Kristen Wiig stars, in Shira Piven’s Welcome to Me, as a woman with borderline personality disorder who wins an 86 million dollar lottery and decides to use her winnings to create her own Oprah-like talk show all about her. The Seventh Row sat down with Piven to discuss her aesthetic approach, the influence of Chauncey Gardner, and finding the music and rhythm for the film.
Film Festivals
Hong Sang-soo’s Hill of Freedom is a melancholic delight
Hong Sang-soo plays with time and memory in Hill of Freedom, his latest melancholic delight.
[Read more…] about Hong Sang-soo’s Hill of Freedom is a melancholic delight
Female directors tackle motherhood, sexism, and cartoons at SFIFF
This weekend, SFIFF showcased a variety of good films by female directors from around the world, tackling stories as diverse as the inner-workings of The New Yorker cartoon department (Very Semi-Serious), fidelity in romantic relationships (Fidelio: Alice’s Odyssey), and the sometimes fraught relationship between mothers and their children (Goodnight Mommy and The Second Mother). [Read more…] about Female directors tackle motherhood, sexism, and cartoons at SFIFF
Advantageous director Jennifer Phang talks bringing feminist sci-fi to the screen
Jennifer Phang’s Advantageous is a feminist science fiction film for lovers of French New Wave cinema and intimate family dramas. I talked to Phang about the inspiration for the film, the film’s world-building, and feminism in science fiction.
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Docs Iris and Best of Enemies delight and educate
Opening weekend of the San Francisco International Film Festival featured a wide range of documentaries, from the delightful and impressive Iris to the educational if somewhat disappointing Best of Enemies. Here’s a look at these two films.
Iris ****
Master documentarian Albert Maysle’s final film is an introduction to the lively, fashionable, and fabulous 93-year-old New York style icon, Iris Apfel. Mixing haute couture, trends from around the world, and cheaper items, coupled with her trademark gaudy jewelery, Iris’s style is unconventional but expresses her joie de vivre. We get an inside look at her collection, her thought process, her wit, and her sweet relationship with her husband of fifty plus years. Full of humour and warmth, the film is a delight, and sure to pique your interest in more audacious outfits.
Now streaming on Netflix.
Best of Enemies ***
In 1968, during the Democratic and Republication Conventions, ABC decided to host a series of ideological debates between Democrat Gore Vidal and Republican William F. Buckley. It was out of necessity — as the number three network, they couldn’t afford to cover the conventions on the ground — but its enormous success ended up revolutionizing the political discourse on television, replacing hard news with pundit debates. Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon’s documentary gives us a fascinating glimpse into these famous debates and their historical context, but there’s not enough analysis and insight for a feature length film.
Now streaming on Netflix.
Weekend 1 at SFIFF: Mr. Holmes, Entertainment, and Sand Dollars
The San Francisco International Film Festival kicked off last Friday, and it was a busy weekend full of premieres, restorations of classics, as well as flicks from Sundance and last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Here’s a look at some of the films I caught on Saturday and Sunday.
Mr. Holmes
Senility’s a bitch when you’re the world’s cleverest detective. Bill Condon’s Mr. Holmes, which made its North American premiere at SFIFF on Saturday, follows an aging Sherlock (Ian McKellen) in exile in the countryside reflecting on his life and the one case that eluded him, which he can’t quite remember. He’s still got his trademark acerbic wit and high standards, but age has softened him, and he finds a disciple and friend in the young son of his reluctant housekeeper (Laura Linney). McKellen is always compelling, but Condon’s insistence on helping us feel Sherlock’s frustration about his failing memory that the film ends up over-long and equally frustrating. Screens May 5 at 2 p.m. (Sundance Kabuki).
Entertainment
Rick Alverson’s black comedy follows comedian Neil Hamburger (Gregg Turkington) on the road through the Western desert, doing stand-up shows with bad jokes and a greasy combover just for the stage, visiting local landmarks, and at night, making sad and lonely phone calls to his daughter who never answers. Deliberately paced and shot with formal discipline, Alverson’s compositions and patience, in letting an awkward moment play out find the humour in human foibles even if the jokes are designed to be chauvinistic and not funny. As the film progresses, it becomes increasingly surreal, following a dream logic that is compelling, bizarre, and a bit confusing. A truly original piece of work, with terrific musical cues, Entertainment may be too off-the-beaten path for mainstream audiences but it’s designed to pull you out of complacency and succeeds.
Read more: Interview: Rick Alverson talks Entertainment and upending audience expectations >>
Time Out of Mind
Screening at SFIFF this year on the occasion of the Peter J. Owens Award, which has been bestowed on its star, Richard Gere, Time Out of Mind was accompanied with an on-stage discussion with Gere on Sunday at the Castro. We first meet the protagonist of Time Out of Mind, played by Richard Gere, sleeping in the bathtub of an abandoned apartment, being kicked out by the superintendent. He wanders the streets of New York City in winter-time with a garbage bag, a winter coat, and a hat, with nowhere to go: the sounds of city life dominate the film’s soundscape. Eventually, he’s forced to head to a homeless shelter; he spends every penny on beer. Shot almost entirely through glass, separating us from the forgotten homeless, the film is taxing to watch and difficult to emotionally invest in. It’s also over-long. Nevertheless, it’s an often insightful look at the bureaucracy and minutiae of the system for these lost souls and the impossibility of getting out.
Read more: Oren Moverman on the sound design of Time Out of Mind >>
Sand Dollars
Set in the Dominican Republic, this film, from writer-directors Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas, follows a local twenty-something Noeli (Yanet Mojica) who makes her living by sleeping with the rich European tourists. At the beginning of the film, she’s cashing out on a man about to depart, and the rest of the film charts her relationship with a much older French woman, Anne (Geraldine Chaplin), that’s been going on for three years. Noeli is often a cypher: she doesn’t seem to care much for her boyfriend, whom she can’t shake, nor for the people with whom she has a more contractual relationship.
Yet the only time we see any intimacy is between the two women. The power imbalance between the two — Noeli needs Anne’s money and has hopes for her assistance in getting a visa to go to Europe while Anne finds herself desperately in love — makes for moderate drama, but the feelings of both are never fully explained or explored. With a beautiful setting and strong performances, it’s an interesting look at how Western tourism has infiltrated the lives of the locals in developing countries in the Caribbean, but it’s all rather thin. Screens April 29 at 2 p.m. (Sundance Kabuki).