Short version: Towelhead manages to balance humor and drama in this cautionary tale of a 13 year old girl’s burgeoning sexuality.

Like many films shown at Sundance this year, Towelhead combined different styles (humor and drama), but does it more successfully than most. It’s the story of a thirteen year old girl who is half Lebanese / half WASP whose physical development is quite ahead of her age. Towelhead (aka Nothing is Private) was written, directed and produced by Alan Ball, the same fellow who wrote the screenplay for the similarly themed American Beauty a few years ago.

Expectedly, due to the content of this film, it has only been picked up for limited distribution at theaters but it’s definitely worth seeing if you can handle the subject matter.

Summer Bishil (who was 19 at the time the movie was filmed) plays 13 year old Jasira. The movie puts the audience in an uncomfortable position with the very first scene – in which she walks out of a bathroom wearing a bathing suit with shaving cream on either side of her crotch along the line of the bathing suit. Not only that, but her divorced mother’s boyfriend is volunteering to shave her down there.

Apparently she is a bit folllicaly overdeveloped and is being teased by the girls at school. Later, when her mother (played by Maria Bello) discovers that Jasira shaved and that HER boyfriend helped, she becomes outraged and sends Jasira off to live with her father in Texas. Her mother stupidly blames her for being overdeveloped and having breasts at 13 instead of placing the blame on her creepy boyfriend.

When we meet her father (played wonderfully by Peter Macdissi) we immediately get a sense of how detached and odd he is. When she gets off the plane, after not having seen him for who knows how long, the first thing he says is “Your plane was late.” Jasira, not knowing how to respond to that says “I’m sorry” – to which he replies “Why? Where you flying the plane?”

The film takes place just before the overthrow of Saddam Hussein when the U.S. first invaded Iraq, and I found it interesting that they wasted no time whatsoever telling us that her father (Peter) is Catholic.

While he may be Catholic, he still has the ultra-strict personality of a Middle Eastern father. The next morning when Jasira shows up for breakfast wearing pajamas but obviously without a bra – he promptly slaps her across the face and tells her to put on something decent.

We soon meet the neighbors, a very WASPish family made up of a whitebread wife, obnoxious and rude 10 year old boy and a bigoted Army reservist father/husband Mr. Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart, who plays Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight, in a very risky role).

Of course Vuoso assumes that Peter is on Saddam’s side and the conversation turns cold very quickly. Jasira ends up babysitting their son and while at their home comes across the boy reading Playboy magazine. He ignores her when she scolds him and she picks one up herself, becoming fascinated and excited by the images she sees. She soon experiences her first surprise orgasm, and imagines herself as the models in the magazines.

One thing leads to another and Mr. Vuoso discovers that she found his magazines. While at first he seems to try to get through to her by asking why she was looking at them and that she shouldn’t be, the expression on his face soon changes as he looks at her closely for the first time.

Creepy doesn’t begin to describe it.

Eventually he violates her, with her at first going along but then being physically hurt by him. She is confused and doesn’t know what to do with her feelings, both physical and emotional, and she cannot turn to her cold father for comfort or advice.

She ends up being the girlfriend of a black student at her high school, who seems to be a decent kid. Eventually they have sex, and although her father doesn’t know that yet, he exhibits HIS racism by telling her she can’t see him any more.

Things continue to spiral out of control and eventually Jasira turns to a concerned pregnant neighbor who takes her in and educates her regarding self-respect, why older guys who want to be “friends” with 13 year olds should be avoided like the plague, and the definition of rape.

The performances all around were fantastic, with Bishil effectively conveying the innocence and confusion of a 13 year old girl, and Macdissi fascinating and funny to watch as he vacillates between authoritarian tyrant and extremely dry comedian. Eckhart was great as well and IMHO took a heck of a risk playing the role of a pedophile.

Yes, there is sex and nudity in the film, but it’s used to hammer home the wrongness of what’s going on. The way it’s used makes the audience extremely uncomfortable in a good way. Of course we all know that what is happening in the film is wrong on an intellectual level, but this film makes you see and feel the wrongness of it. You can’t help but be affected by it.

You can look at Towelhead from a couple of different angles, but as the parent of an 11 year old daughter, I look at it as a cautionary tale of exposing kids to sexual images too early, and not being a father that they can turn to for advice and comfort instead of whatever guys is available.

• Drag Me To Hell Review
• The House of the Devil Review
• Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant Review
• Finally, An Update On ‘Splice’ (Plus New Images!)
• ‘9′ Review
• WonderCon 2009 – Knowing / Astro Boy Panel

Short version: Were it not for the Dakota Fanning rape scene controversy, no one would be talking about this boring film.

So you’ve heard all the talk, accusations and screaming about the film Hounddog (or as many spelling-impaired people are writing it: Houndog) screening at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival starring Dakota Fanning but haven’t seen the film. The big question on people’s mind is “Just how outrageous or explicit was that rape scene?”

So you can gauge my answer, keep in mind that although this is a movie & TV website, for the most part I’ve come at stories from the point of view of a parent when it’s appropriate. I do not want every movie release to be Rated G, but on the other hand it drives me insane when bloodless yet intense violence or overt sexuality is aimed at kids.

The scene in question did in fact make me queasy and was sickening, but that was due more to the event than to anything on screen that could be considered even remotely explicit in regards to what was shown of 12 year old Dakota on the screen. If memory serves it looked like it may have been shot in a way where the actor portraying the rapist may never even have been on top of her. I could be mistaken on that point, but that was my impression. There were shots of her feet, hands and of course her face, and the scene was very brief.

Later on I’ll get to what bothered me about the film that I haven’t heard people talking about much. On to the movie…

Hounddog takes place some time in the late 50’s or early 60’s in the rural south. Dakota Fanning plays Lewellen, a very precocious 12 year old. It seems that right from the start the goal of the film is to make viewers uncomfortable as it opens with a scene between her and a boy that looks a bit younger that is her best friend. They’re in the woods and she wants him to drop his pants and underwear for a peek in exchange for a kiss. She talks about wanting to kill her father, which led me to believe that there may have been some sexual abuse going on, but it’s never alluded to again.

When she gets back home to the run-down shack where she and her father live, he is hanging all over Robin Wright Penn (whose character name I don’t recall) and is apparently a new girlfriend. Lewellan is a huge Elvis fan and she loves to sing his hit song “Hounddog” in particular. What is unsettling about that is that when she sings and really gets into the song she tries to gyrate like Elvis in a very provacative manner, sometimes moving like a dancer from a strip club. Seeing an undeveloped 12 year old moving like that is just plain creepy.

The film kind of rambles along and we meet Lewellan’s grandmother (played by Piper Laurie), and some of the black folks in town including Charles, a (too?) wise old soul and fan of snakes, which he uses to create medicine. The very bad guy in the movie is a new milkman in his early 20’s, who comes by Lewellan’s house one day and happens to see her singing a bit of her favorite song with her trademark moves, except this time while lying on her bed. He is the one who eventually rapes Lewellan.

Hounddog suffers from something I’ve noticed in some other indie films: It’s boring and it’s too long. Although it’s filled with gorgeous scenery, the film just seems to go on and on and on. This was yet another hour and a half long movie that felt twice as long. The best thing about the film is Dakota Fanning’s performance. She really is amazing at the range and subtlety of emotion she can convey at such a young age. I only hope that she is one of the very few child actors who survives the transition to adulthood unscathed.

The other thing that bothered me that I alluded to above was that I’ve never seen a 12 year old wearing just underwear in a movie in so many scenes. There were also instances of her lifting her dress to carry fruit or to pull something she’d been carrying out of her underwear. I can only assume the point of that was to show that she was very un-self-conscious about her body, but this doesn’t jive with her constantly wanting to kiss her best friend. That indicates to me that she is starting to enter puberty which I would think comes with an increased sense of privacy.

Is the director saying Lewellan was inadvertantly asking for it through her behavior? I doubt that. Is she saying Lewellen should be allowed to act seductively without fear of being attacked? I don’t know. My answer is obviously that there can be no justification for taking advantage of a child, but that she should be told that certain ways of acting are inappropriate and there are people out there who will respond to that behavior without giving thought to what is right and what is wrong.

I really believe that director Deborah Kampmeier was earnestly trying to bring attention to the subject of sexual abuse of children, but I don’t think showing a 12 year old girl acting seductively and peppering the film with scenes of her in her underwear was the way to go about it.

Those creepy guys who ogle kids underwear ads in the JC Penny catalog will no doubt enjoy this film, everyone else… not so much.

• New Moon Review
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Review
• Astro Boy Review
• 2012 Review
• Dakota Fanning Confirmed For ‘New Moon?’
• Dakota Fanning & Kristin Stewart To Star In ‘Runaways’

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: Jack Black is awesome in this movie that starts out hysterically funny but veers off into sentimentality.

Two things could have made Be Kind Rewind better:

1. If it actually had been made on a shoestring budget by a couple of buddies.

2. If it had stuck with the premise of being a comedy all the way through to the end.

Aside from those points, it was still a great film.

Jack Black stars as Jerry, a uneducated slacker with big dreams who lives in a trailer. He’s pals with Mike (played by Mos Def), a low-key guy without any big aspirations who works at one of the last few VHS video rental stores left in New Jersey.

Jerry gets electrocuted while trying to sabotage a power plant, the side effect of which is that he is now magnetized. He comes into the dollar video store where Mike is temporarily in charge and inadvertently erases all the videotapes in the store. Jerry is severely obnoxious and of course, oblivious to the fact.

When customers start returning videos to the store as defective, Mike discovers that the entire inventory is now useless. Mia Farrow plays an older woman who is keeping an eye on things while the owner (Danny Glover) is staying out of the picture, pretending to be out of town. She has only ever seen “chick flicks” but wants to watch Ghostbusters. Of course it’s now erased but finding the store in disarray she threatens to report the situation to the owner if they don’t get her a copy.

When Mike can’t find a VHS version of it anywhere in town, Jerry comes up with the idea for them to film their own version of the movie. Oh, and they have about two hours to get it done.

What follows is a funny as hell flurry of improvisational filmmaking, as they wrap themselves in tin foil, use vacuum cleaners and hoses for the Ghostbuster backpacks and tinsel for the beams emanating from their ghost-catching devices.

They get it done in the nick of time and as it turns out she and the gang-banger friends of the young man living in her home like it as well. Jerry, Mike and a young lady (Melonie Diaz) they rope into working with them also do a version of Rush Hour 2 (no doubt better than the original) – word gets out and soon people are lining up to get their homemade versions of popular movies.

They end up charging $20 to “Swede” a movie – their term for doing a 20 minute cheesy version of popular movies. The store and their movies end up a huge hit until the evil Hollywood lawyer (Sigourney Weaver) shows up to sue them for copyright infringement and destroy all their custom creations.

Now the movie doesn’t turn bad here, but unfortunately this is where the comedy pretty much stops and the film turns into a sentimental last ditch effort to save the building that houses the store from being condemned.

The owner of the store has always told Mike that Fats Waller was born in the building and grew up around the neighborhood. Being that “Fats” is a hero of Mike’s, they decide to create an original movie about the man’s life.

Now here is one thing that bugged me: They were creating a biographical movie about jazz pianist Fats Waller that was pretty much entirely fictional. In one scene Mia Farrow says:

“It’s our past, we can change it.”

Ah yes, welcome to the world of revisionist history.

The entire neighborhood comes together to enjoy the film and yes, it’s a lump in your throat moment… but what happened to the laughs?

Overall it was enjoyable and I loved Jack Black’s performance. When it’s funny it’s really funny, but just know that you won’t be getting a beginning to end comedy if you go see this one.

• Dan Aykroyd Talks Ghostbusters 3
• Sigourney Weaver Won’t Be Back for ‘Alien’ Prequel
• Jack Kirby’s Estate Sues Disney/Marvel
• Masters Of The Universe Movie Gets New Writer
• Avatar Featurette Shows Off Film’s Sci-Fi Tech
• Remakes And Sequels: Have We Reached Overload Yet?

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: Funny, scary, gory and unpredictable, this is sure to become a cult classic with a strong following.

The Signal was one of my favorite films from those I had the opportunity to watch and review at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. As a longtime horror movie fan (much more of older stuff than what’s come out recently), it was great on many levels and fortunately you’ll be getting the opportunity to see it soon as it was picked up for theatrical distribution.

There was a short film before the main feature called Little Farm which was shot in only 48 hours. Given that constraint it wasn’t bad, except for the fact the two of the three main characters gave pretty close to the worst performances I’ve ever seen on screen. Aside from that, although it was pretty strange, in the end it delivered some pretty good scares. I actually had a woman sitting next to me ask if that was the main feature.

On to the main event…

When the film started, I thought that I might be in for a really low budget, 70’s style horror film. It opened with really grainy film showing a woman under duress in the woods with a man who had apparantly done some unpleasant things to her and was preparing to do more. We cut to an old cabin to see a couple more victims who have been captured.

Shortly the image pulls back to reveal that it’s a movie being shown on television. The picture soon starts to break up and is replaced with strange, undulating patterns and a strange noise. (At the time I’m writing this you can go to the official website to see and hear the signal.

Here is where we meet Mya and Ben, who supply the romantic connection in the film. Mya is having an affair with Ben, apparently a rugged, yet sensitive guy whose naked butt the directors apparently felt it necessary to display. (What is it with horror movies, for which the target audience consists of young men, showing more male than female nudity? Wierd…) Anyway, Mya says she can’t just pick up and leave her husband although Ben seems to be mister awesome romance guy. Before she leaves he gives her a custom mix music CD. She tries to call home as cover for her meeting with Ben, but both her cell phone and the landline telephone are making the same noise that was coming from the television.

She gets home shortly and discovers that things are quickly getting out of control due to this mysterious signal that is being broadcast everywhere, with more and more people going nuts and murderously attacking each other. Her goal becomes to meet up with Ben and somehow escape the situation.

The Signal has three definitive acts, each filmed by a different director and each with a different style, yet all moving the story forward. The first act is reminiscent of Dawn of the Dead (both versions, actually) and 28 Days Later. It has the apocalyptic storyline and a staccato editing style that adds to the suspense. One thing that made me groan in this part of the film though, was when Mya is trying to get safely out of her apartment building and to calm herself decides to put on headphones so she can listen to the CD Ben gave her. So there are murderous rampaging people around, you want to get to safety, and you’re going to cut off your sense of hearing plus distract yourself with music? Brilliant…

The second act shifts gears and while gory, is extremely funny. It was a wierd feeling being jerked from extreme violence directly to hysterical comedy and back again, but it worked. There was a friend who showed up about halfway through this part of the film who was absolutely hysterical, acting oblivious to what’s happened and caring only about the party planned for that evening and the possibility of hooking up. The third act then shifts back to a more serious tone. One of the things I enjoyed about the approach was that I really didn’t know what was going to happen next or where the film was going.

This was good stuff and is destined I think to be a cult film favorite. The combination of story, writing, action and gore really worked, and with the romance it even makes you care about the characters. Always a bonus in a movie of this type and one that makes the difference between a movie that quickly disappears and one that endures for years.

The pet peeves I have include people that just wouldn’t stay dead. We’re talking getting battered with a big fire extinguisher multiple times with enough force that would turn a skull into pudding. The only explanation might be that due to the effects of the signal, these people weren’t really still moving, getting up, etc., but that those in the room just imagined it. The other thing that bothered me was how our hero seemed to be able to fight off the effects of the signal despite exposure. This was never really explained to my satisfaction.

So although this isn’t a zombie movie, if you’re a fan of the genre or if you like comedy and don’t mind some serious violence and gore, I highly recommend you go see The Signal when you get the opportunity.

• Zombieland Review
• Drag Me To Hell Review
• Bloody Violent Red-Band Trailer For ‘The Collector’
• Horror Plus Comedy: Shaun of the Dead
• The Hangover Review
• New Ultra-Gory Pics from Piranha 3D

Today was only the second day I made it up to Park City for Sundance and I had planned on doing a summary post of the day. Without a doubt the biggest news of the day was learning that Heath Ledger was dead.

That news utterly and completely swept the news of the Oscar nominees away. Everywhere I turned people were talking about Heath’s death – most in shock and talking about what a tragedy it was. Some of the more pragmatic ones wondering how this would affect the release and marketing strategy for The Dark Knight, Heath’s final completed film in which he has been getting rave reviews over his scenes as the Joker.

I’m not going to lie and say I was some huge fan of Ledger. I didn’t dislike the guy – he just wasn’t on my radar. The last film I saw him in was his 2001 movie A Knight’s Tale. I never saw Brokeback Mountain because, frankly, the subject matter just didn’t appeal to me.

However his death mere months before the release of a movie that I believe was going to propel him into bonafide star status is tragic. The closest analogy that popped into my head was the death of Bruce Lee just prior to the release of Enter the Dragon, which was a movie that had he lived would have propelled him into mainstream stardom.

Everyone was talking about it and wondering what happened. Of course the rumor mill works quickly and the “surrounded by pills” detail, which I’m pretty sure has turned out to be completely false was one of the first to surface. Some of the people I talked to were bloggers like myself, while others were print journalists with resources in the NY police department.

As far as I understand it, Heath had been having trouble sleeping for going on two weeks straight, getting no more than a couple of hours a night. Having once myself experienced five days straight with only a couple of hours sleep over the duration I can understand the desperate need to fall asleep after so much time.

Apparently he had an alcohol problem and had come home drunk last night. Wanting to fall asleep he combined his alcoholic state with sleeping pills (how many I do not know). He had an appointment with a masseuse this afternoon, and when the maid went in to wake him he would not. The masseuse also went in and they confirmed that he was dead. My sources say that he was found in a sleeping position and all indications point to an accidental death.

At one point Heath was engaged to Michelle Williams, but they had broken up back in September. They had a daughter together who is now just over two years old.

Aside from that today I watched three films which I will be reviewing over the next couple of days: Towelhead, a sexually explicit and cautionary coming of age tale about a 13 year old Lebanese girl, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden, a documentary by Morgan Spurlock about finding the roots of terrorism, and Choke, a movie based on a book by the author of Fight Club.

My condolences to Heath Ledger’s family.

Heath Ledger was 28.

• Heath Ledger’s Final Movie Opening In Cannes
• First Footage of Heath Ledger In ‘Doctor Parnassus’
• New Images From ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’
• New ‘Doctor Parnassus’ Clips Look Great
• First Reviews For ‘Doctor Parnassus’ & A New Clip
• Green Lantern Screenwriter Talks Script, Cast & New Characters

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: A bleak and starkly shot film that left me feeling like I needed a shower after watching it.

Downloading Nancy premiered here at Sundance 2008 and is the story of Nancy (played by Maria Bello), a severely emotionally damaged woman married to and emotionally cold man (Rufus Sewell as Albert) who turns to the internet for companionship.

The film opens with Nancy discussing her thoughts on what happens after you die with another woman. At this point it sounds like she is optimistic about the afterlife while her friend is very negative and keeps bringing up counterpoints to make it sound like she could be somehow trapped in some way after death. As it turns out, the friend turns out to be a therapist who is trying to convince Nancy that death is not an escape or freedom.

Her husband Albert is a successful businessman in the golf industry, and it consumes his life. He is very cold to his wife, which is doubly unfortunate because of the fact that she has deep emotional problems stemming from being the victim of sexual abuse as a child. She is teeming with self-loathing and his attitude towards her certainly doesn’t help matters.

She turns to Louis (Jason Patric), who she has exchanged hundreds of emails and instant messages with for comfort, or as close a thing to comfort as she is able to achieve. She self-mutilates with razor blades and she enjoys pain, all due to her uber-negative self image.

One night she leaves home, leaving nothing more than a note for Albert stating that she is going to stay with friends in Baltimore. Instead she heads off to meet Louis, and their initial meeting, now in the real world seems awkward.

Of course at first we think it is going to be nothing more than a brief sexual affair, but as it turns out Louis has walls lined with homemade videotapes (we never discover exactly what is on those tapes, but we can make a pretty good guess). The situation takes an even odder turn when Nancy mentions that she has “brought the money” that he has asked for.

As the story moves forward it becomes clear that what Nancy wants from Louis is for him to kill her, and release her from her torturous existence. Nancy’s therapist (played by Amy Brenneman) tries and tries to get through to her, but to no avail.

The story is disjointed in that time-wise it jumps all over the place. In the end it does paint a picture of Nancy and Albert’s life and the growth of the relationship between her and Louis.

Now to some of you this may sound interesting, and I suppose it could have been, but the overall effect of this movie with it’s bland, bright and washed out colors on the screen and the details of the relationships that we are subjected to is quite depressing (yes, I get it, that’s the point) and to be honest left me feeling more than a bit dirty to have been witness to all this. Not “porn” dirty, but “slimey” dirty, like going through someones dirty laundry.

I watched this at a press screening and about a dozen people got up and walked out during the showing. About two or three actually applauded at the end of it, but I guess there’s no accounting for taste.

The closer the film got to the end the more ridiculous it became in conjunction with the boredom and frankly, repulsive stuff going on.

About 3/4 of the way through the film I was hoping for “release” almost as much as Nancy. I honestly don’t understand how an actor can look at a script like this and not just say: “Damn, that is f’ed up!” and just move on to the next one.

I’m giving this one star out of deference to the acting and the editing, but that’s it. Big thumbs down from me.

• Death Race Prequel On The Way
• Tobey Maguire Leaving Spider-Man Behind For ‘Tokyo?’
• The Final Destination Review
• SR Pick [Video]: Can a Wonder Woman Movie Be Good?
• Kate Beckinsale to Return to the Underworld?
• ‘Risk’ Board Game To Be Movietized

I drove up to Park City yesterday and ran into a few movie blogger friends of mine: Alex from FirstShowing.net, Peter from /Film and Neil from Film School Rejects (yes, that’s really the name of his site).

I hung out with them while they got settled in at their condo, then we went out for a bite to eat where I dropped $24 on a cheeseburger and a Guiness. Yeesh! After that we attended the premiere of In Bruges, which I’ve reviewed. It’s a hard movie to describe, so if you’re interested just read the review. I don’t think it’s going to do very well at the box office but that’s not because it’s necessarily a bad movie… it’s just kind of odd.

After that we headed to the party for the movie, where I wasn’t on the RSVP list but one of the gatekeepers finally let me in. I left before I was able to see anyone famous, but I hung out with a bunch of other movie bloggers including representatives of Bloody-Disgusting.com, Chud.com and ComingSoon.net. I also got to meet “Quint” from Ain’t it Cool News and he was a very nice guy.

I left before any of the actors from the movie showed up, but after I left some of my buds had the opportunity to rub elbows with Colin Farrell, who was excellent in the film.

The party was jam-packed with people and the music was very loud. Lots of folks were of the “beautiful people” set. Me, I’m more of a Comic-Con party guy, so I took off fairly early.

I’ll be heading up again sporadically to cover films of interest to myself and to you guys. I was going to head up tomorrow to see George Romero’s Diary of the Dead, but not one, or two, but THREE people whose opinions I respect saw it and said it was awful, so I don’t think I’ll do 2 1/2 hours of round trip driving to go see it.

Look for more Sundance coverage and reviews in the upcoming week.

• The Wolverine Movie Leak: Truth And Consequences
• ‘G.I. Joe’ Early Reviews & Awesome Viral Video
• Black Dynamite Red Band Trailer Goes Green
• All A Bored Disney’s ‘A Christmas Carol’ Train Tour
• A Look At Depp, Law and Farrell In ‘Doctor Parnassus’
• Brett Ratner Wants To Be On The Comic Book Movie A-List

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: While the individual parts of the movie satisfy, In Bruges doesn’t really come together as a whole.

Back in November I posted the trailer to In Bruges and commented that it looked like a movie that would not be a hit with mainstream audiences but those that like indie movies would probably love it. Well I just watched it and I’m more certain than ever that my first reaction will turn out to be accurate.

Right from the opening frame of the movie it seems that the director is intent on keeping the audience off-balance. The camera pans across various landmarks and streets in the beautiful town of Bruges, Belgium with music that sounds like it comes from some French romance movie. But as this is happening, we get quick cuts to the two main characters, Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) making funny comments profusely laced with the F-bomb.

It wasn’t the F-word or the humor that struck me as odd, heck, I thought Superbad was really funny – it was the incongruity of the scenery and music against what the actors were saying and doing. On a side note, if profanity in films bothers you, this is SO not the movie for you…

It turns out that the two fellows are British assassins just coming off a job, and have been ordered to go to Bruges to hide out for a couple of weeks. While older Ken enjoys the beauty and history of the town, Ken is completely and utterly uninterested. While Ken seems to be as much a mentor as a partner to Ray, the younger half of this duo reminded me of a pesky five year old boy – kind of like Dennis the Menace after too much sugar.

They run into an interesting cast of characters in town including the tough and beautiful pregnant woman who owns the hotel where they’re staying, a beautiful drug-dealing young woman who catches Ray’s eye, and a midget (sorry, dwarf) who has a taste for prostitutes.

Also appearing later in the film (although his expletive-laced voice is heard early on) is Ralph Fiennes as the man who is in charge of telling them who they need to kill and when. Fiennes did a great job in the role with an intensity that would unleash itself with great ferocity. I also enjoyed both Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. Gleeson was just peaceful to watch, if that makes any sense, and Farrell was the polar, manic opposite. His face was a rubber mask of expressions that was very entertaining to see.

There were also many very funny moments in the film including one scene where Farrell decks a guy he thinks is an American and right afterwards says: “That’s for John Lennon.” But then part way through the movie the tone changes abruptly into a much darker and tragic mode. Humor is still sprinkled throughout after this turn, but when you laugh at this point it’s almost more like nervous laughter, just to release the tension of what you’re watching.

So here’s the thing: This movie has a ton of what I think is really good stuff as far as script, acting, humor and drama. So why the relatively low rating? As much as I enjoyed the individual moments in the movie, for me it just didn’t gel as a whole. I really wish that the film had picked a course and stayed on it. Personally, when a movie starts out funny and then suddenly changes course into tragedy I just feel like I’m being manipulated, and it’s jarring.

Yes, fine, maybe that’s the point – but I don’t have to like it.

While I think In Bruges won’t be embraced by the average movie goer, I think that people who are really into indie films or movies that shift tone suddenly somewhere in the middle will like this.

• A Perfect Getaway Review
• Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant Review
• Transformers 2 ‘Humor’ As Stupid As The First?
• The Taking of Pelham 123 Review
• Comic-Con: Panel for Shane Acker’s 9 (With Wanted 2 Update)
• New Zombie Film ‘Colin’ is the Talk of Cannes

The 2008 Sundance Film Festival begins this week and I’ll be doing my best to cover it with my time-limited schedule. I thought I’d start coverage with a report on the movies that seem to be the ones getting the biggest pre-opening buzz.

These are some of the movies that are getting the most attention and are most likely to to be talked about quite a bit in the next couple of weeks on movie sites:

Sleep Dealer
This is one of the few sci-fi films showing this year. It is set in a near future in which there is an underground class of “node workers” who plug their nervous systems into a global computer network that commodifies memory. A private company has hijacked control of a local water supply and is selling it back to the village at outrageous prices, provoking the mobilization of aqua-terrorist cells. The main character lives in the village but doesn’t care about this – he dreams of becoming a node worker and learns how to build his own transmitter, which he uses to hack into the lives of others and live vicariously. One night, he stumbles across a transmission destined to pave the way to the city of the future, but in a way he never could never have expected.

Diary of the Dead
George Romero returns once again to the genre he is famous for. Instead of continuing where his last film left off, in this film he essentially reboots his zombie infested world, but while staying true to what he has established over the course of 40 years. In a Cloverfield-like style, the movie follows a fledgling filmmaker who is working on an indie horror film when the zombie plague breaks out and he records what’s happening with his digi-cam.

Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden
Morgan Spurlock, who brought us the most-excellent documentary Super Size Me decides to go on the trail of Osama Bin Laden due to how seemingly impossible it is to find the man. He explores the culture of the Middle East and the film is sure to be fascinating. Having yet to see the film, I do not know if he actually locates Bin Laden or not.

Be Kind Rewind
I mentioned this one in my 2008 movie preview. It’s a Jack Black comedy about a guy who mistakenly erases all the videos at a rental store and who creates his own versions of popular movies that end up being wildly popular themselves. The word on this is that it’s supposed to be very funny.

In Bruges
This one is about hit men Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson). After a tough “job” in London, they are ordered by their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes) to head to Bruges, Belgium. They find themselves out of their element and are drawn into increasingly dangerous goings on with locals, tourists, and a film production. Despite the hard to pronounce title, In Bruges looks to be one of those off-beat and funny black comedies.

Choke
This one is very hot and generating a lot of discussion. Why? Because it’s based on a book by Chuck Palahniuk, the guy who wrote Fight Club. The film follows Victor Mancini, who as a child had a troubled mother who would steal him from foster families. He grows up to become a guy who makes a living as a historical re-enactor… and a choking con man. What does that mean? Basically, he goes to restaurants, chokes on his food, and then preys on the kindness of those who “save” his life. I’ll be curious to see how this adaptation compares to the most excellent David Fincher-helmed Fight Club.

Hamlet 2
You probably haven’t heard much about this one but the premise at least sounds quite funny. The plot revolves around an ex-actor, relentless dreamer, and sometimes-delusional high school teacher who has just mounted one of his infamous screen-to-stage productions – this time it’s Erin Brockovich and unfortunately the reviews aren’t all that he hoped for. When his students rebel and his job is threatened by budget cuts, he is forced to kick ambition into high gear and shoot for his ultimate dream: staging an original production of Hamlet 2, a sequel to Shakespeare’s classic. Now THAT sounds funny (and like something Hollywood would seriously consider churning out).

In addition to those, here are a few more I’d love to see and review, but I don’t know which I’ll be able to get to:

The Wave
A German film about a teacher who tries to get past his students apathy about Fascism and the Nazis during World War II.

Funny Games
Director Michael Haneke remakes his own film about a family terrorized by two seemingly well-mannered young men.

Donkey Punch
A horror movie that takes place on a yacht out at sea.

I had the good fortune of getting a press pass for Screen Rant this year, but unfortunately my schedule is severely limited as well. I predict much stress and not a lot of sleep for about 10 days beginning this Thursday.

• New Zombie Film ‘Colin’ is the Talk of Cannes
• New Clips: Ninja Assassin & Survival of the Dead
• First Look at Robin Williams in ‘World’s Greatest Dad’
• ‘Year One’ Goes From R To PG-13
• New ‘Survival of the Dead’ Images
• James Cameron Joins ‘Heavy Metal’ Collaboration

Here’s the lineup of movies to be shown at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. It includes both documentaries and dramas both domestic and international.

I’ll be taking a look at the offerings in a future post to see what stands out or might be interesting and worthwhile since there are 121 movies listed here.

DRAMATIC COMPETITION

AMERICAN SON (Director: Neil Abramson; Screenwriter: Eric Schmid) — Before being deployed
for active duty, a young Marine takes a four-day Thanksgiving leave to return home to Bakersfield,
California. There he meets a young woman, tries to connect with old friends, and confronts his
volatile home life. Cast: Nick Cannon, Melonie Diaz, Matt O’Leary, Jay Hernandez, Tom Sizemore,
Chi McBride. World Premiere

ANYWHERE, U.S.A. (Director: Anthony (Chusy) Haney-Jardine; Screenwriters: Anthony (Chusy)
Haney-Jardine, Jennifer Macdonald) — Told in three segments ranging from satirical to tragic, the
film is a wildly original look at American manners, prejudices, and family dynamics. Cast: Perla
Haney-Jardine. World Premiere

BALLAST (Director and Screenwriter: Lance Hammer) — A riveting, lyrical portrait of an
emotionally frayed family whose lives are torn asunder by a tragic act in a small Mississippi Delta
town. Cast: Michael J. Smith Sr., Jim Myron Ross, Tarra Riggs, Johnny McPhail. World Premiere

CHOKE (Director and Screenwriter: Clark Gregg)— An adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s (Fight
Club) novel, CHOKE is the sardonic story about mother and son relationship, fear of aging, sexual
addiction, and the dark side of historical theme parks. Cast: Sam Rockwell, Anjelica Huston, Kelly
MacDonald, Brad Henke. World Premiere

DOWNLOADING NANCY (Director: Johan Renck; Screenwriters: Pamela Cuming, Lee Ross) —The
tale of an unhappy wife whose online search for someone to put her out of her misery results in a
torturous love affair. Cast: Maria Bello, Jason Patric, Rufus Sewell, Amy Brenneman. World
Premiere

FROZEN RIVER (Director and Screenwriter: Courtney Hunt) —Set in rural upstate New York on a
Mohawk Reservation bordering Canada, a mother left to care for her teenage son finds herself lured
into the world of illegal immigrant smuggling. Cast: Melissa Leo, Misty Upham, Charlie McDermott,
Michael O’Keefe, Mark Boone, Jr. World Premiere

GOOD DICK (Director and Screenwriter: Marianna Palka) —The tale of a lonely girl drawn from her
isolated life and solitary apartment by a doting young video store clerk who strives to capture her
affections. Cast: Jason Ritter, Marianna Palka, Tom Arnold, Mark Webber, Martin Starr, Eric
Edelstein. World Premiere

THE LAST WORD (Director and Screenwriter: Geoff Haley) —An off-beat romantic comedy about a
solitary writer who makes his living composing other people’s suicide notes. After meeting the sister
of a recently deceased client, he finds his reclusive life and secret career upended by an unusual
romance. Cast: Winona Ryder, Wes Bentley, Ray Romano. World Premiere

THE MYSTERIES OF PITTSBURGH (Director and Screenwriter: Rawson Marshall Thurber) —
Based on Michael Chabon’s novel, the film chronicles the defining summer of a recent college
graduate who crosses his gangster father and explores love, sexuality, and the enigmas surrounding
his life and his city. Cast: Jon Foster, Peter Sarsgaard, Rawson Marshall Thurber, Sienna Miller,
Mena Suvari, Nick Nolte. World Premiere

NORTH STARR (Director and Screenwriter: Matthew Stanton) —After witnessing the brutal
murder of his best friend, a young African American man flees the badlands of Houston and finds
himself in Trublin, a backward, racially intolerant town where he meets an unlikely kindred spirit
who takes him under his wing. Cast: Jerome Hawkins, Matthew Stanton, Chris Sullivan, Isaac Lamb,
Zach Johnson, Wayne Campbell. World Premiere

PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND (Director and Screenwriter: Daniel Barnz) — Confounded by her
clashes with the seemingly rule-obsessed world, a little girl takes her already dysfunctional family
down the rabbit hole when she seeks enlightenment from her unconventional drama teacher.
Cast: Elle Fanning, Felicity Huffman, Patricia Clarkson, Bill Pullman, Campbell Scott, Peter Gerety.
World Premiere

PRETTY BIRD (Director and Screenwriter: Paul Schneider) — A comic tale of three would-be
entrepreneurs who set out to invent a rocket belt. The clash of their mismatched personalities soon dissolves the business into a morass of recriminations, retaliations, kidnapping, and murder in this
parable of American dreams and delusions. Cast: Billy Crudup, Paul Giamatti, Kristen Wiig, David
Hornsby. World Premiere

SLEEP DEALER (Director: Alex Rivera; Screenwriters: Alex Rivera, David Riker) — Set in a nearfuture,
militarized world marked by closed borders, virtual labor and a global digital network that
joins minds and experiences, three strangers risk their lives to connect with each other and break
the barriers of technology. Cast: Luis Fernando Peña, Leonor Varela, Jacob Vargas. World Premiere

SUGAR (Directors and Screenwriters: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck) —Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who
last teamed up for HALF NELSON, chronicle the journey of Dominican baseball star Miguel “Sugar”
Santos recruited from his native country to play in the U.S. minor leagues. Cast: Algenis Perez Soto.
World Premiere

SUNSHINE CLEANING (Director: Christine Jeffs; Screenwriter: Megan Holley) — ) —Struck by
financial hardship, an ambitiousmother and her unmotivated sister become entrepreneurs in the
field of biohazard removal and crime scene clean-up. Cast: Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Steve Zahn,
Alan Arkin. World Premiere

THE WACKNESS (Director and Screenwriter: Jonathan Levine) — During a sweltering New York
summer, a troubled teenage drug dealer trades pot for therapy sessions with a drug-addled
psychiatrist, and in the process falls for the doctor’s daughter. Cast: Josh Peck, Ben Kingsley, Famke
Janssen, Olivia Thirlby, Mary Kate Olsen, Method Man. World Premiere

WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC COMPETITION

ABSURDISTAN/ Germany (Director: Veit Helmer; Screenwriters: Veit Helmer, Zaza Buadze,
Gordan Mihic, Ahmet Golbol) — This inventive and allegorical comedy centers on two childhood
sweethearts who seem destined for one another until the women of their isolated village, angered by
male indifference toward the water shortage, go on a sex strike that threatens the young couple’s first
night of love. Cast: Maximilian Mauff, Kristyna Mlérova. World Premiere

BLUE EYELIDS (PÁRPADOS AZULES)/ Mexico (Director: Ernesto Contreras; Screenwriter: Carlos
Contreras)– When Marina wins a beach getaway trip for two, her desperate search for someone to
take with her leads to a complicated relationship and the revelation that she might be better off on
her own. Cast: Cecilia Suàrez, Enrique Arreola, Ana Ofelia Murguía, Tiaré Scanda, Luisa Huertas.
U.S. Premiere

CAPTAIN ABU RAED/ Jordan (Director and Screenwriter: Amin Matalqa) — An aging airport
janitor who is mistaken for an airline pilot by a group of poor neighborhood children weaves
fantastical stories to offer hope for a sad, and sometimes unchangeable, reality. Cast: Nadim
Sawalha, Hussein Al-Sous, Rana Sultan, Uday Al-Qiddissi, Ghandi Saber . North American Premiere

THE DRUMMER (JIN. GWU)/ Hong Kong/ Taiwan/ Germany (Director and Screenwriter: Kenneth
Bi) — A young man transforms from a reckless youth and gangster into a mature adult through the
inspiration of Zen drumming. Cast: Jaycee Chan, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Josie Ho, Roy Cheung, Lee
Sinje, Kenneth Tsang.

I ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A GANGSTER (J’AI TOUJOURS RÊVÉ D’ÊTRE UN GANGSTER)/
France (Director and Screenwriter: Samuel Benchetrit) — Told in four vignettes, this existential
comedy relates the exploits of four aspiring criminals who hope to improve their lot, but find that
they might not have what it takes for a life of crime. Cast: Sergi López, Jean Rochefort, Alain
Bashung, Anna Mouglalis. North American Premiere

JUST ANOTHER LOVE STORY (KÆRLIGHED PÅ FILM)/ Denmark (Director and Screenwriter:
Ole Borendal) —Jonas’s quiet life as a suburban family man takes an unexpected twist when he
causes a car crash that leaves a young woman with amnesia. When he is mistaken for her boyfriend,
Jonas’s decision to play the role gradually unravels his life. Cast: Anders W. Berthelsen, Nikolaj Lie
Kaas, Charlotte Fich, Dejan Cukic, Ewa Fröling. North American Premiere

KING OF PING PONG (PING PONGKINGEN)/ Sweden (Director: Jens Jonsson; Screenwriters:
Jens Jonsson, Hans Gunnarson) An ostracized and bullied teenage boy who excels only in ping pong
descends into an acrimonious struggle with his younger, more popular brother when the truth about
their family history and their father surfaces over the course of their spring break. Cast: Georgi
Staykov, Ann-Sofie Normi, Frederik Nilsson, Jerry Johansson. International Premiere

MÁNCORA/ Spain/Peru (Director: Ricardo de Montreuil; Screenwriter: Oscar Torres)– A young
man mourning the death of his father sets out with his estranged stepsister and her arrogant
husband for adventures in the lush, picturesque beach town of Máncora, Peru. World Premiere.
World Premiere

MEGANE (GLASSES)/ Japan (Director and Screenwriter: Naoko Ogigami)–Taeko’s southern
vacation becomes a life-changing experience when she discovers a unique beach community unified
by surprising and perhaps odd traditions in this comedic film. Cast: Satomi Kobayashi, Mikako
Ichikawa, Ryo Kase, Ken Mitsuishi, Masako Motai. North American Premiere

MERMAID (RUSALKA)/ Russia (Director and Screenwriter: Anna Melikyan) – The fanciful tale of
an introverted little girl who grows up believing she has the power to make wishes come true. She
must reconcile this belief with reality when, as a young woman, she journeys to Moscow and grapples
with love, modernity and materialism. Cast: Masha Shalaeva, Evgeniy Ciganov, Maria Sokolova,
Nastya Doncova. International Premiere

PERRO COME PERRO (DOG EAT DOG)/ Colombia (Director: Carlos Moreno; Screenwriters:
Alonso Torres, Carlos Moreno) – In the crime world of Colombia, there is an unwritten code. When
Víctor and Eusebio, two hoods who bungle a shake-down job, break that code, they unwittingly sign
their own death sentence. Cast: Marlon Moreno, Oscar Borda, Alvaro Rodríguez, Blas Jaramillo,
Paulina Rivas. World Premiere

RIPRENDIMI (GOOD MORNING HEARTACHE)/ Italy (Director: Anna Negri; Screenwriters:
Anna Negri, Giovanna Mori) – A modern young couple with a new baby are forced to deal with the
almost comedic pain of breaking up while being the subject of a documentary that quickly crosses
professional lines into their private lives. Cast: Alba Rohrwacher, Marco Foschi, Valentina
Lodovini, Stefano Fresi, Alessandro Averone. World Premiere

STRANGERS/ Israel (Directors and Screenwriters: Erez Tadmor, Guy Nattiv)— An Israeli man and
a Palestinian woman meet serendipitously during the carefree atmosphere of the World Cup finals in
Germany, drawing them out of the stark reality of their lives and into a passionate affair. Cast: Liron
Levo, Lubna Azabal, Dominique Lollia, Patrick Albenque, Abdallah el Akal, Roger Dumas.
International Premiere

UNDER THE BOMBS (SOUS LES BOMBES)/ Lebanon (Director: Philippe Aractingi;
Screenwriters: Philippe Aractingi,Michel Léviant)— In the wake of Israel’s 2006 bombardment of
Lebanon, a determined woman finds her way into the country convincing a taxi cab driver to take a
risky journey through the scarred region in search of her sister and her son. Cast: Nada Abou Farhat,
Georges Khabbaz, Bshara Atallah, and Rawia Elchab. North American Premiere

THE WAVE (DIE WELLE)/ Germany (Director: Dennis Gansel; Screenwriters: Dennis Gansel and
Peter Thorwarth) —A high school teacher’s unusual experiment to demonstrate to his students what
life is like under a dictatorship spins horribly out of control when he forms a social unit with a life of
its own. Cast: Juergen Vogel, Frederick Lau, Max Riemelt, Jennifer Ulrich, Christiane Paul. World
Premiere

THE WIND AND THE WATER (BURWA DII EBO)/ Panama (Directors and Screenwriters: A
collective collaboration)– A young indigenous teen seeking his fortune in Panama City struggles to
acclimate to chaotic urban life, where he becomes enamored with a girl from a wealthy, assimilated
family. Later, he encounters his crush once again–but this time the landscape and tradition define
their interaction. World Premiere

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

AN AMERICAN SOLDIER (Director and Screenwriter: Edet Belzberg) —Uncle Sam really wants you! A compelling exploration of army recruitment in the United States told through the story of Louisiana Sergeant, First Class Clay Usie, one of the most successful recruiters in the history of the U.S. Army. World Premiere.

AMERICAN TEEN (Director and Screenwriter: Nanette Burstein) — This irreverent cinema vérité
chronicles four seniors at an Indiana high school and yields a surprising snapshot of Midwestern
life. World Premiere

BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER* (Director: Christopher Bell; Screenwriters: Christopher Bell,
Alexander Buono, Tamsin Rawady) —A filmmaker explores America’s win-at-all-cost culture by
examining his two brothers’ steroids use…and his own. World Premiere

FIELDS OF FUEL (Director and Screenwriter: Josh Tickell) — America is addicted to oil and it is
time for an intervention. Enter Josh Tickell, a man with a plan and a Veggie Van, who is taking on big
oil, big government, and big soy to find solutions in places few people have looked. World Premiere

FLOW: FOR LOVE OF WATER (Director: Irena Salina) — Water is the very essence of life,
sustaining every being on the planet. FLOW confronts the disturbing reality that our crucial resource
is dwindling and greed just may be the cause. World Premiere

GONZO: THE LIFE AND WORK OF DR. HUNTER S. THOMPSON (Director: Alex Gibney) —
Fueled by a raging libido, Wild Turkey, and superhuman doses of drugs, Thompson was a true “free
lance,” goring sacred cows with impunity, hilarity, and a steel-eyed conviction for writing wrongs.
Focusing on the good doctor’s heyday, 1965 to 1975, the film includes clips of never-before-seen
(nor heard) home movies, audiotapes, and passages from unpublished manuscripts. World
Premiere

THE GREATEST SILENCE: RAPE IN THE CONGO (Director and Screenwriter: Lisa F. Jackson) —
Jackson travels to remote villages in the war zones of the Congo to meet rape survivors, providing a
piercing, intimate look into the struggle of their lives. World Premiere

I.O.U.S.A. (Director: Patrick Creadon) —Few are aware that America may be on the brink of a
financial meltdown. I.O.U.S.A. explores the country’s shocking current fiscal condition and ways to
avoid a national economic disaster. World Premiere

NERAKHOON (THE BETRAYAL) (Director: Ellen Kuras; Co-Director: Thavisouk Phrasavath;
Screenwriters: Ellen Kuras, Thavisouk Phrasavath)— The epic story of a family forced to emigrate
from Laos after the chaos of the secret air war waged by the U.S. during the Vietnam War. Kuras has
spent the last 23 years chronicling the family’s extraordinary journey in this deeply personal, poetic,
and emotional film. World Premiere

THE ORDER OF MYTHS (Director: Margaret Brown) — In 2007 Mobile, Alabama, Mardi Gras is
celebrated…and complicated. Following a cast of characters, parades, and parties across an enduring
2008 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES FILMS IN COMPETITION
11/28/07 page 3 of 10
color line, we see that beneath the surface of pageantry lies something else altogether. World
Premiere

PATTI SMITH: DREAM OF LIFE (Director and Screenwriter: Steven Sebring) — An intimate
portrait of music icon Patti Smith that mirrors the essence of the artist herself. World Premiere

ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED (Director: Marina Zenovich; Screenwriters:
Marina Zenovich, Joe Bini, P.G. Morgan) — Marina Zenovich’s new documentary examines the
public scandal and private tragedy which led to legendary director Roman Polanski’s sudden flight
from the United States. World Premiere

SECRECY (Directors: Peter Galison, Robb Moss) — Amidst the American hunger for instantaneous
news and up-to-date “facts,” this unflinching film uncovers the vast, invisible world of government
secrecy. World Premiere

SLINGSHOT HIP HOP (Director: Jackie Reem Salloum) —The voice of a new generation rocks and
rhymes as Palestinian rappers form alternative voices of resistance within the Israeli-Palestinian
struggle. World Premiere

TRACES OF THE TRADE: A STORY FROM THE DEEP NORTH (Director: Katrina Browne; C0-
Directors: Alla Kovgan, Jude Ray; Screenwriters: Katrina Browne, Alla Kovgan)— History finally gets
rewritten as descendants of the largest slave-trading family in early America face their past, and
present, as they explore their violent heritage across oceans and continents. World Premiere

TROUBLE THE WATER (Directors: Tia Lessin, Carl Deal) — An aspiring rap artist and her
streetwise husband, armed with a video camera, show what survival is all about when they are
trapped in New Orleans by deadly floodwaters, and seize a chance for a new beginning. World
Premiere

WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

ALONE IN FOUR WALLS (ALLEIN IN VIER WÄNDEN)/ Germany (Director and Screenwriter:
Alexandra Westmeier) — Adolescent boys struggle to grow up in a home for delinquents in rural
Russia where life behind bars may be better than the release to freedom. North American Premiere

THE ART STAR AND THE SUDANESE TWINS/ New Zealand (Director and Screenwriter: Pietra
Brettkelly) — Vanessa Beecroft is obsessively determined to adopt Sudanese twin orphans. Her
consuming passion drives her marriage to a breaking point and fuels her controversial art, raising
troubling questions about exploitation, culture clash, and the imposition of the West on Africa.
World Premiere

BE LIKE OTHERS/ United Kingdom (Director: Tanaz Eshaghian) — An intimate and unflinching
look at life in Iran, seen through the lens of those living at its fringes, BE LIKE OTHERS is a
provocative look at a generation of young Iranian men choosing to undergo sex change surgery.
World Premiere

A COMPLETE HISTORY OF MY SEXUAL FAILURES/ United Kingdom (Director: Chris Waitt;
Screenwriters: Chris Waitt and Henry Trotter)–Chris is a useless boyfriend. Determined to find out
why, he consults his ex-girlfriends, medical practitioners, producers, and mother to find out how women really see him. Has this journey made him potential boyfriend material or is he staring a life
of loneliness square in the face? World Premiere

DEREK/ United Kingdom (Director: Isaac Julien)— A film involving two courageous and innovative
artists —one the subject and one the filmmaker —provides a cinematic journey that illuminates the
work and enduring importance of the late Derek Jarman. World Premiere

DINNER WITH THE PRESIDENT/Pakistan (Directors and Screenwriters: Sabiha Sumar and
Sachithanandam Sathananthan) — From on-the-street interviews to audiences with religious
leaders to dinner with the President of Pakistan, the film takes the temperature of a culture on issues
from politics to women’s rights. U.S. Premiere

DURAKOVO: THE VILLAGE OF FOOLS (DURAKOVO: LE VILLAGE DES FOUS)/ France
(Director and Screenwriter: Nino Kirtadze) — Russian nationalism percolates in a castle outside
Moscow, where Mikhail Morozov rules autonomously over young initiates, laying the groundwork for
a rapidly growing right-wing movement. North American Premiere

IN PRISON MY WHOLE LIFE/ United Kingdom (Director: Marc Evans; Screenwriters: Marc Evans,
William Francome) — A curious young filmmaker attempts to understand the true story behind
award-winning journalist Mumia Abu Jamal’s death row sentence, and comes to startling
realizations about American history and its justice system. With William Francome, Noam Chomsky,
Alice Walker, Mos Def, Smoof , Snoop Dogg, Angela Davis . North American Premiere

MAN ON WIRE/ United Kingdom (Director and Screenwriter: James Marsh)— In 1974, Philippe
Petit, a young Frenchman, dances on a wire suspended between New York’s Twin Towers.
Consequently, Philippe is arrested and thrown into jail for what would become known as “the artistic
crime of the century.” World Premiere

pUUJEE/ Japan (Director and Screenwriter: Kazuya Yamada) — Against the backdrop of a
magnificent but harsh natural landscape, a Japanese photojournalist encounters puujee, a young girl
who tames wild horses on the Mongolian plains. North American Premiere

RECYCLE/ Jordan (Director and Screenwriter: Al Massad) — A Jordanian family man living in the
hometown of Muslim leader Al-Zarqawi struggles to support his family and define his identity in a
tense political climate. World Premiere

STRANDED: I’VE COME FROM A PLANE THAT CRASHED ON THE MOUNTAINS/ France
(Director and Screenwriter: Gonzalo Arijon) — For the first time ever, survivors of the famous 1974
Andes plane crash tell in their own words their harrowing story of survival. North American
Premiere

TRIAGE: DR. JAMES ORBINSKI’S HUMANITARIAN DILEMMA/ Canada (Director: Patrick
Reed) — Acclaimed doctor James Orbinski, former head of Doctors Without Borders, returns to
Africa to confront the harsh reality of conditions there and explores what it means to be a
humanitarian. North American Premiere

UP THE YANGTZE/ Canada (Director and Screenwriter: Yung Chang) —At the edge of the Yangtze
River, not far from the Three Gorges Dam, young men and women take up employment on a cruise
ship, where they confront rising waters and a radically changing China. U.S. Premiere

THE WOMEN OF BRUKMAN (LES FEMMES DE LA BRUKMAN)/ Canada (Director and
Screenwriter: Isaac Isitan) —Amidst Argentina’s financial collapse, workers take over a Buenos
Aires men’s clothing factory and continue producing clothing on a self-management model. As the
formerly poor become business managers, their lives are changed forever. U.S. Premiere

YASUKUNI/ Japan (Director and Screenwriter: Li Ying) —Controversy abounds as Japanese officials
honor the deceased at the legendary Yasukuni shrine, where swords used to kill Chinese soldiers
were famously forged. Few know about the shrine’s eerie past and the mysterious sword inside. Cast: Kariya Naoji, Sugawara Ryuken,Gaojin Sumei. North American Premiere

• TIFF: Samantha Morton Impresses With ‘The Unloved’
• TIFF: ‘Valhalla Rising’ Delivers Authentic Viking Experience
• ‘The Descent 2′ Heads ‘2009 Film 4 Frightfest’ Line-up
• Toronto International Film Festival Coverage
• TIFF: Oscar Buzz Report
• Al Pacino Prepares To Exercise His Napoleon Complex

This past weekend I saw the trailer for In Bruges with No Country for Old Men. It looked very funny and I suppose you’d have to categorize it under Quirky Black Comedy. The film will open the Sundance Film Festival a little over a month from now, so I found it odd to see a trailer for it at a movie theater. Generally trailers are only shown for movies that are “coming soon to a theater near you” but after some checking I see that this has already been picked up by Focus Features for at least a limited release in February ‘08.

I don’t think this will be a big hit with mainstream audiences, but it looks like one of those little indie flicks that might end up being considered an undiscovered gem.

The movie is about hit men Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson). After a tough “job” in London, they are ordered by their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes) to head to Bruges, Belgium. They find themselves out of their element and are drawn into increasingly dangerous goings on with locals, tourists, and a film production.

So that at least answers your question as to what the heck “Bruges” means. It’s pronounced like “rouge” except add the “b” up front.

Lousy, horrible title IMHO, but hey, it’s not my job to name movies, just talk about them. I’m pretty sure that if people won’t even know how to pronounce the title that’s a bad thing, though…

The version of the trailer I watched was approved for all audiences, but be warned that the one below is chock full of F-bombs and other colorful language that you may find offensive.

In Bruges premieres at the Sundance Film Festival on January 17th, 2008.

• Black Dynamite Red Band Trailer Goes Green
• [REC] 2 Official Trailer
• Very Creepy ‘Haunting In Connecticut’ Motion Poster
• Wes Anderson’s ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’ Trailer
• Paranormal Activity Trailer & Poster (Do Not Watch Alone)
• New Poster & Trailer For Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2

It’s officially over.

This was my first year attending the Sundance Film Festival, and it won’t be my last.

Sundance was a pretty cool experience… there’s nothing quite like being a movie lover and spending time in a town full of other fans of film. One of the best things about attending screenings at the Festival is the fact that everyone who is in the audience is there to see the movie. Through eight different films I didn’t hear a single cell phone ring, did not see a single child under the age of 10 watching a film with adult content and did not have to listen to anyone’s conversation during a showing even ONCE.

Man, that was AWESOME. If I could get the same experience at my local multiplex theater I would go see at least 5X the number of movies at the theater than I do currently.

No, I didn’t get to see any celebrities, but I didn’t really spend much time looking for them beyond walking up and down Main Street a couple of times. And unfortunately due to my lack of planning there were a couple of movies that I planned on reviewing but missed, including Teeth and Finishing the Game. I was fortunate enough however, to see more movies I enjoyed than mediocre ones or stinkers. In particular Black Snake Moan, Fido, and The Signal were all great fun, while Enemies of Happiness and My Kid Could Paint That were excellent documentaries.

Park City is a gorgeous town and the weather was great. They’ve got a free shuttle system that works super-well for getting you from one part of town to the other (since the theaters are pretty spread out). Great food and art galleries where you can kill some time as well. I give props to all the Sundance volunteers who were both helpful and friendly. Good folks all around.

My hope is that next year I might be able to pop for the big uber-pass which would allow me to just show up at whatever showing I like without having to worry about scheduling conflicts, wait list lines, timing, and all that rot. Although I did get to meet some cool people while waiting for tickets…

I’m already looking forward to next year.

I know that it consumed my blog for about a week, but now it’ll be back to my regular coverage of TV, movies and all those little things that drive me nuts!

• Fantastic Fest: That’s A Wrap
• What’s Wrong With The Toronto International Film Festival
• The Weather Channel To Show Movies
• The Weinsteins Acquire ‘A Single Man,’ Did Tarantino Save Them?
• ‘Titanic’ And ‘T2′ In 3D? (Plus New Avatar Pic)
• Peter Jackson To Shoot Films In 3D From Now On

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: A fascinating look at the world of modern art (seriously!) and the questions of whether a four year old’s paintings can compete and whether those paintings were genuine.

My Kid Could Paint That was the last film I saw at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, and is a fascinating look at the story of four year old Marla Olmstead, who a couple of years ago took the art world by storm by rocketing from lower middle class obscurity to international fame through the sale of her paintings. This documentary by director Amir Bar-Lev is extremely well done and is about as close to neutral as I think one could get.

At the time of the documentary was shot, the Olmsteads had sold more than $300,000 worth of Marla’s paintings. Those in the art world compared her work to Kandinsky, Pollock and even Picasso. Due to her extremely young age, her work captured the imagination of the world. Art openings, limousines, and television appearances became part of the family’s routine. Then, thanks to a 60 Minutes segment which aired and cast doubt on the authenticity of Marla’s work, and the Olmsteads’ world changed in an instant.

Amir Bar-Lev, the director of the film, spent an entire year with the Olmsteads shooting this documentary. He became aware of them by reading a story about Marla and her paintings in the New York Times. His initial approach to the documentary was to take a look at the world of modern art, but as things progressed he saw that the real story was what was going on with Marla and her family.

We meet the family, consisting of Marla, a younger brother and her parents. The first half of the documentary tells the story of what led up to the discovery of Marla’s paintings (first displayed at a local coffee shop just for fun) and the ensuing fame and eventual media blitz. The Olmstead’s introduction to the world came through a local newspaper reporter who comes across as extremely ethical on both the journalism side of things as well as the human side. Before writing her initial story about Marla and her paintings, she asked the Olmsteads very clearly whether they really wanted her to write the story, because although there was a positive side to the publicity there could also be some negative consequences down the road.

As it turns out she was right.

Things are zooming along like an out of control freight train with first national and then international fame. The paintings sell for between $5,000 to $10,000 each and a waiting list forms for future paintings. We see that Marla’s mom is much more reserved about the whole thing and wouldn’t be unhappy if everything stopped tomorrow. She harbors concerns about the effect it is having on her family and her daughter in particular. Marla’s dad on the other hand doesn’t see any downside at all, and at one point his wife states that he really enjoys being the center of attention.

The documentary has an interview with a New York Times art critic who discusses modern (or abstract) art and the reasons behind the sometimes apparently insane valuations for what looks like some paint splashed on a canvas. Part of his explanation is that the story behind the artwork contributes to the value. What has the artist gone through, for example? In Marlas’s case part of the value is due to the fact of her young age and the apparent sophistication of the work.

The film shifts gears drastically when we are at home with the Olmsteads watching them as they watch the broadcast of a 60 Minutes piece which they thought was going to be supportive of Marla’s work. Instead its purpose was to raise serious doubts about the authenticity of Marla’s paintings. Was she coached by her father? Did she paint them herself? Her father is an amateur artist who paints, which is how Marla came to be interested in doing it herself. Immediately afterwards their world begins to cave in on them as people in town now look at them as frauds and the possibility of lawsuits from previous buyers loom.

The director interjects himself into his own documentary to express his suddenly conflicted feelings on the entire project due to the extreme turn of events. I think this really adds to the sense of neutrality of the film as you see that this was very unexpected. He’s known the family for quite a while now, and although they seem very honest and forthright he is plagued with doubts… in particular because throughout the months he’s spent with them he has not managed to capture her creating one of her paintings on film.

In the end the family manages to at least partially gain back the trust of the art world by finally documenting on film themselves Marla creating a painting called “Ocean” from start to finish. Although that particular painting does share similarities to prior paintings, it actually seems less sophisticated than those that have come before. Since then they have documented another painting from start to finish called “Rain”, which does seem to be closer to the style of the earlier paintings.

The viewer is left to draw their own conclusion and although I liked that the film did that, another part of me would have liked a definitive conclusion. Having said that, it’s probably better that it was left open-ended because too many documentaries have an obvious agenda meant to convince the viewer of some particular point of view.

After the film I was fortunate enough to actually see some of Marla’s paintings at a local art gallery. There are arguments both ways here, and it’s a very tough call.

To learn more about Marla you can visit her official website.

• District 9 Review
• Where The Wild Things Are Review
• Farrah Fawcett Dies at 62
• The Road Review
• Morgan Spurlock To Document ‘The Simpsons’ 20th Anniversary
• New 3.5 Minute Avatar Trailer Coming This Friday

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: An interesting idea poorly executed.

(Image from Cinempire.com)

In order to make it to the showing of Weapons at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival I had to leave the post-movie Q&A for Black Snake Moan early. The only reason I’m not totally annoyed with myself for doing that is that the short film preceding the main feature, A Nick in Time by Be’ Garrett was outstanding.

When I read the description for director/screenwriter Adam Bhala Lough’s Weapons, I had a feeling it might not be up my alley but I figured I’d give it a shot anyway. In the end I should have passed on it, and many people I spoke to after the showing had the same, if not stronger opinions to the negative as well. It’s never a good sign when people start leaving in droves before the Director Q&A session…

Weapons is yet another movie that starts with the ending. Coincidentally, The Good Life which starred Mark Webber, who is also in this film also started the same way. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Once the movie was through it became obvious why it was done that way, but that doesn’t exactly mean that it worked well. The opening scene with it’s lingering, slow camera shot is indicative of more of the same to come. It starts quite literally with a bang that is not for the feint hearted.

The film then goes to Sean (played by the up and coming Mark Webber) and his friends Jason and Chris. Chris tries to film everything (”I’m making a movie.”) and is what I would call a dangerous geek. Dorky, can’t get a girl, and drives around with a shotgun in back of his car in case he “wants to shoot someone”. Jason is cocky and a tough guy, while Sean is just back from college, although he’s easily sucked back into his friends’ dead end lifestyle.

The main story involves Reggie (played by Nick Cannon) becoming obsessed with tracking down and killing the man who raped and beat on his younger sister Sabrina (played by Regine Nehy). Due to the start of the film, we already know what will happen to him and for me, that ruined the movie quite a bit. Reggie, who does not seem to be a gangster-type, surprises us with his attitude and commitment in finding a gun and setting out with his friends to kill the rapist ASAP. He goes to his friends Mikey and younger James (who is supposed to be Sabrina’s boyfriend) to demand their help.

Sabrina says that Jason is the one who did it to her and that is Reggie’s target. He and his friends go find Mikey’s uncle who has apparently smoked one too many joints and is very strange. Despite this he tries to talk them out of what they’re going to do and they respond by beating the heck out of him.

About the best thing in the movie actually happens here, when the uncle has Reggie pinned against the wall and asks him about the genocide in Rwanda, to which Reggie replies “Who’s Rwanda?”

Weapons was the first film I saw at Sundance that had an “indie” feel to it – grainy film, hand held camera, and wierd things that I guess were supposed to be “artistic” but fell flat. For one thing Lough did the old “watch events from different points of view” thing, but all that did was make me feel like I had to sit through a bad film three times instead of just one. Then he had this habit of holding a shot on a face or scene where nothing was happening WAY too long. It almost felt as if in a few scenes he just forgot to say “cut!” Finally, in the middle of the film he inserted this weird, freeze frame montage of the main and supporting characters.

I really did want to give this a chance and for about the first 15 or 20 minutes although I didn’t think it was great, I thought it was ok and moving in an interesting direction. Unfortunately it really fell apart as it got further along. The style of the film actually reminded me of the controversial movie Kids by director Larry Clarke, which although it was more about teen sex than violence and was considered exploitative, really got the point of the nothing to lose, dead end lives of it’s characters than this film managed to do.

• Jennifer’s Body Review
• The Final Destination Review
• Are They Making Mortal Kombat 3?
• First Look At Pixar’s Newest Short Film: ‘Partly Cloudy’
• Comic-Con 2009: Extract
• First Image From Simon Pegg And Nick Frost’s ‘Paul’

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: Funny, gripping, violent, and erotic, this movie from the creator of “Hustle and Flow” stands out from the crowd big time.

Up until now I haven’t seen director Craig Brewer’s hit movie Hustle & Flow, but I’m going to make it a point to see it now. If it has any of the power and style of Black Snake Moan, I’m in for a treat.

Black Snake Moan was a hot ticket at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, and little did I know that I was attending the premiere of the film at that particular showing. It was through sheer luck that I got in, trading my ticket for the very wierd horror-comedy Teeth for the opportunity to see this film. That was a good call. My bad call was to leave while the director and cast were still on stage to see the absolutely dreadful Weapons, which I’ll be reviewing here as well.

The film stars the awesome Samuel L. Jackson and (in this movie, anyway) sexual heat personified in the person of Christina Ricci. The film opens with a bang (if you’ll pardon the pun) showing a sex scene between Rae (Ricci) and Ronnie (Justin Timberlake) which is, for lack of a better word – intense. Let me just say now, that between the sex, violence and drug use in this movie, PLEASE for the love of Pete do NOT bring little ones to see this when it’s released this February!!!

We’re then introduced to what’s going on with both Rae and Lazarus (Jackson). Ronnie is leaving Rae to go to Iraq. Once he gets back he wants to open an auto body shop and be with Rae. We meet Lazarus talking to his friend and pastor about an impending meeting where his pastor is trying to convince Lazarus to keep his cool. It turns out that Lazarus’ wife is in the restaurant and is leaving him after 25 years of marriage because he makes her feel old. Presumably she’s leaving him for a younger man, and yes, we do find out who. Lazarus is beside himself with the news and the fact that no reconciliation is possible.

Back to Rae: It turns out that she was sexually abused as a child, presumably for a long period of time, and the aftereffects manifest themselves from time to time in an intense need to have sex with someone. Anyone available at the moment will do. Within a couple of hours of Ronnie leaving she is satisfying this need with a local small-time drug dealer, and later on goes to a party where she gets drugged and drunk out of her mind and is left behind semi-naked in a field. Ronnie’s best friend (who drove Ronnie to the bus station) shows up to give her a ride home, seemingly playing a good guy. However things blow up in his truck between them and he beats her severely and leaves her for dead in the middle of the road.

The next morning Lazarus finds her unconscious and bloody in the middle of the road near his property and decides to take her in and try to help. In addition to having her face beaten and bloodied, she’s been suffering from a serious cough and fever, so he goes off into town to fetch something for that from the local pharmacy. The lady pharmacist is interested in Lazarus so she agrees to give him the medicine for free to help his “neice”, since he can’t afford a doctor.

He cleans up Rae’s face, gives her medicine and ends up putting her in icewater in the tub in order to break her fever. At one point he went into town to try and find out who did this to her and is led to the drug dealer mentioned earlier, who informs Lazarus of Rae’s peculiar and intense need for sex and mentions the large number of people that she has used to satisfy that need. It becomes clear however that he is not the person who beat her up.

Lazarus decides that he will “cure” her of this sickness, but when in a half-delirium she has a nightmare and he finds her outside in the middle of the night he decides to chain her up and that’s where the chemistry between Jackson and Ricci onscreen begins. What Lazarus doesn’t realize is that his attempt to cure Rae will also help him find peace for his own soul regarding the betrayal he feels concerning his wife.

Writer/Director Craig Brewer has done an amazing job with Black Snake Moan and it was a wonderful experience to see this film right after I had watched the boring and over-hyped Hounddog. The only reason I didn’t give this stars is because I didn’t really like the Ronnie character, played by Timberlake. I don’t know if it was his performance or just the way the character was written, but he was the weak link in the film. Aside from that, the film was great fun and I loved seeing the transformation of both Rae and Lazarus as they fought with their inner demons and came to terms with themselves. Outside of that, it was excellent. The pacing of the movie kept things moving, there were no extraneous scenes that could have been left out, and the music… man oh man what great music.

Samuel L. Jackson I can watch in just about anything. Either the man just melts into his roles or he has a knack for choosing characters that fit him like a glove. His righteous indignation was a blast to watch and seeing him soften as the film went on while somehow retaining his hard edge was very satisfying. Christina Ricci was hotness on wheels in this movie, I don’t know how else to put it. Although she captured the look of a poor, alcohol and drug addicted young twenty-something to perfection through her attitude and underweight appearance, it was still obvious how beautiful she was/could be and the heat she was able to generate onscreen was formidable. (I predict many, many DVD sales to the male population with this one).

Once again, this is NOT for the kiddies, but as an adult film it was a blast.

• Knowing Review
• Liam Neeson & Christina Ricci Discover What Is “After.Life”
• ‘Yogi Bear’ Adds Aykroyd, Faris & Timberlake
• ‘The Social Network’ Casting Rumors
• Matt Damon Confirms Bourne 4 Is In Progress
• Official Trailer For Michael Jackson’s ‘This Is It’ Movie

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: Well crafted, excellent performances, but not exactly entertaining.

For me, this is one of those rough reviews to write… where I really have to think about what my criteria is for deciding whether a movie is “great”, “good”, or “bad”. I’ll admit my reviews can be subjective – I don’t just rate films based on technical quality, but on how they make me feel. They don’t have to be “entertaining” (see my 5 star review of Enemies of Happiness as an example), but I like some sort of sense of positive “take-away” or satisfaction when I’m done.

Technically, is The Good Life a great film? Based on the script and the performances I would have to say yes. Overall, for the average viewer, is it great? I’d have to say no. At most I would call it a good movie.

The Good Life (very sarcastically titled) is about a 25 year guy named Jason who really just doesn’t fit in with the Nebraska football-crazed town in which he lives. Yes, I know it sounds like a high school “outsider” movie and for the longest time I thought it was – because Mark Webber (who plays Jason) looked like a teenage kid to me. It wasn’t until I did the math after a few lines of dialog that I figured out his age.

The film opens with our protagonist walking towards a celebratory crowd of people with a gun in his hand, the narrative describing the physical effects of shooting oneself in the mouth. Right there you can be assured that this isn’t going to be the “Feel Good Movie of the Year.” We are informed that we are watching the end of the film, and it immediately cuts away.

Jason (our protagonist) is a good guy with a big heart who is a victim of circumstance. Raised by a father with a sadistic streak who left the family some time back, a somewhat clueless mother (seemingly irresponsible, but not in a malicious way) who doesn’t seem to have a job and is depending on Jason working two jobs to keep them afloat. Unfortunately Jason’s jobs are minimum wage at best and are not enough to meet the monthly bills, including the electricity bill in the middle of winter. His father has just committed suicide, and he leaves Jason a gift which goes unopened for most of the film. We learn that at age three the family learned that his sister had a sever peanut allergy, and that for her 10th birthday (if I recall correctly) dear old dad gave her an intricately wrapped package for her birthday that contained… a jar of peanut butter. That was dads idea of a joke. Therefore Jason’s trepidation at opening a parting gift from his father is quite understandable.

Jason also suffers from alopecia, a disease that causes his body to reject it’s own hair which has caused him to be ostracized for many years both by others and within his own mind. Seemingly trapped in his town and nowhere life, we know that Jason did have a plan to escape at some point due to reference to his “moving fund” which he has exhausted trying to meet the monthly bills at home.

Jason also tries to take care of Gus (played by Harry Dean Stanton), who owns a local old-time movie theater. Gus lost his wife years ago but is starting to descend into Alzheimers. Jason does his best to befriend Gus, who he’s known for five years by helping him to run the theater, which shows old classics. It’s here that Jason meets Francis (played by Zooey Deschanel from Elf) Bill Paxton in a minor and somewhat creepy role.

Francine is somewhat mysterious and very intriguing, and through their relationship throws Jason a lifleline and brings him some brief joy. She gives him a feeling of self-worth and validates what a good person he is. Unfortunately she has her own issues that make her damaged goods, and his happiness is short-lived.

Writer/Director Stephen Berra does an admirable job of capturing the feeling of desolation that is Jason’s life. The fact that he gives so much of himself and sacrifices for others, while they seemingly don’t appreciate it and manage to do better than him (although not much better). I might say that Berra does too good a job of it, because after a while I almost started to feel it myself, a black hole with no way out that went on and on and on. Although it was about two hours long, it felt to me like the extended edition of Lord of the Rings.

I always believe that it is much more difficult to write real-world dialog than it is to pen what is said in an action flick, so Berra gets points for that. It was very real, and for lack of a better description, quiet or muted, fitting in with the beaten down emotions of the characters.

The acting was excellent, from everyone involved. Webber definitely captured the pathos of a beaten down person, accepting everything bad that happens up until a breaking point that must come. As in her performance in Elf, Zooey Deschanel here has an almost ethereal quality… almost as if she’s not of this world. She is very compelling when she is onscreen. Bill Paxton, who usually plays a lovable guy was cheerful in a positively creepy way. Harry Dean Stanton, another outstanding performance, straddling the line between lucidity and dementia. And then there’s Chris Klein (from American Pie) in a supporting role that made me somehow laugh and angry at the same time.

One scene I could have done without (and to me really seemed like non-sequiter) took place in a gay bar, with a quick shot of two guys trying to swallow each other’s tounges. I really didn’t need to see that and when thinking about the movie as a whole, I don’t really see what the point of that scene was. Really the only reason it seemed to be in there was because it was an indie film and one must show solidarity.

Out of respect for the performances and the screenwriting, I’ll give this one .

Overall this isn’t for everyone, but if you’re into angst-ridden movies this is probably for you.

• Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant Review
• Extract Review
• Producer Frank Marshall Talks Indy 5 & Other Projects
• Public Enemies Review
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Review
• Night at the Museum 2 Review

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: A powerful documentary about a young woman who risks her life for human rights in Afghanistan and gives insight into what daily life is like there.

Regardless of which side you are on in regards to the current war, you will be entranced by Enemies of Happiness. It is an important film which humanizes the people of Afghanistan by showing the daily struggles of everday people and how the lingering ways of the previous regime still hover over their lives.

The films opens at a government meeting in 2003, where Malalai Joya, then a 25 year old woman and outspoken critic of the Taliban (which marks her as incredibly brave right from the start) is given the opportunity to speak to the hundreds of people present. She criticisizes the government for still allowing tribal warlords to be in power and function as part of the government, pointing out the atrocities that they have committed, particularly against women, over many years. Although we are shown some nods of agreement with her statement in the audience, the official presiding over the meeting has her thrown out and banned permanently from any future meeting of this type.

Cut to three years later, in 2006, where Malalai is running for Paliament in the first-ever free elections in Afghanistan history. Her life has been in danger since that day in 2003 and she has had to move constantly, never living in one place too long. Although she despises the traditional burka that women have been forced to wear for so long, she must wear it when she goes outside. Ironically that sign of oppression of women now serves to hide her from her enemies.

Malalai is not only a politician – she also serves as a counsellor and and lawyer to the locals, offering advice to a young girl of 13 who is in danger of being forced into marriage with an opium dealer old enough to be her grandfather, and to a married couple whose marriage is being destroyed by a husband who is an opium addict. At one point she sits down with the opium dealer in an effort to talk him out of forcing the young girl into marriage (he already has multiple wives) and although we certainly don’t side with him, we get to see that perhaps there is more than one side to this story and that although the father of the young girl wants to protect her desperately he may not have been completely honest with Malalai about what he accepted in exchange for his daughter. It is heart wrenching to see this young girl come to Malalai pleading for help, not wanting to marry this man and saying that if worse comes to worse she would rather set herself on fire than marry him.

The love and dedication that Malalai has for her people and to the idea of freedom is obvious and geniune, and that is what has contributed to her popularity and status as a folk hero among her people. At one point a very elderly woman arrives to visit her, who has walked with cane for two hours to come see her. She is obviously over 80 years old and claims to be 100 although she probably doesn’t really know her own age. Her belief in Malalai is touching and humbling: She has seen much in her life and seeing her hope that Malalai can actually change things that have been the status quo for so long is very moving and shows the faith the people have in her.

There is no sense of self-awareness of heroism however, only a feeling that she is doing what she can because she can. She is an amazing woman, doing what she knows to be right despite many assasination attempts on her life and the constant threat of death.

Even if you’re not generally a fan of documentaries, this is an important film and I highly recommend that you find a way to see Enemies of Happiness.

Official website for the film: EnemiesOfHappiness.com

Malalai Joya’s website: MalalaiJoya.com

• The Stoning of Soraya M. Review
• ‘UP’ Review
• Critics Split By Gender On Jennifer’s Body
• Let The Right One In Review
• TIFF Report: Drew Barrymore Delivers with ‘Whip It’
• TIFF: Samantha Morton Impresses With ‘The Unloved’

By Vic Holtreman

Short version: Just a really fun (and gory) movie about how zombies might fit into the (supposedly) idyllic 1950’s lifestyle.

This is the first movie I had the pleasure of viewing at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. It was preceded by the insane short film Goodbye Mr. Snuggles by Jonathan Hopkins, about a shootout between an insane clown and an elderly and refined British gentleman out in the countryside. It was a great warm up for the feature: Fido.

We learn the premise of the film in a 1950’s style black and white educational movie, the sort of which most of you reading this have only seen as a parody, but I actually watched as a kid. It describes a mysterious “radiation cloud” that came from outer space and re-animated corpses. Shortly thereafter came “the great zombie war”, and the rise of a huge corporation called ZomCon which at first took over protection of populated areas, but then introduced a method of domesticating zombies. This was done by means of an electronic collar which eliminated the zombies’ desire for human flesh, and rendered them quite docile. They’re used to mow lawns, pack groceries, deliver newspapers and most any other mundane job you can think of.

After the black and white introduction we find ourselves in an elementary school classroom, complete with perky teacher wearing a technicolor yellow dresss and well behaved students. The first clue as to the tone of the movie is given when the newly arrived Safety Director of ZomCon (who has a daughter in the classroom) arrives to fill the kids in on how much safer the town will now be with him around. The first question he asks the room filled with nine or ten year olds is: “So how many of you have killed a zombie?” To which the reply is about a half dozen little hands shooting up in an affirmative answer, all the while with smiles all around the class.

Our protagonist, Timmy Robinson (played by the oddly named K’Sun Ray, who is excellent in the role) is picked on by a couple of ZomCom “cadets” in his class and has a father who is strangely distant. His dad is more obsessed with death than he is with actually living his life with his family. His “keep up with the Joneses” mom is played by Carrie-Anne Moss (yes, from The Matrix). She has long complained that they’re the only family on the block without a zombie, but her husband is apparently terrified of them and wants nothing to do with them. She eventually gets her way (so the neighbors won’t think they’re strange) and he grudgingly gives in.

At first Timmy treats the zombie (played wonderfully by Billy Connolly) like, well, a zombie – until it begins to show characteristics much like a faithful dog. Shockingly, Timmy names his new pal “Fido” and all is well briefly until a malfunction in the restraining collar leads to a nosy neighbor’s grisly (but funny) death. Timmy covers this up as best as he can, but of course we know that eventually it will be found out.

I don’t want to give too much more away, but if you’re a fan of zombie movies, Fido really was a ton of fun. There was much laughter in the theater throughout the film, and the humor has a very sincere quality to it. It’s all played straight, but the bizarreness of the situations make them hysterical. We have everything from a next door neighbor whose relationship with his young female zombie is questionable at best, to Timmy sincerely apologizing to someone who is now a zombie as he does them in with a shovel by full moon. The real gut-buster (if you’ll pardon the pun) however was a scene pulled right out of the old “Lassie” TV show.

I didn’t give it a full five stars because I had a sense that it was trying to sell a message, but I’ll be damned if I know what it was. Of course I’m not a terribly deep guy, so maybe some other reviewer will be able to put his finger on it. It was either poking serious holes in the idea of the 1950’s being idyllic, the use of illegal immigrants for menial jobs, or maybe something else.

Either way, it was a super-fun ride.

• Zombieland Review
• AMC Picking Up The Walking Dead
• The First Trailer For Zombieland Rocks!
• Inglourious Basterds Review
• Hilarious Red Band Trailer for Zombieland
• Star Trek Review

I managed to score a ticket package to the Sundance Film Festival this year, so I’ll be reviewing a handful of films from the 2007 film-fest. It should be pretty interesting… I’ve never been to Park City for this event and I’m sure I’ll be wandering around pretty cluelessly.

There are a fair number of films that I just couldn’t bring myself to purchase tickets for, because I knew they would just really torque me off. Not just due to the content, but due to their selection for this venue, without other films to counterbalance the themes. For example, a documentary about what happened in Abu Ghraib: How about a documentary that includes footage of terrorists literally sawing the heads off of civilians? Then of course there is the required “global warming” documentary (anyone read Michael Crichton’s excellent and extrememly well documented “State of Fear”?). And of course there has to be at least one anti-Christian, pro-Gay documentary.

Oh, and don’t forget the one about the guy who died while having sex with a horse.

But I digress…

Here are the films I’ll be reviewing:

“The Good Life” (review), directed and written by Steve Berra, is about how the arrival of a young woman disrupts the life of a young man who’s dedicated himself to operating a faded movie palace in a small town. This looks like a solid drama, and I needed to pick a couple of movies my wife would want to watch, so this is one.

“Teeth,” directed and written by Mitchell Lichtenstein, is a conceptually provoca-tive yarn about a devoutly Christian high school girl (Jess Wexler) who finds she posesses a “physical advantage” over men when she becomes the victim of a sexual assault. Although I’m sure this one will bug me due to an anti-religion/morals message, it just sounded to wierd to pass up.

“Weapons” (review) , directed and written by Adam Bhala Lough, is a multistrand revenge drama that examines several seemingly random youth-related killings in a small town over the course of a weekend. Sounds like a gritty, violent story… I’ll give it a chance.

“My Kid Could Paint That” (review). directed by Amir Bar-Lev, focuses on a 4-year-old girl whose paintings, which have been compared to the work of Kandinsky, Pollock and Picasso, have already netted her parents $300,000. Having a daughter who is artistically gifted, this one sounded very interesting to me.

“Enemies of Happiness” (Denmark) (review), directed by Eva Mulvad and Anja Al-Erhayem, is an account of the victory of a 28-year-old Afghan woman in the 2005 par-liamentary election. I was actually shocked to see this in the competition as it looks like it will show something good coming out of the war in Afghanistan.

“Fido” (review), shows an alternate reality where zombies roam the earth. Not to fear–their never-ending appetite for human flesh has been stifled by a patented domestication collar, manufactured en masse by megacorporation Zomcon. Citizens can sleep at night knowing their zombies are not there to eat brains but to mow lawns, deliver milk, and serve food–as model zombie citizens should. ‘Nuff said… How could I not go see this one?

“Finishing the Game,” in this film egos fly and collide as hard and high as the karate kicks in this scathingly smart swipe at racial stereotypes and movie-biz hypocrisy. Justin Lin returns to Sundance (Better Luck Tomorrow played at the 2002 Festival) with Finishing the Game, a wickedly conceived comedy spoof about the search for the “new Bruce Lee.” Being old enough to remember seeing Bruce Lee films at the theater, and with “Kung Fu Hustle” fresh in my mind I thought this one would be fun.

“The Signal” (review), imagine every cell phone, radio, and television in your city suddenly broadcasting the same mysterious signal over and over. Now imagine these “terminus” transmissions evoking violent, uncontrollable, psychotic chaos from everyone who comes in contact with them. At last, a horror/scifi movie on the list!

“Houndog” (review), the controversial film starring Dakota Fanning.

“Black Snake Moan” (review), the Samuel L. Jackson and Christina Ricci southern “hot” movie from the director of “Hustle and Flow”.

• Sony Is Stepping Into ‘The Shadow Of The Colossus’
• First (Belated) Look: Assassination of a High School President
• Official ‘District 9′ Trailer Looks Amazing
• Web Series ‘Broken Toy’ Looks Promising
• ‘Moon’ Scoops Top Award at EIFF 2009
• Fantastic Fest: That’s A Wrap