Weekend Wrap-Up: Getting Festive
Kelly White canceled her rave appearances and pushed play on the 2007 Philadelphia Film Festival. We think she fell asleep at the Ritz 5, 12:54 PM on Easter Sunday. Here is what she remembers…
… after the jump.
The Saddest Boy In The World
A 7 minute short shown before Monkey Warfare, we were still appreciating this long after the feature pres had gotten rolling. Little Timothy Higgins is prepping to Kurt Cobain himself at his 9th birthday party, and the little fucker is beyond loveable, adorable, and fashionable-his knee socks are tops. The audience is quickly swept onto this side, as we watch the sweet torture that is his life, as the paraplegic kid is picked before him in gym class, as all of his pets die or run away, as eerie music and sick unluck seem to follow him relentlessly. We’re thinking, HOLD ON, Timmy, you can be an indie rock god in 13 years if you keep that pout alive.
Monkey Warfare
We could remake Monkey Warfare right now. It follows a trash-salvaging couple who exist on the fringe of society not unlike new-weird folk we know from Kensington. The movie starts out hecka slow, dragging us from leisurely bike-riding scenes to flea market haggling character studies. But it has those mildly funny and ridiculous bits, Dan’s afterthought one-liners and pretty much everything Susan says throughout the entire film. The potential for a threesome loses steam as Dan and Linda take on parental roles to deal with their misguided revolutionary and organic weed-dealer, Susan. It’s like a stoner movie for people who watch Roseanne reruns. We likey.
Swedish Auto
As a rule, anything Swedish gets our vote. So after the opening shot of..Swedish autos!..we were slightly bored when Lukas Haas strolled on the screen in his mechanic coveralls. As Carter, a lonesome stalker who likes burgers with extra tomato, we soon learn that Haas’ face has one look to it, and it is that same slightly scared expression that he wears for the remainder of the film. Lost souls need not be soulless. We’d rather look at more cars.
Grindhouse
Even people dumping M&Ms into their popcorn couldn‚Äôt ruin this movie for me. Watching Grindhouse in the closest legal thing Philadelphia has to an actual Grindhouse, The Roxy, is the way to do it. The film itself is a double-feature that would be grandiose if it was not dead-on like every movie you’ve been dying to see your entire life. Tarantino and Rodriguez bled for this thing, and it shows. You’re going to see THE CAR CHASE of film history, brilliant trailers that are movie franchises waiting to happen, the true nature of humor (kids shooting their faces off), enough Easter eggs that you’re gonna have to watch it 19 times over. While not flawless, I am so completely overwhelmed by the 3 hours of lifefucking righteousness onscreen that I’m going to hate every movie that I see for the rest of the year. I‚Äôm serious, you can do what the fuck ever you want with those M&Ms. You want spoilers and in-depth nerd-points? Console yourself.
Also, we should mention how much we love the fact that the Film Fest has added a separate category for Asian Gangster flicks. Stay tuned for more coverage as we ambush the city’s theaters for the next week and a half.
