HD For Indies

....so I'm blogging from my iPhone- how trite is that?

I'm sitting in line waiting for the AICN special screening that starts at 6, it is 3:25. (It better be good!)

I'll post some pics and commentary later from laptop.

But FF has been rolling since Thursday, I missed the first 2 days while in NYC.

Just got out of the AICN sneak, was Southland Tales from Richard Kelly, director of Donnie Darko.

A big steaming pile of What The F*ck Was That.

Another reviewer turned to me at the credits and said "I have no idea how to start a review of that movie."

I later thought about adding "so long as you finish with Don't Go."

Another said "I feel like I just watched a filmmaker masturbate for 2 1/2 hours."

More later, but a huge cast, bizzarely uneven surrealistic comedy thriller scifi apocalypse movie. Yeah....that.

Sunday Update - OK, after a day, I'm still pondering Southland Tales. It sets itself up pretty seriously, in a post-9/11 environment where Abilene and El Paso were nuked (targets because what? Snuck nukes in over the Mexican border?), and WW3 is full-on, with fronts in ALL of the Axis of Evil countries. OK, you have my attention. But from there it starts to make fun of some of our media's ridiculousness, then starts to live in that ridiculousness. What starts out as an actor in the movie playing an actor with a bad script becomes...an actor in the movie living out that bad script as if it were real. I'm all for messing with the lines between real, unreal, dream, surreal, media excess, etc. Donnie Darko danced with the line between fiction and reality, but this movie seems to drunkenly stagger over the line, falling over several times. I really liked the WTF factor of Donnie Darko, because you could sense some structure and discipline behind it - it was worth trying to untangle the puzzle, because you could feel it would be worth it (I watched Donnie Darko on DVD, then immediately rewatched the ENTIRE film with the director's comments on...then watched it again one slow Sunday the other year). So I'm definitely a fan of Mr. Kelly. BUT....that said, this film lacks the clear vision, structure, and most importantly the DISCIPLINE of Donnie Darko.

On the one hand, I adore Tim League for booking this crazy mess of a movie - where else could you see it? I definitely wanted to see where things went, but the line between making fun of by being a campy spoof of crappy genre films, then actually BEING a crappy genre film were too intertwined. Is there genius living in this? I don't think so. Other films have messed with this crazy fiction becoming reality theme, and done it far better. As a spoof of bad action scifi apocalyptic movies, it has its moments. As a serious movie projecting where our War On Terror is taking us, it has a very few moments early on that are spoiled (or lost in) the campiness.

As I started to say above, this film lacks discipline, and tremendously so. What did he want it to be? It is far too many things not well enough, it has some great bits (love the musical number in the middle) that are just contextual shift overload.

The casting, however, is totally inspired, and perhaps a clue to what they were trying to do. With a few exceptions, it is mostly tier B of Hollywood - if the Donnie Darko guy called up and said "Wanna be in my next movie?" wouldn't you jump? The Rock, Sean William Scott, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mandy Moore, Miranda Richardson, Nora Dunn, Jon Lovitz, Ling Bai, Christopher Lambert (yeah, The Highlander himself), and oh yeah Justin Timberlake, with facial scars star in this. Plus a zillion cleverly casted cameos and tidbits (the lead from The Chumscrubber as a Lost Youth, The Highlander as an arms dealer, Justin Timberlake has his musical number but is a drug selling government sniper, Nora Dunn as a terrorist with Amy Poehler etc. - check out the full cast and crew)

One wonders if the whole thing were just a huge joke on us the audience, the investors, Hollywood, and everyone else desperately watching to see how he'd follow up on Donnie Darko. A big "Psych!" shout out to all of us - and we stand here confused - was this a joke, a mess, or just a failed multi-layered thingamabob?

While interesting to watch, laugh at, and occassionally laugh with, this will definitely not ride with mainstream audiences. Too much, too weird, too lost in its own inconsistent non-logic.

And it most definitely isn't worth taking the time to make sense of - life is too short - even though there is a TON of stuff in there.

Also, I saw The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, a Japanese animation movie about a girl who discovers she can leap back in time small amounts, and uses it to better her life. Of course, there are consequences, and things aren't as easy to fix as you think....very cute, very fun, highly enjoyable for adults and kids. Hugely successful in Japan. If you get a chance and are any kind of animation fan, HIGHLY recommend.

Also, Michael Weiss from Confidence Bay was parked outside, and they were conducting interviews in the air conditioned interior. Confidence Bay is a mobile HD editing setup in an RV - they have a couple of high powered Macs with HD-SDI ingest & output, a projector for screening (you can watch from inside or outside with their clever setup), and room to sit and be air conditioned and comfortable inside. If you need on set assistance, this is a pretty good way to go without resorting to Plus 8's monster rig. I've visited with Michael a few times in the past, check them out.

10PM UPDATE My friend Robogeek nails it with the first line of his comment on:
Whedonesque : "I would call it a fascinating but flawed cinematic curiosity. It's a really weird, inventive, stylishly crafted movie that has no right to exist in a rational universe, and while I'm kind of tickled that it does, it may just be too ambitious and disjointed for its own good. "

Read the link for more on his take. I agree entirely, especially about glad I saw, but I wouldn't want to spend another 2 1/2 hours on it.

Labels: FantasticFest