Seattle International Film Fest’s best bets
Published 4:57 pm Thursday, June 11, 2009
Here are my Seattle International Film Festival picks for week four:
“Kimjongilia”: Well, this documentary couldn’t be more timely. The barbarity and belligerence of the North Korean dictatorship has been on ample display in recent weeks, and this compelling feature lays out first-hand testimony about the regime of Kim Jong-Il, the daffy but terribly destructive “Dear Leader” of that isolated country. Interviews with people who escaped from North Korean prison camps are supplemented by fascinating government-produced propaganda films, which would be funny if the context weren’t so seriously awful. 6:30 tonight and 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Pacific Place.
“talhotblond”: The true account of an Internet romance gone murderously bad, a story full of fake identities and astonishing twists. This movie is a bit lurid, but it’s got some spellbinding interviews and a whale of a stranger-than-fiction tale. 9:15 tonight and 4 p.m. Saturday, Pacific Place.
“Sweet Crude”: A devastating documentary by Seattle-based Sandy Cioffi (who landed in the headlines last year when she and her crew were arrested by Nigerian authorities). The story of oil’s effect on the once-beautiful Niger Delta over the last half-century is a truly horrifying saga, which the world seems to be doing its best to ignore. 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Egyptian.
“Once Upon a Time in the West”: Here’s a restored print of the 1968 magnum opus from “spaghetti Western” maestro Sergio Leone, an epic story with Charles Bronson, Jason Robards and (as a villain) Henry Fonda. Please don’t come late — this might have the coolest opening sequence in movie history. (But why aren’t they showing it on the vast Cinerama screen?) 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Harvard Exit.
“Amreeka”: Fans of “The Visitor” will respond to this drama of a Palestinian woman and her son who come to middle America and make a rapid adjustment. A simple story, simply rendered, with a good eye for the flat landscapes of suburban mini-mall life. 6:30 p.m. Saturday and 4 p.m. Sunday, Pacific Place.
“Kaifeck Murder”: A German film that strays into M. Night Shyamalan territory: A man and his son come upon an isolated rural town, where the memories of a decades-old mass murder are about to gain a new bloody urgency, because of the visitors. This one begins to go awry fairly quickly, and makes you appreciate the real style Shyamalan brings to his movies. 10 p.m. Saturday and 4:30 p.m. Sunday, Harvard Exit.
“OSS:117: Lost in Rio”: The festival’s official closing-night movie is a sequel to the very funny “OSS:117: Cairo, Nest of Spies,” which spoofed French spy pictures (and James Bond movies) of the 1960s. Glad to report that “Lost in Rio” is almost exactly the same formula, a combination of dry humor, slapstick and a blissfully clueless hero (perfectly played by Jean Dujardin). 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Cinerama.
“Summer”: Flipping between present and past, we learn about how two dead-end friends got to be miserable in their small British town. Sparked by a typically committed performance by Robert Carlyle, this isn’t exactly a lot of fun, although its arrested-adolescent characters ring true enough. The thick accents definitely need subtitles, however. 9:30 p.m. Sunday, Uptown.
“Poppy Shakespeare”: A well-acted British comedy-drama about the denizens of a psychiatric hospital, a “Cuckoo’s Nest” for the welfare age from “Young Poisoner’s Handbook” director Benjamin Ross. Naomie Harris, from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise, gives a fine performance. 9:30 p.m. Sunday, Harvard Exit.
