Mini-Movie Review Catch-Up
Maybe it is because it snowed last week and got super fucking cold (I had to wear long fucking underwear already,) maybe it is because I have had no energy, but I have fallen behind on these posts. So, here are my mini-reviews of the Chicago International Film Fest movies we have seen so far:
The Bridge
A documentary about people who jumped to their deaths from the Golden Gate Bridge in 2004. It is the most popular spot in the world for people to commit suicide. The filmmaker set up two cameras to film the bridge everyday for a year, and caught 24 suicides on camera, some of them in close-ups. Then, using the coroner of San Fran, he tracked down some of the families and friends and interviewed them to get a mini-character study of what led this person to the bridge. Many of the jumpers suffered from depression and bi-polar disorder, one suffered from schizophrenia. There was one survivor (almost unheard of.) Some of the families stubbornly believed their loved one had been pushed rather than jumped (oh Catholic dogma, how it blinds some people,) some of the families were angry and hurt, some had accepted the choice and knew that at least their loved one was not suffering anymore. I don't think I would have liked this movie as much as I did if the filmmaker had not been there to answer my questions. He said that everyone on his crew was instructed to call the authorities immediately if they saw someone they thought would jump, some were saved and some weren't; though you do see people in the film who were pulled back over the edge. He said that there were many people who were crying and wailing who never jumped, but others who were laughing and talking on their cell phones and then jumped, hard to spot the jumpers. However, this filmmaker ran into trouble because he A) did not disclose the purpose of his filming when he secured the location agreement from the city, and B) did not tell the family members when he interviewed them that he had footage of their loved ones killing themselves. This is a perfect example of filmmaking vs morality. I rate it 3 out of 5.
The Zero Years
As I was watching it, I thought this was one of the most boring movies I had ever sat through. If I had been on an aisle, I probably would have left before it was over. This Greek film is about 4 women who have been sterilized by the government and are living in a government run S&M brothel (that is kind of haunted, though they never really explain that part.) And the government has basically forgotten these women, except for when an old dyke of a woman shows up to collect their earnings. They beat and degrade their customers, but each of these 4 women are totally different: one constantly believes that she is pregnant, one is paranoiedly believing that there are kids outside stalking her, another tries to commit suicide several times and fails each time. The problem with this movie is that there is no conflict, and I have noticed in my travels that many non-American films do not have conflicts. In hindsight, if this director's goal was to make a movie in which you are seeing an unflinching pov of these 4 women, then this film accomplishes its goal. But it was so slow, and each scene ended with a drowsy fade to black, we thought it was ending like 7 or 8 times before it actually did. But none of these women had a character arc, nothing had really changed by the end, no conflict. When I saw it I gave it 1 out of 5, but now I think I might give it a 2, simply because I think maybe the director was just trying to make a character study.
The Host
This was a Korean creature comedy we saw last night. Maybe it was the 3 drinks I had with Bryan before the movie, or the fact that i ran my ass off at work all day and the movie started so late... but uh yeah, I saw probably 20 collective minutes of this movie, slept through the rest. The parts I saw looked cool though! The creature looked awesome and the characters were really funny! But.... can't really say anything else about it. oops.
Anyway, 3 down, 5 more to go. One tonight, 2 tomorrow, one Monday and the last on Tuesday.
The Bridge
A documentary about people who jumped to their deaths from the Golden Gate Bridge in 2004. It is the most popular spot in the world for people to commit suicide. The filmmaker set up two cameras to film the bridge everyday for a year, and caught 24 suicides on camera, some of them in close-ups. Then, using the coroner of San Fran, he tracked down some of the families and friends and interviewed them to get a mini-character study of what led this person to the bridge. Many of the jumpers suffered from depression and bi-polar disorder, one suffered from schizophrenia. There was one survivor (almost unheard of.) Some of the families stubbornly believed their loved one had been pushed rather than jumped (oh Catholic dogma, how it blinds some people,) some of the families were angry and hurt, some had accepted the choice and knew that at least their loved one was not suffering anymore. I don't think I would have liked this movie as much as I did if the filmmaker had not been there to answer my questions. He said that everyone on his crew was instructed to call the authorities immediately if they saw someone they thought would jump, some were saved and some weren't; though you do see people in the film who were pulled back over the edge. He said that there were many people who were crying and wailing who never jumped, but others who were laughing and talking on their cell phones and then jumped, hard to spot the jumpers. However, this filmmaker ran into trouble because he A) did not disclose the purpose of his filming when he secured the location agreement from the city, and B) did not tell the family members when he interviewed them that he had footage of their loved ones killing themselves. This is a perfect example of filmmaking vs morality. I rate it 3 out of 5.
The Zero Years
As I was watching it, I thought this was one of the most boring movies I had ever sat through. If I had been on an aisle, I probably would have left before it was over. This Greek film is about 4 women who have been sterilized by the government and are living in a government run S&M brothel (that is kind of haunted, though they never really explain that part.) And the government has basically forgotten these women, except for when an old dyke of a woman shows up to collect their earnings. They beat and degrade their customers, but each of these 4 women are totally different: one constantly believes that she is pregnant, one is paranoiedly believing that there are kids outside stalking her, another tries to commit suicide several times and fails each time. The problem with this movie is that there is no conflict, and I have noticed in my travels that many non-American films do not have conflicts. In hindsight, if this director's goal was to make a movie in which you are seeing an unflinching pov of these 4 women, then this film accomplishes its goal. But it was so slow, and each scene ended with a drowsy fade to black, we thought it was ending like 7 or 8 times before it actually did. But none of these women had a character arc, nothing had really changed by the end, no conflict. When I saw it I gave it 1 out of 5, but now I think I might give it a 2, simply because I think maybe the director was just trying to make a character study.
The Host
This was a Korean creature comedy we saw last night. Maybe it was the 3 drinks I had with Bryan before the movie, or the fact that i ran my ass off at work all day and the movie started so late... but uh yeah, I saw probably 20 collective minutes of this movie, slept through the rest. The parts I saw looked cool though! The creature looked awesome and the characters were really funny! But.... can't really say anything else about it. oops.
Anyway, 3 down, 5 more to go. One tonight, 2 tomorrow, one Monday and the last on Tuesday.