Posted by Robert Samardick on March 20, 2009 under Film Festival | Comments are off for this article
The music festival has taken over. Austin locals flee the city while they still can, planeloads of imported Brooklyn hipsters crowd the public transportation. Whole streets may be packed at a time and silent the next moment, hundreds of flyers and empty beer cups the only reminder of their presence. Every bar has their own sweaty band and buckets of free red stripe. You can walk down any street and be drunk by three blocks. That’s why I take the back roads, there are more films to be watched. I need my mind sharp.
DAYTIME DRINKING
Hyuk-Jin and his girlfriend have just broken up. Naturally this leads him to drinking during the day and staring at his cell phone, trying not to drunk dial her. When his friend offers him a place to stay by the beach he decides it would be a great way to blow off steam and he heads out there. Set in the dead of winter in the Korean Countryside, Daytime Drinking is a sobering look at relationships and why everyone has a reason to hit the bottle.
Hyuk-Jin travels the snowy mountainside, usually freezing and usually waiting for a bus that never comes. If he is not drunk, he has a hangover and no matter where he goes people force him to buy a couple rounds. The film is very funny, due to the unbearably awkward relationships he has with everyone he meets. In one case he ends up running into a trucker who takes mercy on him and lets him stay at his place for a night. This seems pretty nice until the Trucker walks into the shower while Jin is in and asks him to wash his back.
Typical of most Korean film, Daytime Drinking is melancholy and unravels very slowly. The point of the film is the journey and while it sets up very slowly, it is rewarding and rich. It also hits way too close to home, nailing that terrible post-break up emotion to a tee.
BACK IN THE THEATER
The woman next to me is official. I try to get a look at her badge, it is way shinier than mine. She’s big time. Badge politics are big in Austin, you can judge anyone by the color of their film pass. Whatever, this woman grabs my arm, her eyes filled with tears. The movie hasn’t even started yet.
“Wavy Gravy changed my life,” She says, “I have never felt so connected to anyone….in my life! Until I saw that movie”. I smile politely, I am not turned off, I just can’t tap in to those emotions right now. This is what happens when a heat wave and day long free drinks are given to film people. They crack. The films become horrible catalysts that can turn any sane minded individual into a sobbing fool. I try to ask her more questions but secretly I am afraid. I was tearing up yesterday in Still Bill and I fear my break might come soon. At any moment a film could find my chord, pluck it and send me to a crying fit in which my life alters forever.
THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF LITTLE DIZZLE
After Dory finds a note in a bottle that reads “FUCK YOU”, he proceeds to go to work and curse out his cell phone addicted cubicle mate. He’s booted out the door and needs to find work. This comes in the form of a janitorial company run by an aging hippy and staffed by young maniacs with a lot of pent-up aggression. When the staff isn’t having sex in the conference room they are getting stoned on the roof and watching fireworks. Dory discovers a bag of cookies from an experimental food company in the garbage one day and the staff has a feast. Then it gets weird.
Hallucinations, cravings for salt and increased emotions began to ail the workers. They discover that the cookies are the new project for the huge corporation they clean up and that the test subjects have been…them. Dory sees doctor after doctor but with no medical insurance he is forced to go crazy alone. Until he gives birth.
While strictly narrative, Little Dizzle is very experimental. Director David Russo throws in some heavy animation and uses fast paced camera shots to give Dizzle a very unique feel. Unfortunately the film is paced unevenly. The film starts off like a gun shot but then tries to focus on too many different stories, leaving the audience slightly lost. Also, while the dialogue can be funny and quick, it can also be extremely fake and forced. The characters get too jokey sometimes and the film sounds like a imitation Judd Apatow flick.
Most importantly, the film has it’s heart in the right place. It is very genuine in message and devoted to creating something different. It’s a perfect film for harsh economic times like this, a reminder of our relationship to corporations. Definitely entertaining, David Russo is a director to watch out for most certainly.
THE BUS
The last bus runs at 11:45 at night. The parties stop at 6 in the morning. You do the math.
Posted by Robert Samardick on March 18, 2009 under Film Festival | Comments are off for this article
Before arriving in Austin I had banked on not paying for any food, just eating the free offerings in the press “suite”. When I discovered the only food it had was promotional fortune cookies and some dried up supplement bars, I realized my fuel for the next five days will be coffee and starch. This is a hell of a diet when heavy drinking is involved, sometimes during the screenings.
AWAY DAYS
This British movie is covered in punk rock, every inch of it has a song playing behind. The story follows Albert, a young man who must decide whether to follow the good path of jobs and house loans or…. the bad path. This is the path of being a member of a brutal soccer gang. Albert meets Elvis and begs to be inducted into the “crew”, a raincoat and Addidas wearing group of thugs who stay sharp by beating other fans to death and ingesting mountains of alcohol. Elvis takes an immediate liking to Albert yet tries to dissuade him from taking apart his lifestyle. Elvis thinks Albert is better than that, and throughout their repressively erotic friendship Elvis strives to make Albert give up his desire to be a violent thug.
What begins as a sex, drug and rock n roll film turns quickly into a look at how violence controls the lives of everyone. Away Days is fast and loud. Import it immediately, do some smack and have a showing for your friends. Then you can all go out and attack strangers. Yes, I totally missed the moral of the whole film.
BACK ON THE STREETS
The ghosts of St. Patrick’s day still litter the city. Men wearing green top hats stumble down the streets, looking lost. Bottles of hard alcohol lay deserted on street corners, in the trash. The music festival begins today, a perfect combination. Loud music and hangovers. This also brings in a huge number of tourists, foreigners who are way too damn giddy and are likely to be attacked by mobs still wasted from last night. It is a dangerous combination and the only place to hide is in the cool comfort of the Paramount Theater. The film festival is winding down but inside the theaters are still tons of people. Whether they are hiding from the heat or genuine film addicts is not certain. At least they all clap at the end.
STILL BILL
This film is incredible. After the audience was done wiping away their tears, they clapped and hooted throughout the credits. It was like seeing hardcore Spingsteen fans watching the Super Bowl performance. Except the music was much better.
Bill Withers is part legend- part unknown one hit wonder, depending on who you talk to. The man behind such r&b classics as “Just The Two Of Us” and “Ain’t No Sunshine” is the star of the film. What looks like a typical rockumentary bio pic is actually a much more intimate look at who he is. Instead of giving a corny synopsis of his life the film follows who he is now, and what made him that way. Withers has not released a song since 1985 after a huge fallout with the record industry. He claims to have no desire to record again but that statement is tested throughout the film, resulting in him going into the studio and getting down.
Withers is as emotional as he is strong. Hailing from a small town in Virginia, he was able to overcome chronic stuttering to become a huge icon. Withers is a charming devil, a dictionary of inspiration and just really cool to hang out with. You’ll clap along with the songs and reflect on the current state of the music industry. Withers is the ultimate artist, a man who cares little about fame and avoids it at all costs.
BACK ON THE BUS
On the bus a homeless vet rants. “I’M A GODDAMN VETERAN, I’M A GODDAMN TEXAN” He stumbles about the area, terrorizing the unfortunate travelers. They avert their eyes, try to blend in with the seats. The bum realizes his audience is gone. his eyes scan the bus. “I’M A GODDAMN CANNIBAL!” Everyone looks up and he laughs. He mumbles to himself about how to get attention then falls out the door. People laugh, no one is sure if he is one of the SXSW performances. He could be, who knows, he was goddamn entertaining. The lines have blurred, the real have become the showmen, the bus becomes a venue. And the festival rolls on.
TOMORROW: THE PRESS vs. THE BLOGGERS, MUSLIM POP MUSIC, GAMEBOY MUSIC, SUCK BY SUCKWEST, and MORE FILMS!
Posted by Robert Samardick on March 12, 2009 under Documentary, Film Festival | Comments are off for this article
Here’s a look at some of the documentaries premiering at South By Southwest Film Festival. Also, one of them is online so be sure to check it out if you’re not making the trip to Austin.
GARBAGE DREAMS
Three teenage boys living in Cairo have Garbage Dreams. Born into the trash collection business, the boys and their families make a living off of other people’s waste. When foreigners are brought in to clean up Cairo’s garbage, they fight to keep their business from being outsourced. WATCH IT ONLINE FOR FREE!
45365
45365 is a documentary about that area code, a intimate look into small town Sydney Ohio. The film covers broad events like a mayor going for re-election, a town fair and the goings on of a barber shop. It also gets more personal and looks at the relationship between a father and a son, a young couple and a man awaiting a jail sentence. The film seeks to capture the essence of this place, a modern look at small town America.
MINE
The millions of pets left homeless after Hurricane Katrina were not forgotten. MINE is the story of the personal guardians, rescue workers and adoptive parents who fought to protect the victims without a voice. The film also looks at a custody battle over a dog, arousing questions as to who has the rightful ownership to a pet when the owner lives in poverty.
SEVERE CLEAR
No Reporters. No Politics. No Censors. These are the factors that separate Severe Clear from the slew of Iraq War docs being made today. Shot on a handheld camcorder by First Leuintanant Mike Scotti, it’s a first person historical account of the troops serving on the front line during the seizure of Baghdad. Never intended to be a film, Scotti’s footage captures the most realistic vision of what it means to be a US soldier in Iraq.
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