By: Henry J. Fromage –
Since I’ve already started the practice of theming each day of the festival, let’s say Day Four is centered on regrets, as human a theme as any.
258. Remake
Documentarian Ross McElwee has made a career of introspective narratives about his life and all the interesting folks who populate it (most famously in his seminal Sherman’s March). This may be the most personal film he’s ever made, beginning with recounting a clearly doomed yet at one point very much in progress Hollywood remake of his most famous documentary, but really revealing it’s about his relationship with his son Adrian, who would pass away from a drug overdose as a young man. At times it may feel almost too personal- it can reveal as much what Ross is like as his subjects are- but it’s an uncompromising excavation of family history, a cinematic coming-to-terms. Two Beers.
259. Boorman and The Devil
There’s no denying documentarian David Kittredge appreciates The Exorcist II: Heretic in all its messy glory as he tells the story of the film’s troubled production and even more disastrous release (perhaps the worst expectations/reality whiplash an audience has ever received, or reacted as poorly to). He gathers every living principal for the film, and they’re beautifully unencumbered as they recount their experiences. Their interviews and the stories they tell are reason enough to watch (the animated reenactments play a bit cheesy, but not distractingly so), even if I wouldn’t say it rehabilitates this famous flop entirely. It does, however, make the case this film was made with passion and chutzpah at least, as every film should be, and too many aren’t in this age of algorithms. Three Beers.
260. Living the Land
Meng Chuo’s elegiac ode to the rural Chinese lifestyle he experienced as a boy in the early 90s moves to a rhythm all its own. Sometimes its even a frustrating one, as he drops you into scenes without context and lets others play a few beats too long, but there’s no denying how lovingly detailed this setting and its inhabitants are in his hands. Joy and sorrow mix as they always must- this is a hard life without a doubt- but there’s tenderness and community here that may be lacking in the contemporary world as well, where factories, macro-farming and smartphones have unended a way of life stretching back centuries in many respects. Three Beers.
261. Nadja
I walked into this film completely blind- I knew it wasn’t a recent release, and that’s about it. It turns out it’s a film based on an idea from David Lynch (who gets a cameo!) and zazzed up with vampire mythology by director Michael Almereyda- so I guess this one focuses more on the regrets of the undead. Nadja (Elina Lowensohn) is the daughter of one Count Dracula, recently deceased at the hands of Van Helsing (a kooky Peter Fonda), and twin sister of Edgar (Jared Harris), a vampire who’s on his deathbed from refusing to drink blood. A couple of regular New Yorkers, Jim and Lucy (Martin Donovan and Galaxy Craze) get caught up in their age-old struggles. All-in-all, it’s a vehicle for distinctly 90s style (to various effect- the fuzzed out vampire vision I could have done with less of, but the soundtrack bangs) and tongue-in-cheek humor, which largely worked pretty well. Three Beers.
