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| A Brief And Not-Entirely-Complete Guide To The 44th Chicago International Film Festival: Week Two |
by Peter Sobczynski
For the next few days, this column will be listing some of the daily highlights screening during the second week of the 44th Chicago International Film Festival, which wraps on Oct. 29. This is not a complete guide by any means–I have neither the time nor energy to pull that off but I will be making sure to highlight some of the more intriguing titles and events along with a few to avoid as well. (Yes, I know that I slacked off a little during the last couple of days and for that, I dearly apologize.) Be sure to check every day or so as more titles are added.
Unless noted, the films and events will be taking place at the 600 North Michigan (600 N. Michigan), the River East 21 (322 E. Illinois), the Harris Theater (205 E. Randolph) or the Music Box (3733 N. Southport). For a complete and updated schedule of the films and events or to order tickets, you can contact the festival by calling at (312)332-3456 or by going online to www.chicagofilmfestival.com Tickets are also available through Ticketmaster by calling (312) 902-1500 or going to their website at www.ticketmaster.com
10/24
SONG OF SPARROWS (4:30 PM River East): Generally regarded as one of the best filmmakers to emerge from Iran over the last decade or so thanks to powerful works like “Children of Heaven” and “Baran,” Majid Majidi returns with a new drama about an ordinary family man (Reza Naji, who won the Best Actor award at the Berlin Film Festival for his work here) who unexpectedly loses his job and struggles to make ends meet by driving a gypsy cab through the streets of Tehran.
DEFICIT (6:00 PM. 600 N. Michigan.): Gael Garcia Bernal, who shot to prominence with roles in such films as “Y Tu Mama Tambien” and “The Motorcycle Diaries,” makes his directorial debut with this combination coming-of-age story/class consciousness examination in which he plays a rich Mexican college student who finds himself battling for the heart of a beautiful Argentine lass with none other than the groundskeeper’s son. Alas, the screener supplied by the festival was in Spanish with French subtitles, so I can’t really tell your what transpires next but the actual screening should have the proper English titles on it.
THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD (6:15 PM. 600 N. Michigan): In this reasonably charming comedy-drama, a dissatisfied law student (Colin Hanks) drops out of school and goes to work as a road manager for a once-popular magician (John Malkovich) who doesn’t quite seem to realize that his best days are at least twenty years behind him. There is nothing really new here but the combination of an occasionally amusing script, a game cast (which also includes Emily Blunt at her va-va-voomiest, Steve Zahn at his gawkiest and Tom Hanks, Colin’s off-screen dad, in a brief cameo as his on-screen dad) and a cheerfully over-the-top turn from Malkovich make it worth seeing. Colin Hanks and director Sean McGinley are currently scheduled to introduce the film and particpate in a Q&A afterwards.
JULIA (6:15 PM. 600 N. Michigan): After losing her job thanks to her hard-partying ways, a woman (Tilda Swinton) agrees to help her neighbor in a badly-plotted plan to hold her son for ransom and winds up in Mexico with the kid in the trunk while fending off others who want in on the action. I haven’t seen this one yet but the combination of Swinton and director Erick Zonca, who made the wonderful “The Dreamlife of Angels” automatically makes it sound like something worth checking out.
THE WRESTLER (7:00 PM. River East): Rebounding from the undeserved commercial failure of “The Fountain,” filmmaker Darren Aronofsky returns with a low-key tale about an over-the-hill wrestler (Mickey Rourke) who is forced into retirement after a heart attack who tries to establish relationships with his estranged daughter (Evan Rachel Wood) and a stripper who is herself nearing the end of her shelf life (though as played by Marisa Tomei, you certainly wouldn’t notice) while trying to ignore the lure of one last match that could very well kill him. This may be a familiar story but the result is anything but thanks to Aronofsky’s strong and sure direction and a performance from Rourke that is not only the best of his career but arguably the single best piece of acting I have seen this year.
TWO LOVERS (8:30 PM. 600 N. Michigan): Joaquin Phoenix and writer-director James Gray, who previously worked together on “The Yards” and “We Own the Night,” team up again for a third time for this drama in which Phoenix plays an emotionally unstable man who finds himself meeting and carrying on simultaneous affairs with two very different women (Gwyneth Paltrow and Jeff Wells lust object Vinessa Shaw). I haven’t seen this one yet and to tell the truth, it does sound a little predictable, but if anyone can push through the clichés and make something out of this admittedly familiar conceit, it is Gray.
DON’T LOOK DOWN (10:30 PM. River East): Having developed an acute case of sleepwalking following the death of his father, a 19-year-old Argentinean boy wanders into the apartment of a sexy neighbor. Lucky for him, she takes it upon herself to cure him of his grief by demonstrating that bedrooms are not necessarily for sleeping. In other news, I really want to sleepwalk in Argentina.
10/25
RAIN OF THE CHILDREN (12:15 PM.600 N. Michigan): Before making such visually striking works as “The Navigator,” “Map of the Human Heart” and “What Dreams May Comes,” filmmaker Vincent Ward spent a couple of years living in New Zealand with a Maori woman and her mentally disturbed son. Over 25 years later, he returned and this film is the result--using interviews and dramatic reenactments, Ward examines the life of the woman, her family history and the tribe that she belonged to.
KATYN (1:15 PM. River East): Having already covered various aspects of the dark side of recent Polish history in such films as , internationally acclaimed director Andrzej Wajda with his account of a shocking 1939 incident in which over 120,000 Polish military officers and citizens were summarily executed by the Soviet army and the even-more-shocking attempt on the part of the Soviets to cover up their involvement when the mass grave were discovered by Nazi forces four years later.
ICE (4:40 PM. River East): In the not-too-distant future predicted by this anime film, mankind has destroyed itself to the point where only women now survive. Alas, instead of the sensitive and cuddly future one might expect from such a development, the ladies continue to wage savage war against each other in the shadow of a now-ruined Tokyo while one lone woman tries to save what is left of the world from further destruction.
FAMILY VALUES (5:15 PM. 600 N. Michigan): With a title like that, you would have to expect that the film in question is about anything but and, not surprisingly, that is exactly the case with this French black comedy. Using a fractured narrative structure, director Claus Drexel takes a look at a seemingly ordinary family and tries to determine which one of them is responsible for the suitcase full of money that has mysteriously turned up in their shed.
ABSURDISTAN (6:45 PM. 600 N Michigan): In this riff on the classic play “Lysistrata,” the women of the fictional title town become so annoyed with the laziness of the menfolk that they offer up an ultimatum--no more sex until the water lines are finally repaired. Of course, this decision drives many of the townspeople to distraction, especially two young sweethearts who were just about to finally consummate their long relationship.
CHRISTMAS TALE (6:45 PM. River East): In the last few years, French director Arnaud Desplechin has vaulted into the ranks of the top names on the international cinema scene thanks to films like “Esther Kahn” and “Kings and Queens.” This time around, he returns with a sprawling saga in which a dysfunctional family reunites for the holidays when it is revealed that the matriarch is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant. Of course, there is a lot more to this comedy-drama than that but even though it doesn’t quite hit the emotional peaks that it is reaching for (mostly because at 150 minutes, it runs on too long for its own good), the incredible cast that Desplechin has brought together (including Mathieu Amalric, Emmanuelle Devos, Jean-Paul Roussillon, Chiara Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve) help to keep things always watchable.
SURVEILLANCE (7:45 PM. 600 N. Michigan): Stepping behind the camera for the first time since her semi-controversial 1993 debut “Boxing Helena,” Jennifer Lynch (daughter of you-know-who) returns with a twisted tale involving a couple of FBI agents (Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond) who arrive in a small town to interview the three survivors of a roadside bloodbath allegedly involving a pair of serial killers on the run to piece together what happened. Whittled down to an hour, this might have made for a vaguely intriguing TV episode but the half-hour or so of padding (including endless scenes of a pair of local cops waylaying motorists and torturing them in bizarre ways) makes it pretty excruciating to sit through, though there are a couple of admittedly arresting moments here and there
TOKYO! (9:00 PM. 600 N. Michigan): In the tradition of “Paris, je t‘aime” or “New York Stories,” this anthology film brings together three internationally acclaimed filmmakers to offer up short stories set in the title city--of course, by recruiting such decidedly unique talents as Michel Gundry (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”), Joon-ho Bong (“The Host”) and Leos Carax (“The Lovers on the Bridge” and “Pola X”), the results are slightly stranger than usual. Although admittedly uneven, like most films of this type, it is worth checking out for Carax’s bizarre take on the monsters-attack-Japan motif in which a strange man (Carax regular Denis Lavant) emerges from the underground tunnels to wreak havoc among the populace.
BOOGIE MAN: THE LEE ATWATER STORY (9:30 PM. River East): Although he has been dead since 1991, the legacy of the late Republican political strategist Lee Atwater--the man responsible for the belief that the best way to get a candidate elected to public office was to drive up the opposing candidate’s negative numbers by any means necessary--is still going strong today thanks to the efforts of such disciples as Karl Rove and his ilk. This fascinating documentary takes a look at Atwater’s life and career through startling archive footage and new interviews with friends, colleagues and even Michael Dukakis, whose presidential campaign was essentially skewered thanks to Atwater’s tactics.
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (10:45 PM. 600 N. Michigan): Every year, it seems that at least one foreign-made horror film emerges to become a hit on the festival circuit with fanboys eager to get on the ground floor of the Next Big Thing. Most of the time, these films rarely live up to the advanced hype but in the case of this Swedish-made take on one of the great horror myths--in which a lonely boy embarks on a sweet and mutually beneficial friendship with the strange girl who moved in next door that isn’t at all affected by the fact that she is a vampire--it more than lives up to the considerable advance word that it has been receiving. Inevitably, Hollywood has already announced that the film will be remade by some of the people behind “Cloverfield”--do yourself a favor and see the original while you have the chance.
10/26
FACES (2:00 PM. Music Box): At the risk of losing what little credibility that I still have as a film critic, I must admit that the films of the late maverick director John Cassavetes have never done much for me--while I like the idea of an uncompromising artist doing everything to get his unique vision on the screen against all odds and I admire his ability to get great performances from his actors, I tend to find his films a chore to sit through. However, while I therefore can’t quite get around to recommending this 1968 drama about an encounter between an unhappily married woman (Gena Rowlands) and a swinger (Seymour Cassel), I will say that if you are truly interested in film, you should probably check this one out, especially for the excellent work from the two stars.
TOKYO! (2:30 PM. 600 N. Michigan): See 10/25 listing.
ICE (4:40 PM. River East): See 10/25 listing.
FAMILY VALUES (5:00 PM. 600 N. Michigan): See 10/25 listing
KATYN (5:00 PM. River East): See 10/25 listing.
ELNORTE (5:00 PM. Music Box): Even though the premise of this low-key epic--a chronicle of a brother and sister from Guatemala attempting to cross the Mexican border for the promised land of California--seems torn from today’s headlines, this masterful film from Gregory Nava was originally released in 1983 (where it was nominated for the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar) and has now been given the restoration treatment in celebration of its 25th anniversary. Currently, Nava is scheduled to appear at this screening.
FOUR NIGHTS WITH ANNA (7:30 PM. River East): Jerzy Skolimowski, the Polish filmmaker who co-wrote Roman Polanski’s “Knife in the Water” and went on to direct such celebrated works as “Deep End” and “Moonlighting,” returns behind the camera for the first time in 17 years with this strange and dark comedy/drama following a young man and his attempts to woo his next-door neighbor, even going so far as to slip crushed sleeping pills into her sugar to allow him to explore her apartment in strange detail.
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WEIRD (8:00 PM. 600 N. Michigan): In one of the wildest and most entertaining films in this year’s festival, South Korean director Jee-woon Kim (who also gave us the gripping horror film “A Tale of Two Sisters”) gives us a strange and stylish homage to the spaghetti westerns of the late Sergio Leone with this tale of a trio of bandits whose search for a treasure map in 1930’s Manchuria finds them going up against the occupying Japanese army as well as bands of Chinese of Russian criminals. This will be opening commercially in a few weeks, but if you see it now, you can use that time to lord it over your fanboy friends that you saw it before them.
SURVEILLANCE (8:30 PM. Music Box): See 10/25 listing
10/27
DEFICIT (6:00 PM. Music Box): See 10/24 listing.
FEAR(S) OF THE DARK (6:15 PM. River East): In this hallucinatory horror film from France, a group of top animators bring to life a series of short tales of terror involving bloodthirsty dogs, a young girl trapped in a nightmare and, in the most effective story of the bunch, a shy young student finds the girl of his dreams and watches as it all goes horribly and icily wrong. Although visually striking (the black-and-white animation is both exceptionally beautiful and exceptionally creepy), most of the stories ramble on a little too long and the fragmentary nature in which most of them are told grows a little irritating after a while. However, if you are just looking for something stylish to trip out on, this will more than satisfy you.
FOUR NIGHTS WITH ANNA (8:00. River East): See 10/26 listing.
SURPRISE SCREENING (8:00 PM. Music Box): In order to jazz things up a little bit, the festival has chosen hold a screening of a film where no one in the audience will know what exactly is showing until the lights go down. In their announcement of this event, the festival publicists made coy reference to the likes of such eagerly anticipated titles as “Australia,” “Che,’ “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and even “Watchmen,” though I seriously doubt that any of those are the film in question. (The only slightly plausible one of that group is “Che” and I doubt that they would spring a four-hour film on an audience unannounced.) Whatever the pick, I can almost guarantee that someone outside the theater will be kicking themselves over not getting in and someone inside will be kicking themselves for allowing themselves to get suckered into something that they really didn’t’ want to see..
THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD (8:15 PM. River East): See 10/24 listing.
10/29
GOOD (7:00 PM. Harris Theater): In addition to the usual rescreenings of the top award winners (such as Golden Hugo winner “Hunger,” which will be playing at 8:00 at the River East), this year’s festival will close with a gala screening of this drama about a German literature professor (Viggo Mortensen) in the 1930s whose life is changed forever when he allows his book espousing the benefits of euthanasia to be appropriated by government officials for propaganda purposes. This screening will be the centerpiece of a tribute to Mortensen (who is scheduled to attend, along with co-star Jason Issacs and director Vincente Amorim) and his career that will be hosted by Bill Kurtis and which will hopefully feature a highlight reel that includes clips from the likes of the ABC Afterschool Special “High School Narc,” “Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III” and his naked bathhouse brawl from “Eastern Promises.”
link directly to this feature at http://hollywoodbitchslap.com/feature.php?feature=2599
originally posted: 10/24/08 12:44:28
last updated: 10/29/08 10:36:35
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