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2004 Philadelphia Film Festival Review
Part 1
By Rich Drees
Some people think of
Philadelphia and associate everything from cheesesteaks to the signing of
the Declaration of Independence. But for some, the City of Brotherly Love is
synonymous with the annual Philadelphia Film Festival, one of the premier
festivals on the East Coast. Here’s just a sample of some of the films
screened this year-
 You
Can’t Stop The Murders
(Australia, 2003)
A
serial killer who bases his crimes on the 70s disco sensation The Village
People is the subject of this hilarious comedy from Australia. Gary (Gary
Eck) and Akmal (Akmal Saleh) are police constables in the sleepy costal town
of West Village (population 350) trying to solve a series of grisly murders
before the town’s annual “Fun Fest” and line dance competition. They are
alternately helped and hindered by overly suave Tony Charles (director
Anthony Mir), an Andy Garcia look-a-like police detective from Sydney whose
sole police training seems to have been a steady diet of Dirty Harry
movies. Eck, Mir and Saleh are big comedy stars in Australia and though this
is my first exposure to them, I can see why. The trio earn their laughs
effortlessly and naturally. They’ve been compared to Jim Carey, which I
think is a disservice to them, as their performances are so natural,
eschewing any type of Carey-style camera mugging. All of this comes from the
script’s carefully created characters. Gary’s heartbreak over the object of
his affections, local news reporter Julia (Kirstie Hutton) decision to spend
the night with Tony create an extra lawyer of laughs when intercut with Tony
and Julia’s tryst, which is easily the funniest sex scene since Emma
Thompson and Jeff Goldblum’s in The Tall Guy. The movie works as a
murder mystery as well, with plenty of clues and red herrings to keep the
audience guessing. The film maintains an excellent balance right up until
the end with the final reveal of the killer being both funny and
bittersweet. Here’s hoping that this will get a larger distribution in the
United States outside of the festival circuit.
 Last Scene
(Japan, 2003)
Director Hideo Nakata switches focus from horror (Ringu, Dark
Water) to a melancholy character study with his latest film, Last
Scene. In the mid-60s, Mihara (Hidetoshi Nishijima) had it all, a rising
acting career and a beautiful wife. However, when his frequent co-star
decides to get married and retire, studio executives stop giving him plum
assignments. His own egotism and a slid towards alcoholism brand him a
troublemaker, but he finally gives up acting after his wife is killed in a
car accident. Thirty-five years later, he returns to his old studio to
perform one last small role in a medical drama and perhaps searching for a
quiet piece of dignity before he passes. Nakata has not completely forsaken
the supernatural as Mihara talks to the ghost of his dead wife. Though the
audience is left more with the impression that this is more that product of
Mihara’s imagination than it is a real spectral visit. An air of melancholy
pervades the film as Mihara spends time wandering the studio, noting
changes, meeting technicians from the old days, seeing that his old dressing
room has been converted to storage space. It feels that Nakata is also
making comment on the state of the Japanese film industry, with crew people
who are more concerned with anything but giving their best to the job at
hand. It is only Mihara’s silent struggle to complete his scenes that
inspires the older crew to at least, for one day of shooting, work like the
did in their younger days.
 The Park
(Hong Kong, 2003)
Although not billed as a comedy, this movie generates plenty of laughs, but
not in a good way. Bad acting and an illogical script that contains only one
good horror moment combine to form perhaps the most limp horror film in
recent memory. Fourteen years after witnessing the tragic death of a young
girl at an amusement park, Yen's brother Alan, is compelled to return to the
now abandoned park where he disappears. Yen (Bo Bo Chan) recruits a group of
friends to investigate, but soon after arriving their numbers begin dwindle.
By the time Yen yells at their unseen tormentors "Attack me but leave my
friends alone," it's far too late. Along the way director Andrew Lau pulls
out every horror film cliché from overly loud sound cues to the old "This
place was built over an old cemetery" chestnut to the seemingly current
vogue of creepy spectral children. Although billed as being partially in
3-D, there's less than 15 minutes of actual 3-D in the film's 91 minute run
time. Unfortunately, these three segments don't really utilize the potential
of 3-D at all, making it impossible to even recommend the film on the basis
of this gimmick. This is especially disheartening as there are shots in the
flat portion of the film that would have been more interesting in 3-D than
what is presented. After Andrew Lau's fantastic Infernal Affairs
films, The Park comes as an extreme disappointment.
 The Legend Of The
Evil Lake (South Korea, 2003)
This fairly standard
wuxia inspired film from South Korea has some nice locals and
photography, but nothing else that really causes it to stand out. Gen.
Bihrang (Jung Jun-ho) has rebuffed the advances of Queen Chinsong (Kim
Hae-ri) in favor of the peasant girl Janubi (Kim Hyo-jin). While Bihrang is
away at war, a rival general conspires to frame him as a traitor so as to
win the Queen for himself. While fleeing from the general’s murderous
agents, Janubi accidentally frees and is taken over by an evil sorcerer whose
spirit was imprisoned in a lake by the Queen's forefather nine and a half
centuries ago. The script is barebones with a majority of the second half of
the film features the characters just running after each other screaming
their names. The action is serviceable but lacks any real punch with the
exception of a few moments of gore that seem uncharacteristic for the
normally more conservative Korean film industry.
On To Part 2 |
