Unlike with last year, I was in Wellington for the whole term of the International Film Festival this time around. From the scores of films on offer, I chose 5 to arrange to go and see this year (I am not going to 88, like some), though quite a few more were sorely tempting.
The first film I managed to see was the intriguing Caesar Must Die, about the staging of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar by a bunch of Italian inmates. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this film. Actually, that’s not quite true: I had either expected a documentary or a more fictitious film where the play was set in a prison. In the end, the actual film was a melange of the two, and a mix that did not necessarily sit well together.
Most of the film was told in flashback and therefore in black and white, which was an interesting idea but seemed a bit pointless considering all but about 10 minutes of the film was not considered to be in the “now”. The prison inmates (I eventually figured out they were actual inmates) were simply stunning in playing the various parts in the play, but the scenes that showed them as prisoners – so the ones closest to their actual selves – proved to be the least convincing. This was possibly just a byproduct of the script, which tried to show the rehearsal in amongst normal prison life, but while the sets were incredible, for me it didn’t quite work, its fakeness detracting from the “reality’ of the prison. Nonetheless, at the end, everyone was pretty impressed by the actors in their roles, though I was left wondering if the person who was pardoned (as the end credits told us) was one of those supposedly jailed for “life meaning life” (as they told us over the opening credits).
This film was preceded by a New Zealand short, which was mercifully short as, to be honest, without the director informing us beforehand what influenced her work, I would have had no idea what was going on.
Verdict 1 (of 5): Caesar Must Die was a really interesting film, intense as one would expect, but faltering a little in how to blend the work itself with the origins of the actors, when perhaps a bit of documentary style would have worked better. 6 et tus out of 10.
The second film of the festival I saw later that night. The Cabin in the Woods played to a sold out crowd at the Embassy Cinema, and as I had bought my tickets only two weeks before, my seat was way up in the deep dark recesses of the main theatre, next to a man who recognised a great many people in the audience, claiming they were all IT folk such as himself.
It was evident there were a lot of fans of Whedon in the crowd. The biggest star cheers of the evening came from regulars from previous Whedon television series, including the gorgeous Amy Acker (Fred in Angel and Doctor Saunders in Dollhouse) and the “cool geeks” from Dollhouse and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the actors who played Topher (Fran Kranz) and Andrew (Tom Lenk). There were other cheers for other known actors, including those for Anna Hutchison, one of New Zealand’s Go Girls who did a respectable job of being a bit of a slapper.
The Cabin in the Woods is a dark comedy slash horror film, with five beautiful people (well, four stunningly beautiful and one good looking “screwball”) heading out to a cabin in the middle of nowhere and stumbling into a world of supernatural nastiness. This being a Joss Whedon film, the script is tight and laced with a lot of jokes and pop culture references and only the truly quick witted and dedicated fan boys and girls will get them all (I may have some of the knowledge, but I am not smart enough to pick every single one of them as they go zooming by).
Of course, in a film so expectedly funny, and with a crowd so diverse, some of the humour can grate. Not in the sense that it is bad; more in the sense that there are some members of the audience who feel the need to let me know, in their loudest possible laughter, that they GET THE JOKE, even the ones that aren’t necessarily that clever. It is nice to laugh along to a movie with people; I find it less entertaining to be struggling to hear ongoing dialogue drowned out by people dying of laughter over a passing reference to a fart. At any rate, more often than not, I was laughing along with rather than grimacing through the parts most people found funny, so my head-exploding telekinetic powers were kept well in check.
As the teenagers (well, people in their early 20s I think) start to meet their grizzly fate in the woods, the humour and special effects ratchet up a couple of notches. These pretty people are [spoiler alert] not just good looking; they are also nuclear physicists (actually, they are studying far more liberal subjects than that – perhaps that is why they deserve to die?) and all around top athletes. Perhaps that is why the death of a pre-Thor and Avengers Chris Hemsworth was met with such howls of amusement – and, while I was not in fits of hysterics at the tragedy that befell him, I have to admit his end was rather funny.
Being a Whedon film, there is a bigger point and story to this localised tale of horror. In fact, it kind of has a Buffy the Vampire Slayer feel to it all, though I won’t go into which particular storyline(s) it reminded me most of. Suffice to say, as the crowd of obvious Whedon fans got deeper and deeper into the story, the joy and anticipation of the next reveal grew, and by the end, the whole audience seemed to be smiling, ready to head out into the cold midnight air and find a small cabin in the woods of their own, in which to build a small altar to Joss Whedon, worship him, and pray that the success of the Avengers will give this genius the chance to pursue a few more projects of his own, like this, and for them to last more than a series, or get a general release,
Verdict 2 (of 5): The Cabin in the Woods takes all the clichés about teen slasher horror films and blends them with a wicked sense of humour and sprinkles a few knowing insider references as well. While not just for fans of Whedon, the film definitely plays to the things that fans will know and love, and throws in a huge amount of blood and gore and all our grossness for good measure. 8.5 aquamen out of 10.
The final film for the weekend was the midday screening of Bernie, the latest Richard Linklater film starring Jack Black, Mathew McConaughey and Shirley MacLaine. This movie played to another sold out audience, though as it was at the Paramount theatre, this audience was not quite as big as the Cabin in the Woods screening.
This film was also, as my colleague the NotKate pointed out, an “entry level” film to the International Film Festival. This meant that, as the film was in English, starred Jack Black, was meant to be a comedy and wouldn’t be particularly challenging, the audience seemed to be half filled with people who would pick an “easy going” film to initiate themselves into the festival atmosphere, and so whose sense of humour might not be as… discriminating (yes, I am a comedy snob) as my own. This in turn meant that I was, on occasion, distracted by the antics of a woman to my left who seemed completely shocked (and a trifle stunned) by anything that was presented to her, even if telegraphed a mile away, and seemed unable to deal with anything presented on the screen as something not real, cowering in fear if any scratch or injury was presented as if, though the magic of cinema, it was contagious. I was half tempted to go to the pharmacy and find her some valium so that she would survive the film without becoming completely hysterical, but then decided waiting for a queue to form to deal with such an occasion and dealing with it in a Flying High! fashion would be a lot more entertaining.
Luckily, the film managed to keep me from getting too distracted. Black is in his element in this film, his incredible vocal talents called upon to sing the praises of the Lord rather than of women’s anatomy as is his usual style as part of Tenacious D. It wasn’t until the end of the film that I realised (or it was thrown in my face) that the majority of those not “well known” stars were actually involved in the events the film recalls, as it is a re-enactment of what happened to Bernie and his life in a small town in Texas. The reason I was a little confused is that the film plays like a film (the dark Nicole Kidman film To Die For, which I love, springs to mind) rather than a documentary, and the humour and twists and turns taken in the film seem a bit too scripted to be real – but then, some reality stories can be stranger than fiction.
So, while Black is hypnotising, and MacLaine plays a horrible old woman incredibly well, it is McConaughey who surprises in his role as the town Distract Attorney. Clark Kent-like, he hides his chiselled looks and physique behind glasses and baggy clothes, turning his natural charm to almost unbearable levels. It’s a great role for him, though probably not one for which he will receive Oscar recognition (nor the recognition his shirtless turn in Magic Mike is bound to generate, but I digress).
The tale told is humourous and gentle, and I can imagine taking my mother along to it, such is the slow, warm pace at which the film unfolds. That’s not to say the length is always appreciated: Black can definitely sing, but there were times I was hoping the songs would be cut a little shorter so that something might actually happen. Nonetheless, he has an easy charm on film, though such a talent does not appear to be that rare, considering the jewels that Linklater discovers as he interviews and documents the reactions of the actual townsfolk who lived through the events described. In fact, they are so comfortable with the camera, it made me wonder at times whether they were professional actors or not.
In the end, I learned to deal with the manic woman to my left (though I kept tabs on her throughout the screening) and settled in and thoroughly enjoyed Bernie. As anticipated, it was a very leisurely, easy film that will probably get a general release later on. And perhaps I will take my Mum to it in the end, now I think about it.
Verdict 3 (of 5): Bernie follows the twists and turns of a true tale of small town American life and presents it in a film that is both funny and sad. Prejudices abound, but the people involved all seem to be, deep down, good, decent folk who care for their loved ones and community. This film seems to celebrate that connectedness and spirit, and keeps the tone light and gentle throughout. 7.5 amazing graces out of 10.
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