Saturday, September 22nd, 2007

The Cold Hour (La Hora Fria)

After a massive war, a small group of adults and children live together in an enormous building. They cannot leave because of the remnants of the war: infected "Strangers" who lose their skin and have a lethal touch, and more mysterious "Invisibles" who come to hunt at night, freezing the air and using body heat to find victims. Supplies are running low, and it becomes necessary to find a way out or a way to get more food and medicine in order to survive.

The atmosphere of this movie reminded me a lot of Day of the Dead though not nearly as hostile. It was clear that the survivors here were together for a reason beyond just happening to work together, and had developed more close relationships. The characters seemed as confused as the audience as to why certain things happened, but generally seemed to have a good handle on what was going on. The atmosphere is perfect, with lots of muted grey and blue giving it an appropriately cold and bleak look. Much of the exposition is handled through one of the kids going around interviewing the others with his video camera, which is a clever way of explaining things to the audience. The three Spanish movies this year are getting a lot of positive reactions, and between this and The Backwoods, it's easy to see why.

Prior to the feature, Postman was shown. There isn't a lot to it, it's just a neat little animation with some nuclear explosions and cool looking monsters. Don't confuse it with Postal as one reviewer did.

Princess

August's sister Christina dies, leaving him to take care of his niece Mia. He learns that Christina's life as a porn star left Mia subject to abuse, and decides to protect her from learning about it as much as possible. He works to destroy all remnants of his sister's career, leading him on a bloody rampage against the porn industry.

I did not expect to even see this movie; the synopsis did not sound very appealing, but I am glad I made it. I thought the animation was a little crude at the start, but as it went on, I was totally sucked in and forgot about any of its shortcomings. For the most part, it is drawn in a somewhat realistic style, but occasionally there are some beautiful shots that could only be achieved in animation with no regard for actual placement of objects or perspective. The combination of the animation with live action parts filmed on a grainy camcorder made for a very interesting visual style.

I found it very easy to sympathize with August, which might mean I am a psychopath, or that the makers simply did a great job of explaining his motivation for his revenge. His love for and frustration with Mia comes across perfectly. The pornographers are a little one dimensional, but given that the story is told largely from August's point of view, that may be attributed to simply how he sees them. I'm not sure that "enjoyed" would be the right word for what I thought about this movie, but it was very good. It just also happened to be wildly depressing and tragic.

Flash Point

An undercover cop and his partner are working together to take down a Vietnamese gang in Hong Kong. When they are exposed, an all out war erupts between the two of them and the three brothers running the gang.

I had a little trouble following the plot at times, but luckily it takes a back seat to the real attraction, the action. After Princess, I definitely needed to see something different, so a little Hong Kong action was just right. This really was one of the best examples of the genre I've seen in a while. It is rare to see a movie that embraces both the gun and martial arts sides of Hong Kong action, but Flash Point did both very well. As I said, the plot is kind of inconsequential, but the action is top notch. It's exactly what you should expect from a good action movie, and luckily, it manages to keep up the steam throughout, rather than blowing everything on one good fight.

Sex and Death 101

Roderick Blank receives an email a few weeks before his wedding day with a list of names, detailing every woman he has had sex with, and every one he will have sex with in the future. The list causes him to rethink his life and his commitment to his fiancée. Meanwhile, a serial killer known as "Death Nell" is targeting men who commit sex crimes against women.

I am of mixed feelings about this movie. It started out pretty funny, but by the end, seemed to have lost some of its charm. For a long stretch in the middle, it seemed to stagnate. The most effective part to me was when Roderick decided to not let the list control him and get rid of it, bringing uncertainty back into his life. Apart from that, it mostly fell into that strange genre where the audience is supposed to feel sorry for someone who has wonderful things happen to him. A lot of the jokes were very funny, and it will probably find a wide audience that likes it, but overall, it just wasn't my type of film.

Afterwards, there was a pretty good Q&A session with the director and a few of the stars. There were some interesting questions about the transition from standup to acting, the possibility of Heathers 2, and others. Simon Baker was practically begging for someone in the audience who had DirecTV to let him come over to watch a rugby game, but there surprisingly weren't any takers.

Paired with this more comedic film was one of the most frightening shorts I have seen this festival, In The Wall. On New Year's Eve, a pregnant woman comes home to her abusive husband, who ends up accidentally killing her. He tears a hole in the wall to hide her, but starts to see strange and terrifying visions. I was very impressed with the stifling and tense atmosphere created, and the great execution of the ideas. I don't think it could support a longer run time, but as a short, it was very successful.

Postal

A man living a terrible existence in a trailer park decides to get some money to leave town by working a con with his uncle Dave, the head of a local doomsday cult, to steal a shipment of rare dolls and sell them. However, the dolls are also wanted by Al Qaeda to pull off a devastating attack on America.

I'm not sure what I can say about this other than that I am surprised it was made. From what I know about the video games, it follows them fairly well, though with somewhat less urinating on children. Chaos is probably the best word to describe the atmosphere, and I am really surprised it managed to get an R-rating. Between all of the insanity is a somewhat heavy-handed message that seems pretty out of place among everything else happening. I think probably just being a movie based on Postal directed by Uwe Boll is enough to decide whether or not to see it, but I really did have a good time. I don't think it can be considered a good movie, though Boll did make some points afterwards that indicated that there was a lot more thought put into it than might be apparent.

The Q&A session after the showing was possibly crazier than the movie. Uwe Boll and Zack Ward talked for nearly an hour, interrupting and insulting each other and the audience. At one point, there was a shouting match back and forth about whether Ain't it Cool News was going to review Postal or not, based on rumors that Boll and one of the audience members had heard. I could not believe how long it went on, and both of them seemed ready to keep talking all night, but were cut off a little after 3:00AM.