I’ve seen a lot
of movies in the lead-up to this monster of a festival that
is the San Francisco International Film Festival, so many
that a few of them slipped through my feeble grasp. So,
another round of the Quick And The Dirty, followed up by
some full-fledged reviews of some truly interesting flicks
I’ve managed to wade through.
Quick And Dirty - San Francisco International Film Festival
Stake Land
is getting a lot of press being the second film from Jim
Mickle and his co-writer Nick Damici (of Jane Campion’s
In The Cut fame). The film, set in a post-apocalyptic
world overrun by vampires, aspires to be a sort of gothic
horror road-trip, sprinkled with flashes of ass-kicking by
hard-living vamp-killer Mister (Nick Damici) and his barely
pubescent side-kick Martin (Conno Paolo). And for a good
part of it the film fulfils this aspiration. The discovery
of the world post-vampire plague is slowly doled out and its
gradual unveiling is well paced and interesting. Blame it on
horror conventions though, Mickle and company find the need
to wrap the film up in a sort of tidy knot at the end and it
drags down the slow burn of the film. I could feel the trite
conclusion coming and so liking the film up to that point
had fingers crossed that they’d play against trend and just
let the film ramble to a vampiric conclusion. Alas, they do
not and the film ends amidst convoluted story telling and
seen-it-all-before plot developments. It doesn’t make for a
great film, but it makes for a clear indication that Mickle
and Damici are on they way to becoming strong voices in
modern American Horror.
Meek’s Cutoff
is the newest
feature from Kelly Reichardt, the director behind the
critically beloved Wendy And Lucy and Old Joy.
I’ve only heard about her previous efforts from trailers,
but there’s a sort of loose sense of melancholy to the
films, unhindered by hugely motivating plot or character
development. Meek’s Cutoff follows this path, and I
can’t say it did anything for me. Bruce Greenwood stars as
Stephen Meeks, a scout in the 1850s who leads a group of
settlers (including Michelle Williams, and the consistently
boring Paul Dano) astray on the way to the Willamette
Valley. For nearly two hours the dowdily dressed settlers
wander the arid plains of middle America, searching for
water and, well anything really. At one point a Native
American is captured, and for a large portion of the film
they butt heads over whether they should kill him or not.
Greenwood’s Meeks is the kind of role an actor can disappear
in to, and Greenwood adapts admirably, the sooty scout, a
sort of blustering tall-tail teller in lines with Wild Bill
and his ilk. Will Patton, an actor I’m always impressed by
but never remember, plays the moral compass of the film, the
head of the settlers just trying to get his people safely
home. I would say that Meek’s Cutoff needed a dose of
the overly-narrative push Stake Land had in spades,
but I don’t believe Kelly Reichardt makes films that care to
dance with strong narrative shoves. So I’ll just say this,
it wasn’t my type of film.
The festival is in full swing right now and I know there’s
four or five or six films you could get your head wrapped
around without even trying.
Meek’s Cutoff plays Monday, April 25th at 4:30 at the
Kabuki Theater.
Stake Land plays Monday, April 25th at 9:45 at the Kabuki
Theater.
- Noah Sanders
-
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