This is the last week, and this weekend is the last weekend of the 34th Annual Portland International Film Festival.
I haven’t seen all the festival had to offer, and I have heard good things about other movies. Alas, of the five I caught last week, just one is worthy of making the trip to Portland and purchasing a ticket.
All — however — have been interesting. And even the worst of the art films presented beat most of the commercial crap that clogs theaters everywhere.
To see a schedule go to http://festivals.nwfilm.org/piff34/.
Even the Rain
Even the Rain is from Spain. A movie is being made within the movie. The being-made movie is about Christopher Columbus and the mistreatment of the natives of the Bahamas during his reign as governor.
Columbus has an unquenchable quest for gold.
Exploitation of a different kind is courtesy of the filmmakers making the movie. They pick Bolivia as the location to shoot the film. Of course, Columbus didn’t get anywhere near the country. Bolivia is South America’s poorest nation, and the natives there are willing to work long hours for proverbial peanuts.
That begins the ties that bind the movie within the movie to the characters and to reality.
Even in the Rain is set in 2000 when riots took place in Bolivia when the government privatized water and costs tripled. One of the film’s actors is leading the native protests. He’s also playing the native that rebelled against Columbus in the film within the film.
More parallels.
Two of the characters of the film within the film are priests that defend the natives against Columbus’ brutality. The writer and director of the film within the film are unwillingly and then later are willingly thrust into the water conflict.
Gael Garcia Bernal (Motorcycle Diaries, The Science of Sleep) is the most recognizable actor of the cast and has been in several domestic flicks. He plays the screenwriter. Luis Tosar is the director. Both men are excellent as filmmakers caught in a moral vice.
Do the right thing? Or get the movie made?
All of the acting is top-notch. But the film’s real find and standout is newcomer Juan Carlos Aduviri. He plays Daniel, the leader of the water fight and the actor playing Columbus’ nemesis. His course is clear.
Aduviri doesn’t get a lot of dialogue. It’s not needed. Most of the mileage his character gets is from Aduviri’s piercing eyes and an unmovable stance. His posture and defiant stares have more power than words.
The quest for gold — the movie — and the quest for water — aka reality — blend, bend and intensify under the patient storytelling of director Iciar Bollain. Her sense of balance is perfect. Much of that comes from Paul Laverty’s pitch-perfect script. He doesn’t rely as much on dialogue as feeling, a look, or a setting to tell this brilliant story.
Each piece of the film and the film within the film is carefully interlocked. Everything in calculated cadence. It is an incredible, not-to-be-missed movie.
By itself Even the Rain is worth a trip to the Portland International Film Festival.
Not rated, probably R. It shows February 24 and 26. Go to http://festivals.nwfilm.org/piff34/ to find theaters and times.
Mr. Movie rating: 5 stars
5 stars/4 1/2 stars: Must see on the big screen
4 stars / 3 1/2 stars: Good film, see it if it's your type of movie.
3 stars / 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on DVD.
2 stars / 1 star: Don't bother.
0 stars: Speaks for itself
When We Leave
This is a tough one. A young Muslim woman with a child leaves her husband in Turkey and flees to her family in Germany. She refuses to go back. An even more unforgivable sin is the woman refusing to give her son back to his father.
That is what is expected. In that culture, a boy should be with his father.
Rejected by her family, the young woman moves on with her life. It is not easy. She’s harassed by a brother, beaten and ostracized. Not without hope of reconciliation, she bravely makes attempt after attempt to still be part of her family.
To them she is dead.
It’s an ugly, difficult story and one that ought to be told. Writer/director Feo Aladag doesn’t make the young woman sympathetic or connect you to her. You never really get into her head. While you do understand the need to be a part of a family and not wanting to let go, Aladag doesn’t let her character explain in more detail why she won’t give up.
And no doubt a woman trying to escape the culture knows the danger — and there is plenty for both her and her son. Yet, she ignores it and keeps going back for more.
What Aladag does well, and without being too judgmental, is define the second-class position of women in that culture. The film just presents the facts. You get to decide.
And the decision is quite easy.
Her parents don’t understand why she’s leaving the abusive, self-absorbed husband. After all, they note, he only beats her once in a while. Aladag also subtly explains how the culture forces the parents to be more concerned about their standing in the community than the struggle of their own children.
While the story seems a bit contrived and the conclusion the worst of all, Aladag’s message is subtle and needed. And it is what gives When We Leave its power.
Still, as shocking as many of the scenes are, and as factual as she seems to be, there is a sense that Aladag has more to say. You are left to wonder why she didn’t.
Not rated but probably R for violence and brief nudity. It shows Feb. 23 and 26. Go to http://festivals.nwfilm.org/piff34/ to find theaters and times.
Mr. Movie rating: 4 stars
5 stars/4 1/2 stars: Must see on the big screen
4 stars / 3 1/2 stars: Good film, see it if it's your type of movie.
3 stars / 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on DVD.
2 stars / 1 star: Don't bother.
0 stars: Speaks for itself
The Last Circus
You quickly see what writer/director Alex de la Iglesia is trying to accomplish. The clowns of the circus are a metaphor for the brutality and the conflict that happened during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s.
It can even be stretched to any ideological conflict.
The battle between the sad clown and the happy clown -- and the woman they both love and how she plays them to get her own way -- represents the two sides of the war and the nation each side claimed to love but really wanted to possess.
Iglesia’s opening sequences are brilliant, and the filmmaking throughout is inventive. However, The Last Circus gets so lost in metaphor and senseless violence it becomes a metaphor for its own senselessness.
Rated R for extreme violence, brief nudity. It shows Feb. 25-26. Go to http://festivals.nwfilm.org/piff34/ to find theaters and times.
Mr. Movie rating: 1 star
5 stars/4 1/2 stars: Must see on the big screen
4 stars / 3 1/2 stars: Good film, see it if it's your type of movie.
3 stars / 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on DVD.
2 stars / 1 star: Don't bother.
0 stars: Speaks for itself
Of Love and Other Demons
Here’s the premise. Set in Colombia during Spain’s colonial days, a young woman is bit by a rabid dog. She has almost no relationship with her ailing mother and emotionally removed father. After the bite, her father decides confinement at a convent is best for the girl.
The village priest is convinced rabies is satanic and orders an exorcism performed. The young priest doing the job doesn’t think the girl is possessed. Disagreeing with the politics of the day is dicey doings.
The trouble is staying awake until something finally happens in the last act. And even that would be senseless.
Right out of the chute, you know this one is going to be slow when director Hilda Hidalgo lingers on every shot for what seems like an eternity. You go to the next scene and the process gets repeated.
If you need one, I suppose the message is something in the neighborhood of anti-church.
The movie is based on a novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I’ve never read of of his books. A friend told me they are packed with imagery and not much happens in them.
If slow and nothing happening at all is the nature of the books, then this movie nails it. Of Love and Other Demons is the slowest and most pointless movie I’ve seen in a year.
By the way, that’s not anti-church. It’s anti-movie.
Not rated but probably PG-13. It shows Feb. 25-26. Go to http://festivals.nwfilm.org/piff34/ to find theaters and times.
Mr. Movie rating: 1 star
5 stars/4 1/2 stars: Must see on the big screen
4 stars / 3 1/2 stars: Good film, see it if it's your type of movie.
3 stars / 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on DVD.
2 stars / 1 star: Don't bother.
0 stars: Speaks for itself
Cold Weather
Cold Weather takes awhile to get rolling. Set in Portland, the film follows a former forensics student as he tries to unravel the mystery of what happens to an ex-girlfriend. She disappears in Portland while on a business trip.
He’s content to do basic work in an ice factory until she disappears. Then his detective skills manifest themselves and he’s off being Columbo.
Not much about Aaron Katz’s movie works. The middle section where the ex disappears gets kind of fun, and there are some nice twists.
But the flick is too much indie and not enough plot.
And the conclusion is just ridiculous.
Not rated but probably PG-13. It shows Feb. 25-26. Go to http://festivals.nwfilm.org/piff34/ to find theaters and times.
Mr. Movie rating: 1 star
5 stars/4 1/2 stars: Must see on the big screen
4 stars / 3 1/2 stars: Good film, see it if it's your type of movie.
3 stars / 2 1/2 stars: Wait until it comes out on DVD.
2 stars / 1 star: Don't bother.
0 stars: Speaks for itself
