Glasgow Film Festival 2008 (the end)
Slightly later than planned (that's pretty much how I open all these blog things, isn't it?) here are my thoughts on the other films I saw at the Glasgow Film Festival.
I kicked off with THE WHALES OF AUGUST, showing as part of the Bette Davis retrospective. This was her final film, though as old and frail as she evidently was, she was still more than capable of offering up a typically Davis-esque performance as the bitchier of two sisters living a quiet life by the sea. She's in great company, joined by Lillian Gish and Vincent Price, and is in safe directorial hands with Lindsay Anderson. As nice looking as the film is, however, not much happens and the rather stilted acting in many scenes makes it far from the best performances any of these people offered in their careers. If you're going to seek out any films in the retrospective (as it's now touring the country) I'd stick one of the older classics.
BODY OF WAR is one in a long line of documentaries about the war on terror and its aftermath, this time focussing on the life of a young American soldier who came home with serious physical disabilities after a brief tour was cut short by injury. The documentary follows his every day life from the hardships of day to day tasks to his campaigning on the political trail. The examination of Bush's war, and the revelation that it might well be doing more harm than good, is nothing new. In fact, we've been inundated with such films of late. However, BODY OF WAR finds a slightly new angle to approach from (the life of the disillusioned and broken soldier compared with the process by which America ended up fighting the war to begin with) and while it might not reach any new conclusions, it at least reaches them in a fresh and insightful manner.
THE POPE'S TOILET [EL BANO DEL PAPA] is an difficult film to categorise. It's a farcical comedy. It's a heartbreaking family drama. It's a film about faith and about poverty. It's funny in places, yet sad in others.
This Uruguayan film relates the almost-true story of how a small village in the country reacted to news that the Pope was to visit them, and how people who were used to a backbreaking daily slog perceived this visit as a chance to either practice their faith or make a bit of hard cash quickly. One such entrepreneurial endeavour sees a local man plan to build a toilet, which he'll charge people to use, thus making a fortune from the expected 50000+ crowd.
As I said, sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's deadly serious - it's worth seeing, but without wishing to spoil the ending (look up the textbooks) you may have mixed emotions when the credits roll.
The last movie I took in was the closing night movie, LARS AND THE REAL GIRL, directed by Craig Gillespie and starring Ryan Gosling as a young man who has emotional issues which culminate in him ordering a life-size doll from the internet, whom he subsequently brings home to introduce to his family and friends - and gradually finds them willing to accept both his relationship and the titular "real girl".
A film about a delusional man who wants to marry a sex doll sounds like straight-up spoof material - but don't be fooled. A fresh and exciting script (deservedly Oscar nominated) handled with subtlety by the director and played totally straight by the cast all add up to one of the most moving films you'll see all year. I'm not making this up.
Gosling is brilliant and so is this film - take all your preconceptions that you've formed based on the plot outline and leave them at the door. This film is definitely not the film you are expecting, and I mean that in a good way. The film opens in the UK later this month and you'll be doing yourself a big favour if you and everyone you know go to see it.
I kicked off with THE WHALES OF AUGUST, showing as part of the Bette Davis retrospective. This was her final film, though as old and frail as she evidently was, she was still more than capable of offering up a typically Davis-esque performance as the bitchier of two sisters living a quiet life by the sea. She's in great company, joined by Lillian Gish and Vincent Price, and is in safe directorial hands with Lindsay Anderson. As nice looking as the film is, however, not much happens and the rather stilted acting in many scenes makes it far from the best performances any of these people offered in their careers. If you're going to seek out any films in the retrospective (as it's now touring the country) I'd stick one of the older classics.
BODY OF WAR is one in a long line of documentaries about the war on terror and its aftermath, this time focussing on the life of a young American soldier who came home with serious physical disabilities after a brief tour was cut short by injury. The documentary follows his every day life from the hardships of day to day tasks to his campaigning on the political trail. The examination of Bush's war, and the revelation that it might well be doing more harm than good, is nothing new. In fact, we've been inundated with such films of late. However, BODY OF WAR finds a slightly new angle to approach from (the life of the disillusioned and broken soldier compared with the process by which America ended up fighting the war to begin with) and while it might not reach any new conclusions, it at least reaches them in a fresh and insightful manner.
THE POPE'S TOILET [EL BANO DEL PAPA] is an difficult film to categorise. It's a farcical comedy. It's a heartbreaking family drama. It's a film about faith and about poverty. It's funny in places, yet sad in others.
This Uruguayan film relates the almost-true story of how a small village in the country reacted to news that the Pope was to visit them, and how people who were used to a backbreaking daily slog perceived this visit as a chance to either practice their faith or make a bit of hard cash quickly. One such entrepreneurial endeavour sees a local man plan to build a toilet, which he'll charge people to use, thus making a fortune from the expected 50000+ crowd.
As I said, sometimes it's funny, sometimes it's deadly serious - it's worth seeing, but without wishing to spoil the ending (look up the textbooks) you may have mixed emotions when the credits roll.
The last movie I took in was the closing night movie, LARS AND THE REAL GIRL, directed by Craig Gillespie and starring Ryan Gosling as a young man who has emotional issues which culminate in him ordering a life-size doll from the internet, whom he subsequently brings home to introduce to his family and friends - and gradually finds them willing to accept both his relationship and the titular "real girl".
A film about a delusional man who wants to marry a sex doll sounds like straight-up spoof material - but don't be fooled. A fresh and exciting script (deservedly Oscar nominated) handled with subtlety by the director and played totally straight by the cast all add up to one of the most moving films you'll see all year. I'm not making this up.
Gosling is brilliant and so is this film - take all your preconceptions that you've formed based on the plot outline and leave them at the door. This film is definitely not the film you are expecting, and I mean that in a good way. The film opens in the UK later this month and you'll be doing yourself a big favour if you and everyone you know go to see it.
Labels: documentaries, Film festivals, glasgow film festival
posted by Alan at 7:37 pm
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