Movie Review: Marwencol

As I’ve mentioned, when the Cleveland International Film Festival catalog comes out.  I read all the summaries and mark the movies I want to see.  Marwencol jumped out at me for a few reasons.  I had a boyfriend in college who lived near Kingston, NY, where this takes place.  It’s about a man who recovers from a head injury by building a world of miniatures in his backyard, it becomes therapy.  My husband and son are into gaming and miniatures.  I thought it sounded very interesting.

Turns out the miniatures are more like dolls.  And, the therapy was much more like fantasy and art.  Mark Hogancamp was attacked in the parking lot of a bar by five guys he’d been drinking with.  Head injuries forced him to learn to speak, write, walk and completely function, all over again.  Before the accident, he was married, an alcoholic and a gifted artist.  After the accident, he was a completely different person, because he had no memory of his previous life.  Working with his figures, he’s able to practice small motor function, develop his rich imagination and role play some of his anger and aggression.  Because he couldn’t draw anymore, he captured scenes on film, with his camera.  Now, friends and admirers of his work are urging him to share his town, Marwencol, with the world, with a gallery showing, a book and this film.  Mark Hogancamp is a sympathetic and interesting guy.  Marwencol is definitely an interesting place.  Just when you think, “Okay, I get it, but this is weird,” it gets weirder! But then, the pieces start to fit together.  Fascinating story, well told, amazing imagery.  It’s an unforgettable place.  Marwencol gets a 10 out of 10.  

Movie Review: Garbo: The Spy

Garbo: The Spy hit me like Fire in the Heartland.  Again, here’s a topic that I feel I am familiar with. i have seen movies about World War II, read books about the Invasion of Normandy.  So, why have I never heard about this guy?  Why don’t I know how critical he apparently was to the whole Allied effort?

If you’ve seen Alias or the Bournes, you know that a good spy has handlers.  Garbo is the codename he received from his British handlers, because he took on various roles so well.  In reality, he grew up in the Catalan region of Spain, the child of well-to-do parents, in the days before Franco.  He wants to get involved.  And, I will tell you we don’t get to know much about his actual motivations or personality.  The guy’s a ghost, really.  But, we get to find out what he did, offering his services to the Third Reich and to the Allies.  Garbo set up an elaborate ruse that may have turned the tide of the war.  He must have had iron clad insides to pull off some of these capers.  I don’t want to give too much away, but it’s just an incredible story.  And, to get it on the screen, since we don’t have anything but talking heads and documents to illustrate the story, Director Edmon Roach intersperses scenes from spy films and movies about World War II that mirror real life events.  It’s a beautiful device and a remarkable piece of storytelling.  I give Garbo: The Spy an 8 out of 10.

Movie Review: Ward No. 6

I had such high hopes for Ward No. 6.  The summary made it sound like a Shutter Island type thriller case, where you’re not sure who’s really insane, who’s really criminal, who’s really qualified to be asking the questions.

What I got was a series of clinical interviews that sort of reminded me of the beginning of District 9.  The quality of the lighting and shot set up was very flat.  Patients are talking to the camera about why they’re institutionalized, and it’s incredibly sad.  Most were dropped off at an orphanage by their own parents and once they aged out, they were moved to the psychiatric facility.  They’ve never had a chance to have a life, because their parents couldn’t handle their responsibility.  That is horrible!  But, I actually would not have minded a more intense study of that situation.  Instead, a doctor begins to lead a tour and eventually reveals that his predecessor is now, in fact, a patient.  Dr. Ragin had a sort of comfortable life going. But rather than any kind of therapy sessions, he got into philosophical discourses with friends and one patient, in particular, and seemed to be spiraling into a depression about existential issues.  The plot is slow.  The conversations are like Crime and Punishment.  Ward No. 6 is based on a short story by Anton Chekhov, so I shouldn’t have been surprised, but honestly, I had a hard time staying focused.  It made me sleepy.  Ward No. 6 gets a 6 out of 10.

Movie Review: Fire in the Heartland: Kent State, May 4th, and Student Protest in America

If you don’t know the story of May 4, 1970 at Kent State University, at least the important parts, then shame on you.  If you feel like you know what went down and you don’t need to see a documentary about it, you are wrong.  Director Daniel Lee Miller puts that tragic day into context, in Fire in the Heartland: Kent State, May 4th, and Student Protest in America.

Using archival footage and interviews with people who were a part of the various student groups on the Kent State campus, Miller shows how events in as early as 1959 helped develop the opposition between young activists and a conservative establishment.  Fire in the Heartland touches on each of the building blocks in the so-called “Decade of Death,” starting with President Kennedy’s assassination and ending in May of 1970.  Miller builds the tension with each passing tragedy and confrontation.  And when the National Guardsmen march up the hill, turn and begin to fire on the crowd on the Kent State campus, it’s devastating.  Miller, himself, was there on May 4th and has struggled to make sense of it.  Fire in the Heartland makes perfect sense of a nearly incomprehensible situation.  I think every student should see it, especially anyone in a social justice course.  It’s a profound look at a critical time in our nation’s history.  I was wrecked for the rest of the day.  I’m sure I’ll think about it in the fall, when my son begins his college career at Kent State.  And every May 4th, I will continue to remember Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, Sandra Scheuer and William Knox Schroeder and Phillip Gibbs and James Earl Green at Jackson State, just a few days later.  Truly an excellent documentary, I give Fire in the Heartland 10 out of 10.

Movie Review: Cow

I’ve mentioned before that I am practically forbidden from seeing movies where animals or children are in peril.  Dumbo is the Disney movie that haunts me, to this day.  And, Snow Angels from 2007 sent me into a week long depression.  I’m not exaggerating very much, either.

Therefore, when I told my husband one of the movies I really wanted to see was Cow, and I read him the description, I was laughing.  He was not amused.  1940, China, during Sino-Japanese War.  Niu Er lives in a village and is tasked with taking care of a cow, on loan from the Army.  He is a simple peasant, but he takes his job seriously.  And, in the aftermath of japanese firebombing, that job is tough.  Everybody wants a piece of the cow.  The cow reminds him of his wife.  The cow reminded me of my dog.  The cow and the man struggle in a hostile environment with chaos all around to stay alive.  I loved their story.  I give Cow a 9 out of 10. 

Movie Review: North

I am thrilled to report I had another amazing day at the Cleveland International Film Festival.  My one complaint is the lack of opportunity to see movies On Demand.  At any one time, there are 7 films playing.  During most of the sessions, there are at least two films I want to see.  That means I have to make decisions and sometimes I don’t get to see something, if I don’t make the few times it’s shown.  I know, there are theatrical releases and DVDs to view it later, but it adds to my psychological drama, this week!

Example, in the morning session, there were two movies I had starred in my Festival guide.  I had planned, since the night before, to see Forgetting Dad, which promised to be a fairly intense family documentary drama.  At the last moment, I decided to go for North, for whatever reason.  It was a game time decision.  You have to do that at the Cleveland International Film Festival. 

North is a drama out of Norway, and from the looks of it, a pretty desolate part of the country.  Jomar is a 30 year old recovering from some traumatic experience.  He used to ski, now he can barely get off the couch to do his job, which is not very taxing.  His woman left him, after trying to be patient and help him get his act together for some time.  Jomar finds out he has a son with her, who is now four.  That and another happenstance spur him to head North to find Linnea and meet this kid.  Jomar is snowmobiling through back country.  When he finds a house or fishing hut or tent, he stops and has various encounters with the people.  It makes me concerned for my Norwegian heritage that Jomar and most of the people he meets seem to be completely nuts.  He also ends up setting stuff on fire, on occasion.  It’s a disturbing, yet interesting, road trip.  The audience at my screening seemed to find a lot of it hilarious, while I was busy being concerned.  I give North a 7 out of 10.

Movie Review: For the Love of Movies

It seemed a bit surreal.  I’m in a movie theater with a bunch of movie buffs, and more than a few of them review films professionally or just for fun, like me.  And, we’re watching a documentary about the evolution of movie reviewers.  

For the Love of Movies is a film by a guy who did it professionally, Gerald Peary.  He’s also a professor, and the movie has that instructional tone.  He breaks down film criticism by eras, starting with the Talkies and how the papers promoted them in the early 1900s.  I’ve always loved discussing films.  My Mom was a school teacher and had teacher friends.  Some of them considered themselves to be intellectual, I suppose.  We still share our yearly favorites in our Christmas notes to each other.  It was interesting to get a perspective on the way reviewing has grown and developed and broadened to the point that 7 year olds do movie reviews on their computers and post them to youtube.  “Everyone’s a critic,” right?  For me, the key is finding a touchstone, someone who shares some of my sensibilities, so that I can tell from their review whether I will like the film or not, myself.  Though to be honest, I rarely read reviews before I see a movie, because I like to judge for myself.  After, I will seek out critiques to see what I missed or didn’t know about the film’s genesis.  It was a revelation to me that people got paid to do what we did naturally, discuss and argue about films, when I first saw the show Coming Soon on Chicago TV.  Gene Siskel was my touchstone.  Getting to see a bit of their first show ever and hear Gene again was worth the price of admission, and I’m so happy Gerald Peary made that a part of his film.  He interviewed Roger Ebert for the movie, and it was pre-serious surgery Roger, vibrant and telling great stories.  Gerald also interviewed A.O. Scott from The New York Times, in casual settings, like they were buds and at some screening together or something.  A.O. was the first big movie critic to podcast his reviews.  And likely, that what made him the best person to take over for Roger, when he retired from the TV gig.  You get to see how Tony has developed. Despite his love for Where the Wild Things Are, I really like his style.  Style is one thing I found a bit lacking in For the Love of Movies.  It switches between history and quips from current critics, and some of the transitions between the parts are very long fade to blacks that I found jarring.  The soundtrack is good, and it could have been smoother.  It seemed like I was watching a rough cut, but Gerald was in the theater selling DVDs of his doc, so I guess it’s done!  If you like film and you’re interested in criticism, this is an excellent documentary to check out.  I liked it and was entertained and informed, and I got to see Gene.  So, despite the editing issues, I give For the Love of Movies an 8.

Movie Review: The 40th Floor

The wonderful thing about the Cleveland INTERNATIONAL Film Festival is that you do get to open a door to different cultures and times and languages and places.  You could plan your whole festival like a trip around the world.  

Yesterday, I spent time in a place I will never go, I suspect, Azerbaijan.  The language is beautiful.  But, life is hard, in some areas.  The 40th Door is the nickname of a small village, just outside the capital of Baku.  A boy named Rustam lives there with his mother.  He calls every elder in the village “Uncle” or “Aunt,” but I suspect that is just their way.  I don’t think they’re all really related.  Rustam is a beautiful boy, smart and a help to his mother.  He’s at that tough age of 14, when he wants at times to be a child but is forced to be a man.  His father is killed. And, while his mother wants him to continue going to school, he endeavors to find work to make money, so they won’t have to sell off the only prized possession they have, an ancient rug that belonged to his father.  He seeks the help of a charismatic character who takes him to Baku and gives him a glimpse into a life of crime, but Rustam tries to hold on to his ideals.  He tries to work the streets honestly, sees some of the finer things he’d like in life, but gangs who control the streets don’t like his independence.  I was really interested in the story, the acting was quite good, but there seemed to be a real lack of focus in the direction.  Did Elchin Musaoglu want to show us Rustam’s tough times with a realism?  Or did he want to draw on the fairy tale origins of the term, The 40th Door?  So many potentially interesting side stories were introduced and then just dropped:  the drum, the hatmaker, the uncle.  I was frustrated when it ended.  I give The 40th Door a 7 out of 10. 

Movie Review: Lourdes

I am Roman Catholic.  Lourdes is a blessed, mystical place.  I hear.  The story goes, the Virgin Mary appeared to St. Bernadette in a grotto near Lourdes several times.  Word spread, a shrine was built, miracles occurred, all in this small community in the south of France.  Now, millions travel to Lourdes every year, looking for intervention from St. Bernadette and the Blessed Mother.  While I’ve never been there, I have been to shrines, like Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mount-Royal in Montreal.  The relics for sale and presence of the pilgrims are a little scary, but there was no denying the power of the place.  

So, I was very interested to see a pilgrimage from the perspective of a pilgrim in Lourdes, a movie playing at the Cleveland International Film Festival, this week.  Christine is a young woman from France who has multiple sclerosis.  She’s lost control of her body from the neck down.  But, her mind is vibrant, she seems to accept the help of nurse volunteers at Lourdes with a pleasant demeanor.  She tells a priest, in confession, that she gets angry over her diagnosis and feels envious of able bodied people, like a nurse who is flirting with a man on the trip that she fancies.  This is like a group tour, with a different activity each day: a hike through the grotto, a bath in the water, even an award at the end of the trip for the “Best Pilgrim.”  Christine’s mother is with her on the trip.  Their relationship is one of the things that bothered me in the movie.  While her mother accepts the role of caregiver, they barely talk or interact, except in a very distant fashion.  I didn’t get that.  A couple of the older volunteers hang together at night and discuss deep topics of faith and spirituality.  Juxtapose that with Christine confessing to her nurse that she is not really a believer, she just goes on the pilgrimages because she can’t really get out of the house for much else.  When the inevitable miracle occurs, within the group, some are jealous, others are skeptical, others just wonder why some are chosen and others are not.  Lourdes is a very quiet, very slow moving film.  I guess I was hoping for more of an epiphany, but at the end, I wasn’t at all sure what I was supposed to take away from it.  I was interested but not satisfied.  I give Lourdes a 7 out of 10.

CIFF: No Crossover

I was shocked.  One of the movies that I’d marked as a must-see in my Cleveland International Film Festival Guide was No Crossover.  Not one person I talked to knew anything about it.  No one was interested.  My son decided he wanted to come, so I went to buy a ticket, and the girl at the box office said it was the only film in the 7 and 9pm sessions that was available.  Every theater I attended today was packed… sold out.  Not even half the theater for No Crossover was filled.  When the CIFF rep announced, before the movie began, that the film was produced as a part of ESPN’s 30 for 30 campaign, I thought, “Okay, that’s what it is.  Everyone thinks they’ll be able to see this any time on ESPN.”  But then, he introduced filmmaker Steve James.  !!! He was here!  To introduce his film!  To a half full room!!  I was stunned and chagrined.  And, I was thrilled.

Steve James is one of the most highly acclaimed documentarians of our time.  His Hoop Dreams practically put documentaries on the map, for mainstream audiences.  He also directed one of the most viewed sports movies in our house, Prefontaine.  For 30For30, ESPN asked him to produce a personal story.  He went back to his hometown, Hampton, Virginia, to try to figure out what happened during one of the most racially divisive events of his life, the trial of Allen Iverson.  When most of it went down, Steve was in Chicago, wrapping up production on Hoop Dreams, but his parents were there.  And, the whole family loved sports.  Iverson was a high school phenom who carried his team to greatness, to the level that they had to play in bigger arenas than just at the high school.  That’s a story we know, here in northern Ohio, don’t we?  But, other things were at work here.  Virginia is the south, and in that area, you will see folks flying the confederate flag, to this day.  I know, because I lived there when this all began.  Allen was a brash young man who had lived a very challenging life, trying to cover for his Mom’s addiction problems and not being held accountable for some of his actions, because of his skills.  He was at a bowling alley with some friends, during his junior year in high school.  There was an altercation, then an all out brawl, with a group of white kids.  People were injured.  4 black kids, including Iverson were charged.  He was convicted of 3 felonies and got jail time.  A couple of his friends served time, as well.  The trial and appeals ripped the community apart. 

I was living in Northern Virginia at that time and doing news.  So, I am very familiar with the story.  But, I was really interested in this film, because I never felt I got the details and the truth.  The story got big.  And it was the kind of thing that even my husband and I argued about.  He thought Iverson got railroaded.  I felt he was a thug, and while I believed there was something hinky about the trial, I thought he should be punished.  People said he was being made an example.  But you know what?  His friends, Michael Simmons, Melvin Stephens Jr. and Samuel Wynn Jr., were an afterthought in all the commotion.  Iverson served his time in a minimum security camp.  His friends who were convicted ended up in a hard case jail.  Virginia Governor Doug Wilder granted clemency to Iverson.  It was only after there were protestations that he extended clemency to the other guys, two weeks later.  It’s stuff like that that makes me rankle at the civil rights leaders.  Some of this is covered in Steve James’ film.  But, we don’t find out what happened to the other guys, what they did with their lives.  I can’t even find anything out about them online.  I should have asked Steve about it, after the film.  I had too many different questions in my mind.  I was fascinated, but not satisfied.  So, No Crossover gets an 8.  But, I think you should see it.