The Films of 2013

[Lemmy Caution]

I'm looking through the Shanghai Film Festival offerings and trying to decide what to see.
Was wondering if anyone had seen or knew anything about the following handful of films which caught my eye:

I Am You (Bulgarian film)
What Maisie Knew
The Russian Novel (Korean film)
Hannah Arendt - Margaret von Trotta
Me and You - Bertolucci

[wigwam]

Like any movie starring Steve Carrell, The Way, Way Back is unqualified shit. There's some cool footage on a water slide, and a fun upside down POV. There's potential when characters are trying to be caring, but most of it is trying to be funny and it's excruciatingly unfunny, busybody, self-serious, dramatically-shortcutted, and lazy copycat filmmaking of other earnest coming-of-age movies, and probably not even any of the good ones. Can't wait to read essays about Sam Rockwell's manic pixie dream dude.

[thirtyframesasecond]

Sarah Polley's documentary 'Stories We Tell' is a sometimes funny, sometimes moving, interestingly shot film about

Spoiler

her being born from an extramarital affair, which she only discovered long after her mother's death.

[Black Hat]

I thought Stories We Tell was fantastic. Felt it was about far more than just her family life but rather the hidden, often stumbled upon point where art and the truth add up to something greater than the sum of its parts, a revelation about life.

[FerdinandGriffon]

I'll try to go into more detail about why soon, but for now I urge anyone in New York to see Matías Piñeiro's Viola at Film Society of lincoln Center, playing through next thursday. His other two features will be showing this weekend with Piñeiro in attendance. Some marvelous young performances moving through a fiction that repeatedly folds in on itself with both warmth and playfulness. Perfect for people who love Hong or Rivette or both.

[Black Hat]

I did see Viola which screened with Rosalinda and was also able to see Piñeiro's first film The Stolen Man. I'd say he's a major talent combining whimsical playfulness with the thoughtful considerations of Rohmer and belief in the power of music. In Viola you definitely got the sense that he was feeling more confident in his ambitions as not a gesture or an act is wasted. Everyone is always doing something and on top of that his use of mise en scene really gives the viewer a sense of freedom that I find so rare in today's cinema. Then his use of close ups really took you inside the hearts of his wonderful actresses. The film's final scene I found to be full of so much joy. Enjoy the moment, whatever life brings you, wherever the journey takes you.

[repeat]

Anyone seen Todos mienten (They All Lie)? I can see the Rivette influence obviously but I remember being rather perplexed by that one. Intrigued enough to want to see Viola when/if I get the chance.

[Black Hat]

Some of the other films I saw at Lincoln Center's Latinbeat festival...

La Paz (Santiago Loza)... Moving portrayal of a young man trying to find his way out of depression while giving some social commentary on class and race inside Argentina. Outstanding performances & Loza handled mental illness with deft sensitivity without making a mockery of it like David O Russell did in Silver Linings Playbook.

Il Futuro (Alicia Scherson)... Billed as the first film adaptation of a Roberto Bolano book, unfortunately one that has yet to be translated into English, this wasn't really about narrative story but very much about acting and mise en scene expressing how we feel, how we process, cope and ultimately move on when an extraordinary series of painful, unfortunate events happen in our lives. The genius of the film is that you feel sympathy and understanding for a situation that on paper many would judge as repugnant. Loved the film's cinematography it really added an element of unspoken anxiety and beauty to the world we were inhabiting. The unquestioned highest note of the film were the outstanding performances given by Italian actress Manuela Martelli, a future star as far as I'm concerned, and Rutger Hauer. Both captures the inner conflict of their characters without cheapening any of the contradictory side.

Bring Me the Head of the Machine Gun Woman (Ernesto Díaz Espinoza)... Oh man was this movie fun! A very different homage to Alfredo Garcia and Peckinpah, not what I was expecting at all. Part camp, part video game, part sex, I can not express how much I enjoyed this. Fernanda Urrejola, holy crap, she is so sexy it hurts, need to see more of her.

[Brian C]

There's something about mangled broken English on the poster of a Shakespeare adaptation that I find immensely endearing. I really hope this is the final version and it goes out to theaters this way.

Spoiler

"Adapted by Academy Award winner and creator of 'Downton Abbey'"

[wigwam]

I didn't really think girl Most Likely was very funny (I only laughed maybe 4 or 5 times) but it struck some tonal chord with me and made me sad in a way that was very cathartic (that Blondie song makes me goosebump and tear up, so did the scene where the brother shows her his invention) and I was very into it in a narrative sense. The 3rd act was fun too. This does a much better job than Way Way Back of being a generational rift successor to Descendants (a film I didn't like anyway) and The Heat's shitty facevalue attempts at class commentary ala Bridesmaids (a film I loved). So I dunno that it is what it's trying to be but what it ends up as is better and nobler.

[Black Hat]

Has anyone seen Computer Chess? Not sure what to make of it, really enjoyed some parts of it and others quite literally put me to sleep.

[swo17]

Has anyone seen Computer Chess?

Yes

[Theresa0214]

Has anyone seen Computer Chess? Not sure what to make of it, really enjoyed some parts of it and others quite literally put me to sleep.

I felt exactly the same - good parts were great but some...well...zzz

I have just watched A Field in England which I was really looking forward to and loved SO much. I really like Ben Wheatley's films.

[FerdinandGriffon]

Just picked up the most recent issue of Cinemascope and was very pleased to see a lovely painting based on Alain Guiraudie's L'Inconnu du lac on the cover; the interview with Guiraudie by Joao Pedro Rodrigues is even better. Does anyone know if Guiraudie's film has distribution in the US, or any festival screenings planned? I'm a big fan but I've never had a chance to see one of his films in a theater, so I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high.

[Matt]

Strand picked it up, which means I won't see it until it hits DVD/BD release.

[willoneill]

Not sure if this is the best thread, but I was surfing Amazon to see what was coming out in the next few months, and apparently there's a remake of Suddenly ... and according to Imdb, it's directed by Uwe Boll.

[warren oates]

Very disappointed in Europa Report. The film has a lot of potential and certainly a lot of ambition in the right direction -- like the NASA-assisted production design of the main set, for example, a pretty amazing rendition of what a real deep space crew cabin would look like if we built one right now, that really rivals the sets in 2001 in detail and probably surpasses them in authenticity. Still, the entire "found footage" conceit of the film has far less merit on the same grounds, as the more you learn (About exactly who has this footage and how much of it they have and who cut it together in this order and for whom to watch? And why does it have a score again?), the less sense any of it makes narratively. The writer and director have backed themselves into a corner where they wish to maximize both versimilitude and storytelling excitement, not having realized that they've constructed a vehicle that can only ratchet up one of those modalities at a time at the necessary expense of the other. Also, it feels like the minutiae of the ship, the mission, etc. were given more consideration than what happens in the story. Just like the visuals are more impressive inside the ship than once we venture outside (even accepting the constraints of found-footage video). An interesting international cast, an impressive set and a good starting point for a film end up just kind of wasted.

Other than that:

Spoiler

Great spacewalk disaster, complete with plausible non-HAL reasons for second astronaut drifting off to oblivion sacrifice, right down the true to life chemical that contaminates one guy's space suit. Not so great Jupiter's moon landing with cheap horror "ten little Indians" kill-off and additional boring last moment monster glimpse.

[Sonmi451]

Just caught Magic Magic last night, and I must say - having been unfamiliar with Silva's previous work - I was quite pleasantly surprised. It was much deeper/symbolic than I had anticipated. I read it as a rather scathing indictment of the Western notions of

Spoiler

conformity/free will, community, and medicine. Juno Temple beating herself over the head with a copy of Jonathan Franzen's "Freedom" was a hight point; just brilliant.

It's by no means perfect, but Juno Temple gives a tour-de-force performance, and Christopher Doyle's photography is superlative as always. This goes right into my top 10 for the year so far, and I can't wait to check out Crystal Fairy, and finally catch Silva's rather acclaimed The Maid.

[Matt]

James Franco's/Travis Mathews' Interior. Leather Bar. has been picked up by Strand Releasing.

[Luke M]

Kick-Ass 2 is worth a watch if you're a fan of the first film. I think this unfairly got panned by critics. It doesn't have the shock value of the first one but doesn't aspire to shock anyone. Chloe Grace-Moretz is a terrific actress and holds this movie together. Jim Carrey delivers one of his finer performances but is woefully underused. The action set pieces left a lot to be desired. They certainly appeared to lack the production value of the first movie. But it's a lot of fun, the movie hit the right notes with me, it's R rated violence with a few funny comedic bits and a heart underneath it all.

[jindianajonz]

Kick-Ass 2 is worth a watch if you're a fan of the first film. I think this unfairly got panned by critics. It doesn't have the shock value of the first one but doesn't aspire to shock anyone. Chloe Grace-Moretz is a terrific actress and holds this movie together. Jim Carrey delivers one of his finer performances but is woefully underused. The action set pieces left a lot to be desired. They certainly appeared to lack the production value of the first movie. But it's a lot of fun, the movie hit the right notes with me, it's R rated violence with a few funny comedic bits and a heart underneath it all.

I would agree with this. Seeing Jim Carrey in this made me wish he would stop doing bland comedies and try to take on more serious roles; between this and Eternal Sunshine it's obvious that he is capable of a lot more.

I kind of got lost in the action later on, but in the very first fight scene I really appreciated the sense of placement of all the characters- you never got confused as to where anybody was or what was going on. Granted, this was mostly gone by the giant free for all at the end, but it was still nice to see when most other big summer movies tend to ape the Michael Bay "quick cuts between close ups of fists hitting bodies" style of action.

I also liked how the majority of the superheroes weren't people who had an innate desire to do good, but fairly screwed up people trying to compensate for some past loss (more batman than superman). Something about the superheroes reminded me of the former drug addict who becomes a born again Christian just so he can go around telling people about how he had been saved. There was an innate creepiness to the husband and wife superhero team that I wish had been explored further. I'm wouldn't be surprised if Mark Millar went deeper with them in the comic but the movie cut it out because of how dark it was.

Speaking of Millar, I saw some pretty biting criticism about his ultra-violence and casual use of rape in his comics, but it didn't come across as strongly in the film. There was one scene where I started to groan and thought "oh, this is what they were talking about" but it didn't end quite the way I had expected. Though playing an attempted rape for a laugh obviously isn't in the best taste, and the fact that they followed it up with severely beating a woman isn't much better, I didn't think it was any worse than some of the other severe violence in the movie, though I expect there will be others that take a much firmer stand against this than I do.

So yeah, I would agree that it was worth checking out; it may not have been my favorite blockbuster of the summer, but it definitely better than Star Trek or The Wolverine.

[Foam]

Apparently there is another Gallo film we'll never get to see.

[The Narrator Returns]

Warner Bros. allegedly posted anonymous advertising for Getaway, a conspiracy almost as far-reaching and exciting as the one featured in the new hit film Getaway.

[Luke M]

Saw Blackfish and thought it hit all the right notes. It was simultaneously sad, heartbreaking, and infuriating. I thought it told its story pretty organically and wasn't terribly manipulative with its emotional scenes. I appreciated the narrative the movie framed around Tilikum - his capture, his life and what led to his actions. It's probably a stretch but reminded of "Dirty Wars" whose major thesis was that the U.S. is creating new terrorists because of the innocent people killed in drone attacks. It's a similar story about how a killer whale, because of how it was treated for most of its life, acted out of frustration and killed trainers. Anyway, I really liked it.

[Sandman]

Any opinions/thoughts on Michael Mayer's Out in the Dark? It's not a 2013 film, but it's due to be released in the US on October 29th (Breaking Glass Pictures). I'm intrigued by the storyline, an Arab-Israel love affair, and all the more so by the trailer. I had thought that this was the same Michael Mayer who directed the Met Opera's "Las Vegas" Rigoletto last year, but apparently I was mistaken. Has anyone seen this?