The International film fest is back in town, and not a moment too soon. Thumbing through the booklet, I see new films by Hong Sang-soo, Ken Loach, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, and many others. Yet for the most part, our choices are determined on time of day, when we've got free time, and whether the invariably vague two-sentence descriptions sound interesting. My favorites thus far are:
The Old Oak: A busload of refugees arrive from Syria in a depressed and dismal village not far from Durham, England. Some of the locals aren't happy about it. Others are eager to help the new arrivals. The plot revolves around a broken camera, a potential suicide, and cute little dog, and some broken water-pipes. It might sound sentimental, but veteran director Ken Loach broadens the field of view step by step to expose the unpleasant realities of village life after the coal mines have shut down and also the horrors that have brought these newcomers to England.
The Movie Teller: Set in a mining town in Chile's Atacama Desert, this sprawling and colorful film follows the lives of a spunky local family who face unusual challenges when the breadwinner, Medardo, gets injured on the job. Going to the movies on Sunday had always been a family treat, and as family resources dwindle, Medardo's young daughter, María Margarita, develops a talent for re-enacting the films, first to the family, and soon to the wider community, as a way to earn money.
The Home Game: Set in a small town on the west coast of Iceland, this glorified home movie chronicles the efforts of local citizens to bring a FA soccer game to their home field. Trouble is, they no longer have a soccer team. We watch as the son of the former coach cajoles anyone he can think of to sign on, enlists the help of experts to revive the condition of the pitch, and recruits a woman from a nearby village who's among the better players in the vicinity, though the Football Association doesn't allow females to play in the male division. After a year of effort training the squad for this Quixotic endeavor, with plenty of laughter along the way, the team remains in doubt whether their game will be home or away. It all depends on the draw.
Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink. This documentary exposes the role of a single hedge fund, Alden Global Capital, in purchasing and dismantling newspaper chains throughout the United States, putting countless journalists out of work and leaving communities large and small without a source of accurate information about what's going on in high places. It focuses on the Denver Post, the Baltimore Sun, and various struggling Bay area publications, highlighting the work of a few dedicated journalists in bringing this form of "vulture capitalism" to light. The interviews are uniformly crisp and full of information. The graphics are clever and illuminating, though the images of vultures become tiresome through repetition.
What's to be done? It's hard to say. Notions of "government funding" and "a new model" remain vague and largely speculative, while print news circulation continues to decline...
All About the Levkoviches: I suppose there is merit in seeing a film that's not firing on all cylinders. This odd tale focuses on a Hungarian boxing coach, Tamás, and his estranged son, Iván, who's moved to Israel and "gone totally Jew," as Tamas puts it. Iván returns to Hungary with his son to sit shiva when his mother dies, and during that painful and contentious week various elements in the back-story emerge. But the revelations are entirely predictable and Tamás is so relentlessly unpleasant that it isn't much fun to watch.
I guess you can't win them all.
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