In Lee Kirk’s indie film The Giant Mechanical Man, two lost individuals find that they are not as alone or hopeless as they think they are. Janice (Jenna Fischer) can’t hold down her temp jobs and Tim (Chris Messina) spends his days as a thankless street performer; a silver painted, dry-wall stilt wearing 9 foot “mechanical man“. When nothing is going right, their paths cross and they prove to be the only one who truly understands the other, especially when the world thinks they’re both nuts. Sure, details aside, this has the set up of many films (indie or otherwise) you’ve seen before: quirky character A meets quirky character B, romance ensues, roll credits.…
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[IFFBoston Review]…Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry
There’s a degree to which the story of Chinese artist-activist Ai Weiwei– filtered through the lens of director Allison Klayman– is incomprehensible. Not in terms of our ability to latch onto and absorb the information Klayman conveys to us, mind; referring to craft and technique, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry has much and more to recommend it. Supporting all of that is the compelling narrative Klayman constructs about Ai’s life, career, and confrontations with Chinese authorities, and that final detail represents the element that makes the film so difficult to process. Ai, perceptive, compassionate, and endlessly clever, lives in a world where creative expression can lead to a person vanishing into…
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[IFFBoston Review]…We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists
Brian Knappenberger’s We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists is a lot of things, but first and foremost it’s an outstanding example of documentary filmmaking done perfectly; it’s exciting, it’s propulsive, it’s entertaining, and it’s insightful. Documentaries should be educational and thorough as a rule, and We Are Legion doesn’t disappoint in that respect, but Knappenberger’s film– despite all of its historical and academic value– regardless manages to carry out its purpose with tongue firmly in cheek. And maybe there’s a point to that. After all, there’s something intrinsically bizarre about the idea that Knappenberger’s subject, the online, multi-faceted group of prankster-activists, Anonymous, actually has become a genuine catalyst for…
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[IFFBoston Review]…V/H/S
V/H/S could very well represent the pinnacle of found footage horror cinema. Actually, it may be fairer to think of the film a “do this, not that” instructional presentation to other aspiring horror filmmakers. In turns, V/H/S demonstrates both how to do found footage well and how to fail miserably maneuvering within the sub-genre’s cinematic mode; in fits and spurts, the film is tense and incredibly scary, but when it doesn’t work, it really, truly does not work in the most embarrassing and chagrin-inducing ways possible. That’s a risk of omnibus/anthology filmmaking. Assemble a ragtag team of five different directors—David Bruckner, Adam Wingard, Ti West, Joe Swanberg, Glenn McQuaid, and…
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[IFFBoston Review]…Polisse
Think of Polisse as a towering and worthy successor to television shows like The Shield and, far more accurately, The Wire. Dedicated to portraying its events and characters by way of a realistic mien, the film revolves around the lives of the Paris CPU (Child Protection Unit) both on the job and at home; the focus isn’t on a single narrative through-line carrying the picture from start to finish but rather on the people behind the armbands and badges and what motivates them and what haunts them. Polisse‘s stylistic bent lends itself to a sense of disarray, but while the movie may read as somewhat helter-skelter as it leaps from…
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G-S-T Review…The Pirates! Band of Misfits
From Aardman and Sony Pictures Animation comes this delightful tale about the Pirate Captain and his rag tag bunch of buccaneers. Based on The Pirates! book series by Gideon Defoe, Band of Misfits is a clever, charming and hysterical adventure, very much in the spirit of Wallace and Grommit and Chicken Run and is directed by pioneer of the animation world and Aardman co-founder Peter Lord. Lord, takes his first directing job since his smash hit Chicken Run in 2000. Among the high caliber voice talent aboard are Hugh Grant, Martin Freeman, Brendan Gleeson, David Tenant and more and add layers of depth to Lord’s latest stop-motion animated film. A wonderful blend of signature Aardman animation, wit and charm this is a return to…
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G-S-T Review…The Five-Year Engagement
By now a Judd Apatow comedy comes with a certain condemnation: they are far too long. That isn’t to say that his films, and the numerous ones he produces, aren’t funny. That’s a knock on the narrative and how it can get long in the tooth, especially in the middle as an important storyline transition is made. I prefaced this review to note that because it applies far too easily to The Five-Year Engagement. This is the second feature film to be directed by Nicholas Stoller and star Jason Segel, who both broke onto the film scene with their hit Forgetting Sarah Marshall, another Apatow production that suffered none of…
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[IFFBoston Review]…Sleepwalk With Me
If Sleepwalk With Me does one thing well, it’s strike a balance between truth and delusion. For a film that grounds itself so heavily in reality while simultaneously reveling in the dreams of its protagonist, equilibrium is paramount; mercifully, the line between waking life and fantasy is never irreparably, irresponsibly blurred. We may not be able to immediately identify when our protagonist is dreaming– neither can he– but Sleepwalk With Me clues us in quickly enough so as to avoid leaving us in the lurch, establishing a clear relationship between the stages of awareness experienced by Matt, the aimless, disconnected, would-be comedian serving as our anchor. And why not? Dreams…
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[DIFF Review]…Juan of the Dead
Considering zombies are the walking dead, it’s surprising to see how popular they have become. They are mindless beasts that are incredibly uninteresting. Maybe that’s why they are perfect targets for horror comedies. Juan of the Dead is clearly a riff on the title of Edgar Wright’s horror comedy Shaun of the Dead, yet Juan manages to be creative enough to keep from feeling like a retread and instead makes a case why two films with similar titles and similar premises can exist in the same universe. Clocking in at 96 minutes, the film is perhaps a bit meandering at points but keeps the story moving forward with laugh after…
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[DIFF Review]…The Pact
Nicholas McCarthy brings his previous short film (which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011) to its full feature potential at the 2012 DIFF. It’s all sorts of eerie and scary, though not so much straight up horror The Pact is more of a horror mystery. It’s the blending of those two genres that make this extremely atmospheric work on many levels. In short it’s entirely effective and well crafted. In a way it’s fitting that it is being shown at the same Festival where master of horror Takeshi Shimizu is screening his film TORMENTED. Could make for a great Double Feature. Annie and her sister have begrudgingly returned home for their mother’s funeral.…
