All Is Lost

All Is Lost is a well done and interesting film, but a bit too long. Robert Redford delivers an outstanding performance in a picture with a negligible amount of dialog.  I found myself, however, wanting to check the time and comparing it a bit to Cast Away and a lot to Life of Pi . Which story did I prefer? Life of Pi .

This Time Tomorrow

Shane Bissett's low-budget and unscripted story, This Time Tomorrow, begs the question: Do you have any plans for December 21, 2012 - just in case the world ends?  Stacey (Dave Coleman) wants to spend the day with his ex-girlfriend, Parker (Jade Elysan), hoping to rekindle their romance, if only until the end of the world.  I found it reminiscent of some of Richard Linklater's films (Before Sunrise, Waking Life, Before Sunset), where the main characters spend a lot of time in conversation about the meaning of life and relationships.  There was also a cast of quirky friends who added delightful flavor to the production. 

The Procession

In this hilarious short, Julie (Lucy Punch) tearfully begs her mother (Lily Tomlin) and brother (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) to attend a friend's funeral.  They grudgingly agree and, after stopping at a red light, find themselves leading The Procession, with no idea where they are going.  The situation and the interplay between mother and son during the whole ordeal plays with comedic brilliance on one of those deep seated fears that we all have at one time or another.  

Gayby

Gayby is a sweet and embarrassingly funny film with a simple premise.  Jenn (Jenn Harris) wants to have a baby the natural way with her best friend, Matt (Matthew Wilkas), who happens to be gay.  The antics they go through trying to get pregnant while pursuing their individual romantic interests are hilarious.  This was one of those, oh dear I have to pick one more movie choices I made at the 2012 Philadelphia Film Festival.  I chose well.

The Woman in the Septic Tank

My first reaction to The Woman in the Septic Tank was "interesting".  I didn't quite know what to make of it.  It began as an examination of poverty in the Philippines and became really disturbing when a mother sold her young daughter to an old white man.  Suddenly the scene shifted to three young filmmakers who are trying to get funding for their independent film, "With Nothing".  As they discuss the story, it changes and is replayed according to the new ideas.  The girl becomes a boy; then it becomes a musical.  When they hire a famous actress, it changes yet again to a soap opera.  Finally, actual filming begins.  Not wanting to give any spoilers, suffice to say that the septic tank does show up.

Shanghai

I wanted to see Shanghai simply because Chow Yun-Fat was in it, and it turned out to be one of my favorite films at the 2012 Philadelphia Film Festival.  It was released in China in 2010 and still doesn't have a US release date listed on the IMDB.

This film noir tale of mystery, international intrigue, and romance takes place in Shanghai just before Pearl Harbor, during the Japanese occupation of China. In addition to Chow Yun-Fat, who plays gangster Anthony Lan-Ting, the stellar cast includes John Cusack as US agent Paul Soames, David Morse as his superior Richard Astor, Ken Watanabe as Japanese General Tanaka, and Li Gong as Anthony's wife Anna.  As in any good espionage thriller, there are many twists and turns.  In the tradition of classic films like Casablanca, love and war create strange allegiances.  This film has it all - good story, lavish production, great cast.  For a peek, you can check the official website.

In Another Country

In Another Country is a Korean film from writer-director Sang-soo Hong, starring French actress Isabelle Huppert.  It consists of three variations of a story about a French woman, a Korean man (three different actors), an umbrella, a lighthouse, and a tent.  If that sounds confusing, it was.  Two ladies sitting next to me hated the movie.  I found it quirky enough to keep me intrigued, but it was so low-key that I did have a hard time staying awake. 

Signs

Wow, it's been 10 years since Signs was released, and it still holds up. One of the big treats at the 2012 Philadelphia Film Festival was a showing of the movie, followed by a Q&A with M. Night Shyamalan. I jumped, I got misty, it made me think - all the things I love in a film. All the classic scenes, revealing bits of human nature, still ring true: Graham's (Mel Gibson) tension exploding at the dinner table, Merrill (Joaquin Phoenix) glued to the TV in the closet, Merrill and the kids (Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin) in their aluminum foil helmets, and more.  Shyamalan's post-movie insights into the picture and on writing and directing were fascinating.

Cloud Atlas

It probably would have helped to read David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas before seeing the film.  There was so much jumping around among stories, time periods, and characters that I lost track of what was going on.  It didn't help that it was often difficult to understand what Tom Hanks was saying when he was using an accent, beginning with the introduction to the film.  I also found the heavy makeup on Hanks and many of the other characters overpowering.  I found myself pondering things like, "Why did they give Susan Sarandon such a pointy nose?" or "This guy reminds me of Hugh Grant" or "Is this or isn't this Hugo Weaving?"  There were several points in the film that reminded me of the Matrix trilogy.  Ah, I had completely forgotten that the Wachowskis were involved.

All of this aside, I found myself caring about some of the characters and wanting to know their missing back stories.  Perhaps I'll tackle the book and see the movie again when it appears on cable and I can put on subtitles. 

A Short Film About Ice Fishing

The title of A Short Film About Ice Fishing says it all - two guys and their dog go ice fishing. Yay, it's on YouTube.  Be prepared to laugh out loud.

Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning

Brain cells died on Saturday night. Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning was the most phenomenally bad movie I've ever seen. I did laugh out loud a few times, purely out of disbelief that any film could be this bad. There was no discernible plot, but that didn't deter the filmmaker from leaving plenty of holes in what minimal amount there was. Maybe it would have helped if I had seen the direct-to-DVD Universal Soldier: Regeneration. Oh, by the way, it was shown in 3D.  What 3D?

Neither Jean-Claude Van Damme nor Dolph Lundgren had much screen time or dialog. Lundgren was, as usual, a purely evil charicature. But what happened to the heroic Luc Deveraux of the first two films of the series? I was really disappointed that Van Damme's Luc had become an evil cartoon.  I wasn't sure if his makeup for the final fight was modeled on Darth Vader without his helmet or Heath Ledger's Joker or both.  I found myself wondering if it was to disguise a stunt double during the fight scenes.  Scott Adkins was passable as our hero, John, but it was so wrong to make Luc the villain.

Right from the opening scene, the non-stop graphic violence was way over the top, and the relentless pursuit of John by a hulking unisol (Andrei Arlovski) seemed to be a pathetic attempt to emulate the Terminator films. There was also an exorbitant amount of gratuitous sex, bordering on, if not crossing over to, porn. The only reason I stayed was the foolish hope that the real Luc would appear, destroy the evil Luc, and save the day. Only in my dreams.

Caesar Must Die

At the 2nd day of the Philadelphia Film Festival I had the transcendent privilege of seeing Caesar Must Die. What a marvelous picture! Filmed within the confines of a maximum security prison, this subtitled Italian documentary follows inmates through their auditions, rehearsals, and performance of a production of Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar". Filmed mostly in black and white, the movie's only color is "outside" - within the final production and, for a brief moment, as one prisoner viewed a picture of the outside world.

The inmates, some with life sentences, stole the show with their performances. There was no backstory about their crimes, other than a line or two introducing each one, with his name, offense, and sentence. Anything more was unnecessary. The story was about the power and liberation of the production, driven home by one man's final comment that after discovering art, his cell had become a prison.

A postscript: Watching this performance of just part of "Julius Caesar" reinforces my opinion that Shakespeare is meant to be seen and experienced, not read in a classroom. I can remember being exceedingly bored by the stilted oral readings that I and my classmates endured in high school. What a difference it would have made if we had seen the plays, listened to the language as it was meant to be heard, and felt the emotion of a real performance.

Silver Linings Playbook

Silver Linings Playbook, shown at the opening of the 2012 Philadelphia Film Festival, was an interesting study of relationships and mental illness.   Bradley Cooper portrays Pat Solitano, a bipolar former teacher, prone to violent outbursts, whose obsession is to reconcile with his estranged wife.  Robert De Niro is his OCD father, Pat Solitano, Sr., a bookie who obsesses about the Philadelphia Eagles.  Jennifer Lawrence enters the picture as Tiffany, who has mental issues of her own.

The film is driven by the relationships between Pat and the other characters, primarily his father and Tiffany. The performances were excellent. The story was interesting, but became too contrived toward the end of the movie. It seemed as though they ran out of time and had to finish up right away.

The picture was filmed in the Philadelphia area, and the audience cheered many times at familiar sights. Bradley Cooper was, as always, nice too look at. The bright spot in the movie was Bollywood star, Anupam Kher, as Pat's therapist, another Eagles fan. It reminded me of his role in  Dil Bole Hadippa!, where he played a cricket-loving mayor. But these things didn't save it from being disappointing.