Twitter Thoughts—Ebertfest 2016

Featuring the films:

The Third Man (1949) ****

Crimson Peak (2015) ***

Grandma (2015) ****

Eve’s Bayou (1997) ***½

L’inhumaine  (1924) ***½

Northfork (2003) ***½

Body and Soul (1925) ***½

Love & Mercy (2015) ****

Blow Up (1980) ***½

I watched as many of the movies featured during the Roger Ebert Film Festival, as I do every year. One day I’ll make it back, but until then I’ll have to make do with streaming and rental services. I was not able to see the movies presented at this year’s festival that are still scheduled to be released this year. Those include the unofficial festival opener, “Everybody Wants Some!!”, but I have no doubt I will catch up with that one and the others I missed as soon as they become available to me.

I opened my Ebertfest with Carol Reed’s post-WWII thriller “The Third Man”. Part of my own collection of films, I’m surprised it took Ebertfest 18 years to get to this one. It’s a film that has been analyzed ad nauseam, so I won’t attempt one here. Instead I’d like to discuss its unusual score comprised entirely of zither music composed and performed by Anton Karas. It’s an unusual sound for a thriller. At first it seems almost out of place, like it belongs in a much more lighthearted plot. As the movie goes along, however, the music informs its unique feel. “The Third Man” is no ordinary thriller as it depends more on the absence of its threat than the presence of one. The zither music eventually becomes an identifying factor of the film’s unique feel and impact. While it seems alien and strange at first, by the final fade out, it’s hard to imagine any other type of music accompanying this story and these images.

Ebert Thoughts ‘15—The Motel Life (2012) ***½

R, 85 min.

Directors: Alan Polsky, Gabriel Polsky

Writers: Micah Fitzerman-Blue, Noah Harpster, Willy Vlautin (novel)

Starring: Emile Hirsch, Stephen Dorff, Elle Fanning, Joshua Leonard, Noah Harpster, Kris Kristofferson

Saturday is always the most surreal day of Ebertfest. I don’t know why. I wonder if they try to program the films in a way to produce an eerie sense of being adrift. It’s not a criticism. It just always seems that Saturday is the “lost” day of the festival, with characters trying to find their way through the morass of life. Saturday is the longest day of films and the atmosphere created by them makes it a sort of wonderful cinematic experience.

This year’s Saturday schedule included the films “Wild Tales”, “Ida”, “The Motel Life” and  “99 Homes”. I watched two of these this year and both have a distinct feel of despair about them. The first was “Ida”, with its black and white cinematography and somber subject matter; it certainly played into that atmosphere I described. “The Motel Life” is another strong fit for the Saturday feel.

Ebert Thoughts ‘15—Ida (2014) ****

PG-13, 82 min.

Director: Pawel Pawlikowski

Writers: Pawel Pawlikowski, Rebecca Lenkiewicz

Starring: Agata Trzebuchowska, Agata Kulesza, Dawid Ogrodnik, Jerzy TrelaAdam Szyszkowski, Halina Skoczynska

So, I’ve reviewed this film before. It’s easy to concentrate on the central character here, Anna, the nun who discovers she’s a Jew just before she takes her vows. This time I’d like to concentrate a little more on Wanda, her aunt. Wanda is a very interesting woman. This is the 1960s, and Wanda appears to be a fairly powerful woman as a state prosecutor. Wanda has as much of a journey to take as Anna here. It is Wanda who takes them on their search to find Anna’s parent’s graves. Of course, that journey leads to the revelation of a dark family secret, a secret Wanda must be very aware Anna will discover.

Ebert Thoughts ‘15—A Bronx Tale (1993) ***

R, 121 min.

Director: Robert De Niro

Writer: Chazz Palminteri (also play)

Starring: Lillo Brancato, Robert De Niro, Chazz Palminteri, Francis Capra, Taral Hicks, Katherine Narducci, Clem Casterta, Alfred Sauchelli Jr., Frank Pietrangolare, Joe Pesci

I got a different kind of story for my thoughts on the directorial debut of Robert De Niro and the break though of Chazz Palmiteri onto the cinematic scene. I’m not a huge fan of the film “A Bronx Tale”. I mean it’s good, but it isn’t as impressive as I feel it should’ve been. Palminteri’s writing might’ve worked better on stage than it does here. His primary message has to do with the two father figures for his central character with De Niro the real father and Palminteri a mobster surrogate, and how they both want the best for the kid, which is for him to stay away from the criminal life Palmiteri’s character has embraced. There are a lot of contradictions in Palminteri’s story and a great deal of social issues that are explored but never fully developed.

Ebert Thoughts ’15—The Son of the Sheik (1926) ***

UR, 68 min.

Director: Geo. Fitzmaurice

Writers: Frances Marion, Fred de Gresac, George Marion Jr., Edith Maude Hull (novel)

Starring: Rudolph Valentino, Vilma Banky, George Fawcett, Montague Love, Karl Dane, Bull Montana, Binunsky Hyman, Agnes Ayers

The biggest disappointment of missing Ebertfest each and every year is missing the Alloy Orchestra’s live accompaniment of the year’s silent feature. This year’s film is Rudolph Valentino’s “The Son of the Sheik”, a sequel to his film “The Sheik”, not that you have to see the first film to follow the second.

I love seeing the silent films. I don’t watch a lot of silent films, but Ebertfest ensures that I will watch at least one every year. I think that’s a good rule for any cineaste. You should watch at least one silent film a year. More would be better. It was such an innovative time in cinema. At Eberfest I’ve seen some of the best. More importantly, I’ve seen something from just about every silent legend.

Ebert Thoughts ‘15—Moving Midway (2007) ****

UR, 95 min.

Director/Writer: Godfrey Cheshire

Featuring: Charles Silver, Robert Hinton, Godfrey Cheshire, Dena Silver, Abraham Hinton

“Moving Midway” is exactly the type of movie that makes Ebertfest the unique cinematic experience that it is. Sure, Ebertfest screens movies with big name stars. They program incredible auteur works. But you’ll also find these little surprises here. “Moving Midway” is one of those rare masterpieces that becomes so through heart and passion that shines through without the flash and flare of budgets and known commodities. These cinematic treasures often come in the form of a documentary. This year, it is “Moving Midway” that wows and moves me with its simple premise that informs one of the most compelling and ambitious films of this year’s festival.

Ebert Thoughts ‘15—Goodbye To Language (2014) **

UR, 70 min.

Director/Writer: Jean-Luc Godard

Starring: Héloïse Godet, Kamel Abdeli, Richard Chevallier, Zoé Bruneau, Christian Gregori

I recently reviewed Jean-Luc Godard’s 1967 film “2 or 3 Things I Know About Her”. It’s easy to see with that film the track that had started in Godard’s career and would eventually lead him to a film like “Goodbye To Language”. While his less narrative, more documentary style worked well with the freer thinking of the late 60s, his cinematic philosophizing has become as confused as the world itself today. While there might be some value to be weighed into that notion, the consumption of it leaves something to be desired.

Ebertfest 2015

Tomorrow evening marks the launch of the 17^th Annual Roger Ebert Film Festival. It has now been more years since I’ve been than I ever attended. I miss it. It must be the most joyful film festival of the year, because every film there is there because it strives for excellence. Every audience member is there because they love film with a passion.

More so than any other year, I will not be able to see many of the entries. Six of this year’s 12 films are either currently in select theaters—i.e. no where near the cultural black hole in which I reside—or haven’t even been released yet. The three in theaters are “Girlhood”, which is not a spinoff of last year’s excellent “Boyhood” but rather a film about a group four teenage girls who explore what friendship means and the protection it provides. It is the third film by director Céline Sciamma’s to examine what it is like to be a girl. “Wild Tales” was one of this year’s Oscar nominees for Best Foreign Language film and was even considered a dark horse to steal the prize from eventual winner “Ida” (another of this year’s Ebertfest films). It is the rare multi-story feature that works well cohesively, prompting many critics to claim it as the best multi-story picture they’d ever seen. And finally, Ethan Hawke’s directorial debut “Seymour: An Introduction” is a documentary about the great classical pianist Seymour Bernstein. This film will close the festival in a slot that is traditionally reserved for a music-oriented film.

Ebert Thoughts ‘14—Born on the Fourth of July (1989) ***

R, 145 min.

Director: Oliver Stone

Writers: Ron Kovic (also memoir), Oliver Stone

Starring: Tom Cruise, Raymond J. Barry, Caroline Kava, Josh Evans, Samantha Larkin, Tom Berenger, Frank Whaley, Jerry Levine, Stephen Baldwin, Kyra Sedgwick, Karen Newman, Willem Dafoe, Tom Sizemore, Michael Wincott, Ed Lauter, Dale Dye, Oliver Stone, Bryan Larkin, John Getz, Willie Minor, Rocky Carroll, Billie Neal, Richard Poe, Bob Gunton, Lili Taylor

It’s interesting that “Do the Right Thing” and “Born on the Fourth of July” were invited to Ebertfest the same year. They were each released the same year. Both had Oscar implications. ’89 was one of the first years that I made a point to see the Oscar nominees. I was disappointed with both “Do the Right Thing” and “Born on the Fourth of July” at that time. I later watch them each again and totally changed my opinion of “Do the Right Thing”. I liked “Born on the Fourth of July” better upon a second screening as well, but I still never thought it was Oscar-level, especially considering Oliver Stone’s other Oscar-nominated films.

Ebert Thoughts ‘14—A Simple Life (2012) ***

NR, 118 min.

Director: Ann Hui

Writers: Susan Chan, Yan-lam Lee

Starring: Deanie Ip, Andy Lau, Hailu Qin, Fuli Wang, Paul Chun, Tin Leung, Wendy Yu, Eman Lam, Elena Kong

The truth is I don’t always love the Ebertfest entries as much as the organizers do. Although, it’s a very rare entry that I don’t like at all. I liked “A Simple Life”, but it seemed to lack that special something that allows me to praise it as a truly great movie. It’s very well made and very well performed. It’s well written and tells a story that I haven’t seen before. Perhaps it does it too well.

Ebert Thoughts ‘14—Goodbye Solo (2009) ****

R, 91 min.

Director: Ramin Bahrani

Writers: Ramin Bahrani, Bahareh Azimi

Staring: Souleymane Sy Savane, Red West, Diana Franco Galindo, Lane ‘Roc’ Williams, Mamadou Lam, Carmen Leyva

Usually when I attend Ebertfest in person, I try not to just write reviews of the movies I see. I often try to pick up on themes I see in the festival or comment on some incident I witness or people I meet there. One thing that has happened on a few occasions—only once at Ebertfest that I recall—is falling asleep during a screening. Now, I love watching movies, so this has only happened when I’ve been quite sleep deprived. I think that’s probably a common enough problem when attending a film festival.

Ebert Thoughts ‘14—Wadjda (2013) ****

PG, 98 min.

Director/Writer: Haifaa Al Mansour

Starring: Waad Mohammed, Reem Abdullah, Abdullrahman Algohani, Ahd, Sultan Al Assaf

In the early days of Ebertfest—when it was called the Overlooked Film Festival—they used to have a free family matinee on Saturdays. I don’t belive the first film of the day is still called a family matinee, and I don’t believe it is free any more. Of course, it may be. I haven’t been there in five years. Anyway, It was usually a film like “Wadjda”. Sometimes a foreign film, always a strong story about a child, the 1^st Saturday matinee was a movie you might expect children to struggle with, but it always held great fascination for them because it involved children.

Ebert Thoughts ‘14—Do the Right Thing (1989) ****

R, 120 min.

Director/Writer: Spike Lee

Starring Spike Lee, Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Richard Edson, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Nunn, John Turturro, Paul Benjamin, Frankie Faison, Robin Harris, Joie Lee, Miguel Sandoval, Rick Aiello, John Savage, Samuel L. Jackson, Rosie Perez, Roger Guenveur Smith, Steve White, Martin Lawrence, Leonard Thomas, Christa Rivers, Frank Vincent, Luis Ramos, Richard Habersham, Gwen McGee, Steve Park, Ginny Yang

I’m sure I’ve written about this before, but since it speaks to the vast misunderstanding a good deal of people have about racism, I think it bears repeating. The first time I saw Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing” I didn’t like it. I couldn’t understand Mookie’s choice in the end to throw the garbage can into the pizzeria and start the riot that destroyed a family institution that for the most part only served the community around it. I thought it was a betrayal of that community to allow racism to get the upper hand on one ethnic group by another, no matter which group it was. Mookie’s action seemed just as fueled by racism as Pino’s and the cops’ action against Radio Raheem. Of course, Mookie really was doing the right thing by letting the anger out before more people died.

Ebert Thoughts ‘14—Capote (2005) ****

R, 114 min.

Director: Bennett Miller

Writer: Dan Futterman, Gerald Clarke (book)

Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Clifton Collins Jr., Chris Cooper, Bruce Greenwood, Mark Pellegrino, Amy Ryan, Bob Balaban, Marshall Bell, Allie Mickelson

I imagine “Capote” was chosen for this year’s festival to honor the work of Philip Seymour Hoffman, who passed away earlier this year from a drug overdose. Director/producer Bennett Miller is the panel guest for the movie, but much of the talk this afternoon will surely revolve around Hoffman and his body of work.

Ebert Thoughts ‘14—Young Adult (2011) ****

R, 94 min.

Director: Jason Reitman

Writer: Diablo Cody

Starring: Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, Patrick Wilson, Elizabeth Reaser, Collette Wolfe

“Young Adult” is the movie directed by Jason Reitman and written by Diablo Cody that people didn’t watch. The heroine of “Young Adult” is much harder to like than the heroine of “Juno”. In many ways, this makes “Young Adult” a much more keen observation on human behavior than their previous collaboration.

Ebert Thoughts ‘14—Short Term 12 (2013) ****

R, 96 min.

Director/Writer: Destin Daniel Cretton

Starring: Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr., Kaitlyn Dever, Keith Stanfield, Stephanie Beatriz, Rami Malek, Alex Calloway, Kevin Hernandez, Lydia Du Veaux, Frantz Turner, Diana Maria Riva

At every Ebertfest there is one film that I walk away from the festival saying what a treasure it was to have been introduced to. All the films at Ebertfest are treasures. Some I’ve already encountered. Some are more difficult. But, there’s always that one that just strikes some deep core chord of my heart and my artistic brain. “Short Term 12” strikes this year’s power chord.

Ebert Thoughts ‘14—Museum Hours (2013) ****

NR, 107 min.

Director/Writer: Jem Cohen

Starring: Mary Margaret O’Hara, Bobby Sommer, Ela Piplits

Jem Cohen’s “Museum Hours” is one of those quite, intimate movies that help to define Ebertfest as a unique and truly original film festival. It’s an unobtrusive film that might seem too quite outside the Ebertfest atmosphere, but makes for a perfect second day afternoon film. It doesn’t bang at the audience. It just exists and through it you can discover a piece of humanity.

Ebert Thoughts ‘14—Life Itself (2014)

NR, 114 min.

Director: Steve James

Featuring: Roger Ebert, Martin Scorsese, Werner Herzog, Errol Morris, Ramin Bahrani, Chaz Ebert, Ava Duvernay, Stephen Stanton (voice), A.O. Scott, Marlene Iglitzen

When I wrote my review for the 15^th Annual Roger Ebert Film Festival, the first without the man for whom it is named, a documentary filmmaker contacted me on my blogsite. Her name is Karen Gehres and had been invited to the film festival in 2009 to screen her incredible documentary “Begging Naked”. She just wanted to express to me how much she wished to experience another Ebertfest. We challenged each other to make it to this year’s festival. I hope she was more successful in her plans than I was.

Ebert Thoughts ‘14—The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) ****

Director: Joseph Sargent

Writers: Peter Stone, John Godey (novel)

Starring: Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam, Hector Elizondo, Earl Hindman, James Broderick, Dick O’Neill, Lee Wallace, Tony Roberts, Tom Pedi, Beatrice Winde, Jerry Stiller, Nathan George, Rudy Bond, Kenneth McMillan, Doris Roberts, Julius Harris, Anna Berger, Mari Gorman, Michael Gorrin, Maria Landa, George Lee Miles

The 16^th Annual Roger Ebert Film Festival unofficially begins today in Champaign, Ill. It is the first to be entirely organized without Roger’s involvement. Suddenly the profound loss the cinematic community felt last year when he passed just a couple weeks before the 15^th Annual is felt all over again.

Ebert Thoughts ‘13—Kumaré (2012) ****

NR, 84 min.

Director: Vikram Gandhi

Featuring: Vikram Gandhi, Purva Bedi, Kristen Calgaro

“Kumaré” is a documentary about an Indian spiritual leader, who sets up in Arizona to build a following of people to teach his philosophy about the illusion of spiritual leaders. His philosophy is simple, as a guru he can enlighten you to nothing that isn’t already inside you. It is only his job to teach his followers how to reach happiness on their own, without a guru.