"State of Play" *** (126 minutes)

Thursday June 11, 2009

Director Kevin MacDonald hasn't produced a large body of work but when he does, he's been spot-on! He started with his documentary on the 1972 Munich Olympic tragedy, "One Day In September" which won the AA Best Documentary in 1999. He then turned narrative with the wonderful 2004 "Touching the Void", followed by one of my favorites from 2006 "The Last King of Scotland", which won Forrest Whitaker the much deserved Best Actor Oscar.

His directorial record is intact with the intriguing newspaper/political thriller "State of Play". Not since "All The President's Men", in my opinion, has this genre been so successfully tackled. And coming at a time when the print media is being relegated more and more onto a computer screen instead of the daily fish wrap.

Based on the multi-award winning 6-part 2003 BBC series, the film stars the always excellent Russell Crowe (filling in after Brad Pitt bowed out) who tried to hide his pretty boy self with mucho extra pounds, and growing his hair into a greasy mess playing hardened newspaper reporter Cal Mcaffrey. He enters the scene after a series of seemingly unrelated killings around Washington D.C. Putting the pieces together, and maybe too quickly, he leads the investigation teamed with an audacious rookie reporter, played confidently by Rachel McAdams, who is more interested in posting immediate Internet gossip tidbits than in checking out the details typically done with the style and finesse of someone as seasoned as Mcaffrey. Caught up in all of this intrigue is a prominent congressman (Ben Affleck-whose performance is the weakest of the lot), whose role in all of this is never fully defined or realized until the end.

Present are some excellent supporting characters including Robin Wright Penn, who plays Affleck's wife and the talented Helen Mirren (who plays the editor of the fictitious Washington paper) who is more concerned with how fast the story can be scooped-no matter the cost-as her paper comes face to face with the dismal economic downturn that, nowadays, is being faced by the majority of print media.

The competent screenplay was a corroboration between Matthew Michael Carnahan ("The Kingdom" & "Lions for Lambs"), Tony Gilroy ("Michael Clayton" & "The Bourne Ultimatum") and Billy Ray ("Shattered Glass"). Alex Heffes, who did the non obtrusive score, also worked with MacDonald on "One Day In September" and "The Last King of Scotland".

What didn't work for me was that so much is crammed into the over 2 hour film that you'll need a scorecard to figure it all out-or at least a companion or two to run by some plot points with later on. And the speed in which Crowe solves so many things so quickly is probably due to shrinking the 6 hour mini-series into a third of its original running time.

Despite that, you will be entertained enough by a riveting story and some fine acting that it is easy to forgive its slight failings.

"Every Little Step" ***1/2 (96 minutes)

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

"A Chorus Line" was one of the first Broadway shows I ever saw, and still one of my all time favorites. It now gets a wonderful treatment in James D. Stern & Adam Del Deo's outstanding documentary that chronicles the casting of the 2005 30th year revival.

The film becomes a reality play (perfect in this reality-crazed era) about the play that chronicles 17 dancers vying for roles in an unnamed production. The original creator, the late Michael Bennett (who died from AIDS-related lymphoma in 1987), culled hundreds of hours of taped interviews with aspiring Broadway performers to form one of the most successful hits of all times (it was nominated for 12 Tonys and won 9).

What is most fascinating is that the directors obtained past footage of Bennett obtaining those tapes and we hear the actual words of the dancers who laid out their collective souls to the recordings that formed the basis of the play. The directors then take us through rare decades long footage and recent interviews to show how absolutely timeless the production is.

You'll watch and care for several of the auditioners as they go through each grueling step of the process-just as their characters do in the play. Then you'll root and cheer for your favorites-not knowing the final selection until the end.

Taking part in the current selection process is Bob Avian, the original choreographer in the 1975 production, and the original Connie, Baayork Lee, who is a character herself, as she does the lineups & teaches routines to each of the participants vying for a spot on the roster. Interspersed are snippets (and, boy, did I yearn for more!) of the landmark music that has become a staple of our musical culture.

So what you have is not only the history of one of the greatest musicals of all time, but also added rare insight into what it takes to thrive and succeed in a cutthroat business where being the most talented doesn't necessarily mean triumph in the end.

A must see by anyone who loves the theater and the human toil and drama behind it!

"Revanche" ***1/2 (121 minutes)

Sunday May 31, 2009

Time to take in one of the nominees for this year's AA Best Foreign Language film at The Charles Sunday Cinema Club. First time Austrian director/screenwriter Goetz Spielman has crafted a fascinating tale that never telescopes its script and surprises on many levels.

"Revanche" (revenge) begins with brothel assistant ex-con Alex (Johannes Krisch, in a mesmerizing performance) about to make love to his Ukrainian prostitute girlfriend, Tamara (Irina Potapenko). Both are tired of working for their opportunistic boss-especially after the boss offers Tamara an offer he believes she can't refuse. So, instead, Alex offers her a chance to escape their dismal existence by making a score robbing a bank.

In the process, their lives intersect with a good guy local policeman (Andreas Lust) and his wife (Ursula Strauss) whose encounter with them changes all their lives in ways you never see coming.

The story moves at a deliberate but fascinating pace as it slowly reveals the complexities of the characters and their circumstances. And the minimal soundtrack is a plus for such a story-driven film. If you're patient, you'll be amply rewarded with a tense, intelligent story, that will have you thinking twice about how human beings handle adversity and grief when they least expect it.

The always interesting former AFI director and chief executive officer, writer & lyricist (co-writer of Broadway's "Ain't Misbehavin"), Murray Horwitz, led the interesting discussion and Q & A at the film's conclusion.

Writer & lyricist Murray Horowitz with
CSC moderator Jonathan Pelevsky

"The Hangover" (** 1/2) (100 minutes)

Wednesday May 27, 2009

You would have thought they were giving out multiple canisters of laughing gas to the preview audience on their way in. I never heard such collective laughter in a theater since I've been attending movies! Me? Well, I counted 3 chuckles and one laugh out loud. Maybe it was because I saw an extended 3 minute trailer on TV a week before the screening-which showed every major joke contained in the feature length product. Maybe it was because I didn't find Zack Galifiankas' borderline pedophile character very funny. Maybe it was my mood. Whatever the reason, for me, this was this year's "Juno".

I must admit, the premise and setup looked promising. Four dudes (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Galifiankas, & Justin Bartha) travel to Vegas to celebrate Bartha's bachelor party. Once there, each is unknowingly slipped a roofie and wake up the next morning with that "hangover" in which no one can remember the night before. Not only that, they wake up to find a tiger in the bathroom, a baby in the closet, & a tooth missing from the mouth of one of the participants. Oh, and the groom is nowhere to be found. When they start to investigate they give their car keys to the attendant who proceeds to bring them a police car. The rest of the film has them trying to piece together the events that would explain all this-all the while trying to find the groom who is scheduled to be married the next day.

Add to the mix Heather Graham's heart-of-gold stripper character (who nerdy Helms finds himself married to the next day) and a cameo by Mike Tyson (playing his 'ol heart-of-gold self). However, the film never convinced me to laugh anywhere close to the hysterics around me.

Director Todd Phillips barely distinguished himself with his previous comedic efforts (2000's "Road Trip, 2003's "Old School", and 204's "Starsky & Hutch"). The same can be said for co-screenwriter Scott Moore, whose most recent effort is "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past". However, this one should put them all on the map-if based on the response I heard this night.

A sequel is already in the works. Can't wait.

"Sin Nombre" (****) (96 minutes)

Monday May 25, 2009

The best film I've seen this year, this great first effort by writer/director Cary Fukunaga is, literally, a mind blower!! Winner of the Directing and Cinematography Awards at this year's Sundance, this realistic masterpiece will stay with you, as I like to say, long after the lights come up.

The plot follows 2 separate story lines that later converge. The first follows Casper/"Willy" (new comer Edgar Flores), a member of the Mara Salvatrucha gang based in Tapachula, Mexico as he is about to bring in a new recruit: 12-year-old "Smiley" (Kristyan Ferrer). The second follows Sayra (Paulina Gaitlan), a Honduras teenager, about to join forces with her father (whom she barely knows) and uncle in Mexico to immigrate on the tops of trains to New Jersey. Her father was deported and is trying to reunite his family in The States. How these stories collide is both equally thrilling and heartbreaking.

The story telling is top notch and the beauty of the 35mm print is breathtaking! The director was inspired by a 2003 story in which 80 illegal immigrants were locked inside a truck and abandoned resulting in 19 deaths. To affect the realism, he rode the trains for days.

The experience will provide a view of modern day Mexico that will have you rethinking your position on such issues as gang violence and immigration by putting you squarely in the middle of this culture in a way few films have ever done. These are people who will risk everything to better their lot in life-no matter the odds.

It continuously galls me that the endless stream of Hollywood dreck rakes in dollar after dollar while films such as this struggle to find an audience. "Sin Nombre" (which means "the nameless") has already opened in limited release. If you can't see it in a theater, put it at the top of your Netflix list.

Terminator Salvation (**1/2) (115 minutes)

Monday May 18, 2009

It's nearly summer so that means yet another Hollywood sequel is out to join in the cinematic blockbuster landscape. This time around, it's the 4th offering in the franchise series started so successfully by James Cameron in 1984 and followed nicely by his sequel ("Terminator Judgment Day") in 1991. Then in 2003, Jonathan Mostow ("Hancock") took over and had less success with the 3rd installment", "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines". Now, Joseph McGinty (better know as McG-he of the "Charlie's Angels" franchise) has taken over and the results are mixed at best.

The resident cyborg this time around is Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) who is a convicted murderer in the recent past who is asked to sign over his body by a mysterious Helena Bonham Carter just before execution. McG then picks up the story in post-apocalyptic 2018 where the machines have taken hold of the planet. A grown up John Conner (Christian Bale) is now leading the resistance again Skynet after prior terminators failed to return to the past and kill him off as a child.

Wright meets up with Conner's teenage father (Anton Yelchin), whom John must locate to send back in time to impregnate John's mother, Sarah. Got that?! Now here's the kicker: cyborg Wright has more emotions & charisma than Bale's John Conner! So much for man vs. machine!!

Actually, plot is not the strong point in this noisy mess. There is a slight hint of humor that falls flat (it involves the franchise phrase "I'll be back" first uttered by Arnold-you-know-who. Who, by the way, makes a digital appearance midway through the proceedings). However, even though there is more action packed into its nearly 2 hours of running time than any film in recent memory (the impressive special effects will remind you of a video game gone amok), in the end, I forgot most of what I'd seen by the time I reached my car.

11th Maryland Film Festival-Day 4 & Final Thoughts

Sunday May 10, 2009

Another MFF annual event is the 7th straight appearance of the great Alloy Orchestra-this time around performing the score for, what many consider, one of the greatest films of all time: Dziga Vertov's 1929 classic "Man With a Movie Camera" (****). Part of a radical Soviet group of filmmakers called "kinoks", Dziga and his brother Mikhail Kaufman despised fiction film making and pioneered a style that is at the crux of the modern documentary genre. Here he turns his camera on to capture daily Soviet life in 1929-often hiding huge bulky cameras from his subjects. So contrary was it to Stalinist thinking that it was, understandably, banned from showings in the Soviet Union. Alloy first performed and recorded the score in 1995 but due to a the lack of a suitable print, ceased performing it for over 10 years. That is until they recently received a print from a Russian archive. So, after a 10 year hiatus, they began performing their remarkable score a month ago in Russia. Jed has brought back the internationally renowned trio for their first North American performance with the newly acquired print. If you've never seen them in person, you have another chance to hear their remarkable interpretation of this film when they return to National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. this coming August. The event is free to the public and it is well worth a trip down the Beltway to see, not only a landmark film but also the amazing creativity of The Alloy Orchestra whom Roger Ebert calls "the best in the world at accompanying silent film".

Next on the agenda is yet another top notch documentary, Michael Fountain's portrait of a beloved coal miner and his family in Dante, Virginia. Fountain's "Bonecrusher" (*** 1/2) mixes the dark and terrifying world deep in the Appalachian mines with the beautiful landscape that covers them. The contrast is startling but what really hits home is that, for generations, these folks risk their lives with the daily threat of cave-ins and job related disease yet involve themselves in close knit communities that keep their spirit moving forward despite the dangers. The film focuses primarily on Luther "Bonecrusher" Chaffin and his son Lucas who is trying to follow in his well-respected dad's & granddad's footsteps. Luther retired from the mines to treat his illness probably obtained from working 25 years under the earth's surface. Fountain gained access (sometimes, as he said in the Q & A, without the proper authorization) to the mines and you can immediately sense the danger these brave folks endure each and every day. Using breathtaking outdoor cinematography as a stark contrast to the dismal mines, Fountain imparts a different feel of community that is missing in more highly populated urban areas. The actual mining is only one small aspect of the film. Mainly, it puts you inside a miner's mentality as Lucas tries to decide whether or not to follow his grand-father and father doing a job most of us wouldn't ever choose to do.

Next was a non-fiction work by one of Hollywood's preeminent directors: Baltimore's own Barry Levinson who calls his "Poliwood" (***1/2) a "film essay". Barry opened the first Maryland Film Festival in 1999 with his documentary "Original Diner Guys" and returns with this fascinating document on the interrelationship between Hollywood, the media, and politics. It's been a long held perception that liberal artists have had a major influence over the political process in general, and the Democratic party, in particular. By gaining special access to both of last year's presidential conventions, Levinson is out to dispel or prove these perceptions by giving us a comprehensive look at the relationship between Hollywood celebrities that have deeply involved themselves in the political process. The end result is an absorbing, non-biased peak into our political process that few people have rarely experienced or understood. Afterwards, the audience was treated to an absorbing panel discussion and Q&A between Levinson, actor Matthew Modine (who was there to screen his own short film "I Think I Thought" and to participate in the Maryland Film Office Panel Series at the festival), journalist and author David Brock (found of Media Matters for America), and Baltimore Sun columnist, Dan Rodricks. The discussion could easily have lasted into the night as great insight into these complex issues were raised not only by the film but also by the diverse views of the panel which had many of us rethinking and questioning our long held beliefs.

To conclude the festival, was a film that has gotten some deservedly great early buzz and reviews: Kathryn Bigelow's ("Near Dark";"Point Break") intense, action-packed "The Hurt Locker"(****) . Winner of 4 awards at last fall's Venice Film Festival and hailed at the Toronto Film festival, folks, this clearly isn't your daddy's, or granddaddy's, war movie! Taking place in 2004, the army has a unit in place, the Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) squad, whose job it is to disarm the multitude of homemade bombs (IED's or Improvised Explosive Devices) scattered throughout the streets of Baghdad. On a limited tour of duty, we are introduced to the EOD's trio played by Anthony Mackie ("Half Nelson"; "We are Marshall"), Brian Geraghty ("We are Marshall; "Jarhead"), and team leader Guy Pearce ("Memento"). When Pearce loses his life while in the midst of disarming a bomb, a new team leader is brought in that changes the whole dynamics of the squad. Is Sergeant James (brilliantly played by Jeremy Renner) a brave individual? A loose cannon who never follows protocol? A dude who is a junkie-addicted to the insane job that is the only thing he knows? Just plain crazy? All of the above??! That is up to the viewer to resolve as you follow the unit on each of their missions that will literally have you gripping the arms of the seat-or the person next to you time and time again. Included are some nice cameos by David Morse and Ralph Fiennes. And Bigelow has assembled a talented veteran crew to help tell her story including Mark Boal (who helped create "In the Valley of Elah") who wrote the smart effective screenplay based on his experience as a reporter in Iraq after spending time with an EOD squad; Director of Photography Barry Ackroyd ("United 93"; The Wind That Shakes the Barley") whose hand held camera gives an extraordinary documentary feel to the tale; production designer Karl Juliusson (who was the PD on one of my all time favorites, Lars von Trier's "Breaking The Waves"); a memorable score by AA nominees Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders ("3:10 to Yuma"); and sound design by AA nominee Paul N.J. Ottosson ("Spider Man II" and "Spider Man III"). Although Bigelow is as sure handed as anyone orchestrating the amazing action sequences, her storytelling is just as assured for a film that, hopefully won't be ignored by the masses as just another war flick. The riveting Q&A with Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal was moderated by Washington Post Critic Ann Hornaday that gave everyone further insight into this remarkable film that will be put in limited release on June 26th.


FINAL THOUGHTS

-As I said last year, it would be nice to have an opening night film instead of the short films that have become somewhat of a staple. However, I did enjoy the majority of them and thought it was one of the stronger selections in recent years.
-The inclusion of food from 2 of the areas finest restaurants was a welcome addition to Opening Night.
-There were some glitches I encountered on Friday, the first full day of screenings, such as late starting times, DVD copy with no sound, to name a couple. But the last 2 days were perfect-everything going off as scheduled with no problems.
- I screened some fabulous films (average rating 3.2 stars for the 8 documentaries and 4 narratives screened). My main disappointment was Academy Award winner Marshall Curry's doc "Racing Dreams". I expected more but, as I said in my review, I was slightly biased against the subject of race car racing-in any form.
-Overall, Jed Dietz had brought in some fine features and the Q&A's were never boring. The infusion of a greater number of documentaries and foreign fare was a definite plus.
-I missed the free outdoor screening that has been prevalent the last several years.
-The closing night film was the strongest closing of the 11 festivals. Having the director and screenwriter present, and the Q & A moderated by one of the areas leading critics, Ann Hornaday, made for an entertaining evening and a perfect wrap to the 11th Annual Maryland Film Festival (B+), recovering nicely from last year's mediocrity!




Scene from "Man With a Movie Camera"
Maryland Film Office Director, Jack Gerbes, & actor/dir Matthew Modine at the MFF Film Panel series



"Bonecrusher" Chaffin

Dir Michael Fountain

("Bonecrusher")

"Poliwood" Panel (l to r) David Brock, Matthew Modine,

Barry Levinson, Jed Dietz, & Dan Rodricks

Matthew Modine & Jed Dietz

introduce "The Hurt Locker"

Scene from "The Hurt Locker"

Screenwriter Mark Boal, Dir Kathyrn Bigelow, & critic Ann Hornaday at the Q & A

11th Maryland Film Festival-Day 3

Saturday May 9, 2009

Every year the festival has presented a classic film in 3D and for the 8th straight year our host is The Sun critic and 3D expert, Chris Kaltenbach. This year's selection is director Roy Ward Baker's ("Don't Bother to Knock" & "A Night to Remember") 1953 drama, "Inferno" (***) starring Robert Ryan, Rhonda Fleming, and William Lundigan. Nearing the end of the 3D craze in the 50's it was one of the first 3D films shot in Technicolor and stereophonic sound. Ryan's wife is having an affair with his business partner and while all 3 are traveling through the Mohave Desert, Ryan falls off a horse & breaks his leg. Fleming and Lundigan leave him to get help-or do they? The film nixes the usual 3D effects of items flying off the screen into the audience and instead concentrates on the story which, although dated, it was compelling enough to hold my interest. The print was fabulous and the technicolor process used is one that is no longer around making the screening all the more special.

Jed Dietz and company have brought more documentaries and foreign films this year to the festival than ever before and next up, direct from its premier at The Toronto Film Festival, is the Slovakian documentary "Blind Loves" (***) by director Juraj Lehotsky. Here we are presented with a group of blind folks and the topic is their quest for love and companionship in a world comprised mostly of sighted people. We are introduced to music teacher Peter; a blind married couple Elena & Laco who are expecting their first child; blind Miro and his partially blind girlfriend, Monika; and teen Zuzan, who is seeking love at her new high school. The film jumps back and forth to each, never spending an inordinate amount of time with any of them as we peer into their universe to see how they experience circumstances that most sighted people take fully for granted. There is even included a neat animated segment that stars one of the subjects. I would have liked to have known a little history about each person as the film seems to be more about the here and now. However, the lightheartedness is prevalent throughout and never depresses.

Another foreign documentary was next up: "Nina Simone: La Legende" (*** 1/2) which continued the neat tradition by the MFF folks of having films picked and hosted by people who are not in the film business. Our guest host for this one is musician Ian MacKaye (featured in the documentary "American Hardcore: The History of American Punk Rock 1980-1986"). This 1992 made for French T.V. documentary is a fascinating look into the controversial performer who continuously marched to her own beat throughout her life. A classical pianist who then became a jazz, R&B, & gospel icon, she is also known for her political stances that pulled absolutely no punches. Included in this terrific account are both contemporary and archival performances as well as interviews that give a glimpse into the career and life of one of America's most talented free spirits of the 20th century. Afterwards, the audience was treated to a wonderful Q & A session with Ian that was a pleasant compliment to this rarely seen work.

Topping out this satisfying day was Bobcat Goldthwait's latest dark comedy "World's Greatest Dad" (*** 1/2) starring Robin Williams in one of his rare subdued roles as the father of a troubled teen. Kyle (Daryl Sabara from the Spy Kids films) is one disrespectful child and Williams is one loser of a dad who happens to be a poetry teacher in Kyle's school. So what is it that makes him the "World's Greatest Dad"? Knowing nothing going in is the key to this one so no spoiler here. Suffice it to say that, as much as I liked Goldthwait's last ("Sleeping Dogs Lie" aka "Stay"), this one is more consistently funny and dark as he explores a topic that surely will turn off some in the audience. However, the Saturday night sold-out crowd in the main theater gave Bobcat such an ovation that it nearly brought him to tears as he revealed that he could hardly conduct the amusing Q&A that followed. After the applause finally subsided, director John Waters was the first to jump to his feet to inform everyone there how much he loved it. (Bobcat stated that his first choice was Philip Seymour Hoffman but when he couldn't get him, Robin came aboard. Not a bad 2nd choice!) The film, which was very well received after its Sundance premier, is set to be released on August 21. Don't miss it!


Sun Critic Chris Kaltenbach and MMF Director Jed Dietz introducing
"Inferno" in 3D

Musician Ian MacKaye & MFF Program Admin., Eric Hatch introduce
"Nina Simone"

Nina Simone



Director Bobcat Goldthwait ("World's Greatest Dad")
Directors John Waters & Bobcat after the screening of "World's Greatest Dad"

11th Maryland Film Festival-Day 2

Friday May 8, 2009

First up is a "trip" to the outskirts of Cairo to see how 60,000 Zabaleen garbage workers have, for generations, been dealing with the city's waste. "Garbage Dreams" (***) is an aptly named title for Mai Iskander's excellent documentary, as it is the dream of this collective to reclaim the job they've done for years without the benefit of modern day technology and hardware. Reclaim because their livelihood is being threaten and they have been trained in little else if this job is abolished by the city government. The film follows 3 teenage boys in particular as they are about to be relieved of the only occupation they know as a more modern but less efficient corporation is about to take over. It's a world that I'm sure most of us are unaware of as we witness the possible extinction of a whole culture built around garbage collection. Fascinating.

Next was film director/artist Agnes Varda's self-titled amazing documentary "The Beaches of Agnes" (****). Varda, who is now 80, tells her own story using her artistic background as a photographer throughout the film, which won a French Oscar (Cesar) in 2008. Although her name might not ring a bell to a lot of people reading this, her work certainly will be. Considered the Mother of the New Wave, her most renowned films includes "Cleo From 5 to 7", "Le Bonheur, "Vagabond", & "The Gleaners and I". Married for nearly 30 years to Jacques Demy ("Umbrellas of Cherbourg"), we see her hobnobbing with the likes of Depardieu, Godard, Deneuve, Jim Morrison, Alexander Calder, Jane Birkin, Robert DeNiro, Viva, and giving Harrison Ford his first infamous role (when the studio told him he'd never make it in film). They are all there in various ways-with Varda constantly giving commentary to her philosophy, work ethic, and her raison d'etre. And the artistry Agnes uses to formulate the documentary is mesmerizing and profound. All of this makes for a fascinating look into one of the premier artists of our generation.

I was highly anticipating my next film from academy award nominee Marshall Curry (2006's critically acclaimed "Street Fight"). Winner at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, "Racing Dreams" (**1 /2), however, was a major disappointment. In all fairness, despite being kind of a sports nut, I think NASCAR racing in any form is senseless and boring. So, my interest waned considerably throughout the 93 minute documentary that had me looking continuously at my watch. Actually, the documentary has a professional look and feel to it, but this story, about the world of kart racing (mini cars that go up to 80 miles an hour) by following the quest of 3 pre-teen youngsters to win the World Karting Association championship, had me disinterested from the start. Marshall tries to get us involved by including home footage as well as the requisite track stuff, but, watching their "stage" dads and moms living out their dreams through their offspring ultimately turned me off completely.

After a dinner break, I took in my last film of the day. After 3 documentaries, it was time to chill with my first narrative feature, "Seventh Moon"(* 1/2). The third film from director Eduardo Sanchez who caught lightning in a bottle with the indie/Internet hit "The Blair Witch Project", I was expecting something a little more satisfying than this mess of a ghost story set in China. Things got off to a bad start when it was discovered a couple of minutes in that the DVD copy Sanchez brought to the projection booth was minus a soundtrack. Luckily he had a promotional DVD. Unluckily, it had imprinted on it that it was a promotional copy-which appeared on the bottom of the screen print for the entire run of the disc. It didn't matter as the film probably would have played better in silence. Newlyweds Melissa (Amy Smart) and Yul (Tim Chiou) are honeymooning in his native country during the Seventh Moon ghost festival celebrating the full moon of the seventh lunar month which, legend has it, is when the dead are free to walk the earth. They hitch a ride with a cab driver who agrees to take them to his grandmother's house deep in the dark countryside. The film then takes on a "Night of the Living Dead" feel and look. Instead of jumping in fright, I jumped with glee after the credits started to roll.
The Charles
Theater-
Home of
the MFF







MFF Operations & Develop-
ment Asst Eric Cotten with dir Mai Iskander
("Garbage Dreams")











Film Critic Andrew O'Hehir introduces "Beaches of Agnes"







Agnes Varda









A scene from "Racing Dreams"










Director Marshall Curry ("Racing Dreams")








Dir Eduardo Sanchez ("7th Moon")

11th Annual Maryland Film Festival-Day 1-Opening Night

Thursday May 7, 2009

Opening night at the 11th annual and this year's program is becoming somewhat of a MFF tradition: nothing but shorts. Started in 2002, and continuing each year beginning in 2004, Festival director Jed Dietz has devoted opening night as an homage to the short film and may be the only festival in the world to present its opening night program to this unique and little appreciated art form.

An added treat is the addition of host comic/director Bobcat Goldthwait, who is on hand to present his own short film. (His much buzzed about new feature, "World's Greatest Dad" starring Robin Williams will have its Maryland premier on Saturday night.) Goldthwait has long ago abandoned his manic comic persona but not his comic sensibilities as he kept everyone laughing throughout with his sharp wit.

First up was "Goldthwait Home Movies" (***1/2). It's the fictional 40 year reunion of the "original" cast. Actually, it's Bob's home movies while he was growing up with current generally hilarious voice overs to fit the "action". It's a hit-and-miss affair that mostly hits-so much so, that a lot is lost amid all the laughter. A great way to start off the program!

The rest of the lineup included:

-the experimental "The Bellows March" (***) in which director Eric Dyer explores the use of a process he used in 2006's MFF opening night short "The Copenhagen Cycles". It spans the history of the moving image combining the pre-cinema zoetrope and modern digital video.

-"Done in One" (***1/2) is a 7 minutes short done in a single shot with no editing (hence the title) which tells the tale of a guy who reflects on why he received an unexpected beat-down and, as a result, discovers how it all came to be. Ingenious perfectly timed interacting action produce the answers that come at the end/beginning.

-Michael Langan's "Dahlia" (***) is most notable for its score: vocal percussion set to the rhythm of life in the city.

-"Trepan Hole" (**1/2) by Anday Cahill uses stop action animation that goes on a little too long and makes those 6 minutes seem a lot longer.

-"Grand Teton" (**) by director Julia Kim Smith takes a Korean-American family's video portrait in the Grand Teton National Park and reunites them in the same spot 35 years later. An interesting concept, but, unfortunately, it didn't sustain my interest over the 5 minutes running time.

-The best of the lot was clearly Marc Kess' brilliant "Mildred Richard" (****). Kess uses the audio of a 1940's radio production to recreate the crime story using his own visuals. What makes it even more remarkable is the stunning black & white cinematography to mimic films from that era and having the actors perfectly mouth the original dialogue. The result is not only a neat 19 minute murder mystery, but a visually stunning compliment to the audio.

-Finally it was fitting to conclude the collection with Jim Jacob's "About Film Festivals" (***) which is, well, about film festivals. Kind of an instructional video, Jacob's uses wry humor as he deadpans all you need to know to navigate through these type of events.

Following the Q & A with all the directors, we were treated to the best opening night grub the festival has ever provided with contributions from the wonderful Asian restaurant Ra Sushi Bar Restaurant, Belvedere Square's Neopol Savory Smokery, and Parkhurst Catering. All in all, a great way to start off the 11th annual!

MFF dir Jed Dietz & host Bobcat Goldthwait


Bobcat, Jed, & the short film directors