Justin here with a look at the odds and ends from this year’s Starz Denver Film Fest.
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth
This was a very fascinating documentary about the Pruitt-Igoe housing project in northern St. Louis that was built in the 50’s. The movie chronicles the project’s somewhat noble inception through its destruction. Built to house low-income families from an expected mass-migration to the city that never happened, Pruitt-Igoe found itself a victim of urban flight, municipal tax issues, crime, and poorly conceived and executed social welfare programs. Director Chad Freidrichs creates a thought provoking documentary about a complex issue that manages to be compelling and engaging. What I appreciate the most is that Freidrichs never takes the easy explanation. A lot of the writing about Pruitt-Igoe is quick to ascribe one problem as the overriding factor for its failure. Freidrichs explores the many factors involved and includes many interesting interviews with P-I tenants. Recommended for people who are interested in race issues, architecture, social work, and/or civil engineering.
Haunters
Haunters is a really charming South Korean action/horror hybrid involving a disturbing young man who can psychically control people with his eyes. The tone of the movie was a little schizophrenic bouncing between morbid, thrilling, and goofy. Ultimately it’s a winner. Go into this one knowing as little as possible for maximum enjoyment. Expect this to get an American remake in, like 2 seconds.
Flor de Muertos
Flor de Muertos was probably the most disappointing movie of the festival for me. Ostensibly a documentary about Dia de los Muertes (which I’m very interested in) with music by Calexico (a band that I love), I was set to really enjoy this movie. Unfortunately, the movie never really gets into the nuts and bolts about Day of the Dead beyond a very superficial explanation of the fest. And while there were some really awesome performances by Calexico, Director Danny Vinick never commits to a wholesale concert movie. The narrative was further dragged down by portions of the movie dealing with immigration concerns – a worthy topic, but I never got how it tied in with Day of the Dead. Some of the shots of celebrations in Nogales and Tucson were quite beautiful, however. As much as I wanted to like this movie, the lack of focus and information made that impossible.
Bad Fever
Dustin Guy DeFa’s subdued movie about a really lousy stand-up comic was by far my least favorite movie of the fest. Watching this movie felt a little like attending a screening of Buffalo ’66 and being naked in a room full of strangers. Bad Fever tells the story of Eddie as he prepares for an amateur stand-up comedy night. Along the way, he sort of falls in love with an odd woman who wants to videotape herself doing weird things to Eddie. This is the kind of movie that I’m predisposed to dislike. I attended it on a whim to kill time before another screening. There are probably people out there who would like this movie. To its credit, the movie is weirdly compelling, and all of the main actors involved did a really good job. No other movie has managed to make me more uncomfortable in my entire life, so I guess that means it deserves some credit.
Eliminate: Archie Cookson
Another big disappointment of my fest was Eliminate: Archie Cookson. A sort of British spy comedy that was neither funny nor thrilling. The real shame about this movie is that so much of it worked. The actors all did a good job, I particularly liked Paul Rhys in the eponymous role and the movie is beautifully shot and manages to convey the cool of classic 1960’s England in contemporary times. The big problem is the script. The comedy comes off as forced and predictable like a bad parody of dry British humor. The spy parts of the story are not compelling and somewhat nonsensical. The story involves Archie, a low-level translator at MI-6 receiving tapes in the mail that may incriminate some old powerful guys. The revelation of what was on the tapes was really uninteresting, and I never bought Archie’s motivation. I think this team has potential to do great things, and I’m certainly interested to see their next project, but this movie was a complete slog.
Holy shit! That was a lot of movies. I had an awesome time at SDFF and can’t wait until next year. All told, I saw 17 movies and reviewed all of them except for The FP (which I LOVED) and Josey and the Pussycats, which I have already talked about. Alan Cumming was at the Josey screening and graciously held a 30 minute Q and A session. The whole time though, I kept thinking about how awesome it was to be in the same room as Nightcrawler.
Awwww Yeaaah