Sundance Film Festival – Page 23 – LFM: Libertas Film Magazine

LFM Sundance Review: Special Grand Jury Award Winner Position Among the Stars

By Joe Bendel. The most populous Muslim nation is not in the Middle East, it is Indonesia. A Christian like Rumidjah Shamshudin can often find herself on the outside looking in, even within her own family. Still, she remains a strong matriarchal figure in Leonard Retel Helmrich’s Position Among the Stars, his third documentary chronicling the Shamshudin family, which won the Special Grand Jury Award for Documentary Film at the recently wrapped 2011 Sundance Film Festival, making Helmrich the first two-time Sundance and IDFA award winner.

As a documentarian, Helmrich comes out of the Wiseman observational school rather than the Moore-Spurlock self-aggrandizing tradition. He gives us what in this case could be termed a roach-on-the-wall view of the Shamshudin family’s daily struggles in the booming but not necessarily progressive majority-Muslim nation. The matriarch has hopes for something better—not for herself, but for her granddaughter Tari who will soon graduate from high school. She is determined to enroll Tari in college, but her son Bakti (Tari’s guardian) only sees the considerable cost involved. In fact, Rumidjah is not too pleased with her under-achieving son for a number of reasons, including his mistreatment of his wife Sri, the only reliable breadwinner in the family.

Positions2 — From "Position Among the Stars."

Position is a film that takes its time, letting its dramas evolve naturally while viewers patiently watch. Though it can be a bit slow at times, Helmrich captures some truly eye-opening scenes, like the aftermath of the municipal neighborhood roach spraying, which you really have to see to believe.

In a way, the Shamshudins are a microcosm of Indonesia, requiring a scorecard to track their religious affiliations. In fact, Rumidjah, A Christian convert, seems to be the only one in the family who takes faith seriously. By contrast, Muslim conversion seems like a matter of convenience for some. Still, Muslim son Dwi appears genuinely angry when she takes his son Bagus to Catholic mass.

Though billed as the third (and therefore concluding) installment of Helmrich’s trilogy, it is difficult to predict whether the future will favor the Shamshudins. Frankly, life is just too messy to end on a neatly pat note, especially in Jakarta. Instead of closure, Helmrich gives viewers a visceral sense of life in Jakarta’s slums and a fair taste of the countryside as well. He has an eye for weirdly telling interludes that help pull viewers through Position’s more workaday scenes. It is an intriguing and ultimately ambiguous look at the slum-level reality for a nation still in flux, and a film that continued to rack up festival acclaim at this year’s Sundance.

Posted on January 31st, 2011 at 10:15am.

LFM Sundance Review: The Mill and the Cross

By Joe Bendel. Pieter Bruegel the Elder was a truly subversive old master. Known for his paintings of the Dutch peasantry as well as Biblical episodes, his five hundred character masterwork The Way to Cavalry depicted the Spanish Militia then occupying Flanders as the Roman soldiers crucifying Christ. While Bruegel’s commentary on the Spanish occupation is inescapable, the painting is rife with hidden signifiers, which the painter himself explains in Lech Majewski’s unclassifiable The Mill & the Cross, a painstakingly crafted cinematic recreation of The Way to Cavalry, which had its world premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Employing state-of-the-art computer generation, scores of seamstresses and artisans, and an enormous 2D background recreation of Bruegel’s celebrated work painted by the director himself, Majewski brings the great tableaux to life on the big screen. Amongst those five hundred characters are Brueghel and his friend a collector, Nicholas Jonghelinck, to whom he explains his projected new painting, The Way to Cavalry.

hauermill — Rutger Hauer as Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

It is impossible to hang a pat label on Mill. Though it screened as part of Sundance’s New Frontier track for more experimental work, such a rubric really does not fit Majewski’s film. It certainly is not non-narrative filmmaking, since it encompasses the greatest story ever told. However, it completely challenges linear notions of time, incorporating Christ’s Passion and the world of 1564 Flanders, in which Bruegel and Jongelinck are simultaneous observers and active participants.

Years in the making, Mill is an extraordinarily ambitious undertaking. Majewski represents the social continuum of Sixteenth Century Flanders, recreating the mean living conditions of the peasants, the clean, unadorned quarters of the relatively middle class Bruegel, and the privileged environment of the well-to-do Jongelinck. Majewski’s visuals are often arresting, like the scenes of art director Stanislaw Porczyk’s towering mill, which resembles the enormous set pieces of Terry Gilliam films. Perhaps most stunning are the wide shots of the Cavalry landscape, with the figures literally coming alive on Bruegel’s canvas. Yet, Majewski also captures moments of both tender intimacy and graphic torture, rendered with powerful immediacy.

Indeed, the wealthy collector clearly serves as the conscience of the film, decrying the capricious religious persecution that was a fact of life for Flanders under the Militia. Despite the almost overwhelming visual sweep of the film, Michael York gives a finely tuned performance as Jongelinck that really sneaks up on viewers. Rutger Hauer (worlds away from his other Sundance film Hobo with a Shotgun) also brings a forceful heft to the rather mysterious artist.

A personal triumph for Majewski, who also served as producer, co-cinematographer, co-composer, and sound designer, Mill effectively blurs the distinction between film and painting, yet it is more of a “movie” than nearly anything ever deemed “experimental film.” A unique, highly recommended viewing experience, Mill had its European premiere at the Rotterdam Film Festival yesterday (1/30) and will have its French premiere at the Louvre on Wednesday (2/2). There are worse reasons to travel to Europe on short notice. Indeed, it was one of the standouts at this year’s Sundance, which concluded yesterday (1/30) with the festival awards ceremony.

Posted on January 31st, 2011 at 9:37am.

LFM Sundance Review: Being Elmo: a Puppeteer’s Journey

By Joe Bendel. Sesame Street can essentially be divided into two eras: before and after Elmo. Actually, the red Muppet had been around for a while, but had always suffered something of an identity crisis until puppeteer Kevin Clash took him over. Reconceived as the sweetest of sweethearts, Elmo loved everyone and the love came right back at him, as Constance Marks documents in her profile of Clash and his furry alter-ego, Being Elmo: a Puppeteer’s Journey (see clip above), which was one of the hottest tickets at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

elmo4 — Kevin Clash & his alter ego, Elmo.

Growing up as a budding puppeteer in his lower middle class Baltimore neighborhood was not always easy for Clash. However, two important people recognized and encouraged his talents: his parents. Thanks to his mother’s cold call, an important figure came to share that faith in Clash—Kermit Love, the guru-designer of Henson’s Muppet studio. With love’s encouragement, Clash would be working professionally on national television soon after graduating from high school. Yet, for years, the timing just did not work out for him to join the Henson Company.

Eventually, the stars aligned. His early days with Henson were pleasant if mostly unremarkable, but an off-hand assignment to figure out something to do with the show’s red-headed stepchild proved to be a turning point. Previously rather monosyllabic and not particularly gracious, Clash’s Elmo was now outgoing, eager to express his affection for the world. Suddenly, Elmo was no longer an obscure supporting Muppet, but the marquee star of Sesame Street.

Journey is part Horatio Alger story, chronicling Clash’s rise to the pinnacle of his profession. Throughout the film, he frequently acknowledges all those who mentored him along the way, including not just Henson and Love, but also his colleagues from the local Baltimore affiliate where he first cut his teeth in children’s programming.

There is also a whole lot of Elmo in Journey as well. Yes, he is the touchy-feeliest of the Muppets, but he is also the most frequently requested by Make-a-Wish kids. Viewers who do not get a little misty-eyed during those scenes need to get their souls tuned-up.

Indeed, Journey is quite an antidote for cynicism. Wisely, Marks takes a conventional approach to her subjects, relying on the charm of Clash and Elmo. Featuring a whole lot of feel-good material – like Clash’s American success story, the strength that comes from family, the value of friendship, and the continuing legacy of Henson’s creative genius – Journey is a crowd-pleaser for audiences of all ages. A hit at Sundance, it should have a long life after the festival, which concludes this Sunday (1/30) in Park City.

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Being Elmo won the Special Jury Prize in the U.S. Documentary Competition at this year’s Sundance.]

Posted on January 30th, 2011 at 10:52am.

LFM Sundance Review: Another Earth

By Joe Bendel. What if Star Trek got it wrong? Suppose there really is an alternate Earth, but instead of a world full of evil Kirks and Spocks, it is pretty much like our own. It’s hard to say for sure, but this seems to be the case in writer-director-editor-cinematographer Mike Cahill’s Another Earth, a quiet character drama subtly built around a durable sci-fi device that screens during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

The astrophysics are a bit sketchy, but it seems an identical Earth has always existed, hidden from view by our mutual sun. One fateful night, our orbits shifted and Earth 2 suddenly appeared in the sky. It is exactly the sort of phenomenon Rhoda Williams looks forward to studying at MIT. Tragically, however, it is not to be. Craning to get a glimpse of the new Earth, the drunk-driving Williams slams into another car, killing composer John Burroughs’ pregnant wife and their young son. She spends the next four years in a juvenile prison, while he descends into an alcohol-fueled depression.

Though eventually released, Williams remains a captive of her own guilt. She even approaches Burroughs to apologize, but the words will not come. Instead, she pretends to be from a cold-calling maid service. Much to her surprise, Burroughs (unaware of her identity due to their local juvie offender laws) hires Williams for a much needed weekly house cleaning. Slowly, a relationship develops between the two, but their fates still seem to be intertwined with Earth 2.

At this risk of sounding nauseatingly condescending, Another Earth is a film that shows tremendous promise. Cahill’s use of sf elements to tell a fundamentally human story is smart and ambitious. Particularly intriguing is the premise that the moment of awareness led to a break in the two Earths’ synchronization. Like the best of old-fashioned speculative fiction, this opens up the door for redemptive possibilities. However, AE is stylistically over-baked, indulging distractingly odd camera angles and visual tableaux more appropriate to Deep Thoughts with Jack Handy. Oddly though, though, the periodic portentous narration from Dr. Richard Berendzen (director of NASA’s Space Grant Consortium) fits into the flow better than one might expect.

Despite a reasonably large cast, AE is essentially a two-hander, with co-writer-co-producer Brit Marling and William Mapother impressively carrying the load as Williams and Burroughs, respectively. They consistently feel like real people struggling with real pain. While their budding romance is a tough sell given the context, they pull it off quite credibly.

A filmmaker with a background in documentaries, Cahill does a lot right in AE, but also a fair amount wrong. The net effect is a surprisingly memorable film, marking him as a filmmaker worth tracking. A selection that really fits the Sundance mission, AE screens again during the festival today (1/29).

[EDITOR’S NOTE: According to Deadline, the budget of Another Earth was apparently only around $150,000 – and the film was just acquired by Fox Searchlight for around $3 million. Not bad!]

Posted on January 29th, 2011 at 10:13am.

LFM Sundance Review: A Few Days of Respite & Sexual Freedom for Iranians

By Joe Bendel. France has long maintained close relations with Iran. Yet, the country does not exactly welcome a pair of gay undocumented Iranians seeking refuge from oppression in Algerian filmmaker Amor Hakkar’s A Few Days of Respite, one of several films examining persecution in the Islamist country selected for the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Mohsen is definitely the assertive one in their relationship. He controls the money, and insists they pretend to travel separately when on public conveyances. The loyal Hassan agrees to everything, even though he sometimes shows subtle signs of resentment. Realizing their relationship carries a death sentence, they have made it all the way to France. Their ultimate destination is Paris, but they have a brief layover in a mountain village, where they stand out rather conspicuously. However, a lonely middle-aged woman Mohsen befriends on the train might represent a safe harbor, at least for him. Though Yolanda is eager to shelter Mohsen indefinitely, he can keep Hassan surreptitiously stashed in her attic for only so long. As Hassan’s jealousy builds, it becomes clear the situation is untenable.

Respite is a quiet, contemplative film that only directly addresses the oppressive policies of the Iranian government at its very beginning and end. However, those moments are certainly significant. Still, the majority of the film combines intimate character studies with elements of the illegal immigration issue-drama, much in the tradition of Philippe Lioret’s oh-so ironically titled Welcome.

Regardless of the issues it might raise, intentionally or not, Respite showcases some very fine acting from its three principals. Director Hakkan gives a finely nuanced performance as the flawed but deeply human Mohsen. Samir Guesmi is understated almost to a fault as the intense Hassan, while Marina Vlady portrays Yolande with genuine dignity and vulnerability.

Respite is a work of great sensitivity, but it is a small film by any measure. Nice but not essential, it screens again today (1/29) as the Sundance Film Festival continues in Park City and other points throughout Utah.

Posted on January 29th, 2011 at 9:30am.

LFM Sundance Review: Hobo with a Shotgun

By Joe Bendel. Trailers are considered the movie industry’s most important marketing tool, but does it really make sense to start with a clever teaser and re-engineer an original film from there? Much like Robert Rodriguez’s Machete, Jason Eisener’s Hobo with a Shotgun started as a gag trailer for a fictitious grindhouse film submitted to a contest co-sponsored by Rodriguez. Unlike Machete, at least Eisener’s Hobo (trailer above) makes no pretensions to socio-political relevance, simply delivering sleazy action at its Park City at Midnight screenings during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Like the high plains drifter or Sanjuro, a mysterious hobo rides into town on the rails. He has a past that we will never know, but he has a dream—to buy a mower and start his own lawn care company. He is in the wrong town for that. This vaguely Midwestern burg is owned lock stock and smoking barrel by Drake, a poor man’s Joe Pesci kingpin, and his two sadistic idiot sons, Slick and Ivan. The Hobo gets a taste of how things work in town when he foils an attempt to kidnap the local hooker with a heart of gold, earning himself a beat-down at the hands of the crooked cops. However, the Hobo comes back for more, this time with a shotgun in hand.

As titles go, Hobo with a Shotgun certainly represents truth in advertising. Initially, it also has the vintage grindhouse look down cold. However, as the film progresses it veers closer in tone to 1990’s Troma than 1970’s exploitation. Not only is the violence ridiculously over the top, the villains (particularly the evil twins) look like they walked straight out of a 1980’s world of Dippety Do hair gel and cheesy metal bands with flying V guitars.

Casting Rutger Hauer as the Hobo was an inspired choice. Shotgun essentially tries to invert the classic 1980’s schlocker The Hitcher, inviting audiences to root for Hauer’s drifter killing machine rather than for another boring first-initial Thomas Howell character. Unfortunately, the Hobo is absolutely riddled with angst, adding a layer of grimness to what is intended as a blackly comic romp.

In truth, like Machete, a trailer’s worth of this Hobo might be just about right. The opening credits hit the perfect nostalgic note and there are three or four meathead-pleasing action sequences. The rest of the film’s brutal and nihilistic connective tissue simply gets tiresome. Be that as it may, those looking for gory laughs will probably find them in Shotgun, but legitimate grindhouse connoisseurs will more likely be disappointed. It screens again today (1/28) and Saturday (1/29) during this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Posted on January 28th, 2011 at 8:01am.