DON’T CALL ME SON ★★

Might be that I’m hitting a wall but I walked out. The story is about a boy who discovers his mother actually stole him as a baby and what happens as he gets to know his biological family. At a point around halfway through seeing daylight felt like a better option than remaining in the theatre.

ZERO DAYS ★★

Oh, Alex Gibney, I think I’m ready to give up on you and your ‘documentaries’. This two hour film talks about the Stuxnet virus and its history, as well as looking to the future. Alex has done a film about Julian Assange which was more editorial than fact. He did one about Steve Jobs which was more imagination/outright incorrect factually, and for this one, he introduces someone from the NSA whose identity had been protected at the beginning as his sole source of fact (since no one else would talk about it, other than the antivirus vendors who stand to benefit by scaring people into buying their product). Then at the end, reveals that this person doesn’t actually exist but is representative of an amalgamation of statements he got from people. I’m disappointed. He does documentaries about topics that are interesting to me (and which I often have knowledge of), but they just seem to be twisted, biased, and sometimes outright incorrect. 

THE HANDMAIDEN ★★★☆

This is the first film I’ve seen by South Korean director Park Chan-wook, and it was great! The story was interesting enough to let the over two hour film go by without concern, and nicely made. There was some pretty strong erotic scenes if that floats your boat, and a bit of gruesome moments too. Very well executed telling of a story about two con artists trying to take advantage of a rich recluse woman. There are twists, some which I guessed and others that I was pleasantly surprised by.

THINGS TO COME ★★★

The first of two films in a row starring Isabelle Huppert. This was a nice enough drama about a philosophy teacher and her experiences both with her family and her professional career.

ELLE ★★★☆

Wow. It shows Isabelle Huppert’s diversity in her performance here vs the previous film (above). There’s so many reasons not to like this film; it’s violent, and the ethical/moral compass of many of the characters is entirely missing; it’s certainly hard to feel empathy towards the lead. But, it was a good watch nonetheless. It’s about a woman who’s father committed an atrocious massacre in her presence as a young child. She’s now an adult, running a game studio, and the story starts with a violent rape scene and how she goes about dealing with it. Certainly there are uncomfortable moments but it also has some comedic moments and overall, I’d recommend it.

KEDI ★★★☆
A very enjoyable documentary about the street cats of Istanbul and those who care for them. They generally don’t have owners, but they do have people who help care for them. Nicely shot, often at cat-height, and refreshing in that it was pretty much all uplifting stories. I’ve owned cats in the past, and it made me miss them. Looking forward to seeing this again some day with my kids.

A MONSTER WITH A THOUSAND HEADS ★★★☆
I don’t like dealing with large organisations that senselessly muck you around, and this Mexican film was for the people who feel the same way. I’m not sure that I’d quite go as far as the wife of a cancer-stricken husband who is desperately trying to get medical assistance, but it was well made and had a good pace. I’d have liked a little more development of the back-story, as things get rolling pretty quickly and we know she’s angry, but I think perhaps a little more on the actions taken by the insurance company might have helped build more empathy for the wife.

RADIO DREAMS ★☆
A film about a Persian radio station in San Francisco, and how they’re hoping to bring together Afghanistan’s first rock band together in the studio with Metallica. Scattered and only slightly entertaining, by the time the cameo occurs, you barely care that it happened.

LIFE, ANIMATED ★★★☆
A wonderful documentary about a young autistic man who, in his early 20s, is leaving home to live by himself. The film goes into his history, going from non-verbal to a functioning member of society through his love of Disney films. Lots of nice moments in this, as well as helping to promote understanding about autism and people who suffer from it.

THE SALESMAN ★★★☆
An Iranian film which I liked more and more after it was over. One night when the husband is out, someone attacks his wife in their home. This is a real conversation starter in regards to the difficulties into attacks on women in society and the various stake holders – the husband in this case regularly acting with little regard to his wife’s feelings. I’ve not seen Death of a Salesman (a play which both the husband and wife are involved with), and I presume some analogies would be drawn if I had.

HIGH-RISE ★☆
The first half hour of this film was awesome, and I thought we were going to have a new contendor for my favourite MIFF film for the year. Set in a brutalist high-rise apartment block, the 70s style set design was just incredible. The filmwork was also great, and the style was a little reminiscent of The Prisoner (as in 1960s UK The Prisoner, not the Australian women’s jail one). And then, it just came crashing down into a fumbling piece of pretty much unwatchable mess. Such a big disappointment, I’d give 4.5 stars for the first 30 minutes and zero after that. I know that the apartment block was meant to be an analogy of society, what with different classes of people depending on the level of the tower, but it didn’t need to just go into plotless violence and debauchery for 1.5 hours with no clear story to tell.

TICKLED ★★★☆ 

I was told that the less you know about this film before you see it, the better, so I’ll say little about it. The documentary is about competitive tickling, but furthermore about what happened to the film makers when they wanted to make a film about it. Check it out if you can. I felt my heart racing at points as the story unfolded. 

INDIGNATION ★★★★

Surprise of the festival, so far. Before I went into this, I re-read the synopsis and couldn’t remember why I’d picked it. I was wondering if I’d possibly made a mistake and booked it accidentally. Anyway, I’m so glad I made it because Indignation has been one of my festival favourites this year. It’s a love story set in the early 1950s about a young jewish man from New Jersey entering college in Ohio, and his relationship with a student there who’s had some difficulties in her past. It deals with a variety of topics and interrelationships, sons and parents, men and women, students and educators. The final scene made my eyes water a little bit. Wonderful.

LOUIS THEROUX: MY SCIENTOLOGY MOVIE ★★★

As expected, Louis provided an entertaining look at a scary/weird ‘religion’, whom I have very little time for. The thing is, *EVERYBODY*’s been doing these investigations for a while now. Lots of people have written books about how scientology is full of freaks. Lots of people have done documentaries about how scientology is full of freaks. Lots of people have run websites about how scientology is full of freaks (and then they proved it by chasing and harassing the hosting provider of one of them. At one point in this film, one of the ex-scientologists refers to another saying that he knows where the dead bodies are. Where were they? Tell us something new Louis, or at least uncover something that warrants this being a cinema release rather than a two part TV documentary. Anyway, it wasn’t a *bad* film, though it did seem to kind of just end without resolving anything. I enjoyed it, I just wanted it to be more.