Newport Beach Film Festival

Lives in Crisis                                       
by Zac Sanford

The theme for this year's Newport Beach Film Festival appears to be "Characters in Crisis."  Many of the characters have hit a rut - the mid-life stepping stone or even a quarter-life crisis - and are looking for a change to get out of it.  Some will sleep their way to enlightenment, while others will hit the road to find their purpose.  Each will be better for it in the end.  I'm not sure I've changed much by watching these journeys.

Dreamworld:  Everyone has had that moment of "Love at First Sight", and for Oliver Hayes (Whit Hertford, who co-wrote the script), he finds that moment in a chance encounter with a pixie named Lily Blush (Mary Kate Wiles).  The connection is instantaneous, leaving the newly-employed Oliver questioning whether to take the ride up the coast for the chance of a lifetime to find his way into Pixar.  Animation has always been his dream.  The leads are charming and the chemistry radiates on screen, but as the miles rack up, personal demons come out, putting the new relationship to the test.

Free Samples:  An episodic day in the life tale that is light on plot, following Jillian (Jess Weixler) as she hands out free samples from a frozen yogurt food truck.  She's hung over, on a break from her college boyfriend and her studies in college.  As people come throughout the day, little is done to shift Jillian's attitude until a chance encounter with a former actress and classmate start to stir her emotions and attitude, which she has a lot of.  The sarcastic nature pushes most of the laughs, but it does get a bit repetitive towards the end.  Thankfully Weixler is endearing and enjoyable in the cranky role.

Magic Camp:  Young magicians duke it out in this heart-warming documentary at the famous Tannen's Magic Camp, held yearly at Bryn Mawr College, where the boys far outnumber the girls.  The camp allows the kids to not only practice their skills, but to connect to others who share their passion and desire to entertain.  While some of the aspiring magicians become homesick, others spend their hours practicing their acts to perfection to enter the final battle of the top five magicians.  The film was awarded the prize of Outstanding Family Film after having its world premiere at the fest.

 The Woman in the Fifth:  A dark and moody thriller for the first two-thirds of the film, it completely falls on its face for the last part, leaving many of the mysteries open and unresolved in the end.  Even if the mysteries set forth in the film are never fully answered, the film does contain some amazing performances from Ethan Hawke as a author who moves to be closer to his daughter, Kristin Scott Thomas as a mysterious woman with some stringent rules on when and where they can meet up for their affair, and Joanna Kulig as Hawke's soul confidant.

Save the Date:  Two sisters are polar opposites.  Beth (Alison Brie) prepares for her wedding to the man she loves, who just happens to be in a band with Kevin (Geoffrey Arend), who wants to pop the question to her sister, Sarah (Lizzy Caplan).  Beth pushes Kevin not to pop the question, knowing that it will end in heartbreak.  But what is the big deal?  Kevin and Beth just moved in together, so it seems to be the next logical step.  But Beth is in a totally different mindset.  Even as she prepares to move out, she questions her decision on this commitment.  Once Kevin pops the question during his band's performance at a sold-out concert, he is left alone, only to have the entire moment broadcast across the net.  Beth must balance her newly single life, a blossoming relationship and another possible life-changing moment.  A hilarious romp with a fun soundtrack, Save the Date just recently landed distribution with IFC films.

Ira Finkelstein's Christmas:  Ira loves everything that has to do with Christmas.  Problem is, he's Jewish and hasn't even seen real snow in his entire young life.  While on a layover to visit his grandparents (which he haven't seen in years), Ira meets up with another kid who is on his way to Christmastown, WA.  The two swap identities and set out for their ultimate destinations.  If you're able to get over the fact that the airlines mix up the kids and the other family members don't remember what the kids look like, it is a heart-warming tale about dreams and family.  The only thing bogging down the film is a subplot involving Ira's father (David DeLuise), who is producing the most awkward and embarrassingly bad Christmas film since Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

 Summer Song:  While Alexa Vega sizzles on screen as the talented musician at the center, ultimately this film crawls at a snail's pace as melodrama drags it down.  Beautifully shot in Cape Cod and with a running time of under eighty minutes, the film could have used an editor other than writer/director Aram Rappaport.  I don't require films to be straight-forward in storytelling, but many scenes didn't seem to add to the overall forward thrust of the narrative.  You can only watch a father or a bible-thumping brother over-act and be abusive so many times before it becomes dull and boring.  Sometimes blood is not thicker than water, especially when you have dreams you'd love to achieve.

Adventures in Plymptoons:  A hodgepodge of clips, interviews and admiration of the king of weird animation, Bill Plympton.  What?  Never heard of him?  While Bill has flown under the radar of mainstream success, he has been an inspiration for many artists over the course of a long and twisted career.  While the production values may be a little sub-par, if the film had delivered a high-quality and pristine flick, it really wouldn't have been in the spirit of all things Plympton.

Lola Versus:  Greta Gerwig, one of the reigning queens of the indie film scene, shines as the titular character, Lola, another twenty-something going through her quarter-life crisis while juggling love and a career in New York City.  While some may blow this off as a younger version of Sex and the City, the film has some heart buried in the trysts between the sheets.  A full review is forthcoming when the film is released this June by Fox Searchlight.

Servitude:  Like Waiting and Slammin' Salmon before it, Servitude is another in a long line of films about the disgruntled wait staff at a restaurant on the verge of change.  Even though this film is an export from our neighbors to the north, don't expect a polite and light comedy. Instead the film holds back nothing and delivers some of the biggest and most offensive laughs of the entire fest.  Be on the lookout for the almost unrecognizable Margot Kidder and a handful of other Canadian comedy mainstays.

Sound of My Voice

Traveling Through Time                  
by Zac Sanford

Every great cult has a charismatic leader who expertly uses language and tone to play with the emotions of their fellow cult members.  These leaders find unsuspecting people looking for a purpose and a deeper understanding of life, and usually lead them to disaster.

In Sound of My Voice, Brit Marling plays Maggie, the frail and weak leader of a cult situated somewhere in  the San Fernando Valley.  All her food is grown specifically for her.  She walks in slow movements while wheeling an oxygen tank behind her.  But when she speaks, when she makes eye contact with her fellow devotees, they grasp onto every word she says.

Two fellow members are Peter Aitken (Christopher Denham) and Lorna Michaelson (Nicole Vicius).  They haven't come to this hideout because they believe in Maggie's story.  Peter fancies himself a documentary filmmaker.  The plan is to capture video from his glasses while the transceiver in his stomach captures all the details.  At first, neither Peter or Lorna believe the leader, and why should they?  Maggie claims to have come from the year 2054.

During the second night in the compound, Maggie serves the members an apple (an over-used metaphor).  As her devotees dig in, Maggie claims that the food is toxic, and this is how they are all slowly dying.  Member after member regurgitates the apple, spewing out the poison.  Well, everyone does except for Peter.  Peter claims he's never been able to throw up, even as a child.  Maggie digs in deep, throwing Peter under the bus for being a weak human.  Soon the emotions start to flood out, including the food that was previously ingested.  Later Lorna questions Peter's past, only to have him blow it off, saying that it was nothing but lies.

And that is what the script (co-written by Marling and the director Zal Batmanglij) does best, twisting  the perception of those within the cult and those in the audience.  As Peter gets deeper into the cult, Lorna questions his true intentions and motives.  Is this really all about the film or is there something more, a connection between he and Maggie that is no longer there with Lorna?  The film is delivered in small chapters with each being broken up by a single title card before entering the next section of the film.  Some come across very straight forward, while others will leave you scratching your head, wondering what the connection is until the very end.  What is the point of the little girl?  Who is the suspicious woman checking in to a hotel and looking for bugging devices?

It all comes to a satisfying end... at least for me.  The question of what was real and what may have been faked has clues and some answers, but they are thrown together so quickly at the end, that the viewers must question their own beliefs.

This is also Brit's second foray into the ultra low budget sci-fi realm.  Last year she delivered (and also co-wrote with Mike Cahill) Another Earth, a somewhat lesser film to this one.  She knows her way around sci-fi conventions and how to deliver a powerful story and characters within the backdrops usually reserved for aliens and other-worldly creatures. Neither of these films are loaded with special effects (except the second Earth in the previous film), as her stories try to ground themselves in a world that could possibly exist.  As she continues to grow as a writer and star, I can only hope that she delves deeper into the world deep within.

Headhunters

A Smooth, Albeit Short, Criminal             
by Zac Sanford

Based on the novel by Jo Nesbø, Headhunters is a fun thrill ride that doesn't let up until the very end.  A stylish mix that delves into bits of slapstick, Headhunters is the latest in a line of Norwegian thrillers to hit the States since the runaway success of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Instead of hackers and disturbing images of rape, Headhunters deals in the fine art of stealing art.  In the days when Munch's famous painting, The Scream, fetches north of $120 million, the hero imagines finding a piece of art that could allow him to retire from the game and enjoy life with his gorgeous and way-out-of-his-league wife.

The hero, really an anti-hero, is Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie).  A short man with a Napoleon complex, Roger always tries to over-compensate in everything he does.  He has the lavish modern home, the luxury car, paintings worth more the most will make within five years or more and a wife (Synnøve Macody Lund) who towers above him by a good half a foot.  His job as one of the top headhunters in Norway, landing some of the biggest corporations to fill the holes in their executive staff, isn't enough to keep him from being neck deep in debt.  Instead he's swimming in it, and even his financial adviser tells him it's time to make changes in his life.

Instead of tightening the purse strings, Roger continues to live the lavish life, which he finances moonlighting as a high-end art thief.  He even has rules in place.  He never stays more than ten minutes.  He must case the place to be sure he's alone.  He must sell the painting off as soon as possible before the original is seen as replica.  This is all part of his mantra until one of two things happens - he's caught or he finds the painting that allows him to leave the game.

In walks Clas Greve (Game of Thrones Nikolaj Coster-Waldau), a recent transplant to the country who can use Roger's services.  Clas recently worked for a company that dealt with high end GPS microbes that allow the smallest device to be placed on a person without ever being known.  Sadly, his grandmother has passed away, sending him to Norway to renovate the apartment and find homes for the art collection, including a priceless Rubens painting that could fetch over $100 million.  Roger puts his scheme into motion and the tension and suspense ratchets up from here.

At the outset, Roger isn't a very likable character. The fact that he steals art is just the tip of the iceberg.  He's conniving and easily manipulates those around him.  And not only does he have the wife that he doesn't fully deserve, he has another woman that he keeps on the side, but will easily toss her to the side when she becomes too clingy.  But while everything seems to be going right, you just want to root for Roger to get his comeuppance... and boy does he.

Once Roger is able to get his hands on the Rubens painting, his life is quickly turned upside down, turning the film into a constant cat and mouse game.  As the tension mounts, the sympathy switches to that of the anti-hero, and with the constant barrage of events, once ould only root for him to come out on top.  This is where director Morten Tyldum really shines, racheting up the tempo of the story, not allowing the viewer to question the constant conveniences that are being thrown at us.  It isn't until a very (and I do mean VERY) over-the-top car accident that I was taken out of the film for a bit.

In some ways Roger is a bit of a superhero similar to those martial artists in the chopsocky films of yesteryear.  He can take a beating and plenty more, yet somehow he's able to get up and continue on, only to endure another round of brutality.  A mere mortal could never survive the hand he's dealt, but somehow his desire to over-compensate allows him to stand tall against his never-ending foe.

As the puzzle pieces fall together, every setup has a payoff that blends perfectly in the script by Lars Gudmestad and Ulf Ryberg.  As in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, it won't be long before the Hollywood machine finds a way to remake this Norwegian delight.

We Have a Pope

Adequate to the Task                    
by Mark Dispenza

Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti (The Son's Room, The Caiman) returns to his early roots in comedy and religion in We Have a Pope (Habemus Papam).  The title may lead you to believe this is a movie about the inner politics and machinations of the Catholic hierarchy, but nothing could be further from the truth.  This is not a story about a crisis of faith, but rather a crisis of personal confidence.

The current Holy Father of the Catholic Church has died, and a new Pope must be elected.  The world waits with baited breath as the College of Cardinals, sequestered in Papal conclave, takes on the difficult task of electing the new Pope.  When the favored candidates fail to garner the required majority after repeated votes, the conclave turns to a dark horse on which everyone can agree.

No one is more shocked than the winner, Cardinal Melville, played by the great octogenarian French actor, Michel Piccoli.  However, mere seconds before the announcement from the balcony of St. Peter's, il Papa has a panic attack and is unable to address the crowd.  The announcement is suddenly pulled and Melville sequesters himself in his quarters, throwing the entire Catholic world into turmoil.  Was the new Pope taken ill?  Has he died?  Bewildered and flustered by this unexpected turn of events, the cardinals turn to Italy's top psychologist, played to comic effect by Moretti himself.

Michel Piccoli

As someone who's fond of a strong narrative story arc, I was less than enamored of the meandering journey on which Moretti takes us.  In fact I wouldn't call it a journey at all, as the story essentially returns in the end to the same place where it started.  Don't worry that I've spoiled it for you, as the most compelling reason to see this film has nothing to do with the plot.

Over the years I've reviewed many scripts and films by people who come from a variety of backgrounds within the industry.  Over time I've learned to recognize exactly which backgrounds those are by the stories I'm given.  In many cases scripts written by actors are peopled by wonderful, memorable characters and bewitching dialogue, and yet very weak in story structure.  They will typically begin to unravel in the second act and then come to a less-than-satisfying ending in the third act, as if the writer got lost and couldn't figure out how to conclude the story.  This film plays like that.

In spite of that weakness, I have to admit that I enjoyed it precisely because it was populated by such wonderful characters.  Its world looks a lot like the Vatican, but is in fact a kind of magical realism.  The cardinals are neither religious zealots, nor scheming politicos.  They are depicted as fundamentally good human beings living in a world that continuously befuddles them.  I found this a refreshing departure from the excessive negativity often contained in stories about the inner workings of the Catholic Church these days.

Nanni Moretti

While I'm sure that, like most human institutions, the truth lies somewhere between, Moretti's Disneyesque version certainly provides a plethora of entertainment.  His psychologist is really just as bewildered by the world as everybody else.  He tries to gain control and alleviate the boredom, while waiting for il Papa to come to his senses, by setting up a volleyball tournament for the cardinals.  The political competition among the delegates from different continents is thus satirized and sweetened by devolution into an athletic contest.

Don 't expect to gain any real insight into the inner workings of the Catholic Church by watching this film, but do prepare to be immensely entertained.

Cabin in the Woods

The Horror Behind the Curtain             
by Zac Sanford

College coeds at a secluded cabin in the woods have long been a staple of the horror genre. It's a tired and stale cliche that has left audiences bored and hungry for something new and inventive. With the release of Cabin in the Woods, director Joss Whedon and co-writer Drew Goddard tackle the genre with a crowd-pleasing twist on that tired and dreary formula.

To go too deeply into the twist, one would have to lay out heavy spoiler warnings, and this is a film best viewed with the least amount of prior knowledge. As with the "kids in the woods" tropes, it begins with a mix of cliches and stereotypes. We've got the alpha male who will try to stand tall when the stuff finally hits the fan (Chris Hemsworth), the dim-witted blonde with a nice rack to drive up the ticket sales of the adolescent set (Anna Hutchison), the heartbroken but reserved female (Kristen Connolly), the stoner with his different views on the world (Fran Kranz), and the token black character (Jesse Williams). Yes, these are total Hollywood cliches, or at least that's what one is led to believe.

Joss has been known in the past to take something familiar and turn it on its head. While all those stock characters may give you the idea of perception as reality, the writer/director wants you to look deeper beneath the layers that are on the surface. It isn't until something is conjured up to attack our group that true identities come to the forefront. But what will actually attack our heroes?

In the cabin in the woods movies it could be a bevy of concepts or ideas. Typically some backwoods inbred psycho is on the loose or conjured up from the dead. Once our characters get to their destination, the psycho in the woods does come at them, but this isn't like any other horror film. As the campers prepare for an evening filled with cup after cup of alcohol or their preferred drug of choice, something beckons them down into the dimly lit and eerie basement. Every character is entranced and drawn to a specific item. Will it be the orb? The book about a past event in this very cabin? A piece of jewelry with special powers? Or could it actually be a mix of all these things.

Cabin in the Woods is more akin to to Scream than Hostel. The laughs come far more often than the scares or the gore, which is mainly saved until the climatic and overdone third act. Joss and Drew know the genre and how they can play around in it, manipulating and poking fun at horror movies. As a personal fan of horror films, I sometimes want to yell at the screen for the idiotic choice of the main character, but with this flick, it is proof that the writer and director knows how to manipulate and invoke a reaction.

Even if horror movies aren't typically your thing, I would implore you to check this movie out. Usually when a film sits on a shelf for multiple years it is because the final product isn't of the highest caliber, but this film was only lost in the shuffle due to the demise of MGM. Cabin in the Woods is a treat for any film fan.

The Raid: Redemption

A Kick of Adrenaline                         

by Zac Sanford

While light on plot, Gareth Evans' The Raid: Redemption more than compensates in its stylized and non-stop tour de force action.

Like Die Hard, The Raid centers around one man on a mission. At the outset that isn't completely accurate since Rama (Iko Uwais) is joined by a cavalcade of cops. Their mission is to enter into the decrepit apartment building and capture drug kingpin, Tama (Ray Sahetapy). The problem is Tama has the building completely wired with intercoms and cameras. He throws out the promise of "free rent for life" to tenants who are able to stop the intrusion. With the call to arms, the building that has housed many drug dealers and murders comes alive. Gunfire erupts upon Rama and his team, sending most to the morgue within a matter of minutes.

As the numbers are narrowed, The Raid slips into video game mode, with each new level bringing on a different set of bad guys and a different style of fighting. Guns on the first few levels, knives and machetes on the next couple of levels, and last but not least, the biggest fight of all between Rama and Tama's most hardcore of henchman, the aptly named Mad Dog (Yayan Ruhian). He is one that believes using a gun is like "ordering take-out." He'd rather fight someone with some real skill, that of Pencak Silat, the Indonesian style of martial arts.

There are a couple twists and turns along the journey, but mostly they are there to service the cliches of the genre. Corrupt cops, brothers on opposite sides of the law and a pregnant wife awaits our hero back at home. Viewers who are subtitle-phobic shouldn't worry, as the dialogue is minimal, only peppered in to add a little breathing room between non-stop escalating battles and violence.

Evans effectively captured the lost art of a well-crafted fight scene. American films tend to have the camera in close, handheld and constantly cutting to give the feeling of intense action in an otherwise poorly executed fight scene. Evans pulls the camera back from the action and lets it follow smoothly along corridors, hallways and rooms where the action takes place. Each punch, kick, stab and swing of a weapon is felt with force as the scene plays out without a cut every fraction of a second. If the film was a series of rapid cuts, the viewer would be left dazed and confused within the first thirty minutes of the almost non-stop action.

Like the many action stars before him, Iko Uwasis should find steady work within the genre. He has charisma and the chops to pull off some of the more elaborate action set pieces. And since Sony Classics decided to add on the "Redemption" part to the title (considering no character is really redeemed), hopefully there are plans to continue on the franchise with the few remaining actors at the end of this non-stop blood bath. But don't let the words "blood bath" scare you away. If you can handle the opening execution by Tama where he runs out of bullets before his last victim, leaving him only a hammer to end it, you can make it through The Raid.

Jeff, Who Lives at Home

Signs of Coincidence                       

by Zac Sanford

Indie darlings, the Duplass Brothers (Jay and Mark), reference the king of the "twist ending," M. Night Shyamalan, in their latest movie. It isn't necessary to know what happens in Signs, or what the big twist is, but know that it is a movie about coincidence, and every little thing has a purpose.  Jeff (Jason Segel) laments about his love of the movie, with its multiple levels and you can't fully comprehend in just one viewing. There are layers upon layers by Shyamalan, all leading up to the final climatic battle with alien invaders.

Luckily for the viewers of Jeff, Who Lives at Home, there are no aliens taking over the world or getting in the way of the characters and their journeys of self-reflection and discovery. Instead Signs gives the Duplass Brothers an excuse to bring forth a script filled with moment after moment of coincidence. But it works. Jeff, his brother Pat (Ed Helms), and their mother Sharon (Susan Sarandon), all have personal journeys to take, and the constant crossing of paths on an otherwise ordinary day leads to a decent conclusion of sacrifice.

Jeff is the typical type of character you'd find in a Duplass flick. He's a bit of a man-child who never found purpose in his life. He lives at home with his mother and can't even seem to finish a menial task like picking up wood glue to fix a broken shutter. With a constant cloud of pot smoke clouding his brain, he is easily distracted, and the day our movie begins (and ends) is no different. Before he can even head out the door to grab the glue, the only thing his mother wants done for her birthday, he answers a call that any other human would consider a wrong number or a prank call. The caller is looking for Kevin, who of course doesn't live at this home, but the caller doesn't believe Jeff and throws out a harmless and anonymous threat. Jeff racks his brain to recall who Kevin may be.  

While Jeff may be the man-child, his brother Pat has his life put together--well, at least a little more than Jeff. Even though he's married and lives in a small apartment, things are going well enough to spring his latest purchase on his wife, Linda (Judy Greer), the ultimate in a man's mid-life crisis--a Porsche. Problem is, they can't afford it. Not all is well in his house, even if on the outside he seems to haves it all together. And a bigger surprise (and not really ruined here unless you've skipped the trailer), Linda may be having an affair, which Pat doesn't know about until one of those moments of coincidence.  

Sharon, the mother of both, seems bored and at a dead-end spot in her life. She works in a call center for something we're never told. The highlight of her birthday isn't the thought of presents or being with family, but a secret admirer who has been sending paper airplanes and anonymous chat messages to her. With each flirty message, the hard exterior is chipped away, showing a woman past her prime, just looking for someone to connect with. Her own journey comes together with the others, leading to the biggest climax of any Duplass film.

Some viewers may be turned off by Jeff's child-like charm, but it worked deep down into my otherwise hardened core. He is a character with heart. All Jeff wants is for those to be happy around him, even if deep down he is miserable. There may be a million reasons why Jeff has never amounted to much in his life, but it is the little changes and coincidences around him on this eventful journey that will hopefully turn him around. And it isn't just Jeff who the audience will feel for, but everyone in the family, including Linda and her reasons for possible infidelity.