#4
Friday 19th, 11.00am
   Got a bit behind, reviews-wise, yesterday - did schedule a few gaps here and there, but ended up bumping into people and talking, and before I knew it I had to scoot off to the next screening.
   Definitely the pick of Thursday's five (including the morning walkout) - and of the festival so far - was Moon, a cleverly-structured bit of philosophical/conceptual/existential sci-fi from first-time director Duncan Jones that's pretty much a one-man show for Sam Rockwell. Rockwell isn't usually my cup of tea, and I was daunted by the prospect of a film where he's seldom off screen - but for reasons that can't be divulged here without giving away the plot, Rockwell gets to play both a fairly conventional leading-man role and a quirkier "character acting" part, and pretty much manages to hold the whole thing together.
   That said, he has an intriguing script to work with - one that comes up with its own original ideas while nodding to various sci-fi cinema antecedents (most obviously Solaris, 2001, Silent Running and Dark Star) and also the probingly existential literary equivalents by Stanislaw Lem and Philip K Dick. Things get just a little muddled right at the very end, but I reckon that both of those authors would approve of this economic, smart, and in the end surprisingly moving affair: in space, it seems, no one can hear you weep.
   UK release is set for 17th July, and while it's a world away from most Hollywood sci-fi of the moment, it has the makings of a word-of-mouth "sleeper" success. Certainly it's among the most popular titles here, though of course the festival is still in its early stages.
   Another British picture that tries to transcend its budgetary limitations with ingenious high-concept ideas - slightly less successfully than Moon - is Exam, a kind of psychological-thriller version of TV's The Apprentice. In a windowless, moodily-lit room eight candidates vie for a high-powered position at a multi-national bio-tech company. The camera barely leaves the single set, and the necessary claustrophobia is efficiently developed and maintained as each candidate tries to get an advantage over the others - or, ideally, to get them disqualified from the "game."
   It's a smart little picture, nothing if not topical, though the script isn't quite as airtight as it might have been and proceedings might have been more satisfying if steered down more nightmarish/horror-movie avenues (Vincenzo Natali's inventively grisly Cube [1997] remains the best example of this specific sub-genre.)
   We also go from eight protagonists to one in Van Diemen's Land, but in much more stomach-churning fashion. This tale of escaped convicts in 1820s Tasmania plays like a Terence Malick adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's scalping-gothic Blood Meridian - as the hapless English, Scots and Irish (adding originality and flavour, there's more than a smattering of Gaelic in the dialogue and poetic voice-over) quickly turn to cannibalism after exhausting their meagre rations.
   Measured and sober, the downbeat story unfolds with a predictable but suitably grim inevitability to its bleak finale. A crowded, warm screen 1 at the Filmhouse wasn't the ideal venue for this slow-paced downer - I spotted one or two patrons nodding off during the numerous "quiet" spots - and the picture could perhaps have done with a bit more narrative meat on its bones. Nevertheless, a quietly promising debut from director/co-writer Jonathan Auf Der Heide, himself of Tasmanian origin, who introduced the screening - looking about 19, his well-fed fresh-faced appearance in somewhat stark contrast to his wild-eyed, wild-haired, scruffy-bearded, life-grizzled characters.
   Disappointment of the day was The Last Heroes of the Peninsula, a reflectively elegaic documentary on the five world champion boxers of the 1970s hailing from the Yucatan - that's the bit of Mexico that juts out into the Caribbean (making it handily proximate to pugilism-hotspot Havana.) The catalogue synopsis made it sound like the cinematic equivalent of Jonathan Rendall's stupendous book This Bloody Mary is the Last Thing I Own, and I've always got a bit of a soft spot for movies, factual or fictional on this particular sport (am currently reading Dan Streible's Fight Pictures).
   But this one's overlong, with a rather haphazard structure, and too often the director indulges himself with sub-Bruce-Weber-style "artistic" visuals (numerous brief interludes in grainy monochrome or 8mm) rather than dig very deep into his fascinating subject-matter. By no means a waste of time, but definitely a wasted opportunity.

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#3.1
Thursday 18th, 4.25pm
   Seen today:
Follow the Master [3/10] : UK 2009 : Matt HULSE : 75m (walkout after 50m) : Filmhouse cinema (press show)
Exam : [6/10] : UK 2009 : Stuart HAZELDINE : 97m : Filmhouse (press)
Moon : [7/10] : UK 2009 : Duncan JONES : 97m : Cameo (press)
   Comment upcoming.

#3.2 (8.30pm)
The Last Heroes of the Peninsula : [5/10] : Los Ultimos heroes de la peninsula : Mexico 2008 : J M CRAVIOTO : 94m : Cineworld (public - complimentary ticket)

The day got off to a ropey start with the 9.05am screening of Follow the Master - a cloyingly twee little English "road movie" on foot, in which we join director Hulse, his girlfriend/partner/wife and dog as they trek 100 miles of the South Downs Way. Both walk and film are intended as tribute to Hulse's grandpa, recently deceased at 97. But we don't really find out much about Eric at all - the real focus being Hulse himself. To appreciate the picture one therefore needs to find the director as amusing and fascinating as he clearly does himself.
   I found it all pretty off-putting, and my patience finally snapped with Hulse's third al fresco banjo performance. The catalogue hinted at some link to Tarkovsky, but nothing in what I saw even hinted at such a connection. With its concentration on specific aspects and atmospheres of the southern English landscape, the whole thing was rather more in the spirit of Patrick Keiller - except infinitely more self-indulgent, precious and grating.

#3.3 (late)
Van Diemen's Land : [6/10] : Jonathan AUF DER HEIDE : Australia 2009 : 103m : Filmhouse (public - complimentary ticket)


Neil Young

Jigsaw Lounge Edinburgh 2009 index page