Welcome
to Day Three of my trip to the 28th Cinequest Film Festival! Already
this year's fest is shaping up to be a fantastic one! Once I got to
Downtown San Jose, I stopped at the Cinequest VIP Lounge over at The
Continental Bar on 1st Street. Here I had some yummy treats, flavored
water, and delicious coffee, courtesy of Whole Foods, Hint Water and
local coffee shop Cafe Frascati, respectively. Then I braved this wet
and rainy Wednesday to see my five films, so let's get show on the road!
The first film I saw was over at the 3 Below Theaters & Lounge was Norwegian drama
DEMON BOX
(which is one of the coolest titles ever). Amalie and her brother Emil
head for their grandma’s house to clean and pack up some of her
belongings. In the attic, the siblings discover a plethora of letters
that hold some devastating information. The two decide to burn these
letters so that their mom never discovers the truth. Soon, they meet a
stranger that’s looking for his lost dog. But things turn sour very
quickly when he shows up dead on their doorstep, and now Amalie and Emil
have to work together to keep their situation a secretary or else.
So,
unfortunately I didn’t get to see all of the screening. The English
subtitles went off right in the middle of the film and everybody in
theater were screaming bloody murder. When the staff realized they
couldn’t fix it, the screening was canceled. A real shame because I was
really into the film and was intrigued as to where it was going. The
movie will be screened in Redwood City, but I won’t be able to attend
those showings. Hopefully, it will on VOD or on Netflix soon. So I
decided to head back to The Continental Bar and had more drinks and
snacks before my next screening.
Click here to view the film's Redwood City screenings.
My second screening took me back to the California Theatre.
BERNARD AND HUEY
stars Jim Rash and David Koechner as our leads, respectively. Friends
since high school, Bernard is somewhat still the same insecure nerd, but
he’s having sex. Huey was the king of womanizing, now he’s down on his
luck. When Huey shows up on Bernard’s door 20 years later, life comes
full circle and the two find themselves in their respective high school
roles. But when Bernard starts seeing Huey’s estranged daughter Zelda
(Mae Whiteman), their friendship is put to the test.
The
film itself was funny, but the laughs were scarce. Both Rash and
Koechner did their best, but I felt their performances felt flat. It
could also be that the script wasn’t fully structured and lacked
character development. Because of these two missing ingredients, the
movie couldn’t get off the ground. It had some good laughs, but this was
advertised as a comedy, and it lacked the comedy. 3 out of 5 stars!
Click here to view the film's remaining screenings.
Film number three was
MARISA IN THE WOODS (Marisa en los Bosques) at the Hammer Theatre Center. Meet Marisa. She has no job, no projects, no prospects for the future. She looks away
from her own life's downfall to become the rescuer of her best friend
Mina, who is immersed in a desperate crisis after the break-up of her
relationship with Salvador. When she tries to get help from other
friends, she only finds more lives adrift. Then, some unexpected news
breaks the difficult balance of her life, and Marisa can only find
comfort in the city nightlife. She is ready to disappear, silent and
quietly, like fading into black.
While an
interesting movie, there were too many characters coming in and out of
Marisa’s life. At times I was completely lost, wondering if this was a
new character or someone I saw earlier or one that was mentioned
previously. The movie is visually beautiful and actress was lovely as
Marisa, but the whole thing didn’t work for me. 3 out of 5 stars!
Click here to view the film's remaining screenings.
I headed back to the California Theatre for film number four which was
BORG/MCENROE.
Taking place during the summer of 1980, the movie chronicles the
intense rivalry between Bjorn Bing (Sverrir Gudnason) and John McEnroe
(Shia LaBeof), their upbringings, and their legendary match at
Wimbledon.
Holy crap was this an outstanding movie! As a
kid at that time, I was aware of Borg and McEnroe but I never knew just
how important their match was, nor how historical it would become. This
was LaBeouf’s best performance to date, as he nailed McEnroe’s
character and mannerism perfectly! Gudnason shines as Borg and is a dead
ringer of him! Both actors commanded the audiences’ attention as we
were swept up into the movie. Janus Metz directed the hell out this
movie, especially in the third act which kept me on the edge of my seat!
This was my favorite film of the night! It was a magnificent,
emotional, insightful movie about one greatest tennis matches in sports
history!! 5 out of 5 stars!!
This was the film's only screening.
My last movie for me was back at the Hammer Theatre Center. The
South Korean film
THE POET AND THE BOY
centers on Taekgi, a poet who's life is anything but decent. His poetry
club don't recognize his poems. His wife wants a child, but has the sex
drive of a stone and has a very low sperm count, two sperms to be
exact. But when he witnesses two teenagers making out in the restroom of
his favorite donut shop, his desires begin to arise. There's just one
problem: his desires were for the teenage boy. Taekgi soon finds himself
involved with the young man, and his desires begins to confuse him,
eventually leading to emotions he never really experienced before.
While
the film was poignant and interesting while exploring themes like
coming out, teenage issues, depression, love and family, it was way too
slow and dragged out for way to long. If the movie was re-edited down to
90 minutes, I think the story and emotional payoff would be more
rewarding. I found the movie fascinating and I very much enjoyed all the
characters, I found myself drifting in and out of the it. Overall, it
was a decent movie. 3 out of 5 stars!
Click here to view the film's remaining screenings.
And
that was Day Three of my cinematic trip to Cinequest. So far I'm at 11
films in 3 days! Not too shabby!! Remember, the festival will be running
till March 11th so there's plenty of time for you to join in on the fun
here in Downtown San Jose! To view the festival's film schedule and
purchase tickets and passes, visit their website at
www.cinequest.org.
Thanks for reading, and enjoy the show!
No comments:
Post a Comment