The First Session - Ryan Logan
One of the absolute joys of programming for Cinequest this year was the huge number of great comedy shorts that passed in front of me. HUGE and hilarious shorts like the German flick Chasing Daycare or the suitably weird Mr. Egg. These I'll talk about in a while, but the highlight for me were the smaller, fast as a hiccup films, and The First Session  was one of the best, and one that you can actually see! A couple goes in for couples therapy. Now, they're not exactly wasting any time doing so, and that's where the comedy comes in. This is a short made to give actors a chance to play with material. Fawzia Mirza and Mouzam Makkar are great as our couple, and the wonderful Parvesh Cheena (from my favorite sit-com Outsourced) is perfect trying to unravel what's going on. It's a comedy that clocks in at 7 minutes, and it's 7 well-spent minutes. It's well-shot, perfectly paced, and the performances are strong. For my money, it's one of the best comedy shorts of the last decade. Watch http://www.hulu.com/watch/876113 and you'll understand!

Speedwriting - Michael Russnow
Sometimes, a joke runs thin. That's the case in a lot of short films that just don't understand pacing. Sometimes, they come back, and once in a while, a thin joke is made funnier by the fact that it's a thin joke that a smart director knows what to do with. I'd say that's what Michael Russnow has done with Speedwriting. It's a get-rich-quick scheme comedy in which a young guy (played very smartly by Santa Cruz County's own Michael Beardsley) develops a 'system' to write and sell screenplays. It's not a real system, of course, it's barely an idea, but they play with it really well, and the scene where he's constantly stopping a pitch, sometimes to give completely contradictory information, is really funny. It's not a comedy that goes a lot of places, but it's one that delivers on the places that it DOES go, and one that had me laughing. 

Jobless - Alessio Colia
The economic downturn hit everywhere, and Italy actually got it worst than most. This story, of an experienced guy being sacked and pushed aside for lesser employees, then trying desperately to get something new, is a classic, and the way writer/director Colia handles the material is clean and smart, in a sort-of neo-modernist fashion with touches of Bergman. It's a powerful film, and a descent into madness, but not an entirely internalistic one. Perhaps Jobless is best viewed as a document for the descent of the international job market and economy into madness and infinite peril. Either way, it's a film I really enjoyed seeing more than once. 
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Dead Sharks - Nic Barker
If you're going to open with a Woody Allen quote, you better bring your A-game... unless it's from a court transcript. Either way, it sets a table, and you need to be able to deliver quality that matches up. Nic Barker's well-made, often hilarious, and gringingly-real life film Dead Sharks not only works in the 1990s-Allen vein, but he manages to out-mine him as well. The segments are perfectly timed, immaculately-paced, and just smart, and there's a certain comedy to it that might be coming from my own personal experiences. The opener, where we are greeted to a series of voice messages being left, ala Swingers (only with a far more real feel, and far more personally familiar) and it's super-funny, while also moving a story along.Fiona Norman as Paige is just note-for-note perfection, and sets up the rest of the film so well. It's situationally hilarious, and very dramatic, much like any good (or completely failing...) relationship. It reminded me of one of my favorite shorts, Insomniacs, and I can't fault a single aspect of the production. I really wish this would become a feature.

El Tambor y La Sombra - David Bisbano
A re-telling of a folk story in computer animated form will usually work if the filmmaker has any sort of talent with the writing and a certain reverence for the material. David Bisbano does a remarkable job telling us the story of a healer who duels with a shadow-spirit. This is a compact film, making perfect use of all four-and-a-half minutes, and the animation is strongly stylized, yet still accessible. This is exactly the kind of film that should be powering through the festival circuit these days. 

Cows: A Moosical - Sandra Boynton
I'll admit it - a large part of why I programmed Cows in the Animated Worlds program at Cinequest was the fact that my twins love her board books. Also, I'm a big fan of cows. This lovely little three minute music video is just plain fun. It's a MOOOOOOOOsical, and it's simple, and sweet. It's also the first film I know, for a fact, my youngest boy Benjamin ever watched. He adored it, and it may just be that it was the first thing he ever saw flashing across a screen that wasn't a heart-rate monitor, but he smiled and laughed. So, thanks, Sandra Boynton, for making the first movie I could share with my little guys!

You make impressions by being striking from the first moment. If you can walk away from the first 30 seconds of a movie and know exactly why you're going to be writing a positive review, the filmmaker has done something extraordinary. In Josephine Doe, we are treated to a moment that moved me hard - a sign that says Do Not Touch, being touched. That alone would have kept me watching, but the undeniable power of the cinematography, glorious black-and-white, the marvelous acting, with the script that moved perfectly to highlight the path a character takes towards... well, that's the thing, innit? What are characters moving towards is what defines all but the most abstract of films, right?  

Claire is on less of a journey than going through a series of self-diagnostics. She's running checks on how her code has been developed, and finding faults, flaws, flat-out errors. She makes a friend, Josephine, who is, in some ways, the path of least resistance. She seems confident, ready, willing, and able to make her impulses come to life. A magnificent scene where the pair breaks into an empty roller skating rink and enjoy themselves. There is so much joy in the scene, and when it all comes crashing down, it's not with a hail of bullets, or any emotion at all really, it's the quiet standing silence with seething bitterness underneath. 

It also reveals the central matter with the film - Claire may have issues. Or she might not. It's awkward.

The themes are powerful - family issues, mental health questions, how we pass through the end-stop grief, and how we manage the on-going grief and the difficulties of making things work long-run. Josephine isn't who or what she seems, but neither is Claire, and that fact alone is disturbing. We see illusions shattered throughout the film, both within our characters, and in their views on the world. This can be a tricky thing to make work as an actor, but in the capable hands of Erin Cippoletti, Claire is a remarkable performance. The natural inclination is to wallow, to play the depression as withdrawn, the darkness as instability. She avoids that, and beautifully, instead giving us something more akin to reality within a world where we're not sure what is helpful fantasy and what might be harmful fantasy. 

As Josephine, a role that could fall anywhere between Tyler Durden to Drop Dead Fred, we have the electric Emma Griffin. She does so well, and I was drawn to her reactions to the existence of her own questionable existence. When the natural comparisons arise between Josephine and so many other examples of similar characters, I see the difference immediately - she's not the answer, but instead, she is the central question of Josephine Doe itself. 

Maybe that's why they named the movie after her...

You can find out more at http://www.josephinedoe.com

I'm going to approach this review in a couple of different, slightly strange ways. It'll explain why it hit me so hard when we were going through the viewing. 

First off, the basics - it's funny. I mean really funny. The story is a group of friends go into the forest where there are black bear to be found. A couple of minutes in, they meet the Narrator of the Forest, who tells them, and us, the rules for entering into the realm of the black bear. Of course, our characters are far too self-involved and slow-witted to get it at first, but they learn through experience. 

Experience that leads to showers of blood, gore, and viscera. 

Yeah, it's THAT kind of comedy. 

The first time I watched it, I took a Formalist view of the piece. The production values are strong, everything done with the utmost care to enhance the comedy. The Black Bear outfit hits hardest when it first shows up. It's not realistic, and that actually makes it more terrifying when it starts to attack (unless it's just defending its territory, we're never quite sure...) and the acting is over-the-top deadpan. Read that phrase again - "over-the-top deadpan'. Those words together only make sense in a world that is far madder than ours, where superheroes may, in fact, dwell. These folks might be such, only not the top of the card supers we tend to experience. 

The second viewing was one of a Post-Modernist. We're shown a nature safety video gone too far. In structure and effort, it is more closely related to Red Asphalt or Blood on the Highway than any Disney nature doc, and that's how it is teaching. The use of a non-natural black bear is actually meant to make us less scared so that we may better import the actual message as you're not dealing with a terrifying actual bear. It's effective teaching. 

Third viewing (and during viewing, it's not unusual for a screener to watch a movie three or more times) I watched it as a piece of absurdist art. It is bizarre, weird, and some of it flat-out makes no sense, until you start to synthesize the fact that there are so many Nietzsche quotes sprouted by the characters. These make you realise why every character reacts the way they react, and how strange the natural world is, and how little meaning there is in life, death, pain, or intelligence. 

Then again, I may have just been reading into things a bit much. All you really need to know is that it's funny, gory, fun!
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Although I tend towards Conspiracies as facts, I actually find most of the 9/11 Commission findings as convincing. The Warren Commission - All Lies, but 9/11 might have been a bit of an Inside Job, but not nearly enough to change the official narrative. I could go on and on about how, yes, Jet Fuel can produce fires hot enough to melt steel (or anything else, in fact) and how, yes, there was a breakdown in security that led to the hijackers gaining access to the planes. There are others (No, there were no missiles. No, Building 7 didn't come down because of a controlled explosion... well, probably not). Still, all these things are significant, especially to those who believe these 'truths'.

And that's where Uncomfortable Truths steps in. 

You see, if you're looking into the Conspiracy Theories surrounding 9/11, go watch Loose Change (and follow it up with any of the rebuttal videos), but if you want to come to understand the people who DO buy into those theories, watch Uncomfortable Truths. Behind every conspiracy theory are people. Without someone to produce the theories, there is no seed, and without those who might buy into them, there is no impact of those theories. The passing of these theories is required to keep them alive, and the ways that happens determines the strength of a theory. The fact that there are people who go to Ground Zero every weekend means that there's a strong basis for recruitment. 

It also means they have a WorldCon, drawing many many more people, and it happens on Sept. 11th every year. 

The story is not about convincing you that September 11th was anything, but it's about those people for whom the Theory is Fact.They are not merely raving maniacs, though there is one of them featured in the short, but they seem fully convinced, fully settled into the knowledge that the world they believe in is the World as it really is. Whether or not it is doesn't actually effect the enjoyment of Uncomfortable Truths. In fact, you could easily replace 9/11 with The Kennedy Assassination, or Bret Hart's title loss in Montreal or the fact that people lose socks in their washing machines. What matters is the people who make it their mission to bring their truth out to the world. Their dedication, and in this short, we are shown that they are people, and pulling off that trick can sometimes be the most difficult effect of all. 

We programmed this for a simple reason: it was a fine film, that looked into the movement and humanized the participants, and that alone made it worthwhile, but add to that the smart editing and shooting, and it all makes sense. 

There is a legendary documentary called Grey Gardens. The fim documents the lives of two women, Big Edie and Little Edie, aunt and cousin of Jackie O, and how they live in a falling-down estate in New York, incredibly co-dependent and broken. 

In I Love You Both, twins Crystal and Donny are not quite so intertwined as the Edies, but they're not far from it. They can't seem to make a decision without the other, and they seem to only take comfort in their pairing, or deadening themselves. They're good at that, making themselves numb to the world of emotion, and it shows whenever they are together. Much of the film, it feels as if they are islands in a strange, slow-moving stream; a stream that deposits a guy that both of them fall for. 

And doesn't it make total sense that the perfect guy for both of them is the same guy? 

I Love You Both is an interesting study in modern dating, though with a decidedly old-fashioned bent. As a guy who spends a lot of his time around polyamory and bi-sexually-varied relationships, the fact that things go down with as much difficulty as they do is a bit stretched, and at the same time, it feels quite natural. A terrible date between our Phantom Stranger Perfect Guy and Crystal seems to make so much sense, not because they're not great for one another (and I read the two of them as just about ideal for one another) but because the attraction is so wrong for her relationship with her emotional symbiote. 

That is what got me the most. The fact that they not only seemed to feed off each other, but they seemed to feed themselves TO one another. There's a scene at the end of the film where we see how deeply tied they are, but how much one can hold the other back, either on purpose or by complete accident. It's a powerful scene, and when I re-watched it, I really picked out the little things that made it so powerful. The interactions of the twins with their Mom were also hilarious, and while the rest of the movie is a sort of comedic nihilism, there are some very comical points in those phone calls. 

The revelation in this film is the magnetic Kristin Archibald. Her performance powers the film along, and it's never overly-showy or too measured. She hits middle grounds, even when she's put in over-the-top situations where choosing on of those paths would have been easiest. I found myself lingering on her in scenes she shared with every other character because she put out an amazing amount of energy. While there are no weak performances to be found in the film, and Doug Archibald as Donny is really good in particular, Kristin Archibald plays her role exactly as it should be played. 

I had twins back in May. They're the light of my world, but we're raising them with an idea in mind: they are two people, and they will live their lives not as halves of a set, but as individuals who are supposed to look after each other. I hope, PRAY, they're not Donny and Crystal. I hope they can each find within themselves the power to be themselves, which is something the fictional pair in I Love You Both have such a hard time with. 

I Love You Both shows Friday March 4th at 7pm, Sunday the 6th at 915pm, and Tuesday the 8th at 215pm

Every year, no matter how many films I watch preparing the short film program, there's a film that I attach to for some reason. In 2016, that film is The Talk. 

The premise is simple, and to me it's familiar. There's a Dad and his daughter, and they are out for a meal. As they start talking the 'truth' starts to flow, and from there, things get so much more fun and twisted. The delivery of every line, and especially the perfectly pointed, and revelatory, pauses work, especially those given to us by the excellent John Hoogenakker. He plays the Dad with a combination of quiet resignation and downright blind idiocy. Isabella Crovetti-Cramp is, without a doubt, the best new actress I've seen in ages. Her delivery is that of a woman with decades of experience. She's so good, and snarky, and just plain funny. 

What makes this a me movie is I've had this very experience. When I was watching Evelyn, when she was about 8, we had a frighteningly similar talk, where things were reveals and I... well, my experience would be as much a spoiler as flat-out telling you how this one happens. Suffice to say, it was brutal, but from the outside, it's hilarious!

The Talk is a part of Something Funny, our comedy program, and it shows on Friday, March 4th at 1pm, Sunday the 6th at 345pm, and on Friday the 11th at 430pm. 

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This is the part where I talk about Pro Wrestling from the heart, and about documentary filmmaking, and about politics, and about hero worship. These things may, or may not, be that compatible, but they all swirl around a single film, a beautiful film, by Mikiko Sasaki, called The Great Sasuke. 

Let me start with the whole wrestling thing. Wrestling as we know it today most likely came about in the 19th century. Before that, it was a (mostly) legit set of contests that dates back to a time before Abe Vagoda (Peace be with him...). Theatrics really became incorporated with pioneers like William Muldoon, Farmer Burns, Evan Strangler Lewis, and Georg Hackenschmidt. These were still incrediblly tough men, but they also knew how to work, ie. do jobs and tell storylines to increase the amount of money matches would draw. It was really television that amped things up, and characters like Gorgeous George started to appear more and more frequently. This was not only an American phenomena. Mexico had Lucha Libre, pro wrestling that tended towards submissions and mat work, that evolved into a style that emphasized high flying acrobatics and masked wrestlers. Japan had Pro Wrestling introduced before World War II, but following the war, it exploded, gaining great traction and making a MASSIVE star out of Rikidozan. His two main protoges, Shohei Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki, became major stars, with Inoki becoming a fairly prominent political figure. 

Mexico's Lucha was introduced to Japan a few times, most notably by Mil Mascaras in the 1960s and 70s. His success with kids led to a wave of young wrestlers wanting to emulate him, including a young man named Sataru Sayama. He would train in Mexico, then come back to become Tiger Mask. Tiger Mask, and his matches against Mexican stars, and especially the British master worker Dynamite Kid, would transform wrestling and lead to a generation that wanted to be him. Tiger Mask is largely responsible for wrestlers like Ultimo Dragon and Jushin Liger wanting to wrestle, and for the popularity of masks among lighter weight wrestlers. Out of that tradition came The Great Sasuke, who would form his own promotion, Michinoku Pro, and introduce a style of wrestling that had never really been seen before in Japan. it was lucha, it was slightly goofy, it was incredibly athletic, and it was plain ol' fashioned fun! 

Sasuke also turned to politics, getting elected to the Japanese Diet, though he would lose in further attempts. He was allowed to attend the Diet with his Mask intact, which was a first.  

The documentary The Great Sasuke focuses on his run for another political seat, and on Sasuke as the man who lives with the Mask. He's not young anymore, he's beaten up and slightly broken down. He has some anger issues, as is evidenced by his roughly grabbing a guy who took a photo of him with his cameraphone. We see him run, his failure at winning a seat, and his methods for promoting himself. That, perhaps, is what turned me towards this doc the most. It is a Pro Wrestler attempting to gain traction in the outside world using Pro Wrestling tactics. He promotes himself so well, but a lot of it falls on deaf ears. He's 'lost his heat' in a sense, but at the same time, he has not lost his HEART. 

We get precious little of what it is to be The Great Sasuke outside of the mask, and we're better off for it. The mask has not quite consumed him, but he has tamed it to the point where he has become one with the mask. We see some of his family life, and it's lovely, but we are left with the feeling that this is the unusual; The Great Sasuke is his reality and everything else is the myth. Still, I appreciated a glimpse at the mythology. 

The Great Sasuke is well-shot, well-reasoned, and engaging on just about every level. Wrestling fans may find that there's not enough wrestling, but then come to the political story as just another aspect of The Work. Those interested in the political story may well find that the Wrestling gives them a much better understanding of what is really going on in an election. Those who just like a good movie will be rewarded by a film that just never gets dull and draws them in, and somehow even beyond the Mask. It's a really strong view for just about anyone.

For me, a good science fiction conspiracy film is hard to beat. The X-files set the stage for a world of wonder, as there are now obviously hundreds of secret cabals all running these United States. 

For me, The Blair Witch Project redefined what is possible to do with a genre film. Shot in a faux documentary style, it opened up a world of possibilities that I had never considered. 

For me, UFOs have to be the greatest remaining question in the world of the Unknown. Is there alien life? Are we alone? Have they come already? 

I guess you may be able to suss out at least a bit about The Phoenix Incident from those three points. It's a fake doc about a real event, the famed Phoenix lights of 1997, that mingles interviews with supposedly found footage of the aftermath of the largest sighting in US history. It's a very smart premise, and the way it is worked out makes it even better. 

The major point to the tory is there are aliens, they've already been here, and sometimes they come back. A group of friends are out in the Arizona wilderness and witness the lights overhead. They then see a crash and investigate, leading to a series of misadventures that... well, any more would be spoilerish. 

The story is told as though it is a legit documentary, mingling interview footage with the footage the friends apparently made with their camera. That's a neat conceit, but it does stretch the limits at times. You hardly notice, though, because the story is legitimately mind-blowing, and the effects, while maybe a notch below the best of Hollywood, are brilliantly used, and never take away from the most significant portion of the story - the plot. 

As the film goes on, we learn more and more about the world that has evolved and it's far worse than the X-Files, largely because this is so obviously OUR world. Unlike The Blair Witch Project, the film makers don't seem to be working to convince us the events actually happen, but within the context of the film, the documentary is recording a real event, which is does brilliantly. In that way, it is far more like Best is Show  than Blair Witch. Actually, it in tone and delivery, it reminded me of a fine festival film from 2007, NOVEM, though of a completely different timbre and genre. Both present us with a documentary style of fictional events, and both manage to draw a viewer deeply into a world  that could easily be our own.

From shooting and editing to performances, The Phoenix Incident  is damn-near perfectly constructed.