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 | ∞

Public Enemies

Public Enemies. What a horrible movie. I don't even know where to start. Poor character development, bad writing, bad acting, slow editing. But none of that bothered me as much as the actual physical quality of the film. I'm pretty sure they filmed it on one of the new iPhones, or something. The sound echoed horribly, there was no depth in the shots, the quality was poor, the lighting was awful (are they in a football stadium or was that supposed to be the moon light?), and what was with all the shaking? Was the cinematographer having a seizure?

If you (heaven forbid) decide to go pay $10 to see the movie, I would hope the only reason is to see how many Wisconsin locations that they filmed at you can recognize.

listed in: movies, review, wisconsin | Comments (1)

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 | ∞

James Bond: Quantum of Solace

So, I might be the only one, but I thought the Quantum of Solace was much better than Casino Royale. Casino Royale was bit to slow for me, and Quantum of Solace really picked up the pace. It has all the car/boat/plane chases and ass-kicking we have all gotten to know and love, without the cheesiness or horrible special effects, of, say, Die Another Day. Plus the opening sequence and song was really sweet. James Bond's character may have not been as witty as Casino Royale, but his innovative use of objects for weapons and fancy espionage-ness makes up for it... plus I still got plenty of laughs. Definitely check it out. Let me know what you think.

listed in: james bond, movies, review | Comments (2)

Burn after Reading

This is probably one of the funniest movies about absolutely nothing I have ever seen, and kept me laughing throughout the ending credits. The actors have a lot to contribute to this, and had a similar feel to the "Ocean's" movies... just a bunch of actors goofing off and having fun while they happen to be making a movie. Although that makes me unsure if it was the writing that was actually good, and if it would have worked with unfamiliar actors I haven't seen in other roles. Regardless, I'd see it again.

listed in: movies, review | ∞

The Dark Knight

Alright, so, I finally saw The Dark Knight. Yeah, I'm behind in life, give me a break.

I was skeptical. I thought it would be yet another bad action flick. I was never a fan of the other Batman movies, and I was afraid of getting let down like I did with Wall-E.

Was I ever wrong. It blew me away. At no time did I feel the dialogue or special effects were cheesy *cough* spider man 3 *cough* At no time did I ever feel bored or unengaged. It was a very solid movie all around.

Now, if I would have programmed my website to support half-stars, as far as an action flick goes, I would put it a tad underneath The Bourne Ultimatum. But it's up there.

listed in: movies, review | ∞

Wall-E

Wall-E was a good movie, don't get me wrong. But I had such high expectations that I was a bit disappointed. I liked the idea of the movie-- the loud-and-clear warning that if we don't change our habits, our world might end up like that in Wall-Es. Wall-E was funny, and the animation was 'pretty'. The movie started out great, but I became distracted by irrational actions by characters that hadn't been introduced enough yet, a physics engine going bad somewhere halfway through the movie, and the climax of the movie came and went faster than I could blink. Come on Pixar, you could have done better than that. And what was up with all the Apple product placement? Step away from the animators, Steve Jobs.

listed in: movies, review | Comments (1)

Loose Cannons

Are you still in Madison? Good. Go see this movie at The Orpheum playing through Thursday. Loose Cannons is a hilarious student-created feature film set right on the UW-Madison campus. It features Chuck Sypholis, part of the student-run "Campus Security" on his hunt for Spencer Huntley and his gang, the "Freshman 15" who stole the football team's playbook and plans to sell it to Minnesota. Filled with witty jokes, kung-fu, and gun fights, this movie is an enjoyment all around. Watch the Trailer at YouTube.

listed in: movies, review | Comments (1)

Wisconsin Film Festival 2008: Sunday

Saw two films today on the last day of this year's Film Festival.

Welcome to Macintosh

This film explored some history of the Macintosh and Apple, along with the impact that the company had made on the computing industry.

Some notable interviews were that of Wayne Bibbens who collects and has thousands of old Apple computers, and Jim Reekes, who created today's startup Mac sound and was a somewhat disgruntled ex-engineer, calling some of the other engineers from his time "retarded".

I wasn't really a big fan of the documentary itself. I've seen a lot of really really well done documentaries, both inside and outside this festival, and this was not at that caliber. My primary complaint is that it lacked focus-- jumping from being organized chronologically to by some random selection of topics. It was also slowly paced... many of the interviews went for several minutes, uncut.

The directors had a Q&A afterwards and acknowledged both issues, letting us know that this wasn't the final cut. They apparently have 8 hours of usable footage and have had difficulties from the beginning deciding what and what not to include. They additionally acknowledged some of the interview segments were long, and hope to cut them down in time along with adding some additional interviews that didn't make this cut. I think if they work on both of these issues before the DVD and final distribution, it has potential to be enjoyed by those who aren't Mac fanatics.

Fermat's Room (La Habitación de Fermat)

This was like a children's version of "The Cube", for those that have seen that movie. The movie is about four mathematicians, trapped together in a room. They were given a PDA where math problems and a time limit pop up. If they didn't solve the math puzzle in time, the walls started to close on each other.

Equally puzzling was how they were related, why they were lured into this room, and who was behind it. What was disappointing was to the extent every question the viewer had about the movie was spelled out at the end. I'm not a big fan of movies that leave you totally wondering what happened, but you can't just explain everything to us either.

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

Wisconsin Film Festival 2008: Saturday (2 of 2)

I finished up Saturday by seeing two more films-- suspense films this time.

The Case (Xiang zi)

This Chinese film was about a man, who one morning, found a suitcase floating down the river. As he brought it home and opened it up, he discovered it was filled with cut up body parts frozen in ice.

In panic, he struggles to hide the suitcase and its contents... meanwhile his wife thinks all the sneaking around is because he's cheating on her. This misunderstanding takes over the topic of the film, as you start to hear or learn less and less about the suitcase.

The movie was interesting... funny at times... but nothing spectacular. The ending was weird.

Stuck

The movie follows the true story of a woman who hits a man which gets stuck in her windshield. The man was having such a horrible and rotten day, it was only natural the next thing that would happen is he gets hit by a car.

The woman, however, is up for a promotion at work. In panic, instead of calling 911 or dropping the man off at a hospital, she ends up driving home to her garage with the man still in the windshield. She then subsequently learns that he's not exactly dead.

The movie soon turns into a race-- can he somehow get help before she "takes care of" him?

The movie was significantly more gory and bloody than I had expected. It's always fun to watch a movie like this with a large crowd, as you could hear the whole audience of a few hundred people all cringe at once.

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