Writer/director/editor Hirokazu Koreeda‘s latest feature Like Father, Like Son (Japanese with English subtitles) won the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which primed us with high expectations. Many others at the screening just loved it. I found it to be a very competent and even satisfying film, but not one I’d suggest you go out of your way to see, particularly given how many truly terrific films we’ve already seen at this year’s Mill Valley Film Festival.
Author: Doug
Gigapan EPIC Pro
I don’t shoot a lot of panoramas, but I’ve always been curious about the GigaPan robotic camera mounts that automate capturing complex panoramas that include hundreds or even thousands of individual images. Thanks to BorrowLenses.com, I was able to get hold of one to test for episode #6 of All About the Gear.
MVFF: Victoria (A)
This is the fourth film adaptation of Knut Hamsun‘s 1898 Norwegian novel, Victoria. The story is familiar: boy and girl from opposite sides of the tracks since childhood just can’t seem to overcome the social differences keeping them apart in young adulthood. But don’t let this seeming predictability keep you away. This is an excellent film — one of the best I’ve seen this year. (In Norwegian with English subtitles.)
MVFF: Farah Goes Bang (C-)
One of my personal guidelines when selecting films to see at a festival is to avoid anything with “coming of age” in the description. Based on the glowing reviews for Farah Goes Bang at this year’s Mill Valley Film Festival and the fact that it won the Nora Ephron Award at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. I thought I’d take my chances. Fail. I think I’ll re-institute my policy next year.
MVFF: Imagine (A-)
Some films are almost impossible to categorize, and Imagine, written and directed by Andrzej Jakimowski, is one of them. It’s about a blind teacher, Ian (Edward Hogg) who brings controversial techniques to an institute for the blind. Instead of using canes to get around, he teaches echolocation, the use of sounds like heels on pavement and tongue clicks as a type of SONAR to identify objects and hazards. The kids and the management of the institute are quite skeptical of his techniques, but he persists.
MVFF: The Year and the Vineyard (B)
One thing I love about film festivals is the opportunity to screen movies that are so low-budget that they’ll never get a distributor and therefore never appear in theaters. Some of the most creative work falls into this category. The Year and the Vineyard (El Año y la Viña) is such a film.
MVFF: I Catch a Terrible Cat (C+)
Not every movie at a film festival is a winner. My wife and I go out of our way to find films that are unusual, quirky, foreign and very likely not to be widely distributed. We take our chances, and if, at the end of the festival, we can say that half of the films we saw were “good”, then we’re satisfied. Unfortunately, the North American premiere of I Catch a Terrible Cat fell well into the bottom half of this year’s Mill Valley Film Festival.
MVFF: The Best Offer (A-)
Let me begin by saying that my wife did not like this film at all. Unfortunately, the woman who introduced The Best Offer said a bit too much about it, which caused my wife to be uneasy throughout the entire film. Don’t worry. There’s no need to be uneasy. Just enjoy this one. [Trailer video spoiler deleted from this post. It gives away too much about the plot.]
Fujifilm X100S
Fuji’s X100S is, so far, the hottest new camera of 2013, and Frederick Van Johnson and I reviewed it for episode #3 of All About the Gear. There’s a lot to like about this camera, but I believe the primary reason it’s so good is that Fuji listened to the users of the original X100. Because the company incorporated and exceeded many of the suggested improvements, they’ve released an updated version that is nearly flawless for the mission for which it’s intended.
MVFF: The Book Thief (A)
Opening night at the Mill Valley Film Festival featured a pre-release — actually, the first-ever public screening — of The Book Thief, based on the novel by Markus Zusak. I referred to it as a romantic treatment of a story we’ve seen before: WWII Germany, Nazis, Jews and (atypically) regular German citizens. It’s not romantic in the sense of romantic love, but rather “a quality or feeling of mystery, excitement, and remoteness from everyday life.” In this case it’s everyday people in very difficult circumstances.
Wow, what a way to start the festival. A superb film in just about every way. Terrific screenplay by Michael Petroni. Likewise the direction by Brian Percival, who previously directed a half-dozen episodes of Downton Abbey. This is his first feature. Geoffrey Rush is great, as usual, but the knockout performance is by a young French-Canadian actress, Sophie Nélisse. The cut we saw tonight isn’t the final mix, and I hope they tone down a few of the big-swell John Williams music moments, but that’s about the only flaw. For the most part, Williams’ score is great. It was filmed in Berlin and other than the leads, the rest of the cast are German. Everyone — seriously, everyone — is spot on. Terrific cinematography and editing, too. So we started the 36th #MillValleyFilmFestival with an A. The Book Thief will have a few premieres on November 8, then open in New York and Los Angeles on November 15. Look for it elsewhere at the end of the year or in early 2014. Highly recommended. #MVFF
Blogarithms 