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ASWESUMA (THE COMPENSATION) 2002 February 24, 2002 Cinequest San Jose Film Festival Sri Lanka Sinhala Notes: "...from Sri Lanka...mine worker in jungle has baby who gets malaria and the pompous rich doctor won't help...baby dies...while burying the baby the guy finds a huge gemstone which everyone in town obviously wants...thugs come, he gets paranoid...on the way to sell the gem in the city, thugs capture him and his wife...they guy always attacks when outnumbered and gets his ass kicked...guy is brutalized, hung from his feet as wife comes out of jungle begging for his release...she is raped and beaten...couple get their revenge and kill the guys...they throw the gem to the bottom of a lake to get rid of the bad luck...the whole story is told in flashback after the wife dies of old age...old man demands to be locked up...the skill is there in the cinematography, but the do the Hong Kong style of not recording sound on location and then dubbing it in later, so none of the words matched the mouth movements....the screening I went to had the subtitles working, but the top of the frame was cut off...it was by far the loudest film I've ever seen, which is probably not the filmmaker's fault...I had my ears plugged for much of it...not pleasant to sit through...one shot that I keep remembering is an angle the director shot from the hanging pov as he swings out over a cliff to see his wife being raped and then swings back...the acting was way over the top and the bad guys were ridiculously bad and cartoonish..." 0 comments POWERS 2000 February 23, 2002 Cinequest San Jose Film Festival Czech Republic Czech Notes: "...short about a magician who somehow 'catches' a disorder that makes him really magical...he can see the future and his tricks become more impressive...after he sets up his sister with his friend, his powers go away...well done and slick...'erotic' only in a scene with a stripper..." 0 comments THE GAS STATION 2000 February 23, 2002 Cinequest San Jose Film Festival Germany Notes: "...the best thing I've seen so far...filmed in Holland but without dialogue...in a traffic jam, a middle-aged man sees a hot girl and begins to flirt with her using his car...very very funny...could have ended a bit sooner but I laughed hard and often...not erotic, but funny..." 0 comments DIE NACHTSCHWESTER (THE NIGHT NURSE) 2000 February 23, 2002 Cinequest San Jose Film Festival Germany German Notes: "...part of what Cinequest is calling 'Erotic Tales'...not particularly erotic...cop called in on his day off to guard perp in hospital...perp is buffed guy in tight shorts...night nurse checks in and all but throws herself on the cop...she turns up the heat literally and seduces the cop who gets tied up and the perp and his accomplise escape...then he wakes up again and it starts over..." 0 comments UNFORSEEN 2002 February 23, 2002 Cinequest San Jose Film Festival USA English Notes: "...stupidest yuppie in the world gets involved with gold digging woman who takes him for his fortune with the help of her boyfriend...Just when he should have learned his lesson, he makes another stupid move...leads are attractive...hard to root for guy who is such an idiot...hires hitman, tries to kill her himself, ends up in jail, then in a hospital...ending is a bit ridiculous and too happy...not earned..." 0 comments KIDSCHOOL 2002 February 23, 2002 Cinequest San Jose Film Festival USA English Notes: "...Willow Glen-filmed short about kid who is not listened to at home or at school...he snaps...acting from the 'louder is better' school...good for a student film...storyline not so good...main kid bears striking resemblance to Jason Sehorn..." 0 comments DRIVE-IN MOVIE MEMORIES 2001 February 23, 2002 Cinequest San Jose Film Festival USA English Notes: "...documentary about decline of drive-in movie theaters...extremely quick edited...not slow for a second...sort of the MOULIN ROUGE of documentary editing...good interview subjects...Joe Bob Briggs, Leonard Maltin, stars of B-movies with ridiculous titles...nothing new here, but entertaining nonetheless..." 0 comments CHRONICLE OF AN AMERICAN SUBURB 2002 February 23, 2002 Cinequest San Jose Film Festival USA English Notes: "...documentary about planned community south of Chicago that was built for returning vets from World War II...different than the New Jersey suburb that is often talked about because this one had shops and the first mall and its own incorporation...fairly well integrated for its day...inevitable departure of people as the mall dried up...people went to newer suburbs further out...some original inhabitants still alive and make good interview subjects...suburb was endlessly studied as the quintessential suburb...good, if rose-colored..." 0 comments SENORITA EXTRAVIADA (MISSING YOUNG WOMAN) 2002 February 23, 2002 Cinequest San Jose Film Festival USA/Mexico Spanish Notes: "Harrowing documentary about nearly 200 young women who have disappeared in Juarez Mexico just over the border...Blame is cast all over from cults, to a single Egyptian guy, to cops, to the NAFTA-fueled factories...there is mutilation and rape and photos and interrogation...no answer is forthcoming at the end and I'm not sure who the filmmaker thinks is responsible...all the women were young with long dark hair...it has really affected the town...girls are afraid to venture out after dark...I have yet to see a story where a sharp Mexican detective closes a case...there is always corruption, always bumbling...still, even though I had heard the story before, it was still riveting..." 0 comments THE VICTIM 2001 February 23, 2002 Cinequest San Jose Film Festival USA English David Strathairn. Patti LuPone. Notes: "Short about a stranger (Strathairn) who enters a bar and is picked up on by a drunken woman who has a sad story to tell. Her husband left her and now she barely makes ends meet. The guy spurns her advances and later we learn that he has the same exact name as the husband that left. Not sure what it was trying to say." 0 comments MISSING ALLEN February 23, 2002 Cinequest San Jose Film Festival Germany English Notes: "...a German documentarian loses track of his cameraman friend when he moves to Wyoming...there may be a cult involved...a woman blames her husband, then a 'shadow agent'...Body could be buried in basement of farm house...the last steps that Allen took are traced as the filmmakers get more and more frustrated...sort of a real life BLAIR WITCH...clips of Allen and phone messages are used to haunting effect...but I'm not sure that this one guy warrants such an outpouring of people searching for him...especially if he's trying to hide or has been absorbed by a cult of some kind...still it didn't flag...did the police mess up?...was the guy predisposed to being taken advantage of?...we see some of his films and he appeared to have talent..." 0 comments FAMILY VALUES 2002 February 23, 2002 Cinequest San Jose Film Festival USA English Short funny documentary about lesbian couple who work respectively as a cop and a murder scene cleaner. They find a niche in Philadelphia that no one else seems to be filling. The couple is normal in every respect, but they hate when people ask them what they do for a living. Funny, if gross scenes of bathtub stains not coming out. 0 comments ROLLOVER: THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF THE S.U.V. 2002 February 22, 2002 Frontline USA English Documentary about SUV safety and regulators who were buddy-buddy with the auto industry. Reagan is mostly to blame. 0 comments
GEGE
(BROTHER) 2001 February 22, 2002 Cinequest San Jose Film Festival Hong Kong Chinese Notes: "Young man from Hong Kong travels to the high plains of China to find his older brother...The brother left home years ago and would send postcards from the different cities he stopped in...Abruptly three years ago, the cards stopped...The kid takes a room in a motel and sets about finding him using the only picture he has...I think this had the greatest music of any Chinese film I've ever seen...accoustic guitar and vocals only...the scenery was Tibet-like and the local young women wore traditional bright fabrics...it was slow in parts, but dreamy...what became of the brother is never really established, but he learns the effect he had on the local villagers...it was saying something about the vastness of China when a city kid from Hong Kong is the same as a goat herder from Tibet...also we are all travelers effecting those we come into contact with even if only for a brief time...it looked beautiful and the lead actor reminded me of an Asian River Phoenix" 0 comments
THE SEARCH FOR JOHN GISSING
2001 February 21, 2002 Cinequest San Jose Film Festival UK/USA English Mike Binder. Janeane Garofalo. Notes: "Story of Chicago merger guy who travels to London to oversee a big merger with a German company but is sabotaged by the guy he's replacing, played by Alan Richman...Binder is funny as a bumbling American and the film has several laugh out loud funny parts, but there was too much slapstick and people being put into this office to hid from that group...Much better than last year's Cinequest opener" 0 comments LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING 2001 February 2, 2002 Century Union City 8.7 Critical Consensus 0 comments |
