Monday, March 18, 2024

The Concierge (2023) (aka The Concierge at Hokkyoku Department Store ) NYICFF 2024

 


A young woman takes a job working as a concierge at department store that serves animals. 

Episodic tale feels more like the manga that it  is sourced from. It feels like three episodes of a TV show more than a feature film. The first is her first day of work, the second is her involvement in several stories of romance and the final is a number of Christmas stories.

This is a wildly uneven and very messy film that wanders all over the place. At  times it feels like it is juggling way to much. There are so many idea in this film, from the basic tale of finding your place in the world to serious pondering of how humanity is destroying environment and killing off species.  It was such a mess that I thought I was going to write a review trashing the film. However by the time the film ended the film had pulled it all together and I was getting misty. 

What a joy. Sure it's messy, but it's a joy.

Recommended

You'll Never Find Me 3/22 on Shudder

 


On a dark and stormy night a frighten man hears a knock at the door. It's a young woman who is looking for a ride home. 

An almost stage play between a man and an unexpected guest was  the best of Tribeca's Midnight section this year. While the film isn't perfect it goes the wrong sort of weird in the last 20 minutes, it is for most of its running time a scary nerve wracking  experience as we are never certain what is happening and who is who. It was a film that had the writers I was with grinning at each other when it ended. This was a film that kept us locked and loaded until the end.

The only problem with the film is the last 20 minutes or so which show signs of not knowing how to end. It was an ending that resulted in a wonderful discussion with a filmmaker about what can happen when you don't know how to end something...basically you end up like this.

Ending aside, YOU'LL NEVER FIND ME is a pretty little suspense machine and is recommended.

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Make Believe Film Festival starts this week


This week the Make Believe Film Festival in Seattle starts this week. This annual event highlighting genre films is showing some truly great titles. If you are in the Pacific North West of America you should make an effort to go see some of the films.

The reason I know the festival is showing great film is because I’ve seen a number of them and I recommend them all:

HUMANIST VAMPIRE SEEKING CONSENTING SUICIDAL PERSON

LOST SOULZ

QUEEN OF THE DUECE

SHARI AND LAMB CHOP

WHEEL OF HEAVEN

DICKWEED

I AM GEORGE LUCAS

Of course I will be reviewing some other titles when the embargoes drop.

Do yourself a favor and buy some tickets and go.

Gasoline Rainbow (2023) First Look Fest 2024


Five high school aged kids set out in a van to travel 500 miles to see the ocean. Along the way life happens.

This is a form over content docudrama that succeeds as a work of art but is less successful as a narrative. This feels like a beautiful documentary, that might have worked had it been obvious by the shot choices and the way that things lay out that this free flowing trip across the Pacific Northwest was constructed by the cast and crew.  I say this in part because it's true and because the film moves the cast across the country in a way that only movies can move people. There is no real sense of danger, nor is there any real questioning when things go on, the kids just keep going.

Sure this a hymn of freedom and of impending lost innocence, but it's a professionally polished one. The result is a film that I admire  a lot more than I like. Its a film I would gladly watch with the sound off for the glorious pictures.

Samsara (2023) First Look 2024


Lois Patiño​ tells two stories, one of a man named Amid in Laos who meets a young monk. And the other of a young girl in Africa who wakes up to find her goat has given birth.

Quiet and meditative this is a film more about what you find in the contemplation of what it is showing you rather than with in what we are told. Actually what we are told isn't much since the film more or less is simply life unfolding. We are left to ponder the spiritual side of everything.

While I am a fan of Patino's, I kind of think he missed the mark with this film. While I know his films can be meditative, this time out I'm not certain there is enough to hold together a feature. My attention drifted off and my eyelids got heavy, and while I made it to the end I'm not certain there was enough here for me.

Worth a look for the interested, but not for the casual film goer.

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Wulver’s Stane (2024) hits VOD 3/17


Joseph Cornelison’s film is a one of a kind merging of horror art house and grindhouse. Less horror film and more character study. The film is essentially the internal narrative of a girl named Claire. She is an ex-werewolf selling a mind altering drug as she comes to terms with her nature as a wolf.

Beautiful images mix with voice over dialog and a disjointed film which is not so much a narrative but a journey into the soul of heroine. If yu are in the right mood this is hypnotic trip.

Cornelison is on record as saying that he know that the film is not going to be for everyone, I suspect anyone wanting a straight forward conventional horror film is going to hate it. At the same time if you are open to it, and seeing in a situation where you will have no distractions,  this film is going to become a favorite. As I said at the top this is a one of a kind film, made over four years by people who are not  normal filmmakers this film doesn’t feel like anything except itself. Yes there are bits of art films in here and of course visceral horror, but how Cornelison mixes them together makes the film something you take to heart.

You will forgive me if I don’t say a great deal about the journey, but this is a trip across a person’s psyche and what I felt is not going to be what you do.

If you are willing to give a film a chance to do what it is going to do and go for the ride  I recommended WULVER’S STANE

Peter Gutiérrez has two books out FROM BAD TO WORSE and THE TREES MELT LIKE CANDLES

 This is just a note to say that Unseen Films writer and friend Peter Gutierrez has just released two books and you should buy them.


FROM BAD TO WORSE is a collection of short stories that tell stories about things that go from bad to worse. They are a great collection of tales that get under you skin.


The second is the novella THE TREES MELT LIKE CANDLES. It's a dark tale of a reflection of a life gone sideways. It's a Lovecraftian tale that goes into places that are unexpected.

Both are genuinely really good and highly recommended.

To buy Peter's books from Amazon go here:

FROM TO TO WORSE

THE TREES MELT LIKE CANDLES

WHAT DID YOU DREAM LAST NIGHT, PARAJANOV? First Look Fest 2024

 


Filmmaker Faraz Fesharaki mixes some home video footage of when he was child performing in a school pageant with zoom calls between himself and other members of his family who have scattered all over the world after leaving Iran. Over the course of the film we see the state of the family and the country they left behind.

I’m going to be honest this film didn’t work for me. The fact that we are simply listening to family conversations is interesting for a while, but there was a point about a third of the way in where I kind of stopped caring.  The film is much too static with everyone sitting or laying down and simply talking to the camera. While what they are saying is interested there isn’t enough here to keep my interest. My gaze kept drift despite Fesharaki efforts to make it compelling.  Perhaps this will play differently in a darkened theater, but at home watching a review copy I drifted.

Friday, March 15, 2024

One Life (2023)


The Opening Night Film of this year's New York Jewish Film Festival has me wondering why it was held back from opening in the US until after the 2023 award season. Easily one of the best films of the year and containing the best work by Anthony Hopkins in years, ONE LIFE is a glorious celebration of one man and his friends who chose to do the right thing for as long as he could.

The film is the story of Nicholas Winton, who in months before the Second World War began rescues 669 children from Czechoslovakia. It was a story he didn't talk about until the BBC caught wind of it. 

This film reduced me to a sobbing mess. In an age of hate it is wonderful to be reminded that there are good people out there who will do the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do. 

Featuring a beautiful performance by Hopkins and matched by Johnny Flynn as Winton as a young man, ONE LIFE pays glorious tribute not only to Winton but also the other men and women who helped him.

I both am at a loss of words of words and desperate to talk about it.

Because the festival asked for reviews to be short I'm going to simply say this is the first great film of 2024.

Flying Lessons (2024) First Look Festival 2024


This is a chronicle of what happened when director Elizabeth Nichols meet Philly Abe, who was a tenant in her building at a community meeting. The pair were there because they were trying to do something about their evil landlord. The women bonded and Nichols became fascinated by punk Abe who was a performer, director and activist for decades.

Lovely portrait of a friendship and a life that might never have gotten noticed.

Abe was one hell of a figure. She was a woman who took no shit from anyone and changed the lives of the people around her. Nichols warts and all portrait is a fitting memorial to a woman who not so quietly rocked the pillars of heaven.  I am amazed that Nichols got  so much  from Abe since it seems we get to know not only about the life she led but about the woman herself beyond that. Normally we aren't allowed to see this deeply into an individual.

What connected me to the film was she reminds me of my late friend Sally Willis kind of looked like Abe and had her sense of life. I can only imagine what would have happened if they ever met.

This is a good look at a great woman.

Recommended.

 

EXHUMA (2024) Starts today in Los Angeles before opening around the country


Try to go into EXHUMA knowing as little as possible. I say that because you really don't want to have any idea where this is going...because it's one hell of a ride.

The plot of the film involves a rich family trying to lift the curse on their new born child. It is believed that one of their relatives was unhappy and taking it out on the baby. This leads to attempting to figure out which one and perform a ritual... To say it doesn't go as expected is an understatement. Never mess with the wrong grave.

Pretty much from the first frame to the last EXHUMA exudes an oppressive tone. I was a good chunk of the way in and not much had really happened but I wanted to get away and not see what happens. I mean all we had was bunch of great actors (Choi Min-sik among them) telling us spooky stuff and I was hopelessly lost in fear.

All hail writer director Jae-hyun Jang who thanks to this and the classic film THE PRIESTS should be getting sainthood in the pantheon of horror. I don't know how he does it but he has managed to make two films which reinvigorate and renovate the supernatural/ folk horror subgenre.  In an age of jump scares and over used horror properties Jang is carving out new roads and new ways to scare his audience shitless. And it isn't a matter of it being something about setting his horror in an alien setting, Priests was set in a Catholic (Western) mileau, while a lot of EXHUMA is set in modern "glass towers". I love what he has done and I want to see what is coming next.

I was frightened. I was really bothered. And when I was done I had to go out and walk around in the daylight for awhile.

I'm not going to say any more because I'm not going to ruin it for you. I'm going to let you discover the evil lurking here and get splattered by the blood of dead things.

Highly recommended 

Limitation (2023) First Look Fest 2024


Elene Asatiani and Soso Dumbadze take video found on the internet and weave together the story of how in 1991 Russian backed forces brought down the  first democratically elected government in the former Soviet republics. Using footage from both sides we are given a look at what happened, why and how it was spun.

Frightening and sad story of how larger forces worked to bring down a democracy for their own gain.  This is a reconstruction of the sort we never see, events from both sides filtered through enough time that we can get a good grasp. 

Watching the film shot by regular people I was frequently struck by the notion that they probably had no idea what they were doing was going to provide such a vital record of what happened. The footage from either side was what it was and was often bent for effected. It was the stuff that wasn't what I was intrigued by.

While I think the film is probably a bit too long at 125 minutes, I have to give the filmmakers kudos for being thorough. I also couldn't tell you what should be removed since it's all important.

Recommended for anyone who wants to see how a democracy falls.

Remembering Gene WIlder (2023) starts today



One of the best Hollywood documentaries is a must see for anyone who even so much as likes any of the man's films.  Filled with love and affection the film is very much a love letter to the man, and while that may not be enough for some people, especially those who want to see the darkness in humanity, for rest of us this is going pure joy.

Highly recommended.

Thursday, March 14, 2024

COCO FARM (2023) NYICFF 2024


Max is forced to move to the country with his dad after his dad’s business goes belly up. Staying at a farm he realizes that if he uses all the free range chickens he can set up an egg business. However as he makes a go of it , the processes set up to protect the big companies from competition begin to cause him trouble.

I was not planning on seeing COCO Farm at NYICFF however talking to people who had seen it at the film’s two festival screenings had me asking to see it. I mean people were saying they felt so good that they got weepy.

While I did not get weepy, I enjoyed the heck out of the film. A wonderful film about great people I instantly fell in love with everyone on screen. I know people tend to favor the animated films at NYICFF, however every year the festival is full of great live action films like this. This is the sort of film that is going to find it’s audience and become a touchstone film for generations.

This, like most films at NYICFF is one you will want to track down- and I mean that for adults as well as kids.

Ariela Rubin on BUTTERFLY IN THE SKY (2022) which plays March 17th in select AMC Theatres, followed by Additional Cities

 

With BUTTERFLY IN THE SKY playing AMC theaters this weekend here is Ariela Rubin's review from 2022's Tribeca 

Butterfly in the Sky is a documentary about the history of Reading Rainbow. The directors, Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb made the film because they grew up loving the show and were shocked that a documentary hadn't already been made about it.

For those who aren't familiar: Reading Rainbow was a show on PBS from 1983-2006 with LeVar Burton as the host. It starred children(who weren't actors) as they read children's books. The show was made to encourage kids to read.

I grew up watching the show. It was a part of my childhood and while I couldn't (prior to watching this) remember specifics anymore about the show, the theme song is one some of my friends and I randomly will still sing.

For me, this film was very nostalgic to watch, I absolutely loved it! I loved learning the history, some of the challenges, and learning how impactful having a show with a black host meant for black children.  I think anyone would enjoy this documentary. It's a feel good one, and we all need more of that! 

I went to the premiere which was attended by many of the people involved in the show so there was a lot of applause and excitement in the theater. There was a Q&A after which was very enjoyable. They discussed the experience of the directors when they first spoke to LeVar Burton, if LeVar was ever scared with any of the things he had to do on the show (be close to an active volcano, ride a horse, fly in a small plane etc) [the answer was no. he found it all exciting and was always up for the adventure], that LeVar couldn't imagine not doing Reading Rainbow even when he got cast in Star Trek, and more.

It was a lovely movie. Highly recommended! "Take a look, it's in a book, a reading rainbow."

Mimang (2023) First Look 2024


Filmed over four years MIMANG is the story of three chance meetings. First a man gets off a bus at the wrong stop and decides to walk to his destination. Along the way he meets a woman from his past. Jumping ahead the woman and the man meet again several years later and walk the same street. In the final section they meet at a funeral and ponder life.

How you react to the film will be determined by how you react to the nature of the film. There is no narrative, there are just three encounters. It's three conversations had while walking through the same parts of the city. As the characters have changed so has the world around them.

I suspect that some people are going to try and compare the film to Celine Song's film PAST LIVES, in that it's the remeeting of two people over time,  however MIMANG is something different, having been started five years ago. MIMANG is also not really interested in the arc of the characters but of the ideas discussed. We are only given the words of each of three conversations so that as a result be can only get to know the characters up to a certain point. In Song's film we are given a great deal more information.

While I enjoyed the film I was kept distant by the formality of the discussion. You can feel the construction and the hands of the director moving things along. Actually what this feels like is a theater piece that isn't really opened up. I would so absolutely buy this on stage, but on film, in real locations  feels less real and more artificial then it would on stage.

That said the discussions are heady and worth a listen.

Recommended.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

KENSUKE’S KINGDOM (2023) NYICFF 2024


Young Michael and his dog end up falling overboard during a storm while they were sailing around the world.  He washes up on a lost island. He is taken in by the reclusive Kensuke who has been there for years living with and taking care of the animals on the island.

I was not a fan of the early part of this film which was the set up. We’d been there before and Michael was in sufferable. I wanted to drown the kid. However once Michael is stranded the film begins to pick up and by the time the orangutans show  up I was fully invested. Then by the time end came I was an emotional mess.

I absolutely loved this film a great deal. The emotional arc was masterful and the fact the film doesn’t shy away from sadness (the ending is heart breaking) or disturbing (you though the death of Bambi’s mother was bad, you ain’t seen nothing) gives the film an emotional weight that is rare in any film, never mind animated. I think Joe Bendel was correct in comparing the film to the film THE RED TURTLE from a few years back since it was the last time I remember an animated film had this much weight.

Part of the reason the film works is the animation and the vocal performances. Rarely has character animation been this good in any films. The characters seem alive, both human and animal with each one given small nuances that make them more life like then even your typical Studio Ghibli release. Add to it a vocal performance as good as the one Ken Wantanabe gives and you instantly have something that should be in the running for a Best Actor Oscar. I’m serious about that.

This is something you need to see, and bring tissues because you will get misty.

ROSI AND THE STONE TROLL (2023) NYICFF 2024


We are the best idiots you can find

This is the story of a flower fairy who, through her friendship with a butterfly over comes her fears and ends up making a lot more friends.

Belt in boys and girls this is a wild and crazy film that you’re going to love. If you are a kid this is going to play one way and if you are an adult this is going to play on another level as you see all sort of reference and shading that is going to blow past the kids. I couldn’t look away as I was seeing all sorts of threads running through this film. Frankly it’s a film you need multiple viewings to even hope to catch it all.

What an absolute blast and a half.

Because I slept badly because of the time change (I kept waking up every half an hour so I wouldn’t miss the train early train into the city)  I found myself sleepy before  the film. When it started I thought I might drop off and then things began to happen and I sprung instantly awake. I couldn’t believe that I was watching this wild and crazy film that seemed like Terry Jones of Monty Python was intent on making sure that someone was carrying on with his bent style  and taking it to a new level. This is just crazy ass fun. I wanted to be in the headspace of the filmmakers because it’s somewhere wonderful.

If you want  to see something one of kind and wonderfully entertaining see ROSI AND THE STONE TROLL

1489 (2023) First Look Fest 2024


Days after Shoghakat Vardanyan's brother goes missing during the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan  she begins to film her family. The result is a film that documents the loss of a loved one into the void and the toll it takes on those left behind.

Crushing documentary about loss and grief made worse by not having any answers, 1489 moves us in ways we rarely go. Yes, we've all lost someone but how many of us have lost someone without a trace? Normally if someone gets lost you can call the police but in time of war what can you do?

Told in long takes we go deep into the sadness of Vardanyan and her family. We are not able to look away because of how the film is shot- straight on and unblinking. Because this was only shot by Vardanyan herself there is no cutaways, no pick up shots, just what we see.

I was rocked by the film and my plans to watch another in quick succession was cast aside as I went outside and took a walk.

This is one of the best films at First Look so go see it. (And bring tissues)

TOBY ALONE (2023) NYICFF 2023


Based on a very big novel, TOBY ALONE is about a  boy who is millimeter and  half tall and live in a tree with his family. His father, a scientist makes an amazing discovery and the evil powers that run their community want the secret which causes Toby and parents to flee. Traveling to the bottom of the tree they try to hideout. However circumstance has other plans.

NYICFF screened the first 3 episodes of the 26 in the series and if you are like everyone at the screening this past weekend you’ll want to see the rest. A grand adventure this set up gives us only a taste of what is to come. I’m dying to see what happens next, but unless I can learn French quickly the only way that I can see the rest is to wait until the series (hopefully) hits US screens at the end of the year. (The English dub past these three episodes is being worked on and a sale is being negotiated)

This series is a great deal of fun. It plays like a classic fantasy adventure tale but in a smaller more eco-friendly version.  Even in these three episodes you get a sense of the scale of the tale and you want to lean in and see more. I can’t wait to see where it goes.

Listening to the producer and the director speak after the screening you really got a sense of how much they loved the material. It’s a love that has resulted in the pair working for nine years on series that would give the story the large canvas it needs to be told. The whole series runs over 11 hours and there never was a series thought of trying to cut things down. As they said, to cut it down would mean to lose too much.

If you want a taste of series that is going to be your next favorite thing see TOBY ALONE when it plays this weekend.