Frenchy’s Fracas

Movie: Men’s Group (James Benning, USA, 2007, 80′)

Date: Jan 31, 2008

Rating:
(I stayed awake during the whole thing, I think..)

Plot: A documentary recording visits to the Great Salt Lake in Utah over a period of more than 20 years.

Cast: skippable

Visuals: It’s all about the visuals, very beautiful shots!!

Conclusion: It was just too much for me, seeing a beautiful shot that lasted more than two minutes without anything else happening. This went on for the whole duration of the movie. This is Major League Visual Studies, man.
I can’t say that the movie was bad, but I do know that I had to fight the festival fatigue to stay awake during the film. Those images were beautiful, but the director’s choice to present them in this way is not something that works for me.
Still, I’m curious about his next project.

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Movie: La Maison Jaune (Amor Hakkar, France, Algeria, 2007, 87′)

Date: Jan 30, 2008

Rating:
(Nice little movie)

Plot: A rural family tries to deal with the loss of their eldest child, who died in an accident.

Cast: Amor Hakkar also plays the main character and his depiction of a grief stricken parent who tries to keep his family together, is very well done. The rest of the cast does a respectable job.

Visuals: Nice, subtle images of the Algerian landscape.

Conclusion: I especially liked the calm acceptance and determination of the father when he went on his journey to fetch his son’s body. I also liked how with every problem encountered somebody helps out the father.
It’s a movie with a fine story, nice visuals and acceptable performances.

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Movie: Let’s Finish!!! (Whang Cheol-Mean, South Korea, 2006, 99′)

Date: Jan 30, 2008

Rating:
(Struggled to stay awake..)

Plot: Three total strangers decide to meet up for a fantastic road trip; at the end of the trip they’ll commit suicide. The trip doesn’t go as planned.

Cast: Skippable.

Visuals: Highly skippable.

Conclusion: Okay, okay, I really was tired. The evening before was a late one and I had to get out of my bed at a very early time. So it wasn’t all surprising that I’d be nodding off during a movie, but I know for sure that a lot of people were also falling asleep during this particular movie.
It wasn’t interesting, it was boring. Maybe I just lost out on some very important plot and character developments, but for me, it wasn’t a great movie.
Off to another volunteer party..

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Movie: Men’s Group (Michael Joy, Australia, 2008, 104′)

Date: Jan 29, 2008

Rating:
(Touchy, feely stuff for blokes..)

Plot: Seven totally different men share one common deficiency: they’re stuck in their own lives and have bottled it all up to the breaking point. Now they start a weekly session: not therapy, just a chance for blokes to vent.

Cast: Excellent and well-balanced cast, none of the actors grab too much of the limelight for themselves.

Visuals: Nothing really special.

Conclusion: Every bloody cliche is used in this story: men can’t share or express their feeling, men are always the little boys looking for daddy’s love and approval (although, one group member had the expected unwanted daddy love), etc. You also know that these men will bond during the story and help each other to grow a bit.
Here’s the funny bit: the predictability isn’t bothersome. I was fascinated by the tension, the backstories and the new relationships that blossomed within the group.
I really enjoyed the fact that the biggest, most violent and most twisted guy of the group does not see the error of his ways to change into some do-good wanker.
The movie does a good job of keeping me entertained for more than three quarters of the duration. That’s good enough for me.

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Movie: Estômago - A Gastronomic Story (Marcos Jorge, Brazil, Italy, 2007, 113′)

Date: Jan 29, 2008

Rating:
(Food for thought.. )

Plot: Simpe-minded but gastronomically talented Nonato shares his culinary adventures with us. But all this love for food can’t be without cost, pain or suffering. For himself and others.

Cast: Strong cast, even the more one dimensional characters leave a lasting impression. And where can I find me a woman like Fabiula Nascimento? Damn..

Visuals: Dunno, not a lot really, but sometimes I got this sense of the Amelie movie, but without all that sticky sweetness.

Conclusion: I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It’s very hard for people not to enjoy a movie about food and cooking. The contrast between nice genius cook and maniac terrible drunk is a bit simple.
Once you figure out the right sequence of the two storylines, you’ll be able to predict the dark ending all too easily. It’s not a big flaw, and all I can say about the ending is that I’ll never be able the wipe the imagery off my brain.
I’ll certainly never say That’s a fine piece of ass without thinking about this movie.

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