Snap
Honestly I can’t tell you what this movie is about at all and that perhaps is a failing in me, but halfway through the screening I began to wonder if the director, Carmel Winters, was simply testing the limits of comprehension in some wry clinical manner. We follow a foul-mouthed mother as she is being interviewed about some undisclosed tragedy, the same mother sometime in the past, and a seemingly unrelated story of a young man as he alternately taunts and nurtures an accommodating baby. I suppose the film is about some trauma that is represented by the fractured mis-en-scene, but I may not be the right audience for such an achingly pedantic journey. The lead performance of Aisling O’Sullivan is certainly stirring, but to what ends?
Elvis & Madona
Could this possibly be the first film about a drag queen and lesbian relationship? It might as well be, for Brazil’s Marcelo Laffitte has unquestionably made a landmark romantic comedy. Despite contending with an obviously low budget and limited actors, this was a buried gem in the festival. The infectious love for passionate failure, dreaming in color, and struggling artists on screen was a welcome antidote to the spate of more dour films this year. Even the more brutal scenes with Madona’s ex-lover seemed somehow tender and revelatory. Let’s make way for a new cult classic!
Sons of Perdition
Three young men escape from the suffocating strictures of Warren S. Jeffs polygamist sect in order to determine their own fate. This documentary, directed by Tyler Measom and Jennilyn Merten, trails Sam, Bruce, and Joe as they deal with the traumatic loss of their families and the often confusing roadblocks which limit their educational and job prospects. The lack of structure unsurprisingly encourages the normal teenage psyche to claim dominance and alcohol, drugs, and sex become coping mechanisms as they acclimate. Jeffs’ eerie voice, intoning tenets from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, serves as the connective tissue between fragmented vignettes– attempted rescues of a sister and mother from the compound, giddy salon visits where new freedom is expressed in blond highlights, and talking heads with intimate knowledge of the polygamists. Ultimately the audience is drawn into the plight of these exiles not necessarily because of where they came from, but out of worry for their future.
brilliantlove
An all-consuming, explicit romance à la 9 Songs, Ashley Horner drops us into the middle of a lit fuse soaked in gasoline. The sweaty, prelapsarian garage in which Manchester and Noon copulate ferociously is a dream-like space undisturbed by the rest of humanity. When they leave their dilapidated Eden to pilfer food or drink the devil’s nectar, only danger skulks about the countryside– a real threat to their prolonged incubation. We are repeatedly asked to ponder whether their brilliant love can survive the temptations of money and fame. In an almost childlike, rudimentary way the images build up to some pleasing whole, and I found myself caring for these slight, naive characters despite themselves. You want them to win, even as you marvel at their mere existence.
Dog Pound
From the first image to the last, this film never allows one moment of passive engagement. Kim Chapiron shows us the inner madness of a juvenile detention facility located near some region of hell. We follow three young criminals as they are shuffled through the system and left to fend for themselves amongst embittered correction officers, adult felons waiting to blossom, and a racial stratification right out of your typical 70′s prison movie. The strangely charismatic star of the film is Butch (Adam Butcher), a sociopath with a heart of gold. His frighteningly contained anger is a palpable threat which gives the film most of its jolt. We watch him slowly rise the ranks by cajoling, threatening, and mauling all those in his way. By mixing real juvie delinquents and actors the film manages to contain a really oppressive sense of dread in an after-school special setting.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tagged: brilliantlove, Dog Pound, Elvis & Madona, Snap, Sons of Perdition
