Yes, three and a half weeks on, and the 39th annual Seattle International Film Festival is finally in the books. Frequent visitors to Scene-Stealers these last couple of weeks likely noticed a slew of reviews for films playing at the festival, and might have been even more surprised to see so many positive remarks, yet the evidence bore it out: this was one hell of a year for cinema at SIFF!
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The success of ‘Wish You Were Here’ lies with actors Joel Edgerton, Felicity Price and director Kieran Darcy-Smith’s thoughtful directing and visual choices, for the scenes all evoke a particular tone that seems appropriate to the moment.
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The Kansas City Art Institute and Alamo Drafthouse have joined forces to bring you Film School, a weekly student curated film series. This week – Heavy Metal (1981) – Saturday, June 15th at 2:00 p.m.
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It’s not surprising that only half of The Internship works, but it is odd that the second half is much better than the first. However, given that waterboarding would be a preferable form of torture to The Internship‘s first 45 minutes, anything would be an improvement.
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Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell is a film that is not only about a specific family, not only about how stories in a family get started and develop, it is a personal documentary that explores what a personal documentary can be.
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In short, The Purge becomes just what the trailers promised — another Hollywood home invasion movie. It wants you to believe it’s more than that, and early on it is, but it doesn’t keep it up. It’s unfortunate, because somewhere inside the premise of The Purge there is a great movie, but this isn’t it.
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The story of a middle aged recluse stumbling upon a newly-orphaned youngster, as well as that man’s long-since discarded humanity, The Cleaner (originally released in Peru as El Limpiador) is a beautiful, touching, intelligent, and surprisingly moving film.
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A fictional drama whose particulars seem entirely plausible to those who have studied the history of German reunification following 1990, this one is a fascinating “what-if” that sheds some light on a post-WWII Europe most Americans don’t even know existed.
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‘Flicker’ It all has the whiff of Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, and Hal Ashby, yet never clicks like the successful work of those directors works because their characters start with a familiar, human core and radiate eccentricities outward from there.
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“Putzel” is a Yiddish slang word meaning dummy, schmuck, or more literally, penis, and like some kind of abandoned love child sprung from the loins of Bob Newhart and Woody Allen, the ineffectual Putzel definitely lives up to his moniker.
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Sometimes you come across a film so bizarre, that, while providing a wholly unique experience, often leaves what’s inside your skull a muddled puddle of goo. I like to think I have a handle on many films – even if I don’t get every reference or deeper symbolism. Yet every so often, I’m left a bit slack-jawed and dazed.
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‘Jump’ has problems, yet one gets the sense watching it that these are primarily a result of a dearth of inspiration on the page, and not behind the camera.
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During the 2013 Seattle International Film Festival, I’ve had an opportunity to see tons of indie films and have conversations with the talent involved in making them. Here is my video interview with ‘Jump’ director Kieron J. Walsh.
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One of the major hot-button topics within the social and political landscape of the United States at present, it’s more than a little surprising to find a relevant film confronting the issue of gun control from a Canadian point of view. And while Blackbird isn’t an examination of the wisdom or right to bear arms, it does concern itself with the primary fuel for that conversation: child violence.
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Although the set-up for Papadopoulos & Sons presents a seemingly predictable trajectory, what with the family bonding, etc., etc., the path it takes to get to the desired destination is hardly expected.
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