It’s been a busy week at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Here’s our look back nine films that hit the silver screen:
Roadie
3/5 Globes
By Phylicia Torrevillas
Metro
Michael Cuesta’s Roadie is a raw and honest take on rock ‘n’ roll culture, high school drama and failed childhood dreams.
Jimmy Testagross (Ron Eldard) is a 40-something guy who spent more than 20 years as a roadie for Blue Oyster Cult and gets fired from the band’s South American tour. He reluctantly ends up going back to his mom’s house in Queens, New York, and pretends he’s only there for a quick visit and that he’s made it big — he says he’s the Blue Oyster Cult’s manager, as well as writer and producer.
He runs into his high school girlfriend Nikki (Jill Hennessy) and finds out she’s married to his old nemesis (Bobby Cannavale) — he keeps calling him “Testacles.”
The mild love triangle subplot adds more tension to the simple and gritty film.
Richly acted by Eldard and Hennessy, but Cannavale steals the show.
You’ll hate him more than you love Eldard’s Jimmy.
The Kid Who Lies
2.5/5 Globes
By Matt Kieltyka
Metro
There’s a sliver of truth behind every lie.
The young, teenaged protagonist in Marite Ugas’ The Kid Who Lies survives off twisting the truth.
Wandering the Venezuelan coast in the aftermath of the Vargas mudslide that killed 10,000 people, the young boy gets around by feeding off goodwill and twisting his story of survival to better align with strangers’ sympathies.
As the film progresses, it becomes clear that there’s something real and purposeful behind “Blondie’s” tall tales and trek across a beautiful land that’s been devastated by loss.
The film certainly has a unique and focused take on disasters but wanderlust eventually subsides once you realize it chugs along in one gear.
There are some heartfelt human stories to be explored but the truth is that The Kid Who Lies is an average film.
Sufferrosa
2.5/5 Globes
By Phylicia Torrevillas
Metro
Sufferrosa is a great piece of non-linear experimental storytelling from new media director Dawid Marcinkowski from Poland.
The neo-noir interactive experience revolves around Private Investigator Ivan Johnson after he wakes up in a medical clinic specializing in rejuvenation, transforming older women into 20-year-olds.
It follows his journey along three treacherous levels to look for a missing woman.
Surrealistic and a cliché-filled plot, Sufferrosa revolves around the cult of beauty and terrorists wanting to bring down the world’s plastic surgery clinics.
The “choose your own adventure” gets high marks for concept, technical premise with its 20 locations, 110 scenes, 25 characters and three alternate endings, but people may be taken aback by the too advanced mechanics and miss the good ol’ movie concept.
Life Without Principle
4.5/5 Globes
By Matt Kieltyka
Metro
There have been few films to date that have tackled the global recession and strived to entertain, rather than make us feel sorry for ourselves.
Life Without Principle, the latest film by director Johnnnie To, may not break much new ground but it’s use of the crisis as the backdrop to a deliciously dark and funny crime drama hits home and leaves a smile on your face.
At the start, a naïve financial advisor (played by Denise Ho) puts her ethics aside as she sells high-risk stocks to ignorant clients looking to make a buck.
The company makes their money in fees while ordinary citizens lose everything when Greece’s financial crisis puts Hong Kong’s stock market in a freefall.
Even gangsters – whose grand banquets are now done on the cheap – are forced to shed their formerly lucrative life of crime for an honest day’s work (or maybe not).
Throw a sleazy loan shark walking around with $ 10 million in cash and watch all the convoluted schemes and desperate machinations collide in the streets of Hong Kong.
To confidently captures the chaos and irony of it all and keeps things moving at a brisk pace.
It’s pure, unadulterated recession-proof fun.
First Position
5/5 Globes
By Chelsea Altice
For Metro
First Position follows the struggles and triumphs of six young male and female dancers in their training up to the Youth America Grand Prix, an American ballet competition that provides career opportunities.
With the film’s phenomenal attention to detail it was clear director Bess Kargman came from a dancing background.
The film delved into some of the most intimate of dancers’ moments such as the post-performance adrenaline come-downs and self-criticism banter in the make-up room.
It also looks at dancers’ family support, something any ballet mother could relate to spending hours at the sewing machine perfecting costumes or dying ribbons and slippers to match their daughter’s skin tone.
Kargman smashes ballet’s stereotypes about gender, wealth, race and food-phobia in the dance world but reveals a common passion and relentless determination shared by each of the characters.
The audience is put into stitches laughing at the dancers’ quirks, crying at their shortfalls, and clapping for their achievements.
Woman in a Septic Tank
4/5 Globes
By Phylicia Torrevillas
Metro
Marlon Rivera’s debut film Woman in a Septic Tank is a charming and honest indictment of Philippine cinema.
The movie-within-a-movie mockumentary is a satirical comedy about the misadventures of three young and rich filmmakers, who exploit the slums in Manila for film festival glory.
As they visit the authentic squalor location they need for the film, they are soon faced with reality as they become victims of their chosen subject.
The Philippines’ official entry for the 2011 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Film, the movie exposes the industry’s unpleasant habits in a modern and relevant way.
The movie’s biggest commodity is Eugene Domingo, who plays an over-the-top version of herself and the actress chosen by the young filmmakers to give life to their character. She was approached to play a desperate mother who is forced to sell one of her kids to an old man for money.
Headshot
3.5/5 Globes
By Matt Kieltyka
Metro
The past is a tricky thing to escape.
It’s especially true if you’re a hired killer who longs to put the bloodshed behind him and don the robes of a Buddhist monk.
You can probably guess it won’t be that simple for Tul, the troubled protagonist at the centre of Pen-ek Ratanaruang’s latest noir-thriller Headshot.
Tul used to be a good, honest cop before cruelly discovering that the people he’s trying to put away don’t play by the same rules.
Subscribing to the “eye for an eye” brand of justice, Tul (played by Peter Jayanama) switches gears and guns down the criminals instead.
At least, until one of his hits goes sideways and Tul’s thirst for blood subsides.
Try as he might, the life he leaves behind isn’t done with him yet.
While there’s plenty of gunplay on hand, this moody Thai film shines in the quiet moments thanks to Ratanaruang’s artistic eye and flair for atmosphere.
The plot all ties together a bit too conveniently, but the images will leave their mark.
Trespassers
3/5 Globes
By Phylicia Torrevillas
Metro
Set on the eve of Christmas, Jeffrey Jeturian’s Trespassers (Bisperas) tells the tale of Catholic hypocrisy as a “perfect” and “religious” family exposes their flaws and secrets after they discover their house has been burglarized following the traditional panunuluyan — a re-enactment of the Holy Family’s search for a place to stay in Bethlehem from Christ’s birth through song.
The film is relatively simple, but Jeturian peppers the movie with a bit too much of symbolisms (look out for the seven deadly sins) to get his point across.
Though he captures an honest look at the dysfunctional drama of the Aguinaldo family, who depicts that practicing the sacraments of the Catholic Church doesn’t guarantee they’ll be displaying the same faith and religiosity at home.
Target
4/5 Globes
By Matt Kieltyka
Metro
Target is a big movie.
When you settle in for Alexander Zeldovich’s philosophical sci-fi flick, you’re in it for the long haul.
It’s not just the length of the movie or its scope – Target grapples with some big ideas, unflinchingly throws them up on the big screen and leaves it up to the viewer to pick up the pieces left in its wake.
Six wealthy characters, all struggling with their mundane existences, decide to trek to a remote, secret landmark known as “the target” in the hopes of everlasting life.
A radioactive version of the fountain of youth, the target is said to stop aging altogether and free those it touches of their inhibitions, doubts and fears.
The rejuvenated cast returns to their lives in Moscow and paint the town red with their unbridled euphoria, animalistic lust and impulsive desires.
Can something be so good that it’s bad?
The audience’s own societal conventions are challenged head-on by Zeldovich, who isn’t afraid to pull any punches.
While there is some humour sprinkled throughout, Target’s portrayal of ecstasy, lust and violence can be shocking.
When it was all over, the shell-shocked audience left the theatre not knowing what to make of it.
Debates ensued.
My own reaction was mixed but Target’s concepts and ideas swirled around my head as I deconstructed the madness on-screen hours and days later.
If Zeldovich’s intention was to elicit that sort of internal strife, I won’t deny Target the plaudits it deserves. I think.
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