series before hitting theaters across the country April 2nd

NINA WU is the story of a woman, who after eight years in the big city looking to get her big break as an actress, makes the leap but finds that the sexual abuse and harassment is too much to bear.

The film was co-written by star Ke-Xi who based it on her experiences in the entertainment industry and upon the Harvey Weinstein scandal. The film is a long scream about the treatment of women in the film industry. Yea they may rise up from humble beginnings in the eyes of the fans and critics but to the industry and the powerful men who control it they are little more that objects to abuse or screw. It is a chilling way of life that the Weinstein cases have only just begun to shine a light on after a century being in the darkness.

Director Midi Z’s film is a good, if mixed, affair. Containing some absolute wrenching sequences and images that will hang with you forever. Ke-Xi's performance is really good and one gets the sense that in writing her part she really held nothing back. If you have kids who want to entertain you now will have second thoughts about sending them out into the slaughterhouse that is the entertainment industry.

However as good as the film is many ways it has a few bumps that make the film less than what it could be. As horrible as what happens to Vivian is shouldn’t have been a complete surprise since she has been living knocking on doors for almost a decade. On some level its kind of shocking that she is so unprepared what she finds on the other side of success. The other big problem is that Vivian isn’t completely likeable, she is very self-absorbed and disconnected. I could chalk that up to what happens in the film, but from the glimpses of her earlier life we get a sense that this is the way she always was. While the self absorption doesn’t lessen the horror of what happens it does keep us several slightly distant from her soul.

I would also quibble with the shift in tones, I think the fact the film is such a visceral gut punch with her plight I’m not sure that it needs to gild the lily and push some of the psychological disintegration. I’m not saying it shouldn’t be there, it should, but more that the tone of horror film sometimes takes on is pushing it a half a step too far.

Reservations aside- NINA WU is a gut punch. Recommended.

Joe Finds Grace (2020)

 

Joe is a young man with facial deformities and slow mental abilities who leaves his home in order to try and find his younger sister.

One of a kind film mixes a variety of storytelling styles in order to tell its sweet tale of a young man on the road. This is a film made by a director who never felt constrained by needing to stay inside of any sort of cinematic lines as sound and silent film convention mix, as does live action and animation and color and black and white. Reality and fantasy dance together.  Director Anthony Harrison uses what ever means he felt was necessary at at moment to tell his story. The result is a film that can be daunting, but it is also one that if we are willing to go with will move us deeply 

JOE FINDS GRACE is a must see for any long time reader of Unseen Films. I say this because if you have been with the site over the last decade plus you completely understand that some of the best and most interesting films are off the beaten path and this film is most certainly that.

Invincible (2021) hits Prime Friday

Based on the comic book by Robert Kirkman, INVINCIBLE is the story of Mark Grayson. He is the son of superhero Omni-Man. As the series begins Mark is a just a regular high school kid. However that doesn't last long as his super powers kick in. Things take a turn for the worst as an accident takes out some  heroes and there are questions about his father's morality.

Never having read the comic I don't know where this fits in the realm of superhero comics. I'm not sure how much of this story was influential on other films and programs but coming in the story seems like its borrowing from other stories. Things like SKY HIGH, SUPER, THE BOYS and any number of other superhero properties all came to mind while watching it.

I know one of the reasons I'm not a huge fan of the series is that there are long digressions. The series opens with a long discussion between secret service agents at the White House. It goes on for about five minutes with no immediately clear reason, and when it is made clear much later in the episode, the discussion mirrors the relationship that Mark has with his dad, you realize it didn't need to be that long. And that's a problem with several scenes in the 3 episodes I screened the desperately needed editing. Frankly I like the idea of long episodes in a series because it allows for things to grow, in the case of INVINCIBLE, the 40 plus minute episodes are much too leisurely and unfocused. 

While never bad, INVINCIBLE never really grabbed me. I kept wanting things to not digress. I was so unimpressed with the 3 episodes that when I was done I had no interest in continuing past them.

I suspect that your mileage will vary.

(FULL DISCLOSURE-In the interest of helping you judge if you will like the show consider  I really dislike Kirkman's WALKING DEAD comic-having read 100 or so issues,. And I find the TV series incredibly silly and the sort of thing that has me constantly asking "but why...")

OXFORD Film Festival 2021 Curtain Raiser

 

The Oxford Film Festival starts tomorrow and it has a killer line up.

As most of you know the Oxford Film Fest is one of the great hidden treasures of the festival year. Not only is it full of great films , it more importantly it is full of great people and over the years I have found myself with many ne friends simply because I covered the festival.

I love this festival, and if it wasn’t for Covid I would have been there  this year.

For those wondering the festival is going half in person and half virtual, so do yourself a favor- go to the website and look around and screen some movies.

As much as I adore the festival my coverage this year is going to be limited. You don’t need to know the gory details, but all you need to know is that life jumped me and limited my time to properly commit to the festival. I have seen some films and the reviews will be running when I can get them up.

I’ve also seen  a few films previously and those films can be found here.

TAHARA
BLEEDING AUDIO
NO ORDINARY MAN
DARLING PET MONKEY

And with that I ask you to simply go to the website and pick some films and go crazy.

European Tour '73 (2020)

I don't know if I want this film to remain a short or if I want to see a feature expansion, possibly as a narrative instead of as a doc. Either way Ross Munro's EUROPEAN TOUR '73 is a blast.

The film is a mix of home movies, animation and remembrances of the trip his family took across Europe. Its a crazy tale that is deftly mixes nostalgia with humor to create a film that touches the head and the heart. Its a film that gets the right balance to make one of the last stops of the trip to Dachau be moving and make you wonder what his parents were thinking before hitting you with the somberness of it all.

I was moved and as I said at the top part of me  wants to see more of this trip.

EUROPEAN TOUR '73 is currently on the festival circuit and recommended.

Sheep Without a Shepherd (2019) hits VOD and DVD on Friday

I'm going to do this review in two parts . The first is going to be spoiler free review. The second I'm going to talk about something regarding the film that might give something away. If you don't want to know just read part one. If you don't care and are willing to risk it then read the whole thing.

Part One- Spoiler Free.

SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD is a great thriller. A twisty and turny film it pits a movie loving man whose daughter accidentally kills the son of powerful family when he tries to blackmail her with a video. Using things he learned at the movies he plays a cat and mouse game with the police.

If you love great thrillers this one is for you. It's a largely edge of your seat thrill ride that will keep you wondering until the end. 

It is recommended.

Part Two- May Contain Spoilers

At this point one more word of warning....

Still here?

Okay here we go.

As much as I like this film it comes with a really huge problem which made me deflate at one point because I suddenly realized how the film was going to end. Mind you it wasn't a plot point, or anything related to the film. Hell, this film is as tightly plotted and breathlessly paces a film as the come. No, the problem with the film is that it was produced in Mainland China which means it's subject to their censorship laws and strict (more or less) guidelines about stories.  Among other things stories are supposed to reflect the greater good, which means you know the way the ending kind of has to go, even if the filmmakers kind of bend things a little bit.

In all seriousness I was going crazy watching this film. The suspense had me bouncing in my seat because I had to know if things were going to come out alright for our hero. No there is nothing wrong with how the film ends, but knowing where a film you can't out think is going to end up took a little bit of the shine off the film.

I'm sorry, I don't care if the Chinese government has to have things go their way- life doesn't do that and it really wrecks top shelf mysteries.

Regardless of my bitching SHEEP WITHOUT A SHEPHERD rocks. It's a must see film and is highly recommended.

Nightcap 3/21/21 Streaming is the way to go to make money.....or is it?, Was anyone watching SXSW films?, and the Oscar noms

There was an interesting discussion on the radio about how the major sports are moving toward deals with streaming platforms because that is were the money is. The franchises feel that having things like ESPN+ Amazon Prime and other providers carry their games will be good for them long term- at least until they can work out a model to control all the viewership themselves.

What I found interesting was that instead of completely siding with the NHL who recently signed a deal with ESPN and the NFL who inked a deal with Amazon and is looking to ink deals with CBS's service and others, the hosts took a stand back and see approach. They understood that the big sports leagues are looking to corner the market but at the same time they were aware that they maybe cutting off their noses to spite their faces.

In  listening to the sports guys talk I was kind of shocked that the talk shifted from sports to the lessons of the movie streaming wars.  Specifically they discussed the battles that Prime, Netflix, Disney +, Hulu, Apple+ and others are having trying to get viewers. While Prime has the backing of Amazon which most people use anyway, the other services are battling to retain viewers. As the radio guys said people are constantly shifting their streaming services around depending upon what is new on that particular service. 

While everyone seems to be cutting the cord to cable because it is expensive for channels you don't watch, the truth of the matter is the cost of the streaming services when added together is a lot more than cable. Everyone I know is shifting the services on a monthly basis because they drop things when the new stuff runs out. The only thing that seems to stay right now is that the Marvel Zombies are sticking with Disney+ because they have a new show a week. Even before Covid made money tight everyone I know was doing the streaming cha cha cutting services when seasons of shows ended to pick up others on other services in order to save money.

The radio guys wondered how is this going to effect the NHL, NFL MLB and others who right now are partnering with streaming services, but who ideally would love to be the only place everyone had to go to so they could keep all of the money. Are people going to be be willing to pay big bucks for access to the games? What is going to happen in the off season?

That last question is important since if you've ever watched MLB or the NFL's cable stations in the off season the you find it's either old games or programming only hardcore fans will care about. Will they get anyone to use their app in the off season or are people just going to tune out and close their accounts?

No one seems to know and the indication on the radio was that the off season question was what was holding off the leagues from just doing it themselves.

I don't have an answer but I do know that if sports start to put more and more behind paywalls I will simply watch less and less. I enjoy the various sports but there is only so much I can pay for. 

Besides my interest in many sports, especially the NFL is waning thanks to the increased discussion of gambling. I simply don't wager and if I did I would never care enough to listen to all of the possible bets the sports shows and TV announcers go on about.

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There was some talk on Twitter as SXSW started wondering if anyone other than the press and industry was watching the movies since the chatter on social media seemed to be minimal.

While I have not been on top of every festival that has been happening lately I have been staggering through a lot of fests of various sizes and I do have to say that the SXSW chatter that I’m running across is specifically industry related.  I am not noticing people outside of that talking about it. For example I'm interacting with more people about Cinequest which only started yesterday  then the whole of the last week of SXSW.

On the other hand I am getting a lot of hits for the few films I am covering. But then again if I cover a fest the reviews do get traffic.(I have a reputation of covering festivals and my numbers jump for fests)

I know part of the problem with SXSW is that you can’t ala carte the fest. As I learned on Twitter you either paid 300 bucks to see it all or you saw nothing. Additionally I found out that the cost of attending is normally 1500 bucks so it is not a fest you do casually. The only people I know attending the festival are either press or programmers for other festivals.

I suspect that I’m going to get into trouble here but the cost of  SXSW  is insane. No other fest is that expensive just to step in the door. Any fests that I ran across in the last year where you had to buy it all was only a nominal fee (10 to 40 dollars). And truth be told outside of a few fests you always could buy individual movies.

As several people pointed out on Twitter where SXSW seems to be happening in a vacuum, other recent festivals such as Sundance was a social media bonanza with people  across the net coming together to really talk about the films.

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The Oscar Nominations are out and to me they are a big yawn.

Lets face it last year was not an exciting year. While there were some truly great films, most of the ones I really liked were not nominated. Indeed the best selections of nominees are the Supporting Acting Awards and the Animated Features. The rest are just sort of there.

I am very shocked that ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI was largely shut out, not because there was a lot of talk about it but because it really is that good. I am also heartbroken that the Small Axe films got no nominations. And I am horrified that Delroy Lindo was not in the running (what a travesty)

Ultimately I won't care about at happens other than a few awards- so the night of the awards I'll be free for mahjong or whatever if you want to play.

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Last week I was bemoaning how life had gotten in the way of my really covering things for Unseen. I realize that that is only partly true. The other part of that is that outside of a film here or there a lot of the films over the last few months have been bland. 

Yes, there have been great ones but too many have been the sort of thing that I would have been fine seeing on TV or in the movies in a situation where I didn't have to cover them.  

I was looking at one film on this past Monday and I realized that there was no real way I could cover the film in more than a line that said Yea its good. I desperately wanted to steal Hubert Vigilla's line of "Yea, that was a thing" but I didn't think the festival or the filmmaker would have liked it much.

More exciting films need to come out or I am going to die a slow death of ennui.

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For those wondering I am not ignoring the Snyder Cut of JUSTICE LEAGUE. I have not seen it yet- I have to have a tooth pulled this week and will be watching it afterward.  Additionally I will have a piece on superheroes and the movies running next weekend in this slot. I would have posted it today but it is still being worked and reworked as this posts.

ATOMIC COVER-UP (2021) Cinequest 2021

 

Nuclear war represents the end of everything – Hubert Sussman 

ATOMIC COVER-UP is the story of the cameramen who recorded the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  It is a story that begins the day  after the bombing when news reel cameraman Shigeru Miki passed through the city and realized that someone had to make a record of what happened.  Working through the weeks until the Americans arrived he and his colleagues were responsible for much of cinematic record of what happened. Eventually they were joined by Lt. Daniel A. McGoven who came to the cities with color film and started to record himself. Eventually the men met and along with others began making a full record of what happened. And while the army sought to shut it all down and destroy the footage, they didn't want people to know how terrible atomic weapns were, the need to record the medical effects allowed them to continue filming – despite the fact the US government would restrict access to the footage for decades.

Not to put too fine a point on it ATOMIC COVER-UP reduced me to tears several times. The film opens with an American officer describing walking through the ruins of a once great city with his cameraman and being confused by the sound of singing. Heading towards the sound he found the ruins of a church packed with parishioners all singing….and marriage of words and music reduced me a sobbing mess. I don't know why but the thought of people simply trying to carry on in the face of such utter destruction moved me. 

Despite reading and seeing numerous films on the bombings this is the first time it all came together in a devastating gut punch. A good part of that is the result of seeing footage of Hiroshima shot by Miki literally days before it was wiped off the face of the earth contrasted with his footage of the rubble days later. It was the first time that the enormity of what was lost hit home.

While this is framed as the story of the camera men this is also the story of much more. This is the story of the survivors (some of who survived for decades), of the city (which was rebuilt) and most devastating the willingness of humans to try and forget or hide the terrible things they do. Thankfully there were good men who knew it all shouldn’t be lost and made sure that the films couldn’t and wouldn’t disappear (even to the point that they hid copies of the films)

This film will rock your world. It is a film of quiet and devastating power that will bend the knees of even those who think they know everything about the bombings. You will be moved. It is a film that makes clear why the military and the hawks of the world would like record of the bombings to go away and more importantly why we must never let this happen again. It also makes clear that the whole idea that there could be a post apocalyptic existence is a joke.

This film is a must see, not just because it is a good film but because as a member of humanity we must bear witness to to the pain and suffering that we and our forefathers have inflicted, and make sure it never happens again.

One of 2021's most important films and as such highly recommended

Sound of Violence (2021) SXSW 2021

When Alexis was ten she regained her hearing in the aftermath of a family murder. Two decades later, as she works at a college and works on her experimental music Alexis finds she is addicted to the sound of violence since it triggers a physical reaction with in her.

For the early part of its running time SOUND OF VIOLENCE is a deeply disturbing film. The story of a young woman chasing her own sort of high it takes us into places most films have never done before. By placing a seemingly normal young woman at the center of the action the film asks us to ponder the various things we all do to get an endorphin rush. Films don't usually give us young women, especially young woman of  color, as killers in the realm of Hannibal or Jigsaw. They are victims not perpetrators. I was bothered because all my years of cinema going had me thinking one way.

Unfortunately as the film moves along, and especially into the second half things get out of control as director Alex Noyer jumps from real world violence and into the realm of Jigsaw from the SAW franchise. Noyer missteps as he gives us musical kill machines that are just suddenly there and an ending that is completely off the WTF table.(And he never explains how she could afford or have to build these machines of death when she is poor and always pressed for time) Nover makes a series of really bad moves that takes the stunning early turns and throws them out the window. What was a unique and brilliant horror film becomes a silly badly done retread. 

As much as the second half disappoints SOUND OF VIOLENCE is might be worth a look, if only for it's use of an unexpected killer and a chilling first third.

THE BOYS IN RED HATS (2021) Cinequest 2021

Covington Catholic alum Jonathan Schroder looks into the way the media covered the incident at the Lincoln Memorial where Nick Sandmann became the object of vilification when an edited video of him and others from Covington seemingly smirked in the face of Nathan Phillips, a Native American activist. The video made the rounds on the various news outlets and caused an uproar until it was discovered the video had been edited. Schroder looks into why and how it happened, the aftermath and what it all means.

THE BOYS IN THE RED HATS is a tough film to get a handle on. Because the incident at the center of the film was, and still is, politically charged odds are you are not going to get a film that approaches your expectations going in. You may not have a handle on it coming out either. Even having watched it I still don't know what I think of it or what it all means. Schroder most certainly unravels what happened but he throws in other bits that challenge us, just as it challenges him, but he also ends up confusing us as to his intent.

Schroder's feelings about the high school he attended are complicated. He was someone who was invited to the school simply because he could play football well. He had no connections to get him into the school unlike most of the rich kids who went there. Attending it opened doors for him and even got him his first job no questions asked.  He has a warm place in his heart for the school. But he also understands why people hate it. He understands how the smirking student body, a tactic that developed as a way of fighting back at those who hate the school, causes people to despise his alma matter. He himself  loved the school for most of his time there, only changing some of his feelings when a teacher hauled off and punched him in the face as punishment. The act altered much of how he felt but it never fully extinguished all his love of the school.

The complexity bleeds out into the film as we get conflicting lines of narrative from Schroder. Its most obvious when he talks about Covington. At times he loves his old school at times he doesn't. He sees problems there but likes how it can create good young men. The trouble comes is that duality invades everything. We see everything from both sides until we don't. At times he seems to be against the sort of privilege that Covington affords students and then he kind of is for it because it helped him. Schroder doesn't like Nathan Philips at the start, then seems to warm to him at one point, talking of friendly emails and texts, before turning against him in the end. What are we supposed to feel? What are his real feelings?

And that is another big problem with the film and that is, for all it's complexity, is very unfocused. Nominally the film is about the encounter that was misrepresented on the news. However the story of what happened isn't a grandly unknown quantity, the matter has been discussed in various outlets and forums. Indeed about only 20 minutes of screen time passes before we are largely done with the subject so Schroder dives back into the culture of Covington, his feelings for the school, the politics of race, who Nathan Phillips is or is not, and his efforts to make the film and to get people on camera such as Sandmann and Phillips. The result is the film swings from pillar to post.

As I was watching the film I felt more than a bit over whelmed  trying to keep up with where Schroder was going and wondering why he was doubling back on things. As much as I was liking the fact that he was saying things that needed to be said about how events are covered, he kept mudding the waters by repeating himself, going off on tangents and seeming to suddenly change is mind or take an overt political point of view that seems to come from left field. I got to a point somewhere around mid-film when I threw up my hands and screamed at the screen in frustration. I didn't know what he was trying to say other than in fleeting moments, and even then he would just contradict himself.

Honestly there is something here, it just needs a different editor

Is THE BOYS IN RED HATS worth seeing? I honestly don't know. Sometimes I think yes and sometimes no. The best I can say that any film that is as all over the place as this one is worth a look since you might find something that clicks with you.

Soundtrack to Sixteen (2021) Cinequest 2021

Anna-Elizabeth & Hillary Shakespeare's SOUNDTRACK TO SIXTEEN is a charmer.  A small gem of a film it is a film that is as awkward and winning as its two protagonists. It is so wonderfully likable that you won't mind the bumps along the way. 

The film has 16 year old Maisy obsessing about never being kissed. An awkward, much too brainy young girl she is desperately trying to sort out where she belongs since the world is telling her she should be somewhere different. Into her life comes Ben, a super brain nerd who doesn't seem to mind the ribbing he takes because he is so smart it all comes easy to him. As they try to navigate a friendship, or is it a romance?, they end up uncertain of what life is throwing at them.

Despite being decades older than the two leads I found myself screaming at the screen "YES!!! YES!!! EXACTLY!!!!" as I was suddenly 16 again and pining for someone to love. Specifically unsure of how to deal with the Michelle, daughter of one of the teachers and who liked me to the point that she would flip her clog and clock me in the head when I pissed her off. But I digress.... or not because SOUNDTRACK made me feel like I was back in North Shore trying to figure out how romance worked and what in the hell girls were. 

Say what you want, the Shakespeare sisters have done what few films I have ever seen and that is make a film that honestly and truly puts what it is like to be an awkward teen on screen. And when I say this I mean not in a Hollywood PRETTY IN PINK sort of  way, but in a way that dredges up that part of you that you were hoping never to have to revisit again because you are not a teenager any more. Sure the details of  being a teen have changed but the emotion and the thought process hasn't and this film reminds you of that fact.

Forgive the run on sentences but SOUNDTRACK TO SIXTEEN has broken me open and my younger self has come out and is writing this piece, because let's face it the film touched that part of me and brought it to life.

And while I could quibble about some uneven performances and a couple of awkwardly staged moments, there really is no point since the Shakespeare's have made a film that has transcended its bumps to be a living breathing representation of what it is really like to be young and looking for something greater than ourselves.

What an absolute joy.

This film is so highly recommended that even before it was over I stopped the film in order to tell my fiends they had to see it.

Welcome to the Show (2021) Cinequest 2021 (potential spoilers)

On the eve of Thanksgiving four friends, out drinking and getting stoned, find they are invited to The Show an interactive theatrical experience to be held the next day. Foregoing the holiday, and breaking up with a girlfriend in the process, the four friends go off on their adventure....

What happens once they show up at the theater is the film and in fairness I can't really tell you any more since that will clue you into where this goes. Basically what ends up happening is that friends end up discussing what is real, what is the game and pondering life as they try to work out how to get to the next thing. If you want a lot of heady and loopy discussions where you have to find your own answers this film is for you.

My reaction to the film is mixed. I honestly really liked the film and its discussions. I liked how it was a big old mystery for us as well as the characters on screen. I was with the guys all the way or rather until a certain point near the end when I completely disconnected. There was a point near the end when I realized this film wasn't going to end satisfactorily.  Frankly while I know what writer director Dorie Barton was getting at, thanks to reading the promotional material, I don't think it's up on the screen. I don't think she gets her point across, with the result the ending left me wondering why I spent 90 plus minutes watching this. To be fair I don't know what would have worked for me,  but I know this ending isn't it.

Is WELCOME TO THE SHOW worth seeing? Yes. There is enough loopiness and interesting discussions to make it worth trying. While the ending didn't work for me, it may for you.

Echoes of Violence (2021) Cinequest 2021

 I don’t know what I think of ECHOES OF VIOLENCE. The plot about a real estate agent who rescues a young woman from being attacked outside a house he is showing and having events spiraling out from there is pretty good. The cast, including a dark turn by Frank Oz, is excellent.

The trouble is either the editing or the direction is no good to the point that I spent a large portion of the film talking to the screen wondering why the film was shot the way it was.  Why was something three shots in stead of one? Why was the camera placed in certain places. Very quickly I found I was watching the filmmaking and not the film itself.  After 20 minutes I backed things up and started again trying not to watch the wildly uneven filmmaking.

I was only partly successful and while I made it to the end of the film and its denouncement I found I was still annoyed by how the film was shot. The script and the actors deserved better.

I can’t in all good conscious recommend this film but if you want to see a good cast and good script and don’t mind that it’s wrecked on the rocks of weak filmmaking then give ECHOES OF VIOLENCE a shot.

Non Western (2021) Cinequest 2021

This is the story of Nanci and Thaddeus who are traveling to the Lakota Reservation in order to be married. As the pair prepares for their big day they wrestle with what form this interracial and inter-cultural marriage since Thaddeus would like Nanci to bend to take on the beliefs of his nation. However Nanci has worked too hard to get where she is and isn’t so willing to just be a wife and mother. And lest you think that this is a simple story Thaddeus is a member of the Cheyenne nation who was raised by white Christian parents while Nanci is white woman who had been raised by Lakota parents. The world is not a simple place.

A excellent documentary inhabited by two great people, NON WESTERN is a film you ae going to fall in love with. While the film is a heady meditation on our roles in society, family and and ourselves, that is all secondary to the fact that tis is a tale of two people who we truly like and want to see work it out. These are sweet people, clearly very much in love. They are the sort of people we would want to hang out with, not because they are are super cool, but because they are just really good people. You want this to go their way.

Yes, the themes running through the film touched me intellectually, but the human story at the film's center moved me deeply on a human and emotional level. It is the emotional level that had me getting misty at the final shot, and it is on that level that I am going to revisit the film many more times down the road.

Highly recommended Non Western is one of the great unexpected finds of 2021

See You Then (2021) SXSW

Pooya Mohseni and Lynn Chen are excellent as the former lovers who looking for different things in Mari Walker's thought provoking "two" hander.

Years after  abandoning Naomi and after she transitioned Kris reaches out to her her old girlfriend to try to talk about what happened between them. What follows is a night of more and more intimate discussions.

This is an evening of uneasy travel for everyone as the conversation of the shared past gives way to revelations of real pain. Along the way there is plenty of discussion regarding being trans, being male versus being female, relationships, art, family as well as many other things. Its a heady mix that makes you think while it moves your emotions. 

This isn't an easy film. A great deal of this film clearly comes from a real place. There is a sense that some of the conversations aren't made up, but transcriptions of things that happened. You know things are going to be tough from the outset as we see things are awkward to start. Neither of the women has seen each other in years and ty aren't sure how to start. Things get occasionally difficult as long ago events are brought up as a means of trying to find a better connection but they are revealed to be a sore spot. And then things get worse as long buried emotions and secrets come to light. I felt rocked.

Despite running a seemingly brief 75 minutes I came out of SEE YOU THEN feeling as if I'd been with the two women the whole evening. There is a great deal here and to be honest I know I need to go through the film another time or two to catch it all. This is a film that is a full meal.

While I really like the film a great deal and I love the sense that we are watching series of moments in time, I would like to quibble with one thing and that is the film tries a little too hard to get every possible revelation into the film before the end credits. I think my quibbling is not so much with what happens but how it happens  with the final pieces seemingly more  stage managed into happening just then.

Quibble aside SEE YOU THEN will rock you. Recommended at SXSW or wherever you can see it.

Dark State (2021) hits theaters today

 

A reporter in a small town investigates the car wreck that injured an aspiring actress and took the lives of  an intelligence officer, a pharmaceutical heir and a serial killer. As the mystery begins to be unraveled she discovers that the possibility that high reaching cabal maybe real 

Okay thriller is much too talky for its own good. This is a film where everyone seems intent on talking rather than doing. The result is that there is nowhere near as much suspense as there should be. To be fair I was curious where this was going and stayed to the end but I was never felt any sort of suspense.

If you like thrillers and aren't picky, this is worth a look. Otherwise look elsewhere.

Brief word on We Are As Gods (2021) SXSW

This is a look at  Stewart Brand founder of the modern environmental movement, one of Ken Kesey's merry pranksters and creator of the the Whole Earth Catalog. We follow his story from childhood to  his present attempts to clone extinct animals.

This is a good look at a man who influenced  our world but who most people have no knowledge. Its a loving portrait of a man who just wants  to make to the world a better place.

I suspect this is going to end up on PBS 

The Feast (2021) SXSW 2021

A rich family prepares dinner with a local business man and farmer who are there in order to discuss the use of the land for a mine. However things go wrong thanks to the young woman who is serving the meal.

THE FEAST is a mannered artistic horror film with a point. It is beautifully composed and very deliberately put together. It is about more things rather than just the scares. This is a film about the society and environment, that is constructed in such away that you are very aware of the worlds the film is inhabiting Whether this clicks with you will depend upon your cinematic tastes toward very deliberate films.

THE FEAST often seems to play like some of the work of Lorcan Finnegan but with not so much of an emotional connection. Finnegan will create very well drawn worlds and keep things very measured. He makes us aware of the divide  the worlds of man and the world of nature and he breaks us by revealing time and again that we are not as in control as we think. Finnegan's strength is that he he can be deliberate but yet keep us connected, we are aware that for the grace of god we could be in that circumstance. Unfortunately the creators of the THE FEAST never keep us connected. everything is alien to us. The rich are not like us and the others seem not to be like anyone we know. As with many of the shots looking into the modern country home I always felt outside of the action.

Despite not liking the disconnectedness of the telling, the real disappointment for me was the plot itself. Basically there isn't anything surprising about it. Much too early on, indeed even from the plot synopsis given us, we can sort out where this is going to go. For me I was writing the film to or three scenes ahead of the action and there was a point when I kind of debated turning it off, only staying to see how the ending finally went down.

While not bad its a film that I think is only going to appeal to the art house crowd

FEVER hits virtual cinemas tomorrow

Not long after a widowed security guard's daughter informs him that she is going to  move her medical practice to a different city he contracts a mysterious illness. Tests prove inconclusive and he drifts back to his home in the rain forest to look for a cure.

A slice of life film that ponders the clash of cultures between those that leave their homes in the country and move to the city.  Working best for me as a slice of life film that shows us what life is like for those in the situations depicted. For me the addition of the mysterious illness adds a layer of pretension that isn't needed. Most of the themes it raises are already in play and we don't need to have our attention focused on them.

Regardless of my quibbles the film is beautiful to look at and recommended for images if nothing else.