Nearing the end of the first week of the Film Festival, and VanRamblings finds itself firmly ensconced within the 29th annual Vancouver International Film Festival. And we’re mighty glad we chose (very) well again on Tuesday.

Our usual routine goes something like this: up at 8 a.m. for breakfast, and by 9 a.m. we’re on the bus heading downtown to the passholders’ lineup to pick up our tickets for the day. First screening of the day at 10 a.m., followed by 12:30 p.m., 3 p.m., 6:45 p.m. and 9:15 p.m. screenings. On the bus home by 11:30 p.m., home by midnight and writing til 3 a.m. And then it’s up again 5 hours later to do the whole thing over again.
On Tuesday, the first rewarding film of our VIFF 2010 movie day was …

Waiting for Superman (Grade: A): A miracle of a film, one of the most heartrending, hopeful and inspirational ‘change agent’ films we’ve seen at this year’s Festival, director David Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) offers a scathing indictment of a failed American education system in one of the most moving and emotionally resonant films we’re likely to see this year. Allowing the audience inside the lives of dispossessed young kids, each of whom becomes a rooting interest for the filmgoer, Guggenheim’s sure-to-be Oscar nominated documentary (and probable winner) subtly and with trenchant power sets the agenda for the next two years of Obama’s term in office (at least, Obama better be listening, because there are some very powerful truths being told here). Screened for a final time at VIFF on Tuesday, but due to open at Fifth Avenue Cinema on October 15th.

Continue reading VIFF 2010, Day 6: Another Rewarding Day at the Film Festival →

The skies were overcast, the rains fell in little droplets and then only sporadically. Yet how would VanRamblings know what was going on in the outside world when we found ourselves comfortably sequestered inside the Empire Granville 7’s largest screening room (that’d be the Visa Screening Room / Theatre 7) from 10 a.m. til 9 p.m., where we saw four different films which we admired to varying degree but none more ‘likeable’ than …

The Man From Nowhere (Grade: A): A Korean take on American films like The Professional and Man on Fire, Korea’s redemptive mob action movie, The Man From Nowhere, does have a taciturn ‘last principled male hero’ setting out to rescue a young girl, but everything else about this propulsive film is utterly original and compellingly watchable, an irresistible sub-genre revenge flick that emerges as the must-see film at this year’s Festival. Evocative, suspenseful, lushly appointed and glossily designed as the film may be, as director Lee Jeong-Beom and cinematographer Lee Tae-Yoon set about to unravel the film’s web of layers of evil, it’s the film’s brooding sympathetic hero’s (Won Bin) warm, humane interplay with marvelously fresh and natural child actress Kim Sae-ron that pulls you into the film, holding you in its grip for its entire two-hour running time. Easy to see why The Man From Nowhere is Korea’s top-grossing film this year. Plays again, Wed., Oct. 6 @ 6:20pm, Gr 7, Th3, & Sat., Oct. 9 @ 10:30am, Gr7, Th7.

Continue reading VIFF 2010, Day 5: Eleven Hours Inside Granville 7’s Theatre 7 →

On Sunday, the early part of VanRamblings’ movie day turned out to be a bust. Which is not to say that the films that we saw throughout the morning and afternoon were ‘bad’, per se, it’s just that they were not our cup of tea. We made a promise to ourselves: from here on in no more comedic crime caper melodrama (we’re talking about you Cold Fish, Down Terrace and A Somewhat Gentle Man). From here on out, it’ll be the ‘Cinema of Despair’ for us, human scale dramas, films with mothers and children, and wildly inventive cinema but wildly inventive film with a heart.
So, what did we like, what were we swept away by, what measured up and exceeded our expectations, what made the Film Festival worthwhile for us on Sunday? First off, at 7:15 p.m. there was …

The Sleeping Beauty (Grade: A-): An absolutely enchanting, naturalistic and human scale take on the folkloric Sleeping Beauty fairy tale, writer-director Catherine Breillat finds her heart in this rapturous, provocative and compelling adaptation of Charles Perrault’s classic 17th century folk tale. Her visually sumptuous, epic coming-of-age fantasia sets about to track the transition from childhood and adolescence into adulthood through the realm of fantasy. In the film, Breillat explores the notions of male and female socialization as well as regressive, ideological notions of femininity and masculinity in conflict with social convention. Setting aside academics, if we might, The Sleeping Beauty emerges, simply and beautifully, as an elegant and picaresque adventure, and always involving and heartfelt cinema. Screens again Oct 6 @ 10:30am, Gr7, Th 7, & Oct 7 @ 4:15pm, Gr7, Th 7.

Continue reading VIFF 2010, Day 4: In Which The Evening Saves The Day →

Day Three of the 29th annual Vancouver International Film Festival, and the Fest held two movies in store …
Cold Fish (Grade: B-): A wacky, phantasmagorical and generally sort of wigged out take on a gruesome and bloody murder spree that occurred in Japan earlier in the decade, Japanese writer-director Sono Shion introduces us to a typically unhappy Japanese family, a recently remarried father, his none-too-happy bride and his even unhappier teenage daughter. Enter the owner of a local tropical fish store who employs the business as a front for underworld crime, not the least of which revolves around his delight in ‘making people invisible’, an avocation consisting mainly of cutting his victims into pieces and disposing of them. Want some sushi? Grisly, sexy, brash and ultimately pointless, Cold Fish is just about as dark as they come (we’re referring to the comedic elements in the film), and apart from the bloodbaths splattering the screen during the film’s overlong 144-minute running time there’s some actual cinematic inventiveness at work in the film. (No more screenings planned, which may not be such a bad thing)

Continue reading VIFF 2010, Day 3: Saturday Night at the Film Festival →