47th Karlovy Vary Film Festival as seen by yours truly
Part 3: Special Mentions
They didn’t quite make it into my top 10+1, but they grabbed my attention in one way or another, and they are worth noticing.
A hilarious Philippine comedy about rich teenagers planning to take over film festivals and the Academy Awards by making a film that exploits the rich West’s guilt/emotional attachment to the poverty in the East. As they sip non-fat lattes and play on their MacBooks and iPads, the film’s protagonists discuss how many children should their lead be feeding with one pack of Ramen, and what actress would be the best choice – she needs to be attractive, but also look poor and desperate, and like she has seven kids…. They even consider making the film into a musical, where the whole population of the slums stops their back-breaking work to dance and sing about starvation to a lively tune. As I said hilarious. And probably very true.
A Canadian sci-fi/romance/not-sure-what-to-call-it that combines many interesting ideas into one crazy movie. With a love triangle at its center, the film explores the connection between the outer space and music, music and love and breathing, father-son relationship, the fame stigma,….. The result hold surprisingly well together as a film. Maybe even too much – my problem with it was I wasn’t exactly sure where to put my attention with all these concepts thrown at me equally. I had a similar issue with the love triangle: I liked both guys and wasn’t sure who to root for.
Another intriguing and cool film from Giorgos Lanthimos, the writer/director of the infamous Dogtooth. The story is more accessible and understandable, but the concept behind it, and the issue it is tackling just as grave. The film puts together a groups of gymnasts (visuals!), a weird business, and human stories of painful emotional loss. Very interesting, although it is still full of moments where something extremely profound is being said/shown in a way that makes it awkward, and you can’t be exactly sure if it’s meant seriously, as a provocation, or a joke.
Em Solarova 