LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL
Director: Cameron Cairnes & Colin Cairnes
Plot: A live broadcast of a late-night talk show in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.
Review: Despite the ‘70s style visual aesthetic looking a little too polished at times, this was a really entertaining and well made Aussie made horror/comedy that does good job of capturing the vibe of ‘70s talks shows. David Dastmalchian did a great job in the lead role.
Rating:
EUREKA
Director: Lisandro Alonso
Plot: Murphy searches for his daughter after she is kidnapped by the outlaw Randall.
Review: Lisandro Alonso’s latest film is a deliberately paced but meditative and visually striking film that tackles some compelling themes in its story. Especially in its middle section. However it is a little too long and the third section wasn’t all that interesting.
Rating:
PERFECT DAYS
Director: Wim Wenders
Plot: Hirayama seems utterly content with his simple life as a cleaner of toilets in Tokyo. Outside of his very structured everyday routine he enjoys his passion for music and for books. And he loves trees and takes photos of them. A series of unexpected encounters gradually reveal more of his past.
Review: While the structure can be a little too repetitive for my taste at times, this is definitely one of Wim Wender’s strongest narrative works in a while. It’s a low-key but heartfelt and lovingly made comedy/drama with a wonderful turn from lead star Koji Yakusho.
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BIRTH/REBIRTH
Director: Laura Moss
Plot: A single mother and a childless morgue technician are bound together by their relationship to a little girl they have reanimated from the dead.
Review: While it doesn’t do anything that we haven’t seen before in other similar FRANKENSTEIN-esque films, this was still a really engaging horror drama that also effectively uses its story to explore other themes as well. The performances from the two leads Judy Reyes & Marin Ireland were strong.
Rating:
ANATOMY OF A FALL
Director: Justine Triet
Plot: Sandra, Samuel and their visually impaired son Daniel have been living in a remote mountain location for the past year. When Samuel is found dead outside the house, an investigation for death in suspicious circumstances is launched. Amidst the uncertainty, Sandra is indicted: was it suicide or homicide? A year later Daniel attends his mother’s trial, a veritable dissection of his parents’ relationship.
Review: Despite being a tad too long than it needed to be, this was still an absolutely engrossing and brilliantly crafted courtroom drama that keeps you riveted with its story. Sandra Hüller’s truly exceptional performance is without a doubt one of the best of the year. I can definitely see why this film won the Palm d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
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ROBOT DREAMS
Director: Pablo Berger
Plot: During an ill-fated day-trip to Long Island, friends Dog & Robot get separated. After Robot goes for a swim, he rusts up and is unable to move: Dog is forced to leave him behind on the beach. Back in the city, he tries to fill the emotional gap left by the absence of his friend, while Robot awaits rescue, finding comfort in vivid dreams and happy memories of time spent with Dog.
Review: Well, this was a big surprise. This was an absolutely charming, funny and even heartfelt dialogue-free animated film that’s a true delight from start to finish. The animation style was terrific and the soundtrack was great. Especially the use of the song “September” by Earth, Wind & Fire, which was… *Chef’s kiss”.
Rating:
RADICAL
Director: Christopher Zalla
Plot: In a Mexican border town plagued by neglect, corruption, and violence, a frustrated teacher tries a radical new method to break through his students’ apathy and unlock their curiosity, their potential… and maybe even their genius. Based on a true story.
Review: While it does follows some of same conventions and cliches of the “inspirational teacher” sub-genre, I still found this to be an engaging and touching film that you can’t help but be swept up by. Actor/comedian Eugenio Derbez did a great job with his rare major dramatic turn and the kids themselves were all terrific.
Rating:
FREMONT
Director: Babak Jalali
Plot: Donya works for a fortune cookie factory in San Francisco. Formerly a translator for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, she struggles to settle into her new life. In a moment of sudden revelation, she decides to send out a special message in a cookie.
Review: I wasn’t sure what to expect when I sat down to watch it, but really enjoy it. While it’s dry approach won’t be for everyone, I found this to be really funny, poignant and well made film about the immigrant experience. Plus, it reminded me a lot of ‘90s indie films in both its tone and how it was made.
Rating:
THE SWEET EAST
Director: Sean Price Williams
Plot: A picaresque journey through contemporary America, undertaken by a young woman granted access to the strange sects and cults that proliferate in this country by a series of gatekeepers eager to win her over.
Review: While it‘s plot/themes can be a bit messy and obvious at times, cinematographer Sean Price Williams’s directorial debut is still a really entertaining, funny, bizarre and interesting film that uses the ALICE IN WONDERLAND template to satirise American culture.
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THE ETERNAL MEMORY
Director: Maite Alberdi
Plot: Augusto and Paulina have been together for 25 years. Eight years ago, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Both fear the day he no longer recognizes her.
Review: Yeah, bring the tissues for this one. This was a very moving and heartbreaking documentary on the marriage of Augusto Góngora & Paulina Urrutia, as the former is dealing with Alzheimer’s. It shows the both realities of the illness and the love story between them. The fly-on-the-wall approach and how its dives into their back story makes it an more moving experience.
Rating:
TIGER STRIPES
Director: Amanda Nell Eu
Plot: Zaffan, 12, lives in a small rural community in Malaysia. In full puberty, she realizes that her body is changing at an alarming rate. Her friends turn away from her when a mass hysteria hits the school. Fear spreads and a doctor intervenes to chase away the demon that haunts the girls. Like a tiger harassed and dislodged from its habitat, Zaffan decides to reveal its true nature, its fury, its rage and its beauty.
Review: While it doesn’t do anything too new when compared other horror films that have used puberty as a metaphor for being “a monster”, it’s still a solid one that’s elevated due to cultural aspects, sense of humour and a strong lead turn from lead star Zafreen Zairizal.
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SHORTCOMINGS
Director: Randall Park
Plot: Follows a trio of young, Bay Area urbanites–Ben Tanaka, Miko Hayashi and Alice Kim–as they navigate a range of interpersonal relationships while traversing the country in search of the ideal connection.
Review: While your enjoyment of this will definitely come down to how you obnoxious you find the unlikable main character or not, personally I found Randall Park’s directorial debut to be a really funny comedy that definitely has some things to say with its commentary.
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ABOUT DRY GRASSES
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Plot: A young art teacher hopes to be transfered to Istanbul after completing his mandatory duty in a remote village school in Anatolia. After accusations of innapropriate contact with a student surface, his hopes of escape fade and he descends further into an existential crisis.
Review: Yeah… I’m starting to think that Nuri Bilge Ceylan isn’t for me. While his latest is visually stunning film that’s full of strong performances and interesting themes, sadly it did nothing for me just like his previous works. It was a very overlong, sluggish and meandering bore with a incredibly obnoxious narcissist of a main character. Also somebody get Ceylan a editor because he needs to stop making his films over 3 hours long.
Rating:
COBWEB
Director: Kim Jee-woon
Plot: After his successful debut, Director Kim endures scathing attacks from critics who call him a specialist in trashy dramas. After finishing his latest feature ‘Cobweb’, he has vivid dreams over several days of an alternative ending to the film. Sensing that if he can just shoot those scenes as he envisioned them, a masterpiece will surely emerge, he tries to arrange just two days of additional shooting.
Review: Yeah, this film was my jam. Even though it could have been shorten by a few minutes, director Kim Jee-Woon’s latest film is a hugely entertaining, silly, visually vibrate and hilarious comedy about filmmaking. The entire cast were all equally great in their roles.
Rating:
20,000 SPIECES OF BEES
Director: Estíbaliz Urresola
Plot: Lucía is a six-year-old girl, who sometimes struggles as the world tries to catch up with the fact that she has a penis. As the summer holidays pass, she explores her femininity alongside the women of her family who at the same time reflect on their own femininity.
Review: I wasn’t sure that to expect from this film, I found it to be utterly enthralling. This was an absolutely wonderful, nuanced and beautifully crafted transgender themed coming-of-age drama with an exceptional performance from young Sofia Otero at the heart of it.
Rating:
MAY DECEMBER
Director: Todd Haynes
Plot: Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under the pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past.
Review: While I can definitely see why it’s subject matter and campy melodramas might not be for everyone, personally I found Todd Haynes’ latest to be a darkly funny drama that has a satirical edge at its core. Natalie Portman & Julianne Moore are great as expected but it’s really newcomer Charles Melton who’s especially incredible.
Rating:
KIDNAPPED
Director: Marco Bellocchio
Plot: The story of Edgardo Mortara, a young Jewish boy living in Bologna, Italy, who in 1858, after being secretly baptized, was forcibly taken from his family to be raised as a Christian. His parents’ struggle to free their son became part of a larger political battle that pitted the papacy against forces of democracy and Italian unification.
Review: Despite the score being a little too melodramatic at times and some aspects of the script I felt could have been explored more, I still found this to be a riveting and eye-opening film on a true story I wasn’t very familiar with. The cast were all good as well.
Rating:
LAST SUMMER
Director: Catherine Breillat
Plot: Anne, a brilliant lawyer, lives in perfect harmony with her husband Pierre and their six and eight-year-old daughters, in a house on the heights of Paris. One day, Theo, 17, Pierre’s son from a previous marriage, moves in with them. Anne is troubled by Theo and gradually engages in a passionate relationship with him, putting her career and family life in danger.
Review: As someone who has never really liked much of Catherine Breillat’s previous work, this is definitely her best work for me. Even though its provocative premise will be too icky for some, I found it a very compelling and complex film with great turns from its leads.
Rating:
NO BEARS
Director: Jafar Panahi
Plot: Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who has been barred from leaving the country, arrives at a village on the Iran-Turkey border to supervise a film based on a real-life couple seeking passports to Europe being shot in Turkey, but both his stay and the production run into trouble.
Review: I wasn’t sure what to expect from Jafar Panani’s latest work, but I was completely floored by the end of it. This was an absolutely terrific and thought-provoking drama that continues the unique meta-textual elements that he has explored in his previous films.
Rating:
RIDDLE OF FIRE
Director: Weston Razooli
Plot: This neo-fairytale set in Wyoming, USA follows three mischievous children as they embark on an odyssey when their mother asks them to run an errand. On the hunt to obtain her favourite blueberry pie, the children are kidnapped by poachers, battle a witch, outwit a huntsman, befriend a fairy, and bond together to become best friends forever.
Review: Even though it’s a tad too long than it needed to be, this was still a hugely entertaining GOONIES-style indie kid adventure film that’s full of charm, hilarity, originality, quirkiness and magical realism. The kids were all fantastic. A true blue crowd-pleaser.
Rating:
There you have it, that is part 1 of my MIFF coverage. Keep a look out within the week for part 2, which I’ll be covering the remaining 19 films I saw at the festival.
Article written by Bede Jermyn
The Super Network 