SIFF Wrapup: One Last Look at SIFF 2012
SIFF is dead. Long live SIFF! Continue reading SIFF Wrapup: One Last Look at SIFF 2012
Tag: siff2012
Top 5 SIFF Picks for Closing Weekend
All good things must come to an end, and so too must SIFF 2012. If you haven’t gotten to any films thus far, now is a good time to panic, as you have only two-and-a-half days left and the pickings are growing slimmer. Before you go, visit the SIFF updates page to see which films are already sold out or are selling fast. Our top pick is the Closing Night selection Grassroots. Continue reading Top 5 SIFF Picks for Closing Weekend
Over Two Dozen SIFF 2012 Movies Reviewed
While the rest of your intrepid SunBreak SIFFters were putting together a lively roundtable about SIFF 2012, yours truly was submerged deeply in the Festival vortex, making up for lost moviegoing time.
I’ve seen 25 movies so far (down a bit from this point last year), and though it’s in my nature to view creative endeavors from a glass-half-full optimistic standpoint, I do have to admit that my SIFF 2012 journey’s been a bit less consistent than last year’s, so far.
One ironic trend I’ve noted: The movies that worked the best have tended to be the less-pretentious formula/genre flicks that honed in on basic storytelling, while some of the bolder experiments in form and content yielded some of the most disappointing results. No, that’s not an exhortation to filmmakers to stop experimenting and pushing the envelope–It’s a resolute plea for them to get their damned ducks in a row before they do.
Enclosed please find rundowns of everything I’ve seen so far, replete with 1 to 5 ratings (I’m a sucker for that stuff). Several of the movies are still playing later tonight, tomorrow, and Saturday, so I’ve also provided links to siff.net for those titles.
Let’s Talk About SIFF 2012
Since we’re now entering the home stretch of SIFF, it’s time for a montage. But will you settle for a roundtable?
Josh: I’ve been an out-of-town slacker and have only just started swimming toward the deep end of the SIFF movie pool. In general, I don’t recommend starting in the middle of week 2: none of the shiny baubles that make the beginning of the festival so exciting and none of the manic urgency of mad dash toward sticking the landing while crossing the finish line at the end. Continue reading Let’s Talk About SIFF 2012
Top 5 SIFF Picks for This Week
The Seattle International Film Festival enters its home stretch, meaning that there are just seven days left to overindulge on movies. This week features an evening with Sissy Spacek, a big gay party for Gayby, and a visit from Chris Pine. Expect a long standby line as everyone in Seattle jockeys for a first glimpse of Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom. The closing days of the festival often feature plenty of fresh gems plus lingering chances to catch up on previously-screened buzz worthy flicks. Here are just a few scattered selections to get you started. Continue reading Top 5 SIFF Picks for This Week
A Chat with The Director of Game of Werewolves
Fun things to do in Kirkland tonight, number one: Seeing the Spanish werewolf comedy at the Kirkland Performance Center.
Game of Werewolves makes its third and final SIFF appearance at 9:00 p.m., and it’s shaping up to be one of the liveliest, most fun festival surprises from this corner. It tells the story of Tomas (Gorka Otxoa), a struggling writer who visits his rural hometown of Arga after a twenty-year estrangement. He’s been invited back by the townspeople under the pretense of a celebration in his honor.
But Tomas is the last of a cursed family’s bloodline, and his former neighbors are convinced that his death on the centenary of the village curse is the only way to eradicate the werewolf that’s been plaguing Arga lo, these many years.
It’s lazy to compare it to Shaun of the Dead, but like that horror-comedy classic, Game of Werewolves references classic horror tropes, hurtles its likable characters into a terrifying scenario, and watches them react in often-humorous ways. Fortunately, writer/director Juan Martinez Moreno’s definitely created (pardon the pun) his own animal.
Continue reading “A Chat with The Director of Game of Werewolves“
Top 5 SIFF Picks for This Weekend
This weekend is officially DocsFest, another mini-fest nestled within SIFF, so take in a documentary or two: sing along with the Northwest-lovin’ Welcome to Doe Bay; put on your blue facepaint for a look at Broadway understudies in The Standbys; feel empathetic hunger pangs of American working poor in Finding North; view the culture wars through the case study of Texas elementary school history textbooks in The Revisionaries–and if you have three-plus hours to spare, DO NOT MISS the latest from BBC miniseries-maker Adam Curtis, who tackles the symbiotic relationship between modern man’s dependence on technology (the rise of videogames and social networking) and the ever-increasing levels of self-centered self-interestedness at the societal level in All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace. Continue reading Top 5 SIFF Picks for This Weekend