Well, friends, it seems that we survived another massive Seattle International Film Festival. Along the way, I managed to see a paltry twenty-five films and went to three galas and a brunch. From the opening night absent champagne cocktails misstep [mb] to the reasonable drink ticket correction, the parties got more fun as the festival progressed (although the non-smoking smoking lounge on the patio at the Pan Pacific was a real mind-bender) and had more meat-free foods than I remember from prior years (maybe a pleasant recessionary side-effect for vegetarians?).

As you can see from the graph above, the whole thing ended on a high note for me (no the Wackness pun intended) with my closing weekend beginning with the Album Leaf providing an inventive and affecting new score for Sunrise and closing with a the world premiere of Em, which won the New Director’s showcase competition a few hours earlier. My favorite movie of the whole festival was Encounters at the End of the World, Werner Herzog’s trip to Antarctica to visit the weird and wonderful creatures living at the bottom of the earth and the things that they study. It bursts with treasures like Shackleton’s cabin, undersea diving, a hole in the earth’s crust, a dirty town staffed by philosopher drivers, linguist botanists, and rock and roll biologists, and one insane penguin that may be the director’s most-admired character. Luckily for those who like science, scientists, the South Pole, or Herzog, this is slated to appear in Seattle in early July.

So, now that it’s over: what are your picks for best and worst?

the wackness, still via siff, courtesy occupant films

There are rumors circulating that the weekend will be sunny. You know better than to let that sway you from overdosing on the last three days of SIFF, right? Below are some suggestions from us about how to avoid an unpleasant sunburn without breaking out the sunscreen. In addition to these, the festival has time set aside for repeat showings of films that win awards on Sunday afternoon; so keep an eye out for that announcement.

Sunrise [siff] : People who love film call this one of the best in the history of the medium. My interest in it is magnified by the fact that SIFF commissioned the Album Leaf, Jimmy Tamborello’s lush post-rock band, to compose and perform a new score for it during two showings at the Triple Door. [josh]
Friday June 13, 7:00 pm & 9:30 pm (Triple Door)

Letting Go of God [siff] : A film version of Julia Sweeny’s one-woman show / monologue chronicling and reflecting her conversion from Catholicism to Atheism Naturalism. If you haven’t seen this in person, heard it already on This American Life [#], or just want to experience the whole thing again with the director/star in attendance for their movie’s world premiere, this is your chance. [josh]
Friday June 13, 6:30 pm; Sunday June 15, 4:00 pm (SIFF Cinema)

the Wackness [siff] : Hip-hop, marijuana, and therapy with Ben Kingsley before leaving the NYC for college. Plus a special guest appearance by one of the Olsen twins. Mid-nineties urban nostalgia fiends need look no further. [josh]
Friday June 13, 6:30 pm (Egyptian); Sunday June 15, 6:30 pm (Cinerama)

Mysteries of Pittsburgh [siff] : Michael Chabon’s novel gets the big screen, kinda-big star treatment. This looks like one that will eventually play outside the festival circuit, but if you want to see Mena Suvari and Sienna Miller before all of your friends, check it out this weekend [josh]
Friday June 13, 9:30 pm (Egyptian); Sunday June 15, 2:00 pm (Uptown)

Jolene [siff] : E. L. Doctorow’s controversial short story about a young woman on the run from her tragic past comes to life in director Dan Ireland’s feature film that covers ten tumultuous years in the life of the determined title character as she crosses America in search of her the life she dreams of having for herself. [zg]
Friday June 13, 9:30 pm; Saturday June 14, 2:30 pm (Cinerama)

Chrysalis [siff] : A stylish science fiction noir thriller from France involving plastic surgery, mental manipulation, human trafficking, and some seriously stunning visual effects. [zg]
Friday June 13, 11:55 pm (Egyptian); Saturday June 14, 10:00 pm (Cinerama)

Bottle Shock [siff] : Bottle Shock tells the story of the first California wine to win in a blind tasting in Paris (at a time when France was considered to be the ONLY place to produce drinkable wine). I grew up in the Napa Valley and so I knew a little bit of this story going in. That included the ending. Despite that, this movie still had me on the edge of my seat crossing my fingers and biting my nails that everything would all work out in the end. I’m not sure you can go wrong with Alan Rickman in just about anything, but beyond that, this movie was incredibly moving. It is based on a true story, which is to say that the basic facts are all true. There really is a Chateau Montelena, there really was a contest, and Jim and Bo Barrett (along with Mike Grgich) were responsible for producing the winning wine. The scenery is beautiful (and was actually shot in Napa and Sonoma). I cannot tell you how strongly I urge you to see this movie. [patriciaeddy]
Closing Gala, Saturday June 14, 6:30 pm (Cinerama)

Towelhead [siff] : Perhaps it is a bad idea to choose a movie just because you love the director’s television work, but this is exactly what I did. Six Feet Under’s Alan Ball, who purportedly will be in attendence at both showings, directs this “darkly comic portrait of racial and sexual alienation lurking beneath the wholesome façade of suburban America.” [cero]
Saturday June 14, 6:30 pm; Sunday June 15, 1:30 pm, (Egyptian)

Donkey Punch [siff] : The title pretty much says all you need to know. The Midnight Adrenaline series goes out with a bang, with audiences getting to know far more about the programmers that we maybe ever wanted to find out. [josh]
Saturday June 14, 11:55 pm; Sunday June 15, 9:00 pm (Egyptian)

After the jump, reminders of previous recommendations with screenings this weekend plus a photo of Danny Glover dropping a Grand Canyon reference after Trouble the Water!

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During the next two afternoons at SIFF, two family dramas deemed “DON’T MISS” by the Stranger: Momma’s Man [siff] and the Secret of the Grain [siff]. I wouldn’t go that far with either of them, but I will say this: the latter has a running time that approaches three hours, the former just feels that way.

I found Momma’s Man utterly excruciating, to the point of wanting to flee just fifteen minutes into it. I suppose this was the point, and is in and of itself an achievement. By the end, I loathed the squinty-eyed moon-faced avoidant son who finds himself unable to leave the near-uninhabitable cluttered artist apartment of his passive enabler mother. Only the weary father (the director’s actual father, also a real-life experimental filmmaker) escapes with a shred of relatability.

The Secret of the Grain starts slow, and stays that way. During the middle hour I found myself falling into its slow generous cadences, getting an incomplete sense of the dynamics of the sprawling French immigrant family structure. I suspect that I would have been able to better tolerate the drawn-out and frustrating ending if someone had been considerate enough to order enough couscous for the entire theater. Seeing the film during the dinner hour, being tempted by the last section’s lead-up to a massive dinner, and finding even poor-substitute Mediterranean Express closed made the whole thing all the more difficult to bear. But it does have me on the lookout for a good place to find a delicious dish of couscous. Suggestions?

Momma’s Man screens at 4:30 pm today at the Uptown; the Secret of the Grain has a second screening tomorrow at 3:30 pm at the Egyptian

I don’t know how the Platinum Passholders do it: the weeks and weeks of constant moviegoing to justify the shiny metal pass that gives them access to everything. For the last week or so, I’ve been going to a movie or two a day and after seeing a measly seven over the Friday-Sunday weekend, rushing for nutrition in between screenings and venues, my brain already feels more like misshapen grey glue than usual.

Yet I still can feel the pull of the obsession. As evidence: I actually spent considerable time this morning figuring out whether I should spend two hours with cannibals in the Andes or go see Annuals and Times New Viking [neumos]. This is utter lunacy on my part: Times New Viking put out one of the best new pretty/ugly albums of the year and I’m thinking of ditching them? I’m sure that Stranded is good, but I think it will hold up better on DVD than the bands will. (see also, distorte)

After the jump, quick rundown of what I saw, the terrible dietary patterns induced by moviegoing, and additional proof that SIFF is causing me to lose my mind.

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Alexander Nevsky, still courtesy SIFF.

Here it is people: the third and final week of SIFF . Is everyone still on board? Found your line zen? Overcome the constant sensation of missing everything and always being in a hurry? Mastered your decision-making about what distinguishes a “3″ on your ballot from a “4″? Lost track of the rest of civilization? Here are some picks to guide you through the beginning of this week from your Metblogs prognosticators:

Baghead [siff] : I don’t want to say much more about Baghead than that it’s funny, scary, and something of a relationship movie. Anything more than that might spoil your enjoyment of it. After all, someone at the Sunday screening thought they were seeing a movie called Baghdad and had a great time. OK, just one more thing. I want this movie to make lots and lots of money so that the Duplass brothers can keep making really good low production value movies with not incredibly famous actors. It’s entirely possible that their aim of trying to have the stupidest title of the year (sorry guys, I’m afraid that you’ve narrowly lost that contest to Beverly Hills Chihuahua this year) with stories of interpersonal awkwardness in the face of the scariest thing they can think of on a road trip can survive the loose-feeling handmade aesthetic, but I’d rather not see it come to that. [josh]
Monday June 9, 4:30 PM (Egyptian)

Walt & el Groupo [siff] : Uncle Walt takes his animators on a goodwill tour of South America. Wacky hijinks ensue, allegedly changing our artistic and political landscapes to this day. Crazy enough to be fascinating. [josh]
Monday June 9, 4:30 PM (Uptown)

Momma’s Man [siff] : Azazel Jacobs makes a movie about a guy who makes a weekend trip to visit his parents and finds himself unable to leave their apartment to return to his wife and children. Whether this sounds like the premise for a quirky indie drama or a terrifying horror movie may depend on your own family situation.
Monday June 9, 7:15 PM; Wednesday June 11, 4:30 PM (Uptown)

Theater of War [siff]: Meryl Streep took on on the title role in Brecht’s anti-war play when it was staged with a new translation by Tony Kushner in 2006 at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. This documentary includes footage from the play, shows Streep digging into the role, and provides backstory on the playwright. [josh]
Tuesday June 10, 7:00 PM; Thursday June 12, 4:30 PM (SIFF Cinema)

In the Land of the Headhunters [siff] : Back in 1914 photographer Edward S. Curtis produced this silent film about love and war amongst the Kwakwaka’wakw people in what we now call the Queen Charlotte Strait area of British Columbia. Entered into the United States Film Registry for its cultural and historical significance in 1999, the film made its debut here in Seattle way back in December of 1914 at the Moore Theater. Thanks to SIFF, the Burke Museum and the Seattle Theater Group, it’s back at the Moore with a newly restored version accompanied by the orginal orchestral score and descendants of the original cast. [zg]
Tuesday June 10, 7:00 pm, The Moore Theater

Stranded: I’ve come from a plane that crashed on the mountains [siff] : One of many movies mined from the story of the Chilean soccer team whose flight crashed in the Andes and had survivors resorting to cannibalism. This one, however, finds the survivors and their families, taking them back to the site of the crash thirty years later. [josh]
Tuesday June 10, 9:30 PM

Trouble the Water [siff] : New Orleans native Kimberley Roberts and her husband fight FEMA’s milles of red tape as they struggle to rebuild their post-Katrina lives in Memphis in this provocative documentary that includes footage Roberts filmed of the hurricane’s assault on her hometown. Be prepared to be both deeply touched and extremely pissed off. Executive producer Danny Glover and the films directors, Carl Deal and Tia Lessin, are scheduled to attend both screenings. [zg]
Wednesday June 11, 4:30 pm; Friday June 13, 9:30 pm, (Harvard Exit)

Fields of Fuel [siff] : If you haven’t turned Green yet, then see this flick about bio-diesel. It’s one of those movies that’ll make you want to sell that gas guzzling car of yours. Until you realize you need said car to get around, and don’t want it smelling like fried chicken. [ba]
Wednesday June 11, 7:00 pm; Thursday June 12, 4:30 pm (Harvard Exit)

Alexander Nevsky [siff] : Prince Alexander Nevsky raises an army to fight Teutonic knights set on invading Russia in this epic film from the Soviet Union originally released in 1938. It’s worth going for the way pre-CGI battle sequences alone. Enhancing the experience, Sergei Prokofiev’s original score will be performed live by the Seattle Symphony. [zg]
Thursday June 12, 7:30 pm; Friday, June 13, 7:00 pm; Saturday June 14, 8:00 pm, Sunday June 15, 2:00 pm, (Benaroya Hall)

Visioneers [siff] : In Jared and Brandon Drake’s dystopic future, productivity and forced happiness have displaced feelings and dreams. Zach Galifianakis stars as a descendent of George Washington who is trying to avoid exploding (literally) like so many of his fellow citizens who succumbed to feeling too much individuality. It is entirely possible that this movie isn’t about any of this, and is instead about a man’s slow descent into madness driven by a combination of impotence and displaced extra-marital lust. The humor is dark, the pace is slow, but with the grim outlook enhanced by a score from the Polyphonic Spree it casts a heavy spell. [josh]
Thursday June 12, 9:30 PM; Saturday June 14, 4:00 PM (Egyptian)

Erik Nietzsche: the Early Years, still courtesy SIFF.

I’ll try to do a weekend wrap-up, but here’s a quick review of Erik Nietzsche: the Early Years [siff]. I saw it last night at a modestly-attended screening at the Uptown last night and it might be worth your while in today’s afternoon spot. SPOILER ALERT: I can’t really tell if the premise of this is meant to be a secret or if I misread the synopsis and was just really slow to get it until late in the game.

Written by Danish provocateur Lars von Trier, this is the story of how a “basically an open and friendly” dreamer of a film student with an obsession for unstructured nature narratives becomes, well, Lars von Trier. Like the film’s pseudonymed protagonist, its director Jacob Thuesen seems to still be in the phase of his career where openheartedness and fondness for beautiful pictures left him making a gentle comedy rather than slashing the Danish Film school to bloody shreds. Still, there are no shortage of gentle barbs throughout.

Watching wide-eyed Erik turn from a kid whose passion for a fancy piece of film equipment rivals his lust for attractive classmates to the “dark side” of self-promotion and manipulation is made all the more delicious by the fact that it is being narrated by von Trier. Although it all sounds rather grim, the plot is actually fairly light, watchable, and for those more in the know than I, well-stocked with plenty of cinematic jokes and cameos.

screens again Sunday June 8, 4:15 PM (Uptown)

du levande still courtesy SIFF.

When SIFF says that it is a great audience festival part of what they mean is that they can almost fill the Egyptian on a Monday night at 9:30 pm for a Swedish film about meaninglessness. Further, a few dozen of these people will laugh uproariously at nearly every line or tiny sight gag: whether it is a solitary tuba player, a picture frame falling into an aquarium, a depressed woman yelling at her boyfriend, a depressed woman yelling at her boyfriend’s mother, a depressed woman yelling at a bar full of strangers, a depressed teacher crying in the hallway, a depressed psychologist breaking the fourth wall, or a depressed man complaining about his failing retirement savings plans while barely noticing that he is being fucked by a large woman wearing a shiny helmet.

About halfway through Du levande (You, the Living), which won Roy Anderssen a handful of awards including three Guldbagges, I started to wonder what it might mean to sit through an entire film about meaninglessness looking for meaning. As the short loosely-connected segments featuring unattractive uninteristing characters set in the large-looking unpleasant small spaces shot with stationary wide lenses began to pile up, I increasingly found myself thinking about how I was nearly out of toothpaste. With a little under a half hour left in the running time, I stepped outside into the rain and went to Walgreen’s, where they were closing up the cash registers and buffing the floors. I don’t feel great about leaving, but I don’t feel horrible either. As much as I doubt that anything in the last third could or should have redeemed the first hour, I am certain that I will be happier to have clean teeth in the morning than a resolution to the film tonight.

Du Levande screens a second time on Friday 6 June at 4:30 pm[siff]

see also: “What does SIFF say about Seattle?” [hotsplice]

As Josh wrote the other day, the trailer for this movie was so visually stunning that it was one of the few movies to make it to my “Must See” list without a second thought. The Fall takes place in a 1920’s hospital. A stuntman/actor, Roy Walker, who was injured on a flicker (movie) set, befriends a young girl (Alexandria) with a broken arm and starts to tell her a story of 5 heroes. The story, seen both from Walker’s perspective and Alexandria’s, is a drug-induced ‘epic tale’ (Walker’s words) of revenge, love, loss, and adventure.

I loved this movie. Lee Pace (from Pushing Daisies) plays Walker with just the right mix of desperation, depression, and deception. The young actress who plays Alexandria (Catinca Untaru), was the perfect 5 year old… fibbing when she thinks the truth will get her in trouble, understanding both more and less than anyone else expects, and ultimately being willing to do anything for the approval and love of her new friend. She is, by far, the best actor in the film.

The sets are insanely colorful and fantastic. There are acres of mazes, an entire city of blue, an island in the shape of a butterfly, a swimming elephant, and vast orange deserts. 18 different countries served as shooting locations over the course of nearly a decade. The movie does deal with some dark themes including suicide and drug use, and there is a fair amount of violence, but in general, I did not feel the violence was overdone.

Towards the end of the film, I was so enthralled in the story that I knew exactly how I wanted it to end. Walker sucked me into the story almost as well as he sucked Alexandria in and inserted her into the story. I can’t say the story followed the exact course that seemed so clear in my head, yet it was satisfying in the end.

If you are looking for beautiful cinematography, this movie is a must see. If you are looking for a coherent one-dimensional story, this movie is not for you. I give the movie 4.5 out of 5 stars. Easily one of the top 5 movies I’ve seen since the end of SIFF 2007.