Yesterday I got an email from IFC that promotes the latest Stephen Dorff film with a quote from the actor himself. The film is called Brake, and it’s about a guy trapped in the cargo compartment of a car. Dorff describes it as “Die Hard in a trunk,” which made me laugh. It reminded me of the beginning to Robert Altman’s The Player when movie pitches are being tossed around with such gems as “It’s like The Gods Must Be Crazy except the coke bottle is an actress.” To which the other person responds: “Right. It’s Out of Africa meets Pretty Woman.” This practice, long a Hollywood cliche within an industry that has has no problems with navel-gazing, has its place. Who among us hasn’t resorted to such cheating short-hand ciphers in order to succinctly convey the spirit of a film when we’re too lazy (or tired) to otherwise suss out the details whilst in a hurry? Here’s my own stab at such cop-outs to describe a few of the films that I favored at Sundance, which wraps up today, followed by brief elaborations.  READ MORE

Last week I offered an overview of the Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) as a sort-of “taste of the fest.” This week, I will tout the three films that I enjoyed the most so that our movie-loving readers can seek them out in theaters, on cable, or on DVD.

The first film I caught at the festival was an American indie called Thin Ice, which opens in limited release on February 17. I knew nothing about the film, selecting it because it was convenient to my schedule. I consider myself lucky because it turned out to be one of my favorite films of the entire week. Thin Ice tells the story of Mickey Prohaska, played by Greg Kinnear, who is a less-than-honest insurance agent in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Mickey is always looking for a big score via his insurance racket and is willing to lie, scheme, and cheat his small-town customers to land it. At an insurance convention, Mickey hires an additional agent, Bob, played by David Harbour (also in Madonna’s upcoming W./E.), simply because he doesn’t want a rival agency to land him.  Bob introduces Mickey to Gorvy Hauer, a lonely, old man who lives alone in a farmhouse filled with old furniture, knick-knacks, and junk. Mickey visits Gorvy regularly to persuade him to buy insurance he doesn’t really need, but he switches tactics when he discovers that Gorvy owns a rare violin. Mickey decides to steal the violin, replacing it with a worthless fiddle believing that the foolish old man won’t notice. One of the pleasures of this film is Alan Arkin’s performance as Gorvy. Near the end of the film, he will break your heart as his defeated character ruminates on the cold-hearted nature of contemporary society; and yet, there is more to Gorvy than Mickey—or, the viewer—realizes. My advice is to recall all of Arkin’s roles and characters as he skillfully pulls you into Gorvy’s world so that you do not take the character at face value.

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The 23^rd annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) concluded today with its Best of the Fest—the movies voted as audience favorites.  After attending for the second year in a row, I have decided the PSIFF is my favorite film festival because it makes every effort to program the best in foreign-language films. This year the festival screened 188 films from 73 countries, including 40 of the 63 entries for this year’s foreign-language Academy Award. Though its strong suit is foreign narratives, the fest also offers an excellent slate of documentaries from all over the world, a shorts program, and a handful of American independent films. Naturally, some films were better than others, and some spoke to my tastes more than others, but I can honestly say that I did not see a bad film. This year, I caught films from Columbia, Finland, Denmark, South Korea, Jordan, Israel, and Slovakia, among other countries.

It occurred to me after watching nonstop films for a couple of days that one reason I was enjoying these films so much was because many featured interesting and complex women characters. Some of these women were protagonists; others were secondary characters. Some were beautiful and glamorous; others were natural looking, even ordinary. Some were positive role models; others dark and disturbing. It is interesting to compare the women characters in these highly touted films to those in the Hollywood movies from 2011 that are currently in hot contention for awards. It seems the best chance for actresses to land a high-profile role in a Hollywood film is to play a historical figure (The Iron Lady; My Week with Marilyn) or to play extreme characters who deny or defy being women (Albert Knobs; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). Also, there are so few complex roles that decent performances by well-known actresses in rather ordinary films are winning awards or garnering nominations (The Iron Lady; Young Adult). I recognize that I am generalizing because there are exceptions to this observation regarding the lack of multifaceted female characters in Hollywood films, but wouldn’t it be nice to be able to generalize in the opposite direction.

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I always work better with a deadline. Since the world is ending on December 21st, 2012, I expect to have the most productive movie-going year of my young, super-handsome life. In preparation for these blessed final hours in darkened theaters, I’ve drawn up a list of new releases I wish to see before my anticipated demise, those which I expect would give me the most pleasure in my twilight year. I hope it is also some help for you, dear reader, usefully arranged in descending order of preference.

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Since I’m not stinking rich just yet, my plan to go on a heavily medicated tour of international film festivals has been put on indefinite hold. Luckily, the Museum of the Moving Image has purloined 13 new features from all over the world, most without U.S. distribution, for their inaugural “First Look” series (Jan. 6-15), bringing the best of the fests to NYC. Since distributors continue to lose money on any film not in English (or, occasionally, French), it’s something of a miracle that any foreign titles reach our shores at all. This leaves a huge glut of films without any stateside release, left as rumors of masterpieces in the words of the few industrious critics and curators able to send word back to us in the sticks. “First Look” was programmed by some of these proud few: Dennis Lim, the editor of Moving Image Source, Assistant Curator of film Rachael Rakes and Chief Curator David Schwartz. It’s a small but impactful series, with invigorating entries from old masters like Chantal Akerman and enchanting young voices like Goncalo Tocha.

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Today marks the last day of my Fall calendar film program. Now it’s time to roll up my sleeves and get working on the next one. My goal is to find 50 titles that provide repertory programming, community and academic outreach, festival favorites, cult oddities, challenging cinema, quality docs, along with enough arthouse money-makers and crowd-pleasers to keep the whole damn thing alive. The ideal mix honors the past, is grounded in the present, and has an eye for the future. Like a good friend, it needs to have the temerity to confront you with uncomfortable truths, take you to new places, introduce you to new talents, provide a window to other cultures, feed the mind, feed the soul, provide catharsis, tears, laughter, and a wide variety of surprises.  A few directors come to mind who try to do all those things in one film, but this at risk of making you nauseous. (I’m looking at you Takashi Miike!) What follows are some of my top-picks (so far) as I consider titles to include in my Spring calendar. READ MORE

The 49th New York Film Festival begins this Friday, September 30th, with a main slate of 27 features and an abundance of sidebar and retrospective screenings, including a massive survey of Nikkatsu Films. All of my favorite entries so far share an obsessively detailed sense of place, locations that subsume central characters and emerge as active agents of memory, myth and fate. Dreileben, a group of three features made for German television, is set near the Thuringian Forest, folkloric heart of German culture, and former home to Wagner, Schiller, Bach and Goethe. Ancient fables are invoked as templates for the tragic circlings of the unlucky few who come in contact with a man-made monster.  The Turin Horse utilizes a perpetually wind-thwacked dust bowl as a bluntly metaphorical vision of the barren, anxious souls of its poverty-stricken leads, while Two Years at Sea follows the hermit and former merchant seaman, Jake Williams, as he goes his silent bearded way in the beatific and lonely Caingorm Mountains of Scotland.

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In case you missed it, the Telluride Film Festival had its 38th bash last Labor Day Weekend, September 2-5. It included the latest films by Aki Kaurismäki, Werner Herzog, Martin Scorsese, Alexander Payne, Béla Tarr, David Cronenberg, and many more. But the reason I still love Telluride is not because it delivers the newest works from so many talented directors, but because they also focus on the past (showing silent films, archive prints, and various repertory titles), along with some unexpected programming courtesy of guest directors who are given Carte blanche to select anything they like, no matter how esoteric that might be. (This year the guest director was Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist Caetano Veloso, who has worked on soundtracks for Michelangelo Antonioni and Pedro Almodóvar). Telluride also eschews the competitive awards-system that drives so many other festivals and has managed to sidestep being mobbed by industry professionals, brand-obsessed sponsors, or party-obsessed socialites. In sum, Telluride has managed to still be that rare festival that bends over backwards to bring obscure 35mm movies while simultaneously providing viewers with cinematic experiences that challenge them to broaden their horizons rather than simply pandering to market whims or popular taste. And, yes, I say that despite the fact that this year its tribute star was George Clooney.  READ MORE

If you’re suffering from the summer blockbuster blues, there’s no greater pick-me-up than the New York Asian Film Festival, an invigorating potpourri of the finest in creative Eastern bloodletting. It marks its tenth decadent year with 45 features from nine different countries, unspooling at the Film Society of Lincoln Center from July 1st – 14th. 11 of those films are co-presented with Japan Cuts, the NYAFF’s more studious (if no less ambitious) five-year-old sister festival, held at Japan Society from July 7th – 22nd. Including the 21 other titles in Japan Cuts, there are 66 Asian movies hitting screens in July, most of which will never receive distribution in the United States (although many will be obtainable at Asian DVD retailers).

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