2014 San Francisco International Film Festival (Rump Sessions)

Several films which screened at last year's San Francisco International Film Festival received a limited release afterwards.

Palo Alto starring James Franco & Emma Roberts; directed by Gia Coppola; (2014) - Official Website
The Double starring  Jesse Eisenberg & Mia Wasikowska; directed by Richard Ayoade; (2013) - Official Website
Chinese Puzzle starring Romain Duris & Audrey Tautou; directed by Cédric Klapisch; French & English with subtitles; (2013) - Official Website
We Are the Best! starring Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin & Liv LeMoyne; directed by Lukas Moodysson; Swedish with subtitles; (2013) - Official Website
Obvious Child starring Jenny Slate & Jake Lacy; directed by Gillian Robespierre; (2013) - Official Website
Calvary starring Brendan Gleeson; directed by John Michael McDonagh; (2013) - Official Website
The Skeleton Twins starring Kristen Wiig & Bill Hader; directed by Craig Johnson; (2013) - Official Website

I saw all of these films at Landmark Theater locations.  I saw Palo Alto & The Skeleton Twins at the Guild in Menlo Park.  I saw The Double & Calvary at the Shattuck in Berkeley.  I saw Chinese Puzzle, We Are the Best! & Obvious Child at the Embarcadero Cinemas.

Before I forget, the Shattuck Cinemas are being threatened with closure due to a housing project being planned for the site.  If you oppose this, there is a petition you can sign and there is a Save the Shattuck Facebook page.

§§§

So much time has passed since I saw these films that I should be ashamed but I'll do my best to plumb the depths of my memory.  Fortunately, I have a few handwritten notes.

Palo Alto held standard teenage plotlines.  Set in an upscale high school, the teenagers drink & have sex; although one gets a DUI and another has sex with a teacher/coach.  Emma Roberts gives the standout performance as the confused and insecure teenager who careens from one boy to another to a grown man (James Franco).  Other than being Gia Coppola's (daughter of Francis Ford and niece of Sofia) debut feature, Palo Alto is indistinguishable from other reasonably well made films of this genre.

The Double is based on a Dostoyevsky novel.  Jesse Eisenberg plays Simon James and his doppelgänger James Simon.  Simon James is largely ignored by society.  When James Simon starts working at Simon James' workplace, Simon feels his own marginalization growing.  James Simon is assertive, charming and the center of attention.  No one seems to notice the resemblance between the two men except themselves.  Darkly humorous and surreal, The Double portrays the duo as both separate individuals as well as two versions of the same person.  The film reminded me of Gogol's works of absurdist tragicomedy.

While reading the synopsis for Chinese Puzzle, I learned it was part of the Spanish Apartment trilogy.  Surprising myself, I recall reading the review of The Spanish Apartment (2002), a film set in Spain about college students from various countries.  The characters were representative of French perceptions of their respective national consciousnesses.  Chinese Puzzle revisits several of these characters including Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou, Cécile de France & Kelly Reilly.  I have a strong sense that my viewing of Chinese Puzzle would have benefited if I had seen The Spanish Apartment or its follow-up Russian Dolls. A comedy, Chinese Puzzle has women from Romain Duris' past (as chronicled in The Spanish Apartment & Russian Dolls) converging on his new life in New York.  As Xavier, Duris has a full plate - he is publishing a highly autobiographical novel, he is in a sham marriage to get a US Green Card, he agrees to be a sperm donor for a lesbian friend and his ex-girlfriend shows up from France for a visit.  It's a rollicking good time but I often felt that I was missing context and backstory of their characters' interactions.

We Are the Best! is a Swedish film based on director Lukas Moodysson's wife's (Coco) comic strip. Set in the 1980s, the film follows three outcast teenage girls.  They do what any girl of that era would do in their situation, they form a punk rock band.  Their anthem (and only song) is Hate the Sport!  The rebellious Klara (Mira Grosin) and her only friend, the androgynous looking Bobo (Mira Barkhammar) are the misfits of their school.  They decide to form a band mostly to spite their tormentors by taking away studio rehearsal time from them.  Neither can play or sing.  They decide to bring in a ringer, their classmate Hedvig (Liv LeMoyne) who is a guitar virtuoso (virtuosa?).  Despite being a sweet-natured film, We Are the Best! captures the punk rock ethos throughout and punctuates it with the band's debut performance where they get jeered off the stage.

 Liv LeMoyne, Mira Barkhammar & Mira Grosin (l-r) in We Are the Best!

Obvious Child exceeded my expectations.  Has anyone noticed that a lot of films are set in Brooklyn lately?  Anyway, Donna (Jenny Slate) is bookstore worker by day and stand-up comedienne by night.  She one of these types of comics that can make the pain of her life seem amusing; adroitly straddling the line pathos and comedy.  At the beginning of the film, her boyfriend breaks up with her because he is tired of their life being used as fodder for her skits.  She has a one-night stand with Max (Jake Lacy) which results in her pregnancy.  From this unusual point that Obvious Child operates.  To turn up the awkwardness factor, Donna decides to get an abortion and date Max.  As you can imagine, the film turns on Slate's performance which is stupendous.  She conveys a ballsy persona for her stage act and everyday life which gets chipped away by circumstances; eventually revealing a vulnerable young woman.

Calvary features another great performance by Brendan Gleeson as Father James, an Irish Catholic priest who is having a bad week.  In the confessional booth, a parishioner promises to kill Father James in a  few days in response to being sexually abused by a priest.  The threat is made against Father James because the original abuser is already dead and it would be more tragic to kill a good man like Father James.  Father James is not your ordinary priest.  He was married and has a grown daughter before being ordained a Catholic priest.  His daughter (Kelly Reilly) has recently attempted suicide and their relationship is strained.  The townsfolk seem hostile towards Father James; his dog's throat ends up being cut.  The anonymous threatener's sexual abuse was likely not an isolated incident.  Father James tends to his flock as best he can as the days count down to the day his parishioner said he would kill him.  For good measure, Father James is a recovering alcoholic and the stress of the situation has put his sobriety to the test.  Gleeson portrays Father James as weary but dedicated priest coping with hostility that is directed towards him as the local representative of the Catholic church.  Somehow, Calvary expertly mixes in some humor within this premise.

The Skeleton Twins is about twin siblings Milo (Bill Hader) & Maggie (Kristen Wiig)...and no their last name is not Skeleton.  As the film begins, Maggie is about to attempt suicide by swallowing a handful of pills but is interrupted by a phone call informing her that Milo has been hospitalized following an unsuccessful suicide attempt of his own.  She flies out to LA where Milo is a failed actor to care for him.  She eventually convinces him to stay with her and her husband (Luke Wilson) in their upstate New York hometown during his convalescence.  I should probably note that Milo is gay and the true love of his life is Rich, his high school English teacher (Ty Burrell).  Maggie exposed their affair while they were in school and Rich lost his job.  He is now married, has a teenage son, runs a bookstore and is extremely surprised to see Milo.  Maggie and her husband are trying to have children but Maggie is sabotaging the effort by secretly taking birth control pills and having an affair with her scuba diving instructor.  Hader and Wiig were formerly Saturday Night Live performers and best known as comedians but bother deliver strong dramatic performances as the emotionally fragile siblings.  One scene with Joanna Gleason as their passive-aggressive New Age mother tells the story of the roots of the siblings' dysfunction and estrangement from each other.  Ultimately the film is about two people who are very uncomfortable with the lives they have made for themselves and are only able to share their discomfort with their womb-mate.  I thought The Skeleton Twins was a poignantly sad story with moments of levity interspersed.

We Are the Best!, Calvary, The Skeleton Twins and to slightly lesser extent Obvious Child were tremendous films that I recommend.

2014 San Francisco International Film Festival

The 2014 San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) ran from April 24 to May 8.  I saw 19 films but had tickets to 20.  I skipped the screening of Dear White People due to general fatigue.  I was secure in the knowledge that Dear White People was getting a limited/general release.

I saw 16 films at the Kabuki and 3 films at the Viz.  The "Viz" is getting to be an anachronistic term.  Confused about the screening location of one of my films, I asked a SFIFF volunteer "What film is screening at [insert time] at the Viz?"  The young man was perplexed by my location reference.  Eventually, I realized he only knew the location as New People Cinema.

Hellion starring Josh Wiggins & Aaron Paul; directed by Kat Candler; (2014) 
Tip Top starring Isabelle Huppert & Sandrine Kiberlain; directed by Serge Bozon; French with subtitles; (2013) - Official Website
Queen Margot starring Isabelle Adjani & Daniel Auteuil; directed by Patrice Chéreau; French with subtitles; (1994)
Norte, The End of History starring Sid Lucero, Angeli Bayani & Archie Alemania; directed by Lav Diaz; Tagalog with subtitles; (2013) - Official Facebook
Stray Dogs; directed by Ming-liang Tsai; Mandarin with subtitles; (2013)
Young & Beautiful starring Marine Vacth; directed by François Ozon; French with subtitles; (2013) -  Official Website
Blind Dates; directed by Levan Koguashvili; Georgian with subtitles; (2013)
Coherence starring Emily Baldoni; directed by James Ward Byrkit; (2013) - Official Website
Tamako in Moratorium starring Atsuko Maeda; directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita; Japanese with subtitles; (2013)
Abuse of Weakness starring Isabelle Huppert & Kool Shen; directed by Catherine Breillat; French with subtitles; (2013) - Official Facebook
Manila in the Claws of Light starring Hilda Koronel & Bembol Roco; directed by Lino Brocka; Tagalog with subtitles; (1975)
Intruders starring Suk-ho Jun & Tae-kyung Oh; directed by Young-Seok Noh; Korean with subtitles; (2013)
Tonnerre starring Vincent Macaigne & Solène Rigot; directed by Guillaume Brac; French with subtitles; (2013)
Firestorm starring Andy Lau; directed by Alan Yuen; Cantonese & Mandarin with subtitles; (2013)
Club Sandwich starring Lucio Giménez Cacho, María Renée Prudencio & Danae Reynaud; directed by Fernando Eimbcke; Spanish with subtitles; (2013)
Ping Pong Summer starring Marcello Conte; with Lea Thompson, John Hannah, Amy Sedaris & Susan Sarandon; directed by Michael Tully; (2014) - Official Website
No No: A Dockumentary; directed by Official Website
Harmony Lessons starring Timur Aidarbekov; directed by Emir Baigazin; Kazakh & Russian with subtitles; (2013)
Trap Street starring Yulai Lu; directed by Vivian Qu; Mandarin with subtitles; (2013)
Manos Sucias starring Jarlin Martinez & Cristian Abvincula; directed by Josef Wladyka; Spanish with subtitles; (2014)  Official Twitter

I cannot even pretend to give these films the space they deserve on this blog.  I am so far behind.  I have to crank these entries out before I fall one year behind.

François Ozon's Young & Beautiful caused quite a splash upon its release and has stuck in my memory.  Marine Vacth gives a stellar performance as a teenage girl who budding sexuality morphs into prostitution.  Exhibiting a laissez-faire attitude towards underage prostitution and statutory rape, the film presents this extraordinarily nuanced view of this girl's coming of age.  From virgin to hesitant lover to self-confident prostitute, Vacth's Isabelle covers the gamut.  In particularly, she has a special bond with a client old enough to be her grandfather.  When he dies during sex, her life is turned upside down.  Inherently, we know Isabelle is at physical & emotional risk but she pushes the boundaries of social norms in satisfying her sexual needs.  In doing so, it made me question those norms & customs.  Stripping away the social taboos, Young & Beautiful is about a young woman stumbling her way through young adulthood.

In the same vein (albeit less sexualized) is Tamako in Moratorium.  The protagonist is a young woman, feeling her way through life with decidedly less than satisfactory results.  Tamako is a recent college graduate.  Unemployed, she moves back to her small hometown to live with her father who is divorced and runs a sporting good store.  Although an indulgent father, Tamako's many frustrations are taken out on him.  Unsure of what the next phase of her life will be and secretly harboring a desire to in an all-girl pop band.  This is an inside joke as Atsuko Maeda, the actress playing Tamako is famous in Japan for previously being in AKB48.  As Tamako's divorce father begins dating a woman, Tamako feels threatened but is ultimately forced to move on with her life.  A comedy with some poignant moments, Tamako in Moratorium was a surprise film for me.

I also enjoyed Club Sandwich (pun intended), a Mexican film about a single mother who struggles with her adolescent son's budding sexuality as it relates to their relationship (or lack thereof).  As the boy becomes infatuated with a teenage girl while on vacation, the mother feels threatened by the changes it portends for their relationship.  Unable to continue treating him like a young boy and unwilling to treat him like a sexualized young man, Club Sandwich is a coming of age comedy told from the reluctant mother's point of view.

Tonnerre is notable in that it stars a French actor who is becoming one of my favorites.  I have seen Vincent Macaigne in three films - Tonnerre, 2 Autumsn, 3 Winters and Age of Panic.  In Tonnerre (the name of a small town in the Burgundy region of France), Macaigne is a failed musician who returns to his hometown to live with his widower father.  While in town, he begins a relationship with a younger woman.  Mismatched in age, appearance and attitude, the affair is a rebound fling for the woman but for Macaigne's character, it become an all-encompassing obsession which is ratcheted up when he assaults her ex-boyfriend and kidnaps her.  It's a tense story which is highlighted by Macaigne and Bernard Menez's (as the father) performances.

These four films were the cream of the last year's crop at SFIFF for me.

§§§

A cut below were the following films which may have suffered from the extreme delay in writing this post.

Hellion - SFFS funded film about a troubled teenage boy; nice performance by Josh Wiggins in the lead role but the plot bordered on a predictable.

Queen Margot - based on historical events involving French Catholics and Huguenots, I had a hard time keeping the characters straight.  Telling the story of the  St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre of 1572, the film quickly became a jumble of blood letting and duplicity.  Perhaps more familiarity with the events would helped me sort out the characters.

Norte, The End of History - Lav Diaz's loose but measured adaptation of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment.  Like the Russian author's novels, Norte, The End of History was long & complex to its own detriment...at least from my perspective.  I felt like I was in high school again, laboring away at some long Russian novel assigned in English class.  At 4+ hours, the film may have benefited from some editing but I can't complain about it too much because the ending tragedy was haunting indeed.

Coherence - a clever science fiction film about quantum mechanics and Schrödinger's Cat Paradox played out at a party on a night when comet flies by.  I remember liking this film when I left the theater but now I recall the plot more than the performances which must be a tacit criticism of the actors.

Abuse of Weakness - semi-autobiographical film about director Catherine Breillat.  Isabelle Huppert portrays a film director who has recently had a stroke.  While recovering, she sees con man Kool Shen on a television talkshow.  Ostensibly interested in making a documentary about him, Huppert/Breillat quickly allows the man into her life.  Although he is able to get several thousand Euros out of her (in real life Breillat alleged she was conned out of nearly  €1 Million).  However, the relationship is more complex than criminal and victim as the power shifts between the couple several times during the film.  Her victimhood seems less a matter of weakness than poor judgment.  This made the film a little too muddy for me; more confusing than ambiguous.

Manila in the Claws of Light - this 1970s film by acclaimed Filipino director Lino Brocka was social commentary dressed up as a tragedy.  Two young lovers from the countryside are reunited in the big city with tragic consequences.  They encounter the whole panoply of marginal characters - pimps, gay hustlers, homeless, etc.  

Intruders - a clever murder mystery/dark comedy about North Korean agents infiltrating a remote South Korean town.

No No: A Dockumentary - a documentary about 1970s MLB pitcher Doc Ellis who allegedly pitched a no-hitter while under the effects of LSD.  The film is replete with anecdotes from the wild 1970s.  This film was preceded by the short film The High Five - a 10 minute film about Glenn Burke, the first openly gay man to play in the MLB.  The film focused on an incident between Burke and former San Francisco Giants manager Dusty Baker.  During his playing days with the Dodgers, Baker hit 30 home runs one year.  As he approached home plate after belting out his 30th, Burke ran onto the field to congratulate him.  He held his hand over his head.  Baker was unsure what the gesture meant but spontaneously decided to slap his hand.  This incident has been credited as the first "high five."

The High Five; documentary; directed by Michael Jacobs; (2014)

Harmony Lessons - a bleak Kazakhi film which showcases the remoteness of the region.  A schoolyard drama about a bully and the boy who stands up to him with dire consequences.  Critical of ingrained corruption with Kazakh society, the film dresses it up with a character study of young men and some horrific prison/detention scenes.

Manos Sucias - this was the last film I saw in the festival and by this time I was exhausted.  I remember Gary Meyer sat a row or two in front of me.  Set in Colombia, two brother mule a drug shipment (in a torpedo?) up river for delivery.  It was a bit like Apocalypse Now in that as they work they way closer to their final destination, they encounter stranger & more dangerous individuals.  I dozed off for a bit but this film left a depressing shadow.

§§§

Everything else left me less than impressed.  Called out for its particularly unwatchable quality is Stray Dogs, a Taiwanese film with limited dialog.  The finale featured a (seemingly) 10 minute shot of a man's and woman's faces as they reacts to artwork on a wall (which the audience has not seen).  The fact that I can even remember that scene a year later gives me pause.

One of the films from last year's festival (Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter) is opening at the Landmark Theaters Opera Plaza in a few weeks.

The Puzzle Within the Castro Theater's May 2014 Calendar

The May calendar at the Castro Theater was the quickest one for me to solve.

First there were two instantly recognizable faces.

May 12 - Katharine Hepburn

May 19 - Grace Jones

May 5 - Although I immediately recognized the face, I couldn't place the name of the actor shown on May 5.  After searching this blog, I eventually realized it was Tyrone Power.

May 27 - I drew a blank.

I looked up Hepburn on IMDB.  I wondered if she and Jones had ever made a film together.  They had not.  However, I noticed on IMDB that Hepburn was born on May 12, 1907.  I quickly confirmed that Jones was born on May 19 and Power on May 5.

Searching for actors born on May 27, the second one listed was Christopher Lee...who turns 92 years old on the 27th.  I still can't quite square that image on the calendar with The Wicker Man or Count Dooku but it does approach his appearance in The Man with the Golden Gun.  I think the photo is from around the time Lee was playing Dracula in Hammer Horror films.

Each actor was pictured on his or her birthday.  On May 21, the Castro is screening Milk (2008).  The Castro screens Milk annually on Harvey Milk Day.  Actually, Harvey Milk Day is May 22 but the theater is closed that day for a private event.  Harvey Milk Day is celebrated on May 22 because was born May 22, 1930. 

The clues in the calendar puzzle are pointing to the screening of Milk on May 21 or Harvey Milk Day on May 22.

I solved this puzzle in less than 10 minutes and with much less "internet cheating" than usual.

§§§

As for the films screening in May, my attention was immediately drawn to May 15.  On that day, the theater is screening Gus Van Sant's Drugstore Cowboy and Danny Boyle's Trainspotting.  I have not seen either film.

Alejandro Jodorosky's The Holy Mountain is screening May 7 and I'm mildly interested but I think I have tickets to a 2014 San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) screening that night.

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks (who I have at many screenings lately) is showing the original Gone in 60 Seconds (1974) on May 9 as part of Midnites for Maniacs.  I didn't know the Cage/Jolie film was a sequel.  Interestingly, the 2000 film is titled Gone in Sixty Seconds.  Why change 60 to Sixty?  The first half of the double feature is Speed.  Has Jesse given up midnight screenings?  I can't recall the last time, he advertised the theater crawl from the Castro to the Roxie for the final screening of a triple bill.  Can you have Midnites for Maniacs without a midnight film?

I have some interest in seeing Fellini Satyricon on May 28.  It screens with Barbarella.

The month ends with the 2014 San Francisco Silent Film Festival from May 29 to June 1. 

§§§

Castro Theater Calendar - May 2014

The Puzzle Within the Castro Theater's April 2014 Calendar

I give paper copies of the Castro Theater calendar to a co-worker.  He's partial to the sing-alongs at the Castro.  I told him about the puzzles embedded in the calendar and he has become quite adept at solving the name game portion.  He's quite good a matching faces to, if not names, then characters from movies and television shows.  My co-worker identified three of the people in the April calendar.  I left the calendar for him when I got into work.  He & I had several meetings that morning so I didn't see him until lunch.  By then he identified three out of the four.

April 7 - Adam West

April 14 - Sheree North

April 28 - Clint Eastwood

After identifying those three, I saw the pattern and correctly identified Ann Sothern.

April 21 - Ann Sothern

I guess I'm excused for not recognizing the actresses.  Looking at her filmography, I can only recall two of Sheree North's films - Charley Varrick and The Shootist. I can only recall one film with Ann Sothern - A Letter to Three Wives.

The clues are directional - North, South, East & West.  I believe the clues are pointing us to Earth Day (April 22).  By the way, the calendar states "TBA" for April 22 but the website states the Castro will be closed that day.  The films for April 15 have not been posted.

A second possible solution is the 2014 San Francisco International Film Festival with emphasis on "International" as in the four corners of the globe  The festival lineup was announced on April 1 and the festival begins on April 24 at the Castro so this gives it some credence. 

Castro Theater Calendar - April 2014