AFI Schedule

Thanks to my good buddy Landon, I’ll be attending the AFI Film Fest this November for the sixth consecutive year, starting (for me anyway) on Halloween. I’m often critical of this particular festival as they seem to routinely squander both their standing as the most prestigious film festival in Los Angeles (FIND’s LA Film Fest has become a joke) as well as the scheduling coup of being the last major film festival of the calendar year. They’ve made a few changes over the years to be more in lock-step with the rest of the festival circuit, namely creating a Midnight Madness forum (this year rechristened “Alt Cinema”), lowered the price of their galas to an acceptable $25 a pop and scaling back on the number of American independent films which, in my experience, are often picked over after having failed to make a splash at Sundance, SxSW and Tribeca.

But this year I really have to take my hat off to the selection committee. In essence, they’ve created a year end Whitman’s Sampler, encapsulating the best titles from Sundance, Cannes, Toronto and NYFF giving those of us on the west coast a chance to catch up with many of the international titles journalists have been going nuts over for months. In fact, I’m so pleased about the job they’ve done cherry picking titles that I’m not going to bitch that they’ve split venues between the Arclight (which has served as the festival’s one-stop-shopping center for better part of the past decade) and the Mann’s Chinese complex at Hollywood and Highland.

I’m going to try and update this on my phone during my festival downtime (wifi signal permitting) so check back for regular updates. Also I’ve included all the leftover pieces that came in the box at the bottom of the page in case anyone sees a title that they think I absolutely should make a point of seeing.

And now in the highly imitable style of Mike D’Angelo, I present.

AFI Fest October 30 – November 9
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Friday October 31

Deadgirl (Marcel Sarmiento & Gadi Harel, USA): C- The appeal here is largely built around how gapingly offensive the premise is, when in actuality this is less morally appalling than it is inept at every level. Essentially this is River’s Edge reconceived as a zombie movie, with our loner protagonists inviting all their male friends to come sexually violate a re-animated corpse strapped to a gurney inside an abandoned asylum. But Sarmiento & Harel never land on the right tone, creating a situation that’s toxic to begin with (the two leads seem to have modeled their performances after 1950’s greasers film with a little Dylan & Eric thrown in for flavor) and descending from there, never fully selling its own premise from a situational or character standpoint. As a treatise on sexual politics it lags behind even this past winter’s forgettable Teeth and while it tows the line of Cronenbergian body violation, it ultimately lacks the conviction (or perhaps the special effects budget) to really go where sick young men’s minds will take things.

Saturday Nov 1

Revanche (Götz Spielmann, Austria): B+ Boy is this a hard film to qualify. From a strictly plot standpoint (and this most assuredly is not a film whose strength is derived from its plot) it’s essentially a Coen Brother’ special, with a get-rich scheme that’s destined to go horrifically and the aftermath of which can only lead to more bloodshed (I don’t speak German but even I can deduce what the title means). And the thing is, at no point will you be really surprised where the film arrives as everything is telegraphed by the 50-minute mark. No, the real intangible here is how fully lived in and emotionally sound every choice in the film is and how the consequences of every action taken are explored. In a perverse way it almost reminds me of Crash where we have a bunch of people bumping against one another through sheer contrivance but instead of knee-jerk histrionics and manufactured drama we have desperate people slowly coming to terms with the world they’ve created and their helplessness at escaping it. I’m really failing to convey the film’s loveliness but I take comfort that Mike D’Angelo more or less flailed about as well, although his enthusiasm for the film was enough to get me in the theater. If I can accomplish that as well then mission accomplished.

Wendy and Lucy (Kelly Reichardt, USA): B Another bullocks to the plot film, great. I wasn’t a fan of Reichardt’s Old Joy which was a little too minimalist for me. This at least has the benefit of external conflict even if it moves to the same aimless rhythms of the earlier film. Having familiarized myself with the premise going in, I was relieved to discover it’s not the exercise in miserablism I’d feared would be, in large part due to Michelle Williams defiantly pragmatic performance and an understated gem of a turn by stunt coordinator turned “where the hell did *he* come from?” character actor Wally Dalton as a sympathetic security guard. It’s also worth noting that as a lifelong dog owner there’s probably no way I wasn’t going to tear up at that ending but that shouldn’t take anything away from the long slow build that earns the moment.

Che (Steven Soderbergh, France/Spain): B

Sunday Nov 2

The Class (Laurent Cantet, France): A

Hunger (Steve McQueen, UK): B


Monday Nov 3

Time Crimes (Nacho Vigalondo, Spain): C+


Tuesday Nov 4

I didn't end up seeing anything. Mid-fest break required as the night's would get much longer and booze-fueled from here on out.

Wednesday Nov 5

Before the Fall (F Javier Gutiérrez, Spain): C-


Thursday Nov 6

Idiots and Angels (Bill Plympton, USA): B-

Two Lovers (James Gray, USA): A

The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky, USA): B

Friday Nov 7

Sugar (Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck, USA): B+

Waltz With Bashir (Ari Folman, Israel/France/Germany): C-

Afterschool (Antonio Campos, USA): D+ This once announces itself early and often: a theme spending 2 hours in search of a film. Essentially, in case you didn’t know, a generation raised on internet porn and Al Quaeda beheading videos is likely to grow up disaffected and emotionally disconnected from genuine human experience becoming little glass-eyed monsters who regard the death of a couple classmates with the same level of muted interest as hallways slap fight or a viral video of a kitty playing the piano. Campos, who at 24 is bold enough to create a film around this idea, complete with Youtube-ready off-center compositions while at the same time is just immature enough to not realize he’s shot his load in the first 10 minutes and proceeds to beat the same drum with little variance. The film’s payoff is so poorly telegraphed I simply assumed it was accepted fact only to be confronted with shock-cut flashbacks in the closing moments. The film has its fans (or rather one very vocal one) but frankly I’d be amazed if it ever escapes the festival circuit.

Saturday Nov 8

Playing Columbine (Danny Ledonne, USA): C+ The missing element here is critical distance. The title of the film refers to the low-tech computer game Super Columbine Massacre RPG! that was released onto the net a few years ago, serving to comment upon (or exploit depending upon your politics) the 1999 school shooting and the ensuing controversy that predictably followed it. Ledonne chronicles the firestorm of victims rights advocates and media pundits that attacked the game for turning tragedy into entertainment (we see brief glimpses of the game where, for example, you receive certain point values for shooting “Preppy Girl” or lighting propane tanks on fire) as well as the weak-willed gaming establishment that buckled to pressure to bury the game and yank it from media arts conventions. Of even more interest, the film draws the corollary between the game and other “too soon” works such as United 93 and games about the Catholic Church scandals and Darfur, making the case that experiencing these events in a first-person, user-controlled medium is a perfectly acceptable form of processing grief. So what’s the problem? Ledonne also happens to be the creator of the game itself, meaning the film often undermines its own point in failing to truly hold its subject’s feet to the fire regarding his motives. The ratio of subjects who praise Ledonne versus those who indict him is about 5 to 1, meaning the film essentially serves as a self-generated pat on the back to its filmmaker. We’re constantly aware of the artist’s motives and as such everything about the film is rendered suspect.

Adam Resurrected (Paul Schrader, Germany/Israel/USA): C-


Sunday Nov 9

As predicted I hit a wall on the last day of the festival. Nothing left scheduled that day appealed to me and the tickets to the world premiere of Defiance that had been promised to me were withheld until the last possible moment, making it impossible for me to attend. I also flaked out on a screening of Milk that I'm now regretting. Such is life...


Not Getting to This Time Around

24 City
3 Women
Achilles and the Tortoise
Acne
Agile, Mobile, Hostile: A Year with Andre Williams
Alone in Four Walls
Better Things
Birdsong
Blood Appears
A Boyfriend for My Wife
The Chaser
Chouga
Defiance^
The Desert Within
Dim Sum Funeral
Divizionz
Everlasting Moments
Finally, Lillian and Dan
Food Fight
Gachi Boy Wrestling With a Memory
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
A Good Day to be Black & Sexy
The Good, the Bad & the Weird
The Headless Woman
Hi My Name is Ryan
The Higher Force
I’m Gonna Explode
Imaginadores
Involuntary
The Juche Idea
Kassim the Dream
Kisses
Lake Tahoe
Last Chance Harvey^
The Last Days of Shishmaref
Lion’s Dean
Liverpool
Native Dancer
A Necessary Death
Niloofar
Nirvana
Not Quite Hollywood
Of All the Things
O’Horten
Paradise
Patrik, Age 1.5
Perfect Life
Pindorama – The True Story of the Seven Dwarves
Poundcake
Prodigal Sons
Proper Eyes
A Quiet Little Marriage
La Rabia
The Rest of the Night
Shakespeare and Victor Hugo’s Intimacies
Skin
Slumdog Millionaire^@
Summer Hours
Three Blind Mice
Tokyo Sonata
Truth in 24
Tulpan
Two-Legged Horse
Until the Light Takes Us
Visioneers
Waiting for Sancho
Wellness
Witch Hunt@
The World We Want
World’s Apart


^ Gala
@ Already Seen

I guess I’ll be going to AFI after all

So money’s been getting a little bit tight lately (and very well could be for a while as I decide whether to move on from the company I’ve spent the past four years with to little financial gain) which means the annual laboring over whether to drop almost $250 on an AFI badge came a lot easier this year. Having become something of an expert on film festivals in the past few years, I’ve really come to appreciate just how convenient and unique AFI is, specifically its one-stop-shop approach to exhibition, infrastructure and networking. The biggest deterrent to seeing films at a festival is simply the energy exerted in getting from one theater to another in time. By setting up shop at the Arclight in Hollywood and setting up the filmmaker’s lounge on the parking structure’s rooftop, they’ve removed all barriers to sampling as many films as you desire and making the rounds at the after parties.

The problem though is that AFI’s a bastard step-child as far as festivals go. Located at the ass end of the calendar year, the festival is a dead zone between the unveiling of year-end Oscar contenders at Toronto and breaking indie films at Sundance a couple months later. The premieres they do get are those that have either been screened elsewhere (as is the case with Juno) or reek of misfires no one else wanted (hello Lions for Lambs). Most depressing of all is the fest’s slate of American independent films which, in my four years of attendance, have been without exception horrendous. In the interest of keeping up with other festivals, AFI added a “Dark Horizons” category to attract genre fans but they seem surprisingly uncommitted this year (Stuart Gordon’s Stuck and Dario Argento’s Mother of Tears both screened at Toronto to much acclaim yet neither chose to make their US LA premieres at AFI).

The one niche the festival has carved out for itself is as a forum for the world’s best foreign cinema, specializing both in films that premiered at Cannes as well as representing the year’s foreign language Oscar contenders. But over two hundred bucks is an awful lot to shell out just to see Cannes winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days and Southland Tales a week early. Thankfully, and through the graciousness of others, a badge has been dropped into my lap. This of course changes everything, as a dozen borderline titles I might never have given a second’s thought to all of a sudden sound promising (including a lot of stuff I didn’t get to see at Austin due to the aforementioned logistics).

I usually have such a hard time enjoying myself at AFI because I’m always aware of how I’m barely getting my money’s worth. This year, there should be no such issue. Once again I find myself engaged and excited. Stay tuned for updates throughout the first 2 weeks of November.

Back from Texas

Had a great time in Austin but it’s a relief to be back in LA. Met a lot of incredible, generous people and reconnected with some old friends, didn’t embarrass myself in my panels (although I heard some horror stories about my inebriated behavior after hours) and saw some great films. I’m trying to get caught up on my blogging but there’s been more distractions waiting for me at home than I thought. The office is especially populated these days, so less time for on-hours goofing around. I’ve also got about 20 hours of TV clogging up my dvr that I’m supposed to be going through so my housemates will stop giving me the evil eye (the sad part is, over half of it is poker… I really do have a problem). The good news is the Sox are in the process of pissing away a glorious season because the bottom of our lineup is abysmal and none of our starters can make it to the fifth inning (save for Beckett, who’s tomorrow’s last hope), so at least I should have some free time now. Oh and more good news: my X-Box is doing that three blinking red lights which I guess is the new “Blue Screen of Death” so that will be out of commission for the next month or so while the criminals at Microsoft fix the problem they were aware of when they sold the damn thing. I’ve got a screening of 30 Days of Night tonight, so once you factor that in to everything I saw at AFF as well as a couple films I saw immediately beforehand and I’m quickly becoming swamped. Too much good stuff.

And in the interest of staying positive: Go Pats, Go!

Going Back to Texas

I’ll be returning to Austin this fall for the Austin Film Festival and I’m super stoked. The first time I’d ever been to Austin was at last October’s festival when I was there representing Steel City so I only had a couple days in town to figure out the lay of the town, jump through promotional hopes, attend half a dozen parties and mixers, baby-sit the break-out star (and soon to be Emmy winner) of that fall’s TV season who was in town to support the film, and even make time to see a couple movies. Like all the festivals we took the film to last year, it was pretty whirlwind without a lot of time to relax and really appreciate the city (in a slight I’m still kicking myself over, I never did get any Texas BBQ) so when I’d proposed to my boss we finance a trip this year for me to head back for “research and development” it was about 10% business and 90% vacation.

Here’s where things get interesting. Right around the time my boss agree to pony up the money for the trip, my good friend Linnea (she being the overworked conference coordinator at AFF) asked me apropos of nothing if I’d be interested in flying down to the festival and moderate a couple panels during the festival’s screenwriter conference. I don’t do much public speaking and I’m fairly certain there’s a reason for that but the gig comes with a complimentary All-Access Pass (retail value around $600) and will force me to interact with filmmakers way more successful than myself so, fully aware of the shit pile I was likely stepping into, I agreed. So now my trip would be closer to 30% business, 70% vacation.

Except…

While all this was happening a film my company was helping to produce called On the Doll had applied and been accepted to play the festival. It’s been argued our friendly relationship with AFF helped tip things in the film’s favor so maybe this was all destined to happen, but all of a sudden now all anyone wants to talk about is flying to Texas for the festival. I’m taking meetings and drawing up schedules and being called upon for my expertise which if you get right down to it is still pretty touristy in nature.

I feel like oil was just discovered under the cabin I’d planned on using for quiet solitude. It’s not a simply a case of more familiar faces joining me on my trip south. Now I’m being rolled into the agenda of shameless self promotion and talent managing which is a full-time job often spent wearing a false smile and living and breathing at the end of a cell phone. It’s the ugly side of producing and I hadn’t anticipated doing much of it on this trip. Basically my trip’s now a coin flip business and pleasure.

There are upsides, of course, to all this. For starters I probably won’t have to pick up a tab the entire time I’m down there between my boss and the director and producer of On the Doll, which considering how much I drink while I’m on the road is a big plus for me. There’s also the “I’m with the film” factor, which I suspect is more impressive sounding than “I’m with the festival.” The thing is, now I’m accountable to people so I’ll have to be a lot more discrete with my goofing off.

The most immediate bit of discretion will be what screenings I attend and when. I’d sold my boss on a plan to seek out distribution-less darlings on the fringes of the festival with the not so modest intentions of acquiring them. Not that we have the money or infrastructure to do so mind you, but he’d worked out some fantasy a while back that we were going to be the next Miramax or something. It was a fool-proof plan, or so I’d thought: I tell my boss I went to see a bunch of no-budget, no-tripod-using DV-shot junkers that just didn’t quit fit the bill, while secretly sneaking off to see, say, the new Coens film at a gala premiere (this by the way is strictly conjecture on my part; I am not privy to any advance info regarding what films are playing AFF this year and if No Country for Old Men is in fact playing this will merely have been an educated guess proving correct)*. Now I’m not sure how I’m gonna swing this. Yeah, I know festivals are supposed to be about discovering unpolished gems and championing little films. So sue me, I know what I like.

Even with company interference, I’m still anticipating a great time in the Lone Star State. Austin sets a fine example for what all film festivals should aspire to live up to, specifically the sense of community it cultivates between filmmakers and festival attendees. There’s a real chummy, pull up a seat vibe to the after-parties. No pretense or velvet rope bullshit. A far cry from snobby, starfucker driven fests like Sundance. It’s the sort of place where all it takes to make friends is to buy someone a drink or offer a cigarette. Writers and talent are frequently roaming around and open to chat. Last year when I was being sexiled from my hotel room (long story) I ended up hanging out with the writers of When a Stranger Called and The Hitcher till 2 in the morning just talking about what a barren wasteland the horror genre had become (give me credit for holding my tongue and not stating the obvious).

The schedule should be announced in the next couple weeks so I’ll have a better idea of what’s in store for me then. I won’t be heading back to Sundance any time soon and obviously I’m not at Toronto so this will be my big, immersive film festival experience of the year and I intend on making the most of it.

*Nope, No Country won't be playing AFF because that would be too perfect. I really am going to have to wait till November to see this fucking movie.