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“Paper Soldier” (Alexei German Jr.)
This is as much a misfire as the Soviet rocket launches in the ‘60s that propel the plot. The widescreen format and masterful blocking have the feel of Antonioni at his best, but the verbosity and pretense (Chekhov is over-referenced) detracts from the foregrounded story of the womanizing doctor who takes care of the cosmonauts at a Kazakh space-race site as well as from the more inviting background tale of the happy faced would-be cosmonauts, several of whom suffer from fear coursing through the veins..
“Barking Water” (Sterlin Harjo)
By far the finest American film in the series, it follows an older Native American couple, former lovers, as she selflessly drives him to the family and home he had run away from years before. The goal: to complete a journey across Oklahoma before he succumbs to a terminal illness. This road movie is also a chamber play, with most of the action and conversation taking place between the two of them inside and around the car. Harjo shot in sequence, resulting in quietly powerful lead performances worthy of. Fred Schroeder’s outstanding cinematography. For comic relief, the duo encounters some truly hilarious eccentrics on the highway.
“Treeless Mountain” (Kim So Yong)
A Korean-language film, it follows two young sisters through a Via Dolorosa of abandonment, first by their irresponsible mother in a seedy section of Seoul, then by an alcoholic aunt in a small town. The resourceful girls are ultimately invigorated by nature and love at their grandparents’ farm. Kim holds her camera extremely close in on the children, but the technique becomes a little monotonous.
“Stay The Same Never Change” (Laurel Nakadate)
Renowned video artist Nakadate arhytmically arranges long takes of assorted teen girls in Kansas City as they act out their growing pains. Scenes with, for example, a blow-up boy doll that some of them mount and an old man playing multiple instruments come across as limp efforts to add texture to the film..
“Can Go Through Skin” (Esther Rots)
A major discovery from the best Dutch filmmaker since Paul Verhoeven. Vital Rifka Lodeizen plays a young woman dumped by her boyfriend, then assaulted. She tries to recharge in a remote shack in the countryside, but, increasingly paranoid, she goes bonkers. Rots not only directs, she also edits, with perfect jump cuts to heighten Marieke’s mental disintegration. Occasional inserts of the flat Dutch landscape, which evoke the nation’s fine documentary heritage as well as its tradition of naturalistic painting, function as counterpoint to her shattered mind. Part Repulsion with elements of The Shining, not to mention Fort Apache the Bronx, the film opts for optimism through the unconditional love of a neighbor.
“Give Me Your Hand” (Pascale-Alex Vincent)
A road film as pretty as its identical twin 18-yeasr-old protagonists. Their solid, frequently shirtless bodies do not mask the fact that this is merely a slight twist on the coming-out movie. One brother is gay, the other horrified to find out. Thin—the plot, not the boys.
“Louise-Michel” (Gustave de Kevern/Benoit Delepine)
The wild, politically incorrect quirkiness in Belgian-born co-directors Delepine and Kerven’s fine Aaltra and Avida fails them in this story of a gorilla-like ex-conwoman travelling with a bumbling hitman to off a greedy factory owner. Good political premise, disappointing execution..
”$9.99” (Tatia Rosenthal)
Okay, it’s from Israel, but the mentality and lifestyle of the majority there is European. Adapted from a short story by the gifted Etgar Keret, Rosenthal’s stop-motion animation lacks the author’s punch. Engaging puppets play various residents of a single Tel Aviv building, but that narrative trope has been done to death. Don’t expect another Waltz With Bashir.
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