Two more from the EIFF

APART FROM THAT

This US indie comedy/drama follows the lives of a bunch of different people over a short period of time as they each encounter problems with their relationships, work or life in general. Normally you'd expect that they all overlap in some way towards the end but, no, this time they are pretty much a load of unrelated stories.

Sadly they're not that good either. There are some very funny moments in the film but they're few and far between. It's similar in tone to ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW, but not as engaging, not as polished and nowhere near as amusing, and the characters are quirky without being particularly interesting.

I've moaned before about how these low-budget shot-on-video efforts might allow more films to be made but just don't look as good as film. Nowhere is that more evident than in this film, with the photography looking blurred, murky, and pedestrian in varying measures and the poor quality audio rendering some of the dialogue very hard to pick up. This isn't helped by the irritating score which borders on being completely tuneless.

This apparently got heavily praised at the various US festivals it played at before getting its international premiere in Edinburgh tonight. Not such a positive reaction here, with a few walkouts during the film and a significant exodus upon the end titles (which were met largely with silence).

I confess I left as soon as the titles rolled as I had another film to get to, but I couldn't help noticing the rather anxious looks on the faces of the two co-directors waiting outside to come in and do a Q&A. I almost felt sorry for them - but that wouldn't change the fact that I just didn't get this movie.

MY COUNTRY, MY COUNTRY

And here is that movie I was rushing off to see. Laura Poitras had unrivalled access during the build up to Iraq's election and took the opportunity to carve out this stunning documentary, getting its UK premiere in Edinburgh tonight.

With insights into the lives of the US soldiers, the various communities in Iraq (particularly the family of a doctor who intends to stand in the election) and a few people from different strands of the international community, this is the Iraq occupation as we've never seen it.

Poitras paints a picture of the occupation and election preparations that you won't find on any news channel, swinging between spectacular footage of the military in action and intimate portraits of family life in the war-torn country. There are other fascinating asides too, such as the Australian security firm conducting an arms deal in a hotel room, which is something you don't see every day.

It's a lot of ground to cover in just an hour and a half (the film takes place over several months leading up to the election) but does so with great aplomb. The film is by turns touching, incendiary, intimate, sweeping and always affecting in one way or another.

Forget the lacklustre GUNNER PALACE that was shown at the EIFF last year. This is, to date, the definitive documentary on what is going on in Iraq - from all perspectives.

Stay tuned for my next update - it might be late tomorrow night but failing that will probably be sometime on Friday evening. I'm doing my best!