The Milwaukee Film Festival became an autumn staple in my city at about the same time the cinephile bug first bit me in high school, but I never
actually made my way to the theater to check it out until 2012. I would read about the films showing, circle
the ones I wanted to see, and end it there (though for many of these years, I
had the excuse of being away at college).
But since starting this blog in February, I feel more committed to
improving my film education whenever possible.
Taking chances on the unknown and being pleasantly surprised is one of
my favorite cinema experiences. For a
week and a half in October, I got to take those chances often and hope for the
best.
I’m excited to say that, with the help of a fellow film buff
friend, our ambitious schedule of five nights of film is complete. In planning out the agenda, I was pleased
with our healthy mix of what I envisioned as the “film festival experience”: two foreign films, a documentary, a unique
silent film experience, and a small indie.
Now is the time to report on what I thought of these films...
Mourning (2011) –
Mark it 5.
Directed by Morteza Farshbaf
Starring Kiomars Giti, Sharareh Pasha, Amir Hossein Maleki
After recently watching six Iranian films while playing
along with
Filmspotting’s marathon, I was very excited to check out
Mourning.
I had read that director Morteza Farshbaf was
a protégé of one of Iran’s most preeminent filmmakers, Abbas Kiarostami (
Close-Up, Taste of Cherry, Certified Copy),
so I was excited to see how Farshbaf measured up to start my Festival
experience.
Unfortunately,
Mourning is not on the level of any of
the Iranian I watched this summer.
The film centers around the relationship between a boy and
his deaf aunt and uncle during a very long road trip. We know that the boy’s parents have run on him in the middle of the night during a fight, leaving the boy with an aunt and uncle who try to
guess what could have caused such a incident. The aunt and uncle then must figure out how well they can
care for the boy if this circumstance is long term. These conversations, communicated through sign
language and lip reading, take place during their drive through the Iranian
landscape, and that’s about the extent of the narrative. Traffic jams and car problems add some
variety, but not enough to make it engaging.
Mourning is built on an
interesting premise, but the execution was just a little too dull to get me
excited. Many of the other Iranian films
were also slow in pace and simple in story, but they had something special that
was missing in Mourning.
Let the Bullets Fly (2010)
– Mark it 6.
Directed by Jiang Wen
Starring Jiang Wen, Ge You, Chow Yun Fat
While writing this review, I learned that the star of Let the Bullets Fly, Jiang Wen, also
wrote and directed the film. This must
have been something of a passion project for Wen, and that love for the story
shows during the film. You can tell that
everyone involved had a lot of fun during its making, and I had a lot of fun
watching this crazy movie. From the Festival program, I thought Let the
Bullets Fly would be a serious gangster crime drama (in a Chinese Godfather mold), but what it turned out
to be was highly entertaining and light Chinese Western action comedy: Shanghai Noon meets Kill Bill. The violence was
cartoonish and over-the-top, the action was well choreographed, and the jokes
hit their mark.
The story follows a gang of bandits in the 1920s China, led
by the infamous, but noble, Pocky Zhang (Wen).
Zhang and his followers kidnap a nebbish governor-to-be, Ma Bangde (Ge
You), so Zhang can impersonate the governor and lead the corrupt Goose
Town and make a lot of money. Master Huang (Chow Yun Fat), a local mobster,
runs Goose Town and naturally doesn’t see eye to eye with his town’s
newcomer. The two men match wits, over
and over, and people close to them are lost in the struggle, as they fight for
control of the city. After many twists
and turns – a good editing job to tighten up Let the Bullets Fly could have helped – there is one clear
victor. Despite its flaws, this silly
action film is a great option if you just want to just check out with a movie
and have some fun.
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Starring Anny Ondra, John Longden, Donald Calthrop
I may have seen better films than Alfred Hitchcock’s silent
crime thriller,
Blackmail, but I have
never had a better experience in a theater than this one.
If one ever gets the chance to see a live
orchestra play the score to a silent feature, rush to that screening!
I’d see the Alloy Orchestra, a trio from
Massachusetts that combines a wide array of instruments, accompany any film,
especially when it is in front of a packed and eager crowd at the
Oriental.
But the experience was all the better when the
film has an entertaining story and visual touches that hint at his masterpieces
to follow.
Blackmail was dubbed
after its initial release and gained popularity as Britain’s “first talkie,” so
a screening of the silent version is a rare occasion, adding buzz to the evening's atmosphere.
Blackmail is an
exciting film noir, an early installment in the genre, about a girl who cheats
on her police detective boyfriend with a devious artist.
Things go bad very bad with this shady
character, and the girl must turn to the heartbroken detective for
protection.
Hitchcock adds a lot of
impressive flourishes that are visually exciting and build suspense.
With the Orchestra’s eerie score, my heart
was racing all the way to the end.
If
you get the chance to see
Blackmail,
either the silent or dubbed version, do it.
And if you get the chance to see it with the Alloy Orchestra, don't even hesitate to go.
Last Call at the Oasis
(2011) – Mark it 7.
Directed by Jessica Yu
With the droughts that hit the country last summer and the
super-storms that are currently pounding the East Coast, it is clear that
climate change is a very real, and immediate, issue. One side effect of climate change, escalated by the
world's overpopulation problem, will likely be the world’s supply of
potable water is dwindling.
Jessica Yu’s documentary, Last
Call at the Oasis, goes into great detail about how huge this problem is. Like any good (and scary) environmental
documentary, the information presented is daunting but in a visually and
substantively interesting and accessible way that does leave a small avenue for
hope.
With the expertise of scientists, policy makers, and
advocates, coupled with the victims of poor water quality, Yu provides enough
evidence to make this crisis undeniable.
The sight of shrinking lake levels (rising oceans and shrinking lakes is
a very dangerous combination), dried up oases, and people desperate for a drops
of water are powerful images. This
crisis is huge and getting worse, which is easy to take for granted with Great
Lakes in our backyard. Don’t fear
completely, however, because the film does plant a kernel of hope to walk away
with (spoiler alert: don’t be afraid to drink toilet water – after the
professionals clean it, of course).
Desalination is not the answer, but recycled water could be.
Note:
The
organization I work for,
Milwaukee Riverkeeper, was a proud community
sponsor of this film at the Festival.
The Sessions
(2012) – Mark it 6.
Directed by Ben Lewin
Starring John Hawkes, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy
With a (true) storyline about a 40-year old quadriplegic
writer, who spends most of his days in an iron lung, hiring a sex surrogate to
lose his virginity, with graphic full frontal nudity and explicit sexual
dialogue, there is little doubt that The
Sessions will be one of the most controversial films of the year. But whether or not genitals and sex talk
offend a bunch of uptight prudes doesn’t interest me. I care about how good the film is. In the end, I found The Sessions to be a nice little romantic comedy filled with
memorable performances by its lead actors.
John Hawkes (terrifying in Martha Marcy May Marlene and
Winter’s Bone) brings so much life to the character of Mark O’Brien despite
being twisted and motionless from the neck down because of a childhood case of
polio. You can’t help but cheer on his
sexcapades as he falls in love with his assistants, bluntly discusses his quest with
his priest (a hilarious long-haired William H. Macy), and awkwardly culminates
the act throughout his sessions with the sex surrogate, Cheryl (Helen
Hunt). Touches of melodrama follow,
likely to incite a few tears in the theater, but that’s okay when the acting is
so fun to watch. I’d say stay away from The Sessions if realistic sex scenes
make you uncomfortable. For everyone
else, I think that while The Sessions may
not be worthy of the early Oscar buzz it’s receiving, it’s definitely a nice
film worth checking out.
In conclusion, the Milwaukee Film Festival was an amazing
way to spend five nights over the course of 11 days.
Not seeing a major studio’s next big release
made each night a fun $10 gamble.
Beyond
the little blurb in the program, being somewhat in the dark about what you are
about to see is something new to me and very pleasurable.
You might not love what you pick to see, but
there is a guarantee that it will be something new and something unique.
Plus, it provides that one-of-a-kind
experience you can only see at a festival (
Blackmail
with the Alloy Orchestra).
I’m not
necessarily on the bandwagon of every film I saw (though they were mostly very
good), but I am now on the film festival bandwagon.
While I count down the days until the next
Milwaukee Film Festival, I will spend my time when exactly I want to become a
member of
Milwaukee Film (it’s likely to be soon).
