A month later, but I'm back. I'll be bringing you the recap of everything I saw and stayed awake for during the Chicago International Film Festival. I took copious notes, so expect good detailed criticisms. There are two movies I attended, but due to the day's grind I slept through. But along with the first two below, I will be reviewing It's Not You, It's Me, Havoc, Stories of Disenchantment, The Squid and the Whale, The Consequences of Love, Free Zone, Black Brush, I Am A Sex Addict, Pale Eyes and Innocence. I've also seen a couple non-festival films since, so later down the line, expect me to write on Wallace and Gromit In the Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Good Night and Good Luck. There'll be even more to come, so keep on coming back. It's just getting good.



Kissing on the Mouth
Review by Jon Waterman

***1/2

To describe this movie with a simple summary would be destructive, but I’m going to do it anyway because that’s what I almost always do. Ellen had sex with her ex-boyfriend. This potentially small event quickly becomes escalated as she tells her blabbermouth friend Laura who proceeds to tell Patrick. Ellen meanwhile tries to get a handle on the whole situation from all angles and futilely attempts to sever the “relationship” with ex, Chris.

So, that’s that. What the movie really captures is how a great number of post-collegiate twenty-somethings live. They’re at the brink or currently within the quarter-life crisis stage that’s increasingly becoming more common in today’s youth. The struggle for identity, acceptance, meaning and truth all are incredibly important. The last part of that equation, “truth,” is a very touchy subject in the movie and is dealt with in a surprisingly realistic way. Those that seek it are the ones unwilling to speak it. This creates a lot of unnecessary tension within the scenes. I don’t mean unnecessary in that they shouldn’t be in the film (because the confrontational moments are some of the most compelling), but rather in that the characters are so frustratingly stubborn in their convictions and so caught in their little games and social masks to get to the point. The conversations are extremely believable, honest portrayals of everyday interactions.
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+++++++++++


P
Review by Jon Waterman

*1/2

Dau was the nerdy girl that all the kids at school picked on. So, she mostly kept to herself and helped her grandmother at home. In turn, grandma taught her all she’s learned out of life, including black magic. But when granny gets sick, Dau of course must pack up and move to the city to become an exotic dancer. It is there that she comes out of her shell in more ways than one. Can she control her emotions and more importantly the black magic in order to save her precious grandmother?

To be honest, I don’t know myself. Because after she leaves her extremely short backstory world, it’s never even mentioned again. Did gran-gran die? Didn’t see her the rest of the picture. Although you do hear her as she recites the broken “Gremlins”-esque rules for using black magic: Don’t pass under clotheslines, no raw meat, and don’t accept payment for teaching magic. But yeah, all of the set-up scenes showing how Dau (which is her stripper name. Her real name is Aaw.) was teased and bullied ends up being completely unnecessary save for showcasing the horrendous child actors.
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