9-11-2002: DAY SEVEN (Part Two)
I'm going to have to be more brief than usual, only
because it's very late (pushing 2 am!), I'm very tired and expunging the
exploits of Mouthy Martha took longer than I thought it would.
Blue Car, written and directed by former Days of Our Lives star Karen
Moncrieff, was a sombre character study of a teenage girl (Agnes
Bruckner) in search of love and support, who becomes infatuated with
her English teacher (David Strathairn). It was a nicely paced story and
the performances were very strong. Appropriately uneasy at times,
painful to watch at others, but good all around.
A strange thing happened at my next screening. The movie was Punch, a
Canadian drama set against the backdrop of - wait for it - topless
female boxing. The theater was barely a third full, which doesn't bode
well for *any* film fest movie, and I recalled seeing a
less-than-glowing pre-fest review of the film in a local paper last
week. And I almost walked out. The first twenty minutes of the film
centered around a teenage girl who was so grating, so hateful, and who
SCREEEECHED all her dialogue that she made Mouthy Martha look pleasant.
Sitting through another hour or more of that was not appealing in the
least. The film was also stilted and stiff - everybody *looked* like
they were acting and nothing (not the relationships, the dialogue, the
situations) seemed remotely real.
But God bless actress Meredith McGeachie, because the moment she
appeared onscreen at, say, minute 21 of the film, things turned around.
She was fantastic! Wonderful! SUCH a relief! I can honestly say that if
it wasn't for her, my seat would have been empty before the movie even
hit the halfway mark. I'll fill in the rest of the details when I post
a full review of the film later. (By the way, the movie itself was only
partially redeemed as a whole.)
Bend It Like Beckham, film number three for the day, follows an
athletically gifted teenage girl from a strict Hindu family who ignores
tradition in favor of joining an all-girls soccer team. Someone told me
the movie feels like Strictly Ballroom, and it does. Colorful
characters, a great spirit - it is the most unabashedly joyful movie
I've seen at the fest this year and everyone in the theater left with
big smiles on their faces.
My final screening of the day was The Magdalene Sisters, a powerful,
true-story drama from actor-writer-director Peter Mullan (My Name is
Joe) about the Magdalene Asylums - institutions run by the Catholic
church in Ireland, where girls and women were sent if they were
perceived to be impure or weak (in mind or body). Rape victims, unwed
mothers, the "feeble" minded and any other female deemed in need of
redemption wound up in one of these brutal, prison-like detention
centers where beatings (and worse) were routine... all in the name of
religion. It wasn't an easy film to watch, but the story was so
gripping and the cast of unknowns so talented that the film's two-hour
running time flew past. Even more shocking was learning that the last
of these asylums closed in 1996! Not 1956... just six years ago!
Penance via Mouthy Martha now seems benign by comparison.
;-)
p.s. I'm also beginning to get the signs of my annual post-festival
sickness... something many of us film fest devotees wind up with after a
week of poor nutrition, diminished sleep, fluctuating climates and
spending hours on end in enclosed spaces with other, possibly germ-y
people. The sinus congestion, the scratchy throat... it's started.
Crap!! Pass the vitamin C, please...
— Vickie
CELEBRITY SIGHTINGS:
Deepa Metha, Peter Mullan.
ROGER EBERT SIGHTINGS:
One, as he walked along Cumberland Ave.
