SIFF SIFF 2008: Day 21 Recommendations
posted by on June 11 at 12:22 PM
This afternoon, we unreservedly recommend Momma’s Man (4:30 pm at Uptown), but if you saw that yesterday, you should probably opt for the first-person Hurricane Katrina doc Trouble the Water (4:30 pm at the Harvard Exit), where I’ll be, since I failed to make it to the press screening yesterday. Manohla Dargis called it “one of the best American documentaries in recent memory.”
Next up is a drama Charles Mudede loved about race relations in Singapore: It’s called Salawati (7 pm at Pacific Place), and the director is scheduled to attend. Or you could chat up Variety film critic Todd McCarthy, who’ll be in attendance at his debut documentary, Pierre Rissient: Man of Cinema (6:45 pm at SIFF Cinema), about Cannes Film Festival’s ultimate publicist.
Last, we recommend American Son (9:30 pm at Pacific Place), a drama about being deployed to Iraq. Or if you want to follow up on the Katrina theme, you might think about The Order of Myths (9:30 pm at the Harvard Exit), a documentary about racial segregation in a Mardi Gras celebration in Mobile, Alabama.
I think this would be an appropriate moment for Dan Savage to talk about pit bulls and Hurricane Katrina and possibly about how he is glad that so many pit bulls were killed in New Orleans and Mississippi last year.
Trouble the Water is where I'm supposed to be too.
Along with Perfect Match and Villa Jasmin.
But ... word to the wise ... avoid The Secret of the Grain - watch The Island of Lost Souls instead.
Secret of the Grain was nearly 3 hours long; Momma's Man just felt that long. I suppose that was the point but Momma's Man was utterly excruciating to watch. The only person I didn't loathe was the weary father.
Secret of the Grain was nearly 3 hours long; Momma's Man just felt that long. I suppose that was the point but Momma's Man was utterly excruciating to watch. The only person I didn't loathe was the weary father.
OK, Will is finally dead wrong. The Secret of the Grain is the best film in SIFF. Just pee first. And maybe sneak in some couscous so you don't get hungry.
@4&5: Funny, the father is played by Ken Jacobs, a very well-known experimental filmmaker and the actual father of the director.
yeah. I would have been able to better handle the running time and ending of the Secret of the Grain if they were serving couscous in the lobby afterwards. Even Mediterranean Express was closed by the time it was over.
annie, quite a few passholders who saw that disagreed with you - and it was a major topic of conversation in the women's bathroom, according to them.
A chaque son gout, attack sa goutte.
And quite a few passholders disagree with Will on this one, as well. It's such a charming movie, I'm surprised at how it's divided audiences. Will's right that after the press screening the loudest passholders were groaning about the ending and the length, but I've found that many of the less show-offy folks loved it, and I've heard several say it's the best thing in the festival. I'd put it in the top 5.
You liked Momma's Man? I don't care whose parents those were, they and the protagonist Mikey were the most annoying characters ever written. And, I mean, 5 minutes of a grown man playing with shaving cream? Made me want to scream "Off yourself already and put us all out of our misery!!"
Well, The Stranger liked Momma's Man--you can read our review of it here--but I didn't see it, so I can't weigh in personally.
Seriously, what was so bad about The Secret of the Grain, haters? You can't take a long movie?
No, I think it was the ending more than anything else. I just heard them all griping about it, and the stories about conversations in the women's bathroom ...
why is will hanging out in the women's bathroom?
I didn't hate the Secret of the Grain, it was just 20-40 minutes overlong. I'm no emerging master, but I say: cut 10 minutes of running, 10 minutes of dancing, and 10 minutes of arguing and you tighten it up considerably without losing the great languid conversational tone.
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