In the afterglow of a long Memorial Day Weekend, SIFF transitions into Baconmania for its second full week: with multiple degrees of Kevin Bacon making a splash all around festival venues. The main event is “An Evening With Kevin Bacon” on Wednesday — featuring an onstage interview, clip show retrospective, presentation of SIFF’s Career Achievement Award, followed by a screening of Cop Car (with the actor as corrupt mustachioed rural sheriff in pursuit of two preteen renegade joyriders). Those who want a more up close and personal evening, can spring for a $125 reception at the Alexis (general admission to the tribute, 8 PM at the Uptown, runs $35).
If that’s too rich for your blood, Bacon will also be around tonight for a Q&A following a screening of Barry Levinson’s Diner (6:30 PM, the Egyptian). He’ll stick around long enough to personally introduce Footloose (9:30 PM, the Egyptian), but probably not long enough to lead a dance-along.
Tony’s Picks:
Uncertain Seattle-based filmmakers Ewan McNicol and Anna Sandilands explore the backwater Texas town of the title in this Tribeca Film Festival Award-winning doc. I’ve already seen this, and can hardly wait to talk more about it: I’ll leave it at that. Oh, and you should skip work early to see it. Really.
- May 27, 2015 SIFF Cinema Uptown Festival 3:30 PM
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild Untold Story of Cannon Films Aussie Mark Hartley’s already made a couple of great documentaries about the stranger, wilder corners of exploitation filmmaking, so this one–chronicling the rise of the schlock dream factory that unleashed Chuck Norris’s Missing in Action and, yes, Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo on the world, will surely entertain (some mildly NSFW content in the trailer, so you know it must be good).
- May 28, 2015 Lincoln Square Cinemas 3:30 PM
- May 30, 2015 SIFF Cinema Egyptian 11:55 PM
- June 2, 2015 SIFF Cinema Uptown 9:30 PM
Cartoonists: Footsoldiers of Democracy It’s a trifecta of documentary recs for me this time. But in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo tragedy, a documentary about several cartoonists taking on their sometimes-lethal sociopolitical subjects using only a pen and rapier wit couldn’t be more timely.
- May 27, 2015 Lincoln Square Cinemas 3:00 PM
- May 28, 2015 Pacific Place 6:30 PM
- May 29, 2015 SIFF Cinema Uptown 4:15 PM
Chris: Gentlemen, after this long, holiday weekend and my late start, I finally feel like I’m getting into the swing of things at SIFF. Over the weekend, I conducted a few interviews with visiting guests that I’m excited to share with you and our readers. For right now, though, I love the mid-fest, mid-week programming because it’s a chance to get see some of the more undiscovered gems in the festival, and not have to deal with as large crowds that the weekends usually demand.
Having said that, here’s where you’ll likely be finding me in the next few days:
The Birth of Saké: This documentary from one of Anthony Bourdain’s cameramen (Erik Shirai, a guest at both screenings) charts the history of Japan’s oldest potent potable. As one who clamors to be a better-informed and more knowledgeable lush, I don’t think I can stay from this doc.
- May 27, 2015 SIFF Cinema Uptown 6:30 PM
- May 28, 2015 Pacific Place 4:00 PM
Do I Sound Gay? Another documentary, this one from the first-person with journalist (and director) David Thorpe exploring the anthropology of the “gay voice.” The interviews with Thorpe that I’ve read make it sound intriguing. Plus, it features appearances in the film from Dan Savage, George Takei, David Sedaris, Margaret Cho, and Tim Gunn. (Thorpe and Savage are scheduled to attend the Wednesday night screening.)
- May 27, 2015 Harvard Exit 7:00 PM
- May 29, 2015 SIFF Cinema Egyptian 4:30 PM
Venice: Obviously, there are some major cultural and political factors that make Cuban films something of a rarity on the film festival circuit. But this film from director Kiki Álvarez (scheduled to attend this afternoon’s screening) sounds intriguing: a story of three Havana hairstylists who blow their paychecks on one fabulous night on the town. It’s said to be the first Cuban film to be crowd-funded, for whatever that is worth. But there are two screenings remaining, and you’ll likely catch me at one of them.
- May 26, 2015 Pacific Place 4:30 PM
- May 30, 2015 Harvard Exit 1:30PM
Josh’s Picks:
All of your suggestions have just made my mid-week moviegoing decisions all the more complicated! I’m was also thinking about seeing:
The Price of Fame Two brothers steal Charlie Chaplin’s corpse and hold it for ransom. Although director Xavier Beauvois (Of Gods and Men) reportedly took some liberties with the facts, the absurd scheme is based on a true story.
- May 27, 2015 SIFF Cinema Uptown 7:00 PM
- May 29, 2015 SIFF Cinema Uptown 4:00 PM
- June 5, 2015 Kirkland Performance Center 8:30 PM
Elephant Song Reviews from this film’s appearance at Toronto are mixed, but the cast — Xavier Dolan, Catherine Keener, Bruce Greenwood — is intriguing enough for me to check out this stage-to-screen adaptation about a “battle of wit and manipulation” between a doctor and patient in the aftermath of a psych ward disappearance.
- May 28, 2015 SIFF Cinema Uptown 9:30 PM
There’s also the high-flying Knievel doc Being Evel, thirtysomething comedy Gazelles (from the director of the SIFF-beloved Hedgehog), campy Canadian child apocalypse adventure Turbo Kid, and Thai military coming-of-age drama How to Win at Checkers Every Time.
Keep track of the SunBreak’s SIFF coverage on our SIFF 2015 page, plus news updates and micro-reviews on Twitter @theSunBreak.
