C'est Non Un Blog

Anyone else think that the new iPhone 3G has a slightly confusing name, considering that it has a 8GB hard drive, or is that just me?

Now that the Memorial Day weekend has passed SIFF has gotten a little less crazy. Still crazy for me though.

——Camille (2008)——

This movie was SO bad. But so bad in a good way, in that it went around the so bad now it is good circle of movie life. Camille is kind of a train wreck from start to finish, but so ludicrous in its melodrama that I couldn’t help but enjoy myself watching this movie. You know what it reminded me of? When you are flipping through the channels on cable in the middle of the day and you see some favorite actors in a movie, but you have no idea what the movie is, nor have you ever heard of it. Camille is one of those movies.

The basic plot is what if Junebug were even more annoying, just got married to an ex-con, and they take a honeymoon to Niagra Falls but along the way she dies in a motorcycle accident. Except she’s still walking around a talking, kind of like a zombie that doesn’t eat people. She starts to stink and lose her hair, he is no wanted for robbery and possibly murder, plus jumping parole, and along the way they meet David Carradine who runs a living merry-go-round with painted horses. Like I said, bad. But kind of unintentionally hilarious. Despite the fact that I know this is a bad movie, I still recommend you see it.

(SEE)

——Ploy (2007)——

This movie from Thailand from the director of Last Life in the Universe and 6ixtynin9 was a lot different from Camille, a much more arty movie about a man who flies back to Thailand for a funeral and meets a young girl named Ploy that he befriends in his hotel lobby and invites back to his room to relax while she waits for her mom. His wife is none to pleased to see the girl after a 20 hour flight and flies into a fit of jealously. As they catnap the morning away things happen that may or may not be their dreams, like an affair a maid has with a bartender in one of the adjacent rooms. Between the odd maybe fantasy sequences are some very real discussions of relationships and who we are as people. It’s an interesting film I enjoyed.

(SEE)

I think I’m getting sick. This is not good.

No reviews yet for day 3. I was out of the house from noon to almost midnight and I have to go to work today and see another movie afterwards, so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for the next update. So tired. Stupid work.

After working a lousy Saturday for sales I headed up Capital Hill to the Egyptian to see my next movie. Quick side note: On the possible factors that might break my will this film fest, nothing seems more likely than the chairs in the Egyptian. It’s a great venue, but the chairs are hella uncomfortable! It’s like putting a bedspring coil over pieces of metal and then wrapping cloth around it. When is someone going to get them new seat cushions? My back still hurts. Ugh.

——The Children of Huang Shi (2008)——

This is one of those movies that you really want to tell people is a great film, but it isn’t. It has beautiful location photography in China, a great cast, and a great message story about a British journalist in World War II China who gets forced into taking care of a war orphanage and ends up turning both the orphanage and the boys around. It’s a true story, which only amps up the weepy factor, especially when he saved all of the boys lives by making a 700 mile journey along the Silk Road to deliver the boys to safety.

Unfortunately, the script plays things too broad and obvious (if you can’t figure out how the movie is going to end, you just weren’t paying attention) to make this into a must see movie. And I think the lead, Jonathan Rhys Meyers was miscast in a role that paints this character as a saint…and not much else. Rhys Meyers is at his best playing someone flawed and is underutilized here.

The director was in attendance, but his Q&A was more enlightening about the process of working today in China than it was about the film itself. Good movie if you want to feel better about the world we live in, but otherwise—

(MISS)

——Epitaph (2007)——

After The Children of Huang Shi I had about three hours of free time before my first midnight movie, so I went out with Katharine and her friend to the International District (my first time down that way) to get some Japanese food and drinks. Then off to a bar near the Egyptian. Let’s just say I was a little toasted by the time I saw Epitaph, which I’m not really sure if that helped or hurt this film. This South Korean ghost story makes about zero sense as you are watching it, as three separate stories are interwoven in ways I, at least, was unable to make heads or tails off. I don’t think I was alone though, as the vibe of the audience seemed to be one of general confusion. I could try to tell you what this was about, but I don’t think that would even come close to explaining what I saw. It was almost as if the plot employed dream logic.

What I can tell you was that both the AC and the sound were cranked up to the max. So not only was I shivering, but when this quiet movie came to a point where a ghost would jump out at you THE STRINGS WOULD GET REALLY LOUD AND SCREACHY AND OMG THE SCREAMING!!! THE SCREAMING!!! A better movie would have cut at that point to an entire audience of people watching a movie with their ears bleeding.

(AVOID)

Have you seen this yet? Is it just me, or is his voice creepier this way? And it just gives that haircut a whole new meaning…

Off to my first SIFF film. Gas is now $4.05 a gallon. I take the worthless Monorail to the Seattle Center to see the Space Needle beautifully lit up at dusk, and discover the whole Seattle Center is overrun with hippies at some Memorial Day Folk music fest. Hippie music can be heard everywhere. I get slightly distracted, start walking in the wrong direction, but then quickly find my way again. I stand in the line wrapped around Uptown Cinema, wishing I had bought a burger from Dick’s before crossing the street.

Welcome back, SIFF.

——Elite Squad (2007)——

This Brazilian movie is a little like City of God from the cops’ perspective. A captain from the BOPE, ie the Elite Squad of the Brazilian police, is about to have a kid and is having anxiety attacks from the stress of his job. His job is to find his replacement so he can retire. We then follow the stories of two rookies, one quick to action who doesn’t think and one who thinks too much and wants to be a lawyer. In voice over we learn how corrupt the Brazilian police is, how ill-equipped they are to deal with the drug dealers in the favalas, and how bad cops really just keep the cycle going. BOPE gets the job done, but as we discover, the cost of doing their job isn’t much better.

Well made, if not mind blowing if you already know what goes on in the Brazilian favalas (which are pretty much one of the most active war zones on the planet and whose police are the most highly trained military police on the planet) it’s still worth checking out.

(SEE)