Here we are! Day one. Ready?
We have two DON’T MISS movies today. I have seen neither of them, but both are recommended by humans of impeccable taste.
Of Nurse.Fighter.Boy (7 pm, Harvard Exit), Jen Graves says:
This Canadian movie about a sick Jamaican woman (nurse), her 12-year-old son (boy), and their friend Silence (fighter: a boxer, played by Clark Johnson, the awesome Baltimore Sun city editor from The Wire), moves at a lazy, seductive pace that makes you want it never to end. Long, slow shots of flesh are accompanied by extended songs; the entire soundtrack is a gem. The light is hazy, thick, and colored, and the bodies in the ring smack against each other so palpably that you feel close by, like you’re haunting them. The happyish ending is less important than the lush world set up by these three characters.
And Jon Frosch reviews Summer Hours (4:30 pm, SIFF Cinema):
This French film seems slight at first: three adult siblings (Charles Berling, Juliette Binoche, and Jérémie Rénier), two of whom live abroad, must decide what to do with their recently deceased mother’s country home and art collection. But Olivier Assayas (Demonlover, Boarding Gate), a restless, intelligent filmmaker, opens up the story to larger implications, producing a lovely, meditative examination of globalization’s impact on family and culture. The rigorously naturalistic filmmaking turns ponderous at times, but the movie is infused with the sadness—and inevitability—of passing time and changing ways.
There’s a buttload of other films worth checking out too: The Higher Force (Icelandic mob movie); I Sell the Dead (grave robbers + vampires + Dominic Monaghan); Eldorado (“The movie has a pleasing sadness,” says Charles Mudede); Stella (Brendan Kiley: “about the strange, episodic experience of children who are in the world but not of it”); Snow (ethnic cleansing and jam-making in a Bosnian village); Terribly Happy (Dan Savage calls it, “a Danish Blood Simple with uglier wallpaper, moldier ceilings, and a bog standing in for a corn field”); and The Yes Men Fix the World (a documentary about “the world’s most ambitious pranksters”).
Personally, I’ll probably try for Stella, Nurse.Fighter.Boy, or Yes Men.
Sorry I said “buttload.”
My top pics today would be:
best pic – I Sell The Dead (midnite Egyptian), Spring Breakdown (Neptune)
good pics – Summer Hours, Trimpin, Departures, Terribly Happy, Quiet Chaos, Stella, Opium War, Eldorado,
Snow, and the Yes Men Fix the World
Sat: Warlords (don’t miss), A French Gigolo, Dead Snow, The Anarchists Wife, Spring Breakdown – then Trimpin, Sunset Boulevard
Meh. I’m going to see Departures tonight. So not on your list.
I’m seeing Beket and I Sell The Dead. I love me some midnight adrenaline.
Beket’s not bad either, good choices. Although you have to be in the right mood for it.
It’s going to be “Departures” for me, too. It’ll be my first experience @ Siff Cinema!
By the way, a block north of Siff on Roy Street, you can discover a great, little watering hole called “Solo”. Besides their food, art and staff, I really appreciate that it’s become Seattle’s best “theatre bar” — the #1 hangout (due to proximity, obviously) for actors, dancers & acrobats from Intiman/Rep, PNB and Teatro Zinzanni after their performances.
It’s a fairly raucous, gregarious group of transient artists.
Back to SIFF — I plan to catch “Yes Men” Saturday morning @ 11 a.m.
Thanks for some ideas this SIFF season! Btw, you can see ME on Monday 11am at the SIFF Cinema in one of the 3 Minute Masterpieces. Fingers crossed that our film wins!
Hey Lindy: You suck! I’m still bitter about your bashing of (500) Day of Summer! Yes, the film is filled with many flaws, but overall it’s pretty fun. Lots of people will enjoy it, especially Zooey fanatics.
Spring Breakdown – this looks to be an interesting trainwreck. Has three funny women in it, but the film has been sitting on the shelf since 2007. It actually comes out on dvd *next week*. wtf? I guess since it played at Sundance then it was good enough for SIFF.
Wishing you good luck ahead of time, Carollani.
And, as a Zooey fanatic …. I’ve got that one on my list too.
@7: I like Zooey Deschanel a lot, but that movie is dismal. I could barely sit through it.
Both shows of Departures are sold out (rush only). So whatever the critics think, people obviously want to see it.
Work recognized the power of Spring Fever and set me free early so I’m going to catch El Dorado at the Harvard Exit. Ahh — the first weekend of the summer and it’s time to snuggle down into a velvet seat and watch movies!