A Short Synopsis of Film

João is an orphan boy with no last name and a very complicated heritage (that he knows nothing about). All that João really wants in life is to be reunited with his parents. He lives at the Catholic boarding school run by Padre Dinis. Some believe that the Padre is his father, but matters are not that simple. Beginning in [their] present day Portugal, the movie is experienced through a first hand retelling of events by the story’s main characters. Nothing is as it first seems, and the story unfolds like the peeling of an onion.

Every character in this film is related in some way, sometimes by blood and sometimes by circumstance. Some have secret (or even doubly secret) identities that are gradually revealed as the story progresses. It’s easy to lose track of the relationships, so I suggest paying close attention (and possibly taking notes).

The screen play for Mysteries of Lisbon is adapted from Camilo Castelo Branco’s 1854 novel ‘Os Mistérios de Lisboa’ and directed by Raul Ruiz. It is a 4.5 hour long period piece, but isn’t as dry or boring as I’d feared. The director has managed to inject black humor into the background of some scenes, making fun of the story’s main characters. That may be part of what allowed us to watch the entire film without an intermission.

Venue: Seattle International Film Festival, 2011
Language: Portuguese, French
Genre: Period, Drama

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Bellflower is a buddy movie, a film about two 20-something slackers from Los Angeles named Woodrow and Aiden. The boys spend their days getting ready for the coming apocalypse by building homemade flame throwers and a weaponized car similar to the V8 Interceptor driven by Mel Gibson in Mad Max. They’ve even picked out a name for their post-apocalyptic gang: MEDUSA.

One fateful night at the local cocktail lounge, Woodrow is pitted against a cute blonde in a drunken, cricket-eating contest. That’s where he meets Milly, and it’s love at first crunch-crunch-crunch. Dispensing whiskey from the dashboard’s built-in liquor tap as they drive, the happy new couple takes off on an impromptu road trip to Texas (Woodrow wants to take Milly to a restaurant that will give them both diarrhea). But it’s the second half of the film when the plot gets interesting. Woodrow’s and Milly’s relationship takes a negative turn, spiraling into jealousy, infidelity, and eventually violence. During the final segment, entitled ‘No one gets out of here alive’, some of the cast go on a murderous rampage.

For the first 30 minutes, I considered walking out of the theater. None of the characters have jobs. Money is never an issue. L.A. has no police. Alcohol flows endlessly. None of the people seem real. But after a week or so, the story grows on you.

Venue: Seattle International Film Festival, 2011
Language: English (slacker/grunge dialect)
Genre: Screwed-up relationships that go really wrong

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Ex

Hong Kong

Girl quits job, vacates apartment, and then heads to airport for a long trip with current boyfriend–but doesn’t make it past the airport cafe without dumping him first. Good thing an old boyfriend happens to be sitting at the adjacent table. Perhaps she can crash at his place and ruin his life as well?

Happy, Happy

Norway

After a vaguely unexplained incident of adultery, an unhappily married metropolitan couple moves to the country and rents a house. Their landlords (and next door neighbors) are a pair of sexually frustrated small town shut-ins that don’t help the city mice to heal their broken relationship. It’s a romantic comedy about coming out of the closet, choir singing, frustrated chain smoking, and running in the snow.

Copacabana

France

An uptight daughter and her flamboyant, child-like mother aren’t getting along. Mom is broke, but wants to help pay for her daughter’s uptight wedding. Mommy dearest takes a job in Oostende, Belgium selling timeshare condos and dreams of joining a Brazilian dance troupe. Everything works out in the end, AND it doesn’t play like a broken cliche.

A Quiet Life

Italy

A film that tackles that age old question: “Can one really retire from the Mafia?” The short answer is: “No. Unless you sever ALL ties with your past, they’ll find you.” The story’s protagonist (and former mass murderer) moves to Germany to open an Italian restaurant and hotel. Eventually, some old “family” from out of town drops by and recognizes him. I’m thinking he should have moved to New Zealand and taken up sheep farming instead.

The Whistleblower

Canada

In 1999, Nebraska police officer Kathryn Bolkovac was hired by DynCorp Aerospace for a UN post aimed at cracking down on sexual abuse and forced prostitution in Bosnia. Sometimes a biopic script can’t help but play like a made-for-TV movie. It’s an interesting film about a serious topic, but you’re better off renting it.

This is the tale of some Russian teens who like to play video games (and paintball). The youngsters enter a cyber game tournament and do so well that they’re rewarded with complimentary copies of a new video game…which melts their home computers BUT also gives them superhuman abilities in fighting, driving and shooting. Without hesitation, the boys and girl go on a rampage, assaulting and killing a squad of 30 heavily armed commandos with only paintball guns, all to save one of their friends who is about to be burned to death by a gang of car thieves.

Then, this big airship appears from out of the clouds, lands, inducts the kids into a super secret crime fighting organization, and takes off again. On their first assignment working for S.H.I.E.L.D. (I don’t remember what the organization is really called), the kids are sent to assassinate one of their employer’s competitors in the fuel cell business. Apparently the secret organization they work for isn’t good after all, they’re just a bunch of capitalists whose real goal is to corner the market on palladium…which they’re planning to use in building hydrogen fuel cells that will enable cars to get 1000 kilometers per gallon. This is when the gamers’ morals start to kick in and the kids begin taking sides (good vs. evil).

When the teens are later sent to hijack and blowup a Turkish ship that’s trying to escape with the remaining hundred copies of the video game which turned them all into super humans in the first place, the story starts to get a little silly.

I salute the writers of this screenplay–There is no hesitation from the characters to shoot and kill anything that moves (even busloads of innocent bystanders aren’t safe). The two romantic encounters of this film are quite funny and had the audience laughing. I didn’t think the acting was particularly good, but the actors put a lot of energy into their roles.

Reasons to see this movie:

• It’s so bad that it’s good?
• You often fantasize of leveraging your gamer skills to become a real life mercenary.

Venue: Seattle International Film Festival, 2011
Language: Russian w/really bad subtitles
Genre: Action, Sci-fi, Romance

IMDB

The First Grader — Kenya

This is the true story of an 84 year old Kenyan man (once a Mau Mau freedom fighter) who wants to learn how to read. He buys some books, dons a uniform, and walks up to the front gates of the local elementary school. This was filmed on location and the children in the movie are the school’s actual students. The director said he brought only 8 people into the country, that the rest are local talent. The kids do a great job.

Outrage — Japan

The original title “Creative Ways to Kill and Mame Your Yakuza Associates” was too long and got nixed after the test screening in Kyoto last year. This film provides a humorous look into the politics of a Japanese mafia turf war (from the perspective of Takeshi Kitano). It’s a light story, though very violent, so bring lots of Kleenex to sop up the pools of blood.

Hermano — Venezuela

Two Venezuelan brothers play for the same soccer team, and run with the same gang. They both want to be professional football players, and they’re well on their way when someone guns down their mother.

Every Song Is About Me — Spain

“No they’re not, you’re delusional. Don’t look at me like that!” All kidding aside, this film is about young love, romance, poetry, beautiful barmaids from Venezuela who want to get married, and architecture (but that last one is a stretch).