another day at Cinequest

[jfb]

Want is, I guess, a satire of consumer culture, the Internet boom, and sex addiction. I think the filmmakers' hearts were in the right place, but it didn't really work for me. If nothing else, the experience of watching a movie about a frustrated software engineer in Silicon Valley was just way too much like going to work.

Potestad begins with an old man riding the subway; as the movie continues, he seems to become unstuck in time, reliving incidents from his life or maybe that he has imagined. Most of them center around his daughter, who is gone (killed? kidnapped?). The truth of the matter doesn't come into focus until the very end. It's a hard movie to watch because you don't know what's going on, and then later it's a hard movie to watch because of what you know is going on. But it's very good, a political provocation in the form of a psychological thriller. Warning: If you thought Memento was too confusing, don't attempt this one.

I took a break from movies and went to see L.A. Post-Cool, a fun exhibit at the wonderful San Jose Museum of Art. The exhibit runs through March 23, and admission is always free, so check it out if it sounds like your cup of tea.

Speaking of qualified recommendations, at the 7:00 hour, Mike had a choice between Robot Stories and Solitude, and when I last saw him he was headed to the latter, largely, I think, on my recommendation. I hope he enjoyed it, or if not, I hope he learned a valuable lesson about taking advice from me.

I saw Robot Stories, which was excellent. Four thematically related stories about our interaction with machines: a robot baby, the toy robot collection of a young man in a coma, a robot in love, and a quasi-robotic means to immortality. The four stages of robot life. (An audience member pointed out the similarity to Asimov's robot stories, although the filmmaker says he hasn't read them since he was a kid, if ever.) I liked it a lot--good ideas, well executed. Unfortunately, it's not playing again at Cinequest. Fortunately, this is because it's heading up to San Francisco to close the SF International Asian-American Film Festival. Unfortunately, closing night tickets are $20. But it is a good film.

Finally, Boomerang is a madcap comedy about guns, drugs, and desperation in peacetime Serbia. Oh, and love. The subject matter is sometimes grim but it's executed with such gusto that it doesn't feel that way. It may also be the first Eastern European film I've seen that features brightly colored interiors. Boomerang is showing again on Tuesday.

Comments

Following Erik

[artname.livejournal.com]

Well, it's hard to keep up. Mike did indeed go to Solitude, as did I. I think Erik may have liked it more than I did, but Mike liked it and Mike's dad liked it, so this may just be another one of those 'Barry Doesn't Like Stuff' moments. I think I concentrated too much on this being a movie about a couple of highly dysfunctional but maybe nice people, who really really need some therapy, rather than thinking of it as a movie about the gradual disclosure of the complex relationships among a couple of highly dysfunctional but maybe nice people. Interesting, but on the whole not really my thing. Guess I should have gone to Robot Stories.

And being at the Pruneyard, I just went and got a ticket for the 9:30 showing of Expecting, because what the heck, I was there. A bit loose, but all the dialog was improvised, so kinna expected. Mostly interesting because of the 'making of' aspect. So some women in film making wanted a make a movie about a woman giving birth at home, among her wacky friends and family. They kind of get started writing and casting, and whoops! their lead turns out to be pregnant. So the prosthetic pregnancy make-up goes out the window, and they damn well better finish shooting this whole mess before she actually does give birth. Doesn't actually give them time to write a script, though. So they do an outline, character sketches, and hire really good improv people. Final result: pretty darn good, but pretty fluffy. Not a bad antidote to Solitude.

Post-Cool

[(Anonymous)]

Post-Cool: UNcool!

Re: Post-Cool

[jfb.livejournal.com]

Good times.