3-IRON / Bin-jip
(Kim Ki-duk, South Korea, 2004, 88 minutes)
3-Iron is another winner from the prolific Kim Ki-duk (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...
and Spring). Those who enjoyed Thai director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang's Last Life in
the Universe with Tadanobu Asano--one of my favorite films of 2004--will probably like it, too.
On the surface it's quite different, except for the fact that it revolves around an unlikely relationship, and there's an odd, supernatural tone to the proceedings.
And yes, the 3-Iron of the title, a kind of golf club, does get used--several times, in fact, but the movie isn't half as disturbing as Kim's 2000 fishhook fairytale The Isle. It's almost as if Japan's Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Bright Future) had directed a love story. Some may see the ending as a cop-out or a betrayal or what-have-you, but I was happy to go along with it.
Neptune: Sat, May 21, 6:30PM and Sun, May 22, 4:15PM.
APRES VOUS...
(Pierre Salvadori, France, 2003, 110 minutes)
I love Daniel Auteuil (Un Coeur en Hiver, Caché), and he's quite good in Apres Vous..., aka After You..., but this romantic comedy is nothing special. I was mildly entertained, but the
film evaporated from my mind before the end credits even finished un-spooling.
As a general rule, I feel the same about Auteuil in comedies as I do about Jean Reno--who, coincidentaly enough, was also born in Algeria--or American lookalike Robert De Niro, which is to say, I prefer them in dramas.
It's not that Auteuil can't handle comedy--2001's The Closet was pretty funny--just that his dramatic work has more sticking power. And his very physiognomy suggests drama, though I'm not sure that's a fair critique.
To get even more discursive, I was thrilled to see Reno and De Niro in a
picture together, the late John Frankenheimer's underrated 1998 Ronin.
And I'm still waiting for Auteuil and De Niro to do the same--I mean, they have the same nose, although Auteuil's has a cool Gallic twist to it.
Egyptian: Wed, May 25, 9:15PM and Neptune: Fri, May 27, 5:00PM.
ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW
(Miranda July, USA, 2005, 91 minutes)
Like Kris Monroe, I really enjoyed Me and You and Everyone We Know. I'm tempted to say I loved it, but I need to think about it some more.
I ran
into The Everett Herald's Robert Horton after the screening, and he proclaimed
it "lovely," so there really are other critics in town who liked it.
Kris and I were sitting in front of The Seattle PI's Sean Axmaker , and he was laughing as hard as us--if not more so. That said, I ran into yet another critic, The Seattle Times' Jeff Shannon, and he found it merely okay.
If I had to describe the film--not easy to do--I'd say that it takes
the multi-character format of Rose Troche's The Safety of Objects or Jill Sprecher's
Thirteen Conversations About One Thing, and has some fun with it.
In other words, those films are dark, but Me and You is suffused with light, love,
and humor. I apologize if that sounds saccharine; I swear the movie isn't.
The action revolves around several people, including a single father played by a soulful John Hawkes, who live in the same suburban So-Cal neighborhood, and the ways they affect each others lives. At its core, it's a love story...and I have a thing about unconventional romances. And
it has some of the biggest laughs of the year, one of which is an instant classic.
I found Me and You and Everyone We Know funnier than Napoleon Dynamite, which shares a similar sort of deadpan sense of humor. Actor/writer/director Miranda July, who recalls a younger, brunette Laura Dern, underlines one of the film's most amusing scenes with Spiritualized's transcendent cover of the Troggs' "Anyway That You Want Me." Beautiful.
Paramount: Thurs, May 19, 7:30PM. Opening Night Gala.
Sounds like a better telling of " Me and You..." I'd definitely put it in the same vein as "Napoleon Dynamite" and a lot of folks failed to see the humor in that one too.
ReplyDeletePlease to be allowing me to jump onto the positive Miranda July dogpile. So far, Me and You is my favorite of the fest.
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