Well the festival didn't start good for me. I managed to fuck up with the tickets and thus missed a few movies I wanted to see. I reserved the tickets in time and got all the movies I planned, but I totally forgot to go and get the tickets when the deadline was due. Most of the hit movies were of course sold out when I finally went to get the tickets. So I had to pretty much get what ever I could. But luckily I still saw quite a few good movies. Here's the catch of the week and a half.
Battle for Haditha (2007)
A documentary like movie based on the actual events of the Haditha massacre in Iraq. The movie is told with three points of view, one with the terrorists, one with the marines and one with the people caught in the middle of it. This movie presents all the horrors of war with quite a cruel realism. All the usual themes are there like war brings out the worst of everyone, violence breeds violence and the innocent usually suffer the consequences. But it's done without glorification and that's the strong point of this film. It's quite a grim movie with no heroes, only victims. What makes this movie stand out from the usual anti-war war movie is that it portrays everyone from all sides as human beings with their own share of problems caught in the middle of this crazy war. Not exactly a masterpiece, but still one of the best war movies I've seen in a while.
83%
Helvetica (2007)
As a graphics designer myself, I was excited to go and see this one. Well it turned out to be a bit of a disapointment. I mean it's a good documentary but I think it falls to the grey zone of not finding the right audience. It gave me no new info but still it goes a bit further down the art that might please the regular viewer. A friend of mine who has no idea what typography for example is got quite bored during it. I personally found it quite enjoyable, but as it didn't give anything new, don't think I'm going to watch it again. Good for a starting designer and people who are interested in the visual culture, don't think others will get anything out of this one.
58%
Lars and the Real Girl (2007)
A story of a man who orders a sex doll from the internet and treats it like a real girl. Under the bizarre idea there's a very funny, warm hearted and sympathic movie. This movie dances on the fine line of becoming the usual Hollywood syrup, but luckily holds its balance on the common and a bit absurd side of it. Needless to say the comedy is very dark, even bizarre at points, but the movie has a nice take on it and it doesn't make you feel bad for laughing at it. Feelgood movie of the festival.
81%
Chop Shop (2007)
I was not supposed to go and see this one, but due to the ticket fuckup I picked it as there wasn't much choice. This one was a bit of a miss. It's a story about a boy who has to face adulthood too soon in his life and gets a blatant reality check. It was too slow paced and fell to the obvious solution way too often. Luckily it looked quite good and the characters were interesting enough to keep me awake. All in all predictable, pointless, beautiful, well made little movie.
50%
Gone with the Woman (2007)
This was also one of the movies I wasn't supposed to go and see, but luckily I did. Turned out it was a men's version of Amelie, maybe not as feel good movie but still it reminded me of it. This was entertaining and fun with some really hilarious scenes. The themes were the same age old problems of living in a relationship, but mostly they were handled with great comedic touch. Some of the stuff hit the mark straight on and were quite easy to relate to. The movie had a good pace and the mood was just brilliant. The cast was also quite good and Peter Stormare was just magnificent as the "mentor". Maybe not the most original of movies, but still tons of fun and definately worth watching.
80%
The Art of Crying (2006)
Again a movie I first wasn't supposed to go and see. This movie was sick and grim, but in a hilariously funny way. A bit more grim take on the subject and it would have been just tragic, but it's done in a brilliant mix of seriousness and hilariousness which combine into something extraordinary and beautiful. The themes of the film are quite touchy and hats off to the Danish that they have a brilliant take on them. Even thou it's a comedy you don't laugh directly to for example child abuse, it makes you laugh around it but still feel disturbed by it. Not really a masterpiece, but still somewhat of a gem in the dark comedy genre and one of the best of the festival.
85%
No End in Sight (2007)
A guide to how to fuck up a country. This is a provocative look on the situation on Iraq and how the U.S. government handled it. I don't know why but I'm getting tired of these documentaries that bash the U.S. government. I mean it's of course ok to bash them and sure it looks like they deserve it, but by now we all pretty much know the country is run by self centered idiots and everything they touch turns into shit that pours down people's necks, so tell us something we don't know. Another thing that bugged me is the general problem of documentaries, they're mostly all one sided. They tell one view of the story and as documentaries are weirdly enough considered as good as truth, people tend to believe what ever they say. This was no exception. Apart from one scene where Hughes and Slocombe talk about the same thing in mixed views, no one was there to give us another view. Most of the time it just said they refused to give an interview. That's for the general ranting, back to the documentary subject. It's quite a thought provoking look into how the country fell into anarchy and how it could have been avoided. It's quite well made to raise some emotions, thou the pace could have been a bit faster at points. The whole movie is on YouTube for free (and leagal) for everyone to watch and judge themselves. I think it was worth the watch, but had quite a bit room for improvement.
59%
The Wackness (2008)
This started off slowly and wasn't that funny at start. I don't know if I wasn't the right audience for it or what, but I rarely laughed at the beginning even thou the others seemed to enjoy it. But luckily it gained some momentum towards the end and the comedy started to be better. The cast was quite good, especially Ben Kingsley was hilarious as the hippie psychologist. Would have worked better in a bit more compact version as the start was quite boring.
49%
Eagle vs Shark (2007)
Funny little comedy from New Zealand. It's a story of two nerdy people who have an awkward way of trying to find love. Both are rather dull stereotypes but luckily the movie has quite a few of those hilarious "what the fuck?" moments. Especially the end confrontation is pure brilliance in all it's wacky weirdness. The movie is weird enough to keep you interested, but it still takes too many common routes to be anything else than ok.
55%
Death Note (2006)
Story of a guy who finds a book of death, where he can write names of people who are then going to die soon after. This was unfortunately the only Asian movie I had the chance of seeing and sadly it wasn't too good. Didn't really strike me on any level and I got the feeling this would have worked better as a manga comic, which it's based on. Best part of the movie are the questions of divinity, judgement and where to draw the line it poses, but sadly they are dealt with quite superficially. Might work better for the younger audience, I got quite bored.
35%
Redacted (2007)
Third movie of the festival about the Iraq war. And really similar in themes as Battle for Haditha. Thou this time the story was told only from the marines perspective. The movie's documentary feel with everything from movie cameras, handheld camcorders, web cameras to surveillance cameras and so on is quite a different approach from what you'd expect from Brian De Palma. Thou the very last image of the movie is classic De Palma at his best. But it's not all bad, at points it works quite brilliantly. The story addressed the right issues, it was even satirical at points and towards the end it turned quite grim. But where this movie really fails is the overly cheesy dialog and really rather bad acting. The characters aren't really believable and thus the realism is destroyed and the movie fails to bring out the right mood. In the end the movie was quite messy with some brilliant scenes and some really bad ones. Was worth watching but far from a great movie.
59%
In conclusion, even thou I missed some long awaited movies, like Sauna, Ashes of Time Redux, Gomorrah, Martyrs, Cargo 200 and Not Quite Hollywood, the festival was quite a great experience. My selection turned out to be a bit too much American oriented, but I didn't have much choise after the ticket fuckup. But I glad I went to see some of them as they really surprised me positively. Best movies of the festival were The Art of Crying and Battle for Haditha. Can't really choose from them as they are both brilliant in their own way. Funniest was either Lars and the Real Girl or Gone with the Woman. And the biggest disapointment was Death Note as I had heard some good stuff about it. Great festival and I'm sure next year I'll be a bit more careful with the tickets so I can see the ones I want to.
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