SIFF 2013 Closing Weekend Picks

Keep track of all The SunBreak’s festival coverage on our SIFF 2013 page.

Well, friends, the finish line for Seattle’s annual marathon of film is in sight, but there’s still three days left to sprint through a weekend’s worth of film. In terms of special events, tonight you’ll find The Maldives performing their new original score for silent Lillian Gish On the Prairie film, The Wind(June 7, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m., the Triple Door). These live scored events are often among SIFF’s most memorable productions (the creature comforts and excellent sound at the venue help) and the band demonstrated their proficiency at scoring with a Riders of the Purple a few years ago; so this should be an excellent return performance.

Finally, the festival closes with the North American Festival Premiere of Sofia Coppola’s The Bling Ring at the Cinerama, followed by a party at MOHAI. (June 9, 6:30 p.m., Cinerama). Starring Emma Watson and based on the true story of club-hopping Hollywood burglars, the film even includes a cameo from unknowing victim Paris Hilton as well as a look inside her mansion (which serves as a key production location). Although the film moved Hilton to tears in Cannes and to Chateau Marmont after its invite-only Los-Angeles premiere, Paris isn’t expected to be caught in the flashbulbs of SIFF’s red carpet along with Israel Broussard and Katie Chang on Sunday night. (Tickets are standby-only)

Two Lives (Zwei Leben): Outstanding thriller about a deep cover East German spy in post-Cold War Norway whose comfortable life unravels when a do-gooding lawyer comes to town looking for witnesses to testify in his war crimes trial. Based on true events, both in terms of the treatment of “war children” and the ways that their stories were used to infiltrate families. One of my SIFF favorites.

  • June 8, 2013 1:00 PM AMC Pacific Place
  • June 9, 2013 1:00 PM Kirkland Performance Center

Eden: Not to be confused with Megan Griffiths’ 2012 SIFF sensation, this Brazilian drama about a young mom-to-be falling under the sway of a religious cult reportedly sports some serious acting fireworks from leading lady Leandra Leal.

  • June 7, 2013 10:00 PM SIFF Cinema Uptown
  • June 8, 2013 2:00 PM SIFF Cinema Uptown

Ain’t Them Bodies Saints: Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara on the run in this Sundance Dramatic Cinematography Award winner whose trailer suggests a great debt to Terrence Malick.

  • June 7, 2013 9:00 PM SIFF Cinema Uptown

Crystal Fairy: Ignorant tourist Michael Cera heads to Chile looking for drugs, meets a manic pixie dream nudist Gaby  Hoffmann. Shot by Sebastián Silva (the Maid), I wonder whether this tale of a hunt for hallucinatory cactus inspired or was inspired by the desert drug plotline on the fourth season of Arrested Development.

  • June 8, 2013 7:00 PM Harvard Exit
  • June 9, 2013 5:00 PM SIFF Cinema Uptown

Drinking Buddies: Joe Swanberg’s latest is a fairly star-studded affair: Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson, Ron Livingston, Anna Kendrick improvise a drinky couples weekend in a cabin in the woods. Expect all sort of funny talky naturalistic relationship drama to ensue. Unlike the Duplass movie with a similar theme, the horror here is likely to be purely emotional rather than bag-headed.

  • June 8, 2013 7:00 PM Egyptian Theatre
  • June 9, 2013 4:00 PM Egyptian Theatre

9 Full Moons: Damaged goods try to nurture a relationship in the mix of the Southern California indie music scene. Amy Seimetz (Upstream Color, The Killing: The Next Generation) stars.

  • June 6, 2013 7:00 PM SIFF Cinema Uptown
  • June 8, 2013 1:45 PM Harvard Exit

Cockneys vs. Zombies: 73% fresh, says Rotten Tomatoes! Did you know that London’s Great Fire was an attempt to stem a zombie outbreak? READ A BOOK! Some desperate East Enders take advantage of a zombie epidemic to stage a bank heist. Oh, and you get to see Honor Blackman (AKA Goldfinger Bond girl Pussy Galore), fifty-some years older but enchanting as ever. Yes, it does sound unmissable.

  • June 8, 2013 11:55 PM Egyptian Theatre
  • June 9, 2013 8:30 PM Kirkland Performance Center

Cheap Thrills: People do some fucked-up things for the love of money in E.L. Katz’s well-reviewed but reputedly beyond-the-pale brutal neo-noir/jet-black comedy. It should make for perfect Midnight Movie fodder.

  • June 7, 2013 11:55 PM Egyptian Theatre
  • June 8, 2013 9:00 PM Kirkland Performance Center

The Last Ocean: Travel to Antarctica’s Ross Sea with director Peter Young to see  the “most untouched marine ecosystem on Earth,” and quickly learn why that’s not saying much. Thanks, Chilean sea bass!

  • June 7, 2013 3:30 PM Kirkland Performance Center
  • June 8, 2013 3:00 PM SIFF Cinema Uptown

Lil Bub & Friendz: VICE made a sort-of documentary about meme-kitties, starring weirdly adorable genetic misfit. Internet celebrity cat manager and former Seattle rock provocateur Ben Lashes is among the named cast, along with Grumpy Cat and Keyboard Cat.

  • June 8, 2013 9:00 PM SIFF Cinema Uptown

The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology: Slavoj Zizek and Sophie Fiennes “apply a psychoanalytic lens to the interpretation of movies” in their latest performance piece philosophy lecture film installation.

  • June 8, 2013 10:00 PM AMC Pacific Place

Phase IV: Legendary opening-credits wizard Saul Bass only took the director’s chair once, for this 1974 mindfuck about intelligent ants plotting a world takeover. SIFF will be screening a restoration that includes the film’s alternate ending, a psychedelic melange that supposedly renders the rest of the movie even more of a mindfuck.

  • June 9, 2013 2:00 PM SIFF Cinema Uptown

Monsters University: There’s this really lovely ball of shaved ice. And it’s sitting in the most corrosive, fiery corner of Hell. The likelihood of that little globe surviving in said environment mirrors your chances at scoring a ticket to either of the screenings of this blockbuster sequel to Monsters Inc. But what what do we know? Knock yourself out.

  • June 8, 2013 7:00 PM AMC Pacific Place
  • June 9, 2013 10:00 AM AMC Pacific Place

Last chance for a few films of the films we’ve previously recommended:

  • Furever (June 9, 2013 6:30 PM Egyptian Theatre)
  • Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer (June 9, 2013 7:30 PM SIFF Cinema Uptown)
  • Decoding Annie Parker (June 8, 2013 1:30 PM Egyptian Theatre)

Have fun out there and don’t forget tear through the numbers on those ballots and cast your votes for best director and actor while you can. Let us know what you’ve loved (or hated!) in the comments.