2003 Foreign, Alternative and Independent Films - Page 9  

Jason, I agree with you on Swimming Pool and with most of your comments on Lilja except the ending completely works for me. I think it's really the only way it could have ended and I found the final image beautiful, spritiual, and sublime. It's one of my top 3 of the year so far.

Dirty Pretty Things was ok, I liked the way it showed the plight and shadow life of refugee's/illegal immigrants in a big city like London, and the characters were compelling enough to keep me interested, but the thriller/crime aspects of the story were pretty standard stuff. Audrey Tautou isn't very convincing as a Turkish woman but there's a long history of stars adopting phony accents so I don't know that she should be singled out for criticism. The actor playing the male lead gives a good performance and grounds the film. It was better than average, I didn't feel like I'd wasted my time/money, but it's not a movie I'll be thinking about in the coming
weeks. B-

Can't say the same for Northfork a spiritual Lynchian story of the last days of a town about to be put underwater by a new dam and the folks trying to rescue the last remaining souls. Packed with symbolism and offbeat humor (there's a one liner that is fall out of your chair funny, of course the 3 people in front of me never laughed once the entire film) I am going to have to see this again and read some reviews to figure out where certain things are coming from. I'm unsure of the ultimate loyalties of some of the characters, and I think this is an important aspect of the film that I need to "click" .

Also after years of seeing Anthony Edwards on E.R., it's very weird to see him with multi-lensed glasses and wooden hands costumed like somebody out of City Of Lost Children. Extremely interesting and often quite funny, I'd recommend this. I didn't think a whole lot of the Polish Bros. 1st movie, Twin Falls Idaho, and skipped their 2nd, but with Northfork, I'm interested to see what they do in the future. B+ but open to improvement once I understand a few things a bit more.

I'm interested in seeing it too. The other two Indie trailers I've seen that looked good were In America and John Sayles new film Casa de los Babies, but then Sayles is a favorite so I want to see everything he does.

Sounds like one to see guys, but up next for me is the restored Hiroshima mom amour. Anybody else planning on seeing this one? I saw it in the early 60s and have not seen it again.

I haven't seen it, I'll just rent the DVD. If Hiroshima is a Rialto release it has maybe a 1% chance of showing up in Atlanta. I believe Le Cercle Rouge is the only Rialto re-release to show up in Atlanta. None of the Bunuel or Godard films they've done have been shown here.

Has anyone seen The Secret Lives Of Dentists? It got a pretty good review in the paper Friday. I'm kind of wishing I'd seen that instead of Dirty Pretty Things. The Magdalene Sisters just opened here too, and I want to see it, but won't get a chance before I go out of town again on Monday. Hopefully it will be playing in Tucson and I can see it there.

Yes. Highly recommended. The best work Alan Rudolph has done in a long time. And if you want to have a mini Hope Davis festival, see it in close proximity to American Splendor. She's brilliant, and utterly different, in both.

M.

I agree with the recommended part -- it's a very good film. However, I didn't think it was nearly as good as Investigating Sex, Rudolph's previous film, which was absolutely brilliant, had a top notch cast and very funny to boot. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have gotten any type of distribution. I caught it at the Walter Reade last year -- if it has had any other public screenings, I don't know about them. I'd love a DVD.

Ted

We saw American Splendor this weekend and enjoyed it thoroughly! Paul Giamatti does a terrific job as the misanthropic Harvey Pekar, but the film is spiced up with appearances by Harvey himself, his wife Joyce, and his friend Toby (the ultimate nerd), plus a bit of animation from the pages of American Splendor the comic book. Innovative and entertaining filmmaking! Highly recommended for those who love the offbeat!

Jan

I'd go further and say that it's recommended for anyone who enjoys good filmmaking. In its innovative blending of animation, documentary and docudrama, American Splendor displays so much creativity that it puts most of Hollywood's recent output to shame. The film not only tells Pekar's life, but it also manages to give you a feeling for how he transformed the mundanities of that life into a story worth telling.

Giamatti is brilliant, but so is Hope Davis in a role that, if not pitched just right, would have quickly become annoying. Her Joyce may be nutty, but in a way that perfectly meshes with Harvey's, uh, character. In fact, when you see the real Joyce, you can't wait for Davis to replace her, because Davis reveals Joyce on film, while the real person doesn't give much of herself away. (It's a nice demonstration of what good actors do.)

The Sundance Channel is currently running an installment of Anatomy of a Scene about American Splendor, which contains some fascinating comments from the creative team (especially the cinematographer and production designer) on how the film's look was achieved. When this film hits DVD, people will ask whether it's really supposed to look that drab and washed-out. Yep, it is. The effect is to make the extreme personalities that inhabit this landscape even more vivid.

M.

Even with half of the U.S. theaters playing American Splendor hobbled by the blackout, it still did impressive per-theater box office for the weekend. This bodes well for a wider release.

M.

NOTE: This post and the preceding two have been copied, with Jan Strnad's premission, from his separate American Splendor thread.

I saw the Anatomy of A Scene for Amercian Splendor.

Right now,its the film I want to see most along with Thirteen and Swimming Pool.

Anyone see Thirteen?

It's excellent. If you've seen the trailer, you have the whole story, but that doesn't detract from the raw power of the performances. The (few) critics who don't like it complain that it's just another story of how hard it is to be a teenager. Maybe, but it's rare that it's done with this much intensity and with performances that are multi-layered and often quite disturbing (and I'm including Holly Hunter's beleaguered mother).

M.

Also a fine film, but I wish it weren't being marketed as a "thriller". I realize that marketing departments need to categorize a film in order to sell it, but there's always the risk of misdirecting viewers' expectations. There isn't all that much suspense in DPT, no mystery about who the bad guys are, and the sense of menace is much more "realistic" than the psychological discomfort I associate with thrillers. In its quiet, methodical way, the film is a wonderful portrait of an alternative immigrant culture existing just below the surface of modern London life. The core of the film is the remarkable lead performance by Chiwetel Ejiofor (and I have no idea how to pronounce that!). The real suspense in the film comes from wondering what's going on inside this very still and deliberate character named Okwe, who is at the center of most of the scenes. You ultimately learn his story, and it is not a happy one (though the film ends on a hopeful note).

The other standout performance is by Benedict Wong, as Okwe's chess-playing friend, who works as a janitor in a pathology lab. He has great lines and delivers them with a wry detachment that makes them even better. Sophie Okonedo play a prostitute who works the hotel where Okwe works the night desk (one of several jobs he holds), and while the character is something of a cliche, the actress gives it an extra charge and provides much of the comic relief.

Sergi Lopez is the villian of the piece, and his performance is all the more remarkable for the fact that he speaks no English and had to memorize his lines phonetically.

(I know I haven't said anything about Audrey Tautou, whose face is the main image being used to promote the film. I don't like her generally, but she's adequate in the film.)

M.

About Dirty Pretty Things:


Excellent point...I quite enjoyed the movie as well and was surprised when I started reading reviews and looked at the marketing stuff. Couldn't understand the thriller angle.

I'm glad you also pointed out the excellent work of Benedict Wong. I loved every scene he was in.

For my money, I quite liked Audrey Tatou in the role.

Ahem, would someone please post a list of say 5 or 10 movies featured in this thread that are available on DVD and that you feel were the best of the independent crop this year so far? :b

I placed Raising Victor Vargas in my Netflix queue, but that was because I had seen the trailer some months ago. There is this other movie I am trying to ID, where some guy is still struggling with his relationship with 2 women after college. Vague, I know.

Thanks.

--
H

Holadem,

Sounds like XX/XY.

Agreed.

Awful film. I enjoyed Gigli more.

M.

Laurel Canyon is out and is on my Netflix list Holadem. I believe it got some pretty good reviews. If you haven't seen it, Irreversible has generated controversy and mixed reviews. I just watched The Good Thief and enjoyed it. Victor Vargas is on my list as well. A lot more things start coming out in September. Besides the 3 I mentioned, I think the only other 2003 movie that's actually out that I have on my list to see is Daredevil.

In addition to Brook's suggestions, all of which I can recommend, the following are discussed in this thread, currently available on DVD and well worth seeing IMO:

Lost in La Mancha
The Quiet American
Talk to Her

M.

I own the last two. I'll check out the rest. I just also noticed that there are ratings to some of the entries on the review list.

Thanks.

--
H

Yeah, I'm doing that bit by bit. Unfortuately, right now can indicate either "mediocre" or "I have no idea what the guy thinks of the movie"; there's no ambivelent smiley.

Definitely take a look at All the Real Girls. The Good Thief is a lot of fun, especially if you've seen Hard Eight and Bob le Flambeur. I think City of God is out now, but I'm not certain.

Not on DVD. It may still be playing in some markets, however.

As for Lost in La Mancha, while I can't give it a recommendation, one of the unintentionally funny aspects about it is that the DVD is a 2 disc SE. I didn't check out any of the extra features on the 2nd disc, but I thought it was funny to have extras on a film that was about the behind-the-scenes events during the making of a film. What wasn't covered by the 1 1/2 hour feature, that it needed an entire second disc? I just found it amusing.

Bruce

In what is becoming an annual ritual, the New York Times has today published this year's version of the "it was a bad summer but these alternative flicks are great" article. Their picks:

American Splendor
Thirteen
Capturing the Friedmans
Swimming Pool
The Secret Lives of Dentists
Dirty Pretty Things
The Magadalene Sisters
Spellbound
Madame Sata
Buffalo Soldiers
Camp

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/29/movies/29NOTE.html

M.

I'm glad that films are being discussed ... somewhere ...but don't see why MattS' thread for Dirty Pretty Things got closed.

Why shouldn't any film worth discussing rate a thread? Bunching films together makes them inefficient to find or come across (and more importantly) hard to maintain a practical discussion around (in one thread).

Of course, another option is just giving these type films their own forum. That's if the belief is that people interested in domestic films would not be interested in independent and internationally produced films.

On to the movie. I enjoyed it but also felt that marketing did a bait and switch on this film. Enough so, that it probably affected how I felt about the film.

Overall, I enjoyed the film. I also felt it did a nice job on the underbelly of London. A nice and simple film - more about relationships than intrigue. Chiwetel Ejiofor was terrific in the lead. I for one am glad to see acting performances that good that don't have to depend on huge range of emotions to show off.

I also thought that the score was quite good for the film. I want to see it again. The cinematography was very interesting - almost stylistically so. I'd have to see it again to really see if that is true or not. But there seemed to be patterns for the shots (level of the shot, length of shot etc.) that set some sort of mood and rhythm.

Not a great film, but one worth seeing. You know, compared to most of the films that warrant their own threads.