Bohemian Cinema By Jonathan Pacheco

SXSW ‘07: Monday Details

Tags: SXSW, Quiet City

Look, I get it: I’m slow. I won’t make excuses, I’ll just get to the content. It’s late, but hopefully someone finds it interesting. Here was my Monday at SXSW.

Running with Arnold

Oh, everyone has something to say about Schwarzenegger being governor; Running With Arnold doesn’t even try to hide its message. It tries to convince us that Arnold’s rise to power was corrupt, the White House practically put him in place, oh, and Arnold’s not the person he said he was and he doesn’t keep the policies he promised.

So what else is new?

My problem with the film is how it presents its “case.” It’s very blatant in its stance against Arnold, almost to the point of name-calling. Even if I agree with a position, I’m always embarrassed by a documentary that shows no subtlety in proving its point, and especially embarrassed when it provides little evidence for it. Running With Arnold will show one piece of evidence that something went wrong, and then say, “With Arnold’s term in office in complete disarray….” Whoa, already?

It’s a relatively entertaining film, but too blatant to be taken as seriously as it takes itself (I mean, at least Michael Moore adds some sarcasm to his films).

Frownland

So there’s this guy. He lives in his kitchen (literally, there’s a bed there). He has an annoying roommate. He talks to people. He has a bad stutter and some of the worst social skills I’ve seen in a long time. That’s pretty much it for Frownland.

I think the point of this film is to make you feel uncomfortable. If that’s the case, then I guess it accomplished its goal. I keep hearing people praise this film for being unrelenting and for having a director who sticks to his vision, no matter what.

Okay, he stuck to his vision. But was it a good vision? Just because his point may have been to make me feel uncomfortable, and he succeeded, doesn’t automatically make this film a good one.

But I did enjoy a lot of it. It’s bizarre, it is uncomfortable, but there are some truly crazy characters and situations that you can’t help but enjoy. Did I miss the point of the film? Maybe. I do give it credit for being persistent, and overall I don’t regret seeing it. I’m just not so quick to jump on the (small) bandwagon.

Quiet City

This is the type of film I tried to write in high school, and that’s not meant as an insult.

It’s an extremely sweet look at how quickly relationships can develop, the kind that you look back on for years after. The ones that only lasted a day or two, the ones you knew would end because your time together is limited, but you have them anyway because they are totally worth it.

It’s not a perfect film (the lead actress can be a little stiff at times), but it stayed with me. The male lead is natural and his personality is appealing. It’s a funny film that makes you feel good without getting too complicated. It ends almost perfectly (the second to last shot wasn’t necessary, and, had it been left out, the ending would have had more impact. But as it is, it still works). I look forward to recommending this one.

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I then got stuck on a bus for over an hour. Don’t ask.

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Flakes

“Flakes” is a cereal bar. Yes, a bar where, instead of drinks, you get any kind of rare or not-so-rare cereal that you desire. It’s a niche, quaint and groovy place, but an ambitious entrepreneur wants to franchise it, and resorts to ripping off the idea with his own version (very Starbucks-meets-Krispy Kreme) literally across the street. You can guess what happens for the rest of the film.

This lighthearted flick felt like it could have been made by Nickelodeon or Disney (in a good way), and I think perhaps the filmmakers suspected that, because there are some f-bombs and other expletives put through out. These felt very out of place, and I almost felt guilty or dirty, as if I was watching something I wasn’t supposed to be. “Wait, these guys aren’t supposed to curse!”

That aside, this film suffers from the typical problems. It’s fairly funny, but a lot of jokes fell flat, and Christopher Lloyd was underused and out of place. Also, Zooey Deschanel’s dull look and dull acting grew dull. Some heavy reworking through editing could salvage it, but it should have gone through some rewrites.

Murder Party

Ah, I finally made it to a midnight screening. Murder Party is about a mild-mannered nerd who stumbles upon an invitation to a shindig. Dressed up in a makeshift knight costume, he heads over only to find out that it is literally a party where someone will be murdered—that someone being him.

Of course it would be a pretty short movie if they killed him right away. So they must argue over how to do it and when to do it. Also, the whole point of the murder is to make it an art form and present it to a benefactor with lots of money. So they must wait for him. The film does a lot of waiting and delaying before anything significant starts happening. After that there’s lots of blood, but I really didn’t care. It’s sort of funny, and the good-natured midnight crowd made it better, but I just didn’t enjoy it nearly as much as they did. I was glad when it was over.