Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)

Caught Cat on a Hot Tin Roof today.  SRY 2 SAY that I....didn't like it?  It was basically a bunch of people screaming at each other and talking their (uninteresting) problems out.  Maybe the play is better.
Also: Paul newman had a scary face dear god.

Father of the Bride (1950)

The original Father of the Bride is a touching father/daughter (a dynamic not often explored) movie.  I haven't seen the Steve Martin remake, so I can't really comment.  The film holds up pretty well in contemporary times, though...but man, that wedding dress sure doesn't.  How awful wedding dresses used to be, eh?  There was a cool nightmare sequence that was interesting.

The Stanford Theatre  showed this film as part of an Elizabeth Taylor retrospective (rest her soul).  She was so beautiful!  I'm gonna catch Cat on a Hot Tin Roof next week, too.

Emir

I really loved Emir in spite of the fact that musicals usually drive me crazy.  Maybe it's because I'm Filipino and so is this film.  I've been longing for a renaissance in Filipino cinema, but it seems to be a long way off... which is why I found this film so impressive, the production values and acting quality were quite good compared to most Filipino movies I've seen.

Filipinos have a flare for melodrama....I once saw a commercial for a Filipino TV show (it may have been a movie) that consisted of--I shit you not--a carousel turning in slow-mo, a guy running up to the carousel, looking around for somebody, not finding them, then a zoom in to the guy's face where a single tear rolls down his cheek.  It was 100% serious.  So yeah, Filipinos have a tendency to overdo the emotionality in cinema, and do what they call "OA" or "over acting."  The whole OA concept seems to just be a way of life...and we all know that corny overacting really lends itself to musicals, which is part of what really made Emir work, I think.

The film follows Amelia ^ a Filipino girl from the middle of nowhere that goes overseas to be a maid.  The story kind of both pokes fun at/is a tribute to the "OFW" or "overseas Filipino worker."  The story actually follows Amelia until she is like middle aged...they used the same actress which works, I guess, with Asians because you can never really tell how old we are, anyway...

Some of the ballads really dragged but the dancey numbers were really fun.  Oh and, Filipino names are awesome.  Sup, Boyong?

I brought my mom with me to see the film because she actually grew up in the Philippines and speaks good Tagalog.  I really lucked out that this film showed right here in my hometown of San Jose during the SJ portion of the SFIAAFF.  Unfortunately, after this film, all the festival excitement that's been brewing lately is over!

Short Attention Span Environmental Film Festival

I went out to the Short Attention Span Environmental Film Festival last night at the David Brower Center in Berkeley.  When I heard about the festival, I was debating whether or not to go but after all the fun I had seeing films at Cinequest and SFIAAFF, I decided to make the 45 minute drive up to Berkeley, and I'm glad I did!

The very first short was a sort of documentary/infomercial for a nonprofit group, and at first I was afraid that the whole festival was gonna be like that, but thankfully it wasn't.

Pigeon: Impossible was the first film.  I'm usually a hard sell when it comes to CG movies, but I thought this was actually cute and really well done.  But hey! You can watch the whole thing online here:

Hairytale was the next short.  I can't find any pictures online, but it was a documentary about a guy in the UK who used to own a hair salon and realized how much hair gets thrown into landfills...so then he dedicated his life to finding alternative uses for discarded hair and made...a hair chair.  Had a funny final line.

Salt (2009) was next, not to be confused with the Angelina Jolie movie of the same name.  This film followed photographer Murray Fredericks (check out his photography on the website, it's amazing!) on his journeys to literally the middle of nowhere in Australia.  He explained the concept that the place where he was going, he could see NOTHING anywhere on the horizon for 360 degrees.   CRAZY.  I had no idea places like that still existed anywhere in the world (other than the ocean).  It raised a lot of questions for me...   This film has a lot of breathtaking shots. As I understood it, Fredericks shot all the footage himself over several years and then later it was edited down into the film.  He had a really great eye for the shots, but I guess that makes sense because he's a photographer.  In the end, though, the film was a bit long for my tastes...I'd rather go see an exhibition of the photography.

Scrapertown is a documentary short from a series about California called California is a Place (I will definitely be watching these later).  It follows a group of kids in East Oakland who are part of the 'scraper bike movement', where people fix up their bikes with interesting paint, decor and decorate the spokes.  The bikes are pretty cool.  The organizers of the festival told us that they were gonna try to get a kid from the film to come speak at the festival, but he didn't show.  Boo!

The Crab Revolution , was an awesome, adorable French animated short.  I loved it!  French just seemed to be the perfect language for this story.  Or maybe the voice actor was just really good?  Watch here:

I didn't see Fat Tire Fury on IMDB.  It's basically footage of a mountain...bike...unicycler.  The ultimate rush??

I couldn't find any suitable pictures of Living Lightly.....chronicles of a farming cult with a scythe (yes, scythe) fetish.  I don't mean player hate here but uh...yeah.

A few photos of the evening:

cool kinetic sculpture at the Brower Center. I wish this were video!

 DEEP FRIED PIZZA at Sumo Grub--not a bad spot to grab a bite after a late showing in Berkeley as they are open late.  They have tons of deep fried desserts...for the heart attack in you

our friend KJ wore awesome bright gold shoes.

Pink Floyd the Wall

Amidst all the excitement lately I made it to a midnight showing of Pink Floyd the Wall at Camera 3. I probably won't make it out to another midnight movie until Rock 'n' Roll High School in July.  I'd never seen The Wall, but I am familiar with Pink Floyd's music in a cursory way.  I actually think Dark Side of the Moon is a better album, but what can you do?

I thought the animated sequences were really great.  You can really tell that animation director Gerald Scarfe worked in political cartoons....the animation from the film had the same sort of drippy, evil looking feel that political cartoons get.

The whole concept is kind of overwrought, but I think that anyone who's ever felt really sad can get understand what Roger Waters is trying to get at... "The Wall" as a metaphor seems almost too easy, but at the same time you can't think of anything more apt.  It's something insurmountable, uniform, soulless...it is the problem, but we're all a part of it.  And blah, blah blah.

Chickenproof

On Friday I headed out with a couple of friends to the Chickenproof shorts program at the SFIAAFF to see my friend Kevin Ung's short, Chubby Can Kill.  The program was at New People, a sort of gallery-cum-cafe-cum-shop-cum-cinema in San Francisco.  I'd been before, it's a cool spot, but I'd never had the chance to see anything at the Viz Cinema (they show Japanese films!) prior to this event.  I hope to catch more in the coming months.

The theme of the night as I interpreted it seemed to be unlikely heroes and surprise endings.  

cool poster

Masala Mama was the first film; a funny little comic book themed short.

Next up was Junko's Shamisen.  This was filmed with an interesting mix of live action, stop motion and animation...it looked really cool.  The story was a sort of Japanese fairy tale (not sure if it's a real one).  It was a kind of a cool Japanese/Canadian vibe with parts in English and Japanese.  This one showed at SXSW too!

Hang in There was a stop motion using paper dolls...it looks a lot cooler in motion than it does in the above picture.  It was cute/disturbing...I think this was a music video, I can't find it on IMDB!  

For some reason I couldn't find Gophers in Space on IMDB, either.  At first I was like "eh" about this, but the surprise ending was funny enough to win me over.  It feels like something that probably started as a joke between friends and became a movie.

Amazonia was another CG short.  It was cute and entertaining and it's clear that a lot of work, heart, and soul went into this short!

To Wander in Pandemonium  was cool in spite of the slightly overwrought title.  This was one of the two most professional looking films screened that night.  I discovered during the Q&A that the director, Edward Kim , went to UCLA (my alma matter, although I did not study film).  COOL~?

The Godmother was a sort of action-comedy-parody-homage to both The Godfather and Jersey Shore (from what I could tell).  This was a USC thesis film...they always say that film students at USC get a lot of money to work with, and it really showed with this film, I think.  It looked really professional and I enjoyed it. We actually had a chance to converse with the director and the producer after the screening and they were both really cool.

Finally, my friend's film Chubby Can Kill was the last film screened.  It's about a fat guy ^ who decides to take control of shit, etc.  It was funny and I really liked the color palette in the scenes in the video shop.  I thought the acting was all quite good too and that "Chubby" did particularly well/was funny.  It wouldn't have worked out without him, I don't think!  I was really glad to finally see my friend's film!  It's crazy to think that we all pretty much grew up together.

Some shots of New People--

my camera sucks. this is my friend Tammy, who was kind enough to drive...but my camera made her the same color as the orange walls ^^;

the theater interior is pretty snazzy with light decorations.  a bit much for a theater, but still cool.

Q&A after the screenings.

cool chandelier detail.

Bi, đừng sợ!

Bi, Don't be Afraid! is a sort of slice-of-life movie about a middle class family in Vietnam. It was a really...sweaty movie. Ice/melting ice/dripping water were reoccuring motifs in the film. The film doesn't revolve around the titular character (a young boy) so much as it does around the whole family. The film kinda gets really weirdly sexual about halfway through... I feel like there are some cultural references I may be missing. It was interesting, though. It's only the second Vietnamese film I've seen, the first being Vertical Ray of the Sun.

I saw this with my mom & my sister, but ran into my friend Tracy downtown on the way in, so she came too. You know you've lived somewhere too long when you start running into people. Ha! The film was showing at the California Theater, a really nice restored old theatre in San Jose. It's unfortunate that they don't show films there more often! (it's home to the San Jose opera).

The film is also showing at the San Francisco International Asian American Festival.

my bff at the movie. i would post more pictures of the theater interior--it's lovely--but my camera isn't very good!

After the film Tracy suggested we pop in on the Festival meetup.  It was going down at Clubhouse (a new bar downtown. I got a Yelp check-in discount so I will likely go in for drinks sometime).  The bar was full of movie..type...people so I was a bit out of place as a mere film fan (not to mention my poor social skills), but Tracy is a festival volunteer and knew a few people.  We struck up a conversation with some guy in distribution.  It was neat.

Post #100.

Lumea Vazuta de Ion B

The World According Ion B is a doccumentary shown on TV produced by HBO Romania.  I'd never seen any films out of Romania, so this was interesting.  The film follows "Ion B", a drunk vargarnt genius artist.  The guy doesn't really have as many interesting things to say as you'd think, though...he isn't say as funny as, say, a schizophrenic.  I'm not sure this was a super interesting topic for a film, but it was a good way to get awareness out there for this guy's art...because it seriously is amazing and hilarious.  Still, I think I'd rather go to an exhibition than see a film about it.


A short was supposed to play before the film, it looked like it may have been interesting, but there were technical difficulties so I guess I'll never know >:(!!


Some of his awesome art:

團圓

Apart Together was an interesting look at a story about real people involved in the evacuation to Taiwan. I was a history major in college and it's fascinating to learn about the history behind something and then see a movie about a political events later effects. The characters in Apart Together really draw you in. They are all likeable and understandable in their own ways, and you end up eager to know what happens. This is probably one of the best movies I've seen any any Cinequest (not that I've been to 3049580349854 CInequest showings, but you get it).

The Chinese pictographs for "apart" and "together" were really beautiful, too, and make a lovely title for the film:

Little Baby Jesus of Flandr

This is what I get for trying to take an interest in culture and local happenings.

So, I saw my first Cinequest screening today and things were pretty disorganized.  They appeared to have a gaggle of volunteers running things.  They had--no joke--like seven people taking tickets.  One person to take the ticket.  One person to hand me a pencil for the survey (there was also a different person outside after the film to collect my pencil).  At least two of these people touched my shoulders.  UH, HELLO.  I LIKE MOVIES BECAUSE I DON'T LIKE INTERACTING WITH ACTUAL PEOPLE. DONT F(*^#^#$)$* TOUCH ME!

Prior to that, we got to the floor where our screening was.  After a bit of confusion we were told by a couple of volunteers that we needed to "get in the line for the screening."

"OK.  Where is the line?"
"There isn't a line yet.  You two will be the first in the line."

Well.  No wonder we didn't know where the line was!  There was no line.

Things like "festivals" (of any sort) are not really my scene, but I go to film festival screenings sometimes because I like movies.  STEP UP YER GAME, CINEQUEST.  I mean, alls I'm sayin' is that I like going to the movies, but I don't like having to interact with a dozen different people before I sit my ass down, you know?

Anyway, the first film in the festival that I saw was Little Baby Jesus of Flandr.  I kinda don't remember how I chose which films I wanted to see at the festival.  I remember kinda browsing the website and seeing ratings on IMDB and making a list/schedule.  This popped up because it has an interesting title.  I wanted to get into a Yelp Elite screening (I'm on the squad, weirdly enough), but it was full up! Boo.  So, I ended up here instead.

The film kinda asks the question What would happen if the nativity story took place in Belgium? and What if the three magi were three retarded dudes?    


Well, apparently not much goes down.  To be totally honest, I'm not sure if this movie was a joke or not.  Was it an attempt at serious religious commentary?  Was it supposed to be blasphemous?  I have no idea.

The film is black and white except for one short part where a person (a tranny?) is singing in a night club.  That part is in color.  Then it cuts back to black and white.  Yeah, I don't know.

Half of the cast of the film are people with (what I believe to be?) Down Syndrome.  OK...interesting.

You can play I Spy Ikea furniture.  The stuff is everywhere.  Even in arty movies from Belgium.

Before the feature, they showed an animated short called The Tannery which was a charming animal story with a vegetarian/animal rights slant.  I really liked the animation, it looked like it was done on watercolor paper.  They were working off a crappy scratched up DVD or something, though.  Boo!

In spite of the few hitches, I will likely be going to a couple of Cinequest screenings on the weekend, too. I ain't no player hater.

Cinco Días sin Nora

I saw the trailer for Five Days without Nora (released in the states as Nora's Will) and it was portrayed as more of a comedy than it really is.  The actual film is a bit slow and I was disappointed.  It was interesting to see a portrayal of the Jewish community in Mexico, though.

The Importance of Being Earnest (1952)

I almost didn't make it to one of the screenings of The Importance of Being Earnest.  I'm glad I did, though.  This is the last movie on the current calendar for the Stanford Theatre that I will likely go see.  The Importance of Being Earnest is funny. And damn are the dresses absurd ^  

2011 Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts

Today I saw the 2011 Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts.  Camera 3 downtown was showing them, and I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to see them as well!

Madagascar, Carnet de Voyage is a sort of pastiche or scrapbook in film form of a man's trip to Madagascar. It utilizes many different styles of animation.....it's breathtaking in some parts, but in others it looks a bit less fleshed out.

Let's Pollute is a subversive environmentalist film done in the style of corny old educational videos.  I think corny=corny rather than corny=funny, but the old people in the theater seemed to think this was hilarious.  The animation is styled like a kid's cartoon.  There were a few good jokes.  My favorite think about this short was how the animators utilized lots of interesting patterns.

The Gruffalo was nearly half an hour and almost put me to sleep.  It's based on a children's book. I'd never heard of this book because I don't have anything to do with kids, but you can tell it's based on a children's book because:

1. the story is repetitive, and children's stories are repetitive
2. a name like "The Gruffalo."  Enough said.

I just really, really hate children's stories.  This was boring.  The music was cool.  Kids would like this. (I think?)  Helena Bonham Carter did one of the voices.

The Lost Thing was OK.  Full of washed out colors with a bit of angst.

Day & Night is my Oscar pick.  It was awesome!  Conceptually and visually the best film shown.  According to my sister, this was shown before Toy Story 3 (which I haven't seen).


This is the whole movie, although youtube quality really isn't ideal for watching this:

The next two were just bonus shorts, they weren't nominated for Oscars this year.

Urs.  What is an "Urs"?  Who knows.  Quiet little movie with a sort of impressionistic animation style.

The Cow who Wanted to be a Hamburger looks like it was drawn in MS paint.  And it is awesome.  This was really funny.  Reminiscent of Rocko's Modern Life.

clip:

Heaven can Wait (1943)

they really used to dress male babies like this, i guess

This evening I was lucky enough (very lucky!) to see a special nitrate technicolor print screening of  Heaven can Wait at The Stanford Theater.  This was exciting, and a lot of people came out for this screening!  The place was packed.  The colors were, of course, beautiful.  I really enjoyed this movie.  It was funny  (actually, very funny) and touching.

There's a new burger joint, Workshop Burgers, newly open next door, too.  Hopefully I can check it out next week when I go to see The Importance of Being Earnest.

L'illusionniste

Finally, some movies I actually want to see are playing in theaters!  While most people here in the states were watching the Superbowl, I was checking out The Illusionist.  My sister is a big animation fan so I saw this with her.  We caught it at Camera 3, the independent theater downtown around here.  They also have a donut shop inside called Psycho Donuts (their vegan donuts are tasty!).

Clocking in at 80 minutes, The Illusionist is somewhat short, but because it's the same sort of non dialog driven style as The Triplets of Belleville, 80 minutes is somewhat a blessing.


My interpretation of the story?  A sad tale about a world that can no longer believe in magic. 


I also can't wait to see Ip Man 2 and Hanyo! I also noticed that there's a showing of The Room this week.  I haven't seen it yet so I am totally there.

The Mark of Zorro

tight pants for real

There was a healthy sized crowd at The Stanford Theatre to see The Mark of Zorro tonight.  Many lols were had.  The costumes in this film were pretty good....really elaborate.  But damn did the men wear really tight pants.

I Walked with a Zombie

Tonight I went down to The Stanford Theatre ♥ to see I Walked with a Zombie. There are some old cheesy horrors on the upcoming program and a double feature would make a great date for any movie buff couples!

Anyway, I Walked with a Zombie is a different kind of zombie movie....it's a sensitive, romantic zombie movie.  A rom-zom if you will.  It was alright...the face of the guy above ^ was pretty crazy...I can't believe I was the only person i the theater who lol'd