Grade:             A

BTW:  Luhrmann talked more about his ten year effort to make this film at Cannes just today.  Catch the press conference here.

Sheridan, Lofland, and McConaughey in Mud

Mud is the third movie written and directed by Jeff Nichols. As with his last feature, the criminally overlooked Take Shelter, I am reluctant to say too much about the details of Mud’s plot here. Nichols makes movies that are authentic and surprising, best enjoyed with no expectations. This one takes place in a small town in Arkansas, where lives are divided between the parking lots and seedy motels of Town and the simplicity and freedom of the River. Two boys, portrayed with incredible depth and nuance by Ty Sheridan and Jacob Lofland (the latter looking like he walked right out of Stand By Me and into this film, Fugazi t-shirt notwithstanding), discover a mysterious stranger named Mud (Matthew McConaughey) and decide to help him in his quest. The adventures that unfold are a window into their families, friendships, homes, youth, and waning innocence.

Again Nichols’ film is gorgeous, favoring dawn and twilight, nature and water. As in Take Shelter, he somehow uses simple, quiet lives to convey more suspense and emotion than any blockbuster thriller or mile-a-minute action flick I’ve seen; in part because his characters are so real and the performances so strong. In addition to the two outstanding young leads, Nichols regulars Ray McKinnon and Michael Shannon (whose broad range continues to astound), and Sam Shepard, Sarah Paulson, and Reese Witherspoon are all excellent. And I won’t ever associate McConaughey with tepid romantic comedies again after this (and Magic Mike, of course). Mud, both the man and the film, is a study in balance: simultaneously ominous and endearing, simple and complex, small and grand. See it.

Grade: A

Ebertfest Day 4 started at a fever pitch—I mean, where do we go from a (now interwebz famous) 11am dance party led by actess/artist Tilda Swinton?

Nowhere but up, surprisingly enough—Saturday’s stellar lineup was an eclectic mix of genres and tones with something for everybody.

The dance party segued nicely into the sumptuous black and white visual treat of Spanish director Pablo Berger’s silent fairy tale Blancanieves. This Brothers Grimm-inspired tale takes the Snow White story (the title is Spanish for Snow White) in a different direction, casting our heroine as the daughter of a disgraced bullfighter who eventually escapes her wicked stepmother and  joins a traveling troupe of bullfighting dwarves whilst en route to her own appointment with destiny as a famous matador. Gorgeous and inspired, this Spanish hit is worth your attention. (Now if only it could get a US release…)

New Jersey-born filmmaker Vikram Gandhi’s highly entertaining 2012 debut, Kumaré, starts out as a cynical, funny Borat-ish doc, with the director/star posing as an India-born, nonsense spouting guru called Kumaré, mildly exploiting for laughs the gullibility and vulnerability of the people he encounters. While Gandhi’s experiment is an immediate success—YES, with the right fake back story and accent/hair/beard combo, people will buy just about anyone as a guru—Gandhi grows closer than expected to his small group of dedicated hook/line/sinker followers. And, as ridiculous as most of his teachings seem—nonsense about “inner blue lights” and a yoga exercise consisting of windmill air guitar swings, for example—those followers begin achieving positive, joyful results, leaving Gandhi torn and guilty about his long term plan of eventually revealing his true self to them. How he handles it—and how his followers respond—might surprise you. ALSO: To the audience’s delight, Gandhi closed out the following Q&A with a short yoga lesson, in character as Kumaré. (Stream Kumaré at home on Netflix, and then: Ommmm.) 

Up next was the fest’s biggest surprise, this year’s much buzzed about Escape From Tomorrow, an excellent, hilariously absurd comedy that might not ever get a release (besides a few rapturously received Sundance screenings, this was the only other American screening) for mostly the same reason it’s created such a buzz: the film was shot guerilla-style at Disney World, without Disney’s permission. It’s shocking that this scathing indictment of The Happiest Place On Earth hasn’t yet been shut down by The Mouse’s Legal Eagles (TM). Also surprising is that this “guerilla style” movie doesn’t look “guerilla” in the least—shot in gorgeously rendered, razor-sharp black and white in a nod to ’50s sci fi, the visuals are stunning, and were especially a treat on the Virginia Theatre’s enormous screen. The overall tone was a surprise, as well. Having heard only the barest of descriptions of the plot beforehand—a middle-aged family man is fired via phone on the last day of his vacation, then spends the day at Disney World with his unknowing wife and kids in an insanity spiral that mostly revolves around disturbing hallucinations and an obsession with following two French teen Lolitas around the park—I had expected something gritty, dark, amateurish, and possibly something that was more of an interesting story about how-the-heck-was-this-movie-made than being an actual, whole, entertaining movie. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Escape From Tomorrow is a brash comic rollercoaster (wordplay!) that sets up a darkly humorous but relatively traditional premise for 45 minutes or so up the clank-clank-clank hill before turning the picture on its ear as the film suddenly plummets down the other side into a world of laugh-out-loud, ridiculously over-the-top absurdity and totally weird Sci-fi that grows even stranger with every hairpin turn. Film-school weird and juvenile in all the best ways. Though no official trailer exists on the webz, there is this following short production featurette, which includes fun behind-the-scenes stuff. Listen closely to the snippets of Abel Korzeniowski’s original score–it’s crazy good.

The revealing Q&A (masterfully moderated by the director of the subsequent screening, The Spectacular Now, James Ponsoldt) with first time director Randy Moore, along with the film’s editor and three cast members (including actress Annet Mahendru, who we recognized from FX series The Americans), touched on why the film took its entire two years of postproduction to Korea (much reduced costs, and they didn’t want word of the subject matter to leak out too quickly, something likely to happen had they finished the film in Burbank, CA) and why the film’s budget—raised entirely by Moore’s extended family—blew up from $200,000 to $650,000 (Moore insisted that, unlike most small indie productions, his cast and crew actually be paid). While his film may never see an actual release, Escape From Tomorrow is sure to become a cult bootleg hit, not to mention catapult the filmmakers into a lengthy (non-Disney) film career. Check out the full Q&A here for a fun story of  the crew’s narrow escape from a Disney security dude in a Goofy hat.

Ebert’s special seat on Aisle 4.

Saving the best for last, Saturday’s lineup wrapped up with my favorite film of the fest, and definitely a top contender for my Best of 2013 shortlist, The Spectacular Now. Adapted from the National Book Award finalist YA novel by Tim Tharp, this rare, authentic slice of high school life tells the story of two seniors, one an always-buzzed, most popular chucklehead in school, the other a sweet comic book nerd, who fall in varying degrees of love, but not necessarily on purpose. Miles Teller—known for his standout supporting role in 2010′s Rabbit Hole and for being the only entertaining part of the vapid 2011 Footloose remake—is often compared to John Cusack. And though a bit darker in tone, this movie in particular seems to fit comfortably in the same universe as Cusack’s 1989 classic Say Anything. But his take on this functional alcoholic futureless class clown goes deeper and darker than Cusack ever dared as Lloyd Dobbler. Teller’s scenes trying to reconnect with his long lost alcoholic futureless dad (played pitch perfect by Friday Night Lights‘ Coach Taylor—er, Kyle Chandler, playing way against type in a concise performance worthy of All The Supporting Oscars We Can Throw at Him) are authentic and heartbreaking. While so many teen movies focus on the social structure, narrowing characters down to stereotypes that don’t exist in reality, Teller’s co-star Shailene Woodley—a standout in  2011’s Oscar winning The Descendants and soon to be featured as Hanna in the upcoming screen adaption of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars—isn’t stuck playing the nerdy wallflower card here. Sure, she’s not a popular kid, but the popular kids don’t pick on her. She seems to have fewer friends, but by choice—a smart, gentle, generous kid that would rather spend her time reading graphic novels, when she’s not doing her mother’s daily paper route.  As he leads her step by step away from that innocence, as she gradually takes on some of his more destructive habits, later keeping up with his drinking from her own flask, your heart breaks and you have an overwhelming urge to rescue that girl. Some of the best performance you’ll see this year. Damn, this is a good movie. If this thing isn’t vigorously dry humped by Oscar next Feb, I’ma be pissed.

The Spectacular Now Q&A:
Director James Ponsoldt and star Shailene Woodley
(photo courtesy Ebertfest.com)

Star Woodley proved to be a regular gal at the standard Ebertfest purse search for contraband M&M’s. That means a lot to us simple Midwestern folk. In her charming Q&A with director James Ponsoldt (remember that name) she effusively praised Ponsoldt for his delicate touch with actors. When a kind of dumb Q’r made a comment (instead of an actual Q, of course) complaining about how the teen sitcom Woodley also appears in was lacking in teen reality, her very polite response with a smile was, “Maybe it’s because we don’t have James Ponsoldt.” That this was (wonderfully) not a message movie managed to disturb at least one mom in the Q&A, who was scandalized by the character’s lack of redemption in regards to the rampant alcoholism, saying she would never allow her children to see it. Uh, thanks for your question? (Things learned over 4 years of Ebertfest #1. Most of the people offering Q’s are usually I’s. And sometimes A’s.) Check out the delightful Q&A here. And check out The Spectacular Now when it hits theaters this August.

Sign on Aisle 4′s door requested personally by Ebert.

While Day 5 at Ebertfest has often been dedicated to a music-related documentary, sometimes featuring a live performance in the following Q&A, their polar opposite choice this year, the quiet and poignant Not Yet Begun to Fight, could not have been a better crowd pleaser.  This documentary about a program that takes freshly broken soldiers in various degrees of serious injury to Montana and teaches them flyfishing as a way to  gain some sense of peace and relief from their stress disorders is inspiring, and inspired filmmaking. The humor of one of the film’s most talkative subjects, Erik Goodge, lightened spirits in the following Q&A, opening with, “I’ve been in a lot of firefights, and I’ve seen a lot of action, but I am very nervous right now.” Check out the full Q&A here.

In her farewell remarks, Chaz Ebert ended much speculation by closing the fest with a few well-received words: “See you next year.”

The Virginia Theatre

Arriving so soon (a mere 13 days) after the festival’s founder and namesake Roger Ebert’s death from cancer, the 15th Annual Roger Ebert’s Film Festival (aka Ebertfest) could very well have been a week-long memorial service. Luckily, the Man’s wife and fest host Chaz Ebert set the tone immediately to the contrary—this was not going to be a week of mourning, but a celebration of her “boyfriend”’s generous spirit and contagious love for the art of cinema. After a short remembrance from Chaz—taking a handheld mike downstage “like Oprah”—she announced an unusual event that Roger himself specifically masterminded, inviting a choral group from the University to lead the crowd in a rousing sing-along version of “Those Were the Days,” with cinema-centric lyrics modified by Ebert*, followed by this short clip from Orson Welles’ Chimes at Midnight. After this oddly touching presentation, Chaz  said, “Well. That Roger,” shook her head and moved on.

The opening night feature, Terrence Malick’s gorgeous 1978 fractured poetic narrative Days of Heaven, was a rapturous experience on the Virginia Theatre’s enormous screen, and accompanied by one of that film’s photographers (and the man to whom Ebert dedicated this year’s fest), world-renowned Oscar-winning Director of Photography Haskell Wexler. Spry 91-year-old Wexler was game for an insightful Q&A, warmly recalling director Malick as “a weird guy” who didn’t really direct on set, uh, verbally, and explaining why he didn’t get the film’s Director of Photography credit, instead settling for an end title Additional Photography credit: Haskell was brought on board well into an overbudget and behind schedule production, mostly due to the slow pace of the film’s original (and credited) cinematographer, Nestor Almendros. While there was quite a kerfuffle at the time as the two photographers fought for the DoP credit, the two are friendly now, and although Wexler still contends that his footage comprises well over half of the film, he generously cedes full credit of the film’s look to Almendros. Wexler also made a few hundred film nerds very happy with the story of how they created the film’s iconic scene of swarms of locusts rising up from the fields–apparently they dropped coffee beans from a helicopter and ran the footage in reverse.

Day Two opened with Ebert fave and Ebertfest regular Paul Cox’s Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh, minus the director, whose ongoing health problems prevented him from accompanying the film as scheduled. While not necessarily a fan of Cox the director, the auteur’s work as an actor really connects. His part as a priest in the short film that immediately preceded Vincent, Sophie Kohn’s gorgeously sad To Music, was perfect. The man has depth and charm, for sure—just ask all of those white-haired ladies at his previous Ebefest visits. The little old ladies understand.

Next up was writer/director/actor Patrick Wang’s debut feature, In the Family, the story of a gay man’s struggle to retain custody of the son he’d been raising with his newly deceased partner. Wang uses long, unhurried takes that allow these characters to reveal themselves in what sometimes feels like real time, a technique that serves his solid leading cast well.  It’s what happens before the plot’s custody battle deus ex machina kicks in that really worked for me. The story of this couple raising their child, including the flashbacks that show step by step how they got together, resonates. Once the custody battle starts, you know exactly what’s going to happen, except that it’s going to take you another 90 minutes or so to get there. I lost patience midway through the 3rd act’s 35 minute deposition scene featuring a cartoonishly evil lawyer. Wang’s protagonist is charming and utterly likable, basically THE NICEST MAN EVER, and delivers his dialog with the innocence and down home charm of a deeply Tennessean Jimmy Stewart. (Not his real accent, we learned in the Q&A, which made the performance feel a bit caricature.) But making him such a flawless, jesus-like character, taking every lick with gentle good humor, just feels fake. Hell, I’m from the Midwest and have never met such an innocent soul. Give that boy some balls or bad breath or something. Regardless, it’s got a very necessary and  easy to digest message for people who might be uncomfortable with the idea of gay parents. It’s very definitely a message movie. (Although many intelligent reviewers are saying exactly the opposite. Hm.) We were definitely in the minority on this one, though—festgoers, including some of our fave reviewers ever, were calling this one a masterpiece. Go figure.

Kind of an eh day was saved, however, by day two’s final screening, Richard Linklater’s sweet, sad, and very funny Bernie, the story of a small East Texas town’s nicest undertaker (Jack Black) who murdered it’s meanest old rich lady (Shirley MacLaine). While it was initially disappointing to hear that Black’s flight from L.A. was canceled due to weather, he still managed to be an active part of the screening’s delightful Q&A with Linklater, via phone. Both had warm memories of reliably quirky MacLaine, who told them on set that she had been nightly channeling the dead woman she was portraying. They also laughed about how Black and MacLaine grew into a relationship similar to their characters, with Black following MacLaine everywhere, attending to her every need. A more serious discussion followed, when recalling the two’s trip into a Texas prison to interview the real Bernie, about how poorly the Texas prison system treats their charges, in regards to living conditions, lack of nutritious food, etc. This darkly hilarious gem is currently available for streaming on Netflix (!), so go there and watch it, already. Check the fun Q&A here.  And check out my fave scene below.

Like the coffee required to recover from the late night Bernie Q&A, Day Three opened strong and dark with Oslo, August 31st, a masterfully acted, stark in content but visually gorgeous depiction of a day in the life of a struggling, recovering drug addict in Norway’s heterogeneous capital as this beaten down and possibly permanently broken character crosses town, mostly on foot, en route to a dark assignation at his family’s soon-to-be former home. Depressing, yes, but utterly engrossing. Every frame feels genuine here, from an opening thwarted suicide attempt to a pounding late night rave scene that successfully put the Virginia’s powerful subwoofers to the womp womp test. (Also currently streaming on Netflix, so get to it!) In the Q&A, director Joachim Trier discussed his own upbringing in Oslo, and how he got his start there as a top skateboarder producing skateboarding vids.

OSLO, AUGUST 31st (2011) Official Trailer from Richard Lormand on Vimeo.

Completely different stylistically from Trier’s film, yet as desolate and dark in its own way, the next feature, Japanese director Keisuke Kinoshita’s 1958 masterpiece The Ballad of Narayama, is a bizarre and spectacular take on traditional Kabuki theater, shot entirely (minus one final shot) in sound stages with tear-away sets that open into new scenes and are tied together by the sometimes jarring high-pitched Eastern vocal melodies of traditional Kabuki narration. This adaption of a Japanese folk legend tells the story of a tradition (that might never have existed, said the always interesting film guru David Bordwell in his introductory comments) in which the starving villagers around the mountain of Narayama send their elderly of a certain age to the mountain’s bone-littered, crow-haunted peak to die. While it’s theatrical performances and grand scale artifice might be jarring at first to Western audiences, give it a few minutes and you’ll be hooked.

In her thoughtful introduction to French director Erick Zonca’s explosive Julia, star Tilda Swinton advised the audience to “get buckled in and enjoy the ride”—appropriate advice for first-time viewers of this extremely high tension, pitch black, buzzsaw sharp film. Having only previously seen Julia on DVD, I was knocked out by the experience of this intense, blood-spattered trip on the Virginia’s big screen. The story follows an entertaining/terrifying “alcoholic slut” (Ebert’s words) who becomes embroiled in a kidnapping plot of a young boy that launches multiple double-crosses, leaving a bloody trail all the way from L.A. to a Mexico City. A movie so intense it’ll make your chest hurt. (Ow.) Swinton was as delightful as ever in the following Q&A with Chaz and Festival Director Nate Kohn, talking about how she had always wanted to play an alcoholic in a film that was “as interesting as the alcoholics I knew, who were really fantastic. Literally, full of fantasy,” and how much her 8-year-old male costar was delighted to be repeatedly hog-tied and manhandled during the shoot. When Kohn dryly said, “That just sounds wrong,” Swinton replied, “Nate, it has to start somewhere.” She also shared that the horrifying Mexico City apartment building featured prominently in the film’s 3rd act was not a set—it was an actual residence in use by a large number of people. This caused the crew some problems when they broke the place’s single elevator, having overloaded it with heavy gear, leaving several little old ladies loaded with grocery bags with no place to go. Don’t miss the entertaining Q&A here.

Swinton also talked about her own mobile movie festival that she has taken into many countries, and how at those festivals they would all stand and dance before every screening, and that Ebertfest should do the same. This resulted in a dance party the following morning, before the 11am screening of Blancanieves, with Swinton shaking her moneymaker with the rapturous, packed Virginia Theatre audience to Barry White’s classic “You’re the First, the Last, My Everything.” Video of the celebration promptly went viral on the interwebs.  A heck of a way to start Day Four.

All of the introductions, Q&As, and panels are available for streaming here. This content is also currently being added (in HD!) at the fest’s YouTube page. Stay tuned for our tales of Days Four and Five! Impromptu yoga! Cat flu! Many Subway sandwiches consumed!

*The lyrics to “Those Were the Days” as modified by Roger Ebert:

“Once upon a time there was a theater
Where we used to see a film or two
Remember how we laughed away the hour
And dreamed of all the great things we would do.

Those were the days my friend
We thought they’d never end
We’d sing and dance forever and a day
We’d live the life we choose
We’d fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way.”

The movie is ambitious in its story telling and it’s long—2 hours and 20 minutes—but I found it good, on the whole.  As other reviewers have noted, the third piece of the trilogy is easily the weakest—in part because the character of AJ is so darned unattractive and the young actor playing him is just not that good (maybe you remember Emory Cohen as Debra Messing’s son in the first season of Smash?).  But his counterpart, Dane DeHaan is very good and incidentally, so are the others, including Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes.  Cianfrance clearly has a way with actors.  For me, it’s Gosling who sets the bar so high—he carries the entire first act brilliantly, blending his Drive character (strong and silent) with his Blue Valentine personae (confused, well-meaning, naïve).  As Jason examines a photo of his father late in the film, we are reminded of just how charismatic Luke was and is.  Another great performance from Gosling and one that makes this film almost work.

Grade:             B

You can keep up with the fest by following @ebertfest (they have linked to some lovely tributes over the last couple of weeks), and we’re sure there will be a hashtag of some kind? We will totally figure this Twitter thing out as soon as it isn’t cool anymore.

We’ll have a review of the entire experience for you on April 26–and some photos of the newly restored Virginia Theatre! Please forgive us if we’re a little oversentimental. The official schedule:

April 17

7 p.m.: “Days Of Heaven”

Followed by: “I Remember”

April 18

1 p.m.: “Vincent: The Life and Death of Vincent Van Gogh”

4 p.m.: “In The Family”

9 p.m.: “Bernie”

April 19

1 p.m.: “Oslo, August 31st”

4 p.m.: “The Ballad of Narayama”

8:30 p.m.: “Julia”

April 20

11 a.m.: “Blancanieves”

2 p.m.: “Kumar”

5 p.m.: “Escape From Tomorrow”

9 p.m.: “The Spectacular Now”

April 21

Noon: “Not Yet Begun To Fight”

R.I.P. Roger Ebert

http://www.salon.com/2011/09/15/roger_ebert/

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/17320958-418/roger-ebert-dies-at-70-after-battle-with-cancer.html

Grade:             A

Partial List of Winners:

People’s Choice          First Date / USA 

Animation                   Abuelas (Grandmothers) / UK

Dramatic Fiction         Abgestemplt (Punched) / Austria-Germany

Documentary              Unravel (UK/ India)

Experimental               Solo Piano NYC (USA)

A personal favorite which had its US Premiere:  Ash (Comedy Fiction) / Singapore

Album cover featuring the mysterious Rodriguez

Finally, in the late 1990s, two Cape Town fans–Stephen ‘Sugar” Segerman and Craig Bartholmew Strydom–decided to find out what really happened to their hero.  This documentary follows their efforts and cleverly makes us pursue the trail along with them, sharing in their discoveries that turned out to be nothing short of fabulous.  Even if you find the start of the film a little hard to follow, don’t worry.  You’ll be rewarded as you stick with this tale—maybe you already know the ending.  I won’t spoil it here.  But let’s just say….Mr. Rodriguez might just be performing in your town soon!

Grade: A

P.S.  Here’s a Wikipedia fun fact for you film fans.  “Initially using 8 mm film to record some scarce, stylized shots for the movie, director Bendjelloul ran out of money for more film to record the final few shots. He resorted to filming the remaining stylized shots on his smartphone using an iPhone app called 8mm Vintage Camera to complete the film.”  Cool….