Last night marked the final screenings for the 38th Festival Du Nouveau Cinema. By all accounts, the festival was a great success and we tip our hats to the organizers who pulled it all together. We spent the last few days cramming in screenings, and over the next couple of days we will wrap up our reviews with thoughts on some of the major league films of the fest including “Antichrist,” “The White Ribbon” and “Mother.”
“Trash Humpers” – We’re definitely not complaining, but festival-attending can wear you out (see below), but its films like Harmony Korine’s latest that make it all worthwhile. The last film we saw in a four movie day, Korine’s latest and grimiest – it was shot on VHS, edited on VCRs and then blown up on 35mm – was a like an injection of steroids directly into our eyeballs. There is simply nothing else like it that you will see this year or next year either. Korine’s gleefully batshit film delivers everything the title implies and more. The faux-documentary and quasi-snuff film, structured like non-narrative found art, concerns a group of four freaks who go around doing the most perverted, fucked up, freaky shit you can possibly imagine. Like what you dare ask? Humping dumpsters; jacking off plants; showing children how to put razorblades into apples; dragging baby dolls behind bicycles; public defecation and slapping escort’s asses (that one caused a good portion of the walkouts). And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. But Korine, now a husband and father, does have a point to all this madness. “Trash Humpers” is a wicked evisceration of urban myths and a scathing critique of everything that is perceived to be normal and safe about suburban life. The film, shot in what we’re guessing is Korine’s very own neighborhood, makes the quiet assertion that we’re all freaks and that “they” are everywhere. Korine bravely doesn’t do anything to bring his point to the fore except for a major character monologue that we wish he would’ve excised, as smart audiences would’ve intuited the thematic arc to the film long before that scene. That very small issue with the aside, we loved “Trash Humpers” and we’re glad that parenthood isn’t mellowing out Korine in the slightest (ok, except for the Liberty Mutual ads, but the guy has a kid to feed). That said, it’s safe to say that this film isn’t for everybody. It really will push the boundaries of even the most open-minded, tolerant filmgoer and if it sounds even slightly discomforting to you, you’d probably do best to stay away. But those brave enough to enter Korine’s brazenly provocative world will be amply rewarded. [A-]
“Bluebeard” — Catherine Breillat is probably best known to arthouse audiences for her sexually daring films such as “Fat Girl,” “Romance” and “Anatomy Of Hell.” Her latest, however, is about as far away from those films as you can get. “Bluebeard,” an adaptation of the classic French fairy tale by Charles Perrault, is a straight period piece crippled by an atrociously conceived screenplay and woefully cheap set designs. The script presents the story of Bluebeard as told by two sisters in the present day, allowing the director to treat the re-enactments as nothing more than something in the imagination of the sisters. We can only guess this conceit was used to save money on doing an actual period piece, because we couldn’t get past how truly fake the sets and costumes looked. “Bluebeard” looks and feels like a group of stock actors, raided their local medieval store, found a castle in the French countryside and played dress-up for an afternoon. Being shot digitally only exacerbates the issue, highlighting the brand new looking robes and dresses, the plastic looking jewels and the tourist attraction level sets. Breillat even skimps on editing, with one almost laugh out loud editing choice near the end of the film, when a climatic scene of characters supposedly running up the stairs to the top of a tower, is the exact same static shot, cut, copied and repeated four times. “Bluebeard” is either Breillat at her most lazy, uninspired or financially strapped, but the film comes off as a very amateur production. As for the actual film, it’s more or less a direct, and exceedingly dull, re-telling of the story while Breillat, perhaps trying to prove she’s still got the chops to shock, adds a ridiculously lame twist at the end regarding the sisters telling the story. We wouldn’t even take this level of filmmaking from a newcomer (see below), but the fact that its from someone as established as Breillat makes it all the more egregious. [D]
“8000 Miles” – Arriving for its North American premiere on a small wave of hype built around the film’s supposed cult following in its home country of Japan, “8000 Miles” landed with a distinct thud. The no-budget flim is a comedy/coming of age story about late teenage/early twentysomething youths in the suburbs of Tokyo who have to find a balance between their passion for hip hop and doing something more concrete and realistic. The second film by Yu Irie is all over the place, ranging from a being a broad, surreal, and largely unfunny comedy (a running joke involves broccoli while on the other hand, we’re treated for an uncomfortably long scene from a porno within the film) to an overwrought melodrama in the second half. Worse, for a film that’s only eighty minutes, this film drags with jokes and scenes often lingering for tens of seconds longer than necessary. Irie, a twenty-year old director, is obviously still new to filmmaking as practically every single scene (which looks like it was edited in iMovie) ends with a slow fade out, with the following scene beginning with a slow fade in. And the no budget aesthetic also means that every scene features a stationary camera on a tripod while on occasion we may get the odd camera movement from left to right. Clearly, something was lost in the translation as not only was the comedy greeted with near silence, but nearly a fifth of audience walked out, while the rest of us bolted for the doors as soon as the credits came up. And this was with the director in attendance. Ouch. [D]