COMPUTER CHESS - LFF 2013 - Day Three

Man, I loved, loved, loved COMPUTER CHESS! Then again, I think I'm its target demographic, if a movie as wilfully indie spirited could trade in such a concept. It's a movie that's geekily indulgent and indulges in the geeky, lovingly recreating a fictionalised computer chess tournament in the early 80s.  Director Andrew Bujalski (FUNNY HA HA, THE PUFFY CHAIR) clearly had a lot of fun casting a group of misfits and dressing them in massive 1980s glasses and ill-fitting suits, as well as kitting them out in the sexual and racial mores of the time.  But where the real joy comes is in seeing all those old skool clumsy computers and overhead projectors and reels of computer paper.  I could almost smell our old high school computer lab.  

To be fair, the movie doesn't really have a plot.  It doesn't really care about which team of brainiacs wins the computer chess tournament, or whether machine will beat computer by 1984.  It's all about the observational humour:  seeing a nerdy teen propositioned by the swingers also staying at the hotel. Or the well meaning IT professor trying to spin his programme's failure as a win for science.  Or the cocky, scene stealing Michael Papageorge begging to be let into anyone's room for the night.

Like I said, I am the perfect audience for this film.  I was laughing steadily throughout in a kind of nostalgic geek reverie.  But even if old tech isn't your thing, you've got to admire Bujalski's scrupulous use of in- period cameras and props to so wonderfully create the mood of the time.

COMPUTER CHESS has a running time of 93 minutes.

COMPUTER CHESS played Sundance 2013 where Andrew Bujaski won the Alfred P Sloan Feature Film Prize "for its offbeat and formalistically adventurous exploration of questions of artificial intelligence and human connections."  It also played Berlin, Sydney and London 2013. It opens in the UK on November 22nd. 

CATFISH - "The REAL Facebook movie"

Nev Schulman meets Megan Faccio on the internet. She writes him songs, he sends her compliments. They seem to "connect". Pretty soon the texting turns to sexting. Nev starts to talk about what it would mean to make a relationship work with someone who lives out of state. The infatuation goes beyond Megan. Nev is friends with her family and her friends. He thinks they're all pretty awesome. But somehow, while he speaks to them on the phone, they never get to meet. And then the scales fall away. It looks like those songs she wrote were taken from Youtube. When he drives out to Megan's house, it's unoccupied. And when he shows out at Megan's mum Angela's house, it's clear that the poor woman has been running a ring of fake IDs on Facebook and conducting a fake cyber-love affair with Nev out of sheer frustration and loneliness. Far from being a cute twentysomething, Angela is a middle-aged mother with two severely handicapped children and a life of limited possibilities. Her fantasies are understandable, but Nev is a real person with real feelings who was led on. Or was he? After all, he is a documentary film-maker. He chose to share the most intimate details of his relationship with the camera even when he apparently thought it was real. And when he realised it was fake, he carried on filming. He and his friends created a sting, and sure, they were gentle with Angela, but not so gentle as to let her off the hook completely, because then there would be no film.

So, this film raises questions about identity and personal boundaries beyond those that the film-makers think they are posing. Most simply it poses the question about how we can trust personae that we meet on line. I think that's not particularly original. But it does show how quickly a person can cross the line from selective editing of a Facebook profile (not posting those pictures where we don't look our best) to wholesale fabrication. Second, CATFISH poses a question about how unboundaried we have all become. From the girl who posted so many pictures on line that Angela could easily steal her identity, to Nev, who thought nothing about letting a girl into his emotions that he'd never met, to the film-makers, Nev and Angela, who presumably feel comfortable exposing all this material for the sake of making a film. In other words, what I'm saying here is that while I think Angela has problems, she's just a case in extremis of what all of us who use Facebook and Twitter and Blog experience - that erosion of personal boundaries and personal privacy that we trade for a wider group of virtual friends.

CATFISH is, then, a provocative documentary and for all its questionable morality - entrapping a woman who clearly needs help - and pimping out one's own emotional life for the sake of a movie - let alone the (I think scurrilous charges) that the entire thing (as opposed to maybe certain scenes) were set up - it remains an important piece of work. It's not a great film in terms of its shooting style or structure - there were definitely passages where I got bored waiting for the inevitable unmasking - but it prompted so much discussion that it has become, by virtue of its content, a must-see film.

CATFISH played Sundance and London 2010 and opened in the US and Canada in September. It is currently on release in the UK and the Netherlands.

Random DVD Round Up 1 - EXIT THROUGH THE GIFTSHOP

One-trick pony mockumentary in which notorious street-artist Banksy sends up the modern art world by showcasing nutty video-voyeuer turned artist Thierry Guetta. Guetta starts out behind the camera, documenting the early days of street art in LA, creating a mammoth collection of unedited tapes. He then morphs into an artist, apparently on Banksy's urging, creating works of suspiciously derivative quality and creating an art-world hoop-la in the process. Presumably this has all been faked, and Banksy is trying to make a point about how credulous the punters will be when faced with the latest fashion. Which is all very plausible, but hardly a radical thought, and certainly not enough to sustain a feature length film.

Additional tags: Banksy, tom fulford, chris king,

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFTSHOP played Sundance and Berlin 2010. It opened in the UK, US and Russia earlier this year and opens in Germany on October 2010. It is also available on DVD and on iTunes.

Preview - BEYOND THE POLE

Reviews are getting posted a little less promptly now that the locks are off the alcohol cupboard in Bishopsgate (quite literally) and the European fixed income divergence trade is starting to bear fruit. Which brings me to a preview of a movie that one might think a little at odds with the purported aim of this blog - a review site that loves shameless violence and scorns vegetarianism in all its manifestations. Not that I don't have time for the earnest agit-doc, but it always seems to me that they make not one iota of difference: after all, no unrepentant flat-earther is going to shell out his hard-earned cash to see some flick from the Lib-Lab coalition. To my mind, this genre of film is basically preaching to the already converted Guardian readership. This is where BEYOND THE POLE comes in - a new British film touting itself as the first environmental comedy. We sent our correspondent - a man more at home with ultra-violent Korean flicks - to investigate......

"Beyond the Pole sounds ghastly, promoted as a feelgood environmental comedy, which does it a disservice. It's not schmaltzy, doesn't preach, and has no over-the-top scene where everybody cheers. But it is very funny. Filmed documentary-style, Stephen Mangan (GREEN WING) and Rhys Thomas (THE FAST SHOW) work well as the glass-half-full and glass-half-empty buddies who are equally foolhardy. They set off from Lichfield to the North Pole hoping to set some sort of Guinness record. The film charts the obstacles they face, which include polar bears, frostbitten penises and, through their radio, relationship strife back home.

For the most part the film belies its shoestring budget and radio play origins. The Arctic is beautiful even when purpotedly shot on a camcorder. The cast is never hammy, and benefits from the comic timing of Rosie Cavaliero as the long-suffering girlfriend and Mark Benton as the local amateur radio enthusiast. In a stroke of luck for the filmmakers, it also boasts a pre-True Blood Alexander Skarsgård camping it up as a rival trekker.

Moviemaking on ice was never going to be easy. To some extent location filming in three weeks against-the-odds, on a Greenland ice field that was due to melt, has helped the performances. The dialogue comes across as improvised and the tension seems genuine. However, the script's ending needed more development prior to the shoot. We know it's inconceivable that such a pair of losers could make it to the North Pole and back unscathed. Eventually things have to go seriously wrong. This juncture is held off as long as possible to keep the humour flowing, but once the fun is over, the conclusion feels perfunctory. With more pathos, and maybe even a bit of schmaltz, Beyond the Pole would linger in your mind as a charming comic tragedy."

BEYOND THE POLE will be released in the UK in early 2010.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY - meh

BLAIR WITCH, CLOVERFIELD, QUARANTINE....We've seen this shizzle before. Low budget horror, filmed on DV, acted by unknowns, trying to get thrills by feeling "real". BLAIR WITCH was truly spooky - I still remember the scene with the guy standing in the corner of the house, facing the wall, like a kid being punished - but gave me motion sickness. CLOVERFIELD was like Godzilla and hi-fi, but gave me motion sickness. I guess the best thing that can be said about PARANORMAL ACTIVITY is that its mockumentary concept at least features fixed cameras. Katie and Micah are a young couple living in contemporary America. It's the America of STARSUCKERS and WE LIVE IN PUBLIC - a nation of people who believe that if it's not on TV it isn't real. So when Katie tells Micah she's being stalked by a poltergeist, his schmucky reaction is to video-tape everything. So follows footage of a normal couple bickering, interspersed by in-camera special effect horror. Spooky demon footprints in talcum powder etc. I'd love to know how they did it all in frame, but I really wasn't scared by it. And the reason I wasn't scared is because the mockumentary format is a distancing device. We know it's a trick and so we aren't involved. This applies to rom-coms as much as to horror, by the way, as I argue in my review of PAPER HEART. So, don't believe the hype. This film is entertaining enough as a post-modern comment on media-obsessed society, but it doesn't work as horror. And for all its lo-rent indie cred, I notice that the movie is "presented by Steven Spielberg", and that the director hasn't turned down the chance to make a studio-backed sequel to cash-in on this flick's commercial success.

PARANORMAL ACTIVITY was released in October in the US and Canada. It opened earlier in November in Greece, Russia, Singapore, Finland, Sweden, and Germany. It opens this weekend in Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK. It opens next weekend in France, Australia and Denmark. It opens in January in New Zealand and Norway and in Italy in February.

London Film Fest Day 4 - PAPER HEART

PAPER HEART is a new mockumentary from alleged US comedienne Charlyne Yi. It's meant to be about Yi's inability to fall in love and comes complete with interviews with happily married old folk and a staged romance with Michael Cera spoofing himself as the typically awkward lover.

The documentary is interminable largely because Charlyne Yi is intolerable. Her stage/screen persona as this infantile, carefully unwashed meant-to-be cute little sprite just pissed me off. If you think Zooey Deschanel lives at the extreme of Kooky think again. Yi's self-conscious Sundance retard lo-fi film-making is one step beyond. I mean, for crying out loud, she has fake super-six love-montages and things-to-make-and-do puppet scenes!

At a superficial level, PAPER HEART fails as a rom-com because the conceit of actors playing themselves works as a distancing device. At a secondary level, PAPER HEART fails as a spoof of documentary film-making (although the relationship with "Cera" does flounder as the "director" stages love scenes). The spoof fails because Yi's stage persona is already so contrived.

I left the movie dumbfounded at Yi's succes to date. She didn't demonstrate any skill as a decent stand-up. So I wiki'd her in the few moments before the 44 INCH CHEST premiere. I was delighted to discover that, apparently, SNL has already spoofed Yi. So, give it up girl. It's already been done.

PAPER HEART played Sundance and London 2009. It was released in the US and Canada in August. It is currently on release in Singapore and will be released in the UK on November 13th.

LE DONK & SCOR-ZAY-ZEE - gonzo comedy at its best

LE DONK & SCOR-ZAY-ZEE is gonzo film-making at its best, and proves that you don't need millions of squids worth of CGI effects or a three hour Oscar-bait weepie to have good time at the cinema. Director Shane Meadows specialises in movies that simultaneously capture the grimy truth and everyday humour of life in Britain, and he's at it again in this short-ish feature - a movie that's more like his little character study/short NORTHERN SOUL than the more deliberate features like MADE IN BRITAIN and DEAD MAN'S SHOES. LE DONK is a mockumentary, with the real life Shane playing a fictional Shane, shooting a documentary about a Midlands roadie called Nicholas aka Le Donk, and his side-kick, wannabe rapper Scor-zay-zee aka Dean. We follow the hapless, vain, but ultimately love-able duo as Nicholas/Le Donk becomes a dad and Scor-zay-zee gets the chance to open for the "Artical Monkeys". This is a movie for everyone who laughed at Goldie Looking Chain and loves Spinal Tap and likes to see raw talent play itself out on screen. More power to Paddy Considine and more power to Shane Meadows. Now, can we have another proper full length movie please?!

LE DONK & SCOR-ZAY-ZEE is currently on release in the UK.

BRÜNO - Professor007 lays down the wisdom

This review was written by our Austrian correspondent, Professor007

BRÜNO – In your face, but very funny

Arguably, what made Borat so good was not so much the slapstick-like scenes of him mincing around in mankinis or pooing on a sidewalk in Manhattan, but the way in which he managed to bring out the dark sides of otherwise normal-seeming people: the interviewee responding that he would have no problem with Borat shooting jews; the car salesman advising on the minimum speed to run over gypsies in a Hummer; or a crowd cheering when Borat proclaims that George Bush may drink the blood of every man, woman, and child in Iraq. Brϋno, a gay Austrian reporter for fashion show Funkyzeit, has made himself “Aus” of the Viennese fashion circles after causing havoc during a fashion show and leaves his country in order to seek fame in the United States, accompanied solely by his former assistant’s assistant, Lutz. He starts his quest in LA where he consecutively tries and fails to become a film star, a celebrity talk show host and a porn star, in-between hopping rather randomly from Kansas to Alabama with a short detour to the Middle East and Africa, in a rather haphazard storyline. In terms of wit and sarcasm, Brϋno doesn’t quite match his Kazakh predecessor. Granted, there is the scene where a human rights activist sits down on a Mexican worker doubling as a chair, explaining how much she loves to help suppressed people; and the Alabama priest trying to cure Brϋno from his homosexuality. However, most of the scenes live from their grotesqueness, constantly bordering on the ethically unacceptable and culminating in the homoerotic showdown between Lutz and Brϋno in a fighting cage. Which is not to say it’s any less enjoyable to see: if you enjoy (penis) in-your-face humour, you will, like me, walk out of the movie with your belly aching from laughter.

Finally, what does the Austrian in me have to say? Apart from me simply enjoying an occasional evening of crass humour, I certainly also went to be prepared for the inevitable ridicule I would have to suffer as an Austrian following Brϋno’s release. I’m not quite sure yet whether I should be relieved or disappointed, but there’s surprisingly little on the theme of my homeland, so I hope it will cause a little less upheaval in Austria than Borat did in the Kazakhstan.

BRUNO is on release in Australia, Belgium, Iceland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the UK and USA. It opens next weekend in France and Russia and on July 31st in Brazil. It opens on August 6th in the Czech Republic; on August 14th in Turkey; on August 20th in Singapore; on September 25th in Mexico; on October 15th in Argentina and on October 23rd in Italy.

THE CLASS / ENTRE LES MURS - traversing the murky waters of liberal angst

THE CLASS is an award-winning quasi-documentary about modern race relations in France, from the writer-director behind the provocative sex-tourism drama, HEADING SOUTH. Based on the experiences of teacher, François Bégaudeau, the movie recreates the atmosphere and tensions of a year in a Parisian inner-city school, casting François and a host of real students and creating a script through extensive workshopping. 

The energy and authenticity of the film - the quality of its hand-held camera-work - the pleasure of spending two hours getting to know the kids - the purity of the concept of never leaving the class, never following the kids home - has won THE CLASS praise, and perhaps surprisingly, the Palme d'Or, beating competition from IL DIVO, THREE MONKEYS, WALTZ IN BASHIR, GOMORRA and CHANGELING. 

To my mind, it deserves praise for its energy and insight. I had fun watching the film. But is it really as subversive as everyone thinks? The standard argument seems to be that THE CLASS deserves praise for having overturned the typical Hollywood movie in which an idealistic teacher comes into a rough class and through innovative teaching techniques earns their respect. Think DANGEROUS MINDS. There's a troubled boy who disturbs class and usually ends up dropping out, despite the extenuating circumstances of trouble at home. There's the bright girl who denies her talent by getting pregnant, or dropping out. And there's the anonymous rabble of ne'er-do-wells who start off rough as houses but end up charming, considerate and thankful.

THE CLASS is no different. Yes, it may be a bit more honest about racial tensions, but you can still see the familiar genre tropes. The teacher is still an earnest liberal who transgresses the line of involvement, and defends his kids against the powers that be. A bolshy boy will still end up threatened with expulsion. And the majority of kids do end up responding to the teacher and learning something. Moreover, the film has real flaws, creating scenes that seem absurdly saccharine and break the carefully constructed feeling of authenticity. When a promising Chinese student's mother is threatened with deportation, would a guilt-laden teacher really raise two toasts to him with champagne, trumping her happiness at being pregnant? And, in the final scene, would a bolshy kid really accurately precis' Plato's Republic, thereby neatly putting the teacher who'd called her a skank in his place? This all seemed ludicrous to me.

So, I guess my response to THE CLASS was conflicted. I admire it technically, and I admire its intentions. But in reality, Laurent Cantet has created a movie as unreal and stereotypical as those awful Hollywood genre pics he so clearly wanted to subvert.

THE CLASS played Cannes 2008 and was released in France, Belgium, Italy, Israel, Greece, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Turkey, Russia, Romania, Latvia, Sweden, the US and Norway last year. It was released in Croatia, Germany, Spain, Australia, Denmark and Finland earlier this year. It is currently on release in the UK, Hong Kong, Estonia and Brazil.

THE FOOT FIST WAY - McBride's better in small doses

THE FOOT FIST WAY is a star vehicle for American comedian Danny McBride. Up till now, McBride has been a scene stealer in ensemble comedies such as PINEAPPLE EXPRESS. He specialises in playing loser characters who are convinced that they're the best thing since sliced bread. There's something very funny about the arrogance of the dumb-ass, and McBride is the king of deadpan outrageous bullshit. In THE FOOT FIST WAY, McBride plays a Tae Kwon Do teacher with a slapper wife who starts acting out when he discovers she gave her boss a hand job and gets worse when she shags his hero. The movie is filmed much as THE OFFICE was filmed. It's deliberately low-rent, trying to give the proceedings a voyeuristic, docu-drama feel. Accordingly the humour isn't so much laugh-out-funny as wince-inducingly awkward. The conceit of the film is funny as far as it goes, but I couldn't help but feel that I was watching a crazy side-character gone AWOL from the main feature. This kind of character is far better deployed as a side-kick, especially when the resulting movie has little plot and no real change of tone. So, sadly, I can't recommend THE FOOT FIST WAY. 

THE FOOT FIST WAY was released in May in the US and is currently on release in the UK. It was released this week on Region 1 DVD.

Timely reminder 1 - BOB ROBERTS (1992)

We sit at the fag-end of a bitter Presidency: the US preaches liberal free-market democracy but is perceived to practice illiberality, protectionism and to award power by judicial fiat. We distrust our politicians and distrust big corporations and self-medicate with brain-benumbing reality TV. Many movies have chronicled our greasy slide into decrepitude. Some achieved acclaim upon release, and others feel like sadly overlooked markers in the sand.

BOB ROBERTS falls into the latter category. It's a razor-sharp satire on all that is most grasping and petty in politics. The anti-hero of the piece is a Republican gubernatorial candidate. Bob Roberts is a successful businessman, former Marine and passionate campaigner against drug use. He's also a popular singer who peddles easy answers to a catchy folk tune. Consider the following couplet from his hit song:

"Grandma felt guilty 'bout being so rich and it bothered her until the day she died. But I will take my inheritance and invest it with pride, yes invest it with pride."

And what about the opening lines to his song mocking the poor:

"Some people will have / Some simply will not / But they'll complain and complain and complain and complain and complain / Some people will work / Some never will / But they'll complain and complain and complain and complain and complain / Like this: / It's society's fault I don't have a job / It's society's fault I'm a slob / I'm a drunk, I don't have a brain / Give me a pamplet while I complain / Hey pal you're living in the land of the free No-one's gonna hand you opportunity."

In other words, Bob Robert is smug and rich and, by the way, implicated in an Iran-Contra style narcs-for-guns scandal.

Now, Tim Robbins' evidently doesn't go for a subtle approach here. Bob Roberts is a good old-fashioned screen villain, painted with a broad brush. And the whole side plot with a Spike Lee style angry independent film-maker trying to expose Roberts thinly-veiled fascist tendencies is more distracting than incisive. So why is this movie so great? First off, Robbins really captures the feel of a documentary with talking heads, hand-held camera footage and those little shots of people caught unawares. Second, the spoof songs are absolutely hysterical - not least the mock Bob Dylan and Robert Palmer promo videos. Third, Robbins takes Bob Roberts into territory so evil that it will stun even the most jaded of hacks. Fourth, the movie works as a sort of elegy for all those elder statesmen who really believed in public service and human decency. They are distilled here in Bob Roberts' opposition - a patrician incumbent of evident intelligent and mortal certitude. Time was....

So, if you like your comedy intelligent and your politics sharp, check BOB ROBERTS out. Robbins may have been looking back to Reagan, but this movie is a fair place to start as an indictment of Bush 43.

BOB ROBERTS was originally released in 1992 and is available on DVD.

Overlooked DVD of the month - RAZZLE DAZZLE

If Chris Guest defines the spectrum of quality for mockumentaries, then RAZZLE DAZZLE lies somewhere below THIS IS SPINAL TAP and BEST IN SHOW but somewhere above FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION. By which I mean that RAZZLE DAZZLE is a brilliantly observed, witty addition to the genre. Director Darren Ashton sends up the world of children's dance contests, and with it the wider world of pushy parents, bitchy mentors and that business we call show. Given that popular culture has become infested with reality "talent" contests - super-ego judges and glossy dance routines, this movie couldn't have come at a better time.

British actor Ben Miller is superbly under-stated and dead-pan as the kind-hearted perpetual runner-up Mr. Jonathan. He shepherds his girls through insane routines that aim to entertain, but also to instruct. From the environment to the Taliban, Mr Jonathan has a routine to prick our conscience. Mr Jonathan comes up against Miss Elizabeth, a prim dance teacher who wants to win at all costs, and pushes her girls to perfection by way of anorexia and harsh rejection. Along the way to the state finals, we'll meet a rogue's gallery of recognisable but exaggerated characters but the real stars of the film are the costume designer, choreographer and young kids who pull off such absurdly brilliant dance routines.

RAZZLE DAZZLE does better than most mockumentaries in maintaining the fiction that this is real footage that captures people unawares. But there are just one or two over-the-shoulder shots that look too posed and not enough of the through-the-blinds camera-work that made THE OFFICE so credible. Still, for sheer wit and warm-hearted enjoyment, it's hard to beat.

RAZZLE DAZZLE played Berlin 2007 and was released in Australia, New Zealand, Irealand, the UK and Norway last year. It opened in January in france. It is now available on DVD.