Well geeks, Optimus Prime contacted Father Geek about a month ago to see if AICN would be interested in covering The Seattle International Film Festival. I told him that we would enjoy having reports sent in from the fest. Well, here's his first report from the great Northwest...
Hey Father Geek, Here's the first batch of reviews from the Seattle
International Film Festival. I will be seeing a ton, and probably two more reports will follow.
Love's Labour's Lost
I did manage to see the opening film, Love's Labour's Lost. Usually for
an opening film at a major festival, the films actors and director show
up. Not in this case though. The only one who bothered to show was
Alicia Silverstone, she was on stage for about 30 seconds, said "cool,
awesome, fun..." and then left. The crowd laughed at her stupidity and
she slunk out the side entrance, I don't think she even stayed for the
movie.
Kenneth Branagh and Shakespeare go together like Ham and Cheese, take that
analogy for whatever it means. I just wonder where Branagh's career would
be without Shakespeare. This film is a bit of a departure for an adaption
from him. It's set in the 40's right before WWII. There's musical
numbers mixed throughout, including show-tune classics like "There's No
Business Like Show Business" and "They Can't Take That Away from Me."
There's homages galore to the films of this period. Most of them I didn't
catch because I don't know these films well, the most obvious one being
the end of Casablanca.
The story concerns a King and his three buddies, who've sworn off love
and to study all that they can. Along comes a Princess and her three hand
maidens. Of course they all fall in love, and the appropriate singing and
dancing ensues. Branagh is Bewrone, one of the King's buddies, and as
usual does a good job with the role. Silverstone is the Princess, and the
only one in the film who seems out of place. Is it just me, or is the way
she talks really annoying, she talks out of the side of her mouth. Even
Mathew Lillard (of Scream fame), is pretty good in his small role.
Overall it's a fun film, that makes fun of itself, but thankfully it's
only an hour and a half long.
The Wisdom of Crocodiles
A strange, macabre film, starring Jude Law. As a crocodile? The film
opens with Jude at the scene of a gruesome car wreck. He's a little more
interested than just the standard bystander. We then find him at the
underground, where he saves a woman from jumping in front of a train. He
makes her fall in love with him, and then kills her, sucking blood from
her neck. Don't worry about spoilers, because this is all in the first 5
minutes.
This movie then turns into a completely different story. A romantic drama
about Jude's new love, the eccentric Anna. His love affair is intermixed
with his meetings with detectives who have him as a suspect in the two
previous murders. There's also a sub-plot about a gang of thugs, Jude
ends up fighting them kung-fu style, in a fun little scene. The film is
wrapped up quite abruptly and lamely, we never fully learn what the deal
is with Jude's condition. We're fed until we're about half full, but not
satisfied.
One More Kiss
A U.K. production about a girl dying from brain cancer. Sarah decides to
leave New York to die in peace in her homeland of England. She visits her
ex-boyfriend Sam, who she hopes to reconcile with. Sam's wife is none to
happy about Sam running off to spend quality time with Sarah. Add in Frank
as Sarah's father, played by the very charismatic James Cosmo
(Braveheart).
This is a film about re-evaluating life. How the choices we make affect
us and the people around us greatly. It's about the long lost love
between a man and woman, and father and daughter. How we should live
every moment to the fullest, because we never know when the end is coming.
Some of these scenes work well, some fall flat. It's a decent little
character study.
Love and Sex
This was the most enjoyable film I've seen so far. A small romantic
comedy, that continues in the tradition of the two word title of this
genre, Kicking and Screaming, Walking and Talking, etc. Why this title
wasn't taken long ago is beyond me. Anyways... Famke Janssen is Kate,
a writer for a women's magazine. She assigned an article that escorts us
through her past relationships, including voice-over. Like in most movie
relationships, she dates interesting jerks, such as a moronic B movie
star, a professional basketball player, and a music video director who's
still married. But her most important love has been Adam, played by Jon
Favreau (Swingers), he's the tortured artist type.
I found it funnier than most romantic comedies told from the woman's
perspective. Besides who she dates, the relationships are pretty
realistic, with real-life, every-day kind of problems. I found
myself nodding my head in agreement many times. Jon is his usual likeable
self. It was nice to see Famke play a small, "normal" person type
role, instead of the over-the-top action heroine. Look for it on video,
if your into this genre.
This is Optimus-Prime signing of for now.
http://optimus-prime.homepage.com/
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