Carpe diem!

9AM: We Always Lie To Strangers  The filmmakers for this are really good. The story meanders between the Presleys (no relation, I think) and the Lennons (Sisters, and brothers, not John) as two of the more influential families in Branson, Missouri. I will admit to a prior bias against Branson, as being filled with narrow-minded bigots (they might say “God-fearing patriots”), but I will allow that the individuals portrayed seemed generally friendly and more open-minded than I would have expected. The Presleys are fairly right-wing; the Lennons are decidedly Liberal. I think a lot has changed in the last twenty years or so; see this article. While the shows were still hokey and folksy in a way that doesn’t interest me, one big take-away from this film is that the locals seem to have embraced (or at least largely come to accept as necessary) gays and other “non-traditional” community members as part of the town’s structure, so that the line “we always lie to strangers” mainly refers to the facade presented to the 7.5 million tourists each year. Good film, worth watching.

Noon: The Forgotten Kingdom  Winner, AIFF Audience Award for Best Feature. A fairly simple story about a guy who has to bury his father, meets an old girlfriend, pursues her, gets fobbed off by the dad, hits the road, rebuilds a widow’s roof with this weird kid…ok, maybe it’s not such a simple story. Lots of simple individual stories woven into a whole around the protagonist. Some of the elements were a little obvious: the ring and the alley, and the horses after the storm, for two. But it watches almost like the trials of Hercules mixed with a little Leah/Rebecca and some Lear. Another good film, worth having watched once, but there are others I’d rather see again (e.g. Sparrows Dance).

A beautiful day in Ashland to close out the Festival. Now a long nap, until the hills start mumbling in anticipation of AIFF 2014.

I mention this because, by some freak chance of scheduling, we had three films today in which a female character used the toilet on-screen, full body in view of the camera–covered, or at least fig-leafed enough to maintain a PG rating.

But seriously, what’s up with that? In Sparrows Dance, it was an integral part of the story; her toilet malfunctions, which leads to the rest of the action. In Buoy, it could have been replaced by any other action by the character to demonstrate a lack of interest in the conversation she is having on the telephone. In Congratulations it was used for comic relief.

Anyway, here’s the blocks from today:

9AM: Double-header of Sparrows Dance and My Name is Your First Love. My Name was a cute piece about a young teen who falls, hard, for the older girl next door. Really liked this one, especially the reactions by the boy’s putative girl friend.

Sparrows Dance is right up there as one of my favorites this year. Quirky and a little weird, it’s about an agoraphobic woman who has not left her apartment in months. She has (as mentioned above) a plumbing emergency, and so needs to interact with the outside world. Great rom-com with a little freakiness for spice. Highly recommended.

Noon: Secret Screening. I can’t talk about this, other than to say it was a documentary that will have its official world premiere later, at another festival. Amazingly good, definitely one of the best docs I saw this year. Looking forward to seeing more from the same film makers.

3PM: Buoy and An Act of Revenge. An Act of Revenge is a guy-girl-girl-guy relationship piece. It was okay, but just so.

Buoy: I need someone to explain the draw of this. A woman has a long, long phone conversation with a man about their mutual past (a long, involved past relationship). The content of the conversation just wasn’t enough to draw me in. It didn’t have the novelty or interest of My Dinner with Andre.

6PM: Congratulations Excellent date-night rom-com-dram-rom with a guy, his intended (maybe), mother, best friend, and old girlfriend. Proposal gone wrong leads to relationship trouble. Nothing really novel here, but excellent acting and story. Very happy we went to see this, highly recommended.

9PM: The Moo Man This is one of those documentaries that hits all the right notes: relevant, excellent story, great subjects, beautiful cinematography, magical music. Made the point about the subject (loss of local farms) without getting preachy. May lead to a desire to open a dairy farm in rural Britain, or at least to drink a lot of milk. Highly recommended.

That’s all for tonight. Back at it again tomorrow. Save me the aisle seat!

I should talk about food somewhere in here. Good places for a quick bite; if you tell them you need to be out in 40 minutes, which is the shortest practical window for a sit-down meal, they will get you out in time:

• Thai Pepper: Stick with the satay bar upstairs. Had great lamb satay, a short rib special, and a Rickshaw (sort of like a Sidecar). Highly recommended.

• Taroko: Skip the sushi, as it can take a while. Most of the kitchen menu–the cooked stuff–is relatively fast. We had the salt and pepper calamari, J-Pops, and Mongolian beef. All excellent, highly recommended.

• Louie’s: Pretty standard bar food: burgers, fries, lots of fried stuff. Good cheap recession burger. Recommended.

• http://www.ashlandspringshotel.com/larks-restaurant/: Surprisingly, these guys can get you in and out at lunch pretty quick. They are tuned, as many restaurants in town are, to getting late-arriving theater patrons out to their shows, so doing the same during this festival is not a stretch for them. Also highly recommended.

We’ve been meaning to try Boulton and Son’s sandwiches, and to see if The Deli Downstairs can keep up with the need for lunch speed.

Off to the shows!

3PM: Short Docs. Lots of emotional stuff here. I’m not a big fan of films that push obvious emotional buttons: kids with cancer, Alzheimer’s, generally anything that gets an emotional gasp from the older women in the audience. It’s not that I don’t care–far from it–it’s just that if it’s a normal part of the human condition, and there’s nothing obvious to be done about it, I can’t get attached to it. Give me a cause to rally around, and I’m there. But I need to be led to the water to drink. So this block, which had a lot of emotionalism and not a lot of practical application, and not a lot of novelty, didn’t have a lot for me. I did awfully enjoy Cutting Loose, a look at British prisoners who work in the prisons as hairdressers, and this competition they have each year. Black Cherokee was also a fine offering; the principal is probably the purest artist around, totally uninterested in making money off his art. Other than that, okay films, but nothing that one needs to rush out to see.

6PM: Double bill, Pit Stop and Palimpsest. Pit Stop was a rather conventional film about a complicated series of romantic relationships. If one ignores the homosexual aspects, it’s just a series of break-up and new romances. The most unusual aspect was the couple that was divorced but spending a lot of time together (sharing a house when both were interacting with their child), the ex-husband even weighing in on his ex-wife’s new date. A reasonably done film, but pretty conventional in the end.

Palimpsest was a departure from the norm. An unusual story about a man who does house tuning by listening to various objects in the house that emit low-level noises–appliances, mostly–and makes suggestions for replacing or changing them to alter the mood of the home and its occupants. Yes, it’s more subtle than that. Quirky. Recommended; I might want to see it again to see if I was missing bits of the story.

9PM: This is why I need to drink. The first story, Karaoke!, was an okay film about avoiding problems.

It’s the feature, Between Us, that’s the cause of my need. Two couples trade off in having horrible, gut-wrenching problems in their relationships. Yes, it’s emotional, but it’s the canonical train wreck that one just can’t stop watching. No one’s relationship can possibly be this bad, and yet this probably happens all the time. Highly recommended.

Day 4 tomorrow; luckily, a late start.

Save me the aisle seat!

9AM: Joe Papp in Five Acts Joe Papp founded New York’s Shakespeare in the Park organization, brought free theater to New Yorkers, and oh yeah, was the original producer for shows like Hair and A Chorus Line. This film, while mostly about his life, is also an incredible view into a slice of New York City history from the 1930s through the early 1990s. A Must See for anyone interested in theater or contemporary history, and Highly Recommended for just about everyone else.

Noon: Family Shorts. This year, the festival moved the Family Shorts block to the Ashland Street Cinema, which is okay but awkward–now, mid-day, we’re getting in a car to schlep back and forth. It’s not far, but in Ashland terms, it’s like leaving the Magic Kingdom to go to EPCOT just to see “Body Wars“. Yeah, Elisabeth Shue, but that’s a big schlep.

The other thing is that some of the best animation is in this block, and it’s a toss-up as to whether is belongs here or in Animation Shorts. Girl and Fox, sure, Tuurngait, absolutely, Eyes on the Stars, I’m with that. But Dripped, an homage on the life of Jackson Pollock? I’d argue that Ernesto, a short about a kid who is (almost) losing his teeth, and Floyd the Android are much better fits for the Animation Shorts block than for this one–from the audience responses, I suspect that the humor went way, way over the heads of the tiny tots but right between the eyes of their parents.

Very good block of films; go see it if you can.

Coming up next: Short Docs. Maybe a nap before then.

Save me the aisle seat!

Short post today because we have an early morning tomorrow. Most of the block had a coming of age theme, entirely by chance.

9AM: William and the Windmill  Documentary about William Kamkwamba, the kid from Malawi who built his own electric-generating windmills to power a water pump so that his village would have water for consumption and irrigation. Oh yeah, he was 14 at the time. Amazing kid, now a junior at Dartmouth, published author, and TED speaker. Great human interest story that starts somewhat after he is “discovered” by TED, and ends just as he is entering college. I would have been happier had it been edited a little more for tighter pacing, but still recommended.

Noon: Short stories, which means narratives (fiction) under 40 minutes per film. Mostly excellent; Curfew, a story about second chances that took an Oscar™, and A Short Film were the real standouts for originality. The others in the block were also excellent, especially the cinematography for Buzkashi Boys, which is set and filmed in Kabul. The whole block is Highly Recommended.

3PM: Pairing of the short Perfect Fit about the making of ballet point shoes shows the perfection that goes into the shoes to enable perfection on the stage with the feature documentary From Nothing, Something, which is about the creative process and lived and experienced by a variety of professional artists and creators. While Perfect Fit is a perfect gem, From Nothing, Something is engrossing and entertaining without be formulaic or preachy. This is not a DIY film for how to bootstrap one’s own creativity, nor does it obviously exhort one to creativity; but the subtle way in which it has each auteur describe and deconstruct their own creative process is engrossing. Highly recommended; if you have middle- or high-school children, this is the film for them.

6PM: World premiere of Redwood Highway staring Shirley Knight (As Good As It Gets, Desperate Housewives) as a woman who has been put into a retirement home and decides to take a hike…a really long hike. Cameos and supporting roles by half the OSF company, I swear. The director says he’s going after the untapped senior-centric film market, and will be director a film called Senior Prom later this year, to be shot at the Historic Ashland Armory.

Oh, this film…really excellent. Ms. Knight does a great job walking the Redwood Highway and finding her own limits and needs in this over-60 coming of age piece. Excellent supporting cast. Look for it at a theater near you, soon!

9PM: Pairing again: first, the very short Practice Makes Perfect, about a young teen getting ready for his first kiss. Amazingly sweet without getting saccharine. Next, the feature Kings of Summer.Three boys build not just a treehouse, but a whole house to which they escape from their difficult homes. Tons of wry, smart humor; Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation) steals every scene he is in, except maybe the ones with Biaggio (Moised Arias), who is quirkier than the rest of several casts put together. A girl becomes involved, and trouble ensues. One of the best comedic coming-of-age films in a very long time. Highly recommended; in broad release May 31st.

That’s all for tonight. Save me the aisle seat.

Steve

• Noon block: Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes Really good film about a girl, Emanuel (Kaya Scodelario) whose mother died during her birth, and who was raised by her father (Alfred Molina) alone until she was about 16. Enter stepmom Janice (Frances O’Connor), who doesn’t really connect with the very sharp Emanuel (her parents were hoping for a boy) who runs verbal somersaults around dad and stepmom. Enter new neighbor Linda (Jessica Biel), who needs a sitter for her infant, who is unusually still for a swaddling child. I’ll avoid direct spoilers, but say that the story could have taken a much more interesting turn around 40 minutes in during the scene with the stepmom, Emanuel, and the broken vase–instead it went into a solid chick-flick ending, good but straight for the emotional jugular instead of the more devious ice pick in the timpani. Good, yes; satisfying, yes; emotional, yes; thought-provoking, not as much as it could have been. Still, highly recommended, especially for those in the weepy set.

• 3PM block: Animation shorts. This is usually one of my favorite blocks in the Festival, as you will know from past festivals. I was thrilled when Bill Plympton was one of the featured guests a few years back.

Such a disappointment this year! Three very good films, which were the shortest of the lot; two fair films, okay stories but pedestrian animation; and three very mediocre films, which also were the longest, and made the whole slot a real slog.

Kudos to Fresh Guacamole, which did what good animation should do: tell a story that can’t be told any other way (on-screen, at least), making best use of the techniques available to the animator. In this case, it’s the hum-drum chore of preparing guacamole, but from some very bizarre ingredients and with a very unusual result, from the animator PES. Highly recommended; see it on YouTube at the link above.

Kudos to Head Over Heels, a romance that literally defies gravity to bring its principals together. Great use of stop-motion to tell a story that Disney might have used $175,000,000 to tell. Loved the chair! Oscar-nominated.

Kudos finally to Irish Folk Furniture, another stop-motion film, but with full-size, real furniture moving from place to place in the Irish countryside while the storytellers tell the stories behind them. It’s a hoot; if you liked Useless Dog from several years back, you’ll like this.

The rest shall remain nameless, and maybe fade into obscurity. Sadly, I can’t recommend the animation block this year; try to see the above three on your own, but see a different block instead at the festival.

• 6PM block: Casting By Directors direct, actors act, casting directors do…what? Watch this film, and you’ll see how the folks who get (or don’t get, but who deserve) the “Casting Director” credit in films can set the whole tone of a project before the first frame is shot. The fact that there’s no Academy Award for this invaluably important role shows just how stuck in the mud are the Academy and the Academy Award process. It will be on HBO later this summer. Highly recommended.

• 9PM block: Gideon’s Army If you’re arrested and can’t afford a lawyer, one of Gideon’s Army–an unofficial title for the public defenders of the American criminal judicial system–will be your only shield against the DA. Fascinating look into how PDs work with their clients to uphold that concept that all are innocent until proven guilty, and that the burden of proof lies with the prosecution and not the defense. Highly recommended.

Finally, big black borders around this column today, on the passing of Roger Ebert. Mr. Ebert was always good at finding the best in any film, accentuating the positive and diminuating the negative. His reviews were my first resort, and while we didn’t always agree, I could never fault his genuineness. He will be sorely missed.

That’s in until tomorrow. Save me the aisle seat!

But even a blind squirrel occasionally finds a nut (or else it dies.) In NBC’s case, it came vis à vis Ashland in a segment late on Saturday night, in which they had a former American tennis pro discoursing on Shakespeare. I guess all the actual Shakespearian experts–you know, those who study Shakespeare as their profession–along with the entire professional theater community, were busy washing their collective hair that night.

Because the Olympics were staged in London, which is the original site of the performance of Shakespeare’s works (sort of; see below), NBC in their “we’re not just about sports” Olympics coverage did a segment on Shakespeare’s life and the staying power of his works. Being TV, they needed pretty pictures, and video from OSF’s recent productions of “Henry IV, Part II” were part of the imagery, although not credited directly. Actors definitely recognizable were Kevin Kenerly, Richard Howard, John Tufts, and Richard Elmore. Props to all (and to those I couldn’t recognize).

The Globe, London, and Shakespeare: The Globe was not built in London, it was built in what is now Bankside. When it was built, it was outside the jurisdiction of the City of London, so it had all the good stuff: brothels, bear-baiting, and theatre.

The problem with many performances of Henry V is that the directors and producers get caught up in directly presenting the visuals, with battles, courts, and scenes grand and humble shown in great detail. This is considered “traditional”.

But the text belies such productions; the prologue speaks in some detail of the humble presentation inadequately portraying momentous events; the epilogue bookends this sentiment.

It is in this attitude and countenance that OSF frames this season’s presentation of Henry V; in simple costume, with spare stage and meager fixtures, and letting the acting and text drive each imagination in its own courses.

Henry V being one of the most often produced of the histories, because it stands so well on its own and because it is one of the heroic canons of English history, there are many comparisons to be made. The most likely for the OSF audience is probably to the Brannagh film version, a type emblematic of the “big budget” productions that features in sight and sound all those things that the original text leaves to the mind of the audience. That rendition had audio editing, a special effects budget, and enough cast to swell the stage and drop the viewer into the midst battle of Agincourt and the courts of France and England without having to strain a single languid neuron.

This Henry, with the more subtle form of exposition, makes the audience really pay attention to the text, because it’s the text that conveys the story, not the trappings of costume and stagecraft. One really needs to listen closely to the nuance of the language, deftly delivered by all of the cast, to see the pageantry of the courts and morbidity of the battles; to walk with Henry among the troops before the Crispin’s Day battle, and with Pistol and crew as they try to avoid their duties at Harfleur. This is not a Henry for the passive observer, but a treat for one who enjoys the naked text.

Highly recommended; it’s an excellent ending to this run of the Henry series at OSF.