BFF ’13: A Wife Alone

Maybe internet dating isn’t such a bad idea after all.  An investment banker met his new wife the old fashioned way—in a bar.  However, she might not be exactly who he thinks she is in Justin Reichman’s A Wife Alone (trailer here), which screens during the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival.

Not so long ago, Jane was a prostitute, who had a disastrous gig with Steve.  She therefore ought to be shocked when her dopey new husband Park brings her to spend the day with his godfather-business partner, the very same Steve, and the older man’s highly strung wife, Holly.  Jane seems to take it all in stride though.  With Steve openly leering at Jane and Park quietly nursing his investment-related resentments with his mentor, it should be quite a fun outing for all involved.

Clocking-in just under seventy minutes, Wife is a little oddball of a feature.  Reichman creates an effective hothouse atmosphere, strongly abetted by Tal Lazar’s moody cinematography.  The film’s resulting vibe evokes some of the indie-forerunning studio films of the 1970’s, which is definitely cool.  Unfortunately, the narrative is not nearly as clever as everyone evidently thought it was.  Audience members will constantly find themselves way ahead of the film, waiting for it to catch up to them.  Needless to say, it works better the other way around.

The cast is also a rather strange assembly of character actors.  Sean Patrick Reilly is terrific as the sleazy Steve (bringing to mind Steve Dallas from the old Bloom County comic strip).  Genevieve Hudson-Price’s Jane is much more problematic, lacking a comparable femme fatale presence.  In contrast, Alesandra Assante (daughter of Armand) lights up the screen as Jane’s close lesbian “associate” Barbs.  Frankly, Wife might have worked better if they had exchanged roles.

If nothing else, A Wife Alone surpasses Derek Cianfrance’s wildly overrated The Place Beyond the Pines as the definitive Upstate New York movie.  Some nice film-crafting went into it, but the uneven script remains an issue.  For the intrigued and those interested in seeing their New York State tax credits at work, A Wife Alone screens this Thursday (6/6) at Windmill Studios and Sunday (6/8) and indieScreen as part of the “Magnetic” edition of the Brooklyn Film Festival.

BFF ’13: Forbidden Voices

For all practical purposes, the act of blogging (something I do every day) is illegal in China, Cuba, and Iran.  Despite violent state harassment, three women representing each country have become superstars of citizen journalism.  Barbara Miller profiles this brave trio of bloggers in Forbidden Voices (trailer here), which screens during the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival.

Probably the best known of the three, Yoani Sánchez blogs at: www.desdecuba.com/generationy.  Her reports on Cuban political prisoners and their mothers, wives, and daughters, dubbed the “Ladies in White,” have been picked up around the world.  Like many of the peaceful protestors she covers, she has been savagely beaten by Castro’s thugs.  Ironically, her international reputation provides her a measure of protection, but there is no mistaking the real and present danger she lives with constantly.  For example, during the course of Forbidden, Sánchez reports the suspicious prison death of Orlando Zapata Tamaya and struggles to save the life of hunger-striking Guillermo Fariñas.

As brutal as the Castro regime might be, Zeng Jinyan probably faces an even more perilous situation in China.  A human rights activist who blogs at: www.zengjinyan.wordpress.com, Zeng was crudely blocked from leaving her apartment by Party enforcers, well before she was officially sentenced to house arrest.  With her fellow activist husband Hu Jia incarcerated, Zeng deals with the challenge of raising her young daughter by herself, in her state of captivity.

Farnaz Seifi now lives in the safety of exile, but her blog has long been terminated by Iran’s special internet secret police. She tries to support activists within the Islamist state by publicizing their plight as best she can, but she fears the reprisals her family might consequently suffer.

Evidently, it is relatively easy to smuggle hidden cameras into Cuba, because Voices includes more coverage of Sánchez than her blogging colleagues.  Yet, the images of Zeng are probably the most dramatic, including a brief interview with the confined woman, shouting down from her window.  This is not meant to short change Seifi.  She has seen the inside of interrogation chambers and her concerns for her family, friends, and country are genuine and genuinely moving.

Indeed, all three women are truly heroic, pure and simple.  By shining a spotlight on Sánchez and Zeng, Miller makes it more difficult for their oppressors to make them conveniently disappear.  When watching Voices, viewers will start to understand conditions are far worse in each country than even the most steadfast critics of Communism and Islamist Fundamentalism most likely realized.  This is truly an often shocking but extremely timely and compelling expose.  Frankly, it is hard to conceivably imagine how the upcoming Human Rights Watch Film Festival could proceed without it, but give BFF all due credit for selecting it.

Forbidden Voices is a case of cinematic journalism at its finest.  These are stories that need to be told.  Miller also pays tribute to the blogging ideal, rather elegantly celebrating the powerful and surprisingly poetic quality of their words.  As a result, it is also quite rewarding when judged as a film on strictly formalistic criteria.  Very highly recommended, Forbidden Voices screens this Wednesday (6/5) at Windmill Studios and Saturday (6/8) at IndieScreen as part of the “Magnetic” edition of the Brooklyn Film Festival.

BFF: A Better World (short)

Think of this as what happens after the famous 1984 Apple commercial.  Big Brother has fallen.  Unfortunately, Henry Dremmel is no Winston Smith.  Adjusting to a post-dystopian world will be difficult for him in Sacha Feiner’s short film A Better World (trailer here), which screens during the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival.

Dremmel the tool, works for the Domestic Denunciation Program.  All days he monitors security cameras, reporting even the slightest deviations from the norm.  One fateful night, Dremmel wakes to the sound of fireworks.  The regime has fallen.  Freedom has broken out, but the Denunciator cannot handle it.  He prefers the structure of his drab, harshly regimented former existence.

Audiences are unlikely to see a film more explicitly associating the compulsive need for security with oppressive statism in a month of Sundays.  What’s even more mind-blowing is that it hails from Belgium, the EU’s happy host nation.  Regardless, writer-director Feiner really cuts to the heart of the matter.  Dremmel is not an odious villain.  A pathetic figure, he is the final victim of a de-humanizing collectivist system.

Better World is also quite an impressive looking production.  Olan Bowland’s bleak, washed-out cinematography and Julia Irribaria’s imposing sets create a perfectly Orwellian environment.  Almost a prop himself, Vincent Kohler is appropriately cringey and clammy as Dremmel.

Despite its twenty-four minute running time, A Better World has more to say than most features.  A genuinely challenging work (especially for Williamsburg hipsters), it is one of the best dystopian films of any length to hit the festival circuit.  Very highly recommended, it screens this coming Monday (6/3) and Wednesday (6/5) as part of the 2013 Magnetic edition of the Brooklyn Film Festival.

BFF ’13: Dragon Girls

Will one of these girls be the next Michelle Yeoh?   Possibly, but none of them seems to harbor such lofty aspirations.  Regardless, they all train harder than most professional athletes in hopes of earning a better life for their families (shouldn’t that be the other way around?).  Inigo Westmeier observes the rigorous routine of the Shaolin Tagu Kung Fu School’s students in Dragon Girls (trailer here), which screens during the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival.

For these mostly poor provincial students, kung fu school can lead to better military and police jobs than might otherwise be available to them.  Unfortunately, the seven day training regime does not leave much time for the kids to be kids.  The Shaolin Tagu School accepts both boys and girls, but Westmeier devotes about ninety percent of his attention to the latter, focusing on three particular girls with complicated family circumstances.

Much like the apparently abusive Shanghai Circus School documented by Guo Jing & Ke Dingding, life at Shaolin Tagu does not look like a lot of fun.  On the other hand, at least it offers the girls some camaraderie.  Given the realities of life for poor rural girls (such as the protagonist of Wang Bing’s Three Sisters), things could arguably be worse for the students.  Still, the sanctimonious headmaster is obviously cutting corners with respects to sanitation and nutrition.  Yet, the most trying aspect for most of the girls is the lingering sensation of abandonment.  Clearly, the school functions as an alternative to an orphanage for many essentially absentee parents.

Westmeier captures his three primary POV figures at their most open and vulnerable moments.  Frankly, it is often difficult watching them struggle physically and emotionally, because they are really just kids.  The extent of the headmaster’s authoritarian indoctrination is nearly as disturbing, if not more so.

Despite all the issues the film raises, seeing the collective student body of 35,000 in action is admittedly impressive.  For an observational style doc, there is a heck of a lot of spectacle in Dragon Girls.  These kids are good—but the monks in the Shaolin monastery next door are probably better.  As one might expect, they are less dogmatic and far more Zen-like in their approach to martial arts.  Westmeier tellingly contrasts the two so-close-yet-so-far-apart Shaolin institutions without belaboring the point.

Dragon Girls further testifies to the vast class divisions demarcating today’s China.  It might be tough viewing, but it is an honest reflection of reality. The extent to which Westmeier melds the social issue documentary with martial arts cinema is also rather notable.  Recommended for fans of both genres who can handle some unvarnished truth, Dragon Girls screens this Saturday (6/1) at Windmill Studios and the following Thursday (6/6) at IndeiScreen as part of the “Magnetic” 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival.

BFF ’13: 113 Degrees (short)

In space, no one can hear a heart break—unless, the aggrieved lover decides not to bear her disappointment in silence.  Confined environments are difficult places to work out relationship problems as the crew of a two-person space station learns in writer-director Sabrina Doyle’s short film 113 Degrees (trailer here), which screens during the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival.

Francesca and Joe have grown close during their time in space together.  At this point, they share the same bunk.  It would seem to be an Eden-like situation, but an interstellar call from Joe’s terrestrial wife serves as a rude awakening for his commander.  Disturbed by the incident, she carries her agitation with her during a supposedly routine space walk.  This leads to serious complications.

Granted, most romantic tragedies are not overly concerned with cooling systems, but the guts of 113 involve the lovers’ betrayal and sacrifice.  This is really the sort of film that uses science fiction trappings to tell a straight forward human story.  Indeed, it hits some deep chords.  However, it is important to note Doyle, producer Matilde Barbagallo, and editor Marian Jiménez are all women, lest the film be accused of perpetuating the stereotype women are more likely to become emotionally overwrought than men.

As Francesca and Joe, Lizzy Davis and Brian Groh quickly convey a sense they share some long, intimate history together.  They are a believably flawed couple.  However, his long haired hipster coif looks rather out of place.  Even in the future, aside from space tourists, most astronauts are still likely to be ex-military.

Regardless, the rest of the production is technically quite impressive, especially considering Doyle’s budget constraints.  Hollywood tent-pole veteran Greg Derochie’s VFX team convincingly renders Francesca’s space walk outside the station and the deteriorating conditions within.  One could easily believe this is the same world as the Alien franchise or Duncan Jones’ similarly scrappy Moon.  Recommended for SF fans with a weakness for tales of star-crossed love, the twenty-one minute 113 Degrees screens Monday (6/3) and Wednesday (6/5) as part of this year’s “Magnetic” BFF.

BFF ’13: Sado Tempest

Sado is like the Japanese Isle of Elba.  It was there that the Emperor Juntoku and Buddhist priest Nichiren were exiled in eras past and it is there that a dissident punk rocker is imprisoned in the dystopian near future.  Yet, the island environment he wakes to appears frozen in time, existing in a state of perpetual winter.  Amid the gloom, demons will haunt Welsh expat John Williams’ Noh-styled Shakespearean pseudo-adaptation, Sado Tempest (trailer here), which screens during the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival.

Juntoku’s band Jitterbug regularly yells truth to power during their gigs.  This one will be their final one.  The Agent Smith-like Sekihara drugs the lads backstage and whisks them off to Sado. Presumed dead by the outside world, they are now helpless captives of the brutal warden Sugi.  There is also a strange woman named Miranda, who obsessively hums lines of a legendary demon song as she trudges about the place.  Eventually, Juntoku suspects her ancient verses might hold the key to a supernatural renewal.

Right, there’s some Tempest in here somewhere.  Regardless, there is plenty of ethereal atmosphere, evocative taiko drumming, and Kappa like demons to transport viewers well out of the familiarity zones.  Essentially, Shakespeare is one of several influences, just like the Zen Buddhist flavoring the pronouncements of Omuro, the Prospero figure.  Williams clearly privileges mood over narrative, but there are some deviously subversive bits, as when the corrupt Sugi browbeats the band into recording that last album for their label to discover in the vaults.

Fans of Jitterbug should enjoy hearing them do their thing.  Yet, even through subtitles, the centerpiece “Demon Song” has a real old world vibe, in keeping with the film’s Shakespearean inspiration.  Lead singer Yasunori Henmi does right by it, even if he is a somewhat stiff screen presence.  While the cast largely provides deliberately strange and forbidding performances, there is something haunting about Noriko Eguchi’s Miranda.  As the villainous Sekihara, Kill Bill’s Yoji Tanaka is also appropriately cold blooded and venomous. 

Dystopian cinema has rarely looked so barren and windswept.  Nobody is apt to confuse Sado Tempest with Hunger Games or Battle Royale for that matter.  Indeed, this is about as post-modern as Shakespeare and Noh Theater can get.  Yet, the archetypal themes still resonate.  The sage Omura explicitly challenges conventional notions of time and narrative on Williams’ behalf, but the film itself is relatively linear.  Nonetheless, Sado Tempest is hardly accessible for mass market audiences.  Eerily hallucinatory, Sado Tempest is a must for cult cinema fans with a more post-structuralist intellectual bent.  It screens this coming Sunday (6/2) and Monday (6/3) as part of this year’s “Magnetic” Brooklyn Film Festival.

BFF ’13: Black Out

Those idiots from the Hangover franchise have nothing on Jos Vreeswijk, who is about to wake up next to a dead body, a smoking gun, and no memory of the last twenty four hours.  He has one day to get it all sorted if he wants to make it to the church in time for his wedding in Arne Toonen’s Black Out (trailer here), which screens during the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival.

Vreeswijk was once a criminal, but he went straight.  It seemed to take, up until the point he woke up with a corpse in his bed.  His fiancée Caroline knows he has a shady past, but she accepts him nonetheless.  His prospective father-in-law is less understanding, but he seems to be up to his eyeballs in the mess enveloping Vreeswijk.  Evidently, it involves twenty kilos of cocaine two rival gang lords think he owes them.  To get back to the straight-and-narrow, Vreeswijk will have to boost somebody else’s coke.  There seems to be plenty around, but holding onto it is a trickier proposition.

Black Out is a darkly comic, slightly cartoony criminal caper which hums along quite energetically.  You have your ballet dancers-turned Russian mobsters, psycho baby doll enforcers, malevolent grandpas, and out of their depth dog groomers all getting in on the action.  Yet, it is the steely Robert Conrad-esque Raymond Thirry who anchors the bedlam quite effectively as the reformed everyman, Vreeswijk.  Despite all the betrayal and confusion exploding around him, he is always manly and never whiny.

Likewise, Kim van Kooten is pleasantly down to earth and pragmatic as the innocent Caroline.  All the crazy acting out is left to the rest of the cast, who gorge on scenery like a Bonanza buffet.  Arguably, the subtlest, most intriguing supporting character is Renee Fokker’s Inez, the “Connoisseur of Coke” and formerly Vreeswijk’s close associate.

Tonnen is obviously influenced by Tarantino and the recent bumper crop of Scandinavian noirs, but even if he never reinvents the wheel, he keeps things punchy and pacey.  Violence and eccentricity are liberally mixed together, but Black Out still feels fresh thanks to Thirry’s grounded center.  A slickly entertaining one-darned-thing-after-another gangster romance-beatdown, Black Out is recommended pretty enthusiastically for genre fans when it screens this coming Sunday (6/2) and Monday (6/3) at Windmill Studios, as part of the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival.