28th Five Films, 2007
Family Ties (Kim Tae-yong) at Cinema Village for the New York Korean Film Festival. I was shocked by how little I enjoyed this one. It won all kinds of awards and played a ton of festivals. There was a lot of laughter among the Koreans in the audience that I really couldn't understand all that well, so I have to assume that I missed out on some part of the movie culturally or linguistically. That said, I suppose I'm not as into really overwrought performances as the people who hand out acting awards or many types of critics. Perhaps it just seemed like we didn't really spend enough time iwith any of the characters to really care about their problems as much as we were clearly expected to. The film ties together various dysfunctional family groups over the course of a couple of decades. The families are all humorless and masochistic.
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The Old Garden (Im Sang-soo) at Cinema Village for the New York Korean Film Festival. A stunningly beautiful film. Interesting both historically and dramatically. Great use of weather and natural settings. It does drag a bit toward the end, but that's relative, since most of it's just so good.
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The Puffy Chair (Jay Duplass) at the IFC Center. I think I avoided seeing this when it was first released strictly on the basis of it's ridiculous-sounding title. As noted above about Family Ties, I often don't care for movies which mostly take place in an atmosphere of unpleasantness, but perhaps the sorts of unpleasantness on offer here were sort of comfortingly familiar. I enjoyed Mark Duplass in both this and Hannah Takes the Stairs. He seems to capture the essence of a particular personality which I usually recognize in others but certainly share a bit of myself some times. I kept worrying everything would teurn out okay, but then was very pleased that it didn't. And, yeah, the soundtrack was at several points a pleasant reminder of my era in college radio.
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Team Picture (Kentucker Audley) at the IFC Center. Audley, who stars in the film and answered questions after the screening, used neither opening nor closing credits, apart from a mention of a filmmaking group in Memphis, and suggested that the budget for the film was approximately $100. He plays a young man so laconic he at times seems nearly catatonic. A rather different type of city from New York or Chicago, aimless drifting in Memphis looks a bit more sluggish onscreen. For example, the characters lounge in the front yard trying to keep cool with their feet in a kiddie pool, something you probably wouldn't see in Aaron Katz's Park Slope or Andrew Bujalski's Boston. Audley also mentioned that the stepfather was played by a local sportscaster, about whom he was very enthusiastic and hoped to work with in the future.
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Hohokam (Frank V. Ross) at the IFC Center. Named after the native civilization that predated European settlement of the Phoenix area, this is another film that stands out in the series due to the unusual location. Basically it explores an unexciting yet fulfilling relationship between two people somewhere in the Valley of the Sun, which looks harsh and inhumane, full of undeveloped lots and pedestrian-hostile highways. Ross focuses a lot on bodily functions (excretion, sickness, hydration, etc.) at least partially as they are affected by the Arizona climate. His was perhaps the most edifying post-screening Q&A I've attended thus far. The score was recorded by Happy Apple, and is probably roughly what you might expect if you're familiar with them.
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The Old Garden (Im Sang-soo) at Cinema Village for the New York Korean Film Festival. A stunningly beautiful film. Interesting both historically and dramatically. Great use of weather and natural settings. It does drag a bit toward the end, but that's relative, since most of it's just so good.
+ + +
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The Puffy Chair (Jay Duplass) at the IFC Center. I think I avoided seeing this when it was first released strictly on the basis of it's ridiculous-sounding title. As noted above about Family Ties, I often don't care for movies which mostly take place in an atmosphere of unpleasantness, but perhaps the sorts of unpleasantness on offer here were sort of comfortingly familiar. I enjoyed Mark Duplass in both this and Hannah Takes the Stairs. He seems to capture the essence of a particular personality which I usually recognize in others but certainly share a bit of myself some times. I kept worrying everything would teurn out okay, but then was very pleased that it didn't. And, yeah, the soundtrack was at several points a pleasant reminder of my era in college radio.
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Team Picture (Kentucker Audley) at the IFC Center. Audley, who stars in the film and answered questions after the screening, used neither opening nor closing credits, apart from a mention of a filmmaking group in Memphis, and suggested that the budget for the film was approximately $100. He plays a young man so laconic he at times seems nearly catatonic. A rather different type of city from New York or Chicago, aimless drifting in Memphis looks a bit more sluggish onscreen. For example, the characters lounge in the front yard trying to keep cool with their feet in a kiddie pool, something you probably wouldn't see in Aaron Katz's Park Slope or Andrew Bujalski's Boston. Audley also mentioned that the stepfather was played by a local sportscaster, about whom he was very enthusiastic and hoped to work with in the future.
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Hohokam (Frank V. Ross) at the IFC Center. Named after the native civilization that predated European settlement of the Phoenix area, this is another film that stands out in the series due to the unusual location. Basically it explores an unexciting yet fulfilling relationship between two people somewhere in the Valley of the Sun, which looks harsh and inhumane, full of undeveloped lots and pedestrian-hostile highways. Ross focuses a lot on bodily functions (excretion, sickness, hydration, etc.) at least partially as they are affected by the Arizona climate. His was perhaps the most edifying post-screening Q&A I've attended thus far. The score was recorded by Happy Apple, and is probably roughly what you might expect if you're familiar with them.
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Posted on Monday, August 27, 2007
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