Spinning Platters brings you even more spotlights from the 57th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF), which ends today, May 8th. Program notes and tickets available here. There are only a few screenings left, so hurry to catch the last showings, and you can also see many of the films as they open widely throughout the year.
The One I Love
(USA, 2014, 91 min)
Romantic comedy meets The Twilight Zone, Charlie McDowell’s obscure relationship dramedy is a wonderful piece of bizarre metaphorical fiction. The story focuses on an unhappy married couple, Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass, who go to a beautifully secluded rural home to rekindle their love. Immediately, anomalies involving the adjacent guest house occur, and the film starts toying with our minds, offering continuous scenarios that beg the question, ‘how would I handle this?’ A quirky tone keeps the film upbeat, but the twists lead the characters down varied emotional routes, resulting in a whole new meaning to “couples therapy.”
The One I Love SFIFF Page: http://www.sffs.org/festival-home/attend/film-guide/the-one-i-love
Coast of Death (“Costa da Morte”)
(Spain, 2013, 81 min)
Coast of Death is a meditative documentary about the Spanish coastal region that given its name due to the high amount of shipwrecks occurring off its rocky shores. The film is without narrative or much music, and only has some dialogue. It’s the landscape that carries the film through its dreary, at times enchanting, but always engaging scenes. Director Lois Patiño captures all the action from afar, yet the mic is on the subjects, so we get to hear the inhabitants and all the sounds of the immediate vicinity. It’s a fascinating look at a region defined by its unique natural formations.
Coast of Death SFIFF Page: http://www.sffs.org/festival-home/attend/film-guide/coast-of-death
Night Moves
(USA, 2013, 112 min)
Kelly Reichardt follows up her soporific last film Meek’s Cutoff with this taut thriller filled with narrative tension. The picture concerns three radical environmentalists in Oregon who blow up a dam, and explores how that event – which naturally does not go exactly as planned – affects each of them. Jesse Eisenberg is at his sullen, creepy best as Josh, riddled with paranoia and guilt, and Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard round out the trio serviceably. Plot similarities to Edward Abbey’s classic novel The Monkey Wrench Gang made the film the subject of a copyright infringement lawsuit, but, in tone, the picture is a closer match to last year’s The East, which handled similar material more deftly, and better fleshed out the characters’ motivations for their actions.
Screenings:
- Thursday, May 8th, 7:30 PM, Kabuki
- Opens in limited release on May 30th
Tickets: http://www.sffs.org/festival-home/attend/film-guide/night-moves
