Monday

"Wednesday's Child"
"The Book that Wrote Itself"
Short - "Johnny Bagpipes"

Opinions are like assholes, everybody's got 'em. But everyone doesn't put their anus up on the web for the world to see.

The "winner" of the film festival was to be shown tonight at the Paramount, so I called the festival and found out the winner was "Wednesday's Child." Since it wasn't on my list of films to see and none of the other films playing opposite it seemed all that interesting, decided to go see it.

Read in the Austin American-Statesman, that Karen Black and her husband had made a 10 minute short at the festival, including shooting it and editing it digitally while here in town. This was to be shown on the Short program presented by Reel Women tonight. Wanted to go, opted for "Wednesday's Child" instead. Probably made a mistake.

Met my friend J.C. at the Paramount, but before we hooked up, saw Bob Ray and Jerry Don Clark of "Rock Opera" fame. I had spoken to Bob briefly before so I spoke to him tonight when they passed by me. They stopped to chat and I told Jerry that I thought he gave an awesome performance, which is quite true. They were both quite nice and amiable. They talked about going to a lot of the forums for writers. I asked Jerry if he wrote, and he said "a little" which was slightly surprising. Sometimes, especially with local indie stuff, you forget the actors are not necessarily their characters. The lights dimmed, so we went into the theater.

"Wednesday's Child" shows it's hand almost immediately. It's slightly amateur and written by a ham-handed hack. It wants so desperately to be unique and poignant and gush with emotion and resonance. It doesn't. Here's the difference between me and the director. He saw the film as sort of a new take on "To Kill a Mockingbird." My friend J.C. was reminded of "Edward Scissorhands." The only movies I could think of were "Radio Flyer" and "Big Man on Campus."

Writer/Director Brad Marlowe whips out almost every cliche in the book. .The film, if it didn't have a lot of sex and foul language, could almost be an "Afterschool Special." A military family moves to a new town. Apparently, there are no other military families in this town because the new kids are treated like misfits by the "townies." The father molests his daughter, something we see coming a gazillion miles off, and treats her like a whore while pouring loves on the younger son. She rebels by dressing like a whore and wearing a lot of Goth make-up. The teenage daughter and her little brother share poignant and earnest conversation. Do siblings ever really talk to each other like this when children? Especially when there is such a vast age and gender and attitude difference between them? Doubtful. The mother is a victim who turns a blind eye to the fathers abuse. She shoots the father in the film's final reel. This is done so poorly that Marlowe had to explain this to the audience in the Q&A. Maybe Marlowe should be forgiven for seeming so smug at the Q&A tonight. After all, his film did just win one of America's most prestigious film festival's top awards (which, by the way, was apparently a bottle of liquor).

This familial turmoil, however, is not enough for Marlowe. He throws into the mix an agoraphobic man-child who acts as impetus for all the changes the teenage daughter goes through. See he thinks he can heal people by touch, and he does "heal" her psyche by "touching" her soul, as opposed to the father who just touches her.

Played by David King (I think), the socially retarded and agoraphobic Nathan is seen as a shrouded, shadowy (Jesus) figure for a long, long time. Unfortunately when he finally takes off his mask, cause Marlowe is such a poor screenwriter that he opts for the literal here, he shows us a character that is as shallow and contrived as everyone else in the film.

Oh, why am I bothering. The film is crap. How could it win an award? Yes, I'm a bit angry about it all. My only thought is that it somehow seems similar to "American Beauty," a hot property that most industry types do not understand, and they opted, out of ignorance and desperation and a want to be au currant, to give "Wednesday" the award. A female volunteer for the festival did not know who the jury was but told me "they try to get industry types." More about that later.

I just got the new Bowie CD which has an awesome instant classic Bowie tune on it called "Thursday's Child." It's been running through my head for days now. But in future, whenever I hear that song, I am going to think of this film, "Wednesday's Child." Thanks a lot Mr. Marlowe. Thanks for fucking up my pop culture consciousness.

Went to the Dobie and sat around talking with J.C. in the food court about a lot of things, including films. Always feel like people are eavesdropping about what I say because I am an egotistical megalomaniac.

Went in to the theater an after a few seconds, a rather attractive guy sat in front of us. J.C. and I were looking at the free "Details" magazine they were giving out at the Paramount. There were some Anime type advertisements in the thing and we were discussing them when the guy ahead joined the convo. We discussed Anime and "Princess Mononoke" and stuff of this nature. I don't remember how it came up but he mentioned he had sat by us last night at "Junked" and overheard us talking. I admire anyone who can strike up a conversation with strangers so easily. This was pretty cool.

John Christensen, who is listed as a volunteer but introduced himself as the Assistant Program Director for the festival, introduced both films I saw tonight. He introduced the director of "The Book That Wrote Itself," an Irishman named Liam O Mochain. After a brief intro, we were shown a short called "Johnny Bagpipes" that was hilarious. Director Todd Korgan's film is apparently a mockumentary. I thought the character was real. In fact, I was a bit pissed at Korgan that he sometimes, albeit gently, seemed to poke fun at his subject by showing him in a slightly mocking light. If it is all just made up, it's brilliant. This is one of the most amusing and well done shorts I have seen yet. It featured a bagpipe player who wants to be a rock star. It's great fun and the actor in the piece plays rock tunes on the bagpipes. What could be funnier?

The feature, "The Book that Wrote Itself," is a wonderful, witty, cutting edge, indie film that does not have one used idea around. New and fun and a bit of an "insider" in-joke, the film also pokes a bit of a harsh light on film festivals, industry wannabees and artistic fervor.

Mochain has a gimmick here guaranteed to draw you into the film. He went to press conferences and filmed himself pretending to be a journalist asking questions of George Clooney, Melanie Griffith, Chazz Palmenteri and director Bryan Singer. This is the film's big draw, a easily hypeable hook. But once it gets you inside, this gimmick, almost at the film's end, almost seems unnecessary. Still, if it gets butts in the seats to see this wonderful and unique film, I am all for it.

Plot... I won't give that away. Suffice it to say that Mochain, who is also the main actor in his film, creates a wonderful character, gives that character a marvellous sidekick and speeds across the Irish landscape at a breakneck pace to tell his story. It's no wonder Mochain's character talks a mile a minute, the film is just jam-packing all the marvelous stuff that it can into 75 minutes. And the story goes on unexpected twists and turns every step of the way. It's not a mystery... It doesn't keep you guessing. Rather it just goes into all this seeming uncharted territory to be new, original and highly creative. It's great stuff.

Filmed on digital and then transferred to 16mm, the film might suffer from not being able to bring us the marvelous locales it treads in vivid Technicolor Cinemascope. This may make the visuals a bit lacking, but the film's inventiveness far overshadows this. Still, you know what I think? I think somebody ought to give Mochain the Goddamn money to remake the thing as an 35mm, widescreen epic. Of course, with that kind of cash, Mochain could probably make 10 or 20 new, creative, unique, character driven, plot twisting, award winning, indie films. Now that would be some money well spent.

After the movie, talked to Christensen briefly and asked who was on the jury, information which he told me was not for public knowledge. He was a really nice guy. I liked his enthusiasm and seeming wonder at his fortune to be able to be involved with such a wonderful thing as the AFF. His wide-eyed delight in it all is just what the Festival needs.

Day 6, 7 and 8 coming soon...

Want to see:
Sweet Thing
Le New Yorker
Blue Ridge Falls
Natural Selection
Charades
American Detective