Saw the Victoria Film Fest‘s Before Tomorrow last night. This is Igloolik Isuma‘s third film, after Atanarjuat and The Journals of Knud Rasmussen (if this blog had archives, there may be reviews of those).

Isuma’s two other films have supernatural components and a cast of characters interacting in a social context. I don’t have the cultural cues to understand when something supernatural is going on and I don’t know the social rules followed by polite Inuit society. As a result, I find the other films more alien than the cinema of any other culture.

Before Tomorrow has no supernaturals and focuses on the relationship between two individuals, so in that way it is more comprehensible to me. It still shares the weird cinematography and editing that distinguish it from films directed by non-Inuits. And as other-worldly as Isuma’s other films are, they still follow story archetypes – I didn’t find Before Tomorrow‘s plot compelling.

I think Before Tomorrow is worth watching for its enactment of Inuit culture. I like movies that include a plot point of “so I met some white dudes the other day…” But Isuma’s other films are significantly better.

I went to Mad City Chickens at the Victoria Film Fest last night. My parents engaged in suburban chicken farming when I was a kid, so I am familiar with the basic concepts and was hoping for a more in-depth look. This documentary did not really deliver.

The film was produced by some people in Madison, Wisconsin – possibly in response to legalization of suburban chicken ownership in that municipality. They randomly collected interviews and other footage relating to amateur chicken ownership and sloppily spliced them together into a feature-length film.

Don’t get me wrong, they got some good footage, including:

• a tour of a hatchery
• an interview with a poultry researcher (“Q: Do hens need a rooster to lay eggs? A: Do women?”)
• the evolution of a family getting their first chickens
• an interview with a bird flu expert
• some interesting anecdotes from chicken owners

But, like many documentaries, there was no flow or overarching narrative. Much of the content was filler. And the filmmakers’ weren’t working within a particularly interesting geographic area: I could have easily made the same movie in Victoria.

My director has been reading books on managing creative people.

“Fantastic! I love every word!”, the message started. Relief flooded me, the mother of endorphin rushes. I was embarrassed for screening the call. “I just have a couple of notes…”

Which turned out to not be so bad. Along with handing me the ending, I got to read gems like “move the waterboarding scene* to the bathtub, think Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!”

Hmm, Russ Meyer. Okay…

Well, I am the “black humor” guy and that’s about the most Tarantinoesque thing I’ve seen since Sukiyaki Western Django. Think positive!

* No one here’s read that scene yet.

As you would know if this blog had an archive, I went to the film festival in Victoria last year. I’ve gone through this year’s listings, and these are the feature films I am interested in (and why):

Before Tomorrow

Inuit

Otto

Gay zombies

Epitaph

Korean terror

Flame & Citron

Danish WW2 action

Rez Bomb

First Nations

And documentaries:

Apology Of An Economic Hitman

Geoecopolitics

Biggest Chinese Restaurant In The World

Cooking

Mad City Chickens

Urban chicken farming

Reindeer Girls

Indigenous resource management

I certainly won’t see all of them. As I did last year, I’ll post reviews on here.

The Deep just sent me the plot outline. Might have to spruce it up a bit, we’ll see.

He also gave me a hint as to who’d be playing the main character — to wit, her:

All that and a British accent.

Okay, Al — Keep it in your pants. Focus on making the lesbian scenes erotic, not creepy.

Gran Torino is Eastwood’s Greatest Generation finger-wag at the Boomers and the Echo. “I stacked gooks seven-deep as sandbags so you fucks could sell my house and buy Chinese-made iPods.”

And he’s shamed me.

I cannot over-emphasize how gangsterish Eastwood rolls in this flick. It’s easily my most recent must-see (IMDB rating: 8.4/10.0 agrees).

It’s got racial, religious, philosophical, and masculine themes everywhere, dealing with everything from around-the-home fixit-work to American-Bushido gunfighting to zen-like existential crotchetiness. If you don’t know what you’re good at then you can count the birds in that tree.

It re-appropriates “get off my lawn” as a lethal geriatric fuck you (see clip, above). It’s scary and suspenseful — almost action-packed — with liberal doses of humor. It has things to say about gang violence and how getting old sucks and what it means to be a man.

The symbol systems are effective and clear without being cliché. It’s easy to “get”. It’s quite a good film, and it’s got some fantastic one-liners the trailer doesn’t spoil. Arguably on the do-you-feel-lucky order:

Eastwood is one of the Godhead-merged immortals, his memetic image forever stamped across Western ideals of the masculine. Gran Torino is another tome in His canon.