MIFF Day 13

Final day of MIFF for me and probably the most disappointing day for films.

• Terror’s Advocate

This is the story of lawyer, Jacques Verges who has made a living by representing terrorist causes. He began his career in Algeria and represented similar causes right up to Carlos the Jackal. Verges is an enigmatic, eloquent character, who has a penchant for terrorist women and spent 8 years on walkabout. One of the theories being he was working for the Stasi or the French Secret Service. Or both. Or he was with Pol Pot, an old uni friend. Verges justified his representation of “terrorists” as part of his anti-colonialist beliefs, French in Algeria, Israelis in Palestine and even justified defending a Nazi war criminal by comparing the actions of the French in Algeria to the Nazis in France. Whilst the content is fascinating, the intertwined stories of different terrorist groups across the Middle East and Europe, it was thoroughly confusing for me. I needed a Terrorism in Europe/Middle East from 1950s-1980s 101 to help me through the maze of information. I wanted to understand what was going on but I got bored and the doco was overly long.

• Cargo 200

What a horrible misogynistic film! If only I hadn’t been sitting in the middle of the aisle, I would have left (like numerous other people). This is a Russian film about a man visiting his brother on his way to his mother’s home in Leninsk. On the way to his mother’s, his car breaks down and he finds a house filled with strange characters and a vodka distillery. His brother’s daughter’s boyfriend goes out to a local club and meet a friend. The club shuts and they decide to get more booze and go to the same house. The girl is taken hostage by a local policeman and revolting scenes of sexual abuse ensue. Aside from the rape scenes (yes multiple), this is an interesting portrayal of a bleak 1980s Russia of crumbling infrastructure and morals. This film made me feel physically sick at certain points and I like horror films. There is something seriously wrong with the writer of this film and other film-makers using women as purely sexual objects for the taking as plot lines. Yuck.

• The Complete History of my Sexual Failures

This is a doco about Chris Waites, a slacker scruffyish 30ish loser , who has just been dumped again. He wants to know why he always gets dumped, so he decides to interview all his past girlfriends to find out what the problem is. This is a funny tale of Chris talking to his exes, his mum, set-ups by friends, trying internet dating, hilarious scenes with a bondage mistress, the realisation that he has an erectile dysfunction and having a go at Viagra. Chris has no self awareness. Whilst his exes give him feedback about his perpetual lateness, laziness, never having a job etc, he decides that he must like mental chicks. Funny but there was something fake about this film, I don’t know whether he was playing it for laughs but this did not feel real to me. Chris was stone faced through most of the film, despite the kooky stuff going on around him (except for the bondage scenes and a touching scene with the love of his life). Very entertaining though.

MIFF Day 12

• Respect Yourself – the Stax Record Story

This is a documentary about Stax Records, started in Memphis in the early 60s in an old movie theatre. Started by a white brother and sister, Stax started out making country records but moved into the new rhythm and blues sound. Stax was a local neighbourhood hang-out for kids, black and white, starkly contrasted to the segregation out on the streets. One day a roadie asked if he could sing, they gave him a chance. He was Otis Redding. There is amazing live concert footage of Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Booker T & the MGs, the Staple SIngers and Isaac Hayes. There are interviews with the founders and the executives of Stax (black and white). It shows Stax going from strength to strength, losing its way after the death of Martin Luther King at a local hotel frequented by Stax people, and the rise of Isaac Hayes. Stax was on top during the 70s, with the WattStax concert and then it all started to go horribly wrong. This was the part of the documentary that was a little light on detail, what actually happened? We see how the bank reacted but no one in charge at Stax confesses about the alleged excesses that brought it down financially (maybe for legal reasons?). It is glosses over how Stax has re-emerged. Aside from this, this is a fascinating doco, the two hours flew by and I wanted to go straight out to buy an Otis Redding album.

MIFF Day 11

• Sukiyaki Western Django

This is a Japanese Western film, reminiscent of the Seven Samurai/Sergio Leone but just plain silly. It opens with a cameo from Quentin Tarantino (letting you know what you are in for) explaining the tale of the feud between the Reds and the Whites. They came to a town during a gold rush to search for mythical treasure. A lone gunman in a black hat and drizabone, comes into town and helps the poor townspeople. Much crazy cowboy-style violence ensues. The violence is very stylistic and slick. The dialogue is silly and there were quite a few laughs. One criticism about the film is it is filmed in English and at times the accents were too thick for me to understand.

• Razorback

An American animals rights reporter comes to outback Australia to investigate roo culling. A local man has his grandchild stolen and his house torn apart by a razorback but no one believes him. The reporter goes missing and her husband comes out from America to find out what happened. I expected this film to be bad, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The print was in widescreen and this film created by Russell Mulcahy and Dean Semler is visually stunning. I was drawn out of the story on many occasions to admire the images of Australian landscape and set up of the scenes, which is pretty damned unusual in a monster flick. Ok, the acting is pretty dodgy and the dialogue laughable. Although the two freaky Baker brothers give great and scary performances. The razorback is scary and you never see the full animal, which is the secret to scariness, people! If we don’t see the monster fully, the fear lasts longer! Much better than I expected and the rest of the ACMI audience loved it too.

MIFF Day 11

• Song Sung Blue

This is a doco about a Milwaukee husband and wife Neil Diamond tribute act – Lightning & Thunder. It follows their triumphs as they build their fan base in the Milwaukee area, culminating in a performance at the State Fair with some help from Eddie Vedder (Lightning did not even know who he was). Then tragedy strikes and a car drives through their front garden while Thunder was gardening and severs her leg. Thunder goes through depression, weight gain and medication addiction while Lightning tries to continue on. A bizarre story of a couple who truly believe they were put on Earth to entertain and follow their dreams despite the financial hardships and family stresses. A tragic tale of twists and delusions.

• Where in the World is Osama bin Laden

This is a Morgan Spurlock doco about finding Osama. Morgan’s partner is pregnant and Morgan decides he needs to fix the world before his child is born and who is enemy No#1? Osama bin Laden. Morgan travels through the Middle East to find Osama. Morgan Spurlock makes entertaining docos, there were plenty of laughs (Osama/MC Hammer), a great opening sequence with the Morgan v Osama computer game and as he prepares himself in America. The rest of the doco is set in various countries in the Middle East talking to ordinary people and commentators about Osama and the war on terror. He meets lovely hospitable people and faces a near riot in Hasidic area of Tel Aviv but needs to find Osama before his baby is born. While entertaining, I was disappointed with the moral of this tale, Morgan telling us that Arab people are just like us, you know. They just want to live a peaceful life and raise their families and many thought Osama was just causing trouble for them. Wow, really! What did he expect? Aliens? Crazed maniacs? I had assumed that Morgan Spurlock was a clever bloke and would be above all that American demonisation of Middle Eastern people. I was wrong.

• Jack’s Wife/Season of the Witch

Another George A Romero, this time about an empty nester housewife and her struggles to find herself. Joan is in therapy, hangs around drinking with the other wives and had some really odd dreams. Her husband is away a lot and her daughter no longer needs her, so who is Joan? Joan goes with one of her friends to a tarot reading by a local witch. She borrows a book and become fascinated by Wicca. Her daughter brings her lover to the house and there is an attraction between him and Joan. Whilst the acting was dodgy and shrill, some arty-farty editing and the electronic experimental music got on my nerves, this was an vaguely interesting tale of a woman finding the power to be herself through witchcraft. Awesome 70s hair and make-up too.

MIFF Day 10

• Be Like Others

This is a documentary about transexuals in Iran. Whilst Islamic law outlaws homosexuality as a sin punishable by death, the state and the church allows sex change operations. The only way society will accept a ‘homosexual’ relationship is if one partner changes their sex. Iran will also change a person’s birth certificate to reflect this change, unlike Western countries. The film centres on a clinic for sex changes and their clients about to undertake the operation. Iranian society appears to have strict moral codes and any man showing less than fully masculine traits will be ridiculed. These men wanting a sex change are constantly bullied by men and are unable to work with women as a man without government permission. I have always had trouble with the concept of sex changes, without true chromosonal abnormalities, how does a person know they are the other gender? However, these poor men acknowledge that they would not be undertaking the surgery if they lived in another country with more freedom. While their reassignment is condoned by the state, society is not so accepting and their lives are not better after the operations. Interesting insight into another culture.

• West 32nd Street

This is a film set in New York City’s Korea Town. John is an American-Korean lawyer looking to make partner at his firm and finds a high profile case to prove himself. The case concerns a 14 year old Korean boy charged with murdering the manager of a ‘room salon’. John gets involved in the background of the case and the murky organised crime world of Korea Town. This is like any other organised crime type film, full of guns and misogynistic violence but just happens to be set in the world of Korean Americans. There are interesting twists in the story, some slap-stick laughs and for an indie film, it looked great and was entertaining.

MIFF Day 9

• Redacted

This is a film about an Iraqi tragedy, where American soldiers raped and murdered a 15 year old school girl in Samarra. Told in faux-doco style (I am so sick of this), one soldier is trying to make a film to get into film school and films his meat-head colleagues. The two men responsible are shown as stupid, drunk and only in the army to avoid jail. Another member of the group is traumatised by the fact that he did not intervene. Those responsible try to justify their actions at later hearings. This is a horrible film, especially the last moments, there was a grave silence in the cinema after the movie finished. I am unsure of the point of this film, is it to highlight these acts? To ensure that this was not forgotten and bring justice to the Iraqi family? Then why wasn’t this a true documentary? It is a good study of the horrors of war and highlight the damage that can be caused by idiots with guns and power trips.

• Let the Right One In

Based on a book by John Ajvide Lindqvist, this is a story of dorky Oscar who is bullied at school and makes friends with the strange new girl, Eli, who moves into his block of flats. They meet in the snow on the jungle gym but Eli is not wearing a coat or shoes. Meanwhile, there are murders of men in the district and their blood is being extracted. This is a charming film with an unusual twist on a vampire love story (without being too schmaltzy). There is some interesting CGI with Eli’s transformation and a great scene involving cats. Fantastic acting by the two young main characters. Good stuff.

• Roadgames

Another Ozploitation film. Pat Quid (Stacey Keach) drives a truck (but isn’t a truck driver) and notices a man in a green van picking up hitch-hikers. The man stops at the same hotel as Quid and he becomes suspicious that something isn’t quite right about the man. Quid gets a job driving pork to Perth and he sees the man burying something on the Nullabor Plain. Why did this film star Americans? It makes absolutely no sense that the two leading characters are Americans. Jamie Lee Curtis and her pert bottom also make an appearance. Stupid. Although Stacey Keach is very charismatic as Pat Quid, who muses to himself and plays games on the road to entertain himself. There is some fun dialogue as Quid amuses himself on the road, there are some kooky stunts at the climax but this film is kind of unsatisfying.

MIFF Day 8

• Padre Nuestro

A story about illegal Mexican immigrants trucked into New York City. One boy is escaping local hoods, another (Pedro) is coming to New York to find his father after the death of his mother. When they arrive in New York, the other boy has stolen Pedro’s bag and identity. Innocent Pedro is left to fend for himself, whilst the other boy sets about conning Pedro’s father. Pedro meets up with a junkie, Magda. This is a really grim tale of the loss of innocence and deceit. This is the type of film where you want to jump into the screen and stop the characters from doing things. There are great performances from the entire cast, although the film is a bit long. I wonder if this film would deter Mexicans from trying to sneak into America.

• Dead End Drive-In

There is a focus in MIFF on Ozploitation films. Dead End Drive-In is set in a futuristic apocalyptic 1980s where rioting and unemployment are rife and the streets are not safe from ‘car boys’. Crabs borrows his brother’s car to take his girl, Carmen to the drive-in. During the film, the wheels from their car are stolen and they are stuck in the drive-in. Little did they know, the drive-in is like a detention centre where no one can get out. The drive-in is a world and society of its own. Watching this film, I had a nostalgia moment for Australian culture. This film feels really Australian and I was wondering about what had happened to Australia-ness. But as I started to get all nostalgic about it, the ugliness of the old Australia reared its head. New residents were brought to the drive-in and they were all Asian and the Aussies got all Pauline Hanson on them. This film was hilarious and B-grade, the dialogue cheesy (original story by Peter Carey though!), the action sequences over the top. Great film for cameo spotting, Wilbur Wilde, the girl from Sweet n Sour, the lead singer from Moving Pictures and an old guy from Home and Away. Amazing 80s fashions too.

Day 7 MIFF

• Jar City

To be upfront, I am a big fan of Scando crime (Henning Mankell, Unit One etc), so this is right up my alley. Jar City is the story of a murder in Reykjavik and a small child dying concurrently of a genetic disease. The inspector, Erlendur is investigating the murder and the victim’s past as a hoodlum, whilst a grieving father investigates his dead daughter’s disease. There are themes of fathers and daughters, as Erlendur struggles with his own junkie daughter, while trying to get to the bottom of the murder. Iceland is a grim but beautiful place and the shots of the countryside are stunning. Enjoyable crime thriller. What weirded me out the most was the audience’s grimacing and grossed-out reaction to Erlendur eating a sheep’s head, which I assume is normal food in Iceland but there was no similar reaction to the violence or blood. Strange, the things we are sensitive about.

• Acolytes

This was the premiere of a new Australian horror film, Acolytes. This is a story of three dysfunctional teens in an outer suburb, wagging school, smoking pot and hanging about. They live near a state forest, a local girl has gone missing and a man has been released from prison with a connection to the boys. They find a body in the forest and start looking for the murderer. The beginning of this film was bad, if I hadn’t been trapped in the middle of a full row, I would have left. The acting was amateurish and the dialogue heavy and stilted. As the film went on and the plot and action picked up, the acting also picked up and below par dialogue was less obvious. There was a decent twist in the end but that is almost given away by the title of the movie. Joel Edgerton was great as Red Car Driver and Michael Dorman as Parker was also intensely scary.

MIFF Day 6

A three doco day

• Xiao Jia Going Home (no imdb link)

This is a documentary about Chinese director, Jia , coming back to his home town after winning at the Venice Film Festival for his film, Dong and Sanxia haoren. Jia’s films are about ordinary China and he is often criticised for showing the ugly China. He believes he shows the real China instead, the ordinary towns where 95% of Chinese live. There is a paradox here, Jia’s films are about ordinary people but they are so ‘arty’ that ordinary people do not get them. The first 20 minutes of this doco was boring, I almost walked out. We were following Jia around with no explanation why and nothing interesting was being said. After that it picked up, interviews with Jia and his colleagues about the nature of film making in China and art were very interesting.

• With Gilbert & George

A doco about the eccentric couple, Gilbert & George. This followed them from their childhoods to their meeting at St Martin’s College in the mid 60s and the beginnings of their artistic career. Gilbert & George have created themselves as the artwork, odd curios in their suits and walking in unison. I came to this film knowing little about Gilbert & George and wanting to know more, this film was fantastic for the novice, showing their beginnings as living sculptures, to their controversial photographic pop-art 70s pieces to opening in Russia and China and their continuing controversial pieces about shit and religion. What a charming couple!

• The Sweet Lady with the Nasty Voice

The Sweet Lady with the Nasty Voice is about the first lady of rock’n'roll/rockabilly, Wanda Jackson. Wanda started off a country singer and was there at the beginnings of rock’n'roll with Elvis (who she also dated). Wanda is famous for that growl in her voice and a pioneer in music but she has been forgotten by groups like the Rock’n'Roll Hall of Fame. This doco is an example of stretching out the material. Whilst Wanda is a lovely lady and still rocking out in Scandanavia (I loved the old Scando bikies up the front of her concerts), there is not enough to talk about for 75 minutes. The only piece of scandal is Wanda’s relationship with Elvis, she has been married to the same man for 40 years and basically found God. Perhaps Wanda is saving the juicy stuff for a book.

Day 5 -MIFF

Now I am starting to lose track of the days…

I Think We’re Alone Now
I thought this would be a light hearted look at some nutty fans. Some nutty fans without actual mental problems, just a little nuts about Tiffany. No, this film is about Tiffany fans with mental issues. Tiffany had a couple of hits in the late 80s (could have been so beautiful, could have been so right) and this is a film about two of her fans, Jeff and Kelly. Jeff has asperger’s syndrome and had been charged with stalking Tiffany. He was convinced they were best friends and brought a samurai sword to a hearing to show respect. Unfortunately the police did not see it that way. Kelly is a intersex person with a brain injury who believes it is her/his destiny to be with Tiffany. This film was sad and feels exploitative, as you watched these delusional people describe their divine signs from Tiffany. However, it reminded me of being a teenager and how music can help you through difficult times in your life. The music of Tiffany is helping these people.

White Lies, Black Sheep
AJ is a party promoter in NYC. He is a black guy in the indie rock scene, all tight jeans, pointy shoes and studded belts. His white friends ask him why he doesn’t go the ‘fro. He only has white friends and scoffs at his father’s black power rants. We follow AJ as he works the clubs, tries to find love and loses out, getting drunk and depressed. He turns to a copy of Malcolm X book and everything changes. This is filmed in a faux-doco style which I found mildly annoying, I didn’t see the point of that. At the start, I was a little confused about whether this was real or not and this distanced me from the story. As AJ descends into a crisis of identity, I would have liked to know what was going on inside his head, what was he thinking? What was he going through? Whilst, the images of his breakdown were very moving, I wanted to know what was going on inside.