Independent Film Festival of Boston

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I decided to dip my toe back into movie-going by attending the IFFB (as opposed to the BIFF which for some reason was scheduled simultaneously.) Because I have been sort of on sabbatical and I haven't really been writing reviews regularly, I decided not to attend the festival as a press person and just to buy tickets for the movies I wanted to see. Most of the films that I saw were screened at the Somerville Theater in Davis Square. One was at the Brattle in Harvard Square and one was at the Institute of Contemporary Art.

I will eventually be posting reviews of the films on the website (when I get the time). I just thought I'd give a quick run down and reaction.

Overall, the festival struck me as pretty good. The films I saw were of mixed quality.

Opening night was THE BROTHERS BLOOM, Rian Johnson's follow-up to his admired debut BRICK. Working with a cast that included Academy Award winners Rachel Weisz, Adrian Brody and Maximillian Schell, Oscar nominee Rinko Kikuchi and Mark Ruffalo, Johnson spun a stylized tale of con men and their female mark. While it was inventive, I felt it shared some of the same flaws that his first film did: the execution was novel and intriguing, but it couldn't be sustained over the life of the film. Scheduled for release in May 2009.

Next up was a double feature of 500 DAYS OF SUMMER and IN THE LOOP. The former is an astringent take on the romantic comedy genre, detailing the year-plus relationship between a greeting card writer (Joseph Gordon-Leavitt) and his co-worker, who happens to be named Summer (Zooey Deschanel). The leads are appealing and the film has grown on me as time has passed. It is scheduled to open in limited release in July 2009. The latter has already opened to rave reviews in England and as it happens is also scheduled to open in July 2009 in limited release as well. Humor is an individual thing and while I didn't exactly find this movie the laugh-riot that some of the British critics did, I enjoyed the film. It's a satire that hits more targets than misses and encompasses both the inner workings of both the British and American governments. Peter Capaldi leads the cast that also includes Tom Hollander, James Gandolfini, David Rasche, Mimi Kennedy, Anna Chlumsky, Gina McKee and Chris Addison.

Next I had a triple feature: THE BURNING PLAIN, WE LIVE IN PUBLIC and BRONSON.

THE BURNING PLAIN was probably the best of the films that I saw at IFFB. It marks the directorial debut of Guillermo Arriaga, the screenwriter of such features as AMORES PERROS, BABEL and THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA. As with those films, Arriaga focuses on three separate stories that eventually overlap. Although some of the tale is predictable, the no-nonsense directing and superb cast, including Oscar winners Charlize Theron and Kim Bassinger, along with Joaquim de Almeida, Jose Maria Yazpik, JD Pardo and Jennifer Lawrence make this film highly worthwhile and unforgettable. The film has already opened in the United Kingdom and will debut in the United States in October.

WE LIVE IN PUBLIC is Ondi Timoner's second documentary to win the top prize at Sundance -- an unprecedented feat. Her first was the terrific DiG! which was built around the rivalry of the charismatic but troubled musicians Anton Newcombe, the front man for Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Courtney Taylor-Taylor, the front man for the Dandy Warhols. Taylor-Taylor makes a cameo appearance in this new documentary that profiles "the greatest Internet pioneer you've never heard of" -- Josh Harris. In the last twenty years, Harris was something of a visionary, creating the first Internet television station (Pseudo.com) long before streaming videos, created an underground experiment called "Quiet" where many people voluntarily lived in an underground bunker with 24-hour video surveillance, and broadcast his life (along with that of his then-girlfriend) on a website called "We Live in Public", before losing his wealth and withdrawing from the public stage. The film is a fascinating portrait of a very troubled human being and Timoner does a masterful job in telling the story of this complicated and infuriating person. Unfortunately the film is only scheduled for festival screenings at the moment; hopefully some distributor with balls will pick up this terrific movie.

Lastly, BRONSON (which has also opened in the United Kingdom) is a film biography of Charles Bronson, just not THAT Charles Bronson. Rather, it is an impressionistic drama based on the life of one of Britain's most notorious individuals, Michael Peterson, who adopted the name of the DEATH WISH actor when he had a brief career as a bare-knuckles fighter. The film directed and co-written by Nicholas Winding Refn (best known for his PUSHER trilogy) is messy, kinetic and not altogether successful. But it does showcase a brilliant, star-making turn by actor Tom Hardy in the title role. BRONSON is scheduled to open in the U.S. in the fall of 2009.

SUMMER HOURS is Olivier Assayas' latest film and it deals with familial legacies, both literal and figurative. It's an accomplished drama headed by a cast that includes the divine Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling and Jeremie Renier with excellent support from Edith Scob. My only quibble with the film is that it felt like Assayas didn't quite know how to end the story; there are at least three places where the film could easily have stopped and left the audience feeling satisfied. I understood where he was going with the final sequence; it just felt redundant. The film opens in New York on May 15, 2009 and will be available on IFC On Demand.

The final film I saw was FOR THE LOVE OF MOVIES: THE STORY OF AMERICAN FILM CRITICISM. Critic turned filmmaker Gerald Peary traces, for the first time, the history of movie reviewing from its earlies inception (circa 1907) through to present day when critics face losing their outlets thanks to the shrinking circulations of print media and the explosion of the Internet. It's a mix of talking heads, film clips and history and Peary provides a nice introduction to the novice. Hopefully, the documentary might inspire the current crop of film aficionados to pick up a book by James Agee, Manny Farber, Donald Richie, Pauline Kael, Andrew Sarris, etc.