Wisconsin Film Festival 2010: Sunday

Cell 211 (Celda 211)

An amazingly intense and emotional Spanish movie! Definitely my favorite one of the festival. It's a prison thriller movie in which a guard, on this first day, gets trapped on the wrong side of the prison doors during a massive inmate riot and uprising. The only way to survive is to become one of them. It's also a very graphic movie which makes Shawshank Redemption seem like Sesame Street.

Terribly Happy (Frygtelig lykkelig)

A Danish movie about a Copenhagen police officer who is transfered to a small town after pulling a gun on his wife after finding her cheating on him. The locals, however, do not welcome him and would prefer to take care of matters their own way. Sound familiar? I couldn't help but notice the similarities to Hot Fuzz. Although not a really spectacular movie, it was another interesting take on the premise.

listed in: danish, film, madison, movies, spanish, wisconsin film festival | ∞

Wisconsin Film Festival 2010: Saturday

Waking Sleeping Beauty

This was an amazing documentary covering the Disney Animation Studio struggles during the 80s with some flops and their comeback in the early 90s with movies such as "The Little Mermaid", "Beauty and the Beast", and "Lion King". It closely follows the tension between Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Roy Disney as they struggle for power and attention, as well as the animators who mostly suffer as the result of the upper management. The animators channeled their anger through funny caricatures, some which are displayed in the film. The style of this documentary was unique: It wasn't interview in modern day, followed by archival footage, followed by another interview... the visuals are made up entirely of archival footage from before 1994. A highlight includes Tim Burton's menacing grin toward the camera back when he was a young animator. This documentary is a good complementary film to The Pixar Story, which was at the festival a couple years ago, and for anyone interested in a great comeback story, I would recommend.

Red Riding: 1974

This was an... interesting... British film, the first part of three, about a news reporter (left, in the photo) trying to track down a serial killer in a city filled with corruption by upper management in the media and police. The film got a bit slow in the middle, but finally came together in the end. I'm also told it all doesn't come together until I watch the other two parts, so I won't cast any final judgement just yet.

A Town Called Panic (Panique au village)

This was an INSANE fast-paced Belgium comedic claymation about a horse, a cowboy, and an indian who live together. I'm not even sure where to start, but could probably best compare the witty dialog and awkward character movements best to Team America: World Police. The packed Orpheum Theater was in stitches by the end of the movie, as you could hear laughter during the entier hour and a half run of this movie. This is an absolute must-watch, and will probably be picking it up again to catch everything I missed the first time around.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Män Som Hatar Kvinnor)

Probably my favorite film from the festival so far this year, and others probably agreed, since it sold out the 1,700 seat Orpheum Theater. This Swedish thriller follows a journalist and a hacker (pictured) who are employed by an old rich man who wants to find his niece that disappeared some 40 years ago. The suspects? The entire Vagner family, which is made up of the type of characters you would expect to find in the game 'Clue'. The two know they are getting closer to unraveling this family mystery as their lives are put more and more in danger. With an exciting ending, the movie keept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. This is also a must-watch, and I'm excited to see if the other two books in the trilogy this movie is based off of also make it to movie form.

listed in: belgium, claymation, disney, film, madison, movies, swedish, wisconsin film festival | ∞

Wisconsin Film Festival 2010: Friday

Memories of Murder (Salinui chueok)

This Korean movie is a good old fashioned detective crime movie, as a group of detectives search for a serial killer. The film festival introducer explained this is the "anti-CSI", as they have little to go on except of their instincts (They had to mail a DNA test to USA which took weeks to get back). The tension between the hands-off laid-back detective and the karate-chopping drunk interrogator provides for an interesting conflict. This wasn't a thriller per se, but more of a Law and Order paced movie with some hilarious moments in between. While this movie wasn't anything spectacular, it was enjoyable to watch and I would recommend.

listed in: crime, detectives, film, korea, madison, movies, wisconsin film festival | ∞

Mad Art VIII

A couple creative uses of the pedestrian crossing sign in Madison, WI:

Red bull gives you wiiiiiiings!

'Drunk Student Crossing' at Ian's Pizza (arguably the best pizza place... ever)

listed in: art, ian's pizza, madison, red bull | Comments (1)

Sufjan Stevens at The Majestic in Madison, WI

Last night I had the privilege of seeing Sufjan Stevens at a sold out concert of 600 people at The Majestic in Madison, WI. I knew it was going to be a great show the moment he stepped on stage in a blue "WISCONSIN" t-shirt, camouflage hat, and said: "Sup 'yall, I'm Suff-jan Stevens", making fun of a common mispronunciation of his name, and went right into playing my favorite song, Seven Swans.

[More]

listed in: madison, music, sufjan stevens | ∞

Wisconsin Film Festival 2009: Saturday

Mixed day for movies today:

Shorts: Animations

I don't know what happened this year, but experimental nonsense movies seem to have crept their way into the Animations category this year. I had a difficult time staying awake during this first session of my day. Of the ones that didn't suck, were:

• Chicken of God: Funny little skit about a lucky chicken.
• The Beast That Swallows Its Young: A music video made from snippets of this student's real-life debt collection messages
• Sebastian's Voodoo: By far the best one in this series (pictured). The director managed to get me emotionally involved with a non-human character in less than 30 seconds
• Yard Work is Hard Work: Another music video about falling in love and living together, animated using parts of magazines. You could tell a very large amount of work was put into making it

Lake Tahoe (¿Te acuerdas de Lake Tahoe?)

A movie about a boy trying to fix his car that he crashed into a pole after learning that his father died. It was an alright movie... it's been growing on me the more I reflect upon it. Kinda Napoleon Dynamite-ish. Not in the sense of the humor, but the style of the storytelling. Not the typical story structure. It was a fun movie, but could have been edited a bit tighter.

Vogelfrei

Four different directors made short stories surrounding the four different definitions of 'Vogelfrel', all using the same character. A bland boring character that they never built up enough for me to care about. I also fell asleep near the end.

Ghajini (गजनी) - 2008 Version

Wow, wow, wow. What a film. I loved it. Ghajini comes from India's "Bollywood" (or whatever today's politically correct term is; as an Indian professor of mine pointed out that this word was offensive) I don't know how else to describe this except, "Action Musical". Like, imagine James Bond blowing up a building, kicking ass, taking names, then breaking into a musical number in a bright neon colored shirt. Yeah, that's now this went.

And I do have to applaud this movie, because it's the first action movie that I've seen in a long time that I've given any care to the characters whatsoever. (Unlike, for example: Transporter) Granted, they were fortunate enough to have 3 hours to do it in... which would never fly with an American action flick. (Transporter is just around 90 minutes) And those 3 hours flew by. There were no slow spots throughout the movie, and I'd totally watch it again, despite its over-the-top music and cinematography. And I mean, over-the-top.

(Also: Apparently this is mostly copied, and without credit, from Memento, which I never saw. I'm curious, though, if seeing it will change my opinion of this)

[Film's Website]

listed in: animation, madison, movies, wisconsin film festival | ∞

Wisconsin Film Festival 2009: Friday

Saw two great films at the Wisconsin Film Festival last night:

Tokyo Sonata (トウキョウンナタ)

The movie starts out with a typical Japanese family of four... a business man, stay-at-home mom, elementary-aged child, and college aged son. Things start to unravel when Ryuhei (the father) loses his job and decides not to tell the rest of his family. As the movie unfolds, we find out that he isn't the only family member with a secret they're not sharing.

It started out a lighter comedy, and I thought it turned darker pretty quick. My more cultured friends called it an in-your-face social commentary on the modern Japanese family, although I didn't pick up on that. Minus some over-the-top emotions near the end, I really enjoyed the movie. The beginning is pretty hilarious, and while the second half looks bleak, the director was nice enough to give you a glimmer of hope at the end.

[Movie Website]

Food, Inc.

This was a pretty typical hippie anti-corporation documentary, like I've seen every year, but I really enjoyed it. First off, I want to say the title sequence (where they show the beginning credits) was extremely creative and very well done, featuring food labels with the production staff's names.

The movie's biggest points were this: The food industry is run by a very small handful of large corporations, and, Monsanto (I think mentioned negatively in every single anti-corporation documentary I've seen) runs the FDA, and this is all really really really really bad.

The only organization or company to be portrayed positively was Wal-Mart, interestingly enough, for their willingness to buy more and more free-range and organic food. (Although, not as much for ethical reasons as for the profit from consumers now demanding food produced more healthy)

It's definitely worth the watch, as long as you're willing to accept your food isn't made by 'Joe the Farmer' like the packaging leds you to believe.

[Movie Website]

listed in: food, japan, madison, movies, wisconsin film festival | ∞

Breaking: Giant Showball Fight outside Sellery Hall, UW-Madison

Police have responded. Dayton from Park to Lake has been closed. Lots of kids getting wet :)

Updated 1:55am: The snowball fight had broken up by the time I got this entry posted. It was hard to get a photo that conveyed the scale of this thing. I need a professional camera.

Update 10/10/08: Sounds like it was even bigger last night! I can't believe I missed it! [Daily Cardinal] [Badger Herald]
I'd like to point out that I beat the campus papers to this :)

listed in: madison, snow, uw-madison | Comments (1)

University Square

They recently posted a directory of the services that will be in the UW half of University Square, if anyone is curious about more specifics:

It looks like UHS will be dominating most of the tower.

listed in: madison, uw-madison | ∞

Election Day in Madison

I've heard all over that lines at the voting locations weren't bad. I voted at 8:30am and the line was only 20 minutes long. For the post part it was very quiet (probably because everyone had just woke up) except for an intense discussion about the separation of Church and State prompted by the fact that our voting location was a Catholic Elementary School and they were selling cookies.

Supporters from both parties are out and about, and both were having difficulty keeping their signs upright with the occasional gusts of wind on an otherwise beautiful day.

If you haven't voted and don't know where, Google Can Help.

Added 2:00pm: My friend Kennis posted a photo of an Obama ad projected on the side of Memorial Library last night.

listed in: election, madison, politics | ∞