Our guide to the Calgary International Film Festival
Navigating a film festival lineup can be a daunting task. With hundreds of films you never know when you might be skipping out on a hidden gem or settling in for a three-hour clunker. To make your task a little easier Fast Forward’s intrepid writers took in a sampling of the Calgary International Film Festival’s offerings. Keep in mind the fest offers many more films than we could fit in this space — a little extra digging will always be rewarded.
A NECESSARY DEATH
(U.S.A. 2008)
Directed by Daniel Stamm
Sept. 26 11:30 p.m. Plaza;
Sept. 27 2:45 p.m. Plaza
A “documentary” presented under the guise of a serious philosophical dialogue A Necessary Death follows Gilbert a film student who decides as his graduate thesis to make a film about suicide. That is a film following someone who wants to commit suicide as they prepare for death.
Two of Gilbert’s friends decide to join him on this bizarre foolhardy venture interviewing a series of people who profess to want to kill themselves. They strike gold with Matt a young man dying of a brain tumour. They figure his suicide is humane euthanasia and take him on as their subject.
So the experiment begins. The drama quickly piles up: the school won’t fund the documentary; the filmmakers wrestle with the legal implications of the situation; Matt and Valerie Gilbert’s ex start fucking each other.
A Necessary Death takes the possibilities of what you can show on film to its natural conclusion but to what purpose? From the beginning despite being essentially a horror film the film does nothing to differentiate itself from other genre films of the "true story" ilk. Still not to spoil anything — let’s just say the ending is a blast.
BRYN EVANS
ADVENTURES OF POWER
(U.S.A. 2008)
Directed by Ari Gold
Sept. 19 7:30 p.m. Uptown;
Sept. 20 9:15 p.m. Westhills
Starring written and directed by Ari Gold Adventures of Power is the kind of hipster comedy that will either grate on viewers’ nerves or become an instant cult favourite. Power is a small-town New Mexico misfit with a passion for terrible music and spastic air-drumming. After being laid off from his mining job Power heads to New Jersey to join an air-drumming crew and compete in an air-drum competition all while avenging wrongs committed against his father and finding his place in the world. Along the way he finds an archrival in a celebrity drumming cowboy (Adrien Grenier) and falls in love with a Christian deaf girl (Shoshanna Stern) who connects to his silent beat.
Sound kind of weird and a little too clever for its own good? It is. Gold’s film fits somewhere on the indie spectrum between Napolean Dynamite and Spike Jonze in the “Praise You” video (which is not necessarily a good thing). It may be a little too stylish (and the air-drumming gag does start to wear thin by the end of the movie) but Adventures of Power is pretty funny and surprisingly heartwarming. Plus it’s worth checking out if only for what is easily the best use of a Phil Collins song in cinematic history.
ELIZABETH CHORNEY-BOOTH
APPALOOSA
(U.S.A. 2008)
Directed by Ed Harris
Sept. 23 7 p.m. Globe
There’s nothing fashionably reflexive or revisionist about Ed Harris’ well-told tale of two lawmen with their own brand of frontier justice. The actor’s second directorial effort after Pollock Appaloosa is a western plain and simple. Of course like the best examples of the genre it’s not so simple at all equipped as it is with big themes about love and loyalty a memorable array of characters and a narrative that’s especially hearty and satisfying when compared to the runny gruel that passes for storytelling in contemporary Hollywood filmmaking.
The graceful rapport between Harris and Viggo Mortensen as Virgil and Everett respectively is a pleasure to behold. The two excel as veteran gunmen who’ve been enlisted by the titular town to foil a gang of murderous ruffians led by a smooth-tongued villain named Bragg (Jeremy Irons). Virgil’s all-business attitude softens when he meets Allison (Renee Zellweger) a seemingly classy lady who turns out to have her own set of survival skills.
Displaying great confidence in the material (adapted from a book by Robert B. Parker) Harris knows not to rush matters. Instead Appaloosa’s unhurried pace and old-fashioned sense of decorum allow for its many virtues to shine through.
JASON ANDERSON
THE BEETLE
(Israel 2008)
Directed by Yishai Orian
Sept. 22 9:15 p.m. Eau Claire;
Sept. 23 9:30 p.m. Eau Claire
The Beetle handily proves self-absorption is no longer just the domain of twee American indies. This documentary from Israel chronicles director Yishai Orian’s embarrassing attempts to hold onto a run down Volkswagen Beetle against the wishes of his pregnant wife. His high-concept delusion is to track down the Beetle’s previous owners and prove to his wife that the car has a rich history. You know because every parent wants their infant child to ride in a whimsically yellow death cage with a barely functioning engine that was once owned by songwriter Yoram Teharlev. The whole documentary comes off as Orian telling his wife “ Ha! I told you I didn’t need to get rid of the car!”
The Beetle is like an unfunny artificial and empty Judd Apatow film even though it’s supposed to be a documentary. Sections of the film stretch credibility: a hitchhiking Orian is picked up by a truck that just happens to have room for his Beetle. Then there’s the tourist montage of Orian in Jordan. He looks through the local market and picks out postcards after fighting with his wife about leaving her alone late in her pregnancy. The only true moment in the film comes when Orian pulls over after finding out his wife’s water has broken and the cinematographer complains about a ruined shot. Otherwise The Beetle is an odious celebration of self-absorption disguised as a heartwarming documentary.
ALAN CHO
CHILDREN
(Iceland 2006)
Directed by Ragnar Bragason
Sept. 19 6:45 p.m. Uptown;
Sept. 20 5:15 p.m. Uptown
The rundown barren Reykjavik neighbourhood Ragnar Bragason’s Children takes place in is a far cry from the city’s reputation as a chic urbane destination for European jetsetters but it’s the perfect locale for the film’s depressing look into the lives of three fractured characters and the effects they have on those around them. Filmed in stark shades of grey and featuring a sorrowful soundtrack Children is a bleak downer of a film that is worth the morose mood it will create in audiences.
The film follows the lives of a single mother of four forced to turn to illegal activities to pay the bills a mentally ill man with an overwhelming Oedipus complex and a street tough who is in over his head and willing to exploit anyone to get back above water. Gradually their stories pull together and as they do things turn from bad to worse.
Though Children could be criticized for being overly hopeless it sticks to its mood remarkably well. The performances are uniformly strong the dialogue sounds real — even after going through the translation from Icelandic to English — and the scenes are filmed in long slow shots that feel like helpless sighs. Children is the polar opposite of a feel-good flick but its quality more than makes up for its dourness.
GARTH PAULSON
DRIVING TO ZIGZIGLAND
(U.S.A. Palestine 2007)
Directed by Nicole Ballivian
Sept. 27 9:30 p.m. Globe;
Sept. 28 5 p.m. Globe
Director Nicole Ballivian toggles back and forth between Jerusalem and Los Angeles contrasting deluxe dreams and stark oppression in Driving to Zigzigland . Arab actor Bashar Da’as is struggling to make it big in post 9/11 America but is reduced to driving a cab through the streets of La-La Land. At auditions his dreams of making it on the big screen are stymied as casting agents routinely offer him roles as a terrorist. Da’as (who portrays himself) combines his frustration with moments of dignity and fiery outbursts.
As Da’as struggles to make enough to get by he endures drunks zealots and scam artists. Fed up with the predictably political reaction of passengers to his Palestinian roots he decides to tell his fares he’s from a fictional country called Zigzigland. The ensuing ignorance would be funny if it weren’t so alarming.
Reflecting on his life as an actor in Jerusalem and Ramallah through a series of flashbacks we’re shown the stultifying reality of queuing up at the infamous security wall through his eyes. The effect is infuriating. Part black comedy part drama Driving to Zigzigland is a herky-jerky ride but one well worth the fare.
ROBERTA McDONALD
THE END
(United Kingdom 2008)
Directed by Nicola Collins
Sept. 26 9:15 p.m. Eau Claire;
Sept. 28 9:15 p.m. Eau Claire
Underneath the thuggish posturing clumsy structure haphazard montages and ominous synth music that sounds as if it has been pilfered from a TLC true crime series is a good documentary. In The End first-time director Nicola Collins interviews her father and his friends who were all once notorious criminals operating in London’s West End. From the black-and-white interview footage to the attempts at mimicking various stylistic tics of British gangster films Collins obviously reveres these men. She plays up their Cockney gangster cool as they pose in sunglasses and say things like “You’d have to kill me because I guarantee the next guy will get one in the nut.” Hard questions are quickly shooed away for anecdotes about killing a man with acid or how an enforcer beat the shit out of an old childhood bully every time they met. The film is filled with colourful characters with great stories but Collins muddles it all with a bizarre structure of loosely related topics that makes for disjointed interviews and a flimsy narrative. Still The End gets by on a cast of gangsters who know how to tell a story even if the director doesn’t.
ALAN CHO
FIX
(U.S.A. 2008)
Directed by Tao Rispoli
Sept. 22 9:30 p.m. Globe;
Sept. 27 12:30 p.m. Plaza
The narrative film debut of director Tao Rispoli Fix follows the semi-fictional story of Milo Leo and Bella as they spend a day scrambling around Los Angeles trying to scrape together $5000 to check Leo into rehab by the end of the day — if they don’t he’ll go to jail for three years. Though the film is based on true events it fits snugly into the road-film genre complete with all the eclectic accoutrements that go along with it. That is road films tend to have a “pit stop” approach to narrative. The characters are constantly moving toward a common goal and the plot occurs around them in nodes; supporting characters move in and out of their lives at random and the decision-consequence binary that most films are structured around is replaced by a constant reaction to these external forces. The manic chaotic pace that tends to result may be part of the reason why they’ve never really caught on in the mainstream but for the handful of you who delight in a little confusion Rispoli’s got your Fix.
KYLE FRANCIS
GROWING OP
(Canada 2007)
Directed by Michael Melski
Sept 23 6:45 p.m. Uptown
It’s a new twist on the John Hughes misfit-chases-the-popular-girl teen movie formula. From all outward appearances Quinn Dawson’s house is normal but his family members are actually marijuana farmers running a boutique grow-op from their house. They’re also anti-establishment lefties who insist on home-schooling their two teenaged children. Quinn (Steven Yaffee) decides to rebel and attend a real high school when he meets Crystal (Rachel Blanchard) the gorgeous girl who lives across the street with her conservative parents. Quinn tries to fit in with the jocks at school they torment him much pot is smoked and hijinks ensue.
While Melski offers a twist on the teen movie formula he not only falls into every bad teen movie cliché he throws in every bad marijuana cliché to boot (yes there is a scene where Crystal’s square parents get tricked into getting stoned via a tasty dessert). With Weeds setting the bar for tales of suburban parental pot dealers Growing Op just comes off as another lame teen comedy.
ELIZABETH CHORNEY-BOOTH
HI MY NAME IS RYAN
(U.S.A. 2007)
Directed by Paul Eagleston and Stephen Rose
Sept. 26 7:15 p.m. Uptown;
Sept. 27 12 p.m. Uptown
Every high school has at least one person like Ryan Avery the awkward pudgy kid who hangs in the back of the room alone with his weird interests that confuse anyone who makes an effort to find out what they are. Avery the centrepiece of Paul Eagleston and Stephen Rose’s documentary Hi My Name is Ryan has several strikes against his social acceptability such as a human growth hormone deficiency that makes him look like an eight-year-old. His often absent parents are little help.
Though this combination might sound like the recipe for the ultimate social outcast Hi My Name is Ryan depicts Avery as the focal point of a burgeoning Phoenix Arizona art-punk scene surrounded by the kind of supportive and understanding friends most people only dream of. The film is essentially an overview of Avery’s dozens of bands improv troupes performance projects artistic pursuits and the antics he and his friends get up to in putting them all together.
What really emerges from the film though isn’t Avery’s unbridled sometimes talentless creativity but his endlessly optimistic view of a life that has seemingly dealt him a bad hand. Watching Avery turn this hand into a winner is a highly engrossing uplifting experience that should be required viewing for anyone who can remember their high school’s version of Ryan Avery.
GARTH PAULSON
HOPE FOR THE BROKEN CONTENDER
(Canada 2007)
Directed by Chris Schuerman
Sept. 19 7 p.m. Globe;
Sept. 20 2:45 p.m. Globe
Everyone involved in Chris Schuerman’s Hope for the Broken Contender has a lot of potential but it feels like a learning experience. Filmed in Calgary and Regina on a shoestring budget by a bunch of friends it’s evident that the film was made with passion but sadly this passion doesn’t translate into quality.
Contender follows Ryan Yule a drug dealer in a completely unbelievable approximation of what a gang might be like who finds his desire to box rekindled after getting beaten up. Yule’s boxing aspirations clash with his gang commitments and as he rises through the pugilist ranks he becomes more and more desperate to find a way out of his criminal life culminating in a sympathy-destroying last resort.
While there’s a lot of pathos to be mined from the premise the script and the performances end up forced where they’re supposed to be heart-wrenching. Yule spends too much time staring off into the distance with a troubled expression and though efforts are made the menace of the gang he’s trying to escape is never established.
With a little more time money and editing Hope for the Broken Contender could be the tension-filled emotional movie it wants to be. The potential is there Contender just doesn’t actualize it.
GARTH PAULSON
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN
(Sweden 2007)
Directed by Tomas Alfredson
Sept. 20 9:15 p.m. Uptown;
Sept. 21 9:15 p.m. Westhills
Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) is a meek 12-year-old boy who gets bullied at school. When a mysterious and daylight-shunning girl named Eli (Lina Leandersson) moves in next door she tells him flat out “We can’t be friends.” This of course means that they become inseparable companions almost immediately. The twist is that Eli is a bloodsucking vampire who is responsible for a sudden rash of bizarre homicides currently sweeping the Swedish countryside. Oskar is completely fine with this and turns a blind eye to all the horror and killings and whatnot because none of it matters as much as his own preposterous angst and alienation. He is after all bullied at school.
You can tell from the dreary pace and marathon moping sessions that Let the Right One In really wants to be taken seriously but I just couldn’t believe in it. I’m not talking about the vampire stuff I mean the characters the incidents and the motivations. None of it clicked as real to me so I wound up rolling my eyes a lot whenever the movie spazzed out and hocked up anything supernatural. I don’t think I was supposed to sneer at the hilarious ineptitude of Eli’s “father” as he screwed up his blood-collecting missions. I don’t think I was supposed to laugh at the sight of a woman screaming and running through a house while dozens of housecats chew on her like rabid weasels. And I certainly don’t think I was supposed to think about the killer rabbit from Monty Python when a little girl leaps up on a grown man and chomps on his neck.
Moments of accidental mirth aside I didn’t connect with Let the Right One In . If you wear black lipstick and blog incessantly about how nobody understands your pain you might feel differently but in that case you probably wouldn’t want to read a positive review anyway.
JOHN TEBBUTT
MERMAID
(Russia 2007)
Directed by Anna Melikyan
Sept. 23 9:15 p.m. Uptown;
Sept. 28 7 p.m. Westhills
This oddball fantasy-comedy-drama-romance from Russia details the unusual life of a rebellious young girl who believes that she has magical powers.
We first get to know Alisa as a six-year-old would-be ballerina played at this age by Anastasia Dontsova. After a series of disappointments (missing out on ballet school giving up on ever meeting her father) Alisa becomes voluntarily mute and doesn’t speak another word until her teen years. A typhoon wrecks the coastal village where Alisa and her mother live and they start a new life in Moscow. There the now teenaged Alisa (Anna Melikyan) finds odd jobs and odder friends. She falls in love with a rich douchebag who sells real estate on the moon and is completely oblivious to her devotion. By dying her hair green she succeeds in attracting his attention and becomes the “moon girl” on billboards hawking lunar property.
Mermaid isn’t so much a narrative film as an anecdotal one. Things float pleasantly along buoyed by the offbeat charm of the protagonist. There are subtle parallels with Hans Christian Anderson’s Little Mermaid (Alisa gives up the power of speech and falls for an unsuitable and unresponsive man) but this tale is clearly its own beast. We’re never too sure where things are going but we’re curious enough to stick around and find out.
JOHN TEBBUTT
MOTHERS&DAUGHTERS
(Canada 2008)
Directed by Carl Bessai
Sept. 25 7:15 p.m. Uptown;
Sept. 28 3 p.m. Uptown
As its blunt title would suggest Mothers&Daughters explores the complicated bonds between a group of middle-aged women and their grown daughters. Carl Bessai (who wrote produced and directed the project) emphasizes the uniqueness of the mom-daughter relationship creating characters that go far beyond the typical nagging mom-rebellious daughter archetype. Micki (Babz Chula) is an egomaniacal author who is too self-absorbed to properly mother her angry daughter. Brenda (Gabrielle Rose) is a traditional matriarch who faces a nervous breakdown upon the collapse of her marriage. And Celine (Tantoo Cardinal) is searching to fill the void left by her daughter who is no longer part of her life.
Bessai covers some interesting ground with his mock-documentary style letting the women’s stories unfold slowly. The film’s impact is marred by some clunky dialogue and over-the-top acting (Chula’s character is designed to be a diva but she pushes it way too far). Still Mothers&Daughters ’ message is a sweet one and the film is a compelling take on an always fascinating subject.
ELIZABETH CHORNEY-BOOTH
RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
(U.S.A. 2008)
Directed by Jonathan Demme
Sept. 25 7 p.m. Plaza
It’s been a slow season for the kind of folks who refer to movie stars by their first names and love to make Oscar prognostications months before the big event. That’s one reason there’s been so much buzz surrounding Anne Hathaway’s arresting turn as a (barely) recovering addict in Jonathan Demme’s bustling new melodrama.
The star of gentler fare like The Princess Diaries and Get Smart clearly relishes the opportunity to tap into her darker energies by playing Kym a sarcastic self-destructive narcissist who gets a weekend pass from rehab to attend the nuptials of her sister Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) at the family home in Connecticut. As the house fills with guests and musicians (Rachel’s beau is played by TV on the Radio singer Tunde Adebimpe) Kym goes to war with her relatives as she nears another meltdown. With its mix of heated confrontations and joyful communions within the charged context of a family gathering Rachel Getting Married is strongly reminiscent of both Robert Altman’s A Wedding and Thomas Vinterberg’s The Celebration (Declan Quinn’s handheld camerawork is oh so Dogme).
Unfortunately the film’s boisterous energy and strong performances can’t entirely compensate for the easier contrivances in Jenny Lumet’s script or Demme’s indulgent attitude toward the attendees (old pals like Robyn Hitchcock and Roger Corman drop by). But with her sense of raw fury and even rawer hurt Hathaway invigorates every scene she’s in.
JASON ANDERSON
(REC)
(Spain 2007)
Directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza
Sept. 27 11:30 p.m. Plaza;
Sept. 28 9:15 p.m. Westhills
(Rec) is a nasty Spanish horror flick that takes its cues from the superhuman monster mash of 28 Days Later and George Romero’s latest zombie film-within-a-film Diary of the Dead . It opens with a reality TV camera crew following a group of late-shift firefighters. The firefighters answer a call from an apartment complex where the tenants have been hearing screams from an old woman’s apartment. A crew of police firefighters and tired residents find the old woman covered in blood skulking about the room. She suddenly attacks and eats someone’s face.
It turns out a deadly virus (like the rage-ohol in 28 Days Later ) has broken out in the apartment building turning its victims into superhuman rabid zombies. Everyone is quarantined inside and the film becomes a game of hide-and-seek waiting to see who will survive the night.
The film is shot first-person which leads to a number of nausea-inducing sequences as the camera gesticulates in the terrified cameraman’s hands. More often than not though it’s used to great effect — creeping into hidden corners and peeking over staircases. While (Rec) steals shamelessly from other genre pictures its relentless pace punctuated with an endless series of shocks (including one awesomely violent and gory sequence) will scare the bejeezus out of horror fans.
BRYN EVANS
SAVING LUNA
(Canada 2007)
Directed by Suzanne Chisholm and Michael Parfit
Sept. 27 12:30 p.m. Eau Claire
At the heart of Suzanne Chisholm and Michael Parfit’s documentary Saving Luna is an intriguing story about what separates humans from animals and whether those separations truly serve either the humans or the animals’ best interests. This issue is brought up when Luna an orphaned orca whale starts interacting with boaters near a small town on Vancouver Island. While it’s obvious that Luna is trying to re-create the companionship he should be receiving from his pod reactions to his behaviour vary wildly from those who want to treat the whale like the family dog to scientists who insist interaction with humans will only be harmful.
As the years pass and Luna’s affections show no signs of dwindling strains begins to emerge within the community which is divided into several different camps depending on what they think should be done with the playful troublesome whale. As tensions flare the various camps perform astonishing feats to either trap and transport Luna or save and nurture him. Watching these moments it’s easy to forget that events taking place in Saving Luna actually happened.
Though the story is compelling and the film is often beautifully shot Saving Luna does run into some of the problems that typically plague nature documentaries. The narration often descends into the realms of spiritual purple prose and the filmmakers do very little to maintain any objectivity towards the events they document. Fortunately the incredible story makes it fairly easy to overlook this flaw.
GARTH PAULSON
SECOND SKIN
(U.S.A. 2008)
Directed by Juan Carlos Piniero Escoriaza
Sept. 20 5 p.m. Globe;
Sept. 21 4:30 p.m. Globe
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) have exploded into a $20-billion industry since the launch of games such as World of Warcraft and Everquest II . Despite their massive popularity little thought has been given to the social repercussions of giving so much weight to our online personalities and relationships.
Director Juan Carlos Piniero Escoriaza chronicles the lives of seven gamers with a variety of issues. From the bloom and doom of a dysfunctional love affair to an addict’s odyssey of recovery each of the documentary’s subjects discusses their relationships both on and offline with refreshing candour and eloquence. Interspersing the experiences of his subjects with a series of interviews featuring social commentators gaming aficionados and entrepreneurs Escoriaza paints an unsettlingly bleak portrait of our increasing isolation.
Tragedy love and redemption are all represented in an ethereal universe that is growing by the millions. It’s a lucrative industry that has spawned cyber-sweat shops in China themed weddings and Las Vegas conventions. Despite the negative outcome for some others find a new life in which they can be accepted for their worth and not their disabilities. Second Skin is a clever yet jarring depiction of life in an increasingly disjointed world.
ROBERTA McDONALD
SITA SINGS THE BLUES
(U.S.A. 2007)
Directed by Nina Paley
Sept. 25 7 p.m. Uptown;
Sept. 27 9:15 p.m. Westhills
Sita Sings the Blues is a film that reeks of agenda. In this animated watered-down retelling of the Ramayana writer-director Nina Paley attempts to show the timeless resonance the ancient Hindu story has with all romantic relationships but for anyone who’s ever read even the vaguest plot summary of the myth this should be self-evident. The film ultimately feels as though it’s talking down to its audience spelling out obvious connections during many of the mythological segments and downright whining during most of the contemporary bits Paley pulled from her own experience. If her own story had more than the flimsy connections all relationships have to timeless tragic love stories (that’s why they’re timeless) it might have worked. As it is it just comes off as ham-fisted and solipsistic.
The title comes from the film’s use of animated interludes set to Annette Hanshaw songs. These are uniformly well
