Jack Henry's Year in Film - Week 10
As I finish up my second batch of reviews from True/False I can’t help but reminisce about the weekend. It left me physically exhausted (I mean ten films in three days is A LOT) but also feeling mentally refreshed. Documentary films capture the realness of our strange, sad, and beautiful world, and, as someone who spends most of their time with fictional films, it’s refreshing to see. The only film on our list that we weren’t able to see was the Mr. Rogers doc. The line was too long when we got there and we, unfortunately, were turned away. That one seems big enough though that it should be streaming soon. I also heard that even the most hard hearted people were walking out of the screening with tears in their eyes so I’m excited. Nevertheless, it was a great weekend of good docs, good food (shout out to Pizza Trees’ bahn mi pizza and Cafe Poland’s pierogies), and good friends (shout out to Asher). I look forward to next year.
WEEK 10 or TRUE/FALSE Film Festival: Part 2
MONDAY (3/5) - Artemio - Sandra Luz López Barroso
Artemio is a short and simple, bittersweet story of a young boy living with his mother in Mexico. The film is more a conglomeration of scenes and less of a strict narrative but it uses this style well. It pulls at the heartstrings throughout with some incredibly touching and heartfelt moments between a mother and her son.
MY RATING: 8/10
TUESDAY (3/6) - The Rider - Chloé Zhao
The Rider is the third (and final) fictional film that uses documentary elements and it’s the inferior one of the bunch. Using renamed characters from the events it’s based upon The Rider is a motivational movie about a rodeo rider that, after an accident, “gets back up in the saddle”. As Asher put it, it feels very much like a student film. Its themes are very overt and using the actual people involved was underwhelming mainly because they’re bad at acting and it removed me from the movie. The ending, which I thought I knew where it was going, was unexpectedly anticlimactic. I mean I kind of see why it’s getting good reviews because it’s sort of a feel good movie but it left me feeling underwhelmed.
MY RATING: 6/10
WEDNESDAY (3/7) - Shirkers - Sandi Tan
Shirkers is like that fever dream you had but forgot about then slowly begin to remember again, slowly piecing things together, slowly getting stranger and stranger, then realizing this was only something that could happen in a dream, except it’s a documentary. It’s about a filmmaker from Singapore who, when she was in her teens, created a film. Then her mentor, also the director of the film, stole everything and disappeared. The film uses it’s style to great effect, enhancing the weirdness of this true story. As a filmmaker that values personal artistry, this film hits home in many ways. This ended up being my favorite film at TRUE/FALSE this year and, as it’s already been picked up by Netflix, I hope you will keep an eye out for it.
MY RATING: 9/10
THURSDAY (3/8) - Flight of a Bullet - Beata Bubenec
Flight of the Bullet might be the boldest film I saw at TRUE/FALSE. Taking place on a Ukrainian military base, the film is in the point of view of a young camera woman as she follows people around the base. The kicker is the whole documentary is one shot, no edits, simply her following whatever interests her at the base. The majority of this includes the interrogation of a civilian and then a cadet arguing over the phone with his girlfriend. I went in with the notion that this film was about the documentarian being taken hostage but still running the camera, but it turned out very different than that. I still found it incredibly interesting though and it was hard to take my eyes off the screen even during the mundane events. As the director says "Life lasted only while the camera was on, so I kept it rolling,” and even through some of the glaring problems I found it very compelling.
MY RATING: 7.5/10
FRIDAY (3/9) - Three Identical Strangers - Tim Wardle
Wouldn't it be strange to one day walk around the corner and see someone that looked exactly like you? Then, what if there were three of you? Three Identical Strangers answers this question: YES, it would be very strange. This documentary is about triplets that were separately adopted but then haphazardly reunited in their early 20s. If you think that sounds odd, just wait. When the brothers begin to look for answers things take a dark and strange turn. This film was definitely one of my highlights this year. The direction is good but not great (in fact the constant slew of archival footage annoyed me a lot) but the mystery and the theme of the film made up for that. This stranger-than-fiction documentary left me feeling overwhelmingly fascinated by the story that unfolded, but also empathetic. This may be an incredibly weird and interesting story but there were real people involved who’s lives were changed forever.
MY RATING - 8.5/10
As I will have to watch a little over 250 movies this year I would greatly appreciate some suggestions. Feel free to leave some in the comment section. Or if you want a recommendation don’t hesitate to ask.