Mr. Smith Goes to the Wisconsin Film Festival

While biting off more than I can chew is a habit for me in most aspects of life, it's guaranteed that I will do just that whenever the Wisconsin Film Festival rolls around. I always buy tickets with the earnest intention of seeing every movie for which I buy a ticket. I never end up succeeding.

However, I always relish the opportunity and the experience of going to the festival. Of the films that I saw this year, there were three that I loved, and one that frustrated the hell out of me.

First, there was Hollywood Chinese, a singularly smart and matter-of-fact documentary about: 1) portrayals of Chinese people in film, and 2) the experience of Chinese-Americans working in Hollywood. Neither overly tributary nor vehemently damning, the film successfully draws out many of the complexities of the Chinese-American experience from the silent era to the present. I could've used more B.D. Wong, but we can't have it all.

The other documentary I really enjoyed was Constantine's Sword, an examination of Christianity's culpability in anti-Semitism, both historically and in the present. I am amazed that so much material was compressed into around 90 minutes of intelligent, moving screen time, but I wouldn't have minded another 30-60 minutes worth of material (and it's a rare thing these days for me to say I want a longer movie). After starting the book on which the movie is based, I've got my wish for more material.

The best film of the festival, however, was a little film called Shotgun Stories. A meditation on hate, violence, and vengeance, director Jeff Nichols offers up the most promising feature debut in some time. Set in small-town Arkansas, the film concerns three brothers who find out their father has died--the father who abandoned them and started a new family in the same small town. The conflict between these two families in the wake of the father's funeral drives the rest of the story.

Rage, confusion, vulnerability--these are all qualities that Shotgun Stories makes more incisive and inescapably searing than any other film in recent memory. Add to this the fact that the film almost perfectly captures particular aspects of the South, both photographically and emotionally. Yep...the more that I think about this film, the more I love it.

And then there's the one that frustrated me: Timecrimes. "Tidy" is the word that springs to mind when I think of this supposed thriller. Peering through binoculars, a man sees a naked woman in the woods near his home. When he goes to see if she's there, he ends up getting attacked, which sets off a chain of events throughout the rest of the film. And that chain involves time travel.

Now, I probably would have loved this film had I never encountered a story about linear time travel. However, I've cracked a comic book or two. I've watched some Star Trek in my day. So I wasn't terribly impressed with what the film had to offer.

I won't say I hated it, because the narrative was tidily put together. However, when I knew that the film had a limited cast and time travel as its centerpiece, it took me only a few minutes into the picture to figure out where it was going and how it was going to get there. All that was left was for me to wait patiently as it unfolded EXACTLY how I thought it would. In the end, it felt more like an exercise than a story.

Quick reviews of the other films I saw:

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: Beautiful restored print. Proof that Elizabeth Taylor can act. Didn't really care what happened to the characters after a while.

Big Man Japan: Cool monsters. Tonally very, very odd. Thought I'd like it, but found it tedious and ultimately tiresome.

Mongol: Tadanobu Asano. As Genghis Khan. Bad-ass.

Planet of the Apes: While it was a restored print, the sound in the theater was AWFUL. When a projector broke and a member of the staff informed us that there would have to be a pause between every reel for change, I gave up and left. The only reason I mention this is the eerie coincidence of watching this film, coming home, and finding that Charlton Heston died that very night.

Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion: Awesome title. Great plot. Disappointing execution.

Films I wish I'd seen but times conflicted with other screenings: Alexandra (Sokurov's newest), Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou's latest), and OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (a James Bond spoof that actually seems funny).

Film I wish I'd rousted my lazy ass out of bed for: My Man Godfrey (it was a restored print, for God's sake).

Another festival come, gone, and enjoyed. And next year, maybe I actually will see all of the movies I buy tickets for.

Read: The Life of a Simple Man (La Vie d'un Simple) by Emile Guillaumin
Watch: Zack Galifianakis: Live at the Purple Onion (dir. Michael Blieden, 2006)
Listen to: American Hearts, by A.A. Bondy