I’ll be honest,
I stepped in to the press conference of last year’s
IndieFest excited beyond belief at a) being somehow involved
in a festival and b) ready to devour a slew of strange and
wonderful films. My excitement may have been too great, or
maybe I just picked the wrong films to indulge in, but my
coverage of IndieFest left me rethinking the state of the
Indie film. Of what I saw, nothing stuck out. Instead it was
slew of low budget (in the bad way) films that seemed never
to reach far enough out of the box to make any sort of
impression.
With that in mind I approached this year’s IndieFest with a
certain, er, reticence. Would it be another year of low-rent
animation and plot-lacking art films? I’m here to tell you
though, from what I’ve seen of IndieFest’s offering this
year and from what I know of the rest of the films, The
Roxie is going to be a goddamn exciting place to be a
film-lover. I don’t know if there was a change in staff, or
a sudden influx of cash, but the festival’s film slate is
pretty spectacular.
I saw three of the films (with a hopeful fourth review
coming later in the week) and though I didn’t love all of
them, the creativity and sheer love of film presented in
each was inspiring. I wanted to give a taste of each and
then offer what I’d see if I had the choice.
What
I’ve Seen:
Kill List, d. Ben
Wheatley
Ben Wheatley, the director of beloved festival film Down
Terrace returns with a truly difficult to watch picture
about a duo of assassins pulled way deeper than they
imagined. Kill List came across as one of those films
that was so hard for me to watch that I think it distracted
from my understanding of the film. I watched part of it on
an airplane and there were so many moments when I was
protecting the screen from eager lookie loos (for some
reason I fear that my cinematic tastes will offend my fellow
passengers) that I missed out on what exactly was happening.
Regardless, the film left a cold, persistent puddle of dread
in my stomach for its entire running time. At once being the
story of a fucked up family (a subject Wheatley seems to
enjoy plumbing) and of two hit-men just trying to figure it
out. I don’t know if Wheatley wanted the audience to really
know what was going on, or if he just wanted to make it that
much more difficult for people to sleep, but regardless
Kill List is an interesting and terrifying to film to
sit through. I can’t say I liked it, but I don’t regret
seeing it.
The FP, d.
Brandon & Jason Trost
The FP has been this years geek smash. Festival goers
at places like SXSW and Fantastic Fest have been raving
about this strange take on the post-apocalyptic landscape.
In Brandon and Jason Trost’s world (Jason Trost also plays
lead character JTRO) the general niceties of society have
broken down and in Frazier Park two gangs battle it out for
control of the liquor stores using a Dance Dance Revolution
knock-off as their medium for warfare. Deeply immersed in
the 80s sports film genre, The FP is one part
fart-and-dick joke comedy, one part crass drug trip and one
part overlong sports montage. I’ll say this, the Trosts make
a convincing world and it appears that a lot of thought and
time went in to the creation of the film, but it just didn’t
work for me. It’s too much intentional stupidity and not
enough drive for narrative sustenance. That said, the Trost
Brothers seemingly made exactly the film they wanted to make
and I think there’s an audience out there for this film (as
does Drafthouse Films who purchased the movie last year),
I’m just not in this audience. If you do go and see this
featured film, which I recommend you do, go with friends and
go drunk. It’s that kind of movie.
Bullhead, d.
Michael R. Roskam
If you’ve heard of any movie playing at IndieFest it’s
probably Bullhead. The film, about the criminal
underworld that exists in the Flemish meat industry, was
recently purchased by Drafthouse Films (keep an eye on those
fellas) and even more recently nominated for a Best Foreign
Picture Oscar. And it is worthy of both weighty kudos. Set
on the language-border between French and Flemish Belgium,
Bullhead follows Jacky Vanmarsenille (Matthias
Schoenaerts in a ferocious performance), a steroid addicted
cow farmer with a dark past. Watch it once and you’ll see a
great crime film (something the northern climes of Europe
seem to be nailing recently) made greater by a strong
central performance. Watch it again and you’ll see a film
about division and the ties of family and the strain
inherent in the language division of southern Belgium. I
know, sounds like a lot to stomach, and this is not an easy
film to watch, but director Michael R. Roskam is a very
talented director who twists and turns and knots this story
in to a detailed little heartstopper that needs to be seen.
An early contender for my 2012 Best of List.
What I Would See:
Gandu, d. Q
I’ve been hearing about Gandu (Indian for loser)
since last year. A super low-budget flick that director Q
has openly stated is an "anti-Bollywood" picture. Anytime a
director goes against the pulsing heart-blood of his
countries film industry, I’m curious.
Clown, d. Mikkel
Norgaard
There was an image from Clown on a website a while
back and though don’t remember it exactly I know it featured
two naked men in a canoe. The description of the film says
that the comedy comes in the form of "carnivalesque dollops
of urine and sex fluids." Naked men, sex fluids, Denmark? A
recipe for good times.
Beside My
Brother, d. Markus Englmair
I have a weird obsession about twin movies stemming from
Brian DePalma’s Sisters and David Cronenberg’s
Dead Ringers. I don’t always need my twin movies to be
horribly graphic (Twin Falls Idaho is a prime
example) and Beside My Brother seems an interesting,
if possibly fucked up take on the old
weird-films-about-twins genre. Two twin brothers are raised
as exactly the same person in Beside My Brother -
same bed, same name, no school - that’s crazy! Surely it has
to end at least slightly badly. I mean, do any films ever
about twins ever end well? And if they did would I got watch
them? No, and probably not.
Aside from a slew of great films this year, IndieFest is of
course offering a handful of great parties (The Big Lebowski
party a perennial favorite, but maybe one tinged with a
little more sadness this year after the death of Ben Gazzara)
as well as some awesome sounding short programs.
The festival takes over The Roxie in San Francisco’s Mission
District February 9 - 23.
-
-
Unless
otherwise expressly stated, all text in this blog and any
related pages, including the blog's archives, is licensed by
John Laird under a
Creative Commons License.
