Chad Liffmann – Page 25 – Spinning Platters

SFIFF Spotlights #2: Coherence/Heaven Adores You/The Two Faces of January/If You Don’t, I Will

Spinning Platters highlights some films from the 57^th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF), which runs from April 24th through May 8th. Program notes and tickets available at: http://www.sffs.org/festival-home/attend/film-guide

Coherence
(USA, 2013, 89 min.)

Emily Baldoni in James Byrkit's COHERENCE — Emily Baldoni in James Byrkit’s COHERENCE

This low budget mind bender focuses on a dinner party of four couples on a night where a comet passes over Earth, causing some strange occurrences. Director James Ward Byrkit utilized an experimental production process by which he provided the actors with notes for each scene but no script, allowing for truly real reactions, spontaneous behavior, and improvised lines. Perfect editing and stellar performances create a palpable tension that’s both haunting and personal. The result is a tightly bound science-fiction indie crowd pleaser that delights with its twists and turns, keeping us guessing from the first to last frame…and afterwards.

Screenings:

Tuesday, April 29th, 9:45 PM, Kabuki

Tickets: http://www.sffs.org/festival-home/attend/film-guide/coherence#.U1vag-ZdVU1

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Film Review: Brick Mansions

Neither Walker’s smile nor Belle’s crazy stunts can save ‘Brick Mansions’ from collapsing in on itself.

Paul Walker (RIP) is a bright spot in his disappointing second-to-last outing.

We should get this out of the way: Brick Mansions is not Paul Walker’s final film. The charismatic 40 year old actor, who died in a car crash on November 30th, 2013, completed a portion of the filming of Fast & Furious 7. The seventh installment of the lucrative franchise will serve as a much better sendoff than Brick Mansions. Brick Mansions has its moments, and Paul Walker supplies his trademark icy blue eyes and sly humor, but the film suffers from a shallow plot, laughable dialogue, and dizzying quick cuts that spoil some marvelous stunt work.

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Film Review: Alan Partridge

A witty, efficient, and quirky little tale of an oddball in an odd situation.

Steve Coogan as the odd radio DJ, Alan Partridge

Alan Partridge is a new film centered around a beloved fictional radio host/DJ character created by Steve Coogan and friends for the BBC series, On The Hour. An unknown to most American audiences, Partridge is precisely the type of neurotic, awkward, and narcissistic underdog that we love to watch and cheer for (like Ron Burgandy). The film is a bizarre tale involving an absurd but charming chain of events. There are moments when the story comes very close to crossing into unfunny territory, but instead it rides the line without sacrificing its tempo. There’s something quite wonderful about a comedy that knows how to get in and get out whilst fulfilling all the requirements of the genre, and Steve Coogan seems to be the mastermind behind it all.

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Show Review: ‘City Lights’ Film with Orchestra

On Saturday night, the San Francisco Symphony continued their fantastic film series with City Lights (1931), Charlie Chaplin’s timeless romantic comedy. Conducted by Richard Kaufman, the orchestra performed the entire film score in perfect sync with the film playing overhead. The music, written by Chaplin, is a wonderful mix of joyous and romantic motifs that fit well with the variety of urban locales on screen. The score can at times recall Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue,” written just eight years before City Lights was first released. The audience at Davies Symphony Hall ate the whole evening up, cheering as often for the orchestra as they did for The Tramp himself.

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Film Review: Draft Day

Warning: This film may offend filmmakers, women, and football fans.

Kevin Costner contemplates his previous decision to be in this film. — Kevin Costner mulls over his decision to be in this film.

What’s wrong with the above image? That’s correct, those black and white photos on the wall behind Kevin Costner are photographs of football, not baseball. Kevin Costner has starred in some of the greatest baseball movies of all time. He’s well known for his love of our national pastime. So why take a crack at a football movie? It’s hard to blame the filmmakers for attempting to bring some entertainment value to the behind-the-scenes world of football, specifically the strategizing and efforts put into the bizarre tradition that is the NFL draft day. Such a behind-the-scenes attempt worked for Moneyball (2011). But Draft Day falls flat because the storyline is carried on the shoulders of contrived characters, a pathetic depiction of a female executive in the sports world, and very poor editing choices.

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Film Review: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain America is in a post-Avengers world.

The surprise 2011 hit, Captain America: The First Avenger, succeeded because the iconic yet campy superhero received a modern injection of cinematic energy and solid storytelling. The main reason for the Captain’s successful re-emergence into mainstream pop culture was the charisma and multi-generational appeal of actor Chris Evans. Evans returns in his third stint as the star-spangled rescuer in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a film with another solid plot extracted from the Marvel universe, a fantastic grip on character arcs and relationships, and an epic sense of scale that, obviously, takes place in a post-Avengers universe.

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Film Review: Nymphomaniac: Vol. II

Now on the beaten path.

"Thank you Sir, can I have another!?" — “Thank you sir, can I have another!?”

(Warning: ‘Volume I’ spoilers immediately ahead.)

Last we left Joe, she had just been broken down with the tragic realization that she couldn’t feel anything. Her years of sexual escapades and experimentation had left her suddenly numb, cold, distant, and depressed…and this is the new Joe that we get to follow in Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac: Volume II, the second half of his sexual cinematic odyssey. Needless to say, this sequel of sorts doesn’t live up to the emotional gravitas and observational humor of Volume I, instead settling for a few interesting thoughts but mostly von Trier’s penchant for gratuitous sexual violence and plenty of shock value.

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Film Review: Sabotage

Expectations sabotaged by a lack of fun.

A moment of fun amidst a whole lot of not.

Don’t let the above image fool you. This is not a fun, explosive, Arnold film. When a movie trailer brags that it features the director of End of Watch and the writer of Training Day, ears perk up! So why doesn’t this film even come close to capturing the cinematic value of these two prior films?…It’s because Sabotage, the new film directed by David Ayer (Street Kings) and starring the former Governator (Collateral Damage), is a load of gruesome violence packaged into a cop drama wannabe that lacks purpose and explanation…as well as non-expletive dialogue.

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Spinning Platters Interview: Benjamin Renner, “Ernest & Celestine”

A beautiful frame from 'Ernest & Celestine' — A beautiful frame from ‘Ernest & Celestine’

Nearly a year after Ernest & Celestine screened at the 56th San Francisco International Film Festival, this charming French animated film is finally being released into U.S. theaters (in the Bay Area on 3/28). I’ve been eagerly awaiting this moment, since Ernest & Celestine was not only one of my favorite films of 2013, but also one of my favorite animated films of all time. At last year’s SFIFF, Benjamin Renner, co-director of the film, was simultaneously exhausted, excited, and relieved that the film was getting such a great response. With his friends waiting to go celebrate over a few drinks, Mr. Renner was kind enough to sit down with me at the Sundance Kabuki, just outside the auditorium where his film just finished screening, to discuss his experience…

Chad: How did you first get involved with this film?

Benjamin Renner: I started working on this when I just left school. I didn’t know anything except that it was an adaptation of the books by Gabrielle Vincent. The producer, Didier Brunner, the one who made Triplets of Belleville and Kirikou and the Sorceress, really famous in France, asked me if I could help work on this film. So I started reading the books, Ernest & Celestine, and I was so impressed by the books, the drawings, and everything. So I said, ‘I really want to work on this. Whatever position you want to give me. Even if I’m making coffee, I don’t care, it’s perfect.’ I really wanted to work on the animation, especially. So I started making him small animations. He loved it and said that I could work on the film. So that’s how I got involved. I was not a director, just a lead animator.

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Film Review: Nymphomaniac: Vol. I

Viewer discretion not advised…if you’re a mature adult.

Sex Ed. -- the artsy way. — Sex education — sort of.

Let’s get this out of the way — Lars von Trier makes films that are explicit, controversial, and sad as f-ck! Some consider them pornographic, others call them gratuitous, while others call them brilliant works of art. All opinions are right because Lars von Trier’s films, above all else, invite endless interpretations, conflicting opinions, and discussions. His newest film, Nymphomaniac: Vol. I, the first part of a 4+ hour film divided into two volumes, is actually the third and final part of the “Depression Trilogy”, which includes von Trier’s prior efforts Antichrist (2009) and Melancholia (2011). These three films aren’t connected in the traditional sense of trilogies, that is to say, by story. Rather, they are tonally and thematically intertwined, each one separately exploring the worlds of sex, depression, and the multiple forms of human tragedy. Hooray! ...right? As you can imagine, these films don’t lend themselves to much mainstream appeal. In my humble critic’s opinion, they should. Well, maybe not Antichrist. But Nymphomaniac: Vol. I is a fascinating and well-rounded exploration of sexuality, identity, eroticism, youthful angst, and self-reflection, as told through a traditional biopic film structure, that invites personal introspection and a yearning to discuss these topics with others.

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