Over the next week and a half or so, I’ll be posting on the films that I’m seeing at the Chicago International Film Festival. I miss the Landmark Century, the venue of many a memorable film festival evening in the past, but I do understand the economic and practical advantages of situating the screenings between two downtown theaters, the River East 21 in Streeterville and 600 N. Michigan in River North. Hey, with the number of sold-out screenings during the first weekend, it seems that Chicago’s devoted film aficionados will not be deterred by downtown’s astronomical parking rates, so-so food, and touristy environs.
The Wrestler (USA) - Deep down, I secretly wished that this film’s cute-in-a-nerdy-film-school-student-kind-of-way director, Darren Aronofsky, would come out in the post-screening Q-and-A wearing a singlet. Ooops, wrong wresting milieu! The Wrestler is set in the rough, dirty, depressingly gritty world of wrestling promotions in the East Coast which employ once-popular wrestlers such as Randy the Ram, the lead character played in a legendary, magnificent, breathtakingly great performance by Mickey Rourke (and I could never have predicted, ever, that I would be using those superlatives to describe his work!). It is one of the best films of the year, and I am fearlessly predicting that Aronofsky and Rourke are both frontrunners for Oscar directing and acting prizes. It is a wonderfully real, very lived-in film (which was probably helped a lot by having many real-life wrestlers play supporting roles in the film, Funky Samoans anyone?), shot documentary-style, which comes off devastatingly sad and radiantly inspiring at the same time. The film is anchored by Rourke, whose achievement in this film is already being compared to Robert de Niro’s in Raging Bull, unforgettable in all his scenes: whether bloody with a stapled chest in the ring, repeatedly scooping potato salad behind a deli counter for a hard-to-please customer, singing along to an 80s dance tune, or baring his emotions to his estranged daughter and an aging stripper he has a crush on (Evan Rachel Wood and Marisa Tomei, respectively, both excellent). The movie is being released in December just in time for Oscar consideration - please go and see it!
Native Dancer (Kazakhstan) - This is essential viewing for all of us who want to get beyond the idea of a Kazakhstan shaped by Borat’s images. It’s an interesting, eccentric story about a Kazakh shaman or faith healer, who’s driven away from the land where she performs her healing by a vaguely Sopranos-like business and crime gang who wants to build a gas station-cum-casino on the property. It features probably one of the most stomach-churning scenes I have seen this year on film: at the beginning of the movie, a live sheep’s throat is slit (gulp) and the blood is poured all over the half-naked body of a middle-aged woman (another gulp) in a healing ritual. Yeah, the popcorn went that-away! I really didn’t need to see animal slaughter and saggy boobs and cellulite in the same sequence! Although I liked the acting, especially of the young boy, the son of one of the healer’s patients, as well as the mesmerizing shots of the ruggedly beautiful and angular Kazakhstan terrain, I thought the shift in the point of view and the dramatic focus midway through the film, from the faith healer, to the boy’s father, was perplexing. It felt like the two halves of the film belonged to two separate movies. And of course, the faith healer performing a healing dance was to be expected, but the silly, techno-rave music that accompanied the scene was not! At that point, I thought, maybe Borat snuck into the editing room?
Sparrow (Hong Kong) - One of Hong Kong’s most famous directors, Johnny To, helmed this quirky, pleasantly light-headed, delightfully-scored film about a gang of pickpockets whose paths intersect (literally) with a mysterious, fabulously-dressed (aren’t they all in Hong Kong, though?) woman who seems to be running track-and-field heats all over Hong Kong and Kowloon islands, while wearing 3 ½ inch stilleto heels. Oh, she’s being held captive by an evil, dying, rich guy, and she wants to escape from him, that’s why. The plot is a little strange, and very slight, but everyone seems to be having a ball (among them Chinese stars Simon Yam as the head of the pickpocketing crew and Kelly Lin as the damsel in distress), and there’s this lovely visual palette running throughout the film that makes it feel like a 1950s romantic comedy (think Charade) even if it’s set in present day Hong Kong. I also loved the technically brilliant and dazzling sequence near the end of the film that involved lots of umbrellas, a huge downpour, sexy film noir lighting, sprightly jazz score, and stylized movement. I’m surprised many people thought it would win the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival - it’s enjoyable yes, and there’s lots to admire while you’re watching it, but it’s memory fades away rather quickly.
Please check the Film Festival website for film and screening information.
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