Hi everybody. The 42nd Chicago International Film Festival is now over, so you know what that means. Although I didn't get to see everything I had planned to, I was still able to manage seeing 27 movies. I took plenty of notes, which I'm currently transcribing so I can write all those reviews. Here's what you can expect in the coming days (and most likely weeks): The Magicians, The Free Will, Syndromes and a Century, Suburban Mayhem, Princess, The Last Gaze, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Jasmine Women, Change of Address, Renaissance, Rampage, Time, The Zero Years, Face Control, Severance, Summer Palace, Belle Toujours, Wristcutters: A Love Story, Shortbus, Summercamp!, Buzz, In Bed, Midnight My Love, Taxidermia, Shoot the Messenger, DarkBlueAlmostBlack, and Street Thief. Be sure to check back often, because I'll be telling you which films are worth seeking out at your local indie film theater or rental store.

Hey everyone. This is the last update for a little while. I'll be immersing myself in the Chicago International Film Festival for the next twelve days. I'll be back here with up to 31 movies to review for you all, so you won't want to miss that. Keep checking back. Until then, enjoy these three new reviews.



Jackass Number Two
Review by Jon Waterman

***1/2

Johnny Knoxville and the gang are back on the big screen with a whole new batch of wild and crazy stunts and pain-inducing shenanigans. The storyline is the exact same this time around, which means there is none. Instead, just like the television show from whence it came, the audience is treated to a long series of vignettes taking you from one outrageous prank or stunt to the next. It starts off with a suburban running of the bulls and ultimately culminates in an extremely uncharacteristic song and dance routine at the end. No, seriously.

Despite the comparably lame and boring ending, this is still probably going to be one of the funniest movies of the year. I don’t know what it is, but there’s just something about watching these boneheads try to hurt each other and themselves that’s superbly fascinating and hilarious. Call it the “America’s Funniest Home Videos” factor. Except these guys don’t have Bob Saget providing voice over. Their natural reactions to getting a leech placed on their eyeball or having their limo is filled with bees is enough.
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+++++++++


13 (Tzameti)
Review by Jon Waterman

**

Sebastian is a young handyman trying to make a living by fixing up the roof of a seemingly wealthy man’s house. He needs the money to help provide for his parents and siblings who are barely scraping by. When the home owner suddenly dies, he’s left with no one to pay him for the work he’s done so far. What he does have, however, is a letter addressed to the owner. After overhearing a conversation, he believes the contents of this secret envelope are the key to earning a very large sum of money. Sebastian blindly follows the directions given to him and suddenly finds himself in an inescapable underworld where gambling is the game and human beings are the playing pieces.

The concept is strong and the game itself has great potential to be incredibly intense, but the film never really hooked me the way I thought it would. Various crime bosses get together to make some desperate soul compete in their sick game. Each man is given a gun. They stand around in a circle and point the gun at the back of the head of the person in front of them. They all look up at a light. Once that light goes on, the game goes on. The first time around, the suspense is chilling. The referee shouts the rules while looking equally nervous and authoritarian. Bodies hit the floor and you’re thinking this could get pretty good. Then after seeing the same thing happen a few times, the predictability increases and you slide to the back of your seat.
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+++++++++


LOL
Review by Jon Waterman

***

Tim and Ada have been dating for a little while, but Ada is growing tired thanks to Tim’s work load. Then add on that Tim’s friend Chris is visiting from New York for an extended period of time. But Chris has his own girlfriend problems thanks to this new found long distance. Now he’s fighting with Greta much more he ever imagined he would. Meanwhile Tim’s other buddy Alex is working on furthering his music career while exploring a couple different avenues for potential girlfriends. One is within is reach in his hometown Chicago and the other is down in St Louis and he’s only corresponded with her through her adult website. Life can be complicated, but if you can’t laugh (out loud) at yourself, then what’s the point?

Just like Joe Swanberg’s previous film “Kissing on the Mouth,” a brief synopsis doesn’t do it justice, as the movie is really about an underlying concept. “LOL” is shot in a similar style, meaning they take the concept and improvise scenes, shot in virtual consecutive order. There is no script, no real planned plot points. The story develops as its shot and edited, until it takes on a life of its own and reaches its natural conclusion. This film has a more coherent storyline and builds a nice arc for itself within the three young twenty-something guys’ lives. However, the overall concept is relatively basic and isn’t fleshed out in quite the way I think it probably could have been.
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The reviews just keep on coming. I'll be back later this week with three more reviews: 13 (Tzameti), Jackass Number Two, and LOL. After that there'll be a small lull, because I'll be attending the Chicago International Film Festival from October 6-18. After that, I'll be armed with notes for reviews on potentially 30+ movies. It will be filmbrats' most comprehensive festival coverage to date. You definitely won't want to miss that. Keep checking back.



Little Miss Sunshine
Review by Jon Waterman

**

Little Olive has a dream to become a beauty queen. She entered herself into a regional pageant not too long ago, and came in second. Well, it turns out that the winner is eventually disqualified, and now Olive has a spot in the state competition. The only thing that can possibly stop her is her grown up family that she must rely on to get her all the way to Redondo Beach, California. Normally, that would be all well and good, except this family is the definition of dysfunctional, as is their car.

And the movie is the definition of conventional indie flick. The characters are your random assortment of mentally tortured individuals struggling to come to terms or accomplish one very specific thing by the end of the movie mixed in with one wacky free spirited voice of reason. The daughter wants to feel attractive and thinks that winning the competition will help; the son has taken a vow of silence until he can join the air force; the uncle’s failed suicide attempt left him trying to find a meaning in life; the father is trying to get a self-help book published, but it’s easy to see why he’s unsuccessful so far; and the grandfather tells it like it is. They’re all pretty bland and one-dimensional when you get down to it.
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++++++++



Snakes on a Plane
Review by Jon Waterman

*1/2

In Hawaii, Eddie Kim arranges to have a man killed. What he didn’t plan for was to have some cool dude named Sean witness the whole thing. Now Kim wants him dead, and he’ll go to any length imaginable to make it happen. FBI Agent Neville Flynn gets to him first and is able to get Sean aboard a cross-ocean flight to Los Angeles where Sean will testify and finally put that madman behind bars. Unfortunately, the trip won’t be nearly as smooth as they all think, because it’s soon discovered that Kim has thought ahead. He has put snakes on the plane!

The movie that the studio has actually been proud to promote as a B-movie delivers exactly what it promises. This movie is unusual. It’s certainly bad in a campy fun way, and any audience you see it with knows going in not to expect Oscar worthy material and they will gladly laugh along with you at the absurdity of it all. The producers knew it was being constructed in this way. It had to be if it were to work at all. The amazing part is that it somehow avoids coming off as a spoof or a rip-off of bad movies and actually becomes its own legitimately bad movie. But dammit if it ain’t fun to watch anyway.
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++++++++



Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Review by Jon Waterman

***

Ricky Bobby is the premier racecar driver on the NASCAR circuit. With a little help from his good buddy Cal, Ricky is consistently number one not only on the racetrack, but also with his fans and in his personal life. Everything is going perfectly for him, until one day when a new racer breaks onto the scene. A Frenchman named Jean Girrard appears to be a better driver, which sends Ricky Bobby into a tailspin that he must overcome if he’s to regain everything he worked so hard to achieve. USA! USA!

If you loved “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy,” then you’ll like this movie. Brought to you by director Adam McKay who co-wrote it with star Will Ferrell, this film is the second in the “Mediocre American Man” trilogy. It certainly fits the same mold. Take a doofus in a high profile position and exploit the stupidity of him and those around him for laughs as he sinks to the lowest of lows. It doesn’t fit the same funny mold, however.
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++++++++



Another Gay Movie
Review by Jon Waterman

*1/2

Four gay teenagers have just graduated from High School. Determined not to go off to college the virgins they are now, they make a pact to sleep with someone outside of their small circle of friends before the big Labor Day bash at Muffler’s house. They establish the ground rules and their preferred placement (top or bottom), then it’s off to the sexual races. Each of the four is out there looking for something specific, and of course they’ll come across the kinds of guys they find attractive. But can they close the deal on time?

Sound similar to “American Pie?” Well, it should. This movie is a spoof that straps on the gay face to many of the situations you find in that film that begat a wretched franchise. This film just begets wretched jokes. If you’ve never seen “American Pie,” that’s okay. I don’t think it will make any of the jokes funnier. It’ll only help the premise seem less familiar. Spoofing a movie so directly like this means it practically writes itself. Unfortunately, writer/director Todd Stephens still apparently got lazy.
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++++++++



Il Mare
Review by Jon Waterman

***

When Sung-hyun moves into his new house out on the lake, or “Il Mare” as they say in Italian, he finds a Christmas card addressed to him, the new tenant. It was left by Eun-ju, who asks that the new resident forward all her mail. This comes as a shock to Sung-hyun, because he’s pretty sure he’s the first tenant. Not only that, but it’s only 1997, not 1999 like the card states. He leaves a response in the mailbox attempting to straighten out the confusion, and the two begin corresponding with each other. The slowly sort everything out and discover that somehow they are in fact living two years apart, and they may just be falling for each other.

The film takes quite a while for the story to really get rolling. It’s easy to understand their disbelief and apprehension, considering time travel is possible neither in real life, nor within the constructs of this movie. Or at least so they think…. So, the first half or so is spent watching them try to figure out what we, the audience, knew going in. It takes even longer for them to really start developing feelings for each other, something we, the audience, expect and nearly need to have happen sooner.
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